GREENVILLE, S.C. — There is no finding a defense that matches No. 1 South Carolina’s.
Nothing else in college basketball comes even close. The Gamecocks are simply too physical, too talented, too perceptive. They lead the nation in almost every key defensive metric. So to find a comparison, it’s necessary to search instead for a metaphor, and there is perhaps none better than a hydraulic press.
There’s one way in which the analogy is obvious: A hydraulic press creates overwhelming pressure for whatever object is placed inside it. But the more illustrative point lies in what happens next: Every object will react to that pressure somewhat differently, but all will emerge clearly, miserably distorted. Some objects shatter at the first touch. Others manage to retain their shape for several long, harrowing seconds before contorting into something unrecognizable. Some will find themselves flattened. Others will explode. But nothing will exit a hydraulic press looking the same way it did when it entered.
