South Carolina basketball: Gamecocks set series with Georgetown

South Carolina basketball will face Georgetown on the hardwood.

The South Carolina athletic department has announced a home-and-home series with college basketball power Georgetown, beginning this December. The first meeting will take place in Columbia in the upcoming 2021 season, with the Gamecocks making a return trip to Washington DC next winter.

The series sets up a matchup between two old school style coaches in Frank Martin and the Hoya’s Patrick Ewing. Ewing, an NBA Hall of Famer, has been with the program since 2017, leading the team to a 62-59 overall record. The Hoyas went just 13-13 last season, but made their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2015 after winning the Big East conference tournament.

This will be the sixth all-time meeting between the two clubs, with the Hoyas leading the overall series by an advantage of 4-1. The series dates all the way back to 1923, a 31-14 Georgetown win, but the Gamecocks took the last meeting 69-66 in the ’05 NIT, a tournament that South Carolina would go on to win.

Frank Martin will be trying to recover from a 6-15 season in 2020 after posting the program’s lowest win percentage since 1998-99. The roster is in transition, as seven players having entered the transfer portal, and another has declared for the NBA Draft. South Carolina will need to replace their leading scorer in AJ Lawson, but the program did bring in four transfers over the offseason to fill the voids. Martin also hauled in a top 40 recruiting class that includes two top 150 prospects.

The Gamecocks’ 2021 schedule is beginning to take shape. Stay tuned to Garnet and Cocky for more basketball updates.