South Carolina basketball: looking at the non-conference schedule

Who’s on South Carolina basketball’s non-conference slate?

South Carolina basketball’s 2021-22 season will be here before we know it, and the schedule has begun to come together over the last couple of weeks. In May it was announced that the Gamecocks would be participating in a four-team tournament alongside Minnesota, Western Kentucky, and a team to be named later. That event will take place early in the year, with the tournament being hosted in Asheville.

A few weeks later, South Carolina unveiled a home-and-home series with Georgetown, one of college basketball’s most notable programs. UAB, Rider, and Clemson are also expected to be on the slate, and today, basketball insider John Rothstein announced that Army would join the list of non-conference opponents.

The Gamecocks are in a year of transition, but expectations should still be high following last season’s six-win campaign. Frank Martin added a handful of proven playmakers over the offseason, and while the team will need to replace leading scorer AJ Lawson, it should be able to restore the defensive mindset that its head coach likes to see.

Of the additions, three will present major upgrades to the defensive side of the ball. Erik Stevenson, who played at both Washington and Wichita State, will provide length on the wing. AJ Wilson arrives in Columbia after setting the George Mason program record for blocked shots, and guard James Reese presents an upgrade in the Carolina backcourt after helping lead North Texas to the round of 32 in last year’s NCAA Tournament.

While the 2020-21 season didn’t go quite as planned, there’s reason for optimism in Columbia. The team won’t have to deal with a COVID hit like the one it was dealt last year, with the team missing more than a month of action due to contact tracing in the locker room. Those issues forced the Gamecocks to play short-handed and short-staffed throughout the year, and by the time the team was somewhat healthy, the season was a lost cause.

The offseason began rocky, with a number of players opting to leave the program, but coach Martin was able to convince both Keyshawn Bryant and Jermaine Couisnard to stick around and help the Gamecocks push for their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2017.

These newly added non-conference contests should help provide South Carolina with a strong resume come season’s end, as six of the seven teams finished inside the nation’s top 150 in RPI a year ago. Clemson and Georgetown both made the NCAA Tournament, while Western Kentucky just missed out, landing in the NIT.

If the Gamecocks can take care of business against its non-conference foes, it should more than prepare them for a run in the SEC slate. Getting off to a great start will be imperative, and a strong performance could boost them into the postseason.