South Carolina Basketball: SEC Tournament Preview
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina basketball has been the talk of women’s college athletics this year. An undefeated regular season that saw the Gamecocks win by an average of over 30 points per contest finished on Sunday with a victory over the Georgia Bulldogs. It was an amazing regular season, but there has not been much celebrating from Dawn Staley and her team. During her press conference after beating Tennessee last week and clinching at least a share of the SEC regular season crown, Dawn Staley said “We want to win a national championship…national championships.”
The SEC Tournament is largely inconsequential for South Carolina in that pursuit, but you won’t hear anyone associated with the team saying that. A guaranteed number-1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament regardless of what happens in Greenville, South Carolina this week, the Gamecocks want to stay sharp as they pursue a perfect record en route to back-to-back national titles.
Coach Staley has repeatedly credited her “freshman class” (really the signing class of 2019 of Aliyah Boston, Brea Beal, Zia Cooke, Laeticia Amihere, and Olivia Thompson) for the Gamecocks’ continued excellence. Since the group enrolled as freshmen in 2019, South Carolina has been the best program in college basketball, having been ranked as the top team in the land for 67% of their time at South Carolina.
They have a 122-8 record (so far), and they have been ranked inside the top-10 for every second of their collegiate tenures. They lost only one game at Colonial Life Arena during this four-year stretch. They won last year’s National Championship and seem well on their way to repeating that feat in 2023. This discussion may even have been about three out of four championships if the 2019-2020 season was not halted for the COVID-19 pandemic; the Gamecocks were the clear best team in the country as shown by their consensus number-1 ranking at season’s end. A career record of 42-6 against ranked opponents also has a chance to improve come Tournament time.
The success won’t end now that “the freshmen” will be graduating as Dawn Staley has built a program that can withstand even these heavy losses. However, Gamecock fans should enjoy what they’re watching right now because there might never be a more dominant class in college sports ever again.
The road to securing their place in sports history begins on Wednesday as the SEC Tournament tips off in Greenville. However, because of their regular season dominance, the South Carolina basketball team will receive two byes and not have to play until Friday. At noon on the SECNetwork and ESPN App, the Gamecocks will play the winner of Thursday’s 8/9 matchup between Arkansas and Missouri.
If the Gamecocks win the 1 vs. 8/9 game on Friday, they would play again on Saturday at 4:30 on ESPNU and the ESPN App against the winner of the matchup between the 4-seed Ole Miss Rebels and whichever team is still alive from the 5/12/13 games. A South Carolina victory would send them to the finals to play for the championship trophy on Sunday at 3:00 on ESPN and the ESPN App.
After the conference tournaments are completed, Selection Sunday will take place on March 12th for both men’s and women’s college basketball. The men’s show will be on CBS at 6:00, and the women’s announcement show will follow at 8:00 on ESPN and the ESPN App.