South Carolina Basketball: Gamecocks set to play Duke in Jimmy V Classic
By Kevin Miller
In Dawn Staley’s tenure as the leader of the South Carolina basketball program, the Gamecocks have never been afraid to schedule big games against big opponents. Just in the 2023-2024 season alone, USC will open the year in Paris, France against Notre Dame, and the Gamecocks will take on other big-time out-of-conference foes such as Maryland, UConn, and North Carolina.
On Tuesday, it was announced that another high-profile opponent would be gracing the Gamecocks’ schedule this season.
South Carolina basketball will travel to Durham, North Carolina to take on the Duke Blue Devils in the 2023 Women’s Jimmy V Classic, a six-team event in which three games are played to raise money and awareness for cancer research in honor of the late Hall of Fame coach Jim Valvano who died after a very public battle with cancer in 1993.
The Gamecocks will face the Blue Devils on December 3rd as part of a triple-header. The game will be the first of the three and will begin at 1:00. Texas and UConn will play at 3:00 in Austin, Texas, and Tennessee and Ohio State will play at 5:00 in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Earlier this offseason, South Carolina basketball hired away Duke’s top assistant coach from head coach Kara Lawson’s staff when the Gamecocks brought on Winston Gandy to replace the outgoing Fred Chmiel who was hired as the next head coach at Bowling Green.
Back before the women’s program began, South Carolina and Duke were old rivals from when the Gamecocks were part of the ACC, and many older USC fans believe the Blue Devils (along with their rival from the University of North Carolina) were the primary offenders that made Frank McGuire’s men’s basketball squad desire for the school to leave the conference.
The last time the Gamecocks and Blue Devils met in women’s basketball, South Carolina basketball beat the home Blue Devils 55-46.