South Carolina Basketball: Gamecocks release full out-of-conference schedule

Throughout the offseason, bits and pieces of the South Carolina schedule have been made public. The Gamecocks will open the year at home against USC-Upstate. A neutral site game in Charlotte against Virginia Tech will be played at Spectrum Arena, home of the Hornets. Notre Dame will come to Columbia for the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge. And, of course, there’s Clemson.

The SEC schedule came out, as well, but that was pretty predictable based on last year’s conference slate.

But, other than that, not much has come out about who the CourtCocks would be facing in the other 10 or so games in year 2 of the Lamont Paris era in Columbia.

Until Wednesday.

On Wednesday, South Carolina basketball released their entire out-of-conference schedule via an announcement on gamecocksonline.com.

The full schedule is listed below:

November 6th- USC-Upsate

November 10th- Virginia Tech (in Charlotte)

November 13th- VMI

November 17th- DePaul (Arizona Tipoff Tournament)

November 19th- Either Grand Canyon or San Francisco

November 28th- Notre Dame (ACC/SEC Challenge in Columbia)

December 1st- George Washington

December 6th- @ Clemson

December 9th- @ East Carolina

December 16th- Charleston Southern

December 19th- Winthrop

December 22nd- Elon

December 30th- Florida A&M

Frankly, it is not a difficult schedule.

The rivalry game against Clemson will be tough, especially since the Gamecocks have to go to the Upstate for that one. Virginia Tech is a decent team, and playing the Hokies in a neutral site in Charlotte should be an early test for Lamont Paris’ group. Notre Dame was not very good last season, but the Irish are a bounceback candidate who will be energized to play in Columbia for the first ACC/SEC Challenge.

The Gamecocks will also play in the Arizona Tipoff Tournament and will face off with former Gamecock Chico Carter, Jr. and his DePaul Blue Demons. East Carolina is not a great team, but they beat South Carolina last season, and this year’s game is in Greenville, North Carolina.

While far from a big resume-building slate, the South Carolina basketball out-of-conference schedule looks like it will have several good tests for the new-look Gamecocks.

Will the Gamecocks be significantly better in the 2023-2024 season? Or will another subpar showing have Carolina fans ready for more changes to sweep through the program?