The South Carolina basketball team is off to its best start since the 2016-2017 season (a year in which the Gamecocks went to the Final Four). A win over Notre Dame in the ACC/SEC Challenge pushed the undefeated record to 6-0, meaning USC is more than halfway to the program’s win total from the 2022-2023 season.
Against the Fighting Irish, the Gamecocks rode strong defense and the offensive games of Meechie Johnson and BJ Mack to a comfortable victory 65-53. With the win, South Carolina is one of seven universities that has both its men’s and women’s basketball programs undefeated (Dawn Staley’s team is 5-0 and plays North Carolina on Thursday).
For Lamont Paris’ team, Tuesday’s test against Notre Dame wasn’t pretty (the Gamecocks shot just 38% from the floor and 28% from 3), but the Gamecocks found a way to win and win comfortably.
South Carolina basketball fans can find some comfort in knowing that their Gamecocks won (again) without putting their best effort on the floor. If/when Coach Paris’ team puts it all together, the Gamecocks could move from being a pretty good team that might have an NIT future to a good team that is fighting around the NCAA Tournament bubble.