At least one outlet knows ball: South Carolina basketball ranked in latest CBS poll

South Carolina basketball fans have been on a rampage on Monday. They are irate because their Gamecocks should have been celebrating their first inclusion in the AP top-25 since the 2016-2017 Final Four season (Carolina wasn't even included in the end-of-season rankings that year despite the magical run in March). Instead, the collection of AP voters put USC just outside of its rankings yet again this week.

In what was a savvy business move, CBS Sports' Gary Parrish released his updated top-25 (plus-1) on the same day as the latest AP top-25, and the AP's snub of the Gamecocks had South Carolina basketball fans searching for some validation. Parrish obliged, and the scorned fans of the garnet and black have proclaimed that Gary Parrish, indeed, "knows ball."

In his rankings, the Gamecocks slotted in at the 24th spot, 2 spots ahead of where they sat immediately following the big Kentucky win. It is a well-deserved ranking as South Carolina's resume easily is one of the best 25 this season.

17-3 records don't just grow on trees, and the Gamecocks have proved themselves against good competition as they are 4-2 over teams in the top-50 of the NET rankings and 6-2 overall in Quad-1 and Quad-2 games. Those 6 quality wins are more than the totals from AP ranked teams like Duke, BYU, Alabama, Illinois, New Mexico, Baylor, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and TCU.

Four more teams in the top-25 have exactly 6 Quad-1 and Quad-2 wins, just like South Carolina basketball. Only ten teams in the nation have more Quad-1 wins than Carolina's 3.

This week, Lamont Paris and the Gamecocks will travel to Knoxville to play against the Tennessee Volunteers and to Athens to take on the Georgia Bulldogs. If the Gamecocks manage to go 2-0 through those tough tests, they will be ranked unanimously inside next week's top-25 polls.