South Carolina basketball currently owns the best combined record for men's and women's basketball. The 2023-2024 Gamecocks are 18-3 on the men's side and 20-0 in the women's game. Lamont Paris' team has vastly exceeded expectations, and Dawn Staley's group has firmly dispelled the notion that the team was undergoing a rebuild this season.
Both teams are in the top-2 of the SEC standings (the men are 2nd behind Alabama, and the women are in 1st as the only undefeated team left in college basketball), and that means that every game is a big game on the schedule. Because of that, the two teams have been calling on Gamecock Nation to show up and show out in Colonial Life Arena every night to help the players on the floor continue their winning ways.
South Carolina basketball fans have responded to the call and have upped their attendance numbers, even filling Colonial Life Arena to capacity on multiple occasions. That is not an easy feat as the arena is one of the largest in the country for college basketball.
On Saturday, according to a release from the University of South Carolina on gamecocksonline.com, CLA is sold out again for Dawn Staley's team's matchup with the Ole Miss Rebels. The third sellout of the season is a single-season record for the Gamecocks since the opening of Colonial Life Arena. Paired with the Vanderbilt win last weekend, this will mark the program's first back-to-back sellouts ever.
The annual South Carolina-UConn game later this month is already listed as a sellout, and it has been sold out since December.
Sunday's game between Carolina and Ole Miss will be a matchup of the two teams currently at the top of the SEC standings as Yolett McPhee-McCuin has her team at 6-2 in SEC play, tied with the Tennessee Volunteers for the 2nd-best mark in the league.
The Gamecocks and Rebels will tip off on Sunday at 2:00, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN2 and the ESPN app.