South Carolina basketball coach Lamont Paris and his team learned their SEC schedule earlier this week as the league revealed the 18-game conference slates for each team, including each game's location. Carolina will play every team in the league but will get the Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, and Mississippi State Bulldogs twice.
On Thursday, according to a report from CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein, the Gamecocks have added a game to their out-of-conference schedule. No date or game time has been announced, but Carolina will take on the North Florida Ospreys at some point during the 2024-2025 season. According to Rothstein, the game will be played at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia.
The Ospreys finished the 2023-2024 season 16-16 and in 5th place in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Their 9-7 record in conference play was just 3 games off of the regular season championship pace set by the Eastern Kentucky Colonels. Neither UNF nor EKU won the ASUN Tournament, however, as the Stetson Hatters earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Gamecocks did not play anyone from the ASUN last season.
North Florida lost their top player from last season as Chaz Lanier hit the transfer portal, but the Gamecocks likely still will play the talented scorer as the Kentucky Wildcats and Tennessee Volunteers appear to be the favorites to land his services.
In addition to the game against the Ospreys, the Gamecocks will play the annual rivalry game against the Clemson Tigers at Colonial Life Arena, an unnamed ACC opponent in the ACC/SEC challenge (likely on the road since they played Notre Dame at home last year), and will participate in the Fort Myers Tip-Off in November (the Michigan Wolverines, Xavier Musketeer, and Virginia Tech Hokies are in the Gamecocks' division of the Thanksgiving tournament). The remainder of the South Carolina basketball out-of-conference schedule is yet to be announced.