Which games are "must wins" for South Carolina basketball to secure March Madness invite?

South Carolina basketball has had a very nice season.

After an 11-21 season last year (tying the all-time program record for most losses in a season) and being picked to finish dead last in the SEC heading into the year, a 21-5 overall record and 9-4 mark in league play almost don't seem real. However, the Gamecocks were 21-3 just over a week ago, were ranked 11th in the country, and were considered a top-16 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Now, after a tough week with two bad losses (a blowout at Auburn and a 16-point collapse at home against LSU), Lamont Paris' team is still firmly in the March Madness field as things stand today, but with 5 regular season games remaining, they cannot lose out and feel good about their postseason resume.

The Gamecocks have road games against Ole Miss and Texas A&M before returning home to face the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers. The final game of the season is a revenge attempt for the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Starkville before the SEC Tournament begins in Nashville in March.

All six guaranteed remaining games (5 regular season and at least 1 in the SEC Tournament) have a chance to be Quad-1 games (and certainly would be Quad-2 if not), meaning each game is valuable in its own way down the stretch of the 2023-2024 season.

Now that they have slipped a little bit in the SEC standings, the CourtCocks must win a game or two to guarantee their spot in the Big Dance. Let's take a look at the six guaranteed games left on the schedule and rank them in terms of how "must win" they are heading into March.