South Carolina basketball just squeaked by the Indiana Hoosiers on Friday to advance to the Elite Eight. The game saw USC go up by as many as 22 points but allowed IU to cut their deficit all the way down to just 2 points. In the end, though, the Gamecocks held on and will take on the Oregon State Beavers with a trip to Cleveland for the Final Four on the line.
Because the NCAA does not announce all of the game times until the matchups are set (presumably for television purposes), South Carolina basketball only knew that their favorite team was set to play on Easter Sunday against Oregon State, but they did not know when their final game in the Albany Regional would begin.
Late on Friday night, though, the announcement came through, and the Gamecocks and Beavers were scheduled to face off at 1:00 PM EST on Sunday. The game will be broadcast on ABC and will be streamed on the ESPN app.
The broadcast crew has also been revealed, and it might not make South Carolina basketball fans too happy. Ryan Ruocco will handle the play-by-play while former UConn star Rebecca Lobo will be the color analyst, and Holly Rowe will be the sideline reporter. Gamecock fans famously don't much care for Lobo as they feel her UConn bias has made her dislike South Carolina. Rowe also has caught the ire of Carolina fans by forgetting Aliyah Boston's name and was unnecessarily probing in a draft day interview with Brea Beal.
This will be the third NCAA Tournament meeting in recent years between South Carolina and Oregon State. The Gamecocks were victorious in the other two March Madness games, both of which were 2nd round matchups. Oregon State is searching for the program's 2nd trip to the Final Four, while the Gamecocks will be looking to make it to the Final Four for the 5th season in a row (likely would have been six, but the 2019-2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled due to Covid-19).
The Gamecocks are just three games away from making history as just the 5th program ever to go undefeated through a women's college basketball season. UConn (6x), Tennessee, Texas, and Baylor are the others. They are also close to becoming just the 5th program ever to win 3 national titles, joining UConn, Tennessee, Baylor, and Stanford.