NCAA Tournament March Madness

#86 South Carolina

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Projection: likely out

South Carolina shows the makings of a team that defends well but has yet to collect the kind of signature win that moves a résumé forward; comfortable home wins have been offset by narrow neutral-site setbacks at Butler and Northwestern and a tight loss to Virginia Tech that read as missed chances. A road defeat at Clemson and an overall inability to win away from campus underline a vulnerability that committees notice when weighing resumes. The schedule still hands the team multiple opportunities to rewrite the narrative with home dates against teams like Vanderbilt and Oklahoma and brutal road tests at LSU, Arkansas, Auburn and Texas A&M plus marquee matchups with Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida and Alabama, so a few upset results would change how this looks. Until those opportunities are seized the combination of soft nonconference victories, damaging road losses and a lack of a marquee scalp keeps the outlook cautious.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/4NC A&T306W91-72
11/9Southern Miss198W83-79
11/12Presbyterian291W81-61
11/18Radford252W87-58
11/21(N)Butler48L79-72
11/23(N)Northwestern55L79-77
11/28Charleston So220W74-62
12/2Virginia Tech68L86-83
12/6Stetson346W82-51
12/13Citadel358W71-55
12/16@Clemson35L68-61
12/22S Carolina St362W95-70
12/30SUNY Albany31496%
1/3Vanderbilt816%
1/6@LSU3820%
1/10Georgia2834%
1/14@Arkansas2716%
1/17@Auburn3419%
1/20Oklahoma5348%
1/24@Texas A&M5026%
1/28Florida1323%
1/31LSU3840%
2/3@Texas4625%
2/7Missouri6355%
2/14@Alabama1611%
2/17@Florida139%
2/21Mississippi St7960%
2/24Kentucky2030%
2/28@Georgia2816%
3/3Tennessee1424%
3/7@Mississippi5731%