NCAA Tournament March Madness

#86 South Carolina

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Projection: likely out

South Carolina’s resume reads like a team that has handled its lower-tier opponents at home but has come up short when tested away from home or on neutral courts, which is what selection committees care about. Neutral-site setbacks to Butler and Northwestern and a tight defeat to Virginia Tech stand out as missed chances to claim resume-building wins, while victories over Radford, Southern Miss, Charleston Southern and similar opponents do little to offset those blemishes. The league slate still offers meaningful opportunities on the road at places such as Clemson, LSU, Arkansas and Auburn and at home against the league’s better teams like Vanderbilt, Georgia and Florida, and those results will determine whether the profile can be repaired. Until South Carolina can produce wins in hostile or neutral environments against recognizable opponents, the mix of soft nonconference wins and damaging losses explains why the team sits on the outside looking in.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/4NC A&T320W91-72
11/9Southern Miss200W83-79
11/12Presbyterian266W81-61
11/18Radford251W87-58
11/21(N)Butler47L79-72
11/23(N)Northwestern61L79-77
11/28Charleston So267W74-62
12/2Virginia Tech64L86-83
12/6Stetson340W82-51
12/13Citadel36299%
12/16@Clemson2616%
12/22S Carolina St36199%
12/30SUNY Albany31996%
1/3Vanderbilt817%
1/6@LSU3921%
1/10Georgia2533%
1/14@Arkansas2917%
1/17@Auburn3017%
1/20Oklahoma5648%
1/24@Texas A&M5226%
1/28Florida1422%
1/31LSU3940%
2/3@Texas5126%
2/7Missouri5548%
2/14@Alabama138%
2/17@Florida149%
2/21Mississippi St8259%
2/24Kentucky2031%
2/28@Georgia2516%
3/3Tennessee1828%
3/7@Mississippi5026%