How South Carolina basketball can still fight for a postseason bid
Well, time to ask the question: What now?
South Carolina’s loss to LSU on Saturday afternoon has set up a brand new scenario for the Gamecocks. They hadn’t lost back-to-back games this season. It isn’t a tremendous fall from grace, but the 64-63 loss to the Tigers wasn’t pretty. The Gamecocks have the next week off for their SEC bye week, but are tied for third in the SEC standings.
Come Monday, there are going to be some changes. South Carolina is going to drop in the AP Top 25 poll, bracketology predictions are going to shift and the Gamecocks have to quickly regroup before the final five games of the regular season.
“(We’ll) just make sure we learn from this moment,” BJ Mack said. “It’s not a feeling that we want to have. The goal is to win.”
As it stands, the SEC has been a projected nine-bid league for the NCAA Tournament since the start of conference play and that still bodes well for USC. If the Gamecocks can reach 24 or 25 wins, that will help their case as well. USC still has its wins over Virginia Tech, Grand Canyon, Kentucky and Tennessee on its resume and that should help boost the Gamecocks’ strength of schedule moving forward.
While the loss to the Tigers on Saturday stings, it gave South Carolina another new, unexpected scenario the Gamecocks haven’t dealt with: handling a multi-game skid.
“You gotta learn fast,” coach Lamont Paris said. “There’s lessons to be taught from winning and losing, and so the only real travesty about this game will be that if you don’t learn some things from it, and so there’ll be some learning for sure.”
The situational basketball that plagued USC on Saturday can be fixed in the film room. Paris and the Gamecocks can walk through the miscommunications that led to LSU’s game-winning free throws and why their 16-point lead crumpled to a loss. They’ve already addressed that.
“Well, that wasn’t very fun,” Paris said in his opening statement. “You only get so many chances. There’s not an infinite amount of chances to do the right thing.”
South Carolina is still tied with Auburn for third in the conference after the Tigers lost to Kentucky, 70-59, Saturday evening. Auburn has the tiebreaker for the SEC tournament, making USC a No. 4 seed. The Gamecocks aren’t a true bubble program in terms of bracketology, despite the two-game skid. Prior to the LSU loss, CBS Sports still had the Gamecocks as a No. 5 seed in the tournament.
Of the first four out on CBS’ latest bracket, two programs have a NET ranking significantly higher than USC’s (Gonzaga and Wake Forest) and two are much lower (Oregon and Seton Hall). Meanwhile, the last four in all are within a few spots of the Gamecocks. NET rankings will fluctuate after games, so whatever South Carolina is one week won’t be the same spot the next.
USC was left out of the top 16 reveal the NCAA Selection Committee announced Saturday afternoon, before the game. The team’s overall NET ranking dropped from No. 50 to 57 overnight, with the nonconference strength of schedule NET at No. 282. If something holds the Gamecocks back from the tournament, it will be the strength of schedule.
It’s happened to South Carolina before. In 2015-16, the Gamecocks finished the year as a three seed in the SEC tournament with a 24-7 record, 11-7 in conference play, and didn’t receive an at-large bid to the NCAAs. USC was ultimately given an NIT bid, which it accepted and played two games in that tournament.
South Carolina can still reach March Madness, but it’s going to take some work. The bye week should let the Gamecocks rest up some more before embarking on a two-game road trip against Ole Miss and Texas A&M. By then, it’ll be crunch time for all programs involved, and USC can make its case to the selection committee that a two-game skid doesn’t end its postseason aspirations.
Next four games
Feb. 24 at Ole Miss, 3:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
Feb. 28 at Texas A&M, 8:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
March 2 vs. Florida, 1 p.m. (SEC Network)
March 6 vs. Tennessee, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
