What does it take for the South Carolina basketball team to reach the NCAAT?
South Carolina is currently only 5-6, with three of those five wins at stake at the SEC. Gamecocks are rising and falling, sometimes struggling to cope with the COVID pandemic and keep the team in full swing. As of now, an invitation to the NIT is not guaranteed, but there is still time for Frank Martin’s group to run an end-of-season race and enter the postseason discussion.
The Gamecocks are coming out of their biggest win of the year, taking down a qualifying Florida team on the road earlier this week. Looking to the future, the team will have several opportunities to keep pace and win some quality victories along the way.
Below is the rest of the schedule, along with the NET classification of each team.
Saturday, February 6 – vs. Mississippi State (84)
Tuesday, February 9 – vs. Alabama (8)
Saturday, February 13 – vs. Ole Miss (69)
Tuesday, February 16 – in Tennessee (13)
Saturday, February 20 – vs. Missouri (28)
Wednesday, February 24 – in the state of Mississippi (84)
Saturday, February 27 – in Georgia (99)
Tuesday, March 2 – vs. Arkansas (30)
TBD – in Kentucky (77)
TBD – on Ole Miss (69)
TBD – vs. Tennessee (13)
NET rankings have now become the key analysis in terms of determining the strength of a team’s record, as well as their chances of entering the NCAA Tournament. Bad wins and losses can be divided with these rankings, as the algorithm decides the results in terms of quadrants.
Quadrant 1: Home vs. 1-30; Neutral vs. 1-50; Absent vs. 1-75.
Quadrant 2: House 31-75; Neutral 51-100; Absent 76-135.
Quadrant 3: Home 76-160; Neutral 101-200; Absent 136-240.
Quadrant 4: house 161 or more; Neutral 201-plus; Absent 241 +
Obviously, you want to win as many quads one and two as possible, avoiding demoralizing quads four losses. Gamecocks are currently 2-5 in quadruple one and two matches, and 3-1 in quadruple three and four matches.
And with Gamecocks facing all of NET’s top 100 enemies moving forward, there will be a ton of opportunities for notable victories. As it stands now, South Carolina’s only quad three fight is tomorrow against the state of Mississippi. The rest are found in quad sectors one and two.
There are 11 possible clashes remaining on the list, although three of those disputes may or may not be played out. Gamecocks were forced to postpone games against Tennessee, Ole Miss and Kentucky earlier this year, but the hope is that they will be moved to a later date, if possible.
Let’s assume that the programming will be executed in its entirety. Gamecocks will need to take care of business against the states of Georgia, Kentucky and Mississippi (2x). You would like to see the team win at least three of these four fights and avoid losing their only quad game three this weekend.
Thereafter, South Carolina will likely need to go 4-3 against the remaining schedule, which would mean a 7-4 end of season. This would give Gamecocks eight wins over quad one and two opponents, increase the overall record to 12-10, and certainly give Frank Martin’s group some speculation about NCAA tournaments. An 8-3 result would guarantee a general bid.
On the other hand, six wins or less and Gamecocks are probably looking inside, preventing the SEC tournament from running.
South Carolina is out of the postseason scene for now, but the door is far from closing. A strong end of the year can catapult Gamecocks back into contention, and the journey to a possible appearance in the NCAA tournament begins tomorrow.