South Carolina basketball learns matchups for preseason tournament

Earlier this offseason, South Carolina basketball announced that it would continue a recent tradition of playing in a preseason neutral-site tournament. Last year, Lamont Paris’ team went 1-1 while playing in the Fort Myers Tip-Off in Florida. For the 2025-2026 campaign, the Gamecocks will participate in the Greenbrier Tip-Off. On Tuesday, the event runners released the news that the matchups have been set for the event.

According to the announcement, South Carolina will face off against the Butler Bulldogs and Northwestern Wildcats. The fourth team, the Virginia Cavaliers, will not meet the Gamecocks in the West Virginia-based tournament.

South Carolina will play Butler on Friday, November 21st. Then, the Gamecocks will match up with Northwestern on Sunday, November 23rd. Northwestern and Virginia will also play on Friday. Butler and Virginia will then play on Sunday. All games of the Greenbrier Tip-Off will broadcast on CBS Sports Network and stream on Paramount+.

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The two contests on the hardwood will sandwich a Saturday afternoon affair on the gridiron for South Carolina football. The Gamecocks will host the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers on November 22nd. At this time, it is unknown whether Dawn Staley’s South Carolina women’s basketball team will be playing that weekend, but the team will be in Vegas for the Players Era Tournament (along with the Texas Longhorns, Duke Blue Devils, and UCLA Bruins) during Thanksgiving week.

Paris’ group has three other known out-of-conference games on the schedule already. The Gamecocks will open the season against North Carolina A&T. South Carolina’s annual rivalry game against Clemson will be played in the Upstate. USC also will play against Virginia Tech at home as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge.

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