South Carolina remains winless against quality opponents. What that means for SEC play

When South Carolina’s full schedule came out, there weren’t a ton of notable games in the non-conference slate. However, there were definitely a few on the calendar worth circling.

Among all of the lowly-rated mid-major opponents, the Gamecocks were set for four games against top 100 teams in the NET rankings. This was their chance to prove that this season could be different from last year and gain some early quality wins.

But as South Carolina sits here a few days before Christmas, with two games left before SEC play starts, things aren’t looking too good. It lost all four games to Butler, Northwestern, Virginia Tech, and Clemson, each coming by seven points or less. Worse than that, the team sits winless in Quad 1 and 2 games.

While not ideal, it’s not something that head coach Lamont Paris is overly concerned about. He knows there will be more opportunities against good teams in the 18-game SEC stretch. His focus in these early games before then is more about improvement than anything.

“We like to play (Quad 1) games. You like to win those games. They can really help you out,” Paris said after Tuesday’s loss to Clemson. “But our medal will be tested in the SEC like no one else’s, probably when you’re talking about the gauntlet of 18 teams.”

And Paris would be right about that. After wrapping up non-conference play before the new year, 17 of South Carolina’s 18 SEC games will come against top 100 NET teams. The conference as a whole isn’t expected to be as strong as it was last season, when a record 14 teams made the NCAA Tournament, which bodes well for the Gamecocks, who finished dead last in the standings with a 2-16 record.

“That’s the toughest league from top to bottom. And so there’ll be plenty of opportunities,” Paris said. “Every road game, I can’t imagine a road game that’s not going to be a Quad 1. This is hard for me to imagine. And then you’re going to get your fair share of home Quad 1s also.”

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There’s a slight problem, though. The Gamecocks haven’t beaten a good team yet. 7-0 against Quad 4 teams, which are those mid-majors that they’re supposed to win against. 0-4 against teams that are more on their level, albeit not as good as the teams they’ll face in league play.

They’ve come close. They went down to the wire with Northwestern in the Greenbrier Tip-Off, then took Virginia Tech to overtime with multiple chances to win that game. But close hasn’t resulted in wins.

If anything, that’s one silver lining South Carolina has taken from those losses. All of them have been competitive and could’ve gone either way. That’s similar to what happened to last year’s team with six SEC losses by five or fewer points. So it’s a trend the Gamecocks know all too well, and they’re hopeful for better fortunes when the competition ramps up in a few weeks.

“We just have to keep that effort,” Kobe Knox said. “As I said, making the shots, right decision-making down the stretch, and executing the offense. We’ll be good going into the SEC play.”

So there is still a chance things can turn around. There will be more chances to do so. It’s unclear how many SEC games South Carolina would have to win to have a realistic shot at the NCAA Tournament.

Texas and Oklahoma both had six wins as the last two teams from the conference to make it last year. If the Gamecocks won their last two non-conference games, plus six in the SEC, that would only put them at 15 wins, which wouldn’t be enough to get it done. It will likely take finishing closer to .500 in the 18-game slate for any tournament hopes to become a possibility.

“This is the SEC. Every night is going to be a big matchup. We’ve got Vandy to start off at home at the Colonial, so we’ll have a chance to bounce back,” Meechie Johnson said. “That’s the biggest thing is that a lot of teams lost a lot of games like this early in the season. But again, we’re in the best conference, so you have a chance to turn things around. But it’s gotta happen fast.”

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