Loaded SEC makes it tougher for USC to return to NCAAs, ESPN analyst says

Six months after being the last SEC team standing in the NCAA Tournament, South Carolina isn’t likely to be treated as royalty this week when the league’s members get together in Nashville.

The Omni Hotel will host “SEC Basketball Tipoff ” on Wednesday, an annual event for reporters, players and coaches. USC will be represented by Frank Martin, Chris Silva and Hassani Gravett. The head coach, power forward and point guard are the three most notable figures remaining from the Gamecocks’ historic run to the Final Four.

The likes of Sindarius Thornwell, P.J. Dozier and Duane Notice aren’t coming through that door, leaving USC to continue momentum from last March with a mostly new cast of characters.

What’s that mean for expectations?

When the media-voted preseason poll is released Wednesday, don’t expect the Gamecocks to be near Kentucky and Florida at the top, said ESPN’s Sean Farnham, who covers the league for the SEC Network.

“Frank’s team could be good this year – and miss the (NCAA) tournament, easily,” Farnham said last week. “Because the SEC in itself has potentially seven teams that can get to the NCAA Tournament this year.

“And I’ll be honest, right now I don’t have South Carolina going to the NCAA Tournament because I think the conference has improved that much. Again, that’s not a reflection of Frank’s program and the state of Frank’s program as much as it is the fact that the SEC could be really good this year.”

The SEC got five teams into the Big Dance last season, tying for its most since 2007-08. Three programs – South Carolina, Florida and Kentucky – advanced to the Elite Eight, with the Gamecocks making it to Phoenix on April’s first weekend.

Combine that success with the fact the nation’s best 26 of ESPN’s top 100 2017 recruits signed with SEC teams and the league’s talent pool is anything but shallow. In other words, things are trending toward an ultra-competitive winter.

“The league’s ridiculously good right now,” Martin told the SEC Network in August. “It’s so hard. It’s gotten better every single year.”

Martin is entering his sixth season at USC. His Gamecocks have never been picked in October to finish better than seventh in the SEC. Last year’s bunch was pegged to finish eighth in October, but wound up in a tie for third in March.

“I personally don’t have South Carolina making the NCAA Tournament this year,” Farnham said. “Maybe that will upset people and that’s fine. Maybe they put it up on a bulletin board that Sean Farnham who does the SEC doesn’t think they’re going to make it to the NCAA Tournament this year. And maybe they prove me wrong.

“But I don’t think South Carolina is sliding. It’s in a transitional year. Not a rebuilding year, but a transitional year based on everything they lost last year and to what I anticipate this program will be a year from now based on the Final Four year and the exposure that Frank had publicly.”

South Carolina last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years in 1997-98. It last had a preseason All-SEC player in 2009 (Devan Downey). Thornwell went on to earn SEC Player of the Year honors last season despite no preseason recognition.

So early buzz again likely won’t be surrounding the Gamecocks in Nashville. That’ll go to the perennial power Wildcats, the freshman-loaded Missouri Tigers and the experience-led Gators.

Thornwell, now a rookie with the Los Angeles Clippers, feels under-the-radar is right where Martin wants to be.

“He loves that stuff,” Thornwell said. “They’re going to be the hardest-playing team in the country. You know what you’re going to get with Coach Martin’s team. That’s hard-playing, hard-nosed guys who are going to give it their all out there on the court and that’s all you can ask.

“The two things you can control is your energy and your effort, and I know those guys are going to bring 100 percent energy and 100 percent effort every night that they’re out there.”

This story was originally published October 17, 2017 at 3:50 PM with the headline "Loaded SEC makes it tougher for USC to return to NCAAs, ESPN analyst says."