USC needs help to get an NCAA No. 1 seed

South Carolina earned a No. 1 seed in the SEC tournament by concentrating on what it could handle. The Gamecocks needed help to win the regular-season championship and the top seed, but they couldn’t afford to scoreboard-watch. They could only try to win their games and see if they got that help.

They did, and they did, bouncing into Greenville for another championship event in their backyard. Their focus this week is winning three games for another title, and then see where they are.

The Gamecocks are hoping for the same help they got to get here. While it seems assured they’ll be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament no matter what, they want to be a No. 1 seed with a chance to play in front of their home fans, and there’s a blue-and-gold hurdle keeping them from a date in blue-and-white Kentucky.

The NCAA’s latest top seeds for the tournament were Connecticut, Mississippi State, Baylor and Notre Dame, with USC fifth. That was before MSU lost its final two regular-season games and before the SEC tournament, meaning MSU could further play itself down or USC could play itself up.

But Notre Dame is the team to watch. The Fighting Irish enter the ACC tournament (held in Conway) as the No. 1 seed. That’s because the four regional sites are Bridgeport, Conn. (a natural for UConn); Oklahoma City (a natural for Baylor); Lexington, Ky.; and Stockton, Calif.

When it comes to the NCAA women’s committee, emphasis is placed on potential attendance and teams don’t get to pick where they go despite their seeding. That and a rule on distance sent the No. 2 overall seed Gamecocks to South Dakota last year, while Notre Dame went to Lexington.

The NCAA has never been known to follow its own precedent, but if the Irish went to Lexington last year and the other two are spoken for, the Gamecocks could again be left as odd women out.

“I don’t care at this point,” coach Dawn Staley said. “We had a No. 1 seed that worked out for us once. It’s not worked out for us another time.”

USC advanced to its first Final Four from Greensboro, N.C., and fell in the Sweet 16 in South Dakota last year. Who knows if they would have won in Lexington had they been sent there, but the fact they were sent there still raises hackles.

The NCAA’s logic was it wants teams to drive rather than fly, and the cutoff is a 350-mile radius. The committee said Notre Dame could bus to Lexington, while USC would have to fly.

Discounting the suggestion that Lexington is too far to drive – Gamecock fans do it every other year for football and every year for basketball – the NCAA further stated a flight is a flight, no matter where it’s going. So if USC was going to have to fly to Lexington by the NCAA’s standard, it might as well fly to South Dakota.

It seems to be shaping up that way again. The distance from South Bend to Lexington hasn’t changed and, while USC might beat out Mississippi State for a top-four seed, it would have to plan for California if Notre Dame doesn’t lose.

The Gamecocks got help to win the SEC championship and needs more to get their desired location. A No. 2 seed in Lexington might be preferable to No. 1 in Stockton, but a team can’t lose on purpose to ensure that.

USC is focusing on what it can control and hoping for another favor. It’s all it can do.

“We just take what they give us,” SEC Player of the Year A’ja Wilson said. “We’ve been to South Dakota, so, hey, who knows where we’re going to go next?”

This story was originally published March 2, 2017 at 2:21 PM with the headline "USC needs help to get an NCAA No. 1 seed."