NCAA sets new start date for basketball. When the Gamecocks can take the court
Fans of South Carolina men’s and women’s basketball basketball will have to wait a few extra weeks this year before Frank Martin’s and Dawn Staley’s squads take the court.
The NCAA Division I council announced it has voted to push the start of college basketball’s 2020-21 season to Nov. 25 because of the global coronavirus pandemic.
That marks a delay of two weeks from the original date of Nov. 10. And importantly, it comes a day before Thanksgiving but a few days after many of the dates that many holiday tournaments had targeted.
That includes the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, Missouri, which the Gamecock men’s team was scheduled to compete in starting Nov. 23, and the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, which the USC women’s squad was set to play in starting Nov. 21.
The shift also means full practices can begin Oct. 14, with a “transition practice period” that will increase the strength and conditioning sessions, meetings and individual skill instruction allowed from Sept. 21 to Oct. 13.
The council also adjusted the maximum and minimum number of games a team. On the men’s side, teams can play a maximum of 25 regular season games, or 24 if they participate in a tournament that includes up to three games. On the women’s side, teams can play a maximum of 25 games or 23 if they participate in a tournament that includes up to four games.
In order to be eligible for the NCAA tournament, teams will have to play a minimum of 13 games, with the NCAA recommending a minimum of four nonconference games. There will also be no exhibitions allowed in the preseason.
Neither South Carolina basketball program has released a schedule for the 2020-21 season, as Staley and Martin, along with coaches across the country, waited to see how much, if at all, the season would be affected by COVID-19.
This new start date doesn’t require teams to start playing in November — the Pac-12, for example, has canceled all games through the rest of the year. And it doesn’t clarify whether games will be played in “bubbles” quarantined from the general public.
South Carolina’s women’s team is once again expected to contend for a national championship in 2021 — the Gamecocks return all but two key contributors from last season’s record-breaking squad that went 32-1 and finished the year ranked No. 1 after the NCAA tournament was canceled.
The USC men’s team, meanwhile, is hoping to return to the NCAA tournament after finishing last year with an 18-13 record. The Gamecocks return star guard A.J. Lawson, who withdrew from the NBA draft in July, alongside second-leading scorer Jermaine Cousinard and starting forward Keyshawn Bryant.
This story was originally published September 16, 2020 at 6:50 PM.
