This is USC basketball’s path to a double bye in the conference tournament
Yes, Wednesday’s 66-59 loss to No. 4 Tennessee stings for the No. 17 South Carolina men’s basketball team. The final game in Colonial Life Arena, with so much on the line, the Gamecocks wanted to close out their home schedule with a fighting chance at the Southeastern Conference regular season title.
According to head coach Lamont Paris, that title will come in time. The world just wasn’t ready for it this year.
“It’s an unbelievable group,” Paris said. “I can’t say that enough. But because of that it does make it a little hard. (But) we’ll move forward.”
With the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament locked up by the Vols, South Carolina has one game to solidify its position in the top four for a double bye. For the last two weeks, the target record for a free pass to next Friday’s quarterfinal games in Nashville was 3-1.
Now it’s 1-0.
The Gamecocks’ first step will be by winning at Mississippi State on Saturday afternoon. Then, USC would have 13 conference wins, likely remaining tied with Alabama, Auburn and Kentucky.
If South Carolina (24-6, 12-5 SEC) handles business in its regular-season finale, it needs Tennessee (24-6, 14-3 SEC) to defeat Kentucky (22-8, 12-5 SEC) in that season finale to get the double bye. USC has the head-to-head advantage over the Wildcats, putting them over the Big Blue for tiebreaker seeding.
In the other season finales, Alabama (20-10, 12-5 SEC) is facing Arkansas, and Auburn (23-7, 12-5 SEC) will play Georgia.
Since Alabama and Auburn both beat the Gamecocks and hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over them, a regular-season loss for those would be beneficial to slide above a No. 4 seed.
The SEC uses round-robin records to determine any tiebreaks involving three or more teams for conference seeding. A four-way tie between the programs would give USC a 1-2 record against Kentucky, Alabama and Auburn.
The Gamecocks could reach the No. 2 seed with a win over Mississippi State and having at least two of the three target opponents (Kentucky, Alabama and Auburn) lose their season finales.
If South Carolina doesn’t get the double bye, the Gamecocks would be the No. 5 seed and play in the second round of the conference tournament on March 14. The lone scenario where USC might drop to a No. 6 seed is if the Gamecocks, Alabama and Auburn all lose Saturday and Kentucky defeats Tennessee.
Paris’ mentality at this point is simple: brush the Gamecocks off, pick them up, get them ready for Mississippi State at The Hump.
It’s a race to lucky No. 13.
“The sun will come up tomorrow, and we got a lot that we’re still playing for,” Paris said. “And there’s still more milestones that are out there for us. A lot of them are already in the rear-view mirror. I joked around with them, I said ‘The SEC just wasn’t quite ready for us to do all that and end up being first place in the league, so we’ll have to settle for something else.’”
SEC standings
- Tennessee (24-6,14-3)
- South Carolina (24-6, 12-5)
- Auburn (23-7, 12-5)
- Kentucky (22-8, 12-5)
- Alabama (20-10, 12-5)
- Florida (21-9, 11-6)
- Mississippi State (19-11, 8-9)
- Texas A&M (17-13, 8-9)
- LSU (16-14, 8-9)
- Ole Miss (20-10, 7-10)
- Georgia (16-14, 6-11)
- Arkansas (15-15, 6-11)
- Vanderbilt (8-22, 3-14)
- Missouri (8-22, 0-17)
Next USC games
- March 9 at Mississippi State, 2:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
- March 13-17 at SEC Tournament (various channels)
This story was originally published March 7, 2024 at 12:00 AM.
