Taking stock of the SEC basketball race after South Carolina WBB loss to Texas
South Carolina lost its second game of the season on Sunday. The Gamecocks couldn’t get it done in Austin, losing to Texas 66-62 and snapping a 57-game regular-season SEC win streak in the process.
It’s just the third loss for the Gamecocks since the start of the 2022-2023 season.
“It’s unfamiliar territory for us,” Staley said. “This is first game that we’ve lost in two years, I think. The law of averages says at some point, somebody’s gonna get you.”
South Carolina drops in the rankings post-Texas loss
The Gamecocks entered the game No. 2 in The Associated Press Top 25 poll. But the newest poll released Monday afternoon dropped USC to No. 4. The Gamecocks have yet to be ranked below No. 4 in the AP poll this season.
As a result of the win, Texas leapfrogged South Carolina and checked in at No. 3 in the rankings. UCLA remained at No. 1, Notre Dame moved to No. 2 and LSU rounded out the top five at No. 5.
South Carolina did not move, however, in the NET rankings. The Gamecocks are still at No. 1 in the rankings used by the NCAA Tournament’s selection committee.
Taking stock of the SEC race
South Carolina was perfect in SEC play this season but now has a 10-1 record.
The Gamecocks entered Austin atop the SEC with a one-game lead. After Sunday, there’s a three-way tie for first.
LSU, Texas and South Carolina are tied for the top spot in the SEC with 10-1 records. LSU (25-1) is listed first, Texas (24-2) is listed second and South Carolina (22-2) is listed third because of the teams’ overall winning percentage. Kentucky, 8-2 in the SEC, is another team to watch.
Had the Gamecocks beaten Texas, they would’ve had complete control over their own destiny for the remainder of the conference slate. South Carolina still has breathing room, but another loss in conference play would make a bid for the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament that more challenging.
“I‘m just glad they didn’t get us where we can’t survive,” Staley said. “We still control our own destiny. We do have to look around a little bit and hope somebody knocks Texas or LSU off so we can control it for the rest of the way. I’m sure they’re going to think the same thing with us as well.”
If both South Carolina and Texas win the remainder of their conference games, they would be SEC co-regular season champions. Since the two split the season series against each other, neither would hold a tiebreaker over the other. According to an old tiebreaker explainer on the SEC website, the tiebreaker would be the won-lost record of the two teams versus the No. 1 seed (and proceeding through the No. 14 seed, if necessary). Following that the commissioner would flip a coin to break the tie.
The SEC slate moving forward
Of the teams tied atop the SEC with a 10-1 record, South Carolina has the easiest path ahead thanks to a front-heavy conference schedule. The Gamecocks play struggling Florida and Arkansas teams at home over the next two weeks before hitting the road with matchups with fringe Top 25 teams in Vanderbilt and Ole Miss.
South Carolina’s final SEC regular-season game against Kentucky will be challenging.
Here are the other one-SEC loss teams’ remaining conference opponents:
▪ Texas: Kentucky, LSU, Georgia, Mississippi State and Florida
▪ LSU: Texas, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama, Ole Miss
Kentucky (two losses) faces Texas, Georgia, Missouri, LSU, Tennessee and South Carolina
Texas and LSU play each other on Sunday. A win for LSU would knock Texas down below South Carolina in the SEC standings. If both the Tigers and Gamecocks won out, the Gamecocks would have the tiebreaker over LSU.
There’s still plenty of basketball to be played, but it seems like South Carolina has the easiest path for the rest of the way (excluding a non-conference matchup with UConn on Sunday). With Texas, LSU and Kentucky all lined up to play one another before the end of the regular season, the odds of South Carolina entering the SEC Tournament as the lone one-loss team are high.
