{"id":607072,"date":"2026-02-16T22:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/607072\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T22:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:48:15","slug":"south-carolina-womens-basketball-moves-up-a-bit-in-latest-ncaa-tournament-projection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/607072\/","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina women’s basketball moves up a bit in latest NCAA Tournament projection"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Carolina women\u2019s basketball coach Dawn Staley has led the Gamecocks to five Final Fours in a row. With a 25-2 overall record and a conference-leading 10-1 mark in SEC play, she looks set to do it again.<\/p>\n

According to the latest bracketology update from ESPN\u2019s Charlie Creme<\/a>, South Carolina is a clear-cut No. 1 seed. However, the Gamecocks have moved up from the fourth spot on the one-line to the No. 3 overall seed. That prognostication matches Carolina\u2019s seed in the first NCAA top 16 reveal from Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is significant, as both projections shift USC from regional play in Sacramento, California to Fort Worth, Texas. Not only does that shrink the road trip (well, the flight) in half, but it also would postpone a hypothetical game against the No. 1 overall seed (right now, that\u2019s UConn) until the title game.<\/p>\n

NEW! Message board for South Carolina Women\u2019s Basketball<\/a>!<\/p>\n

According to the latest from Creme, South Carolina could face off with the winner of a play-in 16-seed contest between Howard and Eastern Kentucky. Paired with the 1-16 matchup are the No. 8 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish and No. 9 seed Villanova.<\/p>\n

Also in the Gamecocks\u2019 bracket, per Creme, are the Louisville Cardinals (2), Iowa Hawkeyes (3), Michigan State Spartans (4), Kentucky Wildcats (5), Baylor Bears (6), Texas Tech Red Raiders (7), Nebraska Cornhuskers (10), Princeton Tigers (11), Green Bay Phoenix (12), Vermont Catamounts (13), Idaho Vandals (14), and Navy Midshipmen (15).<\/p>\n

USC has already knocked off Louisville this season and has a game against Kentucky in the regular season finale.<\/p>\n

Get GamecockCentral for $1. As a bonus, your membership includes a complimentary year of The Athletic.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Gamecocks also hold a two-game lead in the loss column in the SEC standings over Texas, Vanderbilt, and Tennessee. A regular-season championship can only help the team\u2019s chances come Selection Sunday.<\/p>\n

South Carolina has two ranked opponents on the schedule this week.<\/p>\n

First, on Thursday, February 19th, the Gamecocks will be in Tuscaloosa for a matchup with the Alabama Crimson Tide at 8:30 p.m. (Eastern). SEC Network will broadcast the conference showdown, while the ESPN app makes the contest available via streaming. Alabama fell to No. 25 in the rankings this week following a pair of losses.<\/p>\n

Then, on Sunday, February 22nd, South Carolina will return home to Colonial Life Arena, as the Ole Miss Rebels will be in town for a noon tip. College GameDay will be in Columbia, with the pregame show starting at 11:00 a.m. ESPN will broadcast GameDay, while either ESPN or ESPN2 will handle the actual basketball. The ESPN app will make both the pregame show and the on-court action available for streaming. Ole Miss is also No. 17 in the new AP top 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Carolina women\u2019s basketball coach Dawn Staley has led the Gamecocks to five Final Fours in a row.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,231,772,1544,465],"class_list":{"0":"post-607072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaab","13":"tag-womens-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116082751307190938","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}