The college basketball offseason is here, and we decided to have some fun over the next few months, ranking ALL 364 teams in D1. Number 100 is South Carolina basketball.
Before you say we’re crazy – or that all of this is up for debate, let’s go over the very intricate process of how we came to this conclusion. We took a very statistical approach – with the help of Chat GPT – taking into consideration everything from March Madness wins and finishes, to AP Poll appearances, to conference players of the year. And then, a good friend of ours, Scott Blanchard, took our approach to the MAX.
Click here to visit the FIRST article, which explains how the formula works!
Here’s the breakdown of South Carolina basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 1
- Elite Eights: 1
- Sweet 16s: 4
- NCAA wins: 8
- Bids: 10
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 13.0
- Bids per season: 0.08
- AP Polls: 141
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 5
- NBA players drafted & played: 22
- Conference Players of the Year: 3
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 6
- Conference tournament titles: 2
- NIT titles: 2
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on South Carolina basketball
For a Power Five program with just 10 NCAA Tournament bids all-time, South Carolina seems to know how to win in March. In 2017, that was on full display, as the 7-seed Gamecocks got hot and made it all the way to their first Final Four in program history. Head coach Frank Martin and star players Sindarius Thornwell and PJ Dozier led the ‘other’ USC past 10-seed Marquette, 2-seed Duke, 3-seed Baylor, and 4-seed Florida, falling to 1-seed Gonzaga by just four points. It was truly a magical run for the team from Columbia.
But it wasn’t the only time South Carolina has gone on a run in March, and the other time their head coach was also named Frank. Frank McGuire was a legendary coach for the Gamecocks, going 283-142 from 1964-80, finishing with 549 wins in his entire CBB coaching career. He had a stretch of six straight 20-win seasons from 1968-74, with four straight tourney bids at the end of that. In 1971, 1972, and 1973, South Carolina had three straight Sweet 16 appearances, taking down Temple to make that round in ’72 and beating Texas Tech to get there in ’73. That ’73 tourney squad featured a future NBA player in Mike Dunleavy Sr.
But Dunleavy wasn’t the only star freshman on that squad. Alex English was also one of their key players, averaging 14.6 points and 10.6 rebounds per game as a first-year. In four seasons, English would score just shy of 2,000 career points with the program, pulling down over 1,000 rebounds. He remains South Carolina’s all-time leader in FGM, ranks second in points, and third in rebounds. Of course, English would retire as one of the NBA’s top scorers ever, putting up 25,613 career points. That ranks 25th all-time, but at the time of his retirement in 1991, English was seventh on the career list.
Surprisingly, English was never a Consensus AA at South Carolina, but the program did have quite a few in that era and even earlier. Grady Wallace (1957), John Roche (1970 & 1971), Tom Riker (1972), and Kevin Joyce (1973) all picked up those honors.
Despite some really cool history, South Carolina has traditionally been a bottom-feeder in the SEC. Since that Final Four in 2017, they’ve only made the NCAA Tournament once and have had four losing records. Earlier on, they did win a couple of NIT titles in 2005 and 2006, and also went to the championship game in 2002. And more recently, they finished second in the conference in 2024, proving that it’s not impossible for the Gamecocks to put a winning team out on the court. It’ll just take a little bit more than most programs!