South Carolina relishes ranking
Looks to build on first poll position in 7 years
Josh Gray admitted he spent a few weeks wondering about whether his surging South Carolina team might pop in the next edition of The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll.
The 15th-ranked Gamecocks are there now, playing with confidence and a number by their name for the first time in nearly seven years.
South Carolina hosted Mississippi on Tuesday night and then will host Vanderbilt on Saturday as part of the AP Top 25 national schedule.
It comes with the Gamecocks (19-3, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) just a game out of first place in the league standings to start the week and owning the program’s first ranking since February 2017.
“Wherever they put us is where they put us,” freshman forward Collin Murray-Boyles said during the postgame news conference after a weekend win at Georgia. “We ain’t going to play no differently.”
That sounds just fine to secondyear coach Lamont Paris, too.
South Carolina has won five straight, including a home win against then-No. 6 Kentucky on Jan. 23 and then last week’s win at then-No. 5 Tennessee — marking the program’s first road win against a top-5 opponent since March 1997.
The schedule still includes matchups with the now-No. 6 Volunteers and No. 12 Auburn, but the Gamecocks are within reach of the program’s first NCAA Tournament bid since that unexpected Final Four run of 2017 — which stands as the program’s lone NCAA bid in two decades.
That was also the last time South Carolina reached 20 wins.
“There’s all these other milestones and things we want to accomplish in terms of developing a program, establishing things,” Paris said after the Georgia win. “That’s my job. For these guys, it’s about this year only. They want to play in the NCAA Tournament and I want to play whatever role I can to help them experience that.”
Ranked rivals
Staying in the SEC, the Alabama-Auburn instate rivalry grabs part of the national spotlight this week with tonight’s matchup in Tuscaloosa.
The No. 16 Crimson Tide (16-6, 8-1), who made the biggest jump of eight spots in Monday’s latest poll, took the first matchup by winning on the road exactly two weeks earlier. Alabama has lost just once since Dec. 20.
As for the Tigers (18-4, 7-2), the Round 1 loss was part of a two-game blip that included falling at Mississippi State.
Big 12 tussles
No. 13 Baylor has a tough week ahead.
The Bears (16-5, 5-3 Big 12) started Tuesday night by hosting No. 23 Texas Tech, which took the biggest tumble in Monday’s poll by falling eight spots after losses to TCU and Cincinnati. Then comes Saturday’s trip to fourthranked Kansas, which is coming off a home win against Houston.
The Big 12 has a national-best six ranked teams.
The top tier
Reigning national champion Connecticut, Purdue and North Carolina have been sitting 1-2-3 atop the AP Top 25 for three straight weeks.
The top-ranked Huskies (20-2, 10-1 Big East) enter the week with 10 straight wins. They hosted Butler on Tuesday night, then will visit Georgetown on Saturday.
The No. 2 Boilermakers (21-2, 10-2 Big Ten) bring KenPom’s No. 1-ranked offense (126.2 points per 100 possessions) into home games against Indiana and Minnesota.
Then there’s the No. 3 Tar Heels (18-4, 10-1 ACC) looking to follow their rivalry win against No. 9 Duke.
They hosted Clemson on Tuesday night before making Saturday’s trip to Miami, which peaked at No. 8 in the AP Top 25 in late November.