Mark Kingston reveals South Carolina's plan ahead of facing Central Connecticut State

South Carolina has its opponent for the first game of the 2023 NCAA Tournament: Central Connecticut State. The Blue Devils are an underdog, coming out of the NEC, but they are an experienced postseason team.

Central Connecticut State has now made the NCAA Tournament four of the past six tournaments. However, the Blue Devils have won only one game in their NCAA Tournament history, which includes four other appearances in the Field of 64.

Gamecocks head coach Mark Kingston said South Carolina is going to get to work on studying Central Connecticut State and the entire Columbia Regional to get their best plan of attack prepared.

“We’re gonna get to work on that and get to work on the scouting reports,” Kingston said after the Memorial Day announcement of the full tournament field. “We’re gonna get to work on exactly who we want to pitch, how the matchups work. We’re going to set our cards up to win the regional as best we can. Not just the next game. If you’re trying to get to Omaha, you have to make decisions to try to win as a whole. That’s how we’ll approach it.”

The other two teams in South Carolina’s regional are Campbell and NC State. The Fighting Camels are considered one of the strongest two seeds in the tournament.

South Carolina, Central Connecticut State in one of the most interesting regionals

About a month ago, South Carolina seemed all but assured to host a regional. But a major slide at the end of the season saw them slide out of the top 10 of the national rankings and on the border of regional hosting duties.

The Gamecocks ended up hosting a regional, earning a No. 15 seed. But South Carolina faces a tall task with Campbell, NC State and Central Connecticut State all joining them this weekend.

On3’s Jonathan Wagner named the Columbia Regional as one of the most interesting quartets in the tournament this year.

“One of the biggest questions entering Sunday night was whether or not South Carolina would host a regional,” Wagner said. “Well, they will, but another team that had a very strong case to host is right there with them. For South Carolina, they enter regionals in need of a bit of a turnaround. The Gamecocks were one of the best teams in the nation for much of the year, but stumbled to the end by losing five of their last six SEC weekend series. They then went 1-2 in the SEC Tournament.”