ESPN College GameDay heading to Columbia for South Carolina vs. UConn women's basketball showdown

On Tuesday, ESPN announced that College GameDay will be traveling to Columbia to cover No. 2 South Carolina‘s showdown against No. 5 UConn on Feb. 16. It will be a two-hour special for the highly-anticipated women’s basketball showdown.

The two teams also met last season, with South Carolina escaping with an 83-65 victory. Now, the Huskies will be looking to exact revenge just over a year later. Of course, it won’t be easy.

The Gamecocks are 21-1 this season and 9-0 in conference play. If all goes well for South Carolina, it will have another three wins under its belt by the time it faces off against the Huskies.

It’d be a surprise if all didn’t go well for the Gamecocks. After all, their loss to UCLA this season was their first loss since April 2023. Nonetheless, the Gamecocks didn’t allow their subpar showing to spiral. South Carolina boasts the sixth-highest average margin of victory this season, defeating its opponents by 25.4 points per game this season.

The Gamecocks are a well-balanced unit, with three players averaging double-digit scoring totals and another averaging 9.6 points per game. Freshman forward Joyce Edwards leads the team with 12.7 points per game while shooting 57.2% from the field.

Unlike South Carolina, UConn has a clear-cut star and her name is Paige Bueckers. The redshirt senior is averaging 19.0 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game this season while connecting on 42.1% of her attempts from beyond the arc.

While Bueckers is unmistakably UConn’s leader, she’s far from the only talented Husky. The team is leading the country in field goal percentage this season, shooting 51.49% from the field. They’re also shooting 37.9% from 3-point range.

UConn’s two losses this season came against Notre Dame and USC, which are currently ranked No. 3 and No. 7, respectively. The Huskies have three wins over ranked opponents this season and are 12-0 in conference play.

The ESPN College GameDay crew set to cover the women’s basketball special includes Elle Duncan, Chiney Ogwumike and Andraya Carter. The group can expect a surplus of viewers after massive matchups like this drew record-sized audiences last season.

USC and UConn’s showdown earlier this season averaged 2.23 million viewers, making it the second-highest-rated game ever shown on FOX Sports. If history is any indication, South Carolina and UConn’s meeting on Feb. 16 will draw similar ratings, if not better.