Frank Martin, South Carolina players talk tournament resume entering final week

Erik Stevenson pays attention to all of it. South Carolina’s guard can’t help but pay attention to the NET, KPI and all the other algorithms people will use to judge the Gamecocks’ tournament worth.

This is why he knew after Saturday’s game the chance South Carolina missed to get back into the tournament conversation.

“I don’t think this loss hurts us as bad as Princeton and Coastal and Florida at home or blowing a lead at Arkansas early in conference play. I think we still have a good chance to get into the tournament. We’d have had a real good chance if we won today,” he said.

“If we take care of business Tuesday and go into Auburn and see what we can do there. Then we’d probably have to win two or three in Tampa. We’re trying to fight our way into the tournament.”

The Gamecocks, winners of five straight entering the game, had fought back record-wise and were a likely win away from at least being in the bubble talk entering the final weekend of the season.

They didn’t, dropping a game by 19 points to Alabama in a game where they trailed as many as 23 before whittling it down to six and ultimately losing.

South Carolina is back to .500 in the SEC with two games to play and rank 91st in the NET as of Monday afternoon with a combined 8-9 in games against Quad I and Quad II teams. South Carolina is 3-2 in Quad III and a perfect 5-0 in Quad IV.

Their wins in each quadrant and some other metrics like Strength of Schedule (33), Strength of Record (48) are comparable with teams at least on the bubble but what’s holding them back is the NET at the moment.

The NET, which factors in efficiency metrics and efficiency margin, is low for an at-large team because of those efficiency issues.

“Why is our NET low? It’s because we’ve won close games and we’ve gotten beat by bigger margins. That impacts the NET. I didn’t know this was gymnastics or diving. I didn’t know style points go into the whole deal. Our NET is also low because our offensive efficiency isn’t as high as it needs to be,” Frank Martin said.

“Again, I didn’t know this is about style. I thought this was scheduling good teams or bad teams. We have a top 30 strength of schedule. You either win or lose. I’m not saying we’ve won more than anybody but when you compare the bubble teams our numbers as far as wins and strength of schedule?”

The Gamecocks have two Quad III losses in Princeton and Coastal Carolina with pieces out, and the Clemson loss came decimated by COVID, but those are still dings to a resume. Martin did say he thinks those circumstances should be “taken into consideration” when evaluating the Gamecocks’ resume.

“We had some bad losses. We had Coastal and Princeton. But we’re in the SEC. we got eight SEC wins, four SEC road wins. I think that’s not an accurate number, our NET ranking. Everything else—our strength of schedule, SORs and whatever the heck it is—we’re high in those,” Stevenson said.

“I’m looking around the country and seeing this team is on the bubble or a 12 seed. I’m like, ‘They’re no better than us.’ It’s tough looking at it and being frustrated we’re in this position. But also glad we’re in this position. We have to keep our foot on the pedal. We have to fight our way into the tournament.”

This is why the Alabama loss is tough because it would have given the Gamecocks a win over a top 25 team in every metric but also a surefire NCAA Tournament team.

Right now the Gamecocks are 0-6 against teams ahead of them in the SEC standings and 8-2 in games against teams tied with or below them.

“Got to beat a top-four team, top-five team. We have to beat those guys. That was our fifth opportunity against a top 25 team and we got one more against Auburn,” Stevenson said. “We just have to get a top 25 win, that’s the next step. Or a top 30 win that will help our resume and push us over the top.”

And now the Gamecocks (17-11, 8-8 SEC) have a tough climb into the NCAA Tournament needing wins over Missouri and Auburn and likely some wins in the league tournament as well.

It starts against Missouri (No. 155 NET) Tuesday night at 7 p.m. At this point, the Gamecocks can’t worry about these metrics. They just need to stockpile wins and let the chips fall where they may.

“Man, it’s hard. It’s everywhere. My teammates talk about it. My friends talk about it. it’s hard. I just always try it to block it out,” James Reese said. “But it’s definitely the goal to make it to the NCAA tournament. We’re not going to do that if everyone’s moping or worried about games we lost.”