One area where South Carolina men's and women's basketball will each be better this year is...

This place was being dubbed as the “Mecca of College Basketball” last season. And rightfully so.

South Carolina continued to be the standard for women’s basketball, finishing 38-0 and winning another national championship. On the men’s side, things weren’t initially looking up to say the least. The Gamecocks hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since their Final Four run in 2017.

But as it turned out, they proved everyone wrong and wound up winning 26 games en route to a trip to the Big Dance. And with both programs at the height of their powers, Colonial Life Arena was the place to be.

Going into this new season, the expectations are the same. For the women, it’s taking the next step after winning it all last year. As for the men, it’s still about proving those who don’t believe in them wrong for the second straight year. Only this time, the goal is to do more than just make the tournament.

As both teams begin the regular season on Monday, here is one area where they each feel they have gotten better in since last season.

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WBB: ‘We’re much more unselfish’

It’s hard to nitpick when South Carolina has had as much success as it has had since winning its first title in 2017. But even after winning three titles in seven years, head coach Dawn Staley is still finding things her team can improve upon.

As her team gets set to make a title defense and try to go back-to-back, she believes they’re “much more unselfish.”

“We do a really good job in finding who should shoot it. And that wasn’t always the case last year,” Staley said. “We were unselfish, but I think they know and have logged enough minutes to know what people are really good at.”

For the team not always being unselfish last season, they still led the SEC in assists, averaging 18.5 per game. And this wasn’t a group led by one player; it was a collective effort to achieve perfection. The Gamecocks had three players average double-digit points, but they also had seven total players finish with more than eight points per game.

Outside of losing Kamilla Cardoso to the WNBA, the rest of the team is pretty much still intact. 10 players from last year’s squad are back, and South Carolina brought in a solid recruiting class, featuring five-stars Joyce Edwards, Maddy McDaniel and Adhel Tac.

From what Staley has seen in the months leading up to the season opener, she feels she has a team in place that will be more unselfish than they had been before.

“They’re more apt to make an extra pass than they were last year,” she said. “It’s only going to create more opportunities for everybody to feel like they’re a part of it.”

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MBB: ‘A different look from an athleticism standpoint’

In a season where just about everything went right for Lamont Paris’ squad, there weren’t a ton of problems for South Carolina in 2023-24. That was until the final few games of the year when the matchups became increasingly tougher.

Down the stretch, the Gamecocks faced teams with big, physical players in games against Tennessee, Auburn and Oregon. In those games they lost, they were outmatched because they lacked true athleticism, especially in the front court.

But if there’s one thing Paris and his staff have proven to be good at, it’s identifying issues and fixing them. So, during the offseason, they made it a priority to fix this problem.

“We needed to get more athletic. We needed to get longer. We needed to get bigger. We were able to bring in a couple of guys that will personify what athleticism is all about,” said special assistant to the head coach Carey Rich on 107.5 The Game.

“When you look back at our season last year and look at some of the games we lost, the one area that you can point to is probably athleticism or lack thereof. … Anybody that’s watched South Carolina basketball over the years, this will be a different look from an athleticism standpoint.”

In order to become a more athletic group, the Gamecocks brought in a few recruits, including Jamarii Thomas, Nick Pringle and Jordan Butler from the transfer portal. With Pringle specifically, Rich seems very high on his talents and what kind of difference he could make paired up with Collin Murray-Boyles in the front court this year.

“I’ve been watching SEC basketball for 30-plus years up close and personal. And he epitomizes that 6’9″-6’10” athlete that can run, move, jump,” Rich said.

“You also bring up a young kid like Cam Scott, who exemplifies what being a special, fluid athlete is all about. At 6’6″, he’s running and jumping all over the place. And Collin Murray-Boyles, as we all see, is now one of the best players in the entire country. He’s as athletic and as powerful and as explosive as they come.”

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South Carolina’s schedule looks to be much tougher compared to last season, especially in non-conference play. The Gamecocks will face four teams ranked inside KenPom’s top 50: Indiana (39), Xavier (33), Michigan* (36), Clemson (24). * There is a 50-50 chance they will play Michigan in the Fort Myers Tip-Off Tournament on Nov. 27. *

For reference, they only played one top 50 team in non-conference play last year and lost when they played Clemson.

So, while the games will be more challenging, Rich expects the team’s newfound athleticism to help where they previously lacked.

“We’ll see a lot of that on the court this year that will be somewhat different from what we saw last year, even though we had a really, really good year,” Rich said. “But athleticism is an area that we needed to kind of identify in our recruitment and we were able to do that.”

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