South Carolina men's basketball announces non-conference schedule
South Carolina men’s basketball has its non-conference slate.
The Gamecocks officially released their non-conference schedule for 2023 today with eight home games, two games on the road and three neutral site contests.
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Here’s the full schedule:
Nov. 6: vs. USC Upstate
Nov. 10: vs. Virginia Tech (Charlotte, N.C.)
Nov. 13: vs. VMI
Nov. 17: vs. DePaul (Phoenix MTE)
Nov. 19: vs. Grand Canyon/San Fransisco (Phoenix MTE)
Nov. 28: vs. Notre Dame (SEC/ACC Challenge)
Dec. 1: vs. George Washington
Dec. 6: at Clemson
Dec. 9: at East Carolina
Dec. 16: vs. Charleston Southern
Dec. 19: vs. Winthrop
Dec. 22: vs. Elon
Dec. 30: vs. Florida A&M
South Carolina will also play an exhibition to raise money for a charity, but details of that will come out at a later date.
The Gamecocks’ schedule is incredibly home-heavy, especially early, with five of the first eight games at home to start the year. They’ll open the season at home against USC Upstate before three of the next four games at neutral sites.
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One of those will be at the Spectrum Center against the Hokies with one home game against VMI before two games in Arizona in a multi-team event (MTE).
The VMI game will be part of the MTE but hosted at Colonial Life Arena.
South Carolina gets Notre Dame in year one with Micah Shrewsberry to round out November as part of the inaugural SEC-ACC Challenge.
The Gamecocks’ first true road game comes Dec. 6 at Clemson in the annual rivalry game with the Tigers. Last season South Carolina beat Clemson by two on a buzzer-beating shot from Chico Carter Jr.
That’s the first of the only two road games on the Gamecocks’ non-conference schedule with a trip to East Carolina three days later.
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South Carolina played the Pirates last season, ultimately a 64-56 loss, in a neutral site game in Greenville, South Carolina.
The schedule gets, on paper, easier after that with Charleston Southern, Winthrop, Elon and Florida A&M over a two-week stretch before SEC play begins.
Three of those teams finished in the 300s last season in KenPom with Winthrop (No. 244 last season) the lone exception. Winthrop went 15-17 (10-8 Big South) while being in the first season under Mark Prosser.
Based on last year’s data, the toughest game comes against Clemson (No. 68 KenPom in 2023) with one other KenPom top 100 team in Virginia Tech on the docket.
San Fransisco finished No. 101 in KenPom while Grand Canyon was No. 108. DePaul (135), Notre Dame (166) and ECU (180) were the other teams to finish in the top 200 of KenPom last season.
The Gamecocks don’t have dates yet for SEC games but do know which opponents they’ll play.
South Carolina has home-and-homes with Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. The Gamecocks get standalone home games with Florida, Kentucky, LSU and Vanderbilt.
They’ll also travel to Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn and Texas A&M for standalone road tilts.
