South Carolina women's basketball adds East Carolina to schedule

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South Carolina will play at East Carolina on December 30, the Pirates announced Tuesday.

Tipoff time was not announced, and no other details were available. However, it seems likely that South Carolina would get a return game next season.

East Carolina is coming off its first AAC tournament title and first NCAA tournament appearance since 2007. The Pirates went 23-9 last season and return all five starters, including leading scorer Amiya Joyner and AAC tournament MOP Synia Johnson.

South Carolina claims a 15-1 all-time record against East Carolina while the Pirates claim a 2-13 all-time record against the Gamecocks. (The discrepancy includes typos, apparent confusion over which USC played, and ECU omitting its first NCAA Tournament appearance. Insert facepalm emoji.) 

East Carolina and South Carolina met in the first NCAA Tournament in 1982. South Carolina won 79-54 behind 30 points and 19 rebounds from Brantley Southers and 23 points and 19 rebounds from Sheila Foster. The teams last met in 2015 in Myrtle Beah, an 88-57 Gamecock win.

With the announcement, the Gamecocks’ 2023-24 schedule is nearly complete.

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Non-conference

South Carolina visits North Carolina on November 30 for the ACC-SEC Challenge. The Gamecocks and Tar Heels are familiar foes despite not meeting in the regular season since 2013. They faced off three times in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 (2014, 2015, and 2022). 

North Carolina leads the all-time series 11-9, but South Carolina has won the last two. They traditionally met in Myrtle Beach in December, playing eight times from 2000-2013. They last played in Chapel Hill in 1987.

South Carolina has also announced non-conference games against Notre Dame (November 6 in Paris) and Utah (December 10 in Uncasville, Connecticut).

South Carolina had previously confirmed scheduled home games against Maryland, Stanford, South Dakota State, Clemson, and UConn. Each of those games is part of an existing series. South Carolina also owes Charleston Southern a home game in return for the Bucs’ visit to Columbia last season. While all of these games were previously announced, none has been specifically confirmed for the upcoming season.

UCLA played in Columbia last season but agreed to delay South Carolina’s return game until 2024-25 so that it lines up with the Stanford series. South Carolina will host UConn the next two seasons to make up for the canceled home game in 2022.

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SEC!

South Carolina has also confirmed its SEC opponents, although dates and times will be announced later. South Carolina hosts Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, Ole Miss, Georgia, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt. The road games are at Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, LSU, Arkansas, Florida, Auburn, and Texas A&M.

This is the last season of the current scheduling format where each team plays one permanent home-and-home, two rotating home-and-homes, and the other ten teams once. 

There will be a new format beginning in 2024-25, when Oklahoma and Texas join the SEC. Each team will still play 16 games, playing one rotating home-and-home opponent and the other 14 teams once. 

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What’s left?

Teams can schedule up to 29 games if they don’t play a multi-team event or a two-game multi-team event. They can schedule 28 games if they play a three-game multi-team event. 

South Carolina is currently at 26 games (16 conference and ten non-conference). That leaves two or three opponents, plus a possible multi-team event, left to be scheduled. 

The Gamecocks will probably fill the rest of the schedule with guarantee games. They could still play a game in Sioux Falls, as they have the last three seasons. A multi-team event is still possible, but it seems unlikely given that most of the organizers have already announced their participants.

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