South Carolina women's basketball: By the numbers - The Gamecocks' tournament history

With three days until the NCAA Tournament begins (not counting the First Four), let’s take a trip through the record books and go behind the numbers of the Gamecocks’ tournament history.

Key Numbers
National Championships: 3
Final Fours: 6 (plus 1980 AIAW Final Four)
Elite Eights: 8
Sweet Sixteens: 14
Tournament appearances: 21
Tournament record: 50-17
Seeded #1: 9 times (including this season)

Game Highs and Lows
Most points in a win: 100 (vs Quinnipiac, 2017)
Most points in a loss: 77 (OT vs MTSU, 1986; regulation: 73 vs Tennessee Tech, 1989; vs Iowa, 2023)
Fewest points in a win: 49 (vs Miami, 2022)
Fewest points in a loss: 58 (vs Texas, 1988; vs North Carolina, 2014)
Largest margin of victory: 58 (vs Howard, 2022)
Smallest margin of victory: 2 (vs North Carolina, 2015)
Largest margin of defeat: 29 (vs UConn, 2018)
Smallest margin of defeat: 1 point (78-77 (OT) to Middle Tennessee in 1986; 66-65 to Notre Dame, 2015; 66-65 to Stanford, 2021)

Streaks
Four consecutive Final Fours
Five consecutive one seeds (including this season)
10 Consecutive Sweet 16s
13 consecutive NCAA Tournaments (including this season)

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NCAA Records
Dawn Staley’s three championships and six Final Four appearances are fourth- and fifth-most all-time. The four consecutive Final Fours are tied for third most and one away from second-most. Staley’s 66.7% Final Four winning percentage is tied with Pat Summitt for third-highest.

Staley’s combined 44 tournament wins (Temple and South Carolina) are third-most all-time, as is her tournament winning percentage of 74.6.

South Carolina’s 50 wins are 13th all-time.

South Carolina and UConn share the tournament record for most rebounds in a game (69).

South Carolina holds the record for fewest points allowed in a game, 21 by Howard in 2022.

South Carolina is one of three teams to hold an opponent scoreless in a quarter, holding Texas scoreless in the fourth quarter of the Elite Eight game in 2021. (UConn and Stanford each held a first-round opponent scoreless in 2022, so advantage Gamecocks.)

Staley Era Facts
Tournament record: 42-9
Championship game record: 3-0
Lowest seed: 5 (2012)
Nine of the 13 appearances have been automatic bids

Pre-Staley Era Facts
Tournament record: 8-8
Best finish: 2002 Elite Eight
Best seed: 3 (1982, 1988, 2002)
Three of the eight appearances were automatic bids

Fun Facts
South Carolina has never lost to a team seeded 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 13th, 14th, 15th, or 16th. 

South Carolina has a win against every seed.

Under Dawn Staley, South Carolina has made the Sweet 16 in 11 of its 12 previous tournament appearances and won at least one game in every appearance. The only time South Carolina did not advance to the Sweet 15 was in 2013 when the 4th-seeded Gamecocks were upset in the second round by #12 Kansas in Boulder, CO.

Before Staley, South Carolina had lost in the first round three times.

South Carolina has been seeded 1 (nine times), 2 (once), 3 (three times), 4 (twice), 5 (three times), 6 (once), and 7 (twice).

South Carolina has played 54 different opponents in the NCAA Tournament. The most common opponents are North Carolina (3-1), Florida State (3-0), Oregon State (3-0), and Stanford (1-2). 

You guessed it, North Carolina is in South Carolina’s Birmingham 2 region this year. Each time South Carolina beat North Carolina, it made the Final Four. The Gamecocks won the national championship two of those times. They managed to win it all in 2017 without beating the Tar Heels but did beat Florida State and Stanford that year.

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