South Carolina women's basketball: Five Things to Watch the rest of the season

South Carolina’s lone bye comes exactly halfway through the SEC season. Here are five things the Gamecocks will be watching over the second half of the conference season.

1. Super Bowl Showdown
On February 9 South Carolina visits Texas for what may be the most important game left in the SEC. South Carolina beat Texas 67-50 on January 12 in Columbia, and both teams are looking to make a statement in the rematch. South Carolina can confirm its status as the queens of the SEC and national championship favorites, or Texas can enter contender status.

The game is also critical in the SEC standings. If South Carolina wins, the Gamecocks can take a commanding lead to add another banner and claim the top seed in the tournament. If Texas wins, the race gets seriously jumbled. Jumbled enough that the following tiebreaker could come into play: “Coin flip by the commissioner.”

2. Just For Fun
South Carolina makes its annual trip outside the SEC when it hosts UConn on February 16 (the Gamecocks sacrifice a second conference bye to play this game). This game doesn’t mean anything in the standings, and barring a blowout, neither team will rise or fall significantly in the polls or NET rankings.

None of that is going to matter that afternoon. Colonial Life Arena is already sold out. ABC will broadcast the game. Both teams want to make a statement after losing earlier non-conference showdowns (South Carolina at UCLA, UConn at Notre Dame). It’s going to be fun.

South Carolina has won five of six against UConn, including four straight. All of South Carolina’s wins have been by double figures, including the 2022 national championship. You know that irks Geno Auriemma.

Win tickets: A’ja Wilson’s jersey retirement, South Carolina-Auburn

3. Vanderbilt and Kentucky
It’s doubtful that anyone had these games circled when the season began (maybe the Kentucky game, but only because it is the season finale, not because of the opponent). But both teams have been pleasant surprises. 

Vanderbilt got off to a slow start with three consecutive conference losses, which probably knocked the Commodores out of the SEC race. Since then, Vanderbilt has rebounded with wins over ranked foes Tennessee and Alabama and is capable of an upset.

Kentucky began SEC play with five straight wins, before being upset at Texas A&M. The Wildcats are still just one game back in the standings, although they have yet to play any of the top teams in the conference. Mathematically, at least, this game could be for an SEC title.

4. Joyce Edwards vs Mikayla Blakes
Edwards and Blakes have separated themselves as the two best freshmen in the SEC. They are, fittingly, the current co-freshmen of the week. Blakes has the advantage in stats (21.0 points, 3.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.4 steals), but Edwards has wins to go with some pretty big numbers of her own (12.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.2 steals). There is something to be said for being the best player on the best team, which is what Edwards could be by the end of the season.

Win tickets: A’ja Wilson’s jersey retirement, South Carolina-Auburn

5. Other games to watch
A lot can still happen before Selection Sunday, and every game can have ripple effects. It would take far too long to go through every possibility, but let’s just work off the safe assumption that South Carolina wants to be a one seed in a Birmingham region. 

It would take a collapse for South Carolina to drop to a two seed. But there are a lot of teams – basically everyone except the two LA schools – who want to play in Birmingham.  These are some games that could have an impact:

TCU at Kansas State – February 5
Ohio State at UCLA – February 5
Ohio State at Southern Cal – February 8
UCLA at Southern Cal – February 13
LSU at Texas – February 16
Duke at Notre Dame – February 17
Southern Cal at UCLA – March 1

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