South Carolina still owns top spot in NET rankings with two more top-5 tests upcoming
With a 21-1 record, the South Carolina women’s basketball team is on a 16-game winning streak that has seen them eight ranked teams, including four top-10 foes. In fact, 15 of those 16 victories came by double-digit scoring margins, as well. It’s easy to see why “the metrics” love the Gamecocks so much.
The most important metric out there, though, is the NET.
Despite being No. 2 in the AP rankings, South Carolina has spent most of this season at the top of the NET rankings. That remains true this week as USC is No. 1 for the third week in a row.
The NET, for those unfamiliar, is the most important ranking metric used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. It factors in Team Value Index (essentially a team’s on-court results, location of games, and strength of schedule) and adjusted net efficient ratings (how well a team plays in those games, adjusted for the quality of opponent and location of games).
Win tickets to the South Carolina-Florida women’s basketball game
The NET has been friendly to the Gamecocks because of the team’s elite resume. South Carolina is the only program in the country with 10 wins against Quad 1 competition. In fact, only two other teams have more than five Quad 1 wins (Notre Dame with six and Texas with seven).
Over the next two weeks, South Carolina will play two Quad 1 opponents and two Quad 2 foes. Those games include road games against Georgia (Quad 2) and Texas (Quad 1) and home contests against Florida (Quad 2) and UConn (Quad 1). Like USC, both Texas and UConn are ranked inside the AP poll’s top-5 teams.
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If Dawn Staley’s team can emerge from that stretch 4-0, they will have a resume that stands head-and-shoulders above the rest of the country heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.
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This week, South Carolina women’s basketball will be on the road twice.
First, on Thursday, the Gamecocks will play in Athens against the Georgia Bulldogs. The 6:00 p.m. matchup between USC and UGA will broadcast on SEC Network and stream on the ESPN app. Georgia enters the game on a six-game losing streak in SEC play, a stark contrast to Carolina’s 16-game winning stretch.
Then, on Sunday, the No. 4 Texas Longhorns will look to exact some revenge on South Carolina in Austin. The Gamecocks’ second road contest in a row will tip at 2:00 p.m. ESPN will broadcast the top-5 matchup, while the ESPN app will make it available for streaming. Vic Schaefer’s Longhorns haven’t lost since the Gamecocks’ lopsided win in Columbia earlier in January.
