South Carolina women's basketball schedule breakdown

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South Carolina’s long-awaited 2023-24 schedule is now official and another challenging slate awaits.

This season’s schedule (view the schedule HERE) isn’t quite as daunting as the 2021-22 slate, which saw the Gamecocks face three top-ten foes in the first two weeks. But it is definitely a step up in competition from last season when Dawn Staley struggled to convince teams to play the defending champion Gamecocks. That doesn’t take into account SEC play, which is coming off a “down” season in which it won a national championship, had two teams in the Final Four, and four in the Sweet Sixteen.

South Carolina will play 15 games against teams that made the 2023 NCAA tournament (eight non-conference and seven SEC). That includes seven Sweet Sixteen teams, two Elite Eight teams, and a game at defending champion LSU. South Carolina also has two games against Tennessee, which made the Sweet Sixteen. 

Using ESPN’s preseason Bracketology, South Carolina will play 14 teams expected to make this season’s tournament, plus one of the first four out (Alabama). That includes a pair of one seeds (LSU, UConn) and seven of the top 16 seeds. South Carolina will play eight teams in ESPN’s offseason top 25 and nine of The Athletic’s top 25.

After an exhibition against an opponent to be announced, South Carolina begins the season against Notre Dame in Paris. Notre Dame made the Sweet Sixteen last year despite a late-season injury to star point guard Olivia Miles. If Miles can return to full strength this season, Notre Dame is a trendy Final Four pick. If Miles’s injury lingers, the Irish are still expected to improve on last season’s finish.

Up next is a rematch against Maryland, the team South Carolina beat to advance to last year’s Final Four. The Terrapins are rebuilding following the loss of Diamond Miller and Abby Meyers, and South Carolina has won four straight against the Terps. But Brenda Frese is used to reloading and should have Maryland ready for another tournament run by March.

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Prior to the nationally televised Maryland game, South Carolina will retire Tiffany Mitchell’s jersey. Mitchell is the first player of the Dawn Staley Era to receive the honor. Sheila Foster (#53), Shannon Johnson (#14), and Martha Parker (#13) have their numbers retired, but South Carolina now retires jerseys instead of numbers.

Home games against improving Clemson and Mississippi Valley State sandwich a home tilt against South Dakota State. It is the return game after the Gamecocks beat the Jackrabbits 62-44 last season in a neutral site game in Sioux Falls. The Jackrabbits went on to finish 29-6 and made the second round of the NCAA tournament, where they lost a hard-fought game to Virginia Tech.

Following that home stand, South Carolina makes a pair of trips north to play at North Carolina and Duke. The North Carolina game is part of the ACC/SEC Challenge, while the Duke game marks the resumption of the series that began in 2014.

North Carolina returns most of the veteran talent that took South Carolina to the wire in Greensboro in the 2022 Tournament, including star Deja Kelly. The Tar Heels are expected to compete for the ACC title this season and make a deep tournament run.

On the other hand, Duke lost two of its top players to the transfer portal along with assistant coach Winston Gandy, who is now part of Staley’s staff. The Blue Devils could be headed for a down season, but it is good to see the series resume. Both opponents are good for Gamecock fans since they are a drivable distance.

A home date with Morgan State follows. The Lady Bears won the MEAC regular-season title two seasons ago, and Staley likes to schedule teams they could see in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

On December 10 South Carolina plays Utah in Uncasville, CT, part of the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase triple-header. Florida State and UCLA play the first game and UConn and North Carolina play the nightcap. 

The Utes are the reigning Pac-12 regular-season champions and return conference player of the year Alissa Pili. The Utes made the Sweet Sixteen last season, where they were a pair of missed free throws away from beating eventual champion LSU. Pili was limited to just 27 minutes because of foul trouble.

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After the exam break, the Gamecocks host the Blue Hose of Presbyterian and then travel to play former assistant Fred Chmiel and Bowling Green. Bowling Green won 31 games last season and made the WNIT Fab Four.

After Christmas, the Gamecocks make their third and final trip to North Carolina when they play at East Carolina. The Pirates are not a big-name opponent, but East Carolina returns most of a team that went 23-9 last season and won the American Athletic Conference tournament.

South Carolina eases into conference play with a road game at Florida (but ask 2022 Missouri about easing into SEC play). South Carolina alternates home and away games against Mississippi State, Missouri, Kentucky, and Texas A&M. 

That sets up one of the most anticipated games of the season when South Carolina visits LSU. The Gamecocks ran the Tigers out of Colonial Life Arena last season, but LSU claimed the bigger prize. South Carolina edged LSU for the SEC regular season title the last two seasons, and the game could decide this season’s winner.

After games against Vanderbilt and Auburn, South Carolina hosts Ole Miss in another game that should have major SEC title race implications. After hosting Missouri, South Carolina will get the Super Bowl Sunday spotlight for the second straight year.

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Last season South Carolina hosted LSU as a Super Bowl appetizer and the game was a ratings bonanza for ESPN, drawing the largest audience for a regular-season women’s basketball game since 2017. ESPN is betting on South Carolina again. UConn, with Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd healthy, is a popular national championship pick. 

The series between the programs dates back to 2015. The Gamecocks have beaten the Huskies three straight times, which undoubtedly irks UConn. The teams will meet again in Columbia next season to make up for the canceled 2022 game.

The UConn game is the start of probably the toughest stretch of South Carolina’s season. After UConn, the Gamecocks visit Tennessee and then host Georgia and Alabama, a stretch of four straight tournament teams in two weeks.

Road games at Kentucky and Arkansas follow, before a rematch with Tennessee to end the season.

The SEC Tournament is in Greenville again, the final year of the current contract. There has been some discussion that the tournament could move west with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma next season.

The regional sites for the NCAA Tournament are Albany, NY, and Portland, OR (because nobody south of the Mason-Dixon line plays basketball). The Final Four is in Cleveland.

Missing from the schedule are two games Staley had previously indicated would be played this season. The home-and-home with Stanford was not renewed. Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer said that when the Cardinal moves to the ACC next season she would have to minimize non-conference travel. It’s possible that means the Cardinal couldn’t come east this season.

South Carolina also owed Charleston Southern a return game from last season. It is unclear whether South Carolina bought out the return game or will make good in a future season.

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