Link to the most recent post: South Carolina MBB Resume (11/30/20)
Quick explanation: This is a post I started doing last year and had alot of fun with. I typically try to keep it as a running update throughout the year after every game. The way this posts usually works is that I break down our current resume, then I go in oppo-by-oppo for those that have a shot at moving up or down a quadrant, then I talk about our next opponent.
SEC Standings Note: Not applicable
Bracketology Note: Latest Lunardi Bracketology (12/1/20) - Gamecocks not mentioned. He has 6 SEC teams included (LSU, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas) and 1 mentioned (Ole Miss). The Gamecocks are going to need to have a defining win in non-con if we don't want to have to rely on a top 3 SEC Finish this year. There is obviously no such thing as a "must-win" this early in the season, but if there was, I would circle the rest of our non-con games as "must-wins". Any losses to the teams not named Clemson would be resume-devastators. Wins against those teams but a loss against Clemson puts us with no single meaningful non-con win.
NET Note: The NET rankings have not been released yet so I will be using KenPom's own rankings. I x'ed out the references to NET below because that all refers to the prior year.
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**For teams that we play twice I will denote the road game with an "@" symbol
**Remember, NET has not been updated so I am using KenPom (KP) for the below Quadrant
For us:
Quadrant 1: (0-1)
Wins:
Losses: Houston (KP #10)
Quadrant 2: (1-0)
Wins: Tulsa (KP #93)
Losses:
Quadrant 3: (0-1)
Wins:
Losses: Liberty (KP #122)
Quadrant 4: (0-0)
Wins:
Losses:
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**To start the season, I'll cover all of our teams, but as the year goes I am only going to highlight teams that have chance to move up or down in the bubble. Some teams are either destined for Quadrant 4 regardless of results at this point and some become sandwiched into one of the other quads with little hope of movement the later the season goes on.
**if a highlight is green -> I think he means they COULD move up, not that I think they will. Red -> COULD move down, not that I think they will.
Notes on teams we've played:
**I have linked the school's name directly to the Instant Analysis by @Collyn Taylor for the latest game- figured this would be nice to add
Houston (Last year's NET #20, Current Year KenPom #10) - Collyn highlights well in his Instant Analysis - this would have been a huge, huge win for us. Houston was down two starters and was a missing a preseason All-American Conference Guard in Sasser. They were even without our head coach. Unfortunately, we let a 6 point halftime lead wilter away into not even covering the spread (+9.5). It was a bad look as it appeared the team just gave up as soon as Houston took the lead. I hope they have more heart going forward. Overall, I'm not disappointed in the loss because it was expected, I'm disappointed at how we looked losing. I never thought I would say this after last year, but it may be time to give TJ Moss more minutes if Couisnard and Woods are going to continue being so mistake-prone. I'm still waiting to see that fast and exciting team we were told about in preseason to come out and play an entire game. We saw what they could do in the first half against Houston, but then they came out excited to give up. Oh well, onto Wofford. Check out Collyn's Instant Analysis linked above for more insight! Quad 1 loss and will remain so without a doubt. I most likely will quit writing about Houston as I do not foresee a situation in which they come close to falling to Quad 2.
Tulsa (Last year's NET #78, Current year KenPom #93, up 7 spots since last post) - Tulsa soundly defeted UT Arlington last Friday by 15 and will be going up against an okay-but-not good Oral Roberts team who nipped at the heels of an upset over Wichita State this past week despite being one of the worst defenses in D1 basketball. Tulsa's real next test comes the game after that in which they will be taking on WIchita State in a very early conference game on 12/15. This should give us alot of info on how Tulsa could be a surprise resume booster that we did not originally anticipate. If Tulsa can take out Wichita State, I may up their odds of being a Quad 1 by the end of the year as it will be an important step to finishing Top 3 in the American. For now I will leave them in Quad 2.
Liberty University (Last year's NET #69, Current year KenPom #122, up 4 spots since last post, up 6 spots since last post) - Since the last post, Liberty has laid low easily defeating both St. Francis and D2 Bluefield. They play Mizzou Wednesday in what would give them the chance to be 3-0 against the SEC and would largely solidify them as the team to beat in the A-SUN. In terms of Quads, they were a borderline Quad 1 team last year, they will start as a Quad 3 this year (based on KenPom), but I think they will end as a Quad 2 this year after conference play is done.
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**For teams that we play twice I will denote the road game with an "@" symbol
My Projection:
Quadrant 1: (0-1)
Wins:
Losses: Houston
Quadrant 2: (1-1)
Wins: Tulsa
Losses: Liberty
Quadrant 3: (0-0)
Wins:
Losses:
Quadrant 4: (0-0)
Wins:
Losses:
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Next Opponent: One thing to give the staff credit for is our non-con schedule. We are 1-2 yet we have cut our RPI in half simply due to the tough schedule. All three teams we have played so far have legitimiate shots at making the Big Dance. We have 4 non-con game left and one of those is against a close-to-surefire bet to make the tourney (Clemson) and a scrappy team that always competes well in their conference (Wofford). Now, it is up to the players to go out there and win these games. The next competition is Wofford (Last year's NET #155, Current year KenPom #142). This will be a short write up. Why? Well, here's Wofford's schedule so far:
Not a whole lot of insight can be gleaned from this by an amateur such as myself especially considering that the box scores can't be relied upon due to what I imagine is a larger-than-normal rotation given their major blowout wins over D2 and D3 schools. I will let @Collyn Taylor take care of the Wofford analysis in his Keys to Victory article!
Quick explanation: This is a post I started doing last year and had alot of fun with. I typically try to keep it as a running update throughout the year after every game. The way this posts usually works is that I break down our current resume, then I go in oppo-by-oppo for those that have a shot at moving up or down a quadrant, then I talk about our next opponent.
SEC Standings Note: Not applicable
Bracketology Note: Latest Lunardi Bracketology (12/1/20) - Gamecocks not mentioned. He has 6 SEC teams included (LSU, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas) and 1 mentioned (Ole Miss). The Gamecocks are going to need to have a defining win in non-con if we don't want to have to rely on a top 3 SEC Finish this year. There is obviously no such thing as a "must-win" this early in the season, but if there was, I would circle the rest of our non-con games as "must-wins". Any losses to the teams not named Clemson would be resume-devastators. Wins against those teams but a loss against Clemson puts us with no single meaningful non-con win.
NET Note: The NET rankings have not been released yet so I will be using KenPom's own rankings. I x'ed out the references to NET below because that all refers to the prior year.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**For teams that we play twice I will denote the road game with an "@" symbol
**Remember, NET has not been updated so I am using KenPom (KP) for the below Quadrant
For us:
Quadrant 1: (0-1)
Wins:
Losses: Houston (KP #10)
Quadrant 2: (1-0)
Wins: Tulsa (KP #93)
Losses:
Quadrant 3: (0-1)
Wins:
Losses: Liberty (KP #122)
Quadrant 4: (0-0)
Wins:
Losses:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**To start the season, I'll cover all of our teams, but as the year goes I am only going to highlight teams that have chance to move up or down in the bubble. Some teams are either destined for Quadrant 4 regardless of results at this point and some become sandwiched into one of the other quads with little hope of movement the later the season goes on.
**if a highlight is green -> I think he means they COULD move up, not that I think they will. Red -> COULD move down, not that I think they will.
Notes on teams we've played:
**I have linked the school's name directly to the Instant Analysis by @Collyn Taylor for the latest game- figured this would be nice to add
Houston (Last year's NET #20, Current Year KenPom #10) - Collyn highlights well in his Instant Analysis - this would have been a huge, huge win for us. Houston was down two starters and was a missing a preseason All-American Conference Guard in Sasser. They were even without our head coach. Unfortunately, we let a 6 point halftime lead wilter away into not even covering the spread (+9.5). It was a bad look as it appeared the team just gave up as soon as Houston took the lead. I hope they have more heart going forward. Overall, I'm not disappointed in the loss because it was expected, I'm disappointed at how we looked losing. I never thought I would say this after last year, but it may be time to give TJ Moss more minutes if Couisnard and Woods are going to continue being so mistake-prone. I'm still waiting to see that fast and exciting team we were told about in preseason to come out and play an entire game. We saw what they could do in the first half against Houston, but then they came out excited to give up. Oh well, onto Wofford. Check out Collyn's Instant Analysis linked above for more insight! Quad 1 loss and will remain so without a doubt. I most likely will quit writing about Houston as I do not foresee a situation in which they come close to falling to Quad 2.
Tulsa (Last year's NET #78, Current year KenPom #93, up 7 spots since last post) - Tulsa soundly defeted UT Arlington last Friday by 15 and will be going up against an okay-but-not good Oral Roberts team who nipped at the heels of an upset over Wichita State this past week despite being one of the worst defenses in D1 basketball. Tulsa's real next test comes the game after that in which they will be taking on WIchita State in a very early conference game on 12/15. This should give us alot of info on how Tulsa could be a surprise resume booster that we did not originally anticipate. If Tulsa can take out Wichita State, I may up their odds of being a Quad 1 by the end of the year as it will be an important step to finishing Top 3 in the American. For now I will leave them in Quad 2.
Liberty University (Last year's NET #69, Current year KenPom #122, up 4 spots since last post, up 6 spots since last post) - Since the last post, Liberty has laid low easily defeating both St. Francis and D2 Bluefield. They play Mizzou Wednesday in what would give them the chance to be 3-0 against the SEC and would largely solidify them as the team to beat in the A-SUN. In terms of Quads, they were a borderline Quad 1 team last year, they will start as a Quad 3 this year (based on KenPom), but I think they will end as a Quad 2 this year after conference play is done.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**For teams that we play twice I will denote the road game with an "@" symbol
My Projection:
Quadrant 1: (0-1)
Wins:
Losses: Houston
Quadrant 2: (1-1)
Wins: Tulsa
Losses: Liberty
Quadrant 3: (0-0)
Wins:
Losses:
Quadrant 4: (0-0)
Wins:
Losses:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Opponent: One thing to give the staff credit for is our non-con schedule. We are 1-2 yet we have cut our RPI in half simply due to the tough schedule. All three teams we have played so far have legitimiate shots at making the Big Dance. We have 4 non-con game left and one of those is against a close-to-surefire bet to make the tourney (Clemson) and a scrappy team that always competes well in their conference (Wofford). Now, it is up to the players to go out there and win these games. The next competition is Wofford (Last year's NET #155, Current year KenPom #142). This will be a short write up. Why? Well, here's Wofford's schedule so far:
Not a whole lot of insight can be gleaned from this by an amateur such as myself especially considering that the box scores can't be relied upon due to what I imagine is a larger-than-normal rotation given their major blowout wins over D2 and D3 schools. I will let @Collyn Taylor take care of the Wofford analysis in his Keys to Victory article!
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