College Basketball GameDay: Missouri vs South Carolina: info, where to watch, predictions

It was a big night last night for Mizzou Athletics. On top of Football head coach Eli Drinkwitz finally settling on a Defensive Coordinator, when reports surfaced Missouri was hiring South Alabama defensive coordinator Corey Batoon. The two most elite programs in the Athletics Department, Mizzou Gym and TigerStyle Wrestling both had big matchups and came out on top.

Catch up on the Results with Karen’s recap of the events at Hearns (coming), where Mizzou Gym took down LSU. And make sure you read Matthew Gustafson’s recap of Wrestling’s domination over West Virginia.

Onto hoops, where a struggling Missouri basketball squad is heading to the other Columbia to take on the surging and, should they beat Missouri, possible top 25 South Carolina Gamecocks.

Sports are a funny thing most of the time. A year ago South Carolina was 221 in KenPom in Lamont Paris’ first season. They tried to jump start the rebuild by adding 5-star freshman G.G. Jackson and a host of transfers and boy it did not go well. They were awful shooting the ball, and leaky on defense. Jackson flashed quite often but was horribly inefficient most of the time. Coming into the season Paris didn’t change a ton of what he was doing. They made some mild upgrades, Jackson went off to the NBA. I thought they’d be better but not good enough to win in the SEC.

I was wrong about that. They have been aided early with a soft schedule, road games against Missouri and Arkansas gave them wins over two struggling teams. The rest of their games at home where they lost to Georgia but beat Kentucky and Mississippi State. Their other loss, an unceremonious butt-kicking at Alabama.

So are the Gamecocks good? Well, they are better. They’re 52nd in KenPom, but just a week ago they were 73rd. Part of it is this seems to be a weird year, another part is this is a team who thinks they’re good now. Sometimes that’s enough. South Carolina is riding a high of beating Kentucky rather thoroughly. If they beat Missouri they’re probably going to sneak into the top 25. So while I’m certain the Gamecocks are better, I’m not convinced they’re a top 25 team. They still have a lot of games to play and the SEC is a wobbly weird place. They could go 12-6 or they could go 9-9. Either way I think they’re a tournament team if they keep this up.

So what better way to throw a wrench in all these plans than to beat them on their floor and get your first SEC win? Mizzou is 3-5 all time in Colonial Life Arena, so the odds are decent. Let’s do it!

Missouri-South Carolina basketball: Time, Location

TIME: 12:00 p.m. CT

DATE: Saturday, January 27, 2024

LOCATION: Colonial Life Arena; Columbia, SC

Missouri-South Carolina basketball: Follow the game, TV Channel

TELEVISION: SEC Network

STREAM: WatchESPN

ESPN+: ROCKMNATION

Missouri-South Carolina basketball: Betting odds, predictions

As of Friday evening, Missouri is a 6.5-point underdog to South Carolina, according to DraftKing’s Sportsbook. The total points (over/under) is 135.5. KenPom.com prediction machine has this projected as a 8 point Missouri loss, 72-64.

RockMNation has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though RockMNation may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.