Where South Carolina’s March Madness resume stands for 2024 NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday

For the first time since 2017, South Carolina men’s basketball is breathing easy heading into Selection Sunday.

As the Gamecocks (26-7, 13-5 SEC) await the announcing of the NCAA Tournament bracket, they are assured of inclusion in March Madness after being about as far from postseason play as a team could be a year ago.

The Gamecocks went 11-21 under first-year coach Lamont Paris last season and were projected for another lowly finish in the 2023-24 preseason SEC poll last October.

Surprise, surprise.

Paris guided his team to a school record-tying 25 regular-season victories and a tie for second place in the SEC standings. The Gamecocks then won their first SEC Tournament game since 2018, defeating Arkansas on Thursday, before losing to Auburn in the quarterfinals, but are strongly positioned for an NCAA berth.

“By the grace of the basketball gods, they’re going to call our name on Sunday and we’ll be elated about that and rejoice in that,” Paris said. “We’re still building here – that’s been the general theme and I’ve talked about that a whole bunch, but what a tremendous accomplishment it will be for this group to be able to play in the NCAA Tournament.”

Over the course of the season South Carolina defeated three Top 25 teams – Tennessee, Kentucky and Florida, and built a NET ranking of 52, with a 5-5 record against Quad 1 opponents and a 6-2 mark against Quad 2 foes. The Gamecocks are ranked No. 16 in the latest USA TODAY Coaches Poll and 15th in the latest AP poll.

Most bracketologists have South Carolina projected as a 5 seed, which would have them facing off against a 12 seed in a first-round matchup. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi sees the Gamecocks playing Grand Canyon of the Western Athletic Conference in their first game while Jerry Palm of CBS Sports has South Carolina battling 12 seed VCU.

According to the Bracket Matrix, which monitors dozens of bracket projections, South Carolina is ranked as high as a No. 4 seed and as low as a No. 7 seed. The Gamecocks’ average seed rating is 5.29.

Scott Keepfer covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at skeepfer@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ScottKeepfer