South Carolina is a seven-seed in the NCAA Tournament, and will take on the tenth-seeded Marquette Golden Eagles Friday at 9:50 in Greenville, South Carolina.
This is the first time that South Carolina has been selected to the NCAA Tournament since 2004. They will be in search of their first tournament win since 1973.
Marquette finished the regular season with a 19-12 record, and lost in the first round of the Big East Tournament to Seton Hall.
The Golden Eagles' big wins this season include wins over Villanova, Creighton twice and Xavier twice. They post the 47th best strength of schedule in college basketball, and the 60th best RPI in the nation.
The two teams share four common opponents, as they both played Seton Hall, Vanderbilt, Georgia and Michigan. South Carolina lost to Seton Hall, lost to Vanderbilt, beat Georgia twice and beat Michigan. Marquette lost two of their three games against Seton Hall, beat Vanderbilt, beat Georgia and lost to Michigan. Overall, South Carolina was 3-2 against mutual opponents, while Marquette was 3-3.
Markus Howard heads a dynamic Marquette offense that has five players averaging double digits. The offense averages 82.5 points per game, which ranks 17th in the nation.
The winner of the game will face the winner of second-seeded Duke and 15th-seeded Troy, who also play Friday. This potential second round matchup for the Gamecocks would take place Sunday in Greenville.
The top seed in the Gamecocks' East Division is the Villanova Wildcats, who were given the top overall seed in the tournament. Other notable teams in the East are third-seeded Baylor, fourth-seeded Florida and fifth-seeded Virginia.
South Carolina will look to turn things around after losing six of its last nine games.