Here’s South Carolina’s full 2012 schedule:

Aug. 30: at Vanderbilt

Sept. 15: UAB

Sept. 8: EAST CAROLINA

Sept. 22: MISSOURI

Sept. 29: at Kentucky

Oct. 6: GEORGIA

Oct. 13: at LSU

Oct. 20: at Florida

Oct. 27: TENNESSEE

Nov. 3 OPEN

Nov. 10: ARKANSAS

Nov. 17: WOFFORD

Nov. 24: at Clemson

The things that matter:

The Gamecocks open the season on a Thursday night at Vanderbilt. That game will likely be slated for a primetime spot on ESPN, considering the successful season that both teams had. USC opened the season against Southern Miss in 2010 on a Thursday night, but that was in Columbia.

With an extra SEC East team in Missouri, one SEC West opponent had to come off the schedule, which ended up being Mississippi St. That was the logical choice since every team plays half its conference games at home and half on the road, and since Arkansas, the permanent opponent for USC, will be a home game, MSU had to go because it would have to be a home game as well, since USC played in Starkville this past season.

That means USC will have to play at LSU. It also means that if the 2012 schedule is not independent of future schedules, USC will have to travel to Mizzou and Arkansas in the same year in future seasons.

The Gamecocks will also have a challenging stretch of games in October that will be kicked off by hosting Georgia then traveling to Baton Rouge and then Gainesville.

Another change was that the UGA game was moved to October – it’s usually been the second game of the season. The Bulldogs will not face Alabama, LSU, or Arkansas for the second-straight year, as Bama came off the schedule for similar reasons as MSU coming off the schedule for the Gamecocks. With an easier schedule and a lot of players returning, Georgia should be favored to win the East again.

To see all the schedules in the SEC, go here.

Men’s hoops to host Wofford at 7 p.m.:

The Gamecocks are coming off a 19-point victory over Southeastern Louisiana as they prepare to play Wofford, a team they lost to in 2009.

While USC had a strong outing in its last game, they’ve also had a break in between for Christmas, which can take momentum out of the equation.

“I think that’s one of the big challenges and one of the things I thought was a real positive for us heading into the break – that we’ve played with a tremendous amount of energy and felt like we got better in our game against Southeastern Louisiana,” said USC coach Darrin Horn. “We’ve seen a lot of teams that headed into the break that didn’t play very well, so I think that’s a real credit to our players and our focus and Malik Cooke’s leadership with our inexperience. Now the next step in that challenge is if you can come out of the break and continue to build on that. There’s no question that’s something that is a concern, but one that we’ll try to address and hopefully come out strong and play well again.”

USC has played some of its best basketball since its loss to Providence, which Horn attributes to individuals knowing their roles better. The Gamecocks have played inside out more and have shot less from three-point range, which was a key statistic in some of the losses.

“Coming off the break, the thing that we wanted to make sure that we stayed focused on was continuing to get better,” Horn said. “We feel like that’s something that’s happened with our team over the past several weeks, both in individual play, filling into their roles and understanding what they need to be their best, and as a team continuing to make strides on both sides of the ball.”

Including Wofford, USC has just three games left until opening the SEC slate at Kentucky. The Terriers, a tournament team the past two seasons, will be a tough test for the Gamecocks in closing out the nonconference slate.

“They’ve got what I call the residue of winning,” Horn said. “They have an outstanding shooter and dangerous scorer in (Kevin) Giltner. I think it’s a game that we know they’re going to come in and be excited to play in. They’ll play you very tough, and we want to be focused and make sure that we’re ready to play.”

Giltner, a senior, is coming off a 28-point effort against High Point, bringing his scoring average to 20.4 points per game for the last five games. Brad Loesing, also a senior, is second to Giltner on the team with 13.5 points per game. The duo has been together for four years and will be challenging defensively for the Gamecocks.

“I think it’s difficult to defend that, but more importantly you know that these are guys that are going to go out and do what they do every night,” Horn said. “They’re veteran guys, they’ve been through the wars, and they’ve been a part of winning at the high level for their school, so I think our focus has got to be that these are two really good players that we’ve got to make sure we’re aware of.”