COLUMBIA — In each of the past two seasons, the South Carolina men’s basketball team has won two games in the SEC Tournament. The Gamecocks do that again this weekend, and they’ll be playing for the championship on Sunday.
Such is this new, heady existence for USC, which enters the postseason as the No. 3 seed in the SEC, with a double-bye into the quarterfinals, and its first NCAA Tournament bid in 12 seasons virtually assured. This from a program that in each of the last three seasons has opened in the SEC’s first round as one of the four lowest seeds in the event.