It’s a tribute to gradual improvement under head coach Frank Martin that the South Carolina men’s basketball program deserves to squeeze into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004. But nothing comes easy on the hardwood in this state.
“I know South Carolina thinks they’re a lock and they probably are,” ESPN master bracketologist Joe Lunardi said this week. “But I think they have kind of a hold-your-nose resume.”
And that was before an SEC Tournament loss to Georgia.
Frank McGuire had a short but glorious run at South Carolina in the late 1960s and early 1970s.