South Carolina basketball entered the 2023 NBA Draft expecting to break its five-season draft drought as forward GG Jackson was slated to be the first Gamecock selected in the draft since Sindarius Thornwell in 2017. In fact, up until the week of the draft, Jackson was touted as a guaranteed 1st-round selection, which would have been the first for Carolina since 2006 when Renaldo Balkman was picked up by the New York Knicks.
As it turned out, Jackson did end the Gamecocks’ draft drought, but things did not go as well as he or South Carolina basketball fans had hoped.