South Carolina’s basketball season is over.
The Gamecocks on Sunday learned they’re didn’t make the NIT. It marks the second straight year USC arrived on selection day with a chance only to be denied from the 32-team field.
Carolina finishes with a 16-16 record.
Frank Martin’s bunch went 17-16 last year, but parts of this year’s résumé seemed to give the Gamecocks a better shot. After a sluggish first two months, they rebounded by going 11-7 and earning the No. 4 seed for the SEC Tournament. They won seven games against “quadrant one” and “quadrant two” competition — see victories over Florida (road), Auburn, Mississippi State, Texas A&M (road), Ole Miss, Arkansas and Georgia (road) — and even put themselves in NCAA Tournament discussion.