SEC media members chose the South Carolina men’s basketball team to finish 11th in the conference this season, and the Gamecocks were shut out of preseason player honors as well.
South Carolina is coming off a dream season that saw the Gamecocks run up a 26-11 record, snap a 13-year NCAA tournament drought, and reach the program’s first-ever Final Four. But with star guards Sindarius Thornwell and P.J. Dozier now in the NBA, and key contributor Duane Notice lost to graduation, skepticism is understandable. It remains to be seen whether South Carolina caught lightning in a bottle or will be able to build on that groundbreaking campaign.