When last week’s NCAA Tournament projections came out the Gamecocks found themselves projected to travel for the regionals. Many USC fans were disappointed to read the list of regional hosts and find South Carolina missing. Apparently last weekend’s road series win over Vanderbilt has garnered USC some respect.
South Carolina was a No. 2 seed in the Clemson Regional in last week’s projection, but South Carolina now looks like the more secure team in the PalmettoState when it comes to hosting ambitions. After winning a big road series at Vanderbilt, the Gamecocks have won their first four SEC series for the first time ever and are tied with Arkansas for the best record in the league (9-3).
In looking at South Carolina‘s RPI improvement to #20, Eric Sorenson of College Baseball Today observes:
That two-of-three series win at Vanderbilt is just about as impressive of a win as it gets in SEC-land. Add to it that coach Ray Tanner, who Baseball America’s Aaron Fitt assures is one of the good guys in college baseball, also gained his 1,000th victory as a head coach with Sunday’s 2-0 win. Cocks host reeling Ole Miss this weekend.
SEBaseball.com, a rivals site, now projects South Carolina as a host with The Citadel, North Carolina and Charlotte filling out the bracket.
Ahead of the curve was Kendall Rogers at Yahoo/Rivals who moved South Carolina from a two seed to a regional host before last weekend’s series. The Citadel, OhioState and Charlotte would be the 2-4 seeds in his projection. Like SEBaseball.com, Rogerspreviously had South Carolina as a two seed at The Citadel.
South Carolina has plenty of games left against quality competition to bolster their RPI and national seed. They play at #2 Arkansas (3 games), #4 Florida (3 games), #13 Alabama (3 games) and at #30 Kentucky (3 games), who could easily move into the Top 25. The Gamecocks have an opportunity filled week with a trip to play The Citadel (# 19 RPI) on Wednesday and Ole Miss (# 33 RPI) at home this weekend.
