NCAA Bracketology: South Carolina drops to a seven seed in ESPN's latest projections

We knew that after the South Carolina Gamecocks fell to the Alabama Crimson Tide that they would take a hit in the national standings. We also knew that they would drop when it came to this week's tournament projections.

In his latest Bracketology report, ESPN's Joe Lunardi dropped the Gamecocks from a six seed to a seven seed in the South region. Lunardi currently has them taking on the Pac-12's Colorado Buffaloes in Des Moines, who currently sit at 14-4 after a 91-87 win against Oregon last night. Carolina and Colorado are paired with Iowa and Montana, a two and fifteen seed (respectively) and projected to be in by virtue of winning their respective conference tournaments.

Good news: even though they did go down, Carolina is still in good shape for a single-digit seed come tournament time. Even better news: today is Monday, January 18, and we're talking about the possibility of the Gamecocks not only making the NCAA Tournament, but doing so as an at-large team (at the very worst). Not bad for a group that was 10-6 (1-3 SEC) at this time last year.

The Gamecocks take on Ole Miss in Oxford tomorrow evening as they look to jump to 17-1 overall and 4-1 in the league. Tip time for that one is set for 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

What do you think of Lunardi's projections this week?