March is upon us, and that means the NCAA tournament projections will heat up even more. Back on Monday, we noted that South Carolina was projected as a nine seed in Joe Lunardi's latest bracketology. He released his latest edition on Wednesday - and the idle Gamecocks remained where they were (as a nine seed). However, while they remain in the South region, Lunardi projects that they will take on Saint Joseph's, slated as an at-large team out of the Atlantic 10. They're still paired with Virginia/North Florida, however. St. Joe's was slotted as an eight seed in the East region (going up against nine-seed Pitt).
SBN's Chris Dobbertean released his latest projections yesterday. He dropped the Gamecocks down to an eight seed from his February 26 bracket, when he had them as a seven. They would be matched up against the MVC's Wichita State and paired with one-seed Michigan State and 16-seed Weber State (from the Big Sky).
Either scenario would have the Gamecocks potentially matched up against a one seed if they win in the first round. However, the Hawks and Shockers are hardly teams to be taken lightly (we certainly know about Wichita State's propensity to make deep tournament runs). There's also a risk of the Gamecocks playing themselves out of the tournament if they can't take care of business down the stretch. That starts tomorrow with Senior Night and a game against Georgia at Colonial Life Arena.