Gamecocks wait to hear NIT fate
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The South Carolina men's basketball team is in a wait-and-see mode today. Not concerning the NCAA Tournament though; instead the Gamecocks are looking to see if they receive an invitation to the National Invitation Tournament.
USC's NCAA hopes fell by the wayside on Friday when they lost to No. 22 Auburn 73-64 in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament at Bridgestone Arena.
Clemson will be watching to see if it gets an NCAA invite, but it will more likely be receiving an NIT bid instead. Southern Conference champion Wofford, on the other hand, will be looking to see what seed it receives, who it plays and where in the NCAA Tournament.
While Auburn reached Sunday's championship game with a 65-62 semifinal win over Florida on Saturday to further improve its seeding, South Carolina, which is 16-16 on the season, waits to see whether it merits an NIT invitation, even though its coach believes his team's capable of much more. The Gamecocks went 5-8 in nonconference action this season but earned the fourth seed in this tournament by going 11-7 in SEC play.
"Now, are we an NCAA Tournament team today? I say yes," South Carolina coach Frank Martin said. "But the bottom line is we didn't win enough to get into the NCAA Tournament. Me saying that doesn't mean we belong. I'm just saying we're good enough to be in that. We didn't do enough early in the year to put ourselves in that situation."
South Carolina beat Auburn 80-77 in the regular season thanks to a career-high 32 points from Chris Silva. The senior forward was nearly as good in the rematch and helped South Carolina lead for much of the first half before Auburn rallied to forge a 36-all tie at the intermission.
Silva led South Carolina with 27 points and 11 rebounds, while Felipe Haase and Tre Campbell each added 12 points.
Depth has been a problem for South Carolina all season, and it showed up again on Friday as Auburn outscored the Gamecocks 23-2 in bench points. South Carolina still managed to stay close most of the way, as neither team ever led by more than six points until the final four minutes of the game.
South Carolina outscored Auburn by seven points when Silva was on the floor. During the five minutes when Silva was on the bench, Auburn outscored the Gamecocks by 16 points.
Auburn's Jared Harper scored 19 of his 27 points to lead the fifth-seeded Tigers.
Auburn went 13 of 34 from 3-point range Saturday and broke the SEC record for 3-point baskets in a single season by increasing its total to 368. That surpasses the record that had been held by Arkansas, which made 361 during its drive to an NCAA Tournament runner-up finish in 1995.