Out of Conference Schedule.......

goshockers.com/news/2021/8/16/mens-basketball-brown-finalizes-non-conference-hoop-slate.aspx

Coach Harper jumping in the fire right from the start. OPENING AT WICHITA STATE!!!

GO GAMECOCKS

Still waiting on the men's schedule to drop, but the women dropped yesterday: jsugamecocksports.com/news/2021/8/25/womens-basketball-announces-non-conference-slate.aspx

I'll be honest, that one's kind of a let down. No really amazing games, but at least most of the road games are within easy travel distance, and all should be very winnable.

Vanderbilt is the only "P5" team on the schedule, and the Gamecocks should be favored in that one. The Gamecocks finished the spring ranked just a few spots ahead of the Commodores, and defeated Vandy 88-66 last time we faced them, during the 2019-2020 season.

Our toughest OOC matchup is probably Houston of the AAC. The Cougars finished 17-8 (12-5 AAC) and made the Women's NIT last spring.

The ladies close out the OOC portion of the schedule on Dec. 30 at home against Chatty.

If the Gamecocks don't stumble out of the gate, the ladies should enter ASUN play either 14-0 or 13-1, and should dominate the ASUN West. It's not at all outside the realm of possibility we could finish the regular season with 27 wins or more.

The biggest games on the schedule are interdivisional games against FGCU and Liberty, and we only have to run up against each of those buzzsaws once until the postseason.

If the team exceeds expectations, we could win the ASUN in our first year.

If we meet expectations, we should at least make the conference semifinals, if not the finals.

If things go poorly, there's always room at the bottom, but I'd say anything less than 20 wins this season would be a SEVERE disappointment.

FIU are masochists.