ANALYSIS: South Carolina WBB Draws Favorable SEC Home Slate For 2023-24 Season

Dawn Staley and South Carolina's Women's Basketball have more formidable SEC challengers, making their conference slate next season a favorable one.

After a disappointing end to a remarkable season for Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks this past Winter, the national champions from two seasons ago will now look to cement themselves as the top program in all of Women's College Basketball. If the Gamecocks are going to accomplish this, they'll have to navigate an SEC that's become infinitely more difficult to topple over the past several seasons.

While they have to play each SEC team at least once in conference play, the location of these games and the teams South Carolina must play twice can factor significantly into how close they are to competing for a conference title by the end of the regular season. This past Wednesday, the SEC released the full conference slate that each league member will have to play this next season, and for the Gamecocks, there are plenty of takeaways to have with their schedule.

Regarding the main takeaway, South Carolina will be hosting a lot of the toughest competition on their home floor this next season. The Ole Miss Rebels, Mississippi State Bulldogs, Georgia Bulldogs, Alabama Crimson Tide, and Tennessee Volunteers, who were all NCAA Tournament teams this past season, will have to make a trip to Columbia, SC, with the Volunteers being the only program that the Gamecocks will owe a return trip. This could be pivotal for a team that will field an entirely different starting lineup compared to what they had in their Final Four run last season.

In terms of the SEC teams that South Carolina will conduct a home-and-home with this next season, there are three teams that'll play the Gamecocks twice; The Tennessee Lady Vols, the Kentucky Wildcats, and the Missouri Tigers. Excluding the Lady Vols, the combined record of this group last season was 30-33 overall and 8-24 in conference play.

South Carolina's toughest SEC game for next season will, without a doubt, take place in Baton Rouge against the LSU Tigers, the team that won the national championship this past season and somehow possesses even more talent now with the offseason transfer additions of Hailey Van Lith and Aneesah Morrow. Overall, however, South Carolina has got to like the draw they got from the SEC front office and have a clear path to contending for their third straight SEC regular season title.

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