How To Watch: Elite 8, No. 1-seed South Carolina Vs. No. 3-seed Oregon State (Sat. at 1 PM
In March Madness, magical things can happen. Have a desire to see a matchup between two highly-respected teams from different conferences? You got it. Want to learn about more individual stars that might not grab all of the national headlines every week? The NCAA Tournament unearths them. Want a David vs. Goliath story? The South Carolina Gamecocks and the Oregon State Beavers will give you that on Easter Sunday.
Dawn Staley's squad is, of course, Goliath, and while they looked vulnerable in spurts against the Indiana Hoosiers on Friday afternoon, nobody has been able to figure out a way to take down South Carolina this season. Therefore, Oregon State is David, not necessarily because of their current record this season, but more so with how they got here. The Beavers only won 13 games this past season, and with news coming out this past offseason that the PAC-12 would essentially become history after the conclusion of the Spring sports season due to the interests of behind-closed-doors powerbrokers, one could see how the Beavers would've just thrown in the towel on this year, and players and coaches would've looked to jump elsewhere. Instead, the program has largely stuck together and is now appearing in the Elite 8 for the third time in its history.
The Gamecocks will have to respect their upcoming opponent not just for their on-court play but for how they've overcome what some would see as insurmountable odds, especially when college-aged kids are stuck in the middle of it all. As far as the stats go, one area where Oregon State struggles, as evidenced by their recent outing against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, is ball security, with the Beavers averaging a -4.12 turnover margin per game, the 20th worst mark in all of D1 women's basketball. Look for Raven Johnson and MiLaysia Fulwiley to be ultra-aggressive on the ball and for Carolina to maybe run some full-court press defense to try and speed up Oregon State, which would work to the Gamecocks' advantage as far as the pace of the game is concerned.
How To Watch: Elite 8, No. 1-Seed South Carolina Vs. No. 3-Seed Oregon State
- Gameday: Sunday, March 31st, 2024
- Venue: MVP Arena (Albany, NY)
- Game time: 1:00 PM EDT
- TV/Streaming: ABC
- Radio: Gamecock Radio Network
- Live stream on fuboTV: Start with a 7-day free trial!
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