Gamecocks crunch Baylor, stand one step from Final Four

OUR PREDICTION: The Gamecocks had a distinct advantage in the first two rounds while playing in their backyard of Greenville, S.C. With the East Region shifting to Madison Square Garden in NY tonight, SC will no longer have that sort of advantage. The Gamecocks and Gators split a pair of regular-season meeting, with USC winning 57-53 on January 18 in Columbia, and Florida prevailing 81-66 on February 21 in Gainesville, Fla.

“We’ve shed plenty of tears there, but we’ve also celebrated in confetti there”, senior forward Nina Davis said.

The Bobcats will have to go up against a team that ranks statistically as one of the nation’s best.

SC went 12-6 in the conference.

“Don’t forget the lady gamecocks”, Enevoldsen said.

“They have great players, we have great players”.

A ideal start created enough of an advantage for North Carolina to advance to the Elite Eight with a win, one where the outcome remained uncertain if only because of Butler’s relentlessness. The Gators have seen it twice.

He’s undoubtedly received plenty of inquiries about which of the two SEC East programs he’s actually rooting for, but the Head Ball Coach had the ideal deflection when one fan broached the topic on Twitter. We know those guys like the back of our hand. “That’s going to give us a little of an advantage”.

Florida’s probable starters: G Kasey Hill 6-1 Sr.

When you tack on the field goal advantage, it’s not hard to see why the game went the way it did. “So I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same thing again”. For the Gators, a sixth trip to the national semifinal is still in play, after a Chris Chiozza buzzer-beater in overtime powered them to a stirring 84-83 win against Wisconsin.

“Geno has been such a mentor for me going way back”, Fabbri said.

Quinnipiac: The Bobcats were just the fourth 12 seed to reach the Sweet 16 and the lowest seed in this year’s tournament still playing. “It’s March, man. March”.

“He can shoot it”, Thornwell said of his Florida counterpart.

Inside the bowels of Madison Square Garden, Josh Newman demonstrates how media members must comply with the NCAA’s courtside drinking rules at March Madness. They’re all floating around, all over the court. “Time to get locked in”.

“It’s one of my favorite movies”, he said. Jump hooks from the block made it over SC defenders’ hands – and over the rim entirely to waiting Gamecocks defenders, ready to push the ball up the floor for another basket in transition. “That’s a scary situation”. You just have to make everything tough. “I really can’t put it into words because it’s just unreal”. In that time, Baylor shot 0-for-11 from the floor, while the Gamecocks shot 7-of-9.

The Gamecocks have four players who were part of that 2015 run, Wilson, Doniyah Cliney, Bianca Cuevas-Moore and reserve Tiffany Davis.

Upon walking into a post-practice locker room, every member of Martin’s Gamecocks squad looks like he just went through the championship rounds with a world-class boxer. “I know that certainly was my dream a long time ago, and for that dream to become a reality, and… to be playing in the Sweet 16, we’re really excited to be here. When we guard the ball the right way, and our ball screen coverage is good, we keep the ball from getting into the paint”. The Gamecocks were suffocating on defense, causing the slowest, most agonizing 18-0 run in NCAA Tournament history. In the time between SC did what this SC team does (played stifling defense that practically pestered its opponent into submission) and will now do what its program has never done: play in the Elite Eight.