South Carolina Women’s Basketball: Ranking in the NET as Selection Sunday Approaches

On Sunday, South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley guided her team to a third consecutive season with both the regular season and SEC Tournament titles. The Gamecocks defeated the then-No. 1 Texas Longhorns 64-45 to claim the championship.

When the Associated Press updated its top-25 poll on Monday, the 30-3 Gamecocks were ranked No. 2 in the nation, with the UCLA Bruins holding the top spot. Similarly, in the updated NET rankings on Monday, South Carolina retained their position, ranked second overall, just behind the UConn Huskies. The top 10 in the NET rankings includes Texas, UCLA, Notre Dame, Southern Cal, Duke, TCU, Kansas State, and LSU (in that order).

For those who aren’t familiar, the NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) is the primary ranking metric used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. It takes into account the Team Value Index, which measures a team’s on-court results, game location, and strength of schedule, along with adjusted net efficiency ratings, which assess how well a team performs in games, factoring in the quality of opponents and game locations.

South Carolina’s prominent NET standing is bolstered by their nation’s best win-loss record. As of this writing, the Gamecocks lead women’s college basketball with 16 Quad 1 wins, with no other team surpassing 14 victories against top teams. Additionally, South Carolina leads in combined Quad 1 + Quad 2 wins with 20, while no other team has more than 18 such victories.

Despite the Gamecocks’ impressive tally of Quad 1 and Quad 2 victories—20 for South Carolina compared to 11 for UConn—Geno Auriemma’s squad remains atop the NET. This is likely due to UConn’s efficiency statistics and their high number of road and neutral-site wins, which pushed them ahead.

South Carolina’s dominant performance in Greenville secured them a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament. ESPN’s Charlie Creme projects that their SEC success will lead to another overall No. 1 seed on Selection Sunday. Creme also predicts that after the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament in Columbia, the Gamecocks will play in one of the Birmingham brackets.

Selection Sunday is scheduled for this Sunday, March 16th, with the Selection Sunday Show airing on ESPN at 8:00 p.m. and available for streaming on the ESPN app. South Carolina has earned a No. 1 seed in each of the past four years and was expected to be the No. 1 overall seed before the 2019-2020 season was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This year’s NCAA Tournament will begin on March 19th, but South Carolina’s first game will be held on either March 21st or 22nd.