When the first NET rankings of the 2024-2025 season dropped earlier this week, South Carolina basketball was not featured favorably. In fact, the Gamecocks were No. 135 and firmly in last place among SEC teams. However, by the time Friday’s NET rankings update came through, the Gamecocks jumped up over 40 spots.

As of Friday evening, South Carolina was all the way up to No. 88 in the NET. That’s not where Lamont Paris would like his team to be, but it’s a big step up from 135. 47 steps up, actually.

A couple of factors play into the Gamecocks’ more respectable end-of-week ranking.

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First, South Carolina won big on the road in the SEC/ACC Challenge against Boston College. The Eagles are not a great team, but an efficient, blowout win on the road never hurts a team’s cause.

Second, some of the Gamecocks’ previous opponents have made their own moves up in the NET. USC’s neutral site loss to Xavier is now a Quad 2 loss, and the home loss to North Florida is no longer a Quad 4 defeat.

Carolina soon will have some more opportunities to improve their standing in the NET. Aside from having chances to win games, the Gamecocks’ strength of schedule will improve. Plus, after back-to-back Saturday contests against East Carolina and USC-Upstate, South Carolina will welcome the rival Clemson Tigers to Colonial Life Arena for a Quad 1 opportunity.

But up next, Coach Paris and his team will play the East Carolina Pirates on Saturday. In what is a return trip to Columbia after last year’s game in Greenville, the Gamecocks and Pirates will tip off at 2:00 p.m. SEC Network+ will make the game available for streaming.