Latest NCAA Tournament projections have South Carolina staying close to home
With less than one week until Selection Monday, South Carolina baseball’s road to Omaha is becoming clearer.
Baseball America’s NCAA Tournament projections have USC as a three-seed in No. 9 N.C. State’s Raleigh Regional. D1Baseball’s projections have South Carolina as a three-seed in No. 6 Clemson’s regional. The Gamecocks have only played in the Tigers’ regional once over 40 years ago (1980).
Both projections have 11 SEC teams in their field of 64. “That would set a record and be a controversial decision,” Baseball America’s projections note. However, all 11 teams won 13 league games and are in the top 22 of KPI and top 30 of RPI (rating percentage index, which ranks teams based on wins, losses and strength of schedule).
KPI — the Kevin Pauga Index named after creator and Michigan State associated athletic director — has been used in men’s college basketball for a while. The NCAA implemented it to help evaluate college baseball teams this season.
Here is what the NCAA says of KPI’s application to baseball:
“KPI ranks every team’s wins and losses on a positive-to-negative scale, where the worst-possible loss receives a value of roughly around -1.0 and the best-possible win receives a value of roughly 1.0. KPI then averages these scores across a season to give a score to a team’s winning percentage. The formula uses opponent’s winning percentage, opponent’s strength of schedule, scoring margin, pace of game, location, and opponent’s KPI ranking.”
Behind bullpen struggles, South Carolina dropped its final six games of the regular season. The two consecutive sweeps saw USC fall out of contention to host an NCAA regional.
The Gamecocks finished the regular season 33-21 and 13-17 in conference play. It marked the third time in coach Mark Kingston’s seven-year tenure that South Carolina finished sub-.500 in the SEC.
The Gamecocks are a 10-seed in the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Alabama. They’ll defeated No. 7 seed Alabama on Tuesday in their tournament opener.
The NCAA Tournament Selection Show will be broadcast on ESPN2 Monday at noon. Regionals are scheduled for May 31-June 3.
This story was originally published May 21, 2024, 10:24 AM.
