It’s a long way from March, but ESPN has gone ahead and released its first projection of the 2019 women’s NCAA tournament field.
For South Carolina fans, that projection, compiled as usual by Charlie Creme, highlights how much work the No. 22 Gamecocks have to do after their worst start since 2010 — Creme currently has USC as a No. 8 seed facing Georgia Tech in the first round.
A No. 8 seed would mark the lowest starting position for Carolina in program history and would also mark the first time that Dawn Staley’s team would not host the first two rounds since the NCAA made the switch to having the highest seed host for the 2015 tournament.