Tuesday was not a superb evening to be a top-five males’s basketball group.
No. 5 Tennessee was the second top-team within the nation to undergo a surprising loss to an unranked opponent (becoming a member of No. 3 North Carolina), dropping a 64-59 determination to South Carolina.
It was not solely a surprising loss for the Volunteers, it was additionally a uncommon highway win over a top-team for the Gamecocks.
Tuesday’s win was South Carolina’s first highway win over a top-five group going all the way in which again to the 1996-97 season. That win came visiting No. 3 Kentucky to shut out the common season schedule.
It was the Volunteers’ fifth lack of the season. However up till Tuesday all the earlier losses had come in opposition to upper-level competitors, together with a three-game dropping streak that noticed them loss video games to Purdue, Kansas and North Carolina.
All three of these groups are at present ranked within the top-10 within the nation. The opposite loss was a 77-72 determination in opposition to a Mississippi State group that climbed as excessive as No. 21 within the rankings.
Not solely did South Carolina rating the upset, it additionally held Tennessee to it lowest level whole of the season (59). It was additionally simply the fourth time all season the Volunteers have been held to lower than 70 factors in a single sport.
South Carolina has now crushed two of the highest groups within the SEC this season having additionally crushed then-No. 6 ranked Kentucky a bit of greater than per week in the past.
The Gamecocks, after profitable simply 11 video games below head coach Lamont Paris in his first yr operating the group a yr in the past, are actually 18-3 on the season and are going to begin getting some nationwide recognition with these two large upset wins in current weeks.
The 18 wins have already matched South Carolina’s most wins in a season courting for the reason that 2016-17 season.
