ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith among brackets predicting South Carolina MBB to do well in NCAAs

Heading into the 2024 NCAA Tournament, the South Carolina men’s basketball team has made one very loud voice a believer.

Stephen A. Smith is never one to avoid a bold take. The longtime ESPN personality is one of the more famous names with big expectations in March Madness for Lamont Paris’ Gamecocks.

Smith, in his personal bracket predictions, picked USC (26-7) to knock off Oregon, Creighton and Tennessee on the way to the Elite Eight against Purdue.

Overall, 54% of the brackets filled out on ESPN and CBS have South Carolina at least advancing out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

A scant few — just 0.3% of all brackets — on ESPN have even more faith, picking the Gamecocks to go all the way and hoist the national championship trophy in a few weeks. (UConn is the favorite to win it all.)

A few other big names have made their predictions for what happens to the Gamecocks.

▪ USC alum and current SEC Network personality Alyssa Lang has her alma mater making the Sweet 16 and falling to Tennessee (who she thinks will win the title).

▪ CBS’s Kyle Boone also expects a South Carolina run to the second weekend and a loss to Tennessee.

▪ From ESPN and SEC Network, Dari Nowkhah and Peter Burns expect a Gamecocks win in the opener, but then a loss to a strong Creighton squad.

The Gamecocks tip off against Oregon at 4 p.m. on Thursday in Pittsburgh (TNT). The winner will play Saturday against the winner of Creighton-Akron.