Greatest Gamecock bracket: basketball regional, round two
Time for some more voting!
Round two is here and up first are the football and basketball regionals with voting starting at 9 a.m. Thursday morning.
This side of things features a matchup between the two best scorers in school history, a women's and men's legend and matchups between recent and older players.
Voting can be found at the Fighting Gamecocks forum and a breakdown can be found below.
This bracket had a few more upsets with a nine, 11 and 13 seed pulling off victories to advance to the next round. A'ja Wilson is the lone women's basketball player to advance to the next round.
The matchups in this round are:
(1) Alex English vs. (9) BJ McKie
English is one of a few retired jerseys in program history, earning All-American honors in 1975 and is currently second all-time on the all-time scoring list and averaged 17.8 points over his career and shot 53.8 percent from the field over four seasons. Since the Gamecocks weren't in the ACC or Metro conferences when he played, he couldn't get any all-conference honors, of which he would have earned many.
McKie is another guy who should be much higher up the list if this was just the men's bracket, the school's all-time leading scorer and SEC Rookie of the Year in 1996. He helped lead the Gamecocks to a regular season SEC title in 1997 and McKie finished his career a two-time All-SEC selection and a third-team All-American. He's third all time in minutes played with a school record 672 free throws made.
(2) A'ja Wilson vs. (7) Grady Wallace
Wilson is by far the best player in program history: three-time SEC Player of the Year, three-time consensus All-American, four time All-SEC, SEC Freshman of the year, consensus player of the year and a national champion. She's first all-time in points, second in double-doubles and third in rebounds. It's just a matter of time before 22 is hanging in the rafters.
Wallace was the first ever jersey to get retired after two dominant seasons at South Carolina. He led the NCAA in points per game in 1956-57 with 31.3 and has four of the top six scoring games in program history, including a 54-point performance against Georgia as a senior. He still holds the program record for points per game and is top 10 in rebounding average.
(3) Sindarius Thornwell vs. (11) Kevin Joyce
Thornwell may go down as one of the best players in program history as time goes on, turning into one of the best two-way players the school's ever seen. The All-Freshman player turned into an All-American and SEC Player of the Year as a senior, ranking fifth in points per game all-time and leading the team to its first Final Four ever in 2017 as part of a senior year where he averaged 21.4 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.
Joyce was a two-time All-American in the early 1970s for South Carolina, averaging 17.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game over three seasons. It's been 50 years roughly since he's played but he's still top 10 all-time in scoring average, average assists, free throw percentage and free throws made. His No. 43 is retired as well.
(5) John Roche vs. (13) Devan Downey
Roche is another great Gamecock, earning three All-SEC honors, and multiple All-American nods over his illustrious career where he totaled 1,910 points (currently fourth all-time) and is second in school history averaging 22.5 points per game. His No. 11 is retired and hanging up at Colonial Life Arena.
Downey was another Gamecock great who deserves to be higher if this was just a men's basketball bracket. He was a three-time All-SEC selection, a two-time honorable mention All-American and was named to the SEC All-Defensive team as a senior. He holds a school record for field goals attempted in a career and is fifth all-time in points. And he almost single-handedly took down Kentucky.
