Overall, 2022 was a good year for South Carolina athletics. The school captured their second NCAAW Basketball National Championship, secured a commitment from the highest-rated men's hoops recruit in program history, knocked off two top 5 opponents on way to an 8-4 football season, and continued to enjoy success in multiple Olympic sports, but it was far from perfect. The Gamecocks, in what is becoming a disturbing trend, missed the postseason in baseball for the fourth time in the last eight non-COVID canceled seasons and the men's basketball program hit whatever is harder than a hard reset when the program appeared poised for a strong season.

In short, 2023 has room to improve on its predecessor. Gamecock fans were generally nice this year, except when the Dowell Loggains news broke, but they eventually came around, and if you aren't asking Maryland Football Twitter, hopefully, nice enough for Santa to grant the following Christmas wishes.

While the luster of bowl games appears to be fading rapidly with the addition of more poorly attended bowls featuring 6-6 teams, an expanded playoff, and too many opt-outs to count, one must remember that South Carolina has won 9 games or more seven times in 129 years of football. A win in the Gator Bowl would make it eight. Beating a nationally ranked name brand like Notre Dame would make it that much sweeter.

Gamecocks fans should be stoked about Shane Beamer's, not yet finished- more on this below, top 21 recruiting class, but the most two most important players have yet to make a decision. Spencer Rattler and Juice Wells would give the Gamecocks two possible Heisman contenders on the offensive side of the ball. If Beamer can convince both to stay, we'd expect South Carolina to enter the 2023 season in the Top 20.

Nyckoles Harbor has offers from everyone. Securing his commitment might be one of the most important in program history. South Carolina has landed some 5-star recruits previously, but never one outside of their traditional recruiting footprint against this level of competition. (MarShawn Lloyd is close but the Gamecocks got his commitment early in the recruiting cycle). Harbor could literally play 5 different positions for the Gamecocks and would establish Shane Beamer and his staff as national recruiters.

GG Jackson likely won't be sticking around Columbia after this season, nor should he as a potential Top 15 NBA Draft pick, but while Jackson is here, Lamont Paris needs to capitalize on his talent. Anyone that has ever watched basketball has seen enough to know this Gamecock team is not making the postseason. They simply don't have the horses to win the likely 11-12 games they would need to win in the SEC. What Gamecock fans would like to see is if this team continues to gel and be competitive with the upper echelon of the league. Winning 6 conference games would be huge for this team and would hopefully show other top recruits in the Columbia area that Paris is going to turn this program around.

This is a make-or-break year for Mark Kingston. The SEC is going to be loaded again with several national title contenders. The Gamecocks don't have to contend for a national title, but they have to make a regional and win some games in the regional. Kington has retooled the roster with the transfer portal and returns some key arms that missed 2022 with injuries. This team has enough talent to play postseason baseball. If they don't, Ray Tanner is going to likely be looking to lead yet another coaching search.

Whether it is fair or not, that is the expectation that Dawn Staley has set in Columbia for the 2022-2023 season. From two months of viewing the competition, there are maybe 3-4 teams in the country that could beat the Gamecocks in March if they don't have their "A" game. There are none that will beat Carolina if they are firing on all cylinders. Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke, Brea Beal, Laeticia Amihere, and Olivia Thompson would go down as the most successful recruiting class in South Carolina sports history. Staley has built a program that is not going to fall off too much despite graduation and transfers, but a national title next season is probably unlikely considering everything Dawn Staley will need to replace.

Newly hired Dowell Loggains seemed to win over a skeptical fanbase after one press conference. Loggains is a likable and charismatic coach. This hire was bound to be more scrutinized by a fan base that seen G.A Mangus, Kurt Roper, Bryan McClendon, Mike Bobo, and Marcus Satterfield, come and go in short order with limited success. Gamecock fans wanted a home run, Loggains might be that but only time will tell. To me, the most important answer from his press conference was when he said that he will tailor his offense to his personnel. The last coach the Gamecocks had that did that wore a visor and won a bunch of games.

The Gamecocks are 10-4 at home under Beamer, but they have to stop dropping games at home to Kentucky, (2021), and Missouri (2022). Next year Carolina welcomes Kentucky and Mississippi State to Williams-Brice. Those are must-win games. South Carolina also simply has to do a better job of staying in games on the road. They made strides in 2022 with wins over Kentucky and Clemson, but they also were soundly beaten at Arkansas and Florida, two teams that finished 6-6 this season. Beamer is building a more complete roster year-by-year. Next year the Gamecocks need to show they can compete in Athens, Knoxville, and College Station, (and hopefully win at least one of those games).