South Carolina starts its season with two games this weekend in Kansas City.

South Carolina’s exhibition game against Coker was canceled about two hours before tipoff Wednesday because Coker’s COVID-19 testing results had not arrived. At least during the non-conference season, it appears this will be an ongoing problem. On the women’s side, UCLA delayed its season opener for more than an hour before eventually postponing it because Cal State Fullerton’s test results didn’t arrive in time. UCLA’s athletics director ended up paying for a new round of tests for Cal State Fullerton so that the game could be rescheduled for Friday.

Presumably South Carolina would have made more of an effort to play the game if it had been an actual game, not an exhibition. As an exhibition, it was mostly an opportunity for Frank Martin to try out different lineups. Instead, South Carolina will have to hit the ground running against one of its toughest nonconference opponents. And that opponent - Liberty - is already a replacement for the originally scheduled team, Northwestern.

“I anticipated that there’s going to be change," Martin said Monday, before the cancellation. "It is what it is. From a scouting standpoint, if we were to find out Thursday night it would be a different opponent Saturday then that would create a problem from a scouting standpoint. But listen, if we get a chance to play (...) at the end of the day, any time we get to play a game this year it’s a win for our kids.”

2. Consistency

Since the Coker exhibition didn’t happen, I am reusing two of the things to watch. Here’s what I wrote Tuesday:

“Okay, you can’t really judge consistency in one game, but this is going to be a recurring question this season. Inconsistency, especially from the guard position, is what has torpedoed South Carolina the past few seasons. The no-shows against teams they should have taken care of (think Stetson) have been too common. There should be no excuses this season. AJ Lawson is a junior and Jermaine Couisnard a redshirt freshman. There is experience all around.

“We’ve had inexperienced guards,” Frank Martin said. “We can’t stub our toe at home like we have the past couple of years. We’ve got to clean that up and I’ve got to trust in the experience of our team that they’ve been through it collectively with that same group of guards that they’ll handle it better.”

It would be unwise to read too much into this exhibition game, but even keeping that in mind, if Lawson or Couisnard, or Justin Minaya or Keyshawn Bryant (you get the idea), is off his game Wednesday, it could be a sign the Gamecocks could be in for another frustrating season. The statistics may not be the best indicator, but pay attention to defense and effort to see who is engaged.”

The only thing I’ll change is that you can read more into how South Carolina performs this weekend. Liberty is exactly the sort of solid small-to-mid-major team that has caught South Carolina napping in the past and is more than good enough to win. The same could be said for Tulsa. TCU is a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 team, not that different from South Carolina. South Carolina should at least keep it close if not win.

3. Still Keyshawn

I’m also still excited to see what Keyshawn Bryant does.

“Keyshawn Bryant had a star-crossed sophomore campaign. When he was healthy, he was really good, but that was the exception. A knee injury cost him the first month of the season. He had strong games in the wins over Clemson and Virginia, but was slow getting back into game shape. He scored 15 in the upset of Kentucky, his season-high at the time, and appeared to have turned the corner. Then Bryant suffered a concussion just minutes into the next game and was back to square one. He missed a week and was not the same player when he came back. But the light came on over the last five games of the season, when Bryant averaged 15.6 points and 9.4 rebounds including career-highs of 22 points and 13 rebounds against Alabama.

During that stretch, Bryant showed he could succeed as a small-ball power forward. Martin would like to see more of that, giving South Carolina the ability to play positionless basketball and outrun teams.

“Keyshawn is one of the most intelligent players on our team,” Martin said. “He’s had a tremendous preseason. I really hope that he gets the season started the right way so he can get confidence and then take that next step as a player.””

4. Scouting the Flames

The Flames are already 1-1 this season. They lost to Purdue but beat Mississippi State. Darius McGhee, a 5-9 junior, hit seven threes in that win. McGhee is averaging 22 points over the two games, which has to be unsettling for a Gamecock team that has a history of struggling to guard shooters.

Despite being a late addition, Liberty is arguably the best team in the Hall of Fame Classic. Liberty has won twenty games four straight seasons, and went 30-3 last year. Beating Mississippi State, a team South Carolina split with last season, shows Liberty didn’t just feast on the Atlantic Sun schedule.

5. Scouting the Horned Frogs/Golden Hurricane

Frank Haith won 20 games in his first two seasons at Tulsa and went 19-12 last season. Senior Brandon Rachal is Tulsa’s leading returning scorer after averaging 12.1 points and 5.8 rebounds last season. Aside from Rachal, Tulsa will look a lot different this season.

The Golden Hurricane have added three transfers, a graduate transfer, a juco transfer, and five freshmen to the roster. Keyshawn Embery-Simpson comes from Arkansas where he averaged 4.1 points. Curtis Haywood II arrives from Georgia Tech where he averaged 5.6 points as a sophomore. Ryan Gendron comes from Oklahoma State.

TCU went 21-12 and 9-9 in the Big 12 last season, its second under Jamie Dixon. It was an impressive run for TCU, which went 0-18 in the Big 12 just four years earlier. Only two starters return from that team. Guard RJ Nembhard is one of the top returning players in the Big 12 and averaged 12.1 points last season. Center Kevin Samuel has more blocked shots than missed shots in his career and could become TCU’s all-time blocks leader this weekend. He averaged 10 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks per game last season and made two out of every three shot attempts. TCU was able to play Wednesday, notching a 69-45 win over Houston Baptist.

The Ws

Who: South Carolina vs Liberty; South Carolina vs TCU/Tulsa

When: Saturday, November 28, 4:00 pm; Sunday, November 29, 1:00 (losers)/3:30 (winners) pm

Where: T-Mobile Center, Kansas City, MO

Watch: ESPNews; ESPN2