After its first-round NIT win over Houston, Georgia Tech will play South Carolina Monday at 9 p.m. in Columbia, S.C. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
The Gamecocks are 25-8 with an RPI of No. 64, according to warrennolan.com. They were a bubble team and among the "first four out," which is how they drew the No. 1 seed for their eight-team quadrant in the NIT.
“I’m excited,” Tech guard Adam Smith said. “They’re a tough team. They got off to a great start this season. They drew a lot of attention. Even though they weren’t on our schedule, they were hard to miss. And they’ve played great basketball throughout the season I think they’re one of those teams that feels like they were kind of snubbed from the NCAA tournament, so they’re hungry at this point. SEC team – it’s going to be a good challenge for us.”
South Carolina may be without five players who were suspended indefinitely prior to its first-round win over High Point on Tuesday. The State newspaper reported Wednesday that players' names were listed on three recent incident reports from the Columbia police department. One was charged with malicious injury to private property and third-degree assault battery and another was charged with malicious injury to real property and three counts of malicious injury to personal property.
The arrests were made after a police investigation of property crimes and vandalism involving a high-powered BB gun, according to the State.
Two of the suspended players, Marcus Stroman and Chris Silva, average the seventh and eighth most minutes on the team at 13.0 and 12.3, respectively. The other three, TeMarcus Blanton, Jamall Gregory and Eric Cobb, do not play significant amounts.
Should the suspensions remain in effect for Monday’s game, the Jackets would have a considerable advantage against a team that either will have to rely on its top six players or use players who have not received consistent playing time.
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