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MBB: Are the Gamecocks in?

ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi's most recent bracketology, released Friday morning, has South Carolina (24-7, 11-7) projected as a No. 8 seed playing VCU in Raleigh.

The Gamecocks, who face Georgia in the SEC Tournament tonight at 9:30, were listed as a team that "should be in" in Wednesday's bubble watch update -- but Lunardi stopped just short of calling the team a lock at the time.

"South Carolina should get in the tournament without much cause for concern," the update reads. "That's likely true even if it falls victim to either Mississippi State or Georgia in its first SEC tournament game.

"That said, we're going to wait and see how things shake out everywhere else on the bubble before we lock in the Gamecocks, because here's a thing we know about the committee in recent years: It hates bad nonconference schedules. If the Gamecocks are on the borderline -- and they aren't, at least not right now -- that 296th-ranked nonconference schedule could be a serious problem. Safety first."

CBSSports.com's Jerry Palm's latest bracketology report Friday morning offered a slightly more pessimistic take.

"You wouldn't think a team that's 23-7 in a major conference (would) be on the bubble, but South Carolina's resume isn't nearly as good as its record.," Palm says. "The Gamecocks have two top 50 wins against Texas A&M and Tulsa, but also bad losses to Tennessee, Mississippi State and Missouri and a non-conference strength of schedule that ranks at 265. They have already lost twice to the Bulldogs. A third loss could make for a much more nervous selection Sunday than they would have expected a month ago."

South Carolina head coach Frank Martin defended his team's resume during his preview press conference earlier this week.

"If winning 24 games, 11 BCS-conference games, finishing third in a BCS conference, is not good enough to get into an NCAA tournament, I need to go back to bouncing," Martin said. "And I don't say that jokingly. I mean that seriously. But there's only one way you guarantee you're playing in the postseason and that's when your regular season conference championship or figure out a way to play Saturday night (in the SEC tournament championship) and win. Outside of that, there's no guarantees. Do we feel good about what we've done? Absolutely."

The Gamecocks could seemingly firmly lock themselves into the tournament with a victory tonight over Georgia, which has defeated them twice this year. Tipoff is scheduled for 9:30 on the SEC Network.

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