South Carolina vs. Texas A&M: Game preview, TV schedule, prediction

The bubble for the SEC has daily battles between teams looking to get in the Big Dance. Two of them, South Carolina and Texas A&M, will do battle this weekend.

TV schedule: Saturday, February 3, 2:00 p.m. ET. ESPN2

Arena: Reed Arena in College Station, Texas

In the latest edition of Busting Brackets’ latest Bracketology, the SEC basketball conference received eight bids, tied with the ACC for the most selections. By no means are these teams safe, though, with at least half of them in immediate danger of falling to the bad side of the bubble.

Texas A&M got a No. 10 seed in our projections after losing a pair of road games last week to LSU and Kansas. The good news is that the Aggies did get back on the winning side, beating Arkansas 80-66. It was a balanced effort for the team, with all five starters scoring with double figures. Tyler Davis led the way with 15 points and 13 rebounds.

While Texas A&M is in fair condition, South Carolina is on life support, being the very last team in. The Gamecocks weren’t even in the picture a couple of weeks ago, but going 2-2 against four ranked teams in a row gave them the resume boosters needed for to get back in the conversation.

The problem is that they took a step back by losing this week to Mississippi State, 81-76. Grad transfer Frank Booker had a career-high 25 points and Chris Silva continued his solid run of performances with 18 points. Usually, 76 points scored is good enough for a Frank Martin team, but they picked a bad time to give up a season-high in points to another team.

The big question in this game will be how Silva, who normally has the advantage over most other bigs, handles the Aggies frontcourt of Davis and Robert Williams. Silva tends to get in foul trouble and South Carolina will need him in this one.

Next: SEC Mid-season recap and awards

The Gamecocks are in the midst of a brutal 11-game stretch filled will road games and battles with ranked teams. On one hand, it’s an opportunity to get good wins. On the other side, it could throw them off the bubble altogether. This could be the easiest game they’ll have in a while, so winning is important.

Prediction: Texas A&M 77 – South Carolina 66