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South Carolina Gamecocks at Colonial Life Arena
Columbia, South Carolina, is home to one of the top basketball programs in the Southeastern Conference. The University of South Carolina Gamecocks play at Colonial Life Arena, which opened in 2002 and seats 18,000. They are coached by Frank Martin, who successfully led the Kansas State Wildcats to four NCAA tournament appearances in five seasons before moving on to South Carolina in 2012, leading the Gamecocks to their first men's Final Four appearance in 2017.
South Carolina Gamecocks Men's Basketball History
The University of South Carolina first fielded a men's basketball team in 1908, and achieved success in the Southern Conference in the 1920s and '30s, before joining six other SoCon teams to form the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1953. The legendary Frank McGuire, who had previously led St. John's and UNC to Final Four appearances, led the Gamecocks from 1964 until his retirement in 1980. During McGuire's reign, South Carolina reached the NCAA Sweet 16 three years in a row, from 1971 to 1973, in addition to winning the ACC regular season and tournament championship once apiece in their final two seasons in the conference.
Eight-time NBA All-Star and Basketball Hall of Famer Alex English starred at South Carolina in the mid '70s, and was arguably the first African-American star athlete in the school's history. South Carolina moved from the Metro Conference to the Southeastern Conference in 1991, with coach Eddie Fogler leading the Gamecocks to an SEC regular season championship in 1997. Former Wake Forest head coach Dave Odom led South Carolina from 2001 to 2008, appearing in three postseason NIT championships, winning in 2005 and 2006 behind the play of tournament MVPs Carlos Powell and Renaldo Balkman. In 2017, the Gamecocks made their first appearance in the Final Four, beating Marquette, Duke, Baylor and Florida before bowing to Gonzaga in the national semifinal. South Carolina became the tenth team to have both their men's and women's teams reach their respective Final Four in the same year, with coach Dawn Staley's women's team winning the 2017 NCAA championship.
The Florida Gators put it to the Gamecocks at their own house by completely manhandling them in both offense and defense. It could have been worst if the gators had a better offensive team. Love it, GO GATORS!!!!!
SEC basketball for a good value. We are Florida Gator fans so try and make it to Columbia to see the Gators play South Carolina when they are in town. Easy to get to, good parking options, and great value. Venue rarely sells out so you can pick and choose where you want to sit depending on budget and how close you want to get to the court. Folks working the arena are pleasant as well. If interested in seeing major college basketball, at a good value and fun time, consider South Carolina Gamecock basketball at Colonial Life Arena.
The home crowd at USC Basketball games is crazy, in a good way. Even as a fan of the visiting team, I had a great time with the crowd. I had no negative experiences with any of the fans. The stadium is somewhat small, but it's nicer than what I had expected from a college basketball arena.
We sat on the front row of the upper level and the view was still great! Close game but the Gamecocks came out with the win!
My Boyfriend and I took my Grandson who is 8 and is playing Church Basketball. It was his and my first college BB game and we had so much fun and the game score was so close from start to finish. Our team won! Go Cocks!!! Great time!!! I think it sold out :)
There's nothing in this world like college basketball. This was a great game between two powerhouse teams, but the Gamecocks proved that they're more powerful in the end.
We had a group of 6 attending the USC- Texas A and M game. We enjoyed the atmosphere, and the enthusiasm of the crowd. It was good to see Carolina play and win! The second half was especially good.
Seating is great with awesome views. Very nice area with the bars and restaurants North, the campus East, and the main traffic arteries South and West. The proximity to The Vista makes for a great night out. Go grab some good eats and some beers in The Vista, and go watch the Gamecocks play.
My son loved it! My wife and I enjoyed it as well! I wish there had been more pizza vendors but that is a small detail. Overall, great game and a great win!
The seats were great and there was entertainment throughout the entire game.
Great game!!!! Awesome family day. Looking forward to our next trip with better seats.
It was amazing. I cannot think of a better way to have spent my birthday.
It's always a good day when you get to watch your team win.
It was a great game however the seats were in the nosebleed sedction. I saw many empty seats through the entire Colonial Life Center. It would have been nice to be upgraded by Ticketmaster to closer seats.
This was our first experience at the Colonial Life Arena. We were quite impressed with the venue--well done!
My wife and daughters drove down from Kannapolis, NC and really enjoyed the UK vs SC basketball game. The SC fans were excellent to the visiting UK fans of which I'm an alumni of UK. The arena seats were comfortable and don't believe there would be a bad seat in the house. This is the third time I've visited this arena and each time has been great. We noticed a lot of construction around the arena which probably took up most of the parking I remember from previous games so we parked in the parking deck. We really took our time leaving the arena after the game and it still took 30 minutes before we could move out of our parking space. However, the fan experience made up for the parking situation. Many thanks go out to the home team and fans for how welcoming you were to the visiting fans!
We really enjoyed the game and SC has a nice arena. Even with a sellout, everything was handled very efficiently.
Great game. Venue is good for viewing no matter where you have seats.
Seats were good despite the tall handrail at the end of the stairs. The game was and entertainment were terrific. Of course my Gators won so I liked it more than the home team. My friend and I attend this game nearly every year and despite those few seasons where were able to get seats in a box this was another great experience. I highly recommend sporting events and concerts (saw Jimmy Buffett a number of years ago) at Colonial Life Area.
Great atmosphere! Staff and concessions ran very efficiently.
