Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks learn SEC opponents for 2022-23 season

The South Carolina women’s basketball team’s schedule for the 2022-23 season is starting to come into focus.

The Southeastern Conference on Wednesday announced teams’ league opponents for the upcoming season. The defending national champion Gamecocks have home-and-away SEC series against Kentucky, Auburn and Georgia to go with home or road contests against the league’s other foes.

The 16-game SEC schedule for USC starts Dec. 29 and will include:

▪ Home games: Kentucky, Auburn, Georgia, Arkansas, Florida, LSU, Missouri and Texas A&M

▪ Road games: Kentucky, Auburn, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Vanderbilt

Game dates and TV times won’t be set for a few months. (The full schedule for last season wasn’t released until September.)

The LSU game projects as a marquee game at Colonial Life Arena. South Carolina defeated the Tigers 66-60 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana last season in Kim Mulkey’s first season as LSU coach.

Missouri, which delivered the Gamecocks their only SEC regular-season loss last year, comes to Columbia this year. South Carolina’s lone game against Tennessee this year will be in Knoxville.

Dawn Staley will be coaching her 15th season at South Carolina. She is in the second year of a seven-year contract extension with the Gamecocks. The team was 36-2 overall last year in winning its second national championship.

Staley has a 167-55 record in SEC games with a .752 winning percentage that’s second to Tennessee’s Pat Summitt (.874) in league history. The 167 wins are third all time behind Summitt (306) and Andy Landers (Georgia, 273).

Among the known non-conference games, South Carolina travels to UConn on Feb. 5 for a title game rematch.

USC also faces South Dakota State on Dec. 5 in Sioux Falls. The Gamecocks will travel to face Maryland on a to-be-determined date.