Mark Kingston believes SEC brand shouldn’t negatively impact South Carolina’s NCAA Tournament case

South Carolina is fighting for their national seed here on day three of the SEC Tournament. The Gamecocks face a strong Texas A&M side and need to win — not only to advance in the conference tourney, but to further bolster their case for one of the 16 regional host slots in the NCAA field. Mark Kingston’s team is right on the bubble of earning a national seed and could really use a win today to assure their spot.

During the game against the Aggies, the SEC Network crew caught up with Kingston and asked if he thought the team should already be guaranteed a national seed since they are No. 6 in RPI, No. 3 in strength of schedule and are currently rated 15th by D1 Baseball. Of course, the Gamecock coach believes those metrics plus the team’s body of work make them more than deserving.

His case:

“I agree. I think, again, we haven’t been great the last three weeks, but it’s a body of work. It’s — this team has deserved to be in that company because of the metrics you just read off. If the metrics don’t matter, then why are we keeping track of them? This team is very deserving and if we didn’t have SEC next to our name it would be a no-brainer — and I don’t think you can penalize a team or a league for having too many good teams.”

So Mark Kingston believes South Carolina would be a shoo-in as a regional host and national seed if they were in a conference other than the SEC. But that’s life in the best collegiate baseball league in the United States. Sometimes your record may look worse than the quality of your team since the conference is so stacked from top to bottom.

Lastly, Kingston was also asked about his starting pitcher, Jack Mahoney, who had pitched a few shutout innings to start before giving up one run right after the interview in the bottom of the third. However, Mark Kingston was still complimentary of his starter.

“Yeah, he’s been very good. He’s a competitor, he’s a winner, he’s got good stuff, and his command has up-ticked over the last half of the year, and that’s why he’s been pitching better.”

One run is nothing to fuss over against a team like A&M. The Gamecocks really need the bats to wake up in the middle innings to have a chance at securing a national seed this afternoon.

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