The best way to think about South Carolina basketball is "Dum Spiro Spero."  The meaning of that saying, which is the State motto, is "While I breathe, I hope."

Let's dive into this after the jump...

The South Carolina men's basketball team (10-17, 2-11 SEC) will play host to the Tennessee Volunteers (15-13, 7-6 SEC) on Saturday evening in a game set to begin at 8 p.m. ET on FSN.  The Gamecocks need to pull the upset just to end the season in respectable fashion as the Vols are beatable but it will take a total team effort from USC.

The Gamecocks suffered a 69-57 loss in Knoxville in the first meeting of the season between the two schools just two weeks ago and recently lost to Vandy.  UT has won five of its last six contests but for the season is 1-5 on SEC road games.  Again, USC can win this game and here is how....

The South Carolina men's basketball team suffered a 59-48 loss on the road at Vanderbilt on Wednesday in SEC play. Here are the hightlights of the game:

South Carolina returns to Colonial Life Arena to host Tennessee on Saturday. USC has a record now of 10-17 overall and 2-11 in conference play.

Here is the SEC Men's baskeballt power poll ballot for last week.  Please let us know where are votes went wrong and do check out the highlights from last week....

The South Carolina men's basketball team (10-16, 2-10 SEC) travels to Vanderbilt (19-8, 8-4 SEC) on Wednesday for an 8 p.m. ET contest at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville.

Here is Coach Horn talking about the game:

This morning I was catching up on some daily South Carolina Gamecocks sports reading and came across a story from Darryl Slater of the Post & Courier about how close USC basketball is to setting a record.

Well, this is not the type record you want your school to have.  See the Gamecocks are sitting at 2-10 in SEC league play and must win at least two more games to avoid the label of having the WORST SEC record of all-time.  Currently, the record is 3-13.

The Gamecocks have four regular season games remaining, those are against: Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Mississippi State and Georgia.

So out of those four, who can USC beat?

Let's discuss each opponent and the chances:

Arkansas defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks by the score of 76-65.  The loss moves USC's record to 9-15 overall, 1-9 in SEC play.  The 'Cocks have lost five straight and nine of the last ten games.

The Gamecocks had no answer for Arkansas's B.J. Young as he coasted to a 27-point effort. USC got good effort from Damontre Harris, who had 12 points to lead the Gamecocks and Malik Cooke added 11 in the loss.

USC played well to start but after the Razorbacks went on a 11-0 run to close the first half, the game never went in the favor of USC.  The 'Cocks just could not get over the hump.  They fought hard but it was not enough late.

USC clinched a losing SEC season for the third straight season and will have the 14th losing league season in the program's 21 years in the SEC.

South Carolina returns to Colonial Life Arena for two contests next week, the first against Georgia on Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. on CSS, before hosting LSU on Feb. 18, at 1:30 p.m. on the SEC Network.

South Carolina (9-13, 1-7 SEC) clashes with Tennessee (11-12, 3-5 SEC) in a mid-week showdown and here is your quick preview of the basketball game.

 Game Info
Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Tipoff: 8 p.m. ET
Location: Knoxville, Tenn.
Television: SEC Network (check local listings)

Now on to the preview....

This South Carolina Gamecocks blog joins forces with other SEC bloggers to vote in the SEC Basketball Power Poll.

Here are is our ballot for the week ending Feb. 5, 2012:

The South Carolina men's hoops program is having a very tough year and here is some video highlights of the last three games.

We have been out-of-pocket in our coverage of the hoop's squad mainly due to National Signing Day but also it seems that it is the same thing each outing.  Hard to write about the losses each time out.

Let's hope the recent loss to Kentucky was the bottom of this travel down to the valley after reaching somewhat of the mountain top in winning the SEC East a few years back.

South Carolina is now 9-13 overall and 1-7 in SEC play. They’ll take on Tennessee in Knoxville on Wednesday night. Tip off is set for 8 ET.

Here are video highlights of the last three losses...