University of South Carolina Libraries
Inside: Schedule USC athletes make the grade in fall 1999 ■ Men’s basketball vs. Vanderbilt, 7:30 p.m. semester; Gamboa makes run for title at ■ Women’s basketball at Arkansas, Thu. SEC Indoor Tennis Championships u Track at ETSU Invitational, Fri. ■ Swimming atAuburn, Fri. J ■ Men’s tennis at USC Invitational, Fri. Wednesday, January 26,2000 101C 03IHCCOCk ” Page B1 USC tries to halt streaking Vandy by David Cloninger Sports Editor The USC men’s basketball team, reeling from four consecutive losses, will try to break out of their current funk by beating No. 20 Vanderbilt tonight at Frank McGuire Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Vanderbilt (12-3,3-2 SEC), comes into the game on a high note, getting a solid start in Southeastern Confer ence play and taking No. 18 Kentucky to overtime Saturday before being de feated. Preseason All-American Dan Langhi is averaging 22.1 points per game, and has been the Commodores’ catalyst for the entire season. For USC, the game is the start of four straight games against ranked op ponents, with only two in the friend ly confines of Carolina Coliseum. The Gamecocks (9-9,1-4 SEC) need a win to keep their hopes afloat for post season play. Guards Vandy has an excellent trio of guards in sophomore Sam Howard and seniors Atiba Prater and James Strong. Strong is the second-leading scorer for Vanderbilt behind Langhi, and has 61 assists for the season. Prater is wind ing down a brilliant career at Van derbilt while collecting an SEC-lead ing 98 assists already this year. Although he averages only 7.3 points per game, Prater directs the high-scor ing Commodore offense and is the team’s floor leader. USC will be directed once again by sophomore Aaron Lucas and fresh man phenom Chuck Eidson. Lucas continues to play solid bas ketball, averaging 7.4 points per game and amassing 88 assists for the year. Eidson, meanwhile, is being discussed by all of USC’s previous opponents as one of the future’s bright stars. The freshman is leading the conference with 58 steals, has 63 assists and av erages 10.3 points per game. How ever, Eidson has scored 24 and 17 points, respectively in his last two matches. Both of USC’s guards were lim ited by foul trouble in the Gamecocks’ 90-62 loss at Georgia. If Eidson and Lucas get into early foul trouble ggain, USC might have a long night ahead. Forwards Langhi enters the game as the SEC’s leading scorer and has already won one SEG Player of the Week award this year. The driving force be hind head coach Kevin Stallings’ high powered offense, Langhi is in the top five of almost every SEC offensive statistical category and is making Vhndy a legitimate contender to run into the NCAA Tournament. The versatile.se nior is a threat from anywhere on the floor, playing power forward mostly but=also platooning at center. Langhi is helped by junior An thony Williams, who scores around nine points a game and vacuum-cleans the boards, averaging 6.6 rebounds per game. He and Langhi combine to present one of the SEC’s more for midable inside forces, both on offense and defense. The Gamecocks are without a typ ical beefed-up, bang-inside forward, so they use senior guard Herbert Lee Davis as a swingman, flashing outside and then in to lead the team in scor ing with 10.9 points per game. USC also uses sophomore Damien Kinloch, a 6-10 forward who aver ages 4.7 per game, both in points and rebounds. Also, redshirt junior Anto nio Grant helps out in the paint and has a good shot from the 3-point line. Center The Commodore and Game cock centers both have something in common they don’t score many points per game, but no defender wants to get in their way. Vandy is led by sophomore Dar ius Coulibaly, a 7-1 blocker from Greensboro, who has rejected 17 shots this year. He joins with 6-10 junior Greg LaPointe, who collects 5.5 points per game but onlyhas two blocks for the year. USC starts 6-11 freshman Marius Petravicius, who has had several solid games this year and averages 7.8 points per game. Redshirt freshman Tony Kitchings adds in a team-leading 21 blocks for the year, as well as 6.6 points per game. Both of the USC big men are reliable, but lack the scoring drive necessary to match up with the other centers of the SEC. ▼ Langhi key for Vandy victory by Jeff Romig Sports Editor Eddie Fogler wouldn’t comment on how other SEC teams have guarded Van derbilt forward Dan Langhi. He would only say that the Gamecocks (9-9,1-4 SEC) would do their best against the 20th-ranked team’s top player. The 6-11 senior has established him self as one of the premier players in the SEC this year, averaging 22.1 points and 5.7 rebounds a game. His scoring av erage is tops in the SEC and ninth in the country. If USC can figure out a way to guard Langhi, they will have done something that only one team has done all season. Langhi has scored in double figures against every opponent except for Belmont. Langhi could only managed four points in the Commodores (12-3,3-2 SEC) first game of the season. He’s scored 20-plus in 10 of 15 games and scored 30-plus on three occasions. “He’s terrific offensively,” Fogler said. “He as good as there is - hard to stop.” Fogler won’t do anything special to shut down Langhi. “I think everybody puts an empha sis on trying in some way contain him,” Fogler said “I don’t think anybody goes into a game with Vanderbilt and doesn’t concentrate on Langhi to some degree.” Langhi isn’t solely a scoring threat. His ability to combine height, ball-han dling ability and perimeter scoring allow him to play either forward position suc cessfully. “Their sets are geared to give him opportunities,” Fogler said “He’s a prob lem for anybody. He is one of the most versatile big men in the United States.” Langhi isn’t the only person the Gamecocks have to worry about though. “Their guards are very good” Fogler said “I’ve always been abig [Atiba] Prater fan. He’s excellent in the open court and excellent in making decisions.” Prater is averaging 7.3 points and 6.6 assists a game. He leads the SEC in assists and is second in career assists at Vander bilt with 435. “They are offensively diverse,” Fogler said “Kevin Stallings has done an excel lent Job installing his system. They picked it up great.” Sean Rayford Gamecock Sports USC’s Chuck Eidson (center) goes up for a layup against Georgia’s Adrian Jones (11) and Shon Coleman (51). USC lost to Georgia 90-62 on Jan. 22. It was their fourth consecutive loss. USC Men's Basketball Team Statistics (through Jan. 26) PLAYER 14 Herbert Lee Davis 31 Chuck Eidson 35 Antonio Grant 12 Marius Petravicius 05 Aaron Lucas 50 Tony Kitchings 33 Damien Kinloch 15 Travis Kraft 10 jamel Bradley 32 Calvin Clemmons 00 David Ross 04 Ivan Howell 20 Jo Jo Cadray 24 Brian Scott gp-gs min-avg 18-18 477-26.5 18-8 497-27.6 17- 13 434-25.5 18- 18 374-20.8 18-18 575-31.9 18-0 372-20.7 18-15 380-21.1 11-0 12-11.5 17- 0 123-7.2 7-0 43-6.1 18- 0 158-8.8 9-0 51-5.7 5-0 12-2.4 2-0 3-1.5 TOTAL 3-POINTERS FG-FGA PCT FG-FGA PCT FT-FTA 77-170 .453 22-58 .379 2143 72-147 .490 1743 .395 2447 49-108 .454 18-54 .333 2040 45- 99 .455 0-0 .000 51-82 46- 127 .362 16-59 .271 26-35 52-107 .486 0-0 .000 15-33 37-77 .481 0-0 .000 11-26 13-39 .333 11-35 .314 5-6 2043 .465 18-37 .486 34 9-19 .474 0-0 .000 4-9 1940 .475 11-26 .423 14 4-15 .267 3-6 .500 5-6 1-2 .500 0-1 .000 34 0-3 .000 0-1 .000 0-0 REBOUNDS PCT OFF-DEF TOT-AVG PF-FO .488 24-34 58-3.2 25-0 .511 1146 57-3.2 38-0 .500 43-53 96-5.6 22- 0 .622 35-43 78-4.3 54-3 .743 11-41 52-2.9 38-0 .455 26-50 76-4.2 30-1 .423 37-48 85-4.7 40-2 .833 5-6 11-1.0 8-0 .750 1-8 9-0.5 2-0 .444 6-8 14-2.0 3-0 •250 6-7 134)7 26-0 .833 2-4 64)7 7-0 750 0-1 141.2 04) .000 0-0 0-0.0 0-0 A TO BLK ST PTS AVG 23 22 10 10 197 10.9 63 48 12 58 185 10.3 17 25 2 21 136 8.0 3 34 12 6 141 7.8 88 55 4 24 134 7.4 13 26 21 16 119 6.6 6 29 9 8 85 4.7 4 10 0 2 42 3.8 8 3 0 3 61 3.6 0 3 0 0 22 3.1 0 10 14 0 50 2.8 8 8 0 2 16 1.8 2 1 0 2 5 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0 Probable starting lineups No. 20 VandacbOt (12-3,3-2 SEC) F 32 Anthony Williams (62,235, Jr.. 9.4 ppg, 66 rpg), F 42 DanLaighi(6-ll,215, Sr., 22.1 ppg, 5.7 rpg),C 52 GrqgLaPbinte (6-10,235, Jr, 5.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg), G 5 At- • iba Prater (6-1,180, Sr., 7.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg), G13 James Strong(6-3,195,Sr. 122 ppg. 4.3 rpg) Scwth Carolina (9-9, MSEC) F 14 Herbert Lee Davis (6-5,182 Sr, )0.9 ppg, 32 rpg), F 33 Daniiai Kin loch (6-7,215, So., 4.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg), C 12 Marius Petravidus (6-10,245, Fr„ 7.8 ppg, 4.3 rpg), G 5 Aaron Lucas (5-11, 170, So., 7.4 ppg, 2.9 rpg), G 31 Chuck Eidson (6-7,198, Fr., 10.3 ppg, 32 rpg) Head Coaches: Vanderbilt: Kevin Stallings (123-63, 12-3 VU) USC Ed die Fogler (244-174,102-94 USC) TipofiE 7:30 p.m. Location: Frank McGuire Arena TV: None Radio: WVOC-Columbia, 560 AM Tickets: Still available Series History All-time record: Vmderbilt 13, USC 11 Last meeting: USC 69, Mmdetbilt 57 (1 30-99, Columbia) First began: 1926\fcndeibilt31,U5C25 (in Atlanta) At Columbia: USC 7, \hndeibilt 3 At Nashville: Vmdeibilt 9, USC 3 At neutral sites: USC 1, \hndertrilt 1 McAlexander wins second S.C. Sportscaster of the Year award by Shannon Rooke Assistant Sports Editor Charlie McAlexander, the play-by-play voice of the Game cocks, has been chosen by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association as the 1999 Sportscaster of the Year in South Carolina. “This [award] is always a great honor,” McAlexander said. ‘It’s important because your peers are the ones that vote for you.” McAlexander, more commonly known as Charlie “Mac,” has been in the broadcasting business within the Southeastern Conference for 28 years. He also hosts the Eddie Fogler and |^)J^cott television shows and the “Carolina Calls” radio ti^Rnow. McAlexander, who is in his fifth year as the “Voice of the Gamecocks,” receives the award for the second time in South Carolina. He has earned the honor seven times before in such jstates as Mississippi (13)75), Tennessee (1990-J1), Kentucky (1992-94), and South Carolina (1996). McAlexander now joins Hall of Famer Ray Scott as the only four-state winner in the history of the NSSA and he is the first announcer in SEC history to win the award in four dif ferent states. “Even though we haven’t dominated in some of the ma jor sports, I’ve always been a film believer in Gamecock sports,” McAlexander said. “A game is a report, and you try to make it an honest report and throw in some entertainment as well.” After handling the play-by-play at Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Ole Miss, McAlexander was a national president for the NSSA and is a longtime member of the organization. In 1995, he succeeded Gamecock announcer Bob Ful ton. McAlexander was enthusiastic about returning for his sixth season at USC. McAlexander, a native of Holly Springs, Miss., is a grad uate of Delta State University. He and his wife Betty now re side in Columbia and haye two daughters, Emily (26) and Carrie (22). Barron crucial for USC football class Charlie Wallace Senior Writer In the recruiting wars, there are cer tain players who programs will go to great lengths to have. Recruiters and coaches will do any thing and everything in their power to convince high school seniors why their respected university is the place for them. This recruiting season, USC football has won some of these battles, but has lost some of them, too, as certain missed opportunities have turned into the prover bal the “fish that got away.” However, there are still a few prize catches left in the recruiting lake. And Carolina is very close to reeling in a whale of a catch: a 6-8,298 lb. fish by the name of Alex. Less then an hour’s drive down 1-26 in Orangebuig County is the AAA high school of Orangebuig-Wilkinson. Over the years, the Bruins have sent player after player into major college programs while O-W has dominated its competition. Barron, who is rated as the No. 14 offensive lineman in the nation, and by far the best in the state, would be the , perfect end to a very impressive recruiting season should he commit to the Game cocks. National signing day is February 2, and Carolina already lias 23 of the max imum 25 commitments. Even though most recruits don’t of ficially sign until the deadline, Caroli na’s current catch of incoming freshmen and junior-college prospects is amaz ing considering their 1-21 record the past two years. Recruiting has been successful for the Gamecocks, but it has not been easy, and the taming of Barron may be USC’s biggest obstacle yet. “I had a pleasant visit to South Carolina,” Barron said. “They didn’t oversell the program but they are very enthusiastic, especially Coach Holtz. I am wide open.” These comments were made last week. However, over the weekend, Bar ron was in Atlanta. Wallace see page b2