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Almond CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 Miss Shirley would recognize you as you came in the door, nod you through and keep singing along to old Motown hits. She was the best. 4. ANYONE WHO’S EVER LIVED IN DOUGLAS Y’all probably deserve a medal. Not only do the dorms suck, but there aren’t even girls in the building! But I guess it builds character — look at me. Douglas Daddies for life! 3. LOU HOLTZ Look, I’m not even going to ex plain this one. So we went 5-7 this season — so what? For turning around a 21-game losing streak and giving us two of the best sea sons in our history, the man de serves a pat on the back. 2. DARRYL FROM THE GMP “You want fries, big guy?” Darryl filled me up with more meals than anybody at USC, and the service was always swift. Some of these newer dudes who work the grill don’t know what’s going on—dropping burgers into the fryer, making us wait 10 years for a chicken sandwich. But with Darryl, you know you’re gonna get hooked up. Benjamin from Taco Bell might have received that random vote for student body president, but Darryl really deserved it. 1. PHIL PETTY I have a confession to make. When I was but a mere freshman, I created a sarcastic Web site ti tled “Petty For Heisman.” Frustrated with our team’s los ing streak, I took it all out on Petty and chastised him for all PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Phil “The Thrill” Petty, quarterback of the Gamecock football team for three seasons, was USC’s No. 1 Pimp Daddy, according to sports editor Kyle Almond. the world to see. The Web site got more than 5,000 hits in two weeks, but because some Gamecock fans don’t have a sense of humor (and maybe be cause I stole numerous photos), it was taken down soon after. - Boy, was I an idiot. Petty made me eat crow by the mouthful ev ery Saturday for two seasons. He wasn’t a national superstar, not even close. But his poise, intelli gence and leadership were exact ly what the Gamecocks needed to turn things around. He was as steady as they come, and I miss him the most. Sorry, Phil. You’re the man. Now as much as I’d like to try and do a Top 10 Toolboxes list, I won’t. Sure, I’d love to take an other jab at the ticket distribu tion process, and yeah, it would be great to pick on students who are ignorant of the First Amendment. But there wouldn’t be much more than that on the list. I’m not going to bust on col lege athletes who are just out there trying their best. Thanks to all who read my column regularly and took it with a grain of salt. You guys are the biggest pimp daddies of them all. I’m out. Clemson sucks. Almond is a fourth-year print journalism student. He has worked at The Gamecock since his freshman year and served as sports editor and copy desk chief. Volleyball CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 nament is good, so the USC match will be a good test for us,” he said. Should the Gamecocks win Thursday, it could set up a re match with North Carolina, which defeated USC 3-1 in an NCAA Tournament first-round match last year. While a rematch would be I nice, Christopher said the chem istry of her squad is even greater at this point than it was last year at this time. “The chemistry is one of the positive things about this team. They all rely on each other,” she said. “All of the kids come from different parts of the world, so they start to rely upon one another.” The seniors should set the pace for the younger players in this year’s tournament. But there is still unfinished business that remains. “We always strive to make the NCAAs,” Hosp said. “We strive more than anything to go some where we’ve never gone before: the Sweet 16. We want to accom plish something bigger.” For Plummer, though, the way to get there is simple. “We have nothing to lose,” she said. “But to get out there and compete and let the rest take care of itself.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Temple CONTINUED ROM PAGE 11 the places they wanted,” he said. “They were constantly taking their time. I think we forced them into being a better team.” USC’s Chuck Eidson, who was averaging a team-high 20 points coming into Monday’s game, had an off night with 12 points. The senior was 3-of-10,2 of-8 from behind the arc, and had five turnovers. But Powell and other Gamecocks were there to pick up the slack. Howell finished with 12 points and eight rebounds, Kerbrell Brown added eight points, and Jarod Gerald came off the bench to provide six as sists in 12 minutes. Odom credited his assistant coaches for prodding him to play Gerald, a freshman, more than he had originally planned. “Jarod Gerald gave us the speed, the imagination and the change of pace at the point of fensively to really get things moving,” Odom said. Now, with their confidence riding high, the Gamecocks take to the road for a pair of tough non-conference games this week. USC plays at Georgetown on Thursday and at North Carolina State on Sunday. The Hoyas defeated Carolina with a buzzer-beater last season. “It’s going to be a hard game for us, but I’m really interested in seeing how our team does on the road,” Odom said. “I think they’ll play well.” The Owls won’t be playing at home anytime soon. They still have games at Charlotte, Penn, Penn State and Illinois before they return home Dec. 28 to take on Indiana. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Women CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 Morrone and Jocelyn Penn keyed a 12-6 run to close out the first half, with the Gamecocks holding a 44-34 advantage. In the first half, USC shot 58.1 percent from the field and 46.2 percent from behind the arc, but the sloppy ballhandling lent it self to 13 turnovers, including nine steals. “We knew the game was ugly. We knew we could have stepped up and played much better than we did,” Penn said. “It wasn’t a good mood in the locker room, but we’re thankful for another win.” Georgia Southern switched between a zone and man-to-man defense to stifle Carolina’s abili ty to create quality shots. The Eagles’ “defensive pres sure was excellent; they got a lot of deflections and just didn’t quit,” Walvius said. That defense created scoring opportunities to bring the Eagles (3-2) to within four points around the second-half 12-minute mark. But after that, the game was all Gamecocks. A 22-5 run, led by Penn and Ciocan’s eight points apiece, closed out the game, sealing the USC victory. Even with four Gamecocks scoring in double figures, Penn leading the way with 26 points, USC (5-0) appeared to be fatigued at times. Carolina was out-re bounded on the offensive glass, which resulted in more second chance points for the Eagles. “We looked like we were tired. I know we’re much, much better than we played today,” said Walvius, whose team arrived home early Sunday morning from the U.S. Virgin Islands. “We showed some weaknesses in this game, and we need to be tougher mentally. “I’m just going to write this one off to fatigue; how we won by 21,1 have no idea. I think our fo cus was excellent; we just played poor.” The Gamecocks are not in clear just yet, though, with a home game set against Wofford at 7 p.m. Wednesday night. Usually the players have 3 to 4 days to hear from the coaching staff about a loss, but Walvius be lieves her team has “an opportu nity to come out and show what they’re about tomorrow.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com BRIEFLY Baseball team signs 19 to intent letters The USC baseball team has an nounced the signing of 19 student athletes to National Letters of Intent during the NCAA early signing period. The signees are scheduled to en roll at USC in the fall of 2003. Last season’s recruiting class was ranked eighth in the nation by Collegiate Baseball. “We have 10 seniors and several juniors who may sign pro con tracts after this year, so it was nec essary to sign a relatively large class,” head coach Ray Tanner said. “We expect many of these signees to be drafted, and we an ticipate losing a few to profession al baseball. We hope this class turns out to be one of the top class es in the nation.” The Gamecocks are coming off a school-record 57-win season, which included another SEC Championship and a national run ner-up finish at the College World Series. Carolina has won the SEC East three of the past four years and the SEC title two of the past three seasons. USC has won 162 games over the past three years, which is more than any team in the nation. Carolina opens the 2003 season Feb. 7 against Charleston Southern at Sarge Frye Field. Eidson earns first SEC weekly award USC senior guard Chuck Eidson was named the SEC Player of the Week on Monday, the first such honor for Eidson. Eidson had a record-setting week in back-to-back nights. The Summerville native recorded the first triple-double in USC history against South Carolina State, fin ishing with 25 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Eidson turned around the next night against Appalachian State to record two steals and break the USC all-time steals record. < Eidson broke Barry Manning’s record of 223 in his 87th career contest — 34 fewer games than Manning. Z I BRING IN YOUR BOOKS AND RECEIVE COLD HARD CASH! a No one pays you Monday - Thursday 7:45 a.m. - 6 p.m. Friday 7:45 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Get Cap ft Gown, Christmas gifts and more! 0) ■" ■ wwI«um3 The Official Bookstore of USC 1400 Greene St. • Russell House • (803) 777-4160 Where your purchases benefit both you and the scholarship programs of USC