The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 22, 1980, Page Page 9, Image 9
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By Brett L. Friedtander
Sports Editor
Flr?t ol twop?ti
As the end of an era in Gamecock
basketball approaches, one canot
help but look back to a time when
coach Frank McGuire and his USC
teams stood atop the world of intercollegiate
athletics.
For six consecutive seasons in
the late '60s and early '70s,
McGuire and his players won 20 or
more games and earned a spot
1 among the nation's elite in the
weekly basketball polls.
But of all his successful players
and teams, one group stands out
above the rest as the greatest in
the history. of the University of
South Carolina. Ten years ago,
McGuire took these talented
players from New York and orchestrated
them to an impressive
25-3 record and a national ranking
as high as number-one.
Gamecock fans across the state
could hardly wait for the 1969-70
season to begin. Never before had
USC been favored to take the
(Athletic Coast Conference title and
as a result, basketball fever hit an
all-time high. So intense were the
Gamecock fans that crowds of up
to 5,000 people turned out to watch
the team practice and the Carolina
Coliseum was filled to capacity for
the formal pre season intrasquad
game.
"The fans were really great,"
team member John Ribock
remembered. "They definitely
helped us, I think it psyched us up.
I'd never seen anything like it
before, in any sport, anywhere."
\ The opening test of the season
I was a road contest against a tough
I Auburn team. For the first time
A ever, the game was broadcast
B back to Columbia via closed circuit
television at the coliseum.
I THE GAMECOCKS didn't let
their fans down. Playing like the
number-one team in the nation,
they blitzed the Tigers 86-64 behind
the play of 6-10 forward Tom
I
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Former Gamecock AU-Ai
Roche begins to drive the Ian6
the foot of Wake Forest's Jc
.. Only
Frank M
uwens. me junior trom Bronx,
N.Y., had 27 points and 17 rebounds
in the season opener, and was
followed closely by teammate John
Roche who had 25. At one point in
the game, Auburn trailed by just
six points, but the Gamecocks
scored 10 unanswered points to put
the game away.
Full of confidence from their
opening win, USC returned home
to play Tennessee. Running into
their coldest shooting night of the
season (33.9 percent), the
Gamecocks were upset by the
Volunteers 55-54. Only Roche,
Owens and sophomore center Tom
Riker contributed to the atack as
the trio combined for all but three
of Carolina's points.
According to captain Bobby
Cremins, the team was as
disappointed by the loss as their
fans were. "I was very, very
disappointed in myself and the
team's performance," Cremins
said recently. "I remember I
stayed up all night and walked
around the streets of Columbia
trying to forget about it. This was a
real low point for us, but it was a
point in which we had to regroup
and come back, which is what we
did."
After the loss to Tennessee,
McGuire's troops went on to win
their next 17 games. The first
game of the winning streak was
against small college rival Erskine.
That night. Owens had
perhaps the finest game of his
career scoring 36 points, grabbing
28 rebounds and blocking 12 shots.
USC ran away with a 95-44 win.
The Gamecocks then embarked
on a six game road trip that answered
many important questions.
The team got some help in the first
game of the trip at East Carolina
as sophomores Bobby Carver and
Rick Aydlett came off the bench to
contribute in a 68-49 win. With the
addition of the two youngsters,
McGuire now had "Seven Starters"
to draw from. The previous
I season, it was usually up to the five
regulars to go all the way.
Carolina coasted through its next
few games by defeating Virginia,
Maryland and Long Island with
relative ease. With a 6-1 record,
they traveled to New Orleans to
rvarticinate in the Su?ar Bowl
K I ?-?
Tournament. The Gamecocks
defeated New Mexico handily in
the opening round and prepared
for a clash with Notre Dame in the
fl championship game.
jl BEHIND THE great individual
effort of All-American Austin Carr,
the Fighting Irish led USC by four
with about two minutes remaining
to play. It was at this point that the
Gamecocks began to go to an All
American of tneir own. nocne, wno
did not shoot well early in the
V. game, sent it into overtime as he
hit two straight jumpers and then a
m eric an John and goes dov
), but trips over Gamecocks hi
thn Lewcowlcx finals of the A
s
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pair of pressure packed free
throws with 14 seconds left in
regulation. USC eventually won
the game in overtime.
Gamecock play-by-play announcer
Bob Fulton remembered
the close win over Notre Dame for
another reason. It was during this
game that Riker came into his own
as a college center, scoring 25 of
his career-high 36 points in the first
half to keep his team in it.
"That was probably Riker's
greatest game at Carolina,"
Fulton explained. "But still, it was
Roche right down to the end. He
just backed in toward the basket as
he alwavs did. cleared out one side
and got fouled. He made both, sent
the game into overtime and then
we beat them."
February is normally the coldest
month in South Carolina, but in the
winter of 1969-70, January turned
out to be the month of the "deep
freeze." North Carolina,
Maryland, Virginia and Furman
all tried to stop the Gamecocks
with slow-down tactics, and all
failed.
Against UNC, power forward
John Ribock led the way with 14
points, eight rebounds and four
blocked shots. Ribock was the only
member of the "Seven Starters"
that was not from New York, but
that mattered little as he fit into
the system of Roche and company
with his strong inside play and a
unique ability for setting picks.
During the period of the stall
games, USC proved that it could
handle any kind of situation and
still win. The scoring averages
were hurt a little by the opposition's
tactics, but the
Gamecocks cared little as . they
began to rise back to the top of the
national polls.
"The slowdown made it much
harder for us to win," Owens said.
"We were basically a big, strong
team and weren't very quick. So,
the only chance a lot of teams had
of beating us was to play that way.
We felt that if the teams ran with
us, it would be almost impossible
for them to beat us."
CREMINS, the elder statesman
on the club, took over in USC's next
game which was against Clemson.
Holding the Tigers' high scoring
Butch Zatezalo scoreless in the
first half, the popular Cremins led
a Gamecock outburst that resulted
in a big 97-76 win over their crossstate
rival.
The team captain then followed
that stellar performance by
scoring 19 points and grabbing 11
rebounds in an 86-54 win over
Virginia Tech and contributed 14
more in a key ACC road win over
Duke.
"The thing I remember most
about the success of our team is the
fact that Bobby Cremins did so
much," Aydlett said. "He com
vn with a shattered ankle. The
9Id on for the win, but lost in the
CC tournament to N. C. State.
de ago
:si team rert
n/<
t
Former Gamecock forward \
against C/emson. The 6-10 Oh
the Gamecocks 25-3 team.
plemented everybody so well. He
led by example, kept most of us in
line and was very serious about his
basketball. Bobby was an outstanding
captain that year, and he
made us all play together."
Although All-American John
Roche was in the midst of another
outstanding season (he had won
ACC player of the year honors in
1968-69), his best performance may
have come in a 79-71 USC win over
HPnivi rvl n a f f V\ n .Da l/kr f i n
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Philadelphia.
With Roche taking only three
shots in the first half, Temple
enjoyed a five point advantage at
the intermission. But Roche came
out hot in the second half and in a
span of 9:35, scored 25 points and
helped send USC out to a commanding
lead. Roche finished the
game with 34 points, and his
performance earned him the honor
of being named the outstanding
visiting player in Philadelphia for
the year.
"I controlled the ball a lot,"
Roche said. "It's a credit to the
other players on the team that they
allowed me to do that. We felt that
was the best way to play in the ACC
and we felt that it was important to
get a lead, control the ball early in
the game and not take many risks.
That's pretty much what we did."
Next, the Gamecocks easily took
care of ACC foes Clemson and
Wake Forest. Against the Tigers,
Roche, as usual led the way with 25
points and seven assists. Owens
followed closely with 22 points, 25
rebounds and 12 blocked shots as
USC earned a 99-52 win.
iiic L/uuiiiuii vii io i vi i in
much the same manner, 81-54, as
Owens came within one of
outrebounding the entire Wake
Forest team. Roche and Owens
each had 24 points.
The USC winning streak came to
an end as Davidson defeated the
Gamecocks 68-62 at the coliseum.
Owens, Hiker and Ribock got into
early foul trouble which limited the.
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Tom Owens goes up for two
yens was an All-American on
team's strength inside. The
Wildcats hit 10 straight one-and
one situations down the stretch to
claim the victory. Roche scored 34 JJlt
points including an amazing 16-16
from the free throw line for the
Gamecocks.
Carolina quickly returned to its
winning ways by beating Duke 8263.
Riker, Aydlett and Carver all
played a major role in securing the
win.
WITH A 19-2 record, the
Gamecocks traveled to Raleigh.
N.C., for a critical ACC game with
Il.V. UIUIC. " m\Z 11 iliv VI14 11 t LilUlC
down with a bad case of the flu,
assistant coach Donnie Walsh was
forced to take over the team as it
went up against the Wolfpack.
Roche made things easy for Walsh
as he connected for 38 points and
Riker added 17 more to make the
Gamecock assistant coach a
winner, 71-69.
"That was a sensational game,"
Walsh remembered ten vears
later. "Roche and those guys knew
the situation I was in and I really
felt they gave a little bit extra so
the game wouldn't be on my head.
I remember after it was over
Norm Sloan (N.C. State's coach)
told me that I should have left
Roche home instead of Frank."
McGuire was back as his team
traveled to Chapel Hill to play the
team he coached to a national
championship 11 years earlier. It
was there that the Gamecocks
clinched the ACC regular season
championship with a 79-62 win over
the Tar Heels. Roche was sen
sauonai, scoring i? 01 ms zn poinis
in the second half.
The account of that game in the
Durham Herald the next day is a
classic. "Roche, the 1969 ACC
player of the year, kept the 8.800
fans in shock," it read. "He not
only provided most of the offense
for coach Frank McGuires ACC '
champs; he also led the Gamecock
defense which shackled AllSee
Greafost T?*m, page 10