Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Gamecock Sports Schedule ■ Baseball at Wolford, 7 p.m. Wednesday ■ Men’s tennis vs. Kentucky, 2 p.m. Friday ■ Women’s tennis vs. Ole Miss, 2 p.m. Friday ■ Track and field in Weems Baskin Relays, Friday-Saturday . Idle (Bamecock Wednesday, March 21, 2001 THE SEARCH FOR A HEAD COACH: Can Carolina find a suitable replacement for Fogler? USC’s future hinges on hiring of coach ■ Recruit Storozynski might play elsewhere; some players thinking about switching schools by Kyle Almond The Gamecock Eddie Fogler’s resignation as USC head coach might have a devastating effect on next year’s men’s basketball team. The only recruit that had already committed to Carolina for next season, junior college forward Pawel Storozynski, is unsure whether he wants to fulfill that commitment without Fogler on the bench. Brian Hoberecht, Storozynski’s coach at Dodge City Community College in Kansas, told The State that the Gamecocks might lose Storozynski’s services for the 2001-02 season. “He chose South Carolina because of coach Fogler, and since coach Fogler would not be there, there’s a good likelihood he’d choose another school,” Hoberecht said. “We’ve opened his recruiting again, and we’ll take a look at some other opportunities.” Storozynski is a 6-foot-8, 225-pound small forward. He originally chose USC over Tennessee, Illinois, Kansas State, Baylor and LSU. As one recruit contemplates defection, so do a slew of current Gamecocks. Sophomores Chuck Eidson, Travis Kraft and Calvin Clemmons are all reportedly thinking about transferring, and there’s a possibility freshman Rolando Howell could jump to the NBA. Clemmons said he was going to transfer after hearing of Fogler’s resignation, but he later retracted his statement, calling it “hot headed” Fogler was well-liked among the players, and his departure sent shockwaves through the group. “(Fogler) was a huge part (of Eidson choosing USC),” Pat Eidson, Chuck’s father, told The State. “We felt at the time we decided on USC he was one of the top coaches in the country. “As of right now, (Chuck’s) planning on returning to USC, but, again, we’re going to wait and see who the next coach is. Hopefully, it will be someone we’re 100% behind” With Missouri’s Quin Snyder saying Monday night that he isn’t interested in leaving the Tigers, the Gamecocks’ top two candidates are currently thought to be Wmthrop’s Gregg Marshall and Oklahoma’s Kelvin Sampson. Marshall looks like the most likely candidate at this time. He’s an in-state coach who has expressed interest in the job and who has taken Winthrop to the NCAA Tournament in each of his three years as head coach there. If all else fails for USC, perhaps it could turn to football head coach Lou Holtz. “I’ve always wanted to be a basketball coach,” Holtz joked after his team’s football practice Sunday. “I coached the JV at Kent State as part of my student-teaching. [Basketball] plays indoors, which I look on very favorably, particularly when I coached up north,” Holtz added “The second thing is that you’re playing when you can’t play golf. You play in the winter when you can’t play golf, anyway. Plus, when you lose, you walk into a press conference and say ‘They just shot better than us.’” The sports desk can be reached at gamecocksports@hotmail.com Sean Rayford/The Gamecock Will Chuck Eidson be back next season for USC, or will he choose to throw down dunks like this for another school? It all depends on who the next coach will be. Snyder says he’s happy at Missouri by Kyle Almond The Gamecock Missouri’s Quin Snyder, thought to be one of the top candidates to fill the vacant USC head coaching position, said . on his weekly radio show Monday night that he doesn’t expeclrto be Eddie Fogler’s replacement. I m not interested in being anywhere but here (at Missouri),” Snyder said. Snyder and his Missouri squad advanced to the second round of this SNYDER year s incaa Tournament before being knocked out by Duke, the team he was with as a player and an assistant coach. USC Athletics Director Mike McGee was in Greensboro, N.C., last Thursday to watch Missouri beat Georgia in the opening round. McGee, like Snyder, graduated from Duke, and his presence at the game fueled speculation that Snyder was on Carolina’s A-list. However, Snyder said he hasn’t been contacted by McGee or anyone else. Snyder seepages Baseball team to take on Terriers Special to The Gamecock Drew Meyer and the Gamecocks have beaten Wofford twice already this season. by Kyle Almond The Gamecock The USC baseball team lost its first weekend series since last season Sunday when Tennessee defeated the Gamecocks 5-3 in Knoxville, Tenn. Last season, USC lost only one series, against national champions LSU on the road. But senior co-captain Brennan Dees isn’t sweating a thing. “We know what we have to do to get back,” Dees said. “We’re still in good shape. There’s no need to panic, no need to worry. We just have to go out and play our type of ball this week.” The week starts tonight for the No. 7 Gamecocks (19-4, 4-2 SEC), who travel to Spartanburg to take on in-state rival Wofford. USC won its first two games of the regular season in February against Wofford (8-12,3-2 SoCon), shutting out the Terriers 9-0 in the season opener and 8-0 the following day at Saige Frye Field. The Gamecocks dominated the Terriers those two meetings, but USC head coach Ray Tanner is confident his team won’t overlook the third. “We’ve done agood job the last few years of being ready to play every time out,” Tanner said. “You play 56 games in the regular season; they’re all important. Our season is much like basketball in (that), if you don’t win the conference, you have to be in a position to get an at-large bid. So these non-conference games do count.” Freshman David Marchbanks (2-1) will get his fourth career start tonight on the mound for USC. Marchbanks pitched a four-hitter against George Mason last month in his debut and also shut out Butler last week. Tanner has nothing but good things to say about the first-year southpaw. “I think every season you go into, you’ve got to have a couple of guys that step up and can be ready for you at the end of the year,” Tanner said. “Right now, Marchbanks is that guy.” After tonight’s game, the Gamecocks will return to Columbia to take on Vanderbilt for a three-game set. According to Tanner, for the Gamecocks to be successful, the team will have to stop leaving runners on base like they did at Tennessee. “Anytime you don’t win a series, you find so many things that jump out at you, but basically we did a good job hitting in most situations,” he said. “The problem was we left too many guys on.... That probably made the difference.” Tonight’s game starts at 7 p.m. at Duncan Park in Spartanburg. The sports desk can be reached at gamecocksports@hotmail.com Around the SEC Kentucky, Mississippi still dancing ■ Green resigns as coach of Tennessee by Kyle Almond The Gamecock With Florida’s upset loss to Temple on Sunday, the SEC was left with only two teams in the NCAA Tournament: Kentucky and Ole Miss, the two teams who faced off in the final of this year’s SEC Tournament. Kentucky, the winner of that game and the No. 2 seed in the East region, will face No. 6 seed Southern California on Thursday in Philadelphia. The Trojans defeated third-seeded Boston College 74-71 Saturday. Ole Miss, the SEC West champions and the No. 3 seed in the Midwest, held off sixth-seeded Notre Dame on Sunday 59-56, and like Kentucky will take on a Pac-10 opponent. The Rebels will play No. 2 seed Arizona on Friday in San Antonio, Texas. Kentucky’s drive to the Final Four will depend largely on the play of Tayshaun Prince, who has dominated opposing teams over the last two months. Prince, a Naismith Award candidate for National Player of the Year, hit six 3 pointers, scored 31 points and added seven assists Saturday in the Wildcats’ 92 79 second-round win over Iowa. Although not a very vocal presence PRINCE on the court, Prince’s play has made him a leader on the court for head coach Tubby Smith. “People just don’t take over as leaders,” Smith said. “It’s a process; you have to earn that from your teammates and from the coaching staff. I think Tayshaun has worked harder this year, he really excelled and pushed himself a lot, and I think from that you can see that the other players respect him and look up to him.” Smith is concerned about an athletic Trojan team that has shown it can play with the best in the country. “They’ve got great athleticism,” Smith said of Southern Cal. “(Guard) Jeff Trepagnier is probably one of the most premier athletes in the country. (Center) Sam Clancy reminds me a lot of Florida’s Udonis Haslem. He’s a real machine inside, and you’ve got to contain him as best you can, but he’s such a huge force, it’s tough to do. “[Southern Cal] presents a real challenge for us.” In getting to the Sweet 16, the’ Wildcats have overcome a 3-5 start to the season as well as the loss of Jules Camara at the beginning of the year to a DUI conviction. However, Smith thinks it has made his team better. “This team has probably done more and had to overcome more than any team I’ve ever been associated with,” he said. Ole Miss will play in its first NCAA regional in school history this week, while Arizona will be playing in its fourth in six years. Arizona also comes into the meeting as one of the hottest teams in the country, winning 15 of its last 17. But the Rebels are ready for the challenge. “We look forward to playing Arizona,” head coach Rod Barnes said. “They have a great team and great tradition.” A key match-up to look for is in the paint, where the Rebels’ Rahim Lockhart will try to use his muscle to bang with the Wildcats’ 7-footer, Loren Woods. Woods is an exceptional player on the defensive end, blocking nearly three shots a game, but Barnes thinks Lockhart, the team’s leading scorer, won’t be easily contained. “There aren’t many people who can guard him one-on-one in the low post,” SEC SEE PAGE 9 Sportc Commentary Gamecock football team well-behaved < Kyle Almond is a second-year journalism major. He can be reached via e-mail at gamecocksports® hotmail.com. Last year’s success on the gridiron was a step forward for the Gamecocks in more ways than one. The Outback Bowl champions won eight games, good enough for the second-best turnaround in college football history, but what made those wins even more special is how the team handled itself along the way — with dignity and class. Coach Lou Holtz and the Gamecocks were, and still are, proof that a team can be successful without sacrificing its integrity arid the high standards of excellence it sets for itself. Over the past few years, a couple of top-notch college football programs have seen their share of scandals and, in the process, raised universal doubts about whether teams could win consistently and be responsible at the same time. Florida State, perhaps the most dominant football team tluough the last decade, has had trouble lately keeping its star athletes in check. Peter Warrick’s faux shopping spree and Sebastian Janikowski’s various run-ins with the law have tarnished the team’s reputation. At Nebraska, assault chaiges against Lawrence Phillips and Christian Peter have also hurt their program’s public image. However, the Gamecocks have avoided mistakes like these and, in fact, have shown progress over the years. The overall team grade point average has increased from a 2.305 to nearly a 2.5 over the past year. When Holtz arrived three years ago, he inherited a team that was as sloppy off the field as it was on it. The team was a mess, lacking the discipline and dedication it needed to win. Now, it is a well-behaved squad with focus, a testament to Holtz’s “Do Right” system that he and his coaching staff have instilled in their players. The “Do Right” approach to life is a set of guidelines the coaches set for their players and is plastered on the walls at Williams Brice Stadium. It is a model all student athletes should live by. Holtz even gives his players a card they can keep in their wallets as a daily reminder to do the right thing. The card has questions on it that the players should ask themselves before doing something that might harm the school’s reputation. It reads as follows: ■ Is this the right thing to do? ■ Is this the best I can do? ■ Is this the way I would want to be treated? ■ Will this help me to achieve my goals? ^ ■ How will this affect my future? ■ Is this a risk I can afford to take? ■ How will this reflect on my parents, players and coaches of South Carolina? The card finishes with a stop sign that says, “Think: Be accountable for your actions!” # Holtz realizes that being a coach doesn’t mean just producing touchdowns. It’s about producing men as well, and with the standards he sets for his players, . it’s no wonder why the Gamecocks have kept their noses clean. That’s not to say there hasn’t been an exception or two along the way. In any oiganization, there will always be a few complications. But what matters is the way those complications are handled, and in USC’s case, those matters have been taken care of quickly and judiciously, and the team has come out stronger in the end. To say the Gamecocks are a misbehaved team because of a couple of minor incidents is unfair to a team that has worked hard to clean up its act and become the best it can be. The players and their coaches should be commended for representing the university in a way that we can all be proud of as students and fans. USC has triumphed both on and off the field and has been a shining example of how to rebuild a struggling program. With the standards put in place by Holtz, this team can go nowhere but up, and I’m excited about the possibilities.