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GAME SCHEDULE PAMTAPT TTQ MEN'S BASKETBALL vs. No. 16 Georgia, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday L<UIN 1 U lo TRACK AND FIELD in the USC Open Invitational, Friday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? «mMi5l!S5A!n DIV'mG 7, p m QFri7y E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com WOMEN S BASKETBALL vs. No. 12 Florida, 3 p.m. Sunday Men fighting for SEC win r HU I U BY KUbtK I tiKUtl Senior guard Aaron Lucas yells out as time ticks away In USC's loss to Vanderbilt. USC welcomes No. 16 Georgia to the Frank McGuire Arena on Wednesday. BRIEFLY Men’s tennis ends preseason action The USC men’s tennis team concluded the tournament por tion of its schedule with an ex hibition match against Auburn on Sunday. While not counting toward team records, results will r!be included on the Gamecocks’ individual NCAA records. In-'doubles action, USC’s team of Marcus Westman and Angelo Niculescu improved to 6-2 in tournament play with an 8-3 victory over Auburn’s Andrew Colombo and Raitis Tukans. USC’s Ben Atkinson and David Nelson also walked away winners with an 8-2 win over the team of Mark Kovacs and Mark Van Elden. Auburn walked away with a win in the third doubles contest as Andre Boz and Estevom Strecker topped USC’s Rodrigo Pacheco and Rob Cassidy 8-6. Singles play saw four Gamecocks come on top. Niculescu was victorious in the No. 1 position for the Gamecocks, with a 4-6,6-2,6-2 win over Colombo. Other win ners in singles competition were Westman, Atkinson and Cassidy. Up next for the Gamecocks will be the season opener on Feb. 2 against North Carolina State. Track and field team ranked No. 1 again One week after falling to second place in the Trackwire.com poll, the women’s track and field team is back on top. Carolina leads a poll that features six SEC teams, with two, USC and Florida, leading the way. USC has 52 votes, while second place Florida has 51. The USC men’s track and field team is ranked 14th in the same poll, one that features eight SEC teams. The Lady Gamecocks had six people noted in Trackwire’s “Dandy Dozen,” a ranking of the top 12 athletes in each NCAA track and field event. Junior Aleen Bailey was listed in the Dandy Dozen for her work in the 60-meter and 200-meter sprints. Senior Me’Lisa Barber was ranked in the 60 and 200, while her twin sister, Miki, was ranked in the 200 and 400-meter sprints. Senior Demetria Washington was ranked for her 200 and 400 sprints. Senior Tacita Bass ♦ BRIEFLY, SEE PAGE 10 ‘YOU ALWAYS WANT TO PLAY FOR THE TEAM’ TENNIS serves up LIFE LESSONS Radman’s years with USC tennis have taught her about teamwork BY RYAN CLARY THE GAMECOCK Putting the team before her in dividual statistics is what has made Jennifer Radman the play er she is today. Radman is a 100 percent team player. Why does she care about the team so much? Maybe it’s be cause of her teammates, or maybe it’s because Carolina is the first team she has played for in her tennis career. Whatever it is, Radman has one thing on her mind: giving all she’s got for the team. Radman is entering her last season with the Lady Gamecocks. She has a a record of 73-45, for a .619 winning percentage. But she is quick to give all of her success to her lifelong coach before col lege, Scott DeCoste. “Coach DeCoste is the reason I am the player that I am now,” Kauman said, tie taugni me an I know about tennis and life. He has a been a mentor to me.” Radman is from Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, where she picked up tennis when she was 8 years old. With the help of DeCoste, Radman became a fi nalist at the Canadian Nationals. She later moved to Florida, where she became the No. 1 ranked play er in every tournament she com peted in for two years. When it came time to choose what college to attend, Radman knew she wanted to play down south. After visiting USC, and with the help of a friend, Radman knew Carolina was the school for her. “I liked the coaching staff and the players,” Radman said. “[Teammate] Lynn-Yin Tan and I came here at the same time, and she is now my best friend.” Radman has seemed to have adjusted well to life in the South. “My favorite two things about being in the South are the weath er and the biscuits,” Radman said. Radman soon discovered that college tennis would be different than what she was used to. That was the first time she had played without DeCoste. However, Radman was introduced to what PHOTO BY ROBERT GRUEN Jennifer Radman practices on Tuesday for Carolina's home matchup against Middle Tennessee State. Women's tennis matches usually draw only 20 to 30 spectators, despite Carolina's No. 21 ranking In the national polls. is now her favorite aspect of the game, being part of a team. “The biggest difference is the team environment,” Radman said. “You play with a lot more emotion and meaning. Even if you don’t want to play for yourself, you always want to play for the team.” Though her record doesn’t show it, college play didn’t come easy for Radman. She was 23-13 her freshman year, but she said she had to make adjustments to succeed at this level. “I had to become more patient and consistent. The players are much better up here, so I had to become better,” Radman said. As Radman heads into her fi nal season, she has a couple of goals in mind to help her finish strong. “I want to stay focused for the whole season,” Radman said. “It can get a little long, so I hope I don’t get distracted. But most im portantly, I want to host and win the regionals and advance to the NCAA Championships.” Radman wants to contribute as best she can for her teammates in her final season. “Being part of a team, that’s what I’ll miss the most,” Radman said. Radman and USC are off to a good start this year, after defeat ing BYU last Friday. They will look to build on that in their next match, at home Saturday against Middle Tennessee State. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@hotmaU.com Georgia at USC 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Frank McGuire Arena Radio: WVOC 560 AM BY BRAD SENKIW THE GAMECOCK USC and Georgia are both look ing to rebound tonight at Frank McGuire Arena after suffering tough losses this past weekend. The Gamecocks (12-7,2-4 SEC) are looking for their first SEC home win, while Georgia is looking to recover from its recent upset to Vanderbilt. The No. 16 Bulldogs (16-4,5-2) lost 86-84 Saturday when Vandy freshman Jason Holwerda scored on a running layup with 4.9 sec onds left in the game. Georgia sophomore Chris Daniels missed a long 3-pointer at the buzzer to , give Vanderbilt the upset. Junior Ezra Williams, the SEC’s leading scorer, put up 19 points for the Bulldogs while sophomore Jarvis Hayes added 16 points and nine re bounds. Georgia shot 50 percent from the field, but Vanderbilt shot 53 percent. “[Vandy] did a nice job. They de served to win,” Georgia head coach Jim Harrick said after the loss. Georgia has had a surprising sea son and leads the SEC East. Williams is tied for first place in the SEC in scoring, averaging 18 points per game, while Hayes ranks sec ond with 17.4 per game. Daniels comes in averaging 13 points, 2.6 as sists and a league-leading 8.1 re bounds a game. The Bulldogs have scored major road wins this season at Kentucky and Florida. A strong non-conference start has given them national respect that has con tinued into conference play. With wins over the heavily favored Gators and Wildcats, Georgia has dominated despite Saturday’s up set in Nashville. The Gamecocks are looking to find the form they displayed last week at Tennessee after giving up a season high 19 turnovers and shooting 35 per cent against Ole Miss on Saturday. “We are coming off another road trip, and we got spanked pretty good,” USC head coach Dave Odom said.”,Ole Miss is certainly a good ball club, and my congratulations goes to (head coach) Rod Barnes. He has an excellent ball club, and it was an Ole Miss day for sure. We have to just come back and learn from our mistakes and learn how to play in pressure situations.” Odom has a high opinion of Georgia as well. “Georgia has been highly con sistent all year long,” he said. “They have great talent and an ex cellent coach. They have five guys who can shoot the basketball, and they can convert a turnover to a basket quicker than anyone in this league. This is a very important game for us because we are play ing at home and we haven’t won a home conference game as of yet.” Earlier this week, Harrick talked about his respect for the Gamecocks. “At the start of the year, I thought South Carolina would be a contender for the SEC Eastern Division title, and I still believe that,” Harrick said. “Since their 0-2 start they have played very good basketball, and those two losses were to’ Kentucky and Florida, which is no disgrace.” Last year, the Gamecocks de feated Georgia in Columbia and in Athens, but they need a strong game tonight to get their first con ference home win. The game will tip off at 7:30 p.m. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail. com Ratings stunts have turned Super Bowl into a super sellout CHRIS FOY GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM Britney Spears has her place, but it’s not singing at halftime. Isn’t it amazing how far the Super Bowl has evolved? The first Super Bowl wasn’t nationally televised. It wasn’t even sold out. And now, it’s arguably the biggest TV event of the year. You don’t invite your friends over to watch the Oscars or Miss America (assuming you even would watch them). The NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals and the World Series are great and all, but each could last up to seven games. The Super Bowl is the best because it’s a one-time deal and everyone watches. It’s now even a day-long event. Well, sort of a two-day event actually, as Fox will have fbotball airing Saturday. You have the All Madden team. You have highlights. And then it’s game time. At 6:20 p.m. Sunday, greatness begins. But no matter how great the Super Bowl is, some things have to go. Last year’s halftime spectacle was ah embarrassment to the game of football. And I say this without even watching it. I refused to. My friends and I high-tailed it to the porch to discuss the game because we didn’t want to watch a boy band dance all over the field. I don’t know who’s idea it was to get ’N Sync, the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears to sing at the same game, but they obviously weren’t football fans. U2 will do the honors this year, and while that is a massive improvement from teeny-boppers, I again have to wonder if the halftime analysis will be cut in order to put on the halftime show. , This would make the Super Bowl less of a game and more of a market to get as many viewers as possible. I really don’t understand this ploy. I know what they’re doing, but why? You’re still going to have practically the same amount of people watching the game. It’s like I said: Football fan or not, most people watch the Super Bowl. And they’ve been showing things on other channels during halftime for years now. If you want to see a concert, turn to MTV or VH1. If yoif want to see the stats and analysis, you shouldn’t be suffering through crap you don’t want to see. Besides, it’s the commercials that have drawn many people to the Super Bowl. You always wait to see what the first commercial is, and it’s usually a kick-ass Budweiser promo. Now, lately, they haven’t been up to par. But a couple of years ago, Louie the Lizard frying his ribbiting companions was more interesting than the game itself. And who could forget the ferret? You usually can think of at least one commercial tnat made your side sore the next day. This kind of stuff belongs. The primo commercials enhance the viewing experience without taking away from it. Of course, with this year’s match-up, the commercials might end up making the whole viewing experience. Because unless the Patriots pull off a miracle (here’s hoping), it sure won’t be much of a game. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com