The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 11, 2002, Page 12, Image 12
12 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, September 11,2002 GAME SCHEDULE
""■ 'V / \ —■ "V W ■ ^ / NJ WOMEN’S SOCCER vs. No. 18 Clemson, 7 p.m. Wednesday
I \ M VI Bril L 1 MEN’S SOCCER vs. New Hampshire, 7:30 p.m. Friday
PflNTAPT TN I_* I I I " ' I 1 VOLLEYBALL vs. San Diego in Long Beach, Calif., 7 p.m. Friday
1 ^ ^ I B B I . FOOTBALL vs. No. 9 Georgia, 3:30 p.m. Saturday
Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I V V I I IL / MEN’S GOLF at The Ridges Intercollegiate in Johnson City, Tenn.,
E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com _ I B B r\_/ Saturday-Sunday
Volleyball squeaks by Clemson
BY ROBIN NURRE
THE HAMKCOCK
Carolina claimed the state vol
leyball title Tuesday night as it
clawed its way past Clemson in
decisive and dramatic fashion, 30
22,30-16,25-30,23-30 and 15-4.
The 23rd-ranked Gamecocks
escaped a scare as they downed
their rival in front of 1,246 fans,
the seventh-largest crowd ever at
the Volleyball Competition
Facility.
Head coach Kim
Christopher’s seniors stepped up
and provided most of the punch
that pushed USC (6-1) to victory.
“I think we are the first
team to play Clemson this year,
and we wanted to get it off right
with a ‘W,’ and we weren’t go
ing to let ourselves and the
crowd down,” senior Cally
Plummer said.
In the first two games,
Carolina never trailed as it domi
nated the Tigers to open the
match 2-0.
The Tigers came out after the
break fired up and jumped ahead
with solid defense to tie the match.
“They started passing better,
and they were able to do some
things offensively, and we didn’t
respond,” Chris
topher said of
games three and
four.
USC showed
that it can per
form well under
pressure, as it
came to play in
Plummer the fifth game and
never gave
Clemson a shot.
“We have six seniors; I said
this is a match we will remember
for a lifetime, and we refused to
lose,” Plummer said about the
team’s attitude going into the fifth
game.
Christopher said, “The se
niors said that we are just going
to go out there and fight for it.”
Plummer not only brought
out her killer serve, handing the
Tigers five service aces, but she
also added 13 kills and nine digs.
“Cally Plummer really served
a great match up in the fifth
game,” Christopher said.
Leading the team in kills was
sophomore Niece Curry, with 15
and a hitting percentage of .560.
This week’s SEC Player of the
Week, Megan Hosp, dished out 55
assists and had 13 digs to help the
Gamecocks’ cause.
The next games for Carolina
will be this weekend at the Long
Beach State Tournament in
Long Beach, Calif. The
Gamecocks open the tourna
ment against San Diego on
Friday at 7 p.m.
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----1
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The USC football team couldn’t drag down Virginia, but it has a chance to rebound this weekend when it plays host to No. 9 Georgia.
0
Holtz, USC trying to recover
Coach blames
inexperience
for turnovers
at Virginia
BY JASON NOLL
THE GAMECOCK
USC football head coach Lou
Holtz voiced his concerns about
his team Monday after a disap
pointing loss to the Virginia
Cavaliers in which the
Gamecocks committed seven
turnovers.
“I don’t believe I have ever
coached a football team in my
entire life that had seven
turnovers in a football game,”
said Holtz, who has been coach
ing college football since 1960.
“The ball was on the ground
more than it is in Coach
Berson’s soccer match.”
Holtz blamed inexperience as
a major reason for the team’s
humbling loss. He said players
were concentrating too much on
trying to make the big play in
stead of focusing on soundly
playing their position, especial
ly in third-down defensive situ
ations.
“We stop them on two downs
and then have a problem on
third down,” Holtz said. “We
have to eliminate the bad play."
Another problem cited by
Holtz was the team’s inconsis
tency, especially from quarter
back Corey Jenkins, who was 12
of-21 for 119 yards and a touch
down but threw an interception
and fumbled three times.
“I want to know what’s gonna
happen when the ball is
snapped,” Holtz said.
Despite Jenkins’ erratic out
ing, Holtz said his quarterback
showed improvement on the
held.
“Other than the dumb throw
on the interception on the first
down when Corey panicked and
other than the two fumbles... he
improved over the first game,”
Holtz said.
The loss dropped the
Gamecocks (1-1) from the polls,
but Holtz said, “We don’t belong
there.”
Although his team suffered a
difficult setback, Holtz did find
reasons to be positive about his
team’s performance. He said he
felt his team can and will im
prove over Saturday’s perfor
mance.
“You don’t ever get angry
with players unless they’re not
trying,” Holtz said. “They did
try. You have a hard time get
ting things across to them until
they learn by experience.
“We’re not a good football
team, but we aren’t as bad as we
looked.”
The Gamecocks’ next game
will be Saturday against Georgia
at Williams-Brice Stadium. Holtz
said that, given his team’s per
formance against Virginia, this
game “could be embarrassing.”
Holtz was not pleased with the
lack of momentum his team has.
“This is the last thing I want
to do, to go into the Georgia
game with that type of perfor
mance,” Holtz said. “Losing nev
er helps a football team.”
Injury report
Senior wide receiver James
Adkisson, one of the few players
Holtz says has “big play capa
bility,” will be out three to six
weeks with a sprained medial
collateral ligament in his left
knee.
“He has really come on the
“The ball was on the
ground more than it is
in Coach Berson’s
soccer match.”
LOU HOLTZ
use FOOTBALL HEAD COACH, ON SATURDAY’S
LOSS TO VIRGINIA
past few weeks and had devel
oped into a big play threat,” of
fensive coordinator Skip Holtz
said.
Linebacker Rod Thomas is
out with an ankle injury, and be
cause of swelling in his knee,
Andrea Gause will not play in
Saturday’s game, either.
Quarterback Dondrial
Pinkins, who has been out of ac
tion with a fractured ankle, is
expected to be available on
Saturday, however.
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FILE PHOTO/THE GAMECOCK
Fortier USC baseball player Drew Meyer.was drafted No. 10
overall in this summer’s Major League Baseball draft — the
highest a Gamecock has ever been chosen.
•"SSKSSr
BY MATT ROTHENBERG
TIIKCAMKCOCK
Being a first-round draft pick
is never easy. Most of the time,
players are subjected to a kind of
scrutiny that few others ever ex
perience.
But it’s a little different in
baseball. First-round picks in
football and basketball are ex
pected to step in and contribute
immediately, but in baseball, the
last thing an organization wants
to do is rush its young prospects.
The Texas Rangers are taking
it easy with their 2002 first-round
draft pick Drew Meyer, former
USC shortstop. After three sea
sons at USC, which included a
berth in the College World Series,
Meyer decided to leave the col
lege life for the minor leagues.
Selected 10th overall — the
highest ever for a Gamecock —
Meyer has begun climbing the
ladder in the Rangers’ system.
After signing, he was sent to play
for the Savannah Sand Gnats in
the Class-A South Atlantic
League.
One thing some players must
get accustomed to is the infamous
bus trip, which sometimes last
half a day. But Meyer doesn’t re
ally mind it, given his college
trips from Columbia to places
like Starkville, Miss.
“Bus trips don’t faze me,”
Meyer said. “They really give me
time to relax and unwind and
play cards with my teammates.
“Playing in the SEC gets you
prepared for [the long rides]. It’s
really not as bad as people think
it is.”
Meyer said that two of his fa
vorite stops in the minors have
been Charleston, his hometown,
and Columbia, where the Capital
City Bombers play.
“A lot of USC fans came down
to see me play,” Meyer said. “It
was great to go back to
Charleston in August. It felt good
to be around home and be around
faces you know.”
Meyer’s career at Carolina
mf
♦ MEYER, SEE PAGE 13
‘Dream
Team’
deserved
to lose
KYLE ALMOND
GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM
The USA basketball team came
into the World Championships
this month with an air of superi
ority, and it had a right to. Since
the first “Dream Team” was as
sembled a decade ago in the
Olympics, Team USA had went 58
0, easily dispatching opponents
with its NBA superstars.
The “Dream Team” was on the
verge of a nightmare, however.
Team USA 2002 lost not once, not
twice, but a ridiculous three times
in this competition, and it finished
in sixth place.
Embarrassing? Yes. But you
won’t see me crying.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m patri
otic, and I always support my
country. But this team was asking
for it.
It s one thing to come into a
tournament with confidence. It’s
another to think you’re untouch
able just because of what’s on your
jersey. This latest group, which
included such “superstars” as Ben
Wallace and Antonio Davis, came
in thinking that a half-assed effort
would win the tournament. And
it was deservedly put in its place
by Argentina, a country that nev
er will be confused for a basket
ball power.
Stunned by the realization that
they had just been whipped by a
poor South American country
whose best player is named Pepe,
Team USA laid a couple of more
eggs, to Yugoslavia and Spain, be
fore bowing out as a disgrace on
their home floor.
As Team USA found out before
it was too late, you can’t afford to
take anyone lightly, even
Argentina. Basketball is becom
ing more widespread. It’s a glob
al game now, and if Dirk /
Nowitski and Yao Ming weren’t
proof of that, this tournament
sure is.
Basketball isn’t the only sport
that’s expanding. The roles were
reversed in June’s World Cup
soccer tournament. Argentina
was a heavy favorite, and it came
in cocky and got sent home in the
first round. The United States
was the team that everybody
overlooked and counted out, and
it put a boot into Portugal, anoth
er huge favorite. Sports are
spreading all over the globe, and
no one can be underestimated
anymore.
Ol course you can oiame the
players for their overconfidence.
But you have to give some of the
blame to the committee that is se
lecting this team. They, too, un
derestimated their opponents.
Except for Reggie Miller and
Michael Finley, there really
weren’t any all-stars on this team.
We weren’t playing our A team.
We weren’t even playing our B
team. And we paid for it.
Where’s Kobe? Where’s Jason
Kidd? Shaq’s hurt, but where’s
Kevin Garnett and David
Robinson? I want to see Vince
Carter dunking over a 7-foot
French dude, not Raef LaFrentz
bricking a 7-foot hook shot off the
side of the backboard.
You could try and point the fin
ger at the fans, who stayed at
home while the tournament was
being played right here in
America. But it’s hard to get ex
cited about a team that number
one, sucks, and number two,
doesn’t play hard.
I hope this teaches everyone a
lesson. And I hope that when the
Olympics come around, we’ll
have a real “Dream Team” again.
Weekly Awards
Pimp Daddy of the Week:
Pete Sampras
I hear you: “Tennis? Are you se
rious?”
♦ ALMOND, SEE PAGE 13