University of South Carolina Libraries
THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, November 15,2002 . 7 HATimn GAME SCHEDULE contact us P| Ik' “"“sssssa Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I ^ FIB 111 FOOTBALL at Florida, 6 p.m. Saturday 2"y Carolina to enter Swamp in shambles USC has lost 10 straight against mighty Gators USC at No. 20 Honda 6 p.m. Saturday The Swamp TV: ESPN BY KYLE ALMOND THE GAMECOCK USC football head coach Lou Holtz remembers the last time his team was in Gainesville playing the Florida Gators. “We were leading late in the first quarter (21-3), and then, all of a sudden, they busted it open,” he said. The Gators went on to win eas ily, scoring 38 unanswered points and blowing out the upset-mind ed Gamecocks 41-21 two seasons Last season in Columbia, with a huge crowd and ESPN’s College GameDay in attendance, the Gamecocks took an early lead but were still blown out, 54-17. It’s been the same story since USC joined the SEC in 1992. The Gators have feasted on Carolina, winning 10 straight games by an average of 25 points. “We have not been able to slow them down offensively,” Holtz said. As Carolina (5-5,3-4 SEC) hob bles into Gainesville on a three game losing streak, its offense in disarray, chances are slim that it can turn things around this week end., Florida (7-3,5-2), after start ing the season slow, has found its swagger again and is still in the hunt for the SEC title. With a win over Carolina and a Georgia loss to Auburn, the No. 20 Gators would win the Eastern Division. “Looking at this week’s game against the University of Florida, where do you start?” Holtz asked at his weekly news conference. “Start with defense. They are No. 1 (in the SEC) on third-down de fense. ... Their pass defense is No. 4 in the country, giving up 150 yards a game. They have very talented people. “Offensively, they have a great tailback in (Earnest) Graham and maybe the best quarterback in (Rex) Grossman.” The Gamecocks were shut out last weekend against Arkansas, and the coaching staff has made a change at quarterback in hopes of creating a spark. Starter Corey Jenkins will be moved to the defense and play safety, ana ms backup, Dondrial Pinkins, will start for the first time in his career. Holtz “made the move because he felt like this was in the best interests of the team, and I’ve got to go along with that,” offen sive coordinator Skip Holtz said. “Things weren’t going well for us, _a i_)._x. n_ Dondrlal Pinkins will be making his first career start at QB Saturday aft Florida. auu ut o uui tut. type who is going to let the grass grow under him. Many of the changes he’s made in the past have proven to be quite successful.” Lou Holtz is hoping that while Pinkins provides punch to the of fense, Jenkins can add quality depth to a defensive backfield that will surely be tested by Grossman this weekend. “We have had problems in the secondary for most of the year and PHOTO BY.CANDI HAUGLUM/THE GAMECOCK USC defenders converge on an Arkansas player last weekend. The Gamecock defense will have a tough test Saturday when it faces Florida quarterback Rex Grossman. Grossman was a Heisman Trophy finalist last season. have tried several solutions/’ he said. “We felt that moving Corey to defense was in the best interests of the team.” Jenkins took a positive ap proach to the change. “I’ll play anywhere, anytime,” he said. “I think I am athletic enough to play just about any where on the field. Granted, I’m not going to play every snap, but I’ll go in and do whatever they ask me to do and try to do it to the best of my God-given ability.” Pinkins has played sparingly in eight games this season, complet ing 16 of 34 passes for 178 yards. He has thrown one touchdown and three interceptions. “Having Dondrial make his first career start at the Swamp is not ex actly how you may want to script this thing, but we’re preparing for that and we’ll do the best that we possibly can,” Skip Holtz said. The return of injured wide re ceivers Ryan Brewer and Michael Ages will help Pinkins make the transition. Both are expected to play. “They know the offense, how to get open and how to read cover ages,” Skip Holtz said. “They pro vide senior leadership, and we cer tainly have not been as productive with them out.” The Gamecocks will need Brewer and Ages, as the rest of the wide receiving corps is banged up. Matthew Thomas (ankle injury) and James Adkisson (hamstring in jury) are listed as doubtful for this weekend, and Troy Williamson is suffering from a pulled groin. Saturday’s game will be tele vised on ESPN at 6 p.m., and Florida head coach Ron Zook wants to make sure his team doesn’t take its opponent lightly, no matter how poor USC has played lately. “They are a football team that is very capable,” Zook said. “They are a football team that is proba bly going through a little bit of the same thing that we were ... mak ing some mistakes, sometimes shooting themselves in the foot. But they are a very capable foot ball team both offensively and de fensively.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmdil.com Men’s basketball team lights up Latvians in exhibition ft BY JOEL DODSON THE GAMECOCK Chuck Eidson’s dunk five sec onds into Wednesday night’s ex hibition game was indicative of things to come. Kerbrell Brown scored 19 points, and six other Gamecocks scored in double digits to propel USC to a one-sided 105-67 win over Unibanka Cesis of Latvia. It was USC’s final game at the Frank McGuire Arena. The Gamecocks scored the first 11 points and led by as many as 39 in the first half to go up 66-31 at half time. Even without the services of starters Rolando Howell and Tony Kitchings (sprained ankles), Carolina managed to hit 24 of its first 30 shots and sink 66.7 percent of its attempts in the first half. “We had a great start,” USC head coach Dave Odom said. “I don’t care if you’re playing five on zero. That’s great shooting. The key in the first half was that we passed and cut ex ceptionany wen. We seemed to al ways have some body open.” In the second half, the Gameco cks started much slower but never relented. Carolina Odom even showed a bit of its speed; scoring 14 fast-break points in the half. The story of the game, howev er, was the Gamecocks’ newcom ers. Freshman Terrence Kinsey went 7-for-12 for 15 points, and fel low freshman Jarod Gerald had five points and seven assists. Brown, a junior-college trans fer, led the team with 19 points and delivered several thunderous dunks that sent the crowd into a frenzy. “I think we saw that some progress has been made with some of our younger players,” Odom said. “The things that you learn are about the guys you know least of.” Overall, Carolina shot 55.2 per cent from the field, and Unibanka Cesis shot 36.4 percent. Chris Warren, Marius Petravicius and John Chappell all had 10 points for Carolina, while Carlos Powell held his own with 16. Eidson also had 15 points, sev en assists and three steals. The Gamecocks out-rebounded the Latvians 51-36. “I’m pleased, but I know that we have a long way to go,” Odom said. “We have a lot of work to do to be where we want to be at the end of the season. What you see is that “I don’t care if you’re playing five on zero. That’s great shooting. The key in the first half was that we passed and cut exceptionally well. We seemed to always have somebody open.” DAVE ODOM use MEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH, ON HIS TEAM SHOOTING 66.7 PERCENT IN THE FIRST HALF OF WEDNESDAY’S WIN we do have the tools and talent to work with.” The USC men’s basketball team opens up its season against East Tennessee State on Nov. 24. It will be their first game in the new Carolina Center. The women’s team opens the arena Nov. 22 against Clemson. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail. com PHOTO BY CANDI HAUGLUM/THE GAMECOCK Chuck Eidson had 15 points, seven assists and three steals in USC’s dominating 105-67 exhibition win Wednesday. i BRIEFLY Brewer named to All-Academic team USC wide receiver Ryan Brewer was named Thursday to the 2002 Verizon University Division Academic All-District EU football team. The players se lected are now eligible for the national Academic All-America team, which will be announced Dec. 2. Brewer, a senior, carries a 3.48 grade-point average in sport and entertainment management. He has been on the aLC Academic Honor Roll three times, the Dean’s List three times and the President’s List (4.0) once. DlQf»'ir>+ TIT IQ made up 0f all Brewer Division I-A and I;AA schools in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. To be eligible, a player must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 in the classroom and be a starter or key reserve oh the field. Volleyball gets its 2nd shot at Florida The 18th-ranked USC volley ball team (20-4,13-1 SEC) closes out the regular season this week end on the road against Georgia and fourth-ranked Florida. The Gamecocks will face the Gators (24-1, 14-0) at 5 p.m. Friday. They’ll then head to Athens on Sunday for a 1:30 p.m. matchup against the Bulldogs (17-12,7-7). Florida is the only SEC team that has beaten USC this season. Carolina fell to the Gators 3-0 on Oct. 27 in Columbia. The Gators have won the last 17 matches against the Gamecocks and havtt not lost an SEC match since 1994. That loss was to USC. Carolina’s 13 conference wins are the most a team has ever recorded in Carolina volleyball history. The Gamecocks also recorded their third straight 20 win season last weekend. Soccer to finish regular-season play The USC men’s soccer team (11-7-1) wraps up the regular sea son Sunday when it plays host to Florida International (12-4-1). The Gamecocks, who lead the series 2-0-1, won last year’s matchup 5-4 in double overtime. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. The game will also include Senior Day festivities. Five se niors will be honored: goal keeper Michael Bachmeyer, de fender Tim Glowienka, mid fielder Dave Moore, forward Jordan Quinn and team manag er Leofearcia. SPORTS CHALLENGE THE CHALLENGE: Kyle Matt Chris Mary Tricia Jason The Gamecock’s readers and Almond Rothenberg Foy Hartney Ridgway Hennessy staff test their sports knowledge Sports Asst. Sports Defending Editor in Copy Reader of with predictions of the Editor Editor Champion Chief editor the Week weekend’s games. (Rankings (63-47) (70-40) (64-46) (67-43) (65-45) (65-45) are from the Associated Press.) 7 Georgia at 24 Auburn_Auburn Georgia Auburn_Georgia Georgia Georgia 10 Alabama at 14 LSU _LSU _Alabama Alabama LSU Alabama LSU Vanderbilt at Kentucky_Kentucky Kentucky Kentucky Kentucky Kentucky Kentucky Iowa St. at 17 Colorado_Colorado Colorado Colorado Colorado Colorado Colorado Washington at 23 Oregon Oregon Oregon_Oregon Oregon_Oregon Oregon 4 Texas at Texas Tech Texas Texas Texas Texas Texas Texas_ Syracuse at Boston College J3.C. B.C^ B.C. B.C. Syracuse B.C. Purdue at Michigan St. Michigan St. Purdue Purdue Purdue Michigan St Purdue 19 Maryland at Clemson Maryland Clemson Maryland Maryland Maryland Maryland^ USC at 20 Florida Florida Florida Florida Florida USC Florida 77-0 54-0 70-3 33-3 17-14' 34-10 LAST WEEK'S WINNER: Matt Rothenberg (7-3) - There was a five-way tie for first last week, and Rothenberg was the only one to pick Arkansas in the tiebreaker game. He still leads by three games over Hartney and five games over the staff guest of the week and the reader of the week. Forget about last week; you can now count out the sports editor. Almond's plan of picking opposite Rothenberg’s picks backfired, and he went 4-6. Reader Michael Marozas went 7-3 along with Rothenberg, Hartney, Foy and page designer extraordinaire David Stagg. WANT TO BE READER OF THE WEEK? E-mail your selections next week to gamecocksports@hotmail.com. If you’re picked and have the best record, you’ll win a free Gamecock T-shirt and be able to talk all the trash you want