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BRIEFLY Men’s soccer wins last season game The USC men’s soccer team handed Florida International its first loss since Sept. 7, de feating the Golden Panthers 2 1 Sunday at the Graveyard. The Gamecocks (11-7-1) struck fast, scoring their first of two goals only two minutes into the first half. Jack Cummings served the ball to freshman Ryan Deter, who netted his fifth goal of the season on an open net from 10 yards out. Florida International (12-5 1) scored the equalizing goal at the 2:34 mark when Juan Rivera scored an unassisted goal. In the 36th minute, Anthony Stovall scored the game-win ning goal. Ben Link connected with Stovall, who slipped it past FIU goalkeeper Roy Rosenberg to give USC a 2-1 lead. USC outshot FIU 12-11. Gamecock goalkeeper Michael Bachmeyer, playing in his final home match of his Gamecock career, recorded five saves. The Gamecocks will find out Monday if they were selected to play in the NCAA Tournament. The selection show will be on ESPN News at 4:30 p.m. Cross country 23rd in regional meet The USC cross country team competed Saturday at the Southeast Regional Championships in Greenville, N.C., and finished in 23rd place. Wake Forest won the meet and will move on to the NCAA Championships on Nov. 25. North Carolina Tar Heel Shalane Flanagan ran away with the top -place finish in the 6-kilometer race with a time of 19 minutes, 17 seconds, beating the runner-up by 29 seconds. Sophomore Jenny Lake was the Gamecocks’ top finisher, placing 77th in 22:08. Senior co-captain Kinsey Eschenburg finished her USC cross country career with a llOth-place finish. Gators take down USC swim teams The USC swimming teams were narrowly defeated by Florida on Friday at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center Natatorium. The women’s team lost 136 102 to the No. 5 Gators, while the men lost to their seventh ranked counterparts by a score of 130-104. The Gamecocks had their work cut out for them from the start; Florida’s women are the defending SEC champions, and the men were runners-up. There was, however, a ray of sunshine in the loss — the diving team. Diving coach Todd Sherritt’s athletes put to gether another stellar perfor mance and came away with victories in all but one of the diving events. Sophomore Andy Bradley continued to shine as he again won both the 1- and 3- meter springboards for the fifth time in as many meets. The women were helped along by Allison Brennan and Holly Hodges, who placed first and second in the 1-meter springboard. The lone win for the swim teams came during the wom en’s 50-meter freestyle. USC’s Anna Nyiry won the event with a time of23.59. Volleyball splits over final weekend The 18th-ranked USC vol leyball team was swept again by Florida this weekend, but it recovered to defeat Georgia on Sunday and earn the second seed in the upcoming SEC Tournament. After losing 30-15,30-27, and 30-23 to the No. 4 Gators in Gainesville on Friday, Carolina (21-5,14-2 SEC) took down the Bulldogs in four games. USC fell behind early and loss the first game 30-28 but came back to win the next three games by scores of30-22, 30-19 and 30-21. The Gamecocks will be matched up with No. 7 seed Alabama in the first round of the SEC Tournament, which is to be held in Fayetteville, Ark. The match takes place Friday at 11:30 a.m. and will be the first match of the tourna ment. *- &■ - ,< , ■ '> - * ^ .,.a».' ■... < • ...■ " . ...-/,. y;~_t_i_-v _ PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK Dondrlal Plnkins, in his first career start at quarterback for USC, threw for 74 yards and rushed for 84. New Roles CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 said. “I think that’s where my fu ture is. The bad part was that we didn’t get the win. But, as far as my transition, I enjoyed it. “I’ve got some stuff to learn, but I’ll be all right.” Jenkins had good things to say, about his buddy Dondrial Pinkins, who took over as starting quar terback. Pinkins, a redshirt sophomore in his first career start, finished with 84 yards rushing and 74 yards on 8-of-17 passing. “I am proud of him,” Jenkins said. “I grabbed him and kissed him on the head and told him that I was proud of him. He came out today and competed. “He did his best. That is all you can ask for. He didn’t try to do too much or too little. He did exactly what they wanted him to do. They didn’t turn the ball over. That is a plus.” Holtz was also encouraged by the performance Pinkins had. “I thought Dondrial did a nice job stepping in there,” Holtz said. “I thought he ran his team well and protected the ball well.” Because of injuries to USC’s wide-receiving corps, Holtz knew his team was limited in what it could do in the passing game. So he continued to have his team play conservative on the offensive side of the ball. “With the receiver problems we have, we thought that we had to control the football,” he said. “And we thought we could run the football. If you throw the ball, and it’s incomplete on first down, you’re behind the stick.” On the rare occasion that Pinkins was asked to throw the football, he came through. “There was only one time where he had a guy open he didn’t hit,” Holtz said. “He had some misreads, but I thought for the first game he did a nice job.” Pinkins said he was nervous at first but got over the butterflies as soon as the game got going. “You just have to go out and do what you are told to do and what you are coached to do and hope things go the way you want them to go,” he said. While Pinkins was happy with the way he played, he was both ered by the offense’s inability to put points on the board. “We drove down the field and got inside the 30 a couple of times and didn’t get any points, no field goals, no nothing,” he said. “If we could have gotten those, they would have been big. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out.” Neither Pinkins nor Jenkins could turn around the Gamecocks’ losing ways, but Holtz was happy with their contributions in then new roles and stands by his deci sion to move them. “I just felt like that was the best thing to do for the team,” Holtz said. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Eliminating a team 's history to save the good of the program MATTROTHENBERG GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM UM athletics director did the right thing to allay NCAA sanctions. Two weeks ago, at the University of Michigan, athletics director Bill Martin donned a surgical mask and gloves to per form a delicate, yet difficult, op eration on his men’s basketball program. What he extracted from the Wolverines were perhaps the pro gram’s finest years and some of its best players. Martin performed all this surgery in the hopes that the NCAA would not get its opportu nity to take more out. Essentially, because booster Ed Martin improperly loaned $616,000 to student-athletes Chris Webber, Louis Bullock, Maurice Taylor and Robert Traylor, more than 100 victories in which those players partici . pated will be forfeited. These in clude trips to the Final Four in 1992 and 1993, an NIT champi onship and a Big Ten champi onship. Michigan will also re pay $450,000 in tournament earnings to the NCAA, declare itself ineligible for postseason play in 2003 and be on probation for the next two years. In effect, these self-imposed sanctions have made the “Fab Five” into the “Drab Five.” During numerous NCAA and FBI investigations, it was deter mined that Ed Martin had made loans to those players. Fearing serious consequences from the NCAA, Bill Martin did exactly what he had to do. It couldn’t have been easy, but he did it any way. There are all sorts of sanc tions, self- and NCAA-imposed, I levied every year to collegiate athletic programs across the country. To avoid the “death penalty,” the theme is to punish oneself first and then see what the NCAA does in return. A lot of people are being hurt from Bill Martin’s actions, espe cially the past and current Wolverine basketball players who had nothing to do with the illegal actions. You can erase the wins, but you can’t erase the memories. Who will forget the game against UNC, when Webber called the timeout that wasn’t? All this could have been avoid ed if the guys involved knew their role. Ed Martin should have known it was against the rules to AVU1A UlV/ilV, J L V/ prospective NCAA student athletes. The players should have known not to accept any. Maybe they didn’t realize it then, but stuff like this has a tendency to come out eventually. I’m sure some of those four guys may not have come from the best of cir Loans given to Chris Webber resulted in Michigan’s self imposed sanctions. cumstances and that taking the money was a way to help their families. Yet it’s difficult for me to understand why they would complain about the sanctions placed upon the program, when they helped force those measures into place. Simply put, you get what you deserve. When you break the rules, you pay the price. Sure, we all do stupid and foolish things when we’re young, sometimes without realizing the conse quences. Yet it’s going to come back to you one day, and for these five men, it has. I feel sorry for the current Wolverines, who have no shot at an NCAA bid this year because of what past players did. But for the younger guys and the prospective recruits, it’s certainly a fine les son: Basically, watch your back and keep away from people promising money, jobs, or what ever else to you or your family. I’m also disappointed in then head coach Steve Fisher, who still claims ignorance on this matter. It’s understandable not to notice $20 here or there, but a total of over $600,000 — that’s just unacceptable. He should know better. Although it hurts the program in the short term, Bill Martin per formed the necessary actions to abate the situation. Hopefully, his moves will convince other boost ers and future players to do the right thing in not jeopardizing their future or that of the pro gram. These sanctions should serve as an impetus for less wrongdo ing and an overall cleaner pro gram. Current head coach Tommy Amaker is the perfect one to follow through on that mission. Even though we will probably never be in this situation, I would be incredibly disappointed if a Gamecock football player was found to have committed an in fraction, forcing USC to forfeit its Outback Bowl victories. But as long as I have the memories, no one can take them from me. Michigan fans can keep the mem ories, even if the wins and cham pionships and everything else are gone for years to come. Had everyone involved in the allegations followed the rules, some of the best years of Michigan men’s basketball would still be recognized today. Michigan officials decided to see just what was swept under the rug and saw it wasn’t pretty. The facts might not be easy for Wolverine fans to swallow. But Bill Martin did the job he was supposed to do in this matter. He righted a wrong, no matter how controversial it might be. In do ing so, he may have saved his school from a worse fate. Rothenberg is a fourth-year sport management student. His column normally appears every Wednesday in Gamecock Sports. -1 — For Games Played During The Winter Break Dec. 6, 2002 until Jan. 13, 2003 i- ' ■■■"1 ■ Temple Dec. 2, 2002 Wofford Dec. 16, 2002 Citadel Jan. 2, 2003 Ole Miss. Jan. 8, 2003 Special distribution of student tickets will be Monday, Dec. 2 and Tuesday, Dec. 3, from 9am until 4pm. Distribution will be in Room 205 of the Russell House. Student tickets will also be available on game day at the Arena Ticket Office Student Ticket window from 9 am until halftime of the game. Validation will cost $15.00 for the games. Validations will be available at distribution or at the Coliseum on game night. -Students are not guaranteed a student ticket to each game, only the right to a ticket as long as student tickets are available. -Remember, the good seats go early, so get your ticket as soon as you can. jk Handicapped or disabled students can get assistance by calling 777-6742 ■rar iiii mm nirattaMMu smuw *&mm win rmmm "mm jnimm —sipii &mm mm wmm "ot wm m ^^rswiw “ME "WM ■ :^sdi w4.mssmsm mm J^wKwait^tsiiraei www.fnd«yaft.m.*tcom NOVEMBER 22 I_I_I_I Brought to you by Date: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 Carolina Productions Q.nnr_ S 777-7130 Time. 9.00p.m. vv.sa.sc.edu/cp Location: Russell House Theater f} Students may pick up complimentary passes at the Russell House Information Center beginning at 8:30a.m., day of the show.