The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 25, 2004, Page 15, Image 15
15 Game.Schedule
MEN’S BASKETBALL at Florida, 7 p.m.
MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SWIMMING in SEC Championships
Contact. Us WOMEN'S BASKETBALL at Kentucky, 7 p.m. Thursday
Story ideas? Questions? Comments? SOFTBALL vs. Fresno State, noon Friday
E-mail us at gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu - . BASEBALL vs. Duquesne, 3 p.m. Friday
Gamecocks face rough road tonight at Florida
BY ELIZABETH BENFIELD
THE (iAMECOCK
The USC men’s basketball
team, 20-6 and 7-5 in the SEC, is in
Gainesville, Fla. tonight for its
second matchup of the season
I with the Florida Gators, who are
15-8 and 6-6 in the SEC.
“The challenge that lies ahead
of us is a huge one,” USC head
coach Dave Odom said in his
weekly teleconference. “Florida
went through a couple of games
where they had a difficult time.
“You have to respect Billy and
his team for playing through that
time. They’ve had some time to
get past it, and boy, did they ever
do that. I was really impressed
with the way they played and the
toughness their team showed.”
When the teams met in
January at the first game of the
SEC opener for Carolina, USC lost
65-62.
However, in one of the biggest
success stories in the SEC, the
t Gamecocks have made a come
* back. They have the lowest aver
age allowed points per game in
the SEC with 61 points. They also
lead the league in blocks per
game at 5.9 and averaged 4.3 few
er turnovers than their oppo
nents.
The Gators’ eight-year head
coach Billy Donovan is hoping
for his 200th career win in the
game against Carolina. Also, a
win for Florida would mean a tie
for second place with the
Gamecocks in the SEC East.
After a two-game losing streak,
which took them out of the AP
top 25, the Gators defeated Ole
Miss last week 81-66. The team
again hit over 50 percent from the
field for the ninth time this sea
son and only allowed four
turnovers in the last 20 minutes
of play.
Florida guard Anthony
Roberson, averaging 17 points per
league play game, is the team’s
highest scoring player. Roberson
scored over 20 points in five of his
last nine games.
Along with forward David Lee
and guard Matt Walsh, the three
have combined their efforts to
score an average of 47.9 points per
game. Walsh has had double fig
ures in all but one of his 12 SEC
games, and Lee has also scored
double digits in the past three
games.
The Gamecocks’ point leader
is forward Carlos Powell, with
13.2 points per
game as wen as
6.4 rebounds a
contest. Another
top scorer on the
team is junior
Josh Gonner, who
■I T has scored in dou
ble digits in 10 of
Powell hiS SEC games.
For conference
games, Gonner is averaging 14.3
points per game. He is also sec
ond on the team in steals with 36
for the season.
“We played South Carolina ear
ly in the year,” Donovan said. “I
think like any season in the
league, teams change. Certainly
we have changed. South Carolina
has changed. I think South
Carolina has always been a good,
defensively disruptive team. As
the season goes on, you get a
chance to see things differently.
This league is so unforgiving. If
you don’t play well on a given
night, you’re going to lose.”
Down by two games to
Kentucky with four games re
maining, USC needs a victory
against Florida if it hopes to win
the SEC East. Against Arkansas,
the team had its worst game yet,
losing 82-66 to the Razorbacks.
One shining star of the game,
freshman guard Tre Kelley,
scored a team high of 18 points,
breaking his career high of 16
points that he set a few weeks ago.
Of the past six games, Kelley has
scored double digits in the past
four, and he has hit 22 of his last
26 free throws.
USC is averaging nearly six
blocks per game, making its de
fense a force to be reckoned with.
Last season the team had only 92
blocks in 28 games, while this year
Carolina has already blocked 154
balls in 26 games. Forward
Renaldo Balkman leads the way
for the team in that category with
39 blocks.
The game between USC and
Florida will start at 7 p.m. at the
O’Connell Center in Gainesville.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu
PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK
Forward Kerbrell Brown holds on to the ball while getting fouled in a game earlier this season
against Mississippi State. The Gamecocks travel to play Florida tonight at 7 p.m.
Guard Sarah Burgess and the Gamecocks face the Kentucky
Wildcats in Lexington, Ky., Thursday at 7 p.m.
/
Women’s basketball
»needs Kentucky win
to climb out of cellar
BY BRAD MOSELEY
THE (i'AMKCOCK
USC women’s basketball (10-15,
1-11 SEC) hits the court tomorrow
to take on Kentucky (10-15,2-10) in
Lexington, Ky., as the season
winds down.
The upcoming game with
Kentucky will affect RPI and ul
timately give the winner a more
favorable placement in the NCAA
Tournament. The Gamecocks
will need to win out in the SEC
tournament to continue their
_ streak of NCAA Tournament ap
^ pearances, which currently rests
at two. Thursday night’s battle
between the Gamecocks and the
Wildcats will be mostly fought for
pride.
The season started out with
much promise and hope for the
Gamecocks who mounted an 8-1
record that has since turned dis
astrous, with Carolina managing
only one win in its 12 conference
games. USC has tried to overcome
itsi youthful mistakes with talent
and two senior guaros., but the
SEC’s strength from top to bottom
has not given the team a chance
to rebound. In numerous occa
sions the Gamecocks have shown
a glimpse of what they might
some day become, by achieving
double-digit leads against the con
ference’s best teams, only to have
their hopes dashed by come
backs.
The Wildcats’ season has been
almost as disappointing. Despite
touting the third-best three-point
percentage in the conference,
Kentucky has won only two
games in the SEC. One of those
wins was in Columbia, 75-61, on
Jan. 25, and the other came
against an Alabama team that
has only four SEC wins to its
name. The latter was Kentucky’s
most recent game and Senior
Night. Ironically enough, the
team was led by freshman Angela
Phillips, who scored 14 points in
the win.
Sara Potts, a 6-foot junior for
ward for the Wildcats, leads the
team in scoring, averaging 16.5
points per game. Potts also holds
♦ WOMEN, SEE PAGE 16
February looks bright for muddy sport
February might be the best
month for the world’s greatest
sports fans. No,
I’m not refer
ring to
University of
Maryland stu
dents watching
basketball and
screaming pro
fanities, but
rather to those
hearty souls
who risk life
and limb stand
ing in freezing
weather to
watch skinny guys get muddy.
I’m talking about Belgian cy
clocross aficionados. Sure,
Belgium may be known for get
ting smacked around every time
Germany decides to invade
someone, but it grows its fans the
right way.
Cyclocross is a sport that bog
gles the mind, and it’s not simply
because it induces an anaerobic
PATRICK
AUGUSTINE
Fourth-year
political
science student
euphoria in its participants that
is only a shade away from death.
The sport resembles a Le Mans
style race more closely than any
thing else, with competitors duk
ing it out over grass, hill, mud
and more mud for a little over an
hour on a closed course less than
two miles in length, usually.
Belgian NASCAR, plain and sim
ple. However, the organizers are
not content simply to let 140
pound whiteys ride around in cir
cles and figure eights, so they in
troduce two-foot high barriers to
the mix, forcing the riders to dis
mount and jump over. With the
barriers usually situated at the
foot of a steep hill about 50 yards
in length, it makes for some in
teresting and less-than-graceful
situations.
This brings us to a point or two
about equipment. Some time in
the past 70 years or so, those crazy
guys who rode the Tour de France
on 40-pound fixed-gear cruisers de
cided they weren’t getting enough
of a thrill. Yes, the same gentle
men content to pound out the
miles in July heat wearing wool
jerseys, sitting on flank steaks to,
ahem, keep from getting “raw,”
got bored in December. They de
cided to put little knobbies on
their skinny tires and schlep the
bikes around in the mud.
Belgian mud isn’t like mud in
the southern United States. It’s
darker and far fouler, not to men
tion pervasive as hell — it gets
into every working part of a bike
within 20 minutes, rendering
moving parts irrelevant. What’s
the attraction of riding in freez
ing weather, dressed like the
Michelin man, running up a slip
pery steep hill lugging your bike
on your shoulder that now weighs
as much as Anna Nicole ‘cause
you have half of Flanders Fields
stuck to it?
The fans. Half of a Williams
Brice crowd, packed in around the
course shoulder-to-shoulder and
as deep as a Beatles reunion show.
Mind the weather—it’s still 15 de
grees, windy and you’re standing
in slush next to a bunch of drunk
guys. Like an afternoon game,
they’ve been drinking since early
that morning and hitting the good
trappist stuff that tastes more like
warm champagne than the weak
urine-colored stuff that is the
provenance of USC frat boys.
They’re eating frites, to which
most Americans would append
the word “French,” drenched in
mayonnaise, in a scene eerily
reminiscent of the state fair.
Strangely, the display works —
the home team took five of the top
10 in the ‘cross World
Championships two weeks ago,
interrupted only by the occasion
al Dutch or French rider.
So, remember the Belgians
when you’re rooting for our base
ball or basketball teams in the
next month — it’s easy to win
with fans willing to go numb to
watch their boys turn themselves
inside out for a little gritty glory.
SEC.News and,Notes
Winston, Freije get
weekly recognition
The SEC announced on
Wednesday that Alabama for
ward Kennedy Winston and
Vanderbilt forward Matt Freije
have been named co- SEC play
ers of the week.
Winston scored a career
high 31 points and pulled down
11 rebounds to lead the
Crimson Tide to a huge upset
win at Mississippi State on
Saturday. He’s leading
Alabama with 16.1 points per
game and hit 13 of his 15 free
throws for MSU. The game
was the eighth in which
Winston scored 20 or more
points.
Freije tied his career high
with 32 points in a must needed
win over Alabama on
Wednesday. He also scored 22
points in the Commodores 74
54 win over LSU on Saturday
on 9 of 20 shooting. Freije’s per
formance this week moved him
into a tie for second on t Vandy
all-time scoring list with 1,719
points, just six points shy of
first place.
Divisional races
heat up weekend
The division races have
heated up as teams make then
final push leading into the SEC
tournament. On Wednesday,
USC and Florida will play for
what could be the No. 2 spot in
the SEC; Tennessee travels to
Kentucky; Vanderbilt goes to
Ole Miss; and Mississippi State
plays host to LSU.
On Saturday, Alabama will
plays host to Ole Miss; Florida
travels to Arkansas; USC en
tertains Georgia; Auburn trav
els to Tennessee; and
Mississippi State will try to
win a tough game at
Vanderbilt. Kentucky will
travel to LSU to take on the
Tigers in a Sunday matchup.
Townsend receives
men’s track award
The SEC announced yester
day that USC track athlete Fred
Townsend has been named
Men’s Track Athlete of the
Week. This is the first time a
Gamecock has received the
honor this year.
Townsend, a senior from
Baton Rouge, La., broke the 55
meter hurdle record for the
USC Indoor Facility on
Saturday with a NCAA provi
sional qualifying time of 7.39
seconds. Townsend is a captain
for the 2004 USC track team and
is ranked seventh in
Trackwire’s individual rank
ings.
Last season, Townsend was
named to the first team All
America team after finishing
ninth in the NCA$Outdoor
Championships.
Boston ace ready
for ’04 turnaround
BY HOWARD ULMAN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FORT MYERS, FLA. - Pedro
■ Martinez wants to forget his con
tract flap, his Game 7 flop and his
Don Zimmer flip.
The star pitcher is preparing
for another attempt aft helping the
Boston Red Sox win their first
World Series title since 1918. Last
y6ar, they lost to the New York
Yankees 6-5 in 11 innings in Game
7 of the AL championship series.
“I hope ... we are the team to
beat,” Martinez said Tuesday,
“but I don’t want to say it. I want
to do it.”
For now, he considers the
Yankees the team to beat be
cause they went to the World
Series. In Game 3 of the ALCS,
Martinez pushed New York
bench coach Zimmer to the
ground during a melee. In Game
7, he gave up three runs in the
eighth inning, letting the
Yankees tie it 5-5.
Now Martinez enters his sev
enth year with the Red Sox
knowing he could leave next off
season as a free agent. He said ho
contract talks have been held.
Martinez said he wants to end
his career in Boston and will
give the team a chance to sign
him — even if it’s after the sea
son. If that doesn’t happen, he
should have several suitors.
“Forget about what’s going to
happen to me. I don’t have any
thing to prove,” he said Tuesday,
his first day of spring training
workouts. “If they don’t want to
sign me, that’s fine. I’m pretty
sure I’ll probably get a job with
somebody else. But if they do, I’ll
be more than happy to stay here.”
Martinez probably won’t
throw off a mound for about a
week. He reported three days af
ter the team’s other pitchers; the
Red Sox gave him permission to
arrive late because of a family
medical issue.
“Pedro’s got a pretty good his
tory of being a pretty good pitch
er,” new Red Sox manager Terry
Francona said. “He’ll be ready to
go.”
Last season, Martinez went 14
4 with a league-best 2.22 ERA. In
his six Red Sox seasons, he is 101
28 with a 2.26 ERA and two AL
Cy Young Awards. He also won
the 1997 NL Cy Young Award
with Montreal.
If Martinez falters this season,
the Red Sox will have one of base
ball’s best pitchers to Send to the
mound in the next game: Curt
Schilling. Boston obtained him
in a trade with Arizona, a move
that drops Delek Lowe, 38-15 the
past three seasons, into the No. 3
starting spot, and Tim Wakefield
♦ MARTINEZ, SEE PAGE 16