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THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, March 22, 2004 / \ I r I 1 BASEBALL at Wofford, 7 p.m. Tuesday . I If II Fill ' MEN’S SWIMMING in NCAA Championships Contact, Js I * I I |—< I at Long Island, N.Y., Thursday Hory ideas? Questions? Comments? I I f | I Ik j at Tennessee’2 P-m bmailusatgamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu I V X I | rv ) W0MEN ^ TENNIS vs. Tennessee, 2 p.m. Friday —m— x^ —™— ' x>—' WOMEN S GOLF.m Murphy Invitational at Athens, Ga., Friday -———■ rJCAA.Tournament Memphis •mauling stops USC BY JONATHAN HILLYARD THE GAMECOCK A seasoij that far surpassed the expectations of fans, media and ex perts came to an end Friday as the USC men’s basketball team fell to the Memphis Tigers 59-43 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. While the first • round loss gave Gamecock fans an _ uneasy feeling about USC’s tour nament showing, USC head coach Dave Odom had a positive outlook on the season and gave all the credit to Memphis. “At the end of the day, I’m very proud of our basketball team. I’m very proud of each one of them individually and collec tively. I’m very proud of our en tire organization,” Odom said in his post-game press conference. “We ran into a really well-drilled and well-coached team in Memphis. You can tell that they are a very dangerous basketball club, and that came as no sur prise to us.” What came as a surprise to Carolina was Memphis forward Rodney Carney, who torched the Gamecocks for 26 points and 10 re bounds. Carney was the No. 3 man ♦ BASKETBALL, SEE PAGE 14 The Gamecock NCAA Tournament Challenge STAFF STANDINGS 1. Page designer Brad Senkiw - 52 pts 2. Sports editor Wes Wolfe - 50 pts 3. Design director Shawn Rourk - 44 pts 4. Copy editor Steven Van Haren - 43 pts 5. Copy editor ^ | Jennifer Freeman - 42 pts 6. Assistant sports editor Jonathan Hillyard - 41 pts 7. Editor in Chief Adam Beam-38 pts i READER STANDINGS 1. Moe Sadeghi — 63 pts 2. Mike King - 59 pts 3. Michael Young - 56 pts 4. (t) Brandon Bell - 53 pts 4. (t) Brad McIntosh - 53 pts 4. (t) Miranda Waldrep - 53 pts 7. Jeff Welliver - 52 pts 8. (t) Steve Cook - 51 pts 8. (t) Scott Davis - 51 pts 10. (t) Brian Bufford - 50 pts. PHOTO^B1^ THE GAMECOCK Forward Carlos Powell drives to the basket during the SEC Tournament. Powell led USC in scoring against Memphis. - • Gamecocks should dress for Big Dance in future seasons When the USC men’s basketball season ends, I look back and think about what might have been. Recently, the Gamecocks’ seasons have ended with disappointing NCAA and NIT tournament loss es — and those . were the good yea?s. For many years, Gamecock fans mercifully re treated to Sarge Frye Field by February to see a USC win: While the sea son-ending loss to Memphis in the first round of the NCAA Tournament was still tough to swallow, for me this sig nified the new beginning of Gamecock basketball, not the end. Gamecock basketball has cleared its biggest hurdle, and that was success. The team managed to win 23 games this year. When browsing through my bracket, I began to fully appreciate what this team has done. USC swept a six seed in Vanderbilt, defeated a three seed in NC State, took a number two — Mississippi State — to overtime, and was within a basket of defeating Kentucky at Rupp Arena. The Gamecocks also had wins over tourney teams like Richmond and Alabama, who just recently upset No. 1 seed Stanford. Reflecting back to November, most preseason publications pre dicted this team to finish last in the SEC East. Coming off two straight losing seasons, there was no reason to suggest otherwise. The Gamecocks had not been to the NCAA Tournament since the glory days of 1997 and 1998. With only two seniors — Mike Boynton and Rolando Howell — with sig nificant playing experience, an other losing record seemed to be calling. What I will always remember about this team is how it made Gamecock basketball fun to watch. This team was not the most talented team I have ever seen at USC, but it played a fast-break style that generated excitement not seen around here in years. It would press on a moment’s notice, and several times earned easy bas kets in transition, which helped . cover up the shooting weakness es. While my non-Gamecock friends claim I am always excited about next year, there is even more reason to look forward to next basketball season. The Gamecocks will return four of their five starters next season, and the only thing they lack is depth and a true center. At Wake Forest, head coach Dave Odom was able to recruit players like Tim Duncan and Rodney Rogers. My point: expect the Gamecock bas ketball team to spend less time finding a center than the decade the foptball team will spend trying to find a quarterback. A glance at the rest of the con ference seems to suggest the Gamecocks have opportunities to become the elite of the league soon. Only Kentucky and Mississippi State were solid all season. After several disaDDoint ing first-round exits, Florida is not the national power it once was. How was it ever ranked number one this season? Georgia is still reeling from the Jim Harrick Jr. ordeal, and Tennessee and Vanderbilt are never much of a concern. Arkansas and Auburn are clearly in a rebuilding stage, and Ole Miss is only a difficult team at home. With two wins over LSU this year, we seem to have its number. While the box score of the Memphis game certainly brought back memories of Coppin State and Richmond, this loss seemed to be less painful. Perhaps it was because the Gamecocks were not such a heavy favorite this season. Maybe a couple of losing seasons and a long NCAA Tournament drought has made me appreciate a first-round tournament loss. In reality though, ♦ SINCLAIR, SEEPAGE 14 BEN SINCLAIR Graduate student in College of Education PHOTO BY MARK SCHILUNG/THE GAMECOCK Centerflelder Davy Gregg slides back safely to first base. Gregg had one hit on the weekend. Carolina drops 2-of-3 against top-ranked LSU Tigers’ offense too much for Gamecock pitching staff BY GREG ROBERTS THE GAMECOCK The No. 3 USC baseball team (19-2,1-2 SEC) opened its confer ence season up at the top last weekend, but lost two out of the three games in a series with the No. 1 LSU Tigers (18-3,2-1). USC 3, LSU 6 On Friday, the Gamecocks played their first game of the three-game home series, ending with a loss in extra innings. Chad Blackwell (1-1), earned the loss for USC as Greg Smith (1-0), who pitched two innings of relief for LSU, received the win. Landon Powell went 4-for-5 on his 22nd birthday, and continued his hit streak to 15 games. USC’s Brendan Winn knocked in Steve Tolleson for the game’s first run in the first inning, giving Carolina a 1-0 lead. Billy Buckner sat down the Tigers’ first 14 bat ters, but gave up one home run to Jon Zeringue, which tied the game 1-1. LSU scored once in the sixth and again in the eighth, stretch ing the lead to 3-1. Powell singled for his third hit of the game in the eighth, scoring off of Wimi’s fifth home run this year. Winn knocked in all three Gamecock runs. Powell ended up accounting for half of USC’s hit total, two of which were doubles. Winn had two and the other two were by Tolleson and Davy Gregg. Four Carolina pitchers were re sponsible for striking out 11 Tigers, while walking only two. Heading into the 11th, tied 3-3, Zeringue was hit by a pitch and ended up scoring on a hit by Ivan Naccarata. J.C. Holt singled and Ryan Patterson knocked in Naccarata. Following the run, Zac McCamie took over for Blackwell and retired the side, but not be ♦ BASEBALL, SEE PAGE 14 Spring practice allows time to foster Holtz’s winter adjustments BY WES WOLFE THE (iAMECOCK _ The USC football team is head ing into its spring practice season k with several unanswered ques tions about how it will look in the fall and how the program will re cover from two consecutive 5-7 seasons in which it finished the year with four-straight losses. Still, head coach Lou Holtz was op timistic after the first day of prac tice on Saturday. “Our players reacted well with our new coaches and overall I thought we had a good practice for the first session of the spring,” H^ltz said. “We want to l^eep work ing on getting better and do so with each and every day of spring practice. I thought we showed some things on each side of the ban.” One major question coming into the spring drills this season is the quarterback position. In December, Holtz held an im promptu press conference in which he announced that last year’s starting quarterback, Dondrial Pinkins, would keep his position, but that the starting spot would be completely open going into the spring. “Whomever moves the football team best will be the guy, and a lot of that comes from confidence,” Holtz sq^l Saturday. “We will give everyone a fair opportunity and evaluation.” Still, Holtz was positive on Pinkins’ chances for landing the starting spot again this season and his impact on the team. “Dondrial Pinkins has experi ence at the quarterback position, and if he performs better than the others, he will be the starter,” Holtz said. “From being here, he knows the offense and routes and did some good things last season. I have noticed that he has really be come a leader on this football team.” According to the Carolina head coach, though, team leaders are not standing out at this point in the year likj they did last season. “Last year, we were able to identify Travelle Wharton and Dunta Robinson early on,” Holtz said. “We won’t have permanent team captains until the end of the season.” The Gamecocks must not only adjust to losing leaders like Wharton and Robinson, but also to the five new coaches joining the staff and to injury issues that are already cropping up. In addition to the new coaches, former offen sive coordinator Skip Holtz will be assistant head coach and quar terbacks coach. In terms of the players getting used to the new coaches, Lou Holtz said it would probably take the spring before everyoneys accus tomed. t “They went through winter workouts together, but most of the time it takes a spring practice to be able to establish those kind of relationships,” Holtz said. Six players will sit out with in juries in the spring. Three play ers — tight end Andy Boyd, de fensive tackle Preston Thorne and offensive lineman Chad Walker — are all laid up with knee injuries. Tight end Robert Pavlovic and defensive tackle Eric Stroman are out with foot problems, and offensive lineman Kris Mick is sidelined with a wrist injury. “I cannot remember having this many players being, hurt heading into a spring practice,” Holtz said. In other news from spring prac tice, the three-headed monster at running back for Carolina is still there, with Cory Boyd, Demetris Summers and Daccus Turman getting looks at the position. At fullback, Brandon Schweitzer is getting moved back to fullback from defensive line and will compete with walk-on Jaime Peters. Carolina practiced again Sunday and will be back on the field tomorrow. The annual Spring Game is set for April 17 at 1 p.m. Comments on this story?E-mail^ gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu v