The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 22, 2004, Page 13, Image 13
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
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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
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