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Ji | II r I 1 Wj GAME SCHEDULE Piia-P'l'? I I I I m I BASEBALL vs. Davidson, 7 p.m. Wednesday j I 1 / I I 111 MEN’S TENNIS at Alabama, 4 p.m. Friday Wednesday, March 23, 2005 Y_>/ JL V. K_' WOMEN’S TENNIS vs. Alabama, 2 p.m. Friday CHARLIE DAVENPORT/THE GAMECOCK Junior shortstop Steven Tolleson takes a swing in last weekend’s series loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks at Sarge Frye Field. USC to play host to Davidson By MATTHEW NAGY THE GAMECOCK After losing 2-of-3 games in a weekend series against Arkansas, the USC baseball team will look to rebound tonight with a matchup against the Davidson Wildcats. The Gamecocks will play host to the struggling Wildcats at 7 p.m. at Sarge Frye Field. History repeated itself last weekend, as Carolina dropped its fifth consecutive regular-season series to the Arkansas Razorbacks. Games one and three saw USC's bats go cold and Arkansas' pitching get hot, with the help of two true freshman pitchers. Carolina was able to win the second contest to avoid being swept in this season's first SEC series. When the Gamecocks take the field against Davidson, however, they should not face the same problems that plagued them against Arkansas. The Wildcats will enter the contest with a 9-8 overall record and a 1-4 record in SEC play. Davidson will turn to junior slugger Jay Heafner to lead the way against the Gamecocks. Heafner leads his team with a .389 batting average and also in RBIs with 23. He shares the second highest record for home runs on the team with three, trailing only junior Taylor Shoop, who leads with five. The Wildcats' pitching has struggled this season. Davidson has only three pitchers on its roster vith more than one victory. Only two pitchers have an ERA ielow 4, and both have pitched less than 20 innings on the year. The Wildcats are expected to put senioi righty Justin Hartanov on the mtund. Hartanov sports a 2-2 recod this season, with a 4.02 ElA. This will be Hartanov’; second start of the season. The Gunecocks will counter with sophomore hurler Arik Hempy, who has no decisions yet, but sports a 3.86 ERA. In his last start, Hempy gave up one run in two innings at Wofford before being pulled. USC defeated Davidson handily in their contest a season ago. Behind then-junior Jason Fletcher, the Gamecocks came away with a 10-1 victory, their 37th win against Davidson in 39 contests. The Gamecocks will look to use this game as a tune-up in between SEC foes, as they start a three-game series with No. 11 Florida on Friday afternoon. The Gamecocks have dropped to No. 9 ♦ Please see BASEBALL, page 1.3 FIRST IN A THREE-PART SERIES Under the Visor with USC coach Steve Spurrier I recently sat down for a one-on-one interview with new USC football coach Steve Spurrier. We spoke about a new era of Gamecock football, his coaching career and, most importantly, who the coach behind the visor is. In part one of a three-part series, I spoke with him about the upcoming Spurrier era of USCfootball. Jonathan H i 11 y a r d : What about USC makes it so attractive for a high-caliber coach like yourself and coach Holtz? Steve Spurrier: Jonathan, 1 think USC is a school, a college, a team that has nowhere to go but up. I really believe everything is here for us to be very successful. We've got an outstanding university. We've got a support system that gives our players a wonderful opportunity to graduate, if they go to class and give good effort, they can graduate from this school, and 1 believe that's important when you go out recruiting. Football-wise, we have brand new facilities, a brand-new ^k weight room, bfand-new meeting rooms and each coach knr kir mam krand mini W Our stadium seats over 80,000, and we sell all of our V tickets. Everything is here to be successful. 1 realize that in I the past it hasn't quite worked out, and I don't pretend to have k the reasons. I don't even really worry about the reasons. We're just taking the bunch of guys we have, and we're going to try and train them the best we can to try and w,n a championship. JH: We spoke with Dr. (Mike) M«Gee, and was the confidence you bring to a program. How do you install that confidence in your football team? SS: As we all know, success breeds confidence, so we need to have success and learn how to handle u to bring future success. Hopefully, the players and the fans will say 'Hey. coach L Spurrier has won six or seven SEC Championships, he's won a national championship, so he's got a plan to allow it to happen here. 1 can assure you we are trying to put in the same plan, maybe even a little better plan, that what we put in at Florida. I think I've got an outstanding defensive assistant staff that's really going to help us have consistent, strong defenses. And offensively, we have an excellent staff. We've got some younger guys on offense, but that's what I coach and have my entire coaching career. I’ll call the plays and run the offense. Hopefully that experience of winning some championships will give our guys some confidence that Hey, We can do it too.' JH: If you had to tell the USC student body and fan base what to expect from Gamecock football in 2005, what would it be? SS: What I've been telling everyone that loves Carolina football is that we are going to put a team out there that, number one, is in good shape. We're going to be fit, we are going to be able to play the whole game and we're not going to poop out. Number two, we're going to play with a lot of effort. Our guys are going to be in such good shape that fatigue is not going to be a problem. We re going to play with full effort from snap to whistle on every play the entire game. to beat ourselves. If the other team is better than us and they just out execute us and play better then we can live with that, but we re going to play smart and give ourselves every opportunity to win the game. Number four, we re going to play like winners, play the game the way it's meant to be played. Don’t get full of yourself if something good happens. Don't get too depressed when something bad happens. We’ve just got to keep playing the game with persistence the entire game, and we'U see how we do when ir’s over. So, 1 didn't say we are going to win a lot, but we are going to play like winners, and we've got a plan in place to teach our guys how to play like winners and play like a champion. JH: How has your coaching staff taken the transition so far? ^ SS: We're all very excited. We realize that this is the opportunity of a lifetime. 1 think this is an opportunity that so many coaches in .America would love to have. Our coaches want to be a part of South Carolina football when they win it for the first time. When they win the division, when they win the SEC, win a major bowl game, etc. The opportunities to do it all for the first time here make it extra special. Look for part two of this series Friday, in which Spurrier talks about his coaching career. KATIE KIRKLAND/THE GAMECOCK Junior forward Antoine Tisby dunks on a helpless UNLV defender during the first half of USC’s NIT victory against the Runnin’ Rebels. Carolina dunks UNLV in NIT By MIQUELJACOBS STAFF WRITER After initial prodding by senior Carlos Powell, USC fens had a high energy all night, which helped the Gamecocks breeze past UNLV 77-66 Tuesday night in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament. USC put on a clinic in the first half, providing enough material to fill the ESPN Top 10 highlight reel. The first five minutes of the game played like the Brandon Wallace show, as the sophomore center collected eight of Carolina’s first 10 points, mainly on second chance putbacks. Wallace ended with 13 points and six rebounds. “We just wanted to come out quickly,” Wallace said. “I figured they would double team Carlos, so I worked on my shot in practice.” The Gamecocks went ahead early without looking back. The bench even got into the action, with sophomore Renaldo Balkman, junior Antoine Tisby and senior Josh Gonner combining for 14 consecutive points. Sophomore guard Tre’ Kelley collected the first of his career-high nine assists on a dish to Balkman to pull USC’s lead to 11. The two hooked up again on one of the night’s many great plays after Kelley stole the ball at ♦ Please see NIT, page 13 A j NICK ESARES/THE GAMECOCK Junior cornerback Fred Bennett, left, hold's a tackling dummy for sophomore safety Ko Simpson during drills in practice Saturday. Gamecocks continue spring makeover ■ Talented receivers draw praise from coach on day 2 of workouts By MICHAEL FINNEGAN THE GAMECOCK The Carolina football team continued to improve while getting ready for its nationally televised Garnet and Black game April 16. Monday was the second day of spring practice, and the Gamecocks continued to adjust to their new coach and find their place on the team. OFFENSE Once again, Spurrier spent his time wijh the quarterbacks, making sure his fun 'n' gun offense is run correctly. Sophomore Blake Mitchell is still listed as the number one quarterback. Behind him is junior walk-on Brett Nichols, who according to Spurrier, is “probably the fastest quarterback, so he can run out of trouble.” Redshirt freshman Antonio Heffner is also in the hunt for the starting job, although he is off to a slow start this spring, throwing many passes off target. However, Spurrier said that the wide receivers looked the best on day two. “The wide receivers I thought had a good day in the one-on-one drills,” he said. “Kris Clark, Sidney Rice and Syvelle Newton, they all looked good.” “We are making progress,” new wide receivers coach Steve Spurrier Jr. said. “We looked better today.” j In the 1-1 drills ; with the defensive backs, the wide receivers showed their superior speed and quickness, dominating the drills. Spurrier said he hopes to get in most of his playbook this spring. DEFENSE During warm-ups, safety Ko Simpson riled up the teams. During the first two days of spring practice, defensive end De'Adrian Coley has impressed the coaches. The coaches are looking for guys to step up to replace parting senior George Gause and suspended players Moe Thompson and Kevin Mainord. Another defensive player looking for a lot of playing time is junior college transfer Mike West. Recruited out of high school as a running back for Iowa State, he switched to defense as at strong safety when he went to> Butler Community College. He switched again to strong-side linebacker this year. “It's basically about the same thing,” West said. “Mostly I am down in the box. So far I like it.” West said he hopes to use his speed to his advantage, as he ran a 4.3 40 yard dash in offseason workouts. In the 11-on-l 1 drills, the defensive line dominated the offense line, showing it will be a force in the fall. INJURY REPORT Simpson dislocated his left pinkie in practice today, after hurting his right pinkie Saturday. He is not expected to miss time. As a precaution, Simpson will have an X-ray today. Running back Cory Boyd is expected to be out until next week --* Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu