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Keeping homegrown talent in state not all it's cracked up to be Losses of Downey, Wingate during Odom’s USC tenure nothing to complain about Whoever said Dave Odom couldn’t recruit in the state of South Carolina was right. But whoever said Odom needed players from South Carolina to win was wrong. Even though Odom may lose local players to schools like Cincinnati and lennessee, he finds players from other places who actually want to be Gamecocks jp||g and end up being better. HHUUI11 Whenever a '^r local basketball ^°.mca science player leaves student the state or isn’t offered by Odom, Gamecock fans have a history of freaking out. There was Winthrop’s Torrell Martin, who is from Columbia but wasn’t offered by Odom. Coming into Carolina’s game versus Winthrop, the anti-Odom crowd was acting like Martin was the next Michael Jordan. I kept waiting for him to single handedly beat Carolina, but it never happened. He finished with 7 points in 23 minutes and Winthrop lost by 14. Although Martin is a quality player for a mid major team, I’ll take Tarence Kinsey (a Florida native) or Rocky Trice (a Georgia native) over him any day. ihen there was Tennessee’s Major Wingate, who is from Florence but chose to be a Volunteer instead of a Gamecock. Carolina played Tennessee three times this season, and Wingate averaged 7 points and 26 minutes. His highest scoring game against USC was an 8-point explosion in the second round of the SEC tournament. I think I could stand still for 26 minutes, throw up a granny shot from half court every few possessions, and still score more than eight points. The Vols lost that game 79-71. I’ll take Renaldo Balkman (a Florida native) over Wingate any day. The latest example was Cincinnati’s freshman point guard Devan Downey, whom the Odom bashers were sure was going to torch the Gamecocks during Thursday’s NIT Quarterfinals. Downey left Chester High School to be a Cincinnati Bearcat because he felt he was better than USC’s program. “Every year they go to the NIT and they look forward to going to the NIT, and I was looking for bigger things,” Downey told the Cincinnati Post last week. He even described Carolina’s chances of landing him by saying they were “way down the list.” Maybe Downey will find those bigger things that he was looking for. He’ll have a lot more, free time now that the Gamecocks ended his season on his new home court. Downey played all 40 minutes and scored a respectable 10 points, but he couldn’t guard Tre Kelley, (a Washington, D.C. native) who scored 21 points and didn’t think he was too good for USC. I’ll take Kelley over Downey any day. USC fans need to realize that although South Carolina produces some quality basketball talent (Raymond Felton, Jermaine O’Neal, and Kevin Garnett), for every South Carolinian that has the potential to lift Carolina’s program to another level, there are 100 Major Wingates and Devan Downeys that are no better than the guys we have here now. threat conege DasKetDan programs aren’t built by recruiting the best players in the state; they are built by recruiting the best players — period. The question for the Odom bashers is simple: Do you really want these guys? Do you really want local players that not only didn’t., want to be Gamecocks, but aren’t as good as the guys that chose to be here? Carolina may be a team made up of outsiders, but once they get here, I don’t care where they are from. All I care about is where they are now. And I’ll take the team we have over the team we could have had any day. pm • conunueD PBoms overwhelming fashion*, led by senior .Neil Giesler, who has played in all but three games and is still batting .506. Junior Robbie Grinestaff continues to show power, boosting his homerun total to eight on the season to go along with 32 RBI’s. Vuiimipiac ib me umy opponent the two teams have both played so far this season. Wofford won their only contest 10-1. Carolina swept Quinnipiac, outscoring them 30-5. The Terriers share three other opponents with USC. Wofford lost to Georgia earlier this month 11 -8, and they will travel to Furman after Tuesday’s game. They will also go to Clemson for a one-game series in late April. The first pitch for the matchup is set for 7 p.m. It is the final game in a six-game home stand for the 'Gamecocks. USC will travel to Baton Rouge on Friday. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports(S>gurm.sc. edu BASEBALL • COflTinUED FROfTl 8 homeruns and tallying five RBI’s giving Carolina a decisive 21-4 win in the series finale. Hurst also had a grand slam amongst his hits and five RBI’s. “For us to get a win like ‘ this and sweep the series - is unbelievable,” Hurst told Gamecockcentral. com. “We just came out and Started hitting the ball hard. Coach told us to keep pressing because they’re such a good ball club and they could come back from a 10-run deficit. We just had to keep putting it on them and we did.” The team totaled 20 . hits compared to Florida’s seven, as Forrest Beverly’s five strikeouts paced the way for the pitching performance. “It was a great weekend all together for us,” Tanner said. “We did some good things today. We hit some balls that found the holes early. I’m just proud of our guys.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@gum.sc. edu FOOTBALL • COnTinueO FR0A18 as possible had been accomplished. Although last season’s standouts, such as Sidney Rice, Mike Davis and Bobby Wallace, had the strongest showings, many young and largely unknown players also had impressive performances. Three different quarterbacks took the field on Saturday. Last season’s starting quarterback, Blake Mitchell, had a strong day, completing eight of nine passes for a total of 107 yards. Mitchell threw for one score and ran for another. Spurrier was confident about Mitchell’s performance thus far this spring. “Blake is much, much better prepared now than he’s ever been,” Spurrier said. “He’s still got a little ways to go, but he’s got a chance. He’s checking off and picking his guys out better. He should be close to really playing very well this year.” Tommy Beecher and Cade Thompson, both redshirt freshmen, alternated in the quarterback position for the remainder of the scrimmage. Thompson went three of six for 54 yards and was able to connect with tight end Robert Pavlovic for a 10 yard scoring pass. Beecher completed six of 15 passes for a total of 67 yards. Both Thompson and Beecher struggled with interceptions. Thompson threw two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns, the first by Jasper Brinkley and the second by Jerod June. Beecher threw one interception. Although the defense was able to rally from behind with the returned interceptions, they were not able to overpower the offense. The offense won by 10 points: 49 to 39. Spurrier acknowledged the strong performance of the offense and the challenges facing the defense. “Offensively, we should play better than last year. Defensively, we have a lot of new guys. We’ve got to improve,” Spurrier said. South Carolina fans will get their next chance to checkout the new Gamecock squad at the annual Garnet and Black game on April 8 at 2:00 p.m. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports @gwm. sc. edu £iiTiiifcg M i i »\yk