University of South Carolina Libraries
Photos by Juan Bias / THE GAMECOCK (Left to right) USC’s Tarence Kinsey, Tre’ Kelley and Renaldo Balkman each earned an honor in The Gamecock’s Post-Season Awards List. The Gamecock’s Post-Season Awards List * Kinsey; Kelley, Balkman highlight list of basketball's best Player of the Year: Tarence Kinsey The senior forward did everything for USC this year, filling the role of Carlos Powell like everyone hoped he would. The Tampa native averaged 15.7 points per game — good enough to earn him honors for seventh overall in the SEC. Most importantly, Kinsey was the team’s best free-throw shooter, at 85 percent. His 60 steals were the second highest on the team. Kinsey also averaged just under five rebounds and just over two assists per game. It was this balance that helped him make the NIT’s All-Tournament team and second-team All SEC. Kinsey leaves USC as a member of the 1,000 points club, finishing at 1,183 for 26th place. Most Improved Player: Tre' Kelley When he started the season, Kelley said that this might be the season of Tre’ Kelley. He wasn’t too far from the truth. The point guard only continues to get better for USC, as his 12.3 points per game was 20th best in the SEC. Even more impressive, however, is Kelley’s ability to share the ball, averaging nearly five assists per contest. He also shot an impressive 76 percent from the free-throw line. Kelley, who earned NIT All-Tournament honors, was also named the SEC’s All-Tournament team for his play. Rising Star: Renaldo Balkman After a stellar start to the season, Balkman fell off the pace during that mid-season stretch for Carolina. But his stock rose fast as the Gamecocks made a run through the post season and it ended with him earning the Most Outstanding Player honors of the NIT. Balkman, who finished with an average of just under 10 points per game, led USC through the SEC and NIT tournaments, scoring in double figures three times in the SEC tournament and both times in the NIT games at Madison Square Garden. WE DON'T RENT TO SNOWMEN (They can’t enjoy our pool and sundeck) minutes from everywhere major kitchen appliances beautiful wood beams ► pool and sundeck __ _ _ cats welcome whaleysmill.com 803*254*7801 211 Main St. (across from College of Engineering) Tradition versus up-and-comers Different programs, same goal: Florida, UCLA go for championship Eddie Pellis THE ASSOCIATED 1’KESS INDIANAPOLIS — UCLA had Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and all those championship banners. Florida had Vernon Maxwell and Norm Sloan. Different programs on opposite coasts with divergent histories play for the national championship Monday night, though the game is more than that. Even with a pair of “power” programs going at it, this game offers yet another reminder of hoy the success of yesteryear no longer guarantees anything for today and how dynasties have been replaced by parity in college basketball. “Are we a basketball school the way Kentucky and Indiana are?” Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley said. “Not yet. That’s the goal. Will we get there? That’s the goal 15 years from now.” meeting mere is me goal these days. Staying there isn’t possible in the way it was when John Wooden coached. No longer, in this era of ESPN, AAU and AOL, can a great coach like Wooden sit in his office and expect great players to come. Still, no one has ever doubted UCLA’s status as a basketball school. Eleven national titles can do that for a program. And while the Bruins still use the success of yesterday to build on today, their dynasty is long gone. UCLA is closer to its last losing season (11-18 in 2003-04) than its last national title (1995, behind Ed O’Bannon and Tyus Edney). Coach Ben Howland, in his third year, got the Bruins back to the top not by riding Wooden’s coattails. He did it the same way Billy Donovan did it at Florida, or Billy Gillispie at Texas A&M, or Jim Larranaga at George Mason: recruiting, selling, and building a team in his own image, not by what someone else thinks it should be. “With winning, players are going to want to come to UCLA again,” said Mike Warren, the captain of the title teams in 1967 and 1968. “Now, will we win 10 championships? I don’t think so. But will we become a solid program again? No. question.” One of the few times these teams, which have never played each other, intersected was wheh Howland won a recruiting battle against Florida to get guard Jordan Farmar. The LA kid saw big things happening with the Gators, but realized he could be part of a rebuilding program — rebuilding at UCLA? — closer to home. “Why go far away if you can have at least the sajne type or situation at home? Howland said. While no one would ever blame a kid for staying near home to attend UCLA, committing to Florida was anything but trendy before Donovan arrived. Though the head Gators are loath to admit it, Florida is a football school. Its few moments of success in hoops were always overshadowed by something else: — Maxwell took the Gators to the tournament for the first time in the late ‘80s, but that experience was tainted by a drug scandal. — Sloan, who left his second stint as Florida’s coach in the aftermath of the Maxwell troubles, was replaced briefly by Don DeVoe, who called himself “a nO-nonsense guy in a nonsense program.” DeVoe lasted about nine months. — Lon Kruger actually broke through some barriers and got the Gators to the Final Four in 1994. Two years later, he left and proclaimed that “to do in basketball what they do in football is just not possible.” The new .coach started locking up more Florida kids, like Udonis Haslem and Teddy Dupay, then got his first high-profile recruit from out of state, Mike Miller. Miller’s commitment raised lots of eyebrows and put the Gators among the national elite — the neighborhood UCLA used to own decades before. “My relationship with Coach was good enough that it drew me from South Dakota,” Miller said. “That’s a long way to go to a school. He was basically like my father up there. You’ve got to be comfortable with him if you are going to go that far away.” Today, Florida players come from everywhere. And in an era where there are no dynasties, maybe the best that can be said for any program is that it keeps playing well enough to get back to the NCAA tournament. This is Florida’s eighth-straight appearance and, though the Gators failed to get out of the first weekend the last five years, Donovan has long insisted that getting there and giving themselves chances is the key. “We wanted to be a factor on the national scene,” Foley said. “And you can’t do that without being a player in this tournament.” The Gators most certainly are. Now, for the second time since 2000, the once football-centric school finds itself the biggest player on basketball’s biggest stage. UCLA has bounced back and finds itself in the same place. A big surprise? Really, it’s hard to Call any team a surprise anymore. James Chance / Ihe Associated Press USC’s Robbie Grinestaff jogs around the bases after hitting a home run during the weekend series against LSU. The Gamecocks belted six home runs over the three-game series in Baton Rouge. BASEBALL • C0ATIAUEDfR0lil8 win. The winning run came off the bat of Andrew Crisp who hit a two-out single to score Reese Havens on a play at the plate for the go-ahead run that would ultimately win it for the Gamecocks. “To be hitting .500 at this point of the season is really incredible,” Tanner told Gamecockcentr al. com. “I have a lot of respect for Neil Giesler as a hitter. I throw a lot of batting practice to him. He doesn’t have a lot of holes in his swing. He uses the whole field. He’s an outstanding hitter.” Gielser, who led the SEC in batting average, on-base percent and hits coming into the weekend is pleased with himself, but wants more for his team. “I wish I could say I wanted to be batting like this at this point in the year, but I can’t say that,” Giesler said. “It’s nice. I’m hoping to keep it up.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm. sc. edu BROOm • CORTinueB PROm 8 has on some sort of shock collar, and if he doesn’t throw in some interesting Noah fact every 2.7 minutes, he gets 1,700 volts during the commercial breaks. Not only does Nantz have to throw in some fact about Noah, but Billy Packer keeps repeating things like “Noah is 6 foot 1 '1, and he has very long arms.” Billy, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met a 6-foot-ll person with short arms. I just haven’t. Generally, a person that is almost seven feet tail having arms that could be described as “long” would not be considered worthy of mention. After you point out the fact that the guy is 6 foot 11, most of us can connect the dots to see that he probably has long arms. I wonder if he walks around his house saying things like “the right half of my body just got ripped off by a passing 18 wheeler, and I am in pain.” This year’s tournament has been one of the most interesting that I can remember. It is too bad it has to end like this._