The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 07, 2006, Page 8, Image 8
' Game schedule
THMAMECOCK
_ _ Men’s tennis vs. Kentucky, 2 p.m.
~I "V k r | 'l /” Ni Women’s tennis @ Kentucky, 4 p.m.
, 1 ■ MM \ I [ I I 1 Baseball vs. Alabama, 7 p.m.
Page 8 ^3 I 1 Friday, April 7,2006
NCAA tourney
has lost appeal
with lackluster
play this season
Players leaving school early
for NBA, poor fundamentals
show up in college teams
I probably watched a total of
about 10 minutes of Monday
night’s national champions'hip
basketball game.
__ It came on way too
®late, featured two
teams completely
lacking anything
resembling great
basketball and there
was something else
TODD GREEfl that was hard for me
get a grip on at first
— I just don’t care
anymore. College
entertainment . \ ini ,
basketball has lost
management
its appeal.
There have been blowouts in
the national championship game
before.
Sometimes you have a team that
is so good that the other team is
simply overmatched.
But in the past when the final
game was lopsided, you could
at least count on the Final Four
games to be good.
This year’s tournament had the
most borfng final three games I
can ever remember.
“I know it was you Fredo. You
broke my heart. You broke my
heart!” — Michael from “The
Godfather Part II”
I watched the first 10 minutes
of the Florida-UCLA matchup
before giving up and watching
the “Godfather Part II” on AMC.
(I had already wasted about two
hours earlier in the day watching
the first “Godfather” movie.)
It was pretty easy to see early
on that Florida was going to have
its way with UCLA.
I awoke Tuesday morning to
find that my best friend had left a
voicemail on my cell phone.
I still had not checked
SportsCenter to find out how the
game ended.
Here is an excerpt from that
voicemail, and to all those who
know me, beware, you are always
on the record.
“A team the Gamecocks beat
twice, dominated twice, not only
on their home court but also on
Florida’s home court and should
have beat them in the SEC
championship, only lost to them
by two points, wins the f—ing
national title? Are you kidding
me?”
My friend is absolutely dead
on in his analysis of the state of
college basketball today.
It starts from the top and filters
its way down to every level of
basketball; kind of like the “trickle
GREER • 9
Juan Bias / THE GAMECOCK
A Gamecock baseball player lays down a bunt during the No. 1 team’s 3-2 loss at Sarge Frye Field
on Wednesday against No. 7 Clemson. The teams meet for a final time at Clemson on Wednesday.
Tiger clawed
Gamecocks drop 3-2 contest to rival Clemson at home
(Hex Riley
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
There was only one
difference, other than
the score, in the game between
top-ranked USC and No. 7
Clemson on Wednesday night
— the amount of runners left
on base.
The Gamecocks stranded 10
runners, and the Tigers stranded
nine, but it was that one less
that ended up being the winner,
as Clemson escaped Sarge Frye
field with a 3-2 win over USC.
“It was a great college
baseball game,” USC coach
Ray Tanner said. “Both teams
had an opportunity to win, and
Clemson did a better job.”
Both squads threw freshmen
pitchers as Clemson’s Ryan
Hinson and Carolina’s
Will Atwood gave solid
performances.
Atwood threw over five
innings, giving up six hits and
two runs while striking out four.
Hinson threw five innings, and
he gave up six hits and one run.
But it was Clemson’s Daniel
Moskos’ relief pitching that
sealed things for the Tigers, as
his over three innings of no
hit baseball kept the Gamecock
attack at bay and gave the Tigers
the winning edge.
“Moskos was certainly the
difference at the end of the
game,” Tanner said. “We knew
he was good coming in, and we
just weren’t able to get anything
going off of him. But both
freshmen pitched really well.”
“I was really comfortable
out there,” Atwood said. “The
crowd makes it a lot easier. It
was a lot of fun for me, I’m glad
I had the chance to experience
it, but you hate to get beat on a
night like tonight.”
Clemson took a 1-0 lead
in the first inning off a Tyler
Colvin RBI double and held the
lead for the first three innings as
USC stranded four men on base
BflSGBALL • 9
SEC West,
East leaders
to face off
in weekend
3 -game set
(Dattffloore
FOR THE GAMECOCK
The top of the Southeastern
Conference East meets the top
of the West as Alabama rolls
into Columbia for a top-10
weekend series.
No. 10 Alabama (23-9, 7
2 in the SEC) has won seven
of its last eight, including a
series victory over then-No. 1
Mississippi State, only to draw
the team that took MSU’s place
atop the national rankings.
No. 1 USC (26-4, 8-1 in the
SEC) is coming off a close loss
to No. 7 Clemson that ended a
nine-game winning streak.
One thing Alabama has
going for it is that it has not
lost a regular season series
against a No. 1 team. Since
1985, Alabama has won five
straight series against top
ranked opponents, including
Miami (1985), Mississippi State
(1989), Auburn (1995), LSU
(1997) and Mississippi State
(2006). Alabama is 11-11 all
time against No. 1 teams.
The Gamecocks have a streak
of their own to keep in tact this
weekend. USC has never lost
a home series to the Crimson
Tide.
Despite UbCs home success,
the series between these two
teams is tied at 19-19. While
Alabama has never won a
series at Sarge Frye, USC
has shared similar road woes,
including a series loss last year
in Tuscaloosa.
The key for USC this
weekend seems to be for the
team to continue its hot streak
at the plate. The Gamecocks
are third in the SEC in batting
average (.313), home runs (36)
and RBI (220), and third in
runs scored (242).
The offense is led by senior
infielder Neil Giesler. Giesler
is batting .454 with three home
runs and 27 RBI. Junior Robbie
Grinestaff has provided power
in the Gamecock lineup, leading
the team with 10 home runs, 40
RBI and 31 runs scored.
The Crimson Tide bats have
also livened up, especially as of
late. During the past 12 games,
Alabama is batting .308 as a
team with seven home runs and ^
66 runs driven in. In the first 20
games of the season, Alabama
struggled from the plate with a
.256 batting average, 13 home
MUR • 9
Garnet & Black game marks team’s last tune-up of spring
Juan Bias / THE GAMECCJK
Defensive back Fred Bennett causes tight end Robert Pavlovic to
TomBenmng
STAFF WRITER
Spring practice will come to a
close this Saturday at 2 p.m. when
the USC football team holds its
annual Garnet & Black spring
game. After fifteen practices and
three scrimmages, the game will
give the public One last chance
to watch the Gamecocks before
the fall opener against Mississippi
State.
All of the scrimmages thus far
have been 90 minutes of offense
vs. defense, but the spring game
will allow the coaches to split the
team up into two squads for four
quarters of football. While the
game will be displayed in a game
like atmosphere, USC head coach
week, “The spring game we will do
like last year and limit formations
and plays a little bit.”
Close to 40,000 people attended
the event last year, and the
game was televised by ESPN
and ESPNU. Last year’s contest
provided fans their first glimpse
of a now-commonplace sequence
— Blake Mitchell to Sidney Rice.
The then-unknown receiver had
three catches for 65 yards and one
acrobatic touchdown catch from
Mitchell that made SportsCenter’s
Top-10 plays. Mitchell went
12-of-23 for 175 yards and one
touchdown to position himself in
front of Antonio Heffner for the
starting job.
This year’s game will most likely
be more low-key, but as always,
and position battles will become
clearer. Despite heavy losses on
defense and in the trenches, two
of the most intriguing position
competitions are at running back ^
and wide receiver.
Coming into the spring,
sophomore Alike Davis was pegged
as the starting tailback with junior
Cory Boyd and sophomore Bobby
Wallace behind him. Davis had
100-yard rushing performances to
end last season, and he has done
nothing to lose his job this spring.
However, Boyd’s explosiveness
and receiving ability have been
hard to miss, and Wallace showed
flashes of brilliance last year. In the
first two scrimmages this spring,
Davis had 166»yards and a TD pn
WRinfifiAfllE A Q_