The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 07, 2006, Page 9, Image 9
SPRIflG GRIT1E • COnTinUED PROIT18
18 carries. Boyd scored once
and gained 142 yards on 26
carries, and Wallace totaled
100 yards on 19 rushes.
With two different squads
for the spring game, these
backs will have more carries
to show their stuff.
At wide receiver, the
battle is for the slots behind
Rice and sophomore Kenny
McKinley.
Throughout the spring,
McKinley has cemented
his position as a solid No.
2 option, but since Rice is
done for the spring with
a thumb injury, there is an
even greater urgency to fill
I out the receiver corps.
Senior Noah WTiiteside
and redshirt freshman O.J.
Murdock were listed as
backups coming into the
spring, but a surprise to the
bunch has been Mike West.
The junior was an outside
linebacker last year, but he
has developed into a solid
receiving option this year. In
one scrimmage this spring,
West lead all wideouts with
five catches for 72 yards.
Admission to the game
is free to students and $5
i for the general public. The
* fairgrounds parking lot will
open at 10 a.m. It will cost
$5 to park.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocksports@gwm.sc. edu
Juan Bias / THE GAMECOCK
Quarterback Blake Mitchell passes during a spring
practice. The team will end its spring practices with
Saturday’s Garnet & Black game at 2 p.m.
GRECn • COnTinUED FRO(R 8
down economics” plan of
the Reagan administration.
USA Basketball was
humiliated in the 2004
Athens Olympics.
NBA superstars can
barely compete against
Europeans and South
Americans who have
mastered the fundamentals
of team play, defense and
pure shooting.
Today’s young players
grow up trying to emulate
those horrible “And One”
videos. It’s not about
good basketball; it’s about
making the other guy look
like a fool. Where is the
coaching?
Now, all the good
high school players leave
straight to the NBA, or
spend a single year in
college before departing to
the NBA.
The best college teams
either have an entire
roster of inexperienced
freshman and sophomores
who were “McDonald’s
All-Americans,” or they
have an entire roster of
above-average players who
stay until their senior year
because they are not good
enough to go pro.
The teams with
the “McDonald’s All
Americans” have to retool
every year or two because
of a mass exodus to the
"NBA.
The North Carolina
Tarheels, last year’s national
champion, are the perfect
example. Five players left
early for the NBA draft.
It is no great coincidence
that there have been
more and more so-called
“Cinderella” stories in the
tournament recently, and
these teams have been
advancing further.
George Mason reaching
the Final Four was not a
Cinderella story; it was an
exposure of the sad state
that college basketball has
reached.
College basketball might
be the only sport where the
teams of today would be
crushed by the great teams
of the past.
Vince Young’s national
champion football team,
the Texas Longhorns,
would utterly annihilate
any of the great football
teams of the ‘60s, ‘70s or
‘80s.
But how would this year’s
basketball champs, the
Florida Gators, stack up
against some of the UCLA
squads in the ‘60s and ‘70s,
the ones with Lew Alcindor
(Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and
Bill Walton?
It wouldn’t even be
close.
Billy Packer kept
praising the amazing ability
of Florida star Joakim
Noah as if he was one of
college basketball’s all-time
greats. Was this not the
same player that Renaldo
Balkman embarrassed on
three different occasions?
Everyone makes fun of
the NIT. It was the topic
of several jokes in the
national sports media that
USC had won back-to
back NIT titles.
The real joke is that
the talent Level on the
NIT teams is really not
any different than the
best teams in the NCAA
tournament.
Ridiculous.
Gerry Broome / The Associated Press
Florida’s Joakim Noah
celebrates after Florida
beat UCLA, 73-57, in the
national championship
basketball game in
Indianapolis on Monday.
AlABfllHA • C0nnnUEDFR0m8
runs and 110 RBI.
The first game of the
series will feature two
pitchers who have had
success this season to tame
the hot bats of Alabama
| junior Wade LeBlanc and
" freshman Mike Cisco for
USC. LeBlanc is 6-0 with a
1.90 ERA and 62 strikeouts
in 61.2 innings pitched.
Cisco is also without a loss
at 4-0 with a 2.70 ERA and
28 strikeouts in 33.1 innings
pitched.
The first pitch in Friday’s
game is at 7 p.m. Saturday’s
game starts at 4 p.m. just
after the football team’s
2 p.m. spring game, and
Sunday’s finale is set for
1:30 p.m. to wrap up the
series.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocksports@gwm. sc. edu
BASEBALL • C0ATIAUEDFR0(A8
with looking strikeouts to
end each inning.
The Gamecocks managed
to tie things up in the
fourth as Robbie Grinestaff
hit a solo home run, his
team leading 10th of the
year, that knotted things
up at 1.
Both teams scored in
the sixth inning as Cheyne
Hurst tied things again with
an RBI single. But a two
out double by Colvin in the
seventh inning followed by
an Andy D’Alessio single to
left provided the go-ahead
run that put the Tigers up
for good at 3-2.
A late rally by the
Gamecocks looked like it
might tie things up again,
as a Hurst walk to start the
bottom of the ninth and a
Chris Brown sacrifice bunt
set up Michael Campbell.
A line shot by Campbell to
the Tiger second basemen,
Taylor Harbin, was flipped
easily to shortstop Stan
Widmann for a double play
that ended the game and
the rally attempt.
“I’ve seen a lot of
things in my time and
that was one thing that we
needed,” Clemson coach
Jack Leggett said. “That
was a big, big play for us.
Campbell squared that
ball up real good. Just
fortunately, we had a guy
right there for us.”
“I told our guys after the
game that for almost three
weeks we’ve done almost
everything in an execution
situation to win the game,”
Tanner said. “But tonight
we just came up a little
short.”
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu
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