It's All About Family (Recap of Mississippi State v. South Carolina)

On February 21 at about 5:00 PM, our house in New York finally was sold. The house closing was over. We were officially no longer North Bellmore, New York residents.   The house closing was six months and three days after I had first driven down to South Carolina with my two door Honda Accord packed to the hilt to start my new job at the University of South Carolina School of Law.

Over those six months, there were many lonely evenings spent in a rented three bedroom two bathroom house in Columbia wondering if February 21 would ever occur. My wife and two sons were up in North Bellmore while I was down here. Nothing like paying a mortgage and a house rent, hoping all along that there would be no catastrophic events that would cancel the house sale.  Despite an awful first house appraiser and the delays resulting from that, eventually the house sale went through.

During this time period, I tried to get up to New York whenever I could. The Friday night 7:15 PM Jet Blue flight from Terminal D, Gate Four at Charlotte International Airport became my best friend.  A few more flights and I should be good for a free flight based on True Blue points.

During this college basketball season, I went to whatever games I could. When I was up in New York, I went to Stony Brook, Iona men's and Iona women's games and of course, Hofstra. I even was able to go to a tripleheader in Brooklyn. In my last trip to New York, I was able to fulfill a life long dream and be a color analyst on the broadcast of the Canisius vs. Iona women's basketball game. It was a lot of fun being part of a three man booth with the terrific team of Nick Guerriero and Jonathan Stanko.  A few days later, I got to see George Mason vs. Hofstra and even got to spend time with Defiantly Dutch and Hofstra Coach Mo Cassara.

Back down here in South Carolina, I went to several Davidson games, several Charlotte games, even got to see Coastal Carolina and Wofford home games as well. Another life long dream was fulfilled when I saw Iona's women's team take on Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Most importantly, I got two season tickets for South Carolina games. But the Section 113, Row 21, Seat 18 chair was for the most part unoccupied this season. That's because my color analyst, aka my seven year old son Matthew was still up in New York.

Even with all of the above games I went to, I didn't go to nowhere near as many games as last season. Truth be told, I have not written anywhere as much for my site this season as in seasons past. It's not that I am not following college basketball. In fact, during this college basketball season, I have watched more games on TV and online than ever.  My knowledge of power conference teams is much better than last season when I covered fifty eight mid major games for MidMajority and my site (TMM is missing the Drexel-UMass 2012 NIT Quarterfinal game).  It's just that is that I haven't felt like writing and I haven't felt like attending games live as much as I did in every previous season.

Something, actually, someone important has been missing this season. Someone who made last season so much fun to write about. I quickly realized it's not the same without my color analyst.

Finally, on February 22, my family packed up our Honda CRV as full as we could and took a two day drive down to Columbia. We got down here late Saturday afternoon the next day. Our first dinner in Columbia was Sonic, my wife's first ever time having their fast food. Matthew and Jonathan started school here a few days later and both are already on a baseball team that I coach. I am the head coach of Jonathan's tee ball team and an assistant coach for Matthew's coach pitch team.

A few days ago, I tried to get Matthew to go with me to a Saturday night game at Wofford. But Matthew said he wanted to spend time with Jonathan and mommy. Matthew had been here only a week and was just getting used to being in Columbia. He wasn't yet interested in seeing basketball down here.

Finally last night, ten days after my family got down here, Matthew was ready for some southern fried Division I basketball, in this case SEC style. It was the last home game of the season for the Gamecocks and it was also Senior Night as Lakeem Jackson and Shane Phillips were both playing their last game at Colonial Life Arena.

After we had our tickets scanned by the ushers, we made our way upstairs. At the top of the stairs, members of the Carolina Girls were handing out little headshot signs of Jackson and Phillips. We got a Phillips sign and headed to concessions. I rarely have anything other than water at the concessions stand. But Wednesday night, I had raced home from work, changed, then took Matthew back to the same parking lot I park in for work, without anytime for food. I was starved.

I decided to order a Philly cheese steak sandwich w fries. Turns out they had to make it and it was going to take ten minutes. Being the stat head that he is, Matthew timed how long it took and he noted as they were bringing my sandwich and fries that it was eleven minutes. But a fresh hot cheesesteak sandwich was a lot better than all the Bojangles chicken tender boxes that were sitting a long time under the microwave lights. The sandwich was very good and worth the wait.

As we got to our seats about twenty five minutes before game time, the arena was again as empty as it was twenty five minutes before the game against Missouri I saw last week. But unlike the game against the Tigers, there were no Bulldogs' fans to be found. That's likely due to Mississippi state having three wins in conference, the same number of wins as the Gamecocks. So yes, it was a battle of who could escape the SEC cellar.

It didn't take long for Matthew to be in color analyst mode. He studied the Mississippi State layup drill, then announced that he was better than one of the Bulldogs' players, likely a walk on. Considering they were 3-13 in conference heading into Wednesday night's game, he was probably right.

After both teams finished their last practice drills, they had the Senior Day ceremonies for the two basketball managers, Jackson and Phillips. And it was only fitting that the first Gamecocks' points were scored by Jackson on an old fashioned three point play and then a jumper by Phillips. South Carolina was up 5-2 early.

The Gamecocks would extend their lead to six, 10-4, thanks to the efforts of junior guard Brenton Williams. Williams would first have an assist on Brian Steele's three pointer, then hit his first three pointer on the evening. It would later become a common theme for Williams.

The Bulldogs rallied to tie the game at twelve on a Roquez Johnson three point play. Williams would respond to a three pointer to put the Gamecocks up three, 15-12. South Carolina extended the lead to seven, 23-16 on a Lakeem Jackson jumper with a little less than nine minutes left in the half. During this time, Matthew noted that Jackson's number was not listed on the scoreboard. The always observant seven year old had seen that the scoreboard operator had yet to update the scoreboard to include Jackson.

Mississippi State responded with a 9-2 run over the next four plus minutes. Gavin Ware scored the final four Bulldogs' points during the spurt and his jumper gave Mississippi State their first lead of the game, 26-25 with 4:45 left in the half.

During this time Michael Carrera picked up his second foul. Coach Frank Martin rolled the dice and kept Carrera in the game. Shortly thereafter, Carrera picked up his third foul on a questionable call. He visibly showed his displeasure to the referee, who took offense to that displeasure and called a technical foul on Carrera, his fourth foul of the half. But Williams would score seven of the Gamecocks' last nine points to put South Carolina up 34-32 at the half. Williams entered the half with twelve points

The second half saw the Gamecocks quickly outscore the Bulldogs 11-3 over the first five plus minutes as Williams, Steele and Bruce Ellington combined for all eleven points and three assists. The run would be extended to a 25-5 run over the first eleven plus minutes. South Carolina would be leading 59-37.

This was in large part due to Williams who had the second half and game of his career. During the first twelve plus minutes of the second half, Williams had thirteen of the twenty seven points the Gamecocks scored. With eight minutes left in the game, he already had set a career high with twenty five points.

With South Carolina having a twenty two point lead with nine minutes left in the game over a Mississippi State team that had three conference wins all season, you would have thought the game for all intensive purposes was over. But if you have followed the Gamecocks all season, with the exception of the Arkansas game, nothing ever comes easy for South Carolina.

Sure enough, Mississippi State went on a 26-9 run over the span of six plus minutes. It wasn't like South Carolina was completely missing shots from the field. The Gamecocks actually hit three of seven shots in that span. However they missed three free throws and turned the ball over four times in those six plus minutes. Meanwhile the Bulldogs went ten of thirteen from the field with three three pointers. When Craig Sword hit a jumper with about two and a half minutes left in the game, the Bulldogs had cut the lead to five, 68-63.

But of course, who came to the rescue? Williams. He scored six of the last ten South Carolina points, all from the free throw line, where he was a perfect twelve of twelve on the night. The Gamecocks held on for a 78-72 win over the Bulldogs and for at least until Saturday had escaped the SEC cellar.

Williams was fantastic.  He nearly scored half of the Gamecocks' points with thirty eight points on ten of seventeen shooting, including six of nine from beyond the arc to go with his perfection from the foul line.  He even added four rebounds and three assists.  No other South Carolina player scored in double figures.  Ellington had nine points and six assists on the evening for the Gamecocks. Jackson, in his last home game as a Gamecock, nearly had a double double with nine points and eight rebounds.  Sword led the Bulldogs with twenty points while Jalen Steele added seventeen points.

My original plans for this upcoming weekend was to cover the CAA Tournament in Richmond.  Just like last season, I had arranged for a media pass.  I was looking forward to seeing my friends Brian Mull, Mike Brodsky, Rob Canady, Alan Kelly, Rob Russell and the rest of the CAAHoops gang.

But I had signed up to be an assistant coach for both Jonathan's tee ball team and Matthew's coach pitch team.  I ended up being the head coach of the tee ball team at the league's request because no one else wanted the job and I have had two years experience being a coach at that level in North Bellmore.  I had no idea that Opening Day in our baseball league was Saturday, March 9th.  Thus ended any hope of covering the first day of the CAA Tournament.

I still had a chance to cover the CAA Tournament on Sunday.  But Matthew's team has a practice.  On Tuesday, I sat with Matthew, who loves baseball even more than basketball, and asked him would he be upset if I missed practice to cover the CAA Tournament. He thought for a second and said "I want you to be there. Plus you are a really good coach."

Well that sealed it for me.  No CAA Tournament this season.  After six months of so badly wanting my family to be here with me in South Carolina and finally getting them here, I wasn't about to disappoint my color analyst now. I let Rob Washburn at CAASports know that I wasn't attending.  He understood and said he would save me a seat in Baltimore next year.  I said I will be there, as I already got approval from Matthew for next year.

But for now, my color analyst and his love of baseball come first.  It's all about family and it always will be.

Huge First Half Run Propels South Carolina to Big Win over Arkansas

Entering Saturday's contest vs. the Razorbacks, the Gamecocks were looking to get their first SEC home win of the season. More importantly, South Carolina was trying to stem the tide of close games they have played in conference all season. They had played five games, all decided by single digit margins. One game was decided in overtime, their sole conference win at the time over LSU. The Gamecocks had late second half leads in three games, only to lose all of those games - Mississippi State, Auburn and Missouri. And in the fifth game, South Carolina trailed Vanderbilt by two, 51-49 with a little more than a minute left before losing by seven points.
Their opponent, Arkansas, entered the game faring somewhat better, having won three of their first five conference games, all at home. In their three home SEC wins over Auburn, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, the Razorbacks average margin of victory was nineteen points. However in their two road losses to Ole Miss and Texas A&M, Arkansas lost each game by double digits. You figured maybe something had to give yesterday.

After a wonderful rendition of the national anthem by a local fourth grade school chorus, at the start of the game, it looked like the Gamecocks were the ones giving. The Razorbacks rolled out to a 15-3 lead in the first four and a half minutes, due in large part to junior guard Rickey Scott, who scored eight points in the run, three more than his season average. After Scott buried a three to put Arkansas up by twelve, South Carolina coach Frank Martin had no choice but to call timeout with 15:39 left in the first half.

Whatever he said in that timeout must have resonated with his team. Over the span of the next
five and half minutes, the Gamecocks went on a 13-0 run. South Carolina forced three turnovers in that span and when Michael Carrera hit a jumper to give the Gamecocks a 17-16 lead with ten minutes left, the nearly eleven thousand fans in attendance at Colonial Life Arena roared in approval.

When Arkansas regained the lead, 18-17 on a layup by the Razorbacks leading scorer on the season, B.J. Young, it seemed like we had another close SEC contest. It made sense, considering all the close games that the Gamecocks had played on the season.

But South Carolina was far from done. Over the next six plus minutes, the Gamecocks outscored the Razorbacks 19-2. They accomplished this with the three pointer, hitting four in that span, including two by Brian Richardson and one by Lakeem Jackson, his second on the season in three attempts. Jackson's jumper ended an overall 32-4 run by South Carolina and gave them a 35-19 lead. It was the second time in a calendar year that I had seen a 32-4 run.

Two three pointers by Bruce Ellington and Eric Smith, whose shot was basically a turnaround shot clock beating prayer, capped a 40-11 onslaught. South Carolina led at the half 43-26. Richardson already had thirteen points in the first half.

The question starting the second half was whether South Carolina could keep down one of the top twenty scoring teams in the country in Arkansas. Within a few minutes of the second half, the answer was yes. The Razorbacks went scoreless over a three minute period and the Gamecocks extended their lead slightly to twenty, 52-32.

Arkansas did have one spurt on them, mainly due to Marshawn Powell, who scored six straight points for the Razorbacks to cut the Gamecocks' lead to twelve, 55-43 with about ten and half minutes left in the game.

But from there, South Carolina responded with a 16-3 spurt over the next five and half minutes. Laimonas Chatekevicius layup capped the run and the Gamecocks were up 71-46 with five minutes left in the game. South Carolina would end up winning 75-54.

The Gamecocks held the Razorbacks to twenty four points under their season scoring average. Arkansas was held to thirty four percent from the field, including a horrid two of sixteen from beyond the arc. Young, who had been averaging over sixteen points per game, was held to seven points on three of twelve shooting. Powell, Arkansas' second leading scorer, led the Razorbacks with twenty two points and thirteen rebounds.

South Carolina shot a blistering fifty seven percent from the field including seven of twelve from beyond the arc. Richardson had a career high twenty points. Ellington added fourteen points and Jackson added eleven points and three assists. Ellington, Jackson and Richardson combined to shoot eighteen of twenty five from the field (seventy two percent).

There was a moment that stood out to me about midway through the second half with the game no longer in doubt.  Carrera was trapped at the wing trying to get the ball to Ellington. After several seconds, Carrera lost the ball. Martin immediately substituted for Carrera. While Carrera was leaving the court, his replacement left either a towel or a warmup shirt by the scorers' table. Martin grabbed the item and fired it down towards the bench. Right afterwards, Martin gave Carrera a talking to about the play, no doubt telling him what he should have done.


What it told me was that in the midst of the Gamecocks' most complete game of the season from both an offensive and defensive standpoint, Martin didn't want his players letting up at any moment. He knows that games like this will be rare in the competitive SEC. His players must be focused and make the right plays at the right time. With only four teams in conference over .500 at the moment, there is an opportunity for the Gamecocks to move up in the standings.

Gamecocks Twin Bill (Recap of Appalachian St v. USC men's game &Stanford v. USC women's game)

With all that's happened the past four months, I have been more clueless than I normally am (ask my wife). I knew that the South Carolina men's basketball team had a 5:00 PM game yesterday. I was curious about the start time and I figured since they had the Saturday evening game at the Barclays Center vs. Manhattan, they decided on an early time for the game.

Of course, I had no idea until Ian McCormick, the ubiquitous writer for Mid Majority and my seat mate for last night's twin bill, told me that the #19 ranked USC women's team was hosting #1 Stanford in the second game of the doubleheader at 7:30 PM. Doubleheader? It doesn't say that on the ticket (and it doesn't). Well, I wasn't going to pass up watching the second game as well.

In the first game, the men's team faced a Mountaineers team that so far this season had won just one game vs. a Division I team (UMKC). However, with the exception of the Jacksonville game, the Gamecocks have struggled to a 4-2 home record going into last night's game. And last night turned out to be no exception.

Before the game started, Frank Martin came onto the court with a microphone talking about the tragedy in Newtown and imploring our country's leaders to find a solution so that this never occurs again.  He then led the crowd in a moment of silence.  Later on, before the women's game, Dawn Staley also did the same thing.

Early on, it looked like South Carolina was going to blow Appalachian State out of the arena. R.J. Slawson, seldom a scoring threat, scored five of the first seven Gamecocks' points. Then Eric Smith scored four straight points. South Carolina was out to an early 11-2 lead.

But the Gamecocks' couldn't extend the lead. The Mountaineers continued to hang around keeping the score within single digits. After a Mindaugas Kacinas basket finally put the Gamecocks up by double digits, 29-18 with six and a half minutes left, Appalachian State called a thirty second timeout.

Whatever was said during those thirty seconds by head coach Jason Capel apparently resonated with the Mountaineers' players. Appalachian State went on a 17-5 run over the next six minutes. Tevin Baskin and Jay Canty, a transfer from Xavier who scored 29 points vs. Missouri, scored thirteen of the seventeen Mountaineers' points. A Canty jumper put Appalachian State in the lead for the first time in the game 35-34. But Bruce Ellington buried a three pointer and South Carolina entered the locker room at the half up 37-35.

South Carolina shot fifty percent from the floor in the first half, but so did Appalachian State from two point field goal range. The only thing that kept the Mountaineers from leading at halftime was that they were shooting 0 of 6 from three point range as opposed to the Gamecocks 4 of 9 from beyond the arc.

In the second half, Appalachian State regained the lead as Mike Neal scored five straight points, including the Mountaineers' first three pointer of the game.  The Mountaineers were up 40-37 and the partisan Gamecocks' crowd was getting restless.

But behind crowd favorite Bruce Ellington, South Carolina responded with a 15-5 spurt over the next five minutes to jump back out in front 52-45.  Ellington had five points in that spurt.  This would be Ellington's last game until after the Outback Bowl on January 1st.

Appalachian State once again responded with a 9-2 spurt as Neal, Jamaal Trice and Tab Hamilton each scored three points to tie the game at 54 with a little less than seven and a half minutes left.  Again, the crowd grew restless with South Carolina's play.  Once again, the fans would be seeing another close home game.

Then Lakeem Jackson and LaShay Page took it upon themselves to put South Carolina ahead to stay.  Jackson and Page combined to score the next eleven Gamecocks' points.  After Mindaugas Kacinas capped the 13-4 spurt with a jumper, South Carolina was ahead 67-58 with two and a half minutes left in the game.

However, Appalachian State was not going down without a fight.  The Mountaineers started whittling away the Gamecocks' lead.  After Jackson was called for an inbounds violation, Canty tipped in a Neal miss and Appalachian State was down two, 71-69 with twenty two seconds left in the game.

The Mountaineers fouled Smith.  With a chance to go up two possessions, Smith only hit one of two free throws.  Appalachian State had a chance to tie but Nathan Healy's three pointer missed and Page sealed the game with two free throws.  South Carolina held on for a 74-69 win.

Jackson led the Gamecocks with sixteen points, Kacinas added twelve points and three blocks and Brenton Williams had a "quiet' eleven points.  Smith had a very solid game with nine assists and only two turnovers. Canty, Neal and Baskin each had sixteen points for the Mountaineers.

The crowd started filling up at the end of the men's game and during intermission.  It was clear that the women's game was the big game of the night.  The #1 ranked Cardinal playing on the home court of the #19 ranked Gamecocks.

Dawn Staley, an Olympian and considered one of the fifteen greatest women's basketball players of all time, took over as head coach of the South Carolina women's team in 2008. Previously, she had been the head coach of Temple, where she led the Owls to six NCAA Tournament appearances in eight years.  The Gamecocks improved in each of their first four seasons under Staley, including last season's 25-10 record which included a NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance.

Staley's Gamecocks came into the game undefeated at 10-0. They are an excellent defensive team; first in the SEC in scoring defense, allowing only forty five points per game, first in field goal percentage defense at 31.8 percent and first in rebounding margin at +16.8 per game.

Meanwhile the Cardinal came in as the top scoring team in the PAC 12 at seventy eight points per game, shooting 51.8 percent from the field, also tops in the PAC 12. Stanford also can play defense, first in the PAC 12 at 31.6 percent field goal percentage defense and second in the PAC 12 in rebounding margin at +14.6 rebounds per game.

By the time the game started, the crowd at Colonial Life Arena had filled in.  Next to the men's game vs. Clemson, it was the largest crowd I had seen at Colonial life this season.  And the 8,118 fans in attendance were fully invested in the game from start till finish.

It was clear early on that this was going to be a physical, defensive game and the pace clearly favored the Gamecocks.  Stanford' height advantage affected the Gamecocks' offense as they struggled to get shots off against the Cardinal.  Stanford would have eleven blocks on the game. But on defense, the quicker Gamecocks swarmed all over the Cardinal players, especially around the paint, forcing numerous Stanford turnovers.

At the under twelve minute media timeout, the score was only 8-5 Stanford.   South Carolina didn't score their third basket until nine minutes left in the first half.  The Cardinal then went scoreless for five minutes which allowed the Gamecocks to briefly take a one point lead, 15-14 on a jumper by Tiffany Mitchell.

The Cardinal responded with an 8-2 spurt and held the Gamecocks to one basket over the next five minutes.  Chiney Ogwumike scored six straight points in that spurt.   Stanford would enter halftime leading 25-19. Considering South Carolina missed on a lot of good first half scoring opportunities and were only down six to the #1 ranked team in the country, the Gamecocks were in good shape.

During halftime, I learned something new.  Part of the halftime festivities during women's home games is Cocky bringing a large group of kids onto the court and leading them in the Chicken Dance. Members of the band joined and even some adults.  It was pretty humorous.

The second half saw South Carolina hold Stanford to one of six shooting in the first four plus minutes. This resulted in the Gamecocks cutting the lead to one point, 26-25 with fifteen and a half minutes left.
But Ogwumike, Amber Orrange and Toni Kokenis would score the Cardinal's next fourteen points and Stanford would continue to lead 40-39 with about five minutes left.

However, off a timeout,  Ieasia Walker would hit a three pointer to put South Carolina in the lead for the first time since four minutes left in the first half.  The Colonial Life Arena erupted and Stanford was now officially on the ropes as the Gamecocks led 42-40 with four and a half minutes left in the game.

After Orrange tied the game at forty two, Sancheon White gave South Carolina the lead back with a jumper.  But a three point play by Ogwumike put Stanford back up 45-44 with two minutes left.  The teams were going back and forth with the leads.  Ian and I were witnessing the best game we had seen all year so far.  It was certainly the most electric a Colonial Life Arena crowd had been for a basketball game all season.

Alegsia Welch had put South Carolina on her back in the second half, scoring twelve points in the second half, nearly half of the Gamecocks' second half points at the time.  This despite seemingly two Cardinal players on her in the paint.  Welch again tried to score with about 1:15 left in the game when she was fouled. With a chance to take the lead, Walsh was only able to hit one of two free throws. The game was tied at 45.

Mikala Ruef then hit a tough layup to put Stanford up two again, 47-45 with fifty four seconds left.  Walker was fouled on a layup attempt to the basket.  With a chance to tie, Walker missed the first free throw and then hit the second.  Stanford was now up one 47-46 with only twenty six seconds left.  If South Carolina couldn't steal the ball, then they would have to foul.

On the inbounds pass, Kokenis got the ball but appeared to run with the ball before she started dribbling.  But much to the chagrin and loud displeasure of the fans, no traveling call was made.  Kokenis was subsequently fouled and she hit both free throws.  Stanford was now up 49-46 with twenty three seconds left.

With a chance to tie, South Carolina turned the ball over and again was forced to foul.  Again Kokenis made two free throws and Stanford was up five, 51-46 with seven seconds left.  Much to the Gamecocks' credit, they didn't give up and Walker buried a three with 1.5 seconds left.   South Carolina was down two, 51-49 and praying for a Reggie Miller type steal and jumper.

It never came. Kokenis got the inbounds pass and was fouled.  She sank two more free throws, giving her a perfect 7 of 7 from the line.  Stanford earned a hard fought 53-49 win.

For Stanford, Ogwumike led all scorers with twenty one points, added fifteen rebounds and had four blocks. Kokenis added fifteen points, while Orrange had eleven points. Joslyn Tinkle added seven blocks for the Cardinal.

Welch led South Carolina with seventeen points, while Walker added fifteen points.  The Gamecocks had ten steals.  They forced eighteen turnovers on the Cardinal.  Stanford, which had led the PAC-12 in assists to turnover ratio at 1.33, had only four assists to go with those eighteen turnovers.  The Gamecocks only had seven turnovers.

Though the fans left disappointed, they gave the Gamecocks a good ovation after the game was finished. Dawn Staley's team nearly defeated the best team in the nation. More importantly, it showed that if given the proper amount of time to develop a winning program, the fans will come out and support the team.

I am sure Frank Martin was taking in the game and coming to the same conclusion.  The fans and administration just need to give him the same amount of time. Given his track record, the results mostly likely will be the same.