Gamecocks Continue to Build on Their Season With a Win Over Drexel

If you live around or work in downtown Columbia, South Carolina, you know there is a lot of construction going on in the city.   Lots of new student housing is being built, along with a new law school.  Finally around the Colonial Life Arena, there is the Innovista Greene Street Corridor project, which looks to turn Greene Street into a more friendly area for pedestrians and bicyclists.

So it stands to reason that inside Colonial Life Arena, there's a lot of building going on as well, as in Frank Martin building a successful men's basketball program.  In Martin's first three seasons, the Gamecocks have slowly improved.  In 2012-13, they were 14-18 and 4-14 in the SEC. In 2013-14, the Gamecocks went 14-20 and 5-13 in the SEC, but they also knocked off Auburn and Arkansas to make the SEC Tournament quarterfinals.  Last season, South Carolina finished over .500 for the first time since the 2008-09 season.  The Gamecocks went 17-16 and 6-12 in the SEC.  They won two games again in the SEC Tournament before losing to Georgia in the SEC quarterfinals.

This season, Martin's Gamecocks are off to their best record since the 1970-71 team that made the NCAA Sweet Sixteen (back when it was incredibly difficult to make the NCAA Tournament).  That 1970 Gamecocks team was coached by the legendary Frank McGuire and had terrific players like John Roche, Tom Owens, Kevin Joyce and Tom Riker.

There are several reasons for the Gamecocks' terrific start.  One, balanced scoring.  They have five players averaging in double figures scoring; Mindaugas Kacinas 13.3 ppg, Laimonas Chatkevicius 13.0 ppg, Michael Carrera 12.2 ppg, Sindarius Thornwell 11.7 ppg and Duane Notice 11.6 ppg.  Second, they have depth.  The Gamecocks have added two terrific freshman in PJ Dozier and Chris Silva.   Throw in sophomore Marcus Stroman and you have eight players that average fifteen or more minutes per game.  Third, they have increased their average points per game by nineteen points from the previous season.  Entering the game against Drexel Tuesday night, South Carolina was averaging 84 points per game.

I had seen two of the Gamecocks' games on CBS Sports Network in the Paradise Jam; the 94-84 semifinal win over Hofstra and the 83-75 win over Tulsa.  In the ten point win over the Pride, despite Hofstra hitting a school record seventeen 3 pointers and shooting fifty percent from the field, South Carolina shot 54 percent from the field and had eighteen offensive rebounds, which led to eleven more field goal attempts than Hofstra.  The Gamecocks had shown much better ball movement in both their Paradise Jam games than I had seen any Martin coached team since he came to Columbia in 2012.

Drexel on the other hand had struggled entering the game on Tuesday night vs. South Carolina, having lost six of their first seven games.  In fact the Dragons only won their first game of the season in their previous game, a 66-53 win over LaSalle.  Outside of a nineteen point loss to UNC Asheville in the Great Alaska Shootout, Drexel had been within single digits in all of their other losses.

Under Bruiser Flint, the Dragons have been long known for a defensive style of game.  They try to slow the pace, work the clock on offense, play physical, rebound the ball and keep opponents within the sixty point range. To Colonial Athletic Conference fans, aka #CAAHoops fans, everywhere, they are known for rock fight basketball, often ugly to watch low scoring games.   In fact, the Dragons have not averaged seventy or more points per game since the 2004-05 season when Phil Goss, Sean Brooks and Dominick Mejia were leading Drexel.  Scott Bier has an excellent take on Dragons Speak what Drexel needs to do to adapt to the new NCAA rules.

The problem is with the new freedom of movement rules in the NCAA, unlike the Gamecocks, the Dragons seem to be set in their ways.  After last night's game. they average sixty eight points per game and are only shooting forty percent from the field and thirty two percent from beyond the arc.  And they are fouling like mad.  Their FTA/FGA defense is 350th in the nation at 59.6.

After I purchased a ticket at the ticket office in the lower level of Colonial Life Arena, I met up briefly with my good friend Mike Brodsky who flew down to see the game.   We caught up a bit and then I headed to my seat up in Section 104.   Not quite as good as my women's basketball season tickets, but a perfectly fine view for the game.   I also got to catch up with fellow former Mid Majority 800 Games Project writer and friend Ian McCormick, whose excellent photography work will come into play later in this article.

Unlike the crowd of 13,000 plus at Sunday's women's game, there was about 8500 fans in the seats on Tuesday night.   Mind you, USC is on winter break so seemingly the only students there was the band, the cheerleaders and the dance team.  Plus the men's team is not anywhere the #2 ranked women have been for the past several years so the fan base is slowly warming up to this team.

The game started out in classic Drexel CAA rockfight fashion.  It took only nine seconds for the Dragons to pick up their first foul and then another nine seconds later, they had their second foul, a foul of a three point attempt by Dozier.  Dozier then hit two out of three free throws, a harbinger of things to come, to start the scoring for the game.  South Carolina went out to an early 6-2 lead before Drexel scored the next seven points, including a Rashann London three pointer to go up 9-6. The Gamecocks responded to take back the lead 10-9 on, what else, two Thornwell free throws.

The game was briefly stopped after Rodney Williams was injured on a play by the announcers table.  Two Drexel teammates had to help a limping Williams off the court.   He would appear on the bench in the second half but not play again.

After Sammy Mojica buried one of his three 3-pointers on the night to put Drexel back up 12-10, the teams did not score a basket for the next two plus minutes  Mojica would hit a jumper to put Drexel up 14-10 with 11:38 left in the half.  Drexel would be up by many as six, 21-15 with 8:23 left in the half.

Up till then, the Gamecocks looked sluggish on offense, None of the crisp ball movement I had seen at the Paradise Jam on TV.  South Carolina had six turnovers in the first ten minutes of the game and only had nine field goal attempts.  They went to the free throw line thirteen times and only made seven of them.   The pace heavily favored Drexel and the fans in my section were none too pleased, especially with the officials.

Suddenly, the Gamecocks awoke, scoring eight straight points, capped by the six foot eleven Chatkevicius burying a three pointer to put South Carolina up 26-21, forcing an unhappy Bruiser Flint to call timeout with a little over five minutes left in the half.  Drexel would eventually get the deficit within one, 28-27, before South Carolina took a 32-28 lead at the half.

I happened to turnaround and sitting behind me was John Humphries and his son Stan.  John is one of my fellow board members at Trenholm Little League and as I was talking to John, I noticed Steve Stanton, former Trenholm Little League President and current Trenholm Little League
umpire.  So we all caught up on Little League and Women's basketball at halftime.  Pretty cool.

Whatever Frank Martin said to his team at halftime worked, because the Gamecocks sped up the pace immediately at the start of the second half.  Kacinas and Thornwell each nailed three pointers, both assisted by Dozier.  Then off a bad turnover by Terrell Allen, where he tried a behind the back pass in the lane with traffic, Dozier hit a layup and one.  Dozier hit the free throw for the old fashioned three point play and just like that, South Carolina was up thirteen, 41-28 with a little less than nineteen minutes left in the game.  Sadly my iPhone battery died in the middle of my tweet that I was about to send noting the run.

It went bad to worse for Drexel.  The Gamecocks ramped up the D and the Dragons ramped up the bad shot selection, despite South Carolina only scoring one more basket for the next several minutes.  Tavon Allen and Tyshawn Miles each chucked up a bad shot.  Mohamed Bah had chance to hit a couple of free throws at the line and badly missed.  Mojica missed an open look at a three.  The Dragons didn't score a basket for five minutes and twenty second until six foot seven Kazembe Abif, who reminds me of a lefthanded Greg Washington, buried a nice three pointer to make the score 43-31.

Unfortunately for Drexel, that's as close as they got the rest of the way.  South Carolina scored the next seven points to extend the lead to nineteen 50-31.  The Gamecocks showed much better ball movement with twelve assists in the second half after having only two in the first half.

There were two highlights in the second half, one on the offensive end for the Gamecocks and one for Drexel, which featured Bruiser Flint.   With about five minutes left in the game, Notice shot a three point jumper.  No one on the Dragons blocked the lane as Notice's shot bounced off the rim and the freshman Silva quickly ran the lane, leaped and in one motion one handed the rebound and slammed it back down for an emphatic dunk!  

Picture by Ian McCormick (@HPUfan on Twitter)

As for Bruiser, well midway through the second half, Bruiser got a little too far out of the coaches box arguing a call with a referee.  The referee stopped play and gave Bruiser a warning for being out of the coaches box.  Mike Brodsky appropriately tweeted the play, while Ian McCormick took this outstanding picture.

What was left was both teams emptying the benches as Ian McCormick, who joined me in the second half, noted for different reasons; South Carolina was emptying the bench to get some of their players minutes while Drexel was emptying their bench because they had so many players foul out, plus Rodney Williams was out for the rest of the game due to his first half injury. Austin Williams, Terrell Allen and Myles all fouled out.  Andrew Cartright, a six foot six freshman from Maine, who hadn't played all season, had to come in and played three minutes.  South Carolina would score forty seven second half points to win the game 79-54.

Once again, South Carolina had balanced scoring with five players with at least nine points.  Dozier led the Gamecocks with sixteen, Thornwell had thirteen, Carrera added ten points and Chatkevicius and Silva each had nine points.   With Drexel fouling so much, the Gamecocks had THIRTY NINE free throw attempts.  South Carolina needs to take advantage with that many free throw attempts, as they only hit on twenty two in the game.

Tavon Allen led all scorers with eighteen points for Drexel, but he was only six of eighteen from the field and his shot selection left a lot to be desired.  Mojica added thirteen and was three of six from beyond the arc.  Abif had nine points and honestly should have got the ball more.

South Carolina now has eight double digit margin of victory wins. Their only win not by double digits was the eight point championship victory over Tulsa in the Paradise Jam.  They haven't had the strongest of non conference schedules.  But that will pick up in the next few weeks as they play at Clemson, then vs. St John's and a home game vs. Memphis before SEC conference play starts.

As previously noted for Drexel, they seem to be still stuck in pre 2015-16 season mode of play.  Mike Brodsky heard the referees on several Drexel fouls noting "...hands on the waist", which the NCAA is really trying to cut down on with their freedom of movement rules.   The classic rock fight strategy of Drexel's past no longer holds up today.

The Dragons have not had a twenty game winning season since the the 2011-12 team nearly made the NCAA tournament with a 29-7 record (lost in NIT Quarterfinals to UMass).  In fact, two of the last three seasons, Drexel has had a losing record.  Bruiser may not need to change his style of dress, because he is a dapper dresser.  But if Bruiser doesn't adapt to the new style of play, he may have to take his wardrobe somewhere else after this season.

As for Frank Martin, a very sharp dresser in his own right, he's got his team moving in the right direction.  The ball movement is light years better than the last three seasons, the team has balanced scoring and depth.   A few more good wins, especially in conference and the Gamecocks Men's Basketball team will start drawing as well as the women's team.

That's something to build on.

Post Play the Difference as Bears Hold Off Gamecocks

Heading into Tuesday's Tipoff Marathon game against Baylor, South Carolina was looking for payback for a tough two point loss, 66-64 at the Bears' home court last season.   They certainly looked strong entering the contest, as they started their opening season with an 81-56 win over the Ospreys of North Florida last Friday night.  The Gamecocks had momentum, the home court advantage and revenge on their side for the nationally televised noon start on ESPN, which for many people in attendance was a long lunch break.

The problem was that they didn't have the frontcourt on their side to handle Baylor.

The Bears started out quickly with five straight points as Jonathan Motley, who would be a load inside all day for Baylor, scored the first two points of the game.   The Gamecocks would respond by outscoring the Bears 9-2 over the next four plus minutes.  Sindarius Thornwell's two free throws put South Carolina up 9-7.

The mini-spurts for both teams would continue throughout the first half.  After the Bears broke an eleven all tie with five straight points, the Gamecocks responded with seven straight of their own to take an 18-16 lead on a basket by Thornwell.

The Gamecocks would go up by as much as four points, 22-18.  But they would commit four turnovers in the last five and a half minutes of the first  half.  Baylor took advantage of this, outscoring South Carolina 12-5.  Motley again would be a difference maker, scoring a basket with two seconds left in the half to put the Bears up 30-27 at the halftime.

My good friend, Gary Bennett who, along with another good friend  of ours, Charley Adams, sat with me during the game.  Gary made the point that the South Carolina bigs barely had any post touches in the first half.   In fact in the first half, the South Carolina frontcourt scored only four points in the first half; two points on a tip in by Laimonas Chatkevicius of his own miss and two points on free throws by Michael Carrera.  Meanwhile, Motley by himself scored 13 points in the first twenty minutes.

During halftime, I went to see my good friend Mike Brodsky, known as @NUHF on Twitter, who came down from Boston for the game (and is somewhere having crab legs as he celebrates Northeastern's win over Florida State).  He was sitting with former Northeastern forward Kauri Black, who is going to South Carolina for his Masters.  Mike and I caught up on life, then messed with Defiantly Dutch's head by having Kauri take a picture of the Barone Bowl Buddies and posting it on Twitter.

The second half started with Frank Martin seemingly getting the memo from Gary Bennett to work the ball inside.  Carrera scored the first two Gamecock baskets on layups and South Carolina was within one, 32-31.  A little bit later, a Thornwell three pointer put the Gamecocks up one, 36-35 with a little under seventeen minutes left in the game.

It was the last lead South Carolina had on the day.  If Motley was not being a load inside for the Bears, it was Kenny Chery frustrating the Gamecocks from beyond the arc.   Chery's three pointer, one of three on the day for him, put the Bears up 38-36.   It was the start of a critical 15-6 run over the next four minutes.  A Taurean Prince three pointer capped the run and gave the Bears a 50-42 lead with 12:20 left.

The lead would still be eight, 57-49 with 7:44 left when Marcus Stroman nailed a three pointer to cut the deficit to five, 57-52.  The freshman Stroman would have another solid game for the Gamecocks, scoring ten points, grabbing five rebounds and adding three assists with only one turnover in twenty seven minutes of play.

Tyrone Johnson, who led all scorers with twenty one points, added a jumper and the lead was down to three, 57-54.  But the Baylor duo that had caused problems for South Carolina all day, Motley and Chery, would combine to score the game's next seven points and the Bears lead was now ten, 64-54 with about four minutes left.

The Gamecocks made one last run, scoring seven straight points.  A Stroman tip in cut the deficit to three, 64-61 with about two and a half minutes left.  Then South Carolina had a chance to tie, but Tyrone Johnson missed an open three pointer.   A Motley tip in off a rebound would be the final dagger, giving the Bears a 66-61 lead.

The Gamecocks would get as close as two the rest of the way, 67-65 on a Johnson layup with two seconds left.  But South Carolina could not steal the inbounds pass and was forced to foul Chery.  Chery scored the last of his twenty points, hitting two free throws for the 69-65 final score.

Johnson, Thornwell and Stroman combined for forty seven points on seventeen of thirty four from the field.  The problem was the rest of the Gamecocks shot five of twenty from the field.  The Baylor frontcourt outscored the South Carolina frontcourt 37-18.  Motley had seventeen of those points for the Bears, shooting six of nine from the field and hitting all five of his free throws.  Carrera had ten of the eighteen Gamecocks' frontcourt points.

As Gary, Charlie and I left Colonial Life Arena and headed back to our jobs at USC, we lamented the fact that the Gamecocks got little scoring from their forwards.  The bright side is that South Carolina has a terrific guard trio in Thornwell, Johnson and Stroman.   But the Gamecocks need to get their post players more involved.

The bright side is that this weekend's Charleston Classic will give South Carolina three opportunities to improve on that.

Gamecocks Find Their Place By Upsetting Wildcats

The SEC has long been known as a football conference.  Despite all the other sports that SEC teams play, football is king here with the fans and the media.  No matter what time of season, including as we happily near March Madness,  football dominates the Columbia, South Carolina all sports radio station airwaves on a daily basis. To most folks in SEC country, there are three certainties in life; death, taxes and a SEC Team in the BCS National Championship game.

But one SEC team has been, for as long as anyone alive can remember, a power in college basketball, not just in the conference, but on the national scene.  From Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, and Eddie Sutton, to Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith, to John Calipari today,  the Kentucky Wildcats have been the king of the jungle in the SEC and often in college basketball.

Sure, current #1 Florida has won two national champions in a row under coach Billy Donovan.  But Big Blue is still the team by what all other teams measure up to in the SEC.   The large UK fan base extends across the country, including a certain women's basketball head coach's daughter in New Jersey (Hi, Sam Bozzella). 

Kentucky has the most all time wins in NCAA play.  The Wildcats have won eight national championships and have appeared in the NCAA Tournament fifty two times.  Big Blue Nation has countless number of players that are currently in the NBA or have played in the NBA.  And they also have one major celebrity alum, Ashley Judd, who looks incredible in a Kentucky Wildcat jersey.

At one time, the University of South Carolina was a ACC basketball power under Coach Frank McGuire.   McGuire's talented teams would fill up the Carolina Coliseum.  Under McGuire, USC had a stretch of four consecutive years of NCAA Tournament appearances and several Gamecock players went on to NBA careers.

Since McGuire has left, the Gamecocks basketball program has struggled to remain relevant.  Men's college basketball has taken a back seat to Steve Spurrier's successful football team,  the Gamecocks baseball team that won two national championships in a row and nearly a third under Ray Tanner and even now the #4 ranked women's basketball team of Dawn Staley.  

In this second season as head coach, Frank Martin has done his best to rejuvenate the basketball program.  This season, Martin brought in eight new players; seven freshman and one junior transfer.  He has also worked hard to reach out to South Carolina high school coaches to solidify keeping the best players in the state at USC.

However, despite some glimpses of hope in the Diamond Head Classic, that hard work has not resulted in a lot of wins so far, especially in the SEC.  Entering Saturday evening contest vs. Big Blue Nation, the Gamecocks had won only three wins in conference and were tied with Mississippi State for last in the SEC.

Given the facts that the Gamecocks are struggling and Big Blue Nation is only a six hour trip away, it stands to reason that there would be a lot of UK fans at Colonial Life Arena on Saturday.  Sure enough as I was about to make my turn onto Park Avenue from Gervais Street, a large contingent of Big Blue Nation fans were walking around the Vista.  They were no doubt taking in what all the fine establishments in the area had to offer surely hungry and thirsty customers from the Bluegrass state.

My indoctrination to the Kentucky fan base continued as I parked my car in the Discovery Garage directly across from Colonial Life Arena.   Most of the garage customers parking had Kentucky license plates.  And as I made my way to the front entrance of the arena, the plaza was full of royal blue.    

In my first tweet from my seat in Section 113, Row 21, seat 17, I noted "Greetings from Colonial Life Arena, or as I call it today, Rupp Arena Southeast..."  It was about an hour before game time and two things dominated the arena.   First, of course was Big Blue Nation in full force.  The upper deck sections, which rarely are occupied during basketball season, were full of UK supporters.  It definitely appeared to be a Kentucky home game. 

Second, the arena scoreboard was showing the end of the Clemson-USC baseball game.  It might be March Madness, but again, here was living proof that baseball is the favored son in March in Columbia.  The Gamecock baseball team won, pounding the Tigers 10-2.

As we got closer to game time, the South Carolina fans started filling in.  By game time, the announced attendance of 15,000 seemed about fifty-fifty as far as fans, though when the USC student section booed the Kentucky players coming onto the court, Big Blue Nation drowned them out with their cheers.

My friend Ian McCormick came over to say hi and once he found out I had an extra seat, since my color analyst, aka my older son Matthew, wasn't there since he had a friend staying overnight at our house, Ian settled in to my other season ticket holder seat.

The game started with Kentucky jumping out to a quick 3-0 lead on a free throw by Andrew Harrison and a Dakari Johnson jumper.  But Michael Carrera responded with a three, then followed with a layup to put South Carolina up 5-3.  After the teams each traded the lead, Carrera tied the game at eight on a free throw.

The Wildcats outscored the Gamecocks 10-4 over the next six minutes to go up 18-12.  James Young capped the mini spurt with a jumper, which gave him seven points to lead the Cats at that point, But the pace actually favored South Carolina as the teams struggled to score and for a while, based on Ian's statistics (he keeps track of every possession), it was on a pace for a forty possession game.

Much of this was due to the cold shooting of both teams, but especially Kentucky.  The Wildcats only hit five of their first nineteen shots thanks to an intense defensive effort by South Carolina, their best defensive effort of the season.  What put Big Blue Nation in the early lead was their size and relentlessness on the offensive glass, which resulted in several second, third and even fourth chances as well as numerous fouls on the Gamecocks.  What also helped was that South Carolina was equally as cold on the court, shooting three of thirteen early on from the field.

Kentucky maintained their lead, as their next seven points all came at the line to put them up 25-21.  Meanwhile, Sindarius Thornwell and Brenton Williams were directly or indirectly responsible for twelve of their next fourteen points scored after being down 18-12.  It was a Thornwell three, followed by Williams assisting on a Duane Notice jumper for for a 5-0 mini-spurt to give the lead back to South Carolina 26-25 and igniting the Gamecocks fans in the crowd.

After three Johnson free throws sandwiched a Williams jumper to tie the game at twenty eight, Thornwell buried another jumper to put South Carolina up three at the half 31-28.   The Colonial Life Arena was now rocking.  But it would pale in comparison to what would happen in the second half.

The Gamecocks defensive effort in the first twenty minutes resulted in Kentucky, the second highest scoring team in the conference, shooting five of twenty seven from the field.  However, the first half intensive effort combined with Kentucky's relentlessness on the boards resulted in a major foul problem for the Gamecocks, especially for the USC front court.  Carrera, Mindaugas Kacinas and Desmond Ringer each picked up three fouls in the first twenty minutes. Demetrius Henry and Thornwell each had two fouls as the Gamecocks committed fourteen fouls in the first half.

The Wildcats had their own foul issues, as they committed twelve first half fouls.  Andrew Harrison had three fouls, Willie Cauley-Stein had two and Calipari even picked up a technical, which would be a big issue later in the game.

The second half continued the foul fest as Kacinas quickly picked up his fourth forty five seconds into the half.  But the Gamecocks, especially Williams, started feeling it from the field.  He hit a jumper to put South Carolina up five, which would start a 15-4 run over the span of a little less than six minutes.  Williams would cap that run with a three pointer to put the Gamecocks up 48-32 with 14:18 left and Colonial Life Arena became unglued.  Williams scored eleven of those fifteen points during that spurt.

One person in particular was not happy at all with the spurt and that was Calipari.  He was very upset at how the game was being officiated, as noted by his technical foul in the first half.   His bench picked up a second technical foul early in the second half run by South Carolina.

Finally four minutes later, after a Duane Notice steal, where he thought there should have been a foul called, Calipari had had enough.  He said something to the official running by, who stopped in his tracks and gave Calipari his second technical.    The South Carolina fans roared in approval as he exited the court.

It also energized the Gamecocks, who stretched their lead back to sixteen, 55-39, after Williams hit the two technical free throws and Notice buried a jumper. With ten minutes left in the game and South Carolina up sixteen, the Gamecocks' fans thought they were on the verge of something special.

But entering Saturday evening's game, Kentucky was nationally ranked for a reason.  Likewise, South Carolina was 3-12 in SEC play for a reason.  And both those factors came to a head, making for an exciting finish.

Kentucky started putting South Carolina's foul trouble to work, scoring the next six straight points from the line, while South Carolina went 0 for 5 from the field.  Then Aaron Harrison buried a three pointer and just like that, the Wildcats had a 9-0 run and the Gamecocks' lead was now only seven, 55-48 with 7:20 left.  There was plenty of time left for Kentucky to complete the rally and their Big Blue fans roared in support, forcing the South Carolina to counter in decibel levels.

After Notice hit a layup to temporarily stem the tide, the Wildcats continued to chip at the lead, scoring eight of the next ten points. After Williams and Carrera each missed a free throw, Andrew Harrison followed a three pointer by Young with his own shot from beyond the arc and the Cats had the lead down to three,59-56 with 3:19 left.  The Kentucky fans roared in approval while South Carolina fans grew tense, wishing the game clock would go at warp speed.  The Gamecock fans would get support from an unlikely hero.

With the return of Desmond Ringer from injury,

 Laimonas Chatkevicius had been relegated to third string power forward against Auburn, as he only played four minutes in the loss to the Tigers on Wednesday.  Again on Saturday, Chatkevicius was the third power forward off the bench. Even when he is on the court, Chatkevicius is not much of a scoring threat, averaging only four points per game.

But in the last three minutes of Saturday's game, the six foot eleven sophomore forward became ten feet tall in the eyes of his teammates, the Gamecock fans and most importantly, to the Wildcats.  First, Chatkevicius grabbed a huge offensive rebound off a wild Thornwell three point shot attempt and got fouled while shooting the putback.  Normally a fifty six percent free throw shooter, which made Ian very nervous, he calmly sank both free throws to put the Gamecocks up five.

Later after Aaron Harrison had cut the lead to four, Chatkevicius grabbed another offensive rebound and softly hit the put back to put the Gamecocks back up six.  Then after Young buried another three pointer to cut the South Carolina lead in half, again, the Gamecocks' Lithuanian hero hit a jumper to put South Carolina up five, 66-61.  In the span of two plus minutes, Chatkevicius had six points, two more than his season average.

Brenton Williams then stole the ball from Young, was fouled and hit both free throws to put Carolina up seven, 68-61 with thirty three seconds left.  The students sensing the upset, swelled to the edge of the court near the Carolina Girls seats.  The public address announcer sensed it too, asking the fans to not storm the court.

Kentucky would not go quietly into the court rush however.  Aaron Harrison was somehow left open and buried a three pointer. Then off a inbounds steal by Young, Julius Randle hit a layup and one.  He hit the free throw and in the span of seven seconds, Kentucky had scored six straight points and cut the deficit to one, 68-67.

After a difficult time of inbounding the ball, the Gamecocks finally got the pass into Thornwell, who was fouled immediately.   Thornwell calmly sank both free throws and Martin called timeout to setup the defense up three, 70-67.   Ian and I discussed the question whether with twenty seconds left, plenty of time in my book, Kentucky should just go for a two and then foul again or shoot the three.

Well we got our answer after the timeout.  Alex Poythress, a twenty eight percent three point shooter, who had attempted just twenty shots from beyond the arc all season, put up a three point attempt with twelve seconds left.  His shot missed, much to the chagrin of Associate Head Coach David Hobbs, who was now in charge with Calipari gone.  The Gamecocks grabbed the rebound and Williams was fouled by Aaron Harrison, who fouled out, just like Cauley-Stein did earlier.

Williams hit both free throws to put South Carolina up five, 72-67 with five seconds left.  After Kentucky's Jon Hood was called for an illegal screen foul, Hobbs told his team not to play defense for the final two seconds.  Carolina dribbled out the ball for the upset win.

Williams led all scorers with twenty four points. Thornwell added fourteen points, Carrera had eleven points and the hero of the day, Chatkevicius had eight points.  Aaron Harrison led the Wildcats with twenty one points, Young added nineteen and Randle had ten for Kentucky.  Kentucky only shot twenty seven percent from the field, though they had twenty one offensive rebounds, as they outrebounded South Carolina 46-28.

It was certainly a foul fest on Saturday night.  The teams combined for fifty five fouls and seventy five free throw attempts.  Kentucky was 33 of 42 from the line, while South Carolina shot a solid 25 of 33 from the line.

As the horn sounded, despite the PA warnings, the student section rushed the court, happy to partake in the spoilings of an upset.   Before long, there had to be hundreds, perhaps a thousand students on the floor of the arena. I took the picture of the rush and it doesn't do justice to the number of fans that were there a few seconds later.  I turned to ask Ian something and being a USC graduate student, he headed down to join in the court rush, a Mid Majority tradition, albeit in this case, USC is certainly not a mid major. 

To me, the court rush signaled two things about the program and college basketball.  First, if Martin's team becomes successful, this can be the kind of electricity that the basketball program will generate, because the fan support is there.  Baseball regularly sells out its eight thousand seat stadium and of course, Williams-Brice Stadium sells out to the tune of 80,000 strong. 

Second, the fans rushing the court reminded me why college basketball is my favorite sport to watch live.  I have now seen six court rushes in person in my life.  You don't see fans rush the field after baseball games.  Once in a while you do after huge football upsets, but those are rare.   College basketball is where you see the fan rush most often.

In fact, there are a lot of media pundits who think court rushes should be banned, especially after the New Mexico State - Utah Valley game where a fight occurred with the New Mexico State players after the Utah Valley fans stormed the court.   But that game in particular is the exception, especially since a New Mexico State player incited it by throwing a basketball at a Utah Valley player.  I have not heard of any other games where there has been a problem.   I, for one, think court rushes are fine.  It's a spontaneous celebration of achievement. And the home players generally love celebrating their achievement with the fans.

And Saturday night, a large group of South Carolina fans got to celebrate on the court an upset of large proportions.  The once last place SEC team knocked off mighty Big Blue Nation, the preseason #1 team in the country.  Finally Gamecocks basketball fans had their moment of achievement.   Mind you, it's not making the Final Four, let alone making the NCAA Tournament, which are both Frank Martin's goals.

But you have to start somewhere and Saturday night, Colonial Life was somewhere.  Somewhere special.

A Day of Firsts for South Carolina (Recap of Texas A&M v. South Carolina)

At around 3:00 AM or so Wednesday morning, Winter Storm Leon wound down around Columbia, South Carolina.   It left about two to three inches of snow in the Columbia area, certainly around where I live in Forest Acres, which is fifteen minutes from the Colonial Life Arena, where the Gamecocks were hosting the Aggies of Texas A&M on Wednesday evening.  It was the first and likely only snowstorm of the season in South Carolina.

Having lived in Long Island, New York for forty six plus years, two to three inches of snow/mixed with ice is nowhere near what I consider a snowstorm.  But it can cause havoc in Southeast cities not used to having snow/ice or not prepared in stopping it.  Such was the case in Atlanta and Alabama on Tuesday, where despite a winter storm warning, schools were in session and most people were at work.  It resulted in a complete mess, with ice covered roads causing more than 1,000 accidents in Georgia and highways were complete logjams.   Kids were stuck overnight in schools in Georgia and Alabama.  Hundreds of people abandoned their cars as they could not get around due to the ice and traffic jams.

Here in South Carolina, we were better prepared.  Knowing that the National Weather Service had an issued a Winter Storm Warning starting at 11:00 AM on Tuesday, schools chose to close on Tuesday as did state and county offices.  Most universities, including the University of South Carolina, where I work, were closed. Nikki Haley, the Governor, declared a state of emergency before any snow had started in Columbia.  Most people heeded the warnings and stayed off the roads.   

Again on Wednesday, schools were closed, along with the University of South Carolina, as well as state and county offices.  So just like most other kids, my two sons had the day off and enjoyed the snow, which is very much a rarity in the South.  Yes, I indulged in a few snowballs with my two children.  But come the afternoon, I had serious cabin fever.   Thankfully, the game was still on for Wednesday evening and I needed the two hour college basketball fix.

It turns out Wednesday night that the roads were quite fine and really no issues of ice.  And as a result, what I thought might have been a low turnout turned out to be a crowd of nearly 10,000.   The students, knowing they had a two hour delay on Thursday, came out in droves hoping for a win that evening.  

Entering the game, the Gamecocks had not won a game in conference.  The 0-6 record was a little misleading in that South Carolina had been in most of their games, losing four games by eight points or less.  This included an 75-67 loss at Texas A&M earlier in the season.   The Aggies came into the game at 3-3 in conference.

After a very pretty rendition of the national anthem by the vocal group "The Gamechords", the Gamecocks jumped out quickly on the Aggies.  Duane Notice, who has been very solid since he joined the starting lineup, buried a three pointer and Michael Carrera, also back in the starting lineup, hit an old fashioned three point play.  A short time later, Brenton Williams nailed a three pointer of his own and South Carolina was up 15-5.

Texas A&M would cut the lead to six, 17-11 on a couple of three pointers by Antwan Space and Jordan Green.  And for nearly the next three and a half minutes, the Aggies would stay in range, only trailing by six, 21-15.  After Carrera dribbled into traffic, which resulted in a steal by Texas A&M, Martin replaced him.  As Carrera walked by, Martin yelled loudly at him "PASS THE BALL!"

But South Carolina would make sure that Texas A&M would not hang around much longer as they on a 17-2 run over the span of five plus minutes.  With two plus minutes left in the half, the Gamecocks were up 38-17.   What was impressive about the run was that it was balanced.  Laimonas Chatkevicius came off the bench and scored eight points during the run.  Thornwell had four points in the span and Williams had a three pointer.  When you looked up at the scoreboard and saw players with eight, seven and six points, it was impressive.  Brenton Williams capped the half with a three pointer and the Gamecocks led 41-21 at halftime.

But it was not only the offense that was impressive for South Carolina in the first half.  The defense came to play.  They were aggressive, forcing ten Texas A&M turnovers in the first twenty minutes.  They also held the Aggies, who shot fifty five percent in their home win over the Gamecocks, to thirty three percent from the field in the first half.   It was the best all around twenty minutes that I had seen South Carolina play all season in person.

And the fans got involved, especially the student section. Whether it was their own cabin fever after not having school for two days or starved for a conference win, the students were the loudest I had heard for a men's game all season.

The problem with a young team like the Gamecocks is sustaining a high level of play for forty minutes.  Sure enough at the start of the second half,  South Carolina committed four turnovers in the first two and a half minutes.  Texas A&M cut the deficit down to thirteen, 43-30 on a Kourtney Robertson layup.

But Notice made sure that was as close as the Aggies would get the rest of the way.   He would score ten of the Gamecocks' first twelve points in the second half.  His three point play would put South Carolina up 53-37 with fourteen plus minutes left in the game.

From there, the Gamecocks went on a 19-4 run over about seven minutes.  Sindarius Thornwell would hit six free throws in a row.  His last free throw would give South Carolina a 69-41 lead with seven and a half minutes left in the game.

All that was left was for both teams to clear the benches and play seldom used reserves. The Gamecocks would actually extend the lead to thirty two points before winning by twenty eight, 80-52 to get their first SEC win.

The Gamecocks had four scorers in double figures led by Notice and Thornwell, each with nineteen points.  Williams, despite missing two free throws, which gave him now three misses on the season, added eighteen points. Chatkevicius had a career high twelve points.  The Gamecocks shot fifty two percent from the field and eighty one percent from the line (26 of 32).

The Aggies had no players in double figures in scoring.  Space and Jamal Jones each had nine points for Texas A&M.  The Aggies shot thirty five percent from the field and were just four of sixteen from beyond the arc.

As I left Colonial Life Arena, I heard several fans talk about maybe there should be a snowstorm more often in Columbia since the first snow of the season brought the team its first SEC win of the season.   As much as that might have been a good luck charm for the Gamecocks and as much as I loved seeing my boys make a robot snowman, I gladly hope there are no more snowstorms this year.  I had enough cabin fever for the rest of the season.  If snow is a good luck charm, perhaps the Riverbanks Zoo can lend their snow machine from their Christmas Light show to the basketball team.

But hopefully, it's not the snow, but the start of something for the Gamecocks' basketball team.  What I saw Wednesday night was the equivalent of this weekend's upcoming warm front.

Something hopeful.   

The Stuff of Legends (Recap of Ole Miss v. South Carolina)

For about a decade, from 1966 to 1976, there was no more popular and successful sport on the campus of the University of South Carolina than the men's basketball team.  During that time period, the Gamecocks made the postseason six out of seven years.  The only time they didn't make the postseason in that span, the 1969-70 team went 14-0 in the ACC regular season and lost in the ACC Tournament championship game to North Carolina State in double overtime.

This weekend, South Carolina Athletics had a "Legends Weekend", mainly in part to celebrate the era of the late Frank McGuire, the all time leader in coaching wins for the Gamecocks with 283.  Many former players of McGuire, including Hall of Famer Alex English, longtime NBA guard Brian Winters, longtime NBA player and coach Mike Dunleavy, former Indiana Pacer and NBA first round pick Kevin Joyce were on hand for the legends weekend.

McGuire started his coaching career at St. John's after playing for the Red Storm.  He led the Johnnies to the Final Four in 1952.  Then he was hired by North Carolina to take over their program and in 1957, his undefeated Tar Heels won the National Championship, in a bit of later irony over Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain 54-53.   McGuire and Bobby Knight share the all time record for most wins without a loss at 32-0.   He stayed with North Carolina until 1961, when severe NCAA recruiting violations resulted in his resignation.  Dean Smith, McGuire's assistant coach, was named the new coach of the Tar Heels and we all know what happened from there.

McGuire would then coach the 1961-62 season in the NBA with the Philadelphia Warriors, led by Chamberlain. It would be under McGuire, the coach that defeated him for the 1957 NCAA Championship, that Chamberlain set the all time season average for points per game, averaging 50.4 points per game.

South Carolina, at that time in the ACC, then hired McGuire in 1962 to be the Gamecocks head coach. McGuire would take South Carolina to the NIT in his fifth season there. He then had an undefeated regular season championship in 1969-70 before losing the ACC Championship game in double overtime.  Amazingly back then, only one team from each conference made it to the NCAA Tournament, so the 25-3 Gamecocks not only didn't make the NCAA Tournament, they didn't make the NIT either.

McGuire finally led South Carolina to an ACC championship in 1970-1971, their final season in the ACC.  They would make the Sweet 16 that season.   The Gamecocks became an independent for several years, supposedly freeing themselves from apparently a repressive ACC.  In their first two seasons as an independent, the Gamecocks also made the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, giving McGuire three seasons in a row with that accomplishment.  His 1973-74 team also made the NCAA Tournament, giving McGuire four NCAA Tournament successive seasons.

After the 73-74 season, McGuire's teams would make two NIT appearances.  He would have fourteen straight winning seasons up to his retirement in 1980.  As previously noted, McGuire would end up with 283 career wins for the Gamecocks, by far the most wins ever by a USC men's basketball head coach.   For all his accomplishments in basketball, he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1977 and to the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.

McGuire was known for recruiting New York City metro area players and bringing them down to Columbia. Among them was Winters and Joyce, both from Archbishop Malloy in Jamaica, Queens, John Roche from LaSalle Academy in New York City, Tom Riker from St Dominic's in Oyster Bay, New York and Dunleavy from Nazareth Regional in Brooklyn.  McGuire also recruited Larry Brown from Long Beach in Long Island and Billy Cunningham from Brooklyn to play for him at North Carolina.

McGuire also did well to bring local talent to the Gamecocks, like Columbia native English and Casey Manning from Dillon, South Carolina.  Manning has been the radio analyst for Gamecocks' basketball broadcasts since 1994.  Manning also happens to be a local judge in South Carolina.

After his retirement in 1980, McGuire remained in Columbia, South Carolina until his death in 1994.  Several coaches came after McGuire, including Eddie Fogler and Dave Odom, both who were very successful in the previous positions respectively at Vanderbilt and Wake Forest.  Fogler took the Gamecocks to two NCAA Tournament appearances, Odom to one NCAA Tournament appearance and two NIT championships.

However, in the nearly thirty four years since McGuire retired, South Carolina has made a total of four NCAA Tournament appearances, the same number McGuire led the Gamecocks to in his tenure.  And the Gamecocks have had a losing record in six of the past seasons.

One of the main focus points of the Legends Weekend has been stressing the point of going from one "Frank M", Frank McGuire, to another "Frank M", Frank Martin.   Martin was hired away from Kansas State last season to restore the South Carolina glory days under McGuire.  In his first season, Martin suffered his first losing season ever as a head coach.  But in Frank McGuire's first two seasons at South Carolina, his teams had losing records.

In his second season, Martin has a very young team.  Entering the season, the Gamecocks only had two seniors, and one of them, Bruce Ellington, left after a few games to make himself eligible for the NFL draft. That left senior guard Brenton Williams along with junior transfer Tyrone Johnson, three sophomores and seven freshmen,   To make matters worse, Johnson fractured his foot in their most recent game vs. Texas A&M and is out indefinitely.

With such a young team, as a result, the Gamecocks have struggled.  Entering their game against Ole Miss, South Carolina was 7-9 and 0-3 in the SEC.  The main problem has been scoring and shooting the ball. The Gamecocks were at the bottom of the SEC in field goal percentage and assist to turnover ratio.  Their scoring margin is .8, which is last in the SEC as well.

Their opponent on Saturday was the Ole Miss Rebels, featuring the mercurial Marshall Henderson.  The Rebels came into the game 11-5 and 2-1 in the SEC.  Henderson, the team's leading scorer at nineteen plus points per game, may get all the attention, but he is hardly the Rebels' only good player.  Junior guard Jarvis Summers has been absolutely terrific, averaging eighteen points per game while shooting fifty one percent from the field, including fifty three percent from beyond the arc.  That's not a misprint.  He shoots hits fifty three percent of his three pointers.   Thus South Carolina had a large task facing the forty second highest scoring team in the country.

The South Carolina Athletic department did a really good job of advertising the Legends Weekend, including an autograph session with legends such as Alex English, Brian Winters and Mike Dunleavy before the game.  Also the first five thousand in attendance got a commemorative Frank McGuire placard along with a commemorative South Carolina Gamecocks Football placard, as the football team was being honored at halftime for their great season.

Thus when Matthew and I got to the game right as the doors opened at 3:00 PM, we were already in a long line waiting to go into the turnstiles.  It was a huge crowd, over 14,000 in attendance, easily the largest crowd for a game this season.  We decided to try to wait on line for autographs, but as you can see from the photo, it was a very, very long line and we never got a chance for autographs.

Before the game started, their was a ceremony honoring all the basketball legends that attended.  The biggest cheers were for the 1970's and 1960's players, since South Carolina had their best teams during that time.  Winters, Dunleavy and English got the biggest cheers from the crowd.  A student even had a giant Frank McGuire head to go along with the other giant heads in the student section.

The game started with the Rebels coming out strong in the first five and a half minutes. Henderson contributed a three pointer during this time while an Aaron Jones dunk gave Ole Miss a 12-4 lead.  Martin had seen enough after the Jones' dunk and called a timeout.

Off the timeout, Jaylen Shaw went to work for the Gamecocks. He would score all nine of South Carolina's points over the next five plus minutes.   He was part of the Gamecocks 18-6 run over the span of seven minutes.  A Michael Carrera dunk gave South Carolina a 22-18 lead.  The Gamecock crowd roared like it probably did in the old days of the Carolina Coliseum under McGuire.

After Ole Miss cut the lead down to three 24-21, South Carolina went on a 13-4 spurt over the next three plus minutes with freshman guard Sindarius Thornwell scoring five of those points.  Desmond Ringer hit two free throws to give the Gamecocks their largest lead, twelve points at 37-25.  But the Rebels' Anthony Perez, a constant thorn in the Gamecocks' side all game, hit a jumper to cut the lead to ten at the half.

At halftime, the football team was honored for their third straight 11-2 season.  Coach Steve Spurrier spoke and got his annual dig in at Clemson.  Jadeveon Clowney and Bruce Ellington, who received two huge BRUUUUCE cheers, spoke as well.  You can play the video to watch the halftime celebration.

In the first half, Brenton Williams and company did a really good job in holding Henderson to three points in the first twenty minutes.  Henderson was only one of eight from the field in the first half and looked very flustered.   But you can only keep a good scorer down for so long.

After Thornwell hit two free throws to put the Gamecocks back up twelve, 39-27 the Rebels responded with a 15-2 barrage over the next four plus minutes.  Of course, Henderson was in the middle of that run, scoring seven points in the span.  A Martavious Newby jumper put Ole Miss up one, 42-41.

Over the next several possessions, the Gamecocks and Rebels traded the lead several times. Thornwell buried a three to put the Gamecocks back up two, 44-42.  Summers responded with an old fashioned three point play to the Rebels back up one, 45-44.  After another Thornwell three pointer put South Carolina back up two, 47-45, Henderson buried a three pointer to give Ole Miss a 48-47 lead.

Laimonas Chatkevicius, who might have had his best offensive game of the season, put the Gamecocks back up one, 49-48, but Perez hit a jumper again to put the Rebels back up 50-49.  After Chatkevicus hit another shot to put South Carolina up 51-50, Henderson hit two free throws to put Ole Miss up 52-51 with about twelve minutes left in the game.

The game had been another foul fest, which thanks to the NCAA rules, I had seen several times this season.  Both teams combined for fifty six fouls and seventy three foul shot attempts on the game.  But when you have ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FOUR teams, or basically half of all NCAA Division I Men's Basketball teams averaging twenty fouls or more per game, this is what you're going to get on a nightly basis.  Lots of questionable ticky tack fouls that wouldn't have been called last season, lots of stoppages in play and a lot of angry fans, especially in my section.

As a result, games often come down to now free throw shooting.  And in the second half, the Gamecocks missed more than their share of free throws.  After Henderson had hit his two free throws to put the Rebels up 52-51, Thornwell had a chance at the charity stripe to put the Gamecocks back up one.  But he missed both free throws.  After Perez nailed two free throws to put the Rebels up three, Thornwell did respond with a three pointer to tie the game at fifty four.

The teams would go back and forth over the next couple of minutes.  Summers put the Rebels up 60-58 with two free throws.  Thornwell had a chance to tie the game with two free throws, but only hit one of two as the Gamecocks were down one, 60-59.

Around this time my iPhone battery ran low and I couldn't give Twitter updates the rest of the game. Just my luck as Thornwell's made free throw was the start of a 8-1 mini spurt by South Carolina as Duane Notice hit a jumper to put the Gamecocks up 66-61 with four and a half minutes left.

The problem was that the Gamecocks missed SIX free throws, including the front end of a one and one by Carrera, during this spurt that could have put them up easily by double digits.  Thornwell missed two, Demetrius Henry missed two and Duane Notice and Carrera each missed one.

In a close game against a good team like Ole Miss, you can't give away easy scoring opportunities like that and expect to win.  The Rebels made the Gamecocks pay with a 10-2 spurt over two and a half minutes. Ole Miss made all four of their free throw attempts during that span and a Perez three pointer off a missed assignment by Mindaugas Kacinas (which resulted in Martin "teaching lesson") gave the Rebels a 71-68 lead.

Another key factor in the game was the off shooting day by Williams for the Gamecocks.  He would miss all ten of his field goal attempts on the day, including a potential game tying three point attempt that would have tied the game.  Summers would hit two free throws with just under a minute left and the Rebels had now outscored the Gamecocks 12-2 in the past three and a half minutes to go up 73-68.

But the Gamecocks would rally, with a lot of help from the Rebels.  While Henderson and LaDarius White only hit two of their four free throw attempts, Carrera and Thornwell would hit three of their four free throw attempts to cut the Rebels' lead to four 75-71 with twenty five seconds left.  With a chance to put the game away, Summers missed both of his free throws to give the Gamecocks a little life with twelve seconds left.

Then inexplicably, Ole Miss' DaMarco Cox fouled Williams on a three point attempt with six seconds left.  Williams hit the first two free throws, which setup an interesting decision by Martin.  Should Williams miss the final free throw and setup a possible offensive rebound and a potential game tying or winning shot, or have Williams hit the third free throw and hope they can steal the inbounds pass?

Martin wisely chose the latter and setup his defense.  Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy had Henderson inbound the ball. But he could not get off a pass and called timeout.  After both teams traded timeouts, Henderson again struggled to inbound the ball and fired an errant pass to midcourt.  Williams grabbed the ball for South Carolina and appeared to call timeout with 5.8 seconds left but didn't get the timeout.  He dribbled up the court and the ball bounced off a Rebel out of bounds with 1.8 seconds left.  They got the ball to Thornwell, their best scorer but his off balance three hit the front of the rim as the buzzer sounded.  Ole Miss survived with a 75-74 win.

Simply put the Gamecocks' loss came down to a lack of shooting.  Despite ten more offensive rebounds and eleven more shot attempts, the Gamecocks only hit one more field goal than the Rebels, 22-21, and shot only thirty six percent from the field.  South Carolina also struggled from the free throw line in the second half, missing ten of twenty four free throw attempts while Ole Miss was twenty one of twenty six from the charity stripe in the second half.

Thornwell led all scorers with twenty four points and had a double double on the night as he added eleven rebounds.  Chatkevicius was the only other Gamecock in double figures scoring with twelve points. Williams added nine points, all from the line as he was a perfect nine for nine. Williams has missed only one free throw the entire season.  Shaw added all his nine points in that early first half run but didn't score the rest of the game. The Gamecocks fell to 7-10 and 0-4 in the SEC.

The Rebels showed much better scoring balance as Perez led Ole Miss with twenty two points. Summers and Henderson each had nineteen points.  Henderson scored sixteen second half points and was booed every time he got the ball during the game.  The Rebels are now 12-5 overall and 3-1 in the SEC

It was a tough, tough loss for Coach Martin and the Gamecocks.  But they showed they could hang with the defending SEC Tournament champions, a team that made it to the third round of the NCAA Tournament last season.  South Carolina needs to shoot better from the field and the line and they are probably a scoring wing and dominant defensive post player away from contending in the SEC.

But in front of a very large crowd, they provided a ray of hope that perhaps this Frank M can recapture the winning ways of the previous Frank M.  If so, 14,000 plus crowds will become the norm instead of the exception at Colonial Life Arena.   Or as Steve Spurrier said it best at halftime, hopefully the football team will have the basketball team at halftime of their game real soon.

Frank McGuire would have approved of that.