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.

A Balanced South Carolina Bounces Back With Win over UNC Asheville

South Carolina appeared to have a good opportunity for success in the Charleston Classic Tournament.  They handily won their first game over Cornell 69-45.  In the second game, they were up twelve on Charlotte, 30-18 in the first half and seemed to be on their way to the championship game.   But it went all downhill from there.

Charlotte rallied from that deficit and took the lead late in the second half.  The Gamecocks rallied to tie the game at 63 with a little less than two minutes left in the game and had a chance to take the lead. The 49ers made two free throws and held off the Gamecocks 65-63. 

Then South Carolina faced Akron in the third place game, a team the Gamecocks handily beat twice last season; a ten point win in the Diamond Head classic and a thirty point regular season game blowout a few days later.  This time was different.  The Zips controlled most of the game, even going up by twelve points early in the second half.  South Carolina rallied to tie the game late but eventually lost to Akron 68-63.

Thus the Gamecocks came home with a losing record from Charleston, 2-3 on the season.  They were hoping Wednesday night that the Bulldogs of UNC Asheville would be the cure to their ailing woes, specifically in the three point shooting department.  In their losses to Charlotte and Akron, South Carolina shot a combined five of twenty eight from beyond the arc (eighteen percent).   However, the Gamecocks would have to play the Bulldogs without their starting forward Michael Carrera who suffered a concussion and a sprained ankle in practice during the week.

Since it was Thanksgiving Eve, which is what many call the biggest night out of the year, and students were off on break,  the Colonial Life Arena was not as filled as usual.  In fact, it was the smallest crowd of the men's or women's basketball seasons so far, with 8223 only in attendance.  Three of those people in attendance were my friend Ian McCormick, veteran Mid Majority writer, who sat with my color analyst, aka my older son Matthew and me.

Those in attendance saw the Gamecocks continue their struggles early on, as the Bulldogs came out firing, well more specifically, Andrew Rowsey came out firing.   Rowsey scored eight quick points, two on three pointers and he assisted on a three pointer by Kem Ubaru.  UNC Asheville was up 12-6 a little more than five minutes into the contest.

This was not the first time I had seen the sophomore Rowsey (#15 in the pictures) play in person.   Last season, I watched Rowsey light up the College of Charleston at TD Arena, as he lead his team to a 67-58 overtime victory over the Cougars.  Rowsey scored twenty three points on eight of eleven shooting, including three from beyond the arc.  Rowsey is an exciting player to watch.  He is quick, has incredibly long range, very accurate shooter (shoots forty six percent from three ) and is not shy about launching a three.

The Gamecocks would respond with a 7-1 mini spurt to tie the game at thirteen.  The Gamecocks tied the game on a three pointer by Justin McKie, a sophomore who has worked his way into the rotation with his solid play.  

After Ubaru put the Bulldogs back up one, 14-13, hitting one of his two free throw attempts, South Carolina would again go on a spurt, this time a 14-0 run over nearly four minutes.  Freshman Marcus Stroman would cap the rally with a layup that resulted in a three point play.  Stroman's free throw gave the Gamecocks a 27-14 lead. 

However, the Bulldogs would respond, again led by Rowsey and a couple of turnovers by Stroman.  Rowsey's two three pointers would ignite an 11-3 UNC Asheville run.  Rowsey's fourth three pointer on the day made the score 30-25 South Carolina with 6:43 left.    The Gamecocks would extend the lead a little going into halftime, 37-29.

The first half was somewhat sloppy, as both teams combined for sixteen turnovers.  As for the Gamecocks, that meant Frank Martin was particularly unhappy on the night.  And unfortunately for South Carolina, the sloppy play would continue into the second half, making Coach Martin REALLY unhappy.

After Tyrone Johnson hit a layup to extend the Gamecocks' lead to ten, 39-29, the Bulldogs responded with five points as Rowsey assisted again on a Ubaru three pointer, then hit a layup of his own to make the score 39-34.  

Then the turnover fest really went into high gear.  Over the first six minutes of the second half, both teams combined for eight turnovers.  This allowed UNC Asheville to hang around in the game.  After hitting another three pointer, his fifth of the game, Rowsey hit two free throws to keep the Bulldogs within ten, 53-43.

But with about twelve and half minutes left in the game, Rowsey was then called for an offensive foul, his fourth.  Rowsey, who had twenty three points at the time,  was forced to go to the bench.  Once Rowsey left the game, UNC Asheville was done.

The Gamecocks took advantage, outscoring the Bulldogs 19-9 over the next seven minutes. This included a span of three plus minutes where the Bulldogs didn't score a point.  A Sindarius Thornwell dunk gave South Carolina a 72-52 lead with a little under six minutes left in the game.

Rowsey would re-enter the game and cut the lead to fourteen, 72-58 with his sixth three pointer of the game.  But the damage had already been done and the Bulldogs would not get closer the rest of the game.   In a high scoring second half, where both teams would combine for nearly one hundred points, the Gamecocks would go on for the 89-75 win.  

Despite the twenty turnovers on the game, there were some bright spots for South Carolina.   The team did have twenty one assists, six by Stroman and six by Thornwell.  The Gamecocks shot eight of seventeen from beyond the arc.  And there was a concerted effort to have balanced scoring, especially working the ball into the USC bigs.  Chatkevicus scored a career high seventeen points and had his first career double double with thirteen rebounds, shooting six of eleven from the field.   He also buried two three pointers, also the first two of his career.

Demetrius Henry had fifteen points on six of eleven shooting.  The Carolina bigs combined to shoot fourteen of twenty six from the field.   Tyrone Johnson, Thornwell and Duane Notice each had twelve points as all five starters scored in double figures.  McKie chipped in with eight points in only thirteen minutes of action.  Finally, USC shot nineteen of twenty six from the charity stripe.

Rowsey led all scorers with thirty points on ten of eighteen shooting from the field, including six of twelve from beyond the arc.  David Robertson was the only other Bulldog in double figures with fifteen as he hit five of nine shots from beyond the arc.   The rest of UNC Asheville shot an unseemly eight of thirty five from the field (twenty three percent).  Ubaru particularly had a rough night shooting two of eleven from the field, though he hit both of his three point attempts.

The Gamecocks next game is on the road vs. Marshall Sunday, December 1st.  It will be USC's first real road game of the season.  In fact it will be their first game outside the state of South Carolina after three home games and three neutral site games in Charleston.  This will be a good test for the Gamecocks as the Thundering Herd are in the top twenty five in the country in rebounding and assists.    South Carolina will again need balance and better ball handling to prevail.

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 Answer Lots of Questions By Beating Ospreys

The end of last season showed promise for South Carolina.  They won four out of their last six games, including a major upset win over eventual national runner-up Kentucky, plus two wins in the SEC Tournament, one of which likely ended Arkansas' hopes for a NCAA at large bid.   For a team that only went 5-13 in the SEC, the end of the season provided a glimmer of hope for the 2014-15 season.

That glimmer of hope looked more like a large ray of sunshine at Colonial Life Arena as the Gamecocks defeated the North Florida Ospreys 81-56 in the opening game of the college basketball season last night for both teams.  And that ray of sunshine was needed due to an unusually cold night in Columbia, South Carolina thanks to the Polar Vortex cold front.

The first question heading into last night for the Gamecocks was "Who is going to replace last season's leading scorer, Brenton Williams?"  Williams, who averaged just about fifteen points per game for the Gamecocks, graduated, leaving what appeared to be a gaping hole in the scoring column for South Carolina.

The answer after last night was "Everyone".

First, the start of the game showed how important Tyrone Johnson is to this South Carolina team. Johnson, who missed most of last season due to injury, came out of the gate quickly, hitting two quick layups as the Gamecocks would never trail in the game.   Johnson would have a solid night with twelve points, five rebounds, four assists and most importantly, zero turnovers.

The Ospreys would tie the game at 6-6.   But South Carolina would respond with a 19-4 run over the next six and a half minutes.  Duane Notice buried a three pointer to put the Gamecocks up 25-10 with 11:21 left in the half.  Notice would score eight points on the evening, one of nine players to have between six and twelve points on the evening.

It was at this point where the Gamecocks of early last season would have struggled with prosperity, not being able to put away a mid major team.   Against teams like Florida International (down three at half before winning) and USC Upstate (a six point loss), the Gamecocks would look good for a few minutes, then just unravel.

And when North Florida hit two three pointers in a row, the second by Trent Mackey, to cut the lead to nine, 25-16 with nine and a half minutes left in the half,  fans had to have this running through their mind "Are we going to see another USC Upstate game?"

The answer was an emphatic "NO!"

The Gamecocks would answer with a 13-0 run over the next six minutes.  Laimonas Chatkevicius would cap the scoring with two free throws to make the score 38-16. Chatkevicius did his part, chipping in with eleven points in only seventeen minutes of game action.

Finally, the biggest question Gamecocks' fans likely had entering last night was "How good is freshman Marcus Stroman"?

The answer...really good.

Stroman would play twenty five minutes last night, most of them at the point guard position for the Gamecocks.  He scored his first career basket on a sweet jumper during the first Gamecocks' run to make the score 20-8.  Stroman would then assist on the next two baskets.  Stroman would have six points and six assists on the night and just like Johnson, he also had zero turnovers.

But the stats didn't do Stroman justice.  Watching the game, he played like a steady senior, not a flashy frosh.  He showed his quickness when he had to, but he was more content running a smooth offense, an offense that actually moved really well without the ball.   Finally, he showed his defensive prowess, forcing a five second call on the Ospreys' best player, Dallas Moore, a talented sophomore guard who led all scorers last night with twenty one points.

The final stats showed the balance and depth South Carolina need to overcome the loss of a leading scorer.  As aforementioned, nine players had between six and twelve points on the night.  Johnson and Demetrius Henry were the leading scorers for South Carolina with twelve points each.  Nine players also played fifteen or more minutes.

It didn't matter that the second leading scorer from last season, Sindarius Thornwell had less than half his average from last season, scoring only six points.  The team as a whole shot fifty one percent from the field and seventy three percent from the line (19 of 26).   The Gamecocks out-rebounded the Ospreys 42-28 and had nineteen assists and only nine turnovers.

It was a very nice win to start the season.  The team was so solid that Frank Martin didn't seem to be all that upset as only Frank can be at times.  The true test will be when South Carolina hosts Baylor on Tuesday at Noon, part of the ESPN Twenty Four Hours of Hoops.

But if last night was any indicator, the Gamecocks have the answers to pass the test.

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.

Second Half Shooting Ice Storm Dooms Gamecocks (Recap of Georgia v. South Carolina Men's Basketball Game)

Last week, South Carolina had its second winter storm of the season.  It resulted in over three hundred thousand people affected by power outages, three days of school closures and a wish by many for an early spring.  The Gamecocks basketball team again thrived on the icetastophre weather though, defeating Vanderbilt, just like they did when they defeated Texas A&M back in late January after another winter storm.

Despite it being a Whiteout day vs. Georgia, there was no such bad, cold weather on Saturday.  It was a beautiful, sunny day in Columbia, South Carolina, with the temperature around seventy degrees.  And after two morning baseball practices, my color analyst, aka my older son Matthew, and I took the familiar fifteen minute drive from our house to Colonial Life Arena.

As we drove up to the parking lot a half hour before game time, it seemed more crowded around the arena parking lots than usual. That's when we found out that the baseball team had a home game around the same time. Thus one of the usual parking lots for basketball was turned into a game-day shuttle lot for baseball fans.  Considering the baseball stadium holds 8,000 for a baseball game, plus add that to 13,000 out for a basketball game, and you have the ingredients for serious traffic delays around the arena.

Matt and I made the best of a situation and found our way to the parking garage across from Colonial Life.  When  we walked into the arena, we found it adorned in the colors of the day, white, as each seat was adorned with ESPN SEC network towels. The Gamecocks were hosting a Bulldogs' team that entered the game in third place in the SEC at 8-5.

Sindarius Thornwell started the scoring out with a three pointer for the Gamecocks.  But the Bulldogs responded with six straight points, including an old fashioned three point play by Kenny Gaines that put Georgia up 6-3.  Gaines would be a constant thorn in South Carolina's side the entire day.

The Gamecocks responded with a 10-0 spurt over four and a half minutes.  It was led by none other than South Carolina's leading scorer, Brenton Williams.  Williams buried two three pointers during the span and his second one put the Gamecocks up 13-6.

But Gaines would answer back by nearly being a one man for the Bulldogs.  After Brandon Morris hit a three point play for Georgia to cut the lead to 13-9.  Then after Williams headed to the bench after picking up his second foul guarding him, Gaines would score the next nine straight points for the Bulldogs.  His three pointer put Georgia up one, 18-17 with nine and a half minutes left in the first half.  

Thornwell would respond to put the Gamecocks up one, 19-18. But the Bulldogs would score the next five points to go up 23-19.  After Thornwell scored another three straight points to cut the lead back to one,  Gaines would bury a three pointer to put Georgia back up four 26-22.

The back and forth continued between the two teams, as South Carolina would respond with six quick points, a three pointer by Brian Steele, who is seeing a lot more playing time as of late, and three Duane Notice free throws to put the Gamecocks back up two 28-26.

The teams would continue to trade the lead for the last three and a half minutes of the half until Steele again buried a three pointer to tie the game at thirty four at the half.   Both teams made ten field goals in the first half, with the Gamecocks hitting one more three pointer (they were five of nine from beyond the arc in the first twenty minutes).

The second half started out innocently enough with the Bulldogs going in front on another Morris three point play. After two Thornton free throws put the Bulldogs up five, Notice hit one of two free throws to cut the Georgia lead to four, 39-35 with about eighteen and a half minutes left in the game.

But the Gamecocks had started out missing their first three field goals in the second half and committed a turnover before that Notice free throw.  The empty possessions continued as Williams missed two jumpers, Thornwell missed two jumpers and Kacinas missed not one, but two tip in attempts.

But Georgia couldn't take advantage as they went nearly three minutes without scoring a point.  Finally, Gaines hit a layup to put the Bulldogs up six, 41-35.  Still, there was over fifteen and a half minutes left for the Gamecocks to find their stride shooting wise and only have to makeup a six point deficit.

But the empty possessions continued for South Carolina.  Williams missed a layup and Steele missed two jumpers.  After Laimonas Chatkevicius turned the ball over, Williams and Notice missed jumpers.

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs started hitting their shots.  Nemanja Djurisic scored five straight points, including a three pointer that capped a 11-0 run to put Georgia up 50-35.  Finally with a little less than eleven minutes remaining in the game, Thornwell hit a turnaround jumper to end the zero for fourteen shooting drought and the Gamecocks were down thirteen, 50-37.

But the damage had been done.  After Juwan Parker and Williams traded three point possessions,  Parker's an old fashioned three point play and Williams with his usual beyond the arc skills, the Bulldogs would extend the lead to nineteen by scoring the next six points to go up 59-40 with nine minutes left.  By that time, some fans actually headed to the exits.

Unfortunately, the Gamecocks didn't make those fans regret their decision.  Gaines continued to torment the Gamecocks with his scoring.  His three pointer put Georgia up twenty, 62-42.   All that was left was for South Carolina Head Coach Frank Martin to get a technical foul call to express his frustration with the referees as well as his team's second half play.  

The Bulldogs would go onto win 73-56 and firmly lock themselves in third place in the SEC at 9-5, two games ahead of seven other teams tied for fourth at 7-7.  Meanwhile, the Gamecocks are tied for the cellar in the SEC with Mississippi State at 3-11.  South Carolina shot just sixteen percent in the second half, five of thirty one, and twenty six percent for the game.

Gaines led all scorers with twenty seven points, a career high for him.  The sophomore guard shot nine of fourteen from the field including five of nine from beyond the arc.   Thornton had a double double with twelve points and ten rebounds while Morris added twelve also for the Bulldogs.  The Bulldogs outrebounded the Gamecocks 40-38.  When Georgia outrebounds a team, they are 15-3.  They are 0-8 when they are outrebounded.

Thornwell led South Carolina with eighteen points and Williams added sixteen points.  However, they combined to shoot nine of thirty one from the field.  The rest of the team shot a measly six of twenty six.

The weather is getting warmer finally in Columbia, South Carolina.  One can only hope that the Gamecocks shooting will get warmer too.