A Night of Cold Shots in Spartanburg (Recap of Kennesaw State v. USC Upstate)

And that's a cold shot, baby
Yeah that's a drag
That's a cold shot, baby
We've let our love go bad

"Cold Shot" by Stevie Ray Vaughan

Earlier this week, it was cold enough in South Carolina that the entire state either saw sleet, freezing rain or snow on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, causing schools to close and delay openings for several days and a good number of accidents on state highways.  Columbia picked up three inches of snow.

The snowstorm didn't do as much damage to South Carolina as it did in Georgia.  It was so icy that roads became impassable.  Cars barely moved on roads for hours.  All of the major highways in Atlanta became scenes from the Walking Dead as cars were abandoned by people who walked to nearby hotels and even strangers' houses who offered to put up people for the night thanks to a Facebook page.

It also resulted in the postponement of several games including the Kennesaw State - USC Upstate game Thursday night because the Owls couldn't get out of Georgia due to the condition of the roads.  Thus the game was rescheduled for Friday night at the Hodge Center, which allowed me to attend the game.

Earlier in the season, Kennesaw State knocked off USC Upstate at home 68-58.  In that game, the Owls had four players in double figures scoring, shot forty three percent from beyond the arc and hit on twenty one of their twenty five free throws.  Kennesaw State led by as much as eighteen points as they won their first and only game so far this season in Atlantic Sun conference play.  Friday night would turn out to be a much different matter.

I left work at 5:00 PM and made the ninety plus minute trip from Columbia to Spartanburg.  One of the interesting things about the Hodge Center is that they offer general admission as well as reserved seating, which is kind of unusual since the gym only holds 818.   But if general admission is available, you can sit in the A section mid level for eight dollars.  The only difference is that you are not sitting center court but on one of end of the court, which is no big deal. Throw in a over-buttery pretzel for two dollars and you have yourself a relatively inexpensive evening.

Despite missing second leading scorer Ty Greene to an injury, the Spartans jumped out early thanks to Ricardo Glenn's aggressive post play.  Glenn scored six of the first ten USC Upstate points. A pretty feed by Fred Miller resulted in a "Big Mike" Buchanan layup as the Spartans led 10-6. Meanwhile, Kennesaw State's three point shooting was as icy as the Atlanta roads on Tuesday.  In the first three and a half minutes, they missed all four of their three point attempts.

But the Owls responded with a 7-0 spurt.  After a three point play by Nate Rucker, Yonel Brown assisted on an Orlando Coleman layup to give Kennesaw State a 13-10 lead with a little over twelve minutes left in the half.  Brown, very generously listed at five foot nine, was serenaded by the Spartans' student section with a chant of "Little Boy" every time he touched the ball.

The teams would trade the lead and cold spells several times over the next several minutes.  The Owls would go four plus minutes without hitting a basket as Glenn would give the Spartans a 14-13 lead.  It would be a reserve forward that would break the scoring drought for Kennesaw State.

Willy Kouassi, a six foot ten sophomore forward who went scoreless in fourteen minutes of action in the first game between the teams, gave the Owls a much needed inside scoring presence.  Over the span of about three and a half minutes, Kouassi would score eight points and assist on another basket.   His jumper gave Kennesaw State a 24-22 lead at the under four minute media timeout.

For some reason, the Spartans had moved away from getting the ball inside to Glenn and settled instead for three point shots that equally matched the Owls' frigid shooting beyond the arc.  USC Upstate missed on all ten of their three point attempts in the first half.   The Owls had six of the last eight points that were scored in the last three minutes and forty two seconds of the half.  Kennesaw State limped into the half with a 28-26 lead.

The two teams combined to miss on all seventeen of their three point attempts in the first half.  Thanks to Kouassi hitting on five of his first six field goal attempts, Kennesaw State shot thirty eight percent despite missing all seven of their shots beyond the arc.  USC Upstate only shot thirty four percent and also missed on three of their seven free throws.  Both teams had eleven field goals in the first half and the difference was two more free throws by the Owls.

In the second half, after Kouassi made one of two free throws, Spartans' forward Torrey Craig FINALLY hit the first three pointer of the game by both teams, which tied the game at twenty nine.  But once again, both teams would hit a cold spell as there was no scoring whatsoever over the next two and half plus minutes.  Delbert Love would eventually hit a layup to give Kennesaw State a 31-29 lead with sixteen minutes left.

But it would be the last field goal the Owls would make for the next five minutes as Myles Hamilton would do all their scoring with four free throws.  Despite that, the Spartans couldn't take advantage.   After a Jodd Maxey layup for USC Upstate, the game was tied at thirty five.  Hamilton would finally end Kennesaw State's field goal drought with a layup to put the Owls back up 37-35.  After Fred Miller gave the Spartans the lead back with a three pointer, Bernard Morena would respond with a basket and Kennesaw State had a 39-38 lead with ten minutes left.

It would be the last lead of the game for the Owls.

USC Upstate got the ball back inside to Glenn, who was fouled and made two free throws.  Then Craig  got the crowd of six hundred plus into the game by burying another three pointer. Maxey followed with a jumper to put the Spartans up 45-39 and Kennesaw State called a thirty second timeout.   Two Hamilton free throws stemmed the tide for a little bit as the Owls were only down four, 45-41.

But Glenn again was big, hitting a layup and one.  His three point play extended the lead to seven 48-41.  Four USC Upstate free throws later made the score 52-41.   The Spartans had outscored the Owls 14-2 over the span of four and half minutes.

A Karim Mawuenyega three pointer extended the USC Upstate lead to fourteen, 57-43.  Mawuenyega was fouled on his next three point shot attempt, which went in and out, much to the dismay of the Spartans' fans.  Instead of a potential four point play, Mawuenyega had to settle for three free throw attempts.  Unfortunately, he missed on all three attempts.

All that was left was whether Kennesaw State would actually hit a three pointer.  Taylor Wozniak finally made one to make the score 57-46.  But it was the only one the Owls hit on the day as they were an Antarctic one of fourteen from beyond the arc.  USC Upstate would go onto win 65-48.

In the three games I have now seen USC Upstate play in person, Glenn has had a double double in each of them.  He led all scorers with nineteen points and added twelve rebounds.  Craig also had a double double with sixteen points and eleven rebounds. Maxey added twelve points for the Spartans who shot thirty eight percent from the field, including a frosty four of twenty one from beyond the arc.

Kouassi, who hails from the Ivory Coast, also had a double double, leading the Owls with fifteen points and eleven rebounds. The career high fifteen points matched his output from his previous game, a loss to Florida Gulf Coast.  Hamilton was the only other Owl in double figures with ten points.  The Owls only shot thirty one percent from the field and were not exactly on fire from the line as they only made thirteen of their twenty one free throws.

USC Upstate now finds itself in fourth place in the Atlantic Sun with a 5-4 conference record.  They have a chance to improve their standing in the A-Sun when they host first place Mercer on Sunday.  The temperature on Sunday in South Carolina should be close to seventy degrees.

Hopefully the warm front will mean warmer shooting at the Hodge Center.

A Day in the Sun (Recap of North Florida v. USC Upstate)

When I was reviewing the college basketball schedule Saturday morning, I had a pick of several games in the local South Carolina/North Carolina border area to choose from.   Winthrop, Furman, Davidson, Charleston Southern and the Citadel were all playing at home.  But so was USC Upstate, a team I had seen rally to knock off their big brother the University of South Carolina in December.   So, my color analyst, aka my older son Matthew and I made the ninety minute drive up to Spartanburg to see the Spartans host the Ospreys of North Florida.  This would be my first ever in person Atlantic Sun conference game.

The Atlantic Sun Conference was formed in 1978.   It's a non football conference, but plays twenty different sports; nine men's sports, including college basketball and eleven women's sports.  Since 1979, they have had a college basketball conference tournament except for the 1992-93 season.   Their past members include Central Florida, the College of Charleston, Georgia State and perhaps, from a college basketball sense, their most famous past member was Belmont, who won five A-Sun tournaments.   Belmont left the Atlantic Sun in 2012 to join the Ohio Valley.   The tournament plays at campus sites, with the highest seeds hosting throughout the tournament.

The Atlantic Sun, just like a lot of other mid major conferences is in a state of flux.  Charter member Mercer, the only original A-Sun member left in the conference, is leaving for the Southern Conference after this season.  Likewise, East Tennessee State, a member since 2005, is also becoming a member of the Southern Conference after the season. ETSU was previously a member of the SoCon and had left the SoCon to join the Atlantic Sun.  After this season, the A-Sun will be down to eight member schools.

The Atlantic Sun has had a few players who made the NBA; Sam Mitchell of Mercer and Calvin Natt of Northeast Louisiana, were both A-Sun Tournament MVPs.   Most recently, the A-Sun's claim to fame is that one of their members, Florida Gulf Coast, aka "Florida Dunk City", made the Sweet Sixteen in last year's NCAA Tournament.

For the most part, the Atlantic Sun school members play in small gyms and arenas.  FGCU averages over 4000 per game, by far the most of any conference member.  Mercer and ETSU are the only two other schools that average over 2000 per game (both average over 2400 per game) and as noted, both those schools are leaving.   Two schools, Stetson and USC Upstate do not even average 700 fans per game.   For comparison's sake, they are the Southeast version of the Northeast Conference, though on average, the A-Sun averages 500 more fans per conference home game than the NEC (1783 to 1207).

Part of the reason that the Spartans do not average that many fans is that their home court, the Hodge Center only seats 818.  The Hodge Center was opened in 1973, but has been remodeled recently with all seat back chairs, a very nice new court floor and two video scoreboards on each end.  Based on the Spartans' team color of green, the Hodge Center reminds me of a smaller version of Wagner's Spiro Sports Center, which seats 2100.

As I noted, the Spartans had a big road win over the Gamecocks, their first ever win over the University of South Carolina in basketball.  USC Upstate also had a big road win at Virginia Tech.   Despite the impressive non conference wins, the Spartans have struggled in the A-Sun, entering their contest with the Ospreys with a 3-4 record in conference.  One of their losses was to Kennesaw State, which was the Owls only win in conference and their only win in their last fourteen games.

North Florida entered the contest with a 5-3 record in conference and an 11-9 record overall.  The Ospreys started off the season with a tough eight point loss at Florida.  In their most recent game, North Florida lost to ETSU by six.  Their leading scorer, Dallas Moore, averages twelve plus points per game.

The game was being shown on ESPN3 and it was also 70's day at the Hodge Center as many students dressed up as much as they could in 70's fashion.  The USC Upstate Cheerleaders were in tie dye shirts.  The Spartans came out onto the floor to the song "War" by Edwin Starr and despite the anti war lyrics, it's actually a great song to get the fan base pumped for the game.  Well, at least I was pumped.

The game started out with the Ospreys, the highest scoring team in the A-Sun in conference play at seventy eight points per game, struggling from the field.  North Florida only hit on one of their first eleven shots.  However USC Upstate couldn't take advantage, going scoreless for more than three and a half minutes early on in the game.   Moore buried a three pointer to cut the Spartans lead to 10-8 with a little under thirteen minutes left in the half.

But led by Fred Miller, the Spartans responded with a 16-4 run over the span of four and a half minutes.  It started with a hard flagrant one foul by Romeo Banks on Spartans' leading scorer Torrey Craig, who was going in for a fast break dunk attempt off a turnover.   Craig came crashing down hard on his bank and had to be helped off the court.  Miller hit the two free throws to put the Spartans up 12-8.   Later, Miller made an old fashioned three point play off a layup and one, then hit another layup to put the Spartans up 21-10.  Craig would come back into the game and made his presence known with a three pointer to cap the run and give USC Upstate a 26-12 lead.

The Ospreys would respond with a 7-0 mini spurt to cut the lead in half.   Moore hit two free throws to cap the spurt and the Spartans were only up seven, 28-21 with a little less than five minutes remaining in the half. Right before the half, an offensive foul was called on Ricardo Glenn for swinging his elbows while trying to execute a post move on an Osprey defender. The referees reviewed the replay and properly called a flagrant one, much to the dismay of the Spartans' fans.  USC Upstate would extend the lead back to double digits as they entered the half up 36-25.

During the half, my friend, Ian McCormick, who I consider the Jaden Daly of South Carolina Hoops, joined us at our seats.  When we got onto a discussion about the new NCAA foul rules, Ian, who keeps an extensive spreadsheet of all the games he attends (click on the "Basketball games" tab), noted that he has seen on average an increase of ten foul shots per game as opposed to last year.  Based on what I said earlier in the season, that will soon be an article for another day.

One team came out strong starting the second half and it was not the highest scoring team in A-Sun conference play.  The Spartans jumped on the Ospreys with a 14-5 spurt over the span of three and half minutes.  Craig and Ricardo Glenn, who had a double double in the win over South Carolina, each scored four points.   Ty Greene capped the run with a three pointer and USC Upstate had a commanding 49-30 lead.

Despite it only being about thirty seconds before the Under 16 media timeout,North Florida Head Coach Matthew Driscoll, desperate to try to stem the tide, called timeout which gave the Ospreys only one timeout remaining the rest of the game.  It didn't help much as the Spartans still had an eighteen point lead three minutes later.

During the Under 16 Media Timeout, a local restaurant chain, the Mellow Mushroom, had a promotion where if a student hit a half court shot, they would win a $50 gift card.  As Mark Buerger, a Lexington, Kentucky sports talk show host properly noted to me later on a reply tweet, they should have given her a free throw attempt for that kind of money, not a half court shot.  She made a good attempt, but she missed.

It took North Florida a little while, but they finally made a run on USC Upstate, outscoring them 10-1 over the span of four minutes.  A Moore jumper cut the lead to nine, 54-45 with nine and a half minutes left in the game.  But the Spartans would score the next four points to put the Spartans back up again by double digits.

North Florida would get no closer the rest of the way and USC Upstate would win convincingly, 71-60.  The Spartans held the A-Sun's highest scoring team in conference play to eighteen points under their average.   The Ospreys only shot thirty three percent from the field, including twenty five percent from two point field goal range.

Glenn led the way with a double double, sixteen points and eleven rebounds. Greene also had sixteen points, Craig added fifteen and Miller added eleven points off the bench.  The Ospreys shot nearly forty six percent from the field and had thirteen steals on the game.

Moore led all scorers with eighteen points.  Jalen Nesbitt came off the bench to add twelve points, but no other Ospreys scored in double figures.  The sixty points scored was the third lowest the Ospreys had been held to all season and the lowest in A-Sun conference play.  It shouldn't have come as much a surprise, given USC Upstate was second in the Atlantic Sun in field goal percentage defense at forty percent.

After the game, we walked out with Ian.  Ian was heading up to Davidson, which was not far from where we were in Spartanburg.  Much as I wanted to join him, Matthew wanted to get back home so we could go join my wife and younger son in seeing the movie "The Nut Job", which the kids had fun watching last night.

Ian had told me earlier this season to catch a game at USC Upstate.  After thoroughly enjoying myself in the cozy confines of the Hodge Center, I came away impressed.  As I noted, it reminds me a lot of the Spiro Center and other small NEC and America East gyms I have attended, but with some nice touches like seat backs.

Rest assured, I will definitely attend another game at the Hodge Center in the near future.

Gamecocks' Struggles Continue (Recap of USC Upstate vs. South Carolina)

After their eighteen point loss to Manhattan at home Tuesday night, which was their second double digit loss in a row, you thought things could not get worse for South Carolina.  Then yesterday afternoon, word came out that Michael Carrera was suspended for the afternoon game vs. USC Upstate, due to a "post-game altercation".  Carrera had just finally got going for the Gamecocks, scoring ten points in the second half vs. the Jaspers.  The Carrera suspension turned out to be a harbinger for the game against the Spartans.

South Carolina definitely knew their opponent was capable of winning on the road.  USC Upstate won their first game of the season at Virginia Tech 64-63.  The 5-5 Spartans also had neutral site wins over Niagara and Western Carolina.  They lost only by nine points at Tennessee.  Plus the Spartans had three players that averaged in double figures; Torrey Craig, Ty Greene and Ricardo Glenn, who combined average nearly forty five points and fifteen rebounds per game.

Perhaps Frank Martin thought his team might better respond to the Manhattan loss if they were the road team. So he had his Gamecocks dress in road black while USC Upstate wore the home whites.

The road uniforms did not bring any luck early in the contest as it seemed that there was a giant lid on both baskets.  After six plus minutes, USC Upstate was only up 5-4.   Each team missed on nine of their first eleven shots.   The Gamecocks also had three turnovers in the span of forty seconds.

Finally, South Carolina got going on a three pointer by Sindarius Thornwell.  It was the start of a 13-1 run for the Gamecocks.  A Laimonas Chatkevicius tip in put South Carolina up 17-6.  During that stretch, Chatkevicius, Thornwell and Duane Notice combined for all thirteen points.

After a couple of Craig free throws cut the lead to nine, the Gamecocks responded with another spurt.  South Carolina buried three shots from beyond the arc in a five and a half minute period, with Brenton Williams hitting two three pointers.  Mindaugas Kacinas hit one of two free throws to cap the 16-8 run as the Gamecocks went up 33-16 with 4:51 left in the half.

Just then I was about to type the following tweet on @gmoore21566 - "I know USC Upstate won at Virginia Tech.  But based on the first 15 minutes, I cannot see how they did."   And it was due in large part to the Spartans horrible shot selection.   Greene, the Spartans' second leading scorer missed all four of his three point attempts.  Craig was taking wild shots, which obviously were also not falling.

But still I thought better of sending the tweet because a) basketball is a game of runs and b) South Carolina has shown a propensity to go into a major scoring funk and give up early leads (see Manhattan).

I was so glad I held off on that tweet.   Over the last four minutes, the Spartans went on a 17-4 run.  Ricardo Glenn was getting easy looks inside for layups while Craig, Fred Miller and Karim Mawuenyega nailed three pointers.   Meanwhile, the Gamecocks missed nine of their eleven shots during that period of time and Thornwell added two turnovers to boot.  South Carolina stumbled to the half only up four, 37-33.

There were two underlying problems brewing for the Gamecocks at halftime.  First, the South Carolina bigs had foul trouble. Desmond Ringer and Demetrius Henry each picked up two quick fouls and Chatkevicius picked up three fouls.  With Carrera already out, the Gamecocks had only one forward not in foul trouble, Kacinas and he was the smallest of all their forwards.

Second, the Spartans were only down four, despite not getting any production from their second leading scorer.  Greene, who came into the game averaging fifteen points per game, was scoreless in the first twenty minutes.  Glenn, who had ten first half points and Craig with nine, made up for the lack of production from Greene, who seemingly graduated from the John Starks School of Shooting ("If you miss several times, no matter how ugly, keep on shooting").

The Gamecocks started out well in the second half with Ellington burying a three to put his team up seven.  Later, Tyrone Johnson added two free throws to extend the South Carolina lead to eight, 42-34 with fifteen minutes left in the game.  It looked like that maybe Frank Martin's team had weathered the Spartans' big run.

But then in the span of minute, Henry picked up two fouls, giving him four on the game.  Then Ringer, who had already picked up his third foul two minutes into the second half,  picked up his fourth foul with a little under thirteen minutes left. Chatkevicius would pick up his fourth foul four minutes later.  Outside of Kacinas, the whole Gamecock front court was in serious foul trouble.

And the Spartans took advantage, going on a 12-3 run over the next four minutes.  Greene started the scoring, hitting his first basket of the game, a three pointer.  The rest of the USC Upstate points were scored on layups.  A ShunQuez Stephens layup put the Spartans up 46-45.

The Gamecocks regained the lead on a Thornwell jumper, then two Johnson free throws put them up three, 49-46.  The Spartans answered with a Mawuenyega three and a free throw each by Miller and Stephens to go up 51-49.  Williams and Thornwell responded with three free throws and the Gamecocks were back up one, 52-51 with seven and a half minutes left.

But the Spartans three leading scorers on the season, Craig, Greene and Glenn would combine forces to put the game away for USC Upstate.  Glenn, having his way inside with all the Gamecock foul trouble, hit a layup to put the Spartans up to stay, 53-52.  It was the start of a 10-2 spurt that ended with an emphatic Craig putback dunk with a little under five minutes left to give USC Upstate a 61-54 lead.

The Gamecocks tried to rally, cutting the deficit to two, 63-61 on an Ellington three pointer with a little over three minutes left.  But Greene responded with a three pointer of his own to put the Spartans up five.  After Thornwell hit another jumper to cut the lead to three, the Gamecocks forced a turnover.  With a chance to tie the game, Ellington missed an open corner three.

The Spartans would not score on their next possession and two Johnson free throws got the lead down to one, 66-65 with 1:21 left.  But the Gamecocks again could not stop the Spartans from scoring inside.  Miller hit a layup and one, then hit the foul shot to put USC Upstate up four, 69-65.   The Gamecocks had three chances to cut into the Spartans lead, but they missed on all three of their shots behind the arc.

When Miller broke free on an inbounds play for a dunk, that sealed the game for USC Upstate, who went on to win 74-68 to give the Gamecocks their second home non-conference loss in a row.  The Gamecocks only lost one non conference home game all last season.

Glenn was a force inside for the Spartans.  He had a double double, scoring 21 points, grabbing 14 rebounds and added five assists.  He shot eight of twelve from the floor as the Gamecocks had no answer for him.  Craig added thirteen points. Miller and Greene each had ten points, with all of Greene's points coming in the second half.

Thornwell led the Gamecocks with nineteen points, Johnson added eleven and Ellington and Williams each had eight points.  The four players combined to shoot an ugly 14 of 46, including 7 of 27 from beyond the arc. South Carolina shot thirty three percent from the field and also committed twenty four fouls, two days after committing twenty three fouls vs. Manhattan.

My friend Ian McCormick, known as HPUFAN on Twitter, sat with me during the second half.  He appropriately tweeted  in the second half  "If you can't handle Upstate's big men, just wait for SEC play."  And that summed up the game yesterday.  The Gamecocks big men could not handle Glenn, who coming into yesterday's contest had only been averaging six rebounds per game.

Having watched Martin's team the past two seasons, the Gamecocks remind me somewhat of Tom Pecora's team in his second season at Hofstra.  His Hofstra teams went a combined 19-40 and in fact he had less wins in his second season, eight, than his first, eleven.  But it was a young team and in his third season, the turnaround began with fourteen wins and an above .500 record in conference. Then in the next three seasons, Hofstra won a combined sixty nine games and made three straight NITs.

Of course the ultimate goal is to make the NCAA Tournament, not the NIT.  But the main goal is to turn the program around.  Dawn Staley's teams won a combined twenty four games the first two seasons.  Look at where the Gamecock Women's Basketball team is now.

Martin and the Gamecock fan base will need to be patient.  As John Hiatt might say, sometimes it's "A slow turnin.  But you come about."