Better Scoring Balance, Better Results for Gamecocks (Recap of Florida International vs. South Carolina Game)

Coming off consecutive road losses to Baylor, 66-64 and Clemson, 71-57, South Carolina was looking to rebound with some home cooking when they hosted Florida International on Sunday afternoon.  In each of the losses to the Bears and the Tigers, the Gamecocks had only two players score in double figures. In the loss vs. Baylor, Sindarius Thornwell had 20 points and Brenton Williams added 12 points.  In the loss vs. Clemson, Mindaugas Kacinas had 13 and Thornwell added 10 points.

In 1970, the Moody Blues released the album "Question of Balance", which includes one of my all time favorite songs, "Question".  However, I don't think Justin Hayward, John Lodge and the other band members had balanced college basketball scoring in mind when they released the album forty three years ago.  But the album title is appropriate for the Gamecocks, in which the past season and the recent two games against Baylor and Clemson have highlighted a common problem; a lack of balanced double figures scoring.

Last season, only one player, Brenton Williams, averaged double figures in scoring for the entire season.  The lack of balanced scoring resulted in the Gamecocks averaging 66 points per game, which was eighth in the SEC in 2012-13.  However, when you are twelfth in the SEC in scoring defense at 68.9 points per game, you're not going to win many games in conference.  And thus, the Gamecocks only won four games in the SEC all season.

This season, the Gamecocks returned fifty two percent of their scoring, but that was really only five players - Williams, Kacinas, Michael Carrera, Bruce Ellington and Laimonas Chatkevicius.  So it was very important that the eight new players recruited by Coach Frank Martin would bring some much needed scoring punch, along with Martin's trademark defense from his days at Kansas State.  But after three games, the Gamecocks only had two players in double figures scoring - Tyrone Johnson and Thornwell.  And South Carolina as a whole was averaging 68 points per game.  In other words, once again the Gamecocks had a "Question of Balance".

South Carolina was hosting a Florida International team that had won six straight games after losing its first two games.   The Golden Panthers had a very interesting off season, as their coach Richard Pitino left to take the Minnesota Gophers head coaching position.  Pitino tried to take a few FIU players with him.  Malik Smith, who as a junior averaged fourteen points per game was allowed to transfer to Minnesota, due to FIU being banned from postseason play this season due to a poor APR under previous head coach Isaiah Thomas (as you can see Thomas not only damaged the Knicks, but the Golden Panthers as well).  However, forward Rakeem Buckles was not allow to transfer to Minnesota, as Florida International denied his transfer request.

Florida International hired Anthony Evans, formerly the coach of Norfolk State (and known for their famous upset of Missouri in the 2012 NCAA Tournament) to replace Pitino.  And Evans already had his own crisis to deal with as guard Raymond Taylor was not available to play against the Gamecocks due to a question of his eligibility after pulling out of the past NBA draft.

The announced crowd of 9,869 saw the Gamecocks take an early 7-3 lead as Kacinas and Demetrius Henry combined for all seven points.   But the Golden Panthers responded with Buckles scoring seven of the first eleven FIU points.  A Buckles jumper gave the Golden Panthers an 11-9 lead.

But one of the new players Martin brought in to help add scoring, freshman guard Jaylen Shaw, highlighted the Gamecocks' new three point shooting prowess.  Shaw buried two three pointers in a row, then later, Johnson and Williams added three pointers to put the Gamecocks up 23-19.

The Golden Panthers answered with a 10-2 run, with Marco Porcher Jiminez scoring six of their points.  FIU was back up 29-25 with 7:56 left in the half.   The Gamecocks, who were last in the SEC last season in FG percentage defense at 45.2 percent, allowed the Golden Panthers to hit on ten of their first fourteen shots.

FIU was still up four, 31-27 with less than six minutes left in the half when South Carolina went on a 12-4 spurt, which included two three pointers by Shaw and Carrera.  The Gamecocks were back up 39-35 with 1:44 left in the half.  But the Golden Panthers scored the last seven points in the half, five by forward Tymell Murphy.   FIU led at halftime 42-39.

The second half started with Florida International actually extending their lead to their largest of the game, five, 44-39 on two Jerome Frink free throws.  South Carolina would score the next six points, the last of which came on a Kacinas layup to put the Gamecocks back in front, 45-44.  However, the Golden Panthers would regain the lead twice over the next four minutes, leading 51-49 with thirteen minutes left in the game.

From there, South Carolina would take command, outscoring Florida International 12-4 over the next three minutes, as Shaw and Williams both buried three pointers in the run.  Williams' three pointer made the score 61-55 with ten minutes left in the game.  The Golden Panthers would hang around however, as Dominique Williams and Murphy each hit three pointers to cut the deficit to two, 63-61 with eight and a half minutes left.

But FIU would not get any closer.  The Gamecocks clamped down on the Golden Panthers, as FIU would not score a field goal for more than six and a half minutes and only scored thirty points in the entire second half.  By the time Florida International finally scored on a basket by Jiminez, the score was 69-65 South Carolina with 1:53 left in the game.  The Gamecocks would hit thirteen of fifteen free throws the rest of the way and Thornwell ended the scoring with an emphatic dunk as South Carolina would win 84-72.

The Gamecocks shot fifty percent from the field, including eight of nineteen from beyond the arc.  The key was South Carolina had four players in double figures scoring.  Johnson led USC with eighteen points, while Shaw and Williams each had sixteen points, with Shaw hitting four three pointers.  Henry added fourteen points for the Gamecocks.  Kacinas nearly had a double double with nine points and nine rebounds.  FIU also had four scorers in double figures as Murphy led all scorers with 22 points, Jiminez added 15, Buckles had 11 and Dennis Maven added 10 points.

For one afternoon, at least scoring wise, the Gamecocks had no question of balance. The only question now is whether a relatively young South Carolina team can be consistent in their play with a long way left in the season.

As far as a Moody Blues album title that covers that, well there is  "Long Distance Voyager".

Quick Observations

Some quick observations from the past few days.

• If you didn't watch the last few minutes of the UConn-Indiana 2K Sports Classic Championship game from last night, get the WatchESPN app and watch the replay.   You had a ludicrous number of lead changes, a late game turnover, an even later in the game offensive foul, a last second out of bounds play and Tom Crean at a "lunatic fringe" moment.  Must see TV and definitely more excitement at MSG than any Knicks game this season.
• Thursday evening, VCU got hammered by Florida State.  I don't know what was the bigger deal, the Rams losing to an athletic Seminoles team or that Dan Dakich actually fanned the flames of a Twitter war by going after "Around the Horns", a Rams blogger, for taking umbrage to Dakich's comment that the Rams were "tired".  If you're on Twitter, track down Dakich's tweets. Dakich, to make matters worse, actually commented on the Twitter war during the ESPN broadcast of VCU's win last night over Long Beach.
• And yes, I watched both the first half and part of the second half of the Thursday night VCU - Florida State game and the second half of the VCU-Long Beach State game last night, where Dakich referred to his Twitter war with the VCU fan base.  First, from what I saw of the Seminoles-Rams game, I don't think VCU was tired.  They forced twenty five turnovers on the Seminoles.  The Rams just couldn't hit the side of a barn on offense, shooting twenty nine percent on twenty one more attempts than the Seminoles.  Second, Dakich should have just let the VCU fans base comments go.  There was no need to bring it up last night.
• Finally, there is no better defensive player in the country and I mean no better defensive player in the country than VCU's Briante Weber.  He is so fun to watch on defense and such quick hands.
• Hopefully UAB learned a valuable lesson about being up three points late in a game.  In their first round Charleston Classic game vs. New Mexico, the Blazers were up three late with the shot clock off in regulation and in the first overtime.  Both times they didn't foul the shooter.  Both times, the Lobos hit a three.  The Lobos won in double overtime.   Moral of the story, late in the game, last possession, up three, shot clock off, when on defense, foul a player before they are in the act of shooting a three.
• North Carolina Central won a huge game at North Carolina State, winning in overtime at Raleigh.  Now living in SEC/ACC country, I watched the second half and the overtime period. The Eagles definitely outplayed the Wolfpack, especially in that overtime period.  But it should have never got to the overtime period.   Up three on defense with three seconds left in the game, two Eagles' defenders inexplicably converged on Wolfpack guard Anthony Barber, who was driving to the basket. Barber, of course, kicked it out to an open Patrick Wallace, who buried a three pointer to tie the game.   The Eagles could have of course fouled Barber, or better yet just let him take the layup.  Thankfully NC Central recovered by scoring the first eleven points in overtime, winning 82-72.  By the way, keep an eye on Eagles guard Jeremy Ingram. Averaging twenty eight points per game on the season and he put twenty nine on the Wolfpack.
• I was following the Seton Hall-Oklahoma game on Twitter last night.  The Pirates squandered a six point lead in the last minute of the game, losing to the Sooners 96-95 in Brooklyn.  All I could think of was whether Reggie Miller had suited up for Oklahoma last night. Yes, fellow Knicks fans, that's two digs in one blog post.
• Zeke Upshaw scored a career high thirty seven points and had nine rebounds for Hofstra in an overtime loss at Richmond.  Upshaw, a graduate student who played his first three seasons at Illinois State, is averaging twenty points per game for the Pride.   Upshaw is averaging twenty eight minutes per game, four times his average in his third year at Illinois State.  His career high in scoring prior to this season was eleven points vs. Creighton.  Upshaw is further proof that if you give a player the right system, he can flourish.

Old Friends, New Homes (Recap of Seton Hall vs. South Carolina Women's Basketball Game)

In August of 2012, I accepted a position at the University of South Carolina School of Law.  After forty six plus years of living on Long Island, I made the biggest move of my life and left for Columbia, South Carolina. It's only been fifteen months, but my family and I are truly happy here. It was a move that worked out for the best.

In late March of this year, Tony Bozzella accepted the Women's Head Basketball Coach position at Seton Hall.  In Coach Bozzella's case, he was coming back home to his alma mater after eleven seasons at Iona.  It was while at Seton Hall that he first started his coaching career as the head coach of St. Mary's High School, now known as Cardinal McCarrick, in South Amboy, New Jersey.  But that was not the most important part of his undergraduate years at Seton Hall.    The most important part was meeting there his future wife, Maria, who is also a Seton Hall graduate.

For Coach Bozzella, Seton Hall is just another in the list of reclamation projects he has overseen in his twenty one years as a head coach.   His first job was SUNY Southampton, where he took a perennial doormat ECAC team and took them to six straight winning seasons.  Then he received his first Division I head coaching position at LIU Brooklyn.  In his very first season there, he guided the Blackbirds to their first ever NEC Tournament Championship and their only ever NCAA Tournament appearance.  In his second and final season, he took LIU Brooklyn to the championship game before losing to St. Francis PA.

Then he took the head coaching position at Iona College.  Over his eleven seasons there, he led Iona in 2005-06 to their first ever winning season in twenty three years. In 2006-07, he guided Iona to their first ever postseason appearance, a WNIT bid.  He would take the Gaels to three more WNIT appearances and in his last seven seasons with Iona, the Gaels had an 85-56 MAAC conference record.

Bozzella has always had a sense of family and loyalty as far as his coaching staff.   His Iona coaching staff has been made up over the years of former players for Southampton, LIU Brooklyn and Iona.  His Seton Hall coaching staff is no exception.  Lauren DeFalco, a former star guard at Iona, Melissa Flagg, another former starting Iona Gael guard and Timothy Gardner served as assistants for him at Iona.

When I found out that Coach Bozzella's Pirates were going to be in Columbia to face the Gamecocks on November 17, it was the genesis of what turned out to be a  three day sports weekend for our group of friends.  As I noted in my previous post, my friends Mal and Tieff flew down Friday morning and we spent Friday night in Charleston watching UNC Asheville defeat the College of Charleston in overtime.  We were then joined on Saturday by our friend Den Bashuk and his friend Neal to watch SEC Football as South Carolina rallied at home to defeat Florida.

Sunday was not only a big day for my friends, but for me personally.  November 17 also happened to be my younger son Jonathan's sixth birthday.  He woke up about 7:00 AM and not too long after, we were opening his birthday presents.  Later, my entire family met up with my friends for brunch at Liberty Tap House and then we made our way to Colonial Life Arena.  Once there, we joined up with Maria and the rest of the Bozzella family, Samantha and Joseph and caught up on old times.

Seton Hall had won their first three games, the latest being an impressive 78-61 win over Weber State last Friday night.  However, on Sunday the Pirates were missing three of their starters - Bra'Shey Ali, Alexis Brown and Sidney Cook, all due to injuries.  They were facing the #21 team in the country in Dawn Staley's  3-0 Gamecocks on their home court, a tall order even for a fully healthy team.

South Carolina started the scoring on two free throws by Elem Ibiam, as Gamecocks shooting free throws would be a consistent story line throughout the game.  However in another consistent story line, Tabatha Richardson-Smith buried a three pointer to put Seton Hall up one.  Two free throws by forward Tiffany Webb would put the Pirates up three, 7-4.

South Carolina responded with two free throws by Khadijah Sessions, another free throw by freshman sensation Alaina Coates and a three point play by Ibiam to go up 10-7.  Seton Hall would answer as Richardson Smith would tie the game at thirteen with another three pointer.  Then after Aleighsa Welch would put the Gamecocks ahead again with another free throw, Ka-Deidre Simmons hit a jumper to put the Pirates back up one, 15-14.  Simmons would hit another jumper to give Seton Hall an 18-16 lead.

However, the foul toll was mounting on short handed Seton Hall.  In barely a little more than ten minutes, the Pirates had fourteen fouls. Janee Johnson already had three fouls with 10:45 left in the first half.  Bozzella, who was only dressing nine players, used his entire bench in the first half, basically out of necessity.

And yet not only did the Pirates hang in there against the talented, taller Gamecocks, they actually rallied from a late six point first half deficit with 7-0 mini spurt, capped by another basket by Richardson-Smith to put Seton Hall up 39-38 with about a minute left.  Asia Dozier would answer for South Carolina with a three pointer to put the Gamecocks up two.  Simmons missed on a jumper at the buzzer but the Pirates were only down two, 41-39 at the half.

Seton Hall actually hit six more shots on fourteen more attempts in the first half than the Gamecocks including five of nine from beyond the arc. But the Gamecocks went to the line in the first half more than most teams do in a game with twenty seven attempts.  South Carolina hit on twenty one of those free throw attempts, seventeen more than Seton Hall (four of five from the line).

During halftime of South Carolina Women's Basketball games, kids can dance with Cocky on the court. Jonathan had a chance to celebrate his birthday by dancing as well.  He decided he didn't want to go out there.  Then I found out why; he was tired from being up early that morning.  A short while later, he was asleep in his seat.

At the beginning of the second half, Dozier picked up right where she left off with another three pointer. It would start a 16-4 run, culminated by two Tiffany Mitchell three pointers and a Sessions layup to put the Gamecocks up 57-43 with 14:23 left in the game. It looked like the Hall was about to be blown out of Colonial Life Arena.

But the Pirates refused to quit and came back with a 10-4 spurt.  Richardson-Smith would score another five points and a Simmons layup would cut the South Carolina lead to eight, 61-53 with eleven minutes left.  Seton Hall was only down ten, 64-54 with ten minutes left.

But the Gamecocks size and post play was too much for the Pirates.  After Seton Hall was still within eleven, 72-61 with about six and a half minutes left,  Ibiam went to work.  She would score the next seven Gamecocks points, on three short jumpers in the post and a free throw.  It would swell to an eventual 12-2 run that put South Carolina up 84-63.  The Gamecocks would go onto win 88-67.

The Gamecocks shot an impressive nearly seventy four percent from the field in the second half, hitting seventeen of twenty three shots.  The Pirates actually had as many field goals, twenty six and as many three pointers, six, as the Gamecocks.  However, South Carolina had twenty one more free throws than Seton Hall and that was the difference in the game.  

As the game was ending, I heard Coach Bozzella turn to his bench and say "Good Effort".  Considering he was missing three starters, his team was only down two points at the half and were only down ten with ten minutes left, it was a good effort.  The Gamecocks were just too strong in the paint for the shorthanded Pirates, who only committed eight turnovers on the game (South Carolina only committed eleven turnovers).

The Gamecocks had five players in double figures in scoring.  Ibiam led the way with eighteen points, Sessions added seventeen, while Welch and Mitchell each had fifteen and Coates added ten points. Richardson-Smith led Seton Hall and all scorers with twenty four points while Simmons added nineteen.

We said our goodbyes to Maria, Samantha and Joseph, along with Mal and Tieff.  We couldn't stay because Jonathan wanted to have his birthday dinner at his favorite place...McDonalds (hey, he is only six).  Plus I knew I would see them again later next month when they play at St John's during our Christmas in New York vacation.

It was good to see an old friend who was able to go back home to his alma mater.  For Tony Bozzella, considering his track record, it will be for the best too.

A Night in Charleston (Recap of UNC Asheville vs. College of Charleston)

In November 2008, my friend Tony Terentieff and I took a trip down to Charleston to see Hofstra play in the inaugural Charleston Classic.  I quickly fell in love with a city full of history, culture, character, wonderful southern architecture and of course, terrific food.  It was truly one of the best vacations in my life.

When I accepted a position at the University of South Carolina School of Law in August 2012, one of the things I quickly looked forward to was being able to go every so often to Charleston.  Last basketball season, I was able to see Towson play College of Charleston, but due to time constraints, I didn't have much of a chance to enjoy one of my favorite cities.

However, late this summer, I brought my family to visit Charleston for an overnight trip.  My wife and my kids immensely enjoyed this city by the water, as we took in the Aquarium, visited a plantation (with a swamp full of alligators!) and walked through Waterfront Park, The Battery and went by many historic homes.  My family quickly became fond of the second largest city in South Carolina.

When my friend, Tony Bozzella, became head coach of the Seton Hall women's basketball team, he let us know that they were playing at South Carolina on Sunday, November 17.   It also happens to be the weekend of South Carolina hosting Florida in football.   So, a group of us put plans in motion for a weekend of sports, circled around seeing our good friend, Coach Bozzella.  It was also a reunion of my Hofstra basketball trio as I would get to see Tieff and Mal.

The original plan for the sports weekend was for Mal and Tieff to fly down on Friday morning and I would show them around Columbia.  But it just so happened that the College of Charleston was hosting UNC Asheville last night.  So I had a better plan;  a night of hoops in "The Holy City".

After picking them up at Charlotte airport, I drove them back to my house here in Forest Acres, a town inside Columbia.   We then had a tasty lunch of South Carolina barbecue at my home. Afterwards, I took Mal and Tieff to check into their hotel.  Then we made the now familiar two hour drive down to "America's Most Friendly City" (as noted by Conde Nast Traveler).  

I parked in the same garage by the downtown Hampton Inn that we used for my family trip in late summer and made our way through the streets of Charleston.  After a quick dinner at a local establishment, we headed out to what my Google Maps thought where the arena was located.  We quickly realized that it was not the right direction, so thanks to a couple of helpful, female College of Charleston students, which once again proved that Charleston is "the most polite and hospitable city in America", we got to TD Arena fifteen minutes before game time.

The John Kresse Court at TD arena is nestled into the heart of the College of Charleston campus.  It opened in November of 2008 and seats 5,100 people.  The TD Arena will be hosting its sixth Charleston Classic on November 21.   The Cougars will be one of the eight teams in the tournament.  Strangely, this only the third time that the College of Charleston will have played in the tournament on its home court.  The Cougars played in the first Charleston Classic and in last season's tournament.

It was a good crowd for a drizzly Friday night.  Tieff was hoping that there was no rain this time, unlike 2008.  During the first day of action in the brand new arena, it was raining in Charleston.  And the TD Arena roof had its first leak.  It just so happened the leak was right above where Tieff was sitting and sure enough, TD Arena, sort of speak, christened Tieff.

There was one difference between last night and the previous times I had seen the College of Charleston play on John Kresse Court.  That was the CAA logo at both baskets.  The Cougars just joined the Colonial Athletic Association this fall after years of being in the Southern Conference.

Early in this college basketball season, so much has been made of the impact of freshmen like Duke's Jabari Parker, Kansas' Andrew Wiggins and Kentucky's Julius Randle.  But its not just the big name schools that have impact freshman.   UNC Asheville and College of Charleston each have a freshman leading their team in scoring.   The Bulldogs have guard Andrew Rowsey, who came into the game averaging 18 points per game. The Cougars have Rick Barry's son, Canyon Barry.  Canyon put up 36 points in a win over Charlotte.

From the outset, both freshmen made their presence known on the court.  Barry hit a layup to give Charleston a 2-0 lead.  It would be the only lead the Cougars would have for the next thirty plus minutes of game action.  After D.J Cunningham, otherwise known as "Mr. C" the rest of the night (Google it), tipped in a rebound to tie the game at two, Rowsey went to work.  He assisted on a layup, then buried a three pointer and then hit another jumper to put UNC Asheville up 9-4.  A little bit later, Rowsey hit a layup and then buried another three pointer to extend the Bulldogs lead to ten, 16-6.

After the Bulldogs went up by 13, 21-8 with about nine minutes left in the half, Barry went to work.  He would score eleven of the Cougars next thirteen points with an array of three pointers, layups, dunks and of course, trademark Rick Barry underhanded free throws.  The kicker was that entering the game, Barry was only one of seven from the free throw line.  Tieff and Mal believed that Barry had been shooting his free throws overhand in those two games and that his Dad called him to say "Us Barrys shoot their free throws underhand, son.".  Barry would go six of six shooting underhand free throws on the night.

But despite Barry's scoring prowess, the UNC Asheville lead would continue to grow.  The Bulldogs were up 31-17 with two and a half minutes to go in the half.  This was a result of largely two things.  One, Rowsey creating offense either with a long three pointer or in one case, driving to the basket, then using an old school, rec league ball fake that resulted in a defender jumping up, leaving his man open for an easy layup. The other was "Mr. C" constantly getting post feeds and backing into his man for easy post shots.  Time after time, Cunningham was able to get an open look and there were no Cougars helping out to double team the six foot ten senior center.

Meanwhile, outside of Barry, the Cougars struggled on offense.  They only shot 8 of 29 from the field in the first half and if they weren't missing a shot, Cunningham or the Bulldogs' Jaleel Roberts were blocking them.  Cunningham had six blocks in the game and Roberts added three of his own.   UNC Asheville went into the locker room up 31-21 at half.

The College of Charleston needed to change things up to start the second half.  And the Cougars' Athletics Staff  provided the student section with the necessary arsenal to distract the Bulldogs' free throw shooters; inflatable props, consisting of palm trees, blue whales, bricks and turtles.  I think the props distracted the students more than it did the free throw shooters.  Still, it was a neat touch.

Through the first three minutes of the second half, UNC Asheville maintained a double digit lead, 37-26.  Then a Barry three pointer ignited a 16-2 run, capped on layup by Joe Chealey, another talented Cougars' freshman.   College of Charleston had its first lead, 42-39, since ninety seconds into the start of the game.

Rowsey would answer with four straight points, his first points since seven minutes left in the first half and the Bulldogs went back up 43-42.  Chealey would respond with a three pointer to put the Cougars back up two, 45-43 with ten minutes left.

It was then that Bulldogs' senior Jaron Lane offensively got on track.  Lane, a redshirt senior due to an ankle injury last season and who averaged 11.5 points per game in 2011-12, had a horrible first half as he went 0 for 6 from the field, missing badly on all of his three point attempts. In fact, Lane had missed on his first seven three pointers of the season.  But over the span of nearly six minutes, Lane accounted for nine of the next eleven points UNC Asheville scored, including a three pointer that put the Bulldogs up 54-49 with 3:20 left in the game.

The Bulldogs looked like they were going onto victory as the Cougars had not hit a field goal since eight and a half minutes left in the second half.   But some teams can't stand prosperity and the Bulldogs went away from their Rowsey dribble drive/Cunningham post game and went into a stall, with either Rowsey or Corey Littlejohn dribbling at the top of the key and Cunningham all the way over into a corner.  Their possessions ended up in badly taken shots, or in the case of Lane, a turnover.

As a result, UNC Asheville would not score another point the rest of the second half.   However, the College of Charleston barely took advantage.  First, Anthony Thomas hit a jumper to cut the lead to three, 54-51.  After missing on two consecutive possessions, the third time was the charge as Chealey setup Willis Hall nicely for a game tying three pointer with thirty five seconds left in the game.   The Bulldogs failed to score on their last possession and the game went into overtime tied at fifty four.

In the overtime period, the Bulldogs went back to the offense they unwisely had abandoned late in the second half.   On post plays, Cunningham, sorry, Mr. C hit two consecutive jumpers to put UNC Asheville up 58-54.  Adjehl Baru, who had a double of twelve points and thirteen rebounds, hit a jumper of his own to cut the Bulldogs lead to two, 58-56.  But on the next Cougars' possession, Baru missed a possible game tying jumper.  Rowsey responded with a jumper to put UNC Asheville back up four, 60-56.

As was the case for most of the game, the Cougars were ice cold from the floor down the stretch and Chealey and Thomas both missed easy layups that could have cut the deficit to two points.  From there, the Bulldogs iced the game hitting seven of eight free throws.  Meanwhile, Chealey had the last two points for the Cougars, but missed on two shots to end the game.  The Bulldogs got their first win of the season, a hard fought 67-58 overtime win.

The Bulldogs shot forty six percent from the field and fourteen of fifteen from the charity stripe.  Rowsey led all scorers with twenty three points on eight of eleven shooting from the field, including three of six from beyond the arc.  Lane scored thirteen points after the first twenty minutes.  Mr. C had a double double of twelve points and ten rebounds to go with his six blocks.

The Cougars had eighteen more field goal attempts than the Bulldogs, due to only six turnovers and forcing fourteen Bulldogs' turnovers.  Yet Charleston hit two less shots than UNC Asheville (22 to 24).  The Cougars were also a frigid five of twenty seven from beyond the arc.  Barry led Charleston with eighteen points, but he was only five of seventeen from the field, including two of nine from beyond the arc.  Baru had his double double and Chealey added ten points.

We said goodbye to "The Holy City" and made the two hour trip back to Mal and Tieff's hotel in downtown, Columbia.  Day one of our sports weekend was complete.  Day two is just beginning.

A Good Start to a New Season for the Gamecocks

Saturdays have been busy for me since February of this year.  With very few exceptions, my Saturdays have revolved around baseball with two sons, both of whom I coach, playing Little League.  In the past ten months, Saturday mornings consisted either of a game or practice in our spring Trenholm Little League, a summer YMCA game or a fall doubleheader of practice (first teeball, then Minors). Yesterday was no exception, as our minors team likely had its last practice going into this Monday night's championship game.

But for the first time since the beginning of March, this was different.  Live college basketball was back on the agenda.  And for the first time all year, my son and I left a baseball practice early.  I left my co-head coach and my assistant coach in charge as Matthew and I quickly headed home, changed and headed into Columbia for the Longwood - South Carolina game.  As I told Matt, we were "Back in the saddle again".

Just like us and many other fans, South Carolina Head Coach Frank Martin was looking forward to the start of a new college basketball season.  Last season, the Gamecocks were 14-18 in his first season in Columbia, which was a four win improvement from the season before.  But for a coach like Martin, who never had a losing season and never missed the postseason in his five years at Kansas State (four NCAA tournaments and one NIT), last season must have seemed an eternity.

But Martin was hard at work in his first season and off-season to get back on the winning track in his second season.  He brought in seven blue chip freshman and one outstanding transfer, Tyrone Johnson from Villanova to go along with his returning nucleus.  Saturday was the debut for this new team.

Matthew and I got to Colonial Life Arena about 45 minutes before game time.  In the parking lot, Matthew was trying to figure out how many games he has gone to since the 2010-11 season.  He thought it was about one hundred.  It's more likely near fifty, but I let his imagination run wild.  After we got our game programs from one of the pretty Gamecock Dance team members stationed at the top of the stairs, unlike last season, I decided to get a Gamecock Yearbook so I could get a background on the each of the new players for South Carolina.

We made our way to our seats and watched the Gamecocks practice on the court.  I took a picture of Matthew and a little later I realized how much he has grown since the boy who first went to a basketball game with me on my birthday in February 2011, the famous Hofstra - William and Mary overtime game that got him hooked on college basketball.   Things have changed so much in the two and half years since that game.  We were now seven hundred and fifty miles away in another state, in a new home, but we still made time together for college basketball.

As the game was about to start, I tweeted on how sparse the crowd was at Colonial Life.  It did not seem like the later announced attendance of 8,536.  It seemed much less than that, though in an 18,000 seat arena, eight thousand people can seem very sparse.  To be fair to Coach Martin, game time was on an early Saturday afternoon in November in SEC football country against a team that is just entering its tenth season of Division I basketball.

The Longwood Lancers joined Division I in the 2004-05 season.  In that first season, the Lancers went 1-30, with their lone win at home over Howard.   The Lancers have had only one winning season; they went 17-14 in the 2008-09 season.   It was only last season that the Lancers finally had a true conference affiliation as a member of the Big South.  They went 8-25 and 4-12 last season, though their highlight of the season was a First Round Big South Tournament upset of two time defending champion UNC Asheville and Keith Hornsby (Bruce Hornsby's son).

One of the biggest problems for the Gamecocks last season was a lack of scoring options.  Brenton Williams was the only player to play a full season and average over double figures in scoring per game (11.7), though Michael Carrera and Bruce Ellington almost averaged ten points per game (each averaged 9.9).   With the additions of star recruits like Sindarius Thornwell, Justin McKie, Duane Notice and the transfer Johnson, the hope is that there will be a lot more scoring that the sixty six points per game the Gamecocks struggle to average last season.

Strangely at tipoff, none of those three players were starting yesterday.  Of course Ellington was not there, being a star wide receiver for the football team that has a chance to play for a BCS game. But neither Carrera or Williams were starting either as Martin decided to start three freshman - Thornwell, Demetrius Henry and Dwayne Notice, along with Johnson and a returning member from last season, Mindaugas Kacinas.

Nearly three minutes into the start of the game, it seemed like things hadn't changed at all from last season.  Despite playing lock down defense, the Gamecocks were struggling to score, leading only 3-0 with about four and a half minutes into the game.  The fans near me in my section were starting to get frustrated at the Gamecocks, who were shooting 1 of 9 from the field at the time.

But then Williams and Carrera entered the game.  Both bring energy, along with scoring and Carrera's passion and infectious smile light up a crowd as well as the team.  South Carolina went on a 15-4 run, with Carrera and Williams combining for thirteen of the points.  The Gamecocks were up 18-4 with eleven minutes left in the half.

Longwood would make its one run of the game, a 7-0 spurt that cut the Carolina lead to 18-11 with 5:44 left in the half.  Frustrated, Martin called timeout.  Whatever he said to his team in the timeout worked.  The Gamecocks would end the half on a 19-4 run, punctuated by two three pointers in a row by Notice.  The Gamecocks were up 37-15 at halftime.

With all the talk of the all the new recruits plus the transfer Johnson adding scoring options to the team, the first half scoring was dominated by the returning nucleus.  Williams, Carrera, Kacinas and Laimonas Chatkevicius combined for twenty eight of the thirty seven points scored with only Johnson and Notice adding to the scoring total.

As Matthew chowed down on his halftime ritual meal of a pretzel, the new guys decided to make the start of the second half all about them.  Notice buried his third jumper in a row to get the festivities started.  Then Thornwell scored his first two points as a Gamecock on a pair of free throws.  Over the first six plus minutes of the second half, Notice, Thornwell, Johnson and Henry combined to score all sixteen Gamecocks' points as South Carolina went up 53-21 with fourteen minutes left in the game.

Carrera briefly ended the Gamecock Newbie Run with a jumper to put the Gamecocks up thirty four, 55-21.  But again, the newbies would make their mark scoring seventeen of the next twenty one South Carolina points.  The lead would swell to forty two,  76-34, on a Johnson jumper with just under four minutes left in the game.

The only question left in the game was whether Longwood would break forty points.  They did with about ninety seconds left in the game as South Carolina won 82-44.  The Gamecocks largest margin of victory in non conference games last season was twenty one, in their last non conference game vs. South Carolina State.  They already topped that in their first non conference game of this season, winning by thirty eight points.

In their first game of the season, the Gamecocks got the balanced double digit scoring that was sorely lacking last season. Four players scored in double figures; Johnson led the way with eighteen points, Thornwell and Williams each had fourteen and Carrera just missed a double double with twelve points and nine rebounds.  More importantly, two more players almost had double digits in scoring; Kacinas missed a double double with eight points and fourteen rebounds, while Notice had eight points, five rebounds and four assists.  The Gamecocks shot forty nine percent from the field and an equally impressive twenty of twenty four from the free throw line.

The Gamecocks held the Lancers to twenty three percent shooting from the field and out-rebounded them  50-27.   Longwood only had one scorer in double digits, guard Tristan Carey with ten points. But Carey had to work for those ten points as he shot 5 of 20 from the field.

All in all it was a good day for Matthew.  He got his beloved baseball practice in, got to watch his first basketball game of the season and saw an impressive Gamecock win.  Later, Matthew played Nerf basketball in the den for a good part of the evening and the end of the night, he was asleep in his bed, wearing his Bruce Ellington basketball jersey.

I'd say that's a pretty good start to the college basketball season.

Quick Thoughts from the First Day of the College Basketball Season

So I watched a few games online last night, the first night of college basketball.  Also, I was on Twitter (@gmoore21566) and there were some definite highlights making the rounds on the Twitterverse.  Here's what I took from the first day of the college basketball season.

• Perhaps it's the new NCAA hand check rule, but I saw two games that had VERY little defense in them - Monmouth vs. Hofstra (88-84) and Florida A&M vs. Rutgers (92-84).  If the intended result is that games are going to be more high scoring, well I am not sure if I am going to like this seemingly new brand of college basketball.  I like scoring as much as everyone else, but I want to see some defense.  I didn't see at all in these two games.
  
• To further the point above, you had by my count twelve schools score over 100 points and twenty two teams score between 88 and 99 points last night.  Yes, you had some Division I teams like Charleston Southern (130) and Elon (114) defeat non Division I schools. But you also had Duke put 111 points on Davidson, winning by 34, Boise State lighting up for 116 on Texas Arlington, winning by 19 and VCU dropping 96 on Illinois State, winning by 38 (Thirty Eight!).
  
• Final point you need to know about games being more high scoring this season.  Wisconsin scored 86 points on St John's.  That was the Badgers' first eighty point plus game since beating Samford 87-51 on December 29, 2012.  Wisconsin's previous game vs. a  Big East team was a 60-50 loss at Marquette on December 8, 2012.
  
• The "guarantee game" has long been a part of early season non conference college basketball, as well as college football.  Big schools pay small schools significant money to play on the big school's campus.  It's a way for a big school to get a "guaranteed" win, while a small school gets much needed revenue for their athletic department budget.  For example, as noted in this article, Mississippi Valley State pocketed $700,000 in the 2010-11 college basketball season for playing a significant number of road "guarantee" games.
  
  Usually, the small school will lose and lose badly, as did Mississippi Valley State did last night at #8 Oklahoma State 117-62.  But there were a couple of games last night where the "guarantee game" small school pulled off an upset.  In Coral Gables, much to the delight of Defiantly Dutch on Twitter (See the Ren & Stimpy Happy Dance tweet), St. Francis of New York won at Miami in overtime 66-62.  Meanwhile, the Bruce Weber Watch is officially on in Manhattan, Kansas as Northern Colorado defeated Kansas State 60-58.   Memo to the Wildcats - You might want to work the ball inside instead of shooting 2 of 19 from beyond the arc.
  
• #CAAHoops is off to a rough start.  Including a tough loss by Drexel at UCLA, the CAA lost six of their seven games last night. Only Towson won their non conference game, drubbing Navy at home 72-45.   UNCW had the worst loss of the night, getting beat down by Iowa 82-39.
  
• Funniest Twitter Comment of the Night on a #CAAHoops Level - Josh Verlin, owner, writer for the terrific City of Basketball Love web site, which features Philadelphia college basketball, tweeted in the Drexel game that "Drexel yet to try and feed the post, settling for a lot of long jumpers. But for the most part they're getting open shots."  Dan Crain, a Drexel fan that I am friendly with, tweeted in response - "Drexel yet to feed the post...  Since Robert Battle played there."  Only Drexel fans and hardcore #CAAHoops fans will understand that hilarious comment.
  
• In that 111-77 pasting of Davidson, Duke's six leading scorers - Rodney Hood, Quinn Cook, Jabari Parker, Rasheed Sulaimon, Amile Jefferson and Tyler Thornton were 30 of 36 from the field, including 12 of 16 from beyond the arc.  Those are Phil Simms Super Bowl XXI numbers (Google It!).
  
• Two of the online games I watched, involved my alma mater.  First, Hofstra, under new head coach Joe Mihalich, blew a thirteen point second half lead and lost to Monmouth 88-84 yesterday.  The key stats to note for Hofstra; 3 of 15 from three in the second half, while 8 of 16 from two.  Perhaps the Pride should have worked the ball inside to Zeke Upshaw (22 points) and Moussa Kone (ten points) more.  They were a combined 9 of 19 from the field.
  
  Meanwhile in Piscataway, New Jersey, former Hofstra Head Coach Mo Cassara made his ESPN3 analyst debut in Rutgers' 92-84 win over Florida A&M.  I thought Mo did a great job last night and here's to a successful career in the broadcast booth (though I want you back coaching on the court).  

My first live college basketball game of the season is today, as the University of South Carolina hosts guarantee game/sacrificial lamb Longwood at 1:00 PM.   Nice to have college hoops back, even if I still have Little League Fall Baseball Playoffs (championship game is this Monday with a practice this morning before the game).

Conference Realignment - Careful For What You Wish For

The 2013-14 season promises to be a very interesting season as far as teams in new conference homes.  Due in most part to the power of football TV money, many schools switched conferences.  In fact, due to a dislike in the power of football TV money, the Big East broke off from the football schools to become basically a basketball conference.  This left the other schools, UConn, Louisville (in its last season before joining the ACC), Temple and Cincinnati to fend for themselves in the new AAC.

But conference realignment didn't spare the smaller conferences either.  The Atlantic Ten lost three schools; Xavier and Butler to the newly formed Big East and Charlotte to Conference USA.  As a result, the A-10 plucked two mid major program gems, Davidson and George Mason from their respective conferences (George Mason joined the A-10 immediately. Davidson will join in the 2014-15 season).  The CAA reeling from the loss of Mason, as well as Old Dominion (Conference USA) and Georgia State (Sun Belt), took the Southern Conference's other well known basketball program, College of Charleston.

But wait, there's more!  The Patriot gained two schools.  First Boston University left the confines of the America East to join what it believes is a better fit in academics.  Second, Loyola, Maryland interestingly left the stronger MAAC conference for the land of the Last Amateurs.  However, the MAAC retained Loyola's former coach, Jimmy Patsos, as he took the Siena job.  The MAAC in turn went out and plucked two NEC schools, Monmouth and Quinnipiac.   America East restocked with UMass Lowell jumping up into the Division I foray.

The Missouri Valley lost one of their most highly regarded schools in Creighton as the Bluejays joined their fellow catholic brethren in the Big East.  To fill the void, the Valley took Loyola Chicago away from the Horizon.  Conference USA not only plucked ODU, but took Florida Atlantic and Florida International away from the Sun Belt.   The WAC only has two member schools remaining from last season, New Mexico State and Idaho.

There are even more schools that either switched conferences or became Division I schools (check out the WAC when you get a chance) that's it just too many to count.  So let's highlight three schools, all with recent mid major success, that moved to a new conference;

Butler - In two seasons, the Bulldogs moved from the Horizon to the Atlantic Ten to the Big East.   Comparatively speaking, that's like an A ball player moving up and being successful in the majors in two seasons.  Yes, there are players that made that move like Bryce Harper, but they are few and far between.

To Butler's credit, their first season in the A-10 was a very successful one.  The Bulldogs went 11-5 in conference, 27-9 overall and won their second round NCAA Tournament game before losing to Marquette.  Now they will get to see the Golden Eagles twice a season in the Big East, albeit without former coach Brad Stevens, who decided to make the biggest move of all and jump to the NBA as coach of the Boston Celtics.

The Bulldogs lost leading scorers Rotnei Clarke and Andrew Smith to graduation.  Then Butler lost their leading returning scorer from last season, Roosevelt Jones, for the season with torn ligaments.  That leaves Khyle Marshall, Kameron Woods and Kellen Dunham to fill the scoring void.  It's asking a lot to make up for the loss of thirty eight points, fourteen rebounds and nearly eight assists per game.

Butler's non conference schedule seems light this season, with a home game vs. Vanderbilt and a neutral site game vs. Purdue as the two big games on their schedule.   The Bulldogs are predicted to finish middle of the pack in the Big East.   That might be generous given the loss of Jones.

Creighton -  At least the Bulldogs took a mid step in their jump from the Horizon to the Big East in two seasons.  Their fellow Big East brethren Bluejays are taking a one season, herculean leap from the Missouri Valley to the land of catholic basketball.  And Creighton was a really nice catch for the Big East, with their long standing, successful basketball program and a home game attendance that's regularly 18,000 plus.  The Bulldogs won twenty eight games last season and knocked off Cincinnati in the second round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to Duke.

But unlike Butler, Creighton is returning its leading scorer, All American Doug McDermott, plus the return of third leading scorer Grant Gibbs and his nearly six assists per game.  Throw in returning players Ethan Wragge and Austin Chatman, the fourth and fifth leading scorers from last season's team and it's no wonder that the Bluejays are picked to finish first in the Big East.  However, in a deep Big East, the Bluejays won't have cupcakes like Missouri State (11-22) to play twice a year.  Well okay, there is DePaul.

Creighton will find out early how good they are based on their non conference schedule.  The Bluejays play at St Joseph's, have a neutral site game vs. Arizona State, host Nebraska in their annual interstate feud and play host to Cal a little more than a week before the start of Big East conference season.

George Mason - The loss of Xavier, Temple and Charlotte forced the A-10 to restock with the Patriots and next season the Wildcats of Davidson.  Mason was a logical choice being basically a basketball only school that has made the NCAA Tournament three times since 2006, including their Final Four run in 2006.

Since their last NCAA tournament appearance in 2011, the Patriots have won forty six games overall with two twenty plus win seasons (24-9 in 2011-12, 22-16 in 2012-13).   But Mason struggled in the CAA barely finishing above .500 in conference, finishing fourth at 10-8 and losing to Northeastern in the CAA semifinal 69-67 after being up 28-4 fifteen minutes into the first half.  The Patriots finished the season playing in the CBI, Defiantly Dutch's favorite postseason tournament, losing in the CBI championship series to Santa Clara.

The Patriots return nine of their top ten players in minutes, including their top five leading scorers; Sherrod Wright, Jonathan Arledge, Byron Allen, Erik Copes and Johnny Williams.  So scoring will not be an issue for Mason.  Unfortunately, Copes has been suspended for the first six games of the season, so their depth will be tested early on in their schedule.

Mason has been picked as low as tenth in at least one preseason poll, which seems low to me considering the experience they are returning this season.  Non conference road games at Iona, a neutral site game vs. Oklahoma and a home game vs. Iowa State should give the Patriots a chance to show they are better than their preseason standing in the A-10.  Plus an early season conference game with #14 VCU should shed some light on where the Patriots rank in the Atlantic 10.  But there won't be any UNC Wilmingtons to feast on in the A-10.  Mason will have to bring every it night in conference.

Where We've Been, Where We're Going

On March 4, 2012, I was sitting on press row during the second CAA Tournament Semifinal in Richmond Coliseum. Sitting next to me was my good friend Jerry Beach, aka Defiantly Dutch, who made the trip down with me in a trip that would have made John Candy and Steve Martin proud. Nearby was our friend Tom Block, covering the game for George Mason and directly in front of us was CAA Beat writer Rob Canady and longtime CAA and UNC Wilmington beat writer and friend Brian Mull. Our friend, @VaBeachRep, Joe Suhoski, had been at the tournament on press row the day before.  Somewhere in the stands was our friend Mike Brodsky, who had done the radio broadcast for the Northeastern game the night before, along with Matt Cerilli and Alan Wilson, two George Mason friends I had got to know via their love-hate relationship with Beach.

I think all of us were amazed at the start of the VCU - George Mason game, which was the fifty sixth Division I basketball game I had covered live that season.  The Rams had jumped out to a 32-4 lead.  The sold out, mostly partisan Rams crowd was likely setting record decibel levels of sound in the creaky, leaky, often cold arena.  The Patriots would roar back though, cutting a once twenty eight point lead down to six with three minutes left in the game.  However VCU would hold on for a 74-64 win.

I truly had enjoyed soaking in the raucousness of the crowd that day.  Drexel had won the earlier semifinal against Old Dominion, the alma mater of Joe Suhoski, who covers CAA football and is also a friend of Beach and mine.  A season after three CAA teams making the NCAA Tournament and another CAA Semifinal Tournament team, Hofstra, had one of their players taken in the NBA Draft (Charles Jenkins), it looked like there would be again multiple #CAAHoops teams in the NCAA Tournament.  Things couldn't have been brighter for the CAA.

Little did I know that things would never be the same in the CAA again.

I drove my "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" partner in crime back to New York after the VCU-Mason post game press conference (Picture is from Hofstra-Delaware game in 2011. Notice how Hofstra is spelled on the ticket), once again having not been able to stay for the CAA Championship game. It's become sort of a twisted tradition.  When I attend the CAA Tournament, I never can stay for the championship game, basically due to work.  When my alma mater Hofstra made it in 2006, my dear friend Tony Terentieff had to be back for work and he drove my friend Mal and me down for the tournament.

In this case, I wanted to stay again, but this time, I had to go to Colorado.  I was a finalist for a position at the University of Colorado.  There was a fifty-fifty chance that I would get the position and that things for me would never be the same.

Drexel, who had lost to VCU in the finals of the CAA Tournament, was snubbed out of an at large bid for the NCAA Tournament.  Instead, Iona, a team I heavily covered during 2012 for both my site and the Mid Majority, made the tournament.  The Gaels went down in the first round of the tournament in spectacular fashion, blowing a twenty point lead vs. BYU.

Where this involves me is that Drexel was now playing in the NIT and was playing home games in Philly.  Thus a road trip to the land of cheesesteaks!  The Dragons had made it to the NIT Quarterfinals and were hosting the Minutemen of UMass.

It was a disappointing night all around.  Drexel blew a fourteen point second half lead and lost to UMass. During the game I had found out via email that night that I didn't get the position at the University of Colorado.  I took it in stride, figuring perhaps that staying in New York, working for Hofstra and covering college basketball was my place in life.

Suddenly the dominoes started falling.   First, the Atlantic-10 offered VCU a spot in their conference.  The Rams, understanding that the A-10 gave them a better media presence, more competition and a better chance for future at large bids, left all their two years of NCAA Tournament CAA money and joined the A-10.   Old Dominion and Georgia State announced they were jumping to Conference USA and the Sun Belt, basically for football conference dollars.   A year later, George Mason decided to reunite with VCU in the A-10.

The three teams that had been the face of #CAAHoops - VCU, ODU and George Mason were gone in the span of a little more than a year. What was once a Virginia based conference, has become more of a North-South mix with only two Virginia teams left (James Madison and William and Mary).

The CAA will never be the same.

Then, just when I thought I was going to be a lifelong New Yorker, an opportunity arose at the University of South Carolina School of Law.  This time, fate shined on me.  I was offered the position and in August of last year, I moved everything I could into a 2001 two door Honda Accord and made the trip down to Columbia, South Carolina.  Six months later, our house in New York finally sold and my family made the trip down with me.  The job has been absolutely great and my family is very happy in its new house.

My coverage of the 2012-13 college basketball season had started off pretty well.  I knew that I could not repeat the feat of covering fifty nine Division I men's games, at least fifteen Division I women's games and a couple of Division III games.  But there was plenty of college basketball around me in South Carolina and North Carolina.  I had season tickets to USC.  Wofford, Davidson, Charlotte, Winthrop, Presbyterian and USC Upstate were all relatively nearby me, plus I used my Christmas Break trip to New York wisely and covered a lot of games while I was up there.

Then February in South Carolina hit.   Let me explain.

Baseball season starts in February.  Not just college baseball season, as most informed, college sports fans know, but also Little League Baseball season.  Yes, baseball season for little kids starts at that time.  And we're not talking late February, we're talking February 2.  Yup.   In fact, my family was still not with me at that time.  I was an assistant coach for my older son's coach pitch team in February and there were two practices that I helped run where he was not at since the house in New York didn't close until February.

So when college basketball season was at its height the first weekend of March with the CAA Tournament, we were having opening day for our league that Saturday.  And I wasn't involved with just one team, I was also the head coach for my younger son's tee ball team.  Very quickly, I was spending at least four, five and even six days a week at Trenholm Park in Forest Acres, home to the Trenholm Little League.

And I was loving every minute of that.  As much as I love college basketball, baseball is my other love.  And I wouldn't have moved to South Carolina if my older son, Matthew, didn't sign off on it.  And one of the reasons he was willing to move down here was that, in his own words, he "could play baseball ten months of the year."

When Matthew was two and a half years old and already was fond of watching baseball live, he asked me if I could pitch to him.  So at two and a half, I started pitching to him.  And I found out very quickly, he could hit a ball.  Hit a ball real well.  So well that my family would come over to see him hit.  Then quickly, he wanted to play catch and learn how to field.  By the time Matthew was five, I could have a regular catch with him and I don't mean soft toss either.  I was fortunate to be able to coach him and his friends for two years in North Bellmore before I moved down to South Carolina.  It was a dream come true.

When I was a kid, I loved baseball just as much as Matthew.  However, my parents were separated and later divorced by the time I was thirteen.  My brother had been in the Air Force from the time I was eight until I was twelve.  The key time frame for when a kid who loves baseball plays Little League.  Yet there was no one around to help me cultivate my love of baseball.  My parents never signed me up for baseball, never asked me to play baseball.

My brother got out of the Air Force in 1978.   It was then, through his high school friends and him, that I started learning about baseball through their various slow pitch softball teams.  I sort of became the team mascot/scorekeeper/bat boy.  I practiced with the team, learned baseball, learned how to score etc.

I started getting a lot better at baseball/softball and started playing stickball, a favorite sport among northeast kids.  I ended up playing against several members of the high school baseball team and I more than held my own. My friends in high school (some of us, like me who ran track, two of us played high school baseball) and I played other members of the baseball team in slow pitch softball in high school and I remember us at least winning one game.

After high school, I ended up playing organized slow pitch softball for twenty years.  I was pretty decent and I was fortunate to play on some really good teams.  Still, I never played little league baseball or high school baseball.   If I really have one regret in life, it's that I never played organized baseball when I was young.

Even before I met my wife of seventeen years, Michelle, I told myself that if I ever had kids and they wanted to play baseball, I would do everything in my power and I mean, EVERYTHING, to help with that.  So when Matthew came to me that day asking me to pitch to him, it was like true illumination to me.

And five and half plus years later, here I am, the co-head coach of his fall Minors baseball team.  Matt hits second for us, is one of our three pitchers and can play anywhere in the field.  He loves the game and works at it everyday.  I am proud to say he was a Coach Pitch League All Star in the Spring and started at third base in our district tournament (and I was proud to be one of the assistant coaches).

My younger son, Jonathan, is on my tee ball team.  He's not like Matthew and would rather play Angry Birds than baseball.  Jonathan doesn't practice baseball when he's not playing an actual game, but he's pretty good when he plays.  Maybe the baseball light bulb will turn on for him someday, but that's okay if it doesn't for him.  Still love him as much as Matthew.

So Matthew got his ten months of baseball.  His dad coaches both his sons in baseball.  And neither of us could be any happier.

So what does that mean for The College Hardwood?

Fear not my college basketball loving friends.  The blog is alive and well, as you can see by this post.  This is the start of our basketball season on the blog.  I will still be covering a lot of games between mid-November and February. Once again, I have University of South Carolina season tickets.  Our live first game coverage will be November 9 when South Carolina hosts season opener sacrificial lamb Longwood.

But it's not just USC basketball I will be covering. My trip to New York around Christmas time will allow me to cover some good New York local basketball (see you soon, Hofstra and Stony Brook friends).  You can count on short road trips to Davidson, Charlotte, Wofford and Winthrop.   Plus, I have already got NCAA second and third round tickets for the regional at Raleigh.  If you remember the last regional in Raleigh in 2008, we were witness to the Stephen Curry show against Gonzaga and Georgetown.

However, once February comes, there won't be as much live basketball coverage from me as their used to be here. Certainly not fifty nine games of Division I coverage like the 2011-12 season.  But as I did once say nearly three years ago, that my commitments come before this basketball blog.  However, I do have a plan up my sleeve to increase the coverage here but I am not yet at liberty to say. :-)

Rest assured, college basketball is still a great love of mine and as for long as I can keep the site up, The College Hardwood is still a place college basketball fans can call home.

Regards Always,

Gary Moore
Author, Founder of The College Hardwood