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.

Gamecocks Go On the Offensive...Boards to Beat Commodores (Recap of Vandy v. USC)

Two weeks ago, a winter storm affected Georgia and South Carolina, causing massive traffic jams in Atlanta, accidents in South Carolina and school closures throughout both states, including shutting down USC for two days.  During that time, South Carolina won their first conference game, a twenty eight point drubbing of Texas A&M, a Thursday night home game that I attended.

Two weeks later, South Carolina was hit with another snow storm on Wednesday, one that dumped several inches of slow, sleet and even ice across the state.  It also caused massive power outages statewide and again closed schools state wide, including once again, the University of South Carolina.  In the span of two weeks, the University closed for four days and had a delayed opening on a fifth day.

The snowstorm also caused the postponement of the Wednesday night Vanderbilt-South Carolina game, which was rescheduled to Thursday at 4:00 PM.    By around 3:00 PM, the sun was out in Columbia and it was warm enough to melt the ice on the roads.  After venturing out to the local CVS to scout out road conditions, I decided to take the trip to Colonial Life Arena to watch the game.

The roads weren't bad at all, all things considering. There wasn't much traffic midday as most people had heeded the warnings to stay off the road, but enough people had made their way out to make the roads slushy.  When I got to Colonial Life Arena a half hour before game time, the parking lot I normally park in was pretty empty.  There were no parking attendants, so parking was free.  When I got to my seat, I would be the only person in my row for the game.  I actually moved down a couple of rows for the second half.

The announced crowd was 9,829, but that must have included pre-sold tickets, because the crowd was far less than the announced number.  As a result, you heard a lot more things than you normally would in a more full arena.  Then again, you can always hear Gamecocks Head Coach Frank Martin on the court, no matter how large the crowd.  Martin puts on a show with his facial expressions and outward honesty.  At one point during a stoppage in play, he yelled at Brenton Williams "Are you gonna guard the ball?!"

The Gamecocks had lost three straight entering the contest against the Commodores, losing two close games at Ole Miss and home to Auburn before getting pasted on the road vs. Tennessee.  Meanwhile, Vanderbilt had won four straight games in conference before losing a tough contest at home to Arkansas by two points.  The Commodores featured the reigning SEC player of the week in senior Rod Odom, a six foot nine forward from my old neck of the woods, Long Island, New York (Central Islip to be specific).  Odom scored twenty six points in a win vs. Tennessee and twenty two points in the close loss to Arkansas.

Vanderbilt won the tip and had three chances to score on the first possession due to two offensive rebounds.  But the Commodores couldn't score.  South Carolina scored the first basket on a Sindarius Thornwell jumper. Vanderbilt's James Siakam layup then tied the game at two.   The Gamecocks would outscore the Commodores 8-3 over the next 90 seconds.  Another Thornwell basket put South Carolina up 10-5.

Vanderbilt would hang around, thanks to their terrific freshman center Damian Jones.  Over the span of a minute, Jones would hit two baskets and block two shots. His layup put Vandy within one, 14-13.

Over the next six minutes, both teams would struggle from the field as they combined to only score fifteen points.  During this span, the Gamecocks were three of eleven from the field with three turnovers.  Meanwhile, the Commodores committed four turnovers in the span and only attempted three field goals.  The third field goal attempt, an Odom jumper, again cut the Gamecocks' lead to one, 22-21.  It was Odom's first basket of the game and his only basket of the half.

Williams would bury a three to put the Gamecocks up four, 25-21 with about four and a half minutes left in the half.  But that would be as large a lead that there would be the rest of the half.  Vandy would get the ball back with five seconds left in the half.  And after a timeout, Kyle Fuller went coast to coast off the inbounds pass for a layup to again cut the South Carolina lead to one, 28-27 at the half.

In the second half, after a Duane Notice jumper put the Gamecocks up three, 32-29, the Commodores scored the next four points.  After a Fuller jumper, Jones followed with a layup to give Vandy their first lead of the game 33-32.  Later Fuller would hit another jumper to put Vandy back up two, 38-36 with fifteen minutes left in the game.   It would be the Commodores' last lead in the game.

Thornwell would tie the game with two free throws.  Then Notice hit a three pointer off a Thornwell assist to put South Carolina up 41-38.  Thornwell would later hit a three pointer to put the Gamecocks up four, 44-40.  Odom would hit two free throws to cut the lead to two, 44-42 with a little over eleven minutes from there.  That's as close as the Commodores would get the rest of the way.

Over the next seven plus minutes, South Carolina went on a 14-3 run.  The Gamecocks clamped down on the Commodores, only allowing an Odom long distance three during the span.  What made the difference was the Gamecocks' tenaciousness on the offensive glass.  South Carolina would grab eight offensive rebounds during this span which would lead to many second chance opportunities.  In fact, during this run, ten of the Gamecocks' fourteen points would come off second chance opportunities.   Brian Steele, who is seeing more playing time due to his hustle, capped the spurt with a layup to put South Carolina up thirteen, 58-45 with four minutes left.

Vandy would not go away however, due in large part to Fuller.  The Commodores went on a 7-0 spurt and Fuller had a hand in all of the Commodores' points.  He first hit two free throws, then followed with a layup. He capped the run by assisting Odom on a three pointer to cut the Gamecocks' lead to six, 58-52.

But the Commodores got no further, thanks to Thornwell.  While doing a terrific job of holding Odom to only nine field goal attempts, he was scoring points as well.  Thornwell would score five straight South Carolina points to put the Gamecocks back up ten, 63-53 with fifty four seconds left.  He capped USC's scoring by hitting one of two free throws as the Gamecocks won their second game in the SEC 65-59.

South Carolina only shot thirty eight percent from the field.  But they had sixteen more field goal attempts than Vandy due to TWENTY SIX offensive rebounds, as the Gamecocks outrebounded the Commodores 45-31.   It was a team effort on the glass, as no Gamecock had more than seven rebounds (Mindaugas Kacinas).

Thornwell led the Gamecocks with nineteen points and also added six rebounds and six assists.  Williams added fourteen points and Notice had ten points.  Fuller led the Commodores and all scorers with twenty points.  Jones was terrific for Vandy with sixteen points, ten rebounds and seven blocks.  Odom had only ten points as he was held by Thornwell to three of nine shooting on the day.

During the post game interview with Gamecocks' radio play by play broadcaster Andy Demetra, Martin was pleased with his team's attention to detail, their rebounding effort and his help defense, which was much better than it was against Auburn.  He was particularly happy with Thornwell's defense on the much taller Odom.

During that interview, I don't remember Martin saying much about the team's luck with winter storms.  It will probably be the last storm for the season.  Temperatures will be up in the seventies early next week, with a forecast of the upper seventies by next weekend.

If the Gamecocks' can continue to rebound and play defense like they did on Thursday, perhaps they will get hot too.

No Help on D Means No Win for South Carolina (Recap of Auburn v. South Carolina)

Last Saturday, South Carolina was up 61-46 on Ole Miss with a little less than eleven minutes in the game.   The Rebels would go on a 29-10 run the rest of the way to again barely beat the Gamecocks 75-71.   Two weeks earlier, Ole Miss had rallied from a double digit halftime deficit to edge South Carolina 75-74.   After so painfully losing a close game for a second time to the team that won the SEC Tournament last season, Frank Martin's team looked to rebound against Auburn Wednesday night.

As Martin would say in his post game interview with Gamecocks Radio play by play announcer Andy Demetra, the game plan was simple; help out on defense against the Tigers one-two guard punch of Chris Denson and KT Harrell.  Denson and Harrell each score about twenty points a game and are Auburn's only two double digit scorers.

Duane Notice got the night started off right for the Gamecocks with a three pointer but Auburn would score the next five points.  Demetrius Henry would tie the game at five, the first of three ties there would be over the first six plus minutes.   Denson would break the last of the ties in that span with a three pointer to put Auburn up 18-15.  The Tigers would keep the lead for the next twenty one minutes in the game.

Despite what Martin had said was the game, the Gamecocks could not contain Denson and Harrell.  Though Auburn got help along the way from Tahj Shamsid-Deen and Allen Payne, it was the Tigers' two star guards who kept South Carolina at bay.  Denson had eight points in the first nine and a half minutes in the game and scored twelve in the first half.  Meanwhile, Harrell had ten first half points.

The only thing that kept the Gamecocks in the game in the first half was the continued torrid scoring of Brenton Williams.  Williams, who had thirty two points in the loss last Saturday to the Rebels, would score eleven first half points to keep South Carolina close, 38-35 at the half.   He has become the Gamecocks' main scoring threat this season.

Williams struggled to start the season.  In the span of six non conference games starting with Clemson and ending with St Mary's, Williams failed to score in double figures in five of those six games.  Even worse, Williams had zero points in three games; Clemson, Oklahoma State and Manhattan.  Williams barely played against the Cowboys and the Jaspers, playing two minutes and six minutes respectively in those games.

Since the Diamond Head Classic game against St Mary's, Williams has scored in double figures in every game since, except the one point loss at home to Ole Miss, where he scored nine points all on free throws (he was 0-10 from the field).   Including the game against the Tigers, Williams has averaged eighteen points per game over his last fourteen games.  Over his last five games, he is averaging twenty two points per game, shooting a terrific forty three percent from beyond the arc and an awesome ninety six percent from the free throw line, which leads the nation among those that qualify.

Early in the second half, Williams would get the Gamecocks within two, 42-40 with another three pointer.  A little later, Notice would again keep South Carolina within two with a layup, 44-42.  But from there, things got out of hand defensively for the Gamecocks.

Over the span of four minutes, Auburn went on a 16-2 run.  Again it was the duo of Denson and Harrell doing most of the damage.  Denson and Harrell would combine for eleven of the sixteen points.  Payne would cap the run nailing a three pointer to put the Tigers up 60-44 with 13:20 left in the game.

Auburn was scoring at will on South Carolina, as the Tigers made nine of their first eleven shots in the second half.  Try as they might, Notice and Sindarius Thornwell could not handle guarding Denson and Harrell one on one.  But that's OK if you are getting help on defense.

The problem was that the Gamecocks' front court was not helping out on defense.  South Carolina also does not have a shot blocking presence in the middle.  The Gamecocks would only have three blocks on the night, which is line with their average per game, 3.9 blocks, which puts them eleventh in the SEC in that category.

Despite their defensive struggles in the halfcourt, the Gamecocks would mount a furious rally, started by, who else, Williams.  He would hit two free throws, then bury a three pointer to cut the lead to eleven, 60-49.  Meanwhile the Gamecocks switched to a press, which completely throw off Auburn.  The Tigers would commit six turnovers in a span of three and a half minutes.

This would result in an 18-2 run by the Gamecocks.  Williams would score twelve of those points and a Mindaugas Kacinas layup would tie the game at sixty two with a little under eight minutes left, much to the delight of a now raucous Colonial Life Arena.  When the Tigers went up sixteen, one of the season ticket holders in front of me was so frustrated by the Gamecocks play, he left.  His friend of forty years sitting next to him stayed and credited the guy leaving with starting the rally, noting "Maybe he shouldn't come back here the rest of the season".

But a Shamsid-Deen dunk would put Auburn back up 64-62.  Notice had a chance to tie the game, but missed one of two free throws to make the score 64-63.  From there it was the Denson and Harrell show.  Denson made a three point play and then later hit two free throws to put Auburn up 69-63.  Then Harrell scored the Tigers' next eight points to keep the Auburn lead at six, 77-71.   The Gamecocks would get within three, 77-74 with twenty three seconds left on what else, a Williams three pointer.  But that was the last points on the game for South Carolina as Auburn won 79-74.

Williams had another terrific offensive night with twenty nine points on ten of fourteen shooting from the field, including six of ten from beyond the arc.  Kacinas came off the bench to score fourteen points and Notice added twelve points.  Thornwell struggled from the field shooting three of sixteen, but he did have nine assists and four steals to go with his eight points.

Williams, however, could not match the Auburn duo of Denson and Harrell.  They each had twenty five points, combining to shoot seventeen of thirty from the field and twelve of fifteen from the line.  The Tigers got help from Shamsid-Deen, who had twelve points and Payne added nine of his own.  Auburn shot fifty two percent from the field, including a blistering sixty seven percent in the second half (14 of 21).

During his post game talk with Demetra, Martin called his team defense "selfish" as in there was no help defense for Thornwell and Notice on Denson and Harrell.  As I noted at the beginning of the article, Martin noted that Auburn's game plan was simple, to get the ball to Denson and Harrell.  But he also noted his team didn't do what was necessary to follow the game plan.

Staring at a 1-8 record in conference with a road game upcoming at Tennessee, South Carolina needs to right the ship soon.   They are solidly in last place in the SEC, two games behind Auburn and Alabama. There needs to be more help on D if they want to get a W.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Something hopeful.   

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Frank McGuire would have approved of that.