Lineup(s) next season

In Tuesday’s paper, I provided a projected starting lineup for next season. But I wanted to expand on that a bit, since there are so many possibilities that singling out five players is almost certainly going to end up being wrong.

Let’s start out assuming Dominique Archie doesn’t get a sixth year, and not consider any more additions or subtractions to the roster. Here’s how I would break down the depth chart at each position, and honestly it’s just an educated guess:

Point guard: Bruce Ellington (5-9, Fr.), Ramon Galloway (6-1, Soph.), Eric Smith (5-11, Fr.)

Shooting guard: Galloway, Stephen Spinella (6-4, Soph.) Brian Richardson (6-5, Fr.), Smith.

Small forward: Malik Cooke (6-6, Jr.), Lakeem Jackson (6-5, Soph.), R.J. Slawson (6-8, Fr.) Austin Steed (6-7, Sr.), Richardson, Spinella.

Power forward: Jackson, Damontre Harris (6-9, Fr.), Johndre Jefferson (6-9, Sr.), Cooke, Slawson, Steed.

Center: Sam Muldrow (6-9, Sr.), Harris, Jefferson.

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SEC awards by the AP

The Associated Press writers awards for the SEC men’s basketball season have been released, and went as expected.

South Carolina’s Devan Downey was named to the league’s first team, becoming the only Gamecock besides BJ McKie to be named to the first team three separate times. But Downey again came up short in the player of the year voting.

Kentucky’s John Wall won player and newcomer of the year, while Kentucky’s John Calipari was coach of the year. That deviated a bit from the coaches, who voted Wall as the POY but for some reason not as the freshman of the year, and who gave Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings the COY.

Wall, Downey and Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins were unanimous choices to the first team. (Cousins was the coaches pick for freshman of the year.)

The other first-teamers were Mississippi State’s Jarvis Varnado and Georgia’s Trey Thompkins.

The second team was center Patrick Patterson (Kentucky), forwards Wayne Chism (Tennessee) and Tasmin Mitchell (LSU) and guards Jermaine Beal (Vanderbilt) and Chris Warren (Mississippi).

I had a ballot, and my voting went along with the consensus with one exception: I had Vanderbilt’s Jeffery Taylor on the second team over Mitchell.

Yes, I thought long and hard about voting for Downey for player of the year. I voted for him last year, when Patterson won it. But while Downey had a better individual year, Wall simply had too much going for him: fourth in the league in scoring, first in assists and the leading force on a team that won the league’s regular-season and tournament championships.

Wofford and other NCAA notes

When South Carolina lost at Wofford in December, there was a lot of kvetching around these parts: “You can’t lose to Wofford!” … “How sad is it to lose to Wofford?” … “If you can’t beat Wofford, you might as well give up!”

Well, the Terriers are now a No. 13 seed in the NCAA tournament.

The small private school from Spartanburg also enters the dance with an RPI rank of 69. That’s better than five other teams South Carolina lost to this season: Miami (99), Alabama twice (102), Georgia (106), Boston College (125) and Arkansas (159).

And, in case you need to be reminded, that Wofford game was on the road for the Gamecocks. (Although they had about half the home crowd.) USC lost to Alabama at home, and to Miami in what was essentially a home game, in Charleston.

Wofford, by the way, returns the trip to South Carolina next season.

A few other South Carolina and SEC notes in reaction to the announcement of the brackets:

- Last year USC won 21 games, but none against a team that made the 65-team field. This year they only had 15 wins, but  beat four NCAA teams (Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Richmond and Florida). And those teams had seeds of No. 1, No. 4, No. 7 and No. 10.

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Thoughts from Nashville

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – I’m sitting here on press row watching the game that for 30 minutes Thursday we thought for sure South Carolina would be involved in. Instead the road jerseys belong to Alabama, which is giving Kentucky a pretty good game at the half.

There was lots of stuff in Friday’s paper on the game, but here are a few more random thoughts and observations on the Gamecocks:

- I know some people are still harboring some NIT hopes, but it may be worse than a longshot. As has been said over and over, the NIT has never invited a sub-.500 team, and this is the year they really don’t want to. With the NCAA owning the NIT, and considering expanding the tournament to 96 teams, people will justifiably look at the NIT field and say those teams would be the NIT teams. What kind of statement does it make having a 15-16 team in there?

Also, I hear a lot of people saying the NIT would love to have someone like Devan Downey in there for marketing reasons. Thing is, as much as we know and love Downey’s game, he’s not quite a national name, as evidenced by the All-American lists you see coming out. (The best I’ve seen for Downey is a fourth-team honor by The Sporting News.)

- Assuming it was the final game, you really have to feel for the way the seniors went out: Downey with the final few minutes of missed shots and free throws, Brandis Raley-Ross going scoreless with five turnovers, and Evka Baniulis and Robert Wilder not even seeing the floor. Maybe playing in the CBI isn’t such a bad idea after all, just to send everyone out on a better note.

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Downey all-district

In an earlier blog post, I printed my ballot for the U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s All-District awards. Well, those tallies are now in.

Devan Downey made the 10-member All-District III team, which includes North and South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.

The other players to make the list:

Al-Farouq Aminu, Wake Forest
Trevor Booker, Clemson
Malcolm Delaney, Virginia Tech
Sylven Landesberg, Virginia
Artsiom Parakhouski, Radford
Jon Scheyer, Duke
Kyle Singler, Duke
Nolan Smith, Duke
Greivis Vasquez, Maryland

Vasquez was named the District Player of the Year, and Maryland’s Gary Williams got Coach of the Year.

My vote went to Vasquez for POY, but I voted Coastal Carolina’s Cliff Ellis as COY. I also voted for eight of the eventual 10 district team members; Booker and Singler were not on my ballot, instead I had Morgan State’s Reggie Holmes and VCU’s Larry Sanders. (Yeah, I guess I soft spot for the mid-majors.)

The USBWA All-America team will be announced Monday.

NIT or bust for Gamecocks

If South Carolina plays beyond this week, it will be either the NCAA or NIT tournament.

Coach Darrin Horn ruled out accepting an invitation to either of the third-tier postseason tournaments: The College Basketball Invitational and CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

“We want to compete and play in the NCAA tournament, and if we can’t do that then NIT with the changes that have been made still puts you in the top 100 in the country in this postseason,” Horn said Monday. “But anything beyond that is not anything that we’re gonna have an interest in.”

The CBI is a 16-team tournament in its third year of existence. The CIT is a 16-team tournament in its second year. No SEC team has accepted a bid to ether of those tournaments; South Carolina turned down the CBI two years ago after a 14-18 record.

I’ll have more on the Gamecocks’ chances for the NIT later.

Cousy Award Update

The six finalists for the Cousy Award, given to the nation’s top point guard, have been named. Devan Downey did not make the cut.

The finalists are Kentucky’s John Wall, Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez, Duke’s Jon Scheyer,Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds, Kansas’ Sherron Collins and Ohio State’s Evan Turner.

I know what you’re saying: Turner is a point guard?

OK, I know what you’re really saying: No Downey? What a crock!

Look, I’ve killed a lot of trees the past two seasons writing about how great I think Downey is.And I’m still mulling over whether to give him my vote for SEC player of the year for the second straight year.

But the bottom line is the above players all play for teams heading to the NCAA tournament – in fact four of those teams could be No. 1 seeds and the other two will probably be top four seeds. And as Downey has said many times, a point guard is judged on how your team plays.  It’s not Downey’s fault his team is 15-15 – in fact it’s pretty much all his doing his team has six league wins. But it is what it is.

SEC tourney seeding

I’ll have more on the emotional meaning of South Carolina’s stunning win at No. 13 Vanderbilt in my Monday column. For now, here’s what the game means for the SEC tournament.

It means, as far as I can figure, South Carolina gets a rematch with Alabama on Thursday at 1 p.m.

The SEC hasn’t confirmed it, but  South Carolina is now the fifth seed out of the East, no matter what Georgia does at LSU. The teams have identical division records now, and USC owns the third tiebreaker, better record against the top team in the division (Kentucky).

Ironically, South Carolina’s upset of Vanderbilt also made Alabama the fourth seed. Alabama’s win over Auburn equaled both team’s records, and in an amazing quirk their tiebreakers go all the way to record vs. opponents from the other division.

Alabama and Auburn split their two games, had the same division record, and beat the same teams in the West. So then it goes to their record vs. East opponents, starting with the top seed and going down until there’s a difference – and it gets to No. 5 South Carolina, which beat Auburn but lost to Alabama.

Got all that?

The winner of the game will face Kentucky, the top seed out of the East.

If any of this changes, I’ll let you know, because like I said the SEC hasn’t confirmed it yet, and may not until Sunday.

Postseason balloting begins

As a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, I am charged with voting for its All-American teams, All-District teams, and coach and player of the year awards for each.

The district teams are broken up by state, and the one I voted in was District III, which includes North and South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.

Here, presented without comment, is the ballot I turned in:

All-American

James Anderson, Oklahoma State

Sherron Collins, Kansas

DeMarcus Cousins, Kentucky

Devan Downey, South Carolina

Luke Harangody, Notre Dame

Wesley Johnson, Syracuse

Scottie Reynolds, Villanova

Evan Turner, Ohio State

Greveis Vasquez, Maryland

John Wall, Kentucky

Oscar Robertson (player of the year): Evan Turner, Ohio State

Henry Iba (coach of the year): Jim Boeheim, Syracuse

Freshman of year: John Wall, Kentucky

All-District III

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Checking Rick Reilly

Rick Reilly, who I admire a lot as a writer and columnist, takes South Carolina fans to task in his latest bromide on ESPN.com.

The major object of Reilly’s ire is the idea of rushing the court. Whether it’s a good thing or overused, I’ll let Reilly argue. But here’s what he specifically said about the Gamecock fans storming the court after the win over Kentucky:

I’m talking to you, South Carolina. You RTC’d after beating Kentucky both this season and in 2005. It’s supposed to be “Hats in the air! War’s over!” Not “I really want a picture next to John Wall!”

OK, I honestly don’t know what he’s going for with the “war’s over” thing, but I’ll let that pass. Later, however, Reilly makes some stipulations for when storming the court is unjustifiable. Let’s see how many apply to South Carolina:

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