Goodbye, farewell, and all that

I was hired at The State almost exactly five years ago, and became a beat writer for the South Carolina Gamecocks a little more than a year later. It was only then that my aunt Catherine, who lives in Allendale, informed me that I had Gamecock blood in my veins:

Her late husband, my great-uncle Whit, and his father had both graduated from USC. In fact my middle name is theirs, so I was literally named after a couple Gamecock grads.

So I had that goin’ for me.

It’s been an interesting time covering this school, and it’s ending for now. This is my last week here, and I’m moving on to Athens, where I’ll  cover the Georgia Bulldogs for McClatchy newspapers (The Macon Telegraph and the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, mainly.)

I look forward to my first football road trip, which will be to …  Columbia. (Anybody know any good places to eat?)

As I also look forward, a quick look back. If you’ll indulge me, a few public thank yous:

Everybody who ever read this blog, scanned a story with my byline, or watched the “Joe and Seth Show” – you deserve a medal for that last one, actually.

My editors, my colleagues on the beat, and especially my partner in crime for four years, Joseph “Joe” Person.

Emily Feeney and Michelle Schmitt, the two sports information directors for men’s basketball during my tenure on the beat. These two deserve a lot of credit for succeeding in a man’s world – as well as taking my late-night calls and stupid questions.

Eric Hyman, for being an accessible athletics director who was always professional in his dealings with me. The same goes for the people he has under him: Charles Waddell, Kevin O’Connell, Jennifer Stiles, Steve Fink, Al Daniel and many more.

Dave Odom, for the class with which he handled the reporter-coach relationship. Odom didn’t win much here, and the two seasons I covered were both horrific, but I think it says something about him that he and I still somehow parted on good terms. The same goes for his staff.

Ray Tanner and Andrew Kitick, perhaps the best coach-SID duo you’ll ever be privileged to deal with as a media member. A quick Tanner story: Four years ago I misquoted him after a game – I just heard his quote wrong. The next day, Andrew handed me a hand-written note from Tanner that gently told me so. I felt terrible, obviously. Hours later, Tanner accepted my apology with a smile and a laugh.

All the players, but especially the ones who SMILED during their interviews, and didn’t make you feel like you were pulling teeth. Guys like Brandis Raley-Ross, Evka Baniulis, Moe Brown, Kenny McKinley, Stephen Garcia, Justin Smoak.

And Dominique Archie, who may not have liked talking to the media, but was as insightful as anybody when he did, and whom deserved a way better end to his career. So did Devan Downey.

… And a multitude of people I won’t name, but have privately thanked or will do so.

Then there are the fans, which for a beat writer is always an interesting relationship. When I met you in person, it was never a bad experience. But behind a keyboard, obviously, a fan tends to be more honest, or irrational, depending on how you look at it.

I guess my parting words for Gamecock fans would be this: Everyone has a job to do. Sometimes we do it well. Sometimes we don’t. When you win – like beating No. 1 Kentucky, or winning the College World Series – the positive publicity will ensue. When you lose or something bad happens – an NCAA investigation, a player leaving – the negative publicity will come.

The world of journalism in general is changing, and so is sports journalism. I hope there continues to be a place for objective, call-it-as-you-see-it reporting. In my case, I’m a professional: I’m going to cover Georgia the same way I covered South Carolina. (Insert your own joke here.)

Speaking of which, if you’re so inclined, you can follow me on my new blog at http://ugadogsblog.blogspot.com/ and http://www.dawg-extra.blogspot.com/

And in the meantime, I’ll keep reading The State and whoever replaces me in this blog. (Doubtless, it should be an upgrade.)

It’s been real, folks. See you in September.

Turkey for Downey

Turkbasket.com – which as you know, I check every morning – reports that former South Carolina star Devan Downey has signed with a pro team in Turkey.

Here’s a link to the story, which those of you who speak fluent Turkish will be able to understand.

Meantime, here’s another link to a story on Ridiculousupside.com. It’s actually a pretty good write-up, with analysis on why Downey is better off going overseas.

Interestingly, Downey will have a familiar teammate on Antalya, his new team: Former Tennessee forward Wayne Chism, who was also a teammate in the NBA summer league earlier this month.

The bottom line is Downey’s performance for the Sacramento Kings’ summer league team didn’t leave things hopeful that he would get a legitimate shot in training camp, if he even got an invite.

Downey’s current path is likely to make money in Turkey this season – probably a lot of money – and then try to hook on with another summer league team in 2011.

Incidentally, he’s not the first ex-Gamecock point guard to try his hand in Turkey: Tre’ Kelley had a stop there a few years ago.

Summer league summation

Devan Downey had a slow start in the NBA summer league, but he finished with a flurry on Sunday.

The former South Carolina star had 11 points, three rebounds and two assists in 16 minutes on Sunday, in the final summer league game for the Sacramento Kings. Downey’s point total was second on the Kings in that game, after ex-Virginia guard Sylvan Landesberg.

In five games, Downey averaged 4.8 points and 3.0 assists and 14.4 minutes. His playing time was erratic, hardly playing in the opener, then playing 22 minutes in the second game. The Kings, who need point guard depth, wanted to give long looks in each game to the three points they brought in: Downey, Donald Sloan and Tyrese Rice.

Sloan, who just finished playing at Texas A&M, appeared to have a leg up as he started all five games. He finished with an average of three points and one assist and 16 minutes.

Rice, a Boston College product, averaged 6.4 points and 2.6 assists and 17.8 minutes.

Now the key for Downey is whether he gets a training camp invite from the Kings, or anybody else. A story in the Sacramento Bee wasn’t hopeful: The headline read “No guards stand out in Las Vegas,” and Kings coach Paul Westphal was quoted as saying: “I think that nobody stood out as kicking down the door of opportunity.”

Downey on NBATV

Time will tell whether Devan Downey ever plays in a regular-season NBA game, and if so how many. But on Monday night he will at least don an NBA uniform in a summer league game, and you can watch him.

Downey is playing on Sacramento’s summer team, which at 6 p.m. will take on Detroit, in a game broadcast on NBATV. That’s 527 on your Timewarner Cable tier if you’re in the Columbia area. (Check local listings if you’re out of the area or have another carrier.)

NBATV is broadcasting most summer league games, so there will probably be other opportunities to watch Downey. We’ll try to keep you updated on the Twitter page.

UPDATE: Downey played a little over four minutes, scoring zero points but notching two assists and a rebound. The bulk of the playing time at point guard went to Donald Sloan (a bigger guard from Texas A&M) and Tyrese Rice (a 6-1 shooting specialist from Boston College.)

Downey is a King

The Sacramento Kings have confirmed that they signed Devan Downey to their summer league team.

Downey worked out for the Kings in May, but was not picked in last Thursday’s NBA draft. Still, the Kings are a pretty good landing spot for a point guard hoping to make the roster.

The Kings only have one natural point guard on their roster, Beno Udrih. Tyreke Evans, the NBA rookie of the year, shifted to shooting guard for the latter part of last season.

A member of the Kings’ media relations staff said the summer league team would have two other point guards, besides Downey. The full roster will be released on Thursday.

The Kings also picked former Kentucky center DeMarcus Cousins with the fifth overall pick in the draft.

Ohio State on the hoops sked

South Carolina is headed to the Buckeye state this December to face, well, the Buckeyes.

And then the Buckeyes are coming back here in 2011, according to their coach, Thad Matta.

Matta told The Columbus Dispatch that it has scheduled a home-and-home with the Gamecocks, starting this season. Here’s a link to the report.

South Carolina coach Darrin Horn said after the season that he was likely to schedule one more high-major team, in addition to Clemson and Boston College. Both of those teams visit Columbia this season, Clemson as part of the annual rivalry and BC to finish up a home-and-home series.

USC and Ohio State have played two other times, also in a home-and-home series, in 1989 and 1990.

Ohio State is expected to be very good, despite losing Evan Turner. Here’s a link to ESPN Andy Katz’s preseason top 25 for next year, and here’s one by CBSsports.com’s Gary Parrish.

Downey and the draft

Yes, Devan Downey was a fantastic college basketball player, and I can understand why a lot of South Carolina fans think  it’s unfair that he wasn’t drafted and has to prove himself all over again.

But I think a dose of perspective is in order. Here are some other guys that didn’t hear their names called on Thursday night:

- Scottie Reynolds, Villanova: The point guard was one of five first-team All-Americans this year. The other four were John Wall, Evan Turner, DeMarcus Cousins and Wesley Johnson.

- Jon Scheyer, Duke: He did lead his team to a national championship.

- Sherron Collins, Kansas: Also a point guard on a national title-winning team (two years ago), and one of the nation’s winningest point guards over the past four years.

- A.J. Ogilvy, Vanderbilt: Didn’t he seem like a surefire prospect as recently as a year ago? He’ll still make a lot of money overseas, and should eventually end up in the NBA.

- Courtney Fortson, Arkansas: Talk about a poor decision to come out early.

- Wayne Chism, Tennessee: You’d think his combination of height, size and shooting ability would have earned him a draft pick. And you’d be wrong.

Meanwhile, a guy named Paul George from Fresno State went 10th overall. So yeah, life isn’t fair.

This much is certain, though: Downey will have a chance to impress teams on a summer league roster, and failing that will still make big money overseas. We should all have his problems.

More about Navy

As you know by now, South Carolina just added a home date with Navy to its 2011 schedule. Here’s some information on the Midshipmen and the matchup:

- Navy doesn’t typically do many one-time games. Even Ohio State scheduled a home-and-home, albeit with a $1.5 million guarantee to Navy for its trip to Columbus last year. (Ohio State will get a smaller guarantee when it returns the trip in a few years.)

Logistically, it would have been hard for South Carolina to schedule a home-and-home with Navy, because of future schedules of both teams. Which is too bad, because Annapolis is one of the nicest cities in the country, and Gamecock fans would have enjoyed partying a couple nights near the water.

- The last time Navy played an SEC team was a home-and-home with Vanderbilt from 2003-04. Navy swept the series.

Prior to that, South Carolina in 1988 was the last SEC team to take on Navy.

[...]

Navy details

Just spoke to Charles Waddell, the associate athletics director at USC who handles football scheduling. Here’s what he had to say after Wednesday’s announcement that Navy has been added to the 2011 schedule.

- USC will pay Navy $950,000, the largest guarantee it has ever paid. But Waddell said the charge would have been higher if USC had waited longer, and they passed on some other schools that demanded more than $1 million.

“It’s difficult to schedule games these days,” Waddell said. “This is a quality opponent, a service academy, fit our schedule. We did not want to be caught out there looking for a game inside of a year. It’s gonna be a good game, it’s gonna be a challenge, it’s not gonna be a layup. They play good football.”

- Indeed the Midshipmen do play good football. Some would say too good, especially when they run the same triple option as Wofford, which has given USC’s defense fits. While acknowledging that Navy probably wasn’t coach Steve Spurrier’s first choice, Waddell said Spurrier was “on board.”

“They do present a challenge,” Waddell said. “But we do feel we can stand up to a challenge. Being in the SEC is a challenge.”

- Waddell said the past history with Navy was “not really” discussed. (For those of you unaware, google “Navy” and “Gamecocks” and “1984″.)

More details, including the outlook on future schedules, in Thursday’s paper.

So it’s over?

Yes, it does appear that the realignment crisis of summer 2010 is over. Probably. For now.

But everyone I’ve talked to in the past 24 hours thinks it’s just forestalling the inevitable.

The Big 12 appears unwieldy to a lot of people, with Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma getting an outsized portion of revenues in the league’s new setup. The other schools were happy to enter into such an arrangement because they panicked and didn’t want to be stuck in a lesser league. Understandable.

But how long before Missouri gets antsy again – or draws the interest of the Big Ten, its more natural geographic league? What of Texas A&M and its apparent desire to not be seen as Texas’ lackey? What if Texas does create its own network?

And, most importantly in my mind: How long does this promised revenue arrangement work for the Big 12? I remain skeptical that this league will be able to give its teams annual payouts on par with the SEC’s average of $17 million – especially without a football championship game.

(By the way, there are other skeptics when it comes to the money figures being thrown out by other leagues. According to a graphic shown on ESPN on Monday, the SEC was only fourth in annual revenues for each school, which sounds laughable.)

The bigger question out there for the SEC is whether the Big Ten will at some point re-ignite its flirtation with a 16-team league. Remember, that league was supposed to start all this, until the Pac-10 made its move. Now the Big Ten is happy with Nebraska, but it still doesn’t have the big markets it talked about, and literally none of its other expansion candidates have been taken off the table by the past few day’s events: Missouri can be had with a simple phone call, Rutgers probably could too, and Syracuse and other Big East schools are still out there too. (Maryland, out of the ACC, does not appear interested in leaving.)

The Pac-10′s expansion would have had an effect if it reached close to the SEC’s borders (which it would have with the Texas and Oklahoma schools) or if it expanded to 16 (which it also would have).

But any move by the Big Ten at this point, now that it’s already at 12, would have a direct affect on its competition with the SEC for dollars and TV viewers. Roy Kramer told me months ago that if the Big Ten went to 14 or 16 teams, the SEC would have to answer.

The SEC will be happy for things to stay the way they are, and will hope for that. But the current landscape doesn’t appear settled by any means, so expect the league to keep its eyes and ears open as things go forward.