Archive for November, 2008

The first loss of the season

Well, you knew it had to happen. The question was how soon it would happen, and it probably came a lot earlier than most expected.
Darrin Horn will not finish his career as South Carolina’s coach undefeated, thanks to Friday night’s loss at the College of Charleston. It’s not a shock – yours truly predicted it [...]

A running thread

Dominique Archie, if you’re reading this, allow me to apologize. This morning you parked in the main lot behind the basketball practice facility, and were waiting to cross the street to get to practice.
But you had unfortunate timing, as there were hundreds of runners blocking your path for what must have been a long stretch. [...]

Thanksgiving at the Horns

The Gamecocks will practice early Thursday morning so players who live close enough can head home for Thanksgiving meal.
Coach Darrin Horn said three or four players were coming to his house. Mitchell Carter, who is from Milwaukee, is among them.
“I don’t know the exact list yet,” Horn said.  “We had better have that finalized by [...]

Mike Morgan

I’ve seen a few people complain that they have yet to hear the dulcet radio tones of Mike Morgan this season, and fretting about the future. Allow me to clear that up.
Morgan hasn’t left the radio booth permanently, he just did some TV work for SportSouth, which broadcasted the first four games. Morgan will be doing the next three games (at College [...]

Gardner-Webb postgame notes

Well, time for a little late-night, postgame blogging. The fighting Gamecocks dispatched with Gardner-Webb Tuesday night, and tell me if you haven’t heard this rundown before:
- Devan Downey and Zam Fredrick led the way in scoring.
- Mike Holmes was the main low-post threat in scoring and rebounding.
- Dominique Archie had a quiet game, but ended [...]

Previewing Gardner-Webb, and more

This should be a busy week for this here blog: Monday we preview Gardner-Webb, Tuesday is the game, Wednesday we preview College of Charleston and ol’ Bobby Cremins, Friday is that game, and there’s also some football game Saturday.
In addition to all that, yours truly will spend Thanksgiving morning at the Boys and Girls Turkey [...]

Where is everybody?

The guess here is Darrin Horn is having his welcome-to-South Carolina basketball moment.
Four of them, in fact.
In the months after he was hired, Horn kept saying that what stood out to him about USC was the passion of the fans. Even though he had yet to coach a home game, it was easy to see [...]

Horn on the fan turnout, and more

Despite the genuine excitement over a new coach, attendance for South Carolina’s first two official men’s basketball games has actually decreased from last season. That may have had to do with the first two being sandwiched around the football team’s visit to Florida.
The announced crowd for the opener against Jacksonville State was 11,439, followed by [...]

Emptying the notebook

I’m in a daily race with Emily Feeney, USC’s new sports information director for men’s basketball, for new stats and notes. Hey, with the Gamecocks’ early-season schedule, it may be the only drama we have around here for awhile.
Here’s a few more:
- The twin double-doubles against Winthrop by Mike Holmes and Dominique Archie was the [...]

Off the beat with Branden Conrad

It’s not often that you sit down with a college athlete and discuss the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the economy and John McCain, but that’s what I did this morning with USC basketball player Branden Conrad.
The senior guard is a very interesting kid, with an intriguing back story:
He spent his first two years of college at [...]