Steed and other stuff

Just got back from Darrin Horn’s postseason news conference. Here are some highlights:

- As expected, forward Austin Steed will not return to the team next year. Horn said there basically would not be a place for Steed on next year’s team, though his scholarship will be honored if he chooses to stay at USC. (Don’t bet on it. A better bet is he joins the pipeline to Coastal Carolina.)

Steed started 11 games this year, and had a big block in the win over No. 1 Kentucky. But he was buried on the bench by the end of the season, not even playing in the final few games, and it was clear he had fallen out of favor.

- The paperwork has been submitted to the NCAA requesting a sixth year for forward Dominique Archie, and Horn said he hoped it would get an “initial” look early next week. I don’t know whether that means an answer is on the fast track or not. There was no update on the chances of approval. In a nearly 30-minute news conference, much of which was previewing next season, the only time Horn mentioned Archie was when he was asked about the appeal. Read into that what you want. (But obviously if Archie does get the extra year, the team will gladly take him.)

- Horn believes Malik Cooke, the transfer from Nevada who sat out this season, will have an immediate impact and be a “major part” of the team.

“Let’s not rush forward and say Malik Cooke’s gonna save the day, there’s the answer,” Horn said. “He’s just a basketball player. Is he a 4, is he a 3, I don’t know, he plays. He rebounds, he defends, he can block a shot, he can pass, he can step out and shoot, he can put it on the floor. He’s just kind of a basketball player, and more important than that he’s consistent in doing that every day and night.”

- Horn admitted it’s been hard to watch the NCAA tournament while not being a part of it. He did watch Thursday’s first-round game between Vanderbilt and Murray State: Vandy because of the SEC, and Murray State because Horn has two friends who are assistants at the Kentucky school. In fact Horn said he spoke to one of those assistants after Murray State’s game-winning shot.

Horn labeled that a lesson for the Gamecock program, since the player who hit the shot for Murray State was the first one that staff recruited. The same was the case two years ago for the player who hit the game-winning shot for Horn’s Western Kentucky team when it upset Drake in the first round of the NCAAs.

“I’ve never been a part of a losing season as a head coach,” Horn said. “That’s not something that I’m accustomed to. That’s not something that I expect to be a part of.”

- When it comes to the departed Devan Downey, the word replace “does not apply”, according to Horn.

“You don’t do that. You don’t take a guy that was the best steal guy in school history, that was up there in scoring, that can do the individual things that he can do night in and night out and say how are you going to replace that? We will not,” Horn said.  “Now somebody playing (point guard), sure and doing what they do and doing that well, I feel really good about what we have, whether Ramon (Galloway) has to play it some more or the two freshman we have coming in who we both think are going to be really good players.”

- Other than Downey, the most praise Horn had was for freshmen Galloway and Lakeem Jackson. He felt the most consistent players, relative to experience, in the closing stretch of the season were Jackson and Galloway. He pointed out that Galloway averaged 14 points a game in the final few games.

“I don’t think there was a freshman in the country, barring some of the special ones that are out there that won’t be in college basketball next year, that were more consistent than Lakeem Jackson,” Horn said.