Tuesday, December 04, 2007

No bowl, early recruiting, bad basketball, and Gamecock Club thoughts ...

Bowl Game - There is not much to say about South Carolina (6-6, 3-5 SEC) not getting invited to a bowl game for the third straight season ... The Gamecocks imploded at halftime of the North Carolina game and floundered the rest of the way to five consecutive defeats ... Coach Steve Spurrier mocked after that contest that past USC players had celebrated "bowl eligibility" by parading in Five Points -- I guarantee you Carolina will do (and should do) that in the future! ... Most of us agree that break-even teams don't deserve postseason play, but that is not the way the current system is setup and it just goes to show you that outside of the Palmetto State, the University of South Carolina is a very little player in college football ... No matter how much ESPN, CBS, etc., drums your program up, the Gamecocks are -- and will always be -- a pawn in the Southeastern Conference (hence the amount of Thursday night contests) ... That was USC's decision for better or worse when joining the league in 1991 and one I still support ... The 2007 Gamecocks sealed their non-postseason fate on October 20 with the worst performance of the Spurrier era vs. Vanderbilt at 12:30 p.m., for no TV (unless you consider Pay Per View, "TV") -- such stature acclaimed that day by USC (the first Carolina team to lose to the Commodores that didn't finish 1-10 or 0-11) is the stuff of legends ... To beat three bowl teams in Georgia, Miss. State, and Kentucky, but to have to watch those squads over the next month is going to be tough, especially when you consider that Carolina lost to SEC East Division Champion Tennessee in overtime! ... South Carolina must lead the nation in bowl-eligibility seasons (10) the past 20 years only to have been left at home as many times as getting to participate in the postseason: 6-4-1 in 1989; 6-5 in 1990; 6-5 in 1996; 6-5 in 2004; and 6-6 in 2007 = no bowls ... Maybe this is payback for making a bowl game in 2005 when most of us didn't think it possible!

Recruitniks - Enjoy the season recruiting geeks -- you have an early start this year ... I hope you all live the ups-and-downs that 18 year old males will experience over the next two months ... I don't follow the situation too close because I have developed a "show me" attitude (which has served me well considering the ballyhoo with the likes of Randy Jackson, Aryhel Freeman, Cory Peoples, Demetris Summers, C.J. Barber, Dorian Capers, Jonathan Hannah, O.J. Murdock, Shea McKeen, Mike West, Garrett Anderson, and Clarence Bailey to name a few) ... There are several "recruiting experts" that make their living dilly-dallying with the day-to-day lives of high school seniors, but since I don't get paid to do that I'll leave that hand-holding to them ... My suggestion is to not get wrapped up too much with "he says, she says" -- it's going to change as much as the "Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak of 1999" -- and will only leave you dazed and confused ... Those that want to be at South Carolina will sign with the Gamecocks and the others will go elsewhere -- so be it! ... If the coaches at USC can lure those top football players to Columbia then great ... If not, then "coach them up" and earn your keep!

Over and Under - One interesting game to play this football off-season is to keep track of how many players get in trouble from now until spring practice ... Scoff if you want, but it will truly shed some light to see how far the "changing of the culture" has been affected at USC ... Remember past non-bowl off-seasons? ... Lots of scuttlebut and negative headlines in the papers and on the sports radio stations! ... Here's hoping for a quiet, but productive December through February.

Yuck!!! - That gagging throw-up sound you just heard was me thinking out loud about Carolina men's basketball ... Same team as last year with different names ... This group will score more, but they won't win any more or less than last year's losing squad ... I was in Las Vegas the past five days and decided to check in on the Carolina-Clemson game on Saturday ... I figured that the Tigers would beat USC, but when I got back to my room to find the halftime score was 17 points at haftime, I quickly closed my browser window, laughed out loud in disgust, and proceeded downstairs to the casino ... Pitiful! ... Seven years on the job and Dave Odom, who I have supported for better or worse, said out loud that "he didn't take the rivalry seriously his first three years" ... Really? ... That would be shocking to me if I hadn't heard that same song and dance from another half dozen USC coaches over the last 30 years ... I know Downey (19 pts) and Fredrick (28 pts) combined for 47 points, but when your starting backcourt duo is 2 of 9 on three-pointers -- on a guard-oriented team -- then you have no chance of winning ... Can anyone tell me why Holmes is not starting? ... Archie is off to an awful start and Day will never be consistent (unless you consider being bad is consistent) ... Simply put, it's time for a change ... Odom is a good guy, but his coaching days are behind him ... Duckett seems to be a level-headed man, but hearing him at a Lexington County Gamecock Club meeting several years ago, he claimed "that USC was going to hit the state of Georgia much harder" -- that's garnered Archie, Day, and Steed -- yikes ... Sanderson has never impressed me -- getting by on his father's name, Wimp, and his brother Scott's playing days at Carolina (yes, I saw him play in the early 1980s) ... Potosnak might have the best relationship to the players, but he was a Division III player with no experience at the major Division I level unless you count Graduate Assistant experience at Wake Forest -- under Odom ... I really don't see anymore than 11-12 wins the entire year after watching this team play in person vs. S.C. State, The Citadel, and Southern California, and on TV against Penn State, N.C. State, and George Mason ... I just hope USC can beat Charleston so we don't have to hear the Bobby Cremins talk like we do about Bobby Johnson of Vanderbilt in football every year!

Up the Ante? - I am 36 years old ... I am a lifelong Gamecock fan (have missed two home football games since 1979, have had season tickets to men's basketball for that same duration and have followed baseball and men's soccer since the late 1970s) ... I worked with USC in the Sports Information Department from 1990-94 ... I am a 1993 graduate of the University of South Carolina ... I am a member of the Carolina Alumni Association (moved from single year membership to lifetime in October) ... I am a Half Scholarship donor in the Gamecock Club ... Should I move up or not? ... My $650 is due by the end of March, but my pledge to move to Full Scholarship and $1,350 is due by the end of this month if I want to receive a points upgrade and "benefits" of doing so -- but, what do I gain? ... It is a quandary I am sure many Gamecock fans are dealing with right now ... Fortunately for me, I receive my football tickets from my father, who has been in the Gamecock Club since the late 1960s and who has been at least a Half Scholarship donor the past 20 years ... I won't gain anything for football ... Bowl tickets you ask? ... Heck, they are actually better if you go through the bowl itself ... At men's basketball games we sit together -- his four tickets -- in the upper level (we were part of the "all is same" Carolina Coliseum to Colonial Center "banished group") ... But, can any of us imagine having a hard time getting tickets at the Colonial Center in the near future? ... I have serious concerns on how my money (as little as that may be to a trivial group such as the Gamecock Club) is being utilized at South Carolina ... For that matter, when the numbers are released -- in who knows when -- it will be interesting to see what the actual Roundhouse staff and coaches contribute to the Gamecock Club (very interesting to see if any of them put their money where their paychecks come from) ... My decision has not been made, but the lackluster year of Carolina sports has me thinking my personal contributions are better spent elsewhere -- let the big-wigs (if there are any) ante up!