Alaskan Shoot-out

I am mad at Dave getting us out of the better pre-season tourney. Even if we lost every game in Ancorage, Alaska I would have rather played there instead of this so-called "Classic"


FYI, the Gamecocks open up the 2003-04 regular season with the first round of the Guardians Classic in the Colonial Center on Monday at 8 p.m. against Gardner Webb.

Can't say I'm too excited about the "Guardians Classic" myself, but I'm not sure our team is up to anything else.

What conference is Gardner Webb in, anyway? Are they taking new members?

I know we are good in baseball and track. But the state of major sports at USC is an absolute embarassment. To be this bad in BOTH football AND men's hoops is absolutely inexcusable for a BCS school.....unless you're a strong adademic institution like Vandy or Northwestern.

Why is winning in a sport the nation actually pays attention to and ESPN Sportscenter reports on do danged difficult for the mighty Cocks?? :mad: :crying:

:rolleyes:

If the "rolling eyes" icon is supposed to indicate that my expectations and desires for 7 to 8 wins a season in football.....and about 17 or more wins a season in basketball....is any way unreasonable, I'd sure love to hear why.

Don't you.....or doesn't anyone.....realize what an amazing phenomenon USC sports really and truly is? We are surrounded.....literally surrounded by schools....who are all successful in one of the two big sports. Some are quite good in both. Many are major powers. Georgia, Ga. Tech, the Florida schools, UNC, Duke, Wake, NC State, Clemson, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Va. Tech, Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi and Mississipi State, Maryland, LSU.....you name it. All have at least one of the two majors to hang their hats on. All get plenty of positive media attention because of it. Can we not expect the same at USC without being labeled as crazy or "whining"?

I'm not even asking that we become a dynasty. But surely asking to be competitive and make it into SOME sort of a bowl game annually.....and to make it to, oh, say.......three NCAA tourneys every 4 years isn't that crazy. Just don't see why it's that hard of a concept to grasp, I guess....

Odom has brought the new kids along slowly, they only beat G-W by 11 and beat Idaho by 10 - Its good to see wins this early, but the program is in serious trouble when the coach chooses a "softer" schedule just to save his job. Just imagine if McGee had landed UConn's coach (he was targeted by McGee along with Tubby) - they are #1 in the country this year.

As for football, I am disappointed that Lou was given an extension before the big game - I would have let him sweat it out a couple of weeks. I still feel that Clemson will win even though the consolation will be that Bowden and Scott will be run out of town anyway. If Lou continues this November tradition of losing, I don't see how McGee can keep his contingent happy any longer.

Galactus Wrote:If the "rolling eyes" icon is supposed to indicate that my expectations and desires for 7 to 8 wins a season in football.....and about 17 or more wins a season in basketball....is any way unreasonable, I'd sure love to hear why.

Nah, it's not about your expectations. It's about your redundancy.

Rap, I don't think he did it to save his job. I think he did it for team confidence reasons. Letting these guys experience a few victories early on has to be better for their attitude than going to Alaska & getting blown out a couple of times.

Rendundant I will continue to be, as long as USC sports is reduntant. If they change their tune, I'll be thrilled to change mine. But what are we all, if not redundant, eh?

Rap.......The schedule thing isn't bothering me as much as I thought it might. After all, we're playing NC State, Clemson and Temple. Nothing earth shattering about that........but neither is our team. I don't think Odom has much choice.

The key to Odom's future.....as it was with Foster, Felton, Fogler and anyone else who coaches these days......is his recruiting. And the way he develops players. When I see guys with names like Frederick, Dunleavy and Winters playing elsewhere, I get depressed.

If Odom can't get us to any post season tourney at all on this schedule, we've got serious problems. And maybe we do.

But I am encouraged by our up-tempo approach.....and our better three point shooting. Also.....Idaho isn't THAT bad of a program. SW Missouri won't be a walk in the park, either.

Galactus Wrote:I don't think Odom has much choice.

Funny that he made a choice in not being in a legit pre-season tournament and being in a JOKE of a "Classic". It's a "Classic" alright, a "Classic" STINKER! I think Odom is cruising into retirement and a NIT-bubble season this year.

BTW Gal, where is Winter's kid going?

Yeah....well, we're kind of a joke of a program right now......

But let's see how we do against NC State at home. I think Clemson and Temple will give us plenty of trouble at their home courts. But maybe we can compete a bit with the Pack at home.....I don't know.

Brandon Winters is currently playing for Davidson. Looks like a pretty good player to me....

Thanks for the info re: Winters son

USC should do better on the road than at home, but I think Philly will be too much for them in Temple.

Dave Odom has brought in more quality players than I expected - esp. from what I was reading on some message boards about how horrible his recruiting has been. The pressure defense that he has the team running this year may get them more wins than was expected (they forced a school record 30 turnovers by their opponent in a 73-40 victory over Navy).

Of course if they end up with a bad season, it's because all of the young players they have on the team!

Well, we've made it to the championship game so we might as well go out & win it.

So USC won, eh?

I saw that Clemson only beat High Point 88 - 81; maybe that squad is more mediocre than we thought.

BTW, Galactus - I saw Winters playing against UNC last night, he could start for us right now.

Anyone think UNC would have been ranked this high early if Doherty was still there???

Won again & won the Guardian Classic.

We get a couple of more warm ups w/ Campbell & Citadel (in Chas) before we go to Clemson on 12/6. Hope we don't have a let down as we need to go into the Tiger game unbeaten.

Drakeman Wrote:Won again & won the Guardian Classic.

We get a couple of more warm ups w/ Campbell & Citadel (in Chas) before we go to Clemson on 12/6. Hope we don't have a let down as we need to go into the Tiger game unbeaten.

WOW, 5-0 (I thought the Giant Killers would send us home <again>, well it should be smooth sailing right into December. I still can't believe they hit that many threes against SW Missouri - watch them now miss everything once they get back home :rolleyes: