Dec. 4, 2006

At the end of an intrastate trio of games, South Carolina, 4-2, takes on College of Charleston, 3-5, Tues., Dec. 5 at 7 pm at the Colonial Center before traveling to Waco, Texas to play Baylor on Sat., Dec. 9 at 6 pm. Both games will be seen on the Fox Sport Network.

The contest with the Cougars is a special one as it will be the homecoming game for former Gamecock great Bobby Cremins. Cremins was a letterwinner with South Carolina from 1968 to ’70, a graduate assistant for a season under legendary coach Frank McGuire (1973) and assistant coach from 1974-75. Playing guard for the Gamecocks, he scored 589 points in 77 games and the team posted a 61-17 record during that span. He is the second former Gamecock on USC’s schedule this year, as 1984 USC graduate Scott Sanderson brought his Lipscomb team in Nov. 19.

Cremins is in his first year at CofC. Cremins is 1-1 vs. USC – with both games occurring when he was at Georgia Tech. In Columbia, USC beat Tech 61-53 on Feb. 16, 1983 and then fell 68-50 in Atlanta on Feb. 16, 1984.

The Carolina-College of Charleston contest has been played since 1917 with this being the 27th meeting between the two schools. Carolina holds a 25-1 mark all-time against the Cougars and a 13-0 record in Columbia. In the two’s last meeting USC won 55-44 in Columbia on Dec. 4, 1998. College of Charleston’s lone win against the Gamecocks came in Charleston in 1930 when the Gamecocks were members of the Southern Conference: a 40-32 Cougar win on Jan. 17, 1930 after the Gamecocks had opened their season with a 31-26 win in Columbia on Jan. 6, 1930.

The Carolina-College of Charleston game will be shown on Fox Sports South with Dave Neal and Perry Clark making the call. The contest can be heard over the airwaves in two ways: SIRIUS Satellite Radio channel No. 161 and on the Gamecock Radio Network with Mike Morgan (play-by-play) and Casey Manning (color analyst). It can also be picked up via the internet at www.uscsports.com and finally the game can also be seen on Gamecock All Access Wed., Dec. 6 at www.uscsports.com.

Been there, done that but not here

All told during his career, Dave Odom is 13-12 against Bobby Cremins. But, each of the 25 contests was played in the ACC when Odom was at Wake Forest and Cremins was at Georgia Tech.

The last time they met on the hardwood Odom’s team won with a last second shot — but it wasn’t a collegiate game. Two summers ago the two joined a number of other coaches with Operation Hardwood in Kuwait for a basketball tournament with the U.S. service men and women. Odom led his team, Camp Navistar, to the semi-finals before Michigan State’s Tom Izzo and his team won it all.

Odom’s Wake Forest team defeated Cremins’ Tech team in the two’s last collegiate meeting: Wake won 76-64 in Winston-Salem on Feb. 27, 2000.

Turnaround

USC is 1-0 a loss this season and will be looking on Tuesday night to once again change its luck. The Gamecocks were 8-6 following a loss last season, they were 8-3 in 2004-05 and 6-4 in 2003-04.

Coming into this season, USC had won three straight road games (at Auburn (67-63) , at Florida State (69-68 OT) and at Cincinnati (65-62), but dropped this season’s road opener 67-52 game at UC-Irvine. History was on the Gamecocks side against Southern California as they notched their second straight OT win over the Trojans and turned the tide on their luck.

Less Than

USC has scored less than 60 points three times already this season, posting a 1-2 record. In games where they’ve scored less than 60 this year, USC only hit 36.4% of its shots, while the Gamecocks hit 48.1 % of their shots when they scored 74 plus in the other three games, including a season-high 56 % in its 74-59 win at The Citadel.

Last season USC scored less than 60 seven times, posting a 1-6 record.

Face

Brandon Wallace leads the Gamecocks with 11 dunks this season, including four dunks vs. Clemson. USC has 18 dunks on the season to the opponents eight.

Dominique Archie leads the team with six charges taken with the team tallying 12 to the opponents four.

Lithuania The last two out of three games freshman Evaldas Baniulis has seen city-mates from Vilnius, Lithuania. The Citadel had a sophomore, Vytautas Valiulis (G, 6-1, 180, So.), from Vilnuis and the College of Charleston features freshman Tauras Skripkauskas (G, 6-5, 200, Fr.), also from Vilnius.

Tops

Three of South Carolina’s starters average double figures: Tre’ Kelley (16.2 ppg), Brandis Raley-Ross (12.2 ppg) and Brandon Wallace (11.5 ppg) as do three of College of Charleston’s players: Dontaye Draper (17.1 ppg), David Lawrence (10.9 ppg) and Jermaine Johnson (10.8 ppg).

Kelley leads USC with 5.5 apg while Draper dishes out 4.0 apg.

USC is led in rebounding by Wallace (8.5 rpg) and Dominique Archie (6.2 rpg) with Wallace collecting 2.2 bpg. The Cougarss are led on the boards by McCandies’ 7.4 rpg and Lawrence’s 5.0 rpg.

Knocking off some formers

Tre’ Kelley now sits at No. 38 in career points scored with 1038. He needs seven points to move up to No. 35.

Kelley scored his 1000th career point as a Gamecock in the win over Lipscomb. He is the 39th Gamecock to score 1,000 points in his USC career. Kelley also played in his 3000th career minute in the Garnet and Black in the LU game.

Kelley is the only Gamecock to score in double digits in each game this season. Dating back to last season, Kelley has scored double digits in seven straight contests and 15 of the last 16 games. Kelley has started 79 games in his career, including 50 consecutive games dating back to March 3, 2005 on Senior Day vs. Ole Miss.

Eight is enough … for now!

Brandon Wallace has eight plus rebounds in each game thus far and he is averaging 8.5 rpg. Last season, Wallace accomplished that feat nine times. Wallace has stepped up his rebounding this season after averaging 6.1 rpg last season, second best on the team to Renaldo Balkman’s 6.3 rpg.

Adding insult to injury, Wallace blocked a season-high five shots at The Citadel on Mon., Nov. 27. He has blocked five or more shots in a game six times in his career, with his career-high being seven at Alaska Anchorage last November in the Gamecocks’ 65-60 win over the Seawolves.

40s

USC has already had two players play 40+ minutes in games this season, including USC’s overtime win at SoCal. Those playing 40+: Tre Kelley (Lipscomb, Southern California) and Brandon Wallace (Clemson, Lipscomb, Southern California). Thirteen Carolina players tallied 40+ minutes in a game last year – including the overtime loss to Marquette and Georgia and the OT win at Vandy and at Florida State. Posting 40+ last year: Tre’ Kelley vs. Marquette, Temple and Florida State; Tarence Kinsey vs. Marquette, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Florida State and Cincinnati; and Brandon Wallace vs. Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Florida State and Cincinnati. Renaldo Balkman also played 40+ at Florida State. Kinsey topped the list without a breather, playing all 45 minutes in the OT win at Vandy.

3 + these 3

Dominique Archie scored his first double-double in win over Lipscomb. Archie was the first USC freshman to score 20+ points since Rolando Howell scored 20 points in a 78-65 loss to Kentucky in the SEC Tournament on March 9, 2001. He was also the first freshman to have a double-double since Brandon Wallace collected a double-double at The Citadel on Dec. 3, 2003 (10 PT, 11 REB). The 20 points for Archie were a career-high and he also recorded a career-high 10 rebounds.

It was the first double-double of the year for any Gamecock.

Archie started out slow in the first three games of his career, only scoring seven total points, but he’s come on strong in the last three games, scoring a combined 43 points. Archie leads the team with 24 offensive rebounds and is No. 1 currently in the SEC in orpg with 4.0 orpg. Listed below are Archie’s numbers in the first three games compared to the last three games.

Games FG-A FTM-A OR DR TR Blocks Steals Points

1-3 3-10 1-2 7 5 12 3 0 7

4-6 18-28 7-8 17 8 25 3 0 43