Feb. 11, 2003

USC will take a break from SEC action on Wednesday, Feb. 12 when the Gamecocks host the Clemson at The Carolina Center. USC is 6-4 in non-conference play this year, posting a perfect 6-0 record at The Carolina Center.

USC Head Coach Dave Odom is 7-0 against Clemson since Larry Shyatt took over the Tigers five years ago (6-0 while at Wake Forest and 1-0 at USC). Odom-coaches teams have beaten Shyatt-coaches teams by an average of more than 15 points per game.

In the last meeting between the two teams, USC won, 81-59, leading the Tigers by 21 at halftime. It was the second straight win for USC over CU. The victory margin was the largest for a USC team against Clemson since 1971 and the largest in Littlejohn Coliseum since it opened in 1969.

USC leads the series 84-68. In Columbia, USC is 51-24.

“We’re obviously heading into a non-conference situation. But it’s much more than that in this situation. We’re coming off a hard month. I don’t think the hard times are particularly over,” said Odom on Monday’s SEC teleconference. “We’re coming off a good win against Vanderbilt. I think we caught Vanderbilt on a night where they didn’t shoot the ball particularly well. We were able to do something that we hadn’t been able to do well, and that’s rebound. I think we were very fortunate to win that game.

(On the Vandy win turning things around) “I think that’s a bit simplistic. It’s not unrealistic to believe that your team will begin to relax and find some renewed confidence. What happened in Nashville is great for us. But Clemson will have something to say about that, and Arkansas will have something to say about that Saturday.”

USC is 8-11 and 2-7 in the SEC on the year. Clemson checks in with a 12-7 overall record and is 2-7 in the ACC.

now on deck: arkansas saturday

Returning its focus to SEC action, USC will play Arkansas on Saturday, Feb. 15 with a 1:05 pm tip-off in The Carolina Center. The game will be televised by JP Sports. It is USC’s third of four appearance on JP this year.

Last year South Carolina defeated Arkansas in Fayetteville, 62-60, on a game-winning lay-up by Jamel Bradley with 1:10 left in the game. It was the Gamecocks second win in a row in Bud Walton Arena.

our last time out: it was pretty

Shooting a season-best 59.6%, USC broke an 0-8 slump on the road this season to defeat Vanderbilt 84-72 on Saturday night in Nashville. Playing some fine music of his own in the Music City, USC was led by Chuck Eidson. Eidson checked in with 18 points coupled with four rebounds, five assists and two steals in 35 minutes. Eidson’s steals pushed him to No. 3 on the all-time SEC steals chart, tallying 253.

The Gamecocks had three other players in double figures with Kerbrell Brown scoring 15, Tony Kitchings scoring 11 and Chris Warren with 11 points.

USC led from start to finish. Up 15-12 in the first half, USC went on a 15-4 run to push the lead to 30-16. The Gamecocks ended the half with a 46-31 spread. USC shot a season-best 58.8% in the first half, only be topped in the second half with a 61.1%.

Jarod Gerald, sick with a virus the past week, didn’t make the trip. He stayed home last week for both the LSU and Vanderbilt games.

many of the best

USC played what was arguably its best game of the year at Vanderbilt, leading from the clock’s sun up to sun down.

USC’s 59.6% was the second highest field goal percentage for the Gamecocks under USC Head Coach Dave Odom (topped only at Tennessee, on 1/23/02, shooting 60.0%).

USC was also successful in three pointers, hitting 7-11 for 63.6% – a best under Coach Odom in his two seasons at the Gamecock helm.

The 84 points scored against Vanderbilt were a season-high for the Gamecocks as well.

USC shot a season-high 31 field goals and out-rebounded Vandy, with the Commodores pulling down a season-low (for a USC opponent) 22 rebounds. USC hadn’t outrebounded an opponent since the win over The Citadel on Jan. 2.

that streak is over

Don’t mention it again.

South Carolina was 0-8 on the road this year, but with the win at Vanderbilt the Gamecocks snapped that streak.

The last time USC went 0-8 on the road to start the season was in 1981-82. With Coach Bill Foster’s second season, USC lost eight straight on the road to begin the year, before winning 63-56 at Hofstra on Feb. 3, 1982. USC, 14-15 that year, won two more road games later in the season (at Furman and at Florida State).

Proving the road is a tough place to play, there are four SEC teams that are still winless on the road this season: Vanderbilt (0-7), Alabama (0-6), Arkansas (0-6) and LSU (0-5). In the ACC, where USC’s Wednesday night opponent plays, there are two teams no wins on the road this year: Georgia Tech (0-7) and Clemson (0-4)

is that so?

Before the Vanderbilt game, Tony Kitchings told his teammates he hadn’t lost at Vanderbilt during his career and he wasn’t starting that night. He was right as USC went on to win 84-72.

For the record, the senior class is undefeated at Vanderbilt and Arkansas, two of the toughest places to play in the SEC, during their four year career.