March 1, 2006

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THE BASICS
The South Carolina women’s basketball team (17-10; 7-7 Southeastern Conference) enters the postseason this week as it faces Auburn (13-14 overall; 4-10 SEC) at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time Thursday in first round action at the SEC Tournament, played at Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Ark. The Gamecocks are the No. 7 seed in the tournament, with Auburn the No. 10 seed. The winner of Thursday’s game faces No. 2 seed Tennessee Friday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern.

ON THE AIR
Fox Sports South will televise all games at the SEC Tournament live, with the exception of the championship game. ESPN2 will televise the title game. The game will be broadcast live on WISW 1320 AM Radio Columbia, with Andy Demetra handling play-by-play and Robin Muller providing analysis. For listeners outside of Columbia, the live radio broadcast will also be aired worldwide via the internet on the official web site of South Carolina athletics, www.uscsports.com.

THE COACHES
Susan Walvius is in her ninth year at the helm of the South Carolina women’s basketball program and her 16th year overall as a head coach. Prior to USC, she coached at Virginia Commonwealth and West Virginia. The 2002 SEC Coach of the Year led the Gamecocks to consecutive top-20 national finishes and NCAA tournament appearances in 2002 and 2003. Her 2002 squad advanced to the Elite Eight. In her second season at Auburn, Nell Fortner has one of the most diverse resumes of any coach in America, as she has served as a collegiate head coach (Auburn, 2004-present and Purdue, 1997), a WNBA head coach and general manager (Indiana Fever, 2001-03), Olympic coach (Team USA, 1997-2000) and television personality (ESPN studio analyst, 2000-04).

SOUTH CAROLINA FROM A DISTANCE
Height, experience, defense and balanced scoring are the name of the game for South Carolina, as the Gamecocks boast eight players that stand 6-0 or taller and rank as the 15th-tallest team in the nation. Carolina’s roster is dotted by eight juniors and one senior, but freshman Demetress Adams has emerged as a bright spot, ranking among the team leaders in scoring, rebounding, blocked shots and steals. Playing very well of late, Carolina has won five of its last six and seven of its last nine, including victories in four of its last five SEC road games. The Gamecocks endured a brutal schedule to open the conference slate, facing No. 1 Tennessee, No. 3 LSU, No. 23 Vanderbilt and Kentucky in Lexington, but rebounded to finish the SEC season with a 7-7 record. Of Carolina’s 10 losses, nine came at the hands of teams that have been ranked in the top 25 this year.

AUBURN FROM A DISTANCE
Auburn moved to 13-14 overall and 4-10 in conference play with a 61-74 loss at Georgia Sunday afternoon. The Tigers had solid play, but could not overcome Georgia’s hot shooting, including 11-of-22 shooting from behind the arc. Auburn pulled to within four points at 52-48, but the Lady Bulldogs took control and took the 13-point win. Freshman KeKe Carrier had a career day with 26 points and added nine rebounds. Auburn and USC have never met in the postseason, the only SEC team the Tigers have not played in the SEC Tournament. Auburn has won four SEC Tournaments, including the 1997 tournament in which the Tigers were the first team to win four straight games on the way to the title as the No. 9 seed.

ADAMS, JOHNSON EARN SEC HONORS
A pair of South Carolina women’s basketball players were recognized by the Southeastern Conference Tuesday as the SEC presented its post-season awards, as selected by the league’s coaches. Junior forward Melanie Johnson earned second-team all-SEC honors, with freshman forward Demetress Adams claiming a spot on the SEC All-Freshman team. Both players are South Carolina natives, with Johnson hailing from Barnwell, S.C. (Barnwell HS) and Adams from Bishopville (Lee Central HS). Johnson finished the regular season as South Carolina’s leader in scoring, rebounding and steals, averaging 10.5 points 6.3 boards and 2.3 steals per contest. She averaged 15.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.7 steals per game in the final six games of the regular season and posted double-doubles in three of her last six games, highlighted by a 27-point, 10-rebound explosion in Carolina’s win at Florida on Feb. 12. In receiving the honor, Johnson becomes the seventh Gamecock to earn a spot either the first or second-team all-SEC squad, joining Marsha Williams (1992, 93), Shannon Johnson (1994, 95, 96), Nikki Miars (1997), Annie Lester (1998, 99), Shaun Gortman (2002) and Jocelyn Penn (2002, 03). Ranking among the statistical leaders among SEC freshmen all season, Adams finished the season ranking second on the team with 8.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. She also averaged 1.2 blocked shots and 1.3 steals per game. Adams, who posted a double-double in her first game at the collegiate level, was recognized as both the SEC Player of the Week and the SEC Freshman of the Week after she posted her second and third double-doubles of the year in a pair of Gamecock wins over Savannah State and Bethune-Cookman earlier in the year. In doing so, she became the first Gamecock since Jocelyn Penn in 2003 to be recognized as the SEC Player of the Week and is the first Carolina rookie ever to be honored as the SEC Freshman of the Week, as the conference just began recognizing a Freshman of the Week for the first time this year. Adams finished the regular season on a high note, converting on 44 of her last 67 field goal attempts (.657 pct) in the last nine games. She becomes the third Gamecock to be an SEC all-freshman selection, joining Annie Lester (1997) and Lauren Simms (2004).

A CAROLINA WIN OVER AUBURN WOULD:
>> Mark Carolina’s sixth win in its last seven games and its eighth victory in its last 10 games.
>> Give South Carolina 10 more wins than it had all last year, which would mark the largest improvement of any team in the six power conferences from a year ago (SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Big East).
>> Mark the Gamecocks’ second win over Auburn this year, as Carolina claimed a 58-46 triumph over the Tigers on Feb. 16 in Auburn.
>> Mark the Gamecocks’ first win at the SEC Tournament since Carolina claimed a 79-64 first-round victory over Ole Miss in 2003.
>> Set the Gamecocks up for a second-round meeting with second-seeded Tennessee.

WHO’S GOT THE HOT HAND LATELY?
>> Redshirt sophomore Lakesha Tolliver is averaging 13.3 points on 21-of-28 shooting from the field (.750 pct) in her last four games.
>> Junior Melanie Johnson is averaging 15.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.7 steals per game in her last six games. Johnson has posted double-doubles in three of her last six games, highlighted by a 27-point, 10-rebound explosion in Carolina’s win at Florida on Feb. 12.
>> Junior Iva Sliskovic matched a career high with 20 points in the regular-season finale at Vanderbilt. She has scored in double figures in four of her last five games and is averaging 13.8 points per game on 20-of-33 shooting from the field (.648 pct) in the last seven games.
>> Freshman Demetress Adams has converted on 44 of her last 67 field goal attempts (.657 pct) in the last nine games.
>> As a group, Carolina’s post players have been very steady of late, as the quartet of Tolliver, Johnson, Adams and Sliskovic has combined to average 44.1 points per game on 105-of-177 shooting from the field (.593 pct) during the last six games.
>> Carolina’s team rebounding has improved significantly during the last six games, as the Gamecocks have outrebounded their last six opponents by an average margin of +12.5 boards per game.

IN BOX WE TRUST
There was a new addition to the Carolina bench in the Gamecocks’ win over Florida in Gainesville on Feb. 12, as a large cardboard box adorned the bench. The box was found and brought in by assistant coach Tammy Holder as a reminder to the team of the importance of boxing out. Carolina was outrebounded by smaller Mississippi State and Kentucky teams before the box’s arrival, but came back to out-rebound Florida by a 43-33 margin with the box on the bench. The box accompanied the team to Auburn, and sure enough, the Gamecocks claimed a win over the Tigers and outrebounded Auburn, 39-38 despite the fact that the Tigers held a height and size advantage. The box has been on the bench every game since.

ADAMS AN ALL-FRESHMAN CANDIDATE
It doesn’t take most observers very long to recognize that freshmen Demetress Adams is usually one of the most talented players on the court. Adams started the season averaging 10.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game through her first 10 games. In the 11th game of the year, Adams injured her hand and was forced to wear a bulky and cumbersome bandage on her shooting hand for the next five games. Since getting the bandage off, Adams is back to her early-season form, highlighted by back-to-back 18-point performances over Kentucky and Florida and a 15-point, seven-rebound effort against Longwood.

DEFENSE AND REBOUNDING ARE KEYS
Most coaches will tell you that defense and rebounding win games, and an examination of Carolina’s stats certainly illustrates that point. In the Gamecocks’ 17 wins, they have limited the opposition to 47.4 points per game on 29.0 percent shooting from the field and hold a +12.9 rebounding margin. In the Gamecocks’ 10 losses, the opposition averages 70.9 points per game on 42.3 percent shooting from the field, with Carolina’s rebounding margin dipping to +1.5.

USC BENCH DOUBLED-UP ON OPPONENTS
During the regular season, South Carolina’s non-starters scored more than double what the opposition’s non-starters scored, as the Gamecock bench averaged 35.1 points per game against 16.9 points per game from the opponent’s bench. During South Carolina’s seven-game winning streak earlier this season, the Gamecocks’ non-starters combined to average 46.1 points per game, whereas the opposition’s non-starters combined to average 9.3 points per contest.

GAMECOCKS ARE THE FABULOUS NO-NAMES
Among the consistent themes of the 2005-06 season has been the fact that no Carolina player has emerged as a star, but as Susan Walvius has said numerous times, “The strength of our team is our team.” Her thoughts are backed up by the fact that no Gamecock averaged more than 10.5 points per game during the regular season, but five different players averaged between 7.5 points and 10.5 points per game. A total of nine different players have led the Gamecocks in scoring in a game this year.

CAROLINA GETTING DEFENSIVE
During the 27-game regular season, only Tennessee, Kentucky, LSU, Georgia, Florida and Vanderbilt shot 40 percent or better from the field against South Carolina’s stingy defense. The Gamecocks have limited 11 different opponents to either 30 percent shooting from the field or lower this year and held 17 of their last 22 opponents below their season field goal percentage entering the game.

THE SWAT TEAM SETS A NEW RECORD
Carolina’s height was a contributing factor to the Gamecocks shattering the single-season school record for blocked shots in 2004-05. Carolina swatted 176 shots on the season (6.1 per game), shattering the previous record of 115 blocks set in 2001-02. That number has held true in 2005-06 as well, as Carolina has surpassed the record it set last year, as the Gamecocks have blocked a whopping 182 shots in 27 games this year (6.7 per game).