March 10, 2006

Game 31 o No. 14 Tennessee vs. South Carolina o March 10, 2006 o Gaylord Entertainment Center o Nashville, Tenn.

Tipoff: 1:05 pm (EST)
TV: JP (Tom Hammond, Larry Conley)
Radio: Gamecock Radio Network
Series Record: UT leads 25-21
In Columbia: USC leads 13-7
In Knoxville: UT leads 17-7
Neutral site: Series tied 1-1
Last Meeting: UT won 64-81 in Knoxville on Jan. 28, 2006

South Carolina
Head Coach: Dave Odom
USC Record: 93-69 (5th year)
Overall Record: 371-243 (20th year)
Record vs. UT: 5-5 (4-1 H, 1-4 A, 0-0 N)

Tennessee
Head Coach: Bruce Pearl
UT Record: 21-6 (1st year)
Overall Record: 338-90 (14th year)
Record vs. USC: 2-0 (1-0 H, 1-0 A)

Probable Starters for the Tennessee game (from previous game)
South Carolina Gamecocks (16-14, 6-10 SEC)

No. 14 Tennessee Volunteers (21-6, 12-4 SEC)

Cock Calls

Gamecocks play Vols in second round of SEC Tournament

USC, 16-14 and finishing 6-10 in the SEC, advanced to the second round of the SEC Tournament with a 59-44 win over Mississippi State on Thursday and will face No. 14 Tennessee on Fri., March 10 at 1 pm. Tennessee, 21-6 and 12-4 in the SEC, won the Eastern Division this season and as the No. 1 seed from the East it had a first round bye. In the last match-up between the two UT defeated USC 65-81 on Jan. 28 in Knoxville. The game will feature what many say is the SEC’s top offense (81.7 ppg, UT) vs. the SEC’s top defense (opponent’s average 62.9 ppg).

Carolina has now won its tournament opener in three of the five seasons under Head Coach Dave Odom. USC won its tournament opener in 2002, 2004 and 2006. The Gamecocks made it to the semi-finals of the tournament in 2002 (Alabama) and 2004 (Kentucky) before falling both times. Even number years under Odom USC has advanced to the semifinals, while odd number years USC has fallen in the first round.

The game will be carried on Jefferson-Pilot television with Tom Hammond and Larry Conley making the call. JP will televise the first, second and semifinal rounds while CBS will broadcast the championship game nationally on Sunday. Dave Neal will serve as the host of Jefferson Pilot’s television tournament coverage while Dave Baker will serve as the roving reporter.

The UT game can be heard on the Gamecock Radio Network with Mike Morgan (play-by-play) and Casey Manning (color analyst). The UT game can also be heard via the internet at www.uscsports.com.

They Said
Tennessee and South Carolina have split two all-time meetings in the SEC tournament. The Vols won 70-63 in 1992 and the Gamecocks posted a 75-68 win in 2000. The winner will face Alabama or Kentucky in the semifinals on Saturday at 1 pm EST.

UT head coach Bruce Pearl said before the tournament the Gamecocks were a “dangerous” opponent.

“There are teams that are seeded low who have beaten some of the best in the tournament,” Pearl said. “One of them is South Carolina. South Carolina has beaten Florida twice, they had Kentucky beat at Kentucky, they were right there with LSU at the end of the year at home and obviously had us down at their place.”

“I know Tennessee is going to prey on the fact we played Thursday. They’re fresh,” USC Head Coach Dave Odom said. “We’re vulnerable to fatigue. They’re not. I’m going to prey on the fact we’ve got the first-game jitters in the tournament out of the way, and maybe they’ll be nervous. Maybe they won’t. I don’t know.”

SEC Tourney
Carolina is 2-1 in the SEC Tournament when held in Nashville and 13-14 in the SEC Tournament since joining the league 15 years ago (see chart below for records vs. SEC opponents). In Nashville the Gamecocks defeated Mississippi State 69-62 before falling to Kentucky 78-65 in 2001. USC went on to play in the NIT, losing at Connecticut in the opening round. That was the only time USC has faced the Bulldogs in the SEC Tournament prior to its win on Thursday, but USC has faced its sister school, Ole Miss six times (4-2).

Under Coach Odom the Gamecocks are 5-4 in the SEC Tournament and have advanced to the semifinals twice. The other two times under Odom, Carolina dropped opening round losses to Ole Miss.

A Few Things
* Carolina is 17-12 under Coach Odom in the month of March. Since joining the league in 1991-92, SC is now 33-33 in March.

* Mississippi State scored the fewest points (44) an SEC opponent has scored in the SEC Tournament vs. the Gamecocks. The previous low was 53 by Mississippi on 3/10/05. MSU was the 23rd team Odom has held under 50 points since he came to Carolina five years ago, including five teams this season (4-1). He holds a 21-2 record in those 23 games. The only losses came at Georgia Feb. 23 and against Auburn in 2003.

The 22 with 50 or less under Odom are: Wofford 49, Providence 48, SC State 50, Charleston Southern 41, Vanderbilt 43, Auburn 50, Ball State 47, Temple 47, The Citadel 50, Mississippi 49, Navy 40, Campbell 48, The Citadel 38, Charleston Southern 36, SC State 50, Yale 48, Georgia 47, Temple 46, Wofford 44, Wofford 43, Detroit Mercy 35, South Carolina State 46, Georgia 48 and Mississippi State 44 (italics: this season).

Going all the way back to the Frank McGuire era, which started in 1964, USC has held 75 opponents to 50 points or less.

* USC might consider taking Auburn’s official scorer on the road with it. When Francis Sanda scores a USC game as of late, USC is 3-0, including its latest two wins (67-63 win at Auburn and 59-55 win vs. Mississippi State).

* Tarence Kinsey has scored 20+ points nine times this season and a career best 24 points three times. Prior to this season, in 85 games he had only scored 20+ points twice.

* In addition to Kinsey, Tre’ Kelley has hit 20+ three times this season and Renaldo Balkman has hit it once.

* USC won three SEC road games this season (at Vandy, Florida, Auburn), matching the same total of 2004 (at Auburn, Vandy, Georgia). The last time USC won four SEC road games: 1998 (at Georgia, Auburn, Vanderbilt and Florida).

* The win at Auburn was Odom’s 370th win as a head coach. He needs seven more wins to hit 100 wins at USC.

Got’em
Dave Odom came into the season looking for his first USC wins against Florida and Mississippi State. You can check Florida and Mississippi State off the list now, twice actually. Dave Odom, who came to Carolina five years ago, has now defeated every SEC team at least twice.

He defeated both UF and MSU while at WFU. After 12 years at Wake, he defeated every then-ACC team at least eight times a piece.

Two Halves
The Gamecocks are 0-2 this season against the Volunteers, being outscored 157-134. The Volunteers have posted 101 of their 157 (64%) points in the second half against the Gamecocks. In the two games combined, UT is 36-of-60 (60%) against the Gamecocks in the second half from the field while Carolina is 29-of-60 (48%). UT is 14-of-25 (56%) from behind the arc in the second half while the Gamecocks are 9-of-24 (38%). In the first half, USC is 22-of-50 (44%) from the field while the Vols are 21-of-59 (36%). Behind the arc in the first half, USC is 8-of-26 (31%) while the Vols are 4-of-16 (25%).

20 or less
The Gamecocks held Mississippi State to 19 points in the second half. USC has held five opponents this season to 20 points or less in a half (games in italics were wins).

Gamecock Leaders
Tarence Kinsey heads up the Gamecock cause with 15.4 ppg. Kinsey leads USC in scoring in every way you figure it: SEC games (15.4 ppg), wins (15.8 ppg), losses (14.9 ppg), home (15.3 ppg), away (14.8 ppg) and neutral (17.7 ppg). Kinsey also leads the team in mpg (34.1), 3pt % (39.7%) and free throw % (87.3%). He is second in steals (1.3) and third in assists (2.1). Kinsey is 10-19 from 3 pt land in the past three games after going 3-26 in the five previous games. He has hit at least one three in 25 games this season.

Tre’ Kelley is second with 11.5 ppg and leads the team with 4.3 apg. Brandon Wallace leads the team with 6.2 rpg and 1.6 bpg. He is second with 2.2 apg and fourth with 7.4 ppg. Wallace has nine blocks in the last three games. His four double-doubles top Renaldo Balkman’s three and Kinsey’s two.

Balkman’s third on the team with 9.6 ppg and 2.0 apg. He leads the team with 1.5 spg and his 5.8 rpg are second-best on the USC roster. The 12 points by Balkman vs. Mississippi State were the most points scored by him in a game since he posted 28 points against Alabama on Feb. 14, 206. He had 26 combined points in the last five regular season games.

Career Lists
Tarence Kinsey has tallied 1,063 career points – hitting his 1000th career point with a free throw in the second half vs. Vandy (18:45). He become the 38th Gamecock to go over the 1,000 mark. With his 24 points at Auburn, he passed Darryl Martin, Scotti Ward and Aaron Lucas to move to No. 35. If he can score 16+ he will move to No. 30, passing Brian Winters (1079, 1971-74) and leapfrogging four players (Cedrick Hordges, Chuck Eidson, Larry Davis and Winters).

Kinsey’s 461 points this season have already surpassed the points he scored in his sophomore (273) and junior years (286). He scored just 43 points in an injury riddled freshman season. Kinsey has hit 20+ points nine times this season, including three 21 point performances at Kentucky, vs. UK and vs. No. 21 LSU. In his first three seasons at USC, Kinsey played in 85 games and he had hit the 20+ mark only twice. (23 vs. S.C. State, 12-22-04 and 21 vs. Idaho, 11-18-03).

His 116 career three-pointers put him at No. 8 all-time. Two more and he will pass Brent Price at No. 7 (117, 1988-89). Not bad for a guy who went 1 of 14 from beyond the arc his freshman year, scoring 43 points while he suffered from a number of injuries.

His 319 three-point attempts put him at No. 10 all-time. He needs 14 more attempts to reach Herbert Lee Davis (333, 1997-2000).

Another career list possibility: he needs six more steals to match Carey Rich at No. 10 with 127 steals (1993-95). If the season ended today, he would finish at No. 6 on the all-time career three-point % list (36.4%). In addition he would finish at No. 4 on the free throw % list for a single season with a 87.3%, topping Scotti Ward in 1963 (86.8%). Very much within his reach, Ronnie Collins heads up the single season list at 88.4% (84-95) at the charity stripe.

Next to 1000?
Looking down the road, Tre’ Kelley has 813 career points and has a real shot at being the 39th player to hit 1,000 career points his senior year. He is averaging a career-high 11.5 ppg this season after scoring 5.1 ppg his freshman year and 8.9 ppg last year.

Close Call … Again
USC has had 17 games decided by seven points or less, posting a 6-11 record – including 11 of those being SEC games (USC is 3-7 in those games). USC has had seven games this season decided by three points or less, posting a 1-6 record. Three of the seven games that were decided by three points or less went to OT.

Each of USC’s first six SEC games were decided by seven points or less and 11 SEC games were decided by the same tally. USC has averaged six games decided by seven points or less since they joined the SEC.

Got some, want some more
Carolina has hit at least six 3-pointers in 21 of its 30 games this season as compared to hitting six+ in just 13 of 33 games last year. In addition, USC has hit 10+ in seven games this season, including the 11-23 performance in the win over MSU and the 10-21 performance in the win over No. 6 Florida. USC put up a 4-3 record in those games.

When Carolina shoots 40% or better from behind the arc this season they are 8-4. The four losses were against Marquette (92-89), vs. UT (76-69), at UK (80-78) and vs. LSU (61-64).

USC is hitting three’s unlike last year’s team. Last year’s leading scorer Carlos Powell who knocked down just six threes in 33 games, attempted 32 (19%), while this year’s leading scorer, Tarence Kinsey is hitting 38.7% from beyond the arc (53-137). In fact Kinsey, Tre’ Kelley, Brandon Wallace, Stephen McDowell, Rocky Trice and Dwayne Day have already either topped or tied last year’s totals.

Keepin’ it going
Hitting five three’s vs. Mississippi State – USC extended its streak to 165 consecutive games with a three-point basket. Not bad, but the streak had reached 216 straight games with USC?having a trey in every game since Jan. 7, 1995 vs. Kentucky. The streak ended as Carolina went 0-19 from long range in the regular season finale vs. MSU in 2001.

Quickly
USC is 7-6 following a loss. USC was 8-3 in 2004-05 and 6-4 in 2003-04.
USC appeared on television at 22 times during the regular season, including at seven games on national television (6 ESPN/ESPN2, 1 CBS) and one tape delay (SUN Sports). The 22 appearances were the most regular-season television appearances ever for the Gamecocks. USC is 10-13 on TV this season.