Why did you leave??????????????

Plastic man had a decent game last night with 18 points, 7 rebounds and a block in 21 minutes of action against the NBA highest scoring team. After a slow start, it seems Balkman might be picking up some minutes for the Knicks. On the other hand the Carolina basketball team seems to have it own problems, expected to get blow out tonight against Southern Cal, due to pour shooting in there first two games. Carolina will need to get on track early if they have any hopes of making the NCAA tourney come March.

Since I was a Winthrop homer last year I figured I would start that scary rumor again, almost knock off UNC last night

Puff Puff Give

WCJB-TV 20 Sports has learned Florida defensive end Jarvis Moss has been suspended for Saturday's game against Western Carolina. Moss tested positive for marijuana. After practice Tuesday night, Gator head coach Urban Meyer would only say "We're dealing with something right now, but I'm not ready to announce that."
Moss is one of the top defensive ends in the SEC. The redshirt junior from Denton, Texas has 47 tackles this season, including 4.5 sacks. He is the reigning SEC Special Teams Player of the Week after blocking a field goal at the end of regulation to save Florida's 17-16 win over South Carolina. Moss also blocked an extra point in the victory.


That is right kids the Chicken curse is in full effect this season.

I am sure Spurrier is looking for a appeal by the SEC.

What is the first think you hear after getting slapped by Bobby Knight

Click Clack

Going Bowl-ling...

A look at the Bowl Projections from ESPN as of Nov. 13th.


Meineke Car Care (Big East or Navy vs. ACC)

Navy vs.Clemson
*** Navy has accepted the invitation.


AutoZone Liberty (C-USA No. 1 vs. SEC No. 6)

Houston vs. South Carolina

______
At the other end of the spectrum, it looks today like the winner of Ohio State-Michigan will play the winner of USC-Notre Dame in the national championship.

South Carolina has work to do, no question about that. It needs to beat Middle Tennessee this week and then knock off Clemson the week after if it wants something other than the lowest tier bowl. Two wins might get the Gamecocks as high as the Nashville game against a pretty good ACC (No. 5) team such as Maryland.

In need of some black magic...

USC (5-5, 3-5 in SEC) needs some "help" to get to a bowl it seems right now. Having losses in the last four games to ranked opponents by a total of 21 points. It seems that having 6 wins may not be good enough this year....we need 7.

Georgia's 37-15 win over Auburn hurt the Gamecocks bowl hopes in two ways. First, it guaranteed a winning record for the Bulldogs (7-4), who would get the nod over USC if the Gamecocks finish 6-6.

Also, it might have cost the SEC its best shot of sending two teams to BCS bowls. Auburn's loss means that the conference will finish with only one 1-loss team. That could leave nine schools jockeying for the SEC's eight guaranteed bowl slots.

Kentucky (6-4) beat Vanderbilt Saturday to become bowl eligible and eliminate the Commodores from bowl consideration. Kentucky could get to seven wins by beating Louisiana-Monroe next week.

With the move to the 12-game schedule this year, bowls are prohibited from selecting 6-6 teams if there are schools with winning records available.

Our next game is by no means a push over. Middle Tennessee coach Rick Stockstill, a USC assistant from 2004-05, is closing in on a Sun Belt championship in his first season (looks like they will play Troy for the championship). Assured of their first winning season in five years, the Blue Raiders losses have come against three teams ranked in the top 25 -- Maryland (24-10), Oklahoma (59-0) and Louisville (44-17). Then we get to play Klempson, this game is of the type where records do not matter and it is arivalryvalary game. The South Carolina vs. Clemson game will have a noon kickoff on Saturday, Nov. 25 and will be televised either by ESPN or ESPN2.

Again, I am thinking the glass is "half full" and good things are going to happen. Not to mention didn't Spurrier saw after losing to clemson last year that "SC will never lose to clemson again with him as coach......"

Only time will tell......

The 'other' money-maker began.....

Friday night was the beginning of the USC Men's Basketball team....yes the season is already here.

The Gamecocks, who won the past two NIT titles, were on the ropes in this one, trailing 44-38. But at the end the South Carolina team improved to 15-0 all-time against South Carolina State with a 55-52 opening night victory Friday. It was a close and sloppy win but it was a 'W.' Going into the season our beloved Gamecocks are picked to finish 5th in the East. If anyone is in the b-ball mood SportsSouth will do a preview of the SC team at 9pm tonight (11/13/06) so check your cable provider and tune-in.

With that said here is a question:

Will the USC Men's Basketball team go to the NCAA tourney this year or the NIT again?

So close it hurt....

The USC football team gave a heck of a performance in "the swamp" over the weekend. We lead the whole game and yes take away 3 blocked kicks and well.....

This season has taken a toll on the gamecock faithful. We have five losses. All to Top 20 teams. Four of them by a touchdown or less. Three on tipped passes. And one of them - a emotionally-draining 17-16 loss to No. 5 Florida in "The Swamp" - by a fingertip.

I watched 'gameday' in the am on Saturday and saw Corso pick UF to win by 3 touchdowns....what. Let's give SC some credit. This is a 'new' SC that when everyone thought (national media) that Spurrier was making a crazy decision for coming to SC and that he can not win.....well he is slowly putting together a winning program. Last year, we got some breaks and won some big games with lesser talent. No one predicted the season we had last year.

So this year some had high expectations but this year was truly a rebuilding year if you look at it on paper. We have like 10 freshman playing pretty regularly on our team.....unusual in NCAA Div I.....hardly any Seniors besides White, Newton and Bennett. Took some hits with guys going pro in our secondary and our O-Line was a disaster in the beginning of the season. I mean we had 4 out 5 on the line with hardly any game experience. Two current starters are true freshman.....Wow....these kids were playing high school football this time last year.

I could go on and on but I truly believe that the tide is changing. I have said it before though that before we reach the mountain top we have to have the team 'believe.' Holtz tried and got us to a certain level but now is time to "take it up a notch."

We have in place a AD that is going to improve our current program which in today's world is very important to getting good kids to play for your teams. We need better buildings, academic center, etc. We have in place a stellar coach....yes I said stellar. We are getting the recruits in place and as long as the Ole' Ball Coach is coaching no matter the game we always have a fighting chance to win. My only hope is that Spurrier is thinking long term b/c it will take more than 2-3 seasons to change things. We need him to stay at least 7 years (by that time he could be the winningst coach in our history). The fans and media must be patient with USC. All of the losses this season "we had our chance." Yes there has been evidence this season of a talent gap but he are closing that gap. If SC could "buy" a break we all would be singing a different story but it seems that those little things are not going our way (chicken curse?), like a tipped pass actually falling to the ground and not being caught by the opposing team.

So despite the heart breaks this season, I think our "glass is half full."