APRIL 2020 • VOLUME 43 • ISSUE 4
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Football
Owens Column: What I miss about Gamecock sports.............................................5
New Direction: New OC Mike Bobo revamping Gamecock offense .............. 26
SC launches new, flexible payment plans................................................. 4
Spring Sports
SCHEDULE Spurs & Feathers is the official publication of the University of South Carolina Gamecock Club. It is published monthly, 12 times per year and is available to Gamecock Club members as well as additional subscribers. To opt in or subscribe, email subscribe@ spursandfeathers.com or call 843-853-7678. The Gamecock Club and Spurs & Feathers thank you for your support. Below is our publication schedule for 2019:
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How NCAA waiver impacts SC teams, athletes...................................... 32 Social Distancing: Italy tennis player can’t wait to return home .......... 34
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Mr. Sunshine: Silva living NBA dream in Miami...................................... 6 Longtime supporter to fund new women’s initiative.................... 11
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Caretaker: Martin guides team through tough times........................ 12 Heartbroken: Coronavirus wipes out Final Four hopes ..................... 16 Why Not? Staley states her case for national title........................... 18 Fine-Tuned: The secret behind Staley’s well-conditioned athletes ....... 22
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SC launches ‘Most Accomodating Payment Plans in College Football’ for season-ticket holders From staff reports • Photo by Allen Sharpe
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amecock fans are widely recognized as one of the most loyal fan bases in the country and South Carolina officials are making significant financial accommodations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tabbed as “The Most Accommodating Payment Plans in College Football,” the seven-point plan aims to provide maximum flexibility in these trying times. “These are unprecedented times, so we should take unprecedented measures in accommodating our loyal fans,” Athletic Director Ray Tanner said. “There are some challenges in providing this level of flexibility, but we will work through those details. The important thing is that sport will help mend this community and we want to do everything that we possibly can to allow our loyal fans the chance to support our Gamecock student-athletes.”
The series of accommodations provided for fans include: • Deadline Extension. The deadline for football season ticket renewals has been extended to Friday, May 8.
• Digital Delivery Ticket Six-Month Payment Plan. For those looking to spread out football seat donation and ticket payments in order to make the monthly investment lower, the new six-month payment plan begins in May and ends in October. Note, this is a digital delivery of tickets.
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• Skip a Month. To assist in relieving current financial pressures, Gamecock fans can skip the April payment and continue to spread out their investment over 10 months — May-February.
• Football Mobile Pass. Should fans have difficulty meeting any of the previously mentioned options, a new Football Mobile Pass option is available for only
$350. The mobile pass provides guaranteed admission to all home games with seat assignments made 24 hours prior to gameday and seat location based on availability. The Football Mobile Pass is an exclusively mobile ticket. • 2020 Guarantee. If for any reason the 2020 season or any portion of the home schedule is not played, we will refund affected payments. Fans interested in opting into any of the above payment plans can do so online through account manager or by sending an email to the Gamecock Club or Athletics Ticket Office. Unfortunately, due to the continued closure of university facilities, guests are not able to visit the Rice Athletics Center. However, athletics staff will work diligently to respond to messages left on the Gamecock Club (803-777-4276) or Gamecock Ticket Office (803-777-4274) phone lines during the closure. Additionally, donors who prefer to communicate via email can reach us at: gctix@mailbox. sc.edu or gcclub@mailbox. sc.edu. Gamecock Club officials also will be available for questions by virtual chat through: http://alivech.at/797zqq.
APRIL 2020
The Gamecock teams, players and moments I miss most By Jeff Owens | Executive Editor
■ I miss watching Dawn Staley’s No. 1-ranked team celebrate another national championship. I’m pretty confident that’s what we’d be doing right now. The Gamecocks had won 26 games in a row, dominated the SEC and were set to enter the NCAA Tournament as the top national seed. Despite all the ridiculous national projections and prognostications, anyone who doesn’t believe they were going to win it all wasn’t paying attention. ■ I miss seeing if Mark Kingston’s baseball team could contend in the mighty SEC. After dropping a couple of early series, the Gamecocks had worked out their bullpen issues and were on a five-game winning streak. With a strong starting rotation and balanced offense, the Gamecocks were starting to mesh. I believe they were capable of hanging tough in the SEC and making a run toward another postseason appearance. ■ Kingston’s team featured some fun players to watch. I miss seeing slugger Wes Clarke stride to the plate to “Rooster,” the most fitting walk-up song in college baseball, and belt some mammoth home runs. He led the SEC in dingers with eight and I was looking forward to seeing if he could continue that pace. ■ I miss watching Carmen Mlodzinski fire fastballs in front of dozens of big-league scouts, and was looking forward to seeing how high he could dial up the radar gun when the weather warmed. Mlodzinski is going to be a high pick in the MLB Draft. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see what he could do in his final season.
■ I miss watching Beverly Smith’s softball team, led by one of the best infields in the SEC, find dramatic ways to win. Whether it was stellar defense by Jana Johns, Kenzi Maguire and MacKenzie Boesel or the power of new slugger Katie Prebble, Smith’s team was always exciting. ■ I miss seeing if Kevin Epley’s women’s tennis team could make another deep postseason run. With fiery competitors Mia Horvit and Megan Davies at the top of the lineup and sensational freshman Emma Shelton, the Gamecocks were trending that way. ■ I was looking forward to seeing if Josh Goffi’s men’s team could build on its 9-5 start, make a run in the SEC and possibly host an NCAA Regional. And if NCAA Singles Champion Paul Jubb could defend his national championship. Jubb had gotten off to a slow start (6-3) after returning from
the pro circuit, but is capable of extraordinary things, as he showed last season. He could have made history with backto-back titles. ■ I miss meeting new, engaging, exuberant football stars like Ryan Hilinski and Zacch Pickens, who delighted the media during their first appearances in the spotlight. Along with exciting players like Dakereon Joyner, Xavier Legette and MarShawn Lloyd, they are the future of Gamecock football. It would have been fun seeing what they could do in the Garnet & Black game. Hopefully by fall, all this will be over, life will return to normal and we’ll be inundated by Gamecock sports again.
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hen the Gamecocks took the field at Founders Park Feb. 21, it was 46 degrees with a stiff breeze blowing in. By the third inning, my toes were frozen. By the fifth, I had gone through four hand-warmers and added another layer of clothing. By the seventh, all fashion sense went out the window as I slipped a second beanie on my head. The writer sitting next to me in the press box was wrapped in a wool blanket. Six weeks later, I would walk through freezing rain in a T-shirt and shorts to attend a sub-40-degree game. I’m betting about 8,000 Gamecock fans would too. That’s how much we miss baseball, softball, spring football and every other Gamecock sport that was abruptly canceled by the coronavirus. Sometimes you don’t realize how much you cherish something until it’s gone. That’s a harsh reality sports fans are dealing with. With whole seasons wiped out and sports suddenly on hold, here’s a few things I miss most about Gamecock sports:
JEFF OWENS • COLUMN 5
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APRIL 2020
DREAMSCAPE Chris Silva fulfills lifelong quest of playing in NBA By Josh Hyber | Staff writer • Photos by MJ Kulik and NBA Photos MIAMI — Some days Chris Silva stands on the
balcony of his high-rise apartment in downtown Miami and peers right, over the rollerbladers below and past American Airlines Arena. He looks over Bayside Marina, beyond the docked cruise ships and out onto the horizon. Somewhere in the distance lies his past, in Gabon, Africa, where he was an unknown youth with untapped potential — on the basketball court and in life — and a dream. Here, on this side of the Atlantic, he’s Chris Silva, Miami Heat rookie — No. 30 in your game program. “When I was a kid and a teenager back home, you’ve got the same view. Just the ocean. And you wonder what’s on the other side. Now I look out over the ocean and I know,” Silva says. It’s a Thursday in late February, the day between home games against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Dallas Mavericks, and Silva is snacking on pita and hummus at CVLTVRA restaurant, 40-plus floors below his Biscayne Boulevard apartment. He is just back from a workout. Earlier in the day he sat on a limestone rock outside “The AAA” — as locals call it — and discussed his life in the NBA. Now he talks about how his career at South Carolina prepared him for it. Silva was averaging 2.9 points, 2.7 rebounds and half an assist per game when the NBA season was postponed because of the COVID-19 coronavirus. He was shooting 62.3 percent from the field. “We love his speed, quickness, ferociousness and his competitiveness,” Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra told Spurs & Feathers. “And he has an ability to get to the ball quickly. Whether that’s rebounding or shot blocking. That’s unique. And you add to it an ambitious work ethic. … We’ve had success with guys like that. “We enjoy working with him and helping him achieve what he wants to out of this game.” Silva remained upbeat — as much as the even-keeled 23-year-old could be — despite playing seven and a half minutes per game as a rookie. After all, he had defied the odds once again. He came to the United States from the western shore of Africa just days before he turned 16 and in seven years, despite not being taken in June’s
APRIL 2020
NBA Draft, became the second player from Gabon (Stéphane Lasme) to make the league. “The fact I’m here, I’m just grateful and trying to take advantage of the opportunity,” he says.
THE ULTIMATE TEAMMATE Silva stands so close to Spoelstra during timeouts the 6-8, 230-pound forward can likely decipher his coach’s inner thoughts. During the homestand and throughout the season, Silva stood over Spoelstra’s shoulder during timeouts, soaking in the Xs and Os knowledge that will take him from fringe rotation player to regular contributor. “He’s paying attention,” Spoelstra said. “He’s checking all the small boxes. And that’s necessary when you’re really trying to fight for a spot in this league.” “It’s all about learning. When you don’t know something, you’ve got to be curious,” Silva says. “You’ve got to ask questions. You have to want to be nosey. I’m trying to ask the questions I need to reach that level where I want to be.” Silva played in 41 of the Heat’s 65 games but had several shining moments before the season was postponed. He had three blocks against the Memphis Grizzlies in his NBA debut, a Heat victory. He had a season-high nine rebounds twice, eight days apart. He had an eight-rebound game in-between those, and a season-high 10 points just days after. But in Miami, unlike South Carolina, he’s not the main attraction. Silva mostly mans the last seat on the Heat bench. Sometimes he sits farther down, but sometimes he doesn’t have a seat at all. He sat on the floor at times during the Minnesota and Dallas games and sometimes sat in an empty courtside seat normally reserved for a fan. Fans can’t buy his jersey at the Aventura or Sawgrass malls, or at any of the auxiliary kiosks around the AAA. There’s only one rack of Silva jerseys on sale in the team’s flagship arena store, each with a $150 price tag. Instead, he thrives in his role as teammate. “Chris has an infectious personality,” Heat shooting guard Duncan Robinson said. “His smile, a lot of times you don’t really know what
CHRIS SILVA 7
he’s saying, but he just brings that energy. A guy like that, it’s hard not be appreciative of.” Silva flies on imaginary wings after teammate Derrick Jones Jr. throws down a dunk, just as Gamecock teammates once did after Silva slams. He gives a little shimmy when Bam Adebayo scores on a fancy up-andunder. He screams when Goran Dragic puts in the front end of an and-one. Kendrick Nunn called Silva a “great teammate.” “He’s someone who’s real underrated and puts in a lot of work,” the Heat starting point guard said. “He comes in every day, first one in, last one out, and it shows. When he gets his time on the floor, he produces. He’s making strides and developing. “I’ve seen him be mature and be professional, not crying about minutes or anything, just controlling what he can control. The sky’s the limit for Silv, for a guy who locks in and puts in the work like him. The sky’s the limit. He can accomplish a lot.” Robinson, Nunn and Silva formed the nucleus of the Heat’s summer league team. Robinson, who starts for the Heat despite being undrafted, occasionally swings by to take his teammate to eat or to the arena. Otherwise, Silva would most likely order room service — salmon sandwiches are his go-to — and take a walk, albeit a short one, to the arena. One topic they don’t discuss: How Silva and South Carolina beat Robinson’s Michigan squad in November 2016. Says Robinson, “He plays so hard. I just remember him going to the glass every time and him being a handful to box out.” Robinson compares Silva to the 6-9, 255-pound Adebayo, the 14th overall pick in 2017 and an NBA All-Star this season who won the event’s skills challenge. Most compare Silva to Udonis Haslem, the undrafted Miami lifer who has played for the Heat since 2003. By happenstance, Haslem, the do-it-all glue guy and lockdown defender, played for South Carolina head coach Frank Martin at Miami Senior High School in the late '90s. The two FaceTime Martin every now and then to check in. “They’re similar as players. Successful college careers — their teams went to Final Fours, all-league players and everyone in the NBA said they weren’t quite good enough,” Martin said. “Yet, from the first day of summer camp, the Heat said, ‘We’re not letting this guy go.’ “Udonis and Chris, they’re the ultimate teammates. They’re about winning and they’re about helping people. That’s why they’ve migrated to one another.” Haslem has taken Silva under his wing and is a main reason the rookie pays such close attention to fine details. He’s also teaching Silva the importance of community service. “Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready,” Haslem tells Silva. 8
BASKETBALL • CHRIS SILVA
“I’m open. I really don’t want to put a ceiling on it,” Spoelstra said about Silva’s future. “And I don’t necessarily want to compare him to U-D. I mean, obviously they both played for the same coach. That’s one of the reasons why we really like him. If you can survive Frank, you can make it with us. “And we saw a lot of similar qualities of toughness and competitiveness, being overlooked, having a chip on his shoulder. Chris has the perfect mentor in U-D. I love coming into an empty gym and seeing the two of them working together.”
FINDING A HOME Silva, who declared for the draft in 2018 only to return to South Carolina for his senior season, worked out this spring for the Heat, Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Sacramento Kings and San Antonio Spurs. His workouts for the Heat and Spurs, two of the most physically demanding in the NBA, came on back-to-back days. He arrived in Miami at 2 a.m. for the team’s 7 a.m. workout and made it to the arena by 6. “I had to wake up and get my mind right,” he said. “And, you know, get at it.” The draft took place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and Silva watched from home 20 or so miles away in New Jersey. “I wanted to be drafted because I knew my country would be watching and my fans would be watching,” he said. “And my family would be watching. There were people who reached out to me on Facebook who missed work just to watch the draft because they wanted to be a part of that special moment.” But when the final selections were made — guys named Miye Oni, Dewan Hernandez and Vanja Marinkovic — Silva realized that wish would not come true.
Instead, he received serious interest from three or four teams, including Miami and San Antonio. He received a text message from Spoelstra and others in the Heat front office inviting him to play for the organization’s summer league team. “It was something from the heart, Miami,” Silva said. “Miami is the one that took my heart and made me feel like I was home.”
We’re committed to the full-scale, big-picture development with Chris Silva. – HEAT HEAD COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA
That feeling, he says, had something to do with Martin being from Miami and coaching players like Haslem, Rodney McGruder and Michael Beasley, who all thrived with the Heat. Martin also calls Heat assistant coach of player development Octavio De La Grana a “dear friend for 35 years.” (Heat vice president/assistant general manager Adam Simon even told Martin before the draft that, if Silva wasn’t drafted, he was the first player they wanted to bring in.) Silva called Martin after the draft to share his decision. “There are certain people in life that, when you come across them, you just don’t push
APRIL 2020
all season, but he’s developed fast enough that he’s spent a majority of his time here, and that’s a credit to him. “We’re committed to the full-scale, bigpicture development with Chris Silva.”
MARTIN’S INFLUENCE
them away,” Martin said. “You hug them and you don’t ever let them go. Chris is one of those guys. “If somebody let him in, they weren’t letting him out. Because he’s too talented, too loyal and he cares too much. At the end of the day, that’s what we want. We want to surround ourselves with people like him.” Silva didn’t let his opportunity go to waste, despite seven of the 12 players on Miami’s summer league roster being forwards. “I’ve always got a chip on my shoulder,” he said. “I’m always ready for competition and everything that comes with it. From college to the summer league, whatever I’ve got to do, I’ve always got that edge that I’ve got to give it the best I have.” His best was spot on. Silva started all six of the games he played (he missed one because of a bruised knee) and averaged seven points, 5.6 rebounds and shot 56.5 percent from the field. “Just how hard he plays and the intensity he brings,” Robinson said. “A lot of times in the summer league, you’re going out there, it’s a new group of guys and there’s a feeling-out process. But it’s the guys that do those things that tend to stick out. You know, he brought it. Every practice. Every game. “His motor is really what separates him. He plays so damn hard.” It was an eye-opening experience for Silva. “Yo, we’re really on an NBA court right now,” he told one teammate before the team’s first summer league game in Sacramento. “From then on it got more real, playing the first game of the preseason with a real Miami Heat jersey, it hit us again,” he said. “And then the first regular-season game was like, ‘Wow, it’s official. This is it. I’m checking in to an NBA game.’ I try to not get too excited, but at the same time, there was a lot going through my head. It was good.”
APRIL 2020
Before the Las Vegas Summer League ended, Silva was rewarded an invitation to the team’s regular training camp and given an Exhibit 10 deal, a contract with a $50,000 guarantee that gave the Heat the ability to send him to their G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. But Silva didn’t let up. If anything, it made him push harder. “It was a grind all summer,” he said. Silva worked on learning the Heat system, the vocabulary of the play calls. He spent countless hours lifting weights and putting up shots. “It was like learning a new language,” he said. “But the thing that helped me was we were kind of doing the same things we did at South Carolina in terms of calls on ballscreens, left and right, the motions.” The first time he put on the official uniform for a preseason game he sent photos of himself back home. “It’s a great honor,” Silva said. “Not a lot of people from back home can say they’ve worn an NBA jersey and actually stepped on the court in an NBA game.” After the Heat’s final preseason game, Spoelstra called Silva into his office and handed him a two-way contract. “Here you go,” Spoelstra told him. “You earned this. Everything you’ve done, it has been right on. You were professional.” “I didn’t cry cry, but tears came out when I signed my two-way,” Silva admitted. “It was a long process.” In mid-January that deal was converted into a standard three-year deal that runs through the 2021-22 season. “He earned it this summer with his commitment to the player development program. And he’s gotten better every single month,” Spoelstra said. “You shouldn’t look at his minutes right now. This is all about development. He was supposed to be in Sioux Falls
Silva was back in Columbia during the NBA All-Star break in mid-February. Wearing a blue beanie, designer glasses, plaid garnet sweater and black Champion pants, he sat alongside fellow South Carolina NBAers Sindarius Thornwell and PJ Dozier and watched his alma mater beat Tennessee. After the game, Martin, like he famously did during Silva’s college career, poked fun at the big man. “You would think, when you start making that kind of money, you can dress better than Chris Silva [does],” the coach joked. “I mean, did you see what he was wearing? Oh my God. And he lives in Miami! People have style down there!” Silva finished his South Carolina career with 1,509 career points, which ranks 10th in program history. He ranks sixth in rebounds (876), third in free throws made (577) and sixth in blocked shots (186). He was the SEC’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year in 201718 and a first-team All-SEC selection in 2018-19. “The fact that he was willing to get on a plane, come to a country where he
CHRIS SILVA • BASKETBALL 9
didn’t speak the language, to take a chance living life away from his family, I knew that the work ethic he was going to have would be relentless,” Martin said. It was, and it led him to where he is today. Silva says playing for a tough but fair coach like Martin has helped him “a lot” as a professional. He arrives two hours early for 10 a.m. shootarounds. “All the principles that he has, about being a man and handling your stuff, on the court and off the court, it helped me,” Silva said. “I apply all them here in Miami. It helped me get that contract.” “I’m proud of him, because he’s continued to be who he is,” Martin said. “He just wanted somebody to believe in him. Some people get drafted and they come in with all these accolades but they’re always about themselves rather than the team, so they kind of flame out. “… But there are certain people like Chris that just want somebody to believe in them. Give [Heat president] Pat Riley, Adam Simon and Spoelstra credit. They gave him a chance. “And then Chris did what he does, which is come in and give an unbelievable commitment and effort every single day.” Dozier and Thornwell have also been there to lend a listening ear. “Talking to them has helped me level my mind and realize how much of an opportunity I have and to not take it for granted,” Silva said. Despite the Heat’s original plan to have Silva spend most of his season in the G League, the big man played in just two games (during one trip) in South Dakota. By happenstance, those two games Silva played for the Skyforce came against Thornwell’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers. The former Final Four teammates reminisced about old times and spoke a bit about the future. In 17 minutes in the first game Silva made six of eight shots, grabbed five rebounds, blocked four shots and dished three assists. Seven points came in the fourth quarter. In 18 minutes in the second game he made all four of his shots and grabbed three rebounds. There was no doubt Silva had proven himself and, as he said, “There’s really nothing to do in Sioux Falls.” He belonged in Miami, and he had proven that.
BUILDING NEW DREAMS Silva’s first memories of NBA basketball are watching Kobe Bryant highlights on YouTube. “How tenacious he was, making moves and winning games,” Silva said. His first memories truly learning about the United States come from Sept. 11, 2001. “I had my uncle in the U.S., and I was worried,” he said. “There were a lot of stories going around.” 10 BASKETBALL • CHRIS SILVA
He has now lived a third of his life in the country. “It’s a country of opportunities where people make the most of a little,” he said.
My dream is to go as far as I can. Reach for the stars. Championships, AllStar. Play basketball and compete with the best of them. – CHRIS SILVA
On Dec. 27, with the help of NBA Senior VP of International Basketball Operations Kimberly Bohuny, the Heat surprised Silva with his mom, Carine Minkoue Obame, who he hadn’t seen in three years. It was her first time in the Unites States. “I struggled believing that was actually her in front of me,” Silva said. “I couldn’t believe it. It was a total surprise.” “I don’t think of myself as a very emotional person, but I was choked up,” Robinson said. “It was a special moment and couldn’t have happened to a better person.” Carine stayed in town for almost two weeks, and mom and son “visited more places in those two weeks than the entire time” he has been in Miami, including stops at the Lincoln Road shopping district. A few weeks later Silva finally met NBA commissioner Adam Silver. “It was like being drafted, you know, when you walk up on to that stage and you shake his hand. It was like that,” Silva said. “It was always one of my dreams to shake his hand and talk to him. And that happened.” Now Silva wants to help the next kid with a dream. He wants to tell the youngsters in the same shoes he was once in to be patient, keep working hard, eliminate distractions and that hard work “always pays off at the end of the day.” “To have some good in life, you’re going to have some struggle or some bad,” Silva says. “You’re going to have a balance. You’ve just got to focus on what you can control and focus on it and move on. “It was my dream to make it here, but now that I’m here, I’ve got to set some new goals. People think just because I made it here, that dream is over. But it isn’t. “I want to have an impact that will stay forever.”
He wants to make a change back in Gabon. He will work summer camps for NBA Africa and give as much as he can to kids. On the court, Silva has limitless potential, as Spoelstra alluded. “He’s so young in his basketball life,” Martin says. “When you hit rewind, three years of high school, four years of college, he’s seven years into his basketball life. If that’s good enough for him to be in the NBA, that’s really impressive. “I pray to God that he stays healthy. Because, if he does, he’s going to have a long, long career in that NBA.” The day between the Minnesota and Dallas games, Silva moved from the hotel room he had been living out of into a permanent apartment. “I’ve been working to get that apartment, so it’s a relief,” he said. “It’s beautiful.” Silva takes a sip of orange Gatorade. A salmon sandwich and rice arrive at the table in a to-go container. It’s time for Chris Silva to head upstairs and take a nap. Then, he’ll dream. “My dream is to go as far as I can. Reach for the stars,” he says. “Championships, All-Star. Play basketball and compete with the best of them. Do what I dreamed of when I was a kid, play basketball for a living and to give everything I have to be the best at it.”
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ment crowns. Those teams have been powered by 103 All-Americans and 167 all-conference selections. In addition, track & field crowned two individual and one relay team as national champions last year. “We are grateful for the support from Lou and Bill Kennedy of our women’s athletic teams,” said Maria Hickman, Executive Associate Athletics Director and Senior Women’s Administrator. “This contribution will allow our female student-athletes the opportunity to elevate their performance in sport and in life. It allows our department to create new programming such as leadership and career development to assist with building upon their success.” The Women of South Carolina initiative will directly impact student-athletes through: • Resources and facility enhancements for all women’s athletic programs.
Kennedy to fund new Women of South Carolina initiative for student-athetes
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From staff reports • Illustration by SC Athletics s a lifelong Gamecock fan and 1984 South Carolina graduate, Lou Kennedy has long been a prominent supporter of the university and Gamecock athletics. Now she is taking her support to a whole new level. The CEO of Nephron Pharmaceuticals and a Columbia business leader, Kennedy and her husband Bill are funding a new initiative known as The Women of South Carolina. The program aims to build on the success of Gamecock women’s sports and ensure a continued commitment to excellence. The initiative will enhance the experience of female student-athletes, particularly those whose efforts and success don’t normally attract the media spotlight, by providing resources not only during their Gamecock careers but throughout the rest of their lives. Kennedy, who sponsors the Kennedy Pharmacy Innovation Center at the USC Pharmacy School and the Kennedy Greenhouse Studio at the Journalism School, says the initiative will support all female athletes, in-
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cluding Gamecock cheerleaders and the Carolina dance team. “What I have been trying to do is find a way that I could get the dance team and the cheer-
There is a special culture at South Carolina in which our women’s teams have thrived. – DAWN STALEY leaders to be as recognized and show how appreciative we are of them,” Kennedy said. “When I found out that this would be going to all women athletes, I was convinced that this was absolutley the right thing to do and I thought it sent a strong message. “I’m here to show a giant hand of support for all of these women’s sports.” South Carolina’s women’s programs have been successful
across the board for years and this season was no exception with the women’s basketball team finishing the year ranked No. 1 in the nation and women’s golf finishing the year as the highest ranked team in the SEC at No. 4. “Lou and Bill Kennedy are great Gamecocks and this gift demonstrates the passion and dedication that makes our women’s sports programs great,” Athletics Director Ray Tanner said. “We have a history of commitment to our women’s sports programs and I am proud of where they stand today and with this gift, we look forward to even more success.” Over the past decade, every South Carolina women’s team has made multiple postseason appearances. While women’s basketball may have highlighted that success with a 2017 national championship, 2015 Final Four and five SEC Regular-Season and SEC Tournament titles, they were by no means outliers. Since 2010, South Carolina’s 11 women’s programs have amassed two team national titles, eight SEC regular-season championships and nine SEC Tourna-
• Program development through team-building opportunities and chances to travel and compete internationally. • Career development and professional networking through South Carolina’s student-athlete mentor program. • Leadership training to help student-athletes continue to grow as leaders in sports, business and society. • Endowed scholarships that provide financial aid for worthy student-athletes. “There is a special culture at South Carolina in which our women’s teams have thrived,” South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley said. “The Women of South Carolina will continue that tradition of athletic success and of developing incredible young women into leaders.” To find out more about the Women of South Carolina initiative, please visit thegamecockclub.com/the-women-ofsouth-carolina/ or contact Chrissy Schoonmaker at 803-777-5723 or schoonma@mailbox.sc.edu.
WOMEN OF SC • GAMECOCK CLUB 11
Frank Martin and Maik Kotsar
LIFE OVER SPORTS Martin leads team through tough times as coronavirus wipes out end of season
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By Jeff Owens | Executive Editor • Photos by Travis Bell and Allen Sharpe o one is stronger in their convictions than Frank Martin, but on the night of March 11, the South Carolina head coach was conflicted. Martin was sitting in Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, scouting the ArkansasVanderbilt game in the first round of the SEC Tournament. His Gamecocks were slated to play the winner the next night, but that’s not what was on Martin’s mind. As the sports world was bracing against the rapidly spreading coronavirus, sports leagues around the nation, including the SEC, were making plans to play without fans in attendance. And rumors were swirling that the remainder of the SEC Tournament might be canceled altogether.
Though his team was still fighting to make the NCAA Tournament, Martin was torn. “Just being around so many people … I was having reservations,” he said. “We are husbands and we are fathers and we are caretakers of these young men that other people trust us with. I felt an obligation to be around my family, care for my mother, my wife, my children who were left behind and there was a certain level of uncertainty going on that I needed to be there for them.” Then Martin started thinking about his players, who had poured their hearts and souls into the 2019-20 season and were anxious to play with a postseason berth on the line. The growing pandemic was the furthest thing from their minds.
12 BASKETBALL • CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE
“Was exposing them to sickness worth playing a game?” Martin said. “I don’t think it is.” The next morning, Athletic Director Ray Tanner called Martin and warned him that a decision on the tournament was coming soon. A few hours later, the SEC Tournament, along with dozens of other conference tournaments around the country, were canceled, a move Martin was “at peace with.” “I commend [SEC] Commissioner [Greg] Sankey for making the decision he made. It was difficult for sports, but it was the right one for life,” he said. Martin and his team immediately began making plans to return home. By the time they arrived on campus, the NCAA Tournament had been canceled, all athletic activities, including practice, had been suspended for all sports and students and studentathletes had been told to go home. The following morning, on Friday, March 13, Martin gathered his players for a brief team meeting. He was worried about his players, who were devastated at not being allowed to play in the SEC Tournament and distraught that their season was officially over. So was Martin, but his biggest concern was their safety and well-being, and their priorities.
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“I asked the players, did any of you have any concern or were worried in any shape about playing in that game, and they all said absolutely not,” Martin said. “They weren’t worried about it and were ready to go, which is kinda why I felt a responsibility to be home with my kids. Because that age group, they don’t tend to take these things as seriously as we need to and this is where the adults have to step in and protect young people from themselves some time.” By two in the afternoon, Martin’s players were on their way home. The only exception was senior forward Maik Kotsar, who injured his shoulder in the final practice of the season and needed surgery. Though his season and career were over, he had surgery on March 17 and remained on campus to rehab with trainer Mark Rodgers. With the season over and his team taken care of, Martin went home to care for his family. With the nation preparing for a lockdown to battle the spread of the virus, his focus shifted from coach back to fulltime father and family caretaker.
We are husbands and we are fathers and we are caretakers of these young men that other people trust us with. – FRANK MARTIN
“The last 10 days seem like 10 years,” he said on March 23. “We are all dealing with an unknown. You are told to stay home for two, three, four days, it’s no big deal. It’s like spending a weekend at home, but I’m going on nine days where we’re pretty much shacked up here at the house and only left the house to go to the grocery store and get some to-go food for the family.” For six months, Martin guided and molded a team of 18- to 22-year-old athletes. He helped a young, inexperienced team overcome some early disappointments and develop into a tight-knit group that finished the season 18-13 (10-8 in the SEC) and still had a shot to make the postseason with a strong showing in the SEC Tournament. But with the season over and his players scattered far and wide, it was time for him to focus on his children, a job he often equates to managing his team. “I’ve got three kids from 12 to 21 and the 21-year-old is used to being on his own
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Frank Martin with assistant coaches (from left) Chuck Martin, Bruce Shingler and Perry Clark now and is bouncing off the walls,” he said. “He wants to work out and he wants to be around people and trying to manage that dynamic … they always look at you as the father and one of our biggest responsibilities is to always give them hope and give them guidance as to what is important, and this is a difficult time and we have no idea what is in front of us. All we have is hope and faith and we have to maintain things and that’s what I’ve been trying to share with them.” With the campus on lock-down, Martin continued to talk to his staff by phone and the coaching staff created a group text to stay in touch with the players and make sure they and their families were safe and doing their best to cope with what had become a national health crisis. Martin’s message to his players was the same as for his son Brandon, a member of the basketball team at USC Upstate. Brandon, he said, was anxious to get out of the house and return to the court, so he had to be stern and direct. “The responsibility that we have to stay safe is not just for ourselves but to keep the people in our family safe,” he said. “This is not the time to go to some weight room or go to some gym and play basketball, because you don’t know. You don’t know who’s sick, you don’t know who’s been where. There’s no way to track which one of them has had a family member or a neighbor or someone who is abroad. There is so much unknown in all this, this is the time to just be patient.
“My biggest concern right now with my players is not basketball, it’s to make sure they understand that they should stay home because they owe it to their parents to make sure they don’t get sick so they don’t get their parents sick.” On March 23, student-athletes returned to class but had to transition to online and virtual curriculums. That produced a whole new set of challenges for Martin, his staff and academic advisors. “This is brand new and some might have had an internet course, but not all of them,” he said. “My biggest concern is the tutoring part of it and making sure that learning specialists can still connect with our players and the staff at the Doty [Academic Enrichment Center].” As his players resumed their studies and tried to adjust to a new way of life, Martin tried to put a positive spin on the bizarre situation and offer both his players and fans a bit of hope and optimism. “Hopefully we can use this moment,” he said, “to give our fans and everybody who cares about the Gamecocks and our team and school and players a little bit of time to kind of step away from the life we are forced to live right now and give us a little bit of hope and hopefully something to smile and talk about other than the coronavirus.”
CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE • BASKETBALL 13
THE GOOD PLACE Martin believes team could have made NCAA Tournament, excited about future By Jeff Owens | Executive Editor • Photos by Allen Sharpe Stetson. Stetson. Stetson.
That name, that team, had been stuck in the minds of South Carolina basketball fans since Dec. 30, the dark day when the Gamecocks lost to the Hatters, a 5-9 team picked to finish last in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The loss, which dropped South Carolina to 8-5 in non-conference play, haunted the Gamecocks all season. Many feared the loss to Stetson — which actually finished fourth in the A-Sun but had an RPI of 250 — would be the blow that ultimately kept the Gamecocks out of the NCAA Tournament. Even Frank Martin fretted over the loss, experiencing the same fears as his players and fans. “Not only have I heard it from a lot of people, I heard it from my kids, I heard from my staff and I heard it from myself,” he said. “I would sit at home yelling at myself while staring at the ceiling because we lost a game that we are supposed to win.”
We’ll never know just how significant — or insignificant — the Stetson loss really was. The Gamecocks finished the season 18-13 (10-8 in the SEC) and still had a chance to make the postseason entering the SEC Tournament. But the conference tournament and NCAA Tournament were canceled before South Carolina ever took the floor in Nashville, ending a season of highs and lows that left Martin and Gamecock fans both disappointed and encouraged. Martin liked his team from the start. He had four starters returning in senior Maik Kotsar and sophomores AJ Lawson, Keyshawn Bryant and Justin Minaya. They would get a big boost from redshirt freshman Jermaine Couisnard, sophomore Alanzo Frink and a trio of exciting freshmen. His biggest challenge, though, was youth. In the third year of a “reboot,” Martin had just one senior after a series of dismissals, defections and injuries to key
14 BASKETBALL • SEASON WRAP
players after the 2016-17 Final Four run. Of his 15 available players, 12 were freshmen and sophomores, including nine in the regular rotation. So much youth made the Gamecocks vulnerable to earlyseason upsets, like the hiccup against Stetson and a November loss to Boston University (RPI of 139). “I’m not making an excuse … but when we got young again, we are exposed a little bit to losing a couple of games early,” Martin said. “Not because we aren’t talented, not because we are not trying, but because of the fact that we are young.” That’s why Martin was able to swallow the Stetson loss and move on. His team was certainly not the only team from a Power 5 conference suffering early-season woes. “It happens, and we have to have patience when you have young guys, especially guys that you like and that you care for. You
can’t allow winning and losing to impact that relationship,” he said. The Gamecocks also had to deal with some tough injuries. Bryant, the team’s best player in the preseason, suffered a knee injury and missed the first eight games of the season. When he returned, it took him several weeks to return to form and it wasn’t until the final five games of the season that he emerged as the player Martin expected to see all season. But, just like the past three years, Martin’s patience began to pay off when SEC play began. After starting 0-2 in league games, the Gamecocks upset No. 10 Kentucky in a buzzer-beating thriller at home and scored an impressive road win at Texas A&M. After falling at Auburn, they reeled off three straight wins and won six of seven to improve to 16-9 overall and 8-4 in league play. Suddenly they were surging and looking like a postseason team. “We were playing at a high, high level and I was coming home and telling my wife, ‘we have a chance, this team has a chance, we are starting to turn that corner,’” Martin said. Then the injury bug — a harrowing problem since the Final Four team — struck again. The Gamecocks lost Minaya to a broken thumb against Missouri and improving freshman Jalyn McCreary to a concussion against Tennessee. Still, they kept battling. After tough losses to LSU and Mississippi State, they won an overtime thriller at home against Georgia. After another tough road loss at Alabama, Minaya returned to the lineup and the Gamecocks beat Mississippi State by 12 at home. Though the regular season ended with a gut-wrenching loss at Vanderbilt, they headed to Nashville for the SEC Tournament looking to put together another streak and still make a run at the postseason. “I was a little frustrated with some of the line of questioning toward the end of the year,” Martin said, “because it was like a disappointment, like we had no chance to go to the NCAA tournament.” Martin didn’t buy that. Though troubled by the swirling rumors and developments surrounding the rapidly spreading coronavirus (see page 14), he believed his team was poised to
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Charlie Guarino
whose NBA hopes are suddenly uncertain after the whole sports world has been turned upsidedown by the pandemic. Bryant, who had three double-doubles in his last five games, and Minaya both return, as do improving frontcourt mates Alanzo Frink, McCreary and ine 6-11 Wildens Co uisna Leveque. They rd will be joined by signees Ja’Von Benson and Patrick Iriel, two more athletic big men Martin says “are going to be really, really good players.” The backcourt will be led by Couisnard, who turned out to be the Gamecocks’ best player. After taking over as the starting point guard, the redshirt freshman averaged 12 points and three assists to make the All-SEC second team. If Lawson, who led the team with 13.4 points per game, returns, the
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win at least two games in the SEC Tournament and play its way back into the postseason conversation. “We were right there,” he said. “We have to go into the conference tournament and figure out a way to win on Thursday and Friday, and if we do we are right back in the conversation. Now we don’t know, and some people want to call it a disappointing season, that’s their prerogative. They have a right to make judgements as they please. “But I know this: internally, I am extremely excited. I’m proud of our guys, I’m proud of how they fought this year, I’m excited about where we are headed and I truly in my heart believe we were going to go into that SEC tournament and play really well and put ourselves back in the middle of that whole tournament if we had been given the opportunity.” As he helps his team deal with the disappointing and premature end to the season, Martin is encouraged by the progress made this season and excited about what he has coming back. The team loses only Kotsar, grad transfer Micaiah Henry, who rarely played, and possibly Lawson,
Frank Cannon
Jackee Moye
Gamecocks will once again have a dynamic backcourt. Backups T.J. Moss and Trae Hannibal also return and South Carolina could get a huge boost from the addition of senior Seventh Woods, a former South Carolina high school star who sat out this season after transferring from North Carolina. Woods, who Martin said was practicing at a “high, high level” toward the end of the season, could take over at point guard, allowing Couisnard to become an explosive scorer at shooting guard. For that to happen, though, Woods or someone else must demonstrate the leadership and personality Couisnard showed during the second-half of the season. Martin said he needs multiple players with that kind of toughness and charisma.
Laurel Suggs
“If he’s at the two, that means somebody has a real good personality and the talent to displace him, then we are a better basketball team,” he said. “If he’s at the one, then whoever is at the two is going to consistently be a better player because he’s at the one. That’s a dynamic that moving forward, I think we have multiple options there. … I am really, really happy with the guys we have in place to compete with and against Jermaine for that point guard job.” With the core of this year’s team likely returning and another deep team in place next year, Martin believes his reboot and rebuild might finally be complete, giving him a group that could break the three-year slump of missing the NCAA Tournament. “I think we are in a really, really good place,” he said. “I’m excited about recruiting, I’m excited about the work ethic in place, the character, there’s a lot of things in place. Does any of that guarantee winning? No, but when you have all those things in place, what matters is that guys continue to push themselves and grow and get better.”
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SEASON WRAP • BASKETBALL 15
Ty Harris and Dawn Staley
SAD FAREWELL No. 1 Gamecocks heartbroken after national title hopes vanish
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By Josh Hyber | Staff Writer • Photos by Allen Sharpe y Harris doesn’t know how March and April would have played out — no one does, despite one “projection” — but there’s one thing the South Carolina point guard knows for certain. “March Madness has that name for a reason. It’s madness, so you don’t know what can happen. Anything can happen, and we hadn’t played everybody,” the senior captain began. “But I do know we were the number one team in the nation to end it all. And right now.” Harris was insightful, as was fellow South Carolina senior Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, when each spoke with Spurs & Feathers two weeks after the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament because of COVID-19. From their hometowns in Indiana and Florida, respectively, they spoke openly about their team’s potential national titlewinning season ending so abruptly and the start of their pro careers. “I was heartbroken [when the tournament was canceled]. It hurt a lot knowing that we really had the pieces to compete for a
16 BASKETBALL • NCAA TOURNAMENT
national championship. And, you know, win a national championship,” Herbert Harrigan said. “It was heartbreaking.”
It hurt a lot knowing that we really had the pieces to compete for a national championship. – MIKIAH HERBERT HARRIGAN
The SEC Tournament Most Outstanding Player was asked what she would think if the NCAA officially declared the Gamecocks national champions. “I would have preferred to work and win the games to win the national champion-
ship,” she said. “If they were to give us the national championship, it wouldn’t feel the same.” “I’d raise a banner,” Harris added. “We could raise a banner for being the number one team in the nation.” Like thousands of South Carolina fans, Harris saw on March 23 how ESPN projected Baylor would beat the Gamecocks in a national title game if the tournament were actually played. “I didn’t think too much of it,” she said. “Who’s to say that would really happen? It’s just projection. I just kind of laughed.” “We will never know who would have won the 2020 national championship, but [our] team positioned themselves to be #1 in the country [and] should not be overlooked as much as we have been,” Gamecock head coach Dawn Staley wrote on Twitter. South Carolina ended the season 32-1 with a 26-game winning streak. The Gamecocks swept through the SEC undefeated, winning both the regular season and tournament championships and beating opponents by an average of 26 points per game. As seniors, Harris and Herbert Harrigan were looking forward to leading the Gamecocks to a second national championship in four years. Harris said she would be in favor of playing an unofficial game between the Gamecocks and any of this season’s top contenders somewhere down the line. “I would. I think everybody feels that way though,” she said. “I feel like all the top teams feel like they would do the exact same thing. … I think that would be a fun thing to do.” Harris and her family drove nine-and-ahalf hours from Greenville, S.C. to Noblesville, Ind. after the SEC Tournament. She planned on being home for four days before returning to Columbia for classes and to begin preparation for the final games of her college career. Then, madness. A couple of days into her stay at home the NCAA released a statement saying no fans could attend the tournament. “I was upset about that, but somebody kept telling me, ‘Just be grateful that you can still play,’” Harris said. “And then that’s when [Utah Jazz player] Rudy Gobert [tested positive] and they suspended the NBA season. “In the team group chat we were talking about, ‘What if they suspend or cancel our tournament?’ And we were all talking about how we didn’t want that to happen.” The day before Harris was set to travel back to South Carolina, that happened. The NCAA officially announced the cancellation of the tournament. A text from Staley confirmed it. Initially Harris felt sadness and disappointment. “I don’t think the tears started coming really until everybody found out and all the
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staff and trainers texted me saying how we had a great year and how they were so happy to be in my life,” she said. “Just finally realizing I won’t get to see them anymore. “It was disheartening. We were heartbroken. I was heartbroken. I didn’t like it. But now that days and weeks have past, I’ve kind of faced the fact that there’s not going to be a tournament. I’ve moved on and I understand why they did it. “I’m really focused on just the draft and seeing what’s going to happen in the WNBA.” Harris was projected to be a first-round pick in the WNBA Draft on April 17. (One prominent mock draft had her projected as No. 5 overall.) Herbert Harrigan was projected as a second-round pick. At 6-2, Herbert Harrigan may have to adjust from an interior presence who has an ability to stretch the floor to more of a perimeter-oriented player. “I’m open to new challenges, so that won’t be an issue,” she said. She also said she’s open to playing overseas as well as in the WNBA. “If I have the opportunity, I would definitely do both,” she said. While Herbert Harrigan averaged 13.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.8 blocks and led South Carolina to the SEC Tournament championship, Harris averaged 12 points, an SEC-best 5.7 assists and 3.5 rebounds
Mikiah Herbert Harrigan and capped her career by being named a consensus All-American. She won the Dawn Staley Award as the nation’s best point guard and was a finalist for the Wooden Award, the Naismith Award and every other player of the year honor.
“I am blessed beyond measure,” she said when the awards were announced. “None of this could have happened without God, my teammates, coaches and trainers. Proud to be a Gamecock.”
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NCAA TOURNAMENT • BASKETBALL 17
NATIONAL CHAMPIONS? Dawn Staley says: ‘Why not? … We played up to that’
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By Josh Hyber | Staff writer • Photo by Allen Sharpe
awn Staley heard the ongoing chatter from mid-March into early April about her team and its potential claim to a national championship. She saw the articles and social media posts with writers and fans claiming one team or another was the best in 2019-20. On April 9, in a Zoom video conference with reporters, the South Carolina coach said her peace.
18 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL • CHAMPIONS
“If the last team standing at number one in the country, undisputed … what we were able to do, if you had to give out a national championship, then we played up to that,” she said. “We played up to being the number one team in the country. “… I do think we should be national champions. Because we don’t have a tournament. Our tournament was the preseason, the non-conference, the conference, the [SEC] Tournament.
“And for what we had done throughout the entire season, we had the best record in the country. We played the best teams in the country. We were number one in the RPI. … For who we had to go toe to toe with, and it was a pretty challenging season … why not? “A national championship trophy was made. It’s sitting somewhere.” An official championship title may never come, but there’s no doubt South Carolina had a season for the ages. The Gamecocks held the top spot in the AP Poll for 10 weeks, longer than any other team this season, and finished atop both the AP and USA Today polls. The team also claimed its fifth SEC regularseason title in seven seasons and its fifth SEC Tournament crown in the last six seasons. A few weeks after that magical run in Greenville, Staley had come to terms with how the season ended. “Obviously, when you turn on the news and you see how many people are impacted by [the coronavirus], sports play a small role, a very small role, in what’s happening in the overall scheme of the impact of COVID-19,” she said. Speaking four days after what would have been the NCAA Tournament national final, Staley said she did ref lect a bit about what could have been but didn’t dwell on it too much. “This team only wants to win. They want to win a national championship. That’s all they talked about,” the coach said. “They want to win a national championship. “And, Sunday, when somebody would have been playing in the national championship game, I did think about us. And then you read on Twitter, our fans, they reenact everything. They put you in the moment of being in New Orleans and all the things they would have been experiencing, being at the game. So that got me thinking. “But at the same time, you turn on the news and people are continuing to die. That jolts you back to your reality.” Staley does think her team — with three starters and four key bench players returning — will compete for a national championship in the “near future.” She believes that, she said, not just because of their talent, but because of their awareness, togetherness and approach. “They have an insatiable desire to get better and to compete and to win,” she said. “And when you have that in young people, the sky is the limit.” Staley reiterated how it was so much more important to talk about stopping the spread of the coronavirus and worrying about university employees than about basketball. Any conversations with University President Bob Caslen or Athletic Director Ray Tanner about honoring her team for its remarkable season could wait.
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“We’re programmed to play our best basketball just in case the bottom falls out. We never thought the bottom would fall out, but it did,” Staley said. But for someone like Staley, whose life has revolved around basketball, it has been a sobering time. “I love basketball. It’s my passion. It’s what I’ve built my entire life around. It’s been first in my life. … It is the driving force behind what I do every single day,” she said. “It is still, but sometimes you have to pivot and think about the impact of what’s really
happening out there in the world. And it’s OK to slide it to the side to just make sure everyone’s loved ones are in a good place and not impacted health-wise. And mentally, I think it takes a toll on all of us. “But the game will come back at some point. I don’t know in what capacity, but it will come back and we will love on it like we always have. But I hope it happens soon. And if it happens soon that means we got ahold of [the coronavirus].” Staley and her team closed the chapter on its 2019-20 season in a meeting on March 31.
“Obviously they’re bummed that they didn’t have a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament and they’re bummed for [our seniors] not getting an opportunity to finish their careers off playing in the NCAA Tournament, but they’re young,” she said. “They know they have years left to experience that, and they’re looking forward to future NCAA Tournament games.”
It was a banner year for Gamecock women’s basketball, which achieved several team and individual milestones.
TEAM RECORDS
AWARDS
SEASON
DAWN STALEY
• .970 winning percentage • 26 consecutive wins • 82 points per game • +25.9 scoring margin • 46.5 rebounds per game, +12.4 margin • 284 blocked shots
GAME • Blocks: 17 (App State, 11/17/19) • Points allowed in quarter: 0 (Ole Miss, 1/30/20, 1st quarter)
INDIVIDUAL RECORDS
• Starts by a freshman: 33 (Brea Beal, Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke)
ALIYAH BOSTON • Double-doubles by freshman (13) • Rebounding average by freshman (9.4) • Offensive rebounds by freshman (117) • Blocks by freshman (86) • Single-game rebounds by freshman (25, Arkansas, 1/9/20)
TY HARRIS • Career assists (702) • Career assist-to-turnover ratio (2.55) • Career games played (139)
• National Coach of the Year (AP, ESPN, Naismith, WBCA, USBWA) • SEC Coach of the Year
TY HARRIS • All-American (WBCA, Wooden Award) • Dawn Staley Award • Third-Team All-American (USBWA, AP) • All-SEC First Team • SEC All-Tournament Team
MIKIAH HERBERT HARRIGAN • All-SEC Second Team • SEC Tournament MVP, All-Tournament Team
ALIYAH BOSTON • SEC Freshman of the Year • SEC Defensive Player of the Year • All-SEC First Team • SEC All-Freshman Team • SEC All-Defensive Team • Lisa Leslie Award Center of the Year • National Freshman of the Year (ESPN, USBWA, WBCA) • Second-Team All-American (USBWA, AP) • Honorable Mention All-American (WBCA) • Five-time SEC Freshman of the Week
ZIA COOKE • SEC All-Freshman Team
DESTANNI HENDERSON • SEC Tournament All-Tournament Team
APRIL 2020
CHAMPIONS • WOMEN'S BASKETBALL 19
COACH OF TH Photos by Allen Sharpe, Jenny Dilworth, Artie Walker & Travis Bell
S
outh Carolina head coach Dawn Staley made history when she was named the Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year, becoming the first men’s or women’s honoree to win the award as both a player (1991-92) and coach. After leading the Gamecocks to a 32-1 record and No. 1 final ranking, Staley swept the national awards, also winning AP Coach of the Year and Women’s Basketball Coach’s Association Coach of the Year. “It is truly an honor to receive the Naismith National Coach of the Year, and while I’m the one receiving the award, every head coach knows you cannot be a good coach without great assistants, great support staff and great players,” Staley said. “So this award is every bit as much their's as it is mine.” Staley also thanked her FAMS, which she called the best fans in the nation. “They support us every day, on the court and off it, and it is my hope that during this trying time in our nation, when games like basketball seem so distant, that reading about this award gives those fans a little bit of joy and reminds them a little of what we can all look forward to when we come through this time on the other side,” she said. Staley’s team faced the fifth-toughest schedule in the country and responded with a 26-game winning streak and a 13-1 record against nationally-ranked opponents, including wins over three teams that finished the season in the top five.
Staley’s teams have won five SEC regular-season titles in the last seven seasons, and five of the last six SEC Tournament championships.
20 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL • DAWN STALEY
Staley is a four-time SEC Coach of the Year and the first in league history to win the honor in three straight seasons.
10
Weeks atop the AP poll, the most of any team in the country.
APRIL 2020
HE YEAR 33.3
Staley’s Gamecocks held opponents to the fourth-lowest shooting percentage in the country.
Staley’s South Carolina wins are the most by any Gamecock basketball coach, men’s or women’s.
Staley’s SEC regularseason winning percentage is second only to Tennessee’s Pat Summitt. Her 11.5 SEC wins per season are the most in league history.
82
South Carolina's school-record 82 points per game ranked sixth in the nation.
APRIL 2020
DAWN STALEY • WOMEN'S BASKETBALL 21
HIGH PERFORMANCE Molly Binetti excels at fine-tuning Dawn Staley’s elite athletes
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By Josh Hyber | Staff writer • Photos by Allen Sharpe
olly Binetti thinks of herself, in a way, as the mechanic of South Carolina women’s basketball. The team’s sports performance coach, she guides, tinkers and strengthens the team’s core — literally — so it can be a well-oiled machine. “We get Ferraris. We get Maseratis,” Binetti told Spurs & Feathers. “[The players are] already coming in in a really good spot, for the most part. They’re strong. They’re fast. They’re athletic. “My job is to just make sure the brakes are tightened a little bit, make sure [their] bodies are strong and make sure we’ve got the wheels aligned.”
When she said that in early March, the high-end players were heading down the home stretch. Binetti and her team were put to the test the following weekend when No. 1 South Carolina played three games in three days to win the SEC Tournament in Greenville, S.C. “Molly has been ‘the one,’” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said. “Molly and [athletic trainer] Craig [Oates] both have. With the athletes, and athletes of this caliber, they need a sense of confidence. If they’ve got a bump or bruise somewhere, they need to know psychologically that they’re OK. Part of a strength coach and a trainer is to treat it and then treat their minds. “We’ve got the best of them.”
22 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL • MOLLY BINETTI
Binetti’s guidance was a major reason why South Carolina’s quintet of Ty Harris, Zia Cooke, Brea Beal, Mikiah Herbert Harrigan and Aliyah Boston started all 33 games. It was the first time in Staley’s 12 seasons with the Gamecocks that the same unit started every game. “Molly is an important factor,” Boston said. “She has been throughout the entire season.” Above everything else, Binetti — who was hired by the program in June 2018 — tailors workouts to each specific player based on the player’s needs. As Binetti says, all players have different body types and personalities and respond differently physically and emotionally to different regimens. It’s about getting each player’s body to “feel the best” and “as strong and as powerful as possible.” Binetti keys in on what reduces a player’s chance of injury and then looks to continue to train what they are good at to make that better. She trains players for what she calls the “worst-case scenario.” “To get them prepared not just for the demands of one game, but the reality of playing three games back to back to back, potentially going into double-overtime, I want our team to be physically capable,” she said. Binetti wrote in a blog post earlier this season: "The best teams have their best players ready and available on game day. [The postseason] is also the time of year athletes should be their strongest and most powerful, which makes balancing the training with the demands of the season a tall task.” “I take it very seriously upon myself to make sure I’m doing everything possible to put them in the best position to shine,” she said. “And that’s just dialing in, everything from our training to recovery, our nutrition, our hydration, what type of recovery garments we’re wearing, what we’re doing in the hotel, what we’re doing between games. “Making sure we’re not leaving anything up to chance.” Binetti uses a team approach with Oates and a team dietician to get things done. The Gamecocks boarded its bus to Greenville with hydration packets, Gatorade and Gatorade chews, the latter which she gives players about 20 minutes before each game. She also brought recovery shakes that players drink about 30 minutes after each game. For afternoon games she makes sure they wake up at about 7 a.m. for the team’s 8 a.m. breakfast. For night games she makes sure players drink and eat afterward and use a cold tub if needed. She routinely checks the data from the team’s Polar Team Pro — which they wear during games and practices — to track heart rate. “We want to make sure we’re doing everything for them that mentally makes them feel
APRIL 2020
good,� Binetti said. “And we prioritize sleep more than anything.� Binetti teaches velocity-based training, a method that emphasizes balance, strength and speed. “Every day that we train there’s a different focus or a different emphasis,� she said. And she preaches competition. This past summer, she had her players compete to see who could make the most weight gain with dumbbells, and players often posted their achievements on social media. The goal: lift the heaviest weight possible 20 times in sets of three followed by a fourth “money� set. In the end, guards Ty Harris and Destiny Littleton each could lift 60-pound dumbbells 20 times. “Which is no easy feat,� Binetti said.
That success has translated to the court. Harris played 40 minutes in the team’s 7052 victory over No. 5 Connecticut. “I was feeling it and felt like I needed to be in the game to control everything,â€? Harris said after the game. “Molly [Binetti], our strength coach, shout-out to her for the conditioning we did in the preseason.â€? “Ty is built for moments like that,â€? Binetti said. “She’s one that I’ve never had to worry about her preparation. She always comes in prepared, and in the offseason she works harder than anybody. In the offseason she put herself in a position where she could play 40 minutes on the biggest stage and shine in moments like that. â€œâ€Ś To see her come up big in moments like that, it’s why I do it.â€? Also, to win. On Binetti’s LinkedIn rĂŠsumĂŠ it lists the skill “preparing champions.â€? Did she think South Carolina had what it takes to win the NCAA Tournament? “Absolutely,â€? she said. “That’s based off their preparation and being able to see that from day one in the summer and to see the work they put in up until this point. There’s no doubt in my mind. ‌ And there’s no doubt in my mind they’re well coached. They want the biggest moments.â€?
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APRIL 2020
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players deadlift or squat more than 300 pounds (BEST: Laeticia Amihere, 410-pound deadlift; Harris, 510-pound belt squat). Ten also bench press more than 135 pounds (BEST: Harris, 175). players can bench press 50-pound dumbbells 20 times (BEST: Harris 60 x 20)
players have a standing, vertical jump of 24 inches or more (BEST: Victaria Saxton, 28 inches).
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Harris, Destanni Henderson, Brea Beal and Zia Cooke all registered 3/4-court sprint times between 3.1 and 3.14 seconds
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MOLLY BINETTI • WOMEN'S BASKETBALL 23
FOOTBALL
A BRAVE NEW WORLD With practice halted, Muschamp using new technology to develop plan for 2020 season
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By Jeff Owens | Executive Editor • Photos by Allen Sharpe
ike most college football coaches, Will Muschamp is always working. Even during the offseason, there’s plenty to do. Whether it’s reviewing spring practice, installing new offensive and defensive schemes, game-planning for upcoming opponents or recruiting, always recruiting, Muschamp’s days are normally full. Leisure time? What is that? But like most Americans, Muschamp had to adjust to a new normal as the nation battled the spread of the coronavirus. With campus locked down, shutting him out of South Carolina’s state-of-the-art football facilities, he had to find new ways to lead his team. And, along the way, learn some new things he had never
24 2020 PLAN
experienced in the pre-COVID-19 days. “I embarrassingly admit I didn’t know much about Netflix,” he said during a light-hearted moment on April 6. “I do now. My wife and I watch ‘Bloodline.’ That’s a heck of a show, we watch that every night. In about two weeks, we worked through all three seasons of it. It was pretty good.” He also has had to discover new ways to communicate and interact with his football team. Whether through video conferencing, FaceTime or digital apps, Muschamp had to enter a brave new world as teams and programs across the country adapted to life without sports and normal athletic activity. “The players are a lot better at this than I am,” he said. “They are able to get on the phone and
this Zoom thing and do a really good job; it takes me a while to get it all cranked up.” South Carolina had just five spring practices before all athletic activities were shut down and student-athletes were sent home due to the spread of the virus. The April 4 Garnet & Black Spring Game was canceled and Muschamp and his players entered the offseason not knowing when they would be allowed back on campus, when practice could resume and when the 2020 season would be played. But that didn’t stop them from quickly developing a new routine, one powered by virtual meetings using video services like Zoom, and preparing for the 2020 season with programs like Learn To Win, a digital sports app that allows players to watch film and learn game plans just
like they were sitting in a meeting room. Beginning in April, Muschamp and his staff met online twice a week and held offensive and defensive meetings daily. Coaches also met with players daily, starting with a review of their five days of spring practice, and then implementing new phases of their offensive and defensive systems. With players taking online classes, academic advisors were using video conferencing to meet with players every day to help them with their studies or discuss academic issues. Director of Player Development Connor Shaw met with players once a week to discuss mental health issues while dealing with the pandemic, while noted sports psychologist Dr. Kevin Elko met with the staff and leadership
APRIL 2020
At the end of the day we are going to make it through this and we are going to be fine, we just don’t know when. – WILL MUSCHAMP
“It has been really beneficial. That has been a good part of the learning process,” he said. “That’s the best we can do at this time.” The virtual meetings have been particularly helpful to the 10 early enrollees from the 2020 signing class, which got just five spring practices before athletic activities were halted and campus was shut down. “We were fortunate that we were able to get [those five days of practice] in before the situation occurred. That was a huge benefit for them,” Muschamp said. “Now
APRIL 2020
Strength & Conditioning coach Paul Jackson
we are in a video-conference Zoom situation and they have an idea of what we are going through and what we are talking about. “Obviously, would we like to be on campus and practicing and working out and having them in the meeting rooms? Absolutely. But that’s not where we are right now so we have to adapt and adjust a little bit with how we are teaching and going through those things.” New strength and conditioning coordinator Paul Jackson, who drew high praise from players during spring practice, has also helped players develop their own workout routines, depending on how much training equipment they have access to at home. Coaches are not allowed to physically monitor off-campus conditioning but they can advise them on programs to help them stay in shape and continue training. “We are talking to our guys every day and making sure they are working out the best they can, whether they have access to weights and a workout situation or they don’t,” Muschamp said. “They can do some body weight at home. Some are doing the best they can with what they’ve got, and that’s all we can ask right now.” Muschamp’s biggest challenge during the offseason is keeping his players positive and focused, particularly amid the uncertainty of the upcoming season. Like all college athletes, his players were shocked and frustrated by the
sudden shut-down and have had to adjust to new, more challenging routines. “Any time you deal with the unknown and the uncertainty of a situation, it creates some anxiety, it creates some angst, and that’s natural,” he said. “But we always talk to our guys about control what you can control. We have got no control over this other than what we can do to
help prevent the spread of the the virus. We understand that, we explained that to our players countless times, and they understand that. “They are frustrated, we all are. But at the end of the day we are going to make it through this and we are going to be fine, we just don’t know when.” In mid-April, Muschamp had no idea when his players would be allowed to return to practice or when the 2020 season might begin. He estimates it will take teams about eight weeks to prepare and get in shape to play. When that happens, he says his team will be ready. “As a staff and as a team, we have to plan as if we are playing this fall and until someone tells us otherwise, that’s our plan,” he said. “We are planning on playing this fall and we’re planning on having 80,000 people at Williams-Brice. That’s the way I am looking at it.”
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group to discuss dealing with adversity during a time of crisis. The most important thing, Muschamp said, is keeping his team connected, upbeat and positive. Shaw even developed an online Madden video game tournament to help keep players engaged and entertained. “Connor has done a really good job of keeping our team connected,” Muschamp said. “The number one thing is having a daily routine. … Connor is doing a really good job, and Dr. Elko, at keeping guys connected during this time as best we can to keep our spirits up, stay positive and stay safe.” Muschamp and his team are using Zoom and the Learn To Win app to conduct online team meetings to study film and work on different schemes and game plans. The app even allows coaches to quiz players on certain formations and protections, just like during a film session.
2020 PLAN 25
LIGHTING A FIRE
Intense new OC Mike Bobo commanding respect, revamping Gamecock offense
I
By Jeff Owens | Executive Editor • Photos by Allen Sharpe t didn’t take long for Ryan Hilinski to learn what he was in for playing for new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Bobo. During their first meeting together, Hilinski and Bobo were watching film from last season, studying the offense and evaluating what went right and what went wrong. During the Vanderbilt game, Hilinski scrambled into the open field and stepped out of bounds about five yards from the closest defender. Bobo turned to Hilinski and said, “I didn’t know we had little babies out there. Next time go lower your shoulder against the guy.” Bobo was only ribbing his new quarterback, a light-hearted comment to break the ice and help build a relationship with the player expected to lead the Gamecock offense. But the 26 FOOTBALL • MIKE BOBO
moment also gave Hilinski a little insight into his fiery new position coach, an intense, nononsense coordinator who commands respect and pushes his players hard. “You can already tell that our guys are starting to respect him a lot just by the way he comes at it and how intense our practices are,” senior offensive lineman Sadarius Hutcherson said. “He’s definitely more vocal and that gets guys going a little bit more,” Hilinski said. “He might light a fire underneath you and you don’t want to get called out. I think that is what is in a lot of guys’ minds right now. Just trying to be able to execute and not be that guy who lets their teammates down. And I think that’s a big difference when it comes to his style of teaching.”
Bobo, who replaced Bryan McClendon as offensive coordinator, is charged with resurrecting an offense that struggled last season, averaging just 22 points per game and scoring just 24 points total in the last three games, all losses. Bobo’s offenses have averaged more than 30 points and 425 yards in his 13 years as a player caller — eight as Georgia’s offensive coordinator and five as head coach at Colorado State. His offenses at CSU set three of the topsix marks in school history for total offense, ranking in the top 20 nationally three times. What will his offense at South Carolina look like? With spring practice cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic, it’s hard to say. But Bobo offered some hints when he met with the media after the team’s fifth (and final) spring practice.
APRIL 2020
It starts, he said, with consistency — consistency in practice and in everything the team does. “Offensive football is about being consistent play after play and doing your job,” he said. “It is about execution and the only way you execute is being consistent every single day and how you approach practice and how you learn from your mistakes. I have been really, really pleased with that.” The next step is developing an offensive identity, and Bobo and his staff were just starting that process when spring practice was interrupted. He was learning his team’s personnel while also waiting on a group of six more 2020 signees scheduled to arrive over the summer for fall camp. “The one identity that doesn’t matter whether we are playing three or four wides, two wides, two tight ends, two backs, one back, we want to be tough. Mentally and physically tough,” he said. “That is going to be part of our identity.” With starting quarterback Jake Bentley lost for the season and Hilinski running the offense as a true freshman, the Gamecocks averaged just 372 yards per game and 5.2 yards per play last season. Bobo wants a balanced attack. A perfect game, he said, is rushing for more than 200 yards per game and passing for 300 or more. His last two teams at Colorado State averaged more than 300 yards passing and his 2017 team ranked 11th in the nation with 492.5 yards in total offense. His Georgia offenses, which relied heavily on the running game, were even more balanced. “We played Kentucky one year and didn’t punt, went 10 for 10 on third down. That was a pretty good game,” he said. The challenge at South Carolina is developing a young group that has lost a lot from last
season, including three experienced running backs, a three-year starter on the offensive line and one of the top wide receivers in school history. It starts at quarterback, where Hilinski returns but faces stiff competition when
He might light a fire underneath you and you don’t want to get called out. I think that is what is in a lot of guys’ minds right now. … [Don’t] be that guy who lets their teammates down. – RYAN HILINSKI
practice resumes or training camp begins. The sophomore from Orange, Calif. completed just 58 percent of his passes, throwing for only 2,357 yards in 11 games (214 yards per game). His QB rating of 56.0 was No. 72 in the nation among FBS quarterbacks. Bobo was pleased with Hilinski’s progress during the offseason and in spring practice but he will be pushed by two newcomers. Grad transfer Collin Hill started for Bobo at
Connor Jordan (14), Luke Doty (4), Ryan Hilinski (3) and Jay Urich. APRIL 2020
Colorado State and will be available this fall after recovering from his third ACL surgery. Freshman Luke Doty, a four-star recruit from Myrtle Beach, also looked good in the first few days of spring practice, completing 11 of 11 passes during one session. “He was awesome. He hit every target,” Bobo said. “Luke has been very accurate.” Doty also brings another dynamic to the offense, scrambling away from defenders and making plays by running the football. “I’ve been really pleased with Luke,” Bobo said. “He’s very conscientious, wants to learn, wants to put himself in position to compete. … His willingness to learn and master the offense is going to give him a chance to be really, really good. He has the skillset that the other guys don’t have … to be able to run and make plays with his legs. He doesn’t have the arm strength that Ryan has, but he’s been an accurate passer.” Completing passes will be crucial for whoever starts at quarterback. Bentley completed 63 percent of his passes and was 19-14 as a three-year starter, including 9-4 in 2017. Hilinski managed only 58 percent last season as the Gamecocks fell to 4-8 in head coach Will Muschamp’s fourth season. “We have to be accurate to play quarterback,” Bobo said. “I don’t care what offense you are running, you have to be able to throw the ball nowadays. … If you are not an accurate thrower, you won’t be able to play quarterback.” Hilinski was showing progress in spring practice with accuracy, footwork, mechanics and his grasp of the offense. He was poised to enter fall camp as the starter. “If you want to be a good football team, you have to have good quarterback play and that’s what I’m looking for,” Bobo said. “Right now, Ryan Hilinski has had good quarterback play. I have been pleased with him.” Bobo was experimenting in spring practice with having his quarterback play more under center instead of in a shotgun formation, which he believes would improve both playaction passing and the run game. The formation could feature a tight end and/or a fullback or H-back, which likely will be manned by transfer Adam Prentice, who also played for Bobo at Colorado State. “Being under center allows the gaps to open up to the back,” Hilinski said. “He can see a lot more once we get the ball back to him. It allows me to play faster as a quarterback too. Once I play faster, the back will play faster. He will get cutbacks, he will hit the A-gap, he will hit the B-gap, whatever he needs to do. The wide receiver will block for the D-gap. There’s just a lot of good stuff going on under center.” The unit Bobo was most pleased with early in spring practice was the offensive line, which returns eight players who started games last year. Hutcherson returns at guard along with Jovaughn Gwyn and Jordan Rhodes. Though starting tackle Dylan Wonnum missed the spring after hip surgery, Jakai Moore and Jaylen Nichols both got starts as freshmen while MIKE BOBO •
FOOTBALL 27
big junior-college transfer Jazston Turnetine (6-7, 330) was impressive in the spring. Eric Douglas and Hank Manos were battling at center with redshirt freshman Vincent Murphy and freshman Trai Jones. “I think our best position group right now is our offensive line because we have the most competition there,” Bobo said. “Those guys are competing every day to stay with the first team.” It also looks like there will be stiff competition at running back, a position which lost three-year starter Rico Dowdle, senior transfer Tavien Feaster and dependable backup Mon Denson. The only experienced backs are sophomores Kevin Harris and Deshaun Fenwick, who both got limited playing time last year. They were being pushed by highlytouted freshman MarShawn Lloyd, who drew high praise from his teammates and Bobo in spring practice. Fenwick, who had two 100-yard games in his only extensive play time, flashed in the spring. “He is a guy that has embraced it with open arms, a clean-slate mindset,” he said. “He’s a big, good-looking guy and he’s running physical and has shown some toughness. … He’s got good hands and he’s a smart kid. I am really, really pleased with him.” Of Lloyd, Bobo said: "MarShawn has a chance to be a special player. He's very diligent about how he approaches every day. He comes with the right mindset. He’s sitting in coach [Bobby] Bentley’s meeting room 30 minutes before the other guys get there. He wants to learn and he wants to be ready.” The trio will be joined in the fall by freshman Rashad Amos and junior-college transfer ZaQuandre White. “There is good competition there. I wish we had more guys out there competing, but those guys are doing a good job,” Bobo said. His biggest challenge is reinvigorating a wide receiver corp that has lost two of the best receivers in school history in the last two years in Deebo Samuel and Bryan Edwards. Senior and three-year starter Shi Smith and junior Josh Vann return, but senior Randrecous Davis missed the spring again with injuries. The two players who impressed Bobo most were sophomore Xavier Legette, who flashed at
Shi Smith the end of his freshman season, and sophomore Dakereon Joyner, the former quarterback who moved to receiver full time after last season. Bobo said Legette and Joyner have both shown “toughness” and can be productive, explosive receivers. Freshman Mike Wyman was also in spring practice and Bobo is anxious to get a look at newcomers Rico Powers Jr. and Ger-Cari Caldwell, both whom will arrive in time for fall camp. The biggest need, he said, is speed. Shi Smith is the team’s fastest player and caught a long touchdown pass in the final spring practice. Bobo is looking for more players who can stretch the field. The Gamecocks averaged just 5.7 yards per pass last season, a number Bobo believes should around 8.5 or 9. Alabama and LSU both averaged more than 10 yards per pass last season. “That’s the thing we need around here. We need some guys who can stretch the field with speed,” he said. “Hopefully we will get it with a couple of guys coming in that we signed. That’s one of our major focal points in recruiting is finding guys who can run.”
However Bobo’s offense evolves, his players have confidence in his approach and believe the offense will be explosive and productive. “Very exciting,” Joyner said. “He demands respect in terms of his offense and he’s a guy who wants us to be better. He wants us to be the best offense in the SEC, and I know we will be.”
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BASEBALL
LIFE WITHOUT BASEBALL After loss of promising season, Gamecocks face new world when baseball returns
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By Jeff Owens | Executive Editor • Photos by Allen Sharpe
hen Mark Kingston last met with his players on March 12, they all believed they would be starting SEC play the following day in an empty stadium at Founders Park. Then, on Friday, March 13, they learned that they wouldn’t be playing for at least two weeks. Then, as they headed home to do their part to battle the spread of the deadly coronavirus, that date was pushed back to April 15. Eventually, with big events like the NCAA Basketball Tournament and the College World Series already canceled, they had to endure the traumatic news that their season was officially over. “I think everybody has been dealing with it differently,” head coach Mark Kingston said on April 8. “Disappointment 30 2020 SEASON
obviously is an emotion that our team has.” But, like all of his coaching colleagues, Kingston quickly switched into mentor role and reminded his players of the bigger picture. “My message to them has been, there are much bigger things going on in the world and people are fighting for their lives and that is much more important than us playing baseball right now,” he said. “Their passion is baseball, baseball is a big part of their lives, but this is one of those moments in life where you get a reminder that there are much bigger things than baseball. “So I encouraged our guys to understand that and use this to make them appreciate their gifts and their ability to play the game and some day we will be back on that field together, but until then we just need to do our
part to help make this go away as quickly as possible.” When they do return to campus and baseball activities, their team might not look all that different — which, strangely, will be a surprising and perhaps unsettling development. Nearly half of Kingston’s players expected or hoped to be playing professional baseball next year, either after getting selected in the 2020 MLB Draft or signing a free agent contract. But for most, those plans are likely out the window now. Thanks to COVID-19, which wiped out the first month of the major league season, MLB is also making drastic changes. The draft is expected to be delayed at least a month and likely will be reduced from 40 rounds to as few as five. That means more than 1,100 players who expected to get drafted won’t, many of
them college players. And while the players selected will still get the expected signing bonuses, free agents might be capped at $20,000, prompting many high school players to go to college and collegiate players to return to school. The NCAA provided some much-needed relief for college players and an incentive to return to school by granting all spring sports athletes an additional year of eligibility (see page 32), a move Kingston called “the right decision.” The challenge, though, for college baseball programs will be managing what will be increased rosters. Seniors and grad transfers who decide to return to school won’t count under the NCAA’s roster and scholarship limits, but programs like South Carolina could still have way more players than normal.
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sport that has so many roster restrictions and has to deal with the major league draft out of high school, after their sophomore year, if they are eligible age-wise, and after their junior year. Now we are dealing with the coronavirus and there are so many factors involved, we are hoping the NCAA sits back and says, even if it’s only for one year, we need to try to help these players and these coaches manage an unprecedented situation.” While the numbers crunch will work itself out, the Gamecocks should return a strong team next season. They were 12-4 and riding a five-game winning streak when the season ended. They were surging behind a suddenly dominant pitching staff. After some early bullpen issues, South Carolina had lowered its team ERA to 2.81 and opponents were hitting just .180. They had twice as many strikeouts (184) as hits allowed (92). “We were really starting to hit our stride,” Kingston said. “I think our pitching staff had gotten to where we needed it to be. We’ve got a lot of good pitchers on that staff, a lot of very talented arms. If you look at the stats, they really jump off the page. … If you look at the last five games we played, pitching was absolutely dominant.” South Carolina was also starting to come around offensively. Sophomore Brady Allen was hitting a team-leading .327 while leadoff hitter Noah Myers was 4-for-4 in his last game to raise his average to .324. Eyster was hitting .304 with four home runs and 12 RBI while Wes Clarke led the SEC with eight home runs. “Having a 12-4 record, I think it could have been even better than that, but the first quarter of the season is for figuring out how the pieces fit together,” Kingston said. “I was pleased with where we were trending and I thought this was going to be end up being a very, very good baseball team this year.” With the addition of what Kingston calls “a very good” recruiting class with a lot of “highend talent,” South Carolina could have a strong team in 2021.
Kingston, along with a legion of fans, can’t wait for those days to come. “People love baseball here. That’s one of the reasons I came here, because I wanted to be in a place where people love and cared and had a passion for baseball, because I do too,” he said. “I think there is a little bit of a void right now, but it’s going on everywhere. We can feel sorry for ourselves, or we can be part of the solution. “At some point, we will be back on that field, our fans will be back in Founders Park and things will return to normal, and I can’t wait for that day.”
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“It’s a challenge for every coach around the country,” Kingston said. “There will be a lot more players in college baseball [next] year that would normally have been in professional baseball because of the draft being cut down to such a small number compared to what we have done in the past.” South Carolina could have four players return under the NCAA waiver in seniors George Callil and Graham Lawson and grad transfers Dallas Beaver and Bryant Bowen. Though all four hoped to move on to professional baseball, they have the option to return. The bigger challenge is the potential return of more than a dozen draft-eligible sophomores and juniors who had hoped to enter the draft but will now likely return. While Friday night ace Carmen Mlodzinski, a projected first-round pick, will likely move on to play professionally, juniors like Noah Campbell, Andrew Eyster and several junior-college transfers may now return for one more year. Kingston said he also expects draft-eligible sophomore Brett Kerry, a freshman AllAmerican in 2019 and one of the team’s best pitchers, to return. While that’s good for the 2021 team, it creates a maddening numbers crunch with a new recruiting class also on the way. Some of the highly-rated recruits who might have gotten drafted may now choose to play college ball, a boon for the program but a problematic issue for coaching staffs. As of mid-April, Kingston and other coaches were having to tackle those problems under the same scholarship (11.7) and roster (34) restrictions as in the past. While returning seniors won’t count toward those limits, it still leaves a glut of players looking for playing time. Kingston is hoping the NCAA will address those concerns as well by increasing roster sizes and possibly scholarship limits. “We’re holding out hope,” he said. “We are still hoping the NCAA and the baseball council will understand the uniqueness of our sport. We are the only
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2020 SEASON 31
SPRING SPORTS
ONE MORE YEAR NCAA waiver to help spring sports stars recover lost season
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By Jeff Owens | Executive Editor • Photos by Allen Sharpe and SC Athletics hen the NCAA announced March 30 that it would grant an extra year of eligibility to spring sports athletes who had their seasons suspended and canceled by the coronavirus, it was a critical decision for dozens of student-athletes at South Carolina and throughout college sports. The ruling could have a big impact on almost all of South Carolina’s spring sports teams, allowing key seniors and grad transfers to potentially return for one more year while granting all spring athletes an additional season. While the NCAA left it up to each school to decide whether to implement the waiver, South Carolina Athletic Director Ray Tanner said the university would provide that opportunity to every spring athlete.
32 NCAA WAIVER
“It’s the right thing to do,” Tanner told The Athletic. “The NCAA quite often gets criticized for different reasons, but the decision they made to grant spring eligibility was a victory. I think it was a great move.” The ruling was widely applauded by college coaches. “These student-athletes deserve the opportunity to play four years of collegiate athletics,” South Carolina baseball coach Mark Kingston said. “They worked their whole lives to get to this point and I think the NCAA did the right thing in still providing that opportunity.” Here’s a look at how the ruling could impact each South Carolina team.
BASEBALL No team could be impacted more than Kingston’s program, which could have several players return who might have moved on after this season. But no sport is more complicated than college baseball, which is impacted each year by the MLB Draft. With the MLB season also suspended, there were also major questions surrounding the 2020 draft. The league was considering postponing the draft from June to July, shortening the number of rounds to as few as five and altering the way signing bonuses are paid for both drafted and undrafted players. All of those moves could impact whether or not draft-eligible players decide to return to college for another season. Though Kingston had only two seniors and two grad transfers on this year’s team, more than 15 draft-eligible players could be affected by the ruling, giving them the option of an extra year if they are not drafted or not selected as high as they hoped. “The draft really will have the biggest impact on our roster moving forward, who gets drafted, who does not, who’s coming back, who’s not,” Kingston said.
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Senior shortstop George Callil, senior pitcher Graham Lawson and grad transfers Dallas Beaver and Bryant Bowen would all be eligible to return next season. Callil, a juniorcollege transfer, was in his final season at South Carolina while Lawson was a fifth-year senior who returned after missing the 2018 season after having Tommy John surgery. Beaver and Bowen transferred to South Mi aH Carolina this season to o r v it try and improve their draft stock. After the Gamecocks played just 16 games (12-4), both could elect to return for another season. Juniors Andrew Eyster and Noah Campbell entered the season as strong prospects for the 2020 draft, but the season suspension and NCAA ruling could persuade them to return to repeat their junior seasons. The Gamecocks also have six juniorcollege transfers — Jeff Heinrich, Noah Myers, Anthony Amicangelo and pitchers Thomas Farr, Brannon Jordan and Andrew Peters — who could decide to return. Farr and Jordan, who both got off to strong starts, were considered likely draft prospects, while Peters, another highly regarded prospect, was working his way back from Tommy John surgery. Other draft-eligible players who could decide to return include pitchers Brett Kerry, TJ Shook, Cam Tringali and John Gilreath. The player who may not be impacted by the ruling is Friday night starter Carmen Mlodzinski, who entered the season as a top-10 prospect. Though it was still uncertain how MLB signing bonuses would be paid, Mlodzinski is unlikely to return if he’s selected in the first round.
SOFTBALL
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Beverly Smith’s softball team could also get a big boost from the NCAA ruling with four key seniors on the team. Shortstop Kenzi Maguire and second baseman MacKenzie Boesel are both three-year starters who were having
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strong senior seasons for the 17-6 Gamecocks, while Lauren Stewart was a two-year starter in center field who was also off to a strong start. The ruling could be particularly huge for senior pitcher and slugger Cayla Drotar, who was injured early in the year and had missed several games of her senior season. The return of those four players could give Smith another strong nucleus for the 2021 season.
WOMEN’S TENNIS Seniors Mia Horvit and Silvia Chinellato helped lead Kevin Epley’s squad to the SEC Tournament Championship and the NCAA Elite Eight last season. They were looking to lead the 8-4 (4-0 in the SEC) Gamecocks to another deep postseason run when their season was cut short. With No. 25 Megan Davies and a wealth of young talent returning, another season for Horvit and Chinellato could give Epley one of the top teams in the country again next season.
MEN’S TENNIS Josh Goffi has only one senior on his No. 29-ranked team, but he is defending NCAA Singles Champion Paul Jubb. But with a promising pro career waiting — and after a strong professional debut last summer — Jubb is unlikely to return for another season of college tennis. The only other upperclassman is junior and two-year starter Thomas Brown, but the Gamecocks could benefit from another year for nationally ranked sophomores Daniel Rodrigues and Raphael Lambling.
GOLF This is a bittersweet development for women’s golf coach Kalen Anderson. Her Gamecocks had climbed to No. 4 in the country when the season was suspended and were expected to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. On the f lip side, two of her top golfers, seniors Lois Kaye Go and Ana Pelaez, will be eligible to return. Go is one of the top golfers ever at South Carolina and owns the lowest scoring average (72.63) in program history. Pelaez, a freshman AllAmerican in 2016-17, has also had a solid career. Men’s coach Bill McDonald could also benefit from the ruling with the potential return of seniors Jamie Wilson and Caleb Proveaux. Both golfers had two top-five finishes this year and double-digit rounds of par or better.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL The beach volleyball team, led by head coach Mortiz Moritz, has five key upperclassman who could benefit from an extra year of eligibility. Seniors Katie Smith, one of the top players in program history, Franky Harrison and Carly Schnieder, could all return, along with grad transfers Morgyn Greer and Madison Brabham, th i m who had cracked the starting Katie S lineup during the 2020 season.
TRACK & FIELD Curtis Frye’s team was looking for another strong showing at the NCAA Championships when the outdoor season was halted. Though he has a young men’s and women’s team, the Gamecocks could get another season from some highly decorated seniors, including national champion sprinters Quincy Hall and Aliyah Abrams. Hall was the outdoor national champion in the 400M hurdles last year, while Abrams led the 4x400m relay team to a national championship and is one of the nation’s top 400m sprinters. Both may jump at the opportunity to compete for another national title. The Gamecocks could also get back senior shot put champion Eric Favors and distance runner and cross country star Anna Kathryn Stoddard.
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TENNIS
COPING WITH COVID-19 Away from home and her season over, Silvia Chinellato can’t wait to return to tennis
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By Brad Muller | SC Athletics • Photo by Allen Sharpe he coronavirus pandemic has made things tough for studentathletes worldwide, but for South Carolina tennis senior and Italy native Silvia Chinellato, overcoming adversity has become a way of life. “I was really sad that I couldn’t go home,” Chinellato said after student-athletes were sent home
34 SILVIA CHINELLATO
in mid-March because of the virus. “A lot of my friends here have gone home. A friend from Spain went home, and another girl from Brazil is going home, but my part of the country is closed down. I am glad that I have a family here that is here for me. “I do want to go home, but I have to wait for a good time because I don’t want to have to
quarantine myself. It’s been hard, but I’m glad I have people here helping me out.” Chinellato was last home in Como, Italy over Christmas break. She speaks with her family every day. “Everyone in the family is healthy, so that’s good,” she said. “It’s a mandatory quarantine. So, if you want to leave the house, only one person can do it if they need to go to the convenience store or things like that. You have to have a permit from the police. They just have to stay at home unless it’s absolutely necessary. It’s kind of tricky. “They’ve told me to stay home. They don’t want for it to get as bad here as it did in Italy.” With the university closed, Chinellato has been staying at the home of her boyfriend’s family. A two-time ITA Scholar Athlete, she has been a steady contributor in helping the Gamecocks reach the NCAA Tournament each year of her career. Head coach Kevin Epley’s Gamecocks won the SEC Tournament title last year and advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time in program history. They were off to a solid start this spring, winning their first four SEC matches, before the rest of the season and all spring sports were canceled. Although what should have been her senior year is over, Chinellato is excited about the prospect of returning for a fifth year after the NCAA’s ruling that spring sports athletes will be granted an extra year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was weird because I didn’t expect my career to finish like that,” she said. “I was sad and kind of surprised. At first, I thought that this was the end. It’s not in my control, but after looking at how my parents were doing, not in terms of their health, but how their lives were being altered, I thought if this protects people’s situations, then OK. It’s miserable in Italy right now. Italy has lost a lot in the tourism industry and a lot of people are sick. Seeing that, I’m glad they’re trying to prevent that situation in the United States. “The team was doing great. The NCAA decided really quick about getting our eligibility back,
so this is great. At first, I thought about how this was not how we thought our senior season would go. We were looking forward to senior day and everything like that. I understand people are sad about losing their seasons, but in talking to my parents and having them explain how things got really bad there, I can see why they have taken all these measures here.” Chinellato suffered a knee injury as a sophomore but bounced back only to have some issues with her other knee this year. She was scheduled to have surgery and is looking forward to the pandemic being over so she can have have a healthy final season of college athletics. “There is plenty of time to practice for next year,” she said. “I’ve battled several injuries in my tennis career and my coaches and my teammates were really supportive in my coming back when I got hurt before. I had to be motivated with all that support around me.” Like everyone else, she is facing new challenges. Accustomed to her schedule being filled up with classes, practice, travel and other team-related activities, Chinellato was finding ways to occupy her time before the state of South Carolina was placed under a stay-at-home order. “I love cooking, so I’m cooking a lot lately,” she said. “I play tennis a little bit to keep myself busy. I work out a little bit and go kayaking or listen to music. I’m not really a person who watches TV. I’d rather go do something active.” Having already earned her degree in hospitality and tourism management, Chinellato is working on her master’s degree. She had planned to work as a volunteer assistant with the team next year, but now looks forward to rejoining them on the court. “I’m really excited to be with my teammates again and spend more time with the coaches who have helped me a lot over the last four years,” she said. “We’ve been doing great this year, so it will be nice to pick up where we left off and see how far we can go next year.”
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No. 1 Gamecocks deserved to play for national championship By Josh Hyber | Staff writer
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GAMECOCK MARKETPLACE
he greyhounds had been held in the starting gate for about a month, and to say they had pent-up energy would be a vast understatement. On March 23, ESPN’s Basketball Power Index released a projection for how it thought a 2020 women’s NCAA Tournament would have played out. The victor was a team that, without question, had a great season. It beat Connecticut, Washington State in the Virgin Islands and Georgia by 30-plus points. It’s national champion? Baylor. Yikes. Hopefully you didn’t rip up this magazine upon reading that, because we put a lot of work into producing it. But how did the projection not result in South Carolina, the nation’s No. 1 team in all the final polls, taking home the ultimate hardware?
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“Every team, every fan base, can say they’re the very best,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley told The Undefeated in early March. “Every team can’t say they’re the number one team in the country. “Crown us the national champion.” And those greyhounds — South Carolina players and their diehard FAMS — did not hold back on their feelings toward that ESPN projection and to a tweet from Oregon guard Minyon Moore. “The only way to stop us this year from winning the national championship was a global pandemic happening,” the Ducks senior tweeted, referring to the COVID-19 coronavirus that led to the cancellation of the tournament. Replied South Carolina senior Ty Harris, “Ohhh @MinyonMoore, that made me laugh a
little. You are right about one thing, it is obvious...... Go Cocks.” “Or us,” Brea Beal responded, adding a physically disturbed and confused emoji face. Mikiah Herbert Harrigan simply responded with four crying laughing face emojis. Let’s make one thing clear: ESPN put out a projection to generate discussion and attract web traffic. No Nostradamus could predict with absolute certainty who would be playing, and winning, the national championship in New Orleans. Anything can happen in March. The entire tournament was canceled. Who would have ever projected that? But the fact ESPN gave South Carolina a 19.1 percent chance to win — however that specific number was calculated — is downright silly. Oregon was given a 29.4 percent chance, while “champion” Baylor was given 19.3, Maryland 7.9 and UConn 7.7. When South Carolina was ranked No. 5 in the country on
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Nov. 30, it beat then-No. 2 Baylor 74-59 in the Virgin Islands. Yes, the Bears were shorthanded, playing without star Lauren Cox, but a 15-point victory is no accident. But that was only the ninth game of South Carolina’s season. The young Gamecocks — five freshmen in a nine-player rotation — were still maturing. The win over Baylor, two days after a loss to Indiana, proved it could bounce back from defeat. Personally, I think the country wanted a South Carolina-Oregon national championship game. Harris vs. AP Player of the Year Sabrina Ionescu, a lock to be the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft. Beal vs. likely No. 2 pick Satou Sabally. Herbert Harrigan vs. likely first-rounder Ruthy Hebard. A party on Bourbon Street. But let’s not, for a second, question the historical season the Gamecocks had regardless of how it ended. Not even something called a Basketball Power Index can discredit that.
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