re: 2013-14 Men's & Women's Basketball I Women vs UNC - L 58-65

Solid end of the season so far imo, won 5 out of our last 9 games. Including 3 wins in our last 4 games, you can see this team has come a long way since the beginning of the year. God I wish we had Brenton one more year.

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3 wins in our last 4 games

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And the one loss was to the number 1 team in the country.

I like the direction our team is heading. Chatkevicius has been showing some promise down the stretch and might be able to be the big man we've been lacking

Both still managed to miss some layups though

Hopefully he'll get that worked out in offseason. They make up for it with their free throw shooting for now.

I love bigs that can hit from the line

What a fricking game.

We're going to the Semi's. They greatly exceeded my expectations for the SECt. Still under impressed for the season, but the PG situation we got dealt is what it is.

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Chatkevicius played another great game. Maybe hes the answer we've been looking for down low.

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If he & Kacinas stay over here at USC for the majority of the summer they are going to be very very good in my opinion next season. What they along with the rest of the team for the past 2-3 weeks has been fantastic.

We won 14 total Men's game last year. We are at 14 right now. IF we beat Tenn today we'll have actually improved despite the horrible hand Martin was dealt this year with Geather's injury, Ellington's NFL departure and Tyrone's injury.

Also, this is the furthest we've been in the SEC Tournament since 2005, the year when we won it all....in the NIT.

Gamecocks earn a 1 seed & are heading out to Seattle. Will play against 16 seed Cal State Northridge. Will play at 5:30 EST Sunday on ESPN.

Gamecocks win & move on after winning over CS Northridge 73-58.

The biggest hole to our team this season has been at the guard positions, and mostly at PG. Also our perimeter scoring has been a detriment this season. Gone are the days of depending on guards like Lakesha Sutton, Markeshia Grant, and Ieasia Walker leading the team with cold-blooded jump-shots and blind-sided pocket picks and pass interceptions.

Once you get to a certain point in tournaments like the NCAAT, and play at a certain level, the very top, elite programs have answers at all the positions. They may play roles for most of the year, but when they are called upon, they usually still are 4* caliber or former McD AAs and step in and contribute...

USC IMO has holes on the floor at 2 spots still on our team. We're still trying hard to fill the depth and talent to match what the elite programs have. IMO Sessions and Dozier - although 4*-rated prospects out of HS - have yet to perform at a 4*-caliber level of production. They typically disappear offensively in big games, and do not do enough other things (defense, steals, block shots, rebounds, etc.) to make up for it. They usually watch the other 4 (Mitchell, Welch, Ibiam, Coates) battle and when their names are called on, they rarely step up.

Now, this was the first season either has mostly started or participated in the season. Maybe they are slow to develop or get comfortable in finding roles, and Ibiam is more gifted physically than either, but Ibiam was a 3* and found her game earlier than either Sessions or Dozier. As it was, we were mostly gong 3 vs 5 on the court at all times against the biggest opponents we played against this season...

Next season, if A'ja Wilson chooses USC, we'll have 14 scholarship players out of the maximum 15. Welch, Ibiam, and Gaines will be seniors next season. We could only have 13 if Wilson goes elsewhere. I don't know that Coach Staley is looking at anyone else to fill that spot left open by Shakayla Thomas, so it looks like it's only adding Wilson or what we got now is what we end up with.

For the 2015-2016 (2015)cycle, that means we can have a class of 4 if Wilson chooses USC, or 5 if she chooses elsewhere. So here is where Coach Staley hopefully will continue her stellar recruiting work and bring in more stud talent. The next cycle of in-state prep talent for SC looks pretty thin compared to this current class, but there's a lot of prospects in NC, GA, FL, as well as elsewhere. Staley has shown she can go out and pull talent from up-north and even from Texas, so she'll cast a wide net.

But we need to keep the momentum going forward, and turn this into a special program...