Has Hyman Hit A Home Run With Hoop Hires?
posted by Scott Hood, Sunday, January 11, 2009
You could say the same thing about the Dawn Staley-led women’s hoop team as well, though they haven’t experienced the same level of success this season with several painful losses, including Sunday’s 69-63 loss at Georgia.
Flashback twelve months ago – USC entered conference play coming off a shocking 61-58 home loss to UNC-Asheville. Then, they went out and lost to Vanderbilt and Tennessee (24 point defeat at home) to open SEC play 0-2 and it was all downhill from there.
Within a week, Dave Odom had announced his retirement effective at the end of the 2007-2008 season.
Enter Horn.
The 2008-2009 edition of the Gamecocks are woefully short on depth, but somehow Horn has these guys playing hard on every possession. I know some fans were fearing the worst following the Clemson loss on Dec. 30, but the Gamecocks went out to Waco and knocked off Baylor with a last-second layup by Zam Fredrick.
Although that win occurred nine days ago, it’s my opinion Horn and the players are still feeding off the positive vibes from that dramatic victory. It’s only human nature to do so.
It certainly showed Saturday night when USC started sluggishly but soon turned up the defensive pressure and eventually forced 24 Auburn turnovers. The Gamecocks dominated the final 23 minutes the game and built a 19-point lead at one point.
But the most remarkable aspect of the night was the crowd. It was, without question, one of the more frenzied gatherings I’ve seen at Colonial Life Arena in a long time. You might have to go back to the 2003-2004 season for a comparable crowd in terms of noise and enthusiasm.
Of course, there were still thousands of empty seats, but I think that will be rectified as time goes on and the Gamecocks continue to win.
So, USC is now 3-0 in January for the first time since 1997, and 12-2 overall. If there’s one word to describe this team, it’s this one – fun.
After Saturday’s game, it was clear from speaking to multiple players that Horn has already had a profound impact on the program in his first nine months at the helm on both a basketball and personal level.
Here are the words of Zam Fredrick when he spoke with the media Saturday night after scoring a career high 27 points in the conference opener against Auburn:
“I love Coach Horn. He’s allowed me to play the game the way I was taught to play it. We just play up and down, and hard on defense. We’re scrappy. It might look unorganized sometimes, but we know exactly what we’re doing. That’s how I learned to play and I appreciate it. And I thank the Lord for putting him in my life this last year to go out and play the game the way I know how to play it. . .I just appreciate Coach Horn and respect him a lot. I learned and grew from the last two coaches I’ve had, too. . .I’m just glad to be where I’m at now with Coach Horn and playing well and our team is winning.”
The comments by Fredrick, together with the early success of the men’s basketball team invites this intriguing, phonetically pleasing question: Has Eric Hyman hit a home run with his new hoop hires?
Right now, you’d have to say the answer is yes. But, as they say, there’s plenty of basketball left to play. It’s still two months until the SEC tournament in Tampa, so we have plenty of time keep hyper-analyzing this team as they go along.
What should we expect in the future? The contest on Wednesday night at LSU will tell us a lot. If the Gamecocks manage to pull that one out, they will be playing with house money when they travel to Tennessee on Saturday night.
I told Executive Associate AD Kevin O’Connell on Saturday night that, with school back in session starting Monday, if USC splits the two upcoming road games and came back to Columbia 2-1 in the SEC, the Colonial Life Arena would be close to sold out for the next home game against Florida on Jan. 21.
This time of the year, most college basketball experts start proclaiming how many conference wins a certain team needs to win to make the NCAA Tournament. Well, the general sentiment among the media folks I spoke with is that USC has to go no worse than 10-6 in the SEC to have a shot at earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
Should making the NCAA Tournament be the ultimate goal for this year’s team? Yes, as it should for every Div. I program out there.
In my opinion, though, I think it would be better for Horn’s first year, and the long-term growth of the program, if the Gamecocks won 18 or 19 games during the regular season and tried to make a deep run through the NIT.
In my view, that would make Horn’s initial season a rousing success and a building block in the foundation for the coming years.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
Is Darrin Horn a miracle worker? Well, probably not. But I know one thing – the atmosphere around the men’s basketball program is nearly 180 degrees different from last January.
You could say the same thing about the Dawn Staley-led women’s hoop team as well, though they haven’t experienced the same level of success this season with several painful losses, including Sunday’s 69-63 loss at Georgia.
Flashback twelve months ago – USC entered conference play coming off a shocking 61-58 home loss to UNC-Asheville. Then, they went out and lost to Vanderbilt and Tennessee (24 point defeat at home) to open SEC play 0-2 and it was all downhill from there.
Within a week, Dave Odom had announced his retirement effective at the end of the 2007-2008 season.
Enter Horn.
The 2008-2009 edition of the Gamecocks are woefully short on depth, but somehow Horn has these guys playing hard on every possession. I know some fans were fearing the worst following the Clemson loss on Dec. 30, but the Gamecocks went out to Waco and knocked off Baylor with a last-second layup by Zam Fredrick.
Although that win occurred nine days ago, it’s my opinion Horn and the players are still feeding off the positive vibes from that dramatic victory. It’s only human nature to do so.
It certainly showed Saturday night when USC started sluggishly but soon turned up the defensive pressure and eventually forced 24 Auburn turnovers. The Gamecocks dominated the final 23 minutes the game and built a 19-point lead at one point.
But the most remarkable aspect of the night was the crowd. It was, without question, one of the more frenzied gatherings I’ve seen at Colonial Life Arena in a long time. You might have to go back to the 2003-2004 season for a comparable crowd in terms of noise and enthusiasm.
Of course, there were still thousands of empty seats, but I think that will be rectified as time goes on and the Gamecocks continue to win.
So, USC is now 3-0 in January for the first time since 1997, and 12-2 overall. If there’s one word to describe this team, it’s this one – fun.
After Saturday’s game, it was clear from speaking to multiple players that Horn has already had a profound impact on the program in his first nine months at the helm on both a basketball and personal level.
Here are the words of Zam Fredrick when he spoke with the media Saturday night after scoring a career high 27 points in the conference opener against Auburn:
“I love Coach Horn. He’s allowed me to play the game the way I was taught to play it. We just play up and down, and hard on defense. We’re scrappy. It might look unorganized sometimes, but we know exactly what we’re doing. That’s how I learned to play and I appreciate it. And I thank the Lord for putting him in my life this last year to go out and play the game the way I know how to play it. . .I just appreciate Coach Horn and respect him a lot. I learned and grew from the last two coaches I’ve had, too. . .I’m just glad to be where I’m at now with Coach Horn and playing well and our team is winning.”
The comments by Fredrick, together with the early success of the men’s basketball team invites this intriguing, phonetically pleasing question: Has Eric Hyman hit a home run with his new hoop hires?
Right now, you’d have to say the answer is yes. But, as they say, there’s plenty of basketball left to play. It’s still two months until the SEC tournament in Tampa, so we have plenty of time keep hyper-analyzing this team as they go along.
What should we expect in the future? The contest on Wednesday night at LSU will tell us a lot. If the Gamecocks manage to pull that one out, they will be playing with house money when they travel to Tennessee on Saturday night.
I told Executive Associate AD Kevin O’Connell on Saturday night that, with school back in session starting Monday, if USC splits the two upcoming road games and came back to Columbia 2-1 in the SEC, the Colonial Life Arena would be close to sold out for the next home game against Florida on Jan. 21.
This time of the year, most college basketball experts start proclaiming how many conference wins a certain team needs to win to make the NCAA Tournament. Well, the general sentiment among the media folks I spoke with is that USC has to go no worse than 10-6 in the SEC to have a shot at earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
Should making the NCAA Tournament be the ultimate goal for this year’s team? Yes, as it should for every Div. I program out there.
In my opinion, though, I think it would be better for Horn’s first year, and the long-term growth of the program, if the Gamecocks won 18 or 19 games during the regular season and tried to make a deep run through the NIT.
In my view, that would make Horn’s initial season a rousing success and a building block in the foundation for the coming years.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
Previous Blog Entries
Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.