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What does it take?

Late February is typically the time when basketball fever reaches a high on college campuses, but in Columbia, S.C. enthusiasm has been replaced by apathy.

The fact is this: the basketball program is hurting. Attendance is putrid, as is the Gamecock’s SEC record. Most fans are choosing to turn their attention to the - very much deserving - baseball team rather than endure one of the most difficult season in South Carolina basketball history.

So what will it take to turn everything around? What actions need to be taken in order to put fans back into seats? What can happen to bring enthusiasm back to the Colonial Life Arena?

It’s already there; you just aren’t looking in the right place.

Dawn Staley and her group of “street fighters” - as they have been lovingly nicknamed for their tough style of defense – just had attendance figures of over 6,000 fans for the recent home game against Florida.

That tells me something; South Carolina is starving for good basketball.

I’ve heard a lot of people talk about it; how we just “aren’t a basketball school”. How we are in a state that produces limited talent. How we can’t compete with the traditional powers because the interest and enthusiasm about basketball just isn’t there.

I disagree with that.

What would it take to bring basketball fever to Columbia? Simple…give us three seasons of success. Give us three seasons where the team shows steady improvement and makes the NCAA Tournament by the third season. Give us three progressive years and basketball will be engrained into the hearts of Gamecock fans.

It doesn’t have to be a National Championship. It doesn’t even have to be an SEC Championship. It just has to be three seasons full of excitement and reasons for parents to bring their children to see the team play.

What brings fans isn’t just a winning team; it’s having an event that builds fond memories. It’s last second buzzer-beaters, it’s blocked shots, it’s an alley-oop that sends the place into a craze.

Things like that have become a rarity in Columbia that people have forgotten what it is like to be excited when traveling to a basketball game. Thus they have stopped traveling at all.

Darrin Horn started off so well in his first season. He had many of those great memories: buzzer beater versus Florida, sweeping Kentucky with a dominating win at home, SEC East Co-Championship.

He did exactly what needed to be done in season one.

It was in his second season – a time when he needed to take the spark he created and feed it - that the problems started coming. The Gamecocks opened and showed a lot of promise when making it to the Charleston Classic championship game against Miami. Then Dominique Archie went down and from that moment until now – with a few sparse bright spots in between - it was a downhill spiral.

It doesn’t have to continue this way though, and I don’t believe it will. Gamecock Nation has fans that are die-hard and the baseball and football teams have shown that in Columbia, anything is possible.

It is possible to have a winning basketball team.

It is possible to be a football, baseball, AND basketball school.

It is possible to pack out the Colonial Life Arena. To have it brimming with so much enthusiasm that recruits can’t help but feel like this is the place they want to be. It is possible to have a program that people want to support.

I don’t know if Darrin Horn is the guy to lead us down that path. I don’t know if the current roster of players think they are capable. I don’t know what is going to happen.

I just know what can happen.

Picture the day when every restaurant in Columbia is packed in March to watch the Gamecocks take on their first opponent in the NCAA Tournament. Can you feel the excitement? Can you picture the scene? Can you imagine the joy?

All it will take is two building years, followed by a third great one and the love for basketball will be deeply etched into the hearts of Gamecock fans both young and old forever. South Carolina basketball can be something to talk about again; it just needs to be allowed to grow.

“Everyone gets knocked down, the question is: Will you get back up?” - Unknown

Justin King

    • Win and they will come. The 6000 at the women's game had to be close to a record amount I would imagine. Good article

      AKC18599

    • Very good article. I agree that it can happen but we must have a coaching change.

      cockballfan

    • I was a season ticket holder since the 70's and attended most games. During the years I sat through some bad teams but continued to go.
      This year I did not purchase tickets and have been to only one game. Why? Horn seems a good guy but for several reasons he has lost not only the fans but any chance to build a winner.
      The coaching is atrocious. You only have to look at the disparity of foul shots between us and our opponents and the percentages our opponents have on three point shots.
      You may could lay the blame ,justifiably,on his assistants but remember Horn hired them and continues to keep them.
      Look at the recruiting mistakes- Smith and Jackson.
      Where are the guards on this team and where are the recruited guards for next season? At present we only have a part time guard in Ellington who i believe will opt for Football which i think he should.
      To my knowledge we did not recruit Irmo's Roper . Roper may not be any more than a sub on most College teams but he is a lot better than what we have now coupled with the fact that we have no one coming in next year.
      Addressing attendance you must couple bad play,over exposure,and $18 tickets.
      College Basketball attendance is down significantly nationwide because of TV coverage.Why pay the high ticket prices when one can sit home and watch virtually all games on TV?
      A new coach would energize the fans and generate an immediate spike in Season ticket sales.
      Keeping the current Staff and increase attendance? Easy. Lower ticket prices.The revenue loss would of course be catastrophic but if you charged $25.00 for season tickets like the ladies you would see a large increase in attendance.

      BCSCock

    • BCSCock said...

      I was a season ticket holder since the 70's and attended most games. During the years I sat through some bad teams but continued to go. This year I did not purchase tickets and have been to only one game. Why? Horn seems a good guy but for several reasons he has lost not only the fans but any chance to build a winner. The coaching is atrocious. You only have to look at the disparity of foul shots between us and our opponents and the percentages our opponents have on three point shots. You may could lay the blame ,justifiably,on his assistants but remember Horn hired them and continues to keep them. Look at the recruiting mistakes- Smith and Jackson. Where are the guards on this team and where are the recruited guards for next season? At present we only have a part time guard in Ellington who i believe will opt for Football which i think he should. To my knowledge we did not recruit Irmo's Roper . Roper may not be any more than a sub on most College teams but he is a lot better than what we have now coupled with the fact that we have no one coming in next year. Addressing attendance you must couple bad play,over exposure,and $18 tickets. College Basketball attendance is down significantly nationwide because of TV coverage.Why pay the high ticket prices when one can sit home and watch virtually all games on TV? A new coach would energize the fans and generate an immediate spike in Season ticket sales. Keeping the current Staff and increase attendance? Easy. Lower ticket prices.The revenue loss would of course be catastrophic but if you charged $25.00 for season tickets like the ladies you would see a large increase in attendance.

      we recruited Roper. Are Brenton Williams, Damien Leonard, Eric Smith, Brian Richardson not guards? Lakeem Jackson was not a mistake. We knew he could not shoot, but he is the best passer and defender on the team, and a ferocious rebounder. Brenton Williams = 2x Roper. We offered him, but he is not an ACC or SEC player imo. He may prove me wrong, but I doubt it. Its a young team. Because we are not a bball school, we have to bring in 'projects' for lack of a better term. We need more inside help, and we are getting that next year. The players are fine, several of them were big time recruits. They just need to develop

      steve miller

    • That said, they do need to develop. I do not know the answer to how that will get done. All I know is this: Harris was a top 70 recruit, Slawson was Mr Bball in SC. Leonard, huge recruit. Gill was top150, Bruce is Bruce. Those guys have the ability, I promise that. Whether they fulfill their potential is up to several things, but that is yet to be determined. I do know this, the fans are going to have to be patient whether Horn is retained or not. It is not going to happen overnight.

      steve miller

    • steve miller said...

      we recruited Roper. Are Brenton Williams, Damien Leonard, Eric Smith, Brian Richardson not guards? Lakeem Jackson was not a mistake. We knew he could not shoot, but he is the best passer and defender on the team, and a ferocious rebounder. Brenton Williams = 2x Roper. We offered him, but he is not an ACC or SEC player imo. He may prove me wrong, but I doubt it. Its a young team. Because we are not a bball school, we have to bring in 'projects' for lack of a better term. We need more inside help, and we are getting that next year. The players are fine, several of them were big time recruits. They just need to develop

      They are guards, just not very good ones. I don't think the players are fine because at the end of the day they are just as good now as they were when the stepped on campus. I agree with you that there needs to be development, but if you look at the way these kids play, I've got a hard time seeing anybody that has significantly improved (freshman or sophomore) from the first day they stepped on campus.

      In order to develop, you need good fundamentals and an understanding of what situation you are in. I've still got the image of Eric Smith freezing and calling timeout against Arkansas's press. How do you not know that is coming?

      If you have a good scheme and an identity of what you are doing that the players embrace and understand, you can mask some of your shortcomings. We do not have said identity and so our shortcomings are out there for other teams to expose. All of that falls on the coaches.

      franklinnb

    • steve miller said...

      That said, they do need to develop. I do not know the answer to how that will get done. All I know is this: Harris was a top 70 recruit, Slawson was Mr Bball in SC. Leonard, huge recruit. Gill was top150, Bruce is Bruce. Those guys have the ability, I promise that. Whether they fulfill their potential is up to several things, but that is yet to be determined. I do know this, the fans are going to have to be patient whether Horn is retained or not. It is not going to happen overnight.

      If they have talent as you claim wouldn't you then say that makes the coaching piece look even worse? No talent and bad coaching = what this year's team should look like. If the talent is there as you say then our coaching must be some of the worst in the country..... because our stats sure say so.

      This post was edited by jacquescock on 2/17/2012 at 11:38 AM

      jacquescock

    • AKC# said...

      Win and they will come. The 6000 at the women's game had to be close to a record amount I would imagine. Good article

      Record for attendance at a women's BB game was over 17,000 against Clemson in the first game played at CLA.

      MrBigAl ●

    • I would have to say that Harris has improved since coming here.

      Fatubus

    • I have had season tix for last three years. Would literally drive from Raleigh on weekdays with the slim hope of an NCAA tournament bid. This year that has changed, while I have purchased espn fullcourt, I cannot justify driving from Raleigh to Columbia every home game. Just give us a slim hope and we are starved enough to do anything to get to CLA, even drive4 hours on a Tuesday night and driving back!

      mdmclaurin

    • steve miller said...

      we recruited Roper. Are Brenton Williams, Damien Leonard, Eric Smith, Brian Richardson not guards? Lakeem Jackson was not a mistake. We knew he could not shoot, but he is the best passer and defender on the team, and a ferocious rebounder. Brenton Williams = 2x Roper. We offered him, but he is not an ACC or SEC player imo. He may prove me wrong, but I doubt it. Its a young team. Because we are not a bball school, we have to bring in 'projects' for lack of a better term. We need more inside help, and we are getting that next year. The players are fine, several of them were big time recruits. They just need to develop

      We didn't offer Roper never really showed him any attention either. Saying we recruited him is about like saying we recruited Justin Worley. Not that I thought we shouldve recruited Worley just making comparison

      abc2 ●

    • steve miller said...

      we recruited Roper. Are Brenton Williams, Damien Leonard, Eric Smith, Brian Richardson not guards? Lakeem Jackson was not a mistake. We knew he could not shoot, but he is the best passer and defender on the team, and a ferocious rebounder. Brenton Williams = 2x Roper. We offered him, but he is not an ACC or SEC player imo. He may prove me wrong, but I doubt it. Its a young team. Because we are not a bball school, we have to bring in 'projects' for lack of a better term. We need more inside help, and we are getting that next year. The players are fine, several of them were big time recruits. They just need to develop

      Your last sentence is the issue. In my opinion, Horn's primary coaching weakness has nothing to do with gameplanning or in-game decisions, but everything to do with the inability to make players better once they get on campus.

      WCGamecock

    • In response to Steve,the guards are not very good ones. Smith would be doubtful starting at Catawba. Jackson simply has the worst shot in the history of basketball
      I was speaking primarily of Point Guards. I may be quicker than Smith.
      Leonard and Richardson were scorers in HS. Is it poor coaching or poor evaluation the reason they have been ineffective in College?
      Roper may or may not be a an SEC caliber player but Smith definitely isn't.
      Jackson? When he is in the game opponents can play 5 on 4. Remember we currently do not have any players that strike fear in defenses.

      BCSCock

    • steve miller said...

      we recruited Roper. Are Brenton Williams, Damien Leonard, Eric Smith, Brian Richardson not guards? Lakeem Jackson was not a mistake. We knew he could not shoot, but he is the best passer and defender on the team, and a ferocious rebounder. Brenton Williams = 2x Roper. We offered him, but he is not an ACC or SEC player imo. He may prove me wrong, but I doubt it. Its a young team. Because we are not a bball school, we have to bring in 'projects' for lack of a better term. We need more inside help, and we are getting that next year. The players are fine, several of them were big time recruits. They just need to develop

      Are you joking? "several of them were big time recruits". We don't have a single player who was ranked in the top 50 nationally by any recruiting service. Basketball isn't football where the top 100 recruits can all virtually pick where they want to go school. Just bc some of our players had offers from a few other major conference schools doesn't make them big time.

      Every other team in the east has landed at least one 5 star recruit in the time horn has been here. Our talent level is simply not as good as the other teams in the conference. In virtually all of our conference games not one of our players would start for our opponent. John wooden couldn't have taken this team to the NIT

      NCgamecock03136

    • First opponent in NCAA tourney will be Copin State

      Hodad

    • Fire Horn!

      CousinEddie

    • I just woner if Horn has thought if this continues he will never get another job, way too many loses, bad recruiting, bad coaching, he never ever gets a really top notch player, kids today are smart, the read the net, they see who is going where most want to go where that school has good players so they pay no attention to the cocks neither would i, nothing will change with this coach,ihave said many times he is over his head, not sure what his credentials were but it had to be in a lower class of school, this is not a personal attack against Horn but it is against his ability to produce, under our last coach we had some success, we will never get to the quality of the Frank Mcguire days, what happened to going after the N.Y.players, i see in other schools in our conference N.Y.players are every where but not here, we sure need a recruitor bad, no coach, no recruitor no wins and no future the way things are now.

      sammyb

    • no spell or grammar check either

      Fatubus

    • Fatubus said...

      no spell or grammar check either

      And to think I give Steve Miller a hard time for not using paragraphs. This guy doesn't even use periods.......except when he's abbreviating New York.

      81 Alumnus

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