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CU Medallion [60244]
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"Agony, Thy Name is Commodore"
Mar 19, 2008, 12:42 PM
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ouch, this is gonna leave a mark.....
http://www.free-times.com/index.php?cat=1992912064035856&ShowArticle_ID=11011903083771058
Agony, Thy Name is Commodore
Friends, this is as bad as it gets.
BY RON AIKEN
What the hell is going over at USC?
In case no one at the Roundhouse has noticed, the University of South Carolina?s big three sports ? football, basketball and baseball ? are a combined 1-5 this season (0-1 in football, 0-2 in basketball and 1-2 in baseball) against longtime SEC laughingstock Vanderbilt, a school with neither an athletics department or athletics director.
Friends, this is as bad as it gets.
Forget competing against the likes Florida, Tennessee, Georgia or Kentucky for supremacy in the SEC East?s highest-profile sports. For now, that?s a pipe dream the Gamecocks can ill afford to entertain, because like it or not, the Commodores have left USC, with its inarguably superior coaches, players, fan support, athletics budget and facilities, inexorably in its wake.
To say that?s depressing for Gamecock fans is a bit like saying the Navy loss in 1984 was a bummer.
In a nutshell ? and Gamecock fans aren?t going to like this one bit ? USC is, as of this moment, the worst athletic program in the entire Southeastern Conference judging by the success of its top three men?s programs (and trust me, you do not want to include women?s basketball in any calculations of conference success).
Go ahead, try and argue otherwise. I did, and it?s a losing proposition.
Taking, as a whole, football (weighted the heaviest), basketball (second-heaviest) and baseball, the Gamecocks simply can?t make a case against any other conference program. In the past year, SEC West doormats Mississippi and Mississippi State have passed USC in baseball and basketball achievements, and don?t even think about comparing the Gamecocks to Auburn, Alabama or LSU, whose football success in the past year exceeds USC by miles (pun intended).
In the East, Kentucky has passed USC in football (back-to-back bowl wins), their once-dismal basketball team rebounded, unlike Dave Odom?s, to make the NCAAs and, heading into this weekend?s play, the Wildcats? baseball team is ahead of the Gamecocks in the SEC East standings following an impressive three-game sweep of Alabama.
The only school USC could think about looking down upon in the conference was Vanderbilt, and thanks to a miserable 2007-08 against the Dores, that ship has sailed.
Adding to the ignominy of being worse than Vandy is that the two of the Commodore coaches who have humbled USC the past year, football coach Bobby Johnson and baseball coach Tim Corbin, are both former Clemson assistants who delight in embarrassing USC.
To any self-respecting Gamecock or acting athletics director, this situation is entirely unacceptable and demands immediate attention.
How could it possibly be, after all, that a school monstrously harder to get into than USC, boasting coaches with far less distinguished pedigrees and competing in facilities that no sitting USC coach would stand for winds up irrefutably ahead of the Gamecocks in the three biggest sports there are?
It simply doesn?t add up, especially in football, the one sport where Vandy?s rigid admission requirements alone should preclude it from competing successfully against other conference schools that can accept provisional students en masse.
And yet, for the Gamecocks? No. 4 national recruiting ranking in 2007 and offensive genius Steve Spurrier at the helm, USC?s offense managed a ridiculous six points against the Commodores in a catastrophic loss that sparked the nation?s most embarrassing collapse, going from No. 6 in the country seven games into the season to a 6-6 final record courtesy of a suffocating five-game losing streak, spirit-crushing ninth loss to Clemson in 11 years and, to no one?s surprise, an invitation-free bowl season.
USC?s basketball program, among the SEC?s best 10 years ago, has backslid mightily since to the tune of a 2-6 record against Vanderbilt?s scholars since 2004-05, 0-4 over the past two seasons alone.
Even in baseball, without question USC?s most successful sport in conference and perennially among the nation?s elite, Vanderbilt has owned the Gamecocks under coach Tim Corbin, who has won four straight head-to-head series dating back to 2004, including this past weekend in Nashville.
Say what you will about former AD Mike McGee, but he demanded accountability from his coaches, even when, as in the case of former basketball coach Eddie Fogler, his expectations weren?t always realistic.
Since his hiring, Eric Hyman has been studying from the shadows, saying very little besides expressing the odd, insane show of support for something ridiculous (anti-Lee Corso campaign, ?Carolina Girls,? extending Odom?s contract).
It?s time Hyman acknowledged just where the Gamecocks are sitting in the SEC ? dead last (women?s basketball included) ? and began demanding more immediately. Marketing campaigns, short-sighted funding decisions and cheesy songs aren?t doing the trick. It?s time for cold realization, hard analysis and cracking the whip on athletes and coaches alike who have watched and allowed USC to become a joke in conference, in the state and across the country.
Let us know what you think.
Email thesideline@free-times.com.
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Historian [3859]
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I almost feel sorry for them
Mar 19, 2008, 12:52 PM
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no i don't
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CU Medallion [64621]
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PWNED !!!!!***
Mar 19, 2008, 12:53 PM
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110%er [7980]
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Owned big time
Mar 19, 2008, 12:58 PM
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nm
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Scholar [4739]
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Re: "Agony, Thy Name is Commodore"
Mar 19, 2008, 12:55 PM
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While their is certainly no excuse for the loss in football, and I'll make none, EVEN the people here have to admit that Vandy has a good basketball team and a ###### good baseball team.... I feel no shame for having lost in those sports to them....again, football :/
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CU Medallion [64621]
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I'm not impressed with ANY SEC team in basketball
Mar 19, 2008, 1:00 PM
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I think the entire conference and most of the teams are grossly overrated. Having said that, I will concede that Vandy has a darn good baseball program especially since a Clemson man took over.
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Scholar [4739]
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I'll concede that.********
Mar 19, 2008, 1:03 PM
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110%er [5630]
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Tennessee is a good team whether you want to admit it or not
Mar 19, 2008, 1:27 PM
[ in reply to I'm not impressed with ANY SEC team in basketball ] |
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Vandy is also a good team. Is the SEC a great basketball conference this year? Not by any stretch of the imagination... but those two teams are not teams you should look forward to playing. At the very least, Vandy's basketball and baseball teams are not indicators of being last in the conference. Those two teams will beat most of the SEC and the baseball team could beat most of the country. Ron Aiken loves a good old fashioned "inflammatory premise". Whether it be "USC has the worst athletic department in the SEC", or "Blake Mitchell should never play another down at USC".
The guy finds a phrase he likes, and then builds an article to support it. but hey... if you like that sort of thing, get it all over you.
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CU Medallion [64621]
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I'm not implying they're terrible teams.....
Mar 19, 2008, 1:37 PM
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I just don't think that playing in a medicore SEC prepares them to compete with the upper tier teams from other, better, conferences. As an example, Vandy lost to an Alabama team that Clemson beat by 26 points in Tuscaloosa.
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110%er [5630]
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Maybe... but Vandy did well against GT and Wake.
Mar 19, 2008, 1:52 PM
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UT beat a number of current tourney teams. They were also the team that opened the book on Memphis. Immediately before losing to Vandy by the way.
While I see your point, I still think those 2 teams in particular from the SEC are pretty strong.
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CU Medallion [64621]
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two teams who aren't playing in the post season
Mar 19, 2008, 2:50 PM
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Again, I'm not implying that Vandy or UT are terrible teams. I just think the better trea mfro mthe better conferences will handle them.
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Rock Defender [54]
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This sentence sums it up:
Mar 19, 2008, 12:56 PM
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"boasting coaches with far less distinguished pedigrees"
As soon as SCU fans realize that a coach's past pedigree doesn't guarantee future success and stop hiring old, washed up has-beens because they won a national title decades ago, they could be good again.
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CU Medallion [64621]
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"good again" ?!?!?!?***
Mar 19, 2008, 1:01 PM
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Rock Defender [54]
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They were good in 84 and 87.
Mar 19, 2008, 1:02 PM
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Sure, that was 20+ years ago but it still counts.
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All-In [30593]
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hey...***
Mar 19, 2008, 12:56 PM
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All-In [30593]
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sorry... "This is South Carolina Football"***
Mar 19, 2008, 12:56 PM
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110%er [7980]
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They fail at sports
Mar 19, 2008, 12:57 PM
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nm
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Starter [385]
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I haven't been to a FB game in Columbia in years....
Mar 19, 2008, 12:59 PM
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What exactly in the Carolina Girls "tradition?"
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Orange Blooded [3599]
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I can't tell what this guy's "test" is.
Mar 19, 2008, 1:07 PM
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On the one hand, he talks about post-season accomplishments, despite head to head records. On the other hand, he talks about head-to-head records, despite the fact that a team's done nothing in the post-season (i.e., Vandy baseball).
South Carolina beat Georgia in football, split basketball, and coming into this year, beat Georgia in baseball last year. Does that mean we are "better" than Georgia? Of course not.
I get his point obviously...everyone else is upping their game, so if you don't, you get left behind. But cherry-picking some wins and post-season accomplishments doesn't equate to having a better program than someone. It's been quite a few years since Kentucky beat us in football, and yet somehow they are better? They haven't advanced in the post-season in baseball in recent history, but they are better? Gimme a break. That's some inconsistent journalism...Swofford be d@mned!!! 
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CU Medallion [64621]
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Posts: 89012
Joined: 3/27/01
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I'm sure FGF will be letting him know about it.***
Mar 19, 2008, 1:11 PM
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Orange Blooded [3599]
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Can we borrow the tigerboard fax network? LOL.***
Mar 19, 2008, 1:20 PM
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CU Medallion [64621]
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It has been known to be effective.***
Mar 19, 2008, 1:41 PM
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Expert [1602]
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"monstrously harder to get into than USC" LOL!!!!!!!!!!***
Mar 19, 2008, 1:12 PM
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110%er [6034]
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It takes a lot more than a pulse to get into Vandy.***
Mar 19, 2008, 2:08 PM
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null [555]
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Soooo, what's your point ? Ain't nothing new, really !!***
Mar 19, 2008, 1:17 PM
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