After his team had to comeback to beat Mississippi Valley State, coach Darrin Horn walked into the postgame interview with reporters and said that USC wasn’t going to be boring, by any stretch. That rang true again on Tuesday night, as the Gamecocks rallied back from a 14-point deficit.

“I think we’ve got a team that has some character and some fight in them,” Horn said. “We’re still learning what it takes to get off to good starts and understanding basketball things. I thought we finished well – we had one silly foul at the end, but other than that, we took care of the basketball and did some good things. I just think we’ve got to keep growing in those things. The good news is that for the first time, we have everybody back and healthy, so it gives us a little flexibility, especially on the perimeter. If we got a guy that’s not doing as well, we’ve got somebody else we can go to. I think Damien (Leonard) was a good example of that tonight. Brenton (Williams) looked like he’d been out for three weeks, so Damien comes in and does some really good things and made some open shots for us.”

As Horn says in that quote, the Gamecocks were healthy for the first time in a long time, though Williams definitely didn’t look like the player he was for the first couple of games. He only played five minutes. Horn said he didn’t ask how Williams was feeling, and so it is uncertain if the knee was bothering him or if he was just rusty after missing so much time.

For the second-straight game, Horn had Leonard out of the starting lineup, so to promote more inside out play. Leonard played just 10 minutes, but was able to get on a shooting streak, so he finished with eight points, hitting both of his attempts from three-point range.

A big thing for the Gamecocks was the full-court press that was able to create opportunities for them down the stretch, as well as just bring pressure.

“I think that we had good pressure up front,” Horn said. “The biggest thing it did for us, even though it didn’t force turnovers, it didn’t allow them to come down and just execute and do exactly what they want to do. They’ve got three seniors on their team, and obviously are very well coached. They’re good at getting the ball where they want it, especially to their two scorers. Even when we didn’t turn them over, I just thought it changed the game a little bit and helped us some on the defensive end.”

“That’s just something we’ve been working on the whole week,” said senior Malik Cooke. “The whole off week we had, we were really working our press, as well as other things, but it really showed tonight.”

The Gamecocks forced 18 turnovers, finishing with 20 points off those turnovers. Though the game marks the third time USC has had to come from behind to win, Horn sees the team inching closer to putting the pieces of the puzzle together, though it might be difficult to do against No. 2 Ohio State coming to town on Saturday.

“I think it’s coming,” Horn said. “I think there’s signs of it. I think in the second half, for example, is a sign of that for when we don’t play well in the first half. I think the challenge is understanding that we’re capable of that and that’s how we need to play and that’s what we need to do from the start to finish. I think as we grow in that we’re going to continue to gain confidence, but I think the way we played the second half tonight, and I told them after the game, is really just a result of what we did during the week.”

Must see video: Horn’s “It’s Division I basketball – make a layup” comment reminded Post and Courier beat writer, Darryl Slater, of this video, which he shared with me and now, I share with you.

Tweet of the Day: YahooForde: If the Gus Malzahn-to-Arkansas State news is true ... (really?) ... I expect Bill Belichick to take the other ASU any minute now.

I think everyone was a little surprised when Malzahn took a pay-cut to become the next head coach of Arkansas State. Were other head coaching jobs not calling and was he that desperate to become a head coach?

Sports story that will be overlooked because of other sports headlines: From Grantland.com, The Rise of the NBA Nerd: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7346656/the-rise-nba-nerd