Experience from rugged first 13 games carries over, translates into win in SEC opener
Prior to USC’s SEC opener with No. 22 Vanderbilt, Darrin Horn said his team’s non-conference schedule was probably more difficult than it had to be.
Maybe it was. It’s a moot point for now, however, because it paid off on the first night of conference play.
Horn took an extremely aggressive approach with his young team in its first 13 games leading into its SEC slate — one that prepared USC for league play and gave it the experience to pull out the kind of win it picked up in an 83-75 overtime upset of the 22nd-ranked Commodores.
The Gamecocks took their lumps in playing some of the nation’s best teams and inside some of the nation’s toughest gyms for the first two months or so of the season, bringing a 9-4 record into league play that could’ve been a 11-2 or 12-1 with a few more cupcakes on the menu. As a result, they were able to put the yellow-jacketed Colonial Life Arena security staff in a position to potentially take some lumps against a rush of college-aged humanity as the clock hit zero in overtime on Saturday night.
(It didn’t happen. The ropes were respected. Vandy’s good, but it isn’t Kentucky.)
“You hope [the non-conference schedule helps]. That’s why you do it,” Horn said. “You’ve been on the road at Michigan State, you’ve been on the road at Ohio State, on the road in a tough environment at Western Kentucky, [you’ve] played two ACC teams at home. That’s why you do it.”
Horn is always talking about building a program at Carolina. Never getting knocked off message, he’s like a well-seasoned politician when it comes to expressing his vision for South Carolina basketball, focusing on the task at hand.
On Saturday night, another brick was laid on the foundation he’s trying to build, and what USC had already dealt with provided the needed mortar to make it stick.
When you face two top 5 Big Ten teams on the road, take on archrival Clemson and Boston College at home, head to Bowling Green, Ky., two days after Thanksgiving and, to top it all off, face a veteran Furman team in Greenville and host a Wofford team coming off its first NCAA Tournament appearance in Columbia, you’re officially battle-tested. And, when it comes time for crucial moments against solid league foes like Vanderbilt, that experience is a big plus. It especially helps for a young team, which USC undoubtedly is. So much of crunch time basketball is predicated on trusting your teammates and the system in which your team runs when under pressure, and the Gamecocks have gotten plenty of reps doing just that.
“[The non-conference schedule] did help us, because we got chemistry,” guard Bruce Ellington said. “Getting together, playing all these games really helped.”
Vanderbilt has a great deal more experience than USC, and that showed for the first 25 minutes of play as the Commodores built up a lead as big as 14 points. But, the bottom fell out over the final 15 minutes plus overtime, as USC just looked more comfortable in the moment.
Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said he didn’t feel his team was unprepared for the atmosphere and lost simply because it didn’t play well, referencing the Commodores’ 85-82 overtime loss at Missouri last month. And, if he wanted to, he could’ve pulled out more examples of the ’Dores facing high-quality opponents. Vandy has also played North Carolina, WKU, Marquette and West Virginia in non-conference play.
But the games with UNC and West Virginia were on a neutral court in Puerto Rico, and Western Kentucky and Marquette both came to Nashville. The bulk of USC’s big matchups, on the other hand, came on the unforgiving road. That seems like a small quibble, sure, but one that likely was big enough to make a difference in the Gamecocks’ favor on this night.
Who knows where USC goes from here? It is still an extremely young team that is growing with each outing. Many, including your humble columnist, didn’t think the team would win 10 games all year, and here they stand at 10-4 and 1-0 in the SEC. There’s a lot of basketball left to be played, and if Saturday’s other scores around the league were any indication, the SEC is going to be a wild and unpredictable league this year.
Nothing can be ruled out of the realm of possibility for USC, because this team is clearly unafraid and, more importantly, prepared to face what lies ahead. If the Gamecocks can keep the energy it showed and can keep the Colonial Life Arena as loud as it was for this one down the stretch, anything could happen.
So, getting back to that earlier point: yeah, Horn was right. The non-conference schedule was more difficult than it had to be.
Not that he, or anyone else, should complain, though. So far, things are working out quite alright.