Tanner, Gamecocks know they will get every opponent's best shot
USC woke up this morning at the top. It has been there since that fateful night in Omaha, since Whit Merrifield killed the Chicken Curse in Rosenblatt Stadium's final hour, since Scott Wingo crossed home plate, since the Gamecock Nation's dream of dreams came true.
Sure, Florida is the No. 1 team in the nation as we open the 2011 season of collegiate baseball today. But no true prestige is derived from an arbitrary number in February. Until the final out of this summer's College World Series is recorded, the last champions are the top dogs, and the last champions are the Gamecocks.
As a result, every time USC takes the field, its opponent will see it as more than a baseball team. The Gamecocks will be seen as an opportunity, a chance to defeat the best the game has to offer and to make a statement that reverberates throughout the national landscape.
"Everyone's looking to bring their 'A' game now," outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. said. "Now that we're national champions, they have something to prove."
It can get lonely up there, being at the top. But USC doesn't care.
"We know people want to beat us, but that's OK," coach Ray Tanner said.
Some champions relish in the defense. They seize every moment and take every challenge with gusto. Others remain supremely confident in their ability but choose to preserve their energy. Instead, they take the attitude that so long as they qualify themselves an opportunity to make another run, they will be able to when the lights shine brightest. The rest collapse under the pressure of expectations for a myriad of reasons, be them poor attitude, too many departed leaders, a bevy of injuries or other afflictions.
Time will tell which category South Carolina falls into. For now, though, the Gamecocks appear to be champions ready to defend their crown with vigor.
"We always want to go out there and win every game. We're not just trying to win 3-2; we're trying to bury people," pitcher Michael Roth said. "With that target on our back, we understand everybody is going to come out shooting. We will be, too."
As he enters his 14th season at the helm of Carolina Baseball, Tanner finds himself in a position in which he's never been. After chasing a national title for 33 combined years as a player and then as a coach at USC and North Carolina State, Tanner finally captured it. With the victory came a hectic offseason of speaking engagements, personal honors and thousands of autographs off the field. On the field, Tanner and his team have become the squad everyone has in their sights.. But ask him about that, and he assures you he's content with the fact — pleased about it, in fact.
"I don't know that we'll be concerned with that or if our players will be thinking about that. We like to think that if you play in the Southeastern Conference, most of the time, unless you're playing each other, that's the way people feel," Tanner said. "I know when I came here, I was the hunter. We were trying to go get some people. And then you have a little success and you become the hunted.
"I'd rather be the hunted."
Tanner might as well accept his lot. It's been going on forever, and isn't ever going to stop. Such is life when you are the men at the top. South Carolina has 54 games in the regular season against 24 opponents. If this season ends like every other has under Tanner, there will be at least two games in the SEC Tournament, two in an NCAA Regional and, the Gamecocks hope, more contests and foes beyond that.
Each game and each opponent will bring a new challenge built on one core principle — that day is a day to try and defeat the defending national champions.
That reality doesn't appear to be all that bothersome to Carolina, however. As far as the Gamecocks are concerned, when it comes to the team in the opposite dugout on any given day, the message is always the same.
Aim your gun, and shoot your shot.