Gamecocks to face Tar Heels in Las Vegas in November
Darrin Horn said fellow coaches think he is "crazy" for scheduling such an ambitious 2011 nonconference schedule.
South Carolina's fourth-year men's basketball coach doesn't see it that way, though. In fact, he thinks he'd be crazy not to have his young and inexperienced squad facing the toughest competition it can get, even if it means playing potentially five NCAA Tournament teams and two likely preseason Top 5 squads.
"You don't have an opportunity to beat those teams and keep that kind of company if you don't play them," Horn said.
The Gamecocks will play 14 nonconference games this coming season, highlighted by its first meeting with North Carolina in 14 years as part of the Las Vegas Invitational in late November. The squad will also face Ohio State and Providence at home, and will travel north for its annual rivalry game with Clemson.
"It's obviously a very aggressive, challenging schedule for this team," Horn said, "but one that, as I've said over and over again, fits with our philosophy of continuing to build and grow a program."
The neutral court meeting with UNC, the first since 1997, is a renewal of one of USC's most storied basketball rivalries. The two border foes were together in the ACC from 1953 to 1971, and Horn said North Carolina is the type of "storied program" USC aspires to become some day.
"I think it's a great game," Horn said. "There's tradition there, obviously there's the North-South thing; there's the background with the league play and the tradition and history of playing."
The game with the Tar Heels is one of four USC will play in the Las Vegas-based tournament. The first two games will be played in Columbia at Colonial Life Arena against Tennessee State and Mississippi Valley State, while the last game in Las Vegas will be played against either UNLV or Southern California.
USC will also host Providence on Dec. 1, travel to Clemson on Dec. 4 and host Ohio State on Dec. 17. Horn said even the games against non-BCS schools will be challenges. Wofford (at home on Dec. 28) has made back-to-back NCAA Tournaments, while Tennessee State and Elon, which USC will face on the road in its second game on Nov. 15, return a great deal.
Horn said he could've scheduled easier opponents in hopes of pushing USC toward a winning season after finishing under .500 the past two years, but that wouldn't have been conducive to the program's process, as he wants to see his team improve as it grows — something it failed to do last season, when it lost 11 of its final 13 games.
"We want to see progress," Horn said. "We want to see a team that gets better."
Western bumped for a year: Horn said that due to the SEC/Big East Challenge date with Providence, a scheduling conflict prevented USC from playing his alma mater Western Kentucky this year. The series will resume next year, Horn said.
USC is currently two games into a four-game series with the Hilltoppers, which was a condition of Horn's contract when he left WKU to take the job at Carolina.
Midnight Madness?: Horn said details for a season-opening event with students are not known yet, but there will be some sort of event. USC has yet to have a "Midnight Madness" celebration under Horn.
Cooke, Jackson doing well: Forwards Lakeem Jackson (foot) and Malik Cooke (ankle) are "doing really well," according to Horn, and are expected to be fully healthy for the start of the season.