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Home > SECWB News & More! > General News > The (other) Tigers Come to Town - South Carolina Preview
The (other) Tigers Come to Town - South Carolina Preview
by Marilyn McManus, SECWB.com
Posted: January 5th, 2008 @ 10:49pm
On January 6th, the Savannah State Lady Tigers are visiting the Colonial Center. They are the final non-conference opponent for the Gamecocks, who begin Southeastern Conference play 4 days later at Alabama.
The Savannah State Lady Tigers are led by head coach Cedric Baker, who previously coached the Benedict College women’s team to back-to-back EIAC championships in 2001 and 2002 and was named the EIAC Coach of the Year in 2002.
The Lady Tigers are 8-6 this season. On the court, senior guard Ivy Smith and junior forward LaShara Smith lead the team in scoring, while junior forward Patrice “Nikki” Robinson and sophomore forward Milan Johnson lead the team in the rebounding and shot-blocking categories. Robinson, a long and lean player, has already been named “Independent Newcomer of the Week” twice this season.
Gamecock fans were out in abundance, making up about 10% of the total attendance, which was pretty decent considering that there are only 2 more shopping days until Christmas and the students were already out enjoying their Christmas break. The Clemson team could certainly have benefited from having a few more shooters on the bench and the floor for this game.
Kirstyn Wright led the home team with 14 points on 5 of 11 shooting, but she was the only Clemson player in double figures and the rest of her team was a combined 11 of 58 from the field . The Gamecocks defense held the Lady Tigers to 23% shooting for the game, while shooting 48%, making 25 of 52 shots taken. The Gamecocks led in every statistical category, including turnovers (28 for the game). But more about the turnovers later.
This is a team with considerable experience; 4 starters return from last season, though one of those starters has been replaced and now comes in off of the bench. There are 4 seniors, 4 juniors, 1 sophomore and 4 freshman on the team–and 3 of those freshmen see significant playing time. The Lady Tigers are one of many smaller conference or small school teams that are scheduling stronger teams to enhance their experience and credibility; this season, they have James Madison, UTEP, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech on their schedule, as well as the South Carolina Gamecocks. As the Lady Tigers are an Independent team with no conference affiliation, they will need to rack up some wins against those kinds of teams to get the attention of the tournament selection committee. It doesn’t look very likely, this season, but this team appears to be headed in the right direction. Be that as it may, the Lady Tigers should not pose too much of a threat to South Carolina Thursday night; the Savannah State team gives away too many advantages (scoring, rebounding, free throws) and are only even in most other categories, compared to their opponents. That should translate into a relatively easy win for the Gamecocks, should they play a solid game and shoot the ball fairly well. Hopefully, they will come out determined to prove (more to themselves than to others) that they are a better team than they showed at Oklahoma on Sunday.
The Gamecock team has shown their resiliency thrice this season, after suffering potentially devastating losses to Illinois, Connecticut and Oklahoma. Now it’s time to start concentrating on delivering a consistent effort each game, increasing the amount of time they can do so with each successive game. Time to stop wishing and waiting for the preferred point guard to return to action; prepare the players on the active roster to step up and fill in, effectively. Time to start putting some serious effort into rebounding, also, to avoid serious embarrassment at the hands of the upper-tier SEC teams. And if the starting lineup doesn’t achieve those goals–yank ‘em. There is a lot of talent sitting on the bench, waiting for their opportunity. Why make them wait until next season?
This is the last non-conference game, the last chance to take a breather –the longest gap between conference games is 7 days and that happens only once. Every one of those games will affect the seeding for the conference tournament, as well as the prospects for a post-season tournament. No doubt the Gamecocks and their fans are eager for conference play to begin–but remember, be careful what you ask for.
This game, the Gamecocks need to concentrate on the crisp execution of the fundamentals of the game, forget the score and play hard against the Lady Tigers. If they do that, they will win, running away, and be able to face their conference schedule on an upbeat note.
Next up is the Alabama Crimson Tide, on their home court, on January 10.
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