How to make the South Carolina-Clemson ...

[IE]

[h=1]How to make the South Carolina-Clemson basketball rivalry more relevant[/h]

[FONT=&quot]It?s basketball season in Chapel Hill, Durham, Lawrence and Bloomington. Westwood and Wichita.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Clemson and Columbia?


[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]February is loaded with some potentially dandy matchups if the Palmetto State teams can hang in there.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The Gamecocks play the Tigers on Tuesday night at Littlejohn Coliseum.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]?No one writes about it,? South Carolina head coach Frank Martin complained last week while mentioning that the baseball series gets much more publicity. ?No one talks about it until the day of the game.?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Martin went on.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]?Like does anyone give Clemson credit because they play South Carolina?? he asked. ?Does anyone ever give South Carolina credit because they play Clemson? When people speak about our non-conference schedule no one ever says, ?They have to go to an ACC school.??[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Of course, two consistently NCAA Tournament-worthy programs would stir interest. While South Carolina?s Final Four run was stunningly glorious last season, Clemson has not been to The Big Dance since 2011.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The programs combined to miss the tournament five straight years from 2012 to 2016.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]A Tigers-Gamecocks baseball series, on the other hand, typically features a pair of nationally ranked teams.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]There is basketball potential this year, with Brad Brownell's Tigers (9-1) coming off an upset victory at Florida that has them on the edge of the top 25 and Martin's Gamecocks (8-2) looking to gain momentum going into the SEC opener on Dec. 31 at Ole Miss. The slightest bit of creative scheduling would help ? almost anything better than a Dec. 19 date when students are home and other people are Christmas shopping.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Better yet, how about something that sets South Carolina-Clemson basketball apart and makes the rivalry worth watching even when the programs are not on bracketology charts?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Three future scheduling options:[/FONT]
[h=4]Military appreciation[/h][FONT=&quot]Play the game each year at one of the Palmetto State?s military facilities.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Fort Jackson in Columbia.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Shaw Air Force outside Sumter.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Or on the deck of the USS Yorktown anchored off Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Whatever is lost in concession revenue is gained good will, improved TV ratings and fun.[/FONT]
[h=4]Move it around[/h][FONT=&quot]Keep the military installations in the schedule loop.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But also include modest civic centers and high school gyms all over the state.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Georgetown.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Abbeville.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Hartsville.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]James Island.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Clinton.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Denmark.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Complete with a food bank charity component.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The ideal scenario involves the Tigers and Gamecocks getting back to the level Rick Barnes and Eddie Fogler had their respective programs for a short stretch when there was greater interest in the rivalry in the late 1990s. But with or without March seeding implications surrounding the small-town gyms, viewers would tune in ? at least for a few minutes ? from Seattle to South Beach.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]And people would write about Clemson-South Carolina basketball and talk about it even before the day of the game.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]These options are not guaranteed to make South Carolina-Clemson basketball more popular than a baseball series. That will take several seasons.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But they all beat a Dec. 19 date when school is out and Christmas shopping is unfinished.[/FONT]

 

[IE]

Gamecocks still working out kinks as they prepare for experienced Tigers


















Frank Martin sounded respectful and perhaps a bit envious. He was asked what kind of problems Clemson presents for his basketball team when he takes it up Interstate 26 and I-385 Tuesday for the annual rivalry game.
?Fourth-year junior point guard. Fourth-year junior two-guard. Three-year, high-minute-a-game-guy, all three years, at the three. Four-year starter at the four. Fourth-year junior at the center,? Martin said, ticking off the Tigers? starters. ?That?s the problem.?
<iframe id="youtube-player-f56ef012-e443-11e7-8697-63906913348e" class="youtube" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3lnHGlc9oWA?enablejsapi=1&origin=http://www.postandcourier.com" allowfullscreen="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: initial; position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 489.984px; height: 305.609px; min-height: 250px;"></iframe>

​

Clemson has experience, a big reason why it?s 9-1 coming off a win over Florida. The Tigers were notoriously bad at finishing games last year and it cost them in a 6-12 ACC record, eight defeats by five points or less. Turn half of those into wins and Clemson probably makes the NCAA Tournament.







But they couldn?t, and had to watch a USC team it beat reach the Final Four. That the Gamecocks started their journey in Greenville was a little more salt in the wound.




The Tigers have this year what the Gamecocks had last year ? guys who know what they?re doing on the floor. There aren?t freshman moments. They may not play perfect all the time, but there?s no miscommunication on fundamentals.


USC, with seven newcomers and an eighth who didn?t play last year, is still fighting through that process. Martin, peeved at his team?s lackadaisical defense, blamed himself for the early schedule and vowed to get it fixed once school was out and the Gamecocks had time to work on it in practice.


That time is now.



?The amount of experience those kids have is ridiculous,? Martin said. ?When you got old guys, you can make adjustments at timeouts and halftime. When you got young guys? It?s deer in the headlights for a lot of things.?


USC (8-2) has had some surprising moments. The Gamecocks, as Martin said they would be, are a fine shooting team. Justin Minaya plays at a level beyond his rookie status and fifth-year guard Frank Booker has become the team?s best deep threat. With those two around Chris Silva and Maik Kotsar, USC has a steady core.
The rest are still getting there. Hassani Gravett has shown flashes of being a good scorer and distributor, but his defense has been an eyesore. Wes Myers and Kory Holden are used to being one-man shows on offense, but Martin wants them to be part of his offense, not the guys the team is designed around. Jason Cudd and Felipe Haase are playing in relief of Silva and Kotsar, but they?re freshmen, prone to being taken advantage of by players who have been around.


The Tigers have a lot of those guys. They?re trying to notch their second straight win in the series after USC won the previous two.


?Our defense is not where it needs to be and our offense has really slipped,? Martin said. ?That?s usually the way it works when you got so many new guys. You don?t get the repetition you need for spacing and reads and cuts and different things that require practice time.?