Devon Downey and USC face Longwood tonight
The USC basketball team will play its final non-conference game of the season tonight at home against Longwood. The Gamecocks are 8-5 and have lost three of their past four games. Tonight’s game tips off at 7:00 at the Colonial Life Arena in Columbia.
This should be an easy win for Carolina because quite frankly Longwood is terrible. They are 3-12 this season. The one common opponent between the Lancers and Gamecocks is Richmond. Carolina beat Richmond 76-58 on December 16th and Longwood lost to the Spiders 52-65 on November 24th. Longwood has also lost to the likes of Bethune-Cookman, Colgate, Stephen F. Austin and Columbia this season. In short, if USC drops tonight’s game it could be disaster when SEC play begins Saturday night at Auburn.
Despite the fact that coach Darrin Horn will be without starters Dominique Archie (knee) and Mike Holmes (dismissed from team) for the rest of the season he remains confident this team can have some success this season.
Darrin Horn discusses his team heading into Longwood game
Horn thinks he still has the personnel to run his up tempo style and create problems for the Gamecocks opponents. The team had a players only meeting Saturday to discuss ways to improve and make the most of this season. In short, no one inside the program has thrown in the towel on this season. Give Horn and his staff credit for keeping the team focused.
Yes, some of us (yours truly) have doubts that this team can win more than six or seven games in the SEC this year. Despite this skepticism I have to admit the SEC, outside of Kentucky, has not looked all that super in during the non-conference slate. Yes the league is better than last year but it isn’t dominate by any stretch. If the Gamecocks can find their groove perhaps they can make some noise.
Tonight will be a great chance for them to fine tune and clean up some areas that have been sloppy and prepare for the SEC slate Saturday at Auburn. That is a winnable road game and one Carolina needs to grab if they want to hang around the postseason discussion past mid-January.
Trivia Time:
Q: Where is Longwood University located?
A: Farmville, Virginia. (bonus: they are not a memeber of a conference)
