Looking Back From An Eyewitness...

Sorry this is late but had some issues with posting and just didn't have the time to get back to it until now.

I'm going to try and provide some more information about Tuesday's game in Columbia that you might be curious about.

* I arrived at 7:30 and there were probably 1,000 students already in line at the student entrance. They opened the doors at 7:45 or so and once inside, they formed the Garnet Army. By about 8 p.m., there were probably 4,000 fans or so inside. I'm guessing 2,500 in blue and the other 1,500 were the USC students. UK fans were all in the bottom of the arena, getting autographs and getting photos of their favorite Cats.
* I was seated during the game near midcourt at the floor level. When the officials first came out, you could tell it was going to be interesting. The referee got on his headset and told the ESPN producer that he needed to see every angle if he asked for it during the game and would like to see the play with a clock in video if possible. Said he would take as much time as needed but had to see everything that was available. Never seen this before because it's automatically assumed. When the officials saw the replays, it was the same feed that you saw on television, nothing different. You saw it as they did. I could see the replays and hear the conversations by the officials. In fact, if you have the game taped or on DVR, look at the guy in the white golf shirt and black SEC vest with the officials and you've got me. From what I could tell, the decisions on the reviews were correct although they took a good bit of time.
* The Big Blue crowd was scattered. I would guess 4,000-5,000 UK fans in all. Interesting, when the game started, the largest blue area in the arena was behind the bench. Unlike years past, there were no other areas that were blue-laiden. The Gamecock Nation really came out and threw its total support behind the Cocks in this game. In year's past, there would be empty corners in the upper deck of the 18,000 seat arena and other areas. This night, it was full and again no noticeable blue sections. Never saw Mitch or Ashley. Don't believe they were there.
* Spoke with a UK official and they said that they were expecting Wall, Patterson and Cousins to turn pro. Said Cousins would like to come back but with his top 10 pick status he didn't feel like he had a choice. Said Bledsoe wanted to return unless his status changed in a really big way.
* TV Timeouts ran mostly about two and a half minutes where they're supposed to be two minutes long. This was controlled by the producer.
* No question that the Cats were the most talented team and the most physical. I was personally surprised by Bledsoe. He's thick. Looked like the Cats were tired early or not interested. Really no excuse for that since USC had played at Ole Miss on Thursday and at Florida on Saturday, while the Cats cruised against Arkansas Saturday.
* Many times during the game on calls, the youngsters would look to Cal and he would gester that it was a good call. On one occasion early in the second half after Wall had missed a shot on a drive, he committed a stupid foul. Cal asked him what he was doing and chewed on him a bit. Also chewed on Cuz a few times.
* I was going to mention Cal's press conference and Horn's as well, but the video is posted on a thread and is pretty self explanatory. First time I'd seen Cal in person and thought he was eloquent in defeat but straight to the point about the issues and deficiencies in the Wildcats' game.
* With less than 10 seconds remaining, Downey was seen asking the security guards across the court from the UK bench to allow the students to rush the court. USC uses a lot of off-duty police and deputies to help police the court during normal games. The students were lined up in the endzone in front of the UK bench and were ready to come hard.
* Cal and Horn did not shake hands. Cal said in his press conference it was no slight to USC nor Horn but he felt it would be safer to get into the tunnel near the end of the UK bench than try to deal with the crowd and rush.
* Cal took at least 35 minutes after the game before starting his post-game comments. He looked as if he might have showered and was relaxed to have a chat time. Cousins was the only UK player available after the game for interviews. Cuz came into the interview area and sat next to Cal wearing his travel sweats, blue ski hat and holding a Gatorade Fruit Punch. Cousins was obviously pissed and spoke low and with few words. His greatest comment was, "I'm not here to go undefeated. I'm here to win a championshp. We learned tonight that we have to work harder, dig deeper and work together and harder in practice so that this doesn't happen again."
* Students celebrated for a good 15 minutes on the floor after the horn had blown. You would have thought they had won the national championship. This was a very Un-Gamecock Like event. The Gamecocks had acually won, defeated a #1 team for the first time in school history and Gamecock Nation was at its best for the basketball program, the first time that had been the case since the 1970s with former coach Frank McGuire.
* Overall, being born and raised in the Commonwealth, I was really hoping the Cats would have won but knowing that an undefeated season was most likely out of the question, I was pretty proud of the Cocks and Gamecock Nation for last night. I've been in the Carolinas for about 23 years now and of those, I've been around the Gamecock scene for some 18 years. Of all the games I've seen dating back to the Metro Conference, this was the best Gamecock Basketball Atmosphere and Experience that I had ever seen and being a graduate of USC, I couldn't have been any prouder. I figured if the Cats were going to lose, why not the Gamecocks? I'd rather see USC play well and beat UK than the Cats lose to Vandy on Saturday or Ole Miss or whoever. That's just me. I'm hoping that this gets the Cats ready and in the mood to kick in Vandy's teeth and stomp on them while they're down.
* Speaking of Vandy, I saw them last week. This isn't the Vanderbilt that your fathers had to watch. These guys are big, strong, deep and have some speed. They will push the ball and obviously, everyone knows they're well coached. This will be a tough game for the Cats and why I spoke of them being the team that scared me the most. They absolutely tore USC a new one, mostly because Horn tried to press them fullcourt and the 'Dores got easy baskets over and over on fast breaks after breaking it.

So that's it from me.

Go Cats and Go Cocks until the next meeting!!

Carolina Kat

Hey Carolina since u were at the game just wondering if you had any input on the reports of cousins hitting a fan?

I was at court level behind the table. Didn't see anything but bodies moving rapidly onto the floor. Like watching cattle on a cattle drive. Hard to pick out one thing. Haven't seen anything posted in the media down here about it, but will keep an eye on it.

k thanks for the reply. It was reported on the news here in Louisville. It said that a report claimed he had seen cousins do it but then I later read that a sc fan had called into a radio show saying that he had been hit by cousins and that a reported said he witnessed it. I think its big buncha bs myself but I thought maybe if it happened you might have caught it. I can imagine tho in that chaos it would have been hard to see anything much.

Still Nothing Being Reported In The Local Media In Columbia. The TV Station That Allegedly Saw What Happened, Hasn't Reported Anything And Nothing On It's Web Site. Think It's Just a Red Herring.

Update

I just checked all the state papers and the two primary tv stations websites on Friday morning, of which one was the reported eyewitness to the situation - not a word about the incident except in a Charleston article just talking about the post-game celebration and an "alleged scuffle" that isn't going anywhere.

This whole thing was brought up by the SC reporter, who is a long time homer in the press area after the game, but there appears to be no video evidence to back it up better than what they have and it sounds to me like Cousins was trying to get off the floor and protect himself with some stupid fan. This is not being pushed by USC or the SC media. This story is being driven from our dear friend, Jerry Tipton it appears.