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Phil Sandlin/AP/
South Carolina coach Darrin Horn
GoGamecocks.com
USC vs. UK: Something to shout about
USC takes aim at the SEC East lead as Kentucky visits in the biggest home game in years
USC's Devan Downey and Kentucky's Ramon Harris
For most of the season, Darrin Horn’s routine for the pregame media session has been simple: give no opening statement and go right to questions.
But not on Tuesday, the eve of the biggest game of his short career as USC coach — and arguably the program’s biggest home game in more than a decade.
Partly, Horn was seeking to clarify his approach to games like tonight’s, when USC and Kentucky will meet with first place in the SEC East on the line. In so doing, however, it signified the magnitude of this game for a program that hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament in five years and hasn’t won a game there since 1973.
“We need to start off today by acknowledging that tomorrow is a great day for basketball in our state and our program, simply because these are the situations you want to be in at this time of the year,” Horn said.
As Horn went on, he also was reflective, and mentioned being “ahead of schedule.” He invoked Steve Spurrier and Mike Krzyzewski. He mentioned being at USC six years from now.
But it all came back to the same point: The Gamecocks (19-6, 8-4 SEC) got to this point with a certain mind-set, and they needed to maintain it. Twice he pointed out the team was picked (by the media) to finish fifth in the division.
“When I came here, we came here to build a program. Doing that is a process,” Horn said. “Our philosophy in that process is you take care of what you can take care of, control what you can control, so that one day, over a period of time, you hope that you’re Kentucky.
“You hope you’re the team that’s picked first or second every year in the league race, who the conference championship runs through, who’s hung all the banners, so that when you get to a game like this, there is a pressure on you.”
For USC, the championship does run through Kentucky, at least tonight.
A win by the Gamecocks would give them a two-game lead on the Wildcats, whom they beat in Rupp Arena last month. There is still Florida and Tennessee to contend with in the muddled East Division, but USC would be in the best position.
As Horn pointed out, Kentucky is used to big games. And as Wildcats coach Billy Gillispie said, tonight constitutes only 25 percent of the remaining regular-season schedule.
“Last Saturday we played a team (Tennessee) that had to win. We all have to win at this point,” Gillispie said. “No matter who you are, you have to win. I know it’s a big game for them. It’s a very, very big game for us.”
It would be a mistake, Horn said, for his players to think they have accomplished more than they actually have. They need to look at every game as being a big one, and he said he would be saying the same thing six years from now if he were playing for his sixth first-place finish.
“That’s how you build a championship-level program. And ultimately that’s what we want to do,” Horn said. “And that’s more than being in position one time to play for first place in late February.”
At the moment, however, that’s what the Gamecocks are doing.
But Horn would be heartened to hear senior guard Zam Fredrick’s thoughts about tonight’s game.
“I don’t really get excited until tip-off time. I know it’s a big game, but I was taught to play every game like it’s your last anyway,” Fredrick said. “It is a big game. (But) we’re not doing anything special to get ready for it.”
Reach Emerson at (803) 771-8676.
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