TheState.com: Ron Morris

Morris: Later start date could aid falling grades

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:28 EDT

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION that once separated college sports seasons no longer exist. We now have meaningless early season basketball games played the Friday night before late-season football games. We have the NCAA basketball championship game in the middle of baseball season.

The men’s college basketball season, which once began when November turned to December and ended with March Madness, now stretches from days after Halloween through what should be known as April Awareness. This is not the NBA, which seems to begin its season as soon as the previous one ends, but college basketball is inching closer to being far too long.

That soon might change, and we can all be thankful. Really, who needs South Carolina opening its season against S.C. State on Nov. 9, or Clemson tipping off against Furman on Nov. 12, as happened last season? Those games just as easily could have been played three weeks or a month later.

To the credit of college coaches, most seem to agree the season starting date should be changed. They should agree, because the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics recently was called to the scene, and its arrival usually means NCAA change is soon to follow.

Paul Hewitt, Georgia Tech’s basketball coach, went to Washington, D.C., a week ago to speak before the Knight Commission. He said the season’s start should be pushed back to late November, allowing athletes more time in the classroom.

Morris: An All-America team to turn down

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:38 EDT

There is nothing wrong with Playboy magazine for adults who want to purchase it. That is their prerogative. There is something wrong with public universities allowing their athletes to be represented in the publication’s pages.

The issue comes to light with the recent naming of South Carolina wide receiver Kenny McKinley and Clemson running back James Davis to Playboy’s 52nd annual All-America football team.

Both are deserving of preseason accolades. This concern has nothing to do with their football prowess. Rather, it has to do with public perception. By allowing the two to appear in the September issue of Playboy, USC and Clemson are essentially endorsing pornography and perpetuating the objectification of women.

Every school contacted over the past week said the decision to accept membership on the Playboy All-America team is up to the individual athlete, even at North Carolina where the wife of former basketball coach Dean Smith has long campaigned against players accepting the award.

“I think (Playboy has) a high degree of legitimacy because they’ve been doing this for years and years and years,” said Eric Hyman, USC’s athletics director. “Athletes obviously have the right not to participate. We would never force them to do it if they didn’t want to do it. But that’s their right.”

Morris: Arm abuse runs amok in college

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:05 EDT

THE OVER-REGULATED world of college baseball needs more regulation. Anyone watching the College World Series from Omaha should recognize that college baseball needs to regulate the use of pitchers’ arms because coaches obviously cannot police themselves.

This is not meant to be a harangue against college head coaches or their assistants. Those folks are paid — rather handsomely in many cases — to win baseball games.

In defense of all college coaches, too often they are placed in a compromising position. It sometimes comes down to this: my job or my pitcher’s arm? Win today, advance to the CWS and feed my family for the next few seasons. Look after my star pitcher’s future, put his arm on ice and possibly find myself in line at the soup kitchen.

College coaches should never have to face that predicament. The only way to avoid it is for college baseball to institute pitch limits and innings pitched limits. If every pitcher is limited to, say, 125 pitches per week or 10 innings per week, the cloud of controversy concerning the abuse of pitchers’ arms in college baseball would be lifted forever. On top of that, the onus for protecting pitchers’ arms would forever by removed from coaches.

Frankly, it makes too much sense. Yet college coaches generally like the idea of being the only non-regulated level in all of organized baseball. Even Little League Baseball now has pitch counts. Also, every professional organization keeps a close watch on every pitch thrown by one of its players, from rookie ball all the way to the big leagues.

Morris: Two Tyler McBrides are better than one

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:26 EDT

SKIP ANDERSON WAS certain he finally had caught a clerical error made by the Coastal Plain League. Anderson is the executive director of the Columbia Blowfish team in the college summer circuit.

So he called Justin Sellers, the league’s assistant commissioner.

“You keep sending me an e-mail saying I’m missing the paperwork for an additional player,” Anderson recalls telling Sellers. “I’ve already sent it. I’ve got it right here on my machine. I’ve already sent you Tyler McBride. I’ve got you his insurance, his university, his coach.”

“No, no, you’ve got two Tyler McBrides,” Sellers said.

“There are not two Tyler McBrides,” Anderson replied.

Morris: Father's journey was a life well-lived

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:51 EDT

Call me jaded. I seem to have less and less sympathy for athletes who use their sordid backgrounds as an excuse for the problems they encounter in their lives. I only have to look as far as my father to know that anything can be overcome in life.

Dad came from the worst imaginable background. Yet he remained married to the same woman for nearly 60 years, raised a family of eight, fast-pitched his way into the National Softball Hall of Fame and became an accomplished radio play-by-play announcer.

“Never,” my mother, Pat, often has told me when asked whether Dad talked about his upbringing. “Never.”

Only through years of prodding did Mom pry enough tales out of Dad to paint a dark picture of his early life. Finally, with some coaxing on my part, she shared those stories recently as a way of helping me pay a Father’s Day tribute. My brother and six sisters, scattered from North Carolina to California, will read many details of their father’s life for the first time.

So, allow me to indulge you with a story I wish I had known before Dad died in 2002. I surely would have hugged him a few more times. I would have thanked him more often for being such a great dad, if only I had known ...

Game fixing is a scary sight for any sport

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:34 EDT

SOMEHOW I DO not hear the alarm that should be sounding throughout sports concerning the admission by a former NBA official that he helped fix games. The scandal surrounding steroid abuse in baseball pales in comparison to the fixing of games in any sport.

There is one sacred and holy trust in sports: The games are played on the up and up. There is no rigging of the outcome. A team wins without help from the other team or the officials.

When that trust is violated, everyone suffers, from players to coaches to officials to fans. If a game cannot be trusted to be played square, then there is no need to play the game. It becomes pro wrestling.

Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy is awaiting sentencing after he pleaded guilty to passing inside tips to gamblers. Donaghy told gamblers of players’ health and of relationships between players and officials. He also admitted to betting on games.

Now comes news that Donaghy claims NBA playoff games in 2002 and 2005 could have been rigged. His assertion that the NBA called for game-fixing rings hollow, the call of a desperate man seeking a lenient sentence.

Morris: Probation changes USC for the better

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:31 EDT

SOUTH CAROLINA’S NCAA football probation concluded last week. Its athletics department surely learned a few lessons from a process that left USC on probation for three years.

First, hire a football coach with no history of problems complying with NCAA rules. Steve Spurrier fit the mold when he came aboard three years ago. Spurrier is more likely to turn another school in for cheating than to bend the rules himself, or at least that has been his history at Duke and Florida.

It also helps to have a football coach who wants to be at your school. Out of a job following his failed flirtation with the NFL, Spurrier surveyed the college landscape and found where he most wanted to coach. In the three years since, if Spurrier has wavered from his commitment to making USC a championship contender, I have not heard it.

Second, USC has learned to better handle dealings with the NCAA through a fresh approach in the school’s athletics administration. When a rules violation is found, USC immediately reports it to the NCAA. As most schools have found, it is much better to self-report violations than to have the NCAA come hunting for problems.

The previous administration never figured that out. It operated in constant cover-up mode, which is what is done when you have something to hide. Instead of being up front with NCAA violations from the outset, USC constantly claimed innocence and painted the infractions investigators as out to get the school.

Morris: USC looks ahead, not back

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 10:39 EDT

By any measuring stick, South Carolina’s 2007-08 year of athletics was abysmal. From the collapse of the football team to the baseball team’s late-season failures, USC and its fans had little to cheer about.

That does not mean USC should shut down its program. Anyone with a little foresight can see that this sorry year was a blip on the long-range radar. One day in the not-so-distant future, USC fans will reflect on these trying times as part of the necessary building process to obtaining sustained success in all sports.

“I see the light in front of us,” says Eric Hyman, USC’s athletics director. “I say that very sincerely. I’m not saying that because it’s propaganda or because I’m supposed to say that. I believe in that.”

There is good reason that USC fans should believe Hyman. For perhaps the first time in program history, Hyman has a long-term plan. He has embarked on a $200 million capital fund-raising campaign, the first of its kind in USC athletics department history.

With those funds, Hyman believes USC’s facilities in all sports will match those of any SEC opponent. On top of that, Hyman is proving to be adept at hiring coaches. Perhaps for the first time in school history, USC has a solid lineup of coaches.

Morris: Foolish habits mar college game

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:37 EDT

COLLEGE BASEBALL HAS gone too far. The game is downright silly these days.

The recent Raleigh Regional brought it all back to me: false hustle, overcoaching to the nth degree, bizarre strategy. All in the name of giving it the old college try.

It is no wonder college baseball has little national appeal. Television network executives know the score. Who wants to watch a game in which coaches call timeouts between pitches to talk to the batter? Who wants to watch a game in which the catcher and batter look to the dugout before every pitch for instructions?

It makes me want to scream to the coaches: Let the players play the game! In case you did not hear me: LET THE PLAYERS PLAY THE GAME!

Let me give you a few examples of the silliness of this game. At the forefront is the latest practice of catchers wearing coded wristbands. Before every pitch, the catcher looks to the dugout to get a signal from a coach for the next pitch. Then the catcher checks his wristband to decipher the coach’s signal. Finally, the catcher relays the signal to the pitcher.

Morris: Questions, disappointment will linger for '08 Gamecocks

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:08 EDT

RALEIGH

NOT EVERY SOUTH Carolina baseball team can be expected to play in the College World Series. The one that bowed out of the Raleigh Regional on Sunday should have been one of those.

A decade or two from now, someone thumbing through the USC record books will find a 2008 squad that extended a string of consecutive 40-win seasons to nine. It will find a club that participated in the NCAA tournament for the ninth consecutive season.

It will take a little digging, but someone also will find a club that largely disappointed its fan base and fell far, far short of expectations. The researcher will find a club that never could put all facets of the game together. If the club hit, the pitching failed. If it pitched, the hitting failed.

Sunday’s 2-1 loss to North Carolina State was all too typical of USC’s season. It received outstanding pitching from starter Will Atwood, yet could manage only a solo home run by Reese Havens to open the game and a pair of meaningless singles by Kyle Enders in the second and seventh innings.

Morris: Starting pitching sets up well for USC's title hopes

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:25 EDT

RALEIGH

NO DOUBT, SOUTH Carolina is not in the most ideal situation in the Raleigh Regional. But the Gamecocks are not facing dire straits, either. There exists some sunshine in the dark clouds.

If any team is prepared to work its way out of the losers’ bracket of a double-elimination tournament, it is USC. Part of building depth on this pitching staff was forced upon Ray Tanner and pitching coach Mark Calvi. The remainder was the result of a bold, late-season shift in the starting rotation.

Following a 5-4 loss to North Carolina State on Saturday evening at Doak Field, USC needs a pair of wins today and another on Monday to reach the super regionals.

“It ain’t going to be easy, but it’s not supposed to be easy when you get into the losers’ bracket,” Tanner said. “Stranger things have happened, and we’re going to go out (today) and do our best to try to play 18 innings.

Morris: Dangerous lineup starts to show its teeth

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:25 EDT

RALEIGH | THIS IS THE kind of lineup Ray Tanner envisioned in February, the kind that smacks the ball around the park from leadoff hitter Reese Havens to No. 9 guy Scott Wingo.

Those two, and everyone in between, contributed to an 18-hit attack Friday in South Carolina’s 15-8 victory against Charlotte in the opening round of the Raleigh Regional.

It has not been that way for most of USC’s topsy-turvy season. As late as two weeks ago, USC’s batting order beyond the fifth spot was considered a wasteland of offensive prowess.

“It’s just too much to consistently ask our guys in the middle of the order to win games for us,” Tanner said. “You’ve got to have some help somewhere else.”

So, Tanner made some changes — pretty bold ones, actually.

Ray Tanner's homecoming: Concrete progress

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:09 EDT

RALEIGH | WHEN RAY TANNER strolled into Doak Field Thursday morning, a flood of memories overwhelmed him and gave him pause to reflect on a 20-year love affair with North Carolina State that ended with an unsettling divorce.

Today, Tanner brings his South Carolina baseball team into an NCAA regional at the site he called home first as a player, then as an assistant, and finally, for nine seasons, as the coach.

The interesting twist to his return is that N.C. State is a tournament host for the first time, and its inability to do so before was a significant reason Tanner left Raleigh for Columbia.

“I have nothing but fond memories,” Tanner said. “I spent 20 wonderful years on this campus.”

Perhaps it is best to start at the end of this story and work backward. Tanner’s final seasons at N.C. State were ones of extreme frustration, ones that led to conflicts with the school’s athletics administration, and, ultimately, to his departure.

Morris: Focus on Omaha, worry about replacements next year

Wed, 28 May 2008 15:16 EDT

FACE IT, SOUTH Carolina better make it to the College World Series this year, or it is likely to be a long time between visits for Ray Tanner’s program.

Tanner will take one of his most talented teams into the regional at North Carolina State this weekend, a regional that is inarguably the weakest in the country. There is every reason to believe USC can sail through the regional en route to the College World Series.

Of course, those were the expectations we had for USC entering the season.

Just for fun, let’s go back and check on Tanner’s projections before the first pitch was thrown in February.

“We’ve had a consistent program. The last two years we haven’t been to Omaha and a majority of the guys back are upperclassmen,” Tanner said. “There is no question in my mind that going through fall practice there was an inherent presence that we need to do more. I don’t think there is any question that these guys want to make sure, if it is their last year at Carolina, that it ends in Omaha.”

Morris: What’s underrated and overrated in sports

Sat, 24 May 2008 18:37 EDT

Underrated: Chipper Jones, who keeps on hitting at age 36

Overrated: Andruw Jones, whose career officially ended following the 2006 season at age 29

Underrated: Sarge Frye, a peach of man

Overrated: Sarge Frye Field, where a good seat was as difficult to find as a parking space

Underrated: Nicole Kidman, who continues to age well

Morris: Here’s a rule: Do not call NCAA the root of all evil

Thu, 22 May 2008 20:54 EDT

I GET THE biggest kick out of folks who blame the NCAA for any and all problems in college athletics today. Fans should get a pass for their misplaced rants because they generally do not know any better. College administrators and coaches? They should not be so ignorant.

Calling out the NCAA came to mind recently while watching a television interview with Ron Polk, the retiring head baseball coach at Mississippi State. Polk said he will miss practices and the relationships he has built over the years with his players. Then Polk said he “will not miss the NCAA.”

I was not certain which part of the NCAA Polk will not miss. Was it the member institutions that comprise the NCAA, you know, the ones who make the rules that Polk disliked so much? Was it the university presidents who helped shape those same rules? Or, was it the NCAA organization in Indianapolis whose purpose is to enforce the rules set by the member institutions?

With his comments, Polk was saying he will not miss his fellow coaches or administrators. They are, after all, the NCAA. This is by no means an effort to pick at Polk. He has plenty of company among coaches and administrators who, when faced with a rule or rules they do not care for, point to the NCAA as the root of all evil.

I get the impression these folks see the NCAA as a group of angry, aging white men who sit in Indiana and grow horns out of their heads. I never have been to the NCAA headquarters, but I’ve got to believe the group is a little more diverse than that, and none of the mugshots I’ve seen feature people with horns.

Morris: Strange road led Dunleavy to USC

Thu, 22 May 2008 16:50 EDT

WHEN MIKE DUNLEAVY was inducted into the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame on Monday, it gave him pause to think about the strange-but-true tale that got him to this state in the first place.

He found his way to Columbia after first believing he was headed to Duke. USC eventually landed the 6-foot-2 guard despite a mix-up in which assistant coaches scouted another player believing he was Dunleavy. On top of that, Dunleavy went against the wishes of his parents who wanted him to stay close to his Brooklyn, N.Y., home, and attend Penn.

Oh, and one more thing about Dunleavy coming to USC prior to the 1972-73 season: He thought the Gamecocks still competed in the ACC. Apparently word of USC’s escape from the ACC two years earlier had not filtered through the recruiting ranks.

Dunleavy was a standout at Nazareth High in Brooklyn and received scholarship offers to play basketball from 150 schools across the country. He cottoned to the idea of playing at USC under Frank McGuire but did not have enough confidence in his game to believe he could play at that level.

McGuire’s teams had played in the previous two NCAA tournaments. His program was at its peak and was considered among the elite in the country.

Morris: Teaching was Williams' forte

Sat, 17 May 2008 23:25 EDT

CARL WILLIAMS WILL not let the word “bitter” enter the conversation. Why, he asks, would he be bitter about having to work on the family farm instead of play basketball? Why, he asks, would he be bitter about integration costing him six seasons as a head coach? Why, he asks, would he be bitter about what might have been?

Why? Because that is not Carl Williams. The Carl Williams who will be inducted Monday into the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame continues to practice precisely what he preached to his players during his 37-year coaching career.

Find the positive in any situation. Make the most of any opportunity. Respect others. Practice discipline. Team after team, player after player took to heart his every word of advice, first at Booker T. Washington High, then at A.C. Flora and Richland Northeast, and finally at Lower Richland.

“He doesn’t really know the effects he had on people,” says Robert Anderson, who played under Williams during the 1969-70 season at Booker T. Washington and now is a resident educator at Virginia State University. “The things he taught me, I passed to another person, and that person spread that knowledge to another. ... He was all about teaching kids the right thing to do in a positive manner.”

Sure, the memories of state championships at Booker T. Washington (1970), A.C. Flora (1981, ’86) and Lower Richland (1999) live with those players forever. But not one of those players will tell you that Williams’ biggest influence was on the basketball court.

Morris: Greek’s ticket was worth wait

Thu, 15 May 2008 23:34 EDT

EVERY RUNNING OF the Preakness sends my mind racing to 1989, when Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder threw his weight around to thrill five men experiencing a Triple Crown horse race for the first time.

I developed an acquaintance with Snyder during my days as a reporter in Durham, N.C., where the world's most famous odds-maker made his home late in life. So when five of us began eyeing the Preakness as part of a weekend of fun in Baltimore, I called Snyder and asked if he could supply us with tickets to the race.

Snyder said that could happen. I made doubly sure that Snyder understood I was seeking five passes to the middle leg of horse racing's Triple Crown, which was six months away. Snyder assured me he understood the request and I would be taken care of.

About a month before the race, I began to get nervous, and my friends were understandably concerned that Snyder might not deliver the tickets. I did not have the heart to tell them Snyder had reneged on a promise to me once before.

In the fall of 1988, when I was laying the groundwork for a lengthy story about Snyder and his family, he had invited me to his stately home for a Sunday evening of dining.

Morris: Staley brings instant credibility

Thu, 22 May 2008 12:46 EDT

IT IS UNDERSTANDABLY difficult for South Carolina fans to have much foresight. For decades they have hung their hats on mediocrity and so wallowed in it that they don’t know a good thing when they see it.

Well, that might have changed Saturday when Dawn Staley was introduced as the USC women’s basketball coach. She brings to the USC program what Steve Spurrier brought to football: instant relevance.

Staley’s arrival in Columbia puts USC on the women’s basketball map. Her presence trumpets nationally that USC is serious about competing for SEC championships in all sports.

On her good name alone, Staley gains entrance into the living rooms of the nation’s top high school players. Once she gets in the door, Staley and USC can go toe to toe in recruiting with women’s basketball heavyweights Tennessee and Connecticut.

Staley carries that kind of clout.