NCAA Tournament returns to Columbia. Its last time here was madness for Gamecocks
Nearly five decades later, Bobby Cremins is in position to promote the NCAA Tournament in Columbia — not run away and hide from it.
The former South Carolina player and Georgia Tech coach took in the ACC Tournament last week in Charlotte. He saw for the first time in person the Zion Williamson Show. Duke’s freshman phenom, after missing five games for a knee injury, returned to his All-American form and again wowed the sports world with a three-day mastery of Syracuse, North Carolina and Florida State.
Behind Williamson’s 81 points and 30 rebounds, the Blue Devils powered their way to an ACC title and the No. 1 overall seed for March Madness. They play North Dakota State in a first round game Friday night at Colonial Life Arena.
“If I could just tell the fans,” Cremins said by phone Monday, “if they have an opportunity to go see him, they need to do it. Because he’s a generational type player.”
Cremins wasn’t nearly this giddy 49 years ago.
The 1969-70 USC basketball team is defined by its 25 wins, three losses and one giant “what-if.” What if John Roche didn’t get hurt?
Bobby Carver, a sophomore guard on those Gamecocks, said Carolina “could have won the national championship.” Dennis Powell, a junior center, stopped just short of saying the same. “We felt pretty good. We had a really good team.”
Ranked No. 1 in the preseason, Frank McGuire’s Gamecocks, loaded with Cremins, Tom Owens, Tom Riker and the All-American Roche, lived up to the hype by rolling through the ACC with a 14-0 record. The postseason was set up for Carolina success. All USC had to do was win the ACC Tournament — the requirement to get in the 25-team NCAA Tournament in those days — and then come home for the Big Dance.
The Carolina Coliseum was hosting the East Regional.
“We had high expectations,” Cremins said. “We were a little amazed that all we had to do was win two on our home court to get to the Final Four, but we knew Coach McGuire had probably arranged all that with his connections.
“It was in the cards. We had a great thing going.”
The top-seeded Gamecocks opened the ACC Tournament in Charlotte by beating Clemson, 34-33, in the quarterfinals. They produced the same result in the semifinals — but the 79-63 win over Wake Forest came at a severe cost.
With around four minutes remaining, Roche suffered an ankle injury.
“John and I had a 2-on-1 and John faked a pass and the defender tripped John,” Cremins said. “And then when John went down, knowing John so well, his reaction when he went down was really, really bad. I knew it was serious.”
Prior to the next day’s championship game with N.C. State, Roche didn’t warm up with the Gamecocks. They didn’t know if he’d play until they returned to the locker room and found him in uniform.
The 6-foot-3 guard tried, but it was clear Roche was hobbled. He missed 13-of-17 field goal attempts and finished well below his 22-point average as the Wolfpack outlasted the Gamecocks, 42-39, after two overtimes.
“John was not 100 percent,” Cremins said. “John Roche is one of the greatest college basketball players of all-time. And he’s a great competitor ... that was tough.”
The loss meant South Carolina’s season was over. Back then, the NIT was not an option because of a rule that prohibited NCAA Tournament host schools from competing in other tournaments.
“When you accept the regional spot in your back yard, you gotta be there,” Powell said. “And it was assumed that we would be there. It was a pretty good assumption. But we lost in the ACC Tournament. That meant we were not able to go to the NIT.
“And we sat home, just stayed home. We sat here in Columbia.”
Well, except for Cremins.
One of two seniors on that team, Cremins struggled to accept his college career ending in such a fashion. He disappeared for a week into the North Carolina mountains as St. Bonaventure, Niagara, Villanova and, yes, N.C. State played on the Gamecocks’ home floor.
“That was my first life crisis,” Cremins said. “I’ve had a few. A couple have been with the University of South Carolina, my alma mater. But that was my first one.
“It’s well-documented that I didn’t handle it very well. I was really, really upset. It was a tough situation with John getting hurt in the semis. It just ate me up.”
Cremins has gone on to find brighter days. He won 586 games over 31 seasons as coach of Appalachian State, Georgia Tech and College of Charleston. He thrice led the Yellow Jackets to the ACC Tournament championship, including 1990 in Charlotte.
“Because of that (1970) game,” Cremins said, “I always wanted to coach in the ACC. And I’ve gotten to do that. I got redemption.”
And, starting Friday, Columbia gets back the NCAA Tournament. Expect Cremins to at least tune in this time.
“I think it’s wonderful,” he said. “Columbia loves basketball. And I expect it to be a tremendous crowd. What a perfect spot for a regional.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2019 at 7:50 AM.
