The rule of thumb among college coaches is you need at least three future NBA players to be good enough to win an NCAA championship. Apparently you only need two to win an NIT title.

Former Gamecocks Renaldo Balkman and Tarence Kinsey both exceeded expectations even before the season began, Balkman by becoming a first-round pick and Kinsey by making a team despite not being drafted.

Kinsey has erupted since becoming a starter for the injury-plagued Memphis Grizzlies, averaging 19.5 points over a recent six-game span, outscoring Kobe Bryant in one of them. He also averaged 1.45 steals a game and hit two game-winning shots, including a 3-pointer in the final minute to beat the Lakers. Kinsey, a 6-6 forward, had his points-per-game average up to 6.5.

Then there’s Balkman, whose first-round selection last summer led to the further excoriation of New York Knicks boss Isiah Thomas. You don’t hear much criticism for picking Balkman anymore. The 6-8 forward is averaging 15.5 minutes and 4.5 points per game, and like Kinsey has gotten hot lately. As NBA.com points out, Balkman has grabbed at least five rebounds in 10 of his last 11 games, and over the past 13 games is averaging 8.0 points and 6.3 rebounds.

NBA.com last week asked: “Which college has the top-scoring duo of rookie players in the NBA in the past five games (as of last Saturday morning)? As astounding as it might seem, it’s South Carolina. …"Kinsey and Balkman’s combined five-game average of 28.8 points is better than such NBA rookie college teammates as Duke’s Shelden Williams and J.J. Redick, Connecticut’s Rudy Gay and Josh Boone, Texas’ LaMarcus Aldridge and Daniel Gibson and Memphis’ Rodney Carney and Shawne Williams.”

Thoughts? no comments

Clemson junior forward James Mays declared for the NBA draft but will not hire an agent so he could come back. Testing the waters they say...

If he doesn't hire an agent, Mays, who averaged 12.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per game last season, will have until June 18 to decide whether to withdraw his name from the draft and stay at Clemson.

An honorable mention for the All-Atlantic Coast Conference, Mays set single-season records for assists (95) and steals (69) by a frontcourt player for the Tigers (25-11).

Mays is the third Tigers player to declare early for the NBA draft, with Sharone Wright leaving after his junior season in 1994 and Will Solomon passing up on his senior season in 2001.

Is he really that good?

I feel this is a bad move but heck it is clemson and this means they could lose some talent and suffer next year so okay. no comments

Billy Donovan...He is the single, solitary force that has turned Florida into the hottest basketball program in America. The Gators are historic back-to-back champions after an 84-75 dismantling of Ohio State, a win that has made Donovan the single, solitary candidate to take over the most hotly followed and historic basketball program in America, the University of Kentucky.

Kentucky is coming now and Billy Donovan is going to listen because he spent his career waiting for them, working toward them. When he arrived in Lexington as a 24-year-old assistant under Rick Pitino for his first college coaching job, the entire Big Blue experience blew his mind.

But the future is now. Kentucky will break the bank, will offer creative enticements, business opportunities, anything he wants. Florida will match in as many ways as possible. In the end, as absurd as it is to say about a man being wooed by competing $25 to $30 million dollar contracts, it won't be about the money.

So will he go or we he stay? What do you think? no comments

84-75....UF became the first team to go back-to-back since 1992 and the first ever to repeat with the same starting five.


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We all know that many NBA fans and Isiah Thomas critics alike balked at the Knicks' first round pick, Renaldo Balkman (Knicks, F) but lately he has been turning heads thanks to his strong per minute numbers. For every 48 minutes he plays, Balkman is averaging more than 14 points, 13 rebounds with over two steals and two blocks.


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Since relatively early in the basketball season I told anyone who would listen that Clemson is not any good. Since I was speaking to mostly South Carolina fans I did not receive much opposition. Having grown up in Greenville, I have seen the pattern emerge every year the exact same way. Clemson plays a terrible OOC and starts off 10-0 or 11-2 or something like that. The Greenville News then writes an article about how they should be ranked, and they aren't getting respect, and they are a legitimate Sweet Sixteen team, etc, ad nauseum. The Clemson fans (who must be the most ignorant basketball fans in the ACC based on when the home crowd boos) begin talking about Final Fours and ACC Championships and Dental Hygiene and all other manner of things with which they are not the least bit familiar. And each year, just as I have had about enough ACC conference play shows up and reminds everyone just how bad Clemson is.

This year was no different. The hysteria of starting 17-0 had only been previously matched in Tigertown by the unmitigated braggadoccio of fans following the football team's beating Georgia Tech. Then, what happened? Nothing. Clemson didn't suddenly play worse. They started playing real opponents. In short order they were exposed. Now with a win at mighty Miami in overtime no less, Clemson looks poised to lock in a NIT bid.

I thought I was one of the few to recognize this phenomenon early in the season until I came across this:

"Rob Daniels, an enterprising reporter at the News & Record of Greensboro, N.C., dug a little deeper this week. He found that the Tigers will secure yet another dubious dishonor if they continue their free fall from 17-0 and fail to make the NCAA Tournament. According to Daniels' research, 30 ACC teams have started the season with a 10-0 start or better since 1979-80, when the NCAA lifted its limit on bids awarded to each conference. Of those 30 teams, just three failed to advance to the NCAAs.Take a wild guess which teams were responsible for those flameouts. Clemson (10-0 in 1994-95), Clemson (11-0 in 1985-86) and Clemson (11-0 last season)."

And you will be able to continue to add to this list for years to come because Clemson will continue to play a joke of an out of conference schedule. no comments

Unless USC wins the SEC tournament to earn the league’s automatic NCAA tournament bid, the Gamecocks are headed to the NIT, right?

Not so fast.

At 14-14 (and 4-11 in the SEC), USC isn’t guaranteed anything just yet, even if the Gamecocks are the two-time defending NIT champions.

First, USC isn’t going anywhere if it doesn’t finish with a winning record. The Gamecocks close out the regular season on the road against LSU.

Then comes the SEC tournament, where USC likely will take on the No. 3 seed out of the weak Western Division. Win that and the Gamecocks could face the second seed out of the East - likely Vanderbilt.

So where does that leave USC?

Coach Dave Odom says the Gamecocks likely need to win at least two more games as possibly as many as four to feel comfortable about their NIT chances. What, you might ask, has the college basketball world come to when a team with a winning record from a so-called power conference that has a winning isn’t assured of a trip to the NIT?

With the NCAA buying the NIT, the rules have changed. Last year the NIT began guaranteeing a spot to any regular-season conference champion that wasn’t selected to the NCAA tournament.

Seven teams, including Georgia Southern, fit that criteria a year ago, when the NIT field was 40 teams.

Now it’s 32. You do the math.

With the SEC getting four to six teams in the NCAA tournament, the remaining eight to six teams certainly won’t all be bound for the NIT.

In the past, Odom said he’d bet 80 to 85 percent of the teams from power conferences with winning records made the NIT field. Clearly that won’t be the case this year. no comments

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This was reported in The Greenville News.

Article states ---University of South Carolina reserve center Ousmane Konate has left the basketball team for personal reasons and is unlikely to play again, coach Dave Odom says.

"He will not be in uniform (Wednesday night against Auburn),'' Odom told reporters before practice Tuesday. "He's not likely to return to the team. The reason being is he's got some personal issues that he needs to attend to.''

Konate, a 6-foot-10, 270-pound junior from Senegal, has played in 25 games in his career -- 11 this year -- with no starts. This season Konate averaged 1.6 points and 2.0 rebounds a game.

I don't think this will hurt us and actually it was kinda assumed that he was done. Plus Odom had to create one scholarship for next year's class of recurits and transfers.

Any comments or anyone sad to see the Konate go? no comments

What has gotten into these kids? Two wins in a row? A recent win over MSU at "The Hump" and earlier in the week a win over Ar-Kansas. The Gamecocks snapped a five-game losing streak and now are on a two game winning streak. This is the same team that lost consecutive games by....well let's just say a lot. South Carolina (12-7, 2-4 SEC) has a chance to get its season back on track.

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