There is an idea many people are having about this year’s national championship game that, because Villanova’s Kris Jenkins hit a buzzer-beater to beat North Carolina in last year’s title game, the Tar Heels must be especially motivated this year.
Two juggernauts will go head-to-head on Monday, and with all due respect to the No. 1 seeds competing for a national championship, we’re not talking about the teams.
Frank Martin’s South Carolina squad is a high-major school that finally crashed the dance. His opponent on Saturday was Gonzaga, a storied team in a conference otherwise not known for basketball.
As Sindarius Thornwell goes, so goes South Carolina. The senior guard’s importance to his team was especially obvious during Gonzaga’s 77-73 Final Four win on Saturday.
In the years before South Carolina ended its decade-long NCAA Tournament drought, the Gamecocks frequently found themselves down by a lot in the second halves of their games.
Sindarius Thornwell was healthy enough to hold court in front of a scrum of more than 50 reporters on Friday. So how much more of a challenge to his constitution could Gonzaga present?
For University of South Carolina fans the annoyance of in-state school Coastal Carolina taking home the College World Series crown in the spring was nothing next to the indignity of Clemson winning it all in football in the fall.
During the two decades Jerry Krause was involved with Gonzaga basketball, mostly as director of basketball operations, there was a mantra that he always put at the top of each travel report:
Before Adam Morrison was an All-American at Gonzaga, he was just another Zags fan. He always has been. For a while Morrison was a fan with a uniform. Now he is a fan with a platform, and he is using it to tell the world all about the Zags.
The phone calls between Chris Silva and his dad are neither frequent nor cheap. The simple logistics of arranging a call from Columbia, South Carolina to Libreville, Gabon are prohibitive. There is the five-hour time difference, for starters.
PULLMAN – Washington State men’s basketball assistant coaches Greg Graham and Silvey Dominguez have left the program, head coach Ernie Kent announced Monday. In a press release, the school said the coaches left in order to pursue other opportunities.