Oct. 18, 2003

In front of an overflowing crowd of more than 1,500 enthusiastic Gamecock fans, USC opened men’s basketball practice to rousing success at Midnight Friday night at the USC Practice Facility.

The pre-midnight festivities, which included the campus 3 on 3 intramural semi-finals and finals, talks by USC President Dr. Sorensen, women’s basketball coach Susan Walvius and volleyball coach Kim Hudson Christopher, also featured a celebrity hot shots contest. In the closest contest of the night, USC head baseball coach Ray Tanner edged returning All-American candidate catcher Landon Powell 19-18 in their shoot-out.

The Gamecock basketball team was introduced by senior Mike Boynton – who Coach Odom also named as the captain of this year’s team as well. Boynton asked each player a question, written by the audience. The team put on quite a display of dunks prior to scrimmaging for 10 minutes.

“Tonight was for the players and the fans. This is something we can build on,” said USC head coach Dave Odom. “The team had a good time tonight, throwing a lot of lob passes, dunking – they did what they wanted to do tonight. Tomorrow – they will do what we want in practice. It’s been a great night.”

“I’m really excited about all the students showing their support tonight,” said USC sophomore Tarence Kinsey. “This is a great way for us to start practice. It was a lot of fun.”

11 AM PRACTICE ON SATURDAY The Gamecocks practiced at 11 am for an hour on Saturday morning and then for two hours Saturday afternoon. They will resume practice on Sunday, when they hit the courts from 6:30 – 8:00 am and then from 4:30 – 6:00 pm Sunday evening. USC will once again practice on Monday, before taking Tuesday off.

Coach Odom was pleased by what he saw in Saturday mornings practice. “The pace was a lot quicker, a lot faster, a lot more organized than I’ve seen,” said Odom. “I expected that and would have been disappointed otherwise. We run much better, shoot much better – we are in very good shape. This is the best shape we have been in this early in the season. This practice was a very good start.

“There weren’t any surprises this morning. The young guys played without inhibitions, without fear and that had the veterans thinking more. The young guys are taking it all in for the first time and it’ll be a learning experience.”

“Tonight we will continue to work on speed and team offense. We will work on a lot of team things – fast breaks, half court settings. We will wait until Monday to really start working on defense.”