Home cooking: Loud Gamecock fans turn MSG into Colonial Life Arena North
NEW YORK, NY – South Carolina’s convincing 70-50 Sweet 16 victory over Baylor Friday night unfolded in front of a near capacity crowd at Madison Square Garden, the self-proclaimed ‘World’s Greatest Arena.’
Few folks would have protested, though, had they renamed the building Colonial Life Arena North for the two hours the Gamecocks and Bears engaged in high stakes basketball battle.
Gamecock fans showed up in droves in the Big Apple to enthusiastically support USC as they played in the Sweet 16 for the first time in the modern era of the NCAA Tournament.
And they certainly didn’t just show up and sit on their hands, either.
They were definitely LOUD.
So much so that national and New York City-based media were clearly caught off-guard, based on their curiosity demonstrated by their line of questioning to Frank Martin in the post-game press conference.
For Martin, seeing and hearing thousands of noisy Gamecock fans in the MSG stands wasn’t a big deal because that’s how Colonial Life Arena has sounded most of the season.
The Gamecocks averaged 13,396 fans for 18 home games this season (15,138 for eight SEC Games), so seeing a ton of garnet and black in the arena wasn’t exactly an unfamiliar sight for Martin and his players.
“You guys are just starting to watch our fans,” Martin replied when asked how the atmosphere compared to a Gamecock home game. “You don't understand how good our fans are. Everyone thinks our fans only come out to watch the Gamecocks play football. Our fans are crazy. Our fans love their school. I'm just telling you. We're good because we have created a home court environment (in Columbia).
“Our guys love playing for our fans. Our fans love cheering for our guys. Everyone thinks we have been playing in an empty gym and all of a sudden our fans showed up. It's crazy. Our fans absolutely love our school and they have unbelievable passion for our school.”
The connection between the Gamecock players and Gamecock Nation is symbiotic in many ways, sort of a ‘I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine’ is symbiotic.
Both parties know they need the other to exist.
“Our fans and our players are fully invested into each other right now,” said Martin, who improved to 9-4 in the NCAA Tournament and reached the Elite Eight for the second time. “Our fans are taking this ride with us and eventually we're either going to party together or we're going to cry together.
“It's one or the other. There's not another alternative there. But that's the way it needs to be. I want our fans to cry when I cry. I want them to be mad when I go home mad. That's the only way you know that you got something going on.”
As a result of Florida’s thrilling 84-83 overtime victory on a last-second 3-pointer by Chris Chiozza, Gamecocks fans will get an opportunity to out-scream Gator fans Sunday afternoon when the two SEC rivals square off in a winner-take-all Elite 8 battle at 2:20 p.m. on CBS.
“We're both two tough defensive teams and we take pride in the defensive end,” Chiozza said. “We know each other well, so it's going to be a grind it out game, probably down to the wire just like this one. It's just going to be which team's the toughest one and who can keep their composure and be disciplined the whole 40 minutes. “
Sunday’s winner goes to Phoenix for the Final Four. The loser heads home after getting excruciatingly close to college basketball’s premier event.
If the Gamecocks prevail, the streets of New York City might never be the same again.
NOTES:
-- Baylor shot 30.4 percent (17-56) from the field and 23.1 percent (3-13) from 3-point range. Baylor is the 17th opponent South Carolina has held under 40 percent from the field (SC is 16-1 in those games). The Gamecocks entered the game ninth in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage defense (30.0%). Baylor became the 18th opponent to shoot below 30 percent from long-range against the Gamecocks this season.
-- The Gamecocks improve to 18-2 this season when leading at halftime.
-- The 22 points scored by Baylor in the first half equaled the fewest points the Gamecocks have allowed in one half of basketball in the NCAA Tournament. South Carolina allowed 22 to Temple in the second half of a First-Round game in 1972.
-- Senior guard Duane Notice became the Gamecocks’ all-time leader in games played (136), while Sindarius Thornwell made his 130th career start for South Carolina, extending his own school record. Notice (3-for-4 from behind the 3-point line) moved into second place all-time in South Carolina history with 217 triples. He surpassed BJ McKie (1996-99), who knocked down 215 career treys.
-- Thornwell led all scorers with 24 points, giving him 1,900 career points. He is the fifth Gamecock in program history to reach that plateau. He’s one point shy of Devan Downey (1,901) for fourth all-time in Gamecock history and 10 points away from John Roche (1,910) in third place. If Thornwell maintains his 21.4 scoring average in the Elite Eight, he will leave New York City as the school’s third all-time leading scorer.
-- Thornwell is averaging 25.7 points and shooting 46.8 percent (22-for-47) in South Carolina’s three NCAA Tournament games.
SWEET 16 RESULTS (March 23-24)
Thur., March 23
Oregon 69, Michigan 68
Gonzaga 61, West Virginia 58
Kansas 98, Purdue 66
Xavier 73, Arizona 71
Fri., March 24
North Carolina 92, Butler 80
South Carolina 70, Baylor 50
Kentucky 86, UCLA 75
Florida 84, Wisconsin 83
ELITE EIGHT MATCHUPS (March 25-26)
Sat., March 25
Gonzaga vs. Xavier, 6:09 p.m. (TBS) - West
Kansas vs. Oregon, 8:49 p.m. (TBS) – Midwest
Sun., March 26
South Carolina vs. Florida, 2:20 p.m. (CBS) - East
North Carolina vs. Kentucky, 5:05 p.m. (CBS) – South
