Published Apr 16, 2020
The last time South Carolina basketball played Army
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Collyn Taylor  •  GamecockScoop
Beat Writer
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@collyntaylor

Yesterday, news came out the Gamecocks hosting a non-conference game against Army, which is not on its surface unusual.

The Gamecocks have been playing service academies for a while, hosting various games against Navy and the Citadel from time to time but Army? That almost never happens in any sport.

In the three major men's sports—football, basketball and baseball—there have only been seven total match ups between the two schools with the 2020 clash between the two at Colonial Life just the second time ever.

Before the two meet again, it's important to look back at what was an ultimately historic match up in the 1969 NIT.

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To understand the match up is to understand just how good those two teams were.

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The Gamecocks were a stacked team with some of the program's greatest players ever on the roster: Bobby Cremins, Tom Owens, John Ribock and John Roche all in the starting lineup.

That year, they'd enter the ACC Tournament at 19-5 before going 1-1 in the conference tournament with a win over Maryland and a loss to Duke.

In today's day, a 21-win team who finished second in the ACC would be a no-brainer for the NCAA Tournament, but in 1969 only 25 teams made it and the Gamecocks were ultimately left out.

Because of that, they'd crack the 16-team NIT and, after a nine-point win over Southern Illinois at Madison Square Garden came a second-round match up with a good Army team.

That year's Army team record-wise wasn't necessarily eye-popping, just 18-10 to end the year but the roster itself was stacked.

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It was coached by none other than Bobby Knight and one of its point guard was senior Mike Krzyzewski, who averaged 6.7 points and 3.3 rebounds as a senior.

The two teams met March 18, 1969 at Madison Square Garden with a spot in the NIT semifinals on the line.

But, before the match, one of the team's best players didn't play in Bill Walsh, which meant the Gamecocks were without his 12.7 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.

Without him, the Gamecocks were without a key piece of the team and ultimately lost 59-45 to Army and one of the better teams in school history at the time had its season ended.

Roche led the team with 16 points but no other player had more than seven points with Cremins, Owens and Ribock combining for just 18 points.

Owens led the team with 13 rebounds with Ribock adding 10 more of his own.

But the effects of that season and the next had a ripple effect on college basketball. Army finished in fourth in the 1969 NIT and third in the 1970 NIT before Knight was hired away to Indiana before the 1971 season and became one of the best college coaches ever.

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The Gamecocks, after dropping that NIT game to Army went on maybe its best run in school history after that.

They were ACC champs the following year and won the ACC Tournament in 1971 before making the Sweet 16 in what turned into the final year in the ACC.

They'd make three straight tournaments after going as an independent for the 1971-72 season with two more trips to the Sweet 16 in that span as well.

McGuire would finish out the decade and the Gamecocks not making the NCAA Tournament after 1974 and didn't make it again until 1989 and didn't win a game in the NCAA Tournament until making the Final Four in 2017.