6: South Carolina
The Gamecocks'
All-SEC guards will burn foes with their friendly fire
 The thaw began late one night in a hotel room in Stockholm. It was
the summer of 1996, and guards
BJ McKie, who had just finished his freshman year at South
Carolina, and Melvin Watson, who had been a sophomore, were
rooming together during the Gamecocks' exhibition tour of
Europe. The previous fall, McKie had come to school with
high school
All-America credentials and a prodigious local following, having
grown up 10 minutes from the South Carolina campus. Watson,
the incumbent point guard on a team that had won just 10
games the season before, had not eagerly awaited this
hotshot's arrival.
"Everywhere I went, people would ask me about him coming in to take
my spot," Watson says. "I felt I had to prove
myself all over
again."
Though both players ended up starting—Watson at the point,
McKie at shooting guard—as South Carolina finished 19-12
and went to the NIT, a chill persisted between them. Until
that night in Sweden when, during a two-hour rap session,
Watson finally told
McKie why he had been so distant. "It was a
relief," Watson says. "I apologized for
prejudging him and told him that for us to become better
players on the court, we had to be better friends off the
court."
As backcourt mates and soul mates, Watson and McKie last
season led the Gamecocks to a 24-8 record and South
Carolina's first SEC championship in any sport. They were
both selected first-team all-conference, and they're the
main reasons the Gamecocks
are favored to repeat as league champs. Watson's words that
night in Stockholm were indeed prophetic; as the two have
blossomed into perhaps the nation's finest backcourt, so
too has their friendship bloomed. "If he comes in here
today, I'll know right
away if something is wrong with him," McKie says.
"We've grown that
close."
Even as good as McKie and Watson are, they're going to need
help from the frontcourt now that Larry Davis, the third
guard in South Carolina's diminutive
lineup, has graduated. (Last year, the
6'1" Watson was the Gamecocks' leading defensive
rebounder, with 4.3 per game.) Two starters return up
front—6'11" senior Ryan Stack and
6'7" junior William Gallman—along with
6'10" junior Bud Johnson, who had a disappointing
sophomore season. Add in
6'7" junior LeRon Williams, a muscular transfer from
Florida, and Carolina should be stronger than it was last
year. "I like the four bodies we've got," coach
Eddie Fogler
says.
|
Last Year | 24-8 |
|
Returning Starters | 4 |
| Points Per Game '96-97 | 74.1 |
| PPG By All Returning Players | 52.5 | As successful as they were last season, the Gamecocks were
routed in their final two games, losing by 15 to Georgia in
the
SEC tournament semifinals and by 13 to Coppin State in the
first round of the NCAA tournament. McKie, for one,
believes that
South Carolina learned from those defeats. "We were
satisfied with just getting to the NCAA tournament,"
he says. "I think it was a lack of experience. We got
mentally and physically tired. We understand that can't
happen this season if we're going to
achieve the goals we want to achieve."
—Seth Davis
Next: Kentucky
|
