Horn loves his class

USC basketball coach Darrin Horn Wednesday met with the media primarily to introduce the five signees who are joining the Gamecock program.  Wednesday was the first day of the November signing period and the Gamecocks signed all five players who had committed to them:  5-9 Bruce Ellington of Berkeley;  5-10 Eric Smith of Mullins and The Christ School in Asheville, NC; 6-7 RJ Slawson of Fort Dorchester; 6-9 Demontre Harris of Fayetteville, NC; and 6-5 Brian Richardson of Wilson, NC.

Darrin Horn audio: (12:57)

Downey ready for season

The Gamecocks open their season Friday at home against Alabama A&M.  The Gamecocks will be led once again by senior point guard Devan Downey who is coming off a season in which he averaged 20 points and 4.5 assists per game.  He’ll be joined in the starting lineup by 6-5 freshman Lakeem Jackson, 6-7 forward Dominique Archie, 6-9 junior Sam Muldrow and 6-7 junior Mike Holmes.  Alabama A&M was 8-18 last season.

Devan Downey audio: (2:24)

Former USC standout Emanuel Cook has been signed to the Tampa Bay Bucs practice squad.  Cook spent some time on the Jets practice squad this season before he was cut.  He still hasn’t played in an NFL game.  He left USC last year with one year of eligibility remaining.

To make room for Cook the Bucs placed former Gamecock linebacker Rod Wilson on IR.

The Clemson men’s basketball program announced the signing of Marcus Thornton to a national letter of intent on Wednesday, the first day of the early signing period. Thornton, a 6-8 forward from Atlanta, GA, will play for the Tigers beginning in 2010.

“We are really pleased to add a tremendous student-athlete to our program in Marcus Thornton,” said Oliver Purnell, Clemson’s head coach. “He will really fit in well with our high-octane attack on both ends of the floor.”

Thornton, a three-star prospect according to both Rivals.com and Scout.com, is also listed as the nation’s No. 27 power forward prospect by ESPNU. The first-team all-region player averaged 14.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 4.5 blocks per game last season for a 25-7 Westlake squad. He led the Lions to a region championship and berth in the AAAAA semifinals in Georgia. He recorded a triple-double in the state quarterfinals with 13 points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocks against Savannah. Thornton is on pace to break the school record for blocked shots in a career.

Thornton also won the state of Georgia’s slam dunk contest in 2009, an event sponsored by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He signed with Clemson over scholarship offers from Maryland and Xavier.

Wednesday marks the first day of the early signing period for basketball and USC and Clemson signed players early in the morning.

Confirmed as having signed with the Gamecocks are 5-9 Bruce Ellington of Berekely and 6-8 RJ Slawson of Fort Dorchester.

The Gamecocks also will sign 6-9 Damontre Harris, 6-5 Brian Richardson and 5-11 Eric Smith.

Clemson signed 6-7 Marcus Thornton.  He’s the only player expected to sign with the Tigers during the early signing period.

A Talking Tuesday here on SportsTalk.

• USC Head Coach Steve Spurrier Part One (9:20)
• Part Two (4:05)
• Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney (5:38)
• Tuesday night’s Recruiting Report (4:56)

Spurrier looking to Gators

USC football coach Steve Spurrier held his weekly news conference Tuesday to preview Saturday’s game with top ranked Florida.  The Gators are on a 19 game winning streak, the longest active winning streak in the country.  Florida quarterback Tim Tebow directs an offense which is averaging 35 points per game.  The past two seasons the Gators put a total of 107 points on the scoreboard against the Gamecocks.  USC last defeated Florida in 2005 in Columbia 30-22. 

Spurrier talked in detail about the upcoming game with Florida and then disclosed that he will take over more of the play calling duties.   He said he will also become more active in interacting with the offense when it comes over to the sideline during a timeout.  He also talked about his coaching future at USC. 

Steve Spurrier audio: (26:22)

Pepper looking forward to Gators

USC senior defensive tackle Nathan Pepper and senior receiver Moe Brown also met with the media Tuesday.  Pepper has 25 tackles and 2 sacks this season.  He has come back from an early season knee injury to help anchor a Gamecock defensive line that’s been hard hit by injuries this season.  The Gamecocks are still ranked in the top 20 nationally in total defense and are giving up just 121.6 rushing yards per game.       Nate Pepper Audio:  (3:53)

The Gamecock offense has gone into a scoring slump with just 49 points to show for their last four games.  The running game continues to be a problem but the passing attack remains among the best in the SEC.  The Gamecocks are averaging 246 passing yards per game.  Brown is the team’s second leading receiver with

Brown staying upbeat

29 catches for 433 yards and 3 touchdowns.  He’s also rushed 9 times for 105 yards averaging 21 yards per carry.     Moe Brown Audio:    (8:24)

The Gamecocks are 6-4 and 3-4 in the SEC.  Florida is 9-0  and 7-0 in league play.  The Gators are 15 point favorites for the game which will kickoff  at 3:30 and be televised by CBS.

Dabo Swinney

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney sat down with the media Tuesday to preview this weekend’s game at N.C. State. We all took bets before Swinney started on how long he would talk today. Swinney is known to be a bit on the loquacious side so the over-under was set at 35 minutes. I took the over. I won. He went 44 minutes. I knew I was going to win at the beginning of the presser when Dabo started thanking the people that picked up the trash around the stadium after Saturday night’s game. Below you can hear every bit of Dabo’s comments and if time isn’t on your side we will have a condensed version on the show tonight and on SportsTalk Rewind here later.

AUDIO: Swinney Tuesday press conference (43:38)

As has been well documented Clemson is in great shape in the ACC Atlantic race heading into the weekend. If the Tigers win against NC State and Boston College loses to Maryland they will clinch the division. Clemson has won five straight games against the Pack, including the last two in Raleigh. The last time NC State won in this series, known by us longtime ACC followers as the “Textile Bowl”, was the 2003 game in Raleigh 17-15.

The Clemson offense has scored 38 points or more in each of their past four games. That is a school record. A big reason why the offense has been putting up the big numbers is the continued great play of C.J. Spiller and Jacoby Ford. Spiller had 312 yards of total offense last week and is still not completely healthy but he will play this weekend against the Pack.

AUDIO: C.J. Spiller pre N.C. State (8:26)

AUDIO: Jacoby Ford pre N.C. State (3:50)

Saturday’s game will kick off at Noon at Carter-Finley Stadium. The game will be televised by Raycom.

Former Clemson coach Tommy West was fired at Memphis Monday after spending nine years running the program. He will stay on to coach the rest of the season but it looks like he will be doing anything but toeing the company line. During his weekly news conference West took some direct shots at the administration and what he perceives as a lack of commitment on their part.

“I couldn’t say (this) as a coach, but it’s too painful,” West said. “It’s too painful for coaches, for players, for people, for fans. Put something in it or do away with it, one or the other.”

Memphis is 2-7 this season. West is 49-58 during his time there.

The University of South Carolina football squad returned to the Bluff Road practice fields Monday night for the first time since its 33-16 loss at Arkansas on Saturday. The Gamecocks (6-4, 3-4 SEC) began preparations for Saturday’s SEC showdown with topranked Florida (9-0, 7-0 SEC). Game time is set for 3:30 p.m. at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia.  The game will be televised nationally by CBS.

“This game is to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project,” said Head Coach Steve Spurrier following Monday’s shortened workout. “It’s a wonderful project that hopefully all of us Americans can contribute to in whatever way we can. We had a video today that our team saw about a group of soldiers that had been wounded in the war. We had one, Steven Diaz, talk to the team. He was wounded over in Iraq and spent a year and eight months in Bethesda Hospital just patching his body back together. He’s doing pretty well now. I think he lives here in Columbia. He’s one of the honorary captains for the game on Saturday. I hope we’ll be inspired,” continued Coach Spurrier. “We were actually inspired pretty well the last game, we just didn’t play real well. We had some chances and didn’t capitalize and the other team played very well.”

Coach Spurrier knows the Florida defense is highly regarded. “They stuffed us pretty good last year. We know about them. There are a lot of good defenses in the SEC. We have to find a way to move the ball, stay on the field some and go from there.”

Coach Spurrier cut Monday’s practice to just over an hour. “We shortened up a little bit. It’s late in the year and we’ve had 10 straight weeks of it, so we’re trying to freshen up our guys a little bit.”

Coach Spurrier also praised the South Carolina women’s soccer team for its SEC title. “Coach Shelly Smith and her team – congratulations. I think that’s the first SEC championship by a sport since I’ve been here in five years, so congratulations to our women’s soccer team. It’s a wonderful achievement for our university and our girls’ soccer team.”

The Gamecocks are scheduled to return to the practice fields Tuesday afternoon.

From USC Sports Information:

The SEC Champion South Carolina women’s soccer team has earned its third consecutive invitation to the NCAA Tournament and will host the first and second rounds of the tournament at Stone Stadium this weekend. The Gamecocks (17-3-2) earned the first national seed in program history and will face Davidson (12-9-1) Friday at 7 p.m.

Rutgers (13-3-4) and Duke (8-8-4) will face each other in the other first round match Friday with kickoff scheduled for 4:30 p.m. The winners of the two matches will faceoff Sunday afternoon (Time TBA). Ticket prices for the games will be announced later in the week as South Carolina returns home to “The Graveyard” where the team went 9-0-0 this season. 

 “I’m so glad that we got a home game,” South Carolina head coach Shelley Smith said. “Getting a No. 2 seed is tremendous recognition for our program and the respect we’ve earned. To be in the Southeast and earn a No. 2 seed is tremendous. I’m so excited. We’ve been very good at home. I like our chances there, and the team is excited to be back playing at ‘The Graveyard’.”

South Carolina earned the No. 2 seed in the North Carolina regional to earn the program’s fourth overall and third consecutive bid to the postseason. In the past two trips, the Gamecocks earned a tie against Duke in the 2007 first round match before falling in penalty kicks, and the team dropped a 3-2 overtime match to William & Mary in the 2008 first round.

“Every year we’ve been sitting on the edge of our seats hoping to get into the tournament,” Smith said. “Today was much more enjoyable. It’s a tough one, but we are excited with our draw. We’re glad the NCAA committee honored us with that home bid.”

Davidson earned the program’s first bid to the NCAA Tournament after defeating College of Charleston 1-0 in overtime to claim the Southern Conference championship. The team is riding an eight-game unbeaten streak. South Carolina holds a 6-2 series advantage against the Wildcats. The teams haven’t played since Carolina earned a 4-1 win Sept. 17, 2003.

Rutgers is making its sixth NCAA Tournament appearance and third in the last four years. Ranked No. 12 in the nation last week, the Scarlet Knights earned an at-large bid after falling in the Big EAST quarterfinals.

Duke earned its seventh straight NCAA bid as one of the top teams historically in the tough Atlantic Coast Conference. The Blue Devils earned an at-large bid after falling in the ACC quarterfinals.

The four No. 1 seeds in the tournament are Stanford, North Carolina, UCLA and Florida State. Joining South Carolina as No. 2 seeds are Boston College, Portland and Notre Dame. Six teams from the SEC made the tournament.