COCK FIGHT
When Frank Martin, the South Carolina coach who always looks as if he’s about to do Bobby Knight worse than Knight ever did, climbed the interview podium in The Garden and picked up a cup of water, he quipped.
“They got water in this cup for a guppy.”
Memo to all game and wildlife and every team left in the NCAA Tournament: Martin’s South Carolina doesn’t throw anything back.
If you’re a guppy, you’re getting flushed without a nanosecond of hesitation.
If you’re a Baylor Bear, well, you just learned what the rest of the country is learning:
A basketball team from a football conference that plays defense like a blitzing safety and is comprised of a roster that even the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute would have trouble defining as a sample group, just might be the most dangerous animal because it has been wounded.
The Gamecocks know they would not be the first girl invited to the Big Dance. Their vision of basketball beauty starts and ends on defense.
They have acne, wear large dark-framed glasses with thick lenses and big steel braces that are more blinding than Baylor’s neon green uniforms.
After their 70-50 dismantling of No. 3 seed Baylor in an East Region semifinal round game at Madison Square Garden, the seventh-seeded Gamecocks are done being overlooked. They fully have embraced their flaws.
“It’s beautiful to us,’’ Martin said after his team held Baylor to 25 percent shooting in the first half, forced 16 turnovers for the game and used an 18-0 first-half run for the kill.
“I’m sure there’s people don’t like it. That’s their prerogative. They play, you know, if they’re a coach, they can coach however they want. If they’re a fan, they can root for a team that plays the style they like. For us, we love it. This is what gives us our edge.’’ Edge? “Every time we got a catch,’’ Baylor’s Ishmail Wainright said, “there was somebody right there.’’
Which is why South Carolina (25-10) is still here. They hadn’t danced since 2004, hadn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 1973 and never have played in a Final Four.
“It’s a good feeling when we continue to make history and I think once we got a taste of it we kind of got addicted and want to continue doing it,’’ guard Duane Notice said. “So we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure we do that.”
The Gamecocks will face Florida in the region final on Sunday. If they play the same frenetic, aggressive, take-no-prisoners defense and attacking offense, there will be a dead Gator on the Garden floor.
South Carolina held Baylor scoreless for seven minutes and 44 seconds in the first half, turning a 15-13 deficit into a 31-15 lead. Baylor missed 10 shots, committed four turners and not even two timeouts by coach Scott Drew could stop the onslaught.
“We couldn’t, really couldn’t buy a basket,’’ said Johnathan Motley, the only Bear to finish in double figures (18 points).
South Carolina’s roster — led by SEC Player of the Year Sindarius Thornwell, who had a gamehigh 24 points — contains players from Gabon, Australia, Canada, Gabon, Estonia and Senegal.
They all speak in one tongue: defense.
“It’s the best defensive team I’ve coached in college basketball as a head coach,’’ Martin said. “No doubt.”