Horn's project sure beats a baking-soda volcano
posted by David Cloninger, 4/16/2009 12:37:00 AM
And I was amazed by the things I learned."
--------------------- SEMISONIC
Now that Darrin Horn seems to have completed his first recruiting class at South Carolina -- although there is still the possibility of adding at least one more player -- your favorite basketball writer feels compelled to check in with his ranking of the class.
But Gary Parrish isn't available, so you have to settle for me.
I like it. It's not nationally ranked or full of McDonald's All-Americans or the best from around the state, but I like it.
It's been my experience that the best coaches take what they have or what they can get and build a team around those individual qualities. That's what Horn is doing.
South Carolina is not at the level -- yet -- that it can waggle its fingers at the nation's best recruits and say, "Come hither." And before you say that's exactly what Dawn Staley did (and you're somewhat right), remember that women's and men's hoops are two completely different planets.
Horn went and got a class that would be a superstar group at Western Kentucky and will be a very good group at USC. He's going to need someone in the immediate future to replace rising senior Dominique Archie and rising juniors Mike Holmes and Sam Muldrow; he got junior-college transfer Johndre Jefferson and freshman Lakeem Jackson. He's going to need someone to replace all of his perimeter shooting; he got Steve Spinella.
Most importantly, he's going to need someone to replace Devan Downey. While that borders on hitting-the-lotto impossible, he at least has a plan in place -- Ramon Galloway can learn beside Downey for a year, then take over the point the next (if I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about Downey leaving for the pros).
What I like most about these guys is they are all projects. They don't hold the initial recognition of the studs that are lining up at Kentucky. They don't hold the capability to call up Mike Krzyzewski and say, "Coach, would you mind if I played for you?"
I think they fit in best with what Horn is trying to mold his program into -- a team that is blazingly fast; can pop the eye out of a mosquito from 20 feet, nine inches; can turn their arms into a kaleidoscope on defense; and can get the darn basketball when it's above the rim.
They're projects, a familiar term around these parts. Dave Odom had several projects and some of them -- Tre Kelley, Tarence Kinsey, Renaldo Balkman -- became terrific players.
Some of them -- Ousmane Konate, Keving Palacios, Kerbrell Brown -- hardly bear being answers to trivia questions.
I think that Horn's system will make his projects into capable players. Can I say that for sure? Of course not.
But for a first class, he seems to be filling his needs well. While he may not have landed such a significant prize as Staley did with Kelsey Bone, I think that all of these new Gamecocks will be immediate contributors.
The reason I say that is because Horn took the same team from last year, just minus a few players, and made basketball in Columbia fun again. And really, it's kind of good in a sense that the Gamecocks didn't make the NCAA tournament -- by making the NIT and having some fans grumbling about it (forcing this team to suffer for the supposed sins of others), USC took a step into the big time by thinking it was meant for better things, not the second-best postseason.
Horn realized he had D-Day coming up at the end of the 2009-10 season and took steps to begin storming the beach. It's not simply good enough to win 20 games one year, then take four steps back in the following seasons.
Obviously, nothing's decided yet.
But the project Horn's working on seems to at least be headed toward a ribbon, be it third-place white or first-place blue.
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"So for a while I conducted experiments,
And I was amazed by the things I learned."
--------------------- SEMISONIC
Now that Darrin Horn seems to have completed his first recruiting class at South Carolina -- although there is still the possibility of adding at least one more player -- your favorite basketball writer feels compelled to check in with his ranking of the class.
But Gary Parrish isn't available, so you have to settle for me.
I like it. It's not nationally ranked or full of McDonald's All-Americans or the best from around the state, but I like it.
It's been my experience that the best coaches take what they have or what they can get and build a team around those individual qualities. That's what Horn is doing.
South Carolina is not at the level -- yet -- that it can waggle its fingers at the nation's best recruits and say, "Come hither." And before you say that's exactly what Dawn Staley did (and you're somewhat right), remember that women's and men's hoops are two completely different planets.
Horn went and got a class that would be a superstar group at Western Kentucky and will be a very good group at USC. He's going to need someone in the immediate future to replace rising senior Dominique Archie and rising juniors Mike Holmes and Sam Muldrow; he got junior-college transfer Johndre Jefferson and freshman Lakeem Jackson. He's going to need someone to replace all of his perimeter shooting; he got Steve Spinella.
Most importantly, he's going to need someone to replace Devan Downey. While that borders on hitting-the-lotto impossible, he at least has a plan in place -- Ramon Galloway can learn beside Downey for a year, then take over the point the next (if I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about Downey leaving for the pros).
What I like most about these guys is they are all projects. They don't hold the initial recognition of the studs that are lining up at Kentucky. They don't hold the capability to call up Mike Krzyzewski and say, "Coach, would you mind if I played for you?"
I think they fit in best with what Horn is trying to mold his program into -- a team that is blazingly fast; can pop the eye out of a mosquito from 20 feet, nine inches; can turn their arms into a kaleidoscope on defense; and can get the darn basketball when it's above the rim.
They're projects, a familiar term around these parts. Dave Odom had several projects and some of them -- Tre Kelley, Tarence Kinsey, Renaldo Balkman -- became terrific players.
Some of them -- Ousmane Konate, Keving Palacios, Kerbrell Brown -- hardly bear being answers to trivia questions.
I think that Horn's system will make his projects into capable players. Can I say that for sure? Of course not.
But for a first class, he seems to be filling his needs well. While he may not have landed such a significant prize as Staley did with Kelsey Bone, I think that all of these new Gamecocks will be immediate contributors.
The reason I say that is because Horn took the same team from last year, just minus a few players, and made basketball in Columbia fun again. And really, it's kind of good in a sense that the Gamecocks didn't make the NCAA tournament -- by making the NIT and having some fans grumbling about it (forcing this team to suffer for the supposed sins of others), USC took a step into the big time by thinking it was meant for better things, not the second-best postseason.
Horn realized he had D-Day coming up at the end of the 2009-10 season and took steps to begin storming the beach. It's not simply good enough to win 20 games one year, then take four steps back in the following seasons.
Obviously, nothing's decided yet.
But the project Horn's working on seems to at least be headed toward a ribbon, be it third-place white or first-place blue.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
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David Cloninger. David is a full-time staff writer for GamecockCentral, and covers Gamecock football, men's basketball, baseball and recruiting. He may be reached by email at david(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.