Last Call For Downeyball
posted by David Cloninger, 3/03/2010 10:21:00 AM
------------ THE JACKSON 5
All of you need to stop what you’re doing, right now, and make plans to watch South Carolina and Alabama play tonight. Even if you have to stop reading this column, which would punish my ego more than my last stood-up date, you need to do it.
Because you won’t get this chance again. Ever.
Tonight is Senior Night for five South Carolina Gamecocks, although one (Dominique Archie) may return for another. Archie and three of the other four (Brandis Raley-Ross, Evka Baniulis, Robert Wilder) are fine, fine young men, all of who are either graduated or on track to graduate in May and have represented this program with class and dignity.
They all deserve your respect and admiration.
The other one deserves your recognition as one of the best to ever wear the uniform.
Tonight is Devan Downey’s last home game. He may get another one in a postseason tournament, but as far as definites go, to again borrow from Michael Jackson, this is it.
Either watch it on TV or buy a ticket, in the process doing whatever you have to do to get to this game. A player like Downey will never be around again. Fact.
I wasn’t lucky enough to watch John Roche in his prime. Ditto Alex English. I got to watch BJ McKie play for three years, and he was something.
But I got to see Downey for three years here and three years at Chester High School, and even when he was a sophomore prep star with dreams taller than he could ever hope to be, I knew he was going to be the best I’ve ever seen.
Keep in mind, I got to cover Raymond Felton when he was in high school. I saw Ivory Latta light up some poor team for 70 points in one game. I grew up watching Christian Laettner, one of the biggest jerks of all time off the court but one of the biggest winners on it.
Downey is right there with them, if not better. The problem with those folks is they won championships and Downey will likely become one of those guys like Dan Marino – The Greatest to Never (Fill in the Blank), in this case play in the NCAA tournament.
Tonight is the last chance to see him perform moves that you’re going to wish you could see again next year and the year after and the year after. The stop-and-pop, fadeaway jumper and steal-and-coast should be written in Columbia’s basketball lexicon with a mug shot of Downey right beside them.
Odds are, we’ll be back at Colonial Life Arena in five years to watch Downey’s No. 2 raised to the rafters, where it will hang beside McKie’s No. 3, just like Downey said it would four years ago. When he called me to tell me he was coming to USC after his first season at Cincinnati, I mentioned he couldn’t wear No. 3, his high-school number, because it had just been retired.
“Really?,” he asked. “Guess I’ll have to put another one up there, then.”
I didn’t doubt it then and I sure don’t now. When he transferred, I told all of my colleagues that he was the real deal. He wouldn’t be like many USC transfers, coming in with great accolades only to flame out.
Then I sat back with one of my best smirks (and I’ve got lots of them) as he did exactly what I predicted.
I truly hope all of you have enjoyed watching him as much as I can. Even to sportswriters, who tattoo a code of objectivity across our shoulder blades, Downey was the kind of player who commanded awe and respect because of everything he could do, and the way he kept doing it.
I know that some of you swore off basketball when the season begin going downhill. I also know that some of you only have spare interest in the game because Jim Bob Hootenanny from Possum Holler just ran a 4.2, recovered four fumbles in one quarter and has USC among his top 50 schools.
But I beg you to show up tonight and simply watch Downey as he does what he does one more time. You want an athlete who is the best at what he does, refuses to let his team down and has always put winning a game before any personal accolade, there’s one right in Columbia.
For only one more game. It will be quite a while before USC sees someone like him again, if ever. They just don’t make them like that very often.
Pardon me. I have something in my eye.
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“Never can say goodbye.”
------------ THE JACKSON 5
All of you need to stop what you’re doing, right now, and make plans to watch South Carolina and Alabama play tonight. Even if you have to stop reading this column, which would punish my ego more than my last stood-up date, you need to do it.
Because you won’t get this chance again. Ever.
Tonight is Senior Night for five South Carolina Gamecocks, although one (Dominique Archie) may return for another. Archie and three of the other four (Brandis Raley-Ross, Evka Baniulis, Robert Wilder) are fine, fine young men, all of who are either graduated or on track to graduate in May and have represented this program with class and dignity.
They all deserve your respect and admiration.
The other one deserves your recognition as one of the best to ever wear the uniform.
Tonight is Devan Downey’s last home game. He may get another one in a postseason tournament, but as far as definites go, to again borrow from Michael Jackson, this is it.
Either watch it on TV or buy a ticket, in the process doing whatever you have to do to get to this game. A player like Downey will never be around again. Fact.
I wasn’t lucky enough to watch John Roche in his prime. Ditto Alex English. I got to watch BJ McKie play for three years, and he was something.
But I got to see Downey for three years here and three years at Chester High School, and even when he was a sophomore prep star with dreams taller than he could ever hope to be, I knew he was going to be the best I’ve ever seen.
Keep in mind, I got to cover Raymond Felton when he was in high school. I saw Ivory Latta light up some poor team for 70 points in one game. I grew up watching Christian Laettner, one of the biggest jerks of all time off the court but one of the biggest winners on it.
Downey is right there with them, if not better. The problem with those folks is they won championships and Downey will likely become one of those guys like Dan Marino – The Greatest to Never (Fill in the Blank), in this case play in the NCAA tournament.
Tonight is the last chance to see him perform moves that you’re going to wish you could see again next year and the year after and the year after. The stop-and-pop, fadeaway jumper and steal-and-coast should be written in Columbia’s basketball lexicon with a mug shot of Downey right beside them.
Odds are, we’ll be back at Colonial Life Arena in five years to watch Downey’s No. 2 raised to the rafters, where it will hang beside McKie’s No. 3, just like Downey said it would four years ago. When he called me to tell me he was coming to USC after his first season at Cincinnati, I mentioned he couldn’t wear No. 3, his high-school number, because it had just been retired.
“Really?,” he asked. “Guess I’ll have to put another one up there, then.”
I didn’t doubt it then and I sure don’t now. When he transferred, I told all of my colleagues that he was the real deal. He wouldn’t be like many USC transfers, coming in with great accolades only to flame out.
Then I sat back with one of my best smirks (and I’ve got lots of them) as he did exactly what I predicted.
I truly hope all of you have enjoyed watching him as much as I can. Even to sportswriters, who tattoo a code of objectivity across our shoulder blades, Downey was the kind of player who commanded awe and respect because of everything he could do, and the way he kept doing it.
I know that some of you swore off basketball when the season begin going downhill. I also know that some of you only have spare interest in the game because Jim Bob Hootenanny from Possum Holler just ran a 4.2, recovered four fumbles in one quarter and has USC among his top 50 schools.
But I beg you to show up tonight and simply watch Downey as he does what he does one more time. You want an athlete who is the best at what he does, refuses to let his team down and has always put winning a game before any personal accolade, there’s one right in Columbia.
For only one more game. It will be quite a while before USC sees someone like him again, if ever. They just don’t make them like that very often.
Pardon me. I have something in my eye.
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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 @.