South Carolina short-handed against Florida

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Posted 6:11PM on Friday, January 12, 2007

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Perhaps no one handled the national champs any better than South Carolina last season. But any similarities between those Gamecocks and the group that faces No. 2 Florida on Saturday are purely coincidental. South Carolina swept both regular-season meetings from the Gators a year ago, then took them down the wire before falling in the Southeastern Conference tournament's title game, 49-47. These days, though, the Gamecocks (10-4, 0-1 SEC) don't resemble that fiery, athletic group. Standouts Tarrance Kinsey and Renaldo Balkman are gone to the NBA, while injuries and uncertainly have left South Carolina struggling to field a competitive team against Florida (15-2, 2-0). ``It's not something that any of us wants,'' Gamecocks coach Dave Odom said Friday. The Gamecocks already had the scars from an 80-56 thumping at Georgia this past Wednesday to deal with. Soon after, Odom discovered two of his starters, center Brandon Wallace and forward Dominique Archie, sustained injuries that make them questionable for Florida. Wallace had a bruised left foot hurt during a first-half dunk against the Bulldogs. Archie had a severely sprained ankle. Neither will have practiced by Saturday's tip-off and Odom's not sure he'll use them at all. With games against Kentucky and Tennessee ahead next week, Odom might choose to have them both closer to 100 percent for those contests than hobbled for this one. ``The decision, obviously, to me is, do I risk that,'' Odom said. The Gamecocks were thin enough already. Leading scorer Tre Kelley sprained his knee and missed South Carolina's win over Western Carolina on Jan. 3. Freshman forward Chad Gray has been limited because of a toe injury. On top of everything was Odom's announcement that reserve forward Ousmane Konate took some time away from the team to figure out where basketball fit into his life. All in all, it's a bad way to prep for what many feel is the SEC's best team. ``Funny things happen in college basketball,'' Odom said. ``We're going to try and be one of those funny things.'' Kelley, the Gamecocks senior point guard, said one of his biggest jobs the past two days was to pick up his team's morale. ``My mind-set is to just try and keep the team up with two straight losses and going into a Florida game with a couple of people injured and a couple of people down,'' Kelley said. ``We can beat this team. Everyone knows that.'' That was certainly the case a year ago. Those Gamecocks weren't awed by the Gators speed, running stride for stride with them in the two victories and keeping the eventual NCAA tournament champions out of synch. Florida coach Billy Donovan said last year's three games were all difficult, hard-fought games. He expects the same thing as the Gators play on the road in the SEC for the first time this season. ``I don't think any team in the country is where they want to be,'' Donovan said. What excites Donovan is the Gators took the same winning mentality from a year ago into this season. ``They still continue to play unselfish, they still work very hard in practice, they still have very good chemistry, they still want to win,'' Donovan said. That's apparent. Florida brings an eight-game win streak into the Carolina Coliseum. Taurean Green leads four starters who average in double figures at 13.8 points a game. It's seems a daunting task for Odom and his short-handed team to take on right now. But Odom is not surrendering. ``Young kids believe anything you tell them,'' he said. ``They want me to tell them they win the basketball game. And I will.''