USC Upstate Basketball

Florida Gulf-Coast (11-6, 3-1 A-Sun) at USC Upstate (8-7, 2-0)

Jan. 10, 2013, 7:00 p.m.

Spartanburg, S.C., G.B. Hodge Center (1,000)

History Of The Rivalry

SPARTANBURG, S.C.--Thursday night offers an opportunity for the USC Upstate men's basketball program to offer a good showing with a victory in its first home conference game in front of what promises to be a healthy turnout of students and alumni packed inside the cozy confines of the G.B. Hodge Center Thursday night.

The opponent—Florida Gulf-Coast—also offers the Spartans what may be the most rewarding of opportunities in sports—redemption. 

Let's rewind to Feb. 23, 2012, with the venue being the same one in which the two teams will duke it out on Thursday night. 

Plenty was on the line for both the Spartans and Eagles.

Upstate had a chance to clinch a seed and a bye in the opening round of the 2012 General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Tournament. FGCU was just looking to qualify for the postseason tournament and, like Upstate, ended up doing so in its first season of eligibility following the NCAA's mandated four-year transition from Division II to Division I.

Preseason Player of the Year Torrey Craig's tomahawk jam as time expired set off wild celebrations in the crowd, as Upstate posted an 87-74 win over the Eagles to move on to the conference tournament in its first season of eligibility. Meanwhile, FGCU would have to wait on its status. After Mercer upended Lipscomb that same night, the Spartans knew they would be making the trip to Macon, GA., for the 2012 A-Sun Tournament. 

The Spartans had already claimed another meeting between the two earlier in the 2011-12 season, an 80-75 win at Alico Arena in Fort Myers. This time they used a school-record—in the Division I era—15 triples. Craig and eventual A-Sun Freshman of the Year Ty Greene each had career-high nights, with 30 and 22 points, respectively, thereby helping the Spartans to the 13-point win. 

As fate would have it, and despite losing their final two conference games, FGCU received some help in other league games, and the Eagles garnered the No. 6 seed for the tournament. This meant the Eagles would open the tournament in a Thursday night clash against No. 3 seed USC Upstate, setting up the unique scenario of two conference tournament rookies facing each other in the quarterfinals of the league tournament.

On Mar. 2, the Spartans and Eagles laced up once again as foes on the A-Sun hardwood, only this time there was much more at stake. This time it was a different FGCU team the Spartans encountered, and one that was tenacious on the defensive end of the floor. The Spartans simply sizzled from the perimeter en route to a 71-61 win at Mercer's Hawkins Arena/University Center. 

It was the beginning of a memorable tournament run for the Eagles, as the league tournament newbie made its way to the title game before running out of gas against former league power Belmont. It was a bittersweet end to what had been the most remarkable turnaround story in Division I college basketball in 2011-12, with the Spartans bowing out of the tournament with a 20-12 mark.

Upstate would, of course, get an invite to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, where it opened with a win over Kent State before bowing out in the next round with a loss at Old Dominion. 

In the A-Sun quarterfinal matchup between the two last season, in which the Eagles got their first Division I conference tournament win, FGCU placed five players in double figures and shot 47.4 percent (9-of-19) from beyond the arc, while holding Upstate to just 31.9 percent (22-of-69) from the field and just 23.8 percent (5-of-23) from three-point range. 

After seeing Craig post a career-high 30-point effort against them a little over a week earlier, the Eagles limited the A-Sun Player of the Year to just 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting from the field and 2-of-9 from three-point range. The Eagles were also able to frustrate Greene, who was held to 10 points on 3-of-14 from the field and just 1-of-6 from three. Greene had come into the contest leading the A-Sun in three-point field goal percentage, hitting at nearly 44.0 percent entering tournament play.

Meanwhile, FGCU was able to spread the wealth offensively in that quarterfinal win. The European connection of Christophe Varidel and Filip Cvjetcanin combined for 23 points (Varidel: 14 pts, Cvjetcanin: 11 pts) off the bench, including hitting six of the team's nine triples in the contest to give the Eagles offense a huge lift. 

Though the Spartans went on to extend their season with another first for the program, the sting of defeat in the opening round of the league tournament didn't wear off during the offseason. 

That Feb. 23 matchup last season was a vivid reminder of what college basketball is all about, complete with rowdy hecklers right behind the FGCU bench and their head coach, Andy Enfield.

Thursday night's A-Sun clash offers that opportunity for a team to right a previous wrong against a rival. That chance is summed up in one word: redemption.

Thursday night will offer the first of two opportunities this season for Upstate to capitalize on this opportunity, and 24 hours from now, we will know if redemption is indeed the order of the evening, or if the Spartans will again suffer defeat by an encore performance by the Eagles.

Notes You Need to Know

• Upstate and Florida Gulf Coast will be facing each other for the 11th time in series history, with FGCU holding a narrow 6-4 edge. 

• FGCU was picked to finish third in the preseason media and coaches' polls, while Upstate was picked to finish second in both.

• FGCU's only loss was against league-favorite Mercer, which downed the Eagles 77-70 in overtime, avenging a 2012 A-Sun Semifinal Tournament loss (62-58) to the Eagles. 

• FGCU claimed one of two wins for the league against ACC competition from the Sunshine State this season. The Eagles were 63-51 winners over Jim Larranaga's Miami Hurricanes. The other win for the A-Sun against a Sunshine State ACC foe was Mercer's 71-56 win over defending ACC Tournament champion Florida State.

• FGCU head coach has a familiarity with ACC basketball, having served as an assistant under Leonard Hamilton for five years at Florida State and helping the Seminoles advance to the Sweet Sixteen twice during his time as an assistant coach in Tallahassee.

• The Spartans are led in scoring by reigning and preseason A-Sun Player of The Year junior forward Torrey Craig (17.0, 5.9 RPG), who ranks second in the conference in scoring to Kennesaw State's Markeith Cummings and his 17.2 PPG average. In the season opener against Saint Louis, Craig became the fastest player in school history to 1,000 points, completing the feat in just 65 games.

• Craig enters Thursday night's clash with the Eagles having scored in double figures in 32 of his last 36 games. He has scored double digits in 65 of his 79 career games.

• Northern Kentucky completed the rare feat of holding Craig under double figures this season, becoming the only team to make that claim, as the Norse held the junior from Great Falls, S.C., to just six points. 

• Craig has scored in double figures in 34 of 41-career games against conference foes. Two of the seven times Craig has been held under double figures scoring have come against FGCU. The only other current conference foe to hold Craig under double figures more than once in his career is Lipscomb. Craig also established one of his two career 30-point scoring performances in the 13-point win over the Eagles last season. He established a new career high with 31 points in a win earlier this season at the Hodge Center over Texas-San Antonio.

• All-conference guard Ty Greene is the only other Spartan averaging in double figures in the starting five, posting 11.3 PPG, and his 31 triples this season rank him sixth in the league in three-pointers made. Craig ranks just behind Greene with 30 trifectas on the season, and the lethal perimeter-shooting duo have combined for 61 of the team's 97 three-point field goals through the first 15 games this season.

• Upstate junior forward Ricardo Glenn has been a monster on the boards, as he comes in averaging a league-best 8.5 RPG this season. Glenn is also on the cusp of averaging in double figures, at 9.6 PPG. Glenn has four double-doubles this season to lead the club in that category, with his top performance being a 15-point, 12-rebound game in a late December win against Coastal Georgia. Glenn also ranks second in the A-Sun in field goal percentage, connecting at a sizzling 59 percent (59-for-100) this season.

• Upstate has one of the deepest teams in the league, with the likes of Adrien Rodgers, one of the league's top sixth men, averaging 9.9 PPG. Forward Jodd Maxey (6.7 PPG, 4.7 RPG) has been the model of consistency since transferring in from South Carolina State a couple of years ago, and his athleticism and intangibles have been a vital part of the team's successes in that time. Maxey currently ranks second in the A-Sun with 22 blocked shots this season.

• FGCU counters with a talented core of players of its own, including point guard Brett Comer (6.4 PPG, 3.4 RPG) and perimeter threats Bernard Thompson (14.4 PPG, 4.8 RPG ) and Sherwood Brown (14.0 PPG, 5.1 RPG). Forward Chase Fieler (10.5 PPG, 4.9 RPG) rounds out the Eagles' trio, averaging in double figures. Comer ranks second in the A-Sun in assists, dishing out 5.9 helpers-per-game, while Thompson leads the league in steals, with 3.9 thefts-per-game.  

• Forward Eric McKnight (7.0 PPG, 5.4 RPG), who transferred into the program from Iowa State, is one of the most athletic players in the Eagles' lineup, and he comes into the matchup ranking third in the league with 24 rejections (1.4 BPG). Forward Filip Cvjetcanin (6.4 PPG, 3.4 RPG) ranks second in the league in three-point field goal percentage, having connected on 37.3 percent (22-of-59). 

• Upstate has won 12 straight wins at the Hodge Center, spanning a full calendar year, with the last home setback occurring early last January against Mercer. The winning streak currently ranks fourth in the nation. 

• Upstate and FGCU are the top two scoring teams in the A-Sun, with the Eagles leading the league by posting 71.6 PPG, while Upstate is just behind in second, averaging 70.9 PPG.

Final Prediction: Upstate 76, FGCU 72

SPARTANBURG, S.C.—Doing justice to Saturday afternoon's USC Upstate-Belmont clash in the Atlantic Sun is going to be hard to do with words, but here goes. 

To understand Saturday's 79-78 win for USC Upstate on its home floor, you have to rewind the clock back to Dec. 5, 2010, when the first glimpse of success at the Division I level for USC Upstate was ever-present.

On that early December Saturday afternoon, and in front of a raucous crowd which filled the Hodge Center to capacity, as USC Upstate went in search of its first win over another team that hailed from the Volunteer State, as East Tennessee State came to the Hodge Center looking for its seventh-straight win as a league member over Upstate in front of better than 900 fans, mostly students, on-hand to take in the contest.   

Upstate had always been tough on the Hodge Center floor, but it had never quite been able to get over the hump against the league's perennial powers. But that Saturday was the first peek at what has become two outstanding recruiting classes against some of the league's elite, but it also gave the USC Upstate administration a chance to recognize a huge $4 million donation made by Mrs.Dolores (Dodie) Anderson, which helped the Upstate basketball program make some significant facilities upgrades, and that in-turn has enhanced the recruiting.

Though young, the Spartans went on to show the veteran league titan Buccaneers that things were slowly, but surely changing atop the Atlantic Sun power struggle, posting a 60-59 win on that evening. It was a contest which also introduced the Atlantic Sun to a player that has become the most dynamic scorer in the league this season, in Torrey Craig.

The Great Falls, S.C., native posted a game-high 18 points to lead the Spartans to the one-point win. Sophomore Chalmers Rogers, who hadn't seen much action all evening, came up with his only basket of the night—a lay-up in the paint with three seconds to-play—to help the Spartans forge a huge win over one of the league favorites and a team that won back-to-back A-Sun Tournament titles in 2008 and '09. 

The atmosphere was laying in wait, with new video scoreboards, new video equipment, lights, chair-back seats and a new home locker room, it was all up to Eddie Payne's young Spartans to comply and make the Hodge Center one of the toughest places to play in the Atlantic Sun, as well as helping the Upstate, a relative newbie to the Division I ranks, a major contender in the league title race.

The Spartans of course showed fans and those around the league that it could jump up and bite the league's elite from time-to-time at home, but finishing just 5-25 last season, few outside the USC Upstate basketball program figured the Spartans to be much of a challenge to the league's elite, or to factor in to a top-eight finish in the league standings and a subsequent tournament berth in its first season of eligibility.

But after being picked to finish ninth out of 10 teams in the preseason poll, the Spartans figure to be closer to an appearance in Macon, Ga., the first weekend in March rather than getting a head start on recruiting for the 2012-13 season.

Much like that December Saturday 416 days ago, USC Upstate headed into a game against a team from the Volunteer State that was one of the established "gold standards" of the up-and-coming league, and was a team the Spartans head yet to experience the thrill of victory against (0-8). When Belmont joined the Division I ranks in 1996-97, it was a solid basketball program at the Division II level, but most knew it as an institution with one of the best music curricula in the nation, rather than a school noted for its play on the hardwood.

With eight championships (four A-Sun Tournament Titles and four A-Sun Regular-Season crowns) since 2006, however, Belmont has made noise nationally with its string music rather than that of the conventional sort. The Bruins will likely mostly be remembered for that epic performance against Duke in the 2005 NCAA Tournament, which saw the Bruins drop a 73-72 game to the No. 2-seeded Blue Devils only after Josh Hare's desperation 40-foot three-pointer at the buzzer just go awry.

The Bruins have become such a staple of success, a large majority of the "so-called" college basketball experts had the Bruins sending Bo Ryan's Wisconsin Badgers packing in a first-round matchup in the 2011 NCAA Tournament. That of course did not happen, but everywhere the veteran head coach Rick Byrd and his Bruins go, there's no doubt they garner respect.

After all its eight championships since 2006 ranks the program with some of college basketball's elite, and only two Division I college basketball programs have claimed more titles in that same time-span, and those two are pretty recognizable, in Kansas and Gonzaga.  

The 2011-12 Bruins came into the Hodge Center with that same swagger that they had in past seasons, and rightfully so, having won six of their last seven, and took the Duke Blue Devils to the wire early in the season at Cameron Indoor Stadium as part of the Maui Invitational, before dropping a heartbreaking 67-66 contest. 

The atmosphere was there on Saturday, as was Dodie Anderson. It was a loud, early-arriving group of students that did their job of trying to heckle the the visiting Bruins during warm-ups, and there was even a new "pump-up" video for the introduction of the starting lineups. It would now be up to the Spartans, who entered with a Division I record 10 wins, to try and comply with that backdrop. 

It was the "swagger" of the Bruins that dominated the Spartans in the opening half, deflating an atmosphere and a crowd ready-made for a Saturday night celebration, taking a 43-27 lead into the halftime locker room. Upstate was out-gunned in the opening half, as the Bruins connected on 55.6 percent from the field, and also held advantages in rebounding (14-10), free throw percentage (90 percent-69.2 percent) and forced 11 Spartan turnovers, while committing only six.

The Bruins also held a substantial advantage in points in the paint, out-scoring the Spartans 22-12 in that particular statistical category. Maybe most important of all, the Bruins had held the A-Sun's leading scorer to just five points, and he was saddled with two early fouls.

With so much in its corner, it was hard to see a way the Bruins swagger could be knocked off course in the second half by the homestanding Spartans. However, the one advantage that Upstate entered the game with--it's athleticism--ultimately helped it not only get back in the game in the second half, but would also enable the Spartans to garner arguably its biggest win as a Division member, as Upstate outscored the Bruins, 52-35 in the second stanza to come up with the 79-78 win. 

The Spartans turned the tables on the Bruins by connecting on 60.6 percent (20-for-33) of their shots in the second half, while cutting their turnovers by five in the second half, from 11 in the first, to only six in the second.

The Spartans were on a furious comeback trail from the outset of the second stanza, cutting the Bruins' advantage to 10 (43-33) from the 16-point deficit at the half, as the Spartans wasted just 87 seconds to accomplish that feat, prompting a Rick Byrd timeout.

It was transfer forward Jodd Maxey, who scored a career-high 19 points for the Spartans, that set the tone that he would maintain throughout the remainder of the game, seemingly hitting big shot after big shot to help the Spartans back into the game.

During that 6-0 run out of the locker room, it was Maxey that scored four of those points to get the once deflated Hodge Center crowd interested. Part of the aforementioned athletic advantage for the Spartans was personified in Maxey's leaping ability in the second half, as the Bruins had little answer for keeping the quick-jumping Maxey off the offensive glass. It was also a Maxey slam dunk that brought the Hodge Center crowd to a collective crescendo in the final two minutes.

The Spartans would get the game into single digits shortly thereafter, following a lay-up by Belmont forward Blake Jenkins. It was Craig, who scored only five first-half points, that made Jenkins pay as he beat him down the floor in transition and drained a wide-open triple to make it a 45-36 contest with 17:22 left to play.

It looked as if the Bruins might be ready to usurp the momentum from the Spartans moments later, as Belmont stretched its advantage back to double digits (49-36) on back-to-back baskets by Trevor Noack in transition with 16:36 left to play.

From there, however, it would be a 16-4 run by Upstate, which cut the Bruins advantage to a single point (53-52) with 12:18 to play, preventing the momentum from ever settling into hibernation on the Bruins side for the remainder of the afternoon. Craig's second trifecta of the half sparked the run.

It would be the Bruins that would seem to control the next three minutes, but despite stretching its lead back out to eight points, at 61-53, following a Kerron Johnson free throw with 9:33 to play, the Bruins could not completely put the Spartans in the rear-view mirror the rest of the way, and were never able to again establish a double-digit lead in the contest. 

The deficit would remain at eight moments later, as the two teams traded three-pointers, making the score 66-58 with just over eight minutes to play, and that would be the largest lead the Bruins would own the remainder of the game. 

An acrobatic lay-up by Johnson gave the Bruins a 70-64 advantage, as the game approached crunch time inside the final five minutes. It would be at this point, in which the Spartans took control of the game, out-scoring the Bruins 15-8 at the game's most-crucial point. Three straight buckets by Ricardo Glenn, Babatunde Olumuyiwa and Mario Blessing were part of a mini, 6-1, spurt by the Spartans, as Upstate found itself within a single point once again, at 71-70, with 3:39 left.

True to its championship pedigree, Belmont pushed back, looking to deliver the fatal blow as had become routine so many times before against A-Sun opponents. First Ian Clarke converted a lay-up, and then the sharp-shooting Mann drained a three-pointer to answer a Craig lay-up at the opposing end to give Bruins a two-possession advantage (76-72) with 2:45 play. 

Lesser opponents have folded at this point in the game plenty of times before against the Bruins, and it would have been easy for the Spartans to have patted themselves on the back and taken home a "moral victory" and chalked it up as another building block on a long drawn-out process.  That wasn't the scenario Payne's resilient Spartans chose, however. 

Upstate's tenacious defense created the most crucial of the 12 Bruin turnovers on the afternoon, and that would lead to a transition dunk for Maxey, inciting a roar in unison for the raucous, jam-packed Hodge Center crowd, cutting the Bruins' lead to a deuce (76-74) with 2:03 to play. Johnson answered on the other end with a lay-up to put the Bruins back up four (78-74) with 1:50 to play. 

Johnson's lay-in would be the final basket of the game for the Bruins, and would set the stage for Craig to score the most important five points of his young career. Following the Johnson bucket, Craig would waste little time in stepping up to make a monumental trey from straight-away just seconds later, making it a one-point deficit (78-77) with 1:33 left. 

Back-to-back missed threes by Mann and Clarke on the ensuing possession set up the last-second heroics for the Spartans. Maxey secured the basketball off the Clarke missed triple with 31 seconds left and the clock reached 14 seconds before the Spartans took a 30-second timeout to set up the final play.

The game would initially end up in the hands of guard Adrian Rogers, with Craig tightly guarded, and it was a clear-out. Rogers began to penetrate to the basket with seven seconds to play, but his shot caromed off the front of the rim, however, Craig crashed the boards and rebounded the ball and put in the baby five-foot jumper from straight-away with seven-tenths of a second to play, giving the Spartans a 79-78 lead.

Belmont tried a length-of-the-court pass, but the last-ditched Bruins heave was broken up by Glenn, setting off a wild celebration at the Hodge Center and gave the Spartans its first win over Belmont in nine tries. 

Craig scored 17 second-half points to lead four Spartans in double figures, with a game-high 22 points, while Maxey added 19, while point guard Ty Greene and Glenn chipped in 12 and 10 points respectively.

Johnson led the Bruins with 18 points, while dishing out eight assists, while veteran Mick Hedgepeth posted 16 points and seven boards in the win.

Upstate's dedication to using its superior athleticism, as a result of utilizing transition opportunities in the open court, as well as being aggressive off the dribble to force the physical Bruins into foul trouble, were two major factors in allowing Upstate to solidify itself as a major player in the A-Sun race in 2011-12 with the one-point win.  

One thing is for sure, the combination of commitment, funding and talent have found themselves in perfect concert for the Spartans in 2011-12, and Upstate will look to continue its recent run of success on Monday night against another team that hails from the Volunteer state and has been a thorn in the proverbial side of the Spartans in its short Division I tenure pays a visit to the Hodge Center on Monday night, with Lipscomb visiting the Hub City.

USC Upstate reached uncharted territory on Saturday night with its 69-62 win over 2011 A-Sun Tournament runner-up North Florida in a key Atlantic Sun tilt at the UNF Arena in Jacksonville.

It was the 28th win as a Division I member and the 681st overall as a program that gave USC Upstate basketball fans and former players reason to celebrate another milestone for a program with a storied past that includes a national championship.

The win saw the Spartans improve their overall record to 10-8, achieving a double-digit total for the first time in its fifth season at the NCAA Division I classification. Upstate hasn't been above .500 this late in the season since its last as a Division II member in the 2006-07 campaign.

The previous record for wins in the Division I era for the Spartans was established in the 2008-09 campaign, in which the Spartans posted nine victories. The ninth and final victory that season came with an 80-51 win over Kennesaw State on Feb. 28.

The Spartans were in their second season of a four-year mandatory transitional phase, which meant they were not allowed to qualify for the Atlantic Sun's postseason tournament, and the Spartans finished that campaign with a 9-21 overall mark. 

Thirty years ago, USC Upstate was on top of its classification, then under the distinction USC-Spartanburg Rifles, as the program reached the pinnacle of the NAIA mountain with a 51-38 win over Viola College in Kansas City to put the finishing touches on a magical 1981-82 season.

Thirty years later and a couple of rungs higher up the college basketball ladder, the program has a new handle (USC Upstate) and mascot (Spartans), but has the same desire to embark on that climb, now with a new, significant milestone to display in a cabinet already full of great players, memories, traditions and previous benchmarks.

The mid-January excitement at the small school with an enrollment of 5,471 is at an all-time high, as students, former players and alumni may begin to entertain visions of March Madness if the Spartans maintain their current status as one of the top eight teams in the 10-team conference—only the top eight qualify for the league's postseason festivities.

If the season ended today, not only would the Spartans find themselves part of the 2012 General Shale Brick Atlantic Sun Tournament, they would be one of the top four seeds to host an opening-round game.

Making this development an even more eyebrow-raising story is the fact that Upstate was picked to finish ninth out of 10 teams in the preseason coaches' poll, but are now in good standing to reach the tournament and also host a game in its first season of postseason eligibility.

With its 4-2 league mark right now, the Spartans find themselves tied for third in the league standings with East Tennessee State and Stetson.

Veteran head coach Eddie Payne, however, will hope his team doesn't  look too far ahead, presents a new problem for Payne: the program's recent ascension to college basketball's elite level. In the previous seasons as a Division I member, it's safe to say Upstate didn't have the luxury of looking ahead and taking games for granted.

With its vast improvement from a team that finished 5-25 a year ago, keeping his Spartans in check and focused will be a different challenge for Payne.

He is no stranger to seeing his team succeed as underdogs, and during his stint at Oregon State (1995-2000), Payne's undermanned Beavers nearly took down down the Cameron Dollar and the defending NCAA Champion, the UCLA Bruins, only to fall 68-66, as a potential game-winning three-point shot rolled around the rim and came out at the buzzer.

If the veteran coach can take a program with not much talent and nearly knock off a team of that ilk, just imagine what Payne's Spartans, who are stocked with talent in just the program's fifth season at the Division I level, can do in the future in the A-Sun.

Payne knows about pressure situations, and what he is building at USC Upstate is remarkable. 

As for the seven-point win over North Florida on Saturday night, the Spartans were able to gut out the victory in a game that featured 10 lead changes and eight ties. Atlantic Sun leading scorer Torrey Craig had to fight for everything he could get against one of the league's top defensive clubs, but all Craig did was go out and post a double-double of 17 points and 12 boards in the milestone win.  

Craig was joined in double figures by classmates Babatunde Olumuyiwa, who posted a season-high 14 points, and Jodd Maxey, who chipped in 12 points to continue his big impact in his first season donning the Spartan green and black. The win by Upstate also snaps a three-game losing skid to North Florida. 

Upstate looks to remain in the A-Sun's upper echelons on Monday night, traveling just across the street to take on the Jacksonville Dolphins at Swisher Gymnasium. The tip-off for the contest is slated for 7 p.m.