There are just a little under 3 weeks until the Big South Conference tournament and the USC Upstate Spartans sat at 5-22, 1-11 in league play coming into the homecoming return match against Gardner-Webb at the Hodge Center on Saturday. That is a super depressing way to start a game story, but there is not much else that can be said of how this season has gone. The Spartans were picked last in the conference in the preseason polls and rightfully so. Marty Richter has repeatedly made it a point to state that when this team first came together to start practice at the start of the school year, they were the youngest in all of NCAA division I in terms of minutes played. That generally does not bode well for a team that also lost some key pieces from a year ago, when they finished with a 10-20 overall record.
To put it bluntly, the season has gone exactly as it should given that nugget of information alone. To put it even more bluntly, youth is not an excuse at this point in the season. But, one would be remiss to just look at the record alone and write a team off as no good. In spite of the appearance on paper, the Spartans have been extremely competitive – even with 4 straight losses since the last story I wrote on them. In each of those contests, Upstate was within striking distance with the game entering the final 4-5 minutes. But every time, one of 3 things have come back to bite them – extended scoreless skids of three or more minutes, inability to take advantage of opportunities to keep it close by making clutch free throws, or lack of defense when it matters most. Or in short, I could have just said they have not been able to finish games – the kind of thing that can’t be coached, but rather must be learned by a young team.
“I think they are getting better”, said USC Upstate head coach Marty Richter. “They’re getting better because they are getting more reps at the division I level. But – and this is a big but, you have to be at 90 percent to win college basketball games. You cannot get it right 4 out of 5 reps and the one time you make a mistake, they drill a three. You can do everything right on 5 out of 7 possessions, but the 2 mistakes you make, college basketball players are really good and will make you pay. That is the learning curve that I have not been able to flip with my guys. They still think they are playing an AAU game at 10:00 at night. They don’t realize every possession matters. Nobody is going to give you a game. You have to learn how to take the game away from them.”
Now, let’s take a trip back to one of the few times this season Upstate has legitimately had their tails whipped. January 18th in Boiling Springs, NC, Gardner-Webb defeated the Spartans 97-68. If the nearly 30 point deficit in the final score was not bad enough, most of that hole was dug in the first half, with Upstate having shot just 11-32 from the field and 2 for 17 from three point range. In that same span, the Runnin’ Bulldogs seemed to not be able to miss from beyond the arch, hitting on 11 of 19 attempts in an 18-34 effort from the deck. It goes without saying that even with the Spartans well out of time and reach to not be playing in the 8 vs 9 game on the the opening day of the tournament, at very minimum, they’d be looking to keep learning and improving– starting off with getting things off on the right foot this time around against GWU.
Things did get off to a much more ideal start for the Spartans, opening with a 7-2 run. That spurt would be answered just as quickly with a 9-0 push from the Runnin’ Bulldogs ahead of the first media timeout, and extended to 15-0 out of the break. At that point in the game, with everything – even bad shots – finding their way through the cylinder, it appeared Gardner-Webb might be on their way to another first half explosion. But, fortunately USC Upstate managed to get going thanks to a source you might expect.
Andrew McConnell snapped the Bulldogs’ scoring streak by splitting a pair of free throws. On the other end of the floor, the freshman phenom Mister Dean came away with a steal and a fastbreak layup – the first of back to back to back buckets for him. Daniel Helterhoof later added a third consecutive basket with a layup of his own. Dean capped the 10-0 Upstate run by splitting two free throws before Gardner-Webb finally got off the schneid with a layup at the 9:30 mark.
From there, neither team was able to put together any kind of push until Gardner-Webb went cold for over three minutes. The Spartans, despite the opportunity to do some damage with that skid, managed just a 5-0 spurt – which was only enough to tie the game. Gardner-Webb broke the streak with 5:29 to play in the half on a layup, putting them ahead 34-32 – a lead they would not relinquish.
Prior to the final media timeout of the half, a familiar foe popped up for the Spartans. No, not Gardner-Webb. That foe was an extended scoring drought. Upstate went without a basket for 4 minutes and 4 seconds, a span during which the Runnin Bulldogs went on a 10-0 run to go up 42-32, and they would turn that into a 50-43 halftime advantage.
In the 2nd half, the Spartans managed to cut the deficit down to just three points on the heels of back to back triples from Carmelo Adkins and Brit Harris ahead of the under 12 break. But, that was as close as this game would get the remainder of the way. Upstate tried to play catch up, which is really an accurate summary of most of the game according to Richter.
“The game was decided in the first half when they went on their 15-0 run. We could not get a stop, went on a 4 minute skid, and that was the game. We played catch up the rest of the night. We used up all our energy to get it back tied at 32 all and then they went on a 10-0 run to go up 42-32. We need to anchor down and get better defensively as a group. We let their guard go for 27 points. He is as good of a guard as you’ll see at the midmajor level. He can get to a spot and get off a shot, and make a play whenever he wants. But we have to be able to slow him down a bit. As a young team – and we are not young anymore because we have played all these games, we have to understand what their strengths are and defend against them. And that is where the learning curve has to improve for our guys.”
Although Gardner-Webb went on to the 96-87 victory, dropping Upstate’s overall record to 5-23 and 1-12 in the Big South Conference, there were some positives for Upstate – mainly that they had four players score in double figures. Karmani Gregory had 27 points to go with 5 assists, a rebound, and a steal to lead the way. Mister Dean logged 15 with 5 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Carmelo Adkins had 14 with 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and a swipe while Daniel Helterhoff added a career-high 11 points.
With the season halfway down the backstretch of its white flag lap, the Spartans will get a much-needed break with no mid week game scheduled.
“This week is good for our guys because we have now gone seven straight weeks with 2 games per week. The guys need a break. This time of year with conference play in college basketball is a grind. Our guys have done a great job fighting through it. But they have not yet been rewarded on the scoreboard. They have done a great job of coming with a work mentality everyday. Now we just have to keep coming with that same mentality and work on improving our IQ. We are going to take Sunday and Monday off and come back Tuesday and do a bunch of skill work with some five-on-five. Then we will come back Wednesday and do individual stuff. Thursday we will get back to our normal routine to get ready for Saturday. Hopefully, we will get rewarded”, said Coach Richter.
The Spartans will go back on the road for 2 of their final 3 games of the 2024-2025 regular season, starting down in North Charleston with a tilt against the Charleston Southern Buccaneers on Saturday February 22nd. Tip off for that game is set for 2:00 PM. The following Wednesday, Upstate heads to the Qubein Center for a date with the league-leading High Point Panthers before finishing with a home game against Longwood on March 1st.
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