Dominique Archie Out for the Season

Bad news: it turns out that Dominique Archie's knee injury requires season-ending surgery.

This is a tough break for Archie. This is a player that sacrificed a nice paycheck in Europe for the opportunity to lead us to the NCAA tournament, and based on the way we were playing while he was in the lineup, I believe that he would have succeeded if not for the injury. I'm sure I speak for all of us when I wish Archie luck in his recovery and subsequent pursuit of a career in the pros. If that doesn't work out for him, hopefully he'll have a degree, which will help him achieve success in his life.

This is also, of course, bad news for the Gamecocks. Based on the way we've played since we lost Archie and Mike Holmes, I'm not very optimistic that we can make the NCAAs this year. That would require unreal play from Devan Downey and, even more importantly, extremely rapid maturation from our younger players, and while I believe we'll see Lakeem Jackson, Ramon Galloway, and Jhondre Jefferson continue to improve, I doubt they're going to improve that fast, especially with teams like Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida on the horizon. Unfortunately, I think this all means that an NIT-worthy season would be a success.

Sound off, folks: what does this mean for Darrin Horn's Gamecocks?