Gamecocks Hoops Weekly Forecast: 3/1-3/7 (Part One)

I'm a little short on time today, so I won't have my previews up until tomorrow. However, I did want to share a few tidbits. First of all, Coach Horn is in the running for a Coach of the Year Award. Horn has certainly earned that recognition by doing such a magnificent job this year. Horn hasn't done magic; I, for one, think there were solid pieces in place for a coach to come into Columbia this year and see some success. However, I hardly thought we'd be knocking on the door of an Eastern Division Title and our first trip to the NCAAs in half a decade. Horn deserves lots of credit for maximizing this team's production.

Second of all, Joe Lunardi still has us in the tournament as a nine seed. Lunardi has us playing BYU with a second-round match against the Tar Heels if we win against the Cougars. Strangely enough, Lunardi also has Kentucky in and Florida out. I really think the Gators are in a better place than the Cats right now. The two have played about equally in the SEC, but Florida has a better RPI, perhaps due to their non-conference victory over Washington.

As far as the rankings go, we have seven votes in the AP and none in the Coaches Poll. LSU is the only team getting votes in the Coaches and the Tigers and us are the only two in the AP.