South Carolina received a commitment from another big-time recruit today. This time, though, it was Darrin Horn and his staff doing the selling. Charleston four-star forward RJ Slawson joins the Gamecocks 2010 class, choosing USC over Clemson, Alabama, Auburn, College of Charleston, and some other lower-profile programs. Scout.com rates Slawson as the 21st-ranked power forward and the 90th best player overall. Per Scout.com Joshua A. Capers:
Both Telep and Saunders [coaches of Slawson] believe Slawson will be a hybrid forward at South Carolina because of his versatile skill set, which would give the Gamecocks a bigger lineup and a matchup problem with Slawson’s length on the perimeter.
That's exactly the type of player that Darrin Horn wants--a big guy that can run the floor and create matchup problems by playing multiple positions. The only drawback on this kid is that he still needs to get bigger--he's currently around 180 lbs--to play the post effectively. Other than that, though, this looks like a quality pickup.
SEC Coaches All-SEC: Eric Norwood first team, Stephen Garcia, Chris Culliver, and Spencer Lanning third team. While I'll grant that his position on the third team has as much to do with the lack of proven signal-callers in the SEC this preseason, I'm still pretty pumped about Garcia being on the third team. If he's still there when all is said and done--meaning that he's played better than guys like Joe Cox, Jordan Jefferson, Ryan Mallett, and Greg McElroy--I'll be very happy with the way the things are going. Actually, if this happens, I think we will have won at least nine games. I'm not kidding. If Garcia plays that well, we will have had a good to very good offense this year, and that will be enough to get us over the hump if the defense plays even halfway well.
The other thing to notice about this list? No Darian Stewart. This guy gets no respect. Like LOHD and Joe Person, I think that's BS. He'll be there at the end of the year, though.