A throwback week in South Carolina basketball begins Wednesday when the Gamecocks host old Atlantic Coast Conference foe Virginia at Colonial Life Arena.
After USC plays Clemson on Saturday, it’ll complete the program’s first two-game stretch against ACC opponents since 1996. Of course, this used to be the norm in these parts.
From 1953-71, South Carolina was a member of the Tobacco Road-based league. And when Frank McGuire was guiding the Gamecocks against the likes of Duke and North Carolina, Columbia very much reflected an ACC town.
“If you had driven around Columbia before McGuire got here and then driven around after he was here,” said Bob Cole, a former sports writer for The State, “you would see such a proliferation of basketball goals over garages, in driveways.