6 SOUTH CAROLINA THE GAMECOCKS' ALL-SEC GUARDS WILL BURN FOES WITH THEIR FRIENDLY FIRE

The thaw began late one night in a hotel room in Stockholm. It
was the summer of 1996, and guards BJ McKie, who had just
finished his freshman year at South Carolina, and Melvin Watson,
who had been a sophomore, were rooming together during the
Gamecocks' exhibition tour of Europe. The previous fall, McKie
had come to school with high school All-America credentials and
a prodigious local following, having grown up 10 minutes from
the South Carolina campus. Watson, the incumbent point guard on
a team that had won just 10 games the season before, had not
eagerly awaited this hotshot's arrival. "Everywhere I went,
people would ask me about him coming in to take my spot," Watson
says. "I felt I had to prove myself all over again."

Though both players ended up starting--Watson at the point,
McKie at shooting guard--as South Carolina finished 19-12 and
went to the NIT, a chill persisted between them. Until that
night in Sweden when, during a two-hour rap session, Watson
finally told McKie why he had been so distant. "It was a
relief," Watson says. "I apologized for prejudging him and told
him that for us to become better players on the court, we had to
be better friends off the court."

As backcourt mates and soul mates, Watson and McKie last season
led the Gamecocks to a 24-8 record and South Carolina's first
SEC championship in any sport. They were both selected
first-team all-conference, and they're the main reasons the
Gamecocks are favored to repeat as league champs. Watson's words
that night in Stockholm were indeed prophetic; as the two have
blossomed into perhaps the nation's finest backcourt, so too has
their friendship bloomed. "If he comes in here today, I'll know
right away if something is wrong with him," McKie says. "We've
grown that close."

Even as good as McKie and Watson are, they're going to need help
from the frontcourt now that Larry Davis, the third guard in
South Carolina's diminutive lineup, has graduated. (Last year,
the 6'1" Watson was the Gamecocks' leading defensive rebounder,
with 4.3 per game.) Two starters return up front--6'11" senior
Ryan Stack and 6'7" junior William Gallman--along with 6'10"
junior Bud Johnson, who had a disappointing sophomore season.
Add in 6'7" junior LeRon Williams, a muscular transfer from
Florida, and Carolina should be stronger than it was last year.
"I like the four bodies we've got," coach Eddie Fogler says.

As successful as they were last season, the Gamecocks were
routed in their final two games, losing by 15 to Georgia in the
SEC tournament semifinals and by 13 to Coppin State in the first
round of the NCAA tournament. McKie, for one, believes that
South Carolina learned from those defeats. "We were satisfied
with just getting to the NCAA tournament," he says. "I think it
was a lack of experience. We got mentally and physically tired.
We understand that can't happen this season if we're going to
achieve the goals we want to achieve." --S.D.

COLOR PHOTO: JIM GUND SINCE BREAKING THE ICE WITH HIS BACKCOURT MATE, WATSON HAS SENT CHILLS THROUGH OPPONENTS WITH HIS 11.0-A-GAME SCORING [Melvin Watson]

Returning Starters [Four]
Points per Game '96-97 74.1
PPG by All Returning Players 52.5