Willy P x Hot Dogs

Sorry Calipari -

Tuesday January 26, 2010 was a big night for Gamecocks everywhere. I knew it would be from the time I arrived at Colonial Life Arena. Students waiting to get in to the game lined all the way out to the street, and by 9:00 all of the 18,600 seats were filled. If you've ever experienced a Carolina basketball game, you know that when Devan Downey gets going, so does the Garnet Army. And once that place gets loud, Number 2 only gets better. The game was tight all the way to halftime, with the 'Cocks staying in there with everything John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, and the honorable John Calipari tried. Wall was essentially shut down by the Gamecocks, as Kentucky had no answer for Downey. In the last ten minutes, Carolina decided to finish it off,
playing relentless defense with offensive output like we've never (butalways?) seen from Devan. He was unbelieveable. With 5 minutes remaining and the game clearly not over, the announcer continued to repeat "Stay off the court at the end of the game". We were up by 4, and unfortunately for him, the sports section of that day's Daily Gamecock (for which our good friend Jon Battaglia writes) contained the criteria required for a team to justify storming the court. Check. With 30 seconds left and Ramon Galloway sinking the final free throws and pouring salt on the wounds of the Mr.'s Wall and Calipari, Downey motioned all of us down to share the victory with him on the court and we obliged. I hustled down to join Devan Downey, the rest of the team, the Garnet Army, and my fellow Carolinians, on the wood floors under the scoreboard that read "Carolina 68 - Kentucky 62". Standing in the mob, sweaty, loud and raucus, we turned our attention to the band, sang the alma mater with the team, and concluded our celebration. It
was without doubt one of the greatest moments of my collegiate career and will go down as one of the most storied wins in Gamecock sports history


---Willy Moe