Down home, in South Carolina, that is, winter sports are pretty much limited to basketball. Locally, everyone follows USC (University of South Carolina, of course) and regionally the Atlantic Coast Conference, the best basketball conference in the country (even better than some NBA and ABA divisions, some would claim), is king.

Usually, I go to a Carolina game over the holidays with a friend I call Gomer. This year I didn't get to one, but watched a few on T.V., including the last second 60-58 victory over Marquette in Carolina Coliseum. It was the 28th straight victory in Columbia, S.C., as the Gamecocks have not lost on their home court since a fight-marred contest with Marquette two years earlier, 72-71. In the first game, Marquette took the win with a shot in the waning seconds of play. In this year's version, the stellar Carolina guard, 6 ft. 5 in. Brian Winters, connected on a 20-foot jumper with two seconds on the clock to break a 58-58 tie that had stood for three-and-a-half minutes.

Before the Lafayette game on statewide television, there was an old "To Tell the Truth" show on. It was the one where a guy named Charlie Lane tried to not only stuff 60 raw oysters (assembled in rows of half-shells in front of him) into his mouth in 60 seconds, but also to swallow them

The Gamecocks broke open what had been a close game with Lafayette in the second half to win going away, 84-63 or something like that. What was impressive, though, was coach Frank McGuire's use of personnel to break a tough Lafayette pressing zone defense apart. McGuire called on sophomore guard Mike Dunleavey, Winters and sophomore Bob Mathias, operating from the high post, to shoot from the outside. It wasn't just shooting, though; it was bombing and I don't think if McGuire had called in B-52s he would have had a better long range bombing attack. Some of the shots looked like they originated in downtown Columbia, but they always went in.

McGuire also uses 6 ft. 3 in. freshman, Nate Davis, who is supposed to be the best jumper since David Thompson. Davis, one of the two Gamecocks from Columbia, S.C., in one game trapped a ball against the glass at the top of the boards for a goaltending violation. Six-foot 11 inch centers are supposed to do that, not 6 ft. 3 in. guards. By the way, there is no truth to the rumor that Davis works as an elevator in the off season.

It sounds as if I'm promoting USC as the soon-to-be "UCLA of the South," what with this year's team made up of four sophomores and a senior with the sixth man, Davis, a freshman. But I don't even claim that Carolina ia the best in the South. In fact, with N.C. State, UNC, Maryland, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Western Kentucky, Jacksonville and Kentucky, I would claim Carolina is probably only fourth or fifth best below the Mason-Dixon line this year. But notice that that also qualifies as the tenth or twelveth best in the country.