Not since Rick Barnes and Eddie Fogler walked the sidelines has a Clemson vs. South Carolina basketball game meant so much too both teams. Of course that was nearly 20 years ago as Barnes’ Tigers knocked off Fogler’s No. 6 Gamecocks 62-57 in Littlejohn Coliseum – the only time a Clemson team has beaten a ranked Carolina team in nine tries.
Since that 1997 game, the Tigers and Gamecocks have had success here and there on the basketball court, but never at the same time, until tonight. Clemson enters tonight’s 9 p.m. game on ESPNU on a six-game winning streak and at 8-2 overall.