USC star misses practice due to illness

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Excitement is building as the University of North Carolina and the University of South Carolina basketball teams are in Phoenix preparing for the Final Four.

Practice was closed to the media Thursday and South Carolina Gamecock Sindarius Thornwell was at the team hotel battling an illness. The athlete from Lancaster is the heart and soul of this team.

Head coach Frank Martin said Thornwell doesn't necessarily need to practice to perform on Saturday, nor do his teammates.

“I know he's not going to back down from a challenge like this,” guard Duane Notice said. “He's under the weather at the hotel. At the same time, I know he wanted to be here today in practice. He means the world to us and to me and to our team and to our organization and to the state, man.”

For the next five days, University of Phoenix Stadium, an NFL venue, will become the center of the college basketball world.

The Final Four teams arrived in Phoenix and will meet with the media Thursday morning.

South Carolina is first.

Head coach Frank Martin made this his goal when taking over the program in 2012.

The path hasn’t been easy.

The Gamecocks won just 28 games in Martin’s first two seasons.

Martin said it wasn’t the losing that bothered him, it was the apathy.

“It's not fun when you walk out in an 18,000-seat arena and there's 3,000 people there,” Martin said. "That's a problem that was deep-rooted here and all that had to change.”

South Carolina plays Gonzaga in the national semifinal. It’s both teams' first time in the Final Four.

North Carolina is in its 20th Final Four, playing Oregon, which is in its first Final Four since 1939.

UNC has sold more tickets than it did in last year’s Final Four madness.

“I think when you get in the really big domes, I don't know that you feel a home crowd,” said Tar Heels’ coach Roy Williams. “I really don't. Corporate sponsors get most of the tickets anyway, so it will be interesting to see how many they have.”

Cox Media Group