Pirate Galaxy » Dilley, a longtime caddie on the LP

Unbeaten and 16th-ranked South Carolina will be without its best player when it takes on Seton Hall on Monday in the Under Armour Reunion at Madison Square Garden.Senior forward Sindarius Thornwell was suspended indefinitely by Gamecocks coach Frank Martin last week. Thornwell leads South Carolina in scoring, rebounds and assists.Martin described the reason for Thornwells suspension as a mental mistake and said the senior would travel with the team to New York, but would not play. No timetable for Thonwells return has been announced.He will do everything other than play in the game, Martin told reporters. Thats important. Sometimes, you miss time because of ankle injury, a knee injury, a pulled hamstring. You cant allow an injury to deprive your team of becoming who its supposed to be. ... This is a mental injury. He made a mental mistake. Its the same deal. Hes fine and Sins earned my respect and my trust for who he is. No different than my own son.Seton Hall (7-2) will look to take advantage of Thornwells absence and win its fourth straight game. The Pirates are coming off a 60-57 win over California in a Pearl Harbor Invitational game played in Hawaii. Junior forward Angel Delgado scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the win over Cal for his third straight double-double.Delgado is one of four Pirates averaging in double figures. Junior guard Khadeen Carrington leads the Pirates, averaging 20.0 points per game. Carrington scored 17 or more points in eight of nine games this season and is shooting 55.3 percent from 3-point range. Junior forward Desi Rodriguez (14.6 points) and freshman guard Myles Powell (12.6) also are averaging double figures for the balanced Pirates.Without Thornwell, the Gamecocks will need senior guards Duane Notice and Justin McKie to step up.Sophomore guard P.J. Dozier is having a breakout year for South Carolina. Dozier is averaging 12.8 points and 4.5 rebounds for the Gamecocks.We like to prepare our team to depend on who we are, not to be dependent on a player, Martin said. Where things get dicey is not one guy is going to step in and be Sindarius.What a wonderful opportunity for others to step forward and embrace more responsibility, Martin added. Thats only going to make us a stronger team moving forward.South Carolina has been impressive this season and already posted wins over Michigan and Syracuse. The Gamecocks (8-0) also started hot last season, winning their first 15 games. But South Carolina stumbled down the stretch and ended up being left out of the NCAA tournament.The Pirates won last years Big East tournament, knocking off eventual national champion Villanova in the conference tournament title game. They reached the NCAA tournament, but were eliminated in the first round by Gonzaga.South Carolina and Seton Hall will be the second game of a doubleheader at Madison Square Garden. Auburn and Boston College will battle in the first game.Mondays meeting is only the second all-time game between the Pirates and Gamecocks. They last met in 1974, with South Carolina winning 75-74 on a pair of free throws by Mike Dunleavy Sr., at Madison Square Garden.Kenny Stabler Jersey . The showiest items on Calgarys lot were forwards Mike Cammalleri and Lee Stempniak. Both will be unrestricted free agents this summer. Isaiah Johnson Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. https://www.raiderssportsgoods.com/Womens-Clelin-Ferrell-Inverted-Jersey/ . The Barrie Colts defenceman, who impressed many with his play for Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship, is the top-ranked skater in the February rankings. He has 19 goals and 24 assists for 43 points in 45 games with the Colts this season. Isaiah Johnson Youth Jersey . Zvonareva, who won the tournament in 2009 and 10, couldnt handle her opponents big groundstrokes in only her third event back after 17 months out with a shoulder injury. Zvonareva made her comeback in January in Shenzhen and played in the Australian Open but lost her first matches at both tournaments. Marcus Allen Youth Jersey . The Canadian squad, skipped by Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg, got on the board first with two in the second end, and followed that with two more apiece in the fourth and sixth ends.RIO DE JANEIRO -- Those stars and stripes get her every time.Any time I talk about representing my country, and what it would mean to hold the medal for our country and hear our national anthem ... Im just so proud to be an American and I think our country is the best, U.S. golfer Gerena Piller said after the first round of the Olympic womens golf tournament Wednesday.Piller finished the day at 2-under 69 and in an eight-way tie for 11th, 4 strokes behind the leader Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand and sandwiched between Americans Lexi Thompson (3-under 68, tied for seventh) and Stacy Lewis (1-under 70 and tied for 19th).Piller, 31, had six birdies -- including a run on holes 9, 10 and 11, and another to finish at 18 -- to offset four bogeys. Ranked 28th at the start of the year with five U.S. golfers between her and a top 15 finish and spot on the Olympic team, it did not seem particularly likely that she would even be in Rio.In the end, nine-hundreths of a point separated her 15th ranking from the next golfer, secured by Pillers eighth-place finish that week in Julys U.S. Womens Open.To squeak in at the end, thats pretty cool, she said. And it wasnt like I finished 40th. I top-10d in the U.S. Open. So thats an accomplishment in itself.That achievement and the prospect that she might be standing on the medal podium Saturday, brought Piller to tears in a Tuesday team media conference.Growing up, thats not something that was ever in my mind, she said as she covered her eyes.For her mother Rita Stevenson, who walked the course Wednesday, it was difficult speaking of her daughters accomplishment without also tearing up.Gerina is my idol, shes my hero, Rita said. She has taken it to the next level. She had the opportunity and Im so proud of her.An elementary school P.E. teacher, Stevenson said she gives the same speech to her students every four years.Ive been doing this for 10 years and every times the Olympics come around, it just moves me, and I tell my kids at school, You know what, guys, you can be an Olympian. All you have to do is have a dream and put it in your heart, and it can happen. You just have to work hard and yes, its not going to be easy, but you can do it. And then ...And then she pauses, said Piller, and is like, Wow, my daughter is an Olympian. Its pretty cool to hear her say that.An all-around athlete growing up in Roswell, New Mexico, Piller played basketball, soccer, volleyball and Little League baseball because she didnt find softball competitive enough. She didnt take up golf until she was 15.Her stepfather, Alan Stevenson, whom Piller calls Dad, talked about hearing of some 200 womens golf scholarships that went unused for smaller schools.I said to Rita, This is an opportunity, something we may want to think about, said Alan Stevenson, who is also in Rio this week. Rita was a new teacher and I was a rookie police officer and we talked about it as maybe a way for her to go to school someday.He laughed about taking her to play nine holes with her brother Michael and Gerina shooting a 72.Some days later, she said, Dad, Im pretty good at golf. And I said, Yeah, youre OK. And she said, Well, I shot a 72 and those guys are shooting a 72 on TV, and I said, Yes Gerina, but you did it in nine holes. She fell in love with the challenge, her parents saiid.ddddddddddddBut more than that was the motivation that has driven her to consistently improve throughout her nine-year career.It comes from her early childhood and the sacrifices her mother made when she was a single mother raising our three oldest kids, Alan Stevenson said. Thats the foundation for Gerina -- where she came from -- that gave her the strength and character, the courage to go do stuff a lot of people may not have ever thought of doing.Its significant to her because she doesnt take for granted people who sacrificed their lives to protect us and our freedoms. She gets that. She gets it to her heart and to her core.Brian Dilley, Pillers caddie of the past year and a half, called Gerina one of the most patriotic people Ive ever been around and she lets it show whenever shes wearing the stars and stripes.Pillers latest and most notable accomplishment playing for her country came in September, when her 8-foot putt proved pivotal in the U.S. comeback victory in the Solheim Cup.It means more to her than anything to be an American and represent her country, her mother said.At 11, Piller recalled watching the 96 Olympics and the womens gymnastics team, the Magnificent Seven, that won the first gold for the U.S. in team competition. She rattled off the names of each team member.Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Dominique Dawes, Kerri Strug being carried off by Bela Karolyi, she said. Obviously I thought that would be pretty awesome to be in the Olympics, but its gymnastics. I cant even touch my toes, so that dream kind of went out the window ...I never thought I would be standing here giving an interview about being in the Olympics. Its just a dream come true.Married to PGA Tour golfer Martin Piller -- the only husband-wife combo on their respective tours -- Gerinas thoughts are also with her husband this week as he fights to keep his PGA Tour card at the Wyndham Championship, the final regular-season event in which to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs.I know I would love to be there supporting him, Piller said. I know he would love to be here. I think Im more concerned with me not being there for him because its a big week for him and hes had his card before and hasnt kept it. Im just praying that he has a good week and hes just content with whatever comes at him and he just plays to his best ability. If he does that, I think the good results will come.As for Piller, she has eight top-10 finishes this year, tied for sixth on tour, but hasnt broken through for that first career victory.I dont think there are any limits for her, said Dilley, a longtime caddie on the LPGA Tour. Its all between her ears and shes just gaining confidence. She knows she should be in that last group, she knows she should win tournaments. Before, it was I just want to get a top-10 or a top-15 or be in contention but now she knows she belongs in that last group every Sunday. And its only a matter of time.If the time should come this week, dont expect Piller to be dry-eyed.I couldnt be more proud and more blessed to be an American, she said. So any time that I can represent our country and succeed and stand on the podium, it just gets me every time. ' ' '