Martin preparing #Gamecocks for shot at defending champs (AUDIO)

USC plays at Virginia Sunday afternoon in the back end of a home and home series with the Cavaliers. Last season, on the way to the national championship, the Cavaliers made two visits to Columbia. The first was a year ago today and the Cavs left with a 69-52 victory. They returned In March for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament and knocked out Gardner-Webb and Oklahoma.

This season, Virginia is 9-1. The Cavaliers do it with defense. They led the nation in scoring defense last season and are #1 again this season giving up just 44 points per game. That offsets the fact they are next to last nationally in scoring at 54 points per game.

The Gamecocks are coming off one of their best performances of the season, a win at Clemson last Sunday. Frank Martin made some adjustments with player positioning going into that game, including AJ Lawson taking over the point. At his press conference today, he talked about that and what’s ahead against UVA.