Just like the men’s team, SU women’s basketball faced an unexpected opponent in the Round of 32 after No. 12 seed Albany upset No. 5 seed Florida. Against the Great Danes, Brittney Sykes turned back the clock to help launch Syracuse into the program’s first-ever Sweet 16.

Now, to keep making “first-evers,” the Orange face an old nemesis, the South Carolina Gamecocks, in a new locale: Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

If you don’t know much about Gamecocks women’s basketball, or about Sioux Falls, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered:

Five facts about South Carolina

1. Puffed up rooster

South Carolina’s teams are called the Gamecocks in a nod to Revolutionary War hero Thomas Sumter. The brigadier general and future state senator earned the nickname “The Carolina Gamecock” for his fighting style. A street named after Sumter runs through campus as well.

2. Mosquitos were way easier to beat in the 1800s

The city of Columbia, South Carolina, the university’s location, was one of the first planned cities in the U.S. City commissioners engineered the streets to be between 100 and 150 feet wide … because city commissioners believed mosquitos couldn’t fly more than 60 feet without dying of starvation. Therefore, they believed the streets would minimize the bugs’ annoyance. Ah, simpler times.

3. Saving grace

As Union General William Tecumseh Sherman scorched the earth during the tail end of the Civil War, he happened upon Columbia, South Carolina, where “South Carolina College” (later USC) was established a half-century earlier. The Confederacy had transformed the campus building, Rutledge College, into a hospital so Sherman spared the building that had survived a fire and an earthquake in the previous 40 years as well.

4. Hey Papa

USC’s rare books department — yes, that exists — acquired more than 2,000 undamaged works by Ernest Hemingway in 2012, making it the holder of the largest published Hemingway collection in the world. The collection, according to a staffer, is worth more than $635,000.

5. Groovy, baby

The official dance of the state of South Carolina, adopted in 1984, is the Shag.

Five facts about Sioux Falls

1. I’m out for presidents to represent me

Sorry, travelers. Sioux Falls, close to the eastern state border, is just about as far away as you can get from Mount Rushmore while staying in South Dakota. Though, if you do go there, there’s allegedly a lake in the rock as seen in the documentary “National Treasure.”

2. You are seeing a lot of South Dakota in one spot

With a metropolitan population of roughly 248,000, Sioux Falls accounts for 29 percent of the entire state’s population.

3. Jack (or Ace?) of all trades

Joe Foss, a Sioux Falls native, was called the “Ace of Aces” in World War II when he flew as the lead Marine fighter pilot. He received a Medal of Honor for his 26 aerial victories. After he left the service, he served as the first commissioner for the American Football League and became the 20th governor of South Dakota.

4. You can use the tap

Forbes published the University of Cincinnati’s 2006 study about which metropolitan area had the best drinking water quality. Sioux Falls ranked third in the whole country.

5. Fast food?

If you were to Google “Sioux Falls, SD fun facts” then one of the top results would be a site with a well-meaning powerpoint presentation advertising all the great stuff to do there. But the first fact you read is this: “The first fast-food restaurant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota to serve french fries was the Barrell Drive Inn in 1939. It closed in the 1970s.”

Published on March 24, 2016 at 7:18 pm

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