South Carolina Basketball: Ranking the top-12 centers in Gamecock history
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina Basketball’s No. 5 Greatest Center of All-Time:
Danny Traylor
Danny Traylor (1970-1973) was a true 7’0″ tall All-American high school center from Winston-Salem, North Carolina who spurned the Wake Forest Demon Deacons to play for the Gamecocks. Traylor didn’t play much in his first year in the program as Tom Owens and Tom Riker were both still on campus, but after Owens’ graduation in 1971, Traylor stepped up in a big way as he put up double-double averages as a junior and senior and made an All-South Independent team.
His final season in garnet and black was a defensive masterclass as he played alongside four of the best offensive players in school history (Alex English, Kevin Joyce, Brian Winters, and Mike Dunleavy). Traylor averaged about 4 blocks per game while still averaging a double-double. It was the only season of his career that blocks were closely calculated, but had they been tallied for the rest of his time in Columbia, Traylor may have been the program’s all-time leader in the statistic.