Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, women's golf makes the national tournament. Shane Beamer names a starting quarterback, and the baseball team has a massive series at home this weekend. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:56] Okay. Welcome to episode 240 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001 and hope you all had a lovely week out there. Gamecocks gearing up for a big, big weekend. Big, exciting, lot of action packed weekend around Gamecock Nation here. Also, shout out to all the moms out there. We got Mother's Day on Sunday. It's a beautiful time of year. Weather is beautiful. Baseball is in full swing. On the professional sports side of things. You got playoffs very much heating up. It's just a fantastic, fantastic time of year, and I love it. And then from a Gamecock point of view, things are heating up. Things are certainly heating up. You have different sports talking postseason, really locking in for that home stretch. Summer is around the corner, but there is still what feels like a lot between now and then. So let's jump right into things here.
[00:02:06] Mainly going to focus on the baseball team. Of course, they're the main, the main show in town kind of going on here. But we do have a little bit of a week in review for y'all here coming from Wednesday. The women's golf team finished fourth in the Auburn regional of the NCAA tournament. And that is good enough to advance to the national round with a shot at the natty on the line. So huge shout out to the women's golf team. They had to battle back a little bit in this regional. They did it. They finished well enough, and they move on to the national round. Shout out the women's golf team. Let's go. Go win us a trophy. And then also on Wednesday, the softball team. They beat Mississippi State eight to four in round one of the SEC tournament. And if you remember correctly, last year, the team had a fantastic showing in that tournament, made a great, great, deep run after having a, you know, decent year. And I think you kind of look at it the same way. I believe the Gamecocks are the 11th seed in the SEC tournament. They go have a nice round one win. Can the ladies get hot and make another deep run in the tournament to try and secure themselves a bid past this? So best of luck to them. They will play Texas A and M next. There was some weather going on, so I believe that game is happening Friday morning now. So stay tuned.
[00:03:44] Stay on top of it. Root the ladies in on multiple fronts here, but very exciting there. And then some fun news sort of wrote this down as women's basketball adjacent, right? Women's basketball adjacent, maybe women's basketball alumni news, let's call it here. But the Las Vegas Aces, the WNBA franchise, they're actually playing a preseason game at Colonial Life arena this weekend, meaning it is the Asia Wilson homecoming. She's the star player for that team. They're coming to colonial life. She was talking about how much this means to her, where her teammates are going to be able to see, really, where she made a name for herself on the national stage. At least there's the statue of her outside, of course, that her and her teammates will get to see. Asia was getting a little bit of emotional in an interview I saw, but really, really cool. And again, just really showcasing the growth and the reach that women's basketball is having right now. And it's here to stay. You know, the sport has grown tremendously these last couple of years here, but to have this really cool bridge of a west coast WNBA franchise coming to the really Mecca right now of women's college basketball in Columbia, South Carolina, to have that cross country trip and to showcase their star player and one of our star alumni is a very, very cool moment. So if you have the chance, go to the game. That'd be really fun. See the Aces in action here.
[00:05:22] But then changing gears a little bit here to football news for y'all. Defensive lineman Drew Tuozama has entered the transfer portal. If you remember this, Drew came into the. To the team late last year, like during camp. There was the whole transfer debacle, came in from UAB, played several years there. The idea was maybe he was going to come in and sort of solidify that edge position. They had to move him over to tackle for a little bit. He didn't play a whole heck of a lot. He was hurt for basically the entire second half of the year. I think he got a start against Georgia, and I believe he got a tackle, tackle for loss in that game. But really outside of that, he didn't do a whole heck of a lot. I was excited for him as a depth piece and an experience piece along that defensive line, but at the same time, I'm not exactly losing sleep over this. Shane Beamer really could only speculate as to why, but I think it was really because I think he's in his last year of eligibility.
[00:06:29] The Gamecocks have a much deeper and frankly, better defensive line than they did last year. So drew probably wanted to go somewhere where he can have a more defined role, get some more playing time and all that Jazz. So I wish the experiment had worked out differently. Would have been great if he flashed last year and came into this year with those high expectations, but oh well, doesn't work out. All the best to you, Drew. But then also in football news, and this is not really a surprise to any Gamecock fan, but nonetheless, Shane Beamer officially named Lenora Sellers the starting quarterback. So that's very exciting. We are officially in our rec spec era. I'm incredibly excited for not if, but when the student section shows up to a game all wearing the rec specs. If you thought Cusp Nation took over the student section for basketball season, the rec spec era is going to be second to none here. But Shane Beamer, he talked about not being complacent when he was talking to Lenoris and still wants him and all of the quarterbacks, including Robbie Ashford, to compete through fall camp and really throughout the year. So this is very much pushing each other. Iron sharpens Iron and I don't think Lenoris is here to be complacent at all. But again, this really should not come as a surprise to anyone, we got a very small taste of what Lenoris can do on the football field last year, but my goodness, small taste, but it was fantastic, right? It's like the best bite of a steak you could ever have. And since then, everyone has been itching to see his potential over the course of a whole season. People were very excited to see him under center this year and, you know, in my opinion, although there's still a ways to go with him, right.
[00:08:36] There's years ahead of him, right. And in theory he will continue to improve and things like that. So the version of Lenora Sellers that we are going to get this upcoming season, but especially, let's call it the first, first half of the year, is going to be a very different version than what we see the year after that and so on. But with that being said, I think that Lenora Sellers has a chance to do something that the Gamecocks have not seen for quite some time.
[00:09:10] I mean, he's a local kid that committed to USC. He waited his turn, which doesn't always happen now in college football. He put his head down, he worked, he improved, learned the playbook, he earned his stripes as a leader, and he has a chance to be the signal caller for this program for years to come. And he is the type of player that a coach can build around.
[00:09:38] And in this day and age, with the transfer portal, you can sell that and kids, players might want to come play with Lenoris. And so if things go just right, you got to get the right breaks here. Maybe a little luck sprinkled in there.
[00:09:59] Lenoris could very well find himself in the same conversations as some of the other great quarterbacks that have been part of this program. You know, a guy that sticks out to me, maybe it's somewhat recency bias, but again, this has been quite some time. Connor Shaw, you know, a guy that was quiet, did his job, you know, didn't blow anybody away, but was a leader and was here at South Carolina, grew up, developed and turned out to be one of the greats and someone who you can't leave off of your list of all time great gamecocks. And then you look at Lenoris and you could say, well, man, he probably has more explosive talent than a Shaw, right? But I say this because we're coming off the heels of Spencer Rattler, and it was a fantastic two years and there were awesome moments.
[00:10:56] It was just two years and it stinks because it felt like he was supposed to be a gamecock. Right. When it was all said and done, he really embraced Columbia, the school, everything that it means to be a gamecock. It was perfect timing for both parties involved here. But we have to say, you know, he was a transfer and he has that other part of his legacy and he's still in the record books, which is just. It still is fantastic. Just shows how good he is. There is something a little bit different, though, when a kid commits to you and that player develops and sticks with you and you can really get that connection. So, again, it's a long way to go. A lot can change between now and a couple of years from now, but when you see sort of the outline here and the foundation and everything that Lenoris brings, it does feel like this could be someone that the team can really build around. And having that stall worth at quarterback, it has eluded the Gamecocks for a little bit, you know, Spencer, again, fantastic.
[00:12:09] But have we had that three or four year starter? No, it's. It's been some time.
[00:12:15] I mean, and to do so at a high level, more so. Right. Like someone who really can bring you to the precipice of greatness. So long. Way to go.
[00:12:28] In other words, no pressure. Lenoris just already getting ready to carve your statue. You haven't even played a full season yet, but nonetheless, it's very exciting. And I think the excitement is shared amongst Gamecocks here. But I think we also all also understand that he's a young player. There's going to be mistakes, there's going to be growing pains.
[00:12:52] I'm not going to get into a whole football preview now, but you look around and there's question marks on that offensive side of the ball. So maybe, you know, it takes some time to get there, but nonetheless, Lenore sellers as your starting quarterback, but let's talk about games that are actually being played right now. Very meaningful. Baseball is being played and the yard Cox were in action for their final midweek game as the guys hit the road to take on Winthrop. And all I wanted to see in this team, in this game rather was the same that we've seen these last couple of series and we certainly got that as the Gamecocks won 15 to three. I mean it really was just a hit parade in this one. Carolina started things off scoring three in the first inning and tallied a grand total of 14 hits for the entire game. There were a couple of mammoth just missiles home runs from Gavin Cassis and Kennedy Jones just making light work of that ballpark. Tyler Pitzer got the start. He went two innings, allowed just one run. Player highlights from this game Kennedy Jones two for three with five RBI, Austin Brindling four for five with four RBI and Gavin Cassis two for four with the one ribby.
[00:14:18] So up next for the Gamecocks are I guess I really will say currently going on for the Gamecocks is a massive home series against Georgia. And I say currently because that series, as you all know by now listening to this, started Thursday night. So your pitching rotation, you would have known this already. Thursday Roman Kimball, Friday Eli Jones and Saturday is TBA. It still feels so weird seeing Thursday, Friday, Saturday, not Sunday, right? Nonetheless, though, massive series here, UgA is in a virtual tie in the east with South Carolina with both teams at 13 and eleven in league play. While UGA, they are sitting at a little bit of a different record here, 35 and twelve overall compared to Carolinas 33 and 15. But this series very well will have big implications for the postseason to see who could end up as that regional host. Okay, both teams have been hot lately. This series feels like it will be ultra competitive and it's kind of funny because we're sitting here in a season that I think for a lot of Carolina fans has really felt up and down right, despite the record 13 league plays, 33 wins overall. Still, I think there's been this lot of hot and cold with Carolina fans. So if you're not already, this is your moment to be locked in and this is your weekend to be on ten if you haven't been. Founders park needs to be rocking the postseason for this team. It feels like it's all but a go at this point, right? Don't want to put the cart before the horse, but you feel like it's. It's there. So now you have to make it work in your favor. So if the guys can win this series, hosting a regional is very much in the picture, which, if you said that to a Gamecock fan maybe a month or so ago, you'd say, well, geez, I really don't know about all that.
[00:16:45] But you look at some of the projections here. D one baseball, they have South Carolina as that final regional host.
[00:16:54] So you have to be able to go out and handle business against a good team, a team that's competing for you for that spot. They are vying for that same spot, sitting there with a virtually identical record.
[00:17:09] You're at home.
[00:17:11] You need to be able to go out and take two out of three in this series, because then you really more or less control your own destiny in terms of the post season. Of course, there's some variables and things like that, but I'd rather say, hey, here's our record, here's our resume, and if you don't think that this is worth being a host, you're out of your mind. As opposed to kind of going in ass backwards and saying, well, you know, it could be us. You know, should be us, right? And then on top of it, right? If things don't go well this series, then the team will have to show up in an even bigger way against the new top dog in the country, Tennessee.
[00:17:56] And then on top of that, you'll probably have to need a very good showing in the SEC tournament. So all of these things are at play here.
[00:18:05] But in summary, like, this series is at home with a lot on the line. The guys have to get it done.
[00:18:15] And it's funny because I'm recording this, getting very excited.
[00:18:21] Game set to start soon.
[00:18:24] So we're going to see. You're going to see very, very soon. It's just a big series, and you're at home. You've played well at home generally. Like, this is why you do it. Baseball is a long season. That's what you always hear. It's a long season, but then it gets short real quick.
[00:18:40] 13 league wins against a good team. You're at home, you're hot, the bats are flying. It's time to get it done. And that's my crow to the series here is continue to hit the way that you have been. This lineup has been very hot these last couple of SEC series and of course this past mid week game too.
[00:19:02] Guys in that bottom half of the lineup need to continue to produce and different guys need to continue to step up. Kennedy Jones right, Blake Jackson, so on. So if the bats stay hot, it will take a load off the starters and then we can get this thing to the strong back half of the bullpen. Let's just, let's go. I'm riled up and it's against Georgia too. Hate Georgia. To hell with Georgia. Big, big series.
[00:19:32] But with that, y'all, that wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, Twitter or X is Cox Gamecocks. Instagram is just the name of the show. Cox talking Gamecocks. And please like subscribe and review the podcast. I appreciate all y'all go Cox.
