Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Game Cox, the men's basketball team gets a boost. The football team prepares for the spring game, and baseball prepares to host a top team. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay. Welcome to episode 235 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And I hope you all had a great week out there. Gamecock Nation was a good week. Good week for the Gamecocks out there. A lot of things going on. It's funny, anytime there's like a little bit of news right now in the sports world, it just gets magnified because it is a slower time of year, right? But it's still so fun to see different sports in action, to see other teams making moves in the off season and things like that. And we got a very fun and exciting weekend ahead of us in Gamecock Nation. There's a lot going on. I'm going to break it down for all y'all here. And we are about to go right into it here. Now, just as a little bit of a reminder, I know I kind of threw it out there last episode, but I am now part of a community that is driven by fans like me, like you, who are just really impassioned, if that's a word, who are just have a passion for college athletics. So that's what the college huddle is. You can go on their website. They have representatives, if you will, from a ton of different schools, big schools, small schools, power five, group of five. And almost all of them have their own podcast. Some of them have YouTube shows, and some of them will also be contributing articles as well. So definitely would recommend to go check out the site, go check out the SEC page on the college huddle. And then when you filter down to the South Carolina page, you will find myself. So nothing is changing in the sense of what I'm posting on social media, how my shows go and things like that. If anything, it's just a different avenue for folks to find that. And then also, I am able to contribute articles to this community, to this site, which is something I've always kind of thought of doing in the back of my mind. Now I can do so at my leisure, someone else kind of doing all the heavy lifting and whatnot. That's kind of fun. So the college huddle, go check it out. Hopefully in a year's time, two years time, we say it really is the next big thing in college athletics content. But enough of that. Let's talk about the Gamecocks here before I jump into all the major news. Let's do a quick week in review here. Only got a little bit of action to cover from this past week here. Monday, the women's golf team unfortunately lost to LSU three to two in the SEC championships. They were saying there's still some opportunity to maybe bring back some hardware this postseason, but that's a tough loss for the ladies. Men's golf finished first in the Wofford Intercollegiate. They are getting ready for their own SEC tournament as well. And then Thursday, women's tennis beat Alabama four to three, and men's tennis beat Alabama four to two. I believe that is to advance into the quarter finals. So, very exciting news from around there, but a big piece of exciting news from this past week actually came from our men's basketball team. So just when you thought basketball season was done, you can maybe catch your breath. Think again, because Lamont Paris and company made a huge splash in the recruiting world as guard Cam Scott has committed to the Gamecocks. Some of y'all might have been on Scott watch, as I was saying, but this was something that a lot of folks were hoping might come to fruition as Cam had previously been committed to Texas. But he was actually released from his national letter of intent and just mere days after that, signed with the Gamecocks. Now, this is a huge deal. You know, Cam is from the state of South Carolina. In fact, he is the number one recruit out of the state of South Carolina for this class. So he'll be coming in as a freshman this upcoming season. He's coming out of Lexington High School, and then on top of being the number one player in the state, he is also a consensus top ten shooting guard in this class. And this is just. This is just an absolute monster get for Lamont Paris. When he, Scott, when he got out of his commitment to Texas, a lot of people were thinking, we have a chance, and this is for the taking. He's going to stay home and everything like that. But these things don't just happen. You know, kids don't just commit to somewhere where they have no connection or they don't feel like they're going to be utilized and things like that. And in this state and in this region, there are different options. So Lamont Paris, building that relationship, building that trust proof is in the pudding from what he did last season. All of that hard work comes to fruition when you get elite talent like this. And I actually believe that Cam Scott and Gigi Jackson are the two highest rated players in program history to commit to South Carolina and Lamont Paris was the man who was able to sign both of these guys in his first three years, mind you, in only two seasons on the hardwood, and only one where he really got to show what he can do with his team. So incredibly impressive stuff here. And then when you look at it further, in each of his first three years, Lamont Paris has been able to sign the top talent in the state. If you include Colin Murray Boyles, you know, Colin went out to Utah for that last year, but he's from the state, one of, if not the top talent in the class there. So incredibly impressive stuff for this basketball team, and it just gets you really excited. I mean, there's still some open spots on this basketball roster that I expect Lamont to fix in the portal, really. But between the red shirt players that were already on the team, who were set to have a prominent role this upcoming season, this next season, and this incoming freshman class now led by Cam Scott, all of a sudden you're going to see this talented youth movement for the Gamecocks this upcoming season. And this is the most excited I've been for basketball in April, I think, ever. Truly. I mean, what Lamont Paris is doing, what he did last year, it's just phenomenal. And the work is far from finished. There's portal targets to go after. Maybe there's some high school recruiting left. You want to make sure you're able to retain all that talent as well. Then you have to capitalize on it. But to be a school that is going to have a couple of elite underclassmen is going to be very exciting. And then hopefully you compliment that with a couple of these guys who have been in the program for a few years, guys who will then be upperclassmen. You know, Jacoby Wright comes to mind, Zachary Davis comes to mind.
[00:08:44] So it's going to be a long offseason. I mean, it's so fun to have legitimately look forward to both of these programs. It's so, so fun. So big news from the men's basketball team. And then also our football program has a big weekend weekend themselves as the Gamecocks are getting ready to take the field this Saturday night. I mean, that just feels awesome to say where you can say the Gamecocks play this Saturday night because it's been so long, been so long since we were able to talk about that. But the annual garnet and black game as part of Big Gamecock weekend will be taking place at 07:00 p.m. Saturday night under the lights at Willie B and I've said it before last year. Whatever. I absolutely love that this is our thing now. Like playing the spring game at night. That was a fun idea they did the first time. Now they made it this whole weekend. Absolutely love it. And let me just say it, like college football, SEC football especially, is just the absolute best. Like here we are getting so excited and getting ready to talk about in depth for what essentially is a practice. It's just the best. But you know, in all serious though, like, for us college football junkies, the spring game is really. It's the culmination of all that excitement, rumors, reporting, and all that jazz that we hear about during spring practice. And it. I don't know, it just kind of gives you that extra little bit of juice to go into the summer feeling hopeful for next season. I mean, shit, I was already looking at the schedule. Not like I haven't already, but looking at it today. And you can convince yourself that a lot of things with our schedule, but nonetheless here, you know, while we never know how much the starters will play in these games, and coaches love to temper expectations for the spring game, I did want to share a couple of position groups that I have my eye on going into the spring game. If you have your eye on anyone else, let me know. Dm me, tweet at me. I love to have these discussions here. So on the defensive side of things, I'm starting with the edge rushers. You know, this was a group last year that was in desperate need of reinforcements and that certainly has arrived. So I want to see from this group who jumps off the page last spring after the spring game. That was Brian Thomas junior.
[00:11:24] This year I think we're going to see why there's hype around Dylan Stewart, this freak of nature freshman, but then also Kyle Kennard as well. And also, don't be surprised if Desmond Umezzulu make some plays as well in his second year in the program, matured more into the, you know, ingrained in the playbook and everything like that. And then also you got Gilmore Edmund back. So I'm definitely looking forward to seeing that group. It's going to be interesting to see how much they can do against the quarterbacks. You know, you'll have to wait until that next unit gets in, but really excited to see this new group of edge rushers and then also the defensive backs. I'm excited to see who stands out other than ordinal fortune. We've heard good things about Vicari Swain, Judge Collier specifically fighting for that QB two spot. So or CB? Two. Excuse me, cornerback. So do we see someone else making plays? You know, is it Emery Floyd, you know, or is there someone else in that group? Right. Kilgore. Right. You have the two Kilgores now. That's going to be fun to see them both at play. So I'm really excited to see this, really. I just feel like reloaded deeper defense at work there. And do we see multiple looks? Does Clayton White keep it vanilla and stick with the four two five? Or do we in fact see more of that three three five that we saw so much at the end of last season and then on the offensive side of things, I mean, how can you not start with Lenora Sellers, right? It will be interesting to see if he is fully live and able to take the hits in this game, but, you know, Shane Beamer hasn't said it, but he is a shoe in for the quarterback one position. So I'm looking forward to seeing him in command of this offensive unit with a year of experience under his belt. Be interesting to see how much playing time he gets as well. Probably about a half if I had to guess. But outside of him, I'm pretty anxious to see these wide receivers. You know, between Gage Larva Dian and Jared Brown, there's some high hopes for these couple of transfers and there's a lot of pressure on their shoulders as well. But how about some of these other guys on the roster? Do we see Tyshawn russell, flash? Maisie O. Bennett has been a guy consistently mentioned this spring as someone who's flourishing even as a true freshman. So I'm excited to see what he brings to the table and I would say that I'm excited to see this offensive line in there, but I do think the combinations that we're going to see in this spring game will not be the same five in the same position that all start together come week one. You know, Shane Beamer talked about they're probably going to do it the same as last year where they literally draft the garnet and black teams. So to some degree there's a little bit of randomness of who is on which team. So with that, I don't think you're going to have Lonnie Teasley say, okay, this is the starting five on the offensive line we feel the most comfortable with. We're going to put them on the garnet team and then the next group we're going to put them on the black team. I think they're still very much shuffling that around, so I would say I'm excited for that, but you're probably not going to see the same group you would week one. But all in all, I'm very excited for this spring game. I'm happy for these guys to be able to show off all their hard work that they've put in these last several weeks. I'm happy for us for once again being able to watch our gamecocks on the field in Williams Bryce. So should be a fun night.
[00:15:16] But now let's actually talk about games that are real, not practices here. Going to the baseball diamond as the boys faced off in a midweek game against the Citadel this past weekend, things did not come easy, but Carolina got out of Charleston with a victory by the score of four to three.
[00:15:38] Could have easily put this game away in the top of the 9th as they had runners in scoring position but failed to bring them home. But on the flip side of that, Carolina also could have easily blown this game as the Citadel had a chance to tie the game in the 9th, but Garrett Ganey closed the door. Carolina got things started in this game right away, thanks to Ethan Petrie and Dalton Reeves. Will Tippett provided a big insurance run with a home run late in the game. Tyler Pitzer got the start and a no decision. Parker Milot got the win going one in a third innings in relief and as the aforementioned Garangini got the save, player highlights Will Tippett two for three with a ribby. Ethan Petri one for three with an RBI as well. Now, up next for the Gamecocks is a massive series at Founders park. If you are in town, go and pack founders. This is a massive home series. There's momentum on the side of the Gamecocks. They're playing well as they are taking on the number two ranked Arkansas Razorbacks. So quite literally, you can have the day of days where you can go to the second game on Saturday afternoon and then chill out, maybe hit up Palmetto pig, I don't know, and then go over to to Willie B, tailgate a little bit, watch the spring game and things like that. I think the weather in Columbia looks a little meh this weekend, but nonetheless, they need us. They're going to be out there. So can we. But back to this game here. The number two ranked Arkansas Razorbacks are in first place in the SEC west with an overall record of 32 and five and a twelve and three record in the SEC. Like wow, that is impressive. The Razorbacks are led by their ace, Hagen Smith, who is seven and oh with a 1.53 era. However, if you remember correctly, last year a certain SEC west team right at the top of that division came into founders led by their ace pitcher, and the Gamecocks did not let that slow them down. There was a crazy crowd then. I'm sure there's going to be a crazy crowd now. Nobody comes in to Founders park and tries to intimidate the Gamecock. So I expect full fight and defense of home field here this weekend. The weekend rotation for the Gamecocks got some changes here. Friday Roman Kimball, Saturday Eli Jones, and Sunday is TBA.
[00:18:22] Yeah, I don't really know about this. I mean, Kimball has been doing well in that middle relief role. I felt it probably was a matter of time before he got back into the rotation. To see him in that Friday spot is very interesting.
[00:18:41] This makes this has shades of what Kingston did a season or two ago with Will Sanders, where he didn't start him on the Friday spot and tried to put his best guy out there Saturday. So makes me think that might be what this is. But you know, you're putting a lot of faith in Roman Kimball. He's got good stuff. He's pitched in big games before. I get it, but interesting move. So hopefully it pays off. I hope this is not Mark Kingston, like trying to Galaxy Brain this and like pseudo punt to Saturday and Sunday. I don't know. But nonetheless, that's your rotation. We'll see what Sunday brings here. My crow to the series is it's back on this rotation. I'm going to put it on these guys. Our starters need to go deep. I don't see Carolina blowing out Arkansas this weekend, so the back end of the bullpen guys are going to be incredibly valuable. We can't burn through the pen early. Kimball and Jones need to be able to go deep. Like it really, it's got to be right at that six inning mark. You got to get through five. Do it effectively. Don't put the team in a hole. Let's keep it close. Defend founders. Let's freaking go. But with that, that wraps up this episode. Y'all 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.
