Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, both basketball teams struggle. Softball has a great weekend, and there is a Super bowl champion. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:53] Okay. Welcome to episode 279 of. Of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And today is the Monday that we are all reminded that the day after the super bowl should be a national holiday. I mean, who would say no to that? I mean, even if you don't watch sports, you know, this is still a cultural moment in America. The Super Bowl. Everyone talks about it. You know, you got the commercials, the halftime show, of course, the game. And then you have this Monday or just play it on a Saturday. I mean, I've been screaming that from the rooftops for the national championship, but I don't know. But hope y'all had a great weekend and enjoyed your Super Bowl Sunday. Ready to attack the week here.
[00:01:47] Kind of an interesting game. I mean, yeah, blowout. You know, really, for like, all intents and purposes, like that was a butt whooping. Philadelphia Eagles are Super bowl champions. Taking down the Chiefs are not able to three peat, but really wasn't able to get much of anything going. So if you're an Eagles fan, you're loving it. If you're a Chiefs fan, you hated it. If you're a neutral fan, you know, you were kind of just like, well, I guess I'll just get excited for the commercials. Seal is an actual seal.
[00:02:21] There are some decent ones. You know, the Budweiser ones are always solid.
[00:02:26] Glen Powell slinging dodge Rams, I don't know. But nonetheless, hope you all had a great weekend here. Gonna jump right into things here, starting with a weekend recap for across Gamecock athletics here. Looking at Friday, we have. We have softball in action here. And it was a nice, exciting weekend for the ladies. Of course, under new leadership there, they had their first game that went into a walk off situation. So then on Friday, they were back in action. Another close call. They beat Virginia 5 to 4. And then also on Friday, unfortunately, you had the men's tennis team take the L to Clemson 7 0.
[00:03:21] Which brings us over to Saturday. We had a lot of action. You got those spring sports all really going now, so it's a lot of action any way you look. And it's fun. You know, I've been doing this for a while, and it's always fun to give the shout outs and to give the recognition to all of our student athletes here, regardless of what sport they Play. If it's, you know, a game that's on ESPN at a national audience, great. If it's a game that's not even televised, hey, let's still give them a shout out. They're still Gamecocks, you know what I'm saying? So Saturday we had equestrian. They were in action. They beat Texas A and M11 to 9. That feels like a big accomplishment. I mean, we have a solid equestrian program. Also bringing in a new coach, if you remember, to the end of last season there. But to beat a team from Texas in equestrian feels that feels significant there. Then softball was back in action on Saturday as well. They beat Providence eight to nothing. And then also softball beat St. Francis seven to nothing. So a nice, serious way to start the season for softball there. And then also women's tennis, they were in action Saturday. They took the L, unfortunately, to Georgia Tech 4 to 2, which brings us to Sunday. And softball was back in action to cap off the weekend. A winning weekend, beating ECU 1 nothing. So a new era in Gamecock softball. Off to a really, really impressive start. So will be fun to track that and see how it goes under first year program on the first year in the new era in that program.
[00:05:08] But all right, now we'll talk about some of those games that are a little bit more televised here, going to the hardwood as both basketball teams were in action this weekend. And we'll go in chronological order. And you know, if you follow these teams, here wasn't necessarily the best weekend. You know, going to talk about it here might not dive a whole lot into it because there's only so much you can take away from some of these games. But nonetheless, let's get into it here. On Saturday afternoon, you had the South Carolina men's team going up to Kentucky, still in search of the first conference win. And, you know, at this point, you know, it's just. Is today going to be the day? You know, like, you got to believe you're going to win one eventually. Is it going to be when I talked about it before the show that or before the game, excuse me, that. You know, Kentucky has had some struggles this year, and Lamont Paris has gotten his teams to perform well against Kentucky. So had a fleeting thought that wouldn't that be funny that we could get the first SEC win on the road against Kentucky of all teams. And the very first points of the game might have indicated that it would go that way. It was a slow start all around, really, to that game. You're thinking, wow, maybe we could potentially have this game play at our pace, maybe we can grind one out here. But as the first half went on and then really into the second half there, it just was not the game to get that first win there. South Carolina taking the loss 80 to 57. And you know, that was always going to be a tall order going on the road against a, you know, highly ranked team, a team with a lot of talent. And to go up there and get that win would have been a tall task and it would have been one where you really needed all the pieces to fall into place. And it just didn't quite happen in this one. You know, you, you did not get the production off the bench that you would have needed in this game or even to the point that maybe we've come to expect.
[00:07:27] I don't know, you know, it was just more of the same with this team here. You know, the turnovers were down, which was nice, but it was sort of a, you know, an odd trade off where you weren't able just to generate enough offense in general.
[00:07:42] So Kentucky ends up pulling away from this one here. Some player highlights. CMB, he went for 14, eight. Just, you know, he's steady Eddie, you know, but it's the question of, outside of him, who, who's going to step up here? Jacoby Wright in This one had 12 points, Jamari Thomas 11, Nick Pringle with nine. But when you look at the guys coming off the bench, goose eggs, goose eggs right down the box score. Morris Ugasuk, zero points. Arden Conyers, zero points. Right. So these couple of guys who you have come to see generate offense weren't able to do that. And you know, there's a few things we can point to during this losing streak as to why things are not going our way. And we've talked about turnovers, we've talked about guys not being too, you know, not being able to generate the offense when it's not necessarily there. Like a guy who can create his own shot type type of deal. But one of those things is the bench production, you know, where in those close games that we've seen be decided by single digits, you know, one, two possessions, it's been amorous. Ugasuk who's contributed double digits or Aden Conyers who really gives you some, some, some good production there, you know. But alas, that did not happen. This go around and so, you know, you're, you're back to the drawing board really. And it's just one of those deals where, you know, you gotta hope the guys continue to fight and find a way to get over the hump eventually, right? And it doesn't really get much easier as the guys are going on the road to Ole Miss Wednesday night, still in search for that first W in conference play. Ole Miss is a team that plays hard. You know, they've been in some, some big games here and it's just a deal where, yeah, it's just. There's not much more you can say about it at this point. It's just been really tough sledding for this team in conference and I've talked about it at length with y'all.
[00:10:02] There's just a few things that need to fall into place for this team to be competitive there. And then once they are in that position, it's not having a closer, not being in a position to really finish things out. And so you got to hope you can go on the road here against Ole Miss and have a couple things fall into place there. And so when you're looking at this game Wednesday, 7:00, tip off my crow to the game here is, is going to be find that production from the bench. And again, it's because the starting five can generate some offense. And we've seen guys have big games, whether it's CMB going for 20 points. We've seen Jamari Thomas, as he's come back from injury, we've seen him go for, you know, 10, 12, 15 points. But you need to have someone complement that off the bench to take some of that burden off there. So a guy like Morris Ugasuk, right, A guy who can hit a couple of big threes, play some decent defense, let's see that get going and let's see if the guys can, can get one here, you know, and it would be great, it'd be great to finally get, get off the schneide there.
[00:11:18] But then moving to Sunday afternoon, the women were in action. Little appetizer for the big game Sunday night. And you know, I talked a lot about this one, going to Texas, a top five team on the road. I said it was going to be a challenge and it was.
[00:11:36] You know, the ladies actually took the L in this one, 66 to 62. And you know, that's life in the SEC when you're going on the road against some of these really well coached, talented teams. And you know, the ladies put up a fight, but unfortunately he was just coming up just short there. You know, it was, it was down to the wire this one, but unfortunately did take the loss was it was a tough going into the Half for South Carolina. Tough run that Texas was able to get on in the second quarter there, but it was, it seemed like maybe there were some halftime adjustments. Second quarter, or excuse me, the third quarter, the ladies came out firing, really closed the gap there, brought it right there, you know. And then in the fourth quarter, late, Texas was able to get, you know, get the difference maker, if you will, there. So ladies do take the loss and you know, I talked about it before going into this game expecting a tough matchup for this team and you know, it's a learning experience and Don is big on that. Whether it's going against a tough team and you get the W or it's a tough team and you, and you take the L on the chin. Can you learn from it and can you grow from it? And for a team like South Carolina that has big time aspirations in the tournament and has talent to go as far as they'd like, there's going to be tough games, you know, like if we peek ahead the corner a little bit and we're talking about NCAA tournament, SEC tournament, like you're gonna be in these tough games against these well coached teams late in, late stages in those, in those situations. So you're gonna have to find a way to take some lessons from this one and can you, can you adjust and can you learn and grow moving forward there? So yeah, it was never fun to see this team lose. It's, it's a weird feeling because it's just something we don't see a whole heck of a lot. But unfortunately that was the case against a good Texas team and you know, hopefully the ladies again can take some lessons from this and can grow from it and you know, maybe if it's, if it's a deal where you, you face them late in the SEC tournament again, you can have some redemption player highlights from this one. Here you had Malaysia Folweile leading the effort with 13 points, Khloe Kitts with nine and Tahina Powpow with eight. So yeah, it was a tough effort. It was, you know, I use the term tough sledding a second ago. Tough sledding for the ladies in this one. Offensively, just a good defensive effort really from Texas, you know, lower scoring game and whatnot there. Couldn't quite get Joyce Edwards going like we've seen. Saniya Fagan couldn't get her going quite like we've seen. So yeah, it was a tough go for the ladies in that one there. Up next for the ladies, they are taking on Florida on Thursday night. Excuse me, Thursday night at home and they'll look to right the ship there. It's definitely a deal where hopefully, you know, you can. You can come back and, you know, feel good about being at home in front of the fans and you want to get back, back into the groove there where we have played so, so well at cla. My quote to the game in that one is I'd like to see the bigs get going again. You know, I've called out whether it's, you know, Joyce, Saniya, Kitts, I've talked about them individually. I'd like to see them get back to dominating the low post. I'd like to see them get back to, you know, scoring at a high clip there and then would love to see the ladies get back on track. But there is a lot of action going on this week and next weekend in Gamecock Nation. So you don't have to do much. You just turn on your tv, you know, bring up Twitter, whatever it is to get your highlights. There's a lot of action going on this week and throughout next weekend. There quick episode today. I'll get you all in and out. That wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media. Twitter X is Cox gamecox, 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 cops.
