Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Gamecocks is brought to you by the Mason jar, New York City. The Mason jar is the official Gamecock bar for the New York City area. Fans and alumni of USC can come by the jar for some great barbecue, cold drinks and of course to watch the Gamecocks in any sport, all while surrounded by South Carolina memorabilia. If you want to get a slice of game day in Columbia, all while in the Big Apple, head to the Mason jar on East 30th Street. All right, here we go.
[00:01:12] Episode two oh Three of Cox Talking Gamecocks brought to you by the Mason jar, New York City. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 18 one to 2001 and hope you all had a great weekend out there. Gamecock Nation was a winning weekend. Winning weekend from basketball programs. Just feels good to be good. Was exciting. Action on Saturday, action on Sunday. Just nonstop good vibes in Gamecock Nation here. I myself had a good weekend. Busy seeing friends and whatnot. But extra shout out to the Mason jar here. They had a meet and greet with Spencer Rattler and what a cool experience. What a great guy. Super nice asking about what I do on a day to day basis. We made a little couple jokes here and there about next level and things like that being in the NFL, but really cool guy was super appreciative of him to take the time out to meet some of us fans and then really just expressed my gratitude to him for his decision to come to South Carolina. And watching him over these last two seasons was really special. And as a fan of a team in the NFL who has perpetually needed help in the quarterback position, it would be awesome for Spencer Rattler to come to my team. That would be a blessing. But I think any team that gets him is getting someone with the potential to be really good in the NFL and it'll be fun to see where he goes and his development. And maybe it doesn't happen right away, but I really do feel like eventually he'll get his shot and he'll take it. But that was really cool. And especially know someone who lives not immediately in the Columbia area to have a player, especially of such magnitude, come see how we do it here. It was really, really cool. So shout out Spencer Ratler. Maybe I can finesse an interview. That would be sick. But aside from that weekend recap here again, scores were just from the basketball teams here, but from the football team. A little bit of news here. There were many visitors on campus this weekend from the transfer portal as Shane Beamer looks to reload the roster. We have one welcome home tweet out currently.
[00:03:44] Again, that's a very fluid situation. We have a crystal ball know for one guy as well, but hopefully we can see a couple more welcome home tweets. Earlier this week, there were a lot of guys on campus, a lot of reason to be excited. Some absolute playmakers were visiting, but with the portal having this window that's a couple of weeks long, guys are really treating it like a second recruitment where I think the first instance of this new transfer portal, guys would go somewhere and commit a little quickly. Now, guys will take two or three visits and they will take their time. So Shane Beamer and staff, they're doing all that they can do. They had about ten guys on campus this weekend and then even outside from that they were visiting high school prospects. Really ever since the season ended, they have been on the road really trying their best to reload this roster and build for the future. So fingers crossed that we get a couple guys to choose South Carolina as their next destination and we will be on the path to a better, deeper, more explosive roster for next season.
[00:05:05] But on to games that have been played. Like I said, it was a very busy weekend and we are just a full on basketball school at the moment. It is just awesome. I mean, you have so much excitement on both the men's and women's side that really, you can't go wrong with sitting down and watching both teams. And especially from where we were last year, where the men's team was really starting from scratch, essentially, and to be where we are now, it's so cool to have two legitimately good teams. What dawn is doing is just still just this powerhouse, this force that she has built and it's really cool to see. And then what Lamont Paris is doing in rebuilding and reviving this basketball program on the men's side is cool. And especially compared to years past, it's just a more exciting brand of basketball on the men's side right now, we have to see what the next few weeks hold, especially conference play and things like that. But this is a team that shoots the ball, that distributes the ball, that doesn't play through one particular guy all the time, and they play for each other. They hit their free throws, they do all the little things right. And right now the Fighting Qzips are looking good. They were in action early on Saturday, I think it was a noon tip off, and they found themselves really in a fight against ECU on the road. But the guys dug deep and they got a nice bounce back win defeating the Pirates 68 to 62. And it's fun. This was the team's first true road victory this season. I know they went out to Arizona and they won there, but that was still technically a neutral site. So from that perspective, that was very impressive. Right? But this game did get dicey. Carolina held a seven point lead at the half, but ECU battled back and this game was tied or at one possession very late into the game. BJ Mack hit a big three pointer late in the game, and the Gamecocks had clutch free throws down the stretch and strong defensive play to walk away with this victory. After really being pushed to the edge, Gamecocks were on the ropes. ECU, they might not have played these huge teams, but they had a good record going into this game. And again, this was a true road game here. Tough environment. And the guys were able to weather that late storm and ultimately come away with a big, big win. And make no mistake about it, this is a significant victory because, one, it gets the team back in the win column and they avoid having back to back losses. Because you started off hot, right? You were seven and things were great. You faced a little adversity. You lost to your rival. How do you respond? And if you had gotten back to back losses. Yeah, that's not the end of the world. The sky isn't falling. But I think to have the resolve to get that bounce back win, it shows the makeup of this team and it shows the makeup of Lamont Parrish, that he's able to rally the guys when it matters, because that's what you want to see. You don't want to have these losses stack. That's kind of what you're seeing. That's what you saw last year. Granted, that was a much thinner team.
[00:09:05] The makeup of that team was much different than this one. But you saw they'd get a win, they might look decent in the next game, but then they would lose and then it would turn into a run of losses. In past years, we've seen that as well, where you got something going and then you get back to back losses and you feel like you took that step backwards. That wasn't the case here.
[00:09:26] Second reason this was a big win, it's super important to stack these wins before SEC play starts because once that happens, the games will be very competitive week in and week out, and they're just simply harder to come by. So while you're playing these teams out of conference, you need to be able to take advantage of that and stack as many as possible.
[00:09:52] Three.
[00:09:54] This win again, it shows the resolve of this team and the grit of this team. ECU really did have the Gamecocks on the ropes, pushed them right to the brink, and it would have been easy for this team to surrender that lead late in the game, take the loss on the road and just say, you know what? It just didn't break our way at the end. But that's not what they did. They hit their free throws when it mattered most. They composed themselves after things didn't go their way. They buckled down and they got it done. They overcame a lot of adversity late in the game to get it done.
[00:10:34] And this is also the type of win that really can spur confidence in this group, that they can win ugly and they can fend off those late runs and still come out on top.
[00:10:49] That's the type of confidence that you need going into SEC play. And if there is a postseason for this team, they need to believe that they can win these types of games. And it's funny to say that aloud. And we obviously have a lot of time between now and the end of the season, but with how this early part of the year has shaped out, you can legitimately talk about a postseason for this team. And going into this season, me personally was not really thinking that. Was thinking like maybe pie in the sky, you can maybe sniff the NIT, but was really just hoping to see an improvement in the win column, an improvement in SEC play and really just passing that eye test. Well, this team has done that and more. They're already at eight wins now. What did they win? It was eleven last season. Yeah.
[00:11:53] And the way that they've won, you can feel confident that they can fight and scratch out some of these wins, which makes you feel confident going into SEC play. Not to say that they're going to have their way with everybody. There's some good teams in our league, but the makeup of this team, the veteran presence throughout the team at different positions and guys willing to do the little things right that make difference, that make the difference in games, that's what's going to go a long way. And again, this team is deeper and you saw that in this know Stephen Clark was doing some small things that made the difference, that helped cause turnovers late in the game. The guys were hitting free throws late in the game. You had contributions and guys getting rebounds from. Normally you wouldn't expect that.
[00:12:57] And it's nice because again, there are so many different guys on this team who can contribute. In the past, whether it was last year, two, three years ago, it's kind of just been one or two guys that you need to get going and that was your hope. And of course you have your main couple of players that you need to have good games and you have your starting five and things like that. But this team is deeper and they can do different things. BJ Mack is a big man. You want him to have good post play, but he can shoot the, you know, he didn't play like a whole heck of a lot, but that's someone who can do a few things.
[00:13:39] Zachary Davis can do a few different things. Miles Studie had a nice game. So you're starting to see this team take shape a little bit. And again, I've said it once, I'll say it a thousand times. You'd only believe that as this month goes on heading into SEC play, they're going to continue to gel together and they're going to get more confident playing with one another and everything like that. But really exciting to see here player highlights from this game. Michi Johnson and Miles studie each had 15 points. That's great to see from Miles again. Felt like he was in a little bit of a funk so that's a huge game from him. BJ Mac had 13 points and eight rebounds. Zachary Davis, nine points and five rebounds. So again, really great contributions from up and down this team here. Next game for the men is this upcoming Saturday against Charleston Southern. I will preview that game next episode as the guys look to continue this momentum at home in front of the Gamecock faithful.
[00:14:46] Moving over to women's basketball here again, busy weekend was a lot of fun. The ladies were in action on Sunday afternoon in a ranked matchup against number eleven Utah and the women also found themselves in a hard fought game where they were able to come out with the W, beating the Utes 78 to 69. And this was a good game. This was an exciting one. And it was a game where it felt like, at least for me, every time you had that sense that the ladies were going to put it away and take control of the game. Utah would just get a couple of buckets and they would find themselves within striking distance. So it was really all hands on deck for this game and credit to Utah, they're a ranked team. You can tell that they play hard, they have some good players and it really took a team effort in this one to get the W. But that's where you see Don's machine at work. You saw the depth on display from this team here. You saw the experience that they have going against good teams I don't think there was any panic, which I think that's the difference at this point with this women's team. There's so many players who have been in these types of games against good squads, ranked teams, pushed hard and they know how to respond. And then dawn herself obviously been in huge games. Utah's forward Alyssa Pilly absolutely carried their team with 37 points and really that was the Thorn in Carolina's side in this game. She single handedly carried Utah in this matchup and this truly was a team effort from the Gamecocks as there were contributions up and down the roster. Malaysia Phil Wiley had some big buckets late. Ashlyn Watkins had a nice game. Tahina POw POw had a great game as well. I believe she was named MVP as this was sort of a special neutral site game and it really was that fourth quarter defense that ultimately was the difference as Carolina kept Utah quieter than they had earlier in the game and ultimately led to the win. Gamecocks remaining perfect on the year and this is also a very fun team to watch and they can beat you in different ways as well. And just like we're saying with the men, I really do feel like they're only just beginning in terms of gelling with each other and playing with each other and things like know can't forget POW POW. She's a transfer. Phil Wiley is a freshman. So there are big time players who can go off in any given game who are still getting their feet underneath them, so to speak, with how dawn does things and where we supposed to be with one know, you look at Chloe Kitts as well. She had a pretty nice game, but she's playing way more minutes than she has and I think she's still growing into her role as well. So you can only feel that the best is yet to come for this squad, which is crazy to say because they're the number one team undefeated. Very cool here, player. Highlights from this matchup. TAhina POW POW 15 points, Camilla Cardozo 17 points and six rebounds and full Wiley with eleven points. The next game for the women is also this upcoming Saturday against Presbyterian and I will preview that next episode. I think there's like a doubleheader at Colonial Life on Saturday with men and women, so that's exciting if you're in Colombia. Just big Basketball day, ball day, very be fun. 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.
