Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Game Cox, the women's final four preview baseball team has a tough midweek outing. And Don staley racks in another trophy. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay. Welcome to episode 231 of Cox Talking Game Cox. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And I don't know about y'all, but I woke up with that final four feeling. I mean, you can just feel it in the air. It is time. The emotion, the pressure, the stress, the excitement. It's like mad libs in my head right now for adjectives. Adjectives are terrific when you want to be specific. And this is a terrific weekend to be a gamecock. Wow. I mean, it's here. Can't believe it. The ladies are in Cleveland. And I say this respectfully. South Carolina women's gamecocks team. Being in Cleveland is probably the best thing about Cleveland right now. So enjoy the show while you can, and hopefully the gamecocks are ready to play two more games. I'm going to get into all that in a little bit. Also. Happy April. How about that? I was looking at. Looking at my calendar here, and I was like, geez Louise.
[00:02:04] April is here. Spring has sprung, maybe, depending on where you live.
[00:02:10] Cold snap in a lot of places. Kind of interesting, but nonetheless, here. Got a good episode queued up for y'all. Might be on the shorter side, baseball. As y'all know, I'm not really trying to dive too much into that, so we'll see. We'll see if we hit that 1801 mark. If not, don't roast me too bad. I try. I try for y'all. But let's start with a quick week in review here. It is a quick one. Not a lot to report on from this week around Gamecock athletics. Just one score for y'all. This came from Wednesday, as the softball team beat Winthrop two to one in a walk off. Very exciting highlight. Nice to see softball get that w. Maybe a little bit momentum coming into that dugout there, so hopefully the ladies can keep it up there. That's a big time win there. But then I do have some fun news for y'all. It actually is related to the women's basketball team. Camila Cardozo has declared for the WNBA. Kind of crappy how. Like, the deadline to do so is, like, while your team is still in the tournament. I understand there's only four left, but, like, there should be an exemption or something for that. I mean, seriously, like, what. What is that? But nonetheless, here. I don't think this is any.
[00:03:30] Any surprising news here? I mean, last year, Camilo really developed into a very solid player. This year, she took on that starting role and has thrived. She's getting accolades left and right, defensive player of the year, you know, all sec, all american, that type of deal. She has the size. She has the skills. I do not doubt that she's going to be a top five pick in the WNBA draft. And especially considering everything that she and her family have been through to get to this point, for her to turn pro and get all those other resources and everything like that for her family, I absolutely love it. I applaud her decision. She will be missed. She will certainly be missed around these parts. But congratulations, Camilla. And she posted it with the caption unfinished business, though. So she's still focused, and there is very much a job to do up in Cleveland. And then nice bit of news here for Don Staley as she was named the Naismith coach of the year.
[00:04:34] A true, true legend. I mean, I've said it once. I'll say it a thousand times. I'm gonna keep saying it. We are truly blessed to have Dawn Staley as a gamecock.
[00:04:48] What she has built. It's easy to just be like, yeah, of course we're good, you know? And, yeah, we have one of the best teams in the country. We always have a talented program. Don Staley's great.
[00:05:02] That doesn't happen very often, you know, like, the runs that we're on now or maybe UConn had back then, like, that doesn't happen. You know, you'll get a team that has a good year or two. You know, they get a good player. That player wins the national championship, they move on. It's a rebuild for a while. You know, look at Baylor, right?
[00:05:27] What Don Staley has done is just incredible. But then when you talk about, more specifically this year and why she's the coach of the year this year, you have to remember, I don't remember exactly what it was, but we were not number one going into this year. This year started. We were ranked, what, fifth, maybe 6th, I want to say right around there.
[00:05:51] And a lot of people, national writers, SEC writers, Gamecock fans, thought that this year would be good for the Gamecocks because of just the talent level that we've amassed, but maybe not great because you had a whole new starting five.
[00:06:09] You got some new faces. You're gonna have to play some younger players, everything like that.
[00:06:15] And here we are on the precipice of a final four game, undefeated, and a team in which other coaches have been on record as saying this year's is better than last year's team, and this might be one of the more dangerous teams Don Staley has fielded, period.
[00:06:37] So the job that Don has done this year to not only build this team, right? So all the work that went into that recruiting transfer portal, everything, the job that she did to develop and get this team to gel on the court in such a short amount of time and to weather some adversity, close games, suspension, injury, whatever you want to say, it is a fantastic job.
[00:07:12] And she should be very proud of this one because while we do have an incredible amount of talent, it wasn't really a deal where you're like, yeah, we got a ton of upperclassmen. They've been together forever. We're just going to trot them out and do the same thing that we've been doing, and we're going to just beat you. No, this was. You really got to coach, you know, and you got to work the rotations. Even something as late in the year as starting Ashton Watkins a little bit more, right. Still tinkering, never settling. So fantastic job by dawn. Congratulations, Camilla. Congratulations. Best of luck on the next step, but the job is not finished. And speaking of that segway, it's time to talk about the women of the hour. And that is our Gamecock women's battle basketball team. Like I already said, the ladies are in Cleveland for the final four. And, I mean, what a Final Four it is. You got us an NC state, and then on the other side of things, you have UConn and Iowa. And it's a really, really cool moment for women's college basketball, women's basketball in general. The eyeballs on this tournament have just been fantastic. That Iowa LSU game was absolutely incredible, and the energy in there was palpable. And it's just a really cool Final Four where you have the number one overall seed, the current giant in the sport in the Gamecocks, Don Staley. Everything that comes with that, you have NC State, who has a good team themselves. They are not a Cinderella team, but they're a three seed. They had a great tournament. They ended the year strong, and they find themselves in the final four. Plus that whole university has a lot going on for it right now. So that's the talk of a town.
[00:09:06] You have Iowa with Caitlyn Clark and maybe a little bit better of a supporting cast, but you have her quest to get back for that shot at redemption in the title game, seemingly exercising some demons against LSU as well, a lot of supporters for her and Iowa, but then they're going up against UConn and a player in Paige Beckers who, if not for some really bad injuries in her career, would be talked about in the same breath as Caitlin Clark. Angel Reese changing the game. Right. And I think those of us who have followed the sport for a little bit know how good she is. But she had that hype going into college, and then it was sort of Caitlin Clark more recently who really just elevated to a level that no one has ever seen. But not only page Beckers, you got Gino Oriema, like just because they haven't been at the top of the sport for the last couple of years now, they are still a very talented program.
[00:10:12] He knows his stuff, Gino does. That game is going to be absolutely fantastic. And if the Gamecocks are in a position where they are fortunate to be playing a game after NC State, I hope everyone is watching that. Players, coaches, training staff, waterboy, the highlighter squad, everybody, because they got to figure out what's working against both of these teams. And if there's a coach who can figure out how to maybe limit Caitlin Clark a little bit, it might just be Geno. So I hope that everyone's taking notes and studying a potential opponent in real time, of course, then looking at it again and again. But you got to get there first. You got to get there first. I'm not going to put, you know, the cart in front of the horse, whatever that saying is. So let's look at this game here. The Gamecocks are taking on NC State Friday night. NC State is that three seed in the tournament. I believe they finished the year, I think it was ranked 11th in the country. The Wolfpack. They had a very solid year, finishing second in the ACC. Only six losses on the year. Quite impressive. There was one loss thrown in there that was a little questionable. So, you know, probably could have had a better record. Even now, right now, Carolina is sitting at a eleven and a half point favorite. So do with that what you will, but I will say I going back to the Sweet 16, I know for sure they didn't cover that spread. I want to say in the Elite Eight they did not cover as well. So love to see sitting at a double digit favorite. But these couple past games have shown that the tournament can be very unpredictable. NC State though, you know, they do have a squad, there is no doubt about it. The Wolfpack have five players who average double figures, so they really can attack you from many different ways. But it's funny because when you look at it outside of their starting five and then you want to say, you know, their 6th man as well.
[00:12:19] After that, there is a pretty steep drop off in production. So this feels like it could be a game where you see that as the game goes on, it gets deeper. The depth of the Gamecocks will be on display as dawn can rotate in fresh legs for players who can still very much contribute in meaningful ways.
[00:12:43] Because it is all hands on deck right now. This is the final four.
[00:12:49] This is the spot that us fans have been waiting for and for about a year now, right? Like just to have that crack at redemption and trying to get back to the national title game once more. So this team has to go out and play their game and be in the moment and seize that moment, really.
[00:13:16] So my quote of the game here is win the rebounding battle.
[00:13:21] NC State has two players who average almost seven boards per game. Then you look at our side. Cardozo averages a little bit over nine. Ashton Watkins is at seven and Chloe Kitts is at six. So we want to eliminate the second chance points for NC State since they do have so many different scores and we want to keep possessions alive for us. Now, I do have a second crowd of the game here.
[00:13:50] I want the bench to contribute at least 25 points. So I'm looking at Malaysia Fulwiley and Tessa Johnson to carry the heavy lifting there. I like to throw in either it's Chloe Kitts or Watkins, whoever doesn't start as well.
[00:14:05] But the bench scoring is a huge piece of what makes the Gamecocks so hard to beat. So if you can get that number or above, you should be in good shape because that will allow dawn to rest her starters more so that way when the fourth quarter rolls around, especially if it's a close game, but really shouldn't take it for granted. In any final four game, you can have the freshest legs on the floor. But I am absolutely jazzed up about this game. Let's freaking go.
[00:14:40] I'm not looking ahead. This tournament ends on Sunday. That's all I'm going to say. It ends on. It ends on Sunday. So if you're planning your schedule, just know that Sunday, I think 03:00 p.m. Is tip off. So fingers crossed we all have somewhere to be on Sunday, something to watch. But let's absolutely go. Final four wouldn't have it any other way.
[00:15:03] Now, let's turn our attention to something on the other end of the spectrum here a little bit. Talking baseball as the yard Cox were in action in a midweek game Wednesday evening at home against Georgia Southern. And yeah, it was one to forget as Carolina lost eight nothing.
[00:15:23] There's not much else to say except it was a dud. There's a dud from the Gamecocks. Eddie Copper got the start, but he left early due to an injury. So we'll have to see what that ends up being. Hopefully it's nothing too serious.
[00:15:37] A few times Carolina got the leadoff man and didn't advance him a base at all. The team had twelve strikeouts on 30 at bats. Just a very bad offensive showing.
[00:15:50] Mark Kingston talked about being out of rhythm. Yeah, like you think, like, like that's what you say. Yeah, we're definitely out of rhythm that game. So got to look at what possibly that could be about. Georgia Southern did pretty much all their damage in the second inning, but didn't matter. Carolina could not muster anything to answer. And I know it's baseball and games like this happen, but this just came at a really bad spot. After a tough showing last weekend, you come home hoping to perform well against a very mediocre team and it was just anything but a good showing.
[00:16:33] You know, I actually put on a, on X twitter, I put up a poll. I said, you know, real talk, what do we think here with baseball? Option one was there's still a lot of season left.
[00:16:48] Option two was basically, I'm concerned. And then option three was it's over now. The majority of people put I'm concerned.
[00:16:59] You had pretty much even split, though after that, between it's early and it's over now. The fact that maybe even jokingly, some people are thinking about saying it's over, that just tells you all you need to know about the fan mood right now about Carolina baseball.
[00:17:16] I think I fit somewhere, somewhere in the middle of there's a lot of ball left, but I'm concerned now, there's a lot of ball left because there's basically two months left and this team can very much get hot and that's all you need. And right now the overall record is pretty good. It's still a winning record in the SEC right now.
[00:17:39] But I am concerned. I'm concerned that the offensive approach of this team, it does not look fluid, they look tentative, the defense is suspect, and there are big time questions about the rotation. So I'm, I am concerned. It's not to say that some of this can't be fixed, but you're going to be asking a lot of pretty much the, the offense to do a lot of the heavy lifting. So we have to see if these guys can turn it around. We got to know soon, right? There's two months left in the season, but we can't be sitting here at the beginning of May saying, well, hopefully the guys can catch fire and make a run. Like, we got to see a little bit something this month. So what's up next for the Gamecocks? It is a weekend series at home against Texas A and M. The Aggies are ranked third in the country. So it's just like, come on, man, like, give me a break. Like, can't we have like a crappy team to beat up on? But nonetheless, your weekend rotation. Friday is Eli Jones, Saturday is Tyler Pitzer, and then Sunday is TBA. So, of note, no Dylan esque, you. He has had some rough outings lately, and, you know, I did raise some concerns earlier in the year about how his stuff would play once we hit SEC play, but we'll see. Maybe he just needs a little bit of a reset. He needs to have some sort of vital role, if not a starter. He needs to be that first arm out of the pen or whatever it may be. But my code of the series here is just hit with runners in scoring position, for crying out loud. Just do that if you can win this series at home. We're talking once again about momentum, but we have to start now. We have to start soon, and we all hope that these guys can really get it going here as soon as possible. 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.
