Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, men's basketball lands a big recruit. Baseball finds out their regional selection, and trivia is back. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay. Welcome to episode 245 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 great Memorial Day weekend, the start of summer, the official, unofficial beginning of summer. But hope you all enjoyed that extra day off, chilling with friends, family, barbecuing, brew skis, whatever you decided to do, hopefully you did it really well. I myself enjoyed that extra day for sure. Got out in the sun a little bit. It was very nice.
[00:01:35] In the while, we certainly had some highs and lows of Gamecock sports here, which of course, I will dive in with y'all in just a second here. Really going to focus on the baseball news and things like that, but have a few other things to talk with y'all about here, starting with the return of Gamecock trivia. Now, if you have been listening to my show for more than a year at this point, but going back to the beginning, however long, first off, shout out to you. You're amazing. I really, really appreciate that here. But for anyone new, as the summer rolls around and as some of the news and scores and things like that, slow down from Gamecock athletics, I have a daily Gamecock fact and trivia calendar on my desk here. So every day it's a different fact or it's a piece of trivia. So I share that with y'all here. And, you know, just a fun little thing I like to do over the summer months here. And then, of course, we'll follow baseball along and when that winds down, whenever that is, hopefully not for a while. The schedule will change of the show a little bit, but we're not going to worry about that right now. Let's get into the trivia here. And today's trivia is name the USC women's tennis player who earned a come from behind three set win to capture a deciding game of the 2019 SEC tournament final, giving the Gamecocks their first ever conference tournament title. Oh, I can't say I know this one. I can't. Isn't there.
[00:03:21] Oh, gosh, I remember her. Her last name is Hamner.
[00:03:25] Forget never off top my head, her first name right now. But I don't think the years match up there. So let's see the answer here, but Ingrid Martins. Shout out Ingrid Martens. That's a pretty impressive feet right there. Shout out to the women's tennis team. Yeah. Ingrid Martins. How about that?
[00:03:44] I like this. I like this calendar because, you know, it's, sometimes it's facts and it's things that you can sort of store away and you never know when it's going to come up next. But. So, yeah, welcome to the return of trivia. I absolutely love it and, you know, really looking forward to whatever else these summer months bring ahead here. But let's jump into a quick little update here from the weekend here. Got some news from the men's basketball team on the recruiting front here. Lamont Paris and company picked up a commitment from EJ Walker. EJ is a 2025 four star power forward recruit listed at 68230. He comes from Kentucky. This is a big get here. You know, he beat the likes out of Ohio State, some other Big Ten teams as well. And in high school last season, EJ averaged 17 points and eleven rebounds per game. So, you know, it's just this continuing momentum that you're seeing from the men's basketball program and whether it's in the transfer portal, whether it's in the high school ranks, I think you really do continue to see this concentrated effort and this strong momentum from Lamont Paris and company. And it's not just one type of player, it's not just one type of recruit. It's not just the transfer portal. It's not just the high school recruiting. It's not just these guys who are bound to be one and done and things like that. Lamont Paris likes versatility in his players. That's what I think you are going to get with EJ Walker. Of course, he's young. He's going to have to get on campus, you know, when the time is right. But between him, Eli Ellis, things like that, you're starting to see a nice little pipeline form for South Carolina. And it's exciting, you know, and they were just obviously blessed with some more resources from the Garnet trust and everything like that. But, you know, I'm very, very excited for what we're seeing from the Mont Paris company here.
[00:05:56] And can't wait. Absolutely can't wait here. All right, but now let's move over to the game. The team, the everything that had all eyes on Gamecock Nation, and that is Gamecock baseball. As their run in the SEC tournament continued through this weekend here, Friday afternoon, the boys went up against Kentucky. They got that win, super excited there. Beat them six to five. Close, hard fought win. But you end up getting out of there and you absolutely love, love owning Kentucky baseball this year. They're having their best year in what seems like forever, and then they just go against South Carolina baseball and they run into a buzzsaw, whether it's in the regular season or in the tournament setting. But South Carolina beat them and moved on Saturday afternoon to the semifinals for a rematch against LSU, I believe it was. This is the first semifinals in the SEC tournament since 2017, if I'm not mistaken.
[00:07:09] Again, just a very, very impressive run here. You saw this team really snap out of whatever they were in going into this tournament and really put it together well. But, you know, we all know what happened Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, the guys took an extra inning loss, twelve to eleven to LSU, just heartbreaking fashion yet again. It's just like deja vu all over again.
[00:07:42] Not going to totally relive this one, but South Carolina opened up the scoring early and often jumped out to an eight nothing lead in the fourth, only to give up six runs in the bottom of the fourth. But you battle back, you got a little insurance, and LSU just fought, clawed their way back. You saw some poor defense from South Carolina, which is just incredibly disappointing in the big games late in the year, you know, costing you runs.
[00:08:16] It's just tough, you know, again, really not trying to relive this one here because there was certainly life after this. But to be, to be up eight nothing and then, you know, you got up ten to ten to six at one point, right, to end up losing that game, you know, yes, you fought and you, and you got that run in the 10th. You know, you really had an opportunity to win. To lose that game really stings and, you know, saw it on social media. You know, I can't fully take credit for this take here, saw other people saying it, but it's just this inability to put it all together at the right time is something that feels like it's plagued this team for a while where you had this incredible offensive showing, but yet the pitching was lagging behind, or maybe in this case the defense was lagging behind. You know, we've seen defense be a problem for this team a few times this year or other times. You saw fantastic pitching efforts this year only to not be able to get enough run support. I think in the tournament setting, this team had played a lot of games in a short amount of time span. That's different than you see in baseball.
[00:09:42] Pitchers are going to be tired. Pitchers are going to be asked to do more than what they have all year. But I think you can still look at it and say you're up by that much in a tournament setting. You have to be able to go out there and find a way to win. Unfortunately, the guys did not get it done, and LSU just remains this thorn in our side for the SEC tournament. But it was a hell of a run. Excuse me, it was a hell of a run because, again, can say it once and say it a thousand times. This team crawled into this tournament dead on arrival, and they made a fantastic run that we should all, frankly, be proud of. And I think it gave us a lot of pride to be in that final four teams in the tournament, going against some of the best, beating some of the best.
[00:10:41] You got to be proud. And what Cole Messina did these last two days are just absolutely, absolutely remarkable. But there is life after death for this team. As much of a tough loss that was, this was just the conference tournament, which, going into this, I think we knew we wanted to see the team play. Well, maybe there were some folks out there, maybe there was a little room, you know, grumblings, concerns that maybe if this team was bounced early, there could be a chance that there would not be a regional appearance. But every major publication always had Carolina in, but really was a matter of seeding, things like that. And the Gamecocks did themselves a nice favor here as the regional matchups were released Monday afternoon. And the Gamecocks have been placed in the Raleigh regional being hosted by NC State. And considering some of the other options, I think this one really worked out well. So really quick, we'll look at the other teams in the regional. You have NC State, South Carolina, James Madison and Bryant. So compared to a regional where maybe you're going to UNC or Clemson, some of these other tougher, typically, you know, or generally speaking at the surface level, more stacked regionals, I think this worked out well for South Carolina. Obviously, regionals, all that jazz, you should have some decent fan support, be able to drive up to Raleigh and everything like that. But I think this worked out pretty well for South Carolina. NC state's a solid team, have a record of 33 and 20. I think there was a situation where, you know, they got hot, especially late. But if we were to peek ahead, the winner of the Raleigh regional, which again, we have to get there, I am by no means penciling us in for there, but you have to, you have to just look at the bracket, you know, that's what we do in these situations.
[00:12:57] The winner of the Raleigh regional will go on to play the Athens regional winner, which is hosted by Georgia, obviously, along with Army, Georgia Tech, UNC Wilmington. So when you're looking at a potential path.
[00:13:13] It's actually maybe not too terrible. I know we have recency bias with Georgia, but this would, you know, be in a different setting, things like that.
[00:13:26] The big question update, you know, is Gavin Cass is his injury seems like may hold him out. I haven't seen anything too official just yet. Maybe I'm missing something. If I am, please let me know. But he hurt his hand. And that regional will take place Friday afternoon. So, of course, we'll dive into the opponents, the scheduling and everything like that next episode. But our gamecocks are in the postseason, and it's just funny how it all works because you had some low lows not too long ago for this team.
[00:14:07] Strong showing in the SEC tournament here. Now with the regionals, too, you know, it is sort of, you do have a little bit of leeway there, but, you know, you want this team to go out there and be able to perform at a high level. You want this team to be able to go out there and play those complete games. Because if you're serious about post season performance and if you're serious about trying to make a deep run here, which we all know where that road goes, you know, you have to be able to do these things and you have to be able to play clean baseball.
[00:14:46] You can't allow teams to creep back into these types of games because of errors and things like that. That should not happen at this point in the year.
[00:14:58] It was fantastic showing in the SEC tournament, but you saw what happened when you crack the door open for LSU twice.
[00:15:10] This team should know how fragile these things can be.
[00:15:14] But hopefully a couple days rest will do the team good, especially the pitching staff. But, yeah, this team just has to go in, play their game, you know, I mean, got some good teams. You know, you don't make a regional if you're bad, right? James Madison Bryant. I can't say I'm super familiar with everything they've done this year, but it's a team that South Carolina, you know, teams that South Carolina hasn't faced sometimes that can always be tricky from conferences you don't always play against.
[00:15:52] So teams got to be ready, got to be prepared for the unexpected. Expect the unexpected as it goes.
[00:15:59] Throw your best arms out there, get yourself into the best possible position in that first game, and then see where it goes.
[00:16:09] But I do think this regional shook out well for South Carolina as opposed to some of the other ones that we've seen out there. So should be happy that this team played so well in the conference tournament to get to a more advantageous position in the regionals.
[00:16:29] And all we can do is just hope that few days rest does the team good and sit back, relax, and we got post season baseball, y'all. I mean, we're here. We're in the regionals. We can talk about leadership of this program. We can talk about what this program has done.
[00:16:48] We certainly can do that right now. It's the time to realize that we are where you need to be. You're in the regionals now. You have to go out there and perform. There's no excuses.
[00:17:02] We've seen this team win lately. We've seen what this team can do. We need those bats to stay hot. We need the arms to come out fresh.
[00:17:11] And let's go. But like I said, I will break down the opponents, the schedule, all that next episode. But for now, a little bit on the short side here. 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.
