Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, Lamont Paris is retained. The basketball season ends and baseball begins SEC play. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay.
[00:00:55] Welcome to episode 380 of. Of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. It is set to be a fantastic weekend here for college sports fans. You have the conference tournament going on, lot of action, wall to wall college basketball gearing us up for March Madison, and you got a lot of St. Pat's festivities take place this weekend. So a perfect storm of, of just action and reckless abandon and whatever else you want to say. So really excited. Looking forward to that. The weather is nice. It's just vibes are up for the grand scheme of things in terms of college sports watching, if you will. But I'm going to jump right into things here. A little different of a format here. I know I've changed up the scheduling format and I. I just can't wait to talk about this. I'm not going to bury the news after the reviews and the scores and everything, so I'm going to get into that. I have to lead off this show with the news that dropped earlier this week in that Lamont Paris, South Carolina men's basketball coach, is being retained. That news came just before the SEC tournament started and left a lot of people, myself included, kind of throwing your hands up in the air like that is certainly not the news that we were expecting. But it is funny because as this thing was going on, you saw these tidbits of news and speculation being put out there that he could be retained.
[00:02:41] And I kind of shrugged it off as, nah, nah, nah, that's, you know, people aren't in the know. And then you start to see some Carolina beat writers starting to get in on it saying, well, you know, he just might be retained. And sure enough, it happened. Jeremiah Donati releasing a statement really, really supporting Lamont Paris, which, you know, you better be if you're retaining him, but citing his experience and his faith in Lamont Paris, citing his tournament appearance two years ago, but saying that the college athletics landscape has changed and is ever changing, and they are going to be reevaluating the program in so many words, and they're going to be dedicating more resources to be more on par.
[00:03:32] And it's just kind of been reported and known that there's going to be some other evaluations that go on with other staff members and things like that. So I don't think this is a situation where it's just, let's run it back and hope for the best. I think we're going to see some assistance, be relieved. I could see them bringing in, for lack of a better term, a gm, someone to help with scouting and roster management, things like that.
[00:04:00] And then there's going to be presumably more nil resources dedicated to men's basketball. It has been reported several times that South Carolina lags behind a lot of the SEC in that area for men's basketball. But at the same time, you can look at Kentucky, who is at the top of the spending. I think it was $20 million on their roster and they're having a very middle of the road season themselves. So it's not a one to one equation here. But my reaction to this was I was very surprised. I understand that he has a lot of years left on the contract. Thank you, Ray Tanner. He has a large buyout, which I think really is the huge motivator behind keeping him. Again, thank you, Ray Tanner. But I was still of the opinion that if you were very serious about turning this program around and if you were very serious about sending a message to the fan base that this level of competitiveness or lack thereof, is not acceptable, that you would have found a way to get this done.
[00:05:14] It's a very unserious moment. You know, there's a lot of people who are already saying they're displeased with Donati and things like that. I'm not going down that road, Trump, just yet, okay?
[00:05:25] That guy is in a very unenviable situation. He's got a ton on his plate. He's done some really good things with Willie B. He helped bring in Kendall Briles. But I. This is a weird decision and I think you're slapping on this. All right, well, look, college basketball is so different than it was just a couple of years ago when we went on that tournament run and we're lagging behind in certain areas.
[00:05:54] How. How are you going to magically come up with this nil money? That's my question. Like, is there a booster who's saying, I love Lamont Paris so I'm actually going to give more because to me, this signals you had two horrible years.
[00:06:12] Why am I supposed to just have blind faith that he can turn it around? And believe me, I'd love him to. I was very energized by his hire.
[00:06:24] That first year was tough. That second year was electric. I believed in him. I think he's a good person.
[00:06:30] I think he's a good Teacher, I don't know what's. I just don't know. Maybe his roster management is lacking. His recruiting I don't think is good.
[00:06:40] I don't know if he's built for the modern sec.
[00:06:44] I don't think he understands the avenues in which to communicate with players like social media and things like that, as well as other coaches. But I'd love for him to succeed, right? Like, I want to be good at basketball, but just to me, the proof was in the pudding. And I think we needed a change, but the leaders at B said no.
[00:07:05] So whether it's the buyout, whether it is truly them looking at this thing and saying it doesn't matter who's at the helm, with the NIL budget that we have had, you're just not going to have a ton of success. And that, to me, is a crutch. A little bit. Like, we need to be more competitive in nil. And I've been a proponent of people giving what they feel comfortable giving.
[00:07:29] But at the same time, you can't just throw your hands up and say, well, it's the nil. Or, well, no. Like, you can certainly look around the country and there are coaches doing a lot with a little.
[00:07:44] And so look, we can debate it until the cows come home. Lamont Paris is staying, right? So we better get on board. We have to turn this season off, flush it away. I'm going to talk about the last game in a second here, and we have to hope that Donati and everybody else involved in the basketball program, lamont Paris, Jeremiah 90, all the assistants, everyone is very serious about turning this around because keeping him is a very questionable move. And yeah, maybe their hand was forced a little bit financially, but nonetheless, a interesting bit of news that caused a good bit of discussion, but we have our basketball coach, right? Like, there's no more questions about it. Lamont Paris is coming back. We got to support him. Let's. Let's move on from this and let's. Let's put some hope in that he can turn this thing around because it would be good to have a good basketball team.
[00:08:39] But then aside from that, we have some other week in review to go into here. Monday, the women's golf team finished first in the shootout at Waukeshasa. Someone's gonna torch my mispronunciation of that. It's Merle's, Merles. And yes. Shout out to the. Shout out to the women's golf team.
[00:08:58] Big first win of the season. That's super exciting. Men's golf finished Seventh in the hate, just the hate hate tournament. Tuesday softball lost to Duke and Wednesday softball beat Coastal Carolina 12 2. Sort of an up and down year thus far for softball. I'd like to see them settle in and get on a roll here.
[00:09:21] Women's basketball last weekend of course made it to the SEC championship game and fell short. That was just an off game. You know, it just from, from the jump. Slow start from the ladies not able to really get back on that big run. Credit to Texas. They came out ready to play. Came out firing.
[00:09:42] Was a tough one. Not a familiar sight seeing us come up short like that in the SEC tournament. But nonetheless, that is the benefit, I guess you could say of having such an accomplished team this year is that there really is life after death.
[00:09:58] There's been adversity with this team throughout the year and we sit here now waiting for selection Sunday for the NCAA tournament. The ladies are going to be a number one seed. It's just a matter of where are they going. And I think this loss probably puts us on the west coast, which is tough. But those early first two rounds, ladies should be able to handle their business pretty well. It's when we talk about the sweet 16 and beyond, you know, what does travel look like for the fams? And they'll be out in full force. But yeah, really just sitting tight, waiting for this Sunday to see where all that goes.
[00:10:39] And then on the men's basketball side of things. So again it's just funny we had this big news drop and then off the heels of Ameche buzzer beater to win the last game of the regular season to then go to the SEC tournament first round game against Oklahoma. Believe it was Wednesday, Wednesday night it was late tip like nine, 9:30.
[00:11:04] But the guys were a one and done in the SEC tournament here. Lost to Oklahoma 86 to 74. Was a close game at the half, but Oklahoma pulled away in the second. So the season is officially over.
[00:11:18] Kobe Knox had 20 points, Mike Sharp Sharpen Johns had 19 and Michi had 14. And yeah, so then you sit here after a one and done in the SEC tournament, which was really not a surprise. It was a very fun way to end the regular season with that W.
[00:11:41] And then you had the news of Lamont Paris and it all just leads to what will be a very interesting off season to say the least.
[00:11:51] You know, and they've spoken to Lamont Paris a little bit about where things stand after the the news dropped and things like that about how this season went. What could you have done better and things like that. And he.
[00:12:07] He did cite the changing landscape and just how different recruiting and scouting is and talking about how when he was at Wisconsin, you know, he had a. He had a tough job where he had to sell players on coming to wisco, where it's miserable during basketball season, freezing cold. But he was able to build the relationships over time.
[00:12:32] And then you're also able to get guys on campus and develop them for a couple of years. And we all know that that's just not the case anymore. But he was talking about, specifically with recruiting.
[00:12:46] It's just different than he was brought up in. And you're not attending as many AAU games. The transfer portal is a totally different wrinkle than you had, you know, however many years ago.
[00:12:58] And then he was talking about, you know, what is he. What is he going to look for moving forward in his roster? And one of the things he talked about was competitiveness and just how hard it is to compete in the sec. And he cited that there were a few games where you could just tell almost off the jump that the team just didn't have it that night. And we talked about that throughout the season.
[00:13:19] And he's going to need guys who are ready to bring it day in and day out and accept their roles, whatever that may be.
[00:13:28] And then, you know, there's talks about, do you roster fewer guys, maybe? And that helps you spread out the money a little differently and guys have more clearer, defined roles. But it is all very interesting and it's tough because everyone wants to be a star, and with the transfer portal and Nil and things like that, everyone wants their moment. Everyone wants to get paid.
[00:13:53] So it is different.
[00:13:54] And the school of thought that Lamont Paris was brought up in and instituted at Chattanooga and has tried to institute South Carolina is a different way of thinking. But we've seen him utilize the portal well before.
[00:14:09] It's just a matter of can you do it again and can you do it consistently? Like, you can't be losing out on some of these recruiting battles.
[00:14:16] When we went to the tournament, everyone did have those defined roles. Michi was a two Talon, Cooper, the one, bj, Mack, Miles, Studi.
[00:14:25] Everyone played their part well, and since then, the rosters have not looked like that.
[00:14:31] And so I think you do, in fact, have to bring in someone with that advanced scouting, GM type of background to help Lamont Paris.
[00:14:43] And it's crazy that we talk about these types of roles in the football side of things. I hadn't even really considered it on the basketball, but yeah, you absolutely do need that.
[00:14:53] So it'll be very interesting to see.
[00:14:56] But nonetheless, men's basketball season comes to a rather merciful close. And look, I want nothing but the best for this team. Like this season stunk. It's not any hate or tough, tough talk on, on these players, like, you know, college athletes, you know, they go in there and compete. It's a team effort, right? And I wish nothing but the best for these guys, especially a guy like Meeche Johnson that really gave his all to the program. But.
[00:15:26] All right, moving on. Moving on to more cheerful topics, if only talking the baseball team.
[00:15:34] The Yardcocks were in action a midweek game Tuesday against the Citadel in Charleston and lost 8 to 3.
[00:15:42] Now, it was a battle in the early innings, but Citadel pulled away with three runs in the eighth. Tricky place to play.
[00:15:49] We know if you go back recent memory, it has given the Gamecocks trouble, but nonetheless, like when we're talking about a team that already is on uneasy footing with the fan base, any loss, despite history or the other team really is just gonna get magnified. Alex Philpott got the start in this one and the loss.
[00:16:10] Player highlights, Will Craddock, two for three with two rbi. He came to play in this game and Tyler back went 1 for 3. So a disappointing midweek effort by the Gamecocks. And up next, SEC play begins.
[00:16:25] Very exciting time. And of course, you know, you look back a week ago, the Gamecocks had a really nice weekend series against Princeton. So makes you think, like, can the guys keep up some of that momentum going into this series? This weekend series against Florida, can the rotation have a nice groove and things like that? But it's going to be tough taking on Florida in Gainesville. And you know, I say it every sport, really, when you get into SEC play, this is where the rubber meets the road, right? Like, this team has had a less than stellar start and there's plenty of things and plenty of games we can point to as areas of concern.
[00:17:08] But the hope going into this year was to be more competitive in the sec, right? It was one of, or maybe it was even the worst record statistically in the SEC last year was right there at the bottom, right?
[00:17:25] So the hope was, can you show improvement in, in the league this year? Like, this is where you have a chance to try and make us fans proud, okay? And you're right out of the gate with a tough task playing in Gainesville, and let's see what the guys can do. I mean, that's really all you can right you know, and if, if you can have a good series against Florida, I think that it can give a boost to this team, which really, I think is what is what they need. But let's see how it goes. But with that, y', all, that wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, Twitter or 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 Cox.
