Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, men's basketball gets a victory. Women's basketball has another big matchup. And men's tennis takes on Clemson. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay.
[00:00:56] Welcome to episode three, 371 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. Hope y' all are bundled up. Gamecocks. I mean, seriously, like, the entire.
[00:01:15] It feels like almost half the country, at this rate, is dealing with this winter weather that's just barreling towards us. I mean, they're making it sound like the end times. I was in the grocery store and it felt like the walking dead. I'm in here elbowing people, just. Just trying to get some peanut butter, man. You know, just trying to get some extra chips. I don't know. We'll. We'll see how it goes.
[00:01:38] You know, in all seriousness, stay warm, stay safe. Don't go on the roads if you don't have to. Especially they're saying it's gonna be so icy. So, yeah, I mean, you got a Saturday night and a Sunday that, you know, you're probably gonna have to be home.
[00:01:53] Got the NFL playoffs on. Perfect excuse to put a movie on. You got college basketball going on, men's basketball, women's basketball from the Gamecocks all this weekend. So not a bad excuse to stay home. Me, I think it's a perfect excuse to break dry January. Little bit of a humble brag there that your boy has made it this far, but if you're telling me I'm gonna be iced in, yeah, I'm gonna crack open a couple and enjoy myself and watch some Gamecock sports. But, yeah, very interesting stuff. We'll see how it goes. I'll see y' all on the other side on Monday here. And, man, what a national championship, huh? I feel like I gotta talk about it. Indiana, of all programs, just the historic turnaround and accomplishment that they did. And as a fan of a school that maybe not in the same boat as Indiana has been historically, but certainly as one of those outsider schools, a non blue blood school, a school and fan base that would, you know, kill to be in that position. Right. And I would certainly argue, and I think win the argument, that football is more important at South Carolina historically than at a place like Indiana that has traditionally been viewed as a basketball school. Everyone loves their football, but y' all know what I'm trying to say, and it's cool. I mean, I think for fans like us, of these Types of programs, the door is open a little bit and it really goes to show that, hey, in this new era, whatever we want to call this era, right, where you can bring in a bunch of talent, you can scout a specific type of player and try and bring that type of player in, you can work your magic with the numbers and you can do some crowdsourcing and do some fundraising and yes, alumni bases vary and you know, what everyone can give varies. But you can build your roster now and stand toe to toe and surpass a big boy like a Miami, like in Alabama, like in Oklahoma, like a Georgia. Right.
[00:04:06] It's pretty cool to see. Now, look, I think the coaching staff they have there is special.
[00:04:11] I think the coaching staff at South Carolina is quite good.
[00:04:15] You know, I mean, I think in this past offseason we've seen a lot of growth from Shane Beamer. And I think you look at the staff now on both sides of the ball, of course, without a game being played in 2026. But you look at the staff and I, I don't know if I, I think I'd stop short of saying that it's a national championship caliber staff, but I certainly think this is a staff that can compete with the likes of them. Absolutely. You know, and I think Shane Bieber needs to con. Needs to continue to grow personally and professionally. You know, you see some of the traits of a Signetti, of a Saban, right. And I think Beamer has his own style and we love him for it.
[00:04:59] Love him or hate them for it, I guess you could say. But you continue to develop in these things and you'll never know, but it's pretty cool to see and if we're going to dig a little deeper here. The playoff format in my mind was proven to work this year. I mean, you have Miami, who was on the bubble, gets in.
[00:05:22] They had, what was it, two losses, I think. So A couple losses did not kill their season like it would have in the past.
[00:05:31] They got in and they found themselves a little bit in the back half of the year and they got hot and next thing you know, they're in, they're in the tournament and they go on a run and they're right there.
[00:05:45] And we can look back two years and you know, know that Carolina came up just short of making it in there and there's a couple of games, a couple of plays we wish we had back.
[00:05:55] But it just goes to show that you can get in as a low seed and seeding doesn't really matter as much as it does maybe in the NCAA tournament.
[00:06:06] Basketball home field advantage, of course, is huge. But look what Miami did at A and M.
[00:06:12] So it gives us hope. I think a lot of people watch that championship game Monday night or whenever it was and said, wow, like maybe, just maybe we could be there one day. And it's pretty cool to see and it's fun, but let's get a winning record first. My God, we won four games last year. I can't believe it. All right, let's, let's, let's refocus here. Weekly recap. Okay, I don't have a ton for y', all, but we have men's tennis. Took on Clemson team from the upstate. Unfortunately, they did take the L4 to 2. So we're not going to talk about too much, but that's all right.
[00:06:55] Screw the Tigers.
[00:06:57] The guys will get them next time. But there's a lot of action going on this weekend. We'll see if any of it gets disturbed with the weather. But looking at games that have been played and scores to report on, talking men's basketball here and got some good news here. We got some pep in my step.
[00:07:13] Talking about the Gamecock men's basketball victory at home, SEC win at home, beating Oklahoma 85 to 76. I talked about it going into this game that when you looked at Oklahoma, it was a team record wise that looked a hell of a lot like South Carolina. And that's where I, and that's what I talked about, where this team, if they play well, can hang with some of the, we can hang with a good portion of the league. But there are some teams that if they have an off night and we have a good night, you can beat them. And that's exactly what happened against Oklahoma. A team that has struggled in their own right. Yes, a team that very well could finish towards the bottom of the SEC likely along with us.
[00:08:00] But when you play each other, who cares?
[00:08:03] The guys came out and did exactly what they needed to do. It was a wire to wire victory similar to the LSU victory. So I think you're seeing a pattern here where if this team is going to really want to win in the league, they have to start fast. We've had these games where it's been clawing back and getting it close and you're right there and you just can't get over the hump.
[00:08:30] That's not going to cut it. And Lamont Paris talked about that a little bit. He said if you are able to, to start fast, you build yourself that buffer.
[00:08:39] And in so Many words. I'm paraphrasing. I think he said he would prefer to have his teams start fast, which I think most coaches would say, but nonetheless. Right, you rather have to fend off a couple of runs, which is what South Carolina did in this one, as opposed to having to try and climb yourself out of the hole, which is what we have seen not just this year, but in past years under Lamont Paris as well. So, yeah, the guy started off well, took a lead into halftime, fended off a couple of runs. This lead did shrink. It was double digits for a good bit. It shrunk to single digits, I believe. Got down to a two possession game there.
[00:09:18] But the guys were able to hit their clutch free throws late and that fended off shout out Meeche, shout out Mike.
[00:09:26] That's what we talked about, you know, game against Auburn, it was free throws and the three pointer that failed South Carolina.
[00:09:35] This game, it actually is what thrived and you saw some strong scoring and you also saw a tighter rotation from Lamont Paris. Eli Ellis was hurt. I think that played a factor into it. He's battling. I believe it's a left ankle, but I think you're seeing Lamont Paris try and narrow down the scope here of who's going to play a lot of minutes and maybe that's the key here. So it was an impressive win from the guys. You know, you're, you're going to take what you can get, especially at home, sitting with two conference wins now and being competitive, you know, in a couple of these here, even in those, those four losses in the league. So yeah, while I'm not jumping on the table saying South Carolina basketball has arrived, this is a good win. And I think this is the type of game that you can see from this team throughout SEC play where it's that bottom half of the SEC I think we can really run with. And when we are clicking on all cylinders, we can make, we can make it challenging on some of these other squads here. So was a good win there.
[00:10:49] Player highlights from this game, Michi Johnson led the way with 20 points. Kobe Knox with 18. Elijah Strong.
[00:10:56] Very impressive performance here by Elijah with 17 points and five boards. So again, just an overall good team effort.
[00:11:07] Next up for the guys, they are on the road, flying halfway across the country. I wonder if this game is going to be impacted by weather here.
[00:11:16] I think we'll be all right. Saturday.
[00:11:18] Saturday afternoon at Texas A and M. Guys taking on the Aggies here. A and M is currently sitting at 15 and 4, 5 and 1 in the SEC they are atop the league tied with Florida there. So this is no slouch of a game here. A and M been a pretty solid program in the SEC going back the last couple of years. Now looking at the numbers here, they like to score in bunches. Almost 92 points a game compared to Carolina's 80 points against 77 compared to Carolina 72. So it's going to be a challenge. And if South Carolina can do the little things right like protecting the ball, it could be, you know, you could see if you can hang with these guys, you know. And it's just these couple of things that we're talking about. Where can you protect the ball, can you hit those free throws late and can you rally and try and drag A and M into our type of game? Like yes, we can get hot from the three point range which we saw against Oklahoma. We've seen it in other games but it tends to be a game where we're trying to be drag out fight right? So crow to the game here is can you make A and M play down to you. We have better defense if you can limit their scoring, slow down their attack, make them work methodically, play down to you, hit your threes when you are available, see if you can give the ags a run for their money there. And that would be something, that really would be something there. But let's see Saturday 3:30 Eastern tip off in College Station. Going to be a fun one here.
[00:13:02] And then moving over to the women's side of things per the typical cadence here, the ladies are set the tip off as I am recording this, they also taking on Oklahoma which is a pretty good matchup in and of itself.
[00:13:16] As of recording this, Oklahoma is ranked 16th, so nearly a top 15 matchup on the road. So no slouch of a game there. Also we'll see how the ladies do. Of course coming off the big win off of Texas just a week ago and then rolling against Copper State. But Sunday afternoon gonna be iced in, you're gonna be chilly. You're gonna be looking for something to do. Tune in 3pm against Vanderbilt. Now I'm going to operate under the assumption that this game is going to be played.
[00:13:50] I saw some discourse online saying that there is a chance that with how I see the roads could be this game I guess could get canceled, right? Like if Vanderbilt can't physically make it to Columbia or if the roads are impassable, getting to and from Colonial life. I suppose that very well could be the case. But we're not going to worry about that right now. If it is, we'll, we'll talk about what the ladies do to make up that game later on in the year. But right now, sitting here, it's said to be a top five matchup. Vandy is 19, 050 in the SEC. Vanderbilt across basketball programs is having a pretty good year. Keep an eye on them come March. So a pretty big time matchup that we're talking about Sunday in front of the fams as Carolina taking on yet again another formidable SEC opponent. Vandy scoring 86 points a game compared to Carolina's 89 with rounding. But it is Carolina's defense that stands out.
[00:14:58] The Commodores with 58 points allowed per game compared to 53 for South Carolina. So I think that will be ultimately what you're going to be looking for defensively. Can you force more turnovers than Vanderbilt gives up per game?
[00:15:16] Can you have that signature late quarter, third or fourth where you really throw off their game and they have a low scoring total and, and can you keep their top scorers below what they like to do? Mikayla Blake's scoring 25 points per game for the Commodores. If you can knock her down to about 20 or even less than that, that's a massive win. It's going to put Vanderbilt in a big time deficit. Going to look for Joyce Edwards to have a fantastic game in this one. And can Medina keep up the hot streak that she has been on? She's a beast on the boards. She was flourishing offensively against Texas. Can we see some more of that? And Alicia Turnabay, our French ambassador, does she continue to develop and log some important minutes in this one? I will.
[00:16:08] I won't hold my breath for that one. I think we're still ramping Alicia up in that regards, but definitely something to keep an eye out for. So everywhere you look, we got nothing but good Gamecock action this weekend.
[00:16:24] Not a lot to report in terms of anything from the football team.
[00:16:28] Portal is really winding down when you, when you look at, you know, the, the add and drop date academics and things like that. So really not a whole lot to go over there. But yeah, with that, that wraps up this episode. Quick one today.
[00:16:43] 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.
