Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, men's basketball loses in a blowout, Women's basketball has a big matchup, and the football program retains a key lineman. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:55] Okay.
[00:00:57] Welcome to episode three, 369 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. First off, shout out Little John, episode 369. How about that? Moving along here. It's pretty crazy to see. Funny to look back and there's the whole trend now of like, oh, it feels like 2016 again, like, look back to pictures and stuff like that. It's fun to look back at some of the notes I have from seasons past. And the more things change, the more they stay the same in many regards. But nonetheless, hope y' all are excited for a good weekend ahead.
[00:01:37] Excited to watch a lot of good playoff games. College basketball is really heating up. Of course, we got the national championship on Monday, which I will touch on a little bit at the end. But yes, we have made it through another week and excited for the weekend that that lies ahead.
[00:01:54] Hope you all are staying warm. It's been cold here in the Southeast, just not fun, not fun here. But I do have a good bit of stuff to go over today.
[00:02:03] So let's jump right into things here. No other scores to review from outside of the major sports during this midweek here, but I do have some news and thoughts on the football program. So got a couple of roster updates as that's the type of news that we have from the team nowadays.
[00:02:20] So first off, a bit of surprising news came from Josiah Thompson. Lineman Josiah Thompson, former five star recruit, has decided to withdraw his name from the transfer portal and is in fact staying at South Carolina. So this was an announcement that was all over social media both ways when he decided to enter the transfer portal. It was talked about. You know, I said that it's a big loss. You don't want to lose a guy who's that talented, who maybe had his struggles, especially his sophomore year.
[00:02:56] But then of course, with every lineman that we've lost, the other side of the argument was, well, that unit was bad for the last couple of years and any new blood should be welcomed here. But I think this is a big piece of news and it speaks to a couple of things.
[00:03:11] One, this is kind of a departure from what we've seen Shane Beamer do in the past.
[00:03:17] He's tended to take a pretty hard stance on if you've gone in the portal or you intend to sit out or do something that's other than working together within the program and, you know, doing the thing, then you're gone.
[00:03:35] You know, you saw an exception with Robbie Ashford for that bowl game, but you haven't really seen it. I mean, Gilbert Edmond, he left and then wanted to come back, but they had a year buffer there. This is the time, at least that I can think of, and I don't think I'm wrong here, where Beamer has welcomed back somebody who was very much in the transfer portal, took visits, was in talks with the University of Georgia and Miami and ultimately decided for one reason or another to come back. So I think maybe there was some underestimation of his value on an open market, so to speak. But I do think that this speaks to what Shane Beamer has in that building, that someone could go through that process and visit other schools and talk to other coaches and still say, you know what, I want to come back if you'll have me.
[00:04:31] I think it speaks to the culture in the building, the coaches that he's brought in and just everything that they have inside that locker room. So it is a testament to Beamer who has retained some big pieces on this team. And make no mistake about it, Thompson is a big piece. Yes, we have brought in some high caliber offensive linemen via the transfer portal, guys who fit the mold in every which way that you want in the measurables in the experience.
[00:05:02] Obviously Briles and Clem are looking at them thinking that they fit their mold and everything like that.
[00:05:09] But there's still, I believe it's a net loss from guys who left the program to the guys that you brought in. So Thompson is going to help reduce that delta. But also he is a good football player. He came in highly recruited, played as a true freshman, was good right out of the gates and he had a sophomore slump. But that entire line had a slump last year and the year before that. Then even then Josiah was a bright spot. So he's bringing the size and the skills, then the raw ability. If nothing else, he has a couple of years to develop if he gets conditioned the right way. With this coaching and with, with this program that Briles is bringing in, I think it's a net win and I do think it's a continued evolution of what we've seen from Shane Beamer and this portal season where some of the things he's done in the past, whether it's guys he's hired, players he's brought in, the type of player he's evaluated. It's all looking a little different than in years past. And I think it's because Beamer knows he can't be messing around this upcoming season. So anybody who's willing to stay or come back to South Carolina, that has the skills and obviously he likes him, he recruited him, is welcome back. So I think that's a good piece of news there. And then similar vein to that, Jaluis Solomon announced he is returning. There was some weird, conflicting reports that he intended to enter the transfer portal. He did not. Hopefully we don't hear much more news about entering the transfer portal. I think it's set to close, so if anything, I think you can just work with the academic department and things like that to bring more players in. I know there's a few visitors over this weekend, but hopefully we don't hear of any more departures. And then, funny note here, I don't know if y' all have seen the, the Mike Smith situation that has developed there, but tight end Mike Smith, who mid season said he wanted to preserve his red shirt and was going to enter the transfer portal, was then subsequently dismissed from the team per Beamer's typical procedure and rightfully so.
[00:07:24] He was basically in talks or he committed to Syracuse, but then it was reported that he wanted to come back also and South Carolina was willing to have him back, which that's a big, that's an even bigger departure than Josiah. Right.
[00:07:41] And only to find out that I guess whatever he signed at Syracuse is pretty binding. So lesson learned there. Read the fine print.
[00:07:51] And I don't know, I think Mike Smith is going to go through a fall camp and a season football season up in Syracuse, New York, and realize that life in Columbia ain't so bad.
[00:08:04] And hopefully we do see him at some point in the future in the garnet in black. But yes, nonetheless, a very whiplash couple of days here from the football team and I think they're back in the building. I think they're doing some, some winter meetings and workouts and things like that. That's always an exciting time. You get some really good content there. So will be fun to stay tuned.
[00:08:25] But all right, talking about scores now. I was, I was trying to delay this. As you can see, he was really trying to drag out that segment because now we have to talk about men's basketball and trigger warning here. I mean, if you want to skip to the last few minutes of the episode and go past this, I don't BL South Carolina on the road in Arkansas. Excuse me on the road in Arkansas and it was a very poor showing, to say the least. Gamecock's getting blown out 108 to 74. And even Lamont Paris said it was a 34 point win or 34 point loss. But it wasn't even like that. Basically saying it could have been more. But my goodness, I mean, I don't, I don't really know. This is, I mean, Arkansas, they obviously have Cal, they have talent, they have the coaching. This was exhibit A of how this current roster for this team, this Gamecocks team, is just not built to play game in and game out. With the sec, we were getting bullied down low and then we were not hitting our threes. So basically I've said this before, but we're a team that's designed and built to theoretically shoot the three and hit the three at a big clip. And that would be our strength. Only problem is we haven't done that consistently at all against power four competition.
[00:09:55] Gamecocks were down 12 at the half and Arkansas had, I think they were over a hundred with. I think it was like six minutes to go. It was just a completely poor, poor showing.
[00:10:10] I don't even know where to begin. Michi, he had 29 points. No one else, in double figures.
[00:10:16] It's tough. I mean, I think it's a situation where I, I said this after the guys beat LSU that I think.
[00:10:27] And I, I know that this team is better than the, than the guys the team we fielded last season. I know that they are deeper, they are more experienced, etc. Etc.
[00:10:41] But we're still not very good compared to the rest of the league, is what it is better than last year. And last year we were ass, so now we're like less ass.
[00:10:50] And I think it's a deal where if we play our B plus to A game, we can hang with teams so long as they play their B to C game.
[00:11:09] We can beat some teams in the league if they play their C game. If a team has an off night or a really bad half, kind of what you saw in lsu, we can take advantage of it if we're playing on all cylinders, if we're clicking on all cylinders. But the problem is then you're really just hoping that the other team has an off night. And what kind of strategy is that?
[00:11:36] It's not one.
[00:11:39] And so there's a lot of chatter about Lamont Paris, a lot of chatter about this roster and everything.
[00:11:50] And you know, I've been so up and down with this team. Like, I think what it is. It's just I'm a prisoner of hope at times to Gamecock athletics, and I'm a prisoner of hope that I don't want to have to admit that we made a mistake, hired the wrong guy. So I hold on to this hope for too long, and it's still early enough in SEC play that I, again, am believing, you know, maybe foolishly, that maybe this team can go on a little bit of a run. But the fact of the matter is this.
[00:12:24] There was one year where Lamont Paris was able to recruit well and get guys to fit what he wanted to do.
[00:12:33] And I don't know what to attribute that to. It was Lamont's second year.
[00:12:39] He needed to make an improvement. He went the extra mile, got some of these guys from the Portal, and you had CMB who stayed and turned out to be really, really good.
[00:12:52] So is it you caught lightning in the bottle, or was it that you went into year two knowing that you had to make an improvement?
[00:13:03] You were really dialed in on the recruiting aspect of it, and you took your foot off the gas afterwards. Because we haven't had a team that looked even remotely close to that team that made the tournament. And we were legitimately good that year.
[00:13:18] Michi and Talon, you know, complementing each other well. You had really good post play. You had a deep bench, exciting young talent.
[00:13:28] And so I think more than anything these last two years or the. The Paris tenure, to that fact, I think it's just more of an indictment on his inability to recruit or his inability to. To see how to build an SEC roster.
[00:13:49] You know, I mean, and that's. And that's kind of where you scratch your head, because he has so much experience with really good basketball teams throughout his career, and so it is disappointing.
[00:14:04] And when you look at men's basketball at South Carolina, like, their history can tell you that we can be pretty good.
[00:14:13] Like, this is not a barren recruiting area.
[00:14:17] It's a different situation landscape wise than football.
[00:14:23] There are good teams and good stretches where you can point to and say, yeah, like, South Carolina has held its own at times in basketball. Like, not just blips on the radar.
[00:14:35] I mean, before Paris got here, you know, we weren't.
[00:14:40] You know, things went stale. I don't want to rehash this too much, but, like, things went stale.
[00:14:45] You weren't getting into the postseason, which, in a postseason as big as college basketball is, that's what you need to be doing. But. But we would still be at least respectable in the sec. We were always a Tough out.
[00:14:57] There's been blowout loss after blowout loss, non competitiveness throughout Paris's tenure, really, for three out of four years.
[00:15:10] And so it's not okay.
[00:15:12] It's not okay. I mean, and then you look at the rest of the sec, you look at, you know, places like Alabama, Auburn, you know, historically football schools didn't prioritize basketball for the most part, and now they're perennially good.
[00:15:30] So something's got to give in that program.
[00:15:35] Either a drastic change needs, I mean, a drastic change needs to be made, no matter what, right?
[00:15:41] It's either you give Paris another year with the, I, I don't know, with the promise, the handshake agreement under the guise of he's going to radically change how he recruits and builds a roster, or you have to go in a different direction because you got basically like three out of four years where the team is not competitive and that's that, you know, and it's a shame. It's a shame. I think we all want men's basketball to be good, but nonetheless, we will see what the future brings there as we keep, keep on, keeping on the guys. Next game is Saturday night at Auburn.
[00:16:26] Speaking of devil there. So back to back, tough road games there for the guys. We'll see. We'll see what they can muster up. And then looking on the other side of things here, women's basketball, they are in action as I am recording this in a massive matchup against Texas. And I talked about the implications of this last episode.
[00:16:47] We got to see something good here. I think, you know, if you are in this game, competitive, playing hard, it will pay dividends down the line.
[00:16:56] I'm excited to see how they do in a rematch with a really tough opponent, one that, you know, we are quite familiar with.
[00:17:05] And I'm excited to, to see where it goes. I'm going to catch most of that game and then of course, we'll talk about it next episode with y' all and on social media as well.
[00:17:16] And then looking at the rest of the weekend, here it is, national championship weekend, Monday night, Indiana taking on Miami. It's sad to see another football season come to a close. And you know, my gripes about it being on a Monday night, you know, I can shout that into ever and no one will get back to me. But nonetheless, should be a very interesting game. I mean, you have Indiana, which is the talk of college football, seemingly doing everything right. They are rolling through everybody. Then you have Miami. A very interesting story, a good season, couple of off games that almost kept them out of this playoff. But once they got in, they certainly proved that they deserved to be in. Really fantastic defense, very physical, strong offensive line pieces on that offense that really complement each other well.
[00:18:11] And of course, this game is in Miami at the stadium where they play.
[00:18:16] Indiana loves to boast they have the largest living alumni base. I'm like, what the hell does that even mean? Like, sure, technically, I guess, whatever, who cares? But.
[00:18:25] So there's probably gonna be a lot of Indiana fans, but there's probably gonna be a lot of Miami fans. And are these guys gonna probably stay in the normal hotel where they stay at? So it's gonna be very interesting.
[00:18:35] I have two picks for you here.
[00:18:38] I've picked against Indiana pretty much every step of this way.
[00:18:42] Thinking that the Cinderella story has to come to an end, I'm changing it up. I think at this point, the Cinderella story has to come to a positive end. Cinderella gets. Gets the man. Indiana minus eight and a half. To me, it's just, they've whooped everybody. You just have to pick this and then also give me the under of 48. And we'll hope for a defensive battle, but nonetheless, 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 Cocks.
