Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 18 one to 2001. And it is officially March. March sleeps for no man. It is here. And what a freaking time it is, y'all, that we can look forward to. Just a full month of super competitive and exciting basketball and we can sit down and get ready to fill out brackets for both men and women and we will see our school on that and have the ability to write in our name, click the button and advance however far you see our teams going. Sweet 16, Elite Eight, final four, Natty. But it is so cool, march.
[00:01:52] Aside from college football, which is what's it, three months or so out of the year, March is just the best.
[00:02:00] And then with that you also get the MLB opening day. We're getting a huge series in college baseball for the Gamecocks here. It's just a very great time right now and it's going to be so cool and it is so special for both of these programs and for those of us who have really followed this university and the sports and everything like that. Ups, downs, high, lows. This is it. This is why you do it right for these moments. I'm going to get into all that in a few seconds here, but I think all of our blood pressure was raised the other night thanks to the men's team. But I guess that was really just prep because the second they tip off in March Madness, whoever they're playing against, I'm going to basically be in heart palpitations, but we got a little bit to go to get there, but nonetheless here. Got a busy episode for you all here, but as always, let's start with a little week in review here. Only got a couple of score updates for y'all here. It was from Wednesday. Both of them men's tennis beat the Citadel seven nothing. And then softball continues to have a very nice season as they beat College of Charleston for nothing. And yeah, that was really the only scores from the week outside of the major sports per se. But the big news that came from the week came out of the football program as the wide receivers coaching vacancy has been filled. I'm not going to rehash really as to why that was open, but there was the whole saga with the guy that we hired. Snake in the grass move went down to Athens. Whatever.
[00:03:42] Shane Beamer has officially hired former limestone head coach Mike Fury to lead the wide receivers room. Fury had been the coach at limestone for the last two seasons. It was actually his second stint as head coach there. But these last two years he was quite successful at that level. But prior to that he was coaching wide receivers in the NFL for the Chicago Bears. Kind of funny. Dalla Loggins was there. You got a little Gamecock connection, the Chicago Gamecocks. Who says no? Probably a lot of people, myself included, but nonetheless here. Fury himself played wide receiver at the NFL for a total of seven seasons, had himself a fine career. Walter Payton, man of the year I think twice. But you love to have a coach who succeeded at the position in which he is coaching. Does that make sense?
[00:04:39] Maybe that's like my dumb brain, my couch coach brain trying to digest some of this news. But sometimes it is interesting when you have a coach, especially at the skill level position, who hasn't really done that before.
[00:04:56] And so it's that little bit extra, right? So you like to see that he is coming from the collegiate ranks, albeit at a smaller school, lower level, not super fresh from the NFL. So he's used to connecting and coaching with young men, student athletes, knows what it takes to connect to them and develop them. A cool note here is that he's actually the second sitting head coach that Beamer was able to hire away from their role to join him as a position coach this season, Sean Elliott being the other one. So you're getting some cool perspective in that. And I think it also speaks to what Shane Beamer has going on at South Carolina. I mean, going to limestone, to the SEC, that probably is a somewhat logical step, but nonetheless, a lot of guys want to be the head man, even at that lower level. And apparently this was a tough decision for Fury, but he ultimately decided to come to, you know, with this hire, if nothing else. Word is he's going to bring an incredible work ethic and when you look at it, it's a guy that pushed through a lot of adversity to have a successful career in the NFL, stay there for, was it multiple seasons? Right? Seven years. That takes a lot of hard work and then rising in the coaching ranks as well. So there may be a little bit of a learning curve with him in terms of recruiting, but that didn't slow down other guys on staff like Sterling Lucas. So don't discredit that right away. Just because he hasn't done it at a high level does not mean he is capable of doing so. I know that there are some folks out there who are maybe a little underwhelmed with this hire, but as far as I'm concerned, he deserves a fair shot to make this work. Let's give it a season or two to see how it goes. And I mean, let's be honest, as long as he doesn't bounce to another school in a couple of weeks, he's already an improvement from the last guy that we had on staff. You know what I mean? And look, a wide receiver's coach is incredibly important. But coming off the year the Gamecocks did last year, I think there's bigger things that we as fans should be concerned about as to where we are improving, right? Wide receivers coach, you want to have that full staff. You don't want to have some guy that was just in five points drinking a beer, right? You want a guy with experience, but let's give him a fair shot at this thing, see how it goes. But hopefully now there are no more surprises, no more departures, and we can finally sit with our coaching staff until the season starts. I'm sure Shane Beamer has just had enough of this, so God bless him for that. But full staff, let's hope it stays that way.
[00:07:53] But now turning to sports that were in action, looking at baseball here, the Yardcocks were in action this past Tuesday for a midweek matchup against Gardner Webb.
[00:08:05] It still feels great and refreshing and new having baseball back, doesn't it? And these midweek games, they're just so fun.
[00:08:16] Whether it's against the small school or a big school, whatever it may be, just nice to have something you can look forward to in the afternoon. Put it on, put work aside. Put schoolwork aside. Pretend to do that and just watch some baseball here. And the boys got the win seven to one here. Eddie Copper got the start and the win. He did give up a solo home run in the second, but didn't allow a run after that. And clearly neither did the bullpen after him. Copper also recorded five strikeouts in five innings of work. It's early, clearly, right, it's early in the year, but it seems that Copper could be the primary midweek starter here. And I like that young guy. You want to be able to save your bigger, more experienced arms for the weekend series if Copper can give you five innings or so every time he goes out there in the midweek and not throw up. Too many clunkers love that. And it would stand a reason only would get better as the year goes on. And as the year goes on, right?
[00:09:18] All the scoring from the Gamecocks came in a massive fifth inning when they scored all seven runs. The guys got the bases juiced, and between some walks and timely hits they tacked on a few runs, but not before Gavin Cassis jacked a three run home run. Player highlights Gavin one for four with the three ribies and then Petri one for three with one RBI. But with that game out of the way, the full focus of this club and Gamecock baseball fans everywhere are on the weekend series against those damn old Clemson Tigers as it is time for the annual rivalry matchup series. Now, there is some questionable weather this weekend, but right now the schedule is that Friday's game will be at founders. Saturday is the neutral site at Segra park this year. Sunday will be up in Clemson. Clemson is currently ranked 10th in the country. They have a seven and one record. Last year this series was electric, especially that neutral sight game, right? But you know that both clubs are going to be ready for battle each and every game. Micro to the series here is our veteran hitters have to be able to carry the burden. So I'm really looking at Messina, Talmudge, Lee Croix, Ethan Petrie and Gavin Cassis. So those are four guys out of nine in the lineup who have experience in this series and have delivered in the clutch for Carolina in big moments. You can throw brewer on that list as well. But me personally, when I'm thinking of the four guys, the four big bats in the lineup, these come to mind. Kausi is off to a good start. He seems like he can rake, but again, not coming in with that experience like these guys have for this series, right? So they have to lead by example. They have to be productive and let's freaking go. So excited. We need to stick it to those guys and that could really catapult this team and this series. You have all the makings, right? You have all the makings to hang with those guys.
[00:11:33] They have a good program themselves. They always have, right? Whatever. So should be tight. One you're going to need to play up. This is a great early season test for how some of these guys will perform in high leverage.
[00:11:48] Know who else from the bullpen is going to step up as well, right? Some of these things we're working through. Where does Matthew Becker pitch? It's going to be all very interesting to see.
[00:11:57] Now, moving on to the hardwood here, talking men's basketball, I'm talking Qzips. As the Qzips were back in action and on the road yet again as the guys were in college station for a game against a and m. And how about a nice, just a nice stress free midweek game with the game in hand. Put your feet up. It was nice, right? Not. That's right. Threw a knot joke in there, because the guys, they came away with another quad, one win, but it certainly raised all of our blood pressures in the process and was anything but stress free as the guys won 70 to 68 thanks to a huge Zachary Davis layup with 3 seconds to go, thanks to a brilliant assist from Michi Johnson, who had himself a game. But I mean, this game, this game, reliving it, it really was a challenge from the start, right? Like, was it not? South Carolina had really an uncharacteristic amount of turnovers, especially in the first half. I think at one point, it was like seven to two in the first half, but all night, it felt like a ref show. And I try not to be a blame the ref guy, but it really just felt like there was a huge discrepancy. Now, I understand that a m. Likes to play that way. They like to get to the line early and often. But even so, it felt like so many calls were going their way, which really led to several of our guys, most notably CMB, getting into foul trouble early and forcing Lamont's hand with his rotations. I mean, you're even seeing Stephen Clark get in there for a good bit. No disrespect, but it's kind of how, you know. But despite all that, the guys went into the half up three, and I was thinking, all right, clean up the turnovers. Clean up the fouls. You'll be all right. They came out firing in that second half, built up a 13 point lead, and then once again, the Gamecock saw a big second half lead disappear to the point where a M actually took the lead by three points at one point in time.
[00:14:21] So I don't really know what else more can be said, except that this is a little bit of a weird trend that we've seen where South Carolina has given up double digit point second half leads. Now, it's a funny thing, because they've been early in the second half, so it's like, there's plenty of time for a team to scratch and claw back, which. That's what happened. A and m got on a run. Basketball is a game of runs. This was a bad one, though.
[00:14:54] So does it raise a little bit of concern for how that will happen come tournament time, come elimination game? Of course. But if you're able to withstand some of those runs and you can play discipline and you don't let them break you, then maybe it is okay, because maybe not okay, but you have to give Lamont and the rest of the team credit because they snapped out of it. And they battled back and they went back and forth with a m as the game was winding. Know, maybe we are a team that tends to give up some of these know, but it's how you respond in those moments. Are you able to keep your composure and trust in your game to get you back into it? Right. So they're going back and forth. A m tied the game with seconds left and Lamont did not call a timeout despite having one because he trusted his guys. As Michi ran down the court and found Davis for the outlet pass layup, that was the difference maker. And if you go back and watch that, it's coaching. It's an incredible job of the guys understanding what to do in that situation. That comes from practice, that comes from almost a full season of playing together where Davis basically mirrored Michi. They were on opposite sides of the floor, but as Michi went to cut in, Davis sort of followed him and he was wide open for that layup. Incredibly smart and unselfish play of Michi. A lot of guys want to go up with that and be the hero. He realizes that he can win this thing right now by his teammate. Having a layup now late in the game prior to know the foul shooting was not great from Carolina. There were some mistakes earlier in the game to keep it close, but it is what it is and the guys right. A win is a win is a win, especially quad one, especially against a team in A and M that is fighting for their tournament.
[00:16:49] You know, do some of these things change as you get to a neutral SEC tournament, NCA tournament? Like, maybe not, but it is certainly some things to note in this game. But despite seeing this lead go away, you have to respect the guys for digging deep and keeping their composure and getting a win right a m used all this energy. They had all this momentum to get back every reason in the world to keep it going. But sometimes when the teams do that, they talked about this on the telecast, that sometimes they run out of gas. Does the team that made the run so Carolina weathered the storm and the result is that, but you really just do have to take a moment and appreciate where this team is.
[00:17:38] Know, I was doing some reading and just looking back at the seasons that Carolina basketball has had historically. How many times were there winning seasons in the SEC? How many times were there winning seasons in general? How often did South Carolina go to the tournament? Like, if you have time, go back and look, because there hasn't been a lot. There's been some great moments. 2017, there's been some good coaches who have had that success, but sometimes it took them a while to get there. Just a couple of seasons even. But you even look way back like Frank McGuire took him a little bit to get it going, brush up on the history and it will really make you appreciate what this season is. And that's even putting aside the fact that last year was just awful and that going into this year this team was picked dead last by the media, right? So seasons like this don't happen all the time.
[00:18:39] I think we all love Lamont. I think we all think Lamont is the guy. We want to see him be locked up and be know locked up contractually.
[00:18:48] But even with that, even having your coach, there are going to be some leaner years and some years you might go further than others. Some years you might have a more talented team than other years. But this has just been such a fantastic whirlwind ride.
[00:19:04] Some player highlights from this game Michi Johnson really returned to form. He's had some better performances of late, but in the win here, love to see it. 22 points, five rebounds, Zachary Davis 16 points. I believe that is a career high. Up next for the Gamecocks is a big time matchup Saturday afternoon against number 24 Florida. So we have a casual top 25 matchup at home this weekend, followed up by baseball facing off against Clemson.
[00:19:36] Timing works out pretty well so it's really a great Saturday to be a Gamecock. Florida is 28 overall, ten and five in the SEC. As a team they are a higher scoring bunch than Carolina, averaging 84 per game compared to Carolina's 72. But they give up points at a much higher rate, allowing 77 per game compared to the staunchy and stingy 65. From the Gamecocks micro to the game here is protect the basketball. The Gamecocks had too many turnovers against A and M and generally the guys have done pretty well in that department. But it's no surprise that when they are loose with the ball, it's the games they struggle, right? Florida is coming into a huge road matchup and they're going to be looking for any crack to take advantage of to get momentum. So Carolina cannot make it any easier for those guys by giving up turnovers and especially points off those turnovers. So hopefully this is a less ticky tack game than we just saw against a m and we can see CMB and BJ Mack ball out a little bit. I'd like to see Michi stay hot and hopefully Miles studio is good to go. He has been banged up still, so if he's been able to play. Get a few minutes there. Would love to see that. But sticking to the hardwood here before we wrap things up, talking women's basketball once again, this is the sad trend. As I'm recording this, the team is playing Arkansas. It's a big theme of the week from both of our teams playing late night midweek games, but on Sunday it is the regular season finale for the ladies. It was really a remarkable season for the ladies. I will reflect back and talk about this a little bit more once it's really all said and done, but really was a fantastic, remarkable regular season from the bunch. Sunday, the women are taking on Tennessee at home. Last time these two met a couple of weeks back, South Carolina won 66 to 55. Tennessee is in fourth place in the SEC.
[00:21:41] Couldn't really tell you what their tournament fate is. Feels like they're up maybe a little bit in the air, so expect them to be looking to get hot. Make a run in the SEC tournament, try to get into the big dance. Micro to the game here is I'd like to see Ashlyn Watkins have a big game. She has gotten better and better, especially lately. Feels like she could be a big x factor for us as the team ramps up for those close, hard fought tournament games. So let's see her shine. 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 cops.
