Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, women's basketball continues to roll. It's Groundhog's Day for men's basketball and softball opening night. Okay, here we.
[00:00:54] Okay.
[00:00:56] Welcome to episode 374 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. Hope you all had a great week out there. Gamecock nation.
[00:01:12] We are really out of the freeze. I feel like all the snow has melted, at least by me, even though there was another threat this middle week. But hopefully that is all behind us. I'm ready to close that chapter of our lives in the winter of 2026. Like, enough with you be gone. And let's just focus on warm spring days that hopefully are not too far away and hopefully some winning Gamecock sports. Big weekend. Got a big weekend coming up. Going to touch on it all, of course, you have the super bowl on Sunday. Shout out to Ernest Jones, shout out to Nick Amenwurry and Marcellus Dial. I believe is hurt, but there are some Gamecock representatives nonetheless in the Super Bowl. Going to be really exciting to watch that and should be a good game. I'm going to touch on that specialty. Going to touch on that at the end of the game. And of course, there is a lot of action college sports wise and Gamecock sports wise throughout this entire weekend. So let's jump into it with a weekly recap to get there. Spring sports are really getting underway here, so there's going to be a lot of action pretty much from this point forward.
[00:02:24] So going to be really exciting there. And talking women's golf on Tuesday, women's golf finished sixth in the Terese Hessian Regional Challenge. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. And by the time you are hearing this, softball will have played their first game. So they are really that, you know, signifier that spring sports are here and are getting underway. And of course, the ladies are looking to build off of what was a fantastic season last year. And it's going to be really exciting to watch and listen and read all up on this team as they get their season underway. And I don't know, maybe it's just me and, you know, but I feel like this is the most excitement there has been in recent memory for a softball season. I think it was just a new era last year that was. It was a breath of fresh air and the team did some really, really exciting things and I think outperformed a lot of people's expectations. And so with that comes excitement and kind of conversely, not getting into the weeds here too much. But I think it's the opposite with the baseball team. And so I think you have a lot of fans who are clamoring for a spring sport to get excited for, and you look around and you say, well, softball is that answer right now. And hopeful baseball proves us wrong, and we can have these two fantastic programs right down the road from each other. But right now, there's a lot of excitement in Gamecock Nation for the softball team, even if, you know, we'll see how this the season starts. But I think they have a really good roster and potential to do some really exciting things.
[00:04:08] But then sticking with, I guess they play in the spring basketball, but that's considered a winter sport at least, I think. Right. But sticking with the ladies, though, we're going to be talking women's basketball here. Usually we end things with the ladies end on a positive note. I wanted to keep the momentum going here and keep the good times going because the ladies were in action Monday night in Texas as they took on A and M and came away with a good victory here, 71 to 56. This is an interesting game because Gamecocks were cruising for a lot of it. They had a nice big lead, but then that lead shrunk in the second half and got your pulse going a little bit there. But a big time fourth quarter thanks to a massive effort defensively by the team. And then Joyce Edwards offensively ultimately sealed the game. You know, you had A and M had a lot of momentum going into that fourth quarter, and then was ice cold going into that fourth. And that is a signature, from my perspective of these Dawn Staley led teams, of these really good teams that she has had while at South Carolina, is the ability, particularly in the second half, to have a just absolute lockdown quarter. And whether it's a team losing momentum, key player going cold, or just really getting stops and creating turnovers, like, there's something about that. And I think it's the South Carolina presence, like the name and just the intimidation factor, I think that does play into it.
[00:05:47] I think we are one of the more well conditioned teams.
[00:05:50] Typically, we are one of the deeper teams. Although this year it's been a little different than in years past because of, of course, some injuries and other factors. But that's a big win. You know, that's. That's a big win on the road.
[00:06:04] That's. It's a far travel. Like, don't discredit that. You know, I mean, we Talk a lot about home field advantage and things like that in football, of course. And, you know, you talk about home court, but it's real. And especially when you talk about, you know, it's the farthest place, the farthest west school in the sec. Right. I probably just made that up. But it's. It's far. It's west out there talking, you know, about going to College Station. And so for the ladies to dig deep there, that's. That's an impressive win. Like, absolutely impressive win.
[00:06:40] Player highlights from this game here, Joyce Edwards, 28 points and 11 rebounds, and Tessa Johnson with 19 points. So as is per usual, I guess you can say, here I am recording this. The ladies are taking on Mississippi State at home. Homecorn advantage, shout out to cla. But their next game is Sunday. The perfect appetizer here for Super Bowl Sunday as they take on Tennessee. I think tip off is 3 o'. Clock. So, I mean, pretty gosh darn good lead up there, but Tennessee always feels like a big game. You know, it's just.
[00:07:18] It is a brand in women's college basketball, of course, with a lot of fantastic history.
[00:07:24] And when these two teams meet up, I always get excited. I know there's been some other programs that we've had maybe more heated rivalries with and whatnot, but there's still, I think, a prestige factor in this one. When you take on Tennessee. And look, don't bat an eye at Tennessee, you know, the Lady Vols are 145 overall. They are 6 and 1 in the SEC tied for second place. Right. So this one means a lot to both teams. But fully expect to see Tennessee's A game as they're looking at trying to get right in the mix for first place in the sec. So home court got to be rocking there. Perfect little way to set up your Sunday ahead of the super bowl and get that good mojo flow in there. But my crow to the game here, fine production from the bench again. I know the bench has been thinner at times this year for various reasons.
[00:08:21] When you look at the game against A and M and now, and, you know, maybe you're listening to this and you're saying, well, no, that happened, you know, against Mississippi State, the bench was fantastic. I don't have that luxury right now, so I'm only looking at my most recent sample, which is the A and M game, and he didn't get a whole lot of offensive production from the bench, and that's ebbed and flowed a lot this year. But when you talk about playing a team that is quite good and is coming for you in Tennessee. Right. Trying to get in the mix for first place. It's a team effort and you have fantastic playmakers who start for you, Joyce, Tessa, you know, and so on.
[00:09:07] But you need to be able to find, you know, 8, 10 points from a player off the bench. You have to be able to do that, you know, and there's going to be times and games where you certainly can get away with it. And playing elite defense allows you to get away with that. Absolutely. But when we continue to move through the year here and we're starting to talk about, you know, elimination games and whatnot, that's. That's something that will be a factor for sure. And that's been a difference maker for South Carolina. Again, I've said it a thousand times.
[00:09:39] Various reasons are abound for why there is a little bit of a lesser bench, but nonetheless, that's what I'd like to see against Tennessee.
[00:09:51] And then keeping it rolling here, talking basketball here. The men, the guys were in action Tuesday night also in Texas, maybe the most western campus, maybe not in Austin, as they took on the Longhorns. And the guys did a put. They did put up a good fight in this one, but once again coming up short as they lose to Texas 84 to 75. Though. Shout out Michi Johnson in this one. This was the Meeche Johnson game. He absolutely went off for 35 points. I think that's a career high.
[00:10:25] So shout out Mechi Johnson. I'm going to go on a side tangent here. You know, Michi, there's you. You can talk about him as a person on this roster and say, well, maybe he's not playing exactly the position he needs to be.
[00:10:43] Whatever, right? His story is incredible. And, you know, I know there was the brief period of time where he did transfer out and that didn't work out. He came back.
[00:10:55] He's a Gamecock, you know, I mean, he's provided some really fun memories for Gamecock basketball fans and a lot of the teams he's been on haven't done a whole lot of anything. But he has provided sparks for when times have been bad and you try and go on a run. He's provided sparks when times were good and he kept it going.
[00:11:18] Shout out Michi Johnson. Right. Like, I'm trying to. I'm trying to put some goodwill there out into the universe about this team, whom I have been very critical of and down on for some time. But he's a bright spot and, you know, he's going to Be that, that, that player that in a few years you're going to be like, remember that guy? Like yeah, he just loved to shoot the Deep 3 like. And he would go absolutely off and remember that one game he scored 35 points. Remember this game?
[00:11:47] I don't know. Shout out. Mei Johnson. I'm trying to find some goodwill for this team, like I said, but going back to this game, the guys had a good night from the free throw line but did struggle beyond the arc collectively. They didn't shoot a lot of threes in this one here, which, which I did find interesting. You had a lot of guys who took just one or two attempts. Michi was the most who you know and he was successful a lot of the times. I did find that very interesting. Did not take a lot of threes nor did you make many of them either. So it wasn't like you had great selection, you just were a little gun shy or game plan changed up based off what Texas was giving you and things like that. But it also could be for what was maybe the most drastic discrepancy of the evening and something that we could point to as to probably why the Gamecock slot lost here is because the team was drastically out rebounded, which we knew and know is a gap that exists with how this roster is built. And so you watch the game or you're sitting there afterwards reading about it, I'm sitting here now talking about it and there's just not much more to be said other than here we are again and it was Groundhog's Day this week and that's what it feels like. Just like that friggin movie where the same thing happens all the time where you have South Carolina in a close one but coming up short thanks in large part to a flaw that has plagued the team all year and they just can't avoid it and it's tough, right?
[00:13:29] And this was another one too where you know, giving Meche Johnson his flowers in this game because really outside of him, you know, there wasn't like a ton of production. You know, if Michi has a good game and say he goes for 27 points, this game is not that close.
[00:13:49] So you really had a herculean effort by, you know, really your star player, if you will, your go to guy doing his thing, going off for essentially half of the offensive production here because the remainder of the team couldn't really do a whole heck of a lot.
[00:14:09] So you know, that's a very cynical way to look at this game that you had an amazing night A career night is why you were so close, right? You know, it's not like you played this complete game and you came up nine points short.
[00:14:26] You talk about the three point shooting again, like Elijah Strong went over two, right? If he goes one for two, right. But you know, one of three, you know, Mike went over one, it's maybe not his game, but you know, you, you go down the box score and there's a lot of 0 for ones. I think Miles Studi was 0 for one.
[00:14:46] So it was an interesting game plan and an interesting way to not so much execute on it. But yeah, it's, it's just a tough one and it's, you know, a series of tough ones. And look, give the players, you know, I got to give the players some credit here. You know, there was the lack of effort which they were called out on against Florida, rightfully so.
[00:15:11] But it's, you know, you got to put yourself in these kids shoes. You know, it's, it's hard, it's hard to balance, you know, being a student athlete. They're going out there and the last couple of games this team has competed.
[00:15:23] You know, I'm not going to completely sit here and crap on them. They have competed. They are fighting. The problem is the roster.
[00:15:32] There's only so much you can do with that, right? You can't overcome size differences or depth differences at this point in the game. These things should have been addressed differently last offseason.
[00:15:46] There's some nights where, yeah, you can point to hitting free throws and whatnot as to, you got to be better here. But this team has fought the last couple of games and I am going to give them credit for that.
[00:15:58] I just think, you know, you have a, a roster that seemingly isn't built to kind of get over the hump in these close games. And I don't know if it's game planning, lack of motivating, whatever for just being in this, in this position constantly. It feels like. I don't know.
[00:16:20] Up next though, the Gamecocks take on Mizzou at home Saturday at 1pm Mizzou is 15 and 7 overall, 5 and 4 in the SEC square in the middle of the conference, kind of in that same ballpark that Texas was at.
[00:16:35] And again, it's, it's these types of teams, maybe even like an Auburn as well. I believe they're right around there that Carolina should be able to hang with.
[00:16:46] But it's going to take a team effort to get that win right again. Michi is not going to go for 35 every single game. So you're going up against an opponent, you are at home, which feels like a winnable game.
[00:17:03] If you execute and get A plus efforts from your starting five and you get good efforts from your bench and you do the little things right.
[00:17:14] My crow to the game is hit your three pointers, right? Like, do what you're built to do. If you're not going to take a lot of them, fine. But the ones that you take, we got to hit at a better clip. I think it was 18% when I was looking at it in Texas, right? Like, you got to be. You got to be higher than that. You got to execute better than that. So it's going to be interesting to watch. Got a weekend of hoops leading up to the super bowl, so that's exciting there. And I am going to leave y' all with some super bowl novelty bets. I got two of them here. I'm not getting into the spreads and all that just yet. I am going heads on the coin toss. I'm big on heads this year. And then I am going over two and a half players to throw a pass.
[00:17:58] So I think there could be some trickeration at some point in this game, but. Shout out Nick E. Shout out Ernest Jones.
[00:18:05] All right, with that, that wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, Twitter or X is Cox Gamecox.
[00:18:13] 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.
