Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, the men's basketball team struggle continues. Lenores wins an award, and the football program adds a key transfer. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:55] Okay. Welcome to episode 290 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. Hope y'all had a great week out there. Productive, healthy, whatever adjective that you want to use. Hope it was a good week for y'all. Got a nice weekend coming up. Lots of action around Gamecock Sports. We got the national championship to look forward to on Monday. We got NFL playoffs. Really? This is where you're really getting into the thick of it here this weekend. Ufc, if that's your thing. So it's a sports fan's dream. It's a great weekend, college pro, whatever it may be, and hope y'all are ready to enjoy it in whatever way you can.
[00:01:47] We're tracking more winter weather, too. It's just bananas, the southeast and this whole January cold that we're experiencing. So nonetheless, hope y'all are staying warm and are looking to having some fun this weekend. So got a good episode for y'all here. Well, informative, let's say opinionated, let's say. Cuz the main topic of agenda, the main topic on the agenda, rather, is talking about our basketball team, which as we all know, maybe is not having the best season thus far. But before I get into that, I do have some notes from this past week, little week in review for y'all. Fun little countdown. We are less than 30 days away from opening day for the baseball season. So as crazy as that may sound to talk about, as we're talking about maybe getting snow here, we're talking the ultimate signal of spring and that baseball is around the corner. So that's really neat. Obviously, as we get closer to that, we'll do a season preview. The past couple years I've had, Evan from Tito's and Chicken on would like to see if he's available, but if not, we'll definitely break down some positions to watch key players, things like that. As Paul Manieri is taking over this team and it's the first year of his tenure and he wants to be competitive right away. So it's going to be fun to see. I myself am excited to make it to Founders. It's been a while, but now that I am within driving distance, I'm looking forward very much to getting to Founders, having a hot dog, having a beer, watching our Gamecocks play. So yeah, that is something to look forward to right around the corner. And then got a couple pieces of news from the football team. Just the gift that keeps on giving. Man, I love Carolina football. You know, sometimes you sit here and like, man, it's kind of a slow news week. You know, you're on Twitter, you're like, man, like, what are we gonna talk about here? And football team delivers. So first piece of news here. A great, amazing accolade here. Lenora Sellers was voted the National Offensive Freshman of the Year by the Football Writers association of America. Wow. I mean, kudos. There were some big candidates out there, but I think when you look at what Lenores did from let's call it October to the end of the season, or, you know, maybe late September, his growth was just astronomical, off the charts. The way he played down the stretch those last six games is just the definition of a winner. And refusing to quit and seeing week over week, him getting better was just really special. You know, that's a really unique part about college sports. And you normally see it over the course of time where you can say like, wow, remember when he was a freshman and, you know, now that player is a junior or a senior and they're one of your stars, and you say, wow, like, that's a far cry from where he started with Lenoris. You had the first game where things were a little shaky, and then each game after that got better and better and better. And there was, you know, let's cut down on the turnovers. Okay, check. Let's cut down on the, you know, making. Maybe taking unnecessary sacks, like, okay, done. Like, let's keep the ball down the field. Okay, done. Let's be protective here and be clutch. Okay, done. And so his growth was just phenomenal. The future is so, so bright. I can't wait for next season. And he is the primary factor to that. So hopefully his growth continues. We're going to have another year in the weight room, another offseason with these coaches full film to look at. It's just really, really neat. And it's a special time having a player like that for our program.
[00:05:50] Next, the Gamecocks added a big piece from the transfer portal as defensive back Brandon Cissay, I believe that's how it's pronounced. Committed to the GameCocks out of NC State. This was a big time get. He was very popular in the portal. Carolina fought off Ole Miss for his commitment. So the South Carolina native comes home and also we can flip off the bird to Lane Kiffin because that guy has been A thorn in our side. A thorn in everyone's side, really, but big time get here. So now you look at it and you bring in a player with two years of good experience at the power level. He was productive last year for the Wolf Pack. He's big, he's rangy. So you have the GameCocks bringing in two transfer cornerbacks who have experience. They're upperclassmen. And really what this does is it allows the ultimate flexibility for Taurean Gray and Clayton War White, because you have this massive void to fill with Nicki Minwari leaving. And you have all these guys who have really good skills. Like there are some talented defensive backs in our program. You have Kilgore, Swain, Collier, DQ Smith is still here. And that's not now counting C. Say, and Norwood and some of these other guys. So it's going to allow Taurean Gray to say, okay, maybe we can move Kilgore over to safety where he played a little bit in his career. Who do we move to? Nickel? Maybe this guy Norwood can now handle that. Swain and Collier, they have incredible skills and they're on an upward trajectory. Do they take CB2? Maybe? Because it feels like CSA is probably coming in to be your top defensive back. He's going to have to earn it, of course, but. But it just allows more flexibility. And I think, as it stands right now, at least, that the strength of next year's defense is going to be this defensive backfield. I think you're going to have a lot of athletes who can do a lot of different things, and in a 4, 2, 5, that's what you want. You want a lot of guys who are athletic, who are rangy. There's going to be a plethora of them. We have some young guys on the roster, so I think that you're going to see that these guys are going to feast and they're going to be used in creative ways. And I think that when you're looking at a defensive line that maybe is going to have to grow into things and might not be as explosive and able to wreak as much havoc as they did this past season, having a good defensive backfield can make up for that and it can create these opportunities and these coverage sacks and things like that, because if the opposing team can't find an opening or they're afraid to throw it deep because we got it locked, that's going to allow time for guys like Dylan Stewart to get after the quarterback. So very big pickup, you want a plethora of Talent. You know, I think there are some people out there who were thinking, do we really need it? Is that where we really needed to add at the cornerback position? Like it wasn't a glaring weakness. Right. But you're never going to say no to more athletes. You're never going to say no to more experience. That is a tough position to play, especially in the sec. So you bring in as much as you can and then maybe he plays the Nickelback, maybe swain goes to CB1. You know, there's all this different flexibility that you now have, and that's exactly what you want. You want a deep team, a team that can stay fresh late in the game. And this was a big time pickup. He was highly sought after and he gets two years with the team, which I think is really clutch. So it's going to be really interesting to see, you know, you got a guy like David Busey maybe as well, who's going to be playing some meaningful snaps. So super excited to see how this safety battle, cornerback battle, Nickelback, super excited to see how it shakes out. And again, I think you just have a plethora of weapons over there, but. All right, now that we've covered those news and notes here, time to move on to games that have actually been played for better or worse. If you wanted to stop the episode here, would not blame you, wouldn't blame you. But I have the pleasure of going over this and reliving it as.
[00:10:18] Yeah, the pain continues. I mean, that's. You just gotta laugh at it at this point. I mean, the Gamecocks were on the road Wednesday night at Vanderbilt's side. Note, I say this every year, but like, where the hell does Vanderbilt play? Do they play in an airplane hangar? Like this cavernous building? Like just be normal and play in a gym? Like, it's just the coach stands on one side and the bench is on the around the corner.
[00:10:51] What just a bizarre, bizarre building. And I don't care to learn more about it. I. It's just a weird building. It's an airplane hangar. Weird place to play. I blame the airplane hangar on this. Lost. But nonetheless, here the Gamecocks were on the wrong side of this. 66 to 63. It's absolutely insane because this marks the second game in a row where Carolina loses with the exact same score.
[00:11:20] Also on a game that came down to the wire, just of course, like the store. That's the story of South Carolina basketball this year, that you would lose back to back games essentially in the Last minute, last 30 seconds to the Same exact score, games that you should have won.
[00:11:42] But the story of this game is turnovers. 25 of them to be exact. Now, if I was running a bakery, that'd be good. We're talking about a basketball team here. 25 turnovers. You cannot turn the ball over more than two dozen times and expect good results. You just can't.
[00:12:04] And I understand that this team is shorthanded and I understand that playing on the road is hard. The SEC this year is very deep. But that is just unacceptable. Like, you are just not going to win basketball games doing that.
[00:12:22] And like, yes, there were some suspect calls in the second half, but just take a look in the mirror and you'll see who to blame for this one. When you turn the ball over that many times, I don't care if the ref was watching a different game, it doesn't matter.
[00:12:43] So all you have to do is look at that. And that's just sloppy basketball. It's guys pressing guys not being on the same page. And yes, again, I understand things are a little out of whack now when you're down Jamari Thomas and Miles Studi. But, you know, I think there's something to be said about how this team has responded. Like, they're playing decent. Like, you know, they almost beat the number two team in the country. They almost beat Vanderbilt on the road. And like, that's what I'm saying. Like, it's crazy because despite all those turnovers, like South Carolina was in this game, you know, we didn't lose by 15 points here, lost by three.
[00:13:27] And you had a look at the basket at the end.
[00:13:30] Vandy was held to an awful night shooting, and South Carolina continued to rally and they had this game tied late and you just could not get over the hump.
[00:13:44] So it was almost like despite playing like crap, turning the ball over, this team was still fighting. And I think that that is a testament to these guys trying to rally and seeing the opportunity, you know, going into this game, this was an opportunity to potentially, like, turn things around a little bit here. You made it through an early gauntlet of SEC play. You got a little bit of reprieve against Vanderbilt, who's not bad, but they're certainly not at the top of the league.
[00:14:18] And I think the team knew that and they fought hard.
[00:14:23] You know, you had CMB with clutch free throws very late in the game. Coming off that flagrant, like, was able to rally and you had things all squared. You had things squared right at the very end. But a late shot clock violation kills You.
[00:14:42] And then Vanderbilt goes down.
[00:14:46] They missed the first shot. They missed the floater. You can't get the rebound. When you have Nick Pringle and CMB on the floor, you can't get the rebound. Vandy's able to swoop in, get the winning bucket with less than a second to go, and that's all she wrote. It's just a killer.
[00:15:02] And really, with that loss, it's getting late early for this men's basketball season as the guys are now 04 in the conference.
[00:15:18] So there are plenty of reasons to be concerned. You know, it's interesting because you look around at the conference and there are some teams who were also in the same boat, but that doesn't help our case if we're trying to talk any sort of postseason.
[00:15:37] And again, it's. It's getting.
[00:15:40] It's getting late early for this team. Here, some player highlights from this game. CMB14.9. This was the Morris Yugasuk legacy game. He had 20 points. So again, you're having guys step up. You know, arden Connors had 10 points in this game. You know, he needs to play a lot. Him and Cam Scott, in my opinion, should play a lot. You got to push through this rough patch. You got to develop them for the future. But a guy like Ugasuk with 20 points, again, that's continued development. And you're having guys step up in different ways, but you can't turn the ball over that many times.
[00:16:17] Up next for South Carolina, the guys are on the road to Oklahoma. The Sooners, a team that's also struggling here. They're 13 and 4 overall, but they are also. Oh, and 4 on the year in the SEC. So I am dubbing this game the Panic Button game. Okay? If the Gamecocks drop this one, I. I am officially smashing the panic button on the season because there's not much more reprieve left on the schedule. And, yeah, this has been a wacky time in the sec. You've. You'll see top teams get beat by lower teams. You'll see teams that are on a hot streak go cold at home.
[00:17:00] If we go to 05 in the SEC, I'm hitting the panic button, right? Like, I think at this point, more or less, like, unless there's a drastic turnaround, like, you're. You're on the outside looking into the big dance.
[00:17:17] So then you lower the goalpost a little bit and you say, can I make the nit shit go05? I'm hitting the panic button because I don't know what the heck happens from there? And again, like, it's just there's a few things at play here. I've talked about it before. I think the SEC is probably the best it's ever been. So it's extra hard to win in this league. The team is not as deep as it needs to be to compete at that high of a level. You know, it's a hypothetical, but if we were playing other teams, I think we probably have some conference wins under our belt.
[00:17:56] You're dealing with injuries to key players, so it's just, it's a slew of things. You know, I don't think this is an indictment on the program's direction. Right. Like, especially coming off of such a successful year. But you got to find a way to find some good out of this. And if it's letting guys develop with an eye towards the future, like, okay, but we still got to find a way to get some wins under our belt. There is good recruiting behind us. Like, there is help along the on the way in terms of freshmen who are still committed to us. But you got to be able to put a good product out there, especially as you're trying to sell the transfer portal and things like that. So micro to the game in this one. Long winded way to get to that segue. Don't turn the ball over 25 times. How about that? Let's keep it under 20.
[00:18:46] Yeah, that's a great start. I'd love to keep it under 15.
[00:18:50] So there we go. Pretty simple.
[00:18:53] Moving over to the women's side of things here. The ladies, they're actually playing Alabama as I am recording this. So as is customary, we send our good vibes over the airwaves and hope for the best after that. However, the ladies are also taking on Oklahoma. They are at home though. Sunday at 3pm Tip off. The Sooners women's team is 14. 3 overall and 22 in conference. My crow to the game here.
[00:19:20] Let's just let the guards continue to shoot it at the gym. You know, let's see Tessa Johnson, Brie, Bill Tahina, Powpow Malaysia Fo Wiley. Like, let's see these girls shoot it. Shoot it well, put this game away in the third quarter and don't look back. 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.
