Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, the softball season comes to an end. We know CMB's decision, and football has a couple of kickoff times set. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:55] Okay.
[00:00:57] Welcome to episode, episode 324 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. Gamecocks, first one of the summer schedule here. I missed y' all. So used to getting on the airwaves Sunday evening for Monday morning for y' all. And yeah, got more of time lapse here with the Friday only summer schedule. I was. I was thinking about it to myself, getting ready for this one where, yes, I have done that the last few years, but it's just been later in the year because we've either made a little bit of noise in the SEC tournament or the baseball team has made regionals and it's just gone into June.
[00:01:49] And here I am end of May still, and we're on that. So it's sort of crappy circumstances for it to come about, but it does allow for a little bit of a recharge and a buildup for football season, which I actually am going to be able to touch on with y' all this episode. But let's jump into things here, starting off with our handy dandy Gamecock trivia calendar here. It actually is a piece of trivia for y' all. Tricky one today.
[00:02:24] What member of the 202223 South Carolina Equestrian Team received the SEC's prestigious H. Boyd McWorther Scholarship?
[00:02:38] Wow, that is a mouthful. But basically, a member of the 23 equestrian team received a prestigious scholarship. Anyone know?
[00:02:48] I do not.
[00:02:50] The answer, Trinity Hammerschmidt. Shout out to Trinity.
[00:02:54] Congrats on the scholarship. Love that.
[00:02:57] Gamecock equestrian, too. I think the ladies, you know, they did all right this year. New coach as well.
[00:03:03] Big exciting new coaches on some of these sports here. Equestrian, softball, making an impact right away. Things that we love to see.
[00:03:12] But speaking of softball here, I do have to recap the supers with y' all. It is a little funny with, with the new schedule here that, you know, time has passed and we would have gone over this anyway, but nonetheless, here the softball season has unfortunately come to a bitter end as the ladies lost the series to UCLA in three games. It actually really, really hurts because seeing the promotions for the Women's College World Series, it's just brutal because you just were right right there. We could taste it.
[00:03:51] The heartbreak came in this Series, really in game two when UCLA had a walk off win to win five to four in a game where South Carolina was the better team for six and a half innings, really, and, and you're in a position to win, go to the next round. And it's just funny circumstances where you're hosting the regional, you're at home, but because of the format of it all, you're the away team.
[00:04:22] And that allowed UCLA to creep back into this thing and win the game in just brutal, heartbreaking fashion, really. After South Carolina was rolling, you know, the ladies were smooth sailing in game one and game two. It was, you know, definitely not easy. UCLA pitcher was dealing that game. But you're able to get out and you have a few runs of insurance and just not able to close the door. And I think it was just so big of a momentum swing.
[00:04:55] It was just too much to come back from because you see in game three, ladies just couldn't really get much anything going. Losing the rubber match five, nothing. I mean, there were chances, there were, there were a few innings mid late in that game, Gamecocks had baserunners and you just couldn't cash in where it seemed like in the regionals and then in the first two games, really in the super regionals, you were able to cash in in those situations, just not able to get it done. And you know, UCLA is a good team and they're a team that has lots of experience in the postseason.
[00:05:29] I think after they came back in game two, again momentum in their corner, but I think they just were able to exhale and take a breath and just get back into their game. And unfortunately that's just the way the cookie crumbles. You know, going into game three, I looked at it and said we were the better team with the exception of one inning total, you know, a half inning really.
[00:05:53] So felt pretty confident going into game three, but again, just, it felt like the, the wind was taken out of the sails a little bit here. But to speak on the season that this team had, it's just remarkable. It really is.
[00:06:08] You know, to be able to go through a tougher SEC schedule this year with Oklahoma and Texas and to not just get through it, but to thrive really, and to hold a strong national ranking for much of the year and to even outside of the sec, to hold your own and win a lot of Games against Power 4 competition outside of the SEC, that is, is impressive. And then to host the regionals, that is an incredible feat. It's always a great goal to win that. And then to host the super regionals and to get within one game of the Women's College World Series is just really, really remarkable. This team, throughout the entire year, showed grit, they showed fight. They were strong in pretty much every category that you want, and you saw the result.
[00:07:06] You make it right there deep into the super regionals against a good team in ucla, and.
[00:07:12] And you just come up just short. So the future is bright for this program. And you saw the fan support that was garnered this past season. I think it was kind of simmering these past few years. Of course, you have some folks who love that program and follow it regularly, but those fans who are maybe on the fringe of really diving in, they did this year. And I think it's only going to grow from there, really. And the future is extra bright because we have coach Chastain Woodard, who was named coach of the year. It came out after this. All the awards were coming out, and she is your national Coach of the Year, and she absolutely deserves it. First year after making the jump to the big times, takes her team to lengths where it hadn't been for quite some time, and right there on the edge of some greatness. So she absolutely deserves it. And her press conference afterwards, you just see the passion that she has, not just for her players, but for Columbia and for the garnet in black and for usc. So when you have someone like that who's gonna put their heart and soul into this, you should feel pretty good about your. Your future. And I certainly do about this program. So it's gonna be fun to see. But, yeah, tough way to end it. It was fun following along and kind of tip your cap. And you say until next season, but. All right, changing gears here, I have a quick note on basketball.
[00:08:44] So the deadline for making your decision on withdrawing from the NBA draft or not has passed, and CMB has not done that. So his decision is. Is final. He will be staying in the draft, not returning to school. Not really a surprise. I mean, I don't know how much more his stock really could rise. It, you know, obviously could, but probably not greatly. You know, he's a good player with a bright future ahead of him, so we'll see where he lands at the next level, whether it's in the lottery or maybe just outside of it. But nonetheless, that leaves a.
[00:09:21] Officially, it leaves a spot for Lamont Paris to fill, so we'll see how that goes. But I said it at the end of last season, and I'll say it again here, just. Thank you. CMB, like on the 1% chance you listen to this show.
[00:09:37] Thank you for everything that you did. You helped lead this program back to the NCAA tournament. You gave it your all, every single game. You were a reason to tune in to Gamecock Basketball and I think a blueprint. You know, you talk about guys like Gigi Jackson, you talk about guys like CMB who played under Lamont Paris who stayed local but played for him, developed whether it was one or two years and are able to go to the NBA.
[00:10:09] That is a selling point and that is a blueprint. And I think if Lamont can continue to recruit well and, and continue to develop that track record, it'll only attract more talent, especially local. So shout out to cmb, good luck at the next level. Can't wait to watch wherever you go.
[00:10:30] And then changing gears one more time here, we're talking football.
[00:10:34] That's right.
[00:10:35] Absolutely love it. It's sort of you're dipping your toes into talking season. Right. Like we've had some of these coaches meetings. They're down in Destin, Commissioner Sankey's there. You know, you're seeing people talk about what the SEC is putting out in terms of our strength of schedule versus any other conference. And it's just that time of year where there's not much going on, especially in the football world. Yeah, you got some recruiting and things like that, but you're really just kind of having that eye towards when does camp start, when are you really ramping things for the season and when are we going to get into all that? So it's really exciting here, but some game times have been released, so I don't know what the heck's going on. They're kind of teasing this out a little bit. You're seeing it across college football across networks where you have some early season game times being released.
[00:11:28] So we have our first two home games were announced to be night games. So Williams, Bryce, getting right into it with the Gamecocks here. Really, really exciting. Of course that week one game is in Atlanta in on Labor Day weekend. I believe it's 3:30, maybe 4:00 against Virginia Tech. But the home opener which will be game two is against SC State and that game is set for 7:00pm so what a home opener. I mean, my goodness. 7:00pm hopefully coming in, feeling good after week one, go up against in state program, SC State at 7:00pm that really gets the people going and you know, get to a. Avoid some of the heat at least while you're in the stadium. And then game three, the SEC opener against Vandy will be either at 7 or 7:45. So you'll remember they did this last year just because the TV contracts got consolidated to, you know, Disney, ESPN where they can kind of plan ahead more of this. So it'll be a night game. Seven is probably ESPN, 7:45 is probably SEC network and that'll probably, you know, fluctuate based off of what happens in that first week. But there's just that excitement for football here and I mean, I'm going to dive into this Vandy game here for a second. You obviously have a program in Vandy that has slowly but steadily gotten better under Clark Lee. Last year they made some noise and you kind of go up there in Nashville thinking this could be a bit of a challenge with Pavia and whatnot and wasn't the most exciting game. But Carolina really handled business and put a bottleneck on Pavia in their offense. And I was looking at this game as one for potentially going to as just it could be more of a competitive game than it has been with Vandy. And you know, you look at some of the things they've done, talent they've retained, they have been able to bring in a couple of players from the portal.
[00:13:34] If that game's at noon, that could be a sleepy one for some of the fans thinking, oh, it's just Vandy. But you get Vandy coming into Williams Bryce at night SEC opener. I don't know the first thing about their schedule, but I'm going to assume it's their first road game. So welcome to life in the SEC for them where first thing you get is smacked in the face with Willie B At night. Shane Beamer's teams have tended to play well at Williams Bryce, so that's one that you can get excited for for sure. And we're going to learn a lot about this team in those first in that first month or so. Really it's kind of like last season where you can point at one or two games in the first five or so and say if that one goes our way we might be able to make some noise here. For me, last year that was the Kentucky game and the Gamecocks were able to go on the road and smack around the Wildcats and then you kind of got this enthusiasm that this team could play well wherever it went.
[00:14:38] I'm not going to say that Vanderbilt is that game, but if you can go up against a team in Vanderbilt that's not a complete doormat and playing well and hopefully things went right for you the two weeks prior, you could Be staring at a good record, starting the year off right, doing all the right things.
[00:14:59] And I think our defense is going to be put a little bit to the test against Virginia Tech, just because that's an interesting game right out of the gate with, you know, new players and new positions. But. But I think if you can go against Vandy, hold them well, you could feel confident about this defense going forward. Right. If it's a tough showing, there might be some yellow flags going up there after week three, but, yeah, really, really excited to see that. Obviously, we'll update y' all more as we see more game times come out, but absolutely love it. And, you know, I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but that streak against Vandy, Lenore Sellers, you know, another year into this, Nick Harbor, Dylan Stewart, year two at home at night, that streak feels good.
[00:15:49] But, yeah, just really pumped for football here. And then, yeah, there's just a lot of chatter around the college football world, largely from these meetings, you know, the coaches meetings and in the sec, but it's around elsewhere. You know, just a lot of talk about the playoff format moving forward. You're talking about automatic qualifiers from the SEC and the Big Ten, maybe an expansion to 16 teams. Like, there's just all this rhetoric. And honestly, like, someone asked me the other day, they're like, what do you think about it all? And I honestly can't keep track. Honest to God, I just have so much different stuff on my brain between rosters and schedules. It's just. It's hard to keep track because you'll get one guy that here's like, here's this proposal. Another guy's got this proposal. They're basically the same, but a little bit different. You know, do the conference champions get a buy? Is it just straight seeding? I think that, you know, that's kind of how they're doing it this year. But there's a lot of moving pieces.
[00:16:53] I don't know if I love 16 teams.
[00:16:56] I think 16 teams benefits the SEC, because I think the only way that happens would be that the SEC is guaranteed a couple of spots, and it would benefit a team like South Carolina that, you know, hasn't been a perennial top 10 team. You know, we were borderline on the. On the. On the playoff last year.
[00:17:23] But if you're saying the top 16, more or less, in the country, that's a goal that I think South Carolina can certainly achieve. To strive to be always hanging around there. Right.
[00:17:35] Can you regularly be in the top 20? Right. Can you be in the conversation. That's a goal that I think is realistic. And I think Shane Beamer has been working towards. I mean, finished the year when we ended up going to the Gator bowl against Notre Dame. What do we finish that year? 19 or so? 20 right around there.
[00:17:55] You know, finished.
[00:17:57] You know, whatever it was last year, I was so focused on the top 12. I think it was what, be 14th, 15th.
[00:18:04] So point is, it would open the door for South Carolina.
[00:18:08] It just is an interesting argument when you talk about automatic qualifiers.
[00:18:14] It's basically strength of schedule versus record is what you're trying to make the argument for. And that's what the SEC has put out saying that, you know, over the last however many years. I think they put out some stats for the last 10 and it basically said on a. In the regular season, there's like time and time again, the vast majority of teams are in the top 30 or something, the top 25 of strength of record. And then there was this other composite stat that they had where basically it was just actual data. Data points. There's that word again that said the SEC gauntlet is harder than the other conferences by far and away. And it was just a big LOL moment looking at the Big 12 and the ACC. Cause they're just like sucked. And even the Big 10, you know, is good, but it's not great. You just, you know, I'm sure that image will float around on social media, but the point is, when you open it up more, that needs to be more of the conversation. If you're gonna just open this thing up and we're gonna go straight record, what's the point?
[00:19:24] You know, we need to allow a little bit of leeway here.
[00:19:29] And even for other teams, you know, if you are maybe in the Big Ten, if you drop a good game, you, you know, you're playing another top team and you drop that, it shouldn't kill your season. That was the whole point of the playoff.
[00:19:44] So I said it last year. But like a 9 and 3 South Carolina probably is a better team than the 10 and 2 Indiana's not probably like it just is just a better battle tested. But again, you need to look at the whole picture. And it just brings me back to the whole thing here of the committee needing some sort of objective metric.
[00:20:10] It needs an objective metric that no matter who's on the committee, they can point to it and say, this is where you were on the blank.
[00:20:22] And even if that metric accounts for 51% of a vote, right, like I'm voting with my gut here, my eye test here. But I have to take into account the Cox metric, right?
[00:20:38] That's what we do with college basketball. You have net rankings, quad one wins, all that. We need to start quality quantifying. There we go. Right? Quantifying, not qualifying. Quantifying some of these things that college football teams do.
[00:20:54] Ranked wins, wins against Power 4 competition, wins on the road.
[00:21:00] You know, strength of record, strength of schedule, all that jazz.
[00:21:05] So it just all needs to continue to evolve. And I don't know, it's a very complex situation. Good news is, being in the sec, I think anything that breaks in the way of expansion will probably benefit us.
[00:21:24] And as a team like South Carolina, again, that, you know, historically is not the top five team, like, you know, we've had our moments, but, hey, if you got 12 or 16, our chances increase, and we've seen when our teams get rolling, we can do some damage. And if you can find a way to get a home playoff game, I like our chances in that. But I digress. That's my soapbox. Probably have more playoff chatter at some point this offseason. 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 Cox.
