Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, a spring game preview, some tough news from the basketball teams. And the baseball team continues its homestand. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay.
[00:00:56] Welcome to episode 313 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 fantastic week. Gamecock Nation. I miss y'all on Monday. But back in the swing of things now. Hope y'all had a great weekend, are ready to just have a good weekend, holiday weekend. For those of you who are celebrating Easter, that's always a nice time to sit around with family, friends, whatever it may be, having a nice brunch, wearing pastels and just enjoying the day and reflecting on what's important. But got a busy, busy episode for y'all here. So we are going to jump right into things. But starting off with my handy dandy Gamecock calendar here, given the time of year, we're bringing that back every episode, y'all. We have a piece of trivia for you today. So name the South Carolina player picked by the Miami Dolphins in the 2023 NFL Drafts second round.
[00:02:08] Oh, you know I'm drawing a blank on the Dolphins.
[00:02:19] I know Z. White went to the Dolphins, but that was certainly not in the second round.
[00:02:25] Who do we got?
[00:02:27] Cam Smith. Ah, of course. Of course. Cam Smith. Shout out Cam Smith. Drop yo nuts. Cam Smith. That dude played his way, played his ass off and developed his ass off into the second round. Pretty cool. Pretty cool to see Shout out Cam Smith and shout out the trivia. Dang.
[00:02:47] I was trying to think like, 2023. Like, yeah, we've had a good run. We've had a good run of D backs, and who knows, we got the NFL draft coming up in about a week. Nicki Manwari. Can he break it to the first round? TJ Sanders. So going to be really exciting to see where those guys end up. And of course, I will bring you all up to speed on that, just like I will in this week in review here. Starting out on Tuesday, the men's golf team came in fifth at the invitational at the Ford. Your guess is as good as mine as to where that is. Softball lost in an absolute heartbreaker to Clemson in the ninth. Just absolutely brutal. And I think there's been some debate about the numbers and things like that, but that's the last Clemson matchup that we have, I think of. Of the year, of the academic year. And so to just go out on that is a tough one. Two One nail biter, absolute heartbreaker there. That's a tough, tough ending there for that team.
[00:03:55] And then on Wednesday, women's tennis beat Mississippi State, 4, 2. And women's golf, listen to this. So the women's golf team, they're in the SEC tournament, and there's two phases to it. You have a stroke play and, and a match play. And I think the match play kind of ultimately determines it, but the stroke play is a significant part of that. The women shot a combined -16 in that portion of the SEC Championship, setting a new record in that tournament and earning themselves a number one seed for match play. So I think they went in as the number four seed, broke the record for a team shot, right. A team score, and now are the number one seed to play in match play, which begins Friday. So they've set themselves up really well. Number four seed, obviously, coming in. They're having a good year, but they're hot right now. So let's go women's golf. Let's win the sec. That would be absolutely electric here.
[00:05:00] But then. All right, moving gears here. So those are the week's scores. I'm going to touch on the baseball's midweek game in a few minutes here, but a couple of news recaps here, starting with the women's basketball team. It was the WNBA draft, and the Gamecocks saw three players get selected to the W, all in the second round. So you have Tahina Powpow went to Atlanta, Brie hall went to Indiana, where I believe Aaliyah Boston is. Yeah, so Aaliyah Boston, Caitlin Clark, Brie hall building a dynasty, potentially the Indiana Fever, and then Saniya Fagan went to the LA Sparks.
[00:05:43] However, the big news that came out of the program recently wasn't able to cover it. You know, maybe last episode whatnot. But Malaysia Full Wiley has entered the transfer portal. So I don't know, maybe for some of y'all, this wasn't totally shocking. For me, it was. Hometown kid came to usc, has flourished, you know, and won a national championship. I do think it, like, maybe there was a little bit of these grumblings going into this season. I think it's an interesting deal where on what, 90%, 95% even of other teams, Malaysia is starting.
[00:06:31] And dawn has been very open about sort of the development project that is Malaysia Full Wiley, where she has all of the talent in the world, where she can make every shot, she can turn a game around on a dime by herself. And we've seen that happen where she'll get A bucket. She'll get a, she'll get a strip and then she'll hit a three. Right. Like all of these things she can do.
[00:06:56] But I do think there is some development there for consistency sometimes the fundamentals and those little things. And maybe it was a deal where Malaysia looked around.
[00:07:08] I've already won a national championship at usc. I stayed home. I've gone through this experience for two years. You only have so much eligibility. Maybe it was a deal where, hey, I'm just going to go get a change of scenery and maybe in the process of this change of scenery, I can start and maybe her and her family feel that starting or at least maybe guaranteed starting spot is the next best thing for her development. So it's gonna be weird not having Phil Wylie around the program.
[00:07:38] I'm gonna cheer for her from afar. She did fantastic things for us, did fantastic things for us in the postseason both years when she was here. But yeah, definitely a bit of surprising news nonetheless.
[00:07:53] And so then sticking with the transfer news, talking men's basketball here, former transfer commit Trayson Eagle staff has decommitted from South Carolina. So to refresh your memory on this because my head is certainly spinning, Eagle staff was a really high scoring, high productive guard. That was a big time get from North Dakota. Committed South Carolina. There was a lot of excitement about that. Okay, we got a big scorer. Could he be the next Dalton Connect type of guy?
[00:08:26] And to my knowledge, everything was signed and done, but apparently that has since changed and he has backed out and decommitted.
[00:08:37] I don't know. You know, it's the state of college athletics and college basketball. The transfer portal, it's so much, I don't know if I want to say, so much more competitive. But every team has only so many spots they can fill. So if you were targeting this one guy and you don't get him, you have to go all out and do whatever you can to get the next. Or maybe you keep in touch with him. I don't know.
[00:09:06] You read the articles, you read the blog posts, you read the social media posts.
[00:09:11] You know, it certainly seems like there were teams staying in touch, perhaps when they shouldn't have and things like that. But weird loss, tough loss for the Gamecocks and it leaves yet another big opening for this team in Lamont, Paris to fill. Good news is there's a bajillion players in the transfer portal. It's just insane. So we'll have to work on filling that. But the news kept on rolling related to this roster as CMB has decided to declare for the NBA draft. Now, technically, I think there is a path in the NBA process where if Colin doesn't like the draft grade he gets, he could withdraw, come back to school. But with his ability and with the statement that he put out, it does seem like we have seen the last of Colin Murray. Boyles and I talked about it at the end of the season, but it's just one big thank you. Thank you for CMB showing that the best can stay home for giving us some incredible games, giving us a lot to cheer for. And last year, his freshman season, when he came back from the illness and the injuries and really flourished before our very eyes, it was very special to watch. And this year was the reason multiple times, that the team was even in games to begin with. So thank you, cmb. We'll definitely be rooting for him from afar. A guy that, you know is a probably a borderline lottery pick. So really, really cool to see him and his family are about to be set up incredibly well.
[00:10:50] Selfishly, the Gamecock fan in me says, well, dang, now we gotta fill another spot. So it's hard to keep track of, but I think it's five spots that are open for the basketball team to fill. So we will see what Lamont Paris and company do to get that done.
[00:11:08] But in lighter news, get up because it's game day in Williams Bryce once more. Whoo. How good does it feel to say that the annual Garnet in Black spring game is set to kick off Friday night? I love this. I love that. A, we do our spring game at night under Beamer. B, like, have fun with it. Friday Night Lights. There's a baseball game in town that afternoon. Just make it a fun day for the family. You know, you don't have to worry about maybe butting up against Easter travel. Really, really cool. This would be a very fun tradition to keep going with the Friday. And I don't know. I mean, I know it's an exhibition. I love the spring game. I do. It's just a great time to finally scratch that itch that we all have of college football. And I don't know, I mean, like, in the midst of the all the off season chatter of nil, the portal, the house element, yada, yada, yada. It's just nice to sit down and be reminded about what it is that we're fighting for. And that's football and it's tradition and it's the Gamecocks.
[00:12:22] So, like, let all that chatter play out. However it may Be. And you may feel a certain way about college athletics in this new era, but when you sit down to watch the game, it's still exciting and I still certainly am excited and you should be too.
[00:12:38] So with that said, let me take y'all through what I am excited for and will be keeping sort of an extra keen eye on in the spring game. And you know, spring games, we've all watched them. They're typically very vanilla, very basic scheme wise. You know, you're not lighting it up a lot. Maybe you get one or two trick plays thrown in there, but nonetheless I'm going to be watching close for the following. So on offense, mingles with saying Lenoris, but the freshman wide receivers because there has been a lot of chatter and a lot has been made about this young group that we have and just how talented they are. And it's expected that multiple of these guys, these true freshmen, are going to have to play big roles this upcoming season. So I want to see who among them stands out at this point in time. Brian Rowe, Lex Cyrus, you know, Sellers. There's multiple guys there who could step up and play significant minutes. That's a basketball, right. Who could lock significant playing time. Right. A lot of snaps. So let's see, like, are they really living up to the hype right now?
[00:13:57] Next, the running backs. So we've seen plenty of Oscar, Attaway, the bowl game, things like that. Do we see more development from Howell and Fuller? Right. Like anything that we notice from last season to this spring here, are we able to see Faison? You know, I know there's some limbo with the ncaa. Like maybe we are able to see him and if so, does he look the part? Because everything that I've seen is that this guy is the real deal. It's just a matter of this weird academic issue or whatever it may be.
[00:14:32] Because if last year taught us anything, it is that an experienced deep running back room is invaluable. And as Lenores continues to get keyed in on, we're going to need that reliable group behind him. Right. Like when you need those three or four yards in a crucial situation, you got to know, you got to have a dependable back in there. So the entire group, I'm excited to see want to see if there's noticeable improvement from some of these other guys outside of Attaway on the defensive side of the ball. I'm very curious to watch the linebackers. Y'all know I'm high on Fred JR Johnson, but behind him there's simply a Lot of unknowns. Got a couple newcomers as well. There's high ceiling guys and there's a, you know, mix of couple younger guys in there as well. But I want to see who among them stands out and is there someone who we envision playing next to Fred come week one.
[00:15:33] I'm also excited to see our defensive backfield, particularly who is lined up at safety and nickel. I just talked about Nicki Manwari a second ago. He got some big, big shoes to fill in that group. So who lines up there? It's going to be, you know, it's going to be a little tricky to tell exactly who's going where just because of how the teams do this, right? Like there's it's not a best on best setup. They do the fun Garnet and Black draft. So the guys are mixed up the depth charts a little mixed up, but nonetheless, like do we see Kilgore at safety or at nickel? Nor would the transfer like where does he line up? Is Cece, as he say, out there with the ones, you know, what side is he on that type of deal? This defense has a lot of options in that area. So I'm really excited to see. And then I'm also curious to see what the specialists do. I mean, replacing punter and kicker, it's just certainly a unique situation nonetheless. And I think there's going to be a lot of fan excitement about that too. I think that anytime there's a punt or a field goal situation, people will be cheering probably more than ever in a spring game for that. So going to be neat to see how that goes. But yeah, I mean, love a spring game. It's light, it's fun. I love to see when some of the the guys who were buried in the depth chart or the walk ons get to log some good snaps and when the team gets hype when they make a play. And it's just what it's all about. Like will there be a special guest? Are we going to see a fun trick play all these things. So Friday night, Garnet Black game, really excited and maybe, just maybe we get a little bit of a sneak peek into what the team is going to look like next year.
[00:17:25] But all right, on to games that matter, not exhibition. The baseball team was in action Tuesday night against the Citadel and ended up getting a win. 4 nothing. Carolina got the party started early, scoring three runs in the second inning and another in the third and then blanked the Citadel after that. So pretty nice little shutout win there. Jackson Susi got the start and a no decision. Tyler Pitzer got the win in relief going two and a third innings. Player highlights here. KJ Scobie went one for three with a home run. Ethan Petrie one for five with one rbi.
[00:18:03] Up next are the Gamecocks. It's a weekend series against Ole Miss at home. The continuation of a big home stand that Carolina has had. This series actually started Thursday night. So you're listening to this. We are underway here. Pitching rotation, you would have seen this by now. Thursday Brandon stone, Friday Jake McCoy and Saturday here. Excuse me, almost said Sunday. Saturday is tba. But there is hope that SQ will be able to pitch in this one. So if we see him out there and he can get through several innings unscathed, health wise, that's a really good sign for this rotation and this team moving forward. So let's will this one to happen at home. You had a good, good win against Citadel. Let's have a good effort against Ole Miss. It was tough out in College Station. We're not going to get into that, but let's have a good effort here at home in front of the home crowd. 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.
