Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks. Women's basketball. Postseason begins. Men's basketball regular season ends. And baseball has a nice midweek showing. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:57] Welcome to episode 224 of Cox talking Game Cox. I am your host, Tim Cox. Where I will keep every episode from 18 one to 2001. And let me just say I am damn proud to be a Gamecock. I just am.
[00:01:18] Obviously, we all love our school. We all have varying degrees of school spirit and whatnot. But I don't know this week in particular. Just with the various action going on. And you're looking around and you're getting excited for postseason play. You're seeing things that haven't happened for many years.
[00:01:41] Record books, history coach a year, defensive player of the year, midweek sweeps. Just all the excitement. I don't know. I'm just feeling extra proud right now.
[00:01:57] As we all should be. As we really all should be. I'm going to get into a lot of that as the episode goes on here. But hope you all had a great week out there. And are ready for a big weekend in Gamecock Nation. It's just been this steady diet of a lot of action going on. And meaningful action, which is really exciting. This time last year, we were kind of fading out with the men's basketball. Women's basketball. You were gearing up for the postseason as we are now. And baseball was getting its feet underneath itself. But now it's a three headed monster. It's like the three headed dog in Harry Potter. Fluffy. It's just big bites barking at you. Gotta pay attention. Gotta support. Wouldn't have it any other way. But before I get into all that, let's do a quick week in review here from this past week around Gamecock Nation. Really only one score update for y'all. This is from Wednesday. And the women's golf team. They finished fourth in the Darius Rucker intercollegiate tournament. How about that? Every time they play this tournament, I get so excited. Like, that's awesome. Darius Rucker has his own tournament. And then you get to go play in that. You would think South Carolina should be given a advantage or handicap or something with that. But nonetheless finish fourth. That's a great showing. Golf is tough. A lot of competition out there. Fourth is a very nice showing from the ladies there. Now, softball had their game rained out. But they do open SEC play this Saturday. So stay tuned for how they kick off that part of the schedule. Will be very exciting to follow along. Bev Smith and company there.
[00:03:44] But sticking with the ladies here, we're really going ladies first. This episode. We're being very gentlemanly. Chivalry is very much not dead on this podcast. Big supporter of women's sports here, but sticking with the ladies, we're talking women's basketball here. As they are set to start their me almost said preseason postseason quite the opposite. Their postseason play begins as the SEC tournament is officially here and underway and matchups are officially set for the weekend. You were waiting for that first round to finish and then you have everything settled from there with the buys and double buys, things like that. South Carolina, as the number one seed in the tournament, earned a double buy and they will be taking on Texas a M. Friday at noon. So it's very possible that you're listening to this and tip off is right around the corner, in which case get excited, put the tv on, put your phone away, or keep your phone, put your work phone away, whatever it is, or there's the chance that it's already happened, but nonetheless, we're going to report on it. Texas A M is a number nine seed in the tournament, and last time these two met, it was earlier in the year. South Carolina handled a and m with ease, defeating the Aggies 99 to 64. I actually remember going into that game, I felt that the Aggies matched up kind of well against South Carolina. It was in college station. I felt this might be a challenge for the ladies, but clearly I was wrong and Carolina handled their business really well. So obviously you're hoping to see more of that in this matchup here. I really hope to see our guards make a big impact in this game. Full Wiley, she had a great game against the aggies last go around. I like to see POW POW as well, really contribute there and then the format of the tournament moving forward is that the winner of our matchup, which hopefully is the Gamecocks, will take on the winner of Alabama and Tennessee. That game will take place Saturday afternoon, meaning our potential next game would be Saturday afternoon. And then the championship game for the SEC crown is Sunday at 03:00 p.m.. Eastern. So I will wait to see those results pour in, and then we'll, of course, hopefully be celebrating with y'all, but really wishing the best luck to our ladies as they look to continue their momentum into the NCAA tournament.
[00:06:34] You want to be playing your best and you want to have all the momentum in the world. Stands to reason that the Gamecocks will be the number one overall seed in the big dance. But if this team can continue to roll and can play well in those pressure situations in the SEC tournament where your back could be against the wall. Winner go home. Who's going to step up? Who's going to hit that big shot?
[00:07:04] It would only bode well for some of those folks who have not been part of the big dance full know. So very interesting to see. Also some fun news from the women's basketball team is that Tahina Pao POw is returning to school for a fifth year next year. Really nice video she put out. Really just saying that really feels at home at Columbia. And then Dawn Staley, if you hadn't seen, was named coach of the year once more. I put it out there on social media that we really just have royalty in Columbia with Don, and you have to also take a step back and really appreciate what Don Staley has built.
[00:07:49] One of the hardest things to do in sports is to have sustained success, right? You can get lightning in a bottle for a year or two, maybe three, and have a really good run. But to do it for, I mean, what are we talking here? Like eight years, more or less ten years where they've just been consistently so good, but really the last five, six years, it's just been that next level really, since that first national championship. Right. It is the pinnacle of women's college basketball. We are a gold standard for around the country. Doesn't guarantee anything in the future, doesn't guarantee anything in the NCAA tournament. But to be sitting with the number one overall seed in the conference tournament, the big dance, it's very, very impressive to see. So, wishing the best of luck to the ladies and going to be excited to watch, going to be fun to watch this weekend. But then sticking with the hardwood here, we're talking men's basketball. The guys had the biggest game that this program has seen in colonial life arena Wednesday night as they took on fourth ranked Tennessee with a share of first place on the line in the SEC. Now, the excitement around this game was second to none. And the environment, even just listening to know, watching on tv, that felt like an SEC football game. I mean, the environment that Lamont Paris has generated from the success that he and his team have had this year is really incredible. I think it was the third sellout of the year for the, you know, that concept. The idea of having multiple sellouts for men's basketball at South Carolina, that felt like a pipe dream just mere months ago. And now they've done it multiple times. And you had the guys on the call for the game saying that the environment was unlike any other, Michi Johnson saying it was the best environment he's been a part of this year and you're really seeing this awakening of the South Carolina fandom for men's know. We know that we can pack out CLA for basketball. Look at what dawn has done time and time again. So it was just really cool to see and that environment really was second to none. Now, unfortunately, we all know now that the guys came up short in this game. 66 to 59, Tennessee goes on to win the regular season league title. But this was a freaking heavyweight fight. This was two good teams, two really physical, good, well coached, veteran teams just going at it.
[00:10:45] I said the environment was like a football game. I mean, this game felt like a football game, just so physical and teams matching up and playing chess throughout the entire game. It really was great. Edge of your seat college basketball. Now, the first half of the game, I really felt like we were off our game. It seemed that we weren't playing the same style of basketball offensively that we had been used to. And they talked about this watching the game, but just it wasn't so much dictating what the defense would do, right? It wasn't creating your own shots, moving off the ball, things like that. It was more so taking the bad shots that Tennessee wanted you to take. And you were letting that Tennessee defense dictate sort of our play and shot selection and it led to some poor shots, deep threes, rush know guys forcing it. And I don't know if it was maybe a little bit of extra pressure, maybe it was the environment, the stakes of the game. The guys were just off a little bit and it seemed like, I don't want to say they were playing hero ball because it wasn't quite that, but it just seemed like whoever had the ball, they wanted to kind of get the run going right. They didn't want to necessarily take over the game and do it all, but it was just like, I got the ball, I'm going to hit this deep three and then we're going to start our run here instead of that extra pass or two that has become the signature for us offensively. So you go down, you're down. I think what was it, 1011 points at the half, but you responded incredibly well. I think Lamont probably got in their ear a little bit in the locker room and guys snapped out of it and realized that you are fully in this game because defensively the game plan was like, yes, connect hit his shots and their big man down low, he was dominating early, but it was a very low scoring game defensively, you liked what you were doing to Tennessee.
[00:12:58] So you come out in the half and the guys were attacking. Michi Johnson really had that second half surge similar to that he had against Florida where he was getting in that zone, driving more. You saw Talon Cooper doing that. Guys were getting to the line more. But then that also opened things up for some better shots defensively. I liked some of the changes that Paris made. You had Michi on connect for a little bit, helped guys get off the screen a little bit better, but it just felt like every time the guys got a little bit of momentum, the door would just get shut. They'd go on a little bit of a run.
[00:13:39] At one point though, it was 14 points, I believe, and the guys brought it back all the way to three with what, a minute to go? 45 seconds to go. It was right there. It was right there.
[00:13:52] And then Tennessee gets a couple of big shots, a couple of bad possessions, questionable, no calls, and you end up on the wrong side of it. But there is absolutely every reason in the world to be proud of this team. And I got goosebumps saying that.
[00:14:12] To be in that position with a chance at first place on the line so late in the year is just incredible. And you can put any reason why on that. Lamont's only in his second year. This team won eleven games last year.
[00:14:31] Just historically, like when has that been done in South Carolina?
[00:14:36] There's so many reasons to still be so proud of this team and where they're at.
[00:14:43] And this probably won't be the case every year where you're in that league title conversation, but you have the makings and the foundation and the belief that this will happen sooner rather than later type of deal, right?
[00:15:02] And then if you want to look at it just in terms of this year, the guys essentially went toe to toe and hung with a one seed in the NCAA tournament.
[00:15:16] Tennessee's very well likely going to get a number one seed in the tournament. So imagine South Carolina is a five seed. Let's call it, that's a five one matchup. And that's what you saw.
[00:15:28] We got them at their place. They came in with revenge on the mind, little bit of extra motivation. They got their revenge. What happens on a neutral site, who knows?
[00:15:41] Anything could happen. And so this team showed resiliency, they showed grit, they showed fight, they showed smarts. Being able to adjust the game plan a little bit.
[00:15:53] And they went all the way back and almost sealed the deal against one of the top teams in the country. And all of those things, plus the veteran know how of a couple of these players, the continued growth of guys like CMB, getting a little extra depth, help with studie coming back.
[00:16:16] All of these things make me believe that this team is built to make some noise in the NCAA tournament.
[00:16:27] And it stings right now because I think we all wanted to be on top of the league and there's still the SEC tournament ahead of us. But eyes on the big dance. This team is a good tournament team now, nothing's guaranteed again, but all of what I saw against Tennessee makes me hopeful for the next step. And beyond that, some quick player highlights from this game. Michi had 18 and five rebounds, CMB eleven points, eleven rebounds and Talon Cooper also had eleven points. But it's funny because despite all this, the guys still have another game to play and they got to finish off their regular season. And this game does have some consequence because you want to be in a position in the SEC tournament to earn that double buy. So you got to take this game seriously. You got to go out there and win.
[00:17:24] The guys will be taking on Mississippi State Saturday afternoon way back. Way back when SEC play started. The Gamecocks started against Mississippi State at home and won 68 to 62. You remember that. Just think of that.
[00:17:41] Think how far this team has come. We were all jazzed that we were just one and o in SEC play. We're like a fifth of the way to matching our total from last year. And just think about what we've done since then. But the Bulldogs are 19 and eleven overall, eight and nine in conference now. The task at hand is really one can you flush what happened against Tennessee and focus on, for lack of a better term here, the greater good of the postseason? And that is exactly my crow to the game here is just be ready to play 40 minutes.
[00:18:19] Don't have a sluggish start. Don't limp into this one with your head down because of last game.
[00:18:25] Let's end this season strong. End the season strong. Get a double buy in the NCAA tournament, win a game there, get the best seed you possibly can for the big dance, and then it's anyone's game.
[00:18:38] Let's go, Qzips.
[00:18:42] Now changing gears here a little bit, we're talking baseball. The Yardcocks had two midweek games. I guess I could really say like one and a half midweek games, more or less, but they were on the winning side of both of them. That is just what this team needed. First game was against the Citadel Tuesday night. Carolina ended up on the right side seven to one. Things honestly could have gone even better for South Carolina. The guys were not able to take advantage of some bases loaded opportunities. Eddie Copper got the start and a no decision going four and a third. Parker Marlote got the win in relief. Player highlights Talmudge Lee Croix three for four and Ethan Petrie one for three with one ribby. The second game this week was against Davidson Wednesday afternoon. The game was called early due to rain in the 6th, but the Gamecocks ended up winning four to one. Carolina scored two runs each of the first two innings and that was all that was needed. Matthew Becker started, I'm going to say, opened this game. He went just one innings, likely saving him for the weekend. At least that's what I'm hoping. He just went one inning. Tyler Pittser got the win after pitching three and a third in relief. He looked good too. Kids got stuff pitches hard too. Player highlights Tyler Dylan there we go. Dylan Brewer went two for four. Talmudge went one for two with one ribby. Next up for Carolina is a weekend series against Longwood. LonGwoOd, yeah, I don't even know where Longwood is, but you got Longwood and the cox, so what a world. The pitching rotation for South Carolina this weekend is Friday. Eli Jones Saturday, Dylan escue and Sunday is to be assigned. Now, obviously the missing piece there is Roman Kimball right now. As of recording this, I have not seen any news about him. With his injury history. I have a little bit of concern there, but maybe also the staff just wants to give him some extra rest because of that, right? Or maybe the plan is to give him extra rest this weekend to give him a start earlier in the rotation as SEC play opens next weekend.
[00:21:07] My crow to the series here is hit well with runners in scoring position. The team needs to see this happen. It's like seeing one go through the hoop, right? Hit well with runners in scoring position. You need to get better at that. With conference play set to begin soon, but with that y'all, that wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, Twitter or X is coxgamecox. 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 copy.
