Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 18 one to 2001 and hope you all had a great week out there. Gamecock Nation, lots of sports going on. Hope you all are warm.
[00:01:15] Feels like most of the country is going through a serious cold snap right now. So hope wherever you are, you are staying warm, hunkered in, chilling, maybe having a little bourbon. Nothing better than a little bourbon on a nice cold night. I've actually been doing a couple of weeks of dry January and I feel like the last couple of episodes I've just brought up how nice it is to drink in the cold weather. I'm just living vicariously through those who are not doing this and I don't know how many more days I have left in me here, but nonetheless here wanted to start off this episode with a little bit of housekeeping. I normally do this at the end of the show, but wanted to mix it up right now where if you could, if you have not, if you're a listener of the show, you like the show. Do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind, go and rate the show and subscribe whatever is easiest for you all out there. Even just leaving a quick couple of stars reviews or if you have a minute typing out a review, it goes a long way. It helps the visibility of the show so other Gamecock fans can easily find it. And I love the feedback. So if there's something you want to leave in a review that maybe I could be doing better, feel free to leave that. If you think the show is doing great, awesome, leave that too. But if it's not too much trouble, please leave a review, subscribe and share amongst your fellow Gamecock fans, folks who are looking to stay in touch with the program and with the athletic department. All that jazz. But I really do appreciate all your support. And yeah, if you haven't already, please like subscribe review all that jazz. It does mean a lot to me and ultimately helps the show grow. But enough with that. Let's get down to business here. Got a quick week in review for you all here. What's fun is that some of the other sports are picking up this weekend, actually. So like tennis, track, all that. So the spring sports are really starting to gear up and it's going to be a lot of fun to talk about the scores and track their various levels of success starting soon. And then I think we are actually less than one month from baseball opening day. So that's fun. It's almost time to play ball here and it's a very fun time in Gamecock Nation when you get Gamecock baseball back, our beloved baseball program, but also rolling with basketball as well. March Madness kicks up. It's always a very fun spring as well. But let's look at some news from the week here. Got some football news, transfer portal news. Got some additions to the program here, starting with he's back. The return part two. Defensive lineman Gilbert Edmond is back, transferring back to South Carolina from Florida State. And it's a funny world we live, huh? It is a funny world we live in. It was a weird departure to see Gilbert leave. Felt like it was his time to shine. This past season goes to Florida State. I don't know what all came with the decision to come back, but I think he has one year left in college and wanted to finish his time where it began. Maybe you go somewhere and you see that the grass is not greener on the other side, but I think this really speaks to the fact of it's not necessarily if you leave, but it's sort of how you leave. He obviously left on fine terms with all of the coaches and they felt that that feeling was mutual because you're not going to bring back a guy who sort of burned a bridge or said fu that type of deal. I saw that the other teammates were on board with this and it's exciting. I mean, his stats weren't anything too crazy last year at Florida State. They were about on par with what he had done at South Carolina. So you kind of know what you're going to get. He's going to get you one and a half, two, maybe three sacks. He's going to be involved in tackles for loss and it's at a position of need for Carolina. And when you look at who is on the roster right now with his addition, you have to feel pretty good about the defensive line going into this next season. Dylan Stewart, Kyle Canard, JT Gere Gilbert Edmund Desmond Omizulu, Brian Thomas Jr. A lot more depth, a lot more versatility at that edge rusher position than you did. But yeah, was definitely funny to see Gilbert Edmund coming back and it's just the way the world now guys leave, guys come back. All that jazz. I'm welcoming him back. If coach Beamer says it's fine, it's fine by me. I don't think he should have left in the first place. But let this be a lesson maybe to some people in the building in the program now, some guys who maybe at the end of the season are thinking about jumping ship. You have a real life, living, breathing example of a teammate who did that, only to realize that his situation at the first place was good. So welcome back, Gilbert Edmond. Next, we had an addition in the quarterback room. Quarterback Robbie Ashford is transferring to South Carolina. Excuse me, from Auburn. Robbie Ashford, awesome name. It feels like it should be like a Premier League name, like Robbie Ashford bringing it up the pitch like just awesome name. But he has two seasons of eligibility remaining. Over 22 games at Auburn, Robbie threw for almost 1800 yards, nine touchdowns and nine interceptions. He is good with his legs. He ran for 927 yards and twelve touchdowns. Not a great completion percentage last year at 49%. And of course, you look at that touchdown to interception ratio. Not something you like to see. But this is a nice pickup and I think this fits the bill for exactly what South Carolina needed in that room.
[00:07:21] You couldn't have promised QB one to someone that's not in Shane Beamer's nature, but you wanted to bring in someone who could compete for that job and who could push the other guys on the roster. Robbie has starting experience. He's played a lot of ball in the SEC.
[00:07:40] He's coming in with a certain skill set that matches some of what Lenora Sellers has. Right, because Sellers is already sort of being touted, penciled in as the QB one. But what's nice is that it's a veteran presence who can mentor to a degree some of the guys in that room, Dante Reno, Lenora Sellers, who are younger guys and can absorb a lot of what Dava Loggins is going to be teaching. And ultimately it's going to make for a good competition to push either himself or Lenoris to be better. But also if we take it, the next step in that whoever is QB one, because it's going to be either Robbie Ashford or Lenore Sellers and QB two will be the other guy. They both have similar skill sets. They can run and they can pass. So in the event you have to turn to QB two, the scheme and the strategy of dowel logins won't have to change. It's not like you're going from a dual threat guy to then a guy who's a pro style pocket passer. So having that flexibility where, you know, okay, we got two guys who bring skill set that we like who's going to fit our scheme. We're going to go full send with this type of game plan every single week. That's nice to have from a coaching perspective. And I like that he has a couple of years left of eligibility hopefully can bring some stability to that room. And yeah, I think this fits the bill well because his numbers are not crazy. So he's got to know that he's coming in for a competition where there's a legitimate chance that he could be the backup, but with that, his skills could put him as QB one. So nice pick up there with Robbie Ashford and then offensive lineman Kamar Bell is transferring in from Florida Atlantic. Kamar started all twelve games last season, mostly at guard. He had originally enrolled and red shirted at Auburn. He will have one year of eligibility remaining and I feel like every time I give an update about the transfer portal, it's a new offensive lineman is included in the bunch and I think this is Shane Beamer and Lonnie Teasley clearly saying that they are not going to get caught in a bad spot again if the injury bug hits this offensive line because they have loaded up on depth and talent in that group. I mean, Bell here is a guy that very well might get a lot of playing time. He very well might compete for that starting role, but if nothing else, you have a lot more flexibility, depth and experience. And guys who have played at a high level in that offensive line room, right? These guys, Shane Beamer, Lonnie Teesley, they don't want to get caught with their pants around their ankles again like they did this year. Injury bug hit a couple of guys and all of a sudden it was incredibly thin. You had to turn to guys who were not up to snuffed ready to play at the SEC level. Then you turn to the freshmen who actually were up to snuff in that regard, but you couldn't trust them to go right away. Now you have the talented freshmen who are going to need to be coached up like Josiah Thompson, but you also have young guys like Tree, Trovon Marquis, but then you also look around a guy like Kamar Bell, right? So it's exciting to see this mix along the offensive line. And again, Shane Beamer and staff, they've done a fantastic job in the transfer portal this cycle. I don't know where we rank right now. Last time I checked, I think it was four or five in the transfer portal recruiting rankings, but every pickup seems to be very deliberate. Like this is a position of need. We need a specific type of player, specific type of person, and we're going to go after that and we're going to get that person. So it's really exciting to see and I know we're still a ways away from football season and there's plenty to still be a little concerned about. And there's plenty of reason to be cautious in this outlook for this season. But replenishing the roster seemingly has not been one of them. So this is exciting to see. And how about Gilbert Edmund? I can't believe he really is back.
[00:12:04] What a world. What a world. Welcome back, Gilbert Edmund. Shout out Gilbert Edmund. I guess I gotta re follow him on instagram. That was a swift unfollow when he left. That was fast. I'll go back. I'll give him a follow again. No problem. No problem. Nonetheless here, let's get into scores and games that are actually happening here. Let's look at men's basketball here. They were in action in a late game Tuesday night, 09:00 p.m. Tip off. Felt like New Year's Eve, staying up late for this big event. It's like Lamont after dark, the Gamecocks after dark. Cardiac Cox after dark was. Yeah, late game. And the Gamecocks unfortunately did take a tough loss, losing to Georgia 74 to 69 and was really just the byproduct of a tough, kind of crappy second half for South Carolina. They had a very long field goal drought where Georgia was able to erase a deficit and then take the lead. Miles studie was hurt in the second half. He's out two to three weeks with a shoulder strain. There was suspect officiating in the second half. And then there was this hope at the end where Michi hit a big late three. You're within striking distance, one possession. Georgia responds by hitting the free throws. And that was, you know, this game was also encapsulated by a weird trend that we've seen with the Gamecocks over the last few games. And it's this apparent three point shooting slump that has hit pretty much the whole team. The team shot 23% from beyond the arc in this past game. And prior to this stretch, for the majority of the season, this team was shooting incredibly well and was near the top of the SEC in three point percentage. I think it was like second or third in the league, but lately that has been down drastically and it's also coincided with these close games in league play. I mean, also, the team went 53% from the free throw line compared to 78 from Georgia. That's just not going to get it done.
[00:14:18] Let's call it what it is. It's been tough sledding for this team since entering SEC play. You're now sitting at two and two and things are just not coming as easy for this team as it was earlier in the year. And yes, that is certainly to be expected. You're going against better competition, deeper teams, more experienced teams, right. You're not going against like VMI, but it's just not coming as free flowing and not easy. And there's a few gaps in our roster, which again, it's year two under Paris. He's building. In this Georgia game, for example, their big man was going against BJ Mack or Colin Murray Boyle and there was a size differential, right? There was a physicality that they could bring that, yes, South Carolina could match to a certain degree, but he was simply bigger. And this true massive center is something that's lacking on this team and I think it could make things difficult in league play. If you get to the tournament, you can survive a little bit without that. Not every team has that big, massive, imposing center. So if you get to the tournament play, which was a hope, maybe this game hurts. This is a bad loss on that resume, but you can survive a little bit. But going against SEC teams week in and week out, that could be tough. And again, it's just these closer games. I think what this team is going to be is we're going to be a tough out. We play great defense, we can shoot the ball well, it's there, it exists. You should have a better free throw percentage. That was unusual. They need to cut down on turnovers. They can't be given away these possessions. But when you play South Carolina, it's going to be a team that wants to play hard. Defense, that wants to slow the ball down, ideally is getting good looks at the basket and there's a couple of guys who can beat you without studie. That hurts. So now you're looking at Talon Cooper and Michig Johnson to elevate their games even more, BJ Mack even more. But anybody who's taking these threes, we need to get that know you're seeing some guys take shots early in the shot clock, not getting the best looks.
[00:16:37] This team needs to find the better looks, open shots, maybe get a little deeper into that shot clock, don't have to speed up the game, you don't have to shoot the three if it's not there. So there's a couple of things that can be corrected and if they are, it even makes this team tougher. But I think the defense is something that this team can lean on to continue to be a tough out in the league, but there's going to be games where if something's not clicking, it just might not happen. So again, I set that bar at eight wins, you're sitting at two right now. Got a tough stretch coming up. I still think that's attainable. That would get you to 20 wins. I think you win a game or two in the SEC tournament. It's a really good resume, but you got to find a way now to make up for this bad loss. So you got to find a way to get an upset somewhere in the rest of the schedule here. Player highlights from this game Michi Johnson had 19 points. BJ Mac had 16 points. Up next for the Gamecocks, the guys hit the road and head to Arkansas for a game Saturday afternoon 01:00 p.m. Arkansas is having an interesting year.
[00:17:44] I feel like they've been one of the better teams in the SEC the last couple of years. What's the coach name? Muscleman. Yeah, but currently they're sitting ten and seven overall. One and three in the SEC having just barely gotten their first win. Now it will be a tough road environment. Their crowd gets pretty into it and it's going to be really interesting to see what this team does without know who is going to fill that role. Maybe Jacoby Wright gets a start. Maybe you mix up the lineup and you go a little bit bigger. Zachary Davis maybe. It's going to be really interesting to see. It's going to be a huge loss to make up. He was very versatile, Miles, so hopefully speedy recovery for him. My crow to the game is get the three point shots to fall. It's who we are. It's what gave us success.
[00:18:32] There's no magic wand to making that happen, but hopefully we can generate some more offense from beyond the arc.
[00:18:40] Moving over now to women's basketball. The ladies were in action Monday night at home against Kentucky and they stayed perfect, defeating the Wildcats 98 to 36. I think the spread going into this game was like 44 points and clearly that was lowballing it. This game was actually kind of competitive after the first quarter, believe it or not, Carolina was up just 17 to 13. But after that it was all Carolina. Held the Wildcats to eight points in the second and four points four in the fourth quarter. Turned out to be just a clinic.
[00:19:17] The huge highlight of this game came thanks to Ashlyn Watkins. Dunk had a fast break from the steal. Jammed it home. Super exciting. I think it's her second career. Dunk was awesome. Was an earthquake. Loved it. Some other player highlights here. Tahina. Pow, pow. Having a really great season for us, by the way. Kind of quietly. She had 14 points. Camilla Cardozo, twelve points. Eleven rebounds and Malaysia full. Wiley went for 14 points. Up next for Carolina is a game against Texas A and M. This is in College Station Sunday at 05:00 p.m.. A and M is currently 14 and three overall. Two and two in conference right now. To date. This is going to be the hardest matchup that the ladies have faced in the SEC. It's a tricky matchup against a good team on the road at their place so team has to buckle down. Things won't come as easy as they did against Kentucky. Micro to the game. Here is Tahina Pao Pow. Stay hot because that can open things up for other shooters like Brie hall as well. So we'll be really interesting to see. But with that y'all, that wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, Twitter or axe is Cox Gamecocks? Instagram is just the name of the show. Cox talking gamecocks I appreciate all y'all. Go Cox.
