Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, women's basketball rolls and also prepares for a top five matchup. And men's basketball hits the road in search of their first SEC win. Okay, here we.
[00:00:55] Okay. Welcome to episode 296 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001 and hope you all had a great week out there. Gamecock Nation super bowl weekend. How about that? Also, crazy news in professional sports at the NBA. I'm not going to get into that. This is not an NBA podcast, but if you know, you know what I'm talking about. And yeah, super bowl weekend's here. Last football game for however many months that is. And just cherish it. I know this matchup does not excite a lot of people. I'm going to be hate watching it for a few reasons. But yeah, just enjoy it. If you are of the betting type. You. There's so many good props, things like that.
[00:01:50] I'm going to have the buffalo chicken. Everything. Let's dust everything. Buffalo chicken. I might have a buffalo chicken omelette to start the day off. That just. That sounds like heartburn, but nonetheless. Hope y'all are gearing up for the big game and are raring to go into this weekend where there is still a lot of Gamecock action to be had. But before I get into all that, let me get into this week in review here. Not a whole lot to review, not a whole lot to go over. This episode might get y'all out of here a little bit earlier than normal, but let's dive into this here starting on Tuesday. Women's golf back in action. They finished fourth in the Terese Hessian Regional Challenge, so not half bad. You remember last season, they had a pretty good year themselves, so seems to be on a pretty solid start there. And then on a little bit of a different note. But if you're listening to this on Friday, we are officially one week away from opening day for baseball. How about that? I love it. College baseball rocks. We obviously take a lot of pride in it at South Carolina and hopefully we are on the path to a more prideful, consistent program under Paul Manari. But it's February, it's the middle of February and we're going to be talking baseball. You're way ahead of mlb. Some places you might be watching. It's still chilly. Like, I absolutely, absolutely love it. So, yeah, first series soon to be underway of the Pulmonary era. I'll get into all that of Course, as we get closer to it, what we're seeing about starting pitching, who we might think might be a big bat in the lineup and things like that, but yeah, right around the corner. And speaking of big bats in the lineup, Ethan Petrie, I gotta come up with a good nickname. I feel like I always have good nicknames for the baseball team. But Ethan Petrie nonetheless was named to the Preseason All SEC team should not come as a surprise. The guy absolutely Mashes has been a key figure for that lineup since his freshman year. And I think we need to expect him to do some big things, or at least we will need him to do some big things, but expect him to bring more of the same with power and, you know, just a good, good, good guy to have in that lineup who is really consistent, all things considered. But all right, now, talking about sports that are in season currently, we're talking basketball here. Going to start off with the men here. Now, if you'll remember correctly, the men had no midweek game. So a little bit of a breather. Talked about this last episode. I don't see how that could be a bad thing. You know, these guys, you know, they're coming out, they're still playing hard, and we've seen that with those close losses that they've had. But that's got to take a toll. And I think if you can take a little bit of a beat and maybe Paris gave them a little bit of time back or maybe it allowed them to just, you know, continue to practice and work at things and not have to worry about traveling and things like that.
[00:05:07] I don't see how it's a downside. Hey, it can hurt, right? Like what we're doing now certainly ain't working. So, yeah, no midweek game for the guys probably. Honestly as well, now that I'm saying this, probably a nice little mental health break for us fans, too, who have just been really through the ringer with, with this SEC schedule. It has not, not been easy and I don't have to reopen that wound just quite yet. But the guys will be back in action this Saturday afternoon as they go on the road to Lexington to take on the University of Kentucky. Kentucky, of course, Blue Blood program. New era for them as Cal is no longer there. So they got a new coach. They're currently ranked 14th, sitting at 15, 7 overall, 4 and 5 in conference. Had a quick look at it here. They average 87 points per game compared to USC's 70 and a half. However, they do allow 77 per game compared to Carolina's 69. So you're looking at this matchup and just like every other one in the SEC we've had lately, you gotta say it's gotta happen eventually, right? Like, can this be the one that we get over the hump and get that win And I don't know, you know, I mean, this is a matchup, South Carolina and Kentucky, where in recent years, you know, you don't have to go back far. In fact, it feels like the more you go back, the more that you see this matchup has had some crazy games and Carolina has either been right in the middle of a lot of these games or, or even come out of the other side victorious when a lot of the times the team had no business doing that.
[00:07:02] And then on top of it, you know, Kentucky's looking good. You know, they're 14th in the country, you know, 15, 70.
[00:07:10] Like I said, they're four and five in conference. They've taken some lumps lately. I actually think they're on a two game skid. Arkansas went over there and handed them an L and then I think they lost after that as well. So this Kentucky team, while having a good season and seems that their new coach was able to step in there and have some success. It's a long season, but you know, they're not impervious and they're not, you know, a top five ranked. Kentucky now going up to Lexington is a tough place to play, very passionate. It's a weekend game, SEC game, they're looking to bounce back. So it's going to be a tough road environment, you know, but South Carolina has performed decent on the road in a few instances. You know, Vandy comes to mind.
[00:08:04] And you know, putting aside the exact record, Carolina has been in several good SEC games where they have been right on the edge. And the more we've watched and the more I've talked about it, it's just a matter of closing and a matter of if you are in that moment, just to stay calm, don't get the yips, be able to execute the plays, don't have those mental mistakes. So all of this to say I still have some hope.
[00:08:38] I mean the hope now is that you're just going to win a game, right? Like we're not hoping for anything past that. Let's just take a baby step before we even take another baby step, right? It's not like there's much that can be salvaged, but nonetheless, all that to say I do think if Carolina plays our game and can control the pace of Things, you know, we are able to move a little bit faster than, you know, years past, but are a more defensive minded team. We do like to get deep into the shot clock on offense. If we can get into that type of game and grind it out, you know, you can't get into a shootout with Kentucky. They got too much talent. So go in there, make them play your game and let's see if we can make this a game late in the second half and maybe, just maybe in the weirdest of circumstances on the road in Lexington against the Kentucky team. That's good. Not great.
[00:09:43] We can, we can steal one. I don't know, we'll see how it goes. Microw to the game here, pretty simple. You need production from Nick Pringle. You know, I've gotten cute with it with saying, oh, combine with CMB for this many points. And I've called him out before in a crow to the game. He has been inconsistent and when you look at some of these games, last one comes to mind. But you know, when you look at some of these close games where Pringle didn't do a whole lot offensively, it's kind of the one guy you can point to and say, well, what the heck man, you know, you're supposed to be big time for us, you know, like no disrespect to Jacoby Wright. He's, you know, done as much as he can, it feels like at times. But you're not necessarily pointing to him as being like, you got to be a big time player for us in the SEC right now. Like we'd hoped he developed a little more. But that's Pringle and he's played these dudes, you know, he's played in big time moments. So let's, let's have him show up in a big way, take some of the pressure off cmb, take some of the pressure on some of these guys, be a presence on the boards and let's see what happens. So yeah, go Cox man. But now moving over to the women's side of things now this is a little different. When I normally do, I'm actually confidently hopping on here as they are current currently playing Georgia. I'm doing some live reporting right now. You're listening to this when it already happened, but as I'm doing this, it's live reporting. You see how that works? So currently South Carolina Gamecocks are up on Georgia in the fourth 64 to 34. So I can feel confident that this game is going to go our way and it would Kind of felt that way early, but that's where we're looking at right now. Quick look at the box score here. You got Tessa Johnson, 12 points still. Again, there's still game to be played here. Malaysia full Wiley with 10. Chloe kits, she had a nice highlight, real play early in the game. She currently has 11. So ladies were able to go on the road midweek game rocking, very fresh new jerseys. I don't think I saw those new black ones. That jersey is very, very sharp. So hopefully it's not the last time we see them, but yeah, able to go to Georgia. That was a game that I think we expected to go somewhat this way and they were able to handle business there. But up next for the ladies, they head to Austin, Texas to take on the Longhorns. This is a nice warmup for all of us. A nice ramp up to the Super Bowl. Sunday, 2pm Tip off. You're able to watch our Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball take on a top five team. Texas is ranked fourth right now, and then you can ride that in right to the pregame show for the super bowl and then cap off your night with the big game. But Texas right Now, again ranked fourth. They are 222 overall, 8 and 1 in the SEC. Sort of a fun matchup here. You know, again, these new SEC program you get to face, it's a big challenge for the ladies. A good team, only one loss in the SEC and not in the friendly confines of colonial life. You know, this feels like, you know, you talk about games maybe last year where the ladies went on the road against lsu, some of these tough environments, you know, going out west this year and having some challenge. So this is going to be a good matchup. You're going against a good team in Texas. And South Carolina has looked really, really good to this point in the season. And this is just another test. And you know, if we look back, how Don Staley likes to have those tough out of conference games early in the year. So that way you're battle tested when you come up against games like this or that LSU game the other day. So I think that the ladies are ready for this one. I think that this is a. It's a veteran team. You know, there are some younger players who are still developing. But when you look at powpow kits, you know, Raven, some of these players have been through some of these really hard, hard road games. And so I think we have the depth to take anybody. I think we have the attitude now. I think the team has again settled into themselves. They understand their identity more than they did earlier in the year. But if you have some struggles in this one, if you face adversity, not the worst thing in the grand scheme of things, you're not going to be able to roll over everybody all the time.
[00:14:38] And when we get into postseason situations, those games are not played in colonial life.
[00:14:46] So you have to be able to play in tough environments.
[00:14:51] And as we've seen in past in the tournament, sometimes, you know, you'll face a team that can be good and gives you a hard time, or you might face a team that, you know on paper you should outmatch, but it can come out swinging and give you a hard time. So I think this is going to be a good game. I think we have all the players to run with, really any team in the country. But, you know, Texas as well. But it's one of those deals where, you know, you're on the road against top five team, yet you had a midweek game also on the road. That's a lot of traveling. It's a challenge, and I think it's a challenge that the team should welcome and ultimately grow from the adversity. So my crow to the game in this game is, you know, let's get a big game out of Tahina Powpow. You know, someone who I'd love to see that shooting continue being able to score in different ways, generating offense in different ways. So, yeah, I would love to see Powpow have a big game again. A veteran who has played in big games on the road, someone who South Carolina is leaning on and, you know, will need to continue to lean on, especially later in the year. So, yeah, perfect Sunday for us, y'all. Really great, great time for appetizers. Maybe again, get to roll that right into the game here. 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.
