Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, women's basketball is Final four bound. Men's basketball adds players from the transfer portal. And baseball suffers another setback. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:56] Okay. Welcome to episode 309 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And it is great to be a Gamecock, y'all. Wow.
[00:01:16] Have a weekend. Big weekend. Absolutely. Showing out on the national stage. Edge of your seat, entertainment being Gamecock.
[00:01:28] Shout out to the women's basketball team. I'm going to get into that in a little bit, of course, in detail, but we have to start the show with that. It is absolutely great to be a Gamecock. I mean, I was out at bars this weekend, just packed, all locked in for women's basketball. Like, it is so cool to watch this sport. Have grown over the last few years to see what our program has become. It's a talking point amongst all sports fans.
[00:01:56] You're seeing in the men's tournament, their halftime show, whatever they're talking about it. I think it was even Charles Barkley that gave a direct shout out to Don Staley. It just is great to be a fan of this team. We are so, so lucky to be witnessing it. It's awesome. And just take a minute and just bask in the greatness. It is great to be a Gamecock. Absolutely. Wouldn't change it any other way. I'm going to get into the women's tournament run here in detail in just a second, but do have some stuff to catch y'all up on. Start your week off right. Let's do a weekend recap here from around Gamecock Athletics. Friday, men's tennis beat Texas A and M4 to 2. Women's tennis beat Mississippi State 42 as well. Volleyball lost to UTEP 3 to 2 and also lost to Grand Canyon 3 to 2. And then Friday, the softball team was back in action against SEC competition. Lost, losing to LSU 11 to 3 Friday.
[00:03:07] And then on Saturday, beach volleyball Lost to Washington 3 to 2 and Arizona State 4 to 1 to. Tough weekend for the beach volleyball team, but that's all right. Bounce back. And then equestrian. We're talking equestrian. And we got big news out of that program as they beat Texas A and M11 to 8 and are now the 2025 SEC Champs. How about that?
[00:03:35] Gamecock Equestrian? Absolutely love it. SEC Champs.
[00:03:41] What a way. What a way to finish strong there. Fantastic. Love to see it. Shout out to Gamecock equestrian there. They even got A nice, a nice shout out from Coach Beamer as well. So that was really cool to see.
[00:03:53] And then Sunday, softball beat LSU 5 to 3. Men's tennis lost to Texas 4 to 3 as well there. So a little bit of a mixed bag Sunday. And then women's tennis, they beat Alabama 4 to 1. So a lot of action this weekend. You had so many sports in action. It was so fun to see. And then Sunday also you had softball winning the series 4 to 1 against LSU. It was a doubleheader on Sunday. They won 4 to 1 to win the series against LSU, which is huge. So big week for that softball program destroying Clemson and then taking a series away from lsu. But shout out to all Gamecock athletics here. Very busy weekend, an exciting one at that. And then even teams that are not in action are staying in the news here. We're talking men's basketball. You thought that was in the rear view mirror. Well, Lamont Paris is cooking. He is working to make sure that what happened last year does not transpire again. There was all sorts of movement via the transfer portal. We know we lost some guys to that, but regardless, we knew that Lamont had work to do. Needing to bring in some guys, some new blood and refresh that roster a bit. Honestly, it was part of the reason why there was the NIT invite that was declined. But that's neither here nor there.
[00:05:30] So Lamont picked up two commitments from the transfer portal over the last couple days here. The first was Christ Isandoko committing out of Providence. He is a Center standing at 7 foot average, 4 points and 4 rebounds in his sophomore year last season. So look, not eye popping numbers there, but you gotta love a seven footer and it's someone that you can develop. And when you look back at this year, you had Nick Pringle and you had cmb. So you had those two dynamic players down low, but behind them, you were missing some depth there. And you look back and you think Josh Gray, you know, Josh Gray was a guy who didn't have eye popping numbers, got a little bit better under Lamont Paris, but was a guy that could give you quality minutes and could rebound and block shots. And just if someone needed a breather, whether it was cmb, BJ Mack, whoever was on that team, he was there for you. So maybe that's his role, but maybe he's a starter as well, depending on how things shake out. But Lamont Paris gets himself a new big man. But then North Dakota guard Trayson Eagle staff, fantastic name. He committed as well. Now Trayson is a junior again, coming out of North Dakota. He averaged nearly 19 points a game this past season. Along from South Carolina. He had interest from Kansas, Kentucky, Gonzaga and others. So a highly sought after recruit that Lamont Paris was able to land 19 points per game will absolutely take some skills from that. Of course, we have to talk about the step up in competition from North Dakota to the sec, but look, he's an upperclassman, he has experience, and he just has a knack for scoring the basketball. I mean, we saw that this last season with Jamari Thomas stepped up in competition. Maybe there were some growing pains, but there were some games where he went off. And I think, again, that was more of a fit of what Lamont Paris was looking for out of his point guard versus his skill set.
[00:07:47] So I think Lamont knows how to get the most out of these guys. And look, there is example after example of guys transferring up in competition, so to speak, and thriving. Dalton connect comes to mind. You know, last season in the sec. But you're watching all these games this, this weekend in the last couple of weeks during the tournament, and it's littered with guys from small schools on the biggest of stages now playing at these power four schools. So I'm happy with that. I know that Lamont is not done cooking. He's working. You see Eli Ellis, point guard, freshman recruit coming. He's jazzed. He's. He's pumped up on Twitter talking about some of these guys we're getting. He says we're not done. So I think. I think he knows something too. So Lamont Paris is working. Welcome home to these two guys coming to the basketball program here. Very, very exciting stuff.
[00:08:47] But nothing is more exciting than what the women did this weekend as your Gamecock women's basketball team. Our Final Four bound yet again. We're headed to Tampa, baby.
[00:09:01] So cool. So exciting. Just a fantastic accomplishment to be one of the last four teams standing. The banner will fly forever for this one and this tournament run, y'all. I mean, I'm.
[00:09:18] I'm not saying anything groundbreaking here. This was anything but comfortable, this. These last few games here. But the old adage held true, and the ladies survived and advanced and repeated.
[00:09:32] You know, I mean, things certainly did not come easy. But now the ladies are just one game away from being back in the championship game.
[00:09:42] And I mean, look like this regular season showed us that South Carolina is still an elite team, but maybe not totally invincible.
[00:09:55] And we saw some games that didn't go our way. We saw some stretches that didn't go our way. We had some surprise games that were closer than maybe we thought, and a lot of that showed up in the tournament.
[00:10:06] But I think some of these things that we've talked about throughout the regular season and I brought up going into the tournament and into some of these games, is that I think the depth is our strength, the coaching is our strength. And that championship DNA that, like, can't be understated in these types of moments here, like, yes, this is a brand new team. Of course, you know, there's no Camila Cardozo, there's no Aaliyah Boston. Right.
[00:10:36] But a lot of these players have been to the championship game. A lot of these players are national champions.
[00:10:45] Maybe they're asked to do some more than they had in the past.
[00:10:50] And of course, there's some, you know, young players, some new faces, whatever it may be.
[00:10:57] But when you're in a locker room where not only your coach has been there before, but you can look to your teammate who's been there before and knows what it takes and knows not to panic, like, that goes a long way. And I do think that being at the pinnacle of the sport, that just like South Carolina is right now, like, that's intimidating, you know, like, we're going to get into it in a second here. But Duke on the edge of a Final Four, going toe to toe with the defending champions, number one seed, Gamecocks, that's intimidating. That's a lot.
[00:11:37] And so they have some young players who are playing fantastic.
[00:11:42] Do they tighten up a little bit? You know, you saw some weird mental mistakes late in that game by Duke.
[00:11:49] Is it that? Is there maybe a little bit of an intimidation factor? Like, that's part of it. You know, these college students, like, having to step up and elevate and be cool under pressure, these things that your average person has a lot of trouble doing. And so I do think that what we saw in this tournament run leading up to the Final Four now is that championship makeup and that championship DNA and just saying, you know, we've been here before, we can be cool under pressure. We're going to survive this run that X Team is on, and we're going to go on our own, and then we're going to make some tweaks and we're going to be okay, you know, and I think that's what we saw. Now, look, in each and every round, the margin for error gets smaller, and we've certainly seen some errors from this team. They're not perfect, but they're damn good.
[00:12:50] So it's it's just great to see. It's just great to see. So, quick recap here to bring all y'all up to speed, and we'll just relive the good vibes together in the elite eight. The Gamecocks beat Maryland 71 to 67.
[00:13:04] A game here. Again, that was back and forth. You had to have Carolina rally a little bit here, defend their lead late, but ultimately, the ladies hitting clutch buckets and free throws late to secure that W.
[00:13:18] Sunday, the Gamecocks took on Duke in the Elite Eight. That in a game that certainly raised my blood pressure. I mean, things started off well for Carolina. Duke was hanging around, and, you know, they cut down that lead. And going into the half, yes, South Carolina was up. And I was thinking, okay, you know, you have the lead, tighten things up, get back to doing you, and get on a run here, right? But credit to Duke, they came out of the half, they jumped out in the half incredibly well, put South Carolina in a little bit of a deficit. And really, for much of that third quarter, it felt like South Carolina was kind of out of whack, like, kind of going into this, into the halftime as well, too. You just.
[00:14:06] You saw the offensive rhythm lacking. You saw some bad turnovers and mistakes. Things were off, like traveling, just not. Not being on the same page. Right. Several possessions, especially the end of that first half, ending in turnovers and things that you really just shouldn't be doing at such a big clip at this stage in the game. So, yeah, like, that does raise a couple of concerns.
[00:14:38] And we've talked about this a lot this season, it feels like. And I don't know where that comes from. Right. Is it just the nature of this team? Is it just the flow of the game when you have, you know, you're rotating players in and out, that some sets tend to run a little differently than maybe the starting five and, you know, just get a little out of whack and you got to just recenter yourself. I don't know.
[00:15:05] You know, I. I know that the coaches are certainly looking at it time and again. I know the players are talking about it time and again. It's something that you want to tighten up because you want to be able to stay in that rhythm for four quarters. But again, the team stayed cool under pressure.
[00:15:23] And even Dawn Staley, she seemed really calm when they were interviewing her on the floor, you know, going into the fourth quarter, and basically said, look, like Duke went on their run. We're going to go on ours. And then it's Going to come down to those sort of little differences, right?
[00:15:42] I mean, things got dicey at that end. You know, Carolina battled back, you know, took the lead. And it was just this one possession game for that several minutes stretch, like the home stretch of this game.
[00:15:55] And Carol needed. Carolina needed some clutch plays on both ends of the floor to close this one out. And that's exactly what they got. I mean, right at the end there when Duke had that shot to really make this thing scary, it was just some good defense that forced a bad shot. You know, Duke didn't have to get that one off when they did, and that one could have put them ahead.
[00:16:22] So good defense. There was good offense to get up by two. And then Chloe Kitts ice in her veins, nailed the two free throws very late in the game to put things on ice. Chloe Kits also with. With the quote of the weekend.
[00:16:39] Sir, I don't know if y'all saw. I think. I think it was the Maryland coach who said, well, I think we put the blueprint out there for how to beat South Carolina. And some Carolina players got asked about that. And Chloe said, well, clearly the blueprint didn't work because we won just. Just the quote of the game or the quote of the game, quote of the weekend. So she had ice in her veins to end this game. Saniya Fagan had a really strong game as well. Staying aggressive, like when she plays her game, attacks, drives to the hole, stays aggressive. She was incredibly effective and honestly made the difference late. She had a couple of huge buckets late in the game. And once South Carolina decided to start driving and giving it to the post players, that was back to the basics, right? So Carolina gets the win, 54, 50 to advance to the Final Four. Player highlights. Here we're shouting out the bigs. Chloe Kits, 14 points, and Saniyah Fagan, 12 points, eight rebounds. And again, like this victory, this trip to the Final Four, this is a testament to Don Staley and the entire coaching staff for navigating this season.
[00:17:53] It was not as easy as we were used to. And whether it's just the elevation of the sport in general or lacking maybe that prototypical, like, big player that we've had with Camila Cardozo or Aaliyah, this team had to find itself in its own way. And you have those good post players, but they needed to develop and you needed to bring along a player like Joyce Edwards quickly. And you had to play through your guards maybe a little bit more than you had to in the past. So this is just a testament to, to Dawn Staley and her staff. Navigating the losses, navigating the, the troubles here.
[00:18:35] Going through the SEC tournament like they did, going through the rounds, through the Elite Eight at this point like they did. It's just a credit to them. And again, it's. It's a testament to the players for growing into their own, finding their own identity. This group that is right. And still maintaining the standard of South Carolina women's basketball. And that's Final Fours. So up next, the Gamecocks will take on the winner of TCU and Texas. That game will be this upcoming Friday. So TCU and Texas play Monday and that Final Four game will be this upcoming Friday. The time is to be assigned. So let's wait and see who our opponent is. But enjoy this one. It was not easy. It was hard earned. Nothing was given this round. And yeah, shout out to the players. Shout out to that whole entire program.
[00:19:32] So, so cool.
[00:19:36] And then on the other end of the spectrum here, the baseball team was in action this weekend as well at home. And unfortunately, we saw the same result that we have been over these last several games here. The Gamecocks were swept by Tennessee at home. Don't quote me on this one, y'all, but I think I saw that that is the first time that Tennessee has swept South Carolina at South Carolina since 1994, if that's accurate. Oof. Like I didn't take the time to fact check that, but my God. And if it's not true, it might as well be because this stinks.
[00:20:18] Friday, the team lost 11 to 7. And yeah, I mean, you know, Carolina put up some consistent offense. It was just. Tennessee had a couple of big innings that were the difference maker here. Five spot, I think. In the third, it was four. In the fifth Saturday, the Gamecocks lost seven to five. Tennessee jumped out to an early lead. Carolina actually battled in this one, tied it even took the lead in the middle innings.
[00:20:43] And then in the eighth, a two run home run, or in the ninth, rather, a two run home run by Tennessee ultimately got them the win. So again, another tough instance where South Carolina is battling and was in a position to win late and you gave up the big shot. And then Sunday, the vols completed the sweep 7 2. With that loss, that puts the Gamecocks on a seven game losing streak. And this season is quickly teetering on the edge of disaster. I'm not, I know that might be a little hyperbolic, but it certainly feels bad out there. It feels bleak.
[00:21:26] It's so bleak that they were talking to Palm and Ari about the midweek game and he said that they are treating it like game seven of the World Series to try and snap this losing streak that South Carolina is on. And you know, we're just going to wait and see. I'm not going to let baseball bring down my high of the final Four right now. We're just going to wait and see. Let's get through this midweek game. Let's preview the next weekend series. We're still in. It's March right now. As I'm recording this and as you're listening to it, probably let's get to April and then let's let's really look at things here. 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.
