Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, women's basketball beats lsu. Men's basketball heads to overtime, and Shane Beamer gets a new contract. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay. Welcome to episode 293 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. Hope y'all had a great weekend out there. Gamecocks. Some fantastic college basketball going on this weekend. NFL playoffs, if. If that's your thing. And of course, Gamecock sports throughout that. But it's kind of weird. Like, college football officially done. I don't know what to do with my hands.
[00:01:28] Looking at these way too early predictions and all this jazz. Just trying to still suck all the life out of this past season. But it's all good stuff. Got a lot of other sports and what not to look forward to. So, yeah, I hope y'all had a great weekend. Active weekend. Ready to start this week on a good foot. And I'm right there with you. Let's go. Let's have a week here. Got a good episode for y'all here. Got a few news and notes and things from the weekend to recap before we jump into the hardwood there. Fun, fun side note here. I was in Columbia this weekend. Always great to make it down into town. I'll get more into this in a second here. But went to Colonial Life. Went to the men's game. Really cool. Just what an environment like. Great to be back there. Had a fantastic time despite the result. Had Shane Beamer bringing out some of the players, whether it was he introduced all the newcomers who were the mid year enrollees. So he introduced all of the transfers and then also the freshman as well. You had all the trophies out on display. Took a picture with the Palmetto bowl trophy. That was awesome. Lenores was there. Harbor was there. Really, really cool to see. So spirits are high in Gamecock Nation, despite how we left that arena. But let's jump into it and then I'll get back to men's basketball in a second here. So weekend recap for y'all here. Friday we had tennis back in action. It's getting a little, you know, spring times maybe around the corner despite having this snow. So you got spring sports in action here. Men's tennis, they unfortunately lost on Friday to San Diego State 4 to 1. And women's tennis, also lost to Duke 4 to 1. Saturday we had swimming and diving in action. They took on Georgia. Georgia Tech, excuse me. The women won 211 and a half to 86 and a half. That's. That sounds like a butt whooping. And the men unfortunately lost 169 to 131. Tennis was back in action on Saturday, this time with the men beating North Florida 4 nothing and the women beating New Mexico 4 nothing. So sticking with the same scores, if nothing else. Consistency early from Gamecock, men's and women's tennis, and then news from the football program from the other day. Shane Beamer received a contract extension, so he was extended through the 2030 season. He received a raise and there's escalators every year thereafter. So I don't need to get into this, but I think it's incredibly well deserved. Came in with, you know, maybe not the resume that typical head coaches have had a big job ahead of him. He has gotten to bowl games three out of four years. He has exceeded the Vegas win totals I think three out of four years.
[00:04:30] And has just really done a fantastic job with bringing excitement back to Carolina football. The culture that he has created in his program is unmatched. Beating Clemson two out of the last three years at their place as well. Righting the ship with some of these rivalries. When you talk about Kentucky, Missouri, you know, getting on the right side of those, getting over the hump against A and M and just doing a really good job recruiting and bringing other excitement and eyes to whether it's the NIL initiatives and just some of the other great things that he does and the program does in the community. So future is bright. Between the current roster, the state of recruiting, and having a coach who I think really is the man for the job and so does the board of trustees, as they have extended him, you know, for the next several few years. So that's really, really cool news there, but. All right, let's jump into the big events from the weekend here. We're going to rip the band aid off. Talking men's basketball. I just. I hate that we have to have this conversation again.
[00:05:39] I hate that I'm here yet again saying, let's rip the band aid off. Or, you know, let's just talk about this. I gotta do it. It stinks. It stinks, man.
[00:05:52] Like, we all want to be good in sports. You want your team to be good. And I think we just saw last year how much fun it was when you had both basketball teams doing well. But then just seeing the fan support that does exist on the men's side of things. We see it with women's basketball. It's fantastic. And so I think there was A question of is the appetite there for the men's product? And it is. We saw it last year.
[00:06:22] And so to be where we are this year, tough loss after tough loss, winless, still in conference play. It just is a tough, tough pill to swallow. So, yeah, the guys were in action Saturday afternoon. Your boy was there to witness this. And there still was some excitement in the arena. You know, it wasn't totally dead. Like. Yes. Were some people leaving early? Sure.
[00:06:51] They probably shouldn't have. Cause we'll get to in a second here. But, you know, you could tell the people wanted it. You know, we all were rooting so hard for this team to do it.
[00:07:03] And this game went down to the wire here, you know, Fortune. Unfortunately, the guys were on the wrong side of this. Lost 65 to 60 in overtime. So, hey, maybe we're taking baby steps here. You know, you got smoked by Mississippi State to open conference play. You had a couple of close losses in regulation.
[00:07:24] Now we're taking it to overtime. So the next step is probably like a one or two point win eventually. So, hey, maybe there's, maybe there's a silver lining in this, but it was, it was a very interesting game to watch, to say the least. The first half, I felt like I was watching a game from like the 1930s. It was the lowest scoring game I think I've ever seen was in college basketball, Gamecock basketball, let alone in person.
[00:07:56] And then you kind of, you go into the half, you're down, but you're not out of it, you know, to start that game. And really throughout that first half, the South Carolina defense, in my opinion, was playing pretty well. Those first two possessions, for example, Mississippi State was forced to heave up a prayer to beat the shot clock. And you had two miraculous buckets. And it just, that was kind of the theme of the day. But I saw a team that was playing hard defensively and just could not get out of its own way offensively, especially in that first half.
[00:08:34] No rhythm, turnovers, not getting the good looks, forcing it, you know, just no rhythm.
[00:08:44] And so you go into the second half down, and then, you know, pretty early in that second half, you're down by 12, 14 points and it's looking bleak. And at that point, I want to say it was around nine minutes or so, you had, you know, you did have some, some fans leaving and, you know, because you're kind of saying, well, here we go again. You know, this team whooped us the first time around.
[00:09:08] The guys seemingly haven't fixed the turnover battle or you know the problem rather, and you're like, well, let's just see, let's see how this thing goes here. And you know, this is where you have to credit Lamont Paris and you have to credit these players because they fought their asses off to come back. They did. They went on a big run. I don't have it in front of me here, but something like a, like a 15 to five run. They came back, brought it within six points, the place is going wild. And then you bring it into one possession and you, then you have a chance to take the lead. And this is where it was driving me crazy. The whole place was into it, you know, and it was a great environment. The folks who stayed were loud. You saw the effort there from the guys defensively. And then when they were down, whether it be 3, 4, 5 points, 6 points, you would see that they kind of understood the assignment more offensively and they were getting, whether it's generating offense, getting to the line, which happened a lot, or finding the man for, for the good look, you know, fighting for the rebounds. But then when they were tied, had a, or had a chance to take a lead, whatever it was, it just seemed like everything went out the window and they were playing sped up, they weren't careful with the ball and it just was, it felt like this constant like one step forward, two step back for the last four minutes really where you were right there. Then you had, you had the fantastic hustle play Zach Davis, you know, end of regulation, the whole team rallies and you, you force overtime.
[00:10:55] And unfortunately overtime doesn't go our way. It comes down to this incredible thing that, where maybe you can get the rebound off of the missed free throw. You get that and then it's the turnover. And it was just, that was the undoing. You had this like one or two step miracle basically happen and the turnover, you end up losing the game. So it's another heartbreaker we've lost. I think it's like the last four or five games by a combined, you know, five points or something like that. Just something insane. You're winless in SEC play, you're back to.500 on the year.
[00:11:37] And you know, I talked about how things were looking bleak last episode. We don't have to rehash that. You have to give credit to this team. They battled. This could have been a 20 point blowout. It was trending that way.
[00:11:51] But they battled back and they got it to overtime. They gave it their all. This team wants to win.
[00:11:58] I just think the issue is there's not a closer on this team. You know, there's not that dude who says, I can take over this game. I can put it on my back right now. Like, CMB's really good, but I don't know if that's necessarily like the job of a post player. You know, there's just not that dude. There's not a closer, you know, So I think that's what you kind of saw. Jamari Thomas, he was back and he was looking good. He was kind of taking on that role a little bit where he was generating a lot of offense.
[00:12:36] What I saw, I saw a guy that was working his way back through injury. He had to take a rest at a critical time late in the game.
[00:12:43] But even before he went out, I think we were still kind of saying the same thing, that there's not just that closer ice in the veins guy that can just turn it on and say, you know what, like, we're battling back here. Just give me the rock and I'll take over here. So tough, tough one. Credit the guys for battling here. But just again, we're sitting here saying a game that you could have had and you just came up just short. Some player highlights. Jamari Thomas, the aforementioned, had 19 points in his return. CMB went for 10 and 12. Next up, the guys take on Georgia Tuesday night in Athens. Georgia is 14 and 6 on the year.
[00:13:30] It feels like one that's, you know, certainly more winnable than a Mississippi State or an Auburn or a Bama.
[00:13:37] But then again, like, who's to say this year, right?
[00:13:41] So who's going to show up?
[00:13:44] Can you get it done against the conference foe you think? It has to happen eventually. So let's see how it goes. Microw to the game is just play with consistent rhythm. After being there. Like, I'm no scout, right? Like, I've, I've said this before. I'm no expert, I'm just a fan.
[00:14:03] But from my point of view, what I saw Saturday was there was just not a lot of rhythm with the team, that it was kind of just possession to possession, like here's what the game plan is like type of deal. So just find a rhythm and settle in. And that's what I thought we did good at for the most part against Florida, you know, and I didn't see that same, that same play here, at least, at least in my opinion. So find a rhythm, settle in. Play with some consistency against Georgia, but then moving to the other side of things, women's basketball, the ladies, they really got the weekend started. Right. When they took on LSU at home and won 66 to 56. You know, things were tight after the first quarter in this one. And you could tell, you could tell in that building, everyone, whether you were on in, on the floor, are in the stands, that this was a big game. Everyone was really amped up for this matchup. It was so sick.
[00:15:06] After the first quarter, I believe Carolina was down by one.
[00:15:09] But after that, though, the offense continued to work. But it was the defense that absolutely dominated for South Carolina. And I've talked about this plenty of times throughout the year. Sometimes there is just a game that South Carolina plays. Not even. Sometimes happens a lot where there's a quarter where they just impose their will defensively and it allows the team to build a lead and then they look, they just don't have to turn back from there. And that's what happened in the second quarter. South Carolina's offense was consistent and continued to hum, but their defense dominated. LSU was all out of whack and were able to capitalize. You know, we got fantastic production from the bench and we did a good job of taking advantage of any LSU mistake. Saniya Fagan looked really strong. She has grown into that role really well. Someone who has put in her dues, you know, put in that work, put that time in, and you're starting to see it game after game, right? And these bigs of ours have had to step up, being shorthanded in that position group. So to see her flourish and to make a couple of big plays on both ends of the floor, mind you, is just really, really great to see. And I talked about it last episode, but you did see the depth of South Carolina at work. Where once you were seeing some of those rotations, reserves coming in, South Carolina was just head and shoulders better. This team, for my money, this team looked like the best team in the country, simply put. And it's come out, it's come out now. And people have talked about it that really since that loss and I've said it, that this team has been galvanized and some of that pressure has been taken off. And I think this team had to find itself a little bit and had to say, you know, we don't have some of these players who were mainstays of the program for so long and we have to make our own path here. And I think when you look at a player like Saniya Fagan, you know, Tahina, Powpow, Breezy, they're doing that and sometimes you have to feed the hot hand and that's okay. But this team is deep, they're disciplined and you went up against a team in LSU who was undefeated coming into this, one of the best teams in the country, a team that has Final Four aspirations themselves and you're able to walk away with a pretty comfortable win. And mind you, LSU made a little push there in the second half.
[00:17:51] This game at one point felt like it might get away from the Tigers, but they battled back and they have talent there for sure and we were able to run with them and then obviously overtake them comfortably. Some player highlights from this one you had Saniya Fagan 12 points, seven rebounds, Joyce Edwards 14 points, Tessa Johnson with nine. Up next are the ladies. They take on Tennessee Monday night. Tennessee having a good year, sitting at 15 and 4. Mike Crow to the game is continued to get production from Sinai Fagan. I think when we talk about sort of the next piece of this team, I think it's finding that consistency in the post. We have players who can do it. It's sort of maybe a little bit by committee at times. Chloe Kits, Joyce, Saniya. But when you look at the style of play, I think Sinai is the one who is more like apt and can play with those big time matchups that you're going to find. Because I'm thinking next steps now. You know we're at the point of the year where this team looks great, you beat lsu, you're rolling. So let's continue to build and iron some of these kinks out in the regular season. But like we are able to maybe think a little bit like okay, well what's happening towards the end of the season and postseason And I look at Saniya Fagan as a player who could grow to be a difference maker for us. 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 Cocks.
