South Carolina baseball coach Mark Kingston Photo Credit: ESPN/SEC Network
ESPNNCAABy Arthur Weinstein on

South Carolina Gamecocks athletic coaches are having some incredibly entertaining interviews these days.

Tuesday night, it was baseball coach Mark Kingston’s turn. During an interview with the SEC Network, Kingston got nailed in the chest with a baseball and barely paused to acknowledge it.

“It’s Tuesday night, just got hit with a baseball, and gonna be a pro about it and keep going,” he said.

The SEC Network broadcast crew seemed impressed.

“We’ve done a lot of these, we’ve never had that happen before,” someone in the broadcast crew said after getting a laugh out of the moment. “You good to go?”

“I’m alright, guys,” Kingston responded.

Kingston helped lead the Gamecocks to a 4-3 win over Georgia State in the game.

As noted, Kingston’s adventure continued a recent trend of Gamecocks coaches going viral during an interview. After Dawn Staley’s No. 1 Gamecocks squeaked out an ugly win over Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament last week, despite a season-high 24 turnovers, she channeled Oprah.

“I think Oprah was passing out turnovers on our team … ‘You get a turnover, you get a turnover, you get a turnover,'” referring to the iconic talk show host’s penchant for showering her audience with gifts.

Of course Staley has long had a penchant for colorful interviews. After the crowd at LSU booed her and the team in a January game, a reporter asked Staley how they dealt with the crowd not being “very friendly to you.”

“Actually they were. They were calling me boo,” Staley quipped.

[Yahoo Sports; Photo Credit: ESPN/SEC Network]

About Arthur Weinstein

Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.

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