In Memory of Coach Kevin Curley

A special re-release in memory of Coach Kevin Curley, who we lost this past summer to cancer. Kevin was a great college basketball coach and an even better man — the all-time winningest coach in McDaniel men's basketball history, older brother to our own Coach Greg Curley, and beloved by everyone who knew him.

Originally released April 21, 2024, as our Season 3 kickoff, this episode brought the Curley brothers together on the mic for the first time. Tom, Biz, and Coach Greg welcome Kevin — head coach of the McDaniel Green Terror — for a conversation that's equal parts basketball and brotherly needling: the origin of the "Green Terror" mascot, the NIL and transfer-portal era, Caitlin Clark and the women's game, the legendary scrimmage locker-room story, and plenty of playing-days reminiscing. It's full of the humor, competitiveness, and warmth that defined him.
 Kev, this one's for you.

Transcript

In Memory of Coach Kevin Curley

SPEAKER_02 0:00

This is Americ Studios Podcast. This week on the Junior Adam Men's Basketball Show. Junior Adam Nation, this is Tom Frank, one of the co-hosts of the Junior Addam Men's Basketball Show. On behalf of Coach Curly and Drew Beskitt, aka Biz, I want to welcome you to our new season. We'll be back next week with our special guests, Garrett Bowl and Nathan Markey. Until then, we invite you to listen to this very special previous episode with Coach Kevin Curly. This show was originally released on April 21st, 2024. We unfortunately lost Kevin this past summer to cancer. Kevin was a great college basketball coach and an even better man. He was the all-time winningest coach in McDaniel men's basketball program history and still one of the best Park Forest backyard quarterbacks. He will be missed by so many of us that looked up to him. Kevin is survived by his wife Allison and their three children, Caroline, Nat, and Gabrielle, as well as his younger brother and our head coach, Greg Curly. I'm Tom Frank. I'm Biz. I'm the head coach Greg Curly. And this is your Junior Adam's basketball show. Welcome, listeners. I'm Tom Frank, and I'm joined each and every week by Drew Beskett, aka Biz, and your junior attack basketball coach, Greg Curley. As we talk all things, junior at a men's college basketball. It's been a minute, fellas. How are we doing? There's been a void in my life. There has been a void since the end of the season.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

I don't know what to do with myself. Well, I know. We need to come up with summer college basketball somehow. Maybe. Well, all the AAU stuff has started here, so uh we're on the next year.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Do we have an AAU team to follow? Hey, my team. We are 6-2 on the early season. Eighth grade AAU girls' basketball, coached by right here. Are you the head coach? I'm the assistant coach. I'm the motivator. All right. I'm the motivator. We have we won our first championship in our first tournament, and we played for the championship in the second tournament we were in, but we got beat up pretty bad. I got beat up.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

So we got to give a shout out. We've got to give a shout out to Team Unity, and Nat Curley is the point guard, right? Didn't Team Unity just win a championship?

SPEAKER_03 2:07

Am I allowed to jump in now? Well, yeah, I mean Curly. I wasn't really introduced. He already goes off script. We got to edit information. We already got to edit. Listen, my name's Kevin Curly. Hold on. I'm the older brother of Greg Curley. Let me introduce you the right way. We're just relieved in old time stories, and I probably should have passed the ball to Tom and Biz a little bit more. A lot more. A lot more. So it could be a little jealousy right now. I was golfing, man. I'm fine. Let me get you a proper introduction. Green Terror, Westminster, or uh Westminster Maryland, McDaniel College, Green Terror, and yes, Team Unity. That's the AA team to look out for. So we play team.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

All right, can we do a proper introduction now? Yeah, let's back up. My fault. My fault.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Oh, and the guy takes two weeks off, he forgets how to

Welcome Coach Kevin Curley

SPEAKER_01 2:58

podcast.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

All right, college basketball, rear view mirror. It's over, fellas. NBA playoffs are about to start. We got recruiting. We got off-season workout program. But before we get to all of that, we got a very special guest who has already introduced himself, so I don't even know why I'm doing this. We had to wait to the end of the year to get this guy on because he's a very busy guy, apparently. Uh he's officially kicking off season three. This is the beginning of season three of this very podcast, the Junior Adam Basketball show. He's the head coach of McDaniel College. He's the older brother of our very own, Coach Curly. Coach Kevin Curly. Thank you for joining us. Coach Kevin, welcome. Welcome to the program.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Thanks, guys. I I appreciate the I appreciate the official introduction. Hey, I've heard I've heard a lot of good things about this podcast. I have so it's a it's an honor to be on it and kicking off season three. Uh hopefully it doesn't crash after this episode, but it's an honor to be on it.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Hey, did you ever think we made it through Mrs. Curly, so uh we're we're good.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

Yeah, I've already told him about Mrs. Curly. Hey, let me ask you this. Did you ever, in your wildest dreams, 40 years ago, could that you would possibly be on a podcast that's hosted by me, Biz, and your brother? Did that even did that even enter any kind of thought whatsoever?

SPEAKER_03 4:20

No, no, there weren't even podcasts back then. That's true. Now, could could could I see you doing one? Yeah.

unknown 4:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

Oh, I like that. Yeah, you had that showman, that showman about you. He's a good guy. He's always been that hype man, you know. I know he's always hyped up uh Greg Curley and Junior out of basketball. He's always, you know, I remember those times pickup, always always supporting Greg Curley. Making sure he saw greatness in you guys.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

He saw greatness in you guys from Hey, remember, I was the only one that knew how to guard Greg Curley, too.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

There's one one simple thing got in his head. You just give him the bird before he shoots a three, and it just messes up.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

That was it. That's probably because I was playing new basis.

SPEAKER_03 5:11

Kev, you're coming off your 16th season, is that right? Uh well, yeah. Well, this was the 17th, but one year was COVID and we didn't play. You don't count that?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Oh, you didn't play at all.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

We didn't play any games. You didn't play one game? We didn't play one game. So we practiced, we scrimmaged against ourselves. Uh we isolated during the first semester, like one guy at a basket. Uh, but second semester. So you don't count that. You don't count that that you've been at that Well, I mean, I've been at McDaniel for 17 years now, for 17 seasons. But only and

The Green Terror & the Western Maryland–to–McDaniel story

SPEAKER_03 5:43

we did practice.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

We did a 500 record that year, zero, zero.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

Uh and and wait a minute. Now you're on the this McDaniel College is the Green Terror? We're the Green Terror, yeah. The Green Terror.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

Yeah, the one and only Green Terror.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

What what what visually represents a Green Terror as a mascot?

SPEAKER_03 6:02

Well, visually, it's kind of like a monster type fit figure. So yeah, it's a monster. It's a monster. It's terrifying. It's terrifying.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

I very much want to hear about the green terror. I need to see the green terror. Yeah, do you have a picture of the green terror? Where are you at? Can you draw it behind you?

SPEAKER_03 6:21

I can't really there's a logo. I really draw. Um no, I'm not a good drawer. But um anyway, you know, we've had football forever here. Um and like in the early uh 20th century, early 1900s. Like our football team was playing really well, and our colors have been green and gold, and they were wearing green, and they beat whoever they played pretty bad. And the headlines in the paper the next day was Western Maryland. We used to be called Western Maryland College until about uh 20, 25 years ago. So Western Maryland took the field like a green terror, and then that green terror has stuck and has been the school's mascot ever since or the nickname. So that's why there's only one green terror. I like that's pretty good. There have been different uh different kinds of symbols or or monster type figures you know over the last century.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Is there an actual mascot that runs out onto the field?

SPEAKER_03 7:23

We do have an actual mascot. I'm not gonna say it's like the Nittany Lion. Is it like the Philly fanatic or something? Philly fanatic? Like I got a picture. It kind of actually, you know what? It kind of resembles a Philly fanatic a little bit. A little bit. That's that's so like on our admitted student days and you know, big events, you will see the Green Terror mascot roaming around.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

Now, when you were Western Maryland, was it West Maryland or Western Maryland?

SPEAKER_03 7:50

Western Maryland, Western Maryland County. What was the mascot then? Same mascot.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

It's always been.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Okay. It was the name, huh? We went to the Western Maryland Monsters or what's that? Was it the Western Maryland Monsters before it became the Green Terror?

SPEAKER_03 8:06

Western Maryland uh college, Green Terror.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

All right.

SPEAKER_03 8:09

Biz, that's kind of offensive now. There's a lot of Western Maryland college alums out there.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Usually usually Tom's the offensive one, but I jumped into that one.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Why why McDaniel? Why'd we switch it to McDaniel? It's not like you had an Indian or some kind of weird offensive name. It was a location.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

There were a couple reasons. One, we're not located in the western part of the state. Oh, that's a big one. That's a big, yeah. That was part of it. That's like a while to figure that out, but that's why did it take that long to figure this out? Well, number two, um, you know, Western Maryland College kind of sounds like a public or a state school, which we're not. We're a private institution. And actually, we are called Western Maryland College because Western Maryland Railroad was actually one of the founders of our school. So it was Western Maryland College. But we were getting ready to join the Centennial Conference, and uh they felt like we needed a name change, and they chose McDaniel College because it is a pro you know sounds more like a private school. And and actually McDaniel was one of the first students here and one of the first professors at Western Maryland College. Wow. So that's why we end up McDaniel College. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Now, is he getting some uh royalties on that?

SPEAKER_03 9:28

That sounds uh Well, he's no longer with us. Yeah, send it to the fact that that was you know, our school was founded in 1867, so he's one of the first students in 1867. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

What are you talking about? They already have Drew University. Well, yeah, that's true. My fault, Biz. They do Drew University. Drew University. I wouldn't mind like a biz tech.

The season, the core coming back & the scrimmage rivalry

SPEAKER_02 9:53

So is he a Ranger fan? How was the season this year?

SPEAKER_03 9:59

Oh, I thought, you know, season went pretty well. It's competitive, you know. Uh coaches is that coaches speak?

SPEAKER_02 10:06

Is that coaches speak for we didn't have a very good year?

SPEAKER_03 10:09

Hey, we had a great group of guys this year, man. They they went hard, close-knit group of guys. Every day we walked into the gym, they were ready to practice, competed, uh, executed, got after it. You know, we playing a really tough conference. This tenio conference is one of the top in Division III. So, but we playing a really tough conference. And yeah, we had 25 games on the schedule, and we had a chance to win uh 24 of them. And it came down to the last couple minutes, so we were right there, had a lot of nail biters. Uh, we had some younger guys playing this year. We learned how to win, which I was happy about. We ended up finishing the season strong. We won four of our last six games, which were conference games, and won three of our last four. And uh some of the close games that we uh maybe didn't win in the conference earlier, we started to win. Uh so we're really happy about that. And then also we took you know the top teams in our league to overtime and at Gettysburg uh you know, we lost to them by four, and it was a one-point game with 52 seconds to go, and we were right there. So I like the direction of the program where we're headed, and we have you know our our our core guys coming back, actually, our leading our top four scorers are all returning. So that's nice. Yeah, learn how to play together, execute. Hey, you gotta play hard, as uh the younger coach Curly will tell you. Hey, you gotta go hard, you gotta play together, you gotta execute offensively, defensively. And we ended up learning how to do that. So I was really happy about that. Now, I mean group of guys, good group of guys to work with.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Juniad is the hardest working team in all the battles. I was gonna ask, is this an issue at Thanksgiving dinner?

SPEAKER_03 11:45

Well, you know, hey, that's why hey, I'll be honest, we love scrimmage. We love scrimmaging, Juniad. Love scrimmaging. Well, from what we've heard. We like to play hard. We want to be the hardest playing team in the country, too.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

We we've heard that uh the Eagles kind of have taken it to you a couple of times here.

SPEAKER_03 12:04

Uh just remind just reminder, those are scrimmages. Those are scrimmages.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Just scrimmages.

SPEAKER_03 12:10

There's a big difference between a scrimmage and a real game.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Would you guys ever play each other regular season if the opportunity arose?

SPEAKER_03 12:17

Yeah, I thought about it this year, but I think Greg ducked me, so I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

I mean, so so he waited until we graduated eight seniors, and then all of a sudden, hey, hey, is that do you have an opening in that tournament? And I said, get out of here, man. Get out. That's how this guy works. He spends a lot of time crafting that schedule. So uh he thought we were uh uh in that mode. I just so hey, I thought we weren't ever gonna play unless it was a postseason. Uh but you know, as we get on here, you could play in the postseason. That would be that would be remarkable. Well, we almost played in ECAC. We almost played in the ECAC a couple times, and um, there would be a good chance if we went to the NCAA, we'd play each other probably, just the way all that stuff works. Um, so um, but we'll see. I don't know. Maybe we're as we keep going on here. Um he he his league changed their schedule format, so he needs a lot more games and tournaments are hard to fill, so we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

I mean, you guys have been at this almost right next to each other for 16 years now. Eventually you gotta play one another.

SPEAKER_03 13:20

Well, it's also tough. Like, you know, personally, like yeah, hey, you know, we're I'd be I'd be at that game. Yeah, but you know, it's tough. You know, hey, you know, obviously McDaniel's our number one priority, but I'd like to see uh Coach Curley and the Eagles do well, you know?

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Yeah, I mean I think listen, I I I I've said it on this. I mean, all that goes into winning a game and how hard it is to win the game, um, I don't know. It would be hard. One of us is gonna have to lose, and that probably isn't where we want to be. If we're not playing each other, we can win them all. We you know, we could both win uh every one of those games, and that's kind of what we're looking for. So we're in a postseason, it's probably a little bit different. Now you could say the stakes are higher, but at the same time, um, if we're meeting the NCAA tournament, um that's both where we want to be, and that's becomes an even better story. So we haven't yet. I don't know that it would be uh it's a little easier in a scrimmage. Um, it's good scrimmage, and it's it's really good scrimmage for both teams, to be honest, because a lot of similarities, but you know, we it's we can talk about things afterwards and what we saw, and and I think it helps each other be prepared. You know, they really play hard, uh, really good defensively. Um, they're always gonna be ready to go. So if we're not ready to go early, and over the years, I mean we scrimmage probably all 17 of his or 16 of his years, you know, it's been pretty even over the years, depending on where his team is. If they're a more veteran team, we probably struggle a little bit, and for a more veteran team, we probably do well, but it's been a pretty good litmus test during the great league. It's the kind of opportunity I think makes both of our teams better. We do recruit against each other, uh, you know, not a ton, but a fair amount. Matter of fact, we were at a game on Wednesday last week. I went down to an all-star game. We rescheduled this and uh pulled in and walked in

Recruiting against each other & the brothers’ coaching paths

SPEAKER_00 15:05

the door, and there he is sitting there. So you had no idea who well, we I thought he was.

SPEAKER_03 15:09

I was excellent that I was going to an all-star game, so I didn't know whether I could do the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Uh-huh. Or we'll go to you know what's funny though is Kev, this is Kev, like he won't even tell me who he's recruiting, and it's so ridiculous. If we go like sit at an AU event, we'll sit next to each other, he'll hide his little scribbles. Hey, don't look at that stuff. It's like, come on, like, what you can't give away the shop secrets, right? And I'm like, I don't, I don't care as much, but he's he's he's really goes far that way. Like, I'm like, he'll be talking, well, I mean, like, how's recruiting? Well, I got a kid. Like, who is he? I'm not telling you. Like, what am I what am I gonna do? I'm not like we have uh that also tells you recruits right now. Uh that by the way, that that also tells you that he would, if I gave him the name of a guy we were recruiting, he would call him.

SPEAKER_03 16:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

No, hey, depends. You gotta build, you know. It depends. Over the years, we've kind of split, we're probably about 50-50.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

So 50-50 on recruiting. I mean, you guys are the you're kind of the we were kind of the against each other that much. What's that? Not that much. You're kind of the D3 version of the Kelsey brothers. We need to we need to have you go up against each other in a Super Bowl. Oh, that would be nice. Yeah, huh? That would be nice. I would like to see a yeah, championship game.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

So, does that make Jen Taylor Swift or Allison Taylor Swift? Which one? I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna get away. He's the older Kelsey, so I guess Jen's uh Taylor Swift. Yeah, true story. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

Yeah, okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Hey Kev, take your shirt off. Let's see if you can do a good uh what we should do is get Allison. We should get Jen and Allison on this together, and then uh they would probably take off and have their own podcast. They could talk about being married to us.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

So all hell could break loose on that one. We would not make it through that. No, no, hey, do we know if uh this is the winningest brother combination in college basketball coaching? Hey, Ben's.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

That's a good idea that no, there has been a lot of coaches that have been.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

There's been more brother coaches, the Hurley brothers, right? The Hurley brothers, right there.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

They've got it, yeah. Yeah, but they haven't been doing it that long. Yeah, they don't have 16 and 24 years. Bobby Hurley can't coach anyway.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

They play 35 games a year, 35 games a year. That's true. 40 games a year.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

This is gotta be closer, right? Oh, wait a minute now. Wait, Jerry Dunn's brother never head coach, though.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

Huh. So now, how does it feel? I'm assuming, but maybe I'm wrong here, that Greg has a couple more wins than you do. Is that accurate statement?

SPEAKER_03 17:43

Well, he's where are we? He's actually been a head coach longer than me. So I don't know how long have you been a head coach for now?

SPEAKER_00 17:51

I just finished my 23rd year, but remember Kev Kev was at Colgate for what 10 years before he went to uh McDaniel?

SPEAKER_03 17:58

Yeah, I was uh You were at 10 years at Colgate? I was nine years at Colgate.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Nine years.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

Yeah. Oh yeah, I was four as an assistant at Bethany and then nine years as an assistant at Colgate. So I had 13 years as an assistant before I became a head coach. He became a head coach earlier than I did.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

So what made you decide to go? Because you know, I always look at Curly's career career and think, okay, Division III, maybe he steps up to Division I one day, maybe. And you kind of were at Division I, but then you decided to come to D three. What what made what made that why did you decide to make that transition? Because it was a head coach job?

SPEAKER_03 18:32

Correct. I mean, you know, a couple things. I mean, obviously, um you know, I've always thought about being a division three head coach as well. I mean, you know, it's different paths you can take. Obviously, if you go up, you know, Colgate was a great school, you know, um working with quality student athletes in the Patriot League, and you know, McDaniel actually was pretty similar being in the Centennial Conference, great schools academically, quality student athletes. Um, so the opp opportunity presented itself. Also, you know, division one, I'll be you know, be honest, you got to decide what you're gonna do. Are you gonna continue to be an assistant? You can maybe work your way up to a higher level as an assistant, you know, or do you want to be a head coach? And then also at the time, too, I got married, had twins. And like, you know, when you're a division one assistant, you know, you're not in that town um for like two months of a year. Now, you work just as hard in division three, you know, but it's different. You know, the travel's a little bit different, you know. Uh like I'd spend a week or whatever out in California, you know, at Colgate, or you know, all of our road games were overnight. So it's a little bit different from that standpoint. You know, so then you decide, you know, what do you want to do with your career, whether you want to be a head coach and assistant. Obviously, there's volatility everywhere now. Definitely then division one. I mean, hey, you never know. I mean, uh, you know, like you never know what could happen. So that and but then also McDaniel was a great opportunity. Beautiful campus, we got great facilities, great education, you know, very similar from that standpoint. And then we're playing in a really competitive conference, you know, really, really tough conference.

The state of the game: NIL, the transfer portal & women’s basketball

SPEAKER_02 20:16

So I have two head coaches on. I gotta ask a question. You're you're coming from a division one, division three, division three. The state of basketball right now, right? We got this was a weird year. We had NIL, we have transfer port the transfer portal, we had I mean, hell, the women's basketball, I think, outshines men's basketball this year, in my opinion. And we're literally seeing this entire institution change before our eyes. What do you guys think about this transfer portal and everything that we're seeing right now? Is this a good thing or a bad thing for college basketball at any level? I'll let Kev go on that first.

SPEAKER_03 20:57

I was gonna let you go, man.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

I mean, that's a loaded question. I'll give it to you.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

You go first.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Well, that's why we bring guests on. They don't want to hear me all the time. I I don't know. For me, I listen, I thought the quality of basketball was really good. I mean, I I think uh the the NC, like the men's tournament and the women shine in a couple of those games, but if you saw like their ratings for the entire tournament were off the charts, like for the for all the games, I think you're seeing a lot of interest in the NBA right now, too. Obviously, the women's game. And I think the women's game was just always a little bit behind. You know, they kind of had the Yukon series of wins, kind of like UCLA in the old days. Now they're probably like in a you know, and they everybody compares Caitlin Clark to Pistol Pete, uh, but it's probably more like when Bird and Magic played when you have Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark and all the the stars play each other, and that kind of caught fire. So I don't know. I think basketball is in a really good place. I thought uh the ratings and all the interest was good. Uh the transfer portal and stuff, I don't know. I come from being in division three the whole time, we've always coached guys that could lead. Leave at any time. Right. So um, like this whole idea that they have to stay or they can leave. I mean, when kids don't have a scholarship, they you know, they could wake up one day and say, I don't want to deal with this, I don't want, I don't want to play. I it doesn't I don't enjoy this anymore. And that's happened to all of us. Like we uh coach, I just don't love playing, so the work isn't worth it. If you have a scholarship, you're probably not walking away from that, or an opportunity to go play a professional career. So we've always dealt with that. Like we've just understood that that's the cool part about coaching this level for me. Um, everybody wants to be in the gym. Um, you could you can transfer mid-year and wind up playing at another school. It's happened before in our league, you know, somebody playing in one school and then that for the second semester they're playing in another school.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

So uh that so you could transfer, like you could transfer tomorrow and there's no restrictions. Like you could have a guy go from McDaniel to Juniata tomorrow. Listen up, McDaniel players. We could we'll take you. Um, and that and that that wouldn't be it, that wouldn't be an issue.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Well, it's it's I mean it would start with the academic stuff has something to do with it. I mean, you have to be eligible and you have to be in good uh uh judicial standing on your campus, and you can't start until the semester starts and stuff. But yeah, basically there's freedom of movement, exactly what they're talking about now. So I don't, I mean, it's kind of a little bit funny um because you just sit there and say, like, that's how it is. I think though you throw an NIL and that changes the entire equation, you know. Um, that's a whole different ball game. Uh, but like Brad Payne or Matt Painter just came out and said the other day, what's the difference? Now we just know where they're going. Uh it was always happening before, it's just above board. You just know where the most money is and where the players go. So I think that'll all settle in. I think everything will take care of it, but I think it's in good shape. I don't know how Kev feels, but I think the game's in a pretty good place.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

Yeah, well, I mean, the transfer. Yeah, I mean, obviously division three. Uh yeah, you've been able to transfer and not have to sit out. So, yeah, we've had to deal with that. Yeah, I do think obviously though, you know, the student athletes may talk about it a little bit more now. Yeah, you might have some division three guys that uh, you know, let's say they play really well their freshman year or they make all conference and they still have a couple years left that might now explore the portal to try to go to a higher level where that didn't necessarily happen as much before. Um, because you see a lot of older players now with the fifth year of COVID, although that's gonna start to die down.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

That's gonna happen after this year.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

Right, this will this will be the last year. Next year will be the last year for us with guys having COVID years left. So, you know, it may die down after that, and we'll see with with all of the older transfers. But um, but yeah, that's something division three have had to deal with a little bit. Now, personally, am I a fan of that? You know, and and uh you know, I I guess I'm a little kind of old school or you know, like division one jumping from one school to the next, you know. Yeah, I'm not necessarily a big fan of that myself, but yeah, I understand where it's coming from and market value and and all of that, but you know, one thing about college athletics is you liked was that you rooted for your school. You know, the NBA, you root for players and you root for teams, but they market individual players. One thing about college basketball that was always great growing up or college athletics in general is you're rooting for your school, you know, and then you have those individuals that are there for used to be four years, yeah, you know, and uh you know that's not necessarily the case anymore, and that's kind of tough. And and I know you know they there's a lot of reasons for it, but uh but in terms of the games itself, I mean the final four and the tournament games, you know, were fun to watch. You know, you watch UConn play, man. Not only are they talented, but man, oh man, they play hard as heck, they defend, they move, they move the ball, they screen, they execute. Uh just a real well-coached team. And uh same with Purdue and and and actually NC State, that run they made.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

That was great.

SPEAKER_03 26:00

Yeah, that was an amazing story for them to even be there in the final four. So, you know, from the watching basketball, especially college basketball, I thought uh the tournament was really good, and there's a lot of intense games, a lot of good coaching. And then also women's basketball, I thought that was great. Caitlin Clark, uh it was fun to watch, especially that you know, uh the game against UConn in the Final Four. I knew that drew like higher ratings in NFL football games, and that was actually you know fun to watch. You know, uh it was real fun to watch. So you know I think that's great for basketball in general.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

And we'll be right back. The Junior Adam Men's basketball show is produced and distributed by America Creative. Whether your company is established, buying for loyalty, or seeking new audiences, Merit Creative is here to help. Be thoughtful, inventive, and determined. We bring your customers a brand experience that endures you to them. Learn more about how Merit Creative can help your business at Merica Creative. That's M-E-R-R-I-C-K Creative.com. And now back to the show. All right, so we uh

Listener Q&A: what level could Caitlin Clark play at?

SPEAKER_02 27:05

we allow our listeners to ask questions. Yeah. So we had a we had a qu we have a question that's a great segment. This is a great segment. This is from a listener, Lisa B. Lisa B. She asks, if Caitlin Clark said she wanted to play men's college basketball, at what level do you think she could be she could be a star? Are we talking division three, division two, lower division one? Where I have no idea. I got two.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

I would say I tell you what.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

It's a loaded question, too.

SPEAKER_03 27:40

Yeah, I just watching her play, she's fantastic. I mean, really skilled. You can tell that she's worked really hard, you know, throughout her life to be able to shoot from the distance she does and be able to pass the ball. You know, she made some really well. So um, you know, she's certainly a talent. You know, what level? I I don't know, but it it was certainly, you know, it it certainly fun to watch her and you can learn a lot watching her play.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah, I'd I'd just say I think it's apples oranges. I don't, I don't think I and I knew I've fielded that a little bit. I was just in that conversation with somebody the other day, and I was like, I I I don't even think it's a fair question why I ask it. Um they're like the game uh they play is great in its own right. It's I've also I have you know I didn't realize they could do that. And this I was like, well, I think women's basketball's been pretty good, Diana Tarasi and Sue Bird, and like I it's kind of like um they didn't just invent that, they just didn't decide to play well. Um so I just leave it um probably where it is. I mean, it's just it's there's a difference to it. And if you watched the cool thing about the way the games were laid out, if you watch the Sunday games and you watch the Monday games, you can see a difference, right?

SPEAKER_04 28:51

It's a different game, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

It's so different. And uh, you know, and and so I I just I think we just appreciate greatness for what it is, and and uh yeah, I mean, I'm sure she would be successful in whatever she does because of how hard she works and what she does. But I think we've got a lot of, you know, we we also would say, you know, you get in the labels and level of play. Uh Kevin, I would both say there's some guys in his league, guys in my league, that could play at the division one level. And uh a lot of guys that go play professionally, and uh people don't truly even understand the separation in those levels and where the really top players are. You know, likewise, some guys that wind up for different circumstances in certain situations, um, that doesn't mean they're necessarily better than some of the guys we have. So I it's too complicated to do that. I think people wind up where they're supposed to be and have the success they're supposed to have.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Biz, did you want to answer that? You you sounded like you had an answer.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Carls is right on the money. I mean, it's uh it's apples and oranges, man.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

There you nobody's gonna have a controversial answer here. Is it gonna have to be me?

SPEAKER_01 29:53

I mean, I don't I don't even know if she'd be a star at the division three level. Yeah, I don't know. She'd be a six-man, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Yeah, I mean, but here's the thing the question's loaded.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Jason Hardy guarding her.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

You can't win, you can't win with the question. It's a loaded question. It's like that's why it's just unfair. And it's not like the best woman player. Why do we even have to leave it there? Right. Exactly right. Why put her in that in that mix? I mean, she's amazing, and uh, she's a phenomenal player, and there's a lot of phenomenal players. Uh, and I hope Ciara Curly's one of those. I the cool thing is, like, hey, Kiara Curly wakes up now, literally, wants to be Caitlin Clark. She stayed up to watch those games, like the impact that she's making. So, why would we ever talk about anything other than that? And uh, that's like a cool thing. Like, I mean, it had Kiara Curly. I mean, we had basketball workouts for three straight days, and it's just softball gotten away here, but she is like, that's what I want to do, and that's how cool is that? That is cool. I'm I'm gonna say this though.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

I am kind of sick of all the old school women's players who are coming out against Caitlin a little bit because they're saying that you know, uh, she's getting all this credit and all that. Here's what I say to them some of these old Connecticut teams, guess what? You were good, but I think the game now has a lot better play, they have more better players. Not saying they're better than the players that were at Connecticut, but there's more of them.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

It is like there's a lot more, there's a lot more publicity, and there's a lot more ways to watch the game, too.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

But the women are, I think they're stronger now. I think that they actually I mean, it was rare when you had someone like Caitlin Clark back then. Now it's like this the comp the level of competition, AAU. I mean, you never had that this many AAU women's teams, girls' teams now.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

Now they're just as big as the tournaments are just as big as the boys. Wait until your AAU teams get older, Tom. You're gonna have like a plethora of I'm I'm coming after. Well, how old are your girls?

SPEAKER_03 31:50

Oh, I have one girl. She's 17, she doesn't play basketball. Oh, see, I thought maybe one of my girls had a chance to go up against one of your girls.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Softball's a good sport. Yeah, it is. It is all right, all right. So I have no chance of coming up against one of the curly girls.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

It's tough playing basketball in the curly household, you know.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Well, I don't doubt that. Hey, Caden Curly was arguing that the uh he thinks the NBA is not as good as it was when Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson played because he all he does is watch the highlights of those guys from the old days. Hey, I literally seven years old. He's seven years old and he's like, Dad, I think the NBA was better with Magic and right, it's so much better than these guys. So spot come in. I agree with them. I'm 100% in agreement with it. I'm talking to Kate about it's a different game, and they you know, uh now can you imagine Alan I'm gonna go to the game? Now it's all European garbage. Like you imagine Alan Irison or Jordan getting to the basket now with no hand checks. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

That would be they would score Jordan, they would Jordan he'd be scoring like 60 a game.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

Yeah, but this is crazy. It's the same idea as a women's basketball. Like the number of really good players and unbelievably talented guys, like the skill sets of guys is off the charts. It's crazy how good. But don't don't you agree? I think the NBA is a little soft right

NBA then vs. now & the ”wrong era” playing days

SPEAKER_00 33:03

now. Well, you're talking lots of two guys with like defense, so I've got to imagine he thinks it the same way I do.

SPEAKER_03 33:09

I think in general, they put in is the defense. Yeah, no, I'm with you guys. I mean nobody gets hammered anymore. It is tough to watch when a guy takes five steps, yeah. Five steps and nobody touches him.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

Well, they've legalized with the hardened, with the hardened step back, with the spin, they've legalized what used to be travels. Like you literally could not make the moves. If you tried a euro step when we were playing in college or high school, immediately it was a travel. Immediately. So, like it's this idea. And so I I get frustrated, Kev gets frustrated. I mean, like the change with the block charge and all that stuff, and I get it, we get where it's coming from, but it goes, I mean, it's it's everything is to the offense, and I don't think that really does justice to the game because it can take away from the intensity and competitiveness at times. And I know the casual fan likes to see people put it in and all that kind of stuff. Um, but I at times it goes a little far, and they do a pretty good job of adjusting. And guy, and they always say, Oh, the players will adjust. Well, at some point, like getting out of the way is not really playing good defense either. Like, what are we trying to do? Like, you got to get out of the way.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

Well, then that block charge rule is garbage.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

It's so hard.

SPEAKER_03 34:17

Well, it's funny. I mean, hey, you you guys you guys watch all those highlights, and you know, it's tough to remember, but you see some of those drives to the basket, you know, like MJ or whoever, and they just get hammered. Yeah, but they popped right back up, you know, and they were playing the next play. You know, I'm sure it hurt.

SPEAKER_01 34:34

Dude, MJ did a complete change in his offseason workout just to see the distance.

SPEAKER_03 34:39

Yeah, yeah. And it's like, you know, and that you know, there was definitely a physical toughness and mental toughness to be able to handle that.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

Do you know how many points I could have scored if I would have got an extra step and nobody was hammering me? Hey, all of us. All of us, guys. I think a little bit more. You guys were shooters. I drove to the basket. I just got hammered a lot.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

Wrong place, wrong time.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

Yeah, I was in the wrong era. Hey, Tom, you're like Cordell Stewart, man.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

Cordell Stewart was just ahead of his time, man. Yeah. The same way.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

Same exact way.

SPEAKER_03 35:12

Well, hey, back in the old days, too. It used to be, you know, it used to be you used to drive and you'd hate it when guys took charges on you. Took a charge, you got an offensive foul. It's like, dang, then it like, did you really want to drive? Now they got the restricted arc. If I'm wrong, I get it. I don't mind a restricted arc. I don't mind that. It's just different now. What's that?

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Did you if I'm wrong, but your fur your your junior year high school was the first year of the three-point line, right? Correct. Correct. In high school. Yeah. So think about we played we played without a three-point line through junior high. He played without it until he was in 11th grade. And so, like that's crazy. Yeah, think how different that makes the game. And uh yeah, it's uh twilight. Didn't affect me.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

I was elbow, elbow jumper, man. 16 footers all day, baby. Let's come out. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

Biz, Biz, your game translates. Your game translates all errors throughout all eras. Oh, John. That question should we should ask could Biz be as successful in any of those levels? Yes. He could play the same thing. I mean, I translate all the way to consistency is the name of it. Uh in those. Nobody shoots a 16-footer anymore, man.

SPEAKER_03 36:16

He was kind of like a Charles Oakley type, wasn't he? Kind of like uh a physical guy. You didn't want to drive the lane with Biz there. With Biz? Yeah, was he somebody? Let him keep talking. I could be talking.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

Biz, did you wear leggings before they were cool, if I remember? You used to wear leggings, right?

SPEAKER_01 36:33

I mean, I wore the uh biking shorts underneath, not the full leg.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

I thought you had the full leg. I remember you drilling elbow jumpers with leggings. That might be in your older career. I may have pulled my socks up.

SPEAKER_03 36:44

I I did he wear sleeves back then?

SPEAKER_01 36:48

Sometimes. I just wore braces. Well, I had everything was hurt, so I had braces on everything.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

Yeah, we didn't have sleeves. I didn't hold myself together, man. Oh man, I was in the wrong era. Yeah.

unknown 37:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

I'd be wearing the arm sleeves. I'd be oh, it'd be unbelievable. Um you'd definitely be wearing a headband too. Well, now I think I would, yeah. I mean, all that sweat coming off. This dome, yeah. All right, we we're 37 minutes in. We haven't even talked

Off-season, the Alfie Awards & the record-setting alumni game

SPEAKER_02 37:16

about the offseason here. Like, what's going on? We have a few weeks left of school. Now, how does this go down with the seniors for both your schools? Are you like, do we have any, like you celebrate, you go to their graduation? Like, what do you guys do as a coach?

SPEAKER_03 37:30

Well, I mean, it's a little different. Actually, you know, last week we took our team over to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the uh uh championship, you know, UCON against Purdue. So we did that. We'll have we'll have an end of your team dinner, you know, the week before finals, and we'll kind of you know celebrate this year's team and honor the seniors and give out awards. So we do that as a basketball program. Um and then also, you know, our athletic department, we have senior week here, and uh they'll have uh a lunch in or you know a picnic for uh this all the senior athletes. So we have a couple things that we'll do coming out, all right.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

We will have um like a team picnic kind of get together with everybody, uh, and then we'll have just the seniors uh over for dinner. Uh we'll also uh our our department, athletic department, has the Alphi Awards, it's kind of like the SPS that we started a few years ago. And so that that'll be there's like 12, I think there's seven um S or Alfi awards that are voted on through our SAC by the students um for like best play, best team. And then there's five, we have we've always had the big five awards, which are kind of like our main athletic awards for our department. And so they'll have we'll have that celebration like reading day right before finals, and uh, and then we'll we'll we'll head on. So um actually this year I think we'll actually be our cousin's wedding, so I I won't be able to be at graduation this year. Um sometimes, honestly, graduation is tough because it's you know, we've got like so many seniors and they're there with their families, and it's hard to get around. So it's a lot of times I usually catch the guys Friday and just like, hey guys, this is for your family, and uh try to catch the families if I can. Um, but we try to do it before that because the the the day of graduation, you guys remember, is a little crazy, and it's really hard. You catch somebody, you don't catch others, and uh there's a lot to it. Now wait a minute, you said the Alfie Awards? Alfies. The Alfie's heck is that? Well, the Alphoretta uh is a uh is the name of what the yearbook was or the yearbook is at Juniatta going way back. Um there was actually it's an area in Huntington, and so it it comes off of that.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

The Alpha I thought it was in Georgia.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Now, are Biz and I up for any Alfie Awards?

SPEAKER_00 39:54

You know what? We should try to get you guys around. We should have you MC it, honest to God, we should have you MC it.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Um that would be awesome. Where's it at? Is it is it a hell is it a live event or is it just yeah, it's a live event.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

Um, it's uh in the main um kind of theater. Uh it might be too big and asked. It might be too big a stage for you guys. I'm just kidding. It might be too big. Wait, wait, wait. Whoa. We might be too big for that.

SPEAKER_01 40:21

Hey, that's true. That was a hurt, that was hurtful, man. It kept a podcast from McDaniel College, and we might have I'm and I must be free.

SPEAKER_00 40:30

Hey Biz, before I even get out of my mouth, I knew I would I shouldn't have said that. I was wrong. I was wrong, Biz.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

I can you know we gotta get well. I don't think Albert's not gonna come through with any trophies, so I gotta go find some trophies for the Bizzarelli Awards. We're gonna start the biz uh now.

SPEAKER_02 40:45

Kev, the uh you know, we did the alumni game this year at Junietta, and it was the most ever talked about and watched alumni game in the history of Junietta College.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

I justI probably probably of Division III.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Oh, for sure. And uh I'd be reluctant to not tell you that uh I uh I coached Team Blue and I beat Biz by about by about 40 points.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

Nah, not that many.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

Was it 30? Nah, it's 20s. I did call a timeout. I did call a timeout with about five seconds left because I really wanted to hit.

SPEAKER_01 41:20

You broke every written and unwritten rule there is in coaching, Kev. It was a just a display of just horribleness. We ran a play and we did score our 80th point. So shout out to Team Blue. Yeah, stinks for you, Tom. That's all right. Next year I have a whole new coaching strategy.

SPEAKER_02 41:36

Hey, bring it, bring it on.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

Speaking of next year, Curly, we got any uh returnees about recruiting updates.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

No, our guys are all uh I'm very happy to say. I mean, I told you before our season even started, all eight of our seniors um had plans, either uh postgraduate opportunities in terms of schooling or or jobs lined up.

SPEAKER_02 41:58

Um nobody's coming back.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

Um and it's a good thing because they have too many opportunities in front of them. So, but I mean I will say, and Kev probably brings it up, but you talk about the transfer stuff. If anything's impacted Division III the most, it's the COVID year uh and the timing of the ability to transfer with that. And then they also changed the rule. You used to not be able to be a grad student and participate in division three athletics, and they changed that about seven or eight years ago, and that all is kind of hit at the same time. So there's a couple programs uh that have really built their whole success off of all grad uh guys that do we do we like that? Uh I I don't particularly, but it's it's the rules, it's not any no one's doing anything they can't. There's it's just uh the the fit playing field is not even. I mean, not even all division three's have grad programs. Some aren't. That's a good point. Are very expensive, some don't line up for what you're trying to do. And I don't like it. Like we've seen some top guys in our league, you know, wind up being players of the year or whatever here, and then they have one year left and they're playing somewhere else. Um, but it's good for the student athlete to have to use their eligibility. That's awesome. It's just like the purest, and yeah, it's kind of weird. And uh it's hard for us. You can't anticipate it. The natural cycle of like you used to be able to anticipate what teams would be up and down a little bit in the league and when your year's coming. And uh now that gets uh, and now you saw that with us a little bit this year, that gets offset pretty quick. Um, you know, last year, you know, uh Jackson Danzig was in his like six year use of COVID year. Um he's playing. His like eighth year. Yeah, I don't know. Um now I'm glad they got to use their time, and I I don't have any, but it it it certainly has just changed the playing field and getting used to that. It's gonna be interesting to see this is gonna be the last year of that, how things change after that. Some of those schools still can you know probably get some do you want D two guys to drop down, use another year for that grad stuff, but that's less wait a minute.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

It's the last year for it's the last year for COVID, but not the last year. Grads grads can still play though, right?

SPEAKER_00 43:58

Yeah, as if you have eligibility. Yeah. But you can't medically know you can't redshirt in Division III. You could get a medical redshirt though. Some people with a medical redshirt would have that year to use, and so they'll still be eligible, but you can't intentionally redshirt. So um now some s some uh conferences have tried to change that rule and go back to change that rule, but I I hope they I mean I'm I again we're probably the schools we're at. We hope that doesn't happen because that's not typically what we're dealing with. If you're at other schools, um it probably

NBA playoff predictions & taking on the NBA

SPEAKER_00 44:33

would be an advantage. So it's interesting to see how that stuff falls.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

All right, we we we can't end without asking for some predictions on the uh NBA. We're we're going into the playoffs. Now, Kev, another thing I gotta tell you, since you you don't seem to be an avid listener of the show, is we we have had an NBA coach on our show before.

SPEAKER_01 44:52

Oh NBA title winning coach.

SPEAKER_03 44:57

Who's that? Was Chuck Knox on it?

SPEAKER_00 45:01

Chuck Knox. Knox Stadium, that's famous.

SPEAKER_03 45:04

Oh, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 45:05

That's an NFL coach, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:07

Sorry. Sorry. I mean, do you you want anyone?

SPEAKER_02 45:10

Do you want to take any guesses here? No, is Frank Frank Vogel? Frank Vogel was on the show. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

And so we are our adopted NBA team is the Phoenix Suns here on the Juniana podcast.

SPEAKER_03 45:24

What?

SPEAKER_01 45:24

You know, they kind of resemble the Eagles, man. You know, they they're loaded with talent, they've taken a while, and I think they're gelling now.

SPEAKER_02 45:31

What now, where did they end? Did they are they in the playoffs? Did they get did they are a play in game or did they get above the line? Let me tell you this, Tom.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Did you guys see yesterday? There were going into the last day of the regular season. There were 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 45:45

Yeah, it's crazy. So what do we got? Who we who we who we rooting for here? Who's gonna take the NBA title?

SPEAKER_00 45:52

Well, we have to pick the Suns, right? We're rooting for the Suns.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

I guess you guys are rooting for the Suns. We are definitely who else are we gonna root for in the hey listen?

SPEAKER_00 46:00

I'm I'm a Celtics guy. I like I I think Boston's gonna be pretty hard to beat, but I do think they're gonna be hard to beat in the east. I don't, you know, uh, you probably can't look past. I mean, the Heat, I know they haven't been, but playoff Jimmy shows up, you never know what happens, right? So Jimmy Buckets.

SPEAKER_01 46:15

I he Jimmy Buckets might be my favorite player in the NBA. Looks like Phoenix is gonna be rolling against Minnesota. Oh, they can beat Minnesota.

SPEAKER_03 46:22

Yeah, they can beat Minnesota.

SPEAKER_01 46:23

I think so. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:25

So, well, hey, I you know, uh, I I don't think they're gonna win it. I like the Warriors still. I still yeah, I still play. Are they playing the Lakers in the play in? Are they playing the Lakers they are? I really liked watching the Nuggets play last year.

SPEAKER_01 46:44

You know, it's yeah, the Nuggets, man. I like the Nuggets.

SPEAKER_03 46:48

Yeah. I mean, they're gonna be tough to beat, you know. But you know what should be exciting, though. You don't, I don't know if you guys watch them. I never have a chance to watch them, is OKC. I mean, you keep hearing the top seed, but like they're never on TV. They're too young, they're too young. They they're gonna get all they finished first in the conference.

SPEAKER_02 47:08

Uh they're gonna get bounced early. There's my prediction right there. Bounced early. Okay. Bunch of these young guys, they're gonna come in there overconfident. Boom, the old guys are gonna beat them down. I'll know, man. Those young legs, those young legs go a long way. Yeah, they oh, you wait. I'm pulling for the Suns, and I think you're right on the Celtics. Celtics Suns.

SPEAKER_01 47:28

Celtics look good.

SPEAKER_02 47:29

There's our collective, our collective prediction.

SPEAKER_01 47:32

I mean, I gotta, I'll say the I'll say the Sixers, though.

SPEAKER_03 47:35

Yeah, if they're out.

SPEAKER_02 47:38

They got they're in a row, they're in a they're in a playing game, right? Who is the Sixers? Yeah, I think they're the Didn't they drop by Andy State?

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Oh, yeah, they are.

SPEAKER_02 47:49

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 47:50

I think they gotta play Atlanta. What are they? What's the Biz? Do you have it in front of you? What is what's the final uh who's in what?

SPEAKER_01 47:57

Let's see. The Sixers, the Heat, the Bulls, and the Hawks are in the play-in in the East. And the Pelicans, Lakers, Sacktown, and Golden State in the West. Those are the play-ins.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

And then we got this ridiculous. I don't know how I feel about this either. If you're you gotta you gotta win. If you if wait, so what if you win the if you're seven, eight, if you win, you're in. If you're eight, you lose, then you get to play the winner of the nine-tent. Nah, right. Seven, ten, eight, nine, winners go through. Why we gotta complicate this?

SPEAKER_00 48:34

Because money. There you go. Yeah, and if you go through the whole year and you're six, seven, I mean here's what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

Here's what we're gonna do. Tim Frank, who listens to this very show, this very podcast.

SPEAKER_01 48:48

Third in charge of the uh NBA, correct?

SPEAKER_02 48:50

Third in charge of the NBA. We're bringing him on. He's coming on the show, and we're gonna ask him some hard-hitting NBA questions because I got a lot of issues. The in-season tournament, don't like it.

SPEAKER_00 49:01

So the D3, so the the Junior Men's Basketball podcast is taking on the NBA. Is that your plan here? We're taking on the NBA.

SPEAKER_02 49:07

That's the plan, yes.

SPEAKER_01 49:08

Hey man, we've already taken on the NBA and won. Let's keep going. Let's keep going. Yeah. I think I shout out to the Kelsey brothers. I think they need to join the podcast. Yeah, we're gonna get them on eventually, too. True. It's gonna be a summer. Summer.

SPEAKER_00 49:25

Are we over summer? Are we over 20,000 followers on Instagram yet? I haven't looked at it in a while.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

We have to be. Let's check it out. This is what we do. We just talk about random stuff.

SPEAKER_01 49:37

That's gonna be a uh a glass of blands tonight, gentlemen.

SPEAKER_02 49:40

Hey, we are. We are at 20,100 followers right now. Way to go, biz. Way to go, biz.

SPEAKER_00 49:46

Wait, are we influencers now? I believe we are. I think that the uh the lowest threshold was 20,000. You are officially an influencer, biz. We're all influencers.

SPEAKER_02 49:56

20,000 followers on the show. Kev. Just think, man. You have made it into the big time.

SPEAKER_01 50:02

Started out with like one, and now here we are. We're picking up Daniel followers as we speak, right now. As we speak.

SPEAKER_02 50:10

Yep. As I said, players, we have an open locker room for transfers. This come on in. We'll evaluate you. We evaluate the three of us, do the evaluations, so you know, we don't know where it'll go.

SPEAKER_01 50:24

Well, we'll see if there's any uh recruits that are teetering between the two schools. I mean, we do know where where we need to go.

SPEAKER_02 50:30

Come on, it's not even a question. Yeah, we want to be an eagle, eagle or a monster? Come on.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

Hey, I'd like to see their mascot square off because our our eagle tends to sit in the bleachers a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 50:47

We got a lot here.

SPEAKER_01 50:48

Huntington is uh, yeah, but that place we went was pretty cool, curls.

SPEAKER_00 50:52

Yeah. Up and coming area. Did you guys notice as he's talked the whole time, he's getting his little points off and he's got his little notebook. I think he has notes right in front of him.

SPEAKER_03 51:01

It's actually a little bit on the whiteboard.

The locker-room scrimmage story & goodbyes

SPEAKER_03 51:04

It is a little in the mountains.

SPEAKER_00 51:07

Hey, Tom, Tom, we just let the podcast speak for us. We just let the podcast speak for us.

SPEAKER_03 51:12

All I know, every time I every time I drive uh travel to Huntington PA, I have to gauge it on the number of mountains I go over. Okay, this is the third mountain. We're almost there.

SPEAKER_01 51:24

There are some mountains.

SPEAKER_02 51:25

There's a few mountains. Hey, there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The pot of gold right there.

SPEAKER_03 51:31

You know, it's easy to slide right into Westminster. You've got Baltimore about 30 miles away.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

A lot of traffic, 56 miles, a lot of traffic, a lot of hecticness. Yeah, almost too many chain restaurants. You don't have the coziness of uh, you know, we have the best of both worlds here.

SPEAKER_03 51:50

We're like a suburban type campus. We are. We got the best of both worlds. Well, hey, I'll tell you this. If you like country, we have country. If you don't like country, we don't have country.

SPEAKER_01 52:02

You have rock and roll.

SPEAKER_02 52:03

All right. If you ever play Juniata, the show will come on the road and we'll do a live show.

SPEAKER_03 52:10

Well, hey, listen, I think they're supposed to come here to scrimmage next year. Maybe we're you're in Annapolis. That's not too far.

SPEAKER_00 52:17

That's not far at all. Hey, these guys, these guys have been at the plestra, they've been at uh alumni game, they don't just go to scrimmages, right? Oh and well, and if we do come actually, we don't want it filled.

SPEAKER_01 52:28

Speaking of scrimmages, don't we need to know the story behind the uh locker room incident? Oh, that was on the bench. That wasn't the locker room. Or the bench. I thought somebody wanted to go to the locker room and regroup.

SPEAKER_00 52:40

Yeah, we have to we do have to tell that story because uh that was Willie Morse was your assistant. Remember that, Kev? You remember this. You know this story because this is brought up all the time. So uh this was when Cannon was playing for this. Was a while ago. I think Nick might have been my assistant. That was his first time here, too. But that was they came up to our place and we had a good team. That was that was a really good team. We went to to the conference finals that year and we smoked in the first half. We smoked them. I mean, smoked them. And the Kev. So, like the way scrimmages work is like you you play 20 minutes and then you stay on the floor. You give like two, three minutes, you just turn around and talk to your team, and you just keep going, right? And that's like the that's the way it operates for every scrimmage we've both ever been in. Well, we're smoking him. I can see him down there, so he is not happy, he is upset, right? And so he's he's he's pissed at his team. So he comes down, he's like, Hey, I'm taking my team into the locker room. And I'm like, What do you mean you're taking your team in the locker room? Like, I gotta take him into the locker room, we gotta talk to him. I think I looked at him, I said, Hey, stay out here and take your ass kicking like a man or something like that. And like he got mad at me, and uh uh, so like we're and he just keeps walking, it takes his team out. Our two assistants are looking at each other like, what the hell? He comes back out like after the game, we're fine, it didn't even matter. It I don't think anybody knew it except us.

SPEAKER_03 54:12

I don't know if all those details are accurate. Yeah, he doesn't think I said that. I will tell you this we won the second 20. So hey, he needed the locker room uh to be uh uh said was said, and the execution cleaned up, and we won the second 20. I do remember winning the second 20.

SPEAKER_00 54:30

Hey, let's just say I know you were leaving, and you also know that was out of the norm. Let's just say I know I know the perils of getting in between the Kirby brothers.

SPEAKER_03 54:41

Yeah, because you know, and these talking, I you know, they might have beat us by two in that first 20. I don't know, maybe by two. Smoke doesn't seem like two. I I do rem well, I mean it's revisionist history here. I do remember, I do remember winning the second 20. So and we cleared a score on every 20. Anyway, so we made our adjustments and uh yeah, we did well, but yeah, I mean, I guess you know uh yeah, hey it was a good uh that was years ago. That was years ago.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

Either way you look at it, it's a good story.

SPEAKER_03 55:17

It is a good story, it is a good story.

SPEAKER_02 55:20

Well, Kev, we appreciate you coming on. It's good to see you. It's been a long time. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 55:25

We uh yeah, we definitely need to uh you know get get him back on here and there.

SPEAKER_02 55:30

Yeah, we gotta hear updates on this big the big year. Yeah, it sounds like a good season coming up, man. A big year you have coming up. There's gonna be a lot of expectations in uh McDaniel world. Yeah, we we know the we know the expectation train, huh? Yeah, we do. We might we may we might think about coming to McDaniel for this scrimmage. We'll see. We'll see.

SPEAKER_03 55:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Set up shop here local. Love to have you. But no, I appreciate you guys having me on. It's great seeing you guys again. I know it's been a little while, but uh Yes, it has. Just like old times.

SPEAKER_01 56:00

Just like old times.

SPEAKER_03 56:01

Appreciate you guys having us here. And uh listen, McDaniel's number one, but you know, big fan of Junietta basketball, too.

SPEAKER_02 56:09

We appreciate that. All right, fellas. Well, here we go. This is officially the kickoff of season three of the podcast. It's right on the horizon. We're gonna be we're gonna be back to the regular season before we know it. But before we do that, we got a whole off season. We got updates on recruiting, we got summer workouts, and of course, we have a super lineup of amazing alumni throughout the summer.

SPEAKER_01 56:34

And we we may need to uh grab the seniors one more time, too, before uh maybe before class is up to the room.

SPEAKER_02 56:41

There we go. There we go. All right, people, follow the show on Instagram at Junietta Basketball Show. Subscribe to the Junietta Men's Basketball Show on Apple, Spotify, wherever you listen to the podcast, leave us a rating on on uh Apple, comment on Instagram, and fellas, here we go. I'm Tom Frank.

SPEAKER_00 56:58

I'm Biz. I'm the head coach Greg Curly.

SPEAKER_02 57:05

All right. Thank you, Kev.