Find the Edge: The Last 80 Minutes

With the season winding down and just two home games left, Tom Frank, Biz, and Head Coach Greg Curley get real about where the Eagles are — and what still matters when the postseason isn’t on the table.

The crew tackles a listener question from Missy T.: with 80 minutes left in the year, do you experiment for next season… or stay locked in on winning? Coach Curley doesn’t mince words: games are games, and the priority is still prepare, compete, execute — and learn how to win. The conversation turns to consistency, accountability, and why improvement can get “ugly” before it gets better.

They recap a tough road week at Elizabethtown (80–70) and Goucher (66–59), break down the recurring theme of early deficits, and talk through what has to sharpen up fast — execution, discipline, and decision-making.

Plus: Game balls, some classic studio chaos, a Hall of Fame speech draft (naturally featuring Drew Brees), and Biz drops another motivational gem… that immediately requires a full bridge-and-river explanation.

Next up: Lycoming and Moravian at home — and the chase for 10 wins to put an exclamation point on the season.

Follow the show on Instagram @juniatabasketballshow and subscribe wherever you listen. Go Eagles.

The Juniata Men's Basketball Show is produced and distributed by ⁠Merrick Studios ⁠and hosted by lifelong friends ⁠Tom Frank⁠, ⁠Drew "Biz" Besket⁠, and Head Juniata Basketball Coach ⁠Greg Curley.⁠ Got a question for the guys? Please contact us through Instagram ⁠@JuniataBasketballShow⁠. Please subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts, leave us a rating on apple and spread the word #EaglesNation. Juniata College basketball is part of the The Landmark Conference, an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III.

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Transcript

The Bridge Between Not Knowing and Knowing

SPEAKER_04 0:00

This is Americ Studios Podcast. This week on the Juni Adam Men's Basketball Show. Let that sink in a little bit. Yeah, I'm it's still sinking in with me. All right. I need the cliff notes.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Can you explain that one to me?

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Can you explain that one to us a little bit?

SPEAKER_03 0:15

Well, I mean, you know, you don't know, you think you know, you make the mistake, and then you learn from the mistake, and then you know. But at that point, have I fallen off the bridge?

SPEAKER_04 0:26

Hey, football fans, you could win a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the 2026 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement events in person in Canton. How do you kick this off? Grab Snapdragon Apples at your local store, then go to Snapdragonapple.com for official rules and enter. No purchase necessary. Ends February 28th, 2026. Open to U.S. residents, 18 and older, void where prohibited. I'm Tom Frank. I'm Biz. I'm the head coach Greg Curly. And this is your Junietta men's basketball show. Welcome, listeners. I'm Tom Frank. I'm joined each and every week by Drew Beskitt, aka Biz,

8-15, Two Games Left, One Week To Go

SPEAKER_04 1:04

and your Junietta head basketball coach, Greg Curley. We talk all things. Junietta, man, it's college and basketball. Well, fellas, we're getting down to the bitter end here. I know, man. Sad. Getting down to the end. The team sits at 8 and 15 with two games to go. A week from today, it's it's over. That seems weird. I know. Time flies, right? Time flies for us. I don't know about Coach Curley.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Yeah, it's I mean you wake up and here we are. Um obviously coming off a tough week. Um, so we we just see how interested how we how we finish um at home. Uh obviously a lot to play for still. And uh the record you say, it doesn't it doesn't sound great again. So we've gotta keep working to get this corrected.

SPEAKER_04 1:56

Now on the upside, it's better than last year.

SPEAKER_05 2:00

Improvement.

SPEAKER_04 2:02

Improvement. We I would rather be going up than down.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Oh no, I mean big picture without question, uh significant improvement. If we look at kind of two year goals coming off of where we lost eight seniors, um, I actually think we're we're on target. Um uh you know, I I thought uh uh now obviously we'd like to get there sooner and be there more, but in terms of uh big picture development and where we sit, how we've played at times. Um I thought there's a mix of things here the last couple weeks that have led to kind of our struggles, uh, a lot of which are our own doing and where we have to uh understand the value of improvement at an individual level. Um but that is learned uh through experience and and having been through that. Um but uh you know, the level of basketball we've shown we can play. Uh the kind of group that this group can be is what I'm more focused on. Uh our challenge now is to be able to consistently do that. And uh down the stretch here, we have not done that. I mean, uh I thought we played well at Catholic, but since then we have not played exceptionally well. Um and that is a disappointment to me to bring that consistent effort and focus down the stretch. Uh we haven't been able to do. And if the outcomes were the same, but

Listener Question: No Postseason, So Now What?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

we played kind of that well with that kind of focus and energy, uh, that would be good. But I don't think we have, and that's disappointing, and we need to get that corrected.

SPEAKER_05 3:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

Well, before we get to all that, let's start with we we do have a listener question this week. Oh which is another good one. I love our listener questions. I do too. This one's from Missy T. It's a two-part question. Coach. Knowing there is no postseason. Excuse me. Holy knowing there's no postseason, is there anything you do differently with the last 80 minutes of the season to evaluate anything for next season? And part two of that question is for T Biz and Tom. Anything you want coach to consider testing? A secret weapon, a weird lineup, or one of Tom's questionable offensive or defensive schemes. I don't like that you kind of called me out on on uh questionable. But we'll start with Coach. It is questionable. Anything the last 80 minutes that you you do differently, or do you just like roll into it exactly the same way as you have all season?

SPEAKER_01 4:21

No, I mean we don't look at it. I mean, games are games, and we don't look at it, hey, the playoffs aren't there, so things are essentially over, so go do different things. I mean, that's just not the mindset or how it works. I mean, we're we're most and foremost have a great practice on Monday and get better. Um and then we have to prepare, uh uh execute or prepare, compete, and execute on Wednesday um and go play to win. And um what we need to get better at right now is winning. And so our focus needs to be on winning. Uh and there's uh I don't listen, I I think the I'll say it again, the level of basketball we played, um, we just need to get consistent at playing at that level. That there's no mysteries here. Uh we haven't played consistently at that level. And uh I I think our challenges again come down to an individual level uh of uh improvement development and discipline to consistently do and produce it or or eliminate mistakes or add to areas that we've struggled with. Uh and a lot of times that's going through that. So part of it is how do we rebound from where we were last week and how well do we play this week? That's my complete focus. I mean, we have to play well going out. Um, you know, the guys showed up to play hard um all these games, but the execution um and the ability to consistently play play well has not been there, and that's what our focus is on down the stretch here.

SPEAKER_04 5:42

Bez, do you have any any uh any anything that you would change?

SPEAKER_03 5:48

I mean uh I'm gonna leave it I'm gonna leave it to the expert, man. I mean, you know. My team lost the uh alumni game, like I I'm not in a position to be unfortunately given that advice. I would, I mean, I would recommend, you know, just maybe finding not getting the referees that we had in our game because it was a little bit ridiculous.

SPEAKER_04 6:11

You're still gonna find the referees.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

Uh yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_04 6:15

So coach, you don't ever think of and and maybe this is because you you're in practice every day, so it it doesn't make sense to do it in the game, of just any kind of like different lineup, or is that already I mean, you've already gone through that at the beginning of the year.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Yeah,

Lineups Get Earned Every Single Day

SPEAKER_01 6:31

I listen, we we've gone through it over two years. Um you know, last year we didn't have consistency in the lineup at all. This year we went through that um in the group that uh we've sort of settled on, you know, you saw how well they played. Um and then the next cycle is they have to learn how to play that well all the time.

SPEAKER_05 6:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Uh I'm not saying we don't have to improve things, and there are other guys pushing to have those opportunities. So we also we always look at that. We've played some different guys um uh at different times, but um this this isn't this isn't that. This is um honestly some accountability and some ownership of guys that have they have to play consistently better in the roles that they're in in the way that they need to. Uh one of our problems is we haven't consistently eliminated the mistakes we've made um and we've addressed and gone over and addressed and gone over, and we have to get that across to guys that small things hurt you and we have to be focused on eliminating those. And then we also have to make improvements on an individual level in areas. We have to show consistent progress and improvement, and we sort of fall back at times. Like we we make a push in certain areas, then we fall back. We make another push in another area and then we fall back. Um, and that is part of the process and the idea, but we have to get better. But we to be honest, we look at lineups every single day. So it's earned every day. Um, and so there's not this magical idea that that everybody's just out there and then we get to a game and decide who does what. This is you know earned every day. Um, this is always evaluating what do we do here. Uh it is an ongoing, never-ending uh process and thought process. Um so when I say this, I don't know who'll be on the floor Wednesday. I mean we have a good idea and stability matters and growth matters and where we are. Um but the biggest message down the stretch here is we have to get better. We have to continue to get better. Um the the other message from the the middle of the season is that we're we can be good enough. And we are a level of a team and program that we need to be. Uh, but we need to listen to what the season's telling us and we have to improve on things. And I and right now, I don't think there's any big picture changes or challenges. I think honestly, it's at an individual level where we're seeing guys uh be productive in some moments, and not even productive, but play well

Small Mistakes, Big Damage

SPEAKER_01 8:41

and then not play well. And it it sometimes it shifts between in a game, you know, we'll be rolling along for four minutes taking care of things, and then all of a sudden we do some things. Um, you know, we made some mistakes in Saturday's game that we just should not be making right now. Um, now with some of the stacked experience and the time that we have, um, you know, man mismanagement at the end of the half. And you know, we have we've talked about on this, you know, if we see zone, we'll go at 10 seconds for a last second play at the end of the half, and our guys decide to go at 16 seconds, we gave them the ball back, and they then we found a three-point jump shooter at the end of the half, which we've already been through, all that stuff. Those are just discipline and focus things, those are our real problems. And so that needs to get corrected, but that just comes down to individual level decision making consistently. And it's different guys in different situations all the time, but we all have an expectation and a responsibility to make good decisions and and focus on that level of improvement. Um, and we just haven't consistently been able to do that. And it also just comes down to individual skill sets and improvement where we've shown some things we can do and then we go away and uh some of the decision-making passing, um, you know, how how well we master some of the things we do instead of just do them. And we need to be at a mastery stage right now or moving there. Um last year I talked about a lot of this is just 10,000 reps. We're pretty close in some places to having 10,000 reps in. And so the performance and the expectation of outcome needs to be better. Um and what I would say is there's competition every day all year in practice. Um, and we're confident the guys that we're playing are the guys that give us the best chance to win in the moment. And uh so I would say this is not just the guys that are on the floor, this is across the board. So um that our consistency of improvement and

Elizabethtown 80-70: Fighting Back All Night

SPEAKER_01 10:22

challenge in those areas, uh, I just don't think it kept pace here the last two weeks of the season uh with what it needed to do. And we were we were, you know, coming out of the Susquehanna game, we were in a position um to take a step and do those things, and we have not done that. And that's on us as coaches, and we have to do a better job.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

Can't disagree with that. Um well let's look at last last week's games. We had uh this past Wednesday, we fell on the road to Elizabethtown 80-70 Wednesday evening inside Thompson Gymnasium. Junior had battled through out, but was unable to overcome Elizabethtown early advantage. That seems like a uh that was like a theme this year. That was early advantages. Early advantage, yeah. Yeah, the Blue Jays led 34-29 at the break and extended their margin in the second half, never surrendering the lead. Tie uh paced the Eagles with 23 points on nine of 20 shooting, adding four rebounds, three assists, and 35 minutes of action. Joe Bruce finished with 12 points. William Little Jr. added an efficient 11 points, and off the bench, Jaden Aze recorded a team high, 10 rebounds. Man, that dude is rebounding to go along with uh six points. Uh nice positive of that game, Bez. Yes, 12 of 15 from the free throw line.

SPEAKER_03 11:35

I would have had that all year. Oh, you know, you got hey, you gotta start somewhere, Thomas.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Yeah. Yeah, and I will say that the the positive of the Elizabeth Town game is we got down and uh we we kept fighting back. I I was actually very happy with that. We got it to five at halftime and we're consistently in that game. Um, and that was a credit to the guys, and that that's I mean, the kind of on the road there with what we had gone through to show that, um, I was exceptionally happy. And that's where I say I think big picture competitiveness. Um the reason we kind of cycle like that, uh it is just it's just a sustained uh effort, and it's not even effort, it's execution right now. Um, the elimination of uh mistakes, the lack of mental mistakes and stretches that hurt you. And that was kind of the cycle of that game. Uh now we got off, you know, we just missed four or five layups to start the game. Uh, but I've talked to you guys, like we have to rev into things. We can't just get off the bust and go. And that is that's another example that happens. Um, but that goes back to practice habits and challenging them to be ready to roll when we practice and how we approach practice and every day. Um, and we've learned those lessons um and we've been through it. And it's time now that that that stuff uh takes uh hold and it hasn't consistently. Uh now I I I would say the shift we went to Goucher, I thought our focus and energy early in the game was better. We just couldn't sustain it late, and we got rattled to the end of the first half and didn't sustain. And within many minutes and games we've played really shouldn't have been happening at this point in the season either. So uh a mix, but I actually thought our our our fight at the Etown game, I thought overall we played pretty well. Uh the problem there is we get down 12 points, and we kept getting back to within four or five, but you're always behind the eight ball for their next run, and so get back to ten. And that is exactly the theme of the year. When we've been able to avoid that, we've we've really pretty much won games and had a lot of success. Um, but it's just that focus um uh and hitting the ground running every game. And it we're not at a point where the speed of the game or who we're playing should impact us, home or away. Like we should be able to get out there and understand what's going on. And that's troubling. Um and that's where I'd say again, at some individual levels, guys need to be prepared and be ready to play. Um and and we can't work in everything and then show, oh, here's what I could do midway through. Well, that's that's not good enough. And there's not a lot. Um there's not a lot on a big uh big picture basis you can do there. That's just the the growth and desire of guys to correct and change. And I think um that's the hardest part. This is the hardest part. Um uh uh impacting the big picture stuff, the team stuff, the attitude, the overall approach, the organization, how hard to play are the easiest things. Now we're kind of into the granular level where it's down to each guy at their pace, at their desire. And I I I do believe we have guys that want to do it. Uh, but some guys come at it where um quite honestly have to be tougher and be able to manage mistakes and failure and work through. And the other guys come at it, quite frankly, we have some pretty stubborn competitors that um have to understand they have to change and be different and they can't just be who they are all the time. Not that who they are is a problem, but they have to improve who they are. They have to change slightly, they have to add things, they have to um, you know, work within um and and really uh master what we're doing to help them uh because you can't just will your way to things all the time. Uh there's three players in history that could do that. So um, yeah, we're just uh so the Utown game was was a positive in that stretch. Um and I thought we got off to a better start in the Goucher game, but we

Goucher 66-59: Coach's Toughest Loss to Swallow

SPEAKER_01 15:17

just weren't able to sustain when when things got a little tough.

SPEAKER_04 15:20

Yep, then on Saturday we yeah we couldn't just quite complete the comeback as they as we lost on the road at Goucher, 6659 Saturday afternoon. Malcolm tallied 12 points, six rebounds, four steals. Ty totaled 13, seven rebounds, four assists. Joe contributed eight points, four assists, four steals, and three rebounds, and Noah Bailey added eleven points, two rebounds, and a block off the bench. Lows and highs. Goucher had a 43-29 advantage on the glass. I thought we could, I thought we would do better than that. But we had a 23-13 edge and points off turnovers, which I know was something that we uh we didn't see earlier, earlier uh last week. We were talking about that a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

So highs and lows. Yeah, no, I mean going in, we knew they had an advantage on the glass, uh, just some of the length and size, I thought there'd be some problems. Were we as consistent as we needed to on the glass? No, and that's unfortunate, particularly since how much we emphasized it. Uh, we did turn them over uh and we created opportunities for that. We didn't do much with those opportunities. Um, you know, I I just honestly, I I I was was probably the most disappointed I've been with our performance this year. Um, you know, I just didn't think uh with the sum total of experiences we have and a lot of the stuff we've been through, we should have been better in a lot of spaces. Um and really, really disappointed with that. Um we continue to play hard. Uh the effort is there. I mean, like the bench is in it for each other and those big picture things, but like we have to make better decisions. We have to be more disciplined in moments, we have to stay focused all the time. Um, you know, we have to be able to know that there's ups and downs in a game, and they have players. Um they're very talented, they're kind of in the same space as us. We talked about it. Yeah. Um, and you have to be able to stay at it and and do those kind of things. I also just thought some of the areas that we had showed improvement um on an individual level with even some skill level stuff that we kind of backed up in and that cost us. Um, and so I think in some ways we we have to use this ending as a blessing, sort of like we used last year to to make the growth that we did this year, that we need to now understand. Um, you know, this stuff, you know, once you get things, you need to get them. It needs to be part of your toolkit. You have to understand. We have to be stay uh sound and and and uh disciplined in what we're doing. Um and then, you know, you've been through these situations, like we we have to make some of the plays that we've made consistently, and we have to be a little more um, you know, uh insulated from the the kind of the ups and downs of a game. Like we we've played a lot and and and we we sort of tend to overreact one way or the other um and kind of get out of where we are and we just have

One Missing Piece Changes The Whole Rotation

SPEAKER_01 18:00

to lock in and be better. Um I I do think the another road game, whatever it was, 10 of 14 games here we just played, I don't think that's helped. Um, but we should be good at it. You know, we should have been good at it by now, um and and understand what we're doing. And then I think, you know, we've had a uh key guy in the rotation out for the last five games. I think the common common theme is when we had our full rotation, those nine, that's when we won five out of six games. We were healthy, we had every guy. Um, and right now for us, the way we're constructed, um once we lose one piece of that, um, it's very difficult for us to play at the level we need to. And a lot of it is we have pretty specific pieces. Like guys bring specific skill sets that we can't kind of uh figure out how to fill in those gaps without it. When they're left up, yeah. That's part youth. Uh like as you develop and get older, that's that's a big part of that is youth. That as guys are older guys, they can take on more load and be fine within what they're doing because they have that capacity and experience. Uh, but that's also part of the development on an individual level that we have to be developing ourselves to fill in some of those gaps and to round out what we're doing. And unfortunately, it it feels a little bit like we are who we are, and then the team develops around us and we do what we're doing, and that's gonna be enough. And the season is telling us that's not enough. Uh that more's required of all of us. Um and we as coaches have to keep working with guys to get um that through and develop those areas. Um, we need to eliminate the the reasons we lose, um, and we need to play and and continue to enhance the areas that will allow us to be successful to win. And I we haven't done that great in the last four or two weeks. Uh, whether the season got long, whether it's too much, um, I don't know. It certainly appears that way. Um and you know, Goucher was due for a win. They have talented young guys. Um, they've kind of fallen into a lineup here that gave us some problems. They played differently than when we played them last time in terms of their size. Um and uh I talked about size and athleticism sometimes gives us challenges um inside, and they had both. Um, and so that's been a challenge for us. And you have to offset that with um kind of your skill set and ability to pass catch and finish in places or make open shots. I mean, the theme also is we just don't make shots. We are 0 for 7 from three at the end of the first half. Um, you know, you go on the road and you hold a team to 25 points, you shouldn't be down four points. And you hold them. I mean, theoretically, we would have held them probably in the 50s without the fouling late. You have to win that game. And we just haven't been able to consistently s score enough points uh against uh anybody here to to be where we need to be. When we tried to score points in the Wilkes game, we decided not to play defense. So um we've defended better here, but we have to be able to can can play both ends, consistently do that, execute the stuff we're asking about, and and uh take some progress. So uh the the listener question, that's the focus these last two games. We have two more games to demonstrate we can do what we're doing and can keep working

Why a College Season Feels Twice as Long

SPEAKER_01 21:10

through and working at it.

SPEAKER_04 21:12

So do you really think that like uh you said something that piqued my interest about it's a longer season for some of these guys? But I mean, in basketball, like I'm looking at like our high schools, we're we're playing and you're at twenty-three games, they're playing they're about at 20, 23 games at this point, too. Does that really make a bigger impact or what what's the difference there?

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Well, high school seasons are compressed, so it's you probably got about a month and a half less less of time. Uh much, much, much many fewer practices. Okay. Uh I mean, we're at 70 practices. I would assume a high school season, probably 40, maybe. And so, like, it's a lot of games. And that's uh quite frankly one of the challenges. Um, you know, AAU world, high school summer leagues, um, high school now, not a lot of practice in development times. So the whole mindset is you just go play the game. And you play what you need to do. Um, and that isn't a development model, that's a performance model. And so uh, like understanding now how you have to approach those other things and how it folds into that. Um, but I would also say the amount of minutes a lot of these guys have carried through an entire season are the most that they've ever taken on. Um and then you you have to also understand the difference in the physicality and and the size, sure, uh, the length of the game in college. So uh if you go watch a high school game, watch a college game, and watch the number of breaks that are taken in a game and how much demand is on your body and how hard you have to play all the time, um, particularly in the places with no shot clock. Um there's a lot of wasted time. Uh you're not, you know, right now we are at the time of the year, and I think what caught us too is we probably got ahead in terms of big picture effort, how to play together, all those things, and that allowed us to have success. Well, by this time of the year, kind of all those systems and all those things that every school is caught up. So it it sort of becomes player to player, right? Now, how are we gonna uh manage and and and play against each other? Um, and that that is a little bit different in the shift too. So now you're you gotta do all those things and then you gotta um perform um in in those spots. So um, yeah, it's just longer

Game Balls: Ty, Littles and Malcolm

SPEAKER_01 23:21

when you add everything. When you add pretty much add film.

SPEAKER_05 23:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:28

Well, Biz, I I hate to put you on the spot, but you know, we gotta have two game balls this week.

SPEAKER_03 23:34

Well, Biz had a bit of technical difficulties this morning, and uh yeah, things are spread out all over the the studio here. So Tom, I'm gonna uh I'm gonna pass this one this week's over to you. Uh oh, you on the fly like that? Yeah, man. I mean unfortunately, like I have some ideas, but uh I don't have my traditional stat sheet in front of me, dude. To you don't have your stat sheet. Technical, because um my stat sheet is on my camera device at this point in time. Yeah. Well, I hate to base it just purely on points.

SPEAKER_04 24:10

Don't. And we'll be right back.

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SPEAKER_04 25:01

And now, back to the show. But I will. Come on, don't do that. Well, I mean, Elizabeth Town, I don't know. Ty has has, you know, there's things he's got to work on in his game, but yeah, he he is the leader, he is scoring points.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

So I'm gonna give it to I'm gonna give it to Ty for Elizabeth Town. Do you have an honorable mention? We like to do the honorable mention. Oh man, now you're putting me on the spot for an honorable mention.

SPEAKER_04 25:27

Well, I might give it to uh I might give it to Littles. All right.

SPEAKER_05 25:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:36

Eleven points. Nice. You know, I'll give it to him. We need him, we need him. We need him and we need Trey from a defensive standpoint. I think those two guys are where it starts. They start they get they get the steals, they get the the the points in transition. I like it. That was Trey's first game back.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

I do believe that uh he had seven assists. That was his first game back, right? Against Elizabeth Town. Yes. Yeah. Did he have seven assists in that game, Tom? What's that? Did he have seven assists in that game? Did I I was uh perusing the stats? All right. I I don't have those in front of me, Biz.

SPEAKER_04 26:14

I'm being put on the spot here, so you are. I apologize. Going from memory. And then in and then our second game, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna pull a biz and go with stat line. Uh and I'm gonna give it to Malcolm. I'm gonna give Malcolm some pros and cons right here. Right? I like Malcolm. We need Malcolm's in there, he scores points, he gets rebounds. I think as we go into next season, I think Malcolm continues to get stronger, and we got to continue to get an edge on him. We got to get an edge on Malcolm. Gotta get Malcolm in there banging with some of these big boys. That's my goal for Malcolm next year. I think he can do it. I like that. Yeah. So those are my two game balls. All right. Hey, you don't have the actual game ball. Where's the actual game ball? You went outside with it, didn't you? No, it's a big ball. You went outside and played with that ball, didn't you? So it got a little bit warmer. It got a little bit warmer, and you went out and you shot in your community hoop with that basketball that you're not supposed to shoot with.

SPEAKER_03 27:11

Uh

Hall of Fame Speeches and Friday Night Football

SPEAKER_03 27:12

curly forbid it, and I will follow the coach's rules. I'm very I'm very coachable. No, it's in my upstairs studio. Things are all disability.

SPEAKER_04 27:21

And there's no there's no dirt marks on it. I will not buy it. I mean, I can go get it right now if you want. I don't want to put that effort, that all that effort for you there is. It's early in the morning. I appreciate that. All right, let's look ahead to next week. I got uh Tom's Scouting Report presented by Snapdragon Apples, Monster Crunch Legendary Flavor. Find Snapdragon at your local grocery store, the official apple of the Junior Adam Men's basketball show. And fellas, did you know if you scan your receipt using buy when you buy Snapdragon Apples, you can enter to win a trip to the Football Hall of Fame this coming fall, Snapdragonapplot com slash sweepstakes.

SPEAKER_03 27:58

If we win that, do we get to like do a uh like an entrance speech for somebody? Do we get to introduce one of the Hall of Fame candidates or no?

SPEAKER_04 28:06

I can't guarantee it, but we could certainly ask, Biz. I think if they saw that you won it, I think there would be there would be some openings for for that possibility. If you had to choose one of the inductees that's getting into the Hall of Fame to do their opening speech, which one would it be?

SPEAKER_03 28:21

Ooh, that's a great question. I have my answer. I would have loved to do it for Bill Belichick, but he didn't get in first ballot.

SPEAKER_04 28:28

I would go Drew Brees, because Drew Brees reminds me of myself a little bit. You know what?

SPEAKER_03 28:33

I'd go with Breeze too, just for the namesake, honestly. I I found like our our our you know, we had similar build, maybe similar skill set. I mean, I would, you know, when we played uh played Friday night football, I mean, a lot of people say that Drew Brees modeled his game after Ma. I mean, and you guys both have the same first name. I mean, there's there's a lot to that. I mean, I was flinging the ball all over the yard. Yeah, yeah. Except it was a little suspicious when uh Coach Curley, since he was the third and fourth down quarterback, would drop a great second down pass so he could be the quarterback. I mean, I do believe that happened a few times, but we're gonna leave that dog lie. We'll let we'll let that lie.

SPEAKER_04 29:13

I could go for up for one of our old football games. I used to enjoy this.

SPEAKER_03 29:16

Oh, dude, remember we go up to the uh what was that? Like Eastnot East Halls. It was like South Halls, there's uh basketball. I don't think they're there anymore, though. Probably not. And they were like leveled too, so it's like you're either going downhill or uphill. It was interesting. And there was a fence, so it was almost like it was almost like a steel like football and hockey met. It was like arena football. People went into that fence a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 29:42

Yeah, I enjoyed it. It got chippy. It got chippy up there. Yeah, I like to put people into the fence.

SPEAKER_03 29:47

Oh, that doesn't surprise me.

SPEAKER_04 29:49

All right, let's get to our games.

Lycoming, Moravian, and the Case for Ten Wins

SPEAKER_04 29:51

We got two games remaining, both at home. Wednesday versus Lycoming, Saturday to end the season versus Moravian. Lycoming comes in at 6-17, 2-14 in the conference. They've lost their last three, including an eight-point loss to Moravian this past Saturday, and a one-point loss to Scranton. That was probably a pretty good game. Like our Eagles, this one will be about pride as they uh they sit just below us in the landmark standings. What are we expecting from Liecoming this week?

SPEAKER_01 30:18

Well, they they've finally uh gotten healthy and they're playing very, very well. So they're getting a lot of output. They're very good offensively. Um similar to what I've talked about with the challenge of Goucher, I think both of these teams are talented. They're just also both young. Um, they've both dealt with some injuries, uh, and now they've got guys back, and Lyco can really score. Uh so uh, and they've they they'll do some things defensively. Um they have some length, uh, they have some toughness. Uh they're gonna come in because they have an opportunity to win. They played well at Moravian. Uh, they're in that game the entire time, as did Goucher. Uh so uh it's gonna be a challenge. I mean, honestly, uh for us right now, we we just have to get back to, I said, playing well. Uh we have to go play well. We have to, you know, put the kind of Catholic performance, the Susquehanna performance on the floor and go play well on both sides of the ball, play well, be connected the entire time, uh engaged, um, focused, um, and continue to make those uh uh uh you know make make that kind of progress.

SPEAKER_04 31:20

I know we wouldn't do anything different, but in some ways, man, I'm telling these guys, this is it. Like you got to put the exclamation mark on this season. There's a big difference between winning eight games and ten games.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

A huge thing. And I I mean, I don't know where the I mean, we we talk about all this stuff and we're I mean, this isn't we don't just uh hey, we'll see you Wednesday and put the same team out there and we're not working and making progress on things. I mean, it it it it's just not the same thing. You don't just start making decisions, and they're made all the time and daily. And part of this again is we're you know, on paper we have the same group back next year, almost for another two years. So for me, it's progress. It's always progress, it's improvement and getting better. And this is one of the cycles right now where we have to realize that we have to get better on an individual level, and like individual guys have to make progress and um in in their performance, in their approach, uh, in their skill sets. And so uh that's what we're focused on. Um now how how much that improves in in two games. The other idea that like you just find things and then it works out, that that's that very rarely happens. I mean, this is progression in time. Uh I mean, obviously uh we would love to do that, and we need to put it together, and that's the progress. And winning the game is the goal. Um, but we have to do it the right way and keep making progress to where we're sustainable. The the goal is to take the way we played um and be able to do it over a 25-game season. And if you can do that, uh we're having much, much different conversations right now. And that is what our focus continues to be on. And we met with some guys last night about the road about how important this last week is to set up our offseason and the momentum of where we're going and how important it is to finish this year based on what our goals were and what we're looking at. So all of that stuff goes on behind the scenes all the time. When you come and sit in the stands on Wednesday, it may or may not look different to you. But that that th those things are going on all the time.

SPEAKER_04 33:19

And then we'll face Moravian to finish it off. The Greyhounds come in at 15 and 8 overall, 9-7 in a conference. This could be a big one for them because I think if I'm reading the standings right, they could be anywhere as high as fourth in the conference to maybe even seventh and not making the playoffs based on what happens in some other games this week. So this is kind of an interesting game for Moravian. I'd like to be the uh team that comes in there and bounces them out of the playoffs. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

Yeah, I mean, I honestly probably won't even have any idea till Wednesday to see what it what that means, if it means anything at all or not. Uh it's very, very close race. Um, it is kind of a jumble uh in the middle there. Uh and so uh yeah, I I mean, and uh it doesn't matter. I mean, it's our last home game of the year. It's an important game for us. I completely agree. Getting the 10 wins based on where we would be would be a heck of an accomplishment. Um, you know, if you improve from last year, eight wins, and then we make the same jump next year, that puts us in a whole different thing. And if you're grade on overall improvement, the jump that we've made and how much better we are. I mean, the things we're talking about now are uh things that we can confidently say we have done and we need to do consistently, or things that we know we can eliminate, but we we've fallen back and allowing these things to creep back in, um, those those are huge things. This isn't kind of hoping and maybe if and what. Uh we've demonstrated the level we can play uh and we need to do it consistently uh and and show that kind of growth. And that's where my disappointment is. I I thought we backtracked a little bit here um on Saturday. And we want to see progression throughout the entire season. And uh we we just uh have not hit that mark last week, but sometimes it's part of the process, and maybe we uh make the step this week to show that that was what was needed to make another uh move forward, and that's our goal. That's what we're hoping to do this week.

SPEAKER_03 35:09

Hey, you know, it's uh it's not like you have got a group of guys that have been through all this to fall back on either. Like you said, I mean it, you know, being young is not an excuse, but it is a reason to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Well, improvement. Yeah, improvement is not linear, and we all think uh that way. We think it's just you can't take consistent steps, and that's not how it works. It gets ugly at times and it looks like it's falling back. I I I really do believe, and I we talked to the team that this is a stage, we've seen it before. Um, and the different teams that we've developed over the years, we've seen exactly this. And um now it comes down to the choice, and what choices will guys make with the information that we have? I mean, and will you take another step? Will you develop further and will you go there? When those cycles hit, I mean, the unfortunate thing is when it's hitting us right now. But if you remember, you know, the challenge we had coming into the year, we had a fight to establish a lot of things that would just get us back to even. Um, and we fought really hard to get that. Um, and then we played well um in that middle stretch. Ideally, you can come in the year knowing and understanding so you can play better early. You dip a little bit in the middle, and then you finish on a high note because you've had that learning experience. And I think our our timeline has shifted a little bit. Um, even if you look at some of the teams we played that we beat in that middle stretch, they struggled and now they've kind of pushed back. Well, they established some stuff early in the year. They had their down cycle, they had to learn from that, and then they move forward. So um it it really there's a pattern to this. Um, and I think cycle-wise, uh, and of course, no one wants to finish and we draw big conclusions, all we finish this way uh in the locker room and where the guys are mentally and how hard they're playing. Like we're we're battling in all these games. Uh we're not going away in any way. And so I think when you see that, you know it's there and they want to do it, but we got to get out of our own way and we got to execute things at a small level consistently. Uh, we have to get in the gym with the right mindset every single day about what we need to do as an individual. Like it's just individual levels of discipline and performance at times right now uh that are hurting us um and the decisions and those kind of things. And it's a lot of this stuff is on repeat, and um, that comes down to each guy cleaning it up. And I think it's in the area of capability, and that's continuing to help with that, but that's where we are in the process. And sometimes it's ugly and you got to go through it, and it's hard, and people don't like it. And it's but that's what prompts the change and motivates us to where to go. Um and our our whole prep uh priority is how we finish this week and then what we use, how we use the end of this year, whatever it looks like. We come back and win both of these, great. If we struggle, how does that propel us into the offseason to make

Words of Wisdom and What's Next

SPEAKER_01 37:47

another step and develop? Um, and if we make the same improvements we did from last year to this year and continue the progression with the same group of guys, um we're gonna be in a much different position next year.

SPEAKER_05 37:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:58

I see it. I see it loud and clear. I see it. I can't wait.

SPEAKER_04 38:04

Any uh final words of uh Bisdom for us?

SPEAKER_03 38:08

Well, the one thing I will say, I think I used it before, but the bridge between not knowing and knowing is a mistake. Let that sink in a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 38:19

I'm it's still sinking in with me.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

All right.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

I need to close the Can you explain that one to me?

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Can you explain that one to us a little bit?

SPEAKER_03 38:26

Well, I mean, you know, you don't know, you think you know, you make the mistake, and then you learn from the mistake, and then you know. But I ha at that point have I fallen off the bridge? No, that you're not on the bridge between. You're on the one side of the rivertop and don't know.

SPEAKER_04 38:44

Oh, I thought I was in the middle of the of the river on the bridge. And I made a mistake and I'm dead now. So I'm I'm having confusion of how do I come back from death. You're not dead.

SPEAKER_03 38:53

You're not dead. You weren't on a bridge. You needed the bridge, you needed to make the mistake. Is there a boat involved? I mean, there could be, right? Maybe you try to swim, it's like, yeah, this isn't gonna work, and then you take to a cord, or am I free? Okay, okay. Here you go. You're on one side of the river, right? You're like, how the hell am I getting to the other side of the river? So you try to swim. Ah, there's a current. Nah, you turn back to the room. You try to jump? That's not gonna work. No, you're not gonna jump. It's that's a long freaking river. So then you build yourself a raft, and then you make it to the other side because you made the mistake of trying to swim, and now you know how to get to the other side of the river. Thank you. Enough said. Alright, I won't question that. You know what? Just go in, man. You really cleared that out. That was one of our best uh words of wit wisdom we've ever had. I've used it before, man. It went over a lot better than last time, I think, apparently. But look, dig in, fellas. It's now like the coach said, man, it's all in it's internal. What do you have in there? You know, you you know, you've got the game skills, you've got you know what needs to be done, you've seen it work. Dig in, man. Find that next level. There's always a next level. Is that a little bit better? That was better. That was better. I like that one. There's always a next level, you just gotta find it. If you think you're at your max effort, think again, you can get more. You can always get more. Always get more. That's right. Think Michael Jordan was satisfied ever? Never. Never. That dude was a beast, man. He was never satisfied.

SPEAKER_04 40:28

We're gonna be neck back next week to wrap it all up. And we'll take a peek. We'll take a peek at the landmark conference playoffs. We gotta have coaches as a real commentator at that point. Alright. Um, and we'll take a look at it. Now, I I am gonna have to change the the time of our normally recorded thing. I'm I'm gonna go for the first time ever. I'm going up to Penn State and I'm gonna go to um we're gonna we're gonna take a sneak peek into Thon. I've never left it. Ooh, alright. Have you done this before, Bez?

SPEAKER_03 40:54

I mean, I have not danced because I don't have that stamina, but um I have gone into thawn, absolutely. Now, as a as a student, you never once did it? No. It's a lot, a lot of it's for the uh the Greek system.

SPEAKER_05 41:09

Alright. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:12

No. I I applaud those kids, man. Uh you can't have caffeine. It's yeah. There's a lot of rules, man. No caffeine? You're not allowed to have caffeine during this? No.

SPEAKER_05 41:24

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 41:24

It's like well, it brings you up and then it can you gotta like coach said, it's a long term, you gotta sustain yourself over the long term. 24 hours, I could drink c coffee nonstop.

SPEAKER_04 41:35

Dude, it's 48 hours. Oh, is it 48 hours? Okay, I stay corrected. All right. Uh we have that. That'll be fun. That's awesome. That'd be fun.

SPEAKER_03 41:45

Yeah, you know that.

SPEAKER_04 41:45

Uh Friday night. Uh maybe Coach can give a little advice or maybe some words of of wisdom. Uh coach. My girls' team. My girls' team will be playing for the county championship Friday night. We sit at we sit at 20 and 1 this year. Oh. And we're gonna we're we we have we have two games this week. We play the other undefeated team in the county, and then most likely we'll be playing them for the uh county championship on Friday night.

SPEAKER_05 42:12

Ooh.

SPEAKER_04 42:13

That's fun, man.

SPEAKER_03 42:14

Nothing better than that. I've got I've got a little advice for you. Let the head coach do his yeah, you just sit there and I'm not the head coach.

SPEAKER_04 42:23

I don't coach on this team at all.

SPEAKER_03 42:24

I know. That's what yeah. Let the head coach do his team. Oh, that's what you're saying? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 42:29

All right. I do. I'm one of those parents, I don't say a word. I sit back, I enjoy the games.

SPEAKER_03 42:33

Wait, are you you're not even assistant coach on this one, or it's a high school team, man?

SPEAKER_04 42:38

I'm just AAU.

SPEAKER_03 42:39

I just joined as a fan. You're enjoying the fruits of your labor from the AAU season because I know you do all those girls play. Yes. Yeah. All right. Well, hey, go. What's the name? What uh what are they? Seahawks. Oh, okay. Seahawks. Let's go Seahawks. Go Seahawks. Go Seahawks. Hey you know, you've already had a Seahawk team win the uh win a title, so let's follow in their footsteps.

SPEAKER_04 43:02

I'd like to see uh I'd like to see a full sweep of Seahawks. All of our teams will likely play for the county championship Friday and Saturday.

SPEAKER_03 43:09

So well just uh don't don't try to throw the ball in the one yard line when you have the best running back. Yeah, I can do that. Yeah, I can do that.

SPEAKER_04 43:16

All right, people. Send us your thoughts. Follow the show on Instagram at Junietta Basketball Show. Subscribe to the Juniata Manchester Basketball Show on Apple Spotify where they listen to podcasts. And until next time, I'm Tom Crank. I'm Ben. I'm the head coach Drake Current. Ten wins. I want 10 wins.

SPEAKER_03 43:40

10 wins. Tom will save his beard if you get 10 wins.