Part 1 - Live From the Palestra: Guinness, Grit, and a Statement Win in Philly

We went LIVE from Philadelphia—quarter-mile from the Cathedral of College Basketball—and things escalated quickly. From pregame pints and cheesesteaks at the New Deck Tavern to press-row seats at the Palestra, this episode captures an all-time Juniata hoops day.

In Part 1, you’ll hear alumni, parents, former players, first-time guests, and one very official executive producer weigh in as the Eagles chase a momentum-shifting conference win. We talk drums (still no drum), Eagles chants (the Philly kind and the Juniata kind), Landmark rivalries, leadership, belief, and why this game felt different from the jump.

This one’s part road trip, part roundtable, part love letter to Division III hoops—and 100% Juniata energy.

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

From the cathedral of college hoops where legends are made, nets are cut, and echoes of history are louder than the Philly crowd after Maid 3. Welcome to the Juni Adam Men's Basketball Show. This past Sunday, we packed our bags, charged our mics, and took the podcast on the road to the Palestra for Landmark Conference Day in Philadelphia. Landmark Day at the Palestra first tipped off in 2023, and Sunday marked Juni Addam Men's basketball second appearance on one of sports most iconic floors, and we made a full day of it. The day started with a happy hour takeover at the New Deck Tavern, rolled straight into hoops under big time lights, and wrapped with post-game interviews you won't want to miss. Big thanks to New Deck Tavern, Katie Boldwich, the entire landmark conference, and all the parents, alumni, and friends who showed up and showed out to make the day unforgettable. So sit back, relive the moments, and enjoy the ride. From pregame pints to post-game perspective. This is the Junietta Men's Basketball Show. Hello, Juniatta fans. We are live from the new Deck Tavern. This place is awesome. This is awesome. Yes. Like uh we were both giant fans of the Misconduct Tavern. Which we still are. It was good, yeah. They had great wings, but we are now here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We're about a quarter of a mile from the palester where all the action's gonna take place. Uh there's already we see fans from different schools already. Different schools. We've had some Junietta fans already come up. We met randomly, in coincidentally, a Junietta alumni that was here totally not for this. Not for the game. And they could not believe they just saw a sign that said Junietta here in Philadelphia. Junietta's outreaching. It is outreaching. Well, hey, Tom. Cheers. We'll make a clank on the city. There we go. Give it a little cheers here. Biz throwing some facts down here early. Right there on the side. Yeah, right there on the side. Yeah. So Biz observant. We're here. We're live for a big game. Yes. We need this win. You know what? I think, for whatever reason, I just feel like today's the day that propels this team to that next level. They need that one win. We do need that one win. One big win. They're in the highlight, man. They're in the spotlight. I think it's gonna happen. I I kind of tend to agree with you. And you made you said something earlier when we were setting up here that made a lot of sense to me. Ah, yeah, how the sausage is made. All right. Yeah, uh we're in Philadelphia, they have a playoff game. Everybody has their eagles gear off. Right. Like these Philadelphia people are crazy. Yes, and Juliana's mascot, coincidentally, is an eagle. And there's a lot of people walking around yelling, Go birds. Yeah. Which I guess I kind of just take as Junior. Go eagles. Right. Yeah. Let's go. Fly Eagles fly. Oh, Biz. I see somebody with Susquehanna from here. Yeah, I know. There's some Susquehanna, there's a Scranton. There's a Scranton. We're expecting some Drew people. Hopefully they've listened and uh bring me a sweatshirt. And then I did reach out to the uh Moravian band. Oh, did you? I have not heard back from them as uh as of the last time I looked. Damn drum, man. About the drum. So we we don't know if we're gonna have a drum at the game or not. I cannot wait. You know what? When we do the alumni game, I'm gonna just rent a damn drum. Can you rent a giant? No, it's gotta be giant. I can't tell you how giant it's. I thought about you last night because did you watch the Carolina football game? The one I guess that was for the four o'clock game. You know what I did not? Okay. They rolled out a drum. Okay what's the uh oh my god, I'm blanking on his name. The old the the origin the Carolina quarterback. Oh, Carrie Collins. No. No, you're a Penn Stater, that's why you think of that. He was the original quarterback. No, but no, I'm talking the guy who actually did something for them. Jake Delone? Are you kidding me right now? Hold on, Carolina. The last time they were in the playoffs. Andy Dalton. Are you still kidding me right now? No. The big dude. Uh Cam Newton. Cam Newton! Thank you. I couldn't remember his name. Thank you. Cam Newton came out and banged on the drum so hard that I think he broke the drum. Really? So we gotta be extra careful that if we do get the Moravian band, we don't break the drum and our excitement for having a drum. Or if you rent a drum, we can't break it. I believe we'll just charge it to Merrick Studios. We should be fine. What about uh if we put Snap Snapdragon Apples on there? It's not a bad idea. Right? That's actually a fantastic idea. Hey Snapdragon, are you listening? Yeah, Snap the Snapdragon Snapdrum or something. The snap drum. The snap drum. Presented by Snapdragon Apples. I like it. Uh speaking of speaking of Snapdragon Apples, they are the official apple of not only the Juniata Eagles, but also the Buffalo Bills. Did you know that? I did not know that. And the Buffalo Bills are actually playing right now. They're up 3-0 as we're talking here. Not to date what we're doing, but we're gonna date it anyway. Because it is Sunday live from the Palestra. Oh, what do we got today, man? We got a big game. Yes. At the Palestra. Yes. Um what do we think? We're coming off, we're coming off a rather tough loss. Yeah, it was a tough loss on Wednesday. Yeah, first came back, holidays, getting reacclimated. Um I don't know, man. I really do I just have that feeling. You know, there's nothing scientific like there isn't with any of my uh prognostications. However, I got the gut. Sometimes the gut's better than data. Maybe. But we lost the Wilkes 6743. Yeah. It was kind of a tough loss. I felt like that was a game we needed to get to come into the Bolester. It was at Wilkes. It was at Wilkes, it was a weird time. It was probably no students there. Yeah, they had probably like grade school kids come in and throwing crayons on the court. That's probably true. They probably heard that he doesn't like drums. Oh if I were in a tough man. If I was an away team right now and if Junietta was coming in hot and we needed to beat them, yeah, I would roll out a drum. It would drive the coach crazy. Yeah, he'd probably come back at us for that. Yeah, he probably wouldn't. That's okay. I'll tell you. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. He's a professional. He is a professional. But uh we do we know anything about the Junietta's travel schedule? When do they roll in here? Absolutely nothing. Alright, we have no idea. I do believe if they're taking a Foolington bus, which I would assume they would. Yeah. How long is from Clearfield, so that makes sense? How long of a ride is that? You came across the entire business? Without traffic, it was gonna be four and a half hours. So I'm gonna assume for them it's two and a half? Two and a half, yeah. Two and a half hours from Huntington, Pennsylvania. Yeah. Now they have to take a lot of back roads to get to something that probably somewhat resembles a highway. And if you're on a bus, yeah, you're probably going slow. Yeah. Now Curly doesn't drive the bus, right? Let's hope not. Yeah. And more so, I'm glad you don't drive the bus. I'd love to drive the bus. I know you would, and we're never gonna have to be able to get that. That would be phenomenal. I've been in I've been in cars with you. So we're we're expecting some alumni to come rolling in here. We're at the New Deck Tavern. We have uh Joe Bruce's parents, Jason's grandparents. They were the first ones here. Yeah, they were right on time with that alumni. Shout out to Joe Bruce. We're hoping the the Green Eagles game doesn't interfere with the guests for the Blue Eagles game. It might. It might. It might. John Kelly, don't let us down. John Kelly, who said he would be here, but he is he is a giant. I mean, he might be one of the bigger Eagles fans that I've met. He may be down at the game. He might be. He might already be drunk at the tailgate. So we'll see. We'll see if it goes down. Does he go to those games? I have no idea. All right. I have no idea. I mean, I could see that. Totally see that. Yeah. Yeah, we got uh who's who do we have possibly on the slate today? Well, we're looking for some uh alumni. Tyler Laptina, perhaps? Tyler. We've we've heard a rumor about Mason Hardy. Oh, Mason! Mason was our first ever MVP at the Palestra game. Yes, he was. Am I right? Yes, yes. You are correct. He was the first ever player podcast guest. That was three years ago. Correct. Three years ago, we had a big win at the Palestra. Oh yeah. It was a great game. It was fun. We got to go in and uh do the press post-game press conference. Which I'm hoping we'll do again this year. We got to press passes. Ask riveting questions. We got to ask some questions. Yeah. Chase Chase Housted became one of many established, esteemed people to dunk in the Pilester. Yes, that's right. If I do remember that. That is right. That is right. Chase Housted, Kobe Bryant. Shout out to Chase. Same, same level. Yeah in that day. I wonder, you know what? I was gonna look this up, but since I don't really research anything, I didn't. Yes. But I wonder if Curly wins this game, I wonder how many coaches he would join that have two wins at the Palester. That would be a steam company, I would think. What it? You gotta okay, let's break this down for a minute. Axel, then I'll be able to get a little bit more. Who what other coaches have had two wins at the Pilester? Like I was talking to a buddy of mine last night. He came to the Pulester to watch uh North Carolina play. North Carolina ever win here? I would assume they won that game. Because I think they played Little Sal or something. So yeah. Alright. So I mean, Dean Smith, Greg Curley. It'd be interesting to find out. I'll you know what? I will actually look that up. We'll have our statistician get on that. Yeah, we got we got parents that came all the way up from North Carolina. North Carolina. We're gonna get them on the show. We're gonna get uh maybe our maybe our waitress. Yeah, we're gonna get maybe maybe the uh general manager. Some wonderful cheesesteaks. We're gonna get some cheesesteaks. Went in Philly. Went in Philly. So stay with us. Yes. We'll be right back. Cheers. Because we're back. Ah, we're back. Hey now, we have a we have a few new people here. Kutz, who you can't see. I'm gonna call you Kutch because that's what I call you. Yeah, it's cut. He's our new executive producer, Michael Kutch, for all those who have listened. Say hello. Say hello, Michael.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Hey everyone out there.

SPEAKER_06 9:37

Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Michael. We're gonna turn him off for now, but we'll be back too. He's eating his cheesesteak, which is delicious. Alright, so we are live here at the New Deck. New Deck Tavern. Tavern, yeah. We just had cheesesteaks. Fantastic cheesesteaks. And the other guy that you better recognize that's on is our first ever MVP of the Palester Game. Was it two years, three years ago? I believe it. 2023. Yeah. Let me help you guys. Oh, right here. Three years later.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:05

That's kind of crazy that you're on. You've been on the show quite a few times. Yeah. But 2023. What do you remember? You were a sophomore? Yeah, sophomore. Sophomore, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

What do you remember from that experience? From that experience? I remember it was just really fun. I feel like it did feel much different from a normal game. Uh, even though the stands weren't packed, it felt different and uh it was a very fun game, and yeah, we came out on top. There's not a lot of I mean, you got to play at the palestra. Yeah. It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_06 10:36

But did you did you uh have any like knowledge of the pla like being a basketball player like Georgia?

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Yeah, uh I have some some former uh uh history on that. Uh my sister actually got heavily recruited by UPenn, so I went on her official visit here. She did? All right. Did she play here? She played at Columbia. Oh, she went to Columbia, yeah. Um so got a little background during that visit. Um, but yeah, really cool arena, um, much different atmosphere, and yeah, we had a we had a great time. Yeah, I mean you got on the same. I think we won by like 10, 13, something like that. That was a good game. It was a good game.

SPEAKER_06 11:11

Yeah, you played on the same floor as Kobe Bryant when you played, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Yeah, and a lot a lot of others on the same game.

SPEAKER_06 11:16

I mean, yeah, you can start, yeah, go down the list. And we had you on, I think you were, that was I think you were the first player to ever be on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Yeah, I was surprised after the game you guys uh uh pulled me, but I was like, yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_06 11:30

Yeah, I mean you had a great game.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

We did have a great game.

SPEAKER_06 11:33

Yeah, we had to acknowledge that. We see we see it's not always just about scoring.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Yeah, it's about the game.

SPEAKER_06 11:39

Yeah, it's about the guy who gets the ball around, who takes care of the ball, who plays great defense. Yeah, defense. That's what you've been doing.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 11:45

So what's it been like since leaving school? You're out in the real world now.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yeah, out in the real world, uh real world responsibilities, but uh the job's going well. Uh where are you enjoying uh I'm living in Brooklyn, uh working in um midtown Manhattan. Um, but yeah, can't complain. Uh definitely missed the hoops a little bit, but uh I enjoy watching the guys uh when I can.

SPEAKER_06 12:08

Yeah. Now you playing uh any pickup, any leak stuff down here? He's asking because the alumni game is coming up.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Yeah, so yeah. Definitely looking forward to the alumni game.

SPEAKER_06 12:17

So you're gonna be at the alumni game.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

I am gonna be at the game. 100%. 100%.

SPEAKER_06 12:21

Now wait a minute. He's he's you live where'd you say you were living? In the Bronx.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Uh in Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_06 12:25

Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 12:26

So can he's he's on my side. No, no, no. There's a draft. I mean, you can draft in first. Wait a minute. I thought I had all the guys on the east. No, no, no, you had all the guys on the west. No, no, no. We didn't do that. We didn't do that? No, because I have Rigby and he's from here. Well, then Rigby should be on my team. You're wrong. We drafted. You're gonna be very high up in the town. Wait, what's the uh what's the famous part where everybody goes and plays? I get the first pick this year. Because he was well, I don't know. No, well we're keeping this year's different because we're keeping the teams. The Dynasty League. And we're adding to, remember? Hey man, you just keep making up rules. That's what we can do here. Go back to the other podcast that you produced. Executive producer, jump in here. What was the rule that we had placed on a past episode? Were we keeping the same teams? We're gonna keep the same teams and add I think you did say that. Thank you. I think that's what you said. I'm turning his mic off. Oh, that's terrible, man. That is awful. I'll keep the same team. I'm prime of that. And I'm I'm drafting this guy number one, man. All right. And then if Marcus comes back, then I already have Marcus. No, he wasn't on your team last week. No, Marcus won't play this. Stop this. We've got to talk to him. All right. So now what what's the uh famous hoops park in New York that everybody goes and plays at? What is that?

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Is that Rookie? All right, are you balling at Rucker Park? But I've been to a few courts uh in the Brooklyn area and some some pretty good competition.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Have you seen uh any like famous ballers that have come in there? I have not. Alright. I have not. I think they're they're I don't know. I haven't seen them though. I mean that's supposed to be the hoop scene. Yeah, like rock like what Katie goes, like there's a bunch of guys that go play at Rocker Park.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Yeah, it's probably if I had to guess, maybe like 40-minute commute for me. Yeah. Um but yeah, I like uh there's like uh a lot of courts in the Brooklyn Bridge Park and uh a lot of other places in Brooklyn. All right.

SPEAKER_06 14:12

That'd be some good basketball. That would be yeah. So you've been keeping up with the team at all?

SPEAKER_01 14:17

I have. I have what's your thoughts? My thoughts are, I mean, obviously quite similar in nature to how things were going around this time last year. I think it's still just a really young team. Obviously, that's gonna come with its its challenges. I think that the unit is a pretty cohesive unit. Hopefully win the game today and get some momentum going into uh sort of the crux of conference play. Now, do you think this team, to me, this team is a little different than last year.

SPEAKER_06 14:44

I feel like last year we got in trouble there for a little bit, right? This year I feel like the games are close. They're just not consistent enough. Yeah. Like they they had, you know, they last year you had guys like you who were there and had been there, and you kind of, you know, you were kind of bringing them through, but I don't think they've truly believed yet what how to do what they needed to do. This year I feel like they're starting to learn, yeah, they're starting to have some consistency, but they haven't been totally consistent.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 15:11

And you see flashes of what could be.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Yeah, I think uh one of the major things is that I mean, just by the stats, they're they're scoring more than we were. Um so that's putting them in a lot more games, and I think you know, there's a lot of freshmen and obviously returners contributing to that. But all young, yeah, all young at the same time. So like anything, a lot of these things still take time. People are figuring out their leadership roles and not only their leadership roles, but their roles on the court. But I think it's a talented group. Um, so yeah, I I'm I'm looking forward to to the rest of the season.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

Yeah. Now, how long did it take you to get? Because Coach Curly has a different approach than most. I mean, how long did it take you to get not on board but fully acclimated?

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Like, all right, I get my role, I get, you know, I know what he's asking for. I think that took me, I think it was my freshman year, but it probably took me to about probably honestly around this time, January, because you know, early on you come in, you want to contribute.

SPEAKER_06 16:09

You came into a talented team.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Yeah, came into a talented team, understood that, understood that all the guys who basically played last year are still on the team. But yeah, I think obviously with anyone coming in, they want to contribute right away, and you might have a different vision of how that might look for yourself. Curly's programs. I I was very fortunate and enjoyed my time in it, but it takes some time getting used to and figuring out what that means for you. But yeah, I think around January is when I sort of understood, like at that point, there were some games I didn't play in, some games I did play in, and I sort of figured out my role, which for everyone that's not gonna be how you figure out um your place on the team and and things like that. But yeah, it definitely takes time, and I think I did have to sit a little bit to to understand the dynamics of what it takes and um just be prepared as a player. But yeah, definitely um yeah, it takes some time. A lot of things just take time.

SPEAKER_06 17:06

But it seems like I mean his process, his results speak for himself. So once once you know what to do or you feel comfortable, I mean it just takes off on its own.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Yeah, I mean, our best years were yeah, my sophomore, junior year, and that's when the majority of the team was older. Right. Right now, the majority of the team is younger. Um, I think Cole Bernarding on their team, that's how it sort of was early on in in his career, and it was good sitting behind him, him originally because you know I think they only won maybe six games their their freshman or sophomore year, and they were super young, but then his senior year and his junior year all went really well because you know people got older, people figured out their roles. But yeah.

SPEAKER_06 17:45

Yeah, and it's you know, this uh the landmark conference is a good conference. I was gonna say, man, it's loaded. They're loaded with teams right now.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Yeah, I mean, I think the the transfer portal plays a huge part in that, and I mean uh just naturally the landmarks always got good guys, and then it's hard when you know teams like us lose their older their older guys and some teams uh in the conference retain a lot of those guys. But yeah, that's one thing I honestly enjoyed though, is that I knew the landmark was always gonna be good competition, especially at the at the top of the conference.

SPEAKER_06 18:16

Yeah. What do you think about you because you're you're getting out of college right as all these things are changing, right? This whole transfer thing. How do you think how's that gonna affect Division III? Yeah. Because I mean, we've seen it at the D1. A lot of what Curly says, well, this has been going on in D3 for years. Yeah. It's nothing new. But how do you think it's gonna affect like the kids that are coming in right now?

SPEAKER_01 18:37

I think honestly, I hope it doesn't um limit the the level and the competition we're used to at the D3 level, but obviously you're gonna see guys who if they're freshman year, they average 15 points. You think they're gonna jump up? They might try to at least. Um, and I think we're gonna see more of that. I think it's unique that obviously we're the conference that's not getting much to any of those NIL benefits in terms of as players, which is interesting. So I obviously I think a lot of more people are gonna be seeking that out. But I think it's the division three level has a rich culture and you know, tons of great players who some go on to play at the D1 level, some don't. I mean, it's pure interesting.

SPEAKER_06 19:15

It's pure basketball. Yeah. Right? Like you played you played because you love basketball. Exactly. Yeah, I mean you were there for going to school. It's cool to have guys who were there for four years. Yeah. Like we I felt like we got to know you over that course of that time because you didn't jump all over the place. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Yeah, and even those the few guys who did leave our team, they went to the division three level and things like that. Um but yeah, it like I know teams where there's one returner on the entire team, which is like was never the the case, which I think speaks to like the culture and like brotherhood of uh Julietta.

SPEAKER_06 19:49

Yeah, and I think too, I mean, I don't know, personally, like I guess money's money, but you would think you'd want to be somewhere and build a legacy, right? Like you can't build a legacy if you go to three different schools.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Yeah, and I was always someone who um like I didn't get my junior year somewhere of AU because of COVID, but I always knew I wanted to go somewhere where I would have a chance to you know contribute. And you know, for a lot of guys, they love basketball, and that's always gonna be on the back of their mind when they're deciding to choose a school. Awesome. Well, Mason, it's cool to have you back today. Super to see you, man.

SPEAKER_06 20:24

Yeah, give us your prediction for the game today.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Okay, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I've had some discussions on this. I I like the Juniata uh money line today. Ooh, the money line. We're going straight up. I like that. All right. Uh if I were to take a spread, I would take us around I think four and a half Juniata. I like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is gonna be a good one.

SPEAKER_06 20:44

I think I think this is the turning point game. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Like, don't they need that win? Yeah, they do. They need that. This is a great opportunity. Yeah, great opportunity neutral site. Um team that you know we've always had pretty good battles with, and I've been able to edge out wins against in the past. So yeah, this would be the the good time to get going. Yeah. It is a good time to get going.

SPEAKER_06 21:06

All right, before we let you go, now that you brought it up, give us the places that you hated to play, yeah, and the places you loved to play. Who are the guys that you dominated when you went in there? So you can tell all this stuff now. We couldn't get you to tell this before.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

So uh I would say the place the two places that I hated to play were number one would probably be Catholic. Nah. There's a guy that just walked by with a Catholic sweatshirt, which we might have to get him over. Or maybe we might not have to get him over there. Um we always played them at Catholic on a weekday. So you got students obviously f uh coming in, the students uh section and and all the other.

SPEAKER_06 21:54

Yeah, there's people saying things to you gentlemen.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

The hoops are never on it. But outside of that, I would say Um, Drew. I honestly feel like I played pretty well at Drew, but just Drew in general. They're very small, very long trip, always leaving at six in the morning, always on a weekend, and always just in a very small gym, so you gotta get yourself up for the game. The places that I loved, I always loved to play at Susquehanna, just because I just never really liked them. Yes. And uh I don't either. I I feel like we had a lot of good uh road performances against them. Yeah, uh those were those are the three that that stick out the most. I like it. I like it too. I like it, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:33

Alright, well, we'll see you at the game. Yeah, hey, go go drink a couple uh pops and get some. And then we gotta get Tyler over here. Yeah. So you gotta drag him over here too. Yeah, for sure. Well, it's good seeing you guys in your city. It's always a pleasure. Yes. Thank you.

SPEAKER_07 22:46

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_06 22:47

We're back. We got we got a new guest on. You gotta introduce yourself, sir.

SPEAKER_09 22:50

I'm the son of number 34 Malcolm Griffith. You're the son of? Yeah, I'm the son. All right. That makes total sense. You're the son. Originally, I was the father.

SPEAKER_06 23:00

Originally.

SPEAKER_09 23:00

You still am.

SPEAKER_06 23:01

All right, you got you now your son or your father, whatever you want to go with. How did he get to Juniatta? How did you did you even hear? I'm gonna maybe ask you this question. We'll start here. No. Two years ago, you ever heard of the name Juniatta?

SPEAKER_09 23:13

No. No. And I should tell you, this is the first time ever in my life when we're in a Juniata special. I love that.

SPEAKER_06 23:18

I spotted you from a mile away.

SPEAKER_09 23:20

Yeah, it was a Christmas present. I like it. I like it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:23

So tell us about your introduction to Junietta. How this happened?

SPEAKER_09 23:27

Well, it was interesting because he got a uh, I guess an email or from the coach said, Hey, we we're like interested in recruiting you, like you could come up and finish the school. I never heard of the place, so we looked it up. So, where are you guys from? We're from uh the DMV area, so we're right outside of D.C. Okay, that's where I'm in. Okay, is that right?

SPEAKER_06 23:48

Yeah, I'm in an I'm in I I lived in DC for years. I moved out to Annapolis.

SPEAKER_09 23:51

Oh, so we're in between right and Bowie.

SPEAKER_06 23:53

Oh, you're in Bowie? I'm in Bowie all the time. There you go, there you have it. All right, we could we could have drove up together.

SPEAKER_09 23:58

Yeah, maybe. I wouldn't get in the car with him at all. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? But anyway, so we came, we looked it up, we came. I came with him for his visit throughout the school a little bit. I went to a small school as well, so that wasn't too unusual for me. Where'd you go to school? I went to Denison. Oh, yeah, yeah. Which by the way, it's interesting because I was at Denison the same time that the coach was at Denison, was at uh Allegheny.

SPEAKER_06 24:21

Oh, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 24:22

He's a few years younger than me, so you play basketball though? For one year. I tell my son all the time, I'm nowhere as good as he was or is.

SPEAKER_06 24:28

So now you think you might have played against Curly at some point.

SPEAKER_09 24:31

No, I did not. I personally did not play against Curly, but they were in our conference at the time. Oh yeah. NCAC. But uh anyway, so we came up, he visited, he uh he sat down with the coach and the coach's office and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. And I guess he heard what he wanted to hear or something. I probably shouldn't be saying this, but it's like No, you could say anything. You know, it's like, you know, you know, when you know the first girl kisses you or something. Oh yeah. And you and none of your boys can tell you anything about anything about her, you know, you just all the butterfly. I mean, he literally came out the office like the like he just got kissed by the first girl or something. Good lord. And I was like, I know I'm a rational dad, like son. Yeah, that's nice, but should you think you should just wait and consider other schools? No.

SPEAKER_06 25:16

Oh, he was all in. One meeting with Coach Gurley.

SPEAKER_09 25:20

Well, you know, he met with Coach and he met with, you know, he met with the the his future teammates. Yeah, okay. But I think you know, his 17-year-old kid, and the coach says, I see you, I see you here. Oh, yeah. And I have a role for you here. And who's 16, 17 don't want to be wanted?

SPEAKER_07 25:36

Yeah, that's very true.

SPEAKER_09 25:37

You know what I mean? So he wasn't listening to anything. That's yeah, I know he's posting on he's posting on Instagram.

SPEAKER_06 25:43

Committee. All right. So here we are.

SPEAKER_09 25:46

So here we are, you know. So this area, two years later, it's here we are. Yeah, and how's it been going so far? You know, I tell you what, it's been going, you know, it's been going good. Yeah, yeah. You know, he has grown a lot as a person.

SPEAKER_08 26:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 26:03

And a lot of that has to do with basketball, obviously. College as well, could just be in the college period, as we all know. But, you know, the grind, the challenges, the ups and downs, you know, they're having some, you know, last year was a tough year from the win-loss perspective, right? But I think you just had a guess on before before me, Mason. Mason lives in in um Montgomery County, which so they travel a lot together.

SPEAKER_06 26:27

Okay. Oh, okay. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_09 26:28

So that was, you know, the Mason's his boy. Yeah. And that like this is like one of his his dudes, and he really learned a lot from watching what Mason's done on and most importantly off the court. Right. You know, and that now becomes, and that's kind of really what you want for all your kids, right? Absolutely. Sports is part of it, but it's it's just the complete 360, the complete growth. How it shapes you, yep. Absolutely. Right. So I like that. And and in this particular team, you know, he's in a position of impact. And every kid can't really accept that. Right. And it and that in that process is not necessarily a smooth process, as we all know. You have the ups and downs. Oh, yeah. You get really good games, you get games that's not really good, and so forth and so on, but it's a continued learning process. So no no no game is the same. Yeah. Yeah. We, you know, his wife and I, I mean, his wife, my wife and I, we get on that road, man. We make it up to all the Saturday games. That's great. You know, all the Saturday home games, go to some away games.

SPEAKER_06 27:30

It's not necessarily an easy place to get to.

SPEAKER_09 27:32

You know what? It's it's not originally, because I was to tell you the first time. Yeah. I know, I don't know how you get there, but I'm not, you know, I'm not trying to hate on any particular uh app. Yeah. But I'm not following the app, bro. Because the app takes us through the mountains and by the lake, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 27:47

Yeah, all different ways, and you're right. I know exactly the way you're talking about.

SPEAKER_09 27:50

Yeah, I'm like, why are we doing this? And I'm like, this is a little bit, you know, this is a little bit this and this little bit that. I'm like, no, no, no, no. Now we got an easy way that we go.

SPEAKER_06 27:58

I'll tell you a quick little story. You might remember this. We were there for a game, I don't remember what year it was, but we went to the game, it was a big game, and after the game, it was snowing like crazy. Oh, I remember that. And I decided to drive home and I came that way. Up the mountains. Oh my god. I was so nervous driving.

SPEAKER_08 28:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 28:17

I went that way by accident. You're like, you're up, you're all turned. You're entertaining. There's nobody else on the road, and I'm like, I'm gonna die, and no one's ever gonna find that because I'm in, I don't know which way I went. Yeah, and that was the last time I ever followed a lot of the city. You like drive through the clouds, man. Yeah, so it was terrible.

SPEAKER_09 28:32

Yeah, no way. We feel we're back into real life into real life.

SPEAKER_08 28:36

Okay, sweet. You know, we just gotta get a seven, right? Just amazing.

SPEAKER_09 28:40

No, but it's cool. We actually kind of look forward to it as a family. Good, yeah. To know go to the games and get to see him and stuff. And then quite frankly, the streaming really helps too.

SPEAKER_06 28:49

Yeah, uh, flow sports.

SPEAKER_09 28:51

Man, so we you know, we we watching, you know, that's appointment television in our house.

SPEAKER_06 28:55

The same, same here.

SPEAKER_09 28:56

You know, we gotta get uh I have to get a mobile set. I've always in the clock by 6.15, 659. I walk in the door.

SPEAKER_06 29:03

Do you watch it on the computer or do you uh put it on the bigger?

SPEAKER_09 29:06

Airplay, baby. We put it on a big screen.

SPEAKER_06 29:08

Because I was gonna say, smart TV is in my basement. I found the Flow Sports app on the Smart TV.

SPEAKER_09 29:14

So no no no, we gotta see it. We gotta see it like live, like a bunch of ESPN, man. I love it. You know, that's a big boy. We're not trying to reduce it and size in any way.

SPEAKER_06 29:22

So, what do you think of the team so far? And they they had a tough year last year. I do you you agree with this statement? I thought last year was a rough year. I saw a team that just struggled. This year, I see a very different team. I see a team that every time that they go out, they got a chance to win. And every single time they play, they've been in every game. There hasn't been many games that they have not been in. I think we're one big game away from maybe turning this thing around. Today. What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_09 29:51

Okay, I'm a parent. Yes. Right? But I'm a professional first. Yes. Right. And what I see in sports with these young men from eight that's 18 to 22 years old, what I see in grown-ups. It's all about the mindset. I agree. So, you know, I don't know if this is on video, but we look at my this is iced tea, by the way, folks. And people can look at this iced tea, and you can it's you can say two statements about this iced tea, and both statements will be accurate. Right? It's half full or it's half empty. Right? Both statements are right. Okay at the same level. So last year felt like a half-empty year.

SPEAKER_08 30:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_09 30:33

Yes. Right? For these kids. Most of these, at least from the freshman. I don't know anything about before we got there, you know. I it's kind of reminded me of my first year of law school, actually, but it's like you never worked that hard. And I saw these kids, I saw my son working that hard.

SPEAKER_06 30:47

Harder than he'd ever worked before.

SPEAKER_09 30:49

And the results, the at least the immediate results were not coming. Right. It takes a lot to keep going, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:56

That can be a tough pill to switch off.

SPEAKER_09 30:58

You know, so I look at this year, still working hard, right? But I feel in my conversations, and I talk to some of the other young men on the team too, because of some of his friends. Yeah. I I see it as they look at this glass, same level. Yeah, we got a few more wins by this point. So from my particular.

SPEAKER_06 31:12

But not many more, but yeah.

SPEAKER_09 31:14

It's a different attitude. I think they look at this glass as half full.

SPEAKER_06 31:17

I agree with you.

SPEAKER_09 31:18

So you just gotta keep plugging the ways. You get that mindset right, these kids get that mindset right, the wins will come. Because the talent is there. Some of the games already early this year, right? Where, you know, you know, was it was it? Sus Susan, we lost by two points. Yeah. I can't ever tell you.

SPEAKER_06 31:34

Yeah, Susquehanna and we don't like Susquehanna.

SPEAKER_09 31:37

That's the one thing about this league, by the way. Some of these teams, I gotta learn how to pronounce the damn names, bro. Catholic, I know. That's in my that's in our team, right? Yeah. Some of these other names, is it Moravian, Moravia? Moravian, Moravian. You got to know all of this stuff. It took us a while, but we got it. Is it Elizabeth Town? Elizabeth's town. Elizabeth Town. See, I work with it. But anyway, that was a tough game, right? Yeah. And they came back, they fought back. Yeah. You know, even when they played Catholic and Drew, they were very competitive in the first half. Yeah. Very competitive. But the thing is, you have to believe before you can achieve. Yep. You have to believe before you can achieve. So I think that's kind of what this is about. And I don't know, the conference did them no favor this year by scheduling those teams. Like the top half of the schedule of the conference, they hit the front early.

SPEAKER_06 32:20

You know, you're hitting them early. And that's another thing. The conference is top-loaded. Like, there's a lot, like next year, it's gonna flip. It's gonna flip because all these top teams have a lot of seniors.

SPEAKER_09 32:30

Is that right? Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_06 32:31

And we're a young team. Yeah, very young team. Super young team.

SPEAKER_09 32:34

Yeah, yeah. So I look at it objectively, you know, last year we had no shooting, or we lacked consistent shooting. This year we started out very strong with the freshman we brought in with the shooting, and then we have a couple of the sucking years who starting to make some shots.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 32:49

Yep. But the thing about it is you, as you all know, shooting comes and goes.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Yes. Oh, yes, it does.

SPEAKER_09 32:54

Right? Shooting comes and goes. It's all the other stuff that you gotta do to keep you in game. So one thing that's consistent, even when I saw them play Catholic, even when I saw it was the defense. The last game they just played, which was I watched stream and the wilts. It was they can hit the side of a backboard. Yeah, that was a rough one. Yeah, it was rough. But the way I look at it, it was rough, but they were still in the game. Right. Because they were playing defense. That's uh the hallmark of a Cook's play. So I look at so I look at this season, I look at this season so far as a glass half full season. And I'm hoping that the young men take that, continue to take that mentality. Wednes will come. I agree. Hopefully it starts today, but wins will come. But you hey, this is life, man. You got to grind. Yes, you do. And the ones of us, those of us who are successful are the ones we don't see failure. We just see opportunity. Right. Yep. Right? We look at we don't see the word, we don't failure's not in our vocabulary. It was just opportunity to learn something else.

SPEAKER_06 33:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 33:49

Right? And this, you know, that's what I love about sports, is that it's the best way to teach young people about life. Yes. And prepare them for life. Right? Correct. The coaches are so important, everybody else in that in that ecosystem is so important to their success.

SPEAKER_07 34:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 34:05

You know? Uh, I mean, I just did my, I do have a podcast.

SPEAKER_06 34:09

Well, I was gonna ask you that. Let's dive in. I want to know what your podcast is.

SPEAKER_09 34:13

Well, it's it's it's actually a business owner empowerment podcast. It's called Kick It Ass and Take It's Age. You're probably not surprised by that title at this point. So, you know, and it's like your it's similar to yours, it's an interview. I do more interviews. Uh and actually, my latest episode that just came out in January was I interviewed the head basketball coach for American University. Okay. Dwayne Sipki. So we kind of talk about this stuff and about his principles and about how you build a championship culture. Because, you know, they won, you know, the Patriot League last year. Right? So building that championship culture, that fabric. And one of the things that's very important about doing that is what you say in the business school principle as well, is putting the right the right people on the bus and they're putting them in the right seat. So I look at this team, I look at Juniata, right? By the way, is it Juniata? Juniata, Juniata, Juniata.

SPEAKER_06 35:02

We're working, I'm gonna get you there. I think it can go either way, right? Hey, but you know what the best thing about this right now is? Yes. Him asking me how to pronounce this. Because we know the history of me on this show is I could never pronounce anybody's name. But I know the colleges.

SPEAKER_09 35:16

You know, but so that's how I kind of look at what's going on here is is objectively, because I don't have any insight, is putting the right, the right, the players in the right position. Yeah. Understanding what their role is. And this is and then they gotta, and then to become a superstar in their role. Yeah. That's just key. Become a superstar in your role, you build championships.

SPEAKER_06 35:34

And that's that's what we talked to Curly about each and every week. Because that is what he every year he starts out with a group of guys that he's got to figure out which seat to put them in to have the most success. Because all these guys come in as good players. Right. Every one of these guys came in and was a star on their high school team. But now they got to figure out how to work together and how to make this work and how to do it.

SPEAKER_09 35:52

He has to figure out what seat to put up put him in, and then they have to be able to accept that seat and become a superstar. And that's a great point. Yes.

SPEAKER_08 36:00

Right?

SPEAKER_09 36:01

So it's two folk. Yeah. So that's that's the that's the buy-in part. That's the challenge of businesses, the challenge of coaching. Oh, yeah. That's the challenge.

SPEAKER_06 36:07

So we got a lot of Catholic people coming in behind you. They must have just finished their game. They won. They did win.

SPEAKER_09 36:14

Yeah. All right. It was it was uh it was competitive. Yeah. That team is different this year, by the way. Catholic. Catholic from at least, yeah, they don't shoot the three like they did last year.

SPEAKER_06 36:23

Yeah, they lost a couple guys last year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they replaced the.

SPEAKER_09 36:26

Yeah, they lost the real stud last year. I thought he was gonna go and maybe play a fifth year somewhere else. Yeah. But appear when he did. No, he didn't. But you know, there were a three-point, a lot of this. I watched this game today. I don't think they scored, at least when we got there, I only saw the the all of the second half and a little bit of the first half. I don't think they made more than three, three, two or three threes of that. Oh, wow. That is different then. They were driving to the basket. That's what they're doing this year. They're driving to the basket. Hey, play to your strengths. And they got at that.

SPEAKER_06 36:53

And they played Drew. Who they play? Drew, yeah. Yeah, they played Drew. That's a good game.

SPEAKER_09 36:56

Drew had missed some made some free throws. Does that sound familiar, by the way? If Drew had made some free throws, we need to get us free throws.

SPEAKER_06 37:02

Drew, Drew would have probably won this game today. What's going on with our free throw shooter? Because that bothers me every every get every game. What are we doing? Missing. We're missing. We're missing too bad. Look, man, you can't harp on it too much.

SPEAKER_09 37:15

I harp on it all the time. But this is how I look at it, though, right? You know, it's like the Shaquille O'Neal type of thing. It needs to be a stream, right? It's okay if it's not okay. But if you can miss 50% of your free throws if you get 30 of them. Yeah. So let's just be aggressive.

SPEAKER_08 37:31

Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_09 37:31

Right? Let's just be aggressive. It's the percentage. I don't, you know, it's three for four is not impressive. 75% three for four. That's not impressive. I'd rather be 50% because I got 15 for 30.

SPEAKER_06 37:42

Yeah, correct.

SPEAKER_09 37:43

You feel me? So the team just has to be more, he hit me in my basketball, more aggressive. Is it Ty? Was he 15? Yeah, Ty. Right? That young man goes to the basketball. He does. Now everybody knows he can't go right, but he never stopped him from going left. You know what I mean? That's like the guy J uh Jalen Brown, right? Yes. You know that same thing with the same, you know, I think it's right. For today, he can never go left. He's always gonna go right. They said it. They said, Well, stop me. Yeah, yeah. Right? So that's you know, a lot of the guys on the team could be a little bit more aggressive going to that basket. Because when you're not making the shot, then you get a chance of freedom. Yes. Right? Get to the line. You don't make it, get to the line. I like it. I mean, you know, we all, you know, I'm bald like you, gray. Can't see your hair. I got a little bit. You know, things ain't changed. The ball's still round, the rim is the same size, circumference. It's alright. Not much has changed in the city.

SPEAKER_06 38:36

It's like in uh the last scene of Newsers when they walk into the state championship.

SPEAKER_09 38:41

Ten feet high. Yeah. So anyway, you give me here one in my mouth.

SPEAKER_06 38:45

So you're good. You gotta give us a prediction for today.

SPEAKER_09 38:48

What are you thinking? No, I don't do that anymore. No prediction. I can even predict when I don't know what the other team looks like.

SPEAKER_06 38:53

That's okay. I do it all the time.

SPEAKER_09 38:55

I mean, it's pretty awful. This is what I predict, though. I predict that in the initial part of this game, we're gonna with everybody, both teams are gonna be like, wow, we're playing in the palestra. Yes. Yeah. So the the team that's that the quickest team to get back to normal normality, yeah, right?

SPEAKER_08 39:10

That's gonna be the team.

SPEAKER_09 39:11

It's gonna be the team. Yeah. Don't get caught up in, oh, look at all of these banders. Oh, we're looking, ooh, this is so so-and-so played here, da da da da. Look at all these people.

SPEAKER_06 39:19

That's a good point. Right?

SPEAKER_09 39:20

So the first team that can get back to that is the team that's gonna win this game.

SPEAKER_06 39:25

It's gonna be us. I think it's gonna be us. This is the game.

SPEAKER_09 39:28

This shit is our home game.

SPEAKER_06 39:29

This is this this is the game we gotta turn things around. Yeah. We gotta get that crowd, too. We got a great crowd here.

SPEAKER_09 39:35

And then you, of course, you know the Philly game's about to start. The Eagles game is coming, so people are walking up in there. I'm a Giants fan, don't get me started.

SPEAKER_06 39:42

I'm a Kingdom.

SPEAKER_09 39:44

It's a Quarm. I'm from Brooklyn, good brother.

SPEAKER_06 39:46

Come on, man. All right. I thought maybe you'd change over now that you're down in DC. Never. Never?

SPEAKER_09 39:51

Never.

SPEAKER_06 39:52

Come on, kid. That'd be like rooting for Cleveland after moving out of Pittsburgh. All right.

SPEAKER_09 39:56

So I'll tell you a funny story. It's ambulated but related. I always come to, a lot of times I come to Juniata games with my Denison sweatshirt. Alright. And last year my son didn't say a word. Cool, cool, cool. First game of the year, I come with my Denison sweatshirt. Why are you wearing your Denison sweatshirt? I represent, man.

SPEAKER_06 40:14

Hey, but your son's a Juniata now.

SPEAKER_09 40:16

Yeah, but I'm a big red all day. I'm not. You know what I'm saying? So so he comes up to me after the game. He says, Dad, you can't wear that anymore. He said, That's not Juniata's Denison. I said, if you're not the same conference. Doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_06 40:30

Doesn't matter, Division III. I'm with him.

SPEAKER_09 40:32

Yeah, clearly. Yeah, yeah, he listened to y'all. So I don't wear that anymore. So I guess my wife is decided. And it's a beautiful sweatshirt. So I told her, I'm only wearing, I'm sorry, I told her, I'm only gonna wear this twice. Twice? Yeah. Because I would wear a Juniata basketball sweatshirt more often, but I said I'm only gonna wear this twice. I said, I'm gonna wear that the game at Palestra. Yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 40:55

I'll see you at the Catholic game. I go to the Catholic game every year. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_09 40:58

Oh yeah, we got a few people coming.

SPEAKER_06 40:59

Hope you don't hear that. We got a few people coming. We'll we'll be there. And you know what I like to do? Is Catholic University, they have those seats behind the uh mask. You know what I'm talking about? I like to sit right there because it drives me crazy. All those play, all those students yelling at our team. Yeah. Yeah. They invited me in the last game to come sit there with them. Did they? So I'm gonna do it again. Do it. Yes.

SPEAKER_08 41:20

With your Judy Allen's Judy's message. Right here. Okay. That's right.

SPEAKER_06 41:24

I'll see you at that game.

SPEAKER_08 41:26

You can't miss the yeah. You're not gonna miss you.

SPEAKER_06 41:28

You should go sit next to Tom. Yeah, maybe you sit with me down there.

SPEAKER_09 41:30

No.

SPEAKER_06 41:32

That's also a very smart move. I tend to stay.

SPEAKER_09 41:35

Listen, I I kind of know my personality, and they tell you, I don't even sit, I don't sit with the parents. Yeah. I don't even sit with any, I don't sit at all. I kind of stay away from people. I just kind of watch.

SPEAKER_07 41:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 41:45

You know, I just try to. It's funny. I mean, I'm into one of his games, I think it was the Wilkes game last year. Yeah. And I had a I'm I'm retracted. I had a flashback like I was in AAU again.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 41:57

Because I started yelling. And I'm like, to go AAU parent.

SPEAKER_08 42:01

I'm like, what are you doing? Shoot the ball.

SPEAKER_09 42:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 42:04

And you can hear it in that gym. Hell yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 42:06

And I love my son after the game, he's like, Dad, don't do that. He said, the coach don't like that. I said, no, yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right, you're right, you're right. This is college now. I can't be that kid. I got into. So I kind of stay away. I kind of just sit and I watch and don't say much. Now I can't speak for my wife one more. She's a little bit. If you hear rebound, that's right. That's her?

SPEAKER_06 42:26

Yeah. I mean, Coach, we need rebounds. Coach would be alright with rebounds. He gets his rebounds. He does his rebounds. He's got the player of the game a few times.

SPEAKER_08 42:33

This guy gets him the player of the game every other game. He fills up the stat sheet.

SPEAKER_09 42:37

Yeah, well, you know, he does. He's a you know, you know, it's funny because he he did a camp when he was still in high school. Um, I think it was Crispin Newport camp, actually. And what the guy said to him, he said, You are a Swiss Army knife. Yeah. And what he said at that age, he was a Swiss Army knife. And I guess he's taking that to heart. And that's exactly what he is. And that's what he needs to be for this thing. He needs to cut a little bit more, my brother. You think? Yeah, he needs to cut a little bit more. All right. All right. All right. You know, I understand opening up the screw and all of that, and opening up the jar. Just need to cut some blood. All right. Need to get that gladiator.

SPEAKER_06 43:11

Yeah. Let's go. We need it. They need a guy who has that in them.

SPEAKER_09 43:15

That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_06 43:16

Are you entertained?

SPEAKER_09 43:18

You gotta have that attitude. Are you entertained?

SPEAKER_06 43:21

That's right. I think we should have this guy as our co-host.

SPEAKER_09 43:24

One podcast is enough for you. One podcast is enough.

SPEAKER_06 43:27

Well, hey, we appreciate you. Thank you so much for jumping in there.

SPEAKER_08 43:30

See you at the meeting. Let's see you at Cat. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 43:33

We'll see you at the alumni game on February 7th as well. Yeah, we'll be up for the alumni game. Yeah. Now he coaches the gold team. I coach the blue team. Yeah. We're each one and one. We're each one and one. The first year, I ran it up on him. I'm defending champ. I ran it up pretty bad. And he got it back. And then the second year he tried to cheat with like a phantom timeout. Well, you know, you do what you can do, right?

SPEAKER_08 43:56

Hey, hey, you do what you gotta do.

SPEAKER_06 43:57

I'm the killer and I want to win.

SPEAKER_08 43:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 43:59

All right, man. My cheesesteak. Thank you. That was fun, boys. Oh, yeah, that was awesome. Yes, sir. Great.

SPEAKER_06 44:07

And we'll be right back.

SPEAKER_09 44:09

Welcome to Americ Studios, where stories take the mic and culture comes alive.

SPEAKER_06 44:13

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SPEAKER_09 44:18

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SPEAKER_06 44:30

Check out our full lineup, including Unglossy with Bunby, Jeffrey Sledge, and myself at Frank. Now streaming at we are at AmericStudios.com.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

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SPEAKER_06 44:58

And now back to the show. Alright, here we are. We're back. Wow, man. This is uh this is unbelievable. It's getting uh it's getting quite packed in here. Yeah, we got people from all over the landmark conference in here now. We got a lot of catheter. I don't I don't like all these catheters. Drew people came in. I don't I still don't see a sweatshirt. I haven't seen a Drew person in anyone from Drew yet yet. It's a Drew sweatshirt. Yeah, you got a little sweatshirt. But we got another very special guest on here. Yes. The son of uh the first parent guest ever in a grace for podcast. That's how you're known as she first. Sorry, you're she was the first parent guest. Your mother, yeah. This time three years ago. Three years ago. At the Misconduct tab? At the Misconduct tab. So, Tyler, welcome. Welcome on, Tyler.

SPEAKER_04 45:42

Thank you guys, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_06 45:44

How are you doing? Good. Yeah, not too bad. How does it feel to be a real life person now? Where you gotta like work and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 45:51

Yeah, so I'm in grad school right now. Okay, so you're still not staying for real life yet. Yeah, so I just had an internship with Ernst Young this summer, so I got the full-time offer to come back. So right now I'm in grad school doing my master's. Where are you at grad school? Westchester University. It's all online, so I don't gotta go in person at all. But once I finish that degree, I'll be back to Ernst Young in probably either September or August.

SPEAKER_06 46:14

And where at that?

SPEAKER_04 46:15

Right literally on 21st of Market. So yeah, right here, Center South. So you are Philippi. Yep. You got your Eagles shirt on. Of course. Junior. So what do you what are you gonna do here?

SPEAKER_06 46:24

The game's at the same we're at we're at the same time.

SPEAKER_04 46:27

So no, I'll be over at the Plushro watching the game, but I'll have the SPN up on my phone watching the play by.

SPEAKER_06 46:32

Well, that's fair. Biz and I might actually have the game on the computer in front of us.

SPEAKER_04 46:37

There we go.

SPEAKER_06 46:37

So don't sit somewhere close. Yeah, you can sit behind us.

SPEAKER_04 46:40

Me and Rugby will get a couple rows behind you.

SPEAKER_06 46:42

Yeah, just look for uh press roll. That's where you're gonna find. That's where we'll be doing. Yeah. Okay. So give us the lowdown. You played at the Palestra. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 46:50

What was that experience like? Oh, it was awesome. I mean, just growing up here as a Philly kid, I've always came here for the Philadelphia Catholic League games or playoffs in the championship. So those must have been some gives. Yeah. Insane environments.

SPEAKER_06 47:02

Have you ever played here before?

SPEAKER_04 47:04

No. That was the first time that I came. I've been here a couple times, uh just been around the city by the Palestra, been outside a bit a couple times. So it was really cool being there for the first time and you know, playing with the bright lights and everything.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

So that was extra special for you. Yeah, it was cool. Oh, it's nice.

SPEAKER_04 47:18

Obviously, with like a bunch of family being hurt here and around the city. So it was cool. We did we did a good turnout and a good crowd.

SPEAKER_06 47:24

All right. And you guys won. Yes, you did.

SPEAKER_04 47:26

It was a great game. Yes, it was a really good game.

SPEAKER_06 47:28

I can't believe it was three years ago already. I know, right? I know. It's insane. And a round closed win.

SPEAKER_07 47:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:34

A couple more gray hairs we got there, Thomas. Yeah. So what do you think about this year's team? I mean, you know a lot of these guys. Well, though there's a lot of new guys, too, that you you might not know. So, what's your take on it?

SPEAKER_04 47:46

So, yeah, no, there's definitely a lot of guys from last year and two or three years ago, just still on the roster, and then a bunch of new guys. Um, but yeah, just a lot of youth, like young guys, just I just feel like being able to just keep buying into what everything the coaches are saying and sticking with this pack and this group that they have, I can see a lot of success in the future, and just being able to stick together and you know form like unity and buying into whatever is going on at that moment.

SPEAKER_06 48:12

Yeah. Now, when you came in, your fresh it was your it would have been your sophomore year that played it to plus, you're right. Correct. So your freshman year, how did what was that like? Were you guys on the cusp, or were you still trying to figure it out? Yeah. Because the guys ahead of you would have been sophomores freshmen, so almost like it is now. It's very similar, probably. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:30

So it is kind of yeah, the same group. We were younger at the time too when we came here, but yeah, just great leadership that was always in front of us, just following this. Well, you had Rigby and Yeah, Rigby and Cole. Yeah. And then before that, we had John and then um Griff.

SPEAKER_06 48:45

So who, by the way, there's no way John's showing up to this. We were hoping John Kelly was gonna roll in, but my prediction is John Kelly might be at the stadium. Yeah. If he's not at the stadium, he's at home. Probably some. Hell he could be. We don't know.

SPEAKER_04 48:58

I was talking to him earlier this week, seeing if he was coming. He was still up in the air. So hopefully he's over there, but we'll see when we walk over. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 49:04

So you guys, so then you had that, you had senior leadership, and you know, that's kind of what you guys tried to provide last year and did provide, and uh, you know, it seems like that's the pattern. Like, but this year's a lot of people. They build and they build and then boom. Yeah. Right? Like, but I feel like this year's weird because they're really there is no seniors. This is the odd kind of year that these guys got to figure it out on their own, a lot of ways.

SPEAKER_04 49:28

Yeah. Yeah, so like without any seniors, I mean you still have guys like Ty and Dylan who are great leaders on and off the court, just setting example and just making sure that everything is still following in line, even though I mean, you would love to have like some senior leaders, but right it's just there's a certain case where there isn't any. So you just have those next guys up, like Ty and Dylan, who does. I know they do a great job. I've been with them for three years, so I don't have any worries that they're not doing. I feel like they're doing a great job with the situation that they're in.

SPEAKER_06 49:55

Oh, it does, like you said, it seems like every time we go out, there's always a sense like, hey, we can get this. I mean, last year you like there was a time where it's like, oh man, you know, like me, you feel it, it's human nature, right? But now it's like you go out, it's like, all right, these guys can get this game. I feel like they can win every game. Yeah. If they that but they need to have a little bit more consistency, just a little bit more. And they're young. They you know, they gotta they gotta learn how to play defense every single play. Yes. They gotta learn to look for that extra pass every single play. The curly way. Yeah, the curly way, I guess. He knows the curly way. So now you got your internship, you did that.

SPEAKER_04 50:29

How's uh you still playing hoops? Of course, yeah. So funny you say that on Tuesday night, one of our men's leagues just wrapped up. So I'm in two of them right now. One's in Manyong, not too far from here, and one's from Conchahawk. And uh we finished with a undefeated season, went nine and no, and won the championship.

SPEAKER_06 50:46

Will you be uh coming to the alumni game this year?

SPEAKER_04 50:48

Of course. I'll be there.

SPEAKER_06 50:50

Run down through your health and how we're feeling. Yeah, no, you last year was a rough year for you, health-wise, man. You gutted it out. Yeah, I might have to I might have to you know check them out before the draft. Yeah, no, you're gonna. I'll come in and do a little bit of a game. You got the first pick, so I know I have the I have the number one pick. I gotta think about this. You made a very very difficult decision.

SPEAKER_04 51:08

But I would take Mason before you take me, what you're saying. But I'm he's just saying that.

SPEAKER_06 51:13

He wants to play for Coach Bates. Yeah, but if I go if I were to go Mason, you might you might try to go older and then I might get the two young. No? No.

SPEAKER_04 51:20

Is it a snake? So will he get two in a row? Yeah, I mean, theoretically, yes. It is, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 51:25

Don't worry, I'll get you the first round so you get that fifth year of contract. Maybe we'll see. We'll see. All right, well, you gotta give us a prediction for two two games today. Okay. I want the Junietta game, and then I want the Eagles game. On the record.

SPEAKER_04 51:40

Okay. So for the Junietta game, clear, clear pick. We're gonna go Junietta. So I think we'll go two to sixteen. Oh, I like that.

SPEAKER_07 51:52

I think there's some scoring today.

SPEAKER_04 51:54

I like that. Then we're gonna hold them to 60. And then for the Eagles game, we'll go offense has been inconsistent, so let's go 24-17 Eagles.

SPEAKER_06 52:06

Alright, that covers the under and it covers the sprobe. So uh here's my thoughts on that. I think if somebody's gonna score 24 points, it's not gonna be the Eagles. And if there's 24 points scored, it might be going the other way. And then I might as well stay up here for the night because if I go home, my wife's gonna be so mad. She's the biggest Eagles fan. Listen, if they're the weapons, we'll just get a hotel room and we'll just go get hammered. I'm I'm worried though that all of Philly might burn down. Oh, yeah if they lose that out there. I don't know about that. I don't know about I mean look around us. We're starting to see a lot of Eagles people coming in here. Well, I mean, there's plenty of Eagles people here, alright? That's true. Yeah. They're they're all crazy. Just depends on their health. They're running for Junietta. And they're all crazy. Everybody here. That's why we think it's gonna win today because it's an Eagle parallel. It's just an Eagles day. It sets up. It was meant to be the whole time. It was meant to be. It was awesome. We're gonna see you in a couple weeks. Correct. Yes. That's gonna be fun. Always get loose. You're gonna be on the other side of it. This is your first, it's gonna be weird.

SPEAKER_04 53:03

I know I'm so used to you know waking up and doing like the shoot around in the walkthrough and going out and watching the game, but if you play for history, we will have fun.

SPEAKER_06 53:11

But if you play for my team, we do get up early, do a it'll be a little bit of a different experience last year's. We just go in and win. Yeah, we'll see about that. With his mindset. Yeah, true. Yes, yes. Thank you. Yeah, of course. Good to see you guys. Pleasure to have it. Very good to see you, brother. Well done. Yeah. Got ourselves some go eat and go drinks hell. Hey, you bet, man. It's good to see you. You're gonna get good. It's a Catholic trying to egg some Catholic people in because you know I'll go after Capper. I don't feel bad about going after the Catholics at all. I'm sure our next guest doesn't care either. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 53:43

No. Least favorite school in the landmark.

SPEAKER_06 53:47

Team Gold Church. I'm with you though. What who's number two? Scratching. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's a top two for sure. That's a top two.

SPEAKER_03 53:55

I gotta be careful. My uh director at work now, one of them's from Catholics, so I gotta be I gotta be careful what I say with that.

SPEAKER_06 54:02

Alright, first of all, you gotta introduce yourself fully.

SPEAKER_03 54:04

Yep. Nick Rigby, uh class of 2023 graduate. Uh played all four years for 2023. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 54:12

Why was I thinking 2024?

SPEAKER_03 54:15

You're getting old. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 54:16

So you played your senior year was the game they played in.

SPEAKER_03 54:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 54:20

Yeah. And that was that was that the first time you ever played in the cluster?

SPEAKER_03 54:23

Not quite, but it's pretty cool. I played there for basketball camps before. Oh, did you? Alright.

SPEAKER_06 54:29

Alright. But their first official college game type of thing. And what was that experience like?

SPEAKER_03 54:35

It was pretty cool. I mean, it's such a historic venue. You know what I mean? So much history. You go in the locker room, everything, just see history on the walls everywhere. And it's crazy.

SPEAKER_06 54:44

Like those locker rooms are like, which is cool, but they're not updated. Oh, they're terrible. But we came into your locker room at the end of that game. I could not believe how ridiculously small that thing was. I think that's awesome. It's awesome, but it's really weird.

SPEAKER_03 54:57

It's like uh yeah, middle school, like worse than middle locker room. But uh it's definitely is you know what I mean, so much history, and like in the in the city of Brotherly Love, such a historic city, too. I feel like it just it kind of fits fits the city and the kind of history of basketball here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 55:13

So what are you up to right now?

SPEAKER_03 55:14

Yeah, so I'm an investment banker uh out in the Philly suburbs at a place called uh Fairmount Partners. So loving life in the Philly suburbs with my girlfriend who's also uh Junietta grad as well. Oh juniata, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 55:29

Now is she from here? Is that why you're down here?

SPEAKER_03 55:31

So she's from like Reading area originally, so closer, but for me, I kind of just knew I wanted to be in a bigger city and kind of needed to be for what I do for work. Yeah. So it was either here or like New York, and much rather be in uh Philly than New York.

SPEAKER_06 55:48

I I would agree with that. I'm down with that. So wait, you don't think you could be a high-level investment banker in Huntington PM?

SPEAKER_03 55:54

Yeah, there's not too many uh respected investment banks to get a few years. You have the coach there. Hey coach, and who else? Maybe if we get Curly to start up an investment banking firm in Huntington.

SPEAKER_06 56:05

Uh hold your breath on that. Yeah. All right, so what give us your thoughts? What's your thoughts on the team? You've been you've had you been following throughout?

SPEAKER_03 56:12

So I I've been following some, wish I was following a little bit more closely. I've got busy the last few weeks.

SPEAKER_06 56:18

Do you subscribe to Flow Sports?

SPEAKER_03 56:20

Um, I do I do actually still have a subscription. Yeah, I mean, again, super young. Definitely have have some good pieces uh that they can build on. I think it's still just this team sometimes struggles with maybe guys who can go, you know what I mean, create something when we need to go get a shot. But like I I feel like they're they're getting better. They've had some tough losses too, like the Susquehanna game.

SPEAKER_06 56:45

Like I was wrong. See, I think if they would have won that game, I think we'd be having a completely different decision. It was like they're one game away.

SPEAKER_03 56:54

Well, and that's I think that's something too that people who have never been through it maybe don't understand. That like using another example, like Penn State this year. Like, if they win, say, like the Oregon game or the UCLA game, it could be a completely different year. Like each week builds off the next. Yes, it does. So like you never know how things could have been if one game. You know what?

SPEAKER_06 57:15

I think the end result of the season worked out. So I do too. I'll take Franklin all day. You have him, he's yours. I will take Franklin.

SPEAKER_03 57:23

You're a VT guy, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 57:26

Nah, we'll be fine. We'll be fine. Yeah. Let's get back to Junior Adams. Hey, he brought it up. How do you think they take the next step?

SPEAKER_03 57:34

Yeah. Um it's all it's always hard. It's just I think you win a few close games, too, is really kind of how you once you're you're able to figure out how you win and pull those out, it just helps, especially with confidence. Like, say you're down six with six minutes to go, too. Like it's just you've been there and you've seen it. So um, but it it just comes with experience too, and you know what I mean? Maybe maybe too. It's another offseason of just development and guys in the film room too.

SPEAKER_06 58:04

But what was your freshman year? When when you when your freshman year, you would have been what nine 2019.

SPEAKER_03 58:10

It was a uh it was not a very good year for junior years.

SPEAKER_06 58:12

Yeah, so you you have some parallels at least to this team, because by your senior year, you guys had a hell of a good team. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:18

Yeah, yeah. I mean, freshman year was a huge struggle for sure. Like we were, I want to say six and nineteen. Yeah. Like, and we had some of the similar things where we lost some really close ones too early. And like we had a buzzer beater at home from basically half court that we lost on. I think that kind of set us back. Who hit oh they beat us on a buzzer beater. Um who was that? I know you remember that. It was I forget the name of the school. It was somebody it wasn't a conference game, but like it it was early enough and it impacted us uh going forward. But yeah, like honestly, sometimes too, you need a couple fresh faces to come in too and just fill two, you know what I mean, two real small verticals within your team, and it's a completely different ball club for that. Um but yeah, I I think from freshman year we all kind of learned like in the pain of losing and kind of what like the good teams that year, like Susquehanna was very good that year, what those really good teams looked like, and then we were able to leverage that with our new guys coming in and the existing guys moving forward.

SPEAKER_06 59:23

So that's interesting then. So like when you see a team like Catholic or Susquehanna who's good, so you guys notice, like, and does coach focus on that too? Like, hey guys, here's here's what it's like, here's what winning looks like. Do you yeah, so you pick up on that, and the coach obviously does.

SPEAKER_03 59:39

Yeah, I think part of that's just subconsciously, and then part of it too is you know what I mean. We're watching film, like, guys, this is what Catholic does against like maybe uh inferior opponent. Like you know what I mean. This is what the defense looks like, like they can't even get a shot up, or like they're struggling to get in any sort of offense. Yeah. Or like on offense, they're getting good shots like 12 seconds into the shot clock. Yeah. So it's things like that where it's definitely toast and then you notice subconsciously as well.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:08

That makes total sense. What what do we gotta do today to win?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:12

Yeah, I I think the number one it always starts with it's gonna be on the whiteboard in there is the defend and rebound.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:18

So yeah, alright. Is that always on like is it permanently marker destroyed, defend, and rebound?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:24

Yeah, yeah. I think that's you know what I mean, that's just shooting at a basketball and that's two things to to focus on. You know what I mean? There's no reason to two things you can control. There's no reason, even if you're the best shooting team ever, like there's no reason why you wouldn't ever focus on. Yeah, right. But yeah, that and I I don't know how they've shaken out, uh taken care of the ball the last few games, but I know and historically when we struggle a lot of times we turn the ball over. So those three things there shoot a solid percentage from the field, and I think you have a good chance to win.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:53

All right. We asked uh Mason this. Yes. What's your what's your what was your two favorite places to play and the two places you hated to roll into?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:01

So hated definitely Drew. Hated to play it, Drew. Come on, man. Oh just all they were good. We we struggled there. Small gym. Yeah, small gym. You'd have to fact check me on me. Long trip. Long trip. You'd have to fact check me for sure, but that might be the only place in the landmark where I never won. You never won it, Drew. Yeah, I think I think that might be the only place that I've never won.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:24

Hey, we make up stuff all the time. You're fine.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:26

And then second, that's even that's kind of hard to fill. Like, because Drew's obvious number one. Etown, maybe just because I didn't like their gym. Alright. Like, maybe not not nothing like specifically about Elizabeth Town's team, but didn't like the gym. Catholic's gym I liked, but always a hard place to get a win. Uh Susquehanna, big rivalry. Yeah, Susquehanna I didn't mind playing at, but they were they were good.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:48

Would you say Susquehanna is the biggest rival in the landmark conference, or no?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:52

Yeah, so it's weird. Like, I like I said earlier though, I felt like, and maybe my teammates had a different opinion, but for I think it was more the guys on the team and the personalities. I felt like I hated Catholic and Scranton more than Susquehanna. Yeah, but if you're going off just like historic rival and like marked on the calendar, it's Susquehanna. That's Susquehanna?

SPEAKER_06 1:02:12

That's interesting. Dude, Susquehanna made this video about us, they did. I I didn't like that. Yeah, we did. Yeah, I'm not a Susquehanna River, the Riverhawks. But you know what? They listen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:24

What mascot did you think? Yeah, we were renting space. What mascot did you think was the stupidest? Gophers, maybe. Oh. See, I kind of like the gophers. At least it goes goucher gophers.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:35

It got a little alliteration, I guess, but that's not it. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:38

That's about it. That works.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:40

Alright, man. So is it gonna be an Eagle sweep today?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:43

That's what we're going. We're hoping for a good uh Sunday fun day, Eagle sweep. What it'll be a great uh great day.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:51

So if you get a double Eagle victory, man, what's the celebration like tonight? You going to work tomorrow or what?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:57

We definitely we have work tomorrow, uh regardless. But uh yeah. We'll see. We'll have to talk to uh Mr. Bob Lapatina over there about that. Oh, the ringleader.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:06

The ringleader of all of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:08

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:09

All we're missing is Chase and his dad, and we'd be dead.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:12

If they were if his dad was here, that would make it more difficult to do.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:16

Where is Chase? Why isn't he?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:18

He'd be more likely to go to Junietta than coming here. That's right. That's a four-trip.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:22

Hey, I made it this morning. He made it this morning.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:24

That's true, that's true.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:25

Chase, you're a wimp. Yeah. But you are my star player, so are you though. I got all team gold, man. Well, but wait a minute, he's over in Philly now. Doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:34

Yeah, I was the only Eastern Pennsylvania guy on the team last year, too.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:39

He's my rock, my pillar, blue guy. Alright. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:43

What uh what so are we doing the same draft style this year, or what's that looking like?

SPEAKER_06 1:03:48

This year, as confirmed by our crack executive producer, Mike Coates. Say how you doing, Mike. Hey everyone, how you doing? Thanks, Mike. I'm here. He's a man. Hey, he's not the best color man in the business for nothing, folks. Um, we're keeping the teams and then whoever's coming in new. And here's why we're doing that. I shouldn't have lost that game. I had some bad shooting. You cheated. No, I shouldn't have lost that game. We had how we had like 10 shots in a row to win it. And we had a shot. We made shots. We'll be back. No, no, that's fine. We'll be back. And you know what? I'm I'm not I'm not pulling the dogs off. We're gonna blow them out. That's fine. We'll see. Bring it. All right.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:29

Who was younger? I'm trying to think back. Pretty even, or you guys were a little bit younger last time.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:34

I think it was pretty even. Uh, you might have been older. I might have been older. Yeah. Plus, I had all the guys in all my guys play together in Pittsburgh, too.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:42

Yeah, because we Cole was on our team.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:44

Cole was on there. Dino was on there, Griff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:48

Yeah. Griff, Captain Hustle. Oh, then me and John, we have a league starting up too, so hopefully that will tune us up a little bit, too.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:57

Well, don't pass John the ball.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:59

We'll just have to make sure he gets up and down a couple times.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:02

That'll be the biggest problem right there. What's uh you'll be subbing him out a lot. No, it's alright. Yeah, I'm worried about it. Doesn't matter. He's gonna surprise you. Yeah. We're fun. And then I I always enjoy the after party. Oh, the after party is the best. The game is a great game because you guys are all there yelling and screaming. I think the atmosphere is awesome. The game's awesome. And then going out afterwards. That was a heartbreaker last week. Uh it was a heartbreaker. I thought we deserved that one.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:26

I mean, looking back, honestly, our alumni game, my senior year against Scranton. Yes. That was maybe like my favorite game of my career, or one one of the three, too. Like where we it was close and we just pulled it out, beat a very good Scranton team that beat us in the conference championship that it was a big crowd.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:45

Huge crowd, ton of energy in the building. That's that's one of my functions.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:50

We need to get everyone out for the alumni game. It's on when? February seventh. February seventh. We've got to get everybody out for that game. That's right. We need a win. We need a win today. Come watch the actual alumni game, too. Yeah, I th the alumni game crowd has gotten bigger and bigger every year. It's growing a little. Yeah. It's gonna be a good one this year. So come out for the alumni game. We're back, Biz. We're back. I had to have a conversation with a guy from Catholic while you were gone at the bathroom. Yeah, I noticed that, wouldn't it? I tried, but they did. Catholic won today against Drew. It was an ugly game, apparently. Really? A lot of fouls at the end, but Catholic pulled it out. Any fights? No fights at a fair enough, yeah. Yeah. Alright, we have another guest on. We have our first, is this our first parent of the day? No, it is not. We had Malcolm's dad on. We had Malcolm's dad. What am I talking about? Come on, man. Well, I looked at Malcolm's dad and he was he was like a podcaster and he was like uh cut. You're supposed to like whisper in our ear that you know I was ready to chime in. I mean, you know, we're we're a few Guinnesses in at this point. Well, yeah. Yes. I'll try to pick it up for you. All right. So, Mr. Bruce, yes, please introduce yourself to our to our esteemed audience.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:59

Yeah, sure. Um name is Chris Bruce, um Joseph's dad. Uh he's a freshman at Juniata. All right. Making a big impact, right here.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:07

Yes. He's he's playing okay. He's playing all right, yeah. Now he's been banged up a little bit this year, but he but we're ready to roll, right? For this for today for today's game.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:15

Yeah, I think he's getting back to full health. All right. Little concussion, little bronchitis, no big deal.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:19

He's just he's back. All right, so we got to start here. Two years ago. Had you ever even heard the name Juniatta?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:26

I had not. All right. In fact, for a full day, I thought the school was called Juanita. A lot of people didn't. I apologize for that. But um, yeah, we had never heard of it. Um, and and really the story of how Joe came to be and you guys, just so people know, you're from North Carolina. Yeah, from Charlotte, North Carolina. Yeah, yeah. And um, you know, I know that you guys talked about it previously, uh, but you know, basically Coach Hanger reached out on an online um recruiting service. Yeah, we answered, you know, in the and it was really generic, like, hey, we're looking for guards, 2025 guards. Okay. And so we answered, um, we sent some film, and uh, I don't know if it's Coach Hanger or Coach Curly, but they got back to us pretty quick. And you know, we came up here maybe 10 days later for the visit and sat down with Coach Curly.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:13

What time of year was this? Was this after his high school season? This was after the season. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:17

So this is 100% 11th hour from a school we had not heard of. Um, but it was really uh a really nice mirroring of Coach Curly's style is the way that Joe learned how to play basketball. And he learned that from me, and I didn't have a different way to teach him, but you know, I've taught, you know, we I've coached a travel team, yeah, and we okay and we played motion offense from fifth grade to twelfth grade, same kids playing together. Yeah, all right. And so you know, I think Curly and Hager saw that on film that this guy knows how to play without the ball in his hands, yeah. Right, which is a rare thing today. So it is, and it's a big thing for Coach Curly. Yeah, it's been uh it's been wonderful, you know. Uh honestly, it's been a blessing for for Joe to find the right program that suits the way that he plays. Joe likes to play hard, he plays defense, and he about the team. And he really uh has always been that way. And and that marries up perfectly with Curly's philosophy.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:11

So what were your first you drove you drive up from North Carolina, you're in the middle of central Pennsylvania. Yeah, it's gotta be quite different from where from where he's from. It's pretty different.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:20

Yeah. Uh you know, we live just outside of Charlotte, which is kind of a bustling city. Oh yeah. You know, we live on we do live on a lake, so that's the same with Lake Norman's? Yeah, Lake Norman's nice. Um but you know, topography and everything else, it's completely different. Um but I I think he he really likes it. He's an outdoors kind of guy, anyways. Um and he he gets along with his teammates. So I I played Division III basketball and I told him like you're just looking for the right program where you can connect with guys and teammates, and and my best friends are the guys that I play college basketball. Absolutely. Yeah. Where'd you play at? I played at Claire McKenna in California. Oh, okay. Okay. Shout out to uh Coach Scally. Outstanding. So how many do you get to get up from many games? This this will be, I think, my fifth game. Oh, okay. So we're getting up here quite a bit. And I'm gonna try to make the alumni weekend, and that's probably the last one. Oh, you've got to be out there for alumni. Big weekend. I'm not gonna miss it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:15

But uh sure you stay overnight because the after party is kind of fun.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:19

I have heard and I can imagine. I was here up here for the Catholic. Uh they had two games, two home games back to back. Unfortunately, that's when Joe got concussed. Uh-huh. Uh he didn't play the second game that I was up there, but it was good, you know, uh, to meet the kids. And, you know, um, like I said, he's really connected with some of his teammates really well.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:37

Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you that with our experience doing this, the bonds and the connections between these guys, even from class to class, is unbelievable. It's a great family. Yeah, yeah, we we love it.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:51

Yeah, we absolutely love it. And you guys have talked about that in the past, like and it's that's what makes it unique. Yeah, that's what I had in college, and that's what I wanted for him. Yeah, I don't care about the level basketball. Uh people are like, oh, you should play higher or whatever. It doesn't matter. What matters is is that you go into battle with people that you're brothers with. Yeah, exactly. And he's found that. And you know, I'm looking forward to seeing the team improve.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:15

It's been in every game, every game, varying degrees, yeah, and it's just little things. And and I think you know, as the guys continue to work at it and do the little things like box out, you know, play defense, it's all the things you guys talk about with Coach Curly anyway.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:28

But it's it's interesting because you know, we went through last year, and last year was a very different vibe than this year. This and I we this is our theme that we've been talking about a lot, but this year they seem like they're they're starting to figure it out. And I think it really comes down to like their focus, their consistency, and then ultimately playing great defense and rebounding. That's right. Because these guys can shoot. They there's some shooters on this team. And it is fun to watch. I mean, they put up what, what was the uh 19? 19, yeah. I mean, unbelievable. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:54

It can be done. And I will say this, you know, I think traditionally this conference has probably been top heavy. Yeah. Oh, it's really top heavy this year. Yeah. Well, well, I think I think the teams that they're getting ready to play, they're all good. Yeah. Like they're gonna have to play, Juni Allen's gonna have to play good basketball, you know, to win any of these games. Yeah. Starting to today. Yeah. Goucher's got some athletes, they got some guys that can shoot.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:15

They're gonna have to play well. Yeah. And that's not even talking about Catholic or Drew or whatever. Yeah. I'm a bit of a basketball nerd, which Joe will tell you.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:22

This is good.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:23

So as a basketball nerd, you certainly know where you're at today. The Palestra is just a historic place. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:28

Have you have you been here before? I have been in the Palestra. I had I didn't get to play there. Okay. Uh when I was in college, we came across and we played Haverford and Swapmore. Yeah. Oh yeah. And so as part of that trip, we got to go in into the Palestra and at least see it. Nice. But I'm really looking forward to uh seeing the boys out there. I know it's a special event for them, and I know it doesn't happen every year. That's awesome. Joe is a freshman, this might be the only time he does it. We got parents, uh grandparents. That's awesome. Everybody came up. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:55

Well, he should get, I think uh last podcast could have surely said it's like you're guaranteed one every three years. So he might get a double winner. So he might get a double winner. Yeah, and he might be one of the few that gets to play here twice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:07

Anyways, I I want to take a second to tell you guys that this is really awesome. And it didn't have anything to do with our decision to come to Giada. You guys were like icing on the cake.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:15

But I thought I thought he was gonna say this is the reason we did. That's disappointing as hell. No, just kidding.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:21

I'm not just saying this because you guys are sitting here. I think it's a really unique and fun thing that you do to elevate and highlight. I played D3 basketball.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:29

And I played when there was five people in the stands. Right. But I knew the level of basketball. People don't understand like how good these players and it's pure basketball. Yeah. After college, I would walk into an LA fitness or some gym, and I would be the best player in that gym. It's that way with these guys. Like and you guys are helping to elevate and to highlight the fact that, like, hey, Division I basketball is a different level, I get it. But you have to put respect on D3 players. Oh, yeah. They can ball. They can ball. I mean, some of these Herbert and some of these Catholic guys, they're fantastic players. But you know that it's got the guys, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:01

Who was the guy at the uh the championship game of the doctorine that dropped 49? Yeah. Yeah, that was amazing.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:07

That guy's I was in the gym for that game. You saw me. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. Like he's averaging over 30 lately. Yeah. There were a couple of shots where you're like, what are you gonna do? You can't defend that. Yeah. So what do you think? What do you think happens today? I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict that Gini Auto wins. I'm with this. Oh, that's not on a limb, man. Yeah. Um, no, I really do think they're gonna win. Yeah. We need the catalyst. This is gonna be that catalyst game, and I just feel it. Yeah. If you think about, you know, losing the Susquehanna at the buzzer and um Scranton, they didn't have Joe, and yeah, like we're they're just on the cusp. And I what I really hope is that they go on a run from here. You know, beat Goucher and then they play Moravian and some of these other teams. Yeah, they could go on a little bit.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:48

Get a couple under their belt, man. Get that taste. And I I think Joe plays a pretty important role on this team. I mean, when he's not been in that lineup, there's a there's a definite difference there. And so it's fun to see him out there playing well, getting his shots off, distributing the ball. He's he's been a he's been a great addition to the team this year.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:05

Yeah, I can't wait to see it this today. Yeah, he he grew up with um older brothers, and so like he he kind of came out of the room ready to scrap. Yeah, and um that's the way to do. You know, he he wants, like I said, he he's ready to go to battle. Yeah, and it's it's fun to see the team sort of be different than last year. I watched a lot of the games last year, you know, the like you guys said, the vibe is different. These guys are ready to win. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:30

I think they are, yeah, and they got some real talent here. Yes, and they're all young, which is gonna be interesting over the next couple years. I think they they they could really build into something special, and we've seen it. I mean, history tells us it's this up and down battle, and uh curly will have these guys ready to roll. Well, and like you said, I mean the uh it's a different, he brings a different approach in the game, like the motion off. You want another one? I'll take another Guinness. Yeah, one more Guinness, please. All right. Yeah, Guinness on radio.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:56

I don't know if that's gonna get edited out or not.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:58

The FCC has nothing on us. But no, I mean it takes a while to get used to it. Like you said, like guys like Joe who already know it, who know, like, you know, I'm sure he was really good in high school and probably one of the best players on his team, but he knows, you know what? I come in here and I'm I'm a part of the whole.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:15

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:16

And once everybody gets it, then it blossoms.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:20

Yeah, yeah. I will say, you know, you know, Joe's a freshman and he's he's gonna make mistakes and he's learning as he goes. But I'm 53 and I make mistakes. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, it's um it's been a fun season so far, but without kind of the results that we're you know, we're hoping for. So you know, we got plenty of games left to sort of uh give this a different vibe, and it's not out of the question for them to make the top six or whatever they need to. Yeah, it seems like the attitude instead of like why did we lose, it's more how do we win? Yeah. Which glass half full, half empty, right? And I'm telling you, the margin of error is like three players. Yes, yeah. You make three players, and we win. Yep. And so it's it's just a matter of them sort of making that final couple plays in crunch time. Today. Starting today.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:06

Starting today. That would be fantastic. All right. Well, we hope to see you not only at the game today, but at that alumni game. That's right. And at the alumni after game. And at the alumni after game. What else am I gonna do in Hunter Test? Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:18

So thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:21

Hey, you better. We appreciate it. Thank you for listening. Thanks for being the first uh set of parents here today. Yes. They led the charge. They led the charge. All right, that was awesome. Thank you, sir. Great to meet you. That's gonna wrap up part one. The New Deck Tavern is buzzing, the stories are flowing, and the Junietta energy is officially spilling in the Philadelphia. We're just getting warmed up. In part two, we're holding court at New Deck. More guests, more laughs, more predictions. Before we finally make the walk to the palestra for tip off and all the post game festivities to follow. Send us your thoughts and reactions. Follow the show on Instagram at Junietta Basketball Show. And subscribe to the Junietta Men's Basketball Show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don't go anywhere. This day is just getting good.