Boots, Buckets and Becoming Dr. Brandon Martinazzi

This week, Tom, Biz, and Coach Curley welcome Dr. Brandon Martinazzi (’19) — 1,302-point scorer, top-15 in points/assists/steals/threes, and now an orthopaedic surgery resident at Rothman. Brandon takes us from Cresson to College to the OR: the Bishop Carroll days with Marcus Lee (including the almost-same-night 1,000-point milestone), first impressions of Coach Curley and the tough-love meeting that kept him from quitting the day before his first practice, and the senior season where he wore a walking boot all day, took it off to play, then put it back on — and still led the Eagles.

We hit the greatest wins (Scranton on the road), the worst gyms (hello, Goucher), the Ottawa poutine tour disguised as a foreign trip, alumni-weekend lore, and why Juniata’s culture of accountability translates directly to the operating room. Brandon also dishes advice to this year’s squad — buy in from Day 1, treat every practice like it matters — and weighs in on NIL and what DIII looks like as the landscape tilts (yes, St. Francis comes up).

It’s hoops IQ, med-school grit, and plenty of Eagles nostalgia — with a side of garbage-can fries. Subscribe, rate, and let us know who’s on your Mount Juniata five.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

I'm Tom Frank. I'm Drew Baskett.

SPEAKER_01 0:02

I'm the head coach Greg Curly.

SPEAKER_04 0:03

And this is the Junior Adam Men's Basketball Channel. Welcome listeners. I'm Tom Frank, and I'm joined each and every week by Drew Baskett, aka Biz, and your junior attack head basketball coach, Greg Curly, as we talk all things. Junior Adam College Basketball.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

How are we doing, Phil? Hey man, we're good. It's a nice long holiday weekend. College football is college football has started.

SPEAKER_04 0:29

That means that college basketball's close.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 0:33

Yeah, but we don't want to jump too far ahead. I I like college football.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Yeah, it's a good opening weekend. A lot of good games, man. There were some good games. Some interesting uh results out there. Alabama going down in flames. I like it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:47

I like it. Well, they had how about Junior Haddon football? Do they kick off? When do they they kick off?

SPEAKER_01 0:52

They scrimmage yesterday. Their first game is next week, but we did start uh I think soccer, volleyball. Volleyball's won a hundred straight matches now. Oh, that's right. Uh so they won they uh they actually went to five sets their first match, uh, but they're at a hundred straight. I think uh women's soccer is one and one. I think men's soccer started off one and oh, so we're we're up and running. Um yeah. We actually went up to the Penn State game yesterday. So did you? Yeah, just cadena. Yeah, so it was fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

Did you sit in the uh new the new section? The temporary seating over there?

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Did it move at all? No, we didn't go up there. We uh last minute on uh whatever for 20 bucks and sat in the end zone, but it was good.

SPEAKER_04 1:35

Oh, there you go. Hey Ben, I want to get back to the volleyball here for a second. Yeah, yeah. I think that me and you should put together a fund and we should bet against Juniata volleyball every week. They're due to lose. Like it's it they can't win a thousand or in a row.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

Why not? You want a hundred in a row?

SPEAKER_04 1:52

All right. I'm just I'm for the record now, I'm saying I'm gonna bet against them every single time. All right. I'm not saying they're not good. I'm not saying I'm not rooting for them, but at some point they gotta lose.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

I don't know. So we need us to this is just the professional gambler and you playing the odds, crap. I'm just playing the odds. You're not betting with your heart in any way.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

No, not in any way. I mean, you're not wrong. Well, streaks have to end. Every streak has to end. That's why they call the streak.

SPEAKER_04 2:17

Yeah. Just the thought, guys, if you want to pool resources.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

All right. Well, you gotta get to find somebody to take the bet, too. I don't think the Division III uh volleyball market is hot these days as far as gambling goes. I don't know about that. Although you're now that you're uh tell us more about the start of Merrick Creative, man.

SPEAKER_04 2:36

Like Well, first of all, I wanted to ask you guys, what'd you think of yourselves who were on the commercial for Merrick Studios, the launch of Merrick Studios last but last week? The uh Juniata podcast was part of that. It was fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

You did a hell of a job, man. I liked it. We had good you next to Bun B, next to Pete Rock, next to we had some. I never that was not on my bingo, my life bingo card ever. And yeah, I got my I got we were in the news all over the place. I did an interview last night with another publication. Nice. So nobody did anybody contact you, Curly. I didn't get contacted for any interviews.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Well, I mean, we just keep doing what we're doing, buddy, and good things happen. We just stay at it. We'll let the rest of America create it.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

We're rolled up in a heck of a typhoon here, Carls. This is uh exciting stuff. Just ride the wave. I'm gonna ride the wave.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

You're like the cornerstone of this whole thing. Without you, it all falls apart, man. You started the whole thing, I think.

SPEAKER_04 3:32

Listen, we're did you notice the little commercial ended with you. Ended with you as the as the as the host. There.

SPEAKER_03 3:39

If anybody hasn't seen it, go to we are blockmearstudios.com. I mean, they're ever every team needs an anchor. That's your way us down. Very well. Hey, speaking of anchors. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 3:51

See my transition there? That was good. That was good. That's why you're a pro. Yeah. We got you got to join me in welcoming Brandon Martinazzi. Am I saying that right? Martin Azzy. Yeah, yeah. I want to say Martin Azie, but I'll say Martin Azie. Martin Azzi. Put it together. Martin here. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Hey, I got a good intro for you here, so sit back and listen to this. I will. All right, Junietta basketball class of 2019, a native of Crescent, Pennsylvania, and a standout at Bishop Carroll High School. Brandon arrived at Junietta with a scorer's touch and a reputation for winning. Over four years in the blue and gold, he suited up for 107 games, starting 77 and pouring in 1,300 points. Ooh. 1302 to be exact. Dang. Good for 11th all-time in program history. He finished his career ranked among the Eagles' top 15 in points, assists, steals, and three pointers while capping it all off both at landmark all conference honoree and the landmark senior scholar athlete. Before Junietta, Brandon was a three-time All-State selection, two-time L tuna player of the year, and Bishop Carroll's all-time leading scorer with uh 1,889 points, sharing the court with fellow Eagles legend, Marcus Lee. I didn't realize that. I can't wait to get into that. Wait a minute. I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna just interrupt my own my own thing. So you outscored Marcus Lee in high school? Oh yeah. Oh, I like this. Since graduation, he's taken his drive from the Hardwood to the operating room, earning his MD from Penn State College of Medicine in 2023, and now serving as a third-year orthopedic surgery resident at the Rothman Orthopedic Institute at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Wow. Ladies and gentlemen, it's an honor to welcome back one of the all-time Eagle greats, Doctor. Doctor Brandon Martin.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Thank you. It's good to be here. That's yeah. A lot of good memories. A lot of good memories, a lot of good stories.

SPEAKER_04 5:45

That's great. Let me ask let me I I don't like to start with Mark Marcus Lee, but do you ever call him and just sit to remind him that you're you outsported him in high school? Every once in a while, every once in a while.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

I would be doing that all the time. I like to keep him honest, you know. Although, you know, it's funny, he grew up 15 minutes, 20 minutes from my house, and all throughout high school, actually, even really all throughout college, it wouldn't be you know unusual to walk down in the morning and see him in my kitchen or in the basement. That's fabulous. And like I can remember some mornings I'd walk down there and like my younger sister uh and here sitting there eating like Cheerios. I'm like, Marcus, what are you doing here? He's like, Oh, you know, nothing to do. We were out of Cheerios in our house.

SPEAKER_04 6:31

Yeah, yeah. Wait, now were you guys the same year or he was one ahead of me? He was one ahead of you. Okay. So okay, now I gotta I gotta so when he left, you had your senior year, was he the leading scorer and you overtook him, or was he not even in the mix?

SPEAKER_02 6:49

Uh I want to say he was probably uh he's probably in if he's not number two, he's gotta be like up there. He probably had at least 1,500 points, I would imagine. But what's interesting actually about when he scored his thousandth point was he almost did it on the same night I scored my thousandth point. And I don't know if a lot of people know that in high school. I I I'm trying to think. I was a junior, it was about midway through the game or midway through the season. I think I needed like, I don't know, 15, 18 points or something to break a thousand. And Marcus needed 36. And uh I think I had like 18 exactly, and he had 32.

SPEAKER_03 7:26

So oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Yeah, they almost had to get another ball, and then he broke it the next game.

SPEAKER_04 7:32

That would have been cool to break it both on the same night. That's gotta be rare. Huh.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Yeah. Very rare. All right. Yeah. Well, it was you know, unique. I played a lot as a freshman where when he was a freshman, they had like they won the district and they had uh six or seven seniors who were very good. Um where when I walked in, we only had, I think, one or two seniors coming back. So I got to play a little earlier, which you know, probably gave me a little slight advantage. But you know, we don't that's okay. No, man. Just tell him still got a number one hoop. Yeah. My favorite stat though is if you look at the um I was joking around with him one year over the holidays. If you look at the points per game in Junietta history, I believe by point one I outaveraged him one of the years. I think my senior year. I I don't let him forget that. I like that too.

SPEAKER_04 8:25

Yeah, you like that you don't let him forget that. So ultimately, what brought you to Juniatta? Was it the relationship with Marcus? Was it was it Coach Curly? What what made you decide to come to Juniata?

SPEAKER_02 8:36

You know, I think it was a little bit of both. Um I was a big Coach Curly fan when I met him. Uh my parents were. Um they kind of you know believed in you know his mission and uh what he was about. Um and then I think Marcus also was a big factor in that. Um, I can remember talking to him, and um, you know, I knew I wanted to maybe do something in the science field. I wasn't 100% sure right off the bat. Um, but you know, Geniada was very well known for their sciences. Marcus spoke really highly of everybody. Um and you know, he said it it's a special place to be. And I think that kind of sealed the deal. And then I uh, you know, I met Coach Curly and um would have been actually what was Hager at the time. It wasn't Shelley. Shelley didn't come around until I was a sophomore. Or no, I think I was a freshman. Yeah, Shelley came out when I was a freshman uh when Hager took the head job um down at Bethany. Uh huh. So you were right in that transition year. I was right in the transition because Hager was part of the guy recruiting me. Actually, I remember I was going to I was going on a family vacation right before like moving into college, probably about two weeks before, and Hager texted me saying that he had he had left and like you know, wished me luck and everything. Did he try to steal you? Yeah, be honest. Yeah. No, no, he was just like, I don't really think he told me where he was going. He just said he left. So I was like, all right.

SPEAKER_04 9:59

He went out up and up. I like it. Yeah, that was good. I thought we had Hager in something right here.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Yeah, that would have been funny if we caught him. But yeah, I would say that those were the those were the two guys who probably um influenced me the most um with my decision. Yeah, great, you know, best decision. Can't complain at all.

SPEAKER_04 10:21

So when you come in as your freshman year, you're you're coming in as a guy who's scoring a ton of points in high school. How did that did your role change at all, especially in your in your first couple years?

SPEAKER_02 10:33

You know, it's I wouldn't say a whole lot, you know. I think college is different. Where we where Marks and I went to high school, our we played defense very differently than we did in college. Um, it was a lot more similar to like the Moravian style when I was in um college. There was it was, you know, ultra aggressive, run around, create havoc, but not a whole lot of discipline. Um and I think when I went to college, that was a little bit of a transition I had to adjust to early on. And then, you know, to be quite honest with you, people are just better at the collegiate level. You know, I'm five foot ten. Um, you know, you have to learn to defend, you gotta, you know, I was 150 pounds back then. Um I I wasn't able to just outrun everybody and and score, you know, as easily. Um, but also we were better when I wasn't necessarily always having the ball in my hands, and you know, we were kind of playing within the system. So I mean it was a little bit of an adjustment, but it wasn't one that I necessarily minded at all.

SPEAKER_04 11:33

No. So really the only difference between me and you at that point was you could shoot. I was about five, ten, hundred and fifty pounds. 150 pounds, yeah. Yeah, it was about eight.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

I think 1800 points in high school and three time all state. That was a big difference. That was about it. That's what I'm saying. A little bit of a difference. A little bit. Well, actually, I mean, hey, Brandon, the the thing about Brandon is he came in with Marcus and Seth, and we, you know, we had a pretty established team. And I was, I mean, Brandon, his senior year, he's not kidding him. He averaged more points per game that than Marcus did, and he played most of the year, hurt, and we'll get into that on some point too. But his last month of the season, he wore a boot all day. So he would wear a boot around campus, practice, put the boot back on, go to games, and play with the boot on. Um, and he still led us to wherever we wanted to go. But he was he was he's hampered there. But he he gave up a lot. I mean, honestly, that senior year, we played through him all the time. Had we done that his four years and just let him go, I mean, I'm not sure there would be a lot of scoring records still left around here. Oh, and that was a credit to him. Um, I mean, his first now he he will admit Sheldro and Brandon Martinazzi is uh sort of semi-famous, semi-famous within the uh Junietta basketball program, correct, Brandon?

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

I have a lot of good memories. A lot of good memories. He and David Rickens are still out there trying to figure it out. Is that fair, Brandon? Oh, still, still.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

Wait.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Yeah, more here. Tell us more. They pressed all the time in high school, so like half court defense and understanding like positioning and rotations and stuff. And Brandon was he's uh underselling his athleticism and his explosion and burst, but and he had great anticipation skills, but he he didn't understand positioning or rotations defensively or where to be. Hey, that's what he was in there a lot, and he struggled. Uh, I mean, he's probably this one of the smartest guys we've had on here, if not the smartest guy we've had on here. And he but he just and the defensive stuff was a challenge. His freshman year, we we you know, Scranton came here to play us, and uh at that time they were on the run of winning all their championships. I think Brandon had 26 his first game against Scranton in his first uh conference game. Um and then we weren't as concerned about Shell Drill after that. Is that fair, Brandon? That's fair. That's that's one way, that's one way to be. His job and his uh and we won that game. That was a big, very big program win for us to kind of take that step. Yeah, he pretty he established himself pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Well, no, I I you know I think we yeah, I Damon and I still, yeah, we still probably would struggle with that today.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Well here's a here's the other one, right, Brandon. The day before, and he'll no one will ever forget this, but the day before his first practice, uh Brandon wasn't sure he was gonna play anymore. Remember that, Brandon?

SPEAKER_02 14:27

I do, yeah. Um I tell a lot of people that story, and I like actual, I will die on this hill that that was one of the probably the most, you know, influential moments in my life in terms of uh huge turning point in my life, you know. I think like when I came to college, things were very, very different from what I was used to. Academics were way harder. I mean, in high school, I didn't really need to, you know, apply myself that much. It was a lot easier. I was struggling a little bit academically, managing my time. Uh basketball was way harder. Um, you know, you go from being a bigger fish in a really small pond to now like trying to figure it out, figuring out how you can fit in with the team. Um and I have like a lot of doubts of whether or not I was gonna be able to juggle it all. And I remember uh I had a long conversation with Coach Curly in in the office, and um you know, ultimately I decided to just, you know, put my head down and keep working. And uh it was the best decision of my life. I don't know if I'd be where I am today had I quit, you know, because I think that's a dangerous slope when you Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:31

And who knows where even the Junietta would have been. I mean, you were a big part of those teams. Um it would have been, yeah, very different, different hit.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Yeah, there was some panic setting in on that one when he walked in. I remember uh that was a quick call to Mark Marcus right after, like, what is going on here, man? He's in Marcus was working on it. But yeah, actually that was if Brandon remembers, that was more of a tough love one for me. I I've not done that a lot, but I was just like, I don't know what you're doing here, but you got to make the choice whether you're playing or not. And usually sometimes, but and fortunately, he made a great choice. Now he says he was struggling academically. This is a guy that graduated like a 3-9, went to the MD program at Penn State. So a lot of times our best students, you know, the anxiety of having to maintain that level of success and where they want to go is a lot. You know, it's it's a lot more to handle than than some others. And I think my my message at that time was like, hey, listen, it's it's the fact that you're gonna do both and you're gonna, you know, play sports and show you can do that. It's gonna help you get in med school, it's gonna help you um in your next steps, and uh he can speak to whether it has, but to certainly look at him where he is now, and I'm sure it's probably prepared him for what uh some pretty challenging moments.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Yeah, no, I I tell everybody I why you know why I'm a big believer in junior at a basketball outside of the fact that I'm you know love basketball. I truly believe those four years were some of the most influential in shaping, you know, who I am as an individual, especially with the the accountability that we had in our program and the you know overall culture. I think you know, you learn to succeed, you learn to fail, you learn to fail publicly, you know, you learn to to be uncomfortable in situations. Um and I think that's directly translated in my life, you know, as a surgical resident. And you know, I think it's made a huge impact for me. So big believer. I think if everybody could go, you know, even he could run like, even if people didn't play for him, he could run like a men's development camp.

SPEAKER_04 17:24

And I think people would benefit from that. Huh. Hey, you could just go up to the in there, the big Huntington jail right up there. You could go rehab some people. Hey, so tell us about some of the memories of that team. I mean, you were on some good teams. What were some of the the big memories both on and off the court?

SPEAKER_02 17:44

You know, I would say oh God, there's there's a lot, especially off the court. Um the uh so I would say my well, my junior year was our our really good year, the year we were, I think, 23rd in the country. Oh, okay. That was the year we lost to Moravian um in the finals. I can rem actually one of the best memories of that year was uh we beat Scranton up at Scranton. Uh Marcus hit a three really, really late in the game. Uh and we'd like winning up there was very, very tough. Trying to think of when we got ranked, do you remember this coach? We played was it Lancaster Bible College? Yeah, down there, I think. Yeah, Lancaster was horrible. We barely and like you know, the anxiety of all that. And I remember him coming in the locker room and being like, Are you guys lost to the Lancaster Bible School?

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Very good. Hey, they're an NCA team, they won 20-some games, they've they've been very good. They've been very good.

SPEAKER_04 18:41

Yeah, they've been very good. Are they around anymore? I've never even heard of them.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

No, they're still around. They they have some access to some pretty good players. Um I mean, here's a true story of them. We played them the next year. Yeah, I don't remember senior year, and uh they had a guy. We always try we wound up playing them over winter break, but we were always afraid over winter break because their roster would change. They would just wind up with some guy. And I don't remember, they got a guy that um was like 6'8, 6'9. He was a top 300 player in high school his senior year from a Philadelphia high school, and so we were like, I remember we were trying we were getting like his if you remember, we showed his high school highlight clips and stuff, so guys were prepared for him. But this guy must have been like, I don't know, 26. And uh yeah, so they they and yeah. But they have a very good program, they've been very good, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 19:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:32

All right, how about some of the off-the-court stuff? I mean, that that's that's what we wanted, really.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

I got I got one more good off-court on the court, and I can't remember. Uh I think we beat Catholic or someone, but I don't know if you've ever seen Coach Curly dance, but he came in dancing in the locker. And uh, that was that was a special moment. I'm sure somebody has a video of that somewhere floating around.

SPEAKER_04 19:53

We need to find that video.

SPEAKER_03 19:54

It's out there. Send it in. We need a we need a bat signal, alert. Send us that video.

SPEAKER_04 20:00

Was that at Catholic or at home?

SPEAKER_02 20:04

No, I actually think it was home. Um because that may have given I think that's how we it was either Catholic, I forget who it was. It might have been Drew, because whatever it was, we won the league outright after we won that game. I think it was Drew, because I think Catholic. Yeah. Yeah. Um Yeah, it was Drew. That's right. It was a Saturday. Kind of a biscuit. Yeah, good times. Good times. What were some of the worst gyms to go play in? Was Scranton at the top, Catholic? Um Scra Yeah, I'll tell you actually, the gym that I hated the most for some reason was Goucher. Goucher. Goucher. And that's a little bit of a I don't know if anybody's ever said that before, but something about Goucher's gym I never liked. I got a concussion there in my junior year. Yeah, that would do it.

SPEAKER_03 20:47

Oh, that would do it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Yeah, but I don't know. It was like Windows, light came in. Never was a huge fan of that. Uh Catholic was hard to play at. So was um Moravian was hard to play at. My freshman year we played uh the Merchant Marine Academy. That was the last time we played Merchant Marine. Huh. Um that was we won up there too, but that was a tough place to play.

SPEAKER_04 21:08

Now, in your in your four years, did you go on one of these uh Canadian trips or one of these uh these things that that that Curly does?

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Oh yeah, we went to Ottawa, my uh freshman year. We went to the Poo National Poutine Festival.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

Oh now we're talking, man.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Big time, yeah, big time stuff. You know, it's funny because I I've over the years I've uh I've seem to become friends with uh a decent number of people who were born, you know, Canadians. We were born in Canada and uh I love telling them those stories. But um Yeah, we had a good time. We bust all the way up there, played a couple games. I remember actually looking back, we went out the one night and Shali was out with us and you know, he was still, you know, a young guy at the time. Not that he's old now, but uh just starting coaching and uh yeah, we had a good time. A lot of good members. I think one of the best parts is all of the most of the basketball guys lived together. Um class above me had a house where they all lived together and a couple of years.

SPEAKER_03 22:10

Is that the house, the infamous house? The basketball house, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Yeah, that was the basketball house. But it's no longer, right? No more basketball house. It's no longer. We had a house when I was a sophomore with 12 of us. And there was like Oh my god. Man, there was at least six, probably five or six basketball guys in there. And then my junior year, they had a house with like six guys. But kind of every year the seniors always ended up with a house like uh Braden Becker, Dennis Fisher, those dudes had a house uh down by Sheets. That was a good time. Oh yeah. Pretty dangerous, man. Sheets. Sheets. And then my senior year, I had a house with Paul and um Noah, Paul Martello, Noah Neville. We had one on um blanket on the name of the street, but I don't even know if it's still there anymore. It's been a few years since I've been back, but good memories.

SPEAKER_04 22:58

So you finished top 15 in points, assists, steals, and threes. Which which stat, which one, which one, if you can only have one of those, do you want?

SPEAKER_02 23:08

I actually didn't know uh that to be honest. With steals and threes. Points, assists, steals, and threes, I believe. I didn't know assists. He's like I'm basketball, I know. Uh I don't I uh that's a hard one. I mean, I don't have to say points, you're just gonna say it's to say what if you really want to say, yeah. You know what's funny about the points thing is um I think Shelley might be a little bit ahead of me. And I remember after I graduated or something, he was joking around like, oh, if you would have made a few more free throws, he might have been like two points.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

I was looking at that. I was looking at that the other day. I think it's like two points or something like that. Yeah, he's gonna have to buy like two points. Two points.

SPEAKER_03 23:52

Oh you gotta free throws. You have any eligibility left? You can come back just for one shot. He traded one of those assists in for a three-pointer and boom.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

The three-pointer. Yeah, well, you don't want me to play now. I'm I'm in bad shape these days.

SPEAKER_03 24:08

At least you didn't hit yourself if you hurt yourself.

SPEAKER_04 24:10

So that'd be I mean, have you been back for any of these alumni games? You weren't back last year in the last two years, right?

SPEAKER_02 24:17

I couldn't come back last two years. Uh this year I'm I should have the flexibility to come back.

SPEAKER_04 24:22

Uh last year's the teammates back together.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

Yeah, I know. I'm I'm hoping I it was impossible last year's we really see what happens.

SPEAKER_05 24:33

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

It was back the one year where uh uh I think Hayes was on the other team and I think they beat us at the buzzer. That was three or four years ago, but it's been a while. But you know, I'm I'm excited. I'm hoping I can come back. Those I always even as a player, I always thought those were some of the best, you know, memories, uh, those alumni weekends, because you know, Junior is this little college at Huntington, Pennsylvania. All the alumni would come back. It almost you know really does feel like you're you know part of this culture that's bigger than yourself. To me, it felt like you know, you were playing a Duke. You'd see all these old alumni come back, and you know, the gyms were packed those weekends too. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:12

Oh, that's it. I think it's still the case. Yeah. I thought the bet the best crowd last year was that alumni game and how loud they got and like supporting team. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Yeah, it was awesome. I mean, but it was just fun weekends. I mean, obviously, playoffs when you host them and stuff, gyms are packed and fun. But those you know, all the alumni stays and everybody goes out afterwards, and it's just you know, it's kind of what it's about. It's a good time. Especially if you win.

SPEAKER_03 25:38

If you win, it's it's win it's uh much better. We're I think being champions, thank you. Live it out talking about Juniata winning biz, but that's give that because he wanted hey every athlete wants to get a win no matter what point it is, right? Come on. Always yeah, always. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

I I try to follow you guys and listen as much as I can, and uh, I really liked how you didn't you guys do a draft for the that was well done.

SPEAKER_03 26:06

So this year we're just gonna we're keeping teams this year and adding people, so there'll be a draft to go in with with who we have.

SPEAKER_04 26:15

The first year I think I got Biz purely on I did a lot more research than Biz, and he came in a little cold. The second year he came in a little bit more educated, you know?

SPEAKER_03 26:24

I just needed to I needed to get my feet wet, and we'll be right back. Welcome to Merrick Studios, where stories take the mic and culture comes alive.

SPEAKER_04 26:33

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SPEAKER_04 27:17

And now, back to the show. All right, so what what made you then dive into the world of orthopedic surgery?

SPEAKER_02 27:26

You know, that uh that's kind of a good question. I I would say my you know, my parents are both physical therapists uh growing growing up. So, you know, I kind of saw them taking care of patients and hearing their stories. Um I knew I kind of liked science. I liked working with people, I liked working with my hands. So I thought, you know, going into medicine would be good. I spent some time shadowing different orthopedists and really enjoyed that. Um, and that was a big uh, I would say, influence in my in my decision. And you know, surgery is one of those things similar to basketball, it's kind of one of those skills where uh it's a skill, you know, you're kind of always getting better. You're never, you know, gonna stop improving throughout the course of your career. Um, and that was kind of attractive to me. That's just kind of how I I think my mind worked throughout my life being an athlete, was constantly focused on trying to get better. And uh I've enjoyed that part of uh the surgical education. Um and then I think too, I got to know Alex Raymond, you know, through the alumni network um and hanging out with him and talking to him. He was, I think he was a I want to say a first or second year resident when I was kind of going along in undergrad. Because I think when I was in medical school, he was just finishing up. He he might have been in his last year, you know, talking to him. I think he was he was pretty influential and impactful. Yeah, very, very cool, you know, to to kind of hear his take on everything and uh just to bounce ideas off of and hear kind of what worked for him, what he, you know, maybe wishes he did differently or what you know he did well with. And definitely, definitely helpful for me. But yeah, I love it. I couldn't have asked for a better career, so it all works. How much longer do you have until you're uh on your own? On my own. I got two more years of uh residency and then one year of fellowship. So three to go.

SPEAKER_04 29:17

That's a long journey.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

It is a long journey. Yeah, it takes takes a while.

SPEAKER_04 29:21

I guess we can't ask you about any like funny stories or bloopers from that part of your world. We'll shy away from that.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

There's there's HIPAA violations involved. Yeah, yeah. We don't want to get we don't want to dive into the HIPAA world, man.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

All right. Who do you guys work with, uh, Brandon? I know Rothman Institute is pretty well known, particularly in that area, but what uh teams or or organizations do you guys work with?

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Sure. So we do our group covers the Phillies. They used to cover the Eagles, Villanova, uh, I think St. Joe's, up at Philly. You know, it's unique from a sports medicine perspective. Well, actually, I shouldn't even say sports medicine perspective, really from all facets of orthopedics. It's not uncommon to, you know, every once in a while see a professional athlete roll by. Residents really aren't involved in the care for for those patients, unless, you know, we need to be to help with something. But yeah, it's it's it's pretty cool. It's pretty unique. They really, I tell people it's an amazing place to train, very, very well known for pretty much every subspecialty, very high volume. Really, some of the leaders in academic medicine are there. So it's it's a privilege to learn from them. Um and uh yeah, great people too. A lot of fun to work with, very approachable, a lot of good memories. And it's very similar to being on a college basketball team, I'd say the personalities. The majority of I would say the you know, attendings or my co-residents were athletes in some capacity. Okay. A lot of them collegiate, actually. A lot of lacrosse players, some football players. Um I think I'm the only basketball player. But yeah, it's it's cool. It's cool. And you you can kind of tell when people have played sports their whole life, very similar, similar mentalities and and everything. But it's when they don't let you anywhere near the pro athletes.

SPEAKER_04 31:06

That's what I got from that statement.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

Yeah, I you know, I'm sure some of the Yeah, I've never I've never been near them.

SPEAKER_03 31:12

I'll you need the guys who have been doing this for 20 years. They're looking at the head, the department heads on that one, too. Not yet. Not yet. He's not on that. Yeah, you're gonna be there though.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

I see looking. It's um a uh, you know, it's a I think a stressful job, those physicians who do take care of those patients. Uh that's not an easy it's not an easy gig, particularly from a litigation standpoint and you know the public scrutiny you deal with. And ultimately, you know, you're trying to help a patient take care of them, but yeah, there's a lot at stake when if you're operating on, I don't know, you know, Jalen Hurts or something. Let's hope he you know stays healthy. Yeah, Tom's wife wouldn't be happy if he screwed that, but I would be take him out. You know, it's I I can't imagine the depressure and also the stress of that.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

Yeah, oh I'm sure that would maybe maybe he'll be the next. Who's that dude that everybody goes to and the pros with Dr. Martin? Oh yeah, there is like a well-known guy that every time somebody gets hurt, they talk about him. Yeah, yeah, Neil Alatron. Dr. Martin Asie for second opinion. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

I don't know. We'll see. I don't know if sports medicine is for me, but we'll we'll see what I subspecialize in.

SPEAKER_04 32:19

Hey, so as we head into this, I think this is our last alumni interview before we get into the regular run of things. Schedule release coming up, right? Got a schedule release coming and all of that. But I mean, you know where the team is last year. What's kind of your advice as you as as you look at this this young group of of guys coming back this year and hoping to get things turn the corner?

SPEAKER_02 32:41

Yeah, I'm you know, my biggest piece of advice to these young guys would be to buy in from day one. Yeah, if you buy in and you focus on the process of getting better every single day, you'll see monumental leaps in your ability as a team and as an individual. I think throughout the course of my career, you could see that as a team. I mean, it's a system program, and everybody needs to be accountable and everybody needs to be working to improve and practice every day. Uh, and if you do that, you know, they're gonna continue to win games. And by the time that group gets older, I mean, you know, it's just a matter of time.

SPEAKER_04 33:15

Any other advice in terms of maximizing their time on and off the court in the great town of Huntington? Sheets.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

Well, oh no, there's Huntington's a good place. I always tell people, uh, there was a place called Ferguson's, that was good. I I always like going down there. I don't know if that's still around. Ferguson's still around, Carly?

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Girls? I think it's called something else now. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:42

Yeah, there's that new place, or at least there was when I came back for alumni. Yeah, Muddy Run. Yeah, yeah. That was I wish we had one of those. We didn't have one of those.

SPEAKER_04 33:50

Uh Muddy Run the place with the garbage uh garbage can freeze. Yeah, we go upstairs. Yeah, okay. We need a good sponsorship money from the Muddy Run. I mean, we're talking about Muddy Run all the time. Yeah, we are. I I think that'd be a good idea. Yeah, fishing.

SPEAKER_03 34:06

Yeah, Muddy Run. Tavern partner of the Junietta Men's Basketball Pub.

SPEAKER_04 34:11

Yeah, we would talk about them all the time. If I would even eat those fries on the show if they had them delivered to us. Oh, they'd be soggy, dude. Yeah, I guess it's not something that can be easily delivered.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

Oh well, man. I wish I wish we had one of those out. There was uh there was a place we used to go to. Memories, I think was the bar. I think that's still down there.

SPEAKER_03 34:31

Um, we're gonna have some places that we even this is we're gonna have to take a little bar tour, Tom.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

Yeah, yeah. Wow, those are yeah, those are the campus uh haunts. Those are pretty close to campus, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

Um they were real barf just in the bottom of somebody's basement or something.

SPEAKER_01 34:47

No, they're real bars, but they got food too.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

They got they had uh from what I remember, they had pretty good reasons.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

They even had food, bitch. Hey, that's awesome. Yeah. They had uniforms and everything.

SPEAKER_04 34:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:59

Yeah. Alright, I'm kind of I'm kind of curious to hear your answer on this one. Yeah, yeah. Is this the Yeah? I mean, we gotta ask you the Mount Juniata. You got five guys to put on that faces on that mountain. Oh, that's tough. That's that's right. Let me get my fan ready.

SPEAKER_03 35:19

We added a face to the mountain.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

Yeah. So we're gonna go with five people. Um five people. So I guess you gotta put Marcus up there, of course. Um, I don't know if you guys have seen, but Marcus recently has grown out the afro. I don't know. No, we haven't. No, I know. We whoa. Yeah. It's been a while since I've talked to him, but usually I'll get a random text that he's coming to stay with me in Philly for a few days.

SPEAKER_03 35:45

So he still does it. So you just wake up in Philly, and there's Marcus eating up as well.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

One time he he came to run uh he was running the Philadelphia Marathon one year, and I I don't know, I figured he was gonna go back home after. Like, you know, within a day or two, and I think he stayed for three or four days, and he was working out of my out of my apartment. It's kind of nice. I came home and yeah. Did he like cook dinner for you and stuff? Or we'd got to dinner a couple nights. Yeah. Uh but he's definitely gotta be up there. All right, yeah. All right, center. God, this is tough. Five guys. I would say Shali would have to be probably the three. All right. I guess Marcus could be the four. And then the five could be, you know, I didn't know Brian Cannon, but from what I've heard, you know, the legacy of him kind of carried forward.

SPEAKER_04 36:38

So how many years behind in front of you? Or he was much older.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

He was 2008, I think. He played with Nick. Yeah. Marcus would be the five and Brandon would be the four, but I you're going by position here, man. This is a whole another level of uh I like his I was trying to.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

You know, I'd love to put myself in there, but I think we We've had somebody else put themselves in, right?

SPEAKER_03 37:07

I know, I know. Mr. Brewer. I I forgot. No, I wasn't gonna follow suit. Year five.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

I think you gotta put Jeremy Hayes in there, without question, one of the all-time greats. I love that guy. He was uh he was always kind of a good mentor to me, too, throughout my throughout. What do we got now? We got one more left. We got four. It's a good four right here. I would say that I guess I'm gonna put myself and we'll have Brewer be coming off the bench back me up.

SPEAKER_04 37:37

Brewer on Vicky Prats of Brewer the Sim man, that's what I'm hearing.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

I'm waiting for the text. I always tell people Seth was the defensive player of the year. I still to this day will and he had an incredible senior year and he could really score, but that kid was an ungodly defender. Ungodly defender.

SPEAKER_03 37:54

So he did the shell game pretty well, then, is what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

He was the gold standard for that. He was the gold standard. Damon and I were we were good at explaining what not to do.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

But videos are those practices, curls that you show, like there was one practice, those guys, I don't know. I mean, in those days, it was like you gotta get you gotta get it right. And we still do that at times, but I swear, right, it was an hour, maybe an hour and fifteen minutes they were in there.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Oh my god. Yeah, we didn't used to like I mean, you even when we would do like half-court pickup and stuff, you know, you stayed until you got a stop. You didn't you didn't come out of the drill until you got a defensive stop.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

So you'll say it loosened up a little bit, Curly? No, no, no. We used to no, we still do the same. But sometimes uh uh yeah, sometimes it took him a while to get those stops, right, Brandon? Sidefair.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:43

There there was some there was some. By his junior senior year, when he was a senior, uh, he was a group getting off, no problem. So it's it is the learning curve. And uh like I said, he picked it up with his preseason, his freshman year. It was uh a lot of work.

SPEAKER_03 38:59

Yeah, a lot of work. A lot of work a lot of work. Oh, it worked out.

SPEAKER_04 39:05

Yeah, I was gonna say, it's it's it's going well. Uh and uh I mean what do you got? What parting words, you gotta get this team motivated.

SPEAKER_03 39:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:13

We we gotta come out of the J hot.

SPEAKER_02 39:16

I know, I know. I'm trying to thank the Well the conference has expanded, right? Now it's ten teams, yep. Ten teams now. Did the play the number of players expand or now?

SPEAKER_01 39:30

Yes, it's still roughly it's 60% now, so six teams maybe. Okay, six teams.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

Man. I would I would tell them, you know, gotta really treat every practice like it's your last too. Um okay. Uh I I don't think I appreciated the um high school practice, especially for the young guys, for the freshmen coming in. High school practice is very different than college practice. How you prepare is gonna dictate how what your outcome is. Um, and that's the same in life. So uh they need they need to show up every day ready to work and practice. If they do that, they're gonna win a lot of games. I've yet to be pro disproven with that with that theory. I've seen it firsthand. When we practice well, we won every single time. I can remember some bad practices too.

SPEAKER_04 40:11

So that's we gotta limit those bad practices and they gotta come hard. Yeah, hard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Definitely, definitely no bigger go. Are you gonna put in state jersey?

SPEAKER_04 40:24

No, I got my junior.

SPEAKER_02 40:25

Oh, I couldn't. I saw a number on the side. I thought it was a football jersey.

SPEAKER_04 40:28

Ah, 12. Who was 12? We still haven't figured out whose this is. I don't know. I think we're tired.

SPEAKER_03 40:36

It's gonna be direct shirt.

SPEAKER_04 40:38

Yeah. Yeah, I'm still wearing my shirt I got like four years ago. You'd think that now that we're seniors in this program, they wouldn't. Yeah, we gotta we we have to to take care of the host with the gear. That's true. Yeah, but you would think. I mean, I need to be at the top of the priority list.

SPEAKER_02 40:51

Hey, we're it's I I gotta ask you guys one question before before we hang off.

SPEAKER_04 40:55

Oh, that just hasn't happened, but I'm like, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:57

This is this is something I've been meeting. I wanted to actually text curls about this or give him a call and talk to him about it. What's your opinion on the you know the NIL? How is this gonna impact Division III? You know, St. Francis I saw moved to Division III from and they're in my backyard. And a bunch of people we've been, you know, kind of talking about it, and I'm like, I have no idea what's what's gonna happen to these smaller Division I schools if we think Division III is gonna just continue to expand. There's gonna be two conferences or one and three, or two levels, one and three, or an NIL trickle down to Division III. I don't even know how it works. I think that's a great question.

SPEAKER_04 41:35

And I think it's I think about this a lot actually, because I I personally think NIL is destroying college sports.

SPEAKER_02 41:43

Yeah, I I do too. I'm on your side there.

SPEAKER_04 41:45

I think that I think the the the big the elite Division I schools are gonna benefit and everybody's gonna be great. I I don't even know if they're benefiting though, because like we were watching we were all talking about college football earlier. It's like watching, you know, you have no idea who oh, I didn't even realize that guy played there now. Like the kid from uh Florida State that was at Boston College. I didn't even realize he was at Florida State. All of a sudden now Florida State's beating Alabama. It's yeah, I don't know, it's crazy. And I think maybe Division III becomes bigger because I think is St. Francis going to be the first of many that just can't afford to be in Division I as a smaller school.

SPEAKER_03 42:18

Well, they can't afford like to keep up. That's why they moved, man. They made that run and then all their players everybody takes all their players. That happened, same thing happened here to Robert Morris. Yeah, they had a great basketball run, they took all their players. I don't think like here's the thing for me. I think it's it's it's not a sustainable model, right? Like, you know, Tom, you're you know, merit creative, man. You send a couple million dollars to Virginia Tech. But what do you like? Seriously though, what do you get out of it? Like it's not an investment, it's just like when Jordan Addison was at Pitt, they gave him three million to go to USC. Well, yeah, it's that's three, like, are you gonna do that 20 times for 20 different players? No, like you don't get anything out of it except maybe a national championship. Maybe, maybe it's not an investment. Yeah, now the NCAA is just completely inept. But could it help Division III?

SPEAKER_04 43:14

At the end of the day, what what if Division III ends up becoming college sports? And division I think division three is semi sports.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

I think you're on to it. That's what's really happening is probably the way it's always actually been, to be honest. I mean, it's really the original idea of college athletics, you know, and there's a reason the Ivies have never gone and given scholarships, right? Uh Patriot League just went to that a few years ago, kind of the purity of the the uh intercollegiate athletic experience, and that it's co curricular and it's supposed to benefit, and it's part of the educational process, and I think that's what we're still doing. Um I do think that the cultural impact is is does impact us. The whole idea of like why you play, it's about you. Move to the new place, get yours that we see through not only AAU, but now NIL, it does undermine kind of the idea of kind of sacrifice for others, team sport, the benefits of that. That's that's a shame. And uh, you know, if you even if you watch like the Instagram stuff that talks about like advice to like high school kids and stuff, it's like get on a team where you're gonna play a lot and you're seen and all this kind of stuff, and leave uh X to go to Y. And I'm not sure that's the best life advice ever. And the major Division I coaches, a lot of them that have left the sport, um, Jay Wright and you know, you hear Tom Iso still working that talks about this, that he just thinks this isn't what it is. Those are old school guys that came in and had the right idea on why you do it. Now, they've benefited dramatically, they're at a whole different level. Yeah, but it it is a shame. I mean, the developmental piece and what it's supposed to provide people um, you know, is real. Uh, but there's a whole kind of shift in the value. But it's the same thing, the value of education right now, same thing, the value of experience. I think it's all a shame because eventually we're gonna look up and say, you know, there's gotta be something else. The character development of young people is probably the most important thing we can do. Yeah. Um, and it is on the back burner right now. Even at our level, sometimes it's really more about enrollment numbers and it's about, and there's an inordinate amount of pressure on competition, probably. Listen, I'm a guy, I mean, Brandon knows it. He played for me. It's not like we we're not trying to win everyone, and there's a great deal of value in that, and there's a ton, but I also hope we just keep some perspective on what this is all supposed to be about because it's important and it does help, and it does prepare people to do other things in life. So, but and there is some NL NIL at our level, very small pockets in places, but it you know, it it could also skew even more the balance of our level, like places that have a ton of money can do more things than other places. So, yeah, it's gonna be interesting. The St. Francis thing is gonna be probably a challenge for us. Brandon knows that, right? Like, I think if Brandon thinks about it, you and Marcus probably would have seriously considered there.

SPEAKER_03 46:02

And uh the BG kids, C kids retired, yeah, yeah, would have considered there.

SPEAKER_01 46:07

And uh so that's now there's some anxiety on our end with that. How do we separate ourselves and what do we do to make sure we keep getting guys like this?

SPEAKER_04 46:14

Great point. St. Francis is somebody down the road you could probably see as an opponent, right? I mean, they're that they're not that far away.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

Yeah, they're an hour and 10 minutes, hour and fifteen minutes. Uh Luke McConnell's our head coach now, and his son son, his brother Tom, he was our first recruit, played here. Right. Yeah, he's one and one to try to get on the the pod. So um, you know, he's gonna stay in it. Rob Kermel was the head coach. Um state college guy.

SPEAKER_03 46:39

Is he V A D now?

SPEAKER_01 46:41

No, his dad was. Um his dad was, but he had retired. Uh so Rob stepped away. He's he's still in the area. His kids, um, I mean, he's got a son going to BG, he's a good player, and some other kids. So um, and just in that area, Brandon knows that that region there, that'll carry a lot of weight. Um in those kind of names, and and that's gonna be a challenge for us. It already is, probably. Yeah, so it's it's gonna be interesting. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 47:05

Yeah, definitely. Now I I fully have your perspective on everything you said about about the NIL. Um, I'm glad I got to ask you because I don't know, it's interesting. It's it is very interesting to me. And I also the one thing I've always wondered is from a division three perspective, is if I don't know what the you know rules are in terms of paying players directly, but I don't know what is stopping to maybe have some alumni who are extremely well off from bringing in somebody like a Cooper Flag, you know, one of these like top guys. It could happen. It could happen.

SPEAKER_04 47:40

I think the thing you're saying is that he's ready to pony up for Juniata, bring in a big document.

SPEAKER_02 47:48

That's what I got from that. The checkbook is started in the open. I'm saving up to fix my car. I have a I have a bump. He's gonna earn all the money.

SPEAKER_04 47:59

I don't think you brand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not yet. Thank you, Brandon, man. I was excited to actually get to talk to you. Absolutely. You lived up to the billing.

SPEAKER_02 48:10

Yes. Thanks. I know I had a great time. Thanks for having me, guys. Hopefully I can meet you in person this year at uh alumni week. Oh, let's hope so.

SPEAKER_04 48:17

Yeah, we need to know. I hey, don't tell Biz, but let me know if you're a definite. I need to know. I will reach out.

SPEAKER_02 48:23

I gotta get uh Haver usually sends out the stuff.

SPEAKER_03 48:26

Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. You're gonna have a tough decision. All right, you're gonna have a tough uh decision to make.

SPEAKER_04 48:32

Marcus wasn't. That is who they are. Is it for I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. All right. All right, guys. Follow the show on Instagram at Juni Adam Basketball Show. Subscribe to the Juni Adam Men's Basketball Show on Apple, Spotify, wherever you listen to the podcast, leave us a comment on Instagram. And until next time, I'm Tom Frank. Abiz. I'm that good code code. That was a good one.

SPEAKER_01 49:02

Tell your parents I said hi. I assume everyone hanging out this weekend.