From Bench Press to Boat Stress

The comeback starts now. After a well-earned break, Tom Frank, Biz, and Head Coach Greg Curley are back behind the mic to officially tip off Season 4 of the Juniata Men's Basketball Show. In this jam-packed episode, the crew recaps spring training, breaks down the incoming recruiting class (hello, 6'8"), and issues a very real bench press challenge to the entire team. Coach Curley shares offseason insights—from Chick-fil-A-fueled wiffle ball battles to the surprising benefits of a scoreboard-free spring—and sets the tone for a pivotal summer of growth. Plus, there’s boat drama, basketball trivia, and a healthy dose of shade for Spooky Nook parking.

Subscribe, follow, and buckle up—the journey to the ultimate comeback season has begun.

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'm Tom Frank. I'm Drew Beskett. I'm the head coach Greg Curly. And this is the Junior Adam Men's Basketball Show. Listeners, we are back. I'm Tom Frank, and I'm joined each and every week by Drew Beskett, aka Biz, and your Junior Adam head basketball coach, Greg Curley, as we talk all things, Junior Adam Men's College Basketball. It's been a minute, fellas. It has. We took a little break. A little break, a little long battery recharge. Battery recharge. It was uh, you know, we had to lick our wounds a little bit and get ready for next year.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Well, it is next year now. It is. This I I think of this as the official kickoff of next year. Right now. All right. Is school out yet? Have we officially got rid of the seniors and moved all of our juniors to seniors?

SPEAKER_02 0:46

The last day of classes is Wednesday. Um and then we graduate um, what is it, the 16th of May? That's Sunday. Um that's May. Uh May 17th. I'm sorry. That's the day. May 17th.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

I know this because my birthday's on May 16th, fellas. Don't forget.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Yeah, man. Uh but we actually um we finished our spring workouts. Well, actually, we're finishing them up uh Monday and Tuesday, they'll test in the weight room. We had uh test. What does that mean? Test. So the you know, benchmax and vertical jump and whatever else, hang queens, whatever we're we're testing in right now, they'll test in all those areas.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Can you send us the testing elements and maybe May and Bezzel test as well? Because we'll have in our senior year.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Sure. Hey, is there like minimums that you gotta hit to make the test? Yeah, is there minimums that we have to make?

SPEAKER_02 1:34

There are not minimums now, but what we'll do is use some of those numbers to set goals for the fall. So when they come back that we can make sure they've made the progress they're supposed to make. So we could do that for base. We could we could take his minimums now and then set him goals for uh when we come back in the fall. All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

So my minimums are zero.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

So now don't sell yourself short. I'm guarantee I can outbench one of the guys on your team. I'm not saying who, I don't even know who, but I am not gonna be last.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

That is this is this is fun. We gotta we have a challenge. The gauntlet has been dropped. Drop it.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Well, we could we could uh look at the low when we get it, and uh you just see where you don't have to give names either.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

No names. We will not give games on that. We would not give the the low, and then I will record myself uh maxing that low.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Yeah, so I might have to get in on this.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Yeah, come on, Biz. I mean some of these freshman guys, they can't be that big.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

Well, I mean our year. Yeah, our progress from the fall has been pretty pretty significant. We've actually had a really good spring. Um we made some some gains. Uh it's been kind of neat to see guys step into different roles. Uh finished, we have our Chick-fil-A World Series every spring, which is we buy the guys Chick-fil-A and they play wiffle ball. They play a wiffle ball game. Sounds out. Wait, I think they stole that from us. Hold on. Well, hey guys, you know, we're all we are a product of our past. So we do have a lot of wiffle ball in our past, a lot more than these guys. That's how you'd be amazed. Some of our guys, uh more less of our guys in this group have played baseball or wiffle ball than ever. They didn't know half the rules, and they didn't know like the tag up, they didn't know like no hit by pitches and wiffle ball. It was funny. So wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So we had guys on either spectrum, guys that were really good baseball players, guys that had no idea.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

So all right. So listen, we're we're in on this next year. Yeah, actually, that could have come out. You would have loved it. I mean, we're we're gonna is it like three minutes like what's the format? What's the format? Yeah, let's hear about it.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

They just play a six-inning game. They uh pick teams. But who?

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Is it is it nine on nine? Is it a full roster?

SPEAKER_02 3:44

I think we had, yeah, it was uh all the seniors and all the guys that returning in the fall. So I think we had uh 19 guys, and then Cade Curly played. He pitched some, let off. So he jumps in. Uh so they they played. I think it was 10-10. I think went to extra innings. It was not because it was an amazing play right now. That's not true. There are some guys uh, but it was fun. So I think they had fun with it. Then we just have Chick-fil-A. We've done it now, it's kind of like a COVID product, and we've kind of done that every spring as like our last team thing.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

So does the winning team like get extra nuggets or what do we got going on?

SPEAKER_02 4:19

Yeah, what what happens? Oh, they just get bragging rights. Just pride. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Where where do we play this? Do we play this on the field at Juniata, the baseball field?

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Yeah, we go to uh we go to uh local park, Riverside Park. It's on the river. It's a nice spot. And we, you know, we like I said, we generally are doing something once every month or so. We also will meet today. So tonight we'll have our last team meeting. So for our returners, we'll go over our summer program, what they need to be doing, what our expectations are, camps, uh review this spring and get ready for next year. Uh, then Wednesday next week are the Alfies, which is the all-campus kind of like Espies, all the all-campus athletic awards. So our whole team from this year will be together one more time for that. And then that's pretty much it. They'll get in head in the finals. I believe finals start Thursday and run until Wednesday the following week, and we'll graduate. And we're kind of off and running here. So, yeah, it's gonna be a very, very, very important summer for us uh to capitalize off a really good spring, and guys have to make a lot of gains. Good thing is we've had such veteran teams lately. You forget the jumps younger teams tend to make and kind of the enthusiasm. Um, even just guys getting confidence because they are getting stronger in a weight room and they can see tangible results. And you know, the hoops side, that's not always the case. Sometimes, you know, you got to actually go down to go up. And you know, I think sometimes I joke around with our strength and conditioning coaches. Sometimes you get the best job in the world, right? There's always immediate feedback. You're getting better, you look better, you feel better, you know. And if you you you get them to work hard, you're gonna uh have that byproduct. So I think it's an important time for us, and uh, we need to carry the momentum into the summer.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

I like it.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

May 1st was also the uh recruiting or the deposit deadline for uh incoming students. So we're pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

What does that mean? What does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Like so if basically the letter signing the letter of intent. But but that's the deposit, meaning they're putting money in, they're coming.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

They're coming. Yeah, so that's a campus wide. So after May 1st, if we fill our class and they fill all the beds, you're not guaranteed an opportunity to come to Juniata. So um after that, it's a little bit of Russian roulette based on whether we filled our beds or not. We've uh I think we've had uh overall with enrollment, we're having a good year. Um, but May 1st is generally the time um after that, uh really everything moves now to 26s for the most part. Uh so there's only exceptions to get in. So we've pretty much, you know, we had a bunch of guys make decisions down the stretch. Um we've pretty much wrapped up our 25 class, uh, which we feel good about. I think it's a really good fit with the group we have returning. So yeah, it's one of these, it is kind of the spring, you know, the change of seasons and move forward and uh on to the next is it's cool as a coach because you start to, you know, now we know uh kind of phases like we always have a thing for us, like once we get going with in the start of the season, and one of the things I tell our coaches all the time is this is our team. We will not, you know, we're we're gonna believe in them and find a way to make it work. Um and this is the group that we have, and we're excited. Once the season ends, I mean it's an evaluation period, it's a time to now say, Is this the you know, we reconstruct a little bit? And you kind of put you know, go through that until you're done with recruiting. Uh and recruiting can be chaotic and chasing this guy here, and it changes quick, and you stay at it. And then as of May 1st, it's kind of like, okay, that's kind of a stop date, and now this is your group. And so now the next phase of kind of getting excited, kind of the creativity to see what we have, how we could put it together again, what might work, who might work where. So we're moving into that stuff now, which is which is kind of fun for a coach and uh fun for the staff. So that'll be to translate into our summer work to make sure we have a really good plan when we get here in the fall. Basically, the cycle begins again, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Did we did we sign any seven footers? No seven footers. All right. Who's our tallest incoming guy? Yeah, we have six eight. I mean, we and so I I think we we've got six guys coming in and we pretty much hit every spot. Uh we met our recruiting goals, so we think we had a good solid year. Again, we're really most excited uh uh about the entire group we have coming back. You know, I I think this is now where kind of the challenges and the pains of the year hopefully start to pay some dividends. You could see it with kind of a chemistry built. Um, you know, I thought we were the a much better team through the spring than we were during the season. And I think part of that is a byproduct of the year they went through. A lot of it is a byproduct of the youth, and they had no one to rely on. You know, Mason and Tyler Nico weren't with them working in the spring. The coaches couldn't be there. And I think they had to develop some team leadership. I think they went through some stuff to do that, but they did. And I think they they they've kind of all come to, you know, I think they also, when you go through a year like that, you're you guys have been there. I think a lot more guys are way in and want to do this at a high level than you think. You're just yeah, lack the courage sometimes to step up and be that leader when you're all freshman and you're looking around and thinking, I don't know, is this guy want to be here or not? And you get to the spring and they go six weeks and it's just them. It's it's it's not gonna be up to them how good their workouts are or how how much they get better, what they put into it. And I think it really grew some confidence with them, with each other, because they saw how hard each other worked and how much guys really want to do things the right way, and that there were you know younger guys holding each other accountable to the standards that we're trying to set. And we didn't really have that at any point during the season. And I think when you take away the scoreboard and playing time, a lot of times it gets to the uh kind of the essence of what it's supposed to be about. And it was just them and a bunch of guys, and you decide you want to be teammates and be there for each other or not. So I think the kind of chemistry building uh trust, uh belief in each other, belief in themselves, belief in what we're doing, I think really took big strides this spring. So yeah, I'm very pleased, uh happy, and it was good to see some progress made. Nice. Any uh any attrition? Uh I mean, like always, there'll be some roster turnover, uh, but uh a lot of that stuff uh uh I think we're in a really good spot. I mean, we'll have uh I think right now uh 15, 16 returners. I might have the number wrong. I think it's 15 returners. So we've remained really healthy. Uh yeah. I think all the the core of guys that have all had uh made the most impact this year will all be back. Uh now we have to get through a summer and at this level, uh there's a lot of stuff that goes on when you're not given scholarships. Life can get in the way sometimes with stuff. But I think for the most part, uh, God willing, things go the right way and everybody uh you know gets through the summer the right way. We should be uh kind of pick up where we left off and hopefully take some big jumps next year. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Let me ask about the recruiting class. What is our uh mostly Pennsylvania? We pick anybody up from Maryland, Virginia, New York?

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Yeah, we uh are actually across the board. Uh the farthest away would be from North Carolina. Holy moly. Uh we have uh couple of.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Can somebody send uh the John Davison the How did we find a guy from North Carolina?

SPEAKER_02 11:19

How did we find um and I'm being careful right now, I'm not sure where where we are, whether we could name names yet. I think because they deposit we can, but I think it's more when they graduate. Once they graduate, we're allowed to name names. That's true. High schools haven't graduated yet. So I I want to make sure it's not worse than messing around with. Uh but we found actually him online. We found him through an online recruiting service. And then the other guys, we have a kid from Delaware who's really Philly, but he his mailing address is Delaware. He went to school in Delaware, but it's a Philly suburb. And then we have kind of our the rest of our group. Uh we have one from Dew Boys, you know, kind of more local for us, and then we have kind of Central PA. Um and usually kind of our normal demographic. No Pittsburgh, Bez. Come on, man. No, we're not happening. We we're working on a few there.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

All right. Let me know who they are offline and I'll take care of it, kid.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

It's the uh yeah, I mean it's the ups and downs of recruiting, right? So I I I talked to my old college student.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

I got my gear. I can go to these games and like I know I feel like you got a lot more gear than I have. Well, Tom, I played in a lot more golf outings than you.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

I guess, but Bez, I mean, I I I feel like I need to be sent some gear as we head into season four.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

So it's uh it was uh I mean, I you know, you never know until you put it all together. I think even last year's group, um, you know, you don't know until you put things together. I I do think now we'll we'll start. We're pretty, you know, doing a lot more film review from the season. We wanted to wait till May 1 so we knew what team we would have and where we were. But I I think kind of reflecting on the season, one of the things I think a lot of our young guys, particularly our freshmen, actually had really solid years for freshmen. I I think it was just kind of that core that got eroded from the injury and the challenges we had. If you kind of separate that out and you put our young guys in any other situation we've had, if they produced like they did or played in moments like they did, I think you're actually exceptionally excited about what they could become and where they go. So uh we're hoping all the experience and the time they had uh can expedite the process, like we've said the entire time. I thought, you know, from the sense of the spring, I thought we we really took some steps in maturing and understanding how hard we need to work and what we need to do. Reality's art gets live at some point again. There is a scoreboard, there is playing time, we have to handle and manage those things way better. We have to understand roles and understand and accept roles, not only just accept, but but try to star in roles. And we didn't really have time to develop what those are this year. I think this entire season's allowed us to do that. I think the more time together, they're starting to figure out what they might need to be within the group we have to be successful. But and if you're not confident everything there is stable and going to be there, that's a really hard choice to make. I think, and not until you develop as a team do you see guys really uh you know sacrifice for each other because they want to, not because they've been asked. And that's when good things, really good things happen within a group.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

So I I want to go back to the gear for a minute. Um let me ask you this question. If I was wearing full Juniada gear, could I get free parking at Spooky Nook? I don't know, man, but they do make a they make a killing. They do make a killing. I actually I shouldn't say this live on air, but I didn't I only paid for one day of parking. I don't think we're live though. Yeah, it's true. I I only paid for one day of parking, and I brought the parking pass with me because they try to collect it from you on the way out. I was just like, because I figured I am a professional graphic designer. I I caught a glimpse at what tomorrow's parking pass, today's parking pass look like. Wow. I'll be creating that today. It's a rabbit. Are you guys going back up there today? I gotta go back up. I have we have a game of three. Yeah, how long of a trip is that for you guys?

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Two hours? Two hours and five minutes. I was trying to talk him into forfeiting because the first dating was.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Oh, you're coaching this group?

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Yeah. Oh, this is your group?

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Oh wow, that explains a lot all of a sudden.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

What's the name of your the head coaches? We're all in the shooters program.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Oh, so you're assistant, okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Yeah, I'm an I'm just the assistant. I I'm the rah-rah guy. I try to get people to get it.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

That's an important position.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

I go into every game thinking there's no chance we can lose. That's you need one of those guys.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Yeah, that's my role. See, I yeah, I'm the opposite though. I go and thinking there's no chance we can win. I think it's a bonus. No, I figure we're we're gonna win every game.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

I'm I'm the guy that gets them warmed up, we get ready, and then I sit at the bench and just, you know, you know, just talk to the coach. Have you ever gotten any technicals? I have never gotten a technical. No. All right. No, I'm not a technical. I'm not gonna get a technical. I'm not throwing the uh I thought about it though this past game because we needed to wake up. You should have. I know. I know.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Carls, is there do you ever like think like, all right, I gotta get a T to motivate the team? Like, does that ever cross like is that a strategy? Ever? Maybe it can be.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

But I I've I don't even know when the last time I got a technical was. What are you talking about? It was last year. Oh, was it? Did I get one? I'm pretty sure you got remember, Bez, we talked about it. Or was it one of the players? No, I don't think it was him. I don't think it was me. I don't think I got one this year. But uh maybe I got one.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

We're gonna have to we're gonna have to look back at the arc. No, it was one of I think it was one of the guys that got it. Maybe it was last year, like two years ago.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

That might have been.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

I'm pretty sure Evan Evans had one.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

I mean, listen, I think sometimes it's easier to motivate. The only ones I've really really had. I mean, I was ejected one time when that was defending one of my players. I just thought basically it was actually Coach Hager. He got basically cheap shotted. Uh I forget whether it was like a shoulder or an elbow to the head, and it was right in front of the guy, and I lost my mind on that one because it's gonna hurt when it was. That was a long time ago, though. Yeah, I don't think since then we've really kind of had that situation. I mean, I've had technicals since then, I think. But you know, you guys know me, I get pretty wound tight and pretty intense. So Yeah, it's surprising to me that he hasn't.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

That you don't have more technicals.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

And I think, you know, guys, a lot of coaches always said that like there's a lot to be thinking about and a lot you should be focusing on with your team. You get too wrapped up in that stuff, it's it uh it doesn't generally go great. I agree with you on that. I know you're right. Generally, when calls aren't going your way, you're not playing hard enough. Your team is the one not being the aggressor, not playing hard. They probably aren't getting the benefit because they shouldn't. Uh and in some other situations, like I I mean we were in a playoff game at Catholic the one time. I I I went, you know, I think this the fouls were 11 to 1 in the first half, and this was the conference finals, and I got I don't even know if they teed me up, but I sort of went after them a little bit at halftime to try it. But you know, that's a little bit different. I that would be again fighting for fairness for your team to have a real chance when you just think it's so far out of sync. But I would say most of the time when we're when it feels like that, particularly to people, I would just argue I'm more probably ticked off because we're not playing the way we're supposed to, and that's why you're not getting calls or or getting the opportunities you are. And I think just uh with more experience and time, it's just more focusing on what we need to be doing and paying attention to our players. I do think there's some sometimes getting into it helps the team kind of get up, but sometimes it also distracts them from what they're trying to do. I don't know. Most of that stuff was just feel by feel for us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

I think the move at a halftime where you're down 11-1 in fouls, or maybe it's at a timeout. Didn't Cheney do this from where'd he coach? Temple? Temple. Was that at halftime or was that at a timeout? That's a great move. No, I'm not putting it at halftime.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Actually, what I did, if I remember. So uh I mean it was it was egregious. And you went back and watched, and it was the the foul foul difference. I mean, it was like 19 calls they missed. It was it was this one was and I don't get it. It was this was a this was, I believe, Nate Higgins and Alex Raymond's senior year. Catholic was ranked sixth in the country. This we lost this game at the buzzer. We had the lead the whole time, but Fowser 11-1. It was to the point where like our provost was yelling at the I mean like everybody there from it was like this isn't even close. But um, I I went at halftime, I went up in the stands and found the official assigner and started yelling at them that like you think this is fair. And so it wasn't one that you're proud of. Well, I would have liked to have been at that game. The stands, Miss Stands, that's a whole nother level. I gotta tell you, it was one hell of a game. That was one hell of a game.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Was it at it it was at Catholic?

SPEAKER_02 19:41

It was at Catholic, that was one hell of a game. Dang.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

This was a championship. Yeah, this was this was the championship. Going up in the stands there, that took some nerds.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

That took some nuts. I mean, I went I kind of went in the market and like was yelling up into him, and and next it was funny. The second half he was sitting on the other side.

SPEAKER_03 19:59

But we switched seats.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

So I couldn't find him. And uh, you know, I just it was an official we had never seen, and uh it was not I don't know what the deal was. Um that was that's the kind of one guy since then I kind of I kind of blackballed. I if I remember, he might have responded to something I said away I didn't like, but I'm actually pretty good at I just kind of keep moving forward. I don't remember as many details of that stuff as others, I don't think, unless we're like we're sitting around and talking about that stuff. I mean, here's where I am now. I was you know, we went we took the seniors, Coach Hager and I took the three seniors to dinner last night, and I was just pepping them with questions about stuff, and we're starting to think. Where'd we go to dinner? Uh we went we went down to Boxers, just something local.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

But we were just did you have your picnic yet? That's not in lieu of the picnic, is it?

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Well, that was the Chick-fil-A stuff we had. So the Chick-fil-A. What about the curly senior curly? Well, so uh we did we sometimes we go to dinner instead of having everybody at the house. There was some stuff only three seniors. Yeah, a lot of it is the number of folks and uh what we can do. So this was that was basically that. And you know, the whole conversation is about how we're gonna use these guys, what they see in these guys, what what our identity with this group is.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

That's pretty that's a good idea. That'd be a good conversation.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Yeah. I mean, I'll ask them who was the best team you played. I'll ask them who was the best player you played, what's the thing we do best, what would if there's one thing you change, what would you do? Um, what do you have most confidence in? I use it kind of on the spot. Like an exit interview. Sort of. I mean, it's casual though. I mean, we're just messing around.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

That's pretty good. That's pretty good coaching, though, I think. That's a good strategy, man. I mean, who better to get it from than the players, right? Well, we try.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

We try to try real hard to be a good coach, Biz. And we'll be right back. Ready to launch your podcast? Merritt Studios offers comprehensive services from concept development and seamless production to strategic marketing and monetization. Let your story take the mic. Visit MeritCreative.comslash studios, and let's get to work. And now back to our show. Hey, we got to talk about. Something because we haven't talked about what happened after in the postseason with some of these teams, right? Because we had both Drew and Catholic A tournament. Oh, they got a little recap. I got yeah, I got a recap for you. So landmark champ Drew, who beat Catholic in the championship game. They got bounced in the first round by Mary Washington. Ooh. Which I thought was an all-female school, but apparently not.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

No, that's uh you know who uh I don't know if it's still the case, but one of our own state college alums used to have the only no-hitter in Mary Washington baseball history. I have no idea who that is. Chris Soup Campbell. Oh, very interesting. Where is Mary Washington? It's uh Virginia-ish. In Virginia, all right. It's like Northern Virginia, Fredericksburg Area. Yeah, he went down there with uh Todd Kolka to play baseball. And then Kolka came back up here and played football.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Oh, I was gonna say, I don't I thought Kolka ended up here. All right. Yep. And then Catholic made a nice run. They made it to the final eight before losing to the eventual national champion, Trinity. Ooh, where's Trinity? I don't know, but the final four, I'll give you the final four, and then we'll figure out if we know where these teams are. All right. Final four was Trinity, who beat Wesleyan. Did I say their name? Wesleyan? Yes. There's a lot of and then NYU, who beat Washing Wash U. Which which you have any idea what Wash U really stands for, Biz? I had to go look it up.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Washington University of St. Louis.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

That's right. That's exactly what I was gonna say. That's what you were gonna say. So Trinity wins the Division III National Championship. Or are they in New Jersey?

SPEAKER_02 23:34

They're they're Jersey? No, they're Connecticut, but and they're a Nescaq school. So actually Weslin and Trinity are NESCAC schools, and whether you guys that those are what conference, those are probably two of the 25, 30, 40 best colleges in the country, in the world, honestly, Nescaq schools. What do you mean? What do you mean the best colleges? Yeah, they're what elite. So the Nescaq is is basically Ivy League level in some places better. So Williams. Holy sugar.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

I never even heard of these schools. You're telling me they're better than Harvard and Carl Dale.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

They're as good. And in some spaces, they're Williams might be better. Uh Amherst might be better. I mean, Claremont Mudscripts is a Division III school, I think, is the hardest school to get in in the country. Claremont, who? I listen, I had this conversation the other day. You big school guys, like there's this whole world out there of elite small privates. Wait, but what are they though? You called them the Claremont? Claremont Mudscripts, it's actually multiple schools on one campus. Um, there's Claremont, there's McKenna, like it's it's uh, and they play together, but it's one of the topics. I mean, this doesn't seem right.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

It's the hardest school to get into multiple schools that that come together, they're their own independent schools, and then they put out one.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

They're like right across the street from each other. And they it's I I don't really, I'm not as it's from California, so I'm not as familiar with it. But I think this is illegal.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

You can't take like Craxel and St. Joe's and put them all together and make one team.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

NYU, uh obviously, you guys at New York University, how good a school that is. Um so I mean it's still short talk star level, but yeah, how about our second place team went to the Elite Eight? That's how good our league is. And uh the first place team went undefeated through the league. Um I think and then our third place team, Wilkes, won 20 games. Uh they won over 20 games, which is our level, and you only play 25 games is is significant. And so I think that just is some insight into I think how good the league was, a real credit to those stats and those coaches. I think it also, you know, that was the first time Drew's ever gone to the NCAA tournament. I think that probably uh, you know, their peak is winning, getting there, you go there. I think Catholic had been there the year before, made a little run, and I think experience in the tournament matters. He saw that show up this year. Uh by when we started playing them in the year, you could see they uh incredibly well coached, play hard together, both those teams, obviously. So I think it was a great credit to landmark. I I really thought we were the best league in the region this year, that's pretty clear by kind of the outcomes with that. And I think that again filtered in with some of the working theories we had on the challenge of the year. Probably first and foremost was the quality and strength of the league relative to where our team was, and there's been other years when we when that's matched up differently, and there's a dip, and we can be successful. Right now, there certainly isn't.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

So good year for the landmark. Good year for the landmark. All right, I gotta bring up something else. This weekend marked an interesting memory for me. It was the Kentucky Derby yesterday. Carly, do you remember where we were for the Kentucky Derby? Probably was it how many years ago you think that was? Do you know what I'm talking about? Uh something's fit. A shot of liquor and a lot of incoming water. And Dirk to Kindred. And Dirk to Kindred, I think, was part of that as well. We watched the Kentucky Derby from a tent in uh Solomon's Island, Maryland.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

No, I was I wasn't on the we didn't stay in Solomon, we stayed in that hotel or whatever at that place. But yes, when we it was in Solomon's Island, I think.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

I think we pulled up to Solomon's Island. The the engine was having some trouble. We were on our way to Virginia. I think we were on our way from Virginia back to Annapolis by boat. Yeah. And we pulled into a marina in Solomon's Island, if I'm remembering this correctly. We got out of the boat and we were looking for a hotel room, and they guided me up to a tent. And the owner of the hotel was in the tent and he was very excited because the Kentucky Derby was about to start, and he had put a big bet on a horse. And so I stood there and watched the Kentucky Derby with this guy, and his horse won. And he was so excited that he looked at me and he said, Take a shot with me, and the hotel room's on me tonight.

SPEAKER_02 27:40

So the shot with him. I was too big busy kissing the land that we were walking on and just happy we made it because I thought I was gonna die in the Chesapeake, is basically how I thought that was gonna go.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

If I remember correctly, your infamous quote, I came out of the tent, and you're like, Why did that take so long? And I was like, I don't know. The guy just won the Kentucky Derby, told me to take a shot with him, and we'd get a free hotel room. And I think your words were, I haven't been able to do anything of any any worse this entire trip. I thought we were gonna drown. I could have taken that shot for us. And you didn't call me in.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Yeah, I was the last guy you went on a boat, no idea what was going on. My job was just sit in the back and just take shots and waves to the face. And throw water out of the back.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

I was yes, I was bailing water. That's not where you will really want to be. Because if you remember, the rest of the road, we took we we spent the night there, and then we got back on the boat, and if I remember correctly, one of us had to hold a wrench to the engine for the entire trip from Solomon's Island to Annapolis. So we took turns. We kept rotating who because something had popped off the engine and it wasn't like keeping something in, I don't even remember what it was, but wasn't connecting right.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

So you had to hold a wrench to keep it connected. What is it with you and Curly? Man, he puts you in some real crappy positions, dude. You're holding that shed flying out of his dump truck, and good lord, man.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

If I have nine lives, Tom, I've probably used six or seven of them with Tom. Yes, zero question about that. I remember Tom, if you remember that when we go down, what it was the Potomac we went down, right? When we started, it was beautiful. Like you're going, we're going through Virginia. It was smooth. We stop at a bar on the way down that's on the water, we keep going. I'm like, man, this is what I signed up for. Then as soon as we like took turn left into the Chesapeake. It was like, you know, the clouds come in, the darkness comes, it starts raining. I'm like, oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

And for people who have never went down the Potomac into the Chesapeake Bay, there's a point down there. I think it's like point of no point or something. And when the when the Chesapeake Bay hits the Potomac, it's open water, yeah. It it is like nothing you've ever seen. The waves are gigantic, and we're in a little boat and we're just bouncing. Yeah, and I think you gotta get around that corner.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

The Cracker Jack captain, you know, like this guy. You know how it is, right, bitch? Like, oh god, I think it was like a year before he's like, hey, Curly, I just bought a boat. Do you know anything about you know anything about boats? And he's like, No, but we're living on the water, so I got one. The cracker jack. Do you know what you're doing with it? No, I'll just figure it out when we're out there. And then I'm the idiot.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

Didn't you have to take a class or something? I got my license. I got my license.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

That was his whole thing. Hey, don't worry about it. I took the class, we're good. And we're in the open water in the Chesapeake. You know, like Dirk could be one of Dirk left for you better, because Dirk, you just feel like Dirk can figure those things out better than the rest of us.

SPEAKER_00 30:22

She is like a Minnie McGuire, yes. Yes. You know, you the only thing left for you to do is a pilot's license. You know, I I've thought about that for a long time. Curly, you're gonna be on his main voice.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

Yeah, we could take the whole team to Canada. We could just fly up, why drive? Yes, we could. I might be on Smack. Could you see the university signing off on that?

SPEAKER_02 30:41

No. Hey Baze, it would be like air, land and sea. We've done the crazy stuff on land, we've done the crazy stuff in the world.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Yeah, I mean, this is like planes, trains, and automobiles, man. Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

I was simply there for entertainment value to go. We were gonna stop on the bars. That was what I was there for.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

Yeah, it'd be paint nice.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

I was just there to be whatever. I was I wasn't even what's less than first mate. I was just there carrying the luggage on and off, and then here I am.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

So you weren't Gilligan. You weren't the Gilligan to his skipper, then is what you're saying. Freezing. I mean, it was freezing cold.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

We didn't have a skipper. That's the problem. Gilligan was driving the boat. It went from 80 and sunny to like freezing. We're shivering. Okay, we were cold.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Oh hey, you know what? I have a uh I have a tidbit of information. Look at I actually did research in the last two minutes. Our uh because I looked up the ECAC to see what happened. Oh yes. And our very own uh coach's brother, Kevin Curley's McDaniel, whatever they are, made it to the semifinals of the ECAC. I thought you were gonna say they won it. No, they lost to the eventual champion, Salisbury University. Oh, Salisbury, that's in you know where that is, right? That's in Maryland. That's down by Ocean City, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:52

It's right near Ocean City, yeah. It's a nice, nice little college out there.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

Actually spent uh a summer with one of their football players ish. Yeah. Sorry. It was uh one of uh that took it up. Yeah, Mike uh Mike Dunkel's buddy ran uh what the hell is that? Thrashers. Oh really? Uh Ocean City. So he had this condo, so we went down like four or five times and Alvin. Alvin was his name. Big dude. He played football at Salzburg. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

All right.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

It all connects, baby. So let's go, Kevin Curley. Way to go, Kevin.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

Yeah, that'd go to the city. Yeah. Well, the other thing I I found interesting this week is the Celtics will move on to play the Knicks. But here's why I find it interesting. Did you realize this? This popped up the other day. Jason Tatum and Jalen Brunson played 10 years ago in high school against each other. Really? And now they're playing in the NBA. Have you ever recruited from either one of these high schools? Shamanade? Shamanade? Is that true? Shamanade. Shamanade in Missouri. And Brunson, I guess, was from Stevenson, Illinois. No, that's a little bit out of our footprint. Not out of your recruiting circle. All right.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

Well, they they combined for 87 points in a game they played. Wait, isn't uh isn't show, isn't he, from like Hawaii or something?

SPEAKER_02 33:14

Show is actually from uh Japan. But his his father, uh remember, his father's in the military, and so he he's actually now uh retired from the military and in uh private contracting work, and he's in the state of Washington now.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

That's but still state of Washington. I mean how did you go to Illinois and Missouri, you got to go over them to get there, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

So how did you recruit him out of Washington? Show went to Mercersburg Academy. And then well, he went to Mercersburg, and then uh I think we first saw him though, uh AAU, he might have been playing with Global Squad or one of those. Uh probably at Spookinook. Spookinook. I mean, Mercersburg's only everything happened.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

So I do find back to Spookinook. What I do find interesting about Spooky Nook, now that I have I'm deep into the landmark conference, is when you do walk around that place, how many schools have giant like walls that they've taken over? So they they're you know they're advertising for their school. And um and a lot of the landmark conference is represented there. Yeah. We were only on the front courts. I never made it to the back courts, but I will be in the backcourts today. I believe Junietta, do you still have a uh wall?

SPEAKER_02 34:28

Yeah, I don't think I think we still have uh I mean that's just an indicator of how competitive it is. I mean, per capita, there's the most division three schools in the country in uh basically eastern Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, this this region. Obviously, uh, when you go in there, you see that everywhere. And actually, we were on a wait list for years to get on there because it became so competitive.

SPEAKER_01 34:47

Oh, so once you get on there, you're not giving it up. I don't think you're trying to, no. I'm gonna go look for it today. Get a picture. I'll get a picture. Put it on the site. Yeah. Yeah. I will. Well, fellas, what's what's our schedule for this summer? We gotta, we gotta get we gotta get back in the mix. We gotta build up. We gotta see. Every every couple weeks here. Every other week. We're gonna start getting alumni back on.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

Alumni back on. Yeah, I'm gonna uh work with Coach Hager. We've had so many guys on now. I got I've got to go back and look at the list and uh make sure we we fill in with the guys, the other guys that haven't been on yet, and then we may be rotating through. But I the good news is we have enough guys that there's a lot of guys we haven't had a chance to talk to. And yeah, so I'm looking forward to that. That it is one of the really cool things we do.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

And I mean, I think uh we start through the team gold roster to make sure we get all the champions on, and then we can work after that. Just live it up. That's an idea. I'm gonna say it every time. Live it up for the next what six months. Yeah. Oh, and hey, uh, by the way, Tom, your uh that shirt you made for me, my little rock'em sock'em robot shirt. Yes, we won the league, baby. I give the credit to that shirt. I absolutely give the credit to that shirt. I like it. I had to make a five foot putt to win. And as I was crapping my pants, I drained it. And we got we won. We won the title. You won the title. Congratulations. I'm ready to go, bitch. I like having a champion on it.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

Thank you. On the podcast. All right, fellas. Well, this is a good way to get rolling again. I like it. I've missed the couple. I feel rejuvenated, man.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

You feel rejuvenated?

SPEAKER_01 36:22

I'm ready to roll this year.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

Yeah. I think this could be the biggest comeback year ever. Like, this is the the the roadmap is set for an incredible. I mean, I think we can double, triple, quadruple our wins. Yeah, I mean, they say, you know, the biggest jump is between year one and year two. So yeah. I believe we have a a really good story that's gonna be told.

SPEAKER_03 36:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

No, I'm excited. Like I said, the guys had a good spring. I mean, all we can do is stay focused on what we're doing and keep going. But there's one or two ways it could go with all this. I mean, I think the depth of commitment, which is what we've talked about a lot, could go the wrong way or could go the right way. I really think most guys have really kind of leaned into the whole thing and jumped in. And I think you can see their kind of their commitment to each other, uh the relationship they have with each other, their determination to improve. I thought the the internal leadership of the team, particularly Ty Kozak and Dylan Christ, was outstanding. And so I I think it's neat to see them start to rely on each other. It was really a team-led team this spring. At no point in the season, it was really all kind of coach upper class led. And I think that hopefully pays dividends. I think there's momentum to the summer. But we're only as good as the summer we put in. And I mean, this is a game. You got to go to work on your own at this level. Uh, they're not with us, you know, division one level, they they start practice June 1st. Everybody's in there together, they stay on campus. Our guys have to go work. You know, they have they're gonna have a summer job, do whatever they do, and they need to put the work in. Our ability to consistently do that across the board is gonna determine a lot of our outcomes. But I think the guys are up for that challenge and excited, and I think we're all excited to kind of get back at it and get going.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

Hey, you know, the track record of the program states that that will happen because of the character guys that you bring in, and it's happened every time. There's no reason why it can't happen this time either. Maybe, maybe the show this summer is a mix of alumni and maybe us just randomly checking in on the team.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

We can check in on them, see how they're working out. That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 38:21

Ask them a few very potent questions. We can uh see how their bench is versus Tom. Yeah, get a get an update on bench press. I think we need to do a show where you do your numbers right on the screen.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

I'm ready.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

I'm ready, but you look swole, man. I'm ready. I'm ready.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

Yeah, you uh I like I like your chances. All right, fellas. Senior year kicking off for us, season four. The comeback is on. Comeback. There we go. Follow the show on Instagram at Juniad Basketball Show. Subscribe to Juniad Man's Basketball Show on Apple, Spotify, or if you listen to the podcast, leave us a comment on Instagram. And until next time, I'm Tom Frank. I'm Biz.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

I'm the head coach Greg Crowley.

SPEAKER_03 39:08

Woo! Woo!

SPEAKER_00 39:10

Good thing they got us last year, because they're not getting us this year.