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Zimmel Hour, Texas and TCU, Men's Final Four and New Bats · The Craig Way Show

0:13
Speaker 1: Zimmel hanging out with you this afternoon as Craig Way
0:16
Speaker 1: and company are in Birmingham, Alabama, as Texas plays the biggest.
0:21
Speaker 2: Game since the last big game.
0:24
Speaker 1: That is what it's felt like this entire month of March,
0:26
Speaker 1: is that every single time that we come on, we say, well,
0:29
Speaker 1: we got a big game tonight. Now there's a big
0:31
Speaker 1: Texas women's basketball game tonight. There's a big one tonight.
0:36
Speaker 1: But this one feels really special. Tonight's matchup against TCU
0:41
Speaker 1: five forty five air time, six pm tip right here
0:43
Speaker 1: on the Zone. This one feels different because it's a
0:47
Speaker 1: Texas two step because there's two teams, one team who
0:51
Speaker 1: dominated the Big twelve last year and one team that
0:55
Speaker 1: dominated the Big twelve this year in Texas and TCU
0:59
Speaker 1: in the Texas then in your number one in the SEC.
1:02
Speaker 1: There's a lot of conversation. There was a lot of
1:05
Speaker 1: questions about what would happen, and in an Elite eight
1:10
Speaker 1: matchup tonight against TCU, you can put a lot of
1:14
Speaker 1: that to bet you have a team in Texas that
1:16
Speaker 1: is regimated. And we'll hear from the players. They spoke
1:19
Speaker 1: yesterday to media availability. We're here from Vick Schaeffer as well,
1:23
Speaker 1: very regimented, very locked in, very Texas, and on the
1:26
Speaker 1: TCU side of things, the old saying goes, act like
1:30
Speaker 1: you've been there before, but this is the first time
1:32
Speaker 1: that they have been here before. So we'll hear from
1:35
Speaker 1: some of those players too, including including Haley Van Lyff,
1:39
Speaker 1: Mark Campbell, and then of course tonight Prince the forward
1:45
Speaker 1: for TCU, who's going to have a lot of attention
1:47
Speaker 1: tonight in that matchup, of course, but a big weekend
1:50
Speaker 1: of course across the forty acres. We'll start here with
1:53
Speaker 1: the Texas women punching their ticket to get to this
1:55
Speaker 1: point to play in the Elite A tonight, and that's
1:58
Speaker 1: a win against Tennessee All On Saturday, Madison Booker and
2:01
Speaker 1: Jordan Lee combined for thirty points. Taylor Jones added twelve
2:05
Speaker 1: points and eight rebounds. Brianna Pressed him had a big
2:08
Speaker 1: game twelve points career high. We heard from Craig wayhe
2:13
Speaker 1: interviewed her earlier this weekend. Talk about it as we
2:17
Speaker 1: get into this one. And this is now the seventh
2:21
Speaker 1: time in eight seasons that Vick Shafer has led a
2:25
Speaker 1: Texas basketball team to the Elite Eight. He started his
2:29
Speaker 1: career four times in five years with the Longhorns, so
2:34
Speaker 1: an absolutely incredible game. Texas led the entirety of the game.
2:39
Speaker 1: I was giving scoreboard updates to some friends who weren't
2:42
Speaker 1: paying super close attention. I was locked in, obviously. I
2:46
Speaker 1: watched college basketball this entire weekend. I didn't move from
2:48
Speaker 1: my couch. It felt like I was back in the
2:51
Speaker 1: fall on a college football Saturday, where I'm watching game
2:55
Speaker 1: after game after game. But that's how this NCAA tournament
2:58
Speaker 1: has gone. That I'm watching every one of these games
3:00
Speaker 1: back to back, back, and it helped out that the
3:02
Speaker 1: women's games were a little earlier in the day and
3:04
Speaker 1: the men's games a little later in the day. Will
3:06
Speaker 1: give me a staggered let me get off the couch.
3:08
Speaker 1: Maybe they ca a Peterbad and jail the sandwich in between.
3:12
Speaker 1: But of course, big, big win for the Texas women
3:16
Speaker 1: and then for baseball. Well, it went pretty much exactly
3:20
Speaker 1: like we thought it would go. In Game number one
3:23
Speaker 1: against Missouri, fifteen runs on Saturday the doubleheader, Texas combined
3:28
Speaker 1: for fourteen runs in a sweep of the Missouri Tigers.
3:31
Speaker 1: Another win in the SEC weekend slate. They're on a
3:35
Speaker 1: six game win streak the start of the season. With
3:37
Speaker 1: a seventeen game win streak, you wonder how many wins
3:39
Speaker 1: in a row that you can get with this Texas team.
3:44
Speaker 1: Texas State tomorrow obviously going to be a big one
3:47
Speaker 1: at the Dish, and then Georgia coming up this weekend.
3:50
Speaker 1: So again you don't want to get too ahead of yourself.
3:53
Speaker 1: You only get too far ahead of your skis here.
3:56
Speaker 1: But it feels like as the calendar flips from March
3:59
Speaker 1: to April, it could not have gone any better for
4:02
Speaker 1: Texas baseball and that includes SEC Player of the Week.
4:07
Speaker 1: Will this goes on to a big wins obviously across
4:15
Speaker 1: this weekend for the Texas baseball team. All right, so
4:19
Speaker 1: a lot going on on the Longhorn side of things. Obviously,
4:23
Speaker 1: we will hear from the players, we will hear from
4:26
Speaker 1: the coaches. For tonight's matchup. Craig Way will be on
4:29
Speaker 1: the call. He'll join us at four seventeen in the
4:31
Speaker 1: third hour of the program. Mike Harball Hards joins us
4:35
Speaker 1: in our number two of the program. Because baseball is
4:37
Speaker 1: broken thanks to the New York Yankees and their torpedo bats.
4:41
Speaker 2: Yes, is the craze that is sweeping the nation.
4:46
Speaker 1: It seems that thankfully, an MIT scientist figured out, Hey,
4:51
Speaker 1: the best way to hit home runs is to get
4:53
Speaker 1: more battle on the ball, and that's exactly what the
4:55
Speaker 1: Yankees have been doing, is getting more bat.
4:56
Speaker 3: On the ball.
4:57
Speaker 1: They've changed baseball. Is it for the better?
5:00
Speaker 2: Though? That is the question.
5:02
Speaker 1: We will talk to hard course about Texas baseball, and
5:05
Speaker 1: then about what this means for the sport if everybody
5:09
Speaker 1: can start hitting these home runs right, and then regional
5:12
Speaker 1: conversations about the Super regionals. Kimmulki Gino from Yukon neither
5:19
Speaker 1: happy about it. Finally, Vick Schaeffer has some power in
5:23
Speaker 1: his corner after complaining about this last year, the super
5:27
Speaker 1: regional setup. But let's go to the men's Final four,
5:30
Speaker 1: which is set for San Antonio this weekend.
5:33
Speaker 2: Saturday.
5:34
Speaker 1: We have tip offs between two of the powerhouses in
5:37
Speaker 1: the SEC, Auburn the number one overall seed and Florida,
5:41
Speaker 1: the champions of the SEC tournament. So this is a
5:45
Speaker 1: big matchup SEC powerhouses dueling each other. Alburn looked good
5:51
Speaker 1: in their win against Michigan State over the weekend, dominated
5:55
Speaker 1: in that one, and then Florida comes back and wins
5:58
Speaker 1: against Texas Tech, and I will take all the blame
6:01
Speaker 1: here for any Tech fans who are disheartened this afternoon
6:05
Speaker 1: about their team's performance on Saturday, I will take the
6:08
Speaker 1: blame here because I was texting friends, I said, man,
6:11
Speaker 1: this Texas Tech team looks like they could win a
6:13
Speaker 1: national championship. This is a pretty good team. They had
6:15
Speaker 1: a big lead going into the final minutes. The Gators
6:19
Speaker 1: led seventy five sixty six with less than three minutes
6:22
Speaker 1: to play a rally of shots for the ra For
6:27
Speaker 1: the Gators, I should say Gators trail Gators Trail Raiders
6:33
Speaker 1: aren't able to hold off the barrage of threes, including
6:37
Speaker 1: Walter Clayton Junior, who rescued the Florida team too late
6:41
Speaker 1: threes to put a rally down from down nine to
6:46
Speaker 1: beat Texas Tech to now move on to the men's
6:51
Speaker 1: Final four in San Antonio. Also, Houston beats Tennessee. We
6:57
Speaker 1: almost had three of the four teams in the Final
7:00
Speaker 1: four from the SEC, but Houston's able to hold on
7:03
Speaker 1: win sixty nine fifty against Tennessee. And then the game
7:07
Speaker 1: that I was locked in on the most was Duke
7:10
Speaker 1: and Alabama. This was a matchup that I said, if
7:13
Speaker 1: there's a one seed who could get upset, I like
7:16
Speaker 1: the way that Alabama had played the previous night against BYU,
7:21
Speaker 1: a barrage of threes, everybody looked great. Did not happen
7:25
Speaker 1: for Alabama could not recapture the magic from downtown and
7:30
Speaker 1: Duke Blue Devil's move on. This is the first time
7:32
Speaker 1: since two thousand and eight, first time since two thousand
7:35
Speaker 1: and eight that all the one seeds advanced. So if
7:39
Speaker 1: you made fun of somebody before the tournament began saying like,
7:42
Speaker 1: well you're picking all the favorites, huh, you did the
7:45
Speaker 1: right thing. The first time in almost fifteen years. Though,
7:49
Speaker 1: all the one seeds are moving on to play in
7:52
Speaker 1: the final four. And ironically, the last time this happened
7:54
Speaker 1: games were played in San Antonio. So this is John
7:56
Speaker 1: Scheiser after the game talking about how tough it was
8:01
Speaker 1: on the guys on Saturday night.
8:04
Speaker 4: They're all fans to hold him the sixty five points.
8:08
Speaker 4: That's incredible, you know, obviously for us, just for this
8:11
Speaker 4: group to come together this off season, how connected they are,
8:15
Speaker 4: how tough they are, couldn't be more proud.
8:18
Speaker 5: There was so much attention on Cooper as there should
8:20
Speaker 5: be this guy concept the tone early.
8:23
Speaker 4: This guy's a stud right here. He's the ultimate warrior competitor,
8:28
Speaker 4: and he really carried us throughout tonight. Really, man, this
8:31
Speaker 4: guy's been incredible.
8:32
Speaker 6: Man, he's been incredible.
8:33
Speaker 7: Since we're live to the house.
8:34
Speaker 8: What would you like to say to the Duke fans?
8:37
Speaker 2: Oh, we're live?
8:37
Speaker 7: Huh?
8:38
Speaker 4: Who's ready to go with San Antonio?
8:42
Speaker 2: Yes?
8:43
Speaker 1: The Duke Blue Devils move on to San Antonio after
8:45
Speaker 1: a win against Alabama over the weekend, and Kan Kanupple,
8:49
Speaker 1: you can hear there in the back end with his coach,
8:51
Speaker 1: John Shister Knupple in this matchup against Alabama, it's not
8:57
Speaker 1: gonna get talked about. It might get forgotten in the
9:00
Speaker 1: college basketball history books. Twenty one points, five assists, five
9:05
Speaker 1: rebounds in the win for the Blue Devils against Alabama.
9:08
Speaker 1: Cooper Flagg has got a lot of the hype this season,
9:12
Speaker 1: more probably for the right reasons, as he looks to
9:15
Speaker 1: be the number one overall pick in this Springs draft.
9:19
Speaker 1: In the NBA, Kan Kannupple played incredible and they asked
9:25
Speaker 1: him afterwards how locked in and confident?
9:28
Speaker 9: He was, Yeah, I mean we're always pretty confident coming in.
9:33
Speaker 9: We knew that they were a high powered offense, so
9:35
Speaker 9: we had to bring our a game on defense and
9:37
Speaker 9: on the boards, and I thought we.
9:38
Speaker 3: Did just that.
9:38
Speaker 10: You have so much calm about you, and you attack
9:40
Speaker 10: the basket and you read the defense like how slow
9:42
Speaker 10: does the game scene to you?
9:43
Speaker 8: And how do you read it so well?
9:45
Speaker 9: I mean, I'm a slow guy, so I try to
9:48
Speaker 9: make it slow. I tricked a couple, but I'm glad.
9:52
Speaker 6: Most of the one down.
9:53
Speaker 1: He might say he's a slow guy, but the shots
9:55
Speaker 1: were going up quick. On Saturday night, Duke moves on.
9:58
Speaker 1: They'll take on Houston in the final four. Those games
10:01
Speaker 1: played Saturday in San Antonio.
10:04
Speaker 2: All right, when we come back.
10:05
Speaker 1: Vick Schaeffer and his team spoke about their matchup tonight.
10:09
Speaker 1: We will hear it next right here on The Craig
10:11
Speaker 1: Way Show. Andrew Zimbile filling in for Craig Sports Radio
10:13
Speaker 1: AM thirteen hundred Zone Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone.
10:18
Speaker 1: Andrew Zimmel filling in for Craig this Monday afternoon. Craig
10:21
Speaker 1: will join the program at four around the four seventeen
10:24
Speaker 1: mark talk to us about tonight's matchup against TCU So
10:30
Speaker 1: University of Texas wins on Saturday move on to take
10:34
Speaker 1: on TCU in the Elite eight. TCU, on the other hand,
10:38
Speaker 1: had their work cut out for him. Seventy one sixty
10:41
Speaker 1: two win against Notre Dame, and you went through we
10:45
Speaker 1: heard from the experts, we heard from the people who
10:47
Speaker 1: kind of expected to project who's winning these games, and
10:51
Speaker 1: Notre Dame was a team then many people had moving
10:54
Speaker 1: on not only past the Sweet sixteen, but all the
10:57
Speaker 1: way into the Final four and then the National Championship
11:00
Speaker 1: in some cases. So for TCU to get the job
11:02
Speaker 1: done the way that they did it was big. There's
11:06
Speaker 1: a big win on Saturday, and the Longhorns knew that
11:08
Speaker 1: too because the way that the games were set up
11:11
Speaker 1: in the Birmingham region. That was game number one on
11:14
Speaker 1: the slate. Texas followed up, so you knew who your
11:17
Speaker 1: opponent was going to be if you're the Longhorns, and
11:20
Speaker 1: now we are in a Texas two step situation. Vick
11:23
Speaker 1: Shaeffer and his team, Madison Booker and Roy Harmon, were
11:26
Speaker 1: available for media availability yesterday. Vic Shaeffer started his opening
11:31
Speaker 1: statements like this.
11:33
Speaker 11: You know, just going back to yesterday, just again, want
11:35
Speaker 11: to commend Tennessee and coach Calwell and their team. They've
11:42
Speaker 11: had a heck of a year and it was another
11:44
Speaker 11: knockdown drag out, which when I shook her hand before
11:47
Speaker 11: the game, I told her I knew it was going
11:49
Speaker 11: to be one, and a lot of respect and admiration
11:53
Speaker 11: for that program, the history of that program obviously being
11:59
Speaker 11: around as long as I have, I know what that
12:01
Speaker 11: program as well as my own is meant to women's basketball.
12:04
Speaker 11: So to be a part of that game in the
12:06
Speaker 11: NCAA Tournament was was really humbling and honor.
12:11
Speaker 3: You know, I can't I don't think there's enough time
12:14
Speaker 3: in the day.
12:14
Speaker 11: There's not enough words that I can use to describe
12:17
Speaker 11: my pride for my team. You know, we we we've lost,
12:24
Speaker 11: we lost two starters are at the course of the season, Laylaphilia,
12:27
Speaker 11: who's the first team All Big Ten player, really not
12:30
Speaker 11: never got off the ground. And then to lose to
12:33
Speaker 11: live Moore seven games into conference and this team just
12:38
Speaker 11: keeps on rolling, and you know, you have to give
12:41
Speaker 11: them credit. It's not always pretty. H We certainly have
12:45
Speaker 11: plenty of faults, all my fault, but we we we
12:50
Speaker 11: certainly find a way have that toughness about us and
12:54
Speaker 11: and find a.
12:55
Speaker 3: Way to get through get through it.
13:00
Speaker 11: And so I'm I'm really proud of my kids. You know,
13:03
Speaker 11: win thirty four games is really hard, y'all, and it's
13:09
Speaker 11: commendable on their part. As far as our game tomorrow,
13:12
Speaker 11: obviously we're about three three and a half hours apart
13:16
Speaker 11: from each other in our old conference, have a lot
13:19
Speaker 11: of familiarity with each other.
13:21
Speaker 3: Coach has done a.
13:22
Speaker 11: Great job with them, and they've had a heck of
13:25
Speaker 11: a heck of a year, so we're obviously going to
13:28
Speaker 11: have to play well. They're on a hot streak themselves,
13:32
Speaker 11: and you know, they have great players. So they have
13:36
Speaker 11: players that can make plays, and I think that's the
13:39
Speaker 11: thing you have to acknowledge when things break down.
13:43
Speaker 3: They have players that can go make a play.
13:46
Speaker 11: And that in and of itself is problematic. Sometimes you
13:50
Speaker 11: can go through everybody's sets, which we do.
13:53
Speaker 3: My staff is so good and so thorough, but.
14:01
Speaker 11: You know, when you have to deal then with somebody
14:03
Speaker 11: that can go make a play, that becomes problematic. And
14:07
Speaker 11: so TCU can make plays, and so we're going to
14:11
Speaker 11: have to be really really good and on point with
14:13
Speaker 11: what we're doing and how we're doing it defensively and
14:15
Speaker 11: then offensively. We've got to take care of the ball
14:18
Speaker 11: as always. And again this is believe it or not,
14:21
Speaker 11: this is one of my better shooting teams. I've said
14:23
Speaker 11: this before, I'll say it again. I've a national championship
14:27
Speaker 11: team in twenty eleven. We had a four minute drill
14:30
Speaker 11: in ninety makes was the goal. This team makes. The
14:35
Speaker 11: goal is one thirty five and we have it every day,
14:38
Speaker 11: and we make it every day.
14:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, University of Texas not known to shoot the three nationally.
14:43
Speaker 1: They've they've not spoken of as a team that shoots
14:46
Speaker 1: the deep ball. That's big Shafe for talking to the
14:48
Speaker 1: media yesterday before today's matchup against TCU. Now, he hinted
14:53
Speaker 1: to it a little earlier. But the big storyline in
14:57
Speaker 1: this one is the fact that TCU in tex are
15:01
Speaker 1: only a handful of minutes away. I have a handful
15:03
Speaker 1: of miles away from each other. Right for worth to Austin,
15:06
Speaker 1: you feel good about this contest. You feel good about
15:10
Speaker 1: that being the storyline she ever got asked about the
15:13
Speaker 1: magnitude of having two teams from Texas playing each other
15:17
Speaker 1: in the Elite eight.
15:19
Speaker 11: Well, I'd like to say that, you know, it's that
15:23
Speaker 11: we all have nothing but Texas kids, but that would
15:26
Speaker 11: not be true.
15:27
Speaker 3: You know, he has kids from all over.
15:29
Speaker 11: I have kids from all over, but I think I
15:31
Speaker 11: certainly have some really good Texas kids.
15:34
Speaker 3: But I think it.
15:35
Speaker 11: Speaks to really the the commitment of two institutions. And
15:42
Speaker 11: you know, you know, it's unique for sure to have
15:49
Speaker 11: two teams, but I'm sure it's happened before. But as
15:53
Speaker 11: I said, they have really good players, and they have
15:55
Speaker 11: a really good plan, and you.
15:58
Speaker 3: Know, he's done a great job coaching them.
15:59
Speaker 11: So it's you know, it's a game that obviously we're
16:04
Speaker 11: gonna have to really do a good job defensively, We're
16:06
Speaker 11: gonna have to do a great job executing offensively. And
16:09
Speaker 11: again you've got to deal with veteran kids. I don't
16:13
Speaker 11: know how many years Adela's been playing, but it seems
16:15
Speaker 11: like a very long time. I know Haley's been around
16:17
Speaker 11: five years, and so you're gonna have to deal with
16:21
Speaker 11: and they have plenty of other players. You're gonna have
16:25
Speaker 11: to deal with kids that can make plays, you know,
16:27
Speaker 11: and that's that's problematic in and of itself.
16:30
Speaker 1: So Dona, this is I believe her seventh year of
16:33
Speaker 1: college basketball Haley van Lyft, third team TCU being her
16:37
Speaker 1: final stop before her going to probably the WNBA if
16:41
Speaker 1: we're gonna bet or we're gonna talk about it, right,
16:44
Speaker 1: But Mark Campbell, this is a year number two for
16:48
Speaker 1: the head coach of the Horned Frogs and last year
16:51
Speaker 1: in the Big Twelve six and twelve. This season sixteen
16:55
Speaker 1: and two in Big twelve play, a one point eighty
16:59
Speaker 1: turnaround for the tc women's basketball program. He gotta asked
17:03
Speaker 1: the same question, how big is it there's two teams
17:05
Speaker 1: playing in this type of game?
17:08
Speaker 3: It's awesome.
17:09
Speaker 5: I mean, uh, you got to it's the biggest stage
17:12
Speaker 5: in our sport.
17:13
Speaker 3: Chance to go to the Final four.
17:16
Speaker 5: And to play Texas, who's you know, just down the
17:21
Speaker 5: street from US one. It's just awesome for our state
17:24
Speaker 5: because our state has some of the best women's basketball
17:27
Speaker 5: high school players in the country, incredible coaches in Texas,
17:32
Speaker 5: and it shows that you don't have to leave our
17:34
Speaker 5: state to go compete at the highest level. And I
17:40
Speaker 5: have nothing but great respect for coach Vic and his
17:43
Speaker 5: program and what he's built and what he's done since
17:45
Speaker 5: he's taken over there. So it's it's gonna be incredible
17:50
Speaker 5: battle and excited to go tip off tomorrow night.
17:56
Speaker 1: A lot of respect between the two coaches and the
17:58
Speaker 1: two coaching staff in the two players too. Rory Harmon
18:03
Speaker 1: was asked yesterday about the matchup between two teams in
18:08
Speaker 1: Texas and TCU, who have been honestly on the opposite
18:12
Speaker 1: ends of the spectrum when it comes to the spotlight here.
18:15
Speaker 1: Texas has done what they needed to do. They lost
18:18
Speaker 1: to two teams all season, that being Notre Dame in
18:20
Speaker 1: South Carolina. They've gone on and won thirty plus games,
18:25
Speaker 1: and if you listen to Vic Shafer, he'll tell you
18:26
Speaker 1: how difficult it is to win the amount of games
18:29
Speaker 1: in the long courts have won. Tc on the other hand,
18:31
Speaker 1: like I said, this is year number two of them
18:34
Speaker 1: kind of shifting the program. If you listen to the
18:37
Speaker 1: players in their media availability, they talked about how for
18:40
Speaker 1: the longest time it was Baylor in Texas kind of
18:43
Speaker 1: running the Big Twelve on the women's side of things
18:46
Speaker 1: when it comes to basketball, and now TCU beats Baylor
18:49
Speaker 1: three times this season and they feel like they are
18:52
Speaker 1: the team now to beat out of the Big Twelve,
18:55
Speaker 1: a game away from going to the Final four. Roy
18:57
Speaker 1: Harmon got asked, how does this Texas squad match up
19:01
Speaker 1: with TCU.
19:02
Speaker 12: Yes, TCU does have great players. They're in the lead
19:05
Speaker 12: eight for a reason. They have great coaching and everything.
19:11
Speaker 12: So I can say the same thing about my team though.
19:15
Speaker 12: They have great players, great coaching, coaching, great preparation. But
19:19
Speaker 12: when talent meets talent, talent doesn't matter anymore. So it's
19:24
Speaker 12: going to come down to the tougher team, the team
19:28
Speaker 12: that prepares the best, the team that's able to translate
19:31
Speaker 12: that preparation. But yeah, this is a game of with
19:37
Speaker 12: with some players that are very competitive, so it would
19:39
Speaker 12: be a competitive basketball game.
19:41
Speaker 1: See And that's honestly the quote of the weekend for me,
19:43
Speaker 1: for Roy Harmon. When talent meets talent, talent goes out
19:46
Speaker 1: the way. It's all about preparation. How do you prepare
19:49
Speaker 1: for this game?
19:50
Speaker 13: Now?
19:51
Speaker 1: Texas has been incredibly prepared team throughout the season, and
19:55
Speaker 1: again Vick Schaefer is harped on it that this is
19:58
Speaker 1: a team that is led by the their assistant coaches,
20:00
Speaker 1: that this is a team that the assistant coaches put
20:03
Speaker 1: a lot of work in the game film, the players
20:05
Speaker 1: take a lot of work to prepare themselves for these
20:09
Speaker 1: type of matchups, so you feel, if you're a long
20:12
Speaker 1: Horn fan, that you're put in the best spot.
20:14
Speaker 2: Ry Harmon feels something similar all right.
20:16
Speaker 7: Now.
20:17
Speaker 1: Haley van Lyft spoke about the backcourt for Texas because
20:21
Speaker 1: with Rory Harmon and Madison Booker two absolutely stud players,
20:26
Speaker 1: how do you defend that? And what makes the Longhorn
20:29
Speaker 1: backcourt so difficult?
20:32
Speaker 14: I think you know, they're again, they're elite defensively their backcourt.
20:37
Speaker 14: They have a lot of athletic strong guards.
20:39
Speaker 8: Who can do different things.
20:41
Speaker 14: They're they're versatile, they have a lot of different personnel,
20:44
Speaker 14: so scout like personnel and knowing the scout.
20:48
Speaker 8: Will be huge.
20:49
Speaker 14: And at the end of the day, the theme of
20:51
Speaker 14: the NCAA tournament is toughness, and so they're gonna be tough.
20:55
Speaker 14: We know they're gonna be tough. They have that DNA
20:58
Speaker 14: in them, so you know we're gonna have to match now.
21:00
Speaker 1: Haley Van Lyft has been a almost like a reconciled
21:06
Speaker 1: or a recovery story this season, not only from the
21:11
Speaker 1: way that she got talked about last year after leaving LSU,
21:15
Speaker 1: where she went from Louisville where she was the star
21:17
Speaker 1: player to go to LSU with a team with Angel
21:19
Speaker 1: Reese and Kim Molky. Being the personality that she is,
21:23
Speaker 1: she kind of takes a back seat in a lot
21:25
Speaker 1: of ways.
21:26
Speaker 2: That LSU team.
21:27
Speaker 1: Did not win at the level that people thought they
21:31
Speaker 1: should have won coming off a national championship, and whether
21:35
Speaker 1: that be injuries or game plan or running into a
21:38
Speaker 1: better team, last year's LSU squad for a lot of
21:41
Speaker 1: people was a disappointment. Hailey van Lyft took the run
21:43
Speaker 1: of that going to TCU. She got asked her in
21:47
Speaker 1: the press conference, what does she have to say to
21:48
Speaker 1: the haters?
21:50
Speaker 14: It really doesn't matter. It never matters. A lot of
21:55
Speaker 14: people have opinions, and social media has basically given a
21:58
Speaker 14: lot of people who don't know what they're talking about
22:00
Speaker 14: a platform to share their thoughts. And that's not It
22:05
Speaker 14: just is what it is.
22:05
Speaker 7: It's it's real life.
22:07
Speaker 14: And I'm praying for her man hope their life is good.
22:12
Speaker 8: That's what I have to say.
22:13
Speaker 1: Van Lift is one of those players that has gotten
22:16
Speaker 1: a lot of flak on social media obviously, and it's
22:18
Speaker 1: good that she can kind of put that behind her
22:20
Speaker 1: and just keep working forward to the ultimate goal of
22:22
Speaker 1: cutting down the nets and moving on to the final four. Now,
22:26
Speaker 1: finally I want to hear from Roy Harmon because she
22:28
Speaker 1: brought up she gotta asked a question, what problems does
22:32
Speaker 1: Haley van Lyft bring to the table as a basketball player.
22:36
Speaker 12: She's a great basketball player, Like I said, the eight
22:39
Speaker 12: teams remaining in this tournament are here for a reason.
22:43
Speaker 12: They have great basketball players on them. They have great
22:45
Speaker 12: coaches and great coaching staffs that are preparing them for
22:49
Speaker 12: these games. But yeah, she's going to bring that playmaking
22:52
Speaker 12: ability obviously, Like she's going to be a focal point
22:56
Speaker 12: in our scout and we're just going to do our
23:00
Speaker 12: us to prepare and understand, Like we just need to
23:03
Speaker 12: limit some of those things that she brings to the table.
23:05
Speaker 1: She brings to the table, scoring ability, she brings to
23:08
Speaker 1: the table. Energy, she also brings the table, playmaking, all
23:11
Speaker 1: things that helped TC beat Notre Dame on Saturday, and
23:15
Speaker 1: all things that the Longhorns are going to have to
23:17
Speaker 1: limit and cut down and prevent her from being that
23:20
Speaker 1: type of impactful player. We'll hear more from all the players.
23:22
Speaker 1: We'll hear more about the matchup that is going to be,
23:25
Speaker 1: the front court that will be the big one tonight,
23:28
Speaker 1: Taylor Jones versus Prince in the front court, and the
23:31
Speaker 1: winner of that one, the winner of the glass will
23:34
Speaker 1: be cutting down the nets all.
23:35
Speaker 2: Right when we come back.
23:36
Speaker 1: Inconceivable the craziest stories over the weekend, You know there
23:40
Speaker 1: will be a ton of them all coming up next
23:41
Speaker 1: right here on the Correig Way Show on Sports Radio
23:43
Speaker 1: AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
23:47
Speaker 1: The Zone. Is it inconceivable that the Phoenix Suns make
23:50
Speaker 1: the playoffs? Well? Feeling that way breaking news out of
23:53
Speaker 1: the league Phoenix Suns all star Kevin Durant expecting to
23:57
Speaker 1: miss at least one week to the team's three road
24:00
Speaker 1: trip with a left ankle. Spring Suns are a game
24:03
Speaker 1: and a half out of the play in with the
24:05
Speaker 1: toughest remaining schedule in the NBA, so it feels inconceivable
24:10
Speaker 1: for them to make a playoff push and get to
24:12
Speaker 1: the playoffs. And John Shister, with a win against Houston
24:18
Speaker 1: in the Final four, he will have the most wins
24:21
Speaker 1: in the first three seasons as a Division one head coach.
24:25
Speaker 1: Feels inconceivable that a coach could come in after what
24:29
Speaker 1: coach Kane did at Duke and have as successful as
24:34
Speaker 1: a run that John sh Shier has had at Duke.
24:41
Speaker 1: All right, Well, you might have seen last year the
24:44
Speaker 1: hurricanes that just tore up Tampa Bay, tore up Florida,
24:48
Speaker 1: and one of the casualties was Tropic Cannonfield. Tropic Cannonfield
24:54
Speaker 1: was the home of the Tampa Bay Rays no longer
24:58
Speaker 1: because of Hurricane Milton destroying the roof of Tropicana. They
25:04
Speaker 1: have had to rent out Steinbrenner Field. Yeah, when the
25:09
Speaker 1: Yankees spring training is held. The spring training headquarters to
25:12
Speaker 1: the Yankees. Now they've played okay there. They beat the
25:15
Speaker 1: Rockies three to two for the first with their rookie
25:20
Speaker 1: Cameron Meiser hitting his first career home run. Tampa Bay
25:26
Speaker 1: had to replace more than three thousand signs and images
25:29
Speaker 1: in the ballpark and what was in one hundred and
25:32
Speaker 1: twenty hour makeover after the Yankees' final home spring training game.
25:37
Speaker 1: I understand what the Yankees were doing, right, You use
25:40
Speaker 1: your place for spring training, that's understandable. But they could
25:45
Speaker 1: have made an exception this year knowing that Tampa Bay
25:48
Speaker 1: was going to play most of their home games, if
25:50
Speaker 1: not all, their home games in the stadium, So from
25:54
Speaker 1: Friday's first pitch, which was at four to ten pm.
25:57
Speaker 1: The end of Sunday was the final home game. By
26:00
Speaker 1: the time Friday's first pitch, it was about one hundred
26:03
Speaker 1: and twenty hours between Sunday and Friday. Sellout crowd of
26:08
Speaker 1: ten thousand saw the Rays play their first home game
26:14
Speaker 1: in what was essentially Yankees' spring training season. Yeah, and
26:21
Speaker 1: I'll tell you they did a pretty good job of it.
26:23
Speaker 1: They were able to replace most of all of the
26:26
Speaker 1: Yankee signage around the arena or around the stadium. I
26:32
Speaker 1: should say, the interlocking NY chandelier in the Rays clubhouse
26:36
Speaker 1: was covered by a square canvas highlighting raise yellow. Okay,
26:42
Speaker 1: they have a Home of the Rays written on the
26:43
Speaker 1: side of it. They were able to replace most of
26:46
Speaker 1: the mats that say the Bronx and New York with
26:49
Speaker 1: letters TB right for Tampa Bay. It truly does look
26:56
Speaker 1: like the Ray's locker room. They did a good job
26:58
Speaker 1: of making it look as much like Tampa Bay's home
27:03
Speaker 1: of play or home stadium as possible.
27:05
Speaker 2: However, there still.
27:08
Speaker 1: Is signs of Yankee stuff all over the place, including
27:13
Speaker 1: outside where it says home of the New York Yankees.
27:15
Speaker 1: So maybe they can work that out. Maybe they can
27:17
Speaker 1: get it a little bit better as the season continues.
27:19
Speaker 1: But talk about a quick turner one hundred and twenty
27:22
Speaker 1: hours Friday to Sunday to essentially turn your inner division
27:27
Speaker 1: rival and if not, just an interdivisional rival. It's not
27:31
Speaker 1: like this is the Red Sox or the Baltimore Orioles.
27:34
Speaker 1: This is the Yankees. They were able to turn it
27:36
Speaker 1: all around. So congratulations to the Rays team because that's impressive.
27:39
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk gators. You know how much I
27:43
Speaker 1: love this. A gator managed to enter a Louisiana couple's
27:47
Speaker 1: enclosed porch, which sparked a Reptilian royal rumble involving a
27:53
Speaker 1: professional gator handler and living some pair of sheriff's deputies.
27:57
Speaker 1: Bobby and Susan McKenzie, say they were at home Wednesday
28:00
Speaker 1: when they heard an alarming sound.
28:02
Speaker 2: Quote.
28:02
Speaker 1: I heard some scratching and thought I was inside the
28:05
Speaker 1: house right behind me in the corner. I went out
28:07
Speaker 1: the door and saw the scream as torn, Bobby McKenzie's
28:10
Speaker 1: told the local TV station. I walked to the edge
28:13
Speaker 1: of the porch and I could see the gator's tail.
28:15
Speaker 1: I ran back inside and saw him from the window.
28:18
Speaker 1: So the couple did what any couple should do. When
28:20
Speaker 1: you see a gator, you got to call the paar
28:24
Speaker 1: of sheriff's office, the neighbors said, so the Sheriff's office
28:29
Speaker 1: sharing the video on Facebook, showing the gator being captured
28:32
Speaker 1: and handcuffed and then of course released into a local river.
28:37
Speaker 1: The video has these guys trying to It looks like
28:41
Speaker 1: it's about a six foot gater. The wrestling is what
28:45
Speaker 1: impresses me the most. The body control of these reptiles have.
28:49
Speaker 1: I'm very glad that we don't have any around here
28:52
Speaker 1: that would cause me a lot of issue.
28:54
Speaker 2: All Right, you've heard of having dreams.
28:57
Speaker 1: I've had a couple dreams in my life where I
29:00
Speaker 1: feel like something as big as going to be happening
29:01
Speaker 1: to me. Okay, I'm visualizing and I'm feeling good. Good vibes, good,
29:05
Speaker 1: positive vibes. Well, how about this. A New Jersey lottery
29:09
Speaker 1: player says a dream inspired them to buy the ticket
29:13
Speaker 1: that led to them winning the one point five million
29:15
Speaker 1: dollar jackpot. Why do everybody have everybody has great dreams
29:18
Speaker 1: except for me. It seems like I've always been told
29:21
Speaker 1: that if you have a dream and it's a good dream.
29:24
Speaker 1: You should play. So okay, the ticket matched all five numbers.
29:30
Speaker 2: This one.
29:30
Speaker 1: I can't explain. I didn't even pick my number, as
29:32
Speaker 1: the winner said, so he just bought the ticket. Sight
29:35
Speaker 1: unseen just said, randomize the numbers. I have a good
29:38
Speaker 1: feeling about this. My dream told me to and it
29:41
Speaker 1: worked out. So some people have all the luck. Maybe
29:44
Speaker 1: you and I will get lucky next. It's not luck.
29:46
Speaker 1: What's happening in New York though? We just talked about
29:49
Speaker 1: how the Rays had to change the entire stadium to
29:51
Speaker 1: make it look like theirs. Well, trust me when I
29:54
Speaker 1: say this Yankee Stadium is one hundred percent the Yankees
29:57
Speaker 1: with all the home runs they're hitting. We'll talk to
29:59
Speaker 1: our corpedo blasts next. Yeah, new bats and baseball changing things.
30:07
Speaker 1: We'll have it for you here. Craig Way Show continues.
30:09
Speaker 1: Our one wraps up on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
30:11
Speaker 1: The Zone. Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. As
30:15
Speaker 1: we wrap up our number one in The Craigway Show
30:18
Speaker 1: on a Monday edition, a lot of stuff happening across
30:22
Speaker 1: UH Sports Today. Texas and TCU played at nine six pm.
30:27
Speaker 1: Tipping here right here on the zone. Craigway, We'll be
30:30
Speaker 1: on the call from Birmingham, the Elite eight. It's the
30:34
Speaker 1: biggest game since the last biggest game for the Texas
30:38
Speaker 1: Longhorn women. And Vic Shaffer continues to roll along and
30:42
Speaker 1: get his teams to this spot. But can they get
30:44
Speaker 1: over the hump and make it to the final four?
30:47
Speaker 1: What we will find out tonight against TC. We'll hear
30:50
Speaker 1: from Vic Schaeffer. We will also hear from Roy Harmon
30:54
Speaker 1: and Madison Booker in our number two and we will
30:57
Speaker 1: discuss the super Regional eight. GEO from Yukon, Kim Mulki
31:04
Speaker 1: from LSU, and now Vick Schaeffer from Texas powerhouses when
31:08
Speaker 1: it comes to college coaching. None of them like the
31:11
Speaker 1: super Regional setup. We will get into it in the
31:14
Speaker 1: next hour and then also hardball. Hardes joins us in
31:17
Speaker 1: about well thirty minutes ish to talk baseball with us.
31:20
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little baseball. The New York Yankees
31:23
Speaker 1: broke baseball when they showed debuted new bats. Now people
31:29
Speaker 1: are calling them bowling pin bats. Some people are calling
31:33
Speaker 1: them torpedo bats, mostly because of the way they look,
31:36
Speaker 1: but also because the ball is leaving the ballpark like
31:40
Speaker 1: a torpedo. They are firing out now. Jeff Passon was
31:43
Speaker 1: on Get Up this morning explaining how we got to
31:48
Speaker 1: this point.
31:49
Speaker 15: Aaron Leonard, who was a coach with the New York
31:52
Speaker 15: Yankees last season, also happens to be an MIT trained
31:56
Speaker 15: physicist who taught at the University of Michigan. He was
32:00
Speaker 15: asking players, Okay, what can we do to make our
32:04
Speaker 15: offense better?
32:05
Speaker 3: And the answer was get the.
32:07
Speaker 6: Ball on the barrel of the bat more.
32:09
Speaker 15: And so he was trying to solve a problem using physics.
32:13
Speaker 15: What they did was they took some of the weight
32:15
Speaker 15: that was distributed toward the end of the bat, moved
32:19
Speaker 15: it down and remained inside of Major League Baseballs regulations
32:24
Speaker 15: and specs, and in doing so, and having a smooth
32:28
Speaker 15: round bat whose barrel does not exceed two point sixty
32:31
Speaker 15: one inches, stayed within those regulations while putting the fatter
32:36
Speaker 15: part of the bat closer to where guys actually make
32:40
Speaker 15: contact with the ball more often.
32:42
Speaker 1: Now, the joke, of course, is that this is all
32:44
Speaker 1: because of Lapie or Anti Vollup's inability to hit the
32:51
Speaker 1: ball that he struggled so mightily last season to hit
32:57
Speaker 1: for average, that the Yankee said, you know what, we
32:59
Speaker 1: will find a way to make your infield your outfield
33:05
Speaker 1: pop ups. Let's get them a little further out. Now,
33:08
Speaker 1: another player using this is it's about five of the
33:11
Speaker 1: nine hitters and the Yankee lineup use these torpedo style bats,
33:16
Speaker 1: including Josh Chisholm, who put out a statement earlier today
33:21
Speaker 1: on his x account. Quote, Okay, explanation, the barrel is
33:25
Speaker 1: bigger and within MLB regulation. Now that's the most important part.
33:29
Speaker 1: Baseball's very particular about the way that they do things.
33:32
Speaker 1: The bats have to be a certain length, a certain way,
33:35
Speaker 1: with a certain weight. You can't hollow them out. You
33:37
Speaker 1: can't do anything. You can't trick your bat out, essentially.
33:41
Speaker 2: So what the.
33:41
Speaker 1: Yankees did is they put everything in regulation. They just
33:44
Speaker 1: moved the barrel of the bat further down, closer to
33:48
Speaker 1: the handle.
33:49
Speaker 2: Okay, for the idiots.
33:50
Speaker 1: Quote this is from Josh Chism from the idiots that
33:53
Speaker 1: said that it's moving to the label. You're an idiot.
33:55
Speaker 1: Nobody's trying to get jammed. You just move the wood
33:58
Speaker 1: from one part you don't use to the part that
34:01
Speaker 1: you do.
34:02
Speaker 2: You're welcome.
34:03
Speaker 1: No more stress for y'all because the Yankees did this
34:06
Speaker 1: and then broke over pretty much every conceivable record that
34:10
Speaker 1: the Yankees have ever set for home runs, including nine
34:12
Speaker 1: home runs on opening Day. This is a big deal
34:16
Speaker 1: because baseball forever has been trying to find a way
34:20
Speaker 1: to walk that thin line. Right, the best ratings that
34:23
Speaker 1: baseball ever had was during that worst part, maybe the
34:27
Speaker 1: darkest days of baseball, the steroid era. People like to
34:30
Speaker 1: see the long ball, people like to see home runs,
34:33
Speaker 1: They like to see the ball leave the park, and
34:37
Speaker 1: baseball players and front offices in the league have been
34:40
Speaker 1: trying to find a way to walk that line. Okay, well,
34:42
Speaker 1: we don't want performance enhancing drugs, but we do want
34:46
Speaker 1: the benefits of a home run race. Last season, show
34:50
Speaker 1: Heyo Tani fifty to fifty season. Yeah, fifty home runs,
34:54
Speaker 1: fifty stolen basis did really good numbers, Aaron Judge chasing
34:58
Speaker 1: down Roger Marris's al home run record hitting sixty three
35:02
Speaker 1: two seasons ago. Those help the ratings. How do you
35:06
Speaker 1: make it? How do you work it? Right now? I
35:08
Speaker 1: thought it was interesting because you could hear from Yankees players.
35:12
Speaker 1: You could hear from Brewers players who play the Yankees.
35:15
Speaker 1: We're not so thrilled with the bats. Okay, let's talk
35:19
Speaker 1: to a player who wasn't involved in the matchup at all.
35:23
Speaker 1: Let's Brightson Stott, who's a second basement for the Philadelphia Phillies.
35:27
Speaker 1: He got asked about the torpedo bats.
35:30
Speaker 3: It's not a bat that they've been around.
35:33
Speaker 6: It's not a new thing.
35:34
Speaker 16: It's been around, and it's not a thing you could
35:37
Speaker 16: just go in order. Maroochie and Victis have a hit
35:40
Speaker 16: lab they call it, and connect all these wires to
35:43
Speaker 16: you swing thousand bats and they kind of tell you
35:45
Speaker 16: where you're hitting the ball mostly and things like that.
35:48
Speaker 16: So if you're a guy who uses the whole bat,
35:51
Speaker 16: if you get jammed and hit it on the end,
35:52
Speaker 16: Dan hit the barrel, it's.
35:54
Speaker 6: Not for you.
35:55
Speaker 16: You've taken quote off the end of the bat and
35:58
Speaker 16: franking that part. It's a lot of stuff that goes
36:02
Speaker 16: into it. So I think with the torpedo you are
36:07
Speaker 16: more like you get jammed more then hit it off
36:10
Speaker 16: the end.
36:10
Speaker 14: And.
36:12
Speaker 6: Then it helps.
36:13
Speaker 3: Obviously you're moving the barrel down a little bit.
36:15
Speaker 6: And yeah, but it's not one of.
36:17
Speaker 16: Those things you could just call and say, I want
36:18
Speaker 16: this torpedo because it might not work for you. So
36:21
Speaker 16: if you hit it off the end with that torpedo bat,
36:23
Speaker 16: you're in trouble. So it's mostly where you hit it
36:27
Speaker 16: and where all their computers and things are telling you
36:30
Speaker 16: where you're hitting it and things like that.
36:32
Speaker 1: And I thought that was the most interesting part is that, Yeah,
36:34
Speaker 1: there's a lot of technology. There's a lot of science
36:37
Speaker 1: that goes into not only building the bat, but also
36:40
Speaker 1: making sure that it swings properly. You also have to
36:42
Speaker 1: consider this. It has to be weighted equally too. If
36:46
Speaker 1: I'm working with a bat that isn't built like this
36:49
Speaker 1: torpedo bat, I need the weight distribution to be the same.
36:52
Speaker 1: Hardest thing to do is to hit a round ball
36:54
Speaker 1: with a round bat, right, That's what we all talk
36:56
Speaker 1: about as the hardest thing to do in sports. Okay, well,
37:00
Speaker 1: you know it makes it a lot more difficult if
37:02
Speaker 1: the bat weighs different or is weighted differently too. That's
37:07
Speaker 1: something to consider as well. Is this going to ruin
37:10
Speaker 1: the sport of baseball? I don't think so. I think
37:12
Speaker 1: this is gonna help more than it's going to hurt.
37:14
Speaker 1: But what baseball has to do is they have to
37:16
Speaker 1: decide quickly and rob Manford's been known to make the
37:20
Speaker 1: quickest of decisions. I say sarcastically, he's a slow poke.
37:24
Speaker 1: He's not making any decisions quickly. They need to decide
37:27
Speaker 1: if they're in or out, because if they're in, then
37:29
Speaker 1: every single team in the league is going to be
37:31
Speaker 1: using a bat like this. If he's out, well that
37:34
Speaker 1: the Yankees need to figure it out so that they
37:36
Speaker 1: can get the bats, normal bats, regular bats in the
37:39
Speaker 1: hands of their players asap.
37:42
Speaker 2: You don't want to.
37:43
Speaker 1: Be in a situation where you're the last one changing
37:45
Speaker 1: last point, Aaron Judge does not use one of those
37:49
Speaker 1: torpedo bats.
37:50
Speaker 2: All right.
37:50
Speaker 1: When we come back, Our two of the Craigway Show
37:52
Speaker 1: rolls on Next Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone.
37:57
Speaker 2: Our number two of.
37:57
Speaker 1: The Craig Way Show rolls on on a Monday edition.
38:01
Speaker 1: Andrews and will hang it out with you this Monday,
38:04
Speaker 1: Craig in Birmingham, getting you up for TCU and Texas
38:08
Speaker 1: tonight five forty five air times six pm. Tip right
38:11
Speaker 1: here on the Zone. Huge game. Obviously, it's a Texas
38:16
Speaker 1: two step between two of the best teams in women's hoops. Now,
38:21
Speaker 1: we already have an idea of who will be basing
38:25
Speaker 1: off or we already have an idea of who Texas
38:27
Speaker 1: will be playing if they move past this one into
38:30
Speaker 1: the Final four, and that would be a rematch against
38:34
Speaker 1: South Carolina, who it is hard to beat a good
38:39
Speaker 1: team twice. It's even harder to face that same team
38:43
Speaker 1: three four times this season. Now Texas and South Carolina
38:47
Speaker 1: is split during the regular season, lost to South Carolina
38:50
Speaker 1: in the.
38:51
Speaker 2: SEC Championship game.
38:53
Speaker 1: There's a world where if Texas wins tonight, the Final
38:56
Speaker 1: four matchup will be against number one South Carolina, number
39:01
Speaker 1: one seed Texas, number one South Carolina, number one Ucla
39:04
Speaker 1: got the job done yesterday against LSU. We'll hear from
39:08
Speaker 1: Kim Mulki here in a bit as well. So we
39:11
Speaker 1: have half of the final four set. The other game tonight,
39:15
Speaker 1: USC and Yukon. Now Yukon with Page Beckers, feels like
39:20
Speaker 1: the favorite in a lot of ways. It feels like
39:25
Speaker 1: a lot of people are picking Yukon to move on
39:28
Speaker 1: to win against a team in USC Without Juju Watkins.
39:32
Speaker 1: I can tell you this, I wish Juju wasn't injured
39:35
Speaker 1: because this game between USC and Yukon would be e electric.
39:40
Speaker 1: Two of the best players in Beckers and Juju Watkins
39:45
Speaker 1: tonight though, Massive Booker and Hailey van Lift another matchup
39:49
Speaker 1: between two of the best players in college hoops. It's exciting.
39:52
Speaker 1: I jokingly I texted Cameron Parker earlier today, not so
39:57
Speaker 1: not fully joking, half joking, chung and tongue cheek. I
40:01
Speaker 1: am a Texas State alum. Obviously I talk about Texa day.
40:04
Speaker 1: I love Texas State. I'm more excited for TCU and
40:07
Speaker 1: Texas than probably any game that Texas State has played,
40:11
Speaker 1: which is saying something. I'm mister Bob kat and I'm
40:13
Speaker 1: all in on this matchup in the elite ate.
40:17
Speaker 2: I'm over the moon.
40:18
Speaker 1: The other big news happening today, you should be mentioned
40:22
Speaker 1: that Sam Ellinger did get a new deal done with
40:28
Speaker 1: the Broncos. He is going to I think he signed
40:31
Speaker 1: a one year deal to continue his career with the
40:39
Speaker 1: Denver Broncos, which is exciting. That'll be That'll be a
40:42
Speaker 1: fun one as well. Other big news coaches meetings are
40:47
Speaker 1: happening today, which means coaches and media availability was today
40:50
Speaker 1: and the big talk of the town is the Twust push.
40:54
Speaker 1: Now tomorrow is the NFC coaches So Nick Sirianni the
40:57
Speaker 1: defending Super Bowl champion head coach will be able to
41:01
Speaker 1: speak on the topic. And I have a sneaking suspicion
41:03
Speaker 1: that the play that has helped him win more games
41:06
Speaker 1: in almost any other coach in the NFL over the
41:10
Speaker 1: past two seasons, three seasons since going to the Super
41:13
Speaker 1: Bowl in twenty twenty one, then winning at this or
41:16
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, and then winning it this year, there's
41:19
Speaker 1: probably no other coach who is going to defend it
41:22
Speaker 1: as much.
41:23
Speaker 2: But it was came as a.
41:24
Speaker 1: Surprise to me that Sean McDermott, who is running a
41:28
Speaker 1: very similar style of offense with Josh Allen, another big
41:32
Speaker 1: bruising quarterback, very athletic quarterback and has been known to
41:37
Speaker 1: run a tush push in his day, was so anti
41:43
Speaker 1: tush push when asked about it today in his availability.
41:46
Speaker 1: This is what he had to say about the banning
41:49
Speaker 1: the potential banning of the play.
41:52
Speaker 17: What are you seeing with the helping champion of the player, since,
41:55
Speaker 17: as you've said, there is really no dabt in to
41:57
Speaker 17: say there's injuries, Like, what are you saying?
41:58
Speaker 18: I mean, I think anytime you get.
42:00
Speaker 7: In it's two things.
42:01
Speaker 2: It's it's force added force.
42:03
Speaker 18: Number one and then the posture of the players. You know,
42:08
Speaker 18: be An asked execut that type of play. That's where
42:11
Speaker 18: that's where my concern comes in.
42:14
Speaker 15: Do you think you'll continue to run the play if
42:16
Speaker 15: it remains and you have concerns about the shape?
42:18
Speaker 3: Think you'll continue to run it? Because I think you
42:20
Speaker 3: ran it quite a bit last year.
42:21
Speaker 18: A form of it, right, A form of it, So
42:23
Speaker 18: I think that's a It's a loose term really in
42:26
Speaker 18: terms of what what defines a push push soh you know,
42:33
Speaker 18: so there's there's different forms of it out there. I
42:36
Speaker 18: know we are one of the teams that people identify
42:39
Speaker 18: that run it.
42:40
Speaker 7: That's fair.
42:41
Speaker 13: Uh, you know there's other teams as well.
42:43
Speaker 18: So I just look, we're gonna We're gonna always act
42:45
Speaker 18: in a way that's best for the health and safety
42:48
Speaker 18: of the players, and I think that's the responsible way
42:50
Speaker 18: to go.
42:51
Speaker 2: Which is very interesting.
42:52
Speaker 1: You see the reporter there almost try to get in
42:55
Speaker 1: with a gotcha type of question, right, like, okay, well
42:57
Speaker 1: you run it, Well why do you you get to
43:00
Speaker 1: run it and the other teams don't. I will tell
43:03
Speaker 1: you from the eyeball test, And I have this idea
43:07
Speaker 1: that Sean McDermott and the other coaches are all going
43:10
Speaker 1: from game by game, situation by situation on how this
43:16
Speaker 1: play is run. I can tell you watching Josh Allen
43:19
Speaker 1: run the Tousch push a lot different than Jalen Hurts
43:22
Speaker 1: in that Josh Allen stands almost straight up when he
43:25
Speaker 1: runs it, and Josh Jalen Hurts is a lot closer
43:29
Speaker 1: to the center, a lot sharper downward.
43:33
Speaker 2: So I understand where.
43:34
Speaker 1: He's coming from when he talks about the angles other
43:37
Speaker 1: coaches quoted. Mike Tomlin was asked about it. He's on
43:41
Speaker 1: the committee for Player Safety. He said that he's gonna
43:46
Speaker 1: have an open mind ahead of more conversations. Chief head
43:49
Speaker 1: coach Andy Reid said, if it's putting players in a
43:52
Speaker 1: bad position, then you probably have to do something about it.
43:55
Speaker 1: But you could argue it either way. John Harball, which
43:58
Speaker 1: is a football's guy, football guy, he said, let's a
44:02
Speaker 1: football play. So if football players are down for it,
44:05
Speaker 1: then he's okay.
44:07
Speaker 2: With it too, I imagine.
44:08
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be curious what goes on or how
44:12
Speaker 1: this play is officiated going forward. Will the rules committee
44:16
Speaker 1: decide to get rid of it completely? Also, like I said,
44:20
Speaker 1: Nick Sirianni, the head coach of the Eagles, will speak
44:22
Speaker 1: tomorrow when the NFC coaches are available to the media
44:25
Speaker 1: at their coaches Clinic and Palm Beach. It'll be curious
44:29
Speaker 1: what the head coach, Matt Laflora says. As the Green
44:34
Speaker 1: Bay Packers were the ones that brought up banning in
44:37
Speaker 1: the first place, I'm always curious, like, what do those
44:40
Speaker 1: backdoor conversations look like. Do the Packers think that if
44:44
Speaker 1: they were playing the Eagles without the tush push that
44:47
Speaker 1: they would be in a better spot with Do they
44:49
Speaker 1: think that they watched the Super Bowl this past February
44:51
Speaker 1: and say that could have been us. I want to
44:54
Speaker 1: know what's going on in their heads, because obviously player
44:57
Speaker 1: safety is paramount, it's the most important thing. But it's
45:01
Speaker 1: ironic that it would be coming from the NFL, who
45:04
Speaker 1: historically has not really cared that much about player safety. Right,
45:08
Speaker 1: they don't have the greatest of track records with that.
45:12
Speaker 1: Speaking of bad track records, this is a good segue
45:14
Speaker 1: into Kim Moulky. Now, if you've watched women's hoops over
45:19
Speaker 1: the past decade, you know Kim Mulky. She is one
45:22
Speaker 1: of the characters of the sport, and she's one of
45:25
Speaker 1: the most important figures in women's athletics.
45:29
Speaker 2: Point play, period does not matter.
45:30
Speaker 1: College of pro Kim Mulkey is one of the most
45:34
Speaker 1: important players, one of the most important coaches. She is
45:37
Speaker 1: an impactful figure. And you I want to juxtapose this
45:42
Speaker 1: Kim Mulkey interview quote because it's getting a lot of
45:44
Speaker 1: steam here. One to juxtapose it with the way that
45:48
Speaker 1: Vick Schaeffer spoke with student media.
45:51
Speaker 17: Jaden Smith kale isstry sports coaches the second straight year,
45:55
Speaker 17: You guys could eliminate it in the elite aid just
45:57
Speaker 17: keep it.
45:58
Speaker 6: Yeah, terrible.
46:02
Speaker 8: How many found four as you play in?
46:06
Speaker 14: Uh?
46:06
Speaker 6: None, So it's probably pretty good.
46:08
Speaker 2: Huh yeah.
46:09
Speaker 19: All right.
46:10
Speaker 1: So I understand where he's coming from. That young reporter
46:13
Speaker 1: is from KLSU, which is the student radio station at LSU.
46:18
Speaker 1: So they're making the trek to go cover this game
46:22
Speaker 1: for their student publication. And I've been on the record.
46:25
Speaker 1: I am a product of student media. I like student
46:28
Speaker 1: media the Daily Text, and what they've done covering the
46:31
Speaker 1: University of women's basketball program is outstanding. It does not
46:34
Speaker 1: get better than what they did. But this is just
46:37
Speaker 1: another step in a long laundry list of Kim mulkey
46:43
Speaker 1: unforced errors. In my mind, this she didn't need to
46:47
Speaker 1: be like this. The question was, uh, you can't get
46:51
Speaker 1: past the lead dates second past year. Again, Kim Monkey's
46:53
Speaker 1: won national championship with LSU. So that is the standard
46:57
Speaker 1: for that program. You win national championship in year nomber one,
47:00
Speaker 1: coaching the team, you put a target on your back.
47:03
Speaker 1: This is a tough standard to live up to. You
47:06
Speaker 1: can't capacity alleitiate two previous years.
47:09
Speaker 2: She asked. The question, is that terrible? Is that good?
47:11
Speaker 1: The reporter answers, Hey, if the options are it's good
47:15
Speaker 1: that you lost or it's bad that you lost, I
47:17
Speaker 1: want to pick.
47:17
Speaker 2: The bad one. I'm gonna say it's not good.
47:20
Speaker 1: And then to act like, well, you know, how many
47:22
Speaker 1: have you played in listen, We've all been in a
47:26
Speaker 1: spot before where obviously you're talking to somebody who's a
47:29
Speaker 1: little bit more talented than you, who's had a little
47:31
Speaker 1: bit more success than you, who's gone a couple.
47:33
Speaker 2: More vacations than you.
47:34
Speaker 1: And if you can't give them any critique, if you
47:38
Speaker 1: can't ask them any questions, if you can't hold them
47:40
Speaker 1: to any sort of standard, then you are at a
47:43
Speaker 1: very tough spot. It does not matter if you're a
47:45
Speaker 1: journalist or if you're just a manager, it does not matter.
47:48
Speaker 1: You have to be able to question the people in
47:52
Speaker 1: these positions. And for Kim Wlkey to do that to
47:54
Speaker 1: a student reporter, it does not look good. It does
47:56
Speaker 1: not shed any good light on all a coach who
48:01
Speaker 1: carries a lot of weight in the sport. You gotta
48:03
Speaker 1: treat your reporters. Got to treat student reporters, especially a
48:07
Speaker 1: little bit better than that. All right, When we come back,
48:09
Speaker 1: Mike Harball Haards from the Morning Kick my favorite Montreal Expo.
48:14
Speaker 1: He's going to join us to talk yout baseball as
48:16
Speaker 1: the Longhorns have won six in a row, continue to
48:19
Speaker 1: dominate in SEC play, and also did the Yankees ruin
48:23
Speaker 1: baseball with these torpedo bats? All coming up next to
48:25
Speaker 1: the Craigway Show, Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone, Sports
48:29
Speaker 1: Radio AM thirteen hundred, the Zone and on the phone line.
48:32
Speaker 1: He's half of the Morning Kickoff on the Zone. You
48:35
Speaker 1: can hear him every morning from seven to nine am
48:38
Speaker 1: right here on thirteen hundred Zone. It's Mike Carball Haarde. Mike,
48:42
Speaker 1: how you today, buddy?
48:44
Speaker 13: I'm good Man. Beautiful day out here in Austin, Texas.
48:47
Speaker 13: And obviously you know there's a lot going on with
48:51
Speaker 13: Texas Athletics. New new coach baseball team is doing well,
48:55
Speaker 13: new coach for basketball. Baseball team is doing well. Women
48:58
Speaker 13: got a big game tonight, and you know Texas Swimming
49:03
Speaker 13: and Diving men swimming and diving wins the national championship.
49:06
Speaker 13: So it's a beautiful day in Austin, Texas.
49:07
Speaker 2: It doesn't get better than that.
49:09
Speaker 1: Also doesn't get better than will Gasprino had a great
49:12
Speaker 1: week this week, was the SEC Player of the Week.
49:17
Speaker 1: Five home runs, thirteen RBIs boy, oh boy, talk about
49:20
Speaker 1: being hot.
49:22
Speaker 13: Yeah, he was in fuego. I mean that's the literal
49:25
Speaker 13: term of it. I mean when a guy can come
49:27
Speaker 13: to the plate and see the ball so well, playing
49:30
Speaker 13: in that jet stream in Columbia, Missouri. But everybody that
49:34
Speaker 13: I talked to said every single ball that he was hit,
49:37
Speaker 13: that he hit would have been out of any park
49:39
Speaker 13: in America. So there's been nothing short of impressive to
49:42
Speaker 13: see that guy get going for a team that is
49:45
Speaker 13: playing some really really good baseball this week.
49:48
Speaker 1: Let's talk about this because you mentioned all the new
49:50
Speaker 1: head coaches and Jim Slowsnegle. He got hired actually when
49:53
Speaker 1: you were on vacation last summer and we got to
49:55
Speaker 1: talk about that. So where were your expectations? Were they
49:59
Speaker 1: this hot that like this is going to be a
50:01
Speaker 1: guy completely changes this program as a completely one to
50:04
Speaker 1: eighty from last year at this time.
50:07
Speaker 13: Yeah, well, I mean it's the expectation, right, you come
50:09
Speaker 13: to the University of Texas after being in the College
50:12
Speaker 13: World Series with a team in Texas A and M.
50:14
Speaker 13: You look at his history and what he's been able
50:16
Speaker 13: to do throughout his time, and he's a Hall of Famer,
50:20
Speaker 13: so you did expect some good things. Now, you know,
50:23
Speaker 13: his biggest recruiting trip was to be able to keep
50:25
Speaker 13: the players that he did and then get some different
50:28
Speaker 13: transfers to come in and try to help, like even
50:31
Speaker 13: on the pitching now. But I mean, everybody expected Texas
50:35
Speaker 13: to be good in baseball, but at the top of
50:37
Speaker 13: the sec, the tough SEC, it has been a really
50:42
Speaker 13: pleasant surprise.
50:43
Speaker 1: Well, I'll be honest with you, Mike, I was worried
50:45
Speaker 1: when he comes to Texas and he doesn't bring a
50:47
Speaker 1: ton of those A and M players with him. Hey,
50:49
Speaker 1: turns out was the players who was the coaching Well.
50:52
Speaker 13: Not only that is the respect of the other university.
50:55
Speaker 13: I know a lot of people want to look at
50:56
Speaker 13: it and say, well they didn't. He left the university
50:59
Speaker 13: of a bad spot, but he gets an opportunity to
51:02
Speaker 13: go elsewhere, and he didn't take a lot of those guys.
51:05
Speaker 13: He did take this staff, which is always tough, but
51:09
Speaker 13: Texas needed that staff. You see what they've been able
51:12
Speaker 13: to do with the pitching staff. You see what they're
51:15
Speaker 13: doing at the plagues. He added Troy to Lewhiskey. They've
51:18
Speaker 13: done some really amazing things with going out and using
51:21
Speaker 13: Texas players but also getting a few here and there
51:24
Speaker 13: in the transfer portal.
51:25
Speaker 1: Well, you're talking about that coaching staff, and I'm going
51:28
Speaker 1: to make a take here, and you might correct me.
51:30
Speaker 1: I think Max Wieders is his best assistant coach in
51:33
Speaker 1: baseball right now, Mike, I don't think that there's another
51:35
Speaker 1: coach closer to what he's done with this pitching staff.
51:39
Speaker 13: Well, you can also, I mean no doubt what the
51:41
Speaker 13: pitching staff, But then you also look at what Troy
51:44
Speaker 13: two Lewhisky's than ever to do with the hitters. The
51:47
Speaker 13: fielding is getting better. You can't underestimate those types of things,
51:51
Speaker 13: but then you start to look at how things have
51:54
Speaker 13: gone down. There's been nothing short of impressive. But I
51:56
Speaker 13: do agree with you that amp Farm is doing really
51:59
Speaker 13: really well right now and got all these guys pitching.
52:02
Speaker 17: Well.
52:02
Speaker 2: Oh I love that Little and Farm take. I like
52:04
Speaker 2: that all right.
52:05
Speaker 1: They have a big one tomorrow against Texas State, and
52:08
Speaker 1: I know every rolls or eyes, mister bobcas say it's
52:10
Speaker 1: a big win. I think Texastan's a OK ball club.
52:13
Speaker 1: I think this is a good tune up weekday matchup.
52:16
Speaker 1: And then they got Georgia coming this weekend.
52:20
Speaker 13: Oh, you're absolutely right. You know the series. I mean
52:22
Speaker 13: at Texas versus Texas State, both of these teams really
52:26
Speaker 13: compete against each other. The coaching staffs are really really good.
52:29
Speaker 13: You brought it up and what they've been able to do.
52:31
Speaker 13: So I've been appreciative of this series. The one thing
52:35
Speaker 13: that I always try to really bring into it, it's
52:39
Speaker 13: last week when they had the big series against LSU.
52:43
Speaker 13: They came back out. They ended up getting that win
52:45
Speaker 13: on Tuesday. To bounce back time, that's the most important
52:49
Speaker 13: part of it. Are you going to be able to
52:51
Speaker 13: bounce back and That is what a lot of folks
52:53
Speaker 13: keep looking at.
52:54
Speaker 1: Well, I like it too, because I think the Texas State,
52:57
Speaker 1: Sam Houston State UTSA, they're going to throw their best
53:00
Speaker 1: picture at you. They're bringing their A game, and it's
53:02
Speaker 1: good to get that on a Tuesday because when you
53:04
Speaker 1: go to SEC play, well, you're getting the best players
53:07
Speaker 1: in the country against you.
53:09
Speaker 13: Oh yeah, it's always going to be a struggle. It's
53:11
Speaker 13: always going to be a battle, and everybody wants to
53:14
Speaker 13: knock off one of the top teams in the country
53:16
Speaker 13: like Texas. You know, the new polls come out, they
53:19
Speaker 13: continue to move up, they continue to handle their business,
53:21
Speaker 13: and they've done some amazing things. So every week Texas
53:25
Speaker 13: is being challenged and Texas is being challenged within themselves.
53:29
Speaker 1: All right, Week one of Major League Baseball comes and goes,
53:32
Speaker 1: and the biggest storyline is the fact that the Yankees
53:35
Speaker 1: broke baseball with these bats.
53:36
Speaker 13: Mike, what was your take, man, Look, here's the deal.
53:40
Speaker 13: If they've been approved by Major League Baseball, they're not
53:42
Speaker 13: doing anything that's not legal. And here's the other part
53:45
Speaker 13: of it. If the Major League baseballs are being like that,
53:49
Speaker 13: that's the thing that I continue to look like, Hey, listen,
53:51
Speaker 13: y'all might need to go get new bats. Everybody just
53:54
Speaker 13: order up, get that company going, and now you get
53:56
Speaker 13: new baseball bats. If it's all within the rules. The
53:59
Speaker 13: Major League Baseball understood that going in, there's no problem
54:02
Speaker 13: with it. I wish I was playing so I could
54:04
Speaker 13: get those torpedoes too well, because.
54:06
Speaker 2: That was my question.
54:07
Speaker 1: So I said that the biggest thing is the fact
54:10
Speaker 1: that the weight is equalized. It does not matter if
54:12
Speaker 1: it's a torpedo bat or a regular bat. The weight
54:15
Speaker 1: has to be the same because you know, if you
54:17
Speaker 1: pick up a bat that's just a couple of grands
54:20
Speaker 1: heavier than your normal one, they'll throw off your swing.
54:23
Speaker 13: Absolutely, And not only that, you start looking at the
54:26
Speaker 13: fact when I was playing, I'm telling to get off
54:28
Speaker 13: my long guy, there was a regular Louisville slugger, and
54:31
Speaker 13: then all of a sudden you started getting this ash back.
54:34
Speaker 13: Then you look at the bomb back, then you look
54:36
Speaker 13: at the different sand back. There's so many different varieties
54:39
Speaker 13: that people have found a way to make them. And
54:42
Speaker 13: it was a little bit harder, but it was still
54:44
Speaker 13: regulated by Major League Baseball. So as long as the
54:47
Speaker 13: regulations are what they are, that's all you can do well.
54:51
Speaker 1: The other part is too you still have to put
54:53
Speaker 1: bat on ball, and I think the Yankees did a
54:54
Speaker 1: good job last year putting down on ball. The ball
54:57
Speaker 1: just happened to not leave the infield. Now these balls
55:00
Speaker 1: are leaving the park.
55:02
Speaker 13: Well, they're a good hitting team. I said it earlier today,
55:04
Speaker 13: if you listen to the Morning kicked Off on Sports
55:06
Speaker 13: Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone, I talked about the single
55:10
Speaker 13: fact that all these guys have to be able to hit.
55:12
Speaker 13: You look at Aaron Judge. You can't talk about the
55:14
Speaker 13: fact that he's not able to hit the ball out
55:16
Speaker 13: of the ballparks. He just got hot at the right
55:19
Speaker 13: time and finding the barrel. Jass Chisselm. You start looking
55:22
Speaker 13: at all of these guys in this lineup, their.
55:25
Speaker 3: Home run hitters.
55:26
Speaker 13: I mean, they're in the big league four reasons they've
55:28
Speaker 13: had success, so it's not out of the ordinary. It's
55:31
Speaker 13: just right now. They faced the pitchel staffs that was
55:34
Speaker 13: giving it up well.
55:35
Speaker 1: And then you do the divisional rival. Rafael Devers can't
55:39
Speaker 1: hit a ball to save his life. Ten strikeouts worth starting.
55:42
Speaker 1: I think of any Red Sox player to start a
55:45
Speaker 1: season like I mean, it's not the bad it's the.
55:48
Speaker 13: Hitter, no doubt about it. I mean, it ain't the
55:51
Speaker 13: hair row is sandy and right. You got to be
55:52
Speaker 13: able to go out there and do the things that
55:54
Speaker 13: you're capable of. I think Raphael Devers is really trying
55:57
Speaker 13: to do too much at this particular time, and now
56:00
Speaker 13: we're just trying to see what's gonna happen. I don't
56:03
Speaker 13: see him going through that long period of a slump
56:07
Speaker 13: just because he's d h in the whole time. I
56:09
Speaker 13: think it's gonna be a big chance for him, and
56:11
Speaker 13: I think he's gonna be Okay.
56:12
Speaker 1: Well, let me ask you that, because if were you
56:14
Speaker 1: ever in a spot where you have your position, you're
56:16
Speaker 1: gonna play third base, and then all of a sudden,
56:19
Speaker 1: right before the season starts to say, actually, big boy,
56:21
Speaker 1: you just got to hit.
56:22
Speaker 2: Does that mess with your head as a hitter.
56:25
Speaker 13: It may a little bit. Not as a hitter, it
56:27
Speaker 13: may it messes with your psyche as a player, that's
56:31
Speaker 13: the biggest thing. Yeah, But going into it, he should
56:34
Speaker 13: have known he's got the worst building percentage in Major
56:37
Speaker 13: League Baseball. So it's not like it's a.
56:40
Speaker 6: Shot that he is that bad.
56:41
Speaker 13: But the reality of it all is. You still got
56:44
Speaker 13: to put the ball in play. Hitting and defense are
56:46
Speaker 13: two different things. No, you don't want to carry your
56:49
Speaker 13: your defense to the plate and you don't want to
56:51
Speaker 13: carry your plate to the defense.
56:53
Speaker 1: So got to make a ju just all right before
56:56
Speaker 1: I let you go. Big matchups tonight Texas and TCU.
56:59
Speaker 1: I heard you this, mort but give us to us again.
57:01
Speaker 1: What is your prediction for tonight's matchup?
57:05
Speaker 13: No, I'm just kidding, I just was. I hope that
57:08
Speaker 13: Technics can come out and play solid defense. That's been
57:11
Speaker 13: there calling card all season along the things that they're
57:14
Speaker 13: able to do defensively, the movement, being able to suffocate
57:18
Speaker 13: other teams, that's their calling card. And of course you
57:20
Speaker 13: got to make buffets. Texas doesn't shoot threes, and you
57:23
Speaker 13: got to make sure that TCU doesn't shoot a bunch
57:26
Speaker 13: of threes. If Texas can do that, I thinke the
57:29
Speaker 13: Longhorns wins. The one thing that you don't want to
57:31
Speaker 13: see either is your big time post players getting in
57:34
Speaker 13: foul trouble. Sadanah Prince, former Texas Longhorn herself, you have
57:39
Speaker 13: to make sure that she's not too physical, and you
57:41
Speaker 13: don't try to be so physical with her either. If
57:44
Speaker 13: they let them play, I think Texas wins.
57:47
Speaker 1: You can hear them every morning seventy nine right here
57:49
Speaker 1: on The Zone the Morning Kickoff.
57:51
Speaker 2: With Mark Henry. He's hardball hard Thanks so much, Mike.
57:55
Speaker 13: Always a pleasure. Andrew keep holding it down, the best
57:57
Speaker 13: six man in the business.
57:59
Speaker 1: Hey, we like to hear all right when we come back.
58:02
Speaker 1: None of the coaches seem happy with the Super regionals.
58:05
Speaker 1: We'll hear from them next right here on the crag
58:07
Speaker 1: Wat Show on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone,
58:11
Speaker 1: Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred, The Zone. You can follow
58:14
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at Andrew Underscore Zimmel, or on Blue
58:17
Speaker 1: Sky or on Instagram wherever you do your social media
58:20
Speaker 1: as I am there.
58:22
Speaker 2: I'm addicted to it all right.
58:24
Speaker 1: So the debate is raging on currently in women's hoops,
58:30
Speaker 1: and it is not who is the best team in
58:32
Speaker 1: the country. It's not who has the best scheme. The
58:35
Speaker 1: debate is between the superregionals and their locations. Now, the
58:39
Speaker 1: two superregionals that occurred it is Spokane where they are
58:43
Speaker 1: playing Region one in Region four, and Birmingham where they're
58:46
Speaker 1: playing Region two in Region three. Now, the issue with
58:50
Speaker 1: this is that the Final four is being played in
58:53
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay, so it is a far trip for those
58:56
Speaker 1: teams on the West coast to go to the East coast,
58:59
Speaker 1: and little easier for the Birmingham teams, which would be
59:02
Speaker 1: South Carolina and Texas. A little bit more difficult for
59:05
Speaker 1: the UCLA's, the Yukons and the USC's of the world.
59:08
Speaker 14: Now.
59:09
Speaker 1: Geo uh is the coach of Yukon. Coachio is one
59:15
Speaker 1: of the best coaches h He is a guy who's
59:18
Speaker 1: won many national championships at Yukon. He is very very
59:23
Speaker 1: upset about the way that the Super Regionals have been
59:26
Speaker 1: set up, and he did not let anybody here. He
59:30
Speaker 1: told everybody who would listen about it.
59:32
Speaker 20: In a normal world run by normal people, there would
59:37
Speaker 20: only be four teams here, which means.
59:40
Speaker 3: There would be no games today.
59:43
Speaker 20: The games would be tomorrow, which means we wouldn't have
59:46
Speaker 20: to get up at six am to have an eight
59:48
Speaker 20: o'clock practice here this morning for an hour, which means
59:51
Speaker 20: we wouldn't have to get up at five am to
59:53
Speaker 20: have a seven thirty shoot around for half an hour.
59:56
Speaker 20: Take us longer to get through security than to actually
59:59
Speaker 20: be on the court. God bless whoever wins Monday night, okay,
1:00:04
Speaker 20: and they've got to fly cross country, which is all
1:00:07
Speaker 20: day Tuesday. Then they have two days Wednesday and Thursday
1:00:11
Speaker 20: to play the biggest game of their life.
1:00:13
Speaker 3: The guys they finished Sunday.
1:00:16
Speaker 20: Then they have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and they
1:00:19
Speaker 20: play Saturday. But there's a lot of people in the
1:00:20
Speaker 20: w Onnes' basketball committee that think they're smarter than that.
1:00:24
Speaker 20: So whoever came up with this super regional stuff, and
1:00:27
Speaker 20: I know who they are, ruined the game.
1:00:29
Speaker 3: They did.
1:00:30
Speaker 20: They ruined the game. Half the country has no chance
1:00:33
Speaker 20: to get to a game in person. But you're making
1:00:36
Speaker 20: billions off of TV. Well, actually you're not. That would
1:00:39
Speaker 20: be the men's tournament. So yeah, there's a lot of
1:00:42
Speaker 20: issues that they need to fix.
1:00:43
Speaker 1: Gino ari Ima, the head coach of the Yukon women's
1:00:46
Speaker 1: basketball program, very upset.
1:00:48
Speaker 16: Now.
1:00:48
Speaker 1: What's interesting, though, is he talks about the travel for
1:00:51
Speaker 1: his team, all right, having to travel from one side
1:00:53
Speaker 1: of the country to the other, but then he also
1:00:55
Speaker 1: slips in there about the players or the fans, which, okay,
1:00:59
Speaker 1: that tear my heartstrings a little bit more than the
1:01:02
Speaker 1: team's traveling, because let's be honest. Here, they're not flying commercial.
1:01:06
Speaker 1: They're going to be flying in pretty nice plans. Okay,
1:01:08
Speaker 1: even though it's college athletics, it's still pretty nice charter
1:01:11
Speaker 1: plans that we're flying around in. But you mentioned the fans,
1:01:16
Speaker 1: and this is where Kim Moulky steps in. She got
1:01:19
Speaker 1: asked about does she agree with Gino or does she not?
1:01:25
Speaker 21: I agree with Gino on everything he said about these
1:01:28
Speaker 21: super regionals only being in two places.
1:01:31
Speaker 8: We sold our soul too early.
1:01:34
Speaker 21: This game has gotten better, and man, if you still
1:01:38
Speaker 21: had four regionals, can.
1:01:39
Speaker 8: You imagine the attendants.
1:01:41
Speaker 21: I know our fan base they can't afford to come
1:01:44
Speaker 21: to Spokane, but they could if it was a little
1:01:47
Speaker 21: bit closer. It does matter. It matters a lot. Maybe
1:01:53
Speaker 21: it doesn't win a game for you, but the reason
1:01:57
Speaker 21: it matters is you build programs a lot of times
1:02:01
Speaker 21: and you can sell to recruit your fan base, your attendance.
1:02:06
Speaker 21: And I agree with Gino. We need to fix this.
1:02:11
Speaker 21: We don't have to wait till the contracts up. Let
1:02:14
Speaker 21: the two, let the people keep their super regionals, just.
1:02:17
Speaker 7: Go add too.
1:02:18
Speaker 8: Now.
1:02:18
Speaker 21: I've never ever been one to believe that you can't
1:02:22
Speaker 21: work things out if it's better for the game.
1:02:24
Speaker 1: So I like where Kim Molkey's head is out with this. Okay, A,
1:02:28
Speaker 1: this is for the fans. Our fans can't travel from
1:02:30
Speaker 1: Baton Rouge to Spokane, Washington, but they might be able
1:02:33
Speaker 1: to travel to Phoenix or San Antonio or Houston or Dallas.
1:02:38
Speaker 1: We also do not need to wait around to solve
1:02:41
Speaker 1: this problem. Yes, the contract is coming up for women's
1:02:45
Speaker 1: hoops here in a couple of seasons. I think it's
1:02:46
Speaker 1: like two seasons for that ESPN contract to come up.
1:02:50
Speaker 1: But the game has grown, obviously, the call it the
1:02:53
Speaker 1: cay the Clark effect if you want, or call it
1:02:55
Speaker 1: that people are finally appreciating great basketball that's been played
1:03:00
Speaker 1: women's college hoops for what almost fifteen years now, whatever
1:03:03
Speaker 1: you want to say, is the reason that they're getting
1:03:06
Speaker 1: the eyeballs. They're getting the eyeballs now, and you should
1:03:08
Speaker 1: be able to, you know, capitalize on that. I understand
1:03:11
Speaker 1: where Kim molk is coming from, and I also get
1:03:14
Speaker 1: where Gino Arianna is coming from as well. The head coach,
1:03:17
Speaker 1: would you cont So what's interesting though, or the thing
1:03:21
Speaker 1: that may peak most long worn fans attention, is that
1:03:24
Speaker 1: this is something that head coach Vick Schaeffer has been
1:03:29
Speaker 1: arguing for for a while now, and he was asked
1:03:33
Speaker 1: about it yesterday during his media availability.
1:03:35
Speaker 11: I was the lone ranger last year. I experienced what
1:03:39
Speaker 11: they're complaining about now. I experienced it last year, and
1:03:43
Speaker 11: you know, I was kind of the lone ranger.
1:03:46
Speaker 3: But I have to agree with him.
1:03:49
Speaker 11: I mean, it just you know, we're trying to have
1:03:52
Speaker 11: a press conference right now and it sounds like there's
1:03:54
Speaker 11: a dead gum party next door. Last year, I had
1:03:57
Speaker 11: a press conference and they had some machine backing up
1:03:59
Speaker 11: with the beat beat beat going on. I mean, there
1:04:02
Speaker 11: just seems to me that there can be better organization
1:04:05
Speaker 11: and better planning all around.
1:04:09
Speaker 3: And this is this is not it, as I would
1:04:13
Speaker 3: tell my kids. But they're right.
1:04:16
Speaker 11: You got to get them up at seven in the
1:04:17
Speaker 11: morning for a thirty minute shoot around at the most
1:04:20
Speaker 11: important time of the year. You know, it's just there's
1:04:25
Speaker 11: eight teams here. It's problematic, and so it's it's it's
1:04:30
Speaker 11: just I would agree. I guess I probably just better
1:04:34
Speaker 11: leave it at that. You know, I would agree with
1:04:36
Speaker 11: what they said.
1:04:37
Speaker 1: I agree with both coaches as well as well as
1:04:40
Speaker 1: Vic Schaeffer.
1:04:40
Speaker 2: He makes a great point.
1:04:41
Speaker 1: He says, Hey, we've gone from being essentially second class
1:04:46
Speaker 1: citizens when it comes to the NCAA March madness, where
1:04:49
Speaker 1: remember in twenty twenty where we were arguing about our
1:04:53
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen I should say, when we were arguing about
1:04:55
Speaker 1: the treatment of the women's teams and how they weren't
1:04:58
Speaker 1: getting fed properly and they didn't have the proper locker
1:05:00
Speaker 1: rooms or weight rooms or everything else like that. We've
1:05:02
Speaker 1: gone from that to now. We deserve to have multiple
1:05:06
Speaker 1: locations for these games to make the product a better product. Obviously,
1:05:11
Speaker 1: with Gino talking about how we have to go from
1:05:14
Speaker 1: one side of the country to the other, and the
1:05:16
Speaker 1: national championship in the final four will not be as competitive,
1:05:19
Speaker 1: will not be as exciting if the players are coming
1:05:21
Speaker 1: off a plane and having to go to a hotel
1:05:23
Speaker 1: and having to go to the practice facility, all within
1:05:26
Speaker 1: a couple of hours of each other. We want to
1:05:29
Speaker 1: have the best product available. The best way to do
1:05:31
Speaker 1: that is to have multiple Super Region locations. Now, I
1:05:35
Speaker 1: do think we might have to drop the name super
1:05:37
Speaker 1: if we're having four different locations instead of just two. However,
1:05:42
Speaker 1: I agree, I understand where they're coming from. I love
1:05:45
Speaker 1: the fact that Vick Schaeffer also brought back to home
1:05:49
Speaker 1: or ring home Ring true that Hey, I've been battling
1:05:53
Speaker 1: this for a while. This is not the first time
1:05:57
Speaker 1: I have brought up this problem with the NCAA. This
1:06:00
Speaker 1: isn't the first time that I have kind of shined
1:06:03
Speaker 1: light towards this issue. Why is it that when Gino
1:06:08
Speaker 1: complains about it and Kim Moulk complains about it, that
1:06:10
Speaker 1: it is getting the eyeballs. It's the same thing I've
1:06:13
Speaker 1: been saying about the ACL injury. When Roy Harmon tore
1:06:16
Speaker 1: her ACL, people in the forty Acres, people in Austin,
1:06:20
Speaker 1: people in the Burnt Orange bubble agreed. We all were, Oh,
1:06:23
Speaker 1: this is an awful thing and it's a hard road
1:06:25
Speaker 1: back from an ACL injury. But when Juji Watkins does it,
1:06:29
Speaker 1: it's a national news. And I'm not saying it shouldn't be.
1:06:31
Speaker 1: She's an incredible player, maybe the best player in the country.
1:06:34
Speaker 1: But it felt like, okay, well, now all of these
1:06:37
Speaker 1: rehabilitation stories, all of this ACL talk is brought back
1:06:42
Speaker 1: up because of Jiuji Watkins, not because and Roy Harmon
1:06:46
Speaker 1: got asked about it again yesterday about recovering from an
1:06:49
Speaker 1: ACL injury. Is it because we care about it now
1:06:53
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, or is it because another player
1:06:56
Speaker 1: has dealing with this as well. I'm glad that Vic
1:06:59
Speaker 1: Shaffer brought it up. I'm glad that he agrees and
1:07:01
Speaker 1: I agree with him that it makes the most sense
1:07:04
Speaker 1: for us to have multiple locations for these games. All right,
1:07:07
Speaker 1: when we come back, Craig Way talked to one of
1:07:10
Speaker 1: the high one of the stars of a win against
1:07:14
Speaker 1: the Lady Bowls on Saturday. We'll hear it next right
1:07:17
Speaker 1: here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred of The Zone.
1:07:20
Speaker 1: Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. As we wrap
1:07:23
Speaker 1: up our number two of the Craigway Show. It's only
1:07:28
Speaker 1: fitting that we hear from Craig Way. He's going to
1:07:30
Speaker 1: join us live at four seventeen. Preview this matchup tonight
1:07:35
Speaker 1: between Texas and TCU, a Texas two step, if you will,
1:07:41
Speaker 1: Between two of the best teams in the state. The
1:07:44
Speaker 1: former Big twelve champion versus the current Big twelve champion,
1:07:48
Speaker 1: Haley Van Lift, one of the most exciting players in
1:07:52
Speaker 1: women's hoops versus Madison Booker, who's up next sophomore SEC
1:07:56
Speaker 1: Player of the Year, and she will be the face
1:07:59
Speaker 1: of college basketball next season. But we want to get
1:08:03
Speaker 1: into this with Brianda Preston because craig Way sat down
1:08:06
Speaker 1: with her for an interview. The freshman had a season
1:08:10
Speaker 1: high twelve points in a win against Tennessee on Saturday.
1:08:15
Speaker 1: Almost everybody knew she was going to be a star,
1:08:17
Speaker 1: they didn't realize how quickly she was going to be.
1:08:19
Speaker 1: The first ever Sweet Sixteen game she plays in, she's
1:08:23
Speaker 1: a menace on both sides of the court ended up
1:08:25
Speaker 1: with three steals as well. Here is Craigway's interview with
1:08:29
Speaker 1: Brianna Preston.
1:08:31
Speaker 22: So yesterday on the post game, I asked Maddie about
1:08:35
Speaker 22: the three of you being on the floor, and she goes,
1:08:36
Speaker 22: three point guards on the floor. So when that dynamic
1:08:40
Speaker 22: is going on, and obviously there's instruction coming to the
1:08:42
Speaker 22: bench on who's running and things like that, this is.
1:08:44
Speaker 6: A real comfort level with the three of you on
1:08:46
Speaker 6: how you make it work.
1:08:48
Speaker 23: Absolutely, like it doesn't matter who's ringing the ball up
1:08:51
Speaker 23: the court. As long as we all know, you know,
1:08:53
Speaker 23: we know to play, we know what we're doing, and
1:08:55
Speaker 23: just execute, it really doesn't matter.
1:08:58
Speaker 8: Like and I love the fact that we're interchangeable.
1:09:01
Speaker 23: Well, not me at the four or nothing like that,
1:09:03
Speaker 23: but like we're interchangeable at the point or the two guard,
1:09:07
Speaker 23: you know, three guard, and that's really good for our
1:09:10
Speaker 23: team because we can run different sets for different you know, positions,
1:09:15
Speaker 23: and it all works out.
1:09:16
Speaker 6: For us well.
1:09:17
Speaker 22: And I guess Mattie's time playing the point last year
1:09:19
Speaker 22: certainly helps in that interchangeability.
1:09:22
Speaker 23: But absolutely, for sure she knows, you know, what coach wants,
1:09:26
Speaker 23: and we got us set a place when she's at
1:09:29
Speaker 23: the point guard that'll work for us, and that experience
1:09:33
Speaker 23: already just helps us.
1:09:35
Speaker 22: So yesterday you have your career high of twelve points,
1:09:38
Speaker 22: and I know you're out there for a lot more discording.
1:09:40
Speaker 22: So I was rolling back through to see when your
1:09:42
Speaker 22: last career high was, and it was eleven.
1:09:45
Speaker 6: Do you remember when it was?
1:09:46
Speaker 8: Do I remember when? Probably early in the season.
1:09:49
Speaker 22: The season opener, Okay, Southeast Missouri State. So obviously you've
1:09:55
Speaker 22: improved more than just one point since the season opener.
1:09:58
Speaker 22: But where has your game I think regressed for you
1:10:02
Speaker 22: from all the way to start of the year till now.
1:10:04
Speaker 23: I'd have to say defensively, I've really been taking pride
1:10:07
Speaker 23: to my defense and I know that coach. That's something
1:10:10
Speaker 23: that coach really wants and I know that to get
1:10:12
Speaker 23: on the floor, to get minutes, I have to play defense.
1:10:15
Speaker 23: But it just helps us as a team. I'm playing
1:10:18
Speaker 23: ball pressure, not allowing the point guard to you know,
1:10:20
Speaker 23: run their offense and stuff like that, getting stops in
1:10:23
Speaker 23: big moments, you know, games like against Tennessee like those
1:10:27
Speaker 23: a crucial moments and a big plays to help us
1:10:30
Speaker 23: get the win.
1:10:31
Speaker 22: Well, and they obviously this team you're gonna play now
1:10:34
Speaker 22: has really good guard play as well.
1:10:35
Speaker 6: So when you look at them, what do you what
1:10:36
Speaker 6: do you see from TCU's guards.
1:10:39
Speaker 23: I see a great vet and they you know, Haley
1:10:41
Speaker 23: van Lift high IQ, great player, very skilled shooter.
1:10:46
Speaker 8: I'm not sure what her name is, but I know
1:10:48
Speaker 8: her number.
1:10:48
Speaker 7: She's number two.
1:10:50
Speaker 8: Common lights out shooter, like.
1:10:52
Speaker 23: Hands down, like she got the green green light, and
1:10:56
Speaker 23: just like down in making sure we can't like we
1:10:58
Speaker 23: don't allow her to get shots off, kind of disrupting
1:11:01
Speaker 23: Haley a little bit from running the offense, taking care
1:11:04
Speaker 23: of Sedona and the paint with our bigs.
1:11:06
Speaker 8: But I think they'll do a really great job.
1:11:09
Speaker 23: We work hard, compete against you know, our practice boys,
1:11:12
Speaker 23: and stuff like that.
1:11:14
Speaker 8: But I think we'll be ready, especially like defensively.
1:11:17
Speaker 23: And we know we're always locked in defensively, and then
1:11:20
Speaker 23: the offense just being aggressive, you know, running the floor,
1:11:24
Speaker 23: just making good place.
1:11:25
Speaker 22: So you've had this everything is structured, scheduled practice, games,
1:11:30
Speaker 22: press conference, all this other kind stuff. If you like
1:11:32
Speaker 22: yourself on an opportunity to enjoy this, to enjoy this
1:11:34
Speaker 22: right absolutely.
1:11:36
Speaker 23: Like sometimes I'll just sit back and I'll talk to
1:11:39
Speaker 23: Jordan or you know, Rory, and we just kind of
1:11:41
Speaker 23: just take it in just to enjoy like the blessing
1:11:45
Speaker 23: of being here, you know, with team and then family
1:11:48
Speaker 23: traveling and stuff like.
1:11:49
Speaker 8: It's great and overall for.
1:11:51
Speaker 23: Women's basketball, it's really good, and we just want to
1:11:54
Speaker 23: keep the ball rolling.
1:11:55
Speaker 1: The Longhorns force eighteen turnovers in a win against the
1:11:58
Speaker 1: Lady Bulls on Saturday, sixty seven to fifty nine win.
1:12:01
Speaker 1: And in that matchup, yes, Rory Harmon also played good
1:12:07
Speaker 1: defense forcing for or getting for a steel or what
1:12:11
Speaker 1: a steal as well in that one and along with
1:12:15
Speaker 1: four assists. So this is a matchup tonight between two
1:12:18
Speaker 1: teams that I've been saying have feel like they match
1:12:21
Speaker 1: up perfectly across the board right. TCU has Haley Van Lift,
1:12:25
Speaker 1: the Longhorns have Madison Booker. TCU has Madison Connors, who's
1:12:31
Speaker 1: a three point shooter. Texas has Ory Harmon defensive specialist.
1:12:35
Speaker 1: So Donah Prince versus Taylor Jones. It just across the board.
1:12:38
Speaker 1: There's so much talent on both of these rosters. They
1:12:41
Speaker 1: match up perfectly. This is one of those games that
1:12:45
Speaker 1: when you look back on in ten to fifteen years,
1:12:47
Speaker 1: you're gonna remember it.
1:12:48
Speaker 2: That's how excited I am.
1:12:49
Speaker 1: Tip off tonight six pm five to forty five pre
1:12:52
Speaker 1: game right here on the Zone and Craig Way will
1:12:54
Speaker 1: join us to preview the game here in about twenty
1:12:56
Speaker 1: minutes to talk Texas and TCU. Now, Roy Harmon got
1:13:00
Speaker 1: asked about the matchup and tonight and how she how
1:13:06
Speaker 1: excited she is to show up for defense abilities against
1:13:09
Speaker 1: a player like Hailey Van Lyft.
1:13:11
Speaker 13: Yeah.
1:13:11
Speaker 7: I feel like I don't really have to prove much.
1:13:14
Speaker 7: I've been doing this for a while.
1:13:16
Speaker 12: Ever since I was a freshman or even before college,
1:13:19
Speaker 12: I've been playing defense the way I do.
1:13:22
Speaker 7: I just you know, I'm just more fundamentally sound at
1:13:25
Speaker 7: it now.
1:13:25
Speaker 12: But I'm excited for that matchup. I'm excited for the competition.
1:13:30
Speaker 12: I'm always gonna take on whoever their best player is.
1:13:33
Speaker 12: I have best player.
1:13:34
Speaker 7: I love that. I take that with responsibility, and.
1:13:39
Speaker 12: Like my teammates say and my coach say, like how
1:13:42
Speaker 12: I come out and attack and punch on defense, That's
1:13:45
Speaker 12: basically how the team is going to play.
1:13:47
Speaker 7: So how hard I plays, how we're gonna play. And
1:13:49
Speaker 7: I'm always gonna take that responsibility.
1:13:52
Speaker 1: To be able to limit Haley van Lyft will be
1:13:55
Speaker 1: one of those exciting factors tonight. Obviously it's the battle
1:13:58
Speaker 1: down low. The front court matchup between Prince and Jones
1:14:02
Speaker 1: will be something that is obviously going to matter. Read
1:14:05
Speaker 1: out of the basketball will matter, but Rory Harmon's ability
1:14:08
Speaker 1: to slow down the guard play of TCU will matter
1:14:12
Speaker 1: a ton and massive Booker, who after winning Big twelve
1:14:16
Speaker 1: Player of the Year last year as a freshman, who
1:14:18
Speaker 1: now wins SEC player as a sophomore and All American.
1:14:23
Speaker 1: She got asked, do you look forward to matchups where
1:14:25
Speaker 1: it is a situation like this, where it is star
1:14:28
Speaker 1: versus star?
1:14:30
Speaker 17: I mean, well, for one, I think to see was
1:14:32
Speaker 17: a great a great team that we saw in Big
1:14:36
Speaker 17: Twelve last year, when we were when we were big
1:14:38
Speaker 17: twelve and just seeing them now, how they're a completely
1:14:41
Speaker 17: different team. I think, I think just one, like our
1:14:43
Speaker 17: teammates are just like kind of like looking forward to
1:14:46
Speaker 17: that matchup. You know, it's a new team, like a
1:14:49
Speaker 17: different conference too.
1:14:50
Speaker 7: But for me, I was ready to play.
1:14:53
Speaker 3: I'm ready to win.
1:14:55
Speaker 17: I kind of look at accolades because I think everybody's
1:14:57
Speaker 17: great for a reason here. I think that's why everybody's
1:14:59
Speaker 17: on his team, and like the both teams are talented,
1:15:03
Speaker 17: and I just think like we're about to look like
1:15:05
Speaker 17: a great comment like when talent is talent, like like
1:15:09
Speaker 17: what's there to breen? And But no, I'm I'm looking
1:15:12
Speaker 17: forward to it. I feel like, you know, in high school,
1:15:14
Speaker 17: like I kind of watched her too, like a Louisville
1:15:17
Speaker 17: Mill issue and stuff like that.
1:15:19
Speaker 2: But yeah, I'm looking.
1:15:21
Speaker 7: Forward to it.
1:15:22
Speaker 1: A humble superstar in Madison book or somebody excited to
1:15:25
Speaker 1: play tonight who immediately talks to or talks about her
1:15:29
Speaker 1: teammates now much they bring to the table as well.
1:15:31
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a whole team effort. If the Longhorns
1:15:34
Speaker 1: want to cut down the nets and move on to
1:15:36
Speaker 1: the final four. And a matchup against South Carolina. A
1:15:40
Speaker 1: fourth matchup against South Carolina, but they got to get
1:15:44
Speaker 1: the job done tonight first.
1:15:45
Speaker 2: That game tips off six pm. Right here on the Zone.
1:15:48
Speaker 1: Our number three on the Way or number one seeds
1:15:52
Speaker 1: in men's basketball coming to San Antonio the first time
1:15:56
Speaker 1: since two thousand and eight. We'll hear from some of
1:15:57
Speaker 1: the coaches. Next Sports Radio, a third d the Zone,
1:16:08
Speaker 1: our three of the Craig Waves show as we roll
1:16:10
Speaker 1: on on a Monday edition of the program. Thank you
1:16:14
Speaker 1: guys for hanging out with us. As we continue to
1:16:18
Speaker 1: roll on, roll in, Roll and roll in. TCU in
1:16:21
Speaker 1: Texas played tonight in the Elite on the women's side
1:16:24
Speaker 1: of things. Craig Way will join us in about seventeen
1:16:27
Speaker 1: minutes to Talk Texas to preview us for a matchup
1:16:32
Speaker 1: for the Ages, the Texas Two Step. These two schools
1:16:35
Speaker 1: used to play each other in the Southwest, used to
1:16:38
Speaker 1: play each other in the Big Twelve, and it feels
1:16:40
Speaker 1: like there's a power switch, a move towards TCU in
1:16:44
Speaker 1: the Big twelve. Texas the new kids on the block
1:16:47
Speaker 1: when it comes to the SEC. They potentially have a
1:16:50
Speaker 1: matchup with the defending national champion South Carolina game Cocks
1:16:55
Speaker 1: in the final four, but the guy get the job done.
1:16:57
Speaker 1: Tonight first tip off six pm. Greig We will join
1:17:00
Speaker 1: us in about fifteen minutes. All right, men's side of things.
1:17:04
Speaker 1: We know the four teams traveling to San Antonio, one
1:17:07
Speaker 1: of them being University of Houston, and Houston gets here
1:17:12
Speaker 1: in a matchup with Cooper Flagg and the five time
1:17:15
Speaker 1: national champion Duke Blue Devils, thanks in part to a
1:17:18
Speaker 1: win against Tennessee, the number two seed in their region.
1:17:22
Speaker 1: Houston wins sixty nine to fifty, and they look good
1:17:26
Speaker 1: while doing it. The Cougars broke the school single season
1:17:30
Speaker 1: record for wins, extending the nation's longest active winning streak
1:17:34
Speaker 1: seventeen games and Calvin Sampson's third chance to reach his
1:17:38
Speaker 1: first national championship. Houston has played in college basketball's biggest
1:17:43
Speaker 1: stage twice, losing the title game in nineteen eighty three
1:17:46
Speaker 1: to NC State and then nineteen eighty four to Georgetown
1:17:49
Speaker 1: during the five Slamajama era. They're back, in part thanks
1:17:54
Speaker 1: to the shooting of Emmanuel Sharp finished with fourteen of
1:17:59
Speaker 1: his sixteen point in the second half, and the nation's
1:18:02
Speaker 1: best defense gets them to the Final four. And gets
1:18:06
Speaker 1: them a trip to San Antonio, about three hours away
1:18:10
Speaker 1: from their home court.
1:18:12
Speaker 3: Now.
1:18:12
Speaker 1: Calvin Samson spoke yesterday after the win about a subject
1:18:17
Speaker 1: that college coaches have been talking about pretty much all year,
1:18:20
Speaker 1: which is home court advantage and how much that means.
1:18:24
Speaker 3: We didn't really talk about that with our team.
1:18:26
Speaker 19: We just says two more road games that if Kentucky
1:18:30
Speaker 19: had won today, that would be a road game because
1:18:32
Speaker 19: their fans are going to quadruple our fans. Tennessee's fans
1:18:36
Speaker 19: were awesome today. What's the attendance at this place? They
1:18:40
Speaker 19: might know, what's his seat total?
1:18:43
Speaker 6: Eighteen?
1:18:44
Speaker 19: Well, we had eighteen today, coach eighteen thousand, so that's
1:18:47
Speaker 19: probably what sixteen thousand Tennessee fans. That's awesome for Tennessee.
1:18:52
Speaker 19: It's a jump on the interstate and get here. But
1:18:56
Speaker 19: that's what we'll do next week. We'll jump on the
1:18:58
Speaker 19: interstate and we'll hit to San Antonio. So that's why
1:19:02
Speaker 19: you don't complain because it can flip the other way.
1:19:04
Speaker 19: Proud of our guys for finding a way to win.
1:19:07
Speaker 19: We'd be two outstanding programs, not just teams, great programs
1:19:11
Speaker 19: here this week and Purdue in Tennessee.
1:19:13
Speaker 1: Now those games played yesterday where at Lucas Oil Stadium
1:19:16
Speaker 1: in Indianapolis, Indiana for that matchup against Tennessee nook.
1:19:21
Speaker 2: He's right.
1:19:22
Speaker 1: This is something that we've talked about at length and
1:19:25
Speaker 1: nauseum about where the SEC Women's tournament was, where it
1:19:30
Speaker 1: was just a couple of miles away from South Carolina's campus,
1:19:34
Speaker 1: and Vic Schaeffer was not so thrilled. Hey, it's in Greenville.
1:19:38
Speaker 1: I would like this to be a little bit more
1:19:39
Speaker 1: of a neutral site. Then we go to Birmingham. All right,
1:19:42
Speaker 1: it's a little closer to Austin, but it's also a
1:19:45
Speaker 1: little closer to Tennessee. Okay, so I understand what Calvin
1:19:49
Speaker 1: Sampson's talking about. I will say, somebody who was on
1:19:52
Speaker 1: the river walk last night walking around town, the conversation
1:19:57
Speaker 1: in San Antonio is the excitement is about the FI
1:20:00
Speaker 1: Final four played at the Almo Dome. It's big to
1:20:03
Speaker 1: bring it back to San Antonio just down the road,
1:20:05
Speaker 1: right big. I was walking downtown. Everybody tells me that
1:20:10
Speaker 1: the people will start showing up around Thursday, Friday Sunday.
1:20:14
Speaker 1: If your team's not playing in the National Championship, you're
1:20:16
Speaker 1: out of here. Sunday is the worst day to try
1:20:18
Speaker 1: to drive by the airport in San Antonio. Yesterday night,
1:20:22
Speaker 1: I was already seeing two fan bases. I was already
1:20:25
Speaker 1: seeing Duke fans. Now, maybe it's because they're a national brand.
1:20:28
Speaker 1: It's easy to buy a Duke shirt. I saw Duke fans,
1:20:31
Speaker 1: and I saw a ton of Houston Cougar fans already
1:20:35
Speaker 1: in downtown San Antonio. So it will be a home environment.
1:20:40
Speaker 1: I imagine when the Cougars and Duke play, this is
1:20:46
Speaker 1: gonna be. It's not gonna be fifty to fifty. I'll
1:20:47
Speaker 1: go sixty to forty Cougar's over Blue Devil fans in
1:20:52
Speaker 1: the Alamodome. It's gonna be an electric atmosphere. That game
1:20:55
Speaker 1: played on Saturday. It's a late game on Saturday as
1:20:59
Speaker 1: well the early game on Saturday. In the Men's Final four,
1:21:02
Speaker 1: one seed All Burn versus one seed Florida, Florida gets
1:21:05
Speaker 1: to the Final four, thanks in part to the great
1:21:09
Speaker 1: shooting of Walter Clayton Junior rallied scores late in the
1:21:15
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. The Red Raiders led by nine with just
1:21:20
Speaker 1: about two minutes left in that contest, and Yeah, Florida
1:21:27
Speaker 1: moves on Tennis, dar Texas Tech goes home sad in
1:21:32
Speaker 1: that one. But back to Calvin Sampson, the connection to
1:21:35
Speaker 1: San Antonio. Obviously his team playing in the Final four
1:21:39
Speaker 1: against Duke, but the legendary coach for the San Antonio Spurs,
1:21:44
Speaker 1: Greg Popovic, actually wrote wrote to Calvin Sampson, and he
1:21:48
Speaker 1: spoke to the media afterwards.
1:21:50
Speaker 3: I'm the happiest person of San Antonio the day. Not
1:21:53
Speaker 3: as happy as you, Karen and the family in the
1:21:55
Speaker 3: whole program built for good character. Bravo my pitch.
1:21:59
Speaker 19: Then from way back on our Waltz Skien, your of
1:22:02
Speaker 19: San Francisco enjoyed the wind to night with a good grid.
1:22:07
Speaker 19: It's just that pop right, He's not just a good friend,
1:22:11
Speaker 19: is more than that, He's almost family.
1:22:14
Speaker 1: That was Greg Popovich texting Calvin Sampson after the win
1:22:19
Speaker 1: to congratulate him. And what a classy move by Greg
1:22:24
Speaker 1: Popovich to reach out and talk to the coach of
1:22:27
Speaker 1: the Cougars. Heartfelt message obviously, and especially when you consider
1:22:32
Speaker 1: that Popovich is recovering from a mild stroke he suffered
1:22:36
Speaker 1: earlier this NBA season to have the ability the you
1:22:40
Speaker 1: know where with all the thought to say, hey, enjoyed
1:22:43
Speaker 1: the win.
1:22:44
Speaker 2: Great job.
1:22:45
Speaker 1: That's huge, and I would love to see Pop maybe
1:22:48
Speaker 1: not on the sideline, but maybe in a box somewhere,
1:22:51
Speaker 1: maybe near court side. Potentially he won't want to be
1:22:55
Speaker 1: on camera, but he will be somebody, hopefully in the
1:22:57
Speaker 1: building when the Cougars come to town and have a
1:23:01
Speaker 1: chance to win the Kelvin Sampson's first national championship, in
1:23:06
Speaker 1: Houston's first national championship for men's basketball. All Right, Craig
1:23:11
Speaker 1: Wait joining the programing here in about ten minutes to
1:23:13
Speaker 1: talk Texas and TCU tonight. And it's a big one obviously,
1:23:20
Speaker 1: the Texas. Two Texas teams playing each other in the
1:23:24
Speaker 1: Elite Eight with a chance to move on to the
1:23:26
Speaker 1: Final four and take on South Carolina. Now we know
1:23:29
Speaker 1: two of the or we know half of the final four.
1:23:31
Speaker 1: We know it's going to be UCLA on one side
1:23:33
Speaker 1: and South Carolina on the other. Texas takes on TCU
1:23:37
Speaker 1: and Yukon taking on USC. The Yukon Huskies favored largely
1:23:44
Speaker 1: in this contest. They feel very good, especially with USC
1:23:48
Speaker 1: without their star Juji Watkins due to an ACL injury.
1:23:52
Speaker 1: But if you watch the game against if you watch
1:23:55
Speaker 1: the game of UCLA, play or a usc I should
1:23:57
Speaker 1: say play. The other night, they had a cute little
1:24:01
Speaker 1: funko pop. They had a funko pop of Juju Watkins
1:24:05
Speaker 1: on the sideline with them. Because Juju is recovering from
1:24:08
Speaker 1: that ACL injury, she can't be on the sideline with
1:24:10
Speaker 1: her team. It was very cute, very nice to see
1:24:14
Speaker 1: the little essentially a little action figure almost of their
1:24:19
Speaker 1: teammate on the sideline with them, and it gives an
1:24:22
Speaker 1: idea of the camaraderie and all these players pulling in
1:24:26
Speaker 1: the same direction. Now they won. They beat number five
1:24:29
Speaker 1: seed Kansas State sixty seven to sixty one on Sunday.
1:24:34
Speaker 1: They feel good, they look good, and they're going to
1:24:38
Speaker 1: go up against a machine in the Huskies Yukon with
1:24:43
Speaker 1: pagebackers in their final season. She said that she's going
1:24:47
Speaker 1: into the WNBA draft after the end of this season.
1:24:51
Speaker 1: This is a team in Yukon that is firing all cylinders,
1:24:56
Speaker 1: and especially when you consider the pedigree at Yukon, you
1:25:00
Speaker 1: cannot be considered one of the best players to come
1:25:02
Speaker 1: through there without winning a national championship. This is the
1:25:05
Speaker 1: same program that gave us Sue Berd Diana Tarassi Granta start.
1:25:10
Speaker 1: This is a legendary women's basketball program and arguably the
1:25:14
Speaker 1: college basketball program of the twenty first century, men's or women.
1:25:18
Speaker 1: This is a great head coach, this is a great player.
1:25:21
Speaker 1: USC is gonna have. Usc is gonna have their work
1:25:25
Speaker 1: cutout for them tonight, and UCLA They're gonna have their
1:25:29
Speaker 1: work cutout for them in the National Championship or in
1:25:31
Speaker 1: the Final four. I should say, does not matter which
1:25:35
Speaker 1: side of it, does not matter which team comes out
1:25:40
Speaker 1: of this USC and Yukon game. All right, when we
1:25:44
Speaker 1: come back, Craig Way joins the program, getting us ready
1:25:47
Speaker 1: for tonight's matchup, previewing Texas and TCU all coming up
1:25:51
Speaker 1: next The Craigway Show, as we roll on on Sports
1:25:54
Speaker 1: Radio AM thirteen hundred at the Zone. Sports Radio AM
1:25:57
Speaker 1: thirteen hundred The Zone and hanging out with the this
1:26:00
Speaker 1: afternoon is Craig Way gearing up for Texas and TCU
1:26:04
Speaker 1: tonight six pm, Tip five forty five airtime right here
1:26:07
Speaker 1: on the Zone.
1:26:07
Speaker 2: Craig, how you doing today, buddy?
1:26:11
Speaker 6: He's in beautiful at X and in where you are, saytown.
1:26:16
Speaker 1: Yes, sir San Antonio, feeling very good and I was
1:26:20
Speaker 1: Texan Cameron earlier, Craig I said that I'm mister Bobcat.
1:26:23
Speaker 2: I love my text say Bobcats.
1:26:25
Speaker 1: But man, oh man, am I more excited for this
1:26:27
Speaker 1: game tonight than any other game I've seen in this
1:26:30
Speaker 1: calendar year at the least.
1:26:31
Speaker 6: Well, let's just put it this way.
1:26:33
Speaker 22: It's been pretty widely anticipated. After all, they are the
1:26:40
Speaker 22: numbers one in two seeds. The programs know each other well.
1:26:45
Speaker 22: But of course they didn't play this year because Texas
1:26:48
Speaker 22: in its first year in the SEC and TCU still
1:26:51
Speaker 22: in the Big twelve. They have played fifty seven times.
1:26:56
Speaker 22: As a matter of fact, Andrew fifty seven times. You
1:26:58
Speaker 22: know how many times Texas is one out of the
1:27:00
Speaker 22: fifty seven.
1:27:01
Speaker 2: Let me guess forty eight.
1:27:04
Speaker 6: You'd be under selling him.
1:27:05
Speaker 22: They won fifty three of the fifty seven, and really
1:27:10
Speaker 22: and truly TCU I think has won three like in
1:27:14
Speaker 22: the past ten years. And then that's been about it.
1:27:18
Speaker 22: You know, for decades, Texas dominated it. But tc of
1:27:21
Speaker 22: course turned its fortunes around, especially under Mark Campbell, their
1:27:25
Speaker 22: second year head coach. He's an interesting study because he
1:27:29
Speaker 22: was an assistant coach at Oregon when Vick Schaeffer had
1:27:33
Speaker 22: the number one seed in a region but the region
1:27:38
Speaker 22: was in Eugene, Oregon, and he had to play Oregon
1:27:41
Speaker 22: on their home floor and they lost. Or was in Portland,
1:27:45
Speaker 22: but they lost in the state of Oregon where they
1:27:47
Speaker 22: had a decided home court advantage, and Mark Campbell then
1:27:51
Speaker 22: went the Sacramento State, did well there and left for
1:27:56
Speaker 22: the TCU job. He took the TCU job site. He
1:28:00
Speaker 22: had never been on the campus and took the TCU job.
1:28:04
Speaker 22: And last year they had all kinds of problems. They
1:28:07
Speaker 22: had the illnesses, they had injuries, they had walk on
1:28:09
Speaker 22: so they had open tryouts. They actually had to forfeit
1:28:13
Speaker 22: a couple of games because they didn't have enough players
1:28:16
Speaker 22: to compete. And from that, from the ashes of that,
1:28:22
Speaker 22: he's been able to build this into the most successful
1:28:25
Speaker 22: women's basketball season in TCU history, both teams with identical
1:28:29
Speaker 22: thirty four and three records, TCU winning the regular season
1:28:33
Speaker 22: and Big Twelve Tournament championships, and for the first time
1:28:37
Speaker 22: ever getting to the Elite Eight. And I mean for
1:28:39
Speaker 22: the first time ever, first of all getting to the
1:28:41
Speaker 22: Sweet sixteen and now to the Elite eight. So he's
1:28:44
Speaker 22: done a fine job at the helm of TCU.
1:28:47
Speaker 1: Craig there was a TV show on Netflix called last
1:28:50
Speaker 1: chance U and it felt like this tc women's basketball
1:28:53
Speaker 1: program was that this season. So Dona Prince, she bounces around,
1:28:56
Speaker 1: starts at Texas, goes to Oregon, comes to TCU, felt
1:29:00
Speaker 1: like her last chance to play college basketball. Hailey van
1:29:03
Speaker 1: Lyft similar situation, right goes LSU. It's almost a reclamation
1:29:07
Speaker 1: project this year at TCU.
1:29:09
Speaker 22: Do you feel that, Well, it's a reclamation project, but
1:29:13
Speaker 22: for different reasons that the show that you're referencing there
1:29:17
Speaker 22: had a lot of guys with shady and in some
1:29:19
Speaker 22: cases criminal backgrounds on some of that. It wasn't quite
1:29:23
Speaker 22: like that, but I will, I will go this far
1:29:25
Speaker 22: with you on it.
1:29:27
Speaker 6: Hailey van Lyth had issues at her prior.
1:29:32
Speaker 22: To institutions at Louisville, and of course it was a
1:29:35
Speaker 22: couple of years ago where she had a big game
1:29:37
Speaker 22: for Louisville in the second round when they beat Texas
1:29:40
Speaker 22: and beat him a BYuT twenty two points. I mean
1:29:41
Speaker 22: beat him sadly at Moody Center. It's the first season
1:29:44
Speaker 22: in Moody Center and it's the only time that Vic
1:29:47
Speaker 22: Schaeffer has not been able to get his team to
1:29:50
Speaker 22: an Elite eight. The other four years, four seasons he's
1:29:55
Speaker 22: had him advanced to the Elite eight. Now he's not
1:29:57
Speaker 22: been able to get into the final four yet, and
1:29:59
Speaker 22: they're going to try to do that tonight. But the
1:30:01
Speaker 22: point was Haley Vanlith had some issues at Louisville and
1:30:05
Speaker 22: of course Jeff Waltz a real tough, hard nosed head
1:30:09
Speaker 22: coach there. So what if she used transfers to LSU
1:30:11
Speaker 22: to play for Kim Malkey and you know what that's
1:30:13
Speaker 22: going to be like. And she said there she needed
1:30:17
Speaker 22: a mental health break and there were some mental health
1:30:19
Speaker 22: issues and things like that.
1:30:20
Speaker 6: She needed a break from that.
1:30:23
Speaker 22: And so then so then after that she winds up
1:30:28
Speaker 22: transferring to TCU and has done the heck of a job.
1:30:32
Speaker 22: Sedonah Prince similar type situation, but it was more physical
1:30:36
Speaker 22: with regarding the injury. I remember when Sedona was actually
1:30:39
Speaker 22: traveling with the Texas team to a tournament in Fort Myers, Florida,
1:30:46
Speaker 22: and this was in this was Thanksgiving weekend of twenty eighteen,
1:30:51
Speaker 22: so that's over six years ago. She was a freshman,
1:30:55
Speaker 22: but she'd had this really bad leg injury, broken leg
1:30:59
Speaker 22: and then an infection came from it. When she was
1:31:01
Speaker 22: playing for the under eighteen national team in the prior summer,
1:31:04
Speaker 22: so she never suited up for Texas and she ended
1:31:07
Speaker 22: up transferring to Oregon. She played two seasons there. She
1:31:10
Speaker 22: transferred to TCU. This is her second season. And of
1:31:14
Speaker 22: course she's a you know, former Liberty Hill Lady panther,
1:31:19
Speaker 22: and she had committed when she was in the eighth grade.
1:31:22
Speaker 22: Her dream was always to play for Texas. It didn't
1:31:23
Speaker 22: work out, but and she felt kind of betrayed by
1:31:27
Speaker 22: the former staff. But she you know, that was the
1:31:30
Speaker 22: one when Karen Aston was the head coach. But she
1:31:32
Speaker 22: said she harbors no ill will towards Texas or obviously
1:31:36
Speaker 22: has nothing against Bick Schaeffer and in fact has been
1:31:39
Speaker 22: very impressed with what he's done. So it's kind of
1:31:43
Speaker 22: a clean slate in a lot of ways, I guess
1:31:45
Speaker 22: you might say for TCU and for Texas it's a
1:31:48
Speaker 22: different kind of clean slate. You know, they've been they've
1:31:51
Speaker 22: been getting here to the Sweet sixteen and Elite eight,
1:31:55
Speaker 22: but they haven't been able to get over the hump
1:31:58
Speaker 22: to get back to the Final four. They haven't been
1:31:59
Speaker 22: in the Final four to twenty two years since Jody
1:32:02
Speaker 22: Comrad was a coach in two thousand and three, So
1:32:06
Speaker 22: this is a and and Kathy Harshtam, my broadcast partner,
1:32:09
Speaker 22: was on Jody's staff back then, so it's a different
1:32:13
Speaker 22: sort of feel for them as well for TCU. A
1:32:16
Speaker 22: lot of this is brand new for Texas. I think
1:32:19
Speaker 22: they feel the urgency is there to get this done.
1:32:21
Speaker 22: And Vic said it in the news conference Andrew that
1:32:24
Speaker 22: he feels in the NCAA tournament this this game, the
1:32:28
Speaker 22: ELITEA game, is the most difficult of the six games
1:32:30
Speaker 22: to win, the one to get you over the hump
1:32:32
Speaker 22: into the Final four, because you feel so much tension
1:32:34
Speaker 22: and pressure and all that you're one step away from
1:32:37
Speaker 22: getting to the promised Land, so to speak. And then
1:32:39
Speaker 22: you almost feel like you're playing with house money if
1:32:41
Speaker 22: you get to the final four.
1:32:43
Speaker 6: Once you get.
1:32:43
Speaker 22: Especially if you're gonna have to face South Carolina, which
1:32:45
Speaker 22: Texas would have to in the semifinal, but they'd be
1:32:47
Speaker 22: happy to have to deal with.
1:32:48
Speaker 6: That if they can get through tonight.
1:32:50
Speaker 2: We know it's funny.
1:32:50
Speaker 1: Coach k on his podcast, Greg was talking about how
1:32:53
Speaker 1: when he was coaching, he looked at this game as
1:32:55
Speaker 1: the last game before the bridge that across the bridge.
1:32:58
Speaker 1: It's the national championship is all the you know, glitz
1:33:01
Speaker 1: and glamour, the milk and honey. But you got to
1:33:04
Speaker 1: get past this elead eight game first. Since the hardest
1:33:06
Speaker 1: game to coach in as a college basketball coach.
1:33:09
Speaker 22: All right, I've heard a lot of coaches say that.
1:33:11
Speaker 22: Rick Barnes said it, and I will tell you this.
1:33:14
Speaker 22: When Rick Barnes was the coach at Texas, the only
1:33:17
Speaker 22: time they went to the Final four was that same
1:33:19
Speaker 22: two thousand and three season. It was a magical gear
1:33:21
Speaker 22: for men's and women's basketball. So I called two final
1:33:24
Speaker 22: four games in twenty four hours, and I haven't called
1:33:26
Speaker 22: one since. That's how basketball horts sometimes. There was a
1:33:29
Speaker 22: men's final four game I did in New Orleans against
1:33:32
Speaker 22: Syracuse Wan Carmelo Anthony had an amazing game and beat
1:33:36
Speaker 22: Texas in the summer final round. And I got in
1:33:39
Speaker 22: the car and drove overnight to Atlanta and did the
1:33:41
Speaker 22: women's final four game against Yukon with Diana Tarassi. And
1:33:45
Speaker 22: they were heavy, heavy favorites, and it was a heck
1:33:47
Speaker 22: of a game. It was a seventy one to sixty
1:33:49
Speaker 22: nine ball game. So but Rick Barnes, I remember going
1:33:55
Speaker 22: to record the pregame interview with him before they played
1:33:57
Speaker 22: Michigan State in the Alamodome in the Elite eight in
1:34:01
Speaker 22: two thousand and three, And that's the most uptight I'd ever.
1:34:03
Speaker 6: Seen him ever before or since.
1:34:06
Speaker 22: Was that game the the final four game before the semifinals?
1:34:11
Speaker 22: He was, he was almost asleep. He was chilling in
1:34:14
Speaker 22: the back, almost taking a nap in the locker room,
1:34:17
Speaker 22: and went back to him. He was he was really
1:34:19
Speaker 22: at peace with it because they'd gotten over the hump there.
1:34:22
Speaker 22: So I think all of these coaches are saying the
1:34:24
Speaker 22: same thing. This game is the most difficult one to
1:34:28
Speaker 22: get because of the emotional, mental, psychological, if you will,
1:34:33
Speaker 22: pressures and what it commands of the coaches and of
1:34:37
Speaker 22: the players to try to win this game.
1:34:39
Speaker 1: So wanty in the x's and o's in the scouting
1:34:41
Speaker 1: report here, Craig, because obviously, to me, the difference maker
1:34:44
Speaker 1: in this game will be the frontcourt play of Texas
1:34:46
Speaker 1: Taylor Jones versus Prints, Like this matchup will be the
1:34:50
Speaker 1: matchup the sides of the game in my mind.
1:34:52
Speaker 22: Well, and they're gonna need more than just Taylor. They're
1:34:54
Speaker 22: gonna they're gonna need Kyla Oldacre as well. Uh, They're
1:34:57
Speaker 22: gonna need They're gonna need really to run both of them,
1:35:00
Speaker 22: those players, and they'll sub as they have throughout.
1:35:02
Speaker 6: The course of the year.
1:35:03
Speaker 22: They'll rotate, and for those two to be fresh against
1:35:07
Speaker 22: Sadonah Prince is going to be important. In talking with
1:35:11
Speaker 22: Chris Blake, the radio voice of TCUs women, we Chris
1:35:16
Speaker 22: and I went out with Chris Ewards, the Duke play
1:35:18
Speaker 22: by play guy. We all went out and ate barbecue
1:35:21
Speaker 22: Saturday night after all all of our teams had won
1:35:23
Speaker 22: in the first game, and we talked a lot about this,
1:35:27
Speaker 22: and Chris Blake feels the key for them, similar to
1:35:31
Speaker 22: what you're saying, is Sadona Prince cannot afford to get
1:35:33
Speaker 22: into foul difficulty because that's been a problem. But it's
1:35:35
Speaker 22: been a problem with the Texas post players as well,
1:35:38
Speaker 22: because it's a very physical brand of basketball that all
1:35:41
Speaker 22: three of those players play. Now, I'm going to agree
1:35:44
Speaker 22: with you on all of that, but I am going
1:35:46
Speaker 22: to tell you this. I think one other major key
1:35:52
Speaker 22: in this game is going to be how they guard. Yes,
1:35:56
Speaker 22: Hayley Vanlett, that's important, but the other players. Madison Connor,
1:36:00
Speaker 22: she's their second leading scorer. She's a forty six percent
1:36:03
Speaker 22: three point shooters. She has hit one hundred and twenty
1:36:06
Speaker 22: seven threes this year, and she it's kind of like
1:36:09
Speaker 22: when you ran the interview I had with Brianna Preston.
1:36:12
Speaker 22: She couldn't remember her name, but she knew it was
1:36:14
Speaker 22: number two, and that's Madison Connor. And so she talked
1:36:17
Speaker 22: about how important it was going to be to not
1:36:19
Speaker 22: let her have open looks. And I think that's gonna
1:36:22
Speaker 22: be portant. And then, you know, as with any NCAA
1:36:25
Speaker 22: tournament games, then gotta make shots.
1:36:28
Speaker 6: And Texas shot the.
1:36:29
Speaker 22: Ball well until the last half of the last quarter
1:36:33
Speaker 22: on Saturday, they were above fifty Heck, they hit ten
1:36:36
Speaker 22: of their first fifteen shots in the game, and they
1:36:39
Speaker 22: were above fifty percent the entire game until the last
1:36:42
Speaker 22: half of the last quarter. They missed their last six
1:36:44
Speaker 22: shots and some other ones, and they wound up. I
1:36:46
Speaker 22: they get forty seven percent, but they shot pretty well.
1:36:49
Speaker 22: But they're gonna guard you and they're going to defend you,
1:36:50
Speaker 22: and if they can keep away from fouling while doing that,
1:36:53
Speaker 22: then I like their chances tonight.
1:36:54
Speaker 1: And what's funny is that Vick Schaeffer has talked about
1:36:57
Speaker 1: how this team could shoot three. It's like, Hey, you
1:36:58
Speaker 1: might not think of him at three point shooting team,
1:37:00
Speaker 1: but they can knock down threes. Do you think there
1:37:03
Speaker 1: are that type of three point shooting team or do
1:37:05
Speaker 1: you think that this is all just coach talk to
1:37:07
Speaker 1: make sure the other team respects them from behind the arc?
1:37:10
Speaker 22: Well, I mean they have they have some who can shoot.
1:37:13
Speaker 22: It ain't Shay Holly can shoot threes. Madison Booker is
1:37:17
Speaker 22: a forty one percent three point shooter this year, but
1:37:21
Speaker 22: only thirty three percent in conference play. It dropped off
1:37:23
Speaker 22: or Ay Harmon has had an uptick in the second
1:37:27
Speaker 22: half of the season. But as a team, and here's
1:37:30
Speaker 22: what folks point to. As a team, Texas is shooting
1:37:34
Speaker 22: thirty percent beyond the arc. That's middle of a pack
1:37:38
Speaker 22: to below middle of the pack. TCU shoots thirty eight
1:37:41
Speaker 22: percent as a team beyond the arc. As a team,
1:37:44
Speaker 22: if you shoot forty percent from three point range, that's
1:37:47
Speaker 22: the same thing as shooting fifty percent from inside the arc.
1:37:50
Speaker 6: The math adds up to that.
1:37:53
Speaker 22: So that's why I say a big part of this
1:37:56
Speaker 22: is going to be how Texas guards the three guards
1:37:59
Speaker 22: the perim, but yet don't get so close that they
1:38:03
Speaker 22: allow a lot of straight line.
1:38:04
Speaker 6: Drives, because that's what Haley van Lyft can do.
1:38:06
Speaker 22: She can draw in the defense and then drive past
1:38:09
Speaker 22: and kick to an open teammate for a shot.
1:38:11
Speaker 1: All Right, I don't want to steal your entire pregame here, Craig.
1:38:13
Speaker 1: Pregame starts at five point forty five, tip off at six.
1:38:16
Speaker 1: But what's one thing that we have to know coming
1:38:19
Speaker 1: into this game?
1:38:21
Speaker 22: Well, I mean we've talked a lot about it. I
1:38:24
Speaker 22: think the depth is going to be important for Texas. Again,
1:38:28
Speaker 22: you just ran the interview with Brianna Preston. She came
1:38:30
Speaker 22: off a career game the thirteen points at a couple
1:38:33
Speaker 22: of huge steals. The depth of Texas has to outplay
1:38:37
Speaker 22: the depth of TCU tonight. And I do think the
1:38:39
Speaker 22: depth of Texas has an advantage there. But bre Preston
1:38:43
Speaker 22: and then also jockolinga win in Tanda, Jordan Lee. Whoever
1:38:48
Speaker 22: doesn't start, they've been alternating starting, whoever doesn't start, whoever
1:38:51
Speaker 22: comes off the bench, has to play well.
1:38:55
Speaker 6: I think those things.
1:38:56
Speaker 22: I do think Texas can put pressure on the horn
1:38:59
Speaker 22: Frogs to force them into some turnovers, but they're gonna
1:39:02
Speaker 22: have to have good play, not necessarily a lot of points,
1:39:06
Speaker 22: but good play out of their depth off their bench
1:39:09
Speaker 22: in order to win this game.
1:39:10
Speaker 1: Craig Ways on the call tonight as Texas takes on
1:39:13
Speaker 1: TCU in the Elite A. Craig, thank you so much.
1:39:15
Speaker 6: Man.
1:39:16
Speaker 22: Hey, I'm glad to be here, and I know tomorrow
1:39:20
Speaker 22: night it's back to Longhorn Baseball for a lot of folks.
1:39:25
Speaker 22: If Texas unfortunately does not advance, I'll be there with
1:39:28
Speaker 22: Keith Morland Tomar. Otherwise, I'm hoping it'll be Roger Wallas
1:39:31
Speaker 22: and Keith tomorrow night for the game Texas and Texas
1:39:33
Speaker 22: State because this team will have a quick turnaround and
1:39:35
Speaker 22: they're gonna head for Tampa if they win tonight, and
1:39:37
Speaker 22: then it's onto the Final four, and then that's a
1:39:39
Speaker 22: whole different subject to discuss, isn't it.
1:39:42
Speaker 1: We'll talk about it when it comes up. We don't
1:39:44
Speaker 1: want to cross that bridge before we need to exactly.
1:39:46
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Craig. All right, well, we roll on.
1:39:49
Speaker 1: We will talk. We hear from both coaches and players
1:39:53
Speaker 1: as we gear up for tonight's matchup front Court. Is
1:39:57
Speaker 1: the conversation all coming up? Bax in the Craigways Show
1:39:59
Speaker 1: on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Sports Radio
1:40:02
Speaker 1: AM thirteen hundred The Zone. If you missed any of
1:40:05
Speaker 1: the Craigway Show today, make sure you go back and
1:40:07
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1:40:12
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1:40:18
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Speaker 1: weekday right here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone.
1:40:26
Speaker 1: And you heard Mike Carge earlier the morning kickoff with
1:40:29
Speaker 1: the World's Strongest Man, Mark Henry seven to nine AM.
1:40:33
Speaker 2: Again right here on the Zone.
1:40:35
Speaker 1: Okay, we talked to Craig in the last segment about
1:40:38
Speaker 1: the matchup that we've circled. It is the front court matchup,
1:40:42
Speaker 1: and the head coach of the TC warn Frogs, Mark Campbell,
1:40:45
Speaker 1: spoke about his thoughts on Texas's front court depth.
1:40:51
Speaker 5: I mean, they got as good a front court as
1:40:54
Speaker 5: anybody in the country. Taylor Jones is an athletic, strong,
1:40:58
Speaker 5: versatal post player, and uh, the depth that they have
1:41:03
Speaker 5: at the post position. They got a lot of big
1:41:04
Speaker 5: bodies that they can throw at you. But they're a load,
1:41:08
Speaker 5: they're they're they're a load down there that weigh on you.
1:41:11
Speaker 5: And and so that's something that we're gonna have to
1:41:14
Speaker 5: to manage and deal with as best we can and
1:41:17
Speaker 5: try to keep those kids off the glass and don't
1:41:19
Speaker 5: let them have deep post position.
1:41:20
Speaker 2: And that's big, right.
1:41:21
Speaker 1: It's not only the fact that Texas has Taylor or
1:41:25
Speaker 1: Taylor Jones, but it also old Acre as well to
1:41:28
Speaker 1: have the ability to throw multiple bodies at the glass,
1:41:32
Speaker 1: which is something that most college teams you wish you
1:41:35
Speaker 1: had one player that you could just throw out to
1:41:38
Speaker 1: grab rebounds and defend. Texas has multiple players who can
1:41:42
Speaker 1: do that, so not only front court talent, but also
1:41:46
Speaker 1: front court talent depth and Vic Shaefer got asked about
1:41:49
Speaker 1: the changes in rotation with your bigs an old Acre
1:41:52
Speaker 1: and Jones.
1:41:54
Speaker 11: Yeah, I think you know, both of them, they're going
1:41:58
Speaker 11: to have to do a great job, you know, down
1:42:00
Speaker 11: low with with Prince and certainly both of them, we'll
1:42:06
Speaker 11: get it, you know, they'll get a dose of it,
1:42:08
Speaker 11: and so we'll we'll have to be really good down there.
1:42:11
Speaker 11: And and but again I think you've got to do
1:42:14
Speaker 11: some work early with her and at the same time.
1:42:18
Speaker 11: You know, they they they really do a nice job.
1:42:23
Speaker 11: You know, he was at Oregon and and a lot
1:42:25
Speaker 11: of that stuff that they've run for a long time
1:42:28
Speaker 11: they continue to run at TCU and so and they're
1:42:32
Speaker 11: really good at it. And again, when you've got to
1:42:34
Speaker 11: when you've got a player like like Hayley who can
1:42:37
Speaker 11: kind of ignite it and run it, be the quarterback
1:42:40
Speaker 11: of it, it's again you're talking about a player that
1:42:43
Speaker 11: scores at all three levels, but can can really assist
1:42:46
Speaker 11: at the same levels too, And so you've got to
1:42:50
Speaker 11: really you've got to really be focused. But you can't
1:42:54
Speaker 11: lose focus. You can't lose you know, two out there
1:42:57
Speaker 11: on the perimeter, you can't lose any of them. They
1:42:59
Speaker 11: can all fill it up. And so if you're gonna
1:43:01
Speaker 11: play horse with them, you're gonna get beat. I mean,
1:43:04
Speaker 11: it's it's not good. So you got to really be
1:43:07
Speaker 11: diligent defensively. We have to be really sound and really
1:43:11
Speaker 11: really solids that we don't get into, you know, some
1:43:14
Speaker 11: issues they can present them.
1:43:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, foul trouble is that issue that head coach Vick
1:43:19
Speaker 1: Shaeffer is speaking about the ability to play tight defense
1:43:23
Speaker 1: and not foul. Now Texas luckily has multiple players that
1:43:27
Speaker 1: they can throw like I said, old Acre and Taylor Jones.
1:43:30
Speaker 1: What's interesting, though, is Sadanah Prince has played college basketball now.
1:43:35
Speaker 2: For about seven seasons.
1:43:37
Speaker 1: This is not her first trip to the NCAA Tournament,
1:43:41
Speaker 1: but it's also not her first trip facing off against
1:43:44
Speaker 1: Taylor Jones. They faced off against each other when she
1:43:46
Speaker 1: was at Oregon and Jones was at Oregon State. She
1:43:49
Speaker 1: got asked her thoughts on Texas's front court phenom.
1:43:54
Speaker 2: Now I know Taylor very well.
1:43:55
Speaker 10: I know our family well played it you should, I
1:43:57
Speaker 10: think almost maybe three times in about high SCHOOLASKETA tournaments,
1:44:00
Speaker 10: and then she was at Oregon State. I was an
1:44:02
Speaker 10: Oregon played a few times there, and now we get
1:44:06
Speaker 10: each other in Texas, which this thing is really cool.
1:44:08
Speaker 10: But yeah, Taylor's awesome. You know, she's an amazing girl.
1:44:12
Speaker 10: Really respect her, respect her family, known them for a
1:44:14
Speaker 10: long time.
1:44:15
Speaker 7: They're very very.
1:44:15
Speaker 2: Sweet people and kind people.
1:44:17
Speaker 7: And it's been really cool.
1:44:18
Speaker 10: Right, She's an amazing player, and it's been fun to
1:44:20
Speaker 10: match up with her kind of everywhere along my journey,
1:44:23
Speaker 10: and so I'm excited it's going to be a battle
1:44:25
Speaker 10: down there.
1:44:26
Speaker 2: And also, you know, I've been going on.
1:44:28
Speaker 10: We kind of haven't seen each other in quite a
1:44:29
Speaker 10: long time, right, But I've worked really hard and grown
1:44:32
Speaker 10: my game, and I know that she has. And so
1:44:34
Speaker 10: it's the same matchup, but much different because we've grown
1:44:36
Speaker 10: into completely different players.
1:44:37
Speaker 2: So it's two teams who have faced each other in
1:44:39
Speaker 2: the Big Twelve. And you heard Craig.
1:44:41
Speaker 1: Texas owns the all time record against TCUs. Donah Prince,
1:44:45
Speaker 1: a player who was supposed to be a Longhorn, decides
1:44:49
Speaker 1: to go to Oregon after her injuries at Texas. This
1:44:53
Speaker 1: there's a lot of these underlying storylines, and the biggest
1:44:56
Speaker 1: one will be Haley van Liff, I feel because the
1:45:00
Speaker 1: the way that she left Louisville as one of their
1:45:02
Speaker 1: all time best players, goes to LSU, a team that
1:45:05
Speaker 1: had just won the National Championship, doesn't vibe with Ken
1:45:09
Speaker 1: Mulkey goes to TCU in almost a reclamation project, right,
1:45:13
Speaker 1: this was a receiving her career. She thought she was
1:45:16
Speaker 1: going to go in the w NBA after LSU goes
1:45:18
Speaker 1: to TCU for her final season after going to the
1:45:21
Speaker 1: Olympics last summer. What problems does Hailey van Lidth present
1:45:25
Speaker 1: and how does she spark that TCU offense Vick Schaefer.
1:45:29
Speaker 11: Yeah, I just you know, they have so many good
1:45:32
Speaker 11: players obviously, she can create for all of them.
1:45:34
Speaker 3: And they have kids that can line up on the
1:45:36
Speaker 3: perimeter and make shots.
1:45:38
Speaker 11: And so then when you have the aircraft carrier inside
1:45:41
Speaker 11: like they have and we do too, you know, we
1:45:43
Speaker 11: have two of them. And so when you have that inside,
1:45:49
Speaker 11: you know, that draws attention, and so it really is problematic.
1:45:55
Speaker 3: And so you've got to really do a good job
1:45:57
Speaker 3: of handling the the person that's creating.
1:46:02
Speaker 11: And I think that's where you know, Hayley obviously can
1:46:05
Speaker 11: score at all three levels.
1:46:07
Speaker 3: She creates well for her teammates.
1:46:09
Speaker 11: She enjoys the assist as much as the bucket, and uh,
1:46:13
Speaker 11: she's just a really tough competitor. I mean, I just
1:46:16
Speaker 11: think that's who she is and uh, and so that's
1:46:19
Speaker 11: that's kind of the engine I think for them that
1:46:21
Speaker 11: kind of makes them go and uh and so but
1:46:24
Speaker 11: I think just like with any team, I mean, they
1:46:27
Speaker 11: got great shooters, you know, they just really can. This's
1:46:32
Speaker 11: why they've what they've lost three games, you know, So
1:46:34
Speaker 11: that's why they're who they are and what they've done
1:46:36
Speaker 11: and Uh, you know, it's it's hard. Winnings really hard, y'all. Like,
1:46:40
Speaker 11: it's really hard. And they went and won their league
1:46:44
Speaker 11: and uh, and so you have to you have to
1:46:47
Speaker 11: understand what you're dealing with. And they're obviously that's why
1:46:50
Speaker 11: they're the two seed, you.
1:46:52
Speaker 1: Know, the winners of the Big Twelve versus the team
1:46:55
Speaker 1: that came a game away from winning the SEC Tournament
1:46:58
Speaker 1: in their first year. Those two teams, Texas and TCU
1:47:01
Speaker 1: tip off tonight five forty five air time, six pm
1:47:05
Speaker 1: tip on the Zone. All right, when we come back,
1:47:07
Speaker 1: we'll wrap up hour three of The Craigway Show and
1:47:09
Speaker 1: send you on your way.
1:47:10
Speaker 2: I'll coming up.
1:47:11
Speaker 1: Next on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone, wrapping
1:47:15
Speaker 1: up a Monday edition of The Craig Way Show. If
1:47:18
Speaker 1: you missed any of The Craigway Show, you can go
1:47:20
Speaker 1: back and listen on the free iHeartRadio app. The podcast
1:47:26
Speaker 1: version will be available later today. Craig on the call
1:47:29
Speaker 1: tonight as Texas and TCU tip off six pm, five
1:47:34
Speaker 1: forty five pre games. So about an hour from now
1:47:37
Speaker 1: you'll hear Craig from Birmingham as Texas takes on in
1:47:41
Speaker 1: state rival TCU and I was saving this the entire
1:47:45
Speaker 1: show because there's a secret that nobody wants you to
1:47:49
Speaker 1: know about Haley van Lyff. In fact, she doesn't even
1:47:53
Speaker 1: want you to know about this, and it's the fact
1:47:55
Speaker 1: that one side of her body is longer than the other.
1:48:00
Speaker 1: I'm not kidding. She gotta asked during her media availability yesterday,
1:48:04
Speaker 1: is the left side of your body shorter than the right?
1:48:08
Speaker 1: And everybody laughed, But this is the answer she gave.
1:48:12
Speaker 7: No, it is, and it does. It actually has.
1:48:15
Speaker 14: There's a lot of physiological issues that I deal with
1:48:18
Speaker 14: because of it. My whole right side is stronger and bigger.
1:48:23
Speaker 14: You can like, my hand is bigger, my foot is bigger,
1:48:26
Speaker 14: my quad is bigger. Like you can see it if
1:48:29
Speaker 14: you really look at me, if you're around me a lot.
1:48:32
Speaker 14: And yes, I definitely always preferred a plant off my
1:48:37
Speaker 14: right leg. I think fading to my left is a
1:48:42
Speaker 14: lot more comfortable because you know.
1:48:44
Speaker 10: The leg is shorter, so it probably doesn't really touch
1:48:46
Speaker 10: the ground.
1:48:46
Speaker 7: That's just weird things like that.
1:48:49
Speaker 14: But yes, that's true, and I deal with it every day.
1:48:53
Speaker 14: But at this point in my career, I'm older, and
1:48:56
Speaker 14: you know, I know how to manage my body in that.
1:49:00
Speaker 1: So Donah Prince and Madison Connor are the two players
1:49:03
Speaker 1: you can hear laughing on the side as Hayley Vanalytic
1:49:06
Speaker 1: explains that that is fascinating. That is so interesting, and
1:49:09
Speaker 1: that is something that you're going to keep an eye
1:49:12
Speaker 1: on tonight or an ear on tonight when you listen
1:49:15
Speaker 1: on the free iHeartRadio right here on the Zona Is
1:49:17
Speaker 1: Texas tips off at six pm.
1:49:20
Speaker 2: One side of your body being shorter than the other.
1:49:21
Speaker 1: Now, I've heard in sports of offensive linemen who might
1:49:26
Speaker 1: have one arm shorter than the other one. I've heard
1:49:28
Speaker 1: of pitchers who have one arm their pitching arm might
1:49:31
Speaker 1: be longer than their other one. To have one leg
1:49:34
Speaker 1: and one side of your body being shorter than the
1:49:37
Speaker 1: other side. It also, let's be honest here, the MoMA mentality.
1:49:40
Speaker 2: Part of it.
1:49:41
Speaker 1: I look at it and I go like, hmm, So
1:49:44
Speaker 1: one side of your body is shorter, So you're telling
1:49:46
Speaker 1: me you like to go to your right side more
1:49:48
Speaker 1: than your left.
1:49:49
Speaker 2: Interesting.
1:49:50
Speaker 1: This is something that on the Scott Report, I imagine
1:49:52
Speaker 1: Texas's assistant coaches have already circled and said, hey, force
1:49:56
Speaker 1: her right. But the gay day before the game, you're
1:49:59
Speaker 1: telling me, Hey, I like to fade to my laught.
1:50:02
Speaker 1: I have all these you know this trick. I am
1:50:05
Speaker 1: just saying this is something to keep your eye on tonight,
1:50:08
Speaker 1: because if Texas does take this seriously and does try
1:50:12
Speaker 1: to force Haley van Lift the one side or the other,
1:50:14
Speaker 1: this is a big deal. It's very curious because we
1:50:19
Speaker 1: talked to Haley Van Lyft the door, Prince, Madison Connor.
1:50:22
Speaker 1: This matchup tonight between Texas and tcu or is as
1:50:26
Speaker 1: close to pervy across the board as you can possibly
1:50:31
Speaker 1: make it. And I was telling Cameron Parker earlier today
1:50:35
Speaker 1: that I have been keeping a very close eye on
1:50:39
Speaker 1: this TC women's basketball program for about two seasons now,
1:50:41
Speaker 1: so Mark Campbell's entire time as the head coach, I
1:50:44
Speaker 1: had been watching from a distance of how he's been
1:50:47
Speaker 1: building this program. And Okay, obviously he was an assistant
1:50:50
Speaker 1: coach when Sador Prince was at Oregon, so when he
1:50:53
Speaker 1: comes over, it's obvious a match made in heaven between
1:50:57
Speaker 1: him and Prince. Then he goes against Hailey Van Lyft
1:51:00
Speaker 1: and now Madison Connor. After last season where they had
1:51:03
Speaker 1: to fourfeit games and they had tryouts and they were
1:51:07
Speaker 1: trying to figure out will they even be able to
1:51:09
Speaker 1: feel the team last year to now being a game
1:51:12
Speaker 1: away from the final four and two games away, two
1:51:14
Speaker 1: wins away from winning the program's first NCAA National championship.
1:51:19
Speaker 1: It's a big matchup tonight. It's state supremacy. It's a
1:51:25
Speaker 1: shifting of power. And you hear the way that Vick
1:51:29
Speaker 1: Schaeffer spoke, You hear the way that Madison Booker and
1:51:32
Speaker 1: Roy Harmon speak, and this matchup tonight is between a
1:51:36
Speaker 1: team that has been there multiple times and a team
1:51:40
Speaker 1: that is playing with house money in TCU. So the
1:51:42
Speaker 1: first time that this TCU program is getting this national exposure,
1:51:46
Speaker 1: getting the bright lights, and they're playing with a looseness
1:51:50
Speaker 1: that not a lot of teams that are left in
1:51:52
Speaker 1: this tournament are playing with. UCLA been there, done that,
1:51:56
Speaker 1: usc been there, done that, Yukon national champ be in predigree,
1:52:01
Speaker 1: South Carolina defending national champions and Texas a national championship
1:52:05
Speaker 1: on the wall and trying to get over that hump
1:52:07
Speaker 1: with Vick Shaffer to the final four for the first
1:52:09
Speaker 1: time since taking over the program. So there's a lot
1:52:12
Speaker 1: of you have in industry knowledge, you have a lot
1:52:17
Speaker 1: of we've been here before. We're trying to get over
1:52:19
Speaker 1: the hump. We know what it takes to get to
1:52:21
Speaker 1: the mountaintop, and it takes a lot. Versus TCU, who's
1:52:24
Speaker 1: again playing with house money, who feels very loose, very comfortable.
1:52:27
Speaker 1: Into night's game, I have Texas. I feel good about Texas.
1:52:32
Speaker 1: The front court depth, the ability that you have multiple
1:52:36
Speaker 1: players you can throw at Haley van Lyft to slow
1:52:39
Speaker 1: it down. You have multiple players you can throw and
1:52:41
Speaker 1: Madison Connor to slow it down. And on the flip
1:52:43
Speaker 1: side of things, having a player like Shay Holly who's
1:52:46
Speaker 1: shooting very well right now, I think matters in this game.
1:52:49
Speaker 1: But it comes down to what Ry Harmon talked about,
1:52:52
Speaker 1: and it might be the quote of the weekend.
1:52:54
Speaker 12: When talent meets talent, talent doesn't matter anymore. So it's
1:53:00
Speaker 12: going to come down to the tougher team, the team
1:53:03
Speaker 12: that prepares the best.
1:53:04
Speaker 1: And you know that Vick Shaeffer is going to have
1:53:06
Speaker 1: his team prepared the best of his ability and the
1:53:11
Speaker 1: way that he has spoken about his roster, the way
1:53:14
Speaker 1: that he's spoken about his team all season long.
1:53:17
Speaker 2: We talk in baseball how there's just a.
1:53:21
Speaker 1: Different there's a different vibe around the team since hunts
1:53:24
Speaker 1: Laschnagel took over this team, in particular, the health is there,
1:53:28
Speaker 1: the talent is there, the coaching staff is there. If
1:53:31
Speaker 1: there was every team that is going to get over
1:53:34
Speaker 1: the hump and win the an elitiate appearance and get
1:53:38
Speaker 1: to the Final four. And then you got to play
1:53:41
Speaker 1: South Carolina for the fourth time this season. You're two
1:53:44
Speaker 1: to one versus this team split in the regular season,
1:53:47
Speaker 1: one or zero to one in the postseason. Losing the
1:53:50
Speaker 1: SEC Championship game to South Carolina a chance to redeem
1:53:54
Speaker 1: yourself with that, you feel very good about this team,
1:53:59
Speaker 1: but first you got to get past TCU tonight.
1:54:03
Speaker 2: You've got to get past TCU tonight.
1:54:05
Speaker 1: Roy Harmon got asked how this team feels about being
1:54:09
Speaker 1: the favorites coming into this matchup.
1:54:12
Speaker 7: Well, we're always gonna pick ourselves.
1:54:15
Speaker 12: You wouldn't find an athlete that would pick another team
1:54:19
Speaker 12: to win, So yeah, we're always gonna choose ourselves when
1:54:22
Speaker 12: it comes to Texas, and I think that's kind of
1:54:25
Speaker 12: the thing that matters most throughout this whole season. We
1:54:28
Speaker 12: always pick our We're gonna always pick ourselves, so we
1:54:32
Speaker 12: trust in what we're gonna do. We trust in our
1:54:34
Speaker 12: preparation and we understand that this is a great basketball team,
1:54:37
Speaker 12: but yeah, we're always gonna choose ourselves at the end.
1:54:39
Speaker 7: Of the day.
1:54:40
Speaker 1: Texas and TCU tonight five forty five pre game six
1:54:43
Speaker 1: pm tip off right here on the zone. Craig Way
1:54:46
Speaker 1: will be maybe with us tomorrow potentially, if not, we're
1:54:49
Speaker 1: gonna try to get Danny Gavis from the Austin American
1:54:51
Speaker 1: State's been to recap the night's matchup, and we also
1:54:54
Speaker 1: will have baseball as Texas and Texas State take the
1:54:58
Speaker 1: field at the dish tomorrow night. We'll highlight that game
1:55:02
Speaker 1: what goes into it as Texas continues