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3 Guys Before The Game - Josh Eilert Elevated (Episode 469) · 3 Guys Before The Game

0:08
Hey, everybody, welcome in. It is time for another episode of Three
0:12
Guys Before the Game. This is episode number four hundred and sixty nine and
0:22
our title is Josh Eilert Elevated. West Virginia has its new basketball coach and
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it is a member of the WVU staff who has been on the WVU staff
0:36
for the entire tenure of Bob Huggins. Josh Eilert will serve as West Virginia's
0:43
head basketball coach in the coming season on an intram basis. The announcement coming
0:48
Saturday night, seven days after Bob Huggins formerly resigned as the head coach.
0:55
So a lot has gone on in the course of a week. We'll get
1:00
into all of that and more. Dean is here no longer with his scooter.
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All right, let's do this thing. So once again, we're in here
3:14
for the second week in a row on a Sunday. Anything happened, so
3:21
let's jump in. Obviously a lot has happened since the last time we got
3:24
together. Last time we got together, it was just a mere matter of
3:29
hours after Bob Huggins resigned as West Virginia's basketball coach. And so in the
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seven days that passed, there were a tremendous amount of things that went on,
3:42
and we're here to kind of try to put context into things that went
3:50
on, to do some breakdown, to do some explaining what has what's happened,
3:58
what is happening, and looking a had what potentially could happen to this
4:04
roster. So firstly, the emotions of this story have obviously been extremely extremely
4:16
raw from the point that had happened, and everyone is expressing emotions in some
4:25
form, from coach Huggins's daughter who early last early just I guess now last
4:31
week early in the past Monday, I guess it was or Tuesday, Jackie
4:36
put out a Facebook post which received a great deal of attention. You have
4:46
players through their social media posts, you have the search going on, you
4:53
have just obviously it seems as though people with many different ideas across and opinions
5:01
across the board. And so this is a very very raw emotion story.
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And one of the things that kind of sits with me as we get ready
5:15
to break this thing down is you being the listeners, you being the fans,
5:20
and if you're listening to this, you're probably in that category of not
5:25
just a casual fan, you're probably at that you know, really really super
5:30
p one, passionate fan. To me, that's the biggest story. That's
5:41
the biggest story. For everything else that's happened outside of this story, and
5:46
what's happening here and what's happening there, the most important thing for me is
5:54
the program because time never stops. West Virginia's got a basketball program and fans.
6:00
If you don't have fans, you have nothing. And as a result
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of that, I think that the reason why the emotions were so piqued at
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this is because there was great anticipation building for this coming season, and I
6:13
think everyone now is feeling that what they thought was going to happen may now
6:19
not happen, or it's just been impacted by what has happened over the horrific
6:26
timing of this entire situation. So to me, I feel for the folks
6:34
out there that are passionate fans and have been for years, and those that
6:40
make the commitment to follow this team one way or the other, That to
6:46
me is the most important thing. The other stuff we'll take care of itself.
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So let's jump on in Hold on one second. I know you've got
6:54
a lot of help. Let me let me slide in here before you all
6:56
see the floor. To you, the additional part to what you said right
6:59
there, I think is important moving forward as well, because as as the
7:04
statements all said, the national search is ongoing as well, and whether that
7:10
ends up being a magical season and this group makes a run and Josh Eilert
7:14
ultimately becomes the full time head coach, or it goes back into search mode.
7:17
There are people across the college basketball landscape that are watching how the fans
7:23
react to all of this and what is said and how the needles are moved,
7:28
and all these different interactions that happen aren't just being watched here locally.
7:32
This is now a on the national radar for the next nine months. That's
7:36
not going to go away. That didn't end with the elevation of Josh to
7:39
the head coaching position. So fans are not only it's it's not only important
7:43
to the program, but it's it's in the immediate importance of this program on
7:47
how it's perceived by potential candidates that Ren Baker may talk to after the basketball
7:51
season. And let me stop you again before you start, and that was
7:55
not the thing. Thanks for you mind, Mike on No, no,
8:01
just leave it off again again. As I said earlier, most people that
8:07
are listening to this are like very they get it high level. They're really
8:09
they know everybody, they know all the pieces to it. Just let me
8:13
give you a little background on Josh Eiler. Okay, so Josh Eilert is
8:18
a native of Kansas Osborne, Kansas. He was a player who went junior
8:24
college. Then he played at Kansas State with Jim Woolridge, who was the
8:28
former head coach at Kansas State. When his playing days were over, he
8:33
became a graduate assistant. When Bob Huggins became the head coach at Kansas State,
8:39
Josh Eilert was in the office. In other words, he inherited Josh
8:43
Eilert, and he immediately took a liking to him, obviously, and kept
8:48
him for that one season he was there. And so when Bob Huggins left
8:54
Kansas State to come to Morgantown, he brought Josh Eilert with him in a
9:00
staff role. And so Josh has been here for the entire course of the
9:07
sixteen seasons and has filled different roles along the way. You know, I've
9:11
always viewed him as having incredible, incredible patience to wait his turn because just
9:20
I'm talking about the patients, just to get elevated to an assistant's role.
9:24
He always wanted to coach, and so he came in at the you know,
9:30
the level of climbing that ladder and Dobo Director of Basketball operations and staff
9:35
and then video and all of those things until eventually, with Eric Martin's departure
9:41
in the last offseason, that's when he finally got elevated to the assistant coach's
9:46
role. That's so Josh has been here the whole time. The other piece
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to this is I've also always viewed Josh as extremely intelligent, extremely basketball savvy
10:01
in the X and the o's of this, and so you see, and
10:05
I think you just saw the picture for those of you that are watching,
10:07
I mean he has men at the shoulder of Bob Huggins on that bench for
10:13
a number of years, even before he was an assistant coach, he was
10:20
there in that capacity as well. So from an EXS and o's perspective and
10:26
standpoint, I mean, he's right there and a lot of a lot of
10:31
what you've already seen is a result of his involvement already. So that's just
10:37
in case you didn't know or this name today you're waking up and you're saying,
10:41
I've seen him on the bench, but I didn't know who he was.
10:45
So that's him. One comment on Josh and then I promise how will
10:48
turn over because we'll come back. I think at the end, after after
10:50
we go through all this, the next piece then is what happens moving forward
10:54
and what are the immediate things that Josh has to address right away we'll get
11:00
That's the one thing I'll say about him in this situation for him personally,
11:03
what a tremendous opportunity this is for him, as you said, extremely patient,
11:07
has waited this out almost two decades to get his opportunity, and he
11:11
personally is in an interesting spot. If those players return out of the portal,
11:16
which we'll get to in a minute, and this roster has some talent
11:18
returning to it, and this team can come together and they go on and
11:22
win some games, Josh moving forward is going to be in a really good
11:26
position from his career, whether that's here or the opportunity for another ad somewhere
11:31
else to look at this and come in. He inherited an absolute near impossible
11:35
situation, given the timing, given the situation, given the league that he's
11:39
going into. If they can win some games, Josh is in a great
11:43
spot personally. And if it doesn't go as well, well, I don't
11:46
know that he has a lot of risk here because of the keys he was
11:48
handed to the car when it was already going at sixty miles an hour and
11:52
he had to jump from the one car into the other car that's speeding down
11:54
the road. He's doing his best to keep the thing on the road.
11:56
So from a Josh Eilert perspective, tremendous ratunity that may speed up his next
12:01
move in college basketball, you know almost And this one one just hit me
12:05
literally, just hit me almost, Joe Missoula like in that you're inheriting a
12:11
team that's a good point, that's already been put together, and here take
12:15
it and go and see what you can do. So that's that. Also
12:20
again, personality wise, Josh's is a no nonsense guy, I mean good
12:26
personality, fun loving, but he is farm tough, raised an incredibly small
12:31
community I mean farmer, a farmer, which is always a good thing.
12:37
So now we'll seed my moments to a dairy farmer. Hoppy kerchival, hoppy,
12:41
your time has come. So didn't know he was a farmer? Oh?
12:43
Yeah, very much So Yeah, Beef and I want to talk about
12:48
Iward too. But first, Tony Brad, you guys have mentioned all those
12:52
impacted by this, the fans, the players, recruiting, the whole transfer
12:58
port, all that stuff in flux, All that changed dramatically within the last
13:03
week. The impact on the university as a university. You know, by
13:07
the way you may have heard, the university is going through trying to figure
13:09
out how to cut forty two million dollars from the budget, which starts with
13:13
the top officials at the university. So I'm sorry, we can't work on
13:16
that right now because we've got to deal with this coaching situation. The impact
13:20
on the university as a whole, The donors, the supporters, all of
13:22
those entities impacted, all those impacted because of what because of Bob Huggins's behavior.
13:30
That's where this starts. This starts with Bob Huggins's behavior. It starts
13:33
with the comments. It starts with three things. It starts with him as
13:37
a head coach, accumulating too much power and nobody checking his power over the
13:41
years. It starts with his comments on a radio show in Cincinnati that were
13:46
homophobic, anti Catholic, anti particular university to which he almost got fired.
13:52
There were a lot of people who wanted him fire, A lot of people
13:54
didn't. Second chance. I said he should have a second chance. So
13:58
there was that his behavior then the promise that he would do better. There
14:03
was a specific promise after that six weeks ago. I know I did wrong.
14:07
I will do better. He did not. The next thing next time
14:11
he was in the news was because his vehicle was stopped on a street in
14:16
Pittsburgh with a shredded tire. He severely intoxicated, doesn't know where he is
14:20
and because of that behavior, which he promised he would not do. I'm
14:24
not sure about drinking, but he said he would be better because of that
14:26
particular behavior by him. By him, all of these things are impacted.
14:31
All of these things, Tonty. You talk about the fans, you talked
14:33
about the impact of the program, All of those things stem from his behavior.
14:39
That needs to be kept in mind throughout all this. So now you
14:43
have you hear about these attempts by whether it's by Huggins who has not maybe
14:46
emotionally accepted the fact that he has resigned from his position under force, or
14:50
whether it's his sickofense, or the people in his posse who want to impact,
14:56
who want to impact what's happening going forward. They need to have reality
15:00
check and understand why all this is happening. And it's because of his behavior
15:03
period exclamation point. It seems though you had a lot stored up there.
15:11
Well, I've been I mean, we've been talking about this and thinking about
15:13
this for a week. How much time and energy is everybody spent on this?
15:18
Seriously, And I'm not just talking about reporters who cares about us,
15:20
but I mean the university, the university, the donors. Now, I
15:24
mean how much energy has been burned on this over the past week. And
15:30
we're gonna talk about Wow, you know they couldn't and Brad because of it,
15:33
And I know you're gonna get into this. I'll defer to you on
15:35
this. Because of the timing of his behavior, you have you cannot do
15:41
and could not do the search which you are obligated to do. Well.
15:48
Yeah, And I think we said that last Sunday, is that the timing
15:52
of this being in June rather than March eliminated some guys off your list that
15:56
would have been in the mix. And I thought that was an interesting thing
15:58
to watch as this search has moved over the last week. It's still guys,
16:03
it went incredibly fast to go from where you were this time last Sunday
16:08
to where you are now that somebody is in place. That was like an
16:11
incredibly fast search that Ren Baker had to do some quick work and identifying some
16:17
people that he wanted to talk to first in an effort to go after John
16:19
Beeline as that potential interim stop gap to evaluate that. And that's part of
16:25
what Ren Baker is supposed to do as the AD. Right, that's what
16:26
we've talked about. He has to evaluate all of those things before just rushing
16:30
into a decision. And I guarantee that the university wanted a person not only
16:34
a good coach, but also a person of character. All right. I
16:38
know that sounds weird in college athletics these days, but I think that that's
16:41
what WV was looking for. And brand. You go, Let's say you're
16:45
the coach of a team and WWU comes to you and says, you know,
16:48
we'd really like to talk to you about this job, and you go,
16:51
you know, man, I'm interested in that job, but I've made
16:52
a commitment to these players, to this university, and I can't do that
16:56
now. That's character Sonically, the very quality that you're looking for in the
17:03
next coach disqualify them from being your next coach. Yeah, that's an interesting
17:07
way to say that. And I do think the NIL situation and the portal
17:12
situation made this search extremely unique from anything you've seen before. And I as
17:18
I outlined earlier on sports Line, it's what allowed rend Baker to talk to
17:22
a John Beeline and have a serious discussion or discussions with John bee Line about
17:27
returning in that interim role. But what it also did for the commitment part
17:32
because listen, hum we've seen college coaches that have made commitments to recruiting classes
17:37
for decades break that commitment in a heartbeat and go to the next job,
17:40
have we not? Yes, yes, But the NIL and portal make it
17:42
a little bit different because you're doing a different recruiting job with your returning players.
17:48
And there's some that have gathered dollars to return and have bypassed dollars at
17:52
other places. That's the one different part in this, and so the level
17:56
of commitment and the timing in which to do it when you have secured your
18:00
roster, you have told your administration that you're staying, and a couple months
18:04
of pass, not like a couple of days, a couple months of past.
18:07
I think there's no doubt that made this a more difficult search and limited
18:11
what your options you were going in, which we'll get to which was why
18:15
you end up would not end up with why you get Josh Lewood. But
18:18
the one exception was John Belon. The one exception was John Belon because he
18:22
was not going to leave a program, not going to leave players. So
18:25
in w VU, I think talked till they were blue in the face to
18:26
try to get John Belon. John Belin was interested in the position. But
18:30
in the end, you know, here's a guy who's seven to years old,
18:32
he's thinking about retirement, he's out of an incredible career. And let's
18:37
face it, we may sit here and say this is a great job.
18:40
This thing now is somewhat chaotic, somewhat chaotic because of the events of recent
18:48
So did John Beelon really want to go? Do I really want to do
18:53
that at this point in my life in that career? And I think he
18:56
got scared off, you know, I mean not scared per se, but
18:59
just do you want to after this long and story career, do you want
19:03
to go through what may what he may have to go through if he came
19:07
here. Well, let's jump in here. Let's talk about the week gone
19:11
by as best that we can as far as Renn Baker goes and making this
19:17
higher. So a week ago he starts the process, and to our belief,
19:25
first thing he does he reaches out to agents to gauge current sitting coaches
19:30
and levels of interest. And he does that for a day or so,
19:40
and I think he comes to a conclusion pretty quick that, like you said,
19:45
it's too late the timing on this. It's it's I mean, what's
19:48
July. It's July, right, It's it's just midst of everything that goes
19:53
on. He comes out of this and goes like, Okay, could I
19:59
probably go get a mid guy somewhere? But then I got to live with
20:02
the mid guy right right. It's kind of like Las Vegas marriage, you
20:04
know, like you get married, but you really don't want to be married
20:07
the day after the marriage because it goes late at night. I don't think
20:10
he wanted to do that, and I think that's when it became obvious that,
20:15
okay, let's look at this intram potential. And as he said in
20:19
his release last night, he talked to a bunch of people to try to
20:25
get a feel of this thing, and that led them to this conversation with
20:30
John Beeline. But as we talked about and we talked about this on sports
20:34
Line and you can jump in here, I think the unstable nature of the
20:44
roster, the unstable nature of the roster ultimately is probably what made a lot
20:52
of people leary because they're not sure what they were buying. They're not sure
20:57
what they were getting. Yeah. Fair, And if I'm John Beeline and
21:03
I'm going to come back and put my reputation on the line and try and
21:06
help, then I need to be assured of what I'm buying. I need
21:10
to know what the ingredients are if you're gonna ask me to cook dinner,
21:11
And if you're not sure of that, then then I understand why that might
21:15
not have made sense. I get it. And if you and if you
21:18
come back again, he's had this incredible career, including his career WVU and
21:23
you come back and because of the portal that everybody leaves or some players leave,
21:29
and you're looking at the six win season or an eight win season,
21:32
you're that that's not how you want it, That's not how you want to
21:34
end your career. That's not what you want to do late in your career,
21:38
right, so okay, So that goes away, and then it becomes
21:48
the process of if not, then who. And it sounds as though,
21:53
you know, all of the assistants on the current staff had conversations correct,
21:59
correct, correct, okay, because you're more schooled in on this than I.
22:03
So they had conversation, yes, okay, And ultimately Josh is the
22:07
person that impressed them the most. Josh Eilert had a really good interviewer,
22:12
interviews, really did well. I think that those making the decision were impressed
22:17
with his intellect, with his answers, with his commitment, and I think
22:22
it's interesting that. And look, I would imagine they had to have the
22:27
Huggins discussion with him, right, I mean, because w VU the people
22:33
making the hire are the people who fired Bob Huggins. The people making the
22:38
hire fired Bob Huggins. I know it's a resignation, but it was either
22:41
resigning get fired, So they you figure they had to have the Huggins conversation
22:47
with him. You've been with him sixteen years or what are you going to
22:49
be? Is Huggins going to be the de facto head coach here? And
22:55
I don't know the answer to that, but I would presume that they got
22:57
an answer that satisfied them because they hired him on the interim basis. Because
23:03
the people who fired Bob Huggins do not want Bob Huggins as the de facto
23:07
head coach. They want to move on, and apparently they were convinced enough
23:12
that Eilert would be able able to move on. And two things about that.
23:18
Guys, remember when Huggins. I'm gonna go back to the point about
23:19
Huggins. When Huggins did what he did, he not only through a lot
23:26
into chaos, putting himself, but the assistant coaches. You know, Brad,
23:30
you've talked about that where Okay, if Huggins is gone, what happens
23:33
with the assistant So their livelihood was put in at risk because of Huggins's behavior,
23:41
Number one, So that can't feel very That can't feel very good for
23:42
Josh Eilert and of the other assistants. And the second thing is this is
23:48
Eilert's opportunity. He's never been a head coach. He's gotten an opportunity to
23:52
be a head coach at the D one level, in the Big twelve at
23:56
WVU. What are you going to do with it? You handed it.
24:00
What are you gonna do with it? Yeah, and we'll get into that,
24:02
And that's what we talked about a minute. I think your comparison to
24:03
Joe Mazzula is a pretty good one there actually, But yeah, I mean
24:06
I said here last Sunday was to stay on this for a minute. I
24:08
said, I had a tremendous amount of respect for that staff that was left
24:12
behind there for trying to keep things together while worried about their own livelihood.
24:17
So for those guys to have another year at least of some stability there,
24:22
that's I feel good for them and their families because they went through a really
24:26
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Thursday, Trey Mitchell put his name into the portal. He visited Kentucky this
26:22
weekend. Friday. Joe Toussaint, the transfer guard that came to West Virginia
26:29
from Iowa and played here last season, put his name into the portal.
26:33
Kurk Caressa, who has not played at WUVU, transferred in from Arizona.
26:37
He also is in the portal. So three in the portal, and the
26:44
question now is do any of them come back to West Virginia. It will
26:51
have a significant impact obviously on Josh Eilert and the wins and losses for this
26:59
season. One of the advantages that Eilert head was that he we understand Antony,
27:04
you would know this better than I do. Is that he has a
27:07
good relationship with the players, so that Eilert is in a position to try
27:12
to retain most or all of those guys. That's another thing that helped with
27:18
the decision on island. Now that needs to happen. I mean, now
27:21
that you've named Josh, now let's move forward, because to me, this
27:23
is the most important piece, that's been the most important piece all along.
27:26
You've got to have guys. They've assembled what you think is a pretty talented
27:30
roster here. You've got to keep this roster together. Now, two of
27:33
the three, the fact that Mitchell has already visited Kentucky would leave if you
27:38
had a lean if this is or recruiting lean, you'd have to lean that
27:41
he's headed somewhere else. The fact that he's visited there the other two is
27:45
really interesting because I've not seen this in I've definitely not seen it in the
27:48
same day with two recruiting announcements where at the end of the recruiting announcement,
27:52
the national guys on the information they were receiving both added or added to both
27:56
of them. WV remains an option to return. I've not seen that.
28:02
I don't remember that now. We've seen a lot of football players leave.
28:06
I don't remember seeing that before, so that I think that tells you something
28:08
now. I think it's critical now. It seemed as if that was a
28:15
play to say, hey, Wren hire Josh Eilert and we'll consider coming back
28:18
here is what it seemed like. I don't know if that's true or not.
28:21
That's what it appeared to. You don't see that line written very often
28:23
in transfer announcements. Usually when guys are hitting the portal, the are gone.
28:26
That was not the case for Crissa and Joe Tucson, but now it's
28:30
critical. If that was part of the advantage of staying internal with the staff,
28:33
then do you lose some of that advantage if you lose three pieces to
28:37
this class. I think what happens next is just as critical as what's happened
28:41
over this last week. You have got to get some guys in here and
28:45
then fellas it becomes incumbent on those players to step up and perform this year.
28:51
They're being There's a lot of money being laid out for these players.
28:55
There's a significant investment made by people to these players. It's now their program,
29:00
right. These are guys that have come in for the most part,
29:02
that didn't have a connection with West Virginia that the future of the program is
29:06
now in their hands. They have got to not only come back and work
29:08
hard, they have got to perform at a high level in a very difficult
29:11
league. Absolutely. I mean they expect that. There is an expectation that
29:15
they that they would do that. Another interesting part about this is you would
29:21
think that a player wants to play for a great coach. Right, player
29:26
wants to play for a great coach that gets the most out of the player.
29:30
Ironically, he said for the second time in the program. Ironically,
29:33
those players entering the portal made the coaching search much more difficult. Their actions
29:41
made the search more difficult. Now, I understand they want to look out
29:44
for themselves, but they could have waited five minutes, could have waited five
29:48
minutes. This search wasn't gonna last a month. It was gonna happen very
29:51
rapidly. Those players could have waited a couple of days. Okay, But
29:53
why so then play forward? Why not wait a couple of days? I
29:59
don't want well, why not? Well, that's why I said. It
30:00
seemed as if they were trying to send a message to say, we would
30:03
like somebody from the current staff to be named. Otherwise, why wouldn't you
30:07
just wait their part to get get ilored? Well, talk about somebody.
30:11
Give me the opposite argument to that, why not? I don't. I
30:14
don't think I have one, except just like, oh geez, this thing's
30:15
crashing and burning, I'm getting heck out of here. But they haven't been
30:18
anywhere, you see. But the point to that, though hoppy is they
30:22
could have waited until Monday. I mean, you know, Joe Missoula,
30:26
Mike Ganzi did a zoom call early in the week telling those guys, hey,
30:30
guys, we feel you, we hear you. Just chill for a
30:34
second, let this happen, and then if you want to leave after they
30:37
make the announcement, you can leave. So, I mean, they could
30:41
have done It wasn't closing. It's Saturday. If they name a coach on
30:44
Saturday night, then on Sunday today they could have put their name in the
30:48
portally Monday. There was nothing there other than what Brad says, the apparent
30:55
little little jabs, a little jab step in basketball terminology, like who's going
30:59
to blink here? That's what it looks like. Okay now. But again,
31:03
if that's the case, then it's incumbent on those guys to exit the
31:07
portal, come back to West Virginia, and move forward at a really high
31:11
level, at a really high level of performance. And there'll be a lot
31:15
of times to talk about what a challenge this league is gonna be, what
31:18
a challenge the schedule is going to be, all of that stuff. But
31:19
if that's what those players wanted and they wanted Josh Eilert installed, and they
31:23
got They now got that, So get out of the portal, come back
31:26
and get to work if that's the case, Because if it's not, guys,
31:30
if if those three pieces that we mentioned, if if everybody else remains
31:34
and those three pieces Cresa, Toussaint and Mitchell all leave, that's a hell
31:40
of a big hit you just took. Personnel wise, that is a mass
31:42
You're starting point guard and your backup point guard or two of your guards that
31:48
are gonna play heavily just exited the program. That's a massive, massive hit
31:52
and makes a difficult job for Josh and this staff much more difficult than it
31:56
just was twelve hours ago. You're absolutely right. What happens here with those
32:01
folks is going to be just it will. It will be a massive storyline
32:09
for the rest of the season. If they're gone, when this team goes
32:14
to Italy in a month, they're gonna go to Italy August first. Oh
32:19
sure, absolutely, Now you need it more than ever. Yeah, absolutely,
32:22
you need more practices, you need Let Josh get in there. Let
32:24
Josh coach these guys, Let them feel how it's going to be when he
32:28
coaches them. Now more than ever. You need to go to Italy.
32:31
You'll know. And if those three don't come back, then perception wise,
32:38
just from afar West, Virginia is going to go from being a upper half
32:44
team in the preseason poll to a below half to wherever that would be that
32:51
they would fall. So, I mean, frankly, at this point,
32:54
if any of those three don't return, it to hit. If Tray Mitchell
32:58
decides to go to Kentucky, that's a hit. Absolutely, That's a hit
33:01
for a guy that played a ton of games that understand it's it's already been
33:05
in this system for a year. You already went through some of that a
33:07
guy that's ultra talented as we know. That's a hit in and of itself.
33:10
If you didn't in fact keep the roster in place, which was one
33:14
of the goals of going this direction, is keeping that roster in place.
33:17
If you're not able to keep the roster in place, and then that's that's
33:21
a hell of a hit here, it really is. Well, we're gonna
33:23
find out, you know what, the old saying goes, money talks,
33:27
and we're gonna find out. We'll see if that money talks. If the
33:31
other schools are out there offering more change. That's the world that you're living
33:36
in now. And that'll be another unintended consequence of the horrific timing of all
33:45
of this. That'll be another unintended consequences. There's unintended consequences that we're seeing
33:50
now. There's gonna be unintended consequences from here for the rest of the season.
33:54
And go, oh, I didn't think about that. Oh I didn't
33:57
think. Oh I didn't. Yeah, that's yeah, And that's one of
34:00
the you know, the interesting things as you move forward here there's the roster
34:04
is number one. But the other part of this is how this group collectively
34:08
handles adversity, because it's going to hit adversity. So that's not just a
34:12
Josh Eilert question as a first time head coach. Is how he's going to
34:15
manage those rough seas that are coming. But it's also this locker room.
34:19
It's in comment upon this locker room to develop some leaders itself and have some
34:22
player led responsibility here. This isn't if you've got a youngest staff now in
34:28
Josh Eilert, I know Ronnie's got a ton of experience and an Alex Ruoff
34:31
that's going to play an important part, and a Jamar Johnson that hasn't been
34:34
coaching all that long. I mean, think about what we just said there.
34:37
That's not extensive experience coaching. Then you have an experienced roster, not
34:40
at West Virginia but across college basketball. Your best teams are always player led,
34:45
correct, absolutely, So that's an element of every great team. Anyway,
34:50
this team's going to have to find that quickly, and it needs to
34:52
find it, like right now as we record on Sunday morning, there better
34:55
be some internal people. This isn't just hey, Josh, you're the head
35:00
coach and you're the only one speaking to this group. There better be some
35:01
dudes in that locker room getting the other guys together saying, Okay, we've
35:07
been dealt some adversity here, but we're staying we're going to keep this together
35:09
and here's how this is going to work moving forward. That has to happen
35:14
right now, and it has to be definitive and strong or this program has
35:17
no chance in the upcoming season. We've seen this in sport through time,
35:22
that when teams take on a everyone it's us against the world mentality. We've
35:29
seen those happen. We've seen and we've heard stories after it's happened where team
35:32
said, you know, no one was giving us a chance. Everyone had
35:35
us marked for dead. And that's what has to happen with this team.
35:40
Can think about this. It was already going to be a coaching challenge to
35:45
bring all of these new personalities together and blend them together as it was last
35:51
year personality wise, culturally and then x as no wise, that was already
35:54
going to be whomever with the coach was going to be. That was going
35:57
to be the single biggest challenge of this year's basketball team. And we talked
36:01
about that long before any of this stuff happened. It's how they come together.
36:06
The ingredients were there, how do they blend together? Now it's even
36:10
more important. That's why that Italy trip will be huge because you go away
36:16
and you're together, and that you can expedite your growth in your chemistry by
36:22
going on one of these trips. And supposedly the teams that they're going to
36:28
play over there are actually good teams. Like sometimes you go over and it's
36:32
like seven guys and they're taking off their fluorescent work vest because they were just
36:37
out on the street and they got three cigarettes cigarettes and outside the gym thing
36:40
he walks in, he's got four cigarettes around a rubber band, smoking all
36:45
four once he walks in, got a duffel bag, puts it down.
36:46
They play against these teams and go, hey, hey, guess what so
36:50
and so team beat this team over in Italy like one twenty two to sixty
36:53
two. Yeah, they did because those guys had to leave and they had
36:57
to go back because they had to go fix the rest of the road they
37:00
were working on. Supposedly, these are gonna be good teams that they're gonna
37:04
play like old like professional growth men, so you'll get an idea as to
37:08
where they are. Well and listen, I thought last year that was that
37:10
was a question heading into last year, and it's probably a question moving forward
37:14
every year in college basketball, given how the rosters are gonna be, we're
37:15
gonna ask this. This won't be the last time we asked this question.
37:19
I thought last year's group did a good job, came together, had some
37:21
bumpy moments that ultimately got themselves to an NCAA tournament, and we're right there
37:24
with the ability to win a game. So I thought they did a nice
37:28
shop that resets itself. But that's determined by those guys in the locker room.
37:31
They decide, yeah, I mean he was huge, and so who's
37:36
that going to be this year? They decide if they accept their role.
37:39
They decide if they liked the number of shots they're getting. They decide if
37:44
they liked the system that Josh wants to employ. Are there any new wrinkles
37:46
from what you've seen from Bob Huggins that comes from inside. Those guys have
37:51
to decide, Okay, we got our guy, Josh is our guy,
37:53
and this staff as our guys collectively. Now we need to go out and
37:58
perform for them to make that look like the good decision that they wanted it
38:01
to be. The stays on players. Yea, more than it's ever been.
38:05
Absolutely, they'll say that they do. They'll say that they're together and
38:08
now I want to see it now, you guess see, I want to
38:10
see when it comes time to look at the stat sheet and he got nine
38:15
shots and I got three shots, and do it next time I go out,
38:19
Is it going to be time for gotta get mine, my turn,
38:22
my turn? If you can get that, you're going to have a problem.
38:24
Because here's the other part. So one of the things what a new
38:28
coaches always say when they take over the job, it's not the basketball stuff
38:31
that gets them right. It's the external stuff that happens, the extra things
38:36
that you have to do. My guests would be the department's going to minimize
38:39
some of that stuff for Josh. They're not going to run the dog and
38:42
pony show that you would normally do with a new head coach and trot him
38:45
everywhere. They're going to give him a chance to focus on the things that
38:47
he can control. So that helps. But number two, this team helps.
38:51
It helps itself the most by accepting and listening and doing that role.
38:55
You don't need to give Josh Eilert more things to manage outside of the court
39:00
than what he's already going to have to do. That's what I'm watching moving
39:04
forward. You're going to take a young coach that has not been a head
39:07
coach. How do you help him? If you're the players, do what
39:08
you're supposed to do and perform at a high level and take some leadership responsibility.
39:13
That's what's going to help determine the success of this team and allow Josh
39:16
Eilert to settle in that role. Which is different than anything he's ever had.
39:21
What they always say, it's different when you slide over that one seat
39:23
and now you're making every decision within the program they've got, they meaning that
39:28
whole program has to help him be able to do that by limiting the things
39:31
that he has to manage and get involved with. Let me make two other
39:36
points. One is I wonder if Renn Baker feels this morning like when he
39:43
came to Westwood that he got thrown into cheat Lake with weights attached to his
39:46
legs. I mean, came in women's coach, left unexpectedly and you know,
39:52
okay, I got to do with that financial issues, Okay, got
39:55
to raise money. You know, football coach, you know this is a
40:00
pivotal year. But I knew that coming in. Now, this whole thing
40:02
with Huggins basketball, I mean, whoa talk about unknowns? Unknowns and you
40:09
want to talk about chaos. The guy arrived amidst chaos. Yeah, the
40:15
ad had been fired. There were questions swirling about whether you were going to
40:17
keep Neil Brown. Some were putting at his feet or you got his ed.
40:21
What's the decision? Rend Baker hadn't even arrived and people were trying to
40:24
put the decision of a football coach at his feet. Hadn't even got an
40:29
He didn't answer any of those questions. Put Ren Baker right out in front.
40:31
I mean, the guy arrived, dealing with it was a swirl of
40:35
chaos from the minute the guy's been here. So this, this is a
40:37
this is a These are seminal moments for Ren Baker. You know, Okay,
40:44
how am I going to respond to this? And so far I think
40:45
he's responded very very well. But also in the back of his mind you
40:49
wonder like, is this um is this? Is this all? Is this
40:54
where I want to be? But anyway, I don't know. I'm just
40:57
saying he got hit with a lot of curveballs coming in. Second point I
41:00
want to make is that I know, well, let me go back.
41:05
I would imagine that because you're hiring in a long time Huggins assistant as the
41:12
interim head coach, there will be those and maybe Huggins will be among them.
41:16
I don't know, but there will be those who will think, oh,
41:19
okay, now this is laid out for Bob Huggins to come back.
41:22
He can go to rehab, he can get squared away and after a year
41:25
of an interim, he can come back and everything will be okay. Let
41:30
me tell you this, and I suspect there will be a movement of some
41:35
magnitude for that by Huggins supporters. There is there is no sentiment with the
41:44
president of the university, I suspect, with the athletic director, or with
41:46
governor Board of governors to have that happened. No one in that circle has
41:52
that as a plan. None too many bridges have been burned. There is
41:55
no one at that level talking about a scenario of, you know, we
41:59
get through this and Hugs can come back. That is not on the table.
42:01
Could it happen, I guess so, But it's not on the table
42:05
with any of the principles that would make those decisions. We turn the topics
42:13
here. This is a I don't know how much segue out of this,
42:15
but as you well know, yeah I need see. I was going to
42:20
say this, as you well know, we've created the hottest craft beer in
42:23
a state of West Virginia. Well we didn't. We didn't. Chestnut Brewerks
42:28
created the hottest craft beer in the state of West Virginia called Kirchivale. People
42:30
you know can't get it, Scarce can't get it. So now now we
42:37
are debuting our first boutique, Batches a Coffee. Okay, here's the deal
42:44
an all kidding aside. So one of the things that three guys as we
42:47
get ready for our six year anniversary, is going to do is we're going
42:51
to tout West Virginia businesses and we're going to promote West Virginia businesses. And
42:57
that's just what we're gonna do. And so Chestnut brew Works is here Morgantown
43:01
and Bill and the folks. They are a fantastic job with a beer.
43:06
Now we have our own coffee. We talked about this a little bit.
43:10
This one is called you haven't seen this one. This is the Vessels Reserve
43:15
Blend. This one's named after you too, because you're the vessel. It
43:19
says, kick off your day with the Vessels Reserve Blend. A coffee with
43:22
a craft beer twist, locally roasted by the folks at Mountain Table, Renneck,
43:25
West Virginia. That's available now. And this is the one I've been
43:29
drinking this week. This is Mountaineer Morning. Rise and Shine with Mountaineer Morning
43:32
starts your day with the West Virginia way again from the folks at Mountain Table.
43:39
This is really good. I gave you some on Friday. Yeah,
43:42
it's very good. Thank you. Brought it over to his desk at Little
43:44
Cup there. I said, here, give this one a sound song,
43:45
but smooth, not bitter exactly. So that's available for sale right now.
43:51
Limited run. They did a limited run for us. We do appreciate that.
43:52
Nadine the roaster over there. Nadine and Adam saw the roasty machine when
43:57
I was down there. Anyway, it's available. Where do you buy that?
44:00
Go to episode eight hundred dot com. That's episode eight zero zero dot
44:04
com, Episode eight hundred dot com. Even after I insulted them, then
44:07
that's yeah. They they took that as they how they take well, they
44:12
hate you. But anyway, that's beside the point. No, they didn't.
44:15
I'm just glad that you interrupting a previous podcast by rudely drinking out of
44:20
your thermis in the middle of it has turned into a nice product. That
44:25
was star wasn't I didn't think of that. That was the start kicking back.
44:30
I could just pouring it right in a little bit. Did you have
44:30
the one of the plastic cups that comes on top of that doesn't have that.
44:36
Plus the way he did it, because it was so it was so
44:38
illitious because he asked yeah, and then like I asked a question that I
44:44
pushed them yes and then kick back, yeah and kick back. Some good
44:51
came out of that moment. Yeah, that's good. Well, here's the
44:52
deal. I could hear when I was pouring my coffee. You guys are
44:55
over there riffing. I was just having a coffee. Anyway, This is
44:59
good stuff. Visited there there, it is right there, episode eight.
45:01
Com You get in a bean form, you can get a ground whatever way
45:05
you want to do it. Plus we got all our other We got merch
45:07
on there as well. Other merch um that really did you see that?
45:12
Nadine and Adam located again, they're in Rennick, which is in Greenborough County.
45:15
There was a really nice gold long sleeve cotton shirt that's on the site.
45:21
Now that says efforting. That's really that? Now? That is nice?
45:25
Hey, I can I give you one other nugget sure this and maybe
45:30
you guys know this. You know who was interested in the job and was
45:34
contacted by someone connected to the university. Tell me Tubby Smith. Oh,
45:43
yeah, Tubby Smith. Tubby Smith was interested to be Yeah, And I
45:47
don't know if he was contacted and not contacted, but and Tubby Smith is
45:52
because this might be the school and one school he hasn't coached for. He's
45:55
coached a lot of school Most recently he was at High Point M Is that
46:01
correct? Correct? But that's all in nugget thrown there. And so John
46:07
obviously got the most traction because of the connection here, and it made the
46:10
most sense. But when we talked about this on sports Line, guys,
46:14
that's I was opening that discussion as a way to say that just that there
46:19
are in coaching searches now there will be options available to athletic directors that weren't
46:23
before. Right right, Jay Wright is sitting out, his name is going
46:27
to come up in every search now. Roy Williams is out there, Tubby
46:30
Smith is out there, John bee Line's out there. So that's that's an
46:32
avenue that wasn't there before that now is potentially And you don't know, I
46:36
mean, and you don't know about these guys because some of them I'll move
46:39
on, like Jay Wright, I'm done, I'm got CBS, I'm great,
46:43
and others might be you know, yeah, yeah, that book.
46:45
And then some of it comes down to what they ask for too, sure,
46:50
right yeah. Do they want just a one year deal? Do they
46:52
want a five year deal, three year deal, four year deal? Just
46:53
so some of that comes down to that as well. Three guys before the
46:55
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gomart dot com. You know what we haven't done in a long time?
48:05
What you know what we haven't done in a long time. What I'm gonna
48:10
tell you what we haven't done in a long time. We need more than
48:22
a We need more than a healing song. We need a concert. All
48:37
right, here we go textual healing. By the way, in that episode
48:43
eight hundred website, there's a textual healing thing if you want to send one
48:45
in that way too, all right. You know one thing I missed in
48:47
this search that always comes up in every search, but I think we were
48:52
cheated out of this. There was no reports of anybody's significant other being in
48:59
town work with a real estate agent. We're getting their hair done? Oh
49:02
yeah, I remember the hair done. What was that hair done? That
49:05
time someone was getting their hair done. I remember that that Matt airplane landing.
49:10
Anything. None of this was Eilers have a nice house already, so
49:13
you didn't have to hear any reports of them around hair shopping for homes.
49:16
Report Josh Howard just pulled into his driveway. There were there were some horrendous
49:22
misses. There were some horrendous misses on reporting. You think in this in
49:28
this story, do you think some horrendous misses they had? They had what
49:37
it was early in the week, they had Jared Calhoun and Andy Kennedy have
49:44
done zoom interview calls. Never happened, but they were interviewed, weren't they
49:50
They were interviewed. They said it happened in the afternoon or it never happened
49:53
till maybe like three four days down the road, But they were interviewed.
49:58
I think they were. They were contact but when they was reported on Monday,
50:00
it absolutely not happened. Okay, So anyway, text ted from Colorado.
50:09
No real estate on this one. Please explain to me the rationale for
50:14
hiring a coach with no head coaching experience. I'd like Ren Baker, but
50:17
this is a decision that I have a hard time wrapping my head around.
50:21
I think we probably just answered that as to how it came about, as
50:24
to why this makes the most sense at this point because of the of the
50:31
bad timing of all of this, and now Josh will get his opportunity.
50:38
You know, we often say, right, life is all about timing and
50:43
you know at right place, right time. Well, that's how this kind
50:45
of stuff happens. Texter. Guys, did Hoppy beat his arch nemesis to
50:52
this story? Oh look what we have there, Hoppy, you did,
51:00
in fact have it first, and you beat Pete Famil, the ultimate,
51:07
your ultimate foil in your journalistic career. You beat him last night. I
51:13
can retire. Huh. So what do you how'd that feel when when Famil
51:17
finally didn't beach at the past. Oh did it feel as good as you
51:23
thought it would? It felt pretty good. I am very competitive. Yeah,
51:31
and I feel like and it you know it really and I'm probably too
51:37
prideful. But also, this is Brad and Tony. This is our state,
51:45
this is our university, This is our backyard. Whether it's me or
51:50
somebody else in West Virginia, this story, those leading the story should be
51:55
from here. I think that, you know. And and frankly, well,
52:01
I'll just leave it at that. Oh so that's what gets you fired
52:04
up? I see, I mean a little bit. Yeah, that's fine.
52:07
I just like, wait a minute, we I mean, this is
52:09
a this is our turf. I get it. And if we can't excel
52:14
on our turf then, so I get you. You know what bothered me.
52:21
I was angry on Friday. I was angry on Friday on sports Line.
52:25
I was just mad. I got mad as the day went on.
52:29
I got mad when these portal announcements. Oh really yeah, I got mad
52:34
when these ports You know what made me mad. What made me mad was
52:37
when I looked down on ESPN and the lower third and I see these announcements
52:44
and it makes us look like some slap dicks. That's what makes me mad
52:52
because it's it's it's it's it just shows turmoil and it shows chaos, and
52:57
that's the kind of stuff that we often laugh at when it happens. And
53:01
the appearance that it was imploding, right, the appearance, the appearance of
53:06
a dumpster fire. That that's what made me mad for the same reason that
53:10
you just said. Because you know, while I haven't while I wasn't born
53:16
here, I've been here now for thirty nine seasons of West Virginia basketball,
53:22
from Gail Cablet to John b Line and now Bob Huggins. Like you know,
53:28
so like I'm invested in when I see it. When I see it,
53:31
look destabilized. When I see it look like I just said, like
53:37
unstable, that really pisses me off. Sure, yeah, I mean because
53:40
you're a part. I mean you're a part, and that's why there are
53:44
things that you're limited in what you can't say and should say, because you're
53:46
part of you're part of the program. Yeah, it's a weird it's a
53:49
weird position that I sit in, But that's my bottom line to the thing
53:52
is that it looks chaotic and that's what makes me mad. But that's part
53:57
of why I say it's incumbent on these players moving forward to stabilize the ship
54:02
and make it not be chaotic. I mean, they still have the ability
54:06
to make chaos rain or they can bring it back in and be part of
54:10
the solution moving forward. And that's how you become a beloved group of players
54:15
with this fan base, is that you come back in these situations and rally
54:21
it and play well, and then this staff and those particular players will forever
54:27
hold a place in the fan's heart that they said, listen, in an
54:30
absolute chaotic situation, those guys came back, rally the troops, put on
54:35
the old golden blue, and went out and performed. It's that That's why
54:37
I say that Josh is going to do that from his position. The rest
54:40
of the staff, Ronnie Everhart, Alex Rouff, I would assume Jamar Johnson
54:45
are going to do that as well. The players have to step forth now
54:49
this moving forward. That So, this story that we just covered was about
54:52
the coaches. To me, the next immediate story here is what does what
54:57
do these players do next? Who le who are leaders and who have some
55:01
character to step up and make this right? Yes? Do you remember when
55:05
Rick Patino inherited the Kentucky basketball program and he had an undersized group and I
55:12
believe was it Travis what's his name Ford? Travis Forward? Yeah, and
55:19
John Pelfrey and those guys. Yeah, and they made that deep run,
55:22
made that deep run. Yeah. What are the Kentucky fans to this day?
55:24
Yes, they loved that banner for him. Yeah, they love that
55:28
team like no love can can be spoken. Because those kids stayed, they
55:34
competed, and they got it done. That's the same kind of a situation
55:37
you could have here. If this group does galvanize and go out there,
55:42
they will be in tremendously well regarded. Kentucky is a good example. But
55:45
you could just stay right here and use the same example. I mean the
55:50
first group under John Beeline that we're babies, I realized and grew up.
55:52
Are they beloved? Absolutely? Absolutely? All right? How about the first
55:55
group? When John went to Michigan and hugs first crew? Is that crew
56:00
looked at favorably because, and again I've said many times, I thought as
56:04
one of Bob's great coaching jobs that he was able to not just say here's
56:07
how I play, this is what we're gonna do. He melded the two
56:10
systems. All right, what do you guys do well? So I thought
56:12
I was one of huggins great coaching jobs. But those players will always be
56:15
remembered for saying they stepped forth. And that's what this group has. What's
56:20
their legacy going to be? Is their legacy going to be that they stayed
56:22
and stood behind a guy that's been with them the last three months? Or
56:27
is their legacy going to be out? So you we're out, we're leaving.
56:30
What's it going to be? They're on the clock as of right now.
56:32
Barry in Utah rights, I hope this finds you well given all the
56:37
turmoil and WVU athletics. Recently, I thought a bit of levity might be
56:42
appropriate. I get out and walk about three miles per day and do this
56:45
mostly along the Wasatch Front in Salt Lake City. I live at the mouth
56:50
of Little Cottonwood Canyon, the entrance to the ski resorts of Snowbird and Alta.
56:54
A few days ago, specific yeah, the only thing you didn't do
56:58
is drop us a GP spin. A few days ago, I was walking
57:01
along my normal path and found this bumper sticker that I found him using and
57:06
thought you would as well. Moth Man made me all the way out to
57:09
Utah. I attached a picture to see what my regular walks to give you
57:14
in your viewers, the breathtaking views of the mountains in Utah. I can't
57:17
find the other picture I sent it. But what's that say? Mothman?
57:23
Some Mothman? I break for the Mothman. From Break for Mothman. I've
57:28
been there, actually right there, right there where he is that car.
57:34
Know we're he's talking about because when we went out into the hot Rod Huntley
57:37
documentary, we spent time out there and they said this, it's absolutely gorgeous.
57:43
Texter Pete and Pennsboro. Can you estimate what percentage of athletic department donations
57:49
pre nil are given by private wealthy individuals versus corporate sponsors versus the average joe
57:57
buying seasoned tickets. I don't know anything, Brad. You you can do
58:02
a little bit on this, Brad. So let's walk this through. So
58:06
he's talking about athletic department donations, so that in itself is a couple of
58:09
different things. There's mountaineer athletic club donations, which are private individuals, groups
58:15
of people people the other so you're talking that's one way to raise dollars.
58:20
The other way is by corporate sponsorships. Right, that's another way where companies
58:25
get involved and they become a corporate sponsor. That's money to the university as
58:30
well. So your question is, can you estimate with a percentage of athletic
58:34
department donations are given privately by wealthy individuals versus corporate sponsors versus the average joe?
58:40
Yeah? Anything there? Man? How do you That's a tough plan.
58:44
I'll be honest, I I just don't remember. I mean, I
58:45
just haven't looked at that in so long. I think he's got that in
58:49
order of most to least okay, private donations to MAC versus corporate versus season
58:55
ticket sales. I think that's in order of highest to lowest, with with
59:00
TV dollars being the bulk of the income. Now, I think, don't
59:02
hold me to that in a long time. Pete and Pennsbro continues. I
59:06
think Tony said something about building a new house. He's been all looking at
59:08
yards per play now happy rather than chicket sales pizzas. Tony's building a house.
59:15
I can only assume that Kirchi will be building the Adirondic chairs for the
59:20
new place. When was the last time you made out? O? I
59:22
am you haven't done anything, have you? No, I'm I'm embarrassed.
59:25
I'm so I haven't. I love doing it. I just haven't had the
59:29
time. Now, I'll get stuff from my son. My son's doing that
59:31
now, he's doing aderontic chairs, doing wood, doing wood. Yeah,
59:36
you don't see any stuff he's made. No O doing really nice stuff.
59:40
Well, now this is a sound form of producer on this program. He
59:44
did he got the heck out of here. Three guys a lump. Yeah,
59:46
yeah, it's gonna get away from you. Flown's gonna go make tables
59:50
got, he got a big old word, he got a big old wood
59:52
shop. He'd make stuff now really good too. Really you should see.
59:57
Really, I'm not showing you his stuff. You've showed me it's BEAUTIFU Well,
1:00:00
I am not in his league. I mean it's been a while.
1:00:02
I'm tech pizzas. I'm better hurry up and buy him sin though, because
1:00:07
knowing him is many inches. He'll turn around. They've been cars here in
1:00:10
about a month. I'm gonna get into home building. I'm gonna install pools.
1:00:17
Watch three YouTube videos. Know how to install a pool? Be doing
1:00:21
that? Dud's unbelievable. Seriously, really, it's gonna make make movie videos.
1:00:28
Find does that agree built that wood shop? Built an amazing wood shop.
1:00:31
I've never did a thing in his life. He built this whole wood
1:00:34
shop whired. The whole thing is amazing. Ill can do that? Will
1:00:38
you be auctioning off your old house yourself? Or are you gonna move to
1:00:42
Pennsboro. Let me know if you are, so I can block off some
1:00:45
time on my calendar to show you around. Nana's ice cream Barn and Poco's
1:00:50
Tacos. Can get pretty busy there, Bob. But the old water treatment
1:00:52
plant is beautiful this time of year. I bet you grass this time of
1:00:55
year around water treatment plants just perfect, booming perfect. You go down here
1:01:01
on University Avenue where mub is that grass is always like really good. There
1:01:07
are three guys, Mike from Salem. I'm sending this on the summer solstice,
1:01:13
wanting to know how Tony is handling his sacred day? Did Hoppy ring
1:01:16
his bell for the occasion as Brad give him down the road for being a
1:01:21
glass half empty about losing daylight great summer series so far, Yes, I
1:01:25
will say it's not all is lost. Spent some time at the Mond County
1:01:30
Ballpark last night enjoying enjoin the Black Bears game, looking out over the hill.
1:01:36
They're looking down watching, had my kids with me. After nine o'clock,
1:01:43
Ye still still and I took a moment, as he tries to always
1:01:49
ruin it, I truly did hit my watch it. What time is it?
1:01:51
I still pray what time is it? And I went, you know
1:01:54
what, after nine o'clock? This is nice? YEA thank you for reminding
1:01:59
us always did take a moment to enjoy what you always falsely claim is your
1:02:02
goal In saying that I actually, did you know. I got um My
1:02:07
son Ben lives in outside of Austin, Texas, and I'm killing him because
1:02:12
it is like one hundred and five every day. So I just I'll take
1:02:16
a picture of what his temperature is there and I'll send it to him,
1:02:20
Like, I know, I know it's one hundred and five. I mean,
1:02:22
you can't be outside. You can't be outside there. I mean,
1:02:24
I don't know why are you living there? You know? And here it's
1:02:28
beautiful. Temperature has been awesome. It is limiting lake time. I'd like,
1:02:32
we need to pop at nineties so we can get some water time in.
1:02:35
Yeah, we have had a couple of days. We've had a couple
1:02:39
of days recently at nighttime where it gets temperature zero. Like I'm on the
1:02:44
back, I'm on a screen porch of his good life. His temperature zero.
1:02:49
It's like you just stop, you just stopping. You go like,
1:02:52
oh my gosh, this is it. It's not too cold, it's not
1:02:57
too hot, it's perfect. It's tempt your zero. And then the same
1:03:00
thing last night, I was I was laying back there and I went like,
1:03:04
it's bright outside. I look and went I looked at my watch,
1:03:06
or my phone. It was nine oh six, and I went like,
1:03:09
this is like, why can't it be like this every night? If it
1:03:15
could just be bright like light like nine oh six every night and never go
1:03:17
away. We get snow for five days December, like nineteen twenty twenty,
1:03:22
and they just over with just make that every day temperature zero. I'd be
1:03:25
the happiest guy in the world if it was always temperature zero and we have
1:03:29
like five days of snow around Christmas and then that's it. All I want
1:03:31
is temperature zero? Can I get that? Here's the other side of that
1:03:35
is that yesterday seemed like a long day and I'm I'm trying to work my
1:03:39
foot back in after the injury. So at the end of the day I
1:03:44
was tired and I was sitting in the living room air conditioning and thinking,
1:03:47
I gotta go to bed, and it looked out it was still light.
1:03:51
I can't go to bed. It's still light. That's the other side of
1:03:54
it. Why doesn't it get dark so I can go to bed. I've
1:03:58
had that, You've been an I wish it. You've You've been in Ireland
1:04:00
before, same kind of a deal. It's like ten eleven o'clock at night,
1:04:03
it's the light outside. Are you going all right? Last one with
1:04:06
the guys entering the portal, do they lose the money from the Country Roads
1:04:12
Trust or is it paid upfront? Many more questions, So I think it
1:04:15
would make an interesting show. So again, the nil payments are not all
1:04:25
coming from Country Roads Trust. They're also just coming from people businesses that will
1:04:31
hire these guys as ten ninety nine employees. So each deal is different.
1:04:38
But from what I'm able to tell, when they get here during the offseason
1:04:42
months, they get about thirty percent of what they're going to get, and
1:04:46
then after that they get paid monthly. It could be twice in a month
1:04:51
or it might just be per month, and so no one's getting just all
1:04:57
of it at once. And if they go away, then it just just
1:05:00
stops. So that's the deal. So a player that came here, excuse
1:05:06
me, and got like this year and got in I elmi, they could
1:05:11
have gotten a couple of payments, but then still leave. Okay, Now
1:05:15
obviously they're like, let's just say hypothetically that they signed for let's just for
1:05:20
the hell of it, say one hundred two hundred thousand dollars and so far
1:05:25
they've gotten thirty thousand dollars. Well, they're one hundred and seventy. They'll
1:05:29
do one hundred and seventy. But if they walk, they're not getting one
1:05:30
hundred and seventy. Yeah, but they don't have gotten the thirty gotten thirty
1:05:33
for non for non performance correct, well, just for being here, for
1:05:41
practicing. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. See. I don't know how
1:05:44
it's I don't know how this is done. I just think it's a great
1:05:46
unknown how these things are done. Bread maybe you know, but I think
1:05:48
if I were going to pay a player, I would have a contract with
1:05:54
you know, term with terms so that if you don't complete the term,
1:06:00
agree to pl in terms of their contract that you owe you owe me the
1:06:02
money. But in essence, if I started working for you or the company,
1:06:08
I would be getting paid for my time here, and if I left,
1:06:10
then the payments would stop. How's it any different than a regular employee
1:06:14
would work? Uh, I'm per per performance. There's there's been no performance.
1:06:18
I would say, there's been no game performance. There's been performance.
1:06:21
They've been working out, it's been practice, there's been team meetings, there's
1:06:28
been performance, time out, time out, time out, the time out.
1:06:31
The fact that you're saying that is the fact that you're saying that is
1:06:38
illegal. Well, not getting paid on their performance. They're getting paid on
1:06:42
their name, their image, and their likeness. They there's not a question
1:06:45
over the continue to have question. You just sit over there for a minute,
1:06:47
you have a discussion. They've been performing already, there's been duties performed
1:06:53
already. What in order to get paid you have to do something? In
1:07:00
other words, you have to go sign autographs, you have to coach a
1:07:01
clinic, you have to You're just not getting paid to show up and work.
1:07:04
That's not They're not paid for play. They've been practice meetings and stuff.
1:07:10
They just haven't played a game yet, not by the rules. Talk
1:07:13
about practice. I don't care about practice. I'm looking at points per game
1:07:17
and rebounds per game. That's what I'm paying for. I understand what you're
1:07:24
paying for. I'm just telling you the way it's supposed to work. All
1:07:27
that stuff, and then they're not just getting a check on game day.
1:07:30
There are things that go into game day. Hey, okay, but I
1:07:33
mean you're paid for things other than the two hours you do your coffee clatch
1:07:38
conceivably paid for other duties that go into that. Now he's got his own
1:07:42
coffee for his coffee clatch episode point. That's a pretty good point. That
1:07:47
that's a great point. That's better than you're drinking out of a thermis.
1:07:50
You've been calling his award winning show a coffee clatch for years. Now the
1:07:54
man has a coffee. I got your own beans, baby, Hey,
1:07:57
one other thing before we go away. Okay, will wait, we never
1:08:00
talked about this, senator. Huh. How about the former LSU coach to
1:08:03
your the current was he McNeice, The current McNeese Steake coach got a two
1:08:08
years show cause, which means what because he's coaching? What's it mean he
1:08:12
can't write. I don't think that's what it means. You don't now that's
1:08:15
what show cause used to mean. But he's already coaching. Well, the
1:08:18
NC double A can say he's not allowed to coach. I don't think that's
1:08:20
what that means. Well, I don't think that. What's it mean?
1:08:23
What's it what's it mean? That's what's happening, So what's it mean?
1:08:28
I'm asking you what's it mean? When the next time he leaves? He
1:08:30
used to mean he had to prove your case to the NCAA why he should
1:08:32
be allowed to coach again? Before he's allowed to coach, And he used
1:08:34
to scare schools off so much they wouldn't even touch you. I think the
1:08:36
guy's still coaching. Okay, So what's that mean when he leaves McNeice and
1:08:41
he wants to go to, uh, wherever he wants to go. Now
1:08:43
he's got to go do a two years show cause? I would guess.
1:08:45
But why have a show cause if you're already coaching? Well, just one
1:08:49
of the many things. I mean, there are rules, just one of
1:08:53
the many many occasionally many many things random. It's very that's very random.
1:08:57
I forgot what coach it was and he said that they then it's doing something
1:09:00
improper and proper and proper three game suspension? Like what? What? What?
1:09:06
Very random? All right? Okay, so once again, um,
1:09:12
hey, let's let's try to do this. Let's not be here next Sunday.
1:09:15
Huh, let's let's not. Let's not have anything to talk about next
1:09:18
Sunday. But what we will do is, as this story continues to develop,
1:09:23
and as this story warrants more and more coverage than we will we're around
1:09:29
um and we will jump back in. We gotta we have a consensus on
1:09:33
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Tyler County Consolidate did Kennedy for coming in his runs almost over here, J
1:11:03
Dustin's here too. Well, I was gonna say that, I'm sorry.
1:11:06
Yeah, that's fine, but Taylor's runs almost over. Um, he's leaving
1:11:12
us, entering the trans reportal. He's in the portal and uh and this
1:11:16
particular case we did for we don't want him back, like if he comes
1:11:19
back. Hey, you know, I've been kind of rethinking this thing.
1:11:21
Man. No, We're good. It's not very nice. That's you can
1:11:24
always come back. You can come back, you will, You'll take him
1:11:27
back. Sure, But I thinking his announcement. It did not include still
1:11:30
considering three guys, did not say that. He did not say potentially I'm
1:11:36
entering the portal, which means probably see it. Don't want to be It
1:11:40
was more his and also helping him out here jumping Jack Carlson Um, who's
1:11:45
also in for the summers, part of one of our outstanding interns, who
1:11:48
has shown loyalty. He's shown loyalty, He's he's you know. Don Kneeling
1:11:53
would say, Jack's got it. I'd take as many. John Kneeling would
1:11:57
say, I take as many Jack Carlson's as I could get good transfer portal
1:12:00
pick up for us, then taking it away. Five star. All right,
1:12:03
we're out, see you m