Latest / The Craig Way Show / How does Texas Baseball respond after sweep of Texas A&M with Ty Harrington and Texas Beach Volleyball coach Stein Metzger

Transcript

How does Texas Baseball respond after sweep of Texas A&M with Ty Harrington and Texas Beach Volleyball coach Stein Metzger · The Craig Way Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Glad to be with you here from UFCU dish Folk Field,
0:04
Speaker 1: the site of quite a bit of excitement for Texas
0:08
Speaker 1: long worn baseball fans these days is they have the
0:11
Speaker 1: number one team in the country and the top team
0:14
Speaker 1: atop the SEC standings. Neither of that stuff really matters tonight.
0:19
Speaker 1: They do have a ballgame, but it's out of conference
0:22
Speaker 1: against Prairie View A and M. But they will go
0:25
Speaker 1: to work and look to make it ten consecutive wins.
0:28
Speaker 1: We welcome you to the program this afternoon. My name
0:31
Speaker 1: is Craig Way. We thank you very much for joining us.
0:33
Speaker 1: Joined in the studio by the producer Cameron D. Parker.
0:37
Speaker 1: The D on the birth certificate stands for Dallas, as
0:40
Speaker 1: in the NFL team for which he was named, which
0:45
Speaker 1: he only follows a skance from a distance and refuses
0:50
Speaker 1: to watch on television with their misdeeds and goings on
0:56
Speaker 1: on the off season. But hey, look they just came
0:58
Speaker 1: through the draft and maybe get better and getting ready
1:02
Speaker 1: for the coming twenty five season. We can all dream,
1:05
Speaker 1: right Cameron, Hey, the D stands for Dallas.
1:07
Speaker 2: Today, it's sands for Dallas, Dallas Stars I six two
1:12
Speaker 2: last night, that's right, three to two series lead. Let's
1:15
Speaker 2: go Stars, baby.
1:16
Speaker 1: What they do? They scored what nine seconds into it?
1:19
Speaker 2: Wa Johnston with this an unbelievable goal that I don't
1:22
Speaker 2: think he could do ever again. But sometimes, hey me
1:25
Speaker 2: a little bit of luck, and it certainly went that
1:28
Speaker 2: way for Dallas and lay head back to Colorado with
1:31
Speaker 2: a chance to win the series tomorrow night. So let's
1:34
Speaker 2: go Stars.
1:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was. It was impressive. And for folks
1:38
Speaker 1: who don't understand, because I've had people to ask me
1:41
Speaker 1: differently about you know, what makes the Stanley Cup playoffs
1:47
Speaker 1: so different and in the minds of some people, the
1:51
Speaker 1: best postseason around. You know, I said, it really becomes
1:56
Speaker 1: that way if you get to sudden death, because unlike
2:01
Speaker 1: the NBA, where you know what you've got, you've got
2:04
Speaker 1: a five minute overtime that you play baseball, there's extra inning,
2:08
Speaker 1: so if team scores in the top half of an inning,
2:11
Speaker 1: the other team can match and or surpass it to
2:13
Speaker 1: win the game in the bottom half of the inning.
2:16
Speaker 1: NFL does have sudden death in its playoffs, but it's
2:22
Speaker 1: quite often extrapolated throughout the course of an overtime period.
2:26
Speaker 1: It doesn't always happen bang bang instantaneously. It could happen
2:30
Speaker 1: with a long pass or a pick six, but it
2:33
Speaker 1: usually doesn't, Whereas in the NHL, if you're watching overtime
2:38
Speaker 1: in the Stars and as have played a couple overtimes,
2:40
Speaker 1: if you're watching it, it can literally change instantaneously and
2:46
Speaker 1: all of a sudden game is over, and if you
2:48
Speaker 1: were cheering for the team that won, it's instant exhilaration,
2:51
Speaker 1: and if you're cheering for the team that lost, it's
2:54
Speaker 1: just instant heartbreak. I think that's the big separating factor
2:58
Speaker 1: from the other pro sports leagues. You watch the NHL
3:00
Speaker 1: a lot, do you agree with that?
3:02
Speaker 2: Yeah? And sometimes hockey, like I don't want to dumb
3:06
Speaker 2: it down to say it's not about skill, but sometimes Craig,
3:09
Speaker 2: you know, all it takes is a deflection that goes
3:11
Speaker 2: into the back of the net and it changes the
3:14
Speaker 2: entire series.
3:15
Speaker 1: Right.
3:15
Speaker 2: You don't really have that too much in football or
3:18
Speaker 2: basketball or other sports where you have a play like that,
3:20
Speaker 2: but it happens a lot in hockey. I just think
3:22
Speaker 2: back to why Johnston's goal. You know, if Dallas doesn't
3:25
Speaker 2: score right there, the momentum is not on Dallas's side,
3:28
Speaker 2: and who knows what happens, maybe they still win, but
3:31
Speaker 2: there's moments like that that kind of add and build
3:34
Speaker 2: up to what that makes the Stanley Cup Playoffs such
3:37
Speaker 2: well probably you know a lot of people say it's
3:39
Speaker 2: the best postseason in all sports. And I don't know
3:42
Speaker 2: if I'm all the way there because I didn't grow
3:44
Speaker 2: up with hockey, but watching playoff hockey, it's so much
3:49
Speaker 2: different than watching it during the regular season.
3:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the intensity is I'll tell you one
3:54
Speaker 1: thing that's different about the Stanley Cup playoffs from the rest.
3:59
Speaker 1: And I was talking about this with Linda last night
4:01
Speaker 1: because we were watching the game and she was amazed,
4:05
Speaker 1: you know, at the amount of glove dropping an extracurricular
4:10
Speaker 1: that was going on. And I pointed out to her that, uh,
4:16
Speaker 1: this is quite commonplace in the regular season. In fact,
4:19
Speaker 1: if you watch a regular season game anywhere in the
4:21
Speaker 1: NHL and you don't see a fight, it's probably unusual.
4:25
Speaker 1: In the playoffs, it's the other way around, because it
4:29
Speaker 1: gets real unusual because teams are not wanting to take
4:33
Speaker 1: that risk on a penalty. And you know, that's that
4:39
Speaker 1: That's what I think comes out more than more than
4:42
Speaker 1: anything else. That's why you don't see too many fights.
4:44
Speaker 1: In fact, I wasn't even sure that the you know
4:49
Speaker 1: that that that we'd even see a fight in the postseason.
4:51
Speaker 1: But we've seen him a couple of times in the
4:53
Speaker 1: in this Star series. I haven't seen him in the
4:54
Speaker 1: other series, but I haven't watched every minute of every
4:56
Speaker 1: other series.
4:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think part of that too, Craig, is
4:59
Speaker 2: this It is the third playoffs series between the Stars
5:03
Speaker 2: and the Avalanche is twenty twenty, and the two previous
5:06
Speaker 2: series Dallas both won, but one in seven and one
5:09
Speaker 2: in six. And now here they are. I mean, I
5:11
Speaker 2: think they've played forty two times, and the record in
5:14
Speaker 2: those forty two games twenty one in twenty one. You
5:18
Speaker 2: can't get more even than that. So these two teams
5:20
Speaker 2: know each other very well, so it'll it'll tend to
5:23
Speaker 2: lead to, you know, more physical confrontations.
5:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And and so then I was having to
5:31
Speaker 1: explain the difference between just regular fighting and out and
5:34
Speaker 1: out game misconduct that you had near the end of
5:38
Speaker 1: regulation when you had two guys on each side being
5:42
Speaker 1: sent inside. But you know, Linda doesn't proclaim to know
5:47
Speaker 1: much about hockey anyway, So I mean, I'm explaining you know,
5:51
Speaker 1: things like icing and the slot and you know where
5:54
Speaker 1: they do face offs, and you know.
5:55
Speaker 2: They still don't understand icing and never will. I've just
5:58
Speaker 2: accepted that.
6:00
Speaker 1: It's kind of almost like balk in baseball. You know,
6:02
Speaker 1: it's it's it's kind of an inexact science as as
6:06
Speaker 1: to when they determine that there's like there are real
6:09
Speaker 1: obvious ones. Clearly, if a team is trying to defend
6:13
Speaker 1: against the power play and they're just shooting the puck
6:16
Speaker 1: right back down the ice to get it out of
6:18
Speaker 1: their zone, it's going all the way down there. You know,
6:19
Speaker 1: you're you're gonna have that call for icing, But they're
6:21
Speaker 1: they're there are more nuanced, uh strategies in play that
6:26
Speaker 1: ultimately lead it. So I mean, I'm.
6:28
Speaker 2: Explaining that the blue line is that what it is
6:30
Speaker 2: if you're behind your blue line, you know, and slamming
6:34
Speaker 2: down the other in the punk gets icy. Yeah yeah,
6:37
Speaker 2: so you know, uh, you know that's that's.
6:45
Speaker 1: You know, that's that that that's one of the things
6:47
Speaker 1: that I was that I was kind of explaining there.
6:51
Speaker 2: Uh hey, coming up on the program, Uh we'll we'll
6:55
Speaker 2: we'll talk to more college baseball.
6:58
Speaker 1: Uh and uh uh. Coming up later on in the program.
7:03
Speaker 1: Ty Harrington will be working the telecast tonight of this
7:07
Speaker 1: Texas periode view game. We'll join us for our weekly conversation.
7:11
Speaker 1: That's because you know we usually do with either Tuesday
7:15
Speaker 1: or Friday, depending on whether it's home or on the road. Well,
7:18
Speaker 1: since long words lead tomorrow as a team for Fayevl,
7:21
Speaker 1: Arkansas for that Thursday Friday Saturday series in Fayetteville, I'll
7:27
Speaker 1: obviously be checking in. I'll check in with you tomorrow
7:30
Speaker 1: and check in with Andrews. And we have the Zimbel
7:32
Speaker 1: Hours on Thursday and Friday, right we do, and I
7:35
Speaker 1: will check in with him on Thursday and Friday. But
7:39
Speaker 1: in terms of doing a whole show, that's what you'll
7:41
Speaker 1: be hosting tomorrow, and that's what sim will be doing
7:43
Speaker 1: on Thursday and Friday. So Ty will join us later
7:48
Speaker 1: and we'll have a little baseball college baseball update thing
7:52
Speaker 1: and talk about the national picture as well as the
7:54
Speaker 1: local three o'clock hour. Stein Metzger joins us. Now some
8:01
Speaker 1: folks might still be familiarizing themselves with the name Stein Metzger.
8:09
Speaker 1: He's the coach of the Texas Beach volleyball team. That
8:12
Speaker 1: won the conference championship in their first year of eligibility,
8:15
Speaker 1: and we'll be playing in the NCAA tournament in Gulf Schwars,
8:19
Speaker 1: Alabama this Friday, So we're gonna visit with Stein. We've
8:24
Speaker 1: had we've had coach metsk Aro on before and it's
8:26
Speaker 1: always fun to visit with. So we're gonna visit with
8:27
Speaker 1: Stein coming up in the three o'clock hour, so we
8:31
Speaker 1: will you know, we'll look forward to You had a
8:36
Speaker 1: chance to call some beach volleyball. How much fun did
8:38
Speaker 1: you have doing that?
8:39
Speaker 2: It was an absolute blast being out there at the
8:41
Speaker 2: beach the right Whitaker Fields Complex where Texas Beach Volleyball
8:46
Speaker 2: has their temporary home until they build that brand new
8:49
Speaker 2: facility here in a year or so. It's a lot
8:52
Speaker 2: of fun. It's been a lot of fun to you know,
8:55
Speaker 2: cover this program in Washington and what Stein has done
8:58
Speaker 2: and just technically it's year two, but year one, you know,
9:02
Speaker 2: they kind of had to fill the roster with you know,
9:05
Speaker 2: regular volleyball players who didn't play sand volleyball. But with
9:09
Speaker 2: this season, Stein did a great job of utilizing the
9:12
Speaker 2: transfer portal and bringing in girls and yeah, you know
9:15
Speaker 2: it didn't take much. I mean, how many teams can say, hey,
9:18
Speaker 2: in their first year of eligibility for the postseason, they
9:21
Speaker 2: find themselves ranked in the top ten. That's a credit
9:23
Speaker 2: to the staff and the credit to the players who
9:26
Speaker 2: have come over to Austin.
9:28
Speaker 1: That's true enough. I had a couple of people text
9:34
Speaker 1: me and ask me about whether for the game because
9:39
Speaker 1: there'd been a couple of thunderstorm possibilities out there. Looking
9:44
Speaker 1: at the forecast that I'm looking at, it looks like
9:47
Speaker 1: everything's okay for the game today. Tomorrow stands the best
9:52
Speaker 1: chance of rank so fortunately, since they're not playing tomorrow,
9:54
Speaker 1: they are traveling tomorrow. But but it looks like everything
9:57
Speaker 1: will be okay. Now, I will tell you this. It's
10:01
Speaker 1: gonna be hot and it's gonna be windy. It'll be
10:04
Speaker 1: about eighty seven eighty six eighty seven degrees at first
10:09
Speaker 1: pitch time to night, and the winds are coming out
10:14
Speaker 1: almost completely due south. It's very slight south southeast right now,
10:21
Speaker 1: and they're blowing steady at eighteen miles per hour and
10:25
Speaker 1: they're gusting up to thirty miles per hour. So yeah,
10:30
Speaker 1: if you're hitting the ball out to left tonight, cam
10:33
Speaker 1: probably got a good chance to send one out of
10:36
Speaker 1: the ballpark. And I'm thinking of those deadpool hitters like
10:39
Speaker 1: Casey Borba and you know, and Jalen Flores and Ryland Galvan.
10:46
Speaker 1: Now those guys that all three of those guys, by
10:48
Speaker 1: the way, have proven and shown the season that they
10:50
Speaker 1: can go the opposite way when the situation calls for it.
10:53
Speaker 1: But on a night like this, and if we're being
10:57
Speaker 1: you know, completely revealing, completely honest, and you mentioned the
11:03
Speaker 1: team that they're playing, Prairie View, I did mention yesterday
11:07
Speaker 1: that Prairieview comes in with an RPI of two hundred
11:10
Speaker 1: and ninety nine. They're not a horrible offensive team. They're
11:16
Speaker 1: about about two sixty five. Uh, it's the pitching, that's
11:20
Speaker 1: the bugaboot cam. Their team ERA is nine point three five.
11:27
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, if if the long worn bats
11:31
Speaker 1: are up and going tonight nine three five, nine three five.
11:36
Speaker 2: That's feeling it after what the weather you just mentioned
11:38
Speaker 2: and the way Txes is swinging might be closer to
11:41
Speaker 2: the ten.
11:42
Speaker 3: Yeah.
11:42
Speaker 1: The day you think about this, Texas run ruled a
11:46
Speaker 1: couple of teams that are in contention for the Southern
11:52
Speaker 1: Conference championship. One of those is Houston Christian now they've
11:55
Speaker 1: fallen off a little bit. The other is ut Rio
11:58
Speaker 1: Grand Valley and they beat them two weeks ago and
12:02
Speaker 1: run ruled them. And they're near the top. I think
12:05
Speaker 1: they're twenty eight and fifteen. They're near the top of
12:07
Speaker 1: the Southland standings. And as we speak right now, they're
12:12
Speaker 1: up nine to two on Texas Tech in Love It
12:15
Speaker 1: Wow in the top of the third and Texas Tech
12:19
Speaker 1: is very relieved because they've just hit a weather delay there.
12:22
Speaker 1: They've just had a storm blowed. They moved that game forward.
12:25
Speaker 1: It was supposed to be a six o'clock first pitch,
12:27
Speaker 1: and they were concerned about thunderstorms tonight. That's why I
12:30
Speaker 1: had some other people ask me and say, hey, I
12:32
Speaker 1: know it's going to be stormy out in West Texas.
12:34
Speaker 1: Are those storms going to hit here? And the answer
12:37
Speaker 1: is no, not this evening. It doesn't look like all
12:39
Speaker 1: over because we're getting some really strong prevailing winds out
12:43
Speaker 1: of the south. But yeah, and UTRGV came in with
12:47
Speaker 1: a I think they were batting Campbell like three point
12:50
Speaker 1: fifteen as a team or something like that when they
12:53
Speaker 1: played here, and and Texas shut them down and played
12:57
Speaker 1: well enough and obviously won the ball game and ut
13:01
Speaker 1: Rio Grand Valley. Their week point was they're pitching, but
13:04
Speaker 1: they came at their team ERA wasn't horrible. I mean
13:08
Speaker 1: it was like five points something, but I think Texas
13:11
Speaker 1: text might be even higher than that. The Red Raiders
13:13
Speaker 1: have given up a lot of runs. They've really had
13:14
Speaker 1: a struggle this year out Lubbock. It has been uncharacteristic
13:18
Speaker 1: for those Tim Tadlock coach teams to be struggling. And
13:21
Speaker 1: they're nine below five hundred going into today's game. Like
13:26
Speaker 1: I said, they're down nine to two in the third
13:28
Speaker 1: inning at home to ut Rio Grand Valley. But they
13:32
Speaker 1: may get a reprieve on this deal. If they can't.
13:35
Speaker 1: They're supposed to play two games there, a two game
13:38
Speaker 1: midweek there, but I don't know that that's going to
13:42
Speaker 1: wind up being the case because they've got they've got
13:43
Speaker 1: the weather delay going on there. All right, what's going
13:46
Speaker 1: on here is we've got some NFL notes to get to,
13:51
Speaker 1: also some NBA get cam's review of the playoff games
13:55
Speaker 1: that were played last night in preview the ones tonight.
13:57
Speaker 1: We do have inconceivable coming up later on this out.
14:00
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, Stein Metzger, the Texas Beach Volleyball coach,
14:04
Speaker 1: choines in the three o'clock hour. We'll talk from college
14:07
Speaker 1: baseball with Ty Harrington in the four o'clock hour as well.
14:10
Speaker 1: So we got a lot on our plate this afternoon,
14:12
Speaker 1: and glad you're with us as well. If you like
14:14
Speaker 1: to text the program, feel free to do so. You
14:17
Speaker 1: can avail yourselves of our text line. And what you
14:20
Speaker 1: do is you text the word Texas follow by your
14:22
Speaker 1: question or comment to eight one five three zero. So
14:27
Speaker 1: just text the word Texas follow by your question or
14:29
Speaker 1: comment to eight one five three zero. Standard messaging and
14:34
Speaker 1: data rates may apply. There's one other thing I want
14:38
Speaker 1: to do. If you've heard me tell you about several
14:42
Speaker 1: different businesses product services that have been proud to endorse
14:47
Speaker 1: over the years. One service that I will always always
14:52
Speaker 1: be happy to indoors is our good friend, doctor Greg Eckert.
14:55
Speaker 1: He's been in outstanding dentistry here in the Greater Rostin
15:00
Speaker 1: area for more than thirty years. He's been my dentist
15:03
Speaker 1: for more than a decade. And uh, you can go
15:08
Speaker 1: without that anxiety that usually accompanies the trip to the dentist.
15:13
Speaker 1: There's anxiety free ways to do that. They will also
15:17
Speaker 1: he and his outstanding staff will visit with you about
15:22
Speaker 1: any specific dental options that you might need to consider
15:27
Speaker 1: and what the best plan might be for you, and
15:29
Speaker 1: then you have the opportunity to make the informed decision.
15:32
Speaker 1: So you can give doctor Ecker to call at three
15:34
Speaker 1: four five three one sixty six. This is thirteen hundred zone.
15:39
Speaker 1: Always great to hear from the one and only Stevie Rayvaughn.
15:43
Speaker 1: I always like remembering the fact that I when I
15:48
Speaker 1: in my concert vending days when I put myself through college.
15:51
Speaker 2: So that's actually double trouble, by the way, let me occur.
15:53
Speaker 2: That's from double trouble.
15:57
Speaker 1: In the in my concert vending days putting myself through college,
16:01
Speaker 1: and I worked either for the band or for the arena.
16:04
Speaker 1: I was working the rolling Stones at the Cotton Bowl
16:08
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty one, so it was in college, and
16:11
Speaker 1: that's when Lynn and I were dating the first time
16:14
Speaker 1: before we split up and lost contact for thirty five
16:17
Speaker 1: years until we had our incredible random run into each
16:21
Speaker 1: other in twenty eighteen and been together since. But when
16:27
Speaker 1: I was working that it was a triple bill, so
16:31
Speaker 1: you think about this. The rolling Stones obviously were the
16:33
Speaker 1: headliner the Coton Bowl, and it was on Halloween weekend.
16:35
Speaker 1: In fact, it was on Halloween and it was pouring
16:39
Speaker 1: rain throughout the show. Didn't stop Mick Jagger. He was
16:42
Speaker 1: out on the stage and he was doing the Mick.
16:45
Speaker 2: Jagger strut the way he does, and the Stones were
16:48
Speaker 2: rocking and all that.
16:49
Speaker 1: So they were the headliner. They were the last act.
16:52
Speaker 1: The middle act Cam was none other then, as they
16:57
Speaker 1: liked to call themselves, that little old band from Texas,
16:59
Speaker 1: zz Top. So that was the That was the middle
17:03
Speaker 1: and the first was the Fabulous Thunderbirds. So you had
17:08
Speaker 1: both of the Vaughan brothers there, yeah, Jimmy, and you
17:11
Speaker 1: had Stevie Ray, so you had that had that going on.
17:13
Speaker 1: So that was quite a bill that day and in
17:15
Speaker 1: that weekend at the Cotton Bowl. They played both Saturday
17:17
Speaker 1: and Sunday at the Cotton Bowl back in nineteen eighty one.
17:21
Speaker 1: And I think about it and I always tell the
17:22
Speaker 1: story that it is true, absolutely true. When Linda and
17:26
Speaker 1: I were dating, and this was like in January. It
17:30
Speaker 1: was a few months later. It was in January of
17:31
Speaker 1: eighty two, and my best friend Alex wanted to go
17:37
Speaker 1: see Stevie Ray Vaughn and we went on a double
17:43
Speaker 1: date and we took dates there and Linda was my date,
17:45
Speaker 1: and we went and he was playing in a little,
17:47
Speaker 1: tiny little club on Oaklawn Avenue in Dallas called the
17:51
Speaker 1: New Bamboo. And we went in there and sat down
17:55
Speaker 1: and he just walks out of that with that classic
17:58
Speaker 1: hat that he always wore, the wide bread hat, sat
18:01
Speaker 1: down and just kind of ducked his head, bowed his
18:04
Speaker 1: head down and just began to play and just played
18:07
Speaker 1: and played. It was awesome. Our dates didn't think it
18:09
Speaker 1: was that great because it wasn't like a rock and
18:11
Speaker 1: jumping band and doing all this kind of stuff, and
18:14
Speaker 1: you know all that.
18:14
Speaker 2: And Lynna and I have had a laugh or two
18:16
Speaker 2: about that in the year since, because she became a
18:18
Speaker 2: big fan later. But that particular night, when she was
18:22
Speaker 2: seventeen years old and we were going out, it wasn't
18:26
Speaker 2: wasn't quite the same.
18:28
Speaker 1: Put it this way, It hit differently for her back then.
18:31
Speaker 1: It wasn't really quite the same. What also isn't quite
18:36
Speaker 1: the same these days is what's going on with the
18:39
Speaker 1: NBA playoffs. All Right, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you
18:45
Speaker 1: a chance to just kind of I'm not gonna say,
18:48
Speaker 1: explain yourself because you pretty much explained it yesterday. And
18:52
Speaker 1: you also kind of let everybody know how you feel
18:58
Speaker 1: and what you think of Luka Danci with some of
19:01
Speaker 1: your comments about him. Would you start to say having
19:04
Speaker 1: a beer or something like that. You were you were
19:07
Speaker 1: kind of it's just a joke, guy, Okay, you were
19:11
Speaker 1: kind of tossing around some funnies about him, uh, that
19:14
Speaker 1: sort of thing. But Kendrick Perkins this morning on the
19:18
Speaker 1: ESPN said, no, boy, Anthony Edwards is a better player
19:21
Speaker 1: than Luka doncic Oh, boy, that was his take. Now,
19:25
Speaker 1: I don't think you're a big Perk fan anyway, are you? Uh?
19:29
Speaker 2: Purchase says stuff he's on shows like that, Craig. I
19:33
Speaker 2: just try not to pay any attention because I know
19:36
Speaker 2: what their end goal is, which is just, hey, let's
19:38
Speaker 2: say the most absurd thing possible, right and get fused.
19:42
Speaker 2: So I've you know, we we we've been around people
19:45
Speaker 2: who know Perk well, like coach Brennan Chappelle, who was
19:48
Speaker 2: on Artie staff, grew up with Perk and has something
19:52
Speaker 2: but great things to say about him. Our own Michael
19:54
Speaker 2: Harge has gone to basketball tournaments with his kids where
19:58
Speaker 2: Perk has been there and has something great things to
20:00
Speaker 2: say about him.
20:01
Speaker 1: I called the state championship game he played him with
20:03
Speaker 1: Bo Motto's and when they lost to Lincoln High with
20:07
Speaker 1: Chris Bosh Wow. Yeah, back in two I believe it was.
20:11
Speaker 1: It's been it's been a while. So yeah, he was
20:13
Speaker 1: he was quite the Uh, he was quite the weapon.
20:15
Speaker 1: And he was coached by a friend of mine who
20:18
Speaker 1: I went to college with the North Texas who played
20:20
Speaker 1: at basketball in North Texas. Andre Boutet was his head coach.
20:24
Speaker 1: So you're right, Perk can say some things to elicit response.
20:28
Speaker 1: I think I think that's probably, uh, that's probably an
20:32
Speaker 1: accurate statement assessment of how he is.
20:35
Speaker 2: Okay, Uh, But with that take, yeah, he may be
20:39
Speaker 2: on the something. Because last season we saw Luca carry
20:43
Speaker 2: the Mavericks all the way to an NBA finals, right,
20:46
Speaker 2: and then eventually they would lose to the defending champions,
20:49
Speaker 2: the Boston Celtics, And they were in the conference finals
20:52
Speaker 2: a few years before that, right, they have so we
20:55
Speaker 2: have a proven track record with Luca. We have not
20:58
Speaker 2: had that with Anthony Edwards. Now, we did see him
21:02
Speaker 2: in the t Wolves, you know, take down Denver last
21:05
Speaker 2: year in the Conference semi finals, so that incredible Game
21:07
Speaker 2: seven win in Denver, but then ended up losing to Luca.
21:12
Speaker 2: This season, if the t Wolves can can finish off
21:15
Speaker 2: the Lakers in five or six games or seven, and
21:19
Speaker 2: then advance to the next round and take out likely
21:23
Speaker 2: the Golden State Warriors and then maybe go up against
21:26
Speaker 2: the Thunder or the Clippers or maybe the Nuggets again,
21:29
Speaker 2: then then I think I would say one thing right now,
21:33
Speaker 2: and I think everyone would agree with me. The better
21:35
Speaker 2: player in this series between the Lakers and t Wolves
21:38
Speaker 2: has been Anthony Edwards. Now, can we see Anthony Edwards
21:42
Speaker 2: carry a team to the NBA Finals like we've already
21:45
Speaker 2: seen Luka Doncics do, Because let's not forget Luca is
21:49
Speaker 2: a top five player this series, eh, I don't know.
21:52
Speaker 2: You know, all the concerns that you know, the Mavericks
21:56
Speaker 2: front off has had about Luca is kind of wearing
21:58
Speaker 2: its ugly head right now because he's been a non
22:01
Speaker 2: factor defensively. But Anthony Edwards has been playing out of
22:05
Speaker 2: his mind this series.
22:07
Speaker 1: YEP. I agree with all that, No, no disagreement there.
22:10
Speaker 1: I think in terms of the total player, let's give
22:15
Speaker 1: it a little more time, let it marinate a little
22:18
Speaker 1: bit more before we make the kind of declarative statement
22:22
Speaker 1: that player A is better than player B, or whatever
22:25
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. But I also understand in the
22:27
Speaker 1: microwave existence of sports, the consuming of televised sports in
22:34
Speaker 1: the world that we live in if quite often demands
22:39
Speaker 1: whether or not we're interested in providing it. The outside
22:43
Speaker 1: noise demands the you know, A, the instant gratification, and
22:49
Speaker 1: B the immediate response, you know what, this guy is
22:53
Speaker 1: better than that guy. This team is better than this team.
22:55
Speaker 1: This team needs to fire its coach, This team is
22:57
Speaker 1: that you know. It's those I've always said this, you know.
23:04
Speaker 1: As much as I love broadcasting sports and being around
23:08
Speaker 1: it and watching the game in all the sports, there
23:11
Speaker 1: are very few sports I don't like, And in watching
23:16
Speaker 1: all these the one element that I'm not crazy about
23:19
Speaker 1: and never have been crazy about, is the instant reaction
23:24
Speaker 1: or over reaction to things. Part of the reason what
23:28
Speaker 1: makes sports, team sports great is it plays out over time,
23:34
Speaker 1: and making an instant declaration of something sometimes that stuff
23:41
Speaker 1: doesn't age very well. But I at the same time,
23:45
Speaker 1: I understand the agency and in the medium that goes
23:51
Speaker 1: on that that requires a reactive response. You couldn't have
23:56
Speaker 1: Sports Center every day and say, uh, you know, uh,
24:01
Speaker 1: the Major League Baseball uh season uh is you know,
24:06
Speaker 1: is off to a slow start, but but uh, certain teams,
24:09
Speaker 1: but they'll work it out that sort of No, it
24:11
Speaker 1: requires things like the Atlanta Brave season is on the brink,
24:14
Speaker 1: they're owing eight, you know, or anybody looking to see
24:17
Speaker 1: what the Braves are done lately, you know. So it's
24:20
Speaker 1: things take time, I think, and and but in the
24:25
Speaker 1: world we live in with broadcast and televised sports and
24:28
Speaker 1: and just really even in the public consumption of the
24:32
Speaker 1: world of perspiring arts, it demands a more immediate review,
24:37
Speaker 1: reply response, uh and position. And sometimes that's gonna be popular,
24:45
Speaker 1: and sometimes it's not, and sometimes it's gonna be way
24:48
Speaker 1: too premature. But that's that's part of what goes along
24:52
Speaker 1: with this world. That's part of what goes along. You
24:55
Speaker 1: want to watch last night, Kim Lendon, I, before we
24:58
Speaker 1: were watching uh the Star Ours Avalanche and watch some
25:01
Speaker 1: of the Dodger game and the Rockets and Warriors. We
25:04
Speaker 1: were watching because it was it was on espn U,
25:08
Speaker 1: but it was already underway. So then I went back
25:11
Speaker 1: on ESPN Plus and just pulled it up and we
25:13
Speaker 1: watched the whole thing that the Last Days of Night
25:17
Speaker 1: about Bob Knight when when his time ended in Indiana,
25:20
Speaker 1: and the Neil Reid thing and all that kind of stuff,
25:23
Speaker 1: and we sat through all of that. It was compelling.
25:27
Speaker 1: But what was equally amazing is the instantaneous response not
25:33
Speaker 1: only from fans, because fans are going to be fans,
25:35
Speaker 1: but the university and all this kind of stuff. And
25:38
Speaker 1: it became kind of like protect Bob Knight at all
25:41
Speaker 1: costs and attacking, you know, through the media Neil Reid
25:46
Speaker 1: when all he did was tell the truth about what
25:47
Speaker 1: happened the practice until you know, and nobody believed it
25:50
Speaker 1: until the or a lot of people didn't believe until
25:52
Speaker 1: the practice tape surface. So you know, that's but in
25:57
Speaker 1: the world that we live in, in the and the
26:00
Speaker 1: televised and public consumed world of spectator sports. By the way,
26:05
Speaker 1: the rumbled at year above are some military helicopters going
26:11
Speaker 1: over the ballpark here. But in the world that we're
26:15
Speaker 1: living in, on that public fandom demands instantaneous reaction and
26:21
Speaker 1: response sometimes whether we like it or not, it does
26:25
Speaker 1: and I don't like it a lot of times, but
26:28
Speaker 1: I also know it's part of the deal. It just
26:29
Speaker 1: kind of goes along with it, all right. Coming up next,
26:33
Speaker 1: speaking of things you might like and not like, it's
26:36
Speaker 1: inconceivable here on a Tuesday afternoon, we'll continue from UFCU
26:40
Speaker 1: just fall Field. I'm thirteen under the zone. Tonight, Texas Longhorne,
26:44
Speaker 1: number one in the country, number one on top of
26:47
Speaker 1: the SEC standings, will play a non conference game. They
26:50
Speaker 1: only have two of those midweek non conference games remaining.
26:56
Speaker 1: It'll be Prairie View A and M tonight and then
26:59
Speaker 1: one week from against a good Lamark Cardinal team that's
27:01
Speaker 1: won thirty six ball games. That'll be next Tuesday night.
27:05
Speaker 1: And of course there's only one home series remaining, and
27:08
Speaker 1: that is not this coming weekend, but the following weekend,
27:11
Speaker 1: on Senior Weekend, the Florida Gators will be in town.
27:14
Speaker 1: In Florida has been good of late. They just finished
27:16
Speaker 1: taking two out of three over the weekend. From Arkansas,
27:20
Speaker 1: the Loghorns, of course, are headed for Fayetbelle, Arkansas. The
27:23
Speaker 1: leave tomorrow and then play Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at
27:29
Speaker 1: ball Mark Or Stadium in Fayetteville. Texas will go into
27:33
Speaker 1: that weekend with a magic number. And I always say
27:38
Speaker 1: this when it comes to college baseball. It's different in
27:40
Speaker 1: college baseball and college basketball than it is in Major
27:44
Speaker 1: League Baseball or the NBA. The number, when you say
27:48
Speaker 1: a magic number, it's pretty firm and solid. With those
27:54
Speaker 1: at the collegiate level, it's a little more fluid. It
27:58
Speaker 1: floats a little bit depending on remaining schedules and stuff
28:01
Speaker 1: like that. But the Logorns have a magic number of
28:06
Speaker 1: four to clinch the SEC regular season title.
28:09
Speaker 3: Now.
28:10
Speaker 1: The reason why I say it floats a little bit
28:12
Speaker 1: is because they could the magic numbers four right now
28:16
Speaker 1: over both Arkansas and LSU, and Texas could beat Arkansas
28:24
Speaker 1: the first two games and mathematically eliminate the Razorbacks, but
28:29
Speaker 1: not necessarily LSU depending on LSU's got a huge series
28:32
Speaker 1: of Texas A and M this weekend, So there's a
28:35
Speaker 1: lot that'll be happening throughout the course of this weekend.
28:39
Speaker 1: And it's a Thursday, Friday Saturday series against Arkansas. Thursday
28:44
Speaker 1: and Friday night. You can hear the games one of
28:45
Speaker 1: three point one FM and then Saturday's game here on
28:47
Speaker 1: the Zone. A Saturday afternoon contest so they have that,
28:51
Speaker 1: then they would come home play Lamar in the midweek,
28:55
Speaker 1: then they have Florida to close out the home portion
28:58
Speaker 1: of the regular season schedule, and then they conclude the
29:01
Speaker 1: regular season in Norman at Oklahoma on the final weekend
29:05
Speaker 1: of the regular season. So it's still a lot of
29:07
Speaker 1: work to be done. But the long words, of course,
29:10
Speaker 1: are playing really well. They won nine in a row
29:12
Speaker 1: and they haven't lost since that Saturday fifteen inning game
29:18
Speaker 1: in Lexington, Kentucky, which was seventeen days ago. It was
29:22
Speaker 1: back some time ago, and as we head toward the
29:24
Speaker 1: end of April, Texas is right now tied for the
29:30
Speaker 1: best start ever in a thirty game SEC schedule nineteen
29:36
Speaker 1: and two, along with Vanderbilt's twenty thirteen team. Now that
29:39
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt team actually played only twenty nine games they had
29:43
Speaker 1: a rain out, but they still have the best record
29:47
Speaker 1: ever at the end of the season for a thirty
29:51
Speaker 1: game schedule. They went twenty six and three, did the
29:55
Speaker 1: Commodores in twenty thirteen, and Texas right now is nineteen
29:59
Speaker 1: and two with nine games remaining, So we'll see if
30:04
Speaker 1: the Longhorns are able to amount a threat to that.
30:06
Speaker 1: But the main thing is continuing to play well and
30:08
Speaker 1: try to enhance their position to be a number one
30:12
Speaker 1: overall national seedy right now, are number one in D
30:19
Speaker 1: one baseball dot com. They are number one in the
30:25
Speaker 1: ESPN USA Today Coaches Poll. They are number one in
30:30
Speaker 1: the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association rankings. They are number
30:38
Speaker 1: one in Perfect Game, and they are number one and
30:45
Speaker 1: I think just about every pole the RPI. Going into today,
30:49
Speaker 1: they're the number one RPI team in the country. Interestingly enough,
30:54
Speaker 1: the top five spots in the RPI are all held
30:59
Speaker 1: down by SEC schools. The top five positions are all
31:06
Speaker 1: SEC programs. Texas is number one, Georgia is number two
31:12
Speaker 1: in the RPI. Then the rest of the RPI after
31:18
Speaker 1: Texas at number one and Georgia at number two are Vanderbilt,
31:25
Speaker 1: Auburn and Arkansas. LSU, which is ranked number two in
31:29
Speaker 1: the voting polls is number nine in the RPI, and
31:31
Speaker 1: the RPI may get negatively affected tonight by playing a
31:34
Speaker 1: team that's two hundred ninety nine in the RPI, but
31:37
Speaker 1: it'll bump right back up when they play three consecutive
31:40
Speaker 1: road games at the number five RPI team Arkansas this
31:45
Speaker 1: Thursday Friday, and Saturday. So a lot of those things
31:48
Speaker 1: tend to sort themselves out, all some cleanup from our
31:51
Speaker 1: number one. I was telling different stories about T shirts
31:57
Speaker 1: and things like that, and someone said, I bet you
31:59
Speaker 1: don't don't have a UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs shirt,
32:05
Speaker 1: or do you? The answer is no, I do not.
32:08
Speaker 1: I am familiar, of course with the banana slugs for
32:11
Speaker 1: U see Santa Cruz Division two program. That's a great
32:15
Speaker 1: mascot name. Don't you think, Cameron Parker, that the banana
32:17
Speaker 1: slugs for U se Santa Cruz.
32:19
Speaker 2: I did not know that was their mascot name.
32:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, D two program on that Yesterday on the program,
32:27
Speaker 1: I was talking about the new Buckies' locations, because there's
32:31
Speaker 1: going to be fourteen new and one of them will
32:35
Speaker 1: be in Mississippi near the board down along the Gulf coast.
32:41
Speaker 1: And you know, I looked at it and it said
32:44
Speaker 1: it was going to be like past Christian. That's the
32:46
Speaker 1: way it was spelled. But I'm glad somebody checks in
32:50
Speaker 1: and say I heard the BUCkies talk. He said, So,
32:52
Speaker 1: I grew up on the north shore of Lake Pontre Train.
32:55
Speaker 1: That's the huge lake of course that borders the north
32:58
Speaker 1: side of New Orleans and said, I spent much time
33:01
Speaker 1: on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The locals down there pronounced
33:05
Speaker 1: Christian in past Christian is Christian, so duly noted, thank
33:11
Speaker 1: you past Christian, and this Texter we'd get a kick
33:17
Speaker 1: out of the fact. When I was doing High School
33:20
Speaker 1: Scoreboard show in Dallas on KRLD all those years, and
33:23
Speaker 1: that was basically the ancestor, if you will, of this
33:28
Speaker 1: television show I've done for the past twenty seven years.
33:33
Speaker 1: High School Scoreboard Live kind of like an ESPN Sports
33:36
Speaker 1: center for high school football across Texas, and we got
33:39
Speaker 1: scores and highlights from all across the state all these
33:41
Speaker 1: years of doing it. Back in that day, when I
33:44
Speaker 1: was doing the radio show, one of the features I
33:48
Speaker 1: used to incorporate, I had a weekly cheerleaders cheer to
33:50
Speaker 1: open the show and go out and record a different
33:52
Speaker 1: group of cheerleaders who would do a big cheer to
33:55
Speaker 1: lead it off from our one hundred mile radius around
33:58
Speaker 1: the Dallas Fort Worth area. The other feature I did
34:00
Speaker 1: it was the mascot team name of the week, and
34:04
Speaker 1: I would research why a school had selected its unusual
34:11
Speaker 1: mascot name. For example, I always say. The quintessential mascot
34:16
Speaker 1: high school name in Texas is it Task a home
34:18
Speaker 1: of the it Taska Wampas Cats. Because it's a completely
34:22
Speaker 1: fictitious creature, it's the Wampas Cats. I liked it so
34:27
Speaker 1: much I'd name my fantasy football team that back in
34:30
Speaker 1: the day, and it still is to this day. That's
34:31
Speaker 1: the name of my fantasy football team. But anyway, I
34:34
Speaker 1: called the school to find out and there was a
34:38
Speaker 1: woman there. Her name was Nancy Bowman. She was the
34:41
Speaker 1: school secretary at the time. She later became I think
34:43
Speaker 1: the superintendent in later years. She kind of rose up
34:46
Speaker 1: through the ranks. But she had a little script. I
34:48
Speaker 1: didn't even realize this. I just called to do an
34:50
Speaker 1: interview with somebody who could talk about why it Task
34:54
Speaker 1: had selected the Wampas Cats. And she read this script
34:57
Speaker 1: about its part bop Cat, part mountain lion, part panther,
35:04
Speaker 1: all these things, and it got its origination back in
35:08
Speaker 1: the twenties at the school and after a hard fought win,
35:11
Speaker 1: one of the team stars, a young man by the
35:14
Speaker 1: name of Trav Burks, shouted, Wow, we were really Wampus
35:19
Speaker 1: Cats tonight. Silence fell over, the hush locker room. Everybody
35:24
Speaker 1: knew the mascot had been born, so it went by that, uh,
35:29
Speaker 1: the the itask of wampus cat. So I would do
35:33
Speaker 1: this to find out, you know, and talk to a
35:35
Speaker 1: different school officials and find out, you know, who were
35:42
Speaker 1: the uh you know, the people that named it, or
35:45
Speaker 1: whether I talked to a lady who was a wonderful
35:48
Speaker 1: lady who was in her eighties out in Trent, Texas,
35:52
Speaker 1: out that's out just past Abilene in the Big Country region.
35:56
Speaker 1: And her name was Edith Rudd. She was in her eighties,
36:01
Speaker 1: but she had been a cheerleader back in the twenties
36:03
Speaker 1: when Trent High School selected the Gorillas as its mascot name,
36:09
Speaker 1: and she said, you know, I don't know, I was
36:11
Speaker 1: just trying to We all wanted a real ferocious name
36:15
Speaker 1: and a gorilla see that. And it's the only gorillas
36:18
Speaker 1: mascot in the state of Texas. So it did all
36:20
Speaker 1: of these in the first year. I kind of burned
36:23
Speaker 1: through all the ones in Texas. Huddo hippos. You know
36:26
Speaker 1: why Huddo selected hippos, don't you, cam Uh.
36:29
Speaker 2: I think I've heard this story before, but please remind.
36:31
Speaker 1: Me traveling carnivals circus going through town and the truck
36:39
Speaker 1: that was hauling the hippos got stuck in the mud
36:44
Speaker 1: or got stuck, and the hippo got out and went
36:46
Speaker 1: down into the mud bog and they had a heck
36:48
Speaker 1: of a time getting it out something like that. So
36:51
Speaker 1: that was that's the origin of huddo hippos. So and
36:55
Speaker 1: there were some places where it was hard to get
36:57
Speaker 1: a definition for, like the Knip of purple rock crushers,
37:00
Speaker 1: you know, but like rock springs, the Angoras after the
37:04
Speaker 1: Angora sheep. So there were different ones. But after the
37:07
Speaker 1: first year started branching out, and in branching out, one
37:12
Speaker 1: of the places we did was Saint Stanislaus, which was
37:16
Speaker 1: in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. This gets it back to
37:19
Speaker 1: the text story, which would be right in that area
37:22
Speaker 1: near past Christianne and Biloxi, Gulfport, that whole area along
37:26
Speaker 1: the Gulf coast. And I called the school because their
37:31
Speaker 1: team name was the Rocket Jaws. I didn't know what
37:34
Speaker 1: a rocket jaw was. When I explained what it is, Cameron,
37:38
Speaker 1: you will know exactly what I'm talking about. But I
37:42
Speaker 1: called it and it was that Saint Stanislaus it was
37:46
Speaker 1: a private Catholic school. So I called down there in
37:49
Speaker 1: that Cajun country and they put me in touch with
37:52
Speaker 1: a fellow by the name of Brother Aquen Gotier, and
37:56
Speaker 1: he explained to me in his unique Cajun acts, that
38:01
Speaker 1: a rockets hall is kind of like a little sticky
38:03
Speaker 1: bue that you have in your yard. It falls from
38:06
Speaker 1: your tree and you have a little stem on it,
38:09
Speaker 1: but it's a little sticky ball. It's a sticky bue.
38:12
Speaker 1: That's that's the way you described it. Well, you know
38:14
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. Those We used to call them
38:16
Speaker 1: sticker balls here in North Carolina growing up. Those ones
38:18
Speaker 1: that would fall from the trees had a little stem
38:20
Speaker 1: on them, and it was just kind of a little
38:22
Speaker 1: round ball. That's what That's what a rocketchaw is. So
38:25
Speaker 1: that's that's what that came from. But it was Brother
38:29
Speaker 1: Aqin Gochie from St. Stanislaus who told me about the
38:34
Speaker 1: it's a little sticky bue. As he said, all right,
38:38
Speaker 1: we'll get back into something else that's a little bit different.
38:41
Speaker 1: How about beach volleyball Texas. They're headed to the NCAA
38:44
Speaker 1: tournament and we're going to visit with the head coach
38:46
Speaker 1: Stein Metzger coming up when we continue on thirteen hunderd
38:49
Speaker 1: the zone coming up. Surely we'll visit with Tyme Metzger,
38:52
Speaker 1: the head coach of Texas Beach Volleyball Logorn baseball team
38:57
Speaker 1: getting ready to take on Prairie View tonight. And then
39:02
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, it's on the fayv of Arkansas will
39:04
Speaker 1: travel tomorrow and have a practice tomorrow evening. They're at BALLB.
39:08
Speaker 1: Walker Stadium. They will then play the Arkansas Razorbacks on
39:14
Speaker 1: Thursday night, and that would be at seven o'clock and
39:19
Speaker 1: we'll have it for you actually at six o'clock excuse me,
39:23
Speaker 1: on Thursday at five to forty five pre game start
39:25
Speaker 1: time six o'clock Thursday, seven o'clock Friday night, and two
39:29
Speaker 1: o'clock Saturday. The Thursday games and Thursday and Friday games
39:32
Speaker 1: will be heard on one of three point one FM,
39:34
Speaker 1: and the Saturday afternoon matchup from Fayetteville is a two
39:39
Speaker 1: o'clock first pitch with a one forty five pre game
39:41
Speaker 1: start time, and we'll have it for you on the
39:45
Speaker 1: zone beginning. At'll be right here on thirteen hundred the zone.
39:50
Speaker 2: So's that's what they have in front of them as
39:54
Speaker 2: Texas continues to prepare for the DWNLAS stretch for the
39:58
Speaker 2: NCAA tournament, starting of course with the SEC tournament that
40:02
Speaker 2: will take place in Hoover, Alabama.
40:04
Speaker 1: On that there was a couple of other texts to
40:11
Speaker 1: play catch up on from yesterday. That when you get
40:14
Speaker 1: a chance to do it. First of all, our good
40:15
Speaker 1: friend Ryan, who likes to refer to himself as blind
40:20
Speaker 1: Ryan because he is sightless. But he said, I just
40:23
Speaker 1: want to thank you for the brief period of conversation
40:25
Speaker 1: when you were in Round Rock. Were have the years gone? Man?
40:29
Speaker 1: Since I've known you, Ryan and I have communicated many
40:33
Speaker 1: times over the years when he's asked me about different things,
40:37
Speaker 1: elements of a broadcast and stuff like that. So it
40:40
Speaker 1: was good to see you on last Thursday. I also
40:47
Speaker 1: mentioned a fast food item yesterday that Burger King is
40:51
Speaker 1: going to like this frozen strawberry drink and it's kind
40:53
Speaker 1: of like a slurpee, but you can get it with
40:57
Speaker 1: Nerds candy in it. You can get that. And somebody
41:03
Speaker 1: else said the good old rocket Pop comes in several
41:07
Speaker 1: flavors now, including Nerd flavors. That one I'm not that
41:13
Speaker 1: familiar with. Cam. I'm not sure if you've know what
41:15
Speaker 1: you're talking about. Rocket pop. I don't know. Maybe maybe
41:21
Speaker 1: we can be illuminated on the rocket pocket pop a
41:24
Speaker 1: little bit. I'm not sure. I'm not sure about that.
41:29
Speaker 1: The A couple other does want to get to there's
41:31
Speaker 1: there's something else. Uh. I don't know that this was
41:34
Speaker 1: necessarily bugging.
41:35
Speaker 2: Me or nagging at me, but but I feel compelled
41:39
Speaker 2: to say stuff.
41:40
Speaker 1: Uh. They're about this one particular issue as we know.
41:46
Speaker 1: Of course, quin you were elected to go into the
41:50
Speaker 1: NFL draft. Uh. And there were a great mini And
41:57
Speaker 1: I can say this with complete confidence, a great many
42:02
Speaker 1: unsubstantiated reports that Quinn was turning down anywhere from four
42:09
Speaker 1: million dollars to eight million dollars to transfer to another school. Now,
42:17
Speaker 1: I'm certain he might have had opportunities had he chosen
42:19
Speaker 1: to do that, but that was never a part of
42:22
Speaker 1: Quinn's plan. I visited with him about it, obviously, several
42:27
Speaker 1: other folks visited with him about it. Long Worn's head
42:30
Speaker 1: coach Tve Sarkeishan talked about said Quinn wanted to conclude
42:33
Speaker 1: his career as a Texas Long Worn, so he wanted
42:39
Speaker 1: to conclude it as a long Warning and then move
42:40
Speaker 1: on to the NFL Draft. He made that choice, and
42:45
Speaker 1: as we know, he slid to the seventh round in
42:48
Speaker 1: the draft. That was unfortunate. I thought he might go
42:51
Speaker 1: in the fourth round, but or certainly by the fifth.
42:55
Speaker 1: But hey, I had to keep the fifth round open
42:58
Speaker 1: for Shadur Sanders, right, because it didn't work out for
43:00
Speaker 1: during the first four rounds. But in any event, he
43:04
Speaker 1: goes in the seventh round and immediately draws a large
43:10
Speaker 1: amount of criticism from folks who said that, you know,
43:18
Speaker 1: he left money on the table, he made a foolish mistake.
43:22
Speaker 1: He should have come back, transferred to another school, blah
43:26
Speaker 1: blah blah, so on and so forth. And those were the
43:29
Speaker 1: people who I think were conveniently and completely ignoring the
43:35
Speaker 1: fact that Quinn Ewers wanted to finish his career as
43:38
Speaker 1: at Texas. Longhornt that money was not as big a
43:43
Speaker 1: determining factor for him. Start pointed out yesterday, and we
43:47
Speaker 1: had it on the air in the sound that we
43:50
Speaker 1: got from the Touchdown Club of Houston's luncheon that Quinn
43:54
Speaker 1: Viewers never took a dime from the nil Collective Texas
44:00
Speaker 1: the Texas Won Fund. He never took one to Any
44:03
Speaker 1: money that he took was based on his own name, image,
44:08
Speaker 1: and likeness, and that was the way it was originally
44:11
Speaker 1: laid out by the NCAAA. What the NCAA clearly did
44:14
Speaker 1: not realize is that in letting the genie out of
44:17
Speaker 1: the bottle out of that, collectives would spring up everywhere
44:21
Speaker 1: and all this kind of thing, and a lot of
44:22
Speaker 1: schools had to do that to make sure to keep
44:24
Speaker 1: you know, all those student athletes happy and you know whatever,
44:29
Speaker 1: litigation free, and to keep the school in the same category.
44:34
Speaker 1: But Quinn rs Never took any of that money. He
44:37
Speaker 1: only went with his own stuff. And we've all seen
44:40
Speaker 1: the commercials that he's been in from law firms to
44:43
Speaker 1: this and that, and the doctor Pepper commercials and all
44:45
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. So the money thing wasn't It
44:49
Speaker 1: certainly wasn't as big a deal as it was when
44:51
Speaker 1: he left high school a year early and enrolled into
44:54
Speaker 1: Ohio State, because at the time, it was unheard of
44:58
Speaker 1: for someone to you know, a leave a year early
45:05
Speaker 1: and then b do it for the kind of money
45:08
Speaker 1: he did. It was one million dollars from to go
45:10
Speaker 1: to Ohio State, where he played I think four snaps
45:13
Speaker 1: in that red sharning freshman year. That was it. So
45:19
Speaker 1: he took a million dollars then, and as he said,
45:21
Speaker 1: he wanted to roll in to Austin and win with
45:27
Speaker 1: his teammates, which he did at a very high level. Now,
45:30
Speaker 1: he wasn't one hundred percent physically a lot, and I
45:32
Speaker 1: think that was probably a big part of the reason
45:34
Speaker 1: why he slipped in the NFL draft. The way he did.
45:37
Speaker 1: It was not because of his decision making or because
45:40
Speaker 1: of his intelligence, or because of his work ethic or
45:42
Speaker 1: anything like that. And those who were active about this
45:48
Speaker 1: either criticizing him or defending him because they were both
45:52
Speaker 1: on social media. For his decision, several of the people
45:57
Speaker 1: who were criticizing him were criticizing him. These were the
46:00
Speaker 1: same or at least a collection of them, were the
46:03
Speaker 1: same people who criticized him in the first place for
46:08
Speaker 1: leaving high school early to take a million dollars. So,
46:11
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't really have it both ways, you know,
46:13
Speaker 1: one way or the other. But I guess, you know,
46:15
Speaker 1: everyone certainly is entitled to their opinion the way it goes.
46:18
Speaker 1: I just think that it's important to keep in mind
46:21
Speaker 1: that Quinn Viewers was about being a Texas longhorn. That's
46:25
Speaker 1: why he came back. That's why he played. That's why
46:27
Speaker 1: he returned for one more year after they won the conference,
46:30
Speaker 1: in their last year in the Big Twelve. That was
46:34
Speaker 1: all very important to him to have an opportunity perhaps
46:37
Speaker 1: to play for a national championship. They got to the
46:39
Speaker 1: final four, they were a semifinals, and that's that's how
46:41
Speaker 1: it was. So that went into his decision making process.
46:45
Speaker 1: Did it, in the end on the NFL draft front
46:49
Speaker 1: cost him a lot of money? Yeah? Perhaps it did.
46:52
Speaker 1: I mean, we'll never know for sure had he gone
46:57
Speaker 1: on and returned and transferred to another school, how much
47:00
Speaker 1: money would have got. But the numbers got kind of crazy.
47:02
Speaker 1: And what folks were printing out and talking about and
47:05
Speaker 1: tweeting out about the money that he was saying, you
47:10
Speaker 1: know that he was that you know that he was
47:14
Speaker 1: turning down all kinds of money. Somebody just said on
47:15
Speaker 1: the text line, you cannot convince me that Quinn didn't
47:19
Speaker 1: get a hold of some bad intel entering the draft. Now,
47:22
Speaker 1: that's entirely possible. It's entirely possible. But he also knew
47:29
Speaker 1: where his time had come here at Texas and before
47:34
Speaker 1: even if we followed that from the Texter and he
47:37
Speaker 1: got some bad intel, it would have come after he
47:41
Speaker 1: already made his decision to go into the NFL Draft,
47:46
Speaker 1: not prior to it. I think, you know, I'm talking
47:51
Speaker 1: about between the time he announced he was going to
47:52
Speaker 1: go into the draft and the time that he actually
47:54
Speaker 1: was taken on Saturday in the seventh round by the
47:56
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins. It happened somewhere in that window. If if
48:01
Speaker 1: he indeed got some bad intel.
48:02
Speaker 2: You can't convince me that he was going to go
48:04
Speaker 2: somewhere place, some else place besides Texas. Craig, like, you
48:08
Speaker 2: can't tell me he's gonna transfer to another school for money.
48:10
Speaker 2: He always wanted to be a Longhorn growing up, and
48:13
Speaker 2: I didn't work out with Tom Hernon, but then Sart
48:15
Speaker 2: came in, and then he always wanted to leave a
48:18
Speaker 2: legacy at Texas and he did that. And you know,
48:22
Speaker 2: think about Quinn falling to the seventh round, how about
48:24
Speaker 2: Shador going to the fifth round when he was considered
48:26
Speaker 2: to be a first round pick. A lot of the
48:27
Speaker 2: quarterbacks in this draft kind of fell, you know, and
48:31
Speaker 2: some rose up, you know, like Milroe went a little
48:33
Speaker 2: bit higher than I think people thought for the most
48:35
Speaker 2: parts the quarterbacks. It was a tough draft for the quarterbacks. Yep,
48:40
Speaker 2: no doubt about it. All Right, we'll take a break.
48:44
Speaker 1: We've got more coming up as we continue here from
48:47
Speaker 1: uf' hu dish fog Field on thirteen hunder the Zone.
48:50
Speaker 2: It'll be Texas in Golf Shores, Alabama this week and
48:55
Speaker 2: as a Texas Beast volleyball team taking on number ten
48:58
Speaker 2: California in their first appearance in the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championships.
49:04
Speaker 2: And now happy to have coach stein metzger aboard with
49:07
Speaker 2: us here on the Craig Way Show. And coach, first off,
49:10
Speaker 2: congratulations and we'll start before we get to the batch
49:12
Speaker 2: up against California. How about your club appearing in their
49:17
Speaker 2: first ever cc SA Championship and going up perfect three
49:21
Speaker 2: to zero winning the conference championship, including back to back
49:25
Speaker 2: wins over number eight Florida State. That must have been
49:27
Speaker 2: a very special moment for yourself and your team.
49:31
Speaker 4: Oh so special. You know, the team's come a long
49:34
Speaker 4: way in one season. We never would have guessed that
49:38
Speaker 4: we could have had that kind of ending in the
49:40
Speaker 4: first time being in this conference, and to go and
49:43
Speaker 4: play and win three to zero and actually beat Florida State,
49:46
Speaker 4: which is a perennial powerhouse, and the sport beat them
49:49
Speaker 4: twice in the same weekend. Was just a really proud
49:53
Speaker 4: moment for the coaching staff.
49:54
Speaker 5: And for the entire team.
49:56
Speaker 2: When I met you at the East First West Invitational,
50:00
Speaker 2: I was played back in late March. You guys are
50:03
Speaker 2: coming off the East Meats West Invitational in Manhattan Beach
50:06
Speaker 2: where you went toe to toe with UCLA and Loyola Marrimount,
50:10
Speaker 2: and you said, you're getting an idea what this team
50:12
Speaker 2: could do. And then in the East First West Invitational,
50:16
Speaker 2: you took down the number thirteenth ranked team in Grand Canyon,
50:19
Speaker 2: number two Loyola Marrimount in number eleven Arizona State, and
50:23
Speaker 2: that must gave you a pretty good indicare that this
50:25
Speaker 2: team could go in and play against the top teams
50:28
Speaker 2: in the country.
50:30
Speaker 4: Absolutely, it was at that point that we recognize that
50:33
Speaker 4: we could be dangerous against anybody. And our goal this
50:37
Speaker 4: whole year is could we be consistent and play at
50:40
Speaker 4: that level for longer stretches, And this teams did has
50:43
Speaker 4: done a real nice job this year of getting more consistent,
50:46
Speaker 4: being more stable when it comes to ball control and
50:50
Speaker 4: all the stuff that we're working on in practice, and
50:52
Speaker 4: I feel like we're playing at our best right now.
50:54
Speaker 2: Now. You face a California team that you have faced before,
50:58
Speaker 2: you lost to them in five sets, the East first
51:00
Speaker 2: wets in a match that really could have gone either way.
51:03
Speaker 2: Does that give you some sort of maybe some comfort
51:06
Speaker 2: with you and your team knowing, Okay, we've already faced
51:08
Speaker 2: the suppointed before and we know that we can beat them.
51:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, And they actually came to Whitaker to our home
51:17
Speaker 4: competition later in the year and we were able to
51:20
Speaker 4: best them at that point. So we're split one in one.
51:24
Speaker 4: We feel like we're playing better volleyball than we were
51:27
Speaker 4: earlier in the season, so there is a sense of
51:29
Speaker 4: confidence there. But this California team is a really good
51:33
Speaker 4: team in the matchup can be challenging for us. They've
51:36
Speaker 4: got a team and the ones that are extremely strong,
51:40
Speaker 4: their fives are extremely strong, and so they kind of
51:44
Speaker 4: puts you in a pinch where you either play amazing
51:47
Speaker 4: in those two spots and then I feel like we're
51:50
Speaker 4: in a really good spot. If they best us in
51:53
Speaker 4: the ones and fives, then then we got to secure
51:55
Speaker 4: the two threes and fours, which those spots have been
51:58
Speaker 4: real strong for us all year. But it'll should be
52:01
Speaker 4: a fun matchup. And really when you get to Gulf Shores,
52:04
Speaker 4: it's all about who can show up and play as
52:07
Speaker 4: well as they play and practice, and oftentimes half the
52:09
Speaker 4: teams are so nervous and tight they can't play their
52:12
Speaker 4: own game.
52:13
Speaker 2: You've won the national championship two times UCLA in twenty eighteen,
52:17
Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen, so you understand what this moment is like.
52:20
Speaker 2: But for so many girls on your team, they may
52:22
Speaker 2: not understand what it's like playing in the Beach Volleyball Championship.
52:26
Speaker 2: You know you do. You and your staff kind of
52:28
Speaker 2: relate to them. Hey, it's a little bit different than
52:30
Speaker 2: playing at right Whittaker or playing in other tournaments knowing
52:34
Speaker 2: that this is you win and if you lose, you
52:36
Speaker 2: go home.
52:38
Speaker 5: No question. Yeah, and it's new for all of them.
52:41
Speaker 4: We have one player on our team, Cotting's on the
52:44
Speaker 4: Sikhova who played for Stetson before she came to Texas.
52:47
Speaker 5: She's played in this tournament.
52:49
Speaker 4: But other than that or the entire team, this is
52:52
Speaker 4: new for them. But we've got a fair bit of
52:55
Speaker 4: experience going into it with the coaching staff and we'll
52:58
Speaker 4: talk them through it and get them to understand you
53:00
Speaker 4: just got to show up and play free. And if
53:03
Speaker 4: we can do that, I'm feeling good about our chances.
53:05
Speaker 2: Did you expect to find yourself in this spot in
53:09
Speaker 2: just your first year of eligibility for the NCAA postseason,
53:12
Speaker 2: because you know, last season you were fielding players on
53:15
Speaker 2: your roster that had not played san volleyball before, and
53:18
Speaker 2: here you are in your first year, number seven, of course,
53:21
Speaker 2: the highest ranking in program history, and you find yourself
53:25
Speaker 2: playing for national championship.
53:28
Speaker 4: Well, that was our goal year one, is we wanted
53:31
Speaker 4: to make the tournament and then whatever happens to the
53:33
Speaker 4: tournament happens. You know, we'll end up where we end up.
53:37
Speaker 4: It was the lofty goal. We knew it was bold,
53:40
Speaker 4: but that's what we want to strive for. And in fact,
53:42
Speaker 4: we secured a spot fairly easily. In terms of that
53:46
Speaker 4: large bids. We were probably three or four from the threshold.
53:49
Speaker 4: So I feel really great about where this team is at.
53:52
Speaker 4: I think we're ahead of schedule. We continue to have
53:55
Speaker 4: lofty goals for this program and see if we can
53:57
Speaker 4: hit them.
53:58
Speaker 2: And you must feel really great about your number two
54:00
Speaker 2: pair of Katie Hashman and Emma Grace Robertson some locals
54:04
Speaker 2: the area who had such a fantastic week against the
54:06
Speaker 2: in the in the CCSA Championships. Can you talk about
54:10
Speaker 2: their performance and of course it led to them being
54:13
Speaker 2: named the avc A Pair of the Week, the first
54:15
Speaker 2: ever award for them.
54:18
Speaker 4: Well, they they always play the second best team of
54:21
Speaker 4: any opponent we have, so they've got they've got a
54:24
Speaker 4: tough job to do.
54:26
Speaker 5: They're an extremely disciplined pair.
54:29
Speaker 4: If you really love the pearness of volleyball and the
54:33
Speaker 4: skills of volleyball, it's a great team to watch. They're
54:36
Speaker 4: incredibly skilled, disciplined, they communicate well together. They had a
54:41
Speaker 4: chance to play last year together, and we don't necessarily
54:44
Speaker 4: want to keep teams together for multiple years, but they just.
54:49
Speaker 5: It's a really good fit.
54:50
Speaker 4: So it's a it's a one plus one equals three
54:53
Speaker 4: situation with this team.
54:54
Speaker 5: They've got great chemistry.
54:56
Speaker 4: They're just a pleasure to coach and a pleasure to
54:58
Speaker 4: watch and just thrilled that they had the opportunity to
55:03
Speaker 4: to really have some huge come from behind wins this
55:06
Speaker 4: weekend to seal the deal.
55:07
Speaker 5: For us and out of the fact that they were
55:09
Speaker 5: able to get.
55:10
Speaker 4: The ABC A pair of the pair of the Week
55:13
Speaker 4: and looking forward to them continuing that run this weekend.
55:18
Speaker 2: Of course, both of them are Westlake alumni, just on
55:21
Speaker 2: the road from us. Last thing for you here, coach,
55:23
Speaker 2: your team's only had one law since the Death Fally
55:26
Speaker 2: Invitational and Baton Rouge at the end of March. And
55:28
Speaker 2: in that invitational you went one in three, but you
55:31
Speaker 2: played four top ten teams, three top five teams including
55:36
Speaker 2: number one UCLA, Number four USC and number five Stanford.
55:40
Speaker 2: Was there something from that week in that your team
55:43
Speaker 2: took and it was able to use and propel themselves
55:46
Speaker 2: to play so well. Then the final stretch of the
55:48
Speaker 2: regular season leading up into the postseason.
55:51
Speaker 4: Well, I think I think they saw the level that
55:55
Speaker 4: this that volleyball can be played at the top level,
55:59
Speaker 4: and we realize is that coming into those games, we
56:02
Speaker 4: have to be extremely aggressive, take some chances, and we
56:05
Speaker 4: have to play we have to play good, volliable and
56:07
Speaker 4: longer stretches like I said before, where we can hang
56:10
Speaker 4: with any team, but can we do it for two
56:12
Speaker 4: sets and and get those wins? So I think they
56:15
Speaker 4: saw that there and a moment in the following weekend
56:18
Speaker 4: when we went to Tallahassee where they really learned their
56:23
Speaker 4: identity and how they want to play was going up
56:25
Speaker 4: against South Carolina where we can't. We went in a
56:28
Speaker 4: little with a protectionist mindset. Hey, we're number eight, we
56:31
Speaker 4: want to protect that. We're about to reach our goal
56:34
Speaker 4: of playing in the championships. And we played tight and
56:36
Speaker 4: didn't play well and came out of that we barely
56:40
Speaker 4: won that match, and we had a conversation about how
56:43
Speaker 4: we want to We want to embrace being aggressive and
56:45
Speaker 4: going after it and taking games from others, and our
56:48
Speaker 4: quote is stealing lunch meet from the opponent. So this
56:52
Speaker 4: team has really embraced that, and not only have they
56:55
Speaker 4: become more confident and consistent with their with their game,
56:59
Speaker 4: but they're all, i'll have a really aggressive mindset right now.
57:01
Speaker 4: We're just we're really manifesting the underdog mentality and it's
57:05
Speaker 4: working for us and we're going.
57:07
Speaker 5: To continue to do that come this weekend.
57:10
Speaker 2: Has the you know, adjusting to or taking on the
57:13
Speaker 2: underdog mentality, Has that been an a judgment for yourself, coach, No.
57:19
Speaker 4: I just think it's the more comfortable place to be in.
57:21
Speaker 4: It allows you to play more free and more aggressively.
57:25
Speaker 4: So it's something that you know, at my last institution
57:28
Speaker 4: we talked about a lot even when we were number one,
57:30
Speaker 4: like how do you still how do you still maintain
57:33
Speaker 4: that mindset even though you might have a target on
57:35
Speaker 4: your back. And as this program continues to grow and
57:38
Speaker 4: our target gets bigger, we'll continue to try to have
57:41
Speaker 4: that mindset where we have to go out there and
57:44
Speaker 4: take the game and not wait for us to wait
57:46
Speaker 4: for others to give.
57:46
Speaker 5: Us the game.
57:47
Speaker 2: Texas takes on California Friday, one o'clock Central time on
57:51
Speaker 2: ESPN two in the first round of the NCAA Beach
57:54
Speaker 2: Volleyball Championships in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Coach, thank you for
57:57
Speaker 2: the time and congratulations on the championship and looking forward
58:00
Speaker 2: to watching watching you guys make a deep run in
58:03
Speaker 2: the postseason.
58:05
Speaker 5: That's great, I appreciate it. Thanks for having us on
58:07
Speaker 5: and for cheering us on.
58:09
Speaker 2: Of course, that's coach Stein Metzger. Always enjoyed visiting with him,
58:12
Speaker 2: and thank you to him for coming on the program.
58:15
Speaker 1: Here.
58:16
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll be back to wrap up hour two of
58:18
Speaker 2: today's show here on AM thirteen hundred The Zone.
58:21
Speaker 1: Craig Waite with you alongside the producer Cameron Parker, thanks
58:25
Speaker 1: to Stein Metzger, Texas Beach volleyball coach joining us last
58:29
Speaker 1: hour and having that chat with Cam while I was
58:31
Speaker 1: down stairs chatting with Jim Schlasning. We're going to hear
58:33
Speaker 1: that coming up here in just a couple of minutes,
58:36
Speaker 1: my conversation with the long orange Head baseball coach prior
58:39
Speaker 1: to their matchup tonight here at UFCUS Field against the
58:44
Speaker 1: Panthers a Prairie View. So that's coming up here in
58:47
Speaker 1: just a few minutes. Also a little bit later on
58:51
Speaker 1: this hour, Ty Harrington will join us our weekly college
58:54
Speaker 1: Baseball conversation. NBA playoffs to get to as well and
59:00
Speaker 1: which series might be on the losing end. Hey, you know, Cam,
59:07
Speaker 1: the Rangers played a pretty sound defensive game last night,
59:11
Speaker 1: something they had not done in a while. So they
59:13
Speaker 1: played a sound defensive game. They just couldn't get the
59:15
Speaker 1: bats going against the Athletics last night.
59:18
Speaker 2: Havn't got the bats going all season. It's it's been
59:20
Speaker 2: the same type of story every game. A lot of
59:22
Speaker 2: two to one games, two, three, four or five, you know,
59:26
Speaker 2: just not putting together enough frunts of pitching has been great.
59:29
Speaker 2: It's just the offense has been very, very mediocre.
59:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's weird, hard to explain. I know there were
59:36
Speaker 1: some guys banged up early, but they they've got largely
59:39
Speaker 1: everybody back, then they should be a lot better. Yeah,
59:42
Speaker 1: all right, astros. It was noteworthy made a change in
59:47
Speaker 1: that jose Al Tuve did not lead off. He requested
59:53
Speaker 1: of Joe's spot of the manager to move him down
59:56
Speaker 1: one spot to number two in the lineup, so it's
1:00:00
Speaker 1: Army Pania leading off. It all seemed to work last
1:00:03
Speaker 1: night for Houston that it was kind of all those
1:00:05
Speaker 1: games that he had played and hit lead off, but
1:00:09
Speaker 1: now batting second in the lineup. We'll see how that
1:00:12
Speaker 1: works over time. Here, as we mentioned, Texas is getting
1:00:16
Speaker 1: ready for its matchup with prairie View. Now, as I
1:00:22
Speaker 1: pointed out, this is not a game that is designed
1:00:27
Speaker 1: to boost your RPI, as we know now boost prairie
1:00:31
Speaker 1: Views RPI, but they come in to ninety nine in
1:00:34
Speaker 1: the RPI, and Texas of course is number one. But
1:00:40
Speaker 1: whatever hit they might take for hosting prairie View tonight
1:00:46
Speaker 1: would certainly be built back up and replaced by three
1:00:51
Speaker 1: games coming this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in favor of
1:00:56
Speaker 1: Arkansas against the number five team in the nation and
1:00:59
Speaker 1: playing them on the road, and that of course is
1:01:06
Speaker 1: the Arkansas Razorbacks that they're going to play. Travel tomorrow
1:01:09
Speaker 1: to Fayetteville, will get in a team practice Tomorrow night,
1:01:12
Speaker 1: and then the game's Friday Thursday evening at six, Friday
1:01:17
Speaker 1: night at seven, and Saturday afternoon at two o'clock. The
1:01:19
Speaker 1: Thursday and Friday games you'll hear on one of three
1:01:21
Speaker 1: point one FM, like tonight's contest, and the Saturday afternoon
1:01:27
Speaker 1: game can be heard right here on a thirteen hundred zone.
1:01:30
Speaker 1: All right, this is just literally just within the last
1:01:33
Speaker 1: thirty minutes when I went down and sat down to
1:01:36
Speaker 1: visit with head coach Tim Slasnagle to talk about the
1:01:40
Speaker 1: aftermath of the sweep of Texas A and M and
1:01:43
Speaker 1: then getting ready for a quick turnaround week with the
1:01:46
Speaker 1: Tuesday night game tonight and then travel tomorrow and play Thursday, Friday,
1:01:51
Speaker 1: Saturday in fave. I'll have Sunday off and then be
1:01:55
Speaker 1: off on the schedule Monday of next week. Lamar, a
1:01:58
Speaker 1: good Lamar team will come in here a week for
1:02:00
Speaker 1: the night for the final midweek game of the regular season,
1:02:03
Speaker 1: and then of course the little host Florida at the
1:02:06
Speaker 1: end of next week on Senior weekend and no midweek
1:02:08
Speaker 1: game the following week as they navigate final exams and
1:02:13
Speaker 1: then get ready to go for the Thursday, Friday Saturday
1:02:17
Speaker 1: regular season concluding series at Oklahoma. I want to finish
1:02:22
Speaker 1: up on Saturday with the SEC tournaments starting early the
1:02:25
Speaker 1: following week. So here there's a conversation just a few
1:02:27
Speaker 1: minutes ago that I had with the head coach of Slasnickel.
1:02:30
Speaker 1: We were just talking about this early and I've been
1:02:32
Speaker 1: asked by a lot of people, both on the radio
1:02:35
Speaker 1: show and everything else about the intensity, the excitement, the verve,
1:02:40
Speaker 1: the enthusiasm, all of those adjectives and all of those
1:02:43
Speaker 1: descriptions that went into that just completed series with Texas
1:02:47
Speaker 1: A and M and across the board.
1:02:49
Speaker 2: Winning obviously makes a difference as well, but just the
1:02:52
Speaker 2: excitement level, it was, what about for you and for
1:02:56
Speaker 2: your staff?
1:02:57
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, you know, the personal stuff aside. You're
1:03:00
Speaker 6: just looking at it purely from a SEC Baseball series standpoint.
1:03:04
Speaker 6: I mean, I've only been in the league for three
1:03:06
Speaker 6: and three and a half now years and it's you know,
1:03:10
Speaker 6: some games at l s U. A night game in
1:03:13
Speaker 6: the box is amazing Arkansas, which you'll see, you know,
1:03:17
Speaker 6: we'll see this weekend up close and personal. Uh, that'll
1:03:21
Speaker 6: be a different experience being the coach at Texas versus
1:03:23
Speaker 6: Texas A and M. But just having those two schools, uh,
1:03:27
Speaker 6: the attention from the from you know, the television and
1:03:31
Speaker 6: then the games, you know, to have each game decided
1:03:33
Speaker 6: by not just one run. But for the team that
1:03:37
Speaker 6: lost for A and M, they had two guys on
1:03:40
Speaker 6: all three games, so the tying run was in the
1:03:44
Speaker 6: scoring position, and the winning run was on or the go.
1:03:46
Speaker 1: Ahead run was on base.
1:03:47
Speaker 2: And so just that level, that's how close it was.
1:03:50
Speaker 6: You know, we we we swept, but we could have
1:03:52
Speaker 6: we could have gotten swept.
1:03:54
Speaker 1: So it was good for college baseball.
1:03:56
Speaker 6: Obviously glad we won, but it was if it's going
1:03:59
Speaker 6: to be like that every time, holy cow, that's going
1:04:02
Speaker 6: to be something. Is it also a truism that a
1:04:05
Speaker 6: team that continues to win games like your team did,
1:04:10
Speaker 6: the one run games, the two run games, all those
1:04:12
Speaker 6: graphics and numbers spare that out that that's good. The
1:04:15
Speaker 6: deeper you get into a season, the more you have
1:04:18
Speaker 6: those stockpiled, I mean, bad for the coaches's heart rate
1:04:22
Speaker 6: an anxiety level. But yeah, just because you don't panic,
1:04:24
Speaker 6: you don't you don't get anxious in those situations.
1:04:28
Speaker 1: At least the players don't.
1:04:29
Speaker 6: They make pitches, they make plays, they put together competitive
1:04:33
Speaker 6: at bats, and whether we're behind by a little bit
1:04:35
Speaker 6: or ahead by a little bit, guys just play.
1:04:38
Speaker 1: And I think.
1:04:39
Speaker 6: The more you're in it, the more you're able to
1:04:41
Speaker 6: handle it.
1:04:42
Speaker 2: Is it also safe to say that a game like
1:04:45
Speaker 2: tonight is a good test of how your team compartment
1:04:49
Speaker 2: compartmentalizes success and goes back to that opening day mentality
1:04:53
Speaker 2: when you're playing a team that's.
1:04:55
Speaker 1: Not of that ILK.
1:04:57
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean there's well, there's you know, first of all,
1:05:00
Speaker 6: nothing's going to compare to that Texas and Texa saying
1:05:02
Speaker 6: and what we experienced this past weekend. I would love
1:05:05
Speaker 6: to think that the crowds would be the same for Florida,
1:05:09
Speaker 6: but just you.
1:05:10
Speaker 2: Know, the weight that people.
1:05:12
Speaker 6: Had to see Texas and A and M play a
1:05:15
Speaker 6: three game series much less than sec three game series
1:05:19
Speaker 6: that was what twelve twelve.
1:05:20
Speaker 1: Thirteen years into making.
1:05:22
Speaker 6: So so you're just not gonna have that next year
1:05:25
Speaker 6: that I'm sure they'll have. They he's will be fired
1:05:27
Speaker 6: up to have that at olston Field. But yet tonight
1:05:29
Speaker 6: it'll be you know, our guys have passed up in
1:05:32
Speaker 6: my opinion that you know they've passed those tests. At
1:05:34
Speaker 6: this point, they truly have an opening day mentality, faceless opponent,
1:05:38
Speaker 6: all the stuff that you hear them say, but saying
1:05:40
Speaker 6: it and doing it are two different things. So we
1:05:42
Speaker 6: got to go out and and play good.
1:05:44
Speaker 1: Baseball to win a ball game.
1:05:45
Speaker 2: Time.
1:05:46
Speaker 1: Oh, he's asked you about your pitching plan, especially because
1:05:48
Speaker 1: it's a curiosity.
1:05:50
Speaker 6: When you have a mid week ND and short week.
1:05:52
Speaker 6: It's a short week. So Katee Bing's been feeling better.
1:05:58
Speaker 6: We're gonna give him a chance to start the game
1:06:00
Speaker 6: and we'll see kind of kind of torn a little
1:06:04
Speaker 6: bit if he if he say he throws really good
1:06:06
Speaker 6: for two innings. If we had a Friday Saturday Sunday series,
1:06:10
Speaker 6: I'd probably take him out. But since it says shorter
1:06:14
Speaker 6: and we have one more midweek game, probably what I'll
1:06:17
Speaker 6: do is ride him, not crazy because he's he has
1:06:21
Speaker 6: he's skipped a week, but let him go four or
1:06:23
Speaker 6: five innings. So that next week we play a team
1:06:27
Speaker 6: that's got going into tonight, I think they play A
1:06:28
Speaker 6: and M.
1:06:29
Speaker 1: They have thirty six wins.
1:06:30
Speaker 2: Lamar is very good, uh coach.
1:06:32
Speaker 6: Coach Kane's best man in his weddings is the head
1:06:35
Speaker 6: coach of their teammates at LSU.
1:06:36
Speaker 1: So Lamar is going to be a handful.
1:06:38
Speaker 6: So and then maybe once we get past that, then
1:06:41
Speaker 6: Being can help us out on the weekends.
1:06:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good way to describe it, about where
1:06:46
Speaker 1: they could go and and and that's why he wants
1:06:49
Speaker 1: to get a little more of an extended look at
1:06:54
Speaker 1: k Being tonight since he did not pitch. Remember he
1:06:57
Speaker 1: didn't pitch the Tuesday game a week ago, that crazy game.
1:07:01
Speaker 1: It's about the only guy didn't pitch. They actually threw
1:07:05
Speaker 1: eight pitchers in that wild Tuesday night game a week
1:07:08
Speaker 1: ago in San Marcus in the win over Texas State.
1:07:13
Speaker 1: He was you know, he was held out of that game,
1:07:18
Speaker 1: and then you know, didn't pitch over the weekend. They
1:07:24
Speaker 1: held him out of that game because they thought, on
1:07:25
Speaker 1: the quick turnaround and not having Jared Spencer, that they
1:07:30
Speaker 1: might need Kate bing over the weekend. But as it
1:07:33
Speaker 1: turned out, they didn't need Kate Bing Over the weekend,
1:07:36
Speaker 1: it went down to the wire obviously all three games,
1:07:38
Speaker 1: as Slaughters talked about, but they ended up not using him.
1:07:41
Speaker 1: And that's why he'll get the start tonight. Now he
1:07:43
Speaker 1: will not be the only who pitches. You heard him
1:07:45
Speaker 1: say that. And if they had had a normal weekend
1:07:50
Speaker 1: coming up Friday Saturday Sunday instead of the shorter week
1:07:54
Speaker 1: of Thursday Friday Saturday, and it really does make a
1:07:56
Speaker 1: difference with your pitchers that he might otherwise pull being
1:08:00
Speaker 1: out after a couple of innings in the event that
1:08:03
Speaker 1: they might need him. But now the way they're looking
1:08:06
Speaker 1: at and this is where you can start to see
1:08:08
Speaker 1: And I'll ask Ty Harrington about this when he gets here,
1:08:11
Speaker 1: because here we are on April twenty ninth. If you haven't,
1:08:17
Speaker 1: if you're a team in contention for a conference championship
1:08:22
Speaker 1: or even perhaps more importantly, an opportunity to get into
1:08:28
Speaker 1: the NCAA tournament, to land in a regional, maybe you're trying.
1:08:33
Speaker 1: You're being on one of those bubbles to get in
1:08:35
Speaker 1: or a bubble. This was something that Schlast talked about
1:08:38
Speaker 1: last week. He said, in college baseball, you're almost always
1:08:42
Speaker 1: on some sort of bubble. You're either on the bubble
1:08:47
Speaker 1: trying to get into the tournament, and that can include
1:08:50
Speaker 1: teams like Texas A and M and Baylor and a
1:08:53
Speaker 1: few other teams like that. You're either on the bubble
1:08:55
Speaker 1: trying to get in, or you're on the bubble trying
1:09:01
Speaker 1: to host, and that could include a team like TCU
1:09:06
Speaker 1: or Dallas Baptist the possibility of hosting, or your team
1:09:13
Speaker 1: trying to close in on being a national seed in
1:09:17
Speaker 1: the top eight, and that might say include a Vanderbilt
1:09:23
Speaker 1: or say you know, somebody, a North Carolina teams like that.
1:09:31
Speaker 1: In the Longhorns case, none of that really applies. I
1:09:33
Speaker 1: think it's safe to say. I mean, even if they
1:09:35
Speaker 1: were to lose out, I still think they'd be a
1:09:38
Speaker 1: top eight because they're sitting way out ahead of the
1:09:41
Speaker 1: pack at number one right now in terms of the
1:09:44
Speaker 1: voting and the metrics that you look at. But they
1:09:49
Speaker 1: could be depending on how they do over these next
1:09:51
Speaker 1: couple of weekends on the bubble to be the number
1:09:55
Speaker 1: one national seed. And again this goes back to something
1:09:58
Speaker 1: I said yesterday when folk said, what's the big differference
1:10:00
Speaker 1: if you're the number one overall seed, and they say
1:10:03
Speaker 1: the number seven or number eight overall national seed. There's
1:10:07
Speaker 1: a difference, and the difference is if you're the overall
1:10:11
Speaker 1: number one, like the other national seeds, the two, the three,
1:10:17
Speaker 1: the four, of the five, the six, the seven, and
1:10:19
Speaker 1: the eight. There are eight national seeds. There are sixteen
1:10:22
Speaker 1: seeded teams overall. So if you're in the top sixteen.
1:10:27
Speaker 1: You see an example of that is Texas women's tennis.
1:10:31
Speaker 1: They are for they are a fourteen seed, so as
1:10:36
Speaker 1: a fourteen seed, they get to host on the first weekend.
1:10:42
Speaker 1: But if you're a national seed in the top eight,
1:10:44
Speaker 1: you would get to host super regionals as well as regionals. Well,
1:10:49
Speaker 1: if you're an eight or eight or a seven, yeah,
1:10:53
Speaker 1: you would be a top eight national seed, and if
1:10:57
Speaker 1: you win your regional, then you get to host a
1:10:59
Speaker 1: super But you might be playing the number nine seed
1:11:04
Speaker 1: just off the edge and a really good team in
1:11:06
Speaker 1: a super regional. If you're the seventh seed, you might
1:11:09
Speaker 1: be playing the number ten unless there was an upset
1:11:11
Speaker 1: at the regional level. And that's a much tougher assignment
1:11:15
Speaker 1: than if you're the one or the two or the three.
1:11:17
Speaker 1: I would say all you gurto used to say, and
1:11:21
Speaker 1: it was gospel. You could take it to the bank.
1:11:24
Speaker 1: Every year that would happen, He'd say, every year, there
1:11:28
Speaker 1: will be some teams that are not top eight national
1:11:33
Speaker 1: seeds that advance the super Regionals. In other words, there
1:11:36
Speaker 1: will be some top eight national seeds who don't get
1:11:39
Speaker 1: out of their own regional that they're hosting. More's the point,
1:11:43
Speaker 1: and he said, this is another thing you can expect
1:11:45
Speaker 1: to see happen. There will be an unseeded team win
1:11:51
Speaker 1: at least a regional, may not win the super, but
1:11:54
Speaker 1: they will at least win a regional and get to
1:11:58
Speaker 1: a Super. Nobody knew it better than him, with all
1:12:01
Speaker 1: the teams that he coached in twenty fourteen, we all
1:12:03
Speaker 1: remember how Texas was actually a number three seed in
1:12:08
Speaker 1: that Rice regional. Rice was the one seed, Texas A
1:12:12
Speaker 1: and M was the two seed, Texas was the three,
1:12:16
Speaker 1: and I think it was George Mason was the fourth
1:12:18
Speaker 1: seed there at Reckling Park. And what happened was Texas
1:12:24
Speaker 1: beat Texas A and M on the first day and
1:12:27
Speaker 1: Rice won over George Mason. Then the next day, Texas
1:12:30
Speaker 1: A and M eliminated George Mason. Texas won a thriller
1:12:33
Speaker 1: over Rice in eleven innings to get to the final
1:12:38
Speaker 1: on Sunday night. Then Rice played A and M an
1:12:41
Speaker 1: elimination game and it was an incredible game with back
1:12:44
Speaker 1: and forth. I always remember Justin Ruggiano hit a grand
1:12:46
Speaker 1: Slam for the Aggies and A and M won that
1:12:49
Speaker 1: game to eliminate Rice in their own regional. And then
1:12:52
Speaker 1: that night Texas A and M played Texas A and
1:12:55
Speaker 1: M won that game to force one final game on
1:12:58
Speaker 1: Monday night, and that was the game where Chad Hollingsworth
1:13:01
Speaker 1: I think threw one hundred and thirty two pitches for
1:13:02
Speaker 1: Texas and the Loggrange won that to advance to the
1:13:05
Speaker 1: Super Regional. And by the way, that game was the
1:13:09
Speaker 1: largest attendance for a baseball game to this day still
1:13:12
Speaker 1: is the largest attendants for a baseball game at Reckland Park,
1:13:18
Speaker 1: Rice's home ballpark, their largest attendants. In fact, I think
1:13:23
Speaker 1: their top two attendances that one in the game the
1:13:25
Speaker 1: prior Knight are their top two attendances in neither one
1:13:27
Speaker 1: involved the host school Rice. It was Texas against Texas
1:13:30
Speaker 1: A and M. So Texas advances to the Super Regional
1:13:35
Speaker 1: and you would think they're probably bound for Baton Rouge
1:13:36
Speaker 1: to play LSU. LSU was the number one seed in
1:13:39
Speaker 1: their own regional and they were a top eight national seed.
1:13:42
Speaker 1: The problem was that LSU did not get out of
1:13:46
Speaker 1: its own region. Houston beat them and knocked them out,
1:13:49
Speaker 1: and Houston was a two seed and Texas was a
1:13:51
Speaker 1: three seed. But Texas wound up hosting the Superregional because
1:13:55
Speaker 1: Houston did not submit a bid to host the regional.
1:14:00
Speaker 1: So they tried to then change it and see, hey,
1:14:04
Speaker 1: we're willing to do now, but by then it had
1:14:05
Speaker 1: already all the bids had been sealed and submitted and
1:14:07
Speaker 1: all that sort of thing. So Texas hosted the Super
1:14:10
Speaker 1: Regional against Houston. They won it and too straight. Always
1:14:14
Speaker 1: remember Mark Peyton with a lead off homer in Game one.
1:14:17
Speaker 1: They win the Super. Texas goes to Omaha and actually finishes.
1:14:21
Speaker 2: In third place. This was a team that was a
1:14:22
Speaker 2: three seed in a regional.
1:14:26
Speaker 1: They were not a regional host, and they went all
1:14:28
Speaker 1: the way to the semifinal round before losing a ten
1:14:31
Speaker 1: any game to Vanderbilt that had that outstanding pitching with
1:14:35
Speaker 1: Carson Fulmer and Walker Bueller, and they had Dansby Swanson
1:14:39
Speaker 1: at shortstop, and they went on and won the national championship.
1:14:41
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt did in beating Virginia for the national title. But
1:14:45
Speaker 1: the point of all that is is that the unexpected
1:14:48
Speaker 1: does happen, and you want to give your team the
1:14:53
Speaker 1: best opportunity to advance in the NCAA tournament in a
1:14:57
Speaker 1: regional and you can't have a better opportunity than if
1:15:00
Speaker 1: you're the number one overall national seat. Texas sits in
1:15:03
Speaker 1: that spot right now by all projections, but those are
1:15:06
Speaker 1: just that projections. They have to continue to win to
1:15:11
Speaker 1: be in position to be that overall number one, even
1:15:13
Speaker 1: though I think they're in great shape to be a
1:15:15
Speaker 1: top eight regardless of what happens over these final three weekends.
1:15:19
Speaker 1: Up next, we'll talk some more college baseball. Ty Herrington
1:15:22
Speaker 1: will join us. Coming up, We've got some other things
1:15:24
Speaker 1: to get to in a couple of interesting notes. You
1:15:26
Speaker 1: heard Jim Slastegle make reference to something. I'll get to
1:15:30
Speaker 1: that when we come back where you FCU dish falk
1:15:32
Speaker 1: Field long Horns taken batting practice on the field, and
1:15:35
Speaker 1: right now by the way as long Worns take batting practice,
1:15:39
Speaker 1: they're wearing T shirts. Several of the guys have the
1:15:41
Speaker 1: sleeves cut off of them. But they're wearing T shirts
1:15:46
Speaker 1: that have embodied what Jim Slastnegle has said, win anyway.
1:15:53
Speaker 1: So it encompasses two ways of accent on the word
1:16:00
Speaker 1: win anyway, you know, with all the injuries, with all
1:16:02
Speaker 1: the stuff they had to deal with, win anyway, and
1:16:05
Speaker 1: then on top of that, win any way. That's the
1:16:09
Speaker 1: way that you get to that. So coming up with
1:16:12
Speaker 1: visit with Ty Harrington when we continue from UFCU, just
1:16:15
Speaker 1: fogg Field on thirteen under this up Jim's last Agele
1:16:17
Speaker 1: and I were talking before before we had the recorded
1:16:20
Speaker 1: an interview, and he wanted to know how this environment
1:16:24
Speaker 1: for me as a broadcaster since it's you know whatever,
1:16:28
Speaker 1: twenty four years in the play by play chair, twenty
1:16:32
Speaker 1: eight years parts of the first four years on the broadcast,
1:16:35
Speaker 1: filling in when Keith couldn't work with Bill showing on
1:16:38
Speaker 1: some of those, but twenty four years in the play
1:16:41
Speaker 1: by play chair about how the atmosphere and the environment
1:16:47
Speaker 1: here compared to Longhorne series. And he said, and I
1:16:52
Speaker 1: know you called the twenty five Inning Game and the
1:16:55
Speaker 1: College World Series and Regionals and Super Regionals and all
1:16:59
Speaker 1: that stuff, he said, but I want to know what
1:17:00
Speaker 1: it was, what the environment's, like I said, for a
1:17:03
Speaker 1: regular season series, this was the most electric, exciting environment
1:17:10
Speaker 1: I have ever seen in this ballpark for a regular
1:17:12
Speaker 1: season series. Now, there's been some postseason series. The one
1:17:15
Speaker 1: the region with the Aggies here in eighteen was Cody Clemens.
1:17:18
Speaker 1: That was that was pretty pretty atomic. And in nine
1:17:23
Speaker 1: the night after the twenty five inning game when Preston
1:17:26
Speaker 1: Clark hits the walk off Grand Slam to beat Army
1:17:28
Speaker 1: to win the regional, that was pretty exciting even before
1:17:31
Speaker 1: the Grand Slam. So there's been those moments where they've
1:17:36
Speaker 1: done that, but a lot of the program in the
1:17:39
Speaker 1: last thirty years, a lot of their best achievements have
1:17:44
Speaker 1: been away from this ballpark. The five Super Regional they
1:17:47
Speaker 1: won over Ole Miss was in Oxford, and it was
1:17:50
Speaker 1: a great environment there, but they won that one there.
1:17:53
Speaker 1: There were other ones like that that they had that
1:17:56
Speaker 1: they had to win on the road to get to Omaha,
1:17:59
Speaker 1: and so it was it was pretty exciting all that
1:18:03
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. But but you've been around for a
1:18:04
Speaker 1: lot longer in this building, pre renovation, post renovations, as
1:18:11
Speaker 1: a player, as an assistant coach, as a broadcaster, So
1:18:14
Speaker 1: where did it rate for you up there? You were
1:18:16
Speaker 1: here Friday and you were here Sunday.
1:18:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, super regional.
1:18:22
Speaker 1: Regional.
1:18:24
Speaker 3: I would go, I could go back to the eighties,
1:18:26
Speaker 3: but it was the ballpark wasn't as big. It was close.
1:18:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was like sixty six sixty yeah, something like that.
1:18:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, And we'd have people standing down in the bullpen
1:18:37
Speaker 3: where the batting cages, which is where the concourse is now.
1:18:40
Speaker 3: And I thought, I thought Friday night was just like
1:18:46
Speaker 3: this explosion that was waiting to happen, and then we
1:18:50
Speaker 3: had to wait in an hour wait, right, and then
1:18:54
Speaker 3: and then there you could just since like when they
1:18:56
Speaker 3: finally opened the gates, it looked like what Walmart looked
1:18:58
Speaker 3: like on Black Black Friday. I was just just screaming
1:19:02
Speaker 3: in here, right, just you know, blasting in here. So
1:19:04
Speaker 3: they were bringing that energy and probably a little you know,
1:19:08
Speaker 3: got a little more excitement out in the parking lot
1:19:11
Speaker 3: and created a little bit more of their you know,
1:19:14
Speaker 3: adding how do I say this, you know have to
1:19:16
Speaker 3: adult beverages that add to the excitement that.
1:19:19
Speaker 1: Just had a little bit of liquid courrieres.
1:19:20
Speaker 3: They can't charge you there you go, yeah, yeah, yeah,
1:19:23
Speaker 3: And so I think just all of it, and there
1:19:25
Speaker 3: were so many people. I don't know what the viewership
1:19:28
Speaker 3: was on the weekend and the listenership was for for
1:19:31
Speaker 3: everybody involved in that, but there were so many people
1:19:35
Speaker 3: looking forward to the rivalry to exist other than just
1:19:39
Speaker 3: one game, right right.
1:19:40
Speaker 1: Not a midweeknd. The excitement was pretty much there also
1:19:44
Speaker 1: those Tuesday night games at Bluebell Park and here it was.
1:19:49
Speaker 1: It was always there, but for the weekend and the
1:19:52
Speaker 1: impact and the renewal of conference rivalry just stood alone.
1:19:57
Speaker 3: I thought, I don't think there's any doubt and I
1:19:59
Speaker 3: and and I think also, look, you could throw it's
1:20:01
Speaker 3: fair to throw in the emotion. If you're an Aggie fan,
1:20:05
Speaker 3: it's fair to throwing the emotion about you know, coach
1:20:08
Speaker 3: Loshnengo Leving. I mean, that's a legit, you know, for
1:20:11
Speaker 3: them to be upset and disappoint, I guess if they
1:20:13
Speaker 3: if they so chose to be, I guess from the
1:20:16
Speaker 3: emotional standpoint, But but to overall just I mean, it
1:20:21
Speaker 3: was just building in here and the intensity of every
1:20:25
Speaker 3: pitch that was going on. I mean this as a compliment.
1:20:28
Speaker 3: I noticed it. And you you do such an unreal
1:20:31
Speaker 3: job of describing the games and the excitement of the games,
1:20:35
Speaker 3: which I after now being on the broadcast side of it,
1:20:37
Speaker 3: I have complete admiration for your energy levels that you're
1:20:41
Speaker 3: able to do it, because I know you're scheduled too,
1:20:43
Speaker 3: right And and but where I'm going with that is
1:20:48
Speaker 3: that it was another octave for everybody, you me, the
1:20:54
Speaker 3: crowd and everybody you know who wanted this this you
1:20:58
Speaker 3: know moment UH to exist and this weekend and then
1:21:01
Speaker 3: I came back. I wasn't here Saturday. I was at
1:21:02
Speaker 3: a wedding in UH in Houston. I came back on
1:21:06
Speaker 3: Sunday and met Todd Haney and Keishnick and Scott Bryant
1:21:11
Speaker 3: and some guys out at Big Hat out in left
1:21:14
Speaker 3: field and got here a little bit before the game,
1:21:16
Speaker 3: and you could now Texas had already won. So there
1:21:20
Speaker 3: was this, you know, this fever about where we're going
1:21:22
Speaker 3: for a sweep of that, and so they brought in
1:21:24
Speaker 3: a whole nother window of excitement and uh. And then
1:21:28
Speaker 3: by the time I got into the stadium, you could
1:21:30
Speaker 3: just I mean it was just now it was this relief,
1:21:33
Speaker 3: you know, emotion of where we won a series, can
1:21:36
Speaker 3: we pull this sweep off? Can we just do this?
1:21:39
Speaker 1: And that?
1:21:39
Speaker 3: And then just Now you know, if I was an
1:21:42
Speaker 3: Aggie fan, I wouldn't have been as excited, wouldn't have
1:21:44
Speaker 3: been I wouldn't have the same emotion. But I would
1:21:46
Speaker 3: also say that that rivalry is back. And I used
1:21:51
Speaker 3: to giggle and laugh at myself only when I would
1:21:54
Speaker 3: say this. If I'd ever been the governor of Texas,
1:21:57
Speaker 3: of the Great State of Texas, I would have mandated
1:21:59
Speaker 3: they that these two programs would have had to play
1:22:02
Speaker 3: each other. It meant so because it means so much
1:22:05
Speaker 3: to the Great State of Texas. People can think what
1:22:08
Speaker 3: they want, say what they want, but the reality is
1:22:11
Speaker 3: this rivalry and that rivalry means so much to this
1:22:15
Speaker 3: state and everybody. There's people that didn't go to school
1:22:19
Speaker 3: at either place. There are people that went to other
1:22:22
Speaker 3: schools that viewed this game, listen to this game, intrigued
1:22:25
Speaker 3: by this game, and paid attention to the verdict of
1:22:29
Speaker 3: the game.
1:22:29
Speaker 1: In my mind. Yeah, and now you're getting into the
1:22:32
Speaker 1: Mac Brown territory where he used to talk about and
1:22:35
Speaker 1: I heard Tom Herman talk about it, and I've heard
1:22:37
Speaker 1: talk about it as well. Mac said the football game
1:22:42
Speaker 1: every year he was told by Coach Royal and he
1:22:45
Speaker 1: got a chance to see it firsthand that the football
1:22:49
Speaker 1: game every year was one where you might not have
1:22:53
Speaker 1: gone to Texas and you might not have gone to
1:22:56
Speaker 1: A and M, but you picked the side. You chose
1:22:59
Speaker 1: a side before coaches families. You wound up choosing a side. Uh.
1:23:06
Speaker 1: And that's just that's just how that was. And and
1:23:09
Speaker 1: to your point, that's kind of how it is with
1:23:11
Speaker 1: the renewal of the conference.
1:23:12
Speaker 3: Right if you think, do you think for a second
1:23:14
Speaker 3: that if you blasted out a question, you know, did
1:23:19
Speaker 3: you do you remember the outcome of Friday's game across
1:23:22
Speaker 3: the state if there was a way to do it,
1:23:23
Speaker 3: which is not if you could, I guarantee there was
1:23:25
Speaker 3: a huge fraction of this great state of Texas that
1:23:28
Speaker 3: knew the outcome of the Friday game and then the
1:23:30
Speaker 3: whole weekend when it was all said and done by people,
1:23:32
Speaker 3: by the listeners and the people who had who had
1:23:35
Speaker 3: a peaked interest in what was going to happen, and
1:23:38
Speaker 3: you know, and look to answer your original question, there
1:23:41
Speaker 3: were regionals, super regionals that had that same feel that
1:23:45
Speaker 3: it was so loud out there that as a player,
1:23:48
Speaker 3: I can remember my first regional in eighty four, my
1:23:50
Speaker 3: freshman year, being in the dugout when we were about
1:23:54
Speaker 3: to clinch and to go back to Omahawks. Remember they've
1:23:57
Speaker 3: won the national title in eighty three, so this was
1:23:59
Speaker 3: a chance to go back and be you know, to
1:24:03
Speaker 3: try to win again. And got to the championship game
1:24:05
Speaker 3: that year. But I remember looking around. I was just like,
1:24:08
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, I've never seen this place like this
1:24:11
Speaker 3: and this was that on steroids to me this past weekend, Yeah, a.
1:24:15
Speaker 1: Little more vibed up. When we come back from the break,
1:24:17
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about something with regard to
1:24:19
Speaker 1: the four team, since you were a part of it.
1:24:22
Speaker 1: Ty Harrington's with us talking to college baseball. Will do
1:24:24
Speaker 1: that when we continue from UFC huish fog Field on
1:24:27
Speaker 1: thirteen under the Zone. I love listening to Willie cover
1:24:30
Speaker 1: a lot of great tunes over the years, as well
1:24:32
Speaker 1: as his original stuff. I do as well.
1:24:34
Speaker 3: How about you, Ty, Could you imagine what it was
1:24:38
Speaker 3: like for those guys when they were all this music
1:24:40
Speaker 3: was being written. It was kind of a folky country
1:24:44
Speaker 3: and you know, as we Americana, I guess there's a
1:24:46
Speaker 3: lot of people Texas country and all this, but those
1:24:50
Speaker 3: guys at night are in the afternoon just sitting around
1:24:53
Speaker 3: and their blue jeans and boots and a Lone Star beer,
1:24:57
Speaker 3: hanging out maybe some other stuff, hanging right close to him,
1:25:00
Speaker 3: and then just singing songs and and just writing. I mean,
1:25:04
Speaker 3: could you imagine what that was to have been there
1:25:06
Speaker 3: to listen to him and to watch it and to
1:25:09
Speaker 3: and for them to orchestrate what they did and then
1:25:11
Speaker 3: take other people's music and sing it like he just
1:25:13
Speaker 3: like they just did or really just did. I mean,
1:25:16
Speaker 3: that's got to be one of the coolest things that
1:25:19
Speaker 3: a person would be able to.
1:25:20
Speaker 1: Here's what I wish I had seen and and and
1:25:23
Speaker 1: Keith Mornland just driving. He played during this era. He
1:25:26
Speaker 1: played for for Coach Royal, but I heard the legendary
1:25:29
Speaker 1: stories of the picking party with with Coach Royal and
1:25:32
Speaker 1: Willie Wayling be their different one of it. That's where
1:25:36
Speaker 1: I wish I could have been sitting in attendance for that, dude.
1:25:39
Speaker 3: I mean, look this, the song, the music, the atmosphere,
1:25:43
Speaker 3: you know, all of that, and people at ease and
1:25:46
Speaker 3: Coach roll and and everybody just sitting around and hanging out.
1:25:50
Speaker 3: And you know, Coach a lot of people don't know this.
1:25:53
Speaker 3: Keith does Coach Guss was a huge UH music fan
1:25:59
Speaker 3: and learned to play the guitar on the guitar on
1:26:01
Speaker 3: the road. Took his guitar on the road the latter
1:26:03
Speaker 3: part of his career, you know, going back even to
1:26:06
Speaker 3: the like the one of his famous statements, we're coming back.
1:26:09
Speaker 3: Just reminded from last weekend in eighty five. We went
1:26:12
Speaker 3: to College Station. We were down eight in the eighth inning,
1:26:14
Speaker 3: came back and won. And when we did it insured
1:26:17
Speaker 3: us at least the time for the Southwest Conference all
1:26:19
Speaker 3: we had to beat you of h once. We were
1:26:21
Speaker 3: gonna do that regardless. But so everybody was amped up
1:26:24
Speaker 3: on the bus and hollering and screaming and just above
1:26:27
Speaker 3: average because it was the Aggies and to comeback win
1:26:29
Speaker 3: and all that. And I'm coaches walking to the back
1:26:33
Speaker 3: of the bus and he goes up, I know, you
1:26:35
Speaker 3: know we're gonna be this excited. I'd have brought my
1:26:37
Speaker 3: we were all singing hereuse if I don't know you
1:26:39
Speaker 3: guys were gonna be singing, or have brought my guitar.
1:26:41
Speaker 3: And I was looking around like what and uh. And
1:26:45
Speaker 3: so that was the beginning of it. He would bring
1:26:47
Speaker 3: it there once in a while with him and and
1:26:49
Speaker 3: uh and picking on the bus and uh, but what
1:26:52
Speaker 3: that was a different time. Uh.
1:26:54
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you a question. You brought up
1:26:56
Speaker 1: the eighty fourteen And here's why I want to ask
1:26:58
Speaker 1: you about this. Lynd and I were watching about a
1:27:02
Speaker 1: week ago. We like, you know a lot of those
1:27:05
Speaker 1: ESPN thirty for thirties, and I'd seen thunder and Lightning before.
1:27:10
Speaker 1: She had not about obviously Will Clark and Rafael Palmara
1:27:12
Speaker 1: Mississippi State and went Ron Polkad and he had he
1:27:16
Speaker 1: had Jeff Brantley, and he had Bobby thickpen and credible team.
1:27:20
Speaker 1: And now they can only look back at it wistfully
1:27:24
Speaker 1: and talk about maybe one of the greatest teams never
1:27:26
Speaker 1: to win a national title. And and and a lot
1:27:29
Speaker 1: of time was spent on the eighty five game with
1:27:32
Speaker 1: Texas where they had the lead and the guy was
1:27:34
Speaker 1: leading until he gets struck with the line drive, and
1:27:37
Speaker 1: and and then the whole game changed after that, and
1:27:40
Speaker 1: and and it was funny listening to Paul Mara and
1:27:42
Speaker 1: Clark talk about it to have if that didn't happen,
1:27:45
Speaker 1: we went, we went. You don't know that she was
1:27:47
Speaker 1: in the sixth inning. You don't know, but it was
1:27:49
Speaker 1: like that didn't happen. We went But the prior year
1:27:52
Speaker 1: in eighty four, they were talking about this and they
1:27:57
Speaker 1: got knocked out by Miami, and they were just talking
1:28:02
Speaker 1: about how this this rag arm no nothing guy named
1:28:06
Speaker 1: Rick Raither just kind of put him, put him down,
1:28:08
Speaker 1: and he said they he had no business beating us,
1:28:10
Speaker 1: and blah blah blah. Brentley was talking about had no
1:28:12
Speaker 1: business beating me and so on and so forth. But
1:28:15
Speaker 1: he was the guy who beat Texas to win the
1:28:16
Speaker 1: national title.
1:28:17
Speaker 3: Wasn't he, Well, no, so eighty five team he was.
1:28:21
Speaker 3: That's right, he beat us in eighty five and like
1:28:23
Speaker 3: they beat us in game one, Miami beats us after
1:28:27
Speaker 3: we beat Mississippi State. Miami beats us in game one
1:28:30
Speaker 3: and then just an unfortunate play down the right field
1:28:32
Speaker 3: line and ball bounced out of Billy Bates was the
1:28:35
Speaker 3: greatest fly ball catching second basement I've ever seen in
1:28:38
Speaker 3: my life. And he an ol'd Rosenblatt Stadium and Keith
1:28:42
Speaker 3: Morland test it is the bullpens were right down the line,
1:28:46
Speaker 3: and but they were fully exposed. The dirt was and
1:28:49
Speaker 3: so Billy was chasing a fly ball and ran up
1:28:52
Speaker 3: on it and stumbled. The ball hit off this club.
1:28:54
Speaker 3: So and then we get beat on the Friday night
1:28:56
Speaker 3: game or the first game of the world of that
1:28:58
Speaker 3: game with Miami, and then Craze that comes in and
1:29:01
Speaker 3: just puts it on us. Well, they get to the
1:29:03
Speaker 3: sixth or the seventh of the game too, because remember
1:29:06
Speaker 3: back then it was double elimination, and they bring him
1:29:10
Speaker 3: in the sixth inning and we just I don't even
1:29:12
Speaker 3: know if we put a ball in play that got
1:29:14
Speaker 3: actually got elevated over an infielder's head because hit that
1:29:17
Speaker 3: ball was so hit so much sync to it, and
1:29:20
Speaker 3: he threw from a low three quarter arm slot and
1:29:22
Speaker 3: the ball just like it. It was like a six
1:29:24
Speaker 3: foot break and trying to figure out how you were
1:29:26
Speaker 3: going to center that ball was a challenge for us.
1:29:29
Speaker 3: And yeah they and yeah, Miami got after us. I
1:29:32
Speaker 3: will tell you this eighty four by the way, Aggie one,
1:29:35
Speaker 3: Augie one, Yeah, yeah. They bring Eddie Delzer yep, comes in.
1:29:39
Speaker 3: He was you know, five foot eight left hander, and
1:29:42
Speaker 3: he carved us up for about six innings and they
1:29:45
Speaker 3: went to reliever and then they had a closer, a
1:29:47
Speaker 3: side arm guy that had forty two saves that year,
1:29:50
Speaker 3: forty saves that year, and I can't remember the guy's name.
1:29:53
Speaker 3: Do you think I would? Maybe I tried to block
1:29:54
Speaker 3: it out, and but yes, and that was that was
1:29:57
Speaker 3: the eighty fourteen that they beat. But if you think
1:30:00
Speaker 3: about and you date it back to when keithon the
1:30:02
Speaker 3: won in seventy five, and then you stretch the number
1:30:07
Speaker 3: of game teams that went to omahall of that stretch, Okay,
1:30:09
Speaker 3: then you go to the listen, listen to this list
1:30:12
Speaker 3: in the eighties, I think they went eighty one, eighty two,
1:30:17
Speaker 3: got beat, and then in eighty three you win a
1:30:19
Speaker 3: national championship. All right. Eighty four my freshman year, we
1:30:23
Speaker 3: get beat the National Championship game. Eighty five we get
1:30:26
Speaker 3: beat in the National Championship game. Eighty seven, my senior year,
1:30:29
Speaker 3: we get beat in the semi final game by McCarthy
1:30:33
Speaker 3: from Stanford. And then that's the Ben McDonald game. The
1:30:36
Speaker 3: two games before Ben McDonald gives up a grand slammed
1:30:39
Speaker 3: to Paul Carey. Otherwise David Stanford was gonna get knocked
1:30:42
Speaker 3: out and they would. They had no LSU, had no
1:30:45
Speaker 3: pitching left. And then in eighty nine we go back again.
1:30:50
Speaker 3: I was a student coach, and we get beat the
1:30:52
Speaker 3: national championship game.
1:30:53
Speaker 1: With the one game winner, take one game.
1:30:56
Speaker 3: We hadn't lost the game yet and we were the
1:30:58
Speaker 3: only undefeated team and Brumit beat us and beat us
1:31:02
Speaker 3: three to one, and if.
1:31:06
Speaker 1: You under the old format, you would have had one
1:31:08
Speaker 1: more one more game, and then Dressendorfer would have been
1:31:11
Speaker 1: would have.
1:31:12
Speaker 3: Been able to and Scott Bryant started that game, which
1:31:15
Speaker 3: had been our mos. Scott Bryant would go four or
1:31:17
Speaker 3: five innings and then Brian Dare would come out and
1:31:21
Speaker 3: throw left handed changeups, just one change up after another,
1:31:24
Speaker 3: and it worked, but we ended up getting beat I
1:31:26
Speaker 3: think three to one or something like that. But think
1:31:29
Speaker 3: about the number of national championships that would have been
1:31:32
Speaker 3: hoisted during that eighties time and starting back with a
1:31:36
Speaker 3: seventy five team with Keith and them, and what that
1:31:38
Speaker 3: run would have looked like, you know, would it could
1:31:40
Speaker 3: have you know whatever. But point being, when people talk
1:31:43
Speaker 3: about traditional great baseball programs, and I get it LSU's
1:31:48
Speaker 3: one seven, I totally get it respected. But if you
1:31:52
Speaker 3: look at number of times in the tradition of it,
1:31:54
Speaker 3: and there's no other program like this one in my
1:31:57
Speaker 3: opinion now biased, Keith biasing, you are too, but there's
1:32:01
Speaker 3: facts to back up what could have been and it
1:32:04
Speaker 3: is I'm sorry, what really is right? But the national titles,
1:32:07
Speaker 3: like Keith Morning sitting my left has the ability to
1:32:09
Speaker 3: stand over the tough met and say, hey, I have
1:32:11
Speaker 3: a national championship, right, I don't. I was on eighty
1:32:15
Speaker 3: four to five team and coach didn't win a national title.
1:32:18
Speaker 1: Right.
1:32:19
Speaker 3: Think about what that says. We're we're we're discussing national titles,
1:32:24
Speaker 3: not just conference titles. We're talking about national Yeah, at.
1:32:26
Speaker 1: The most elite of levels. And that's why, you know,
1:32:31
Speaker 1: in looking back at that and it was such a
1:32:33
Speaker 1: different day in time because now now we look at
1:32:37
Speaker 1: something like the top five or six are capable of
1:32:41
Speaker 1: winning a national title and the SEC alone, the top
1:32:44
Speaker 1: five spots in the RPI are occupied by SEC teams
1:32:47
Speaker 1: right now. And here's the Mississippi State program won a
1:32:50
Speaker 1: national title four years ago. They fired their head coach yesterday.
1:32:53
Speaker 1: Chrys La Monis gets fired yesterday. So I mean a
1:32:57
Speaker 1: lot has changed, clearly.
1:32:58
Speaker 3: I don't know how to answer that. I thought, like,
1:33:01
Speaker 3: I like the idea of people if you hire somebody
1:33:03
Speaker 3: do a job, you let him do their job, and
1:33:04
Speaker 3: then at the end of it, everybody gets a chance
1:33:07
Speaker 3: to reevaluate. It's not I'm not an athlete director, so
1:33:09
Speaker 3: it's not my choice or my decision. But you know,
1:33:11
Speaker 3: he won their only national championship that they've ever won.
1:33:14
Speaker 3: And we were just talking those Gary Ward Oklahoma State.
1:33:21
Speaker 3: I mean, you could write down at the beginning of
1:33:24
Speaker 3: the year, you could almost write down five of the
1:33:27
Speaker 3: eight teams that were going to be in Omaha.