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3 Guys Before The Game - Mark Kellogg Visits (Episode 465) · 3 Guys Before The Game

0:17
Hey, Hey, what's up. Yes, it's time. Are you ready?
0:21
We're ready. It's the four hundred and sixty fifth episode of Three Guys
0:25
Before the Game, our summer's series continues, and all, we got a
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dandy for you, We got a good one for you. Here, Mark
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Kellogg, West virgin University's women's basketball coach joins us. And look who else
0:42
showed up? All Hoppy Kirchival, who's been absent and absent and absent?
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I mean, yeah you were, but I mean you'll have to pay your
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penance a young man. It's good back Hoppies here, Senators here. He's
0:58
reliable, he's dependable, He comes in when he's supposed to, like somebody,
1:03
I mean, just apologize about that. Coach Kelly, we have some
1:07
internal business. You know. You probably don't. You probably don't like absentee
1:10
players. Do you know? Player comes to practice like a couple of days
1:12
and doesn't show up for three. You probably wouldn't tolerate. That doesn't work
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so well in our in our in our world maybe here, I don't know.
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I don't know how y'all do it yet, but not in my world,
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and only done work in broadcasting either, don't side with Tony because they'll
1:25
stab you in the back. You'll side with him, then I'll stab you
1:26
in the back. So don't go there. I'm just saying, nice to
1:30
have Hoppy with us, kind of sort of. Three guys before the Game
1:33
is brought to us by the Burdette Camping Center. They happen to be the
1:36
only warranty forever RV dealer in all of West Virginia. Visit them at Burdette
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Camping dot com. That's Burdette Camping dot com. Three guys brought to us
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by Comas Business Systems. They just happened to be keeping West Virginia's business data
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safe, secure and efficient for twenty five years. In fact, we're thinking
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about putting a tag, one of those air tags on high to check his
2:00
data, like where is where is Hoppy? And where's Waldo. Wouldn't be
2:05
nice to have one of those well, especially during live events. But yeah,
2:07
expand here he is. He's going. Now there's cars heading towards his
2:10
house. Sorry I didn't tell you about that, but he opened the door.
2:14
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2:38
Hey, real quick, if they're listening, we could use some more
2:39
rec panut butter cup stuff that's already gone. No, we don't need any
2:43
more wit fast, I thought about the same thing. Fast. We're down
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to two and two or three packs. But let's just go on to something
2:51
else. Can they send us like something healthier? No, that's that's excellent,
2:55
send it all right on we go. So it's the first day of
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June. As we were toward this, we've been calling this our Summer series
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since like April. But I guess like now that it's June, I mean,
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and I know summer doesn't quote unquote start for three more weeks. Longest
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day of the year, the twenty first coming up June. And anyway,
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the summer series rolls on, and we're delighted to have Mark Kellogg with us,
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who's probably sitting here right now going like what in the world of lestake?
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No, not at all, guys, No, this is exactly what
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I was expecting h and wanting to do with my day to day. No,
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yeah, this is great, Nore, We're all good. June one
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is a big day in women's basketball today. Did y'all know that this is
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this is the first day we can call on the phone twenty twenty five high
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school graduates, so twenty So this is a big this little legitimately, like
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these are sophomores just now finishing their sophomore year in high school. So kids
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can always they can call you, but this is the day officially that we
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can now reach out be called. Today. I was, yeah, I
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had one this morning at maybe eight thirty this morning, and so I sent
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them to the text message though, like we have a list. Each coach
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has their list of kids we got to talk to today. So I sent
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my East Coast list a message like at eight thirty, and one of them
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responded, I can talk right now or after like three You're right, Oh
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my gosh, let's go wal on it. Let's go right now, And
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so like literally, yeah, I had finished my workout. I hadn't even
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showered. I'm like, boom, let's go and yeah, talk to her.
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And so then there's been a couple more and I got them all set
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up from two thirty all the way through today. So wow, So you
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know, the rules have changed so much on that, Like, so how
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often can you now call let's just talk about that that young lady that perspective
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at Is it once a week now or is it? Oh, it's unlitas
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on. Yeah, it used to be right back in the day. It
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was you got one phone call a week, you know type deal. I
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do still try to keep it somewhere in that that seven to ten days kind
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of some consistent communication. But no, technically it's texting unlimited, calls unlimited.
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You know, you can do it all. We can send them mail.
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So they got some mail from us today that we time to get to
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their house on the right day. And you know there's limitations of that.
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You can only do it eight and a half by eleven and now you figure
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out we can't do that, but then you can send them like eight eight
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and a half by elevens to put together to make this nice, big old
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poster. But each one of them is an eight and a half by eleven,
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I think so good. Yeah, these sweet NCAA rules that we have
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to work around still majoring and minors. Yeah yeah, but what do you?
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How do you and presumably these are players that are in demand, so
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you're not the only coach calling, I would imagine, So how do you
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what's your pitch? How do you keep it tight so that they're not tuning
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you out? How do you do it? Yeah, that's the great question
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we talked about as a staff yesterday, just as they're going to get a
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lot of calls. You're right, these are some of the top kids in
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the country, probably top thirty or forty kids in the country. So what
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separates us from you know, anybody else. Even in our messages it was
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welcome to the madness of June one, you know, like kind of just
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setting them up for this is and we've actually talked about this too. Is
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it even worth being one of those today? Or is it better to wait?
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Like what if you waited two days and then you called. I think
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they actually would remember that conversation more than they're going to remember the conversation today
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because there's so many of them. So I mean you kind of have a
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planned action or hey, here's what I need you to do right after this,
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and so get them to send you either a number or answer a questionnaire,
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something that triggers their mind again back to West Virginia here pretty quickly.
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But otherwise, yes, these kids are going to get blown up. So
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what has changed from June one of last year to June one of this year.
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So a year ago you're doing it at Stephen F. Austin. This
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year you're talking with different level of player. So what fundamentally, if anything
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changes in these conversations now? Well, fundamentally, I don't know that anything
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changes other than you're correct the level of kid we're talking to. So there's
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probably more I guess, emphasis on this day here than there was previously at
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SFA. It wasn't it didn't quite have the same Okay, it's still June
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first, and they're still going to be your list of kids, but it
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wasn't like, oh my gosh, we have to today. A lot of
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the kids we were going to get at SFA weren't thinking about us on June
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one of their junior year. They have dreams of West Virginia or Power five.
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So we kind of almost have to wait for that to subside a little
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bit and then we can go in reality sets in form Austin. That'd be
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great. Yeah, it sounds like a pretty good option now on June first,
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after their sophomore year, maybe not so much these kids. It's yes,
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it's there top thirty. So everybody in the country's probably calling these kids.
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And so, you know, some of them play for our in state
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a program, you know, and so it may just be like I want
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to, hey, let's keep that West Virginia on your chest. That's been
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like my matro with some of those kids. Their name from West Virginia.
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They just play, hey, Hugh basketball from our state, but when they
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go play, it says West Virginia on it. So let's like, let's
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keep that going. Let's keep West Virginia on your chest. So to answer
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your question, Hoppy, I didn't really completely answer it. I mean there's
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just things like that that you throw in there, just trying to get them
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excited, a little bit pain, a little bit of a picture or what
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it might look like here. I want them to see they're already in a
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uniform that says West Virginia. Like we can keep that we can keep that
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going. I think our listeners would find it really interesting because like we look
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at it and, oh, my gosh, the end of your sophomore year,
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you're starting to get calls from Power five. But I would submit to
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you probably that they already know if they're in the top thirty, it's probably
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been since you fill in the blank, since eighth or ninth grade that they
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knew that they had the chance to go high hide D one. I would
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say, so, and I guess I didn't say this. Probably ninety percent
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of the kids were calling today. We've actually already talked to They just have
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to call us. So then we would tell their coach, Hey, can
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you have so and so call me at four o'clock today? And then they
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go tell the recruit, who then calls my phone and I have to answer
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it. Now if I miss that call, I can't even call them back,
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got you, Like I have to wait for them to call me back.
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So we've talked to most of these kids before, so again it's like
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it's June for already talked to them. I just now have the ability to
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actually pick up my phone. Yeah call them. Yeah. So with that
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being said, so what's the next plan, like do you that now?
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The next the next ask would be can you come up for an unofficial Is
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that what you're trying to get them to do? Yes, So throughout the
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summer we would try to you know, we would give them some dates.
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Here's some opportunities. We'd love to have you on campus. Have you ever
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been to Morgantown, West Virginia. Most of the time it's a no.
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So then get them details and then the mailings start also, So now early
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on you can only send them a questionnaire maybe camp information. I mean it's
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very very basic. Now we can up the anti so to speak, with
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some of the mailings. So now they start getting somewhat consistent mailings from us
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to tell our story, Right, it could be academics, where do you
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live when you're here? What about our program? Maybe it's about coach Kellogg,
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I mean, just getting them information on us. But over the course
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of the next summer, maybe even fall around a football game potentially, like,
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hey, here's a great opportunity to come visit us, and we would
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love for them to do that. Yeah, the game has changed so much
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since you've started. You know, let's tick the off court stuff, like
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you're talking about for a minute, how does it feel like a drastic change
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to you or has it just been gradual throughout your career and you've just kind
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of moved a long with each of these changes. Well, I think if
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you looked back from when I started, so this will be year nineteen as
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a head coach, I guess like twenty five. Overall, it would look
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drastic if you went from twenty five years ago to now. But of course
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it's no, it's been gradual. It's been gradual from the level of athleticism
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in the women's game is what's like. These athletes now are at a whole
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different level than what they were fifteen, ten years ago. I mean,
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they're just they're developed, they have training, they have weight you know,
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they get on the weights earlier. They have their skills trainers. So that's
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what's been the biggest from just the athletic piece, and we've had we have
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to coach them differently, right, I Mean, we know about the generation
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and you just can't coach them the way we could twenty years ago. And
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I think that's where I've had to adjust the most. I Mean, when
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I played the louder the coach yell just the harder you ran through the proverbial
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wall, right like ah, and then you would just go take off through
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the wall. Well, now, if you don't give them the why that's
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a benefit to them, they're not. They're not running through a wall.
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Now, if you can explain to them why that's benefits them, they will
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do that, right, and so everything, Why are we doing this?
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Drill? Why am I asking you to do this? I mean, there's
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always the why. I have to present the why because if I don't,
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they're gonna ask it. So system wise, have you had to adapt anything
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or you staying where you've always been? How do you tweak that style of
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play? Well, for the most part, it stays the same with the
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tweaks and now would happen year in and year out based on the roster that
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you have anyway. But when I started as a Division two coach at Fort
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Lewis College way back in the day, I had seven players that could play
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my first year, I mean and so and we couldn't guard. So I
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was like, there ain't no way in heck we can guard you for thirty
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seconds. So I started this like it really was a one two two press
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at the time, and all I'm trying to do is just slow the game.
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Just slow you down. Please pass it in the backcourse I want him
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to initiate offense, was say eighteen seconds on the shot clock, because I
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thought everybody's gonna shoot probably before five. Let's just say so from eighteen to
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five, that's only thirteen seconds. Like we can defend anybody for thirteen seconds,
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I think. And we only had seven players, so I needed the
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game slow down. Well, then we got a little more athletic, even
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at Fort Lewis, so we turned it into a two two one because we
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wanted to pressure the ball all the time. And then I got a Division
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one job and I started to recruit better athletes and now we're really turning people
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over. So I've said this with Tony before, but like we led the
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nation and turnovers force two years ago, and so we've been able to start
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to play really fast and take advantage of people that don't handle the ball if
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you really want deep down, and there's two skills in the women's game that
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aren't very good, and that's ball handling and passing. So how do you
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take advantage of that? Well, I'm gonna press you and i'm gonna play
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zone, and we've done those two things pretty well. So that's changed.
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That's what's changed from my philosophy as it started slow. It's it's picked up
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a little bit from just a pace and a tempo over the years. But
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no, from yeah, two thousand and five or whatever that was, we
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were running the you know, we were running that two two one and mixing
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our defenses and offensively. It's changed a little bit, but for the most
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part, Yeah, the base stays the same. Coach you you are the
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third coach in three years at this program. The last coach was here a
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week and a half the she was actually here a little bit. I was
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gonna point out earlier she also she was in that seat a year ago and
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we just loved her to death, and uh, yeah, that didn't work.
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But anyway, we are strong. We have a strong belief that you'll
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be here more than a year. Thank you. I feel good about that
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as well. And Rin kind of making that share that happens too. I
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think Rin was somewhat surprised by the development. So did you find things I
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mean, is that hard because of the inconsistency or with the porthold doesn't not
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matter that much. Oh, no, it matters. Um, it's not
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the ideal situation. So if I went back to Fort Lewis, I was
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the third coach in three years there as well, so I do have some
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experience doing this. You can overcome it easier though now with the portal,
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I mean, the hard part is we're just going to have players on this
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team that have been recruited by three different coaches with three different philosophies. Now
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there's a there's not a lot of them, but there's there's a few of
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those. So we had six essentially when I got the job seven weeks ago.
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Now that we're here as a part of the program, and we were
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able to keep all six. So that was like Priority A, and that
13:56
was good because there's some talent within that group. And then now we've added
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six more. But now again, so you're gonna have six new ones,
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you're gonna have six returners or recruited by different people. So how does that
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blend? How does it mesh? Can we build some trust and some confidence
14:09
in each other? And so that will be our probably Priority A in the
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summer is trying to get these twelve people know each other a little bit and
14:16
care about each other so when the going gets yeah, yes we do bonding
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things. If it will happen organically with the team on its own, it's
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a heck of a lot better than coach Kellogg saying hey guys, we're gonna
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go do this today and forcing their hand. Now, we will do that
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and that will be a part of it. But again, I think if
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you recruit character and you have good kids, they're gonna want to be around
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each other because they all do have high character. I've used this one with
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Tony two speaking, you know, throughout the state. But one of my
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sayings in our program is b you, but align with us. So I
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really really want every kid to feel like they can be themselves because that's when
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I think I get the best version of them. Right, If they feel
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like they're themselves every day they walk into that practice facility, I'm gonna get
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the best version of them. But they have to align, Like we are
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a team sports, so we all got to align together. But I think
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that's something really really important to me. So I think if we can get
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these twelve people to really feel like they can be themselves, but understand,
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hey, we got to come together and some of these viewpoints and I think
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will be just fine. That's an intangible philosophy right there that you just put
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forth. So with that being said, how has that evolved for you?
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How did you learn that? Did you learn that the hard way? Did
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you look through examples and go like, okay, this is why this team
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didn't fully come together? And how long did that take to figure that part
15:28
of it out? Well, I think once you start to get talented teams
15:31
and then maybe which most of ours have been, I mean, we've just
15:35
had success over the years, but there's years you didn't reach probably the level
15:37
that you thought that team was capable of doing. I would bet I would
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venture to say ninety plus percent of those years was because there was issues off
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the court, not on the court. Right. Once you get to a
15:46
certain talent level, right and you can coach a little bit, you're probably
15:50
gonna win. Though most of those games, if we didn't achieve what I
15:54
thought the level was, we just didn't quite put it all together, probably
15:56
off the court and whatever could have been a personality thing, it could have
16:00
been issues, it could have been decisions, suspensions. I mean, we've
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had to go through all of that where it just didn't quite all come together.
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But where I don't know where where it started. I mean, I've
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always been a character guy. I've been a smaller circle guy. If you're
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in my circle, like i'm you're my person, you know, guy girl,
16:15
whether that's a coach or a player, you know. And so I've
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just been really particular on who I allow or bring in. You know,
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it's college. It's college. I get to pick and choose essentially who we
16:25
recruit, right, and your character and what you know tells a lot about
16:27
you, and I want I want high character people. I don't want to
16:30
really worry about that two am phone call because I got student athletes out doing
16:34
something that they weren't supposed to do. Have I had those? Sure?
16:37
I have, right, But if they're few and far between, I think
16:40
that's a little bit better. That's part of character. Do you think there's
16:42
any chance it's only been I don't know, twenty minutes since we've been doing
16:45
any chance whatsoever Hoppy would ever be in your circle. I think we're working
16:49
on that, right, Hoppy, Like, we're well, this is encounter
16:52
two for us. Better be a close circle because he'll walk out of We're
16:56
doing pretty good so far. Well, yeah, we're doing okay. I
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mean, I'm not the easiest person gets to know, but I'll tell you
17:00
that. You know, I'm fine. Look, I'm just I'm happier here.
17:03
And um, when I've my brief encounters with you, you know you
17:07
you seem to say the right things. You're happy to be here, and
17:10
I hope you're here for a while. I hope you have success. I
17:11
mean, the last coach I actually got some. I mean, we've had
17:15
success here, no doubt, No, we've had success. It's tough league,
17:19
and I don't know, man, what I was. How was it
17:22
when you went home to your family and said, hey, we're going to
17:26
West Virginia. They go like, we never you could never been. You'ven't
17:30
been, haven't been east of the Mississippi. No, I have not.
17:33
No, They well, and what doesn't really quite there? My kids are
17:37
old enough. We kept them abreast of the situation because so yeah, I
17:41
mean they're high school age now. So and my son he's all about social
17:44
media and he was reading reports and he's sending me stuff. Somebody have put
17:47
out that Mark Kellogg's a front runner for West Virginia, and so he was
17:51
on it. There weren't any hiding it from them. Um, And a
17:55
lot of this happened around the Final four, and we were at the Final
17:57
Four as a family. So I'm leaving, like literally the National Championship game,
18:02
I'm on the phone with Wren Baker, you know, talking it through.
18:04
I had just met with him in Dallas right before the Final Four,
18:07
so it was all I mean, I was in meetings and having excused myself
18:11
for the search firm's calling or agents calling. So it just so we were
18:15
all together. It was pretty easy. My wife was on board, son
18:19
was completely on board. Daughter we had to work a little bit, but
18:22
that was you know, she was an eighth grader this year and that's friends
18:25
and her AU team out of Dallas, and so she struggled a little bit
18:29
early, but was very supportive because of dad's opportunity. Now when they came
18:33
up here and they got their little bag of West Virginia gear and they got
18:37
to see a home that they may potentially live in, they've completely come around.
18:41
I think my son has worn a West Virginia shirt every day since the
18:44
day he left. That kid every day at school, every picture I've seen,
18:48
that kid's got a West Virginia Shore Gear's it's new gear and he's happy.
18:52
Got To ordered him a new pair of shoes the other day and he
18:55
put it out on social media. And there's some Nike Air Force ones with
18:56
the logos and he he customed them up a little bit. And so you
19:00
and you you knew Wren, right, I did so? So? But
19:04
was there an intermediary like did you get on a list from us, from
19:07
an eight from a firm or something, or how did you all connect?
19:11
Yeah? I mean I've heard Wren tell the story and he you can I
19:12
guess if that's what you want to talk about next week, you could ask
19:15
him. But it's I did know Wren. Wren hired me twelve years ago
19:18
at Northwest Missouri State. He left six months into that tenure, and then
19:22
I left twelve months in it because he left. So I'm like, I'm
19:25
out. And we had not seen each other since the day I walked into
19:27
that interview in Dallas, Wow, seven weeks ago. We had not Now
19:30
we talked, you know, a couple times a year. I'd keep up
19:33
from a hey it's a guy I need to know, an athletic director type
19:37
question. Maybe jobs were coming open Ran. What would you think about this?
19:41
He might call me about a situation you know here and there, um,
19:45
but yeah, I know that was it. So I think Wren's story
19:48
was he had the committee together and he kind of tasked them to go through
19:51
every conference in the country, mostly Division one. Find the best coaches out
19:55
of each league across the country, all thirty one or thirty two leagues.
19:57
Let's start to get a list together of those. My name came up in
20:02
that search. I think Matt Wells was the story. He had the league
20:04
that I was in, and you know, and from there it just Yeah,
20:07
I would like to think it happened on merit, and I'm sure me
20:11
knowing Ran helped him in his decision making a little bit. But I would
20:12
like to think I got it based on merit. That had to help your
20:15
decision making though, too. I would think knowing that person, even just
20:18
a little bit from years ago, because I know that's a tough spot.
20:22
You're at a place you like, you're having success, you also know what
20:26
else is out there. How do you go about You're trying to be president,
20:29
You're trying to keep winning where you are, but also evaluate opportunities as
20:33
they come. Because I'm sure you've had others. Yeah, it's you definitely
20:36
have to navigate that. It's not overly easy. But as I think most
20:40
coaches would tell you, you're only as good as your administration, right,
20:42
And so for me, that's would be an athletic director and then at the
20:45
presidential level, and what is the vision of the university? What is the
20:48
vision of the athletic department? Will they give us enough to succeed at the
20:52
level that I or most head coaches want to succeed at. So you're waiting
20:56
for those opportunities to make sure you take the right one, right, And
20:59
I just help this. I thought Morgantown fit, West Virginia fit. I've
21:03
talked about this country, roads and the places that I've been, and I've
21:06
joked my wife is from Coal Strip, Montana. Like grew up in a
21:08
small town in Montana, col Strip with the coal mines, Like my dad
21:12
grew up on a farm in Missouri. Like I am a blue collar hard
21:15
worker. I've just done it the you know, essentially the hard way from
21:18
the lower levels and worked myself up. So I thought it made sense.
21:22
I believe in Reren Baker in that vision. I believe. I mean,
21:25
the Big twelve would be what I would know, you know, better than
21:27
any other league. So this fit that, yes, and my further east.
21:30
But I looked at it like a great Like great, Now I can
21:33
go get a whole new recruiting base right three hours to DC. And obviously
21:37
all the Pennsylvania, Ohio is loaded with women's basketball talent, girls basketball Virginia.
21:41
Like, there's a whole new recruiting base that we haven't really been able
21:44
to pull out of, you know, at the mid major level. So
21:47
we have all the Big twelve blueprint, I guess, you know places from
21:51
a recruiting and now let's expand it east and I think we get something maybe
21:53
that the rest of the Big twelve doesn't get most of the time. So
21:57
you're interesting man, because you're still young. How old are you? Forty
22:00
seven? Okay, your baby forty seven? All of I think all of
22:03
us would take forty seven. Hop would you go to go back to forty
22:07
seven? I don't even I don't remember forty either. I don't remember forty
22:10
seven either. But so you're young, your bouncy, You've climb you talked
22:15
about climbing the ladder b line esque John B. Line esque and climbing the
22:18
ladder. Because John went community college, he went U D three, D
22:26
two and then Canisius Richmond, West Virginia. So you're on that same path.
22:33
You're You're winning percentage is stupid seventy eight percent, four forty five and
22:38
one twenty. So to me, I would imagine you are absolutely giddy to
22:41
go, like, Okay, I've been waiting for the day to coach at
22:45
the power five level against the best team's night in and night is Is that
22:51
a large part of the log to burn in your fire? That's a big
22:55
piece of it, um And I didn't always necessarily have to be that.
22:59
Right, Yeah, you get going and you start to have success at Division
23:00
two, Right, we play in a national championship and then four year later
23:03
we're back in it again, and so, okay, what else can I
23:06
do at this level? Win one? Of course that would have been great,
23:08
but we didn't. Weren't able to do that, but we had been
23:11
in them, right, and then the Division one opportunities, well, I
23:12
mean I really want to go compete at that level and see if I can
23:15
do this with a little bit better athlete, and then you have success at
23:18
at SFA, which was a tremendous place, right, and then you start
23:21
to yeah, that fire keeps burn, Like, man, what could I
23:22
do with a I've said, like with a national brand like the Flying WV.
23:26
Now when you walk around like hey go Mountaineers, or you're out recruiting
23:30
and it's so recognizable that it allows you to recruit at a national, international
23:34
level, which we've never been able. You know, I've never been at
23:37
a school that allows you to do that. So, yes, they're burning.
23:41
I just have a burning desire to be the best. I mean,
23:45
that's really what it is. So professionally or my teams or whatever that is,
23:48
I don't I was never chasing necessarily something or a certain job, but
23:52
if the right one presented itself, yeah I wanted. I was confident enough
23:56
in my abilities to say, yeah, I want to go get a crack
23:57
at that. All right, Now, back all the way up. Let's
24:00
talk about how you got into this. When did you think you wanted to
24:03
be a coach? When did you know you want to be a coach?
24:04
How did you start? Yeah? Good question. So I went to college
24:07
thinking I was going to sports broadcast. So my sophomore year I did an
24:11
internship at the TV station in Sherman, Texas, where I was going to
24:15
school, and that internship consisted of at night, and those were like Friday
24:18
nights Texas high school football at the fall. And I'm big, it's big,
24:23
It's legitimately big. Well, I was the intern guy that had to
24:26
sit in the studio and take all the high school football scores and punch them
24:30
in. Okay, so this is at ten twenty at night, right,
24:33
Well, guess what all my college buddies were doing at ten twenty on a
24:36
Friday night. Not taking a high school school not taking a high school score.
24:38
So I was like, man, I don't know if this is what
24:41
I want to do. I don't know if I want to be up here
24:42
at ten twenty at night. And I'm in college and they're having fun and
24:45
I'm waiting to go have my fun. So I just like, I just
24:48
don't know about this. And even in high school, I had done an
24:51
internship at a radio station because I thought that's what I wanted to do.
24:53
Well, the women's coach is actually at the school that I played at,
24:56
always kept telling me, man Mark, you would be a great coach.
24:59
And I had told her I was even questioning what I wanted to do,
25:02
so I was getting a degree in communications, end up getting a drink degree
25:06
in communications and exercise science. Once I decided I wanted to coach, so
25:10
I started going that way. I went and did a I was a graduate
25:12
assistant on the men's side for a couple of years, and then that the
25:15
lady that was coaching at that school got the job at Montana State. So
25:18
I had just got my master's working on the men's side. She's at Montana
25:22
State. I'm twenty four, I guess, and an opportunity to be a
25:25
Division one assistant in Bozeman, Montana. I had no idea that Bozeman was
25:29
north of Yellowstone National Park. I thought, yeah, heck, yeah,
25:33
there, I'm in Montana. I don't even know where. I mean,
25:34
I hadn't looked at a map. I didn't care. Man, I get
25:37
up there and Yellowstone is south of Bozeman. I'm like, where in the
25:41
world. What did I just do? But anyway, yeah, four years
25:44
later I meet my wife and it's one of the greatest years I've ever lived.
25:47
You were there for four I was, yeah, four years. Isn't
25:48
it amazing? How when you start put the threes, the fours. Though
25:52
I was there four, I was there five, all of the I was
25:52
good. AD's up. But see there's another example. Though it's one person.
25:56
One person changed the whole course and path of your life. Yeah,
26:00
she says that to your plants to see. Then ultimately it hires you.
26:03
Fun it's more remarkable, how funny that happens. Yeah, one person taking
26:06
an interest change your life absolutely. And then I think the same thing with
26:08
all the like, I've had a lot of athletic directors, but there's only
26:11
so many of them that hired me, and that those people that gave you
26:15
the chance, that's the ones that you really really And I've had good ones
26:18
that didn't hire me, and that's I'm not trying to knock them by any
26:21
stretch, but there's been the few that, like, they had to pull
26:22
the trigger on Mark Kellogg. She had to pull the trigger on Mark Kellogg.
26:26
And then I was there those four years and she actually got let go
26:30
after year three. We stayed on as interim coaches and that was not a
26:33
good situation, and I was like, oh, I want to control this
26:34
a little bit better, so I'm gonna I need to go be a head
26:37
coach might have been a little early, but I was twenty eight or twenty
26:41
nine at the time, and I'm like, i gotta do it my way.
26:42
And so then I went to Fort Lewis and that was the three coaches
26:45
and we had four scholarships and it was not a good situation. My favorite
26:48
story at Fort Lewis so beautiful. You ever been to Durango, Colorado?
26:52
Nobody gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, same mountainous whitewater rafting trails, Durango Mountain
26:59
Ski Resorts twenty minutes up the road. Well, we had our budgets were
27:03
absolutely horrible. We were supposed to take fifteen passenger vans to these games.
27:07
I'm I'm talking like ten thousand foot mountain passes. Like we're down in the
27:10
Southwest corner, six hours to Denver. I'm like, I'm not driving a
27:14
fifteen passenger van in the winter in Colorado. So I'm like, what are
27:17
we gonna do? Though, So Mild to Wild Rafting was one of the
27:19
rafting companies in the town. So I'm driving through the town and I see
27:22
all their like shuttle buses just sitting over here in the winter. I'm like,
27:26
hey, mild wild rafting, Like what do y'all do with those?
27:30
Like could I rent one of those? And they're like what really, I'm
27:32
like, yeah, I'll find a driver with the CDO come down. So
27:36
I got a guy that lived an hour away, owned ice cream shop in
27:38
the summer, didn't work in the winter, got a CDO. He would
27:41
come into town right the day before the game, pick up the mild to
27:45
wild rafting bus, come and scoop up our team and we travel and won
27:48
a championship in a mile to wild rafting bust. You didn't have to drive,
27:53
and I didn't drive for it. You never drove right, but we
27:56
pulled up and it was we were like same colors as well, Virginia and
28:00
it was blue and red mild wild rafting on the side of this. Yeah.
28:04
Sometimes those rafting busses looked like the Partridge family and that might date,
28:07
but they had multicolored bus in the home. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
28:10
yeah, that's a wild story. So, I mean we just did
28:12
so many things that that that's the beauty of being at those lower levels.
28:17
And then when we get up here, I'm like the most grateful probably the
28:18
coach that we have because I'm like, oh my god, we can do
28:21
that like I've never been able to do, Like, that's unbelievable. You
28:25
know that we can do that from where I started it. And I could
28:26
go on and on about those Fort Lewis stories, but that's one that always
28:30
sticks out to me, is like, no, this is what we were
28:32
doing back then. That's a great story. Three guys before the Game with
28:36
Mark Kellogg. Brought to us by the Burdette Camping Center right now offering ten
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29:00
dot com. And So the very first time I interviewed you was the first
29:03
day you came in for the press conference. And at that point I'm concluding
29:07
the interview and I said, so last question for you boy, your office
29:14
and the facilities and the basketball prayer. I bet you that really wowed you.
29:17
And you went, like I haven't been there yet, so you literally,
29:21
you literally had taken the job and you and then this might surprise people
29:26
like you didn't come in in the dark of the night to look around.
29:29
It was just like I got here, I had taken the job, and
29:30
here I am. Here's the press conference. I'll walk over later and see
29:34
it. Well, obviously you've been in there now almost a couple of months.
29:37
So what's that to you considering where you've been. What will that facility
29:44
allow you to do recruiting wise? Yeah, so that that we do have
29:48
a top I don't know, I say, oh, he's been recruiting.
29:49
It's a top fifteen or twenty facility in the country. I haven't been to
29:52
all of them, but this one is really it's it's really nice. And
29:56
we have every resource available for these recruits to have s So I keep telling
30:00
if you don't have success, I would put it back on you, the
30:02
recruit, because we have the coaching staff, we have facilities, we have
30:04
funding, you know, and that's on the court, and then even all
30:07
the external resources from an academic and training room and medical and those types of
30:11
things. So yeah, it allows you to get your foot in the door.
30:15
When we showcase it or send the videos of it. It gets everybody's
30:18
attention for sure, So at least it can't be used against you in recruiting,
30:22
which a lot of that's what recruiting is nowadays. It's unfortunately turned into
30:26
kind of like negative recruiting. What they don't have or what this school can't
30:30
do for you is what it turns into a lot. So we don't have
30:33
to overcome anything there. If not, it even gives us a step up
30:36
on everybody else. Yeah, um, it's different, as Hobby said earlier,
30:40
because the way that's changed in five years now of the portal and now
30:45
NIL, so that's a daily change. So now you're getting into the midst
30:51
of it again, you're talking to new kids starting today. How has NIL
30:56
changed the process in your view, it's it's changed it and it's changing it
31:03
every every day. And so I didn't deal with a ton of n I
31:07
l you know, no collective things like that at SFA. I knew it
31:11
was coming. And this has really only been in the last year plus.
31:14
I mean, this is really I mean it's coming fast and furious at us.
31:17
So it's it's a space I haven't lived in, but I gotta live
31:18
in it, like this is the way it's going, and we are fortunate
31:22
to have a great collective here with great support, and that's gonna help us
31:26
as we continue to get this going. I would bet now nil with like
31:32
a transfer not a freshman right now, not these twenty twenty five it's not
31:36
coming up quite as early. But I bet with the transfer portal kids,
31:38
it's within one of the top five questions, especially with a parent, like,
31:42
it comes up pretty quickly, and sometimes it's an exact amount. Sometimes
31:45
they just throw up some outrageous stuff out there at you, and sometimes it's
31:49
just do you have it? And what does it look like? Um?
31:52
So yeah, it's it's a space we're living in. How you navigate it.
31:56
So I think it's been interesting to see. So some schools will give
31:59
every kid they all get the same amount of money, right, And then
32:01
others is, hey, you know you can talk to the collective. It
32:05
may be more of kind of salary cappish and you know, some of the
32:08
better players so to speak, may get more opportunity. And that's a little
32:13
more real life to me, right, is if you're better at your job,
32:15
what happens you typically get raises, you get paid a little bit more
32:17
money. If we're going to try to treat these kids like that, then
32:20
hey, that's not necessarily a bad system. But then you're gonna get this
32:22
whole locker room issue now coming up with Oh, maybe somebody that's not getting
32:27
as much money as out performing somebody that's getting more, Like, oh my
32:30
gosh, So what's that gonna do to our locker room? So when we're
32:34
talking about character and culture and locker room, now we throw in il into
32:37
that mix. I'm not sure yet, but we're gonna have to navigate it.
32:40
I think it's coming. Do you try to answer those questions with specific
32:45
amounts or do you say it depends on performance and we'll sort that out later.
32:50
I mean, how do I deflect it to the Country Roads Trust,
32:52
because that's really they negotiate it through the Country Roads Trust, not really through
32:57
Coach Kellogg or outer department. But legally you're technically you're not allowed to do
33:01
that transactions that we don't do that. So that comes from never done in
33:05
college sports, right. I think the state to state I believe, because
33:07
there are some states I believe, like I'm pretty sure Kentucky though, legally,
33:13
they like the football coach at I think it was like Eastern or Western
33:15
Kentucky was controlling his inn io and that state allowed him to give it out.
33:20
And that's however he's so last week, the SEC's just bypassing the whole
33:22
thing. As we've talked many times, they're just using their foundation side of
33:25
it. University. Why so that that whole thing is changing. Yeah,
33:29
so I think we're figuring that out. But Hobby right now, no,
33:30
I just it comes from the foundation and I don't. I don't. It
33:35
does keep me out of it, and I do actually like that he's a
33:37
bit. Thankfully, Thankfully we have a good relationship with the Trust, so
33:39
we can have some some good dialogue. But now it comes from them Big
33:45
twelve as a whole. As you said, you have very very good experience
33:52
knowledge of these schools. You wouldn't take this job if you looked at West
33:54
Virginia and said, I think we can get seventh or eighth in this league.
33:59
You've got high You've got a higher aspirations for that. So how do
34:02
you eat an elephant? You eat it one bite at a time, So
34:06
how do you eat the Big twelve elephant? To try to get to where
34:07
you want to go. What's are the what are the steps? Yeah,
34:10
well I think base off of what even what they did a year ago,
34:14
right, was to finish fourth, to give yourself a chance. Right,
34:17
I mean the goal is to win championships in the Big twelve and then advance
34:22
in the NCAA tournament, Right, I mean that's the goal for me.
34:23
You talked about the tradition here, I do care. It's like sixteen seventeen
34:27
NCAA tournaments in women's basketball, one sweet sixteen. Right, So I turned
34:31
that into like, that's a good and a bad. But let's turn it
34:34
into the good. Right, So for us or potential recruits is let's be
34:37
the next team. Let's be that second team that gets to a Sweet sixteen
34:38
or advances beyond. Right, what is that state? How is the state
34:43
West Virginia gonna look at you? If you're a member of that, they'll
34:45
love you, they'll love you. Right, You're gonna go down as one
34:47
of the greatest teams that's ever played here at West Virginia. So at SFA,
34:52
we felt like we were possessions away from getting to the sweet sixteen.
34:55
So again going back to if we could do that at the mid major level,
34:59
Like why can we, like, if we can get to the tournament
35:00
and get the right seed with this logo and the type of kid that I
35:04
think we can recruit, I don't know why we can advance and do something
35:07
special like that. So I think I mean, Mike Carrie did an unbelievable
35:10
job. Dawn was on her way, like it can be done here,
35:15
there is right, and the alums love this, like they absolutely love love
35:20
love going to school. I'm running into them. I'm on the road recruiting
35:23
former players. Come up, Hey, I played. It was very I'm
35:25
like wait what, oh yeah, I'm on the wall right over there.
35:28
It's like, how is your experience? Like I loved every second of it.
35:30
I would go back every chance I get. And so there's there's a
35:34
path the big twelves. Changing back to your original question. Right, So
35:37
in a year, Texas, so you go out. We got the four
35:38
new members coming in, so I think this is open. It's a great
35:42
opportunity. That's what we talked a lot about in the interview process was Man,
35:45
this is the time to get in, and let's get in and let's
35:49
see if we can't make make some noise, so I think it's there obvious.
35:52
Yeah. I want to be about winning Big twelve championships and I want
35:54
to be about advancing in the NCAA tournament. What was your philosophy of putting
35:59
your staff together? Well, again, it's that so small circle. Who
36:04
do I know? Who do I trust? So much about being a head
36:07
coach is the loyalty that you can bring with you that I have the same
36:09
vision as you. But I don't want people that are like me, all
36:13
right, So I wanted to be real. I'm not gonna go hire my
36:15
friends. I needed to hire people that compliment me. I know what my
36:16
strengths are and my weaknesses are, so I need people to compliment those.
36:22
So when I put it together, I have three staff members that have been
36:24
with me before in some previous capacity, one of which was just with me.
36:29
One of which I say, Oklahoma State stole a couple of years ago,
36:31
and I stole her back. Arizona stole my director of operations a year
36:36
ago, and we stole her back. So we've got some of the crew
36:38
back together, a couple of others. Brothers, you put the band back
36:43
together, Yeah, yeah, no doubt, No, that's exactly what it
36:45
was. The two other assistants. So Aaron Grant is one of our assistant
36:49
She played at Texas Tech, so she played in the Big Twelve. I
36:51
think she's like the all time I know, she's the all time assist leader
36:52
at Tech maybe even the Big Twelve. Was drafted in the w NBA,
36:57
so all sorts of experience was coming from Arizona. She's been at USC coaching
37:01
like she's a she's a who's who. And then J. C. Carter
37:05
was the associate head coach at Texas Tech in the Big Twelve, and his
37:07
name had come up for head coaching jobs, right it has, Yeah,
37:12
and I've known him and he had actually called me to run, Hey,
37:14
what do you think about this opportunity and we would talk through should he take
37:16
that job or not. So I've I've had a relationship with him, so
37:20
they've been I haven't worked with him, but they're in the in the circle,
37:23
so to speak. So really that's what it was. It was kind
37:25
of who's in the circle? Who do I know trust? I mean,
37:28
at first it was kind of like parts of the country and I got to
37:30
have a recruiter from here and there, and then it was kind of like
37:32
when I started really kind of looking it through, I was like, Nope,
37:35
I need the people that I know that I trust. We'll figure out.
37:37
I mean, we'll figure out the recruiting piece. The other part that's
37:42
so important to women's basketball programs is, you know, is the community outreach.
37:45
You have a daughter, a very talented girls basketball player, so you
37:47
understand what that means for the kids camp seasons coming. How do you approach
37:51
the outreach part of wv women's basketball. Well, I think that's it's a
37:54
huge piece of women's basketball. I think it's very relational driven with your with
37:59
your fan base. Right, it's not just a product. Now. We
38:00
need to win, of course, but I think they'll come because of the
38:04
relationship that you know, whether it's us as a staff, but probably more
38:07
importantly my players play with the community. So no, we will be out.
38:10
We do have the camps coming up, so that's a part of it.
38:13
So we have the little kid camp right eighth grade and younger group coming,
38:17
and then we have a team camp as well, and so that will
38:20
give us our first look at some of the high schools in West Virginia and
38:22
the surrounding states. And you know, Yeah, we've been out. I
38:27
mean just it's been mostly the phone because I've been going one hundred miles a
38:29
minute. And then we did our tour the caravan, right, I think
38:30
we call it here. So we did the caravan and that was good for
38:34
us. And I'm gonna go play golf with a couple of high school coaches
38:36
tomorrow in the States. So it's just that's a big piece of it,
38:38
right is it's we've got to get out. We want to be seen.
38:42
We want to be the face of the entire state. As far as women's
38:45
basketball. Who do we look at, Well, that Mountaineer women's basketball team
38:49
is kind of all eyes on them. But I've kind of done it too
38:52
where I want my players to find their passions in the community. Right,
38:54
is it elderly? Is it you know, the children's hospital? Is it
38:58
just young kids? Like? What is it? And then let's go because
39:00
again I can go tell them, hey, guys, we're gonna go do
39:02
some community service today, and they were like all right, you know,
39:06
like they'll go do it, but is it really something that they're passionate about?
39:08
Or let's allow them to show what their passions are and then let's go
39:12
see if we can't foster some of that. So we'll be getting onto that
39:15
our kids get here this weekend. We start summer workouts next week, so
39:17
we'll be able to have some time to do that. Where is your coaching
39:21
philosophy? I mean you've been a head coach for a long time, but
39:22
where's your coaching philosophy come from? Yeah, I mean people you played for.
39:28
I wasn't an assistant very long, so I was two years on the
39:30
men's side for on the women's side. But both of those coaches I took
39:34
some philosophies from. I think you kind of you take some that's good.
39:37
Sometimes, like an I saw that coach do that, I don't. I
39:39
don't think I'm gonna do that when I'm a head coach. But then,
39:43
honestly, trial trial and error with me, just because I wasn't an assistant
39:45
too long. So the beauty about being at a smaller school as you can
39:50
make mistakes and nobody really is watching or cares a whole heck of a lot.
39:52
So what's the biggest mistake. Give us a big mistake? Oh?
39:57
Um, well, I mean, well, like one was I mean even
40:00
just this is a game mistake So I was coaching, and we were played
40:04
a lot of zone. As I alluded to earlier, last possession of the
40:06
game, we need to stop. We're up one this in the conference tournament
40:10
championship game. They call time out. I'm like, I'm gonna switch and
40:15
go to man. Frecking go to man. They run to play drive it
40:19
at us. We foul, make two free throws and too clever by half
40:22
right, right? And so from that point on, though, you know,
40:24
I will ask my team, now, what do y'all want to play?
40:29
I don't care? Why do I care? I want to know what
40:30
they're confident in? Right, and now they would say man. And if
40:35
they say man, and we get scored on and at least we're all together,
40:38
or I could at least give them, hey, I want to play
40:39
this, or y'all okay with it? Y'all feel good about it? Yeah,
40:43
we do, coach? Okay, Now we're collectively on the same page.
40:45
So like, you get better every year you coach, right, I
40:49
mean I mean not probably for all of us. Right. The more you
40:51
do stuff, the more experience you have, the better you get at it.
40:53
That was one that still haunts me to this day. We were the
40:55
better basketball team. We were the higher seed. We should have won that
40:59
game didn't come down to the one possession. But as a coach, I
41:01
mean here, however, many years later, I'm still and we're talking about
41:06
it, um, But you know, there's been like things like that that
41:07
I just didn't he know there was a story. And you're a young guy
41:10
comparatively, but Bobby Bowden was ahead football coach here at one time, and
41:14
they were playing Pitt and they were up big at halftime, thirty five seven
41:16
I think seven. Then they called off the dogs in the second half and
41:21
Pitt came back in one. So that told him that he never had enough
41:24
points. So even later in life, you know, years and years later,
41:27
he would always refer back to that game. So that was a painful,
41:30
painful way. I think we all have those moments. I'm sure there's
41:31
been some off the court too, or he didn't handle the situation as well
41:35
as you know, as you probably could have. But yeah, I know
41:37
that's the one. I mean there're several, but that's that's one. What
41:40
about hand like, because you're you're with them so much. I mean,
41:44
everybody's got personal issues, some more than others, So are you, how
41:49
do you how do you handle those? Yeah, well, I think the
41:52
other recruiting process you learn about these kids and the challenges that you that they
41:57
may have, right and um, and so you're I don't know if you're
42:00
prepared for for when those things happen, but you probably in some way and
42:04
through your mind have thought through, Okay, this is what this player needs,
42:07
like we're gonna have to help him in this area of their life.
42:08
So then we're pretty diligent about are we connecting with the kid, are we
42:12
making sure we're giving them every resource to have success, and then for some
42:15
reason we fail out it or they fail, then we just have it's communication
42:17
and so you got to bring them in and talk it through. And they're
42:21
gonna make mistakes. They're eighteen to I used to say eighteen to twenty two.
42:23
Now it's like eighteen to twenty four. They got COVID years and this
42:25
year and that year, and you know, but they're I mean, my
42:29
life, guys, depends on eighteen to twenty two, twenty four year old
42:31
winning right like that? Who I question that? Like who in the world
42:37
like signed up for us not going on at that time? There really is
42:39
But that's also again, that's the beauty of it, right is once they
42:43
finish and they're twenty two or twenty four and they leave, and again they
42:45
may not get it at them. Most of the time it's years later when
42:47
they come back here, like now, I get it coaching now now,
42:52
I know, which I sure would have been nice if you would have got
42:54
it back then. But at least I'm glad you got it. Now.
42:58
Let's talk about something that'll make you uncomfortab uh. You As a player,
43:01
you finished second in the nation as the player of the year at the Division
43:07
three level, So you were a baller man, yeah, until I my
43:12
college coach sent me a video the other day of one of our games,
43:15
and I wished he didn't because I had this grand game back in college and
43:21
how good I was. I did not need to see that. I was
43:23
like, oh like that. The man, My stories get better every year.
43:28
They were embellished, you know, the older you get, And that
43:30
definitely put me back a couple of pedal stools. But I had I went
43:34
to the right place right and when even when we talked through recruiting is find
43:37
the right fit and go to the right fit. So I was gonna go
43:39
walk on at TCU for Moaiba, who was the coach back then. Well
43:45
he got let go that spring, So I had a roommate. I mean,
43:47
I was in role I was going and Billy Tubbs took over. Yeah
43:52
hmm, I don't think Mark Kellogg and Billy Tubb like I just yeah,
43:57
that's probably not going to be a great opportunity. So that spring Austin College,
44:00
which was a Division three. It was an NAI school actually at the
44:02
time, and went Division three once I got there, called I went up
44:05
for a recruiting visit. I had a passion to still play. They made
44:07
me feel great. I'm like, this is cool, like this is where
44:10
I need to be. So I kindly could have walked on. I could
44:13
have played Division two basketball for sure, But yeah, I didn't start the
44:16
first eight games with my freshman year, started every game from that point on.
44:20
Left as the third or fourth all time leading scorer and was yeah the
44:23
whatever runner up finals for the D three Player of the Year of my senior
44:27
year in average twenty a game. So yeah, it was a It was
44:30
a perfect situation for me. But yeah, man, I thought I was
44:32
a much better player until I saw that video the other day. So when
44:37
you watched a video, did you say I wouldn't recruit you. Yeah,
44:39
No, it was I didn't want my son to see it because he was
44:42
like, he's I've been painting this grand idea of the talent that I was
44:45
your inherent athletic. Yeah. But yeah, both my parents were pretty athletic.
44:50
My mom played college basketball at Southwest Missouri State which is now Missouri State,
44:53
and my dad did not play collegiate sports, but you know, he
44:55
was the on the softball diamond until he was forty eight years or player stopping
45:00
Matt and lead. He was a he was a good athlete. So yeah,
45:04
there was some athletic jeans. My brother played soccer at TCU and we
45:07
were just fifteen months apart, so we had a good you know, I
45:09
just had that growing up, and they put me in every sport. You're
45:14
in every sport growing up. Your brother's a dude. He's a dude.
45:16
He's a dude. I got to spend time with his brother the day of
45:20
the press conference and then we're just talking like he's a dude. Yeah,
45:24
he's a I mean his kind of funny story here, So Sean Kovic our
45:28
golf coach. Right, So, my brother's playing at Pinehurst Country Club a
45:31
few years ago. They had played the day. They're at whatever bar that
45:35
night. Apparently there's a fairly long line to get drinks. My brother didn't
45:37
claims he didn't see this long line. So he just works his way right
45:40
up to the front of the of the bar and or is a drinking turns
45:44
around and then he notices this long line. Heats tells the guy behind he
45:46
was like, oh crap, did I just cut this line? He's like,
45:50
hey man, it's okay, just go ahead or whatever. So my
45:52
brother ends up buying the guy behind him and his group a bunch of drinks
45:54
because he had cut him. So later that night, the guy behind him
45:58
walks over that was behind him in line, and it's like, hey man,
46:00
what's y'all story, what are y'all here for? Well, this happens
46:02
to be Sean Covich, our our golf coach. So they end up becoming
46:07
buddy. So when I'm telling my brother I'm looking at this job an interview,
46:09
he's on the phone with Sean. Hey, what do y'all know about
46:13
this? What do I tell my brother? How can we help him?
46:15
But that's like, my brother is that guy like comes here and him and
46:19
Tony are over I can't find my brother and Tony and they're over there having
46:22
a full on conversation. We're talking. He's a wheeler dealer real estate.
46:24
I mean, he's into that TCU Athletic department and he's he got it going
46:29
on. Yeah, lear Fields, he knows lear Field Sport and he knows
46:31
He's Yeah, he's that's him. He's a mover in a shake us because
46:36
the connection with the golf coach in West Virginia, which you've learned, we
46:38
say all the time, everybody knows everybody. Yeah, okay, so I'm
46:44
learning quickly. Yeah. So like when we were on the caravan and we
46:47
were traveling right, we were flying back from a location, like it was
46:52
Wren and Neil and me and you and like We're just chatting about this that
46:58
another, and I'm thinking to myself. At some point you got to be
47:00
going, what in the hell did I get myself into? Because we're well,
47:05
that person was down here and this person was over here. And then
47:07
they came down to me going like what have you had those moments like what
47:10
this is weird there? Yeah, There's been quite a few of those.
47:14
I mean even just who was it the I think it was the high school
47:16
golf coach here in town calls my wife. It's like, hey, I
47:20
hear you have two talented golfers. I was like, what what? Like
47:24
who said that? Where did that come from? Like I don't even know
47:28
if that's really accurate, Like this whole or of my daughter the basketball I'm
47:31
like, where is all of Like who is saying all of this stuff in
47:35
this state to get around? But yes, Montana was that way too,
47:37
though. Everybody knows everybody in the state of Montana. They even go like,
47:40
what's your last name? So it's like if you have my wife's last
47:43
name, Oh yeah, your kind dad you know likes in Texas. I
47:46
mean Texas is so just like a country that in Texas. But it was
47:52
where are you from? Do you know so? And so? So here?
47:53
Next question, where are you from? And do you know so?
47:54
He's counting so here? You know, it's all count That's what I was
47:57
about to say. So I've learned that one pretty quick. I'm not kid
48:00
you. Last week I printed off a map of West Virginia, every county
48:02
and I was going through it trying to start to learn all the counties.
48:07
Okay, let me let me give you one. So if you want to
48:08
seem like really cool, like if you ever come across anyone and they say
48:13
you go like, where are you from, and they'll go like Jackson County,
48:15
just go like just go like you know, happy Joie Parsons. If
48:19
you just write there it's like anyone from Jackson Colly, you know, happy
48:22
Jail. They'll go like, hell, yeah, I know, happy Jail.
48:24
Yeah that's that's that'll be your end. Then you're one of them,
48:29
right yeah, yeah, yeah, somebody like that in every county. So
48:31
you know there's only fifty five people. Then you have to know and then
48:35
connect the odds are you'll be okay. So you mentioned that your kids have
48:39
been recruited for golf at the high school level. Now, this coming week
48:44
is the three week period that starts for high school athletes in West Virginia.
48:49
The the external, the extra stuff. So your son jumping right in,
48:52
right, he will get ready and he's gonna start doing the deal. Yeah,
48:55
he'll be here Saturday. So my son comes up Saturday. They start.
48:59
I guess the boys start this Monday. I think the fifth, and
49:00
then the girls start the twelfth. So my wife and daughter will be up
49:04
here next Saturday, and my wife will be here for a few days and
49:07
then she's gonna go back and tie up some of the loose ends. And
49:09
so I'll have both both kids up here until we move into the house and
49:13
they can go do their summer activities and and get going. But I said
49:16
that jokingly about the high schools. They've been finot. I mean they,
49:19
I mean they're gonna end up going to Morgantown High School. They all have
49:22
all been fantastic. I don't know if they're really recruiting. It was just
49:24
how did that even kids play? And there's the excitement, and we were
49:29
thrilled about it, um, you know, and the opportunities for our kids
49:32
just to go earn whatever they can earn, you know, and they need
49:35
to go get it just based on their ability and their character. So,
49:37
okay, here's another uncomfortable question. So, as you're a women's basketball coach,
49:43
your daughter plays basketball and she's since you got here, they say out
49:47
she's pretty good. Okay, so it's best to pretend you won't listen to
49:52
this. So give me, give me a scout, give me, give
49:53
me us some recruiting report on your daughter. Yeah. So, well,
49:57
she plays like everybody said, she plays like a coach's kid. I mean,
50:00
she is iq, she is skilled, she can shoot it. She
50:02
just for her age as a girl basketball player, her mind plays at a
50:07
different level than most. She's seeing the floor. Yes, Um, she
50:10
is not the best athlete on the course. She's not a bad athlete by
50:14
any stretch, but she's not gonna just go out there and be the best
50:16
athlete. So she's gonna have to use her mind and her ability and her
50:20
ability to shoot and pass. And so she's a she's a point guard that
50:22
that really wants to score it though, probably, but she can pass,
50:25
she can rebound a little bit for her size, and she hasn't grown a
50:30
ton yet. I mean she's probably now five five, you know, but
50:31
we're talking about You go watch kids her age. You're they're six two,
50:35
they're six three. They are like, this is a different But she's a
50:37
rising ninth grader. She will be. Yeah, she'll be a ninth grader.
50:39
Yeah, so there's plenty of time for her to grow. But yeah,
50:43
just she just has such a good feel. She's she's worked at it.
50:45
She got kind of the it however you describe early on, she just
50:51
she had it and then that and she's been in a gym her whole life,
50:52
watching and evaluating, and so yeah, she's gonna have She's got a
50:57
chance to be a pretty good, pretty good basketball player. Nebraska, you
51:00
know, Nebraska called her the other day, did the or she had to
51:02
call Nebraska, I guess. But you know, so she's getting some of
51:06
those, you know, like there's going to be opportunities for her Selfishly,
51:09
I want her to play for dad because I want to watch her play college
51:13
basketball. Yeah, like if she didn't play for me, I would never
51:15
get to watch my own kid play. That would be pretty hard for me
51:19
as as the dad. But anyway, we got a few years to figure
51:22
this one out. How did how did she change your philosophy coaching wise,
51:28
because obviously you coached women's basketball pre having a daughter. Then you have a
51:32
daughter, Did it change? Did it change your style? No doubt appreciation
51:36
that even my son first, when you we all, if you have kids,
51:38
you like, compassion, love, all of that changes the way I
51:43
viewed even other people's kids. Once I had my own was absolutely entirely different.
51:47
So yeah, once you have your own and you've got that much love
51:50
to go around, and I would treat all my kids the way I would
51:52
want my current players or former players, the way I would want my own
51:57
child to be treated. And early on, I don't know that that wasn't
52:00
true. I just didn't have that comparison children, so I had nothing to
52:02
compare that too, So I was probably a little more you know, fiery
52:07
and emotional and getting after him. And then you have kids, and I
52:08
think you start to take it back a step or two. But yeah,
52:13
I know it changed at one hundred percent changed. It just makes you better.
52:16
But I mean the kids, the kids like turn your light ball behind
52:20
you, okay, right, yeah, because you mentioned early on when we
52:22
started chatting here, like in the old days, your coach yelled louder,
52:25
which means you played harder. But that is so far removed from how I
52:30
used to me. Now they just like they'll stop and they'll just like look
52:34
at you and like what's up. And you go like, what do you
52:36
mean, what's up? Let's go, but they they'll shut it down.
52:38
Yeah, you only now, I say, I only get so many of
52:40
those a year and you got a time, you got a time the right
52:45
right, and it may be a halftime like because people ask me all the
52:47
time, like, man, you really got after him at halftime, like
52:50
maybe we weren't playing really well and we came out in the second half and
52:52
did something. I'm like, no, I didn't. We talked it through
52:55
and we made some adjustments, like that's all we did, right, But
52:59
I mean, to got it ask so many times, Man, you're a
53:00
halftime you must have really, It's like, hmm, that's a great misperception.
53:05
I think it's in sports in general. I think a lot of people
53:07
think that every day it's the new Rockney speech. Yeah, but actually the
53:13
new Rockney speech is probably like two percent of the time. You don't get
53:16
very many of them anymore. But you know, and then I'll go in
53:19
there and I'll be sweating my you know what off at halftime and I'm giving,
53:22
you know, letting them have it, and you know, but then
53:23
they're like they're like, oh crap, Like now they they're gonna take onus
53:27
to that, right. That doesn't happen very often company really in a season,
53:30
how many well, I mean, I think it depends. No,
53:31
um, probably two or three, two or three in a game. Over
53:36
thirty games only you probably get like two or three and then probably practice situations
53:39
isn't too far. I mean, you may get a few more than that
53:42
in a practice because you got about a hundred practices and thirty games in a
53:45
year, so you may get a few more of those in practice. But
53:47
like now, practices come here, you know, and then you hudd them
53:51
up. Hey, guys, y'all are so much better than this, Like
53:52
this isn't the standard in which week? Like that's how you have to talk
53:54
to him, like you when you do have to go there the two what's
53:58
your go to? What's the worst thing that you say? Oh, the
54:00
just there be some cuss words in there that you wouldn't want, you know,
54:04
I mean, there's just passion and kind of like you hoppy. Similar
54:08
similar when I'm upstairs my office, Mark is upstairs. He hosts a show
54:13
and here from ten until noon, and all of a sudden that happens once
54:17
in a while you just hear this eruption and I'm wondering, like what in
54:22
the world is going on? And but the thing is different, like when
54:24
you do it, it's in front of players, he does it in a
54:28
room by himself. That hoppy first, that a fairst statement. I had
54:32
a little something this morning to oh you had Mond today? Huh Well,
54:36
and I tell you, coach, I'm not. I'm actually asked my wife.
54:38
I'm a pretty easygoing guy. I know you I am. I am.
54:43
But Okay, what I'm doing something that I've put a lot of effort
54:46
into it, and I know what it should be. I know what it
54:50
should be, right Okay, and it's not and it's not because of something
54:55
else that that somebody else is not doing their job that brand. And we
55:00
always say, Brandon, I say, don't make it harder. Okay.
55:04
That's when I lose my you know what, because I think like you're making
55:07
I know what it's supposed to be. I know it can be this way.
55:10
What you're doing is making this harder. Yeah, that's when I get
55:15
upset. Yeah that makes sense. That almost sounds like my team. I
55:17
know there's a way that you can meet. You're making this harder than it
55:20
needs to be and it doesn't need to be this hard, right right?
55:22
So now come I'm like, now there's the passion, and I mean my
55:25
players would joke. I think because when the sweat comes, Yeah, like
55:29
then they know, like I like, he's like, okay, he's not
55:32
happy, Like this isn't good enough. So basketball, you said one hundred
55:36
practices a year thirty ish games. Is basketball a practice sport or a game
55:40
sport? Well? Yeah, practice because you do so much more of it
55:43
than Neil Brown says that he goes like football is a practice sport. Yeah,
55:46
because I mean, really, I guess about every sport for the most
55:49
part is but basketball is the only one that goes over both semesters. And
55:52
by nca rule, we're allowed to have him here in the summer, So
55:55
we get eight weeks in the summer to work them out, and then we
55:59
have all the whole whatever eight week preseason, six week preseason, and then
56:02
we got the four or five month season with all the practices and everything else.
56:07
So it's a grind. It's one of those we talked to we're talking
56:08
about the other day as a coaching staff, is what are you doing the
56:10
summer? How much do we need to just back off a little bit,
56:14
because you know, you can wear them out a little bit, and I
56:15
need them to be great in March. I don't need heroes That's what I
56:17
tell I don't need heroes in the summer. I need he Rose in March,
56:20
like I don't need anybody doing anything. We don't got to be in
56:22
the greatest shape. You don't have to make every shot. I want you
56:24
in the gym. But let's there's moderation here. Probably could be a good
56:29
thing. When we didn't do the summer, the fall was the greatest time
56:32
of the year. That was the first time your full team was together.
56:36
Here's your notebook for the year. Here's your team rules. Like we're well,
56:39
you get to that. Whatever school starts in August, that doesn't even
56:44
matter any We've been together for eight weeks and we've done all of that,
56:46
and we've talked it all through, and well, here we are again.
56:50
You know, they used to get here three or four days early in August.
56:52
You know when they come now eight pm on Sunday if school starts on
56:55
Monday at eight am. Because they've been here all summer. They don't come
56:59
and check stuff out. They know where their classes are, they've been on
57:00
campus. So as a staff, when you meet, now, what are
57:05
your absolutes in these eight weeks that you have before practice quote unquote starts.
57:09
What are your abslotes? Did you guys say we have to get this established.
57:14
Yeah? Really, just I think two one is I want them to
57:16
get off the court. They get to know developing the culture, the character,
57:20
those types of thing that probably is at the top of the list from
57:23
a basketball side of things. It's the first couple of weeks will just be
57:27
getting them back in the gym. There'll be in their skill groups with their
57:30
kind of positional coach. Honestly, I may not even be there very much
57:34
for those kind of just let them ease into it. And then the last
57:36
four to five weeks we would put in some of the base defense, base
57:39
offense. We could play a little more five on five, bringing our male
57:43
practice team and let them compete a little bit to start to develop some of
57:46
those competitive juices. But really it's just, yeah, there's this base basketball
57:51
understanding we would want them to have, and then this camaraderie off the court
57:53
that would be the most important. Some of that is for sure, though.
57:57
You've got to have some evaluation in there too, right, I mean,
57:58
you're trying to figure out actually what you have with all your I know,
58:01
some of them that played for you before, but you've got more evaluation,
58:04
I would think than you will in year three, four or five.
58:07
Yeah, without question. I got two weeks with the returners when I was
58:09
here, so we got six workouts, which really wasn't very much, but
58:12
it was something at least, and so I would probably tell you the evaluation
58:15
piece is more of what's the big picture, how are we gonna play,
58:19
what is it gonna look like? What tweaks do we make offensively? Rather
58:22
than the individual piece. I'm learning a little bit more about that, of
58:24
course, But what I'm starting to try in my mind as the head coach
58:28
right now is what is this, what's it gonna look like? What's the
58:30
piece of art gonna look like when it's all done. I joke like every
58:34
year you have like a blank canvas if you're an artist, which I'm not.
58:37
I can't draw at all, but rip it off every year and it's
58:39
blank, and I have an idea of what I want that piece to look
58:43
like when it's all done, But it doesn't always go that way. You
58:45
got to start drawing it and then add to it, and then add to
58:47
it, and then add to it, and hopefully by the end of it
58:50
it's a masterpiece, but I don't know right now. It's pretty it's as
58:52
blank as blank gets because I don't know this group as well yet. Yeah,
58:57
and the key is they're going to ultimately draw the picture, right they
59:00
do. Yeah, it's not like you're not gonna say I want to draw
59:02
the Mona Lisa and they're gonna go like, no, actually, we're not
59:05
gonna make the Mona Leasa. It's up to them. Yeah, no,
59:07
really, I mean I have idea of what that Mona Lisa looks like,
59:09
right, and I got the big picture to look but I need them to
59:12
help navigate, you know, the day to day of actual drawing of it
59:15
at the piecing it together. So I just try to give them the big
59:17
picture, the holistic here's the parts, and here's how we get there.
59:21
Here's the plan. But guys, y'all got to execute it, not me.
59:22
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Visit them at Comax wv dot com. You're a water guy at all.
1:00:00
You like water, I mean, I mean drink water on the water.
1:00:07
I mean I mean water in recreation. Absolutely, yeah, tech week.
1:00:12
I grew up on the lake. He grew up on the lake. You
1:00:15
know, I mean pont They have pontoons on that. There are some pontoons.
1:00:17
Yeah, we were. We were more like the ski boat type.
1:00:20
I understand. Yeah, I've been on plenty of pontoons. Well, you
1:00:22
know, pontoon can pull those those rafts, I mean as well, right
1:00:25
the tires center you do that, pontoon we do. Yeah. Well.
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Lou Wendell Marine Cell is located in Saint Albans, the premier pontoon boat dealer
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me, Oh, I thought you're talking about water. Do you like water?
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Oh no, no, no, I mean like as I should have
1:00:44
probably cleared on the water, like the thank you very good used to prepositional
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They sell family fund while you're there, and you get you because the
1:01:05
thing you'll do is you'll go buy that lou Wendell Marine pontoon. You gotta
1:01:08
have to have treats when you're on the wall. You get hungry or faster,
1:01:12
right hoppy when you're on the water. So you go to Gomart,
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right, you go to Gomart, you get yourself like some of those.
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They sell a slim gym mark at Gomart. It's as long as a fly
1:01:22
rod. I mean it's like you could just like cast that thing. And
1:01:25
so you can go get fly rods, slim jims, you can go get
1:01:28
rec products, any kind of food you want, and then you get Pepperoni
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as well because you get a Gomart rewards cards. So visit them at Gomart.
1:01:39
Three guys gomart dot com, slash three guys Mark, what's your favorite
1:01:45
candy? You got a drawer. If you pull a drawer out and it's
1:01:49
your favorite candies, what's in there? I'm not a huge candy guy.
1:01:53
Probably like Reeses, probably would get well done. Probably would be to go
1:01:57
to see you a health guy? You a health guy? I think.
1:02:00
Hell, I work out, run so I can kind of eat what I
1:02:05
want to eat. The kind of kind of deal. You were a treadmiller,
1:02:07
you run down the street or what you well? Nicer weather like right
1:02:09
now? No, I don't want to be on a treadmill the winter it
1:02:13
will be so I don't yet. Well, yeah, my route right now
1:02:16
I'm staying at the residence ends still right across from the children's hospitals, So
1:02:20
it's kind of through the hospital, by the football stadium, front of the
1:02:23
football stadium, all the way up to campus and by the rec center almost
1:02:29
all the way to Calm. Honestly, it's a good run. Have you
1:02:31
taken on Law School Hill yet? Oh? No, I try to stay
1:02:34
off the big hills. He's not. He's a flat lander. He's not
1:02:37
used to I'm not. We had some hills in acadoches for sure. And
1:02:40
my wife's a runner and she likes she like, does that to herself.
1:02:44
I choose not to, Like, why would I do that to myself?
1:02:46
I don't need that punishment right now. So yeah, that's so. Yeah,
1:02:51
that's good. That's good. It's okay. So food wise, you're
1:02:54
gonna you get you get three meals. What are your top three to go
1:02:58
to meals? Well? I would I'm in Texas, so tex mex tech
1:03:01
Mexican type food, so I would go with some you know, like enjeladas,
1:03:05
rice and beans, pretty traditional Mexico and you know kind of food.
1:03:08
Maybe some tacos if you want to mix that in there. Steak and potatoes
1:03:12
for sure. I'm more like a filet filet guy with some you know,
1:03:15
whether baked potato or does it matter, Um, I'll go back and forth.
1:03:20
I do like a baked potato in Texas. The big one was I
1:03:22
started getting into the baked potato with the like barbecue beef on the baked That's
1:03:28
a nice, dude, It's that's got density. It was good. Yeah,
1:03:31
that's a good. So maybe those three I mean that maybe maybe the
1:03:35
three right there, and I can do some Italian food also, but I
1:03:38
mean that's probably the three. I would go with. Coffee. Not a
1:03:40
coffee guy at all. I'm not a hot drink guy. I don't like
1:03:44
hot chocolate. I don't do coffee. I don't I don't do hot drinks.
1:03:47
You don't do hot drinks. Never happen. We would go to Cowboy
1:03:52
Dallas, Cowboy games. It would be thirty degrees and everybody's got their hot
1:03:53
chocolate. And I'll take the Doctor Pepper all day, every day. Or
1:03:57
you know, when I was a kid, and now it's a diet Coke
1:04:00
Waco, Texas, of course, doctor Pepper. Yeah, hey, let
1:04:02
me show you something. Speaking of meat, I made this. Uh what
1:04:05
is he doing? I want to show this so. Uh, there's this
1:04:13
kind of cooking style called suvie where you take something you put it still in
1:04:16
the air. Right. You know we're still talking. You know, we're
1:04:18
still doing the show that that's basically the brain of the show. Here we
1:04:20
go. What do you mean it we're on the We're actually we're not on
1:04:23
the dumbass anyway. See, he thought for years this was live. He
1:04:30
thought. So there's a style of cookie style of cooking called Suvie. You
1:04:40
take a piece of meat, you can take anything. You put it in
1:04:42
a vacuum sealed bag. It's in You put in water as a Suvie cylinder,
1:04:45
it moves the water around. Long story short. You set the temperature
1:04:48
to what exactly you want this meat to come out to be. I put
1:04:51
this chuck roast in for twenty eight hours at one hundred and thirty five degrees.
1:04:57
I mean, look at that bad boy. Oh that is oh,
1:05:00
oh that looks pretty good. Yeah, people like this is like fish pictures.
1:05:05
I don't care what you're food unless you're bringing it in here. Why
1:05:09
would I want to see your pictures? You need it. It's like Dunlap
1:05:13
always does it want to show you? I don't care about fish less I'm
1:05:15
eating it. Bring it in so I can eat it. Why does he
1:05:16
think I want to see that? Pat Well, because he was saying,
1:05:18
Mark, why do we want to see that unless you have it with you
1:05:24
for us to eat. You don't don't care. No, I think you're
1:05:29
totally off base on this. He was saying what kind of what kind of
1:05:31
foods he likes? Obviously I didn't know that he was going to be a
1:05:35
heavy red meat guy as he is. He likes steaks, he likes potatoes.
1:05:39
And I said, well, speaking to that, let me show you
1:05:41
something. Would this interest you? I just texted that, by the way
1:05:44
to Taylor. Maybe he could show the picture once. It's fun. But
1:05:46
here's the thing. You did that to me the other night before sports sign.
1:05:49
You came in. You want me to bring it in? What you
1:05:53
want me to bring it in? Yeah, then I'm then I'm interested in
1:05:56
how you did it. Otherwise I don't care. Here's a baby, Here's
1:05:59
here's a baby. Here's a baby. We mentioned his fly right, Slim,
1:06:01
Here's a baby, Slim Jim. These are available at gold Mark Get
1:06:03
He showed it to him. He probably show it again too. No,
1:06:09
I don't know. Fine, I'll bring it in. I mean, it's
1:06:12
not like I mean, it's not like I'm making a steak them. It
1:06:15
takes twenty eight hours to prepare it. It's not like I'm gonna go out
1:06:16
there eight hours to prepare it. You put it in there and walked away.
1:06:19
He said, so you're yeah, But I mean it's not like I
1:06:21
can run home and say, hey, here's one that's done. It takes
1:06:24
a while to get that done. Speaking of West Virginia and speaking of Sean
1:06:28
Kovich, our golf coach earlier, I'll tell you a story. Hop.
1:06:31
I told Brad this, and I'll tell since he knows Covich. So I
1:06:35
was at the event at the coach's caravan when we went to Martinsburg. Remember
1:06:42
it's really nice outside there at the Purple Iris. So one of the dudes
1:06:45
that was there, listen to this, how this will blow your mind?
1:06:47
Okay. One of the dudes that was there, he's on crutches and he's
1:06:53
he's in a situation, okay. And his name is Luke Giffin, Lucas
1:06:59
Giffin, Luke Giffen. And I know his family because they run a funeral
1:07:02
home out there, and so I went up to him afterward. I said,
1:07:06
your dad told me that you got hurt pretty bad and he really broke
1:07:10
his leg badly. And he said yeah, And I said, well,
1:07:14
what was going on? He said, I was working in my backyard.
1:07:16
I'm working on a bobcat and he's moving earth and he's moving rocks and he
1:07:23
goes here, I am, he said, I'm listening to three guys before
1:07:27
the game. I might here, I might headphones the Sean covidch episode COVID
1:07:32
was on, and I'm moving and the thing long story short, he gets
1:07:38
up, it gets twisted, he moves at the ground, moves the thing
1:07:42
in it flips and he goes. He goes heck over hand bad and he
1:07:46
snaps a living heck out of his leg while he was listening three guys with
1:07:53
COVID liability issues there. Well, I mean it may have been something you
1:07:56
said that. Maybe wouldn't be the first guy that sent the thing. I
1:08:00
mean he's gone off center many many times and off balance. So anyways,
1:08:03
Luke, we're thinking about your buddy. I need to check in with you
1:08:05
and see how things are going. Probably it's been several weeks now, he's
1:08:08
probably doing better. But it was. It's a hard thing. But anyway,
1:08:11
I thought it was kind of wild. He was listening to three guys
1:08:15
with which with Covich and your brother obviously knows kay, So it's it's always
1:08:19
a West Virginia story. Hopefully we don't do that today, anybody, right,
1:08:26
yez? So down? Oh good, there's your picture of your medium
1:08:30
there is, folks, take a look at take a look at that.
1:08:31
How good did that come out? Let me tell you something tasted better than
1:08:34
an Actually, look, I mean it's it looks great. Great. Nobody
1:08:38
nobody else tried it, nobody else got Hey, listen, it's real guy.
1:08:43
Listen, I'll give I am going to bring something in the next episode.
1:08:45
There's this coffee producer down in Greenborough County and he's got a beer named
1:08:50
after him, kurtcha Val, and it's this hoturn. Heck, it's forty
1:08:54
seven. Do you drink beer? Drink cold beer. We'll get you some
1:08:58
of those two. But they soaked the beans hoppy in Kirchevel and we're gonna
1:09:02
I'm gonna roast the coffee. I'm gonna I'm gonna make the coffee some beans
1:09:05
a roast. I'm gonna make it. I'm bringing India on um when we
1:09:10
tape next time. Speaking of Kirtchevale, just some breaking news. It's um
1:09:14
what happens in a store? Excuse cans are in a store? Now?
1:09:17
Really? The craft beer taking state by storm? Where's it go? Where
1:09:20
is it here in Morgantown? What store Ashbrook Liquor outlet in Morgantown on the
1:09:26
shelf, Let me try and get it well. Hell, me and Mark
1:09:29
are driving by there on the way back up the Kyles saying we might go
1:09:31
away with them. Go ahead and see it. It'll be gone soon.
1:09:34
Okay, perfect sent to Taylor. I don't know if fast you can get
1:09:36
it up, but okay, So last last piece of business. Mark you
1:09:42
inherited. You didn't inherit a schedule. You had no schedule. Basically,
1:09:46
you have three games? Is that? What was three? Four? Or
1:09:49
four? Three or four games? So where are you at? Where you
1:09:51
Where are we at? Now? We are still in the process schedule.
1:09:57
We do have more than three or four. I bet we're up to eight
1:10:00
maybe nine, and we need probably we could play up to thirteen non conference
1:10:05
games, so I think we have contracts back on, you know, probably
1:10:10
eight or nine. So then there's still three or you know, what is
1:10:13
that three left? Maybe? So it's late, dude, it's late.
1:10:15
It's very late. This is not the ideal situation we'd be looking for for
1:10:18
a schedule. Al Right, football has done what years? Second years,
1:10:23
tears twenty unless it's a COVID years and yeah, yeah, it could play
1:10:28
in thirteen minutes. You get like, yeah, so you think you'll you'll
1:10:30
fill it, You're gonna get twelve or thirteen. You think, I don't
1:10:32
know if we can get to thirteen. I don't even if the schedule from
1:10:35
a playing dates, amount of dates to play even it almost allows for thirteen.
1:10:40
Um. I mean we could probably squeeze them in. But because if
1:10:42
we're in such a bind, some of the dates don't align to where we'll
1:10:44
probably want them to align to. I think we'll get to twelve non conference
1:10:47
I think in eighteen obviously big twelve games, so that would be a thirty
1:10:50
game. Yeah, schedule, we could play thirty one. Um, no
1:10:55
tournament this year. We are yeah, nowhere in Puerto Rico over thanks Giving
1:11:00
for a tournament. That's nice. Been there several times for that. Good
1:11:02
we were. We were there last year when I was at at Stephen F.
1:11:05
Austin in Puerto Rico. So we'll go back again. What hotel what?
1:11:10
What do you the hotel oil Senesta. I believe it was nice.
1:11:14
West Virginia's gone to one on a couple of occasions where it's the hard rock.
1:11:17
Okay, that's Cancoon, that's not Puerto Rico's is whatever. That's good.
1:11:23
Yeah, that's good, hoppy, all right, all good, Listen,
1:11:26
there's there's the kirch vl on the shelf. Holy, it's really,
1:11:30
it's really in the stores now. It's at the Ashbrook Liquor Mart. Hoppy.
1:11:36
Does that mean is that special to you when you see something like that?
1:11:40
I mean, that's your beer. I was with my family over in
1:11:43
Eastern Panhanda over the weekend, and then the conversation came up, like you
1:11:45
have a beer named after you. I mean, that's of all the things
1:11:48
you've accomplished. I mean, you've been featured on CBS News. This is
1:11:55
bigger. This is bigger. It's right, this is it. Huh,
1:11:58
this is it, this is it. It's all downhill from here. Coach,
1:12:00
this says I peaked. Yeah, so what happened there, Mark was
1:12:03
when he was featured on CBS News here that's how long ago? Now?
1:12:06
Happy eighteen twelve. It's been a year. Yeah, yeah, so he
1:12:12
said to the interviewer, Scott, Yeah, Scott, he said. I
1:12:16
he said, you are considered to be the mansion whisper because Joe Mansion comes
1:12:21
to him when he wants information out. And he said, I don't consider
1:12:25
myself a mansion whisper. I consider myself a vessel. And so that was
1:12:30
the genesis for the beer, and it says on there, I'm not a
1:12:33
I'm not a mansion, I'm not a whisper. I'm simply a vessel.
1:12:38
That's how the beer started. It takes really good it's goods on shelves,
1:12:41
Yeah it does. Yeah, Natasha dent Wvu made that label and that's off
1:12:45
to the right there and so that's that's absolutely fanatic, Hoppy. Just another
1:12:48
milestone in your illustrious hall of fame. Summer of k summer it is summer
1:12:54
is sixty nine, the summer of Kirchivale been very good. Mark, thanks
1:12:58
so much for coming to hope that was isn't uncomfortable or unpleasant for you?
1:13:01
Do not want me a guy? See so you kind of like us.
1:13:04
Yeah, no, we can do this again if you guys would like sometime.
1:13:06
Well heck yeah, you're still hear you as long as you Hey,
1:13:13
listen, we're gonna be here. Mark. Yeah, just saying understand.
1:13:18
We've been hurt. Mark, Yeah, we've been hurt. I got you,
1:13:23
guys, got you, We've been We've been ghosted. Three guys before
1:13:26
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1:14:01
producer Taylor Kennedy for jumping Jack Carlson as well. We're out three guys before
1:14:06
the game coming at you next week next episode w V Athletics director Ren Baker.
1:14:15
We'll talk with him asking about that women's coach higher. Yeah, we'll
1:14:17
get into that and a few other times. Maybe another topic we're going to
1:14:20
get into is the Big twelve refusing to use Eastern time zones. If you
1:14:26
know about this, haven't heard a big problem, he might watch out.
1:14:30
He could be a Central time zone guy. Well, he's here now.
1:14:32
He would probably like to know, like think about this. He'd like his
1:14:36
schedule he needs to know Eastern. He needs to know Eastern because of an
1:14:40
hour exactly. He'll show up for games like, Hey, wait a second,
1:14:43
coach, it's already halftime. Send all those I thought it was.
1:14:46
Yeah, you're playing Texas Tech at twelve well Central Easter? What time?
1:14:49
What's time are we supposed to be there? It's an issue. All right,
1:14:53
we're out. Be good. See y'all. Have a great weekend and
1:14:55
drink your kerchievell see it one