Latest / Talkin' Tech / Summer Re-Watch Series: Men’s Basketball - Texas Tech at Houston (2025)

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Summer Re-Watch Series: Men’s Basketball - Texas Tech at Houston (2025) · Talkin' Tech

• 0:40
  SPEAKER_05: Welcome in, everybody, to the Talk and Tech Podcast.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_05: This is episode one of the new summer rewatch series that we're doing on the Talk and Tech Pod.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_05: I know we haven't been very consistent with recording podcasts and pushing out content lately, but what Tristan and I have decided to do here is rewatch classic Texas Tech games, give a breakdown of it.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_05: We're gonna have four categories for you guys that we'll go through a little later in the pod as we go.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_05: But Tristan, we're here.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_05: Welcome to summer.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the way I see this is, you know, we we're the we're the used to bees that were never bees, but we're going to look at when tech was used to bees and certain things.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_04: And um we're still they're doing much bigger than we are now.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_04: But uh no, dude, it's it's so it's so fun to be back behind the mic, man.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_04: I've been missing it.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I'm at that time of year when I'm ready to get back in the studio.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um, in my new house, by the way.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_04: Like that's how much has changed since we recorded an episode.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and uh I I I'm listening to all sorts of college sport content and podcasts, and I'm back on the analog sticks playing the crap out of college football 25.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_04: And dude, I gotta say, Micah Hudson in that game is broken.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_04: He is a cheat code in that game.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_04: In the year four of Tex Tech Dynasty, that guy was like a 99 overall.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_04: I only threw it to him.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_05: Micah Hudson, baby.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_05: Look out in 20, whatever, 2027.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_05: He is so back.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_05: Um, Texas Aggie great.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, AM legend, Micah Hudson.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_05: Um, let's do this, man, because uh what we chose.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_05: Do you want to kind of why don't you give the people let them know what game that we're doing today?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_04: All right, so we're starting with some true recency bias here.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_04: We're uh dipping into the just a few months ago.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_04: Well, rather than going way back.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, we're going to February.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_04: We're going to uh the Fratitta Center uh against number six U of H men's basketball versus your Texas Tech Red Raiders, who were at the time ranked uh 22.
• 2:51
  unknown: Yep.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, this was a huge game.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_04: This is one where uh our boys get ejected and somehow find a way to snap one of the large longest winning streaks in the nation.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I thought this game was significant.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_05: One because we're a little we're removed enough to where some people don't remember all the details of this game.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_05: Obviously, a huge win for Texas Tech.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_05: And this was just gonna go down as one of the best regular season wins in men's basketball for Texas Tech because of the significance of it, because of the the caliber of opponent, especially knowing where these two teams ended up at the end of the year.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and just going into their house and winning without your best player and your head coach for the majority of the game.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_05: I I just I think people are gonna remember this game for a long time and what we did here to the eventual Big 12 champs.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_05: So let's set the stage a little bit, man.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_05: Like you said, Texas Tech, number 22 in the country at this point, 16-4 records, 7-2 in conference.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_05: Really, the only notable wins for Texas Tech up to this point were at BYU and Arizona and Lubbock.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_05: That's really it because the non-conference, and we'll talk about that uh here in kind of an overarching question in a second, but that was kind of your two significant wins at the time.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_05: Nobody really knew how good Texas Tech was at this point.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_05: The record 16 and 4 is obviously pretty good, but at this point, you've lost to basically every opponent that was worth a shit except for the BYU and Arizona wins.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_05: So we were all kind of confused on what this Texas Tech team ultimately was going to do.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_04: Steven, the pro the season's over.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_04: You don't you don't have to be frustrated anymore.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_04: It's we're we're we're oh and oh.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_05: I'm trying to put myself in the moment of of when this game happened in February, and we were all just like, I don't know, Texas Tech could be really good.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_05: I it's a good record.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_05: We have good players, but it seems like we're not beating the good teams quite yet.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_05: We didn't know how good BYU was at the time.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_05: The Arizona win was probably our biggest win to this point.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_05: So this was a big game.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's funny.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_04: I think we were over undefeated on the road at the time, uh, not including neutral sites.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_04: So that was that was kind of a a good uh statistic at the time to really lean on.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, it's it's funny that you uh said that this will go down as one of the greatest tech basketball games in our history regular season-wise, and obviously I agree, and you know, I'll try and think back to what would kind of go comparable with it, and the obvious answer would be when beer returns to Lubbock, um whenever it comes to scale and emotional uh uh like like intensity.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_04: But this was a bigger basketball win, it really was, and like in every single metric.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_04: The UT game has emotion, but that UT game was not this U of H team, and and obviously the circumstances that were around it, and of course, being in the Fertita Center.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_04: So, like you said, let's go ahead and start setting the stage.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_04: So, first things first, uh, what do you think of the U of H basketball arena?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I don't want to just sit here and look at the window dressing and dance around the game, but I feel like before we get our screenfuls in, I would really just like to talk about the stuff around it first.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so that arena was awesome, like from the television.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_04: I'd like to get there in person, but man, like that for a modern basketball arena, I feel like that they probably hit all the things you're looking for at this point.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I props V of H for playing there, building their own arena and not just rinsing out the Toyota Center where the Rockets play, um, like many uh basketball teams who are in major uh in them NBA cities do.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um first time come to mind like Memphis, a big program that plays where the uh the Grizzlies play, um, which is a disgrace for a program that's storied.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_04: But do you think modern sporting venues need size?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_04: Because that's where a lot of people are gonna be like, it's not a very big arena, or do you think it's they should be prioritizing the experience now, like uh you know, packing it in, you know, just with a modest C count, but having amazing amenities around it?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so there's multiple layers to this.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_05: Tillman Forteta, who is U of H's biggest donor, um, obviously has his name on the building.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_05: He funded this pro a lot of this project um to have U of H have a brand new, nice arena.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_05: Um, so it definitely helps to have those donors, as we as Texas Tech fans know very well in this current day and age.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_05: But basketball's a little different because you almost don't want to have too big of an arena, um, especially for the caliber of fan base.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_05: Not U of H basketball fans are great.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_05: Obviously, they've had a lot to cheer for in their storied history, uh, making multiple Final Fours in the 80s, uh, especially with their recent success as well under Kelvin Sampson.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, the U of H fans will show up and that arena gets loud, but you've seen it with Baylor, they've downgraded their arena size-wise to fitting, you know, upwards of 16,000, 17,000 people to potentially, you know, mass capacity of 11 or 12.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_05: And that's honestly done wonders for their home environment because the smaller the arena is, the louder it can be, depending on the layout and everything like that.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_05: And it just doesn't show those empty seats all the time, you know.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_05: So, Texas Tech at the United Supermarkets arena, we have one of the bigger ones in the entire Big 12.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_05: I think we hold close to 15,000, if not a little more than 15,000.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, more than that.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_05: So, and you'll notice the difference at either the Lady Raider basketball games or some of the non-conference men's games where that arena just looks and feels empty sometimes because there's just so many seats.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_05: And when you're it's not a big game, you know, you're not selling it out, and it's just kind of defeats the purpose, you know what I'm saying?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_05: So for basketball, I think you want to meet that that mark in the middle of maybe a 12 to 13,000 seat arena with a diehard fan base that's going to sell out your conference games for sure.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's not even just basketball either.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_04: I feel like across all sports, you're starting to see this movement towards a more experience-based uh thought process rather than just how many butts can we get in the seat.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um, especially with the dominance of television.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_04: Like television, you can watch pretty much any sporting event at any time anymore.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_04: So it's it's not so much uh what do we get uh this week on MVC?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_04: It's like this will be broadcast streamed on any service you're looking for at this point.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_04: So uh, and plus, you know, with the with that comes a more nationalized version of sports where you can have fans all across the country who will just tune in rather than trying to get over to the venue.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and you know, so well again with the nationalization, the religion, the regionalization obviously doesn't matter as much anymore.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_04: So people will be just as happy sitting in front of their 70-inch TV, uh watching every the best views in the house at home and not paying that ticket.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_04: So I just agree, it's just a movement in sports in general.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_04: So I agree with you.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_04: And it's just like I said, that really uh nails what Houston's looking for there.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I like how you were bringing up how storied of a program U of H is in basketball.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I wanted to ask, this might be a little hot takey, um, but I want to hear your brain roll through it real quick.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_04: Is U of H the best basketball program in the state?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_04: Like pound for pound through the years.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you think so?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I don't think I I mean the only argument would be Baylor because Baylor's won a national championship, but it's not like pre-Scott Drew Baylor was worth a shit at all.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_05: So you're talking everything pre-2003 was basically irrelevant, um, no success, and then they get Scott Drew and he builds up that program, and now they're a consistent, you know, threat to win not only the Big 12, but a national title.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_05: Uh that had a down year last year, but they're still getting recruiting the heck out of everybody.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_05: And um, so I think Baylor would be the only one to really have an argument.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_05: Obviously, Texas Tech has grown their basketball program exponentially, and uh, we have made runs of our own uh these last couple years, but in terms of just consistent overall success, you gotta give it to U of H.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_05: It goes way pre you know 2000s um from the days of Hakim Olajuan, and even before that, Elvin Hayes and those types, where they've just had a bunch of legends come through this program and this team, and they've had some really, really good teams.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_05: I think they're one of the top programs uh in terms of made Final Fours, but just haven't quite won the whole thing yet.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_05: So I think it's like seven or eight at this point, which is ridiculous.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_05: But yeah, U of H's program historically is number one in the state for sure.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, like you said, you kind of ran through some of their alumni pedigree as well.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and it's this is kind of one of the shames in college sports in general, and obviously we all fall guilty to this, is probably getting putting too much weight into national championships.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_04: Like national championships, especially in college sports, it's not everything.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_04: And not to not to rip on Baylor, but their their one championship did come during peak COVID, like it was room, it was a Mickey Mouse room.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_04: That was a Mickey Mouse room, and I'm totally not using this just to take a shot at Baylor completely unrelated from the conversation.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, you know, it it I have to agree with you.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_04: It's just they're obviously always the talk of the town whenever it comes to uh college basketball in this state.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_04: So, and you can really start feeling whenever we start watching this game, you can really start feeling this mean a lot to both fan bases, just because I think we're both quite proud of our college basketball teams at this point.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_04: It seems both fan bases put a lot of weight into basketball.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_04: And I know it's easy to say for other programs, oh yeah, we care about basketball.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_04: When they probably really don't as much as like say football, but tech fans, they really do.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_04: And then with how with how poor U of H football program has been lately, this is all they have right now.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm not I'm not just trying to poop on U of H fans with that, it's just it's it is true they probably agree with it.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so there's a lot of heat here.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_04: Do you see U of H uh as a rival to Texas Tech?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_04: And if so, like where do they land on that rival scale?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_05: U of H is a rival to Texas Tech in basketball, 100%.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I I I think I'm a little more pro U of H rivalry in football than most tech fans would say.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_05: I what I try not to be as a fan is an entitled asshole.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_05: I try not to be I I try not to be a Texas Longhorn fan.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_05: So when U of H fans want to play us and look forward to the Texas Tech game every year, I embrace it.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, great, this is awesome, and it's especially nice now because U of H has stunk the last couple years, and we've absolutely owned them in the last like I think 10 matchups.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_05: We're like nine and one against them.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_05: So it's like a fun thing to accept of just like, hey, yeah, we're probably gonna beat Houston again.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_05: But yeah, I I do I see like that interstate rival, you know.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_05: Do I run into U of H fans at work or or at the grocery store or something like that very often?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_05: Not really.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_05: So I don't feel that presence, you know, versus a Texas or an AM or even a TCU or a Baylor, but I still consider them a rival.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_05: They're and especially now that they're we're both in the same conference, I think we should embrace that a little bit.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_05: Basketball, especially, because both these programs are on really good trajectories right now of being consistent competitors at not, like I said, not only the top of the Big 12, but the top of college basketball.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_05: So um, yeah, I I absolutely embrace the rivalry.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's that's exactly what I was thinking as well.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I would put them like last in traditional rivals, like across all sports.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, for sure.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_04: So, and because of what you said, like it seems like their fan base is very concentrated in the city of Houston.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_04: And outside of that, you don't really see them much, so you don't get to interact with them much.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, unlike a more statewide uh brand like Texas Tech.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so yeah, dude, I was I was thinking the same exact thing.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, it but I after digging into this history a little bit, I didn't realize how close of a rivalry this was.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_04: This series is 2831 U of H all time.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_04: Like it is neck and neck.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_04: I honestly expected U of H to have a big bit of a leg up on us due to their success uh whenever they were in the Southwest Conference because they didn't join the Southwest Conference until 1973.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_04: And then after that, U of H is awesome for a while.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so it's uh I I was really shocked by the uh the the intensity of how close the series was overall.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I think I think it really goes up a level when you're talking basketball.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_05: And these two teams play.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_05: You saw the game in Lubbock as well, and the game in Houston this year.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_05: And I hope we get to play this team twice every year.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but we'll see how the new conference scheduling turns out going back to 18 games.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_05: But um, yeah, I I I look forward to this game not only because of how good U of H is and how how big of a game it's usually gonna end up being, um, but because it's an in-state rival and it's fun.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_05: It's fun to play this game.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_04: And okay, so let's get let's go ahead and start walking towards the game itself then.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so we're looking at uh undoubtedly the best.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, okay.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_04: I don't want to say undoubtedly, fine, arguably the best coach in the state with Kelvin Sampson.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, this what this guy has done at U of H is insane.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_04: His record there is 299 and 84 as of recording.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_04: Like, that is nuts, dude.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_04: He's been there for 11 seasons.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, probably gonna be there until he retires, which is great for the Cougs.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and he has 10 straight 20 plus win seasons since he took the the the job at that in 2014.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_04: So he immediately started winning.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, this is a dumb question.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_04: Obvious Hall of Famer, right?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah, 100%.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_05: Um, also the oldest coach, I believe, in college basketball, uh, that's currently coaching still.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_04: Wow, at 69, he's the oldest.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, I think so.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_04: It was some eight settings.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_05: They showed that in well, because uh they've really been picking them off lately.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_05: Like, you know, the NIL stuff has really pushed out a lot of the older coaches, while I think Kelvin Sampson is kind of uh he well, he's done a really good job of both you know keeping the NIL aspect of it, working with donors, but also maintaining that college basketball toughness and defensive-minded program.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I I admire Kelvin Sampson so much.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_05: I think that guy has done the best job, not only in the state, but probably a top five job in the entire country of building up his program and how he keeps his guys together and makes them all buy in year in and year out, no matter who he's bringing in.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_05: If it's only a one-year guy, if it's a guy that's potentially going to the NBA, if it's a four-year college basketball player, like he's always bringing his teams together in a way that I respect.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_05: So I I mean, he's he's he's a guy I admire.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_05: Um, anybody outside of, you know, I admire guys like Scott Drew as well.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_05: But Kelvin Sampson, I think, just does it the right way 100% of the time.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_04: And it's it's kind of an interesting dynamic to see a guy like him, just a juggernaut, a giant in the sport, go up against a rising star in Grant McCasslin, 48 years old, not that old in terms of major college uh basketballes at all.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and his overall record, 262 wins, 109 losses, and his record at our school is 51 to 20.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_04: So it's just a phenomenal, phenomenal winning record.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_04: If you double your losses and wins, I mean it's it's it's hard more than double your losses and wins.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_04: Wait, more more than double your wins versus your loss count, is what I mean.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_04: Um that came out wrong, but uh just you know he's doing an incredible job coming pulling TechStech out of his sticky situation, and uh he's only in year two, and he did a great job in year one, obviously.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and the future looks so great.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_04: Our short king is extended through 2030.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um, do you think there is a possible unspoken lifetime contract in the works if things are progressing the way the way things are?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_04: I know that's probably the hottest take I could probably give in this episode.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_04: So, but do you not think that things are progressing in a way where tech is ready to lock him down if he is really this intense on making sure tech wins a natty?
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_05: I don't think you should consider, even consider lifetime contracts in the year 2025.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_05: I don't think you can with how this sport has shifted uh and how it's going to continue to change, whether it be NIL, whether it be conference realignment, whether it be breaking off of the NCAA entirely.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_05: We don't know.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_05: I don't think you can give a guy a lifetime contract.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_05: I really don't, especially in year two.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_05: I don't I don't think you can ever consider um giving a guy a lifetime contract.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_05: That's just not what programs are these days.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_05: You see it professional as well.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_05: Less and less coaches are staying long times at these at these teams or these programs or whatever.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I think college basketball is moving in the direction of the NBA in terms of you know contracts with players, um, making deals, uh, hey, if this player's unhappy, I'd rather keep the player than the coach, you know, if it comes down to it for the AD.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_05: So, no, I don't think you can ever consider a lifetime contract.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_05: I I I the only way you can even get to that point is if tech wins a national championship, but uh you know that as we know, that's a very difficult thing to do.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_04: So do you really think that 80s would pick keeping a player over a coach?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_05: If it's the right circumstance, if that player is the best player in the country and NIL is good enough to where you're potentially keeping him for four years, I don't know.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_05: I I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say that's not a possibility at this point in time because I think everything's a possibility.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna push back on that because one of the single biggest differences between uh uh major sports and college sports is in major sports the athletes are indeed the stars.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_04: While in college sports, the coaches are much more of a face of the sport than the majors are, like by a long shot because of the turnover rate in in the nature of the sports.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I I I think it would be an insane situation if a ad is uh letting go of a successful head coach to maintain a student.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_05: I agree.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_05: I I I agree on on this hyper, you know, whatever scenario.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but I'm just not gonna rule it out, especially if we're talking about maybe you finished mid-tier the last couple years, maybe you barely made the NCA tournament, but you have this star player that's willing to commit to your program if the coach has changed.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_05: I like, dude, this is becoming more and more like a professional league that we're talking about.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_05: And this is the kind of stuff that happens in professional leagues.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_05: So I I think on the you're definitely right for the most part, but back to the lifetime contract thing, I just don't think.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_05: You can do it with how much stuff changes and shifts in this sport.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_04: Certainly.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_04: Well, either way, uh, I think we are talking about a matchup that's going to be marquee for the Big 12 in this sport moving forward.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, I'm sure Brett your mark loves this interstate drama that he has with this phenomenal basketball league we have in our conference.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so uh want to go ahead and start moving towards the game.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_05: Um, let's go team by team and then we'll kind of break down some rosters a little bit and then get into some tidbits.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_05: But Texas Tech, like I mentioned earlier, 16-4 on the year going into this game, 7-2 in conference.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_05: The losses St.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_05: Joe's tough.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_05: Darien Williams, Miss Buzzer Beater, neutral site, uh, pre-conference tournament game.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_05: Um Texas AM again, neutral site game at Dickey's Arena in Fort Worth.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_05: No JT Toppin in that one.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_05: Some people forget we did not have JT Toppin, and I don't believe we had Christian Anderson either in that game, who ended up being a real key piece for us down the stretch.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_05: This was early in the season, too.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_05: We've seen Texas Tech not be very successful in these uh uh pre-conference games, sometimes at neutral sites, and um it sucks to lose one AM, but that was one of your losses at this point.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_05: This is the kicker.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_05: UCF in Lubbock, game one of Big 12 play.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_05: Texas Tech drops one to UCF.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_05: Uh do you put yourself in the moment?
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_05: How are you feeling about the outlook on this season after we lost the first Big 12 game to UCF at home?
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_04: I think I speak for everyone when these losses started rolling up, and I know you started to kind of dice through some reasons why we lost these games, but I don't think it was uncommon to hear or say, I just hope we make the tournament at this point.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_04: Because I think people were starting to write off Big 12 championship hopes or high speed hopes.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_04: I think we were kind of looking at this as, okay, this might just be a year where we get by and maintain a March streak.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's kind of the way people were looking at it at this point.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_04: So that's where I was as well.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_04: I was kind of counting this team out whenever it came to uh making big waves in the sport that year, uh, and just really crossing your fingers and hoping that we get to watch us in the postseason and and not have the letters NIL next to it.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_04: Not N I L I see.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_04: I apologize.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_05: NIC, yeah.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_05: Uh this was a bracketology at this point in time where we were put being put in like the ninth seed in the NCAA tournament and eighth seed in the NCAA tournament.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_05: So they were still believing in us because of our base record, and you know, they they thought Texas Tech would be pretty good this year.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_05: We weren't preseason ranked, I don't think.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_05: So, but they still everybody kind of thought Texas Tech was going to make the tournament for sure.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_04: And put that put that prediction 10 years back as well.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_04: Put that in 2015, be like, you're there expected to make this, be like, oh great.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_04: You know, so for sure just because shows how uh where we were.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I was I was definitely at that point after dropping the UCF game where I'm like, I guess we're just gonna have to fight for 500 in the Big 12 and potentially make the tournament as an as a nine or an eight seed, you know.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_05: Um, so definite turnaround after that game.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_05: I think that was a uh a little uh flip of the switch for the Red Raiders after dropping that one at home.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_05: We did have one more loss, that was to Iowa State, who was number three in the nation at the time.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_05: Uh lost in overtime.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_05: That was a killer game.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_05: Iowa State at that point was probably at their peak power of the season.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_05: We saw some stuff progress at the end of the year.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_05: They had player Keyshawn Gilbert got hurt.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_05: Some were saying that he just sat out because of um stuff with TJ Altelberger, and you could tell the vibes were very off with Iowa State towards the end of the year, and their fans will tell you the same thing.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_05: So this I think was peak Iowa State.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_05: This team was rolling, they were number three in the country.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_05: I believe they were undefeated still at this point.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_05: So um, and you dropped that one in Lovick by one point in overtime.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_05: So I think you can uh I think you can accept that one as a decent loss.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_04: But it it kind of goes back to it should probably should have only been the one loss then against Iowa State versus the ECF team.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um, because I mean you were this close to uh this being a battle with U of H between uh you know like first place and tie for second kind of kind of deal.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_04: So it just it is frustrating that uh the UCF kind of set us back a bit, but you know, you go and rip off all those wins in the Big 12 at that point and kind of recenter yourself until the Iowa State game, of course.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_04: But uh overall, you know, you weren't too disappointed with the way the ship was really getting between the buoys on the way to U of H.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yep, for sure.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_05: Um, what also led to the unknown of Texas Tech right now, even after having a 16-4 record, was your incredibly weak non-conference schedule.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_05: Um, this is going to change next season in 2025-26.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_05: As we've seen, we're playing Duke, we're playing Illinois, we're playing in a preseason tournament that involves Purdue.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_05: Um, we're playing LSU, who is not fantastic right now, but still a power conference opponent that you're playing at a neutral side game.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_05: So obviously, Grant McCasslin and and the staff are prioritizing playing and getting tested in the non-conference.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_05: This season was not one of those seasons where you played a lot of good opponents.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_05: You played Texas AM.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_05: That was basically it.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, you had a chance to potentially play Texas in a in a turn uh pre-conference tournament that didn't end up coming to fruition because you dropped the St.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_05: Joe's game.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, you ended up playing a bad Syracuse team, who I think in most years you would project to be at least a tournament team.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but then other than that, man, you didn't play hardly anybody.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_05: You play Oral Roberts was probably your next like biggest game, which is sad and not good and doesn't test your team.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_05: Could have been a good thing because of all the injuries, you know, at the beginning of the year for Texas Tech, but uh you just didn't know what to think.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_05: And so my question to you do you prefer a tougher non-conference schedule to a weaker one?
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_05: This is a uh topic that's brought up pretty consistently with Texas Tech fans.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_05: We're gonna see it in football this year where we don't play a lot of good opponents.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_05: Um, how do you feel about having a very weak non-conference?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_04: At this point of where Texas Tech basketball is, I think you need to see your medal tested.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_04: I I do not think you need to set up a cupcake schedule to kind of gain confidence within your program in a sort of a rebuild uh situation, um, and maybe trying to just stack up the record so the committee thinks you're worth seeding in March, you know.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um I just think we're well beyond that as a program.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_04: And you see so many big talking heads talk about how we are one of the single most underrated jobs and programs in the country at this point, just from the success that we've strung through many different coaches at this point.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_04: What four different coaches have seen great success under us now in a row?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_04: And now that we have hopefully our best coach yet, I don't see why you would not just try to get out there, be on big screen TV, and see you beat some real teams and really start submitting yourself as this new blood basketball program.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_04: Like get out there and make people believe and talk about Texas Tech.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_04: Like get in that conversation that whenever people are talking about uh teams in the state of Texas, that oh, you know, U of H, Baylor, Texas Tech, like you want that to be the conversation, and it doesn't happen if you're just beating up on cupcakes.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um, football's a different conversation.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_04: We have not earned that in football yet.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_04: I I'm I'm totally okay with this decent out-of-conference schedule with football.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_04: Rather, but I want to see some strong arms in basketball.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and they've obviously taken uh that approach as well moving forward.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I agree.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_05: I think you need to be tested in the non-conference.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_05: I think even if you drop those games, people tend to look at non-conference games prior to your conference play as the team wasn't quite what it is now.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_05: Um, if you drop one to what ends up being a really, really good team, then you're looked at pretty fondly, actually, as a notable loss, uh, quote unquote, as they say.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_05: So I like getting tested.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_05: I like your team going to different environments, I like your team to find out ways and really pick it up in tense moments early on in the season because that's going to help you for conference play and beyond with doing that.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_05: And you'll see when we start talking about where U of H was that they did that exact thing this season uh in the game that we're talking about.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_05: So um I I love a tougher non-con, and I'm glad Texas Tech's move in that in that direction.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely, dude.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_04: And again, it just all comes back to me like, do you want to be that program that people talk about or not?
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_04: You know, like do you and that only comes from taking risks.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we we don't we do not have the evergreen blue blood benefit of just being us, like just being a North Carolina, even though North Carolina stinks, but people are gonna still gonna look at them like they're the real deal because that's where it that's where MJ played.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_04: And that's blue blood.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, this trend, yeah, they're this tradition uh history.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_04: We just don't have that.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_04: So you have to get out there and earn it.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_04: And uh you don't do that without like really showing up.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_04: So I would like for us to show up.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_05: For sure, for sure.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_05: Um, let's talk about Texas Texas roster and then we'll get to Houston.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_05: So this part of the segment for the other rewatches is gonna be a little more interesting, uh, as people may not remember a player or two or a coach or two or where somebody was in their career at that point.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_05: But uh, this game was a couple months ago.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_05: So we all kind of remember who was on the roster at this point, but we're still gonna break it down.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_05: Um, returners to this year's team that was on the previous year's team.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, Darion Williams, Chance McMillan, Kerwin Walden, Emily Yalaho, and our guy Jackie Franchise coming back for their second year with the Texas Tech program.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_05: Kerwin with his third year, because he was still here at the last year of Mark Adams.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_05: So, Kerwin, the most tenured Red Raider at this point.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_05: Um with newcomers.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_05: Newcomers.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, right.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_05: A transfer from North Carolina, who ended up being here for three seasons.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_05: Um, newcomers via the portal, JT Toppin coming from New Mexico, obviously the best transfer in the country, the best anybody.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_05: Uh yes, the who is returning for a year three um and a year two at Texas Tech.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_05: Elijah Hawkins transferring in from Minnesota for his final year of eligibility with the Red Raiders.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_05: Uh Federico, Federico coming in from Pitt, who would play.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_05: I believe he's still got one year left because he ended up transferring to AM after this.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_05: Uh Kevin Overton came in from Drake, so good program.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_05: Um, you know, I think a lot of people were split on Kevin Overton at this point.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_05: Hey, why is he not doing more?
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_05: We thought he was gonna be a starter, we thought this, that.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but he came in via the transfer portal, and then our only real newcomer, as in freshman, was Christian Anderson, who surprised a lot of people.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_05: Um, didn't surprise the coaching staff because they knew kind of what he was gonna be, uh, and he's gonna return for his second year in the red and black this year.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_05: But um I mean, this team was terrific.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_05: I I think you had a little bit of everything with this team, and and you had a good mix of guys that were already with Texas Tech and um incoming newcomers that really kind of bought into the program and and made for a great run.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_04: Dude, it you don't have any time.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_04: So I I'm only I'm only sticking on this because he was the last guy I said with Christian Anderson.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_04: Do you know how many times I have in here like this teenager, this freshman, yeah stepping up in this insane environment and situation like high stress and just stinking them?
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_04: Like it was it was crazy, man.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it he might be our biggest high school superstar since whom?
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_04: You know, like who could you think who recruited out of high school who was gonna be is gonna be potentially as good as he's gonna be, you know?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I mean, Jamayas Ramsey was a big get.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_05: Uh a lot of people kind of forget about Jamayas when because of the year that we had, and it was during COVID, and uh he was just a one and done, but he was a really highly recruited player.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_05: I he ended up being a four-star, but he was on the brink right there of being a five-star, and then he ended up contributing mightily right away.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_05: Um, could have used, I think, a couple more years in college before he ended up going to the draft, but um, no hard feelings.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_05: But I I think probably him was probably our last like true high school, you know, guy that contributed immediately.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_04: I was saying there was that one five-star guy that went to Alabama.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_04: I can't even remember his name now.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_05: Who was that?
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, Namari Burnett.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_05: Burnett, who's still with Michigan, by the way.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_05: I think he's coming back for his seventh year, sixth year.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_04: Transferred to Michigan after Bama, dude.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_04: I I haven't even kept up with it.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_05: Oh yeah, he's he's all over the place, but um actually contributed, I think was a starter on a pretty decent Michigan team this year.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but no, I mean this was this is a good overall team.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_05: I think um we we were still trying to figure out our flow at this point.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_05: You had JT.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_05: Was he did he start at were you supposed to start him at center?
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_05: Were you supposed to play him alongside another big?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_05: Who is Christian Anderson?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_05: Is he gonna play five minutes a night?
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_05: Is he gonna play 25 minutes a night?
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_05: Um Hawk, I know didn't have a tremendous start to the year, so you're like, okay, when is he gonna pick it up?
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_05: And then you still had Chance and Darien and and Kerwin.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_05: Kerwin played like none at the beginning of the year.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_05: He started every game, but only played Grant pulled him five minutes into basically every game, and then you didn't see him again.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_05: So you were like, is Kerwin going back to this last year of Mark Adams?
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_05: Like, uh what what is happening with him?
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_05: So definitely uh took some getting used to with everybody trying to flow and play together and see you know what ended up working, but um you know, Grant just did a great job with this team.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_05: I'm looking back, it's a really, really good team.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's uh it maybe this was the uh the breakthrough game in many ways because you're asking all these questions like what are these guys doing?
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_04: And then you're gonna you talk about all these guys who had a phenomenal night.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_04: Like pretty much everyone you listed was a hero.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_04: And so it was uh just a great way to see these guys overcome the adversity of perhaps struggles that happen that are not uncommon whenever you begin a season.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_04: Because you know, you haven't found a rhythm, you haven't found the game plan of where people fit and the tactics you're going to use to attack each team.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_04: So you really see the way that they just kind of really come into their own and step up in a big way in this game.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_05: Let's talk about Houston.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_05: Number six team in the country at this point in time, 17-3 on the year, nine and oh in the Big 12.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_05: Had not lost a Big 12 game to this point.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_05: Notable wins, actually pretty similar to Texas Tech.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_05: A win at BYU, or uh it was in Houston, but a win against BYU, who ended up being an Elite Eight team.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and then a win at Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_05: Not a phenomenal Kansas team, but winning at Allen Fieldhouse is always something notable and something to point out.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but I that was really their only notable wins at this point.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_05: Their non-conference is what's more interesting because they had a beast of a non-conference, this U of H team.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_05: They lost the majority of the games that they played against good teams, but um they played Auburn, they played Alabama, and they played San Diego State, all three of which made the NCAA tournament.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_05: Auburn was a one-seed, the one overall seed in the tournament.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_05: Alabama was a two-seed, I believe, is what they ended up being, but also a really good team.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_05: They did lose all three of those games, and those were their three losses up to this point, but they are kind of similar to what Texas Tech is going into this year, with really being tested with good teams in the non-conference.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_05: And again, this team lost three of their really tough non-conference games and made it all the way to the championship game.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_05: So that's that's my argument for for tougher non-con is this U of H team.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and U of H knows what they got, you know, and that's why that's what I was kind of trying to say is they they they want to see them go against the best of the best because they think they're the best of the best.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_04: And I want TechTech to start acting like we belong in that category because we do.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_04: We just made it to the Elite A, man.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_04: You know, so it's and and uh in going that deep is almost an expectation now.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's it's a celebration, but at this point in time where we're at the program, we want to see TechStech succeed in a deep level now.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_04: So I I I I envy that schedule because I would I would like to see Tech Tech do the same, but thankfully we do have it set up next year to be much similar.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yep, 100%.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_05: Houston's roster.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_05: This is why they were so good this year.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_05: They had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven returners from the previous year's team and guys that were there for two, three years at that point.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_05: So uh returners for this U of H team.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_05: LJ Cryer transferred in from Baylor the previous year.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_05: So he was with the program for a full year at this point, going into his second full year and his final year of eligibility.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_05: Emmanuel Sharp, who ended up being a starter, he came off the bench at some points, ace shooter, really good defender.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_05: Um, Juwan Roberts, the heart and soul of this Houston team, which re-watching this game, you will hear 50 million times on the broadcast.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_05: I didn't I didn't hate it because I love this broadcast team, and I'll get to that in a second.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_05: But um Juwan Roberts, fantastic U of H player, legend, leads.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_05: Uh we'll get to it in a second.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_05: Terry Carson, Jr., he's coming in.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_05: I don't believe he played a lot the previous year, but comes in.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_05: He's a starter some kind of like Emmanuel Sharp.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_05: He started some games, he came off the bench some games, but a contributor nonetheless.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_05: Um Javier Francis, a big off the bench.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_05: He was also he's interesting because he took a backseat role.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_05: He started on U of H the previous season.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_05: And when Joseph Tugler came in, who's the next guy I'm going to talk about, and really came into his own, he accepted a bench role for this U of H team and probably could have started at a lot of different areas.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_05: So I I really you know commend guys for doing that sort of thing, for uh sacrificing for your team and making it um you know not all about you, but about the success of the program.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_05: So um, Javier Francis, Joseph Tugler, who started was the Big 12 defensive player of the year, and then our guy, Malik Wilson, transferred in from Texas Tech two years ago um after he was pushed out by that selfish SOB Mark Adams, and had to sit all of last year at U of H due to uh he had some eligibility issues, or it was two years prior to this.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_05: Eligibility issues, uh it was stupid.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_05: They were still kind of going off waivers at that point in time.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_05: So sat a year at U of H, ended up playing in 2023-24 in a in a bench roll, and then came back for his final year of eligibility here at U of H as another bench roll, but a really key contributor.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's funny they bring up my league like that, transferring from TechStech to Houston.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_04: Remember for a while there before U of H joined the Big 12, it seemed like there was a pipe connected directly from Lubbock to Space City.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_04: Uh would that be U of H U of H Space City?
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_04: I was trying to find a fun radio broadcasting.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_05: Well, it's always it it's always the UTF versus Houston.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_05: It's the space controls fight over.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, NASA head command is in one place, and that is in the Lone Star State.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_05: Space City.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_05: It's space city.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_04: So um, for I feel like every time a tech uh was transferring out of uh out of out of our school, it was always to that one inner city of Houston.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_04: And it I wonder if them being in the Big 12 is gonna slow that down big time, you know.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_04: I feel like it will, obviously.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, I I think that happened a lot in football because it was guys that either couldn't make it on Texas Tech that ended up wanting a bigger role, and they saw Houston and American Athletic Conference, and they're like, Okay, you know, I think I could potentially start here.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_05: So I think that was a lot of it.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_05: And also, we recruit a lot of guys from the Houston area, right?
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_05: Coming back home, you know, it's it's that that's a big thing.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_05: So guys like to play in their hometowns where their family can go to all their games and do all that.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_05: And so I don't blame a kid for for making that move for that purpose.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_05: Um yeah, I think I think to your point, you're probably gonna see that uh happen a little less now that they're in the Big 12, and that'd be heavily encouraged by Texas Tech when they know a guy is going to transfer to not transfer in conference uh because you don't want you know them to play against you, especially if you think that player is a really good player.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, interesting.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_05: Um the they only had one newcomer on this year's U of H team and ended up being probably their best overall player in uh in Milos Yuzan, who transferred from OU the year prior, who ended up being their starting guard, um, and uh just a really, really good player.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_05: So you basically return seven guys and then you add Milos Yuzan, you got yourself a championship caliber team.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_05: So uh this is a phenomenal U of H team.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, this is really a squad you see going to the national championship.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I we I think like you we were talking all year that Houston might be the best team in the country, and soon it became like, no, they really might be the best team in the country.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_04: So, and you can really see it off the off off the um uh this list that you you you were discussing here.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_04: And was it just me or and obviously whenever we lose JT topping, it kind of changes the game a bit whenever we'll get to that obviously.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_04: But while we were watching this game, does Houston not seem quite a bit taller and bigger than us.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_04: And did they were you able to see that in most of their games, you think?
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_05: So it it depends on who you're playing.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_05: Against Florida in the national championship, they looked much smaller because they didn't have that seven footer.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_05: But they have a bunch of guys that are in that 6'6 to 6'9 range and long and athletic and can switch screens you'll see their defense is absolutely trifling.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_05: It's crazy.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_05: But no yeah I mean especially in this game when you get your one star big really and you have to play Fetty a lot of minutes and you have to play uh Emily Yalaho a lot of minutes and you have to play a lot of Darien Williams at the four you know you're gonna look smaller.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_05: And U of H definitely did uh look like the bigger team at this point.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_05: I think if JT plays the entire game we kind of think a little differently.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_05: But but yeah I mean U of H had a had a lot of long athletic players in that 6'6 6'9 range.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah athletes nonetheless is kind of the way you look at it you know 100%.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_05: Wanted to point out a couple interesting tidbits before we get into the the game breakdown here and I'm sure you have a few as well um University Houston their second year in the Big 12 won the conference both years uh in basketball that they've been in the Big 12.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_05: A conference that has been mostly dominated by Kansas especially in recent history um but you've seen a Texas Tech win you've seen a Kansas State share for uh the Big 12 title you've seen a Baylor you know make it out here and win the Big 12 lately but U of H has absolutely come in here and run the freaking table which is disappointing as uh as a a longer term member of the Big 12 but it it speaks to their program and Calvin Sampson and those guys.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_04: Story of our lives though man as as as a as a school you know because you watch Arizona State immediately watch one walk in and win it all into the championship game so it's again story of our lives but I just a testament to Samson dude uh because they were in the American athletic this for years and they were in limbo for years and they still were able to maintain this elite level to immediately walk into what was widely considered the best conference in America and immediately start winning games immediately start winning championships just hey you can't even be mad at it because just of how respectable it is because they just they're they're winners dude and that coach coach kelvin steps in that's just they built a winning team and they it carries and winners win even in the toughest conferences.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_05: So uh just an impressive beat more to that U of H had not lost a game at home this season and we're currently on a 33 game home winning streak which I don't have it in front of me on the all-time records but that's gotta be up there for for most wins in a row at home uh I know Texas Tech had a good record going for a while there under beard um but this is it's impressive 33 straight wins at home is crazy.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_04: Steven they had not lost at home since they lost to the Temple Owls the mighty owls of Philadelphia wow in January of the year of our lord 2023 now this game we are talking about is February 2025 can you do a quick math on how many years that was since they had lost at home that's a lot that is a long time over two years.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah that's a lot they had lost at home that's insane and we did handicapped which is obviously the big story of the game yep and more more of the reason why it's so important to win at home because it builds a fan base and it makes people want to go to your games more and this Houston crowd was absolutely vicious uh by the way Houston was also on an 18 game Big 12 winning streak going into this game crazy uh that might be more impressive than the 33 straight wins at home of just 18 straight Big 12 games home or away doesn't matter you won 18 or that's crazy.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_05: I want to talk about the uniforms for a second.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_05: Me too busting out the powder blues the the old Houston Oiler color uh powder blues that they've been rocking the last couple years um Texas Tech rocking their all reds first year with Adidas as we all know um solid unit I really really good uniform matchup between the two programs.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_04: It looked funny though it looked like TexTech was at a was playing home you know because our red was identical to the red on the you know and it's really funny that I bring this up I love the powder blues with Houston um I really think that like that bright blue light blue I should say and white should be their primary color scheme uh rather than just the basic red and white which is very common.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_04: The reason being is for a while there it looked like Houston was trying to make this powder blue like the city color because you brought up the Houston Oilers who were sporting the same color but the Rockets in the 90s had a color very similar to it as well with that with that really light uh blue that they're rocking a bit there.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_04: So I think it's cool whenever cities try to like kind of keep a universal color scheme going and just as cool if a college tries to get in on that.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_04: Like you think about like Seattle how they have like this kind of like stormy blue and green scheme going across all their sports I think that's sick.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_05: So uh I just yeah exactly and so I I think that's really cool that Houston's you know kind of trying to support that a bit it should be those cool colors is how I would I would put a bow on that I think the I think the powder blues are split and it depends on where you're from if you're from Houston you love the powder blues you embrace it obviously it's it's like you said a city color you know and when the Texans can't use that color because the Titans technically have the Houston Oilers history it pisses off a lot of people from Houston.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_05: So you kind of they've kind of embraced the powder blue where they can in their city um we are as neutral as you can get we're from San Antonio we're not a part of the Dallas Houston rivalry I know Dallas always gives Houston a lot of shit for uh the Titans or the uh the Titans taking the Oilers stuff and everything like that.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_05: I tend to kind of roll into that as a little bit too to piss off my my Houston friends.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_05: But ultimately it's a really cool colorway.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_05: It's awesome that they embrace it.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_05: I'm glad U of H has embraced it the last couple years um and the powder blues are clean man it looks good.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely dude and with us uh I kind of lukewarm on our uniforms personally you know I I I think Adidas could have done something a little cooler um it's just it's nothing nothing was worse nothing was worse than when Adidas made all the Adidas schools wear that one uniform this year that was so awful horrendous I can't I can't and they wore it once and they didn't ever wear it again because it was the worst design ever and it was terrible.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_05: The base uniforms though I think are I they warmed up on me.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_05: I originally when they first released them I was like I don't like these I I'm just gonna say it I'm gonna I don't like these um and then as I'm as we kind of got through the season maybe it was because of the success of the team I don't know some weird mental games were being played I like the uniforms I think they're good I don't like the the Adidas logo being right there in the center that was similar to what the under armor ones that we had the previous year.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_05: I just didn't I didn't love that I do love that Texas Tech the the font is basically a throwback to the 90s uniforms.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_05: I thought that was a really good look.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_04: So you know the the all reds I thought looked solid for Texas yeah me too I I I love where we sport all red in any sport I think that's a really sharp look for the red raiders um so I I like I said I mean it's hard to complain.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_04: I mean it I feel like we've overall upgraded with the Adidas uniforms across all sports.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm not gonna I'm not gonna sit here and whine about it.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_04: But like I just said I mean I think we look good.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not gonna go like oh my God you know yeah for sure for sure I thought the black ones looked better uh and I I even think I think the white ones look better than the than the all reds but yeah the all reds are a little you know it is what it is this game was called on ESPN2 called by my favorite probably one of my favorites um commentating duos of Rich Hollenberg and King McClure um I I just love it every time these guys are on a broadcast because Rich is an ultimate um you know broadcast announcer where he remains completely unbiased does his job uh makes calls in the clutch moments similar to a Kevin Harlan or a Mike Green everything like that.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_05: King McClure's an awesome analyst and he played at Baylor he uh so he knows the Big 12 very well and he respects the Big 12 very well played I believe when he was at Baylor he at least had one or two years where he crossed over where McCaslin was the assistant coach at Baylor when he was playing so he knows Grant very well and he's always given him his props I just think King McClellar does a great job.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_05: He keeps it real with everybody he's not so you know he needs to hone in on certain things or try to be somebody that he's not I think he's 100% genuine in how he calls a game um and he's just every time he's on a tech game I love it.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah dude I I felt the same way where I was watching the game I really felt like they they uh they called it both ways I mean it's easier to feel it's easy to feel that way whenever you win obviously but uh because usually obviously the announcers are gonna get more excited about whoever's winning the game because obviously that team's performing better as they should I mean what else are you supposed to do you know um but it I really feel like they called it a great game they got really excited when they needed to be and I always love whenever announcers do get excited during the game rather than keeping them monotone uh analytic sound the whole time so it's because I mean you're putting it's a show it's an entertainment product so ultimately I want to be entertained and have fun with it and I think they do a great job uh balancing the uh the the know-how with the fun yeah for sure and I think this duo's been going at it for a couple of years and so they've built that kind of camaraderie and uh everything that goes with it so uh just a really good duo games started on ESPN news because of course with college basketball and ESPN they don't know how to schedule games they don't know how to schedule college basketball games they say one game's gonna start at six and one game's gonna start at eight well guess what every college basketball game is at least two and a half hours so you're automatically cutting off the beginning of that second that that second of the double header or even in some cases the triple header really gets cut off and this is one of my biggest beefs with ESPN they cannot put that extra 30 minutes on the broadcast calendar whether it be an ad revenue thing or whether it be just trying to fit in more games this is basketball it's a college basketball game it takes two and a half hours schedule one at six and then schedule the next one at 830 do not schedule one at six and eight it doesn't work so half of this game was on ESPN News before it got put back over to ESPN two after the previous game finally finished up you know it's funny they talk about time because one of my notes in here is wow this game was long the most are yeah but YouTube video itself with no ad breaks was two hours you know and it it normal and obviously they had the overtime to talk about like but it's it was a long game.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_05: So there were a lot of they gotta figure it out then a lot of fouls a lot of free throws obviously the ejections you know reviews and everything like that that extended the game more but um yeah it it's just a consistent ESPN thing uh the first time you actually see the ESPN 2 logo on the rewatch is at like the 1113 mark of the first half so you literally went you know nine minutes of game time of the first half that is not on the original broadcast channel that it was supposed to be on so which is the most dramatic of mine it's I it's yeah really everybody missed the GT ejection because of uh I believe it was like some crappy game before us too it was like Miami Notre Dame or somebody awful uh and AC ACC though watch out it's always a crappy ACC game because they're on the East Coast before us it always is um that's all I had did you have anything else interesting tidbit wise before we get to the actual game now man let's go ahead and talk about this big Big 12 matchup man let's do it and luckily we have a lot to talk about very early in this game yeah that's where the majority of the conversation is going to be I wrote down I wrote down one bullet point before we get to the JT ejection.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_05: U of H started 5-0 LJ Cryer three at the 1846 mark um and then and Emanuel sharp steal and layup to start the game.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_05: So U of H was rocking early they had the momentum they had everything going for them yes it was only 5-0 but to go into somebody's house and to immediately kind of get kicked in the butt for two straight possessions um definitely something to note then 1612 in the first half JT Toppin let's go down the whole entire thing Hawkins Elijah Hawkins swings the ball to Kerwin Walton on the left side perimeter throws an entry pass into JT Toppin JT immediately gets doubled by Juwan Roberts and Joseph Tugler yet D5 and chance alone on the right side of the floor with just LJ Cryer defending LJ chooses to position himself under the basket to protect the baseline cut by D5.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_05: So JT kind of has to just lob it up to the other side of the court to chance McMillan.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_05: When doing that he jumps to try to get it over U of H's two tallest defenders at the time that were double teaming him arcs his body in a in a very tough way to try to get enough strength to get that ball across the court to chance McMillan and he and he kicks Joseph Tugler in the nuts in doing that.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_05: I wrote NADS no I wrote I actually wrote Nards so we're going all over the place here.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_05: In the cojones JT Toppin his leg does in in the forward momentum of trying to pass a ball after jumping in midair his leg comes up and yes Joseph Tugler and Juwan Roberts are playing very very tight on him.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_05: It's a tight double team so honestly maybe give Joseph Tuggler a little bit of the blame here because he's right in his grill the entire time so yes the leg is going to come up it does hit him in the nuts um and uh actually during the play they didn't stop the play after that happened they kept swinging it and chance swung it to uh Elijah Hawkins who knocked down a three and then immediately the refs call for a review of the play because Joseph Dougler is down on the floor holding um his man parts and uh they immediately call for a review.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_05: So I listen I don't think Joseph Dougler was trying to like sell anything here.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_05: I think he was hurt.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_05: I think it definitely hurts to get a foot or a shin or whatever ended up happening right into your man parts.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_05: Um do I think that he maybe stayed on the floor a little longer after the review was called to kind of sell the call a little bit maybe maybe that's what I'll say I think it's different.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_05: When when you're playing the game and you know that they're going to review you're gonna try to sell a little bit and maybe it's a natural reaction.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know but it's uh he definitely sold it a a slight tiny bit at the very end there.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_04: You know here's here's my first four minutes in this in this game written out here in the bull in the bullet points because it quickly gets to the um uh what coin porse situation that we were discussing but um so it's first one is it's basically saying how chance mcmillan's the greatest basketball player to ever live um with the the three point percentage of the NCAA um at the time and then after um uh Elijah Hawking's hits the uh the the the three at the 16 minute mark the first thing you can hear is uh the first Raider power of the night in that packed U of H arena and it's it's funny because you would wonder not to get too sidetracked here but you wonder how many red Raider fans would you see if U of H's school colors weren't damn close to ours you know because obviously we showed up wearing red um or you know because I think that's that was the plan with them being blue.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm sure you'd see a lot of Red Raiders in that house because obviously you we're gonna have a huge alumni base being one of the biggest schools in the state um but and in in in Houston but yeah dude let's go ahead and get to the technical um okay so go ahead go no I was gonna ask is this okay because I have I have a long I have a long rant here.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_05: All right okay so go because you might be answering the questions I already have laid out okay I want to point out the referee crew here and I did I spent I kid you not 30 minutes of research on this this is a referee crew if you go on the PDF of the box score it tells you the three referees the PDF of the box score is wrong on who these people are two of them are correct one of them is incorrect.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_05: So this referee crew consisted of Justin Shamion Tyler Kumpf and it wrote down Bert Smith.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_05: Well I'm curious on during this replay because I'm trying to you know do some mental stuff and trying to figure out who what ref is kind of the lead official on the play and whatnot.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_05: So I search up what all these refs look like well uh the referee crew consists of uh two you know 40 to 50 age white guys with some hair and one 40 to 50 age white guy that is completely bald well burt smith is a black man so I was confused I was like is there two Bert Smiths that are officiating college basketball?
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_05: Uh there's not Bert Smith actually had a very notable incident where he collapsed on the court this season and had to be taken to the hospital.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_05: He's fine by the way um but uh not Bert Smith this third guy so I spent 30 minutes I went on Google image reverse search I try I looked at Reddit posts that were just naming officials for games and searching up random college basketball officials to figure out who this other third guy was and it's because the third guy was the lead official and I didn't know his name I found out his fucking name wow I eventually I'm looking on Google images and I'm just typing in random referees and I I look down the the referee that I put in on Google images uh was not the referee but I saw a picture down probably like you know 10 or 12 pictures down and it was him the guy that I'm looking for and he's talking to Bob Huggins in the picture and so I'm like okay this guy referees Big 12 games this is who I'm talking and he's bald I mean he's completely 100% bald it's hard to miss him so I go and I click on the image takes me to an article of the West Virginia Gazette um paywall I'm like shit am I gonna pay for a West Virginia Gazette subscription because I'm too far deep at this point luckily I know a little hack here I've found on one of my one of the pages I follow on Instagram where if you have an article that is paywalled you can put a fun little uh couple uh I I forget what it is it's probably it's like website it's like website read.net or something that you put before the https on it um support local Steven come on man i dude I'm not gonna do it sorry I'm not gonna pay the West Virginia just see who this referee is so I do this and it and it works and it takes me down and I scroll down to where the image caption is on the article and it says referee Kip Kissinger so Kip Kissinger is the son of a bitch that ejected JT Toppin for this and was the lead official on the play you can watch every replay on the country and he is the guy making the decisions so if you're a Texas Tech fan and you want to rip on Kip Kissinger please be my guest how would this not be listed if he's the head official of the night how do they just mess I don't know I don't know I wouldn't be that hard to find change I dude I I was like searching to for the because he's got a a very unique look to him and I'm like who is this guy and every there's no bert smith there's just no bert smith that's calling this game the other two guys completely match the image when I looked them up this was the one guy took me 30 minutes I'm very I'm very glad that I went through that and I did it but so I'm I'm surprised there's not like a uh just a list on big12.com that just has the guys there like in their bios.
• 1:05:49
  SPEAKER_05: I bet I bet the official association or whatever does not want that because I think they want it to especially if there's a blown call or something like this where you They're ruthless on them.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_04: But the conferences employ these dudes and it's still listed in the game of who officiated it.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_05: Go go look it up, please.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_05: Be my guy.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_05: I believe you.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_05: I would say this is there's there's no database of dumb officials.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_05: I know it is.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_05: It's stupid, but I found him and uh and just call it journalistic uh instinct and and results.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_05: I get results.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_05: There we go.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's that's uh that's communications and journalism school at Tex Tech University class of 2018.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_05: You love it, baby.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_05: Not using that degree, by the way.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_05: Um but I'm doing so I have a job, so it's it's working out.
• 1:06:37
  SPEAKER_05: Um uh I did also note that during uh during the review initially, I hear the first Raider Power chant, and it's beautiful to hear that in opposing arenas.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_05: It never gets old.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_04: Never.
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_04: Uh is this the most absurd technical you've ever seen in a Tex-Tech game?
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_05: It's the most absurd ejection I've ever seen.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_05: If this was called a flagrant one, I wouldn't have been mad.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_05: Because technically, by rule, you hit them in the nether regions, it's usually a flagrant one.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_05: I wouldn't have been mad at it.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_05: What I was mad at was that they called a flagrant two, and then they didn't inform Grant McCasslin or anybody on the Texas Tech bench that that's what they called until after the timeout happened, and everyone's going on the court, and then they're just like, nope, actually, you JT Toppin, need to go to the locker room.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_05: And Grant, you don't really get an explanation.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_05: We're just gonna start shooting free throws.
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_05: Every time a big officiating decision happens, like an ejection or like you know, a fight breaks out or something like that, they go, individual officials go to each bench and inform the head coach or an assistant, even, of what just happened and why they and give a short explanation on what the call was.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_05: They did that for Kelvin Sampson.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_05: You can see it on the broadcast.
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_05: He is being told by one of the officials, hey, we're gonna eject JT Toppin, this is what happened, whatever.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_05: But they didn't do that to Grant, they didn't do it, they didn't come up.
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_05: Then the other official and the lead official were just kind of sitting there waiting until he eventually exited the huddle, and one went straight to JT and said, No, you gotta go.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_05: And he didn't even give him an explanation.
• 1:08:21
  SPEAKER_05: JT goes up to him and he goes, You can uh you can read his lips.
• 1:08:25
  SPEAKER_05: He just goes, You have to go.
• 1:08:28
  SPEAKER_05: And then JT was like, What?
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_05: And he goes, No, and you have to go.
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_05: And that was it.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_04: So you're saying this is probably the most botched flagrant two you've ever seen in college basketball.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_05: 100%.
• 1:08:40
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I in all of college basketball, that's that's a wide margin.
• 1:08:44
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm not sure.
• 1:08:44
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I mean, but from what you've seen is what I'm saying.
• 1:08:47
  SPEAKER_05: From what I yes, and because it hits so close to home, because it hits so close to home, it's like, you know, I I but I watching this, the entire situation unfold is utterly ridiculous how this referee crew handled it.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_05: Um, first off, it's not a flagrant two.
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_05: Everybody in the world can see that the forward momentum of him jumping in the air and throwing across the court lifted his leg up, and unfortunately, Joseph Tuggler happened to be there and got hit in the nuts.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_05: Um, the and then for them to not give any sort of explanation at all to Graham McCastlin or the Texas Tech Bench is ridiculous because they were just supposed to accept it and they just didn't do their job.
• 1:09:31
  SPEAKER_04: And and then they send Tuggler onto the floor to shoot the free throws.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_04: Whenever a player is considered injured, is he allowed to just go back in there and do that?
• 1:09:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean, they actually when a player can't shoot the free throws, they're automatically they can't return to the game.
• 1:09:48
  SPEAKER_05: So it's actually a point to where you know you actually have to shoot.
• 1:09:53
  SPEAKER_05: We've seen players like be really, really hurt that go and shoot the free throws because just in case they're not that hurt, right?
• 1:09:59
  SPEAKER_05: Um, they can return to the game.
• 1:10:00
  SPEAKER_05: But yeah, I mean they go to the technical, um, so JT's gone.
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_05: JT goes to the locker room, he's ejected.
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_05: We're all like, what the fuck?
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_05: What just happened?
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_05: Why why didn't our best player just get ejected for this?
• 1:10:13
  SPEAKER_05: We're heated.
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_05: We get more of this because we're actually we're on Twitter and we're all talking about it as it's happening, and you know, during the replay it takes five minutes, so we're all kind of in our heads of like they're not gonna eject him for this, and then we see it called and whatever.
• 1:10:28
  SPEAKER_05: Um they come out of the timeout.
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_05: Grant still has no idea.
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_05: Grant's like, what?
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_05: Why is he going to the locker room right now?
• 1:10:37
  SPEAKER_05: And doesn't get an explanation.
• 1:10:38
  SPEAKER_05: Joseph Tugler goes to the free throw line.
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_05: Grant McCasslin, meantime, is behind the bench getting an iPad out from one of the uh one of the either camera uh like uh video people that works for tech or whatever to see the replay of it because he's like, Why what I didn't even see what happened he is hated after he watches this replay, and I would have been too.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_05: This is your best player that just got ejected and you didn't get an explanation and and so on and so forth.
• 1:11:09
  SPEAKER_05: So obviously, him being a basketball coach, he knows he's passing the ball.
• 1:11:14
  SPEAKER_05: That's all he's doing.
• 1:11:15
  SPEAKER_05: He's passing the ball.
• 1:11:16
  SPEAKER_05: There was no ill intent there, he's passing the ball and he lets the officials know about it during the technical free throw.
• 1:11:25
  SPEAKER_05: So this kid's still shooting the free throw, and he comes up and he's yelling at all three of them.
• 1:11:29
  SPEAKER_05: He's passing the ball, he's passing the ball.
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_05: And so that's what gets him teed up the first time.
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_05: Fair.
• 1:11:35
  SPEAKER_05: Then after he gets teed up, he's still pissed.
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_05: He's holding a piece of paper in his in his, I think his right hand, turns around and actually physically throws the paper into the stands, crumples it up, throws the paper in the stands, and then that's what gets him the second uh technical foul, and uh, and then he's ejected.
• 1:11:52
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's really funny before before I talk about Grant, after JT's ejected, you know, it's it's funny just the amount of dumbfoundedness that is felt not only on the broad broadcast but in the arena as well, because you don't even see like the U of H fans getting fired up about it because you know I think everyone's just like, wait, what?
• 1:12:09
  SPEAKER_04: What is that?
• 1:12:09
  SPEAKER_04: What?
• 1:12:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you know, because I mean it gets announced over the over the intercom after you know, number 15 JT chopin is ejected from the game or whatever, and that's when they start going crazy.
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_05: But they're like they're not expecting him to get ejected.
• 1:12:22
  SPEAKER_04: No, it it's just like I feel like as a you if you're a U of H fan in the situation, I think it's kind of like uh I guess we'll take it.
• 1:12:29
  SPEAKER_04: You know, obviously you you you kind of take the other team down a peg in talent, but at the same time, you're on this insane hone winning winning streak.
• 1:12:38
  SPEAKER_04: Do you not it's a very anti-competitive call if you're a U of H fan as well, because like, oh, so we're not gonna face TechSteck at full-fledged, one of the strongest teams in the conference.
• 1:12:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we're not gonna be able to test it at our home court advantage.
• 1:12:50
  SPEAKER_04: I feel like I know it's easy to say, uh being on the other flip side of this, but I just I feel like if Dow's a U of H player in our house, I you know, I feel like okay, like it was that necessary, you know, kind of thing.
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, but it's really easy to say in that sense.
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_04: But um, but man, any thoughts on that?
• 1:13:09
  SPEAKER_05: Well, when you're all fired up, I mean you want to see whatever happened, you're gonna get fired up after anything happens.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I I and because this is fresh, we just got off watching the women's college world series in in game one.
• 1:13:21
  SPEAKER_05: You know, Texas Tech got an obstruction call um that went against Texas that was kind of bullshit, pretty much bullshit.
• 1:13:29
  SPEAKER_05: Everybody knew it was kind of bullshit, but they called it anyway, and we're hyped up about it because of course we got the out and you know what whatever it may be.
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_05: But um, so in the moment, obviously you're not really thinking rationally as a fan, and you're just kind of like, Yes, their best player doesn't get to play the rest of the game.
• 1:13:45
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, I don't blame a UH fan for doing that or whatever, but yeah, you could see on Twitter the UH fans that are pretty popular on Twitter, the few of them are uh they're like, What?
• 1:13:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, come on, yeah, yeah.
• 1:13:57
  SPEAKER_04: They're like, that was a pass.
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but uh in obviously to get to Grand here, it's uh as animated as you've ever seen him.
• 1:14:05
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he's not exactly a stoic coach, he's always very fired up and very anxious.
• 1:14:09
  SPEAKER_05: He's probably the opposite of a stoic coach.
• 1:14:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:14:12
  SPEAKER_04: So, and I mean I love that about him.
• 1:14:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but you know, I kind of have a couple things mixed into this question about as we wrap up and talk about the technicals here, is oftentimes you can sometimes see coaches using getting technicals willingly as kind of a hype up tool, but I do not see that in this case.
• 1:14:37
  SPEAKER_04: I really think this was Grant fired up in the moment, totally jacked up.
• 1:14:40
  SPEAKER_04: I don't think he was looking to get the team fired up or anything, I think he was just pissed off.
• 1:14:47
  SPEAKER_04: Grant was all that was burned tactical in every sense of him not even thinking about strategy in any sort of uh non-uh material way.
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, no, 100%.
• 1:14:58
  SPEAKER_05: That that's him and his passion for the game and his passion for his team.
• 1:15:03
  SPEAKER_05: Um, one more thing about Grant, after he starts to, you know, he's ejected and he's being escorted off the floor by Buff.
• 1:15:10
  SPEAKER_05: Um, he, you know, he's yelling at the officials, he's pointing their face, he's doing all the all the coach things.
• 1:15:15
  SPEAKER_05: Um, then he gets under the basket like he's gonna walk to the locker room, says one second to Buff, runs back to the huddle, starts pounding on his guy's chests, and start this is why I love Grand McCasson, and yells and gets them fired up.
• 1:15:30
  SPEAKER_05: And he's like, go freaking win this game for both of us now.
• 1:15:35
  SPEAKER_05: Uh that we've been ejected, but you guys got and he just fires him up.
• 1:15:38
  SPEAKER_05: He goes right to Fetty, who's about to play the majority of these minutes at the big man position.
• 1:15:43
  SPEAKER_05: He goes to chance, he goes to Hawk, he goes to all these guys, and he just starts hitting them.
• 1:15:47
  SPEAKER_05: He just starts go win.
• 1:15:49
  SPEAKER_05: Like that's that's why you love Graham McCaps because of his passion and his love for this team.
• 1:15:54
  SPEAKER_04: He's a player's coach, dude.
• 1:15:56
  SPEAKER_04: He's he's not a CEO who's just like all business, you know.
• 1:16:00
  SPEAKER_04: Like he he genuinely cares about his players and the team.
• 1:16:03
  SPEAKER_04: So that's what you want in it in a in a coach, especially at a place like Texas Tech.
• 1:16:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so do you you so you celebrate this?
• 1:16:11
  SPEAKER_04: You're not a guy who thinks like coaches need to maintain this cool professional attitude at all times, regardless of what's going on.
• 1:16:18
  SPEAKER_05: I don't think Texas Tech wins that game if Grant doesn't get fired up.
• 1:16:22
  SPEAKER_05: Like wow, what I I I don't, I don't.
• 1:16:25
  SPEAKER_05: I I I love Grant McCassin, he's a great in-the-game, in the moment coach.
• 1:16:30
  SPEAKER_05: Um luckily we had a another former head coach to follow up on and and you know play that role for this one.
• 1:16:36
  SPEAKER_05: But um no, I I think he fired them up enough, uh, especially chance.
• 1:16:43
  SPEAKER_05: And you'll see it early on in this game after this happens with him, especially.
• 1:16:47
  SPEAKER_05: He is so fired up and ready to go after this.
• 1:16:51
  SPEAKER_05: You know, you can't really see it on Fetty.
• 1:16:52
  SPEAKER_05: Fetty's not an emotional guy.
• 1:16:54
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, it's not like EY is a super emotional guy or whatever, uh, Darien, all those guys, but chance you can see is especially he starts playing much harder immediately after this and gets like 11 points in the first half.
• 1:17:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and and and side note, I hope this doesn't sound whiny, but I think it is so like parasitic whenever fans just pull out their phones and shove it down the like the faces of like players and coaches that are getting like ejected out.
• 1:17:20
  SPEAKER_04: Like, dude, just enjoy the game, like talk mess or whatever.
• 1:17:23
  SPEAKER_04: But come on, like no one's gonna care about this video you took of it.
• 1:17:26
  SPEAKER_04: Like, seriously, the broadcast has it covered, man.
• 1:17:28
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's so lame.
• 1:17:30
  SPEAKER_04: Put your phone up.
• 1:17:31
  SPEAKER_05: It is it's very lame, it's very lame.
• 1:17:33
  SPEAKER_05: Um, luckily, we had Jeff Linder uh who came over from uh he was the head coach of Wyoming for a number of years, decided to join Grand McCastlin's head coaching staff uh as the lead assistant this past season.
• 1:17:48
  SPEAKER_05: And I I mean you're just so lucky at this moment for this specific situation scenario that you have an experienced guy to take over and basically be the head coach in the moment for the majority of this game.
• 1:18:01
  SPEAKER_05: This is four minutes into the game that this happens.
• 1:18:05
  SPEAKER_05: So um not I don't think you can say enough about Jeff Linder and what he did for this team, not only for getting them prepared and being a better offensive team because of him, but uh for taking over in moments like this.
• 1:18:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that was one of my questions.
• 1:18:18
  SPEAKER_04: I was gonna ask you how much do you think Jeff Linder and perhaps his stint at Wyoming prepared him for this?
• 1:18:25
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, obviously he knows how to coach.
• 1:18:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it and it matters in the moments, like I'll get to it at some point in this rewatch, but um, there's a moment where during the heat of the game, like very end of the game, he calls a timeout in a moment that only experienced head coaches know to call a timeout.
• 1:18:46
  SPEAKER_05: You know, some of these guys, if he had uh whoever, Matt Brouwer or um one of these other guys take over that haven't been a head coach before and haven't had to make those tough decisions in the in the heat of the moment and stay level-headed.
• 1:18:58
  SPEAKER_05: I don't think you make that timeout and get your team prepped to play defense on the other side of the floor.
• 1:19:03
  SPEAKER_05: So um, those are the moments where I think he really stepped in because you go in with a game plan.
• 1:19:08
  SPEAKER_05: The guys all know the game plan to start off the game.
• 1:19:10
  SPEAKER_05: Obviously, you make adjustments, and I'm sure Grant talked to him at halftime, you know.
• 1:19:15
  SPEAKER_05: But um Yeah, you you it's it's so important for a guy during the heat of the moment to make those tough decisions and make those tough calls.
• 1:19:25
  SPEAKER_05: He's returning.
• 1:19:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, he's gonna be back next year.
• 1:19:29
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, he he definitely got interviewed a couple times.
• 1:19:32
  SPEAKER_05: A lot of teams wanted to interview him for the head coaching job, but um I think he's he's sticking by grand and gonna be the assistant next year.
• 1:19:41
  SPEAKER_05: All right.
• 1:19:42
  SPEAKER_05: People will forget after all this unfolds, six free throws for U of H, by the way, from all the separate technicals and flagrants and everything of that nature.
• 1:19:52
  SPEAKER_05: Um, immediate next possession of real basketball.
• 1:19:57
  SPEAKER_05: Juwan Roberts gets a back down post hook that goes over Fetty, starts talking mess immediately to the tech bench, and he gets teed up.
• 1:20:05
  SPEAKER_05: So it's not over.
• 1:20:07
  SPEAKER_05: You just had six technical free throws for for U of H, and now you're getting two for Texas Tech.
• 1:20:14
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but it's just like, what is happening at this point?
• 1:20:17
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, this is a ref show.
• 1:20:19
  SPEAKER_05: This is the definition of a ref show right now.
• 1:20:22
  SPEAKER_05: All you're doing is calling technicals because you are too uh you're egotistical, whatever it may be.
• 1:20:28
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and and you just don't want what would have been a uh and it ended up being a great basketball game.
• 1:20:34
  SPEAKER_05: But I mean, you you just think about ejecting their best player, their head coach, and now it's like, what are you guys doing?
• 1:20:40
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it it's funny, like the the ref, we didn't need to add in uh emotional intensity to this game due to the nature of two ranked Big 12 teams, interstate rivalry.
• 1:20:49
  SPEAKER_04: Uh like it's already there, and tech's gonna want to snap that home winning streak, so it's gonna be intense.
• 1:20:54
  SPEAKER_04: But obviously, the refs like throw a bomb into this mix, like it explodes, and the other team feels it too.
• 1:21:01
  SPEAKER_04: Like they feel the emotional tension as well at this point in time because obviously they're gonna wanna they're gonna want to pile on the hurt.
• 1:21:07
  SPEAKER_04: Like that's their job.
• 1:21:09
  SPEAKER_04: They're gonna want to make us feel bad about everything happening.
• 1:21:11
  SPEAKER_04: That's what went, that's their competitors.
• 1:21:12
  SPEAKER_04: That's what they're gonna want to do.
• 1:21:13
  SPEAKER_04: They're wanna beat their competition.
• 1:21:15
  SPEAKER_04: So I think that's just a result of them feeling that uh like intensity of the situation and just trying to pile onto it.
• 1:21:22
  SPEAKER_04: I don't I don't have any hard feelings over that.
• 1:21:24
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I'm not gonna be like, oh, what a what a jerk.
• 1:21:26
  SPEAKER_04: Taunting the taunting orphan, you know, like whatever.
• 1:21:29
  SPEAKER_04: Like they just they're into it as well, is the way I see it.
• 1:21:32
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, this is a complete ref show, ref takeover, and it was pitiful.
• 1:21:37
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, every moment from when JT uh accidentally hit JoJo Tuggler in the nuts um is pitiful officiating.
• 1:21:46
  SPEAKER_04: It's funny because you know, every once in a while you're gonna start hearing these refs you suck chants from the Cougar fans, but you can't help but wonder if the tech fans were doing it with them, you know, in this you know, in that situation.
• 1:21:59
  SPEAKER_05: They were definitely sneaking in.
• 1:22:00
  SPEAKER_05: They were definitely sneaking one of two in there.
• 1:22:03
  SPEAKER_05: Um, all right, back to the game.
• 1:22:06
  SPEAKER_05: There was a lot of game after this.
• 1:22:08
  SPEAKER_04: The film room is just us talking about everything around the game.
• 1:22:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, right, right.
• 1:22:14
  SPEAKER_05: A lot of game.
• 1:22:15
  SPEAKER_05: The next point I had was at the 1346 mark of the first half, Chance McMillan hits a three, and tech as a team starts four of five from three.
• 1:22:23
  SPEAKER_05: This was a big, obviously, uh U of H pre-ejection had a lot of momentum going, and then the crowds fired up after the ejections.
• 1:22:31
  SPEAKER_05: You as a team know that you no longer have to face JT Toppin the rest of the game.
• 1:22:36
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but for tech to stay calm and collected, knock down their threes early on, kept them in it.
• 1:22:42
  SPEAKER_05: You know, they could have really easily just U of H gone on a run and game might have been over at that point.
• 1:22:49
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but they stayed in it and they stayed headstrong throughout the entire time.
• 1:22:53
  SPEAKER_05: So um 1318, Malik Wilson checks in.
• 1:22:57
  SPEAKER_05: Quick question on Malik Wilson.
• 1:22:59
  SPEAKER_05: Should he be thought of positively as a Texas Tech fan, or should he be looked upon in a bad light because of where he transferred to?
• 1:23:08
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I lean towards the first, and it because I mean it's not like he tried he obviously transferred out of tech due to Mark Adams shenanigans.
• 1:23:18
  SPEAKER_04: And it it's it's not like he transferred into Houston to kind of give I don't think it was to get back at Texas Tech.
• 1:23:26
  SPEAKER_04: I just he probably just viewed the program as the best place for him to land and proceed with his career.
• 1:23:31
  SPEAKER_04: I don't have hard feelings about it.
• 1:23:33
  SPEAKER_04: In fact, I wasn't even thinking about it while I was watching this game.
• 1:23:36
  SPEAKER_05: So first off, he transferred to Houston when they were still a part of the American conference.
• 1:23:40
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 1:23:41
  SPEAKER_05: So uh there's I think that gives him a pass.
• 1:23:44
  SPEAKER_05: He's very much on the Terrence Shannon end of the spectrum versus the Kevin McCullough end of the spectrum of transfers because of where he ended up at that moment.
• 1:23:53
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, if somebody transferred to U of H tomorrow, it's a little different story.
• 1:23:57
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but no, I love Malik.
• 1:24:00
  SPEAKER_05: Uh he was absolutely hosed by Mark Adams and uh poor decision by him in Texas Tech at that time to let him go because of how valuable of a player he is.
• 1:24:12
  SPEAKER_05: And right um, he ended up being a great player for Houston.
• 1:24:14
  SPEAKER_05: I think he was a fan favorite for sure.
• 1:24:16
  SPEAKER_05: Um, just uh I have a lot of respect for Malik Wilson.
• 1:24:20
  SPEAKER_05: I always will.
• 1:24:21
  SPEAKER_04: No, absolutely.
• 1:24:22
  SPEAKER_04: Same so same story here.
• 1:24:24
  SPEAKER_05: Alrighty.
• 1:24:25
  SPEAKER_05: 1258 mark, chance McMillan and one brings him to 11 points.
• 1:24:29
  SPEAKER_05: This is what I was talking about earlier.
• 1:24:31
  SPEAKER_05: Chance was fired up after Grant got ejected.
• 1:24:33
  SPEAKER_05: 11 points through the first seven minutes of the game for him.
• 1:24:37
  SPEAKER_05: Um, Ewy also checking in for the first time.
• 1:24:40
  SPEAKER_05: You didn't see Emily Yalaho this entire season to this point.
• 1:24:44
  SPEAKER_05: I think he was dealing with some injuries, um, but also with the ejection of JT Toppin and with how um Fetty tends to foul.
• 1:24:51
  SPEAKER_05: You have to have a backup center.
• 1:24:53
  SPEAKER_05: And EY was the guy that we went to, and he ended up making one of the best plays at the end of the game here.
• 1:24:58
  SPEAKER_05: But um I just thought it was notable.
• 1:25:01
  SPEAKER_05: He checks in for the first time, and we're like, all right, I guess we're playing Emily Yellow.
• 1:25:05
  SPEAKER_05: Let's against Houston, number six of the country.
• 1:25:08
  SPEAKER_05: Let's go.
• 1:25:09
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I I was saving this for kind of like a halftime check-in.
• 1:25:12
  SPEAKER_04: I whenever JT got tossed, I I went into let's see if we can make it competitive mode.
• 1:25:20
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's where I was at, especially where you start seeing Emily.
• 1:25:22
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, okay, let's start seeing some bench players get some experience in a tough environment, you know, because in many ways, you're kind of counting it as a loss.
• 1:25:31
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not trying to sound like a bad fan, but dude, like you lose your best player in the toughest environment and the best team in the conference at the time.
• 1:25:36
  SPEAKER_04: Like, there's your your your brain is not like it's it's time to just keep on playing because that's just that plans out the window.
• 1:25:42
  SPEAKER_04: So that's kind of what I was thinking.
• 1:25:44
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I'll as soon as whenever that happened, like kind of like solidified, like, all right, let's just see what we can bake out of this, you know.
• 1:25:50
  SPEAKER_05: It almost gives you a little sense of relief, uh, in a weird way as a fan, because you're like, you're like, you know, this is only positive if we end up winning this game.
• 1:26:01
  SPEAKER_05: Like, right, even if we lose, we can, you know, chop it up to JT Top and got ejected early, Grant got ejected early.
• 1:26:07
  SPEAKER_05: What are you gonna do?
• 1:26:08
  SPEAKER_05: You know, and now it's just like you're playing with uh you're playing with fire here of just like, hey, cool.
• 1:26:15
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know, maybe we'll win, maybe we're keeping it close.
• 1:26:17
  SPEAKER_05: I'm thrilled that we're keeping it close.
• 1:26:19
  SPEAKER_05: And then uh, of course, we all know how it ended, and uh it makes it that much better.
• 1:26:24
  SPEAKER_04: But um it gives you an emotional respite, you know, and it's because now you're just kind of looking at it as like just a great experience at this point.
• 1:26:32
  SPEAKER_04: And like I said, if we just kept it competitive, that means the guys got a lot out of it in the training session way.
• 1:26:36
  SPEAKER_04: So that's uh, but obviously we're gonna we're talking about this game for a reason, but dude, obviously Emily really steps up into a big man role that we are missing, and obviously you see more of it as we get further into the game.
• 1:26:48
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, for sure.
• 1:26:49
  SPEAKER_05: Um, early on, there's a timeout on the floor at this point.
• 1:26:52
  SPEAKER_05: Fetty and EY are playing together, which I think this was the only point in the season where those two were on the floor at the same time.
• 1:27:01
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and there's a reason for it because offensively you just look pitiful.
• 1:27:04
  SPEAKER_05: But defensively, I think that actually really helped tech because they could have attacked us, I mean, really hardcore without JT Toppin.
• 1:27:12
  SPEAKER_05: But luckily, Fetty's a good defender, EY stepped up in in certain ways.
• 1:27:17
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, but with you know, because U of H plays two bigs pretty much at all times.
• 1:27:21
  SPEAKER_05: They play Juwan Roberts, and then one of Tuggler or Francis was on the floor pretty much the entire time until Francis later got hurt himself later in the game.
• 1:27:30
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but U of H is always a two-big lineup basically, and so you kind of had to adjust and play uh EY, throw him in there maybe just for some size purposes, rebounding purposes.
• 1:27:41
  SPEAKER_05: And um, it ended up working out here because Tech went on an 8 0 run from the 1452 mark to the 1101 mark in the first half.
• 1:27:48
  SPEAKER_05: Um until that 11 01 mark, where Fetty picks up foul number two, uh forces D5 to play a lot of the four.
• 1:27:57
  SPEAKER_05: And now that D5 has gone through.
• 1:28:00
  SPEAKER_05: Through NBA draft combine, and we've gotten official measurements of what he is.
• 1:28:04
  SPEAKER_05: Darien Williams without shoes is 6'4 and a half.
• 1:28:09
  SPEAKER_05: Not a four, but he played it a lot at Texas Tech.
• 1:28:14
  SPEAKER_05: And listen, Darien's a beefy guy, like definitely put on some weight, and he's a strong dude.
• 1:28:19
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but to think about a 6'4 guy playing against a six foot-9 guy pretty much the rest of the game is crazy.
• 1:28:26
  SPEAKER_05: And he played well.
• 1:28:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and it kind of keeps coming back to how physical this game was.
• 1:28:33
  SPEAKER_04: Like this was a grind it out game, dude.
• 1:28:36
  SPEAKER_04: Like we were in the bonus at 10 minutes for both teams.
• 1:28:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like like people were playing hard and falling hard.
• 1:28:42
  SPEAKER_04: Like it was a brutally physically game.
• 1:28:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and it's it was just it was great to see us not relent because you kind of you kept bringing up the size differential between the two teams.
• 1:28:53
  SPEAKER_04: Like Houston should have been able to start, you know, uh shoving us into a locker on size, but we just played so tough that they had to earn every single every single uh uh layup they could try to sneak in.
• 1:29:06
  SPEAKER_04: And it just it was it again, it kind of came back to that conversation we just had a little bit earlier of man, what a great training session this is turning into, just to due to how hard and physical we're having to to grind it to maintain any sort of competitiveness with a team that should be destroying us right now, you know.
• 1:29:24
  SPEAKER_04: So just a really big step up from our guys who are undersized in the situation.
• 1:29:29
  SPEAKER_05: 100%.
• 1:29:30
  SPEAKER_05: That's a that's a great point to uh to point out.
• 1:29:33
  SPEAKER_05: Um all right, so we're sitting here at 2221 UH, Elijah Hawkins back to back threes from basically the second half of the first half.
• 1:29:44
  SPEAKER_05: Hawk was the dude who was carrying the offensive load.
• 1:29:47
  SPEAKER_05: It was chance in the first half of the first half, um, but Hawk really held it down, hit back to back threes.
• 1:29:53
  SPEAKER_05: Um, timeout on the floor.
• 1:29:55
  SPEAKER_05: Houston just goes scoreless from the 825 mark of the first half to 405 mark, and tech finally gets a little bit of a lead, and we're like, what?
• 1:30:06
  SPEAKER_05: We're like, it's 3427 tech.
• 1:30:09
  SPEAKER_05: And uh, like you said, it was from grinding it out on defense, it was from rebounding the heck out of the ball.
• 1:30:15
  SPEAKER_05: Texas Tech at halftime led U of H in rebounding after losing your best rebounder, which is insane.
• 1:30:22
  SPEAKER_05: Um, just it shows the effort.
• 1:30:24
  SPEAKER_04: And and it's I like how you brought up rebounds because it's you obviously naturally rely on your trees to get those rebounds.
• 1:30:32
  SPEAKER_04: That's mostly why they're in the game, right?
• 1:30:34
  SPEAKER_04: But dude, every single player of every single size was going after that ball like a dog for a bone, dude.
• 1:30:42
  SPEAKER_04: Like we were hungry for that ball, and that just like it just reiterates how physical of a game this was and how often people were on the floor.
• 1:30:50
  SPEAKER_04: The amount of jump balls there were in this game, man, like people just diving on top of each other, uh dogpiling like it's a football game, was crazy.
• 1:30:58
  SPEAKER_04: One of my notes that I've repeated about five times in this uh six-page document was every single jump ball was a Texas Tech ball.
• 1:31:07
  SPEAKER_04: Like we were it just seemed like we were so much hungrier for the ball than U of H was.
• 1:31:13
  SPEAKER_04: And that just shows uh the with the rebound count and uh just just us grinding it out again.
• 1:31:18
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna say I'm a bit of a broken record with that at this point, but it just it I think do you think U of H perhaps fell into a trap of playing a little too conservatively while we were playing hard and fast because we were turning the ball uh pardon, pardon me, we were turning the ball over a lot, but I feel like that could be excused with the amount of pressure that we were applying.
• 1:31:42
  SPEAKER_04: We're trying to play fast and really aggressive.
• 1:31:45
  SPEAKER_04: So obviously that makes it a little more prone to ball turnover, but it felt like Houston may have been playing a little conservatively versus our really aggressive attack.
• 1:31:53
  SPEAKER_04: And I I think that's kind of where you see this differential with the the uh the physical versus the rebound and jump ball split.
• 1:32:01
  SPEAKER_05: U of H made their money all season playing this exact type of ball.
• 1:32:05
  SPEAKER_05: This grinded out, we're gonna play hard nose freaking defense on you, and you're just not gonna score.
• 1:32:10
  SPEAKER_05: It's gonna be a low-scoring game, it's gonna be in the 60s, it's gonna be in the 70s.
• 1:32:14
  SPEAKER_05: We're not gonna have these hundred-point games.
• 1:32:15
  SPEAKER_05: Like this is Houston defense is built, or Houston basketball is built on their defense.
• 1:32:20
  SPEAKER_05: So they're used to this type of stuff.
• 1:32:23
  SPEAKER_05: Texas Tech just met them and exceeded them in effort in certain areas.
• 1:32:29
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I uh to win the rebounding battle against Houston is an insane accomplishment.
• 1:32:34
  SPEAKER_05: It's an even more insane accomplishment when you don't have JT Top.
• 1:32:38
  SPEAKER_05: I I like not enough can be said for Darien Williams in this game, for Fetty, for chance, for EY, for the amount of grinding that these guys did on the boards.
• 1:32:51
  SPEAKER_05: Um, you can talk about, you know, we we we made some plays on the offensive side of the floor, but it's those little things that won Texas Tech the game of rebounding and effort plays.
• 1:33:04
  SPEAKER_04: And it's it wasn't just ugly either, because you know, grinding out is ugly.
• 1:33:08
  SPEAKER_04: It was also a lot of beauty as well.
• 1:33:10
  SPEAKER_04: Like Hawk was a sniper in this game at about the 10-minute mark or a little uh a little after that, he hits a shot from about half court, and that arena just goes quiet.
• 1:33:26
  SPEAKER_04: And you where we are just piling up the points, and we're gonna build up a lead that we will not relent for a long time through this game.
• 1:33:34
  SPEAKER_04: And about four minutes left in the half, you can hear the first true loud and clear raider power in this arena.
• 1:33:42
  SPEAKER_04: Like we are really shutting them up, the fans, this this uh this wounded team, and it was just insane to see because, like I said, not only are you doing the ugly stuff right, you are doing the pretty showy stuff pretty well as well.
• 1:33:56
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I do I do want to point out as well, Darien Williams' defense on Juan Roberts was electric.
• 1:34:02
  SPEAKER_05: That dude really grinded it out, met him match for match, made him miss shots, made him turn the ball over.
• 1:34:08
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and when you have a five-inch height differential, it's uh it's pretty crazy when you think about that.
• 1:34:14
  SPEAKER_05: So uh credit to D5.
• 1:34:16
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, I also thought the Fetty minutes were really good as well, um, just in terms of his his defense, his switching, um, and then you know, battling, blocking out U of H for the for those rebounds.
• 1:34:28
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I thought he was crucial.
• 1:34:30
  SPEAKER_05: He didn't have a big stat night, but um, again, it's those little, it's those grind plays.
• 1:34:35
  SPEAKER_05: Um finally, U of H towards the end of the half at the four-minute mark.
• 1:34:39
  SPEAKER_05: They go on a 6-0 run.
• 1:34:40
  SPEAKER_05: Um, they finally get some offense going and they finally lean into their athleticism a little bit.
• 1:34:45
  SPEAKER_05: Terrence Arsino uh hits, I I think four of those four of those six points were him, uh, super athletic forward that just kind of you know made chance work for it a couple times, and they got it to 3334.
• 1:34:58
  SPEAKER_05: Texas Tech still at the lead.
• 1:35:01
  SPEAKER_05: Then you get our guy, C4, Christian Anderson, tough shot at the 214 mark at the end of the shot clock.
• 1:35:08
  SPEAKER_05: Houston's playing an unbelievable defensive possession.
• 1:35:11
  SPEAKER_05: Somehow he ends up with the ball at the free throw line, kind of just throws one up over Arsenal and it goes in.
• 1:35:17
  SPEAKER_05: So you're like, the freshman?
• 1:35:19
  SPEAKER_05: All right, let's go.
• 1:35:21
  SPEAKER_05: Because at this point, C4 wasn't, you know, we weren't really relying on C4 to be that guy yet and make these tough plays.
• 1:35:28
  SPEAKER_05: But for him to go and make this shot at the end of the shot clock at Houston without your best player and your head coach, I mean, that's that's Christian Anderson.
• 1:35:38
  SPEAKER_04: And dude, it was a swish too.
• 1:35:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like it it went in with no, I mean, obviously insane effort, but the ball just floated in.
• 1:35:46
  SPEAKER_04: And it was a huge moment.
• 1:35:47
  SPEAKER_04: I have that uh noted as well.
• 1:35:48
  SPEAKER_04: And that's that's kind of what the one of the first big plays you see from this freshman in this game.
• 1:35:53
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but it's not gonna be the last one.
• 1:35:55
  SPEAKER_04: And you're gonna start seeing him really start to uh show his stuff on offense, especially in the second half.
• 1:36:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and it's I have it mentioned here that again the refs were a mess.
• 1:36:07
  SPEAKER_04: They seemed to be flip-flopping on foul calls, and it was just I know it's usually really easy to dog on reps, uh, especially if you lose a game, but it's this was a a mess because even the announcers were like, what is going on with this officiating crew?
• 1:36:23
  SPEAKER_04: And whoever the the commentators are being are are dumbfounded with your decisions as well, you know it's not looking great because usually you don't really catch them calling that kind of stuff as well.
• 1:36:34
  SPEAKER_04: And but I again just while I'm on the announcers, just another uh tip of the hat to them because man, they they were having a ton of fun with this game, and they gave the Red Raider fans a ton of credit.
• 1:36:44
  SPEAKER_04: They were talking about how awesome it was with this show out with the Red Raider fans in this arena.
• 1:36:49
  SPEAKER_05: They also called out the officials, and that's something that a broadcast crew is definitely not encouraged to do because it's all one sport, they don't want to entice any you know social media or or anything like that to you know increase the hate because there's always hate for officials from fans, but right um for the broadcast crew for King McClure to call the ejection ridiculous, I think he said it 15 times.
• 1:37:17
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 1:37:17
  SPEAKER_05: Uh it's it's it's nice.
• 1:37:20
  SPEAKER_05: It's nice to know that you got a guy who really cares about the game and calls it like he sees it and doesn't hold bite his tongue or hold back on on it what was an egregious ejection.
• 1:37:31
  SPEAKER_05: So another big shout out for King McClure there.
• 1:37:34
  SPEAKER_05: I could go on.
• 1:37:35
  SPEAKER_05: Um all right, 214 to the 19 second mark of the first half.
• 1:37:40
  SPEAKER_05: We're really winding down here.
• 1:37:42
  SPEAKER_05: Um tough EY stretch, really tough Emily Yalaho stretch.
• 1:37:46
  SPEAKER_05: He he misses assignments, um, misses plays, turns the ball over, uh, misses a free throw.
• 1:37:52
  SPEAKER_05: He's just not this is uh this is showing EY.
• 1:37:55
  SPEAKER_05: You're like, uh-oh.
• 1:37:58
  SPEAKER_05: You're like, uh are we gonna have to hope and pray that Fetty plays the entire game because you're like, I don't know if EY is gonna have it.
• 1:38:05
  SPEAKER_05: Um also at the 102 mark, there's a great WTF mouthing from Kelvin Sampson that's caught on the broadcast.
• 1:38:12
  SPEAKER_05: I didn't catch that right right on his face.
• 1:38:14
  SPEAKER_05: And he's just what the it's great.
• 1:38:18
  SPEAKER_05: Uh props to the broadcast group for catching that.
• 1:38:21
  SPEAKER_05: Um then at the 19 second mark, Emily Ylaho makes a play, makes a terrific play, offensive rebound box out, kicks it out to C4 off of a missed three, and then he hits a three.
• 1:38:35
  SPEAKER_05: Really brings us back with some positive momentum going into the half.
• 1:38:39
  SPEAKER_05: Um, also, I put a side note shout out to the Jack Blackbill Red Raider fan with the red Hawaiian shirt who somehow got tickets directly behind one of the baskets and was basically walking out onto the floor every time Tech made a great play.
• 1:38:54
  SPEAKER_05: Shout out to that guy.
• 1:38:56
  SPEAKER_05: Ridiculous.
• 1:38:57
  SPEAKER_04: That was awesome.
• 1:38:58
  SPEAKER_04: I can't believe I don't know what you're talking about.
• 1:39:00
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I don't know how he's gonna be able to get the biggest.
• 1:39:02
  SPEAKER_05: He had he had the seats right underneath the basket, and he's he's obviously a red raider fan because he's going crazy every time tech scores.
• 1:39:09
  SPEAKER_05: And he's uh he's a portly fella, short, portly guy, beard.
• 1:39:15
  SPEAKER_05: Literally, he looks like Jack Black in a red raider shirt, and he is fired up.
• 1:39:20
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, okay, yeah.
• 1:39:20
  SPEAKER_04: No, I know what you're talking about.
• 1:39:22
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, okay.
• 1:39:23
  SPEAKER_04: Let's go.
• 1:39:23
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 1:39:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, oh heck yeah, man.
• 1:39:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, dude.
• 1:39:28
  SPEAKER_04: Just just like uh rolling into the half.
• 1:39:30
  SPEAKER_04: This this last this last uh question I had for you was just like how impressive was Teenager C4 in this game, you know, nailing that last threat, a second, like that last second three into the half and playing the biggest.
• 1:39:44
  SPEAKER_04: Huh?
• 1:39:45
  SPEAKER_05: He made some big plays.
• 1:39:46
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, made some huge plays.
• 1:39:48
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I I thought for the majority of the game he was pretty passive and he was pretty um because he didn't quite have his footing under him yet, and I don't blame him, but and I'll get to this in kind of the after effects.
• 1:40:00
  SPEAKER_05: I think this game really made him into a great player the rest of the season.
• 1:40:05
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I think it it gave him the environment and moments to step up in that he was just used to.
• 1:40:12
  SPEAKER_05: And you could see it later on in the season in some of his other big moments that since he had the experience from this U of H game, it it carried on and it made those a little easier.
• 1:40:22
  SPEAKER_05: So um I I was he again, he didn't have a big stab night, and um, you know, he missed some shots, uh, missed quite a few shots, actually.
• 1:40:30
  SPEAKER_05: But uh the ones that he did make were big ones.
• 1:40:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, dude.
• 1:40:34
  SPEAKER_04: It just an experience jump for so many of these players as well.
• 1:40:37
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's it's this kind of stuff you can't substitute in practice.
• 1:40:40
  SPEAKER_04: Like this is stuff you earn on the road in uh in one of the toughest conferences in the country.
• 1:40:44
  SPEAKER_04: Just an incredible, just an incredible effort, man.
• 1:40:47
  SPEAKER_04: And just the stardom from Chance McMillan and Elijah Hawking really waking up here, you know, it's just an incredible effort, 23 points combined versus 18 for the rest of the team in the first half.
• 1:41:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um, just uh people stepping up when a situation seems dire is huge.
• 1:41:07
  SPEAKER_04: That's just that's just the product of a well-coached team who practices hard and knows exactly what they have to do in any situation.
• 1:41:14
  SPEAKER_04: And that's what we saw with this Red Raider team rolling into the half.
• 1:41:18
  SPEAKER_04: Any uh closing thoughts here on the first?
• 1:41:20
  SPEAKER_05: Uh no, chance with 13 and 4, Hawkins with 10.
• 1:41:23
  SPEAKER_05: Darren Williams had two points at halftime.
• 1:41:26
  SPEAKER_04: Oddly quiet game for him points wise.
• 1:41:29
  SPEAKER_05: Oddly quiet.
• 1:41:30
  SPEAKER_05: Him and Fetty both had two fouls in the first half.
• 1:41:33
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, there were stretches where they just couldn't play and they couldn't get into rhythm.
• 1:41:37
  SPEAKER_05: Um, tech was 50% from three at the half as a team.
• 1:41:42
  SPEAKER_05: So knocking them down, mostly thanks to Hawk uh and and chance there.
• 1:41:47
  SPEAKER_04: I'm I'm glad you brought that up because it what an exciting offense this team was all season.
• 1:41:53
  SPEAKER_04: Because, dude, we launched it from three much more than we're used to, and which is an efficiency that makes it so fun rather than frustrating.
• 1:42:01
  SPEAKER_04: And man, it's just like this game was obviously a great example of that.
• 1:42:04
  SPEAKER_04: Whenever you're hitting more than 50% on threes, dude, we take that all day, especially that way on the in that environment.
• 1:42:11
  SPEAKER_05: 100%.
• 1:42:12
  SPEAKER_05: Um, we also go into halftime winning the rebounding battle, which again is such a testament to how hard this team played to win the rebounding battle against Houston without without JT Toppin is crazy.
• 1:42:23
  SPEAKER_05: Um you go into the scope winning, Steven.
• 1:42:26
  SPEAKER_04: That not just winning the rebounding.
• 1:42:27
  SPEAKER_05: 41 41 37 Texas deck at halftime.
• 1:42:30
  SPEAKER_05: 41 points against a Houston defense in the first half.
• 1:42:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and most of their games end with what, like 60 points total.
• 1:42:38
  SPEAKER_04: Like on one side, I mean total.
• 1:42:40
  SPEAKER_04: Like it's just that's that's the nuts score going in half.
• 1:42:42
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, and they and Houston played good defense.
• 1:42:45
  SPEAKER_05: I I want to give them the credit that they deserve.
• 1:42:48
  SPEAKER_05: They were freaking, there were some possessions where we had we could do nothing.
• 1:42:52
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, um, and Houston showed how good of a team they are, and they that's what got them to the championship game.
• 1:42:58
  SPEAKER_05: You're playing around though.
• 1:42:59
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, for sure.
• 1:43:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um all right, second half, second half, back quite as eventful, so levels will be shorter.
• 1:43:08
  SPEAKER_05: A lot of yeah, a lot of a lot of fouls and a lot of stoppages, and a lot.
• 1:43:13
  SPEAKER_05: It was a really uh if you go to the YouTube video, I think you get to like 38 minutes or something is the first half, and then you still have like an hour and a half left, and you're like, okay, here we go.
• 1:43:26
  SPEAKER_05: Free throws, baby.
• 1:43:27
  SPEAKER_05: We love it.
• 1:43:28
  SPEAKER_04: Honestly, dude, I completely forgot this went into overtime.
• 1:43:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like I had no, I was like, oh crap, that's why I forgot it went in overtime.
• 1:43:36
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, obviously, we have a lot well to get well way to get there, so yeah.
• 1:43:41
  SPEAKER_05: Um start us start Texas deck off in the second half with a Kerwin Walden triple.
• 1:43:46
  SPEAKER_05: He hadn't scored all game, and uh, he goes and knocks down a three, and you're like, oh, thank goodness.
• 1:43:51
  SPEAKER_05: We really need somebody else uh because they're gonna start really intensifying their defense on on chance and hawk.
• 1:43:58
  SPEAKER_05: And uh to see Kerwin knock one down early, you're like, okay, now we can spread it out a little bit, and you're forcing U of H to think about other other players on the offensive side.
• 1:44:07
  SPEAKER_05: Then you just get a foul frenzy here.
• 1:44:12
  SPEAKER_05: You get from the 1722 mark to the 1551 mark, Joseph Tugler picks up his third foul, Fetty picks up his third foul, Emmanuel Sharp picks up his third foul, and Darien Williams picks up their third foul.
• 1:44:26
  SPEAKER_05: All in the first five minutes of the second half.
• 1:44:29
  SPEAKER_05: Um many points here.
• 1:44:32
  SPEAKER_05: Joseph Tuggler getting three fouls was absolutely massive.
• 1:44:37
  SPEAKER_05: Having him in foul trouble, the Big 12 defensive player of the year, who absolutely was taking advantage of a smaller Texas Tech team that we had to put on the floor because of JT's absence.
• 1:44:47
  SPEAKER_05: Um, him picking up three fouls was a big deal.
• 1:44:50
  SPEAKER_05: Fetty also picking up three fouls is a big deal because he's your only seven-footer on the team in general.
• 1:44:55
  SPEAKER_05: Now you don't have the six foot eight JT Toppen to hold it down at the center position.
• 1:45:01
  SPEAKER_05: You have to play some possessions where Darion Williams is having to play center, and then he picks up his third foul, and you're like, uh-oh, all right, we're getting a lot of EY here.
• 1:45:10
  SPEAKER_05: Um, we're just gonna have to try to figure it out.
• 1:45:13
  SPEAKER_05: And uh, and they did, but this was huge.
• 1:45:16
  SPEAKER_05: Uh Emmanuel Sharp as well, who was he's a solid player for U of H to have to go back and forth to the bench.
• 1:45:23
  SPEAKER_05: He's also one of their best shooters, and for him to not really get a rhythm and a flow of the game because of his foul trouble was a big deal.
• 1:45:31
  SPEAKER_04: Just a a really big uh non-sexy court stat that you're mentioning here.
• 1:45:37
  SPEAKER_04: Like that is just some great basketball management.
• 1:45:40
  SPEAKER_04: Like you are you are like HR departmenting the other team, you know what I mean?
• 1:45:46
  SPEAKER_04: You're you're making them think about stuff that they shouldn't be thinking about, especially at this point in the game.
• 1:45:51
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it just shows how physical we were and how much pressure we are applying down low to make this happen.
• 1:45:57
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you think uh with our lack of size, we'd just be trying to just sit here and snipe and get little opportunities here and there, but no, we were we were driving in and making sure they felt us and making sure we we we uh kept walking to the line because we kept getting to the line and we made them uh and and we again we kept making them earn every single shot as well down low.
• 1:46:14
  SPEAKER_04: So, dude, we were we were uh we were really making them think twice about things that weren't just the the hoop.
• 1:46:21
  SPEAKER_04: So that it's just a testament to the coaching staff at this point in the game as well as our players thinking smartly rather than just about pure game.
• 1:46:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yep, absolutely.
• 1:46:28
  SPEAKER_05: Um Javier, I also forgot to mention Javier Francis picks up his fourth foul at the 1431.
• 1:46:34
  SPEAKER_05: So another one of UH's bigs that you now you kind of have to play Juwan Roberts at at the five, which is not something they're completely used to in having to play a one big lineup.
• 1:46:45
  SPEAKER_05: So um just again, foul fest big time.
• 1:46:50
  SPEAKER_05: Uh and and it was on those guys too because they were fouling.
• 1:46:53
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, they you know, some of the refs I we've been harsh on the refs, but uh those some of those fouls were were obvious um on U of H and they called them.
• 1:47:03
  SPEAKER_05: So uh big stretch for Kerwin uh hits back-to-back triples, uh, one of which was like a step back over two guys, and you're like, oh, he's back.
• 1:47:13
  SPEAKER_05: Let's go.
• 1:47:14
  SPEAKER_05: Anytime you get on a Kerwin heater, you're like, yes, that was that was some of the best moments.
• 1:47:18
  SPEAKER_05: That was some of the best moments as a tech fan, is when you're seeing Kerwin hit a heater and go three of four or whatever from three.
• 1:47:24
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, brain rotted me, and I'm sure some of our fans here that like you, I cannot see Kerwin do anything without thinking about your stupid chicken nuggets, dude.
• 1:47:32
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's just every single time I see his face.
• 1:47:37
  SPEAKER_03: I think chicken nugget meals.
• 1:47:44
  SPEAKER_05: That was a good meme.
• 1:47:45
  SPEAKER_04: That was a solid meme, my friend.
• 1:47:47
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome to that.
• 1:47:48
  SPEAKER_05: That was a good meme.
• 1:47:49
  SPEAKER_05: Loved I I loved that of all my recurring memes during basketball season.
• 1:47:54
  SPEAKER_05: I think the Kerwin ones are my favorite because there were so many stretches where he he hits back-to-back threes and it's like, yep, fire it off.
• 1:48:01
  SPEAKER_04: The best part is you know he's seen it too.
• 1:48:04
  SPEAKER_04: Like, there's just no way it hasn't shown up in his algorithm.
• 1:48:07
  SPEAKER_05: He's just got that face too, where you know, like it's deadpan, and it just makes everything better.
• 1:48:14
  SPEAKER_05: I love Kerwin.
• 1:48:15
  SPEAKER_05: How about I've missed him?
• 1:48:16
  SPEAKER_05: Um 1237 mark Joseph Tugler picks up his fourth foul again.
• 1:48:23
  SPEAKER_05: Now you got two bigs with 12 and a half minutes left in the game for U of H.
• 1:48:28
  SPEAKER_05: They're two starting centers, both have four fouls.
• 1:48:31
  SPEAKER_05: Gotta play, uh, gotta play Juwan Roberts at the five.
• 1:48:35
  SPEAKER_05: Um let's see.
• 1:48:37
  SPEAKER_05: Fatty picks up foul number four, 1204.
• 1:48:40
  SPEAKER_05: Timeout Texas Tech after uh after Arsenal gets a baseline cut and dunk.
• 1:48:46
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, want to point out LJ Cryer is kind of holding it down for U of H at this point.
• 1:48:50
  SPEAKER_05: He had 20 points, six of 10 from the floor.
• 1:48:53
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, he's a flamethrower, dude.
• 1:48:54
  SPEAKER_05: We've seen him from Baylor, his days at Baylor to his days at Houston.
• 1:48:59
  SPEAKER_05: Um, that dude can absolutely light it up, and uh he was terrific.
• 1:49:03
  SPEAKER_04: I remember saying many times that night, I hate this guy.
• 1:49:06
  SPEAKER_04: I I hate this guy.
• 1:49:07
  SPEAKER_04: You know, just a banner night for him, dude.
• 1:49:09
  SPEAKER_04: McMillan and Cry were the obviously the stories of like MVP wise of the night, and they they're they were those were two Titans going toe-to-toe.
• 1:49:18
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, 100%.
• 1:49:20
  SPEAKER_05: Um, let's see.
• 1:49:22
  SPEAKER_05: 1008 is a big deal because uh Javier Francis goes down hurt and he did not return to the game.
• 1:49:27
  SPEAKER_05: Um, this is something that I think a lot of tech fans don't remember because we all just remember the JT Top in ejection and Grant getting ejected.
• 1:49:34
  SPEAKER_05: But uh, you know, one of their big you know one of their uh big minute big men um down on the floor and he was hurt.
• 1:49:42
  SPEAKER_05: He was definitely hurt.
• 1:49:43
  SPEAKER_05: He was grabbing that knee and then he made a he made a play on try to get an offensive rebound.
• 1:49:47
  SPEAKER_05: You could see him.
• 1:49:48
  SPEAKER_05: He was like, Nope, that's down to the floor, had to be helped off to the locker room.
• 1:49:53
  SPEAKER_05: You hate to see that, but it also kind of leveled the playing field a little bit more without that U of H depth at the big.
• 1:49:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:50:00
  SPEAKER_04: I just it these defenses were relentless, dude.
• 1:50:04
  SPEAKER_04: Like I obviously you see it from the injuries, uh, because this will not be the last one.
• 1:50:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and just I I can't imagine how tired both of these squads were once that final buzzer went off, dude.
• 1:50:17
  SPEAKER_04: I bet they were white.
• 1:50:19
  SPEAKER_04: Because, you know, obviously playing defense is the hard part.
• 1:50:22
  SPEAKER_04: You know, that's where you really that's where the you know the sweat is really built up.
• 1:50:26
  SPEAKER_04: So uh I just can't imagine just how worn out and how sore these guys were the next day because man, they they are making each other earn every inch.
• 1:50:37
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and right before this, I forgot to mention this is an even bigger injury.
• 1:50:42
  SPEAKER_05: Juwan Roberts hurts his ankle.
• 1:50:45
  SPEAKER_05: He makes a move on Fetty that actually picked up Fetty's uh fourth foul was Juwan Roberts was driving on him, twisted his ankle pretty bad.
• 1:50:54
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, he was down, he was hurt, he was hurt.
• 1:50:57
  SPEAKER_05: He definitely uh took him a while to get up and and you know hobbled to the bench and um you know made made an effort to get back into the game, but he was out for a while.
• 1:51:05
  SPEAKER_05: Then you saw Javier Francis go to the locker room, and you're like, okay, well now Juwan has to play for U of H.
• 1:51:11
  SPEAKER_05: Um then he gets back in uh and you're just like okay, let's see.
• 1:51:17
  SPEAKER_05: Let's see what happens.
• 1:51:17
  SPEAKER_05: You got two, you got tech tech starting big or tech's only big now, has four fouls.
• 1:51:24
  SPEAKER_05: Two of U of H's guys are hurt, one has four fouls.
• 1:51:28
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, the one that's healthy.
• 1:51:29
  SPEAKER_05: So it's like, okay, we're we're gonna see where where we take it from here.
• 1:51:34
  SPEAKER_05: Um 948, Karen's Arsenal ties up the game.
• 1:51:37
  SPEAKER_05: It's 56-56 at that point.
• 1:51:40
  SPEAKER_05: Uh Juwan Roberts puts on him, you know, a couple good plays in a row on a hurt ankle, gets a layup, and now Houston takes the lead, and you start to feel kind of the momentum shift at the nine-minute mark.
• 1:51:51
  SPEAKER_04: And that was built off of an 8-0 run from U of H.
• 1:51:54
  SPEAKER_04: And asking you, try to put yourself back into the seat of February.
• 1:51:59
  SPEAKER_04: Do you start to wonder this is is our luck running out?
• 1:52:03
  SPEAKER_04: Like, is the clock running, running, running out here?
• 1:52:06
  SPEAKER_04: Because you kind of in in many ways, you obviously you're impressed with the way we're playing, but it there is a voice in the back of your head saying, Is this borrowed time until the uh the lack of talent starts to catch up with us?
• 1:52:17
  SPEAKER_04: Do you start feeling that way?
• 1:52:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean, what I what I felt like is we were playing with house money at this point, and we were up.
• 1:52:25
  SPEAKER_05: Uh you know, we we managed to do this, but then you just lost like four hands in a row, and you're like, uh oh, okay.
• 1:52:31
  SPEAKER_06: Well, we should have walked away from the table.
• 1:52:33
  SPEAKER_05: Should have walked away, should have walked away and just gone and bought free dinner, but now uh now we're losing everything.
• 1:52:40
  SPEAKER_05: Um yeah, this is definitely where you start to feel the momentum switch, the crowds back into it.
• 1:52:44
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, they're they're rallying behind their injured star player who came back into the game, and you're like, okay, I I don't know, maybe we'll see.
• 1:52:53
  SPEAKER_05: But this at this point is where the Darien Williams brilliance begins.
• 1:53:00
  SPEAKER_05: Um there's four plays here right in a row, starting from the nine-minute mark.
• 1:53:05
  SPEAKER_05: Kyle drives into the lane, gets fouled, knocks down one or two free throws, and kind of stops all the momentum, all the crowd hype immediately after that Juwan Roberts layup.
• 1:53:15
  SPEAKER_05: So he has the wherewithal to you know, go get a bucket real quick, go drive in the lane, go drive and get fouled, and then you know, stop the crowd from going crazy.
• 1:53:25
  SPEAKER_04: Stop one side of the game from getting crazy.
• 1:53:28
  SPEAKER_04: Just one side of the crowd.
• 1:53:29
  SPEAKER_04: Because the game's great popping up again, too.
• 1:53:32
  SPEAKER_05: For sure.
• 1:53:33
  SPEAKER_05: Next possession Tex on offense backs down Juwan Roberts, post hook, Darien Williams.
• 1:53:39
  SPEAKER_05: Then he blocks LJ Cryer on the other end, then he gets a tough one-handed rebound over Juwan Roberts.
• 1:53:45
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, it was like four or five straight plays of just Darien Williams doing everything for you.
• 1:53:50
  SPEAKER_05: Uh from a guy who didn't really have it going up to this point, and he makes an incredible effort here to hold it down for Texas Tech and stop the momentum.
• 1:54:00
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:54:00
  SPEAKER_04: And it keeps continuing to put them in deeper foul trouble as well.
• 1:54:04
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, the only frustration I have listed here was his free throw game a little iffy.
• 1:54:08
  SPEAKER_05: He that was a lot of that was a lot of players this game.
• 1:54:11
  SPEAKER_05: Their free throw game was a little iffy.
• 1:54:13
  SPEAKER_04: It was a little iffy.
• 1:54:14
  SPEAKER_04: Obviously, you know, you could say that so often where if our guys just made the free throws, this game would be over.
• 1:54:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but uh sometimes the bounces not go your way.
• 1:54:21
  SPEAKER_04: But you know, it's hard to complain about the bounces too much because I feel like a lot of bounces went our way during the game.
• 1:54:26
  SPEAKER_04: But um getting lucky rebounds and such.
• 1:54:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, it's it you really start to feel us, like you say, slow down that drain because it it felt like this this was swirling down the drain a little bit towards the end where uh you know the the should be result was about to happen, and that's U of H victory.
• 1:54:45
  SPEAKER_04: But uh it's just so good to see different players step up at different time periods because we haven't talked about much about D5 yet.
• 1:54:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um and here he is stepping up when it matters when the uh the game clock's about up.
• 1:54:55
  SPEAKER_04: So and you can feel the frustration on both sides of the ball as well.
• 1:54:58
  SPEAKER_04: Like the game starts getting pretty chippy, like the players are starting to get really frustrated with each other, and you can start to feel that the the announcers are starting to comment, uh comment on it, and the fans are obviously getting back into it, uh, obviously with us getting much louder.
• 1:55:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, it's just it was good to see your veterans and leaders step up when they needed to.
• 1:55:17
  SPEAKER_05: 100%.
• 1:55:18
  SPEAKER_05: Um, after this, U of H still had the lead during the stretch, but it was only one point.
• 1:55:23
  SPEAKER_05: Could have very much been uh you know a seven, eight-point lead at this point if it wasn't for Darien Williams.
• 1:55:28
  SPEAKER_05: Um good Malik Wilson stretch after this.
• 1:55:31
  SPEAKER_05: Could have fade away 15-foot jumper, forced a steal, and had a fast break dunk, and now U of H is up by five.
• 1:55:37
  SPEAKER_05: Uh 64-59, D5 steals the ball right out of Juwan Roberts' hands, gets fouled on a fast break.
• 1:55:44
  SPEAKER_05: Again, goes one of two from the line, like your point about him him in the free throw line wasn't great.
• 1:55:49
  SPEAKER_05: But um, this was honestly kind of a game-saving play.
• 1:55:52
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, as we talk about, um, they have the ball, they're up by five, and now uh you're like, uh-oh.
• 1:55:59
  SPEAKER_05: Here we go.
• 1:56:00
  SPEAKER_05: U of H, if they get one more bucket here, you're like, uh, make it a three-possession game.
• 1:56:04
  SPEAKER_05: That would be tough.
• 1:56:05
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but Darien Williams makes a great play.
• 1:56:08
  SPEAKER_05: Um Malik Wilson, bad foul at the 233 mark.
• 1:56:12
  SPEAKER_05: UH played phenomenal defense for the first 27 seconds of the shot clock, and then he fouled C4 on a three um at the very end.
• 1:56:20
  SPEAKER_05: I just didn't didn't need to happen.
• 1:56:22
  SPEAKER_05: Not a smart basketball decision, and and then uh C4 knocks down all three from the free throw line to keep it at a one-point game.
• 1:56:30
  SPEAKER_05: 233 to go.
• 1:56:33
  SPEAKER_05: You're like, oh man, yeah, that's crazy.
• 1:56:36
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely, dude, because it it was just so nuts to see these dudes just come together and keep making things happen.
• 1:56:46
  SPEAKER_04: Like this this game should have been toast.
• 1:56:48
  SPEAKER_04: Like U of H had to leave for quite a bit at this point, and you know, they have the home crowd really into it and making sure that uh they can make our players can hear them, but they just kept finding ways to keep this game within reach, you know, and it was just it's just an insane uh will to keep pushing the team forward to the final uh to the final mark here.
• 1:57:09
  SPEAKER_04: But and uh just you can't say enough.
• 1:57:13
  SPEAKER_05: Yep, for sure.
• 1:57:14
  SPEAKER_05: Uh 2-0-1 in the second half.
• 1:57:17
  SPEAKER_05: Chance McMillan gets his first bucket of the second half, led the way with 13 in the first half, was held scoreless the first 18 minutes of the second half, finally uh gets one to go on a driving layup uh to uh to keep the game within one.
• 1:57:35
  SPEAKER_05: U of H kept responding.
• 1:57:37
  SPEAKER_05: You know, they kept getting free throws or they would get a tough layup or something like that, but it was kind of back and forth there at the last two and a half minutes of the game.
• 1:57:44
  SPEAKER_05: Um, Juwan Roberts back-to-back buckets just kind of overpowers Fetty on a herd ankle.
• 1:57:50
  SPEAKER_05: Um at this point, this is why I love King McClure again.
• 1:57:54
  SPEAKER_05: Um calls for he called for a switch on defense because Fetty was guarding Juwan Roberts on both of these back-to-back possessions that he scored on.
• 1:58:02
  SPEAKER_05: And he was like, he needs to have Darien Williams on him.
• 1:58:05
  SPEAKER_05: He's stronger, he's better fit for this type of player.
• 1:58:09
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and immediately the next possession, Darien Williams is now guarding him.
• 1:58:13
  SPEAKER_05: So just a just a basketball guy, no one ball, and uh and called it out on the broadcast, which I thought was really cool.
• 1:58:21
  SPEAKER_05: Um chance again, a tough step back jumper with one minute left in the game.
• 1:58:26
  SPEAKER_05: Uh he a long two with his foot on the line.
• 1:58:28
  SPEAKER_05: So U of H still leads by one.
• 1:58:30
  SPEAKER_05: You you thought it was a potential tie game right there, but you you go to the replay and he did have a foot on the line.
• 1:58:36
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 1:58:36
  SPEAKER_05: Um so they're they're up 70-69 at this point.
• 1:58:40
  SPEAKER_05: Juwan Roberts gets fouled, goes to the free throw line, knocks down both.
• 1:58:44
  SPEAKER_05: 34 seconds left in the game.
• 1:58:47
  SPEAKER_05: Chance McMillan takes a bad fadeaway.
• 1:58:50
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, shot misses, Kerwin gets called for the loose ball foul.
• 1:58:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yuzan goes to the line for a one and one because you're not quite in the bonus.
• 1:58:58
  SPEAKER_05: You're not quite in the double bonus, you're in the bonus, but it's only it's one and one.
• 1:59:02
  SPEAKER_05: Um U of H uh is up by three at this point, 34 seconds left, and they're going to the free throw line.
• 1:59:09
  SPEAKER_05: You're like Darn it.
• 1:59:12
  SPEAKER_05: Almost out of Miles Yuzan.
• 1:59:17
  SPEAKER_05: Milos Yuzan misses the free throw.
• 1:59:20
  SPEAKER_05: So it's still a one-possession game.
• 1:59:23
  SPEAKER_05: Right before the free throw, Yuzan's at the line, Elijah Hawkins makes a real veteran move.
• 1:59:32
  SPEAKER_05: He goes right into the middle and huddles his guys up at the free throw line right before he's gonna shoot, like right before the ref is gonna pass on the ball.
• 1:59:40
  SPEAKER_05: And you the U of H fans go crazy.
• 1:59:42
  SPEAKER_05: They start booing, they're like, You can't do that, there's delay a game, whatever.
• 1:59:46
  SPEAKER_05: And Elijah Hawkins, you see him all the time, he's just like, Let's just gather.
• 1:59:48
  SPEAKER_05: They don't even say anything, like they don't they don't say a word to each other, and he's just he just wanted people to get in front of Yuzan to potentially throw off his rhythm from the free throw line, and it worked.
• 2:00:00
  SPEAKER_05: He missed the free throw.
• 2:00:01
  SPEAKER_05: Elijah Hawkins.
• 2:00:03
  SPEAKER_04: I I didn't even think that when that happens.
• 2:00:06
  SPEAKER_04: That look at you, look at you, ball knowing, like you say about our uh Mr.
• 2:00:10
  SPEAKER_04: Blur.
• 2:00:11
  SPEAKER_05: It's crazy.
• 2:00:12
  SPEAKER_05: It was such a vet move from a guy who's been in college basketball for five years, and he's just like, We need this free throw to miss.
• 2:00:18
  SPEAKER_05: What can what sneaky stuff, what weird stuff can I do?
• 2:00:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you're kind of icing the kicker, and he like nobody huddles right before the free throw.
• 2:00:28
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 2:00:28
  SPEAKER_05: And he just gathered and Fetty goes and D5 goes and chance goes, and they don't say anything, they just get in front of Yuzan and kind of block his view to the basket.
• 2:00:37
  SPEAKER_05: And it's just some some sneaky basketball stuff that uh that Elijah Hawkins did there.
• 2:00:42
  SPEAKER_04: Good catch, dude.
• 2:00:44
  SPEAKER_05: So misses the free throw, 26 seconds left in the game.
• 2:00:48
  SPEAKER_05: Tech gets the rebound.
• 2:00:49
  SPEAKER_05: Darien Williams ties the game on a three after a miss free throw.
• 2:00:54
  SPEAKER_05: Um kind of gets lost on defense after the free throw, so they just book it.
• 2:01:00
  SPEAKER_05: They try to get U of H as not as collected on defense as they possibly can.
• 2:01:04
  SPEAKER_05: Sharp, Yuzan, and Cryer are guarding um Hawk, D5, and and Chance, and they get a little mixed up just for a split second.
• 2:01:15
  SPEAKER_05: Like Sharp accidentally thinks he's gonna have to go to chance.
• 2:01:18
  SPEAKER_05: He should have stayed on D5.
• 2:01:19
  SPEAKER_05: D5 catches a moment where he's open from three and knocks it down, and and the game is tied.
• 2:01:25
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 2:01:26
  SPEAKER_05: With at 72 with 26 seconds left.
• 2:01:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, dude.
• 2:01:30
  SPEAKER_04: And just again, hawk Hawk stepping up as well, man.
• 2:01:32
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, an assist to D5, you know, there to put it away there and taking it overtime.
• 2:01:38
  SPEAKER_04: And the announcers the whole time were like, you know, you do not want to go to overtime or not for U of H.
• 2:01:42
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, uh, and it just an insane result that we are at this point.
• 2:01:49
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's a you the team has already gone above and beyond the assignment to make it to this point.
• 2:01:54
  SPEAKER_04: And here you are with a real shot.
• 2:01:56
  SPEAKER_04: I think at this point, I think every TechStech fan believed that okay, we can actually make this happen.
• 2:02:00
  SPEAKER_04: So it was just a crazy moment watching all these guys like do like you're saying, step up and make these veteran decisions and make it happen, dude.
• 2:02:07
  SPEAKER_04: Like just willing the team across the finish line.
• 2:02:09
  SPEAKER_04: It's just insane to watch it happen.
• 2:02:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, two things.
• 2:02:13
  SPEAKER_05: After D5 tied the game, this is where Jeff Linder comes in so clutch, having what we talked about earlier with having a former head coach now take over in a tough situation.
• 2:02:25
  SPEAKER_05: Right after D-5 makes the three, he calls timeout.
• 2:02:28
  SPEAKER_05: I don't think a lot of younger coaches, I think they would have just let it play out.
• 2:02:32
  SPEAKER_05: He calls a timeout, gets his guys adjusted, gets them ready for the next possession to prepare for U of H taking the last shot because it's tie game, 26 seconds left, there's no shot clock now.
• 2:02:43
  SPEAKER_05: So you got to get your defense right and ready to go.
• 2:02:46
  SPEAKER_05: Uh D-5 also super calm and collected going back to the bench after he just knocked down the biggest shot of the night.
• 2:02:51
  SPEAKER_05: Um, you can see him mouth on the broadcast one stop.
• 2:02:54
  SPEAKER_05: So he's already focused on the next play.
• 2:02:56
  SPEAKER_05: That's what makes him a fantastic player.
• 2:02:58
  SPEAKER_05: Pro move.
• 2:02:59
  SPEAKER_05: Um final shot of regulation doesn't go down.
• 2:03:03
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, you have Uzan Cryer, Arsenal, Roberts, and Tuggler on the floor for UH.
• 2:03:09
  SPEAKER_05: You have Hawkins, C4, Chance, Darion, and uh, and Fetty on the floor for Tech.
• 2:03:16
  SPEAKER_05: UH kind of just takes it down to eight seconds left, and then Yuzan tries to uh he he fakes a left side screen from Tuggler and then heads right for what for Juwan Roberts who's standing there for a screen.
• 2:03:28
  SPEAKER_05: Uh is trying to get the switch, but Hawk and D5 and Fetty are all doing a great job of fighting through the screen.
• 2:03:34
  SPEAKER_05: So they're trying to get somebody switched off onto Uzan that's not used to guarding him, whether that be D5 or Fetty.
• 2:03:42
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but tech bites through all of them, so Uh doesn't get what they want.
• 2:03:46
  SPEAKER_05: Uzan passes it to Roberts, who drives it left side on D5.
• 2:03:49
  SPEAKER_05: Fetty does a great job to come over to help contest the shot.
• 2:03:53
  SPEAKER_05: Roberts is blocked by D5, and Hawk comes up with it then regulation.
• 2:03:58
  SPEAKER_05: So um you're tied going into OT, but uh just a defense, man.
• 2:04:03
  SPEAKER_04: Before obviously before we go into overtime.
• 2:04:06
  SPEAKER_04: Uh us us lobbing the ball across half court into play just to soak up the final minutes.
• 2:04:12
  SPEAKER_04: Or was this at the end of overtime?
• 2:04:14
  SPEAKER_04: Am I misremembering?
• 2:04:15
  SPEAKER_04: Because they almost make Houston almost makes it at halftime.
• 2:04:19
  SPEAKER_05: That was at the end of end of overtime.
• 2:04:20
  SPEAKER_05: That was at the end of the game.
• 2:04:21
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, okay.
• 2:04:22
  SPEAKER_04: My bad.
• 2:04:22
  SPEAKER_04: Applause.
• 2:04:23
  SPEAKER_05: I just Hawk threw one up after he got the rebound, but uh there was no chance.
• 2:04:30
  SPEAKER_05: So we're sitting here at overtime.
• 2:04:31
  SPEAKER_05: We're tied 72-72.
• 2:04:38
  SPEAKER_05: Tough up and under by chance at the 440 mark.
• 2:04:41
  SPEAKER_05: Um, faking out Juwan Robertson.
• 2:04:42
  SPEAKER_05: And so Tech actually gets the first bucket of overtime.
• 2:04:45
  SPEAKER_05: Um, Juwan Roberts responds with an and one, just poor lateral defense by Fetty, kind of lets Juwan dribble right by him for a layup.
• 2:04:54
  SPEAKER_05: D5 contests late and fouls him in the process.
• 2:04:57
  SPEAKER_05: And unfortunately, this fouls out Darion Williams, who basically carried you for that entire uh ender last five minutes of the game in the in the second half.
• 2:05:07
  SPEAKER_05: Um it was a huge play.
• 2:05:08
  SPEAKER_04: And this was the first player fouled out of the entire game, correct?
• 2:05:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:05:13
  SPEAKER_05: You had injuries and you had ejections, but you didn't have it.
• 2:05:16
  SPEAKER_05: They were there were a lot of guys playing with four.
• 2:05:18
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 2:05:18
  SPEAKER_05: You know, um, Fetty was playing with four, and D5 was playing with four.
• 2:05:24
  SPEAKER_05: And at this point, if you're a Texas Tech fan, you're like, why Fetty, just foul him and you go out.
• 2:05:29
  SPEAKER_05: Not D5.
• 2:05:30
  SPEAKER_05: We don't want D5 out.
• 2:05:32
  SPEAKER_05: He just made the the game time three.
• 2:05:34
  SPEAKER_05: But unfortunately, uh he he helps a little late and fouls him.
• 2:05:39
  SPEAKER_05: Uh Juwan Roberts does miss the free throw, so you're still tied at 74.
• 2:05:45
  SPEAKER_05: Um, you get two good looks from Hawk and C4 on the next possession, both of them missed.
• 2:05:50
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, but then Fetty kind of makes up for it, fights for the rebound, and UH fouls him.
• 2:05:55
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and he will go one of two from the line.
• 2:05:57
  SPEAKER_05: So now Tech regains the lead.
• 2:05:59
  SPEAKER_05: Um incredible step back three at the 251 mark by Hawkins.
• 2:06:05
  SPEAKER_05: This is a huge play.
• 2:06:06
  SPEAKER_05: And this was like if you're just talking like sports center plays of the night, it was this one because C4 doesn't get anything going the entire possession.
• 2:06:17
  SPEAKER_05: He's got Yuzan on him.
• 2:06:19
  SPEAKER_05: Um, so he's really he's just trying to figure out what to do.
• 2:06:21
  SPEAKER_05: He's trying to just get the ball away from somebody, but Yuzan's playing really stifling defense.
• 2:06:26
  SPEAKER_05: He kicks it out to Hawk with nine on the shot clock and absolutely freezes LJ Cryer with a stop dribble move at the three, like driving, stops, pulls back, wide open three.
• 2:06:40
  SPEAKER_05: Cryer doesn't even contest because he's like, he got my ass, knocked it down, three-pointer.
• 2:06:44
  SPEAKER_05: So now tech's up by four with 251 left.
• 2:06:49
  SPEAKER_05: Um I I mean, I can't say enough about that play.
• 2:06:52
  SPEAKER_05: It was watching it back, I remembered it, but in the in overtime against U of H in this moment when D5 just fouled out, and Elijah Hawkins comes in, makes this incredible play, stop motion play, it knocks down three.
• 2:07:09
  SPEAKER_05: It was huge absolutely for the play of the night.
• 2:07:11
  SPEAKER_04: I I I wrote uh Elijah sniping like five times because that's just what I kept feeling like, man.
• 2:07:18
  SPEAKER_04: And like I said, uh, you could have put it even better, man, just like dancing, cryer out of his shoes, and just the respect of relenting of it.
• 2:07:26
  SPEAKER_05: So he just stood there.
• 2:07:29
  SPEAKER_04: He was like, yeah, you gotta and so at this point as a tech fan, you you're thinking that this this is being stamped in.
• 2:07:37
  SPEAKER_04: So, but it's not over yet.
• 2:07:38
  SPEAKER_04: Houston's gonna keep uh piling it back in.
• 2:07:41
  SPEAKER_05: So 100%.
• 2:07:42
  SPEAKER_05: Um, the next position though, Juwan Roberts straight up dribbles it off his own leg.
• 2:07:46
  SPEAKER_05: Fetty completely fixes the movement defense that he that he screwed up on the D5 foul out, um, plays a great defensive possession, and then it's tech ball.
• 2:07:55
  SPEAKER_05: Again, we're up by four with 234 left.
• 2:07:58
  SPEAKER_05: Um, the next play, Hawk misses a layup, Fetty grabs an offensive rebound, and he's wide open under the rim.
• 2:08:06
  SPEAKER_05: He's wide open.
• 2:08:08
  SPEAKER_05: You're seven feet tall, bro.
• 2:08:09
  SPEAKER_05: Go up and dunk the thing.
• 2:08:11
  SPEAKER_05: But this is kind of the frustrating part of Fetty's game that we kind of saw all year.
• 2:08:16
  SPEAKER_05: He doesn't really have the awareness or strength on the offensive end of the floor to get shots up for being as big as he is.
• 2:08:23
  SPEAKER_05: He really needs somebody, a ball handler or somebody to get him a shot, to get him a lob or get him an easy bucket.
• 2:08:29
  SPEAKER_05: And this is one of those frustrating plays where you're just like, just dunk it.
• 2:08:32
  SPEAKER_05: You're seven feet tall, dude.
• 2:08:34
  SPEAKER_05: What are you doing?
• 2:08:35
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, put your hand, just put him up, you'll get fouled.
• 2:08:38
  SPEAKER_05: Like uh so Juwan Roberts immediately takes it away from him.
• 2:08:42
  SPEAKER_05: Um, Milos Yuzan and one at 205.
• 2:08:46
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, poor defense by Christian Anderson here.
• 2:08:49
  SPEAKER_05: Um, it was a crafty, it was an NBA level move from Milos Yuzan, but um, this was bad defense by C4 and uh knocks down the free throw.
• 2:08:58
  SPEAKER_05: So now you got 7877 Texas Tech with the lead, two minutes left in the game.
• 2:09:06
  SPEAKER_05: 135 bad ball movement on offense turned it into a 30-foot heave by Christian Anderson that clangs off the rim.
• 2:09:14
  SPEAKER_05: Fetty fouls Juwan Roberts fighting for the rebound, and Fetty fouls out.
• 2:09:19
  SPEAKER_05: This is where enter Emily Yalaho.
• 2:09:23
  SPEAKER_05: Important point, important moment of the game that Fetty fouled out of here.
• 2:09:27
  SPEAKER_05: Um like Fetty did a lot of good stuff throughout this game, but to have him foul out and force Jeff Linder really to put in Emily Yallaho, which I don't think would have played this final couple possessions um if it weren't for Fetty fouling out.
• 2:09:44
  SPEAKER_05: So this is just a big moment.
• 2:09:46
  SPEAKER_05: Um 78-78 at this point because Roberts goes one of two from the line.
• 2:09:52
  SPEAKER_05: So you got a tie ball game.
• 2:09:54
  SPEAKER_05: Um 116, Chance McMillan.
• 2:09:58
  SPEAKER_05: Big time play by chance here.
• 2:10:00
  SPEAKER_05: You have one-on-one with Sharp, hesitation dribble move at the free throw line, drives it right into Sharp, basically pump makes a layup and it goes in and techs up by two again.
• 2:10:10
  SPEAKER_05: This is the first defensive possession that I thought U of H really screwed up because Darren Williams is having the ballgame.
• 2:10:19
  SPEAKER_05: You have Emily Yallaho, Elijah Hawkins, Christian Anderson, Kerwin Walden, and Chance on the floor.
• 2:10:29
  SPEAKER_05: You got one guy who can go get a bucket.
• 2:10:31
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 2:10:31
  SPEAKER_05: And that's Chance McMillan.
• 2:10:33
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, uh, you know, Christian Anderson a little later on could potentially do it, but I it's just Chance McMillan, you got to double team him, dude.
• 2:10:42
  SPEAKER_05: You double or triple team him and force another guy to go make a shot here.
• 2:10:46
  SPEAKER_05: And they leave him one-on-one, and he absolutely cooks sharp and gets a tough bucket.
• 2:10:50
  SPEAKER_05: So this was a uh this is a big play by chance, and good on him for recognizing it and making a move and driving to the basket.
• 2:10:57
  SPEAKER_05: What we always ask, don't shoot a step back three in these moments.
• 2:11:00
  SPEAKER_05: Go to the bucket, you'll either get fouled or you'll make the layup and he made the layup.
• 2:11:03
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 2:11:04
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, this this is this is really cementing the chance McMillan as MVP of the night.
• 2:11:09
  SPEAKER_04: Like he's just again doing what leaders and stars and bets do and make the right decisions at big moments whenever it's easy to mess up.
• 2:11:16
  SPEAKER_04: And he's still making the right call.
• 2:11:18
  SPEAKER_05: For sure.
• 2:11:19
  SPEAKER_05: Uh next possession, unfortunately, Christian Anderson reaching foul on Juwan Roberts.
• 2:11:24
  SPEAKER_05: He knocks down two free throws back to being tied at 80.
• 2:11:28
  SPEAKER_05: Um next possession, Kerwin Walton misses a decent three-point look.
• 2:11:32
  SPEAKER_05: He had a pretty good look at it.
• 2:11:34
  SPEAKER_05: Um, missed it.
• 2:11:35
  SPEAKER_05: You had, I believe, chance almost gets the tip in to go, um, but it doesn't, and UH ends up with the rebound.
• 2:11:43
  SPEAKER_05: At this point, there's a 14 second difference between the shot clock and the game clock.
• 2:11:47
  SPEAKER_05: U of H calls timeout with 33 left.
• 2:11:50
  SPEAKER_05: There's 19 on the shot clock.
• 2:11:51
  SPEAKER_05: So um tech is going to get the last shot if something doesn't go for U of H right here.
• 2:11:57
  SPEAKER_05: Um again, it's 80 80.
• 2:12:00
  SPEAKER_05: Next next UH possession, 24 seconds left.
• 2:12:04
  SPEAKER_05: They get the ball to Roberts one-on-one with Yalaho.
• 2:12:07
  SPEAKER_05: Roberts drives, goes up strong against EY, gets fouled.
• 2:12:11
  SPEAKER_05: It was you're just kind of like, yeah, this is a guy who's played 160 whatever games for University of Houston.
• 2:12:18
  SPEAKER_05: And he goes up against uh EY, who has not had a lot of playing time up at this point in his career, and he just makes a good move and gets fouled.
• 2:12:26
  SPEAKER_05: Um he only makes one of one of the free throws.
• 2:12:29
  SPEAKER_05: So Robert's not a good free throw shooter.
• 2:12:31
  SPEAKER_05: No.
• 2:12:32
  SPEAKER_05: 56% from the line for the year or whatever.
• 2:12:34
  SPEAKER_05: Um, so this it's a big moment because in overtime he goes four of seven from the line.
• 2:12:39
  SPEAKER_05: So a little more, a little better than 50%, but it's still not like sending a really good free throw shooter.
• 2:12:44
  SPEAKER_05: And we would be in a much different position if he doesn't miss these three free throws.
• 2:12:48
  SPEAKER_05: Um no timeout after the free throw make from Roberts.
• 2:12:54
  SPEAKER_05: Tech goes down.
• 2:12:55
  SPEAKER_05: Jeff Linder says, nope, we're just gonna go because you don't want to get U of H in a defensive stand.
• 2:13:00
  SPEAKER_05: You don't want to get them in a good defense, you don't want to stop the game, you just want to go at this point, especially considering the personnel on the floor for Texas Tech.
• 2:13:08
  SPEAKER_05: So chances again find himself one-on-one with Malik Wilson.
• 2:13:12
  SPEAKER_05: Why is U of H not doubling Chance McMillan?
• 2:13:15
  SPEAKER_05: I I don't get it.
• 2:13:16
  SPEAKER_05: They really screwed that up here at the end of the game.
• 2:13:19
  SPEAKER_05: Could have just been the moment of not really Houston players not recognizing that chance is the only guy that can go get a bucket, you know, but again, he finds himself one-on-one.
• 2:13:29
  SPEAKER_05: Um chance drives um left on Malik and gets fouled, going up strong for a layup.
• 2:13:37
  SPEAKER_05: It was it was a foul on Malik Wilson, it was a tough defensive possession, but again, it's chance going and making a play, going two to the basket and getting fouled.
• 2:13:46
  SPEAKER_05: Um incredible just heads-up play here by chance.
• 2:13:49
  SPEAKER_05: Um, really smart thing to do in this situation, knowing you don't have the personnel on the court.
• 2:13:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, everything I just said.
• 2:13:55
  SPEAKER_05: Um so he knocks down both free throws.
• 2:13:59
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 2:14:00
  SPEAKER_05: Texas Tech is up one.
• 2:14:03
  SPEAKER_05: Clutch, he was seven of seven from the line today, by the way.
• 2:14:06
  SPEAKER_05: Go ahead.
• 2:14:07
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, no, I was just saying, yeah, one point.
• 2:14:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:14:10
  SPEAKER_04: I just mean like how tight of the game it was.
• 2:14:12
  SPEAKER_04: I was just holding up a one, being like, that's that's how tight of the margin of uh Area he had here.
• 2:14:17
  SPEAKER_05: Texas Tech 82, U of H 81.
• 2:14:22
  SPEAKER_05: Final possession of the game.
• 2:14:24
  SPEAKER_05: We're here at the end.
• 2:14:25
  SPEAKER_05: We've made it through this three-hour podcast.
• 2:14:27
  SPEAKER_04: Probably our longest in history, no?
• 2:14:30
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I think so.
• 2:14:31
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, we did some football previews that were pretty long.
• 2:14:33
  SPEAKER_05: I think we did a two-parter.
• 2:14:35
  SPEAKER_05: Um this is the final possession.
• 2:14:38
  SPEAKER_05: U of H does not call a timeout after Chance knocks down these free throws.
• 2:14:42
  SPEAKER_05: So they don't get up the floor very quickly.
• 2:14:44
  SPEAKER_05: I want to give a shout out to Hawkins and C4 who play pressing defense all the way up to half court to kind of you know make them worry a little bit and not just let them walk down the floor.
• 2:14:53
  SPEAKER_05: So Yuzan and Cryer at half court, not they're not really allowing them to sprint down.
• 2:14:59
  SPEAKER_05: They're the play is slow to develop because of this, and Roberts kind of ends up with the ball at the top of the key one-on-one with Yalaho with only five seconds left.
• 2:15:06
  SPEAKER_05: And you just gotta go make a move.
• 2:15:09
  SPEAKER_05: EY versus Juwan Roberts, one of the most experienced players in college basketball against one of the most inexperienced players in college basketball, going one-on-one with each other right now at the end of the game in a top 25 matchup, with what ended up being two Elite Eight teams.
• 2:15:25
  SPEAKER_05: Um he's not in a great position, uh, EY at the start of this.
• 2:15:31
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, you know, Juwan drives left.
• 2:15:34
  SPEAKER_05: That's his dominant hand.
• 2:15:35
  SPEAKER_05: You're like, uh-oh, oh my god, let's see what happens.
• 2:15:38
  SPEAKER_05: And then Ewai plays terrific defense, moves his feet in the exact right way, and actually kind of leans off of Juwan Roberts during his spin move and forces him to take an extra step to gather himself because he's thrown off by it, and he travels, and the rest call it.
• 2:15:58
  SPEAKER_05: Ewy, play.
• 2:16:00
  SPEAKER_05: I guess this was the play of the game, but unbelievable defense.
• 2:16:04
  SPEAKER_04: And and and uh he knows it too.
• 2:16:06
  SPEAKER_04: Like Jay Robert uh Jay Roberts knows it, like he's not like sitting there complaining the entire time, he's laying on the floor in the midst of his mistake, like he understands what just happened.
• 2:16:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and it's just it's really appropriate that U of H died by him as well, like they're living through him the entire game.
• 2:16:23
  SPEAKER_04: And the announcement said it over and over again that he's RP to the team.
• 2:16:25
  SPEAKER_04: It's appropriate that it either they either won or lost on his his account.
• 2:16:29
  SPEAKER_04: Obviously, there's much more to the game, it's not like he lost in the game, but it's it it was climatic for him to be the deciding factor here.
• 2:16:38
  SPEAKER_04: So it it just just what a way for the game to end, and just two heavyweights coming up after the end of an enormous bounce, and just yeah, so cool to see Emily recognize what he had to do in that situation and just pull it off, you know.
• 2:16:54
  SPEAKER_04: And because it it's not like if we lost, it's not like people would be like, Man, that dang kid, he really blew it for us.
• 2:16:59
  SPEAKER_04: It just would have been like the inevitable happens, and we'll learn from it.
• 2:17:02
  SPEAKER_04: But it's still just I think the one word I take from this, and I'm sure we can use this in other reviews we'll do, is miraculous.
• 2:17:10
  SPEAKER_04: Like this was a miraculous win.
• 2:17:12
  SPEAKER_04: Not that it wasn't earned, but damn, did we pull off what seemed like an impossible task after four minutes in the game?
• 2:17:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and I can't I can't say enough about EY on that last possession.
• 2:17:25
  SPEAKER_05: If he doesn't let up on that drive, Juwan Roberts was expecting him to go right into him and and get contact and potentially go to the free throw line.
• 2:17:35
  SPEAKER_05: When he left off of him, that threw him off balance, and he had to take that extra step just to get a shot up, and that's what forced him to travel.
• 2:17:43
  SPEAKER_05: And I I mean obviously now we can say it, the best play of Emily Yalleho's career at Texas Sec uh since he's no longer on the team, but um no man, and then uh there was 1.5 seconds left at this point.
• 2:17:57
  SPEAKER_05: C4 is in battle, we call a timeout, and C4 wisely just lobs it up to half court, even though you know U of H ended up getting a steal here and getting a shot up.
• 2:18:07
  SPEAKER_05: It was from half court and it was a tough one.
• 2:18:09
  SPEAKER_05: Um, they miss it and Texas Tech wins the game.
• 2:18:12
  SPEAKER_05: They don't miss it by much.
• 2:18:14
  SPEAKER_06: They don't miss it by much.
• 2:18:15
  SPEAKER_05: No, he wasn't he wasn't horribly off, but it's and it's also like uh the wherewithal to not try to get it under the basket to where they could have potentially stolen and got a uh a shorter shot.
• 2:18:26
  SPEAKER_05: Instead, he just lobbed it up there, and uh Kerwin, unfortunately, kind of you could have said he got hit a little bit and um stumbled and they ended up with the ball, but they still had to shoot it from half court, and it just wasn't gonna happen.
• 2:18:38
  SPEAKER_05: So um the one of the most grinded out wins I've ever seen.
• 2:18:42
  SPEAKER_04: It was a absolute dude.
• 2:18:43
  SPEAKER_04: You you you walk in there, man down, coach down, and you snap the 32-game winning streak in the Pratitta Center.
• 2:18:54
  SPEAKER_04: And it we it's just we we can see and smell our roses.
• 2:18:58
  SPEAKER_04: What a fantastic win that was.
• 2:19:00
  SPEAKER_04: And this, I think, is really when um the toughest team win win, uh the toughest team's toughest teams win, monicure really kind of cemented into our ethos as a team.
• 2:19:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um because I mean that's really what it was.
• 2:19:14
  SPEAKER_04: That was just bully basketball.
• 2:19:16
  SPEAKER_04: And we were just sitting there punching each other in the face, blow after blow, um, just grinded out old school basketball.
• 2:19:23
  SPEAKER_04: And it was just an incredible win for the team.
• 2:19:27
  SPEAKER_04: And I I don't know what more I can say, other than that was undoubtedly one of the greatest regular season wins in TechStech basketball history.
• 2:19:37
  SPEAKER_05: Let's talk about some after effects that happened because of this game.
• 2:19:41
  SPEAKER_05: So, first one I have written down, and I mentioned it way early in the pod.
• 2:19:47
  SPEAKER_05: This game really toughened up Christian Anderson.
• 2:19:50
  SPEAKER_05: Was not a great game for him by any means, but he finally saw a hyper-aggressive guard-heavy defensive team for the first time and was thrown into the fire and had to play in all of overtime and the majority of the second half.
• 2:20:07
  SPEAKER_05: When you're guarded by Emmanuel Sharp, Malik Wilson, Milos Uzan, and LJ Cryer, you learn some things and you grow up a little bit.
• 2:20:17
  SPEAKER_05: So I think from this moment on he was confident in himself on and he's seen the worst of it.
• 2:20:24
  SPEAKER_05: He's seen the toughest defense and had the confidence moving forward to uh to play in big moments and to be that guy, and got really, really he got much better after this.
• 2:20:35
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 2:20:36
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I know you said he didn't have a stardom game, but dude, this 18-year-old stepped up in one of the toughest environments in college basketball at the time.
• 2:20:46
  SPEAKER_04: Like it's there's only so much you can ask of a kid, no matter how good he is.
• 2:20:50
  SPEAKER_04: You can't replace you can't replace talent with experience, you just can't.
• 2:20:54
  SPEAKER_04: And so he obviously has got the tangibles, but just say a little for him to sit there and soak up those experience points and uh really step up for the team.
• 2:21:04
  SPEAKER_04: He paid dividends for uh further into the season, like you were saying.
• 2:21:07
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, for sure.
• 2:21:09
  SPEAKER_05: Um legendary locker room photo from JC Toppin and Graham McCasslin.
• 2:21:14
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, electric toughest team wins, simple caption, and it's just the two of them taking a selfie in the locker room.
• 2:21:20
  SPEAKER_05: That was the icing on top of the cake for Texas Tech Twitter after this.
• 2:21:26
  SPEAKER_04: To be a fly on the wall during the game in that locker room with those two.
• 2:21:31
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I I I just I wonder how much yelling there was that was happening in that locker room, dude.
• 2:21:35
  SPEAKER_04: And let's go is you know happening.
• 2:21:38
  SPEAKER_05: Would have been terrific.
• 2:21:40
  SPEAKER_05: Would have been terrific.
• 2:21:41
  SPEAKER_05: Um, this game was not only positive for Texas Tech, this game was absolutely positive for the Houston Cougars.
• 2:21:48
  SPEAKER_05: After this, they went 18-0.
• 2:21:51
  SPEAKER_05: They won 18 straight games after this loss, and their next loss did not come until the national championship game.
• 2:21:58
  SPEAKER_05: That's where they lost where they lost the Taiwan to Florida.
• 2:22:02
  SPEAKER_05: This you talk about, and Kelvin Samson was awesome in the post-game for this because he just gave tech all the flowers, and he was like, Look, they were tougher.
• 2:22:10
  SPEAKER_05: They were tougher.
• 2:22:11
  SPEAKER_05: And if we're gonna be tougher, we're gonna win a lot more games, but if we're gonna remain like this, we're not.
• 2:22:17
  SPEAKER_05: And he that switched them up.
• 2:22:19
  SPEAKER_05: That switched up that entire team to lose a game at home to Texas Tech to an in-state rival, um, was a big deal for this U of H team and gave them the confidence moving forward um to uh to just rally off victory after victory, and they almost freaking did it there at the end.
• 2:22:36
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but uh Florida was a little too much for them.
• 2:22:38
  SPEAKER_04: But we almost freaking did it against Florida too.
• 2:22:41
  SPEAKER_05: That's what I'm saying.
• 2:22:42
  SPEAKER_05: It's kind of funny that uh we both both of our seasons ended on on losses to uh of what ended up being a really good Florida team, but uh you could have said Texas Tech could should have won that game against Florida, you could have said U of H should have won that game against Florida.
• 2:22:54
  SPEAKER_05: So it's uh it's crazy.
• 2:22:58
  SPEAKER_04: I like you were saying, I mean, ultimately Houston gets the last laugh, if you want to say it like that.
• 2:23:02
  SPEAKER_04: You know, they win the Big 12, they beat us in Lubbock next time they come, and uh they make it to the national championship game, which is seen as the height of our program as well.
• 2:23:11
  SPEAKER_04: So it's it they just just feel salty about it.
• 2:23:16
  SPEAKER_04: I just I just think it's just an incredible matchup between two awesome Big 12 teams.
• 2:23:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and dude, this is not gonna be the last one.
• 2:23:23
  SPEAKER_04: Like this is this is this game is going to be just one of those like big uh we're member wins when we talk about U of H versus Tech Steck.
• 2:23:30
  SPEAKER_04: So I think next season we'll see a game almost as crazy.
• 2:23:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's pretty much without a doubt.
• 2:23:35
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 2:23:36
  SPEAKER_05: Both of these teams ended up in the Elite Eight, U of H going to the national championship, tech getting knocked out in the Elite Eight.
• 2:23:42
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but it just goes to show you this was a uh a matchup against two of the eight best teams in college basketball this year.
• 2:23:49
  SPEAKER_05: Um, with one ended up squeezing out of victory without their best player, their head coach.
• 2:23:54
  SPEAKER_05: Um crazy, crazy to think about.
• 2:23:56
  SPEAKER_05: Two of these players are gonna play for NC State next year.
• 2:24:00
  SPEAKER_05: One on Houston and one on Texas Tech.
• 2:24:02
  SPEAKER_05: Uh Darien Williams is uh unfortunately entered the transfer portal and um you know went through the draft process and uh is gonna play for NC State next year.
• 2:24:12
  SPEAKER_05: And Terrence Arsenal for U of H is also transferring to NC State.
• 2:24:17
  SPEAKER_05: So kind of a funny uh little tidbit there.
• 2:24:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah that uh we're gonna see that in uh in in North Carolina and Raleigh.
• 2:24:24
  SPEAKER_04: At least they left the conference.
• 2:24:25
  SPEAKER_05: So yes, yes, good on both of them for leaving the conference.
• 2:24:28
  SPEAKER_05: Um Kevin Overton entered the portal after this game.
• 2:24:33
  SPEAKER_05: I don't think he played this game.
• 2:24:34
  SPEAKER_05: No, I think yeah, I think he was hurt.
• 2:24:37
  SPEAKER_05: Um now that I'm thinking about it, we didn't mention him one time except at the very beginning.
• 2:24:41
  SPEAKER_05: Um he entered the portal, uh, he's going to Auburn.
• 2:24:44
  SPEAKER_05: Fetty entered the portal.
• 2:24:46
  SPEAKER_05: Uh he's no longer our friend.
• 2:24:47
  SPEAKER_05: He's going to play for the Aggies at Texas AM.
• 2:24:50
  SPEAKER_05: Good luck with uh with those strong hands that Fetty has.
• 2:24:55
  SPEAKER_05: Um uh the the savior, the game savior, Emily Yalaho, is going to play for Washington State uh next year.
• 2:25:06
  SPEAKER_05: Wazoo.
• 2:25:07
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 2:25:07
  SPEAKER_05: Choice.
• 2:25:08
  SPEAKER_05: It's a choice.
• 2:25:09
  SPEAKER_05: He didn't play a lot after this game, which is kind of crazy.
• 2:25:12
  SPEAKER_05: I know he was there was this mystery injury going on with EY the rest of the year that some back thing or a disc or something like that, that nobody ever like went out and said it.
• 2:25:23
  SPEAKER_05: So I don't really know the whole story with it, but he is not going to be uh on Texas Tech's team next year.
• 2:25:29
  SPEAKER_05: Neither, unfortunately, are Elijah Hawkins, Chance McMillan, and Kerwin Walton, all three of which uh I hate it.
• 2:25:39
  SPEAKER_05: Just let him play.
• 2:25:40
  SPEAKER_05: Only if they're Red Raiders, though.
• 2:25:42
  SPEAKER_05: Don't let anybody else play.
• 2:25:43
  SPEAKER_04: Of course.
• 2:25:43
  SPEAKER_05: You know, that's when I start to get heated a little bit.
• 2:25:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you don't need that one Kansas guy situation.
• 2:25:48
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, right.
• 2:25:48
  SPEAKER_05: We don't need Perry Ellis.
• 2:25:50
  SPEAKER_05: Um that guy only played like five years.
• 2:25:54
  SPEAKER_06: I know, and that's like nothing now.
• 2:25:56
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I know.
• 2:25:57
  SPEAKER_05: And one of them was because of like a medical red shirt or something like that.
• 2:26:00
  SPEAKER_05: It's like everybody plays six years.
• 2:26:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I know.
• 2:26:03
  SPEAKER_05: Everybody just said Perry Ellis.
• 2:26:04
  SPEAKER_05: And it he had the bad hairline, so it automatically looked like he's gonna be.
• 2:26:10
  SPEAKER_05: I love it.
• 2:26:11
  SPEAKER_05: I'll still play into it.
• 2:26:12
  SPEAKER_05: Um JT and C4 returning for the 2025-26 season for a loaded tech behind a loaded Texas Tech transfer class.
• 2:26:25
  SPEAKER_05: Both these teams are gonna be fantastic next year.
• 2:26:28
  SPEAKER_05: This is probably just gonna be as good a game next season.
• 2:26:31
  SPEAKER_05: Uh seeing the U of H Texas Tech game.
• 2:26:33
  SPEAKER_05: Uzan, Sharp, and Tugler are all returning for U of H next year.
• 2:26:38
  SPEAKER_05: Juwan Roberts is out of eligibility, LJ Cryer is out of eligibility, Malik Wilson is out of eligibility, and Javier Francis is.
• 2:26:46
  SPEAKER_05: So U of H is gonna look different, but they're still gonna have three really good players.
• 2:26:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and it's I I hope we play each other twice again.
• 2:26:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I don't think believe that's been announced yet.
• 2:26:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but if we only play them once, we should play them in Lubbock.
• 2:27:00
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's that would be my professional advice to the Big 12.
• 2:27:04
  SPEAKER_04: I think it'd only be fair if we uh played in Lubbock instead.
• 2:27:06
  SPEAKER_05: I think I think I agree with you.
• 2:27:08
  SPEAKER_05: Um they should make us the uh the czar of college athletics.
• 2:27:12
  SPEAKER_05: I agree, dude.
• 2:27:13
  SPEAKER_05: We just make uh you know decisions, but dude, what a fun rewatch.
• 2:27:18
  SPEAKER_05: I know this was long, but this game was electric.
• 2:27:22
  SPEAKER_05: If you can go back and watch it, it's on YouTube.
• 2:27:24
  SPEAKER_05: The whole the whole thing's on YouTube.
• 2:27:26
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and I enjoyed this, man.
• 2:27:28
  SPEAKER_05: This is a good time.
• 2:27:28
  SPEAKER_04: Me too, dude.
• 2:27:29
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I'm excited to do a few more of these, man, before we start getting some football previews uh for the upcoming season.
• 2:27:34
  SPEAKER_05: For sure, for sure.
• 2:27:35
  SPEAKER_05: We'll try to make the other ones not three hours.
• 2:27:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and that's what happens.
• 2:27:38
  SPEAKER_04: We haven't got me on the mic in a while as well.
• 2:27:40
  SPEAKER_05: So that's true, that's true.
• 2:27:42
  SPEAKER_05: All right, man.
• 2:27:43
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I guess let's finish her off with the song of the week and then we'll get out of here.
• 2:27:47
  SPEAKER_04: We obviously cannot do this without doing a song of the week.
• 2:27:50
  SPEAKER_04: So, uh, dude, I'm gonna go with one of our two favorites here.
• 2:27:54
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, he recently released a new album, uh self-titled album, Drew Kennedy's Drew Kennedy.
• 2:28:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and with the song of the week, I'm gonna go with from that album to support my boy, is it's gonna be I Want It All.
• 2:28:05
  SPEAKER_04: It's one of the more up-tempo uh songs off that album.
• 2:28:09
  SPEAKER_04: And it's very much encapsulates the Tech Tech experience where the highs are high and the lows are low.
• 2:28:15
  SPEAKER_04: And that's just pretty much what it is with this fandom.
• 2:28:17
  SPEAKER_04: So uh that's what I'm gonna go with.
• 2:28:19
  SPEAKER_04: I want it all, Drew Kennedy.
• 2:28:32
  SPEAKER_05: Can I tell you something?
• 2:28:33
  SPEAKER_05: What I didn't love the album.
• 2:28:36
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I don't think it's as good as the last three.
• 2:28:39
  SPEAKER_05: It's really hard to meet some of his last stuff.
• 2:28:43
  SPEAKER_04: I agree.
• 2:28:44
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but I didn't love it.
• 2:28:46
  SPEAKER_05: I didn't love how upbeat it was.
• 2:28:47
  SPEAKER_05: So I'll have to give this song a retry.
• 2:28:51
  SPEAKER_05: I I've only listened to the whole album like one time through, so I didn't really get a full perspective on it.
• 2:28:56
  SPEAKER_05: I did like Nerves, and I like Nerves, yeah.
• 2:28:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I like Lizzie as well.
• 2:29:00
  SPEAKER_05: But those are two of the more slower ones uh on the album.
• 2:29:03
  SPEAKER_05: I think I just like him in a slower tone, but I'll give this one a listen.
• 2:29:06
  SPEAKER_05: I uh we love Drew Kennedy over here.
• 2:29:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's it's not Alone in the Big Lonesome or uh Marathon, which I thought were both awesome, amazing albums and very different.
• 2:29:15
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, no, it's he he's he mixes it up.
• 2:29:17
  SPEAKER_04: He doesn't try to sound the same each time, so I appreciate that.
• 2:29:20
  SPEAKER_04: Well, you got it.
• 2:29:22
  SPEAKER_05: Similar to yours, uh, one of our all-time favorite bands released a new album recently, Prophets and Outlaws.
• 2:29:29
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and I am doing a song off of their album called.
• 2:29:34
  SPEAKER_05: There's so many of these that I could choose from.
• 2:29:36
  SPEAKER_05: I really I liked the whole album.
• 2:29:38
  SPEAKER_05: I don't think there was a song on it that I disliked.
• 2:29:40
  SPEAKER_04: I gotta give it a run.
• 2:29:41
  SPEAKER_05: I'll go, I'll go with Southern Knights, which is a uh which is a cover of the original.
• 2:29:47
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, an original, originally done by Glenn Campbell.
• 2:29:50
  SPEAKER_05: And when I saw the name of the song on the, I was like, did they just and they remade it, and it's fantastic.
• 2:29:56
  SPEAKER_05: It's really good.
• 2:29:57
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's really good.
• 2:29:58
  SPEAKER_05: Uh Southern Knights, Profits and Outlaws is my song of the week.
• 2:30:05
  SPEAKER_06: Southern Knights.
• 2:30:08
  SPEAKER_06: Have you ever felt a Southern Knight?
• 2:30:14
  SPEAKER_04: Excellent, dude.
• 2:30:16
  SPEAKER_04: Throwing it back at a couple of local Texas guys, too.
• 2:30:18
  SPEAKER_04: We always like doing that.
• 2:30:19
  SPEAKER_04: So good way to restart the pod on this summer edition here.
• 2:30:24
  SPEAKER_05: All right.
• 2:30:24
  SPEAKER_05: Well, we're done.
• 2:30:26
  SPEAKER_05: Appreciate all of you listening and holding it down for three hours with us and having a good time.
• 2:30:30
  SPEAKER_05: Um, if you'd like to add revenue series, of course, absolutely for the ad revenue.
• 2:30:35
  SPEAKER_05: Um, if you like these rewatches, let us know.
• 2:30:38
  SPEAKER_05: We're on Twitter at Talk and Tech Pod.
• 2:30:40
  SPEAKER_05: Tristan's on Twitter at Tristy Mick.
• 2:30:42
  SPEAKER_05: Um, you my personal doesn't matter.
• 2:30:44
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but uh no, we appreciate you guys listening, and um, I guess we can end it here.
• 2:30:50
  SPEAKER_05: Always Wreck Em Tech.
• 2:30:52
  SPEAKER_04: Wreck the Cougs, Wreck'em Tech.
• 2:30:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Wow.
• 2:30:55
  SPEAKER_02: First of all, uh got a lot of respect for Steven and Tristan.
• 2:31:00
  SPEAKER_02: Uh their program, tough guys, just uh a lot of fun.
• 2:31:05
  SPEAKER_02: This is wild.
• 2:31:06
  SPEAKER_01: When I walked in and I knew this would be an awesome podcast, and these guys have been tremendous.
• 2:31:15
  SPEAKER_01: I love you, and I can't wait for this journey.
• 2:31:17
  SPEAKER_01: I would like to thank uh Steven and Tristan.
• 2:31:20
  SPEAKER_01: This is incredible.
• 2:31:21
  SPEAKER_01: These guys have a passion and a love for this school.