Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Some Things are Bigger than Basketball: A Conversation with Scott Ungerer

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Some Things are Bigger than Basketball: A Conversation with Scott Ungerer · Spiders Sound Off

• 0:06
  Hey everybody. Welcome back to Spider.
• 0:08
  Sound off. This is Tom.
• 0:10
  And this is Porter. And we are back in our Henrico
• 0:13
  studios. We have a special interview
• 0:16
  today that's going to follow our little intro here.
• 0:18
  We're going to get to spend some time with Scott Unger.
• 0:22
  Yeah, Scott, the the great Scott Spider point guard from the late
• 0:26
  90s, early 2000s. This could be a fun interview.
• 0:29
  Yep. And as many of you know, he's
• 0:30
  now working with Bob Black on the TV and radio side.
• 0:37
  So we'll get to learn a little bit about kind of his transition
• 0:39
  to the media. He's got about a a year and a
• 0:42
  half on us, yes. So he may, he can have, might
• 0:44
  have some feedback for us. And how do you go from and
• 0:47
  indicate his case? Player, then fan, then media.
• 0:50
  We were never a player. But yeah, and I would say stick
• 0:52
  around to the end of this, of this interview because this
• 0:55
  there's a there's a story involved in this.
• 0:56
  This is much that's much bigger than the game of basketball
• 0:59
  itself. And so I want everybody to who
• 1:02
  listens to us to kind of just, you know, pay attention to it
• 1:04
  because it's, it's one of those things where definitely when I
• 1:08
  was doing research for this episode got me kind of moved.
• 1:10
  And I think it'll it'll get you guys kind of moved as well.
• 1:12
  So I want you guys to hear it. Well, I want to introduce as we
• 1:18
  we mentioned a great special guest today, Scott Unger.
• 1:21
  Scott, thank you for joining Spider.
• 1:23
  Sound off. Hey, I appreciate it.
• 1:24
  Happy to be here. Welcome to the pod, Scott.
• 1:28
  It's exciting for us to have you on your, your Richmond
• 1:32
  basketball journey is only part of the story.
• 1:34
  You have a, you have also a very emerging and, and distinguished
• 1:39
  career as broadcaster for the Spiders.
• 1:41
  So we there's like 2 elements that we want to talk about and
• 1:45
  just excited to have this interview today.
• 1:47
  Yeah, we had a long time ago for us it seems this one of our
• 1:51
  early episodes we had Mike Skrocky on and talk about some
• 1:54
  beeline but also the transition to Wainwright.
• 1:57
  You are kind of a four year beeline guy and I guess the
• 2:00
  famously his first recruit. Is that story accurate?
• 2:04
  It is true. I was his first recruit to
• 2:06
  commit, you know, and then two weeks after my last game, which
• 2:11
  was against, you know, Syracuse, my hometown team, he took the
• 2:14
  West Virginia job. So it was, it was a great
• 2:17
  experience getting to have him. And, you know, I've known the
• 2:20
  beeline since I was a kid growing up.
• 2:22
  I went to I was 11 years old when he was at Lemoyne, you
• 2:25
  know, going to his basketball camp.
• 2:27
  So have have known him, his family, his cousins live down
• 2:30
  the street from us for for a long, long time.
• 2:33
  Wow. So what was that origination
• 2:35
  story like? So when you were getting
• 2:36
  recruited, kind of where else, what were you looking, kind of
• 2:39
  what made you choose to go the Richmond route?
• 2:43
  Yeah, that so. So Beeline was at Lemoyne and
• 2:46
  then he moved down I-90 to Canisius and was recruiting me
• 2:51
  there. His cousin Tom Niland lived down
• 2:53
  the street from me. And that actually we could tie
• 2:55
  that into baseball later as well.
• 2:57
  But you say you got to take a look at this kid.
• 2:59
  So I was getting recruited, you know, while Coach Beeline was at
• 3:02
  Canisius and then he took the Richmond job and continue to the
• 3:06
  recruitment. And my final three schools that
• 3:11
  I was choosing from was, was Richmond was Princeton and, and
• 3:15
  St. Bonaventures.
• 3:17
  I'll leave Saint Bonaventure's out.
• 3:18
  It was a less than enthusiastic fit and, and recruiting trip and
• 3:21
  the team, I didn't feel quite the connection.
• 3:25
  Princeton was a great visit, really enjoyed it.
• 3:27
  Coach Carmody was there at the time.
• 3:29
  They had a great team and I had I had good guys that I felt a
• 3:32
  nice vibe with, but also same thing with with Richmond.
• 3:36
  And ultimately, as I was choosing probably between
• 3:38
  Richmond and Princeton, you know, it's hard to tell anybody,
• 3:43
  but especially a 17 year old kid who's worked his butt off to get
• 3:47
  a scholarship to say here's a full Division One scholarship
• 3:52
  versus here's you're going to have to pay.
• 3:54
  You're going to have some of the challenges that you do with Ivy
• 3:56
  League. Obviously tons of positives with
• 3:58
  Ivy League and everything that comes with it.
• 4:00
  But I had worked for that scholarship.
• 4:02
  I had written it down on a little post it note when I was a
• 4:04
  freshman in high school. Division One scholarship, hard
• 4:07
  work, you know, effort. And it was right in front of me.
• 4:10
  And so ultimately, you know, I felt really comfortable with
• 4:13
  Coach B Line. I felt comfortable with the
• 4:15
  school, felt comfortable with the weather as a Syracuse being
• 4:19
  able to come down a little bit. And I knew some people from my
• 4:22
  high school who who were down this way and so so so selected
• 4:26
  it and, and honestly haven't looked back.
• 4:28
  And academically speaking, it's not like you were going from
• 4:30
  Richmond to insert school way at the bottom of the rankings, I
• 4:33
  mean, or sorry, from Princeton to way at the bottom.
• 4:35
  And Richmond's the top 25 university and most, most
• 4:38
  ranking systems. So that's, that's kind of kind
• 4:41
  of good too, right? Just the academic element.
• 4:43
  Of it, it was great and it was a great for me.
• 4:44
  And I was a biology major and a business minor.
• 4:47
  So, you know, it was a great to get that type of an education.
• 4:50
  And you're, you're right. There was no, no concerns with
• 4:52
  it. It stretched me, it pushed me.
• 4:54
  And I think it, you know, helps me today with that educational
• 4:57
  background that Richmond offered.
• 4:58
  Now I'm guessing, please tell me otherwise.
• 5:01
  And I'm guessing in high school you were not a point guard.
• 5:05
  So that's a good guess. You would be wrong.
• 5:08
  Wow, So you went point guard high school too?
• 5:10
  So most people would say I was the tallest kid on my team.
• 5:13
  I was the tallest kid in the school.
• 5:16
  But the one thing that my high school coach, Todd Widdrick did
• 5:19
  for me, I, I grew from 6/1 to 6/6 between my freshman and
• 5:22
  sophomore summer. So I was playing point guard as
• 5:24
  a freshman on the varsity. And then I grew and most people,
• 5:29
  most coaches high school would say I got to put 6667 down in
• 5:32
  the, in the, in the, in, in the post.
• 5:35
  And he made the decision to keep me out, play the guard, running
• 5:38
  the guard, which, you know, I played to my strengths.
• 5:40
  My strengths were definitely not speed.
• 5:43
  It was in how I could, you know, see and find people on the court
• 5:46
  and anticipate and get people the ball.
• 5:48
  And he kept me there in a time that most coaches wouldn't, and
• 5:52
  I really appreciate that because it allowed me to shine and show
• 5:56
  what I can do in a way that would transition to to the next
• 5:59
  game to. The next one made that
• 6:00
  transition easy because obviously that that was the role
• 6:02
  Beeline wanted you to play. That's right.
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  And I, you know, I, I, I, I could play down low.
• 6:07
  I could play, I was kind of, you know, the Swiss army knife for
• 6:10
  coach Beeline and I, I, I have visions of, you know, his, his,
• 6:15
  his little wooden, you know, version of the court that we
• 6:20
  would move around as I was playing point guard and then
• 6:22
  centre as of as a freshman, my second college game, I started
• 6:25
  at centre against UConn, you know, the year they win the
• 6:28
  national championship. And I'm like, what what the heck
• 6:31
  am I doing here? But you know, like I had the
• 6:34
  Swiss army knife and Beeline knew he could plug and play
• 6:36
  where I needed to be. But ultimately my biggest
• 6:39
  strength was finding finding ways to get people to basketball
• 6:43
  and, and, and positions that they could score.
• 6:45
  You were like an elite, if I so I remember correctly, you were
• 6:48
  kind of almost at first. What I would say is, is tall
• 6:51
  point guard that Richmond ran with because we when we were
• 6:54
  there, it was it was the smaller point guards.
• 6:56
  But. You had a you had elite vision.
• 6:59
  I mean, you could see kind of over top the defense and I think
• 7:02
  that bore itself out in your in your career stats.
• 7:05
  I mean, you're an all time leader, top three anyway and
• 7:08
  assists at Richmond. So like, how does that, how does
• 7:12
  that manifest, manifest itself from high school through to
• 7:15
  college? Because when you're in high
• 7:16
  school, you're 66, but you're passing the guys who are smaller
• 7:18
  than you in college. Now everybody's going to be your
• 7:21
  size or bigger. So how does that?
• 7:22
  How does that development occur? It's it's definitely an
• 7:26
  adjustment and one that I had to work and kind of struggle
• 7:29
  through freshman year, you know, because you, it's a lot easier
• 7:33
  to make those passes, you know, in high school when you're
• 7:35
  playing against smaller guys. And, and to your point, you
• 7:37
  know, like the, the, the lane is, it is clogged up.
• 7:40
  And so it's an, it was an adjustment for somebody who has
• 7:43
  the anticipation of like I see out of the corner of my eye,
• 7:45
  make the pass, but maybe I wasn't anticipating the longer
• 7:49
  arms. And so I struggle with that and
• 7:51
  coach behind also kind of tried to pull me back of you don't
• 7:53
  always have to make the flashy anticipated.
• 7:56
  No look, it's harder. They're faster, they're quicker,
• 7:59
  make the good pass with the knowledge and seeing where
• 8:02
  they're at start there and then you know, like, like anybody,
• 8:05
  right? You're coming in and you're,
• 8:07
  you're at an elite high school level and now everybody's out of
• 8:10
  elite college level. You get caught up with the pace,
• 8:13
  the play, the size of the play, and you settle into that as a
• 8:17
  sophomore and a junior and a senior.
• 8:19
  But I mean, I, I definitely struggle with it.
• 8:21
  And those were probably more things than anything when
• 8:23
  Beeline got on me as a freshman was I was trying to make passes
• 8:27
  that I could make in high school that just weren't happening in
• 8:31
  college that that that first year.
• 8:33
  How complicated was a learning beeline system?
• 8:36
  Like what was that like coming out of what you what you did in
• 8:38
  high school to now what I've learned or heard at least was a
• 8:41
  pretty complicated. It's super complicated in the,
• 8:46
  in the sense that it would, you know, most programs, they run
• 8:49
  set plays and they say we're going to call 4 or 1 four, you
• 8:52
  know, you have a set play and everybody knows where they're
• 8:54
  going to move. And then it stops and it's
• 8:56
  either score here or then just play.
• 8:59
  And you know, the complexities lies that you would have a, you
• 9:03
  know, you have a starting formation and the ball moves and
• 9:06
  then it's all read and react. You know, if I do a quickie and
• 9:10
  I pull back to get the ball, that means the other guard has
• 9:13
  to cut through. So I have to be watching what my
• 9:16
  team mates are doing. And then I have to also be
• 9:18
  watching how the defense is responding and reacting to what
• 9:22
  we do. So in that respect, it, it
• 9:25
  required a lot of thinking, which is probably good talking
• 9:31
  around our the program today to like it requires thinking that
• 9:34
  feels like it starts mechanically.
• 9:37
  Ultimately it becomes innate and natural and you start
• 9:40
  responding, reacting without thinking because thinking is
• 9:42
  good in basketball, but thinking too much is probably not so
• 9:46
  good. So it took a lot and for me, I
• 9:50
  had to learn all 5 positions. I wasn't just a guard, I wasn't
• 9:53
  just a wing. I played every position.
• 9:57
  I mean, I think I had the horsepower to do it.
• 9:59
  I think Beeline recognize that. But like once you get that, it
• 10:03
  helped me too, learning all 5, which was tough as a freshman,
• 10:06
  but once you have that and know it, it's a lot easier to kind of
• 10:09
  read react no matter where and then anticipate and then help
• 10:12
  people as well who were struggling with it.
• 10:16
  The you were on the team, if I remember correctly that was the
• 10:19
  last team to play in the CAA right before we moved to the
• 10:22
  A10. And hit a hot spot for me right
• 10:25
  now but. One, one of the greatest
• 10:28
  probably teams that if you're, if you're younger of one of our
• 10:30
  younger listeners, you might not realize how good that team was.
• 10:34
  And you ended up more than qualifying, in my opinion, for
• 10:38
  the NCAA tournament had a really strong RPI, which was the metric
• 10:41
  that people looked at back then. But you guys were banned from,
• 10:46
  from, from playing in the CAA tournament, which meant you
• 10:48
  couldn't get the automatic bid. So tell us about that as a
• 10:51
  player, what was that like and when and how did you cope with
• 10:54
  it? And.
• 10:56
  So, so I joke and also serious like that was to me when I talk
• 11:00
  about my four years. Our junior year was our best
• 11:04
  team, our most talented team. We had Greg Stevenson, we had
• 11:06
  Kente Smith, we had a young Reggie Brown playing.
• 11:09
  I mean, we had a really good team.
• 11:11
  We ran through the CAA. We're the regular season champs.
• 11:15
  This was when the Seagull Center.
• 11:17
  So let's take any jab we can at VCU.
• 11:19
  Seagull Center had just opened up.
• 11:21
  We clinched the regular season on the Seagull Center.
• 11:24
  We're cutting down the Nets on the Seagull Center.
• 11:27
  It was a great team, great league and we we felt we had
• 11:31
  done enough to make it in, you know, and, and we had a couple
• 11:35
  tough losses. I think William and Mary at home
• 11:37
  in January was a dud, but we felt we had done enough to make
• 11:40
  it in. We had the ESPN coming, you
• 11:42
  know, they had the parties and this is all early days, right?
• 11:45
  We don't have the podcast or all the, you know, the, the media
• 11:49
  that we do now, but we felt really good.
• 11:51
  And, and I can remember, and I'm, I'm pretty confident it was
• 11:54
  this team, but it, there was a, a commentary that Georgia made
• 11:57
  it in from the SEC and they were like 16 and 14 or 15 and 14.
• 12:01
  And I remember thinking that was our spot and, and we end up
• 12:05
  being the last team out and it was heartbreaking.
• 12:08
  It's tough because you felt like you were in it, but you know,
• 12:11
  that's the reality of it. Every single year there's four
• 12:14
  or five teams like we were then felt like they had earned it and
• 12:18
  didn't, and you just got to live with it.
• 12:21
  And it's tough as a player. And we had a tough night, you
• 12:24
  know, thinking about it. But then it's how do we rebound
• 12:26
  and get back to it? And we started off that NIT
• 12:29
  going up against West Virginia team that look at who we are,
• 12:33
  you know, they should beat us. They're the bigger team, bigger
• 12:35
  school, bigger history. And we ran them out of the
• 12:38
  Robbins Center and I. Drove down to that game from
• 12:41
  Northern Virginia and it was, it was a beat down of epic
• 12:44
  proportions. I mean, it was like, I think it
• 12:46
  was 80 to 55. I'm just, it sticks in my mind.
• 12:48
  But it was like a it was a it maybe it wasn't that bad, but it
• 12:50
  was a it was a beat down. It was a beat down and it was
• 12:53
  kind of to send that message again.
• 12:55
  I'm like, hey, y'all made a mistake.
• 12:57
  We can show you that we think you made a mistake.
• 13:00
  And I remember when they were doing the selection show,
• 13:02
  somebody said it was a lack of like the marquee wins that kept
• 13:06
  Richmond out. And so here you take a team that
• 13:09
  was generally respected in a big conference and you just showed
• 13:12
  the should the world, you know, the mistake that was made, which
• 13:15
  is only a small consolation prize, obviously, from playing
• 13:19
  in the dance. But I remember that it was a it
• 13:20
  was a heck of a game. Yeah.
• 13:22
  Yeah. And and, you know, I I wish I
• 13:24
  could have had when people ask me the questions you play in the
• 13:26
  dance and I have to say no. And then I have to tell, you
• 13:29
  know, we lost my sophomore year to UNCW.
• 13:31
  And you know, Wainwright was coaching there.
• 13:33
  And Danny Doll hits a 28 incher that touches every single Ant of
• 13:37
  the bout, backboard and the rim and somehow decides to fall in.
• 13:40
  You know, junior year we describe and then senior year
• 13:43
  making that transition to the Atlantic 10 with low
• 13:46
  expectations. And I talked a little bit about
• 13:49
  it after the Davidson game the other day or the Davidson game
• 13:51
  the other day. You know, like we were
• 13:53
  struggling too, but then turn it around and ultimately lose to my
• 13:57
  arch nemesis of Xavier. Like, it's hard.
• 14:00
  But those experiences, the West Virginia game and winning and
• 14:03
  then getting to the quarter finals of the NIT senior year,
• 14:06
  like those are still great memories.
• 14:08
  You know, like, and at the end of the day, there's so few
• 14:10
  people who've got a chance to do that and prolong careers.
• 14:12
  And you know, also we know there's, there's, there's,
• 14:16
  there's one team every year, you know, who ends at the top and
• 14:19
  everybody else ends. Everybody else leaves
• 14:21
  disappointed, right? That's right.
• 14:23
  So I consider. Myself, I'd love to go back.
• 14:24
  You mentioned Xavier, so I was a season ticket holder back then
• 14:28
  and I remember the the crowd, or at least where I was sitting
• 14:32
  doing the West is soft chant. Obviously he's he's amazing
• 14:37
  player and had a great NBA career.
• 14:39
  But do I remember right? That was like everyone used to
• 14:41
  go out the same tunnel, like behind the basket and there was
• 14:44
  a little scuffle, a little scuffle.
• 14:47
  There, there, there, there absolutely was a scuffle and
• 14:50
  that's what changed it after that game.
• 14:51
  I mean, we had it was this is a tough one.
• 14:54
  We had a 17 point lead I think in the second-half and we were
• 14:57
  running away and credit to Xavier David West, incredible
• 15:00
  player. You know, they had Romain Sado,
• 15:02
  Kevin Fry, not a fan of him at Lionel Chalmers was my AU
• 15:06
  backcourt mate growing up. He was from Albany.
• 15:09
  Great team. They made that comeback and got
• 15:11
  the win and you know, we were so disappointed and and I think
• 15:17
  they were so arrogant and confident and rightfully so.
• 15:22
  They just had a huge home Rd. victory.
• 15:25
  But we were we were leaving the corridor at the same time and
• 15:28
  things got chirpy, punches got thrown, blood was spilled.
• 15:32
  And that was the end of that was the end of the home team and
• 15:36
  visiting team going down the same hallway for game.
• 15:39
  So that. In that moment.
• 15:42
  It's a spider pod. We can say it was their fault,
• 15:44
  right? It was their fault.
• 15:46
  And you know, like, it's funny, I think so.
• 15:48
  That motto was a head coach and Xavier, Sean Miller, you know,
• 15:52
  Archie's brother was an assistant coach.
• 15:53
  And you know, I, I, I can remember our assistant coaches
• 15:57
  yelling at their assistant coaches.
• 15:59
  It was, it was an interesting time there.
• 16:01
  They, they got the better of us. But I'd I'd like to say maybe we
• 16:04
  won that little small blood battle too.
• 16:07
  I'll leave it. You mentioned to your your
• 16:09
  senior year getting to play in the NIT and advancing and have
• 16:13
  we had that Syracuse game at home and I know you're from up
• 16:17
  there, kind of what was that like going against probably a
• 16:20
  team that you you were very familiar with?
• 16:23
  Yeah, it it was, it was. It was a top highlight for me.
• 16:26
  My, my, my, the biggest highlight of my four years at
• 16:30
  Richmond was when we went back to the Dome as a sophomore and
• 16:32
  getting to play in this Carrier Dome and in front of family and
• 16:36
  friends. And we went and did pregame meal
• 16:38
  at my, my house. So our big old bus pulls up and
• 16:41
  we have 40 guys get out of my mom and aunt and made food for
• 16:44
  everybody. But that's that, that, that NIT
• 16:47
  game was also very special as well.
• 16:50
  And, and to go up against these guys, I played them in the
• 16:52
  summers, you know, we, we worked out together.
• 16:55
  I'd known, you know, Coach Beheim, you know, since I was in
• 16:58
  high school, they recruited me. We come up to games and watch.
• 17:01
  And so it was really, really special from that aspect.
• 17:05
  Wish it could have been a better game and a better output.
• 17:07
  They were a good team and they got us with that 2/3 as they, as
• 17:10
  they've gotten a lot of teams over Coach Beheim's career, but
• 17:14
  still a great experience. And you know, for me and for
• 17:17
  folks who know me a lot of my career that was special.
• 17:20
  There was my followers at the game came to every game, 36
• 17:24
  games. And I read received a
• 17:26
  recognition for the Kevin Eastman Award.
• 17:28
  And he he, he received his during at one of the timeouts
• 17:32
  and he went out there on the court and the, the spider fans
• 17:35
  were chanting Mr. you, Mr. Unger, which which was great.
• 17:38
  And all the games, everything, all the fun, the UPS and the
• 17:42
  downs that I had. The best part about it, bar
• 17:45
  none, was seeing my dad in the crowds and oftentimes my mom,
• 17:48
  when she could join as well. Win, loser, draw.
• 17:51
  He always had to smile. I know somebody I could count on
• 17:53
  and come back to. So that one has a special place
• 17:56
  in my heart too. Yeah.
• 17:58
  Now you played, you know, after graduating from Richmond, you
• 18:01
  played in Europe for a few years.
• 18:03
  Yeah, yeah. I was over seized for about four
• 18:06
  years. So I played three years in the
• 18:07
  Netherlands and then my last year was in Germany for for bio
• 18:11
  labor. KUSA Yeah, that.
• 18:12
  Was I don't I hesitate to ask this next question because like
• 18:15
  AII use a lot of AI to get ready for interviews and so I found
• 18:20
  that AI will lie to me. And so I don't know if this is
• 18:23
  accurate or not, but at least one AI engine said you scored 33
• 18:26
  points in a game in the Netherlands and then another one
• 18:28
  said no, it was 29. So did what was your best
• 18:30
  scoring up with? It was at least 33, might have
• 18:33
  been more. That's true.
• 18:34
  Yep, Yep. That was well, that was my third
• 18:36
  year. That is true.
• 18:39
  Yeah. So so I went over to the
• 18:43
  Netherlands and was kind of recruited to play and also
• 18:49
  install Beeline's offense, the two guard with my team, which
• 18:54
  was. About a great compliment, right?
• 18:57
  Fascinating and incredible and, you know, daunting, but we made
• 19:02
  it work. It takes time.
• 19:04
  It was a system. IA lot of times you see players
• 19:06
  go over and they play one year and they jump to the next
• 19:09
  contract, jump to the next contract.
• 19:11
  I knew I wasn't going to play till I was 40.
• 19:14
  I knew I wanted to feel a good fit and the two card was
• 19:18
  something that helped bring out my strengths and skills, so it
• 19:20
  made sense to stay there. I'm not going to be the
• 19:22
  flashiest guy going places over there.
• 19:25
  At the time, being American, you were expected to put up big
• 19:27
  points. Be the flash, be the the dunker
• 19:30
  that you shooter. Do everything.
• 19:31
  My my style was different. So we built this two guard
• 19:35
  offense together and ultimately it culminated with the third
• 19:38
  year being there in Zuola that we made it to the Dutch
• 19:42
  championship for the first time ever.
• 19:44
  We lost, but it was the first time ever to kind of catapulted
• 19:48
  that franchise and that team to where they, you know, have have
• 19:51
  grown tremendously. They've won the the the Dutch
• 19:55
  area division, which is the the top division and have been
• 19:58
  incredibly successful. I will say that that.
• 20:02
  Year 2004, 2005 was my favorite year as well because I got to do
• 20:07
  some recruiting along with the coaching and the play.
• 20:10
  And we brought Jonathan Collins was my, you know, one of my best
• 20:13
  friends from from college, 4 year college roommate and then
• 20:16
  Greg Stevenson. We all got to kind of bring the
• 20:18
  band back and play together for a year, which made it just an
• 20:23
  extra special year where young kids over in Europe getting paid
• 20:26
  to play a game, living out a dream and and having success
• 20:29
  with it. So it was.
• 20:30
  It was amazing. That's cool.
• 20:33
  So maybe transition a bit to your, your, your current job
• 20:38
  with U of R. So you've been, is this your
• 20:42
  second season kind of as the, the main, I guess, partner to,
• 20:47
  to Bob Black? Yeah, maybe before we get into
• 20:50
  all of that, obviously kind of you replace the legend and Greg
• 20:53
  Beckwith, who until Gilliard came around was #1 in in assists
• 21:01
  and you were #2 but but tell us what it was like because you
• 21:05
  filled in a little bit for Greg before.
• 21:08
  So kind of what was your relationship with Greg?
• 21:10
  Obviously Hall of Fame point guard for U of R that you know,
• 21:15
  sadly we we lost. Yeah, Beck and I, we knew each
• 21:18
  other going back to my college playing day.
• 21:20
  Same with Bob. You know, and probably similar
• 21:22
  to how a lot of people who got to know Beck, he always had the
• 21:25
  smile. We always had the, you know,
• 21:27
  resonating as the the two point guards.
• 21:30
  I mean, there was definitely a little bit of trash thrown back
• 21:32
  and forth that he was number 1. And I was #2 on the assist list.
• 21:37
  I said you were passing to Johnny Newman.
• 21:39
  That's not fair. But yeah, we could, we, we could
• 21:44
  debate who was right there. But no, I mean, he, he was an
• 21:46
  incredible person and, and confidant, you know, for, for us
• 21:51
  to connect with and, and giving insights to on the game.
• 21:54
  Obviously our styles and our approach and who we were were
• 21:58
  very different on the court. But in the other aspect, our
• 22:01
  natural tendencies were about distributing the basketball.
• 22:04
  So we shared that together. We could share some of the
• 22:07
  things maybe that we saw on the court, things that could be
• 22:10
  doing better. And I, I think apart from
• 22:13
  passing the basketball, I think the, the leadership traits and
• 22:15
  how we could pull people together and, and pull
• 22:17
  superstars together and connect them and get them motivated.
• 22:20
  I think was something, was something great.
• 22:22
  So it was a, you know, a, a massive hole, losing him for
• 22:27
  what he brought to the program, for what he brought to this life
• 22:31
  positivity, no matter what. And I think in the role, in the
• 22:37
  seat, I'm doing what I can to to represent and, and, and keep
• 22:43
  that positive positivity and keep that push.
• 22:46
  And I, I think it's a testament of how well you're doing that,
• 22:49
  you know, it's, it's almost impossible to follow a legend,
• 22:52
  right? Like it's almost when, when
• 22:53
  somebody's that good at what they do, it's like, you know,
• 22:56
  the next guy is going to be a disappointment.
• 22:59
  But no, never have I heard anybody say anything other than
• 23:02
  man, hunger is good on the radio, he's good on TV.
• 23:04
  So like, it's a credit to you to be able to step into those
• 23:08
  ginormous shoes and just be respected for for being a pro,
• 23:11
  right? Which is yeah, yeah, I, well, I,
• 23:14
  I appreciate that. I think the reality of this is
• 23:16
  right. You're never going to please
• 23:17
  everybody. There's always going to be
• 23:18
  naysayers when you're out in the public eye, and that's fine.
• 23:21
  And, you know, my life, there's a lot going on and there's been
• 23:26
  a lot in my life and ups and downs and some tough downs.
• 23:29
  And, you know, I try to take more of the positive approach
• 23:35
  and an optimistic approach to things.
• 23:37
  This is something fun for me. I love basketball.
• 23:40
  I love the University of Richmond.
• 23:42
  I like creating opportunities to talk about it and, and have fun
• 23:46
  with it. But I've got proper perspective
• 23:48
  on what it is, you know, And so I try to bring that to the
• 23:51
  games. It's, you know, some days it's
• 23:53
  harder than others to be, you know, try to stay optimistic
• 23:56
  and, and, and my job is to as best as possible, call a spade a
• 24:00
  spade. And when it is, but also, you
• 24:04
  know, I've been on the court, I've worked with coaches.
• 24:09
  These guys are doing the best they can.
• 24:11
  They're not doing it because they're negligent.
• 24:13
  They're not struggling because they don't care.
• 24:15
  I mean, like they're working hard.
• 24:17
  And I I give them the benefit of the doubt, having been in the
• 24:20
  seat and and been on that court. With them, yeah, that's great.
• 24:24
  Pivoting to a different side of Scott Unger that I didn't know
• 24:28
  until I started doing research on this episode.
• 24:31
  And that is the it's a great tragedy you've suffered in your
• 24:35
  in your personal life. Tell us a little bit about Luke
• 24:38
  and the charity you established on his behalf.
• 24:41
  Yeah, well, I appreciate you bringing it up, Porter.
• 24:43
  And and I think, you know, the reality of it is a lot of people
• 24:47
  who might be listening to this podcast think of me in the role
• 24:50
  of a commentator or the role of a player and identify me that
• 24:53
  way as as fathers, as parents. You know, I identify myself as a
• 24:59
  parent now, identify myself as a parent for Luke.
• 25:01
  And Luke was our oldest son. He was born in 2012 and we were
• 25:06
  living in Indianapolis at the time and perfectly healthy boy
• 25:11
  for his first three years of his life, and then started having
• 25:14
  seizures, which we were treating as a seizure disorder.
• 25:16
  And in 2015 and in June of 15, he was diagnosed with
• 25:21
  glioblastoma multiform, so brain cancer.
• 25:24
  And we had our lives turned upside down at that moment.
• 25:29
  It was just kind of an unthinkable thing and he
• 25:33
  withstood 11 half hour surgery, 32 rounds of proton radiation up
• 25:40
  in Chicago that summer, and then two more rounds of intense
• 25:43
  chemotherapy back in Indianapolis in the in the fall
• 25:47
  of 2015. Anybody who has heard of GBM,
• 25:50
  it's very common malignant cancer for for adults, super
• 25:53
  rare and super brutal. And, and he passed away in
• 25:57
  January of 2016 just before his 4th birthday, which is this
• 26:02
  coming Saturday. So I don't know when this will
• 26:04
  be airing, but February 7th, he'd be turning 13.
• 26:07
  So it was a horrible lofts. It's left a massive hole in our
• 26:11
  lives. My wife Sheila and I, we try to
• 26:14
  do what we can to pick ourselves up because we still have kids.
• 26:17
  We have three other kids in the house who need mom and dad.
• 26:21
  They need mom and dad to step up.
• 26:22
  And so we've done our best to do that, to be parents.
• 26:25
  But then also to try and honor Luke's of getting to your
• 26:28
  question, we started a charity under Saint Baldrick's, the
• 26:32
  largest private pediatric Cancer Research donor and organization
• 26:39
  and it was Lukes Army. And we started that in 2016
• 26:42
  after Luke passed away. And last year in 2025, we
• 26:48
  actually surpassed the $1 million mark and funds raised.
• 26:53
  We funded several different pediatric Cancer Research
• 26:56
  trials, some that are ongoing right now.
• 26:59
  And you know, the hope is, you know, you can have lots of hopes
• 27:04
  and prayers and I do a lot of that guys for, for health and
• 27:07
  cures. But at the end of the day,
• 27:09
  dollars matter and dollars matter going to super smart
• 27:13
  people who have super big ideas that they need to try and test.
• 27:18
  And Saint Baldrick's is one of those organizations trying to
• 27:21
  give them that opportunity. We've been happy to support that
• 27:25
  and kind of keep keep Luke's legacy alive.
• 27:28
  So for our listeners, it's saintbaldricks.org,
• 27:31
  stbaldricks.org. You can search on Luke's army at
• 27:38
  the top of the screen and it'll come up with the page which
• 27:41
  talks about Luke and talks about the, the, the fight you guys
• 27:44
  have had to, to raise money to stamp out this, this terrible
• 27:48
  disease over $1,000,000, now raised $1,075,000, which I mean,
• 27:54
  that's amazing, man. That's just awesome stuff.
• 27:57
  It, it gave me perspective because, you know, we're, we're
• 27:59
  a basketball podcast and we, we remember the player on the court
• 28:02
  and now we remember the broadcaster after the court.
• 28:04
  But in between, you know, that and, and now there's this thing
• 28:08
  called life. And you know, you go through
• 28:10
  life like everybody and, and in this case, you've, you've dealt
• 28:13
  with an unimaginable tragedy. Tell us a little bit about how
• 28:17
  Luke has inspired you to be the person you are today.
• 28:21
  Yeah. So it's a great question and
• 28:24
  I'll I'll, maybe I'll answer with a story about Luke and then
• 28:28
  kind of a quick view that you guys will have heard of how I
• 28:31
  try to approach it. After Luke's surgery, we were on
• 28:36
  the phone with his team trying to figure out what we're going
• 28:38
  to do next options, proton radiation chemotherapy.
• 28:41
  And here we are with these super smart pediatric oncologist,
• 28:46
  neuro oncologist, and they're talking about the options.
• 28:49
  And then they said to my wife and I, well, what do you want to
• 28:53
  do? And it was the, one of the most
• 28:55
  helpless feelings I've ever had, probably the most in my life
• 28:58
  because I wasn't an expert. And, and the experts are saying
• 29:02
  there is no protocol, there's nothing.
• 29:05
  And it was a really hard kind of dark moment, dark time.
• 29:07
  And the, the, the next morning we were having a hard time
• 29:11
  getting out of bed. You know, I was just like, what,
• 29:13
  what we can't, this is what is happening.
• 29:16
  I can't, can't do this. We can't do this.
• 29:18
  And I can still remember. I'm laying there and in walks
• 29:22
  Luke, just a few days out of surgery.
• 29:24
  He's walking out and his head's swole.
• 29:26
  He's got this massive scar and he's gotten dressed and he's
• 29:32
  starts to pull at the sheets in the bed like, let's go.
• 29:37
  It's time to start the day. And I'll remember for the rest
• 29:42
  of my life, you know, from that moment on, Sheila and I looked
• 29:45
  at each other and just said, if he's doing it, we're doing it.
• 29:49
  And so Luke polled us, the kid and the person who had all the
• 29:54
  reasons to be mad, sad, this isn't fair, polled us and said,
• 29:57
  let's do the day. And I remember that because we
• 30:00
  all have crap days. We all have days we don't want
• 30:03
  to get out of the bed. We all have days.
• 30:05
  That's the woe is me. That boy I know had bad days,
• 30:10
  wow, bad days. And he made the choice to get
• 30:14
  up, to get out of bed and to move.
• 30:17
  And I remember that and I tried to live that way.
• 30:21
  Now I try to think about the wolves, you know, are you going
• 30:25
  to feed the positive, the optimist, or you going to feed
• 30:28
  the negative and the doubtful? You've got a choice every day of
• 30:31
  how you want to do it. And some days it's in the
• 30:33
  between and some days you're just like, I got to breathe
• 30:35
  through this day. But more times than not, I
• 30:38
  really try to feed the positive, the hopeful, the optimistic,
• 30:42
  because that's what Luke did. It's an incredible perspective
• 30:46
  and it sounds like he was an incredible young boy.
• 30:49
  Again for our listener St. Baldricks.org search on Luke's
• 30:53
  Army and go out there and and support Scott and his wife and
• 30:57
  his family and and helping the next family that deals with this
• 31:01
  kind of tragedy. Fight the fight.
• 31:03
  Yeah, and we can post it on our social.
• 31:04
  Yeah. Absolutely where we're put.
• 31:07
  Get that link out there. I mean, we, if we've get maybe
• 31:10
  we average 150 folks go listening or watching us each
• 31:14
  episode. Like really challenge to all of
• 31:17
  you out there listening to this like go to go to that link or go
• 31:20
  search it. If you're just listening, make a
• 31:23
  donation because like Scott said, that money is going to go
• 31:27
  to some smart person who's got a try something new or or do
• 31:32
  another test of something they're working on to to get to
• 31:36
  that get to that cure. Yeah.
• 31:38
  And I mean, it's, it's a credit again, just to you and, and, and
• 31:42
  your, the way that you review life, because you do have those
• 31:46
  other three kids that need you, that you guys have come through
• 31:49
  so strongly and, and you're such a, a role model for people, you
• 31:52
  know, battling things in life. Man, that's just a, that's just
• 31:55
  like I, I, I said, I actually texted you before the episode
• 31:58
  say, Hey, would it be OK if I ask you about this?
• 31:59
  Because I was hearing and looking at the story this
• 32:02
  morning and I'm like, I was tearing up.
• 32:04
  I'm like, I can't imagine that tragedy, Scott, that just it
• 32:06
  just it just shook me and I'm I. Think most people wouldn't see
• 32:11
  us and see my wife if you saw her as well and think that that
• 32:14
  was in a background. I think the way that we try to
• 32:16
  approach life and approach people and, and relationships
• 32:21
  and, and sometimes maybe that's part of why I'm here too, is to
• 32:25
  show people you can work through it.
• 32:26
  And despite the worst of the worst, you can still have a good
• 32:31
  life and live a good life and live a good positive life
• 32:34
  despite the challenges that come.
• 32:36
  Thank you so much for being a spider.
• 32:38
  Thank you so much for your continued support of all spiders
• 32:41
  by being the broadcaster that you are and the, and the fan of
• 32:45
  the program that you are. We really appreciate you coming
• 32:48
  on. And again, we'll, we'll put all
• 32:50
  the, the links to your, to your charity out on our socials and,
• 32:53
  and if you're listening to this and, and you can find it in your
• 32:57
  heart to help out, we would, we definitely would appreciate it.
• 32:59
  Yeah. And I hope when you get to this
• 33:01
  weekend you can broadcast something and be positive
• 33:05
  because positive things are going on and we break this
• 33:07
  losing streak. I know that's that's that's got
• 33:10
  to be tough trying to be the broadcaster and be positive when
• 33:14
  things are going aren't going well.
• 33:16
  So hopefully you get some some good things to cheer about.
• 33:19
  I'd love for that too. This is nothing more than that.
• 33:23
  Yeah, awesome, Scott. Well, we really appreciate your
• 33:25
  time and and thanks for coming on Spider sound off.
• 33:28
  We look forward to seeing you in the Robin Center more this year.
• 33:31
  That sounds good. Appreciate it, guys.
• 33:32
  Thanks a lot. Thanks, we will.
• 33:39
  Try to be funny.