Latest / The Craig Way Show / Sean Miller introduced as the next Texas Longhorns Men's Basketball Coach

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Sean Miller introduced as the next Texas Longhorns Men's Basketball Coach · The Craig Way Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the program here on sports
0:04
Speaker 1: Radio AM thirteen hundred. The Zone is who bring you
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Speaker 1: the program this afternoon from UFCU dish falk Field, where
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Speaker 1: the Texas long worn baseball team as a non conference
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Speaker 1: game tonight with the Bearcats of sam Houston State University.
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Speaker 1: SAM Houston will take on a Texas team that is
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Speaker 1: up to as high as number three in some of
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Speaker 1: the polls following their weekend series win over the LSU Tigers. Okay,
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Speaker 1: so that's one element of University of Texas athletics. Right
0:29
Speaker 1: across the freeway from US right now is University of
0:34
Speaker 1: Texas football. Spring practice got underway today and Pro Timing
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Speaker 1: Day underway as well on the UT campus inside the bubble.
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Speaker 2: So that's been going on.
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Speaker 1: So you have football, baseball, women's basketball. We know from
0:48
Speaker 1: the broadcast we brought you yesterday here on the Zone
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Speaker 1: that the Texas women are back in the Sweet sixteen
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Speaker 1: for the fourth time in the five years under Vick Schaeffer,
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Speaker 1: winning yesterday afternoon eighty five sixty eight over Illinois. And
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Speaker 1: now for the Longhorns, it's on the Birmingham, Alabama and
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Speaker 1: a Saturday afternoon matchup in the sweet sixteen, a rematch
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Speaker 1: from the regular season contest with the Tennessee Lady Valls,
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Speaker 1: whom they defeated back on January twenty third, so just
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Speaker 1: a tiny bit over two months ago. They beat Tennessee
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Speaker 1: on a Thursday night at Moody Center in a thriller
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Speaker 1: eighty to seventy six. And then you have a long
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Speaker 1: worn baseball excuse me, long wrnon men's basketball, which today
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Speaker 1: introduced you to their new head coach. We brought you
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Speaker 1: the news conference live this morning at eleven o'clock here
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Speaker 1: on the Zone as Sean Miller was introduced as the
1:39
Speaker 1: new head basketball coach at the University of Texas. We're
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Speaker 1: gonna hear from Coach Miller, his comments, his opening statement,
1:46
Speaker 1: if you will, from that news conference coming up in
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Speaker 1: just a few minutes. So, yes, a very busy time.
1:52
Speaker 1: And that doesn't even get into the other sports like
1:54
Speaker 1: softball going on. And they're number two in the country
1:57
Speaker 1: and they come off the series suite of Auburn Men's
2:00
Speaker 1: and women swimming and dogging have been competing in NCAA
2:03
Speaker 1: championship events, track and field, underway, men's and women's tennis.
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Speaker 2: And golf.
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Speaker 1: So there's an awful lot going on, but we try
2:13
Speaker 1: our best to keep up with everything, and we of
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Speaker 1: course includes the producer of this program, Cameron D. Parker
2:18
Speaker 1: that he on the birth certificate stands for Dallas.
2:22
Speaker 2: It's kind of.
2:23
Speaker 1: Quiet in terms of the team for whom he is
2:27
Speaker 1: given the middle name, the Dallas Cowboys at the moment
2:30
Speaker 1: in the offseason. But Dallas Mavericks got Anthony Davis back
2:34
Speaker 1: last night and he had a productive game, and the
2:37
Speaker 1: Mavericks beat the Nets last night, and wouldn't go too
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Speaker 1: crazy over that, after all, the Nets aren't very good,
2:42
Speaker 1: but at least it was a positive sign in the
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Speaker 1: right direction. D for direction, I guess Cam because of
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Speaker 1: the directions we've been pulled in over the past several.
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Speaker 2: Days, no doubt.
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Speaker 3: And we'll head out to the east, to the southeast
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Speaker 3: of Birmingham, Alabama in a few days. So it's been
2:59
Speaker 3: nice to be home for a couple of days, being
3:02
Speaker 3: back here in the iHeart Studios, seeing all over co
3:05
Speaker 3: workers and they're goh, you still work here, Yeah, yeah,
3:09
Speaker 3: we still work here. We've been on the air every day,
3:12
Speaker 3: is just we've been in different cities and across the
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Speaker 3: United States, but it's a fun day, a sad day
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Speaker 3: in some regards, but a fun day and an exciting
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Speaker 3: day for Texas and basketball.
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Speaker 1: I take it to referring to sadness in that, of course,
3:30
Speaker 1: the replacement at Texas for the men's basketball program. And
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Speaker 1: while there's excitement there for Sean Miller, I thought that
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Speaker 1: Coach Miller, and you'll hear him say this, I thought
3:40
Speaker 1: that Vice President Director of Athletics Chryst del Conte, as
3:44
Speaker 1: well as the chairman of the Board of Regents, Kevin
3:46
Speaker 1: el Type, and Jim Davis, a university president and own president,
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Speaker 1: all had glowing tributes for Rodney Terry and the things
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Speaker 1: that he did in this difficult situation into which he
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Speaker 1: was thrust in December of twenty twenty two and guided
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Speaker 1: the program and the players on that roster and held
4:05
Speaker 1: it together and got them to the Elite eight. And
4:08
Speaker 1: then they went back to the NCAA Tournament. Last year
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Speaker 1: reached the second round of the tournament before falling to Tennessee.
4:15
Speaker 1: And this year reaching the NCAA Tournament but losing in
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Speaker 1: the first four round, and athletic direction in the department direction,
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Speaker 1: and again CDC made a very very vocal point of
4:26
Speaker 1: pointing out that nothing's done in a vacuum.
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Speaker 2: That there is the.
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Speaker 1: Considered opinion of really those three, Kevin Elsie and the
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Speaker 1: interim president Jim Davison, and himself obviously CRYSTALCNTI on a
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Speaker 1: change in direction with a basketball program. But they all
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Speaker 1: did thank Rodney Terry for his work, so and we
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Speaker 1: salute him as well. Roddy and his stafford great guys
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Speaker 1: and a few of the staff members were around the
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Speaker 1: day and we're there along with varsity head coaches. Art
5:00
Speaker 1: came over coming off of the practice field, came over
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Speaker 1: for the introductory news conference. He was there. Jim Schlasnagel,
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Speaker 1: the long WRNS head baseball coach, was there. Vick Schaefer,
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Speaker 1: the Texas women's basketball coach, was there. Ange Kelly, Texas
5:14
Speaker 1: soccer coach, was there. Jared Elliott, Texas volleyball coach, was there.
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Speaker 1: There were several of the UT Athletic Department varsity coaches
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Speaker 1: who were there, so it was good to see that
5:24
Speaker 1: as well.
5:24
Speaker 2: All right, we need a break.
5:26
Speaker 1: When we come back, we're going to bring to you
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Speaker 1: the comments from Sean Miller, the brand new head basketball
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Speaker 1: coach at the University of Texas here on this Tuesday
5:36
Speaker 1: afternoon on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone. Glad
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Speaker 1: to be with you here on this Tuesday afternoon and
5:42
Speaker 1: Tuesday evening going to be long WRN Baseball as Texas
5:44
Speaker 1: takes on Sam Houston tonight and then Texas goes on
5:47
Speaker 1: the road for another SEC Conference series and we in Columbia,
5:51
Speaker 1: Missouri to take on the Missouri Tigers this weekend. But
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Speaker 1: we want to jump right in with hearing from the
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Speaker 1: brand new i head basketball coach at the University of Texas.
6:02
Speaker 1: It was a news conference we brought you live this
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Speaker 1: morning here on the Zone. But here's a sample of it.
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Speaker 1: These were the comments, the introductory comments after just being
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Speaker 1: introduced by christ Do Konze, the university vice president and
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Speaker 1: director of Athletics. But here are the thoughts, the comments.
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Speaker 1: The opening comments from brand new head basketball coach Sean Miller.
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Speaker 4: Well, thank you. It goes without saying.
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Speaker 5: This is a day that doesn't happen to many people
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Speaker 5: in life, and I know this is a life changing
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Speaker 5: opportunity for my family, my wife and I and I
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Speaker 5: see it no less than that, and I'm so looking
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Speaker 5: forward to the future of doing amazing things like Chris
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Speaker 5: had mentioned, which has become the standard here at Texas
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Speaker 5: and what appears to me to be in virtually every sport.
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Speaker 5: I want to start my comments here this afternoon or
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Speaker 5: this morning thanking the place that I left. Xavier University
7:05
Speaker 5: is a small Jesuit school in Cincinnati, Ohio, and it
7:09
Speaker 5: is an amazing place to be the college basketball coach.
7:13
Speaker 5: There has incredible meaning to the university. They're athletic director
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Speaker 5: Greg Christopher and President Colleen Hannich believed in me, gave
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Speaker 5: me an opportunity, and it's when change happens. There's always
7:29
Speaker 5: people and things going in two different directions. That directions
7:34
Speaker 5: you wouldn't want me to be the coach if I
7:36
Speaker 5: didn't have some strong feelings about the place that I left.
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Speaker 4: I love that place.
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Speaker 5: If you think about my journey, I've been a coach
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Speaker 5: for thirty two years in college basketball. Eleven of those
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Speaker 5: thirty two were at Xavier, eight as the head coach
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Speaker 5: in two different stints. It's a place that trusted me,
7:54
Speaker 5: believed in me. And when I tell you I'm forever
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Speaker 5: a part of them and forever grateful, that would be
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Speaker 5: an understatement. And I like to think everybody that's associated
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Speaker 5: with that place.
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Speaker 4: That I left.
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Speaker 5: By the way, it's ironic that we just played Texas, right,
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Speaker 5: And I think that anybody that watched the game on
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Speaker 5: TV or was at that game would feel that passion
8:18
Speaker 5: that I'm describing about the fans. I mean, it was,
8:21
Speaker 5: unfortunately for Texas, a true road game, and we certainly
8:25
Speaker 5: were able to take advantage of that great crowd.
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Speaker 4: In terms of.
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Speaker 5: Today, I would like to thank Chairman El Taive, President Davis,
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Speaker 5: and certainly Chris del Conte for this unbelievable opportunity. We
8:39
Speaker 5: spent some time talking this morning and they all kind
8:43
Speaker 5: of started the conversation with a lot of things, but
8:46
Speaker 5: the thing that resonated with me more than anything is
8:49
Speaker 5: the brand or slogan. You know, what begins here at Texas,
8:55
Speaker 5: what starts here changes the world, right, What starts here
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Speaker 5: at Texas changes the world.
9:00
Speaker 4: And it's like, when you.
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Speaker 5: Think about that, that is an incredibly powerful statement. And
9:05
Speaker 5: to be the coach here is quite an honor. Rodney
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Speaker 5: Terry is somebody that I know as a coaching friend,
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Speaker 5: and I've known Rodney both as an assistant head coach
9:18
Speaker 5: and he was at Fresno and UTEP and certainly we
9:20
Speaker 5: competed against each other at two different times while he
9:23
Speaker 5: was the head coach here at Texas and I was
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Speaker 5: at Xavier. I have immense respect for him. He's a
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Speaker 5: great man. He did an incredible job, and he impacted
9:35
Speaker 5: Texas the University of Texas in his basketball program in
9:39
Speaker 5: a much greater way than just his final three years.
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Speaker 4: He was actually here for a total of twelve.
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Speaker 5: Years, and in my runs at both Xavier and Arizona
9:49
Speaker 5: when we played Texas, I coached against Texas when he
9:52
Speaker 5: was both the assistant and head coach. So I know
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Speaker 5: he's given his heart and soul to this place and
9:57
Speaker 5: just want to make sure from that perspective again, when
10:01
Speaker 5: change happens, people.
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Speaker 4: Go in different ways.
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Speaker 5: I have certainly an amazing amount of respect for what
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Speaker 5: he's done for this basketball program. I'm so excited to
10:10
Speaker 5: be here at Texas. When we talked this morning, I
10:15
Speaker 5: didn't realize that the athletic department has won three out
10:19
Speaker 5: of four Director's Cups. I believe it. Stanford owned that
10:23
Speaker 5: identity for a long period of time. No longer, and
10:27
Speaker 5: when you see the success in other programs, I'm anxious
10:31
Speaker 5: to meet coach Schaeffer. Laura Ianello is somebody that I
10:36
Speaker 5: worked with when I was the coach at Arizona, and
10:38
Speaker 5: she was the women's golf coach at Arizona. She's now
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Speaker 5: here at Texas and I haven't seen her yet, but
10:44
Speaker 5: she was a national championship coach at Arizona. She's here
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Speaker 5: now at Texas. And then obviously football, Steve Sarkesian. I've
10:54
Speaker 5: been a fan. I'm a huge college football fan, probably
10:57
Speaker 5: because I grew up in Pittsburgh. You say, coach, who
11:01
Speaker 5: do you watch the most? Amy And I like, we
11:05
Speaker 5: damn near put on like Franco Harris's jersey and watch
11:08
Speaker 5: the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday and sometimes I save my
11:12
Speaker 5: energy and I just watched that SEC game on Saturday.
11:15
Speaker 5: But I've watched the rise of Steve. We were in
11:18
Speaker 5: the Pac twelve together. He was at obviously Washington and SC.
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Speaker 5: We have a common friend Kevin McGuff who I know
11:26
Speaker 5: he worked with at Washington. And I've become a fan
11:29
Speaker 5: of watching the SEC football in Texas.
11:32
Speaker 4: It's like, what do you do on weekends?
11:34
Speaker 5: That's a big part of what I like to do
11:36
Speaker 5: before our season starts. Bjeon Robinson went to South Point
11:41
Speaker 5: High School in Tucson. I went to high school in
11:43
Speaker 5: the same class as my youngest son, Brayden, which is
11:47
Speaker 5: wild to watch him here in little old Tucson playing
11:49
Speaker 5: high school football and watch him become the offensive rookie
11:53
Speaker 5: of the year with the Falcons.
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Speaker 4: It's like, Wow, that's Bijon.
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Speaker 5: You know, a guy that I used to watch in
11:58
Speaker 5: ninth and tenth grade. So I'm anxious to be a
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Speaker 5: part of that fabric and embrace everybody here and do
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Speaker 5: what those other.
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Speaker 4: Programs have done.
12:09
Speaker 5: And there's no doubt in my mind that when you're
12:11
Speaker 5: the flagship school the state of Texas, your power is limitless.
12:16
Speaker 5: When you're a part of the SEC, it just means more.
12:20
Speaker 5: I don't know if there's a slogan that makes more
12:22
Speaker 5: sense than that. You feel it on football Saturdays. You
12:25
Speaker 5: feel it in this year's Sweet Sixteen in basketball. For
12:29
Speaker 5: a minute there, I thought all sixteen teams were from
12:31
Speaker 5: the SEC. You step away and like, wow, arguably the
12:36
Speaker 5: greatest conference ever put together is in present time in
12:40
Speaker 5: the SEC. When you talk about basketball in terms of
12:46
Speaker 5: the former players, I have lived that life two different
12:49
Speaker 5: times at Xavier, where you have incredible players, David West,
12:54
Speaker 5: James Posey at a smaller school.
12:56
Speaker 4: Brian Grant, Tyrone Hill.
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Speaker 5: To welcome them back and make sure that they know
13:01
Speaker 5: that this program is always there. When I went to
13:05
Speaker 5: Arizona and took over, I was the fourth coach in
13:08
Speaker 5: four years. Lude Olsen's shadow is immense, and what he
13:12
Speaker 5: built there at the University of Arizona, that program will
13:15
Speaker 5: forever be his program. But those players, Jason Terry who
13:19
Speaker 5: worked on my staff, Damon Stodamayer who worked on my staff,
13:22
Speaker 5: Joseph Blair was going to be an NBA head coach
13:25
Speaker 5: here soon worked on my staff, Steve Kerr, Richard Jefferson,
13:30
Speaker 5: Gilbert Arenas. I can keep going those guys. I tried
13:34
Speaker 5: always to make sure that they understood that the coach
13:37
Speaker 5: may have changed, but what they built is what we
13:40
Speaker 5: live on and you're always welcome in our program here
13:44
Speaker 5: at Texas. I could name a lot of names, some
13:47
Speaker 5: of which are right here in the crowd, but TJ.
13:50
Speaker 5: Ford from Houston, obviously, Kevin Durant, who's from d c
13:56
Speaker 5: LaMarcus Aldridge from Dallas, Avery Bradley from Seattle. I bring
14:01
Speaker 5: those examples up because you see that the great state
14:05
Speaker 5: of Texas, like it might be the most talent rich
14:09
Speaker 5: state in our country when it comes to recruiting. Yet
14:12
Speaker 5: you know what starts here changes the world. You can
14:15
Speaker 5: go to Canada and get Tristan Thompson, you can go
14:18
Speaker 5: to Seattle and get Avery Bradley. It's both the combination
14:21
Speaker 5: of this great state and also the world. And I
14:24
Speaker 5: think our job is to recruit the world and bring
14:27
Speaker 5: the best programing team we can here to Texas and
14:31
Speaker 5: super excited about that. The same with the coaching history,
14:35
Speaker 5: whether it's Shaka Smart Chris Beard from recent times, and
14:39
Speaker 5: I know both guys well. Chris is a good friend Shaka.
14:44
Speaker 5: I just finished coaching against him in the last three
14:46
Speaker 5: years of Marquette.
14:47
Speaker 4: We played them three times this year.
14:49
Speaker 5: The games of all three games were decided by a
14:52
Speaker 5: grand total of six points. They were just absolute basketball wars.
14:57
Speaker 5: Tom Penders I've known since I've been in second grade.
15:00
Speaker 5: He was somebody that I met a long long time
15:03
Speaker 5: ago growing up. And then Coach Barnes. He may get
15:06
Speaker 5: mad at me, Rick Barnes, but if you can imagine this,
15:09
Speaker 5: he was my first coach that I ever had. It's
15:12
Speaker 5: at the Pitt Basketball camp I was a third grader.
15:15
Speaker 5: He led me to a championship, or maybe I led
15:18
Speaker 5: him to a championship as a nine year old, and
15:20
Speaker 5: I know that's a difference in age there. But he's
15:24
Speaker 5: somebody that I've known since nine and I know what
15:27
Speaker 5: a great coach and tenure he had here. We competed
15:31
Speaker 5: against him, and I think what he's doing at the
15:34
Speaker 5: University of Tennessee, it really speaks volumes to the great
15:37
Speaker 5: coach that he is. I also have an amazing, unique
15:43
Speaker 5: track record with Texas. You know, everybody will remember the
15:46
Speaker 5: last two times think about it. A Sweet sixteen matchup
15:49
Speaker 5: in which Texas beat Xavier at you the Arena, which
15:53
Speaker 5: just happened a couple of weeks ago, which was an incredible,
15:57
Speaker 5: credible game could have gone either way ten times over.
16:01
Speaker 5: I don't know if people in here remember, but there
16:03
Speaker 5: was a suite. There was a game that meant the
16:05
Speaker 5: Sweet sixteen. There was arguably a five second count that
16:09
Speaker 5: impacted the game.
16:10
Speaker 4: I thought it was one of the best calls.
16:12
Speaker 5: In the NCAA tournament history. If you don't know what
16:16
Speaker 5: I'm talking about, look it up.
16:18
Speaker 4: You'll know what I mean.
16:18
Speaker 5: But I had a guy named Derek Williams, which arguably
16:22
Speaker 5: became the greatest player in that NCAA tournament, was the
16:26
Speaker 5: number two pick in the draft, and obviously Jordan Hamilton
16:30
Speaker 5: I think took a charge on the last play. I
16:32
Speaker 5: don't know if Jordan was used to taking charges, but
16:35
Speaker 5: and an one won the game and it led us
16:37
Speaker 5: to a Sweet sixteen. And then if you go all
16:40
Speaker 5: the way back Sweet sixteen, when I was an assistant
16:43
Speaker 5: coach in the Atlanta, Georgia Dome in which we won,
16:46
Speaker 5: I was at Xavier.
16:47
Speaker 4: Then we went on to lose to Duke.
16:50
Speaker 5: As a player, played in the preseason NIT against Coach
16:53
Speaker 5: Penders in New York City. So you think about that,
16:56
Speaker 5: that's almost a lifetime of experiences, and I'm glad that
17:00
Speaker 5: I have the opportunity now to where this burnt orange
17:04
Speaker 5: in coach Texas. In terms of the vision of the program,
17:09
Speaker 5: it's really about four things. With me, I believe this,
17:13
Speaker 5: over my time, like all of us, thirty two years,
17:16
Speaker 5: twenty years as a head coach, what you once did
17:20
Speaker 5: sometimes is made better, sometimes is left out. You continue
17:26
Speaker 5: to grow and evolve, and I believe I've really grown
17:29
Speaker 5: and evolved a lot, even over the last four or
17:31
Speaker 5: five years, both on and off the court. As a coach,
17:35
Speaker 5: vision of the program starts with recruiting. You know, if
17:38
Speaker 5: you follow Texas football, you know, I'm sure that coach
17:42
Speaker 5: would say the same thing. The lifeblood of what they
17:45
Speaker 5: do are the decisions they make that who inevitably becomes
17:49
Speaker 5: their roster. It's going to be a combination of the
17:53
Speaker 5: transfer portal, recruiting the very best high school players, having
17:57
Speaker 5: a great feel for international recruiting. And again, what starts
18:01
Speaker 5: here changes the world. That's the state of Texas. Again,
18:04
Speaker 5: when you look at the talent in cities just Dallas
18:08
Speaker 5: and Houston, it's never been more plentiful. When you're who
18:12
Speaker 5: we are, It's going to begin there player development. It's
18:18
Speaker 5: one thing to recruit people and players to your program.
18:21
Speaker 4: They have to get better.
18:23
Speaker 5: The greatest gift that's happened to me as a coach
18:26
Speaker 5: is that I coached it Xavier. We might not be
18:29
Speaker 5: able to get to McDonald's All American in our history
18:31
Speaker 5: at Xavier we stand at a grand total of zero
18:34
Speaker 5: McDonald's All Americans. Yet if you look at the results,
18:38
Speaker 5: how did that happen? How do you have winning teams
18:40
Speaker 5: and teams that advance in March Madness. Players have to improve,
18:45
Speaker 5: they have to grow, they have to get better, and
18:48
Speaker 5: when you're in charge or a part of that type
18:51
Speaker 5: of program, We're going to bring that same type of
18:54
Speaker 5: staff and know how here to Texas so that it's
18:58
Speaker 5: not only recruiting great, but it's making sure that they
19:02
Speaker 5: develop in the proper way that one day they can
19:05
Speaker 5: become an NBA player. Style of play, and again, I
19:10
Speaker 5: know i'm talking Texas football here. I'm a huge football fan.
19:13
Speaker 5: Like I said, but one of the things that captivates
19:16
Speaker 5: me when I have a choice who do I watch tonight, Well, who's.
19:20
Speaker 4: The most exciting and.
19:22
Speaker 5: Excellent college basketball is the same way I believe in
19:26
Speaker 5: an uptempo style of play. That's something that I've really
19:30
Speaker 5: changed on over the last four years. Playing fast doesn't
19:34
Speaker 5: mean playing reckless. In the NBA, there's a twenty four
19:38
Speaker 5: second shot clock for a reason and it's not going
19:41
Speaker 5: to shrink anytime soon. When you look at college basketball
19:45
Speaker 5: in player development being exciting, you could play fast and
19:49
Speaker 5: you can also play smart. But I will tell you
19:52
Speaker 5: that in terms of pace of play in tempo, I
19:55
Speaker 5: promise I'll deliver on not only an exciting style, but
20:00
Speaker 5: I think a style that people and players will love
20:02
Speaker 5: to watch in person, on TV and most importantly to
20:06
Speaker 5: be a part of. When you think of our style,
20:11
Speaker 5: in addition to pace, you should think of movement, both
20:14
Speaker 5: ball and player movement, a togetherness on both offense and defense.
20:20
Speaker 5: And most importantly, and I think, if you don't have
20:22
Speaker 5: it in this league that we're in, you have zero chance,
20:25
Speaker 5: and that is you better have a great toughness and
20:29
Speaker 5: will about you. When you watch us play, you have
20:33
Speaker 5: to compete for it all. Every possession matters, So pace, movement, togetherness,
20:38
Speaker 5: and toughness. I think it really embodies the style that
20:41
Speaker 5: I believe in, and that's the style.
20:44
Speaker 4: That we'll play here at Texas.
20:46
Speaker 5: And finally, the word culture is used a lot, especially
20:49
Speaker 5: when things are going well. I think where a culture
20:53
Speaker 5: is really judged is when things maybe aren't necessarily going well.
20:58
Speaker 5: And I'll point to the season that I I just left,
21:01
Speaker 5: where if you would have judged the team that I
21:03
Speaker 5: coached in January or December, we might have been on
21:06
Speaker 5: the tournaments outside looking in, dealt with the season ending injury,
21:10
Speaker 5: dealt with some close losses. Where a culture really kicks
21:14
Speaker 5: in is at that moment of truth and the why
21:16
Speaker 5: in the road can you really turn it around? And
21:20
Speaker 5: one of the things I'm so proud of of the
21:22
Speaker 5: team I just left is that's in fact what we did.
21:25
Speaker 5: We played our best in February and March, and I
21:28
Speaker 5: point towards culture culture here and I look forward to
21:32
Speaker 5: bringing it.
21:33
Speaker 4: Is what I call all in.
21:36
Speaker 5: You know, the pillars of it are communication, respect, unity,
21:40
Speaker 5: passion and joy. But when I say all in, it's
21:44
Speaker 5: not only who we are and what we do every
21:46
Speaker 5: single day as a team and coaching staff, but it's
21:50
Speaker 5: also what it feels like on game day in Moody,
21:55
Speaker 5: in the Moody Center with the Corral. To have a
21:59
Speaker 5: great call basketball program, you have to have an advantage
22:03
Speaker 5: when we play at home. If you think about Kansas
22:08
Speaker 5: or fog Allen Fieldhouse, one of the things that inevitably
22:11
Speaker 5: creeps in your mind is what it feels like.
22:14
Speaker 4: To play that home game. When you look at Duke and.
22:17
Speaker 5: Cameron Indoor Stadium, there's arenas that are bigger. There are
22:20
Speaker 5: no arenas that you ever walk into that are a
22:23
Speaker 5: more home court advantage than what they've built at Cameron
22:27
Speaker 5: Indoor Stadium. At the Centas Center where I just left
22:30
Speaker 5: Xavier six thousand undergraduate students. We had twelve hundred student
22:36
Speaker 5: student section every game for seventeen the Corral and myself,
22:41
Speaker 5: I'm looking forward to a great relationship. We need an
22:45
Speaker 5: incredible home court. We need to have an electric, great
22:48
Speaker 5: student section. When I say all in, you need everybody.
22:52
Speaker 5: The people that hire you, an athletic department that is
22:56
Speaker 5: in alignment, and you need fans that understand that game
23:00
Speaker 5: we play matters, but none matter more than those seventeen
23:03
Speaker 5: home games we play a year. And finally, all in
23:07
Speaker 5: with former players is again like I had mentioned, we can't.
23:11
Speaker 4: Do this alone.
23:12
Speaker 5: We need your support, and we as the new coach
23:16
Speaker 5: and staff, have to do a great job of always
23:18
Speaker 5: making you feel that this program is yours. But if
23:22
Speaker 5: you combine those incredible forces each other as an athletic department,
23:27
Speaker 5: the home court atmosphere with fans former players in a
23:32
Speaker 5: way of building within a culture of all in, we
23:35
Speaker 5: need everybody, that's when magical things can really happen. I've
23:40
Speaker 5: been a coach a head coach for twenty years. I'll
23:43
Speaker 5: give you the good and bad from this perspective. There's
23:46
Speaker 5: only been one coach that's been the more elite eights
23:49
Speaker 5: without reaching a Final four than me, and that's the
23:52
Speaker 5: former Hall of Famer John Cheney. You can say, wow,
23:56
Speaker 5: those are some tough losses, but I've always operated.
24:00
Speaker 4: From this perspective.
24:01
Speaker 5: You've got to beat the door down and knock at
24:03
Speaker 5: it a number of times to eventually punch it through.
24:06
Speaker 5: And I'm looking forward to uniting with the resources and
24:10
Speaker 5: this amazing institution in place here at the University of
24:14
Speaker 5: Texas and breaking through not once but multiple times, competing
24:19
Speaker 5: for SEC championships and being a perennial great program like
24:25
Speaker 5: so many other great programs at this university are.
24:28
Speaker 4: Right now. I have three sons and my wife Amy.
24:35
Speaker 5: Nobody has been through more than my wife Amy. We
24:39
Speaker 5: met in high school, grew up in Pittsburgh Blackhawk High School.
24:43
Speaker 5: Both attended the University of Pittsburgh. She's been at more
24:47
Speaker 5: games without knowing the game than any wife has ever attended.
24:52
Speaker 4: I'll say that again.
24:53
Speaker 5: She's attended more games since I've been sixteen years old,
24:58
Speaker 5: and she's been sixteen years old and without truly knowing
25:01
Speaker 5: the game than any fan that's ever done it.
25:04
Speaker 4: I love it about her.
25:05
Speaker 5: She just cheers, But like I asked her, you know,
25:08
Speaker 5: a couple of times this year, if someone calls it travel,
25:10
Speaker 5: what's that mean? And that's kind of one of the
25:13
Speaker 5: many things that I love about her. She loves me,
25:16
Speaker 5: We love each other. She's a great mom, a great wife.
25:20
Speaker 5: But she's been on this journey with me for thirty
25:23
Speaker 5: two years. And all coaches that are in the audience
25:26
Speaker 5: know what I mean when I say that there's a
25:28
Speaker 5: special place in heaven for a coach's wife.
25:31
Speaker 4: But to have her with me here and at.
25:33
Speaker 5: This press conference in US, I think, embarking on what
25:36
Speaker 5: I consider our final journey together, it's an amazing feeling. Again,
25:41
Speaker 5: thank you, Chris, thank you for this opportunity. I am
25:47
Speaker 5: forever grateful, and I promise you that no staff, no coach,
25:51
Speaker 5: will give more of himself to get us to the
25:54
Speaker 5: top than I will holcome there.
25:57
Speaker 1: It is the comments the address for from Sean Miller,
26:01
Speaker 1: the new head basketball coach at the University of Texas.
26:04
Speaker 1: Coming up a little later, you'll hear the Q and
26:06
Speaker 1: A that a lot of reporters had for him. And
26:09
Speaker 1: then in the four o'clock hour, my conversation with the
26:13
Speaker 1: head coach are one on one that's coming up a
26:16
Speaker 1: little later on. However, since we're back in the saddle
26:19
Speaker 1: and doing what we do, you know what that means
26:21
Speaker 1: up next inconceivable here on a Tuesday afternoon on thirteen
26:25
Speaker 1: under the Zone, Craig Way with you from UFCU dishwalk Field,
26:29
Speaker 1: Texas Longhorns tonight take on the Sam Houston Bearcats.
26:33
Speaker 2: The Longhorns now.
26:35
Speaker 1: Coming off that weekend series victory against LSU, taking two
26:39
Speaker 1: out of three from the At the time second ranked
26:42
Speaker 1: Tigers have risen to his highest number three in the
26:45
Speaker 1: nation in the Baseball America rankings, their number five in
26:47
Speaker 1: Perfect Game, they're number seven in D one Baseball dot
26:51
Speaker 1: Com and number seven in the USA Today coaches pull,
26:54
Speaker 1: so they continue their rise and now nineteen and three
26:58
Speaker 1: are the Longhorns. And we'll hear from Jim Schlastang a
27:03
Speaker 1: little later on this hour. I had an opportunity just
27:04
Speaker 1: a little while ago, went down and visited with schlass
27:07
Speaker 1: before we got things going to hear, So we'll hear
27:10
Speaker 1: that conversation coming up coming up in a few minutes more.
27:14
Speaker 1: On the first day on the job for Sean Miller,
27:18
Speaker 1: the new head basketball coach for long worn men's basketball.
27:21
Speaker 1: We brought to the news conference in its entirety this morning,
27:23
Speaker 1: which was the introduction by University Systems Regent Kevin el
27:33
Speaker 1: Type and in addition to that, also heard from university
27:40
Speaker 1: Vice president and Director of Athletics christ del Conte. He
27:43
Speaker 1: did the big introduction of Sean Miller. And then last
27:46
Speaker 1: hour we also re aired Sean Miller's comments for the media.
27:52
Speaker 1: His introductory comments, we brought that to you live as
27:56
Speaker 1: part of the totality of the news conference this morning,
27:59
Speaker 1: and then last hour we brought you his comments this morning.
28:02
Speaker 1: The totality of the news conference included the Q and
28:05
Speaker 1: A with the assemble media. We have Cameron Parker extracted
28:10
Speaker 1: that part of it and you're going to hear that
28:12
Speaker 1: coming up here as we recap the.
28:14
Speaker 2: Course of the day.
28:15
Speaker 1: And then in the four o'clock hour, he you know,
28:19
Speaker 1: in this day and age, when when a reporter has
28:22
Speaker 1: a one on one interview with a coach or an athlete,
28:26
Speaker 1: quite often they'll say I sat down with so and
28:29
Speaker 1: so and it did this. And sometimes they're not actually sitting,
28:32
Speaker 1: they're standing or maybe even walking with it.
28:34
Speaker 3: This.
28:34
Speaker 1: In this case, we were sitting, so didn't you post
28:38
Speaker 1: something on social media about that cam showing the two
28:41
Speaker 1: of us having our chat together after the press conference.
28:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you want to see the video version of it,
28:45
Speaker 3: I just cut it up and put it on our
28:46
Speaker 3: TikTok in Instagram.
28:48
Speaker 2: So am thirteen hundred the zone. If you want to
28:50
Speaker 2: be able to watch end listen.
28:52
Speaker 1: All right, So there it is and it'll be there,
28:54
Speaker 1: but we'll bring you certainly the Q and a portion
28:57
Speaker 1: with the media coming up here in a few minutes
29:00
Speaker 1: and in the four o'clock hour. Also later in the
29:02
Speaker 1: three o'clock hours, I mentioned with Jim Slasnagle, who right
29:05
Speaker 1: now is watching some of the long worn players take
29:09
Speaker 1: some swings, and these are some of the reserve players.
29:12
Speaker 2: But you know, it never ends for a head coach.
29:15
Speaker 1: He's out there watching guys who are the backups and
29:19
Speaker 1: maybe getting it baty every game or a couple of
29:22
Speaker 1: or one at bat maybe every couple of games or
29:25
Speaker 1: three games or whatever on the weekend. So there's the
29:29
Speaker 1: constant work to try to upgrade what's going on. So
29:33
Speaker 1: we'll hear from Jim Slasnagle a little later on this hour.
29:36
Speaker 1: And then, like I said that one on one conversation
29:40
Speaker 1: that I had with Sean Miller coming up in the
29:43
Speaker 1: four o'clock hour.
29:44
Speaker 2: Okay, so.
29:47
Speaker 1: Pro Timing Day and the first day of spring practice
29:51
Speaker 1: simultaneously happening on campus at the University of Texas today,
29:56
Speaker 1: Long Worn's head coach Steve Sarkisian, who made time to
29:59
Speaker 1: go over four the introductory news conference of Sean Miller.
30:02
Speaker 1: But nevertheless, he had his practice and the Pro Timing
30:06
Speaker 1: Day is going on right now. When you were doing
30:09
Speaker 1: your I guess your internships and your student reporting and
30:15
Speaker 1: things like that, did you ever go to a pro
30:17
Speaker 1: Timing Day?
30:17
Speaker 3: Kevin, No, never did, actually because by the time I
30:22
Speaker 3: probably would have gone during my internship with Longhorn Network.
30:25
Speaker 3: But I believe the pro Timing Day was canceled because
30:28
Speaker 3: of COVID nineteen.
30:30
Speaker 2: You're exactly right. It was. It definitely was. But it's
30:34
Speaker 2: it's now.
30:34
Speaker 1: In fact, it's being televised live on the SEC network.
30:39
Speaker 1: It reminds me of the earlier days, not that long ago,
30:42
Speaker 1: of Longhorn Network televising such things live, but it's it's
30:45
Speaker 1: going on with Pro Timing Day. Saw Isaiah Bond being
30:49
Speaker 1: measured and you know some of the some of the
30:52
Speaker 1: metric things they do with some of the pro in
30:55
Speaker 1: front of the pro scouts there, so that's going on.
30:57
Speaker 1: And then of course spring practice, and our pal and colleague,
31:01
Speaker 1: Fozzy Whittaker was working for SEC Network and he visited
31:05
Speaker 1: with Sark very briefly, and I heard the conversation, and
31:09
Speaker 1: Fozzi asked him a question along the lines of what
31:15
Speaker 1: you know, what are you looking for early on in
31:19
Speaker 1: the spring practices with today being the first And of
31:22
Speaker 1: course this is a different world now as we know
31:24
Speaker 1: for Sark and for the football program. It's been quite
31:31
Speaker 1: ballyhooed and reported quite a bit about, you know, no
31:34
Speaker 1: spring game, and but the changes that have happened go
31:40
Speaker 1: far beyond the fact that there's not an orange white
31:43
Speaker 1: spring game. There is going to be a fan fest,
31:46
Speaker 1: but no spring game. Sark has made it abundantly clear
31:52
Speaker 1: that his goal is to try to continue to mold
31:57
Speaker 1: his program into in terms of its logistical elements, into
32:04
Speaker 1: more of a pro style approach NFL style.
32:07
Speaker 2: And meaning off season workout.
32:11
Speaker 1: Things being in segments done where players can be in
32:16
Speaker 1: their best condition during these times coming off their off
32:20
Speaker 1: season conditioning, rather than cramming fifteen practices together or twenty
32:26
Speaker 1: practice together. And then having a spring game. That doesn't
32:30
Speaker 1: really mean that much in terms of the regular guys
32:35
Speaker 1: who are going to be contributing to the football program,
32:37
Speaker 1: because you know, in this day and age of the
32:39
Speaker 1: portal and with all eyes on what's going on, they're
32:44
Speaker 1: not you know, they're not that enthused about, you know,
32:49
Speaker 1: other programs having an opportunity to take a look at
32:54
Speaker 1: student athletes who would then be in the portal. Speaking
32:57
Speaker 1: of the portal, by the way, the portal is open
32:59
Speaker 1: now in college basketball, and that is something that Sean
33:03
Speaker 1: Miller and his staff as he puts his staff together,
33:06
Speaker 1: we'll have to deal with that. Speaking of which, coming up,
33:08
Speaker 1: we'll bring in the Q and A portion because that's
33:10
Speaker 1: that's part of the Q and A is the portal
33:13
Speaker 1: and NIL because there's over hot button topics in college basketball.
33:17
Speaker 1: So that's coming up next as we continue here from
33:19
Speaker 1: UFCU dish fak Field six fifteen, Airtime six thirty. First
33:22
Speaker 1: pitch for Texas and Sam Houston with this program with
33:26
Speaker 1: the comments in the Q and A with new men's
33:29
Speaker 1: basketball coach Sean Miller up next on AM thirteen under
33:32
Speaker 1: the Zone. So what George Strait did you hit us?
33:34
Speaker 1: So which number one? Did you come back?
33:36
Speaker 3: We're just starting over because I couldn't remember where I
33:38
Speaker 3: left off that, so we're starting out with I hate everything,
33:42
Speaker 3: which doesn't really match the theme today. Yeah, it's a
33:45
Speaker 3: beautiful day outside.
33:47
Speaker 2: Absolutely a lot of fun out there today.
33:50
Speaker 3: But maybe watching what seeing my bracket bust, you know,
33:53
Speaker 3: makes me say I hate everything so many Maybe that's.
33:56
Speaker 1: That's where I was going next. I was going to
33:58
Speaker 1: ask you how your bracket was doing.
33:59
Speaker 3: So my lead eight still there, final four still there,
34:02
Speaker 3: but you know, everything else is kind of wrecked. So
34:04
Speaker 3: all it takes is one or two upsets and I'm
34:07
Speaker 3: I'm not I'm not winning my bracket pool right now,
34:09
Speaker 3: how about you?
34:10
Speaker 4: Uh?
34:12
Speaker 1: Seven of my elite eight are still alive. I had
34:14
Speaker 1: Saint John's in the Elite eight and obviously Arkansas proved otherwise.
34:19
Speaker 1: And uh yeah, my final four is still alive. Uh
34:24
Speaker 1: so that is still there. My women's bracket, I think
34:26
Speaker 1: I've only missed two games total. Uh, in the entire tourna.
34:30
Speaker 1: It's it's been really good. And and Linda also, she
34:32
Speaker 1: is both of us picked the of course, the women's bracket,
34:35
Speaker 1: I will I will say is a little easier to
34:38
Speaker 1: pick because the home courts it's a little easier to
34:41
Speaker 1: go chalk. So you know, now, having said that, things
34:47
Speaker 1: could be drastically different in the Spokane four region. For
34:50
Speaker 1: folks who didn't hear about it, late last night, Juji Watkins,
34:56
Speaker 1: the outstanding All American and certainly serious candidate for National
34:59
Speaker 1: pl of the Year, suffered a serious knee injury.
35:03
Speaker 2: She was driving down the floor off of the defensive steel.
35:07
Speaker 1: And there was contact with the Mississippi State player, but
35:10
Speaker 1: it was just like regular contact going up.
35:13
Speaker 2: She came down hard on the knee and hit the floor.
35:16
Speaker 1: And the minute she hit the floor and cried out.
35:20
Speaker 1: I hate saying this, but I've been there. I've seen
35:25
Speaker 1: that particular injury too many times to think it isn't
35:30
Speaker 1: anything other than what it is reported to be, and
35:34
Speaker 1: that's a torn acl I saw it happen with Necka
35:37
Speaker 1: and I Polly for Texas. I saw it happen with
35:39
Speaker 1: Eric Carreern for Texas. I've seen it with other players
35:43
Speaker 1: of other teams. It's just it's that horrific sinking feeling
35:48
Speaker 1: you get when you see a player go down, and
35:50
Speaker 1: it was it was no matter whether you're rooting for
35:52
Speaker 1: USC or not a transcendent player like Juju wat Can
35:57
Speaker 1: you hate to see that happen to her. So some
36:00
Speaker 1: might say it opens the door wide open for Yukon,
36:03
Speaker 1: who's been playing well. And some folks picked Yukon to win,
36:06
Speaker 1: to beat US anyway, including me.
36:09
Speaker 2: I have Yukon in the National Championship game.
36:12
Speaker 1: But what might be interesting is when USC plays Kansas
36:18
Speaker 1: State in the Sweet sixteen this weekend. Kansas State has,
36:22
Speaker 1: of course, six foot six inch All American Aoka Lee
36:25
Speaker 1: in the post and Serena Sundell their outstanding swing player
36:28
Speaker 1: who can score from anywhere on the floor, so it
36:31
Speaker 1: could be a challenge. Although US really gathered themselves nicely
36:36
Speaker 1: and just blew the doors off Mississippi State. They were
36:39
Speaker 1: in the process of doing it even before the Watkins injury.
36:42
Speaker 1: We'll see how it goes from there. All right, back
36:45
Speaker 1: to basketball. Let's hear some more now. This is the
36:49
Speaker 1: Q and a portion of the introductory news conference with
36:53
Speaker 1: Sean Miller, the brand new men's basketball coach at UT.
36:58
Speaker 1: This is the reporters asking questions the new head coach.
37:04
Speaker 6: You mentioned it, the trips to the Elite Eight with
37:07
Speaker 6: no trip to the Final four, what do you think
37:09
Speaker 6: the biggest hurdle has been to get you there? And
37:11
Speaker 6: why do you think this is the right place for
37:13
Speaker 6: you to take that step to a final.
37:15
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't know if I can be specific. You know,
37:17
Speaker 5: in two of the four games that I've been in
37:19
Speaker 5: that regional final, you know I can walk you through it.
37:23
Speaker 4: Almost it was a.
37:24
Speaker 5: Block charge call in overtime to Wisconsin. The call went
37:28
Speaker 5: the wrong way, and when I tell you, if it didn't,
37:32
Speaker 5: I wouldn't have announced what I did here today. We
37:35
Speaker 5: would have been in a final four. We also lost
37:38
Speaker 5: to Kemba Walker and they went on to win the
37:40
Speaker 5: national championship at Yukon, in which we had three shots
37:44
Speaker 5: to win it and missed all three. So I don't
37:47
Speaker 5: know if it's necessarily you didn't have this and now
37:51
Speaker 5: you do. But it begins and ends with what I
37:55
Speaker 5: said and when I talked about the vision of the program.
37:58
Speaker 4: You have to have elite town.
38:01
Speaker 5: It has to have a roster field of people that
38:04
Speaker 5: are playing for the win, not just for their own
38:07
Speaker 5: personal glory. And it takes a little bit of good
38:11
Speaker 5: fortune in this great tournament. We just lived it against
38:15
Speaker 5: the Texas at Xavier at you the arena, we couldn't miss.
38:21
Speaker 5: Against Illinois three days later, they couldn't miss. And as
38:26
Speaker 5: I try to judge what we did or didn't do
38:28
Speaker 5: well in both games, you know it's not a seven
38:30
Speaker 5: game series in March madness, and you see that it's
38:33
Speaker 5: what captivates the world and makes that tournament so special.
38:37
Speaker 5: But if you put yourself in a position to have
38:39
Speaker 5: great resources from a great conference and you have a
38:42
Speaker 5: chance to have the most talent, I think you give
38:45
Speaker 5: yourself the best chance to keep getting there, and as
38:47
Speaker 5: you do, one day it'll happen.
38:50
Speaker 7: Right Hey, Sean Cedar Golden Austin, American Statesman, Um, you
38:57
Speaker 7: haven't been to the final four in Texas, has been
38:59
Speaker 7: chased seeing once and so three?
39:01
Speaker 2: You think those stars aligned?
39:03
Speaker 7: And was that part of your conversations with mister Dell content.
39:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, it has.
39:09
Speaker 5: You know, I know, certainly from my perspective, hungry to
39:13
Speaker 5: get there, and I'll also tell you I know this
39:16
Speaker 5: place is hungry to get back there and compete and
39:19
Speaker 5: win a national championship. But I think when you look
39:22
Speaker 5: at the twenty year period of time for me, I'll
39:25
Speaker 5: point you to an eight year window and it didn't
39:28
Speaker 5: just happen at one place in an eight year window,
39:31
Speaker 5: we went to four Elite eights, And when you look
39:35
Speaker 5: at the four Elite eights, six of those eight years
39:39
Speaker 5: we went to two other Sweet sixteens. So I think
39:42
Speaker 5: when you're in that cycle and you can keep getting
39:45
Speaker 5: to that second round.
39:47
Speaker 4: Inevitably it will happen.
39:49
Speaker 5: Whether that's talking about Texas basketball or a coach himself.
39:54
Speaker 5: And I think that sustained excellence is something that you
39:57
Speaker 5: work towards improving. Are some things that I also believe
40:01
Speaker 5: that you change as a coach that can help you
40:03
Speaker 5: do better. And I think one of the things for
40:06
Speaker 5: me offensively to play a faster brand of basketball, I
40:11
Speaker 5: think gives us an even better opportunity to get to
40:14
Speaker 5: that final prize. And there's a lot of layers to that.
40:18
Speaker 5: I just believe that's that's how the game's played today.
40:24
Speaker 8: Josh Newman from lone Star Live dot com sean, how
40:27
Speaker 8: much struggle was there in trying to decide whether or
40:29
Speaker 8: not to leave Xavier for a second time and ultimately
40:32
Speaker 8: what was the tipping point that brought you here?
40:35
Speaker 5: Well, it was a major struggle for me on one sense,
40:39
Speaker 5: and that has nothing to do with the great place
40:41
Speaker 5: that I'm standing at right now. It's you know, it
40:45
Speaker 5: tugs at your heart when people believe in you. And
40:47
Speaker 5: you've been in a place for eight years as the
40:51
Speaker 5: head coach. Eleven years, like I had mentioned, you have
40:54
Speaker 5: family and friends, and you become tied to so many
40:56
Speaker 5: of those teams and players in moments, and so much
41:00
Speaker 5: of it is doing more with less at a place
41:04
Speaker 5: like that, and there's a lot of pride that starts
41:07
Speaker 5: to become a part of who you are when you're
41:09
Speaker 5: in that and you know, at the end of the day,
41:12
Speaker 5: this is a life changing opportunity for me and my family,
41:16
Speaker 5: and I believe this that it gives us the best
41:18
Speaker 5: opportunity to compete and win for national championships. The world
41:23
Speaker 5: of college sports has flipped upside down over the last
41:26
Speaker 5: three to five years, but no more sport than in
41:29
Speaker 5: college basketball. And when you think of the SEC ten
41:34
Speaker 5: years ago or five years ago in the sport of
41:36
Speaker 5: basketball and you look at this year, there's a huge difference.
41:41
Speaker 4: There's a huge difference.
41:42
Speaker 5: In the talent, the parody, the coaches, and I think
41:45
Speaker 5: to have the opportunity to compete against the best can
41:49
Speaker 5: bring up the best in you, and that was a
41:51
Speaker 5: big part of.
41:52
Speaker 9: This, right.
41:55
Speaker 10: Thomas Jones lost an American statesman, Sean, what do you
41:59
Speaker 10: see the role of a general manager in this era
42:01
Speaker 10: of college of basketball and do you have someone in mind?
42:04
Speaker 10: And then a second question, what do you know about
42:07
Speaker 10: nil funding for Texas basketball and what can use the
42:10
Speaker 10: head coach do to increase that engagement?
42:13
Speaker 5: Yeah, first, just not only the general manager question, but
42:17
Speaker 5: the staff. You know, I'm taking a deep breath and
42:19
Speaker 5: obviously trying to put the best staff that I possibly
42:23
Speaker 5: can put together. There's a great group of people that
42:26
Speaker 5: I have at Xavier, which a number will come with me.
42:30
Speaker 5: And then I'm also realistic and understanding that here at
42:33
Speaker 5: the University of Texas having people that are a part
42:37
Speaker 5: of this great state, that have a history and tradition
42:40
Speaker 5: and to know how whether it be in recruiting or
42:43
Speaker 5: growing up living playing at the University of Texas. So
42:46
Speaker 5: I'm just anxious to not take my time because we
42:49
Speaker 5: don't have time, but to certainly not rush into any
42:53
Speaker 5: decision and make sure that as I learn what's best here,
42:57
Speaker 5: that I make those choices clearly. That position, though that
43:02
Speaker 5: you asked a question about, I think is incredibly important
43:05
Speaker 5: to the future of college basketball and in any program
43:08
Speaker 5: that's trying to do what we're going to try and do.
43:14
Speaker 11: Eric Henry twenty four seven Sports seaw I'll kind of
43:16
Speaker 11: pick it back off of Thomas's question from your vantage
43:19
Speaker 11: point as a coach, how crucial is NIL to competing
43:22
Speaker 11: at an elite level? And the second part of that,
43:24
Speaker 11: what assurance is from Crystal Conte? I have you been
43:26
Speaker 11: given that Texas will compete at at a level when
43:29
Speaker 11: it comes INNIL.
43:30
Speaker 5: You know, I don't have any concerns about whether we'll
43:34
Speaker 5: have the resources or the ability.
43:36
Speaker 4: In the NIL space.
43:38
Speaker 5: I mean, this is the University of Texas, and you
43:40
Speaker 5: know when you try to compete for a Final four
43:43
Speaker 5: national championship, it has to be synonymous with being able
43:47
Speaker 5: to match up in that space that.
43:48
Speaker 4: You're talking about.
43:50
Speaker 5: I will also tell you this, though, that the place
43:53
Speaker 5: itself is still the most important. There are young people
43:57
Speaker 5: that want a great education. There are young people that
44:00
Speaker 5: want to play in in a conference that's it's never
44:04
Speaker 5: been ever stronger in any sport, the SEC. There are
44:07
Speaker 5: people that want to come to the University of Texas
44:10
Speaker 5: because of the great tradition and history. I want to
44:12
Speaker 5: play in a style of play and have the resources
44:15
Speaker 5: to grow and become the best they can be. All
44:18
Speaker 5: that is still very very important and to your your
44:21
Speaker 5: actual questions that no longer stands alone though it has
44:26
Speaker 5: to be matched with the know how and understanding that
44:29
Speaker 5: without name, image and likeness and a plan to compete
44:32
Speaker 5: against the best, you can only go so far. But
44:35
Speaker 5: when those two forces are matched, I believe that great
44:38
Speaker 5: things happen, and I also believe that that will happen here.
44:44
Speaker 12: Hey Sean, So, the biggest difference between you and other
44:48
Speaker 12: coaches that Texas has had is your style is different.
44:51
Speaker 12: There have been a lot of defensive minded coaches, but
44:55
Speaker 12: you're more of an offensive minded guy. You're up tempo
44:58
Speaker 12: and the first the last guy who was like those
45:00
Speaker 12: or was Tom Penders. Did the fact that other SEC
45:04
Speaker 12: programs like Alabama and Kentucky are running these uptempo offenses,
45:07
Speaker 12: does that give you confidence that your system is going
45:10
Speaker 12: to work as well or did you have that confidence
45:12
Speaker 12: going in regardless?
45:13
Speaker 5: I have the confidence regardless. Certainly recognize there's a number
45:17
Speaker 5: of programs in the SEC that are playing a style
45:21
Speaker 5: that is unique, using the three point shot more than
45:25
Speaker 5: ever before playing at a pace that maybe the great
45:28
Speaker 5: teams of the past didn't necessarily play as fast. But
45:33
Speaker 5: that's what I believe in. But I do want to
45:35
Speaker 5: say this, there's no way you can do it by
45:38
Speaker 5: scoring and outscoring people. In college basketball, the defense is
45:44
Speaker 5: so much a part of the talent that you have.
45:47
Speaker 5: When you think of basketball, people think of talent on
45:50
Speaker 5: the offensive end. I can make the case the talent size, quickness,
45:54
Speaker 5: shot blocking, positional height that right there impacts the defensive
45:59
Speaker 5: side of the ball, perhaps even more here you have
46:02
Speaker 5: to be great at both. If you would have asked
46:05
Speaker 5: me the question you asked five years ago, someone would
46:09
Speaker 5: have acted like you don't know what you're talking about.
46:12
Speaker 5: I would have been known as a defensive coach at Arizona.
46:15
Speaker 5: But you have to blend both. I think you have
46:18
Speaker 5: to adapt and adjust to the new way. And you know,
46:22
Speaker 5: what once was is no longer. But I want our
46:26
Speaker 5: program to be known that when you play against us,
46:29
Speaker 5: we have a certain togetherness and toughness on defense that
46:34
Speaker 5: you can certainly look at as part of the identity
46:36
Speaker 5: of our program. Thing about basketball it's so unique is
46:41
Speaker 5: players have to do both. You know, you know you're
46:44
Speaker 5: not a defense that we're just offensive and two way
46:47
Speaker 5: players is something in and recruiting you have to covet
46:50
Speaker 5: at a place like Texas.
46:55
Speaker 9: Kurt Bowls from the Houston Chronicle, Welcome, Sean. I wonder
46:59
Speaker 9: if any your players are going to come with you
47:01
Speaker 9: from Xavier and you almost have to lean more into
47:05
Speaker 9: the portal than high school players as stay old.
47:08
Speaker 5: Yeah, I can't really answer the first part. You know,
47:11
Speaker 5: obviously have amazing loyalty to Xavier, and all of those
47:15
Speaker 5: kids have choices and no different than the young players
47:20
Speaker 5: and the people that are returning here here at Texas.
47:29
Speaker 4: Hi, Sean.
47:29
Speaker 13: Roger Wallace from NBC in Austin. These coaches flips are
47:33
Speaker 13: so quick. Friday night, you're fighting to get to the
47:36
Speaker 13: second round of the tournament. Today you're standing in Austin, Texas.
47:39
Speaker 13: What's that like emotionally for you and your family? All
47:42
Speaker 13: of a sudden you got a new wardrobe and new
47:44
Speaker 13: thoughts and dreams.
47:47
Speaker 5: It's a really a great question, and it's what I
47:49
Speaker 5: started the press conference here today with my initial comments.
47:54
Speaker 5: You know, with change, forces go in different directions. One
47:58
Speaker 5: coach leaves, new coach comes. One place you leave, and
48:04
Speaker 5: you know, they have very strong feelings about that, and
48:07
Speaker 5: then in the place that you arrive at has equally
48:10
Speaker 5: strong feelings.
48:11
Speaker 4: And as the person.
48:12
Speaker 5: Who's going through it with your family, those feelings can
48:16
Speaker 5: really be polarizing and can steal your mind. But for me,
48:22
Speaker 5: this opportunity, I don't think I've ever been more excited
48:26
Speaker 5: in my life to live in Austin, to live in Texas,
48:31
Speaker 5: to be here as the new head coach at Texas,
48:34
Speaker 5: and in time, the loyalty in the relationships what I
48:40
Speaker 5: have found, they repair, and I think you can have
48:45
Speaker 5: a healthy way of moving forward and also respecting the
48:49
Speaker 5: past and where you came from. But you're right, sometimes
48:52
Speaker 5: it doesn't feel right to leave one thing so quickly.
48:56
Speaker 5: You know, the height of winning the game in the
48:59
Speaker 5: NCAA turter and moving on towards leaving that place and
49:02
Speaker 5: coming to the new place again. I don't know if
49:05
Speaker 5: you'd want me to be the new coach here at
49:07
Speaker 5: Texas if those feelings don't tug and pull you in
49:10
Speaker 5: different directions. So you're right, it's a good observation on
49:15
Speaker 5: your part. It happens quickly, really.
49:17
Speaker 4: Does Coach John high Fox and Auston.
49:21
Speaker 2: We've heard in Auston. We've heard perfect fit, perfect, perfect coach.
49:25
Speaker 4: What makes you so special?
49:28
Speaker 5: I don't. I don't know if I'm special. I know
49:30
Speaker 5: this that you know. I'm a son of a high
49:32
Speaker 5: school coach. My dad won numerous high school state championships
49:36
Speaker 5: in Pennsylvania. We grew up in a football football crazy place,
49:41
Speaker 5: Western Pennsylvania. I mean where I grew up is Joe Namath.
49:45
Speaker 5: Me and him are from the same town. I mean,
49:49
Speaker 5: Tony Dorset was five minutes ten minutes from where I
49:52
Speaker 5: grew up.
49:52
Speaker 4: Mike Ditka.
49:54
Speaker 5: You look at the quarterbacks, you know, Jim Kelly, Joe Montana.
49:58
Speaker 5: I could keep going. I'm probably missing some so I
50:00
Speaker 5: could probably feel in you know, ty law Al Equippa.
50:03
Speaker 5: All Equippa is fifteen minutes from where I grew up.
50:05
Speaker 5: So how do you become a basketball coach? Basketball player
50:08
Speaker 5: starts with my dad. One thing that I'll tell you
50:11
Speaker 5: is I don't think anybody who's ever met me would
50:14
Speaker 5: question my deep love for this game.
50:16
Speaker 4: I love it. I love it.
50:18
Speaker 5: When I didn't have the opportunity to coach and sat out,
50:22
Speaker 5: my wife will tell you at one point I was
50:23
Speaker 5: playing I was playing.
50:25
Speaker 4: Madden, you know, like I didn't know what to do.
50:27
Speaker 4: You know, It's like all I've.
50:29
Speaker 5: Done is basketball, and I you know, I'm here to
50:34
Speaker 5: tell you that from that perspective, I think that's the
50:36
Speaker 5: driving force of a lot of things. And I also
50:39
Speaker 5: think that the players that play for me and the
50:41
Speaker 5: players that we recruit, they have to be able to
50:43
Speaker 5: share in that passion for it to be a good fit.
50:45
Speaker 5: But I would say the one thing about me is
50:48
Speaker 5: that I truly do love this game of basketball.
50:54
Speaker 2: And there it is.
50:55
Speaker 1: The answers from Sean Miller, the new head basketball coach
51:00
Speaker 1: at the University of Texas, at the news conference today
51:04
Speaker 1: here on the UT campus. We brought that to you live,
51:08
Speaker 1: his introductory comments live, and we replayed that for you
51:11
Speaker 1: last hour. We replayed his Q and A with the reporters.
51:16
Speaker 1: Next hour, my conversation with him after it was done,
51:19
Speaker 1: he sat down with me for a few minutes and
51:20
Speaker 1: we'll hear that as well. But coming up, we'll hear
51:24
Speaker 1: the conversation it just had just a little bit ago
51:26
Speaker 1: with Long Orange at baseball coach Jim Slason angles. This
51:29
Speaker 1: team is nineteen and three right now and ranked in
51:34
Speaker 1: the top ten in all of the collegiate baseball polls,
51:36
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of them. I don't know if
51:38
Speaker 1: you've noticed that, there's several college baseball polls, but they're
51:41
Speaker 1: in the top ten in all of those. As they
51:43
Speaker 1: get ready to go back to work tonight taking on
51:46
Speaker 1: Sam Houston State here at UFCU dish Fakfield.
51:49
Speaker 2: So that's coming up next.
51:51
Speaker 1: And in like I said in the four o'clock hour,
51:54
Speaker 1: we'll hear my conversation with the long Orange new we
51:57
Speaker 1: had basketball coach. But more to come here on this
51:59
Speaker 1: Tuesday afternoon from UFCU tos Far Field here on AM
52:03
Speaker 1: thirteen under the zone. This long worn baseball team is
52:06
Speaker 1: on the field right now and they're just going through
52:09
Speaker 1: some early stretching and some things like that. There were
52:11
Speaker 1: some guys that came out for some early VP, some
52:14
Speaker 1: of the reserve players. The starters will start taking batting
52:17
Speaker 1: practice in a little bit, but right now the guys
52:22
Speaker 1: are just stretching out and loosening up and getting ready
52:24
Speaker 1: for this matchup with Sam Houston. How good is Sam Houston. Well,
52:27
Speaker 1: they're struggling out of the gate. Normally, this is a
52:29
Speaker 1: team really a mid major program to follow pretty closely
52:33
Speaker 1: because then They've been able to get into regionals multiple occasions.
52:37
Speaker 1: This year tough out of the gate only seven and seventeen,
52:40
Speaker 1: and pitching has been their biggest problem. I mean, they're
52:43
Speaker 1: only about in two sixty one as a team, but
52:45
Speaker 1: that era kind of sticks out like a sore thumb.
52:48
Speaker 1: Six point seventy one is the teamra right now. We'll
52:50
Speaker 1: see if the Long Worn offense can get going on that.
52:53
Speaker 1: The Longhorns are going to counter with Kate bing tonight
52:57
Speaker 1: and being a week ago gave the Loghorns some scoreless
53:00
Speaker 1: innings in that eight seven twelve inning loss to UTSA.
53:05
Speaker 1: So that's one thing that Jim Slastnagels counting on as
53:07
Speaker 1: well as his offense again being in fine form. Here
53:11
Speaker 1: was a conversation I had just a little while ago
53:13
Speaker 1: with the Long Worn's head coach, as Long Worn fans
53:16
Speaker 1: get to know you even better and the style not
53:20
Speaker 1: only for yourself but of your coaching staff as well,
53:22
Speaker 1: how would you say that your guys have responded so far,
53:28
Speaker 1: not only to the successes that they have, but then
53:30
Speaker 1: the way that they've gone about showing the resilience coming
53:32
Speaker 1: back from the Friday night loss. Do you notice different
53:35
Speaker 1: things about them when they get back to work coming
53:37
Speaker 1: off taking the last two games of a series as
53:39
Speaker 1: big as that one was.
53:40
Speaker 14: Yeah, I mean I haven't seen him. I didn't see
53:42
Speaker 14: much of them yesterday.
53:44
Speaker 15: But I think if you look at our record, you know,
53:47
Speaker 15: if Coach Parcels is true and is accurate and saying
53:50
Speaker 15: your records says who you are in that moment in time,
53:53
Speaker 15: right then we've done a really good job of that that.
53:56
Speaker 15: You know, when I do get to talk to the
53:57
Speaker 15: team that is, I am going to challenge them with that.
53:59
Speaker 7: You know, the.
54:02
Speaker 15: If you still talk about what you did yesterday, you
54:04
Speaker 15: haven't done much today things. So yeah, our guys, you know,
54:07
Speaker 15: I think they do a good job turning the page
54:08
Speaker 15: like we did having a facing a tough pitcher on
54:12
Speaker 15: Friday night and LSU played awesome.
54:14
Speaker 14: We didn't play horrible.
54:15
Speaker 15: We just didn't play as good as they did and
54:17
Speaker 15: we got beat and then come back the next day
54:19
Speaker 15: and play from behind a little bit and then win
54:21
Speaker 15: and then have a really good game on Sunday. So yeah,
54:24
Speaker 15: this team I think is representative of what every Texas
54:27
Speaker 15: fan would want. Is this a resilient team that takes
54:30
Speaker 15: each day onto its own we called it an opening
54:32
Speaker 15: day mentality, and today's opening day, and we'll take the
54:37
Speaker 15: confidence from what positive things have happened to this point
54:41
Speaker 15: in the season and try to learn from anything that
54:43
Speaker 15: you know could be perceived as negative.
54:45
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting I heard football coaches sarc included
54:48
Speaker 1: to talk about a twenty four hour rule after wins
54:50
Speaker 1: and things like That's a little bit different football when
54:52
Speaker 1: you have one game a week, and basketball they talk
54:55
Speaker 1: about the same thing. When you're playing as often as
54:58
Speaker 1: you play, is it pretty easy to shelve it? Or
55:01
Speaker 1: sometimes is there a lingering good or bad off of
55:03
Speaker 1: a winner?
55:04
Speaker 14: I mean, I think there could be both.
55:05
Speaker 15: You know, I think one thing as you hear most coaches,
55:09
Speaker 15: especially later in their career, they'll always say what do
55:11
Speaker 15: you wish you would have done more of?
55:12
Speaker 14: And they'll say, enjoy the wins.
55:14
Speaker 15: And so we try to do that Sunday night and
55:19
Speaker 15: a little bit yesterday, because it does feel good to
55:21
Speaker 15: feel good.
55:21
Speaker 14: And then, but the.
55:24
Speaker 15: Most competitive people that work hard, and especially when you're
55:28
Speaker 15: in a place like Texas where you have a lot
55:30
Speaker 15: of advantages and you work your rear end off and
55:33
Speaker 15: you feel like you do things right the way I
55:35
Speaker 15: think it works for those people. Is winning never feels
55:39
Speaker 15: as good as losing feels bad. Right, on a scale
55:41
Speaker 15: of one to ten, a win is like a solid six.
55:44
Speaker 15: There are days where it's a seven and a super
55:46
Speaker 15: regional is a nine, right, but on most days are
55:50
Speaker 15: a five six because you feel like you should win
55:52
Speaker 15: because you've worked hard enough. Doesn't mean you deserve it,
55:55
Speaker 15: but you just feel like you should. And then when
55:58
Speaker 15: you lose, at least how my my messed up mind
56:02
Speaker 15: is like a nine. Yeah, the world's coming to an end, Like,
56:06
Speaker 15: how are we ever gonna win a game again? And
56:08
Speaker 15: that's that's a bad mentality too, and that's usually what
56:12
Speaker 15: I try to stay away from the team so they
56:13
Speaker 15: don't because they they they're the ones that play and
56:16
Speaker 15: they need to feed off positive energy, not somebody who's pouting.
56:19
Speaker 1: Well and as a guy who bounce back, maybe just
56:22
Speaker 1: a little bump or two early, but he showed you
56:23
Speaker 1: something really, something strong last week.
56:25
Speaker 2: This is the guy you got going to the mountain
56:26
Speaker 2: to start for you to an ik.
56:27
Speaker 15: Being yeah, really, this is a really big day for us.
56:32
Speaker 15: If Caid can go out in another offensive environment win
56:36
Speaker 15: blowing out. If he can go out there and give
56:40
Speaker 15: us five, four, five, six, six would be awesome. But
56:42
Speaker 15: four or five innings of solid baseball. Have us in
56:45
Speaker 15: the game, doesn't have to be shut out baseball. Just
56:48
Speaker 15: have us, you know, with a chance to win the game.
56:49
Speaker 15: But give us good four or five innings like he
56:51
Speaker 15: did last week. I mean, it just can't you know
56:54
Speaker 15: how much that sets us up, because you know, we
56:57
Speaker 15: need we need the grubs and the to Plantier and
57:01
Speaker 15: Riojas obviously grubs and rio Jas for sure. Out definitely
57:04
Speaker 15: don't want to pitch him Alanis tonight. If we can
57:06
Speaker 15: help it, it will be awesome not to pitch Dre
57:10
Speaker 15: part of that's the offense too. So if you can
57:12
Speaker 15: get it all, it all is interactive. You know, if
57:16
Speaker 15: bing we if he never threw another inning on a
57:20
Speaker 15: weekend and just gave us five innings every Tuesday, that's
57:22
Speaker 15: as much of a contribution to a SEC series win
57:25
Speaker 15: as anything else. And so hopefully Kate can go right
57:28
Speaker 15: out there in the first inning and and give us
57:30
Speaker 15: get us off to a good start, get us in
57:32
Speaker 15: the dugout, and give us a chance to score first.
57:34
Speaker 15: There there's I'm sure they're gonna throw a lot of
57:36
Speaker 15: different guys to night they're starting their closer, I think,
57:38
Speaker 15: or a guy that's got twelve a bunch of appearances
57:40
Speaker 15: and no starts, I think, so I'm sure it's gonna
57:43
Speaker 15: be a dogfight.
57:44
Speaker 14: Like you know, most of these Tuesdays are uh.
57:46
Speaker 1: The guy to whom Schwass is referring starting for Sam
57:53
Speaker 1: Houston as.
57:53
Speaker 2: A young man by the name of Danny.
57:55
Speaker 1: Valladez Valladez, uh he he has been used exclusively out
58:02
Speaker 1: of the bullpen. This will be his first start, and
58:04
Speaker 1: he'll be making his thirteenth appearance, and he does have
58:06
Speaker 1: a couple of saves. So with his twenty two and
58:09
Speaker 1: two thirds innings, you would say, yeah, he's probably the closer.
58:11
Speaker 1: There's another wrinkle about Danny Valadez. Danny Valadez pitched at
58:17
Speaker 1: Cedar Ridge. Did you recall seeing him in your Round
58:21
Speaker 1: Rock Dragon broadcasting days, cam seeing Danny Valadez of Cedar
58:27
Speaker 1: Ridge when they played Round Rock kind of.
58:29
Speaker 3: Think here if he did. He's a junior, I think
58:32
Speaker 3: this year, so that was probably before my time with
58:37
Speaker 3: the Round Rock Dragons.
58:38
Speaker 1: Okay, and well I can tell you this. He was
58:42
Speaker 1: coached by none other than Mike Cardball. Harg how about
58:45
Speaker 1: that he was one of his guys. So he'll get
58:48
Speaker 1: the start. And as you heard Schloss talking about kay
58:50
Speaker 1: Bing will get the start for Texas tonight. All right,
58:54
Speaker 1: we'll have some other comments and other things to get
58:57
Speaker 1: to before we wrap up hour number two here on
58:59
Speaker 1: thirteen under the zone here from UFCU to just far
59:02
Speaker 1: Field this afternoon. As the Texas Longhorns are in action tonight,
59:07
Speaker 1: they'll take on the Sam Houston State Bearcats. Sam will
59:11
Speaker 1: come in with the record of seven and seventeen, the
59:13
Speaker 1: long Horns nineteen and three and ranked as high as
59:16
Speaker 1: number three in the nation by Baseball America. They are
59:19
Speaker 1: seventh in the D one Baseball Poll, the National Collegiate
59:23
Speaker 1: Baseball Writers Association rankings, and the USA Today Coaches pulled
59:28
Speaker 1: the number five in perfect game, so long Horns ranked
59:30
Speaker 1: in the top ten of all the major polls. Coming
59:33
Speaker 1: off taking two out of three from LSU. It's interesting,
59:37
Speaker 1: you know, they had a two and two week when
59:40
Speaker 1: you think about it, because they lost the twelve inning
59:41
Speaker 1: game to UTSA, but the sting of that, and even
59:48
Speaker 1: though that was followed by the Friday night loss to LSU,
59:52
Speaker 1: so it was two consecutive defeats for Texas after they
59:56
Speaker 1: had started the season losing the season opener to Louisville
1:00:00
Speaker 1: and then winning seventeen consecutive games. They were seventeen and one,
1:00:04
Speaker 1: dropped the midweek contest in twelve innings to UTSA, then
1:00:09
Speaker 1: came back and lost the Friday night game to LSU
1:00:13
Speaker 1: eight to two. But boy did they respond in the
1:00:15
Speaker 1: big way Saturday to win eleven to seven of the Tigers,
1:00:18
Speaker 1: and then pretty much controlled virtually the entire game to
1:00:22
Speaker 1: win on Sunday over the Tigers.
1:00:24
Speaker 2: Six to two.
1:00:25
Speaker 1: So Texas with that win now sitting a tide, sitting
1:00:32
Speaker 1: tied to top the SEC standings right now as they
1:00:36
Speaker 1: go into the midweek non conference game. But it's the
1:00:40
Speaker 1: Longhorns at five and one, number two, Georgia at five
1:00:44
Speaker 1: and one. Georgia coming off sweeping Florida in Gainesville, Florida
1:00:49
Speaker 1: was number thirteen at the time. Not only did they
1:00:51
Speaker 1: sweep Florida, they put forty runs on the scoreboard over
1:00:55
Speaker 1: the weekend. In that series sweep of the Gators, they
1:00:58
Speaker 1: scored eight runs seven win Friday, they scored seventeen runs
1:01:02
Speaker 1: Saturday and beating Florida seventeen to eight. And then they
1:01:05
Speaker 1: scored fifteen runs in a run rule seven inning fifteen
1:01:09
Speaker 1: to four win on Sunday. So Georgia is number two.
1:01:12
Speaker 1: And by the way, that's the team that will be
1:01:14
Speaker 1: in here, not this coming weekend the long ornge go
1:01:16
Speaker 1: to Columbia, Missouri to play the Missouri Tigers is coming weekend,
1:01:19
Speaker 1: but the following weekend Georgia will be here, so big
1:01:24
Speaker 1: doings there. Georgia is tied with Texas for first, also
1:01:29
Speaker 1: five and one in the conference. Arkansas is five and
1:01:32
Speaker 1: one in the league. In Tennessee is five and one
1:01:35
Speaker 1: in SEC play, so it's a four way tie atop
1:01:39
Speaker 1: the conference standings, and in fact, Tennessee has the best
1:01:43
Speaker 1: overall record at overall, actually Arkansas is the best winning
1:01:48
Speaker 1: percentage twenty three and two.
1:01:49
Speaker 2: Tennessee is twenty two and two. Looking here now, George
1:01:53
Speaker 2: is twenty four and two.
1:01:54
Speaker 1: It's interesting D one has Tennessee listed at the top
1:01:57
Speaker 1: of all three or five and one in the league
1:01:59
Speaker 1: and is twenty four and two, Arkansas twenty three and
1:02:02
Speaker 1: two overall, Tennessee twenty two and two.
1:02:05
Speaker 2: Overall.
1:02:07
Speaker 1: Those three listed, and they're listed really by ranking in
1:02:13
Speaker 1: D one Baseball. That's why They've got it listed like
1:02:15
Speaker 1: that in terms of the national ranking, because Tennessee is
1:02:20
Speaker 1: number one in the country and in the conference.
1:02:24
Speaker 2: Like I said, they're all tied at five and one
1:02:26
Speaker 2: in the league.
1:02:27
Speaker 1: Georgia's twenty four and two, Arkansas is twenty three and two,
1:02:30
Speaker 1: Tennessee is twenty two and two, and the Long Runs
1:02:32
Speaker 1: are nineteen and three. But they're all five and one
1:02:35
Speaker 1: in SEC play. Alabama's four and two, LSU is four
1:02:38
Speaker 1: and two, Oklahoma is four and two, Auburn is four
1:02:41
Speaker 1: and two, Vanderbilt.
1:02:42
Speaker 2: Is owing two, and Ole Miss is owing to It's
1:02:45
Speaker 2: a six way tie.
1:02:46
Speaker 1: One game off that pace then is Kentucky at two
1:02:50
Speaker 1: and four, South Carolina Mississippi State both one and five
1:02:53
Speaker 1: in the league and winless, winless, and only anybody whould
1:02:57
Speaker 1: have thought this would have been the case Florida on now.
1:03:00
Speaker 1: To be fair, the Gators have played Tennessee and Georgia,
1:03:03
Speaker 1: two really good teams back to back, but one was
1:03:05
Speaker 1: at home Georgia. They lost all three of those games
1:03:07
Speaker 1: that were swept there in Knoxville and Texas A and
1:03:12
Speaker 1: M is six. The Aggies were swept at home by
1:03:15
Speaker 1: Alabama and then went to Vanderbilt and were swept by
1:03:18
Speaker 1: the Commodore's Aggies. Of course, were the preseason number one team,
1:03:20
Speaker 1: and I don't think anybody expected that either. So that's
1:03:25
Speaker 1: that's where it is in terms of conference standings. But
1:03:28
Speaker 1: the Wall get back to the conference play this weekend,
1:03:31
Speaker 1: and uh, by the way, also Owen six's Missouri, and
1:03:34
Speaker 1: that's where the Long Orange we had this weekend. The
1:03:36
Speaker 1: Tigers had been swept at LSU and then got swept
1:03:41
Speaker 1: over the weekend as well, and in being swept over
1:03:46
Speaker 1: the weekend, they are now Owen six in conference play
1:03:50
Speaker 1: as well. And Texas will be in Columbia, be the
1:03:52
Speaker 1: first time the long Wards have played there. I have
1:03:55
Speaker 1: to think about this. It's either twenty eleven or twenty twelve.
1:04:00
Speaker 1: It was the last time, and I want to say
1:04:01
Speaker 1: it was twenty twelve, but I could be wrong about that.
1:04:03
Speaker 1: The last time that Texas played in Colombia when they
1:04:06
Speaker 1: were both still in the Big twelve Conference, clearly Nebraska
1:04:11
Speaker 1: and Colorado had already left, and then Texas A and
1:04:13
Speaker 1: M Missouri left around the same time at twenty twelve.
1:04:16
Speaker 1: So anyway, it'll be the first time they've been there
1:04:18
Speaker 1: in more than a decade when they play their Friday, Saturday,
1:04:21
Speaker 1: and Sunday.
1:04:22
Speaker 2: Texas women's basketball.
1:04:24
Speaker 1: Team leaves on Thursday, just as the long worn baseball
1:04:27
Speaker 1: team leaves Thursday to travel to Colombia. The basketball team
1:04:32
Speaker 1: will go to Birmingham, Alabama, and they'll play on Saturday
1:04:37
Speaker 1: afternoon and Texas will take on Tennessee. It'll be a
1:04:42
Speaker 1: rematch of a game played just over two months ago
1:04:46
Speaker 1: when they beat the Lady Balls on January twenty third
1:04:49
Speaker 1: at Moody Center, and it was a heck of a battle.
1:04:51
Speaker 1: They won that contest eighty to seventy six. So they'll
1:04:55
Speaker 1: play Tennessee Saturday afternoon. That's a two to thirty tip off,
1:05:01
Speaker 1: two point thirty on the tip off well beyond the air,
1:05:04
Speaker 1: two fifteen Saturday afternoon, and it'll be.
1:05:09
Speaker 2: Preceded by.
1:05:13
Speaker 1: The matchup between the number two seed TCU and the
1:05:16
Speaker 1: number three seed Notre Dame.
1:05:17
Speaker 2: That's a rematch as well.
1:05:18
Speaker 1: They played a non conference play down in the Cayman
1:05:21
Speaker 1: Islands over the Thanksgiving weekend and tc won that game.
1:05:24
Speaker 2: They beat Notre Dame.
1:05:26
Speaker 1: Notre Dame in Texas, of course, played Notre Dame won
1:05:28
Speaker 1: that contest in overtime back in December and the sec
1:05:32
Speaker 1: ACC Challenge. They won that game up in South ben
1:05:35
Speaker 1: in overtime. So the Seeds have largely held to form
1:05:41
Speaker 1: in the women's tournament, not at all cases. Kansas State
1:05:44
Speaker 1: was a five seed. They knocked out the four seed Kentucky.
1:05:46
Speaker 1: That's in that Spokane region. As we mentioned, they're going
1:05:49
Speaker 1: to play USC, who it looks for sure, is going
1:05:53
Speaker 1: to be without Juju Watkins. The reports are indicated that
1:05:56
Speaker 1: she has a torn acl suffered in that win last
1:05:58
Speaker 1: night of our Mississippi State, So that would be a
1:06:01
Speaker 1: five seat playing the one set out there in Spokane,
1:06:04
Speaker 1: Oklahoma would play Yukon that's a two seed in the
1:06:08
Speaker 1: three seed and that's in the Spokane number four region,
1:06:12
Speaker 1: the Spokane four region. In the Spokane number one region.
1:06:17
Speaker 1: You have South Carolina defending national champions playing Maryland, four seed.
1:06:22
Speaker 2: You watched that game yesterday, did you? Cam? Didn't you
1:06:24
Speaker 2: text me as well?
1:06:25
Speaker 1: What an epic game that was between Maryland and Alabama yesterday?
1:06:29
Speaker 3: And Alabama was up was it twelve or seventeen seventeen?
1:06:33
Speaker 3: And then what essence Cody fouled out and Leah and
1:06:36
Speaker 3: I fouled out. Americaly and Maryland clawed back into it
1:06:39
Speaker 3: and probably should have won in the first overtime period.
1:06:42
Speaker 3: Of course, that three point foul and Sarah Ashley Barker
1:06:45
Speaker 3: with what point seven ten to a second left, Oh,
1:06:48
Speaker 3: that's the worst thing you want to see from a team.
1:06:50
Speaker 3: But then Maryland just you know, just out and played
1:06:53
Speaker 3: Alabama that second ot. But I mean, huge credit to
1:06:56
Speaker 3: Sarah Ashley Barker. She didn't play the first time Texas
1:06:59
Speaker 3: played Obama at Moody Center. Craig I was on the
1:07:01
Speaker 3: call for that, and in Texas just absolutely destroy Alabama.
1:07:04
Speaker 3: But with Ashtar Ashley Barker, she's a phenomenal player, left
1:07:08
Speaker 3: everything out there on the court. So I had them
1:07:11
Speaker 3: the win in my bracket. Of course, I'm sure everyone
1:07:13
Speaker 3: cares about how my bracket looks.
1:07:15
Speaker 2: So I was.
1:07:15
Speaker 3: I was ruined for Alabama yesterday. But a fantastic game
1:07:18
Speaker 3: all around. And in Florida said, OLSU was a good game,
1:07:21
Speaker 3: and ultimately LSU kind of pulled away in the second half.
1:07:24
Speaker 1: The first half, Yeah they blew him. Yeah, they blew
1:07:27
Speaker 1: them out in the second half. And LSU looks good,
1:07:29
Speaker 1: they look healthy again, and uh and and LSU is
1:07:35
Speaker 1: in that is in also in that Birmingham one or
1:07:39
Speaker 1: Birmingham two region where you have South Carolina as the one.
1:07:44
Speaker 2: I remembering that Craiker or is that the other Spokane.
1:07:46
Speaker 1: That's the other Spokane, right, because South Carolina is the one,
1:07:51
Speaker 1: Maryland is the four. And how about Duke and North
1:07:54
Speaker 1: Carolina the two and three in uh in that in
1:07:59
Speaker 1: that Birmingham region there, that'll be interesting with Duke and
1:08:02
Speaker 1: North they've never met in the NCAA tournament. And remember
1:08:06
Speaker 1: Duke of North Carolina on the men's side had never
1:08:08
Speaker 1: played in the NCAA tournament, so they met in the
1:08:10
Speaker 1: final four Fuse a few years back, they had played
1:08:13
Speaker 1: in an n semi final I remember when I was
1:08:15
Speaker 1: a kid, but they had not played in a men's
1:08:18
Speaker 1: NCAA tournament game. They'd both been in final fours together simultaneously.
1:08:22
Speaker 1: Nineteen ninety one comes to mind when Duke finally won
1:08:25
Speaker 1: its first national championship, but North Carolina lost in the
1:08:30
Speaker 1: semifinal round to Kansas and Duke won to get to
1:08:37
Speaker 1: the national championship and beat Kansas in that National championship.
1:08:40
Speaker 1: But it'll be the first time that the Duke of
1:08:42
Speaker 1: North Carolina women and they only played one time this year.
1:08:46
Speaker 1: It's kind of like Texas playing Oklahoma one time this year.
1:08:49
Speaker 1: Remember the way back in fact, they opened conference play
1:08:52
Speaker 1: in January in Norman and got a big win beating
1:08:55
Speaker 1: the Sooners there in Norman. That was big because Oklahoma
1:08:57
Speaker 1: is playing really well right now. They blew out Iowa
1:09:01
Speaker 1: yesterday in their Spokane region and now they get Yukon
1:09:05
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be a it'll be an interesting matchup
1:09:11
Speaker 1: there in the rest of the women's bracket as well.
1:09:14
Speaker 1: But Texas will be playing and the Longhorns will play
1:09:18
Speaker 1: Saturday afternoon and you'll hear that game here on AM
1:09:21
Speaker 1: thirteen hundred the Zone. So there'll be a little switch
1:09:24
Speaker 1: of the weekend here with a normal scheduling Friday night.
1:09:29
Speaker 1: It'll be well, Cam, you're in better position. I am
1:09:32
Speaker 1: to recite the schedule. I remember Friday night because we've
1:09:35
Speaker 1: got Round Rock Express Baseball beginning this weekend.
1:09:38
Speaker 2: So what's our Friday night?
1:09:40
Speaker 3: So Friday night YouTube Baseball beyond k KGFIHD two are
1:09:44
Speaker 3: one to three one Austin's Eightyes station and the that'll well,
1:09:47
Speaker 3: you'll probably hear YouTube baseball on for most of the
1:09:50
Speaker 3: season with the Express can off this Friday, so the
1:09:52
Speaker 3: Express will be on right here on thirteen under the
1:09:55
Speaker 3: zone and when it doesn't conflict, and we'll put Texas
1:09:57
Speaker 3: Baseball on the z for this weekend. UT Baseball will
1:10:01
Speaker 3: have all three games on one O three one FM.
1:10:05
Speaker 3: The Express on cavid Am. Women's basketball, as you said,
1:10:08
Speaker 3: will be on cavid Am Friday or sorry on Saturday,
1:10:11
Speaker 3: and if they win, we'll be on Monday. And don't
1:10:14
Speaker 3: forget Craig Austin FC. It's it's in action on it's
1:10:18
Speaker 3: an action. You can listen to Austin FC, who are
1:10:22
Speaker 3: three to zero to two, had a big one yesterday
1:10:24
Speaker 3: against San Diego. You can listen to them on a
1:10:26
Speaker 3: ninety seven point five Austin's alt station.
1:10:29
Speaker 2: So we got all of those a lot going on, right, yeah, yeah,
1:10:31
Speaker 2: we do.
1:10:32
Speaker 3: And of course UT softball the number one ranked DUT Softball,
1:10:35
Speaker 3: that's right, games.
1:10:36
Speaker 1: And number two in one poll, number one and the
1:10:39
Speaker 1: other aren't they I think I saw in their sad
1:10:40
Speaker 1: notes or something like number two and one poll number
1:10:42
Speaker 1: one at they play six o'clock tonight and uh that's
1:10:47
Speaker 1: on the HD signal, right, yes, correct, yes.
1:10:49
Speaker 3: So if you're looking forward to the iHeartRadio app, which
1:10:51
Speaker 3: I suggest you download.
1:10:52
Speaker 14: It's free.
1:10:53
Speaker 3: Just search Retro Retro Austin in your app and it'll
1:10:56
Speaker 3: come up all right.
1:10:58
Speaker 1: Longgorn taken batting practice. Adrian Rodriguez himself just drove one
1:11:01
Speaker 1: right out of the ballpark. So that's going on right now.
1:11:04
Speaker 1: Up next, my conversation with Sean Miller, the brand new
1:11:08
Speaker 1: head men's basketball coach at the University of Texas, when
1:11:11
Speaker 1: we continue here on this Tuesday afternoon on AM thirteen
1:11:15
Speaker 1: under the Zone. Glad to have you with us this afternoon,
1:11:18
Speaker 1: and let's hear the conversation I had just a little
1:11:22
Speaker 1: while ago, well it was earlier today, you know. We
1:11:25
Speaker 1: brought to the news conference live here this morning at
1:11:30
Speaker 1: eleven o'clock on the Zone, where we heard Vice President
1:11:34
Speaker 1: Director of Athletics Chrystal Conti, as well as the Chairman
1:11:37
Speaker 1: of the Border Regions Kevin elt Type and the university
1:11:40
Speaker 1: interim president as well also introduce Sean Miller, the new
1:11:48
Speaker 1: head coach head basketball coach at Texas, and we brought
1:11:53
Speaker 1: you that as well as Coach Miller's response the Q
1:11:59
Speaker 1: and A with a report, and then I had a
1:12:01
Speaker 1: brief sit down conversation with him afterwards this this afternoon
1:12:05
Speaker 1: on the program, we were able to reair for you
1:12:09
Speaker 1: his comments and then the Q and A with the reporter.
1:12:11
Speaker 1: So let's one more time to give you a listen
1:12:13
Speaker 1: to my visit my chat with a brand new head
1:12:16
Speaker 1: basketball coach at Texas.
1:12:17
Speaker 2: Sean Miller, coach. I'm gonna I'm gonna start off.
1:12:19
Speaker 1: By reviewing something at the news conference last Thursday and
1:12:25
Speaker 1: day and or last Tuesday and day. And I asked
1:12:28
Speaker 1: you about the relationship between your guard Ryan Conwell and
1:12:33
Speaker 1: Julian Larry at Texas, and I mean, and you talked
1:12:35
Speaker 1: about how that's become more commonplace and will continue to
1:12:39
Speaker 1: become more commonplace. But the vibe I got from it
1:12:41
Speaker 1: is that you're about family and that and that and
1:12:44
Speaker 1: I kind of got that vibe from the news conference
1:12:46
Speaker 1: and what that means you not only to your immediate
1:12:48
Speaker 1: family but your basketball family.
1:12:50
Speaker 4: No.
1:12:51
Speaker 5: I mean, I think the culture that we talk a
1:12:54
Speaker 5: lot about, the culture I believe in is is what
1:12:58
Speaker 5: we refer to as all in, and it's what you're
1:13:00
Speaker 5: talking about, you know. There's just there's so many different
1:13:03
Speaker 5: connections between players now that used to be at one
1:13:07
Speaker 5: program and are now part of your program. There's change,
1:13:10
Speaker 5: more change now than ever, but the constant is you
1:13:13
Speaker 5: know those that have been with you that they feel respected,
1:13:17
Speaker 5: they feel a part of what we're doing, and that
1:13:19
Speaker 5: they can be a force, a positive force for great
1:13:22
Speaker 5: things moving forward. And you know here Texas, you know
1:13:26
Speaker 5: that's about former players, that those guys, even though I'm
1:13:29
Speaker 5: the coach that didn't coach them, and they may have
1:13:31
Speaker 5: played for Rick Barnes, that they still love the University
1:13:34
Speaker 5: of Texas and they feel a connection to the basketball
1:13:37
Speaker 5: program that becomes the basketball family. And you know those
1:13:41
Speaker 5: that you coach that are a part of your team.
1:13:43
Speaker 5: Some will come from other places and be with you
1:13:45
Speaker 5: for a year. I believe there's still those that will
1:13:48
Speaker 5: be with you from start to finish. But it doesn't matter.
1:13:52
Speaker 5: Sharing that locker room and the experience you want them
1:13:55
Speaker 5: to develop, but you also want them to know that
1:13:58
Speaker 5: they are a part of something that's bigger than just themselves.
1:14:01
Speaker 5: And I think that family that you talked about is
1:14:04
Speaker 5: what I would refer to as all in.
1:14:06
Speaker 1: You're a western Pennsylvania guy, and even Cincinnati not that
1:14:09
Speaker 1: far from Pittsburgh as well. Tucson is obviously a long
1:14:12
Speaker 1: way in Austin's a completely different world to itself. How
1:14:15
Speaker 1: versatile do you characterize yourself on being able to transition
1:14:19
Speaker 1: to live in different environments as you have?
1:14:21
Speaker 5: So I think those are very helpful characteristics that I
1:14:25
Speaker 5: quite frankly needed to adapt to and adopt as my own,
1:14:29
Speaker 5: or else it would not be able to survive. But
1:14:31
Speaker 5: when you coach in a big East at Xavier, you
1:14:34
Speaker 5: coach in a pac twelve at Arizona, you live in
1:14:37
Speaker 5: the West, the Southwest, the desert in Tucson, Arizona. You
1:14:40
Speaker 5: live in the Midwest in Cincinnati, those are all really different,
1:14:45
Speaker 5: different challenges. Those are different places, and what works at
1:14:50
Speaker 5: one place doesn't necessarily mean it to work at another.
1:14:54
Speaker 5: Yet there are certain things you do as a coach
1:14:56
Speaker 5: that you realize it doesn't matter where you are. So
1:14:59
Speaker 5: as I come here to be the new coach at
1:15:01
Speaker 5: the University of Texas, I think all those experiences helped
1:15:05
Speaker 5: me be the most prepared that I can be take
1:15:07
Speaker 5: the ground running.
1:15:08
Speaker 1: Clearly, this is from that category of drinking from a
1:15:11
Speaker 1: fire hose. Right now as you start to try to
1:15:14
Speaker 1: get in things and not even asking personnel decisions, but
1:15:18
Speaker 1: you haven't had a chance to view. You saw it firsthand,
1:15:22
Speaker 1: obviously in the ball game last Wednesday.
1:15:24
Speaker 2: It was only six days ago.
1:15:25
Speaker 1: But the mere fact that you saw Texas on display
1:15:29
Speaker 1: to give you an idea once you started looking to
1:15:31
Speaker 1: the roster, once you accepted the position on what you
1:15:35
Speaker 1: might have to work with, which might have to replace,
1:15:37
Speaker 1: and what you have to do in rolling up your
1:15:38
Speaker 1: sleeves to replenish the talent pool.
1:15:41
Speaker 5: So you now build a program one roster at a time.
1:15:45
Speaker 5: And you know, I don't know if anyone is exempt
1:15:48
Speaker 5: from what I just said. Now, how you go about
1:15:51
Speaker 5: building that roster can be done in different ways. First
1:15:54
Speaker 5: things first, you know, I had the opportunity to meet
1:15:56
Speaker 5: the returning players last night for a brief minute. The
1:15:59
Speaker 5: more important conversations will be in the next couple of days,
1:16:03
Speaker 5: even beginning here, maybe this afternoon or this evening with
1:16:07
Speaker 5: you know, those that can come back, and then we
1:16:10
Speaker 5: welcome them back.
1:16:12
Speaker 4: And also there's going to be change.
1:16:14
Speaker 5: Sometimes you have to respect that in today's world, those
1:16:18
Speaker 5: that might have been here and done a great job,
1:16:21
Speaker 5: they have the freedom of choice to go other places.
1:16:23
Speaker 5: So I'm anxious to put all that together. I wish
1:16:26
Speaker 5: I could speed up or slow down time right now.
1:16:29
Speaker 5: But that's the next task, especially this month. It's a
1:16:33
Speaker 5: big month.
1:16:34
Speaker 1: You said you didn't really have time to take your
1:16:37
Speaker 1: time on things, But does it in your mind a
1:16:40
Speaker 1: timetable on assembling coaching staff, support staff, management staff is
1:16:45
Speaker 1: it week, ten days, two weeks to get you have
1:16:47
Speaker 1: a frame of mind on how long that might take.
1:16:50
Speaker 5: Well, the biggest point is I just need a core
1:16:53
Speaker 5: group of people starting to work alongside. I mean I
1:16:56
Speaker 5: have that in place right now, and that will come
1:16:58
Speaker 5: from those that were with me at Xavier. So you
1:17:02
Speaker 5: know that being said, I think to complete the best
1:17:06
Speaker 5: staff that we can, there's going to be a few
1:17:08
Speaker 5: people that weren't necessarily with me at Xavier. They might
1:17:12
Speaker 5: have been on the staff that just left, they may
1:17:16
Speaker 5: be coming from other places. So I think the first
1:17:19
Speaker 5: part that will happen right away is those that are
1:17:21
Speaker 5: coming with me from Xavier. I think they'll be on
1:17:24
Speaker 5: board as soon as this week.
1:17:25
Speaker 2: All right.
1:17:26
Speaker 1: The final two questions are the two most important ones.
1:17:29
Speaker 1: One has Amy picked out the house yet?
1:17:31
Speaker 4: Yeah?
1:17:32
Speaker 7: No?
1:17:32
Speaker 5: And to show you what she just went through, we
1:17:35
Speaker 5: lived in an apartment for two years in Cincinnati because
1:17:38
Speaker 5: we made the decision to build and as it often
1:17:42
Speaker 5: is the case, it takes a lot longer than it
1:17:44
Speaker 5: was projected. We moved into our new house in late October,
1:17:49
Speaker 5: middle of October, so if you do the math on that,
1:17:52
Speaker 5: we've lived in that house for about five and a
1:17:55
Speaker 5: half months. She did a lot of the work and
1:17:58
Speaker 5: picking things out and building it. So I will tell
1:18:01
Speaker 5: you this, we will not build a house here, but
1:18:04
Speaker 5: we look forward to making that choice.
1:18:06
Speaker 4: So no, we left that.
1:18:07
Speaker 5: We haven't had the opportunity to figure things out here yet.
1:18:10
Speaker 1: Okay, final question, and it's a big one. Aaron Rodgers
1:18:13
Speaker 1: to the Steelers. I think we're boxed in right now.
1:18:16
Speaker 1: That becomes the next best choice, So I'm going to
1:18:18
Speaker 1: say that will happen.
1:18:19
Speaker 2: Okay, Hey, it's a pleasure to meet you.
1:18:22
Speaker 1: Look forward to working with you as your play by
1:18:24
Speaker 1: play broadcaster, and excited to see what the future holds.
1:18:27
Speaker 2: John, I appreciate you taking the time. Oh, thank you.
1:18:29
Speaker 2: Uh yeah.
1:18:31
Speaker 1: In case you didn't know, and why I asked that
1:18:33
Speaker 1: question about Aaron Rodgers is he did mention and we
1:18:37
Speaker 1: aired that a couple hours ago in his opening comments.
1:18:42
Speaker 1: He's a native of western Pennsylvania, he said, from the
1:18:45
Speaker 1: same areas Joe name through grew up and beaver Falls, Pennsylvania,
1:18:47
Speaker 1: mentioned Tony Dorseat who was from Aliquippa, Mike Ditka as well,
1:18:52
Speaker 1: and h and he talked about, you know the quarterback
1:18:53
Speaker 1: you named Allars Jim Kelly talked about he left out
1:18:57
Speaker 1: Dan Marino.
1:18:58
Speaker 2: I thought out of that deal.
1:18:59
Speaker 1: But anyway, he mentioned all of these quarterbacks and all
1:19:02
Speaker 1: of these other great, great athletes from western Pennsylvania there
1:19:07
Speaker 1: and uh he said he was a huge Steelers fan,
1:19:11
Speaker 1: and he and his wife Amy, he said, they pull
1:19:14
Speaker 1: out the Franco Harris jerseys and they're they're big Steeler fans.
1:19:18
Speaker 2: So I felt compelled to ask him, Cameron, you know
1:19:23
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers. Yay, nay.
1:19:24
Speaker 1: It was an interesting response. He said, I think we're
1:19:27
Speaker 1: boxed in. So the answer is yes, you think. In
1:19:31
Speaker 1: other words, running out of time to come up with
1:19:34
Speaker 1: a with a suitable quarterback answer.
1:19:36
Speaker 3: Oh, I mean he could have walked over to the
1:19:37
Speaker 3: Texas Pro day and see when your spin it.
1:19:40
Speaker 2: You know, that's true, that's true. He definitely could have
1:19:43
Speaker 2: done that.
1:19:44
Speaker 1: It might have made since to do that, or at
1:19:47
Speaker 1: least to ask about it, uh, you know, uh, and
1:19:51
Speaker 1: and to see where since we're on the subject of football,
1:19:55
Speaker 1: the there's there's been more and more interest in cam
1:20:00
Speaker 1: Ward of late being the overall number one pick in
1:20:04
Speaker 1: the draft, And of course the Titans are going to
1:20:10
Speaker 1: have a private workout in a throwing session with cam
1:20:14
Speaker 1: Ward and they're willing to listen to offers for the
1:20:19
Speaker 1: first pick, but it's going to take an even stronger package.
1:20:22
Speaker 1: Apparently Adam Scheffer was reporting that he apparently had a
1:20:26
Speaker 1: really impressive showing at the pro day of Miami.
1:20:30
Speaker 7: And.
1:20:32
Speaker 1: Ward's quote was, I told them talking about the general
1:20:35
Speaker 1: manager Mike gord Borganzi and the president of the football
1:20:39
Speaker 1: operations Chad Brinker, he said, I told him, I'm solidifying it.
1:20:42
Speaker 2: Today. They finally got to see me throw in person.
1:20:45
Speaker 2: That should be all they need to see.
1:20:48
Speaker 1: So Ward has repeatedly said he isn't overly concerned about
1:20:52
Speaker 1: being the top pick, but he likes the thought of
1:20:58
Speaker 1: being able to.
1:21:01
Speaker 2: Play.
1:21:02
Speaker 1: That it really might work out to where he has
1:21:05
Speaker 1: an opportunity to play with the Titans and to be
1:21:10
Speaker 1: the overall number remember when he was. Of course, he's
1:21:13
Speaker 1: a native Texans For folks who didn't know, he's from
1:21:16
Speaker 1: West Columbia High that's out near Houston, just a little
1:21:18
Speaker 1: bit out to the west of there. Played it incarnate word.
1:21:22
Speaker 1: He threw for over sixty nine hundred yards and seventy
1:21:25
Speaker 1: one touchdowns in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one, and
1:21:28
Speaker 1: during the pandemic time, transfers to Washington State, spent two
1:21:33
Speaker 1: years there through for almost seven thousand yards, forty eight touchdowns,
1:21:38
Speaker 1: sixteen interceptions in two seasons. Then transfers to Miami, and
1:21:45
Speaker 1: in his only year in Miami forty three hundred passing yards,
1:21:49
Speaker 1: thirty nine touchdowns, seven interceptions.
1:21:52
Speaker 2: It was a Heisman Trophy finalists.
1:21:54
Speaker 1: He set single season school records for passing yards, passing, touchdowns, completions,
1:21:59
Speaker 1: and completion percentage. But apparently he's pretty excited about the
1:22:04
Speaker 1: thought of playing for Brian Callahan now, because I guess
1:22:08
Speaker 1: Callahan has looked at Cam as being a real quarterback
1:22:11
Speaker 1: whisperer of sorts.
1:22:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, that seems to be kind of the thought of
1:22:15
Speaker 3: mind here. I mean, honestly, I think Travis Hunter is
1:22:17
Speaker 3: the best prospect in this draft. But you know how
1:22:19
Speaker 3: it works, Craig, if you're a quarterback, doesn't matter. If
1:22:22
Speaker 3: you're the top quarterback, you are going to go number one.
1:22:25
Speaker 3: We're probably gonna see shaudor Sanders go too. We're hearing
1:22:29
Speaker 3: Jackson Dart possibly top ten, and hopefully off of Quinn's
1:22:34
Speaker 3: pro day he'll be able to move up the draft
1:22:36
Speaker 3: board as well. But yeah, I mean they you know,
1:22:38
Speaker 3: they made this move the higher Bill Callahan to try
1:22:41
Speaker 3: and you know, get a quarterback and develop a quarterback.
1:22:45
Speaker 3: I don't think, well Levitt Weill Levis rather is the guy,
1:22:49
Speaker 3: but it's a Tennessee franchise, Craig that has been searching
1:22:52
Speaker 3: for I would say, in above average quarterback because Ryan
1:22:55
Speaker 3: Tanhill did a fantastic job. And I know Texas fans
1:22:58
Speaker 3: don't want me talking good about it, Aggie, but hey,
1:23:00
Speaker 3: he got them to an AFC Championship game, right, he
1:23:02
Speaker 3: ended Tom Brady's tenure as a New England Patriot.
1:23:05
Speaker 2: So but before that, you know, is it Vince Young?
1:23:09
Speaker 10: Is it?
1:23:10
Speaker 2: You know, Carrie Collins is it?
1:23:12
Speaker 7: You know?
1:23:12
Speaker 1: Uh been a long time where they really got off
1:23:17
Speaker 1: track is when they took Marcus Mariota.
1:23:20
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, he didn't pan out to be the quarterback
1:23:23
Speaker 3: they thought they were. And you know, I'm a little
1:23:25
Speaker 3: bit worried maybe you know, I love what cam Ward's done.
1:23:27
Speaker 3: His story is incredible. But is cam Warden also going
1:23:30
Speaker 3: to be in that Marcus Mariota line. Yeah, yeah, well
1:23:33
Speaker 3: one of the other ones that you mentioned as well.
1:23:36
Speaker 1: So that's what's fascinating about the quarterback thing because there
1:23:42
Speaker 1: are so many, so many, uh, you know, great college
1:23:50
Speaker 1: quarterbacks who become really, you know, the hot ticket, the
1:23:55
Speaker 1: must see guy, and then they get drafted very high
1:23:59
Speaker 1: and then they either struggle or they wind up being
1:24:05
Speaker 1: complete busts. And we've seen some wind up being complete
1:24:08
Speaker 1: bus and it's unfortunate. Now may they may make tens
1:24:12
Speaker 1: of millions of dollars as a result of that, but
1:24:16
Speaker 1: even though they do that, they wind up being busts
1:24:20
Speaker 1: in some cases. So anyway, that's that's what's going to
1:24:23
Speaker 1: be interesting to see with regard to cam Ward if
1:24:26
Speaker 1: he is, if he is truly the real deal for
1:24:30
Speaker 1: the NFL.
1:24:30
Speaker 2: Draft, we'll certainly find out.
1:24:32
Speaker 1: All Right, We've got some other topics we'll get to
1:24:34
Speaker 1: coming up next. We'll continue long worm batting practice going
1:24:37
Speaker 1: on here at UFCU Dish falk Field as the Longhorns
1:24:42
Speaker 1: get ready for their matchup. There's a big swing off
1:24:46
Speaker 1: the bat of Ryland Galvan, who's he just drove that
1:24:50
Speaker 1: off the back wall of the visiting bullpen. It hit
1:24:53
Speaker 1: the Bevo mural that says National champions They are enlisting
1:24:57
Speaker 1: the national championship years of forty nine to fifty, seventy five,
1:25:00
Speaker 1: eighty three, two and five. He's one of the guys
1:25:03
Speaker 1: that's had the red hot bat of late Ryland Galvan,
1:25:06
Speaker 1: long worn catcher who's leading them at home runs with nine.
1:25:09
Speaker 1: Right now, we got some other topics we get to
1:25:11
Speaker 1: coming up when we continue on this Tuesday afternoon on
1:25:13
Speaker 1: thirteen under the Zone. I wanted to wait until the
1:25:20
Speaker 1: time was appropriate to talk about this a little bit,
1:25:24
Speaker 1: and uh and I guess now is just as good
1:25:26
Speaker 1: a time as any as well. People who have listened
1:25:31
Speaker 1: to this program for a long time, you know, to
1:25:34
Speaker 1: be it here or when we were across town for
1:25:38
Speaker 1: over six years, and when I was here the first
1:25:40
Speaker 1: time for nineteen years. So you know, I've been in
1:25:45
Speaker 1: this town, living regularly in this town for twenty eight years,
1:25:53
Speaker 1: more than I've lived in any other part of the
1:25:56
Speaker 1: state of the country. I grew up in North Carolina,
1:25:58
Speaker 1: but I left when I was eighteen and lived in
1:26:01
Speaker 1: the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex for about eighteen years and
1:26:06
Speaker 1: then moved down here, and I've lived down here twenty
1:26:08
Speaker 1: eight years.
1:26:09
Speaker 2: Now you do the Matthew figure out how ol dam.
1:26:11
Speaker 1: But it was while I was in the metroplex that
1:26:16
Speaker 1: I received not only my regular secondary education at the
1:26:20
Speaker 1: collegiate level. And I joked about how I've was doing
1:26:25
Speaker 1: a survey. I went to four different colleges before I finished,
1:26:27
Speaker 1: and started at UNC Wilmington right after I'd graduated high school. There,
1:26:32
Speaker 1: in my freshman fall semester at UNC Wilmington, came out
1:26:36
Speaker 1: for Christmas vacation. My parents had already moved out here.
1:26:38
Speaker 1: I followed was an advertising man and was working for
1:26:40
Speaker 1: the Dallas Town Herald and came out for Christmas vacation.
1:26:44
Speaker 2: Liked it so much I decided to stay.
1:26:46
Speaker 1: So then I thought, well, I'll just get some basic
1:26:48
Speaker 1: stuff out of the way before I figure out where
1:26:50
Speaker 1: I'm going to go to finish up my college career.
1:26:52
Speaker 1: So I went to North Lake College in Irving. It's
1:26:54
Speaker 1: now called Dallas College North Lake Campus. It's all but
1:26:59
Speaker 1: the Dallas County commun College district. They've adopted the name
1:27:02
Speaker 1: Dallas College. And then they say, you know whatever, campus Brookhaven,
1:27:06
Speaker 1: mountain View, Eastfield, Richland, North Lake, Cedar Valley. I guess
1:27:11
Speaker 1: was in El Centrum and it was called North Lake
1:27:15
Speaker 1: College back then. So I got two years of my
1:27:19
Speaker 1: basics out of the way and all that stuff. I
1:27:21
Speaker 1: then transferred and I went to Texas Tech for all
1:27:23
Speaker 1: of one semester. I was there in the fall of
1:27:25
Speaker 1: eighty one, but I thought, for what I wanted to do,
1:27:29
Speaker 1: I kind of needed to be back in the metroplex,
1:27:32
Speaker 1: and that's when I transferred to the University of North Texas.
1:27:35
Speaker 1: Now at the time it was called North Texas State University.
1:27:38
Speaker 1: And when I transferred to North Texas, I wasn't completely
1:27:42
Speaker 1: sure what I was going to do. I had done
1:27:45
Speaker 1: some sports broadcasting and really liked it and kind of
1:27:48
Speaker 1: felt more comfortable with that than anything else. But I
1:27:50
Speaker 1: also thought about news and investigative.
1:27:53
Speaker 2: Reporting and things like that.
1:27:56
Speaker 1: But then I met Bill Mercer, and I enrolled in
1:27:58
Speaker 1: the sports broadcasting class at North Texas and it really
1:28:02
Speaker 1: did change my life in many ways, not only because
1:28:05
Speaker 1: the direction it gave me in terms of wanting to
1:28:07
Speaker 1: become a broadcaster, but the teacher, the mentor, and the
1:28:12
Speaker 1: friend that Bill was first of all. Bill was an
1:28:16
Speaker 1: iconic broadcaster in the in the Dallas Fort Worth area,
1:28:21
Speaker 1: as folks know from many many years and.
1:28:23
Speaker 2: Nationally as well.
1:28:25
Speaker 1: Bill was a TV news reporter on what is now
1:28:30
Speaker 1: KDFW Channel four television in Dallas Fort Worth. Back then
1:28:34
Speaker 1: it was KRLD TV to go along with the KRLD
1:28:38
Speaker 1: radio and he was a news reporter and was one
1:28:46
Speaker 1: of those on the ground covering the Kennedy assassination. In fact,
1:28:50
Speaker 1: and this just happened by accident, Bill was the one
1:28:52
Speaker 1: who actually informed Lee Harvey Oswald what he was being
1:28:56
Speaker 1: charged with. In the day between the Kennedy assassination and
1:29:02
Speaker 1: when Lee Harvey Oswald was gunned down by Jack Ruby
1:29:05
Speaker 1: in the basement of the Dallas jail, there was that
1:29:09
Speaker 1: Saturday interim and for whatever reason, the Dallas Police kind
1:29:14
Speaker 1: of brought him out. It was almost kind of like
1:29:16
Speaker 1: a makeshift type of news conference, which would never happen
1:29:18
Speaker 1: today with a murder suspect, a capital murder suspect of
1:29:23
Speaker 1: the President of the United States, But they kind of
1:29:24
Speaker 1: brought him out on this stage and that's where you
1:29:26
Speaker 1: might have seen some of the footage where you hear
1:29:28
Speaker 1: Lee Harvey Oswald and say I was a patsy, I
1:29:30
Speaker 1: was set up, blah blah blah. And during that he said,
1:29:34
Speaker 1: I haven't even been charged with anything. Well, Bill, Bill
1:29:37
Speaker 1: Mercer was in the front row of this reporter's right
1:29:40
Speaker 1: up by the stage, and he just kind of instinctively said, yes,
1:29:45
Speaker 1: you are, and Oswald looked at hi him. Bill said,
1:29:47
Speaker 1: you've been charged with the murder of the president, and
1:29:50
Speaker 1: he said. Oswald just kind of stared at him for
1:29:52
Speaker 1: a moment, and then the police let him off, led
1:29:54
Speaker 1: him away, and then of course, the next day Oswald
1:29:56
Speaker 1: was shot. So Bill was a news reporter, but he
1:30:00
Speaker 1: was a sports broadcaster, and a great one. He did
1:30:03
Speaker 1: minor league baseball for years in Dallas Fort Worth, and
1:30:06
Speaker 1: then when Major League Baseball came to Arlington in nineteen
1:30:09
Speaker 1: seventy two, he was the first play by play broadcaster
1:30:12
Speaker 1: for the Texas Rangers. Prior to that, he had been
1:30:15
Speaker 1: the play by play voice of the Dallas Cowboys in
1:30:17
Speaker 1: the late sixties. The Ice Bowl game against Green Bay
1:30:21
Speaker 1: can YouTube it and you hear his broadcast working with
1:30:25
Speaker 1: the old esteemed Dallas Times Harrow columnists Black He shared
1:30:27
Speaker 1: it as his analyst in nineteen sixty seven, calling the
1:30:30
Speaker 1: Ice Bowl Game against Green Bay the NFL Championship. Bill
1:30:34
Speaker 1: called the Cowboys first two Super Bowls, the loss to
1:30:36
Speaker 1: Baltimore in Super Bowl five and their first ever Super
1:30:39
Speaker 1: Bowl championship in Super Bowl six. It was after that
1:30:43
Speaker 1: that Bill left the Cowboys to become the Rangers play
1:30:47
Speaker 1: by play broadcaster.
1:30:48
Speaker 2: He did it for two years. He worked with Don Drysdale.
1:30:51
Speaker 2: Then he left.
1:30:52
Speaker 1: He got an offer to work with the Chicago White
1:30:54
Speaker 1: Sox with Harry Carey. He did that for a couple
1:30:56
Speaker 1: of years. All during this time, and it started in
1:30:58
Speaker 1: the sixties. Bill was a teacher at North Texas. He
1:31:04
Speaker 1: taught first of all, like announced classes and other things
1:31:08
Speaker 1: like that, and he started the campus radio station, signed
1:31:11
Speaker 1: it on KNTU in nineteen sixty eight, and that's where
1:31:14
Speaker 1: a lot of us who were sports broadcasting majors, and
1:31:17
Speaker 1: when they added the sports broadcasting curriculum, Bill was the
1:31:20
Speaker 1: man to teach it and a lot of great broadcasters
1:31:22
Speaker 1: have come through that curriculum. Mark following the play by
1:31:24
Speaker 1: play voice of the Mavericks Dave Barnett, who did the
1:31:28
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks for years, then the Spurs and worked for ESPN,
1:31:32
Speaker 1: and he's in his retirement years now. He's still the
1:31:37
Speaker 1: play by play voice of North Texas. Gentleman Miller my
1:31:40
Speaker 1: friends from the morning show of the ticket North Texas graduates,
1:31:43
Speaker 1: so that many many others Rich Phillips who does s
1:31:47
Speaker 1: us play by play that came through the sports broadcasting
1:31:51
Speaker 1: curriculum at North Texas. And Bill Mercer was a teacher
1:31:56
Speaker 1: and a guiding forced all of us, and he taught
1:31:59
Speaker 1: us about much more than just you know, calling a
1:32:02
Speaker 1: game and how you set it up and all of
1:32:04
Speaker 1: those things. He taught us how to conduct ourselves on
1:32:07
Speaker 1: the road and be professionals. He was a true mentor
1:32:10
Speaker 1: and a leader, and we lost him last Saturday. Bill
1:32:13
Speaker 1: Mercer was ninety nine years old, and I visited him
1:32:17
Speaker 1: several times over the past few years. He was in
1:32:21
Speaker 1: a facility up in McKinney. But he was as sharp
1:32:24
Speaker 1: as a razor mentally all the way to the very end.
1:32:27
Speaker 1: He passed away from an aortic aneurysm of the weekend,
1:32:31
Speaker 1: but his mind was as sharp and his voice was
1:32:34
Speaker 1: as you know, residence as it was all the way
1:32:38
Speaker 1: through all those years he was teaching us.
1:32:40
Speaker 2: And he was a great, great man.
1:32:42
Speaker 1: He was a World War two veteran, served on a
1:32:43
Speaker 1: gunboat in the Pacific Theater as well, and of course
1:32:48
Speaker 1: so many folks remember him as the voice of World
1:32:51
Speaker 1: Class Championship wrestling, and he was kind of profile in
1:32:55
Speaker 1: that movie The Iron Claw because he was very close
1:32:57
Speaker 1: to the Von Eric family. So Bill was a man
1:32:59
Speaker 1: for all seas and many tasks, but above it all
1:33:03
Speaker 1: most he was just a great, great man and a
1:33:06
Speaker 1: multiple Hall of Famer. He'll be missed, and passed away
1:33:09
Speaker 1: last weekend at the age of ninety nine, but his
1:33:12
Speaker 1: lessons all remain with those of us who were his acolytes,
1:33:16
Speaker 1: his students, who were, as some had taken a calling it,
1:33:19
Speaker 1: members of the mercer mafia. We'll be back to wrap
1:33:22
Speaker 1: up today's edition of the program here on AM thirteen
1:33:25
Speaker 1: under the Zone