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3 Guys Before The Game - WVU Athletic Director Wren Baker (Episode725) · 3 Guys Before The Game

0:13
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, it is showtime in the Big City. Have
0:18
Speaker 1: I ever told you we got a good one for you?
0:20
Speaker 2: Have I ever used that phrase?
0:22
Speaker 1: It's You've never said that, never said that. It's been
0:24
Speaker 1: implied we got a good one for you. If this
0:27
Speaker 1: doesn't mean the summer series is in full swing, nothing does.
0:31
Speaker 1: Wren Baker, director of Athletics, Vice President, West Virginia University
0:35
Speaker 1: in studio with us. It's our. I'm not even gonna
0:38
Speaker 1: say annual because he comes in more than annually and
0:41
Speaker 1: I was trying to do some math. I'll have to
0:43
Speaker 1: go to commonly CPA group our accounting for him to
0:45
Speaker 1: figure this out. Maybe the guest who's appeared the most times,
0:53
Speaker 1: who isn't Nathan Adrian because Nathan was a co host
0:55
Speaker 1: for a time when Hobby used to go away.
0:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's not a cat.
0:58
Speaker 1: Nate's not in ag that's not it. He's out right.
1:00
Speaker 3: So you Jordan mcave m at Matthews, I think his
1:02
Speaker 3: pass he's.
1:03
Speaker 1: Past McCabe and the past mccab I think it's number five. Yeah, yeah,
1:07
Speaker 1: you're right there. Then, yeah, you're right there.
1:09
Speaker 2: So we're going for four solos and then I did
1:12
Speaker 2: one one voyage with Mike Benson.
1:15
Speaker 1: That's right, you were. You were the rare co host
1:18
Speaker 1: of a of a guest appearance. We've got a lot
1:20
Speaker 1: to get into as you may As you may know,
1:23
Speaker 1: things are a little bit turbulent in college athletics. We're
1:26
Speaker 1: going to get into it. Three guys before the game
1:27
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1:58
Speaker 1: little bit. Three guys brought to us by Jan Dill's
2:01
Speaker 1: Attorneys at Law Like Reren Baker, they won't take no
2:04
Speaker 1: for an answer. They simply they won't take no. By
2:08
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2:12
Speaker 1: the exclusive healthcare provider for all mountaineers, including you and
2:16
Speaker 1: including Wren. You do your WV medicine guy.
2:20
Speaker 4: Actually, Wren is got a file line's proficient and no,
2:23
Speaker 4: he has to be with everybody's in his at once
2:25
Speaker 4: a day. Somebody comes in the office, says Wren.
2:28
Speaker 1: We need no once once.
2:31
Speaker 4: A day, five times a day.
2:32
Speaker 2: Hey, I will say this about w Medicine before we
2:35
Speaker 2: get started. You know, I'll be forty eight this summer,
2:39
Speaker 2: so creeping up on that five number.
2:42
Speaker 1: Still still any three of us will trade with you
2:45
Speaker 1: right now.
2:45
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I decided, hey, you know, it's probably time
2:49
Speaker 2: I get one of those like very thorough kind of
2:52
Speaker 2: executive health, executive physical and uh. And they do those
2:56
Speaker 2: uh you know, Mayo has several around the country, the
2:59
Speaker 2: Cleveland Clint some but I I like talk to to,
3:02
Speaker 2: uh my doctor, doctor Labis, and said, hey, uh and
3:05
Speaker 2: so they put together a very robust selection of tests
3:10
Speaker 2: and and and I went through and had them all done,
3:13
Speaker 2: heart calcium everything. Oh you did that, oh yeah, and
3:16
Speaker 2: and uh doing great.
3:18
Speaker 1: You're doing great despite the fact that you eat that
3:20
Speaker 1: Alfredo sauce yours.
3:22
Speaker 2: Nothing calcified yet that's that's probably the thing that's turned
3:25
Speaker 2: your health around.
3:26
Speaker 3: A lot of protein chicken perfectly.
3:29
Speaker 4: Did they did they without violating any hippo regulations?
3:34
Speaker 1: Uh?
3:34
Speaker 4: Did they say anything about stress level?
3:37
Speaker 2: You know? They just uh they just said, hey, your
3:40
Speaker 2: all of your tests and your numbers are are looking
3:42
Speaker 2: really good. Continue to do that. So they didn't really
3:45
Speaker 2: have a stress test per se. Uh my wife regulates that.
3:49
Speaker 2: She tells me when I need to chill out, go
3:52
Speaker 2: take a walk. Yeah.
3:53
Speaker 1: Well, if they did the calcium thing on the heart,
3:55
Speaker 1: then that means that they did the uh the one
3:57
Speaker 1: thing which yeah, pat bypasses the stress test.
4:00
Speaker 4: Oh okay, yeah, blood sugar Okay.
4:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, he said he's in there.
4:04
Speaker 1: I mean he's picture of health. I mean, look at him.
4:08
Speaker 4: Picture of health.
4:09
Speaker 1: Picture Baker, Picture of health. Montail inside joke. You remember that,
4:17
Speaker 1: remember that clumps?
4:19
Speaker 2: I remember that scene.
4:21
Speaker 1: Ricky les Monteil the steam fine looking man. Okay, here
4:26
Speaker 1: we go as we record the five years to play
4:34
Speaker 1: five has been passed. Super huge man, I mean we
4:38
Speaker 1: are done with having to do we red shirt? Do
4:42
Speaker 1: we not red shirt? We're done with what we saw
4:45
Speaker 1: a lot of this past basketball season, the twenty six
4:47
Speaker 1: year old freshman from Parts unknown. You're happy, you you
4:54
Speaker 1: like it? What's it all mean?
4:55
Speaker 3: Are are we done? I was going to say, let's
4:57
Speaker 3: start there.
4:58
Speaker 2: Are we done? I don't think. Just Thinkture's five for
5:00
Speaker 2: five first understand. So yes, I'm happy about it because
5:07
Speaker 2: I think anything that we can do to gain any
5:10
Speaker 2: sort of clarity on any rule, I mean, you know,
5:13
Speaker 2: it just gets maddening to constantly be trying to figure out, Okay,
5:18
Speaker 2: is this the rule? Is it not the rule? And
5:21
Speaker 2: I believe I might have said this even last year
5:25
Speaker 2: when we were on because they were starting to weigh
5:26
Speaker 2: this out. Every every youth sports organization, everything under the
5:34
Speaker 2: pro level, but even some of the pros have age
5:36
Speaker 2: restrictions and limits in there, and so it feels like
5:41
Speaker 2: it's more defensible in court. You know, you can't have
5:45
Speaker 2: an eighteen year old plan little league, you know, And
5:48
Speaker 2: so I think long term it'll be good. There was
5:52
Speaker 2: certainly going to be an onslought of legal challenges for
5:54
Speaker 2: people wanting this to apply. Now are retroactively back to
5:59
Speaker 2: the past year, so we'll see what happens there. But overall, yes,
6:06
Speaker 2: I'm I'm happy about it, and and I think it'll
6:09
Speaker 2: be a positive thing.
6:10
Speaker 4: It is until it is. I agree with you. Until,
6:13
Speaker 4: as you alluded to, a fanboy judge says that Brad
6:16
Speaker 4: how can play a seventh year.
6:19
Speaker 2: God, I hope not. That would devastate our program if
6:21
Speaker 2: Brad was playing. Yeah, but no, you're right, You're right.
6:24
Speaker 4: There's like somebody fanboy judge can say that Soresby can play,
6:29
Speaker 4: and why not a guy gets a sixty or seventh year,
6:31
Speaker 4: eighth year?
6:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's I mean, it's you know, I do think
6:35
Speaker 2: there will be some legal challenges of why this isn't retroactive,
6:40
Speaker 2: but you know that is those challenges will occur over
6:43
Speaker 2: a more finite period of time because you only have
6:46
Speaker 2: really you know kids, maybe even over the course of
6:49
Speaker 2: the next year. That that would be really I guess
6:52
Speaker 2: over the course of the past year. So once you
6:54
Speaker 2: get past that, assuming that the legal experts are correct
6:57
Speaker 2: and the rule itself going on on a go forward
7:01
Speaker 2: is defensible, it'll give us some clarity.
7:04
Speaker 3: Are there some unattended consequences there that you would say,
7:06
Speaker 3: like if you were picking out what's the problem with
7:08
Speaker 3: this rule, it would be what.
7:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, there and some of those are still being worked out,
7:13
Speaker 2: and it's a nuance that's probably beyond me digging real
7:18
Speaker 2: deeply into. But some of the international kids that maybe
7:21
Speaker 2: go and play in certain leagues and not even we're
7:25
Speaker 2: not talking about basketball here, We're talking more like Olympic sports.
7:29
Speaker 2: You know, some of them don't usually trigger their college
7:32
Speaker 2: eligibility until a certain age. And so, yeah, there's there's
7:36
Speaker 2: some things to work through. I've heard some Natasha Oaks
7:41
Speaker 2: does a good job her and and uh and Mary
7:45
Speaker 2: of keeping me up to date with how our coaches
7:48
Speaker 2: view it. And we've got a few Olympic sport coaches
7:50
Speaker 2: that have some concerns. But overall, I think Everybay agrees
7:54
Speaker 2: this is going to be a better system.
7:56
Speaker 1: Congress is actually making strides toward some form of legislation.
8:01
Speaker 1: We have talked about this for a very long time,
8:04
Speaker 1: and we often said, oh, Congress is not going to
8:07
Speaker 1: deal with this. Well, they actually have made significant progress.
8:12
Speaker 1: Where do you see this thing ending?
8:14
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I wish I knew. I would say we're
8:18
Speaker 2: closer than we've ever been, and it feels like the
8:23
Speaker 2: Senate votes are probably lining up. I don't know that
8:28
Speaker 2: I would put it in the camp of probable versus
8:32
Speaker 2: not probable. I do think the situation with Soresby probably
8:37
Speaker 2: brought a different light and attention to if they cannot
8:41
Speaker 2: enforce that rule without interference, there legitimately is no rule
8:46
Speaker 2: that could be enforced without interference from some local judge
8:50
Speaker 2: or or local state law. And so hopefully that helps
8:55
Speaker 2: people understand the problem that faces us, and that is
8:58
Speaker 2: that literally any kind of rule mechanism, system, process that
9:04
Speaker 2: you try to put in place is can can be
9:08
Speaker 2: under attack in a moment's notice.
9:10
Speaker 1: And so.
9:11
Speaker 2: You know, I've said this a couple of times. I'm
9:14
Speaker 2: now at the place where I don't think it's a
9:16
Speaker 2: matter of if there's federal legislation. I think it is
9:21
Speaker 2: when and what kind will it happen now? Will it be?
9:26
Speaker 2: Will it offer the protections that you hope it is.
9:28
Speaker 2: But I think people are now realizing pretty universally, this
9:32
Speaker 2: is not a system that will regulate itself. This is
9:35
Speaker 2: not sustainable, and it is going to do one of
9:43
Speaker 2: a handful of things. It's either divert money that could
9:47
Speaker 2: be going for academic programming to athletics, increase the cost
9:53
Speaker 2: of attendance for students because they're having to get some
10:00
Speaker 2: some uh uh money from investments from campus, or you're
10:07
Speaker 2: going to have to reduce sports or reduce the experience
10:11
Speaker 2: the quality of the experience in those sports, or ultimately
10:14
Speaker 2: you have to decide to to that that competing at
10:17
Speaker 2: the highest level in athletics is too rich for your
10:20
Speaker 2: blood and we're gonna we're gonna bow out and downgrade.
10:24
Speaker 2: And so I don't think people want that, all these
10:29
Speaker 2: legislators from all these different areas in the in the
10:31
Speaker 2: different party, the two parties across the country. I don't
10:34
Speaker 2: think anybody wants that for their institutions in their home state.
10:39
Speaker 2: And so now it just becomes, uh, can we get
10:43
Speaker 2: a law that we can all agree on and that's
10:46
Speaker 2: gonna going to take compromise, and and I see some
10:49
Speaker 2: of the comments come from the SEC in Big ten, Well,
10:52
Speaker 2: there are things that are in that law that I
10:54
Speaker 2: don't love, that may not be best for wv U.
10:59
Speaker 2: But I think it was General Patten that said a
11:02
Speaker 2: good plan violently executed today is better than a perfect
11:05
Speaker 2: plan always save for tomorrow, And sometimes you got to
11:07
Speaker 2: go with a good plan. And I think the SEC
11:10
Speaker 2: and Big ten are seen, whether that's right or wrong,
11:14
Speaker 2: as being the ones driving this thing financially into the
11:18
Speaker 2: ditch in some regards some of those institutions in their spending.
11:21
Speaker 2: And so I don't believe that the legislators are going
11:25
Speaker 2: to hand them the pen and let them author the bill.
11:27
Speaker 2: That's exactly what they want. I think everybody's gonna have
11:30
Speaker 2: to come to the table and realize, Hey, there's a
11:32
Speaker 2: greater good here. How can we compromise so that all
11:35
Speaker 2: of us can generally support this and start to build
11:38
Speaker 2: a sustainable system. Can I ask you.
11:42
Speaker 4: Some specific questions about the bill and just give me
11:44
Speaker 4: an up or down?
11:45
Speaker 2: Here we go? Or is it from your yellow pad
11:47
Speaker 2: it is?
11:48
Speaker 1: What if he said no, you can't, what would you do?
11:50
Speaker 2: He's going to ask him anyway, because that's what aggressive
11:54
Speaker 2: en polite reporters do. Yes, sir, let's go high. So
12:01
Speaker 2: some specific provisions of the bill. Because you said some
12:03
Speaker 2: things you like, some things you don't like. I'm won't
12:05
Speaker 2: go through everything. You can kind of give me an
12:06
Speaker 2: up or down? Limits to one transfer without without penalty,
12:11
Speaker 2: yes or no? Yes, okay.
12:14
Speaker 4: The eligibility window we talked about creates compensation caps, yes, okay.
12:20
Speaker 4: Conferences could pool media rights fairly indifferent.
12:28
Speaker 2: I don't see what the harm is in having the optionality.
12:31
Speaker 4: Okay, gives limited anti and I think this might be
12:35
Speaker 4: the most important thing. Accept that something that's left out
12:38
Speaker 4: and I ask about gives limited anti trust protection to
12:43
Speaker 4: the NCAA or whatever the governing body is, so that
12:46
Speaker 4: they can actually enforce rules and not just have a
12:49
Speaker 4: judge run rough shot over a rule.
12:51
Speaker 2: Critically important okay.
12:53
Speaker 4: And finally the fact that what is not in there
12:56
Speaker 4: is player representation.
12:59
Speaker 2: Yeah. So if I could just pick the three or
13:03
Speaker 2: four things out that were the most important, it would
13:07
Speaker 2: be the limited anti trust protection so that the national
13:10
Speaker 2: organization can set rules, the transfer limitations because I don't
13:20
Speaker 2: think that's good with the student athlete. Ultimately, the state
13:27
Speaker 2: preemption where you can't go and just override it with
13:31
Speaker 2: with a state law to protect you. And then I think,
13:40
Speaker 2: you know, the fourth piece of that would would be
13:45
Speaker 2: a sustainable agent regulation that because that is a that's
13:53
Speaker 2: in there too. Yeah, that's a wildly unregulated and very
13:59
Speaker 2: dark part of all of this. And so, uh, those
14:04
Speaker 2: are the things I think are the most critical, most
14:07
Speaker 2: of which are are contained in this field. There is
14:09
Speaker 2: some debate about the state preemption piece and does what
14:13
Speaker 2: does this do with that? Maybe the ANA Trust helps
14:15
Speaker 2: with that. But yeah, I think for the most part
14:18
Speaker 2: this has what you would want to have.
14:21
Speaker 4: But it doesn't have a lot of people upset or
14:24
Speaker 4: say the problem is what it doesn't have.
14:25
Speaker 2: That is player representation. Yeah, what is your h the
14:29
Speaker 2: ability for them to have a seat at the table.
14:32
Speaker 2: I have no problem with them with them having a
14:35
Speaker 2: seat at the table. I think they haven't had one
14:40
Speaker 2: up to this point. And I would argue that they
14:44
Speaker 2: have more currently more rights and less restrictions than any
14:51
Speaker 2: other sports organization in the world. So I don't know
14:55
Speaker 2: that it would drastically change the outcome. So I I
15:00
Speaker 2: do not have a problem with them having some kind
15:04
Speaker 2: of bargaining mechanism or the ability to sit and have discussion,
15:12
Speaker 2: you know. But I also I also know that some
15:15
Speaker 2: people do, and so when you're dealing with the bill,
15:18
Speaker 2: it's kind of where does where does this land? But
15:21
Speaker 2: the NCAA has been really good. I mean, now, if
15:24
Speaker 2: you go look at NCAA committees today, they all have
15:26
Speaker 2: a significance student athlete representation on that committee.
15:31
Speaker 3: Let's stay along those lines, but talk compensation for a second,
15:34
Speaker 3: because clearly, Yes, that needs to come in in some
15:39
Speaker 3: form and so it doesn't just run away every year
15:40
Speaker 3: as it's doing. Now, how realistic is that to put
15:45
Speaker 3: in place, especially given if there's no athlete representation there.
15:49
Speaker 3: If you're not restricting compensation in other areas, be it, coaches,
15:54
Speaker 3: be it, whatever, how realistic is it to then restrict
15:57
Speaker 3: just that particular part of the pie.
15:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I would be in favor of of broader,
16:03
Speaker 2: uh compensation restrictions for you know, coaches, administrators, all all
16:10
Speaker 2: of that. But because I do think those are also
16:16
Speaker 2: costs that you're having a hard time controlling. I think
16:20
Speaker 2: my argument to that is there really isn't an individual
16:23
Speaker 2: compensation limit in this bill. It's an overall limit, which
16:30
Speaker 2: to me is more fair. You have the ability, if
16:34
Speaker 2: someone is bringing value, to assign whatever value within your
16:38
Speaker 2: total allotment of of of spend that that you see appropriate.
16:46
Speaker 2: It's pretty well the way most leagues do it, and
16:51
Speaker 2: so in in my mind, that seems pretty fair. The
16:54
Speaker 2: other thing that's in that that this allows is the
16:58
Speaker 2: true nil deals that are not readdirects of money that
17:02
Speaker 2: should be going to the campus. The true market based
17:06
Speaker 2: deals are still allowed now We have not been able
17:09
Speaker 2: to quite wrestle how to regulate that just yet, so
17:12
Speaker 2: I don't know what ultimately that's going to how that
17:18
Speaker 2: rubber meets the road, But there is still that avenue
17:22
Speaker 2: for people to make additional compensation.
17:24
Speaker 1: Three guys before the game is brought to us by
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Speaker 2: You know, I'm a big fan of all of these
18:47
Speaker 2: variations that the Reesei's family has come up with. I mean,
18:52
Speaker 2: used to just be one thing, just the cups.
18:55
Speaker 1: You saw the controversy recently with one of the descendants
18:58
Speaker 1: of the recy family. He said, hey, no, he didn't
19:01
Speaker 1: go thirty He went full time out. He said, you
19:03
Speaker 1: change the chocolate. Put the chocolate back the way it's
19:05
Speaker 1: supposed to be.
19:06
Speaker 3: So you'll take the like the big cup with the
19:08
Speaker 3: caramel in it, or the peanut butter and jelly flavors.
19:11
Speaker 2: This is a change every now and then change up. Yeah,
19:14
Speaker 2: I like it.
19:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, shapes, we're to shapes rate.
19:18
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm a big fan of shapes. You know. I
19:19
Speaker 2: don't understand the chocolate's not where it's at anyway, It's
19:22
Speaker 2: in the peanut. I agree.
19:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, that shows better in the shapes in my opinion.
19:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, thank you. The more more peanut butter, the better.
19:29
Speaker 3: We align a lot on food.
19:31
Speaker 1: How you doing, you guys do let's talk speaking of
19:34
Speaker 1: change ups, let's talk baseball. I know we're all prisoners
19:37
Speaker 1: of the moment. But the College World Series, I think
19:41
Speaker 1: collectively for all four of us, that was like, that
19:44
Speaker 1: was a while. Had you been before?
19:46
Speaker 2: Had so? I was the athletic director of a Division
19:48
Speaker 2: two school Northwest Missouri State, an hour and a half
19:52
Speaker 2: ish from Omaha. So I've been to Omaha eight ten times.
19:56
Speaker 2: We had donors and we do events there. I was
19:58
Speaker 2: ad there a little over two years and went to
20:03
Speaker 2: a couple of games in college real situations, but first
20:04
Speaker 2: time with my team, first time to go there and
20:07
Speaker 2: stay the night, you know, and uh, just an amazing,
20:11
Speaker 2: amazing experience. It lives up to the billing, you know.
20:15
Speaker 2: I always tell my wife, you know, I go to
20:16
Speaker 2: so many UH sporting events, and so I always tell
20:19
Speaker 2: her when I retire, I think I'm done. I don't
20:21
Speaker 2: know that I'll ever go to another one. I want
20:23
Speaker 2: to watch them on my TV. Like, but I actually
20:27
Speaker 2: told her, I was like I would come like in retirement,
20:29
Speaker 2: I would come back here and hang out. Yeah, in
20:32
Speaker 2: the downtown area. It's like it's designed. You know, they
20:36
Speaker 2: always say you don't build a house for Thanksgiving, but
20:38
Speaker 2: like I think they built, like built that entire area
20:41
Speaker 2: for one one uh one week of a year, and
20:45
Speaker 2: it shows and it's incredible. It's easy to get to
20:48
Speaker 2: and you know what, even though there's a lot of people,
20:51
Speaker 2: I never waited that long to to UH to get
20:54
Speaker 2: into place to eat or anything like. I could always
20:56
Speaker 2: find a good meal. It was. It was great.
20:58
Speaker 1: Did Mountaineer fans show up for the event?
21:00
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. And let me even go back before
21:04
Speaker 2: before Omaha, and you're seeing some images up there that
21:06
Speaker 2: are in credbile our fans. I'm gonna go all the
21:09
Speaker 2: way back to the to the regional so I get
21:11
Speaker 2: front row, see sideline view, in the huddle, sometimes in
21:17
Speaker 2: the locker rooms to some of the greatest sporting events
21:21
Speaker 2: that you could ever see or feel. You know, I was.
21:24
Speaker 2: I was on the field during overtime of the Backyard
21:28
Speaker 2: Brawl this year when we won. I was, you know,
21:32
Speaker 2: I've I've I was sitting courtside that for women's basketball
21:37
Speaker 2: regional that we hosted. Those two games against Kentucky in
21:42
Speaker 2: the regional was as good of a of a sports
21:46
Speaker 2: experience as I have ever experienced in my life.
21:49
Speaker 1: You've been the Final four too.
21:50
Speaker 2: I've set on the bench for the Final four. Absolutely,
21:54
Speaker 2: I was a gad o'klhoma State. Yeah, I've I've seen
21:58
Speaker 2: and done it all. There were is not the pop
22:01
Speaker 2: and the energy and the buzz in that place. When
22:05
Speaker 2: Paul Schoenfel hit the home run the first game against
22:08
Speaker 2: Kentucky and then when we walked it off in the
22:11
Speaker 2: second game, just I mean, I told Steve as we
22:17
Speaker 2: were coming off the field, if you could bottle that
22:20
Speaker 2: up and sell it, there would be no drug addicts
22:23
Speaker 2: in the world, because there wasn't a better feeling that
22:26
Speaker 2: was you for it than that, right there is just
22:28
Speaker 2: absolute It was joy joy unless Kentucky. It was not
22:32
Speaker 2: so joyful.
22:34
Speaker 3: Season baseball with the stakes what they are when you're
22:37
Speaker 3: hanging on every pitch and the time between pitches, which
22:41
Speaker 3: allows that drama to build. It really is.
22:44
Speaker 1: I think that's what it is.
22:45
Speaker 3: It adds the suspense because you're waiting.
22:47
Speaker 1: Waits for the pitch, the pitch happens, you get tight
22:50
Speaker 1: for a second, and then the pitch happens. It's yeah,
22:53
Speaker 1: it's it's a wild.
22:54
Speaker 4: And and two out of having double elimination even is
22:58
Speaker 4: the thing out a little bit and raises the drama
23:01
Speaker 4: because a team can have a really really good picture
23:03
Speaker 4: and then you get shut down. But I thought it
23:05
Speaker 4: was I agree with you, Rin, I mean I haven't
23:07
Speaker 4: been to Newly as many events as you have, but
23:08
Speaker 4: I was in awe of the events and then it
23:11
Speaker 4: just carried over into Omaha, and I said many times,
23:14
Speaker 4: I mean to be a fan is to suffer. But
23:16
Speaker 4: we had this joyous ride, yeah, for about three weeks
23:19
Speaker 4: where it was nothing but pleasure.
23:21
Speaker 1: Think about what it's done, Ren, I mean, we could
23:23
Speaker 1: not get him to our food court the first year
23:27
Speaker 1: when we started. He would he would do an Irish
23:29
Speaker 1: he would do an Irish goodbye. So he's gone from
23:32
Speaker 1: hanging out at fine looking phills in the parking lot
23:35
Speaker 1: for like eight minutes now like he was. He was
23:38
Speaker 1: like a Walmart greeter in Omaha, just shaking people's hands
23:41
Speaker 1: like it was a wedding reception. That was an incredible metamorphos,
23:43
Speaker 1: see because he's found his joy. Yeah, it was.
23:46
Speaker 2: It's incredible, And you know, you put that on the
23:50
Speaker 2: heels of the experience that women's basketball was was two
23:53
Speaker 2: sold out crowds fourteen thousand plus, and I mean just
23:59
Speaker 2: the spring and summer for our sports teams, just an incredible,
24:03
Speaker 2: incredible experience in those Listen. I love the super Regional
24:08
Speaker 2: games because they were stress free and we just went
24:10
Speaker 2: there and just rolled them and you know, you're going
24:13
Speaker 2: to Omaha and that's so great and fun. And I
24:16
Speaker 2: loved going to Omaha. But those two regional games against Kentucky.
24:21
Speaker 2: I mean, I would guess at this point, I'm way
24:23
Speaker 2: into the thousands of games that I've been on the
24:26
Speaker 2: sideline for, you know, top four or five I've ever
24:29
Speaker 2: been part of.
24:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, like, what do you want now? Because of the
24:33
Speaker 1: baseball team's success in your mind, what do you want
24:37
Speaker 1: to and how do you continue to re evolve this
24:40
Speaker 1: baseball program? Now?
24:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, we are are exploring a lot of that because
24:46
Speaker 2: When you have momentum, you want to seize it and
24:49
Speaker 2: grow it. But you also have to make sure that
24:51
Speaker 2: you're doing it in a way that that financially makes
24:55
Speaker 2: sense and is responsible to everything else that you're doing.
24:58
Speaker 2: And so you know, it's easy for other people to
25:03
Speaker 2: spend the athletic department's money. When women's basketball had their run,
25:07
Speaker 2: I had lots of messages and people saying, you know,
25:10
Speaker 2: back up to bring struck, you know, and but like
25:13
Speaker 2: you know, we do reward success. I think we've been aggressive.
25:16
Speaker 2: We demonstrate that, we've shown that we continue to invest
25:19
Speaker 2: every year. But all those decisions are connected. And we
25:23
Speaker 2: don't have the biggest budget in the country. We don't
25:25
Speaker 2: have the biggest budget in the Big twelve, And so
25:27
Speaker 2: you're making sure that that you're being reasonable and responsible
25:33
Speaker 2: with a finite amount of resources. You know, baseball is
25:38
Speaker 2: likely never going to be a profitable endeavor for us,
25:43
Speaker 2: and we know that, and it's not profitable. Might be
25:46
Speaker 2: a couple of baseball programs in the country well now
25:49
Speaker 2: with with rev share and there's probably none, But there
25:55
Speaker 2: used to be like LSU in Arkansas, and they would
25:58
Speaker 2: make money, they'd make a little bit or break even
26:01
Speaker 2: but most people you know, do not. But you want
26:05
Speaker 2: to try and grow revenues and you definitely want to
26:07
Speaker 2: try and grow your investment. And so with the additional
26:10
Speaker 2: scholarships we had already committed to but actually go into
26:14
Speaker 2: effect this year, plus additional investments will be north of
26:19
Speaker 2: a million dollars more into baseball would be my guess.
26:22
Speaker 2: We're still working through some of that. But will our
26:27
Speaker 2: revenues improve, absolutely, but I think we've went over the
26:31
Speaker 2: last few years from a couple hundred thousand a year
26:35
Speaker 2: in baseball ticket sales to you know, will eclipse a
26:38
Speaker 2: half million this year. So like it's not going to
26:40
Speaker 2: keep pace. You know, we're definitely going to increase prices,
26:43
Speaker 2: but we're not going to do it enough to probably
26:45
Speaker 2: cover that. And so now you're gonna look at, Okay,
26:48
Speaker 2: what's other areas? Are their additional sponsorships where we can
26:52
Speaker 2: bring in revenue? Can we can we build out some
26:55
Speaker 2: additional premium space, But but some of those you know
26:59
Speaker 2: people they will expand the park. Or if you take
27:02
Speaker 2: those two burms and you create some premium space, you
27:05
Speaker 2: did not expand the park. You actually are gonna especially
27:09
Speaker 2: on the third base side where it's been standing room only.
27:11
Speaker 2: You go over there and build something, you're going to
27:12
Speaker 2: reduce capacity most likely because you standing room only is
27:17
Speaker 2: most people you can get in. And so we're going
27:20
Speaker 2: to hire an architect and look at everything and very
27:23
Speaker 2: intentionally where you know, where can we potentially expand capacity,
27:29
Speaker 2: Where can we potentially grow premium? If you're you know,
27:34
Speaker 2: then we'll test donor interest. If because it's something we
27:37
Speaker 2: can't raise the money to build it. And yes, it
27:39
Speaker 2: brings in another one hundred grand, but you're spending two hundred,
27:42
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty grand to satisfy debt service on it.
27:46
Speaker 2: That did not help you at all. And so, like
27:50
Speaker 2: you know, everybody else gets to be emotional and reactionary
27:52
Speaker 2: and just throw things out there. My job is to
27:55
Speaker 2: stay grounded and to look analytically and strategically and to
27:58
Speaker 2: bring in architects and experts to say, Okay, here's all
28:02
Speaker 2: the different here's our ballpark, let's look at it. What
28:06
Speaker 2: can we do to improve it, what can we do
28:08
Speaker 2: to drive revenue, what can we do to increase capacity?
28:12
Speaker 2: And in the case of the ballpark, we actually don't
28:14
Speaker 2: own it, the county does so, and then there's another team,
28:18
Speaker 2: another ten in there in the Black Bears, And so
28:20
Speaker 2: it's really a conversation involving three parties. I don't think
28:23
Speaker 2: if we decided that we wanted to do something that
28:25
Speaker 2: should be one hundred percent our expense, we're definitely willing
28:28
Speaker 2: to participate in that. So it's really a question of, Hey,
28:31
Speaker 2: all of us are benefiting from this facility, how can
28:35
Speaker 2: we go in together to make it better and continue
28:40
Speaker 2: to grow this momentum? Because hosting those regionals and super
28:43
Speaker 2: regionals was good for everybody.
28:44
Speaker 3: You mentioned those additional scholarships which we talked about last year.
28:47
Speaker 3: What a boon to this baseball program. But how about
28:50
Speaker 3: the Biomechanical Center and what that potentially does is it
28:53
Speaker 3: gets cranked up here not just from a development standpoint
28:56
Speaker 3: of current student athletes, but the recruiting tool that provides
28:58
Speaker 3: potential nil OP generities with the bio precision piece of that.
29:02
Speaker 3: How valuable is that to this program moving forward? And
29:04
Speaker 3: how unique is that across the landscape.
29:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's massive and UH and I want to
29:09
Speaker 2: take a moment here to just talk about we have
29:14
Speaker 2: a unique uh set of coaches in in terms of
29:19
Speaker 2: I mean Steve is his coach Savans has been incredible.
29:23
Speaker 2: You know, I said a couple of times he is
29:26
Speaker 2: this unique combination of blending old school work ethic and
29:31
Speaker 2: values and culture with new school technologies and advancements. And
29:38
Speaker 2: you know, I think, uh, I think he's always eager
29:42
Speaker 2: to learn, always willing to grow, and you know, is
29:46
Speaker 2: always looking for a way to get an edge up.
29:48
Speaker 2: And and so you know that building, uh, Coach Mazie, myself, Steve,
29:54
Speaker 2: we're all, you know, Ken Kendrick and his team, we're
29:57
Speaker 2: all a part of kind of going through and developing
29:59
Speaker 2: what that project and plan was. But then the implementation
30:03
Speaker 2: on the back end has been a lot of Staves
30:06
Speaker 2: brainchild like. He went out and got the guys from
30:10
Speaker 2: Bioprecision too to come in and make some investments. They
30:13
Speaker 2: bought additional equipment, they're funding some full time employees that
30:18
Speaker 2: over there, and they're doing cutting edge things that that
30:22
Speaker 2: is unique and and and then I'll give even additional
30:26
Speaker 2: credit to Don Robinson and g b E. We have
30:31
Speaker 2: equity in Bioprecision, So that's a business concept that that
30:35
Speaker 2: those guys are growing. You're seeing the fruits of it,
30:38
Speaker 2: and if it takes off, it'll return money to to
30:43
Speaker 2: g B to reinvest in our baseball program. So when
30:46
Speaker 2: you want to talk about this new world of intercollegiate
30:48
Speaker 2: athletics and what does it involve, from the analytics to
30:53
Speaker 2: the to the commercial business development and and equity stake
30:58
Speaker 2: and all of that stuff, it's a really unique partnership.
31:02
Speaker 2: And you know those Steve Done, the guys at bout Precision,
31:07
Speaker 2: they all deserve a huge amount of credit. Those ideas
31:11
Speaker 2: were brought to me in all I did was say, yeah,
31:14
Speaker 2: that sounds good, go for it. And so but that's
31:17
Speaker 2: been a major difference maker.
31:19
Speaker 1: You know. I think what it does is in marketing,
31:22
Speaker 1: as you well know, if you're selling the same thing
31:25
Speaker 1: these schools are selling scholarships to high level athletes, you
31:27
Speaker 1: have to have a unique selling proposition. In West Virginia's
31:31
Speaker 1: unique selling proposition is come here and we will give
31:35
Speaker 1: you state of the art, world class development. Right, And
31:40
Speaker 1: that could be that post that you put down that hey, yeah,
31:43
Speaker 1: geographically we're not going to get the warmest weather in
31:45
Speaker 1: February then some of those other schools, but come here, right,
31:49
Speaker 1: and I think that can continue. We were over at
31:51
Speaker 1: basketball yesterday and I mean they're starting to tinker around
31:55
Speaker 1: a little bit over at the Rockefeller Neurosciences Center with
31:58
Speaker 1: some of that biomechanics stuff over there as well. For basketball,
32:01
Speaker 1: I think if we can continue to create these special
32:04
Speaker 1: places where we're we're the hub for development, it will
32:07
Speaker 1: get you kids that maybe you wouldn't get in the past.
32:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, And you know, in in something that's
32:14
Speaker 2: as competitive as sports, every little one percent advantage you
32:18
Speaker 2: can gain is impactful. And I'm just I would say
32:23
Speaker 2: our approach over the last two or three years in
32:26
Speaker 2: things like that the development of players, and and even
32:30
Speaker 2: in terms of trying to grow our budget is let's
32:34
Speaker 2: not focus on only hitting home runs. Let's just stack
32:37
Speaker 2: single after single and even to user baseball analogy like
32:40
Speaker 2: just a good uh at bat, like you know, I mean,
32:43
Speaker 2: let's let's let's try to make sure we don't swing
32:45
Speaker 2: at bad pitches and and we and we make sure
32:48
Speaker 2: they give us the right one. And and so that's
32:53
Speaker 2: really been when people say, well, what are the adjustments
32:56
Speaker 2: in this new world? You know, that's been one of
32:59
Speaker 2: our adjustment and it says like, let's just try every
33:02
Speaker 2: day to find a way to get something that gets
33:04
Speaker 2: a little little more revenue a little bit better, and
33:08
Speaker 2: you look up and all of a sudden, you're stacking
33:10
Speaker 2: some building blocks that are they're impactful.
33:13
Speaker 4: When the Board of Governors recently approved the doubling of
33:17
Speaker 4: the Mountaineer Athletic Advantage fee, the student athletic fee to
33:21
Speaker 4: get into sports events, and now it's five hundred dollars
33:25
Speaker 4: a year, it was two fifty years, so it's five
33:27
Speaker 4: dollars a year, and that's I think I was looking around.
33:30
Speaker 4: I think that's about average, maybe above average in the
33:33
Speaker 4: Big twelve. But at a time when WVU is trying
33:36
Speaker 4: to increase enrollment, at a time everybody's concerned about the
33:38
Speaker 4: cost of higher education, what's the justification for doubling of
33:41
Speaker 4: that fee.
33:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think first of all, I would just say
33:46
Speaker 2: there's some transparency in doing it. You could have just
33:50
Speaker 2: increased tuition a little more and probably done a transfer
33:53
Speaker 2: of some kind. But I think the philosophy of our
33:58
Speaker 2: board President bensonleadership team has been let's not hide that
34:03
Speaker 2: athletics is important and we want to make an investment.
34:06
Speaker 2: I would also tell you that there was a lot
34:10
Speaker 2: of uh, there's a lot of presentations and consultants and
34:15
Speaker 2: stuff that come in that are not necessarily athletics driven.
34:19
Speaker 2: And here on who's uh. Some way, we do a
34:22
Speaker 2: lot of consulting with at the university had done a
34:27
Speaker 2: fairly robust enrollment kind of presentation that included overall costs
34:32
Speaker 2: to students, and we are still one of the most
34:36
Speaker 2: affordable in the Big twelve, one of the most affordable
34:38
Speaker 2: in the region. When when you look at where our
34:41
Speaker 2: students come from, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey oftentimes were more
34:47
Speaker 2: affordable than the in state options that they have. And
34:51
Speaker 2: so there was a belief that you know, tuition and
34:56
Speaker 2: fees and everything, that there was room for those to
35:02
Speaker 2: increase and still be on the affordable end. There's a
35:05
Speaker 2: lot of discussion on on on those things and and
35:08
Speaker 2: ultimately they decided on a reasonable tuition increase. I believe
35:13
Speaker 2: the athletic fee was the only fee that changed and uh,
35:17
Speaker 2: and that was because the market showed that there was
35:20
Speaker 2: this much for fees and there was a decision made
35:22
Speaker 2: that we would use that with the athletic fee. So
35:26
Speaker 2: that comes with a lot of discussion. You know, one
35:29
Speaker 2: thing we don't do that a lot of schools do.
35:31
Speaker 2: We do not charge our students for tickets, and so
35:35
Speaker 2: you know, they aren't guaranteed to get tickets for a
35:38
Speaker 2: high request game. You that it goes to a lottery
35:42
Speaker 2: on those on those sold out games, But there are
35:44
Speaker 2: many many games that they get a free ticket and
35:47
Speaker 2: we don't we don't charge them for that. But there
35:51
Speaker 2: is a lot of discussion, and I know there's debate
35:54
Speaker 2: and there's different feelings on that. I think, you know,
35:58
Speaker 2: the board has made athletic success a priority. We are
36:03
Speaker 2: growing our own revenues a lot, but when you look
36:05
Speaker 2: at campus investments, we're still significantly below the average in
36:14
Speaker 2: the ACCM Big twelve of campus investment to athletics, even
36:17
Speaker 2: though ours has grown considerably over the last three or
36:20
Speaker 2: four years. And so I think, and then we're still
36:24
Speaker 2: very competitive when you look at the overall cost of
36:26
Speaker 2: attendance for the general student population. So I think we
36:29
Speaker 2: all have to be cognizant of those decisions. But that
36:33
Speaker 2: was not a you know, back of the napkin, let's
36:35
Speaker 2: do this on spur of the moment. That was several
36:38
Speaker 2: months of studies and discussion and ultimately arrived at that
36:43
Speaker 2: decision with.
36:44
Speaker 1: This flurry of popularity of West Virginia from women's basketball,
36:49
Speaker 1: men's basketball, baseball. I'm only just talking about like from
36:52
Speaker 1: winter on and the Country Road's phenomenon, right that has
36:57
Speaker 1: swept the world literally. I would think enrollment applications will
37:03
Speaker 1: show a significant increase this coming year.
37:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would think so too. You know, I definitely
37:09
Speaker 2: know the the views, the impressions, and uh, you know,
37:14
Speaker 2: we all know it. I teld I was telling an
37:17
Speaker 2: ad in the Big Twelve. He was talking about just
37:20
Speaker 2: how viral everything's been, how how great that that must
37:24
Speaker 2: be for us, And you know, I was like, dude,
37:26
Speaker 2: I thought everybody knew we sang Country Roads after games,
37:28
Speaker 2: Like I didn't know this was like like a new
37:30
Speaker 2: like a new thing. We've been doing it for a
37:32
Speaker 2: couple of decades, so you know, I think I think
37:38
Speaker 2: we all know how special it is. But you can
37:42
Speaker 2: just see when they do the crowd shots, the people
37:45
Speaker 2: singing it, and the pride, I mean, and even like
37:48
Speaker 2: when they sing it's the World Cup, Like it's different
37:50
Speaker 2: because people were singing it because they love the song.
37:52
Speaker 2: But it's different when you see our crowd and people
37:54
Speaker 2: are crying and they're like singing their heads up. There
37:57
Speaker 2: was a shot in one of the regionals where they
37:59
Speaker 2: panned down our baseball line and some of those guys
38:02
Speaker 2: are singing like they are like their life dependent on it,
38:06
Speaker 2: you know, like you can just tail with all of
38:07
Speaker 2: the energy that inside of them. They're belting it out,
38:11
Speaker 2: and uh, you know, I I think it's special for
38:15
Speaker 2: people to see the connection that West Virginians have with
38:19
Speaker 2: the institution, the athletic department, our teams, but also the
38:23
Speaker 2: connection that our student athletes have with being here. And
38:26
Speaker 2: I think it's good for enrollment, it's good for recruiting
38:32
Speaker 2: perspective student athletes. But I also believe it'll have a
38:35
Speaker 2: positive impact on people's interest and visits to West Virginia.
38:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so.
38:42
Speaker 3: No attention real quick to before you read that. That just
38:44
Speaker 3: one last point on that. What struck me most about
38:46
Speaker 3: that run of Country Roads was when cal polyly fans.
38:50
Speaker 3: If you go back and watch cal Poly fans in
38:52
Speaker 3: the stadium looking at them, multiple, I'm not talking one
38:55
Speaker 3: or two, multiple had their phones up filming the stadium
38:59
Speaker 3: singing Country Roads. When your team has just gotten drilled
39:02
Speaker 3: like that and you're willing to film and video the
39:05
Speaker 3: the response from the home crowd, you've got something pretty
39:08
Speaker 3: special there.
39:09
Speaker 2: During the reign to lay. One of the cow poly
39:11
Speaker 2: kids was standing outside there doug out and I walked
39:17
Speaker 2: by and I just struck up the conversation with him
39:20
Speaker 2: for a little bit and I said, uh, I said,
39:23
Speaker 2: I hope people have treated you well here, he said,
39:25
Speaker 2: And he's a California kid, West Coast kid. He goes,
39:28
Speaker 2: it's been incredible. He goes, you know, I'm a senior.
39:30
Speaker 2: And he was like, he said, I, uh, you know,
39:33
Speaker 2: I wasn't ready for my career to end, but if
39:35
Speaker 2: this is how it ends, like this has been an
39:37
Speaker 2: incredible experience, incredible environment. People have been great and so
39:43
Speaker 2: you know, I thought that was awesome to hear. And
39:45
Speaker 2: you know, I'll just talk a little bit about about
39:48
Speaker 2: the country Roads moment and give a little credit to
39:51
Speaker 2: uh Tom Hart, who was the play by play guy
39:53
Speaker 2: during the there in the regional. So we knew each
39:57
Speaker 2: other a little bit. Uh. He's a Missouri and and
40:00
Speaker 2: I was a deputyd at Missouri, and so he got
40:02
Speaker 2: my phone number from Barry Odom, who's a Missouri alum
40:06
Speaker 2: and the head coach now at Purdue. Barry's a good
40:08
Speaker 2: friend and so he had connected with me on his
40:10
Speaker 2: way in. We swapped. I'd give him some restaurant stuff
40:14
Speaker 2: and little tidbit information. And so after we won the
40:24
Speaker 2: first first night and we're seeing Country Roads, they go
40:27
Speaker 2: to an interview and they're playing Country Roads in the background,
40:32
Speaker 2: and a bunch of fans, you know, dog piled him
40:36
Speaker 2: on on social media about how dare you like to
40:39
Speaker 2: be talking over country Roads? And but the truth of
40:42
Speaker 2: the matter is the they don't own the rights to
40:48
Speaker 2: air that song, just the song, right. They have to
40:52
Speaker 2: pay to do that, so they can do an interview
40:55
Speaker 2: and it's playing in the background, but you know, they
41:00
Speaker 2: can't just go quiet and air the song. So Tom
41:03
Speaker 2: goes back to his producer and says, hey, if they win, uh,
41:10
Speaker 2: you know, tomorrow night, we gotta we gotta just let
41:14
Speaker 2: the song play. And he's like, well, we don't own
41:17
Speaker 2: those rides. It's like six thousand bucks, you know, and
41:20
Speaker 2: these guys are doing enough broadcasts all over the country
41:22
Speaker 2: like those things matter, and as you guys know, like
41:25
Speaker 2: there's somebody back in Bristol making those those decisions, it's
41:28
Speaker 2: not That's.
41:29
Speaker 1: Why that's why the John Denver Trust currently is valued
41:31
Speaker 1: at two hundred million dollars because of that, Yes.
41:34
Speaker 2: And so so I think between Tom and the producer,
41:40
Speaker 2: they just decided kind of spur of the moment they
41:44
Speaker 2: were gonna they were gonna go with it. Do you
41:47
Speaker 2: later if we get fired, you know, we get fired.
41:50
Speaker 2: I think everybody ESPN was very happy with UH with
41:53
Speaker 2: that decision. But just a huge credit to him to
41:55
Speaker 2: recognize the night before that was special to take feedback
42:00
Speaker 2: and not to profile play by play guys. A lot
42:04
Speaker 2: of them are kind of ego guys that think they
42:07
Speaker 2: need to describe the moment, like the humility it takes
42:13
Speaker 2: for him to just shut up and let the moment
42:18
Speaker 2: happen and the crowd shots happened. Huge credit to him.
42:22
Speaker 2: I've texted multiple times. I actually talked to him on
42:25
Speaker 2: because he texted me the on Friday the World Cup
42:28
Speaker 2: clip and I just called him as they du Yeah.
42:31
Speaker 2: I was like, like, you're that one little moment for
42:35
Speaker 2: you did so much for West Virginia, but also so
42:37
Speaker 2: much for just the sports trend of the summer.
42:41
Speaker 3: He was also the one that encouraged Armani to sing
42:44
Speaker 3: yeah while he was waiting for his interview, which I
42:46
Speaker 3: thought that was a great time. You talk about kicking
42:48
Speaker 3: Country Roads up a notch. You got the player of
42:51
Speaker 3: the game that just did that, and our money's belting
42:53
Speaker 3: it out while on the microphone. I thought that was
42:55
Speaker 3: the whole thing, was a stroke of genius.
42:57
Speaker 1: You said he went to Missouri. He did, couldn't get
42:59
Speaker 1: into Syracuse apparently.
43:01
Speaker 2: You know, some people say Missouri's better a very good
43:03
Speaker 2: Jay school, maybe better than Syracuse.
43:05
Speaker 4: But I think that's recognition. I mean television recognized or
43:08
Speaker 4: those you put a face on it. Thank goodness for that.
43:10
Speaker 4: Is that recognized. That's a moment.
43:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, that I.
43:13
Speaker 4: Mean you don't you're doing broadcast and you're you're waiting
43:17
Speaker 4: for something that that reaches people. That was a moment.
43:20
Speaker 4: They understood it. It was captured. It made a gigantic difference.
43:23
Speaker 2: Listen, those two guys. So Jensen was the color guy.
43:28
Speaker 2: They were caught up in it. Like I sent yeah,
43:31
Speaker 2: I sent Jensen uh some gear afterwards because he was
43:35
Speaker 2: said a lot. Yeah, and dude, he given us. Yeah,
43:39
Speaker 2: he's like sending me pictures watching the game. Like he
43:41
Speaker 2: became a fan and you're talking about people he played
43:44
Speaker 2: at Vanderbilt, like he was a big fan.
43:46
Speaker 3: Interesting connection. Randy Mazy recruited him, Yeah, recruited Jensen, didn't
43:51
Speaker 3: get him.
43:51
Speaker 2: Didn't get him.
43:52
Speaker 1: When he was a Clemson Yeah, wow orc Clemson.
43:55
Speaker 2: Yeah recruited. Okay, yeah, Bras never been wanting to let
44:01
Speaker 2: facts get in the way of a good story.
44:02
Speaker 3: I recurtage the headline.
44:03
Speaker 1: Now I'll give you I'll give you some facts right now.
44:05
Speaker 1: Go to Tutors Biscuit World and for five dollars and
44:08
Speaker 1: fifty five cents. So what I'm saying is if you
44:10
Speaker 1: give them six dollars, they'll give you forty five cents back.
44:13
Speaker 1: And you know what you get. You get a choice
44:15
Speaker 1: of five breakfast time gas price is too high five
44:19
Speaker 1: to fifty five. You get a choice of one of
44:21
Speaker 1: the five most popular biscuit sandwiches, twelve ounce coffee or
44:25
Speaker 1: a twenty ounce iced tea soft drink only five to
44:28
Speaker 1: fifty five. I mean we're talking the Dotty, the mary Bee,
44:31
Speaker 1: the Peppi, the shaved ham melt. When everything else is
44:35
Speaker 1: getting more expensive, Tutors wanted to bring back real get
44:39
Speaker 1: the five to fifty five special. Three guys also brought
44:41
Speaker 1: to us by Lou Wendell Marine Sales. A lot of
44:43
Speaker 1: confirmation when we were in Omaha that a lot of
44:46
Speaker 1: the boats that we were seeing in that basically general
44:50
Speaker 1: Nebraska waters all lou Wendel pontoon boats. People they either
44:54
Speaker 1: took them in through the docks through Missouri. I mean,
44:56
Speaker 1: you're familiar with Missouri, but they were all lou Wendel
44:59
Speaker 1: boats that were there. And someone did tell me at
45:01
Speaker 1: one of the events at the sports bar that we're
45:03
Speaker 1: at that they did confirm for me that all of
45:05
Speaker 1: the pontoons you ever see in a James Bond movie
45:08
Speaker 1: are lou Wendell pontoon book makes sense, right, So if
45:11
Speaker 1: you'd like to jump in. They've been in business for
45:13
Speaker 1: over forty years. Located in Saint Albans, you can visit
45:16
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45:19
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45:22
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45:27
Speaker 4: So let me ask you about the Brendan storesby thing.
45:31
Speaker 4: Oh No, all I do is ask relevant questions about
45:36
Speaker 4: things that are in the news.
45:37
Speaker 1: We'll see attack Brad Broth.
45:40
Speaker 2: I thought we were going to talk more about my
45:41
Speaker 2: side by side and we'll get there. All that kind
45:44
Speaker 2: of stuff. Let's go.
45:46
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, the problem went away, but it didn't
45:49
Speaker 4: because supplemental draft. Now there's not gonna be a supplemental draft.
45:53
Speaker 4: But it dissipated, but it still exists because of what
45:57
Speaker 4: I said. The federal judge stepped in and said that,
46:00
Speaker 4: you know, we don't care what the rules are that
46:02
Speaker 4: source of we can play. So I know that you
46:05
Speaker 4: the athletic directors want a conference call with the commissioner,
46:10
Speaker 4: and the league decided through the Board of Directors to say,
46:13
Speaker 4: we're gonna prevent him from playing. We're going to enforce
46:17
Speaker 4: league rules and prevent him from playing. But look, can
46:21
Speaker 4: you just give me the tone of that conference call
46:24
Speaker 4: with the commissioner? Were you all where you all talked
46:26
Speaker 4: about this and what concerns if any of you expressed
46:29
Speaker 4: in that in that meeting?
46:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I will. I think the tone of that
46:36
Speaker 2: has been exaggerated some some people have said it's you know,
46:39
Speaker 2: it was very spiteful and contentious, and I think people
46:44
Speaker 2: took the opportunity to express their views on the issue,
46:47
Speaker 2: but it was done in a somewhat respectful way. You know,
46:52
Speaker 2: I'll leave. I'll talk a little bit about what the
46:56
Speaker 2: views I expressed were I won't share other people because
47:00
Speaker 2: that's not really mine to share. And it was a
47:02
Speaker 2: confidential meeting, and the ads ultimately didn't have a say
47:05
Speaker 2: in this. It was a president uh I just said one.
47:10
Speaker 2: I was very sympathetic to the young man. I've had
47:13
Speaker 2: a couple of family members close to me who've who've
47:16
Speaker 2: battled gambling additions. It's a real thing, and it is
47:20
Speaker 2: something that once it has a grip on you, like
47:22
Speaker 2: any other addiction, it is very difficult to break. And
47:27
Speaker 2: so I understood the position of wanting to support and
47:31
Speaker 2: help a student athlete, a member of your program, but
47:37
Speaker 2: I was concerned about the precedent. The one thing that
47:42
Speaker 2: we've always had to protect the integrity of of gambling
47:46
Speaker 2: and sports is at any level, if you bet on
47:50
Speaker 2: your own team, the penalty is very harsh. It's and
47:55
Speaker 2: it's clear, and it's been very clear. And so forget
47:59
Speaker 2: somebody who's making millions of dollars to to to play.
48:02
Speaker 2: What does that do for the various prop bets and
48:07
Speaker 2: and different uh bets that are developing on different markets
48:12
Speaker 2: that that individuals can influence who's going to shoot the
48:16
Speaker 2: first shot? You know, things like that if if if
48:21
Speaker 2: the penalty is not very very severe, and I thought
48:25
Speaker 2: that needed to be weighed with with how the league
48:28
Speaker 2: moved forward in that in the discussion.
48:31
Speaker 4: So you supported him not being allowed to play or
48:36
Speaker 4: you thought he should not be allowed to play.
48:39
Speaker 2: I thought that the that the ruling that he was
48:42
Speaker 2: ineligible was the from the NCAA was the correct ruling,
48:45
Speaker 2: And I was worried about the Pandora's box that would
48:48
Speaker 2: be opened up if that ruling did not stand. Got it?
48:51
Speaker 1: Football season fast approaching in your mind when you're driving
48:57
Speaker 1: around your side by side and football comes into your
49:00
Speaker 1: mind while you're driving through the hills and the hollers.
49:04
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts, what are your hopes as we
49:08
Speaker 1: get ready for season two with Rich in the new Gang.
49:13
Speaker 2: Well, I'm very excited, you know. It's uh uh the
49:18
Speaker 2: team has a different look, a different feel. There's a
49:22
Speaker 2: different energy and excitement, you know, and and you can
49:26
Speaker 2: even see it. And Rich and then our distinguished offensive
49:31
Speaker 2: line coach, coach Tricket. So he actually was at an
49:35
Speaker 2: event the other night. Coach Trickett was there. My wife
49:37
Speaker 2: met him for the first time, fell in love with him.
49:39
Speaker 2: He was actually very positive about the about the fellas.
49:42
Speaker 1: Had a conversation with him yesterday about really getting the
49:46
Speaker 1: first chance to meet.
49:47
Speaker 2: You and your wife. Oh he's a fan of Heather's.
49:50
Speaker 1: Oh he's a big fan of yours. But he really
49:52
Speaker 1: likes having Yeah, he's p one when it comes to Heather.
49:55
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, and I'm a little worried because you know,
49:57
Speaker 2: like I mean, Heather, she like she thought his always
50:00
Speaker 2: thought Sean Connery is a good looking man, Like, you know,
50:03
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't let her hang out with Hoppy much.
50:05
Speaker 2: He's got this distinguished he's so yeah. I after a
50:10
Speaker 2: little bit, I went and stood in between her and
50:13
Speaker 2: Coach Trickett like, hey, you know, I'm I'm getting a
50:16
Speaker 2: little gray too.
50:17
Speaker 1: So tell you what. His group looks really impressive right now.
50:22
Speaker 1: And I know they're in shorts and shirts, but they
50:25
Speaker 1: look night and day difference from what that group looked
50:27
Speaker 1: like a year.
50:28
Speaker 2: Ago, you know. And I think they're developing a good culture.
50:32
Speaker 2: I h So one of the first regional games maybe
50:38
Speaker 2: is when we were playing Kentucky the first time. But
50:42
Speaker 2: I was walking out of I sit in the radio booth.
50:47
Speaker 2: These guys know that, but it's like the only place
50:49
Speaker 2: I can go and not hear fans try to coach
50:51
Speaker 2: and and umpire and and I love fans. I love
50:54
Speaker 2: you all, but like just all at the same time. Yes,
50:57
Speaker 2: like you know, you know, call balls and strikes from
51:01
Speaker 2: Randy's ridge. I might relax a little bit up there.
51:05
Speaker 2: But so I was walking out. I always have a
51:08
Speaker 2: routine somewhere between middle of the seventh, middle of the eighth,
51:12
Speaker 2: I will walk down out of the radio booth, and
51:16
Speaker 2: then I make my way down to the the near
51:19
Speaker 2: the our dugout, and ultimately kind of in the ninth,
51:23
Speaker 2: I'll I'll finish the game at the end of the
51:25
Speaker 2: dug out there and especially for winning, like I'm sticking
51:29
Speaker 2: with my routine. I'm wearing the same stuff. I'm I'm
51:32
Speaker 2: eating the same stuff at the exact same times. Like,
51:36
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, why mess with it, right, You're nuts?
51:39
Speaker 1: Go ahead?
51:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so so anyway, I walk out and I
51:45
Speaker 2: look at the heel for a second, and I see
51:48
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of our football players out there with
51:51
Speaker 2: their tarps off, like going nuts on Randy's ridge. And
51:56
Speaker 2: so the next day I was talking to Rich and
51:58
Speaker 2: I was like, dude, and he was like, oh, Yeah,
52:00
Speaker 2: he's like they were calling me in the ninth inning saying, coach,
52:03
Speaker 2: can you get us in He's like, hey, guys, it's
52:04
Speaker 2: the ninth inning. Like you could have gave me a
52:08
Speaker 2: little heads up. But so like I but I said that,
52:11
Speaker 2: just say I think the culture they're developing and the
52:15
Speaker 2: culture there with each other and with the state, I
52:18
Speaker 2: think Rich is doing a good job with that.
52:19
Speaker 1: Yeah.
52:20
Speaker 3: How about let's talk a little bit about Pat White's
52:22
Speaker 3: number getting retired.
52:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was big news. Yeah, so that happened a
52:28
Speaker 2: few weeks ago. The committee we had talked about even
52:34
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago, re looking at the criteria
52:37
Speaker 2: because you know, I would hear occasionally, hey, you know,
52:41
Speaker 2: we really should retire past number, and the criteria was
52:44
Speaker 2: not such that that that could could happen, and for
52:47
Speaker 2: people home that may not know, to get your number retired,
52:50
Speaker 2: you have to be a pro or college hall of Famer,
52:52
Speaker 2: And to be a college Hall of Famer, you had
52:54
Speaker 2: to be first team All American. And it's crazy that
52:57
Speaker 2: Pat wasn't insane that he was not, but he was.
53:00
Speaker 2: And so the committee uh looked at that, and there
53:05
Speaker 2: were some other criteria that they looked at like national
53:08
Speaker 2: all time statistic leading stuff and and so now there's
53:12
Speaker 2: another mechanism to consider, and that allowed Pat to be reconsidered.
53:17
Speaker 2: Then it was a unanimous short conversation. Everybody on that
53:21
Speaker 2: committee was really excited about doing that. And so so
53:25
Speaker 2: I've kind of had that. My hippig was thinking for
53:27
Speaker 2: the what would be the right moment to do this?
53:30
Speaker 2: We want it to be special. And so actually when
53:35
Speaker 2: we won the regional that Tuesday night Wednesday morning, I
53:38
Speaker 2: get a FaceTime from from Uh. Pat McAfee doesn't Pat
53:43
Speaker 2: McFee doesn't call. He facetimes, So if you try and
53:47
Speaker 2: call him, he'll deny your call and then FaceTime you
53:49
Speaker 2: back if he's able to take the call.
53:51
Speaker 1: He's a facetimer.
53:52
Speaker 2: Yeah. So and so like we're talking and and uh
53:56
Speaker 2: going through stuff. He's like, hey, I want to calm
53:59
Speaker 2: Do you know when we're gonna play yet? And we
54:00
Speaker 2: didn't at the time, But long story short, once we
54:03
Speaker 2: knew he was common, I called Rich because Rich knew
54:06
Speaker 2: that this this is something. I was like, Hey, what
54:08
Speaker 2: do you think about? Could you call a team meeting?
54:10
Speaker 2: Let Pat McFee talk to him. They'd be excited to
54:13
Speaker 2: hear from him and then you know, maybe you and
54:16
Speaker 2: Pat together let Pat White know and Rich was all
54:21
Speaker 2: in and so from there he kind of organized the rest.
54:23
Speaker 2: And so for the people who were like, well, why
54:25
Speaker 2: would they do this on this day, it was because
54:27
Speaker 2: we wanted it to be a special moment for Pat
54:30
Speaker 2: White more than just the public. We wanted him to
54:33
Speaker 2: be able to have a moment he would remember. And
54:37
Speaker 2: then once that moment happened, you've let a fews on
54:40
Speaker 2: the news. It's getting out, so you might as well
54:42
Speaker 2: go with it. And so that that's kind of the
54:44
Speaker 2: way that all come together. But it's gonna be so exciting,
54:48
Speaker 2: and there's probably one or two other little nuggets of
54:51
Speaker 2: recognition that'll come with that as we get closer to
54:54
Speaker 2: the game, throwing.
54:55
Speaker 3: Him some good synergy there. It's happening on September fifth,
55:00
Speaker 3: five and the five White. That's that's a nice little
55:03
Speaker 3: bit of senergy.
55:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, a little synergy there. So it should it should
55:07
Speaker 2: be a very exciting game, and uh uh, it'll be
55:11
Speaker 2: a great day to honor not just one of our
55:14
Speaker 2: all time greats, but I think one of the greatest
55:17
Speaker 2: dual threat quarterbacks in the history of college.
55:22
Speaker 4: Four he won four consecutive Bowl games. And by the
55:25
Speaker 4: way Rich had it was an offensive genius by Rich.
55:29
Speaker 4: Pat White drops back. Pet White doesn't see anybody. What
55:33
Speaker 4: do you do, Brad take off? Pet White takes off.
55:36
Speaker 4: You would just when you watched his games, you would
55:38
Speaker 4: just say, well, okay, we'll do something here in a
55:40
Speaker 4: little bit.
55:41
Speaker 2: Yeah.
55:41
Speaker 4: He I mean we got we got spoiled by what
55:43
Speaker 4: Pat White was able to do game in and game out.
55:46
Speaker 1: There's two guys that have played since I've been here
55:49
Speaker 1: that when it's third down and longer than ten, you
55:53
Speaker 1: don't really sweat. And it's major Harris and Pat and
55:57
Speaker 1: Pat White. I mean, they just found ways to make
55:59
Speaker 1: play is more times than that, right. And when Pat
56:03
Speaker 1: first took the field when Adam Berrick was injured in
56:07
Speaker 1: the famous Louisville game, he inherited like a third down
56:10
Speaker 1: and super long, they convert and the rest, as they say,
56:14
Speaker 1: is history. Staying on the topic of football, your plan
56:17
Speaker 1: still is to implode the football press box upon end
56:23
Speaker 1: of season.
56:23
Speaker 2: Will the press be in there that could be arranged? Yeah,
56:30
Speaker 2: that's the goal. Yes, So one hundred and fifty six
56:34
Speaker 2: million dollars project, we have passed the two thirds mark
56:39
Speaker 2: of fundraising for that, we we still have a little
56:44
Speaker 2: bit to go. Now. An alternative and what most people
56:47
Speaker 2: do in projects like this is fundraise a significant portion,
56:50
Speaker 2: then they would bind out the remaining amount and then
56:54
Speaker 2: pay the debt service out of the increased revenue. Our
56:59
Speaker 2: goal is, and it's a very ambitious goal. I'm unaware
57:03
Speaker 2: of very many people who've been able to do a
57:04
Speaker 2: project of this size and not incur any long term debt.
57:08
Speaker 2: Our goal is to raise all the money, have it
57:13
Speaker 2: coming in over a five year period, and only take
57:17
Speaker 2: out short term debt that's all paid off over those
57:21
Speaker 2: five years. About half of those will be during construction
57:25
Speaker 2: right in a couple of those years, and then uh,
57:28
Speaker 2: you get to the end and and that five six
57:31
Speaker 2: million dollar annual revenue lift all rolls to your bottom
57:34
Speaker 2: of line to be able to put into the programs.
57:36
Speaker 2: And so that's our goal. That goal is attainable, but still,
57:43
Speaker 2: you know, still ambitious. We've got a couple of big
57:46
Speaker 2: ask out that we're that we're working uh fervently on
57:52
Speaker 2: and uh, but we're really really excited about it, and
57:54
Speaker 2: the appetite has just been incredible. I Mean, we started
57:57
Speaker 2: with uh four under suites, and there was some people
58:03
Speaker 2: questioning if if there'd be a market for those some
58:05
Speaker 2: minimum five million dollar gift. We currently we then expanded
58:12
Speaker 2: to six, then expanded to eight, and seven of those
58:15
Speaker 2: eight are sold. And so I think that's a pretty
58:19
Speaker 2: incredible accomplishment. So good, good, great job by our staff.
58:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, to pull this thing off. This would be a
58:25
Speaker 1: kin to what TCU did with its founders. I mean
58:28
Speaker 1: that was about the same amount of money that they
58:31
Speaker 1: got it ahead and then did their renovation on their stadium.
58:35
Speaker 1: Give me your take on how basketball reseeding either is
58:40
Speaker 1: going has gone. Where do you think because that was
58:42
Speaker 1: a massive project.
58:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, and not a fun one, right, Like, anytime you
58:47
Speaker 2: start to move people's seats, you make some people upset.
58:53
Speaker 2: And I always tell people, like, the last thing I
58:56
Speaker 2: like to do is go to the grocery store and
58:58
Speaker 2: get accosted by somebody for moving moving seats. And so
59:03
Speaker 2: I would not do it if I didn't feel like
59:05
Speaker 2: it had to be done to compete in this modern world.
59:09
Speaker 2: And so you know you if but but just to
59:12
Speaker 2: let people know out there, if if you don't receipt occasionally,
59:19
Speaker 2: you don't incentivize any giving in today's world, and so
59:24
Speaker 2: there's inflation. The amount of the cost of everything changes,
59:29
Speaker 2: and so if you somebody gave you one hundred grand
59:32
Speaker 2: twenty years ago and that got them this seat, but
59:34
Speaker 2: you could, you know, get a donation of five hundred
59:37
Speaker 2: grand a day, like at some point you you have to.
59:40
Speaker 2: And then the other problem we had was we had
59:42
Speaker 2: all these little ticket cabals where people had went in
59:45
Speaker 2: together to buy uh to buy uh these uh these tickets,
59:51
Speaker 2: and so we really need people have their own individual
59:54
Speaker 2: accounts so we know, like that data is important when
59:57
Speaker 2: you're trying to figure out where where do we get uh,
1:00:00
Speaker 2: you know, money and revenue from. And so you know, overall,
1:00:06
Speaker 2: I think receding was was a success. The further you
1:00:10
Speaker 2: go in it, you know, the less points in lifetime
1:00:14
Speaker 2: giving and and current giving people have and so those
1:00:17
Speaker 2: people are tend to be a little bit unhappy more unhappy.
1:00:22
Speaker 2: But you know, the conversation I've had, even if people
1:00:25
Speaker 2: weren't happy that their seat was moved, they kind of understood.
1:00:29
Speaker 2: And I just try to remind people we're the last
1:00:31
Speaker 2: in the big twelve to receipt. So we had been
1:00:33
Speaker 2: the longest period of time and there are people in
1:00:35
Speaker 2: the country who receat every year amazing every year, and
1:00:39
Speaker 2: so we're thinking four to five year blocks of time,
1:00:43
Speaker 2: and you know, and and so I think our staff
1:00:47
Speaker 2: did a really good job. You though, those are uncomfortable
1:00:49
Speaker 2: conversations to have and and you know, and I understand.
1:00:52
Speaker 2: So I told one lady, I said, my stepfather was
1:00:56
Speaker 2: a season ticket holder for Oklahoma OU football for thirty
1:01:00
Speaker 2: five years. And they did a receding and he had
1:01:04
Speaker 2: retired and his income level was different, and it it
1:01:07
Speaker 2: it did not it. Actually they did a repark and
1:01:09
Speaker 2: they pushed his parking out in his Parkinson's now and
1:01:12
Speaker 2: so like he had to drop those tickets because he
1:01:14
Speaker 2: can't he can't walk that far. And so like, I
1:01:18
Speaker 2: too understand, and and you know, but but in this
1:01:23
Speaker 2: world where it takes money to compete period. You you know,
1:01:30
Speaker 2: I've said it before on here, we are not in
1:01:32
Speaker 2: a position to forego revenue when there's revenue to be had.
1:01:35
Speaker 4: We're just not Can I can I tell you something?
1:01:39
Speaker 2: Yes, sir?
1:01:40
Speaker 4: So, I mean, I ask you some questions. Maybe you
1:01:43
Speaker 4: were completely comfortable with what you answered, but I was
1:01:47
Speaker 4: I've seen a lot of highs and lows over the years,
1:01:50
Speaker 4: and I was I was with these guys. I was deeply,
1:01:53
Speaker 4: deeply moved by what I saw in Omaha and in
1:01:57
Speaker 4: the regionals. And when you look at the totality of
1:02:00
Speaker 4: what's happening with the athletic department now with the Olympic Sports,
1:02:04
Speaker 4: with the coaches you have in place, with what coach
1:02:06
Speaker 4: Hodge is doing, and I think going to do with
1:02:09
Speaker 4: what is happening with football, with the improvements you're making
1:02:12
Speaker 4: at the stadium, I feel like we're entering a new
1:02:17
Speaker 4: golden era of WV athletics and you're a huge part
1:02:21
Speaker 4: of that. I think you're the right guy at the
1:02:23
Speaker 4: right time when it's a very difficult time in athletics
1:02:26
Speaker 4: and tough decisions have to be made. You have to
1:02:27
Speaker 4: have vision, you have to make tough decisions, and I
1:02:30
Speaker 4: think we're guys.
1:02:31
Speaker 2: I think that.
1:02:32
Speaker 4: We're at a very good spot BRD to be relevant
1:02:36
Speaker 4: and remain relevant going forward and to excel.
1:02:39
Speaker 3: So along those lines, let's take it basketball specific for
1:02:42
Speaker 3: a second, because that giving that you're talking about is
1:02:45
Speaker 3: so impactful and meaningful moving forward. I think we saw
1:02:47
Speaker 3: that this off season with what Ross and staff were
1:02:50
Speaker 3: able to do in terms of going to get some talent,
1:02:53
Speaker 3: some high end talent coming in. So start with I
1:02:56
Speaker 3: guess Ross returning for year two might be the best
1:02:58
Speaker 3: portal get we've had.
1:03:00
Speaker 1: Over anybody over the last five years.
1:03:02
Speaker 3: And then you add some talent back into that. You
1:03:04
Speaker 3: saw how basketball ended the season last year. So just
1:03:07
Speaker 3: give us your overall thoughts on where that men's program is.
1:03:09
Speaker 3: We'll talk women in a second. Start with men and
1:03:11
Speaker 3: where they are.
1:03:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'll circle back shortly to basketball. But I
1:03:16
Speaker 2: you know, hoppy, I would just say to your comment,
1:03:19
Speaker 2: I do take a lot of pride in where I
1:03:22
Speaker 2: think we're at and where we're headed, just a way
1:03:26
Speaker 2: that you're wired when you do this and you compete,
1:03:29
Speaker 2: I don't. I have not let myself think that we've
1:03:32
Speaker 2: arrived or we're entering and going there, because it you know,
1:03:34
Speaker 2: it changes every day. Sure, and if you'd ask me
1:03:37
Speaker 2: March first what our basketball roster value needed to be,
1:03:43
Speaker 2: and then where we ended on June first, it was
1:03:47
Speaker 2: a drastically different picture. And like there's some days where,
1:03:51
Speaker 2: like you know, there's a knock at the door. I'm like,
1:03:53
Speaker 2: I swear if somebody comes in here and tells me
1:03:56
Speaker 2: we need more money today, I'm gonna lose it. But
1:03:59
Speaker 2: pretty well every day there's somebody knocking on the door,
1:04:02
Speaker 2: and so you're just always always striving to make sure
1:04:07
Speaker 2: that you're doing whatever you can, and you know that
1:04:09
Speaker 2: you can't. There's never enough to give everybody everything, and
1:04:13
Speaker 2: so you're just trying to make sure that everybody has
1:04:15
Speaker 2: a that they're going to battle with a reasonably competitive
1:04:20
Speaker 2: resource pool. And you know, when we started this in
1:04:26
Speaker 2: December twenty two, we we had a long ways to go,
1:04:29
Speaker 2: and we still have a long ways to go. We've
1:04:30
Speaker 2: made up a lot of ground and h do you
1:04:32
Speaker 2: feel what's I do? Yeah? Like you're chasing people who
1:04:36
Speaker 2: are chasing people, right, so no one's waiting for us
1:04:38
Speaker 2: to catch up. But if you look at where we
1:04:40
Speaker 2: rank in the conference, we went from bottom to we're
1:04:44
Speaker 2: past the middle, moving towards the top third in terms
1:04:48
Speaker 2: of overall resource allocation. And so you know, but those
1:04:53
Speaker 2: other people, you know, the people that we've passed, they
1:04:55
Speaker 2: don't like that we've passed them. So it's just a
1:04:57
Speaker 2: constant thirst for more, and athletics has always been that way,
1:05:01
Speaker 2: but certainly with this with the roster dollars being like
1:05:04
Speaker 2: they are. It's more than than ever before. You know,
1:05:09
Speaker 2: Coach Hodge has done a remarkable job. You know, I'd
1:05:14
Speaker 2: have varying levels of knowledge when I go and watch
1:05:18
Speaker 2: a sport. Now, you know, I know culture, I know discipline,
1:05:22
Speaker 2: I know leadership because I watch that every day from
1:05:25
Speaker 2: from you know a ton of head coaches and half
1:05:28
Speaker 2: for twenty years. In terms of my understanding of the
1:05:31
Speaker 2: schematics and the and the strategy of every sport is
1:05:35
Speaker 2: different for some sports, and basketball is the sport where
1:05:38
Speaker 2: I am the most comfortable because I coached it, I
1:05:42
Speaker 2: was around it. I worked four years for a Hall
1:05:44
Speaker 2: of Fame coaching Eddie Sutton. And uh so I'm not
1:05:48
Speaker 2: an expert. As I tell Coach Hodge, if I if
1:05:51
Speaker 2: I knew more than him, i'd have his job. He
1:05:53
Speaker 2: makes a lot more than I do. But uh but
1:05:56
Speaker 2: I I do feel like I've got a decent knowledge
1:05:58
Speaker 2: base when when watching the game and understanding what's trying
1:06:02
Speaker 2: to be accomplished. And those guys did a really good
1:06:05
Speaker 2: job with what they had, and they did a great
1:06:09
Speaker 2: job with culture and assembling pieces. Ross is very intentional
1:06:13
Speaker 2: about not just acquiring talent, but acquiring the right kind
1:06:19
Speaker 2: of personal makeup that fits what he wants to do,
1:06:24
Speaker 2: and so I think this should be a really, really
1:06:27
Speaker 2: exciting year. I can't wait, just as a basketball fan
1:06:31
Speaker 2: to watch Miles. You know, I think he's gonna be
1:06:34
Speaker 2: a really great player, and you know, I'm really excited
1:06:39
Speaker 2: about where where we're headed.
1:06:41
Speaker 3: Real quick too. Just as a side note, draft was
1:06:43
Speaker 3: NBA draft came up recently. If you look at the talent,
1:06:46
Speaker 3: I think we knew this going through this. I think
1:06:48
Speaker 3: as you continue down the years, you're going to look
1:06:50
Speaker 3: back at last year's Big Twelve. That's as good a league.
1:06:53
Speaker 3: This has been the best league in the country since
1:06:55
Speaker 3: Westford and you joined it. Last year was an exceptionally
1:06:58
Speaker 3: good year, and you can just look at the where
1:07:00
Speaker 3: where the draft picks were in the recent draft to
1:07:02
Speaker 3: tell you that. I think as we go back and
1:07:04
Speaker 3: examine where West Virginia landed in year one with Ross
1:07:08
Speaker 3: to get a buy in the first round of that tournament,
1:07:09
Speaker 3: I think that's going to be something that we continue
1:07:11
Speaker 3: to look back and say, you know, that was a
1:07:13
Speaker 3: pretty good accomplishment there. Given what the league looked like,
1:07:15
Speaker 3: it's always going to be good. Last year I think
1:07:18
Speaker 3: was an unusually high level talent Big twelve.
1:07:20
Speaker 1: You could agree, you could make the case individual talent
1:07:23
Speaker 1: wise best since West Virginia has been in the league.
1:07:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not sure.
1:07:26
Speaker 3: It's an argument. I'm not sure that's an argument.
1:07:29
Speaker 1: First round picks correct to first two, four.
1:07:32
Speaker 3: In the top ten. It was a remarkable league. And
1:07:34
Speaker 3: to finish where we did one game away from the turnam.
1:07:36
Speaker 2: Those top two picks do in Morgantown.
1:07:39
Speaker 3: Both took ls.
1:07:39
Speaker 1: Well, it's took an ol.
1:07:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.
1:07:41
Speaker 1: Well, the great the Grim Reapers Ross. I mean, he
1:07:44
Speaker 1: ends coaches careers. I mean, you take a look at
1:07:46
Speaker 1: some of the things he's done. He puts guys into retirement.
1:07:48
Speaker 4: One guy took himself out of the game at a
1:07:50
Speaker 4: critical time.
1:07:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, that game. That's who I just an incredible coach
1:07:55
Speaker 2: who I have the utmost respect for, but who I imagine,
1:07:58
Speaker 2: upon retirement, will make no additional visits to Morgantown.
1:08:02
Speaker 1: Williams self.
1:08:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I bet he's had enough be.
1:08:05
Speaker 3: A difficult venue for the Jayhawks. We go there, We
1:08:08
Speaker 3: go there this year.
1:08:09
Speaker 1: There, they don't come here. We go there this year.
1:08:12
Speaker 2: Women's basketball, Yeah, let's talk women's basketball.
1:08:14
Speaker 3: What a remarkable tenure for Mark Kellogg, but capped off
1:08:18
Speaker 3: last year with the hosting of the regional and just
1:08:20
Speaker 3: insane sold out building. You talk about great atmospheres in baseball,
1:08:24
Speaker 3: and it was that Colisseum atmosphere for those changes was
1:08:27
Speaker 3: pretty pretty intense incredible.
1:08:30
Speaker 2: You ever go watch a Major League baseball game and
1:08:34
Speaker 2: just it's amazing how routine they make, like hard plays
1:08:39
Speaker 2: look just like that's what Mark Kellogg does. Like he
1:08:42
Speaker 2: just makes a really hard job and a really hard
1:08:45
Speaker 2: league look kind of easy. Like I mean, and like
1:08:48
Speaker 2: you know, you he loses a bunch of players and
1:08:51
Speaker 2: you think there's no way we're going to replace uh jj,
1:08:55
Speaker 2: you know, and like he you know, just just finds
1:08:58
Speaker 2: a way. Man, you put together there here. Yeah, he's
1:09:00
Speaker 2: a he's a winner, he's a great person. He's he's
1:09:06
Speaker 2: low maintenance. Uh for the most parties, he's just uh yeah.
1:09:12
Speaker 2: Another example why you sometimes, I think is a father
1:09:16
Speaker 2: when once you have our parent, once you have kids,
1:09:18
Speaker 2: you just want to know when you lay your head
1:09:20
Speaker 2: down at night, your kids are going to make the
1:09:21
Speaker 2: right decision. And like Mark Kellogg, you just know is
1:09:23
Speaker 2: gonna Yeah, you know, I don't I'll never lay awake
1:09:27
Speaker 2: at night wondering, like is he going to do the
1:09:30
Speaker 2: right thing. He's gonna do the right thing. He's gonna
1:09:32
Speaker 2: do it very well. He's going to represent us very well.
1:09:35
Speaker 2: You know, he's got a great family. He's been a
1:09:38
Speaker 2: he's been a wonderful edition.
1:09:39
Speaker 1: Some of the other Olympic sports. I think coach Dan
1:09:42
Speaker 1: Strafford with men's soccer, he would be He and Sean
1:09:45
Speaker 1: Cleary lowest maintenance among your worries.
1:09:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're great people Like coach I don't know that
1:09:51
Speaker 2: Coach Claire's ever asked me for you like not even
1:09:57
Speaker 2: like he's like all timer, like T shirt.
1:10:01
Speaker 3: I goes and pops out Olympians.
1:10:03
Speaker 2: Yes, uh, and uh, you know coach Strafford's been he's
1:10:07
Speaker 2: been awesome, you know, like uh, I mean, I could
1:10:11
Speaker 2: go down the list. I mean, co I'm excited about
1:10:13
Speaker 2: what Coach Greene's uh, you know building Brett McDonald's swim
1:10:17
Speaker 2: coaches is getting that program turned around. Coaches o' brown
1:10:21
Speaker 2: continues to do what she does and just wins every
1:10:25
Speaker 2: year and puts us in a place to have successful postseason.
1:10:29
Speaker 3: John Hammond another World championship, World.
1:10:31
Speaker 2: Champions just just just wins them, like you know, just
1:10:35
Speaker 2: stacks them. He'd been to the White House for it
1:10:37
Speaker 2: when his first no big deal for him when his
1:10:39
Speaker 2: first his first time, that was an experience.
1:10:42
Speaker 1: That's right, we haven't talked to you since you went
1:10:44
Speaker 1: to the Big House. Kind of wild, huh it is?
1:10:47
Speaker 1: It was wild. Excuse me for asking. This was West Virginia.
1:10:51
Speaker 1: Were they doing other sports teams that day?
1:10:54
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, So you all show up and they assign
1:10:58
Speaker 2: you a room. We had the Blue room in the center.
1:11:03
Speaker 2: You didn't get the Oval office, we did not, But
1:11:07
Speaker 2: so the room where they put the White House Christmas Tree.
1:11:10
Speaker 2: The room when he walks out onto the when the
1:11:12
Speaker 2: President walks out onto the steps, like we were in
1:11:14
Speaker 2: that room.
1:11:14
Speaker 1: Cool.
1:11:16
Speaker 2: And they come in and they kind of show you
1:11:19
Speaker 2: like all right, here's how we're going to do this
1:11:20
Speaker 2: picture and have everybody get in a place. Then you
1:11:22
Speaker 2: can leave the podium. But they have it supwhere when
1:11:25
Speaker 2: he comes in, he's like, you know, gets in and out,
1:11:28
Speaker 2: boom boom. But it was really cool. He had like
1:11:31
Speaker 2: you could tell all the kids were, even the international kids,
1:11:34
Speaker 2: and a lot of those are like, we're really blown
1:11:37
Speaker 2: away with the opportunity to be in the White House
1:11:41
Speaker 2: and to get that honor. So that was that was
1:11:43
Speaker 2: a cool experience for me personally, but also for me
1:11:46
Speaker 2: getting to see them go through that you talk about
1:11:49
Speaker 2: once in a while, and we were by far the
1:11:53
Speaker 2: best dressed team there. Phil take care of you goes
1:11:56
Speaker 2: and looking Phil.
1:11:56
Speaker 1: Oh. Phil had the rifle team too, So Phil doesn't
1:11:59
Speaker 1: matter what sport of this matter what, but here's.
1:12:01
Speaker 3: If you need to look good, you just go see
1:12:03
Speaker 3: Phil and it takes care of it. Rifle team was
1:12:05
Speaker 3: going to a big event, had to get outfitted, took
1:12:07
Speaker 3: care of it, handled it. By the way, that's a
1:12:08
Speaker 3: nice shirt from Phill right there hanging on the rack
1:12:10
Speaker 3: right now, hoppy my ship. Earlier this week, I just
1:12:13
Speaker 3: saw hung a couple of those up. You're interested in going.
1:12:15
Speaker 2: And get that got the Jerry West throwback.
1:12:17
Speaker 3: Look, this is a new by the way, this is
1:12:20
Speaker 3: a new one.
1:12:20
Speaker 1: That's a new one. A new one is a new one.
1:12:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, just out here in the last week.
1:12:23
Speaker 1: I mean him and Gucci, I mean they just designed.
1:12:25
Speaker 4: This is an old favorite here.
1:12:26
Speaker 1: It's a good one. Stand by.
1:12:28
Speaker 2: I thought so too. It's like he's got when they
1:12:32
Speaker 2: have a new disease and they identify patient one that's like,
1:12:36
Speaker 2: that's like patient one right there. That shirt that was
1:12:38
Speaker 2: the original three Guys.
1:12:40
Speaker 1: It's true, hop it was looks great.
1:12:42
Speaker 2: It was a questionable decision to go light on light
1:12:45
Speaker 2: go back to Hoppy there on the screen. Uh you
1:12:48
Speaker 2: see how that white on that light? He doesn't really
1:12:51
Speaker 2: you probably should have went black with the threading there,
1:12:53
Speaker 2: it's a little hard to see the hard distinguished got
1:12:56
Speaker 2: a design calling play by play, he would not be
1:12:59
Speaker 2: able to see the numbers.
1:13:00
Speaker 1: Good, No, I would complain about that.
1:13:01
Speaker 2: See that clearly.
1:13:02
Speaker 3: I think I was really good too.
1:13:04
Speaker 4: I don't know what his problem.
1:13:05
Speaker 3: I mean, I'll trust Phil with what he puts together
1:13:07
Speaker 3: for the combinations.
1:13:08
Speaker 4: The way, of course, if I'm correct, If I'm correct,
1:13:11
Speaker 4: this is a three three guys program and one of
1:13:15
Speaker 4: us is wearing the three Guys logo.
1:13:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm over here defending you. You're going to
1:13:19
Speaker 3: take shots at me. You mentioned I'm over here trying
1:13:21
Speaker 3: to help you out. So okay, run, You're exactly right
1:13:23
Speaker 3: on everything you just said.
1:13:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, it probably shouldn't have included doing.
1:13:26
Speaker 1: You mentioned that you were hanging out. You mentioned you
1:13:28
Speaker 1: were hanging out in the radio booth during baseball. So
1:13:32
Speaker 1: just you, and Andrew and Jake, what's the what's the
1:13:35
Speaker 1: what's the mood inside that? Because we had Junior on
1:13:37
Speaker 1: from Omaha and a rare appearance by him, So how's that,
1:13:42
Speaker 1: what's the what's the what's the mood in that booth?
1:13:43
Speaker 1: When those guys are doing those big time games.
1:13:47
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I think to get a little
1:13:48
Speaker 2: annoyed with me because I'm trying to get commentary from
1:13:51
Speaker 2: them away from the commentary, so they're trying to do
1:13:54
Speaker 2: their job, and I'm like, you know, like and so
1:13:59
Speaker 2: like we got a little track man on my phone
1:14:01
Speaker 2: sometimes up there, and I'm like, that was not a strike,
1:14:03
Speaker 2: you know, Like so if they're probably just like, hey,
1:14:06
Speaker 2: there's one rule in here, like yeah, but I've learned
1:14:12
Speaker 2: Junior's mechanisms, you know, and reactions and it, you know,
1:14:16
Speaker 2: it's pretty funny. Like, you know, I won't call any names,
1:14:19
Speaker 2: but if we have a picture who might be struggling
1:14:22
Speaker 2: to have control throw you know, throwing some balls, you know,
1:14:27
Speaker 2: you on the air, but he definitely is. It's a
1:14:31
Speaker 2: good thing there's not a live camera.
1:14:33
Speaker 4: Now wait a minute, wait like that a second, Hang
1:14:35
Speaker 4: on a second, because I was there in the booth
1:14:38
Speaker 4: for a couple of those regional games, and you're right
1:14:40
Speaker 4: in the middle. You sack between them, you get between him,
1:14:44
Speaker 4: like you elbow your way into the middle.
1:14:46
Speaker 2: Well, you can't if you see it back, you can't
1:14:47
Speaker 2: see over the cancer. All right, you're sitting in the
1:14:50
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to like.
1:14:52
Speaker 4: And of the three, you are the most animated of
1:14:56
Speaker 4: the now truth, you're the most animated.
1:14:59
Speaker 1: Truth revealed.
1:15:00
Speaker 2: That is the truth. And and and Hoppy knows this
1:15:03
Speaker 2: because he was standing in the back. I mean, when
1:15:06
Speaker 2: when we're at bat, I have my I turn my
1:15:09
Speaker 2: hat on backwards. Yes, and if it worked, I do
1:15:12
Speaker 2: it again.
1:15:12
Speaker 1: That's awesome. I love it. Yeah, Baseball brings out some stuff, man.
1:15:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I'm getting worse about that kind of stuff.
1:15:20
Speaker 2: The older I get, Like you would think I would
1:15:22
Speaker 2: be like I would know by now it has no impact.
1:15:25
Speaker 2: And it's like the older, of course it does.
1:15:27
Speaker 1: This killed me. This, this playoff, this, but this tournament run. Like, dude,
1:15:30
Speaker 1: I was dying. My wife said, dude, are you crazy?
1:15:33
Speaker 1: Because when I do a game, I'm fine. Yeah, but
1:15:36
Speaker 1: when you're watching one.
1:15:37
Speaker 4: Wait a minute, you I listen to you. You you
1:15:41
Speaker 4: are You're invested.
1:15:43
Speaker 1: Oh sure, not saying that I'm not invested. It's easier though,
1:15:46
Speaker 1: when I'm doing the game than just watching a game.
1:15:49
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's easier to coach a game than it is.
1:15:53
Speaker 4: But you know, you watch that and all the cutaways
1:15:55
Speaker 4: to coach Sabings.
1:15:57
Speaker 1: His chill dude, chill dude. Yeah, he's a chill dude.
1:16:01
Speaker 1: Three guys brought to us by WVU Medicine. As you
1:16:04
Speaker 1: well know, don't need to tell you if you've got
1:16:06
Speaker 1: some or if you've got grandkids. Kids are active. Sometimes
1:16:09
Speaker 1: injuries happen. DOUBLEV Medicine, Golesano Children's they're orthopedics team specializes
1:16:16
Speaker 1: in caring for growing bones, joints, and muscles.
1:16:20
Speaker 2: Do you think they stock ana venom there?
1:16:22
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, you had some snake situations. We're gonna get
1:16:25
Speaker 1: in anti venom.
1:16:27
Speaker 2: He's been in and make sure they keeps.
1:16:29
Speaker 1: They have it. They got it in some shelves up
1:16:31
Speaker 1: there for sports injuries, fractures to scoliosis, complex conditions, Advanced
1:16:36
Speaker 1: treatment with a gentle touch called eight five to five
1:16:39
Speaker 1: DOUBLEVU Care or schedule an evaluation at DOUBLEVU kids dot com.
1:16:44
Speaker 1: So what's up with these snakes?
1:16:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's the do well.
1:16:48
Speaker 1: Is Hodge having any up there too?
1:16:50
Speaker 2: He actually did have one a day or two later. Yeah,
1:16:53
Speaker 2: because you're up in the mountain there. Yeah. So I'm
1:16:55
Speaker 2: up on top of a mountain. Beautiful place, beautiful views,
1:17:00
Speaker 2: but across I mean, I back up to two things.
1:17:05
Speaker 2: Cooper's Rock, Yeah, state forest snakes there and Snake Hill.
1:17:10
Speaker 2: While appropriately name might be a tip off, so listen,
1:17:15
Speaker 2: I grew up in Oklahoma, and I grew up on
1:17:18
Speaker 2: as I like to say, eighty acres eight miles from town.
1:17:22
Speaker 2: Town was eight hundred. It was forty acres and I
1:17:25
Speaker 2: was growing up. It's eighty now, but actually I guess
1:17:28
Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty now because my grandparents had forty.
1:17:32
Speaker 2: My dad bought forty and then I bought for eighty,
1:17:34
Speaker 2: So like in total sixty keep the surface rights, so
1:17:39
Speaker 2: and so. Anyway, we I've killed a lot of snakes
1:17:45
Speaker 2: in my life.
1:17:46
Speaker 1: How do you normally do it? Well?
1:17:48
Speaker 2: However, I can either a hoe, a shovel. I have
1:17:51
Speaker 2: sh I have shot them. One time Heather and I
1:17:55
Speaker 2: were walking and there was a copperhead and I found
1:17:59
Speaker 2: a big rock in the ditch and smashed it that
1:18:02
Speaker 2: way one shot. Yeah, good, listen. I mean so, but
1:18:08
Speaker 2: when I was younger, I was one of those kill
1:18:10
Speaker 2: every snake. Sure you know now I don't kill non
1:18:15
Speaker 2: poisonous snakes. And I know I'm very good ninety eight
1:18:20
Speaker 2: percent accuracy. I would bet if you showed me one
1:18:23
Speaker 2: hundred pictures, I'd get ninety eight of them right on
1:18:26
Speaker 2: American snakes.
1:18:28
Speaker 1: Which are you better? Are you better at snake recognition
1:18:31
Speaker 1: or cloud recognition? Comparable on both ninety eight percent accuracy
1:18:36
Speaker 1: and cloud composition and on snakes? Okay, go ahead.
1:18:39
Speaker 2: So uh so you know I've gotten aware. I don't
1:18:44
Speaker 2: ever kill a non poisonous snake, and I don't kill
1:18:47
Speaker 2: a poisonous snake if I just see them out somewhere,
1:18:50
Speaker 2: like you know, like hey, you don't bother them. They
1:18:52
Speaker 2: don't bother you, just living their life. But this last
1:18:57
Speaker 2: weekend Father's Day weekend, Saturday, I'm out spraying weeds. And
1:19:04
Speaker 2: I mean, I have the most amazing West Virginia wilderness stories,
1:19:08
Speaker 2: but this is this is true. So I'm twenty years
1:19:12
Speaker 2: at war with moles and gophers.
1:19:14
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, they can't do any about them.
1:19:18
Speaker 2: And I mean I've bought traps, I've hired people, I
1:19:21
Speaker 2: paid a guy in Texas one time, like two thousand dollars,
1:19:24
Speaker 2: and he didn't guarantee to catch it, and he never
1:19:26
Speaker 2: caught it, never worked.
1:19:27
Speaker 4: You know.
1:19:27
Speaker 3: This was like, so this is a multi state issue.
1:19:29
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, because I really care about how my yard looks.
1:19:33
Speaker 2: And the only thing I've ever found that helps it
1:19:35
Speaker 2: all is I just put out enough situation, enough grub
1:19:38
Speaker 2: poison to kill grubs for twenty miles and then and
1:19:43
Speaker 2: then that kills the worms, which is their primary food source,
1:19:46
Speaker 2: and then they go away for a while until.
1:19:48
Speaker 1: Till they so you back, you get a pretty big spread.
1:19:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, So if there's anybody growing an extra leg or
1:19:53
Speaker 2: something that out of my neighborhood, it's probably the amount
1:19:56
Speaker 2: of grub poison I put out. So so I'm like spread.
1:20:00
Speaker 2: And I see the Earth movie and there's a gopher
1:20:05
Speaker 2: hole next to this one, but he's doing another one.
1:20:08
Speaker 2: I'm like, you got something? You ever seen the movie Friday? Yeah,
1:20:14
Speaker 2: He's like, that's your a S S. Mister Postman. Like
1:20:18
Speaker 2: I was like, that's that's very bad right there. But
1:20:20
Speaker 2: like so I go in, I open the door and
1:20:24
Speaker 2: tell Heather, Hey, get a shovel and come out here.
1:20:28
Speaker 2: Heather's like, why I need to go change first. I'm like,
1:20:31
Speaker 2: I don't have time for that now, never mind, I
1:20:34
Speaker 2: don't need you. Now I'm kind of frustrated. Never mind.
1:20:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm like, i'll hand kill. I'll take care of it.
1:20:43
Speaker 2: So I go snake out. No, I mean, now we're
1:20:46
Speaker 2: just killing to go for let's just go.
1:20:48
Speaker 3: The snake hasn't even arrived, okay.
1:20:50
Speaker 2: So I go and get to shovel and I go
1:20:54
Speaker 2: and I'm patiently standing there waiting for the earth to
1:20:57
Speaker 2: move in. I'm like, man, I might have missed my chance.
1:21:00
Speaker 2: Now I hear a dang door open, and Heather, I'm like, like,
1:21:05
Speaker 2: you know, you missed your chance to be a part
1:21:08
Speaker 2: of this. Like now you know, don't scare him off.
1:21:11
Speaker 2: So like so she's frozen and I'm just sitting there
1:21:14
Speaker 2: waiting and it starts to move again, and I'm just
1:21:16
Speaker 2: hard as I can carry this shovel in the ground.
1:21:19
Speaker 2: I got him, Okay, So I'm like it's now. I'm like,
1:21:22
Speaker 2: now you can come watch see what your man killed.
1:21:25
Speaker 2: Out here, like I'm out here round shovel or I'm
1:21:29
Speaker 2: Davy Crockett out here exploring this will Spade a straight, straight, straight. Yeah,
1:21:35
Speaker 2: And so I show it to her and then the
1:21:40
Speaker 2: dead gopher body. I hope there's no gopher lovers out there,
1:21:43
Speaker 2: sorry if you are. But it falls off the shovel
1:21:45
Speaker 2: and kind of rolls down the hill. Okay, fine, Heather's
1:21:49
Speaker 2: not okay with that, just a hit because she's like, well,
1:21:52
Speaker 2: the dogs are going to go down there and they're
1:21:55
Speaker 2: gonna roll in that dead cargot's coming the house smelling bad.
1:21:59
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, you're welcome to take this. She haven't
1:22:01
Speaker 2: done anything so far, You're well, and take the shovel
1:22:04
Speaker 2: and start down the hill here and you can throw
1:22:06
Speaker 2: it over the fence. Unlikely. So she tastes a couple
1:22:09
Speaker 2: of steps down and she stops, Oh boy, And I said,
1:22:13
Speaker 2: what's wrong? She said, snake. Now, we have a couple
1:22:16
Speaker 2: of black snakes that I've hang around pets, like I
1:22:19
Speaker 2: could have killed them. One was in a cedar tree
1:22:22
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago, evergreen tree, but like, hey,
1:22:26
Speaker 2: they eat rats and rodents. You know, I'm not gophers.
1:22:29
Speaker 2: Apparently yeah, not apparently not. And so like I'm like,
1:22:33
Speaker 2: I've let those go. But I said, well, it's just
1:22:36
Speaker 2: that black snake. She goes, no, this one looks different,
1:22:39
Speaker 2: and I said, come back up here, let me and
1:22:41
Speaker 2: give me the shovel, let me take.
1:22:43
Speaker 1: Let mister pick it up.
1:22:45
Speaker 3: Mister Crockett on the case here.
1:22:46
Speaker 2: So I take a couple of steps down. I'm like, ooh,
1:22:49
Speaker 2: it's a timber rattler. It's a rattlesnake. Yeah, I have
1:22:55
Speaker 2: not seen a poison snake since I've been here. I
1:22:57
Speaker 2: know Cooper's Rock across the river, Yeah, has timber rattlers.
1:23:01
Speaker 2: I had a guy who's a longtime guy tell me
1:23:04
Speaker 2: those timber rattlesnakes. They stay over there. All we ever
1:23:06
Speaker 2: get over here is Copperhead. This is a guy that's
1:23:09
Speaker 2: lived here a long time. I guess the snake missed
1:23:11
Speaker 2: the sign, you know, came on over at GPS and so.
1:23:18
Speaker 2: But because we have two dogs and two kids and
1:23:20
Speaker 2: this is probably forty feet from my pool, this the
1:23:23
Speaker 2: snake had to he had to go meet his maker.
1:23:26
Speaker 3: And so was it a good battle or just one
1:23:28
Speaker 3: whack and it was over?
1:23:30
Speaker 2: I mean I told you how many snakes I killed, Like,
1:23:32
Speaker 2: I mean, no, he actually I sent Heather to get
1:23:35
Speaker 2: a second shovel because he crawled under a rock. So
1:23:37
Speaker 2: I was gonna like, prop up with one, get him
1:23:40
Speaker 2: with the other, right, this is good. And then while
1:23:43
Speaker 2: she's gone, he starts to crawl out, and so I
1:23:47
Speaker 2: was like, hey, well, well I gotta get it that
1:23:49
Speaker 2: you all showtime. Yeah, so I did. I cut the
1:23:53
Speaker 2: rattle off. I went full redneck and give it to
1:23:56
Speaker 2: missus Baker to put in her hat band or something.
1:23:58
Speaker 3: When so you kept the rattler?
1:24:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, seven rattles and button and uh what does that mean.
1:24:08
Speaker 1: That?
1:24:08
Speaker 2: Well, every time it sheds, it creates a rouse so
1:24:12
Speaker 2: that you can't tell exact age because they shed more
1:24:14
Speaker 2: than once a year. If I had more time, ors
1:24:17
Speaker 2: what it's like for anybody watching at home. I know
1:24:19
Speaker 2: we got some nature person and you know the criminal.
1:24:22
Speaker 2: It's the state steak snake. It'd be illegal for me
1:24:25
Speaker 2: to kill it if it wasn't a threat in my
1:24:27
Speaker 2: yard a threat. It was a threat in my yard.
1:24:29
Speaker 2: You got dogs, And if I had more time or
1:24:31
Speaker 2: my kids were gone, i'd a calls may say, hey,
1:24:34
Speaker 2: can you kind of come get this and relocate it?
1:24:36
Speaker 2: You know it's lost, it left this neighborhood over.
1:24:39
Speaker 4: So you give your wife the rattler. That's an apple
1:24:42
Speaker 4: Achian engagement.
1:24:43
Speaker 2: Yeah. So so last year I was here, I told
1:24:46
Speaker 2: the story about the bears, right.
1:24:48
Speaker 1: They were around the neighborhood.
1:24:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, and allegedly they're back. They wrecked they wrecked some
1:24:53
Speaker 2: trash cans in the neighborhood last night. That's according to
1:24:55
Speaker 2: West Didrich. West is my neighbor. He's over the neighborhood. Yeah,
1:25:01
Speaker 2: he's lifetime West Virginia and and runs NASA. That a Fairmont
1:25:05
Speaker 2: so snakes he wrin.
1:25:06
Speaker 4: Supposedly you can spray castroil down a mole hole.
1:25:14
Speaker 2: And get rid of moles. I've put all kinds of
1:25:17
Speaker 2: powders and poisons and and I know any stuff you've lit.
1:25:22
Speaker 2: I've stuck water holes out there and tried to flood
1:25:24
Speaker 2: them out.
1:25:25
Speaker 1: But you haven't used explosives with the pot with the
1:25:27
Speaker 1: smoke that goes through the whole ton.
1:25:29
Speaker 3: Is very catch back, ass, Yeah, isn't it?
1:25:31
Speaker 2: So? In twenty years is only the second one ever caught.
1:25:33
Speaker 2: One time I saw one walking across the yard, and
1:25:36
Speaker 2: he must have been diseased or something, because normally, like
1:25:39
Speaker 2: you don't ever see and I like ran out there,
1:25:41
Speaker 2: I pitched for it. Tm Oh gosh, awesome. I like that. Yeah,
1:25:47
Speaker 2: and so uh but anyway, so that so that that
1:25:50
Speaker 2: rattlesnake is no longer a threat to the to the neighbor.
1:25:53
Speaker 1: When I'm with you, dude, like the whole thing about
1:25:55
Speaker 1: when I killed the boar started when if something can
1:25:57
Speaker 1: hurt you, then I like to kill it.
1:25:59
Speaker 2: Oh, here we can.
1:26:00
Speaker 3: The rattlesnake was actually awake, awake the house.
1:26:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, a threat I mean, I mean, but just so
1:26:08
Speaker 2: people home to I actually love snakes. I'd let the
1:26:10
Speaker 2: snake go in any other circumstance, your family. If I
1:26:14
Speaker 2: let that snake go and it bit one of my kids.
1:26:17
Speaker 4: Did you ever I mean, have you ever like caught
1:26:19
Speaker 4: a black snake and handled a black snake or anything
1:26:20
Speaker 4: like that.
1:26:21
Speaker 2: I don't like to touch him very much, even this
1:26:23
Speaker 2: one when it was dead. Now, if you if you've
1:26:24
Speaker 2: killed a snake, you know, like you touch them for
1:26:27
Speaker 2: hours afterwards, and they like the muscles nerves, get some
1:26:30
Speaker 2: nerves going on there in there, so it will freak
1:26:32
Speaker 2: you out and you'll kill yourself trying to get away.
1:26:35
Speaker 2: You have comprehends up there, allegedly I've but I've not
1:26:38
Speaker 2: seen any. But they those are allegedly more common. I
1:26:41
Speaker 2: told you that Wes Didrich told you that people my
1:26:44
Speaker 2: my uh, the guy, the guy that helps uh with
1:26:48
Speaker 2: my uh tree pruning and stuff like that, he knows. Yeah,
1:26:52
Speaker 2: I got a tree guy. I got a tree guy
1:26:56
Speaker 2: on the teats, the tree guy. He probably hasn't real
1:27:02
Speaker 2: a different name.
1:27:02
Speaker 1: But work for cash.
1:27:04
Speaker 3: Yep, before we go, and this is not a smooth
1:27:07
Speaker 3: transition from killing snakes and wildlife, but into the Renfredo.
1:27:10
Speaker 3: It is sweeping the state, yes, level of pride and
1:27:14
Speaker 3: that the dish has become so popular.
1:27:17
Speaker 2: You tell you what I'm proud of when people order
1:27:19
Speaker 2: something that that is good for them and that they
1:27:22
Speaker 2: enjoy it. And like, I don't try to tell other
1:27:24
Speaker 2: people how to order their food. If somebody wants bread sauce,
1:27:27
Speaker 2: I'm gone fine with that. If they want Alfredo, you know,
1:27:30
Speaker 2: probably has a more sisticated palate.
1:27:32
Speaker 3: A couple of people I've been with have mixed the
1:27:34
Speaker 3: red and the they call it blush. So it's been
1:27:37
Speaker 3: very very well.
1:27:38
Speaker 2: Reagan, she's a blush sauce girl.
1:27:40
Speaker 1: It's nice.
1:27:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Tony, Okay, So let's just go back though,
1:27:44
Speaker 2: before we leave this. Since I've been here, I put
1:27:50
Speaker 2: in a swimming pool at my house. Okay, when they
1:27:52
Speaker 2: went to dig it recorded duck trucks loads of coal
1:27:56
Speaker 2: they come out of there. Then I had a bear
1:27:59
Speaker 2: come in my backyard and eat out of my backyard.
1:28:06
Speaker 2: I got that on film. Now I've killed a rattlesnake.
1:28:09
Speaker 2: I don't know what's more West Virginia than you know.
1:28:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that is, unless unless you're green feeted deer
1:28:16
Speaker 4: back there.
1:28:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, that might put them on a leash with some corn.
1:28:19
Speaker 1: Might be next. Let me do this though. Speaking of
1:28:22
Speaker 1: being a great West Virginian, mark this day down in
1:28:25
Speaker 1: your calendar Friday July seventeen. Friday July seventeen, the WVU
1:28:32
Speaker 1: Cancer Institute, Golf and Sporting Clay's Classic Three Guys will
1:28:36
Speaker 1: be there for the third year. Whether you're a golfer,
1:28:39
Speaker 1: whether you're a Sporting Clay enthusiast, or you just want
1:28:43
Speaker 1: to hang out with the three guys. This event of
1:28:45
Speaker 1: event benefits wvu's Cancer Institute and the Live Like Brent Foundation,
1:28:49
Speaker 1: helping advance cancer care, research and patient sports throughout the
1:28:53
Speaker 1: state of West Virginia. We're gonna have a golf tournament,
1:28:56
Speaker 1: Sporting Clay's Competition Special guests from wu VU Athletics, Like,
1:29:01
Speaker 1: we can't say who's gonna.
1:29:02
Speaker 2: Be there, efforting.
1:29:04
Speaker 3: If we're going to have it's not done.
1:29:05
Speaker 1: We're efforting.
1:29:06
Speaker 3: We're going to have keep going on. I just said
1:29:08
Speaker 3: I'm efforting. It's not we're going to have moving. Don't
1:29:10
Speaker 3: say we're going to have No, I'm not going to
1:29:11
Speaker 3: say who. I mean, we're gonna have who. That's why
1:29:14
Speaker 3: you can't say it.
1:29:14
Speaker 1: We're going to have that's never stopped before. We're going
1:29:17
Speaker 1: to have someone that you would like to hear from
1:29:19
Speaker 1: that day from WVU. Our goal is to raise more
1:29:22
Speaker 1: than one hundred thousand dollars to support the fight against cancer.
1:29:27
Speaker 1: Ticket and registration information if you would, Jake, put that
1:29:30
Speaker 1: slide back up there. Just look it up WVU Cancer
1:29:34
Speaker 1: Institute Live like Brent July seventeenth, somewhere on the innerwebs
1:29:38
Speaker 1: and it'll come up. We'd love to have you.
1:29:40
Speaker 3: It's a super fun event, great social media.
1:29:44
Speaker 1: Two years ago, who did we bring? We brought Jasper Floyd.
1:29:46
Speaker 1: Garrett Green was the first year we did it. Jasper
1:29:49
Speaker 1: Floyd was fantastic. We showed up in the parking lot.
1:29:51
Speaker 1: Last year. We pull in and there's this family having
1:29:54
Speaker 1: a reunion and they're playing on one of the basketball
1:29:56
Speaker 1: side courts and Jasper just fresh in town. So we
1:29:58
Speaker 1: went over, Hey, hi, guys doing, Hey, how you doing.
1:30:01
Speaker 1: Jasper started like, hey, tell your Paul Pierre story?
1:30:06
Speaker 2: So great?
1:30:06
Speaker 1: Have you heard a story about Jasper and Paul Pierce.
1:30:08
Speaker 3: So Jasper this summer here recently was out in La
1:30:12
Speaker 3: visiting and so he wanted to get a little run in.
1:30:15
Speaker 3: So he finds a gym and he heads to the
1:30:17
Speaker 3: gym to play a little pickup and he walks in
1:30:20
Speaker 3: and he says, oh, there's so like he started naming
1:30:24
Speaker 3: four or five different NBA players, including Paul Pierce was one.
1:30:29
Speaker 3: And so Jasper walks in and says, okay, well I'm in,
1:30:31
Speaker 3: I'm in the gym. We're gonna we're gonna line up
1:30:33
Speaker 3: and play here, and I guess Paul Pierce started on
1:30:35
Speaker 3: him instantly. The trash talking came immediately, like yo, man,
1:30:38
Speaker 3: who are you? What are you doing here? You here
1:30:39
Speaker 3: to ref I'm gonna ref it. What are you doing here?
1:30:42
Speaker 3: Like just immediately started on Jasper. Jasper's like, no, I'm
1:30:45
Speaker 3: I'm gonna play. I'm gonna line up and play joh
1:30:47
Speaker 3: I don't know if you're here to play, you're here
1:30:48
Speaker 3: to ref Who are you? Where'd you play? Just starts
1:30:50
Speaker 3: grilling him and grilling him. So game gets rayed to
1:30:52
Speaker 3: start hoppy. Paul Pierce out top checks the ball to Jasper.
1:30:55
Speaker 3: Jasper checks it back and comes right up on Paul Pierce, like,
1:30:59
Speaker 3: get right up, Paul Pierce, like you want to know
1:31:01
Speaker 3: who I am?
1:31:01
Speaker 4: Here's why I am.
1:31:01
Speaker 3: I'm gonna guard the ball. Paul Pierce immediately like trying
1:31:05
Speaker 3: to call a time out, like, yo, who is this guy?
1:31:07
Speaker 3: And looks at Jasper says, why are you all up
1:31:08
Speaker 3: on me? Back the leap up man?
1:31:11
Speaker 2: Why do you want me? And Jasperson? This how?
1:31:13
Speaker 3: This is how we're gonna play. That's how we're gonna play.
1:31:15
Speaker 3: Jasper got right up, gave great ball defense as he
1:31:17
Speaker 3: did all Big twelve season, and coach Paul Pierce, the
1:31:21
Speaker 3: Hall of Famer a little ruffled, and how he guarded
1:31:24
Speaker 3: him there defensively.
1:31:25
Speaker 2: Jasper's story, good love, Jasper, Hey, uh we do? We
1:31:31
Speaker 2: probably do have one more really important update absolutely, because
1:31:35
Speaker 2: there's gonna be some people I get asked about this sometimes,
1:31:39
Speaker 2: like how's my wife's car?
1:31:42
Speaker 3: I do want to know that has fallen out of
1:31:45
Speaker 3: the news since your appearance last night.
1:31:46
Speaker 2: I do apologize for not asking so Hobby, I just
1:31:50
Speaker 2: decided to pull the band aid off. Yes, and we're
1:31:53
Speaker 2: rebuilding the the engine of the MG my man Robert
1:31:57
Speaker 2: down there, where's he downs down the Interstates, the Jane
1:32:00
Speaker 2: Lou I forget the.
1:32:01
Speaker 1: Western Greater Westerns.
1:32:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, uh yeah, Weston Yeah, and uh he's he's in
1:32:08
Speaker 2: the process of rebuilding it right now. I think Heather
1:32:11
Speaker 2: said it's going to be ready by July eighth or ninth.
1:32:14
Speaker 2: He thinks perfect summer driving, so like perfect costs. Just
1:32:18
Speaker 2: keep But I'm like.
1:32:21
Speaker 1: Met sign, baby, what year is that?
1:32:24
Speaker 2: What year is it? I believe seventy nine?
1:32:26
Speaker 1: Okay, seventy nine.
1:32:28
Speaker 4: That's going to be a classic.
1:32:29
Speaker 2: Not that I on the.
1:32:31
Speaker 1: Road driving around classic invoice. One last thing, off topic,
1:32:35
Speaker 1: off topic, not off topic. Arizona State and Kansas are
1:32:39
Speaker 1: playing a football game at Wembley. What would make you
1:32:44
Speaker 1: consider having West Virginia playing international?
1:32:48
Speaker 2: Yeah? Right, opportunity, right, right time, and and right financial incentive.
1:32:57
Speaker 2: But I think I think those in limited doses can
1:33:00
Speaker 2: be a great experience for the for your players and
1:33:03
Speaker 2: really an even better experience your for your fan base.
1:33:06
Speaker 2: You know, you're not moving backyard brawl overseas unless you
1:33:11
Speaker 2: want to get killed. But but you know, the right
1:33:14
Speaker 2: opponent at the right time, we would we would consider that.
1:33:16
Speaker 2: We've been approached some but it just hasn't been. It
1:33:20
Speaker 2: hasn't made since, of course, and it have to be
1:33:22
Speaker 2: in a year where we already had six and probably
1:33:25
Speaker 2: even seven home games even without that, you know, so
1:33:29
Speaker 2: there are a couple of years coming up where we
1:33:30
Speaker 2: have eight on the books, you know, could you move
1:33:32
Speaker 2: one of those? Probably? So, yeah, the right opportunity.
1:33:37
Speaker 4: At least to be closer than some of the away
1:33:38
Speaker 4: games in the league.
1:33:42
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's just an old alum right there,
1:33:46
Speaker 1: and we apologize for him. Sorry about that.
1:33:49
Speaker 2: You know. My friend was announced this morning, actually his
1:33:52
Speaker 2: press comes this morning. He was announced yesterday as the
1:33:56
Speaker 2: a d at Virginia Tech. And so first thing I
1:34:02
Speaker 2: did was look up exactly how many days we had
1:34:05
Speaker 2: had possession of the Black Diamond Trophy, and I said, hey, congratulations,
1:34:09
Speaker 2: I think it's a I think it's a great opportunity,
1:34:12
Speaker 2: you know, But just so you know, West Virginia's had
1:34:15
Speaker 2: possession of the Black Diamond Trophy for know, it's like
1:34:18
Speaker 2: thirteen and seventy days. Yeah, good job, it's a good welcome.
1:34:22
Speaker 2: Tony's looking it up right now.
1:34:25
Speaker 1: I would just want I didn't mean I hadn't seen
1:34:27
Speaker 1: who got it? So another White?
1:34:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, Brian White, Danny White's brother. Yeah, yeah, Kevin White's son.
1:34:31
Speaker 1: Well, those Whites, they're in the business.
1:34:33
Speaker 2: They are so. Kevin White retired as the idea at
1:34:35
Speaker 2: Duke but also is at Notre Dame in Arizona State.
1:34:39
Speaker 2: Danny is the ideat at Tennessee. Mike is the basketball
1:34:45
Speaker 2: coach at Georgia.
1:34:45
Speaker 1: Georgia doing a good job, man.
1:34:47
Speaker 2: Now, Brian's the ad at Virginia Tech.
1:34:49
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's family business, family business. Well, buddy, we hope
1:34:53
Speaker 1: you enjoyed yourself. We always do. We always do it.
1:34:56
Speaker 1: So it's a right of right of summer right, and
1:34:58
Speaker 1: it goes by so fast. With this baseball run football
1:35:02
Speaker 1: is like here we come.
1:35:04
Speaker 2: Here's what I think I need to do. I need
1:35:06
Speaker 2: to schedule to do this like two times within like
1:35:10
Speaker 2: a month, so that Hoppy gets all of his questions
1:35:12
Speaker 2: out the first one the second one. I just just
1:35:14
Speaker 2: sit up here and tell stories and have fun.
1:35:16
Speaker 4: Questions were all legit.
1:35:18
Speaker 2: They were legit.
1:35:19
Speaker 1: Not the first time Hoppy's been accused of taking fun away.
1:35:22
Speaker 2: But you know, I had a press conference like a
1:35:25
Speaker 2: month ago. He could have come and asked this questions.
1:35:27
Speaker 1: No, no, no, he wants you one on one with
1:35:29
Speaker 1: his legal pad. Three guys before the game special thank
1:35:32
Speaker 1: you by the way to your your security staff Michael
1:35:35
Speaker 1: Fergale for bringing you in here and keeping you out
1:35:37
Speaker 1: of harm's way coming through that parking lot, which sometimes
1:35:39
Speaker 1: a little bit dice, Hoppies, you know, a little dice.
1:35:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, you got the first time to have a coned
1:35:44
Speaker 2: off parking spot.
1:35:46
Speaker 3: Well, you've been here a lot. We thought it was
1:35:47
Speaker 3: time that you got your own parking Spore took care
1:35:49
Speaker 3: of that.
1:35:49
Speaker 1: We took care of that. Wanted to make sure you
1:35:51
Speaker 1: didn't have to park in the middle of the road.
1:35:52
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1:36:01
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1:36:08
Speaker 4: With a contribution. You can have that parking space all
1:36:10
Speaker 4: the time.
1:36:11
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1:36:13
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1:36:17
Speaker 1: They won't take no for an answer, but don't expect it.
1:36:19
Speaker 2: To have it every year.
1:36:20
Speaker 1: And by WV Medicine, the exclusive healthcare provider for all mountaineers,
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Speaker 1: including you. All right, Special thanks to producer Jake. Three
1:36:28
Speaker 1: guys in the book. Stay well, everyone, be safe, see
1:36:33
Speaker 1: you later.
1:36:33
Speaker 2: Have a great summer.
1:36:34
Speaker 3: Watch out for snacks.