Episode 9 - Jeff Jones

Welcome to the show coach.

You know, after last year not fun by you know, in any any measure. You know, he, he, he was kind of you know, afraid that we wouldn't, we wouldn't be very good. And you know, I told him, I said, look, I understand. But the last time we were in this situation was the summer before the 2019 season. When you know, we obviously ended up winning the regular season and the conference USA tournament.

And I said, I, I. I, I can't tell you who they're going to be, but I've got lots of confidence that whoever we signed in the spring is going to be pretty good. You know, I, there, there were a lot of people out there in, in the transfer portal. And one thing that you, you know, for sure is if guys were in the transfer, One of the big things, if not the biggest factor in their decision is going to be playing time, you know, the, the opportunity to get out on the court.

So as, as a group, you know, I'm, I'm very excited. You know, we had signed a Bryce, Al Fino and, and the in the fall in, in the spring, we were only looking at, we weren't considering any high school kids. We were looking only to bring in either junior college. Transfers or, or guys that were in the transfer portal. The, the first one that you know, that we got was Chauncey Jenkins. And you know, we, we were excited about that. He, he he's got so much potential and so much talent.

He was playing behind, you know, some really good guards, Ricky counsel for one that ended up leaving and, and going to Arkansas. But you know, Chauncey wanted him to get back closer to her. And to, to get somebody, you know, he's, he's just a really good kid to get somebody with that much talent and ability, that was a good start for, for us.

After that you know, we were talking to a number of different guys and we, we, we just, quite honestly, it was almost by accident that we about Tyree Scott Grayson. Obviously we, we, we were familiar with him having played against him at, at, at UAB. And you know, he had some, as he's called to say, he's, he's had some pretty good games against ODU scoring. And, and he fit the bill as somebody that at the, at the mid-major level, you know, had.

Shown himself to be capable of being a double figure score. So you know, we, we, we finished that and, you know, one thing we found out, I, I had no idea and, and we kind of fell into it that he had played. On the boot and the boot Williams AAU program, he was on the, you know, one of the other teams, he wasn't on the the, the big team. And, and, you know, knew this area and actually was familiar with some of our players and especially PJ Gill, who's a walk-on for us.

So we, you know, we were able to get Tyreek The entire time we were working real hard on the, the two junior college bigs, Derico and phase on. And, and they were guys that we had been working on since last fall, really, really hard. We kind of targeted them and felt like you know, they were the right mixture for us. Derico is just a really, really hard place to, I mean, he, he's got a great motor. He's an avid. Comparable to maybe even more athletic and in different ways than Austin tries.

You know, he's an explosive jumper, but he can run and, and, and he just, he's just so active, you know, Austin was that. 12 feet knit Derico is active all over the court. I mean, he's, he's flying around. So, you know, we thought that kind of effort and energy and enthusiasm you know, would, would, would be a real good addition and then phase on you know, playing on a really good.

He they, they went to Hutchinson and ended up losing in the semi-finals out there and the national junior college tournament. We, we seen him a lot on film. We'd seen them in practice. We saw him in games and, and, and one of the things that, you know, from his freshman year to sophomore year, there was huge. And, and, you know, he's still got three years. He got some great coaching down at Chipola from Donnie Tyndall.

Now, if people don't follow college basketball really, really closely, they'll have no idea who Donnie Tyndall is. Donnie Tyndall. When I came to ODU and we first went into the conference, USA, Donnie Tyndall was, was a Southern. And they ended up getting into a bunch of NCAA trouble. Donnie went from Southern miss to Tennessee. And was it more Morehead state with a Kenneth for Reed, but the guy knows how to coach he's coached in the G league.

He, he just got into a lot of trouble with the NCAA, but watch. How Donny coached phase on and co I mean to say he, coaches hard is a big understatement and, and phased out and didn't blink. So, so I think, you know, again with, with, with the motor the energy, the toughness of that phase on brings he's a really long six, nine. And, and I think it. He's not a project, but without a doubt, his best basketball is ahead of him.

So, you know, we were, you know, working really, really hard and ultimately were able to sign both of those guys. And then you know, one thing that I thought was was really, really an important sign for us was, was getting Benstead. You know, Ben again is a tough kid. He's a hard playing kid.

He proved obviously at Hampton that, you know, with the collegiate level, he, he, he scores, he puts the ball in the basket and, you know, Ben and I joked in the recruiting process, you know, he ever he's 22 again. He led the, the, the NCAA, I believe in free throws, attempted had he shot a better percentage. He shot like 67% had been shot, a better percentage from the free throw line. He could easily have been deleting score in, in college. We, we need that.

I know that's not a surprise to anybody. I mean, that's, you know, finding a consistent score, somebody that, that, that hopefully can be a go-to guy for us. You know, that was, that was really big. And then the last guy that we signed, you know, we, we had talked to and looked at and you know, just, just not, not being able to get the. At the point guard spot. And, and it happened really, really fast recently but Trey brown you know committed with us and, and signed the scholarship papers.

And you know, he's, he's a guy that is gonna, you know, he's gonna have to prove himself. Nobody's gonna look at his stats. You know, if they, if they haven't watched him play and, and done a deep dive, nobody's gonna look at his stats and be. But you know, Trey has, has shown us that, that, you know, he, he can, he can definitely shoot the ball. He's, he's very good in ball screen situations. And as I said in the release you know, he's got some wiggle in his game.

And what I meant by that is, you know, he, he has the ability with the ball to, to beat his. And, and try to create, and, and that's just something that we lacked last year. You know, we, we were really forced last year to run a lot of offense set offense. And we obviously, we pounded the ball inside because with Allston and Calu, that was our, you know, that was our, where our bread was better. But you'd rather. Not have to run as much offense.

And so having, you know, having tray, having Chauncey, having Tyrique you know, having been to go with the returning guys, I'd really like to think that, you know, we, we have a lot more ability to create opportunities, create shots, to create opportunities for, for other.

You know, off the bounce and in other ways then than we had last year losing Molly Curry, really, really, you know, that that was a huge factor in our struggling last year, you know, Malik could go get a bucket or he could, you know, force a double team or force help really at any time. And so he made those other guys. So that's a very long answer to your question. But you know, we, we feel like you know, we, we, we improved our talent. We improved our ladder athleticism.

We improved our ability to create offensively. And at the same time, I, I think we, we addressed some, some coachability issues. And I think that the group that we have. You know, great leadership with, with Ben Stanley you know, kind of a, a quiet, a quiet guy and Tyrique Scott Grayson you know, Chauncey's just really, really hungry. Trey brown is a milk comes from a military family. So I think those guys, you know, they're going to be hard workers. They're going to be tough.

And they're going to allow themselves to be coached. And that's a, that's a, a big factor, you know, to, to try to turn things around from, from last year.

And then a number of different, you know, other student athletes that are coming from all over the place that are coming from different team dynamics and bring them all together to have one cohesive unit.

And, and, you know, guys like Dangelo stone, For example, you know, he's, he's a kid. I mean, he could have looked at Chauncey or some of these other guys kind of sideways, you know, cause he didn't play a whole lot last year. I know he wants to play, but you know, he, and, and, and MCI long, you know, they, they worked really, really hard in the recruiting process. You know, the recruiting process.

Isn't just the coaches, you know, cause the, the, the recruits, they want it, they want to talk to the players that are there. They want to know. You know, the coaching staff and the support and the the living conditions and the food, and, you know, they, they, they've got questions about a lot of. And I think our returning players did a really you know, good job because they, they just want to win.

And they, they knew we needed to bring in you know, talented players and, you know, our, our staff worked really hard on, on, you know, locating, not just guys that can play, but guys that you know, that were hungry, you know, Ben Stanley has been injured you know, Tariq kind of, you know, he, he left UAB. Forced out, but that wasn't the best situation there.

You know, when Andy Kennedy came in you know Chauncey, you know, guys, w w we brought in guys who just want to prove themselves that, you know, have a chip on their shoulder, they're hungry. And it's, it's interesting to, to watch and to hear you know, the, the, the lifts that the guys have already had in the, you know, some of the workouts that they have on their own or the the pickup game.

You know, just the feedback that we've gotten is that the, with some subtractions the, the pickup games are so much. And in terms of the intensity and the competitiveness and the overall level of play. So I, you know, I'm encouraged, it's really, really early. So w we, you know, I can tell you it's, the chemistry is going to be great. That doesn't mean, I thought last year's chemistry was going to be. And, and then it was when things were going good, but it wasn't great.

And other times, and you know, that was an issue for us. You know, what was it? 10, 10, and four at home and whatever our record was on the road, you know, we didn't handle adversity real well. The one thing we did do is we bounced back after the fact, you know, if, if we, you know, if, if, if we struggled, but you know, we, we, we didn't put together any long stretches, you know, When, when, you know, when trying to, to face obstacles and face adversity.

And, and I think, you know, that we, we can kind of point to the, the you know, the, the, the, the leadership and the just the maturity of the team. And hopefully that'll be better this year. I think it will be. But you know, the proof will be in the pudding.

You know, when, when things on the court, you know, weren't, weren't going well, you know, the, the one guy that could, you know, make a play you know, Austin obviously had a great year, but you know, big guys that they rely on, on, you know, the guards and the offense to, to get them the ball. You know, when you've got point guards that we've had Trey framing, Ahmad caver, Mully, Curry, you know, those guys. Could turn a bad situation into a good situation.

And, and you know, we, we, we didn't have that. We had, I mean, Jalen hunter, I love him to death. I mean, he was a great defender you know, a wonderful young man you know, tried to do everything and, you know, could get us into offense, but that just wasn't his strength, you know, the, the, the creative part.

So, you know, I think those two things combined really were the biggest factors, you know when, when we when we, you know, we would play people and again, we we'd face tough situations and it seemed like, you know, we, the, the bottom was just dropped out at times. You know, we couldn't fight through during the course of, of, of a con.

And, you know, I sometimes when, when coaches or whatever would would say, Hey, are you going to offer him? I I'd respond with a question of my own and say, is he going to accept you know, I mean, an offer, if you make an offer. And then, you know, something happens and, you know, you, you have no intention of, of actually bringing the kid in, you know, you, you make an offer and then a year later you know, maybe they don't develop the same way that, that you thought that they might.

So you know, you, you try to Identify kids at a young age you know, the, the, the talents and you know, the characteristics that you want in your program. But the offers come so early now, there's, there's no real way to predict you know, you. You try to build the relationship whether it's for, for me, whether it's over text or over the phone you know, the assistant coaches particularly Chris Kavinsky is a lot younger and a lot more social media savvy.

And so he's, he's staying in touch and doing things in a different way than, than, than I do is, is the head coach. But the big thing is, you know, trying to identify. Establish some sort of rapport and continue that, you know, over an extended period of time, that's the ideal. You want to see them play you know, and, and see how they're developing. I always love not just seeing them at the end of the AAU.

But I like seeing them with their high schools because you, you want to see, how do they interact with that coach? How do they interact with their teammates? How do they treat referees? You know, what's, what's their demeanor on the court or, you know, are they out there being a pre-Madonna or are they, you know, out there competing and giving it everything that they've got? So I, you know, I always liked seeing them, watching them in, in, in games is tough because.

So much of high school officiating, not just in this area, it's a nationwide thing is just not that good. They, they don't know. They do not know how to referee big guys. And so, you know, you, you go to a game and, and inevitably the guy that you're there to see, you know, picks up to 2000 the first quarter and ends up sending down, you know, that kind of thing. So that's why seeing practices can help as well.

It's always dangerous doing any recruiting from highlight films or from video solely because everybody can look good in a highlight. And if you're watching on a video, you can't really, if you're not familiar with, with both teams, you can't really get a feel for that flooded CISM and what the level of competition. So there's no, you know, there's no replacement for seeing kids in, in person. These days the, the recruiting has definitely taken a change.

The high school kids, not the, you know, top a hundred or 150, but a lot of the high school kids are kind of falling by the wayside and falling through the cracks because everybody including ourselves you know, they, they want to get. You know, more mature and, and, you know, that's exactly what we did this, this spring. We went junior college and transfer portal only. And, and with that, you still try.

You know, do your due diligence and get the background stuff as much as you can, but there's, there's no way that you can build that relationship in, you know, two months or a month. You know, w whatever it is, it I've heard people describe it as speed dating. And I've never done speed dating before, but, you know, I think that's probably a pretty good. A pretty good comparison.

But you're still trying to accomplish the same thing, you know, get to know who these kids are and, and, and, you know how are they going to fit in with your coaching style? How are they going to fit into our school? You know all of those kinds of things. So there's, you know, there's a lot of, a lot of work and a lot of evaluation. Beyond just trying to tell, Hey, you know, or are they talented enough? You know, or can they pass dribble?

You know, those things are obviously very, very important, but, you know, and, and, and I would say, and, and I'm not gonna, I'm not going to name any names, but Hey, we've, we've made mistakes. Gosh. You know, I think we, we, this year, we, we try to you know, not just replace the guys that, you know, started guys like Austin and Jalen and, and Calu, but. You know, there, there were other spots that we needed to bring people in.

And you know, th th that had the ability to, you know, to get into games and, and, and, you know, actually contribute you know, so that was an important part. It wasn't just trying to, you know, get, get five starters for, for next year or however many we could, it was, you know, increasing the overall talent level on our roster.

The difference is from the mid-majors right, th the, those kids that are transferring. They're taking our best players, right. That hurts us. We do benefit from the power five kids transferring, you know, from power five to the mid mid-major. And we do benefit. But that doesn't hurt the power fives. You know, there, there there's, you know, there's no skin in the game when they're losing these, these kids, they're losing them because they're, they're not playing, right.

They're not, they're not good enough for them. There's not, they don't fit the system or whatever, you know, they're not losing, you know, most of them, they're not losing their best players. The coaches at the mid-major and the low major. Are losing their best players. So don't, you know, nobody can tell me that it's, you know, then it's equal or that it's fair. You know, J J bill is, can love it all he wants, but you know, it's, it's not equitable, equitable. Right.

I don't like the idea and I think this is why a lot of people and, and this isn't the main reason why, why we don't recruit as many high school kids. But I think a lot of people look at. I don't want to take a high school kid. That's not ready to play as a freshman. We finally getting him ready to play and he's, you know, he's, he, he's improved by the end of his sophomore year and ready to take off and now he's gone. Right.

And I think rather than have to deal with that scenario, a lot of folks are saying, Hey, I'd rather take a kid. That's two or three years older has been coached in college. Right. And then bring, bring, bring them in, in, into my program. The NCAA is going to try to put some restrictions, I think some guard rails on, on the transfer portal. But again, it's not going away. I think there'll be some time like, like this year you, you had May 1st, you had to put your name into the portal by May 1st.

And in order to have the one-time transfer, I think there's going to be some sort of timeframe that not only are they going to have to put their name in, they're going to have to make a decision by a certain point, right? There's gotta be some sort of a mechanism where, where coaches can can know what their roster is probably going to look like. We do it for the NBA.

You know, I mean, guys can go and they can put their name in and they can stay at a certain time, but there, there is a deadline, right. That they're allowed to stay there until, you know, X date. I think something like that probably will be proposed and talked about what it looks like. Ultimately, I, I, I don't, I don't know. Th the, the other thing, and this was unfortunately a a scenario that this played out a lot that I don't think the general public knows about.

And, and, and, you know, the general public thing, you know, th their, I believe their general impression is coaches lie and, and the players are victims. Sorry, that's not the reality. They would be shocked at how many times.

The kids say for instance, they, they, they say that, you know, that they're, they're coming back, but they're saying they're coming back because they want the school to pay for a summer school so they can graduate and then they can go and, you know, then they can go somewhere else. The NCAA is aware of some of these things and is trying to figure out a way to address them with that. Having to go through litigation. You know, I, I think the NCAA is really scared.

They're, they're afraid of litigation, you know, they've, they've been handed some pretty big losses slightly in the courtrooms and they don't have any, any taste for further litigation, but, you know, situations, like I just mentioned, you know, are out there and I don't know if you'd call them a loophole or whatever, but there are things that, that are happening that it shouldn't have. But the, you know, the, the transfer portal it's hurt us in the transfer portal has, has helped us.

The bottom line is it's here to stay. And if you don't adjust, if you don't you know, learn to use the transfer portal, you're going to get left behind.

And, and, you know, they hope that they can get some of those guys that fall through the cracks, but it's almost like it's you know, musical chairs and when the music stops, unfortunately, some of these And women aren't, aren't going to have scholarship opportunities and that's, that's a shame.

I think there's a lot of folks you know, I mean, we're still listening to. Stuff about the football team, beat beaten a Virginia tech team that ended up not even having a winning record, but yet that, that Syracuse win goes, you know, nobody really remembers that one. So that, that was a pretty good win. And that was a good day to play them in the carrier home plate, played in the carrier dome at noon.

We got the, when we flew back on the charter flight we got a check for a, I think it was like $90,000. And, and I took my wife down to the the, the boardwalk and looked at the Christmas lights that night. So that was, that was a good day going up there and coming back. Haven't hadn't beaten them. That was, I wish we had more dates like

And usually it seemed to be on the road where we, you know, we, we w we were reacting rather than, than, than than, than being the aggressor, being the initiator. And I think that's, that's maybe the big thing, you know you know, from an offensive standpoint, you know, I think, you know, whether we're running set offense or we're just, you know, just playing basketball the, the thing I'm looking at are we, you know, how's our spacing, how's our movement. It's not always about making the shots.

Although if we could make some shoot a higher percentage for, for, for the season, for once that would make life.

You know, every game would give us a a breakdown in terms of the, the analytics not just your basic stats, but you know, they, they put together, you know, different lineups you know, your offensive efficiency, your defensive efficiency, the shots the shots was a real big thing for me. I know it's not going to surprise anybody when I got. We weren't a very good three point shooting team last year. So, so that made it difficult. We were very, very good in the paint. Right.

And, and when we finished inside, you know even though we shot more, three more twos than what the, the, the analytics, the people with HDI wanted us to, if you shoot a really good percentage in there, you know, then, then, then that can turn out well, They wanted us to shoot more threes. You know, my kind of response to them was, well, we're so bad at shooting, shooting threes, you know and they said, you know, and they, they acknowledged it.

But you know, for, for them, the mid range too, is, is the worst, you know, the worst shot that you can take. So we, you know, we, we addressed that. Some, we tried to address that. You know, in practice and, and different things. And there were some guys that we didn't ever want shooting mid range twos but that was CJ Kaiser, you know, when, when we could get him going and getting downhill that 15 foot pull up jumper going to his right. You know, that was a great shot for him.

And he shot a high percentage and, and from an analytic standpoint, that was a good shot. There were other guys AJL of her, you know, we, we didn't want him shooting, you know, those, those mid rages at all. So that was something, but drew likey, who was our our, our video coordinator young guy, you know, was, was on the team a couple of years ago. Last year two years ago, the COVID year, he was kind of like an intern and did a little bit of everything.

He has really helped me he would translate it into language that I can understand, you know, a lot of the, the, the analytics. And, and I think, you know, I'm just excited to continue learning and continuing to, to hopefully use that, that information that HDI gives us you know, to, to try to help our, our performance.

Is your experience as a college point guard or is it something completely different?

So I I'd like to think that, that I can bring something to the table in terms of you know, how to play the position. But, but there's a lot more that goes in. Recruiting, you know, evaluating and being able to recognize, you know the, you know, the, the talent, but also the intangibles that, that, that may be high school guys have, or in Malick's case, you know, a junior college player has, and then putting them in a situation in positions where they can be successful.

You know, if we just take Trey Freeman, Ahmad, caver, and moly, correct. Each of those guys are very, very different in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, but trying to play to their strengths avoid their weaknesses and work on their weaknesses you know, in instructing them. And, and the thing I, I talked to the, the point guards about a lot in, including in the you know, in the recruiting process is.

For, for me, and for them practices are even more important than any other position, because once they get into the game, you know, they can't look over their shoulder at me and say, you know, coach, what, what, what, what do you want? Right. And they literally are an extension of the coach out there and they've gotta be in in attack mode. And, and so You know, they, they have to be good practice players.

They have to be students of the game watching the film because when they get in the game, you know, an old saying in Kentucky that the Hay's in the barn, you know, and, and if they're going to be, if they're going to be effective, they're going to be at their best. They already know what, what I want. They already know what to do, and they, they can, you know, go out there and execute it. You know, that that is a huge, and you know, we, we had a good point guard last year in Jalen hunter.

I mean, he took care of the ball. He was terrific defensively, you know, it was a solid three point shooter. The, the one thing that I alluded to earlier, You know, he, he just didn't do it. Wasn't part of his thing was the, you know, the, the ability to to attack off the bounce and, you know, create. But, but, you know, he was, he's a coach's son, really smart kid.

And he did a great job of getting us into offense, but, you know, he, he's a little different than the, those, those other guys that I mentioned.

I don't think between the Sunbelt in conference USA. If there is, it might be that, you know, conference USA is a little bit deeper than, than, than the Sunbelt. You know, things like attendance, I, you know, and, and, and obviously ourselves, Western, Kentucky, and Marshall. Head and shoulders beyond anybody else.

In terms of attendance, I think us as Marshall and James Madison will be head and shoulders above anybody else and the Sunbelt in, in terms of you know, in terms of facilities and in, in terms of attendance. So I, you know, both, both lakes, quite honestly, they're, they're one. And we can fight like crazy and we'll continue fighting like crazy.

But what you got gotta do, what you got to set out to do is when the regular season you know, at the very least that, that guarantees you a spot in the nit that, that gives you you know, obviously the, the top seat in the tournament and try to find a way to win the. You know, other, other than that, it's, it's it, you know, it was tough in conference USA. We, we had some success. We've really stuck it up the last two years down in Frisco.

We, we just, you know, we, we, we ended up our, our, our season on, on just you know, clunkers And, and the, the Sunbelt tournament is going to be down in Pensacola and, and hopefully this year you know, we, we, when we get down there and and it's a week, an entire week earlier, you know, it's, it's the schedule moved up a little bit. Hopefully we can play a lot better than, than we have the last two years in the tournament.

Sometimes there could be what are called split split weekends, where you're playing at home one and you're playing on the road or you're playing on the road and playing at home. So that, you know, that's a little bit of a, of a change. There's not a bi-week. And as I said, the, the, the, the, the. Conference tournament, the end of the regular season and the conference tournament is it's all a week earlier.

So rather than, than playing and finishing up as conference USA does on the Saturday before selection Sunday, you know, it would be the week before the Saturday, a week before. So there's, you know, there, there would be a whole week if you're fortunate enough to, to, to win the tournament a whole week in between that and selection. As far as the non-conference schedule, we still have one game to get we thought yesterday we had it and somebody somebody said yes.

And then well, it was two days ago. And then yesterday they said, oh, hold on a second. So scheduling is one of the most frustrating aspects. I don't think people understand how difficult it is. And especially. You know, people don't want to come to Norfolk to, to play certainly power fives. You know, I mean, we, we we've asked we've offered three for ones.

I mean, you know, most people heard two for ones, you know, wait, this year we were offering offering power fives, three for ones and you know, Notre Dame, Virginia. North Carolina, state Georgetown. I mean, you know, we, we, we just called around to, and, and we couldn't get anybody that way. We, we haven't even been able to get anybody to agree to play us on their court for for a for a guarantee game. What, what what's happening in, in college basketball is the power fives.

If, if, if they play. People there they're either playing other power fives or they're playing. I don't want to say bad. They're, they're, they're playing people that they, they know absolutely that they will not lose. They're there. They're not going to take the risk of playing, you know, and old dominion or you know, so some other mid-major that, you know, could, could find a way to upset a Syracuse or somebody like that. They, they they're, they're not going on out on that limb anymore.

So you know, it's, it's stuff, Maryland. You know, we, we had a contract with them. New coach came in there and they, they basically just broke the contract. You know, they said, well, they're not going to be very good. And, you know, I, I, I, I didn't talk to them directly, but my point was, you guys, we were 13 and 19 last year. It's not like we were really lightened it up. But you know, so that they just, hopefully we can get them to play in the future.

It's not it's not the most ethical thing just to break a contract and say, we're not going to play. But, but that's, that's, that's what happened there.

You know, we'll, we'll continue with you know, with, with, with William and Mary I'm trying to think who else. That, that George Mason, who will be coming down you know, so it, it will be, you know, it'll be a good a good schedule. Unfortunately, you know, Maryland did cancel on us and, and we'll just have to try to get this last game scheduled. And you know, the, the good thing is, I think we'll be able to announce the schedule earlier much of.

And then what, what happened pretty much every year with, with conference USA.

Last year we were obviously the success wasn't there. That was a, that was just a bad trip all around one that I didn't even make in Myrtle beach. But the Myrtle beach this year, the Charleston, and next year the, the, the tournament out in Hawaii, those are ESPN. And you know, there, there tournaments that everybody wants to play in because the games are all on ESPN platform.

And so we signed a three-year deal with them and, and, and would, and I particularly would talk to a guy named Peter says that had worked for a long time for, for ESPN. This was four or five years ago at the. Conference USA spring meetings. And and, and, you know, he, he said, Hey, we'd love to have you guys sign a three-year deal. So that's, that's how we got and these three so you're, you're always looking for, you know, opportunities.

We, we, haven't had to look very hard the last couple of years because we had the three-year deal. But you know, this year we'll be Charleston next year. We'll be Hawaiian. And then after that, you know, we'll, we'll have to, you know, find, find another tournament though. Those are becoming almost the only opportunities, certainly the best opportunity to play power five teams at, on a neutral site. And, and, and maybe even to play power five teams at all.

I think, you know, it's, it's, it's a great thing for, for the basketball team to, to play in these, these other tournaments, but it's also you know, an opportunity for, for our boosters and, and fans to, you know, travel with the team. A nice location. And, and you know, in, in enjoy, you know, three or four days of, of ODU basketball,

Seven new players. And we didn't know it at the time, but seven new players that this would be an ideal opportunity to get those 10, you know, 10 extra days of practice and play in some, some exhibition games overseas, especially in someplace like Croatia, who has such great basketball. But when the decision had to be made, you know, there were still issues with COVID and Croatia because of their law. They were pretty wide open.

But because of, you know, their laws old dominion, the institution for, for whatever reason you know, would not allow us to travel now that that might not be the case now, but when we had to make that decision back in February, I think it was you know, that that was the case. So we've kind of kicked that can down the road. You know, we, we still have the money in, in our enhancement fund.

Hopefully we won't spend, spend it all this year on on charter flights that that's a priority we we've, you know, in, in, in my nine years here what we started out with has gradually gotten less and less and less and less as the prices of charter flights have gone up. And, and that's, that's you know, being able to charter flights and, and, you know, buy some home games.

Those are the two big things from a budget standpoint that, that have an effect on, on one loss records, but across the country, not just it all dominion. So we are hoping that you know, when, when we finish our schedule, we can figure out a way to, to get a couple more. Charter flights to, to make the travel a little bit easier. That, that, that is one positive.

There's still going to be some pretty good travel in, in the Sunbelt, but you know, you don't have to go to UTEP or San Antonio eh, you know, it's, it's, it's the travel isn't as bad and, and hopefully we can stretch our budget because of that. We can stretch it a little further.

You know, great, great seafood and, you know, it's casual and you, you know, you can get in there and have, have a nice meal and, and be in and out of there. As far as the, in, in the entire area, I, you know, there's, there's some really good restaurants, but coastal grill is, is, is it's pretty fantastic. I think.

And then I'm, you know, gosh, I I'm all over the place. I guess you could call me eclectic, you know? I, I, I do, I do listen to all, all different all different genres.

And you know, it looks like they, they, they might get a shot.

But you know, I mean, they're, they're going to have to dig deep, you know, if they're, if they're going to keep him, I mean, when, I don't know how many people that will be listening or nationals fans, but when, when you've lost Bryce or. Anthony Rendon trea Turner, max Scherzer. And now you might turn around and lose one Soto, you know, and maybe some of these young prospects. I, I hope they, they, they work out, but you know, is at some point you got to keep your best player. I think,

Do you have a favorite that you like to work?

Veterans group that, that I've worked with and actually traveled over to Iraq when the war was going on and Afghanistan to, to, to meet the troops. But I think the, the, the one that I feel the closest association with is the coaches versus. You know, just some wonderful people doing wonderful work.

You know, my, my, my wife is currently working with some, some other women in the community to, to try to now that hopefully fingers crossed that the COVID is, is not as big a deal put together a. An event that you know, that Hampton roads, the Tidewater area can, can be really, really proud of and, and raise some, some, some funds. So you know, they're, they're, they're all great, you know, great causes. But I do think coaches versus cancer is, is probably the one that I enjoy the most.

And when I say us, I'm talking about the players and the coaches and, and let's, let's get it done on the court. And if, if, if, if we do that, then you know, our fans will, will hear that and see that loud and clear.