Welcome to the solid verbal ll that for me.
I'm a man, I'm for.
I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. You want to be happy for a day? Edo Steak is that woo woom?
And then and Tye.
Welcome back to the salid Verbo boys and girls. My name is ty Hildebrand. That fine gentleman over there is always back in his humble abode in the heart of the Midwest, Chicago, Illinois. Dan Rubert Steed, Sir, how are you. I'm good.
I just took a shower, as did you, And I think we do our best shows when we are refreshed and clean. And the shower is also a really good place to brainstorm and to think on things. And so I'm always so glad to get to California and record and do all sorts of fun things in cal I'm not, actually I'm not.
That's a lie.
I'm not happy to record in California. It's a mess in there. I do it on a card table. But I'm always happy to get there to do California things. But I'm always happy to return because I have my home setup and I truly feel like myself not in Illinois. But in this specific room, with this specific equipment, with all of my dongles, with all of my adapters, with my computer, and everything's set up just so so this If it's not a good show, it's purely intellectual because
I'm dumb and not creative. If it is a good show, that's a large reason why.
Well, look, you told me what the concept for this show is going to be. Mm hmmm. We're returning to our roots in a sense because we came up with the concept about five minutes before we hit the record button. We've done this pretty much throughout the entire run here of the solid verbal. It's kind of come up with things on the fly. Yeah, this was your creation. Yeah, we're talking about dunks today. We are, which is a
great word. It's a great word to say, yunk. It has a lot of different meanings, a lot of different uses. Obviously the basketball dunking, the dunk tank. You can dunk somebody in a pool like manually, you can dunk food like dunk fries into some or you can dunk oreos, or obviously you can dunk in football. You can dink and dunk. Right, that's a strategy that you could employ. But this sort of the timing of the show coincides with the NBA Dunk Contest, which I watched zero seconds
up say and heard it was a disaster. Same Nonetheless, I'm still a dunking enthusiast. I am still somebody who lowered the rim on my driveway basket growing up to like you know, it depended when I was super young, six feet seven feet, eight feet whatever and did like my d brown cover my eyes. You know, I would try to replicate all of those things. And I had little brothers and I would just dunk on them all day long. I'm not I don't love dunking on Twitter.
I think that idea is kind of pass and stupid. But nonetheless, once again, I love a good dunk. I love a good dunk, and I want to evaluate the jobs and potential of twenty twenty one first year head co Your Shane Bemers, your Andy Avili your is that plural for Andy Alos?
I believe that's his preference, that's his family's preference. And across the across the country, Blake Anderson, guys that had a year one situation Bert Beelima and not just figure out how they did and what they did, and where they progressed their program and where perhaps they took a step back based on what the previous guy did, but also just how high they can fly and just what they would do, like Michael Scott.
You have no idea how high I can fly?
Right?
What they would do in the open court with the ball, not necessarily dunking, but if they're going for a fundamentally sound layup, is that they're ceiling in terms of how high they can fly tomahawk jam thinking they can dunk but breaking it terribly and spraining an ankle.
What what is the the.
Literal and figurative height that we believe these coaches can fly if everything adds up the way that they're intending.
Oh yeah, I like this. I like this a lot. I'm already looking at the list of first year coaches trying to figure out what Lance Ipold's doing. If he's just got open floor in front of him, Sure, what is Lance Liepold, Kansas doing? Open floor, all gas, no breaks?
What's he doing?
Did you go to basketball camp? By the way, No, was that ever a thing you did. You never went to basketball. You never even tried to get better at basketball any on any level.
No, I you know what I was When I played youth basketball. I was the guy who went and stood in the corner and said pass me the ball, and every now and again i'd hit a shines. My career best for points and organized basketball was eight. I had one eight point game. Oh that was the best I ever did. I wasn't a rebounder. I wasn't a dribbler. I was a good glue guy like I got along with everybody on the team. I like to play defense. I often went for the steal, but rarely got And
I just was not a scorer. I was more of a more of just kind of like there to build tea morale.
I was not good at basketball.
You sound more like glue means you're doing the little things and making effort. If you're standing in the corner not scoring, I'm not sure what you're holding around. I'd run around, but my shot of choice was from the corner. What I did in the open floor, and Mama h will attest to this open floor. Nobody in front of me. Went up there, bricked it on.
The first try.
This is not a dunk, this is a layup.
Got the rebound, put it in on the second attempt, only to find out that the reason the floor was open is because it was my own basket. I did that off the.
Tip, off my own goal and own basket.
Yeah.
No, The reason I asked about basketball camp is I'm gonna set the standard here. The standard here is obviously Nick Saban in the open floor doing whatever he wants, like the greatest, don you know, doctor j Michael Jordan whatever. I just remember in basketball camp, we would watch videos while eating pizza and taters. That was the chosen food midday, playing sports all to.
The two food groups.
Sure shout out Jack Hayley, rest in peace and his camp at seasun cal State Northridge. But we'd watch these VHS tapes of Michael Jordan in slow motion. They licensed music, and it would just be Michael Jordan in slow motion, dunking onlike zil' I was gonna sae asil junis Olgasciz, I'm screwing up my my generations, but dunking on like Kevin Willis with Berlin playing in the background.
So like the das, were they trying to show you how to do the dunks? Or was it just kind of like no motivation as you were eating your junk food.
Just buying time, just buying time to get these kids out of the camp whatever. So that's so, that's the the absolute apex is the Berlin take my breath Away, Michael Jordan, visual and everything else. I don't know what the bottom the baseline is like Philip Seymour Hoffman, and along came Polly where he's just sweating and bricking and yelling and confident with no reason Kobe. So that's I don't know somewhere. Those are your bookends of this game.
So we're taking you have a list of first year coaches. I looked into the analytics of where these teams improved and fell off in terms of points for driving, offense and defense. I also looked at how these teams finished their regular season. Right, A lot of how we can judge first year head coaches, which isn't entirely fair, can be looked at in terms of how a team finished,
you know, how the motivation kept up. I know we have housekeeping to go to, but those are the things we're going to look at, and then we're going to discuss their open floor ceiling.
Well, I am excited for this show. I'm glad we have this concept. I'm glad you have the Steve Carell bit as well.
That's always fine.
Can you play that again?
I enjoy that.
Yeh, of course you have no idea how high I can fly?
How high can first year coaches fly? That will be our game du jour here. Thank you for stopping back and listening to the solid verbal. Maybe you're finding us for the first time. If that is the case, don't forget the subscribe or follow. If you're a long timer, please do go on out and rate or review the show wherever it will let you. Verballers dot Com is about to go off the hizzy. As the kids say, no, no,
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Guico Dan. Indeed, let's get into our game, all right, So once again we are looking at I guess freshman coaches, right, and the job that they did when they were merely freshmen.
Compromise, Sorry, that's my that's my singing.
Okay.
So so there isn't a standard rubric ahead of where we are going with the visual of them, what they're doing in the open floor, attempting to dunk or finish emphatically. But you have a list, We can have whatever you want.
I have a list.
This is my disclaimer. It's an especially or was an especially difficult time to be a first year head coach, and I think it will be for the time being because of the timing of early signing day, because of the number of transfers now because of eligibility coming off of COVID. With the added eligibility, so there's all sorts of different roster wrinkles that didn't really exist about five years ago.
Roster wrinkles is going to be the name of our emo band. Yeah, thank you. Oh I like that.
So with that caveat, with that disclaimer, obviously there's always a reason, generally not a good one, why a new coach is hired. Sometimes the previous guy did so well at a place set up for success that they had to hire a new guy. Not the case all the time. So we are going to look out a number of these guys replaced fired coaches, and there's a reason. So you can't fully judge anybody on year one and sometimes even year two. By year three you generally can. We've
already done a year two show. So now here is our freshman evaluation for some reason, with how they would do in the open floor dunking the ball. Where should we start typing?
I want to start with Tennessee. I want to start with Josh Hipel. Yes, Josh Hipel came in. He replaced Jeremy Prewitt fairly late in the cycle. You'll recall the prue and stuff exploded. Tennessee had gone three and seven in twenty twenty, just wasn't a good campaign. Danny White came up to Tennessee. He hired his guy in Josh Hipel away from UCF. Tennessee went seven and six last season,
lost the Bowl game seven to five. Regular season second order wins, which is a statistic that I like to look at just to I don't know get Bill C's take on things. Second order wins had Tennessee as an eight win team, Okay, Josh Hypel. Tennessee is a really interesting, I guess, starter case for us here because that is a situation that I was not all that excited about. I didn't really know what to make of that hire to begin with. Maybe it's because I didn't know enough
about Josh Hypel. I don't know, but I think year one was very promising. As I look at the SP plus final standings from Bill c He's got Tennessee as a top ten team. So I think of the way that our thinking has evolved on Tennessee throughout the course of the last year, and for me, I've come a long ways, a long ways towards accepting this program as maybe one that is now on the straight and narrow
about to pop in twenty twenty two. And definitely, definitely, definitely I think beyond a shadow of a doubt better now than it was when he got there. Oh yeah, oh absolutely. And it wasn't.
When you look at what Tennessee was able to do this past year, it was not a luck thing. They started off a little bit shaky, but it wasn't a crazy turnover margin year. It wasn't constantly playing teams with beat up quarterbacks or.
Something like that.
I think it was solid progress And when you look at what Tennessee was able to do as it relates to the twenty twenty year, which again grain of salt, they had the number three most improved defense in the country or excuse me, number three most improved offense when it comes to points per drive, which is not surprising when you look at some of the fireworks that the
balls were able to generate. The defense was slightly worse and with how they finished winning three or five competitive for a stretch against Alabama, but ultimately the tide runaway, not competitive against Georgia, but certainly the Kentucky win upon further reflection, you know, certainly impressive. So I don't know how you come away anything but encouraged. And now look it's Hendon Hooker and he was kind of a pre formed, successful quarterback coming in to Tennessee, and the portal didn't
wasn't considered to be started. I think Joe Milton won Milton initially Joe Milton. Yeah, so things sort of course corrected. In Knoxville, they have what I think was a top twenty class, you know, in the first full Josh Hypel class eighth in the SEC. They do have, or at least in this class, a quarterback of the future. I believe his name is Tavian Jackson from Indiana. So I think there is if I'm going to look at this in the dunk context, dunk context that Josh Hypel is going to confidently.
With, especially how you look at how he throws the.
Ball downfield, confidently go up for and succeed in dunking. It's not going to be the prettiest and most emphatic, but I think he can clear rim. Absolutely can clear rim and not make a fool of himself with all eyes on him like you did.
Are you able to get rim? Were you ever able to get rim when you jumped? I think like grazing rim. Nothing that I would could ever do that would be impressive to people, like because I'm taller than you too. So I was probably about six feet in high school. But with the ball in my hands, I was not soaring over people. It was like running super hard, unencumbered, holding nothing. I could maybe graze rim or at least the bars supporting the rim coming down I could get
That was about my limit. I could get net. Look at you, I could get net and that was exciting. Yeah, of course, Josh Hipel, I think can aspire to greater heights. There's a little bit of flash there, a little bit of flash there in the way he conducts his offense. I think we're going to see more of it in twenty twenty two. I'm excited about that. Yeah, I'm excited
about that. The interesting thing will be in this marketplace, in this world, in a world if Tennessee is a destination job for Josh Hipel in a world in which destination jobs don't exist, and that can be a difficult place to navigate that if he gets an offer at a bigger place or a comparable place because he doesn't have Tennessee roots obviously going back to his time at Oklahoma that didn't work out, it will be interesting to see if he carries them to an SEC East Division
winning place, if he's long for Knoxville. But that's a terrific problem to have. Oh, if you're a Boll fan, I see this situation as an aliop. And I'm not talking about a dunk contest grade alioop where there's a windmill or a behind the back or any kind of antics. I'm talking game used alioop makes a break down the baseline point guard throws it up, catches it mid flight two handed dunk, so more of a specialized dunker, more of a specialized dunker, but there when he needs to
be able to throw it down if he has to. Okay, not necessarily with the glitz and glamour that you'd expect of a dunk contest, or even in the open floor right right where you can do whatever you want. But I just I see it as an efficient dunk here a rim roller. Yeah maybe because and I didn't think this up because I just heard about the game. But efficiency really was the name of the game for this Tennessee offense.
They're very efficient.
So I see him as an efficient two handed dunker, somebody who could definitely get to those heights. The question is, is a two handed dunk standard two handed dunk in the open floor as an ALI loop? Is that enough to get you over the hump of the Georgia Bulldogs like you're not winning any dunk contests against.
I think it is. It is my opinion that Tennessee, to whatever extent, even having been blown out by the Dogs, have slightly or respectably closed the gap. It's still pretty wide.
It's still pretty wide. But what the SEC East has needed with Florida's inconsistencies with South Carolina falling off the map, with Kentucky looking good but kind of having a ceiling because of some poor offenses before last season, and Eliam Cohen's gone the East and the top of the East not necessarily winning the East, but that top group in
the East has definitely kept a place warm for Tennessee. Yeah, because nobody is necessarily claiming it right now alongside the dogs with now Florida starting over, let's go over to Auburn.
Yeah, what worries me a little bit about Auburn in light of recent circumstances. You've seen the clip where they take sort of a normal peon somebody who can't jump like me frankly can't actually dunk. But they give them a trampoline and they tell them run and jump on the trampoline and that's going to give you the clearness to get up to be above the rim Steve Carell style. How high can you lie?
Dan?
And that's going to allow.
Them to dunk.
But we've all seen the clips where they put somebody in that circumstance and they just short it goes wrong. Yeah, they short it either they go a little bit long and they maybe rack their head on the backboard, or perhaps they just come up embarrassingly short. Right. Frankly, I don't know where we're at with Brian Harrison. I had a lot of optimism for the start of the Brian Harrison regime because bo Nix was playing better. We saw
what Auburn did on the road against Penn State. Granted, Penn State maybe didn't end up being a world beater, but that was still an awesome moment. Very early on in the season, Auburn finished six and seven. Their second order wins was six point seven, so they were pretty much right where Bill c thought they should be. This is on the heels of a six and five campaign that got Gus Malson fired. Now, Gus Melson was on the hot seat, not on the hot seat for a
good five years at Auburn. Right, six and five was really just the culmination of a bunch of years where he was sort of on a warm seat. But Brian Harson to come in to start strong in the way that they did, and then for it to sort of
peter out. And now all of this goofiness with respect to the internal investigation nineteen guys transferring out, go back and listen to the interview we did with Justin Ferguson of Auburnobserver dot com and you can get more details on what exactly is going on inside the ropes an of Auburn. But I'm not sure, frankly, what's happening here for Brian Harrison on an open floor.
I think he looks like he might have the ability to dunk it but refuses to. Maybe his maybe his dad was like, no hot dogging, no showboating, play the game like it was meant to be played. And he wears shorter shorts and and he's just going up for layups, sometimes doing like going up for layup but pump faking, so somebody trailing flies by him and then he goes
for like a very boring layup. And maybe that's reminiscent of the lack of recruiting, the lack of flash on the trail, guys leaving, and Brian Harson being stubborn of just like I'm just going to do a jump stop and put it in the hoop off of the backboard. But I digress. The thing, the actual football things to
know about Brian Harrison as a freshman at Auburn. The defense under Derek Mason who's now gone improved decently from where it was in the In the final year of the Gus mals on Are, it improved decently, especially upfront.
The offense did regress a bit, but I you know, you can attribute some of that to Bo Nicks's injury at the end of the season, and you know, the offense not really having a consistent like you know, they would pop against schools, they would pop for a half against schools, and then they would just here, like in the Texas A and M game. So overall, it did regress a bit from where it had been, which was
a more talented place in terms of offensive skill. I believe if you look at the entirety of that offensive roster before the Brian Harson era, Auburn did lose four of five. They were competitive, but also that notion of being competitive includes kind of blowing the Alabama game, the Mississippi State game like an ugly sort of competitive at times.
So I'm going to stick with my stubbornly insisting on a jump stop banked layup that there is there are moments of fundamentally sound play, but ultimately the highs that Brian Harson is realistically trying to get to are not all that impressive.
I love the thought of running down open floor, pump fake guy flies by, and it's really just a small bank shot.
Just a little, little set shot, little bank shot.
Used to practice those back in the day. Dan of anaa in house basketball. When I played on the Black team and the Tan team, I was never particularly good at any of them. You didn't even have team names.
He were just like, that's Tie, he's on the Tan team.
That's exactly what it was. I was on the Tan team and I was on the Black team.
Yeah, you need to come out West. We had leagues that licensed bulls and hornets and all that stuff. Okay, where are we going next?
I'm in agreement with you. By the way, I kind of feel the same. I don't know what to make a Harrison. I could go a thousand different ways. Let's go to Illinois and Brett Beilamo. Okay, all right. They went five and seven this past season with a four point seven second order wins tally from Bill c Okay, this is a little luck, a little bit of luck. There was a two wins sixth season that got Lovey Smith fired.
Excuse you, Houston, Texan NFL head coach Lovey Smith somehow continue he.
Used Illinois's springboard. Of course, Yes, the Bilma hire was always interesting. You know, he's a big personality. Folks are familiar with Brett Bilma from his time at Wisconsin and Arkansas. He's been around sport for a good long time, and so him getting hired at Illinois was in a sense of homecoming because he's from Illinois. He obviously coached for a good long time in the Big Ten, but you just never really sure what to expect when you put a guy like that in a situation like Illinois. Now
Illinois Illinois, I thought was they were pesky this year. Man, they were plucky. They had their moments to beat Penn State and that weird penalty kick over like nine overtime game whatever, it was a minute beat Minnesota. Yeap beat Minnesota, right, And so it definitely felt like this this team was playing with more organization than we had seen at any point in the recent past. So I'm optimistic here that this could also be a standard issue dunk type of situation.
At worst case, just a normal layup a normal lad. Maybe they're not getting up there to the rim. But Brett Bielmick. Can he run up to the backboard and do a standard issue layup maybe with both hands? Okay, you know he can do it right, he can do it lefty Right. That's what I feel like we're looking at here with Illinois. Maybe not the glitz and glamour, but they can get the ball in the hoop.
So I'm with you. I am optimistic. And if you look at what Illinois was able to do in terms of improvement from twenty twenty to twenty twenty one, the offense and the results on the field in terms of scoreboard activity was largely unchanged. The defense dramatically improved, especially in stopping big plays, which I think is crazy important in taking a team to whatever that next level is.
You stop big plays, then you start cut spreads and you start turning blowouts into closer losses, you start getting offenses off the field. I think that's an extremely positive step for Illinois. They ran the ball actually really well two years ago in Lovey Smith's final year when they went two and six and sort of took a step back on the ground. Last year they were a little bit more predictable without really much of an aerial attack.
But I think Illinois in a pretty decent place. I think it's a good sign with how they finished this season. So they won three of five, the losses were competitive, and as we mentioned, they beat Minnesota and Penn State, which I think is just it's a good sign in terms of buy in. And they recruited what I think they were finished twelfth in the Big Ten, and they it's heavy focus on offensive line. They're trying to rebuild
things up front. And there was the whole quotes about, you know, Brett bielamuck, you know, allegedly trashing what Illinois had on the rosterun along the offensive line, but then he sort of walked it back and talked about improvement. I have Bart Bilima in the open floor obviously, as there's gonna be a lot of mass and a lot of momentum, as he'd like a confidence to somebody attacking the hoop. Yeah, yeah, I think he knows his limitations in terms of what he can do soaring through the air.
But I also think there is a borderline recklessness to Burt Bilama in the open floor that somebody's going to
try and slide under him to take a charge. But Illinois is the kind of team that they're gonna they're gonna bank on that guy flinching or doing something that ultimately it's going to be a blocking foul and that Illinois will happily, you know, miss that open floor layup, but get to the free throwed line and wear themes down, you know, however, it whatever it takes, and so yeah, I think there's a there's going to be an efficiency to open floor Beilama in the air that he can find under his feet.
Yeah, I am.
But it's in a good spot right it. It's better than it was. And definitely there's no way that you can come out of the twenty twenty one campaign without feeling better about where the team is headed. Yeah, Like, so much about basketball, especially if you're trying to play that h dribble drive game, is making sure that you have somebody who can just get the ball in the hoop.
Doesn't matter if it's a dunk or if it's a layup, but you just need somebody who's efficient at doing it, somebody who knows what they're doing, looks like they've been there before. Realma has been there before. He's gotten a great heights with all of the programs that he's coached, if only for a passing moment at Arkansas. So I feel pretty good about where it's at. Doesn't always need to be glitz and glamour, but I think he's going to know what to do with the ball in the sands.
And you remember, by the way, the process by which they hired Retioloma was a lot better than what it was hiring Lovey Smith when they fired Tim Beckman late in the process after all those allegations. And so I don't know if Lovey ever just got off on the right foot and he was just sort of available and familiar, and so now Repulama available familiar. But also you know it, the momentum of his hiring and his tenure thus far has just made a lot more sense.
It's made a lot more sense. I know. There are Arkansas people screaming out there. He went eight and five, you call those great heights. Okay, maybe I took a little bit of liberty there, but it's fit.
It's also fit, it's also place. It's also time in one's career. Yeah, it ended up disappointing at Arkansas, but we also saw somebody at Arkansas right after him who scored on their own hoop a lat Tai Hillenbrandt and Chad Morris. So in retrospect, repulam not the absolute worst that we've seen from Arkansas.
So it's fine, moving on, Let's go to South Carolina and Shane Beemer. Let's I am excited to hear what you have to.
Say about Shane Biemer in South Carolina.
So yeah, Shane Beemer in year one went seven to six h second order wins with six and four. So what that tells me is that this wasn't necessarily spoken mirrors a little bit of luck, but maybe not as much luck as you would expect. And I say that because I recall when we did our SEC previews, we fully expected South Carolina to be a tire fire. Sure, not only was the schedule brutal, but there was roster turnover. We didn't know who was playing quarterback, Zebadiba Daya Nolan
was going to be the quarterback a Ga. We didn't find that out until like a week to three yeah, before the season started. So it was like a whole thing. They were trying to duct tape and chicken wire this thing together pretty much from the second that Shane Biemer got on campus, yep, lo and behold. I mean they end up putting together a really nice campaign, going to a bowl game, he gets the Duke's Mayo dumped on him.
This is a great campaign. Now they got Spencer Rattler coming in, which by any measure, is a huge win for that program. Monel Caraf he's, you know, a quarter of what he was last season at Oklahoma. He's still better than what they had. So there's a lot of forward momentum here for Shampe Beemer. The question obviously is can he maintain it? Can he maintain it? Can he continue to build a roster? Will he stay at South Carolina if they continue on the trajectory? Look, it's got
to be asked. And has been at major programs. Yeah, he was at Oklahoma, right, Georgia. Yeah, So what do you think of Beemer? Is this a temporary flash in the pan that we saw right or is this the start of something really special?
Probably somewhere in between. I think the ceiling is pretty high for what South Carolina could be just geographically. I think they should be able to, especially with Shaneemer's personality and energy, be able to recruit. But well, Mushamp was able to recruit Steve Spurry was able to recruit and spray rhead South Carol that's at an all time high. But where South Carolina is right now. So their defense got dramatically better. And so we always used to talk
about how well must champs South Carolina. The defense would improve and the offense would fall off a cliff. Offense would improve, defense would fall off a cliff. So South Carolina's defense got dramatically better. The offense was definitely worse, but a lot of that can be attributed to health, and you know quarterbacks coming in and out and you know uncertainty week to week. They start what a usual receiver, a high school quarterback in the bowl game, which was
ended up being very successful. To carryon, Joyner, I got I remember these names. There's so many names to remember. But South Carolina was good the last they weren't great, but you know, they beat Florida, they beat Auburn. You know, these are the context of what Florida and Auburn were at the end of the year is certainly worth talking about. But they were competitive in that loss to Missouri and from where they were especially early on in the year
and the lack of points scored. I think there's an energy. I think there's an excitement. I think there's a buy in, which is anything you everything you want from a guy taking over a program that was middling to not in a good place. And so Shane Beemer is the type of open floor aggressor that I think is almost a
one man fast break. It's he is in such good shape and he is so excited that he's always pushing the ball, and so anytime the defense is sort of lollygagging getting back, there's Shane Beemer turning it into a fast break, right. He's pushing the tempo, he's finding every little crease and every little advantage. Even if he is not the most athletic guy. You know, maybe he's the one who's sort of crouching and ducking behind somebody on an inbounds pass after a score basket and he's just
doing the quick steal and putting it up. So I don't think he's getting crazy high, but I think his effort and enthusiasm and how in shape of an open floor player gets him some easy buckets more and more year over year in the open floor, not dunking, but I think he's I think in tap backboard. You can get backboard during a layup.
Sure, one of those deals where he sort of kisses up against the glass and then just for just for the hell of it, touches the backboard to prove that. That's what I'm saying, he's tapping back Yeah. Yeah, I maybe working in the gym to try and get rim, to try and get to the point where he can dunk a tennis ball.
So you're talking he's wearing those those shoes, the special Jimmy shoes.
From those work. Do they work?
I never tried, but I have to assume yes, based on the back pages of Inside Sports magazine, to which I was a subscriber in nineteen ninety one. Probably, So I'm going to say yes.
No again.
I anticipate he finished eleventh in the SEC this last recruiting class, but that's twenty sixth nationally. They signed two quarterbacks in this class, including a pretty highly rated one in Brandon Davis from I'm in Delaware, the number one player in Delaware to be sure, and T Bailey who decommitted from Oregon and is from somewhere in the South
think Alabama and ended up committing to South Carolina. So I think things are looking promising, especially with how you know they were able to hit the portal and end up with Spencer Rattler.
This is a guy who at some point in his life had lowered the rim to eight feet and so he knows how to conduct himself around the rim and he's working on getting up there at the ten foot level. Yeah, wearing the shoes.
I like that.
Yeah, I like wharing jump. There's a fearlessness to him. There is in the open floor. It doesn't always result in something extraordinary happening, but that goes a long way.
Steve Sarkisian in Texas, Dan all right, Steve Sarkisian took over for Tom Herman. Tom Herman went seven and three and got fired. Yep, Steve Sarkisian takes over in twenty twenty one, goes five and seven. Second order Wins say that they were bit unlucky. Second Order Wins has them at about six and a half. So there are a number of different ways that you can parse that. Texas's problems are many and nonspecific. They need better quarterback play.
Presumably they will get some of that with Quinnewers, but we haven't seen much of quinnewers to actually rest on that fact, so we'll assume that he'll be good because he was the number one overall prospers. We haven't seen any of Quinn. We haven't seen anything. Yeah, we don't even really have tape. So there's that component. There is a larger issue about the Texas defense too. For a good long time now, and by good long time I mean at least three four years, tackling has been a
problem mm hm. Tackling in the open field, not in the open field, just general toughness on defense has been a bit of a concern for the Longhorns. They need to get better. Talent is not an issue, but they play a bit soft on defense and they need to get better at that. That's been a concern. But that being said, there is no doubt that there is talent there as ever in the Great State of Texas. It's not just Quinn yours, Jean Robinson. We're still talking about
Jon Robinson. He's coming back Jean Robinson at right. No think he has a choice. But yeah, Xavier Worthy I think was a big time bright spot out wide for that offense, emerging as a top target for Quin Yours. Now going into the twenty two campaign. So they've got guys, They've got plenty of talent there. It's just a matter of can Sark find a way to assemble the pieces and get this program feeling like it's moving to a place with serious momentum. I don't know if we saw
that in twenty twenty two. I believe that Sark has the know how, the experience, everything that you need to run.
A place like Texas.
Like he's been at Alabama, He's been at US, He's been even at Washington. Right, He's been at places. He knows what it takes to make a big time program tick. Good players, great players, Yeah, great players help right? Yeah? The question is can he now build sustainable success in Austin. And I don't know if we have enough information at this point to really gauge whether or not it's going to work.
It needs we do, because this is we have his freshman year. That's what the show is. It's based on that first year. Did you see enough did you see enough kernels to say ooh, I can see what they're going for now? Did you see enough colonels to say no?
I didn't know if I say much?
Okay, Well that so then say with your chest, I.
Am trying to be optimistic. I'm trying to be optimistic because for as much hey as we've made on the wh Texas is back, Texas is not back. Thing right, I don't really want to dunk on Texas to keep it within the theme here. I want Texas to be back. I want Texas to be interesting. I want Texas going into the SEC to suddenly change the dynamic, to make it harder for Nick Saban, make it harder for everybody
on the West Side, like I want that storyline. But five and seven, man, I don't know, Like I kind of hope that Sark would come in and you be this quarterback whisper and either Casey Thompson or Hudson Card or whoever would elevate their game and take it to a different level, and Texas would be closer to back going into year two.
So I don't think Texas was necessarily unlucky. I think what those second order wins when you look at the stats and teams who put up this stat or that stat during a game, they win the game. However, many percentage of the time, I think Texas was just wildly inconsistent. I think they would put up a bomb quarter where
they were incredible. Bomb could be good or bad, I suppose, but they could they put up a killer quarter and scored twenty one points in the first quarter and then just faded and just completely faded and strung together four or five drives that went three and out quickly. And so it was the inconsistency that I think so like some of the underlying stats were there at times, but the number of times at that offense went three and out, or the number of times that defense just couldn't tackle
anybody or couldn't get into a passing lane. I just if I'm going to look at the twenty twenty one season as a microcosm for what Sark could be. I think he is going to string together more successful drives on offense, and there wasn't much in terms of the defense. There's talent on this defense. There will be more talent on this defense. I'm with you that I think Pete Kolkowski is a good defensive mind and coordinates a good defense.
But at the same time, I didn't even see like a half, right, I didn't see a half against a good team where like HM, they've got it going like that's that's the worry for me, that their offense is going to play so quickly good or bad, that it's going to put the defense in a bad spot. Look, the recruiting class was incredible, but that's never been the problem in Austin. You know, the receivers coming in, the offensive lineman coming in, certainly an improvement. Point in Quinn,
yours a talent improvement. We assume, we think, we hope, but no, I think Sark when you know the offense took a step back, the defense took a noticeable step back. And the way that they finish their season, if that's what if we're looking at buying, if we're looking at inspiration.
Now, these are not.
Sark's guys, so whatever that means. But they lose four or five. Three of the losses were competitive, but that includes like, oh they hung with Kansas, like cool, great. I don't know what you want to take away from almost being as good as Kansas, and they were not competitive against Iowa State. That game was I think thirty
to seven. So the thing I'm taking away from this Sark in the open floor is maybe dunking early or being able to dunk when he was younger, and every single time he now tries to dunk, he's pulling a hamstring or like pulling up and like passing it off to somebody else, or just settling for like I just I think he can fly high. I think there are too many things in the way for him to consistently fly high.
You have no idea how high I can fly.
I don't have an idea because it's not about It's not about what we think sark ceiling is in this case, because we know what the ceiling could be hypothetically. I just think too many things are going to continually get in the way at Texas that they might have a ten to two season and go to a New Year six game and follow it up with a seven and five season. So I'm saying occasional impressive dunk, but the hamstrings are always going to.
Be a factor.
Here, here's what concerns me.
And maybe he's ham strung. There you go by those around him at Texas that seemed to ham string some.
Other guys, pros pro Dan Rubinstein. Here's what concerns me. Of course, yeah, you mentioned the inconsistency. Inconsistency is fine if if we're talking about and I use this example
all the time. Your Notre Dame in year one under Brian Kelly, right, And I use this example a lot because it's a great example to me of a team that was wildly inconsistent but at least felt like it was playing hard every game, at least felt like there was some sort of theme, some sort of higher organizational structure. Even if you didn't always see the results, you could at least sort of see.
The finish line.
You could see back then what kind of program he was trying to build, and he was pretty successful at doing it. I don't know if we have that kind of vision after year one with Steve Sarkgian. I don't know if we've gotten there. Maybe we'll get there in near two. Maybe quinn Ewers will take that offense to
a different level, but certainly not on defense. Man Like, on defense it was frustrating, and on defense there were plenty of plays where it felt like guys were just not playing that hard, right, And so that's worrying to me. And I don't know if that's the kind of thing that you can just fix with a full off season with a new mantra. I don't know, but that's what concerns me. I hope I'm wrong, but that's what I worry about.
What was Brian Kelly's first year was twenty ten, twenty ten? Yeah, so the twenty twenty ten Notre Dame team improved from six and six to eight and five. But defensively, which is where I think effort and caring and motivation comes from, because tackling and defense is a lot about effort. Yep, sixty fifth in twenty nine to thirteenth in twenty ten.
There you go, yep, so effort?
Right?
Are they playing harder? They not playing hard? There were too many examples this past season where you just you had a wonder about Texas. Yeah, are they playing hard?
Are their heads in this? What's going on?
And that I'm not saying that's a harbinger of what's to come. I'm not saying and he's gonna short the dunk and he's gonna land on his face. All I'm saying is, like you said, watch out for the ham strings. Hamstrings for the hamstrings. Okay, hammies. Okay, next coach, next coach. Let's do a couple more here. Let's talk about jetfish.
Oh man, I would love to talk about a guy wearing the special jumping shoes. This guy's putting in the work. He's doing squats, he's jumping onto ledges all the time. He it's it's the desire to dunk that appears to be more pronounced than perhaps some of his compatriots on this list. He is exhausting. He's five to seven. There are spudwebbean, you know, tendencies here and this is also.
You have no idea how high I can fly.
But the work he's doing on his calves, yeah, I think is unmatched. Continue Jetfish is doing some freestyle walking just when he's out in the park with friends, jumping up on benches, up on railings. It has proven that he can be nimble, agile if he has to. Yeah, you can see it. You can see the early trappings of that with Jedfish. He definitely kicked up some dust in year one, despite the fact that they only went one in eleven.
Yeah, they only went one and eleven. Now that was an improvement from the and five campaign in twenty twenty. You'll take the one, and you'll take a two point six second order wins number for whatever that's worth. You'll take it. It's better than one.
I agree, I agree, take it.
But it does feel like there is at least a vibe here. There's a vibe guys like him. Recruiting has been decent enough. They just picked up a four star yesterday, right forget his name.
But Quarterback of the future. Yeah, I think he's from Colorado quarterback yep.
So it just seems like people really like Jedfish for whatever that's worth. The results weren't there, but the momentum and the positivity is at least a change from where Arizona's been over the last I don't know, three years now. So taking that for what it is, it feels like a situation where maybe he's got the layup down with his strong side, he's working to get the layup going with his left hand.
I don't know if jet Fish is ready or lefty. I' have to look that one up.
But nonetheless, that's where we're at with this, just trying to be more efficient at getting to two points when it's there in front of you. Does anybody know if Jetfish is ready or lefty? How would we know any of that?
Look unless we watch I know Jim Harbaugh is righty because I've seen him throw football as an NFL quarterback and you know, warming up for games inexplicably. But as a coach, I have no idea. I Jetfish is ready or lefty, but I think what you bring up is something interesting. I think he's gonna be able to jump. I don't think he's gonna be dunking, but I think he's gonna have variety in his finishes, reverses, right hand,
left hand, hesitations, floaters like. I think he's giving himself variety, especially because of what UCLA and Arizona State currently look like on the recruiting trail in southern California, Arizona on the West coast whatever I think, Arizona. And so they pick up the best receiver on the West coast in this past class in I mean Tayo Torah McMillan. I don't know how to pronounce his name yet, but he
was the jewel of Oregon's receiving core class. And so when Mario Cristobal leaves, he ends up going to Arizona. They hit the portal hard. I just you know, hiring Don Brown. I think in year one now, of course he leaves for the UMAs job, but I think what he should be able to do on the trail and
in hiring assistants will continue to be impressive. And I think that the height of what Arizona can be is probably winning the South if things go terribly wrong for places like Utah and USC and they can things can go terribly wrong for basically everybody, So I think he can put them in a position to do that. But also dunking is probably Look, Arizona has won the South, they flavor for Packed twelve titles once or twice, so I am I'm optimistic. They got better on offense slightly.
They got better on defense with a very specific vision of I don't know, just blitz every down. I don't know, just send people, Just send people.
It can't be.
Worse than what we were doing in twenty twenty. So I appreciate that, and I'm encouraged that Arizona will be a Bowl team, a fun bowl team, which tells me that Jedfish would be skilled in the air finishing in a variety of ways.
Yeah, I'm with you, Dan. By the way, I'm currently watching a YouTube video here from the PAC twelve networks trying to discern whether or not he writes with his right hand, whether he's holding anything in his left hand, how this is working. So we're gonna need to figure this out. This is now going to be my off season project. But regardless, I think I'm with you on
Jedfish right. I think I'm with you and good despite the fact that that felt like a weird hire in the very beginning, because wasn't that a situation where like the president or somebody within that organization and that program liked him more than the others, And it didn't feel Yeah, didn't feel like it was a great fit at least on the surface, but the results, at least under the surface, appeared to be even though the wins aren't there yet.
Yeah, they were competitive against Oregon until relatively close to the end of that game. They gave some teams fits and better than their record indicates. And I also think he would be very smart to go after kids transfer from the Midwest and saying, hey, Arizona, it's warm all the time. We've got a bunch of attractive humans here from southern California attending come on, come on down, come
on over, and so you can dip into Texas. It's also like an underrated home field advantage if people show up in that it's far away. Tucson's not the easiest place to get to for all of these schools, like a weird night games in the desert. I think it can get like low key hostel in Tucson. In the right circumstance, they'll rush the field before they lose, like all sorts of things happen with Arizona games. So I think there's like a secret home field advantage there in the right circumstance.
Lance lpol at Kansas, Yeah, went two to ten. That is an improvement by two games over the h to nine campaign in twenty twenty. I love Lance Lipold. Uh Oh, I am not able to be objective when it comes to Lance Lightpold.
Hm.
I love the higher, I love the higher. This is a serious football coach, a serious It's not a pr stunt like when they hired Charlie Weiss or less Miles.
Right and David Beaty was inexperience and they took a chance. But like Lance Leipold has won as a head coach. Yeah, this is a serious guy.
Mm hmm.
This is a serious guy who knows how to run a football program. Now, Kansas is not without obvious to dis advantages. It's still pretty much a basketball school, but there's at least a glimmer of success back in the man Gino era when Kansas proved that as a football program, Yeah.
They can go to an Orange Bowl right.
Like there, it's doable and perhaps even more doable looking out ahead as Texas and Oklahoma are going to be exiting stage right going over to the SEC. So it's you know, there's an opportunity I think for Kansas to try and just build something on the ground floor and try to get respectable, try to get to the stage where maybe they can get to a bowl game again.
I think it's there. I think it's doable.
It's really a talent issue at Kansas. They need talent. They need to work on roster construction.
Yes, of course, roster wrinkles. Roster wrinkles. Kansas dramatically improved on offense behind that young backfield at quarterback and running back, you know, scoring all the points that they did, especially later on in the season.
The Texas win.
Dramatically improve on offense, got worse on defense for sure, which was kind of tricky based on where they were. Defense is going to take a minute, but they were competitive in those you know, they win what was it,
one of their last five games? I believe right, they win one of their last five, But those last two losses were competitive against TCU an incredibly down TCU, and I would argue a pretty disappointing West Virginia back half of the season, but still be in a place to be competitive, have your team up for games to potentially beat teams that are in what we believe to be
better spots as a program. So I'm I'm encouraged. I don't know the heights that what I see as Lance Lipold in the open floor is just going for it, getting swatted, going for it, getting stripped, going for it, getting blocked hard, but still attacking, still knowing that, you know, maybe there is going to be pity, applause and pity cheers when he finally does make a layup when they're
down thirty eight at the end of a game. But he made the layup, and then maybe next game he's making a couple of those layups, and maybe the next game he's pump faking one of those guys who's swatting him. So progress, fearlessness, experience, and resilience is what I'm seeing Lance Leipold in the open floor. He's not Duncan. He's probably not. He doesn't have a finger roll. But I think there can be an efficiency and a resilience to his attitude towards finishing at the hoop.
I agree with you. I also think that there is reason for optimism because of Jalen Daniels. Sure their quarterback m Is he related to.
Jaden Daniels, I don't believe.
So.
Both are from southern California, but pretty common last name. Yeah, not to be confused with Jaden Daniels, who is transferring, presumably not to Kansas. But Jalen Daniels is a guy who I think folks are excited about. You know, saw limited action, but in that limited action, it's pretty good. Yep.
So it just seems to me.
The fact that this is a guy who has been there before, he knows the fundamentals. This is not a Tomahawk jam situation. This is not a three sixty Ali Oop situation. This is it?
Is it always Ali you? This is a I grew up on the West coast, u East coast? Is it ali Oop on the on the East coast?
Because I always heard Alley oop oh, I've done alley oop oh. Okay, I didn't know it could be a regional difference. He's not doing any of those frills. Lance lpol just knows that you need five guys on.
The court at the same time.
Yeah, all right, let's start at square one. These are the rules. A bucket is worth two points unless it's worth three, unless it's worth one. Right, Like, he knows the rules, and he knows all the things that you need to in order to start building a basketball team. It's not even about the dunk for Lance Lpole. This is what Kansas needs. This is the kind of guy that Kansas needs. They don't need the pr stunt. They needs somebody who knows the freakin' rules. So I'm not
even gonna play the game with Lance Lightpold. I'm not gonna worry about is he dunk and is he laying it up? He just knows how many guys need to be out there, and I think that's a great starting point for Kansas. So I remained very optimistic about the program. I think he will build this thing at least make it look like it is somewhat organized. That will be a huge market improvement from where it's been at I think Lance Leipold at Kansas trying to hurl this Kansas body towards the hoop.
He's torn in achilles, he's been poked in the eye, and he's you know, ruptured a disc he's had. He's definitely had plant or fasciitis issues. So he's he's hurling, he's you know, rolling down the court with knee braces, with ankle braces, with rexpecs. But he's out there, nothing's keeping him down.
Is he the kind of guy in the pickup game who is calling Fels hmmm?
No.
I think he is the one who is barreling over people doing anything it takes to get to the hoop, and is playing a little.
Bit too rough. Not Colin Fels, Okay, not Colline.
Interesting, he's the one saying I thought we were men here as a men's game, the boys game.
Okay. Any other coaches you want to hit very quickly Gus Melson yep. Malson went nine and four mm hmm in year one at UCF. I think it was even more impressive because he lost his quarterback, yeah, and was sort of doing things on the fly. I'm more optimistic about that than I was initially.
I think he can dunk. Yeah, I think Gus Malson's dunking in Orlando. There's a lightness to Gus Melson, the connections to high schools across the South, the local connections to high schools in Florida and Central Florida, and has that reputation of developing interesting offenses. I don't know, the quarterback reputation probably isn't there. But I think it's going
to be a talented team. And you look at the American songs, Sunny Dikes, Sons Songs, Sands Hall, I think it's songs songs, Sonny Dikes, like I look, Luke Fickle's gonna be around for at least a little bit. I just the competition and the American To me, it's set up pretty nicely.
Like Navy.
I don't know if they're ever getting back to an interesting place to where they were. I'm kind of optimistic that UCF can really solidify itself now. Houston is I think certainly going to be in that conversation moving forward, But I don't know. In like ECUs fine, Tulsa can be fine. Like I don't know how much I'm threatened by the totality of the American right now, and I think UCF can challenge for it.
I think out. I think this is a dunk sort of like we would see in the actual NBA Allso Our Game, where yeah, guys are just running around duncan guys are running around taking five steps without dribbling. Yeah, and nobody's playing any defense.
Yeah.
Ah, that's not fair. That's not fully in the NBA All Star Game. No, I know, I'm saying to compare to UCF where it's just wide open show body type dunks. I don't know if I'm that far with gusmels On. I more look at Gus Melson as like he went keto and lost forty five pounds and his vertical increased by four inches. And in this case, I suppose the bad fats and belly fats and subcutaneous fats are all Auburn related. I don't know that's the weight he lost.
They're like, oh man, my vertical increased by four inches since I left Auburn. That there is just a likeness to Gus Melson.
Now.
They still won games this year after losing Dylan Gabriel. It wasn't always pretty. It was absolutely not always freety, but what you see af the the offense was notice worse from where it was when Dylan Gabriel and Josh Hipel joined forces in twenty twenty. The defense was noticeably better. They finished the year out winning four or five. They were not competitive against SMU, but I mean, and those four of the four wins were against bad teams. But
that's what you should do. You should beat bad teams, even when you're beat up. So I'm high on UCF and the gus bus to.
Get what he got out of Mikey Keene at a moment's notice. Yeah, after Dylan Gabriel went down, I thought it was actually quite impressive. Maybe the reputation isn't too maybe the reputation is not there a quarterback. I agree, right, And I'm not saying Mikey Keen is like a Heisman front runner. I'm not. No, that's okay. They did a good job with him, They did a good job maximizing what they could get out of them. I'm high.
Yeah, take that out of contest context.
Final one here, Final one Vandy and clerk Lee, Okay, where are you at with Vanny and Clarkly? You were very high in Clarkly. I was not Higan Clarkly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. Vandy's offense was decently better, the defense was decently better. They lose their final five. They gave a decent fight to Miszoo in a losing effort in those last five games. I think it's just it's going to take a while. It's I think he is not dunking, but I think he can get to a place where he is. He is a contributing member of a fast break. He's not necessarily finishing strong, but he's getting hockey assists. He's getting the ball to the
guy getting it to the ball who's dunking it. He is a true glue guy, and so I think he can turn Vandy into a decent contributing member of the SEC. That might mean winning four games a year, it might mean winning five to six and a half games a year or something.
But I think he.
Can get this program because I think there is an unusual amount of buy in in that there are not that many Vandy guys who had the profile that clark Lee had when he was at Notre Dame. That he is not somebody who is looking to get the most out of Andy and quickly flip it into another job. He wants to build sustained success. And I think that's a different approach than a lot of guys would have at a place like Vandy. And so yeah, I think
he can turn he himself in the open floor. Is not necessarily finishing strong, but is that is a glue member of a fast break.
He's almost playing by different rules at Randy instead of this being a game where he's trying to dunk. Maybe he's just getting really good at playing horse. Maybe he's got a specific shot that he knows is difficult, right, and he can put an an O or an S on the board to make things interesting along the way. Maybe it's you knoww he throws it down, bounces it up for a basketball. Maybe he's got some sort of weird angle. Maybe he's shooting back over the backboard. Have
you done that? You've done that right kind of of course, So you're shooting back over it's a hard shot to make. Maybe Clark Lee is trying to get really good at one.
Of those gimmick type things.
He's running a full court press system. It's just where lot yeah, a little bit different. He's playing by different rules marching to his own drummer. He's at a place like Vandy, which it's tough to win at Vandy. Yep, it is tough to win. And I think to your point, Vandy people are okay with that.
They're okay with that.
To a baseball school, they're okay with that.
Mm hmm. It's just gonna be a little different. Maybe we don't grade this on the same skill. So I'm not even thinking in terms of dunkstand. I'm thinking in terms of is this a guy who can challenge when we're horse and I think if you give him a few years, which they have to do, he's a Vandy gutta have to. I think that, yeah, I think that he can get them playing better. We did see improvement
near one, he saw improvement. If we continue to see improvement, then yeah, maybe we get to the point where we're talking about, all right, maybe maybe we can dunk on an eight foot rim. But for now, just getting the ball in the hoop, making it look interesting, giving people a reason to feel good about things.
I think that's where we're at.
Quickly, Boise State, Utah State will hit Mountain West quickly. I think Blake Anderson's dunking. I just think he's going to have Utah State in a good place. We saw how often he won at Arkansas State. We see the not the issues, but the up and down nature of the Mountain West, with you know, Kaylin Debora leaving in San Diego State still not being able to field an offense no matter who their coach is, and San Jose
State going downhill, Hawaii going downhill. Like, there's just a number of factors here that I think there's a vacuum and Utah State, yes, there was. It was such an incredible low with Gary Anderson being brought back in and then leaving the way that he did. I think there's stability. I think there's excitement. I think they'll hit the they'll continue to hit the portal hard. I have Blake Anderson as an unsplashy, successful dunker in that specific gym.
Yeah, how about.
That Boise a little bit less so, But I think there's a creativity to Boise and Andy avlos So. Boise's offense, Uh, it regressed a bit, but the defense improved decently. They won four of their last five to finish. I know there's the roster is not I don't believe in an amazing place. But I think Andy Avlos will utilize speed and creativity to get to the hoop more often than not and be an asset to a team that likes to run.
Yeah, what's interesting to me is we don't have any Tomahawk jams here.
We don't have any. We don't don't have any.
Star studded dunkers in this I.
Think I think we could get an occasional flashy dunk from Tennessee. I think we can get an occasional flashy dunk from Texas. I think Tennessee will we'll be playing above the rim more often than Texas.
Yeah, but.
I yeah, I don't have a surefire. I mean, I have UCF and Utah State as dunkers. But no, it's it's there. There is a big man in both of their ways. None of these guys are getting in the dunk contest, at least not at this juncture. They could get there, sure if Jed Fish keeps wearing the shoes, who knows. But yeah, we're not there yet.
No, we're not. Can I say what you normally say?
Please?
Fun show? Yeah, that's my line. I know it was a good show. It was a good show I had for five minutes. Notice this is a pretty good Yeah.
I uh, I missed basketball camp. I was a good little player, tie I was. Basketball is an incredibly fun sport to be and I peaked when I was nine or ten years old, to be clear. But it was an incredibly fun sport to be way better than my friends at that's bad English. I like I could cross up my friends when I was in elementary school and I could toy with them, And it's a really fun sport. Like Baseball's pretty fun, but you need a lot of people.
Baseball's fun. Football's fund. You need a lot of people, but you can torch people, you know, receiver or whatever. Basketball is that one on one mentality where you could really goof on your friends and toy with them.
And that was that was me. When I was nine or ten, I had a basketball hoop out back. Yeah, that we're pretty certain was actually at eleven feet. Well you're also a shorter guy. No no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, no, nothing to do with it. Okay, I had friends who were very good at basketball. Oh okay, we were all certain that the hoop was too high. It could have been because the driveway was on a little bit of an angle. That'll contribute, but it may
have been over ten feet. It was always tougher to come to the tie home and play backyard basketball.
The thing you missed out on, well, that is a nice home court advantage.
The eleven foot hoop.
It was huge. It was huge.
You can talk to mom h about. There was also a power line that was in the way if you shot from the left corner. Yeah, there was a power line that got in the way, and so you had a sort of like you had to rifle it to get under the wire. You had to go like a punch shot and go off, or you had a really rainbow it, which was tough because you were playing uphill to avoid the power lines.
The thing you missed out on by not concentrating on basketball maybe I don't know, if you went to baseball camp, I don't know what if you'd had any sports camp experience, sure, but the cornerstone part for me of going to basketball camp and you would have somebody host the camp, right it would be the coach of a local team or a player that's from the area or something like that. It was an easy way to make a buck. I
assume is the visiting speakers. So I went to Jack Haley, who was like the thirteenth man on the Bulls, and I went to his camp at a couple different local schools and he would bring in the basketball players he knew, but they wouldn't be and he did. Okay, he brought
in Dennis Rodman and that was rad. But other than Dennis Rodman, it would be like Don McClain who was like a very solid jumpshooter for UCLA and had a solid NBA career, but like, there was nothing about Don McClain's game that would really translate to like a nine year old. There was nothing flashy or impressive about getting
a Don McClain signe basketball. But you'd get all these guys speaking and maybe they're being paid whatever they were, you know, they was doing favors for their friends that like you could have gone to like a laugh like a Frano and Lynn Lafayette basketball camp, and you just missed the lessons of like a random Patriot League shooting guard or like calling in a favor and getting like Dana Barrows to come speak out like your Lehigh basketball camp,
and like any of these guys. When you are that age, like, oh man, this guy is the ten. The average is four point eight points for the Philadelphia seventy six ers. And they would come and they would like sometimes play against other kids, and so then all the other campers would watch, like oh when a kid would score a basket over an NBA player, And there were I mean, Michael Jordan has a camp and they're like those famous
videos of that too. But of going to like these very regional camps, and like I went to a Lorenzo Romar, you know, Pepperdine UCLA.
Like he went.
He would like bring kids up and he's the coach of Pepperdine and they would kill time where he would just juke eleven year olds like fifty on your old Lorenzo Romar, and everybody would have a blast watching these kids trip all over the place. That was the formative experience that you missed out on not going to basketball camp.
Yeah, any NBA player, even the guy who scores like two points, oh man on the open floor with oh yeah, nobody can testing a shot well.
Like also, these NBA players are not used to being celebrated because they're the guys at some of these camps. Right the seventh man, the ninth man or something like that, and then they would have like a counselor rebound for them as they would put up seventeen footers and make all of them. Because they were NBA players shooting uncontested seventeen footers and you're watching them, they're like, this guy should be way more famous. He's hitting every seventeen footer
without anybody guarding him. Yeah, meanwhile, he's shooting a thousand of them a day. So it was just it was an incredible experience as.
A little one.
That's all send your kids to basketball.
Camp the halcyon days, Dan of Sports, I had to look up fran O'Hanlon's name. I didn't. That was not an easy poll for me. That's a deep cut, all right, Thank you so much for downloading, for listening. Don't forget to go on out to forballers dot com if you want to check out the bonus features that we offer alongside this episode. In addition to the other bonus content that we're going to be putting out here in the coming days and weeks, we would encourage you again for
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I've got a picture of it there. Nice.
Just got to do a few quick, free and easy things to get your name in the hat. We're gonna draw that winner at some point early next month.
I'm learning about fran o'hanlin as we speak. He's been the Lafayette coach since nineteen ninety five. Yeah, yeah, he Oh my god, he was the Venezuelan League champion as a coach in nineteen eighty three. He runs Venezuela shout out Caracas. Oh my god, Odd, what a resume she's gonna bring.
We should do as an off topic show, like an old school sports episode, where either we bring on somebody who runs just shout names at each other. Well, yeah, somebody who runs a podcast on either the basketball, football or soccer soccer baseball side and just talk talk it out like in the early nineties.
We can just select a year. Yeah, we can just select nineteen ninety four, nineteen ninety two and just discuss the year in sports. Yeah, and every single story. Ninety two would be nice because he got the Olympics.
Olympics. Ye, dream team stream team right, that was dream team.
Yeah, Fran Ohnlin is or we have on Frano Handlin. So he has been the coach for if my math serves about twenty seven years. Yeah, Fran Ohnlin's tenure at Lafayette is old enough to rent a car.
That's good for Fran. For that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein. From myself, Tie hilden Brand, thanks so much for downloading, listening, playing along with our madness at home. Yes, we will be back at least on the public feed. Hmmm next Tuesday. Have yourself a good weekend. As always, stay solid, peace,