January 31, 2025 • 7 mins
UNO's Chris Crutchfield on the Mav's Basketball Success This Year
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I love everything that's happening in the world of basketball,
especially here in Omaha and Nebraska. But the story that
is kind of usurped all of the others is what
has been happening at Backster Arena with the University of
Nebraska Omaha Mavericks and we are blessed to be joined
by their head coach, Chris Crutchfield on our phone line
right now. Coach, thanks so much for being back on
(00:21):
the show with us.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey, Emrick, thank you guys for having me coach.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I gotta be honest with you, it's been an absolute
pleasure to watch this team continue to win. Your long
wind streak unfortunately came to an end at the hands
of South Dakota the other night, but seven and one
tied for the conference lead. You're really starting to pick
up some steam in the national awareness of this program.
What does that mean to you as a guy who's
(00:47):
been building this program in the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Well, I think ultimately that's the goal of any coach
or any program when you start from the bottom up
to try to build a program, and you want to
do it with an end out. So from a regional standpoint,
I think people understand what we're doing now. We've got
a little bit of national attention because of the streak
and because there's something that hadn't been done before. But
(01:12):
our guys are playing good right now and they're comfortable.
Everybody's understanding their role, and we just got to keep
it going.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, really fun team to watch. JJ White and Markel
Sutton are a couple of year standouts, and I've seen
the team in person a couple of times. I really
love the brand of basketball that you guys play in
this conference. And three home games here kind of starting
off little homestand and Denver comes to town tomorrow and
people are really picking up on this promotion. You guys
(01:41):
have bring your own can. Now, this is a trash
can that you can bring. And I'll get to the
parameters here, but can you explain the correlation of a
trash can with the Omaha basketball program.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Well, it's kind of funny how this thing is taken off,
and because they started off as a as a pep
talk with our assistant coach Kyan Brown in the locker
room before cal Poly. He thought our guys was kind
of down and droopy and didn't had the energy level
was low, so he kicked the garbage can, and of
(02:15):
course guys jumped up and got fired up, and he
came back. He said, after we win the game, I'm
gonna come in and kick the garbage can again, and
he did it, and from there on out we started winning.
So he started kicking and abusion the garbage can ever
after every win, and I think it became a postgame
(02:36):
celebration and a couple of media outlets picked it up.
But it's been fun for our guys. Our guys have
enjoyed it. And now it turned into a promotional deal
with our basketball program, which is all good. We need
all the attention we can get.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I love it. And this is the other thing about
you know, mid major programs that maybe don't get to
share the same national TV exposure as you know, the
programs in the Big twelve of the Big ten. But this,
this promotion and the videos are going viral of the
trash can you know abuse that is taking place, and
you guys have pulled out a lot of close wins
(03:11):
because of some of you know, just being grittier. Now
I know it was a bit of a heartbreaker as
you guys were unable to hold on to a lead
on the road against South Dakota. But man, if anybody
would have told you that you're seven and one in
conference play here, I mean, like, what has turned for
this program coming off of you know, you just had
a nine game winning streak.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I thought we was going to be really good when
it's the chance to have a good basketball team. CANU
was talent, we had experience, we had guys, that was
about in. We just got up to a tough start
being on the road for so many games in November.
We never could get our foot in. So once we
got back and got into a routine of being at
(03:50):
home and having enormous slate of games Thursday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday,
guys got a lot more comfortable and then we started
making I mean we've been defending, we always rebounded the basketball,
but now we're making shots and it always come together
and they playing with a bunch of confidence. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
We're talking to Chris Crutchfield. He's the head basketball coach
for the Omaha Mavericks men's basketball team. This home stand,
we got Denver come into town tomorrow and then both
North Dakota and North Dakota State next week, which again,
these are all games that are incredibly important as you'd
like to stay as high here in the Summit League standing,
so you have the opportunity to be a high seed
(04:32):
in the conference tournament, knowing you're going to need to
win that conference tournament to make it to the NCAA tournament.
But that's all very real possibility. But Denver is wanting
to come in here and kind of play a bit
of spoiler here and hand the MAVs a second loss
in a row. So what do you see in the
Pioneers and what is your team going to need to
do to get the W tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Well, they're a good team. We played them once already
in Denver and it didn't have to starting point guard,
so he's back playing. So they're a little bit of
a different team. We beat them by eighteen at their place,
but it'll be a different game. Anytime you play a
team for the second time, they always this situation is
always different. But we're coming off of a loss, so
(05:14):
our guys got a little bad taste in their mouth too,
So I expect a really, really tough game. I expect
a hard fight. Hopefully we get a good crowd in
Baxter to help us cancers onto a victory, so and
they're coming off of a really emotional win last night.
They beat Kansas City last night and on the last
second shot, last second free throw. So they'll be fired
(05:37):
up and we'll be fired up, and it'll be too
fared up teams going ahead the head and hopefully we
have the home court.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Advantage definitely, And I think that the momentum is there
for the home crowd as it continues to grow with
each game and more and more energy coming into Baxter,
and I figure tomorrow night is going to be the
best one with this bring your own garbage can night
and people can bring one five gallon or smaller plastic
trash can, no lid, and that can be your popcorn
container and you can fill up your popcorn for just
(06:05):
five dollars, which is pretty awesome. What do you have
to say to anybody who's thinking about making their first
trip to backs to watch your basketball team play.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Well, come on in. It's easy to get tickets, it's easy,
assassible to get into the building. You don't have to
walk very far. You can part close and now you
get a big bucket of popcorn for five bucks and
you get to see the exciting brand of basketball and
for Omahall's team, and we need all the support we
can get, so hopefully we can get a great crowd
(06:33):
and people can have a lot of popcorn. And I
know the popcorn is smelling good. I just left the building,
so they was popping it. So they're smelling good in
that building right now.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
That's gonna be an awful lot of fun. Hopefully a nice, big,
comfortable win for the MAVs. Coach Chris Crutchfield, always a
pleasure to talk to you, sir, can't wait to see
you again. And good luck tomorrow night, seven o'clock tip off,
bring your own garbage can night at Denver comes and
takes on the MAVs. Good luck coach, and we'll be
in touch sure later on this season having on.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
We appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, it's so cool, so cool, absolutely love it. So again,
tip off at seven pm. You can show up as
early as an hour before. I've been to watch this
team play. Trust me, like like we're basketball fans on
this show. Good brand of basketball, an athletic team, they
play the right way. They are hustlers, they have different
types of players. You know, they don't have a bunch
(07:23):
of clones of the same type of prototype player. This
is a great team that has great wing, play good
ball handling. They pass, they move the ball, they play tough,
gritty defense. They are very very fun to watch, so
big big thanks to Chris Crutchfield for giving us that
info today
I love everything that's happening in the world of basketball,
especially here in Omaha and Nebraska. But the story that
is kind of usurped all of the others is what
has been happening at Backster Arena with the University of
Nebraska Omaha Mavericks and we are blessed to be joined
by their head coach, Chris Crutchfield on our phone line
right now. Coach, thanks so much for being back on
(00:21):
the show with us.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey, Emrick, thank you guys for having me coach.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I gotta be honest with you, it's been an absolute
pleasure to watch this team continue to win. Your long
wind streak unfortunately came to an end at the hands
of South Dakota the other night, but seven and one
tied for the conference lead. You're really starting to pick
up some steam in the national awareness of this program.
What does that mean to you as a guy who's
(00:47):
been building this program in the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Well, I think ultimately that's the goal of any coach
or any program when you start from the bottom up
to try to build a program, and you want to
do it with an end out. So from a regional standpoint,
I think people understand what we're doing now. We've got
a little bit of national attention because of the streak
and because there's something that hadn't been done before. But
(01:12):
our guys are playing good right now and they're comfortable.
Everybody's understanding their role, and we just got to keep
it going.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, really fun team to watch. JJ White and Markel
Sutton are a couple of year standouts, and I've seen
the team in person a couple of times. I really
love the brand of basketball that you guys play in
this conference. And three home games here kind of starting
off little homestand and Denver comes to town tomorrow and
people are really picking up on this promotion. You guys
(01:41):
have bring your own can. Now, this is a trash
can that you can bring. And I'll get to the
parameters here, but can you explain the correlation of a
trash can with the Omaha basketball program.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Well, it's kind of funny how this thing is taken off,
and because they started off as a as a pep
talk with our assistant coach Kyan Brown in the locker
room before cal Poly. He thought our guys was kind
of down and droopy and didn't had the energy level
was low, so he kicked the garbage can, and of
(02:15):
course guys jumped up and got fired up, and he
came back. He said, after we win the game, I'm
gonna come in and kick the garbage can again, and
he did it, and from there on out we started winning.
So he started kicking and abusion the garbage can ever
after every win, and I think it became a postgame
(02:36):
celebration and a couple of media outlets picked it up.
But it's been fun for our guys. Our guys have
enjoyed it. And now it turned into a promotional deal
with our basketball program, which is all good. We need
all the attention we can get.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I love it. And this is the other thing about
you know, mid major programs that maybe don't get to
share the same national TV exposure as you know, the
programs in the Big twelve of the Big ten. But this,
this promotion and the videos are going viral of the
trash can you know abuse that is taking place, and
you guys have pulled out a lot of close wins
(03:11):
because of some of you know, just being grittier. Now
I know it was a bit of a heartbreaker as
you guys were unable to hold on to a lead
on the road against South Dakota. But man, if anybody
would have told you that you're seven and one in
conference play here, I mean, like, what has turned for
this program coming off of you know, you just had
a nine game winning streak.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I thought we was going to be really good when
it's the chance to have a good basketball team. CANU
was talent, we had experience, we had guys, that was
about in. We just got up to a tough start
being on the road for so many games in November.
We never could get our foot in. So once we
got back and got into a routine of being at
(03:50):
home and having enormous slate of games Thursday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday,
guys got a lot more comfortable and then we started
making I mean we've been defending, we always rebounded the basketball,
but now we're making shots and it always come together
and they playing with a bunch of confidence. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
We're talking to Chris Crutchfield. He's the head basketball coach
for the Omaha Mavericks men's basketball team. This home stand,
we got Denver come into town tomorrow and then both
North Dakota and North Dakota State next week, which again,
these are all games that are incredibly important as you'd
like to stay as high here in the Summit League standing,
so you have the opportunity to be a high seed
(04:32):
in the conference tournament, knowing you're going to need to
win that conference tournament to make it to the NCAA tournament.
But that's all very real possibility. But Denver is wanting
to come in here and kind of play a bit
of spoiler here and hand the MAVs a second loss
in a row. So what do you see in the
Pioneers and what is your team going to need to
do to get the W tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Well, they're a good team. We played them once already
in Denver and it didn't have to starting point guard,
so he's back playing. So they're a little bit of
a different team. We beat them by eighteen at their place,
but it'll be a different game. Anytime you play a
team for the second time, they always this situation is
always different. But we're coming off of a loss, so
(05:14):
our guys got a little bad taste in their mouth too,
So I expect a really, really tough game. I expect
a hard fight. Hopefully we get a good crowd in
Baxter to help us cancers onto a victory, so and
they're coming off of a really emotional win last night.
They beat Kansas City last night and on the last
second shot, last second free throw. So they'll be fired
(05:37):
up and we'll be fired up, and it'll be too
fared up teams going ahead the head and hopefully we
have the home court.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Advantage definitely, And I think that the momentum is there
for the home crowd as it continues to grow with
each game and more and more energy coming into Baxter,
and I figure tomorrow night is going to be the
best one with this bring your own garbage can night
and people can bring one five gallon or smaller plastic
trash can, no lid, and that can be your popcorn
container and you can fill up your popcorn for just
(06:05):
five dollars, which is pretty awesome. What do you have
to say to anybody who's thinking about making their first
trip to backs to watch your basketball team play.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Well, come on in. It's easy to get tickets, it's easy,
assassible to get into the building. You don't have to
walk very far. You can part close and now you
get a big bucket of popcorn for five bucks and
you get to see the exciting brand of basketball and
for Omahall's team, and we need all the support we
can get, so hopefully we can get a great crowd
(06:33):
and people can have a lot of popcorn. And I
know the popcorn is smelling good. I just left the building,
so they was popping it. So they're smelling good in
that building right now.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
That's gonna be an awful lot of fun. Hopefully a nice, big,
comfortable win for the MAVs. Coach Chris Crutchfield, always a
pleasure to talk to you, sir, can't wait to see
you again. And good luck tomorrow night, seven o'clock tip off,
bring your own garbage can night at Denver comes and
takes on the MAVs. Good luck coach, and we'll be
in touch sure later on this season having on.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
We appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, it's so cool, so cool, absolutely love it. So again,
tip off at seven pm. You can show up as
early as an hour before. I've been to watch this
team play. Trust me, like like we're basketball fans on
this show. Good brand of basketball, an athletic team, they
play the right way. They are hustlers, they have different
types of players. You know, they don't have a bunch
(07:23):
of clones of the same type of prototype player. This
is a great team that has great wing, play good
ball handling. They pass, they move the ball, they play tough,
gritty defense. They are very very fun to watch, so
big big thanks to Chris Crutchfield for giving us that
info today
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