The difference between Gameday in the SEC and the Big 12

The final hour of Wednesday's program begins with Cam, Zimmel, and Jeff Barker as they continue the discussion on Bronny James and the Lakers. Plus, Jeff shares his experience from working in SEC country and what gameday is like in the "south".

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
He's a Texas legend, a Hallof Fame broadcaster, the voice of the
Texas Longhorns, and your host ofthe Craigway Show. Here he is now
Craig Way. Cameron Parker playing infor him, along with Andrew Simmel joining

(00:43):
us from San Antonio and CBS Austinsports reporter and sports anchor Jeff Parker also
with us here in studio. Ofcourse, you want to join the show,
you can reach out to us onour text line text to Whard Texas
to eight one to five three zerofollowed by your message, or leave a
message on our iHeartRadio app using thetalkback feature, and you can watch us

(01:06):
live on YouTube, Twitter or Facebook. Speaking of talkback, we did have
a measures to come in during thatBronnie James segment, and I wanted to
get to that right here on thisshow, so we've tied the conversation about
Bronnie James being drafted. Of course, the argument for nepotism involved in that.
Here's what one listener had to sayon the talkback feature. Bronnie James

(01:34):
playing with the Lakers just marketing stunt. Lakers would never draft anybody like that,
and most likely Lebron's paying the salary. Okay, I don't know about
I don't know about on our wayto the beach, let's go on hands
ready, I don't know if it'sa I don't think Lebron's paying his salary.

(01:57):
I don't know about the marketing aspect. I would agree that they wouldn't
have drafted him in the first place. It wasn't Bronnie James. But he
is Bronnie James, so it's afifty fifth pick, so why not.
It definitely doesn't hurt. And Imean, I'm not I'm not saying I
agree with what the caller said specificallyabout like, oh, it's only for
marketing, but it does help marketing. He's definitely right about that. It

(02:20):
should help the South Bay Lakers too, and Bronnie James is playing for them
as well. I was gonna say, yeah, name the last five Laker
draft picks besides Bronnie James. That'swhat I would say, because you go
through this cam, I don't knowany of these dudes like that. That's
the other part. This is themost recognizable name the Lakers have drafted since

(02:40):
Lonzo Ball. Wait, wait,let let let me, let me let
me guess this with Jeff here,So obviously don't think connect before that did
they have it picked the year before? I'm guessing I think Matt Ryan was
was a signee. Austin Reeves wasundrafted, right, I don't even know
if I could in the last Idon't even know if I could name one
of them, Like if you mentionedthe names, I'd probably be like,

(03:01):
oh, yeah, sure, hold, I don't know, yes I did,
Okay. When was their last firstround draft pick before Dalton Connect?
It was last year, twenty twentythree. They had a first round pick.
It was the seventeenth pick out ofIndiana. I have no idea,
yeah, Jalen Hoods, yeah,Jalen oh yeah, yeah yeah. Okay,

(03:23):
So that let's go back, soConnect Shaffino, Uh, let's go
round two, pick thirty five andtwenty tway two is Max Christie? All
right? Okay? First round pick? Need some time? Yeah, out
of Kentucky was their first round pickin twenty twenty one. They got Jade

(03:44):
McDaniels in twenty twenty. DeAndre Hunterwas a first round pick in twenty nineteen.
So like, yeah, my pointbeing, it's not like they're drafting
these like super star players with thesedraft picks. It's Brodny James, fine,
whatever, it'll be fine. Butlike, nobody can these draft picks
right and Barker, you're a Lakerfan, you couldn't have the last five,

(04:04):
you know what I mean. It'sa great point. It really doesn't
matter all that much to me becausethe Lakers are a free agent destination.
They're a team that lets other peoplekind of like the Lakers organization. They
let other teams mature and then theybring them to LA. That's that's what
they do. It's smart, It'syeah, it's fine. Also, I

(04:26):
think they do have a pretty gooddevelopmental program under Rob Plink. I think
about the guys like Josh Hart,Lonzo Ball Crusoe I'll turn into really good
players. And you know, theywere obviously drafted by the same front office.
They have turned other play like AustinReeves undrafted. He's been a huge
part of their success. So itis actually, I think a pretty good

(04:48):
situation for Brownie to land and ifhe is going to turn into a usable
player, well, and I thinkthey mentioned that in the press conference.
I'm pretty sure Rob Polinka mentioned that, and other people have talked about know
what you just mentioned of their theirplayer development system, you know, churning
out some pretty good players over theyears who you maybe wouldn't have expected to
become the players they've become in theNBA. But then that should have been

(05:11):
what was mainly harped on. AndI get when you know the clip you
played from JJ Reddick. JJ wasn'taround for that. He wasn't part of
the organization. He just got hiredlike what a week ago or whatever it
was. So, yeah, andJJ's gonna say the right things. They're
all going to say the right thingsabout Bronnie. But I think I think
your point and Andrew's point too,like those are the best cases for drafting

(05:31):
Bronnie. Like Andrew's point of like, you know, yeah, they you
know, I mean your point ifthey've had some guys that have worked out.
But then Andrew's point two of like, we don't even know some of
these guys recently that they've picked,so it's like, yeah, it's it's
kind of it's kind of a crapshoot. Either way, even if they've had
success developing these players, it's stilla bit of a crap shoot. So
I think that the point for thecase for drafting Brownie should just be the

(05:53):
potential. You know, look whatwe think we can do with him in
our player development system. And yeah, no one's expecting him to be the
next Lebron James. They're just saying, hey, this is worth a flyer,
based on genetics, based on abunch of other factors, and what
we think is potential could be thatWe're gonna take a flyer on him and
see if he turns into one ofthose players that can't mentioned a Josh Hard,

(06:15):
a Caruso or somebody like that,if you took the name off of
it and you just gave me thebackground, two parent household. His dad's
a billionaire. Yeah, I'm gonnatake a flyer because I know his body's
gonna be in shape. I knowhe's never gonna have to, like,
I don't know, get a gamblingapp. He's gonna be fine. Like
this is not somebody you have toworry about. That's a great point too.

(06:36):
And you trust Lebron. You know, Lebron's a very smart individual.
I stayed out of trouble his entirecareer, and he seems like it does
a great job raising his kids.So all all valid points. He's not
gonna end up like John Tay Portercompletely banned from playing in the NBA for
the rest of his career. Okay, let's talk little Texas football and their
SEC. You mentioned that you spentsome time working in Jackson, Mississippi.

(06:58):
You were around ole mess around isto be staked? What is what is
game day like in the SEC andis there really going to be a difference
in between what we usually see inthe Big twelve on game day for Texas
As opposed to in the SEC.Oh yeah, I think there's definitely gonna
be a big difference. I meankind of like I alluded to earlier.
Yeah, the the atmospheres at Techwhen Texas is around and really all the

(07:19):
time at Tech, are you know, good atmospheres? I would say in
college football, Like that's a difficultplace to play for a road team.
But I think even going to Bamalast year, Like I think, off
the top of my head, I'veprobably been to five or six of the
SEC stadiums for fairly big games,you know, going to LSU, like
the tailgating at places like that,the tailgating at Alabama, just the overall

(07:44):
vibe around a weekend a home footballweekend in Tuscaloosa and Baton Rouge and Athens.
It's it's just different. I meaneven even you know, places like
Auburn. So I think, yeah, the game days are going to be
in Texas doesn't play all those teamsat all, and not on the road
this year for most of them.But when they do, I think those
are gonna be really exciting games thatobviously, I mean goes that saying they're

(08:05):
gonna be difficult places to play,but just from the fans standpoint, people
are gonna love going to those games. And again it's gonna up I think
it's gonna up the bar and upthe energy of Texas fans too, as
they you know, as even overthe first two years is that kind of
honeymoon phase with the SEC ends andit becomes normalized a little bit. I
think going to those other stadiums isgonna, you know, kind of make

(08:28):
Texas fans elevate their game a littlebit too, and just be that much
more into it as opposed to like, yeah, like there were you know,
the road games Iowa stay like we'retreat you know, every other year
we're going to Ames or Manhattan andplaces that Texas has had trouble at from
time to time. But they're notthey're not bucket list places for most people.
I would feel pretty comfortable saying whereasa lot of these SEC stadiums,

(08:52):
at least for me as a collegefootball fan growing up watching the back home
in California, the SEC, youknow, game of the week on CBS.
It's changing now with the TV deal, but that's what it was for
me growing up, like a lotof us watching that game and being like,
man, like I go to SCgames growing up, and that was
a great atmosphere. I remember watchingthat when se was aware for whatever reason,
we were home watching and you're goinglike, yeah, maryonly told my

(09:13):
dad one time when I was reallyyoung, like I want to live in
Alabama and he's like, not sureyou do, but going to a game
there would be really fun. Yeah. Yeah, And then I ended up
living in Mississippi, so that's toofar off right. And people, you
know, when they use the argumentabout like well ames anymore, wake coot,
it's like, yeah, we gotto go to Starkville. That's just
one city out of there's there's fifteenother teams in the SEC, and you're

(09:37):
not gonna play there every year.But even even in Starkville, like,
yeah, okay, people might wantto clown on Mississippi State a little bit.
They're not necessarily a traditional SEC power. They're a middle of the pack
or lower tier SEC team. Overtheir history, no one will deny that
they even have something unique about theiratmosphere. It's loud as heck, and
they ring those annoying ass cowbells.And I'm glad you mentioned the base all

(10:00):
part of it, because obviously MississippiState has a great baseball program. And
I think back too. I thinkit was two years ago when they were
hosting either regional or the Super Regionaland they have those bleachers in the outfield,
and it's like, man, thatenvironment beats some of the environments at
Los Angeles Angels games over the pastdecade. Even Ole miss You you got

(10:20):
the frat house, the fraternity rowbehind behind the outfield. It's like that's
an experience that Texas has not hadreally in the Big Twelve. I mean,
I know A and M used tobe part of the Big Twelve,
but they've done a lot to theirballpark since going to the SEC. There's
not really that type of vibe inBig twelve baseball, but there is now
because it's not just Mississippi State,LSU, Tennessee, Vanderbilt. All those

(10:43):
programs put a lot into the fanexperience and that's gonna be a really fun
part of it. Yeah, andI think Texas has already made some improvements
on that front too of Eddi Yard. Yeah, throwing the Yeddi Yard in
there. I mean, obviously,you know it's not technically a part of
the stadium, but you know,we know what those folks do Texas Baseball
out out in left field. Imean, that's a that's a huge,
huge draw for fans as you're justkind of cruising around the stadium and you

(11:07):
know, they're welcoming vibe and howthey like to party and their diehard support
of the team. That stuff.That is going to be great moving into
the SEC for this program, andyeah, you know, Jetty Yard and
who knows what other stuff they'll they'lladd on later. But I think people
are vastly, you know, maybeunderestimating that side of it. I know,
the you know, really diehard Longhornfans know what baseball is all about

(11:30):
in the SEC. But that reallyis going to be people talk about the
Football Gauntlet and it is. TheBaseball Gauntlet is going to be wild to
watch next year. And you know, now, Texas has got a guy
that's been through that the last threeyears, talking Texas into the SEC.
Here with Jeff Parker, our threefinal hour day's program. Jeff will stick
with us for one more program.We need a break, but well back

(11:52):
soon here as The Greig Way Showcontinues here on this Wednesday afternoon