Zimmel Hour: Sark Speaks on team going into Spring Practice and Craig from the Ball Park

Andrew Zimmel fills in for Craig Way. Head Coach of the Texas Longhorns Steve Sarkisian joins to talk about how his team has progressed during the spring. Nico Harrison gets grilled for opening his mouth. And Craig Way from Bobcat Ballpark before Texas and Texas State Tuesday evening.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred of the Zone. I am
Andrew Zimmel, sitting in for the Texas Radio Hall of
Famer Craig Way this Tuesday afternoon. Thank you for joining us,
Thanks for hanging out. Steve Sarkisian just got done speaking
of his media availability. Possibly the last time we will
hear from coach Stark for a little bit. Of course,

(00:25):
this Saturday is fan appreciation no spring game, fan appreciation game.
Gonna be excited to see how that goes. Plus, NBA
Playoffs are in action, Which NBA Stars legacy is most
on the line, and are we already considering a guy

(00:46):
to jump maybe fifteen or twenty spots in the rankings.
We'll tell you who that is next. Craig Way joins
the program from Bobcat Ballpark in San marcos As, University
of Texas Baseball and Texas take the Diamond tonight, six pm,
first pitch on one of three to one Austin's eighty station.
We'll hear from Craig and Keith Morland from San Marcus.

(01:09):
Give us a little bit of a preview of what
we can expect tonight, because obviously the big weekend is
here for Texas and Texas A and M which pitcher
will go tonight. Craig will give us a little bit
of insight on that, I imagine, plus a lot of
draft talk today, a ton of draft talk wall to
wall because we are getting into the smoke screen time.

(01:33):
Right at the end of the college football season. To
about now, we've had an idea of who was going where,
who was gonna get traded, Will moves happen, will people
trade down? We have an idea now where everybody is
going to be picking on Thursday. It sounds like the
foam was ringing for the number two and number three pick.

(01:54):
It sounds like people are trying to trade up. Crashedon
gent Peter Schreger spoke about it today, so we'll hear
from him. We'll hear from Todd McShay and Chris Simms
and everybody else today on the program. It's a jam
pack show. You're not going to miss a single thing.
We'll hear from Sark here in the next segment from
his media availability. But we got to start with a

(02:16):
player who has been moved up and down and up
and down your all time rankings. When he won in
twenty fourteen as one of the youngest Finals MVPs of
all time, Kawhi Leonard skyrocket to draft. We all were like, Hey,
this is a guy who for the next decade we're
gonna be talking about as one of the best players
in the sport. And then he was a top two

(02:38):
in MVP voting just two seasons later in twenty sixteen.
And then the injuries start piling up and the nasty,
nasty divorce in San Antonio, and I knew people in
my life who were saying that this guy was a
a wasn't a playoff guy. He was the guy who
was the team guy. He gets moved to Toronto, improves

(03:00):
that he's the ultimate team guy. He goes to Toronto
on a new team in year number one and wins
a championship and a Finals MVP and knocks off the
Warriors dynasty for all intensive purposes, ending the Kevin Durant
and Steph Curry led teams. Now, granted, injuries did a
little bit of that as well, but the Toronto Raptors

(03:21):
get the rank. Kawhi Leonard now is a two times
Final MVP, a Defensive Player of the Year, and we're
talking about this guy when he goes to LA as
a potential three time champion and a guy who's going
to win a finals MVP in LA and now injuries
have riddled his career in his season, but last night,
Kawhi Leonard played maybe his best playoff game in almost

(03:44):
six years in a one oh five to one h
two win against the Denver Nuggets. Kawhi Leonard efficient fifteen
of nineteen for thirty nine points, four to seven from downtown.
He also had two steals, a couple of a block
looked outstanding. And it came at the perfect time because
I said after Game one, I was talking to buddies

(04:08):
of mine and I was saying that this is a
team in the LA Clippers who lost Game number one.
Denver did not win Game one. The Clippers lost Game one,
they turned the ball over twenty times, and the Nuggets
at home after firing their head coach Mike Malone and
firing the general manager just mere weeks before the NBA

(04:30):
playoffs begin, Well, they turned the ball over twenty times
last night on their own. So now it's a battle
of two teams who I had Denver fans in my
life are telling me, well, look the Clippers won and
Kuhi played played marvelously thirty nine points, but the rest
of the team shot a combined like thirty nine percent
from the field, and we turned the ball over twenty times. Zimmel,

(04:53):
So are you gonna give us a little bit of grace?
So are you gonna give us a little bit of
a slack here? That you know? You said the Clippers
lost game one? Turn the ball over twenty times? Did
Denver lose? Turn the ball over twenty times? And I say, yes, Okay,
you want it? Fine, We're one one going back to
la And the Kawhi Leonard of the playoffs of twenty

(05:13):
twenty five looks as good or maybe better than the
Kuhi letter we saw in twenty seventeen, in twenty sixteen,
and maybe this is the best Kawhi letter we've ever
seen in the NBA playoffs. This is what Kawai said
after the win on the postgame interview on TNT.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Came down to stop at the end of the game.
Great basketball team, especially at home, MVP caliber player with
Yokis and the great guys around him, Murray and they
all playing great, so tough, tough fight. Just what the
playoffs about?

Speaker 3 (05:47):
I know what you said before the playoffs started that
you just want to leave it all out on the floor.
You were fifteen of nineteen from the field, thirty nine points.
When did you knew, Hey, I had it tonight.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
I just kept going and staying in his own worry
about what chats are making, our missions, just cut shooting.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
I know it's tough to get a road wind, especially
in the playoffs. Now it shifts back home. How much
does the mentality shift now knowing the series is tied
up with one one, you get to play in front
of some home fans.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Now, the same mentality. We got to go out there
and still play a good basketball game, staying focused. Like
I said, this is a great basketball team we're we're
playing against and there's no easy walk.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Now. Kawhi Leonard thirty nine points last night, and the
conversation now has shifted to if Kawhi was fully healthy,
If Kawhi Leonard did not deal with the call it
a quad injury in San Antonio, if you didn't deal
with the ACL injury he suffered in LA, where would
he be ranked all time now? And I hate the hypotheticals.

(06:47):
I hate when we go down this path of like
what if this, and what if that, and yeah, it
does make sports fun doing that, but you never are
going to get a definitive answer. You're never going to
get a definitive answer. And the other thing that bothers
me when we do this is that when you're talking
to your friend and you say where would Kawhi rank
all time, He'll say, well, he's a top twenty player,

(07:08):
and then you say name the twenty players that were
better than him or the conversation he would be in,
and they end up listing twenty five thirty thirty five guys.
I've solved that. What I do is I have an
Excel spreadsheet that I have saved on my phone. I
have one hundred NBA players ranked all time, and I
ranked them and I move them as the season goes. Now,

(07:30):
once you're done, you're done. You're not moving up or
down after your career is over. So a guy like
Michael Jordan, Congratulations, you're locked in, Bill Russell, Tim Duncan,
you're locked in. Got like Kawhi still a lot of
career left. Hopefully he's moving up and down. But I
looked at my rankings at the end of this regular
season and where these guys, these playoff performers are and

(07:53):
Kawhi Leonard has won a Defensive Player of the Year,
and he's won two championships, and he's been a Finals MVP,
and I have is a thirty third best player all time,
which is saying something. There's four thousand plus players who
suited up right, and Kawi Leonards is a thirty third
best guy. And I look at the guys that are
ahead of him. The Kevin Durantz to Nick lay jokichis

(08:15):
the Giannis had to takupos. And I do think that
if he is completely fully healthy, that he's playing eighty
two games a season, or let's call it sixty two
games a season, is an Even if he's playing a
majority of these games, he's probably higher than thirty third
all time because his individual statistics are racked up, probably higher.

(08:36):
He's individually scoring more points, he's grabbing more steals, he's
doing more board work on the rebounds. He's he's higher
all time than thirty third. He also his teams are
probably a little bit more successful. I think about that
Clippers team in the bubble that ended up losing to
the Denver Nuggets. Now he was a little bit banged up,

(08:57):
they lose in the bubble, and then every year after
that there was some sort of injury, whether it be
to Paul George or to Kawhi or to another supporting
cast member. And this is why that trade. Everybody rolled
their eyes when the Clippers traded for James Harden and
they let Paul George walk out the door. Well, you
saw how it played out this year. James Harden played

(09:19):
seventy plus games this year. Paul George I think he
did maybe seventy plus podcast this year, he didn't play
any enough games. The Clippers made the right decision. They said,
we want a guy who's going to play consistently in
the regular season. They got James Harden. He can carry
us through the regular season. And when Kawhi comes back
in the playoffs, that is when he plays his best basketball.

(09:42):
And it showed last night and a Clippers win against
the Denver Nuggets. Now the Nuggets they go to LA.
Now there's a lot of games left to be played.
The series is won one you know, the sting. The
series doesn't start until the road team wins a game.
We're tied all up. It's gonna be exciting, exciting for
that series. I hope it goes the distance. I hope

(10:03):
for Kawhi he's able to stay healthy throughout these playoffs
because I like to see him perform. Last night is
hopefully just a little bit a taste of what we
can get as the playoffs continue. I do, however, worry
about his health going forward. We'll see how that goes.
And then the game tonight Milwaukee and Indiana. The Grizzlies
blowing at blown out fifty points in game number one.

(10:25):
I'm not even tuning in for game number two. I
think the thunder are gonna wipe the floor. And then
Lakers and or Lakers and Wolves later tonight. We'll talk
about that game a little bit later on the show
as well. But coming up next, Steve Sarkasian's media availability
took us behind the curtain as spring practice continues on
the forty acres. What did he have to say about

(10:46):
his wide receiver room, how young they are? We'll hear
it next. Craig White Show rolls on Andrews and we'll
fill in for Craig Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred zone.
It's the Craig Way Show with the voice of the
Texas Longhorns in Hall of Fame broadcaster craig Way Sports

(11:07):
Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone Andrews and We'll hanging
out with you as we roll along on a Tuesday
edition of The craig Way Show, and Steve Sarkisian had
media availability one of the last times we'll hear from
the head coach of the Texas Long Warns before the
college football season kicks off on August thirtieth with the

(11:29):
Texas long Horns traveling to Columbus. I was looking at
hotel rooms, to be completely honest with you, in Columbus, Ohio,
trying to see, hey, did the Buckeyes buy all the
did they buy all the hotels? How much is the
standing room only tickets for that game? And I'll keep
you posted because I'm thinking about taking a road trip

(11:52):
for that season opener. The season opener the defending national
champion Ohise Buckets versus the Texas Long Horns. That's something
that you're gonna see a whole lot of You're not
gonna get that matchup in most any other seasons. Now
at the expanded playoffs, the game I still think matters
a lot. This is going to really dictate both of

(12:14):
the team season you want to overact too much in April.
But I'm gonna be honest with you, the winner of
that game is gonna get a big boost when it
comes to the resume as the season continues. So Sarkisian
spoke today, he talked about how his team is looking.
He said, or explain how the Longhorn has been practicing.
Here's his opening statement.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
Obviously, in the final week of spring practice, and we
really just want to maximize these final three days, which
I thought we did a pretty good job of that
with the start of it today. You know, I think
everybody in the organization has a thing two, three, ten
that we can improve upon, and if we can really
focus in on those things over the next few days

(12:57):
all the way through Saturday morning, I think we'll be
at a lot better place come June when we come
back and start our summer program as we get ready
for fall camp. So it's been a good spring up
to this point. A lot of guys have improved. But
as I've said early on, and we never should be
in spring, we're not a finished product, and nobody is

(13:19):
as individuals. We're clearly not in any phase of our
team right now.

Speaker 5 (13:24):
So we got work to do.

Speaker 4 (13:25):
But I appreciate the guys coming with the right intent
like they did this morning.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
You feel pretty good about where the team is, obviously,
and the head coach is always going to say, hey,
we're developing a couple of things. There's a bunch of guys.
We'll hear a little bit later about there's a bunch
of guys who are going to their high school prom
here pretty soon. But the transfer portal has been a
big talk, and the one thing the Longhorns have done
very well is not having to go into the portal

(13:51):
for one of the most important positions, and that's the
offensive line. Sarkijian got asked about not going in the
portal for that position and about how that offensive line
room looks currently.

Speaker 4 (14:02):
Yeah, you know, we we've recruited that position pretty well
over the years. You know, there was that the class
that kind of started it with those seven guys in it,
and from there, I think we've we've brought in players
that have kind of fit the profile of the players
at the position, Guys with high character, guys that fit
the the stature, whether they're interior players or or or

(14:25):
tackle body types. You know, Kyle's a really good teacher
and and again I think that as much as you know,
we've been fortunate over the past couple of years, we've
played a pretty consistent group of guys.

Speaker 5 (14:38):
Those other guys have.

Speaker 4 (14:39):
Been working at their craft and and they're getting challenged
obviously every single day. The tackles are we've got some
really good edge rushers, uh. And then the interior guys
are with with some of the young players in our
program that are growing, but also some of the transfers
that have come in. So it's a heck of a challenge.
You know, I would say there's always room for growth,
and they're a little bit of of kind of a

(15:01):
you can put a spotlight on the old line, which
really would hold true for our entire team. Are strain
to finish, needs to improve up there, and it's different
when you're actually playing as opposed to when you're practicing.
And so we're really this week trying to strain to finish.
And yeah, we're trying to finish spring ball, but we're
trying to finish every rep. And what does that look like?

(15:22):
So these guys can understand the intensity that they need
to play with. There's a physical intensity, but there's a
mental intensity that they got to play with. And that's
not just in the run game, that's in past protection
as well. So big point of emphasis for those guys.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
I think it's really important that the long Horns, I
should say, I think it's very cool that the Longhorns
have isolated the offensive line as one of the most
important things. You have a head coach and Steve Sarkisian
that is an offensive guru, and most offensive geniuses know
how important the big guys up front are. If you
want to have the RPO game, you want to have

(16:00):
the mix of the run of the past well having
on offensive line that is physical enough to get you
the holes that you need in the run game and
builds well enough that you have an offensive line that knows, Hey,
in past protection, let's keep our quarterback on his feet.
Super important. You see originally with the Pancake Fund and

(16:20):
how Texas and the nil deals were just funneled that way. Hey,
this is an important position, everybody. This is how we're
gonna win games in the SEC. I'm glad that it's
continued to develop. I'm glad that that is a room
that is getting attention. But the freshman wide receivers one
of the youngest rooms on the forty acres and maybe
one of the most important when you consider all the

(16:41):
guys who have gone from Texas to the NFL in
the past few seasons. Under Steve's Sarcasian wide receivers have
been a point of emphasis. This is a position group
that everywhere around the country looks at and says, that
is what Texas is doing very well developing wide receivers.
Talk to us a little bit about that, should we
receive a room?

Speaker 4 (17:01):
Yeah, yeah, So I think these young guys, you know,
I feel for them to some in some capacity. These
four guys came in and they really didn't have a
lot of models to look at. You know, Wingo had
about three practices and then tweaked his hamstring. DeAndre Moore
has been out, you know all Spring has been doing

(17:22):
you know, light work, and so they've been having to learn,
you know, kind of trial by fire, you know, in essence,
and so they're getting such valuable reps right now and.

Speaker 5 (17:33):
You can see the growth.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
But like a lot of young players, it's kind of
two steps forward, one step back, and then it's two
steps forward, one step back. And now more than ever
is them you know, you're you just finished practice thirteen.
You know, we probably have very few guys that don't
have a bump of bruise and nick somewhere, and so
now they're fighting through.

Speaker 5 (17:56):
Man, how do I how do I compartmentalize?

Speaker 4 (17:58):
My body's not quite a hundred percent, but I need
to be mentally one hundred percent and execute those calls.
But I've been impressed with those guys. You can definitely
see the skill set of all of them, and you
can start to see the guys that are picking it
up maybe a little quicker than others.

Speaker 5 (18:14):
And the thing that I'm I'm.

Speaker 4 (18:16):
Hopeful that we really get we got a little of
today and we get the next two days is when
their opportunities come, that their natural instincts start to really
kick in now and they start making plays and making
plays on the ball. I don't expect them to be
one hundred percent yet. This is this is a lot
like and you guys have been around us, no, you know,
the young receivers, it's a process.

Speaker 5 (18:36):
To get them ready to play.

Speaker 4 (18:39):
But when the balls in the air, that their instincts
and their natural ability really starts to come to fold.
And we saw some of that today I'm really, you know,
kind of looking forward to that here Thursday and Saturday
to you know, allow these guys to play some and
if they're wrong, they're wrong.

Speaker 5 (18:55):
That's okay, we can coach that. But but who's going
to go make some plays.

Speaker 4 (18:59):
Who's going to make the play on the ball and
the fifty to fifty those contesting catches, third down, read area,
those types.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Of things we're hearing from head coach Steve Sarkesian is
media availability today as spring game or practice gets coming
to a close with Saturday now no spring game on Saturday, obviously,
but more fan appreciation practices. Sarkisa got asked, what is
Saturday going to look like with no spring game?

Speaker 4 (19:23):
It'll be a practice with kind of scrimmage portions, a
lot of game like scenarios, which is what we've been
doing at the end of the last couple of weeks.
You know, we've been doing a lot of move the field,
We've been doing a lot of red area work. We're
trying to create situations but not having them scripted to
where they have to play the game, and we're putting

(19:45):
him in as many game like situations as we can
to see the response, you know, like like, we had
a couple of situations last Thursday night, a really critical
third down and a critical fourth down where a younger
receiver and a running back to catch, and I don't
think really understood where the first down marker was. And
those are things that we're trying to teach the game

(20:07):
right now. It's not just about running plays, it's how
the game works within the framework or how those plays
work within the framework of the situation.

Speaker 5 (20:15):
Of the game. So that we'll do a lot of
that work Saturday.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
You know, we've got a lot of different things happening
this weekend, obviously with the draft coming up this weekend,
which we're pumped for our guys. We've got Fan Day Saturday,
which is going to be a great day for the
fans and our players to interact in DKR. After that,
we've got players that have got prom coming up this week.
I got twenty two guys that should still be in
high school that have problem this weekend.

Speaker 5 (20:39):
So we've got some moving parts.

Speaker 4 (20:41):
We just want to make sure that we capitalize on
those two hours that we get together.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, could you imagine going from the long warm practices
to also thinking about prom That would be such a
such a difference in world. And it's funny as you
get further and further away from that time in your life,
you kind of think like, oh man, I got bills
to pay, I got kids, I got a wife. This
is still the most important thing on a lot of
these guys' mind. Yeah, it's very important to get the

(21:05):
install going. But I can't be late on problem. She's
gonna kill me if I'm late. We'll hear more from
Steve Sarkisian as the show rolls on, including how gratifying
it is to get Quinn viewers into the NFL. Coming
up this weekend Thursday, the NFL Draft starts. We'll have
more NFL talk later as well. But next, Inconceivable, Oh

(21:28):
you know I've missed it. Inconceivable. Up next through Creigway
Show rolls on on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred zone.

Speaker 6 (21:36):
Inconceivable, inconceivable, inconceivable, inconceivable.

Speaker 5 (21:42):
Use that, fur, I don't think I miss what you're thinking.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Miss Inconceivable on a Tuesday edition of The Craigway Show.
And I know the Lent is Over Easter was on Sunday.
Hopefully you guys had an excellent one, but many of
us gave up things for Lent, and I know a
lot of my friends started to enjoying those things. You know, Hey,

(22:07):
I'm gonna give up chocolate, I'm gonna give up TV.
I'm gonna give up comic books. I'm gonna give up
wine or beer maybe for some of you for Lent. Well, luckily,
the chimpanzees don't have to worry about any of that.
They don't give up anything for Lent. And there's a
new story, there's a new video. I should say, because
you know I love to see these videos. Their party

(22:28):
animals is what they're calling them. There are chimpanzees. They
got caught on camera. You know, we always have those
researchers not leaving those wild champanzees alone. Now we have
them on twenty four to seven camera all the time.
They're just trying to enjoy their their fruit. But they

(22:48):
were caught on camera sharing alcoholic fruits. A team of
British researchers studying champanzees in West Africa says they have
not documented primates eating and sharing in alcoholic fruit. The
university team presidents that the cameras were set up in
the Kansasy National Park to capture champanzees sharing fermented African

(23:12):
breadfruit that would later be confirmed to contain ethanol. Yeah,
this is not just your run of the mill boxed
wine these chimpanzees are enjoying.

Speaker 7 (23:22):
No.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
The team studies suggest that the chimpanzees could be using
alcohol for a similar purpose that you and I might do,
which would be to partake in some you know, adult
beverages for humans. We know the drinking alcohol leads to
dolph meine and you know, euphouria in some situations. They're
saying that this might strengthen the bonds between the chimps

(23:46):
sharing in fruit and little wine. I understand, I support it.
I'm here for it. The only thing I have to
say is, maybe we don't watch these champanzees all the time.
Can we give them a little bit of space, a
little bit of privacy. If you and I were having
a party, we wouldn't want cameras all over the place.
This is a big brother. We don't live in a

(24:07):
fish tank. Allow the monkeys to have their fine, maybe
a little monkey business even, but don't put the camera
in the face of the party animals. That's all I'm asking.
Let me be the spokesman. For the chimpanzees. I'll do it.
I'm not afraid of doing that. Okay. Now you might
have seen this story on social media earlier this week.

(24:28):
I was always terrified of quicksand as a child, you're
taught about quicksand it's in your books, it's in your movies,
and you think to yourself, this is going to be
a major problem. I thought I would have more problems
with quicksand, but in fact, I have more problems with
people not putting their directionals on on the highway. That

(24:50):
has been a bigger problem that needs to be addressed. Quicksand, however,
has not really been a problem for you or I.
But this man in Michigan, he became stuck in waste
deep quicksand on the Lake Michigan beach. Now, luckily he
emerged without injuries. And he also did something that many
of us have struggled with. That's a finny girlfriend. Traverse

(25:14):
City resident Mitchell O'Brien, says. Brani Ski said that they
were searching the Leland bluestone at Reynolds Street Beach when
O'Brien took a wrong step about five feet past the
shoreline and sunk like a rock into the stand. Quote.
If it was obviously unstable, we wouldn't have walked out.

(25:34):
But I didn't look that bad. It just looked a
little wet sand, and by the time we were there,
most of it was firm enough to walk on. He
thought well. O'Brien told the Detroit News that his first
thought actually was oh no, not this again. He explained
that the incident quote isn't the first time I've dealt
with something like that on the Great Lakes. O'Brien said
that he escaped his previous predicament by flopping down on

(25:56):
his backside, but this situation was considerably more sticky. Quote.
My left leg it wouldn't move. It's like there was
something holding it underground. It was crazy how hard it
was in there. Now Brian Skia coworkers from the two
thousand or two seventeen Recovery Center, had only recently started
questioning whether their friendship could be something more now. Luckily

(26:19):
they both called nine to one one and they got
there about the same time. I think my girlfriend was
trying to call two, she said, at the same time,
about twenty feet away, my boyfriend is stuck in the sand. Now,
how would you like that? The first time you're officially
going to call each other boyfriend girlfriend is when one
of you get stuck in Quicksand you know, I've heard

(26:41):
it's you know, hard to decide to figure out when
you say I love you to your partner, But it's
even harder to find out when you call yourselves a relationship.
Hey are we talking to other people?

Speaker 5 (26:54):
Hey?

Speaker 1 (26:54):
Are you still on the dating apps? Or what are we?
Nothing will clear all of that up, like falling into
Quicksand I imagine I gotta say to myself too, how
embarrassing would it be that if you have feelings for somebody.
Let's say I'm going out on a date with a girl,
or I'm thinking about asking a girl out on a date,
and I fall into Quicksand instead of saying my boyfriend

(27:15):
stuck in the sand, she's saying he always like a
brother to me. He's stuck in the Quicksand what can
we do? I'm glad that this happy couple is now
going forth, but I will say this stick this in
in health and in quicksand got to keep an eye
on that. And then finally, we've all had Easter egg hunts.
Before we've done the Easter egg hunt but what about

(27:40):
this brewery in Belgium that is swapping painted eggs with
frosty blues. It's the world's largest beer hunt, and again
it's the fifth annual one of these things. I'm glad
that we have it. I'm glad that this is occurring
in Belgium. These seem like very nice people. A thousand
people registering with twelve thousand hidden bottles of beer. Now

(28:02):
talk about a great marketing strategy. I need to get
with some of the people in my life, say hey,
maybe next year we do an Easter egg hunt with
something like that. That doesn't seem like a terrible idea,
and it seems like a great idea if you're a
brewery in Belgium. All right, that is inconceivable today? What
is the most inconceivable The monkey's monkeying around the party animals,
swapping alcoholic fruit, or falling into quicksand and having your

(28:27):
new girlfriend call the police not a bad look, or
of course, the Easter egg hunt. But we're swapping the
eggs for maybe a couple of frosty brews. All inconceivable stories. Nevertheless,
all right, when we come back, we thought it was
inconceivable that this NBA superstar got traded. It was even
more inconceivable what his GM said to defend himself. You know,

(28:50):
we're talking about Unico Harrison coming up next to Gregway.
Show rolls on our number one on sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred The Zone Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone.
Andrew Zim will hanging out with you this Tuesday afternoon.
Don't forget this afternoon, six pm, First Pitch, University of

(29:10):
Texas Travels a bobcat Ballpark take on the Texas State Bobcats.
This has been a weird series between the two teams.
Is a long series between the two teams. It doesn't
seem like the home team wins a lot in the
Texas and Texas universe or Texas State Texas rivalry on
the diamond. Also this weekend Texas A and M. So

(29:32):
you wonder what that pitching staff will look like. Craig
Way joins the show in the four o'clock hour. We'll
talk about pitching and of course what we can expect
from Longhorn Baseball in San Marcus. This evening, six pm,
First Pitch, one oh three to one, Austin Stades Station.
You can also hear it on the Free iHeartRadio app
as well. So when Luka Danci got traded, I would

(29:55):
say ninety nine point ninety nine nine percent of us.
Maybe the only people who didn't, who weren't taken the back,
weren't shocked by that news were Nico Harrison and maybe
Nico Harrison's assistant are the only two people who seem
that we're not surprised that Luca got traded. And we
went back and forth, and Nico spoke in Cleveland right

(30:17):
after the trade occurred, and Jason Kidd was there and
he looked like Jason Kidd was absolutely miserable. I've never
seen anybody more miserable than Jason Kidd in that situation
to be the head coach after trading the franchise player.
Never seen a head coach look as miserable as Jason
Kidd did during that initial press conference. And then we
got word after the Mavericks got knocked out of the

(30:40):
playoffs that there was going to be a press conference,
and we also heard the ESPN's Tim mcmanahan was going
to drop a kind of an expose which would expose
how do we get to this point? And it's weird
to talk in sports expose when it comes to a trade.
But that's really what it was. It came down to
Nico Harrison not really wanting a lot of to lack

(31:03):
of a better word, conflict behind the scenes with other
staff members. Hey, we're gonna get rid of this trainer
who's been here twenty plus years and was Derk Davinsky's guy.
We're gonna get rid of him or replace him with
our guy. We're going to move off of a guy
like Luka Docik because he's not our guy. We want
our guy, Anthony Davis in the building. And all that's
fine and dandy. You could do all of that, but

(31:26):
you need to have results. And the Mavericks missed the
playoffs this season, made the play in missed the playoffs,
and then yesterday the most inconceivable thing outside of the
inconceivable occurred, and that was Nico Harrison decided to speak
to the Dallas Press. And we knew he was going
to do something. We just didn't know what it was

(31:46):
going to be. And we didn't know what the questions
were going to be asked and how they were going
to be phrased. And you got to listen to some
of these questions here is the first one to the
general manager of the Dallas Mavericks.

Speaker 8 (31:58):
The anger and outrage from the fan base? Has that
exceeded what you were kind of planning for? Yeah, good question.
I didn't know that Luca was important to the fan base.
I didn't quite know it to what level.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
So that's firstly and foremost an insane question. Did you
expect to this much hate? Now you have to ask it.
I got a lot of journalists in my life that
have to ask the tough questions to politicians, to police officers,
to general managers. Well, now, yeah, that is what we're
having to do. We have to ask the very difficult
question of Nico Harrison. Were you expecting this much hate?

(32:38):
And you hear him? Well, you know, that was a
good question. I knew he was important to the franchise,
didn't realize how important he was. What are you saying,
How is that possible that you don't know how big
of a deal Luca is in the city of Dallas.
Here's a good lesson for those of you who are
young general managers out there who want to be general managers.
One day, go out into the concourse before a game,

(33:03):
look around. This is a good lesson. There's two big takeaways.
If your concourse was full of jerseys of players who
no longer play there, older players, Hall of Fame players,
and there's not a lot of jerseys of the current team,
that's a bad sign. That means you have no marketable stars,
or you're not marketing your stars well enough. That is

(33:24):
a bad sign. The other bad sign is that you're considering.
You're thinking, Hey, maybe we're gonna trade a guy. We're
gonna make a move, We're gonna get rid of a player.
I wonder how the fan base will react. Let's go
to the concourse. Let's look around the concourse. Hey, ninety
percent of the jerseys in our concourse, guys buying popcorn,
guys getting sodas and hot dogs are wearing number seventy

(33:46):
seven jerseys with Luca on the back of them. Hey,
maybe this isn't a great idea that we make this trade. Now,
that first and foremost is an insane thing for Nico Harrison,
the general manager of the Dallas Mavericks, to say, I
didn't know how big of a deal this was going
to beat. But let's hear maybe the wildest questions ever
asked in a media press conference, Why why shouldn't you

(34:12):
be fired?

Speaker 9 (34:15):
Well, One, I think I've done a really good job
here and I don't think I can be judged by
the injuries this year. You have to judge from totality
from beginning to end, and so I think I have
a really good working relationship with Patrick.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
So Patrick being the ownership group and everybody else who
did the president of basketball operations for the Dallas Mavericks.
But why should you be fired? Now? The lead up
to that question was, Hey, you know there was fire
and Nico Chance when Luca returned to Dallas as media members, Yeah,
we get mean tweets all the time, but we never
get the vitriol that you got in that game. Fire

(34:54):
and Nico Chance. At a game like that, a homecom
for Luka Dancik and the fans obviously are on the
side of the player and not of the ownership or
the general manager. Now, Charles Barkley has been known to
say a thing or two. He's been known to open
his mouth and put his foot in it, and he's
been known to get in some hot waters with the

(35:15):
things that he has to say. He was on TNT
last night he gave Nico Harrison a little bit of
a little bit of advice.

Speaker 10 (35:22):
Nico Harrison, I consider you a friend of mine. I
wish you nothing but the best. I thought you did
a good job last year with the MAVs, and obviously
whatever happened this year didn't work out. Man, don't do
no more press conferences like I don't even know what
you're doing.

Speaker 11 (35:37):
I really don't like. I got sympathy and love.

Speaker 10 (35:41):
For you, but I have zero idea what you're trying
to do. This war is over, brother, you you go
up to take you taken the l I hope you
keep your job.

Speaker 5 (35:51):
I hope that team get healthy.

Speaker 10 (35:53):
But man, don't do any more interviews.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Please don't, no, please do please, do as many interviews
as you want to do. Please open your mouth and
talk at nauseum about the Dallas Mavericks and what the
plans are moving forward for this organization. I will give
him credit. I'll give Nico Harrison a little bit of
credit here. He had an idea at a blueprint. He said,
you know what, let's go get in a Anthony Davis

(36:17):
type of guy, and let's pair him with Kyrie Irving.
Let's have PJ. Washington, and we have Klaik Thompson as
a shooter, and this is maybe one of the best
teams ever put together on a two K roster with
the injuries turned off, this is one of the best
rosters you can put together on paper. But the problem,
of course is that those guys did not play together.
They didn't play enough games together or even play a

(36:40):
playoff series next to each other. And you obviously look
at this and you say, you don't give up a
generational talent, top five player in the league for a
guy over the hill at thirty years old in Anthony Davis,
whose nickname colloquially is day to day Davis, that he
doesn't play every single game. And you can't say the
reason we got rid of Lucas because we're a defensive

(37:02):
defense wins championships. We are trying to bring in a
defensive culture that Anthony Davis obviously hope you hope would
do for you. But this is a marvelous, marvelous job
by Nika Harrison. Very rarely do we see a general
manager able to turn the city against him as quickly

(37:22):
as he did. We're gonna hear from the other general
manager later in the show in Dallas, Oh By the way,
he also owns the team that Jerry Jones, we'll hear
from him because he even had thoughts on the Luca trade. Yeah,
how bad it is that Jerry Jones and the week
of the NFL Draft is talking about your team and
your misstep in trading your player. It's not great. When

(37:46):
we come back, hour two of the Craigway Show rolls on,
we'll talk NFL Draft all coming up next Andrews I
will sitting in on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred the
Zone coach. What are the expectations you have expectations for
NFL Draft.

Speaker 4 (38:01):
I don't have expectations, you know, I am unfortunately. You know,
as I tell these guys when when we're getting ready
to uh, when we're recruiting them. You know, this is
one of the few times in high school where you
get to choose where you get to go to school.
And a lot of these guys, obviously they all chose
to come to the University of Texas for all the
different reasons which we've touched on.

Speaker 5 (38:22):
This is a different process.

Speaker 4 (38:24):
This is when they choose you, and so many times
it's about going to the right fit.

Speaker 5 (38:29):
You know, everybody wants to get.

Speaker 4 (38:31):
As drafted as early as possible because it feels good
in the moment, right that the sooner you go, the
better it feels.

Speaker 5 (38:36):
The longer have to wait.

Speaker 4 (38:38):
But in reality, a it's about where are you going
and are you a good fit for that scheme and
that coaching staff? And then two what do you do
with the opportunity?

Speaker 9 (38:48):
Right?

Speaker 4 (38:48):
So there's that instantaneous moment of hearing your name called
and watching the name go across the ticker, and that's
a great feeling. But at that moment you got to
shift gears mentally and Okay, now how am I going
to attack this next opportunity. So I'll touch base with
those guys as we get closer to Thursday, stay connected
to them. Uh, my phone has started to go like

(39:10):
it usually does around this time of the year, with
with with head coaches and general managers starting to call
and you know, getting that last piece of information that
they're looking forward, whether there's practice, habits off the field,
whatever those things are. But but I think a lot
of our guys are in a great spot. I'm hopeful
a ton of our guys get drafted, you know, because
I think a lot of the of our players will

(39:31):
really be assets for the organizations that that that that
that choose them that they go to.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, and you look at the mock drafts and the
Longhorns have multiple guys going in the first round depending
on what draft you look at. But one of the
guys as a former quarterback. And we saw throughout the
draft process, between the combine and the Pro Day and
everything else like that, Sarkisian had to talk about his
former number one quarterback Queen viewers, you got to ask

(39:56):
a question, how gratifying it is to put a guy
in an orange playing the position that you played in
college to play the position that you coach in the
NFL quarterbacks? How gratifying is it to get Quinn into
the league.

Speaker 4 (40:09):
It's exciting, you know, the quarterback thing. Obviously, just because
of my history, it kind of hits home a little
bit differently. But but I surely want every position group
group to have guys.

Speaker 5 (40:24):
Getting drafted, right, I mean drafted.

Speaker 4 (40:26):
And the fact that we've got more d lineman going
in the draft again this year, We've got another running
back in the draft this year, We've got more receivers,
We've we've got dbs, and so the fact that we're
we're putting players in the NFL at multiple positions, and
now here's our first, excuse me, our first quarterback. I
think is a good sign for us that we're developing
players at multiple positions, especially at that one, because it

(40:48):
is so critical to the success of any football team.
If you don't have a quarterback gets really hard. And
we've been fortunate to have a good one for the
last three years and Quinn it's going to make a
great pro and now we've got to recreate it here
with Arch and then Trey and kJ So it's all
part of the process. But I'm proud of Quinn. He's

(41:09):
worked really hard. Somebody's going to get a very good player.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
And Quinn, you weers again, hope that he goes early
in the draft. You want to see his name go.
You like to have the kind of the bragging rights
obviously as a fan that, hey, my quarterback got me
to the College Bable playoffs two years in a row,
got me to the Collegeable semi finals two years in
a row. You also want to see him go to
a team where he is successful, because even if your

(41:35):
quarterback at the college level didn't get as many wins
as you'd like watching him win Super Bowls is gratifying.
You can ask Texas tech fans about Patrick Mahomes. You
want to see your guy go into a position that
he is going to be successful. You wanted him to
go to a position where he can find the most
success possible. And we played a little bit of the

(41:56):
John Gruden clips with Quinn from earlier this week where
he had a quarterback camp. Talking to Quinn about the
development and what he does on the whiteboard and his leadership.
He mentioned a former Longhorn when talking about quinn yours,
col McCoy. Cobakoy has a decade long career plus in
the NFL by being a guy that is able to

(42:17):
communicate with the line of scrimmage and communicate in the
locker room, something that Quinn excelled at while at the
University of Texas. But head coach Steve Sarkagan, you heard
him mention Trey and kJ Well talk about the process
not only about arch Manning who's going to be QB one,
but those guys behind him and how they developed in

(42:38):
that quarterback room.

Speaker 4 (42:39):
You know, it's it's it's interesting to watch quarterbacks for us.
And I always say this because I think arch is
kind of the epitome of this. But I'm learning now
that we've had some scrimmages now that that Trey and
kJ fall into the same mold. There's guys that when
you are warming up and they throw a pretty ball,

(43:01):
and when you throw routes on air, man they can
just they don't miss. They keep throwing it perfectly and perfectly,
and then they get into seven on seven and maybe
the accuracy starts to diminish a little. And then you
get into team periods and the footwork starts getting off
and the ball's a little erratic, and then it's now
you get into a game setting and their eyes start
dropping and they're looking at the rush. These three guys

(43:24):
we have right here are totally opposite. When we're in walkthrough,
they're good players. I mean, they're okay, they're fine. When
we're in routes on air, I'm all over their ass
because I want more accuracy. We get into seven on seven,
it gets competitive and they start throwing a little better ball.
We get into team you can start to see the fire.

(43:45):
But all three of these guys this spring have played
their best when we've scrimmaged. That's a really good sign
for us that their level of play, and Tray and
kJ in particular, because I don't have as much information
on them, their level of play does this all of
a sudden. I saw kJ Lacey's mobility and athleticism show

(44:05):
up in Thursday night scrimmage, and him extending plays and
him coaching guys on the situations.

Speaker 5 (44:10):
And him being really a really vocal legal leader.

Speaker 4 (44:14):
I saw Trey Owens make a couple of really good
throws and critical moments that when we had to have
it to probably throw it better in that setting than
he did in the individual routes period. And so that's
a great sign for us. And so we can keep
working on the nuances, the footwork, those things, but the
competitive spirit is something that is hard to inject into somebody,
and those two guys definitely have that.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
We'll hear more from head coach Steve Sarkijian as the
program rolls on. As we begin to hour number three
as well, we'll hear from a coach Stark. But don't
forget tomorrow. Sarkisian joins Craig Way right here on the
Cragway Show two PM hours, so you don't want to
miss it. Set your alarms for it. The head coach
of the Texas Longhorns joins Craig to talk all things

(44:56):
Longhorn football and of course gets you ready for the spring.
This is and the fan appreciation everything else that comes
This Saturday at a DKR. When we come back though
NBA playoffs are in full swing, I'm gonna tell you
which team must win tonight and which team is already
packing their bags to go home. All coming up next

(45:16):
on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone AM thirteen
hundred The Zone. Craig joins the program in the four
o'clock hour, talking Texas Baseball. He is at bobcat Ballpark
for tonight's matchup Longhorns versus Bobcats from San Marcus six pm.
First pitch on one O three one, Austin's eighty station

(45:37):
in your home for Texas Baseball, and make sure you
listen on the free iHeartRadio app and do an improved
app allows you to set presets. Make us your Numero
uno precepts the same way you would do it in
your car, you can do it on your app. That
is right, Make us your every one pre SAT. Make
one O three one a pre set. You can do
all of them everywhere you can. Hear Longhorn, Athletics should

(46:00):
be on your preset. Make life easy for you. It's easy,
easy to do, all right, So Texas, let's go here.
We'll shift gears talk NBA playoffs because the NBA playoffs
begin of or should I say begun, and the series
are only beginning because it's not a real series until

(46:23):
the home team loses a game. When a road dog
can go in and win a game, when a series
is tied one to one, that is when the series
truly begins. You should be able to defend home court.
You should be able to do what the Indiana Pacers
did this weekend and win Game number one against the
Milwaukee Bucks. Now the Bucks are getting Damian Lillard back.

(46:47):
He's a game time decision. It sounds like he's going
to be able to play with that blood clot deep
thrombosis that he had going on in his calf. It
appears that he's willing and ready to go. It's kind
of scary anytime you have a blood clot and you're
a professional athlete. Victor Woman Yama dealt with one. Had
to get surgery as well to deal with his deep

(47:09):
thrown bosis in his shoulder. Dane didn't have to have surgery,
just got in the blood thinners. Seems like he's will
ready to go. Seems like he's willing to go. The
Bucks and the Pacers played a night in Game number
one on NBA TV six pm tip. I am interested,
but I'm not moved. Even though Tyrese Halliburton was voted
by the players in the Athletic Poll as the most

(47:30):
overrated NBA player, this is a series to me between
the Bucks and the Pacers that the winner of it
will not make that much more. Know what's in the playoffs.
I don't see a world where Pacers or Bucks are
trying to win a championship this season. I just don't.
The winner of the series would play the one seed,
the Cleveland Cavaliers most likely. I'm not thrilled by that.

(47:54):
In the entire Midwest region it congratulations, it's Hoosier Hoops.
I'm not that moved. I am moved by the other
two games tonight because the Memphis Grizzlies fired their head coach,
and we knew that this was the beginning of the end.
Even if they're the eight seed, fire a head coach
getting rid of your general manager is not That does

(48:17):
not bode well for confidence in a team. It does
not bode well for me to have confidence in you.
And then losing by a historic, a record breaking fifty
one points in the playoffs, just pack your bags and
go home. Yo, you play a game two tonight in
Oklahoma City and your bags are already packed to go
to the airport and go back to Memphis. But unpack

(48:40):
immediately when you get home and start packing for Cancun.
Because the season's done. It's over. And I made the
point after watching the first seven minutes eight minutes of
the Thunder and Grizzlies game on Sunday. I made the
point to a friend. I said, at this point, if
this turns into a forty point blowout, can we just
cancel the series in Oklahoma City? Just protect themselves, make

(49:02):
sure they don't get injured, make sure their stars and
CHET and SGA are good to go for the rest
of the playoffs. Can a fifty point loss eliminate you
for the playoffs entirely? I would add for intrigue, wouldn't it.
I'm not watching a blowout, but if I know that
the winner of this game, if it turns into a
blowout and gets to a historic margin of loss that

(49:24):
the loser has done could put out. Don't even get
a flight back to Memphis. Have your bags travel by
themselves to Cancun with you for you go on vacation immediately,
because it looked like the Grizzlies were completely checked out.
The organization's obviously checked out if you get rid of
the head coach right before the playoffs. And John Moran
with all of the noise going around with him, the controversy,

(49:47):
the on court celebration issues that he's been having where
and the NBA made him a simple request. There's an
easy request. It's the same way that you asked your
kids to pick up after themselves. They asked to please
don't shoot any fans with your finger guns. Please don't
make us scene we already have in the IMAGESI we're
already struggling in the ratings. Please don't make this any

(50:09):
bigger a deal than it already is. And what he
did was not that start throwing grenades into the crowd.
Air grenades into the crowd. This series is done. It's
over with. Please, Oklahoma City, do us all a favor.
You're the six thirty game on TNT. At least give
us something to be excited. Give me a fifty point

(50:29):
SGA game. Don't foul hunt, don't don't throw your body
into guys, SGA. Please don't do that. Just give us
something to be excited about. Maybe a sixty point blowout.
Maybe could you do that for us? Because I'm not
enthused at all about this Thunder Grizzly series. I had
a little bit of hope for it, and that hope
extinguished within the first quarter of the first game in

(50:53):
the series. But tonight, Lakers and Grizzlies, Now that's a series.
That's a game I can get excited for. And even
though it's at nine PM, I'm gonna make myself a
pot of coffee when I get home because I can't nap,
I can't go to sleep. I have to stay up
to watch this game. I have to see what the
outcome of this one will be. Because this matchup between

(51:14):
the Minnesota Grizzlies and LA Lakers is by far, to me,
the most exciting matchup in the playoffs. In the NBA
Playoffs first round, this matchup excites me the most because
there is a ton of talk around Luka Dacik. There's
a ton of talk a Brown year, twenty two, Lebron James,
but all of that could come to an end with

(51:35):
Anthony Edwards. All that could come to a team that
went to the NBA Finals last season, blew it up,
decided to get rid of Carl Anthony Towns, decided to
bring in Julius Randall. They almost said it was too
easy last year. We want to tie our hand behind
our back. We want to make it more difficult to
try to get back to the NBA Western Conference Finals.
We want to try to make it more difficult on ourselves.

(51:56):
And the way we're gonna do it is we're gonna
move off of our second scoring option in Karl Anthony Towns.
We're going to send them to New York. We're going
to bring in an absolute dud in Julius Randall. But
we can do this because we know that Anthony Edwards
is that good of a player, We know that he
is that exciting a player, we know that he is
that electric of a player that we know that he's
going to be able to single handedly beat any team

(52:17):
that we put in front of him. And even though
there's only a game that separated them in the regular season,
the Pronostigators, the gas bags, everybody has essentially penciled the
Lakers in to the Western Conference Finals. That they said,
you know what, it doesn't matter that Minnesota has good
depth at the wing position in Nas Reed and Jayden Daniels.

(52:38):
It doesn't matter that Anthony Edwards is a first team
All NBA caliber player. Does not matter about any of that.
We're going to pencil Lakers into the Western Conference Finals
because they made a trade at the deadline for Luka Dacik,
and I'm hoping that that's not the case Minnesota leaves
one to zero. I'm hoping that going to LA and
take both games before coming back to Minnesota, really put

(53:01):
the Lakers fans in harm's way, make them concerned, make
them nervous about the rest of the series. That is
what I'm looking forward to tonight, nine pm. Minnesota and LA.
All Right, when we come back, we'll wrap up our
number two. Talk a little Texas baseball as they travel
to San Marcus take on the Bobcats this afternoon, six pm.
First pitch on one O three one. We'll have it

(53:21):
next on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Sports
Radio AM thirteen hundred the Zone. As we wrap up
our number two of the craig Ways show, our three
Jam packed craig Way joins us from bobcat Ballpark to

(53:44):
preview Texas and Texas State tonight six pm on one
O three one. We also have you know Memphis, what
are they going to do? Taking on the Oklahoma ce
Thunder And Steve Sarcasian spoke on a series X Sam
earlier today about the transfer portal and I mentioned his

(54:05):
former kicker. Yeah, why did Auburn leave the University of
Texas gives us a little bit of insight on some
of those decisions made by players. Yeah, so we got
a jam packed our number three for you as well.
The Texas Baseball Steve sark or Jim Slashnagle when he

(54:27):
came over from Texas A and M. Obviously a lot
of fanfare, obviously a lot of expectations for this team,
and the University of Texas has been one of the
best teams in college baseball this season. Now part of
the reason that they've been able to do what they've
done this year thirty three and five record roll through teams,
roll through the SEC and be one of the best

(54:49):
teams in the country is because they play with fluidity.
There's not a lot of tension. It seems like there's
a lot of ability to relax. How do you play
as loose as you do?

Speaker 11 (55:03):
Yeah, they're loose, this is for sure.

Speaker 10 (55:05):
You know.

Speaker 12 (55:05):
They they it's a slow burn for them to get
ready for a game, but once once it comes on
and they show up. So that's a tribute to the
leadership and a tribute to the not just the guys
that play, but the character the kids on the bench,
you know service and you know Jonah when he wasn't playing,
and all the other guys, the pitchers aren't pitching. You
know there it's a fun dugout to be in and

(55:27):
they're confident.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
You don't want to jinx anything, and I jinxed it
earlier this season when you spoke about the winning streak
and everything else like that. You don't want to jinx anything.
But the Longhorns of this season have not lost a series,
they haven't lost a weekend series. To this point. They're
sixteen and two in conference play. They are one of
the best teams, one of the best hitting teams. And

(55:50):
even though that they've dealt with a little bit of
divert adversity when it comes to injuries. The injury bug
comes from everybody. Nobody's spared from injuries. Season in Max
Blue being the largest name that has dealt with an injury,
a thumb injury that led to surgery out six weeks.
He may be back for a tournament time. He may

(56:10):
be back for a run, come playoff, come NCAA tournament time.
But you don't want to put any eggs in that basket.
You want him to heal up completely, and then you
have to find how do you fill that hole in
left field. Long words have been able to do it,
but it is still something that they struggle with. Obviously,
this has been one of the best team's point plank period,

(56:31):
one of the best first seasons for any coaching college
baseball that Jim Slashnangle has been able to put together
for Texas. Now they go to Texas State this evening,
a six pm first pitch. You're worried about who the
starting pitcher will be. You want to save pitching for
this weekend series against Texas A and M. Obviously there's
a rivalry there. Obviously, you want to defend your home

(56:55):
field too, and this is the first time that Jim
Slashnangle faced off against his former time team in the Yankees.
There's a lot of secondary storylines here. There's a lot
of stuff that's going on behind the scenes. There's a
lot of stuff going on on the internet when it
comes to the weekend series. But you got to focus
on the task at hands in that against Texas State.
Are you worried We've mentioned about winning sixteen games in

(57:17):
the SEC to this point, Are you worried about peaking
too early?

Speaker 2 (57:20):
No?

Speaker 11 (57:21):
I know, I mean, I don't you know you want to.

Speaker 12 (57:23):
I mean, we're certainly playing without Blu and got guys
playing out a position. But but no, there's I mean,
Tennessee won the national championship last year and they peaked
pretty much through all sixty games or however many it was.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
See, that's what you like to hear too from your
head coaches. Hey, we're not peaking early. We have a standard,
we have a consistency. We're trying to keep that consistency.
We're trying to continue to roll win over win over,
win over win. And like I said, tonight's matchup against
Texas State is not an easy matchup by any means.
This is a team in the Bobcats that have been

(57:57):
up and down the season. They're below five hundred conference play.
They struggle at home for some odd reason, but they
show up against Texas power for teams against Baylor, TCU,
Texas A and M and Texas. This is a team
that consistently for whatever reason, whether it be because the
ballpark is completely packed, whether it be because Texas has

(58:20):
a bulls eye on their back as a top five
team in the country, whether it be because they are
the number one flagship program in the state, whatever it be.
You get your best games when the long Runs come
to town. You get you play your best games when
Texas comes to town. And that loss earlier this season,
a five to three loss at home against the Bobcats,

(58:42):
I can't imagine is probably in the back of some
players' minds this afternoon that this is not a game
that you're going to take lightly by any means. This
is a team in the Longhorns that wants to win,
and maybe again it's best dish best served on the road.

(59:04):
When you go down the records of both these teams
when they play each other. In the last five years,
the Texas State has done very well in Austin for
some reason, and the Longhorns have done even better in
San Marcos. We'll talk to Craig about it. Coming up
in the next hour at four seventeen, he'll join the
program with Keith Morland from the ballpark to preview this
afternoon's matchup. But I want to get this in here,

(59:26):
a little NFL news and notes for you. Peter Schreiger
was on Get Up this morning talking about phone calls
being made in the top half of this year's NFL draft.

Speaker 13 (59:38):
There have been phone calls made to both the Browns
at two and the Giants at three with the intention
to move up from several different sources telling me there
are teams who are looking to get up in this
draft to either the two or the three spot. The
assumption being to move up to the two or the
three spot would be four Abdulla Carter, Travis Hunter or

(01:00:00):
the running back Ashton Genty, who everyone expects to go
somewhere in that five to seven to eight range. There
have been teams making calls, and those teams are not
immediately slamming down the phone the Browns at two the
Giants at three.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
So some of you keep your eye on. As we
get more and more mock drafts, as we see more
and more information, and the NFL gms have their final
press conferences today before Thursday's NFL Draft. Maybe we see
some moves happening in the next forty eight hours, is ish.
Maybe we see some moves occurring in the next two
days between teams trading up and trading back. I am

(01:00:39):
still very much on the side of you do not
draft a running back. I don't care how good Ashton
Gent is. I don't care how good O'mary Hampton is.
I'm going for the trenches offensive defensive line, and I'm
looking for team needs. If you're the Dallas Cowboys, the
Houston Texans, or whatever team, I'm not going and drafting
a running back so high, let alone trading picks or

(01:01:03):
pieces or money or players to try to move up
into the top three to go get a running back.
With that being said, if you are the Cleveland Browns
or the New York Giants and you know we're going
after a quarterback, we know that quarterbacks are not going
to go very quickly in this draft, that this is

(01:01:24):
a draft that is quarterback heavy, with Jackson Dart and
Will Howard and quinn Ewers, who will all be available
potentially on day number two. Maybe I do trade back,
Maybe I do try to get a treasure chest of picks,
and maybe I can go get a player and build
for the future, turn a top five pick into multiple
picks later in this draft and maybe next year's first

(01:01:46):
round or second round. If I'm a team with that pick,
I don't mind moving off of it if I know
that the guy that I really want or the position
that I really need is available later in the draft.
Peter Schreger get up earlier this morning on ESPN, saying
the phones are ringing, people are wanting to make deals.
It comes down to will the Browns or the Giants

(01:02:08):
make a move to trade back. We'll find out all
right when we come back our number three of The
Cragway Show, Steve Souskejan spoke to the media. He also
talked about the transfer portal and bert Auburn leaving all
coming up next on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone,
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone Andrew Zim We'll
hanging out with you this Tuesday, a Tuesday edition of

(01:02:31):
The Craigway Show. As we roll into our number three
of the program. Make sure you go listen to the
podcast if you missed any of the fun that we've
had this afternoon. Craig joins the program later this hour
from bobcat Ballpark is the Texas Longhorns and Texas State.
Bobcats get ready to go on the Diamonds six pm,

(01:02:51):
first pitch on one O three one, Austin's eighty station.
Can hear it on the free and new and improved
iHeartRadio app as well. A lot of different ways you
can listen a lot of different ways. You can set
us as your preset as well, but we're checking all
the boxes. We're doing everything we need to do. Set
us in your pre set and listen to Craig this
evening with Keith Morland on the call on one oh

(01:03:14):
three one. As Texas takes on Texas State, It's going
to be a good game. Bobcats consistently give a lot
more fight, it seems, when it comes to Longhorns and
Aggie's and Baylor Bears and horn Frugs than they do
when it comes to the Sunbelt Conference. It's been a
head scratcher for me. It's been a head scratcher for
Podcat fans. Tonight's matchup is going to be an exciting one.

(01:03:37):
I went back and forth. I was predicting a score
of a friend of mine who went to Texas State
with me, and I said seven to Texas. He said, you
know the way Texas State plays Power four teams inconceivably
better than they play their conference opponents. He said, give
me five four Texas State. So it's going to be
a good game either way. We have Craig joining us later.

(01:03:58):
We also have NBA playoff talk. We need to get into.
Did Kawhi Leonard's playoff game last night? Thirty nine points
on efficient shooting jump him up your all time legacy list?
Is this legacy series for Kawhi Leonard and then LA Clippers.
We'll talk about it later in the hour as well.
And Steve Sarkejian spoke to the media. He also spoke

(01:04:20):
to Series XM's College Sports Danny Kelly and uh It
was one of the guys who was interviewing him this
morning on the show, and he talked about building environment
and the transfer portal. Obviously, transfer portal nil two of
the buzzwords, two of the things that college sports fans
and the media general gravitate to we want to hear

(01:04:42):
about how coaches are re recruiting. Anytime I bring any
coach on my podcast, I asked them about, Hey, what
did you say to this individual or that individual, whether
it be a high school recruit or a recruit the
transfer portal? What did you sell them on your program?
How did you sell them on the campus? How do
you sell them on the culture? You want to build

(01:05:02):
something where you're at. If you're a college sports coach,
men's sports, women's sports, football, hockey, does not matter. You're
trying to build an environment. Sarkisian spoke at length about
building that in this transfer portal era.

Speaker 7 (01:05:15):
We've tried to create an environment that one is fair.
I'm not going to sit here and say that, hey,
our guests don't have nil that I'm not I'm not
gonna I'm not.

Speaker 11 (01:05:23):
Going to do that.

Speaker 7 (01:05:23):
But the point is we try to be fair. We
try to be honest. We try to be transparent as
far as where guys are at in our program, what
they need to work on, what they're doing right, maybe
what they can improve upon. You know that we even
added here is really simple. The standard is a standard,
and if you're not meeting that standard, then then it's
our responsibility to let you know.

Speaker 5 (01:05:44):
And if you're.

Speaker 7 (01:05:45):
Exceeding the standard, it's our responsibility to let you know.
And that's as a team, that's as individual players in
the program.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
See that's huge to me because what you want out
of your head coach, your boss, your manager does not matter.
The person who is in charge of you helping you
with your growth, whether it be on the football field,
the classroom, or in your work. You want that person
to give you insight on what you're doing well and
what you can do better. That is what you're asking for.

(01:06:12):
That is a simple ask and to say, hey, we're
building an environment that we're telling guys when they come
into the program, this is where you're going to be.
Do you know how many of these transfer portal stories
would be solved if the head coach was just completely transparent,
if the assistant coach who was recruiting the kid was
completely transparent. I know, I'm living in wonderland, I'm living

(01:06:35):
in a rainbow world asking for this, but it makes
it so much easier in life's so much simpler. If
you have an eighteen to twenty two year old who's
calling you asking about your program and you tell them
straight up, listen, you come here, you're going to be
wide receiver two, you're going to be wide receiver four.
You're going to get playing time. Well, in fact that
this position there's not a lot of playing time, and

(01:06:57):
in this defensive scheme, you're not going to see the
field as much as a nickel. Okay, you know how
much simpler life would be if head coaches and coaches
just in general and college sports were transparent. And you'll
hear coaches say, well, we try to be as transparent
as we can be. Maybe that I tend to believe
that when you're talking to Steve Starkesian from what he

(01:07:19):
said to West's media members and the information I've gotten
from other head coaches, and I have the information I've
gotten from other coaches in college sports that this is
one of those programs in the University of Texas, it's
relatively transparent. That's pretty hey, upfront, above board, everything's on
the table. Let's have an honest discussion on this conversation.

(01:07:40):
Years prior, twenty thirty years ago, you might have had
a coach who's gonna lie to a kid because you're
not going to transfer and if you do transfer, you
got to waste a year of eligibility. So if I
can get you in the building, odds are I'm keeping
you here for four years. Kid, I'm sorry you don't
like insert university here, but you nowhere else you can go.
There's nowhere else you can what you can do, There's

(01:08:02):
nowhere you can go. But now it's a fluid situation.
So you not only have to recruit a kid, but
you have to re recruit the kid. And if you're
going to be completely honest with him and transparent with him,
like Steve Sarkisian says that he is, and that he
says the Longhorns are that helps build trust, helps build culture,
and it keeps the standard being the standard. But sometimes
guys do leave. In the case of Burt Auburn, the

(01:08:25):
kicker for the Longhorns, and he spoke about not only
that situation, but guys leaving in general.

Speaker 7 (01:08:32):
I think we've created an environment where guys really want
to be here. They don't have to be here. They're
working towards a common goal. There's a commitment towards something
that when I mentioned the portal opening the day that
it opened, we didn't have anybody kind of going in
before and open. I said, I hope, I hope nobody
wants to leave. You know, I know a lot of
programs should try to create space and move players. I said,

(01:08:54):
I hope nobody else wants to leave. I hope that
we've created an environment for you here that makes it
really different cult for you to want to leave, and
understandably so that some of you probably will have to,
just because that's the nature of the beast. And unfortunately
we've had a couple of guys going. We'd had a
kicker go in that man. He was he was a
kicker for us for three years and made some massive kicks,

(01:09:15):
but because it's going into a senior year in a
competition all these things, he felt like he had to
move on. And I understand that in Burt Auburn, but man,
those are hard guys to leave your program.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Yeah, especially not only a kicker in Burt Auburn who
was relatively good. I know Longhorn fans online weren't exactly
thrilled them sometimes, but I always considered him a pretty
standard college kicker all things being equal. Now, the Longhorns
did get Mason Shipley to replace him in the transfer portal,
and a Shipley is a very good kicker, So it's
not like it's a complete loss at that position, but

(01:09:47):
it is a loss of knowledge when it comes to
the program. Now, again, if you're a college sports fan,
you may have a love hate relationship with your kicker.
You might have had a love hate relationship with Auburn. Okay,
that's completely fine, and you're going to have to work
through whatever you're working through here when it comes to
college kickers. I know I go to therapy at least
once a week during the college football season because of

(01:10:09):
some college kickers. Okay, I'll be honest with you. But
the institutional knowledge that you lose in the portal, whether
it be a long staff or a kicker, a gunner
on the special teams, if they've been in your program
for three years, that's three years of leadership. That's three
years of guys who have come through and given them

(01:10:30):
knowledge and given them ways that not only the program works,
but the school works, and the coaching staff work in
the training room works. And again, very few college fans
are going to shed many tiers over their college kicker leaving, right,
just that's not the nature of the beast, but it
is important. It is something that we need to take

(01:10:52):
into account. It is something that needs to be brought
up and needs to be thought about, and it's important
to hear Sark talk about, Hey, we're trying to build
a culture here that nobody wants to leave. All of
us who weren't college athletes. If you went to college
and you majored in fun like a lot of us did,

(01:11:12):
the best time of your life is college. If you're
a college athlete, you want that to be similar. Now,
obviously you can't have nearly as much fun as a
chat and Tha at Delta House, right, but you want
to have fun. You want when you walk across the
stage there to be a panang of sadness that you're
leaving the institution. When I go through my college town,

(01:11:33):
I have to stop constantly. I have to pull over,
go to a place that I went when I was
there and say, hey, I'm back, I'm back. I missed it.
You miss your college town. That's what you want to do.
And when you're a college athlete, you want your athletes
to miss the organization. You want your athletes to want
to give back, obviously, and that's exactly why Longhorns aren't

(01:11:55):
suffering like other teams are with guys jumping in the
transfer portal immediately. That's why the Longhorns aren't struggling with
getting guys on campus and keeping them on campus. Yeah,
it helps to have the Longhorn on the side of
the helmet, and it helps with the nil deals that
Sark spoke about. But there's a lot more that goes
into it, all right, when we come back more Texas

(01:12:16):
Longhorn Baseball as Craig Way, Keith Morland at the ballpark
and Nico Harrison. I'm wanting you to have a documentary series.
Charles Barkin's asking to shut your mouth. You decide what
you're gonna do, all right, when we come back, More
on the Craigway Show on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
The Zone. Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Andrew

(01:12:40):
zim will hanging out with you this Tuesday afternoon. Now,
Nico Harrison has been an enigma wrapped in a riddle
for some people because he decided to trade his franchise.
Is best player in Luca Dancik two the LA Lakers,
who are now battling for their lives in Game number two,
tonight in LA against the Ministerta Timberwolves. But Nico has

(01:13:04):
heard a lot, and we'll get to some of his
quotes here in a second, but it really says something
when it goes over the top, when it gets to
the point where you have guys like the General Mana,
you're an owner of the Dallas Cowboys winging in.

Speaker 14 (01:13:23):
Well, I'm a fan of the Mavericks, big fan of
the Mavericks, and consequently a big fan of Luco. The
world knows that I've got my hands full thinking about
what we think about over here, much less trying to
figure out I look at the Mavericks through very much

(01:13:43):
entertainment I and I know Luca was a personal friend
and watched a lot of games with us and would
hope that he would be able to watch more games
with us as we go along. Know his family pretty well,
and there's support staff pretty well. So all of that

(01:14:04):
is just one as a fan.

Speaker 11 (01:14:07):
Now, Jane was.

Speaker 14 (01:14:10):
All State, scored seventeen straight free throws in the state
championship game, and Jane lives and dies with that basketball
and just cried when Luca left. But I understand that,
and I understand frankly, you say how could that happen.
I've got a little bit probably better understanding how something

(01:14:33):
like that can happen.

Speaker 1 (01:14:34):
I was going through I was trying to find a
player that the Dallas Cowboys have traded. It's to the
level that Luka Doncik Is or ever was. And he's
at the ballpark right now. We'll get his thoughts on
this here, Craig. Do you remember a Dallas Cowboy player
as big of a deal as Luca that got moved

(01:14:54):
in the Jerry Jones era?

Speaker 6 (01:14:57):
Not moved in terms of trade, but unsigned, unresigned you
might say, allowed to leave via free agency. Then I
would say you could go down that road. But I mean,
you know, for example, there were some things in place,
like at the end of Emmett Smith's era, they weren't

(01:15:19):
going to resign him. He winds up going to the Cardinals,
and then he comes back to retire as a cowboy,
you know.

Speaker 11 (01:15:26):
Things like that.

Speaker 6 (01:15:27):
But not a superstar in his prime or coming into
his prime that they just up and traded away.

Speaker 11 (01:15:38):
No, that I don't remember.

Speaker 1 (01:15:40):
No, That's what I've been saying this entire time. Now,
Craig Way, he's at Bobcat Ballpark for tonight's matchup between
the Texas Longhorns and Texas State Bobcat six pm, first
pitch on one O three one, US's eighty station on
the free iHeartRadio app. Craig, thanks for joining us. Let's
get into it. This is a redemption game. Is the
revenge game for the Texas Longhorns after losing in Austin

(01:16:01):
the last time these two teams played.

Speaker 6 (01:16:04):
Yeah, let me put it to you this way, Zim
that they want to win this game. It is a
midweek game, It is a it is a game. It
affects your RPI. If they were to lose tonight, they
would probably take a little bit of an RPI hit
their number two in the country in the RPI. And
I was just talking about this just a moment ago

(01:16:26):
with Jim Slasnagel down on the field. We had a
unique situation over the weekend where the Longhorns won all
three of their games. They swept the eighth ranked team
in the country. They beat Auburn and moved one spot
from three to two. Georgia got swept over the weekend,

(01:16:48):
but it was on the road, it was at Vanderbilt,
and they moved to number one in the RPI, And
I said, do you find that kind of intriguing and
he said yeah, but he said, what I've learned over
time is the SEC kind of takes care of its own,
both good and bad. You know, you can kind of
cannibalize on one another, but it also build your strength

(01:17:09):
and your RPI and things like that. And he said,
if we're winning the games we're supposed to win and
doing those things, then I think will be okay. But
you know, you don't want to lose a midweek road
non conference team to a conference game to a sub
five hundred team. I'll grant you that they would rather
not have that happen. So yeah, I don't know so

(01:17:30):
much as the revenge thing really kicks in, because they
do play twice a year, you know, every year they
play two times in a season, once in Austin and
once in San Marcus.

Speaker 11 (01:17:41):
And I think that's good.

Speaker 6 (01:17:42):
And I asked Loss about that, the fact that they
could play, you know, because you don't get many opportunities
when you're a Marque Division one program to play many.

Speaker 11 (01:17:53):
Road, non conference.

Speaker 6 (01:17:55):
Midweek games because it doesn't do you that much good. Now, yes,
get a little bit of an RPI bump if you're
playing on the road. But a lot of times you're
playing a mid major team like this one out of
the Sunbelt or maybe at Uta or when they went
to UTRGV or Sam Houston. You know that kind of thing,
but you're not getting like a huge bump. It's a

(01:18:15):
little bit different in the South. I will tell you this, Andrew,
because some highly ranked teams are not far apart, like
Clemson and Georgia are playing tonight.

Speaker 11 (01:18:26):
That's a good matchup.

Speaker 6 (01:18:27):
You know, Clemson South Carolina have met in the midweek.
North Carolina and South Carolina. You know, when you're within
bus driving bus riding distance, it kind of makes sense.
But you know, when you got a huge series like
they have coming up against Texas A and M, it's
good to have this one as a road game when
it's only a thirty minute bus ride away or thirty

(01:18:49):
five minutes whatever. So so that's why it works out
really well. And the fact they do play home and
home every year helps. And you pointed out earlier in
the program it's a range thing.

Speaker 11 (01:19:01):
But over the.

Speaker 6 (01:19:02):
Past few years, each team has had more success in
the other team's ballpark. Texas State has won four in
a row at UFCU just fog Field. The Longhorns have
won five in a row here at bobcat Ballpark. Last
time Texas State beat Texas was pre pandemic twenty nineteen.
So the teams know each other well, the programs know

(01:19:25):
each other well, and we know that Texas State and
they did this in the game in Austin, will if
they have a shot to win the game, roll into
their weekend starters to try to preserve it, to get
an RPI boosting victory. So that's just part of the thing.

Speaker 1 (01:19:42):
So let's talk pitching, because I think that's a really
big deal the Long Horns. The last time these two
teams played, they had Georgia coming up the next weekend.
It was a top three team in the country. This
weekend they have Texas A and M. Not a top
three team, but obviously a big weekend series. Will the
Long Horns dip into that weekend pitching? What do you
see in that story the lineup today?

Speaker 11 (01:20:01):
No, and I will tell you. I will tell you this, Andrew.

Speaker 6 (01:20:06):
They you remember before the Georgia game when they had
the midweek and largely largely during the midweek, they've had
Kate bing going left hander, but because of what's happened
most recently with Jared Spencer, their Friday Night started going down.
And again, folks who listened to the pregame and our

(01:20:27):
pregame against at five point forty five on one of
three point one FM, those who are listening to the
pregame will hear Schlas talk a little bit about this.
Why Kate bing is not starting to night because with
Spencer being out at least for the time being, and
until they get some more medical evaluation back, it may
be a while before they get him back. So they're

(01:20:49):
having a shovel shuffle. They're starting rotation. I think we'll
see Ruger y Ojas the you know utsa transfer young
man from Wimberley. He's been there number three weekend starting.
He's been going on Sundays or in the case of
this past weekend a Thursday Friday Saturday set up.

Speaker 11 (01:21:07):
He's been going on Saturday.

Speaker 6 (01:21:08):
He only threw thirty eight pitches on Saturday, and that
was by design. He had three innings, gave up the
one solo homer, but that was its and he's been really,
really good. I think the plan down the road and
it's nothing's final or finalized yet, but I think the
plan would probably to be to move Ruger Riojas into

(01:21:31):
the Friday night start for now, keep Luke Harrison on Saturday,
and then probably Jason Flores on Sunday in addition to that.
And again those who are listening to Pregamel will hear
Schloss talk about this. They're gonna need Kate being in
some role at some point during the weekend, so he

(01:21:51):
comes off of the start tonight when he's been the
normal midweek guy, and it's gonna be Grayson Sandier, who
is the trans for from Ole, Miss and Grayson is
the guy who has looked really sharp of late. He
gave them some outstanding work in the series at Kentucky
and he did pitch last Tuesday night in the winter
for UTRGV. So they're gonna start with Sonia tonight the

(01:22:14):
right hander, and then they'll move from there and see
where it leads them.

Speaker 11 (01:22:19):
But that's all.

Speaker 6 (01:22:21):
This is all a trickle down to getting ready for
this huge series. As you pointed out of Texas A
and M, no A and M isn't a top ten
team yet. Remember however, they were the preseason number one.
They had a really difficult start with Michael Hurley as
the head coach, replacing Jim Schlaisnegel.

Speaker 11 (01:22:38):
They were one and nine.

Speaker 6 (01:22:41):
In the SECS, and they won seven of their last
eight conference games and one eight in a row. So
they're eight and ten. They're on a roll, and they're
back in the projections as making a regionable regional which
would have seemed inconceivable a couple of weeks ago. Well,
now they're back in the thick of the fight. And
by the way, it is Texas versus Texas A and

(01:23:03):
m it is Logorns versus Aggie's. It is the Cotton
Holdings Lone Star Showdown rivalry series, so he got all
of that rolled into it as well for a big
Friday Saturday Sunday series. So the trickle down from all
of that is, especially with some pitching staff injuries, to
keep as many long distance arms available as possible. And

(01:23:24):
that's why being isn't starting tonight, and that's why it'll
be Grays and Sonier See.

Speaker 1 (01:23:27):
And I like Kate bing Craig. I feel like he's
been the guy this season that when you hear Jim
Slashtegal talk about him, I'm always like, be nice if
I guy cave Man. I like that guy, so I'm
glad to see that he's worked his way into the
weekend rotation, even if it's because of injuries.

Speaker 11 (01:23:43):
There's two guys, Zim.

Speaker 6 (01:23:45):
There are two guys who are not weekend starters, but
who could be really really critical pieces for Texas going
forward in the pitching. One is Kate Being the others
Max Grubbs, and you know, Grubbs came on after Jared
Spincher had to leave the game injured early and did
a marvelous job. Those two guys are the two guys

(01:24:08):
that can bridge it to the back end of the bullpen.
And I think Schloss wants to set it up that way.
And you got a left and you got a righty
that way too, You've got some more flexibility.

Speaker 11 (01:24:22):
They are more options.

Speaker 6 (01:24:23):
So I think that's what his mindset is on that,
and that's another reason why Sonia gets the start tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:24:28):
So finally, Craig, last things before we let you go
here Texas Tonight Texas State, six PM, one, O three one, airtime,
five point forty five in the pre game. What else
do we need to know about this matchup?

Speaker 6 (01:24:39):
Well, it's interesting Texas State is starting a guy named
Austin Eaton. Now, Eaton is two and two and a
seven two five ERA, but Austin Eaton is far more
than a pitcher. He is on the two way player
watch list. He can swing a back. He's hit four

(01:25:01):
home runs this year, He's driven in thirteen runs. I
would expect to see Austin Eaton listed a pitcher slash DH.
And what that means is, you know, he would go
ahead while he's pitching, he would take at bats, and
that means you can't have another DH. However, it also
means this, say Austin Eaton doesn't have it on the
mount and has to come out after two innings. He's

(01:25:22):
stay in the game is the DH. He's just no
longer the pitcher. So I think we may see something
like that from Steven Trout tonight for Texas State. So
and like you said, it's been a good series and
it's very competitive and they really do like to beat
one another. So you know, it wouldn't surprise me at
all to see move made on top of move.

Speaker 1 (01:25:43):
With that, I'm excited for it tonight at six pm,
first pitch Texas State and Texas don I'm gonna listen
to you, Craig. Obviously I might have to drive up
there to see the game as well, though.

Speaker 11 (01:25:54):
See if you can get in the ballpark.

Speaker 1 (01:25:55):
Yes, standing rum only. But you know me, I'm a
big deal over there, Craig. I think I can make
it happen.

Speaker 11 (01:26:01):
Yeah, you carry your own weight in there.

Speaker 1 (01:26:03):
No doubt, Craig Way. Thanks so much, man, You bet
Jim all right, The Craig Way Show rolls on.

Speaker 6 (01:26:09):
Here.

Speaker 1 (01:26:09):
We'll hear from Steve's Arkeesian as he has media availability
before this weekend's spring practice. We're coming up next on
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone. Sports Radio AM thirteen
hundred The Zone. Craig Way will be on the call
tonight from Bobcat Ballpark as the Longhorns and Bobcats do
battle on the Diamond six pm, first pitch, five forty

(01:26:29):
five airtime you hear on one of the three to
one Austin's eighty station as well as on the always
free iHeartRadio app. I was telling Craig, I might have
to go up there. It's only like a forty five
minute drive. We get off there at five, get up
there by five forty five. Sweet talk the ticket lady
I think I could make it happen. I think it
can make it happen. And then, of course, because I

(01:26:50):
have the free iHeart Radio app and I have my EarPods,
I could listen to Craig call the game might be
the move. We'll see if we get it done well.
Kind of depends on what traffic. We'll check our the
ways out before we head out, all right. Steve Sarkisian
spoke today at length about his program about where this
program is going into the spring. Obviously, you're not a

(01:27:11):
fully formed team just yet. However, it seems like things
are moving in the right direction on the forty acres.
This was head coach Steve Sarkisian's opening statements.

Speaker 4 (01:27:21):
Obviously, in the final week of spring practice, and we
really just want to maximize these final three days, which
I thought we did a pretty good job of that
with the start of it today. You know, I think
everybody in the organization has a thing two, three, ten
that that we can improve upon, and if we can
really focus in on those things over the next few days,

(01:27:44):
all the way through Saturday morning, I think we'll be
at a lot better place come June when we come
back and start our summer program as we get ready.

Speaker 5 (01:27:53):
For fall camp.

Speaker 4 (01:27:54):
So it's been a good spring up to this point.
A lot of guys have improved. But as I've said
early on, and we never should be in spring. We're
not a finished product and nobody is as individuals. We're
clearly not in any phase of our team right now.

Speaker 5 (01:28:11):
So we got work to do.

Speaker 4 (01:28:12):
But I appreciate the guys coming with the right intent
like they did this morning.

Speaker 1 (01:28:16):
Head coach to Sarcasian. Now, we've heard a lot of
talk this offseason about Texas, and not only Texas but
other teams when it comes to the general manager role.
We've saw that guys are hiring general managers. I even
saw his video of Andrew Luckett practice for Stanford being
the scout team. QB. You're looking at more quarterbacks and

(01:28:39):
more i should say, more former players coming into the
space taking over that general manager role, becoming almost like
a head football ahead of football operate, headed coach of
football operations. So Joe Man, general manager of football operations
Sarkisia got asked this question. He says, not as long
as I'm at the helm. But then he continued talking
about what that looks like in that power, dynamic behind

(01:29:00):
the scenes.

Speaker 4 (01:29:01):
Right, Well, I think like anything. You know, look at
the thirty two organizations in the NFL. Not all of
them are structured the same, right, They're all structured differently.
You know, who's got final say, who's you know, who's
in charge? What is the dynamic of the program, what
does it look like?

Speaker 7 (01:29:20):
You know?

Speaker 4 (01:29:20):
Like I said, I've been fortunate to work for two
really good men that worked in the NFL and in
college football, and Pete Carroll and Nick Saban, And you know,
I studied under those guys.

Speaker 5 (01:29:32):
I looked at the way they they they manage their time.

Speaker 4 (01:29:35):
I look at how they distributed responsibilities. But at the
end of the day, they were the one making those
choices and decisions.

Speaker 5 (01:29:42):
You know, I know this much.

Speaker 4 (01:29:45):
When we lose Saturday, I'm the one that sits in
front of you guys and have to answer those questions.
When we win, I have to sit in front of
you and answer those questions. And so surely I'm going
to make the decisions that try to put us in
the best position to be successful. But I'm also going
to try to around myself with really quality people, whether
that's in in the recruiting and scouting department, whether that's coaches,

(01:30:06):
whether that's play callers, whatever, whether it's you know, all
those people are fundraisers because we we've got a really
good team and it and it takes a great team
to execute at this level the way that we have been.
But ultimately, I've either got to make the decision or
I've got okay these decisions because I'm the one that's
ultimately responsible for them, and so I try to look

(01:30:29):
at it from from that frame of mind.

Speaker 1 (01:30:30):
Yeah, and you could also be the general manager like
Nico Harrison and just give away the farm. Uh No.
Sarcasian brings up a good point. The reason that college
coaches are revered the way they are, whether it be
Bobby Bowden or Nick Saban or Steve Sarcasian the ability
to not only recruit well, but higher well, but also

(01:30:50):
connect with your players. There's a lot that goes into it.
And if you become a general manager type where you
have a guy making the decisions for you, making and
I deals for you, making roster moves for you, you
lose a little bit of the autonomy that you have
as a college football coach. And I continue to say
a big reason that college football coaches work at the

(01:31:11):
college level and don't work at the NFL is because
of the you might say micromanaging, but you want to
say the control that you have over the organization. Look
at Urban Meyer. Urban Meyer goes to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
It's an NFL team, it's an NFL organization. One of
the greatest college coaches of all time does not work

(01:31:32):
in the NFL because they need to have that control.
They need to have the ability to make those calls.
You don't want somebody telling you, hey, guess what, I
know that you like this wide receiver. I know that
he's really impressed you over the past couple weeks of practice.
But we have nil money connected to this other guy.
We have this other guy who've recruited higher. You have
to play him over this No. Coach Stark, as well

(01:31:54):
as a lot of other college coaches, want to have
control over their roster, want to have control over the
playing time in the playbook. They want to have control
over their program. Now, finally he got asked an interesting question,
and it gives us a little bit of light. For years,
for multiple years, we were very interested in the growth
and development of Queen years and then Arch Manning comes

(01:32:14):
and it's almost like that, Okay, in the new Shiny Toy.
What can we hear about him? We want to know
more and more and more about the quarterback for the
Texas Longhorns. Sark has spoke at length. Spring is not
a finished product, obviously, but we want to see improvement.
He got asked, what does Arch Manning QB one at
the University of Texas need to improve on going forward?

Speaker 4 (01:32:35):
Well, I think one is you know, and this is
going to sound crazy because I think he's a great leader,
but we're we continue to push him from a leadership standpoint.

Speaker 5 (01:32:43):
This has been a great Spring for Arch.

Speaker 4 (01:32:47):
Because he didn't get put out there on the field
the first you know, his first spring is a starting
quarterback with three vets that know the offense inside out
and are fixing things on the move.

Speaker 5 (01:32:57):
He's having to.

Speaker 4 (01:32:58):
Really lead and manage and coach in between plays. And
we keep trying to push him at that level because
he is a fantastic leader and he doesn't need to wait.
And that's probably the first thing that we're pushing upon
him is what is his leadership skills and getting all
of that out of him. The second thing is within

(01:33:19):
the confines of the offense, utilizing his athleticism. You know,
it's last year, especially in the second half of the season,
his athleticism was called upon because we called for those
things in specific moments. Now he's the starter and now
he's operating an offense. We don't want him to leave
his athleticism to the side. We want him to use

(01:33:39):
that athleticism in critical moments, third downs, red area things
of that nature. So it's finding that right balance to
do that. I thought he did a great job of
that this morning. On a couple of critical third downs.
He used his legs to extend a couple drives, which
is going to be a key component to his game.
But really it's going to be a key component to
our game that people now have to defend us a

(01:34:00):
little bit differently.

Speaker 1 (01:34:01):
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone Hearing from head
coach the Texas Longhorns, Steve Sarkesh All right, when we
come back, we will put a bow on it. We'll
wrap up The Craigway Show on a Tuesday edition. Send
you get you ready for Texas Baseball tonight. All coming
up next on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred, The Zone
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone Andrews and We'll

(01:34:23):
hang out with you is we Wrap a bow on
The Craigway Show, a Tuesday edition before we send you
over to Crevino and Rich And then Tonight five forty
five airtime six pm, First Pitch, Craig Way and Keith
Moreland on the call as the Texas Longhorns travel to
sunny San marvelous San Marcus, Texas take on the Texas
State Bobcats at bobcat Ballpark. And Bobcats a below five

(01:34:47):
hundred team, but they seem to find ways to win
on the road, especially when it comes to UCFU dish
fawk Field, where they've won four in a row. The Longhorns,
on the other hand, one of the best teams in
baseball right now, rolling, rolling, rolling the long, dealing with injuries,
dealing with everything else and still finding ways to win.
And they play have they won the last five games

(01:35:09):
at bobcat Ballpark. So it's one of those feelings I
have call it a hunch that this game tonight is
going to go the Long Horns way. The only X
factor I can tell you A well, I should say
there's two A The fact that the Longhorns have been
dealing with injuries when it comes to the pitching rotation.
If Kate Bing is not pitching tonight, well you think

(01:35:30):
that they'd have enough arms to beat the Bobcats, but
you can't guarantee that right. And then two, the fact
that the long or the fact that Texas State has
consistently played teams that are not in their conference, that
they have no real reason to think that they would
have a chance to win. I think opposing fan bases
yanked their hair out. The Texas A and M, number

(01:35:53):
one team in the country, lose at home to Texas
State earlier this season. Baylor loses to Texas State earlier
this season. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but
then again, sometimes sports don't make a lot of sense.
Steve or Jim Sashtangle, Well, he made some sense of
why his team is so good. He got asked about

(01:36:13):
how loose this team is. And for a guy who
when I see him, he doesn't seem like the type
of guy that's drinking Pete Kolatas by the pool at
any point. He doesn't seem like a guy who's super
loosey goosey. He spoke about the loosest of his team.

Speaker 11 (01:36:28):
Yeah, they're loose, this is for sure.

Speaker 10 (01:36:30):
You know.

Speaker 12 (01:36:30):
They they it's a slow burn for them to get
ready for a game, but once once it comes on
and they show up. So that's a tribute to the
leadership and a tribute to the not just the guys
that play, but the character the kids on the bench,
you know Service and you know Jonan when he wasn't playing,
and all the other guys, the pitchers aren't pitching, you know.
There it's a fun dugout to be in and they're confident.

Speaker 1 (01:36:52):
You want a team that's loose. You want a team
that's relaxed. You want a team that's able to go
out and play their best baseball. It doesn't matter the
day as amount of the time that they feel comfortable
going out there and doing what they need to do. Now,
injuries have kind of hurt this team. Spencer potentially on
the DL or the IR for a little bit, Max
Blue on the IR for a little bit. So you'd

(01:37:13):
be worried about those type of guys and what does
that do to your lineup? And if you lose guys
as the season continues to roll on, when do you
lose them that type of thing. But the importance is
is that they feel confident going in to any game
that they play. The other thing is peaking too early.
A team that has won sixteen conference games to this point,
that has rolled through opponents, that hasn't lost a weekend

(01:37:36):
series yet, how do you deal with peaking too early? No?

Speaker 11 (01:37:41):
I don't know.

Speaker 12 (01:37:41):
I mean, I don't you know you want to? I mean,
we're certainly playing without Balu and got guys playing out
of position. But no, there's I mean, Tennessee won the
national championship last year and they peaked pretty much through
all sixty games or however many it was.

Speaker 1 (01:37:57):
The long wars. Feel like they aren't peaking. It's the
standard being the standard being the standard that they just
continue to win the games that they have to win.
Is again very ironic that when the schedule was put
together that the Longhorns would played Texas State on a
Tuesday night before a series against the top five team
in the Georgia Bulldogs at home, And now they play

(01:38:18):
the Texas Bobcats TEXAA Bobcats before they play host to
Texas A and M this weekend, which would be all
things being equal, maybe one of the biggest series of
the weekend across college athletics, this weekend series against Texas
A and M. With the amount of vitriol that has
gone on online towards head coach team Slastnagle after leaving

(01:38:41):
Texas A and M after a national championship running up
campaign last year for the Aggies, the fact that of
course it is Texas versus Texas A and M. And
of course it is two of the best teams in
the SEC, the hottest team maybe in the SEC, and
the Texas A and M fight Naggies. There's a lot
that goes into this weekend's matchup. But you got to

(01:39:02):
get done tonight. You got to get the job done
at hand. That to me has to be the most
important thing is how do you find a way to
beat Texas State on their home turf at their ball club.
You've done it four times in a row. You've died
correction five times in a row. You haven't lost to
this team at their place since pre pandemic. There's a

(01:39:24):
lot that goes into this, something to keep an eye
on and an earon tonight as you listen on one
h three to one Austin's eighty station, Craig Way on
the call along with Keith Morland. Now, finally, I want
to play one last thing. As we've heard from Steve
Starkesian all afternoon from his media availability, he talked about
how gratifying it is the equin viewers into the NFL Draft.

(01:39:47):
As the NFL Draft begins this Thursday in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Speaker 4 (01:39:51):
It's exciting, you know, the quarterback thing. Obviously, just because
of my history, it kind of hits home a little
bit differently. But but I surely want every position group
group to have guys getting drafted, right. I mean, the
fact that we've got more d lineman going in the
draft again this year. We've got another running back in

(01:40:13):
the draft this year, we've got more receivers, we've we've
got dbs, and so the fact that we're we're putting
players in the NFL at multiple positions and now here's
our first, excuse me, our first quarterback, I think is
a good sign for us that we're developing players at
multiple positions, especially at that one, because it is so
critical to the success of any football team. If you

(01:40:34):
don't have a quarterback, it's really hard, and we've been
fortunate to have a good one for the last three
years and Quinn it's going to make a great pro
and now we've got to recreate it here with Arch
and then Trey and and kJ So it's all part
of the process. But I'm proud of Quinn. He's worked
really hard. Somebody's going to get a very good player.

Speaker 1 (01:40:55):
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone Ager Zimbo happening
it up on the Craig Ways Show this afternoon, and
it's been very cool to see the growth and development
of Quinn viewers with Steve Sarkisian this season. It has
been or las actually the last two seasons with sarkas
the starting quarterback and getting him to this point. You

(01:41:16):
can tell it's a load off of Steve Sarkisian's line.
All right, tonight five forty five hour time, six pm,
first pitch one oh three one. Your home for Austin's
eighties Austin Day Station is your home for Texas Longhorn
Baseball as they take on at Texas State. Craig Wave
will be back again tomorrow, don't forget two pm. In
the two pm hour, Steve Sarkisian joins Craig talking spring game.

(01:41:41):
Talking this weekend, and of course talking arch manning and
all things Texas that is happening tomorrow two pm until
next time, Andrew Zimmel, I'm not wrong, I'm just jerly. Peace,