Bill Chaves Pod_EP 149

On this episode of the Bill Chaves Podcast, Bill and Alex are joined by legendary North Dakota radio voice Jack Michaels to talk about his broadcasting career, his experience calling baseball with the great Maury Wills, and his insight on Fighting Hawks women’s basketball ahead of the Summit League Tournament (1:22). The guys then discuss the upcoming championship seasons for UND hoops, hockey, and indoor track and field (27:25) before flipping to the B-Side to break down the current state of Tottenham Hotspur and the rumored hire of Xabi Alonso as next Liverpool manager (52:24)

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're listening to the Bill Shaves Podcast, presented by Mid Coast Sports. There
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(00:23):
do sports, and this is theBill Shaves Podcast. Welcome to another edition
of the Bill Shaves Podcast. We'retaping this on Tuesday morning, the twentieth
of February. Episode one. Everybodynearing the one fifty mark Alex signer Bill
Shaves. Great to be with youtoday, Bill. As always, no,

(00:44):
I appreciated Alex and for sure excitedfor this upcoming week of course,
and as things are sorted winding down, right, they're kind of, I
don't know, speeding up and windingdown. It's exactly right. It is
that fun any time of year whenyou have got really all the main winter
sports are closing in on championship season. Indoor track and field championships this weekend,

(01:08):
basketball Championships just two weeks away.The spring sports are just picking up.
We're going to talk about all thatcoming up over the course of the
next hour or so. Before weget to some of those specifics, we
are going to bring in a specialguest, as there's been the USU this
season, and a very special guesttoday, one of our favorites, a
guy that's been associated with you andd athletics in some way, shape or
form since twenty eleven, a belovedvoice of sports in the state of North

(01:32):
Dakota for decades upon decades. I'mmaking him sound old. He's not.
He's a young viper Man's Jack Michael'sthe radio play by play voice for you
and indie football and you indie women'sbasketball. Jack, thanks so much for
being on the podcast today. Thanksfor not aging me, Alex And yeah,
thirty two years, I would say, is probably a lot to be
doing this, and I've finally madeit. I've arrived. I'm on the

(01:55):
Bill Jays podcast. So let's let'snot get ourselves. I'm here. Yeah,
it's crazy Jack. They said thispod wouldn't last. I guess we
just have to keep doing him.That's really about it. Whether someone listens
to him or not. That's awhole other story. Jack, talk about
your career real quick. You mentionedover three decades. How did it all

(02:15):
begin? So I'm sitting and listeningto my mentor. Lee Halverson, one
of the great broadcasters and in NorthDakota from western North Dakota. Was also
an auctioneer, you know. Hewas come from the Rolette Wolford area there,
so you can find it right there. I pasta uh and and and

(02:36):
lead did my high school games,Bill and Alex and and and I used
to imitate him because he had therewas something about old school broadcasters that that
have that tempo and pace. AndBill you've been around you know it.
And Alex obviously one of the greatbroadcasters we have in the nation. But
I would listen to my mother Margewould tape our high school game on cassette

(03:00):
tape. Thank you, Alexon forthose kids listening out there there was cassettes.
And I come back up for agame and I listened to Lee,
and I'm like, man, Iloved I wasn't so namored by the game.
I was enamored by the way thisguy broadcast games, you know,
and he had that you know,on top of the key jump shut good,
shaves over the heinerd Heinert dips anddimes too, draffic two minutes night

(03:21):
he had that tempon a bouncy boysbasket counts, whistle and file old time
out on the floor. Now thisfrom the Plansman Hotel, you know,
or whatever, and he would andI thought, this this man. So
when Lee would the broadcasters in highschool traveled with the team bus, and
I'd always sit in the back ofthe bus. And then and I'd see

(03:42):
Lee come on the bus and he'dalways sit up front and play peknuckle with
our coaches and cards while we drove. But I'd sit in the back and
I'm like sixteen, going, well, there's Lee Halverson just jumped on the
midnight'd hide and he'd be like,where are you? Where are you?
So, you know, long storyshort, I kind of is imitating and
mimicking. And then a couple yearslater, I'm in college and I'm I'm

(04:04):
sitting by Lee doing a state basketballtournament in North Dakota and he gets learningitis
and as story goes, you know, Lee turns to me and he just
says, you're on And I'm like, what do you mean, I'm on,
I'm in broadcast. He does,well, you've been and his voice.
You've been imitating me for three years, you should be able to.

(04:25):
So I literally that was the baptismby fire start. Uh. And I
did those games and I did them. Ask him, I'd be like,
I'm shut good best. I'm justI'm not literally not me. I'm just
stealing everything I've heard from him.And you know, that kind of lent
itself on and and through college andyou know, with with the communications not

(04:46):
shuring what you're going to be.And I I had a baseball coach in
college and also worked at a radiostation. Got me a job. You
know, we all got to makesome money. There was no nil back
when we were in college, youknow, there was no nothing like that.
So UH did that and and foundthat's the field. Moved to a
morning radio show and did sports,and then from there is it was on.
So it started dabbling in and DLeague or G league basketball, and

(05:11):
CBA basketball and high school football andbasketball and baseball. And then then this
team, the RedHawks came into existencein minor league baseball, and long story
short, their GM asked me,I heard you do a great public address
announcing, and I did a lotof PA work, and I'm like,
yeah, I'm kind of a connoisseurof PA announcing. You know, the

(05:31):
less is more. Let the crowdfeel it. You don't have to,
you know, I said, ButI actually would love to do I'd be
play by play guy. I'm aplay by play guy. And the GMS
at all, well, give mea tape. And I nearly didn't have
anything on baseball on tape. Idid some Legion World Series, I did
some high school but not like thesound of aluminum off a ball for an

(05:54):
air check tape pro baseball team.So I'm like, I can't use my
Legion baseball stuff. So what Idid is anything anybody would do. Alex
would do this, Bill, I'msure you would do this. I went
to the basement of my house andI watched a Cleveland Seattle game, turned
the sound down on the TV,and did play by a play of three
innings, brought that back to theradio station, put in fake sound,

(06:16):
and brought it to the GM andhe heard it, and he listened for
about twenty seconds. He went,Yep, that's the sound I want.
And of course I was probably stealingsome of Lee Harverson back then too,
and that's how my baseball started.So I just added that, and that
was in nineteen ninety six, sothen you can start putting the years together
on just baseball. But yeah,and then, as Alex said, you

(06:38):
know, when I moved to Bismarckfor a half a dozen years and got
a call from North Dakota and said, would you like to be the voice
of U Indie Football? I waslike, my goodness, gracious, let's
go. My Fargo station said we'dlike to have you back as our sports
director. And I said, onlyif you allow me to be the UNDI
radio play by play voice for football. And they said you bet, and

(06:58):
I went to you bet, Andthat's you also in a nutshell, that's
a little bit of the of thestory and the history of all those different
sports and how it got going.That is awesome. Jack. So so
this is a dangerous question, andI know it. I know it already,
but I'm going to throw it outthere because I wouldn't be doing my
job. Which sport is your favoriteto do? Well, I gotta go.

(07:23):
I'll say this, Bill, itis a dangerous question. I have
identical twin daughters, as you guysknow, it's the equivalent of saying,
Jack, which daughter do you likebest? You know, that's right,
right, But I answered that thisway because it is it for those of
us that truly are blessed to beable to broadcast different sports. And Alex

(07:46):
is so good at what he doeshe can understand this that you get so
much out of each one. Ilove football, because football, to me
is is, uh, you know, you're just set in that stage under
center, twin receivers that'll write,here's the hand up of the bankfield and
boom. There it breaks it outto the fifteen inside the ten bottle,

(08:07):
the bombs of the set, andit's this build and this rush and build
and boom and then you're done.And then your color commentator, the expert
you know, comes in and describeswhat it is, so that it's just
that setup of football and the intensityof a pregame, and it's building towards
this big volcanic moment of a coupleof hours. But I tell you the
basketball, the pace of basketball isfast and furious and you can and and

(08:31):
it just it is in my bloodbecause I played that too in college and
I get that and there's big momentsof just unbelievable plays and that. But
I always say this, if youcut my vein open, baseball would fall
out, and baseball would roll outlike blood flowing down my arm. It
is it is the storytelling. Itis it is everything that is great.

(08:58):
It is sunshine. It is Ifyou can't smell a hot dog during a
radio broadcast, you haven't done yourjob painting that picture. If you can't.
There's something about that sport that hasa lot of life to it,
and it's a storytelling sports. Soyou know that. So thanks for that.
Very unfair, but I understand questions. So I'm crushing Alex right now

(09:20):
because he's got the next two afterthis. But you mentioned that the fresh
cut of grass too would be one, and then mention mention your time with
Maury Wills. Well, yeah,I tell you there are three men in
my life that I always finished phoneconversations or conversations with. I love you,
my dad, my brother, andMaury. And unfortunately I lost my

(09:43):
father and Maury within a span ofthirty days in twenty twenty two. So
just recently and two really influential people. Morey came to the RedHawks because our
GM was tight with Bobby brag andif people saw the movie forty two with
Jackie Robinson, you understand Bobby Braganwas one of those men that didn't want

(10:05):
to play with an African American playerand really was adamant about, you know,
having Jackie on the Dodgers. Andthen as you know, Bobby Bragan
turned at full circle and became oneof the biggest supporters of Jackie Robinson.
Then he was managing in the Dodgersorganization and Bobby it was also Maury Wills

(10:26):
manager. So dash forward real quick. The red Hawks were bringing a speaker
in as this is a new professionalteam in the Red River Valley, and
our GM said, I'll get BobbyBragan to come and speak. Bobby wasn't
available, but he says to them, how about you get Maury Wills went,
wow, yes, we can getwell. So Mary came up and
the owner of the team saw theinfluence that Maury had so much. They

(10:50):
went, we need to put him, We need to have him around more.
What should we do and they said, well, let's have him broadcast
with Jackie and jack can be ateam. And that's kind of how started
with Morey. So We were togetherfor ten years, driving in a van
in my van with the two twinscar seats in the back, for ten
years up and down the Upper Midwesttogether calling games to Saint Paul in Chicago

(11:13):
and Madison at the time in KansasCity. And I tell you, you
know, if Bill Chaves, AlexHener, and Jack Michaels are in a
van for ten hours driving together,we learn a lot about each other too,
our personal lives, our struggles,our joys. And that's what it
was. Think about that, that'sI learned everything about more from his overcoming

(11:35):
addiction to being you know, thirtyforty years sober. I suppose at the
time that he passed to growing upin the park side projects, you know,
son of a minister, not havingcleats, you know, when he
was signed for five hundred dollars,to the breaking of the color barrier with
Jackie Robinson meant to him throughout everythingin his life. And then you know,

(12:01):
it was just such an intimate relationshipwith Maury, but just two guys
that struck is hit it off,you know, and you know I didn't
see him as a man of color. He didn't see me as a you
know, tall guy from Willison,North Dakota. He didn't see. You
know, people would say what agreat bass dealer. I'd always say what
a great ballplayer, and MAURYO wouldappreciate that because he was known for base
stealing, but you can't steal first, so I'd say, maur I don't

(12:24):
see that as you. So itreally was was great. I mean the
cool things were driving a car andhis phone would ring because he was still
working with the Dodgers, and youname it, it was on there.
He did like hold it this second, Timmy, hold up on time he
talked to Jack, I hain't somethingon the go about you? Tommy Desorda,
just yeah, Sandy, I'll bethere next week. Sandy hold on

(12:45):
saying could you talk to Jack?I gotta get in, Sandy, Kofax
or you name the guy. Andhe would just pass the phone and I'm
like, this is insane. Youknow, Hey, hey, Sandy,
how you doing there? You know? So that relationship was, uh,
was really good. But what peopledon't know about but you know, maybe
Maury and I know I may maybeget long, but you could. Obviously

(13:07):
you've hit a subject of it nearand dear friend, is that we're in.
We're in South Dakota, and Igo into a sea store to get
snacks, thank you very much.You know that snacks are going to be
involved and what And I come out, no, right, Alex Right,
So I mean, I mean,I go in the morning, I go
to the sea store and I comeout, you know, And and he's

(13:28):
still in there. And he's beenin there for five minutes, he's in
there for seven minutes, he's inthere. Now it's fifteen. I'm thinking,
my gosh, I hope something hasn'thabbened to Maury in this store as
we were on our route, andhe had he had noticed a woman that
seemed down on her just down,you know, and she had and he
recognized it a woman that struggled withalcohol, a woman that was about to

(13:48):
make a bad choice that day.And Morey Wells in the middle of South
Dakota spent a half an hour witha woman just to the befriender and and
go through that. And that wasa normal occurrence. And it's amazing of
all the things you think you knowabout Maury and breaking Ty Cobbs record and
one of the greatest Dodgers of alltime. I see him as the guy

(14:11):
that that that that sat with awoman in the middle of South Dakota to
to go over her addiction issues andtwo people fighting over a disease and kind
of saving her life maybe that dayjust by you know. So there's a
lot of things that that Maury meantto me, and and it's it's such
a beloved man and a man thatI think should be in a Hall of

(14:31):
Fame Bill and and Alex the tetthe truth, but he doesn't need that
to understand the impact he had onbaseball. So it was a yeah,
pretty good guy. I was.I'm lucky I wasn't born when he was
breaking Cobbs mark. My father hadto tell me everything about what he was
about and the way he played andhow he would get on and Sandy Kofax
would shut teams down, and that'show the Dodgers you know won. So

(14:54):
it was, uh, you know, it was I'm glad I got to
spend that time and I earned throughhim a lot about a lot about the
game. So yeah, good stuff. Well, seven time All Star,
three time World Series Champ, nL MVP, and sixty two two time
Goal Glove Award winner, six timeNL stolen base leader. Sounds like a
Hall of Famer to me. Doneit, Bill, And it's funny.

(15:16):
You know, if those listening tothis podcast you see the split screen.
Back in the day, television woulduse a split screen, and I and
if I'm not mistaken, I thinkbecause of Will's impact on stealing bases.
Actually televisions had to split the screento show the pitcher and the runner because
he would he would take off beforehe So he may have been the reason

(15:39):
why we see now split screens andtelevision because back in that day you would
you would have to keep an eyeon this, this little little guy that
shorts out for the Dodgers. Idon't yeh. One of the famous fights
I guess for brawls of all timeis the Roseboro Marischal brawl. People can

(16:00):
remember that and John Roseborough, whowas Warren's rummate by the way, on
road trips for the Dodgers, andJuan Marrashaw, you know, great Giants
pitcher and Will's had been hit bya pitch in the ribs that game by
Juan Marrashaw. And I only tellthis now because Mary told it. Otherwise
I fin knew his blessing, Buthe and Sandy okayed it through Maury to

(16:21):
tell with us on the broadcast.So, uh so Mary Willis gets hit,
takes his base, probably steals acouple of bags, whatever, but
he gets in the dugout and theDodgers turned and Sandy Kofax is throwing the
day and said, Sandy, yougot to hit one of them. And
Kofax, being the nice man hewas, I guess his response was,

(16:41):
well, I'll just strike him out. I said, no, no,
no, no, You've got toplunk you gotta they hit. Maury,
You've got to hit them. Yougotta hit one of them, because eh,
how about if I just strike himout? You know, this is
finally John Roseboro turned to Maury andsaid, I'll take care of it.
Room, and Marischal's up to bat, and for those that don't know the

(17:03):
story, ball comes in and Roseboroto throw it back to Sandy Kofax whizzes
it by the ear of Juan.Marischal pictures of course hitting back then and
that's when Mareschal took the bat andclunked Roseboro over the head and then just
oh you know what broke loose.But that's what started that that one of
the most famous brawls in baseball,And I'm not sure if that story's been

(17:25):
told too much about the backstory onthat where Sandy didn't want to throw at
a giant, so Rosebroo said,I'll take care of it. Whizz the
ball past Marischal's ear, he clunksRosebrow on the head. And now you've
got Katie bar the doors. Soyeah, good stuff. That's fantastic.
Is that available on YouTube somewhere?I'm assuming that footage exists somewhere if you

(17:45):
google, If you google Roseboro Marischal, I'll guarantee you're probably going to take
a peek at that. But youknow, the funny thing is Hallanier was
the manager in the Biggs, buthow was playing for the Giants and let
me He went on to manage theWinnipeg gold Eyes. Maury was a broadcaster
with me the red Hawks, andwhen we'd play Winnipeg and that hole around

(18:08):
the cage, it'd be Hal Mauryand you know, and I'd go down
on a gun and I know,as you know, well I wouldn't.
I Alex would Bill say, hey, how about that that Roseboro Marris?
But then those two remember that,how where were you were you on the
bottom of the pilot. No,I was out, you know, and
it was the whole conversation. Oh, I can't imagine. It is so
funny how so many, so manygreats, you know, find themselves in

(18:30):
different parts of the world or well, different walks of life, but baseball
always seems to be a part ofit and so cool. You had that
experience on independent ball the American Associationwith one of the greatest to ever do
it. Jack. Obviously, thisis going to be your nineteenth season calling
Red Hawks baseball. It's going tobe your fourteenth calling you indie football.
You've done you and the women's basketballnow for a while as well. That's
the season you're in the midst ofright now. I'd be with this to

(18:51):
not ask. I know it's ayoung team certainly this year. What's your
read on how Mallory Bernhardt's crew hasbeen doing now down the stretches they get
ready to turn the page to someof the turning in two weeks. Yeah,
I tell you, Alex, theuh you know, preseason everybody had
U and D ranked fourth, andI looked at Melwin. That's that's great.
Of course, when you're returning theyou know, the playoff, first
team All Conference player, and youknow you've got a you know, I

(19:12):
got a couple of there and mouseit. I think that's a high water
mark right there, not that wecan't get there, but that's pretty good
love shown on the preseason poll.And then I think for the ladies,
they they they've had trouble, youknow, learning to win when you've had
leads and having that maturity to closeout games and walk off into the sunset

(19:34):
and do it the next week.And then you've got this mixture of youth
that is trying to figure themselves out. You know, the pressure has I
think ball handling, you know,so they succumb to a lot of presses
and the turnovers come in there,So I the want is there. I
think some of the great athletes andwe have. It's it's nice to know

(19:57):
we've got four different provinces, maybeeven more. You know, we got
from British Columbia to Ontario or ReginaSaskatuan the Strathroy, Ontario to Dorvall,
Quebec. So you know, you'vegot these pieces that that you're trying to
fit into a mold. It allget flowing, but it's taken a lot

(20:18):
of time to do that. AndI think to gel And and I think
what this year has pointed out ishow much you miss, if not the
greatest ballplayers, but how much youmiss during the course of previous years.
You know, the hearts of aMikayla Rank who who just gave it her
all. Maybe was out massed,maybe in some of the talent, but

(20:40):
boy not and out at heart.The Julia Fleece is the Claire Orth that
maybe didn't score a lot, butboy she defended and that was a really
good thing. Or a Julia Fleecethat could really do it all and and
and get it done. Or aMaggie Manson with leadership and shooting ability.
So I think when you take awayway a lot of those, you can

(21:02):
just replace some more force. Itvon freshman and sophomore saying hurry up,
you got to be this. Youknow, they've got to be themselves,
and you know, I'm hoping forsuccesses. This team shocks me, Alex
and Bill because when they play well, man, it's fun and it's a
great flow and the balls being shared, and they're they're making good choices and
they're knocking down threes and they've gota little swagger to them, and it's

(21:25):
all great, but but you know, when that's turning it over the basketball
and things of that nature, itcan get south. And now you're digging
out of and you're trying to digout of a hole. And and then
you know, I'm sure Casey Baroviasfield'soh, I got to do mip,
I gotta do more, you know. And and so my hope is that
in the remaining games that they continueto build and and and find something that

(21:48):
they can lock in on. Andit's not going to be easy because they
got a game in Fargo, Brookingsand Vermilion and those are three three dangerous
places to play. But come March, uh, you know, can they
strike go? Last year a sixthseed in Omaha picked off a nice opening
round wind and made a little noisein North Dakota. Be that team this
year. That's That's what I'm hopingstill times, certainly to jostle their way

(22:11):
up the rankings a little bit.The three soft Row games to finish out
the regular season, well we'll seejack us the best. If you've done
such an awesome job and all thedifferent responsibilities and roles that you've had,
to me appreciate you taking some timeas you gear up for baseball season,
which is just around the corner.If you were going to power rank snacks
that you have at a score istable jack, what would be your top
three two snats? Snacks? Snacks. This is the man that throws out

(22:37):
snacks during the seventh inning stretch atNewman Outdoor Field. Bless your heart,
Alex. Yeah, the snacks isuh and the and the Sometimes the tough
thing is sneaking it into arenas.But anyway, the top thing, the
top three snacks. You're probably gonnafind a roll of pringles. And this
is the knock on we're inflation oranything, but have you seen the price

(22:57):
of pringles lately for the roof.We've really got to get that down.
We've got to fix our economy.So I'm not spending eight dollars on a
honey bunt. But that's also agood snack because it's got a good sugar
in the dough and the pringles.The problem with doing games at the Betty
is that the food is so goodat the Bettingle Stead Arena that it kind

(23:21):
of makes the snacks iebring look verysmall. And I drive around with regret
after having literally the best pretzel inthe Tri State region at the Betty.
And this isn't just I'm not justsucking up because Bill chaves the ads,
I'm on his podcast, and thegreat Alex hendertis here. I've been saying
this for years. It's number oneof three. In fact, if you

(23:42):
need to know the top three pretzelsin the Tri State region, Number one
Bettingle said Sue Center, Number twoNewman Outdoor Field and Fargo. Number three
wine Mere, North Dakota because theyleave you a little bowl of cinnamon if
you choose to dip your pretzel tothe cinnamon. Oh man, Yeah,
that's a good little nugget for thefans out there. Yeah, that's it.

(24:03):
You want to talk snacks, weI don't know, Bill and Alex.
If we have a like a snackMichael's podcast, we can do.
I can break down every concession standfrom here to probably drble Quebec. We
will. We will put that onthe radar screen for sure. Jack.
Well, thanks for having me ongang Man It. I love talking about

(24:25):
it. And what we do isyou know, we I walk around every
day lucky to do what I dofor the school, that I do it
for, and honestly, it's it'sit's a fan, and then I'm obviously
a big fan of Alex Hindert.Alex, if you'd have been Lee Holberson,
I'd have been imitating Alex Heinert growingup. Who knows what I'd be
today. The world would be alesser place if that was the case.
Everybody's imitating Jack Michaels these days,so it's cool how you pay that forward.

(24:47):
But no, Jack is the absolutebest, and we're so thankful you
could join us today. Best ofluck finishing up the women's shop season.
We'll talk to you soon. Ibless you guys, Thank you for having
me on. So great to haveJack Michaels on the pip cast today.
Just one of the all around goodguys and such an outstanding broadcaster. Twenty
nineteen North Dakota Broadcaster of the Year. We are very lucky to have him
calling multiple sports in the University ofNorth Dakota Athletics family. Just one of

(25:11):
the best. Yeah, he justdoes a tremendous job, Alex. And
more than that, if you're everon the road with him, how much
care he takes and what he doesand the care he takes with the people
around him as well. And hereally is an asset for our coaches and
our student athletes when they're on theroad. It's really amazing. So we're

(25:34):
lucky to have. For sure,he's an asset to the people that are
on the trip who are just coveringthe sport. I know, like on
all those football trips that I wouldgo on with the team. Not just
the fact that he makes it fun, like he just has this fun,
infectious personality and there are always storiesand laughs, and you're playing games in
the bus ride, like the numbersgame where he's like everybody picked different numbers

(25:56):
and then tie it into a statthat's going to happen during the game.
So he'd give you the numbers.The numbers are nineteen twenty seven forty five
two, and you'd have to thinkof different things. You know, such
and such is gonna have two sacksduring this game. You and he's gonna
have nineteen first downs through three quarters. And it would just be little things
like that that would just get yourbrain thinking and create conversation. But yes,

(26:18):
the fact that he would go andprint off an extra copy of his
notes that he had taken about standingsor interesting things that he had and just
pass them out to everybody else.Here's some stuff I found out. You
throw it away if you want to, but you can use it if you
want to, just to share thework that he did with the rest of
the van before you got to thegym. Like I just I don't know,
not everybody does that. I wouldsay very few people do that.

(26:40):
Just a very generous man with histime and the care that he takes.
His personality is infectious. And yeah, we couldn't say enough good things.
So fun to have the money andas you as you know, you've you've
been embedded with teams and on traveland sometimes things happen on travel and it's
not I mean, as long asyou is, especially if you're flying,
you get up and you get down. You can deal with anything else,

(27:03):
right, So but when things dogo awry, correct, he'll kind of
break the ice by just doing alittle play by play of what's going on.
And you know, I mean itdoes make you smile and laugh.
No, you can't help it.So again one of the good guys in
the business. And again great tohave him calling you and dye Women's soups
and you and d the football crazyto think we're not that far away.
August thirty first, the season opento football. Spring ball will start soon

(27:26):
again. But obviously, yes,we're going to talk a lot in this
podcast now about the sports that arevery much YEP in the midst of it
and grinding through, and we talkeda bit about women's soups. Just to
continue on another split weekend with thewin against Denver and then a loss against
Earl Roberts. As Jack mentioned,a tough stretch to finish out the regular
season, but this is a youngteam that has shown flashes at times,
and they've put together some good quartershere and there. Certainly possible to pick

(27:48):
up another winn or two before thetournament and go into Suit Falls with some
momentum. Yeah, I agree.I think Jack put it exactly right.
And if you kind of look overon the men's side as well, I
think when Paul was mentioning, youknow, we were going through that that
six game losing streak at one pointin time, we just sometimes struggled when

(28:11):
they gave the game, threw ussome curveballs, and I'm not sure we
could write it at that point intime. Now we've kind of I think
figured it out over there to somelevel. But on the on the ladies
side, correct, when things aregoing great, it's fine. But sometimes
I think when it gets when thegame gets you know, interesting, when
when when there's pressure put on themin certain ways, unfortunately our response level

(28:37):
hasn't probably been as good as itneeds to be at some point. And
I think it's not from lack ofeffort. It's actually from too much effort.
It's actually like back to the Belichickthing, right, do your job.
I mean, I think there's folkson our team that are trying to
do too much at that point intime, and and that's when it's a

(28:59):
sign of a team that's just notas experienced as certainly we were last year.
You could see this past week agood microcosm of that, where they
play a Denver team at home andreally controlled that game, and the game
was played at the pace they wantedto and it was a nice, I
don't want to say a comfortable win, but they looked like they were in
control, they were playing within themselves. You win by ten points on the

(29:22):
road against a team that is rightthere with you, battling for position,
in the middle of the pack inthe Summer League. And then two days
later you play an Oral Roberts team, which is just not a good matchup,
and the Golden Eagles put the presson right from the start and you
only just didn't handle that very well. And we saw that down in Tulsa
as well, like you in thatgame you and d was that game was
tight for a half and then rustarted to pressure and then things changed.

(29:44):
This was a different story where itwas right away and the ladies just couldn't
deal with it. And so Iknow, so much of this is matchup
based. And when you've got ateam with young guards and you know,
not everybody's young of course cases ifif you're seeing you're handling the ball,
et cetera. But when everybody,like you said, is just maybe trying
so hard to fix the problem whenit comes up, that's when panic happens.

(30:06):
And then you get too many turnoversand you find yourself in a big
holeby you just can't take it out. Yeah, And I would say,
you know, I was watching fromColorado Springs and many were watching at the
Betty And sometimes you're up higher oryou can see it on a TV screen
or whatever it is or some sortof a screen, but the reality of
it is it's a lot different whenyou're on the court. And at the

(30:30):
end of the day, we justdidn't handle the heat well that day,
and so needless to say, noteveryone plays like that to some level.
But we have got to figure thatpiece out, no doubt about it,
because you never know. We couldsee them down in Swuo Falls. You
never know. Yeah, and that'sa lot to be decided. Again,
most teams have four games left youand he has three before the semi league

(30:52):
tournament coming up on the eighth throughthe twelfth and six falls. Currently five
and eight in conference, there isstill opportunity there to sneak up the standings
a little bit, so hopefully thingscan go well. Tough road chips on
the way GETSU at s c SUat USD. That's three, that's not
five in the conference right now,but hey, that's that's why they played
the game. Great opportunity to goand rivalry games especially, Yeah, you

(31:12):
can always be played. It's forus. It's you know, based on
the nine teams on both genders,we probably can slide into the men in
a second. But yeah, it'sa one game week, So it's it's
a little bit You've got a littlebit of time to yourself to work on
your own your own stuff if youwill. And I know, you know,

(31:32):
we're never not working on our opponentto some degree. But there's a
little moment right now where both themen and women can take a deep breath
this week and probably take a hardlook at themselves and and kind of self
scout themselves and try to figure somethings out and then get deep into the
the NDSU scout. Yeah, biggame coming up at Fargo again. That's

(31:53):
part of a doubleheader this Saturday,so the men playing first at one o'clock,
the women will play at four.Two really big games. And obviously
the women played NDSU very close atthe Betty again, that became down to
free throws kind of down the stretch. The Bison made all theirs and you
and you just couldn't couldn't ship awayin the ends. On the men's side,
of course, you and the winningthat game over in North Dakota State
just a couple of weeks ago ona great finish, Marko Luovitch finishing with

(32:15):
two seconds left or so to wina two point game. The men by
the way now, just continue todo incredible things night and night out.
And you said they had that sixgame losing skid, they were zero and
three to start the conference. Thatis flipped completely. They've won nine of
their last ten now after another roadsweep at Denver and at Oral Roberts,

(32:36):
two pretty good teams. And youyou mentioned you were in Colorado Springs.
You also were in the Mile HighCities. Well, I saw you sitting
course side next to poly Rawl duringthe game against the Pios on Thursday night.
Again, just really impressive finishing.It felt like in both of those
games. Both of those games couldhave kind of been either or games.
Yeah, and you could see youand the making the plays when they needed

(32:57):
to to give themselves the breathing spaceto make to make both comfortable victories.
Yeah. So two things. Soeach game we talked about challenges, right,
each game presents its own challenge.I said to Paul, I think
it was inside whatever the timeout isthe men's are doing I think inside four
minutes at some point in time togo in the game, and it was

(33:21):
basically a tie game at that stageof the game. And I said to
him, you know, you know, you come on the road and you
play pretty much an even game forthirty six minutes. This is one where
you want to just be better inthe next four minutes. I mean,
because it's hard, as we allknow, to win on the road or
better yet to be said, you'retrying to always protect home court, and
so certainly du was in that mindset. So we just had to figure out

(33:45):
how to get that one done,and we did. I mean, we
had a really good closing four minutesand you know, did a really really
good job in that regard, andreally did a good job on Tommy Bruner
all night. I mean Brunner,you know, and again, sometimes you
just have those nights where you know, he struggled to see the floor in
the first half because he got aa fowl, like, you know,

(34:07):
his second foul with about ten minutesto go in the first half. So
his night was a little disjointed,and I think we had something to do
with it. But but you know, fortunately, you know, we did
a great, great job, andyou know, Trason had a heck of
a second half, and you know, I think he pulled one in front
of us in the scorer's table,and I'm not sure I couldn't have touched

(34:28):
him. I think I think Icould have reached over the table and touched
him. That's how close he was, and so he was feeling it.
I think it at the basket lookedlike the Pacific Ocean for him, and
so just he launched Alex, helet it rip, which was awesome.
That was a transition three that wasreally kind of the dagger. I feel
like maybe that was It was asix point game at the time, and

(34:49):
you Andy got a steal and hecame down in transition and popped it right
in front of the scorer's table,and Bill textaby that was a no,
no, no, yes, yes, straight, yes, of course,
why wouldn't you shoot that. Wewent for thirty three, a career high
that night and just couldn't miss,and that helped in routine being named the
Sun of League Peak Performer of theWeek for the third time this season.
By the way, pretty good stufffor the sophomore from Bismarck. But you

(35:10):
and he does have a great finalfour minutes. They pull away and win
by fourteen in that game and thenhave to go to Tulsa. And that's
again, this was as team thatearlier this season had won twenty one in
a row in that building, andI know a little different team this year
than the one they had had theprevious incarnation, but still a tough place
to go play. And you winby thirteen against kind of a desperate ORIU

(35:31):
team that really needed that game afterhaving a couple of stumbles leading up to
that one. And now again NorthDakota's in first place. They had a
half game lead over South Dakota State. There are again, as we mentioned,
difficult games ahead. It's the samethree opponents as the women had at
North Dakota State, but then homeagainst South Dakota State, home against USD.

(35:52):
You know, North Dakota has notwon a conference regular season championship in
the some of league era, ifonly won one in the D one era
going back to twenty seventeen in theBig Sky. This is a great This
is an opportunity. They are inthe driver's seat to do something really special.
Won't be easy, but they putthemselves in position and it's all there

(36:12):
in front of them with three gamesto go. Yeah, So I agree
with all of that, no doubtabout it. And I think it like
teams have their kind of checklists thatthey want to try to accomplish. Certainly,
you know, an opportunity at thispoint or this juncture to win a
regular season title is huge. It'sabsolutely huge, especially you know when you're
looking at it. Like we liketo always say with the Penrose Cup too,

(36:36):
is you know that having to playeverybody home and home and everybody you
know has the same opportunities and tokind of prove yourself through that timeframe is
incredibly important, no doubt about it. Now. Having said all that,
I think there's other aspirations for surethat the team has. But I would
say this, Alex. The reasonwhy that Oral Roberts game was huge and

(36:59):
all these other games are huge becauseI'll tell you what the delta between teams
one, let's call it seven eightnine in this conference on the men's side,
not much. No, there areI believe three games separating first and
seventh. Yep. I mean that'sthat's not much. And it can flip

(37:20):
and we've seen that. I mean, anybody can beat anybody. North Dakota
got a taste of that with KansasCity a couple of weeks ago. And
then the rules go out and meetSouth Dakota State the next time out and
USD is capable, and they're inthe bottom right now, and it's just
that's the thing about this year.The parody is so great. That's right.
Even if you win the regular season, there really won't be a favorite

(37:42):
going into the tournament and every oneof those games, every round is going
to be a battle. But obviously, yes, if you get the top
seed, the benefits are great.You get a chance to play the eight
to nine winner, You play ona Saturday, so you play a team
that's coming off of probably a toughgame, and then you get the day
off if you win all those things, So it'd be huge if you can
get the one seed or the twoseed for that matter. But obviously,

(38:04):
yes, the bigger aspirations, opportunityto do some really special things, it's
all still out there for ball sailorin this group. Yeah, I think
you're right. I think the uh, you know, the eight to nine
game will be a tough game,one hundred percent, right, I mean,
because we've seen all the teams,But yep, it gives you that
opportunity to have that day arrest inbetween. I think the way it's all

(38:29):
set up, but you know,it's it's to obviously help the top seed,
and that's what should happen after you'veearned it. But we got a
long way to go. We gotand we got a huge one on Saturday,
down and far Ago. That'll beuh, that'll be a really good
game. National televised game is thereason why the men I mean not that
it matters men women playing first orsecond, it really doesn't. But the

(38:51):
window is for the men's game onCBS Sports Network, so so that if
anybody was curious as to the reasonswhy that was going on, that's the
reason why. Yeah, good,good call out there. That game on
Saturday is one of six on CBSSN. But yeah, really excited to be
at the Shack to get to callthat game with Freddy Coleman and with Logan
Campbell coming up on at one o'clockand then the women's game at four will

(39:13):
be on the some of the networkerWday, so good options there to watch
the best rivalry in the state ofNorth Dakota go at it. So big
ones coming up and then moving onagain SCSU USD both at home. So
it's still a great chance to comeout to the Betty if you can't make
it to Fargo to see this teampush for a championship and finish strong down
the stretch. Yep, you mentionedColorado Springs. You were there at ropes

(39:35):
and arena on Friday and Saturday gamesthat we just didn't expect necessarily to go
the way they did for you indiehockey. And that's with all due respect
to Colorado College who would come tothe Ralph and it picked up a couple
of overtime wins. I think theexpectation was these will probably be two close
games, two tight ones. Saturdaywas tight until the final twenty minutes,
you know. Friday just a reallygood effort by a home team that was

(39:58):
fired up and playing well. Twotough losses for North Dakota, not damaging
in terms of pairwise. There's stillin line to be a number one seed.
Not necessarily damaging in the Penrose race. They're still in first place in
the ncch seed with six games togo, but probably a good I don't
know if reality check is the rightword, but probably a good opportunity to
look and say, Okay, whathappened, what went wrong? Why weren't

(40:20):
we able to be more successful?Now that as you and these shifts down
to the home stretch. I thinkyou're right, Alex. I think played
against a team that's played very verywell recently in their place, and you
know, they had great crowds,they were excited for the game. I
thought it was interesting on Friday night. So I always learn a lot about

(40:44):
the rules to some degree, andI do have someone that I can lean
on to explain the rules to me, because I have probably a lot of
questions. But you know, theopposite of an inadvert well, there could
be a whistle that I intended toblow, and then there's also a potential

(41:05):
of a like an inadvertent whistle whichthen could actually be a continuation at some
stage, which I didn't know thatNHL has that rule. College hockey does
not, And so if you lookat it on Friday night, I thought,
unfortunately, I think there was aninverting whistle which would have potentially given
us a two to one lead.Now I'm not saying I'm just saying it

(41:29):
happened. That actually happened, andso you know, could life have changed
a little bit that night if thathappens. Maybe no one will ever know.
No one will ever know, Butit felt at that point goals were
at a premium and you knew theway Emberrico was playing. He's playing great,
by the way, great top tenRichter Right Award list. Mean,

(41:50):
he's really good, and he hada heck of a weekend. But it
felt like every goal passed him wasgonna be a difference maker. And then
you know, then then their thirdgoal, which you know could have,
could have, would have who knows, you know, I think that I'm
I always default to the call onthe ice is probably where you probably should
tend to go unless it's one hundredzero. We've had this conversation a lot

(42:14):
time that we've covered these ground.But if it's less than one hundred zero,
I'm more than fine with it beingthe case. Now, it could
have been reversed too, So allof that to be said, and then
you're chasing the game, and Ithink that's what happened on Saturday too.
I think we came out at onepoint I looked up. I think the
shots were like thirty five to eightsomething like that. It was it was
a lot to do a little foryou for the majority of the game.

(42:36):
Yeah, and give give Embarico credit. He made the saves, right,
We just didn't. I mean,I felt like the forty nine ers.
We just should have been up bymore. Yeah, and against that team,
you need to take advantage of thosethat's rights. They've been one of
the best defensive teams in the countryall season and they play that style.
And then they've also got guys nowthis year that can break the game open

(42:57):
at the other ends. And obviously, for you and d as you said,
when you are chasing the game andyou have to be more aggressive,
and obviously Brad pulled the goalie prettyearly on Saturday as well, trying to
chase it. It makes the finalscore line feel a little more lopsided than
maybe the nature of the game itself. And that's I always listen to the
US Echo Weekly Rewinds podcasts with JimmyConnelly and Ed Trevsker and those guys,
and you know, they obviously don'talways you can't watch every game, so

(43:21):
you're basing it off of what thescore looks like. And they're like,
boy, what a you know,blowout wins for the Tigers, and yes,
the score was what it was,but also two goal game and you
pull the goalie and then it becomesa little more lopsided than et cetera.
But regardless of that, it's nowan opportunity for you and D two set
and you get four games in arow at home before going to Omaha to

(43:43):
finish out the NCCHD regular season,and all the goals that you set for
yourself at the beginning of the yearare still very much there. No reason
to believe the sky is falling oryou're doomed because of this weekend. Oh
no, no, But there's stilla lot of hope and a lot of
life and a lot of positive thingsmoving forward because they still can all their
own destiny. Yeah, all thethings they want to do. So your
point is very well taken. Soeven I think BC might have been unanimous

(44:07):
number one this week and they've gotfive losses, right, They've got five
losses, and so you know,I would say this, there's always going
to be probably two or three thingshappening, and that all can be true.
Sometimes a matchup cannot be great fora team, That can be true.
Don't know how you play against.Certain matchups maybe needs to be really

(44:30):
looked at in some way, shapeor form. Spurs playing Wolves start there.
So so at the end of theday, sometimes that can happen where
that where those things occur. Ithink it's a really good reset opportunity for
us to come back take a hardlook because one thing we do know,
we like our team. I thinkwe've had a really good year. We've

(44:52):
got to figure some things out becauseyou don't know what type of team you're
going to see moving forward. Sothis is where we're at in this moment.
Now. You know, it doesfeel like we've kind of not been
at the route for a long time. It felt like we were there all
all fall and it feels like wehaven't been there at this point time.
Happy to be back home this weekend. Now we're going to face it,

(45:14):
you know, a difficult to loseteam that always has you know, plays
us tough and all that rot.But you know, look forward to playing
in front of our home fans.Yeah, it has been a month.
I mean it's been Denver series atthe end of January, because again it
was a road series at Miami andoff week and then a road series at
CC. It's just amazing how fasttime can go in between home sets this

(45:35):
time of year. But yes,UMD come into town. They're mired in
a bit of a slump. Theywill be exceedingly Honrey. I got to
do their game against Denver on Fridayat Amazel this last weekend, and this
is a bulldog team. Again.That's good. They've got good players.
They're dangerous in different areas. Theywere down by two on a couple of
occasions against the Pioneers and came backboth times to force overtime on Friday night,

(45:55):
including late with two extra attacker goals. That won't Those won't be easy
games, even though they're seventh rightnow in the conference standings. And then
you get Western Michigan the following weekendfor Senior Weekend. Another a Western team
that is very much in that pairwisebubble right now. They're on the right
side of it, but a coupleof results go against you, and all
of a sudden you're not. Sothere'll be some desperate teams come into the

(46:15):
RAA, but again, a greatchance to play in front of your home
fans and reset things. And againjust a reminder, U and D loses
those games this weekend. It wastheir first regulation loss since the start of
November. They had this twenty onegame streak in which they hadn't lost in
regulation. They had gone I thinkthey'd only lost one previous game in the
second half of the season. Itreally had been a great run for this

(46:37):
U and D team, So don'tread too much into the defeats. Great
opportunity to get back on track thisweek. Last thing for me, last
thing for me on this is theway hockey runs with the statistical formula and
how you potentially get into the NCAAtournament. Certainly your score line is not
taken into effect. I think whenyou're trying to make an out large bid

(47:00):
in the FCS playoffs, I dothink score line matters to some degree.
I do, I especially towards howeverit goes right. I mean, when
you're trying to compare less less games, less data points in hockey, if
you're chasing the game, you knowwhat, give yourself a chance exactly.

(47:23):
I mean, points don't matter,it really does. This isn't a metric
that's inserted into the pairwise calculations ofwhat your margin of victory or your margin
of defeat is. So a sevento one loss is exactly the same thing
as a one nothing defeat. Intheir eyes, it's a loss. It's
on the road, it's against theranked team. You indie dropped one spot
in the pairwise because of those twodefeats, that's right regardless of the score.

(47:45):
So no great point to bring up, Bill. Yeah, So hockey
back at home this weekends. Theindoor track and field crew was at home
the other day as well, withthe UNDI tune up right before the Summa
League Championships coming up in Fargo,just down the road to school. Records
were set earlier this month in Boston. It's always hard to know exactly where
you stand because everybody's kind of allover the place, but just looking at

(48:08):
when you look at the rankings essentiallycoming in or where teams seem to stack
up in the Summer League. TheNorth Dakota men are going to perform well
in the distances. They've got anumber of guys from the eight hundred on
up that are going to be vyingfor podium spots. And then the women,
I think in the distance in themulti events certainly, and then in
the throws as well. Kennick currieshaving a phenomenal season. They've got people

(48:30):
that are going to be able toscore, and so it feels like the
women have a great shot to maybedo something pretty cool, make it make
the podium as a team and younever know what the men. If guys
can have a great performance, it'sgoing to be a fun meat to track
this weekend. And yeah, andyou know, if you're in track and
field, you relish those days,right, this is what you're building up

(48:51):
towards. And you know, atthe most pinnacle level that would be the
Olympics, right. But I meanfor us when you're when you're into college
track and field, it's your daysthat you get to go perform in front
of the rest of the conference.So it should be exciting. Yeah,
and it's best on best. Imean, there's no holding back, like
you've taken one on ones, right, it's exactly, yeah, exactly,
this is the meat that you wantto be performing your best and you leave

(49:13):
it all out there at this point, and so it should be it's ton
ofugh. I'd be sure to followthat I leave the meat will be on
the Summon League Network if you wantto watch the webstream of what's going on,
or certainly follow social media to seewhat's happening there. But best of
luck to the U and D menand the women in Fargo this weekend the
twenty third and twenty fourth at theSemi League indoor Championships. Softball not at
home, not going to be athome for a while, not until the

(49:36):
early part of April. Although letme pause you there, if this was
a year from now, you know, I mean, we're going to have
fifties this upcoming weekend and if youcould push snow, which and again,
who knows, you know what nextyear will bring, but we certainly haven't
had as much this year per se, So so yeah, this could be

(49:57):
now again. Non conference schedule willprobably going to go to warmer climbs anyways,
but the opportunity to actually play moregames in Grand Forks is just around
the corner. Yeah, that isreally exciting. You're gonna have a surf
field, the opportunity to get stuffready to go much faster than you would
even if there is snow on thegrounds. This year, however, New
Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, California. In a couple of weeks, that's

(50:21):
where the teams got such successes,some close losses, yeah, some nice
victories for Jordan Steven's crew. Prettygood starts of the year. Yeah,
not too bad. I watched himon Sunday on actually they were on ESPN
plus so watched them and unfortunately leftthe bases loaded in the first inning,
and you knew that was going tocome back to bite us. It was
one out, one out, basesloaded, didn't score, and then it

(50:43):
was zero zero going into like thesixth and just unfortunately got away from us
on Sunday and then lost a twoto one game yesterday. So, you
know, I think the pitching's beena little bit more experienced this year,
which is good to see, andI think that's what he was hoping for,
and I think, you know,the brief returns in it seems like,

(51:04):
yes, we've been a little bitbetter this year, a little bit
more experienced in the circle. Yeah, that's where it always comes back to,
can you have two young women thatcan throw and keep you in games?
Well, the bats still warm up, but three and eight right now
is the record. A lot moregames coming, certainly in the non conference.
They'll play a ton of games downsouth over the next couple of weeks.
In the States. I mentioned Floridaas well coming up at the start

(51:25):
of March. So first home datascheduled for the sixth of April against South
Dakota. So fingers crossed that theweather cooperates as it has so far this
season for those series against the Oatsmen's and women's tennis as well. Still
keeping busy, they will be homejust to continue that thread. Home meets
coming up Marquette, Bellermine, Montana, Drake, Kansas City, a number

(51:45):
of dates coming up at Choice.To get out and support the men's and
women's tennis teams in the future,Come on out. You don't have to
stay the whole time either. Itis a long match for sure, but
we'd love to have you out.There'll just come out if you have never
seen it again. Price is right, it's free, but at the end
of the day, it's a greatperch and there's just a lot of energy
in college tennis. It kind ofreminds you of a Davis Cup match.

(52:07):
He took the words out of mymouth. I feel like we always have
the same pitch. But it's true. It's true. These are really fun
to watch. So we get achance on the twenty third, the twenty
fifth, and then the second andthird of March to go see some tennis
in person over at Choice Fitness.I believe that's what we got from a
und perspective. You want to doa quick flip. Yeah, let's do
a quick quick flip, but acouple minutes. Yeah, So b side

(52:28):
wise, I think in the balancebetween the two things that we love,
baseball and soccer. Baseball obviously justgetting ready to begin. Soccer very much
in the crucible of all the competitionshappening right now. Champions League started again
this last week, We've got FACup and care About Cup final on Sunday,
and the league is still going onand MLS is starting, by the

(52:50):
way, which is crazy. Rightnow. Your squad, as you mentioned
earlier, tough, tough one againstWolves, not a very good Wolves team
on two one defeat. But you'restill right there, fifth place, just
two points back back of a Villaside that's not been great lately. Your
thoughts on Spurs at the moment though, and where they sit? All right?
So I heard a stat yesterday.Do you want a stat? I
love a good stat. Yeah,this one's not very good for Spurs.

(53:13):
So since the Premier League started andthere's been Champion League qualifiers, so normally
that's four teams, the top fourteams in the Premier League out of twenty
never zero have a team averaged lettingup one point five goals a game made

(53:38):
the Champions League, and the Spurstoday are giving out one point five to
one, so not great, notgreat. So I think our defense has
been a little leaky and it's beenmore you know, hey, they had
possession for seventy percent of the gameagainst Wolves. But honestly, Alex,

(54:00):
unless you have quality chances, whichthey really didn't, actually it all.
It just means you had them ball, I mean, and then what ended
up happening, They got a littleimpatient and and and there it goes the
other way and Wolves finished finished twooff, one on a set piece and

(54:21):
one on a counter. So yeah, I mean it is style. It's
style of play. And the onething about Ange is he did he stays
to what he believes he's going todo, so he doesn't get too practical
during the game, so he juststays the course. And I kind of
enjoy it, but others might not. It's great from a neutral perspective.

(54:44):
I mean, the games are alwaysincredibly entertaining, and obviously you are in
fifth. I mean, I thinkyou've overachieved. I would think a lot
of people would say you're Militarry Kaneand you've betted in all these new guys,
new manager, et cetera. Sothe fact that you're in this position,
just the game out of Champions League, it's pretty good. Yeah,
and still thirteen games to go,a lot left to be decided. But
the one it's so interesting you mentionedthat's that one and a half goals per

(55:07):
game. From a hockey perspective,you would say you're doing great. That's
the best defense in the country ifyou're giving up one and a half.
But again, hockey, college hockey'sa race to three. Soccer's a race
to two. Most of the time, it feels like or even erase to
one. And if you're giving upone and a half on an average,
you know you're not going to winas many of those ones well, especially

(55:27):
if you're at the top end ofthe of the standings, right, and
so at the end you've got tosprinkle in. Over thirty eight matches,
I think the best teams probably haveclean sheets maybe half the time. I
would say the best ones, yeah, probably do. I would say the
goalie who wins Golden Glove for thebest you know, numbers most shutouts over

(55:51):
the course of the season, it'sprobably around fifteen sixteen seventeen kind of in
that range. It's usually what winsit, so you're probably spot on that
regard. So I think that's wherethey but again they don't they're not in
any other competition, so they justhave to figure themselves out. I mean,
and you know the way they playtruly, they literally could beat anybody,

(56:13):
and they literally can loose to anybody. They literally can beat anybody.
So they are fun to watch,I would agree with that could be frustrating
at times. Yeah, Well,because you aren't in any other competitions,
you get kind of a mini buy. You had little time to work on
yourself. You get Crystal Palace next, not till the second of March is
your next match. You're supposed toplay Chelsea this week, but because Chelsea's

(56:35):
in the FA Cups are the inthe Caravell Cup final on Sunday against Liverpool,
that match has been moved to laterin the year. So now you
get a Palace team who's going tobe under new management with Roy Hodgson being
relieved of his duties. So interestingstuff there for the Spurs. Liverpool,
by the way ten points ahead ofSpurs in first place. They got a
little help this weekend from the Chelseaone one draw with Man City means that

(56:59):
Liverpool or sort of quote unquote,yeah, kind of back in the driver's
seat. I guess I think it'sOffley tight a. That'sp it's Offley tightening.
See yeah, I think it hasn'tchanged from pod to pod. The
three that have pulled away our Arsenal, Liverpool and City and you know,
I mean, hey, now nowyou're gonna have to your runout so to
speak. You'd better get three everyweek At this point in time, I

(57:22):
feel like it's just a matter oftime between before City just goes on a
tear where they don't give up three. So right now, you're okay.
But Liverpool's had a nice year.They've had a nice year and they're gonna
want to win it for klop tosome degree, would be my guess.
And that starts on that's on Sunday. They have a chance to lift a
trophy on Sunday against Chelsea. Let'slet's talk about Bayern Munich right now.

(57:45):
What's happening in Byron right now?I mean probably not great? Huh yeah,
not great? They lost again thisweekend's three two to a quote unquote
inferior side at the bottom end ofthe Bundesliga table. Yeah, Byron have
won the Bundesliga regular season championship Ibelieve eleven years in a row. Twelve

(58:06):
years in a row. It's notbeen since Klops dortmunds back in twenty thirteen
fourteen. They went back to backtrophies that year. Byron have won every
year since and they should have probablylost last year to Dortmund. It took
some wild lat final day shenanigans forthat to flip. But they have really
struggled this season under Thomas Tookel Andyou're a boy, Harry kanees having a

(58:27):
good year, scoring goals, etc. But they have now lost a couple
of games in a row in theBundesliga. They lost in the Champions League
round of sixteen the other day againjust the first leg, but had a
man sent off, lost one nil. It just you know, it's a
little rocky. They're an interesting,interesting club. Expectations are so high.
You're expected to win every match youhave. I mean, I think you

(58:49):
have the best squad. Really,you have a top three squad. I
mean really, like if you lookaround the rest of Europe. Manchester City
Real Madrid, Byron Munich. Thoseare probably the three most loaded teams in
terms of talent, and you aren'tdoing great based on the people that you've
got at your disposal. So whetherthat's coaching, I don't know exactly what's
going on. The dynamic just seemsa little bit off and they're vulnerable this

(59:12):
year, both in the league andin Europe. Do you feel like and
again, the team that's leading thetable is levercus and obviously manager's been rumored
for Liverpool. Do you think thatthat's where the odds on favorite is at
this point? I mean, itfeels like it makes the most sense.
So Shabby Alonzo, the Bayer Leverkusenmanager, was a Liverpool midfielder back when

(59:34):
I started following the club. Shabbywas one of our main metronomes in the
middle and he went and played atByron and played at Real Madrid. So
Liverpool, Byron and Madrid are thethree clubs that he's most closely associated with.
Byron would like to say, hey, maybe you want to come manage
us. Why don't you leave stayin Germany, come manage us. We
like you. He's not going toMadrid anytime soon. Carlo Ancelotti just had

(59:58):
a contract extension. But the theorywould be that if you want to ever
manage Liverpool, like this is aplace that typically keeps managers for a while,
you have a great opportunity to comeback to a place that you liked
and are beloved. The only thingwould be he's very young, still in
his managerial career. He had managedI believe the Roale Socia Dad youth team
and then moved on to the seniorteam and then now has been with Liverkusen

(01:00:21):
just for over a season. Ithink this is his second season. Oh
really, Okay, so he's ayoung guy and he's not had necessarily the
pressure or the burden of being thefavorite. Yet Leverkusen are named never Kuzen
for a reason. They don't win. There's no expectation there. They have
a very manageable system. They wouldbe a lot like maybe a Brighton in
the Premier League. That's maybe notthe best analogy, but like a team

(01:00:44):
that has some good young talent andthey typically move on and you're not expected
to win the Bundesliga. You're expectedto compete, but you're not expected to
win, and so there would besome sense maybe trepidation on his part to
move right away from this position toLiverpool where the expectation would be much greater,
and you're replacing a legend, andthat's that's hard. That's a hard

(01:01:04):
thing to do. But he wouldbe the Liverpool fans would say, this
would be the guy we would want, right. I haven't seen a better
alternative. So last thing I wouldsay is that seems very similar to the
Bayern situation where they before tucl right, they hired the younger coach that us
Yeah, that just and again itis a different deal when you're going into

(01:01:29):
these Bayern munichs or Real Madrid's oryou know, for Pachettino going to PSG
or you know, all of those, it's a different it's a different expectation
level that is occurring than if you'reat a Tottenham to some degree or at
another it's nice to win something,but if you're in contention, sometimes that's

(01:01:51):
enough. Yeah, I would say, like with Shabi Alonzo, listen to
Rory Smith talk about this. RorySmith is the main soccer correspondent for the
New York Times. He went ona deep dive with Roger Bennett on a
recent man in Blazer's podcast, whichwas great and it was really fun to
hear him talk about Alonzo's managerial styleand what he's picked up from learning from
some of the greats of the game, et cetera, and his personality.

(01:02:12):
And he's a very understated guy andhe was when he was a player.
And again, this is the guythat's won everything, like one won World
Cups and European Championships as a midfielderfor Spain, won lots of things with
Liverpool and Byron and Madrid. Sohe's a winner and he's done it before.
But he's also not the type ofguy that is all about me,
Like it's not He's not like thisbig, you know, egomaniac that a

(01:02:35):
lot of Jose, that a lotof these coaches are that rise to the
top level, and even Klopp tosome extent, like Klopp is very much
a messianic figure and he I thinkKlop does it very differently, of course
than Jose Mourinho does, where hemakes it about himself, but in sort
of a way that takes away fromhis players actually pressure people together exactly.
Jose sort of is is a narcissist, and I think Jurgen is it's but

(01:03:00):
I would say that Alonzo is notlike that, Like, this is a
very different guy that just enjoys relationshipsand managing people and likes likes the game
and doesn't necessarily love like the spotlightand all the other things to go with
it. There was a great pointLiverkusen beats Byron a couple of weeks ago
and I think three to zero,like this great performance, and the crowd

(01:03:21):
is chanting his name to come outand do the lap of honor with the
players to celebrate, and so Alonzocomes out and he kind of gives the
wave and the player what are theplayers comes over and grabs him, and
Alonzo breaks free, and then hegets the rest of his staff to come
out with him. So it's like, I'm not coming out by myself.
I'm gonna bring the guys to helpmake this happen as well. Come out
and like those are the types ofthings that you like to see. But

(01:03:44):
he's not like Klop who's the firstguy over to the cop to do the
fist bumps and is leading the chargewith the team. He's a reluctant leader
in that sense. So that'll beinteresting to see if he does come to
Liverpool. How that dynamic plays outwell and the pod with this sometimes not
the worst if you get a littlebit of a one to eighty difference than
a Clop piece because Klop is oneof one, and in Alonso, because

(01:04:09):
he's had so much success, he'lldo it his way and in his way
for for Liverpool. As long asyou're winning games and competitive. I'm not
quite sure anyone really cares at thatpoint. No, And I think that's
why this would work to me,yeah, is that you're not going to
come in and feel pressure to doa Clop impression, or you've picked someone
that is similar and is another figurelike that. What's the old saying like

(01:04:30):
when you have a coach, youdon't want the replacement to be a carbon
copy because you had an older guy, you want a younger guy. If
you're a loud guy, you wantsomeone who's quiet, I mean, like
you's. It's it's going to besomething very very different. And because he's
had success and because he's been therebefore, people won't expect him to be
different. They'll know what they're gettingand I think he'll have a long leash.

(01:04:51):
If they don't have success right away, it's not going to be like
a Chelsea where you get four months, or like a Byron or a PSG
or Barcelona for that matter. Again, course is done at the end of
this year. They will give himtime that's right, to mold and bring
in his guys if he needs to, and build it up in his way.
And that's why I think it couldwork. I hope it happens again,

(01:05:12):
that's my choice, but we'll seewhat. Yeah, well, the
final final thing is the cupboard willnot be bare for him either. I
mean, he just might need toget some folks. I mean, unfortunately,
what pasta Coago had to deal withis the all time player leaving and
then really playing a whole different style. And so truly at this point he's
not going to compromise on his style. So at the end of the day,

(01:05:32):
sometimes you're just playing some guys unfortunatelyjust not equipped to do what he's
asking them to do. So it'sfascinating the little journey right now. So
it's good. Hey, let meend the pod with this is uh we're
recording on February twentieth, eighty fifthbirthday of my mother. So hey,

(01:05:54):
yeah, so just a shout out, shout out there, let's just say
they're pod listeners, my mother andmy father, so you know what,
I think they'll appreciate this. Sohappy birthday, Happy birthday, eighty five
years that's awesome. Yeah, specialspecial occasion to celebrate eighty five years young.
That's correct. So there you go. Well, I love that.
That is a great way to endon a happy note here as we finish

(01:06:15):
up episode one nine. Next timethey listen, it'll be episode one fifty
and we'll have to do something specialhere in two weeks. That's going to
be great. Well, Bill,always a pleasure. Enjoy a big week
coming up for you and the athleticsall across the board. Huge week.
I haven't determined what my Saturday lookslike yet, but might see you down
and Fargo. That'd be fun.We'd love to see you. Plenty of
time to come down, catch bothgames, get back up and sime for

(01:06:40):
some hockey that night. Maybe you'llmiss the first period, but you can
you can hit up all three.I know you can make it happy.
I know there's some plates we're spinningplates right now, so more to come,
more to come. I will say, if you, if you could
be sure to be back in time, Saturday for Ryan Duncan. One last
shift that's going to be really cool. Well, that's the challenge. There's
some challenges going there's some challenge.Now you're in my world. Now you've

(01:07:00):
just figured out my issues right now. Well, God bless you and your
ability to try and make it allhappen and be every place it once.
I love all my children, yesthere are. Like Jack said, there
are no favorites. You love themall the same. That's exactly right,
that's exactly right. Big thanks toBill as always for his insight and his
expertise. Thanks to Jack Michaels forcoming on such a light Batman. Thanks

(01:07:23):
to Alex Soncker Johnson, and toPaul Ralston for producing this podcast. I'm
Alex Hyder. Thank you for listening. We'll talk to you in two weeks.
Enjoy all the great un the athleticsto come between now and then