December 17, 2024 • 46 mins
This week, Bill and Alex look back at the steps that led to the hiring of Eric Schmidt as UND’s new head football coach (2:42) before discussing hockey’s pre-Christmas surge (18:13) and the non-conference highs and lows of men’s and women’s basketball (27:46). On the B-Side (35:24), Spurs win big ahead of the Chaves-Heinert Derby, the Red Sox win big by landing Garrett Crochet, and Scott Boras wins really big negotiating the record-setting Juan Soto contract.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Bill Shaves Podcast, presented by Mid
Coast Sports. If you're searching for a gift for the
sports fan in your life this holiday season, we suggest
the subscription to Mid Coast Sports Plus, the only place
to watch every conference event for the Summit League and
the CCHA this winter. That means every Fighting HACS Conference
basketball game home and away subscribes today at midcast Sports
(00:21):
plus dot com. This is how we do sports, and
this is the Bill Shaves Podcast. Welcome to another edition
of the Bill Shaves Podcast, the final edition of twenty
twenty four work recording this on a Monday afternoon, the
sixteenth of December. Happy holidays, Bill Shaves.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, Happy holidays, Alex boy the calendar. Boy, time has
flown this year. Huh. And we say it all the time,
but boy, it's just I can't even believe we're in December.
We're past Thanksgiving holiday season ahead. So but that would
be a great gift for people. I m a subscriber
myself of Mid Coast Sports Plus. I see the virtues
(01:02):
of it literally on a nightly basis.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
It is especially now that conference play will begin in
just a couple of weeks for some of league coops,
Like if you're a some league basketball fan. The biggest
thing for me is that you can watch when North
Dakota is on the road or for me, when I'm
when I'm doing games with other teams, you can watch
those games live wherever they are. But then you can
also watch the replace so if you've got something else
(01:24):
going on, like I wasn't able to watch you and
d Men against UTSA live yesterday because my kids had
a Christmas pageant, but I could put it on last night.
That's an awesome feature and just again it's it's a
really great service I think for sports fans in this
part of the world to have that opportunity. So yeah,
that's a again sponsor of the podcast, so we appreciate
their efforts. But it is a really good product and
(01:46):
we hope you consider that if you're looking.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
For something, I would agree with you. And you know,
I know, Commissioner Fenton's done a great job and all
the fine folks at mid Co have really done a
wonderful job with it. And it's kind of a one
stop shopping so you know, if you're a fan, I
don't know, it's kind of a metaphorical thing. That you
can put someone stocking. But at the end of the day,
(02:07):
I think you can do it.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I think you could. I think you could do it.
Just print out a little Minko and some of league
logo and just drop it in it just they'll get
the they'll get the idea.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
With a plus, well.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
We'll discuss, you know, our Christmas shopping lists and things
like that, maybe on the b side today, along with
a lot of fun with the festive fixtures that are
coming for soccer and some baseball hot stove and Steelers
pushing for the playoffs and all those things. That's coming
up a little later. We've got some good Mulberry Bush
talk with hockey and men's and women soups now in
full steam hockey hitting the break on a really high note.
We'll talk more about that in a bit. First, though,
(02:43):
even though it's December, football has certainly been at the
forefront of everybody and you and the athletics mindes, and
we obviously didn't didn't have our usual pod last week
because you were in full job search mode, if you could.
Let's go back to the thirtieth of November and really
even from the end of the season and kind of
talk us through everything that you and the department have
been going through, is you've been trying to figure out
(03:04):
the best path for you any football moving forward. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I had some really good conversations post the Illinois State
game with Bubba, and you know, we we we discussed
a number of things, and I think where we landed,
and we landed in a really good place, is for
him to really take the next chapter here as a
(03:28):
senior staff member. And you know, we're we're calling it
a senior associate for engagement and mentorship. And Eric and
I sometimes Martins and our deputy athletic director for those
of you just joining us for the first time. A
POD regular by the way as well, Staple a pod
(03:48):
Staple god Staple. Correct. I'm not sure how many are
in the staple, but he's one of them. He is
one of them for sure. So Eric and I had
discussed a number of times, is there someone that we
could possibly get on our senior staff that could fill
avoid for us. One is from an engagement standpoint and
(04:10):
a mentorship standpoint, because many times, and when I use
the word mentorship, I'll say it could be from a
student athlete standpoint, it could be from a staff standpoint,
or it could be a coaching standpoint. We have a
lot of folks that come to us that are in
the early years of their coaching tenures, and to have
(04:31):
someone on staff that's coached for forty years and has
really been through a lot of different things, what an
awesome resource for us. So really kind of you know,
a coach can set up an appointment, shut the door
and say hey, here's what I'm going through. You know,
what's your thought process, A real safe zone for that person.
(04:52):
So that was one, but then also the ability for
the engagement side. This is somebody that can work hand
in glove with our folks uh over at the Alumni Foundation. Also,
you know, connect with the Jonathan and Matt with the
collective in some way, shape or form. He's just got
a rolodex from the State of North Dakota, you know,
(05:15):
oodles of experience. Just the ability to have that person
on your staff was exciting. So for him to start
his next chapter was was something that you know, I know,
I'm excited about. And as I mentioned to him, hey
let's let's get to January one and then like jump
into this. So so that's on on the on the
(05:35):
Bubba side. Then of course now you go into search
mode and basketball's on the men's side. In football is
certainly an interesting UH situation. The world descends upon you
and many folks within minutes of an announcement such as
(05:58):
we had with UH with coachwa Is. You know, you're
getting you're getting feedback, you're getting information, you're getting third parties,
you're getting people get your cell phone that you couldn't
even imagine how they got your cell phone. So there's that.
And so we went through a three day period where
folks actually you know, needed to declare that they wanted
(06:22):
to be a part of the potential. Search goes to
human Resources, kicks to us, and then we kind of
start rifling through and we go through a first round.
And you know where we are in life, Alex, you
can go through a virtual first round and you can
you can get you can get it done pretty quick,
and so that's what ended up happening. And then you
quickly narrow the field again and and then you sit
(06:45):
down and you just go through everything from soup to nuts,
A to Z. How you know you plan on running
a program, what's important to you? How do you know,
how do you lead, how do you lead student athletes,
how do you lead your staff? How what kind of
teammate are you departmentally? I mean all of those types
of things, and so you go through it all, and
(07:06):
I thought that when it was all said and done,
the ability to partner and I'll use the term his term,
but I'm going to use the term partner with Eric Schmidt,
I think was incredibly important. And so I crossed over
from eighteen to nineteen, so one year with Eric, so
I got to know him a little bit. And then
in nineteen he departed enjoyed coach to boor staff at
(07:28):
Fresno State, went on to Washington, and then spent the
last year at San Diego State as a defensive coordinator
with coach Lewis. And I know they'll get that turned
around as well. But for him to come back to
UND as just one of a handful of coaches that
have ever suited up for UND, so that was exciting.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
You talk about again the process. You referenced it as
being in the bunker. I believe you were in the
bunker for a while going through this in the midst
of that process, like, not only are you trying to
figure out who's going to lead this program. Signing day
was coming up, So not only are you in this
coaching transition, you're trying to beat the clock and make
sure that the student athletes that had verbally committed do
follow through and know that the program's heading into right
(08:09):
direction and then the portal is going to open. You know,
within a week of that you did you must have
certainly felt like, and I know the word immediately was like,
we'd like to have this search be conducted over this
course at time, and we're okay if it extends, but
ideally we'd like to have someone in place, the right
person in place, and make that an expedient higher how
much is the fact you can do so much of
(08:30):
this virtually now? At least the first stage is allow
that to be possible. I'm sure this this wasn't really possible.
Maybe ten years.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Ago it wasn't. It wasn't actually, you know, I think
that's that's the game changer, is the virtual piece, and
and I think you know how we're recording right now
this pod, we get to see each other, so even
you know, in this particular pod, and I should have
said it right at the beginning, you know, this is
just going to be an Alex and Me pod. We
usually have a guest on the front end, but we
(08:56):
figure there's been so much that has gone on that
we we just wanted to hit the und stuff right away.
And so, but you know, when we have a guest done,
we're able to see them and we're able to you know,
kind of look at each other. You know you've got
the next question or I'm going to follow up. You know,
those expressions are meaningful when you have a conversation. And again,
(09:17):
that first round's not a terribly long process, but it
is effective when you can see someone face to face.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
You can't replace icons, acts and nonverbals and things like that.
Just again, like I said, it's different than talking to
someone on the phone. Not a lot of great things
happened from the pandemic, but but this has been one
of them.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Feels that way.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
So Eric Schmid ends up being tabbed as the head coach,
and you talked about if he played here, won a
national title here. He then came back as a coordinator
versus well, he was a position coach. First left for
a bit, came back as a coordinator, was here for
six years as a defensive coordinator, and then yeah, has
had these great experiences at the FBS level. It's pretty
obvious now why he was the right fit. But give
(09:57):
us a little flavor of why why why was Eric
Smith your guy?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I will start and I said this at the original
press conference when we had Bubba and Isaac there, which
was I think nine days previous to them, when we
had the press conference for coach Schmidt. Is you just
never know how it's going to go. You don't you know,
maybe maybe if you're at the highest end of college football.
(10:24):
And I'll say money is no object or certainly those
things aren't something that you have to necessarily and I
say loosely worry about. But it really is a conversation
with someone to say is this the right time with
that person? And in alex I've been in other searches
where you would think, well, obviously they're going to go
(10:47):
in X, Y or Z eas direction and it turns
out that it just isn't the right time. I mean,
people do have lives, like they have their family, they
have kids, they might have just moved them. You have
no idea like what is happening at that point. So
I've had one situation where someone you know confided in me.
You know, they just had they had had a health issue,
(11:08):
you know, recently, and and not during this search, by
the way, not during their search, but but search is
over the course of my time having done this, and
you know, you just never know how it's going to
work itself out. And I just thought that the more
we talked to Eric, he just had a plan. I mean,
he had been here, but he'd been gone long enough
(11:29):
and had some incredible success and you know, I mean truly,
to be able to run out of a tunnel of
a national title game is special.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
It just is.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
And so then to kind of come back and impart
that twelve month calendar that he's been talking about that
worked so well for them at Fresno and then worked
well at Washington, and I'm sure you know he would
have utilized some of that at San Diego State as well.
But and then to have the access and the connectivity
to some of the folks that he's been able to
(12:02):
be with over the last five years, I think will
be nothing but beneficial for you, Andy.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
It certainly makes a lot of sense, and you could
see how it got people fired up. I think there
was you know, an overwhelming amount of support previous players
who played for coach Smith and both both at this
stopping at others, and then people that Eric had played for,
you know, previous coat and you saw that in the
press conference, like you saw Dale Lenin obviously in Bubba
(12:28):
there and just this great supportive people who had mentored
Eric over the course of his time as a player
and then as a coach. I think people are just
really excited for him, certainly as a person, for this
opportunity and for the things that he'll instill in this
program that he loves clearly, Like this is a North
Dakota guy from Nandan, his wife's from Crookston. Like they've
had such strong roots in the Grand Forks community and
(12:50):
in the state of North Dakota. You know, if you're
leaving San Diego and coming to Grand Forks that you
really want to come back. Just saying he wants to
be here and wants to make this place, you know,
to take that next step. And we always talk about
you and he's been a consistent playoff team, but can
you take that next step and make a deep run
and do some of the things now that we've seen
the other Dakota's schools do this year, make the semi finals,
(13:11):
challenge for a national championship. You know, those are the goals,
and I think we think we will both would agree
this is a man that's capable of doing this for
this program. It's exciting, I would agree.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And you know, again, it took both sides to really
kind of come to this decision and thought, obviously, he's
his career path is obviously on an upward trajectory, and
he had to really make a thoughtful decision. And I
think and I do believe this in talking with him
since he's you know, obviously been around for the last
(13:43):
week or so. Yeah, I tried to explain to him,
but it was hard to do it when you're not
on campus. Is you know a lot of things have
improved since you've departed in five years, and you really
kind of have to see it. And I think he's
seen it, and I think he's excited about it. I
hope he's more excited about it each each and every day.
And you know, we're excited about having him. Obviously his
(14:06):
family back and obviously has a lot of connectivity with
with the alums and and all of our supporters, and
you know, the last thing I'll say on this one,
Alex is you know, Bubbaschwigert's been nothing but a class act.
You know, he's been tremendous. I look forward literally to
continue to work with them. He's he's a wonderful human being.
(14:26):
And his willingness and you know, to to support Eric
and be at certain functions I think speaks volumes on
the kind of person he is, so really really happy
he's going to continue to be with us because I
think that's really important. He's going to make us better.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
There is zero surprise to anyone that is ever interactive
with Bubbaschwiger that that is the case. Like just an
unbelievably classy man. And obviously he now fills the role
of mensor for the guy that he mensered as a player.
And then obviously Bubba was the head coach when Eric
was his DC work together at Southern Illinois. Like there's
so much connectivity there that it just makes sense that
this is going to be You'd imagine a really good relationship,
(15:07):
a good partnership, and for Eric to have someone like
that to lean on, you couldn't ask for better.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Well, well, he had eleven years here as a head
coach he knows every coach that we have here, and
so if I'm an assistant coach on make it up
fill in the blank sport and I'm trying to think
through how to manage or handle something, maybe even with
my own head coach. Boy, what an awesome possibility to say, hey,
bub but he got a second how should I handle this?
(15:34):
And that is a huge, huge deal because you know,
sometimes the coaches need to be coached, and as an administrator,
you know, we help and try to support and do
those types of things. But it's a little different, I
think going in with his pedigree as far as what
he's done during his career.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
The next step beyond player retention and then of course
recruiting for Eric Schmid his name his staff, and we
saw that with Isaac Frickt. They announced as returning as
the offensive coordinator, which I think everybody would agree the
offense was really good this year. Isaac showed a lot
of promise in that role. He's going to come back
to run the offense this year as coach Smitt now
rounds out the rest of his staff. Bill, I'm curious
(16:16):
how much conversations do you have with him on who
he's going to retain who he's bringing in. What's your
role in that process?
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah, this is completely Coach Schmidt's decision, and I hope
I'm more in support role. And if he wants to
bounce something off of myself, it could be Eric Martinson,
it could be Chad karthauser. I think he uses us
as a resource just to make sure that, you know,
(16:46):
we're doing everything that we need to do to you know,
whatever direction he ends up going, we want to handle
it with you know, be handle it correctly, in in
a first class way. And so yeah, most of the coaches,
Alex you know, I think you know, to their decision
as being a head coach of who they feel isn't
(17:07):
the best person to fill certain roles so that the
program can have as much success as possible.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Oh, we certainly wish Coach Schmidt and that program now
all the best is they start to put things together
August thirtieth at Kansas State, just the eight months away,
right around the corner. Start.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
The twenty four has gone fast. Let's not wish twenty
five away.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
No too soon, too soon. Let's let's get through Christmas
and then like springball, and then we can start to
talk about next year, but exciting stuff there again. Congrats
to Eric Schmidt, and I can say I got to
sit in his room when he was a defensive coordinator
right when I started twenty sixteen was my first year
calling you in the football and Eric was in his
third year as DC, and like we would have meetings,
you know, weekly, and you'd sit down and just chat,
(17:54):
and like, you just are not going to find a
guy that's more dedicated like you would just he would
just have gotten with the meeting with his linebackers or
somebody on the D line or anybody that wanted to chat.
And the guy just put the time in and put
the work and then still made time for us. And
just I don't know, love talking ball with him and
really excited for what he can do for you indie football,
switching gears you indie hockey. Right in the middle of
(18:15):
their season, almost the halfway point, we finished the first
half incredibly talk about the year going fast and you
and he fines themselves now at this holiday break in
really good shape, Bill, Like what a great run. Now
these last couple of weeks they have after overcoming a
lot of injury probably and still obviously in the midst
of it. They certainly did not have a full roster
up until the very end of this first half. They
(18:37):
managed to close out the first half now with back
to back sweeps in the NCCHC. All of a sudden,
they've only got one loss in their last eight games,
and you find yourself in second place in the league
and with a lot of momentum heading into Christmas. What
can you say about the job this group has done
in recent weeks to really overcome adversity and plague some
(18:59):
really good down the stretch.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Here, Yeah, Alex, and obviously you see all the games
firsthand as well. Is uh, you know, I would say
this it's why you play the season because you might
think you know what's gonna happen. And I'm not sure
we could have drew this one up on how things
just occurred for this team. And uh, but it's actually
(19:23):
exciting to know how much, how many reps, how many,
how much, how many miles on the odometer, that many
of our first years have now, you know, under their belt.
I mean, I think it has a chance to really
help us as we move forward into the second half
(19:44):
of the year. You know, but yeah, it's uh, I'm
really happy. I mean, uh, for the guys, I know,
they're they're working as hard as they can and and uh,
you know, nothing seems to have come easy for this
particular group right now, and they're just they're grinding away,
though they continue to grind away. And it was it
would be easy, you know, it would have been easy
(20:06):
at four two in Oxford to say, well, tonight's not
our night. And then it would have been easy at
four to four to say, well, let's just go to overtime.
And so those are the little moments of the season
that you can look back on and say, hey, you know,
I know this, if you're in the best hockey league
in the country. Every weekend when you're in that conference,
(20:29):
you're playing a good team. So someone has to be
somewhere in the table, right. I mean, it's no different
than what we always talk about in the Premier League.
I mean, I don't care if you play the worst
team in the league. That worst team is in the
best league in the world. So what are we talking
about here? What we're talking about is a really, really tough,
(20:52):
you know run that we had. But the team is
kind of grinding it out right now, getting a little
bit healthier, which is great to see. And then I
think this, I think this break. You could say, yes,
in the last eight games we've only lost one, but
I still think the break is coming in okay time
for us. I think we need to gass up right now.
I think we need to land the plane, need to
get to the hangar, and I think we need to
(21:14):
cast up. That's what I think we need to do.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
No, I would agree. We joked with that with coach
Barry after Saturday's win because he mentioned about this team
has just been building momentum and I said, it's almost
like you wish you could keep going, but also I
think you're gonna be okay the fact that you've basically
got four weeks until your next competitive game. And he
was very quick to say, yes, we're okay, that there's
gonna be a little gap now. Because again, the guy
(21:38):
who made the play of the game, and there were
a lot of standouts on Saturday night and over the
course of the weekends, you and the sweeps number nine
Saint Cloud State two nothing and then four to three
in overtime. But Dylan James essentially what makes the play
of the night in three on three to beat out
Saint Claude, State's best skating defenseman to a puck that
he had really no business winning, and then is able
to not just beat him there, but then them out
(22:01):
win the puck battle. Find Jake Smaltz wide open to win.
And this is a guy that probably shouldn't have even
been playing potential. I mean, like really got banged up
on Friday, going hard into the boards and is just
gutting it out and then that was his third assist
of the evening to win the game. You know, this
is where they're at. I mean, their captain comes back
not at a one hundred percent but just wanted to play,
(22:21):
Like felt like I'm good enough to go. I got cleared.
I've only got so many games left in my career.
I'm not missing this opportunity. They're not at full strength,
not even close, and they've been able to find ways
to win recently, when earlier in the season it felt
like they had leads or they would beat Tide and
it was the other team that seemed to just be
able to make that winning play. Look at out Cornell
on game number two, like it and now that's starting
(22:43):
to turn. So it just it gets you excited. That
combined with all those reps the first year kids have
gotten that they maybe wouldn't have gotten if U and
D was healthy. That really bodes well for a second
half that will be very challenging when you look at
the teams that are coming on the schedule.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, and we need the challenge for sure. We want
the challenge. I mean, I think this team's excited for
the challenge. But a couple of things I'll pick up.
I saw Louis and the concourse on Friday night and
it was killing him, absolutely killing him not playing, right.
I mean it's just a tough one. But you know,
and I think that's right. I think when you get cleared,
even though you mentally could have said, hey, if you
(23:19):
don't play the next night, then you've got really time
to recover. But if you're ready to go, you're ready
to go. So good for him getting on the ice.
We need him. I mean, his leadership is invaluable for sure,
And it's different when you're playing versus not playing, so
he can still provide the leadership, but it's different when
he's in the locker room, so that's important. But Dylan,
But think about Dylan, that poor guy. I mean I'm
(23:42):
not sure I've seen like a puck just I don't
do to just go across the crossbar. I what did
it do? It hit like a lot's parts of the crossbar,
which I've not seen too much of. I usually see
oom it hits it, but this one felt like it
sipped across and then fell down and it was like,
are you kidding me? And then all of a sudden,
(24:04):
you know what, he flushed it and he got after it.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
In overtime, he had a couple of great opportunities to
score and like you could even see after the one
occasion like he kind of slammed his stick to the ice,
like how did that not go in? But he ultimately
gets rewarded in the ends, And again that's that's a
guy that just epitomes that hard skill Like it's a
second round draft pick that is uber talented but just
doesn't doesn't play like a guy that was selected in
(24:27):
the top forty picks of the NHL draft. Like plays
like a guy that is fighting for every shift, you know,
as a bottom six type forward. And that's the type
of team you and he has this year, They've got
guys that are that are just hard working kids, that
also have a tremendous skill.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And I thought Brad I was listening to him. We
had a fan luncheon on last Friday, and so he
addressed the group, and you know, I thought it was
interesting he said. He said two things. One he said,
you know, of course every weekend special teams are going
to make a difference. But we've been pretty good on
the power play, I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Nationally top five in the country, yep.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
But p K actually could get probably better, right, I
mean at this point, I think we were forty forty
something going into this weekend, and so but it seems
like every time Dylan's on the ice, I feel like
there's still a chance that boy he pokes it and
I'm telling you what, boom he's gone. And so we
(25:24):
probably haven't seen as many shorties at this point, but
you know, we just got to if we do some
things and the team continues to get better in rally,
especially given the age the youth of our defensive corps
from the beginning of the year to what we just
witnessed this past Friday and Saturday, you can see the growth.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
It's exciting. It's exciting to see what could be coming
for this team. And like you said, they will be
tested in the second half. They get these three weeks off,
not totally off, of course, they'll still be training and
working out, et cetera. But the fourth of January it
will be an exhibition against Manitoba and then things start
again with a road trip to Arizona State new Conference member,
Arizona State down in TMP, and then it's home against
(26:08):
Western and then it's another little by so they get
kind of a late January open window before things continue.
So it's like this little little bump to jump back
in two weekends really hard and then get another break
and then it's all games, all the way, and you
hope it's all the way to Saint Louis in April.
But it'll be fun to see this team get healthy again.
You hope that Cameron Berg's back for that game against
(26:29):
Arizona State. You know, you don't know about Benismolek. You
just hope that they'll be closer to full strength when
the calendar flips to twenty twenty five, and then watch out.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I think that I think that's one hundred percent correct,
and I think Manitoba will come at a good time
right as the calendar turns so that you can kind
of roll all lines and you know, get get all
the goalies, kind of probably a period to some degree
just to get on the ice and because yeah, you
know Arizona State's you know, done a nice job. I
mean the they again, if you look at at our schedule,
(27:00):
the way it stacks up here once once it gets
going again, I know, you know where we are in
the paarawise right now, we have an opportunity to make
some hay with the with the teams that are coming up.
And you know, as you talk about pairwise too, sometimes
it doesn't settle until really conference season really kicks in,
(27:21):
and so you know, we'll see. But bottom line is
you just got to you know, play well, play well,
get healthy, and win some games.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Not a bad plan, Not a bad plan. Bill Schieves.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Yeah, that's my three point. That's my that's my three points.
I'm going to go on the campaign trail with that.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
There you go, good, good and you'll have some success
with that message. That is hockey in a nutshell. Men's
and women's basketball not quite at conference yet. That'll begin
in January, both the men and women kind of going
through the travels the back and forth from Grand Forks
to different places, both with four wins on the campaign.
How do you see men's and women's soops right now?
Is kind of transition into the last week or so
(28:03):
before conference play begins.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
You know, Division one basketball in the non conference. If
you're not let's call it Alabama, since that seems to
be timely. You know, let's just say you don't control
as much of your travel schedule, and so you can
go through some some some highs and lows, for sure.
And I think our teams are battling some things. They've
(28:28):
been a lot of different places, but then once conferences
and kicks in, it becomes much more consistent. And then
you know, you got half at home, half on the road,
and gyms you've been to so you know where the
locker room is. I mean, those are big deals, and
so you know, you try to challenge yourself in the
in the non conference, and you know, I think our
(28:50):
teams have had experience some highs, and I think they've
also battled through I mean similarly at times shooting the
ball alex both sides, both sides sometimes And I've talked
to coach Bernhard about our women's team. You know, we've had.
In tennis vernacular, Brad Schlossman would like, this is unforced errors.
(29:12):
It's like we've had some turnovers. You're always going to
have turnovers. It's the unforced errors that's we've got to
We've got to reduce those. We've got to if we're
getting five to six of those a game, it's got
to be one or two or zero and and and
that will help possessions and all of that. So I
think they're learning a lot about themselves on both sides.
(29:33):
And uh, you know, I look forward to this Summit
League season for sure, but we got a few games
still to go prior to getting to the Summit League.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, a lot of those are going to be at home,
which is nice that the women will play a home
game tomorrow on the seventeenth against Mayville State, then go
to Wyoming on the twenty first, as a good Wyoming
team that just whacks South Dakota just this past weekend
down in Vermilion, and then it's a break and sell.
Conference play begins. The men six straight home games bill
Fine four in the non con and then the first
(30:02):
two in the conference, all at home, and they had
one of those the other day obviously at kind of
a hardlock loss again in that weird forty eight hour
back to back from San Antonio back to Grant Forks, which, again,
like you said, you don't control some of these things.
Weather made this what it is after having the away
trip wiped out in November because of extreme weather. But
(30:24):
now you get a chance to play, and I'm sure
the guys are incredibly excited about this. A final four
team from a year ago who was a preseason favorite
to win a national championship and features the preseason player
of the year in the country. It's going to be
a really special occasion come Wednesday night, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
In the Betty, I'll tell you what I love the
fact that coach Oates and his staff, you know, want
to bring Grant back to the state and gave him
an opportunity to do that. I had an opportunity to
talk with my counterpart at our national convention back in
the summer, and uh, as far as I know, I
(31:02):
think he's going to try to check off North Dakota
as a as a state he's never been to. So
we'll see if Greg's here or not. But uh, but
at the end of the day, to have them here.
I think that's what kind of makes college athletics special.
And uh, we know what we're in for. I mean,
this team is pretty pretty good, and so we will
(31:22):
uh you know, but I guess'll be they'll be ready
to go, they'll be excited about it. And uh, I
think the biggest part of the six in a row
Alex is just being in Grand Forks and having the
ability to be here around the holidays so that they
can go get a couple, uh, you know, some time
with their family and decompress a little bit and get
off the road and then uh and then kind of
(31:42):
take the non conference schedule and uh kind of then
figure out what what we really need to work on.
And for us, you know, we had a weird game
like against Utah Valley at Utah.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Valley runs bill crazy runs.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
But how many times have you seen a team have
zero turnovers in the first half? Zero turnovers And it
was just a weird runs games. We were getting good
looks and they just weren't going down. I hate to
say it. We just got to shoot it better. And
you know, I think we're getting good looks. And I
heard Paul Ralston on his morning show today and you know,
(32:17):
as he said, tongue in cheek. You know, our guys
don't practice free throws. And you know, but again, you know,
those those are things that have bid us, you know,
front ends of one and one's those are the things
that bite you. And and we've been bitting a little bit.
So we've got to got to clean that stuff up.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
They're close, like you can tell, they're close. It was
a close game again against UTSA on Sunday. So now
again you play this Alabama team on Wednesday night. It's
an eight o'clock start live on national television, which is
really exciting. I'll get to be there for that game
for CBS, which which is going to be fun. And
the uh, I know, the Betty is doing some things
just a little bit differently because it's the first time
an SEC school has come here. It's it's not exactly
(32:57):
like when Kansas came back in twenty twenty two thousand
and one, sorry, when Jeff Boshi was on the team
and they played at the Ralph and it was an exhibition.
But but there's a little bit of similarity too. That's
not the first time that you and these hosted a
big time program like this. But it's the first time
in two decades. Can you talk a bit about what
are some of the things that might be different from
a fan going experience come Wednesday night.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yeah, I don't even think the fans will notice much difference.
I mean, you know, think about it. Last year we
were packed out for North Dakota State, So I mean,
I don't I don't think the fans are going to
notice much difference, truly. I think it's more of the
protocols that we're trying to make sure and and you know,
kind of make sure that Alabama feels as if, you know,
(33:40):
we've done a really really good job thoughtfully about you know,
them coming up here. They're you know, obviously a top
five team in the country, and we just want to
make sure that we we handle it appropriately. Now. Our
our athletic staff and certainly Jody Hodgson's staff is not
immune to big games. So so you know, put on
(34:01):
a number of big games, but we just want to
make sure everything's on point. That's probably the best way
to put it.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
This is a BAMA team that just a week ago
played at Chapel Hill in front of nineteen thousand people
against North Carolina and one by fifteen. But I mean
they were in Las Vegas, of course, at the Big
Players Tournament over Thanksgiving weekend, and they obviously they were
in the final four last year and they've experienced this.
It will be fun to see what they make of
this rabbit atmosphere inside the Betty. Thirty three hundred sold out.
(34:28):
I think what minutes within this being announced and being
on sale, It's going to be fantastic, And you just
hope again the guys can just enjoy this experience and
this opportunity to play literally one of the best basketball
teams in the country.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
That's right, And you know, let me pull out my
FCS FBS quote. It's not a best of seven.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
No, it's not forty minutes.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Play your tail off, have some fun with it, embrace it,
and it's something. It's a memory, something you're going to
remember the rest of your life.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
It'll be fun. I can't wait for that coming up
Wednesday night, eight o'clock at the Betty. Enjoy that one.
Been anything else From a und perspective.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
I think so. I think it's been an active, busy
week and we still got a few games left. Checkfighting
Hawks dot com and the calendar We've got a few
other games that are both prior to Christmas and right
after Christmas. So I think we hit on just about everything, Alex.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Except for the B side, which we are going to
flip to.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Now.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Busy time for our sports teams. Our favorite teams are
either coming to like the postseason, are getting ready to
launch into all these games in a short period of
time over Christmas. Just give me a quick Spurs update.
You're coming off a five mil thrashing at Southampton. It
was so bad, Bill, you got the coach fired of
the opposition. How about those Spurs?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Okay, glass half full, give me the give me the
half full. Now, this is the truth. Their goal differential
is second best in the PREM. They're sitting tenth right now,
but not far out of fifth or fourth.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
It's close, it's very close. Yeah, fine, Margins, it's a
razor thin.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
And then the other one is And actually this is
more important. They've give out up. They've given up the
third least goals in the PREM. Now it's tied with
three other teams. But that is a stark difference from
last year. Stark different And they've had defenders out so
and I think you know they've they've they've really Lots
(36:28):
of teams have injuries, no doubt about it, but they've
been really ravaged and so I don't know they're one.
It feels like one win, one loss, one win, one loss.
So they play Thursday in the Caribou Cup, play man U.
I think it's quarterfinal round, so that'll be interesting, and
then play this team called Liverpool on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
M M. Yes, the Heinrich Shaves Derby coming up at
Tottenham Stadium on Sunday. Big one there. Depending on how
things go midweek, you know, you'll either be coming in
on a high after beaten you or it'll be that
yo yo of up and down. And if it is
the down, that means you're due for an up when
you play the Reds who have lost. I mean, I
will say Liverpool's still top of the table, but they
have drawn two in a row in the league. They've
(37:12):
given up five goals in their last two EPL matches.
They didn't look great on Saturday against Fulham, but against
some of that was just the circumstance. They had a
player sent off, Andy Robertson early in that game and
had to play the vast I think seventy five minutes
or so, really down to ten and if you were
watching the match, you would have thought Fulham was down
to Man Liverpool very much the accressors and had the
(37:34):
ball and really should have won that game. But you
take a point when you're down in Man for that long.
But that will be a fascinating game on the twenty
second between our two beloved clubs.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Should be fun, should be good, should be good, and
the Red Sox got a good news. You know, I mean,
I'm really I'm bullish on the Red Sox. I am.
I think there's more to come this offseason. But getting
a top line starter was incredibly important. That probably on
Craig Breslow's wish list first and foremost, and he pulled
(38:05):
it off and didn't have to really give up too
too much, I know. I mean they gave up prospects
and really Kyle Chiel being the headliner, and I knew
that the first round picked from this past year that
literally has not suited up for the Red Sox as
he had a broken ankle at college. You know, I
think getting crochet you got to pay for something, Alex.
He's twenty five years old.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
That's the big thing. If anybody was pushing back on
the fact that you sent four prospects to the White
Sox for this guy, it is like, well, what do
you expect like this? This is what the rate is
to get a number one starter as a lefty in
the prime of his career. And again we talked about
this because he was a reliever initially and then transitioned
to a starter. He's still making reliever money right now
(38:48):
and is under team control for the next couple of
seasons and that lap, but it goes to arbitration, like
all the things that go with that. You're getting a
guy in his pulling into his prime and it's on
a budget.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
It's incredible, and I think he never pitched in the
minor leagues, so he came in from college and so
they almost kind of worked They're like working him through
and the differential between Sale and him is three years
three years older. Sale was when the Red Sax came,
(39:20):
and I think he pitched nine hundred more innings and
so you know when he came to the Red Sax.
So they're getting someone that has probably any come close
to tapping his potential but had Tommy John surgery. But
that doesn't seem like that. Seems like a natural occurrence
with many pitchers at this point, so I don't think
that that's an issue. But it's exciting. He's a big guy,
(39:41):
six ' six lefty. Gotta love that.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
Yeah, it's exciting to see what he will do for
this team that really has lacked a true number one
starter for a while.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
A while, a while. Yeah, you know, the Sodo thing
couldn't have worked out any better, really, I mean, you know,
I would have loved to see him in BO. I
think he would have been tremendous, But that's that was
a lot of money to pay for sure, But him,
you know, get you know, moving from the Yankees to
the Mets, Boy, that helps because with Judge and him
(40:11):
in that lineup, they were pretty devastating.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
It was dangerous. It was a really dangerous lineup. Can
I ask you, by the way, so he signed, was
it a twelve year, seven hundred, fifty seven hundred and
sixty million dollar deal? I mean something something like something
like that. You know, fifty sixty milis whatever?
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Is?
Speaker 1 (40:28):
When is enough money enough? Or like what at what
point do we start to think like we're going to
be in billion dollar contracts pretty soon? Is there any concern?
I only say this coming a little bit from a
Liverpool perspective because we're trying to negotiate with three players
and one of them currently makes three hundred and fifty
thousand pounds a week and is maybe asking for potentially more.
(40:50):
And I wonder do you ever get concerned about the
economics of sport?
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Bill?
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Not not in your chair, but just as a fan, like,
are we are we ever going to get to the
point where it's like this just isn't sustainable anymore to pay?
What I'm getting at is how much is too much
for one human being to make to play a game?
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Your thoughts well, as long as the franchises keep escalating
in in uh in price, what ends up happening is
I think owners end up investing in their teams knowing
that they're probably going to get it back on the
back end.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Yeah, yeah, there's nothing wrong with that, of course, And
more power to these guys, like obviously they're they're providing
entertainment and people love it and not people are still
paying for tickets and if.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
The revenues weren't such, I don't think we'd see these
prices or there were these contracts, and so, you know,
to pay the performers, I think is probably right. I
mean at the end, that's that's what we come to see,
is the performers, and so, you know, but with all
of that, you know, last year because he, you know,
(41:54):
broke Shohio Tani's contract record, I thought, you know, watching
my guy on spurs Son, he really you bring a
part of the world with you. That's what Otani was bringing.
I mean, he's a complete utter world.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Brand, global superstar. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Yeah, and I in Soto, I don't know if that's
the case. There's been a lot of players from the
dr and so you know, even from a even from
a Red Sox perspective, I don't know if he ever
could be bigger than David Ortiz or Pedro Martinez. So
it doesn't feel that way. But but you know, how
(42:39):
many times do you have a superstar that's twenty six
years old on the open market.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
I think a lot of things collided. Steve Cohen wanted
to stick it to the Yankees, so he wanted the
back page. So there, I think the stars and Moon
aligned a little bit, and the Red Socks were in
play this year. You know, the Dodgers are oh in play,
but when the Red Sox are in play, that just
helps obviously anybody that's trying to sign a contract.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
It's amazing to see the negotiation, some of the little
minute details of negotiation about while he wanted a suite
and we weren't sure, like we couldn't do that extra
ten million, like that was at least that felt like
it was the Yankees side where they didn't want to
go where the Mets went. And it is funny like
at this point, guys, are you sure that really like
ten million out of the seven hundred and fifty, you're
already there. You're already there.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Whatever whatever thing you crossed, whatever you think you crossed,
you crossed it, whatever it is you actually crossed it.
So just go just go. Oh, I won't go that
much further.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
That's my limit.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
That's where I put my steak in the ground.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Right, seven fifty for twelve years and no sweets. That's
where we're landing at. Take it or leave it.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
I exactly right, So who knows. I would say, I'm
I'm kind of bullish on the farm system the Red
Sox have, but they do have to make moves here.
They've got a few other things they've got to get done.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
But it's exciting, Yeah, very much so Well, pictures and
catchers Bill two months away. Get excited.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
What's not exciting really is the Steelers losing to the Eagles.
But the Eagles are pretty good.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Eagles are very good. Eleven straight for Philly. That I
was going to get you out on that. Yes, you've
clinched the playoff spot ten and four. Really tough finish
to the season though, at Baltimore home against Kansas City,
home against Sincy. But you're in the postseason. Well that's
all you could ask for right now.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
I don't know what's happening with Mahomes. I think injured
his ankle. Who knows. Maybe it's a ma homeless game
in Pittsburgh. Could be, it could be. It seems like
they always play the Ravens to a three point game,
and since he's defense was not awesome in Cincinnati, so
I don't know. We'll see what happens. I really like
the way Buffalo's plan though, I mean again, their defense
(44:48):
has been leaky too, But I think the AFC is
kind of wide open.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
Yeah, at this point, it feels like, especially after the
Lions Bills game, it feels like Buffalo is the favorite now.
But like you said, certainly you can score on them.
But Josh Allens, he's the MVP of the league, right
would you? Would you agree with that at this point?
Speaker 2 (45:06):
One hundred percent? I mean he's been awesome. I mean,
I'm not even sure what he did last week? What
did he score? He had three touchdowns on the ground
and three in the air.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Three in the air. Yeah, it's crazy. He kind of
did something similar yesterday against the Lions too. It's great
doing crazy things, crazy things.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
This guy, he's nuts. But anyways, all that to be good. Yeah,
time to go because I've got a hard out. But Alex,
I really do appreciate everything that you do for us
and in this pod mid Co, and I hope you
and your family have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas and happy
New Year. We'll see it back on the pod in January.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
Yeah, looking forward to that. Yes, it is my pleasure, Bill,
thanks for all you do for you indeed, and it's
for me appreciate you so have a great holiday for
you to your family as well. It's everybody listening as well.
Thanks so much. For being a proud supporter of the
Bill TIFFs podcast in twenty twenty four onward to twenty
twenty five. Big thanks to Alex Docker Johnson and Paul
Rawson on the back end. Thanks as always to Bill.
I'm Alex, have a great at Christmas, in a great
(46:00):
new year, and we'll talk to you soon
You're listening to the Bill Shaves Podcast, presented by Mid
Coast Sports. If you're searching for a gift for the
sports fan in your life this holiday season, we suggest
the subscription to Mid Coast Sports Plus, the only place
to watch every conference event for the Summit League and
the CCHA this winter. That means every Fighting HACS Conference
basketball game home and away subscribes today at midcast Sports
(00:21):
plus dot com. This is how we do sports, and
this is the Bill Shaves Podcast. Welcome to another edition
of the Bill Shaves Podcast, the final edition of twenty
twenty four work recording this on a Monday afternoon, the
sixteenth of December. Happy holidays, Bill Shaves.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, Happy holidays, Alex boy the calendar. Boy, time has
flown this year. Huh. And we say it all the time,
but boy, it's just I can't even believe we're in December.
We're past Thanksgiving holiday season ahead. So but that would
be a great gift for people. I m a subscriber
myself of Mid Coast Sports Plus. I see the virtues
(01:02):
of it literally on a nightly basis.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
It is especially now that conference play will begin in
just a couple of weeks for some of league coops,
Like if you're a some league basketball fan. The biggest
thing for me is that you can watch when North
Dakota is on the road or for me, when I'm
when I'm doing games with other teams, you can watch
those games live wherever they are. But then you can
also watch the replace so if you've got something else
(01:24):
going on, like I wasn't able to watch you and
d Men against UTSA live yesterday because my kids had
a Christmas pageant, but I could put it on last night.
That's an awesome feature and just again it's it's a
really great service I think for sports fans in this
part of the world to have that opportunity. So yeah,
that's a again sponsor of the podcast, so we appreciate
their efforts. But it is a really good product and
(01:46):
we hope you consider that if you're looking.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
For something, I would agree with you. And you know,
I know, Commissioner Fenton's done a great job and all
the fine folks at mid Co have really done a
wonderful job with it. And it's kind of a one
stop shopping so you know, if you're a fan, I
don't know, it's kind of a metaphorical thing. That you
can put someone stocking. But at the end of the day,
(02:07):
I think you can do it.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I think you could. I think you could do it.
Just print out a little Minko and some of league
logo and just drop it in it just they'll get
the they'll get the idea.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
With a plus, well.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
We'll discuss, you know, our Christmas shopping lists and things
like that, maybe on the b side today, along with
a lot of fun with the festive fixtures that are
coming for soccer and some baseball hot stove and Steelers
pushing for the playoffs and all those things. That's coming
up a little later. We've got some good Mulberry Bush
talk with hockey and men's and women soups now in
full steam hockey hitting the break on a really high note.
We'll talk more about that in a bit. First, though,
(02:43):
even though it's December, football has certainly been at the
forefront of everybody and you and the athletics mindes, and
we obviously didn't didn't have our usual pod last week
because you were in full job search mode, if you could.
Let's go back to the thirtieth of November and really
even from the end of the season and kind of
talk us through everything that you and the department have
been going through, is you've been trying to figure out
(03:04):
the best path for you any football moving forward. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I had some really good conversations post the Illinois State
game with Bubba, and you know, we we we discussed
a number of things, and I think where we landed,
and we landed in a really good place, is for
him to really take the next chapter here as a
(03:28):
senior staff member. And you know, we're we're calling it
a senior associate for engagement and mentorship. And Eric and
I sometimes Martins and our deputy athletic director for those
of you just joining us for the first time. A
POD regular by the way as well, Staple a pod
(03:48):
Staple god Staple. Correct. I'm not sure how many are
in the staple, but he's one of them. He is
one of them for sure. So Eric and I had
discussed a number of times, is there someone that we
could possibly get on our senior staff that could fill
avoid for us. One is from an engagement standpoint and
(04:10):
a mentorship standpoint, because many times, and when I use
the word mentorship, I'll say it could be from a
student athlete standpoint, it could be from a staff standpoint,
or it could be a coaching standpoint. We have a
lot of folks that come to us that are in
the early years of their coaching tenures, and to have
(04:31):
someone on staff that's coached for forty years and has
really been through a lot of different things, what an
awesome resource for us. So really kind of you know,
a coach can set up an appointment, shut the door
and say hey, here's what I'm going through. You know,
what's your thought process, A real safe zone for that person.
(04:52):
So that was one, but then also the ability for
the engagement side. This is somebody that can work hand
in glove with our folks uh over at the Alumni Foundation. Also,
you know, connect with the Jonathan and Matt with the
collective in some way, shape or form. He's just got
a rolodex from the State of North Dakota, you know,
(05:15):
oodles of experience. Just the ability to have that person
on your staff was exciting. So for him to start
his next chapter was was something that you know, I know,
I'm excited about. And as I mentioned to him, hey
let's let's get to January one and then like jump
into this. So so that's on on the on the
(05:35):
Bubba side. Then of course now you go into search
mode and basketball's on the men's side. In football is
certainly an interesting UH situation. The world descends upon you
and many folks within minutes of an announcement such as
(05:58):
we had with UH with coachwa Is. You know, you're
getting you're getting feedback, you're getting information, you're getting third parties,
you're getting people get your cell phone that you couldn't
even imagine how they got your cell phone. So there's that.
And so we went through a three day period where
folks actually you know, needed to declare that they wanted
(06:22):
to be a part of the potential. Search goes to
human Resources, kicks to us, and then we kind of
start rifling through and we go through a first round.
And you know where we are in life, Alex, you
can go through a virtual first round and you can
you can get you can get it done pretty quick,
and so that's what ended up happening. And then you
quickly narrow the field again and and then you sit
(06:45):
down and you just go through everything from soup to nuts,
A to Z. How you know you plan on running
a program, what's important to you? How do you know,
how do you lead, how do you lead student athletes,
how do you lead your staff? How what kind of
teammate are you departmentally? I mean all of those types
of things, and so you go through it all, and
(07:06):
I thought that when it was all said and done,
the ability to partner and I'll use the term his term,
but I'm going to use the term partner with Eric Schmidt,
I think was incredibly important. And so I crossed over
from eighteen to nineteen, so one year with Eric, so
I got to know him a little bit. And then
in nineteen he departed enjoyed coach to boor staff at
(07:28):
Fresno State, went on to Washington, and then spent the
last year at San Diego State as a defensive coordinator
with coach Lewis. And I know they'll get that turned
around as well. But for him to come back to
UND as just one of a handful of coaches that
have ever suited up for UND, so that was exciting.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
You talk about again the process. You referenced it as
being in the bunker. I believe you were in the
bunker for a while going through this in the midst
of that process, like, not only are you trying to
figure out who's going to lead this program. Signing day
was coming up, So not only are you in this
coaching transition, you're trying to beat the clock and make
sure that the student athletes that had verbally committed do
follow through and know that the program's heading into right
(08:09):
direction and then the portal is going to open. You know,
within a week of that you did you must have
certainly felt like, and I know the word immediately was like,
we'd like to have this search be conducted over this
course at time, and we're okay if it extends, but
ideally we'd like to have someone in place, the right
person in place, and make that an expedient higher how
much is the fact you can do so much of
(08:30):
this virtually now? At least the first stage is allow
that to be possible. I'm sure this this wasn't really possible.
Maybe ten years.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Ago it wasn't. It wasn't actually, you know, I think
that's that's the game changer, is the virtual piece, and
and I think you know how we're recording right now
this pod, we get to see each other, so even
you know, in this particular pod, and I should have
said it right at the beginning, you know, this is
just going to be an Alex and Me pod. We
usually have a guest on the front end, but we
(08:56):
figure there's been so much that has gone on that
we we just wanted to hit the und stuff right away.
And so, but you know, when we have a guest done,
we're able to see them and we're able to you know,
kind of look at each other. You know you've got
the next question or I'm going to follow up. You know,
those expressions are meaningful when you have a conversation. And again,
(09:17):
that first round's not a terribly long process, but it
is effective when you can see someone face to face.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
You can't replace icons, acts and nonverbals and things like that.
Just again, like I said, it's different than talking to
someone on the phone. Not a lot of great things
happened from the pandemic, but but this has been one
of them.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Feels that way.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
So Eric Schmid ends up being tabbed as the head coach,
and you talked about if he played here, won a
national title here. He then came back as a coordinator
versus well, he was a position coach. First left for
a bit, came back as a coordinator, was here for
six years as a defensive coordinator, and then yeah, has
had these great experiences at the FBS level. It's pretty
obvious now why he was the right fit. But give
(09:57):
us a little flavor of why why why was Eric
Smith your guy?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I will start and I said this at the original
press conference when we had Bubba and Isaac there, which
was I think nine days previous to them, when we
had the press conference for coach Schmidt. Is you just
never know how it's going to go. You don't you know,
maybe maybe if you're at the highest end of college football.
(10:24):
And I'll say money is no object or certainly those
things aren't something that you have to necessarily and I
say loosely worry about. But it really is a conversation
with someone to say is this the right time with
that person? And in alex I've been in other searches
where you would think, well, obviously they're going to go
(10:47):
in X, Y or Z eas direction and it turns
out that it just isn't the right time. I mean,
people do have lives, like they have their family, they
have kids, they might have just moved them. You have
no idea like what is happening at that point. So
I've had one situation where someone you know confided in me.
You know, they just had they had had a health issue,
(11:08):
you know, recently, and and not during this search, by
the way, not during their search, but but search is
over the course of my time having done this, and
you know, you just never know how it's going to
work itself out. And I just thought that the more
we talked to Eric, he just had a plan. I mean,
he had been here, but he'd been gone long enough
(11:29):
and had some incredible success and you know, I mean truly,
to be able to run out of a tunnel of
a national title game is special.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
It just is.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
And so then to kind of come back and impart
that twelve month calendar that he's been talking about that
worked so well for them at Fresno and then worked
well at Washington, and I'm sure you know he would
have utilized some of that at San Diego State as well.
But and then to have the access and the connectivity
to some of the folks that he's been able to
(12:02):
be with over the last five years, I think will
be nothing but beneficial for you, Andy.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
It certainly makes a lot of sense, and you could
see how it got people fired up. I think there
was you know, an overwhelming amount of support previous players
who played for coach Smith and both both at this
stopping at others, and then people that Eric had played for,
you know, previous coat and you saw that in the
press conference, like you saw Dale Lenin obviously in Bubba
(12:28):
there and just this great supportive people who had mentored
Eric over the course of his time as a player
and then as a coach. I think people are just
really excited for him, certainly as a person, for this
opportunity and for the things that he'll instill in this
program that he loves clearly, Like this is a North
Dakota guy from Nandan, his wife's from Crookston. Like they've
had such strong roots in the Grand Forks community and
(12:50):
in the state of North Dakota. You know, if you're
leaving San Diego and coming to Grand Forks that you
really want to come back. Just saying he wants to
be here and wants to make this place, you know,
to take that next step. And we always talk about
you and he's been a consistent playoff team, but can
you take that next step and make a deep run
and do some of the things now that we've seen
the other Dakota's schools do this year, make the semi finals,
(13:11):
challenge for a national championship. You know, those are the goals,
and I think we think we will both would agree
this is a man that's capable of doing this for
this program. It's exciting, I would agree.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And you know, again, it took both sides to really
kind of come to this decision and thought, obviously, he's
his career path is obviously on an upward trajectory, and
he had to really make a thoughtful decision. And I
think and I do believe this in talking with him
since he's you know, obviously been around for the last
(13:43):
week or so. Yeah, I tried to explain to him,
but it was hard to do it when you're not
on campus. Is you know a lot of things have
improved since you've departed in five years, and you really
kind of have to see it. And I think he's
seen it, and I think he's excited about it. I
hope he's more excited about it each each and every day.
And you know, we're excited about having him. Obviously his
(14:06):
family back and obviously has a lot of connectivity with
with the alums and and all of our supporters, and
you know, the last thing I'll say on this one,
Alex is you know, Bubbaschwigert's been nothing but a class act.
You know, he's been tremendous. I look forward literally to
continue to work with them. He's he's a wonderful human being.
(14:26):
And his willingness and you know, to to support Eric
and be at certain functions I think speaks volumes on
the kind of person he is, so really really happy
he's going to continue to be with us because I
think that's really important. He's going to make us better.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
There is zero surprise to anyone that is ever interactive
with Bubbaschwiger that that is the case. Like just an
unbelievably classy man. And obviously he now fills the role
of mensor for the guy that he mensered as a player.
And then obviously Bubba was the head coach when Eric
was his DC work together at Southern Illinois. Like there's
so much connectivity there that it just makes sense that
this is going to be You'd imagine a really good relationship,
(15:07):
a good partnership, and for Eric to have someone like
that to lean on, you couldn't ask for better.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Well, well, he had eleven years here as a head
coach he knows every coach that we have here, and
so if I'm an assistant coach on make it up
fill in the blank sport and I'm trying to think
through how to manage or handle something, maybe even with
my own head coach. Boy, what an awesome possibility to say, hey,
bub but he got a second how should I handle this?
(15:34):
And that is a huge, huge deal because you know,
sometimes the coaches need to be coached, and as an administrator,
you know, we help and try to support and do
those types of things. But it's a little different, I
think going in with his pedigree as far as what
he's done during his career.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
The next step beyond player retention and then of course
recruiting for Eric Schmid his name his staff, and we
saw that with Isaac Frickt. They announced as returning as
the offensive coordinator, which I think everybody would agree the
offense was really good this year. Isaac showed a lot
of promise in that role. He's going to come back
to run the offense this year as coach Smitt now
rounds out the rest of his staff. Bill, I'm curious
(16:16):
how much conversations do you have with him on who
he's going to retain who he's bringing in. What's your
role in that process?
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah, this is completely Coach Schmidt's decision, and I hope
I'm more in support role. And if he wants to
bounce something off of myself, it could be Eric Martinson,
it could be Chad karthauser. I think he uses us
as a resource just to make sure that, you know,
(16:46):
we're doing everything that we need to do to you know,
whatever direction he ends up going, we want to handle
it with you know, be handle it correctly, in in
a first class way. And so yeah, most of the coaches,
Alex you know, I think you know, to their decision
as being a head coach of who they feel isn't
(17:07):
the best person to fill certain roles so that the
program can have as much success as possible.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Oh, we certainly wish Coach Schmidt and that program now
all the best is they start to put things together
August thirtieth at Kansas State, just the eight months away,
right around the corner. Start.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
The twenty four has gone fast. Let's not wish twenty
five away.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
No too soon, too soon. Let's let's get through Christmas
and then like springball, and then we can start to
talk about next year, but exciting stuff there again. Congrats
to Eric Schmidt, and I can say I got to
sit in his room when he was a defensive coordinator
right when I started twenty sixteen was my first year
calling you in the football and Eric was in his
third year as DC, and like we would have meetings,
you know, weekly, and you'd sit down and just chat,
(17:54):
and like, you just are not going to find a
guy that's more dedicated like you would just he would
just have gotten with the meeting with his linebackers or
somebody on the D line or anybody that wanted to chat.
And the guy just put the time in and put
the work and then still made time for us. And
just I don't know, love talking ball with him and
really excited for what he can do for you indie football,
switching gears you indie hockey. Right in the middle of
(18:15):
their season, almost the halfway point, we finished the first
half incredibly talk about the year going fast and you
and he fines themselves now at this holiday break in
really good shape, Bill, Like what a great run. Now
these last couple of weeks they have after overcoming a
lot of injury probably and still obviously in the midst
of it. They certainly did not have a full roster
up until the very end of this first half. They
(18:37):
managed to close out the first half now with back
to back sweeps in the NCCHC. All of a sudden,
they've only got one loss in their last eight games,
and you find yourself in second place in the league
and with a lot of momentum heading into Christmas. What
can you say about the job this group has done
in recent weeks to really overcome adversity and plague some
(18:59):
really good down the stretch.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Here, Yeah, Alex, and obviously you see all the games
firsthand as well. Is uh, you know, I would say
this it's why you play the season because you might
think you know what's gonna happen. And I'm not sure
we could have drew this one up on how things
just occurred for this team. And uh, but it's actually
(19:23):
exciting to know how much, how many reps, how many,
how much, how many miles on the odometer, that many
of our first years have now, you know, under their belt.
I mean, I think it has a chance to really
help us as we move forward into the second half
(19:44):
of the year. You know, but yeah, it's uh, I'm
really happy. I mean, uh, for the guys, I know,
they're they're working as hard as they can and and uh,
you know, nothing seems to have come easy for this
particular group right now, and they're just they're grinding away,
though they continue to grind away. And it was it
would be easy, you know, it would have been easy
(20:06):
at four two in Oxford to say, well, tonight's not
our night. And then it would have been easy at
four to four to say, well, let's just go to overtime.
And so those are the little moments of the season
that you can look back on and say, hey, you know,
I know this, if you're in the best hockey league
in the country. Every weekend when you're in that conference,
(20:29):
you're playing a good team. So someone has to be
somewhere in the table, right. I mean, it's no different
than what we always talk about in the Premier League.
I mean, I don't care if you play the worst
team in the league. That worst team is in the
best league in the world. So what are we talking
about here? What we're talking about is a really, really tough,
(20:52):
you know run that we had. But the team is
kind of grinding it out right now, getting a little
bit healthier, which is great to see. And then I
think this, I think this break. You could say, yes,
in the last eight games we've only lost one, but
I still think the break is coming in okay time
for us. I think we need to gass up right now.
I think we need to land the plane, need to
get to the hangar, and I think we need to
(21:14):
cast up. That's what I think we need to do.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
No, I would agree. We joked with that with coach
Barry after Saturday's win because he mentioned about this team
has just been building momentum and I said, it's almost
like you wish you could keep going, but also I
think you're gonna be okay the fact that you've basically
got four weeks until your next competitive game. And he
was very quick to say, yes, we're okay, that there's
gonna be a little gap now. Because again, the guy
(21:38):
who made the play of the game, and there were
a lot of standouts on Saturday night and over the
course of the weekends, you and the sweeps number nine
Saint Cloud State two nothing and then four to three
in overtime. But Dylan James essentially what makes the play
of the night in three on three to beat out
Saint Claude, State's best skating defenseman to a puck that
he had really no business winning, and then is able
to not just beat him there, but then them out
(22:01):
win the puck battle. Find Jake Smaltz wide open to win.
And this is a guy that probably shouldn't have even
been playing potential. I mean, like really got banged up
on Friday, going hard into the boards and is just
gutting it out and then that was his third assist
of the evening to win the game. You know, this
is where they're at. I mean, their captain comes back
not at a one hundred percent but just wanted to play,
(22:21):
Like felt like I'm good enough to go. I got cleared.
I've only got so many games left in my career.
I'm not missing this opportunity. They're not at full strength,
not even close, and they've been able to find ways
to win recently, when earlier in the season it felt
like they had leads or they would beat Tide and
it was the other team that seemed to just be
able to make that winning play. Look at out Cornell
on game number two, like it and now that's starting
(22:43):
to turn. So it just it gets you excited. That
combined with all those reps the first year kids have
gotten that they maybe wouldn't have gotten if U and
D was healthy. That really bodes well for a second
half that will be very challenging when you look at
the teams that are coming on the schedule.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, and we need the challenge for sure. We want
the challenge. I mean, I think this team's excited for
the challenge. But a couple of things I'll pick up.
I saw Louis and the concourse on Friday night and
it was killing him, absolutely killing him not playing, right.
I mean it's just a tough one. But you know,
and I think that's right. I think when you get cleared,
even though you mentally could have said, hey, if you
(23:19):
don't play the next night, then you've got really time
to recover. But if you're ready to go, you're ready
to go. So good for him getting on the ice.
We need him. I mean, his leadership is invaluable for sure,
And it's different when you're playing versus not playing, so
he can still provide the leadership, but it's different when
he's in the locker room, so that's important. But Dylan,
But think about Dylan, that poor guy. I mean I'm
(23:42):
not sure I've seen like a puck just I don't
do to just go across the crossbar. I what did
it do? It hit like a lot's parts of the crossbar,
which I've not seen too much of. I usually see
oom it hits it, but this one felt like it
sipped across and then fell down and it was like,
are you kidding me? And then all of a sudden,
(24:04):
you know what, he flushed it and he got after it.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
In overtime, he had a couple of great opportunities to
score and like you could even see after the one
occasion like he kind of slammed his stick to the ice,
like how did that not go in? But he ultimately
gets rewarded in the ends, And again that's that's a
guy that just epitomes that hard skill Like it's a
second round draft pick that is uber talented but just
doesn't doesn't play like a guy that was selected in
(24:27):
the top forty picks of the NHL draft. Like plays
like a guy that is fighting for every shift, you know,
as a bottom six type forward. And that's the type
of team you and he has this year, They've got
guys that are that are just hard working kids, that
also have a tremendous skill.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And I thought Brad I was listening to him. We
had a fan luncheon on last Friday, and so he
addressed the group, and you know, I thought it was
interesting he said. He said two things. One he said,
you know, of course every weekend special teams are going
to make a difference. But we've been pretty good on
the power play, I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Nationally top five in the country, yep.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
But p K actually could get probably better, right, I
mean at this point, I think we were forty forty
something going into this weekend, and so but it seems
like every time Dylan's on the ice, I feel like
there's still a chance that boy he pokes it and
I'm telling you what, boom he's gone. And so we
(25:24):
probably haven't seen as many shorties at this point, but
you know, we just got to if we do some
things and the team continues to get better in rally,
especially given the age the youth of our defensive corps
from the beginning of the year to what we just
witnessed this past Friday and Saturday, you can see the growth.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
It's exciting. It's exciting to see what could be coming
for this team. And like you said, they will be
tested in the second half. They get these three weeks off,
not totally off, of course, they'll still be training and
working out, et cetera. But the fourth of January it
will be an exhibition against Manitoba and then things start
again with a road trip to Arizona State new Conference member,
Arizona State down in TMP, and then it's home against
(26:08):
Western and then it's another little by so they get
kind of a late January open window before things continue.
So it's like this little little bump to jump back
in two weekends really hard and then get another break
and then it's all games, all the way, and you
hope it's all the way to Saint Louis in April.
But it'll be fun to see this team get healthy again.
You hope that Cameron Berg's back for that game against
(26:29):
Arizona State. You know, you don't know about Benismolek. You
just hope that they'll be closer to full strength when
the calendar flips to twenty twenty five, and then watch out.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I think that I think that's one hundred percent correct,
and I think Manitoba will come at a good time
right as the calendar turns so that you can kind
of roll all lines and you know, get get all
the goalies, kind of probably a period to some degree
just to get on the ice and because yeah, you
know Arizona State's you know, done a nice job. I
mean the they again, if you look at at our schedule,
(27:00):
the way it stacks up here once once it gets
going again, I know, you know where we are in
the paarawise right now, we have an opportunity to make
some hay with the with the teams that are coming up.
And you know, as you talk about pairwise too, sometimes
it doesn't settle until really conference season really kicks in,
(27:21):
and so you know, we'll see. But bottom line is
you just got to you know, play well, play well,
get healthy, and win some games.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Not a bad plan, Not a bad plan. Bill Schieves.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Yeah, that's my three point. That's my that's my three points.
I'm going to go on the campaign trail with that.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
There you go, good, good and you'll have some success
with that message. That is hockey in a nutshell. Men's
and women's basketball not quite at conference yet. That'll begin
in January, both the men and women kind of going
through the travels the back and forth from Grand Forks
to different places, both with four wins on the campaign.
How do you see men's and women's soops right now?
Is kind of transition into the last week or so
(28:03):
before conference play begins.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
You know, Division one basketball in the non conference. If
you're not let's call it Alabama, since that seems to
be timely. You know, let's just say you don't control
as much of your travel schedule, and so you can
go through some some some highs and lows, for sure.
And I think our teams are battling some things. They've
(28:28):
been a lot of different places, but then once conferences
and kicks in, it becomes much more consistent. And then
you know, you got half at home, half on the road,
and gyms you've been to so you know where the
locker room is. I mean, those are big deals, and
so you know, you try to challenge yourself in the
in the non conference, and you know, I think our
(28:50):
teams have had experience some highs, and I think they've
also battled through I mean similarly at times shooting the
ball alex both sides, both sides sometimes And I've talked
to coach Bernhard about our women's team. You know, we've had.
In tennis vernacular, Brad Schlossman would like, this is unforced errors.
(29:12):
It's like we've had some turnovers. You're always going to
have turnovers. It's the unforced errors that's we've got to
We've got to reduce those. We've got to if we're
getting five to six of those a game, it's got
to be one or two or zero and and and
that will help possessions and all of that. So I
think they're learning a lot about themselves on both sides.
(29:33):
And uh, you know, I look forward to this Summit
League season for sure, but we got a few games
still to go prior to getting to the Summit League.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, a lot of those are going to be at home,
which is nice that the women will play a home
game tomorrow on the seventeenth against Mayville State, then go
to Wyoming on the twenty first, as a good Wyoming
team that just whacks South Dakota just this past weekend
down in Vermilion, and then it's a break and sell.
Conference play begins. The men six straight home games bill
Fine four in the non con and then the first
(30:02):
two in the conference, all at home, and they had
one of those the other day obviously at kind of
a hardlock loss again in that weird forty eight hour
back to back from San Antonio back to Grant Forks, which, again,
like you said, you don't control some of these things.
Weather made this what it is after having the away
trip wiped out in November because of extreme weather. But
(30:24):
now you get a chance to play, and I'm sure
the guys are incredibly excited about this. A final four
team from a year ago who was a preseason favorite
to win a national championship and features the preseason player
of the year in the country. It's going to be
a really special occasion come Wednesday night, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
In the Betty, I'll tell you what I love the
fact that coach Oates and his staff, you know, want
to bring Grant back to the state and gave him
an opportunity to do that. I had an opportunity to
talk with my counterpart at our national convention back in
the summer, and uh, as far as I know, I
(31:02):
think he's going to try to check off North Dakota
as a as a state he's never been to. So
we'll see if Greg's here or not. But uh, but
at the end of the day, to have them here.
I think that's what kind of makes college athletics special.
And uh, we know what we're in for. I mean,
this team is pretty pretty good, and so we will
(31:22):
uh you know, but I guess'll be they'll be ready
to go, they'll be excited about it. And uh, I
think the biggest part of the six in a row
Alex is just being in Grand Forks and having the
ability to be here around the holidays so that they
can go get a couple, uh, you know, some time
with their family and decompress a little bit and get
off the road and then uh and then kind of
(31:42):
take the non conference schedule and uh kind of then
figure out what what we really need to work on.
And for us, you know, we had a weird game
like against Utah Valley at Utah.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Valley runs bill crazy runs.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
But how many times have you seen a team have
zero turnovers in the first half? Zero turnovers And it
was just a weird runs games. We were getting good
looks and they just weren't going down. I hate to
say it. We just got to shoot it better. And
you know, I think we're getting good looks. And I
heard Paul Ralston on his morning show today and you know,
(32:17):
as he said, tongue in cheek. You know, our guys
don't practice free throws. And you know, but again, you know,
those those are things that have bid us, you know,
front ends of one and one's those are the things
that bite you. And and we've been bitting a little bit.
So we've got to got to clean that stuff up.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
They're close, like you can tell, they're close. It was
a close game again against UTSA on Sunday. So now
again you play this Alabama team on Wednesday night. It's
an eight o'clock start live on national television, which is
really exciting. I'll get to be there for that game
for CBS, which which is going to be fun. And
the uh, I know, the Betty is doing some things
just a little bit differently because it's the first time
an SEC school has come here. It's it's not exactly
(32:57):
like when Kansas came back in twenty twenty two thousand
and one, sorry, when Jeff Boshi was on the team
and they played at the Ralph and it was an exhibition.
But but there's a little bit of similarity too. That's
not the first time that you and these hosted a
big time program like this. But it's the first time
in two decades. Can you talk a bit about what
are some of the things that might be different from
a fan going experience come Wednesday night.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yeah, I don't even think the fans will notice much difference.
I mean, you know, think about it. Last year we
were packed out for North Dakota State, So I mean,
I don't I don't think the fans are going to
notice much difference, truly. I think it's more of the
protocols that we're trying to make sure and and you know,
kind of make sure that Alabama feels as if, you know,
(33:40):
we've done a really really good job thoughtfully about you know,
them coming up here. They're you know, obviously a top
five team in the country, and we just want to
make sure that we we handle it appropriately. Now. Our
our athletic staff and certainly Jody Hodgson's staff is not
immune to big games. So so you know, put on
(34:01):
a number of big games, but we just want to
make sure everything's on point. That's probably the best way
to put it.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
This is a BAMA team that just a week ago
played at Chapel Hill in front of nineteen thousand people
against North Carolina and one by fifteen. But I mean
they were in Las Vegas, of course, at the Big
Players Tournament over Thanksgiving weekend, and they obviously they were
in the final four last year and they've experienced this.
It will be fun to see what they make of
this rabbit atmosphere inside the Betty. Thirty three hundred sold out.
(34:28):
I think what minutes within this being announced and being
on sale, It's going to be fantastic, And you just
hope again the guys can just enjoy this experience and
this opportunity to play literally one of the best basketball
teams in the country.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
That's right, And you know, let me pull out my
FCS FBS quote. It's not a best of seven.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
No, it's not forty minutes.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Play your tail off, have some fun with it, embrace it,
and it's something. It's a memory, something you're going to
remember the rest of your life.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
It'll be fun. I can't wait for that coming up
Wednesday night, eight o'clock at the Betty. Enjoy that one.
Been anything else From a und perspective.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
I think so. I think it's been an active, busy
week and we still got a few games left. Checkfighting
Hawks dot com and the calendar We've got a few
other games that are both prior to Christmas and right
after Christmas. So I think we hit on just about everything, Alex.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Except for the B side, which we are going to
flip to.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Now.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Busy time for our sports teams. Our favorite teams are
either coming to like the postseason, are getting ready to
launch into all these games in a short period of
time over Christmas. Just give me a quick Spurs update.
You're coming off a five mil thrashing at Southampton. It
was so bad, Bill, you got the coach fired of
the opposition. How about those Spurs?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Okay, glass half full, give me the give me the
half full. Now, this is the truth. Their goal differential
is second best in the PREM. They're sitting tenth right now,
but not far out of fifth or fourth.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
It's close, it's very close. Yeah, fine, Margins, it's a
razor thin.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
And then the other one is And actually this is
more important. They've give out up. They've given up the
third least goals in the PREM. Now it's tied with
three other teams. But that is a stark difference from
last year. Stark different And they've had defenders out so
and I think you know they've they've they've really Lots
(36:28):
of teams have injuries, no doubt about it, but they've
been really ravaged and so I don't know they're one.
It feels like one win, one loss, one win, one loss.
So they play Thursday in the Caribou Cup, play man U.
I think it's quarterfinal round, so that'll be interesting, and
then play this team called Liverpool on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
M M. Yes, the Heinrich Shaves Derby coming up at
Tottenham Stadium on Sunday. Big one there. Depending on how
things go midweek, you know, you'll either be coming in
on a high after beaten you or it'll be that
yo yo of up and down. And if it is
the down, that means you're due for an up when
you play the Reds who have lost. I mean, I
will say Liverpool's still top of the table, but they
have drawn two in a row in the league. They've
(37:12):
given up five goals in their last two EPL matches.
They didn't look great on Saturday against Fulham, but against
some of that was just the circumstance. They had a
player sent off, Andy Robertson early in that game and
had to play the vast I think seventy five minutes
or so, really down to ten and if you were
watching the match, you would have thought Fulham was down
to Man Liverpool very much the accressors and had the
(37:34):
ball and really should have won that game. But you
take a point when you're down in Man for that long.
But that will be a fascinating game on the twenty
second between our two beloved clubs.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Should be fun, should be good, should be good, and
the Red Sox got a good news. You know, I mean,
I'm really I'm bullish on the Red Sox. I am.
I think there's more to come this offseason. But getting
a top line starter was incredibly important. That probably on
Craig Breslow's wish list first and foremost, and he pulled
(38:05):
it off and didn't have to really give up too
too much, I know. I mean they gave up prospects
and really Kyle Chiel being the headliner, and I knew
that the first round picked from this past year that
literally has not suited up for the Red Sox as
he had a broken ankle at college. You know, I
think getting crochet you got to pay for something, Alex.
He's twenty five years old.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
That's the big thing. If anybody was pushing back on
the fact that you sent four prospects to the White
Sox for this guy, it is like, well, what do
you expect like this? This is what the rate is
to get a number one starter as a lefty in
the prime of his career. And again we talked about
this because he was a reliever initially and then transitioned
to a starter. He's still making reliever money right now
(38:48):
and is under team control for the next couple of
seasons and that lap, but it goes to arbitration, like
all the things that go with that. You're getting a
guy in his pulling into his prime and it's on
a budget.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
It's incredible, and I think he never pitched in the
minor leagues, so he came in from college and so
they almost kind of worked They're like working him through
and the differential between Sale and him is three years
three years older. Sale was when the Red Sax came,
(39:20):
and I think he pitched nine hundred more innings and
so you know when he came to the Red Sax.
So they're getting someone that has probably any come close
to tapping his potential but had Tommy John surgery. But
that doesn't seem like that. Seems like a natural occurrence
with many pitchers at this point, so I don't think
that that's an issue. But it's exciting. He's a big guy,
(39:41):
six ' six lefty. Gotta love that.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
Yeah, it's exciting to see what he will do for
this team that really has lacked a true number one
starter for a while.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
A while, a while. Yeah, you know, the Sodo thing
couldn't have worked out any better, really, I mean, you know,
I would have loved to see him in BO. I
think he would have been tremendous, But that's that was
a lot of money to pay for sure, But him,
you know, get you know, moving from the Yankees to
the Mets, Boy, that helps because with Judge and him
(40:11):
in that lineup, they were pretty devastating.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
It was dangerous. It was a really dangerous lineup. Can
I ask you, by the way, so he signed, was
it a twelve year, seven hundred, fifty seven hundred and
sixty million dollar deal? I mean something something like something
like that. You know, fifty sixty milis whatever?
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Is?
Speaker 1 (40:28):
When is enough money enough? Or like what at what
point do we start to think like we're going to
be in billion dollar contracts pretty soon? Is there any concern?
I only say this coming a little bit from a
Liverpool perspective because we're trying to negotiate with three players
and one of them currently makes three hundred and fifty
thousand pounds a week and is maybe asking for potentially more.
(40:50):
And I wonder do you ever get concerned about the
economics of sport?
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Bill?
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Not not in your chair, but just as a fan, like,
are we are we ever going to get to the
point where it's like this just isn't sustainable anymore to pay?
What I'm getting at is how much is too much
for one human being to make to play a game?
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Your thoughts well, as long as the franchises keep escalating
in in uh in price, what ends up happening is
I think owners end up investing in their teams knowing
that they're probably going to get it back on the
back end.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Yeah, yeah, there's nothing wrong with that, of course, And
more power to these guys, like obviously they're they're providing
entertainment and people love it and not people are still
paying for tickets and if.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
The revenues weren't such, I don't think we'd see these
prices or there were these contracts, and so, you know,
to pay the performers, I think is probably right. I
mean at the end, that's that's what we come to see,
is the performers, and so, you know, but with all
of that, you know, last year because he, you know,
(41:54):
broke Shohio Tani's contract record, I thought, you know, watching
my guy on spurs Son, he really you bring a
part of the world with you. That's what Otani was bringing.
I mean, he's a complete utter world.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Brand, global superstar. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Yeah, and I in Soto, I don't know if that's
the case. There's been a lot of players from the
dr and so you know, even from a even from
a Red Sox perspective, I don't know if he ever
could be bigger than David Ortiz or Pedro Martinez. So
it doesn't feel that way. But but you know, how
(42:39):
many times do you have a superstar that's twenty six
years old on the open market.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
I think a lot of things collided. Steve Cohen wanted
to stick it to the Yankees, so he wanted the
back page. So there, I think the stars and Moon
aligned a little bit, and the Red Socks were in
play this year. You know, the Dodgers are oh in play,
but when the Red Sox are in play, that just
helps obviously anybody that's trying to sign a contract.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
It's amazing to see the negotiation, some of the little
minute details of negotiation about while he wanted a suite
and we weren't sure, like we couldn't do that extra
ten million, like that was at least that felt like
it was the Yankees side where they didn't want to
go where the Mets went. And it is funny like
at this point, guys, are you sure that really like
ten million out of the seven hundred and fifty, you're
already there. You're already there.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Whatever whatever thing you crossed, whatever you think you crossed,
you crossed it, whatever it is you actually crossed it.
So just go just go. Oh, I won't go that
much further.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
That's my limit.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
That's where I put my steak in the ground.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Right, seven fifty for twelve years and no sweets. That's
where we're landing at. Take it or leave it.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
I exactly right, So who knows. I would say, I'm
I'm kind of bullish on the farm system the Red
Sox have, but they do have to make moves here.
They've got a few other things they've got to get done.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
But it's exciting, Yeah, very much so Well, pictures and
catchers Bill two months away. Get excited.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
What's not exciting really is the Steelers losing to the Eagles.
But the Eagles are pretty good.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Eagles are very good. Eleven straight for Philly. That I
was going to get you out on that. Yes, you've
clinched the playoff spot ten and four. Really tough finish
to the season though, at Baltimore home against Kansas City,
home against Sincy. But you're in the postseason. Well that's
all you could ask for right now.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
I don't know what's happening with Mahomes. I think injured
his ankle. Who knows. Maybe it's a ma homeless game
in Pittsburgh. Could be, it could be. It seems like
they always play the Ravens to a three point game,
and since he's defense was not awesome in Cincinnati, so
I don't know. We'll see what happens. I really like
the way Buffalo's plan though, I mean again, their defense
(44:48):
has been leaky too, But I think the AFC is
kind of wide open.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
Yeah, at this point, it feels like, especially after the
Lions Bills game, it feels like Buffalo is the favorite now.
But like you said, certainly you can score on them.
But Josh Allens, he's the MVP of the league, right
would you? Would you agree with that at this point?
Speaker 2 (45:06):
One hundred percent? I mean he's been awesome. I mean,
I'm not even sure what he did last week? What
did he score? He had three touchdowns on the ground
and three in the air.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Three in the air. Yeah, it's crazy. He kind of
did something similar yesterday against the Lions too. It's great
doing crazy things, crazy things.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
This guy, he's nuts. But anyways, all that to be good. Yeah,
time to go because I've got a hard out. But Alex,
I really do appreciate everything that you do for us
and in this pod mid Co, and I hope you
and your family have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas and happy
New Year. We'll see it back on the pod in January.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
Yeah, looking forward to that. Yes, it is my pleasure, Bill,
thanks for all you do for you indeed, and it's
for me appreciate you so have a great holiday for
you to your family as well. It's everybody listening as well.
Thanks so much. For being a proud supporter of the
Bill TIFFs podcast in twenty twenty four onward to twenty
twenty five. Big thanks to Alex Docker Johnson and Paul
Rawson on the back end. Thanks as always to Bill.
I'm Alex, have a great at Christmas, in a great
(46:00):
new year, and we'll talk to you soon
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