Bill Chaves Pod_EP 192

This week, Bill and Alex spend time with old friend Jayson Hajdu of College Hockey Inc. to break down the state of college hockey and the upcoming NCAA Tournament (1:10). The guys then chat more hockey before discussing softball’s upcoming home opener, Jadyn Keeler’s latest All-American effort, and football’s start to spring practice (18:38). On the B-Side (43:42), Spurs might be going down, the Red Sox are poised to begin, and March Madness remains undefeated.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Bill Shaves Podcast, presented by Mid
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how we do sports. This is the Bill Shaves Podcast.

(00:26):
Welcome to another edition of the Bill Shaves Podcast. We
are taping this on a Monday morning, the twenty third
of March. Bill Shaves. Alex Synder to a special guest.
We're going to get to, I think a very very
apt special guest for this time of year.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Bill.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
It is March, it is madness. We've got tournaments going on.
You gotta be loving life right now. It's the best
time of year.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Brackets, Alex, Brackets, It's all about brackets, right, That's.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Right, that's right. We got to learn the NCAA men's
hockey bracket some twenty four hours ago. A little less
than that, North Dakota revealed to be playing who Falls
against a very competitive group of teams from out east
Marri Mack will be their first round opponent. Quinnipiac and
Providence champions of their respective conferences. On the other side,
to talk about that, to talk about all things men's

(01:13):
college hockey and etc. We bring back one of our
favorites longtime podcasts. He is now in his fifth season
as the senior director of Communications at College Hockey Inc.
Formerly of this parish. He's Jason Hashdeu. Jason, thanks so
much for being with us.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, thanks for having me. It's really good to see
you guys. It is the best time of year.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
It is great, awesome, Jason, I really do appreciate you
joining us. So, hey, quick first question for you. So
you've been there five years and and obviously you spent
a lot of time knowing what College Hockey Inc. Was
all about previous to that to some degree, And obviously
you've been you've had both Mike Snee and Sean Hogan
as leading the charge there. How has CHI kind of

(01:56):
evolved since you've been there and since when it really started,
Because with the advent now of potential COCHL players playing
in college hockey, seems like probably even the mission might
might be evolving as we speak.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
It really has changed. The organization was originally founded as
a means to keep the best American players in America
rather than going to the CHL. How can we keep
them and educate them and keep them eligible for college hockey.
Over time, that kind of evolved to also take on
marketing aspects, growth aspects. We will conduct a feasibility study

(02:31):
for any school that's interested in adding Division one men's
or women's hockey that's funded by the NHL, so marketing, promotion, growth.
And then after my i want to say, second year,
we brought Division one women's hockey under the umbrella. So
essentially everything we were already doing on the men's side,
we're now also doing the women's side. And we added
a fourth full time staff member, Sadie Lundquist, to oversee

(02:54):
most of that. And then, of course, about a year
and a half ago, the floodgates open, the CHL floodgates
open with major junior players gaining their NC doublea eligibility.
That hasn't changed the mission a ton, it's changed the
messaging a little bit. Whereas in the past we would
get in front of these young players and their families
and their parents and tell them here's how you keep

(03:16):
your NC DOUBLEA eligibility. Here are the leagues you can
play in to stay eligible until you get to college.
Now that message has shifted a little bit. To play
wherever you want on your way. Just know why you
should pick up the phone when those college coaches do
start calling you and that this is your final stop
on your path to the NHL. So that's shifted a

(03:36):
little bit. But over time, the organization itself has grown
quite a bit.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
You know.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
So given all that, knowing that things have changed, the
landscape has changed almost obviously dramatically really over the last
couple of years, between name, image, likeness and now the
COCHL opening up, et cetera. When you look at the
college game, do you feel like it's in a good place?
How do you kind of assess where we are right
now within college hockey?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
I think we're in a really good place. I mean,
there's no denying the on ice product is probably as
strong as it's ever been, at least in my experience.
I remember back before the year, I think it was
Tom Serratory had mentioned in an article that get ready
for a college hockey season unlike any we've ever seen,
and I think he was right the talent pool is

(04:21):
just incredible. The parody. Schlass and I talk about this
a lot on the College Hockey Today pod. You can
look at the NPI throughout the season, whether it's the
top sixteen, twenty twenty five, and you don't have to
squint hard to see any of those teams going to
to oh during a regional weekend to get to the
Frozen four. It's not a top heavy sport right now.

(04:44):
It's a very deep sport in terms of parody. So
the coaching has never been better, the facilities, the resources
have never been better. There's still things to work on.
There's always things to work on. We always want full buildings,
we want as much TV exposure as possible, online exposure,
so to be worked on. But I think the health
of the sport in terms of the on ice product
and the players that were sending to the National Hockey

(05:07):
League never been better.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
So it leads Jason to something that I think Mike
was really working on, was the opportunity to have a
team in the Spangler Cup. And I think it probably
was really a stark reality for some folks even around
the world, people that think that they're actually hockey fans

(05:30):
to really understand the level of the college game.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Glad you mentioned Mike because that, yeah, that really was
his baby for a lot of years and he had
to sell a lot of folks on it, some more
than others after he left. We did get it to
the finish line and ASTs off to Sean Hogan, Chris
Marini from our staff, Steve Metcalf, and then of course
Guy and his staff, the coaching staff. They did a
tremendous job and and you're right, they opened a lot

(05:55):
of eyes overseas. I think even internally there was some
wonder about how is this going to go? Will will
the team be competitive? You're playing against professional a professional
players over there. You just don't know how it's going
to go your first time through it. But they put
together a really strong roster that that gave every team
in the tournament all they could handle right to the

(06:16):
final game. So that was exciting. It was really exciting
to see the crowds over there embrace the college players
and the college game. It sure sounds like there are
going to be opportunities to go back as early as
next year, but we'll see just another avenue to get
more eyeballs on the college hockey game, and it was great.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
And what's crazy about that? And and for those of
you that want to, you know, learn more, just just
google Spangler Cup and you'll you'll see the history in Davos, Switzerland.
It's it's a really amazing just the scenery was unbelievable.
Just from a visual standpoint, it's just just beautiful. But
to put that team together and literally have a couple

(06:57):
practices and then have a shot to will play teams
that are teams, they're actually teams from their league, which really,
when you really think about that, that's amazing. They were
one of six teams there. They're the only ones that
were in that situation, not just.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
The on ice element of competing against club teams, but
also the time that that goes into assembling this team.
These guys all have full time jobs. Guy Gadowski has
a full time job. His assistant coaches have full time jobs,
So they are devoting their Sundays. There were a lot
of Sunday evening zoom calls. I can't imagine that was
always top of mind. Maybe if you lose a Saturday game,

(07:34):
you're a little crabby, the last thing you want to
do is hop on a zoom call on Sunday, But
they all pulled in the same direction they were. They
were selfless with their time and and got it put
together and put together a really good team that I
think too, for these student athletes. We knew the cultural
experience would be off the charts for them. As he said,
Davos is an incredible site, but I think just another

(07:58):
opportunity for some scouts and an HL gms to watch
these players playing against professional caliber players and see how
they compare. I think that was also an added in
bonus for these players that took part.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, that was an incredible week out in Switzerland over
New Year's for that group. And they still we just
got off of an NCHC tournament championship game that featured
three of those players with guy on and exam plants
and they're at Pole Camp who had that experience, and
they were still talking about that, like how special that
was and now they're going to have that for the
rest of their lives. To turn the page a little
bit now to the tournament. Bill mentioned brackets. We have

(08:33):
a bracket when you look at the NCAA Men's Hockey
Tournament bracket, Jason, Before we get into some specifics. It
felt like this year, and this has been the case
in recent years, the Committee perhaps placed more emphasis on
bracket integrity than geography when getting seeds where they need
to go. Do you like that or should there be
more flexibility within reason, maybe to allow fans easier access

(08:56):
to watch their teams play in these games.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Honestly, don't have a strong feeling. I certainly understand the
folks who do. I think it's important. Bracket integrity is important,
just to some extent within reason, I think. But if
there are ways to maximize butts in the in the
seats so to speak, or or better television windows, I
think those should always be explored. I don't tend to

(09:20):
get into all the racket minutia. There. There are smarter
people than me that I defer to and just tell
me when the games are and who's playing, where is
how I roll? But I think it's a it's a
probably a thankless job talking about the committee. You're not
really going to win, so I tend not to dwell
on that too much. I think they've put together in

(09:41):
terms of the on ice for incredible brackets. Like we
were talking about off air, what.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Region as you look at this Alan Sound, Worcester, Sioux Falls, Loveland.
Which region do you think is the most intriguing hash
what really pops out as you look.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
A homer, But the Sioux Falls region. You've got three
regular season champions and a fourth team that won its
playoff tournament in the Hockey East Gauntlet. No other bracket
has more than one regular season champion in it, and
I think it's also the winningest bracket in terms of
wins and losses. I did some quick math this morning

(10:16):
and ninety seven combined wins between the four teams. There's
not a big separation between that bracket and the other
bracket in terms of wins and losses. These are all
good teams, but there's some championship pedigree in that Sioux
Falls region. Quinnipiac has won a national title, Providence has
won a national title in recent memory, North Dakota with
its championship history, and now you've got Merrimac. That's that's

(10:38):
kind of the Cinderella story in the tournament. I think
that's going to be a fantastic bracket.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
Individual awards, Jason, I know you and Schlas talk a
lot about you know, every every team around the country
and probably no exception that there's amazing candidates for some
of the top awards this year.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, that's another thing I think, speaking of thankless jobs,
the Hoby Baker Committee, you could probably go fifteen even
twenty names deep and make a case for another five
to ten players to make that list. But really, nice
to see a goaltend or in the Hoby Top ten.
Nice to see a freshman in the Hoby Top ten.
There's a nice mix conference wise. It's just a testament

(11:21):
to the incredible talent that's in college hockey right now.
These I think you can make an argument for all
ten of these players, and I truly mean that. I'm
not just saying that. I think all of these guys
are worthy of the nomination and worthy of consideration the
Ricter too. I good luck to the folks voting on
the Richter or where. I don't know how you separate

(11:41):
those three, but someone's going to have to.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
It's that time of year where those decisions are going
to get made here in the next two weeks or so,
and players have the final opportunity to make a push
and make a case coming up this weekend, and then
the votes will be cast following that the Frozen four
this year is going to be in Las Vegas. Will
you be there?

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Hash? I will be there Tuesday. In fact, I'll be
there Tuesday to Sunday, so wish me luck.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
It's a lot of time. That's a lot of time
in Las Vegas to as much time.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
Fortunately, I'm getting to the point where I'm too old
to get into too much trouble, so it's all good.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
You'll be a busy man, You'll you'll be busy with
a lot going on that week. I gotta feel no
time for anything else where.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
Will you head heading to any of the regionals? Are
you going to head to Suit Falls this weekend or no?

Speaker 2 (12:26):
I've learned that it's better for my productivity if I
can just hunker down here at the desk in my
office basement office. As fun as it is to be
on site, and as fun as it is to catch
up with a lot of the folks you know and
work with throughout the year, it's just there are too
many distractions. This way, I can bear down and keep
an eye on all four regionals better than I would

(12:47):
on site, as much as I'd love. Sioux Falls is
one of the drivable spots from my Kansas City location,
So I did look at it a little bit, but
it's just the end of the day. It's easier to
get my work done here.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
It makes sense with the times and how it all
works out. You can keep track of everything over the
course of this weekend because it is crazy with all
these games going on, all these big matchups that go
one after the next after the next.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Amanda and the girls are out of town. So Saturday
I was able to put eyes on fourteen different games,
men's and women's. I had four screens going. I was
in the recla. It was beautiful. It was a beautiful thing.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
That's heaven for Jason hasn't bad. And that leads me
to this and we'll get you out on this. You
obviously were a part of college hockey for a long
time with the University of North Dakota. You know, you
moved with your family, obviously, Amanda had been on this
podcast before we got to hear the great story, moved
to Kansas City. You took a job outside of the industry,
and then, like you said, five years ago, you kind

(13:41):
of had the opportunity to come back in what is
this experience now been like these last five years, being
back in this game that has been such a big
part of your life for so long.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
I just I actually mentioned this to a Manda last week.
I still can't believe I fell into this job. Like
it's literally the one job in all of college hockey
I could do remotely out of Shawnee, Kansas. And it's
got all of the elements that I loved best about
being a sports information director. I still get to scratch
those same itches, including some more reasonable travel at least

(14:13):
not every other weekend. But it's just been a blessing
to work with an organization who's mission I really am
on board with. We're in it for all the right reasons.
We're in it to to advance a sport I love
and that I've I've worked in for so many years.
When I left the Hitslap Sports Center, I thought that

(14:35):
was it, that was that was the one true dream
job I could have. Uh, and that's now that's a
that chapters in the past. And then this came along fortuitously,
and uh, here we are again with dream job number two,
still in college hockeys. So I really am fortunate. I'm
thankful every day that I get to just nerd out
every single every single day speaking the good word of

(14:58):
college hockey.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Well, at the end of the day, we know, Jason,
there's nothing wrong with sports information directors to have that
in your blood begins right right, that's where you that's
where it all starts.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, very I should mention too, very grateful for twenty
three years at North Dakota, from the time I arrived
as a freshman intern and twenty three years I wouldn't
trade for anything. Just had a blast and very grateful
to have had those twenty three years.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, but we are still benefiting from that, from your
time there and now your time promoting the game. I
still get emails from Jason has you do every week
talking about what's going on around the country, and so
whether I want them or no, I want them, I
need the hash email, I need it.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
Well, you're going to get a lot in the next
forty eight hours.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
So awesome.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Well you got You've got that to get to, so
we can certainly let you go, but we appreciate your time.
Again one of the busiest weeks of the year for
this man. Enjoy enjoy all the hockey and again job well,
don jas appreciate it anytime.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Thank you. Glad to catch up with you guys. Enjoy it,
enjoy suit falls.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Thanks Jason, always so good the chat with Jason hasdo
about college hockey, about life, about anything like, just the
incredible man and we are very lucky to have known
him and worked with him for a long time and
so good to see him doing what he loves in
this capacity for the sport that he just enjoys championing
so much.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
Yeah, I think, you know the way he described Alex's
College Hockey Inc. Was formed at some point really to
have in some ways great data on what it is
to be a college hockey player. That probably at its
core was the reason why. But like anything else, it
evolves and now where CHL players. You know, at one

(16:41):
point was am I going to CHL route or am
I going college hockey? Right? So there was a fork
in the road. Now you can potentially do both right,
So at the end, that's why the evolution of that
organization I think is critical and they do a great job,
and you know, like I said, I think they they're
the first stop if you're ever thinking about adding hockey
as a sport. That really is a great, great stop

(17:05):
for any university or college They've.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Been a tremendous resource, yeah, for families, for institutions across
the country over the last however, many years since that
organization has gotten started, and it's again it's a great
resource for people that cover the sport. I still go
to the College Hockey Inc. Has changed a little bit.
I used to really rely heavily on it when they
were much more like stats based and you could sort
things and things like that. But it's still like the

(17:29):
work that has in his team do makes our job
a lot easier on the broadcast side, on the print side.
So yeah, I love that he's flying the flag for
this sport moving forward.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
In their macro right Like, So there's other sites that
you can go to, for sure, but they do a
really good job. You know, you have the six conferences
and the independence, so let's just call it seven conferences,
if you will. They really do a nice job making
sure everyone gets their due, if you will.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
And Brad Schlassman he mentioned this, but they do a
podcast every week called College Hockey Today, and it's great
and it is just that it's about usually about a
forty minute or so trip around the country. I always
learned something from their conversations about Atlantic or Hockey East
or the Independence it's and then they preview the week ahead,
and it's obviously these are two men that we know

(18:21):
and like a lot, so it's fun to listen to
them talk about this and they're very obviously two of
the best in the business at this But that's one
I would highly recommend if you were a podcast person
and want to learn a little bit more about honestly
starting this week, about the tournament coming up, the teams,
the matchups to watch, et cetera. Download that sucker. That
will be a good one to check out college hockey today.
Speaking of college hockey today, in a couple of days,

(18:42):
Dakota's gonna be playing college hockey in Sioux Falls, South
Dakota at one of these regional sites we mentioned a
little bit. Merrimack will be the team that they get
the Hockey East Tournament champs, first eight seed ever to
win that tournament, but they had to knock off the three,
the two, and the one to get there, beating Providence
the regular season champs, then U mass who had the
hottest goalie in the country and Michael Robbel, and then

(19:05):
finding a way against Yukon in the title game. It
sets up for a tremendous matchup coming up Thursday night,
seven thirty Central on ESPNS. Who back in the tournament bill.
It's going to be fun.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
It should be a lot of fun, no question about it.
You know the UMass game enough. You go back to December, Alex.
You know we always talk, actually let's go back to October.
We always say how important certain games are. And then
if you looked at it at the December break, U
mass was really in a situation where they had to
really put the pedal to the medal. And when they

(19:36):
came out of when that calendar flipped to twenty twenty six,
they really had an outstanding, outstanding hockey season. And so
for Merrimac to find a way to first of all
beat Lowell, they had to play on a Wednesday eight
nine right, then had to go on the road to

(19:58):
play the regular season chant Providence and win that game,
then go to the Garden and then beat Massachusetts and Connecticut.
So in succession they beat three two and one. So
you know, what type of team is coming in, really
really hot, and we've seen hot teams come in, so
we're you know, we'll have our work cutout for us.
But you know, I was with the guys yesterday at
the bracket show, and you know they're just, you know,

(20:19):
they're they're excited. I mean, they're they're ready to go,
I mean ready to play. And we all know, you know,
it's all going to be tough for every team because
all of these games are going to be you know,
normally one goal games, right, Alex, Isn't that the way
it goes?

Speaker 1 (20:35):
Almost always? You do not see many blowouts in this tournament,
even the one verse four, Like this will be a tight,
hard fought game. And this is, like you said, this
is a Merrimack team. I think that's either eight or
nine unbeaten coming in again. They had a nice little
push at the end of the regular season and obviously
of caught fire in the tournament. We do have someone
on the inside that knows a bit about that program,

(20:56):
with Tyler Young having spent the last three years there,
which helps a little bit. But this, their head coach
just said the other day, like, we don't see ourselves
as underdogs. We sometimes see ourselves as being disrespected, and
we saw that even in the selection show. We kind
of got glossed over. And he said We've been using
that as fuel down the stretch, like nobody really thinks
we have a shot, and they will come in here
with nothing to lose. And you've seen it before in

(21:18):
Sue Falls. We've seen it before in this regional where
an NCHC team who was a one seed gets knocked off.
So got to have your guard up. But I do
think some of the positives if you're in North Dakota,
you had a chance. Obviously no one wanted to lose
in the semi finals, but you have a chance to
get guys healthy. Guys were banged up, guys were sick.
Hopefully that extra week allows them to reset and prepare
and get ready to go. Obviously, we've seen teams win

(21:41):
their conference tournament in great fashion and then go on
and have these great runs, and Aramex got momentum. But
I think from a North Dakota perspective, it might work
out all right that they had that week break launching
into the NCAA.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
Yeah, it was really weird, and of course no one
is going to feel sorry for anyone at any point
in the season, but there's no doubt the flu u
was ripping through the team to some degree, and you
know that's just uh, you know, that was unfortunate and
it was you know, the timing was the timing, but uh,
it didn't stop a really good Dulute team from coming

(22:12):
in and playing a great game here. So you know,
but I think you know, once uh, once that game
was over, I think on Sunday it was a flip
the script. Let's have a great week at practice and
as as as coach maybe said yesterday, you know, let's
have really two really really productive days here today on
Monday as we record, and Tuesday head to Sue Falls,

(22:34):
have the uh the the the practice in that arena
on Wednesday, and uh in Europe in play on ESPN
two on Thursday night.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
It's a fantastic facility. I got fans will know if
you were here for the Summit League tournament. This is
the same facility. They take the court off, the ice
is on. This is where the suit Falls Stampede play
their home games of the USHL. I know a lot
of our fans probably haven't come down to watch a
hockey game in this venue, but it's certainly worth attending.
It's going to be a really great event and Swue

(23:07):
Falls is hosted now a handful of times, and it's
fun to see North Dakota be involved in this regional
in this site for the first time. So anything else
our fans should know ability as they either look at
tickets or are trying to make decisions about what to
do where to go.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
So you know, Denny Sanford Premier Center is where the
games are played. And you know, Alex, you could probably
talk about Sue Falls a little bit, but I've been
impressed with, you know, their growth in their downtown area.
They've got some neat new hotels for sure, and so
there's a lot of a lot of neat stuff going
on in Sue Falls, right by literally the falls, and

(23:43):
you know, great restaurants, and so I think people, if
you haven't been to Sue Falls in a while, you'd
be I tell you what, I think you're going to
really enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah, I would agree. Yeah, downtown is only about a
five minute drive from where the Premiere Center is. It's
not walkable, but it's an easy just right down the street.
And like you said, it's changed and grown and is
an easy place to come and park and walk around
and do do dinner, do a fun dessert. There are
lots of places to go check out all across that area,
and then the falls is beautiful, the weather should be nice.

(24:14):
It looks like fifties and sixties again this weekend, so
good place to come and check out and watch the
incredible hockey. So the earlier game will be Providence Quinnipiac,
I believe at four four Thursday, and then North Dakota
Merrimack and the night cap Saturday's championship game. If North
Dakota advances, it's TBD. They haven't set the time just yet,
but it'll either be one of those slots coming up

(24:35):
on Saturday at the Premiere Center, and then the winner
of this we'll move on to Las Vegas and the
Frozen Four, which will be two weeks from now, which
again the University of North Dakota is hosting very exciting with.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
Our partners with Las Vegas Events, and I know Eric
Martinson has done a, you know, a tremendous job working
with them, and I know they're excited about it for sure,
and I think, you know that'll be that'll be awesome
at Team Mobile for sure. So but a lot of
work to be done between now and then a lot
of excitement, and you know, if you're a hockey buff,
it doesn't get any better once. So you drop the

(25:06):
puck the first you know, first puck drops on Thursday,
and it feels like there's just game after game. So
it's it'll be it'll be fantastic.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
It's the best weekend of the year. I always say,
like Frozen four is obviously fantastic, and that's different, But
this is you have sixteen teams, you have eight games,
you know, on those first two days, and then four
more to decide who moves on on the weekends. Four
really really good days of college hockey coming up. And
then we mentioned just with Haj a little bit about
the other regionals, and as you look around, Denver and
Western are potentially on a collision course, although they got

(25:37):
some tough games to get by before they get there.
In Loveland, Minnesota, Luth gets paired up with Penn State
out in Albany, Michigan and Bentley or in that bracket,
and the only non NCC bracket is in Muster with
Dartmouth Wisconsin and then Connecticut in the top seed Michigan State.
It's going to be a really tremendous tournament and it
really feels like a really unpredictable tournament like it always is.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
But well, you know what was interesting too in the
way hockey, you know, has their conference championship weekend, many
of those games this weekend they were basically NC eight
games because it was really a loser out game and
we saw some tremendous hockey as well. So you know,
I know you were on the call at Magnus Arena

(26:17):
and that was a heck of a game, knowing that
those two teams were already slotted and we're going to
be in the field, but still you got an amazing
game there as well.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
It was really special. I think we got a taste
of what home sites look like.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
Yeah, which you think, see, mister.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Bar very good. It was very good at Magnus Arena.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
It was.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
It would have been the atmosphere obviously, would have been
less thaned if the road team would have won. It
would have been silent in that place except for the
team on the ice celebrating. But the atmosphere throughout the
night was fantastic. Like just sixty two hundred people or
whatever packed in that place. They were living and dying
with every shift, you know, every up and down, and

(26:57):
you can see again why we did this, like, this
is my fifth NCCHC Championship game, you know, the previous
four it always felt like even though the game itself
was typically pretty good, the atmosphere was always a little
bit flat.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
You know.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
The semis were always fun and great, and you'd get
to the title game and depending on who was involved,
you just didn't only have this. You had a lot
of people who were neutral. I'll say that you had
a lot of neutrals in attendance. They just wanted to
watch a good hockey game and they would cheer if
something good happens. But it's different when it's your team.
And this was sixty two hundred people who were watching
their team play and fight for a championship. And I

(27:33):
talked to a lot of kids from Minnesota Duluth who
had to go on the road to the Ralph and
then go on the road to Magnus. All of them
said this is we would take this one hundred times
out of one hundred versus being in a building, even
an NHL building that didn't have a lot of juice,
Like they all preferred this, and I think that says
a lot.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yeah, that's really good to hear because obviously we will
do a good job in our league meetings trying to
debrief it a little bit and say what else can
can we do that's different? And I know you know
the challenge was to get from Duluth to Denver right
in a short turnaround. And I know you mentioned they
had what three different three different groupings that had to

(28:13):
go from MSP to d IA.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Yep, they couldn't quite get everybody on the same plane,
which again a party that large, even from a big
hub like Minneapolis Saint Paul's to another big hub in Denver,
they still had to go in three different shifts. But
Scott Sanlin like really downplayed it. I know Christian Kelling,
who's the director of ops said it was a very
difficult week, and he's as good as it gets in

(28:37):
the country. I know we have a great one in
Patrick Swanson as well, who's trying to put the dots
together and get these guys on planes. And I know
it was a that was a difficult thing for them
to have to figure out on short notice. But I
think the end product you look back and sit back
and think, oh, yeah, that was worth it, and now
now you hope again for Duluth's sake. They got to
go out east now and figure things out in all

(28:58):
the traffic. But at least they get to play on Friday.
It's the one positive. They get the one extra day
to sort of sort things out. But yeah, difficult, difficult
this time of year.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
That was big a couple of years ago when Denver
wanted I think they had to fly back from Mini
to Denver and then had to go to Springfield and
play on Thursday.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
The first game, first game, first game, I know, right
out of the game, right out of the ideal.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
Yeah, what so help me with this one. As we
just you know, start talking about this. This is good
feedback because you were in the arena. I wasn't. I
was listening to you, I was watching you. But what
do you think because other teams, other schools, conferences have
done a Friday night championship game. But would that make
it harder in a sense? Because I feel bad for Duluth,

(29:40):
I mean, how would they have gotten from point A
to point B? But we're thinking maybe what the CCHA
did is not the worst idea.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
They would be the model. The CCHA had their title
game in man Cato on Friday night. They were the
only one to do, so everybody else had either a
semi final or they waited till their championship game on Saturday.
It's always about, you know, if you take a day
off the semi to the final, if you do the
Saturday to Friday, but then you have the extra day

(30:11):
to get ready for the NC double as so it's
just about where you want to lose that day. And
I'm sure for this year, for these teams you both
know they're in, they probably would have preferred the Friday
versus the Saturday because you get an extra day to
get back home and then await your fate and figure
out where you're going. Maybe in different years, if you're
a team that knows they need to win to get
into the tournament like we have had in recent seasons,

(30:34):
maybe you'd maybe you'd you'd probably prefer the extra day
in between this and the semi and the championship to
give yourself an extra day to prepare for the game
that you need, not knowing what's on the other side.
So I can see it both ways.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
Yeah, I would agree, And you know each year is
going to be its own. From a weather standpoint, there's
just nothing you can do. There's just really nothing you
can do.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
Well, you think poor Western Michigan had to bust back
to Kalamazoo after their semi final in Denver because of
all the storms cancelations on the weekends. That was the
bet they could. They bust to Kansas City and then
they couldn't get it, so they had to bust from
there and figure it all out. So, and you throw
in the fact that the NCAA Men's and women's basketball
tournaments are going on and there are charter planes criss
crossing the country anyway taking all these basketball teams where

(31:15):
they need to go. It is just a difficult time
to figure out travel on short notice. It just is.
And so there's I overheard a lot of conversation about, well,
how can we do this better next year? And could
we find a way to like set aside a charter
plane for these teams or could we do There were
lots of like those sorts of things were popped up,
and it just always seems like if if money were

(31:38):
no object, you could probably do some of those things.
But money kind of is an object. Yeah, And it's
hard to do that stuff when you don't know where
you're going.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
It's difficult, No doubt, but I do think there's nothing
like a championship game and a home venue, and I
regardless of it all, it just has a different feel
to it because I thought I thought the X was
an excellent, awesome facility and it just had a level of,
you know, a big time feel to it, no question,

(32:07):
but the environment at times, depending on the teams, it
wasn't potentially going to match.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
Yeah, I will say this so with the X, everything
leading up to the game was incredible. The practices on
having all the teams around all you know, the fans
coming to you know, they're really diehard fans there to
get to get a chance to be close to the teams,
and you not for see great team after great team
after great team, incredible the games themselves. That's where it

(32:37):
kind we lost a little bit because of the atmosphere
in Denver this weekend. It was the opposite. Leading up
to the championship game. It felt just honestly, it felt
just like kind of a normal game at magnus Aerena
that we're gonna be got these two teams and then
the second we get close, like once once the lights
went down and they got ready to go for the
anthem and all and then then all of a sudden

(32:58):
like oh no, this feels big, and then it played
out that way. So it's just unique, how just those
two things, And you'd rather have it be the second one, right,
You'd rather have the game be the thing that these
kids take away and remember.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
No doubt, and and think about this. The way it
played out for many leagues this year didn't play out
this way in the NC. But if you end up
having two teams that know they need it to get in,
then it's just going to ramp up to another level.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
Well, the CCHA had that, you know, Minnesota State and
Saint Thomas knew they needed to win to get into
the NCAA tournament. And you had in man Cato this
incredible spectacle. And it's been that way when they've hosted
in previous years. You could see that across Bentley was
the same way Bentley's secret hard in Atlantic hockey. Same thing.
These teams need this game and how much that means

(33:47):
to the fan base and to the guys and even
Denver I will say this, Denver didn't need the game.
Denver's in. Denver's going to be a two seed no
matter what they know they're going to Loveland no matter what.
And when Christian Epperson scores that goal, the place erupted
and the guys went crazy. I mean, this was like
guys jumping, like Eric Polcamp almost broke the glass, like

(34:08):
jumping into the suit section, Like it was really cool
to see that. And I think you don't get that,
Like we've seen Denver win this championship before at the
X and it's a little whole hum Yeah, and I
know overtime changes things, et cetera, but this was different
because you're celebrating with the people that really care about
you and care about your program. That just takes it
up a notch. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
Well, you all did a great job on the call,
and I thought the production was excellent and I thought
the tournament was great. We look forward for sure to
debrief it and yeah, we'll try to figure that out.
I'm not sure there's really going to be a solid
answer on what direction we go, but you know, I
know we are committed to trying to make it as

(34:49):
great as it could be. And I appreciate Heather and
her team and everybody at the NCCHC office that did
a phenomenal job leading up to it, but you have
to almost sometimes go through year one to get to
year two, and then the year two you can make
a look. You can make some price significant tweaks that
you might have said, ooh, put that, put that on

(35:09):
a list that maybe we'll think think it through for
next year.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
This was certainly a good start again to start this
year one to figure this out. I think everybody involves
was very pleased with how it happened. So we'll be
curious to see again. We've talked about this last pod.
Adding a tenth team will change the format just a
little bit, but it's exciting to see what this tournament
will look like in the future because it's a pretty
good starting point. So that's hockey. Enjoy the hockey this week.

(35:33):
It's going to be fantastic.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Love it.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
NCAA tournament Switching gears to some spring sports now around.
Und Athletics softball just continues to win Bill twenty and
eleven for this softball team. They split out at Portland
State this past weekend, weather permitting, right in two days
on the twenty fifth home game home game at All
Brickfield for U and D softball, you know, Mart.

Speaker 3 (35:54):
We're expecting to play I mean, that's our thought process.
So we're excited about it. But you know we've talked
about it before, Alex. You know, if you have turf,
you have a chance to move to move snow, and
then if you're lucky enough in the weather, it gives
you a little bit of a chance. Especially with the
sun coming out, it almost heats up a little bit.

(36:16):
You know. I'm staring at the new turf. That's that
our football team practice is on here outside the Pollard Center,
and boy, it's gone. Snow's gone, I mean, and it
just that was with no movement of snow. So you know,
knock on wood if the temperatures, if they cooperate. On Wednesday,
you know we'll be playing Dakota State in a double

(36:39):
header starting at five o'clock here at all Brickfield. Come
on out.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
Very exciting. I think it's great. Six at the next
nine are at home, which is really exciting. It's this
double house since DSU. There'll be a road trip coming
up Agains. Some of league play starts again weather permitting.
Some of league plays starts this weekend in Brookings for
North Dakota and then home against Omaha the following week.
This team is worth coming out to watch. Let's say that.
And if you didn't make it out last year for

(37:04):
year one of all Brickfield, you got to come out
for a year two because this team's making some noise
right now. Twenty wins in non conference that is really
really special for Jordan Stevens in the squad.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
No doubt, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
You mentioned football. By the way, we should talk about
that really quick. Springball started a couple of days after
the fact because of some issues with travel and players
getting back from spring break. But last Thursday, Eric Schmid
got the guys out on the fields. New offensive coordinator
Danny Froyns kicking charge of the offense again, a familiar face,
all charge, new.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
Old, you know, old as new is old.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
But exciting to see that kickoff. It's just you almost
forget in the midst of everything else. Oh that's right,
spring football here we go.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
Yeah. I mean, for those of you interested in it,
you get fifteen dates in which you're able to practice,
and really during any part of the semester you can
make a decision on how you want to deploy those dates.
And so that's why, you know, when we had a
little bit of travel issues, for our students coming back

(38:06):
from spring break. We just adjusted a little bit, but yeah,
started on the nineteenth and pretty much going two three
practices a week, and then we'll do a spring wrap
up by Springs showcase on April eighteenth at twelve thirty
in the Pollard Center, So come on out. And you know,
my guess is if I haven't really talked to Eric

(38:28):
about this too too much, but he does like to
have really game situations to some degree, because he has
said it multiple times in interviews. You know, there's only
one way to get better at football is to play football.
So at the end of the day, I think he'll
play football on the eighteenth. So we'll see what happens,
but it'll depend on depth and roster numbers and those

(38:49):
types of things. Sometimes positions can get thinned out during
spring ball and so you have to be really thoughtful
and careful.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
There are some new faces that you out in the
skill position groups, some new spaces on defense that'll be
stepping up with the bigger roles this year. But fun
to see guys like Jerry Kaminski and this offensive line
coming back and dang dang, and there are some familiar
names as well. So if you wanted your football fix,
like you said, April eighteenth, coming up, a chance to
come out and watch the team do a little wrap
up on what their spring season in sales. Speaking of

(39:20):
wrapping up, let's wrap up indoor track and field really quick.
We did talk about this. Jayden Keeler went to the
NCAA Indoor Championships in Arkansas, I suppose a week and
a half ago. Now her second second team All American honor.
She plays twelfth in the five thousands at the nc DOUBLEA.
It's just obviously one of the best runners in some
of league history, in UND history. Another great accolade for

(39:43):
that young lady. She finishes up her indoor career.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
Yeah, just amazing, really and so so so fortunate to
have been able to watch her participate, and she really
elevated the program and we'll look forward to her career
because it's just not going to end at.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
UND Incredibly, while she was doing that, outdoor track and
field was happening in San Diego. The outdoor Season's that's
what we started. So that's the first, by the way
of a number of trips out in California. The teams
will be in Stanford they'll be at a ZUSA Pacific,
they'll be at Long Beach State, a busy april of
going west to compete for Jim Barren Camp in company.

(40:21):
But fun to see again those tempts climbing up warmer
places to go. And then our track athletes just beginning
to get a taste of outdoor, which is again it's
very different than indoor. There are different events if you're
a field athlete, different distances on the track side, different permutations.
It's from a two hundred meter track or a three
hundred meter track, now you're running on the main four
hundred meter oval. Good to see these kids get their

(40:42):
first taste of that out in Cali this past week.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
Yeah, no doubt about it. And you know that's why
we always have to talk with the coaches because even
though you're one the same human and say you could
be a distance runner, you might run cross country, you
might red shirt in your indoor, you might run in
the outdoor. So it really they have a plan. They
have a stated plan for every student athlete as far
as how they may progress through their career.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
It's impressive how they dial that down for each individual
to try and figure that out. What's best for you.
When when do we think you can peak? When are
you going to be at your best? Make sure we
set you up for a success, and also to they
do it holistically as a team as well, thinking if
we want to win a team championship, maybe it makes
sense for you to red shirt this year, so then
next year, when these athletes are coming into their own,

(41:28):
you're also coming into your own as well. There's a
lot that goes into it. It's a science bill, it's
a science well, there's there's.

Speaker 3 (41:34):
A lot of math to it, isn't there. I mean
really how it's when it's all said and done, you know,
you want to compete and get on a podium to
some degree, but all of that is worth points, and
so that our coaches spend an inordinate amount of time
looking through all of that.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
Yeah, give Jim and Tom Scott and that group a
lot of credit for having those those conversations and figure
out those things out. As these two programs, men's and
women's track and field continue just to rise up. Tennis,
by the way, you talk about two teams that are
playing fantastic right now, the men's team has won four
in a row, twelve wins now on the season the
perfect It's early, but so perfect. In Summer League play,

(42:15):
the women have won eight in a row, now two
and zero in the conference. Both have a couple of
home dates coming up. The men will host Drake on
the twenty eighth and host Omaha on the third. The
women go to South Dakota on the twenty seventh and
host Omaha on the fourth. Good opportunity, we always say this,
but good opportunity to go see these teams who are
playing really good tennis right now in some of the
most important matches they're going to have all season coming up.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
A choice, no doubt, and great environment for sure, so
you would enjoy it. But they've been playing really, really well,
but big matches coming up, just starting really the Summit
League seasons on both sides.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
The men have five duels left before the championships in Tulsa,
which are at the end of April. The women just
have four. It's just something league play the rest of
the way now for both groups. So crunch time on
the way for men's and women's tennis, and Tom Boyson
golf by the way as well, men and women. Right
now as we speak, teeing off playing in Arizona. That
season really just getting going. Everybody's everybody's busy this time

(43:09):
of year.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
There's just a lot of a lot of our teams
on the go for sure. So it's it's all exciting.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
Yeah, very good. Anything else Bill on the un d side,
or you want to think I have.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
A quick one, I have a quick one. So I
was at the women's tennis match against Kansas City on
Friday and I ran into one of our awesome pod
listeners and her name is em And you know what,
I'm just going to give her a quick shout out.
She says she listens to every podcast we do, so
shout out Tom.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
I love that. M M, thank you for listening. Look
at that. I uh, I hope you keep listening because
we're gonna flip over to the B side now and
it's going to get depressing, probably well for some people
a little bit.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
Yeah probably let's start with both of us, but others were.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
Let's get this out of the way first. Bill chieves.
So you got the win. Tottenham had not won a
match this calendar year in the Premiere. Still in the Premiere.
That's a good point. This is a good point. So
we haven't got that one yet, but you did get
a win against Atletico Madrid midweek. It was in an
aggregate defeat, but still you got to draw against Liverpool,

(44:21):
a dramatic ninetieth minute where Charlison games high end goal
at Anfields felt like there was some momentum for Egor,
the Egor era which had not gotten off to a
great start. And then you play Forest. You get Nottingham
Forest at home, a team that is very much in
the relegation battle with you Bill what happens this weekends.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
Forrest is happy to see us because they they haven't
won many matches this year, but on an aggregate six nil.
So what's been very consistent is losing three nail three nil.
But I will say this, the fragility of that team
is stark, and so they were actually not that this

(45:07):
matters in the big picture, but they were out cornering
Forrest eight nil. I think at one point might have
been thirteen to two. But of the two four scored
on one of theirs. And as you know, since I
said the score was three nil, we scored on none
of ours. And so there's a lot going on. There's

(45:29):
a lot of historical data and in the Premier League slash.
Let's just say the pyramids of soccer have been around
a long time. So there was an old first Division, right,
I mean before the Premier League. And so the Spurs
have not been relegated since nineteen seventy seven, so they

(45:49):
have forty eight consecutive years in the top division. Well,
they are threatening about going down. It's been like ninety
one years since they've had this type of start. They
have played more games in the Premier League than they
have points. They've played thirty one matches and they have

(46:10):
thirty points. So there's a lot. I mean, we could
keep going on and on and on, and I can
tell you the three they're number they're number four right now,
the fourth longest streak to start a calendar year without winning.
The three previous have all been relegated.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
Yeah, it's it's not pleasant reading at the moment when
you look at the table from a Spurs perspective. Now
you the one the one nice thing at least, if
you want to look glass at full is that two
of the teams Burnley and Wolves, who are both ten
points or more behind you, are are done. Like there,
I know, I know things happen there are still seven

(46:51):
matches to go, so you never know. But you're really
just battling with west Ham. You've got one team that's
one point behind you and so and they've awful of
course this year as well. Forest's win catapulted them ahead
of you in the standings. So now it's Tottenham in seventeenth,
west Ham in eighteenth, with one point separating those two,
and again the bottom three go down. So it's not great.

(47:14):
It's not great right now, but there's still are opportunities
to rescue the situation. What do you think what needs
to happen? Like when you created chances like there were
some opportunities you had some certainly some good saves made
by Mattie Sells their goalkeeper to keep it the way
it was. But I know I'm soundly beaten at the
weekend thing.

Speaker 3 (47:34):
We heard Jason say he likes to nerd out. I mean,
I think there was another stat something to the effect
of twenty three less twenty three matches in which they
were going into halftime trailing, they're oh nineteen and four. God,
so that doesn't scream resilient. It feels like they need

(47:57):
to score first. That's what I would say that if
you said, what's the tonic actually put something behind a goalie.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
You get Sunderland coming up, by the way, international break coming.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
Up play for twenty two days, you get.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
You get some time. April twelfth is your next match,
so you get some time to try and I don't know. Yeah,
if you're going to make a change, you gotta make
a new ya, there's probably the time to do it.
But you're you're running is at Sunderland's home to Brighton
who just beat Liverpool by the way, and at Wolves

(48:36):
that's one you gotta get. At Villa home to Leeds,
at Chelsea home to Everton. It's not the easiest nothing.
But when you are, when you are Spurs, teams are
looking at you and thinking this is where we're going
to get our points? Yes a points.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
Their form is the worst right now in the Premier League.
So I don't know. I I in what's happening is
And again I think this is fair. I think our
guys have figured out that they're in a relegation battle.
I think they're in denial for a while. Now they're
now they know they're in it. And I read something

(49:16):
where it was back in the seventies you know, they
got they got relegated, but then they popped back up
the next year. But then I think somewhere in the
eighties they were in the similar situation and one of
the one of the former players, just said, hey, if
you don't think so, this is a stain on your career.
It's you know you're going to leave. You will leave

(49:38):
the club because I'm sure contractually if you're not in
the Premier League you're player, you will leave, but you
won't leave. Ever, what happened.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
That's that six with you. Yeah, I enjoyed last thing
on this. Then we'll talk something that's more like.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
And I think neutrals. I think neutrals are all.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
Rooting for it for them to go down. Oh yeah,
oh yeah, I think that's sadly it's.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
Yes, that's that's that's the uh, that's the top line
right now.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
Yes, Neutrals do like to see the big teams fail.
That is that is true. If you are a big team,
you like to see another big team fail. I take
more pleasure out of watching Chelsea lose almost sometimes than
watching Liverpool win. But the uh, your captain, your captain,
Christian Mayor on record is saying we're going to give
two hundred percent into these seven remaining finals, which he

(50:26):
called them to try and avoid relegation.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
Was not two hundred yesterday.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
That moving forward though, he's looking ahead. Love it, know
what we gave yesterday, but two percent moving forward.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
If you look at their last two goals, it felt
like he was watching. That's what it felt like. I
wasn't on the pitch, I should, I mean, but it
felt like he was a little bit of a bystander.

Speaker 1 (50:54):
Yeah, well you need that bystander to find a way
to get to get to that level here in twenty
two Cup champion, World Cup champion, Christian your merrill, who's
leaving to go play for Argentina for a little bit.
Uh So, that is the downside of the B side.
On the positive side, opening day Bill, we got like
three days a morning day coming up this week. Socks

(51:16):
on the road. You get two road trips back to
back Cincinnati and Houston before opening up at Framway at
the start of April. How are you feeling, well?

Speaker 3 (51:23):
I think we're gonna be just fine. But the reality
of it is, you know, is interesting, and you never
know in spring training what you're watching. You really don't
because I've watched a couple of crochet starts, and in
part of it is he's not throwing a lot of
out pitches right now, but he's they're getting the bat

(51:45):
on the ball against him.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
No, they're making contact, that's not I.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
Mean a lot of contact on Saturday, a lot of contact.
But I think he was weirdly. I think he was
just stretching things out and just throwing. I'll be honest
with you, it's it's hard to tell. I have no idea,
but I think they'll be okay, I'm you know, well,
we'll see what happens. They're in a tough division. I
think Baltimore. Baltimore loaded up a little bit. They needed
some pitching. They got some pitching. Tampa is always feisty,

(52:12):
the Yankees and the Yankees and of course the Jays
was a whisker away from winning the World Series. It's
gonna be a tough year.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Yeah, It's not an easy road. Never is in the
Al East. But yeah, this year particularly feels like any
of those teams could be playoff teams and should be contenders.
But it will be fun. I'm excited for ten so
three ten Central time coming up against Cincinnati this Thursday.
Always fun to have real baseball ball, even though we
just got to watch great baseball in the World Baseball Classic.
And yeah, you were in high leverage baseball in the spring.

(52:42):
You were very much in on that. I was in Miami.
So I'm in Miami this past week for soccer, and
this is where it's all happening, right. I saw so
many people with Dominican Republic gear. Everywhere you went. It
was dr hats, that's aw yump T shirts. It was
really cool to be down there as that was going on.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
I love it. I love it. Yeah, no, it was.
That was exciting baseball for sure, And you know it's hard.
I mean, I think you're just gonna have to realize
there's no perfect time to have that tournament, and you're
gonna have to just understand that you're gonna have to
manage the pitching at that point. It's just that's just
what it is. And so you know, once you've kind

(53:23):
of got that out of your system and you know,
it's gonna be a little wonky in that regard. It
is fun baseball, though, because boy, those fans I'm Venezuela,
I mean, oh god, they were just on fire. They
couldn't have been any more excited.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
It was really cool. Yeah, that was a special thing
and that was a part of this great month. And
March is so much fun. I know, you got to go.
But last thing, March Madness has been really fun too.
Some great always sets, some great near upsets. It always
even though even though all sixteen teams remaining are from
major conferences, it has still been a really fun stime.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
About Sienna, they played pretty much all five all five guys.
That's it. That's one and then high point when they
high point the one kid that was his first two
point buckets of the year.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
Yeah, isn't that crazy? Just the three point.

Speaker 3 (54:08):
Like thirty four threes this year, but that's his first
two point bucket. I mean, it's amazing that there wasn't
a situation that occurred just like one that did the
other day, but it happened in that game.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
I know.

Speaker 1 (54:21):
Yeah, just awesome. It's just every year you worry about
the tournament, you wonder and they're taggling how many teams
should there be and who should get in and what's
this and it always delivers. It's just so much fun.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
Well, I mean the Nebraska I mean, they go and
score and then I'll tell you what they came from.
A whisker. How many times did that hit the rim?

Speaker 1 (54:40):
I mean off the It was off the backboard right
now and then rolled around and then popped out against Vanderbilt.
I know, crazy, one of those that would have that
would have been right up there with the Brice three
shot and all and the Taia Sedney and all the
others that would have been front and center. Oh man, wait,
this is this is the best time of the year.
I hope you can enjoy. Safe travels down to suit

(55:01):
falls to you and the rest of our fan base.
Awesome hockey coming up this weekend. Love that Jason Hashid
got to come on big. Thanks to him. Bill, you
the best, big Thanks to Alex Socker Johnson and Paul
Rawlson on the back ends. We'll talk soon.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
Thanks Thanks Alice, and thanks em for listening.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
Go EMM, let's go. Let's go.