May 5, 2026 • 43 mins
This week, Bill and Alex begin the show by addressing the difficult decision to discontinue men’s and women’s tennis at UND (1:29). The two then touch on the UND Champions Ball before checking in with golf, softball, and track and field, as well as dissecting a slew of NCAA news (17:17). To close, it’s a slightly-less melancholy B-Side this week (26:58), as Spurs pull themselves out the relegation zone with only three matches left.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Bilt Shaves Podcast, presented by Mid
Coast Sports. Don't miss some of you in these greatest
ever track athletes aim for glory at the Semi League
Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May fourteenth through the sixteenth,
live on mid Coast Sports Plus Plus. Be sure to
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On mid Coast Sports Plus. You're home for archive, games,
(00:21):
behind the scenes content, and more. That's Mid Coast Sports.
This is how we do sports, and this is the
Bilt Shaves Podcast. Welcome to another edition of the Bilt
Shaves Podcast. You're taping this on a Monday afternoon, May
the fourth, May the fourth, be with you, Bill Shaves,
(00:42):
Alex Hander here with you, second to last podcast of
the year, Episode twenty of the season one ninety five.
In the illustrious run of this podcast, Bill Howard things
on a Monday for you.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You know what I think in a word cold, We're
still cold. But I'll tell you what. We got a
little uh got a little snippet of summery yesterday about
seventy degrees. So it's heading our way, Alex. So all
is good for sure, Lucky to be doing what we do.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, and then good podcast coming up today. We've got
some spring sports to put a bow on, some championships
to preview, some actual positive news in Tottenham Hotspur's reign
of area, so that's exciting. We'll talk a little b
about that coming up on the B side as well.
First of some big news they broke last week around
und Athletics that we wanted to touch on at the
top of the show. Last Thursday, UNDI announced the discontinuation
(01:37):
of the men's and women's tennis programs. This was not
an easy decision, certainly, Bill your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, for sure, Alex, not a great day. You know,
I have been in college athletics full time, so in
the human resource world, if you're one point zero fte,
I've been that person since nineteen ninety and have not
been a part of a day like that. And so,
(02:07):
you know, not a great day for sure for us.
But you know, as I said in the quote in
our release, and you know this again is my truth
is I've been in it now in my thirty sixth
year in college athletics, and I do believe the last
five years have seen more change than the previous thirty combined,
(02:32):
and you know with that, I think, you know, I
wouldn't be doing my job if I'm not looking ahead
and trying to figure out what's next for und And unfortunately,
sometimes you have to make difficult decisions.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
And this was a difficult decision.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
And I you know, we know the men's and women's
tennis programs and have had had success in recent years.
Obviously they both made this some of the championship game
just recently. And that's hard and I think from an
outside perspective, you say, why why did this have to happen?
But I thought you laid it out well on their release. Again,
just the various things that come into play, and you
have to make those decisions for what you believe is
best for the entire university, the entire athletics department. Not easy,
(03:14):
but that was the ultimate decision.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, you know, we put out a release and certainly
can go to Fighting Hawks dot com, and we also
accompany it with a question and answer, and I think
that was important to make sure that if anyone was
wondering some of the things that maybe led to that
(03:36):
particular decision. And then just some i'll call them nuts
and bolts type of things about, you know, supporting the
student athletes that during this time, and certainly our coaches
as well.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
You certainly think about the young men and women who
were affected by the decision. On the positive side, again,
all current tennis student athletes will retain their scholarships for
the remainder of their academic careers if they decide to
stay at UND. The departments also guarantee that they'll provide
personalized assistance for anyone that chooses to transfer out looking
for other opportunities, and the legacy of this sport at
(04:10):
U and D will still persist with the U and
D Letter Winners Association Athletics Hall of Fame. The history
of this isn't going to be swept under the rug.
It's not like this is going away, and it's not
like you and the's abandoning these kids. And it is
a very it's two very small teams, but there still
is that sense of like, we want to honor the
promises that we're made to these kids, and we want
to make sure that we can help them cross the
(04:31):
finish line, get their degree, help them succeed in life,
et cetera, or help them move on to find an
opportunity to play someplace else, and those are all positive
things as you spin forward.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, I think that's right, Alex. And you know, the
final thing I'll say is, you know, the timing of
it was was critical because the actual we we're recording
today on May fourth, and the actual tennis portal opens today.
And so I think for that inform to go out
(05:01):
actually gave our student athletes that had eligibility remaining the
ability to actually put their name in the portal prior
to other student athletes going in today. So I think,
you know, those are some of the things that you know,
we thought through, you know, ahead of time, and so
(05:21):
you know, we wish, we wish everyone the best, and
you know, in a difficult.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Day, for sure, good luck to those young men and women.
I believe tenants total that sell eligibility remaining of the
six team that were on those teams combined, And again
just to thank you to them and to the coaching
staff for helping elevate this sport on campus. I get
a lot of work and a lot of effort over
the last handful of years to get tennis to where
it rose.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Too.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
We should mention too, und not the only program in
the summer league or around the country that has been
doing this or looking for ways to try and figure
out how this all works in this new landscape. And
unfortunately tennis has been one of those sports that has
been caught. This has kind of been a trend, a
little bit that's happened around the country. And so again
as we're trying to figure out what this looks like
(06:05):
in the NC Double A, you know, this is just
one one direction that different schools have begun to take
in U and D has been one of them. So again,
tough tough things to talk about. I mean, it's it's unfortunate,
but that's that's the nature of college athletics at the moment.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
No doubt. And it was important for us to start
with this as the first topic for us today. And
you know, and thank you to coach Boyson and coach
Anderson for sure and their service. And obviously we're assisting
them and trying to try to figure out how we
can best, you know, get them to their next chapters themselves.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So tough place to start on the podcast today. We
do have some other things to discuss as we transition
from that. The other big thing that happened last week
and U and D. The athletics was the annual Champions Ball,
which we touched on with Val Sussex on our previous podcast.
It sounded like it was another phenomenal event at the
Alera Center Billa in support of U n D Athletics.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yeah, you know, we we do this once every two years,
and you know there's some schools that do do it
annually and that works for them. We've done it once
every two years and we feel like that's our sweet spot.
And yeah, we had close to nine hundred folks there
and we had over one hundred student athletes there. That's
(07:21):
what makes it a little bit unique is how many
student athletes are actually at the event seeing who supports
them and of course, you know, down the road, you know,
maybe they will be one of those that that support
a future student athlete. So yeah, we're still trying to
figure out the numbers per se. But but it was
(07:42):
an awesome, awesome night. And yeah, really you know, it's
one of those it's again when it's once every two years,
it's funny people are kind of clamoring for it. So
it was it was great. We just have too many
thank yous to go around, so I'll just say abroad
thank you to everyone that was involved.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I was unable to ATTND this year. I was I
was calling the soccer match in Toronto. Couldn't couldn't make
a bad time for the Champiens ball. But for you,
I mean you were there in the midst of it all.
Could you give us perhaps a favorite moments of the night,
a recollection of what you enjoyed most from that evening
last weekend at the Alere Center.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Well, you know what ends up happening is here's here's
a big problem that I have, and so I'll just
share it among a few friends. Is many times when
I'm at a public function, I have to speak after
doctor Armacost and that's not awesome. I mean it's not great.
(08:41):
There's always something going on with Andy. I mean he's
he's a man of many talents. I mean you probably
could put things in his hand, he could juggle home.
There's just a lot of things he's got going on.
So so I knew I was behind him, which is okay.
What I didn't know was Doctor Link again a podcast podcast. Yes,
(09:05):
our provost always kind of wanted to do the third
down call that Brian Lee Rivers does at the Aleria Center.
So we had that happening that night, and you know,
it was awesome. It was great. So not only did
I have doctor Armacas to deal with, I had Doctor
Link to deal with as well, So that I'm not
(09:27):
sure it's my favorite moment. It's probably the one that
I will remember the most, though.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
That is the last thing moment, the last thing memory
from your experience at the twenty twenty six champions Paul, Well,
it sounded like from the anecdotes that I've heard, it
sounded like it was an awesome.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Night as old great.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
It was great.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
So that's really fun special thing again for the U
and D athletics community to come together like that, the alumni, based,
the supporters, the people that helped make these programs go.
It's fun to get everybody in the same room and
really celebrate these young men and women who were also
there and Joe hundred kid again from different programs all
there that you're celebrating and raising money for.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
So congrats again.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Like you said, so the group that helped makes it
possible every other year, and that yet the work starts
essentially like now for the next champions Ball two years away.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
It's any Yeah, you.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Know what ends up happening is so when you do
it every two years and we've all been around events
that are annual events, and you're really you're just going
right afterwards, what you're able to do is debrief a
little bit, like maybe some of the things that you
liked about what happened this time. So you go into
debrief for a little bit, then you can take a
(10:34):
little bit of a pause, and then you're about eighteen
months out again and then you're going again, so but
excited about the uh you know the already you know
Gala or ball twenty eight, which will be great. So
just around the corner.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Start the countdown twenty eight champions ball.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
On the playing field, we have a couple of spring
sports teams that are still active right now. Golf, by
the way, as we speak, competing down in Arizona at
the some of the championships with the men and women
very much in the midst of their push for its title.
We won't touch on that really at the moment because
that's in the middle and when you hear this, things
will already be done. But best of luck to them
as they compete. We've been outdoor, truck and field Championships
(11:17):
we mentioned coming up next weekend. This is the fourteenth
through the sixteenth in Fargo. The men and the women
both expected to compete and perform well. We saw the
women take third overall as a team at the indoor Championships.
The men have a number of great individuals that should
buy for titles, and they've begin to. I would say
the men weren't really gunning for an indoor championship as
a team. There were some red shirting going on, kind
(11:39):
of keeping guys in the cupboard essentially for a run
maybe at the outdoor Championship or next year. So we'll
see what happens down in Fargo. Fun to see those kids.
They've had great They've had a phenomenal outdoor season. They've
got two meets left in Michigan.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
This week in.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Fargo is a tune up coming up on Friday. This
is really the fun time of year. You get to
the Outdoor Championships, then it's the Regionals, and then it's
the NCAA's and we feel like we're gonna have some
representation at those three things.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah, I think so, you know, I mean, we've talked
about you know, track quite often, especially with us hosting
the indoors, and it's all a lead up and so
we're we're down to the wire right now in the
lead up. But I do think we will have some
folks buying for, you know, the ability to go to Nationals,
which would be really, really exciting.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yeah, that's just a fun time of year in that regard,
especially for those track and field athletes. So best of
luck to Jim Varren Camp and company coming up this
week and next, especially down in Fargo. And as you
mentioned at the top, you can watch every event from
that meets, every throw, every jump, every race on the
Semi League Network live on Mid Coast Sports Plus. Softball
(12:45):
was expecting to be competing for a SEI League championship
this weekends, and despite the fact they break the school
record for most wins twenty eight and twenty four this year,
they end up being essentially one game short. They lose
in a head to head tiebreaker with South Dakota State
for the final spot to make the field of six.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Yeah, just it.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Felt like this season, Bill, I'd love I'd love to
hear your perspective. It seemed like there was a lot
of weekends where you and you would get one but
then lose two, and it would kind of be the
same thing. You'd go one into over the weekends, and
it just ended up not being enough in the end
to make it to the championships.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, Weirdly, the two schools that we were really going
head to head with was Kansas City and South Dakota State,
and we went one in five against them. And so
at the end of the day, ironically we played better
against the top half of the table versus our head
(13:39):
to head folks, and that can happen. And at the end,
you know, there's just so much parody. Well, I'll say
this Omaha is very very good, very good at the top.
Then from there each weekend is its own. And you know,
we saw, you know, we went to down to Saint
(14:00):
playing second place Saint Thomas and you know they it
was one nothing for a long while on Friday, and
then we ended up losing that game, then lost in
fourteen innings, and then ended up winning the third game.
So that's how tight it's been. And unfortunately, you never
know when you have to get a big hit, when
(14:20):
you need to make a big play, and those are
things that get you in the end. But overall, if
you really think from a broad standpoint, twenty eight and
twenty four pretty good for the team, but they will
not be excited about missing out on the Summit League
tournament for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah, it's such a unique season when you zoom out
and you look at that and you think we had
we had this incredible run in nonconference, we played well,
it felt like we were really peaking. And then yeah,
just some of those close losses and like you said,
either a timely hit that you didn't get or a
start that didn't quite go the way you wanted to,
and that happens a couple of times. And in this
(14:58):
short chunkcated soft all season where you just get you
get everybody's best shot once on a weekends and that's it.
It feels overall like there is still so much positivity
with this program, with the new stadium, with the wins
that we've seen. It's now just trying to put it
all together in conference play almost feels like the last piece.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I think that's right. And no, Jordan came back over
the weekend and so yeah, no, I have not yet,
and I would say, you know, our our team will
be discouraged that they're not having an opportunity to turn
back around and go down to Saint Paul and play.
But you know, it's one of those where it is
(15:38):
two seasons. I mean you you you start, you start
in the non conference and try to get yourself ready
for conference. But once conference hits, every every every game matters.
And we you know, we started off the season down
in Brookings getting swept. When one of those you're in.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, that's so it's.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Almost like the first series of the year actually looped
all the way back around and gotcha.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
You just never know what's going to be the difference
in a season, and unfortunately for you Indya, it was
those games against the Jackson Brookings. Obviously tough year with
different weather cancelations and games being moved around, and you
don't make excuses for those things, but just it was
it was difficult, I think to get into a rhythm
early because of some of that weather related But again,
it was a really good season for the young ladies.
(16:30):
You know, they'll be disappointed a chance to go again
next year with some momentum hopefully.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Yeah, it was difficult for everybody, I don't you know,
I think everybody has the same thought. You know, when
Mother Nature starts rolling there's not much you can do,
so but you're right, the rhythm piece was was was
difficult and even you know, playing a game, it's not
how you draw it up. Where you play say Omaha
(16:55):
in the afternoon in North Dakota State at night. I mean,
that's just not how you draw it up. But that's
what you have to do.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, they still won that series against the Bison, didn't
stop on that particular weekend, but yeah, it is. It
is one of those things softball. So again, congrats to
Jordan and the ladies on a really strong season. Condolences
on this in the tournament this year, but best of
like moving forward as they continue to build that program up.
Bill that kind of wraps up really the spring sports portion.
(17:21):
We're really at that point a year where teams are
starting to finish things out and championships are coming. Anything
else that stands out from your perspective around you and
D Athletics, No.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Not U N D Athletics. I think the way we are.
You know, we talked about this pre pod. We'll probably
have one more pod. We'll have a guest kind of
looking ahead to the fall of twenty six and some
of the exciting things that are happening there. But you know,
the one thing that aside from U n D athletics
(17:52):
that have been involved with is NCCHC meetings occurred this
past week and it is it is kind of meeting
season and where you you know, we're part of three
different conferences, so you know a lot of times I'm
on the road having conversations about let's just say, the
operational components of the league, and then sometimes there's macro
(18:12):
conversations about what could happen. And you know, we've mentioned
Brad Schlossman a number of times on this pod as
far as the Grand Forks Herald, and he's chronicled what
transpired down in Florida pretty well, So folks can certainly
look at that. But yeah, there's there's there's some things happenings.
As I said, Alex, you know, it feels like there's
(18:33):
a lot of a lot of things happening in the system,
if you will, But I think hockey could get affected
pretty well by what's potentially transpired.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, you touched on some of the things in the
broader landscape. I think the big there's been a lot
of big news items that have come out recently, but
I think the eligibility shift to this five years or five.
Could you give us just the specifics of what this
looks like and how this might affect you and the athletics.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Today, what we've been always dealing with is if a
student came in, they would have five years to play
for That's always what it is, and the reason why
the vernaculars out there right now is five for five.
It's actually correct. I mean, if this goes through, and
(19:28):
what we are assuming is going to happen as it
is going to go through, a student could come to
a campus and have five years to play five seasons,
which now there might be a couple of reasons why
you might You might actually be afforded some dispensation. It
(19:51):
could be military service, could be mission work. There could
be some health related issues to some degree. But that's
kind of the conce What the NCAA has wanted is
everybody at the same age across the board and so
so ultimately it's age based eligibility and so therefore hockey
(20:15):
is one of the sports that has been unique where
they've had a developmental program where you could actually be
as long as you came in before your twenty first birthday,
you could actually go play in this case juniors and
go in a sense develop and before you came into college. Well,
(20:35):
I think that's going to be normalized across all sports.
That's what is transpiring right now. So there's a conversation
going on because that's going to affect obviously from college
is you know, they can make that change or that rule,
but that will affect certainly, you know, the landscape of
development in hockey.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
That seems to be the biggest takeaway that I noticed
that the sport where you see guys that take a
little bit longer to come to school traditionally. And it
feels like if these rules do, if this legislation is passed,
if this goes through, that would that would alter that'd
be a little bit different, But nothing finalized yet. Interesting
to see those conversations coming. Same thing with with the
(21:18):
NCAA men's basketball tournament expanding and like lots of things
that are being discussed that would not maybe drastically alter
the landscape, but certainly changed what you've been used to
for the last handful of years. And this goes back
to your point initially that over the last five years
we've seen great change in college athletics. And we say,
we've said this a lot, but it feels like that
(21:38):
is continuing. There is not a stopping point just yet.
We haven't settled by any stretch, Nope, to getting back
to okay, this is how it's going to be moving forward.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, And I think I think you're right. I think
you know, the concept of legislation, even the process has
has been altered. It's it's it's act actually being done
in small groups and committees to some degree, but it's
not it's not as if the Summit League or you know,
(22:09):
the Big Sky or the Big ten is going to
propose certain legislation. It feels like those days are over
right now. We are just literally on a daily, weekly, monthly,
yearly basis are being told in air quotes. You know
what the new rules of engagement are, and those are
(22:30):
the things that you know. Then you have to kind
of like indicate to your coaches what's transpiring. So, you know,
it's been an interesting time frame. And you know, I'm
not even you know, being hyperbolic that the last five
years easily if you add it all up my previous
(22:51):
thirty it doesn't it's not even it's a blowout, like
how much change has occurred. And I'm not saying it's
right or on just that that's my opinion on what's transpired,
and it doesn't make it again. Wherever we're gonna go,
college athletics is going to exist. That's what is going
to happen, in what form and how it works. You know,
(23:16):
we'll see.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I had a long conversation with my wife this weekend
about that, and she's a volleyball coach and was a
college athlete, was a tennis player, college athlete, and it's
interesting to hear just her perspective of being a little
more removed from it and just ask and she asked
really good questions like well, why why do they think
that's the right thing, or why is that in the
best interest of the student athlete or in the best
(23:39):
interest of college athletics. And there were some where I
couldn't give her a good answer. I'm not really sure
exactly why they're doing this outside of I feel, you know, well,
there were there's some obvious reasons maybe on the outside
why it looks like they're doing some of these things,
but it is, Yeah, it is a it is an
inflection point right now where things are just changing fast,
and we'll see what happens when the dust.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, that's right, And I would say that you know,
will evolve, and you know, in whether it be the NHL,
you know, down to you know, whomever is trying to
play hockey at a certain level. Everyone will figure it
(24:21):
out for sure. But in the moment, that's where it
gets a little dicey, because there's going to always be
folks that have been playing by one I'll call them
one set of rules, as another set of rules are
being evolved in real time.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yeah, rules of engagement still under construction. I did get
I did get a wonderful fortune cookie the other day.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
We were having a nice, nice.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Meal, little little pan Asian meal, and at the end
of the meal, the bill came and there were fortune
cookies and sometimes you get some that are very prescient,
and the one I got was the road to success
is always under construction.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
And it feels like that's where we are with the
nc double A, just a little bit under construction on
the road to success.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
And if you think in those terms that change is
inevitable all the time, you know what you kind of
like think through, well, I just have to embrace what's
today and that's that's where we're at. And so yeah,
I mean, you know, the hockey piece, you know, that's
real because we've got some you know, students that have made,
(25:25):
you know, certain decisions over the last few years. And
you know, we just have to you know, I hope
And again it's not me at the table right now.
It just I would hope though there's enough there's at
least enough conversation going on to figure out, you know,
when and how does this actually happen? And in kind
(25:47):
of moving.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Forward, stay TUNESNS, we'll see up next. Yeah, I think
and I wish, I wish I could ask you better questions.
And I feel like I let our listeners down sometimes
because there are so many ways you could go and
so many things that are still in flux. But is
there anything else you want to touch on when it
comes to this ever changing landscape that just continues to
(26:12):
evolve as we as we pod No.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I think that's why we like to do it once
every two weeks once it gets going, so that if
there is something that we need to discuss, we can
do it. But I think that's enough. I mean, sometimes
here's what I would say, many folks just want to
see the games and so, but the differential between the
reason why we do this pod is is to kind
(26:37):
of go behind the curtain a little bit because you
can always, you know, get information on our teams, and
our coaches are always out there talking and you know
some people might say, well, why don't you have more
coaches on well, because you know, they have their opportunities
and a lot of other platforms, and so this one
is kind of like it's almost like behind the curtain conversation.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
That's been the goal. He will flip then to the
B side. We've had some kind of the pressing B
sides lately. We will start in a positive note. Spurs
no longer in the relegation zone bill as of May
the fourth, twenty twenty six. You got a nice win
against an ask the Villa side that's fighting for Champions
League spots. Look at Ri Charleston coming up with the
(27:20):
game winner off his noggin big time for Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, I thought that, And again, what is it one
two three third coaches? The charm I guess is, uh,
you know, Roberta deserves he's pretty good though, he is
he and I think he's pretty talented and I think
he probably fits how the Spurs want to play. So yeah,
(27:44):
the team's been great, like and you know, it's it's funny.
So the Spurs played the second to the last match
of the weekend because actually, as before we recorded today,
Nottingham Force actually beat Chelsea. But at the end of
the day, yeah, to get ahead of west Ham with
(28:05):
three matches to play, two at home and west Ham's
got to go to Arsenal. I mean you feel like,
you know, Spurs had a big weekend, you feel that way,
and they played as good as they've played all year,
which just something clicked with them. And I know, vill Villanova,
Aston Villanova, Villanova, Aston Villa, it's all good. They they
(28:28):
are in the middle of a Europa run. But you know,
Spurs have had a lot of guys out, so it's
like just because they flipped their script a little bit
doesn't mean like you're still playing eleven hund eleven Alex.
You know, at least to start the game.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
It's back to back results now for Spurs, it has
been a long time since you had to win in
the league. Now there's maybe a little more confidence. Connor
Gallagher was a good signing for you over January he
scored the opener. Yesterday or this weekends, these are all
running together. Whenever Spurs played, Gallagher scored the first goal.
And like you said, it feels like now it went
from being this team is doomed, the vibes are bad,
(29:07):
we keep switching coaches. Igor Tudor was not necessarily a
great choice that didn't work out. And yet now all
of a sudden, if you just take care of business,
you control your own destiny again. And it feels like
they are going to make the great escape at the end.
How massive would that be for this club to avoid
the drop?
Speaker 2 (29:24):
I think the last time we potted, I said, I
don't think there's any positive about going down. There's just none. Now,
what you could do is, let's pretend they do escape,
is say, hey, we were so close, all right, now,
what do we really need to do to support deserve me?
(29:47):
And what is that going to look like? And so yeah,
I yeah, you know they that was as good as
they've played in a long long time. So they were
They kind of got after Villa and that was kind
of fun to see. And Gallagher I felt like he
was put in the right spot. He's just like he's
(30:08):
like an energizer bunny rabbit. I mean, he just keeps
going and going and going and I but if you're
asking him to do other things, I'm not sure that's
his game.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
His work rates incredible, That's what he's always been known for.
Just indefatigable in midfields and honestly bringing that energy and
that positivity in England's international with his experience that can
help Guy Guy as a leader and comes from Atletico
Madrid where they are just that's what they're known for.
Let's get stuck in. So can I say one last
(30:40):
thing on Spurs. Loved the kit this weekend. That was
a throwback to the two thousand and two World Cup.
Thank you like rolling those back. That brought back some
really good memories. So I enjoyed that.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Well that's good. So let me let me slide a
little bit into two other teams, but they're both owned
by the same group. Help me, help me, just help
me where your headspace is at with with Liverpool and
obviously the Red Sox might be a long summer.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
You're ruining my summer, Bill, That's what you said on
the pod a couple of weeks ago. That's yeah, the socks,
since we potted, since we potted last head fired Alex Cora.
I feel like that just happened. It's all running together now.
But that's that is not great when that happens at
this stage of the season to your manager, who you
won a World Series with and is still regarded very highly.
(31:33):
It all comes down to yes, them with sports group
who has got divided interests, and I know they've at
one point they owned the Pittsburgh Penguins, they owned Liverpool
Football Club, they owned the Boston Red Sox. They have
given up some of those shares in their NHL franchise,
but still have a stake in that in racing too, right,
And yep, exactly, they have a lot of they have
(31:53):
a lot of fingers in a lot of different pies
and it served them well, I think in some sense.
And so you get this great perspective like, well, this
is what's working with our baseball team, how do we
apply that to our soccer team. This worked for the NHL,
can we apply that to our racing outfit? And some
of that cross pollination I think can be good. Unfortunately,
(32:14):
there is only so much money to go around and
so much focus to go around, and it feels like
in the last couple of years, Liverpool won a title
last year, so I shouldn't be talking about this necessarily,
but it feels like with the Red Sox some of
the interest perhaps has waned, and maybe they've made some
choices of who's running day to day operations that have
not been the best, or there's been a reluctance to
(32:37):
really go all in financially, and it feels like they've
kind of had to pick and choose a little bit more.
Last summer they went all in on Liverpool, like spent
a ton of money in the offseason to reinvest and
reinvigorate that squad, and they didn't really do that for
the Red Sox. And I don't know if at this
point it is almost like a we have this much
(32:57):
and a percentage is going here, and a percentage is
going year, And if you're a fan, you would love
it if you were just a little more like one
hundred percent is going to the club that I care about,
the team that I care about, And it thinks in
my world because I care about both of them, and
I would love it if we were putting one hundred
percent of both.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
So there is A.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
There is a conflict of interest, unfortunately, and the results
of NATSA have not been great for either side.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Let's just say that that's true.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
I mean it is, and they've they've been their interests
have been divided, and that's what's been really really hard.
And so yeah, I don't know. The team that I
see play on the field for the Red Sox is
a team that is a terrible hitting team. Really, it's bad,
(33:44):
I mean by all the by all the metrics. And
then when they actually do get runners on base, what's
even fun about this is they have the second most
hitten to double plays in baseball, so so so so
not only are they really not powerful, they really don't
(34:04):
get a lot of runners on base, but when they do,
they actually are really good at Like, man, you know what,
let's let's get them all off the field. At that point.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
It's bad. It is.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
It is bad. It's not it's not great. It's not
going to be a great year. It's got to be
a developmental year. The question is going to be is
who do you want to who do you want at
the controls? Uh in the trade done.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
By right now?
Speaker 1 (34:28):
I mean Craig breslo is calling the shots and a
lot of those decisions unfor and again you don't want
to pin it all on one person, but he's he's
the one that's making these decisions. Everybody else kind of
lost their job on this last wave and he's still there.
So you would like maybe just a little better return
on investment in some of those choices that he's made.
I don't have great faith, unfortunately in Craig at this point.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Well, and like I said, for for for me as
a fan, just complete fan, I don't think Colora was
coaching the team awesomely. I don't think Breslo has done
a great job like putting the team for the manager
on the field, and I'm not sure the ownership is
all in on everything that's going on with through I
(35:13):
think we're three for three.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Yeah, that's not a great place to be.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
No, no, So yeah, I will see this is going
to be a lost season for them. I don't think
there's any way out. I really don't. And you know,
and I'm not trying to be negative, Nelly, I'm just
trying to say, hey, I'm just looking at what I'm
staring at, and it's not awesome.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
I think, like you said, you got to change. Now
the goal at the beginning of the season. Hey, we've
built this great pitching staff, We're going to be built
on defense. We're going to contend that way. Hopefully some
of our kids continue to take steps forward. And now
you got to flip it and say, hey, this is
now just all about getting guys in position where they
can succeed for the future. Because yeah, like you said that,
(35:57):
the league, even though we've talked about this, even though
the league, maybe Al East, has not been quite as
lights out as we thought they were going to be,
there's no way that this current Redstocks team, based on
what we've seen for the first six weeks of the season,
is going to have enough talent or enough juice or not.
It is not going to happen for them to be
able to keep up and turn this around where they've
alreadydun themselves a whole if not, so look ahead to
(36:19):
next year.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Yeah, I thought, honestly, I was actually kind of excited
about their outfield defense, and I thought their infield defense
would be pretty good. But the problem is, you knew
they weren't going to hit the ball with power. That's fine,
They're struggling to hit the ball start their period and
then they're running the basis not great and their defense
(36:43):
hasn't been awesome, so I mean, I don't to tell you.
And then you've got pictures that are on the IL
and plus Suarez only gave you four innings yesterday before
he had hamstring tightness. So the end of the day,
sometimes there's last years. This one's a last year.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Thank goodness, it's a World Cup. Summer bill.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Oh, that will be fascinating, that will be very very
all right, So again we we well, how about this.
I'll end this pod with not putting you on the spot,
but flip it to the B side. Next pod, last pod,
and we just we figured you got to give us
(37:22):
some sort of an idea where we are with the
US team, and then what you think, then what you
think is going to happen, followed by then then the
Alex Hender picks for the for the World Cup. But again,
here's the problem with the World Cup. Here is the
big problem. There's so many injuries that occur. You could
(37:44):
have that that pick and all of a sudden they
lose their striker or they right, I mean that that
can happen.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
That can happen, and it is happening right now. We're
seeing some of these teams at the end of their
club seasons lose guys and if you get hurt, now
the World Cup starts June eleventh, like there's not a
lot of time to recover. We saw la me and
Yamal go down for Barcelona maybe a week and a
half ago, and they initially said, hey, he should be
(38:12):
fine for the World Cup. This guy is what Spain
is resting their main hopes on. He's their main attacking threat.
Young kid, still a teenager, already one of the best
in the world. He's going to be coming back and
playing his first game in a World Cup without any
I mean we're talking six weeks out, no chance to
really get up to speed.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
I don't know if that's going to end well.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Turkey who the US will play their best player, Arda
Gula who plays for Real Madrid. He went down with
the hamstring injury last week. He's now questionable for the
World Cup. This is and those are just sort of
like the latest too. There have been a lot of
guys who have gone through this slog of a season.
I know everybody in England is holding their breath that
Harry Kane doesn't get hurt with this Bayern Munich run
(38:53):
in the Champions League. And there's just such fine margins
between winning a WARLD World Cup or honestly losing in
the group stage, and it can be losing if you
if you're one of these countries that doesn't have a
lot of outstanding talent. You maybe you have one, two,
maybe three world class guys. If you lose one of those,
it's too much to overcome. So right now we're in
(39:16):
that mold of waiting, holding your breath for the final
three weeks of the club season, and so these guys
can get to their international group and you hope they're healthy.
That's that's all you hope.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Well in what's interesting is so you have all of
the a few teams that are are are still playing
on a couple of different fronts and so the only
thing you have, like with the Spurs, I get again
every match matters, but there's only a couple of matches,
which is good to some degree, but even you know
(39:48):
they're jav A Siemens. I mean he's not going to
play for Netherlands because he's got an ACL so you
know that was last match, so those are the things
that happen. What a dichotomy be playing for your country
and playing for your club.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
It's a different mindset. It's obviously a different rhythm for
some and we've heard different players talk about this. Going
to play for your country becomes your comfort zone. Like
you're back with players that you went up through the
ranks with at U fifteen, U seventeen and U twenty three,
your home training in your home nation, with your family,
et cetera, and that becomes like this beautiful thing to
(40:27):
escape sometimes the crucible of club football, which is really
unforgiving and you're playing two matches a week and fans
are pretty brutal sometimes. But for others, obviously, like in
the case of Italy who didn't make the World Cup,
it was the pressure. The pressure of putting on the
shirt to represent your country is different than putting on
an Arsenal kit or an inter Milan kid or what.
(40:50):
It's just there's a different level of expectation depending on
where you're from, so that everybody will say club football
is a much more esthetically pleasing because they have so
much more time to work with these players. You have
general managers, sporting directors who are picking teams to play
this particular type of football for a manager that suited
(41:11):
to their style. That's not the case in international football. It's
who has a passport for your nation? All right, we're
gonna try and figure it out and piece it together.
What Roger Bennett I think calls like at the Star
Wars canteena of football. Sometimes you get all sorts and
you got to make it work and put it together.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
But the thing is, I would.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Say the international game, the level of passion involved makes
it on a different level. It is just on a
different level. And it is these matches mean so much
so anyway, that's it's going to be an unbelievable summer
of soccer in our country, in our consonant comes June
the eleventh.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
And and we do need to talk one more time
because at the end of the day, Hey, it's twenty
twenty six. Last time this happened was nineteen ninety four,
so I mean, right, like it doesn't happen I mean decades, right,
So like this actually happens in the world cares, I
mean the world cares, So this will be it'll be awesome.
(42:08):
So that's on the b side.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Yes, coming up coming up in two weeks time on
the season finale. Yes, we'll have a chance to wrap
up a lot of things and set the table for
this summer. Looking forward to that certainly in a couple
of weeks between now and then, Bill, best of luck
to you and the staff and to the Spring Sports
as they try and finish strong this year. You two elks,
Bill Shaves, Ladies and gentlemen. Big thanks to Alex Socker
(42:31):
Johnson and Paul Ralston on the back end for knitting
everything together on this podcast. My name is Alex Hyder.
Thank you again for listening. Enjoyed the slow embrace of
spring as it comes our way, and we'll talk to
you soon.
You're listening to the Bilt Shaves Podcast, presented by Mid
Coast Sports. Don't miss some of you in these greatest
ever track athletes aim for glory at the Semi League
Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May fourteenth through the sixteenth,
live on mid Coast Sports Plus Plus. Be sure to
keep up with you and the athletics all year long.
On mid Coast Sports Plus. You're home for archive, games,
(00:21):
behind the scenes content, and more. That's Mid Coast Sports.
This is how we do sports, and this is the
Bilt Shaves Podcast. Welcome to another edition of the Bilt
Shaves Podcast. You're taping this on a Monday afternoon, May
the fourth, May the fourth, be with you, Bill Shaves,
(00:42):
Alex Hander here with you, second to last podcast of
the year, Episode twenty of the season one ninety five.
In the illustrious run of this podcast, Bill Howard things
on a Monday for you.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You know what I think in a word cold, We're
still cold. But I'll tell you what. We got a
little uh got a little snippet of summery yesterday about
seventy degrees. So it's heading our way, Alex. So all
is good for sure, Lucky to be doing what we do.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, and then good podcast coming up today. We've got
some spring sports to put a bow on, some championships
to preview, some actual positive news in Tottenham Hotspur's reign
of area, so that's exciting. We'll talk a little b
about that coming up on the B side as well.
First of some big news they broke last week around
und Athletics that we wanted to touch on at the
top of the show. Last Thursday, UNDI announced the discontinuation
(01:37):
of the men's and women's tennis programs. This was not
an easy decision, certainly, Bill your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, for sure, Alex, not a great day. You know,
I have been in college athletics full time, so in
the human resource world, if you're one point zero fte,
I've been that person since nineteen ninety and have not
been a part of a day like that. And so,
(02:07):
you know, not a great day for sure for us.
But you know, as I said in the quote in
our release, and you know this again is my truth
is I've been in it now in my thirty sixth
year in college athletics, and I do believe the last
five years have seen more change than the previous thirty combined,
(02:32):
and you know with that, I think, you know, I
wouldn't be doing my job if I'm not looking ahead
and trying to figure out what's next for und And unfortunately,
sometimes you have to make difficult decisions.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
And this was a difficult decision.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
And I you know, we know the men's and women's
tennis programs and have had had success in recent years.
Obviously they both made this some of the championship game
just recently. And that's hard and I think from an
outside perspective, you say, why why did this have to happen?
But I thought you laid it out well on their release. Again,
just the various things that come into play, and you
have to make those decisions for what you believe is
best for the entire university, the entire athletics department. Not easy,
(03:14):
but that was the ultimate decision.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, you know, we put out a release and certainly
can go to Fighting Hawks dot com, and we also
accompany it with a question and answer, and I think
that was important to make sure that if anyone was
wondering some of the things that maybe led to that
(03:36):
particular decision. And then just some i'll call them nuts
and bolts type of things about, you know, supporting the
student athletes that during this time, and certainly our coaches
as well.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
You certainly think about the young men and women who
were affected by the decision. On the positive side, again,
all current tennis student athletes will retain their scholarships for
the remainder of their academic careers if they decide to
stay at UND. The departments also guarantee that they'll provide
personalized assistance for anyone that chooses to transfer out looking
for other opportunities, and the legacy of this sport at
(04:10):
U and D will still persist with the U and
D Letter Winners Association Athletics Hall of Fame. The history
of this isn't going to be swept under the rug.
It's not like this is going away, and it's not
like you and the's abandoning these kids. And it is
a very it's two very small teams, but there still
is that sense of like, we want to honor the
promises that we're made to these kids, and we want
to make sure that we can help them cross the
(04:31):
finish line, get their degree, help them succeed in life,
et cetera, or help them move on to find an
opportunity to play someplace else, and those are all positive
things as you spin forward.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, I think that's right, Alex. And you know, the
final thing I'll say is, you know, the timing of
it was was critical because the actual we we're recording
today on May fourth, and the actual tennis portal opens today.
And so I think for that inform to go out
(05:01):
actually gave our student athletes that had eligibility remaining the
ability to actually put their name in the portal prior
to other student athletes going in today. So I think,
you know, those are some of the things that you know,
we thought through, you know, ahead of time, and so
(05:21):
you know, we wish, we wish everyone the best, and
you know, in a difficult.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Day, for sure, good luck to those young men and women.
I believe tenants total that sell eligibility remaining of the
six team that were on those teams combined, And again
just to thank you to them and to the coaching
staff for helping elevate this sport on campus. I get
a lot of work and a lot of effort over
the last handful of years to get tennis to where
it rose.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Too.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
We should mention too, und not the only program in
the summer league or around the country that has been
doing this or looking for ways to try and figure
out how this all works in this new landscape. And
unfortunately tennis has been one of those sports that has
been caught. This has kind of been a trend, a
little bit that's happened around the country. And so again
as we're trying to figure out what this looks like
(06:05):
in the NC Double A, you know, this is just
one one direction that different schools have begun to take
in U and D has been one of them. So again,
tough tough things to talk about. I mean, it's it's unfortunate,
but that's that's the nature of college athletics at the moment.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
No doubt. And it was important for us to start
with this as the first topic for us today. And
you know, and thank you to coach Boyson and coach
Anderson for sure and their service. And obviously we're assisting
them and trying to try to figure out how we
can best, you know, get them to their next chapters themselves.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So tough place to start on the podcast today. We
do have some other things to discuss as we transition
from that. The other big thing that happened last week
and U and D. The athletics was the annual Champions Ball,
which we touched on with Val Sussex on our previous podcast.
It sounded like it was another phenomenal event at the
Alera Center Billa in support of U n D Athletics.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yeah, you know, we we do this once every two years,
and you know there's some schools that do do it
annually and that works for them. We've done it once
every two years and we feel like that's our sweet spot.
And yeah, we had close to nine hundred folks there
and we had over one hundred student athletes there. That's
(07:21):
what makes it a little bit unique is how many
student athletes are actually at the event seeing who supports
them and of course, you know, down the road, you know,
maybe they will be one of those that that support
a future student athlete. So yeah, we're still trying to
figure out the numbers per se. But but it was
(07:42):
an awesome, awesome night. And yeah, really you know, it's
one of those it's again when it's once every two years,
it's funny people are kind of clamoring for it. So
it was it was great. We just have too many
thank yous to go around, so I'll just say abroad
thank you to everyone that was involved.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I was unable to ATTND this year. I was I
was calling the soccer match in Toronto. Couldn't couldn't make
a bad time for the Champiens ball. But for you,
I mean you were there in the midst of it all.
Could you give us perhaps a favorite moments of the night,
a recollection of what you enjoyed most from that evening
last weekend at the Alere Center.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Well, you know what ends up happening is here's here's
a big problem that I have, and so I'll just
share it among a few friends. Is many times when
I'm at a public function, I have to speak after
doctor Armacost and that's not awesome. I mean it's not great.
(08:41):
There's always something going on with Andy. I mean he's
he's a man of many talents. I mean you probably
could put things in his hand, he could juggle home.
There's just a lot of things he's got going on.
So so I knew I was behind him, which is okay.
What I didn't know was Doctor Link again a podcast podcast. Yes,
(09:05):
our provost always kind of wanted to do the third
down call that Brian Lee Rivers does at the Aleria Center.
So we had that happening that night, and you know,
it was awesome. It was great. So not only did
I have doctor Armacas to deal with, I had Doctor
Link to deal with as well, So that I'm not
(09:27):
sure it's my favorite moment. It's probably the one that
I will remember the most, though.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
That is the last thing moment, the last thing memory
from your experience at the twenty twenty six champions Paul, Well,
it sounded like from the anecdotes that I've heard, it
sounded like it was an awesome.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Night as old great.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
It was great.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
So that's really fun special thing again for the U
and D athletics community to come together like that, the alumni, based,
the supporters, the people that helped make these programs go.
It's fun to get everybody in the same room and
really celebrate these young men and women who were also
there and Joe hundred kid again from different programs all
there that you're celebrating and raising money for.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
So congrats again.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Like you said, so the group that helped makes it
possible every other year, and that yet the work starts
essentially like now for the next champions Ball two years away.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
It's any Yeah, you.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Know what ends up happening is so when you do
it every two years and we've all been around events
that are annual events, and you're really you're just going
right afterwards, what you're able to do is debrief a
little bit, like maybe some of the things that you
liked about what happened this time. So you go into
debrief for a little bit, then you can take a
(10:34):
little bit of a pause, and then you're about eighteen
months out again and then you're going again, so but
excited about the uh you know the already you know
Gala or ball twenty eight, which will be great. So
just around the corner.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Start the countdown twenty eight champions ball.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
On the playing field, we have a couple of spring
sports teams that are still active right now. Golf, by
the way, as we speak, competing down in Arizona at
the some of the championships with the men and women
very much in the midst of their push for its title.
We won't touch on that really at the moment because
that's in the middle and when you hear this, things
will already be done. But best of luck to them
as they compete. We've been outdoor, truck and field Championships
(11:17):
we mentioned coming up next weekend. This is the fourteenth
through the sixteenth in Fargo. The men and the women
both expected to compete and perform well. We saw the
women take third overall as a team at the indoor Championships.
The men have a number of great individuals that should
buy for titles, and they've begin to. I would say
the men weren't really gunning for an indoor championship as
a team. There were some red shirting going on, kind
(11:39):
of keeping guys in the cupboard essentially for a run
maybe at the outdoor Championship or next year. So we'll
see what happens down in Fargo. Fun to see those kids.
They've had great They've had a phenomenal outdoor season. They've
got two meets left in Michigan.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
This week in.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Fargo is a tune up coming up on Friday. This
is really the fun time of year. You get to
the Outdoor Championships, then it's the Regionals, and then it's
the NCAA's and we feel like we're gonna have some
representation at those three things.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah, I think so, you know, I mean, we've talked
about you know, track quite often, especially with us hosting
the indoors, and it's all a lead up and so
we're we're down to the wire right now in the
lead up. But I do think we will have some
folks buying for, you know, the ability to go to Nationals,
which would be really, really exciting.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yeah, that's just a fun time of year in that regard,
especially for those track and field athletes. So best of
luck to Jim Varren Camp and company coming up this
week and next, especially down in Fargo. And as you
mentioned at the top, you can watch every event from
that meets, every throw, every jump, every race on the
Semi League Network live on Mid Coast Sports Plus. Softball
(12:45):
was expecting to be competing for a SEI League championship
this weekends, and despite the fact they break the school
record for most wins twenty eight and twenty four this year,
they end up being essentially one game short. They lose
in a head to head tiebreaker with South Dakota State
for the final spot to make the field of six.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Yeah, just it.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Felt like this season, Bill, I'd love I'd love to
hear your perspective. It seemed like there was a lot
of weekends where you and you would get one but
then lose two, and it would kind of be the
same thing. You'd go one into over the weekends, and
it just ended up not being enough in the end
to make it to the championships.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, Weirdly, the two schools that we were really going
head to head with was Kansas City and South Dakota State,
and we went one in five against them. And so
at the end of the day, ironically we played better
against the top half of the table versus our head
(13:39):
to head folks, and that can happen. And at the end,
you know, there's just so much parody. Well, I'll say
this Omaha is very very good, very good at the top.
Then from there each weekend is its own. And you know,
we saw, you know, we went to down to Saint
(14:00):
playing second place Saint Thomas and you know they it
was one nothing for a long while on Friday, and
then we ended up losing that game, then lost in
fourteen innings, and then ended up winning the third game.
So that's how tight it's been. And unfortunately, you never
know when you have to get a big hit, when
(14:20):
you need to make a big play, and those are
things that get you in the end. But overall, if
you really think from a broad standpoint, twenty eight and
twenty four pretty good for the team, but they will
not be excited about missing out on the Summit League
tournament for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah, it's such a unique season when you zoom out
and you look at that and you think we had
we had this incredible run in nonconference, we played well,
it felt like we were really peaking. And then yeah,
just some of those close losses and like you said,
either a timely hit that you didn't get or a
start that didn't quite go the way you wanted to,
and that happens a couple of times. And in this
(14:58):
short chunkcated soft all season where you just get you
get everybody's best shot once on a weekends and that's it.
It feels overall like there is still so much positivity
with this program, with the new stadium, with the wins
that we've seen. It's now just trying to put it
all together in conference play almost feels like the last piece.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I think that's right. And no, Jordan came back over
the weekend and so yeah, no, I have not yet,
and I would say, you know, our our team will
be discouraged that they're not having an opportunity to turn
back around and go down to Saint Paul and play.
But you know, it's one of those where it is
(15:38):
two seasons. I mean you you you start, you start
in the non conference and try to get yourself ready
for conference. But once conference hits, every every every game matters.
And we you know, we started off the season down
in Brookings getting swept. When one of those you're in.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, that's so it's.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Almost like the first series of the year actually looped
all the way back around and gotcha.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
You just never know what's going to be the difference
in a season, and unfortunately for you Indya, it was
those games against the Jackson Brookings. Obviously tough year with
different weather cancelations and games being moved around, and you
don't make excuses for those things, but just it was
it was difficult, I think to get into a rhythm
early because of some of that weather related But again,
it was a really good season for the young ladies.
(16:30):
You know, they'll be disappointed a chance to go again
next year with some momentum hopefully.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Yeah, it was difficult for everybody, I don't you know,
I think everybody has the same thought. You know, when
Mother Nature starts rolling there's not much you can do,
so but you're right, the rhythm piece was was was
difficult and even you know, playing a game, it's not
how you draw it up. Where you play say Omaha
(16:55):
in the afternoon in North Dakota State at night. I mean,
that's just not how you draw it up. But that's
what you have to do.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, they still won that series against the Bison, didn't
stop on that particular weekend, but yeah, it is. It
is one of those things softball. So again, congrats to
Jordan and the ladies on a really strong season. Condolences
on this in the tournament this year, but best of
like moving forward as they continue to build that program up.
Bill that kind of wraps up really the spring sports portion.
(17:21):
We're really at that point a year where teams are
starting to finish things out and championships are coming. Anything
else that stands out from your perspective around you and
D Athletics, No.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Not U N D Athletics. I think the way we are.
You know, we talked about this pre pod. We'll probably
have one more pod. We'll have a guest kind of
looking ahead to the fall of twenty six and some
of the exciting things that are happening there. But you know,
the one thing that aside from U n D athletics
(17:52):
that have been involved with is NCCHC meetings occurred this
past week and it is it is kind of meeting
season and where you you know, we're part of three
different conferences, so you know a lot of times I'm
on the road having conversations about let's just say, the
operational components of the league, and then sometimes there's macro
(18:12):
conversations about what could happen. And you know, we've mentioned
Brad Schlossman a number of times on this pod as
far as the Grand Forks Herald, and he's chronicled what
transpired down in Florida pretty well, So folks can certainly
look at that. But yeah, there's there's there's some things happenings.
As I said, Alex, you know, it feels like there's
(18:33):
a lot of a lot of things happening in the system,
if you will, But I think hockey could get affected
pretty well by what's potentially transpired.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, you touched on some of the things in the
broader landscape. I think the big there's been a lot
of big news items that have come out recently, but
I think the eligibility shift to this five years or five.
Could you give us just the specifics of what this
looks like and how this might affect you and the athletics.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Today, what we've been always dealing with is if a
student came in, they would have five years to play
for That's always what it is, and the reason why
the vernaculars out there right now is five for five.
It's actually correct. I mean, if this goes through, and
(19:28):
what we are assuming is going to happen as it
is going to go through, a student could come to
a campus and have five years to play five seasons,
which now there might be a couple of reasons why
you might You might actually be afforded some dispensation. It
(19:51):
could be military service, could be mission work. There could
be some health related issues to some degree. But that's
kind of the conce What the NCAA has wanted is
everybody at the same age across the board and so
so ultimately it's age based eligibility and so therefore hockey
(20:15):
is one of the sports that has been unique where
they've had a developmental program where you could actually be
as long as you came in before your twenty first birthday,
you could actually go play in this case juniors and
go in a sense develop and before you came into college. Well,
(20:35):
I think that's going to be normalized across all sports.
That's what is transpiring right now. So there's a conversation
going on because that's going to affect obviously from college
is you know, they can make that change or that rule,
but that will affect certainly, you know, the landscape of
development in hockey.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
That seems to be the biggest takeaway that I noticed
that the sport where you see guys that take a
little bit longer to come to school traditionally. And it
feels like if these rules do, if this legislation is passed,
if this goes through, that would that would alter that'd
be a little bit different, But nothing finalized yet. Interesting
to see those conversations coming. Same thing with with the
(21:18):
NCAA men's basketball tournament expanding and like lots of things
that are being discussed that would not maybe drastically alter
the landscape, but certainly changed what you've been used to
for the last handful of years. And this goes back
to your point initially that over the last five years
we've seen great change in college athletics. And we say,
we've said this a lot, but it feels like that
(21:38):
is continuing. There is not a stopping point just yet.
We haven't settled by any stretch, Nope, to getting back
to okay, this is how it's going to be moving forward.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, And I think I think you're right. I think
you know, the concept of legislation, even the process has
has been altered. It's it's it's act actually being done
in small groups and committees to some degree, but it's
not it's not as if the Summit League or you know,
(22:09):
the Big Sky or the Big ten is going to
propose certain legislation. It feels like those days are over
right now. We are just literally on a daily, weekly, monthly,
yearly basis are being told in air quotes. You know
what the new rules of engagement are, and those are
(22:30):
the things that you know. Then you have to kind
of like indicate to your coaches what's transpiring. So, you know,
it's been an interesting time frame. And you know, I'm
not even you know, being hyperbolic that the last five
years easily if you add it all up my previous
(22:51):
thirty it doesn't it's not even it's a blowout, like
how much change has occurred. And I'm not saying it's
right or on just that that's my opinion on what's transpired,
and it doesn't make it again. Wherever we're gonna go,
college athletics is going to exist. That's what is going
to happen, in what form and how it works. You know,
(23:16):
we'll see.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I had a long conversation with my wife this weekend
about that, and she's a volleyball coach and was a
college athlete, was a tennis player, college athlete, and it's
interesting to hear just her perspective of being a little
more removed from it and just ask and she asked
really good questions like well, why why do they think
that's the right thing, or why is that in the
best interest of the student athlete or in the best
(23:39):
interest of college athletics. And there were some where I
couldn't give her a good answer. I'm not really sure
exactly why they're doing this outside of I feel, you know, well,
there were there's some obvious reasons maybe on the outside
why it looks like they're doing some of these things,
but it is, Yeah, it is a it is an
inflection point right now where things are just changing fast,
and we'll see what happens when the dust.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, that's right, And I would say that you know,
will evolve, and you know, in whether it be the NHL,
you know, down to you know, whomever is trying to
play hockey at a certain level. Everyone will figure it
(24:21):
out for sure. But in the moment, that's where it
gets a little dicey, because there's going to always be
folks that have been playing by one I'll call them
one set of rules, as another set of rules are
being evolved in real time.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yeah, rules of engagement still under construction. I did get
I did get a wonderful fortune cookie the other day.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
We were having a nice, nice.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Meal, little little pan Asian meal, and at the end
of the meal, the bill came and there were fortune
cookies and sometimes you get some that are very prescient,
and the one I got was the road to success
is always under construction.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
And it feels like that's where we are with the
nc double A, just a little bit under construction on
the road to success.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
And if you think in those terms that change is
inevitable all the time, you know what you kind of
like think through, well, I just have to embrace what's
today and that's that's where we're at. And so yeah,
I mean, you know, the hockey piece, you know, that's
real because we've got some you know, students that have made,
(25:25):
you know, certain decisions over the last few years. And
you know, we just have to you know, I hope
And again it's not me at the table right now.
It just I would hope though there's enough there's at
least enough conversation going on to figure out, you know,
when and how does this actually happen? And in kind
(25:47):
of moving.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Forward, stay TUNESNS, we'll see up next. Yeah, I think
and I wish, I wish I could ask you better questions.
And I feel like I let our listeners down sometimes
because there are so many ways you could go and
so many things that are still in flux. But is
there anything else you want to touch on when it
comes to this ever changing landscape that just continues to
(26:12):
evolve as we as we pod No.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I think that's why we like to do it once
every two weeks once it gets going, so that if
there is something that we need to discuss, we can
do it. But I think that's enough. I mean, sometimes
here's what I would say, many folks just want to
see the games and so, but the differential between the
reason why we do this pod is is to kind
(26:37):
of go behind the curtain a little bit because you
can always, you know, get information on our teams, and
our coaches are always out there talking and you know
some people might say, well, why don't you have more
coaches on well, because you know, they have their opportunities
and a lot of other platforms, and so this one
is kind of like it's almost like behind the curtain conversation.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
That's been the goal. He will flip then to the
B side. We've had some kind of the pressing B
sides lately. We will start in a positive note. Spurs
no longer in the relegation zone bill as of May
the fourth, twenty twenty six. You got a nice win
against an ask the Villa side that's fighting for Champions
League spots. Look at Ri Charleston coming up with the
(27:20):
game winner off his noggin big time for Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, I thought that, And again, what is it one
two three third coaches? The charm I guess is, uh,
you know, Roberta deserves he's pretty good though, he is
he and I think he's pretty talented and I think
he probably fits how the Spurs want to play. So yeah,
(27:44):
the team's been great, like and you know, it's it's funny.
So the Spurs played the second to the last match
of the weekend because actually, as before we recorded today,
Nottingham Force actually beat Chelsea. But at the end of
the day, yeah, to get ahead of west Ham with
(28:05):
three matches to play, two at home and west Ham's
got to go to Arsenal. I mean you feel like,
you know, Spurs had a big weekend, you feel that way,
and they played as good as they've played all year,
which just something clicked with them. And I know, vill Villanova,
Aston Villanova, Villanova, Aston Villa, it's all good. They they
(28:28):
are in the middle of a Europa run. But you know,
Spurs have had a lot of guys out, so it's
like just because they flipped their script a little bit
doesn't mean like you're still playing eleven hund eleven Alex.
You know, at least to start the game.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
It's back to back results now for Spurs, it has
been a long time since you had to win in
the league. Now there's maybe a little more confidence. Connor
Gallagher was a good signing for you over January he
scored the opener. Yesterday or this weekends, these are all
running together. Whenever Spurs played, Gallagher scored the first goal.
And like you said, it feels like now it went
from being this team is doomed, the vibes are bad,
(29:07):
we keep switching coaches. Igor Tudor was not necessarily a
great choice that didn't work out. And yet now all
of a sudden, if you just take care of business,
you control your own destiny again. And it feels like
they are going to make the great escape at the end.
How massive would that be for this club to avoid
the drop?
Speaker 2 (29:24):
I think the last time we potted, I said, I
don't think there's any positive about going down. There's just none. Now,
what you could do is, let's pretend they do escape,
is say, hey, we were so close, all right, now,
what do we really need to do to support deserve me?
(29:47):
And what is that going to look like? And so yeah,
I yeah, you know they that was as good as
they've played in a long long time. So they were
They kind of got after Villa and that was kind
of fun to see. And Gallagher I felt like he
was put in the right spot. He's just like he's
(30:08):
like an energizer bunny rabbit. I mean, he just keeps
going and going and going and I but if you're
asking him to do other things, I'm not sure that's
his game.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
His work rates incredible, That's what he's always been known for.
Just indefatigable in midfields and honestly bringing that energy and
that positivity in England's international with his experience that can
help Guy Guy as a leader and comes from Atletico
Madrid where they are just that's what they're known for.
Let's get stuck in. So can I say one last
(30:40):
thing on Spurs. Loved the kit this weekend. That was
a throwback to the two thousand and two World Cup.
Thank you like rolling those back. That brought back some
really good memories. So I enjoyed that.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Well that's good. So let me let me slide a
little bit into two other teams, but they're both owned
by the same group. Help me, help me, just help
me where your headspace is at with with Liverpool and
obviously the Red Sox might be a long summer.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
You're ruining my summer, Bill, That's what you said on
the pod a couple of weeks ago. That's yeah, the socks,
since we potted, since we potted last head fired Alex Cora.
I feel like that just happened. It's all running together now.
But that's that is not great when that happens at
this stage of the season to your manager, who you
won a World Series with and is still regarded very highly.
(31:33):
It all comes down to yes, them with sports group
who has got divided interests, and I know they've at
one point they owned the Pittsburgh Penguins, they owned Liverpool
Football Club, they owned the Boston Red Sox. They have
given up some of those shares in their NHL franchise,
but still have a stake in that in racing too, right,
And yep, exactly, they have a lot of they have
(31:53):
a lot of fingers in a lot of different pies
and it served them well, I think in some sense.
And so you get this great perspective like, well, this
is what's working with our baseball team, how do we
apply that to our soccer team. This worked for the NHL,
can we apply that to our racing outfit? And some
of that cross pollination I think can be good. Unfortunately,
(32:14):
there is only so much money to go around and
so much focus to go around, and it feels like
in the last couple of years, Liverpool won a title
last year, so I shouldn't be talking about this necessarily,
but it feels like with the Red Sox some of
the interest perhaps has waned, and maybe they've made some
choices of who's running day to day operations that have
not been the best, or there's been a reluctance to
(32:37):
really go all in financially, and it feels like they've
kind of had to pick and choose a little bit more.
Last summer they went all in on Liverpool, like spent
a ton of money in the offseason to reinvest and
reinvigorate that squad, and they didn't really do that for
the Red Sox. And I don't know if at this
point it is almost like a we have this much
(32:57):
and a percentage is going here, and a percentage is
going year, And if you're a fan, you would love
it if you were just a little more like one
hundred percent is going to the club that I care about,
the team that I care about, And it thinks in
my world because I care about both of them, and
I would love it if we were putting one hundred
percent of both.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
So there is A.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
There is a conflict of interest, unfortunately, and the results
of NATSA have not been great for either side.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Let's just say that that's true.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
I mean it is, and they've they've been their interests
have been divided, and that's what's been really really hard.
And so yeah, I don't know. The team that I
see play on the field for the Red Sox is
a team that is a terrible hitting team. Really, it's bad,
(33:44):
I mean by all the by all the metrics. And
then when they actually do get runners on base, what's
even fun about this is they have the second most
hitten to double plays in baseball, so so so so
not only are they really not powerful, they really don't
(34:04):
get a lot of runners on base, but when they do,
they actually are really good at Like, man, you know what,
let's let's get them all off the field. At that point.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
It's bad. It is.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
It is bad. It's not it's not great. It's not
going to be a great year. It's got to be
a developmental year. The question is going to be is
who do you want to who do you want at
the controls? Uh in the trade done.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
By right now?
Speaker 1 (34:28):
I mean Craig breslo is calling the shots and a
lot of those decisions unfor and again you don't want
to pin it all on one person, but he's he's
the one that's making these decisions. Everybody else kind of
lost their job on this last wave and he's still there.
So you would like maybe just a little better return
on investment in some of those choices that he's made.
I don't have great faith, unfortunately in Craig at this point.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Well, and like I said, for for for me as
a fan, just complete fan, I don't think Colora was
coaching the team awesomely. I don't think Breslo has done
a great job like putting the team for the manager
on the field, and I'm not sure the ownership is
all in on everything that's going on with through I
(35:13):
think we're three for three.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Yeah, that's not a great place to be.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
No, no, So yeah, I will see this is going
to be a lost season for them. I don't think
there's any way out. I really don't. And you know,
and I'm not trying to be negative, Nelly, I'm just
trying to say, hey, I'm just looking at what I'm
staring at, and it's not awesome.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
I think, like you said, you got to change. Now
the goal at the beginning of the season. Hey, we've
built this great pitching staff, We're going to be built
on defense. We're going to contend that way. Hopefully some
of our kids continue to take steps forward. And now
you got to flip it and say, hey, this is
now just all about getting guys in position where they
can succeed for the future. Because yeah, like you said that,
(35:57):
the league, even though we've talked about this, even though
the league, maybe Al East, has not been quite as
lights out as we thought they were going to be,
there's no way that this current Redstocks team, based on
what we've seen for the first six weeks of the season,
is going to have enough talent or enough juice or not.
It is not going to happen for them to be
able to keep up and turn this around where they've
alreadydun themselves a whole if not, so look ahead to
(36:19):
next year.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Yeah, I thought, honestly, I was actually kind of excited
about their outfield defense, and I thought their infield defense
would be pretty good. But the problem is, you knew
they weren't going to hit the ball with power. That's fine,
They're struggling to hit the ball start their period and
then they're running the basis not great and their defense
(36:43):
hasn't been awesome, so I mean, I don't to tell you.
And then you've got pictures that are on the IL
and plus Suarez only gave you four innings yesterday before
he had hamstring tightness. So the end of the day,
sometimes there's last years. This one's a last year.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Thank goodness, it's a World Cup. Summer bill.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Oh, that will be fascinating, that will be very very
all right, So again we we well, how about this.
I'll end this pod with not putting you on the spot,
but flip it to the B side. Next pod, last pod,
and we just we figured you got to give us
(37:22):
some sort of an idea where we are with the
US team, and then what you think, then what you
think is going to happen, followed by then then the
Alex Hender picks for the for the World Cup. But again,
here's the problem with the World Cup. Here is the
big problem. There's so many injuries that occur. You could
(37:44):
have that that pick and all of a sudden they
lose their striker or they right, I mean that that
can happen.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
That can happen, and it is happening right now. We're
seeing some of these teams at the end of their
club seasons lose guys and if you get hurt, now
the World Cup starts June eleventh, like there's not a
lot of time to recover. We saw la me and
Yamal go down for Barcelona maybe a week and a
half ago, and they initially said, hey, he should be
(38:12):
fine for the World Cup. This guy is what Spain
is resting their main hopes on. He's their main attacking threat.
Young kid, still a teenager, already one of the best
in the world. He's going to be coming back and
playing his first game in a World Cup without any
I mean we're talking six weeks out, no chance to
really get up to speed.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
I don't know if that's going to end well.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Turkey who the US will play their best player, Arda
Gula who plays for Real Madrid. He went down with
the hamstring injury last week. He's now questionable for the
World Cup. This is and those are just sort of
like the latest too. There have been a lot of
guys who have gone through this slog of a season.
I know everybody in England is holding their breath that
Harry Kane doesn't get hurt with this Bayern Munich run
(38:53):
in the Champions League. And there's just such fine margins
between winning a WARLD World Cup or honestly losing in
the group stage, and it can be losing if you
if you're one of these countries that doesn't have a
lot of outstanding talent. You maybe you have one, two,
maybe three world class guys. If you lose one of those,
it's too much to overcome. So right now we're in
(39:16):
that mold of waiting, holding your breath for the final
three weeks of the club season, and so these guys
can get to their international group and you hope they're healthy.
That's that's all you hope.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Well in what's interesting is so you have all of
the a few teams that are are are still playing
on a couple of different fronts and so the only
thing you have, like with the Spurs, I get again
every match matters, but there's only a couple of matches,
which is good to some degree, but even you know
(39:48):
they're jav A Siemens. I mean he's not going to
play for Netherlands because he's got an ACL so you
know that was last match, so those are the things
that happen. What a dichotomy be playing for your country
and playing for your club.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
It's a different mindset. It's obviously a different rhythm for
some and we've heard different players talk about this. Going
to play for your country becomes your comfort zone. Like
you're back with players that you went up through the
ranks with at U fifteen, U seventeen and U twenty three,
your home training in your home nation, with your family,
et cetera, and that becomes like this beautiful thing to
(40:27):
escape sometimes the crucible of club football, which is really
unforgiving and you're playing two matches a week and fans
are pretty brutal sometimes. But for others, obviously, like in
the case of Italy who didn't make the World Cup,
it was the pressure. The pressure of putting on the
shirt to represent your country is different than putting on
an Arsenal kit or an inter Milan kid or what.
(40:50):
It's just there's a different level of expectation depending on
where you're from, so that everybody will say club football
is a much more esthetically pleasing because they have so
much more time to work with these players. You have
general managers, sporting directors who are picking teams to play
this particular type of football for a manager that suited
(41:11):
to their style. That's not the case in international football. It's
who has a passport for your nation? All right, we're
gonna try and figure it out and piece it together.
What Roger Bennett I think calls like at the Star
Wars canteena of football. Sometimes you get all sorts and
you got to make it work and put it together.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
But the thing is, I would.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Say the international game, the level of passion involved makes
it on a different level. It is just on a
different level. And it is these matches mean so much
so anyway, that's it's going to be an unbelievable summer
of soccer in our country, in our consonant comes June
the eleventh.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
And and we do need to talk one more time
because at the end of the day, Hey, it's twenty
twenty six. Last time this happened was nineteen ninety four,
so I mean, right, like it doesn't happen I mean decades, right,
So like this actually happens in the world cares, I
mean the world cares, So this will be it'll be awesome.
(42:08):
So that's on the b side.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Yes, coming up coming up in two weeks time on
the season finale. Yes, we'll have a chance to wrap
up a lot of things and set the table for
this summer. Looking forward to that certainly in a couple
of weeks between now and then, Bill, best of luck
to you and the staff and to the Spring Sports
as they try and finish strong this year. You two elks,
Bill Shaves, Ladies and gentlemen. Big thanks to Alex Socker
(42:31):
Johnson and Paul Ralston on the back end for knitting
everything together on this podcast. My name is Alex Hyder.
Thank you again for listening. Enjoyed the slow embrace of
spring as it comes our way, and we'll talk to
you soon.
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