Coach Popovich Steps Down, Texas Baseball, NBA Playoffs, Giannis Trade Rumors, Kentucky Derby

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good afternoon, Austin, Texas. Andrew Zimmol back in the chair,
hanging out with you on a Friday edition of The
Craigway Show. Want to thank you guys for hanging out
with us on a Friday. Hey, maybe this is the
end of the week. Maybe this is the beginning of
your week. Either way, thanks for taking a little bit
of time out of your day to hang out with us.

(00:22):
Craig Way joins the program at three seventeen, and we
got a lot to talk about. The good, the bad,
the ugly, and the sad. Craig joins at three seventeen
to talk about game number two of this series against
the Arkansas Razorbacks the Longhorns last night. We'll start with
the the ugly and sad. The number one ranked Texas

(00:43):
Longhorns had a ten game winning streak and this is
really where I start worrying about my job security. To
be completely honest with you, I'm worried about me Andrew
Zimol's job security. As the fill in for the Craigway Show,
because if you go back in the way back machine
and you'll remember the last ten game plus win streak
the Longhorn baseball team had. It was a seventeen game
win streak, and I came on the radio and I

(01:04):
said to you, I'm feeling really good. We're not gonna
talk about the win streak. We're gonna keep it low key.
And then immediately Longhorns lost. And then yesterday, ten game
win streak on the line, I said, hey, don't want
to make any big proclamations here, don't want to draw
any attention to it. Ten game win streak on the line.
In Fayetteville, Longhorns lose lost by to number eleven Arkansas,

(01:30):
nine to zero on Thursday Nights, the first loss the
Longhorns have had since April twelfth, ending the second double
digit win streak of the season. The previous five losses
on the season combined eleven runs for Texas. Last night's loss,
of course, nine runs. Eight of the nine Razorbacks recorded

(01:51):
hits as one of the top offensive teams in the country,
chased my Guy ro Hosts off the mound in the
fourth inning. He entered tied in the six nationally for wins.
He logged his first defeat since March eighteenth, and Longhorns
looked to even the series tonight. First pitch, seven PM
six forty five air time on one oh three one,

(02:12):
Austin's eighty station. Okay, so let's get that out of
the way. Okay, we'll talk to Craig about Texas baseball
later in the show an hour number two.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Well, let's talk about the good.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Okay, Texas softball rallying back today a big win against
Kentucky seven to six, after a win yesterday afternoon, a
nine to one win in five innings, and this is
kind of getting back on the right side of things
for Mike White and for the Texas Longhorn softball team

(02:44):
that has looked really good throughout most of the year
over the last calendar though forty four to nine on
the season, eight or fifteen to eight overall in conference play,
but in the last couple of games, struggled against Oklahoma.
The bats really weren't waking up against the Tigers in

(03:04):
that last series two weeks ago, three weeks ago, and
we were starting to get a little concerned, especially with
the SEC Softball tournament coming up next week. You start
worrying about, Hey, you know, did we peak too early?
What's going on here? A win today against Kentucky now
wins the series. You go into the SEC Tournament next

(03:25):
week in Athens, Georgia. Feeling a little bit more pepped
than the step, a little bit more excited. So that's
the good. Now, let's talk about some of the sad.
It was reported earlier today, just a couple hours ago,
so it's not necessarily right off the press steaming hot news,
but it is still hot news, and we'll get into
more of it as the show continues, because I have
a lot of thoughts on the breaking news out of

(03:47):
San Antonio, my hometown, my home city, the San Antonio
Spurs and Greg Popovich. It's not goodbye. It is a
new though for an organization. After twenty nine years, Greg
Popovich no longer the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs,

(04:08):
Greg Popovich transitioning to a full time role as team's
president of basketball operations. The team announced today now Mitch Johnson,
who was the interim head coach the acting head coach
after Popovich suffered a mild stroke in November. If you
remember we were on the air talking about that together,
he now takes over full time coaching duties. I will

(04:29):
talk to you, I will get you through the play
by play of how this all went down for me.
So I'm in the studio, I'm doing what we do
in the radio world. It's a Friday. It's kind of
a laid back Friday. You look out in the parking lot,
there's like three cars, including mine, and then this news
breaks and then the phone lines are lighting up, and
then the emails are getting shot off. Who is what's

(04:51):
going on? Who's going to be the next head coach?
But does this mean for the Spurs? So what turned
out not to be a laid back, easy going Friday
for those of us in Saty is now all gung ho.
And luckily the Spurs did what the Spurs do. They
already had a contingency plan in place. Okay, Hey, we
knew that, Greg Popovic, if it wasn't the end, it

(05:11):
was nearing to it. We knew that there was gonna
have to be some sort of succession plan. Other organizations,
other franchises don't have that. They don't have the foresight
or the wherewithal to set it up. Hey, we're gonna
go from this point to this point. Hey, we know
how we're going to pass the baton going forward, And
of course the news drops eleven am Central noon Eastern.

(05:33):
Greg Popovich moving into a president of basketball operations role,
and then thirty minutes later, Hey, Mitch Johnson's gonna be
the head coach. We're gonna give you thirty minutes for
all of you media type, for all you fan types
to run around with your head's chopped off like chickens
with your heads chopped off, clucking around trying to figure
out what the next move is going to be. And
then we're gonna tell you, Hey, it's gonna be Mitch Johnson.

(05:54):
Don't worry about it. There is steady hands still on
the wheel. And I said, when this happened in November
the health scare with Popovich, that there's other head coaches
who have done similarly to what pop has done.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Right.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
You think about pat Riley in Miami. Pat Riley was
on the sidelines in Miami. He had known that he
was a legend of the game. He won rings in
LA he got the Knicks back to where the Knicks
were in the nineties, a legendary franchise back near the pinnacle.
And he goes to Miami and he says, you know what,
I'm gonna take a step back. I'm not doing the

(06:30):
forty one games on the road. I'm going to go
into a president of operations mode. I'm going to help
become the general manager. I'm gonna get this team titles.
From a front office point of view, red Arbach is
another name that I thought of when this health scare
happened with Popovich in November. Red Arbach legendary coach more
rings than he has fingers. Okay, he takes a step back,

(06:55):
he goes into the front office. He's still pulling the strings.
Casey Jones is the head coach of those eight these
Celtics teams. You remember the ad Celtics, l Larry Bird Celtics,
the Kevin McHale, the Robert Parrish Celtics. Red Arbach's pulling
the strings. Casey Jones is the head coach, but Red
Arbach is pulling the strings. And that's kind of how
I look at this Papovich move, is that he's taking

(07:15):
the red Arbach pat Riley game plan blueprint. He's of
course going to have his fingerprints. He's going to do
things differently because he's pop He's gonna do things differently
because it's the Spurs. He's gonna do things the right
way because he's both of those things as well, and
you now have a head coach that he is hand
picked in Mitch Johnson, to run the organization, to run

(07:38):
the day to day operations of the Spurs, to run
what is the Wimbin Yama era going to look like
in the Alamo City. Popovich has decided that Mitch Johnson
the new acting head coach, the new head coach of
the Santoie Spurs. We'll talk about that a little bit
more as the show continues as well. And then fun now,

(07:58):
I said yesterday, we spent a little bit of time
talking about the debate that has been raging on the interwebs,
a debate that has kind of taken a back seats
now that the NBA playoffs are heating up. We had
a great game winner yesterday from Jalen Brunson. Which will
you and I have to talk about.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
We have.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
The Eastern Conference semifinals and the Western convers seventy the
semifinals almost locked in. Now we still have to figure
out if Houston is going to force a game seven
tonight or if Golden State back in Oakland or I'm sorry,
back in San Francisco. We'll get the job done to
lock up the Western conference. We still have to figure
that all out. But the debate that was raging for

(08:38):
most of this week was one hundred v one man
versus gorilla. And we talked about a little bit yesterday.
But I told you that if we had the way
back machine, if we had the time machine, and we
could go and we could grab one individual, historically speaking,
one guy that I can bring into this fight for mankind,
one hundred men versus one gorilla, who would I pick?

(08:58):
And I picked William Wallace and I offered.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
It up to you.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
I said, you got twenty four hours, text me, DM
me use the free iHeartRadio apps talkback feature to give
me some suggestions. And we got one from our friend Richard,
and I'm going to play it for you here. Richard,
I picked William Wallace from Scotland to lead us into
this fight. I said, we needed somebody who is going
to get everybody hyped up, everybody on the same page.

(09:25):
It doesn't matter if we have a super great game plan.
I just need somebody that's going to inspire the troops,
inspire the men before we go into this. Richard has
a pretty good answer. I almost think Richard's answer is
better than mine.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Let's hear it.

Speaker 4 (09:37):
Hey, Andrew, this is Richard. I choose Spartacus. I think
Spartacus could rally everybody. He rallied the slaves and almost
defeated the Roman Empire.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
So that's my choice. Spartacus.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
I love this, answered Richard. This answer is almost as
good as my answer. Maybe I might give you the
slight edge because Spartacus had this same type of vibe
that William Wallace did. Hey, we're all ganging together. We
got to get into that. We can't have somebody going halfway.
We can't go fifty percent against man versus grill. We
have to have one hundred dudes all the way bought in.

(10:13):
Spartacus would be the type of guy who could get
us all the way bought in. So I like that answer, Richard.
If you have an answer, use the free iHeart radio
apps talk back feature. You open up the iHeart Radio app,
You go to AM thirteen hundred zone. You click on it.
There's a little red microphone. You click on the little
red microphone. You got thirty seconds. Who would you pick

(10:34):
if you could go in history? You get one, So
it's you, ninety eight other guys, and this one historical
figure against the Gorilla. Let's hear it as the show continues.
We'll play some of them for you on The Craigway
Show when we come back. We'll talk a little bit
more about this Popovich move to the front office, where
the Spurs go from here. Are there more moves that

(10:55):
are happening in the background. We'll get into all that
next on The Craigway Show. On sports Radio are two
hundred The Zone Sports Radio AM.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Thirteen hundred The Zone.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Andrew Zimmill hanging out with you on a feel good
Friday edition of The Craig Wave Show. Our guy Marcus
Spears is hanging out with us as well in Austin,
making us sound as pretty as we can. We try
our best over here on AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Marcus,
here's the deal today. It's a day of not morning,

(11:28):
but change in the Alamos City.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
Man.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
This is a day that Greg Popovich is moving from
the sidelines now into the front office. And Sean Serrani,
the newsbreaker for ESPN, he's the guy that had this first.
Let's hear what he had to say.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
His first facility in the last few days.

Speaker 5 (11:49):
So as steven A just said, and as I reported
he will still be involved, very hands on, a vital
member of their day to day operations.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
And from my understanding, as.

Speaker 5 (12:00):
As much as Greg Popovich wanted to continue to coach,
he wanted to be back on the sidelines really badly.
He said it in multiple statements this year. The conclusion
that he came to is that it essentially was just
going to be too taxing for him. The NBA grind
as a head coach. It's a difficult one. And he's
someone that is recovering from the stroke in November and

(12:21):
he's making strides. He's on a human level that's very important.
On a human level, he is doing much better. He's
in a good place, and he is showing up to
the facility. He is a part of what's going on
with the Spurs every single day. He'll continue to be
along with their CEO Rcbufer. Those are the two architects
of everything that goes on in San.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, everything that's going on in San Antonio runs through
Greg Popinch. You gotta go all the way back to
nineteen ninety six, the last time the Spurs were not
coached by Greg Popovich. That's how long that he's been
doing this. There's entire lifetimes in the NBA. Guys came
in the league and retired in the time that Greg

(13:04):
Popovich was on the sideline for the San Antonio Spurs.
Now this means that Eric Spolshra in Miami is now
the longest tenured head coach in the NBA, which is
hard to believe because I remember when Spoe got hired
in Miami and now, and I remember the Heatls and
I remember in the twenty twenty Finals. It's weird to
think that now he's the longest tenured head coach. Here's

(13:26):
another hashtag stat for you as well. Three hundred and
three coaching changes in the NBA in the Greg Popovich
era in the time that pop was the head coach
of the Spurs twenty nine seasons in that time, three
hundred and three changes across the NBA when it comes

(13:47):
to new head coaches, which is absolutely wild to think about. Now,
he is the all time career wins, the leader with
one thousand, four hundred and twenty two regular season victories,
five NBA titles, three Coaches of the Year, and he
is if he's not the goat, he is on the

(14:08):
Mount Rushmore. When it comes to NBA head coaches. He
also won a gold medal. If he's not the Goat,
he's on the Mount Rushmore. I could make a case
that he's the greatest NBA coach of all time. I
can make the case that he might be the greatest
North American head coach.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Of all time.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
This guy in San Antonio absolutely changed the way that
the NBA looked at the Spurs. He changed the way
that fans looked at consistency and success. Hey, you want
to have a decade of success, that's cute. You want
to have fifteen years of success, that's fine. You want
to have almost three decades, three decades of continued success.

(14:48):
Then you're looking at the San Antonio Spurs and you're
looking at Greg Povich and the only drawback I have,
the only thing that makes me shed a single tier.
Not only I'm not crying because it's it's over. I'm
I'm I'm happy because it happened, right, That's the saying,
don't cry, becaus over, smile because it happened. The only
tier I shed is because I was hoping to see

(15:10):
women Yama and pop at least a couple more games.
I wanted at least another season of Popovich coaching, Molding
teaching Victor women Yama and I wanted one more season
of wimby learning at the feet of one of the
most analytical, driven, forward thinking coaches in the NBA in

(15:34):
professional sports. Greg Popovich was the reason and is the
reason that the Golden State Warriors won the titles that
they were able to win over the last decade because
Steve Kerr learned at the feet of Greg Papovic. Steve
Kerr says, hey, I have two incredible let's hear it, Marcus,
what you got.

Speaker 6 (15:52):
You don't think that Greg will still giving and Sam
put here and that is just on an advisory row.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
I think, okay, so this is where I'm going with that.
I said earlier. I think that he's going to be
like a Red Rbach type. Okay, like, yeah, he'll be
in advisory role. But I think for the Spurs in particular,
you can't have him lingering too much. We want a
little bit of separation of church and State. I want
a little bit of separation between Popovich and miss Johnson

(16:22):
because Mitch has to run and walk and learn on
his own too. Here, like if it is truly his
show now and Mitch Johnson is truly the head coach
of the Spurs. You can't have big brother hanging over you.
You can't have the shadow of the legend hanging over you.

Speaker 6 (16:41):
I say it more like a Pet Raleigh sposal. When
Sposial started becoming a head coach death form, and then
as Tom wears on, it becomes more and more by
the Mitchell That's what I can see.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
Happy, that's a fair point. That's a fair point, and
I like that too.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
But you gotta remember that pat Riley so Spoe early
into the time, early into his tenure as the head coach. Hey,
don't look over your shoulder. Hey, I am the parent
with the hand on the back, but you're riding the
bicycle kid like it is your show. And I can't
have the Greg Papovitch shadow. You don't want to ever
follow the goat in any sport, in any facet, Right, Hey,

(17:21):
we had an incredible CEO over here, and now I'm
the guy that has to follow that act.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Right.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
There's a reason that Bruce Springsteen's the headliner. There's a
reason that you don't have anybody that comes up after
the boss. Okay, you don't want to be the guy
who has to fill those shoes now, Mitch Johnson, he
has that unenviable position now to be the next guy.
And this is where things get really interesting to me,
because right we had that thirty minute window. We had

(17:48):
that thirty minute window where we didn't know what the
Spurs were really gonna do. Hey are they gonna go out?

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Look?

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Because we have a coaching tree, and I saw earlier
today on Twitter the coaching tree for Greg Papovic is
like twenty something on head coaches. It's astronomical the amount
of gms and head coaches who have come through San Antonio.
Sam pressI being probably the most famous for an office
guy now with the Oklahoma City Thunder. But Mike Malone,

(18:13):
right wins a championship in Denver. Well, he comes from
the Greg Popovich school of thought. So Mike Budenholzer another
NBA championship head coach who's gonna be looking for a
job here pretty soon from the Greg Popovitch tree. Becky Hammond,
who won a championship in the WNBA, who played her
professional career in San Antonio, again from the Greg Popovitch tree.

(18:35):
She coached as an assistant in San Antonio. So There's
a lot of options of successful coaches who have come
from the Greg Popovitch line, but he decides to go
with Mitch Johnson, who's a young, relatively unproven head coach
thirty one and forty five this season when he was
at the helm of the Spurs. But you have to

(18:57):
imagine in the current NBA, in the current world we
live in, even you're not making a move like this
without calling Victor Wombenyama. The first call I'm making when
I say, if I'm Peter Holt, they head the owner
of the Santonio Spurs, but Marcy Buford or the GM
of the Spurs, I'm making the first call to women

(19:18):
Yama after I know, hey, we're moving into a different
direction with Pop and yeah, Pop is going to get
a huge say, right, He's going to sit at the
table decide who's going to be the heir apparent to
the franchise as the head coach. The first call I'm
making is to Victor women Hey, what do you want buddy?

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Hey, big fella, how you doing.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Hey?

Speaker 1 (19:36):
I saw you the other day with the Rookie of
the Year. He looked really good. Who do you want
to be the next head coach. What are you feeling?
How do you like minched this year? Do things work
the way that you went too? What can we change?
I'm appeasing the guy who's making sure all of us
stay employed. I'm appiece of the guy who makes sure
that we're going to contend for titles not only next
year but in the foreseeable future. That is who I

(19:59):
am playking to. Well, that's who I want to get
input from. And according to reports from San Antonio, it
sounds like that's exactly who Victor Webinyama wanted.

Speaker 7 (20:09):
That.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
It sounds like from the things that I'm reading, the
things that I'm seeing across my timeline, that this was
the hire. This was the decision that across the board
everybody agreed on, which should make Spurs fans rest easy
at night when you go to bed tonight, if you're
a Spurs fan, you should be yeah again. Don't cry
because it's over, Smile because it happened. Don't worry about

(20:32):
where this franchise is going. You were in very capable hands.
You're in the hands of Greg Povic, who's still going
to be part of the organization in the role of
President of Basketball Operations. You're in capable hands with RC Buford,
who helped build this entire thing, with Michael Wright, the
general manager, and you're in the very capable, very large

(20:54):
hands of Victor Webinyama. Do not worry if you're a
Spurs fan about where this this organization is going. I
have been more confident now than ever, and we're gonna
get into big moves happening in this offseason because there's
a small market superstar, a small market MVP Defensive Player
of the Year champion who might be donning a new

(21:16):
jersey at the beginning next year, and it's the decision
of two franchises to try to make that happen. We'll
talk to you who that is who might be coming
to the Alamo City this offseason. Now that Pop is
the president of basketball operations in Mitch Johnson now officially
the head coach going forward, now you start to figure
out what is the twenty twenty five twenty six season

(21:38):
gonna look like for the Spurs. We'll tell you about
that later in the program, But coming up next, it's
a Florida man Friday, and boy do we have some
good stories for you. It's inconceivable. Up next on Sports
Radio and thirteen hundred zone inconceivable, inconceivable, inconceivable, inconceivable.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
In the fourth I don't think I miss what you think.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred the zone not inconceivable for
andrews Zima to be sitting in the big chair on
a Florida Man Friday edition of the program, we take
you to the lowest of the lows of the Continental
forty eight. All right, let's start here A Florida alligator trapper.

(22:25):
Now you might have seen this video on social media already.
I watch a little bit of it. It really incapsulates
the Florida Man spirit, Florida Man Trapper, alligat trapper. He
teamed up with local authorities to capture the large reptile,
the alligator and the media.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Of a highway.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office posts the video on social media, showing
Mike Drich, a wildlife trapper, known as colloquially on the
social media streets as quote the blue collared brawler.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah, media wrestle Raatis.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Oh you gotta love that, Marcus the blues collars. He
wrestled the gator on Interstate ninety five to the south
side of Jacksonville. Quote, we were cruising down I ninety
five on the south side yesterday, and I thought I
saw a barefoot man wrestling the giant alligator in the median.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
Nope, your eyes didn't trick you. It really happened.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
The post Red deputies worked together with the Florida Highway
Patrol the Florida Highway Patrol to make sure they were safe.
Now the rich made headlines earlier this year. The Brawler
made headlines in April when he left his family's Eastern
dinner to capture a gator that climbed a fence into
Jacksonville woman's backyard. In the incident, he was able to

(23:49):
contain the reptile in the homeowners trash can. Now, I
ask you, Marcus, if you saw a gator, how far
away are you stand from it? You're getting close? You
want to brawl with it, you want to wrest it?

Speaker 2 (24:00):
What are you thinking? Nah, I'm tagging that.

Speaker 6 (24:03):
I'm gonna point to the other guy over there in
the corner.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
I'm looking at this guy right now.

Speaker 6 (24:08):
How Yeah, he's he has it pinned down pretty good.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
He looks like he knows.

Speaker 8 (24:13):
What he.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Looks like he knows what he's doing. I gotta give
the hats off to him. But again yaester day we
talked about the seagull Boy, the guy who won an
award for the closest seagull impression. I said that to
that kid, all right, you gotta practice that, which I
would imagine be very annoying in any family A friend
event to have a kid that can make an eagle screech?
How do you learn that you can wrestle alligators? You

(24:37):
gotta practice it, right.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yeah, you gotta have that. What's that first time? You
gotta have that dog in you? All right?

Speaker 1 (24:46):
Speaking of dogs, a Florida woman protected herself and her
small dog from a bear.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Okay, now how did.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
She do it?

Speaker 1 (24:55):
Was it with a stick a trash can?

Speaker 3 (24:58):
No?

Speaker 1 (24:58):
It was with a bad of cookies. Yes, Kristin Savage said.
Her and her Chihuahua mix and you gotta love the
name here Ringo. The Chihuahua Mixed Ringo were walking near
their home in mark Him Woods, near Sanford when the
close encounter with a wandering bear. I heard a bird,
and I was looking for a bird in the tree,

(25:19):
and then I saw this black thing coming at my leg,
she told the local TV department. I thought it was
an off the leash dog at first, and then I
realized it had a giant head. Okay, I have to
give her a little bit of credit.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
Here.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
The bear comes at you, and your first thought is
I guess it's a dog coming up to me.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
Nope, it's a bear, all right. She said.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
This particular bear was an interest in her thirteen pound dog, Ringo. Yeah,
he probably looked at it and said, you know what, lunchtime.
I hauled him like a pinata in the air and
spun to get away, she told the local TV department.
Savage said she kept spinning to keep Ringo away from
the bear, causing her to fall and curring bruises and

(26:00):
scrapes on her leg. Now, she said, her mom lives
down the street. She had just stopped and handed me
a bag of cookies for my kids. When I remembered
I had them in my hand, I took the bag
and whacked the bear across the face with it and
then threw it.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
She said.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
She came forward and then sniffed, put her head down,
sniffed the cookies, and ran away from the front door. Okay, Now,
I love cookies as much as the next guy, but
I have to say this. I think I would have
spun and hit the bear with my cookies as well. Marcus,
what do you think.

Speaker 6 (26:34):
I'm more concerned about bears Mimican bird sounds.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
I think that the bear. I think that the bear
has nothing to do with the bird. I think she
was distracted by the birds, and then the bear noticing
that this ringo, this Chihuahua mix is on the leash,
and hey, it's dinner time, baby, thirteen pound s hihahuah mix.
If I'm a black bear, I'm going after that thing.
This is easy pickens. Luckily for her, she had the

(27:02):
cookies to fight off the bear. This is one of
those two truth and the live thing though, that you
gotta love. Now, the next time that she's at like
a company function, she'll go, like, my middle name's Teresa,
I fought off a bear and I love long walks
on the beach. And you know, it turns out Teresa
isn't her actual middle name. What a job by this

(27:24):
Florida woman. Now, finally, again we've mentioned this before, but
my favorite stories are when wild animals are used as
pets and then then they get out right residents of
this Florida neighborhood reported citing a monkey on the loose,
which promoted officials.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Prompted officials to.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Warren locals to keep their distance the Solon Ranch neighborhood.
A homeowners association set out a warning letter to residence
you love that you pay for an hoa to get
the warnings about the loose monkeys this week, reporting some
locals had seen a monkey in your retention pond in
the backyard of Sulifon Ranch. The hoa Warren locals do
not attempt to approach or capture the loose primate.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
The evils said.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Local animal control officials were investigating the sighting. The monkey
reports come exactly one year after a string of sightings
in Lake County, Okay. So the monkeys are not native
to Florida. Obviously, the population of this monkeys they live
in a wild in the state for about a decade.
Talk about an invasive species. Huh, you bring some monkeys over,

(28:27):
you accidentally let one of them go, and now the
next thing you know, your neighborhood's full of these little
primates climbing up around trees. Now, Marcus, you live in Austin.
What is the most annoying critter that lives in your area.
Do you have any Do you have any annoying critters?
Maybe possums, raccoons, anything like that.

Speaker 6 (28:46):
I'll see apossumator once in a while, but that's about it.
Maybe maybe straight cats, some straight cats, huh.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Would you trade the vermin that you have hanging around
your place for the potential of these wild monkeys?

Speaker 6 (29:02):
As I look at the BCS standings of criticisan area, No,
I would not make that trait.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
The BCS standings, the computer ranked all of the critters
in your neighborhood. Whitetail dear, They're an easy easy, don't
even make the top twenty five. I would not want
anything that can get into my trash.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
I've had different vermin and.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
Stuff go through the garbage cans before you come out
the next morning.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
You see the little footprints of the raccoons.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
To have something with opposable thumbs being able to move
and get into things, I'm okay, you can keep that
those which gu Marcus is the most inconceivable.

Speaker 6 (29:47):
I'm going story number one, even though I see footage, but.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
Still the Florida man who is a brawler, the blue
collared brawler wrestling gators in Florida. Well, I'll do it
for a quarter man Friday on what you got for me?

Speaker 6 (30:05):
I still want to see if this guy's an actual wrestler,
because I have the strangest feeling he actually wrestles.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
That's his that's his night job, that's his side job.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
All right.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
When we come back, we'll wrap up our number one
and get you ready for some Texas baseball tonight. All
coming up next on The Craig Way Show Sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred, The Zone Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
and The Zone. Andrew zimmeill hanging out with you this Friday,
Feel Good Friday Edition. Marcus spears on the ones and twos,
making this sound pretty In Austin, Texas and three seventeen,

(30:37):
Craig Wait joins the program to talk Texas Baseball tonight's
first pitch in game number two of the series in Fayetteville.
You can hear the game on one O three one,
Austin's eighty station six forty five ERA times seven pm.
First pitch, Craig and Keith Moreland will be on the
call from Arkansas and last night, Oh, They're going to
take me out of here in handcuffs if I keep

(30:59):
talking about Longhorns and winning streaks because it never fails.
It seems that every time on the jinks and I
get it, and some people don't believe in the announcer jinks.
Some people think, you know what, it's fine, the team
has to play the way they have to play. I
believe in the jinks, and I still end up walking
into it. So that tells you how smart a guy
I am. Number one rank Texas. Last night they had

(31:22):
a ten game win streak snapped to number eleven. Arkansas
lost a series opener nine zero on Thursday Night. Now
Longhorns picked up their first loss since April twelfth, and
the second double digit winning streak of the year. The
only similarity between last night's game and the game that
they had earlier this year, when they snapped a seventeen
game win streak.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
You're right, Andrew Zimbolo on The Craigway Show.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
So Arkansas scored nine runs across the first four frames,
four extra base hits. Eight of the nine Razorbacks recorded
hits last night. One of the top offensive teams in
the country just got all over my guys, rehost. He
entered tied six Nashally and wins his first loss since

(32:08):
March eighteenth. Now, Marcus, we have Jim slashtangle last night
from the broadcast in his post game with Keith Morland.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Right, yes, let's hear it.

Speaker 9 (32:22):
You know, anytime you run into a ballgame, there are
times when something just happens to you and you could
can't overcome it.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
And that's what happened tonight. Ruger just didn't have his
normal stuff, But Cody gave you something at the end
to let you rest your bullpit.

Speaker 9 (32:36):
Yeah, I mean, tonight was about Arkansas. You know, they
got rained out on Tuesday. They've lost what three consecutive series.
They got a chance to regroup, go to work, and
they're obviously ready.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
Tonight Zach roots the story. He was awesome.

Speaker 9 (32:54):
We didn't really put up much of a fight against him,
but I don't think it's not like we weren't ready
to play.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
I feel really good about that.

Speaker 9 (33:00):
Is is he made really good pitches and and then
you know, Ruger left some balls up.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
This it's a really good team.

Speaker 9 (33:06):
I mean, and and uh that this is this happens
in this league. It's way more about how how we
respond to it than it is what happened.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
I'm gonna take what you just said right there?

Speaker 9 (33:17):
How do you respond to What will you say, Joe
in response to this? Yeah, I mean I'm not big
on meet I mean me, I'm not big on meeting.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
But I mean I'll just.

Speaker 9 (33:25):
Say that, like, hey, you know, yeah, you tip your cap.
They shoved up our rear end the night in every
sense of the word, and so we're gonna be ready
to go tomorrow being there. I mean, they only use
two pitchers and they have a lot of pitching and
we have a lot of pitching. But uh, we'll be fine.
But it's this This league is about when you take
those gut punches, can you come right back? And this

(33:46):
is the first one we've had all year that was
out of hand early, right, So all the other losses
I think have been pretty been except for the l
s u of Kate Anderson game. That one wasn't that close, uh,
but everything else has been super tight.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
So it's okay.

Speaker 9 (34:00):
You know, we'll let Arkansas celebrate tonight and we'll be
ready to play tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
Thanks for taking this to Thanks you feel good. That
was Keith Morland on the broadcast last night. Texas loses
nine to zero to Arkansas in game one of the
three game series. Game two tonight, six forty five eartime,
seven pm, first pitch on one of three to one.
But there's a lot to break down in that Slashdangle
post game interview. First off, you have to give your

(34:24):
hats off. You gotta tip your hats to Arkansas when
you consider the last losses that the Longhorns have had.
If you compile all of those other losses together, it's
a combined score of eleven runs. So it's not like
the Longhorns losing games of this season. Even the LSC
LSU eight two loss at home is a six run game.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
You feel okay about that.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
It's eleven combined runs in their five previous losses.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
Last night, it gets out of hand.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
This is a team in Arkansas that was going to
be able to or going to try to exploit some
of those injuries the long Horns have had. When you
have your Day one starter and Spencer out for the
rest of the season, Max Blue with a thumb injury
out for a long period of time a foreseeable future.
You don't know when you're going to get your left
field or back. The injury bug comes for everybody, right

(35:14):
Injuries happened across That's not an excuse, but it's a
fact of life. Okay, you're going to end up slipping
up and losing games. I would rather lose a game
on the first of May than on the first day
of June.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
That's kind of how I look at it.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
I would rather find out, take some of those lumps,
take some of those losses now, then later. The one
thing I will say, we talked yesterday to Craig before
game number one, and we said, this is going to
be very difficult series. This isn't going to be a
razorback team that's going to roll over for Texas. And
the Longhorns had a five game lead in the standings

(35:48):
prior to last night's loss, with nine games, well, eight
games remaining. Now, you would think, to your eight games
remaining in SEC play, you would think to yourself, we
feel pretty confident that this is a team that could
get the number one seed going into the SEC tournament.
But she can't guarantee anything. You cannot count your chickens

(36:09):
before they hatch. I have been very guilty of doing
that because in a game like baseball, where it's very
very easy to become complacent, you have to treat every
single one of these teams in the SEC like they
can knock you off, because they can. It's the best
conference for baseball, point blank period. So you have to
be able to come back and find a way tonight

(36:34):
to win. Despite the setbacks of Longhorns are one of
four teams to start nineteen and three or better in
the SEC play since the league expanded to thirty games
back in nineteen ninety six. Now you go back and
you look at some of those other teams who were
winning games or who had a nineteen and three record
or better. It was two thousand, South Carolina twenty thirteen,

(36:55):
Vanderbilt twenty twenty two, Tennessee, all teams who made deep
runs in the SEC in deep runs eventually in the
College Baseball Playoffs Regionals, and to Omaha. So we'll talk
to Craig about that later. At three seventeen, he joins
the program to preview game number two, give us a
little bit of recap of what happened last night, and

(37:17):
I gotta get his thoughts too, as the biggest news
of the day is the movement from Greg Popovich from
the sidelines of the Spurs to now the front office
to be the team's president of basketball operations. That news
came down earlier today. Miss Johnson, congratulations, you are now
the head coach of the Spurs. All right, our number two.

(37:37):
Speaking of basketball, let's talk Knicks. New York Knicks. They
punched their tickets to the second round. They did it
with a jumper from Jalen Brunson. We'll talked about it
next on The Craigway Show, sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
of Zone, our number two of The Craigway Show on
sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Andrew Zim will
hanging out with you on a feel Good Friday edition

(38:00):
of The Craigway Show. We are feeling pretty pretty pretty good.
If you want to be part of the show, use
the free iHeartRadio apps talkback feature. You can get your
voice on there. We heard from Richard earlier today. We
gave you twenty four hours to think, to contemplate, to
game plan, even about who you would take if you

(38:21):
had to go on the way Back Machine, if you
got the time machine. In the debate that's raging online,
the one hundred men versus one gorilla, who could you
go back in time and go grab if you wanted.
I picked William Wallace, our friend Richard pick Spartacus. We
want to hear from you. If you have an answer,
please use the free iHeartRadio apps talkback feature the little

(38:42):
red button. Press it you have thirty seconds. You can
be part of the Craigway Show. Marcus is on the
ones and twos making this sound pretty in the free
State of Austin, Texas, which is a ton of fun.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
And so speaking of this topic, I got a impus.

Speaker 6 (39:00):
How about WWF Hall of Fame wrestler Gorilla?

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Monsoon get a Gorilla.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
So, Marcus, you were on the morning show with Mike
Carballharge and Mark Henry the World's Strongest Man seven to
nine AM right here on the zone, and I heard
Mark Henrick talking about this debate and he was saying
that if he was in the last twenty five, he
felt pretty good.

Speaker 6 (39:26):
Uh yeah, Mark said he's gonna sit back. So Mark
sitting back, I'm sitting back.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
I said.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
When I originally brought this topic up, I was talking
to somebody and I heard Mark talk about it, and
he was like, Okay, I'm gonna sit back. But then
final twenty five I'm jumping in there. I said, if
I could go get Prime Mark Henry in this group,
you know, say a prayer for the gorilla because it's
over Prime Mark Henry.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Yeah, it's it's good. That's what do you do. That's
what he does. That is what that is what he do.
All right.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
Speaking of guys going absolutely as hard as it can
in the paint, let's talk New York Knicks basketball. So
the Knicks, for the longest time, probably the majority of
my lifetime, have been a laughingstock. They finally got their
head coaching Tom Tambodeau, they finally got their star in
Jalen Brunson, and they were able to move past the

(40:18):
Detroit Pistons last night won sixteen one thirteen to win
the series to now go up against the Boston Celtics. Now,
this is how that final play, that final shot from
Jalen Brunson sound Mike Breen on the call.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
Brunson holder, thanks, trying to wait till the ends. Bronson
puts up a three dang.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
Jayleen Bruns the rare double bang from Mike Breen on
the call on ESPN that, my friends, was one of
the best shots in Knick's history. This is what you
come to the NBA Playoffs. For all of that extra
talk during the regular season, all the ratings are down,
all the products thinks, all the guys are two friends

(41:00):
with each other. We got two teams in New York
and Detroit who did not like each other. We got
two teams in the Knicks and the Pistons, who were
playing the closest you are going to get to nineties basketball.
You want bad boys, here's Isaiah Stort. You want big
name star, here's Jalen Brunson. Now, has it gotten a

(41:20):
little bit too much for me? Has it gotten a
little bit too much? And we crossed the line a
little bit here, maybe because I'm hearing people compare Jalen
Brunson to Clyde Fraser or I'm sorry, Walt Fraser, Clyde
and Patrick Ewing.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
We're getting a little bit too far. Let's let's try
to win.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
A couple series in a row before we start anointing
and putting jerseys and or rafters. But the Knicks get
the win, and in victory, we got an incredible quote
from Jalen Brunson.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
Here it is.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
This is from the post game, talking about that final
play with a Zar Thompson on him Jalen.

Speaker 10 (41:57):
Obviously people are gonna be talking about your shot and
the move for god knows how long. But with a
defender like les Are and the way he was playing,
you're just what made you go to that move?

Speaker 2 (42:07):
That snatchback?

Speaker 3 (42:08):
What?

Speaker 10 (42:09):
There was so many things that you could have done.
Did you know that that was going to work? What
made you pick that movie?

Speaker 11 (42:13):
I don't really go and think, all right, I'm going
to make this move right here, It's just an instinct.
He beat me to the spot, he took me off,
just went back the other way and I found a
lot of space and those to take a shot. Man
was tough to play on c He's big time and
I told him straight towar his face after the series,

(42:35):
I mean, and he made me work.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
So I got a lot of respect from him. And
that's what I like to see out of Galen Brunson.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
To be completely honest with you, I was worried that
he was going to try to get on some sort
of like Hey, I owned him the entire series. Hey,
I absolutely demolished the Pistons because if we're being completely honest,
he played Azar Thompson played an incredible series on bruntson
Now if you go through and you look the amount
of points that they have had the seed of the

(43:03):
series Brunson last night forty points in the victory. But
you go through some of those shooting performances, where as
Zar Thompson was his primary defender nine of twenty four
of sixteen. So Thompson in year number two. I love
his brother Amen in Houston. I continue to tell people
that if you are a Rockets fan, you have a

(43:25):
great one in a men Thompson. But Bizarre has been
more of a role player type. I don't see the
same star potential out of him. What I do see
is a lot of the Tayshawn Prince, a lot of
the defense. Hey, I'm gonna go do the dirty work.
I'm not afraid to get in there and die for
loose balls. And when he was the primary defender on
Jalen Brunson this series, he made his life very difficult.

(43:47):
So I like that Brunson in victory, you gotta be
humble in victory, you gotta tell him, hey, he did
do an incredible job, and hey, he is one of
the younger players in this league who has a future
in this league. I loved the way the Knicks played
last night, but it did come down to one final
shot for the Pistons.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
Let's see it. This is the last play of the game.
Let's hear it.

Speaker 9 (44:11):
Timingham looking looking fights hardaway by the way back to Cunningham.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
Final seconds over to Beastley.

Speaker 5 (44:17):
He lost it out of bounds, put four tens in
a second.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
Romating he was open, he was open, was.

Speaker 8 (44:24):
Looking a shot before he caught it fixed in annobia.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
It's over now.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
We talked all how great the Knicks are. It was
a three point game. It came down to this final play,
and that has to be We talked about the worst
ways to lose a basketball game. We talked about the
worst ways for your season to end. Can you imagine
being a Piston fan last night watching your team with
a chance to win it lose like that. Now, I'll

(44:54):
be honest. It was a wide open shot. You can't
be mad at Keith Cunningham for passing the ball off.
He can't be mad at him for finding an open Beasley,
who is a pretty good shooter who in situations like that.
I'm not saying he's gonna knock it down one hundred
percent at the time, but you feel pretty good when
he's shooting about a thirty five thirty percent clip for
the series from behind the Arc, that he's gonna knock

(45:15):
that shot down, wide open, empty gym type of situation
in front of your home crowd. The ball goes off
your hands to end the game, to end your season.
There's a lot of bad ways to lose basketball camps.
There's a lot of bad ways to lose games that,
my friend, might be the worst way to lose because

(45:37):
you didn't even get a shot off. It's not like
Kate Cunningham, future point guard legend for the Pistons. This kid,
if you watched him in this series, if you watched
them this season, I kind of rolled my eyes when
people were comparing him to guys like Magic Johnson, Lebron
James with the playmaking, I said, Okay, let's pump the brakes.
He's a really good playmaker, he's a really good defender,

(45:58):
and he made the right basketball player, which is what
you have to want out of your start, right. Okay, Hey,
I want a guy who can throw up shots and
they're gonna fall every time. I want a guy who
can posterized dudes like Anthony Edwards Kate Cunningham's not doing
any of that, but he's making smart basketball plays. He's
playing winning basketball. Beasley wide open, that's a winning play.

(46:19):
You give it to your guy. You just have to
hope that he's gonna catch it. It was a perfect pass.
If you saw it. It went off his arms. You
couldn't have put the ball in a better spot. And
the moment just was too big for the Pistons. Now,
this is the first time that they're in the playoffs
after a long drought, about a decade rout of missing
playoff games, missing a chance to play in meaningful basketball games.

(46:42):
So there's a lot of runway for this team. With
Azar Thompson and Kate Cunningham and the rest of those guys.
Tim Hardaway Junior is relatively young as well. There's a
lot of room for this team to grow and to
learn from this. But to push the Knicks, who were
the three seed, to the brink, to make it a
serious as close as it was, and to give us

(47:04):
exciting basketball in the first round, like this first round
of the NBA Playoffs is about as good as it's
going to get. I went back and I was thinking
through my brain, Hey, when's the last time we had
games that all every one of them felt like they
could be Eastern Conferce Finals games. Every one of these
teams feels like they could have had a chance. You
could talk me into winning a title now, Miami, no Milwaukee. Like,

(47:27):
I probably don't feel as happy about it as high
on those teams who end up losing the first round.
But if you told me that the Pistons would have
gone through New York and then beat up on a
team that in Boston that's a little bit beat up,
and you go and you take on the Cavs team,
you could have talked me into it. It would have taken
a little bit of convincing, but you could have talked
me into the Pistons being a team that could be

(47:48):
there at the end.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
So I like the future for Detroit.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
And now this series Nixon Celtics, this is going to
be box office. This is going to be absolutely there's
gonna be blood, there's gonna be tears, there's gonna be profanity,
it's gonna be put the kids to bed early type
of series between the Knicks and the Celtics. These are
two teams that do not like each other. These are
two cities that hate each other, and it doesn't get

(48:12):
better than that for a sports fan, for somebody who
doesn't have super invested interest, I'm coming just for the entertainment.
I'm coming just to the Gladiator of Calisseum to see
two teams fight it out, to duke it out, the
defending champs versus the up and coming Knicks.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
I'm here for it. I love it now.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Speaking of two teams who have a lot on the line,
the series could be one or loss tonight as the
Texas Longhorns lose last night nine to zero. Game number
two Tonight, seven pm, First pitch six forty five, airtime
one O three one, Austin's eighty station. Craigway is on
the call. He joins us next to give us a
preview of tonight's Game two against the Razorbacks.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
We'll have it all next. Craig Wait Show rolls on.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
Andrews almost sitting in on The Craig Way Show on
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred, The Zone of Course Radio
AM thirteen hundred The Zone edders and will hang out
with you on a feel good Friday edition of The
Craig Ways Show, and Craig Are We feeling good as
Game number two rolls on today seven pm, First pitch
six forty five air time on one oh three one,

(49:15):
Austin's eighty station and Craig, how are you doing today?

Speaker 8 (49:19):
Listen anytime you can move on past the game like
last night. Yeah, it's good. Hey, it's it's a good
day because it's Friday. And also, the best news really
we're surrounding this series is that it looks like all
three games of the series will start at their appointed
times and be played at their scheduled times. And what

(49:39):
I mean by that is when I flew in on
the charter with the team on Wednesday night we land
or Wednesday afternoon, when we landed, it was just torrential rain.
It was pouring, it was in sheets, but it cleared
out by Wednesday night.

Speaker 3 (49:54):
It was beautiful conditions.

Speaker 8 (49:55):
Obviously, the game from the Texas perspective was not beautiful,
but the otherwise it was a gorgeous evening for baseball
in an absolutely beautiful ballpark. And it's hard to ask
for more than that, you know, other than having a
chance to try to win a game. And then the
other concern was for tonight's game because yesterday they were

(50:18):
calling them for an eighty five percent chance of rain,
but we were told that there was a decent chance
it might clear out by mid afternoon. Well that's largely
what's happened. It's still overcast, but it's not raining, and
there was a lot of rain last night. It's not raining.
It's like sixty eight degrees here, so it's nice in
that respect. And it's supposed to get even a little

(50:40):
clearer by game time tonight with the game starting one
hour later than last night's game, and that was scheduled
that way. It'll start at seven o'clock, so it looks
great for that. In tomorrow afternoon's supposed to beautiful day,
sunny day for the finale of the three game series.
So you can hardly ask for anything more than that,
the fact that they're going to get to play all

(51:01):
three games that they're appointed star times.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
So I gave myself a little bit too much credit.
It sounds like I was saying that it's my fault
of the Longhorns ten game win streak got snapped because
I talked about it, and superstition says, don't say anything
during a no hitter, don't say anything during a win streak,
but you're giving more credit to zach Rut.

Speaker 8 (51:19):
If I'm looking at zach Rut and your irrational, erotic superstitions,
I'm going with zach Rut was he was some kind
of marvelous best picture of the Long Orange have face
this year without question. Now, and let me make sure
I got something straight on this m Did you say
the last time that you were talking about this, Texas

(51:40):
had a seventeen game winning streak. Snap, Does that correct?

Speaker 2 (51:42):
I believe so?

Speaker 3 (51:43):
I believe so. Okay, that was the LSU game.

Speaker 8 (51:47):
Now think about that against two of the best teams,
the teams that were tied for second coming into this weekend,
and a team that had an incredible starting pitcher in
Kate Anderson, who was as good as anybody the Long
Orange had faced this season up until last night. And
Zach Route was tremendous. He scattered two singles, that's all,

(52:08):
it was, two singles. Through eight innings. He struck out eleven.
Was just lights out at times. He mixed his fastball
with a devastating curve and an effective change up to
the point where you could just tell when the long
runs are coming to the plate. It was almost like
a guessing game, what's he going to throw me next?

(52:29):
And Keith Morland, new of course was an All American
at Texas and was a major leaguer, you know, for
the better part of thirteen years, said there are nights
when you go to you've done all the scouting report,
you know what the guy's going to throw, but yet
when you walk to the plate, you're completely off balanced

(52:50):
for whatever reason, and you're expecting fastball, and you get
a curveball, and you're expecting curve and you get the change.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
You expect change, you get the fastball.

Speaker 8 (52:58):
They just could not get him figured out last night,
and he just well placed pitches very very well. That's
on the defensive side, and it really set the table
for what their offense does. Their offense came into this
weekend series batting three twenty as a team and three
thirteen in conference play.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
They looked every bit the part. Last night.

Speaker 8 (53:20):
Rugeri Ojas had a one two three inning, but after
he struck out the leadoff guy in the second, he
gave up a double, a two run homer, and a
base hit before he got out of the inning with
a double play and thought, okay, well, maybe it is
settled into that. But then in the third he hit
the leadoff batter, struck out the next then had a
pass ball that allowed the leadoff guy to get the

(53:41):
second walk the next guy, and then a flyball out.
There were two down and he had an to two
count on cam Kozl. If he gets his strike out
there and leaves it at to nothing, who knows if
it changes things. Instead, Kocher was able to work it
back full and then blasted a three run homer.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
It was five to nothing.

Speaker 8 (53:59):
And then after that, as the old high school football
coaches would say, it was shows he'd get the sweeper,
because it was from there on out it was the
Razorbacks were in control of the ball game. It's a
really good ball club. Yeah, they'd lost their last three series,
three heart fault series to two of three really good
ball clubs in Georgia and Texas, A and M in Florida,

(54:20):
teams in the upper half of the conference standings. But
we've known all along this is a really, really good team.
They had their shot earlier in the season. They were
the number one ranked team in the country. So yeah,
it's we said this was going to be a difficult
series going into the weekend. It's proven it through part one.
Now we'll see what happens in part two tonight.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
Now you're bging the drum Yachday. You said, hey, this
is not going to be an easy series. I agree
with you. I'm worried though, that there's starting to become
a blueprint. And again it's you know, you get the
number what three pitcher in the SEC maybe en route
you get a top guy. I'm worried that if this
starts turning into a blueprint that hey, this is how
you beat Texas.

Speaker 8 (54:58):
How you beat Texas you get a really good pitcher
to start off with, and then and then and then
you go after I will say this too as Zim.
Here's something else. Keep in mind, it's not like log
worns have been exactly living a charmed light with all
the key injuries that they sustained. Oh bump and make plays,

(55:22):
get a crucial hit, come up with a big out
of the bullpen. We talked about that win any way
mentality or win any way mentality yesterday.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
But maybe maybe the.

Speaker 8 (55:35):
Lack of top of the lineup guys is starting to
catch up a little bit as they as they close
with this grind.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
We'll see now they hope to get Max Blue back.

Speaker 8 (55:45):
I think my conference tournament play maybe incredibly optimistically, thinking
maybe even for the Oklahoma Series in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (55:55):
But that's that's, you know, again looking at the glass
half full and hoping for the best on that. But
I think a more realistic projection might be for the
conference tournament the following.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
Okay, that's one guy.

Speaker 8 (56:06):
You know, they know they're not going to get Jared
Spencer back, And I'll get back to the pitching in
a minute. The other two guys, Adrian Rodriguez, of course,
is still has that sore hamate that has prevented him
from being able to swing the bat right handed. Now
he's made adjustments against left handed pitching and he got
one of the two long warned hits last night, and
it was against a left hander. He will be facing

(56:28):
a right hander tonight, so that's that's better because he's
batting well over three hundred against right handers and he's
able to play a fielding position, but still not one
hundred percent in that he's able to bat right handed
against left handed pitching. And then they have Ethan Mendoza,
who was really a glue guy in the infield, but
since he injured the shoulder in the Kentucky Series three

(56:49):
weeks ago, has been limited only to dhing And you say, okay, well,
he still has the bat in there and he's leading
the long runs in batting average. Absolutely true, and I
think they'd really be in a lot of trouble they
didn't have that part of it. But what it does
do is it forces Jim slash Eagle to use that
DH spot where he might be able to use it

(57:11):
in a different spot and play him instead play Mendoza
at second base, but he's unable to do that right now.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
Now.

Speaker 8 (57:18):
We saw Jona Williams get the other hit for Texas,
and he's an exciting youngster, but he still has a
long ways to go. So the mixture of the veterans
and the younger guys and the transfers and all that stuff,
sometimes eventually you do hit a little bit.

Speaker 3 (57:33):
Of a wall there.

Speaker 8 (57:34):
I don't think that was necessarily the case last night.
That was more about Zach Roots, But the rest of
the weekend may give us more of an indication of
where Texas is going into the final two weekends.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
The next two weekends, I.

Speaker 8 (57:48):
Still think this as we look at it, Andrew, if
they win even one game this weekend and maybe to
the next weekend, won the following week when I still
think they're going to wind up being the number on
overall seat because they're gonna win the SEC with that combination.
And uh, and there's a you know, a better than
reasonable chance that which whichever team wins the SEC regular

(58:13):
season title is going to be the number one all seed,
number one overall seed for the NCAA tournament.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
I agree with you. I like where your heads at.
I do worry about limping into the SEC tournament. I
would like I would like.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
To limping right now. That's that's true.

Speaker 8 (58:25):
They're limping, and and and uh that the hope is
is that they'll be less limping by the time they
get to the tournament. That they may have Blue back
in the lineup, and that and that may be Mendoza
or or Rodriguez is able to bout ride handed that time. Uh,
they're really hoping time heals the wounds. In this case,

(58:46):
they have no choice to have to go. And let
me also say this, Uh, other guys have to step up.
There's there's there's guys.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (58:53):
They quite frankly, Uh they've got some guys who, uh,
we've seen perform much better at the plate than they
have been of late. Jalen Force comes to mind, Will
Gasparino comes to mind, even Casey Borba comes to mind.
There's are guys batting in the two hundreds right now,
they're not batting in the three hundreds, and.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
Craig is still there. Looks like we lost Craig. We'll
try to get it back here pretty soon. It's interesting
because I wanted to talk to Craig about the pitching
lineups tonight and who's lined up to start for the
University of Texas and who's lined up to start for Arkansas.
I was getting curious, so I wanted to hear what
he had to say when it came to who else

(59:38):
needs to step up?

Speaker 2 (59:39):
Here?

Speaker 1 (59:39):
It is I'm here connected again. Okay, we dropped out
a little bit there, Craig. You were talking about guys
who need to step up hitting the two hundreds, need
to hit the three hundreds.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
Yeah, yeah, And I think that's that's part of it.

Speaker 8 (59:49):
I do think that I think that those guys do
have to step up in addition to the ones that
have to get healthy.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
You have to do that and then the other. The
one other piece of that is.

Speaker 8 (01:00:02):
How comfortable does Jim Schlasnagel and Max Wiener feel about
the rotation right now because that third starter has been
put into question because of the season ending injury to
Jared Spencer. It's kind of TBA Tomar. It could be
Jason Flores, uh, but it could be somebody else depending,

(01:00:22):
So I think I think there's some questions that they're
looking to get answered there.

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
Also, Well, it's funny too, Crec, because we were talking earlier.
I think this season, I said, hey, do we have
a third guy? We were trying to figure it out.
We found our third guy, and then now injuries, we're
looking for the third guy again. Tonight's matchup Texas lefty
Luke Harrison versus Arkansas right handed pitcher Gauge Wood. What's
the deal, root Wood? What what's tomorrow?

Speaker 8 (01:00:44):
It's the the pitcher uh tonight?

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
Uh?

Speaker 8 (01:00:48):
For for the Razorbacks, I believe. Let me just double check,
because they may have made a change on what they
were going to do with their with their st rarnning
lineup and their starting rotation. Tonight, we've seen two guys.
I would tell you that the other. The guy who's
going to start for Arkansas tonight is Gabe Gackle. He's

(01:01:10):
a right hander. Gackle is from what I've been told,
Wood has has started now. Having said that, well we'll
wait and see, because, like you, I saw Gage Wood
listed on one set a publication, then I saw Gackle
list on the other, so we'll double check on that.
But both are right handers, and both are guys who

(01:01:34):
who have you know, fastball slider change. They're not, they're
not incredibly confusion guys. So the left handed hitters in
the Texas lineup will need to step up. We know
Luke Harrison is starting for the Longhorns tonight, and he's
got to be able to get the breaking ball over
and try not to hit batters. He's hit fifteen this year,
so so they, you know, if they can then get

(01:01:58):
that kind of consistency. And he gave them a marvelous
effort in the win over Texas A and M last Saturday,
so they need another effort like that tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
All right, well, Craig, you're on the calls. It's forty
five hour times seven pm. First pitch from Fayeville, Arkansas, Texas,
one of three to one Austin's ASA stations where you
can hear it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Thanks so much. Do I missing anything?

Speaker 8 (01:02:17):
Yeah, you didn't ask me about the biggest story of
the day.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
Which would be the Popovich story, or is it?

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
No, no, no.

Speaker 8 (01:02:23):
I was talking about Texas Beach Volleyball winning their first
ever NCAA Tournament match today hey Stein Metzger's team, first
time ever in the NCAA tournament, first time to be
eligible to be in.

Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
The NCAA tournament.

Speaker 8 (01:02:37):
And they go to golf Sours, Alabama play cal and
it comes down to the final game in the final
match to win the duel, and they do it, and
they wind up winning the match three two, and Texas
Beach Volleyball will play TCU in the quarterfinals tomorrow. That
was you know, it's partly tongue in cheek, but I

(01:02:58):
know folks are very very excited about that. That's a
great step forward for that Texas Softball. By the way,
one over Kentucky that they were in a grinder and
they won seven to five, So they won the first
two games of that series. But yes, with regard to
Greg Popovich, you and I were talking about during a break,
I think it's you know, I think we all knew
it was coming at some point, and still at all

(01:03:19):
it's kind of jarring considering he's been the coach since
what ninety seven, so it's been a long time and
now this will be a whole new world for the
Spurs and for Spurs fans.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
This is why he is a radio Hall of Famer.
It's Craig Way. Craig, thank you so much, man, my pleasure.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
He's on the Call to the Night six forty five
ever times seven pm. First Pitch from Arkansas one O
three one is where you can hear it on the
free iHeartRadio app as well. When we come back. Major
moves in the NBA. One superstar might be coming to
the Almost City. Will tell you who it is next
on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone Sports Radio AM

(01:03:57):
thirteen hundred The Zone. Andrews im willhander out with you
on a feel good Friday edition of The Craigway Show.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
I Am Andrew Zimmel.

Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
On the ones and Tuesdays, Marcus spears in Austin, Texas
making this sound pretty We have a lot to get into.
If you missed any of the show, you can go
back and listen on the free iHeartRadio app. Look for
the Craigway podcast. We podcast the show every single day
for you. If you miss any of the fun that
we have over here, you could go back and listen
on that same app, that free iHeart radio app. You

(01:04:25):
can use the talkback feature. We're looking for you to
give us an answer. It's been the debate that's been
raging all week long.

Speaker 3 (01:04:34):
I gave you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
Twenty four hours to think about it. I have picked
my time traveler. If I had to have one to
fight in the one hundred v one battle against a gorilla,
one hundred of mankind's best, maybe not brightest against a gorilla,
who would you pick? If you get one historical figure,
who would it be? You can use the free iHeart
Radio apps talkback feature to give us your answer. I

(01:04:58):
picked William Wallace Marcus. You picked a WWF wrestler. Am
I correct? The gorilla man?

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
Gorilla? Monsoon there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
And our friend Richard used the talkback feature to send
in Spartacus, which I don't think is a bad idea either.
If you have a better one, send it in. Use
the free I Heit Radio apps talkback feature. That is
the way to do it. Okay, a lot of things changing,
a lot of things moving. It's not springtime, it's summertime
now and the NBA is in their playoffs. Change is occurring.

(01:05:33):
Things are happening. Teams are getting knocked out, other teams
are making moves. The Spurs decide to move on from
Greg Povich, who's going to be the president of basketball Operations,
announced today he's moving away from the sideline into the box.
He's still going to be very involved in the team,
but he is no longer on the sideline. Mis Johnson,
who is the acting head coach, last season thirty one

(01:05:56):
and forty five record in the Greg Popovic absence. He
will now be the head coach of the San Antonio
Spurs moving forward. Another team that might be making some
changes is the Milwaukee Bucks after losing in five games
to the Indiana Pacers a gentleman's sweep. Is Jannis Tukupo Happy,

(01:06:16):
the former MVP Defensive Player of the Year and champion
of the Bucks. It appears that he might be on
the move, and one Brian Winhorse from ESPN spoke on
Get Up this morning about two Texas teams that could
have their eye on the Buck.

Speaker 7 (01:06:35):
I want to point two teams out to you, the
San Antonio Spurs and the Houston Rockets. Both of them
are in the lottery. San Antonio, I know, Houston still playing.
They might win tonight. They're in the lottery. They have
Phoenix's pick, which is a whole other problem. They have
a whole bunch of pieces on their roster. What if
they hop up into that top four? Look out there.

(01:06:55):
The other one is the San Antonio Spurs. They have
two picks in this in this lottery. Now combine, there're
only a thirty percent chance of getting to the top four.

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
What if one of them does? What if both of
them do?

Speaker 7 (01:07:08):
All of a sudden, you've got San Antonio with Victor
Webbin Yama, Daron Fox, and potentially a game changing draft
pick with the rookie of the years to Fan Castle
sitting there as well. So first, we're going to watch
the lottery that and so is Giannis. After that we're
going to reevaluate. But we're going to see a lot
of things present themselves for the Bucks and Giannis over
this next month.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
I used to think guys like Brian win Horse and
other NBA insiders quote unquote, we're just like you or
me gas bags.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
I always just expected them.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
Okay, they might have a little bit more insight, but
let's actually see where this goes. And for Brian Windhorse,
who is number one beat since being at ESPN, his
beat has been Lebron James, he of anybody at that
network would be pretty tapped in on what a superstar
is going to do. Right, I feel very confidence say

(01:08:00):
that where there's smoke, there is fire. And if Windy
is speaking as I would say assuredly as he is
about the potential for women yacht or for a Victor
Ontotakupo to goes somewhere, I think that there's a little
bit of fire there in the world where he does
get moved. It makes the most sense to go to

(01:08:22):
a team that has the most assets, and not only
assets that you're trading away potentially, but assets you could
pair him next to Giannis does not want to get
traded for your entire team, And then what now I
have to be on a different team, but we're still rebuilding.
There's nothing new, and also we don't have any of
our picks. You gave all your picks away to bring
me in. No, I want to go to a team
where there's a young asset. I want to go to

(01:08:44):
a team where there's a young asset and a young
head coach and a potential to win something. That's my
end goal. If I'm onto Takoupo, my end goal is
to continue to collect trophies. That's what I play the
sport for. I want to go somewhere and win. Obviously,
Victor Women would not be in any sort of trade
for a guy like Giannis. Obviously a guy like Shanegoon

(01:09:05):
or Jalen Green probably wouldn't be in a move for
a guy like Giannis. But those future Houston Rockets players,
those future San Antonio Spurred players would be in a trade.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
The one hiccup I have after Steph Castle wins Rookie
of the Year, I don't really want to let him go.
I like Steph castle rookie contract. He obviously has shown
that he is the next big thing. He could be
that type of point guard that you're looking for. The
type of guard you're looking for plays two ways incredibly well,
and I really want to give him up for a
guy like Yiannis. I know, Sue Me. I like Giannis.

(01:09:37):
I think he's a great player, top five player, in
the world right now. But do I want to give
up a guy like Castle for him? That would be
my only hiccup. And we'll see. Time will tell. The
NBA draft and lottery both down the line. NBA playoffs
are here, curly, so I'm gonna sit back. I'm gonna
watch the playoffs and see how those teams develop, see
how the teams that are still in it play. Before

(01:09:59):
I get to excited about a guy like Yeah, it's
potentially dawning the Silver and Black, all right. When we
come back, we'll wrap up our number two Texas Baseball
tonight six forty five airtime seven pm. First pitch one
oh three to one. We'll talk a little Texas baseball
next on The Craigway Show on Sports Radio AM thirteen
hundred The Zone. Were wrapping up our two of The

(01:10:22):
Craigway Show on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone
Andrews and We'll sitting in for Craig this afternoon. Craig
on the call tonight as number one Texas takes on
the Arkansas Razorbacks. Last night, kind of ugly nine to
zero loss for the Longhorns. In that loss, though, Zach

(01:10:44):
Root the left handed pitcher for Arkansas. Well, he played
pretty pretty pretty good ninety nine pitches to lead fifth
ranked Razorbacks over top ranked Texas.

Speaker 8 (01:10:57):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
You heard him, Craig talk about a little earlier this hour.
Had a career high in innings pitched and strikeouts eleven,
allowed two hits and two walks in the wind for Arkansas. Now,
Texas had a ten game winning streak snapped. And I
was telling you earlier today as well that I take
a little bit of credit for that.

Speaker 2 (01:11:19):
Because I jinxed them. That's on me. I'm superstitious.

Speaker 3 (01:11:22):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
It's funny, is everybody else in my life is very
anti superstition. I don't understand it. Maybe it's because, let's
think about this, talk it out. A lot of my
friends are broadcasters. That's what happens when you work in radio.
You start making friends with the same people who do
the job with you. And all of my friends are
very anti superstition. They say, you know, the announcers jinks

(01:11:43):
isn't real when it comes to hey, this guy hasn't
missed a field goal from this distance all season long.
Don oh, well, there's first time for everything. I think
maybe that's what it is that they don't want to
take credit or blame for when they jinx a certain
Now again, you think about it, you think it through
all right. A lot of my friends are broadcasters. They

(01:12:05):
don't want to take credit or blame for these type
of things. They aren't going to buy into the fact
that andrews Zimmo goes on the radio on sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred zone on the flagship for the Texas
Athletics and talks about a ten game win streak and
then immediately gets snapped. And not only snapped, but he
is a loss that's unlike any other loss this season.

(01:12:26):
Longhorns lost five games up until that point. Yesterday, combined
run differential eleven take all five of the losses the
eleven run difference. Last night they lose nine to zero targets,
so they get shut out for the first time this season. Again,
I'm just trying to give credit where credit is due,

(01:12:47):
and sometimes not all.

Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
Credit is good credit.

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
You're just putting it out there now, Marcus, what is
your take on this? Marcus is running our board here
in Austin. Do you believe in the announcers jinks? Do
you think that when an announcer comes on and talks
about a no or mentions the teams on a win streak,
or mentions a guy hasn't missed a kick. Do you
believe in that jinx that sometimes, you know, the powers

(01:13:09):
that be, the football gods of sports gods, will play
with the results because of the announcer.

Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
Oh, one hundred percent.

Speaker 6 (01:13:18):
Do I can give you exact moments of jinx back
in like nineteen, I want to say, ninety nine when
the Falcons played the Minnesota Vikings JC champions.

Speaker 2 (01:13:32):
Oh, it was ninety eight. Yeah, and they.

Speaker 6 (01:13:34):
Kept putting up Anderson's streak of how many he hit
in a row or I think he had missed any
the whole year. And that's when and I remember a
buddy of Mines said right next to me, said, he's
gonna miss one of these field goals because they keep
they keep mentioning it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:52):
And that's exactly what happened.

Speaker 1 (01:13:56):
Now, Marcus, you might not know this about me, which
makes us that much worse. I'm a diehard Vikings fan.
I've been a Vikings fan my entire life. That right there,
unknown to you. You didn't know that. You just brought
that up organically. You just said, Hey, here's the most
obvious announcers jinks of all time.

Speaker 2 (01:14:15):
Unbeknownst to you, you.

Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
Were talking to the person who has been hurt maybe
the most from that announcer's jinx. This is truly an
incredible moment in sports talk radio history, Marcus, that you
would bring this up, that you would say, Hey, the
one time I remember this so vividly remember this. Yeah, no,
I agree with you. That is an announcer's jinks. And
it does sit very very hard. It rolls around my neck.

(01:14:40):
That's the type of paint Brandt's.

Speaker 6 (01:14:42):
So you have to learn to use your powers for good.
So you have to jinx the other teams. I'm a
big Rockets fan, So if you got anything on Steph
Curry or you know, Draymond Green or any one of
those Warriors, you can just don't spit that right now
about how hot they are in the playoffs or how

(01:15:03):
many years they've been successful.

Speaker 1 (01:15:06):
And let's do it all right, let's we'll do that
to wrap up hour number two.

Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
Now, there were Houston Rockets.

Speaker 1 (01:15:11):
I was trying to compare them last yesterday to what
type of rivalry does one side never win?

Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
You think the Coyote and the road Runner in Loonitunes.
It's a rivalry, but it's really one sided. The Roadrunner
doesn't lose to the Coyote, And so far throughout the
history of the last decade of Warriors basketball, they really
haven't had a rival You want to say the Cleveland
Cavaliers beating them three to one, that's fine, But the
Houston Rockets were the only team in the Western Conference
that really tried, really pushed them to the break to

(01:15:42):
try to make something happen. So when you take history
into account, when you think about the last decade of
basketball in the NBA and how many great players have
come through the city of Houston, and how many great
coaches and games have happened in Houston, you think to yourself, well,
there's no way at the Houston Rockets win this series,

(01:16:02):
being down three to two and the you know what,
Marcus for you, I'll jinx it right now. They play tonight.
It's eight PM. It's game number six. The Rockets are
down three games to two. Bye bye, good night, it's over.
You can count it now. The Warriors the seventh seed.
They'll advance. It'll be a low seeded Western Conference semifinals.

(01:16:23):
Six seeded Minnesota versus seven seeded Golden State. I'm jinxing
for you here, Marcus, You're welcome. It's the reverse jinks
for you. Put it to bed, Houston Rockets. It's over,
it's done. Good night, all right. When we come back,
our number three of the Craigways Show rolls on. Speaking
of saying goodnight, the Denver Nuggets they're holding on game

(01:16:45):
number seven Clippers waiting yesterday. Game number seven happening on Saturday.
Will get you ready for it.

Speaker 3 (01:16:52):
Next.

Speaker 1 (01:16:52):
Andrew's almost sitting in for Craigway on sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred.

Speaker 2 (01:16:55):
The Zone.

Speaker 1 (01:16:57):
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred is Zone. Happy Friday to you.
Hopefully you're having a good one. If this is your
final day of the week, congratulations. If this is where
your week starts, well thanks for starting it with us. Andrews,
I will sitting in for Craigway as we were going
to our number three of the Craigway Show.

Speaker 2 (01:17:16):
If you miss any of the.

Speaker 1 (01:17:17):
Program, feel free to go back and listen to it
on the free iHeartRadio app the podcast page. We podcast
the entire show for you. If you miss any of
the fun, don't feel bad. You can jump in you
can listen to it. We're also taking your talkbacks today.
We have been debating it all week on the interwebs.
The debate has raged on one hundred v one man

(01:17:39):
versus gorilla. I know it's kind of silly, it's kind
of crazy, you know what. This type of conversations that
really get the juices flung, and it tells me a
lot about you. It's one of those questions that if
I ask you at a dinner party, what do you
think I'm going to know a lot about you off
of your answer. If you're somebody that says, you know,

(01:18:02):
I don't know one hundred, but it's a gorilla. I'm
taking the gorilla. I know about your spirit. I know
that you're not competitive. I know that you don't have
that spirit of competitiveness that you need to have. If
you and ninety nine of your friends want to take
on a gorilla, all right, that's all I gotta say. Marcus,
you guys have debated on the Morning show. Have you
decided what side you're on?

Speaker 6 (01:18:25):
I look at it realistically, it's a gorilla. A gorilla
is basically a tank. But if I'm like a coach,
then I picked some plills I'm not volunteering myself in it,
but I picked some plills if they game to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:42):
See, we talked about it on the off air. I
mentioned to a couple of people. We've also said that
if you could go back in time and take one person, now,
I pick William Wallace. Our listener Ronald called in or Yeah,
Ronald called in on the talkback feature and said he's
taken Spartacus.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
Both similar in mindset.

Speaker 1 (01:19:00):
I'm not looking for somebody who's gonna knock the gorilla
out one punch. And you know, I've seen Mike Tyson
talked about I've seen other people talked about, Uh, I'm
taking somebody who's going to be able to get everybody
on the same page. I'm looking for a leader who's
not afraid to get in there and get their hands journey.
I like to think I have a little bit of
William Wallace, a little bit of Spartacus in me. But
it's nice to have that guy who we're saying, all right, hey,

(01:19:23):
that's the dude, he's going in there, I'm following him.
We're looking for somebody who can take the lead and
get the rest of the troops going. That guy for
the LA Clippers. Let's hear it.

Speaker 6 (01:19:34):
Oh, I got a second pick because we'll go stay
with the thing with you know, I said Gorilla Monsoon,
I'm gonna go with the Phoenix Sun Gorilla.

Speaker 2 (01:19:48):
Okay, all right, this will sign him up, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:19:52):
Speaking of guys to lead you into battle, Tyron Lou Tylu,
the LA Clippers head coach, he rattled the cage for
him team. His team had their back against the walls,
three two series lead for the Denver Nuggets going into
a pivotal a pivotal Game number five. All right, this
is where I'm sorry. Game number six. All of the

(01:20:15):
marbles were on the table. You needed to come out
of it with a win. And that's exactly what the
Clippers did. They got a huge win, a must needed
win against the Denver Nuggets in Game number six to
get this series tied up at three games a piece.

Speaker 3 (01:20:32):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:20:32):
In that win for the Clippers, James Harden showed up
and showed out twenty eight points and eight assists. After
showing up or after not showing up in Game number five,
he comes out has a great performance. Kawhi Leonard twenty
seven points and the Clippers forced a seventh game of
the first round series at a one to eleven one
oh five victory over the Denver Nuggets.

Speaker 2 (01:20:52):
Now Norma Powell.

Speaker 1 (01:20:53):
He has been a sneaky big player for the Clippers
this season, this entire year. With the Tray Paul or
the the exit of Paul George to the seventy six ers,
a lot of people wondered who would be that guy
to step up for LA. You're losing a lot of
regular season production. Norman Palace stepped up in a big
way in the regular season and in the playoffs. He

(01:21:13):
rebounded very well twenty four points in last night's winning
played excellent defense on Nikolai Yokic, who scored twenty of
his twenty five points in the first half, held him
to five points in the second half. The Tyrone Louse
spoke after the game of what worked against the Nuggets.

Speaker 12 (01:21:30):
I thought James did a great job setting the tone early,
scoring the basketball, getting downhill, making the right play. Norman
makes some big shots at the end, and Kawhile just
kind of stayed throughout the game. But I thought those
three guys really stepped up came to play. I thought
Zoo was a monster on the defensive end. Tonight getting
closer to the joker. I'm not giving as much space
and man, jokers just it's just hard. You know, if

(01:21:54):
you if you double team home, he's gonna pick your
part with his passing. If you stay at home, he's
gonna score.

Speaker 5 (01:21:59):
You know.

Speaker 12 (01:22:00):
So I give my guys credit to staying with it,
you know, don't get deflated.

Speaker 2 (01:22:04):
And you know, we did a good job just keeping
our head.

Speaker 1 (01:22:08):
Now we talk a lot about the Giannis conversation about hey,
the Bucks, they won the championship in twenty twenty one,
but since then injuries and coaching and then not being
able to get back to that point. Well, the Denver
Nuggets might be in a similar trajectory. Now listen to this.
Jamal Murray scored twenty one points last night for the Nuggets.

(01:22:29):
It lost a potential series clinching playoff game for the
fourth time in five tries over the last two seasons
since they won the title in twenty twenty three, four
losses in five attempts to close out a series. Denver
blew a three to two series lead last year against
the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round. This is getting

(01:22:49):
to be a problem, guys. This is getting to be
an issue if you're the Denver Nuggets, especially when you
consider they fired Mike Malone before the playoffs even started.
They have an interim head coach sitting on the sideline.
You need to come in with some tenacity. You need
to come in with some heart, some drive. This is
not the type of team that you'd want going up

(01:23:10):
against a gorilla, let alone the LA Clippers.

Speaker 3 (01:23:13):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
You gotta have some heart, you gotta have some drive.
This is what this Denver Nuggets team is lacking. The
Nuggets haven't won a game seven since twenty twenty. It's
been five years since the Nuggets have won a game seven,
winning Alice of the Clippers from the Conference semifinals in
the Florida Bubble. Hey remember that, Remember the bubble, Remember COVID.
This is a problem obviously, the fact that the Nuggets

(01:23:36):
couldn't get the job done last night. I brought this
up yesterday to you. I said, you need to be
able to win these type of games, because for the Nuggets,
this is a team that's a little bit older, not
but older experienced, Okay, with a championship under their belt.
You're going up against the number one seed. If you
win this series, you're going up against the Oklahoma State Thunder,

(01:23:56):
a team that won sixty plus games this year, that
has the MVP on their squad in SGA. And for Jokic,
who down has three MVPs, who is I think universally
considered the best player on the planet. What does it
say if you can't get out of the first round?
What does it say if you can't get out of

(01:24:17):
the first round. Look, I'm not saying that this Nuggets
team is built to win a title. When they fired
Mike Malone, I said, okay, well there goes the title shots.
It's out the window. There's no shot of them making
anything happen. Now, you can't win a championship with an
interim head coach. It's just not done. It's just not done. So, okay,
you're not gonna win a title, but I need you

(01:24:38):
to have a little bit of life, a little bit
of heart, a little bit of drive, and you can't
get the job done in Game number six against a
Clippers team that Let's be real here, they've got some
playoff chokers.

Speaker 2 (01:24:50):
I like Kawhi Leonard.

Speaker 1 (01:24:51):
Right, this is a guy who won the championship in
twenty fourteen for my San Antonio Spurs. He took the
Toronto Raptors to the Promised Land in twenty nineteen. He's
one of the best playoff performers that we have in
the game, So I'm leaving him off the list of
playoff chokers. But to balance it out, we have James Harden,
who sometimes has been known to disappear. He has a

(01:25:13):
very good way of becoming the invisible man come playoff time.
If James Harden is showing up, if James Harden is
the reason you're winning games, if James Harden is getting
shoutouts from his head coach Tyler Low in the post
game saying, hey, what worked for us tonight was the
fact that Harden had twenty eight points. That's a problem.
And in the final seconds of that game, in the

(01:25:36):
final seconds of or a Nuggets loss to the LA Clippers,
you know who wasn't on the court, Michael Porter Junior.
And this is really where things become concerning to me.
If I was a Nuggets fan, if I was somebody
who was rooting for the Nuggets, does it concern me
that we fired our head coach before the playoffs? Yes,
this is a concern me that Jokic has multiple MVPs

(01:25:58):
now and only one title to show for. Yes, does
it concern me that we didn't have a very good
title defense, let alone trying to get back to that
point to become a title contending team again. Yes, But
Michael Porter Junior is supposed to be your third star
in a league that you need to have multiple guys.
You can throw out a problem, Hey, I have an

(01:26:19):
issue in the playoffs. I have Anthony Edwards on my team. Hey,
I have Rudy Gobert, and I have Julius Randall. I
have j McDaniels, I have Nas Reed. Now, granted, none
of those guys are super duper stars. None of those
guys are lighting up a universe the way that Yo
Kicher and Anthony Edwards does.

Speaker 2 (01:26:35):
But can you light up a room? Can you?

Speaker 1 (01:26:38):
Can you bring me a little bit of light? Can
you can you give me something in the playoffs? Michael
Porter Junior, his struggles in this series are going to
be the reason that the Nuggets lose this series. You
don't want to point figures. You want to say, this
is the reason that these guys are losing games. But
Michael Porter Junior not being that secondary Star is going

(01:26:59):
to be a problem. Last night two of five shooting
minus twenty four. When he's on the floor with for
five points. You can't win games like that. When your
third most important player doesn't play defense, You got to
pull them off the court in the last couple seconds and.

Speaker 2 (01:27:14):
Isn't hitting shots.

Speaker 1 (01:27:16):
The thing that we're asking you to do is just
stand in the corner and make some threes, and you
can't even do that. That's a problem. Now, other guys
that showed up, Aaron Gorton, he played very well last night.
Jamal Murray had twenty one points, the Jokic twenty five,
eight and seven. That's what I went out of my MVP.
That's what I went out of my super Duperstar. But
the rest of the guys need to show up. And

(01:27:36):
when we talk about Giannis and his ability to maybe
get moved off the Bucks and how teams are starting
to put packages together to go potentially go trade for him,
you don't want to break up what Denver has right now.
But Jokicic cannot be happy with the way that this
team is going out to force a game seven, to
be forced into a game seven, it's a problem. And

(01:27:58):
again you got the big bad Oklahoma se thunder who
won sixty plus games waiting for you in the second round.
So this is a problem. Is something that we got
to keep an eye on. Game number seven on Saturday
in Denver. All Right, when we come back, big moves
in San Antonio. Breaking news out of San Antonio, Greg
Popovic moving from the sidelines into the front office to

(01:28:22):
become the president of basketball operations. We'll talk more about
it up and next on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
The Zone. Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone.

Speaker 2 (01:28:31):
I want to make quick.

Speaker 1 (01:28:31):
Correction here for Michael Porter junior, who is scheduled to
have a shoulder surgery after re injuring that shoulder. I
believe so he's out for the remainder of the playoffs.
It sounds like and gonna be important for the Nuggets
to find a way to fill that hole that a

(01:28:52):
junior Porter junior brings to the table. This is gonna
be you hate to say it, in a game number seven.
You're gonna need Russell Westbrook to step up. I think
which you're really asking. Your higher season is now on
the fulcrum of a guy who sometimes will show up
and play incredible basketball, and sometimes he makes plays that
you're wondering, what were you thinking there? So it might

(01:29:13):
come down to how good Russell Westbrook plays in Game
number seven against the Clippers. Now reminder that game Saturday
in Denver.

Speaker 3 (01:29:21):
All Right.

Speaker 1 (01:29:22):
News broke earlier today out of San Antonio. One of
the longest tenured head coaches in professional basketball history, the
winningest head coach in basketball as well, Greg Popovich no
longer the head coach of the San Antai Spurs, transitioning
to a full time role as the team's president of
basketball operations. That was announced earlier today from Popovich in

(01:29:45):
a statement put out by the San Antonio Spurs. Quote,
While my love and passion for the game remain, I've
decided it's time to step away as head coach. I'm
forever grateful to the wonderful players, coaches, staff and fans
who allowed me to serve them as a Spurs head coach.
And I'm excited for the opportunity to continue to support
the organization, community and city that's meant that are so

(01:30:06):
meaningful to meeting. So the Spurs now with head coach
Mitch Johnson, Congratulations, We take the acting part off of
the title is now head coach Mitch Johnson. Now Johnson
this season in San Antonio thirty one and forty five.
In Papovich's absence, he spent about a decade as an

(01:30:30):
assistant for the Spurs organization. After a collegiate career at Stanford,
he played for the Oklahoma City Thunder's G League affiliate,
went to play professional basketball for three years in the
G League and then abroad. He joined the Spurs as
an assistant coach for the team's Austin G League team
back in twenty sixteen. Now, Popovich, it seems probably hand selective,

(01:30:52):
miss Johnson, if you remember when he had the mild
stroke in November, Mitch Johnson was given the title of
acting head coach and now given the title of head
coach of the Santaia Spurs. It carries a ton of weight.
This is one of the best jobs in basketball, not
only because it's in community in San Antonio and a

(01:31:13):
computer team that has won multiple championships and it was
the winningest franchise over the last twenty years. Not only
all of that, but you also have the future face
of the league in Victor women Yama. You have a
Daron Fox Rookie the Year, Stefan Castle, Devin Masel. This
team not only is one of the legendary standard bearers

(01:31:36):
of the twenty first century basketball. You couldn't talk NBA basketball,
You couldn't talk NBA championships in the two thousands without
mentioning the San Antonia Spurs.

Speaker 2 (01:31:47):
So you were.

Speaker 1 (01:31:47):
Given the keys to one of the best franchises, and
on top of that, you have a treasure chest of
picks and assets and you can figure out where you
want to go from here. We were comparing it to
other organizations other times that this has happened. It happens
in basketball a lot more than other sports. You don't
have a lot of times where the manager of a

(01:32:08):
baseball team will say, here's the next guy up, here
is my hat, I'm giving it to this. You don't
get that a ton in football. A lot of football
coaches don't get to hand the whistle off to the
next guy. Basketball, though, it seems that you're able to
kind of pick your successor a little easier. It's a
little little easier of a transition. If I'm saying, hey,
I'm going from this role of head coach into a

(01:32:29):
front office position, and by the way I'm moving my
lead assistant into the spot as well. You have to
remember too that Popovich started his career is and for
the Spurs, at least in that front office type of role.
That he came out of the front office to coach
the Spurs, and in that nineteen ninety seven season that
they struggled and David Robinson had a back injury and
the Spurs end up with a number one overall pick

(01:32:51):
in Tim Duncan, and then boom, you're off to the races.
You add on Tony Parker managed nobly, and then a
Kawhi Leonard a couple decades later, and then boom, you're
a five time champion with Hall of Fame players that
you've coached throughout your entire career. So this is a
huge move for the Spurs. Obviously, this is a turning

(01:33:12):
of the page as well. You think to yourself, Okay,
there's the mild stroke. In November, Papovich was able to
rehab get back. There was a lot of signs pointing
that the rehabilitation was going very well, and it was
had a schedule in a lot of conversations that we
heard from behind the scenes, and then there was the
medical issue a couple of weeks ago that you saw
on TMZ and now we're turning the page completely. And

(01:33:37):
obviously for Spurs fans, this is a very big day,
a momentous occasion, and a lot of people were writing
the obituary for Greg Popovich's coaching career way too soon.
Like I was seeing those in early December, people saying, Okay,
it's never going to come back, and I said, Okay,
let's pump the brakes. Let's wait and see, let's get
all the information before we make broad, very broad, very

(01:34:00):
you know, big statements. And now that the day is
finally here, we can start making some of those that
I think that this is a good place for the
Spurs to beat as the next era changes. Right, the
Victor Womenyama era of Spurs basketball has officially begun. Okay,
this is a guy that if he was able to
play enough games this season, he would have been the
decisive defensive player of the year if the Spurs had

(01:34:24):
women Yama for the majority of the season, if he
didn't miss as many games as he did, They're probably
a play in team, let alone, maybe even a playoff
team if we're being really generous and then Stefan Castle
has a Rookie of the Year campaign that Okay, let's
be fair. This rookie class wasn't then, wasn't not the
nineteen ninety six rookie class. We'll put it that way,
wasn't the three rookie class. Okay, this is a good

(01:34:46):
rookie class. This wasn't an all time great rookie class.
But Stefan Castle rose above his peers and was the
Rookie of the Year. So now you have a lot
of talent on a roster for Mitch Johnson that the
expectation in San Antonio is and will continue to be championships.
It's not fair. It's never fair to have championship or

(01:35:08):
bust mentality. But that is what happens when you win
five championships. That's what happens. When you're in the playoff
for twenty straight seasons. That's what happens. When you have
a guy and Tim Duncan who gets you fifty wins
a season, the standard is win a championship. Is it
fair to Mitch Johnson year one of him being the
head coach for that to be the expectation. Probably not,

(01:35:30):
but that's what it is. Going to be Now turns
into how do I get to that point? How do
I get the San Antonio Spurs in year one of
Mitch Johnson, year three of Victor win mi Yama, in
year two of Stefan Castle, and year one of all
of these guys being able to play together, the Aaron Foxes,
the Chris Pauls, the Harrison Barns of the world, the

(01:35:50):
Cells of the world. Now that I have all you
guys together, how am I able to maximize that talent
and get you to the next level? And I think
back to those coaches who I mentioned previously moved off
of their legendary teams, championship winning teams into front office roles.
The first one was Red Aurbach. He hands the keys
over to Casey Jones. It's a little different because Casey

(01:36:12):
played for Red. But he gives the keys to a
guy who says, Okay, now you run my operation. Now
you're going to be the day to day head coach.
I'm still here. I'm still the puppet master. I'm still
the guy who's evaluating draft picks, who are evaluating free agents,
who's helping run the organization. But you're going to deal
with the on the court in game situations. Casey Jones

(01:36:35):
won championships for the Boston Celtics, so it makes sense. Okay,
Miss Johnson did not win championships with the San Antonio Spurs.
Then you think back to Eric Spoulster in Miami, a
guy who works his way up kind of similar to
what Miss Johnson did work as the G League team,
gets to be the head coach of the Spurs, working
in the video room, becoming the head coach of the
Miami Heat, pat Riley says, you know what, this is

(01:36:56):
a lot of work. I'm an older man. I've won
my titles, I've done my thing. My favorite prints are
all over the league. I'm going to move into a
front office role. I'm going to have my hand picked
successor on the sideline and I'm going to give him
all the freedom in the world. And that's the most
important thing here is that Mis Johnson has enough freedom
to become his own man. Spurs fans, in that thirty

(01:37:19):
minute period between the announcement that Greg Popovich was going
to take a front office role and the announcement that
miss Johnson was the new head coach of the Spurs,
the thirty minute window there I saw more coaching suggestions
that I've seen in my entire life. I saw more
coaching suggestions for who this next Spurs head coach was
going to be that I saw for the Lakers last season,
which is saying something, But this is a hand picked successor.

(01:37:43):
You feel very confident in Greg Popovich's ability to pick
a guy who's going to help run the team, because
you got to give credit where credit is due. He
saw in Tim Duncan what everybody else saw. Hey, this
is a proven talent. This is the guy who's going
to be able to come in and make an impact immediately.
He saw that in Victor Wemenyama. This is the guy
who's able to make an impact immediately on this team.

(01:38:05):
And he knows Papovich knows what went into his decision
making when he was building those teams in the late
nineties early two thousands, and he's gonna be able to
be there and help shape and craft and help shift
where this organization goes. But it's up to miss Johnson
too to have that, say, to have a seat of

(01:38:26):
the table, to make his voice hurt. And that is
where Spurs fans are going to see the real Mitch
Johnson and now that's how I'm excited to find out.
I'm excited to see who the real guy is because
when we take away the acting head coaching title from
him and now he's just the head coach of the
Spurs now with the expectations and with this team, now
we'll find out who the real Mitch Johnson is. And

(01:38:46):
I'm excited to find out. I'm excited to meet him.
I'm excited to know where this team is gonna go. Look,
don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. It's
a new day in Santanio. It's a new day for
the Santonio Spurs. I'm excited for what they're able to
do down there. All right, we come back. Put on
your funny hats. It's Kentucky Derby Weekend as well. You

(01:39:07):
thought we forgot about it. Coming up next Kentucky Derby
Talk on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone Sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Andrew Zim will hanging out
with you this Friday edition of The Craigway Show. If
you missed any of the program, go back and listen
to the free iHeartRadio apps podcasts Number one podcast app
as well. Make us your presets. Longhorn Baseball, tonet on

(01:39:32):
one oh three one, Austin's a station. You can make
them a pre set six forty five air time, seven pm,
first pitch, Craig Way and Keith Morland on the call.
All right, I have my funky hat on. We're ready
for it. It's the Kentucky Derby this weekend. It begins,
it starts the twenty twenty five competition for horses Triple Crown.

(01:39:56):
Nineteen horses are set to race in the annual Run
for the Roses. Now, what's interesting. We go through the horses,
and you know, sometimes you're not really interested in who's
going to have the best odds, who's going to be
You're interested in the names. You're interested in the names. Now,
all right, Marcus, we'll start with you. If you had

(01:40:17):
to name a racing horse, Marcus Spears running our ones
and twos in Austin, making this sound pretty Marcus, if
you had to name a racing horse, what would your
horse races name or horse's name be?

Speaker 2 (01:40:31):
Oh? Man, uh, I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:40:34):
Take off, I don't I had never even thought about
that one, but take off.

Speaker 1 (01:40:41):
We've been we've been going back and forth about the
the spirit of man to come up with the idea
that one hundred of us could take on a gorilla.
And this is the spirit of capitalism here. You got
to be a multi billionaire to own one of these
race horses. These race horses cost millions and millions and
millions of dollars. It's hard to believe, but it's true.

(01:41:01):
Millions of dollars goes into these race horses. So it's
almost like what would you name your yacht when you
come up with what would you name your racehorse? There's
some pretty good ones in this year's racing class. Let's
go through.

Speaker 6 (01:41:13):
So there's just one in particularly I saw already that
I like that name.

Speaker 1 (01:41:19):
Okay, all right, you want to hear this? And bull Yeah, well,
I want to go through. Let's actually, you know what,
let's go let's hear it. What's your number one in
this year's Kentucky Derby off horses races names?

Speaker 6 (01:41:30):
Since I have a journalism degree at the University of
I'm going to go with journalism.

Speaker 1 (01:41:39):
Yes, and journalism is a heavy favorite as well. Three
to one favorite to win this year's Kentucky Derby. People
love this one. People really like the name journalism for
the name of the horse, and I like it. I
like it a lot. That's not a bad name for
a racing horse, because the thing is, you can say
journalism for the wind, journalism down the stretch, for the wind,

(01:41:59):
and it feels good right now. What happens though, if
something happens to journalists, Oh, journalism fell off, Oh, journalism
out of the gates.

Speaker 2 (01:42:06):
Slow, Oh, journalism.

Speaker 1 (01:42:08):
That's where I get kind of like, oh, you know,
it's a good name if it's a winner, not that
great name. If we say, coming in fifteenth place, journalism.
You know, journalism fails to report. Well, it was supposed
to be twenty horses. One horse can canceled, So yeah,
one horse did fail to report already, all right. So

(01:42:28):
citizen Bull is another one that I like. Final gambit
is one American promise? Is that to anything? Forty Marcus
American promise? Feel pretty good about that name. Yeah, that
one's a little proud for right though. Then of course
we have Birmingham Square Flying Mohawk. I like that one
feels pretty good. East Avenue Publisher, which I believe is

(01:42:51):
a sibling of Journalism Rendered Judgment. Yeah, feeling pretty good.
Cold battle Sandman. Sand Man enters the race. Okay, feeling
pretty good. Sovereignty, chunk of Gold, owing Almighty, not that.
Not bad names for some of these horses. Now, I

(01:43:11):
will always feel that American Pharaoh is probably the best
racing horses name of the last like twenty years. That
was just like a perfect name for a winning horse,
American Pharaoh.

Speaker 2 (01:43:21):
Do you agree, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's a
good one, right though.

Speaker 1 (01:43:28):
Now the Derby field has been capped to twenty horses
since nineteen seventy five. Most of the horses become eligible
through the Derby because I know you're wondering, how do
you get to be in the Kentucky Derby, So most
of these horses are eligible. They earn points in a
series of races in the United States starts last September.
Journalism your horse Marcus worked his way up the leaderboard

(01:43:50):
in California one at Los Alamos Steaks in December, and
then also worn one marches San Felipe State last month. Okay,
so we're feeling pretty good now. This is the first
leg of the Triple Crown. I had a person come
up to me the other day and ask about because again,
probably the most famous racing horse of all time is Secretariat,

(01:44:12):
and now we are I think it's like eight generations removed.
Maybe it's ten generations. I have to double check that one,
but it's where generations removed away from Secretariat winning. And
we were talking about because the Kentucky Derby always comes
up and it's almost like talking basketball, and you have
to start talking about Michael Jordan. That's how what Secretary
is to horse racing. You have to mention Secretariat if

(01:44:34):
you're going to talk horse racing, at least at a
casual level. And we're going back and forth, and I
was talking about Sports Century, which ESPN did at the
end of the twentieth century.

Speaker 2 (01:44:44):
Marcus, have you remember do you remember this? Do you
remember Sports Century?

Speaker 3 (01:44:48):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:44:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember that show.

Speaker 1 (01:44:51):
Okay, So they did the documentary on the biggest Athletes, right,
So Magic Johnson got one, Hank Garon got one, Jackie
Robinson got one, and they ranked They had a bunch
of the ESPN pundits at the time rank their athletes.
So of course, you know Ali is in that conversation,
Jordan Gretzky and one person put Secretariat in their top

(01:45:13):
ten for athletes of the twentieth century. That should go
to tell you how impressive Secretariat is. That they felt
that they could put him in the same conversation as
the Great One and his airness and the grace of
all time, that Secretariat is at that level. But we
were going back and forth and we were talking about Secretary,
and I said that in the time where horse racing

(01:45:34):
is almost like a sideshow, where racing at one point,
horse racing and boxing and baseball were the big three,
and now I think it would be hard. I think
most people wouldn't know where to watch the Kentucky Derby
this weekend if you asked them. In a world now
where horse racing has obviously taken a very big backseat,
what would somebody like Secretariat do to the sport? Would

(01:45:58):
they be able to bring up and revitalize and breathe
a breath of fresh air into the sport of horse racing?
I wonder though, because again, Secretary was the biggest thing
at one point. Would a horse like that be able
to come in in today not only compete but dominate
the way that Secretariat did. I don't know, And I'm

(01:46:19):
curious because you think back Okay, show Heyo Tani and baseball.
Baseball used to be the national pastime and now it's
very much a regional sport. But a guy like Otani
shows up who's unique and who is gifted, and who
can play both positions pitcher and hit her and do
something that nobody else has done since. Again, like Babe Ruth,

(01:46:41):
he's able to breathe life into the sport and make
it a national conversation that you can talk to a
guy in Atlanta, Georgia, or Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, or you know, Bozeman, Montana,
and you know who they're talking about because they're that
big of a deal. Would a horse like Secretary be
able to do the same thing to horse racing today?

(01:47:03):
I wonder, you know, how big of a star, how
big of a story? Would it have to be a
horse beating other competitors by multiple, multiple lengths? Would that
be enough? Is Secretary a big enough person if you
put them back into today's time, would that be enough
to make horse racing a big enough sport that you
would care about it that the Kentucky Derby comes and goes,

(01:47:26):
and you know, people barely blink unless you know somebody
in your life who's degenerate gambler or somebody who's ultra
wealthy and is going to Churchill Downs. It doesn't I
don't think move the needle for most people. That's that's
where we're at right now with horse racing in America.
So all right, I thought I could get a response

(01:47:47):
out of the markets. All right, that's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:47:49):
Oh I didn't know. No, I was my opinion on it.

Speaker 6 (01:47:56):
The problem is with horse racing is they only run
for a year. It's like you dominate that one year.
It's no follow back. It's like when if you, oh, Tony,
we can watch them next year, we can watch them
a year after. Uh, you get a great boxer, you
can watch you could you get a great boxer knocking
people out, you, you're gonna see them year after year.

(01:48:20):
With horse racing, you see one dominant year and then
it's like thingos, it's over.

Speaker 1 (01:48:29):
I love that, Joe. You want to see a dynastic run.
I understand that. I can get behind that. I can
understand wanting to see a horse run year after year
after year. All right, well, Kentucky journey. Yeah, let's hear
it now.

Speaker 6 (01:48:42):
If you continuously have a horse dominate year after year
like another horse dominate the next year, then you start
to draw some interest. But then again, if that happens
too long, then you don't lose that interest. But you
might need to have a run of triple crown winners
and some dominic triple crown win us to draw ad attention.

Speaker 1 (01:49:06):
We will see can horse racing be saved? We'll figure
it out. Next next show, All right, Kentucky Derby this
weekend Saturday, NBC. You can also stream it on Peacock
nbcsports dot com The Kentucky Derby. The race begins at
five fifty seven pm Central Standard Time. If you're somebody

(01:49:26):
who wants to watch it live, All right, when we
come back, we will put a bow on it. Wrap
up a Friday edition of The Craigway Show. Next on
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. S Horse Radio
AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Andrews Im will hanging out
with you this Friday. Thanks for hanging out with us
on The Craigway Show. Craig will be back in the
Big chair on Monday. Tonight. Texas Baseball plays Arkansas seven pm,

(01:49:51):
First pitch, six forty five air time on Sports or
on a Austin's ay station one O three one FM.
You can listen to it on the free iHeartRadio app
as well. All right, we were talking about Secretary in
the last segment, and I found this incredible stat for
you here. It is, more than fifty years after Secretariat's
record breaking performance in the nineteen seventy three Kentucky Derby,

(01:50:12):
his bloodline is still featured prominently in American horse racing.
In fact, each horse in this year's Kentucky Derby has
Secretariat pedigree. Can you believe that of the twenty horses
that are qualified for the Kentucky Derby this weekend at
Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, all twenty are related to Secretary. Now,

(01:50:37):
that doesn't mean that they're all direct descendants of Secretary.
That's not saying that all of these are clones genetic clubs. No,
they're all cousins. Because of the way that horse racing works.
When you are a champion like Secretariat was in nineteen
seventy three, you go to a little bit of a
breeding farm and you get a lot of money for
your horse. By the way, when you do that, but

(01:50:58):
all twenty of the horses that qualified for the Derby
this year.

Speaker 2 (01:51:04):
Are all cousins. Isn't that interesting? Find that interesting, Marcus, that.

Speaker 1 (01:51:08):
They all talk about Secretary, all of them are related.

Speaker 6 (01:51:13):
It's kind of funny because it's like when Secretary was
hanging out growing up. It's like his homeboy was able
to get a little piece because of what Secretarist.

Speaker 2 (01:51:22):
Did exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:51:26):
It's truly remarkable horse racing something that more people need
to be paying attention to.

Speaker 3 (01:51:31):
I think.

Speaker 1 (01:51:32):
All right, So Texas baseball tonight. They lose yesterday nine
zero shut out for the first time this season against
an Arkansas team that is still vying for a spot
in the top five in the SEC Baseball standings. This
is a very good ball club in Arkansas. Craig Way
will be on the call. He talked to us a
little bit earlier in the program. If you missed, you

(01:51:52):
can go back and listen to the podcast. But he
was giving a lot of love to Zach Route, who
pitched marvelously last night, allowing only two hit and two
walks and eight innings of work. And the Longhorns this
season when they face off against a pitcher like that,
when you're talking about a guy who's probably top three
to five in the SEC and probably top fifteen across

(01:52:13):
college baseball. You're gonna have trouble with that. But the
real thing that's gonna come down to this series is
when a team like Arkansas can throw out that first picture,
what are you able to do with pitchers two and three?
Because when you play in a tournament like the SEC
tournament or in Omaha, you're not going to see every
team's best player, our best pitcher, I should say, you're

(01:52:34):
going to see the best picture maybe once you hope
that that is a position that you rise to the
occasion of and rise to the occasion of playing them
and knock him off the hill early, hopefully. But you
only see that guy once in a series. You're not
gonna be able to see him again. He's not gonna
pop up his head up in a game later down
the road.

Speaker 2 (01:52:53):
For you.

Speaker 1 (01:52:54):
You're gonna see him once and do what you need
to do to get past him in that spot, and
then you see where you can go from there. How
long how Texas plays tonight and Saturday is going to
give a real uh. I don't want to call it
a test because you're testing every single game in the SEC,
but it is a good benchmark, I think, a good

(01:53:16):
high water mark for where this team is. Right, you
can kind of do a little bit of experimentation, you
can kind of see where we are as a program.
Because while every team deals with injuries, and you don't
want to make that excuse. You don't want to say like, well,
we were injured. Oh, you don't want to make that
a talking point when it comes to teams rises and
falls during the season, because everybody deals with them. Texas

(01:53:39):
is uniquely positioned because they lose their starter and spencer
for the season with his shoulder injury, and then you
lose Max Blue for six weeks with a thumb injury.
Now according to Krag and according to reports, he will
be back hopefully by the SEC Tournament, maybe a little
bit later. But you would like to not deal with that.
And if you're gonna deal with it, if you're gonna
take your lumps, let's take them now a couple of

(01:54:00):
weeks prior to the SEC Tournament, then during the SEC
tournament or later down the road, like let's figure out
what this team is.

Speaker 2 (01:54:08):
Let's lock in.

Speaker 1 (01:54:10):
And again I agree with Craig when he says we
need to see Longhorns step up in a big way
in the series against Arkansas. Start getting your confidence going. Hey,
I know that Max Blue was the big bopper. I
know he was a guy that was hitting the long
ball for the majority of the season. But he's not
coming through those doors. Who's gonna step up? Who's gonna
show up? Flores has been the guy that has kind

(01:54:31):
of been pegged as hey, he needs to be the
guy who steps up in this series against Arkansas and
then against Florida and Oklahoma and the two following SEC
series the next two weekends. But Longhorns Tonight six forty
five airtimes seven pm, first pitch one oh three one.
That is where you're going to want to listen and
find out because today's a pivotal day. It's game two

(01:54:53):
of a three game series. You're gonna find out where
the series is gonna go after tonight's matchup. So all right,
that will do it for The Craigway Show this Friday,
the Friday edition of The Craigway Show. I'm glad that
you guys were able to hang out with us. I'm
glad that you spend a little bit of time with us.
Game tonight, game tomorrow. Don't want to miss either one

(01:55:13):
of those. And I gotta give it a big shout
out to Texas softball battle back against Kentucky Day got
a good win against the Wildcats. Back to back wins.
They're getting back in their mojo. They're feeling pretty good, Marcus.
Any big weekend plans.

Speaker 6 (01:55:30):
Uh, watch some basketball, watch some Probably gonna watch a
fight this weekend, Canelo Alvarez fight.

Speaker 2 (01:55:37):
I think this.

Speaker 1 (01:55:37):
Weekend all right? We love to see its fiesta in
San Antonio. Hopefully the weather holds up for me down
here and I can I can do some stuff Until
next time. Kids, I'm Andrew ZIMML. Don't forget. I'm not wrong.
I'm just early piece

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