Talking Texas Baseball, Softball, and Basketball!

Craig Way and Jake Herman get you ready for tomorrow's season opener for the Texas Baseball team with soundbites from coach Jim Schlossnagle and a few of his players. Plus, hear from Texas MBB Head Coach Sean Miller as he previews the weekend's matchup at Missouri, as well as UT Softball play-by-play voice Andrew Haynes with a preview of the weekend's Bevo Classic, doubling as the team's home opener.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Good afternoon, everybody, a Thursday here on sports radio AM
thirteen hundred The Zone.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome in to the Craig Way Show.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
My name is Jake Krbman, the producer of this program,
and Craig will be.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
With us shortly.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
He is on his way over from the UT campus
where he just finished up recording this week's edition of
Longhorn Weekly with head coach Sean Miller.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
You can hear that program tomorrow night. You can hear this.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Program from two to five pm here this afternoon. So
glad to have you with us here on AM thirteen
hundred The Zone. Coming up, we will talk a wide
variety of UT sports, including a heavy dose of baseball today. Yes,
baseball season is finally here, and Longhorn Baseball will begin
its season tomorrow night at home against the Aggies of

(00:55):
UC Davis. Yesterday, Jim Schlosnagel and several of his players
we're available for the media, answered some questions, got some
more insight into what this season of UT baseball might
look like. And we're going to hear some of those
sound bites throughout the show here this afternoon and get
you excited, ready to go prepared. If you're planning on

(01:16):
going out to the game to watch this UT Baseball team.
We'll also talk some Texas softball who was already off
to a four and one start. They will have their
home opener this weekend in the BVO Classic. We'll tell
you a little bit more about what to expect from them.
We'll also be giving away a couple of pairs of tickets,

(01:37):
one to the UT Baseball game on I believe Saturday night, will.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Be giving away today.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
We gave away a couple of pairs of tickets to
the Friday game yesterday and that was done via our
text line. You can always get in touch with the
show by texting the word Texas followed by your question
or comment or in this case, your answer to eight one,
five three zero. Yesterday we posed the trivia quest for you.
Texas lost to UTSA in the regional round at the

(02:04):
Austin Regional last year in the baseball postseason. But who
are the other two teams in the region. Those answers
Kansas State and Houston Christian And those first two people
who texted those in were winners of UT Baseball tickets.
So stay with us throughout the show here this afternoon,
we'll give you a chance to win some more tickets.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Have that text line ready.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
You can also get in touch with us via the
talkback feature and that's pretty simple to get up and running.
Install the iHeartRadio app completely free. Search AM thirteen hundred
the zone and tap the red microphone button once you
get there, and that will allow you to get involved
in our other contesting and we will be giving away

(02:48):
some other concert tickets during the show today. Ella Langley
is coming to Austin. Will tell you what that keyword is,
give you a chance to enter for those. It's a
busy week for Texas basketball as well. Texas men got
a midweek by on Tuesday, but they'll be back in
action on Saturday night in Colombia against Missouri. It's a

(03:10):
big game for a Texas team that finds itself on
the right side of the bubble right now. According to
most bracketologist projections, Missouri one of those teams that's been
trending in a little bit of the opposite direction lately,
but on the road, this still qualifies as a good
quad one opportunity for this Texas team to boost your resume. Remember,
if you're playing a team in the top seventy five

(03:32):
on the road. That's what the net rankings, which the
NCAA USES classifies as a quad one, and so those
are like gold right now. If you're a Texas team
trying to boost your tournament case and after winning three
conference games in a row, the Longhorns will look to
make it a fourth. Get to sixteen to nine overall,
gets to seven and five in SEC play on Saturday

(03:54):
against Missouri. We will hear some of Sean Miller's thoughts
on the Missouri Tigers coming up a little later. Craig
actually just coming over from campus right now after recording
that conversation with Sean Miller will get where he'll give
his thoughts on the Tigers and tell you a little
bit more about what this off week looked like for
Texas after they took care of the Ole miss Rebels

(04:16):
led by former Longhorn's head coach Chris Beard. Great atmosphere
at Moody Center for that one on Saturday. There's a
big game tonight as well for the Texas women's team.
And it's funny this game is actually on SEC Network.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Plus.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Vick Schaeffer kind of addressed that question yesterday because he
was a little surprised by it as well. Some of
those scheduling decisions are made before the season, but I'm
not sure many people saw Vanderbilt before the season as
the number five team in the country when it comes
to women's basketball. The Texas women are in Nashville for
a game that tips off at six point thirty tonight.

(04:53):
You can hear it with coverage starting at six point fifteen.
Roger Wallace and Kathy Harson will have the call right
here on Sports Radio AI thirteen hundred The Zone. The
Texas Longhorns will put their five game win streak to
the test against MICHAELA. Blake's and the star studded Vanderbilt backcore.
This is a big time clash of styles. We covered
it a little bit on the show yesterday. The Commodoores

(05:15):
up tempo offense, the Longhorns suffocating defense.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
And we'll hear a little bit more from.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Texas head coach Vick Schaeffer, his preview, his thoughts on
yet another top five matchup for Texas. Quite the sec
gauntlet right now for the Longhorns, who are twenty three
to two overall this season. Vanderbilt only a two loss
team themselves, so It'll be the Texas Longhorns twelfth game
of the season already against the ranked opponent, and those

(05:43):
tests are not gonna stop anytime soon. Turn around Sunday
and Texas will be in Knoxville taking on number twenty
two Tennessee. They'll be home in between and then making
up a game out in Fayetteville against Arkansas a week
from today. So it is getting towards right the dow
days of the college basketball season. Not quite into conference
tournament time yet, but getting closer and closer to those

(06:08):
two words we all love, March Madness as far as
men's college basketball goes. There was a couple of SEC
teams in action last night. I thought Florida looked pretty
convincing in their twenty point victory at Georgia if you're
a Texas fan. And makes that upcoming game against Georgia
even more important because both of those teams right now
landing on the bubble. Texas already beating the Bulldogs in

(06:32):
Austin a couple of weeks ago. They will make a
return trip to Athens coming up a little later in
the season. That game's actually a week from Saturday, so
that's setting up to be a potential bubble battle there
other games. Number two Michigan got off to a slow
start at Northwestern. They were not looking like themselves for
a lot of the first half, but just found another

(06:53):
gear offensively and half. Number two overcame a nine point
deficit to beat Northwestern, who has really struggled this year,
eighty seven to seventy five. Number six Yukon, same story
at Butler, who is just four and ten in the
Big East. They played the Yukon Husky's tough for about
well a half, had a couple of segments yesterday, but

(07:14):
Dan Hurley's team, who did beat Texas earlier in the year,
able to win that one eighty to seventy.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
No other huge upsets to report.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Number twenty Clemson dropped the game at home against unranked
Virginia Tech last night, but nothing two eyebrow raising in
the world of college basketball. Yesterday, Texas Tech held serve
at home with a big seventy eight to forty four
win over Colorado.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
So coming up, we're going.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
To discuss all sorts of storylines pertaining to ut baseball.
Well here from Ruger Riojas, Adrian Rodriguez, as well as
Carson Tiny time permitting Tenny, of course, the catcher who
transferred into the program from Notre Dame's got a lot
of pop in that bat. He'll talk about why he
chose Texas and what it's been like to work with

(08:00):
this pitching staff so far. Adrian Rodriguez will tell us
a little bit about that hand injury that hampered him
towards the end of last season, what he learned from
kind of the recovery process, and tell you a little
bit about what the expectations are inside that clubhouse for
Texas Baseball. And then Jim Shlastnegele takes us behind the
curtain a little bit on Jonah Williams, that big story

(08:24):
two sport athlete who will be playing potentially in the
outfield this season for Texas Baseball. He'll elaborate a little
bit more on what that relationship is like with coach
Sark navigating that unprecedented kind of two sport athletes. And
I say unprecedented, and plenty of guys have done it,
but the time, commitments and all the different wrinkles involved,

(08:47):
there's a reason you don't see too many players at
power for schools like Texas playing multiple sports, especially when
one of them is as demanding on your schedule as football,
So he'll talk a little bit about that Roofie, his
pitching rotation, give us a little hint into his potential
batting lineup when he fills in the scorecard tomorrow night

(09:08):
and gets you all set to go for Texas Baseball's
season opener. We'll be with you from two to five.
We welcome your comments, your questions again. Our text line
is eight one five three zero. All you have to
do is text the word Texas followed by your question
and we'll get the show rolling in just a moment
here on AM thirteen hundred zone.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yes, we have landed in the building.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
Glad to be with you here on the Thursday afternoon
here on the Craig Wait Show. My name is Craig Way.
Thanks very much for joining us. Glad to have you
with us. Hey, Thursday down. He'll run right getting ready
for the weekend for those of you if you Friday
and Saturday or your weekend otherwise, Hope the rest of
the day is going well. Thanks to Jake Herman opening

(10:00):
the program this afternoon. Folks are used to your voice
by now, so you know a metre of fact that
you opened the program while I was finishing up on
campus at ut is is nothing unusual or nothing new?

Speaker 1 (10:12):
Well, hey, at least they know it's not Craig, right,
I don't have to clarify that.

Speaker 4 (10:16):
I think from the first syllables you speak, I think
they could tell the vocal difference probably between the two of.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Us different registers. It's fine, you know, some of us
are Gladys Knight and some of us are the Pips.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
Well, as we said yesterday on the program, I think
in another life I could have been one of the Pips.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
You know, maybe I don't know.

Speaker 4 (10:38):
You know, I certainly don't have Gladys Knight singing voice,
I can tell you that. But anyway, glad to be here. Yes,
I was over on campus. We were recording Long Worn
Weekly with Sean Miller, and then also I had to
get over to UFCU dish fark Field where we were
putting in everything to get ready for or not only

(11:02):
tomorrow's season opening baseball game for the Long WRN baseball team,
but also we're gonna bring you the program from UFCU
dish faut Field tomorrow afternoon as well. So we had
to make sure everything was in place and working properly
and texting testing to make sure it all worked properly.
So that was that was between that and Long Run Weekly.
That was the reason for the delay a little bit.

(11:26):
So thanks to Jake for stepping in. As Jake mentioned
the show, I was thinking the show airs tonight. Am
I wrong about that Long Run? After the Texas women's game,
thought Cameron told me that.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
You know it might be Actually, yeah, it might be
following the game at nine tonight, now that I check
on it, Yep, yep, I think.

Speaker 4 (11:45):
I think Long Worn Weekly with Sean Miller's coming right now. Now,
we're gonna give you a little sneak preview like we
always do. We'll let you hear an excerpt from it
on the program this afternoon, so we'll let you hear
some of that. Also, we're gonna hear from Vick Schaeffer.
What a huge game this is tonight for the Texas

(12:07):
women's basketball team. For the second consecutive Thursday night.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
The Long Worns are going to be.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
Playing the fifth ranked team in the country, So, uh,
they're gonna they're gonna have to deal with a number
five team again for the second straight week. Last Thursday night,
it was LSU and the long orenge won that contest, uh,
pulling away in the fourth quarter tonight, It's gonna be
it's a different type of group.

Speaker 5 (12:36):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (12:36):
It is Vanderbilt who is number five, just as LSU
was number five last week, and after the Texas victory,
LSU fell out of the number five spot and Vandy
moved into the five spot.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
And that's in large.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
Measure because they've been, you know, really really good and
consistent throughout the course of the week, the course of
the season. Really even remember they started off they were
undefeated for a long time and then they got knocked
out of the unbeaten perch and they have turned it
back around now. So they're at number five in the

(13:10):
country and Texas will have that. So we're going to
hear from Vick Schaeffer in discussing that. But as Jake mentioned,
it is a long worn baseball week because the season
opener is tomorrow evening at UFCU just far Field against
UC Davis, coached by former Longhorn stand out infielder Tommy Nicholson.

(13:36):
Tommy was on Augie Garrito staff after playing. He was
on the two thousand College World Series team that texted
the first team that the Longhorns had under Augie Garrito
to make it to Omaha, and Nicholson was a key

(13:57):
in fielder. He was very versatile, could play virtue any
position in the infield. And then he was originally from
California and he went out. He was I believe, on
Mark Marquis staff at Stanford. Then he got his first
head coaching job, he was at Sacramento State. Now he's
at UC Davis, so he'll be coaching them. And the

(14:20):
Longhorne's prepared to begin their second season under Jim Slastnigle,
and it was announced yesterday that he had his rotation
set at least for this opening weekend. Now, I think
it's important to keep in mind that, especially early in

(14:41):
the season, these are pretty fluid. First of all, the
guys who are starting on the mound Tomorrow, Saturday and
Sunday may not be stretched out quite as far because
it is early in the season. Some of it will
depend on how the game is unfolding, and some of
it will defend depend on their effectiveness. And yes, pitch
count gets factored into it. Lots of different things go
into it, different elements.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
But they have.

Speaker 4 (15:05):
The three starters that he announced yesterday, and that Ruger Riojas,
who kind of swung between starter and reliever last year,
he'll get the start in the series opener.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
That's tomorrow night, Saturday afternoon.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
Luke Harrison, who had came in as a reliever, converted
to starter, done a good job than he had Tommy
Johns surgery and came back and they built him back
up to where he could start again. He's the starter
for Saturday's game. And then Dylan Valantis, who was the
SEC Freshman of the Year as a freshman All American

(15:43):
as the closer for Texas, exits that role as the
closer to become at least this weekend, and we'll see
how everything goes.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
The game three started.

Speaker 4 (15:55):
So Schloss was asked at the media availability yesterday, first
and foremost, how did he come about settling on the
rotation the way he wanted to do it?

Speaker 6 (16:05):
Yeah, I think a lot of things went into it.
I think number one, the way.

Speaker 7 (16:09):
Ruger's pitched, it's just really been outstanding. He's physically in
a much different space than what he was last year.
Game gains some really good way over the summers to
be significantly stronger. Love his experience and he's been in
that role for us. You know, when Spencer went down
last year, he had to step right in. I think

(16:29):
it was the A and M series was his first
Friday night start, did a really nice job, had a
stress where he was good, had a stress where it
wasn't that great, came back and through well at the end.
But he's you know, he's earned it, and it's more
about a state of him than the really anybody else.

Speaker 6 (16:45):
The other guys have pitched.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
Well too, but right now it's all going to start
with okay, So that's the reasoning why he's he's going
with the rotation in the order that he's gone for
this weekend. Here's a question, you knew somebody who's gonn
bring upretty quickly because Dylan Valanzez was closer last year
and because at the start of the year of the

(17:08):
first start, he might not go that long as the starter.
The question then becomes, since he is now a starter,
does that mean he would not be available to come
out of the pen if needed either Friday or Saturday.

Speaker 6 (17:25):
He's a starting pitcher to start the season.

Speaker 7 (17:27):
Will we'll give all of them some rope in the
first three to four weeks to see how they do
as long as they maintain health and certainly Jason Flores,
Sam Cozart, those guys are spread up there with them
and will give them opportunities as well. And as we
get closer for the Toppers play, then I see how
everybody's pitching, and see what the see what the health
situations is of everyone, and then see what's best for

(17:50):
the team moving.

Speaker 6 (17:50):
Forward into sec player.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
Yeah, and therein lies the real key to this deal
is that this is going to unfold over time. Nothing
is set in stone, and that includes the position players
as well. He would have in mind what he wants
to do with the lineup, but that doesn't mean that
lineup is gonna, you know, be the everyday lineup every
day all the way through the season, and that the
book has been closed on that. No, this will evolve

(18:14):
over time. Back to Atlantis, uh Slospa's ass does going
into the rotation as the starter on Sunday and he'll
be work as a starter, not to relieve.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Does that ease any pressure on Dylan?

Speaker 6 (18:29):
I don't know if there's any pressure.

Speaker 7 (18:30):
I mean, he's he's pitched in the most pressure of
point moments you could possibly have in the SEC, at
least in conference play, you know, as he did as
a pressman last year.

Speaker 6 (18:40):
So I think it's more he was again he.

Speaker 7 (18:44):
Didn't get a fall practice, so that's that's really kind
of and he's just kind of building up or he's
developing some new pitches. I think he's had three or
four four inner squad opportunities, and each one continues to
get a little bit better than the last one. But
it's just a numbers game, really, there's no there's no

(19:06):
underlying reason why I won with Mitchell Friday, more with.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
Pitche on Sunday.

Speaker 4 (19:09):
Okay, which then gets to the next question, what does
it say about this roster that Balantis is the guy
to start on Sunday and at least for the time being,
be the Sunday starter.

Speaker 7 (19:20):
Well, certainly you know their challeent, isn't I mean, they're
all talented and uh super grateful to have Luke and
Bruger back along with Rubbs. You know, those guys are
three guys. They were the three most important recruits we
could possibly have to get those guys back, uh for
their for their last year, and that really gives us
some space to allow the younger guys to develop, and

(19:43):
not very many better pitchers in the transfer portal than
those guys, so getting those getting those guys back to
Texas is like.

Speaker 6 (19:50):
Getting a great transfer.

Speaker 7 (19:51):
So yeah, at this point, we haven't played the real
games yet.

Speaker 6 (19:55):
I like the depth of our pitching staff, but.

Speaker 7 (19:57):
We have to go play the games, you know, in
the past, ever week, the future. So yes, you know,
there's been a lot of conversation about our pitching, but
they have to go do.

Speaker 6 (20:05):
It, you know.

Speaker 7 (20:06):
And we're not gonna sneak up on anybody, especially at Texas.

Speaker 8 (20:09):
So.

Speaker 6 (20:11):
High fuel confidence they will, but we have to play
the games.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
Okay, all right, there's some things from Jim Schlosnek. We'll
hear some more from him coming up next time. I
want to hear just a little bit of Adrian Rodriguez.
What fabulous freshman campaign he was having until he had
the hand injury. And first and foremost, he was asked
what does he like about this particular team? Which roots

(20:35):
really stood out to him? Oh, I like to compete.

Speaker 9 (20:38):
Our presence in the box as an offensive As an
offensive brug definitely stands out in my opinion, and just
the hard work from the pitching side and the offensive side.
Everyone gets here really early, just gets gets out of
work in and that's that's what I.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
Love about it. And a rod Is they know him.

Speaker 4 (21:00):
Was because of the hand injury, unable to play the
fielding position. It got late in the season where he
was able to d h and that helped a lot.
So what was that rehab process like going through that
with the hand injury.

Speaker 10 (21:14):
My rehab process was it was quite long, but I
was able to work with Tulo just say doctor shit.

Speaker 6 (21:22):
I learned to Los Angeles so you can see it.

Speaker 10 (21:25):
See was hard in my hand, but I got to
watch a lot, so I definitely got better protessionally watching
rather mention just hitting.

Speaker 6 (21:33):
So I think and most of my parts of my
game that I maybe didn't have last year, I definitely
got better this year.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
Becaun't it okay?

Speaker 4 (21:41):
And then if there are things to be learned, I mean,
injuries are not something you intentionally do to yourself, but
that doesn't mean they can't provide a learning experience and
learning tools. So what did he learn going through all that,
the hand injury, the rehab, all of the above.

Speaker 10 (21:56):
I learned that I didn't need to know many things
in the cage that last year, I was a case
every single question for five six hours a day at
the most, and I was in there all day. And
if I took a day off from swinging, like I
would feel like that was like one of my biggest fears.
If I took him one day off of hitting, then
both my singers get rusty. So that's what I've I've

(22:17):
learned is just like watching You can learn a lot
from just watching people hit, like Hate Robins, Carsonini, Eithan
Windoza like all those guys.

Speaker 6 (22:25):
I've learned a lot. And my singers got.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
There just because of Washington.

Speaker 4 (22:29):
Okay, so there's some things from Adrian Rodriguez. We'll hear
more from the long warn players coming up up next.
We do bring you Inconceivable here on a Thursday afternoon,
chock full of the junk food Fast Food Update as well,
because we know Jake is such a junk food junkie.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
He just throws that stuff down the gullon all the time.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
They could tell from the second I started the show today.

Speaker 4 (22:53):
Yeah, okay, all right, truth be told, he actually eats
pretty healthy, a lot healthier than I eat. Or and Cameron,
you know Cameron largely eats pretty healthy. He does, I
will tell you, and this is not necessarily telling tales
out of school. Cameron Parker, of course there, used to

(23:18):
be the producer of this program, and he's now kind
of moved up in the corporate hierarchy hierarchy to where
I refer to him as a middle management clown these days.
But there's nothing clownish about how he engineers the long
worn men's basketball broadcast we have, And there is absolutely
nothing clownish about the way that man can eat. And

(23:41):
when we're on the road and eating with the team, it's,
you know, the best word in the world for Kim buffet,
you know, so they'll be like a big buffet with
good food. Obviously, if the players are eating and they're
wanting them to put the right fuel on body, well
Kim does that. He puts the right amount of fuel,

(24:02):
he puts the right kind of fuel, and he puts
large amounts in there. In fact, a broadcast partner on
Long Worn basketball games, Eddie Orton says that Cameron is
a member of the All knife and Fork team because
he can pack away the groceries.

Speaker 5 (24:18):
I saw.

Speaker 4 (24:18):
He made the watch list for that. Again he did.
He's the early season and mid season he's on that
so Cam can eat. But his workout regimen is so strenuous.
That's why he's in such great shape all the time.
He looks chiseled all the time because the dude is
constantly work it out or playing basketball or in the gym,
whatever he's doing.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
He's constantly grinding and working.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
He could probably bench press me, yeah, and I can
maybe bench press the bar.

Speaker 6 (24:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
So there you go.

Speaker 4 (24:46):
But anyway, we do have some junk food fast food
notes and a couple other things that we'll get to
as well.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
So glad to be with us.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
If you'd like to reach us on the text line,
as always, that's easy to do. All you have to
do is text the word Texas follow by your question
or comment to eight one five three zero. You text
the word Texas follow by your question or comment to
eight one five three zero.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
Standard messaging and data rates may apply. Coming up.

Speaker 4 (25:12):
Also, we'll give away a pair of tickets, two pairs
of tickets to Saturdays Long Worn baseball game against UC Davis.
We gave away a couple pairs yesterday and we did
it on the text line, and we'll do it again
on the text line. We will also give away tickets
to see Ella Langley or give you the opportunity. I

(25:34):
guess I want to make sure I don't mislead anybody
on this. We'll give you the opportunity to be in
the drawing for it and to kind of bypass the
typical drawing by using our talk back feature on the
iHeartRadio app to see La Langley at Moody Center coming
up int August. We'll tell you more about that coming up.
But up next inconceivable here on this Thursday afternoon on

(25:57):
sports Radio AM thirteen under the zone.

Speaker 11 (25:59):
Of the I Heart Ready.

Speaker 4 (26:12):
Second hour of the program here on sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred of the zone, Craig Way alongside the producer
Jay Kerran glad to be with you. With you up
until five o'clock. Muckey and BK will follow at that point.
Don't forget six point fifteen pregame start time six point

(26:32):
thirty tip off from Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville on the
campus and it truly is on the campus of Vanderbilt University.
Texas Women number four in the country play Vanderbilt, number
five in the country in that coming up in the
four o'clock hour. Well, we're going to hear some more

(26:54):
from Vick Schaeffer this hour, and then that was from
his media availability of yesterday, and then coming up in
the four o'clock hour, we'll hear some fresh sound from
VIC from this morning following their shoot around, Little Q
and A with Roger Wallace, who's standing in for me

(27:15):
tonight to call the game. So little Q and A
from Roger with Vic right after the team shoot around
late this morning over at the very strange arena that
is the Memorial Gymnasium, the Opera House. I remember thinking
last year before the start here, because I had never
even been in the building, let alone called a game.

(27:35):
And I remember thinking and even saying, I even said
it on this program that I was looking forward to
calling a game in that building for purposes of how
shall we say, adding it to my broadcasting repertoire being
able to broadcast in a lot of different venues, and

(27:56):
I've been very, very fortunate. There's a lot of places
where Texas has played games or where I have called games,
say for National Radio for Westwood One, Like for example,
for Westwood One, I've called games in Tulsa at the
bo Case in a beautiful arena, but probably would never

(28:17):
call a game there unless Texas was playing in it,
and they did and it called a game there in twenty.

Speaker 5 (28:25):
Eleven.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yeah, that arena looks really nice on the outside.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
It's very nice. Yeah, it's very nice.

Speaker 4 (28:30):
So that one for Westwood One, I was in Columbus
where the Columbus Blue Jackets play. I think it's what
is that called Nationwide Arena. Yep, did first and second
round NCAA tournament there. I've done first and second round
in a lot of places really nice play show arenas.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
And then the other side of that during the pandemic,
and the pandemic.

Speaker 4 (28:57):
Was we were one year into it because remember what
happened when everything shut down. That was March of twenty twenty,
and folks know the story about what happened those Texas.
I had just come off of broadcasting the Southern Conference
championship game for Westwood one and it was in the

(29:18):
little Convention Center arena in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. That's
where they have it area, and it is pretty cool,
pretty cool little building there. But they were already kind
of putting some measures in place. The shutdown had not
happened yet, but so we called the game. John Crispin,
who does a lot of ESPN work, was working with me.

(29:39):
In fact, I went up to John before I think
it was either before the game in Norman or the
game at home, and visit with about He goes, that's right.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
I totally forgot we did that game.

Speaker 4 (29:52):
Said, yeah, it was a weird deal, but it wasn't
as weird as what happened afterwards. And folks have their
own memories of all the weird stuff that happened during
the pandemic. It affected all of us around the world
in different ways, largely in addition to those who were
struck by the illness, those who were in some cases

(30:16):
massively inconvenienced by it by just trying to get toilet paper,
trying to get you know, things like that.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
You know, interesting times they were.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
And when I'd gone over to Kansas City after the
thing in Asheville, the shutdown had not happened yet.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
However, we were told that on.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
The first day the play in games, there were two
play in games that night because at that time the
Big Twelve had ten schools in it, so you had
the seven versus ten game and the eight verses nine,
and I think the eight to nine game, which was
the second game, was TCU in Oklahoma State, and they
had already announced that while they were letting bands and

(31:08):
cheerleaders and dancers and fans all at ten Wednesday for Thursday,
they were putting in distancing things, they were only going
to be one hundred and twenty five fans per school allotted.
It was going to be a largely quiet arena that
we were broadcast in the game from. In fact, this
question came up on the Big twelve broadcasters group text,

(31:33):
are you guys going to like play this?

Speaker 3 (31:36):
We actually had dinner.

Speaker 4 (31:38):
Before we said, yeah, you know, maybe all these distancing
things are going to But we had a dinner on
the Tuesday nighty night before all that started. The tournament
started Wednesday, and I remember us sitting around a table
and the question was being asked, are you guys.

Speaker 3 (31:51):
Going to like talk lower because there's nobody in the building.

Speaker 5 (31:54):
We're like No.

Speaker 4 (31:55):
I was like, I'm not gonna do that. I'm not
doing golf voice.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
No, Dylan is regular Dylan dessou to the free throw line.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
Yeah, I'm not going to do that.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
You know, I'm not going to do that, so I
do remember sitting there and watching as this game was
going on. It all looked regular on Wednesday night, and
I turned to somebody and said, it's all going to
change tomorrow and they said al So I said, well
think about it, you know, with the reduced amounts of people.
Then of course we get to the arena the next
day and they shut everything down. I was actually on

(32:27):
the air at the time court side. We were to
take care at eleven am on the network for an
eleven thirty tip off because Texas and Texas Tech were
in the first game of the day and that was
an eleven thirty tip So I was doing a hit
back to the radio station, which was during my showtime
at that time, from ten am noon was my regular showtime.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
So I was on the air with guys back.

Speaker 4 (32:50):
Cameron was on the board for that and we were
talking about you know, in that morning. When I went
to record the pregame interview with Shaka Smart, he said,
we can do this, but I don't think we're going
to play.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
I said, do you know something I don't know?

Speaker 4 (33:01):
He goes, I only know that the athletic directors are meeting,
and that's not a good side, he said, but let's.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
Go ahead and do it.

Speaker 4 (33:07):
So I recorded a pregame interview that never made the
air as a result of that. So we get on
the air and I'm talking and talking, and the teams
are going through initial warm ups before going back to
the locker room, and it's I'll never forget it. It
was ten fifty. The plan was for me to disengage
at ten fifty five, disconnect network, connect to the network,

(33:31):
and we start at eleven am.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
Because all it is is the push of one button
another butt it is a big deal.

Speaker 4 (33:36):
So we're coming up on ten to fifty and I
see the OPS director Basketball Operations director for Texas, Cody
Hat was Shaka's ops got. He looks at me and
gives me the throat slash, like it's not going to happen.
At ten fifty, I said, fellas I'm saying this on
the air, I have a feeling we're not sure enough.
We got a release and then and then the word

(33:58):
comes down and we carry Bobby's press conference about why
they're shutting down, and then it all shuts down. So
everything got shut down. As we know, there was no
NCAA tournament in the fall. Obviously they picked up late summer,
baseball picked up, Dodgers won the World Series, and then
they go they go on, and we get through the

(34:19):
fall and the winter and outs now into the football
and basketball season, which was kind of weird anyway, because
we had a football game canceled supposed to be at Kansas.
Texas ended up going seven to three during that regular
season ten games because the LSU game had already been
a return game, had already been wiped out, and then

(34:40):
because they were supposed to go to Baton Rouge and
that got taken off the books, and then the Kansas
game didn't happen, and so there were all kinds of
protocols in place, as we remember, and it went through
the basketball season where they had us in different spots,
we had broadcast through masks. There was lots lots of

(35:02):
different things that happened with regard to that. So I
get to Indianapolis, Texas makes the NCAA tournament, they had
won the Big twelve Conference tournament. Everybody's in a great mood.
Texas is a three seed and they're playing Appleting Christian
and we know.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
How that went. You were in school at that time,
weren't you.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yeah, I told you. I think I was.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
For whatever reason. I remember being in Maryland during this game.
I don't know if I was visiting a home that's
probably it did spring break. Certainly I was watching in Maryland.
It was a late tip, it was, and I was
by myself. I was so sad.

Speaker 4 (35:41):
Yeah. The thing is I was also working for Westwood
one there since the entire tournament was in Indianapolis. Remember
they had the entire tournament there, so I was going
to be calling some games from them, and they would
work it around the Texas schedule. One thing that we
had to do every single day for five consecutive days

(36:02):
there was go get tested. Imagine doing that. You know
how many times did you get tested during the during
the pandemic?

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Do you remember several? I mean at least a dozen't.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
Okay, but that will spread out over what several months?

Speaker 1 (36:15):
Yeah, unless unless somebody was exposed or had it right,
I would get tested a few times in a few days.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
If that happened, yeah, then not for for a while.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
Yeah, we had five consecutive days where we had to
go get tested. Yeah, it was a lot of that.
So we do that, and this brings it full circle.
Back to what I was talking about about arenas. Yeah,
Lucas Oil Stadium where the Colts play, and that's where
Texas lost Aplete Christian.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
That's where the Final Four was played.

Speaker 4 (36:45):
You had what's it called the one where the Pacers play,
some like Bank Life.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
Or some Gamebridge Field House is that it.

Speaker 4 (36:53):
I thought it changed its name, but it might still
be Gamebridge. There were games played in that arena as well.
Is it still game Bridge?

Speaker 9 (37:03):
It is?

Speaker 4 (37:03):
Okay, So that's where MI alma mater, North Texas is
a thirteen seed knocked off the fourth seed Purdue. Yeah,
then they got blasted by Villanova, who I think went
on and won the national title. But so, so you
had that arena in play, and then you had the
old fair Grounds Coliseum. It's it's called something completely different now,

(37:26):
it's not even Fairgrounds causes it got a funny name.
I think it's Farmer's Insurance Coliseum. And we were kind
of way up top and I was broadcasting I think
Illinois against somebody like Hofstra or something like that. It
was a blowout wind And then there was I did
a game Oklahoma State was playing somebody. So I was

(37:47):
doing those games for national radio and I thought, what
an old barn this is. And then I go down
the hall here and there's these big, huge frame photos
of the Beatles. They played there in nineteen sixty four
in fairgrounds coliseums.

Speaker 3 (38:06):
So I thought, okay, so that's kind of cool.

Speaker 4 (38:08):
Now broadcasting where the Beatles play, all right, that's all right,
good deal with that. So that was my point is
there's different arenas, styles, ages, that sort of thing, and
Memorial Gymnasium in Vanderbilt in Nashville at Vanderbilt is one
of the most unique. And I remember saying, I'm interested

(38:29):
in seeing this venue and broadcasting from it. The luster
wore off pretty quickly because you're kind of down low
and you're off the stage because it's on a stage basically,
and your backs of a rows. You're looking up and
there's big electronic message signboards that are on there that

(38:52):
block your view almost entirely.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
In one basket.

Speaker 4 (38:55):
Added to that this year is that they've added the
guys who mopped the floor and get perspirational to the
floor and they have these big mops with them.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
So the Vanderbilt people told me they just refer to
them as the.

Speaker 4 (39:06):
Mop boys, and they stand to the immediate as you
face the floor to the right, so now you're really
blocked off. So I didn't have to deal with that
last year, but Roger Wallace will have to deal with
that tonight.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
So I remember listening to that game last year.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
I don't remember afternoon game. Yeah, I don't know tip off.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
I don't remember if you talked about it specifically, but
I was either on the way to or from a
freelance play by play assignment.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
I was listening to that game.

Speaker 4 (39:33):
I mentioned that it was a challenging perspective, but that's
about all I said about it, because it doesn't do
any good to complain it is what it is.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
I remember the officiating being challenging in that game.

Speaker 4 (39:42):
Yeah, there were some of that too. They had what
I would call a C minus crew work in that game,
so that was difficult as well. But yeah, so that'll
be tonight, and against that backdrop, you're going to have
the number four team in the country against the number
five team in the country in women's back basketball, Texas
trying to extend that winning streak, Vanderbilt coming off that

(40:04):
big win over Oklahoma the other night and stating their
own case boat team still in reasonable contention for the
SEC title. But until South Carolina loses the second game,
it's still everybody looking up at.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
The game Cocks.

Speaker 4 (40:18):
They've only lost the one game, so but they play
Saturday night in Baton Rouge at LSU, so we'll see
what happens there. Meanwhile, all the Longhorns can do is
just continue to keep their foot down and plow forward
and see if they keep close to the top having
the two conference losses. All right, Up next, we'll shift

(40:40):
to the men. We're gonna hear from Sean Miller. A
little sneak preview of tonight's Longhorn Weekly with coach Miller
talking about the progress this team has made and where
they still have to go. We'll get to that coming
up right here on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the
zone of the IR Radio app.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Hey, guys, BK here from the Bucky and BK Show.

Speaker 12 (41:00):
Looking out.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
A big well, you're hitting us back with here, Jay
Kim expanding your Dathaniel right lift of the night sweats
knowledge with a little looking here.

Speaker 3 (41:12):
Okay, all right, so there you go.

Speaker 4 (41:14):
By the way, our man John in the bay, very
little gets past him, said he caught when I was
talking about the uh, the FAA inspector who is now
suing United Airlines for twelve million, seven hundred and fifty
thousand dollars because they kicked him off and gave him
a lifetime ban and all this stuff because he busted him.

(41:37):
He was off duty, but there was a torn seat
back and he he he busted them. They had to
make the plane go back to the gate, and the
flight crew got but hurt about it, and they got
real mad and they pulled him off the flight and
they did not know who they were messing with.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
You know, it just it wasn't took in York des call.

Speaker 4 (42:01):
Yeah that's I think that's what he said when they
hauled him off the plane. I don't know or something
like that that.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
I work for the Yeah, right, yeah exactly.

Speaker 13 (42:10):
But what dow.

Speaker 4 (42:13):
You know this this might have been something that could
have fit into inconceivable got a baseball mode. Here we're
finding out there's little things starting to seep out. And
it's usually this way when pitchers and catchers report and
spring training gets underway from Major League Baseball and it
and it has. If I say to you, this is

(42:38):
the softball of all softballs. If I mentioned the name
to you, Nick castianis what comes to.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
Mind, A deep drive to left field, right, and that
will be a home run?

Speaker 2 (42:48):
Yeah right, I might never put on this headset again.

Speaker 4 (42:51):
Tom Brenneman, who is now back in broadcasting, he's he's
he's back and he's working again. But that's after he
was caught aff air with a homophobic slur or two. Well,
it was caught on air. He thought he was on air.
He was in a break, but it went over the air, right.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
Yeah, and then during the apology, Nick Castiano's decided to
hit a home run. Yeah, so he's an other untimely
home runs too. He can't stop doing it.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
Yeah, hit it right in the middle of that.

Speaker 4 (43:20):
Well, the Phillies released Nick Castianos today. They were trying
to make a deal to trade him. I don't think
the Reds were one of those teams, by the way,
but they were trying to make a deal to trade him.
Castianos then revealed about an episode when he was benched

(43:44):
last season. Why well, he toted some beer into the
dugout during the game. The team wanted the situation resolved
before their first full squad workout at spring training, which
is Monday.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
He still owed twenty million bucks.

Speaker 4 (44:04):
He's going into the final season of a five year,
one hundred million dollar contract, and the Phillies will owe
the entirety of that sum, minus the pro rated portion
of the league minimum. So he was bitched last season
after he made what Phillies manager Rob Thompson described as

(44:25):
an inappropriate comment after he was pulled for a defensive
replacement at a game in Miami. Castiano said in September
that communication with Thompson had been questionable, at least in
my experience.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
So when managing that Philly team sounds fun, doesn't it.

Speaker 4 (44:44):
Yeah, just makes as a Dodger fan, it just makes
the fact that they beat him in the NLCS all
the more enjoyable. I would say after that or the
Division series.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
You know, Castianos actually went in to try and make
things right. He said, I consider myself a man of faith.

Speaker 4 (44:58):
I'll stop it. That's a wine from Tom Brenneman. Here's
what he did say at the time. He posted a
handwritten note on social media explaining the incident that preceded
his benching. He said he brought beer into the dugout

(45:20):
after being taken out of a game and complained that
Thompson about team rules. He said his teammates took the
beer away before he drank any of it.

Speaker 3 (45:29):
There it was a prop to get in there. Here's
the quote.

Speaker 4 (45:34):
After being taken out of a close ballgame in front
of my friends and family, I brought a presidente.

Speaker 3 (45:40):
Into the dugout beer.

Speaker 4 (45:43):
I then sat right next to Rob and I let
him know that too much slack in some areas and
too tight of restrictions in others was not conducive to
us winning. I think most people would think bringing beer
into the dugout probably wouldn't be conducive to wit.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
You know, Miami could have used some beer in their
dog out last Yeah, they.

Speaker 3 (46:02):
Might have phillies, different issue.

Speaker 4 (46:05):
Afterward, he went into the office with Thompson and with
Dave Dombrowski, their president of baseball operations. Castiano said, we
aired out our differences, and the conversation ended with me
apologizing for letting my emotions get the best to me.
He added that he was benched the next game his punishment.
How good the ball players? He hit two fifty seventeen
homer seventy two RBIs in one hundred and forty seven games.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
He's always been streaky. Yeah, always been streaky.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
You don't want to face him during the two three
weeks spurts a year he gets when he's one of
the best hitters in the league. Yeah, and the rest
of the time he'll probably strike out a lot.

Speaker 4 (46:37):
Well. As to your point, he had a couple of
really good at bats and that DS against the Dodgers.
But he also got blown away by Roki Sasaki in
the ninethe in Engla game when when the tying run
was on base, So there was that. And then also
he didn't do well against Joeyotani either. Didn't do well
against either of those guys in it.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
You can kind of tell right away when he's over
Matt Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
Yeah, and he lunges at a lot of pitches. That
was all this.

Speaker 4 (47:04):
Adulas Garcia, the former ranger, is expected to replace Castianus
in right field after he signed that ten million dollars
one year contract with the Phillies back in December.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
That's right, another young star in Philadelphia for a window
that'll be open for a long time.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Yeah, yeah, not really. They kind of need to win
it this year.

Speaker 4 (47:23):
Right, all right, we're gonna take a break when we
come back. We're gonna hear from Sean Miller when we
continue on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone in
the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
And I will see mind.

Speaker 4 (47:35):
Well, we were talking about Abbey Road last weee.

Speaker 3 (47:38):
And this is part of that.

Speaker 4 (47:41):
It's the B side of the album, which has one
of the greatest rock medleys of all time, and this
is all part of it.

Speaker 3 (47:53):
And Paul McCartney in recent.

Speaker 4 (47:55):
Con search has put this into the playlist, which is
been really cool. Yep, absolutely, all right, let's talk to
Long Worn men's basketball head coach Sean Miller, with the
team now having won three consecutive games, first time they've
done that at conference play as a member of the SEC,

(48:17):
and now understanding the importance of this game on Saturday
in Columbia. They're going to be playing a Missouri Tiger
team that won in College Station last night, So that
really helps Maszoo's profile increase and it would then help
Texas if they're able to get the win. It's important
for teams that are at near on or on either

(48:40):
side of the bubble. But this little sneak preview portion
of the entirety of the show of Long Worn Weekly
with Sean Miller, which will come your way tonight following
Texas women's basketball. This was one little segment, one portion
of the program that we had with Seawn. The Texas

(49:00):
long wornes come off the win against the Old miss
Rebels on Saturday, and now they get ready to go
back on the road to take on the Missouri Tigers.
We passed the I guess you say the far turn
at getting toward the home stretch of conference play here, Sean.
And obviously it's important for a team to be playing
well in your team has for the first time the

(49:22):
season winning three consecutive conference games. And I know you
made reference to this because I think I heard Kenda
Weaver say it that he never been part of a
team that won three consecutive conference games.

Speaker 14 (49:35):
Right, And I think when you talk about building a program,
not just having a team or winning a game, you know,
or having a good season. And that's really what we're after, Craig,
you know, win the most games, but also to build
Texas basketball into a powerhouse, right to be Like so
many other sports on this campus, there's small victories and
there's like these little small bricks that you put in

(49:57):
on the foundation early on, or you one and it
may not seem significant to a lot of people outside
of our locker room or what we do. Yeah, three
conference games in a row, what's that. But when no
one's done it, or you have a number of guys
that haven't, when they achieve it, there's a stronger belief,
there's a sense of accomplishment, and there's a confidence, and

(50:18):
I think most importantly, there's a hunger to want to
do it again because it's a great feeling.

Speaker 4 (50:22):
I'm always been curious about this. I don't think I've
asked you about this before, but the dynamic, the mental
and psychological dynamic of starting off really well as you
did against Ole Miss, having the lead, slip away, trailing,
and then finishing with that kick. You had a sixteen
oh run in the first half and a fourteen oh
run to finish the game, and in between us a

(50:44):
very competitive basketball on what the psychological makeup is of
a team that kind of goes through that barrier that
goes through starting well, other team makes a run, they
get the lead, and then they have the answer down
the stretch they have to have.

Speaker 14 (51:00):
Right, we don't want to be that team so inevitably,
and you know this even through the other sports that
you cover and our best attempt to like do what
we do and just be systematic in our approach. There's
these outlier moments in sports that happen. Maybe it's bad
weather in a certain game in an outdoor sport, but
in basketball, you know those four minute wars that we

(51:21):
talk a lot about and on the last show we
really went through those. That's what you don't want, these
peaks and valleys in a forty minute game. You want
to just stay present and be a very consistent team
all the way through.

Speaker 5 (51:34):
Those are the.

Speaker 14 (51:34):
Teams that are the most difficult to defeat, and I
think those are the teams that are more like themselves
regardless of whether the game is at home or on
the road. When you start to play what we did
against Ole Miss, the game can really leave you. Imagine
if we were doing that on the road and you
dealt with the crowd when they're doing what they did

(51:54):
to us for a big portion of the second half.
So it was a one game, but really it was
three games within one game.

Speaker 5 (52:01):
Are game versus all mixed?

Speaker 4 (52:03):
You and in the staff I know have been grinding
hard on trying for that consistency level with the guys
and when you see them do this. What are the
things that you glean from that, you and the staff
when you look at it on video about how a
big lead eighteen points in the first half, up twenty

(52:25):
nine to eleven, all that sort of stuff, all of
a sudden it dissipates and then they've got to fight back.
And credit to them for digging down and finding that.
And I know you guys work with them, but what
do you glean from that when you look at that
on why those things happen? Which I'm sure then you
impart to the guys about how you prevent it going forward?

Speaker 5 (52:44):
Right, It's usually a couple one of two things.

Speaker 14 (52:46):
It's you know, you just for whatever reason, turnovers start
to plague your offense. And sometimes missed free throws. You know,
you align for two and miss both. You're in the
front end of a one and one and you're in
the bonus at the free throw line, you miss it,
that's a turnover, right, Or you know, sometimes bad shots
where you took them maybe because of good defense, but

(53:06):
that affects it and you get in a rut, and that,
you know, bad offense helps good helps helps the other
team when they get the ball right to be able
to run out and get easier baskets. That happened against
Old Miss. And sometimes it's on the opposite end where
you get soft, you break assignments. Maybe you have one
of the five guys who's really having a difficult time
defensively and they go right at them. All that kind

(53:29):
of happened all at once for us, especially in the
second half. So a tale of three games. The first
half against Old Miss. Thought our defense was really intact.
Thought we played good offense, not great. That's why we
had the lead that we did at halftime. And then
really the first twelve minutes of the second half, which
is a long time, that's like the first three four
minute segments of the second half. We were able to

(53:51):
continue to score, but our defense left us And I
credit Old Miss.

Speaker 5 (53:55):
They screened, they execute.

Speaker 14 (53:57):
I thought they hit three or four shots that were
tough contested at the end of the clock or from
that area on the court, the tough two we talk about.
They made a number of them, and sometimes that happens
the other team does a good job.

Speaker 5 (54:10):
That was part of it.

Speaker 14 (54:11):
But we got our defense back down the stretch. We
continued to score. Most importantly, I think what that game
was a test of was it was a test of
our confidence. Will we lose it at home against the
team that we were better than for most of the game,
and then you know, can we get it back? And
the fact that we were able to reach down and

(54:33):
get it back, meaning we finished the game like we began.
The last eight minutes, especially the last four minutes of
the game, guys made big plays, not just on offense
but on defense. And it wasn't one player, it was
three or four players. Jordan Pope's three point shot from
the left corner, a four point play got fouled. Sim
Wilcher's three point shot in front of our bench were

(54:54):
two huge momentum plays down the stretch in a game
that helped us secure the victory. So in the first half,
the ole miss where they took it to us, and
then we repaired it and finished down the stretch. We
can gain confidence from that because you know things aren't
always going to go perfect. You're gonna have to play
through foul trouble and different things that happened. And when

(55:15):
that hits you, it tests your resolve, your will, you're togetherness.
And I thought all those things, our will, our resolve
our togetherness. We passed the test at the end of
that game. And I also credit our crowd. I thought
just the atmosphere and moody and the crowd itself really
helped our team get that home court advantage down the stretch.
It was loud, and I thought our team fed off

(55:36):
of that.

Speaker 4 (55:36):
You've been doing this for quite a while, so you've
been in the huddles. When you look in your player's eyes.
Can you see confidence? Do you see when it's uplifted
by the same token, Do you see when it gets
shaken a little bit? And how do you and the
staff respond in the moment to get them to respond
in the moment when confidence is on the line.

Speaker 14 (55:57):
Right, I think the biggest point about confidence is, you know,
all these guys are different, Craig, you know, you and I.
If we lose our confidence, we could look completely different
in terms of what we say, how we look, you know,
how how externally it looks like we are and by
the way, we may be suffering from the same problem.

Speaker 5 (56:16):
Players are like that as well.

Speaker 14 (56:17):
So I think it's that old adage of like, you know,
you have to learn your learner, you know, before you're
a good teacher. Before you can bring out the best
and a player and a student and a young person,
you know, you have to have a little bit of
traction and track record with them where you know who
they are, they know who you are, the expectations are set,
and then I think when you're in that part of it,

(56:39):
you really can start to see. I thought Dalen Swain,
for example, his body language, just how he looked in
the huddle. He didn't have a great game, but he rose.
One of the big plays down the stretch was his
offensive rebound three point play. But I thought he was
ready to win the game, compete, to do what he
needed to do to help his team. And again I
use Daylan because I certainly know him better than I

(57:02):
know anybody else because of our longevity together.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
That's where I was going next.

Speaker 4 (57:07):
You and I have talked about this in some of
the pregame interviews we've had and also on this program
as well, about the getting to know you portion when
a coach is at a place for his first season,
and in today's climate, obviously with the portal, and you
have influx of players and those going out, to say
nothing of those who remain as well, and you've got

(57:28):
to get to know them and refreshmen coming in. Was
there a point in the season can you pinpoint a
specific moment, whether it's a game or a practice, where
it occurred to you that they're finally understanding completely what
I want from them and what they can do to
make themselves better.

Speaker 5 (57:47):
You know, I don't know if there's one defining moment.

Speaker 14 (57:49):
I guess if the one that I think about is
our game at Alabama, because you know, I think confidence
was part of what we were dealing with, you know,
can we do it? And we had come close. We
played some good basketball prior to that, but we started
off oh and two in the SEC, and as you know,
oh and two can become oh and four, and four

(58:10):
in a row can become six in a row. There's
some good coaches, good teams that deal with that both
last year in this year. You know, the two years
that we at Texas have been a part of the
SEC doesn't mean you're a bad team.

Speaker 5 (58:21):
I'll go back to Arkansas.

Speaker 14 (58:22):
I remember being e Xavier last year and watching you know,
Caliperi at Arkansas for the first time, and I think
they started off oh and five. You know, he doesn't
lose five in a row too many times in his
forty year tenure as a head coach. But not only
did he did it, they bounced back, they overcame it,
and in March they were one of the most dangerous
teams in last year's NCAA tournament, finishing in this sweek sixteen.

(58:46):
So how you begin is and how you end. But
I do think when those moments happen, you have to
capture them, capitalize on it, and then be able to learn.
You know, I've used this a lot this year with
our team. Sometimes I believe I I use it because
I'm talking to myself.

Speaker 5 (59:02):
But you know, when you learn from.

Speaker 14 (59:04):
A tough loss or just use the word failure, you know,
being able to own it, see it for what it is,
what could I have done better? And then it becomes okay, now,
how do we get better at that? How do we
fix that so that the next time we're better where
we can pass the test? And usually that's you know,
you have to work together, teamwork, a staff, a team,

(59:24):
a player with a coach, a practice environment where we
have to work harder on this part of our game,
less hard on something else, right, and then the finally
is really being positive and looking forward to the next opportunity,
and the next opportunity for us during the season becomes
the next game. And I think like for us, the

(59:45):
danger right now is like we're towards the end, but
we're not at the end. We've had some recent success
winning three in a row, but we could we could
quickly exit that and go the other way, using this
week to our advantage. We have to be the best
we can be at Missouri. That's the next test and
the picture for us is no bigger than that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:06):
And so that's one portion, a snapshot, if you will,
of Longhorn Weekly with Sean Miller, and it'll come your
way tonight following Texas Women's basketball as the Longhorns will
be taken on Vanderbilt in women's basketball, and that's a
six fifteen pregame start having a six thirty tip off,

(01:00:29):
and then Long Worn Weekly with Sean Miller will follow
that tonight. Hey, before we get to the break, we're
going to give away or give you the opportunity to
be in the drawing to win a pair of tickets
to see Ella Langley. That's Thursday, August thirteenth at Moody Center.
Real easy to do. We do this through our talkback

(01:00:50):
feature on the Ihart Radio app. So what you need
to do is, if you haven't already done so, download
the iHeart Radio app onto your smartphone, very easy and
it's free on whether you're doing it on your iPhone
or you're Android, doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
You just download the app.

Speaker 4 (01:01:06):
Then you pop up the app and you do a
little quick search for AM thirteen under the zone.

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
It pops up just like that. You're gonna see two
buttons there.

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
One's a little white button kind of shape like a
triangle or an arrowhead that's just to listen to what's
going on the air for the purposes of the contest.
You want that red button that's right next to it
has a little white microphone inside that red button. Push
that red button. It activates our talkback microphone, the talkback feature,
and then you leave us a message up to thirty seconds,

(01:01:35):
but you don't even need to leave a thirty second message,
and just say I was listening to Craig Way Show.
I heard you're gonna give away ticket seller Langley and
the keyword the keyword today August. Maybe that's to match
the fact that she's going to be there August thirteenth.
August is the keyword today. So again, download the iHeartRadio app,

(01:01:59):
do the search for thirteen under the Zone.

Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
Pushed, it'll pop up.

Speaker 4 (01:02:03):
You hit the red button with a white microphone, and
then you just leave us a voice message with today's keywords. Hey,
I already on Craigway Show. August that's the keyword, and
then you'll be in the drawing. That way, that's how
it works, all right. We'll be back to wrap about
number two on thirteen Under the Zone, third and final
hour of the program Here on Sports Radio AM thirteen

(01:02:25):
Under the Zone Craig Ahy joined by the producer Jay Carman.

Speaker 3 (01:02:33):
We have the newbie here learning this is right?

Speaker 5 (01:02:36):
Is that right?

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
Our newbie here, Luke Yep. What's your last name?

Speaker 6 (01:02:43):
Luke?

Speaker 3 (01:02:43):
I don't even know his last name. He just started
that one. Yeah, Rubinstein.

Speaker 5 (01:02:50):
I like it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:51):
It's a good, solid, strong name, Luke Rubinstein. It's a
new member of her crew.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
So unlike this Herman guy.

Speaker 3 (01:02:59):
You know, you've.

Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
You've blossomed a bit, You've developed a bit, I mean
all under the watchful eye of of Cameron Parker. I
mean he even just popped in a moment ago to
let Luke know he had to do a little couple
more online paperwork type things as well. That's when we
know you've cleared the hurdle and you're part of the
stable there if they're after you to make sure you

(01:03:22):
clear that you finish up your your online stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
So welcome aboard on that. You bet all right.

Speaker 4 (01:03:30):
So here we are in our number three of the
program coming up in a few minutes. We're gonna bring
it a couple of different things. In a few minutes.
We're going to go live to McCombs field and check
in on Loggorn Softball with Andrew Haynes, who of course
calls all Texas softball games for you right here on

(01:03:52):
thirteen under the Zone, so we'll hear from him. After that,
we'll hear a little bit of one on one with
Vic Shaeffer that happened just a little while ago when
the team was at their shoot around at Memorial Gymnasium

(01:04:14):
in Nashville on the Vanderbilt campus. Texas will play vandy
tonight six point thirty. You'll hear it here on thirteen
under the Zone. Six fifteen pregame Star time Roger Wallace,
who is stepping in for me to handle the play
by play on that working alongside Kathy Harston will call
the game in Roger did a brief had a brief

(01:04:35):
conversation with Vic Shaffer and you'll hear that. But there
were a couple of things I did want to get to.
This was from some sound from the media availability that
Vic had and these are a little bit different out
of the realm of the regular sound bites as we
hear about how well the team is playing and what

(01:04:58):
they have in front of them, how they have to
deal with the opponent, that sort of thing. A couple
other things. One this is on a larger scale. I'll
tell you what. Let's do the other one. First, he
was asked for an update about Levisa asbry Host, who
is a freshman. The plan all along has been to

(01:05:21):
red shirt her. She's a post player, still learning the game,
but she's got some skills.

Speaker 3 (01:05:28):
She's six seven.

Speaker 4 (01:05:29):
And then Grace Printer, who is a true freshman and
who has played as a guard from Ireland. She's from Dublin, Ireland,
so a couple of international players, and Vick was asked
how the development with those two players is progressing.

Speaker 15 (01:05:43):
So obviously Levisa we're trying to red shirt and I
think that'll happen. Both those kids are in the gym
every day. They come in. They work really hard in
our weight room. Their regimen is quite different, I think
than maybe some of the others. And you're talking about
two great kids, Danny. You know, those kids are tremendous teammates.

(01:06:07):
They're great for our culture. They work extremely hard, and
they're they're getting better.

Speaker 5 (01:06:14):
You know.

Speaker 15 (01:06:14):
I say it probably once a week to Grace in
the middle of practice.

Speaker 6 (01:06:17):
Grace, you're getting better.

Speaker 12 (01:06:19):
So really like those kids.

Speaker 15 (01:06:22):
Man, they're they're great kids, and they work really, really hard,
and they're great for our culture.

Speaker 4 (01:06:28):
Okay, And then there was one other piece of audio
from vig. This was again from that media zoom and
this is on a larger scale, and it's because I've
had a lot of people ask me about the style
of recruiting and the types of players they recruit. And
it's no mystery to know he wants tough minded players,
who can guard, who can defend the post, who can rebound,

(01:06:52):
all that kind of stuff in addition of knock knocking
down a jump shot.

Speaker 3 (01:06:56):
And so he was asked.

Speaker 4 (01:06:58):
About through a way that he goes about recruiting players
to specific roles and how that affects his evaluation of
high school talent and what it has taught him over
twenty one years as a head coach.

Speaker 15 (01:07:15):
Well, I think even worse than that is they got flats,
they're flat stars, and sometimes you know, they've got so
many people in their ear telling them different things. It's
just not fair to the kid to let them come
to college, enjoy college, experience the highs and lows of

(01:07:36):
college and of competition.

Speaker 12 (01:07:39):
It's not always going to be peaches.

Speaker 15 (01:07:40):
And cream every day in every game, there's going to
be struggles.

Speaker 12 (01:07:46):
But letting them get through.

Speaker 15 (01:07:47):
That without having some to have some explanation for everything
that goes on. And so I think that's the challenge
that you have, and especially you know when when you're
recruiting all these high profile players, you know, this isn't
high school, this isn't AAU.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
You know.

Speaker 15 (01:08:11):
Everything's important, offense, defense, taking care of the ball, rebounding everything,
and and so I just think that that's the part
that it's sometimes hard for people to understand and and
and realize again, part of the journey is the struggle,

(01:08:35):
it's the grind, it's the ups and downs.

Speaker 12 (01:08:38):
It's the highs and lows.

Speaker 15 (01:08:40):
Realizing that every night I'm going to be peaches and
cream every day and going to be peaches and cream
every class period is not going to be peaches and green.

Speaker 12 (01:08:49):
And so just helping kids.

Speaker 15 (01:08:51):
Get through that and navigate it a little bit, realize
it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. Like that's part of
the struggle, you know, And but that's when you learn,
that's when you grow. My days at Sam Houston State,
those seven years, I wouldn't be the coach I am today.

(01:09:12):
I wouldn't be the man I am today, the father
I am today, the husband I am today. Without that
struggle in my career, there's no way that those seven
years helped prepare me for everything. You haven't lived until
you drove the van nine hours to Thibodeaux, Louisiana, got out, coached,

(01:09:36):
your kids, got back in the van, stopped at McDonald's,
drove home, hit a deer on the way, escape death,
get home at five in the morning.

Speaker 12 (01:09:50):
You ain't lived, you ain't coached.

Speaker 15 (01:09:52):
You don't appreciate the way we are today in the
world we have today. You have no clue what it
is to go on the road recruiting in the summer
and have thirty locations thirty.

Speaker 12 (01:10:07):
There's no maps on your phone.

Speaker 15 (01:10:11):
You're giving a booklet and half the directions to half
of those places are incorrect. Now, we go to these
cities and there's one hundred games going on under one roof.
But as an assistant when I came up, you weren't
going to get to see all those kids every day.
You had to pick and choose which ones you might

(01:10:32):
want to see, and that limited you on discovering somebody
on some faraway court that nobody even knew about.

Speaker 12 (01:10:40):
But that was life as an assistant.

Speaker 3 (01:10:43):
Man.

Speaker 12 (01:10:43):
You got in a car and you drove, and when
the directions.

Speaker 15 (01:10:46):
Were wrong, you pulled over and stopped and asked the
gas station to attendant, Hey, I'm lost, can you tell
me how to get here? When's the last time anybody's
drip pulled over and got out and said, Hey, I'm lost,
can you help me find this place? So it's just
part of the struggle, you know, it is, it is
what it is. But I just, you know, I think

(01:11:07):
that there's so much instant gratification in the world today
and it's just not healthy.

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
How do we get there.

Speaker 4 (01:11:17):
That's classic Mick Schaeffer, who has done all of that
as he as he pointed out, and I would also
tell you that Vic understands and you kind of got
a little bit of the vibe of that.

Speaker 3 (01:11:34):
In the in that comment.

Speaker 4 (01:11:36):
And that's that's why I wanted to play that different
from what he said. And it's more basketball related. Uh
individual matchup tonight against Vanderbilt and is one on one
with Roger Wilson.

Speaker 3 (01:11:48):
We'll do that a little bit later on this hour.

Speaker 4 (01:11:51):
But he really relates to the common name because he
really and truly is kind of a common guy.

Speaker 3 (01:11:57):
He I know this for a fact. One hotel.

Speaker 4 (01:12:03):
That they stayed in that the team stayed in last year,
they could have stayed at a nicer place than the
one they ended up staying.

Speaker 3 (01:12:14):
The one that Stadion was.

Speaker 4 (01:12:15):
It was fine, but they could have stayed in a
much nicer place, but they chose not to because Vic
remembered the hotel manager from when those earlier years when
he had to take teams in and stay and stayed
at that guy's hotel. So he brought back, you know,

(01:12:36):
a top five ranked team. This was last year and
they were still in the top five as well, a
top five ranked team into play this game in this town.
And it wasn't like when he was coaching Sam Houston
or you know, on coach Blair's staff. You know, it
wasn't like that. And so he was even in the

(01:12:59):
earlier years for Gary Blair obviously, you know, went into
Power five basketball from after he had been at Stephen
and Austin and then on the Arkansas and then Texas
A and M where he won a national championship and
Vic was his top assistant then when they won it
twenty eleven. But he took a highly ranked team into

(01:13:20):
stay at this hotel that it wasn't going to keep
them from getting the amenities they needed to win the game.
And they did win the game the next night handily.
It wasn't going to keep them from doing that, and
it was comfortable enough. But they could have gone up
another level if he wanted to. But he wanted to

(01:13:41):
do that for that guy. So I thought that was
pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (01:13:44):
That says a lot about him.

Speaker 4 (01:13:45):
Yeah, that's that's Vic, and he'll he'll do this too.
I'll never forget this his I guess it was the
first year or maybe when we had the ice storm
three years ago, not the one, not the huge snowstorm

(01:14:06):
back in twenty one, but we had another one I
think in twenty three.

Speaker 3 (01:14:09):
That was that was difficult.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
I don't feel bad about missing it. I was in
North Dakota.

Speaker 4 (01:14:15):
Yeah right. They we had to go to West Virginia.
So we fly to West Virginia, play the game, come back.
They could not land in Austin. They knew that we left,
and so we landed in Houston. I think we even
landed at a private airport in Houston, or maybe it

(01:14:36):
was Intercontinental, might have been Intercontinental. And we all get
on a bus and we're driving back and there's signs
for BUCkies.

Speaker 3 (01:14:47):
They're on two ninety and you hear some of the
kids said that look BUCkies, BUCkies. He says to the
bus are pull over, BUCkies, pulls over BUCkies. Fifteen minutes.
Go out and get what you want.

Speaker 4 (01:14:57):
Go out and get you get go get your you know,
your chocolate covered whatever you know. And they all went
in there and had a good time, and we got
something from BUCkies after.

Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
That, brisket on the board.

Speaker 4 (01:15:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. So they had that too.
So anyway, that's those are examples of what he's like
on the road. Is demanding a coach as he can be.
He is also family oriented and his players feel that,
and that's part of the reason why they play so
hard for him. All right, Up next, the Texas softball
team plays hard for Mike White, hard enough to win

(01:15:31):
a national championship last year. They finally get a home opener,
and we're gonna visit with Andrew Haynes will join us
live from the ballpark from Macomb's Field when we continue
on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone and the
iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (01:15:56):
Our new edition.

Speaker 3 (01:15:58):
Rubinstein huh yeah, Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:16:03):
Claims to be a fan of Hall of Oes, but
wasn't familiar with this tone too, So he's got to
get familiar with it because I think it's the greatest
Hall of Notes song ever.

Speaker 3 (01:16:13):
She's gone.

Speaker 4 (01:16:14):
Just one man's opinion, it's awesome. Let's get the opinion
on Texas offtball from the man who knows. Play by
play voice Andrew Haynes joins us from Red and Charlie
mccomb's field. Andrew, I appreciate the time, and it's good
to call a home game, isn't it.

Speaker 13 (01:16:32):
It's nice to be here.

Speaker 8 (01:16:33):
Last weekend was of course typical on the road starting,
but nice to be back and going to be in
front of the home fans. Although last weekend it was
a lot of home fans down San Antonio.

Speaker 4 (01:16:42):
It's just an eighty mile trip down there. I noticed
on a lot of video there were a lot of
Texas fans there. The log worn start and maybe it's
not unheard of you you fill me in on this
because this is what your eighth or ninthier on the call.
I'm trying to remember tenth ten. Was it really ten years.

Speaker 3 (01:17:01):
Ago that I called you in and said, hey, you
want to do this?

Speaker 13 (01:17:03):
Twenty seventeen.

Speaker 3 (01:17:04):
Indeed, it was yeah, yeah, that's really cool. I don't remember.

Speaker 4 (01:17:09):
And you refreshed me on this too many times when
the long runs have opened on the road. But I'm
sure it's not the first obviously even in the in
the now ten seasons for you. But it's not the
most common thing in the.

Speaker 13 (01:17:22):
World, is it.

Speaker 3 (01:17:22):
Yeah, you know, it's kind of been hit and miss.

Speaker 8 (01:17:24):
Last year they did, they had that meandering started Louisiana
to play two games, played two games at Lamar and
then pluted two games at sam Houston the opening weekend,
so I had to drive two hours between you know,
every day of that opening weekend. But you know, it's
yes been hitting miss you know, the year of There's
No Apocalypse. They were supposed to open at home, I think,

(01:17:46):
and that all got wiped and changed around and they
had you know, two games down in the Houston area
to start the season. That was hastily arranged, and so
you know, it's it's you know, I think back in
the Mike White early years, they did open at home
and then they had some issues with the weather, so
he kind of said, let's try not to and it.

Speaker 13 (01:18:05):
Yeah, again, it's it's every other year.

Speaker 4 (01:18:07):
Basically, give me your overview on the four and one
start down at the UTSA invitation, of course, the only
loss was to Nebraska, no, no disgrace there after having
already beaten the Huskers. By the way, I did see
this correctly when I was flipping around ESPN this morning.
Nebraska played a game in clear Water, and I know
you've broadcast from that tournament before. At nine o'clock this morning.

(01:18:31):
That was that was accurate in all time, wasn't it.

Speaker 8 (01:18:34):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, they try to fit those in.
You know, as many games as possible out of Clearwater. Yeah,
we've been there a couple of times, and it's regular.
It's it's typical for those because you know, tournament games
and softball tournaments go Long's.

Speaker 13 (01:18:47):
Typical for those to go late into the night.

Speaker 8 (01:18:49):
And so you know, starting early not a bad idea,
Just right and early and knock it out and get
the day started.

Speaker 3 (01:18:55):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:18:56):
So how about your overview of the four and one
start in San Antonio at the UTSA invitation last week?

Speaker 8 (01:19:01):
Yeah, pretty good. Ball was flying. They feel there's a
little smaller than most. It's two twenty here at mccomb's
down there. It was Mike gott was saying, it's the
right around two hundred straight away center, and so the
ball was flying off of every team's bat basically, and
it was hard for any pitcher to keep it in
the ballpark.

Speaker 13 (01:19:21):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:19:22):
The Longhorns, of course, outlasted Nebraska in that first game.
Kept their streak of winning the season opener every single
year in program history. So the year they've won that,
you know, thirty straight years now, and it was it
was just tough. I think the pitchers were a little
rusty and so a lot of pitches were missing early
in the counts and they were pitching from behind, and

(01:19:44):
then this is you know, Texas and then other teams
and so.

Speaker 13 (01:19:47):
Hitters were having a lot of success.

Speaker 8 (01:19:49):
I think for the most part, the Longhorns show that
they can swing the bats, no problem the pitching. As
kat Osterman said, you know, right now is not the
time of the season for the pitching to be peaking,
so it's not a big deal. Hannah Well's had the
rough start against Nebraska in the one loss, and she
came back and shut out UTSA the next day. So
I think it's a bit of a learning experience. And
for some players, they showed their depth. They got a

(01:20:11):
lot of freshmen in, got a lot of non freshmen,
you know, backup type of players in for a lot
of experience, and I think it was just a very
good opening weekend all around, pretty much showing everyone what
they have. They still have a lot and are a threat.

Speaker 4 (01:20:25):
Since you mentioned Hannah Wells, I mean she came with
a lot, came in with a lot of aclades. I mean,
there's there's a lot of excitement about here, isn't there.

Speaker 8 (01:20:33):
National Gatoraye Player of the Year last year in softball. Indeed, Yeah,
she can pitch, she can hit.

Speaker 4 (01:20:39):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:20:39):
Her her debut actually, so she made her debut with
the bases loaded with a five run lead, two outs
in the top of the seventh inning I guess, bottom
of the seventh against Nebraska in the opener, and the
leadoff hitter at the plate who had already smoked a
home run, and she struck her out to end the game.
The potential tying run was on deck. So she showed

(01:21:00):
something really good there. And then she against Washington the
next day, she hit a bomb of a home run.
You know, just had that that rough outing in the start,
but second start was very good. She should be a
very good pitcher. A lot of power, a very good arm,
a lot of movement she showed already, and should she
get to some pretty good velocity.

Speaker 4 (01:21:20):
You mentioned some freshmen, and correct me if I'm wrong.
I seem to think that Mike White, now in his
eighth season, has really, I think always had a good
feel for the mixture of Say, we all love senior
veteran leaders clearly, and even junior veteranly, but but the
mixture mix mixing in some talented freshmen and sophomores who

(01:21:43):
can really complement her even in some cases lead the
way and in this team being able to get where
it wants to go.

Speaker 3 (01:21:51):
Mixing in with those veterans.

Speaker 8 (01:21:53):
Yeah, you know, the one year that comes to mind
that there was really a big exodus of a lot
of leaders and a lot of production that the the
freshman had to step up in a hurry was twenty
twenty three after you know, that surprise run of the
Women's College World Series the year before, in that freshman
class was lauded by many around the country for the
way they played. They got to the supers and they

(01:22:13):
were the basis. Resat was one of them for winning
the Natty last year. And so I think it does
a really good job of mixing those in and just
you know, filling the gaps and saying like, hey, we
have this person graduating this year, let's get her replacement
in the year before and be pretty set because he
doesn't get a lot of transfers in for the most part,
it's all based on him developing the players, and he

(01:22:36):
gets the players he needs and he puts them where
they need to be and they have success.

Speaker 4 (01:22:41):
So we can market Now we've gone a total of
six minutes into our conversation without mentioning resap with but
I'm going to do it now here. She has one
home run away and I remember when Taylor Hogland was
playing at Texas and she's one home run away from
being number one all time. But she also strikes me
as somebody who's just really laid back and and uh

(01:23:04):
and and doesn't really seem to be that keyed up
about things. Has she been pretty nonchalant about all this
about the home run record?

Speaker 13 (01:23:11):
Yes, really, very much so.

Speaker 8 (01:23:12):
Throughout her career, really, she's been very much laid back,
always with a smile on her face, and you know,
off the field, very very friendly.

Speaker 13 (01:23:21):
On the field, she gets focused.

Speaker 8 (01:23:22):
Anytime she's in a interview session, she's you know, readily
answering questions, and she has been able to remove that
focus that she has on the field and be able
to have a good interview. She's a great person to
be around, and she's a lot of fun to watch.

Speaker 4 (01:23:42):
How cool is it to have Viviana Martinez back in
the lineup and being able to play after having a
to miss last year with the with the injury. What
what's it been like having her? Uh not only back
and on the roster, but actually being able to play
and contribute.

Speaker 13 (01:23:59):
Yeah, it's been pretty cool.

Speaker 8 (01:24:00):
She was one of my favorites to watch her first
two years, great left handed swing, a very good defender.
So having her back, having her manning that shortstop spot,
and she's been hitting thirty order, it's been huge. It's
I mean, honestly, it's amazing to think about they won
the national championship last year without their starting shortstop, Like,
how many teams can do that.

Speaker 4 (01:24:19):
That's true. It's a good point. Talking here with Andrew
Haynes here on thirteen Under the Zone, we also hadn't
talked about teaging Cavan yet. And you know, progressing now
to the next level, the next stage of her career
now as a junior. Time flies, I know, but she

(01:24:40):
really started to establish herself even as a freshman.

Speaker 3 (01:24:42):
What are you expecting from Teague in the season.

Speaker 8 (01:24:45):
Yeah, expecting big things from her. She was the second
team All American last year. Mike has made the comment
a couple of times that last year she performed against
like the better teams, and then you know, sometimes she
was a little off. You know, Oklahoma was one exception,
Like she was a little and allowed some runs against
teams that weren't some of the better teams, and because
of that, she was a second team All American instead

(01:25:06):
of a first team All American. And she's her goal
right now, Mike has said, is the twenty twenty eight
Olympics making that team, and so she continues to improve.
One thing Mike said at the ring ceremony, one thing
he told me back in December when they gave out
the championship rings was that they had had a scrimmage
recently and there was one ball put in play against

(01:25:26):
Teagan by the offense. She was looking out standing. And
so hopefully she can shake off that rough outing against
Nebraska last weekend and move forward and really have success
the way that she can the way everyone knows that
she can be a first team All American the rest
of the year.

Speaker 4 (01:25:42):
Andrew, this was certainly the sum of the parts last year,
and we got used to seeing players like LeeAnne Good
and Ashton Maloney come through obviously in Oklahoma City and
had big moments as well. If there was a player
who might be a little bit under the radar right
now that you have watched through this early portion the
sea and who might emerge and really make an impact.

Speaker 3 (01:26:03):
Who might that be?

Speaker 13 (01:26:05):
Got to start off with j C.

Speaker 8 (01:26:07):
Nichols, freshman who's been playing third base. Mike ha said
that she's defensively, she is the replacement for me a
Scott excellent defender. She's filled in at shortstop seamlessly when
they're kind of, you know, doing some load management with
Vivi Martinez to try to work her back into full
playing and so jac Nichols has been able to swing

(01:26:27):
the bat pretty well and play some very good defense.
And as she grows and gets more experience, I think
having her back than the bottom of the lineup as
well as her defense at the hot corner is going
to be huge.

Speaker 4 (01:26:39):
I'm curious to get your thoughts on this field for
the BEVO classing. Now tonight it's against Habling Christian who'sze
to five. But then you got an Ohio State team
is two and two, you got the Syracuse team is
three and two, and then you got a Northern Illinois
group they hadn't played a game yet. So what's your
take on looking at these teams in this event?

Speaker 8 (01:26:57):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you might look at these
teams think it's gonna be an easy run. But with
softball in general, in the college game right now, there's
a lot more parody. You know, Syracuse was a team
above five hundred last year. Ohio State has been a
rising power the last.

Speaker 13 (01:27:11):
Couple of years.

Speaker 8 (01:27:12):
They had their All American catcher was bought by Texas
Tech in that whole you know mess. But for the
most part, Ohio State's a very good program. Should give
the Longhorns some trouble. It was only a four to
two win when Texas went up there to Columbus last
year for a non conference weekend, turning the weekend, and
so I think there's a lot of good talent. This

(01:27:32):
should be some good competition this weekend. Longhorns should win
every game, but you can never say that's absolutely gonna happen.

Speaker 4 (01:27:41):
All right, Hey, Andrew, I appreciate you taking the time,
have a good time, and listen. I'm gonna be remiss
if I didn't bring this up. You're calling to night's game,
and then obviously Cameron Parker and Jake Carminal fill in
for you the rest of the weekend. Tell everybody what
you're doing this week. I think it's really cool.

Speaker 8 (01:27:57):
Yeah, heading back to my hometown. President California. My grandpa's
ninetieth birthday is Sunday, so we're having a big shindig.

Speaker 4 (01:28:03):
All right, hey, listen, enjoy the game tonight, enjoy the
trip out of the California. We look forward to seeing
you again next week. I appreciate you taking the time.
Sounds good. Thanks great?

Speaker 3 (01:28:12):
You bet.

Speaker 4 (01:28:12):
That is Andrew Haynes, the voice of Long Worn Softball,
And you can hear those games on the iHeart Radio
app and of course also on the Texas Longhorns app
and and also on our HD two signal on ninety
seven point five FM, so you can do that as well.
All right, Coming up next, some more from Vick Schaeffer.

(01:28:34):
The conversation with Roger Wallas just a little while ago
they had coming off the shoot around and getting ready
for tonight's matchup with Vanderbilt will continue right here on
Sports Radio AM thirteen under the zone of the iHeart
Radio APPO.

Speaker 3 (01:28:50):
Stear safe, Watson bos.

Speaker 2 (01:28:55):
Oh no, We've got Jack Johnson's.

Speaker 13 (01:28:59):
Till year.

Speaker 3 (01:29:02):
Seriously hear anything very well?

Speaker 11 (01:29:05):
Yep.

Speaker 8 (01:29:05):
It is.

Speaker 4 (01:29:09):
Thanks again to Andrew Haynes joining us here to the
same talk. UH Texas Samtball tonight and UH again they
play tonight at six o'clock and you can pull that
up on the IR Radio app and on the Texas
Longhorns app. You can do that as well as finding

(01:29:30):
on the dial on our HT two signal in ninety
seven point five FM Texas against Appling Christian Tonight. Then
and Andrew have the call tonight, and then as we mentioned, tomorrow,
Cameron Parker will call the double header for the Longhorns.
They'll play Ohio State followed by Syracuse and those games

(01:29:50):
are scheduled. I do stress the word scheduled, scheduled four
or five and seven point thirty. And then Jake will
have the call of doubleheader on Saturday Ohio State and syrahcues.

Speaker 3 (01:30:05):
At scheduled two thirty and five.

Speaker 4 (01:30:07):
And then Cameron will have a Sunday game against Northern
Illinois at noon. Campbell's sit in for me at UFCU
just far Field on Saturday. Keith Moreland I will be
out there tomorrow for the Long Worn Baseball season opener
as Texas takes on. You see Davis, the Aggies from
the Big West Conference, and they'll play UC Davis tomorrow

(01:30:31):
and six fifteen pre game Star time here on the
Zone in the six thirty first pitch Saturday, Cameron will
step in for me as I go up to Columbia,
Missouri to call Long Worn men's basketball Saturday died against
the Missouri Tigers. Camp will have a Saturday afternoon call
one forty five pre game start time, two o'clock first
pitch for the second game, and then I'll be back
for the Sunday game against UC Davis to work with

(01:30:54):
Keith on that. So busy times right now for Long
Worn Athletics for all of us as well. And then Roger,
of course, in addition to calling the women's game tonight
at Vanderbilt, will be in Knoxville on Sunday as they
wrap up their two game road trip to the Volunteer State,
So he'll be calling the matchup between Texas and Tennessee.

(01:31:15):
But first they are playing the Vanderbilt Commodore's tonight. And
after this morning shoot around, Roger grabbed a quick conversation
with head coach Vick Schaeffer.

Speaker 13 (01:31:29):
Hey, what's the challenge with the team.

Speaker 10 (01:31:31):
Not only you got a player like Blake's, but a
offensive team like Vanderbilt tonight.

Speaker 15 (01:31:36):
Yeah, I just think they have multiple weapons, you know,
and you gotta have multiple defenders, you know, and we
can't let somebody sneak up on us and do what
they're not do what they're not normally doing. So we
know Blake's gonna score, She's gonna have to work really
hard to score tonight. I got a lot of confidence
in our team and our defense, but we got to
make her work for everything she gets.

Speaker 3 (01:31:56):
And then we just can't let somebody else go off.

Speaker 4 (01:31:59):
Usually top five matchup is a pretty pretty big deal,
and it is, but this is your fifth one this season.

Speaker 3 (01:32:04):
You guys are ready for these moments.

Speaker 15 (01:32:05):
Yeah, I mean, we've been in this game right so,
but I do think still you always find out about
your team in these moments.

Speaker 3 (01:32:12):
You find out a little bit more about them.

Speaker 15 (01:32:13):
I don't think I ever stopped learning about my team,
and so tonight we're gonna find out a little bit
about our team. But I'm excited about the opportunity. I
think they are too. And you're right, we've been in
this game four times now. This will be the fifth,
and they're three and one in the prior four. And
you contrast that with the fact that Vanderbilt is going

(01:32:35):
into the game on a three game winning streak, which
includes back to back wins over ranked opponents, and they
were able to do that. After losing the South Carolina
they got blown out and then lost.

Speaker 3 (01:32:52):
To Ole Miss.

Speaker 4 (01:32:52):
They'd been unbeaten and dropped back to back games and
lost at South Carolina and then lost at home to
Ole Miss. Turned around, they beat Florida and then went
on the road to beat sixteenth rank Kentucky and won there.
They had to come back and won by one point,
and then back at home, they jumped out a huge lead,

(01:33:14):
got up twenty six points in the first half. Oklahoma
made a run in the second half, but they ultimately
could not catch up to them, and Vanderbilt won that
one by a score of one two to eighty six.
Now you heard Roger ask Vic Schaefer about michaelab Blake's
She's just a sophomore and was all SEC a year ago.

(01:33:38):
Was tremendous and she's just added to it this year.
She's scoring twenty six points per game, shooting near fifty percent,
shooting a good enough percentage beyond the arc.

Speaker 3 (01:33:51):
She's also.

Speaker 4 (01:33:53):
Recording four rebounds, five steals, five assists, and three steals
per game.

Speaker 3 (01:34:00):
So she's a weapon. But She's not the only weapon
that they have.

Speaker 4 (01:34:04):
Aubrey Galvin is a freshman who is averaging thirteen points
per game and shoots thirty two percent beyond the arc.
She averages six and says a lot of times she's
finding Mikayla Blake's But she had a big night scoring
the other night as she scored thirty points, Blake scored

(01:34:24):
thirty four. So that's another guard. Whoever is guarding her,
be it Jordan Lee or you know, whoever it is
has the assignment on her, is also going to have
to play well because you know, Rory Harmon's going to
draw the matchup on Mikaylab Blakes. They have routinely put
her on the best backcourt scoring threat, and she had

(01:34:52):
to do that against Mikayla Williams of LSU after she
struggled against her the game in Baton Rouge.

Speaker 3 (01:34:57):
But she was honored for that game and did very
very well.

Speaker 4 (01:35:01):
She she really did pretty well against South Carolina when they
had her matched up, and and so she's been guarding
their best offensive backcourt weapon of late, and she's going
to draw the assignment on michaeleb Blake, So it'll be
a lot of fun to see how that matchup bears out.
But they have a couple other players too. They have

(01:35:23):
a swing player in Justine Posada who averages eleven and
a half points and also point after rebounds. Sasha Washington.
This isn't the tallest team in the world. Pasad likes
to play the Ford spot even though she's the tallest
player at sixty four. Sasa Washington averages ten points. And

(01:35:44):
then there's jockoalinga win in Tanda. Remember her played for
the Longhorns for three years. She averages and it was
kind of like what she was doing toward the end
of her junior year last year. She's averaging eight points
per game. She can shoot third three percent beyond the arc,
great free throw shooter, averaging three rebounds per game as well.

(01:36:07):
So as she was at Texas juckling a win in time.
That is a good role player. She's been able to
do that, So this is a This is quite the
test for the Longhorns. Both teams are twenty three and two.
Vanderbilt is nine to two in conference played. The long
wards are eight and two. Because remember the game with
Arkansas up in Arkansas got postponed because of the ice

(01:36:31):
and snowy conditions.

Speaker 3 (01:36:32):
We had a couple of weeks back and they.

Speaker 4 (01:36:35):
Really had a bad in Arkansas and Texas was not
going to be able to fly into there, so they
pushed the game back to a week from tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:36:41):
It's next Thursday night.

Speaker 4 (01:36:43):
So what that means is Texas is coming off having
played three straight home games. Because there was supposed to
be a road game in between against Arkansas, I got postponed,
So was three straight home games, all against ranked opponents,
by the way, in beating Oakla on the LSU and Kentucky.
Now it's three straight road games and the first two

(01:37:07):
are against ranked opponents fifth rank Vanderbilt, number twenty two Tennessee,
and then they go to Arkansas and Arkansas is struggling.
They haven't won a conference game yet, so there is
that on the tail end of it. But it will
be the third game of three straight road games that
they'll have as a result of the postponement of that game.

(01:37:27):
So Vanderbilt's nine and two in Texas is eight and
two in the conference. The net rankings pretty close to
what the pole rankings are. Vanderbilt is seven in the
net ranking. They're number five obviously, in the AP pole,
but number seven in the net. Longhorns, number four across
the board, four in the AP pole, four in the
Coach's poll, four in the net ranking. So it tells

(01:37:49):
you how steady and how tough Texas has been. They're
going to have to be tough tonight. It's going to
be quite a test. We'll be back to wrap up
today's edition of the program. I'm thirteen under the Zone.