Top-5 WBB Matchup on Tap, Super Bowl Countdown Continues, NBA Trade Deadline

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
We head on in to Thursday. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome.
So the program here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
the Zone and where you can also always always listen
to us free of charge, no cost at all on
the iHeart Radio app.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
My name is Craig Way. Glad to have you with
us this.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Afternoon, and glad also be joined by the producer Jay
Carmon is with us here.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
How are you today?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Do it all right? I've got the parents visiting this weekend.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Oh they pushed it back what by a couple of
weeks because of the bad winter.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Whether we had exactly the rescheduled visit. So if they're
tuned in via AM radio for the first time as
opposed to the iHeartRadio app. Okay, that's nice.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
So they're already in town then yeah, okay, all right?
So did they have have they before arriving here? Had
they been to your apartment before?

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Uh? Yeah, they had?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
They had?

Speaker 3 (01:16):
We had my mom and dad, my sister had come
out in the.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Fall, okay for a brief weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Although I forget until until I walked in here and
gave him a quick tour, I don't know if they'd
seen the studio and everything.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
So okay, all right, So they've been in here, then
been in the building then okay, all right. I missed
out on that because, uh, we were recording Longhorn Weekly
with Seawn Miller over on campus today and then in
addition to recording Longhorn Weekly, Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
I got a tour, so to speak.

Speaker 4 (01:53):
I got a.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Chance to view what the new radio broadcast boots will
look like for our long worn football broadcast this fall.
They've moved us, in fact, they have moved the entire
press box because of.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
The ongoing.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Initiative to have some luxury suites, some additional suites and
premium seating for those willing to pay the premium price,
and many have. So what they've done in case, folks
and people have seen the ongoing construction that has been

(02:40):
around DKR Texas Memorial State in the last couple of years.
Really certainly last fall, it was like that even during
the season, there were stuff that was going on during
the week and then it went full blast, full tilt
once the taxes saying m game was over and they

(03:01):
were done for the season out of there. So they've
been working at it very very hard. The construction crews
and everything to get everything in place, and they're getting closer.
They're definitely getting closer on it. So it was the
first time I really got a chance to take a
look at the new radio broadcast location for that where

(03:26):
our broadcast, the visiting radio network, Radio Texas Long Words,
Spanish radio network will all be in in a different
spot in the stadium. The main press box will be
in the south end in the different spot in the stadium,
so there's ongoing construction. Actually had to put on a
hard hat and a vest when I went around. I

(03:48):
hope there's pictures, and there's not.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
There's not.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
There's no pictures of me in the hard hat in
the vest. You talk about somebody who would look out
of place, it would be me.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
But what does it they tell politicians never put on
a hat or eat something on camera.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
That kind of makes sense. So anyway, Yeah, we got
the tour of that, but.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Got to look at it, and it's still in the
process of under construction and all that sort of stuff,
and it'll be ready in time for the start of
the season.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
I think we were told that a lot of.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
The I don't know if he said scaffolding or a
lot of the other outside attachment things that show that
the place is under construction needed to be completed by April,
so I think that's the goal there, and then there's

(04:45):
probably a few other projects that'll be underway going all
the way up until the start of the regular season.
But anyway, it's ongoing. Things are always on the move
at the University of Texas. On the program this afternoon,
speaking of the University of Texas, will take a look
not only at the Texas men's basketball team, which is

(05:07):
now won back to back games with their wins at
Oklahoma and then over South Carolina on Tuesday night. They
get ready for the Old Miss Rebels coming in on Saturday,
a chance to get above the five hundred mark for
the first time this season in conference play. They start
off oh and two, got the two and two, fell

(05:28):
behind the two and four, then they got the three
and four, and then three and five, and now they
went back to back games, so the five and five
in the league. And it's an important game against Ole
Miss because then they get into a curious part of
the schedule. They just came off a grinder of three
games in seven days, and it'll be four games in

(05:52):
eleven days when they play Ole miss and then they
get to their open midweek open Day eight portion of schedule.
They do not have a game in the middle of
next week. It would be a week from Saturday when
they play in Columbia, Missouri against Missouri Tigers would be
their next one after this Saturday, so a real chance
to continue the momentum, gather some momentum, get above five

(06:15):
hundred in conference play for the first time, because in
a power league like the SEC is and it's rated
the number one conference in the country, if you finish
at or above five hundred league play, you're almost unless
you're non conference schedule is just absolute. You know, Tomada
cans and cupcakes and all that kind of stuff in Texas,

(06:37):
non conference is not so unless unless it's one like that,
then you're probably going to get into the NCAA Tournament
if you're at of above the five hundred mark in
league play. And they, of course in non conference play,
have a non conference ranked win and that was over

(07:00):
in North Carolina State, a loss that's aging a little better.
It's not aging like milk because they wanted SMU the
other night, So.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
They have that.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
They have non conference losses to quality opponents like Yukon
and Virginia.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Those are both really good ones as.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Well, and they have some ranked wins over conference opponents,
namely Alabama and Vanderbilt. Those were big conference big wins
over conference opponents of were ranked, and so they have
a total of four wins of a ranked opponents this season.

(07:44):
But they got to keep on it as well, because
at fourteen and nine, that's not good enough to get
you into the tournament right now.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
There's more work to be.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Done, and Sean Miller and I talked about that today
in our recording of Longhorn Weekly, which will air tomorrow
night at seven o'clock. Normally, when we do it this way,
it'll wind up being on thursdaynight, but because we have
the Texas women's game at eight o'clock tonight against LSU,

(08:15):
will have long Worn Weekly with Sean Miller tomorrow night
at seven o'clock. As I mentioned, a huge matchup for
the Texas women. For the first time this season, Texas
will play an opponent who has already beaten them this season.
LSU handed Texas It's first of its only two losses

(08:38):
this season. And by the way, if you're talking about
quote unquote quality defeats quality losses. They don't get much
more quality than LSU, currently number five in the country
and South Carolina number two in the country. They also
have a win over South Carolina, but this is their

(08:59):
first match up with a team that has beaten them
the season, because when they played South Carolina and Columbia,
they'd already beaten the game Cocks in Las Vegas in
the Legends Era tournament. But now they've split those two
games and they won't see each other again in the
regular season. If they meet again, and somehow we're all
getting the feeling that may happen that they would be

(09:21):
playing them either in the SEC tournament and or possibly
also somewhere in the NCAA tournament, probably on a lad eight.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
If not a final four.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
Both are on track right now to be one seeds,
and if they both wind up one seeds like last year,
they wouldn't meet until a national summi final because they
would be in different regions.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
As one seats.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
It's possible if one is one and one is a two,
that they could be placed in the same region, especially
given the way the women's tournament's constructed. And I've talked
about this before, but I think it bears repeating because
they get questions about it a lot. Folks ask me, now,
how do they do the regionals? And do they get

(10:05):
to play at home? And what happens in the sweet
sixteen lea? And why are there two regionals in one
city and so they only use two cities to do
all four regions. Those are all very valid questions and
I'll break it down for you again. We'll talk about that,
and like I said, we'll look at some other ratings
and some other things, and of course.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
To count down a Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
We are just a little over seventy two hours to
kick off, and we'll have some Super Bowl sound to
bring you as well. We'll hear from Vic Schaeffer, we'll
hear from Sean Miller. So we got a lot to
get to on the program. Glad to have you with
us here on a Thursday afternoon on Sports Radio AM
thirteen under the zone of the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Right side with It.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Pass goes into a cutting swing right past from Cam
Heidi in the day look swing Swayne Futeen and a
half twenty. In the ball game, Texas up six to
eighteen to go.

Speaker 5 (11:05):
It's the Craig Way show with the voice of the
Texas Longhorns in Hall of vame broadcast.

Speaker 6 (11:11):
There Craig Way.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Big moments in the win against the South Carolina game talks,
and Daylan's swinging continues to play. Been surprised the last
two weeks really kind of. I've been surprised that he
hasn't been named SEC Player of the Week or co
Player of the Week or anything like that. And I
guess it goes directly and completely, or at least primarily

(11:40):
to if your.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Team won both of its games in the week, and.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
Of course they lost the game a little over a
week ago at Auburn, then came back with the win
at Oklahoma, and he had big games in both of
those games, but only the Oklahoma games win. And he
had another big game the other night, double double, twenty
two points, ten boards in the win over South Carolina.
So I would imagine if he has another big game

(12:05):
on Saturday, and if the Long Worns win the game
over ol Miss, then I would say there's probably a
decent chance he might get some recognition because Long Worns
UH had something very early on.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
In the season.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
I think they had a Player of the Week honor,
but that's been it mainly. But anyway, they get ready
for uh, the Old Miss Rebels on Saturday, and uh,
they're gonna, you know, gonna be facing another team that
has good guard play, another team that is uh physical,

(12:45):
and one that will challenge you in the paint and
it's it's one that can give you a lot of trouble.
So they're gonna they're gonna have to, you know, be
be on their game to try who make it three
consecutive wins, which obviously they've not been able to do
in conference play.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
They've not been able to do.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
That, and they're gonna need to do that in order
to have a chance to get where they want to
get and also not only that, a chance to you know,
put themselves to where they're not on the back side
of the bubble or the difficult side of the bubble.

(13:29):
And right now they're on the bubble. The ESPN did
its college basketball Power rankings, and we're going to hear
something from Sean Miller coming up in the three o'clock
hour where he's talking about that, you know, what they're

(13:53):
trying to do coming off of three games and seven
days and getting ready for us and tomorrow we'll give
you a little bit of a sneak listen, so to speak,
a little preview of long worn Weekly where Sean will
talk about offensive efficiency because right now Texas is seventh
in the country according to everybody just knows that it's

(14:16):
Ken Palm. It's Ken Pomeroy who does these metrics. And
there was a long time where the NCAA tournament's selection
committee just blanket took his info to utilize as one
of the tools in deciding us. They save officially for
the record, they don't do that anymore. They say they

(14:38):
don't use Kim Palm numbers to describe which to hear
Sean Miller talk about it, he thinks that's a little
bit short sighted, because he said, it's scary how close
the teams, the thirty four at large teams to get
into the NCAA Tournament. How closely their numbers mirror the
best numbers in Ken Palm, both in offensive efficiency and

(15:01):
defensive efficiency.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
You look at champions of the last twenty twenty five years,
they all have certain baseline characteristics in Ken bomb. It's eerie.
Shawn's right, He's all over this. Yeah, Now you know
helps you predict upsets when you make your bracket.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
You're right now.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
I wouldn't say that members of the tournament selection committee
completely ignore it.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
I don't think they do that.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
I think it's one tool that they might apply, But
they were quick to the NCAA was quick to not
put too much on an outside source like that, Like
they you know, pretty much chain themselves to the net
rankings as a major factor.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
And it is. It's a factor.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
But the NCAA is behind the net ranking, so they're
gonna they're gonna put more weight on that. But I
would say that there's probably other tools that they employ,
and that wouldn't I would also employ what Kim Pom
has in those numbers as well, and we'll hear him
talk about that a little bit, a little bit more
tomorrow on that. All right, the updated power rankings are

(16:14):
out and that includes the BPI, that Basketball Power Index
from ESPN, and right now it still has Arizona number one.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
And it's kind of hard to agree with that.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
They're one of only I disagree with that, they're on
one of only two unbeaten teams left. So and Miami
of Ohio is not going to crack it into the
top five yet.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
Matter of fact, they might not even be an at
large team if they don't win their conference.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
That's what most people seem to think. I remember when
Saint Joe's had a similar season like that several years ago,
and they were like thirty and one and they didn't
get much of a good seed at all. I remember
Drake had a really good record like that and they
were a five seed, and by the way, they got

(16:59):
beat the first round, so you know, it happens. But anyway,
Arizona's number one. Yukon who only has one loss, is
number two. Michigan's number three. That was a huge win
they had over Nebraska, and Nebraska ended up, you know,
letting one loss beat him twice. They lost again, so

(17:22):
they lost back to back games.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
Yeah, in Michigan State, same thing happened. They lost to Michigan.
Let Minnesota get him last night.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Absolutely Minnesota never trailed in the ball game. And again
these are BPI rankings, which is Basketball Power Index that
ESPN puts together on a variety of metrics as well
as you know their own.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Staff of the pole of that.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Duke is number four, Illinois five, Iowa State six, Nebraska
is seven. They've been five. They suffered those two losses
in the span of ten days after opening the season
with twenty straight wins. Now they were without rink Mask
and Branden Frager against Michigan. Both came back in the

(18:04):
game against Illinois that they lost, however, So.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
I think they beat Michigan with those guys, I really do.
The depth was a big factor in that game to
help Michigan out.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
I think so.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
And even though both guys were backing into Illinois, Illinois
is a good team. They're good, yeah, and they found
the way to about I think Brad Underwood is a
really good coach.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Houston is a number eight.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
That's dangerous. That's a little low for me on Houston.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
Well, they're actually on the rise. They had him at eleven.
They've come up.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
I don't think there are seven better teams in Houston.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Now, speaking of dangerous, we're going to see what the
Cougars have with them. Their next game up comes up
on Saturday. They're at BYU. Is it a wounded tiger
in this case wounded Cougar theory. They've lost four out
of five. They got beat again last night. Oklahoma State
beat him in Stillwater and Okloma State's pretty good ball club.

(18:57):
As well, but Houston will play BYU.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
In provo on Saturday. I think it's a bad matchup
for BYU. I'm a little worried about their their so
much of their strength comes from size. They have long wings. Houston,
that didn't phase them.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeah. Well, and Milos Housan is starting to play really
well again for the Cougars, in that he's hit nearly
forty nine percent of his three pointers in the last
six games. It was just twenty six percent his first sixteen.
All right, Kansas is nine, perdue ten, Vanderbilt is number eleven.

(19:38):
They went up one spot from twelve to eleven.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Where's Florida?

Speaker 1 (19:43):
And then Florida's twelveth okay, all right, and they went
up five spots. That lost Auburn knocked them down a
little bit, but they came back. And yeah, but Auburn's good. Yeah, yeah,
yeah it is. And and then after that twenty three
when we went over Alabama. Florida has the most efficient

(20:03):
offense and defense in the SEC in Ken Palm's metrics
and numbers.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
So if I had to pick, Florida and Houston will
be higher than they are right now. The next time
we look at this list.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah, okay, So this list was updated this morning, you know,
I know it's updated this morning. Gonzaga dropped four spots, yep.
And there were those of us who stayed up late
enough to watch it and we'll watch down the stretch
and saw them loose to Portland. Now it was just
gonzagas second loss of the season, first time they lost
since the day before Thanksgiving, the blowout lost to Michigan,

(20:39):
and we were talking about according to ESPN research, it
was the biggest upset in the West Coast Conference came
in the past thirty years. Portland had not beaten Gonzaga
since twenty fourteen. They'd lost twenty in a row to
the Bulldogs.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
And they were ten and fourteen going into the game.
So it tells you something. Ten and fourteen going into
the game.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
I know one of their play by play broadcasters, I
wonder if you did the game. I wish I stayed
up for who for Portland? Now this was he would
do a much He would not do a game that
ESPN or an ESPN network would have picked up. He
would have been contracted.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
I'll tell you who was calling the play by play
last night.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
Her name is Anne Shots and she's good and I've
worked with him before on Westwood One. She was an
analyst for me doing Women's Elite eight games. We did
in a game like in five and then like maybe seven.
We've worked together a couple of times, but she's an
accomplished played by play voice as well. In fact, she's
better than some of the bigger networks have on the

(21:44):
air calling games right now now, I really wish I
watched it. She's good and her analyst has a really
interesting name. It's a real name, Jennifer Mountain. So that
was her broadcast should be in the Mountain West, Yeah, really,
that was. That was the broadcast team calling calling the
game last night, so yeah, and they both did a

(22:05):
really good job anyway. Portland upset Gonzaga late last night.
So Gonzaga is twenty to and two and the Power
rankings they are now thirteenth. Michigan State is fourteen. They
dropped seven spots after that loss to Minnesota, and they've
lost to in a row after starting off nineteen and two.
And you know, they were down eights excuse me, they

(22:28):
were down eighteen to Michigan late in the first half Friday.
Minnesota was up sixteen with four minutes to go last night,
and they pushed back late, but they still lost. Huge
game on Saturday Michigan State Illinois. Huge game for both
of those teams. On that Texas Tech fell five spots

(22:48):
from ten to fifteen after the Red Raiders had dropped
two in a row. They had a five game winning streak,
but of course they had an earlier loss to UCF
and then turned around and lost to Kansas the other night.
But they had that, they had that home win against Houston,

(23:10):
and now they've kind of, you know, bump dropped off
a little bit. When they've lost their six games. They've
shot only thirty two percent from three point range. They
shoot forty one percent beyond the arc when they went
so that tells you something about they would rely heavily
on three pointers.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
Yeah, they had a ninety two percent winning probability with
two minutes to go against Kansas, couldn't get it done.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Couldn't get it done. They hit I think it was
one of their last twelve shots, and Kansas went on
a fourteen to two run. Aaron Peterson, Yeah, Yeah, Arkansas
number sixteen and sixteen and six held their spot in
North Carolina up one spot to seventeen from eighteen. Virginia,
who's nineteen and three and of course looked very impresient

(23:56):
when they beat Texas here back in December, moved up
one spot to eighteen. Tennessee moved up three spots to
number nineteen. Really curious to see how their game comes
up on Saturday night in Lexington. They already lost to
Kentucky at home, and now they playing a second time.
They play in the Bluegrass on Saturday night before next

(24:17):
week playing Mississippi State. But that's a big game. Obviously,
Nate Amen's playing really well for the volunteers right now
we lose.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
He's a different player than that first Kentucky meeting, that's
for sure.

Speaker 6 (24:26):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Saint Louis here's another one of those mid majors. You go,
Do you know much about him? They're twenty two and one.
They went up one spot. They play Lesal on Saturday.
That's not the old but we'll keep an eye on
Saint Louis. BYU dropped seven spots because they've now dropped

(24:48):
three in a row and four of their last five.
They're seventeen to five, and what a huge game they
have against Houston Saturday.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
Then they go to Baylor.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
They play Baylor next Tuesday, which will be important Saint
John's look out. Here comes Rick Patino's team. They went
up a spot the number twenty two. Alabama dropped three
spots in large measure, giving up one hundred points to
Florida on Sunday. Then they turned around and scored one
hundred points last night to beat Texas A and M.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
So.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
They had been three and four over the prior seven
games prior to beating Texas A and M. SO, the
Aggies drop out a sole possession of first place in
the SEC. And I don't think anybody thought that anybody
was gonna run away with the SEC this year. This
thing is going to be a grinder all the way
through to the end for whoever emerges at the top,
whether it's Texas A and M, or Tennessee or Florida

(25:41):
or Kentucky or AUBURNA. Whoever emerges at the top, they're
gonna have to battle through it because there's nothing, no
easy path for anybody.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
Yes the way on that.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
I wouldn't leave last night too discouraged. If I'm the Aggies.
I thought Pop Isaacs was off his game. Obviously heard
him a little bit late. But Alabama team that, like
you said, was kind of trending the wrong way, needed
to win that game at home to get back on track,
and they were able to. So I think we'll see
a little bit. It's never it's never a straight line.

(26:13):
Progress is never linear. It feels like for an eight
oats team. So it's too early to write off this
Alabama group.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
I think, yeah, yeah, I think so. And for Texas
A and M the biggest currncerns folks have had about
them has been their defense. And they gave up one
hundred points last night. Now they scored ninety seven, but
they gave up one hundred last night. Louisville's number twenty four.
They play at Wake, no big deal on Saturday, and

(26:39):
then ends he stayed a pretty important game on Monday,
and there they are at number twenty five.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
The Red Hawks of Miami of Ohio.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Twenty three and oh they play at Marshall on Saturday.
And the thing about it is and they hold at
number twenty five. They're twenty three and oh. Start in
mac history by any school, best starting in school history
by Miami University of Ohio. They've had some really, really

(27:11):
tight games, some buzzer beating finishes, some real, real close ones,
but they found ways to win them all. They just
found find ways to do it. So you know, give
them credit for that.

Speaker 6 (27:24):
All right.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
We'll see how it goes further from that, all right?
You know where they are in Ken Palm where you
have a guess.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Uh, I'm gonna sae in the forties worse? Really how
far down?

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Nine?

Speaker 7 (27:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (27:39):
See, And again that's where the tournament selection committee will
take a look and they put eye test into the
formula as well as what they're evaluating there. But if
we're being real, I mean they play in the Mid
America Conference, So we'll see.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
We'll see how I put it this way.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
If if they finish the regular season unbeaten, I will
be curious to see where Ken Palm has them, because
I can tell you right now, if they finish the
regular season undefeated, they'll be in the NCAA tournament. Even
if they get beat in the MAC Tournament in Cleveland,
they'll be in the field because there would be a
great howling and you know a lot of furor put

(28:24):
it up with great hue and cry if they're not
in the tournament field, if they're like thirty one in
one or thirty two in one or something like that.

Speaker 3 (28:32):
And that's true even though their schedule is three hundred
and twenty ninth out of three hundred and sixty five teams.

Speaker 8 (28:38):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yeah, if they finish that well, if they finish the
regular season unbeaten, I think they'll be in the NCAA Tournament.
No matter what they do in the MAC Tournament. Be
interesting to see, So we'll see how that goes. Second

(29:05):
hour of the program here on Sports Radio AM thirteen
hundred The Zone. Craig Wade joined by the producer Jay Krman,
with you up until five o'clock this afternoon. Bucky MBK
coming your way at five and at seven forty five
is the pregame Star Time eight o'clock tip Texas against
LSU women's basketball.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
We'll hear from Vic Schaeffer. Coming up next segment. NBA
trade deadline is passed now is coming on.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
But one of the last deals that came down earlier
the Mavericks, and I'm not talking about the.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Anthony Davis trade. I'm talking about another one.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
The Charlotte Hornets training Tigas Jones to the Mavericks for
Malachi Branham is the deal that's gone on there, so
that was a second deal that the Mavericks made. Of course,
the big one that you know that everybody noticed yesterday

(30:09):
was the Anthony Davis deal. They traded Davis and some
other pieces to the Wizards. Uh and of course they
got Davis last year in the Luka Doncicts trade.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
So Tis Jones is a guard coming in the deal
they made.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
So they're surrounding Cooper Flag and Chris Middleton with a
playmaking type of guard. So let me get your thoughts
that you're a Wizards fan sort of when they're you know, representative.
Uh so, what do you make of this MAVs Wizards deal?

Speaker 3 (30:46):
For the Wizards, the concern is this, are you trying
to put your rebuild in the microwave rather than letting
it grow out in the garden. Right, there's such a
young team and at some point, right you need these
kids on the team, including former Longhorn trade Johnson, to
learn how to win games, not just get all of
these minutes that are low stakes. So by adding Troy

(31:08):
Young and Anthony Davis, yeah, you're signaling we want to
make the playoffs or at least push to be a
play in team next season. The question becomes, are either
of those two guys a part of your long term future?
And if they're not, what are you really gaining by
winning twenty more games with those two guys? Because right now,
the Wizards are completing their goal for this season, that

(31:29):
is tank Tank Tank, be a top top eight pick
because the pick that they have is top eight protected
from the New York Knicks, so they have to finish
with one of the worst four records in the league
to protect that. So this trade doesn't interfere with goal
number one. But is it just a short cut towards
goal number two? Or is it the type of move
that signals, Okay, we're done getting worse. It's time to

(31:52):
start surrounding this young core with some proven winners.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
That sounds like a jaded Wizards fan what you're saying there.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
The other deals that were made, of course, the biggest
one that everybody saw the Clippers trading James Harden to
Cleveland for Darius Garland in a second round pick.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
It's an interesting deal, I.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
Think, yeah, And I know Garland's had trouble staying on
the floor. Yeah, when he's been healthy. Well, he's healthy,
he's good, he is good, he is good. And James
Harden just wherever he goes, wherever he goes, he seems
to be unhappy. And is he going to be happy
having to share touches with Donovan Mitchell because they're both
extremely ball dominant players. How are they going to work together?

(32:37):
That's going to determine what I think of the trade.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
I think the guy is a long term cancer for
any team he goes to. Harden.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
It doesn't appear that way at first, and then down
the line here th teammates are sick of dealing with
him and playing with him and all that sort of stuff,
and you know, and he winds up going where he's going.
So I'm not surprised by that. Late last night, Golden
State sent Jonathan Kaminga and Buddy Healed to Atlanta for

(33:10):
Kristaps Porzingis, and in the biggest deal of deadline day,
Indiana picked up uh Aviga Zubac from the Clippers as well,
So that was that was a late nighter there. The
Jazz picked up Jaron Jackson from the Grizzlies, an eight
player swap that included three future first round picks. The

(33:35):
Bucks get Nick Richards and Nigel Hayes Davis from the
Suns for Cole Anthony and a mere coffee.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
What was crickets and what didn't happen was Giannis.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
No deal, no deal, and no movement on John Moran either.
So those are the two guys to watch going into
the offseason. I guess if you're the Bucks with all
these health concerns floating around on Yonanto Takumbo, they weren't
going to get the moon, the stars and the solar
system for him. And I don't blame teams for being
hesitant on that because I'm not sure how much leverage

(34:09):
right the Bucks had in this situation to get what
they wanted. You don't just trade your franchise like that.
They learned that valuable lesson from the Mavericks.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
Yeah, yeah, the Mavericks says it's a blueprint for everybody
to learn from off of that deal.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
I guess.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
And I'm a Mavericks fan. Like I said, I started
rooting for him their expansion here in college because I
was working their games, selling merch working at Reunion Arenam.
So I was there in that fifteen and sixty seven
expansion season there, and I remember guys like Abdul Jilani
and Bill Robinzine and Brad Davis, Jim Spinarticle and all

(34:43):
that before Mark Aguire and landa Blackman came in the
next year, and Derek Harper shortly thereafterwards. So I understand
when folks are looking at my brother. I have a
brother who's a really big Mavericks fan. He just he
wants them to come to play very competitively and lose
every game. You know, he wants them to tank, but

(35:04):
he wants them to tank in a progressive way, if
you want.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
And they've had some of that.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
The game of the Celtics the other night was like that,
the lead he got away, Cooper Flag is playing well,
the surrounding cast is not.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
Their game with the Lakers was like that.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
Yep, exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
So they've had a lot of games like that, but
they have a game like that with the Knicks, I
think pretty recently.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
Doo.

Speaker 4 (35:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
And look, if you're the Wizards, right, you're not gonna
your outlook is not going to change that significantly unless
you land the top pick in this draft somebody that's
like Cooper Flag, right, And so it's important that everything
they did was to still try and be in the
bottom records. I think the fact that this draft class
coming in is perceived as being one that's very good

(35:50):
at the top and very deep is why you're seeing
so many teams focus on next season with these moves.
I know what happens every year, but the Aprons have
tried to combat that. That's why team like in Indiana,
who is thirteen and thirty eight, says heck, yeah, let's
keep you know, nose diving a little bit lower, because look,
Zuboch is going to help them next year and they've

(36:11):
already got kind of the hay in the bar and in
terms of getting the high draft pick they want.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
True enough, let's turn our attention to the Super Bowl.
We're heading down the home shirts. This is the part
of the week. And this coming from the perspective of
somebody who has been to three Super Bowls and intensely
covered two of them. The other one I was selling merchandise.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
Does haphazardly covered the other one?

Speaker 2 (36:38):
No, it didn't cover it all right, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
I was a college student were me and my buddy
were selling jerseys and shirts and stuff like that for
Super Bowl fifteen.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
In New Orleans.

Speaker 3 (36:48):
Is it true that you had to take all the
losing team's gear and donate it right after.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
I didn't have to do any of that.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
It was all It was mainly what we call event shirts,
the ones that has the two teams on it and
the Lombardi Trophy and the football and the date and
all that other kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
So the type of shirt that I found for clear
ends up in Fargo, the event shirts from the twenty
twenty two FCS Championship. Why because they lost that game.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah, yeah, well see there you go, this one the
event shirt. But what you saw was when they was
all Bison, it was all about North Dakota State, right
Frisco bound, Yeah, right, North Dakota State. This was in
the truest word of an event. Jersey had bo teams,
the date, the site, Louisiana super Dome, and artwork. It

(37:34):
had the helmets of both the Eagles and the Raiders,
and it had the Lombardi Trophy kind of artistically done,
kind of growing out of the Louisiana super Dome with
the football thing it.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
So Super Bowl fifteen started in the Zupa Dome.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Yeah, and it was bad for the Eagles.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
Our good friend Jerry Sizemore, former All American offensive lineman
of Texas, played for the Eagles, was really good. And
he said that Dick for Meal insisted on getting the
team to the Dome like five hours before kickoff, and
they all just kind of were just grinding, you know,
just emostly grinding there, he said. And they weren't laid

(38:15):
back like the Raiders were that whole week. I remember
being on Bourbon Street during down there, and I saw
Jim Plunkett, a Raiders' quarterback, just sitting there eating a
hot dog outside and somebody took a picture, and they
were having a nice time. And they didn't have curfew
till like the night before, and the Eagles had strict
curfews everything, and they just kind of got emotionally worn down,

(38:36):
and they were just so tight and they weren't ready
to go. And the Raiders jumped to a quick lead,
and added that they had at the time the longest
touchdown passed.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
In Super Bowl history.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
It's since been surpassed, but Kenny King out of the
backfield from Plunkett, takes a screen pass, goes eighty yards
up the sidelines. I mean, they get going big before
the Eagles even wake up, and.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
So they lost.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
So anyway, we were selling event shirts and we even
took some. My buddy and I took some with us
in Duffel bags. When you could carry a Duffel bag
into a stadium and nobody would think twice about it.
Back in the day, we took Duffel bags in there.
Sold all we had left out of that, in addition
to the accounts we set up in the hotels, actually
sold the shirts off our backs, walked back a half

(39:26):
mile of the hotel, bare chested.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
Fortunately, temperature was like.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
In the high fifties, low sixes. It wasn't bad. We
walked back to the hotel there. That's the Super Bowl.
I was not covering as a reporter. The two of
the Cowboys were in Super Bowls twenty seven and twenty eight.
I was there for that and got to hear a
lot of the crazy questions and stuff. But then as

(39:51):
the week progresses, it gets into more routine football oriented
questions and less of the.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Goofy stuff that you come into.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
So Mike McDonald, the coach of the Seahawks, was asked
yesterday about the importance of what Sam Darnold is doing
in terms of managing the game, taking care of the football,
and he said he's really limited the turnovers since he
had all those interceptions he threw against the Rams back

(40:20):
in week eleven.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
How's he doing that.

Speaker 9 (40:22):
I think what you're looking at is, I don't know
if it was just like, hey, week eleven happened, you know,
let's draw a line in the sand, all of a sudden,
we're changing a bunch of stuff. I think you're looking
at the product of, you know, evolution over the course
of this season. I'm just kind of sticking to our
process and not panicking when things didn't necessarily go our way,
and doubling down on how we want to play football.

(40:43):
But Sam has been decisive the whole way, and he's
done a great job really in the last whole season,
you know, but definitely this last month or so, d
in this final stretch.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Okay, it's one thing for his quarterback to be more
comfortable and not making mistakes. On the other side, how
Old does his defense, Mike McDonald's Seattle defense make Drake
May uncomfortable.

Speaker 9 (41:05):
You have to play great football. They're a really good offense.
They're really complimentary. You know if if you don't, if
you if you don't force him to, they'll run it
every snap, you know, So you got to you gotta
be able to control the game and put it on
our terms.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
And then.

Speaker 9 (41:23):
The thing that makes Drake, you know, so dangerous in
addition to a lot of other quarterbacks in our league
is in addition to the arm talent, the processing and
the movement, you know, he's got a playmaking ability late
in Layton uh Layton plays. So we got to be
relentless in how we play. And he likes to escape
up the middle. So we've got to build the wall.
Everybody work together and play play relentlessly.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
All right now.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
From the a f C side, Mike Rabil, the Patriots
head coach, the families were coming in today, so they
come in, you know, coaches. If I've heard this once,
I've heard it countless. I'll just say dozens of times
without trying to exaggerate too much. But I think I've

(42:08):
heard it in an awful lot with bowl games, college
playoff games. But I've heard it more with the Super
Bowl than any other thing. And that is the players
taking care of the tickets for their families and getting
all that stuff done and out of the way. I mean,
I heard about this stuff. The first Super Bowl I

(42:33):
even really remember was Super Bowl three and I was little,
with the Jets being the Colts, but I've read stuff
about that going all the way back to the first
Super Bowl. Really that one almost was viewed as like
an exhibition on both sides. But after that, the coach
has always talked about wanting the players to take care
of their families, get them in the hotels, let them

(42:56):
get what they need, get them their tickets, and then
don't let it bother you or interfere with the work
and the preparation you have to put in. So Rabel
was asked, what does he tell his team with the
families coming in today, stay away.

Speaker 10 (43:08):
From as much as possible. No, it's uh, it's a
it's a good balance. And and again everybody's excited for
this opportunity. Uh, they're here because they they love us
and they support us. But also understand that, you know,
we have a responsibility to each other to continue to
prepare as much as possible and to be ready for

(43:31):
every situation that could present itself in the game.

Speaker 6 (43:33):
And both of those things can be true. You can
still enjoy your family.

Speaker 10 (43:38):
You can still you know, have dinner with them on
Friday night, you can still see him on Saturday afternoon,
and you can still prepare to win the football game
on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
Okay, that's one thing.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
And there he was also asked already that started getting
a lot of the strategic questions. How tightly do they
cover Jackson Smith and Jigba? How much do they shadow
him versus playing his regular defense.

Speaker 6 (44:08):
I think it's a balance, you know.

Speaker 10 (44:10):
I mean, obviously they're going to target him, and they
should rightfully.

Speaker 6 (44:13):
So he's excellent player, got a.

Speaker 10 (44:15):
Lot of respect for him as a competitor, what his
skill set is, and so I think it's a balance.
I think there's times where you reasonably can't just based
on what they do with him and where he goes,
and we'll have to be very aware of him. I'm
just like, we'll have to be very aware of being
able to stop the run and.

Speaker 6 (44:34):
The other things that they do really well.

Speaker 10 (44:35):
So I think it's just a good balance of being
able to show different looks.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
All right, we'll hear more from those coaches coming up
next hour. Speaking of coaches, we'll turn our attention along ward.
Basketball when we continue on Sports Radio AM thirteen under
the Zone, any iHeartRadio app Him of the court, Rihanna
driving through defenders in the corner. How about a crump free?

Speaker 4 (45:00):
How about it?

Speaker 2 (45:01):
Holiah doocks it down?

Speaker 5 (45:05):
Welcome back to the Craig Way Show and the Voice
of the Longhorns.

Speaker 6 (45:09):
Craig.

Speaker 5 (45:10):
Follow Craig on social media at corn Voice.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
Big Game to nights, fourth rank checksas Women, fifth rank
LSU Women tonight at Moody Center. We have it for
a year on the Zune seven forty five of the
year Time eight o'clock with the tip Vick Schaefer talking
about the run up to this game, coming off the
win on Sunday against Oklahoma and getting ready for LSU.

Speaker 7 (45:35):
Another top ten game tomorrow night here at home, and
proud of my team, just really proud of how hard
they played the other night. Played so well the first half.
I thought Oklahoma really made some you know, came out
in the second half, played extremely well after a first

(45:58):
half that was pretty rough. Jenny got her group playing
really well. We got to give those kids credit. I
have so much respect and admiration for Verhols Beers, you know.
Sahara Williams I mean that's three veterans, y'all, two fifty
your seniors. Sahara has been there, they've all won championships.

(46:21):
They're just really good players, and they seem like great kids.
I don't really know them personally, but I'm sure they're
great kids. And coach Bronchicks, she's doing a great job
there at Oklahoma.

Speaker 4 (46:34):
They've got some really good young kids as well.

Speaker 7 (46:37):
And I just thought they were way different the second
half and we weren't quite the same.

Speaker 4 (46:43):
But proud of our kids, proud of my team.

Speaker 7 (46:46):
For their ability to with standing their run and just
keep them at bay. You know, I think we kept
them pretty much between nine and eleven thirteen most of
the fourth quarter. I think they for the second half,
I think they cut it to seven. But man, they're
a really good team. Like there, there's a reason why

(47:06):
they're in the top ten. And you know, again, a
lot of respect and admiration for for coach Bronchick.

Speaker 4 (47:12):
I know we're rivals, but our school's arrivals.

Speaker 7 (47:16):
She and I think have a mutual respect for one another,
and I think she's a tremendous coach and she got
a heck of a team. So again, Uh, proud of
my kids for how they played, really appreciate our fans
and they made it an incredible atmosphere before moving on

(47:38):
disappointed And you know my reaction to a to a
play in the game. Uh, you know, going back and
looking at that, I know that, you know, sometimes I
can I can react a little bit in a way

(48:01):
that might not be construed as good my only and
I'm accountable for that.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (48:10):
But at the same time, at my investment level is
one hundred and ten percent with these kids, uh, in
this program in the University of Texas, And.

Speaker 4 (48:22):
You know, I think I've got to do a better.

Speaker 7 (48:23):
Job understanding what that looks like sometimes and you know,
just handle things probably a little differently. But you know,
my players will tell you, I'm I'm all in. I'm
a I'm i.

Speaker 4 (48:40):
I'm a passionate person.

Speaker 7 (48:44):
And you know, but I talk to my players all
the time about playing with emotion, but not playing emotionally.

Speaker 4 (48:51):
And you know, as the coach, I've I've got to
do that as well.

Speaker 7 (48:55):
So moving on to LSU, just obviously really good team
playing at a very high level. Coach Monkey's got them
way different today than they were a month ago, and
they're there again. There there's a reason why they're top
five in the country. Obviously two playing really really well

(49:18):
with two incredible.

Speaker 4 (49:21):
Big guards in Michaela and Vlage.

Speaker 7 (49:24):
I think now they're they're you know, Rashard is playing
so good, and then you've got full Wiley, So they've
got four really good guards Athletic can score.

Speaker 4 (49:34):
They put pressure on you the whole night.

Speaker 7 (49:37):
Every possession you're getting put pressure on by one of
those four.

Speaker 4 (49:41):
They're making you defend them.

Speaker 7 (49:44):
And and then I think they're fours and fives right now,
they're just playing different.

Speaker 4 (49:50):
They're more physical. You know.

Speaker 7 (49:52):
We we feel like that first game, we we kind
of got pushed around a little bit and got out
tough and and so we've got to be able to
match that with them, and and and and compete at
that high level physically, because you know, I think we
feel like in that first game that came down to

(50:13):
the excessive turnovers and then just not being able to
make some real toughness plays was really an issue.

Speaker 4 (50:22):
Our fives were not.

Speaker 7 (50:23):
Very effective the first time we played them, and we've
got to be better down there at at four and five. Really,
I think it would be fair to say four and five,
we've got.

Speaker 6 (50:34):
To be better.

Speaker 7 (50:35):
And then again just understanding how competitive you got to
be with those with their perimeter, because their perimeter is elite,
and uh, you know, it's just it really.

Speaker 4 (50:46):
Every possession you're having pressure put on you.

Speaker 7 (50:49):
And uh again, coach, you know, coach have been around
a long time and knows.

Speaker 4 (50:55):
How to get things done.

Speaker 7 (50:57):
And uh, you know, they're they're really really to mounted
have a great scheme and it's going to take a
big effort from us.

Speaker 4 (51:05):
On Thursday night.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
You heard the highlight coming out of the break of
the Iliah Crump three pointer. And of course, and she's
returned from injury, she's a legitimate threat.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
And Vic was asked about.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
How can that threat help the forwards offensively?

Speaker 7 (51:23):
Yeah, you know, when I go back and look at film,
it's not like they brought double teams or anything like that.

Speaker 4 (51:28):
When we played them before, you know, I thought.

Speaker 7 (51:33):
They were one on one more physical than we were
at four and five, and we just we got caught
behind a lot on defense with their fours. Their fours
really really hurt us a little bit. And then their
five player was just really tough, you know, And give
those kids credit, man, they really brought it, and we've

(51:57):
got to try to find a way to match that.
But at the same time, you know, Crump, Crump's really
been impacting our team, and she impacts our team young
in so many different ways. She's such a great kid,
she's a great teammate, Her teammates lover, she has no ego,

(52:18):
she's a really good player, and she's you know, she
just brings.

Speaker 4 (52:24):
A lot to the table.

Speaker 7 (52:25):
So I'm hopeful that in you know, in our games
that are coming up, we have so many great teams
in front of us that you know, she continues to
be the impact that she's been because the three games
back that she's.

Speaker 4 (52:36):
Played, she's really played well, made a difference.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
He was asked about if he thought his team would
be able to find its stride during this two week
stretch at home now or not. It's not really two weeks.
I mean, it was a week ago to night that
were playing at Florida, but it's nine ten eleven that
counting the travel time and the games there. Since they've

(53:01):
got you know, the two games at home with OU
and l s U and then Monday night against Kentucky
before they have two three straight games on the road,
including two really difficult road assignments at Vanderbilt in Tennessee.
So he was asked about the you know, this fortnight

(53:22):
so to speak, this two week period, does he hope
that it will help his team find at stride.

Speaker 4 (53:26):
I don't know about two weeks.

Speaker 7 (53:28):
We played at home Sunday, We'll be at home Thursday
and then Monday, and then that's it. We're on the
road Vanderbilt, Tennessee. But nonetheless, you know, it's it's always
good to play in the moody and great to play
in front of our fans, and you know, a place
was electric Sunday, just really special. Our students make it

(53:52):
so cool and you know, so much fun for our players,
and you know, we appreciate our fans so much.

Speaker 4 (54:02):
Eight o'clock tip.

Speaker 7 (54:03):
You know, I have no idea how that will affect
our crowd on on Thursday night. It's kind of late,
but you know, at the end of the day, you know,
it is what it is. So but our fans have
really made it special in there, and again our kids
have played really well at home obviously over the course
of time. So just you know, again I appreciate our

(54:28):
fans and all they do for our players, and it's
certainly again, there's probably not another sport in college athletics
that has a bigger impact than having the home court
advantage in basketball.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
And one more from Vic this whole toughness and physicality thing,
because he's exactly right.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
I mean, I sat right there and saw it with
my own eyes.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
I was right next to Long One bench calling that game,
and I saul Texas get pushed around in a way
that i' I've only seen South Carolina do that to them,
get really physical. And South Carolina didn't really do that
in either of the two games in Texas played, because
they won the first one in Vegas, could have won
the second one, but LSU did kind of shove them

(55:14):
off the block and got real physical. That's a big
reason why Roy Harmon wasn't playing in the fourth quarter there,
because the guards were just being really physical.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
So Vic has asked, what is now.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
Leading him to believe that they've solved or at least
addressed these toughness and physicality issues.

Speaker 4 (55:32):
Yeah, I think it's a work in progress.

Speaker 6 (55:34):
I don't.

Speaker 4 (55:36):
I don't know that you flip a switch on that.

Speaker 7 (55:39):
I think we're really inconsistent, you know, as a team,
and specifically it's you know, a couple of positions we've
been really good at times and then we've been you know,
not so good. But again, not their fault, that's not
the kids fault, that's my fault as a coach. I've
got to try to find a way to develop that
consistency and and and get us to be more consistent

(56:03):
as a team.

Speaker 4 (56:03):
I think that's you know, that's been.

Speaker 7 (56:05):
What I've been fretting over and concerned about throughout time,
is just trying to develop that consistency and getting our
kids to understand, you know, the importance of doing every
little thing right. Practice was so good yesterday, we had
so much good leadership.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
Booker was just so verbal.

Speaker 7 (56:27):
Rory's always verbal communicating, but we had several you know,
we had some other kids trying to step up and
uh and and have some verbal leadership as well as
practice well, and uh, you know, we're in February now,
and I think, you know, I think it hits home
with those seniors a little bit that this you know,

(56:48):
it's a stretch run of their career, and you know,
Rory's just had such an unbelievable career. If you know,
things go like, like I think they're gonna go She's
gonna be the only player in the history of the
game to end up with the numbers that she's going
to have and assist deals, points and rebounds and uh.

Speaker 4 (57:09):
You know when you when you reflect.

Speaker 7 (57:11):
On that, Jeff, you really feel blessed.

Speaker 4 (57:16):
You know, you really feel.

Speaker 7 (57:19):
You know, you just really feel blessed that have had
the opportunity to be around a kid like that. You know,
she's so passionate like I am. You know, she'll lose
her stuff just like her coach does. And yet we
are sometimes judged for that and that's not really who
we are. But we care so much about what we
do and who we do it with, and we're so

(57:42):
passionate and uh, and so sometimes when we do have
that day or that moment where we might, you know,
might not be as composed as we'd like to be,
people are so quick to judge on that.

Speaker 4 (57:57):
But that's life.

Speaker 7 (57:58):
I mean, people are gonna judge you if you dress
If you dress nice, they're gonna say you're flashy and
bragging if you you know, if you don't dress nice,
they're gonna accuse you of something else. If you you know,
it's just that's the way of the world. There's it's
just a judgmental place. And uh so, but I think
when you know, when you get to this particular point

(58:20):
in time, you know, practice yesterday was was really good.
And you know those kids in there, you know Kyla,
you know Taya Ashton. You know, it's getting down the
stretch here and uh you know, I'm fixing to do
a voice over for the videos for Senior Night here
when I get off with y'all, And uh so, you know,
for me, it's a time of reflection too. You know,

(58:42):
I don't I don't take those things for granted. And
uh again, I'm just so thankful, you know, to have
these kids in my life. It's not always been easy,
but it's not supposed to be. And I think that's
what's new about today's world, y'all, is that today now,
when it's not easy, people just run, they leave, they complain.

(59:05):
You know, in in in the old days, it was, hey,
you've got to figure it out, you know, got gotta
Maybe I do need to listen, Maybe I am not
doing it right.

Speaker 4 (59:16):
Mcgrass is gonna be greener somewhere else. And so.

Speaker 7 (59:21):
You know, I just again, you I'm very appreciative, and
I've got some great older kids. But practice was really
good yesterday and by a lot of people, and it
was a lot of really good communication.

Speaker 4 (59:34):
So I'm anxious to see them again today.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
Yeah, and then tonight as Texas plays Hellisha. You know
the one player that I think that they have to
account for, They're going to account for Flage Johnson. That's
not that there's no mystery there. Madison Booker is going
to draw the main assignment on Flage. That's all American
on all American. Uh. The the matchup that caused them

(59:59):
so much rubble in the first game is Rory Harmon
on Mikayla Williams.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
And normally Rory you don't get by her.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
She did a fabulous job the other day in the
matchup with Oklahoma. She's done a really good job, but
she really struggled with Mikayla, who she gives up six
inches to and some poundage as well, and so she's
going to have to deal with her because Williams average
is thirteen points, five boards and four rebounds, not bad
for a point guard. So she's going to have to

(01:00:27):
deal with her. And that's where you and then of
course she got Malsia full Wiley who comes off the bench,
and full Wiley she's guarded a lot, going back to
her South Carolina days, but she's very, very quick, and
she's got to keep her in front of it. The
size is more of a challenge there, I think for
Rory than the speed issue is.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
And on that note, right with Williams, I think if
you can prevent her from getting out in transition, that's
half the battle. She had five steals against Texas that night,
so some of those it's really tough to recover when
you're trying to stop her in transition.

Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
Yeah, I agree, no doubt about that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
All right, we'll get to some of your texts coming
up next year on thirteen under the Zone. When I
was in Gainesville, Florida, last Thursday week could go today,
getting ready to call it Texas women's game. The hotel
that I stayed in with the women's basketball team is

(01:01:23):
the same one that I stayed in the year before
the men's basketball team. The reason why I remember it
because otherwise it was just a regular, you know, decent hotel,
but there was a chain hotel group type set of accommodations,
but in every room there is a framed artwork of
Tom Petty because that's his hometown, Gainesville, Florida. That was

(01:01:44):
his hometown, the late Tom Petty. We have some folks.
I'm gonna leave it to you because of some limitations
on this side and being able to get to the
text read it, but we have some questions and comments
on the text line.

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
Yeah, I from Inconceivable LiTi or somebody that I knew
there was something going on with that seed turtle from
finding Nemo.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
Well see there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
And if something was going on with that with that jellyfish,
the largest jellyfish that's ever been seen on cameras underwater cameras,
they say, two hundred and fifty meters below off the
coast of Argentina. Big as a bus, big as a bust.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
Big time jellyfish.

Speaker 3 (01:02:27):
Meant to get to this earlier, but somebody asked, Craig,
which sport do you like calling the most? I like
you on all but field baseball allows you to be
a little more mellow because this lower pace, which gives
you more time to convey more info. So ready for baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
That's from Carrie p Okay. Carrie, thank you, thank you
for the nice words.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
I'm going to give the same answer I give every time,
and it's the broadcasters coppound answer, but it is based
in truth and also in physiology or mental physiology. My
answer to that question is always whatever is season at
the time. Now, that sounds like a goofy, lazy, even
cop out answer, but hear me out on this. When

(01:03:09):
I'm calling a game, there's no place I'd rather be
at that moment. I obviously love what I do, and
I've been doing it a long time, and I really
enjoy the preparation for the broadcast, and when I'm doing
the game, at that point, I feel like I'm right

(01:03:29):
where I'm supposed to be because I've prepared for it
mentally and emotionally and physically dialed in and going on
the thing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
So here's what I mean by that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
When I'm calling a long WRN football game, say it's
a Saturday afternoon or a Saturday evening game, I'm in
the broadcast booth a DKR, or if it's a road
game on the road, There's no way, no way that
I could possibly be thinking about calling a baseball game
or a basketball game. I'm so dialed into the football game,

(01:04:06):
and yes, as they say, like color and pageantry of
college football. There's all of that, but just the prep
and everything I've put of myself into it to call
the game.

Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
So I don't even think about that now at.

Speaker 1 (01:04:19):
This time of year, in early February, I can't conceive
a basket of football when I'm calling basketball games or
even when I'm doing baseball. Baseball's in the back of
my mind because the season opens a week from tomorrow.
But still when I'm calling the game that I do,
you get the number four team in the country against
the number five team in the country. And when it's
college basketball, that's all I'm dialed in on. And then

(01:04:41):
when I'm doing a baseball game, if I'm at the
College World Series in Omaha, I'm not thinking about a
football game. The College World Series, the national championship events
are so unique to themselves.

Speaker 3 (01:04:55):
Football.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
We know what the drama is is. It builds on
a week by week basis through the playoffs to a
panoramic masterpiece like the Rose Bowl, or if you make
it to the National Championship game, that sort of thing.
The Final four has all this electricity in this shiny,
brand new, squeaky floor. You get a little feel for

(01:05:17):
that in the first and second round of the tournament,
especially final four is down to just those four teams,
and the College World Series is like this two week,
slowly unfolding melodrama. If you're good enough and make it
to the end of the fortnite and by the end
of the deal. Yeah, it's it's kind of like an
old program directory we had here.

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
He used to call it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
It's like groundhog Day when you go to Omaha, you
get up temperatures in the eighties, you go to the ballpark.
Then when the game's over, which Italian restaurant or steakhouse
or which Italian steakhouse because they have all three are
you going to eat at? And then you get up
the next morning and you do it all over again.
So it's what's happened in the moment that draws me

(01:06:02):
in and attracts me to it. And I know, like
I said, it doesn't definitively so I like call them
football the best, where I like call them basketball or baseball.
And it isn't with sensibilities or sensitivities in mind. It's
just the way I'm constructed, in the way that I'm
thinking and preparing to do the.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
Game at that time.

Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
If that makes sense, makes perfect sense, okay, okay, explains
how you can call everything.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
If you put yourself into it and do that, then yeah,
you can do it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:30):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
We'll be back to wrap up the hour on thirteen
Under the Zone. Third and final hour of the program
here on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
Craig Way here.

Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
Alongside the producer Jay Carman.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
Glad to have you with us, and we're with you
up till five o'clock.

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
Did we am x's and o's today or was it yesterday?
I'm trying to remember in such a hurry.

Speaker 3 (01:07:02):
Looking at the program, law, I think it's by Tuesday.
I mean, I think it's Tuesdays, but I don't know
if it's time move with Buckying BKA Jordan the lineup.
Because Bucking BK followed us on.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Right, I meant it was coming on afterwards or something.
Because Bucking Bka are coming up at five o'clock today.
I don't see it today, okay, all right, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
Might be tomorrow. How did that think about it? Or something?
I can't remember.

Speaker 1 (01:07:23):
I know that Long Worn Weekly with Sean Miller is
coming up tomorrow night at seven o'clock. We're gonna let
you hear a little sneak preview of it coming up
here a little bit later this hour, But prior to that,
there were some other things wanted to hear. You know,
there's some there's some more from Billy Joyl more from

(01:07:46):
Billy Joel there.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
Okay, right, that was not intentional.

Speaker 3 (01:07:51):
No, that's not what he wanted everybody to hear.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
Okay, all right, No, what what We've got some questions
about this last week and are as he calls himself
totally blind. Friend Ryan asked me if I was going
to be at the town hall meeting with Crystal Content,
the athletic director, last night, and I was unable to
be there for that. However, I was able to view it,

(01:08:14):
and there's some there's some excerpts from it that we'd
like to bring to you because we think it is
important for you to hear. If you're a long run fan, certainly,
and even if you aren't, you're just interested in what's
going on on the forty acres hearing from the man
who's in charge of all things athletics at the University
of Texas University Vice President and Director of Athletics, Crystal Conti.

(01:08:37):
So here's some excerpts from that town hall meeting last night.
One of the things the question, with the SEC going
to nine football games, what is the value? Because he
has said from the outset as sarcas that are going
to keep the Ohio State and Michigan return games on

(01:08:59):
the schedule, and why not they've already been up there
to play him. Why not take advantage of having him
at home? But he was asked, with the SEC going
to nine games, why would there be a movement, a directive,
a thought process to continue playing these tough non conference games.

Speaker 11 (01:09:17):
Nine game schedule. When we joined the SEC, it was
an eight game schedule. I was an absolute proponent.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
Of going to nine games.

Speaker 11 (01:09:26):
This year, we were away from DKR forty three straight days.
We were road warriors. Was that fair to our football program?
Was that fair to you? That was an eight game
schedule because we play a neutral site game in Dallas.
We only had three games this year at home in

(01:09:47):
the SEC, and we had four on the road. They
counted the OU game as our home game because we
were the home team. So soon as we got in
the SEC, we're like, hey, time out, we need to
go to nine games because I want four on the road,
ford home, and the neutral side. And UH with the
playoff going from from four teams to twelve teams, we

(01:10:09):
voted to go to nine games. But before we joined
the SEC, I made schedules of what Ohio State and Michigan.

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
We had USC, we had l s U.

Speaker 11 (01:10:20):
Because I was trying to make sure that your dollar
that you're spending with us, we're bringing the best teams
we could into dk R and play those great teams.
That's that's what we wanted. So we scheduled great games
here to bring value to you all. At the same
time we had we were in the Big twelve, and
we're looking at who we're playing and who's coming into

(01:10:41):
dk R, and we lost A and m we lost Nebraska,
we lost you know, we lost those games, and we
weren't playing at Missouri in the big previous Big twelve,
so we looked at differently, so we looked at value well.
When we joined the the SEC, I had to reverse
our schedus had to go to the Big ten twice

(01:11:02):
in order for us to get in early. That was
a price I was willing to pay to get in early.
Take no TV revenue and I had to switch the
two games around.

Speaker 4 (01:11:13):
Go there first.

Speaker 11 (01:11:14):
Well, I'm not about to give those games up. I
want a little piece of their rear. And in DKR,
so Ohio State comes in and Michigan comes in, so
that that's.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
The reason where we were at.

Speaker 11 (01:11:23):
But I want our fans Longhorn Nation to be able
to watch Ohio State in this stadium. I want fans
and Longhornation to be able to watch Michigan along with
the SEC slate. But I had a lot of people
say we need to cancel those games. No, we're going
to honor our word. If we played them said we're
going to go play You're gonna come in and play me.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
We're going to honor our word. That's what we do.
As far as future future schedules look like.

Speaker 11 (01:11:48):
We will sit down and look at what that looks like.
For getting into the postseason tournament. I will tell you
that college football is built around your regular season. Do
you guys really want nice, good games in DKR. We
can play three creampuffs and we can play an SEC schedule,

(01:12:09):
But if the playoff is going to expand, which I
prefer the playoff expands, you want to then have great
games right and value those great games as long as
we have an opportunity to get into postseason.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
That's the delicate balance.

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
You want to play high level opponents, but not at
the risk of killing your chances to get into the playoff.
And I do think the playoff as he believes that
the playoffs going to expand not going in the span
is coming year because of the falling out. Well, let's
just say at Loggerheads, the Big Ten in the SEC

(01:12:46):
over whether the playoff would expand to from sixteen to
twenty four teams in the future, and the SEC not
so certain about that, and the Big Ten would like
it to get to twenty four. But that's another conversation
for another day. Speaking of playoff expansion, it's a conversation
from right now. His thoughts on the possibility of expansion
and the calendar of college football.

Speaker 11 (01:13:07):
I prefer to expand that playoff a little bit. I
prefer to preserve the regular season by playing great games
and not dumbing down your schedule and play nobody with
the hopes that you can get in the playoff because
you played nobody. If we can strengthen our regular season
and keep that where our fans and are engaged and

(01:13:27):
want to see great games and have an expanded playoff.
That'd be awesome. I'm also in favor of moving the
schedule up a week. Start Week zero, which is the
last week in August. Be a little hot here.

Speaker 2 (01:13:39):
We've gotta make sure it's a night game.

Speaker 11 (01:13:40):
I get that, but starting the last week in August
and you play Labor Day weekend. I'm also in favor of,
why have a conference championship game, Let's.

Speaker 2 (01:13:48):
Start the playoffs that week. That's right, Start the playoffs.

Speaker 11 (01:13:53):
That week, and let's play every single week and the
semi finals played on New Year's Day, which is college football,
the National championship a week later.

Speaker 1 (01:14:02):
That's what I'd like to see, Okay, And I have
no problem with any of that.

Speaker 2 (01:14:07):
I would tell you. I don't like to tell CDC this.
He knows this.

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
That the problem with the doing away with the conference
championship games is doing away with television revenue because the
networks want those championship games.

Speaker 2 (01:14:23):
So that's that's again a conversation for a different time.
And then.

Speaker 1 (01:14:29):
One of the things that he gets asked about a
lot a lot on social media is changing the uniform.
And you know, people bring these mock ups these artworks
that have a black helmet with a burn orange long
horn on his side, or burn orange helmet with a
black longhorn, or black jerseys and all this stuff. And

(01:14:53):
his answer is always polite, but it's always to the point.
He said, it's we're not messing with our classic.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
Look.

Speaker 1 (01:14:59):
The this quote from Darrel Royal is we don't want
to candy these up. Hell, these are work clothes. That's
his quote, or it might have been in the verse.
It might be hell, these are work closed. We don't
want to candy them up. But anyway, the point was made.
Now we're hearing and this has nothing new with the
overall jersey scheme and helmet scheme, but brand patches which

(01:15:23):
have been approved by the NCAA. And where might those
patches wind up if it's on the shoulder, on the
back of the helmet or whatever.

Speaker 11 (01:15:31):
And he was asked for his thoughts on that. I
was waiting for that. You know, it's the young ones
that come up with all that stuff. They read all
the Internet. So the idea, the idea now and by
the way, it's three patches, so they online remember it now.
They said, oh, you can put up the three patches
on your uniform. Now are we NASCAR?

Speaker 6 (01:15:54):
Right?

Speaker 11 (01:15:55):
Well, I we put a logo on the field. I
took a lot of green for but that logo was
germane to the University of Texas. We looked at say
what would you want to have happen? And we have
two colors. We're burn orange and white. We're not wearing black,
We're not wearing green. We're not wearing wear two colors.

(01:16:17):
That's and why and why do.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
We do that?

Speaker 11 (01:16:20):
Because we're the very best colors in the world. When
the sun rises, what's the first color God sees?

Speaker 2 (01:16:27):
Burn orange?

Speaker 11 (01:16:28):
And when it sets, what's the last color he sees?
Why mess with perfection in our uniforms? Why would I
want to put sonic on my jersey?

Speaker 6 (01:16:38):
Right?

Speaker 11 (01:16:39):
But it is legitimately a situation's going to come. You
can put up the two patches or something detl on
your helmet. I'm just swallowing in my mind what we're
doing where we're going. There will be schools that do that,
and I have no umbrage for that. But you have
to also look at and say, you have to protect
what we are. If I can build an ecosystem around

(01:17:01):
us that is great enough to sustain us.

Speaker 2 (01:17:05):
Why would I do that? Does that make sense?

Speaker 6 (01:17:09):
But it is.

Speaker 11 (01:17:10):
You get to see schools out there with Sonic Burger
king and something on the back of their helmet because
you can put three patches on it. It just doesn't make
sense to me. What I want to do now is
my goal this year is on the football uniform, just
to put the SEC patch right here where it goes
down a V and you just keep it as clean
as possible. We have the Nike swoosh that's there right.

Speaker 2 (01:17:33):
So there it is.

Speaker 1 (01:17:34):
I wonder if he was thinking about Oklahoma when he
said Sonic Sonic drive Ins are based in Oklahoma. That's
where they started. Wonder if he was thinking about them
at that time. Or Loves truck Stop. You know, the
softball stadium is Love's field there in Oklahoma. It's the
best athletic facility they have. Trust me, it's better in
the football stadium. It's better than el Dale Mitchell Ballpark.

(01:17:57):
The baseball park, it's definitely better than the Lloyd Noble Center,
which is getting pretty long in the tooth. It's in
need of a major renovation. But it'll be interesting to
see where that goes. Uh with regard to the patches.
All right, up next, we're gonna hear from Sean Miller
a little preview of the game against Ole Miss, but

(01:18:21):
also I'll look back at where they come through the
past three games in a week. We'll hear from him
talking about that when we continue on thirteen under the
Zone on Dylan swaying, Spence turns Daylon knocked the ball
out of his hands. Here goes Wilcher, bounce past to
a cutting bark, slam duck. Come on in transition off
the pass from Wiltchi and Texas is back up four

(01:18:44):
thirty nine thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:18:45):
Five and we're in a crag way show.

Speaker 5 (01:18:49):
Have a message for Craig, share it by just see
the talkback feature on the Ihearts Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
Transition.

Speaker 1 (01:18:58):
Slam Dunk from tram on Mark in tuesday nights win
over South Carolina kind of felt like the lone Ranger
on Tuesday, I didn't have either of my mates with me.
Eddie Orrin was out with a flu. He's much better now.
A texted last night, I see how he was doing.
He said, much better, he said. The doctor gave him
some prescription medicine. He slept the entire day wow.

Speaker 3 (01:19:19):
I can't remember the last time I've done that, I know,
but he felt much.

Speaker 1 (01:19:22):
Better and he said he'll be fine for Saturday's game
against ole Miss. And then Cameron Parker, our erstwhile assistant
program director, who is my engineer on long Warn men's
and women's basketball games, was going to stand in for

(01:19:43):
Eddie and kind of pull double duty and not only
engineer but also act as analysts.

Speaker 2 (01:19:48):
And he gets smashed in a car wreck.

Speaker 1 (01:19:52):
Driving to Moody by a guy who ran a flashing
yellow light and came amazon green and he has the
right away and he's going through and the guy just
just smashed into.

Speaker 3 (01:20:05):
Him, flashing yellow turn signal or traffic Like, Cam's okay, by.

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
The way, Yeah, yeah, he's okay. The car not so much.
It's in bad shape and you to look at the
pictures of it doesn't look good. But he's okay. In fact,
he'll be back at the switch tonight with me over
at Moody for the women's game against LSU.

Speaker 2 (01:20:21):
He'll be back at the engineering man. So Cameron's okay.

Speaker 1 (01:20:25):
So yeah, I was kind of captain solo the other
night for that update on the hockey. Yes, the Olympics
are underway. In the United States women's hockey team got
all to a good start. They hammered chetch him five
to one. Their next action comes up on Saturday when
they play Finland. That will be the next action for them. Okay,

(01:20:49):
I want to go back to basketball. As I mentioned,
we record long Worn weekly with Sean Miller a day
or so out before the game, and then it airs
a day or so while before the game. And the
program we recorded today over on campus will air tomorrow
night at seven o'clock here on thirteen under the Zone.

(01:21:10):
It'll be tomorrow night, but as always we give you
a little sneak peak. Listen a little early preview of it.
This is Sean recapping how his team has come through
three games in seven days, losing the game a little
over a week ago to Auburn, then turning right around
and winning on the road at Oklahoma, and then winning

(01:21:31):
back at home against South Carolina on Tuesday. Texas comes
off a stretch of three games in seven days. And
I'm always curious to get a coach's perspective when you're
viewing this through the prism of the toll, whether it's physical, emotional,
all of the above. That sort of thing that can
take on a team. But your broll club did go

(01:21:52):
to and one and won back to back games on
the road at Oklahoma and then at home against South
Carolina after a tough, tough, hard fought battle at Auburn.

Speaker 12 (01:22:00):
Yeah, no, this was a challenging segment of our season, Craig,
and we knew it before, felt it during, and I
was very concerned for the South Carolina game because of
that reason. You know, the third game in that seven
day window, especially because it's coming right in early February.
You know, three games and seven days a month ago tough,

(01:22:23):
but you you're fresher at that point.

Speaker 8 (01:22:26):
The season isn't as long.

Speaker 12 (01:22:27):
You know, you start getting into games twenties, you know,
headed between twenty and thirty. You know, you're really more
aware of how long you practice, and you know you
want health both physically but also the mental toll of
one scouting report to the next to the next. So
you know, at the end of the day, we did
what we were supposed to do against South Carolina. I'll
start there. I think South Carolina is really well coached.

(01:22:49):
I think they're a hard team to play against. Their styles, deliberate,
they don't use as many pick and rolls. When you
watch basketball today, you know, you see so many on
every possession.

Speaker 8 (01:23:00):
South Carolina is an outlier.

Speaker 12 (01:23:01):
They put their individual players on an island and they
play out of the post, and they play off the dribble,
and they have you know, Johnson, Michi Johnson is one
of the best guards we've played against all season long,
and we've played against some good wins. Yeah, and he's
one of the best because not only does he average

(01:23:22):
eighteen points, but he averages five assists. He has great
meaning to their team. He's older, he's physical, and he
lives at the free throw line, and he was hard,
very difficult for us to guard. He had thirty five points,
kept them in the game. And uh but at the end,
I thought the execution on the offensive end for us
in the last six to eight minutes of the game

(01:23:43):
was about as good as we've had all season long.
You know, we missed a couple point blank shots, but
we got the ball right at the rim and in
crucial times up to up four, tie game up five,
and really broke the game open on that end of
the court. So finishing up with that games in three days,
you know, they all were very difficult, and I think

(01:24:05):
that it keeps our team moving in a good direction
as we head further into February.

Speaker 1 (01:24:10):
You know, you've had several games this season, either win
or lose, where it's real seesaw in the second half
and you may be climbing a hill, climbing a hill,
climbing hill, and it's important to get over the top
and get the lead. And you've done that, and then
you've had other games where you've had the lead and
the other team's coming back, coming back, coming back, and

(01:24:31):
they don't quite get over the hill, or maybe they do,
and then you get it right back. And that was
important the other night, I thought again, South Carolina, after
you trail by nine in the first half, coming back,
you're up by four in the second half, and they
fight through and they actually go up forty two to
forty one, and then you turn around and had the
big run after that. I'm interested in your thoughts on
the emotional challenge that a team goes through at that

(01:24:54):
time because of the climb, whether you're on the short
end or the protective end of a score like that.

Speaker 12 (01:24:59):
Right, So, Craig, I I keep coming back to those
four minute segments. We call them the four minute wars,
and there's ten of them in every game. Has not changed.
You know, from our non conference season when we were
in Maui where we played three games in three days.
You know, the team who wins the most of those
four minute segments wins the game. It's not one hundred percent,
but it's it's about ninety percent of the time.

Speaker 8 (01:25:20):
So that's how important it is.

Speaker 12 (01:25:22):
So again, not to get caught up in the roller
coaster of a run versus a run, winning, losing. Oh
my god, the emotions of it. It can distract the player,
it can distract you as a coach.

Speaker 8 (01:25:33):
But it's about the segment we're in. Let's win that segment.

Speaker 12 (01:25:35):
And it's amazing how you can get yourself back on
track by winning one of those four minute wars five
to four and having the peace of mind that you
did what you're supposed to do. You were present in
that last segment. Let's now build on that and get
two wars in a row. Let's win the next one,
you win the next one nine to six. Well, what
you realize is like you've now won the last eight

(01:25:58):
minutes of the game by four points. It doesn't allow
you to focus too much on the emotions of good
and bad, because I think one of the most frustrating parts,
especially if you're at a home game when you're playing
really well and you have a big lead and you
compromise that the team makes a run at you, and
how do you prevent that from happening? Obviously quality of play,

(01:26:18):
but to just stay in the present. It's what life's about.
It's what we talk a lot about in sports, regardless
of what sport you're playing. And I think in college basketball,
the winner of the four minute wars, the winner of
the battles is so important. And we've talked offline some
the fifth four minute war is the last four minute

(01:26:39):
segment of the first half, and that really plugged us
for a while. You know, it took me a little
bit of time to really start figuring out, like, wait,
we haven't won this four minute segment since we played
Southern And that was like before you had turkey of Thanksgiving, right,
I mean, we're whoa what is? And then we started
to look at it, you know, who's playing? What are
we not doing well? Giving up a lot of second

(01:26:59):
shots right before halftime? And I think it's really helped
us both against Oklahoma and South Carolina. We won that
last four minute segment before halftime, something that we had
not been able to do. It makes us a better team,
and I think some of it is just why did
you win it. We're making our players more aware of
it and the importance of Again, the team who wins
the most wars wins the game. And if we go

(01:27:21):
through the SEC season, the ten games we played, it's
amazing the difference in those four minute segments. I mean,
I mean six to four in one game, you know,
you tied to and then there's you know, you're you're
just about even. But at the end of the day,
that's what we set out to do, and that takes
away what you're talking about not getting too caught up
in the emotion of what happens.

Speaker 1 (01:27:41):
Yeah, you brought it up when we were in Norman
about and you pinpointed three of those segments in specific.
You said they're all important, but you pinpointed one, five,
and six.

Speaker 6 (01:27:52):
You said that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:52):
Starting off the game and then right before the end
of the half, and then started the second half. We
know what happened in Norman. It didn't start off the
way you want it.

Speaker 12 (01:28:00):
And it didn't start off well against South Carolina, you know,
I mean, so we have not in the last couple
of games. Not only have we not played well at
the beginning of the game, we've dug ourselves a whole.
That's something we'll address though, And I think that that's
that game within the game, And you could talk more
about that as a coach with a team. When you've practiced,
you know, eighty times and you've played now twenty four games,

(01:28:23):
we know each other, we've been through experiences, the good,
the bad, away from home home, big games, afternoon games,
night game. So we've been through enough experiences now that
we can call on the importance of getting off to
a great start. Don't have to be winning the game,
but you have to play well. You have to be
attent of to detail. You know from the opening tip.

(01:28:45):
You want to be the team who's playing the force
that is sending the right message that today is important
to us. We're here to fight for the win and
we're gonna set the tone in a positive way. You
can also really rally your home crowd when you do that.
You know, it's tough to be the home crowd when
you're watching the scoreboard go against you from the opening tip.

(01:29:06):
You know it just you almost have to rally your
team instead of the excited with them.

Speaker 1 (01:29:12):
So the flip side of this is if you have
a difficult first one of those words like you did
in Norman, like you did against South Carolina. I mean,
you're down fourteen to the Sooners on the road, down
nine at home to South Carolina. How important is it
then to see it from your guys in that second
and then the third and then the fourth obviously in

(01:29:35):
being able to climb that hell and erase that hole
that you've dug yourself into.

Speaker 12 (01:29:39):
Right, and look, you know, sometimes you know when it
becomes emotional, it's because of lack of concentration or lack
of effort, and those two things, like the standard of
what we're trying to do, begins and ends with that.
I mean, you assume that you have the highest level
of effort and the highest level of concentration and buying it.
We say it all the time. Be alert, be alert,

(01:30:01):
Be alert. If you're on the bench, be alert. If
you don't have the basketball. You have to be alert
on defense, you have to be alert on offense. Basketball
is a quick game, and you have to be attentive
to to you know.

Speaker 8 (01:30:10):
What we're talking about. I forgot where I was going
with this.

Speaker 1 (01:30:14):
Well, just the importance of being able to get everybody
engage to turn it around when you're down and you've
dug yourself a hole and trying to climb out of it.

Speaker 12 (01:30:21):
Right, So with that, you know, I think that, you know,
the next part becomes just again what we were saying,
and that is staying with those those four minute segments,
not panicking, the not not getting too emotionally caught up
and like that we're down, but like it comes back
to like who are we do what we do? And

(01:30:41):
that to do what we do leads into okay, that
four minute segment, that four minute war is over. What
is it about. It's about bouncing back. You're not going
to make a shot and score ten points. It's about
getting a stop. It's about playing without fouling. It's about
getting getting into you know, the things that we pride
ourselves and doing well that we practiced, that we preached.

(01:31:02):
It's now about doing those things in the next segment.
Not as much as oh my god, I can't believe
we're down. The other thing that's helped us recently, Greg
is we've gotten good play from our bench, which I
know we'll talk more about, but at that time, you know,
you sub in Ken the Weaver, you've subbed in Lasina
Tree or Sim Wilcher in the last two games has
been terrific. And that's that old adage you say over

(01:31:23):
and over again. You win as a team, you lose
as a team. It's not just the guys who start
the game, but oftentimes the direction has changed with players
that don't start. They come in and inspire your group
and they make good plays and they change the course
of what's going on. And we've had that the last
two games. When we've subbed those four minute segments, we've
won the next one. We won two in a row,

(01:31:45):
and now we have to get back to starting off
better as we move towards Old Miss.

Speaker 1 (01:31:49):
Here it is a little sneak preview of tomorrow night's show,
the full hour show. We also have an assistant coach,
Errik Malagi on with us and he's had an interesting
Remember he was on Chris Beard staff here in Texas,
then left after the first season to be on Jerome
Tang's staff as the associate head coach of Kansas State
stayed there obviously three years and now is back, so.

Speaker 2 (01:32:14):
And we'll hear from him. His story is interesting as well.

Speaker 1 (01:32:17):
All right, up next, more from Vic Shaffer on tonight's
big matchup Texas and l s U on thirteen under
the Zone. Love me some good talking heads here, the
genius that is David Brown speaking of women, and she

(01:32:41):
was and she will meaning the Texas women. Will you
on the floor tonight? Fourth rank log worns, fifth ranked
LSU tires. Vic Shaefer was asked, you know now that
he's got a completely healthy roster. He's had it really
for the past two to three games. Finally totally healthy.
And so what that means is is kind of dividing

(01:33:01):
playing time up for some others who have come off
the bench and had more minutes, like for example, Tayo Sidbery.

Speaker 7 (01:33:07):
You know, I think when she was out, I just
think some some some you know, Justice and Ashton.

Speaker 4 (01:33:14):
Kind of you know, got a little jump on her.

Speaker 7 (01:33:18):
And you know, quite frankly, Daddy, I really need Telly
youa like, I think she's got so much to her
into her game.

Speaker 4 (01:33:27):
So unfair her being heard here.

Speaker 7 (01:33:30):
Just like with Ashton, you know, they both got hurt
and both were playing so well early. You know, it
might have been way different had they not gotten hurt.
But injuries are part of it. And you know, Justice
brings a lot to the table on certain nights, and
just trying to get that consistently from her has been

(01:33:52):
our challenge. But you know the other night, man, she
was really really good, affected the game in a really
positive way. I would like for her to maybe stay
out of foul trouble, but you know, Justice has been
doing a good job for us. And so back to Taya.
I really need Taya. You know, I think our team

(01:34:13):
is better when Taya's you know, contributing in a part
of the rotation.

Speaker 5 (01:34:18):
And so.

Speaker 7 (01:34:20):
You know, got to get her back playing a little
bit better. She practiced well yesterday. So you know, when
you got four three fours, man, it gets hard to
figure out, you know, who to put in when, and
and you know, somebody brings this to the table. This
one doesn't bring that, but they bring this. This one
over here doesn't bring either of those two, but they

(01:34:41):
bring this.

Speaker 4 (01:34:42):
What do we need?

Speaker 7 (01:34:44):
And such a challenge as a coach for sure, And
now I love those kids, you know, I want to
play them all forty minutes.

Speaker 4 (01:34:50):
I just can't.

Speaker 7 (01:34:52):
So that I do think Taya brings a lot to
the table, and you know, I've got to find a
way to get her back where she's contributing and doing
some things for us, because I just I would have
loved to have had that kid four years. I just
think she she's got a lot that she can bring,
you know, when she's healthy and comfortable and knowing what

(01:35:14):
we're doing and all those things. And it's just hard
to get comfortable and played to our style when you
haven't been here very long. It's hard. And so anyway,
we'll see how it all shakes out.

Speaker 1 (01:35:29):
It's a nice problem to have, really, And we've been
saying for sometimes sometime that once Aliah Crump came back
and he had his full compliment of players, and when
Ashton Judd was finally cleared to play in December, that
this would be a good thing. And yeah, it does
give you some lineup questions, but you've got good answers,

(01:35:50):
good options there.

Speaker 2 (01:35:51):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:35:52):
So as much as we look at these games as
big time matchups, number four team in the country, number
five team in the country, we can't help but notice
they had coaching matchups, especially I think in the women's game,
because we have such well let's just say, colorful personalities,
and you do have that matchup tonight. You have Vick Schaeffer,

(01:36:15):
you have Kim Moulki, and he was asked how much
he relishes matchups like this.

Speaker 7 (01:36:19):
Yeah, you know, I think that's why you come to
Texas and one of the reasons why they hired me.
You know, she was still at Baylor and and and
so you get these opportunities in coaching, and you're right,
I'm not going to play her one on one. That's
probably a good thing. She's probably still got more game
than I ever had. But you know, just the ability,

(01:36:41):
and I've gone against her, you know, when I was
at Mississippi State, and obviously at A and M, when
she was at Baylor and now, so you know, we've
had some great matchups over the years, and again a
lot of respect and admiration for her and her career.
Certainly a Hall of Famer, no question about it. And

(01:37:03):
so when you go against you know, her and and
Bob Starkey and the rest of her staff. I mean,
there's a lot, a lot that you want to make
sure you're ready for because that's a great staff. Bob's
been around forever in a day, and I know he's
her right hand and.

Speaker 4 (01:37:18):
In a lot of things.

Speaker 7 (01:37:19):
So you're not just going against you know, coach Monkey,
You're going against you know, one of the great assistants
of all time and the rest of our staff. So
you know, again that's you can probably say that for
a lot of schools in this league. Uh, you know,
they all got great staff, they got people that the
head coaches really rely on heavy and and so you know,

(01:37:44):
it's what you sign up for. And uh, you know
it'll be somebody else the next game and somebody else
the next game, so you just got to be ready.

Speaker 2 (01:37:52):
Yeah, I think that's the point. There is somebody else
the next game and somebody else the next game.

Speaker 1 (01:37:56):
Think about it. Since Vick Schaefer's here. First year they
go to the Elite eight. Second year they go to
the Elead eight. Third year they go second year, excuse me,
second year they get knocked out in the second round.
Third year they go to the Elite eight. Fourth year
they go to the Elite eight, and the fifth year

(01:38:16):
they get to the Final four. So they're going up
in some big time matchups and he you know, both
mainly in the postseason, those those giant matchups, but in
the SEC you have a lot of those in the
regular season. He was asked if he gets a chance
to appreciate that some of these big regular season matchups
like South Carolina like he has with Vanderbilt and Tennessee

(01:38:37):
coming up next week, Kentucky on Monday Night, and then
obviously LSU, can he appreciate that these big regular season
games kind of feel like events, real events in women's
college basketball.

Speaker 4 (01:38:49):
Yeah, it's you're right, it's it's really cool.

Speaker 7 (01:38:53):
You know, certainly when you've coached as long as I have,
it's you know, you rolled into some of those arenas
you just talked about and there won't be anybody there,
and it's it's an afterthought, you know. Uh, it's it's
not an event. It's it's not a place to be,
you know. But now, like you said, it's it's the

(01:39:16):
place to be on Thursdays and Sundays or Thursdays and Mondays.
SEC basketball, University of Texas women's basketball. It's the place
to be. And uh, and that's really cool. It's so
special for our game. Again, for me, I it doesn't
go and appreciate it, and I certainly I notice it,

(01:39:38):
and uh again and am grateful for what the games,
you know, the opportunities that I've had in the game,
and uh, I'm happy for my players.

Speaker 4 (01:39:49):
You know that they're they're able to be a part of.

Speaker 7 (01:39:54):
Something so so unique and so cool, and uh for
those kids, you know, it's it's gonna be something they're
going to look back on for the rest of their life.
You know, when when Rory's time's done here, she's going
to look back on a foreign you know, she's been
here five years but really only played four in twelve games,

(01:40:16):
and she's going to look back and have so many
incredible memories. And I'm going to look back and have
so many incredible memories with her, just like I will
when that time comes for some of these other young ladies.

Speaker 4 (01:40:29):
And so you don't take it for granted. They are events.

Speaker 7 (01:40:34):
You're right, they are the place to be and you
know that's really really special. And you know what, Roger,
the reason that is is because people like CDC have
invested in programs, they've made it a point of emphasis
to be really good and you know, they from whether

(01:40:55):
it's been hiring good coaches to investing in budgets to
whatever it is that.

Speaker 4 (01:41:02):
Doesn't happen by chance.

Speaker 7 (01:41:04):
It happens because somebody believed that it was important and
believed in the program. And and so you know, again,
I'm very grateful for the support of our of our
great game.

Speaker 1 (01:41:17):
You heard him say, Roger, he was the question was
asked by our broadcast partner and friend Roger Wallace about that,
and and one more from VIC. He's talked about toughness
and how there was an absence of it in key
moments in the game in Baton Rouge last month. So, uh,
he wants toughness and we think of that on defense

(01:41:37):
and getting stops. But he was also asked how the
toughness needs to manifest itself on offense against LSU tonight.

Speaker 7 (01:41:44):
Yeah, just the just the understanding of what it takes
to pass the ball into the post, for instance. You know,
can't be standing flat foot and you can't just stick
the ball over your head.

Speaker 4 (01:41:54):
You got to fake one, make one.

Speaker 7 (01:41:57):
You know, you got to get that defense off their
off their comfort line a little bit, and and so
and all that takes attention to detail and so.

Speaker 4 (01:42:10):
Knowing when to run when not to run, knowing when to.

Speaker 7 (01:42:14):
Really put pressure on people and knowing when a we
probably don't have numbers this time, let's pull it and
get set up and run something good. So I just
think that's the mental toughness that we're talking about in
and understanding no eye passes, you know, no fifty to fifties,
no fifty to fifty passes. But let's get every fifty

(01:42:36):
to fifty ball whatever that looks like.

Speaker 4 (01:42:38):
We got to get them.

Speaker 7 (01:42:39):
And so it all plays into it.

Speaker 4 (01:42:44):
Mark, it's just.

Speaker 7 (01:42:49):
You know, for forty minutes, for two hours, you know,
getting young people and old people to do something so
specific they you know, and having having someone keep you
from doing that physically.

Speaker 4 (01:43:05):
I think that's the challenge that we have.

Speaker 2 (01:43:10):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:43:10):
So there it is the thoughts of Vick Schaeffer. And again,
it's a huge game tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:43:22):
Yeah, big swing in the SEC race.

Speaker 1 (01:43:24):
Yeah, I mean it. I don't think it's a big
stretch to say it's an elimination game.

Speaker 3 (01:43:34):
Oh as far as regular season title, yeah, yeah, yeah,
you're not. You're not far off there because there's so
many contenders.

Speaker 1 (01:43:41):
Obviously South Carolina is sitting at the top, but you
have Tennessee and the have Vanderbilt, you know, even.

Speaker 2 (01:43:50):
Even Alabama, Kentucky.

Speaker 1 (01:43:54):
There's some schools with some outside shots at it, but
really and truly, the only other two schools I think
other than South Carolina, Tennessee and Vanderbilt that have a
real shot at it would be LSU in Texas. So
tonight will go a long way. And I do think
the loser of tonight's game probably is not going to
be able if for no other reason, it would only

(01:44:15):
be the third conference loss for either school. The problem
is South Carolina only has one loss, and now South
Carolina plays LSU this Sunday and Baton Rouge, which would
be a big one. But you're running out of opportunities,
not only for you to win games, but for South
Carolina to lose. That's why this is so important tonight too.

Speaker 3 (01:44:35):
From that perspective, that's right, and ESPN insights back that up.
They say the loser of this game their odds dip
down below ten percent to win the regular season SEC title.
The winner has about a fifty to fifty shot.

Speaker 1 (01:44:46):
Yeah, so we'll see, all right, We'll be back to
wrap up today's edition. In the program, I'm thirteen under
the zone

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Betrayal Season 5

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Top-5 WBB Matchup on Tap, Super Bowl Countdown Continues, NBA Trade Deadline

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Betrayal Season 5

Dateline NBC

All Episodes

Top-5 WBB Matchup on Tap, Super Bowl Countdown Continues, NBA Trade Deadline

Stuff You Should Know