June 17, 2024 • 32 mins
It's the 1st episode of " The Best of The Monday Night Sports Machine" Coach chats with Jason Kirck, Girls Head Basketball Coach of Sacred Heart Academy, and Head Coach of the Guilford Boys Basketball team, and the son of George DeMaio, Coach Jeff DeMaio!
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(00:00):
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seven one. That's two O threetwo three nine five to one, seven
to one Flanagan Associates. Hello Jason, Hey, coach, how you doing.
Thanks for having me? Oh that'sno problem, glad to have you.
Okay, eight? No, huheight no yeah so far I mean
eight. No. You've already qualifiedfor the conference tournament and for the CIEC
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State tournament because in girls you onlyhave to win six out of twenty games.
You know what some boys coaches saidto me, Well, they can
do it for the girls, whycan't they do it for the boys.
I don't know. I'm not incharge. Yeah, I'm not sure on
that one, but I mean,I mean, there is a they try
to make things equal, right,Well, they make it equal for the
ball first of all, six outof twenty games to get into the state
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tournament. Maybe they should make everybodyeight again. No, well that's you
can't. I'm just excited about ourstart of the season and we're looking forward
to going down the hillsmorrow night andplaying a really tough, palented handing team.
So we're excited for that challenge andwe're looking forward to the game tomorrow
night. Yeah. What is Imean A No, we had a chance
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to see the girls that action lastweek. What has made this team?
So? What is pleased you themost? Has made this team so good?
Uh? What what we have beenable to accomplish so far is completely
a result of how hard the girlswork in practice and and our philosophies of
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how we want to play the playthe game in terms of uh, getting
some pressure going on the defense andreally trying to get the ball down the
court and get the first available shotfor our girls head down the court and
giving them a chance to display allthe skills they have. So yeah,
we're really pleased with the start,but we're definitely looking forward to the challenge
that Hamden presents tomorrow night. Imean, defending state champs, undefeated season
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last year. We had a couplebattles with them last year where we lost
in overtime, So we're we're definitelylooking forward to the challenge tomorrow night to
go down to a great environment.Hamden always gets a really good crowd and
it's going to be a great showcasefor the talent of the SEC and the
talent that Hampden has and Sacred Heartass So we're really looking forward to the
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opportunity. Well yeah, and itshould be a fantastic game tomorrow, looking
forward to it since I've seen yourteam and saw Hampden earlier in the season.
In fact, you have a commonopponent opponent. You played Newington and
you beat them and took double overtime, but you got the w but Hamden
beat was beaten by Newington in theirone loss. As a matter of fact,
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you know what, and I lovesometimes the resisters. You ever see
the article they do high school sportsby the numbers, you know, it
was six hundred and sixty seven daysbetween losses for the Hamden girls basketball team.
Six and sixty seven days. Imean that's a lot of days.
Yeah, coach Ruc, she doesa great job. They're really talented,
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they have really good players, theyhave an excellent system. So that doesn't
surprise me at all. I meanthat they're they're a really good team with
a really good program, with reallygood coaches. This is a how many
seniors on your team this year?Jason? We have six seniors on our
team this year. Okay, sofour of them see significant minutes on the
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court. So yeah, we're asenior laden team and we're excited for them
to finish out their senior seasons beforethey head off to go play in college.
One of those seniors is let's sayyou might know her name is Megan
Kirk. Yeah, I mean sheis. She is just incredible. Why
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you'd even leave her alone on thecourt for any amount of time, I
don't know. But when she getsinto that corner and she gets that three
ball going from the corner, that'scalled I'll tell you what money, that's
her money. That's money. I'mtelling you his money. She had five
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threes of the game we saw inone quarter and just just had a boatload
of points. And she just she'sjust well, she said, that's her
shot. She that's her shot.She loves throwing shooting up the three.
I understand that. Uh. Butyeah, she can take a mid mid
range jumper if she has to,I'm sure, Uh great from the foul
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line. Uh. And next yearshe said she's got her way to Wesleyan.
Wesleyan. Yep, that's all.That's all correct. And on any
given night with our team, anybodycan have a night, so to speak.
And and and Megan have a littlebit of a night against against Mercy,
yes last week, but that's that'sreally result of everybody else on the
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team and everybody knowing the knowing,uh, where are our players are going
to be at certain times and takingadvantage like that. That's not by any
stretch all Megan like that. Wehave a lot of good players and every
single night we can go out thereand puts a lot of pressure on the
defense because Lauren and Morgan, Joscelyn, Lilah, Emily, they can all
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put the ball in the basket.So it's kind of like one of those
things where who are you going toguard and how are you going to guard
them? And we're going to tryto take the first available shot. And
it just so happened to be againstMercy. It just happened to be Meg,
But and in other games it's otherpeople. And that's kind of how
we pride ourselves and how we runour program. It's we have a saying
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our core principle, it's not whoscores, it's that sacred heart scores.
And like you said, Mercy,it just happened to be Meg, But
on any given night, it couldbe any any of our players. Now
do you when you say first obviously, first available shot, do you have
in some teams don't that run anddo that kind of thing and set up?
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Do you have a set offense?You don't have any set offense?
You run or you call something out. Well, we we have a lot
of different things that we try toyou know, but we definitely we definitely
try to rebound the ball and pushthe pace and and and and use use
our athleticism and and use our skillto push the tempo and and get shots
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up in transition. So yeah,that's definitely one fast off So uh,
they run down court and they seesomebody open, they give the girl the
ball and you can take a shot. Correct. Okay, no, no,
no, no problem. I wouldhave loved that offense had I when
I was playing, because I loveto shoot and sometimes they say, oh
no, said wait a minute,I got an open shot here, and
okay, Uh, I see whatyou're saying. Uh, so, okay,
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you mentioned some of the girls onthe team just then. Uh Morgan
Miller, who plays in the middle, is outstanding. Yeah, Morgan Morgan
is having off unbelievable season for US. He's ridiculously athletic, very tough,
very skilled, and so far thisyear she's really really played very well for
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US on offense and then especially ondefense. A lot of times she's picking
up the best player on the otherteam. So we asked her to be
a two way player, not onlyput the ball in the basket, but
also defend and defend against some ofthe really elite players in this dandy Connecticut.
Well, Laurie, I tell yougive another girl that I absolutely love
is that's Lauren Thompson. Now thatparticular night, like you said, she
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wasn't getting all the shots and shedidn't have a great particularly great shooting night.
Didn't take a lot either though,but just was you know. But
she's she could be deadly. She'sanother one's And she can go to the
hoop. That's another thing. Sheshe goes to the hoop. Never mind
shooting outside, but she can goto the hoop. She's a senior.
She's outstanding. I love her.Yeah. She's had games against Io Smith,
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games against Newrington where she's had thirtyor so plus points. She's she's
a threat, a triple for that. She can makes me. She can
drive it a little bit, shecould pull up and and she's headed next
year. She got a full DivisionI one scholarship to u NBC. Uh
oh really Marilyn Baltimore County, Yeahcounty. Yeah good. I love her.
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And Morgan is headed down to MercyCollege, York, New York.
Yes, she'll be joining Amani fromWes Steven and playing. Oh yeah,
well that's a one two punch.There's on one two punch you canna have
together and at the and that night, and I didn't get a chance to
talk to you after the game.Uh, but the girl that night and
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Brian and I were talking about it. Uh, the girl that I thought
who just was invaluable that night andcame off the bench and gave you tremendous
minutes, tremendous minutes offensively and it'sdefensively, And there was no It was
Emilie Minilo. She was unbelievable thatnight. If I could have given out
awards, she would have been rightright there too, because she I thought
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she was incredible. Her minutes offthe bench, every one of them was
solid. For you, Well,I agree totally, and we kind of
feel that we have six starters,so she starts a lot of times.
She does. Yeah, she didn'tstart that game. But Jocelyn Kingsley is
another one of our s yes,that rotates through. But Emily, Emily's
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at games where she's had over tennises, she's had over fourteen points. She's
very good at handling the ball,she's very good at setting up our offense
and finding people in their open Soyeah, I mean she's she's definitely a
very very good player. She's onlya junior that's in our rotation, so
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she's coming to her own and andwe expect great things from her every time
she steps on the court. Yeah, she's starting line. Yes, Oh
I was kidding her. Don't hey, listen, it doesn't It really doesn't
matter. I mean, if yousay, well, yes, I'll wait.
So every's going to see tomorrow night. But yeah, she is going
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to start. I tell you,what's a nice move. That's a nice
move. But let me ask youthis some players over the ears. Does
you think she likes coming off thebench better? Do you think she likes
to start? Yeah? I meanevery player is different. But we've had
conversations with our core group and wehonestly think we have six starters. So
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okay, okay, we rotated.We rotate a little bit and and everyone
kind of takes their turns. There. There's been times when Megan didn't start.
There's times Lauren didn't start. Itjust so happened against East Haven.
Then Emily didn't start. I thinkEmily did start against Mercy. I'm pretty
sure she did. Emily, Ithink she did start. Yeah she didn't.
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Yeah, But anyway, the longstory short is, we do rotate
because we have a lot of goodquality basketball players and we want everyone to
have a turn, to get theirchance to start. And we were all
from there. Now Megan you hadyour other daughter who graduated. That was
who Emma. Yes, Emma wasa senior last year and and she graduated,
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and she's moved on. She's MiddleburyCollege. And she had and when
you when your father came and toldme, I was doing a football game.
He said, uh god, shesaid. You never believe what happened.
I said, what's going on?He said, she what? Did
she tore a cel? Yeah?Unfortunately in a summer league basketball, summer
league, that is just yeah,I know. Steve said she was devastating.
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I understand that. Uh, shehad her minutes already. I mean,
she was definitely gonna play. She'sanother outstanding player. But but she'll
be back. Now she's been withthe team as like a manager or something.
Well, she's playing on the team. She's just not able to play.
She participates as much as she canand practice in terms of being a
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rebounder or being a scout. Shewon't be physically cleared to play because of
her acl tare and June till June. Yeah, but she then did she
be able to play by next season? Yes, that's the plan is obviously
over the she rehabs two or threetimes a week with the Middlebury training staff
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and the goal is by mid Apriland may to be much more active and
then by June hopefully to get theclearance to return the basketball. She must
be going crazy. Yeah you Andnow I feel for anybody that has that
injury, because it's not only thephysical. The physical she was kind of
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back to normal so to speak,she had the surgery, saying mid August.
By mid October, physically she wasnot in pain or anything anymore.
But the mental part watching watching otherpeople play that basketball day after wear sick.
And now you got another daughter,uh McKenna who they somehow on the
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they call her JJ. Yes,she's a freshman, so so uh she
excuse me. She's really excited tobe part of the program and and and
to get to hang around Meg andand me just as a dad, I
mean family to me is everything.So that the idea that I get to
spend a lot of time with mydaughters and and something we both we all
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love and as a passion of ours, is really a blessed. It's a
blessing that I'm able to spend somuch time with them and watch them go
up and watch them mature, andwatch them socially with their friends and right,
and then also get out there andcompete a little bit. So it's
real. Yeah, it's real.It's a real family thing. And and
I couldn't be more happy with withuh Sigaret Heart and having the opportunity h
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to be in that situation. Now, obviously now you're in class what now
here, we're in Class double Ldouble L. Uh? What does it
look like there? I mean somepost loaded So if you look at the
the ci C has some kind ofpoints system that moves teams from division to
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division, especially schools of choice likeSacred Hearts. So between that and the
schools that are population wise double L, that's a really strong division. So
so Class Double L this year isgoing to be an absolute bear to manipulate
through all the way to the end. And that's going to be a really
strong basketball turn there. Yeah,you're right, and you're the number one
seed in Double L right now.Saint Joe's undefeated right by Ridgefield. Wow,
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look at new Town Hampton is Heyeven one loss, number five Connord
Glastonbury Newington. There's another good team, Mercy. There's Timmy Cohes again with
those Mercy Tillers. EO. Smith, who you played and beat earlier New
London Greenwich Top twelve there out.You know, yeah, there's some there
are some good teams there. There'snot going to be very many easy games
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in the in the class, no, I guess not. Of course,
before that, you got regular seasonto go through. In the conference tournament,
which is for some reason always agreat tournament girls and boys basketball,
the semi finals, and I saythis a lot of times, hate to
say it, but many times thesemi finals that are played are as good,
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if not better than the championship game. We've had some great finals.
I mean, the SEC is avery very strong girls basketball conference, and
I mean, honestly, the quarterfinalgames are so so I mean, just
just getting through that is an absolutebear. So we're excited for the opportunity
down the road. Like we're notanywhere near focused on that right now.
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I mean, but down the road. The SEC tournaments always a lot,
a lot of fun and it's agreat competition. And then right after that
we'll roll into the double LF.What. Yeah, they said the final
is going to be a to packagain this year. Honestly, I don't
I don't know if they've announced thatyet, What about what about the semi
finals? I don't think they're inlaw this year? Are they? Are
they last year? Trying to thinkthey were at law? It was a
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couple of years law. But nowDJ was the commissioner went down, Yes,
yes, so maybe with the changethere and VJ for a long time
was the commissioner for the secs andnow the commissioner for girls basketball is actually
Timmy Cole's up at Mercy. SoI'm not exactly sure if they've decided yet
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where the semi finals and finals aregoing to be. How about Wes Tavin's
got a nice new gym. Iworked at high and I walked by that
about just doing that? How aboutJoe Morell stepped up and saying, okay,
let's let's have it here because Ithink it'd be a great, great
place for the semi finals. Thatis a beauty. Are they waiting for
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him? What are they waiting for? Honestly, I don't know. It's
a beautiful gym. And can youtell you see JOm Rowland say Demo said
let's let's put your best foot forwardand host these things. Well West Haven
and Chris everone they always step up. I love him. They host a
lot of things. They host alot of a softball things, baseball soccer
thing, so I'm not exactly sure, but they have a great athletic staff
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and make such a great gym,so that would be an absolute pleasure to
play that time. I think itwould. It's phenomenal. Let's work on
that, Jason, Okay, pleasesee what you can do anyway, Uh,
tomorrow, I'm looking forward to this. It's eight to no Sacred Art
Academy seven and one Hamdon one versustwo six o'clock tip off tomorrow night,
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folks, So if you plan ongoing, you better get there early.
If not, all you got todo, it's real simple is put on
w EOLI because it'd be right there, not a problem, and you'll have
the entire game listen. It shouldbe a dandy. Look forward to seeing
you tomorrow night with the Green Dragons. I think it's gonna be a good
one and wish you best of luck. And of course we're out there rest
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of the season. I'm sure we'llbe seeing Sacred Academy again. Even after
talking well, we always look forwardto playing games that you guys are involved
in and appreciate all you guys dofor high school sports and girls basketball and
Connecticut. So we're looking forward toputting on a great game against a great
team tomorrow night. We'll see whathappens. You got it, Jason Best,
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I'll see tomorrow night. Pal.All right, thank you very much,
have a good night. Let's goto the phones immediately, and let's
get Jeff to nail on right now. He is the boys basketball coach at
Guildford High School. I didn't realizethis, Jeff. It's not your fifteenth
year, is it. This isyear fifteen at Guildford High School. Oh
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my god, I missed like fiveyears. I thought the last time I
asked, you said ten. Well, there could have been about four or
five years you would have liked tomiss if I don't remember. No,
Well, so you know we hadtwo thousand and nine. Ten was was
my first year there, and thenyou know, we we started out I
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think where we you know, wehad to do some building and you you
know, and that's just you know, then you stay somewhere long and often
you get some players that come alongand you We've been fortunate over the last
number of years to be pretty competitive. So yeah, but it's your fifteen.
Wow, I missed that anyway,assessed the first six games of your
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season if you would, well,I mean there's different rides at amusement parks
that you could you could use withyou know, loop the loops and roll,
you know, ups and downs andturns. And we're just we're a
little bit young, we're inexperienced.I did. We're probably about where I
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thought we'd be in terms of winningand losing. And now we're just entering
a stretch this week where you know, if if we if we think we're
going to be a tournament team,you kind and I have to show that
you're a tournament team at some point, and you know, this is going
to be the week where we're gonnahave to do that and win some games
that are a little bit more winnable, you know. And that's we were
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honest with our kids, and Ithink they know the schedule that's in front
of them, so you do targetcertain games that you think are a little
bit more reachable, and we gotthree of those this week. So we
we hope to make some progress thisweek, you know, but we're young.
We only have two seniors, oneof which who's been hurt most of
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the season. So we're playing alot of juniors that do not have a
lot of varsity experience right now.So did you get your back yet?
Did you get your senior back yet? Yeah? He played about eight minutes
on Saturday against Hands, and we'llplay a little bit more. That's Jocko
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Corso and our our captain is LucaRivere who's had a couple of big games
so far. So, you know, and like I said, I think
it's gonna be all those years whereI have to be a little bit more
patient. And because I think wecan get I think we can get better
over time. But you know,like you always say, you know,
nobody feel sorry for you. Youknow, there's none of that in this
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league. So, like I said, we got to get better. We
get better in a hurry. ButI got good kids. They work hard,
they're coaching bull their attitudes are good, they're unselfish. So we're we're
looking forward to the to the lastfourteen games and we we we hope to
be playing in March. You know, but I understand, I don't I
don't think that's a foregoing conclusion.You know, at this point in time,
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there is work to be done.Okay, and you certainly have the
staff to do it with. Uhlisten, thank God for that. You
know. I got on the guysa little not my staff, because I
got on the team a little alittle bit this evening and funny, yeah,
we had we had a little nightpractice. I wasn't real, I
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wasn't real pleased with one portion ofthe We don't guard very well is what
the problem is. So you don'tget on very well. Be a problem,
that's the problem. So we're we'retrying to correct some things there.
But my staff, they're just sosupportive and loyal, you know, and
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I think those are the two thingsthat that you need. And Dante's been
with me, I think for sevenor eight years and was one of my
former captains buying in twenty thirteen.And Rusty Gordon, who's been coaching for
over forty years. He I mean, he does our freshmen. But these
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guys are varsity assistant coaches and bothof them could be varsity coaches without question.
Both of them could be. SoI'm very fortunate to have them.
So, uh yeah, that's ourstaff. And we've been believing or not,
the three of us been together.This is our sixth year. Don't
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you get that? You know,you get some consistency with the staff and
the expectation level. You know,it's it's been good and I think that
our kids play hard and we puta pretty good product out there each year.
So again, time will tell,but we're hoping for some good things
this year for the for the Grizzlies. Hope that's right for the Grizzlies.
(25:25):
There you go, I understand,No, I understand, all right,
Well, as you said, threegames this week, two and four right
now. But you want to getyou want to get some more victories.
Obviously, the magic number which allthe coaches talk about is eight unless you're
a girls coach, and that's sixright, see right, So the boys
coaches a couple of sent me,why can't they always wanted to make things
(25:48):
equal for the girls over the years. Why can't they now make it either
all six or all eight for both? Well, you know how it works.
You know, nobody really knows whatgoes on in the meetings. No,
you know that that it's it's whenthey elect the pope. You know,
the three puffs of smoke come outin the street smoke or the white
smoking. Yes, you get informationas to what you know, what the
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new rules are per year, butyou know it's it's I like, I
like the eight. I think theeight is reasonable and you know, not
the sound parts. But if youdon't win eight, shouldn't be playing.
You know, it's it's forty percent, it's less than half. So you
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know, you have to find away. And if like with the boys,
if you don't make it, youdon't make it, you know,
and that happened some years. Youknow, we we've been blessed, you
know, we've we've made postseason playeight out of the last ten years that
I've been at Guildford, which iswhich is a which is a great thing.
But I think it's something you earn, you know. I think it's
something that you earning. And Idon't believe in filling the brackets to thirty
(26:52):
two, which they've tinkered around withthat in various sports. And you know,
set the number when I was playingnot too too long ago, it
was ten. You had to winten games. So he was the concession.
And you know, again I'm I'mnot in those meetings, but but
I I think he is is morethan fear, you know. So,
(27:15):
uh, your brother called earlier.He said, you know, we were
talking about polls tonight, which don'tmean a lot, uh, but uh
he said the Lakers should be inthe top ten in the NBA poll.
Well, I think the Lakers think. I mean, I mean that,
I mean that, I don't feelLakers aren't any good, you know,
(27:41):
And I'd say that to him,so he knows that. But and as
as the Knicks, man, Ijust I just were we. I mean,
we're just sweet dynamic right now.We are electric uh dynamic. I
mean there's this magic happening in thegarden. Do you uh do you?
And you know the coach Tippett,Well, I mean I don't, no,
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no, no, I mean butwe engaged in some discussions, you
know, while I saw him atLaGuardia Airport last year and he said,
bred he was well, he waswell aware of our program and some of
the things that we're doing at Guildford. And I said, yeah, we've
(28:26):
heard of the next you know.Oh that's good. But you're also good
friends. You're getting your what sixtyear Yeah, I'm working on a southeast
Missouri state and you're on a firstname basis with coach corn out there.
Basketball men's basketball coach at Southeast MissouriState. And he's one of the smarter
(28:47):
guys because he still refuses to giveme his actual cell phone. He's a
smart man. He's for some reason, he doesn't he doesn't want me to
get in tug. Could you understandI understand that? Yes, I mean,
you know, I know, Iknow, but we do. We
do keep in touch and uh,I do follow their program as well.
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But you know, as a Brownsfan too, we got the Cleveland Browns
fan. We could you know,we could talk about that for a little
while. Playoffs. We can't dothat yet because we got Jonathan Law coming
down the game and then when isWheelers it the next day? Yeah?
We got three this week. We'rewe're home against Law. We traveled to
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north Stonington to take on Wheeler onWednesday. The back who booked that game?
Oh you did? I'm sorry.Well, we gotta we got a
flight going out a tweet we're gonnaland and Midstic. Yeah, yeah,
we're gonna We're gonna take it.We could take a ferry over to north
and then we play. We playWe're at she And on Friday. But
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you know how it works. Theschedule is tough. The way it worked
out, you know, we do. We play Hillhouse twice, and we
play Cross twice, and we playXavier twice and play Hand twice. And
you know, like I said,it's challenging. And the big thing I
think only you know because as anolder coach, you know, you know
that part of what you got todo is you got to navigate the season,
(30:22):
you know, and you got tohelp you got to help your guys
navigate the season because you know,there's gonna be some bad night. I
don't care who we are, there'sgonna be. You know. We we
played Hillhouse on Friday and seven andwe played Hand at two o'clock on Saturday,
and you know, you know,we we hang with Hillouse, we
lose by twelve. We go playHand, we lose by thirty three and
(30:45):
happy weekend. You know. Butthat's that's the league. You know,
that's the league is you have tolet new guys. You got to move
forward. You gotta move forward.You gotta move forward. You got to
get ready for the next game.And that's that's the mindset you have to
have. Uh Okay, well listen, you've got that mindset. I know
your staff does. Dante always tellsyou don't worry, We'll be fine.
(31:07):
That's his favorite line, and Rustyjust you know he knows what's going on.
Well, they can say that becausethe freshman at JV scores don't go
in a newspaper. That's right,that's right. Don't worry about the friend.
I mean, I coached JV.I know I didn't worry about that.
(31:27):
Don't have to worry about I won'tsee that score tomorrow in the paper.
You're absolutely right, and the SECis always tough. It has been.
I don't care who you are,it's difficult. But obviously if he
can get the eight, not onlydo you get in the state tournament,
you also qualify for the conference tournamentas well, which is nice. I
think that's that's a that's a plus. It is And what a younger team
(31:49):
like we have is you whether youwin or lose those games, you know
it's one of those years. Youwant them to get that experience. You
want extra games, you want extrapractice with these guys. I think that's
the other benefit you want to youknow you want that. So we will
see. We'll know a little bitmore about the end of this week.
I'll tell you that I'll be ableto tell what kind of mood you're in
(32:12):
by the end of the week.Well, I'm generally in a bad mood
seven days at this time of year. I believe in consistency. So if
you're in a bad mood every dayof a week there right till about March,
and then and then, I don'tknow if it improves that much,
but I guess it does. Okay, But I'm very boredid with good kids
and a good staff, so we'llwe'll be rolling it out there tomorrow night.
(32:35):
You got well, Good luck tomorrownight and the rest of the season.
Of course, listen, thanks fora few moments. I appreciate it.
And uh, Michigan is rolling overto Washington, which I told everybody
that would listen that they would buryWashington. They will bury them there you
go. Thank you so much,Jeffy. I'll talk to you. Looking
forward to it, all right,Take care, palp
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seven one. That's two O threetwo three nine five to one, seven
to one Flanagan Associates. Hello Jason, Hey, coach, how you doing.
Thanks for having me? Oh that'sno problem, glad to have you.
Okay, eight? No, huheight no yeah so far I mean
eight. No. You've already qualifiedfor the conference tournament and for the CIEC
(02:20):
State tournament because in girls you onlyhave to win six out of twenty games.
You know what some boys coaches saidto me, Well, they can
do it for the girls, whycan't they do it for the boys.
I don't know. I'm not incharge. Yeah, I'm not sure on
that one, but I mean,I mean, there is a they try
to make things equal, right,Well, they make it equal for the
ball first of all, six outof twenty games to get into the state
(02:43):
tournament. Maybe they should make everybodyeight again. No, well that's you
can't. I'm just excited about ourstart of the season and we're looking forward
to going down the hillsmorrow night andplaying a really tough, palented handing team.
So we're excited for that challenge andwe're looking forward to the game tomorrow
night. Yeah. What is Imean A No, we had a chance
(03:06):
to see the girls that action lastweek. What has made this team?
So? What is pleased you themost? Has made this team so good?
Uh? What what we have beenable to accomplish so far is completely
a result of how hard the girlswork in practice and and our philosophies of
(03:28):
how we want to play the playthe game in terms of uh, getting
some pressure going on the defense andreally trying to get the ball down the
court and get the first available shotfor our girls head down the court and
giving them a chance to display allthe skills they have. So yeah,
we're really pleased with the start,but we're definitely looking forward to the challenge
that Hamden presents tomorrow night. Imean, defending state champs, undefeated season
(03:52):
last year. We had a couplebattles with them last year where we lost
in overtime, So we're we're definitelylooking forward to the challenge tomorrow night to
go down to a great environment.Hamden always gets a really good crowd and
it's going to be a great showcasefor the talent of the SEC and the
talent that Hampden has and Sacred Heartass So we're really looking forward to the
(04:14):
opportunity. Well yeah, and itshould be a fantastic game tomorrow, looking
forward to it since I've seen yourteam and saw Hampden earlier in the season.
In fact, you have a commonopponent opponent. You played Newington and
you beat them and took double overtime, but you got the w but Hamden
beat was beaten by Newington in theirone loss. As a matter of fact,
(04:40):
you know what, and I lovesometimes the resisters. You ever see
the article they do high school sportsby the numbers, you know, it
was six hundred and sixty seven daysbetween losses for the Hamden girls basketball team.
Six and sixty seven days. Imean that's a lot of days.
Yeah, coach Ruc, she doesa great job. They're really talented,
(05:03):
they have really good players, theyhave an excellent system. So that doesn't
surprise me at all. I meanthat they're they're a really good team with
a really good program, with reallygood coaches. This is a how many
seniors on your team this year?Jason? We have six seniors on our
team this year. Okay, sofour of them see significant minutes on the
(05:26):
court. So yeah, we're asenior laden team and we're excited for them
to finish out their senior seasons beforethey head off to go play in college.
One of those seniors is let's sayyou might know her name is Megan
Kirk. Yeah, I mean sheis. She is just incredible. Why
(05:51):
you'd even leave her alone on thecourt for any amount of time, I
don't know. But when she getsinto that corner and she gets that three
ball going from the corner, that'scalled I'll tell you what money, that's
her money. That's money. I'mtelling you his money. She had five
(06:11):
threes of the game we saw inone quarter and just just had a boatload
of points. And she just she'sjust well, she said, that's her
shot. She that's her shot.She loves throwing shooting up the three.
I understand that. Uh. Butyeah, she can take a mid mid
range jumper if she has to,I'm sure, Uh great from the foul
(06:33):
line. Uh. And next yearshe said she's got her way to Wesleyan.
Wesleyan. Yep, that's all.That's all correct. And on any
given night with our team, anybodycan have a night, so to speak.
And and and Megan have a littlebit of a night against against Mercy,
yes last week, but that's that'sreally result of everybody else on the
(06:55):
team and everybody knowing the knowing,uh, where are our players are going
to be at certain times and takingadvantage like that. That's not by any
stretch all Megan like that. Wehave a lot of good players and every
single night we can go out thereand puts a lot of pressure on the
defense because Lauren and Morgan, Joscelyn, Lilah, Emily, they can all
(07:16):
put the ball in the basket.So it's kind of like one of those
things where who are you going toguard and how are you going to guard
them? And we're going to tryto take the first available shot. And
it just so happened to be againstMercy. It just happened to be Meg,
But and in other games it's otherpeople. And that's kind of how
we pride ourselves and how we runour program. It's we have a saying
(07:39):
our core principle, it's not whoscores, it's that sacred heart scores.
And like you said, Mercy,it just happened to be Meg, But
on any given night, it couldbe any any of our players. Now
do you when you say first obviously, first available shot, do you have
in some teams don't that run anddo that kind of thing and set up?
(07:59):
Do you have a set offense?You don't have any set offense?
You run or you call something out. Well, we we have a lot
of different things that we try toyou know, but we definitely we definitely
try to rebound the ball and pushthe pace and and and and use use
our athleticism and and use our skillto push the tempo and and get shots
(08:20):
up in transition. So yeah,that's definitely one fast off So uh,
they run down court and they seesomebody open, they give the girl the
ball and you can take a shot. Correct. Okay, no, no,
no, no problem. I wouldhave loved that offense had I when
I was playing, because I loveto shoot and sometimes they say, oh
no, said wait a minute,I got an open shot here, and
okay, Uh, I see whatyou're saying. Uh, so, okay,
(08:45):
you mentioned some of the girls onthe team just then. Uh Morgan
Miller, who plays in the middle, is outstanding. Yeah, Morgan Morgan
is having off unbelievable season for US. He's ridiculously athletic, very tough,
very skilled, and so far thisyear she's really really played very well for
(09:05):
US on offense and then especially ondefense. A lot of times she's picking
up the best player on the otherteam. So we asked her to be
a two way player, not onlyput the ball in the basket, but
also defend and defend against some ofthe really elite players in this dandy Connecticut.
Well, Laurie, I tell yougive another girl that I absolutely love
is that's Lauren Thompson. Now thatparticular night, like you said, she
(09:28):
wasn't getting all the shots and shedidn't have a great particularly great shooting night.
Didn't take a lot either though,but just was you know. But
she's she could be deadly. She'sanother one's And she can go to the
hoop. That's another thing. Sheshe goes to the hoop. Never mind
shooting outside, but she can goto the hoop. She's a senior.
She's outstanding. I love her.Yeah. She's had games against Io Smith,
(09:52):
games against Newrington where she's had thirtyor so plus points. She's she's
a threat, a triple for that. She can makes me. She can
drive it a little bit, shecould pull up and and she's headed next
year. She got a full DivisionI one scholarship to u NBC. Uh
oh really Marilyn Baltimore County, Yeahcounty. Yeah good. I love her.
(10:15):
And Morgan is headed down to MercyCollege, York, New York.
Yes, she'll be joining Amani fromWes Steven and playing. Oh yeah,
well that's a one two punch.There's on one two punch you canna have
together and at the and that night, and I didn't get a chance to
talk to you after the game.Uh, but the girl that night and
(10:35):
Brian and I were talking about it. Uh, the girl that I thought
who just was invaluable that night andcame off the bench and gave you tremendous
minutes, tremendous minutes offensively and it'sdefensively, And there was no It was
Emilie Minilo. She was unbelievable thatnight. If I could have given out
awards, she would have been rightright there too, because she I thought
(10:58):
she was incredible. Her minutes offthe bench, every one of them was
solid. For you, Well,I agree totally, and we kind of
feel that we have six starters,so she starts a lot of times.
She does. Yeah, she didn'tstart that game. But Jocelyn Kingsley is
another one of our s yes,that rotates through. But Emily, Emily's
(11:20):
at games where she's had over tennises, she's had over fourteen points. She's
very good at handling the ball,she's very good at setting up our offense
and finding people in their open Soyeah, I mean she's she's definitely a
very very good player. She's onlya junior that's in our rotation, so
(11:41):
she's coming to her own and andwe expect great things from her every time
she steps on the court. Yeah, she's starting line. Yes, Oh
I was kidding her. Don't hey, listen, it doesn't It really doesn't
matter. I mean, if yousay, well, yes, I'll wait.
So every's going to see tomorrow night. But yeah, she is going
(12:03):
to start. I tell you,what's a nice move. That's a nice
move. But let me ask youthis some players over the ears. Does
you think she likes coming off thebench better? Do you think she likes
to start? Yeah? I meanevery player is different. But we've had
conversations with our core group and wehonestly think we have six starters. So
(12:24):
okay, okay, we rotated.We rotate a little bit and and everyone
kind of takes their turns. There. There's been times when Megan didn't start.
There's times Lauren didn't start. Itjust so happened against East Haven.
Then Emily didn't start. I thinkEmily did start against Mercy. I'm pretty
sure she did. Emily, Ithink she did start. Yeah she didn't.
(12:50):
Yeah, But anyway, the longstory short is, we do rotate
because we have a lot of goodquality basketball players and we want everyone to
have a turn, to get theirchance to start. And we were all
from there. Now Megan you hadyour other daughter who graduated. That was
who Emma. Yes, Emma wasa senior last year and and she graduated,
(13:15):
and she's moved on. She's MiddleburyCollege. And she had and when
you when your father came and toldme, I was doing a football game.
He said, uh god, shesaid. You never believe what happened.
I said, what's going on?He said, she what? Did
she tore a cel? Yeah?Unfortunately in a summer league basketball, summer
league, that is just yeah,I know. Steve said she was devastating.
(13:39):
I understand that. Uh, shehad her minutes already. I mean,
she was definitely gonna play. She'sanother outstanding player. But but she'll
be back. Now she's been withthe team as like a manager or something.
Well, she's playing on the team. She's just not able to play.
She participates as much as she canand practice in terms of being a
(14:01):
rebounder or being a scout. Shewon't be physically cleared to play because of
her acl tare and June till June. Yeah, but she then did she
be able to play by next season? Yes, that's the plan is obviously
over the she rehabs two or threetimes a week with the Middlebury training staff
(14:24):
and the goal is by mid Apriland may to be much more active and
then by June hopefully to get theclearance to return the basketball. She must
be going crazy. Yeah you Andnow I feel for anybody that has that
injury, because it's not only thephysical. The physical she was kind of
(14:48):
back to normal so to speak,she had the surgery, saying mid August.
By mid October, physically she wasnot in pain or anything anymore.
But the mental part watching watching otherpeople play that basketball day after wear sick.
And now you got another daughter,uh McKenna who they somehow on the
(15:09):
they call her JJ. Yes,she's a freshman, so so uh she
excuse me. She's really excited tobe part of the program and and and
to get to hang around Meg andand me just as a dad, I
mean family to me is everything.So that the idea that I get to
spend a lot of time with mydaughters and and something we both we all
(15:31):
love and as a passion of ours, is really a blessed. It's a
blessing that I'm able to spend somuch time with them and watch them go
up and watch them mature, andwatch them socially with their friends and right,
and then also get out there andcompete a little bit. So it's
real. Yeah, it's real.It's a real family thing. And and
I couldn't be more happy with withuh Sigaret Heart and having the opportunity h
(15:54):
to be in that situation. Now, obviously now you're in class what now
here, we're in Class double Ldouble L. Uh? What does it
look like there? I mean somepost loaded So if you look at the
the ci C has some kind ofpoints system that moves teams from division to
(16:18):
division, especially schools of choice likeSacred Hearts. So between that and the
schools that are population wise double L, that's a really strong division. So
so Class Double L this year isgoing to be an absolute bear to manipulate
through all the way to the end. And that's going to be a really
strong basketball turn there. Yeah,you're right, and you're the number one
seed in Double L right now.Saint Joe's undefeated right by Ridgefield. Wow,
(16:44):
look at new Town Hampton is Heyeven one loss, number five Connord
Glastonbury Newington. There's another good team, Mercy. There's Timmy Cohes again with
those Mercy Tillers. EO. Smith, who you played and beat earlier New
London Greenwich Top twelve there out.You know, yeah, there's some there
are some good teams there. There'snot going to be very many easy games
(17:04):
in the in the class, no, I guess not. Of course,
before that, you got regular seasonto go through. In the conference tournament,
which is for some reason always agreat tournament girls and boys basketball,
the semi finals, and I saythis a lot of times, hate to
say it, but many times thesemi finals that are played are as good,
(17:25):
if not better than the championship game. We've had some great finals.
I mean, the SEC is avery very strong girls basketball conference, and
I mean, honestly, the quarterfinalgames are so so I mean, just
just getting through that is an absolutebear. So we're excited for the opportunity
down the road. Like we're notanywhere near focused on that right now.
(17:48):
I mean, but down the road. The SEC tournaments always a lot,
a lot of fun and it's agreat competition. And then right after that
we'll roll into the double LF.What. Yeah, they said the final
is going to be a to packagain this year. Honestly, I don't
I don't know if they've announced thatyet, What about what about the semi
finals? I don't think they're inlaw this year? Are they? Are
they last year? Trying to thinkthey were at law? It was a
(18:11):
couple of years law. But nowDJ was the commissioner went down, Yes,
yes, so maybe with the changethere and VJ for a long time
was the commissioner for the secs andnow the commissioner for girls basketball is actually
Timmy Cole's up at Mercy. SoI'm not exactly sure if they've decided yet
(18:34):
where the semi finals and finals aregoing to be. How about Wes Tavin's
got a nice new gym. Iworked at high and I walked by that
about just doing that? How aboutJoe Morell stepped up and saying, okay,
let's let's have it here because Ithink it'd be a great, great
place for the semi finals. Thatis a beauty. Are they waiting for
(18:55):
him? What are they waiting for? Honestly, I don't know. It's
a beautiful gym. And can youtell you see JOm Rowland say Demo said
let's let's put your best foot forwardand host these things. Well West Haven
and Chris everone they always step up. I love him. They host a
lot of things. They host alot of a softball things, baseball soccer
thing, so I'm not exactly sure, but they have a great athletic staff
(19:18):
and make such a great gym,so that would be an absolute pleasure to
play that time. I think itwould. It's phenomenal. Let's work on
that, Jason, Okay, pleasesee what you can do anyway, Uh,
tomorrow, I'm looking forward to this. It's eight to no Sacred Art
Academy seven and one Hamdon one versustwo six o'clock tip off tomorrow night,
(19:40):
folks, So if you plan ongoing, you better get there early.
If not, all you got todo, it's real simple is put on
w EOLI because it'd be right there, not a problem, and you'll have
the entire game listen. It shouldbe a dandy. Look forward to seeing
you tomorrow night with the Green Dragons. I think it's gonna be a good
one and wish you best of luck. And of course we're out there rest
(20:00):
of the season. I'm sure we'llbe seeing Sacred Academy again. Even after
talking well, we always look forwardto playing games that you guys are involved
in and appreciate all you guys dofor high school sports and girls basketball and
Connecticut. So we're looking forward toputting on a great game against a great
team tomorrow night. We'll see whathappens. You got it, Jason Best,
(20:21):
I'll see tomorrow night. Pal.All right, thank you very much,
have a good night. Let's goto the phones immediately, and let's
get Jeff to nail on right now. He is the boys basketball coach at
Guildford High School. I didn't realizethis, Jeff. It's not your fifteenth
year, is it. This isyear fifteen at Guildford High School. Oh
(20:44):
my god, I missed like fiveyears. I thought the last time I
asked, you said ten. Well, there could have been about four or
five years you would have liked tomiss if I don't remember. No,
Well, so you know we hadtwo thousand and nine. Ten was was
my first year there, and thenyou know, we we started out I
(21:06):
think where we you know, wehad to do some building and you you
know, and that's just you know, then you stay somewhere long and often
you get some players that come alongand you We've been fortunate over the last
number of years to be pretty competitive. So yeah, but it's your fifteen.
Wow, I missed that anyway,assessed the first six games of your
(21:27):
season if you would, well,I mean there's different rides at amusement parks
that you could you could use withyou know, loop the loops and roll,
you know, ups and downs andturns. And we're just we're a
little bit young, we're inexperienced.I did. We're probably about where I
(21:48):
thought we'd be in terms of winningand losing. And now we're just entering
a stretch this week where you know, if if we if we think we're
going to be a tournament team,you kind and I have to show that
you're a tournament team at some point, and you know, this is going
to be the week where we're gonnahave to do that and win some games
that are a little bit more winnable, you know. And that's we were
(22:11):
honest with our kids, and Ithink they know the schedule that's in front
of them, so you do targetcertain games that you think are a little
bit more reachable, and we gotthree of those this week. So we
we hope to make some progress thisweek, you know, but we're young.
We only have two seniors, oneof which who's been hurt most of
(22:32):
the season. So we're playing alot of juniors that do not have a
lot of varsity experience right now.So did you get your back yet?
Did you get your senior back yet? Yeah? He played about eight minutes
on Saturday against Hands, and we'llplay a little bit more. That's Jocko
(22:52):
Corso and our our captain is LucaRivere who's had a couple of big games
so far. So, you know, and like I said, I think
it's gonna be all those years whereI have to be a little bit more
patient. And because I think wecan get I think we can get better
over time. But you know,like you always say, you know,
nobody feel sorry for you. Youknow, there's none of that in this
(23:14):
league. So, like I said, we got to get better. We
get better in a hurry. ButI got good kids. They work hard,
they're coaching bull their attitudes are good, they're unselfish. So we're we're
looking forward to the to the lastfourteen games and we we we hope to
be playing in March. You know, but I understand, I don't I
don't think that's a foregoing conclusion.You know, at this point in time,
(23:37):
there is work to be done.Okay, and you certainly have the
staff to do it with. Uhlisten, thank God for that. You
know. I got on the guysa little not my staff, because I
got on the team a little alittle bit this evening and funny, yeah,
we had we had a little nightpractice. I wasn't real, I
(24:02):
wasn't real pleased with one portion ofthe We don't guard very well is what
the problem is. So you don'tget on very well. Be a problem,
that's the problem. So we're we'retrying to correct some things there.
But my staff, they're just sosupportive and loyal, you know, and
(24:22):
I think those are the two thingsthat that you need. And Dante's been
with me, I think for sevenor eight years and was one of my
former captains buying in twenty thirteen.And Rusty Gordon, who's been coaching for
over forty years. He I mean, he does our freshmen. But these
(24:42):
guys are varsity assistant coaches and bothof them could be varsity coaches without question.
Both of them could be. SoI'm very fortunate to have them.
So, uh yeah, that's ourstaff. And we've been believing or not,
the three of us been together.This is our sixth year. Don't
(25:02):
you get that? You know,you get some consistency with the staff and
the expectation level. You know,it's it's been good and I think that
our kids play hard and we puta pretty good product out there each year.
So again, time will tell,but we're hoping for some good things
this year for the for the Grizzlies. Hope that's right for the Grizzlies.
(25:25):
There you go, I understand,No, I understand, all right,
Well, as you said, threegames this week, two and four right
now. But you want to getyou want to get some more victories.
Obviously, the magic number which allthe coaches talk about is eight unless you're
a girls coach, and that's sixright, see right, So the boys
coaches a couple of sent me,why can't they always wanted to make things
(25:48):
equal for the girls over the years. Why can't they now make it either
all six or all eight for both? Well, you know how it works.
You know, nobody really knows whatgoes on in the meetings. No,
you know that that it's it's whenthey elect the pope. You know,
the three puffs of smoke come outin the street smoke or the white
smoking. Yes, you get informationas to what you know, what the
(26:08):
new rules are per year, butyou know it's it's I like, I
like the eight. I think theeight is reasonable and you know, not
the sound parts. But if youdon't win eight, shouldn't be playing.
You know, it's it's forty percent, it's less than half. So you
(26:29):
know, you have to find away. And if like with the boys,
if you don't make it, youdon't make it, you know,
and that happened some years. Youknow, we we've been blessed, you
know, we've we've made postseason playeight out of the last ten years that
I've been at Guildford, which iswhich is a which is a great thing.
But I think it's something you earn, you know. I think it's
something that you earning. And Idon't believe in filling the brackets to thirty
(26:52):
two, which they've tinkered around withthat in various sports. And you know,
set the number when I was playingnot too too long ago, it
was ten. You had to winten games. So he was the concession.
And you know, again I'm I'mnot in those meetings, but but
I I think he is is morethan fear, you know. So,
(27:15):
uh, your brother called earlier.He said, you know, we were
talking about polls tonight, which don'tmean a lot, uh, but uh
he said the Lakers should be inthe top ten in the NBA poll.
Well, I think the Lakers think. I mean, I mean that,
I mean that, I don't feelLakers aren't any good, you know,
(27:41):
And I'd say that to him,so he knows that. But and as
as the Knicks, man, Ijust I just were we. I mean,
we're just sweet dynamic right now.We are electric uh dynamic. I
mean there's this magic happening in thegarden. Do you uh do you?
And you know the coach Tippett,Well, I mean I don't, no,
(28:04):
no, no, I mean butwe engaged in some discussions, you
know, while I saw him atLaGuardia Airport last year and he said,
bred he was well, he waswell aware of our program and some of
the things that we're doing at Guildford. And I said, yeah, we've
(28:26):
heard of the next you know.Oh that's good. But you're also good
friends. You're getting your what sixtyear Yeah, I'm working on a southeast
Missouri state and you're on a firstname basis with coach corn out there.
Basketball men's basketball coach at Southeast MissouriState. And he's one of the smarter
(28:47):
guys because he still refuses to giveme his actual cell phone. He's a
smart man. He's for some reason, he doesn't he doesn't want me to
get in tug. Could you understandI understand that? Yes, I mean,
you know, I know, Iknow, but we do. We
do keep in touch and uh,I do follow their program as well.
(29:08):
But you know, as a Brownsfan too, we got the Cleveland Browns
fan. We could you know,we could talk about that for a little
while. Playoffs. We can't dothat yet because we got Jonathan Law coming
down the game and then when isWheelers it the next day? Yeah?
We got three this week. We'rewe're home against Law. We traveled to
(29:32):
north Stonington to take on Wheeler onWednesday. The back who booked that game?
Oh you did? I'm sorry.Well, we gotta we got a
flight going out a tweet we're gonnaland and Midstic. Yeah, yeah,
we're gonna We're gonna take it.We could take a ferry over to north
and then we play. We playWe're at she And on Friday. But
(29:59):
you know how it works. Theschedule is tough. The way it worked
out, you know, we do. We play Hillhouse twice, and we
play Cross twice, and we playXavier twice and play Hand twice. And
you know, like I said,it's challenging. And the big thing I
think only you know because as anolder coach, you know, you know
that part of what you got todo is you got to navigate the season,
(30:22):
you know, and you got tohelp you got to help your guys
navigate the season because you know,there's gonna be some bad night. I
don't care who we are, there'sgonna be. You know. We we
played Hillhouse on Friday and seven andwe played Hand at two o'clock on Saturday,
and you know, you know,we we hang with Hillouse, we
lose by twelve. We go playHand, we lose by thirty three and
(30:45):
happy weekend. You know. Butthat's that's the league. You know,
that's the league is you have tolet new guys. You got to move
forward. You gotta move forward.You gotta move forward. You got to
get ready for the next game.And that's that's the mindset you have to
have. Uh Okay, well listen, you've got that mindset. I know
your staff does. Dante always tellsyou don't worry, We'll be fine.
(31:07):
That's his favorite line, and Rustyjust you know he knows what's going on.
Well, they can say that becausethe freshman at JV scores don't go
in a newspaper. That's right,that's right. Don't worry about the friend.
I mean, I coached JV.I know I didn't worry about that.
(31:27):
Don't have to worry about I won'tsee that score tomorrow in the paper.
You're absolutely right, and the SECis always tough. It has been.
I don't care who you are,it's difficult. But obviously if he
can get the eight, not onlydo you get in the state tournament,
you also qualify for the conference tournamentas well, which is nice. I
think that's that's a that's a plus. It is And what a younger team
(31:49):
like we have is you whether youwin or lose those games, you know
it's one of those years. Youwant them to get that experience. You
want extra games, you want extrapractice with these guys. I think that's
the other benefit you want to youknow you want that. So we will
see. We'll know a little bitmore about the end of this week.
I'll tell you that I'll be ableto tell what kind of mood you're in
(32:12):
by the end of the week.Well, I'm generally in a bad mood
seven days at this time of year. I believe in consistency. So if
you're in a bad mood every dayof a week there right till about March,
and then and then, I don'tknow if it improves that much,
but I guess it does. Okay, But I'm very boredid with good kids
and a good staff, so we'llwe'll be rolling it out there tomorrow night.
(32:35):
You got well, Good luck tomorrownight and the rest of the season.
Of course, listen, thanks fora few moments. I appreciate it.
And uh, Michigan is rolling overto Washington, which I told everybody
that would listen that they would buryWashington. They will bury them there you
go. Thank you so much,Jeffy. I'll talk to you. Looking
forward to it, all right,Take care, palp
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