November 3, 2025 • 46 mins
Doug previews his Green Bay squads massive test as they prepare to play perennial blue blood powerhouse Kansas, and reveals his message to his players as huge underdogs.
Then, he’s joined by JUCO Advocate CEO and college recruiting expert Brandon Goble to discuss the passing of his longtime friend and business partner Matt Clark, their unique relationship, and Clark’s immense influence on him both professionally and personally.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hey, welcome in. I'm Doug Gottlie.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
This is All Ball season two. No, it's not the
second year we've done all Ball. We've been doing All
Ball since woh twenty eighteen, right, but this is the
second season of me as a head men's basketball coach.
We are going to do a special All Ball because tonight,
at the time of this recording, we play Kansas and
(00:30):
college basketball season has already begun watching Winthrop get the
first win of the season against Queen's University. Part of
that field of sixty eight twenty four hours of hoops,
which I just love and I think there's a world
in which we play in it next year.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
So part of this version of it.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Brandon Goebel, who is from those of you know, owns
and runs juco Advocate as well as so many of
these junior college events. He's joined us on previous podcasts.
His business part, Matt Clark tragically passed away from cancer
just this past week, and I wanted Brandon to come
on and share with the basketball community who Matt was,
(01:12):
why he was so important to Brandon, and by proxy,
why he becomes so important to be an advocate.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
For players, and if you know me, or know my family.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
That's what it's been about since my dad started travel
basketball back in the eighties in Orange County, California, trying
to grant people access to this incredible experience of playing
college basketball, hopefully on scholarship. Now you're collecting in IL money.
I do want to give you a couple of thoughts.
So tonight we play Kansas, and you know, I think
(01:47):
all of these great coaches have different things that make
them unique and special. I think that Rick Bettino is
probably the model in terms of how to completely He's
the dynamic of a program. He's a forced multiplier, but
and I think he has great feel in substitution. I
(02:08):
do think that Bill Self and Rick Patino I view
as the greatest coach of the modern era of basketball
because of his ability to change the trajectory of providence
of the Knicks of Kentucky, of Louisville, and he was
close with the Celtics and.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Obviously you know they couldn't turn the corner.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
And now what he's doing at Saint John's it's absolutely amazing.
But I think that Bill Self is in any conversation
as the greatest coach in the modern era. I view
him as a guy who hits all of the different
check marks. He develops players, he's a good evaluator. His
(02:47):
teams play with discipline, yet they don't play scared or tight.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And he's a.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Fantastic xceno coach, fantastic in game adjustment wise, pre game
setting things down, he's amazing, amaze.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
That being said, now we got.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
To play against him. So you got to play against
fifteen three hundred people. You've got to play with ten
new players, none of them have played Division in basketball,
and you're playing against fifteen three hundred plus an unbelievably
talented bunch coach by a Hall of Fame coach, and
in an incredible environment. For my money, it's the Lambeau
(03:25):
Field of college basketball.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
What do I mean by that? I mean it's like
part great venue, part.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Tourist attraction, but it's really about the fans still.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
You know, I've been to Cameron. I like Cameron.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I think it's a slight notch behind fog Allen because
fog Allen is so kind of rustic. They haven't gone
through it and done anything to it because they don't
want to get it to code. Then they have to
get it to code. Also, you have the rules of
the sport. You have the windows, Will Chamberlain play there,
all the banners, all the traditions. I think it's the
epicenter of all things that are great.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
About college basketball. So you tell your team, well, here's
the challenge.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Right. We have players who probably aren't ready for tonight,
right that they just they've they've had water wings on,
and we want to take the water wings off and
make them swim.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
But this is a really, really deep end we're throwing
them into.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
And then there are guys, which especially my returners, who
they know how to compete at this level. They just
maybe top out hallet wise, and you're playing against much
better players. So how do you balance playing cohesion and
then playing for guys? At the end game is we
need our best guys playing as one. We have league
(04:35):
games in December. We need the December, we need them
January and February and into March. You're like, you need
to peak then, but you can also lose your confidence
playing against a team like Kansas this early. And we
play against a really good, very improved Buffalo team on Friday,
which is a game in which we got to be
competitive in so a lot of people will ask me,
(04:56):
what's your message to your team tonight.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Well, here's what it is.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
The first thing is I want them to imagine themselves
doing something great, but within the structure of how we
want to play, right, Like, doing something great cannot be Hey,
I visualize myself top of the key one four, a flat,
going one on one.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Getting buckets like that's not gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
But if it's a hard cut for a dunk, yes,
If it's a off an action catch and shoot a three, sure,
If it's a defend and block a shot, yeah, think
it's doing something great. And then understand this. I don't
blame Kansas players for not respecting us.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
We won four games last year.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
But that's our advantage is that there isn't a guy
in that other locker room. There isn't a guy in
their basketball players only dormitory that thinks we belong on
the same court with them. And we recruited all of
these guys because we think they're tougher than hell. They're
(06:07):
not the most skilled, they're not. We have one guy
I think could could play in the NBA. We do,
and it's not who people say. It's not one of
my five most known players. I have a guy who
I think could play in the NBA. It'll be a while,
but he can do it. But none of them respect
us or need to respect me, and that's our advantage.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
The other thing is we still want.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
To play fast and free, but we don't want to
run up and down against Kansas. We want to put
them in the half court and we will meet them
grind and they're no doubt more talented than us. They
can make shots over the top, but we're going.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
To make them. So.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
The challenge to my group is to stay together. The
challenge to my group is to be sure with our passes.
The challenge to our group is to play at a
little bit slower pace than we want to play and
to execute and use our age physical toughness, mental emotional
toughness to are to our advantage. If we can do that,
we'll be successful if we get it close.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
The pressure's on them, not on us. We have no
pressure on us today.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Just go out play, be us, have fun, compete, try
and win a game. And oh yeah, by the way,
there is that carrot out there. When you win this game,
it'll be the greatest story in sports.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
For a day.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
When you win this game. It will be the greatest
story in sports. It may not last weeks, it may
not mass months, but doesn't matter. Stories don't last that
long anymore. Be a front page of every paper, front
of every website, first thing, on Sports Center, first take.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Everybody would talk about it, guarantee it.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Why wouldn't you, right, So that's what's out there for you.
That's what we'll tell our players. That's what'll motivate them
to win. And understand, it's not about one shot or
one play. It's one play after the next play, after
the next play, after next light. That's how you win.
That's how you win here, that's how you win your
(08:03):
conference as well. So we start season two, we'll start
a more consecutive path of all ball podcasts. You'll start
to know my team, You start to know my coaches,
start to know more of my friends as well as
people are going to compete against. I appreciate you listening
(08:23):
to being part of this journey, and I appreciate the
friendship of Brandon Goebel. So we did this interview on Saturday,
Matt passed on Friday. Okay, So it's a little fresh,
a little raw, and I encourage you to do what
I've done, which is donate through the GoFundMe page. We'll
put it up on links on social media, both Twitter
(08:45):
and Instagram, and we'll mention it obviously within this podcast.
But here's Brandon Goebel, owner propriety of Jewic Advocate, and
we're discussing the recent passing of his business partner and
dear friend, Mat Clark.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Marin.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
I set the story up a little bit, but obviously
the tragic news of Matt's passing.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I know it's hit you.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Obviously, you guys are more than just business partners. When
did you guys first meet? I think it's been about
fifteen sixteen years ago.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
We got introduced through another guy that was wanting to
do some sports analytics stuff and him and Matt knew
each other and and you know, I got into this
business doing the analytics side of things, and he knew
that and so connected Matt and I and we actually
started our first company back sixteen fifteen years ago whatever
(09:44):
it was.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
So how that happened?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
So take me through, Like, okay, get you got introduced by.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Who a guy named Chris Andrews who runs the sports
book at the South Point now in Vegas and so.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Connection south south Point. I actually know the South Point well.
My daughter writes she's an equestrian. So she won the
national championship in the one twenty five at South Point,
and I almost missed her first round because I was
running a heater at a black shack table.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Kind of like my alarm's going up and I'm like,
I got a heater going.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And if you go down to the basement of the
South Point, they had this spectacular riding arena, right.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Yeah, okay, So so and they used to do basketball
stuff there and I'd called Chris last year. I said, hey,
you know, we'd love to look at doing an event there,
and he's like, it's out.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
It's all rodeo and horses.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Now they found there, they found their niche.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Okay, so you got introduced in person via text, Like,
how did it happen?
Speaker 3 (10:43):
It was a bit it was a.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Bit of a minute ago.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Yeah, this was this was kind of the beginning of
all the people that you meet on the internet and
you don't meet in person for a long time. And
so Chris, Chris introduced us and said, hey, you know,
I can help market this analytics you know company.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
I can do all this sort of stuff, but you.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Guys do the math and uh and Matt was, you know,
he was a programmer, software engineer, brilliant person.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
And so we started just working.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
What what was the basketball back what was this basketball
background that made him want like it's like a.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
None like none none, no, not no basketball background. He
played baseball. He played D one baseball back in the day.
And uh and so you know, and we were into
baseball and stuff too. I mean, we were writing these
these cool formulas and stuff, but basketball is really kind
of where things kept coming back to. And we uh,
(11:41):
you know, we eventually sold that company and uh and
you know, I didn't know what I wanted to be
when I grew up, and so when I figured out,
you know, I like this basketball thing, the first person
I called was Matt and said, Hey, I want to
I want to.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
I want to do something.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
I don't know what it is, really, but I know
I'm I'm gonna need website stuff and I'm going to
need you know, technical background and things. Do you want
to you want to start another company with me? And
and he said yeah, sure.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
So so what what's the process like fifteen years ago,
sixteen years ago starting a company with a guy. Had
you met in person when you when you when you
had that discussion, so you've.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Only met him on the phone and via email.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Right, and then you're like, hey, let's let's start a company.
So what did you guys do?
Speaker 4 (12:28):
And yeah, we didn't even have you know, zoom back then, right,
like it was. It was on the phone, talking computer
over here. And and it really just completely started from scratch.
He and Chris had had set some kind of baseline
things up, you know, as far as some some modeling
and things like that, but you know, it became like
(12:49):
this real passion project for both of us, you know,
just kind of working together every day remotely again, you
know we did and we didn't actually meet in person
for probably four years after that.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
That's crazy, but you worked together for four years. He
didn't meet in person.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Never met person.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
He was in Reno, I was in I was in
Fort Collins and uh, and so we just we just
worked and worked and worked, and the thing grew. And
you know, Chris Andrews unbelievable person, you know, kind of
this this old school wise.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
Guy, you know type dude.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
And and so he had the real gift for you know,
marketing that that stuff and and everything.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
It was. It was cool, it was fun, you know,
it was okay.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
So then so then talk to me.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Take me through the progression of that company, which is analytics.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
What was the next step of you two together.
Speaker 5 (13:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
So, so when we sold that, you know, he he
was he was a software engineer for another company. I
was working in the corporate world doing legal stuff on
the insurance side of things.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
And so when you when you when you sell an
analytics company, and this is kind of early stages of
this level of analytics in sports fair.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Yeah, we probably should have kept it. Yeah that that
whole world changed pretty drastically after we.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So I again, you guys were ahead of the head
of the curve and then you put yourself back behind
the curve.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Did he want to sell it?
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Yeah, I mean it was it was it kind of
got to the point where it was like, all right,
this is this is what it is. And again, it
was a very different world back then, right, you know,
as far as the business side of things, and so,
you know, it was it was a lot of time,
it was a lot of effort. You know, Chris was
at the time when we started it. Chris wasn't at
the South Point. Chris was doing this and so, uh,
(14:42):
you know, the south Point opportunity became available to him,
and and you know, so it was kind of one
of those things where like everybody had really kind of
run its course with it and that that current environment.
And so Chris went and did his thing, and and
Matt and I stayed in touch. You know, we're both
a couple of nerds, and so we play you know,
video games on the computer with each other and stuff.
(15:02):
But other than that, we just we were friends. And
then I called him one day and said, hey, you know,
I started this Twitter account, this Juco advocate thing that
people seem to resonate with, Like, let's make it like
a real thing. And he, again, without hesitation, said yeah,
let's do it. Like not involved in the basketball community.
He didn't even have a Twitter account, and so he
(15:26):
just said, you know, what do you need from me,
you know on the build stuff side, because I'm not
technical like that.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
I can't. I'm out of software guy.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
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listen live.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Okay, so then you decided to launch juco Advocate. Okay,
what's the process like? If you can remember back, this
is ten eleven years ago.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Yeah, we launched officially. He was nine nine years ago.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
It was years twenty sixteen, April twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
You're like, I want to do this. I got the
juico Advocate site.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
You have a passion for junior college basketball, knowledge of
people in the basketball community, you have this analytics background.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
What was what was your vision of what it would
be like?
Speaker 4 (16:22):
It was funny because it all kind of came together,
you know, and I've told this story before, helping you know,
one player, right, helping Solomon Heinen, and then it evolved
into helping more players. And so I called Matt and
he said, okay, well, what's the business is.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
I don't know how we make any money doing this,
but you know we can. We'll figure it out. And
so he said, all right, well, I'm going to build
juico Advocate dot Com, which doesn't exist anymore. But at
the time we were like, Okay, we're going to have
this this database of players. We're going to have all
these tools and utilities and analytics things that coaches can
use and all this sort of stuff, and Matt built
(17:00):
this incredible piece of software that nobody used, uh, because
it's just you know, we did we didn't know the market,
We didn't really understand you know, how things work.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
We had all these great ideas.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
You know, the players used it, but you know it
was kind of this garbage in, garbage out thing where
you'd say, okay, player, you know, you can go upload
your stuff and you can do all this. Well, you know,
you got people that treated it right, and then you
had people that said, well, I'm a seven to four
whatever from you know, four point ohs.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
Too, you know, just making stuff up.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
And so uh we we kind of realized, you know,
we probably needed to pivot somewhere in our approach to
the business. You know, we got into the event side
of things, and so you know he was helping.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
When when did that When did that hold on? When
did that pivot happen?
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Uh, it was a couple of years in you know,
it was like it was it was pre COVID, you know,
in about two thousand and eighteen, I think I said, hey,
you know, let's start doing some event stuff, you know,
help me helped me put up you know, marketing for that,
and you know, let's keep working on the analytics side
(18:06):
of things and the software side of things and see
where that goes. But you know, we need to we
need to find another route here to really access the
market and grow this. And so we started getting into
that and it really things really changed then when I
met Nathan Leclair, who had founded Verbal Commits, and he
(18:30):
and I started talking because I used to send him,
you know, d ms all the time about Solomon's offers,
right like everybody else.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
In the country, sending Nathan these dms.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
And and I said, you know, Nathan, the site, the
site looks like it needs some melt and and I've
got a guy.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Let's let's get together on this.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
And uh So, at that Minnesota Final four whenever, that
was six seven years ago, now, we we took Verbal
Commits under under our company's umbrella and brought Nathan in
and I said, I said, hey, Matt, here's here's the
code for verbal Commits.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
And he looked at it went shit. It was old.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
It was it was never designed to be what it
is today. It was a hobby right when it was
first created. And so Matt literally took this spaghetti ness
of code and forty thousand player profiles and all these
things and spent you know, two years building it into
(19:42):
what you see today. Two three years, I guess it
was to you know, first off, keeping it breathing right,
keeping the old version of the site functioning, which was like, you.
Speaker 5 (19:54):
Know, hey, look there's a leak over there.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Oh my god, this is falling over you know, and
Matt's just in the background by him elf, running around
like fixing things as they would cave in.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
You know, we got to the point where it was like, hey,
the charts need to move over right from one year
to the next. And Matt looks at it and goes, awesome,
nothing in the system is built to do that anymore,
Like it's dead. So I have to write, you know,
hacked in code to make this work.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Otherwise VC dies today, right And and so he went
and did it and and somehow made it function and
then you know, over that time then really kind of
built what we have today, the model that we have
today that you know, now we have a tech team
of five people, you know that that work on that, and.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
You got five people that do his job that he
did by himself. Right, that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Yeah, there's there's a lot of hands now that that
you know, are in in this thing making it go.
And and yeah, at the time, he was totally doing
it by himself, you know, Andrew Peratta came in, who's uh,
you know, our front end dev guy now you know
for what you see, right, you know, the visuals and
all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
And so he's making it look great.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Matt's in the background, like, you know, literally plugging in
wires everywhere, making share stuff works.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
So was his passion for code or was his passion
like yours for helping helping the kids.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Folks, But on the back end of things, right, Like
he always talked about, you know, the reason he enjoyed
this so much and the reason he wanted this to
be his full time job was because of what it accomplished.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Like.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
He wasn't a basketball.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Guy, you know, it wasn't It wasn't like, hey, I'm
working on this cool basketball thing. It was like, hey,
I'm working on this cool thing that helps people. And
so yesterday, you know, I as I told him about
you know, people supporting and and all that sort of.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Stuff, and he was he was amazed at that.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
I said, look, man, you got to remember like literally
millions of people have used the site and thousands and
thousands of athletes have benefited from it existing, right, Like
you know there there there are tweets that go out
that change lives. People coach see something about a kid
(22:21):
and then goes to the site and looks them up,
and then they continue and you don't ever even realize
that that connection that that maybe changed that kid's life
was because you had this thing that you built that
that led them to a path that you know what,
wouldn't have existed without it, right, And so you know
(22:42):
when we were talking yesterday, he he definitely felt that,
you know, that sense of accomplishment.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
In being able to help and and what it what
it did.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
When did you find out he was sick?
Speaker 4 (23:03):
So this is this has been a whirlwind. About a
month ago he left a meeting and said, I just
I don't feel good.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Well, And for just one second for people listening to
the pod. So a month ago was your Oklahoma event, right,
and your Oklahoma event?
Speaker 3 (23:22):
You have several events.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
It's my that one's my favorite, uh one. I love
the Trey Young Center. Obviously it's an excuse to get
to Oklahoma. But I think in terms of location for
junior college basketball, you're able to pull the Jayhawk Conference.
You're able to get the Oklahoma Jucos and then get
the Texas Jucos and then a couple others as well,
(23:45):
and so it is. I mean, it is an unbelievable event.
Especially I loved how you guys did it. Were those
first two courts and I mean like you're like, oh
my gosh, there's so many players on these two courts.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
There were players on the other course, but those two
were just like it was like all star teams.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
It was, there's stud teams. Anyway, was this.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Before or after that event?
Speaker 5 (24:09):
I think it was.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
It had to have been right before because we were
we were having kind of a last meeting that I
was going to be available for for a while because
I had so many events coming up. And uh and
so he he left that meeting and just said, you know,
I don't I don't feel good, and uh, you know,
I said, okay, you know whatever.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
So I'm running the events.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
And and uh, you know, we get an email from
him that says, you know, hey, Doc thinks stress and
you know, everything else seems like it's a bleeding ulcer,
and so.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
I gotta I gotta get that figured out.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Okay, great, Yeah, we're we're all doing our thing, and
and you know, not really thinking a lot of it.
And then about two weeks after that, you know, things
had got and worse, and you know, he wasn't we
weren't really talking about it a lot, right, But he
sent another update through that said, hey, you know, I'm
(25:11):
things are worse. You know, they think there's some kind
of liver damage, but not sure what. And and again
it was all right, you know, let us know you
need anything. And then and then not too long after that,
and I'll always feel terrible for this, but you know,
I was so busy running the events that during the
(25:32):
Colorado event, he had sent an email saying, hey, you know,
the doctors figured out that it's it's colon and liver cancer,
and you know, they're hoping that they caught it early
because Matt, Matt was up to date on his you know,
(25:53):
getting check ups and all that sort of stuff. You know,
he's a few years older than me, he's forty seven,
forty eight, and and so he had been getting checked
in things and everything was good. And so I didn't
see that email for six days because I was I
was just up to my eyeballs and stuff. And so
(26:14):
you know that I finally finished and I checked my
email and I'm like, oh my god.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
And so you know, I got a hold of him, and.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
It very quickly went from like, hey, we hope we
caught it early too. You know, we got a text
from him that said, you know, basically that that that's terminal.
You know, I've got weeks to maybe a couple of months,
you know, and and.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
He, you know, he said it was. It was.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
It was such a weird thing because we hadn't been
talking about it, we hadn't really been in communication, and
at that point things had happened so fast, and he
already said like, hey, like I know this is this
is what it is, and like like it's fine, Like
I'm I'm good with it, you know. And so I
I really didn't get to talk to him. You know,
(27:11):
we would text a little bit, but you know, it
went downhill so fast. He was already in the hospital
and uh, you know, they were trying to figure out
if there was anything they could do. And so I
got ahold of his wife, and you know, talked to
her and she basically said, look, you know, right now
the goal is to try and get him home.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
So that he can hospice at home and uh.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
And so my plan was to go out there next
week ended next week and and go spend some time
with him and stuff, because at the time we still thought,
you know, a few weeks, a couple of months maybe.
And then she called me, uh, Thursday night and said, hey,
you know it's it's it's days and you know, I
don't know if we're going to be able to get
(27:56):
him home. And so I flew out yes day morning
and got in and just went straight to the hospital.
She said, hey, home's not happening, you know, just come
to the hospital. And so she had just left to
take the kids home. She she'd brought the kids. They
(28:17):
said they're goodbyes and h.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
M hm.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
So I got to talk to him for about thirty
minutes and and then things kind of started going downhill.
His wife came back and uh, and so we just
spent the next four hours with him. It's about four
hours as things really kind of started to go through.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
Their process and uh, and then he passed away yesterday evening.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
All right, lest your friend.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
And it was a good one that thirty minutes was
it was something. You know, he was lucid and able
to talk. You know, it was tough. She was having
a hard time breathing, but but we were able to talk.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
And you know, get it.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
I told him about kind of everybody, you know, rallying
to help and and so he got to hear about that,
and his stupid ass asked if if they had gotten
the charts moved over last the night before.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
Yeah, they heard this year for this year. Yeah, yeah,
so the charts are moved over. So I said, yeah,
we're good. We're good.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Uh, John and Andrew and Michael and Nathan took care
of that.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
So so we're good there. And he's like, okay, good.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
The thing about podcasts, which are great, is they last forever.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
This is not going away. Yeah what when his kids get.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
Well?
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Then you know about his dad?
Speaker 4 (30:04):
Oh man, like, you know, just an unbelievably loving person
that was funny as hell, uh in in in like
the driest, weirdest ways possible. You know, the way that
he would say something, or the the joke that he
would make. I mean, he he every Friday night and
(30:28):
this is this is not I'm not exaggerating. Every Friday
night he would watch uh, Paul Blart, Mall Cop, the
Kevin James movie. I don't I don't know why. It's
a you know, and and and Mara, his wife, doesn't
know why. But every Friday night he would order pizza
(30:50):
and he'd watch this movie. And so when I got
to the hospital, he's laying in the bed there and
he's got a Paul Blart T shirt on. And I said, Matt,
what the hell is with the T shirt? And he said,
it's Friday. I can't watch the movie, but I'm gonna
die in this shirt. Like the commitment to a bit
(31:13):
that nobody else on the planet really knows about outside
of your your wife and kids.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Yeah, is like who does that? You know?
Speaker 4 (31:23):
At some point it's like it's funny, but you know
it's only funny if other people think it's funny. He's like, nah,
this was funny for me. And so you know, he
died in that shirt. And so Kevin James. If you
if you ever hear this podcast, that thirty seven cent
residual check you get every month came from Matt.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
Clark watching that movie every Friday.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
You gotta find I gotta find a way to get
this to him.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
I'm thinking, I'm thinking my brain works in my in
the sixth threes of Separation, like all right, who can
I get Kevin James? So so you can know the
impact that that that that movie had.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Yeah, I mean his friends, his other friends they called
him PAULI because of this movie, this Paul Blart thing.
Speaker 5 (32:09):
I'm like this, this is crazy.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
But yeah, I mean just you know, for him, for
me to be able to call him and say, hey,
I want to do this thing that you know, like
like my job is killing me, man, I got to
do something else, like you know, I want to do
this and see if I can make it a career.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
And he just said, yeah, yet do it.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
You know, no questions asked, no, like hey man, like
I'm busy, I can't build you know this stuff and
you know the amount of time and energy and effort
that that takes.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
Like there was no question. He just said, yeah, let's
do it. Let's figure it out.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
And you know, I figured out what I wanted to
be when I grew up, and I would not be
doing this job at all, zero chance if it wasn't
for me. You know, I I had, I had gotten
into basketball and like really lost what I wanted to do.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
I knew I didn't want to coach.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
I you know, the analytics side of things was, you know,
I didn't I didn't know enough people to even figure
out how I would get into that, right, And so
it was it was going to have to be something
that I did from scratch for it to work.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
And he was right there too to help make sure
that happens.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
How can we help, you know, it's it's one of
the things, I mean, our spirit we have kid, we're
kindred spirits, and that you know, that was my dad's
thing was just like yours. Helping kids started with you know,
one kid, you know, going back in the eighties when
he had travel basketball all the way to to when
he passed. How can we help Matt Matt's family and
and help his legacy.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Yeah, I mean it's you know, unfortunately, it's they've had
a lot in the last month. You know, his wonderful wife,
Maura was like off from her job a week ago,
you know, knowing that that Matt wasn't going to last
very long.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
And uh, and Matt's dad.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
Passed away the week and a half ago while Matt
was in the hospital, and so all of these things,
you know, happening all at once, and somehow Maa you know,
held it all together, you know, And we talked yesterday
because her and I were there when when Matt passed,
and so we just sat there for a while and talked,
(34:27):
and I said, I don't know how you did this,
and she said, well, you know I have to.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
You know, we got got the kids, and so.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Yeah, we we started, you know, raising some money just
to help, you know, helping the short term as a company.
We have plans to help in the long term, you know,
set up some trust things for the kids for when
they get older and and all that. But in the
short term, you know, ma and the kids are going
to need help. You know, they're not only have they
(35:00):
their husband and father, but you know, just the circumstances
of everything else going on around him.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
It's going to be really hard. And so.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
You can go to verbal commits dot com. Right at
the very top there's a there's a donation link. You know,
we've we've had you know, some great support on that
and some other coaches that have reached out that you know, again,
nobody knew Matt's name right in the industry. It was
Matt was in the back doing all these incredible things.
(35:29):
But but he, uh, he wasn't the face of things.
He wanted to quietly be the one in the background.
And so you know, people that have benefited and used
and everything from his work, you know, have been reaching
out and and uh and trying to help and stuff.
So yeah, I mean, just if anybody.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Feels is it a go fund me?
Speaker 5 (35:52):
Yeah, yep, yeah, it's a go fund me up there.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
And you know, we kind of figured for the short
term just you know, the simplicity and immediacy of that is.
Speaker 5 (36:06):
You know, super helpful.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
So yeah, it'll allow us to to kind of help
keep more and the kids on the you know the
track they need, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
So that's that's a challenge anybody listen to this podcast
I'm writing in check today as well, is it doesn't
matter what the amount is, just understand that, you know,
it's a it's a pay it forward. And here's a
guy who, like you said, help help thousands of kids
without knowing who he was helping. He didn't actually care,
he just as That's that's why I love this. It's
(36:37):
called juco advocate. Right, you're an advocate for for players,
not for yourself. You know, you don't make it about
rend and Gobal. You make it about the player. But
this is the time in which you know, we waste
so much money on this, on that thing. This can
really go to help a family who's hurting, family who's
in need, and a legitimate good guy who help people
(36:59):
without asking for anything back in return. Right, that's the
dark side to what you love to do, what I've
always loved to do, what so my dad loved to do.
Is there are there's all a portion of bad actors
who they promote the kids to fill their own pockets.
That's not who you are, that's not who Matt was,
(37:20):
and that's not what this is about. So that's why
it was really important. I know that the emotions are
still really raw, but in the getting it out that hey,
you know, this has turned from trying to help them
with all his bills to now helping the family who's
lost lost a husband and helping a wife who's lost
her job as well. I can't I can't imagine what
(37:45):
they're all, what they're all going through.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
What about you personally?
Speaker 3 (37:49):
How you doing.
Speaker 5 (37:51):
Hanging in there. Man. You know this was.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
This is something that that you know definitely will change it.
You know, I think I think as we all go
through these kinds of things, you know that they happen
to all of us at some point, right, But it
gives you a very different perspective on things. You know,
(38:18):
Matt was just a few years older than me and
and h and watching somebody go through that, you know,
suddenly getting hit with that dose of reality of you know, today,
tomorrow and then all of a sudden, you don't know, right,
giving you that better perspective on Ah, I need to
(38:43):
be more patient, I need to be more Yeah, you know,
I shop ug your kids more, right, like those kinds
of things that you know, you you think that that's
a no brainer, but we get so tied up in
all the things that we do that we forget that stuff.
(39:06):
Right when my kids go to school in the morning,
it's it's you know, get him out the door and
you know, so I can get back to work kind
of thing, as opposed to you know, being a little
more present in that moment. And so I'll take that away.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Well, you're doing the good stuff, man, I mean, I
know your passion for this has grown to over has
always been overseas players as well junior college players. I
know your passion for it.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
I know.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
I'm sure he's proud to be your partner, you know,
because you are the face of it. But again, you've
never been that yourself. You've been about the kids and
even in your kind of plea for help, It's it's
an amazing get you have and to be able to
(40:01):
want to help other people on a daily basis, you know,
as that's what you do, and uh, that speaks the
type of human being that you are.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
That's why I like associating with you.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
I'm just I'm so sad for Matt and his wife
and their kids. Just that's you know, you haven't yet
to hit fifty. That's way too soon, you know, way,
way way too soon. Well again, we're going to post
the GoFundMe link when we post this on social media,
(40:33):
and uh, Brandon, I know you're going through a tough time.
I know that with the basketball season starting, it's going
to be hard and I'm sure there'll be moments in
which you're a lot caught up in your job and
you're sending me a text of you have to take
this kid and you're not even thinking and then there'll
be a time. And I was just talking with a
(40:54):
friend of mine who lost his father about two weeks ago,
and I see, I said, you know, I lost my
dad eleven years ago this Thanksgiving time. And I don't
know if it was stupid or not, but I I
did it.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
I had a game at Fresno.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
It was like, I'm gonna say, like four days maybe
five days after he died, and we were living in Connecticut,
we all at all, we were all coming out anyway
for Thanksgiving. And he passed before Thanksgiving night, four night
before Thanksgiving or two nice four Thanksgiving. So I drove
(41:33):
to Fresno, which was about four hours from Orange County,
and you know, I was on the phone so much
the whole way there. People were calling, obviously, and but
the emotions.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
That hadn't really set in. And then I probably too
soon went right.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Back to work and calling a game, and then I
was driving home and then.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
He's like two hours in.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
I just remember it hitting me, and you know, and
it just it comes and goes, and you know, there's
something real about survivor's guilt, where you know you'll sit
there and go like boll he had this beautiful family
and you know, why why him? And why not me?
And why am I so lucky? You'll go through all
stages of it. It's it's really really hard. I think
(42:19):
the harder one is that he's our age. You know,
whereas you can you can kind of negotiate with yourself,
like my dad was seventy three, Like, hey, seventy it
was seventy two, about to be seventy three, so as
that's a good run, you know, whereas you know your forties,
that's it just doesn't seem enough. But you're gonna need
You're going to need the support of the basketball community
(42:41):
as well.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
And people have been incredible and the friends and reaching
out and stuff and and you know, the which has
been awesome, and it's been it's been great. But you know,
I just I just want to keep everybody's you know, attention,
just really focused on who he was and what he
did and how many people he helped and that you know,
(43:04):
I'm going to get that constant reminder every day of that,
because you know, I'm not doing this job without him, right,
and seeing the sight every day and you know, the
thing that he built and no matter how that that
changes over the years, you know it it was because
of him, and so.
Speaker 5 (43:27):
You know that will.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
That'll be hard, but at the same time positive, you know,
having that constant reminder of his impact, you know, again
in a in a community, in a space that I
don't know when the last time he watched a basketball
game was he was a hockey guy, you know, So
(43:50):
he did it. He did it out of passion for
helping rather than than you know, passion for even the right.
And so being reminded that of every day will be
hard first and then it'll it'll settle into being something
that I cherish.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Well.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
Listen, I know this, this is a really still very raw,
very fresh.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
I appreciate you happening with me doing this.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
I do think it's more important to get it out
now just because she's gonna need help. She's gonna need help.
And you know, the one thing that I'm big on is,
you know, like it's gonna you don't even don't even
do it for karma that it's gonna come back around,
but it's that people will help other people.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
Now it's our time, you know, to to to pay it,
pay it back.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
And this is a great way of a very honest
and organic way and unfortunate tragedy where he goes from
you know, you guys are your business is just exploding
to now he's not able to necessarily see all the
benefits from it.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
So sucks.
Speaker 4 (44:58):
Sucksppreciate you and having me on and letting me tell
his story. And you know, again, so many people. We
get about two point three million unique users of the
site every year, and none of them have ever heard
the name Matt Clark, and so now they do.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
Now they do.
Speaker 5 (45:19):
I do, Brandon.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
I'm sorry for your loss.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
I'll do everything I can to help with Matt MAT's
family mass legacy as well, and I'll encourage everybody to
do so.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
But more than anything, I appreciate your friendship.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
And it's it's a it's one based on respect and
admiration for what you've built and who you are as
a person. So I know you're hurting, but call me
here to text me anytime. This is this is this
is the hard part, you know.
Speaker 5 (45:48):
Yep, yep, appreciate you, my friend.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
That's it for the All Ball podcast. Check out the
radio show, The Doug Gottlieb Show, broadcast every day three
to five is you're twelve two specific and you can
download it in podcast form as well.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Just type in Doug wherever you get podcasts.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
In the meantime, thanks so much for listening, and my
thanks to Brandon Geoble, because that's being extremely vulnerable and
extremely thoughtful, not about himself, about others.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
But that's who BG is. I'm Doug Godli. This is
all ball
Hey, welcome in. I'm Doug Gottlie.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
This is All Ball season two. No, it's not the
second year we've done all Ball. We've been doing All
Ball since woh twenty eighteen, right, but this is the
second season of me as a head men's basketball coach.
We are going to do a special All Ball because tonight,
at the time of this recording, we play Kansas and
(00:30):
college basketball season has already begun watching Winthrop get the
first win of the season against Queen's University. Part of
that field of sixty eight twenty four hours of hoops,
which I just love and I think there's a world
in which we play in it next year.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
So part of this version of it.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Brandon Goebel, who is from those of you know, owns
and runs juco Advocate as well as so many of
these junior college events. He's joined us on previous podcasts.
His business part, Matt Clark tragically passed away from cancer
just this past week, and I wanted Brandon to come
on and share with the basketball community who Matt was,
(01:12):
why he was so important to Brandon, and by proxy,
why he becomes so important to be an advocate.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
For players, and if you know me, or know my family.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
That's what it's been about since my dad started travel
basketball back in the eighties in Orange County, California, trying
to grant people access to this incredible experience of playing
college basketball, hopefully on scholarship. Now you're collecting in IL money.
I do want to give you a couple of thoughts.
So tonight we play Kansas, and you know, I think
(01:47):
all of these great coaches have different things that make
them unique and special. I think that Rick Bettino is
probably the model in terms of how to completely He's
the dynamic of a program. He's a forced multiplier, but
and I think he has great feel in substitution. I
(02:08):
do think that Bill Self and Rick Patino I view
as the greatest coach of the modern era of basketball
because of his ability to change the trajectory of providence
of the Knicks of Kentucky, of Louisville, and he was
close with the Celtics and.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Obviously you know they couldn't turn the corner.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
And now what he's doing at Saint John's it's absolutely amazing.
But I think that Bill Self is in any conversation
as the greatest coach in the modern era. I view
him as a guy who hits all of the different
check marks. He develops players, he's a good evaluator. His
(02:47):
teams play with discipline, yet they don't play scared or tight.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And he's a.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Fantastic xceno coach, fantastic in game adjustment wise, pre game
setting things down, he's amazing, amaze.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
That being said, now we got.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
To play against him. So you got to play against
fifteen three hundred people. You've got to play with ten
new players, none of them have played Division in basketball,
and you're playing against fifteen three hundred plus an unbelievably
talented bunch coach by a Hall of Fame coach, and
in an incredible environment. For my money, it's the Lambeau
(03:25):
Field of college basketball.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
What do I mean by that? I mean it's like
part great venue, part.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Tourist attraction, but it's really about the fans still.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
You know, I've been to Cameron. I like Cameron.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I think it's a slight notch behind fog Allen because
fog Allen is so kind of rustic. They haven't gone
through it and done anything to it because they don't
want to get it to code. Then they have to
get it to code. Also, you have the rules of
the sport. You have the windows, Will Chamberlain play there,
all the banners, all the traditions. I think it's the
epicenter of all things that are great.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
About college basketball. So you tell your team, well, here's
the challenge.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Right. We have players who probably aren't ready for tonight,
right that they just they've they've had water wings on,
and we want to take the water wings off and
make them swim.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
But this is a really, really deep end we're throwing
them into.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
And then there are guys, which especially my returners, who
they know how to compete at this level. They just
maybe top out hallet wise, and you're playing against much
better players. So how do you balance playing cohesion and
then playing for guys? At the end game is we
need our best guys playing as one. We have league
(04:35):
games in December. We need the December, we need them
January and February and into March. You're like, you need
to peak then, but you can also lose your confidence
playing against a team like Kansas this early. And we
play against a really good, very improved Buffalo team on Friday,
which is a game in which we got to be
competitive in so a lot of people will ask me,
(04:56):
what's your message to your team tonight.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Well, here's what it is.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
The first thing is I want them to imagine themselves
doing something great, but within the structure of how we
want to play, right, Like, doing something great cannot be Hey,
I visualize myself top of the key one four, a flat,
going one on one.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Getting buckets like that's not gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
But if it's a hard cut for a dunk, yes,
If it's a off an action catch and shoot a three, sure,
If it's a defend and block a shot, yeah, think
it's doing something great. And then understand this. I don't
blame Kansas players for not respecting us.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
We won four games last year.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
But that's our advantage is that there isn't a guy
in that other locker room. There isn't a guy in
their basketball players only dormitory that thinks we belong on
the same court with them. And we recruited all of
these guys because we think they're tougher than hell. They're
(06:07):
not the most skilled, they're not. We have one guy
I think could could play in the NBA. We do,
and it's not who people say. It's not one of
my five most known players. I have a guy who
I think could play in the NBA. It'll be a while,
but he can do it. But none of them respect
us or need to respect me, and that's our advantage.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
The other thing is we still want.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
To play fast and free, but we don't want to
run up and down against Kansas. We want to put
them in the half court and we will meet them
grind and they're no doubt more talented than us. They
can make shots over the top, but we're going.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
To make them. So.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
The challenge to my group is to stay together. The
challenge to my group is to be sure with our passes.
The challenge to our group is to play at a
little bit slower pace than we want to play and
to execute and use our age physical toughness, mental emotional
toughness to are to our advantage. If we can do that,
we'll be successful if we get it close.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
The pressure's on them, not on us. We have no
pressure on us today.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Just go out play, be us, have fun, compete, try
and win a game. And oh yeah, by the way,
there is that carrot out there. When you win this game,
it'll be the greatest story in sports.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
For a day.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
When you win this game. It will be the greatest
story in sports. It may not last weeks, it may
not mass months, but doesn't matter. Stories don't last that
long anymore. Be a front page of every paper, front
of every website, first thing, on Sports Center, first take.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Everybody would talk about it, guarantee it.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Why wouldn't you, right, So that's what's out there for you.
That's what we'll tell our players. That's what'll motivate them
to win. And understand, it's not about one shot or
one play. It's one play after the next play, after
the next play, after next light. That's how you win.
That's how you win here, that's how you win your
(08:03):
conference as well. So we start season two, we'll start
a more consecutive path of all ball podcasts. You'll start
to know my team, You start to know my coaches,
start to know more of my friends as well as
people are going to compete against. I appreciate you listening
(08:23):
to being part of this journey, and I appreciate the
friendship of Brandon Goebel. So we did this interview on Saturday,
Matt passed on Friday. Okay, So it's a little fresh,
a little raw, and I encourage you to do what
I've done, which is donate through the GoFundMe page. We'll
put it up on links on social media, both Twitter
(08:45):
and Instagram, and we'll mention it obviously within this podcast.
But here's Brandon Goebel, owner propriety of Jewic Advocate, and
we're discussing the recent passing of his business partner and
dear friend, Mat Clark.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Marin.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
I set the story up a little bit, but obviously
the tragic news of Matt's passing.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I know it's hit you.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Obviously, you guys are more than just business partners. When
did you guys first meet? I think it's been about
fifteen sixteen years ago.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
We got introduced through another guy that was wanting to
do some sports analytics stuff and him and Matt knew
each other and and you know, I got into this
business doing the analytics side of things, and he knew
that and so connected Matt and I and we actually
started our first company back sixteen fifteen years ago whatever
(09:44):
it was.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
So how that happened?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
So take me through, Like, okay, get you got introduced by.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Who a guy named Chris Andrews who runs the sports
book at the South Point now in Vegas and so.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Connection south south Point. I actually know the South Point well.
My daughter writes she's an equestrian. So she won the
national championship in the one twenty five at South Point,
and I almost missed her first round because I was
running a heater at a black shack table.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Kind of like my alarm's going up and I'm like,
I got a heater going.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And if you go down to the basement of the
South Point, they had this spectacular riding arena, right.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Yeah, okay, So so and they used to do basketball
stuff there and I'd called Chris last year. I said, hey,
you know, we'd love to look at doing an event there,
and he's like, it's out.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
It's all rodeo and horses.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Now they found there, they found their niche.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Okay, so you got introduced in person via text, Like,
how did it happen?
Speaker 3 (10:43):
It was a bit it was a.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Bit of a minute ago.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Yeah, this was this was kind of the beginning of
all the people that you meet on the internet and
you don't meet in person for a long time. And
so Chris, Chris introduced us and said, hey, you know,
I can help market this analytics you know company.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
I can do all this sort of stuff, but you.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Guys do the math and uh and Matt was, you know,
he was a programmer, software engineer, brilliant person.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
And so we started just working.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
What what was the basketball back what was this basketball
background that made him want like it's like a.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
None like none none, no, not no basketball background. He
played baseball. He played D one baseball back in the day.
And uh and so you know, and we were into
baseball and stuff too. I mean, we were writing these
these cool formulas and stuff, but basketball is really kind
of where things kept coming back to. And we uh,
(11:41):
you know, we eventually sold that company and uh and
you know, I didn't know what I wanted to be
when I grew up, and so when I figured out,
you know, I like this basketball thing, the first person
I called was Matt and said, Hey, I want to
I want to.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
I want to do something.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
I don't know what it is, really, but I know
I'm I'm gonna need website stuff and I'm going to
need you know, technical background and things. Do you want
to you want to start another company with me? And
and he said yeah, sure.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
So so what what's the process like fifteen years ago,
sixteen years ago starting a company with a guy. Had
you met in person when you when you when you
had that discussion, so you've.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Only met him on the phone and via email.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Right, and then you're like, hey, let's let's start a company.
So what did you guys do?
Speaker 4 (12:28):
And yeah, we didn't even have you know, zoom back then, right,
like it was. It was on the phone, talking computer
over here. And and it really just completely started from scratch.
He and Chris had had set some kind of baseline
things up, you know, as far as some some modeling
and things like that, but you know, it became like
(12:49):
this real passion project for both of us, you know,
just kind of working together every day remotely again, you
know we did and we didn't actually meet in person
for probably four years after that.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
That's crazy, but you worked together for four years. He
didn't meet in person.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Never met person.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
He was in Reno, I was in I was in
Fort Collins and uh, and so we just we just
worked and worked and worked, and the thing grew. And
you know, Chris Andrews unbelievable person, you know, kind of
this this old school wise.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
Guy, you know type dude.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
And and so he had the real gift for you know,
marketing that that stuff and and everything.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
It was. It was cool, it was fun, you know,
it was okay.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
So then so then talk to me.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Take me through the progression of that company, which is analytics.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
What was the next step of you two together.
Speaker 5 (13:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
So, so when we sold that, you know, he he
was he was a software engineer for another company. I
was working in the corporate world doing legal stuff on
the insurance side of things.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
And so when you when you when you sell an
analytics company, and this is kind of early stages of
this level of analytics in sports fair.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Yeah, we probably should have kept it. Yeah that that
whole world changed pretty drastically after we.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So I again, you guys were ahead of the head
of the curve and then you put yourself back behind
the curve.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Did he want to sell it?
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Yeah, I mean it was it was it kind of
got to the point where it was like, all right,
this is this is what it is. And again, it
was a very different world back then, right, you know,
as far as the business side of things, and so,
you know, it was it was a lot of time,
it was a lot of effort. You know, Chris was
at the time when we started it. Chris wasn't at
the South Point. Chris was doing this and so, uh,
(14:42):
you know, the south Point opportunity became available to him,
and and you know, so it was kind of one
of those things where like everybody had really kind of
run its course with it and that that current environment.
And so Chris went and did his thing, and and
Matt and I stayed in touch. You know, we're both
a couple of nerds, and so we play you know,
video games on the computer with each other and stuff.
(15:02):
But other than that, we just we were friends. And
then I called him one day and said, hey, you know,
I started this Twitter account, this Juco advocate thing that
people seem to resonate with, Like, let's make it like
a real thing. And he, again, without hesitation, said yeah,
let's do it. Like not involved in the basketball community.
He didn't even have a Twitter account, and so he
(15:26):
just said, you know, what do you need from me,
you know on the build stuff side, because I'm not
technical like that.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
I can't. I'm out of software guy.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Okay, so then you decided to launch juco Advocate. Okay,
what's the process like? If you can remember back, this
is ten eleven years ago.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Yeah, we launched officially. He was nine nine years ago.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
It was years twenty sixteen, April twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
You're like, I want to do this. I got the
juico Advocate site.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
You have a passion for junior college basketball, knowledge of
people in the basketball community, you have this analytics background.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
What was what was your vision of what it would
be like?
Speaker 4 (16:22):
It was funny because it all kind of came together,
you know, and I've told this story before, helping you know,
one player, right, helping Solomon Heinen, and then it evolved
into helping more players. And so I called Matt and
he said, okay, well, what's the business is.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
I don't know how we make any money doing this,
but you know we can. We'll figure it out. And
so he said, all right, well, I'm going to build
juico Advocate dot Com, which doesn't exist anymore. But at
the time we were like, Okay, we're going to have
this this database of players. We're going to have all
these tools and utilities and analytics things that coaches can
use and all this sort of stuff, and Matt built
(17:00):
this incredible piece of software that nobody used, uh, because
it's just you know, we did we didn't know the market,
We didn't really understand you know, how things work.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
We had all these great ideas.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
You know, the players used it, but you know it
was kind of this garbage in, garbage out thing where
you'd say, okay, player, you know, you can go upload
your stuff and you can do all this. Well, you know,
you got people that treated it right, and then you
had people that said, well, I'm a seven to four
whatever from you know, four point ohs.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
Too, you know, just making stuff up.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
And so uh we we kind of realized, you know,
we probably needed to pivot somewhere in our approach to
the business. You know, we got into the event side
of things, and so you know he was helping.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
When when did that When did that hold on? When
did that pivot happen?
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Uh, it was a couple of years in you know,
it was like it was it was pre COVID, you know,
in about two thousand and eighteen, I think I said, hey,
you know, let's start doing some event stuff, you know,
help me helped me put up you know, marketing for that,
and you know, let's keep working on the analytics side
(18:06):
of things and the software side of things and see
where that goes. But you know, we need to we
need to find another route here to really access the
market and grow this. And so we started getting into
that and it really things really changed then when I
met Nathan Leclair, who had founded Verbal Commits, and he
(18:30):
and I started talking because I used to send him,
you know, d ms all the time about Solomon's offers,
right like everybody else.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
In the country, sending Nathan these dms.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
And and I said, you know, Nathan, the site, the
site looks like it needs some melt and and I've
got a guy.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Let's let's get together on this.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
And uh So, at that Minnesota Final four whenever, that
was six seven years ago, now, we we took Verbal
Commits under under our company's umbrella and brought Nathan in
and I said, I said, hey, Matt, here's here's the
code for verbal Commits.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
And he looked at it went shit. It was old.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
It was it was never designed to be what it
is today. It was a hobby right when it was
first created. And so Matt literally took this spaghetti ness
of code and forty thousand player profiles and all these
things and spent you know, two years building it into
(19:42):
what you see today. Two three years, I guess it
was to you know, first off, keeping it breathing right,
keeping the old version of the site functioning, which was like, you.
Speaker 5 (19:54):
Know, hey, look there's a leak over there.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Oh my god, this is falling over you know, and
Matt's just in the background by him elf, running around
like fixing things as they would cave in.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
You know, we got to the point where it was like, hey,
the charts need to move over right from one year
to the next. And Matt looks at it and goes, awesome,
nothing in the system is built to do that anymore,
Like it's dead. So I have to write, you know,
hacked in code to make this work.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Otherwise VC dies today, right And and so he went
and did it and and somehow made it function and
then you know, over that time then really kind of
built what we have today, the model that we have
today that you know, now we have a tech team
of five people, you know that that work on that, and.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
You got five people that do his job that he
did by himself. Right, that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Yeah, there's there's a lot of hands now that that
you know, are in in this thing making it go.
And and yeah, at the time, he was totally doing
it by himself, you know, Andrew Peratta came in, who's uh,
you know, our front end dev guy now you know
for what you see, right, you know, the visuals and
all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
And so he's making it look great.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Matt's in the background, like, you know, literally plugging in
wires everywhere, making share stuff works.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
So was his passion for code or was his passion
like yours for helping helping the kids.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Folks, But on the back end of things, right, Like
he always talked about, you know, the reason he enjoyed
this so much and the reason he wanted this to
be his full time job was because of what it accomplished.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Like.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
He wasn't a basketball.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Guy, you know, it wasn't It wasn't like, hey, I'm
working on this cool basketball thing. It was like, hey,
I'm working on this cool thing that helps people. And
so yesterday, you know, I as I told him about
you know, people supporting and and all that sort of.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Stuff, and he was he was amazed at that.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
I said, look, man, you got to remember like literally
millions of people have used the site and thousands and
thousands of athletes have benefited from it existing, right, Like
you know there there there are tweets that go out
that change lives. People coach see something about a kid
(22:21):
and then goes to the site and looks them up,
and then they continue and you don't ever even realize
that that connection that that maybe changed that kid's life
was because you had this thing that you built that
that led them to a path that you know what,
wouldn't have existed without it, right, And so you know
(22:42):
when we were talking yesterday, he he definitely felt that,
you know, that sense of accomplishment.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
In being able to help and and what it what
it did.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
When did you find out he was sick?
Speaker 4 (23:03):
So this is this has been a whirlwind. About a
month ago he left a meeting and said, I just
I don't feel good.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Well, And for just one second for people listening to
the pod. So a month ago was your Oklahoma event, right,
and your Oklahoma event?
Speaker 3 (23:22):
You have several events.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
It's my that one's my favorite, uh one. I love
the Trey Young Center. Obviously it's an excuse to get
to Oklahoma. But I think in terms of location for
junior college basketball, you're able to pull the Jayhawk Conference.
You're able to get the Oklahoma Jucos and then get
the Texas Jucos and then a couple others as well,
(23:45):
and so it is. I mean, it is an unbelievable event.
Especially I loved how you guys did it. Were those
first two courts and I mean like you're like, oh
my gosh, there's so many players on these two courts.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
There were players on the other course, but those two
were just like it was like all star teams.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
It was, there's stud teams. Anyway, was this.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Before or after that event?
Speaker 5 (24:09):
I think it was.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
It had to have been right before because we were
we were having kind of a last meeting that I
was going to be available for for a while because
I had so many events coming up. And uh and
so he he left that meeting and just said, you know,
I don't I don't feel good, and uh, you know,
I said, okay, you know whatever.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
So I'm running the events.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
And and uh, you know, we get an email from
him that says, you know, hey, Doc thinks stress and
you know, everything else seems like it's a bleeding ulcer,
and so.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
I gotta I gotta get that figured out.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Okay, great, Yeah, we're we're all doing our thing, and
and you know, not really thinking a lot of it.
And then about two weeks after that, you know, things
had got and worse, and you know, he wasn't we
weren't really talking about it a lot, right, But he
sent another update through that said, hey, you know, I'm
(25:11):
things are worse. You know, they think there's some kind
of liver damage, but not sure what. And and again
it was all right, you know, let us know you
need anything. And then and then not too long after that,
and I'll always feel terrible for this, but you know,
I was so busy running the events that during the
(25:32):
Colorado event, he had sent an email saying, hey, you know,
the doctors figured out that it's it's colon and liver cancer,
and you know, they're hoping that they caught it early
because Matt, Matt was up to date on his you know,
(25:53):
getting check ups and all that sort of stuff. You know,
he's a few years older than me, he's forty seven,
forty eight, and and so he had been getting checked
in things and everything was good. And so I didn't
see that email for six days because I was I
was just up to my eyeballs and stuff. And so
(26:14):
you know that I finally finished and I checked my
email and I'm like, oh my god.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
And so you know, I got a hold of him, and.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
It very quickly went from like, hey, we hope we
caught it early too. You know, we got a text
from him that said, you know, basically that that that's terminal.
You know, I've got weeks to maybe a couple of months,
you know, and and.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
He, you know, he said it was. It was.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
It was such a weird thing because we hadn't been
talking about it, we hadn't really been in communication, and
at that point things had happened so fast, and he
already said like, hey, like I know this is this
is what it is, and like like it's fine, Like
I'm I'm good with it, you know. And so I
I really didn't get to talk to him. You know,
(27:11):
we would text a little bit, but you know, it
went downhill so fast. He was already in the hospital
and uh, you know, they were trying to figure out
if there was anything they could do. And so I
got ahold of his wife, and you know, talked to
her and she basically said, look, you know, right now
the goal is to try and get him home.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
So that he can hospice at home and uh.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
And so my plan was to go out there next
week ended next week and and go spend some time
with him and stuff, because at the time we still thought,
you know, a few weeks, a couple of months maybe.
And then she called me, uh, Thursday night and said, hey,
you know it's it's it's days and you know, I
don't know if we're going to be able to get
(27:56):
him home. And so I flew out yes day morning
and got in and just went straight to the hospital.
She said, hey, home's not happening, you know, just come
to the hospital. And so she had just left to
take the kids home. She she'd brought the kids. They
(28:17):
said they're goodbyes and h.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
M hm.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
So I got to talk to him for about thirty
minutes and and then things kind of started going downhill.
His wife came back and uh, and so we just
spent the next four hours with him. It's about four
hours as things really kind of started to go through.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
Their process and uh, and then he passed away yesterday evening.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
All right, lest your friend.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
And it was a good one that thirty minutes was
it was something. You know, he was lucid and able
to talk. You know, it was tough. She was having
a hard time breathing, but but we were able to talk.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
And you know, get it.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
I told him about kind of everybody, you know, rallying
to help and and so he got to hear about that,
and his stupid ass asked if if they had gotten
the charts moved over last the night before.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
Yeah, they heard this year for this year. Yeah, yeah,
so the charts are moved over. So I said, yeah,
we're good. We're good.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Uh, John and Andrew and Michael and Nathan took care
of that.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
So so we're good there. And he's like, okay, good.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
The thing about podcasts, which are great, is they last forever.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
This is not going away. Yeah what when his kids get.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
Well?
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Then you know about his dad?
Speaker 4 (30:04):
Oh man, like, you know, just an unbelievably loving person
that was funny as hell, uh in in in like
the driest, weirdest ways possible. You know, the way that
he would say something, or the the joke that he
would make. I mean, he he every Friday night and
(30:28):
this is this is not I'm not exaggerating. Every Friday
night he would watch uh, Paul Blart, Mall Cop, the
Kevin James movie. I don't I don't know why. It's
a you know, and and and Mara, his wife, doesn't
know why. But every Friday night he would order pizza
(30:50):
and he'd watch this movie. And so when I got
to the hospital, he's laying in the bed there and
he's got a Paul Blart T shirt on. And I said, Matt,
what the hell is with the T shirt? And he said,
it's Friday. I can't watch the movie, but I'm gonna
die in this shirt. Like the commitment to a bit
(31:13):
that nobody else on the planet really knows about outside
of your your wife and kids.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Yeah, is like who does that? You know?
Speaker 4 (31:23):
At some point it's like it's funny, but you know
it's only funny if other people think it's funny. He's like, nah,
this was funny for me. And so you know, he
died in that shirt. And so Kevin James. If you
if you ever hear this podcast, that thirty seven cent
residual check you get every month came from Matt.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
Clark watching that movie every Friday.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
You gotta find I gotta find a way to get
this to him.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
I'm thinking, I'm thinking my brain works in my in
the sixth threes of Separation, like all right, who can
I get Kevin James? So so you can know the
impact that that that that movie had.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Yeah, I mean his friends, his other friends they called
him PAULI because of this movie, this Paul Blart thing.
Speaker 5 (32:09):
I'm like this, this is crazy.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
But yeah, I mean just you know, for him, for
me to be able to call him and say, hey,
I want to do this thing that you know, like
like my job is killing me, man, I got to
do something else, like you know, I want to do
this and see if I can make it a career.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
And he just said, yeah, yet do it.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
You know, no questions asked, no, like hey man, like
I'm busy, I can't build you know this stuff and
you know the amount of time and energy and effort
that that takes.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
Like there was no question. He just said, yeah, let's
do it. Let's figure it out.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
And you know, I figured out what I wanted to
be when I grew up, and I would not be
doing this job at all, zero chance if it wasn't
for me. You know, I I had, I had gotten
into basketball and like really lost what I wanted to do.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
I knew I didn't want to coach.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
I you know, the analytics side of things was, you know,
I didn't I didn't know enough people to even figure
out how I would get into that, right, And so
it was it was going to have to be something
that I did from scratch for it to work.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
And he was right there too to help make sure
that happens.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
How can we help, you know, it's it's one of
the things, I mean, our spirit we have kid, we're
kindred spirits, and that you know, that was my dad's
thing was just like yours. Helping kids started with you know,
one kid, you know, going back in the eighties when
he had travel basketball all the way to to when
he passed. How can we help Matt Matt's family and
and help his legacy.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Yeah, I mean it's you know, unfortunately, it's they've had
a lot in the last month. You know, his wonderful wife,
Maura was like off from her job a week ago,
you know, knowing that that Matt wasn't going to last
very long.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
And uh, and Matt's dad.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
Passed away the week and a half ago while Matt
was in the hospital, and so all of these things,
you know, happening all at once, and somehow Maa you know,
held it all together, you know, And we talked yesterday
because her and I were there when when Matt passed,
and so we just sat there for a while and talked,
(34:27):
and I said, I don't know how you did this,
and she said, well, you know I have to.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
You know, we got got the kids, and so.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Yeah, we we started, you know, raising some money just
to help, you know, helping the short term as a company.
We have plans to help in the long term, you know,
set up some trust things for the kids for when
they get older and and all that. But in the
short term, you know, ma and the kids are going
to need help. You know, they're not only have they
(35:00):
their husband and father, but you know, just the circumstances
of everything else going on around him.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
It's going to be really hard. And so.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
You can go to verbal commits dot com. Right at
the very top there's a there's a donation link. You know,
we've we've had you know, some great support on that
and some other coaches that have reached out that you know, again,
nobody knew Matt's name right in the industry. It was
Matt was in the back doing all these incredible things.
(35:29):
But but he, uh, he wasn't the face of things.
He wanted to quietly be the one in the background.
And so you know, people that have benefited and used
and everything from his work, you know, have been reaching
out and and uh and trying to help and stuff.
So yeah, I mean, just if anybody.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Feels is it a go fund me?
Speaker 5 (35:52):
Yeah, yep, yeah, it's a go fund me up there.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
And you know, we kind of figured for the short
term just you know, the simplicity and immediacy of that is.
Speaker 5 (36:06):
You know, super helpful.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
So yeah, it'll allow us to to kind of help
keep more and the kids on the you know the
track they need, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
So that's that's a challenge anybody listen to this podcast
I'm writing in check today as well, is it doesn't
matter what the amount is, just understand that, you know,
it's a it's a pay it forward. And here's a
guy who, like you said, help help thousands of kids
without knowing who he was helping. He didn't actually care,
he just as That's that's why I love this. It's
(36:37):
called juco advocate. Right, you're an advocate for for players,
not for yourself. You know, you don't make it about
rend and Gobal. You make it about the player. But
this is the time in which you know, we waste
so much money on this, on that thing. This can
really go to help a family who's hurting, family who's
in need, and a legitimate good guy who help people
(36:59):
without asking for anything back in return. Right, that's the
dark side to what you love to do, what I've
always loved to do, what so my dad loved to do.
Is there are there's all a portion of bad actors
who they promote the kids to fill their own pockets.
That's not who you are, that's not who Matt was,
(37:20):
and that's not what this is about. So that's why
it was really important. I know that the emotions are
still really raw, but in the getting it out that hey,
you know, this has turned from trying to help them
with all his bills to now helping the family who's
lost lost a husband and helping a wife who's lost
her job as well. I can't I can't imagine what
(37:45):
they're all, what they're all going through.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
What about you personally?
Speaker 3 (37:49):
How you doing.
Speaker 5 (37:51):
Hanging in there. Man. You know this was.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
This is something that that you know definitely will change it.
You know, I think I think as we all go
through these kinds of things, you know that they happen
to all of us at some point, right, But it
gives you a very different perspective on things. You know,
(38:18):
Matt was just a few years older than me and
and h and watching somebody go through that, you know,
suddenly getting hit with that dose of reality of you know, today,
tomorrow and then all of a sudden, you don't know, right,
giving you that better perspective on Ah, I need to
(38:43):
be more patient, I need to be more Yeah, you know,
I shop ug your kids more, right, like those kinds
of things that you know, you you think that that's
a no brainer, but we get so tied up in
all the things that we do that we forget that stuff.
(39:06):
Right when my kids go to school in the morning,
it's it's you know, get him out the door and
you know, so I can get back to work kind
of thing, as opposed to you know, being a little
more present in that moment. And so I'll take that away.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Well, you're doing the good stuff, man, I mean, I
know your passion for this has grown to over has
always been overseas players as well junior college players. I
know your passion for it.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
I know.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
I'm sure he's proud to be your partner, you know,
because you are the face of it. But again, you've
never been that yourself. You've been about the kids and
even in your kind of plea for help, It's it's
an amazing get you have and to be able to
(40:01):
want to help other people on a daily basis, you know,
as that's what you do, and uh, that speaks the
type of human being that you are.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
That's why I like associating with you.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
I'm just I'm so sad for Matt and his wife
and their kids. Just that's you know, you haven't yet
to hit fifty. That's way too soon, you know, way,
way way too soon. Well again, we're going to post
the GoFundMe link when we post this on social media,
(40:33):
and uh, Brandon, I know you're going through a tough time.
I know that with the basketball season starting, it's going
to be hard and I'm sure there'll be moments in
which you're a lot caught up in your job and
you're sending me a text of you have to take
this kid and you're not even thinking and then there'll
be a time. And I was just talking with a
(40:54):
friend of mine who lost his father about two weeks ago,
and I see, I said, you know, I lost my
dad eleven years ago this Thanksgiving time. And I don't
know if it was stupid or not, but I I
did it.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
I had a game at Fresno.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
It was like, I'm gonna say, like four days maybe
five days after he died, and we were living in Connecticut,
we all at all, we were all coming out anyway
for Thanksgiving. And he passed before Thanksgiving night, four night
before Thanksgiving or two nice four Thanksgiving. So I drove
(41:33):
to Fresno, which was about four hours from Orange County,
and you know, I was on the phone so much
the whole way there. People were calling, obviously, and but
the emotions.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
That hadn't really set in. And then I probably too
soon went right.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Back to work and calling a game, and then I
was driving home and then.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
He's like two hours in.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
I just remember it hitting me, and you know, and
it just it comes and goes, and you know, there's
something real about survivor's guilt, where you know you'll sit
there and go like boll he had this beautiful family
and you know, why why him? And why not me?
And why am I so lucky? You'll go through all
stages of it. It's it's really really hard. I think
(42:19):
the harder one is that he's our age. You know,
whereas you can you can kind of negotiate with yourself,
like my dad was seventy three, Like, hey, seventy it
was seventy two, about to be seventy three, so as
that's a good run, you know, whereas you know your forties,
that's it just doesn't seem enough. But you're gonna need
You're going to need the support of the basketball community
(42:41):
as well.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
And people have been incredible and the friends and reaching
out and stuff and and you know, the which has
been awesome, and it's been it's been great. But you know,
I just I just want to keep everybody's you know, attention,
just really focused on who he was and what he
did and how many people he helped and that you know,
(43:04):
I'm going to get that constant reminder every day of that,
because you know, I'm not doing this job without him, right,
and seeing the sight every day and you know, the
thing that he built and no matter how that that
changes over the years, you know it it was because
of him, and so.
Speaker 5 (43:27):
You know that will.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
That'll be hard, but at the same time positive, you know,
having that constant reminder of his impact, you know, again
in a in a community, in a space that I
don't know when the last time he watched a basketball
game was he was a hockey guy, you know, So
(43:50):
he did it. He did it out of passion for
helping rather than than you know, passion for even the right.
And so being reminded that of every day will be
hard first and then it'll it'll settle into being something
that I cherish.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Well.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
Listen, I know this, this is a really still very raw,
very fresh.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
I appreciate you happening with me doing this.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
I do think it's more important to get it out
now just because she's gonna need help. She's gonna need help.
And you know, the one thing that I'm big on is,
you know, like it's gonna you don't even don't even
do it for karma that it's gonna come back around,
but it's that people will help other people.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
Now it's our time, you know, to to to pay it,
pay it back.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
And this is a great way of a very honest
and organic way and unfortunate tragedy where he goes from
you know, you guys are your business is just exploding
to now he's not able to necessarily see all the
benefits from it.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
So sucks.
Speaker 4 (44:58):
Sucksppreciate you and having me on and letting me tell
his story. And you know, again, so many people. We
get about two point three million unique users of the
site every year, and none of them have ever heard
the name Matt Clark, and so now they do.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
Now they do.
Speaker 5 (45:19):
I do, Brandon.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
I'm sorry for your loss.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
I'll do everything I can to help with Matt MAT's
family mass legacy as well, and I'll encourage everybody to
do so.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
But more than anything, I appreciate your friendship.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
And it's it's a it's one based on respect and
admiration for what you've built and who you are as
a person. So I know you're hurting, but call me
here to text me anytime. This is this is this
is the hard part, you know.
Speaker 5 (45:48):
Yep, yep, appreciate you, my friend.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
That's it for the All Ball podcast. Check out the
radio show, The Doug Gottlieb Show, broadcast every day three
to five is you're twelve two specific and you can
download it in podcast form as well.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Just type in Doug wherever you get podcasts.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
In the meantime, thanks so much for listening, and my
thanks to Brandon Geoble, because that's being extremely vulnerable and
extremely thoughtful, not about himself, about others.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
But that's who BG is. I'm Doug Godli. This is
all ball
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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