February 3, 2026 • 12 mins
As heard on the show Tuesday, February 3rd. Rob starts with OMG, the UConn MBB Team dropped to 3rd in the polls !! Why lol
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
H dev sure, you're you're you're going right at the heart,
you know, I I think I think there's a that
are at at play. One is you know, look, you
got to hand it to Michigan. You know, they last
week they played two very highly ranked opponents, and you know,
(00:24):
I think one of them was on the road. It
may have been their first loss, and so you know,
give credit to them.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
But at the same time, very unusual for a team
that's been ranked as highly as we have for as
long as we have to go backwards after winning both
their games and certainly going on the road and beating
Creighton handily is not an easy thing to do, even
(00:52):
though you know they're they're not quite the team they
have been. But yeah, I mean disappointing. I mean in
the grand esteem of things, you know, ultimately, if we
just keep taking care of business, did I'm confident things
are going to work out the way we anticipate and
want them to. But at the same time, I mean, look,
(01:15):
call a strada spade. Our league is not in the
place it needs to be, and so is there some
respect level nationally that because our league hasn't performed well
and right now we only have two ranked teams and
a lot of our games are are against teams that
(01:38):
are not even close to being ranked. Is that impacting us, Yeah,
it is. Unfortunately, I don't get caught up in you know, hey,
the point differential and you know how we've beaten teams
like look to me, at the end of the day,
if you're winning your games, you're winning your game. College
(02:01):
kids are not going to play at their best every
single game of the year. And as I've thought about this,
as people have analyzed this, you know, look a few
years ago we lost those games in our first national
championship run under coach Hurley. You know we lost those games.
(02:21):
Now we're winning them, you know, And so when you
aren't playing your best and you still win, it's pretty good.
And so look, I'm confident that we've got work to do,
as coaches said and pointed out, but if we get
to a place where we're playing at a super high level,
certainly reaching our potential, we have as good a chance
(02:42):
as anybody in the country to get to the final four.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
And so you kind of takes on Xavier in a
big East matchup. Like David Benedict, the athletic director of
VIE Khan is on with us. We're talking some basketball.
For the men, we're twenty one to one, they're twelve
and ten, so that's still should be a good game
because Xavier is going to fight tooth and nail to
do everything they can to come in and beat us.
Let's let's talk about the women. The women are undefeated.
(03:09):
They just took out Tennessee last week, they took out
Notre Dame. All all cylinders seemed to be firing, except
for maybe canyonis be in a little bit under the
weather right now. But your thoughts on the women staying
at number one and staying undefeated.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Well, I mean kind of the same thing, TIBs. You know,
not everybody but their out do you evaluate them, you know,
based on their conference play? And no one's really challenging them,
And you know, I again I understand, I want to
tell those people, well, hey, why don't you invite us
into the SEC? Why don't you invite us into the
(03:46):
the ACC or the Big twelve if if you want
to compete again us against us, We're happy to but
no one, no one's begging us to come compete in
their conference. So so I kind of want to tell
them to go poundstand, you know, as it relates to
our conference not providing us a lot of competition, Well,
(04:08):
that may be true, and the numbers speak for themselves,
but at the same time, we just beat the number
fifteen ranked team by thirty, you know, Notre Dame. We
beat by what was it over forty, you know, So
I'm not sure who we can play right now that's
going to challenge us. Now. Look, I'm looking forward to hoping,
(04:29):
you know, we advance deep into the tournament and get
an opportunity to compete against some of these teams. But
until you beat us, I think it's really hard to
say that the women right now aren't the best team
in the country. But I'm going to tell you there's
going to be rhetoric as the season wears on and
we're not playing ranked opponents than other teams are, they're
(04:50):
going to start questioning the merits of Yukon be in
the overall one season. I promise you can already see
it happen. So it's something I was on the phone
with our conference commissioner about yesterday. It's something that we
need their help on. We need them to speak up
for us, communicate what Yukon is and they what we're
(05:18):
not and what we are is as people say, we're
a wagon and until someone proves that we're not, we
should continue being the number one team in the country.
They deserve that you're here.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I couldn't agree with the more we're talking to. Dave Bendict,
dethletic director of the University of Connecticut. You've had a
lot of busy stuff in your office lately. Sixty six
new kids on the football team. Is this your busiest
off season for the football program?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah? I mean, look, when if you just set aside
the change and environment from a recruiting standpoint, did and
you just look at what a transition and football requires
of when you when you change coaches. You know, football
is just a much larger organization than most of your
other sports. And so it's the number of staff, you know,
(06:12):
it's the head coach, it's transitioning everybody. And then when
you layer on top of that the need to recruit.
You know, I think it's over seventy I believe it's
just in the immediacy of it. It's not like, well,
you have a chance to come in and take four
(06:33):
or five months get to get to know the university,
get to know people and start recruiting. You know, it's like, hey,
you're here one day, the next day, you got to
have your staff in place and start recruiting a week later.
I mean it was. It was an unbelievable effort by
a lot of different people on our campus to help
(06:55):
support the transition and the recruiting process. Obviously, coach Candle,
I thought, came in and did an amazing job of
organizing himself, the football staff and a recruiting class that
I think obviously a lot of people are very excited about.
(07:15):
You know, I think it's easy to get locked into Hey,
this person's got this many stars, and this person came
from this place, and look I I hold off and
I'm looking forward to seeing these guys run around on
the field and start spring ball here in a few
weeks and and see what we have, because that's that's
(07:37):
when it really matters. But I can tell you, I
think he feels really good about what's taking place, and
he's been here at Yukon. I think he feels really
good about recruiting to Yukon and and the way that
people responded to him both in recruiting his staff as
well as recruiting this class. So I think he's gotten
off to an amazing start and certainly very proud.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Of that little change on the football schedule this fall
upcoming fall, the ACC went to nine regular season games.
So you lost the Duke game. Explain this to our listeners.
You moved the North Carolina game to that game date.
Will you be able to pick up another game after
losing Duke?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yes, and I believe that that was relief. Maybe I
just saw it yesterday. There was something that was holding
it up. But we have scheduled a home and home
with Southern Myth. It just worked out. There were not
many teams available for the date that we needed. But
you know, I think it's certainly unfortunate we lost the
(08:41):
Duke game. It will impact the theories. Ultimately, we will
see Duke come back to runt Your field one more time.
We will not have to go to Duke to complete
the series, which is kind of a form of compensation
because Duke has been and now to us twice and
(09:01):
we were only there once and they'll return, so ultimately
kind of a three for one if you want to
look at it that way. But yeah, it's a challenge give,
and it's something that we've got to keep our eye
on as things continue to evolve. It's very obviously important
(09:22):
to me and our overall organization that football continues to thrive.
And you know, you got a lot of conversation going
on right now, DFP. You know there could be a
nuance to change relative to well, the representative for the
G five or the G six doesn't need to be
a conference champion. Well, that ultimately opens up the door
(09:43):
for Ukon to be that team. And so you know,
one thing, when you control your scheduling like we do,
you have the ability to schedule so that if you're successful,
you could put yourself in a in a really good position.
Whereas if you're part of a conference. And I'm not
saying it's bad to be part of a conference. I'm
(10:03):
just kind of leveraging or presenting the pro of having
control of your schedule that you can put a schedule
together that, like I said, if you're successful, you could
put yourself in that top spot. And so that's certainly
something we're going to continue to consider, keep our eye
(10:25):
on and ultimately continue to explore any in all opportunities.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
And for people who mean to know a lot about
college softball and college baseball. College softball starts this weekend.
College baseball starts next week. I guess for you con
tell us about the schedules coming up. I think softball
is down around North Carolina and baseball is going to
be going out to Arizona.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah. Well literally, I just got done with a meeting
before I called you, and I looked at my phone
and it says Elon can until their events this weekend.
Due to weather, we were able to get Florida State
to add us. So I mean, it's it's that you're
in constant luck. And obviously the East Coast and and
(11:13):
I mean we we had had I had some people
that were up at the Tennessee.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Game from Atlanta and they were staying at snow in Atlanta,
and you had, you know, lots of snow in North
Carolina and Virginia. My kids are down in Virginia trying
to play baseball, and you know they've been inside. So
you know, up and down the East Coach, you've really
been impacted. So you know, although we try to get south,
you know, unfortunately Southeast right now is dealing with weather too,
(11:40):
and so.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
You know, softball starts earlier than baseball does. But yeah,
well we'll try to do the best we can to
be nimble and find ways to get our teams the
opportunities they deserve to go out and compete.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Well, good luck the rest of the week with all
the schedule and all the games and stuff. Good luck
tonight with Xavier, and we appreciate your time as always
every week, David, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yeah, it's always good to be with Youah, appreciate all
the support and look forward to.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
Seeing people tonight down at People's Bank Arena.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Go Huskies, Let's go. Thank you David,
H dev sure, you're you're you're going right at the heart,
you know, I I think I think there's a that
are at at play. One is you know, look, you
got to hand it to Michigan. You know, they last
week they played two very highly ranked opponents, and you know,
(00:24):
I think one of them was on the road. It
may have been their first loss, and so you know,
give credit to them.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
But at the same time, very unusual for a team
that's been ranked as highly as we have for as
long as we have to go backwards after winning both
their games and certainly going on the road and beating
Creighton handily is not an easy thing to do, even
(00:52):
though you know they're they're not quite the team they
have been. But yeah, I mean disappointing. I mean in
the grand esteem of things, you know, ultimately, if we
just keep taking care of business, did I'm confident things
are going to work out the way we anticipate and
want them to. But at the same time, I mean, look,
(01:15):
call a strada spade. Our league is not in the
place it needs to be, and so is there some
respect level nationally that because our league hasn't performed well
and right now we only have two ranked teams and
a lot of our games are are against teams that
(01:38):
are not even close to being ranked. Is that impacting us, Yeah,
it is. Unfortunately, I don't get caught up in you know, hey,
the point differential and you know how we've beaten teams
like look to me, at the end of the day,
if you're winning your games, you're winning your game. College
(02:01):
kids are not going to play at their best every
single game of the year. And as I've thought about this,
as people have analyzed this, you know, look a few
years ago we lost those games in our first national
championship run under coach Hurley. You know we lost those games.
(02:21):
Now we're winning them, you know, And so when you
aren't playing your best and you still win, it's pretty good.
And so look, I'm confident that we've got work to do,
as coaches said and pointed out, but if we get
to a place where we're playing at a super high level,
certainly reaching our potential, we have as good a chance
(02:42):
as anybody in the country to get to the final four.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
And so you kind of takes on Xavier in a
big East matchup. Like David Benedict, the athletic director of
VIE Khan is on with us. We're talking some basketball.
For the men, we're twenty one to one, they're twelve
and ten, so that's still should be a good game
because Xavier is going to fight tooth and nail to
do everything they can to come in and beat us.
Let's let's talk about the women. The women are undefeated.
(03:09):
They just took out Tennessee last week, they took out
Notre Dame. All all cylinders seemed to be firing, except
for maybe canyonis be in a little bit under the
weather right now. But your thoughts on the women staying
at number one and staying undefeated.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Well, I mean kind of the same thing, TIBs. You know,
not everybody but their out do you evaluate them, you know,
based on their conference play? And no one's really challenging them,
And you know, I again I understand, I want to
tell those people, well, hey, why don't you invite us
into the SEC? Why don't you invite us into the
(03:46):
the ACC or the Big twelve if if you want
to compete again us against us, We're happy to but
no one, no one's begging us to come compete in
their conference. So so I kind of want to tell
them to go poundstand, you know, as it relates to
our conference not providing us a lot of competition, Well,
(04:08):
that may be true, and the numbers speak for themselves,
but at the same time, we just beat the number
fifteen ranked team by thirty, you know, Notre Dame. We
beat by what was it over forty, you know, So
I'm not sure who we can play right now that's
going to challenge us. Now. Look, I'm looking forward to hoping,
(04:29):
you know, we advance deep into the tournament and get
an opportunity to compete against some of these teams. But
until you beat us, I think it's really hard to
say that the women right now aren't the best team
in the country. But I'm going to tell you there's
going to be rhetoric as the season wears on and
we're not playing ranked opponents than other teams are, they're
(04:50):
going to start questioning the merits of Yukon be in
the overall one season. I promise you can already see
it happen. So it's something I was on the phone
with our conference commissioner about yesterday. It's something that we
need their help on. We need them to speak up
for us, communicate what Yukon is and they what we're
(05:18):
not and what we are is as people say, we're
a wagon and until someone proves that we're not, we
should continue being the number one team in the country.
They deserve that you're here.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I couldn't agree with the more we're talking to. Dave Bendict,
dethletic director of the University of Connecticut. You've had a
lot of busy stuff in your office lately. Sixty six
new kids on the football team. Is this your busiest
off season for the football program?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah? I mean, look, when if you just set aside
the change and environment from a recruiting standpoint, did and
you just look at what a transition and football requires
of when you when you change coaches. You know, football
is just a much larger organization than most of your
other sports. And so it's the number of staff, you know,
(06:12):
it's the head coach, it's transitioning everybody. And then when
you layer on top of that the need to recruit.
You know, I think it's over seventy I believe it's
just in the immediacy of it. It's not like, well,
you have a chance to come in and take four
(06:33):
or five months get to get to know the university,
get to know people and start recruiting. You know, it's like, hey,
you're here one day, the next day, you got to
have your staff in place and start recruiting a week later.
I mean it was. It was an unbelievable effort by
a lot of different people on our campus to help
(06:55):
support the transition and the recruiting process. Obviously, coach Candle,
I thought, came in and did an amazing job of
organizing himself, the football staff and a recruiting class that
I think obviously a lot of people are very excited about.
(07:15):
You know, I think it's easy to get locked into Hey,
this person's got this many stars, and this person came
from this place, and look I I hold off and
I'm looking forward to seeing these guys run around on
the field and start spring ball here in a few
weeks and and see what we have, because that's that's
(07:37):
when it really matters. But I can tell you, I
think he feels really good about what's taking place, and
he's been here at Yukon. I think he feels really
good about recruiting to Yukon and and the way that
people responded to him both in recruiting his staff as
well as recruiting this class. So I think he's gotten
off to an amazing start and certainly very proud.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Of that little change on the football schedule this fall
upcoming fall, the ACC went to nine regular season games.
So you lost the Duke game. Explain this to our listeners.
You moved the North Carolina game to that game date.
Will you be able to pick up another game after
losing Duke?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yes, and I believe that that was relief. Maybe I
just saw it yesterday. There was something that was holding
it up. But we have scheduled a home and home
with Southern Myth. It just worked out. There were not
many teams available for the date that we needed. But
you know, I think it's certainly unfortunate we lost the
(08:41):
Duke game. It will impact the theories. Ultimately, we will
see Duke come back to runt Your field one more time.
We will not have to go to Duke to complete
the series, which is kind of a form of compensation
because Duke has been and now to us twice and
(09:01):
we were only there once and they'll return, so ultimately
kind of a three for one if you want to
look at it that way. But yeah, it's a challenge give,
and it's something that we've got to keep our eye
on as things continue to evolve. It's very obviously important
(09:22):
to me and our overall organization that football continues to thrive.
And you know, you got a lot of conversation going
on right now, DFP. You know there could be a
nuance to change relative to well, the representative for the
G five or the G six doesn't need to be
a conference champion. Well, that ultimately opens up the door
(09:43):
for Ukon to be that team. And so you know,
one thing, when you control your scheduling like we do,
you have the ability to schedule so that if you're successful,
you could put yourself in a in a really good position.
Whereas if you're part of a conference. And I'm not
saying it's bad to be part of a conference. I'm
(10:03):
just kind of leveraging or presenting the pro of having
control of your schedule that you can put a schedule
together that, like I said, if you're successful, you could
put yourself in that top spot. And so that's certainly
something we're going to continue to consider, keep our eye
(10:25):
on and ultimately continue to explore any in all opportunities.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
And for people who mean to know a lot about
college softball and college baseball. College softball starts this weekend.
College baseball starts next week. I guess for you con
tell us about the schedules coming up. I think softball
is down around North Carolina and baseball is going to
be going out to Arizona.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah. Well literally, I just got done with a meeting
before I called you, and I looked at my phone
and it says Elon can until their events this weekend.
Due to weather, we were able to get Florida State
to add us. So I mean, it's it's that you're
in constant luck. And obviously the East Coast and and
(11:13):
I mean we we had had I had some people
that were up at the Tennessee.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Game from Atlanta and they were staying at snow in Atlanta,
and you had, you know, lots of snow in North
Carolina and Virginia. My kids are down in Virginia trying
to play baseball, and you know they've been inside. So
you know, up and down the East Coach, you've really
been impacted. So you know, although we try to get south,
you know, unfortunately Southeast right now is dealing with weather too,
(11:40):
and so.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
You know, softball starts earlier than baseball does. But yeah,
well we'll try to do the best we can to
be nimble and find ways to get our teams the
opportunities they deserve to go out and compete.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Well, good luck the rest of the week with all
the schedule and all the games and stuff. Good luck
tonight with Xavier, and we appreciate your time as always
every week, David, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yeah, it's always good to be with Youah, appreciate all
the support and look forward to.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
Seeing people tonight down at People's Bank Arena.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Go Huskies, Let's go. Thank you David,
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