The "2025 Masters" Edition

Swanny dives into growing up in the shadows of Augusta National. Plus, Mike Uve joins to discuss how South Carolina's spring practices are going.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's time for Clipson Sports Talk with Lawton Swan. Swanny. Finally,

(00:44):
Clipson Sports Talk has come back. Two drive time. Hell everybody,
Lawton Swan back in the saddle once again. It is
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(01:09):
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you support them because they support us. Eight O three

(01:51):
four five oo zero zero eighty six. That is the
text line and the phone line today on the program
and the website again sports tell dot com The Masters
getting underway tomorrow. Yes, indeedy I tell this story quite frequently.
Well by quite frequently, I mean once a year on

(02:15):
this program about how when I was growing up in
Barnwell there wasn't a lot to do. You know, we
went to achin when the Aching Mall was built, or
we went to Augusta, it was a little closer, not much.
I mean, if you're gonna live in the middle of nowhere,
barn Well's a pretty good place because you could get

(02:35):
to Augusta or Columbia and there's a lot of mall,
so shopping and things of that nature were always a
lot of fun. But man, anytime we were over in
Augusta and you drove past the Masters, there's a purity
to the tournament and the way that it's played at
the same course, and the way that the course is manicured,

(02:58):
and all that that I think adds to this level
of mystique behind the Masters. And I think from the outside.
I think from the outside, if you're not from the
CSRA or in Augusta, you might not have the same

(03:21):
level of respect for the tournament. I think there are
certainly people out there that probably live outside of this
area that do. But when you're traveling down Washington Road
in Augusta and you drive past Magnolia Lane and you

(03:45):
see all of the the oak trees and the fencing
that goes around Augusta National, I mean, the truth is it.
It brings like this joy to me to see it,

(04:07):
and it almost gave me a sense of pride for
the area that I lived in. Although I didn't live
in Augusta, right, you still just it was always cool
when you saw like a Master's hat and they had
a little hole with a flag planted in it, and
I would think, yeah, that's right. You know, if you

(04:28):
if I said, well, where do you live in the
United States of America, I go, you know, the Master's
hats basically where that flag's planted, you go, Augusta. No,
but that flag is big enough on that on that
that logo to represent my hometown, and people actually stay

(04:49):
in my hometown, and people will travel back and forth
about an hour or two Augusta for the Master's tournament,
And so I have Willy Wonka esque feeling nostalgia about
it every time that it begins to arrive. Even back

(05:10):
to my days in college, I would come home from
class and I personally, I mean, I know, Sunday is
a great day, and I've been to the Masters on
a Sunday a couple of times. But I think Thursday especially,
it's kind of like to me, it's a little bit
like the NCAA Tournament. Thursday, there's a lot more golfers

(05:33):
on the course. There's a lot more golfing going on.
You've got that Thursday Friday, and for a lot of people,
these are some of the first days where the weather
has begun to warm up a little bit. Maybe you're
out tending to your azaleas or working in the yard
or whatever, and you could throw that on the television.

(05:56):
You can have it on all day. The coverage that
the tournament now gets is incredible. And outside of I
mean this, I think for me, probably outside of the
Thursday and Friday of the NCAA Tournament, maybe the national

(06:20):
championship games and some playoff games in college football, and
maybe the opening game of a college football season, like
if you have a big marquee game like Clemson and Georgia,
did a year ago like something like that. This is
probably one of my favorite few days slash weekends of

(06:46):
the year with the Masters Tournament. And honestly, no offense
to the US Open or the Open Championship or the
PGA Tour Championship, no offense to those turnaments. They're not this.
And when you grew up in the CSRA like I did,
the Central Savannah River area and you have a tournament

(07:10):
with the mystique and the pageantry that the Masters does,
you learned at an early age how special this event is.
And so when I went for the first time, and
I tell this story every year on this day as
we lead up to the Masters my first trip, as

(07:31):
we crossed the first fairway, I bent down a la
Danny Ford, the legendary Clemson head coach. I picked up
a couple of blades of that turf right there at
Augusta National and just took a little with me. The

(07:53):
food spectacular, the egg salad sandwich incredible. But I couldn't
without taking a little of the tournament home with me.
And that's why I love the Master's Tournament. Being a
kid that grew up in the shadows of Augusta National

(08:14):
just across the Savannah River with the pomp and circumstance.
And I think too at that time, when I was
growing up in the eighties, the significance of how those
athletes were seen, you know, the guys playing golf, the
Jack Nicholas of the world, the Larry Mies. The list
of names go on and on, and the memories of

(08:37):
this tournament over the years really do last. It's crazy.
It's kind of like an actual golf round, like you know,
you think about when you play golf. If you've ever played,
you can go, well, on hold one, I was here
up there and then chipped in, you know, over on
hole two. It's kind of the same. If you've ever
been to the Masters, you start to replay moments, or
if you've watched it on TV, you might remember some

(08:58):
of the great shots and the the great memories that
that tournament creates for so many people. I love it.
One of the best sports day slash weekends in our
country in my opinion. When the Masters gets underway, and
it will tomorrow over in augusta eighth three four five
oh zero zero eighty six. That is the text line

(09:21):
in the phone line. And again you can be a
part of the program anytime, any place, anywhere on our website.
If you have a Master's tournament experience that you'd like
to share with us, we'd love to hear from you.
So eight oh three four five oh zero zero eighty six,
Speaking of the Masters, former Clypson Tiger, golfer and All

(09:46):
American Lucas Glover will compete in his eleventh Masters tournament
this week. He'll begin on Thursday at twelve twenty two,
playing off of the first t where I ingested, Yes,
a few blades of grass. Glover's playing partners over the
first two rounds will be Sergio Garcia and Daniel Berger

(10:09):
or is it Berge. I'm not sure about Daniel's last name.
The group's Friday tea time will be nine to fourteen
off of the first tea. It's a grouping with a
senior flavor, as Berger's father, Jay was an All American
tennis player for the Tigers in the early nineteen eighties,
so certainly he's probably a Clemson fan. Can we bring

(10:32):
Sergio Garcia into the fault? Glover's forty five and having
one of his best years on tour ranks fifteenth in
the latest FedEx rankings. And thirtieth in the official world rankings.
His career best world ranking is number fifteen back in
two thousand and nine, so fourteen years ago. Sergio Garcia,

(10:55):
by the way, also forty five years old. It's funny
but cause I'm older than Sergio Garcia yet because when
he was kind of having his rise, we were so
young that I feel like he should be older than me.
Does that make sense? Like it feels to me like

(11:15):
Sergio Garcia should be in his fifties. He seems like
he's been around so long. In nine events this season,
Lucas Glover has made the cut six times with ten
top ten finishes. He finished third at the AT and
T Pebble Beach in third at the Players Championship, in
addition to eighth place at the Valois Par Championship in Tampa, Florida.

(11:38):
That was his most recent tournament. Glover's of Greenville, NATA.
He played his high school golf at Wade Hampton, and
He's third in the PGA Tour and drive accuracy this
year and fourth in proximity to the whole. This is
Glover's fifty first career major championship. He's made the cut

(12:01):
twenty two of those has nine top twenty five's, two
top tens, and it's two top tens. Took place back
in oh nine when he won the US Open and
finished fifth of the PGA. He is the only former
Tiger to win a major championship. So Lucas Glover gonna

(12:22):
be out on the grounds at Augusta as currently one
of the best players in the world. Can he put
himself into contention going into Sunday? That's the question Tiger
fans who will be tuning in and making their way

(12:43):
over will have. Glover was a three time All American
at Clemson, ranked as the seventh best player in the
nation back in two thousand as a junior and sixth
best player in the country as a senior No. One.
Glover helped the Tigers to acc CHAMMI hips in ninety
eight and two thousand and NCAA Regional championship in two

(13:04):
thousand and four consecutive NCAA tournament top ten finishes, including
a second place finish in ninety eight and two thousand
and one. And I will say that is one of
the other unique things about going to the Augusta National
because of the regional flavor of patrons those of you

(13:26):
that acquire tickets to set event. Because of that, you
do see a lot of Clemson gear, a lot of
Clemson hats. As a matter of fact, I believe while
I was there for one of those years when I
had the opportunity to go, I carried around some Clemson
business cards for the radio show. I mean, I figure,

(13:49):
I figure that's my demographic. It's Clemson fans and sports
fans all in one place. They're not going anywhere, and
everybody's talking to each other. There's no telephones, they're they're
every I mean, everybody's communicating with one another, and almost

(14:12):
it's it's almost, uh, what's that game telephone that you
used to play back in the day. You'd be like, man,
did you hear somebody said Lucas Glover had a birdie
on on seven? What Glover had a birdie on seven? Oh? Yeah,
he's a four under par? And then somebody's asking him, Hey,

(14:35):
what was that roar we just heard? Then I'm going
that was Lucas Glover. He had a birdie on seven,
That's what I heard. Then they're updating the scoreboard. I mean,
it's cool, man. I just don't think other terms have
that flavor. Granted, I would love to go to the

(14:56):
Open Championship in England, and they played on a few courses.
I don't know exactly how many, four or six maybe
they rotate through. But to be at one course and
to be one of the four major championships, and it

(15:16):
has not even questioned. Nobody ever says, oh, well, you
know what, the Masters is great and all, but but
I wish it was played somewhere reals. It's not like
the College World Series. You know, College World Series. A
lot of people say, oh man, it's great being out

(15:37):
in Omaha, And I would say, would it hurting to
rotate that thing around a little bit? No offense to Omaha,
but was it hurt to rotate it a little bit?
Would it hurt to play it in Florida? Was it
hurt to play it in you know, Virginia around Washington,

(15:59):
d C. Might be some beautiful weather during that time
of the year. Oh no, We're going to keep it
in Omaha. But nobody ever suggests that the Masters shouldn't
be a part of the Big four tournaments because it's
played at one place. As a matter of fact, playing

(16:21):
at one place, like I said before, I think makes
it the most special. Quite frankly, I think also that
it kicks off the season of the four Majors. You
know that this number one kind of like the Kentucky Derby,
which is coming up. You know, the Kentucky Derby's the

(16:45):
first of the major you know, the big three horse races,
and so yeah, the pretness and the Belmonte Stakes, they
want their time to shine. But the first jewel in
the crown is the Kentucky Derby, and the first jewel

(17:10):
in the crown of the golf majors is the Masters.
And I think I'd have to double check this, but
I believe Wimbledon, right, you would agree Wimbledon is the
top tennis tournament by comparison to the French Open, the

(17:33):
Australian Open, in the US Open. Right, So let's see,
I think Wimbledon. I'm just gonna check this. I believe
it's the first one that's played. And if that's the case,

(17:54):
I don't think there's any reason not to believe that
the you know, being first is the event that you
want to win, and so whimble that it takes place
in July, and I believe that is considered the first

(18:17):
one of the four then the US opens in August,
the French opens in May, and the Australian opens in January.
But I think, well, it's the Grand Slam. Let me
see how the Grand Slam order is. I'm looking here,

(18:49):
so it looks like the Grand Slam. Okay, they call
that a non calendar year Grand Slam. All right. I
might be wrong on this. I don't know, because they're

(19:10):
given the like Yokovic won Wimbledon in fifteen, the US
Open in fifteen, Australian in sixteen, and French and sixteen,
and that's considered a non calendar year Grand Slam. So
Wimbledon's not the first. It feels like the first, so
doesn't it? Am I crazy on that? Maybe because it's

(19:32):
in the summer, feels like it's kicking it off. I
might have to do some research. I am not listen.
Some of you might be very well versed in the
world of tennis, but to me, it feels like the
first kickoff of the tennis season is Wimbledon. But apparently

(19:53):
that's not the case. I think I'm gonna do some
research during the break. I'll see what I can learn.
Stay with us, rolling along on a Wednesday, Mike Uva
will join us in hour number two. All right, I
stand corrected. I did more research during the break. Wimbledon
is not the first major tennis tournament in order each year.

(20:13):
Just as I said, I felt like it was not
saying that the Australian in the you in the French Open,
excuse me, wouldn't be, but the French opens coming up
next month May and June. I did not. I felt
I've always felt in my life like the French Open

(20:34):
happened after the Wimbledon. I'm kind of stunned at this revelation.
I knew the US Open was held like in September ish,
but I'm I'm I'm stunned here that I thought the
Australian was to finish. I thought that went Wimbledon, then

(20:57):
the French, then the US than the Australian. It does not.
As a matter of fact, the correct order, according to
the Internet is the Australian, then the French, than Wimbledon
then the US Open. You learn something new here every

(21:19):
day on the program. I had no clue, none at all.
I kind of I'm kind of thrown off a little
bit by it. But Wimbledon is the oldest and widely
regarded as the most prestigious, and so I think that

(21:40):
too kind of plays into the reason that you feel
like the Masters is in a similar vein the Masters
tournament is considered the most prestigious by most people. Now

(22:04):
the Brits might have something to say about that with
the Open Championship, which is strange because I mean, I
know that one's been around longer, but it's strange how
quickly we flipped it to being called the Open Championship.
I mean, I don't remember when that happened, but the
theory behind it was that it's never been a championship

(22:31):
that was open to only British people, and so they
wanted to make it I guess the more obvious that
it was open to all pros amateurs from all over
the world if you qualify. So that tournament began back
in eighteen sixty, some seventy years before the Masters tournament began,

(23:00):
of course, began in Augusta back in nineteen thirty four.
The US Open Golf tournament has been around longer than
the Masters. It began in eighteen ninety five, and then
the PGA Championship, the fourth major golf tournament, began in

(23:22):
nineteen sixteen, and so the Masters in the shortest amount
of time, ironically, unlike Wimbledon, somehow managed to become the
most prestigious in the mind's eye of people. And I
think it all goes back to the exclusivity of it

(23:47):
not moving venues in the exquisite way the course is
manicured and taken care of. I think the presentation that
we are given on television by CBS, and CBS is

(24:08):
the only channel that I ever remember carrying the Masters. Now,
I know there's some in this modern era, there's some
alternate channels like USA that will carry some of the
rounds right to give you more TV, But it's been

(24:33):
on CBS since nineteen fifty six. And back then, CBS
televised the Masters by covering the final four holes fifteen
through eighteen with six cameras. Then in nineteen eighty two
was when the USA network was added and they added
first and second round coverage, marking the first time that

(24:57):
golf tournament was ever carried on cable TV. In two
there was eighteen hole coverage that began, and again that's
been what twenty three years, They've covered every hole in
six they utilize fifty cameras for the broadcast. In eight

(25:23):
ESPN took over the cable coverage, but continued to use
the CBS graphics and production with the CBS logo. In
twenty ten, the Masters became the first major live supporting
event to be produced in broadcast in three D. In
twenty nineteen, IBM, CBS and Augusta National developed technology to

(25:44):
broadcast every shot on every hole, and twenty twenty five
will mark seventy consecutive years that CBS's broadcast the Masters,
making it the longest running sports event on any one network.
The Masters, prior to fifty six had never been televised,

(26:04):
so CBS has had the rights to the tournament for
seventy years and they continue to do just an incredible
job with the production. And I think the other thing
for me with it is how they do the presentation

(26:28):
of the top amateur and then of the Green jacket,
and how it doesn't change. You know, it's the same
presentation every year, and I think that gives it a
certain familiarity to people that tune in to watch it,

(26:50):
Unlike when you win the US Open or the PGA
Championship and you're in a different venue and you're outside,
you know, to do it and Butler Cabin and to
make it the event that it is. I mean, it's awesome.
It's awesome the way they pull it off. All right.

(27:12):
I saw one other thing about the Masters. It was
about like what the winner gets, like the benefits, the perks,
all of that other than the green jacket. We'll take
a look at that list as we roll along here
on an early Masters Wednesday afternoon. Don't forget Mike, you've
a Gamecockcentral dot Com joins the program around the Ben

(27:33):
in hour number two, stay with us, the show, the Shakes,
the south Land Clemson Sports tal Out and swan with
you on a Wednesday. Mike, you've coming up in our
number two. So talked a lot about the Masters today,
and rightfully so. I mean, when you've grown up where
I did, it is it is the krim dela krim,
as my dad would say, when it comes down to

(27:55):
golf and for some certainly sports. But in addition to
the green jacket, what else do you get for winning
the Master's tournament? Here's a quick look at it. Number one,

(28:20):
We'll start with the green jacket, the tradition that began
in nineteen forty nine, inspired by members of Royal Liverpool.
The color green of the jacket for all you graphic
nerds out there, pantone three forty two C or Augusta Green.

(28:41):
Every champion gets a jacket with an engraved gold nameplate
inside that they could take home for a year, but
then remains on site at Augusta National Engraving on the
Master's Trophy, not the trophy itself, its stay of Augusta
National year round. The trophy was first given to nineteen

(29:05):
sixty one. It's a replica of the Clubhouse made from
nine hundred separate pieces of silver, and each winner's name
is added to the silver band around the base. It
looks a little like the Stanley Cup. The winner also
gets a small replica of the Clubhouse trophy that apparently

(29:30):
is about forty percent in size compared to the real
Clubhouse trophy. The winner of the Masters also is presented
with a gold medal, older than their tradition of the
trophy or the green jacket. The gold medal dates back
to the original Masters in nineteen thirty four. It is

(29:52):
a small little pin, A small little pendant. I guess
you'd say that you might pin on a jacket, not
much to it three and a half inch metal features
a raised image of the clubhouse on the front. They
also get a gold locket. The winner has to wait

(30:14):
for this one. Ben Crenschall presents the Master's champion with
a lockett at the Champion's Dinner. In an interview, Crenschhall said, quote,
it's supposed to go to your wife. It's a beautiful
gold lockett that opens three ways and has a silhouette
of the clubhouse. You also get that invitation to the

(30:38):
Champion's dinner that began in nineteen fifty two after Ben
Hogan's first Master's victory. The Tuesday Champions Dinner is considered
the most elite club in golf. The champion chooses the menu,
but the guests have the option of the club menu,
and many often just order a steak. You get an

(30:58):
honorary membership to Augustine as part of winning. You also
can return whenever you like and bring guests to play.
You get a locker in the Champions locker room with
all of the former winners. For example, some guys share space.

(31:23):
Scottie Scheffler shares a locker with the nineteen seventy one winner,
Charles Coody and the late Byron Nelson, so they haven't
added to it. You just gotta you gotta be a
You got your champ, you gotta share. They've got a
Champion's only range that you can go and hit balls from.

(31:45):
There are tournament practice facilities, but the champions range is
a private area for former champions to go out and
knock them around. You also have a lifetime invitation to
the Masters Tournament. You win it once, you can come
play it anytime. Bernard Longer, for example, will play his

(32:10):
last Masters this year at age sixty seven. The Master's
champ also gets more points than they do for winning
a lot of other events. They also get seven hundred
and fifty FedEx Cup points. For the tournament championship, they
net a cool three point six million. That number is

(32:32):
obviously always increasing. Sixty years ago, Arnold Palmer made twenty
thousand dollars when he won the Golf tournament. Won the Masters,
they get a five year major exemption. You win the Masters,
you're automatically qualified for every major through twenty thirty, so

(32:55):
five years from today you get a five year PGA
Tour exemption. Regular PGA Tour wins come with a two
year exemption, but the Masters comes with a five year
PGA Tour exemption, and that exists for all three other majors,
so you can play in any tournament you want if
you win the Masters. And lastly, you get a specialty time.

(33:18):
Each year, the past Masters champion is allowed to bring
a guest to play on the Sunday before the Masters.
This year, Scottie Scheffler, the reigning defending champion, enjoyed around
the golf on Sunday this past week with his mom.

(33:39):
So that's the things you get if you win the Masters.
Pretty cool man. The funniest thing about it that I
I feel like is that in all of the you know,
the beauty got the gold name inlaid on the jacket,

(34:02):
all of that, the coat hangers at Augusta National look
like they have names that were printed on a you know,
on a sticky note. Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicholas, VJ. Singh
like all the it just looks like they printed it
on a piece of paper and stuck it on there.

(34:23):
Like you couldn't get a little gold nameplate for that too.
I mean, we're talking about a tournament when people were
protesting it years ago. They said, we don't need sponsors.
We'll go commercial free. When people are like, what but
we can't get a nice little nameplate for each co hangar?
Or maybe they could, but maybe it's just hard for

(34:44):
these old guys to read. So they got this big font.
I don't know of all of the stuff that we
learned there. That's the strangest to me is the names
on the coat hangers are printed on what looks to
be like sticky backed in their paper in like a
huge font. All right, final segment of our number one

(35:04):
coming up around the bing, keep it a lot right
here Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred and on the iHeartRadio app.
Final segment of our number one coming up. Mike Euva
joins the program. It does it feels like a feels
like a Master's day here on the program. The weather
outside also felt kind of masters esque. At Matt how Mass,

(35:30):
how would you say that masters esque? Yeah? I think
that would be right. Anyway, the Master's Tournament gets going tomorrow.
Be interested to hear Mike Euva's thoughts on it. As
a guy from New England, you know, I grew up

(35:51):
in the shadows of the Master's Tournament, So it's a
big deal to me A zero three four five zero
zero eighty six as the text line in the phone line.
And don't forget to support our sponsor right there on
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(36:12):
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(36:36):
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Hall Rewards program that can also benefit you during your

(36:58):
shopping experience. And Alumni Hall well the corner of Campus
on College Avenue in Clemson. So do you guys remember
the Jaden Reshada story. Remember he was a kid that
was being recruited several years ago, and I think Miami

(37:22):
might have offered him like nine point five million to
come play. Had committed to Miami. Then Florida came rolling
in Billy Napier and the Gators and some Florida collective
We're gonna pay him thirteen point eighty five million right
out of high school. And remember, I mean we were like,

(37:43):
what is happening? I think most of you remember this.
And then Jaden Rashada ends up at Arizona State and
you're sort of scratching your head, and then he transfers

(38:07):
to Georgia. Last April, Rashada transferred to Georgia. Then in
January he jumped back in the portal and announced that
he was going to be leaving the Georgia Bulldogs. So

(38:28):
what kind of numbers has this kid? Who Miami was
willing to give nearly ten million and Florida claimed they
were willing to give thirteen point eighty five million. What
kind of numbers has this kid had in his career
so far? You would think spectacular, You would be wrong.

(38:51):
He did not play at Georgia this past season. In
twenty twenty three, he was forty four of eighty two
for four hundre eighty five yards, four touchdowns at three
interceptions with Arizona State. That's a kid that Florida was

(39:11):
willing to give thirteen point a five million dollars to
that Miami was willing to give ten million. What are
we doing, you might say with Swani, why are you
bringing up Jade and Rashada? Well, according to reports over
the past weekend, Rashada was supposed to visit Western Kentucky.

(39:36):
He's also down to or been in contact with Yukon
and Tulane. Folks. I don't know about you. I don't
know about you, but if you were willing to pay
a kid thirteen million dollars out of high school and
the best this guy can do after few years is

(40:00):
Western Kentucky, Tulane or Yukon, you're so far out of
bounds with your ability to evaluate talent. I mean that
is unbelievable to me. And if you're a fan of

(40:22):
the Florida Gators and you think, man, yeah boy, we
really we missed in a positive way, right, thank goodness
we missed. I would pose back to you, what does
that say about the evaluations that this was the guy

(40:48):
that your staff thought had that built into him. Thirteen million. Yeah,
I don't think so. I don't think so. Eight zero
three four or five zero zero eighty six Texa line

(41:09):
phone line again, Mikeyva. Coming up on the program of
nowur number two. We'll find out how things are going
with South Carolina as they get ready for their spring game.
And speaking of getting ready for a game, you know
the Savannah Bananas are gonna be playing in Death Valley

(41:32):
pretty soon. Well, they got the stadium set up over
in Clemson now that the spring games in the books,
and it's pretty impressive. Gonna be a short porch though

(41:53):
in left field, an extremely short porch. The Bananas will
take on the party Animals April twenty six, So what
is that about seventeen days from now? But the stadium
has been reconfigured for baseball. Pretty cool actually, but it

(42:17):
is an extreme I mean there's not much space past
third base. Let's just say that, all right, Mike, you've
joined us around the band. Stay with us each time
for Clipson Sports Talk with Luwton Schwan. It is our

(43:09):
number two. That's drive time right here on the show.
This Shakes the south Land Clemson Sports talt Long Swan
hanging out with you on a Wednesday afternoon, Mike Eva
joins us and you get in the shows Shakes the
South Land and brought to you, in part by our
good friends over at METS Plumbing. Seven three two drip,
drip drip. You know the jingle seven three to two drip,

(43:30):
that's METS Plumbing mets Plumbing dot com. Oh, I'm starting
to like it. Feeling the groove when I get through that.
All right, Mike, youva game Cock Central peeking over the fence.
The game Cocks are, Mike, Welcome in, my man. How
are you.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
I'm doing good, Swanny. It's good to be down here
in South Carolina. Feel on that nice weather. I know
for a lot of you probably are like this is
a cold front when you're brought down with you, But uh,
after being up door, this feels. This feels incredible.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
No, I bet it does. And I can tell you.
You know, I was talking talk earlier about the Master's
Golf Tournament getting on your way, and so I guess
I'll start there with you because I grew up in
the shadows of the Masters, and this time of year
just feels like the Master's Tournament to me. You obviously
grew up in New England. Mike, how do you perceive
the Master's Tournament from afar?

Speaker 2 (44:17):
I'll tell you what. It was something that growing up
I always looked forward to it, but certainly when you're
in this state and you're just so close to it,
it's it's definitely more special, There's no question about it.
It's weird because, as you know, at this time of
the year, it's not I mean shoes. You could wear
it at any time of the year. You could find

(44:38):
someone you go into a bar somewhere, just like you
if your classic bar, restaurant, right, whatever the case may be.
At this time of the year. In the South, in
the state of South Carolina, you'll find someone wearing some
type of Master's gear. Up north, you wear some Master's gear.
It's almost like, man, where the heck did you get that?
So you feel a little bit cooler when you're up

(45:00):
north wearing it because it's almost like man, like did
he travel to the moon to get that? Down here?
It feels like everyone everyone has some type of Master's gear,
So maybe that's another part of it.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
You know.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
One thing, Swany, I'm really bummed at I'll try to
make this as quick as possible. When I was at
the TV station I used to work for in Columbia
years years, years years ago. The story that I was
told we got blacklisted for something in terms of someone
not picking up their credentials, so I never had a
chance to actually cover it. Why I was working in TV,
we were the only Columbia TV station not to be

(45:33):
able to cover it. As soon as I left that
station that following year, That's what my uncle was able
to get tickets or passes, and that's when we went
and I was able to experience it with my then
ninety three year old grandfather. And I'll never forget that
moment in twenty twenty two.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
Man, that's awesome, Mike, You've but speaking of the moment
you'll never forget. Man, how about update everybody on the
situation that just took place for you over at Williams
Brice Stadium. I'll go ahead and give you the first congrats,
so and then you could tell everybody what happened.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
Yeah, I somehow tricked a girl into marrying me. I
guess that's the best way to start off. Swanee. No,
we went to Williams Brice Stadium on Tuesday, and Shane
Beemer was part of it, and he helped us with
convincing my girlfriend that I had to swing by the

(46:23):
stadium for a recruit and to just talk to her
recruit from New England. Little did she know that that
was a setup to be able to get her to
the stadium and to be able to propose to her
at the fifty yard line. So she thinks we have
dinner reservations at Halls for five point thirty. We really
have it for seven to fifteen. She has no idea
that her entire family's in town. My family flew on in.

(46:46):
So then we went to Halls afterwards. And you know,
Billy and Tommy Hall phenomenal. People can't bank them enough,
but I can't thank you know, Justin King and Shane
Beemer put the video together. And I don't know if
this whole coaching thing doesn't work out, for Beemer might
be able to get into acting years from now because
he put on an Academy Award performance.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
All right, So the video that you posted, I saw it.
I watched it. Beemer calls you, you and your girlfriend
now fiance arrive. Who are the other people with you?
There were two other people?

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Yeah, so that was Brook's sister or is is Brooks
sister and Brook's brother in law. So the cool thing
is this goes back to August. Like Shane and I
were talking about this in August and I said, hey,
you know, because usually I wish, you know, Shane and
some of the other coaches, Hey, good luck this year.
And I said to him when he responded back and said,
after the season, I have this idea about proposing to Brook,

(47:38):
I might ask you for a favor. So after the
cheese at Bowl a couple weeks after, Shane and I
talked and then we got the ball rolling. So I mean,
this was in the works for a good four to
five months and then justin King got worried of it
and he wanted to be part of it, and we
just kept you know, it kept him bigger and bigger
in the sense of filming it like that wasn't necessarily
a part of it at first, but he wanted to

(47:58):
film it. And we're great to have that.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
Oh man, no no doubt about. It was awesome. And
so you have this all planned out, and you know
what brought you guys down to you know, the Midlands
for this weekend.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Just the fact that she hadn't been back home in
a while, you know, since we've been up up north
for the last couple of months. She hadn't been back
home since November. Her sister had a baby not too
long ago, so she wanted to be able to see
the baby. She's the first time auntie, so gave her
a reason to come back. And for me, I'm looking
at it Swanny as you know, because you know, it's

(48:39):
funny now talking to her about like, you know, remember
this when I told you that, yeah, that was a lie.
She's like, that was four months ago. I'm like, I know,
like all these little things. But the reason why I
waited till April was because, as all of these sports
listeners know, there's a possibility that, you know, you're covering
a team that goes deep into March madness. And I

(48:59):
knew that at least for the first weekend. I'm not
trying to bring back up bad memories, but because I
was covering it, Providence hosted a regional for basketball, so
I had to cover it that weekend. So I was
just like, all right, what if Providence hockey goes in
a deep runt? So like, let's push this back and
it worked out for from a schedule standpoint, worked out

(49:20):
for me. I would have loved to have been able
to stay for the spring game, but you know, Easter weekend,
what are you gonna do?

Speaker 1 (49:25):
Yeah, no doubt. Look, follow MIKEE on Twitter at mike
Underscore UVA newly engaged Mike EVA and the final thing
on the engagement, so Beemer obviously was there because he
pretends he's taking a phone call. Does he just watch
the whole thing unfold? What was his vantage point? Do
you have any idea?

Speaker 2 (49:42):
So I believe because my back was.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Churned right right. Your back was to him, So I
don't know if you talk to him after the fact.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Yeah, so my my back is facing the student section,
the big scoreboard, facing the fairgrounds, and he was in
the back. So I knew we came through the end
because originally what happened is we came onto the field
me and they miked me up. And that's why because
my brother and my dad they've just been ripping on me.

(50:10):
They've been killing because if you watch the video, I
go from my left pocket to pull out the ring. Well,
the ring was in the right pocket because when I
went in, I changed where the ring was because I
had put the microphone on, so I looked like an idiot.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
You know.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
My family's busting my shops about that. They're like, you
don't even know where the ring was. So we went
to the car. We got them. Shane's like, oh, you
guys are fans, like, you know, to come on into
the stadium. Brook's getting a little bit more anxious because
she's like, we're gonna be late for dinner. So you know,
we're trying to get her going. I told her sister,
really get her worked up, like you know, her anxiety,

(50:46):
all that kind of stuff. But come on out. Shane
takes a fake phone call. He's off to the side,
and then he comes up afterwards, and you know, because
like Shane said, he's like, I didn't want to like
take away from your moment. I like, Shane, I'm like, no,
like this is this is cool. And the best part
is the brother in a low Jackie's a diehard game
coop band. He told me after the fact. He's like, man,
He's like, I didn't really have to act. He's like,

(51:07):
I've never been on the field. I've never met the
head football coach of South Carolina. He's like yesterday might
have been a big day for you guys, like that
was the best day of my life.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
That's outstanding. Now now I know it's been a while
since I asked my wife to marry me. It's been
a while. What if she has said no, Mike, and
all this is on tape and Shane Beamer's there and
it's the middle, I mean, that crosses your mind.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
So the funny thing about that is I told Justin King,
I said, hey, if she says no, you have the
right to do whatever you want with this footage because
it would probably get even more traction if you posted
it and be like, you know, local reporter gets turned down.
I told her, I said, I probably wouldn't have been sad.
I probably would have been just more like kicked off

(51:53):
to the fact that, like you know, I lied about
for example, flights. Anyone that knows me, they know that
I'm very cheap when it comes to flying. I mean,
if we can get from point A to point B
on a paper airplane, I'll do it. There was a
great deal to fly out on a Wednesday. It would
have been like two hundred dollars combined. But I knew

(52:13):
I had to get down here for Tuesday. So it
was like eight hundred dollars for a two person. If
I had to tell her, oh, we have all these
points in our family, what points extemely doesn't frigging fly.
So it was just stuff like that. That's what I
would have been more irritated about, Like I did all
these little things and now you say, oh, okay, but yep,

(52:34):
that's that's But fortunately she said yes. I made jokes
to people about oh, well it was the fifth Like
even Shane yesterday, he was like, oh, I'm excited for
tonight and I said, well, I said, there's a fifty
percent chance. He says no, but you know she does.
They said, we'll have an open seat at the dinner
table tonight if you want to come by. And you
got to check all out of that.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
That's fantastic, Mike, you've game Cockcentral dot com. All right,
let's talk about the game Cup football team. You had
a chance while you were here to be able to
check out one of their scrimmages. I know Shane Biemer
had some comments after the scrimmage about some reports that
people had made about you know, who had played at
a certain time in a practice or whatever. You could

(53:13):
talk about that if you want. But Mike, what's the
latest news out of Columbia is they gear up for
their spring game.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
Yeah? So South Carolina held their first scrimmage, first intersquad
scrimmage this past Saturday.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
That was I.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Believe practice number eight. They're only doing thirteen practices and
then the spring game, so they're not going to use
all fifteen this year. But the big thing that I've been,
you know, gathering from South Carolina the defense. They're quick,
they're quick, they're fast again losing obviously a lot of talent,
especially in that defensive tackle rum, even at edge with

(53:45):
Kyle Clenard, but they have developed some really talented edges.
They start that starts with Dylan Stewart. Across from Dylan,
a player who I've been extremely high on is Brian
Thomas Junior. He's the son of Brian Thomas, who played
in the NFL for about a decade with the New
York Jets. He's someone that's very talented. They've brought in
some talent in the defensive tackle room and that's a

(54:07):
position that they're looking to replace, and some guys have
been able to show some signs there and offensively, offensive
line still coming along, which you would expect defense is
going to be ahead of the offense at this point
of spring. But the talent that they have in that
wide receiver room, especially the young talent, guys like Malik Graham,
guys like Brian Rowe Junior, those are the guys who

(54:29):
are really shining right now. And I think that's the
big thing when you look in that room. Everyone will
talk about Nicholas Harbor, but they need someone to step
up and do it consistently. And that's not to say
that Harbor can't step up and have a big year,
but until he does it, you need to look at
other people in that room and say, all right, who's
going to be the guy? Because that's what really, in
my opinion, held South Carolina's offense back last year. They

(54:52):
didn't have a true wide receiver and there's a lot
of young guys in that room, and look, sellers can
be as talented as whatever you want to compare them to,
whoever the case may be. That's fine, But the end
of the day, as Giselle once said when she was
still with Tom Brady when he was playing with the Patriots,
he can't throw and catch the ball too, someone's gonna
have to go out there and make those catches.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
Mike, you've again gamecockcentral dot com. That's the website part
of the on three network, and again Mike's on Twitter
at Mike Underscore UVA. It might from that standpoint when
you you know, think about like continuity not just on
a roster, but on a coaching staff. I mean, what's

(55:34):
your sense of where South Carolina is in that regard
right now? Because that that not only affects recruiting, but
also you know, maybe some of the plays that are
called on game day, how position groups are coached, I mean,
how South Carolina as far as coaching staff continuity this.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
Year, I think pretty good. I think pretty good. And
the reason I say pretty good is when you look
at the changes that took place in the offseason. Certainly,
dal Logging's going to app State to become a head coach.
Mike Shula, who was in offensive analysts last year, he
knows the straints of a guy like Lenora Sellers, and
from talking to players inside of that building, what they
tell me is from an offensive standpoint, there's a lot

(56:14):
of similarities with what they did last year, but they're
playing more to the strainths of what Sellers did well.
And then obviously things that are going to change the
most will be terminology, just little things here and there
to do what you know Shula has done throughout his career.
I've done stories on Shula and just kind of what
he's going to bring to the table from people that
I've spoke with have played, whether it be from a

(56:35):
college standpoint, whether it be from an NFL standpoint where
my college teammates played for five years between the Carolina
Panthers and the New York Giants. Scott Simon said he
was a tight end and one thing that I think
we could expect to see from South Carolina more this year,
especially if there's question marks in that wide receiver room.
Based on what Simonson told me is that Shula is
a guy that loves to run two tight end sets.

(56:56):
And with what we're hearing so far, with how things
have gone in pract this Brady Hunt, who transferred in
from Ball State over a year ago, you know he's
a guy that is doing some good things. Michael Smith,
he's going to be a rising sophomore. He's hurt, he's
out this spring, but they expect him to be the
number one tight end. You could expect a good opportunity

(57:17):
to have both those guys on the field if Shula
does indeed want to go with those two tight end sets.
So I think defensive line wise, they've done whatever they
excuse me, defensive coaching staff wise, they've done what they
can to make sure that they're continuing to pay those guys.
Clayton White the defensive coordinator, he got to pay increase,
Stirling Lucas, the edge coach, who's done a phenomenal job
with recruiting. They throw money at him because they don't

(57:38):
want him to go anywhere either. So I think it's
it's what they're trying to replicate, in my opinion, after
seeing what Clempson did for so many years, you do
whatever you can to keep your coaches happy so that
they don't go anywhere else. And that's one of the
main reasons why, in my opinion, outside of the obvious
reason why Clempson was very, very good for so many
years and still are. But during those that day of

(58:00):
just you know, championship runs, was because they kept their
coaching staff intact and there wasn't a lot of turnover.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
Well, and I think too, like you know, if you
look at a guy like Lucas, who's a native of Orangeburg,
played at in C State, the heart strings of where
you are and you kind of know this by what
you're doing right now where you know, kind of being
back in your own neck of the woods, so to speak.
I mean it would be I think it would be
difficult unless it was in C State, to maybe lure
him away. I mean, I think you're making good money,

(58:30):
Why would you go anywhere?

Speaker 2 (58:32):
Oh exactly well, I think the for a guy like
Sterlo and Lucas, if he were to leave, I think
would be towards the NFL. And the reason I say
that is going back to last offseason a year ago.
Not this, you know, not a couple months ago, but
last year there were multiple teams from the NFL that
were reaching out trying to get Lucas. One of those
teams that I can confirm who it wasn't I put

(58:54):
in a report last year it was the Baltimore Ravens,
a team that he had previously worked with before he
came over to South Carolina. And now we had a
smaller role on that coaching staff, but this was going
to be for a bigger role. What did Beamer do.
He threw more money at him because he wanted to
make sure that he won't leave. And when you look
at the players that not just from a recruiting standpoint

(59:14):
at edge, but just the development Kyle Canard comes in.
What does Kyle Canard do? Kyle Canard turns into one
of the best defensive players in the country. Was then
Gersky Award last year for crying out loud when you
look at what they've done. Obviously, a guy like Dylan Sort,
we know he's very talented, but the development side is
so key. I mean, how many times do we see
talented players come out of high school but they don't
take that next step. When you have a guy that

(59:36):
can develop, and that's the big thing development, you want
to do whatever you can to make sure you keep
those guys. Recruiting's big, yes, but it's also making sure
that you have coaches that can develop that talent, because
I think that was one of the issues during the
mush Champ era. Mushamp it was a phenomenal recruiter, but
some of those guys they weren't able to reach their
full potential from a college standpoint, and yet they've gone
on to the NFL, and they've done some good things.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
Mike, you've again on Twitter at Mike Underscore. All right,
My final thing. About two minutes left, the South Carolina
women's team were defeated in the National Championship. Visibly frustrated
on the sidelines. You could just see it was Don Staley.
I mean, she she's as good a coach as there
is in the game. It's pretty incredible to me. As

(01:00:17):
the much talent as I know South Carolina has. That
two times when they played Yukon this year, I mean,
they were blown off the floor. That has to be disappointing,
but man, you just can't deny how good her program is.
What was your takeaway from that big loss of the
National Championship.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
I think going into that game against Yukon, and I
said it to you know, I think I was one
of the few people at the website that actually called
it for what it was, I'm like, look, this is
gonna be an uphill battle, and I picked it. I
picked South Carolina to lose, and the reason why was
because of how talented Yukon was. Now, I'd be lying
to you if I said that I expected the game
to be as much of a bloat as it was.
But I think what Yukon does so well is and

(01:00:58):
it goes back to I mean, which is crazy to
think of it that you have a gap in terms
of when Gino won his first championship over thirty years.
I mean, that's incredible. I don't care what sport it
is to be able to win a championship and then okay,
thirty years ago I won. I mean, that's that's impressive.
Never mind the fact that he's won twelve championships. But
I think when you have a team that plays just

(01:01:19):
so fundamentally sound, it's so difficult to defeat. And I
think I remember covering that twenty two championship when South
Carolina defeated them in Minnesota and they had a Leah Boston.
The big thing was they went down to the paint.
They had someone and I say this respectfully, we're talking
from sports standpoint, they had a big girl. They had
a big girl that could go down there and impose

(01:01:39):
her will. That's what they were able to do last
year with Cardoso. They didn't have that same type of
caliber player this year. Asia Wilson different type of big,
but she was still someone that could go into the paint.
They didn't have that type of player this year. And
I think for you come when you when you fall
behind and you don't have that type of player, you're
gonna have to start chucking up threes. You have to
seeing what Yukon has done over the decades, right, I

(01:02:00):
mean one decade too day, that's what South Carolina fell
into that trap. So I think what they need to
be able to do more than anything. Yes, you can
have point guard play, that's great, but I really feel
like when you look at the teams South Carolina has
had in the past and they've had success, it's because
they've had a dominant big down the paint.

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
Well, Mike Man, congratulations on the engagement and looking forward
to chatting with you next week, my man.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
All right, Swanny, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
Mike you over there, keep it a lot right here,
Fox Sports Adio fourteen hundred, Clemson Sports Salt Lot and
swan with you on a Wednesday. All right. We talked
a lot about the Masters now at number one, and
talking to Mikehuva about football got me thinking we got
to get to the some Dabo Sweetey comments and some

(01:02:41):
of that from the spring game. We'll put that on
tomorrow's show. Tim Bray also set to join us tomorrow
as well, but we'll get all that in. So I
just got a lot I can get to today and
then we'll take care of everything else tomorrow. Sound good, great,
glad you agree. Eight O three four Bio the rozero

(01:03:05):
eighty six again. Clemson Baseball tonight Doug Kingsmore Stadium. It
will face off with Gardner Webb. That matchup schedule for
seven o'clock this evening, and of course the Tigers are
coming in off of a West Coast swing. They'll face
Stamford this weekend at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. After playing against

(01:03:26):
Cal this past weekend and looking at the Atlantic Coast
Conference standings right now, again, Clemson one of the top
five teams of the country pretty much everywhere you look.
And that was one of the questions that we asked
William Qualkinbush earlier this week when he was on the show,
because he was out there, he got to see the
team play, and you know, just to kind of get

(01:03:49):
Qualk's vibe for this Clemson Tiger baseball team at this point,
because you know, I mean, they're not without flaws, they're
certainly not without flaws. Right now, however, in the ACC
they are sitting on top at nine and three in
the league, they have the best winning percentage in the conference.

(01:04:11):
They have the best winning percentage in the league by
fairly substantial margin right now, excuse me, in the conference
and overall in the league, the Tigers nine and three
in the league. That's a seventy five percent winning percentage. Overall,
they are thirty and five, which is good for about
eighty five point seven percent. You compare that, the second

(01:04:35):
best team in the conference is Florida State at eleven
excuse me, it's Georgia Tech at eleven to four. That's
a seventy three point three percent winning percentage. And overall,
the Yellow Jackets are at a seventy eight point eight
percent winning percentage at twenty six and seven, and Clemson

(01:04:55):
is a team that went to Atlanta and won the
series against the Yello Jackets. Florida State and Louisville are
in second place in the league with identical records in
conference play of eight and four and overall at twenty
five and seven. Wake Forest and Virginia Tech are both
nine and six in the ACC. The Deemondigas are twenty

(01:05:16):
four and ten. The Hokies are twenty two and ten overall.
NC State is seven and five in the ACC and
twenty two and eleven overall. North Carolina and Duke are
both eight and seven in conference play, twenty five and
eight for the Tar Heels in twenty two and twelve
overall for the Blue Devils. Everybody else in the league, Virginia,

(01:05:38):
col Stanford, Pitt Miami, Boston College, and Notre Dame are
all under five hundred, Virginia being the closest to being
at five hundred at seven and eight in league play.
So the Tigers will face Stamford. The Cardinals will enter
the game at five and ten in conference play, which

(01:06:00):
again doesn't guarantee you anything, but I think you like
Clemson's chances of winning the series against Stanford and maybe
breaking down the brooms this weekend at home. Being back
at home against Stanford maybe a benefit. You know, we've
talked about the lag that Clemson might have from going
out out west and coming back and all of that,

(01:06:21):
and maybe you'll see something today that makes you feel
better about it. But maybe the best thing about it
is that you're not coming back from across country trip
to face one of the better teams in the league. Either,
I mean, that's got to be a little bit of
a benefit or the Tigers at this point eight zero

(01:06:42):
three four five zero zero eighty six text line, phone line,
and again, you could be a part of the program anytime,
any place, anywhere on our website. That's Clemson sports talk
dot com. Speaking of teams as well. That I had
a lot of concern about earlier this season was that

(01:07:04):
Clemson softball team, and I can't deny it. They've continued
to improve and play pretty well on top of the
conference in softball. Virginia Tech and Florida State are both
than eleven and one, and Clemson is third. They are
eleven and four, twenty and three at home this season,

(01:07:29):
six and three on the road, and four and five
at neutral site games. Now, they did go out to
Stanford this past weekend, and Stanford's one of the better
teams in the country as well, and they ended up
winning two out of three, seven to five on Friday,

(01:07:51):
lost eleven to one on Saturday, and then won seven
to six on Sunday. So we're outscored in the series
twenty two to sixteen, but win the series two games
to one. They'll play this afternoon at six o'clock against

(01:08:11):
Winthrop before a three game series on the road at
NC State this weekend in Raleigh. And if you look
at the softball standings, the wolf Pack right now are
four and eleven in the league, having lost seven consecutive games,
meaning opportunity opportunity knocking in terms of the schedule for

(01:08:36):
head coach John Ritman and the softball team. I may
have I may have buried the softball team a little
earlier than I should have, given the way they've looked
so far this season in conference play especially, But thirty
wins right now, thirty and eleven, eleven to four in

(01:08:57):
the conference, sitting in third place, and you know, depending
on how things play out, they've got what this series
this weekend, two more conference series after this, they face
Boston College and then they're at Georgia Tech. BC's what

(01:09:20):
four and eight in the league. You know, they've got
two very winnable series here. If they can push their
number out about sixteen wins by this time, you know,
in a couple of weeks after that Boston College series,
I think you feel pretty good about things I really

(01:09:41):
do in terms of finishing maybe in the top three,
maybe top two in the conference. Again. That's a quick
look at Clemson baseball and softball again, both back in action.
Softball coming up at six, baseball coming up at seven o'clock.
Quick Break will come back with more here on a
Wednesday afternoon. Welcome back to Clemson Sports Talk on a

(01:10:04):
Wednesday afternoon. Lowton Swan hanging out with you the website
clymsonsports tall dot com. Don't forget you can head over
to our good friends in downtown Clemson on the corner
of campus on College Avenue, Alumni Hall. Next time you're there.
Chop in store Clemson officially licensed merchandise, apparel, hats, t shirts, gifts,

(01:10:28):
the new stickers for your vehicle, all of that stuff
in Alumni Hall, a stones throwaway from historic Rigsfield. Don't
forget Clemson students faculating all military get ten percent off
of shopping in store. Check them out next time you're
in Tigertown or online at Alumni Hall dot com. So

(01:10:49):
we talked about the NBA yesterday. Obviously, the crazy news
out of the NBA was the Denver Nuggets firing Malone,
their head coach just a few days shy of the
end of the regular season, which really is crazy, Like

(01:11:16):
I started thinking about this. So if you like, last
night the Nuggets as we as we talked about them,
the Nuggets were in fourth place, and it's a pretty
tight race out West, they make a change and they

(01:11:40):
get passed in the rankings because the Clippers beat the Spurs,
and so since yesterday the Nuggets have fallen back to
the fourth spot. They played tonight at ten o'clock on
ESPN against the Kings, and again they have one of

(01:12:03):
the top players in the league. He averages a triple
double nikolea Jokic thirty points, twelve point eight rebounds, ten
point to assist. But if you just think about like
the season, Okay, so they're forty seven to thirty two,

(01:12:25):
they have three games remaining, win loser draw. In those
three games, you could determine whether you are the three
seed or maybe even a team playing in Because right

(01:12:45):
now out West, the Grizzlies have forty seven wins, the
Timberwolves have forty six, the Warriors have forty seven, the
Nuggets have forty seven, the Clippers have forty seven, the
Lakers have forty eight. Like, there's a bunch of movement
that could happen in the playoff picture out West. But
let's just say you hold firm where you are. Let's
just say you hold the four of the five seed whatever.

(01:13:09):
That's three games. Then you would begin your first round
playoff game against, say the Clippers, since that's the way
it lines up right now. If you get swept, that's
seven games. If you win a couple of games, that's nine,
or if you sweep that set. Like, it's not like

(01:13:31):
if you wanted to fire him, it's not like he
was going to coach a whole lot more. And the
thought is that maybe there's more to this, that maybe
there's some kind of off the court issue that's going
to arise that we're gonna hear about later with Malone
there in Denver. But what a strange timing on that

(01:13:54):
strange strange timing. Sticking with the NBA for a minute, though,
I saw a graphic somebody put out and say, cut
one of these legends to make an all time lineup
on the board. Shaquille O'Neal, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James,

(01:14:26):
Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant. I mean, are you kidding me?
I don't need I didn't need to get through the
graphic before I knew who I'm cutting. Kevin Durant is
not on that list, Bro, he is not on that list.

(01:14:50):
He like, he might be in the orbit of those guys,
but he's not on that planet. Am I wrong? Shaq,
Kobe Lebron, Jordan, and Steph Curry are on the planet.

(01:15:12):
I can think of probably some other names that you
might be willing to put on the planet, Magic Johnson,
Larry Bird. I mean, there are other dudes that aren't
on this graphic that are on the planet. Bill Russell,
Wilt Chamberlain, I give you durance in the orbit. I

(01:15:40):
don't disagree. He's in the vicinity of this group, but
he listen, there are three thousand, six hundred replies to
this post. Cut one of these legends to make an
all time lineup. If there's anybody that's cutting anybody other

(01:16:02):
than Kevin Durant off of that list, Shack Jordan, Kobe Lebron,
Steph Curry. If you're not cutting Kevin Durant, I'm not
sure that you shouldn't get yourself a little optometrist appointment
set up. Some people are obviously okay, So based off

(01:16:28):
of what I can tell, most people here are joking.
They're saying, cut Jordan there. It is Shane from the
lou He's all over it, he says Kevin Durant. How
is this debatable? Now? Other people are trying to throw
dirt at Lebron. There will be no dirt thrown at Lebron.

(01:16:52):
I know his championship legacy, by comparison to Jordan's doesn't
stack up at this point. Lord have mercy. His consistency
at the NBA with success is unparallel to anyone in
terms of longevity, in terms of you know, the number

(01:17:14):
of consecutive championship games, the championship series they played in.
I mean, this guy, whatever team he was on, went
to the championship for a while. That's how good Lebron was.
And speaking of Lebron, I think one of the greatest
marketing moves I've ever seen. That news broke today about Lebron. James.
I'll tell you about it when we get back.

Speaker 3 (01:17:37):
What have you done for me lately? It's a fair question.
Just don't lose sight of the bigger picture. Don't forget history.
Lucky for us at Clemson. The answer to the questions
what have you done for me lately? What have you done?

Speaker 1 (01:17:56):
Always are the same.

Speaker 3 (01:18:03):
We win.

Speaker 1 (01:18:50):
Final segment on a Wednesday Masters Golf Action to War,
Timbrell joined the program. All of that. So I mentioned
Lebron James earlier, what about love Barbie? He said, what
love Barbie? Swanny? What are you talking about? So Barbie

(01:19:10):
dolls have been a thing for ever. It seems like
maybe I don't know how long. I've certainly seen a
history on it. On The Toys That Built America, they
had an episode on Barbie. I don't remember what year
they came out, but you know it was Barbie and
then Ken. That was always kind of thing, Barbie and Ken. Well, apparently,

(01:19:33):
I think this is one of the smartest crossovers I've
ever heard of in Barbie marketing, and they've had plenty,
I mean over the years. You know, you get Glowing
the Dark Barbie. I'm I'm making this up, guys, I
have no clue. You get, like I'm trying to think,
like when I was a kid and the commercials would
come on, you get like beach Going Barbie or whatever,

(01:19:56):
rock Star Barbie. Well, a Barbie Combassador. There is now
a Ken doll modeled after Lebron James, and it's got
the outfit, the jacket, the suit, the pants, the hat,
the look everything. And I think this is genius for
a couple of reasons. One, girls and parents of girls

(01:20:25):
will buy this. This is a great little we'll use
the term action figure not doll here. It's an action figure, right.
You remember that G I. Joe had these big dolls
for a long time and that again toys that built America.
And then they changed the format to the ones with
the arms that moved a little bit and became action figures,
and they did a little bit more movement than the

(01:20:46):
Star Wars figures we had growing up, if you remember,
but that they were about the same size. I think
this Lebron James daw Slash action figure will get sold
by the masses to people who you know, girls who
have Barbie dolls that want to introduce a new character.

(01:21:07):
Then there's the flip side. This thing is cool enough
that if you are a basketball fan of Lebron James,
you would buy it or collector of you know it.
Kind of now it's gonna be a lot bigger than
it's gonna be a lot bigger than the Uh what
are those call those? What are those baseball cards that

(01:21:31):
came with a figure? Ah at Darryl Strawberry? What was
that called? Top? No Ah, I gotta throw at my
Google machine. I can't remember. Let's see baseball cards that
came with a figure an action figure? What was that

(01:21:52):
called back in the day? Why? What? What was that called?
Starting lineup? WHOA, I didn't think I was gonna fight it, man. Oh,

(01:22:15):
thank goodness, top starting lineup? Man, those were cool, they
really were golly. I wish I still had that in
the box I had Jordan, I had Magic Darryl Strawberry. Anyway,

(01:22:40):
I think people will collect this. I think if you
had Lebron James, I think, like, I'm like, listen, legitimately,
if I could get a Labarbie, is that we're gonna
call him now for the males, We're gonna just add
Lebron's name on the Labarbie. If I could get La
Christian Wilkins Barbie version, or you know my man Dexter Lawrence.

Speaker 3 (01:23:10):
Sexy Dexy Clemson, dude.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
I would buy those for my little Tiger country area
that I've got set up that use for the backdrop
for the show. Sometimes I put big tri of the
Giant Killer. Matter of fact, you can just go get
a Ken doll right now, Maybe get long haired Ken
and throw on a little Jacksonville Jaguars outfit. You got

(01:23:37):
big Trav. But I'm telling you, the face looks good, y'all.
This could be a thing. This could be a legitimate thing.
Action figure well, Barbie dolls, Barbie dolls of sports figures
that play the role of Ken. I mean seriously, like

(01:24:04):
I would buy this if I were like a super
Lebron James fan. I'm a Laker fan more than a
Lebron James guy. But if you throw out Magic Johnson,
I probably would get that, especially in this old school
Laker uniform or something. Man. Yeah, if they were wearing
their uniforms and stuff, and you could get them and

(01:24:25):
line them up in the back and drop of your
of your sports set, dude, these things will be everywhere.
This is a marketing. This is genius. It'll sell to kids,
It'll sell to sports enthusiasts. Go check it out, Go
look out realistic. It looks just search for Labarbie all
one word. All right, we gotta get out of here.

(01:24:47):
We'll be back tomorrow. Until then, as always, I'll take
care now and go Tigers.