3 Guys Before The Game - WVU Basketball vs Ohio State Preview (Episode 682)

The Mountaineer basketball team gets one final swing at a marquee non-conference win Saturday when West Virginia meets Ohio State in Cleveland. It’s a classic strength-on-strength matchup: the Buckeyes enter as one of the nation’s most potent offenses, while WVU owns the country’s No. 2 scoring defense.

Something will have to give.

In this episode, the “Guys” dig into the analytics and outline the subtle shifts that may be tilting momentum in West Virginia’s direction.Listener questions and comments round out the show.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome, Welcome, everybody. It is time for three guys before
the game, and the crew is formally assembled. The Dean
is here. You'll have obvious observations coming up. Senator is
in as normal, quiet, little bit subdued, focused in before

(00:28):
we start recording. Doesn't talk a whole lot. However, he
did bring a smile to his face because Hopy brought
in tutors biscuits, which have been consumed. Here we go.
It's our wake Forest. No, it's not, it's our Ohio State.
I just went off there and Little Rock really and
Little Rock and Little Rock Review Ohio State Preview. You

(00:53):
knew what we were going to talk about. Three guys
brought to us by Go Market, a Gomart rewards card.
Go to gomart dot com for deep tells. Is Marty
in the building? When you walk in the spin thing
Marty spin There's He's there.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Sometimes not seeing him when I've been in there.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Three guys brought to us by lou Wendell Marine Sales
in Saint Albans. They sell Family Fund. They also sell
the new Honda McClaren racing motor. Visit lou Wendellmarne Sales
dot Com by the aforementioned Tutors Biscuit World starts your
day the homemade way with a Tutor's biscuit. We did.
By Comac's Business Systems, keeping West Virginia's business data safe,
secure and efficient for twenty five years. By Jan Dill's

(01:32):
Attorneys at Law they won't take no for an answer,
And by Conlelly CPA Group providing value beyond numbers. All right,
let's jump on in. Since the last time we were together,
the Mountaineers scored another basketball victory. It was over Little

(01:53):
Rock formerly known as Arkansas. Little Rock changed the new
just to Little Rock, and they're the Trojans, and they've
got a lot of injuries that they're dealing with right now.
A bit of a depleted roster, only dressed nine young
men for the contest, and West Virginia had its way.

(02:16):
Honor Huff did his thing. He had eight threes. They
kept him out there for just a smidge basically one possession, had.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
One more possession to try and get him.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
The ninth, and they just couldn't get him a good look.
Nine would have tied the all time school record. I
did some research. Okay, I did some research on this
and probably should not reveal it because I'm going to
use it for one of the trivia questions on Ross's
show tonight, and you know how those people are. You
need to save it all. I'm going to say this.

(02:48):
I'm going to say, well to just say I can
say this without ruining the question on the show's not live,
So I mean, but people listen because by the time
we get to the show tonight at Kegler's, they're all
up in press coverage going you said this on the
show that you said this, I was like, okay, right,
let me just run a little hitch here. Let's step
back a little bit. Someone needs to set a screen

(03:11):
for you. Yeah. So, Honor Huff has already done something
that's never been done in the history of West Virginia basketball. Yes,
made eight twice twice. No one else ever made eight twice.
I mean, Roff had the nine, but Roff never had
an eight. Well, he had an eight, he had once
leading to the nine. Yeah, he had eight, but he

(03:31):
didn't have nine. So this is my obvious observation.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
It's relevant now, no, will honor Huff at some point
catch Ruoff. We will honor Huff this season some point
at nine.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Oh boy, He's had two runs at it in eleven games.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
That's pretty darn good. Yeah, so it's just the I guess.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Ther challenge becomes, now, how does anybody possibly leave him
open enough to get off welle that many shots?

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Not in the league?

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Is that that league's gonna look at that and go
what somebody else better.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Figure that out.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
It'll be a wrestling like yeah, yeah, they'll they'll face
guard and they'll put three on it.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
I don't know how he'll ever get the shot. He's
just been lighting it up continuously. How you allow him
to get free moving forward? I don't know why you
would do that.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
As an opposing team, It'll be like they'll put like
a defensive back on him or a safety.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
It just well, that's what if you go back to
the Charleston, South Carolina. I mean, that's what was starting
to happen. Little Rock just didn't have the capability to
do that. But the physicality of him trying to get
through the lane and off picks, that's something that those
officials are going to have to keep an eye on
because he's getting he's getting some shots taken at him.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
If you were to do it from an odds standpoint,
the best odds he'll have to do it is one
more chance against Mississippi Valley State a week from Monday.
That'll be his best chance because other than that, people
are going to stand on top of his shoes for
the rest of the season. Right.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
But as we've seen, dude doesn't need a lot of
shots to get to that number or sixteen. So he's
sixteen of twenty from three in those two games where
he's come within one.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Of breaking the record.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Think about that sixteen of twenty. You can't shoot lamps
at that clip. Agree, sixteen of twenty in those two runs.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
By the way, he does not need to be just
on the three point line. Oh, he had a hell
of a heat check against Little Rock. He is he
can be basically the half court's available to him. Now,
that's not even a joke.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
He was he steps across half I mean he said
that one that was five feet inside a half court already.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
He tried one from five feet past half court the
other night, why you know, And I had no problem
with it. What the heck, just let her fly and
hit the rim. I have no problem. He shoots it
forever he wants. He's fun. Yeah, he's a fun, dude.
And then you have tracing Eagle Staff. He corked down
five and we just kind of shrugged our shoulders with
a five of five. I mean again, the entire perspective
of three point makes has changed. I mean, when in

(05:51):
the past, if someone hit four, you go oh at four,
Now we go like, yeah, Eagle Staff had five, Well
had eight again because the game has changed too, right.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
It used to be like, oh my gosh, a guy
hit a three, and now it's just everybody's lightning the
number four.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
Yeah, but those guys like Tray just has happened to
and these things are correlated. This isn't this isn't coincidence.
But Trey's two best shooting performances one came in the
closed scrimmage against Maryland when he hits six. Well, while
he have six, well, Honor had ten. So it left
a second shooter you couldn't match up with both of them.
What happened the other night, Honor gets eight. What happened

(06:30):
to Trey He got a ton of open looks too.
Those two things are interrelated. And then, and that's why
we keep talking about moving forward. When those guys find
their group. Okay, you want to take Honor out. Well,
then if Trey is left open and he can continue
to make shots, then also then that opens the driving
lanes for chance.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
That stuff all works together. Think about this off the
top of my head. Seven players have hit eight or
more shots, eight or more threes in a game. It's
happened three times in the last two seasons. Tucker to Reese, Yeah, right,
had Bahamas down, the Bahamas had an eight an Honors
had has done it twice. Yeah, So that was little rock.

(07:10):
We'll get into that. We'll get some of the spreads
on stats coming up. Also, will preview a highest state.
They're going to be coming off a loss to Illinois. Man,
they score Ohio State scores. It got one of the
leading scorers in the nation in Bruce Forton, who's at
twenty one per contest. And then he's got four other mates,
three other mates, four other mates, three other mates probably

(07:33):
that are averaging over thirteen points per game, almost fourteen
points per game. So they score them. As they say,
basketbawa new phrase, they score the ball. It's come in
vogue within the last six or seven years. They score
the ball. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Good contrast and styles in that one coming up. Yeah,
wells strange defense against their offense.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
So that observations textual healing has situation repercussion. From our
last episode, I think that's a fair way to say it.
There was a had a situation where we called out
the security guard at the coliseum.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
And remember that we didn't call out the security guard.
We absolutely did not call out the security guard. There
was no WI calling out the security guard.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Well, I may have brought I may potentially I may
have brought Doug's name out the security. Doug had some
words for us, had some words for me.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Well us, he had words for us until I said
stand down.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah he did.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
I'm the one that defended you this one. Three out
of the bus. Yeah I got I wasn't taken that hit.
I didn't do it.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
He did. Good for you. And this will come back
to involve you too. How does this involve me? I'll
tell you how it's going to involve you. We'll get
into that a little bit later on. Uh, now's the
season to go into a Gomart walk in. They're gonna
have a they're going to have a display up there.
It's going to have a QR code on there. You
hit that QR code and you get to spin to win.

(08:53):
It's Marty Spins and it lasts until the nineteenth or
just a little bit more than a week from now
as we record. And and you could do Marty's Mary's Spin.
What do you win? Well, big candies there, they'll help,
They'll give you sweet treats, awesome prizes, rewards points, and
they got a few couple options out there, including one
thousand dollars Gomart gift card, five hundred dollars shopping spree,

(09:17):
five hundred dollars charity donation, five thousand bonus reward parts points.
So go in, get that app on your phone, hit
the QR code, and you walk in spin have a
big time. Are you going to do that? Ply should
do that? Triple rewards points pretty good? Yeah, Saturday, and
then you should just might as well go in there
once again. Special thanks to Tutors Biscuit World. They're ready

(09:39):
for you this holiday season catering events. Last week at
the High School Football Championships Are broadcast crew was treated
by the Tutors catering package. They had a bunch a
bunch of biscuits and a bunch of other stuff. If
you've got friends, family and need to do a quick breakfast.
That's the That was the actual shot of all the
biscuits wrapped up. You are looking live the other day,

(10:00):
and they got it. They got their own box there.
So you just call ahead, say what you want a
little fruit, little some biscuits, other kind of like sweet stuff.
Go to Tudor's Biscuit World. Start your day the homemade way,
which we did to the Tutor's biscuits. You had married Bees,
Mary Bees this morning, very good things. What that was
Mary Bees? Very nice lady there at the drive through window.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
The lady was not Mary Bee. The sandwich was a
married sandwich.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Was all right? You ready to just I like because
I think it puts you guys in a good mood
to get a biscuit. I like that Food's good. Food
is a food is an unbelievable game. Yeah, you ready
to tell us some stuff? Obviously obvious. He's got thoughts
that sound brand new. But that things we are there
is I noticed yesterday when I watched the show back

(10:45):
see the bottom tag on that not a real captain,
thank goodness. That just.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Do not want stolen valor obvious real captain. The little
rock game fun entertaining. It's nice when everything goes well.
Opponent adjusted, Brad, But it was a relief. A lot
of gaudy numbers you'll probably get into Huff Eagle staff.
We talked about the shooting percentage. A lot of players
into the act, a ton of three point shots, Brad.

(11:20):
Here's the number that stood out to me in that,
and there's a lot of numbers. Twenty two assists, twenty
two assists, right and Coach Hodge said, I thought they
were on the receiving end of really unselfish play to
the point where I think they overpassed a couple of times,
so really moved the ball around.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
I know you'll have something on that.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
There was one. There was one time on Trey. Yeah,
Trey had had he'd hit a couple already, had a
right wing three that was wide open that.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Was passed, and he passed it up to kick it
and I gave them. I gave it the and he made.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
One pass, an extra pass, and it ended up in
a three, and it was a great decision to make
the extra pass. But yeah, to Ross's point, they were
distributing the ball extremely well.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Coach how Coach Coach how was wrong. Trason Right is
a good decision.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
And the honor said after the game about all the threes.
More importantly, it opens on Brad. You touched on this already.
It opens up more of our offense for everybody else.
That is a key going forward, correct, correct, Yeah, upcoming
Ohio State game. I actually, by accident watched the Ohio
State Illinois game.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
How did that accidentally have it around and saw it?

Speaker 3 (12:31):
Yeah, I just I don't know. I accidentally found it
and I watched it. Uh, And that was that was
a good game. Was that Ohio State. It was an Illinois,
very very good Buckeyes came up short eighty eight to
eighty and Brad, I know you'll break down the Buckeyes,
but Tony you mentioned him. Watch out for number two
Bruce Thornton, right, he's a player. The guard scored thirty

(12:55):
four points. Brad had six rebound six assists the first half.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
He was on.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Fire, twenty four point six threes in the first.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
Half, nine of ten from the field in the first
in the first half until bred Underwood said, listen, guys,
put somebody on him.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, what's really interesting.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
We've played him before, played him last time up there.
He had eleven against Western.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
What's interesting is they've already played two league games. They
played at Northwestern. Last weekend they played Illinois at Homing,
So all of a sudden, you jam a non league
game in here.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
I hope they foul us as much as they foul Illinois.
Illinois made twenty nine free throws twenty nine of thirty
two from the line.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
A superstar watch Onebruary.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
February twenty eighth, BYU is going to be coming to
Hope Coliseum, and that will be the one and only
time the Mountainer fans will get to see in a
college uniform. Eighteen year old aj de Bonsa. He is,
he's a dude. In fact, homeless. Homeless was at Madison Square.

(14:01):
This was there, Yeah, watching the game.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
He was so excited. He was texting about De Bonsa
live texting during the game, live texting, And why you laughing?
Go ahead? What are you laughing about? Nothing the way
he's saying, De Bonsa, No, that's right, he's right, yeah, Well,
what were you laughing about? What do you gig? Went about?
Go ahead? Hot? Okay?

Speaker 3 (14:19):
Well, and BYU was down twenty one in that game,
came back in the second half. De Boncea had twenty
two second half points and they beat Clemson sixty seven
sixty four.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
And Robert Wright, who we know from well, you saw
him playing person last Robert Right.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
The third hit a three at the buzzer. But de
Bonsa is he's a dude, man, he's a he's a
he's an NBA guy playing in the college game right now.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yes, yeah, one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
You know how things kind of even out in sports.
That's a Clemson loss. They should never have West Virginia
should have not lost to Clemson. They should not have
lost to BYU. They had a twenty two to nothing
run in that game. Again, twenty two zero. Don't see
that very often. Evan Maya, Evanmya, evanmea dot com charts
those as kill shots ten plus zero runs or more.

(15:09):
How many do you have in a game? You get
one of those and usually win seventy one percent of
the time. They had a twenty two zero run.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
Yeah, du bons is going to be in Madison Square
Garden future times with a pro team.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
How about that one donkey yet?

Speaker 3 (15:25):
Oh, I don't see how he got to the rim
he started It looks like Jordan he started just inside
the foul line and dunked the ball.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
He's got all the pro moves. I was just excited,
hope he's finally found aj Debonce. Well, it's obvious, I
obvious observing. I'm not going to beat deep observer. That's true.
We saw him last year only was on his quote
unquote official recruiting visit to BYU. He was there that night.
Oh really, it was an absolute it was a circus show. Yeah.

(15:54):
But he's got every NBA move. Yeah. Yeah, he's got
that unbelievable turnaround, fade away jumper, just unbelievable body control.
Reportal they getting paid more than most NBA guys too.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
And he's eighteen. Yeah, he'll be nineteen. I think he
turns nineteen in January when he gets here. But I
mean February twenty eighth, market on your calendar. Comes see
an NBA guy and see what West Virginia does with him.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
Right, Well, you'll see a few come through this year.
You know Thornton who they're going to see on Saturday night.
He's a late first round, early second round pick. Boy,
this league's tough. I mean, there's guys, there's guys. This
courtesy of the research.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
I did some research on this by meaning that I
talked to Ben Lohman.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
Well, you have to identify Ben Lohman. People just don't
know who Ben Lohman. He just can't say Ben Loman.
He's not like you're saying Ben Afflack. I mean's Ben Lohman.
Ben Lohman is Dan Loman's son. Dan Lehman works.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
Works with us as a TV producer. But Ben Lowman
is a wv student soccer player.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
But he's not a soccer player. Let me let me
help you, all right. Ben Lohman is the director of
our operations for the WVU men's soccer team. Go ahead,
so he did the research for me.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
Anyway, the Major League Soccer Draft is coming up December eighteenth,
so I was interested. So what happens with Marcus Caldera.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yeah, he's already been drafted, was.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
Drafted by Minnesota a couple of years ago, and I thought, well,
does hea he's still in a draft.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
What happened? So Loman talked.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
To Caldera himself and Caldera is he he's committed to
Minnesota has until the end of the month to sign him,
or Caldera becomes a free agent.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
To the end of this month. Yeah, what are you
smiling about? Because he's laughing like, hell, I'm just gonna
try to egg him out. So we see.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
And apparently Caldera doesn't know. He hasn't been in touch
with Minnesota. He doesn't know if Minnesota's going to sign
him or whether he becomes a free agent. So we
got to keep an eye on that. But he is
not subject to the eighteenth draft. But who is subject
to the eighteenth draft is Pablo Pazos Posos Pazos sure
Posos with who is right behind Caldera in scoring and assists,

(18:09):
and he's expected to go in the first round on
December eighteenth to Orlando's city, South Carolina m Major League Soccer.
So you have probable first rounder and a guy who
would be a first rounder if he was a Brad,
if he was eligible for the draft. But he'll be
somewhere in the pros next year.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
I like how you're branching off on obvious observations. You're
just not doing just you know, I.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
Get into he helped hire Stratford, so it's not surprised
that he fell us get Much like ads are tied
to high, he's tied to the higher Dan Stratford so
Strats is doing great pumping out pros, so hop he's
trying to make sure he's you know, reiterates that tie
to Stratford.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Correct. You know what's interesting, Hoppy. And you may have
checked it, like I'm the roster on a WU sports roster. Yeah,
like they have pronunciations. Oh I should have checked of players.
Well here's Shelly Ekvist. Yeah right, you got Tristan Posta Hagy. Yeah.
But you know what, they got one for positive. They
don't have one for Pazos. So basically it's got to

(19:10):
be Pazos because it's so simple to them. They go like,
we don't have to give you a pronouncer on Pazos.
It's po z Os Pazos. By the way, this is
another sign. I met him. We're in the Sahara.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
No no, when we did the thing at the football
stadium for United Way.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
Yeah, and some of the athletes were there.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
Okay, And he had a he had a soccer jersey
on that said Rwanda and I went up to him.
I said, have you are you from I've been to
so I was trying to established him. He says, no,
I'm from Spain, and he is from Spain.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, he doesn't doesn't deny that, So I that's that's
all I got. Good, good work. Well you say that
you're turtling at all.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
My observation, I mean bad busted me because I just
discovered the b YU player who everybody knows about.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
As we.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Already know about Devonsa thoughts from Hobby Obvious about Debosa
A segment has been brought to us by the Sticks.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Hey, Brad, let me tell you about this player. His
name's Cooper Flag. I think he's going to be really good.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Well, I'm all seriously, I'm just glad Hoppy's on basketball
prior to the calendar changing.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
Usually he won't engage until January. So you are.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
So I'm not taunting you because you are in a
month earlier than what you normally. Normally, you won't engage
with me when we're over doing those four hundred hours
of bowl games.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
I'd like to talk basketball a little bit. You won't deal.
You're on early, So I do appreciate that you've come
around here welcome, trying to be I'm well, yeah, so
I'm trying to be engaged.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
You are. I mean, hell, you got a credit to
that you watched Illinois the other day in Ohio State.
I mean, think about it. You coming with the bonsa.
I mean you're bringing.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
You haven't watched a non conference basketball game in years,
let alone a non conference game not involving West Virginia.
So you do get a lot of you get a
lot of credit.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
For coming on. And you know what, you almost texted
me you watch text I'm watching. I'll give you credit
for that. I give him credit for that. W V
Women in Action were recording Thursday, They're in action tonight
have Georgia Tech, and then Sunday afternoon play the Aggies
of Texas A and M in College Station. So you

(21:32):
got a couple of road tests. Yeah, got a couple
of good tests coming up from Mark Kellogg's team. Well
the other night, so Texas State, how do you score
one o nine? Well, you gotta score like every time
the other team was charitable lined up. They had some
turnover situations there. Yeah, I got that got that one
got away from the Texas Staters. That one got away. Yeah,

(21:55):
so good one. I mean, that's that's really super hard.
Threes three threes ding it pretty good. Yeah, but still
it's it's a lot of points. There's NBA games that
don't score that much. Yeah, three guys before the game
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(23:04):
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(23:24):
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Nice to have them with us here on three guys
before the game. You ready to do your thing? Bradley, sir,

(23:48):
good numbers, I.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Got, well, I got a lot of numbers. I'll tell
you that's a dig in.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Oh really, so you went off on this one. Huh, Okay,
we're gonna do some little rock, We're gonna do some
Ohio state.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
We're just gonna give a general observation that you you
may I found it interesting, You may or may not analytic.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
All right, let's go three guys before the game spreads
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jump in. What do we got? So we talked already?

Speaker 2 (24:49):
Excuse me about the elite shooting between Honor and Tracon.
This came from our from the MSN show. David Kahn
brought this. I thought this was pretty interesting. Last time
West Virginia's made fifteen threes and shot at least fifty
percent from three. You have to go back to November eighteen,
twenty eighteen, so before you've had a game like that

(25:12):
the other night. At the shooting percentage, that's really good.
And again you get a lead shooters open and here's
the buzzword.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
Of the day. Okay, because I'm about to say the.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
Word unguarded one hundred times in the next five or
six minutes, So bear with me.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
Here's some numbers.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
The other night against Little Rock, West Virginia got twenty
seven points from unguarded catch and shoot jumpers. To me,
we thought there was a lot of open looks. The
other night there was. That's the most this season. Previous
high was eighteen. Had twenty unguarded catch and shoot jumpers
in the game, twenty open shots, only five guarded. So
you talked about the passing hoppy. Little Rock had a

(25:48):
tough time finding where West Virginia was on the floor.
That's an ungodly number. Previous high was fourteen on guarded
against Coppin State. Not a coincidence that the previous high
for threes made was against the cop State. We talked
on Monday show about Honor not getting a single on
guarded catch and shoot look versus Wake versus Little Rock.

(26:09):
He had seven of those. Only one of his catch
and shoots were classified as guarded. So you talk about
losing the best shooter in the building. Little Rock did
so only the third time all season where Honor has
had more than one unguarded catch and shoot jumper in
a game, only third time in eleven games.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Think about that.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
The guy's leading the nation in made threes and he's
averaging less than two clean catch and shoot jumpers per game,
So that might be more remarkable than the fact that
he's leading the country and made threes. He is making
these while being guarded, as the system classifies it. Trey
Eagle staff six of his nine catch and shoots were unguarded.

(26:48):
That's twice as many as he's had in a previous game.
So you give really good shooters open looks, they're generally
going to do what bang down shots.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
Did rock there did?

Speaker 2 (26:58):
They have so decimated that one family gets hurt and
a third of their roster, the Robinson family. Three players
on that team were hurt, two of their best players,
three dudes, one family now gone. That's a tough brand,
that is that's tough for former NBA player Darryl Walker. Yes,
you mentioned the assists rate, sixty seven percent assist rate

(27:19):
assisted on sixty seven percent of the basket, so on
two thirds of the shots West Virginia made. There was
an assist. That's a season high. Now that that makes
some sense, you make that many shots threes usually come
off a pass. Those are going to lead to some
easy assists. But I made the note here Tony to
ask this question. How many times during the broadcast did
we see wow? Did we say great extra pass? Right
there by? West Virginia a bunch so hoppy? You alluded

(27:42):
to that earlier. Both point guards were really solid in
this game. Jasper and Amir, for the second time this
year combined for twelve assists. They each had six twelve assists,
four turnovers. So we've said this before, a three to
one ratio out of your point guards will win you
a bunch of games. I thought the most impressive part
of the pass was it was back to being really
good out of the post, and that was where West

(28:04):
Virginia early on got it down into Harlan or be
low down in the post and then could swing it
back across the field or across the court to get
some open looks. And I thought that was back. There
was one when Harlan just was strong with it and
stepped through a double team, I mean literally through the
double team and found honor for a right wing three.

(28:24):
We didn't see that much against Wake Forest Hop and
it's sometimes as simple as that. And again I know
it is opponent adjusted Wake versus Little Rock. All due
respect to the Trojans, but Wake, when they were blitzing
on that double team, West Virginia not only couldn't get
it out with good passes, but they were turning it
over inside as well. The other night they just did
and they passed out of that and it ended up

(28:45):
into some great shots.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
Let me walk through something.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
Here before we get to before we get to Ohio State,
and happy you'll you'll find some interest in this. Tell
you might have heard a little bit this the other night.
We talked about this before the game, but I wanted
to get into the three point variants that comes. And
sometimes it isn't so much about your defense as it
is the other team just sometimes misses shots. And we

(29:13):
talk a lot about unguarded and guarded shots, and West
Virginia the night made their unguarded shots.

Speaker 1 (29:19):
Well, that doesn't always happen at this level. A lot
of times teams will miss. Oh I know where you're
going here, and I just this.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Is going to be a lot of numbers. So I apologize.
If you don't like numbers, you don't like stature, you
probably turn this segment off already. But this is going
to be heavy numbers. But it gets to a point
here at the end.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
So follow me. I think you'll find this of interest.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Right because you like logical discussions. This will be a
logical discussion back by some data.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Okay, he said, stay tuned for the end. It's a
hell of a close I'm ready.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
So West Virginia right now is fifth nationally in two
point field goal percentage defense, fifth for their opponents. Okay, okay, right,
So fifth nationally. Teams are shooting right around that forty
percent range from two point range. Okay, but they're two
hundred and seventy sixth. West Virginia's two hundred and seventy
sixth in three point field goal percentage defense. Man, those

(30:07):
things don't jive. Dude, That your top five in the
nation from inside the arc and bottom one hundred teams
in three point percentage?

Speaker 1 (30:15):
Well, I laughed the light. I can I dive into that? Here?
Can I find an answer to that? Here's what I uncovered,
all right, uncovered investigative report.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
Yes, so we know that Xavier couple games, Ago made
an opponent all time record against West Virginia made threes.
They made sixteen of them, which was unbelievable, but maybe
more unbelievable as they did that in just twenty five attempts.
Only four of those twenty five attempts were charted as unguarded,
so West Virginia was was guarding most Unlike Little Rock

(30:47):
the other night, those trees by Xavier weren't just guys
sitting out there with shooting practice. They were guarded or contested.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
Only went out of twenty five were guarded.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
They had four unguarded. Okay, Xavier scored twelve points on
those on guarded shots. They got four, they got twelve points,
so they made a three on every one of them,
one hundred percent of their on guarded shots they scored
a three.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
That's pretty hard to do. So I thought, okay, that's.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
One game that happened sometimes. So I went into Wake Forest.
Juke Harris had a pretty good game. Yeah, seventeen total
field goal attempts, twelve three point attempts. Only four of
his shots were classified as on guarded, so for the
most part, Juke Harris was guarded. He scored twelve points
on those shots. Such two occasions where we've seen unbelievable

(31:33):
from a team, unbelievable from a player. They made every
open shot that they got. They didn't get many, they
made every one. So I thought, well, that seems odd,
so I kept going. West Virginia is last nationally, dead
last in the country, and opponents points per possession on
unguarded catch and shoot jumpers dead last.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
People are stroking it.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Teams are averaging one point six points per possess on
those on guarded shots, so nearly in not a three,
not every they're not one hundred percent from three, but
almost two points every time they get an unguarded look.
Dead last in the country. But if you then look
at how many on guarded shots are given up per game,
West Virginia is twelfth nationally in fewest given up. They're

(32:20):
a top fifteen team in fewest open shots and dead
last in points per possession on those shots. Opponents are
shooting fifty four percent against West Virginia on unguarded catch
and shoots. Okay, hope, you probably say, well, I know
enough to know that's pretty good from three. You shoot
fifty four percent from three, that's pretty good. But let's
put it in some context. The next closest in the

(32:42):
Big Twelve, Colorado's opponents are shooting forty nine percent from
three on open, unguarded shots. I'm gonna say it a
different way. It's maybe more impactful. Of the sixteen teams
in the Big Twelve, there is only one that has
opponents shooting better than fifty percent from three on unguarded
catch and shoots.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
That one team, West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
The Big Twelve average for opponents on unguarded catch and
shoots is thirty five percent, and West Virginia's opponents are
shooting fifty four. Would I say fifty four? Yeah, the
average is thirty five. West Virginia's are shooting thirty four.
So the moral of the story and all those numbers
and saying unguarded one hundred times is there's some regression

(33:24):
coming up. Yeah, there's some opponents that are due to
miss some shots. This Ohio State game would be a
nice game for that to start. Oh, you're missing some
open shots. This would be a nice game for those
numbers to start to come a little bit more in line,
because that just isn't gonna happen for an entire season.
Those are wild gaps in what has happened versus what

(33:45):
should be happening based on how so West Virginia's three
point defense looks like it's not very good, and statistically
it's not, but maybe there's some underlying reasons for that
that really surprised me.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
Well, the significant numbers to me is West Virginia is
twelveth the best in the country and not allowing open
three point fewest open threes pergat it's about five, So
they're guarding. But when in the rare opportunity where they're
left open they've been it's statistically way out of bounds
of what it should be.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
So again bottom one hundred and opponent field goal percentage
from three listen to these. I'll give you one more
set here. There's only four teams that have shot better
than thirty four percent from three against West Virginia. Only
four of the eleven are better than thirty four percent,
which isn't very much. Six have shot less than thirty
three percent, three have shot less than twenty one percent,
one shot sixty five percent. So some numbers are kind

(34:34):
of getting thrown off by a couple of performances that
probably don't continue over the course of the season.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
Those are those are Those are fascinating numbers, and they
give you hope because as you say, there's got to
be some regression to the mean that that's not going
to be sustained. It's wild, it's not going to be sustained.
And you know, you look at a guy like Duke,
I mean, Duke Harris is a pro and he knocked
down shots, right, yeah, yeah, So can you.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Knocked on every shot? Yeah, yeah, every shot?

Speaker 3 (35:01):
So is Thornton gonna do that or can you as
you say, does he cool off a little bit? But
you're right, that is that is that is a really
good deep dive to better understand what's going on there.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
So it's one of those things coaches would tell you,
we just keep doing what you're doing, just keep playing
the way we're playing, and that balances out the fact.
The other number that surprised me out of all of
those that Big twelve opponents are only thirty five percent
on average from three point lane when they're open, when
they're open, and West Virginia's are twenty percent better than that.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
It tells you that that three point defense is not
a made is not a problem, despite what the statistics says.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yeah, that's what that's That's what I was trying to
figure out was because we're watching every single play. I
watched practice almost every day, and I kept thinking, how
can West Virginia be a bottom one hundred team in
three point defense? Now, there there is a school of thought.
There are some people that believe opponent three point percentage
against you has a lot to do with opponent and

(36:00):
luck even more so than your defense, that there's there's
so much variance in that shot, kind of like turnover
luck in football. Can you cause turnovers, sure you can,
but a lot of turnovers, the way the ball bounces,
there's a lot variable involved in that. There's a lot
of basketball people that think the three point shot has
something to do with that.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
So follow up. Here's an assignment.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
You see coach Hodge all the time, and I'm sure
he knows those stats, but follow up with him and
see what he says.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
About those numbers. Oh he knows, no, But see what
he says about them. Yeah, Oh, he's deep, deep in
the numbers. Right. That's fascinating. Good work.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
We talked a little bit about that in pregame the
other day with him. Yeah, before we went on here. Okay,
so that's that. Just thanks for indulging that. I just
found that that was an expected offshoot. I didn't mean
to get all the way down that rabbit hole, but
I was trying to find an answer to that, and
it was fascinating to me how much that's different than
the rest of the league.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
Right now. Yeah, that's really interesting. That should come back
into line here. What about a highest state?

Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah, you said the first part of it that I
think is the headline story of this. This is kind
of like Wake was. There's a battle of styles going
on here. Ohio State wants to get their shots up
quickly and score, get up and down like Wake did.
Ohio State only fourteen percent of their field goal attempts
come in the final ten seconds of the shot clock.
That's right in line with way Wake Force was it.
Wake Force was like thirteen percent of its shots. So

(37:22):
the critical nature here is whose style can win this game.
West Virginia's going to want to slow it and take
some time off the clock. West Virginia's opponents are taking
twenty nine percent of their shots in the final ten
seconds of the clock. So that's fourteen percent of Ohio
State shots twenty nine percent of West Virginia's opponents, So

(37:43):
how close can you get to your your average and
make them play away in which they do not want
to play. Ohio State comes in top five nationally points
per possession in transition, so West Virginia's going to have
to get back and guard and be ready for them
coming at you in a hurry. We mentioned West Virginia's
feel goal defense, top five in two point field goal

(38:03):
percentage defense. They're getting an Ohio State team that is
number three nationally in two point field goal percent So
you talk about great on great, that's it. Fifty seven
percent is what Ohio State shot from two point range
against Illinois on Tuesday. So West Virgin's defense here is
going to be put to a real test. They're getting
the number eight team in the country an effective field

(38:23):
goal percentage, which counts in your three pointers against a
West Virginian defense. It's top fifty in that category. So again,
styles make fights, and this one is offense versus defense.
In this game, Ohio State gives up an average of
nine unguarded catch and shoot jumpers per game. Nine opponents
are shooting just thirty percent on those shots. So if

(38:46):
you talk about some regression going the other way? Is
Ohio State due to leave West Virginia open some and
West Virginia makes more than thirty percent of its open threes?
So can Honor and Tray in particular shake loose? West
Virginia gets an average of unguarded shots per game at
eight eight unguarded catch and shoots, and they make thirty

(39:08):
four percent of them. So I mentioned Honors not getting
many average is about one and a half per game.
Is this one? Can you shake him loose? What does
Ohio State do from a defensive perspective if they lock
him down? Can trace and continue to be hot? I
think the story here outside of slowing down Ohio State's
offense is going to be West Virginia's offense. And where
do you find your points? And that's going to be

(39:29):
a question we ask a lot. Right, it's easy to
find him when Honor and Trayer hitting shots. Where else
can you find him? Because here's an Ohio State defense
that is number twenty nine nationally against the three pointer.
So again, does that start to change a little bit here?
They'll probably due for some regression. They were eleventh prior
to Illinois. Illinois hit a few against them, so they
were top fifteen here until recently. They're top seventy nationally

(39:53):
and opponent free throw attempt rate, so they don't put
you on the line very often either, so they're not
giving up a great three point percentage and they don't
put you on the line. They were thirty second nationally
in that category until I mentioned Illinois got to the
line thirty two times against them the other night. Their
top fifty in defensive rebound percentage. So teams are not
shooting threes, they're not getting to the line, and they're

(40:15):
not getting offensive rebounds. You're closing off a lot of
the offensive angles there. So something's got to give in
this game. It's got to be a little bit different.
And then you go to what would be the fourth
way to score points off turnovers. These teams are about
dead even on the season for the points off turnovers
that they generate. Both are in the top twenty percentile nationally,
so that'll obviously be an important category. If you can

(40:37):
turn them over and score off it, then that's a
double hit hop, right, you're finding a way to get
points and you've slowed down their offense a little bit.
So keep an eye on that particular part of it.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
They're shooting the hell out of it from the fall
line seventy seven percent. At the foul line, opposing teams
are shooting seventy two. West Virginia has struggled at the
fall line. The other night, you said they went twenty
nine to thirty two. Illinois did win the game. They
won the game at the foller. Yes, So here you go.
I've been saying that all season long. This is gonna
cost you if you don't make your free throws. You're

(41:10):
on the clock.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Ohio State's opponents are only shooting sixteen percent from three
in the final ten seconds of the shot clock. We
know West Virginia likes to take the ball down. West
Virginia shooting thirty one percent from three in the final
ten seconds of the clock, So I do think that's
something important to watch. If that number skews closer to
a West Virginia average, you'd like to be even better

(41:34):
than thirty one percent. West Virginia likes to take that
clock down. If it's converting in the last ten seconds
of the shot clock, that's probably a good sign for
the Mountaineers because normal teams don't do that. Against Ohio State.
Can West Virginia change that formula this week? You mentioned
Bruce Sorton already. He's fantastic. He's he has an offensive rating. Guys,

(41:55):
that's number five nationally. So that's out of two thy,
three hundred twenty six players that are charted in college basketball.
He's number five in offensive rating. And that's how good
he's been playing or how well he's been playing. He's
fourteenth nationally in three point field goal percentage. We say,
honor and Treyer starting to light it up. This dude's
lighted up. He's over fifty percent from three, fifty five, Yeah,

(42:17):
fifty almost fifty six afy round up.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
That was that number was boosted by his performance in
the first half against Illinois.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
We made everything.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
That's a hell of a that's a hell of a
season for him. Fifty six from three from a guy
that shoots it a lot. He's also nearly three to
one assist to turnover ratio there. Ohio State is thirty
points thirty more points per one hundred possessions when he's
on the floor. That difference it's called on off rating.
His on off rating is in the ninety ninth percentile.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
Nationally.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
So if you want individual matchups Thornton against Jasper Floyd,
that's going to be a good one because you're talking
about a guy that's in the top one percent offensively
against a guy that's in the one hundredth percentile in
defensive win shares in Jasper Floyd. So that's going to
be a mono emano battle with Thornton against Jasper Floyd.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
You think that's why they keep him on the floor
for thirty five minutes.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
A games, because they're just a totally different team when
he's on the floor.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
He need so.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
Against US two years ago in Cleveland, he had he
had a really solid game eleven points, eight rebounds, four assists,
three steals, so he did a little bit of everything,
certainly a couple years younger then, but he fouled out
in that game as well. Something else to keep in
mind outside of him, the rest of the team shot
just thirty four percent against Illinois, and they were right
in that game. Again, the rest of the team other

(43:33):
than Thornton shot thirty four percent from the floor, So
is he an important part of that? So Westerrding's ability
to slow him if possible, No one's really done it
well yet, can Jasper and Company? Because it won't just
be Jasper on him, but can West Virginia slow him
down a little bit?

Speaker 1 (43:49):
Good report, he was on it, he was hot, he
was hot today. You brought it man. It's very put
all your marble bust performance. Yeah. Give me one two
other things extra credit.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Keep an eye when they go to the bench. When
they bring their guys in, their most used lineup has
played significantly more than when the next two subs come in.
But here's what you watch. Their defensive rating plummets when
they go to the bench for the first time. So
when I'm asking, can West Virginia find a way to

(44:24):
score points? That second group of West Virginia that comes in,
They're going to have to find a way to score points.
Can chance more get to the basket? Whichever shooter is
left between Huff and Eagle staff? Can one of them
get going? But that will be an opportunity to try
and make some Hey when that second group, when cups
and buying them come in for Ohio State, can you
take advantage of that and go after it. Keep an

(44:46):
eye on the pick and roll. The pick and roll,
specifically old school pick and roll Thornton is seventh nationally
in points per possession off the pick and roll. He
scores nearly seventy percent of the time when they run
a pick and ro with them. But they're getting a
West Virginia defense that is top three nationally in points

(45:06):
per possession against the pick and roll. Ball handler Wake
and Campbell are the only two teams to get double
figures from that set against West Virginia.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
I'll close with that.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
I gave you a lot of numbers today, man. That
was pick and roll hobby with Thornton in particular.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
Absolutely just another way to get Thornton involved. Spreads on
stats brought to us by the Connolly CPA group three
guys also brought to us by Jen Dill's Attorneys at
Law with clients in all fifty states. They are there
to help you VA benefits and military disability claims. They're
there for you. Do you have something to add to this, sir, No,

(45:41):
I'm just going to say you mentioned a pick and
roll Jen Dill's Attorneys at Law military bet. I mean,
just wait, did you get a d in conduct when
you were in elementary school for interrupting? I'm sorry, go ahead,
I'm sorry. True story the other Like two weeks ago,
I was in my basement trying to find a picture.
I literally found report cards when I was in second

(46:05):
and third and fourth grade. Ask him what his conduct
grades were? What were they? Bad? Really shocking? Surprised by
that bad. That's the least surprising thing ever said on
this show. I was. I literally like I giggled. I
was giggling, like it's a conduct like C C minus
and then they have all those other categories. Interrupts doesn't

(46:30):
play well with others. I interrupt of course, of course
was charted early. It was you know that the the
the arc starts to bend. Yeah, it just continues, it
just Yeah, that was I mean, I did not find
the first grade report card when I got the D
in art. I mean that's all right, your finger painting.

(46:52):
How do you get a D? I don't know how
I did it, but I got the D in art? Anyway,
How do you get a D in art in the
first grade? Maddie's art skills all came from Joan. Yeah, yeah,
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(47:13):
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(47:35):
for you. Contact Jen Dill's attorneys at law. I need
to bring those report cards in you should. I like
to see them. It was I'm sorry, you know, I
think I've been mischaracterized as a student. I think that's
what it is.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that through all the grades you
are treated unfairly.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
Ye sounds pretty accurate. Anyway.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
You were saying, well, no, I just I got you
know how good down these rabbit holes and things, Oh
weird things fascinate me. You were talking about, Brad about
the pick and roll, which is what integral remains integral
to basketball at all levels, right, and in sports usually
things change over time. The pick and roll has been
around for over one hundred years and people are still

(48:18):
running it.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
Why because it's a screen and it's always going to work.
But it's just interesting.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
I mean, look at other sports, you go, we don't
do that anymore. We don't run the and the picking
since since the nineteen twenties.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
Still around, maybe more popular than ever. You everybody runs
those high ball screens.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
You hear ball screen coverage. I mean coaches, coaches screen
coaches do not sleep at night of all they ever
talked about is high ball screen coverage. And it didn't
used to be all high ball screen coverage. The game
has changed, and these coaches like they're trying to figure out,
like they hawk, They talk incessantly among one another, coaches

(49:04):
all over the country. How you guys guarding the high
ball screen? I'm serious.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
Well, but the reusing every offense initiates with a high
ball screen. You come across half court and that screen
at the top of the ark, top of the three
point line is where the offense starts and someone comes
from down low and sprints up and sets a screen.
So the very first thing your defense faces almost every night,
it is a high ball screen. Are you gonna hard

(49:28):
hedge it, You're gonna double it, You're gonna trap you're
gonna force, you're gonna push. So if you don't have
an answer to that, you're you're screwed right away in
the very first five seconds of your possession.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
You know how you cover it? Get great players when
they had you, it just looks a little bit different.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
So supposedly a guy named Nat Holman was the first
to actually write down the high the ball screen, which
which they just called the screen, which he had the
idea of, like go block that guy, stand in front
of that guy. Yeah, so it started out before it
was pick and roll with just the ball screen, which
they still call it a ball screen.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Yeah, incredible. That great. Well, you go back and watch
old basketball. Look how much space defensive players gave two
offensive players like from me to brad Away, from you
to brad Away. They just let mean they were out there.
Now everything is pressed up into your hip.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
But also before the the you tried to get as
close to the basket as you could to shoot the shot. Right,
that game has changed, so now you can't give space
on the premier I mean how many times a game
does Ross Sake get up at him?

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Yeah, really get up in him? Yeah, you have to
and impedes the defense impeds the offensive player and it
also hinders their passing ability.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
It was at when we were in Charleston, South Carolina,
watching those games up close.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
It is it is.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
Different even if you're sitting midway of the physicality's jarring
physicality and the size, the size, the physicality and the
fact that you don't if you're playing a good team, you.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
Don't get a lot of room. Man.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
No, I mean every pass, every movement is just somebody
is in your grip.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
And grabbing and holding and hitting and forearm shivering and
grabbing you on a shot. It is is ungodly physical.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
Yes, I think that that applies in every sport. You
ever stood down on the sideline during a football game,
it's a car accident every single play, and you have
no idea when you're sitting up. I think the same
thing soccer. You watch college men's soccer, go over there
and get close to the field and watch those guys.
The physicality. You just do not pick it up if

(51:28):
you're watching it on television.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
I do think a difference is though football, you know,
is a physical sport, they're supposed to be contact. Basketball
is really not designed to be as physical as what
it is today, but that's not how it was or
how it is played for decades. Agree, there is way
more grabbing and clutching than there's ever been.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
Yeah, I agree. But in football, while you do know
that they're tackling each other, you have no true perception
of how fast and how hard the contact is. Yes,
you just don't the speed. As the closer you get
to the field, the speed increase. It's breathtaking and you watch,

(52:07):
you watch and say, why don't you tackle that guy?

Speaker 3 (52:09):
Well, because he was going right impossibly fast.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
Let's do this ah music to your ears, three guys
before the game. This is textual healing and it's sponsored
by Episode eight hundred dot com. We're recording on eleven
December Thursday. Here's your notes for Christmas gifts. For Christmas gifts,

(52:37):
you must have your order in by Sunday, the fourteenth
if you want the gift in your hand by the
time Santa comes to your abode. That's like just a
couple of days. It's Sunday. Yeah, we're recording on Thursday.
You have to have it in by fourteen December. And
there are some of the lovely items that we have

(52:59):
available to you from our t shirts, to our coffee,
to our popcorn. And also you know, I want to
fix I want to correct one thing. I received three
texts on the text line. People want to know what
the size of the coal him. I think they're calling

(53:22):
this the call him. People wanted to know how literally
how big this was, And okay, yeah, there you go,
so got neat it. See this is art. You know
why this is art because the light, when the light changes,
this changes so when you pay anyway, So I wanted
to stand up, this is how big it is? I'd
say that's twenty four, by thirty six, maybe, like that's
how big it is. I'm six four, So figure it

(53:43):
out there you go. So, as I said, these are
gone for Christmas, but there are fifteen more that are
being made that will ship by February first. You'll have
them by February first. Also, did I this is a
nice new development. Did I hear?

Speaker 2 (54:01):
There are gift cards now? On episode eight hundred dot
com you can go on in order really three guys
merchandise gift cards. If you don't know exactly what size
or what somebody would like, you can get him a
gift card for the store.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
It's a good idea. It's a good idea, really good idea.
Homeless come up with it? Well, of course, Yeah, you
know he was at the game. There was a guy
named Debansa who was playing for BYU. He was at
the game, Homeless, was he was excited to be there? Yeah,
Texter writes in I just watched episode eight, six hundred
and eighty one and Brad doing the numbers. My first
observation may not be obvious, but it sure seems to

(54:35):
me that layups are missed more than made. Every time
it happens, Hugs's voice pops into my head, saying something
like two feet from the basket, you'd be able to
put it in there our miss layups track Brad. I'd
be interested in Brad's taken on that close in shots.
Thanks for asking.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
You have that West Virginia shooting sixty five percent on
shots at the rims. That's a little further out than
two feet. I think this site tracks it maybe at five,
maybe a little b less, but sixty five percent from
that distance.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
What's that put him in? Nationally? Do you have a
number on that? Turn your mica on? Thanks for asking.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
National average is sixty two percent, and we're what sixty five.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
So we're better than the national average. Yes, no, that's
not going to make this guy believe that. On another note,
about the cluster frog that is college sports, I think
that we could blame lots of it of the overloaded
presence of ESPN and all things. So I'm not rich.
I can't afford fancy overpriced coffee from you guys, but
I have to drink rat piss folders to say that, well,

(55:45):
he wrote it, he said, I have to drink rat
piss folgers. I also can't afford ESPN. Plus, Lucky for me,
Ren hasn't figured out how to monetize a radio stream,
so I get to listen to Tony and Brad, who
paint pictures in my head right up there with Bob
Prince and Jack Flemy. Thank you very much. I'd pay
a hundi straight to WVU if I could watch all
the basketball and football games on TV and sync the

(56:07):
video up with the audio of Tony and Brad. The
author Corey Doctro has come up with a word to
describe the state of TV streaming, computer software, in phone apps,
customer service, in just about every interaction normal folks have
with big money these days. It is and crapification. Since
you're a family show, you may want to use that word,
but I think it perfectly describes the landscape these days.

(56:29):
By the way, I don't need to watch. I just
listened to you guys. Thank you, happy, thank you. This
is very nice. Appreciate it. Thank you. That's what he says. Bob.
He signed it off. Bob temporarily living in a high
for almost fifty years. But really I'm from Fairmont. I
listen to you guys because it's it's descriptive and.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
Also highly entertaining, because I know that a couple times
during the game there'll be some zingers in there that
I enjoy hearing.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
We had the over undergoing the other night on whether
or not they would ever come to the monitor for
a review. Those are those guys just want They just
wanted to go home. They just weren't game. They weren't
coming to that replay. Monitors like, let's go, let's get
it going. Brock from mid Lothian, Virginia, what's up? Fellers?
Disappointed to hear Jaheem White is in the transfer portal.
I guess he saw what C. J. Donaldson did and

(57:19):
decided to follow suit. Would love to hear Brad share
some of the stats on contributing players who left West
Virginia the last three to five years and how they
fared in their new schools. Got to be honest, hoping
they did not succeed after quitting on the Golden Blue. Also,
wouldn't it be a good thing for the Big twelve
to go after Notre Dame. Well, well, that isn't gonna happen.
That commissioner kind.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
Of directly at the let me say two things. Let
me see that very often. I was very well, I
don't see that very often.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
I got two things. Go ahead, you go with your
two things. I got two things. Your mark always has
some kind of a plan. Bavaqua must have pissed him
off royally in the past in different worlds, because he
just attacked him. And it's your point, Brad, Commissioners don't
do that. I'm not seeing. So he must have had

(58:08):
a he must have had a little something something for
the Notre Dame. A d Also, a couple of people
come up to me about.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
Might be just trying to completely merge with the acc
So he wanted to curry some favorite with Jim Phillips.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
Jim I'm with you, Jim, I'm with you. Yeah. By
the way, how about a merger? Yeah, uh, I'm not
saying that. Hop No, no, scuttle better behind full disclaimer.
A gentleman said, I'm disappointed here Jahem White and the
transfer portal. Guess what he saw with C. J. Donson
didn't decided to follow suit. I had a guy I
talked to at the coliseum the other day who also
asked me about Jehem White leaving, and he was kind

(58:41):
of like taken back again, New World. And so prices
are being paid based upon where the staff thinks productivity,
productivity will be, and some of these guys that are
leaving are leaving because they're getting less than they were

(59:04):
getting or less than they expected. And West Virginia at
that point says, fine, see you later, because there is
a specific budget that they're operating on. So it's not
when a player leaves that the players just saying, oh,
I'm leaving. It's because the number that they're getting is
not the number that they want. And these are the
decisions that are being made. Yeah, Tony, to build on that.

Speaker 3 (59:27):
What is Rich Rodriguez said whenever he's talked about the
new class he said, And some difficult decisions have to
be made. And you know, I get my friends will
text me and say, oh, this guy's leaving, that guy's leaving.
Oh nil, all this all that, and I'm with you.
I think a lot of these are coaches making decisions
about Okay, we got to call this thing, we got

(59:49):
a budget, and we got to call the roster.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
And after being here for a year, after being here
for a year and having the guys here for a year,
they know if the player that they're dealing with is
what they want. Does that player show up on time,
is he always prompt, is he at meetings? Is he
doing the things that he's supposed to be doing. And
if the answers to those are no, then if they're fixable,

(01:00:15):
like Rich would say, then they might get a lower number.
If they're not fixable, then they just get the pass
see you later.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
The I think you might also say, we will help
you achieve what you like to achieve someplace someplace else
on the Notre Dame thing. And I may be reading
too much into this. Everybody wants to play Notre Dame.
But if something when given an opportunity, but the same

(01:00:42):
ads and conference commissioners don't like Notre Dame, and I
think when they get an opportunity like your Mark did
to pile on, they do because nobody else likes Noted.
Nobody else that's not Notre Dame likes Notre Dame except
if they want to play them.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
You're with me on that, Yeah, but usually you don't
see a direct personal attack on the on A leader
at the other.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
Place called he called it egregiousious, egregious behavior, Yeah, egregious
Devon and Goshen, Hello, Tony Brad and Ace Ventura. If
WV loses the game to Ohio State, how many league
games do you think they would have to win to
make the tournament? Am I crazy to think it'd have
to be eleven or more? Thanks for the discussion, look

(01:01:28):
forward to hearing your take. I don't know, Devon, We'll
have to see.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Heck, you got to ten last year and got absolutely screwed.
Now it's ten out of ten league wins out of
twenty games. Normally five hundred in this league gets you in.
So if you have eighteen games this year, you probably
need an extra one because of that Clemson game.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
We'll say, we'll see where it goes. Need this, just
get Ohio State that nonference O HIGHO State all help.
Did Notre Dame not use its scheduling of ACC teams
as the bait to gain entry into the league For
the other teams, Would they share their college football playoff
money if they were picked? No, they don't. What do
you think the ramifications will be with UTAH venturing into

(01:02:08):
private equity? Also, do the three of you see or
have you heard of anything that doubv you may have
in the works for the future. I think that specific
private equity for WVU. I mean they've they've heard pitches
and things like that. Wren has talked about it. More
so when the league was approached, the conference was approached

(01:02:31):
as a as an entire entity. There are some thoughts
out there that what Utah just did may be illegal
involving in a state institutions governing that that they would
have to do so. I think at some point in time, yeah,
something like that will happen. I don't think West Virginia's
got anything on the immediate side on that. Hello, three guys,

(01:02:54):
Tyler Mineral County. Great to meet Senator at the hotel
in Charleston. I have a question for Tony. I had
to get up and go to the bathroom Saturday morning,
and I looked out of my room window and I
could have sworn that I saw Tony standing on the
balcony in his suit at two thirty am, talking to
some young kids rolling a ball on the balcony. Did

(01:03:16):
I have too much to drink? Or was that you? Anyway?
Love the show? Keep it going? I don't think that
was you. No. Number one did not bring a I
guess I had a sport code. I know nine thirty
was my cutoff time got to the bedroom and that
was that nine two thirty. No, must have an nightmares. Yea,

(01:03:37):
he did have too much to drink, obviously, gentlemen. While
of course I respect the right of the Marriott family
and corporate brand to dictate the preferred pronunciation of their name,
we simply cannot allow them to gaslight us into believing
that this was always how they wanted it to be pronounced.
See the link below. Ac from Logan he sent a
video your microphone on. I don't disagree. Look and I've

(01:03:59):
said a fifth years on earth.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
I've never heard it Marryott, but neither I have to
default to President Benson who's known the family going back generations. Hoppy, Yes,
and he clearly said it. Marriott clearly said, that's how
the family's always said it said. It's been mispronounced for
a long time. Family knew it was mispronounced.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
Crazy. I'm going marry it from now on. You're going
marryo it. And I tell you what they should start.
A whole campaign has this little creative idea. So how
do you get people to learn how to say it? Well,
it's like a marriage, So what are you gonna do?
You're gonna marry it? So I would do a whole
campaign of like little fall weddings, like Mary, what are
you gonna do? Marriott? Marriott, just keep banging marryo it? Marriott.

(01:04:39):
It'll change it over time. Marriott. You're an idea guy. Yeah. Thanks.
Since Jack Rollins came up on the previous episode, here's
a mural in the heart of downtown Kaisler Kaiser's Metroplex.
Look at that, Hoppy Yeah. Salute to Walter E. Jack Rowlins,
who wrote Frosty the Snowman, Smokey the Bear, Cottontail for

(01:05:00):
money in there. Mm. Peter Cotton till course, one of
the great Bunnies of all time. No, Peter Cotton, that's
a oh, I'm sorry goohead. Hey guys, Travis here wv
alum now living akron A High. I'm originally from Pinch,
West Virginia. I am and also the little known original

(01:05:20):
conceiver of the hoppy ipa beer concept. This was the
guy that said, you guys are sitting on a beer
right now, it should be hoppy. Yeah, he's the guy
as previously sent in the tweet to the show, still
waiting on my royalties. Yes, well so are we. So
thanks for the basketball team hopefully starting to mesh and
play better. Basketball shooting looked much improved against Little Rock.

(01:05:42):
I like, I feel like those Charleston Civic Center rims
are always so loose and difficult for us to get
field goals drop. Yeah, that's what it is. It's loose rims.
But I think turnovers is what killed us against Wake.
Rebounding seems to be a deciding metric in our wins
and losses. A highest state as a positive rebound margin,
that'll be a key. My wife and I will be
up in Cleveland this week and sitting right behind them

(01:06:02):
mountain near bench for the Cleveland Hoops Showdown. We'll try
to say, hello, did you see lead?

Speaker 3 (01:06:07):
The BYU Clemson game had to be stopped for seventeen
minutes because it dunk bent the rim saw that?

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
How about that? It's also speaking to the Charleston Civic Center.
Randomly browsing randomly browsing the West Virginia Metro News app
the other day on my Apple TV, trying to find
Herbert Hoover football State Turney game a few weeks ago.
Great catalog of West Virginia high school games on there,
both live and on demand. I stumbled upon a playlist

(01:06:35):
for classic games high school home videos and watched a
classic from the year two thousand. The production in broadcast fantastic.
I was really impressed. I have to say. The guys
that had hosting the broadcast and calling the game were
so youthful and full of energy. See baby Hoppy, Look
at that hoppy with hair? Oh hell, oh Hoppy? There

(01:06:58):
once again? Sport code too big? Yeah, well that was
before we met fine looking Phil and then that now.

Speaker 3 (01:07:04):
Well, you know what I tell my wife all the time,
because we've we've been married twenty twenty three years, second
marriage for me, first for her, and uh I say
for her for I'm sorry you missed my good years.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
Yeah, yeah, you know I knew him. Karen didn't miss much.
Do we have a like a baby too? Oh my goodness,
why do I have a rug on my head? Look
at that hair? Dude, hair looks about the same. Oh
that hair is full there, man, thicker than hell. Your
jacket's too big too. Oh yeah, Look it's a double
breast where the.

Speaker 2 (01:07:38):
Style back then, whether we did go through the baggy era,
but now it's much better. Phil takes care of that
just since that, and that's why he walks around with
the tape and the pins.

Speaker 3 (01:07:45):
And I've been threatening to go there now for four months.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
I need to go there. I was over there yesterday.
I was giddy because he's over across the counter and
he's talking to me. And while he's talking to me,
just like while we're talking, he's putting pins. Oh I
didn't do it, and the sportscut he's just going like that.
We're not even thinking about it. Just yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
By the way, by the way, speaking of Christmas, better
hurry there. You gotta go No, well we do, yeah,
we gotta get out, but you better get over to
fill's there some great Christmas.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
He's just put out. Let's put out some new stuff.
He's got super m new West Virginia vests that are awesome.
I saw that. I know exactly the legend. Yes, yes, yes, yes,
he's got a barn jacket. Look to them, feel ye make.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
A barn jacket reference horn legend school, Yeah, barn jacket.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
I shack it in there too, Wes. What is that?
It's a shack it shirt jacket. It's a shirt worn
on over another shirt. Shack it. Well, that's what that's called. Yeah.
I didn't Eric and Mineral County with our last surprise.
You does it? I didn't do that last one. Hey,
two guys, Captain obvious? Will all the team opt outs
of bowl games? If a team loses three games during

(01:08:50):
the reg season? In theory, why not just quit the season?
If the money teams and players only care about the
playoffs when you are theoretically out for the season. What's
the solution my thoughts? Expanded playoff format where bowl games
become part of the expansion. What are your thoughts?

Speaker 3 (01:09:04):
I don't want to it. Don't expand the playoffs anymore?
I mean, oh you expand They're going to expand whatever
keeps more games. If we're going to have to lose
bowl games on the back end, then keep them. Don't
lose games, you don't expand the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (01:09:17):
The calendar's got to get fixed then, because it's hard.
It is hard.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
There's so much focus on moving on into the next season.
It is hard to keep your team together for two
and a half three weeks in a bowl game. So
you got to fix the calendar there.

Speaker 3 (01:09:30):
Could you have the bowl games like the next week
or two weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
You're going to have to You're gonna have to start
moving them up and trying to keep them if you
keep them that way.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
Well, what's really interesting is the evolution of the bowls.
We ten years ago, if a player opted out of
a Bowl game, it was massive story. People were just
now then you had then you had hundreds hundreds of
guys Sam not playing, and now you're getting teams going like,
guess what, we're not playing either, So you it needs
to be fixed.

Speaker 2 (01:10:01):
Ten teams opted out of Bowl games this year. This
included some five and seven teams that would have had
the opportunity. Five of those were Big twelve programs. Yeah,
pray five five of the ten.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
Because there were two well two five and sevens right,
five and seven said no thank you. You remember Ben Lowman,
who you referred to early on the show. When Ben
was a little baby and like I would mess with him.
I said, hey, Ben, let's go do this, you know,
just pretending we're gonna do something. He would always go, no,
thank you, no thank you. That's what these teams are doing.
They're going no thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:10:31):
Hey, before we forget, don't we need to thank somebody
for you showed up the other day. Yeah, we've already forgotten.
He forgot that the Memphis side of beef.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
We have to get that next time. Get it next time. No,
we're going to do it. Yeah, we're gonna do it
right now. Hey.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
By the way, speaking of thank you, the December fourteenth
is the Christmas cutoff for episode eight hundred.

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
Dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
You gotta have your orders in by this weekend, Yes,
in order to get here in time for Christmas.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
Yes, two things, two things here before we go away. Yeah.
The gentleman that brought us this unbelievable my gosh, Nathaniel Mason,
who's the owner of the Foggy Dale Farms in Ellenborough,
West Virginia, which is Richie County, and he brought us,
oh my goodness, five different types of meat cuts that

(01:11:18):
we're very much looking forward to. So thank you, very
very much. Thank you to Nathaniel Mason. I met him.
Good dude. He has over a thousand head of cattle. Really, yes, yeah,
big operation, big operation, probably minimal. Right, now here's the
other Now, here's the other thing. Here's the other thing.
And the last episode, we were talking about people coming
up to us while we're on the air at basketball

(01:11:40):
games and like whether or not we're on the air,
that give you the bump they try to talk. Brad
literally got kissed while he got kissed while he was
on the air in our last game. Lady came up,
didn't realize quote that he was on the air. She
no one knows him for years and I'm not going
to say because I don't want to. And she came
over and just gave him a pack. He was on there.

(01:12:00):
I said, first guy ever been kissed on MSN. Fine,
just kept talking about here's the deal, just keep talking.
So in the last episode, I said, where is the
security guard, the security where picture where's Doug the security guard?
So can you bring this picture up here, Jake, there
he is. So there's Doug. Oh yeah, he came after us.
I mean he really, He's like, what are you guys doing?
Like selling out? And so last game, hoppy, it's about

(01:12:24):
eight minutes to go. This is where you come into
play here. Doug's Doug's a good one. Doug's been around
a long time. He's a So I get a I
get a tap while I'm on the air. It's your
boy who ed Harper? Hey, Greedy, what are you doing?
Ain't doing here? Harper here? And so he hits he

(01:12:46):
bangs me, and I like, I like, look over and
get give Harper the wave. Then I look back and
Doug is right. So Doug, So Harper broke through security. Yeah,
Doug probably should have taken him down on the knees,
don't you think just kind of give rip tackle and
just brought him down secure them.

Speaker 2 (01:13:01):
I think Doug should have been somewhere else, providing security
for areas that needed. This is not primadonna here who
can't be looked at directly in the eye and don't
make contacts location.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
I expect Harper saw West Virginia's up by forty. I'm
gonna get out of here with the track exactly what
it was. Harper was pulling out going. I can't. I've
seen enough of it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
Let me stress again how great Doug is and wonderful.
I was not the one that attacked in that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:22):
Yeah, hoppy, Doug would like to see you though, if
you could make it over there, it's something. Can get
a seat right behind you, all it's unavailable. I get you.
We'll get your seats up there, but not right behind us.
All right, we gotta go. We got together studio, all right,
they got the bizarre coming in here. We're going to
doing bingo live bingo out here just a little bit.
Three guys brought to us by Go Market, a Gomart
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(01:13:45):
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Speaker 2 (01:14:02):
Longer days coming soon. It's almost voting season, Good Time
to Buy.

Speaker 1 (01:14:05):
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to us by Tutors, Biscuit World, Start your Day, the
Homemade Way, two Doors, two Doors, Biscuit by Comac's Business Systems,
keeping West Virginia's business data safe, Syracuse of Syracuse, Syracure
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(01:14:29):
simply don't, won't take no for an answer, and by
Connelly CPA Group, providing value beyond numbers. Special thanks to
producer Jake.

Speaker 2 (01:14:38):
They're in need right now. Two year in coming. Right,
you're end, So you got get all your stuff, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:14:42):
Get your stuff ready for the tax people. We're back
on this side. Monday, we'll recap the Ohio State game
and look ahead off week next week for the World
Champion Mountaineers Finals. That's a lot, it is odd. That's
nice break. Go get a win Saturday. Let's go all right,
we'll be Let's see you