Adam (00:00:01): Ladies and gentlemen, it's the Mean Green Nation Podcast. Welcome to it. Hey, we're still NIT Champs North Texas is I, I think I saw the Dallas Morning. You say it's the biggest championship that North Texas won in 71 years. And the, I was thinking about as I was walking up the stairs to, to sit down and record with Mr. Greg. Goedecker. How you doing on this fine Sunday morning? Greg (00:00:47): I'm doing all right. A little tired. I'm a, I'm, I'm, I'm at my parents' house in the burg. I got the mom. My mom's working on some pancakes for me. So, you know, we're all good. Adam (00:00:58): I mean, yeah, that doesn't sound like a rough life at all. I had pancakes this morning cuz my lovely wife, I was making some so, you know, I think you were joking. I'm thinking Super Secret Nation slack. Hey so what did you give up to be able to go to Vegas, Las Vegas? Well we got three puppies. Now did I give those up? Was it a trade? Did we look at each other and say tit for tat? No, but I went to Vegas and soon after she said, Hey, I wanna get these puppies. And I was like, ah, I guess I can't really say no. Anyway, so we got puppies and so, but you know, it's been waking up in the middle of the night. Good times. They're real cute. You know, so like, hey, shout out. So here's the thing: I have, I'm staring at it over here is is podcasting gear and friend of the show, minging nation.com member Chris Rodriguez, sent that over little donation to the show. (00:02:01): I think in part cuz he was like, yeah, I don't like the way you move that mic around buddy all the time when you do the, the video podcast . The other part was like, Hey, no, just, it's some stuff, quality stuff. We can make the podcast a little bit better. So hey, we appreciate that, you know, it was not asked for, I didn't say, Hey, please donate anything or anything like that. He said just a little donation to the show. So shout out there at the top of the, of the hour. You know, we appreciate that. I'm not using it at the moment cuz like it was bang bang, bang. I got in back home Friday morning, right. You know, after celebrating the win Thursday evening, I got about two hours of sleep, I gotta tell you. Woke up early, got on the plane, slept on the plane, landed back home, immediately went to work. (00:02:46): Also, there was like a tornado watch around here and then played with my kids. They're like, Hey, come on dad, let's watch a movie. And I fell asleep during the movie and then, you know, and then wake up early Saturday and we had, you know, dance class take one kid and then took the kids to a baseball game where it was cold . So I had to buy a lot of gear, but we we're all good. We had a good time. And so just, it's just been one thing after another and in the evening I wanted to watch a little Final Four. I wanna talk about that, talk about FAU for a second before we get into the nitty gritty of North Texas mean green stuff. Now we're here. So that Chris, if you're like, man, I'm not hearing that great mic that I gave you there. I haven't set it up yet, I'll be the next time. Right. So how did you spend the, the hours after winning the N I T? Greg (00:03:38): Well, I talked to you went to bed got up, you know, got like about three and a half hours of sleep. Got up, got everybody ready for, for school. And then as I was driving into work, I put on the Howard Hunts ferry version, that's Howard Hunts. Barry Kai's father , his, his version of higher and higher as I was driving into work and just thinking about the whole season and everything, the Mcca, McCaslin era. And, and so I felt a little emotional, I'm not gonna lie, I did have some tears that came down my face cuz I knew that it was all going to end. So yeah, that was about it. Worked all day Friday, Saturday kid at a soccer game. My son's soccer team is Celtic, so they're, they're green and I have plenty of green to wear. All the other, like, all the other parents are like, look at this family. They're all like decked out coordinated. Mm-Hmm. . I'm, I'm like, well, you know, look at us. So but yeah, it's my wife, her, her grandma's like 94th birthday was yesterday and her dad's birthday was on Friday. So we are down here in the small town of Schulenburg, Texas celebrating with some family. Adam (00:04:58): You know, it is a small town and I, and I think I know two of like the 10 people from Schulenberg, which is crazy. All right, back to it. So hey, F fa f a u went out here. There's two ways to go out, right? In the NCAA tournament. One is just, ah, you got beat whenever everybody kind of forgets about it. And the other is via buzzer beater. So if you wanna make your moment in the NCAA tournament last, get beat by a buzzer beater, you know, and here's the thing, we'll always remember F fa u Beat in the final four, cuz they're gonna always play that Lamont butler pull up jumper to win the game. It won it, it won. Cuz I seen all the highlights. I don't, I didn't even know what I remember Keith smart hitting that jumper, but I just remember like the highlights of it. I'm not my, my time, my memory doesn't go back that far. I don't even know if I was slap. But I seen the highlights of that one. I seen the highlights of Mike Jordan doing the pull up that was not quite a buzzer beater, but classic jumper. He did that. You know, he did a little pull up midrange. He had to, that's gonna be in perfect form. , there's a lot things he said Greg (00:06:14): It's gonna be in the one shining moment. Adam (00:06:16): Oh yeah, definitely. You know, and I mean, there you go. Like, I can go back to not liking F AAU a little bit, you know what I mean? Because I was rooting for him. But in that intellectual way, I was like, look, I want f A U to win. It'll be great greater than Win National Championship. Then we can point to F aau North Texas and even Charlotte and say, look at this, the top of the, of this league that North Texas has been competing in for 10 years now. It's been pretty good. And we got a little due respect at the end. Won all three all three national championships, that prestigious, c b i the n I T and then the, you know, ncaa Well, you know what, like I said, I think going out this way was, you gotta go out, you gotta go out somewhere. Might as well be in an epic moment. What's funny is that John, John L. Davis always makes that bucket, man. It's weird that he got blocked or missed it. It, that he's been making that all year. Well, what are you saying? No, Greg (00:07:14): No, I don't want to go out like that way. Like, I mean, I, if, if that was door Texas, I would've locked myself in a room for about a week and not talked to anybody, not ate anything. Just, just nothing. Like I don't wanna feel that. Adam (00:07:31): No, I mean, yeah, I, I, I don't, I know that they don't wanna feel that I'm saying like, well, you know, , at least it's that like, we're just always remember, you know, Mount Butler, pull up Jumper. Like there's a, again, I, I think Jane, my wife, right? She was saying the same thing. She was like, I guess I didn't really want F AAU to win because I don't really feel anything about them getting beat that way. And that's how I feel. Also, like, I mean, I, I was, I wanted fa you to win, but the basketball fan in me, it was like, man, that was a great comeback and a great bucket. Like I said, form was perfect. You know, he had the jumper head on the side, you know what I mean? Follow through. He said the shot that he's comfortable with. Greg (00:08:17): I didn't want them to win. I Adam (00:08:20): You were rooting against them . It wasn't us busty. Yeah. I mean, I Greg (00:08:25): Don't, I don't, I don't hate them, but I mean, again, it wasn't us. We, we've earned the respect from for our league already. Like Yeah. You, them getting to the Final Four and everything. Yeah. I don't want F AAU to have a national title over us. Adam (00:08:41): No, I, I I get all that. I, I, I mean, like I said, I I, I wanted it to happen maybe intellectually cuz it's a nice round thing. Hey, conference USA won the national championship, the n I t, the cpi. Now you gotta say, you know, they won the N I T C B and then, you know, FAA get to the Final Four, whatever. No, nobody really cares. You know, I, but I, I, I wanted it, but it's the same way that I wanted, I wanted UAB in the final and the n I t final, but when I was sitting there with everybody else, I weren't watching Utah Valley get a bucket. Everybody's cheering, right? Everybody wanted Utah Valley to win. It's not as pretty, it's not as nice or whatever like that. But, you know, whatever. I think there's what your heart wants and then there's what maybe your brain wants. It's sports man makes you do crazy things. So here, here's the thing. It's not gonna happen. We just popped into my brain. What? Let, let's just say Dusty Mace text Jared Mosley is like, Hey, you know, I go coach, I'll go coach up there in Dallas. Would you say? Yes. Like how quickly would you say Yes? Greg (00:09:50): I would've said yes. yesterday. (00:09:55): he's getting, he's gonna get the Lane Kiffin contract, so he's getting like a 10 year deal. Yeah. Right. But at the end of the day, all that really matters for Dusty May is the buyout because it's, it's essentially like a one year rental. Mm-Hmm. because there's gonna be other jobs that open, you know, what does Jim la I think we talked about it before. La Naga at Miami Thunder and Hamilton, Florida State, even the Indiana job. Right? That's probably where he wants to be. Cuz he grew, I mean, he started as a manager under Bobby Knight. Yep. So like, I mean, that's the area where he is from. But yeah, he's gonna get like a 10 year, probably, probably close to maybe $2 million a year, I would suspect Something like that. Adam (00:10:39): That's not bad. Yeah. You know, I always forget, we, we have different levels of listener, right? Like, I think usually we talk, and a lot of the longtime listeners kinda know what we're talking about. But I noticed the N I t wins first podcast after, so we got new listeners. Let me just say, so I'm Adam, this is Greg. Greg, say hi, Greg (00:10:59): . Hi. Adam (00:11:01): And this is the basketball version of this podcast. Usually if you listen to before, you mean there's another guy there. It's Aldo. Aldo usually does the, the football stuff with me. Okay. Well we have Greg on it. Just, it's just a matter of scheduling. And, and I mean, so I just got back from Las Vegas when I was there for the n I T tournament. Greg was at home, so he was watching on TV and you know, we, we podcasted immediately after the game and we talked a lot about Grant McCaslin who at the time we, we strongly suspected like with 99% certain he was leaving Texas Tech that has been confirmed, announced all the other good stuff. I mean, it, it hurt, like I said, it tweaked me a little bit to see him be like, you know, what's up Red Raider day, you know, wreck him and then him walking his little red shirt. I was like, man, yeah, I have to wear red from our, my rec league game. And how, and then they were like, Hey, we're wearing red this weekend. I was like, I can we switch back to green, please. , (00:11:59): We wear green and then we wear Red Red's our alternate. And I'm like, I can't wear this, so I have to wear this red right now and I don't like it. I gotta tell you right now. So, so there you go. I think it's a, it is, I wrote about this, it's time, you know, for a lot of reasons. One of which including, it's just, it's been six years. I think he's ready for the next challenge. I think he won about, about everything that you can win at North Texas. Within reason N I t won it c b I won it. Conference USA regular season titles. You won two of them. Conference USA Tournament, he won it. You know. How about individual awards? Are your players getting any? Yeah, I got a couple guys. Conference USA Player of the Year. (00:12:42): All right, well, is anybody going on Pro? Yeah. Thomas Bell, Mike Miller, Zach Simmons was it Danu I'm trying to think of somebody else that went and they're just off the top of my head. It's four dudes that went pro. They're playing overseas, playing like in, in Britain and whatever, but hey, those are professional basketball players, right? So that's about everything are are these good dudes? Yeah. Do they come back and love the program? Yeah. Look at I can't even think of that name. The little shooter guy. A little white dude shooting that came. DJ Draper. DJ Draper. Yeah. you know, he's, he's his back. He does like the color commentary on the broadcast sometimes. He started Bleed Green with his friend you know, JJ Murray and, you know, lots of people connect with the program. You have all the things that you could want, right? (00:13:35): You, he, he gave you everything that he could possibly get in a program. What, you know, what about connection with the fan base? Yes. Everybody loves the guy with the media. Yeah, they all love the guy. You know, I think he's, he's making his move to Texas Tech mostly for like a professional reason. He wants to win a national championship and he wants to compete. He doesn't want to need to be perfect in the regular season the way you need to be in conference U s usa. And let's be honest, probably in the American too. I, I just, I don't trust him to be like, ah, well you should do a lot of winning. They're gonna find a reason. I, I I really believe if U A B upset F a u, that the tournament selection committee would've found a reason to keep F a U out, you know, f a u the won the final four. Greg (00:14:20): Nah, Adam (00:14:22): would've stuck him in a playing game. Greg (00:14:25): They would've won the playing game. UAB B would've won the playing game. We would've won the playing game. So yeah, f a u was getting in no matter what. So, Adam (00:14:34): So, I mean, I I say all that to, to, to say like, I, I think that, you know I think he liked it here. I think without reading between the lines, I think it's, he didn't like that it was so hard to get a fan base in there. And I don't know, I think there's a lot of factors in it. Just people like attendance declining across the nation in a lot of areas. Everything from movie theaters to basketball to, you know, college football, that people are not going to games as as often. The pandemic in the middle of that you know, you know, inflation, whatever in there, all of it. But Johnny Jones had about 4,500 people at his games. And that those teams, while loved, were not as good, not as complete as these teams. And he just, by the numbers right, 31 wins in history. (00:15:26): And, and this one most in history. And it's hard for him to get people to come out there. And you know, like, I don't know what it is. You know, I, I don't know exactly what it is for each individual person. I think, you know, it, it just, it's kinda like human nature. It's hard. Yeah. You have the best tv. I got 75 inch TV with the fastest internet and I can have all the entertainment in the world at my fingertips and just press it. But I didn't even have to do it and say, Hey, Siri, put on you know, put on some, some Avengers or something. And then, you know, movie comes on, it's amazing. And you're like, I gotta get up and go to the game. I gotta walk over there. You know, just what, whatever. I get it. But then, you know, I I'm saying if you want, if you want a coach you gotta support the coach. And sometimes it ain't money. Sometimes it's just, you know, buy a $10 ticket and sit your butt down for two and a half hours and watching your team win. Greg (00:16:21): Yeah. Well he did look pretty happy when he wa all those pictures and the, and those graphics that they already had in the practice facility. I'm like, man, you can't print those, you cannot print those overnight. They had those there like two weeks ago. Adam (00:16:38): Yeah. He, I mean, his voice is gravelly and I like that. You know, it was like, Hey, this guy was cheering and coaching up last night, huh? I mean, Texas Tech, to their credit, they f they saw a good coach and they hired him. That's what you gotta do. Yeah. And, you know, they're whining and dining them right now. It's the, it's the honeymoon period. Everybody's smiling. They all want to, you know, touch his hand, shake his hand, and they're all dreaming up what he's gonna do over there. And I'm sure he'll be successful because he's a very good coach. He won at Arkansas State, he won before that. And all those JUCO colleges that nobody cares to talk about. And then here at North Texas, right? Same deal. You know, we, we took him from Arkansas State, ah, here. He didn't like the Arkansas State very much. (00:17:21): He didn't like the administration. And so anyway, you know, good stuff. It's probably gonna be Ross Hod, the, the next guy that is, was Grant McCasland's lead assistant. Long rumored to be the guy. And I mean, I don't know, I think I'm cool with it insiders. They all like to say that Ross Hodge was the, the kind guy. There are rumors that Ruben Jones and Scott stayed in the years that they stayed. Cuz I know Ruben Jones is kind of rumored to leave because of Ross Hodge and not Grandma Gaslin, right? Like Grandma Gaslin is a good coach and you know, like leader of the organization in that way. But Ross Hodge was the guy that people really cared about, you know, like, not that they didn't care about, but that, you know, it's that one. And you know, you, you can interpret that whichever way or however you feel about it. But I think that that means something. I know that you heard some rumors about Scott, everybody's recruiting these guys, or just say that off the top. But what have you heard about our top three guys? Greg (00:18:33): I haven't heard anything about Ruben. I'm sure there's other teams recruiting him, but I mean, I think everybody wants to know is like, who is Texas Tech recruiting from this team? And you know, one would be the obvious is Tyler Perry, but I, I think that Tyler Perry's probably gonna try the pro waters over transferring to Texas Tech. I don't, I mean, he may want to go follow Mcca McCaslin, like that's fine, but I think he wants to go pro. And then the other one is, is Aaron Scott. Like, I think I've heard that Texas Tech was trying to, to bring him on board. Adam (00:19:11): I mean, I, I can see that like Grant McCasland said about Aaron Scott, I think it is after his freshman year, that he could be one of the best all time at North Texas. And I was like, ah, man, that's high praise for a guy I ever seen. Like two points a game, , I don't know. Well you see, but you know, he like Mac says all the time Yeah, if they, people saw how we practice and the way we practice, like he's made some amazing plays in practice, right where he'll go. And I think he told the story after to me after the Middle Tennessee game. He's like, this is one time Aaron Scott was over on the right side and he flew all the way over the, across the court, you know, from the top of the key all the way down to the bottom. (00:19:50): I made the most spectacular block to ever seen in practice. Right? So he comes out here and makes a block in against middle. Yeah, I've seen that before, right? Because he's done more spectacular things to practice. So it makes sense that you're looking at Aaron Scott and then trying to get him to I guess a, a bigger shinier please more with more money, all that other good stuff. So I, I had heard that late in the game, a group of donors got together, reached in their sofas, pulled out some change, and was like, Hey, we can get up to 2.2. Mr. McCasland, would that sway you from moving out to Lubbock? And he was like, no, I already kind of made the commitment, blah, blah, blah. All right. So I would say, look, look, you got that 2.2, whatever you got, deep in your sofa, found some coins, find a couple hundred thousand or whatever. Consider donating that to the N I L collective right now. There's the one, it's Light The Tower Collective: secretive organization, shadow organization. And you can, you know, help to ensure that these guys, I mean, they'll be like, well, they're already getting money. Yeah, give 'em a raise. They won a national championship. , they win the N I t right? National Invitation Tournament. You know, if there's ever a time to raise up the donation I mean now now's it, right? Greg (00:21:15): Yeah. So a lot to unpack there. All right? You had the donors come in late in the game to try and sway Mcca McCaslin, right? I think if you have that offer right as the season ends, like he's probably staying in Denton and he's not talking to Texas Tech, but because he committed to them like it, it felt more emotional than like tactical or a sound decision. Just like, Hey, don't go, here's all this money type of thing. And at that point, who knows what discussions that grant might have had with Ross? Might maybe Grant, you know, knew that Ross was gonna be offered the job at that point and he didn't want to go back. Because then if you, if you're Ross like, how do you feel like I'm about to be offered this head coaching job? And now they've come in and said, no, no, no, you're not getting it because we want to try and keep Mcca McCaslin, right? (00:22:08): So it's a, it's a tricky thing to play there. The other thing about where you're talking n i l money is like looking at a Texas text roster, they spent close to 2.2 million on their N I L just for basketball players alone. Mm-Hmm. . And they had a lot of quality players. So you can make that money go pretty far for a basketball team like North Texas. Now, I, you don't have to spend the $2 million on n I L stuff, right? If if we, even if you spent probably less than a million on a couple players that you brought in, you could put together a really quality mid-major program. Like, I mean, really quality program. And then the other thing would be is that, you know, if Ross Hodge is the guy and what is his salary gonna be like, it's not gonna be like you're, you know, they're not gonna offer him the $2 million deal. (00:23:04): It's probably gonna be closer to what McCaslin is making now or was making before he left the Texas Tech. So his base salary was like 800,000. So maybe somewhere in the range of like 700,000 is, is his base salary. But increase the assistant pool. And I tweeted it out yesterday, like follow the Eric Mo Morris model that football had, give him a large assistant pool, let him bring in quality guys and you know, build an a plus staff, right? Because it one rule that's coming out in college basketball is you can add two additional assistant coaches to your bench. They can't go out and recruit but can add two more assistants. So that gives you a total four assistants plus the head coach. So I mean, we, he, there's different, different ways we can make that money go. And I think you kind of have to spread it out instead of just going in one specific area. Adam (00:24:01): Yeah. I think at this level there's a lot of, you know, a lot of holes of plug. I was thinking about that with Dusty May, you know, , he came up with that, that article and was like, yeah man, I wanted to quit. The facilities were terrible. That's also a way like, you know, now that I have everybody looking at me and everybody loves me, how about we go fix these facilities, man, you know, this locker room sucks. Yeah, that sucks. This, I wanted to quit. And you know, I I think it's, it's one, it's a little, you know, heartwarming. Wow, what a journey for these guys. But it's also you know, like a way to tell the donors and everybody, no, I really need a basketball facility over here, man. Yeah. I gotta fix this up cuz it sucks. And you know, it's, it's the similar thing here is like, I don't know that like we could've, we don't have enough money. (00:24:49): We meaning like that the, the school and the donors and all that other stuff to give him, to give our head coach the, the Texas Tech experience, right? We're not gonna be able to give you $2 million for N I l a a $20 million practice facility, a new arena you know, and then, you know, 10,000 people in the stadium every, every night. We just don't have that yet. And so it's, we had Grant mcg Gasson when we had him and he leaves. And then here's the thing about building a program, right? Is that it has to keep going beyond one or coach, right? There's been a lot of programs that are basically one coach, right? Like Mike Zeki you know the, the dude from Syracuse, I can't think of his name right now. Greg (00:25:37): Fe Hiim. Adam (00:25:38): Yeah. Geez, I'm terrible. But then, you know, there's some that are like our programs and some of this is a little bit like both, right? Mark F has been at Gonzaga for a thousand years, but in the, in the couple years before that, it was another guy, then he left, right? And then whatever Mark you picked it up and kept it going. There's a lot of factors that make a program keep going. It's a lot of it's consistent investment. It's I think a lot of it is care. If you care, you're gonna do the little things like show up to this, show up to that, encourage this guy, encourage that guy and you know, like I said, make it a great place to work, right? If you're the coach and you have to come into a dingy little office, yeah. You're gonna be looking for a way out, right? (00:26:17): If you come in and you're like, this office is great the fans are great, the donors are great, and all those things they have to do, I gotta do the coaches show. It's great, you know, it's fun. Everybody, you know, it, it's, there's no part of my life that sucks then that's good, right? If, if you're like, you know, it's just, just toxic or it's nobody shows up, then nobody showing up is worse. Right? The toxic that can be changed, you're like, yo, I just man, people are over a little too obsessed, but the man I'm here and else is here, it's just me and like that guy that yeah, what am I doing out here? You know? I mean, I wanna go with some where people care. So I think, I think that's important. And those are the things like I, I mentioned that cuz that's where you can start out people, right? (00:26:57): That's where you can, like, I don't got a million dollars. I can't do nothing. Just show up. Show up. Yeah. So, and that's the thing is that like, I know some people couldn't, right? They're like, oh, I went to the conference tournament and I was, I didn't plan, I I couldn't get out there. And then everybody said, well I'm gonna turn that energy, you know, into a, a tailgate party or a watching party at, at one of the various places friend of the show, Tony DeSouza you know, he threw one cuz he couldn't get outta work. He was, he was trying to get his, trying to get his boss to get him outta there. Yeah, sometimes circumstances, right? That's fine. But it can't be just like, well Tony's not there, therefore nobody's there, right? Like, there has to be more than just him. (00:27:36): And so, you know, and Tony said everything. So like, you know, everybody had a good time at those watch parties. Round of applause. Like that's the kind of thing I would've liked to see in Vegas. And again, it's not pointed to any one people, but it's the entire group. We as North Texas didn't show up with the same number of people as Wisconsin did. And if like, well Wisconsin is a national brand, alright, well they had two thirds of the arena and we had like a, you know, a third of the section there. Maybe we could have had two sections, right? Can we, can we say that we're not a national brand, but we're a very good basketball team for six years? Did that win enough fans to maybe get to Las Vegas to get two sections? Like, ah, well how about maybe, you know, a section and a half, something like that. You know what I mean? Like, there's a little bit there. And that's what I'm saying is like, it can't be Wisconsin, okay? It can't be two-thirds, it can't be that side of the arena and then this side of the arena. But can we get half of one side, you know? Greg (00:28:29): Okay, well we, we brought more fans than what uab right? Adam (00:28:33): Yeah. Uab didn't bring nobody. Greg (00:28:36): Did. And what was our fan base compared to Utah Valley? Adam (00:28:40): Utah Valley had a strong contingent for the semi-final. I think we were more than them. We had more than them. But it was hard to tell cuz they were wearing like the same green as we were wearing. Oh Greg (00:28:50): Yeah, yeah, that's Adam (00:28:51): True. That's true. And I actually, but I mean, accidentally walked, almost walked to the tailgate. Cause I was like, is this, I was like, oh wait, we don't have a Bear claw. Wait, where am I? Lemme get outta here. Greg (00:28:59): . Okay, so I mean, well what can you say about uab because they've been more of a national program. Like, I mean, they were better when we were going through the shit that was Tony Benford. Yeah. And they were winning NCAA tournament games. They were winning conference u s a championships and then, you know, they had a, a brief downfall, but it wasn't, it wasn't like a Tony Benford type of downfall. And then they brought in Andy Kennedy. So I mean, they're, they're going through the same struggles like that. I mean, and that's more of a basketball program than we've ever been. Adam (00:29:33): Yeah. I'm gonna, I'm gonna look at it again. I'm looking at this section and I see there's not a lot of people there. You can see in the stands, I'm looking through my own pictures that it, again, it's kind of hard to tell because UAB B wears a green and they also wear like black and it's kind of hard to tell. But yeah, there's a smattering of fans hit and there, there it, you know, there was some, there was a lot of Wisconsin fans there too that stayed the whole week and they were like, I'm gonna watch the game. There were a couple of Iowa fans that had first road tickets here behind me, behind like the media bench and they were watching it. Greg (00:30:08): Because, because they couldn't afford the final four tickets. Did you see like how the, the price of the Women's Spinal four versus the men's spinal four? Adam (00:30:16): Yeah. It's ridiculous. I mean was, you know, I read something that was interesting about that that said one thing that, that the, the women's Final Four has done is not do anything, right. Caitlin Clark has been Caitlin Clark at Iowa for four years. You got time to build up her legend. A lot of people are coming onto her now, but she's been there. And so it's like building a, a little legend, you know, there for a while. I think credit to Joey Walker for staying at UAB for two seasons. He ate like the Barstow guys excited about him, but you know, if he left and he goes somewhere else, you kind of lose that little momentum there. That the women's game, there's not a lot of transfer portal activity or as much and you know, it's a little bit more old school men's college basketball in that way, right? You can kind of understand who a team's gonna be for a little bit and then follow 'em and then that, that, you know, creates excitement and investment. I mean, I don't know any of these dudes in San San Diego state tell you the truth, you know what I mean? There's a lot of 'em like you find out this year, but, you know, Greg (00:31:19): Well that's cuz you didn't stay up late watching Mountain West basketball. Adam (00:31:23): Yeah, yeah. But like, I mean like F a U had just a bunch of dudes, like I knew who they were because, you know, we're watching doing conference USA stuff, but I couldn't say anything. Like if you're like, I'm a national guy, why should I watch F A U? I'm like, I don't know. They're just little, I didn't understand that. There's a lot of guys that are just guys, what I mean, you know, like, I don't know. And you know, they're, they're good on the night, but I don't know, like they're just some guys and they're gonna finish like fifth in conference, you'll say, I don't know. I don't know that you really need to know any of 'em. Yeah, anyway, that was the interesting thing about the, what you call it thing. Sorry, my, my daughter just walk up here and looking at me like what's going on? And I told her there's pancakes downstairs. So anyway, so, so there's that. We can show up we can support our team, you know, they're gonna have a good squad. Don't wait till it happens. Go in anticipation of it happening, you know, I'm like, ah, wait, I'll wait till they win a national championship and then, and then maybe I'll get some, you know, bleacher seats at this, at the pit Greg (00:32:27): . Yeah. I mean, look, it's an important off season for the athletic department because you want to keep this momentum rolling into next year, right? If, if you're Mosley and, and his crew is like, okay, we, we won the N it championship, how can we parlay that into bigger crowds, right? And I mean, one of it, one of those things is, is a guy like Ross Ho and keeping the momentum going. But the other thing is like, okay, now how did we get those fans that watched the game at these watch parties at home to the game that are posted Yeah. That are posted on their Facebook page. Like, Hey, look at my school. We won. Okay, okay, now go show up. Like how do, how do we, how do we make that happen? Adam (00:33:10): You know, one thing that I think is cool, and I talk about this all time, so I'm leaving Chait's Arena here in state Louis, and then there's a little party bus there taking you to patios or wherever, right? The various bars and things are like, hey, yeah, well you can come pre-game at our bar and then we'll drop you off in time for the game and when the game's over, we'll be waiting for you, you hop on the bus and then we'll drive back to the bar. I don't know that that's a thing right now at the Super Pit or they'll even allow 'em to do it. But I know that's a thing that I would've taken part of if I were 22 or at 21. You know, like that's the time. Go do a little drinking and have some fun and you know, you get inappropriate amount of lubrication before the game and then, you know, , that's it. (00:34:07): I, I don't know. It's little things like that that I think that everybody can make the game day experience a little bit better. But yeah, there, there's, I understand why businesses are not doing it cuz it's not a thing. You're like, yeah, there's like 3000 people in there want to spend money on this bus. I gotta pay this bus driver. He's gotta go out there. I mean, somebody's gonna be a little too drunk. Why am I dealing with that? For what? For what? An extra $20. I, I get why, why? That's not the thing, but hey, I just tell you right now just go to the games. Just make it a, make it a thing. Like any good habit you have to start doing it and then you just keep doing it, right? It's a thing. I bought season tickets after I graduated and I would go to them and it was a good time. (00:34:48): And then I can tell you there's sometimes I didn't want to go. I was like, you know, I don't feel like getting ready kind just want to stay here in my in in my basketball shorts just kicking in on on, on the sofa here. But I was like, you know what? I bought, I about to take somewhere to go. I go to the game, watch 'em play like a f FIU or something, you know? And it's a good time. You, you have a good time. And if you did, just give 'em away. I don't know. It's, it's the thing you have to like basketball. And I encourage you, try to like basketball, don't listen to everybody else and don't listen to hot sports opinion. Just appreciate what basketball is. Basketball's a fun game. It's exciting. If you like soccer, you like, you can like basketball, it's the same thing. If you like hockey, you can like basketball, it's the same thing. You know, there's a lot of drama associated with it. A lot of many things happening within one game. You know, individual between the bigs, individual battles between the guards combination battles where, you know, people are running a two man game. This ends up basketball's a great game and I encourage you to, to go watch it. Go watch a very good program play basketball. (00:35:54): Greg's nodding right now. He forgot it was a podcast, . Greg (00:35:59): It's it's your podcast. It's not my podcast. Adam (00:36:02): You forgot. It's a podcast you can't nod. Nobody knows what that, they can't hear you nod unless you like nod violently. Like hit, hit the, the wall. Greg (00:36:10): Well, there is silence after a long Adam monologue. It's usually because I'm nodding Adam (00:36:16): . Sorry, my, my daughter's trying to get snuggle with me now. All right, so Greg, what, what are the major decisions? I, I like, I think to me it's secure. Aaron, Scott, Ruben Jones and Moula is Soko. Cause I think those three guys are gonna be coveted by other programs. And then I think once you do that you can look at fill in the spot that Kai Hunts Barry and Tyler Perry are leaving. Greg (00:36:47): Yeah, I mean here's the thing. Ross ho Hadd that I know I sent it to you and I know it's been posted on the go mean green interwebs and all over and I watched it last year, but there's an interview with the Heat check guys with Ross Hodge and, and he talks about building a roster and transfer portal and kind of comparing it to when he was a junior college coach and saying, you know, hey, when you're a JUCO coach, you know, the transfer portal was like every single year, like how you built your roster was you sat down with your coaches at the end of the season and was like, okay, well what do we want to be, what do we want to look like? It was a change from year end to year out, right? So I think for him, if he is the guy, the first thing is like finding the staff and then deciding on, you know, what exactly do we want to be. (00:37:38): Now he might have in his head already what he wants to be and so he can reach out to some players, right? I know we're a little bit behind in timing of building a roster. A and so like that communication with transfer guys really hasn't happened over the past week cuz they're gonna lose the two assistant coaches are gonna follow MCCA McCaslin. So Brayer and ac, those two guys are going with Mcca McCaslin at Texas Tech. So Raj is gonna, Ross is gonna have a whole new staff. So yeah, once he gets a staff and they kind of decide on exactly what their roster, you know, then go out and find those guys and there's a ton of people in the portal still and you can build a roster very quickly. Look at like Kansas State, what they did last year with Tang, you know, he came in near the end and you know, they got the a roster built that took him to an Elite Eight. (00:38:34): So I'm not saying we're gonna build an Elite eight roster, I'm just saying you can do it very quickly and, and build things. So I wouldn't say if you're a fan, like, oh, we have to go out and find the next Tyler Perry. Oh, we have to go out and find the next Kai Berry. Not exactly. We gotta find, you know, we, we don't know yet what Ross wants to build. Like is he gonna build around Ruben and Aaron Scott? Like is the offense gonna be dictated more to Ruben's characteristics, the things that he does well because I mean, what does Ruben do well? Is he get, he gets out and run, he plays at a great fast pace and, and we haven't been that. So those are some of the, the decisions to come. So again, I wouldn't tie yourself down on, you know, hey we gotta find this specific player because really it's like, well what's type of specific player? Does Ross Hodge won in his system? Adam (00:39:28): Yeah. And I think if hopefully Ross Hodge has picked up and I think, I mean he has right? We just haven't seen it in practice that from, from his time with Grant here is that Grant came in with an idea of what he was gonna be and that changed a little bit, right? They, they famously changed to a team that values every possession slowed down a lot and they won a lot of games that way. I think they both came in saying, yeah, they, they like to pace, they wanna hurry up and sprint five out and everybody kind of touched ball shoot motion offenses, that and the other. And what they found was that they'd have a lot of success doing it this other way. And so I think, you know, it, it'd be kind of silly to abandon something that's won you so much. But I think, I think the answers to maybe tweak it cuz there's been times where you're like, eh, you know, we, if we had a few more possessions or we had a different way of playing, then maybe we'd have more wiggle room or maybe a way to, to do this or that or put, wouldn't put us in a, or put ourselves in in such a, a bind sometimes. It it's Greg (00:40:29): Kind of like playing the way that they played in the N I T, right? Because they, they, they took more opportunities to run when they were there. Like they, they tried to push the pace mm-hmm. and to create things off the fast break. Like that's what I want to see. But I'm, I'm with you with like the change of pace. I think a lot of that had to do with like the, the talent level of the player that you have. Like if Ross is able to go out and get higher talented players then we've had before under Macon, well then you can, you can get more possessions in a game, right? You can play a faster pace, the possessions won't matter, but what if you're gonna continue to recruit the same type of individuals that are, you know, under recruited Chip on the shoulder type of guys. You wanna keep that slower pace. You want lower number of possessions, right? You want, if you're gonna get higher efficiency guys, will, the slower the game, the less possessions help you out if you have those type of individuals. Adam (00:41:27): Yeah, I mean, and I think that's a mark of a good coach is that you don't have one rigid system in trying to put, you know, different guys in your system. You, you tweak your system, you adapt it, you coach this group of players, right? And I think Hodge and McLin is together as a team have done a great job of doing that kind of thing, right? Like they came in and they broaden in you and you said that thing, who do we wanna be? You know, they lost Thomas Bell who was tough, talented defensively, but you know, he's limited offensively, right? I think he's added to his game in the pros, but he, he didn't really have a handle. He's not a shooter. And so what you can do with him, like, you know what his best skillset is maybe thrown into him in the post and then he can kind of do there. (00:42:13): So to do that you gotta slow the ball the, the game down a lot. Same thing with like DREZ and who else did we lose? A couple of other other guys. It's a lot of it like, you know, he's good in a set offense where he can come off a couple screens, catch shooting three. That's the offense that that that makes this team the best that's run that when he had he had Kai Hunts, Barry, Jayden, Martinez so SoCo and, and I'm missing one Edie, those guys are known for their shooting ability. You can see some of their highlights. They're getting out and running, catching, shooting on the run. And the idea was maybe we'd lose a little bit defensively, but we're gonna be able to shoot a little bit more, get out in a break a little bit more and be a little bit more dynamic. (00:42:59): And now that wasn't always true and I think like Martinez had to play a lot more of the five than I think anybody want expected him to. But they kind of tried to get a little five out. He shot a lot, he did some good things. Ededie got hurt late in the season and that kind of took away a lot of stuff. But he was still tough. He was still a defensive player. He wasn't quite the shooter of the score that he was a little bit earlier in the season. And Kai Husk I think we were all like, I don't know, he can score in division two, but division one buddy, let's see what's going on. And then he's, he's scoring at a ridiculous pace. Yeah, yeah. Greg (00:43:32): I mean, yeah, when, when we were making a run in conference play, it, it was Kai Hunts Barry, that was the big component of that. That was kind of the, the change that happened during the year was like, you know, he became more confident in himself. He wasn't, you know, trying to, he didn't look unsure when he was playing. I know a lot of people highlighted that it was, you know, hunts Barry would be at the top of the key and like looking for somebody to pass the ball to instead of creating offense. And then once we got into the middle of conference play, he wasn't doing that. He was creating offense, he was finding guys open and he was finishing at the rim. And so, I mean he just, he he really grew up and I mean he was a great player and, and then like when we brought in Hunts, Barry, like you said, he was the one for being a scorer, not a defender. He wasn't great as a defender early on in the season, but as the season progressed, he got really good at defending. Adam (00:44:29): Yeah. He, I say he held Jelly Walker to 21 points and then matched him with his own 21 points. I think that was just an epic performance there. I'll remember that for a long, long time. Cuz you know, he was a primary defender and then at times the primary score a lot. So, you know, you mentioned him kind of get in more comfortable. I think a lot of that was, you know, the, the political dynamics of a team, right? You come to a team, you're like, yeah, I was known as a score and this is kind of how I would do it, but I know this is not my team. I'm new here and I know you're the dude Tyler Perry, so you know, like I'm trying to play off you and kind of defer to you and you know what they needed. (00:45:10): They're like, yeah, we brought you in to do your thing, so you gotta do your thing. And once they figured out a combination in the partnership, they were dynamic. I, I think I I talked about it on the post-game podcast from the hotel was at like, I think in their last, they were averaging like 30 something points a game, 40 points a game. They Perry Hunts bury combination, they carried the squad, they were primary scores. And a lot of that was like, you go score now I get the ball, I go score. And the, and the defense had nothing, you know, they couldn't isolate or concentrate on one or two of those guys. So, you know, it was a great, obviously 30 31 wins and I teach that title second in the, in the conference. Of course it was a great time, right? (00:45:53): Of course it was a lot of success. Good players. So going back to it, right? That's the thing. Who do you want to be? Says, says Ross Hodge probably right now and he's putting together who do I want to be? And then he puts together a staff and then asked the staff who do we want to be? And I think to their credit, they picked up, he was part of the group that picked up Hunts, Barry and Ededie and Martinez and Sooki. All those guys contributed a ton. They went four for four I think on that. And everybody said maybe Hunts Barry and it wasn't Suo earlier and Martinez was not as good late, but I think four out of four on those transfers, that was huge, huge pickups. And so you're right, yeah, you can transform your team and they can be part, they can fit into your team easily and then go out there and win. So Soko probably stays if you know at all. Like it matches up the coin on keep that And I, I'm a big fan of his. I thought he did great. Yeah, I think you need a backup five cuz I think us man's leaving. Greg (00:46:50): Yeah. Yeah. I don't everything that I've heard seen is that Uzman will not be back next year. So yes, you do, you do need to back up five. I mean you have what's Morgan who's been there who hasn't, you know, he is the young kid from the Dallas area that, you know, has a lot of offensive potential, but I think that he didn't get to play because of the defensive stuff. Mm-Hmm. . Then you have, you know, the young point guard Christian Moore who I've, I've been very high on and, and I want to see, I don't know if he can be the starting point guard next year, but I think like he's gonna play a, a pretty big role in what this team is. Adam (00:47:31): He, he was a garbage time allstar there for a little bit, you know, , Greg (00:47:35): He was a garbage time Allstar all year when we did have garbage time. Yeah, right. I mean he, I used a pretty good shooter and you see like just from the bits and pieces of him playing at the end of games, you see the potential there of like a dude that can get into the middle of a defense and create for other people and has the ability to knock down and open three. And that, that kind of carries along the line of having a high efficiency team. Like if you're gonna play a slow temple, you wanna have a dude laid in the shot clock that can get into the middle of the lane and get shots for other people and, and then hit threes like he did. So, and then, I mean yeah, Matthew Stone and, and really for stone, like he's not gonna be a starter next year. There's, there's just no way we, but you hope that he gets better at knocking down the open threes, right? He, whether it's a mental thing or not, like he, he has the potential to be like a good role player off the bench, right? Like, because he hustles plays hard, but I mean there's still some, some pieces there missing to, to his game, you know, gotta work on that. That half court shot, that was pretty bad. That was the, that was pretty bad. Adam (00:48:52): Well, I mean, yeah like, like, you know, and again, we're just a couple guys, right? But I think Matt Stone, if he can develop that standstill three point shot, you can make himself a weapon. And you say cuz he has, he hustles, he plays tough defense and he'll rebound. Those are things that'll keep you on the court. And if you had yourself make yourself a threat being a shooter, you can play big minutes and maybe you're not, you know, like and all the this, these other things. Can he jump out the gym? Does he have the great greatest handle? No, but he can shoot, he can play. He's a three and D guy right? And he go out there and rebound. I think that that kind of stuff can keep you on the court for a long time. And I mean that's basically what Aaron Scott was doing for a while. Like just staying still three and then he just adds all this athleticism to it. Greg (00:49:41): Yeah. And then you have the, the freshman that's coming in, Alex Scott, who's a a six five wing guy, didn't play a lot this year in high school cuz he was injured. But I mean he really burst onto the scene last year with his outside shooting ability and his ability to play defense as well too. So, you know, I, I think he's still going to, you know, he signed his letter of a tent. I don't know if he's gonna ask to be released from that so that he could go to Texas Tech, but I, I think like he ends up at, at North Texas and that's like, I, I expect him to play next year. Like, I expect him to be like a, a Ruben Jones when he was a freshman, like an Aaron Scott when he was a freshman, to earn some, you know, quality minutes. Because we're gonna need dudes that can score. And if you got a six five wing guy can score. Right. There's, there's not a lot of those in college basketball. Adam (00:50:31): No, that's a, there's a place for you there. Yeah. So I mean, I think college basketball's led by the, by the elder statesmen, so to speak. You know, there's just a lot of situations where you have to keep your head or understand this, that and the other. And like, truly special freshmen are usually just so talented that you can't keep 'em off the floor. But I think there's, there, you know, there's times where then they kind of run up against somebody that just kind of, it's a little more Wiley. Yeah. A little bit more of a veteran and they can kind of stymie them for a little bit before. Greg (00:50:59): Yeah. I mean, a great example of that is Duke versus Tennessee this year. Like where you had Tennessee had like all the old guys that, you know, are playing ball at the park and duke was a bunch, a bunch of young, fresh faces and, and they beat 'em. Right? Or, or Duke lost to 'em. So, but you know, getting back to your point about freshmen in college basketball, we didn't see a ton of impact freshmen like we used to be. It used to be like, during the early part of the one and done years, it was like Kevin De Durant type of players coming in, making impact in year one for a team, take 'em far in the tournament and then it was done. Now what the transfer portal is done is that all these coaches are valuing experience over brother, a high school freshman coming in mm-hmm. because you, you, you know what the experience dude is capable of bringing, you're not a hundred percent sure of what the freshman guy's picking. Adam (00:51:55): Yeah. Yeah. So I, you know, like, that's the thing. It's like, I think, I think there's value in getting a high school guy and bringing 'em along in your program. But it's, it is risky for the coaches. Cause like, I don't know, I'm gonna spend time, effort developing them for a little bit. He doesn't leave or, you know, if he doesn't get plenty of time, if I don't pick the right guy, this, that, and the other, and then scholarships are valuable. You wanna, you wanna spend him on the right, the right guy, the right guy for your program. That's like Tyler Perry likes being in Denton and then like, you're like, yeah, well Denton's not as, as as attractive ass like a Miami, but you know, then Tyler Perry said on, on this show. Yeah, I mean, I don't really like, I don't really like Las Vegas. He said Las Vegas not my kind of place. I like a cookout. . So, you know you have to figure out what it is that this player likes and nephew fits your program. Not every place needs to be downtown in you know amongst, you know, in, in New York or something like that. Some people want to future pace, want something quiet. Greg (00:52:54): Just thinking about it. I mean, we have what, six open scholarships? Adam (00:52:59): Yeah. Greg (00:52:59): That, that, that's, you know, half of a roster. Adam (00:53:02): Yeah. I mean that's the thing is that six of 'em, you can't get a whole squad old starting five plus a bench guy, but six, Greg (00:53:09): Oh, I'm sorry. It's, it's seven because Perry Uzman, ed Martinez Zeer who transferred mid-year Brown and Hunts Barry, Adam (00:53:22): I like it. There's opportunity at North Texas. It's a good program. They have winning tradition now. And you can, you, you, you got room, we have openings to come in here and win some games and to, to be the guy. Again, I look at it, I think Perry's gonna leave. I think everybody feels like Perry's gonna leave. And so I think you need a a a, a top scorer Hunts. Berry's gonna leave. I think you need a secondary score. And now, like we said last year, right? You can go back and read what we said about come this year and we're, we're mostly right. It's like you need a guy to handle the ball. You need a secondary ball handler to give that guy a break. You need a primary score and then you need somebody that can take the pressure off him and can score a little bit. (00:54:02): Right? That's a Hunts berry. We didn't know that was gonna be Hunts Barry. We didn't know who that was gonna be. It could be any combination of guys. And you know, like last year it was Thomas Bell had the high usage rate, right? That was your, that was your four man this year. It's Tyler Perry, Kai Hunts Barry, that's your one and two guards, right? It can be different. And then you need, you need a big, I like so Soko as that big. We're losing Usman, which is tough cuz you know, he is very good. It's, you need a backup guy, you know? And, and I think ideally is there, you recruit a guy that can make soo put, put him on the bench, right? you, you build depth by pushing your starters down. I think, you know what I mean? Like that's the way you want to do. (00:54:45): I want to get a better guy than I got now and push my starter level dude to the, you're like, wow, that's kind of rough. That's what F fa u did. Mike Forrest was the starter last year. He got moved to the bench cuz you know, they had a few more talented dudes in there and that builds Yeah. Builds their whole squad. So I think, I think that's important. I'd like to see, you know, like Aaron Scott Aaron, I like to see another Aaron Scott type dude. You know, cuz Aaron's he's in his third year right now. Yeah, next year's gonna be his fourth year. Maybe you get a guy to come in and learn from him the way Aaron Scott learned from like Thomas Bell, where in practice you can say, we need you to do what Thomas Bell's doing every time. And then he's like, okay. You know, like you can kind of build that culture of working hard, all that stuff. So I, I think finding a guy like that to learn from an Aaron Scott right now is, is the time. Greg (00:55:36): Yeah. You wanna find guys that can learn from Aaron Scott and Ruben Jones and pass it on. And so like, I think we had this conversation offline where, you know, I was thinking like maybe the dudes that we bring in have some extra years. Like you're not bringing in a transfer who has just one year left. You're bringing in a transfer who has, you know, two years left so they can pass it on to the next dude. Mm-Hmm. at the same time, you know, you're losing seven guys, you're gonna need some experienced dudes in the locker room. Right. So if you can bring in an ED or a Martinez type of dude who's been around played four or five years, you know, those guys are gonna be valuable as well too. Adam (00:56:18): Yeah. Yeah. You, you need the, the right mix of veterans and and, and talent. Yeah. You need, somebody's like, no, this is the way it's done. And so they calm everybody down and then somebody with fresh ideas to say, I don't care how it's done cuz I'm gonna do it this way, to, to break them mold a little bit. Greg (00:56:35): And we say all this and the good thing is that Bros Hodge has experience doing exactly what we said. Adam (00:56:40): Yeah. Greg (00:56:41): Like he has experienced building rosters. Adam (00:56:43): Yeah. I think they, they did a great job and you know, so we got these guys and like, I can see how they fit. It's kind of hard to tell that you know, where exactly they'll be, where exactly they'll go. I did not have SoCo Bean, the number one center starting center and basically handedly bullying Wisconsin, Oklahoma State. And then we, we said, you know, you gotta think about teams like UAB B and Trey Jimerson and they got, they got a lot of bigs and athletes in there and he beat 'em. Right. He was in there battling with them and he, he held his own North Texas out rebounded UAB b in that game in the, in the championship game. And that's, that's a lot on mu soko that, that was a great pickup just for that piece there, right? Yeah. and like I said, and Martinez too, right? Like we, he came in as a shooter. He did a lot of that early. He got hurt, he was working his way back kind of time right now, but I think he had nice minutes in the n I T tournament. He didn't play as well in, in the championship game as that he did in the semi-final versus Wisconsin. But he had a nice putback dunk . That was nice. Greg (00:57:49): Yeah. I mean he came in as a shooter and everybody thought like the, the pick and pop stuff with Tyler Perry was just gonna like take off and it, Adam (00:57:57): It had its Roberts type things. Yeah. Greg (00:57:59): Yeah. It had its moments like, I mean we, we don't beat f FIU on the road without Jayden Martinez. Yeah. But where Martinez really excelled throughout the year was his defensive ability. Like I thought he was excellent as a defensive sub. Whenever Uzman came out, the defense actually got a little bit better and he was a great rebounder. Like he came in, he blocked, he blocked dudes out. He got a lot of rebounds. So like maybe he wasn't the guy that we thought he was gonna be, but that doesn't mean that he didn't have a huge impact on the team. Adam (00:58:30): Yeah. And then Yeah, he did. He did. He was one of those subtle guys. Like, again, Tyre, Edie super tough. He had a broken wrist and he's out there. There's one time the ball's going to his right side, his broken wrist side, and he puts it behind his back and then puts his left hand up to try to rebound it with just one. He, he got the rebound. And then, I mean, yeah, that, that's just you know, you're talking about like tough and gritting through it. That's, that's what he did. And then Ruben Jones, he came back from an injury rehabbed it, came back and was you know, the all around kind of contributor that you need on a basketball team. Somebody that does a little bit, that covers multiple roles. Ball hander, handler, he had, he had some of the best passes of the season defender slasher score, fast rate, dude, rebounder, he, he did a little bit of everything. He hit a three to open the game. I, I'd like to see more Ruben Jones. I think you could build a team run that's Ruben Jones. I think Rubens can still get 15 to 20 points a game. Especially if he's keeps adding that, that jumper to that jumper that he has. He can get to the rim almost anytime he wants. He got ripped once by a jelly walker, but that was kind of a weird possession. I I, yeah, Greg (00:59:51): That was, yeah, that, that, keep going, keep going. That was a weird possession. Adam (00:59:55): Yeah. that I, I like him scoring 50. I think you could build a team around him. And so like I said, we need a primary score. Maybe we have that on the squad and maybe we just get a secondary score. I don't know, like, I think Hodge and, and they'll have some conversations and they'll, they'll figure out something. I think you gotta bring a guy in that can do it just to keep the guy honest, right? Like that's, you need, you always need competition internally to prepare you for competition externally. Greg (01:00:21): Here's the thing is like if you build a team around Reuben Jones, who's a great dude to come off the bench and not and be the Reuben Jones after him, it's Christian Moore. Yeah. Like they're Moore is not the same Heightwise, right? He's not six five and he's not gonna guard, you know, the great players. But his game is similar to Ruben Jones offensively. Like you, you see the little pieces here of him, like we've mentioned before, getting in in the lane, you know, he is left-handed can hit the three. So like I think if, if we're gonna do that, we're gonna build around Ruben, you're gonna see the faster pace and you're gonna see dudes that aren't like probably more athletic at cutting to the basket because where Ruben excels and then we keep saying this, it's just like he has great, he has great vision passing ability. So you want dudes that are able to get open. And I felt like a lot of times this years, you know, we had guys that just stood around the perimeter instead of cutting to the basket. Yeah. Like if, if you get open and you cut to the basket, Ruben's gonna find you. Adam (01:01:27): Yeah. I, I mean I, I'm already getting excited about next season. I think it's gonna be a tough, it's gonna be a tough conference. The American is tough, but I think it's gonna help recruit better players. Cuz you gotta say, Hey, you gotta go play against in Memphis you gotta get play against the F A u went to the final four, come to Denton. Right. You know, like if, you know, maybe, maybe you thinking about going this way that way. Come here, you can win a national championship here. It's not unreasonable. You can be the number one team in the nation here. It's not unreasonable, et cetera, et cetera. Right. You can really sell the program at this point for the right kind of guy. You know, I think everybody else is selling everybody else on, on this sort of the same things. But there's that next tier of dudes that are very good basketball players that you can get and you can go challenge them. (01:02:09): Like you look at what F AAU did, right? Elijah Martin, I think they're all been recruited by people now that they're good, right? Gaffney played at Yuko. I think you know, like even like Mike Forest, golden Rosado, none of those guys are like that much better if at all, than what North Texas had. They're just, they just played together as a team. And like, you can get a gaff now. You can get a Martin, you can get a what's the name? John L. Davis. You can get all those guys or a version of those guys somewhere. And, and you know, north Texas has had that kind of caliber here. The, the thing is to get 'em, keep 'em together and get 'em playing the, the right way. And they want to, you gotta need a coach that fosters that kind of environment. Credit to mcg McCaslin credit to Hodge, right? They kept talking about love and all this other stuff and then you hear these guys quoting it. That's how you know that the program ethos is is permeated throughout the team, right? They're all quoting, they're talking like coaches. Right? Good stuff. Greg (01:03:12): My mom just walked in. She said pancakes, Adam (01:03:14): . All right ladies and gentlemen, that's it. Sound of pancakes means it is time for us to close this down. Thanks for listening to the show. I don't know how many more basketball podcasts we'll have we'll probably get on once. Like I, I think the transfer portal opens up and guys can sign soon. But we're gonna pivot in a little bit and start talking about spring football. Stay tuned for more of that. Eric Morris is out there trying to coach guys up. But you know, it's, it's spring football. I can tell you everything about everything right now. It's we love the way the guys are practicing. Everybody's faster, stronger. We love what we have. Guys looking good out there, . It's spring. Yeah, everybody looks good. And we'll figure out who's gonna play quarterback for that squad and, and what and all that good stuff. Open against the cow. That should be a good one. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're done. Go mean green.