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NC State sports podcast hosted by Griffin Cunningham, Stone Boylan and Patrick Simon of WKNC.
Griffin Cunningham 0:10
Welcome back to Light it Red it is officially in November, which means we are winding down here with the fall season.
We've been covering five fall sports for the majority of this semester, and we will have a little bit on each of those sports today, but we would like to lean into basketball a little bit more today, actually, not just a little bit, but a lot,
because Stone and I, we went to the home opener, the regular season home opener for men's basketball, and then we did not make it the women's one, but that was the next day. So we will talk about those rosters and kind of what we're seeing very early on. Obviously, those first two, those first couple games, are always, you know, fairly easy. So,
yeah, so we'll go over that and then jump into a little bit of football, a little bit of soccer, cross country, volleyball, etc. But before all of that, I'm talking out of order a little bit. But before all of that, we will go over our bingo sheets that we did last episode.
That episode didn't come out as bad as I thought it would,
but horrible experience because of the technical
Stone Boylan 1:20
Oh, yeah, just technical difficulties. Yeah, that was it.
Griffin Cunningham 1:22
But I did listen to it and it was relatively okay. Just no intro. We didn't have our intro for the first Yeah,
Stone Boylan 1:28
we literally couldn't, because we couldn't edit it.
Wouldn't let us do it.
Griffin Cunningham 1:31
Yeah, so I've been talking for a little bit. Do you want to go over your bingo sheet? What you crossed off?
Stone Boylan 1:37
Sure. Um, not too much. Um, just a few stuff.
We had
a few stuff. I thought was going to happen. I was hoping DJ burns would appear for the banner hang, but he obviously is currently overseas, so he can't do that at all.
was Justin Joly. I went to the Stanford game. He had a crazy, great catch when he's been on, arguably, probably the best offensive player,
Unknown Speaker 0:00
Music.
Stone Boylan 2:09
I think just in terms of consistency and being a standout, he was obviously our transfer tight end from UConn, and he's been awesome. And he had a great catch, and I had him mossing A defender, so it was over a guy, so I'll scratch that off. And then a football a 15 point plus win. I didn't expect them to do that again. I mean, I would have thought they would have done it against Sanford of all teams, but let alone it being that much, was pretty insane. So that was great. But then we have a few stuff that still left that could happen, winning versus UNC, winning versus Duke. A few other good stuff could occur. I haven't seen a basketball player on campus yet, so you know, maybe that, maybe that comes up in the next next few days, or whatever I do have on here a post about last year's basketball team, but I'm not going to do it because obviously it was, you know, I'd say the end of last year's season happened when we hung the banner up. That's kind of what I consider. So if I see something in terms of, like people, you know, an actual verified account, reminiscing, or something like that, rather than focusing on this year's team, I'll do that. But no. Coaches fired a few of the soccer stuff I meant to check, so I guess I'll just check next time, or whatever.
Griffin Cunningham 3:24
If any of those, I looked over them. Do you know what? What are they? Um,
Stone Boylan 3:28
I mean, we have men's soccer wins by three or more versus Power Five opponent, which didn't happen. Men's Soccer Winning versus any power five opponent, which I don't think happened, but all that stuff could happen in the NC a tournament, and then NC issue football winning out, which is still viable. They just
Griffin Cunningham 3:46
wait, sorry, wait, I think, no, we did win a soccer game. We did. Who did? Who did we beat? We played Wake Forest and Virginia and one other team in the past three games, and we won one of those and lost two. Okay, so
Stone Boylan 4:00
scratch, we'll scratch that off there, yes. And then volleyball, having a ranked win, which I don't think has occurred yet, because I'm even sure that they've
Griffin Cunningham 4:10
nope, had a chance. They will do that. They will soon against Florida.
Stone Boylan 4:14
And then my, one of my funny ones, I go to a game and I'm not enjoying it. That hasn't happened. I went to Stan Stanford football, and then obviously the basketball game we went to, and even, I think, right before this was the soccer game where they destroyed SMU, and all those were good. So I haven't, I haven't had any of those yet. So that's, uh, that's pretty good so far. So a few of them could still happen. But so how close are you to getting bingo? Not crazy. Um, a few of them obviously aren't going to hit, but I'm not sure I'll hit anything, but it'll just be, hey, this happened, or whatever. So you know that's, that's kind of the main reason. But what do you got? What do you have? Yeah, just
Griffin Cunningham 4:52
to correct myself, really quickly, they lost a Wake Forest, but they did beat Louisville before that, so it still applies. I. Um, and then, yeah, lost in
Stone Boylan 5:02
Virginia. Sorry, women's soccer for wins versus Power Five opponent, is what I Oh, that's right, not men, because men's was easier. Men's, that's, I put men's had to be, like, versus a ranked team or whatever, which I don't think we've done yet. Wins, though,
Griffin Cunningham 5:18
yeah, they tied and lost their last Yeah? I assume so, yeah, you're not getting that one. For me. I had a Jordan waters, 100 yard game, which happened, yep,
Stone Boylan 5:30
on five carries, both of them, right? How did Hollywood get one too? He
Griffin Cunningham 5:34
did. I didn't have that on my how many carries did Jordan have? Five? I
Stone Boylan 5:36
didn't even look at that. I just remember him breaking off like if multiple runs. I didn't really get five,
Griffin Cunningham 5:42
five. That's crazy.
Stone Boylan 5:44
I have 20 yards per carry, yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 5:46
10 plus kills in a game. Amanda rice had 14 against Georgia Tech.
Stone Boylan 5:50
Did they sweep Georgia Tech in that game?
Griffin Cunningham 5:52
I believe so. Okay,
Stone Boylan 5:54
because I had volleyball sweep in verse. An ACC opponent,
Griffin Cunningham 5:59
they did they have, they have swept since we recorded. I don't know if Georgia Tech was the team would have had to be a powerful I just looked at it, yeah. Oh, okay, perfect. Extra points in a set that happened against Clemson. And then what else did I have on here? Oh, men's soccer shut out. They shut out Louisville. You were just talking about they wanted one to zero. So right now I have the 10 plus kills in a game, and the extra points in a set are in a column with my free space. So I have three, and then the other two in that column are game winning field goal and a pick six. Okay, so if there's a game winning field goal and a pick six in the last two football games, and I get bingo possible. So that's where we're at with that. Moving on. Let's, uh, I say we, we get kind of the smaller things out of or not the smaller things. But,
Stone Boylan 6:56
I mean, we want the stuff we're going to talk less about today. Yes, let's
Griffin Cunningham 6:59
kind of, we'll do it kind of an hourglass thing here. So let's just, you know, we'll talk about women's soccer here, because their season was kind of a shit show. Yeah, there's like last year, basically no nice way. It was worse, I would say, than last year. Honestly, they finished their season for 10 and four so four wins, 10 losses, four ties. Was
Stone Boylan 7:22
that last in the ACC? Probably, I'm
Griffin Cunningham 7:24
not sure.
Stone Boylan 7:25
I assume, so probably at least bottom three, bottom
Griffin Cunningham 7:28
three, I would agree. So the ACC tournament is coming up from women's soccer, November 3 through November 10. Obviously, I would not have any hopes for NC State.
Stone Boylan 7:41
No, I don't think this is basketball again.
Griffin Cunningham 7:45
I'm honestly not sure how the ACC tournament works for soccer like this. I'm not sure if everyone plays in it, so we'll have to look at,
Stone Boylan 7:52
yeah, even, yeah, they might not even play, but
Griffin Cunningham 7:55
yeah, it's it was just an atrocious season for women's soccer, and it makes you kind of wonder, like, what direction the program's headed. Because, I mean, we didn't spend enough time with that team to find those silver linings this year, but the record kind of speaks for itself. So going into next year, I know we talked a little bit about Coach Tim Santoro and and his history with the team and, yeah, it's been two down years in a row. So I don't know. I think you look to the men's soccer team and you're like, Okay, well, we fired the coach, brought in a winner, and now we're winning. So I don't think it's that extreme yet. I mean, maybe I don't know, but you, I'm sure that's going through boo Corrigan's mind at a little bit, a little
Stone Boylan 8:40
bit. Yeah, probably it's his 13th season,
Griffin Cunningham 8:43
by the way. Yeah, it's hard to part ways with a coach that you've had for that
Stone Boylan 8:47
long. They were second to last, only behind Syracuse, who had more wins than us overall, two more wins. Actually, they went 610, and two, but they were oh nine and one in the ACC, and we had one win in the ACC.
Griffin Cunningham 9:04
Yeah, so we had the fewest wins in conference for women's soccer this year. Um, well, not much more to say about that. Any comments on that
Stone Boylan 9:13
stone? No. I mean, at least they tied against Virginia Tech 00 who was 19, and then after that, they got a or before that, they got a win versus Clemson, so they had a tiny, I guess, not even run, but glimmer of hope. But then against Wake Forest, they got blown out. So probably done there. We'll see what they do with the coach. It's obviously, you know, like you said, back to back, losing, like bat heavily, losing seasons. So you know, again, he's been there so long, hard to really part ways. But even before that, like 2022 they didn't really do anything. Same with 2021 and then 2020 they were not good. And it was a COVID year. And the last relevant year was 2019 where they finished number 17. And they were relevant. And. In the ACC. So it's been at least, like four to five years. So I feel like that's when you start thinking about stuff, but we'll see what boo does, yeah.
Griffin Cunningham 10:08
I just remembered, um, there was one silver lining that I had to kind of find as, like, the agro mech sports editor, like, you have to kind of work around situation, yeah, yeah. Like, you have to be inclusive of a vol sport. So I was like digging around, and they did have one. I believe she's a sophomore. Her last name is, like, borde low or something. She's, I think Canadian, take that little green. Okay, international player is my point, but she tied for the team high end goal scored this year. She came on a little bit later, but, you know, look to her to be Yeah, maybe it was an upside. Yeah. So that's women's soccer. We'll keep it on women's sports, relatively here cross country. Now this was a little bit disappointing to hear. We hadn't lost an ACC title and women's cross country since 2015 and we did, and we did last weekend. Wow, I
Stone Boylan 11:06
think Caitlyn Toohey, that's probably well, she wasn't here for 10 years, I know. But still, in terms of, like, just comparing last year, this year, like past four years, maybe 2015 maybe she was that big of a deal. She was, I mean, yes, but I mean in terms of holding them up that much. I mean, geez,
Griffin Cunningham 11:23
so Notre Dame wins that one, and just, do we
Stone Boylan 11:26
get second, no, third, no, fourth, no, fifth,
Griffin Cunningham 11:29
yes, what I believe fifth, and I think I was this the
Stone Boylan 11:33
one in Carrie, yes, oh, Mike. And they've, I mean, they've dominated. It's literally right here. It's right next. Is where I live, basically and Carrie, yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 11:41
well, they don't have, yeah, they don't have the ACC championships and carry every year. So it was like a special thing. It was the day after Halloween. And, you know, we got to carry 9am day after Halloween, raging hangover and see our cross country team, not day as a crazy we had some runners that did well, but as it's a team sport, yeah,
Stone Boylan 12:04
and so they've clearly been scores one success. So, so
Griffin Cunningham 12:08
yeah, both men and women finished bottom five or out of the top five, I guess I should say so. We got the NC double A South East regionals on the 15th of November and the NC double A championships on the 23rd so that sport will wrap up in November for both men and women. Now, keeping it on women's sports, still, Volleyball, volleyball. I have not been to a whole lot of volleyball this year, I will say that looking at their record in comparison to last year, 12 and eight does not look as good as where they were last year. They're seven and five in the conference, so they're
Stone Boylan 12:54
kind of treading water. Yeah, similar,
Griffin Cunningham 12:59
and I know last year they were on the brink of making it into the tournament. I don't think that's going to happen this year. I don't think the record is reflective of a postseason birth right now. Obviously, of all the fall sports on the schedule, they have the most games left, so there's still a lot to prove there, but there are some tough matchups ahead. They have Miami, who's receiving votes, and that game is tomorrow, the eighth, November, 8. And they also have number 24 FSU, which we were talking about on your bingo sheet, on the 10th. So that's their next two games against those two Florida teams will be tough, and so those are both in conference. So honestly, I foresee them ending up seven and seven in conference after those two
Stone Boylan 13:50
days mid conference. Yes, that's disappointing, because last year was his best, their best year, and a little bit in the coach's best year, because he got there in 2020, and last year they had a record of 22 and seven. It was their first 21 season for the coach and the program since 29 2017 and obviously they had that big win against number five Louisville, which was like, I think their first win of our top five program in volleyball ever. So that's kind of disappointing. And they kept, like, their main, yeah, so that kind of makes me a little suspicious, and it was their best players. It wasn't like they lost their best, they kept their best, Ava brazard And all those people. So yes, you know, maybe I don't know. I think they got figured out, or they didn't change up strategy. I think you gotta when you keep a lot of those people and they're healthier, because last year there was some injury stuff, they're seemingly healthier. I think you might look at some strategy in coaching there. Yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 14:45
we to have the proper in depth analysis of that because, you know, the roster and the record, I don't think tell the full story there. I think we would have to go to some games that obviously we are stretched thin. So that isn't. Really happened this year. But I think there is more to the story, as far as that record goes, than just, you know, players are back records mid maybe there's something missing, maybe.
Stone Boylan 15:13
But I'm saying, you know, if you're a general fan, like the people listening, that's what you're gonna look at, is like, Okay, what's different from this year to last year? Oh, it's the same people. Okay, well, what's going on, you know? Yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 15:24
okay, so we've hit on everything, but men's soccer here
a little.
Stone Boylan 15:31
I actually did pay attention to did you, yeah, do you want to take the lead? I'm not lead, but, you know, I, you know, a little disappointing, but they're still relevant. They're still they're still alive, sure.
Griffin Cunningham 15:41
So yeah, men's soccer finishes with an eight, three and five regular season record, which is very good for improvement from last year. They did lose. They have lost the last two games they've played. They lost to Wake Forest regular season, and then they lost in the ACC tournament to Virginia. They lost two to one, and they should still be in line for an appearance in the NC double A tournament, but to lose at home in the ACC tournament to a lower ranked team is disappointing, but overall, a great season, a great bounce back season for men's soccer. You know, it's like, it's what we want to see out of that program that's been kind of struggling, and especially in the midst of all this, like financial redistribution of whatever, for revenue sharing, and, I mean, it's, it's going to sneak up on you. So you want to, you want to see those programs prove their worth while they're still here. And that's all I'm going to say about that. But, yeah, we don't know who they'll play in the NC double A tournament. Double play tournament yet. It will, more than likely be on the road. Did you have anything you wanted to add?
Stone Boylan 16:47
I mean, just the Virginia game I had actually kind of keeped up with that, which is disappointing, because they had great, just great momentum going into the ACC tournament. Obviously, the SMU win was huge. I went to that game. They dominated them, best win in, like, multiple years, almost double digit years. But they lose two to one. It was and they really had a lot of chances to win. I mean, they, I think, controlled the ball. I felt was on the opponent's side, like a lot, and they just couldn't get it in there. She couldn't do it. So they controlled a good amount, and it just didn't go their way against Virginia, and they lost two to one, but they didn't have their leading goal scorer in karamoko, so he wasn't there. And then Liam Bennett is a graduate defender who's been starting every game, and he wasn't there either, and he started every regular season game. So I think the coach kind of mentioned that a little bit as like, hey, you know, there's a positive takeaway. Like, we'll have those guys back, and we could have won this game for sure. So I'm disappointed lost, but I am not going to freak out about it, because I think that they can get those guys healthy and maybe make some noise in the tournament, which the field is going to be revealed on the 18th of November. So that will be there, and they're going to be back in the NC, NC a tournament for the first time since 2019 so some uplifting stuff there, and some stuff to still look at for men's basketball as we continue to the NC a tournament, is we got a bid. So that's good men's soccer. Men's soccer, yeah, no, no.
Griffin Cunningham 18:23
Thanks for mentioning that about caramelco and Bennett, because I had heard that and I forgot about that. And yeah, obviously we know. We know about karamoko. We've seen him play. We know he's a sophomore player, by the way. So yeah, missing, missing starting pieces, is definitely going to impact that game, so thanks for making that point. Now, moving on to football, we're making some good progress here through these sports. Stanford game, we finally have our silver lining with this quarterback and with this offense, and it's totally going to bleed into next year and we're going to be all right, well, we're going to be like, Oh, well, we have a great sophomore quarterback. Now,
Stone Boylan 19:07
I assume you're being sarcastic.
Griffin Cunningham 19:09
I'm not being sober, actually. Okay,
Stone Boylan 19:11
well, I'll tell you happens every year. I know. I'm telling you, Stanford is the worst, one of the worst ACC teams, but they are a power five school, and you have to take them seriously, because I think anyone can win on any given Saturday, normally, is Sunday, but any given Saturday, we'll say and but they obliterated him. It was 5928 I went to that game before that. You also got a look. Was we played the two new California teams, both of them, not great at football. One of them, we dominated at home. The other one, we literally barely won off of Cal missing field goals and us getting a little bit lucky, but still performing. And then the two games after that or before that, meaning the two games before our narrow cow win was a loss at home to Syracuse and a loss at home to Wake Forest, which Wake Forest? That was the worst loss. And if you want to go back even before that, it was getting blown out, obviously, by the two big orange teams in Clemson, Tennessee, and only beating teams that are not even power five schools, Northern Illinois, Louisiana, tech, Western Carolina, and losing at some point in all those games, sometimes at half. So while I think this is very uplifting, I don't want to look at it to, you know, I just, I don't want to be so narrow and looking at it. I think the bright side, as you could say, it was off the bye week. So they're Dave Doran, I guess, always just has something like that in terms of, if the season is not going the way they want, which it always, never does, which maybe you need to, I don't know, get a little more planned, because it seems obvious that every single year they disappoint in the beginning and then pick it back up and hit his eight win mark or nine win mark every single time, they never hit 10 wins. This was supposed to be the year I think, if they were more prepared, but stuff didn't go their way with Grayson. So I understand, but MJ, looks good. We're not MJ, CJ. CJ, yeah, I'm sorry. I'm
Griffin Cunningham 20:59
sorry that was uncalled for. Just
Stone Boylan 21:01
me. We literally had MJ Morris last year. He's on my brain. I don't know why he's always on my brain. I'm
Griffin Cunningham 21:06
messing with you. I
Stone Boylan 21:07
don't know why, but CJ, who had his best game in Stanford, and before that, his best game was Cal, so the past two games have just been better and better. But I think it gets real because we play some real teams in Duke and Georgia Tech, Duke at home, Georgia Tech on the road, none of them are ranked, but that doesn't mean they're not actual, real teams like these are good, solid programs. Both have gone on win streaks, as in Duke, I believe, was six and Oh, or five and oh at some point, and others have had some good wins, which is Georgia Tech so and then obviously, after that's Carolina, which hopefully we beat them, which is at UNC, but they're not like terrible, you know, but I think we're better, but we are favored actually, against Duke. We are three and a half. We're three point favorites at home, which I would love to go to that game as the last home game. But me, as well, you know, I think we could, I wouldn't be surprised if they literally went out and do exactly what Dave Dorn always does and get hit that eight win mark and just straight by. But like you said, for the future, I think there was optimism with, you know, CJ, but I think the next three games will be telling, because these are quality opponents. I
Griffin Cunningham 22:22
agree. We got Duke Georgia Tech and UNC, you said something that I wanted to respond to, and now I don't remember what it was, so that's unfortunate.
Stone Boylan 22:35
What was it related to?
Griffin Cunningham 22:37
It wasn't, I wasn't like a disagreement. I just like, I felt like you said something I wanted to comment on, and it totally slipped my mind with football. Yeah,
Stone Boylan 22:46
anyways, about CJ or I don't remember Doran.
Griffin Cunningham 22:50
Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember thanks. Bowl game is six wins. Six wins, yeah,
Stone Boylan 22:56
I wouldn't be surprised if they change it to seven in the future. But yeah, six, it's so or just add more bowl games and just have it be six
Griffin Cunningham 23:02
at least. You know, we'll have eyes on that. But, like, do we really care?
Stone Boylan 23:06
I don't. I don't, I don't, because the I don't know, I feel like, when you're NC State, you're in that middle ground where you don't, like, give a crap to be honest about
Griffin Cunningham 23:20
the players. Don't give a crap about the bowl games. First of all, yeah, which
Stone Boylan 23:24
is unfortunate, but I think for NC State, it's like you're to the point where you're good enough to where you want to ask, like, have aspirations for higher stuff, and you're not, but you're not like, that good to where you should still want to care about, oh, we won this bowl game and, you know, and kind of lower programs like that. So we're in that middle ground to where it's unfortunate, because, like, if we win a bowl game, some people will care. Some people won't, because we're kind of in that middle ground of, like, a competent team that just can never seem to really reach, like, higher levels.
Griffin Cunningham 23:56
I agree. Well, I think the dude game should be good. I want to go. My girlfriend has not been to a football game before, so I would love to be able to be there at the last home game. That's the plan. So hopefully things go according to plan with that also. I mean, we didn't even mention the score for that Stanford game, but they won 59 No,
Stone Boylan 24:19
I did, yeah. 5920 Oh, you did yeah.
Griffin Cunningham 24:21
I it was sometimes I tune you out. Oh, yeah.
Stone Boylan 24:26
So you forgot what you're gonna respond to. No,
Griffin Cunningham 24:28
I just like, sometimes I'm reading the notes. My mind's going like, a mile a minute, but, um, I did want to mention that CJ Bailey in that game, he passed 18 of 20. Like, 18 of 20 completion percentage is extremely high. Again, two incomplete passes, to be fair,
Stone Boylan 24:46
I guess, I guess I say realistic. But he had two running backs get 100 yards, so the running game set up everything, and the defense was, was very good. They have 28 but it's 28 Garbage Time. They. And they ran the ball, Stanford kind of did, but they couldn't do, really do much, you know, outside of us putting our, you know, nobody's in at the end. I mean, they were close in the beginning, which is, our defense was kind of disappointing, but our offense definitely took the hold. And I think was the biggest shocker of how well they did. And, KC,
Griffin Cunningham 25:19
oh, you know, it's funny. You know what's funny? You had my touchdown.
Stone Boylan 25:22
I had him as a in the same game, rushing and receiving touchdown. Did he run for a touchdown? He had three carries. I remember him doing it. He ran for a touchdown, three carries, 16 yards and a touchdown, and a four reception, 30 yards and a touchdown. I just realized that
Griffin Cunningham 25:36
his output has been a lot lower this year, but it is good to see him get back in the end zone, for sure.
Stone Boylan 25:43
Yeah. I mean, you know, it's been, I agree. Feel like it's been kind of disappointing. You brought up the idea of him transferring, which I'm scared about. I hope he doesn't do so that's why I'm hoping NC State wins out, because they need to keep him for at least one more year, because he's got one more year before he probably goes to the NFL and is maybe a mid round pick. Hopefully, I don't know if it'll be a first round pick after this year, but I think he has the talent to be someone like similar as a later first round it's just, I don't know if his build is really there. I always compare him to tank Dell of the Texans. That's exactly what he reminds me of. And tank Dell wasn't a first round pick because of his size, so he probably won't be one. It'll be very good, I think, if he can reach his ceiling, so hopefully he stays. But yeah, Joe Lee has kind of been the main
Griffin Cunningham 26:24
one. Yeah, he had a touchdown. You were talking about his spectacular catch. He just always has great catches, like every single game. He's a solid bet for like, at least, like 70 yards every game. Yeah, pretty reliable this year. I also, I didn't watch the whole game, but I did see a freshman receiver kind of touchdown, Keenan Jackson, yeah, and I know CJ Bailey played the majority of the game. Lex Thomas only threw one pass and
Stone Boylan 26:51
had he was one of two for 12 yards in the pick
Griffin Cunningham 26:54
or two passes. Okay, so, yeah, um, so I feel like, I mean, even though that, you know, doesn't mean much in terms of that game in particular, it is nice to see some younger players getting some playing time. Yeah,
Stone Boylan 27:06
because Noah Rogers has been insanely disappointing so far. Yeah, as a guy at all, no, as a guy that we got, I was so excited for him. We got him from he was a freshman last year at Ohio State, and they're a wide receiver production, basically, and then transfers here, and by the way, haven't given it the ball. He hasn't been open or doesn't know the playbook or is not running the right routes. I don't know what it is. It's a combination of maybe all of those. Maybe a few of them stick out, but something like that. So I think he needs to step up in the future
Griffin Cunningham 27:34
to play devil's advocate there. Though I feel like the fluctuating quarterback stuff
Stone Boylan 27:39
probably I'm just saying it hasn't affected Jolie, who's also a transfer. I agree.
Griffin Cunningham 27:43
I mean, there's some guys that you can put them out there, no matter what they're going to produce, but you know, some guys are more system oriented, and you know, it has been very turbulent when you have a quarterback who you bring in and practice with and then ends up retiring like that's just unheard of. Also
Stone Boylan 28:01
shout out to Donovan Kaufman. He's our stud safety that we have. DK, yeah. DK, he
Griffin Cunningham 28:07
I usually DK stands for Donovan Kaufman, doesn't it? I
Stone Boylan 28:11
think so. But that would mean, like, if people call him, DK, Kaufman in
Griffin Cunningham 28:16
Donovan Kaufman, Kaufman, yeah, I
Stone Boylan 28:18
don't know if that makes sense. So I don't know if that's what it stands for. Maybe it stands for. Maybe it does. I don't know. He's really cool, though. I remember doing the post game interview as like, a chain on or whatever, like a giant, like funny one for NC State. And I was like, Oh, that's cool. He has been great on defense. He scored and everything a few times, but he had like three returns for 164 yards. He averaged like 55 yards per kick return. So he, I think, helped in terms of setting up the offense a ton to where they could add on at least two more easy touchdowns by getting them basically in the Stanford territory already. But again, Stanford was is now two and seven. So let's just be we we did what we
Griffin Cunningham 29:01
needed to do as we do. Yeah, hopefully we do that, and then if we don't, then we better not lose to Carolina. I'm thinking we we end the season here two and one. That's my prediction.
Stone Boylan 29:13
Probably, I think we could do three. No, three, no, though, to be honest, it's really good. I just think Georgia Tech is the game that I'm worried about. That's what I'm saying. I agree with that, and they're not even crazy, they're just solid. So we will really see. I think that'll be a good CJ, kind of proving ground, yeah, kind of game to say. All right, you know, you've shown that you can clearly do this against these opponents like this is not a bad team, it's a quality team. They're not ranked, but they're good conference team. Let's see what you do. Yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 29:39
I am hoping that, you know, he can build on this momentum that he's already established over these last three games and take it into next season, because, you know, he is a true freshman quarterback, so the sky is the limit with an athlete like that. You just, I mean, it's, it's about hard work at at that point. So we'll see how that goes with football. But. I'm honestly already kind of looking to next season with that, but that's, you know, not everyone can win, right? No, yeah, so on that. Let's move on to basketball, which is what we really wanted to talk about today. Do you want to start with women's basketball, since that one was the one that we did not attend, and then we can talk about, kind of the, the meat of our podcast here, the game we were actually at, oh, don't
Stone Boylan 30:28
you want me to start with Men's or, no,
Griffin Cunningham 30:30
I'm saying, like, let's, let's start with the game that we, you know, have a little bit less information about. And then kind of end our podcast here with, you know, what we actually got to experience, or
Stone Boylan 30:42
it's for men's Yeah, spawn, everything. Yeah, that's fine. So
Griffin Cunningham 30:44
yeah, um, I'll just start with women's basketball. We played et su. ETSU. What's East Tennessee? State? East Tennessee State, beat them 80 to 55 in our home opener on Tuesday, November 5. So I feel like, I mean, you can't, you can't talk about women's basketball without drawing a parallel to men's basketball, just because they're both basketball and we both. I mean, they both went to the Final Four and they both raised a banner on their home opening nights. But I will say that there are a lot less question marks with the women's basketball team than the men's basketball Well, that's because they returned a lot of people. That's exactly my point. We have Zoe Brooks, Isaiah, James, Sanai rivers and Madison Hayes. Those are all guards. So,
Stone Boylan 31:34
yeah, we're very we're very small, but those are four of the starting five. They're
Griffin Cunningham 31:38
all guards. I do. I mean, those players have all been great for us. I think Zoe Brooks is a starting point guard. Is a great move. She was coming off the bench last season. She's a sophomore, Isaiah James and Sanaya rivers, those are the faces of the program. So obviously you have to have them in there. Sanaya rivers is big enough to play the forward position, even though at times she has played point guard or shooting guard, and then Isaiah is the shooting guard.
Stone Boylan 32:04
Lizzie. Lizzie Williamson was our starting center. I was gonna get to that. She's six five, by the way,
Griffin Cunningham 32:09
she's six five. She only played six minutes. She's not gonna be the starting
Stone Boylan 32:12
center, no. But last year the center we had slipped in my mind. But I know she was. Her name's, I believe her name Australia, river Baldwin. Yeah, river Baldwin. She was pretty big, like, she was pretty tall. Yeah, she
Griffin Cunningham 32:22
was kind of the textbook women's basketball center that you want. I mean, I
Stone Boylan 32:27
think that was a large part of the success last year, was her kind of development. And, you know, mainly rebounding. There would be some times where defensive watch and red watch and, you know, scoring, it's like you just missed, like three in a row, like, what's going on? Like you could kick it back out to Shania, kick it back out to Zoey or Isaiah, or have azaya drive or whatever, but yeah, she was still good, like you said, defensively.
Griffin Cunningham 32:49
Wasn't a scoring center by any means, but polished in the things that the center needed to do. Now, funny story about Lizzie Williamson, because I did go to the exhibition game. Funny enough, which doesn't matter, but I just wanted to share this with you, because I thought it was so, like weird when I was experiencing it, there was this, so she's Australian, she's the Australian player you're thinking of, and she was a transfer last year, and we did a, like, a very small story on her, but for agro. MEC, yeah, because we were doing a transfer portal story, yeah, and she ended up not being very important to the team. No offense to her last year, yeah, she was just kind of a depth piece. Yeah, jump shot is horrendous, like it is. Well, right? Wow. But you know, playing the center position. You see that sometimes, yeah, especially in college, for both men and women. Yes. Anyways, this, this is funny to me. This Australian reporter was there. He was like, Okay, I don't remember his name, but he comes in and, like, we're all trying to pick up our credentials. And he's like, Hey, like, I don't know how to get around here, like, this is my first do the accent.
Stone Boylan 34:05
I don't know why you don't want to do it. Okay, don't do it.
Griffin Cunningham 34:09
I don't know if I've done an Australian accent.
Stone Boylan 34:11
You don't have to. I just, I was poking, yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 34:14
so he so, I mean, I helped him, you know, find the place that we needed to be, whatever. And then he starts talking, and he's like, Yeah, I'm here for Lizzie Williamson. There's my accent that you wanted. And, of course, Lizzie is Australian. And he's like, yeah, like, I covered her. Like, I'm from her home area, which I'm like, oh, okay, cool. He's like, Yeah, I traveled all the way over here. I was like, holy just for that, you traveled all the way to America for a third string Center. She started, she started, it's, that's crazy, but that, I was like, Oh
Stone Boylan 34:49
my gosh, in an exhibition game, yes, yeah. Didn't even raise the banner or anything. I feel like would have been better for him to come to this game, because it's like, oh, look, she's on the team, and they raised the banner. I
Griffin Cunningham 34:59
agree. Four, I agree, but, I mean, I saw the sentiment in it. But I was also like, a little, you know, like, you're gonna, you're gonna cover one game, and it's the exhibition game. Okay, interesting. And then he was like, yeah, like, her and I have been, like, talking, and, like, we became friends. Oh, I was like, wow.
Oh, interesting. Really,
like, is that I mean, like, I don't know when I feel like the mean athletes and reporters kind of sometimes, is he
Stone Boylan 35:30
a reporter, or was he just a guy that was like, Hey, I'm a reporter.
Griffin Cunningham 35:33
I think he was. I don't remember his name or anything like that, but I don't know. I just feel like I got into some not trouble. But I was just like, what? Well, when I first started reporting, it's like, you want to be like, all buddy buddy with the athletes, and yeah, and let's just like, oh. And then they were told you, like, stop or whatever. No one told me to stop. I just, like, kind of on my own. I'm like, okay, like, there needs to be, like, boundaries here. Like, these aren't your friends, you know. And so when he said that, I was like, I just thought you'd think that was funny, because he was like, yeah, like, we've been talking a lot. We've been snapping, been shot in and he also was like, yeah, she doesn't know I'm here. I'm gonna surprise her. Oh, and I was like, Are you like, yeah, Floyd overseas, they're probably talking, for sure. So I was like, this is interesting. And that was that, those are my notes on that's
Stone Boylan 36:24
the biggest. I didn't even know that before. I just brought her up because you mentioned all the guards, and I just that was Yeah, center that started, but yeah, she only
Griffin Cunningham 36:31
played six minutes and had two rebounds, no points, yeah, no, anything, no. But
Stone Boylan 36:34
back to the poopy girls and everything. Like women, they'll or women whatever. Yeah, not whatever. I older than you? Yeah? All right, not, no, some of them are maybe three. I mean, I'm the oldest. You could be almost 22 so the oldest you could be. It's not derogatory, and it's just what comes into my
Griffin Cunningham 36:55
head. Well, in the AP style book, they say women.
Stone Boylan 36:58
I know, because everyone's, you know, obviously, well, if you're over 18 year woman, if you're under 18, I know I don't use it begrudgingly or like misogyny, whatever. No, I just, I my brain, just literally, you know what it is. I'll get on a little rant. It's I worked my job, was a site coordinator, like counselor for YMCA, where you run youth programs. So that's all I'm used to saying, is, because all the counselors are 16, everyone that's there. I ran a program that was with young so that's all, you know, I would never because I got you it'd be weird if someone walked by call me, sees me calling a 16 year old a woman, and be like, yeah, what? So I just, I get it. You know, it's funny. My ex got mad at me because I sometimes she would not talk to me if I accidentally said that. Like, said, What girl instead a woman or female? Female instead a woman? Oh, yeah, that's different. And so I was like, I'm sorry. I didn't, I don't care. Like, I didn't think about it, like, at all, but whatever. Yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 37:55
no, I just had a professor one time. My journalism professor told
Stone Boylan 38:02
me that. So your English information? Nice, nice. Yeah, it
Griffin Cunningham 38:05
is in the AP style book, though, which is what we adhere to when we write. So good thing. I'm
Stone Boylan 38:09
talking and not writing. Yeah, that's a thing. But I mean, you mentioned all the guards, I think Shania and Isaiah Sanaya. There's Sanaya. Sorry. Sanaya, yeah, there's no h Sanaya, that's why you're the English guy you know. Like, it's just reading skills. No, I know I I'm not good at that or writing. Hence why we went on about my not knowing the Oh, specific thing you need to say when addressing whatever you know. Like, I mean, I call people that are clearly older than me. Like, it's, I'm easy in terms of, like, saying, girl, woman, no, like, No, I'm like, that.
Griffin Cunningham 38:47
Hey, do you say? I
Stone Boylan 38:49
guess it's just weird that I'm, you know, I'm like, then now I'm 22 you're old. You know,
Griffin Cunningham 38:54
you're an old man. I'm just not used to it. You say, me and my friend or my friend, and I,
Stone Boylan 38:58
I don't use that. And I, I know it's what you're supposed to do blank. And I, I don't, I don't use that. I don't care. Maybe, when I'm if I'm writing a paper, and it needs to be like that, sure, but I obviously all the papers I write, they want you to not talk in the first person. So it's like you don't, I guess I sometimes I don't do that. So if
Griffin Cunningham 39:18
we went to a dinner and you were telling someone about what would
Stone Boylan 39:20
you say me and my friend got it interesting because I'm not weird, my friend and I wouldn't got dinner. Yeah? That's weird,
Griffin Cunningham 39:27
I guess.
Stone Boylan 39:28
No, just, I don't care. I'm just kidding. That's just what I normally use. But anyways, for the fifth time, back to women's basketball,
Griffin Cunningham 39:36
yeah, apologies for
Stone Boylan 39:40
I think the one I like the most is Zoe Brooks, because she, I don't think she started last year, and if she did, it was towards the end, and she they were the few games, or I actually went to a few games, but the games that I did go to, I maybe just happened to be the case. But I feel like every single time she would have, like, a clutch. Five minute stretch, or a good bucket, or like, between the legs, like, lay up, or whatever. And she, she, you know, she goes really good. So I think she's going to be the key if they want to succeed.
Griffin Cunningham 40:11
John Wall,
Stone Boylan 40:12
John Wall, yeah, wow, okay, yeah, that's what I so she can't shoot threes, not
Griffin Cunningham 40:19
as good as well. The John Wall
Stone Boylan 40:23
was like, Yeah, you know, John Wall
Griffin Cunningham 40:25
could shoot threes, yeah. It was just like, I would say John Wall would hit more threes than Zoe Brooks. He
Stone Boylan 40:29
wasn't Russell, rest, Russell Westbrook, but he was, you know, not crazy far from shooting threes, yeah, in terms of the percentage or how they were, like, Westbrook obviously could shoot but you know it, it would depend on the night. I feel like
Griffin Cunningham 40:43
you're comparing apples and oranges with college women's basketball and NBA basketball. Well
Stone Boylan 40:47
maybe, I mean, you brought up the comparison, right? I'm just saying,
Griffin Cunningham 40:50
like, in terms of kind of court awareness, and that's what I'm saying. Just what do you mean? Specifically, finishing, at the rim, court awareness, passing, dribble moves, stuff like that, shiftiness, those are the things that she possesses that I think kind of remind me of John Wall
Stone Boylan 41:07
I would compare to a WNBA player if I knew immensely more, you know, like, I'm not just gonna say, Oh, she reminds me of Caitlin Clark, because it makes no sense. Like Caitlin Clark is, that's what I'm saying. That's what I just said, because it makes no sense. Yeah, she's not even close. No, I don't know, you know, or Brianna Stewart, you know, like, there's only so many you know, I think women's basketball players that, I guess, are in the spotlight, that I would personally know about, in terms of being able to compare them. So
Griffin Cunningham 41:35
it's, you know, the Encyclopedia of knowledge there is a little bit more slower,
Stone Boylan 41:39
yeah. Plus, I think the ones that people mainly know are either like people that are taller, like the forwards and centers, or the guards that shoot threes, like Sabrina oniescu, all those people
Griffin Cunningham 41:50
she I think she's a unique player. I think Zoe Brooks is a unique player. I stand by my John Wall comparison, though,
Stone Boylan 41:57
that's fine. I wasn't denying it. I
Griffin Cunningham 41:58
was just confused. Yeah, okay, well, sorry, I keep interrupting you. You can. No,
Stone Boylan 42:03
I don't get that. Was it? No, yeah, we're gonna be small ball. I think Zoe's the key. She's kind of underrated, so she'll be good. She actually led the team in points on that game. So glad to see that she's doing well. And I'm not saying we're gonna make the final four again, but we're gonna be a relevant tournament team and trying to at least get to the Sweet 16 Elite Eight again. But next game is actually interesting. It's a rematch of the Final Four. We play South Carolina, who's number one again, I'm very good again. Ended
Griffin Cunningham 42:27
up winning the entire thing. Yeah, they
Stone Boylan 42:29
did, yeah.
Griffin Cunningham 42:30
They don't have that one. Woman, No, but they okay.
Stone Boylan 42:34
He said that, guys, and his eyebrows went up. It was like, woman, yeah, as you know, whatever you What was her name? Kill me. I guess that's fine. I'm just messing totally forgot, totally for I just, I remember, I know exactly you're talking about. I can see her face because I watched the final. She got picked in the in the WNBA draft. I just cannot remember, but we play them, I mean, they, they're like Kentucky, they, they're like Kentucky, if Kentucky actually played it to their standard under the Calipari era, or Kansas for basketball, Kansas will be very good this year, and they literally won a title like not too far. So a fun fact
Griffin Cunningham 43:11
about Kansas, they've produced in the NBA, currently, the most points per game from a sophomore in the NBA. Okay, you
Stone Boylan 43:21
just, is this your time to talk about Grady Dick like you just, you needed to fit that in.
Griffin Cunningham 43:25
He's averaging 21 points. All right, yeah,
Stone Boylan 43:27
we got it. All right. We know the Grady go. I've heard it a million times so far. I'm just averaging more than Wendy. I think at this point is he's averaging the most points of all silver how many single digit games? How
Griffin Cunningham 43:41
many games have they played? I think they've played eight or nine. Okay, so we'll see. Well, don't like I know
Stone Boylan 43:48
not. I'm just messing with you. Yeah, it'll be good, I think so. But unfortunately, we play South Carolina for women's basketball, and it's at home, I think, but I don't think we're gonna win. So
Griffin Cunningham 43:59
it's actually not at home. Oh, it's not, it's at spectrum center. I thought it was a neutral game site, okay? And, yeah, it is a very big matchup. South Carolina is ranked number one. Obviously, that doesn't mean as much because early in the season, but I think
Stone Boylan 44:13
they, I think they have a, you know, oh yeah, to say, like, yeah, we're, we've been here, so I
Griffin Cunningham 44:19
agree. I mean, it makes sense of why they're ranked number one, but, you know, the seasons got to play out, and it does remind me of the UConn game last year. We faced UConn, and they were ranked, I think, number three at the time, and it was like our second or third game of the season, and we actually won that game. But this one's bigger is, this is a, you know, UConn hasn't actually done anything, believe it or not, the past couple years
Stone Boylan 44:41
for what? For women's basketball? Oh, I mean in terms of what they expect, yeah. I
Griffin Cunningham 44:46
mean, they're a juggernaut, but they haven't actually won. It's been South Carolina is
Stone Boylan 44:49
Paige Becker still there? She is her last year.
Griffin Cunningham 44:52
Yes, it's her last year. But yeah, like South Carolina is the Shrek, yeah, women's basketball, they're
Stone Boylan 44:59
the main. The Shrek.
Griffin Cunningham 45:01
I honestly, what is that? Even the giant, the Juggernaut, sure
Stone Boylan 45:08
never heard that. Yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 45:11
that was kind of definitely tried to, I don't know what I just did there. Um, it'll be a big game. It'll be a big game. And South
Stone Boylan 45:19
Carolina is the ugly green the giant monster that picks his boogers and nose and eats it he lives in a swamp of they are that of women's basketball,
Griffin Cunningham 45:30
and it'll be on ESPN, nice, so
Stone Boylan 45:33
go watch us hopefully not get murdered. Yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 45:37
no, a big game. I really wish I was able to be there, honestly, not going to Charlotte.
Stone Boylan 45:43
Oh, yeah, I guess you went for them to get blown out by Tennessee. Yeah, that's which I knew was gonna,
Griffin Cunningham 45:48
I had planned in advance for that. You know, this is what's Thursday as we're recording, I guess games on Sundays true, yeah, yeah. But before we move on to men's basketball, we did talk about kind of the the forwards in the centers on this team, Lizzie Williamson played six minutes. I don't really know what to make of that. I don't know why she started, but I
Stone Boylan 46:10
mean, probably just early. Oh, maybe, yeah, maybe why he put in a request. It's like, hey, it's, it's a nothing game. I was gonna say because I saw that she was a starter. She only played six minutes, and I was like, okay, that's weird. Did she get hurt or something? That's totally why he probably requested that she start, because he came there. I
Griffin Cunningham 46:32
hope she didn't get hurt. That'd be embarrassing for us. No, I
Stone Boylan 46:34
didn't know. I don't think she did. I think you're right. No, no, I think they totally had her start because that guy requested in maybe for conspiracy. Yeah, that's the conspiracy, the Women's Basketball conspiracy. Yeah, well, her,
Griffin Cunningham 46:46
her quote, unquote backup is Mallory Collier. She was on the team last year, and she played 10 more minutes than her she did. She had six and five. Honestly, watching her last year, I was not super impressed.
Stone Boylan 46:59
That's a good start, though. What? Like, six and five and 16 minutes? Yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 47:04
that was, I'm yeah, like, hopefully there are some improvements. I know that as far as, like, moving up and down the court, there was an issue, Oh, interesting, just not able to keep up with some of the faster players, yeah, and that's not a super uncommon city, yeah. Like some centers are, are typically, you know, bigger and slower, and so I think there might have been some conditioning issues there, but they did bring in a couple of younger players. And also, you know, Madison Hayes is playing the four, and she's a she's a guard. It's really weird, who you know plays good defense, but they've been doing that with her for six years. But yeah, like, it's not, it's hard
Stone Boylan 47:50
to compare that to men's or NBA, because they're obviously taller, but even on women's scale, it's like she's
Griffin Cunningham 47:56
undersized as a four. Yeah. So I don't think that will be the most sustainable way. I think that starting three of Brooks James and river stays the same, and the Hayes Williamson thing is definitely interchangeable. Collier is going to come in. They have a freshman named Lauren Lorna Lorena Aw. She's six five. She put up five and three in that first game. So her numbers weren't that far off from Mallory Colliers, and she is taller Mallory Collier, six, four. And then we have Devin Quigley and Zamir Jones, who are 511 and five seven respectively, both also freshmen, both played a little bit, so we have some guard depth there and some young talent, because all three players I've mentioned are freshmen that are going to play minutes this year. And lastly, til the trigger, I hope I'm saying that that's crazy trigger.
Stone Boylan 48:59
That's crazy, probably trigger, considering it's spelled T, R, Y, D, G, E, R, I just wanted to say, yeah, probably trigger.
Griffin Cunningham 49:08
I just feel like the trigger is better, but it's trigger. You could say that like she pulls
Stone Boylan 49:13
the trigger on the shot, bang, but she's a center, so no, okay.
Griffin Cunningham 49:18
She's a six, six freshman from Sweden, and she put up three and three points for rebounds in 10 minutes. Nice. Well, maybe she can emerge later on. I'm guessing one of those, at least two of those are going to end up getting significant minutes by the end of the season. What's good? I
Stone Boylan 49:34
mean, the ACC is harder. We got some like UNC and Duke are both ranked. Notre Dame is ranked six right now. Florida State is ranked Louisville. So we'll, we'll keep an eye on women's basketball. Obviously, hopefully they do some similar stuff they did last year. This is a successful year. So do you have anything left for them? No.
Griffin Cunningham 49:51
I mean, they, I mean, those games are going to come up quick. So next home game is Kent State on the 14th. Also, I noticed they only had eight. 18 or eight total team assists. So if they're gonna win against South Carolina, that number has to be higher. Yeah, that's not gonna happen, yeah, but we can move on to men's basketball. Now, the game we are actually at. We had a good time not really
Stone Boylan 50:16
watching the game to be on. I mean, I did. I probably watch more than you, for sure, not even close. But I still didn't watch as much as I normally do, just because there wasn't necessarily reason I did. Wanted to pick up and see who was doing, what, how they were doing. I mainly keyed into the beginning to see the transfers. But, you know, I I mean, you can start off. You can start off. I have a few stuff, but yeah, well,
Griffin Cunningham 50:38
I agree, like, we didn't really, it's harder to pay attention when you have so many guys playing and you're like, Okay, well, who's this guy? I don't know who he is. Okay, who's this guy, I don't know he is. Is he good? Is he not good? Is he gonna play? And so that's kind of like sometimes how the beginning of the season is right now in college basketball, see, I,
Stone Boylan 50:59
I, I've been following college basketball throughout the season more than I normally ever have normally. I love the tournament, and it's my second favorite thing behind like the Super Bowl right now it's getting really close. I just have really grown to love college basketball in the past two years. I've followed it during the regular season more. So I kind of did a lot of research and knew a lot of people beforehand. So I'd be like, Oh, this guy was from here, and he's good here or there ever, but you still don't know, obviously, until they're on the court, right, performing right?
Griffin Cunningham 51:24
No, I was getting some good information from you during the game, which I appreciated, but I did go back and check some stuff out. And I did, let's see if I circled the right people here, Marcus Hill, senior guard from Bowling Green, for every
Stone Boylan 51:37
point average 20 at Bowling Green. I think he was from all of the mid major school transfers and everything. He was on the higher side for points. That doesn't necessarily mean, obviously they're going to be exactly that, but he played more in that game than I thought. So if he can hit and at least get to maybe 12 per game or something like that, that would be huge, if not, though he'll be a good, good backup card. Yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 52:01
the other transfer that's starting alongside Ben Middlebrooks, Michael O'Connell and Jayden Taylor, is Don tres styles, nine points, senior guard from Georgetown, formally UNC
Stone Boylan 52:13
he should have had more. They just took him out in the beginning. I saw that. Well, he only played 14 minutes because we were playing nothing, but he was great. He was so efficient.
Griffin Cunningham 52:21
Is he the best one you think, no,
Stone Boylan 52:22
I don't think so. He might be, but I coming into it, I don't think so. I think one of the two, you know, you can mention, we got two Louisville transfers. But on, speaking of just going back to the styles, I remember him at UNC. He was there for two years. I remember watching him, and he was kind of inefficient, and then he went to Georgetown last year. They were bad, but got coached by Patrick Ewing, and then comes over this year, and he looked much better in the first game than I thought. So he's a tiny bit undersized for four, and we're gonna be an undersized team in general compared to last year. Obviously, DJ burns made up for a lot of that, and diara, but middle Brooks is probably gonna play the five, to be honest. But he was good. He was definitely really good. He was he was a good uplift, for sure. Yeah.
Griffin Cunningham 53:10
Well, speaking of size, Brandon Huntley Hatfield from
Stone Boylan 53:16
Tennessee and Louisville. That's, that's my favorite 610
Griffin Cunningham 53:19
senior, had 13 points in this game.
Stone Boylan 53:22
He he was a he was a former five star coming out a few years ago. Was that Louisville got last this is what people need to know about Louisville. People see where they came from and then see the team wins. That's not what you look at. People probably don't know. Last year, Dalton connect was the best player, in my opinion, maybe slightly behind Zach Edie in college basketball. He was insane. He went in the NBA Draft, went way too low, by the way, to the Lakers, and he's playing great now. But he literally came from, I think, northern Colorado, and stepped right in and produced and was great. So, you know, just because they came from a different score or school they didn't win a ton doesn't mean that they're not good players. And we got two guys from Louisville. Mike James was one of them. He came from Louisville, and he's kind of a good guard. He'll probably be similar to Marcus Hill, to be honest, except Marcus Hill, I think might play more of a point guard than shooting guard, and Mike James is probably gonna play shooting guard, but I don't think Mike James is gonna start. He's probably gonna he didn't play in this game. He did. Did he nice? I didn't. I thought he did. Wasn't he number nine? Who's number nine? I don't know. Maybe it's my kill mark, but I remember Mike James being on he played, I just don't know if he played a ton, but Brandon Huntley, Hatfield and Mike James, both of them were at Louisville. Louisville was horrible last year. They had like, nine wins. They blew it up. But they had, I think almost every single player left the team and went on and transferred, but they were about six guys from the Louisville team that went to other power five programs that teams really wanted to get because they were talented. It was just Louisville was a mess with their coach last year, and they were all over the place, unorganized. You. They just kind of let guys do whatever they want, but they're still talented. So I think bringing them in, I know they were from Louisville, but they're still very good. And Brandon Huntley Hatfield is, I would say, my favorite, at least coming in. I know styles did great, and I could, you know, I don't want to just go back and say, Oh, we had a good first game, so he's better. Like that could totally be the case. But Brandon is the one that I looked at the most as the one I kind of been most excited for. And he's kind of like a hybrid three, four. He can play both, and he just does a lot, and he can, he's a good score, and he was consistent, so I think he'll be. He's my favorite out of the main transfers. Yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 55:36
Mike James did not play. He's never, he didn't, okay, but yeah, he wasn't out there.
Stone Boylan 55:41
I guess I was thinking of Marcus Hill, yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 55:43
let's see other new players. We have a couple of freshmen,
Stone Boylan 55:48
though, three freshmen that came in, and some of them played more than in that first game than I thought they played earlier. Trey Parker, I think, came in first, and he
Griffin Cunningham 56:01
was pretty good. He actually was supposed to be here last year. Funny enough, he came in with Dennis Parker. Oh, you're right, yeah. And then we never heard about Trey Parker again, and it's because he stayed to play with overtime elite for an extra season. Sorry about that. Now he's here with Dennis Parker, who did not play a lot because he's coming off an injury. No,
Stone Boylan 56:19
yeah. But Trey, he was, these are all of our transfers. Are all like hybrid shooting guard, small forwards, like all of them. So we're gonna be a very athletic, smaller team. But Trey Parker came in first, looked good. The biggest one was Paul McNeil. He was the highest recruit that we got. And I'm very optimistic that he, hopefully he does well. I'm a little six foot five. Yeah, I'm not gonna go so bullish on younger guys, to be honest. For this team, last year, I kind of got burned by MJ rice. He literally seemed like he was. I was really excited for him. Oh, boy. And because he came in, he was a high recruit, and he did nothing here, gave up on the team and left. I remember going to the locker room. They still had his he now I have no idea. I think he went to a smaller school or something, but I remember going into the locker room and I could still he see his, his name, whatever was on his, his the top of his locker and everything. And he had, he still had a few stuff there too. Then I went later, and it was a few weeks later, and he was all gone, but he was an incoming guy that transferred last year, was a high recruit, didn't get a lot of time, I think at Kansas, was where he was, and he did nothing, literally didn't play, give up, you know?
Griffin Cunningham 57:32
So he's not, he's not playing basketball, yeah, I
Stone Boylan 57:35
guess now, so kind of disappointing. But these are three freshmen. Bryce heard is the other one. He was a little bit lower, but he still could be good. So Paul McNeil is kind of the taller, slightly skinnier. Bryce
Griffin Cunningham 57:45
and Paul are both six foot five, and we're both four star recruits. Oh, the
Stone Boylan 57:52
place I looked at McNeil at, uh, six, six, maybe. But in terms of rankings, like I think heard, was the slightly lower four star, and Parker was the slightly higher four star. But I think Parker or Paul McNeil, McNeil was above all of them, and then it was Parker. And then heard from the wrenches that I saw, but McNeil, I think, was definitely the highest one. But any of them could contribute, like any of them, or maybe all three, maybe one, maybe two, I say more likely, two of them probably do. But this team is is deep, so I'm not sure exactly how much they're gonna get, but they are a part of that depth. For sure. They're the reason they're a deep team,
Griffin Cunningham 58:30
yeah, well, look to keep your eye on Dennis Parker Jr as well. He played significant minutes last year for the team, big wing player. I I can't imagine he wouldn't get significant minutes.
Stone Boylan 58:45
Yeah, no, he will. I mean, he, I remember he was a starter, I think earlier, then kind of fell out of rotation a little bit. He was injured during the tournament. Yeah, so that's unfortunate, but the main guys we return are Michael O'Connell, who obviously hit. He was from Stanford last year, transfer, hit that shot that saved us against Virginia, who always be a legend for that, Ben middle Brooks, who was from Clemson, and he transferred last year as well. And he's just a real I think he looked great against I literally forgot to USC Upstate or whatever. Yes, sir, he looked great against them. He looked very good. He He's blocking everything. He had 10 and 10 and four blocks. He's very aggressive. He's an aggressive personality, for sure. Oh yeah, aggressive. Oh yeah, no no. Like, the good one though, like, and I don't give an F at you know, attitude like that. That's him. He totally embraces it, for sure. Like, the places that I've seen him, and just even if you watch him in the tournament. There were a lot of times like that. And then coming off the bus, he he was totally, I think the biggest thing for me was, some guys were talking about Clemson and because that's where he transferred from. And sometimes you don't know, like, some guys like, like, just compare the two. Michael O'Connell, if you talked with him, he's like, a. Real level headed. Like, you know,
Griffin Cunningham 1:00:01
he loves Stanford. Yeah, he
Stone Boylan 1:00:03
loves Stanford. Ben Middlebrook some guy was talking about Clemson. He's like, Yeah, where's Clemson at right now? Huh? Where they at? I don't know where they at. Then Ben Middlebrooks was saying that about so he's, like, a total, and funny enough, Clemson literally made it to the Elite Eight. We got farther. So he got his last laugh. But he's a total, you know, hard ass, and I love it. He's great, and he's going to fit in perfectly, I think, at the five. And then Jayden Taylor is the other one. He's a good starting wing that we had last year. So those are the main contributors, but we got a lot of transfers that we just mentioned. I think all four are going to play, that we just brought up. And then we have all those freshmen. So we got a lot. I know we lost our three best players, arguably in both DJs and Casey Morsell, but we are arguably, this is not like hyperbole. We're arguably one of the deepest teams in the country, and definitely in the ACC I think we have a very large bench to pull from, and it's going to be, it's going to be a really different type of team. There's not really any clear stars. Like last year, DJ and both DJs kind of emerged as the two clear stars. There's not really any clear stars right now. Maybe someone will, but there's a lot of good contributors. So I think that can be maybe even more beneficial to us come later in the season, and tournament time, because as they build more chemistry, they, you know, are very balanced. So anyone I think, can take over, but obviously you want someone to maybe step up a little bit. But I think the biggest thing for me is now going forward, they can never get too down, ever, because Keats has proved that a team that he has coached can do it at any given moment and do it to the best extent possible, which is going from having to play in the first round of the ACC tournament as an 11 seed, I believe, to making the final four. So at any point. I think Keats has that to pull from, which I think will help them never get too down in any state in the season ever. So I think that helps a lot. But I think I think this is going to be a pretty high floor team. It's gonna be pretty high 14. When I did my rankings on my other Stoneheart sports channel, I had him at like six or seven in the ACC and funny enough, I had them relatively similar last year, but it's gonna be a different six or seven, like last year. It was, hey, we could be top three, or we could be ninth, and we obviously finished on the latter end, but then eventually pulled up to reach our peak. This one, I think we are like a safe slightly higher ACC, and it'll just be up to who we beat and when we get slightly hot in terms of, you know, if we make the tournament or not, it's still possible. But if I were to, if people were to bet right now, I'd say we weren't, we wouldn't be favored to which is unfortunate, but I think we could get more regular season wins than we did last year. For this team, we had 17 regular season wins last year, yeah, and we were disappointing a little bit last year, but they had 17. I think we could get like 19, you know, but we do play more ranked teams out of our conference, Purdue, Kansas and Texas. We all play which Kansas is number one in the country right now. Purdue doesn't have Zack Eid, but they're still good. Texas is ranked, but they kind of had a slip up against I believe it was Cincinnati. Maybe I'm mistaken, recently so, but they're all still ranked, and the ACC itself is kind of similar. It's a bit weaker, but probably gonna turn it up come tournament time, like they do every single year. So we'll see how it goes. But I'd say for tournament, it's just, Hey, who do we beat? And how far do we get in the ACC tournament? I think that's kind of it. And we'll be, it will be a bubble team, and we'll see what happens, and if we get in, or if someone takes a big step, and maybe we do better than I think
Griffin Cunningham 1:03:54
I like that take. We also did not mention Brian pass, but he is a six, oh yeah, this team, yeah. He had 414 points and four assists. 14 is tied for the team high in points. Marcus Hill and Brian pass both had 14. He was
Stone Boylan 1:04:10
a little lower in their rotation last year, but I feel like he should have got a little more minutes, because in the time that he got in a few games, he was pretty good. But the biggest thing, I think, was, I can't remember what game it was, but it was some really important game. Maybe it was the important game. Maybe it was the Elite Eight, or the ACC title game, or the Final Four. It was the final Yeah, Final Four, he was, like, one of
Griffin Cunningham 1:04:28
the best players in the team. He was the only one doing anything, yeah, literally went down. So, yeah, he's a senior this season. I think there's kind of been some he's been very patient, and I know that. Yeah, credit to him. Pack athletics had just ran a story on him and how, you know he's kind of waited for his turn, and maybe it's not entirely his turn, with the transfers still here, but he
Stone Boylan 1:04:49
is. Yeah, he's clearly thrown in, like you can get meaningful time. Show us what you can do. Yeah, he will. He might start. I'm
Griffin Cunningham 1:04:56
guessing he'd be either the starting point guard or the sixth man, which I. Heavily played six man, yes, yes. And he, he did play well in this first game, so I think he adds a lot to this team. And couldn't forget to mention him. So
Stone Boylan 1:05:10
yeah, I totally forgot him, which I've said a bunch of stuff, obviously, already, but in terms of how we would play, I honestly don't have a giant thing to tell you. I think we might be one of the more balanced teams in the country, because we don't, I don't, which is good and bad. I don't think we excel at anything, but I don't think we're lacking anything. I guess the only other thing would be if we play a Zack Ed type team, but you know, that would only be Creighton with Ryan kulk Brander, who had, I think, like 49 and only missed two shots a few games ago. So he's insane, but he's for Creighton. And unless we're in the tournament and we face Creighton again, like we did two years ago and we got close, that's not going to be something that we're going to have to worry about every single game. Yeah, he's he's not exactly either. No, like he's not. It's just not like that. But
Griffin Cunningham 1:05:54
yeah, still very good. More to see, more to see on the season. We don't have that one game isn't enough of a sample size to diagnose what the team is really going to play like, how they're going to be coached, what the rotation
Stone Boylan 1:06:07
is, which our first real game, which I would say would low key be Colgate, because Colgate has made the tournament multiple times in the past few years, but their head coach is, I believe, now, the coach at Louisville. So they're probably rebuilding program too. So our first real game, we're probably gonna go start five and, oh, our first real game is versus Purdue on November 28 it's at, I can't remember if it's at home or if it's at a tournament. It might be at a tournament, I'm not sure, but it is Purdue that is for sure, on our schedule. So we'll, we'll see how that goes. And then after that, we play Texas on December 4, so we kind of ramp it up and play Texas. And Purdue is our first real team. So we'll, we'll see how they do. Maybe they can sneak one out against a Texas maybe, and we'll see how they do against a rematch with the team that knocked us out in Purdue. It'd be nice to win that. Not saying we will. I think I'll just wait to see what both teams look like before I say anything. But you know, we'll see how it goes.
Griffin Cunningham 1:07:09
Well, we've got Presbyterian tomorrow of November 8, Friday. So show out to that. It's on at home, and we got a stretch of home games coming up with coastal Colgate and William and Mary. So that has been this episode. Thank you for listening to letter red music in this podcast was Jonas hippers, king of sports and vibe and sneaky, licensed under creative commons from the Free Music Archive. You
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