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The only podcast covering all things Arizona State athletics! We bleed maroon and gold, and love talking about the Sun Devils no matter what sport.
David Howman (00:01)
Welcome one, welcome all to another episode of the Echo from the Buttes podcast. I am your host David Hellman joined by Tom Harden who's back this week after missing the last show that we did, first time he's ever missed. And we've also got our guy Andrew Hazlett and we are coming to you with a really good show today. And we have a lot to talk about. ⁓ First things first, we have some,
some shameless plugging to do because we're going through a bit of a bit of a transition here nothing's changing with the podcast echo from the boots we're gonna continue echoing from these boots and ⁓
But for any of those who followed our written content over at Devils in Detail, anybody who follows us on social media has probably heard already, ⁓ Devils in Detail after today will be no more. This is the last day that you can read any new content at devilsindetail.com. But.
You're not done reading our words just yet unless you just choose not to click or read, which is entirely your prerogative. But we did launch a brand new website that is up and running that is merging with this podcast Echo from the Buttes dot com. You'll be able to get podcast episodes on there and of course, read all of our wonderful content. We have hockey coverage from Tom, baseball coverage from Andrew.
football, basketball stuff for me. ⁓ Aya covering women's basketball. Austin, just, you know, whatever his heart pleases him to talk about, which really goes for all of us. ⁓ I'm personally very excited about it. It's a time of change and it comes at a really good time. ⁓ Andrew, Tom, you've both told me to my face that you're excited about it too. I assume that you're not just blowing smoke in my face right now, right?
Tom Hardon (01:47)
Absolutely, you know, it's been a fun period of transition. know, the launch of something new while still retaining what made our site what it is and bringing you the same great coverage of all of Sun Devil Athletics that that doubles in detail was known for. We will continue to bring you the same in our rebranded form of Echo from the Buttes.
Andrew Hayslett (02:10)
I echo what Tom and David said, it's... it's excited. I didn't even intend that, so that's just...
David Howman (02:14)
That's real good, Andrew.
Tom Hardon (02:21)
The game is strong with this one.
Andrew Hayslett (02:23)
Yeah, yeah, like I said, I echo what you guys have said. It's a period of transition. I'm excited to see where it takes us. I would imagine pretty close to what we were doing, but slightly different and I think slightly better. And we're gonna continue and grow, continue to produce better content for you, I think. And we'll, you'll see how it happens along this way.
David Howman (02:49)
Yeah, it's a really, really exciting time and we have the website up. Again, that's echofromthebutes.com. So go check it out. ⁓ There's a newsletter option in there. You can sign up for a newsletter so you can get even more words from us. can also, there's also on the podcast page of the site, there's an opportunity there to submit any sort of comments, but specifically you can request.
topics to discuss you can ask questions of us that we can discuss on the next show so ⁓ keep it you know PG of course this is a family show here but feel free to give your feedback give your questions ⁓ give us a piece of your mind you can do all that on the website yeah
Tom Hardon (03:30)
Give us a mailbag. Give us a mailbag. We love having mailbag
questions to talk about and just fielding stuff from fellow Sun Devil fans for us to give our insight on.
David Howman (03:45)
Yeah, because surely we're, you know, we're very close to running out of things to talk about. ASU gives us nothing for sure. But.
Also, know, Echo from the Boots is not the only thing that's going through a transition and leveling up, if you will. There were also some other Sun Devils that recently leveled up. And by that, mean the 2026 NFL draft. There were several players in this draft who heard their name called Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday during the day, and now get the dream of being an NFL player. Of course, ASU had two different players drafted in the first round. First time since 2001.
they've had multiple players drafted in the first round. Do either of you know who those two players were in 2001 that were drafted? I'm pretty sure Andrew doesn't, because I think you were one year old.
Andrew Hayslett (04:37)
I
was not born yet in 2001, if I was reading Twitter correctly and my memory served me right, was Adam Archuleta one of those?
David Howman (04:40)
my god.
He was one of them, yeah?
Tom Hardon (04:51)
The other one was Todd Heap.
Andrew Hayslett (04:53)
Couldn't
tell you the other. yeah.
David Howman (04:54)
The
legend.
Tom Hardon (04:56)
Legendary tight end.
David Howman (04:57)
Yeah, yeah and Adam Marchaletta played in the Super Bowl with the Bears, the Rex Grossman Bears, and is now has a fairly successful career as a TV broadcaster. ⁓ So pretty decent 2001 draft hall. This year they had Jordan Tyson who got drafted eighth overall, unfortunately to the Saints. ⁓
So, ⁓ you know, he's, he's, it's funny because now his quarterback will be ⁓ Tyler Shuck, who is originally from Arizona. So ASU player now catching passes from an Arizona quarterback. ⁓
But he went eighth overall and then Max Yohannachor, their right tackle, got drafted to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 21st overall. And of course, the draft this year was in Pittsburgh. So he got to not only hear his name called, but then he was there in Pittsburgh and all the Steelers fans were just loving him up. And he got to really get immediately immersed in the fan base. And to brag on myself a little bit, I was actually in Pittsburgh for the draft this year. And I actually got to see
I got to shake his hand, gave him the forks up, and I brought an ASU hat with me to wear for that moment especially. ⁓ So it was cool. He was doing a fan appearance, and he was on the stage, and we made eye contact, so I was right in the front row. And he looked at my hat, looked at me, gave him the forks up, and he did it back, and I was like, there we go.
Tom Hardon (06:36)
Speaking of up the forks, I want to give a shout out to Heinz Ward also for knowing his involvement in the draft, up the fork representing ASU during his part of the weekend. The Sendable brand is alive and well across the country.
David Howman (06:54)
Yeah, and Heinz Ward was unsurprisingly also there at the draft. ⁓ And, you know, it being in Pittsburgh, he having played for Pittsburgh, ⁓ he was there and did a lot of appearances as well, and was on a few different radio shows talking up Jordan Tyson talking up Maxie Hotteture. ⁓ And there was
I believe it was the Steelers GM Omar Khan even said afterwards after they drafted him ⁓ mentioned like, know, Heinz Ward is here. He knows this guy. We talked to him. And the one thing Heinz said to me was Max is a Steeler. Like you want this guy. So he's, don't think that made their decision for them, but he's at least he's going out of his way to help rep the brand. Like you're saying Tom. And so that's, that's pretty cool.
Tom Hardon (07:45)
It's also worth noting Tyson's selection at eighth overall is the highest selected Sun Devils since 2003. Terrell Suggs was taken, I believe it was 10th overall that year, so first top ten selection since then. And Max Ahamchor was the first Sun Devil lineman taken in the first round since, I think it was Levi Brown if I'm not mistaken.
David Howman (08:14)
so.
Tom Hardon (08:19)
have to do.
David Howman (08:19)
Yeah,
the most recent player that was taken inside the top 10 before him would have been... ⁓ Let me see, I just had it here.
Tom Hardon (08:36)
first one and...
Andrew Hayslett (08:40)
Regardless, still a monumental draft for the Sun Devils and you regardless of where what these records are it's still something to be proud of something that hasn't been done in a long time
David Howman (08:50)
Right.
Oh, I got it. The most recent player drafted in single digits before Jordan Tyson, so one through nine, was 1982 Gerald Riggs to the Falcons.
Tom Hardon (09:14)
I do remember seeing that name as I was doing a little bit of digging. I was not alive then as the eldest statesman on the show. ⁓ Thankfully that predates me by a few years.
David Howman (09:20)
Yeah.
Yeah, we also had ⁓ Al Harris to the Bears in 1979, Mike Haynes, the Hall of Famer, ⁓ 1976 to the Patriots. There you go, Tom. Which I also was going to say, because I was there in Pittsburgh for all three days of the draft, that means I was more involved in the NFL draft this year than Mike Vrabel.
Tom Hardon (09:55)
Why was I not expecting that to be a thing?
David Howman (10:01)
I knew there was a way I had to bring it up somehow, you know?
Tom Hardon (10:04)
Levi Jones was the lineman I was thinking of, by the way. Levi Jones.
David Howman (10:10)
Yeah,
yeah, nice, nice pivot. So anyway, Mike Vrabel. ⁓
Tom Hardon (10:17)
Fine, fine, you know, stand up gentlemen, loves to collaborate.
David Howman (10:23)
I did not see him at the draft in Pittsburgh any of the days.
Andrew Hayslett (10:27)
I
saw him a few weeks before when he was at Arizona State for the ASU Pro Day.
Tom Hardon (10:39)
I would have loved to see Max come to New England. He was high on my list, but it's nice seeing him get drafted in the first round.
David Howman (10:39)
I wasn't even...
Yeah.
Yeah, so it was a great week. ⁓ Of course, were those two guys that were drafted in the first round, but we also saw Keith Abney go in the fifth round to the Lions, which I mean, what a like a culture fit like Keith Abney, the ultimate fierce competitor. Like he's everyone talked in this draft about, he's so short, but he doesn't play like it. And then you go to a team like the Lions with Dan Campbell. It was such
Such a good fit, I thought. And then we also saw a few picks later, Keishon Elliott got drafted to the Chicago Bears. Again, a really good fit there in the defense that they run. ⁓ So very exciting. That's four picks that they had, which is pretty decent. And especially two of them being first round picks that in front of a record breaking audience of people attending, but also people watching on TV.
really, really good opportunity for getting the ASU brand out there. And I have a feeling that this streak is not changing anytime soon. I was seeing 2027 mock drafts already that had Omarion Miller as a first round pick. And I'm sure there will be someone else that pops up this year. ⁓ There's a lot of buzz around a lot of these guys on defense as well. So ⁓ this may very well be the start of-
a run on first round, second round players, people going high in the draft out of Arizona State.
Tom Hardon (12:23)
I agree. The future is bright for Son of a football with ⁓ Kenny Dillingham at the helm and the coaching staff that he has assembled and just the overall culture that he has brought to Arizona State since he assumed the head coaching position. It's a night and day difference. see it in the community here. You see it among the fans in the stadium. You see it with the players.
and just how proud they are to represent Arizona State and the Sun Devil brand.
David Howman (13:03)
Yeah, it's a great time to be a Sun Devil, not just in football. ⁓ It feels like all of the sports are kind of on the rise or doing really well.
Tom Hardon (13:13)
Well,
David, before we move on to other sports, I think we would be remiss if we did not talk about how the Shaman Mateyar fan club will also be having a Pittsburgh branch. Shaman was one of several Sun Devils who were signed as undrafted free agents. Others include Malik McLean by the New York Jets, Prince Dorba with Buffalo, Ghost Rauser with Seattle. It's not just the drafted route that...
Sun Devils are continuing their careers, but teams are seeing these guys coming ⁓ with potential as undrafted, ⁓ undrafted pre-agent options. And it's not even limited to the NFL. Just today, kicker Jesus Gomez was taken number three overall by the Edmonton Elks in the Canadian Football League global draft. So Sun Devils are making their mark in the NFL, in the Canadian Football League.
I'm sure if you put a leak somewhere, Sun Devils will find a way to further their career there.
David Howman (14:20)
You know, if there's one thing I've always said about the Edmonton Alks, it's that they're very smart football team.
said a lot about the Edmonton Alps but that's always been the main takeaway.
Tom Hardon (14:33)
I like her color scheme.
Now then, it's good to see Hazard getting his opportunity in the CFL and hopefully that'll bring him ⁓ back towards the NFL as we know. Kickers are a very ⁓ highly held quantity in the NFL.
David Howman (14:56)
Yeah, I mean, the NFL teams are always looking for good kickers. And if he can go to the CFL, we know the leg he has, if he can show that at the CFL level, it won't be very long before the NFL comes calling. But now all of us Undevil fans have a team to root for when it's CFL season, which I know when that is.
Definitely. So I'll be watching and all of you other casual CFL fans, unlike me, can start watching as well. ⁓
Tom Hardon (15:30)
I can break out the
double E on the green and yellow.
David Howman (15:38)
I can't wait for pictures, ⁓ But to move on, because in a way we did move on from football to Canadian football because it is different. But moving on to other areas where Sun Devil Athletics is on the rise. ⁓ The last time that we were on here, we were talking about, you know, the echoes within the Buttes.
Andrew's rolling his eyes at me. ⁓ We're very serious over here. ⁓ But last time that we were on, the Prince Reportal had like just opened up and there had been really no real movement for Sun Devil basketball. And Randy Bennett, at that point, we hadn't even
Tom Hardon (16:09)
Rimshot.
David Howman (16:34)
seen proof of life for Randy Bennett. hadn't still hasn't had the press conference yet, but he did do a sit down interview with Sun Devil Media. We've heard from him, heard a little bit about his excitement. The press conference will be coming sometime in the next couple of weeks now that the portal activity has died down a little bit. ⁓
But there has been plenty of transfer portal activity. Arizona State has been busy and they've assembled a pretty exciting team, something that I'm really excited and really looking forward to watching. Of course, the big headline was Paulius Morauskas, who was the ninth rated player in the entire transfer portal, ⁓ chose to follow Randy Bennett from St. Mary's to Arizona State. He's a Lithuanian stretch four.
I hesitate to make the comparison because of who he played for collegiately, but you remember Lowry Markkinen, similar type of play style, little bit shorter, but similar play style, did really well as a lead scorer for St. Mary's this last year. They also got Dylan Shaw, who was a four-star freshman last year at St. Mary's. ⁓
one of the best three point shooters in the country in terms of percentage. He's coming over ⁓ Joel Foxwell and Australian who was a freshman last year was the starting point guard for ⁓ Portland also in the West Coast. And then Emanuel Innocenti who was a starter for Gonzaga and was one of their best defensive players. basically Randy Bennett just rated the best players from the West Coast Conference that he either coached or coached against and is turning them
into a pseudo super team for ASU coming into his first year. And right now actually ASU's transfer portal rankings, they are number one in the big 12, believe it or not, which the big 12 we know very well how good the big 12 is. And a lot of those programs have money to throw at these transfer players and ASU is number one. And nationally, their transfer class is number 10. So I mean,
I never thought I'd see those kinds of numbers in basketball, let alone for a brand new coach who, you coming from St. Mary's, his reputation was for finding diamonds in the rough and now he's doing this. So it's, I'm very, very excited. I'm fired up to see what this team looks like.
Tom Hardon (19:04)
It's a very natural ⁓ thing for Randy Bennett going after the West Coast Conference guys that, like you said, coach them directly or coach against them. Marascus is a very, very, very high level addition, as you were saying. First team, all West Coast Conference, averaging over 18 points a game. ⁓ But the piece to me that I like is Ben Defte coming from Boston University. ⁓
Andrew Hayslett (19:04)
So does that.
Tom Hardon (19:31)
Almost seven rebounds a game, 15 points from the center position, especially with Musamba Jop going in the portal. ⁓ Get a really solid big man coming in. I'm excited to see how he fits into Randy Bannon's system.
David Howman (19:50)
Yeah, and he's seven feet too. He's a big dude, you know, the number one critique that always was always a constant under Bobby Hurley was we didn't have size. And then, you know, the few times that we did get size, if you remember Jethro Sishumpa, I still don't know if I'm saying the name right, but Jethro T. I mean, he had size, but he also couldn't stand on the court because he always got in foul trouble or, you know, his conditioning, he would get gas too quickly.
And so it was like you don't have size. Now you have Ben Defte, who was one of the best players at a lower level. I'll grant you, I'm a little concerned about the jump from Boston University to, you know, facing Kansas and Houston. But he's also, I mean, with the roster that Bennett's built, he's not going to be your top guy the way he was at Boston University. And they also brought in Nate Garcia, who just finished up as a freshman at Cal Baptist. Of course, the Cal Baptist head coach, Rick
Croix is now one of Randy Bant's assistant coaches here. Nate Garcia is also seven foot. He's seven foot, 250. And probably it's gonna be the main backup to Daphne. So we have not one, but two seven footers now, including alongside a bunch of other guys that were all conference players at the West Coast Conference, which is a pretty darn good conference and played for some pretty good programs.
So they've brought in size, they've brought in scores, they've brought in defense. It feels like, it feels like Randy Bennett's building something.
Andrew Hayslett (21:29)
Something I wanted to ask you David is that ranking doesn't include players going out in the portal, just players coming in.
David Howman (21:39)
It's players coming in. So like you're not going to lose points for because like obviously losing Musamba job is that's a loss, but it doesn't count the losses.
Andrew Hayslett (21:41)
Okay.
A key loss.
I don't want to be the, Andrew's being pessimistic here, but I'm going to be a little pessimistic here, is that you lose so many guys in the portal.
David Howman (21:59)
but you'll power through it.
Andrew Hayslett (22:06)
you die to replenish them, you're gonna have to go be a high and get a high number because you lose so many guys, you're only gonna bring in so many freshmen coming in. So you're gonna have to get a lot of guys in the portal, which does boost the numbers a little bit, but it is, so it's so I think it is higher ⁓ compared to these other schools can just because quantity is higher.
But there is still some quality names coming in. It's not all quantity. There are quality names that you two have mentioned. I do want to say that it's not all sunshine and rainbows to me yet.
Tom Hardon (22:50)
I'm sorry, when did Austin come on the show?
David Howman (22:50)
And I mean, there's always
the reality too of like at the end of the day, they still play in the big 12. getting all the best players from the West Coast Conference is not going to be, it's not like, I don't think that they're winning the big 12 or even finishing in the top four with this roster. But again, the big 12.
For the most part, the last few years, we've seen if you're in the top half of that conference, you're either making the tournament or you're incredibly close to making it. You're like right on the bubble depending on how you do come conference tournament time. So you really only need to be in that top half to reach the tournament. And looking at this roster, I think that is very much in reach to be fall into that six, seven, eight range.
Tom Hardon (23:44)
And with the upcoming tournament expansion, only makes the window wider.
David Howman (23:52)
Yeah, of course that was the other news that the NCAA is potentially moving forward with a vote sometime in May to expand to 76 teams, which I do not support. It feels un-American to me.
Tom Hardon (24:08)
It'll be February madness before we know it.
David Howman (24:11)
Yeah, what are, it's 68 teams is already enough. I don't know most of these teams. There's schools that I'm learning where they are on the map. What, which state they're in.
Tom Hardon (24:22)
Hey, you know what? If it means that Oklahoma Coastal gets an automatic bid, let's do it.
David Howman (24:31)
Oklahoma Coastal is a different story. They're always going to be in the tournament. They're too good to keep out. ⁓
One of the other names that was also on their their list of guys that they brought in via the portal, ⁓ Marcus Vons, who transferred over from LSU. ⁓ And he was a really highly rated player out of Australia who came to LSU largely because of David Patrick, who was was an assistant top assistant in LSU. Now at Arizona State, he was actually the coach at St. Mary's under Randy Bennett way long ago that built the Australian pipeline that
has yielded so many different players, star players for St. Mary's over the years. And now he's in Tempe, getting that Aussie pipeline here to Tempe. ⁓ The joke that I've been making is returning AUS into ASU. So that's, if we can start getting that going.
Andrew Hayslett (25:11)
you
Tom Hardon (25:31)
Hey, you can't spell Australia without ASU.
David Howman (25:37)
Andrew didn't look like he got the joke or maybe he's just tired of me.
Andrew Hayslett (25:40)
I did not get the joke.
Tom Hardon (25:42)
You
David Howman (25:46)
That's fine. But Marcus Vaughn's also a really good pickup. He's kind of a versatile wing player.
Kim play down in the post if he needs to, Kim play out on the three. ⁓ Probably will be kind of a bench player, but a valuable bench player for them. ⁓ And then of course we also got past the 21st, which was the closing of the transfer portal. So we know for sure Bryce Ford is staying with the team and Vijay Wallace is staying with the team. ⁓ So that's two guys that they did keep. ⁓
know, guys, you Vijay Wallace, because of an injury, wasn't able to play this past season, but a lot of people thought he was in line to be a starter. So depending on where he got in his recovery, Bryce Ford also had an injury towards the end of the year. So it's unsure what his status will be at the start of the year, but he, know, when he was at his best, he was a really good outside shooter and gives you a really good three point presence.
So I don't think that they're necessarily done yet. ⁓ People didn't notice the other day, David Patrick, that same coach I talked about, posted on his Instagram story that he was in Serbia scouting players, which led to me learning that there are a lot of very talented Serbian pro teams out there that he might potentially be scouting. And there's some guys out there that are supposedly a poor man's Nikola Jokic. So maybe we're getting one of those.
So they're not entirely done building this roster, but they've done a lot of legwork. I think they've found their starting five at this point. And to me and to Tom and clearly not to Andrew, it seems promising. Are you guys like fired up and excited to watch Sun Devil basketball again for the first time in however many years?
Tom Hardon (27:37)
I am. I'm going to give Randy Bennett the benefit of the doubt. I'm going to come into this new era with a sense of optimism. I'm going to call it my maroon tinted glasses, whatever you want to call it. I think that this is certainly a turning point for the positive for ⁓ Sun Devil basketball. And David, like you said, this team, I don't expect them to
to come out like gangbusters and win the big 12. But I expect this team to be competitive throughout the season. I don't expect to see the traditional in-conference play ⁓ slump that we've seen with a few gems of upset wins here and there. I expect to see this team competitive even in their losses. I expect to see them pushing for
pushing for as high as the 5-6 seed in the conference tournament and then let the Magic take the reins when they get to Kansas City and then into the rest of the postseason. This first season is obviously going to be the watermark of what does Randy Bennett bring to this program, but I'm looking at it in terms of he's going to bring
some much needed ⁓ injection of energy to this program that's been kind of dormant for quite some time.
Andrew Hayslett (29:19)
Yeah, this is probably the most excited I've been for Arizona State basketball in a very long time ⁓ because it is new. It is fresh. Regardless of what the Sun Devils do this year, it is going to be exciting. How exciting is it going to be? That's the question. Can this team do what?
these late stage Bobby Hurley teams didn't do is make a run in the tournament, stay competitive and at the end of the year, the big 12 tournament I was referring to, can they make an appearance in the NCAA tournament? Those are the questions that we're asking here and I don't know, I'm not the most tapped into basketball helmet, but I don't know what...
This team is, I don't know what the expectations should necessarily be. You do look over at the women's side, they recently got a head coach in Molly Miller who did well, did, made a small run in the Big 12 tournament, won all those games in the non-con, went 16 and 0, something like that, before losing a first game of the year. And then appearing in the tournament is when the first four teams didn't obviously make it out of there.
unfortunately for them, so that's kind of where I point to is what the expectation could be but It's it's still April 29th as we're recording this season doesn't start until what October November. That's a Long time away for saying. Oh, yeah, the Sun Devil should be X Y & at this point
Tom Hardon (31:11)
I
David Howman (31:11)
Tom,
going back to what you said, I just wanted to throw this out there. You're gonna give Randy the benefit of the doubt.
Tom Hardon (31:21)
Yeah, you're kind of seeing what I was leading there.
David Howman (31:29)
Well, and on that note, ⁓ enough about basketball. ⁓ Tom, you've recently had some news for us with hockey. And of course, there's new coverage of hockey up at the new site. Again, that's ekkerfromthebeats.com. Check it out. But what's new in the world of hockey? Because they also are getting into some portal business.
Tom Hardon (31:55)
Yeah, I'll rip the bandaid off right away. Thankfully the transfer portal is closed for hockey. It opened on April 13th and closed just yesterday, I believe. hockey did kind of a little bit decimated. A lot of losses. Colin Potter, the highest profile loss transferring to Michigan State but also losing players like Sam Alfano.
Carmelo Crandall, ⁓ Joel Schellberg, and Brazen Bozer, among others, in total 10 players transferred out. But a lot of key additions coming in, namely Ben Mothersbaugh, top tier four coming out of Union, strong goal scorer, strong, big size to him, a very shoot first mentality player that has been missing on a lot of Sun Double Hockey teams in recent years. ⁓
for those who have been following the hockey program for a few years now. Daniel Schlane, the younger brother of former Sun Devil Artem Schlane, transferred in from Minnesota Duluth. He got not a lot of playing time up there for the Bulldogs, but should be getting an expanded role. It's another in-conference transfer of Cade Littler from North Dakota.
of you who are coming in from lindenwood another player ⁓ put on a line with mothers ball ⁓ another a lot of great size on and ⁓ again should first mentality something that something of these teams don't really haven't really done ⁓ on defense steered big big big and i say that figuratively and literally the incoming
Incoming defensemen transfers are all over six feet tall, all pushing 200 pounds. So physicality on the blue line is something that Coach Powers has been really going after and getting guys who can clog up lanes, get block shots and force opponents off the puck in the defensive zone, win those puck battles on the boards and really just out muscle opponents.
David Howman (34:18)
So like what's the reason that there was so much attrition in the portal this year do you think? Like, cause I know obviously the season didn't go as people hoped for and it was definitely a disappointing finish to the year. ⁓ But typically, I mean.
And as I think we've all caught on to you by this point, I don't follow hockey as closely as you do, Tom. ⁓ But my guess is if it's anything like football and basketball, typically there's some level of continuity when a coach that's liked and respected like Coach Powers sticks around. I think typically this almost feels like, well,
This is what you would expect if there was a coaching change, but there wasn't. I know they lost one of their assistant coaches, ⁓ but the head man is still there. Is it really just like we had a down year and I want to go somewhere else that I feel like I can easily win?
Tom Hardon (35:17)
Not necessarily. one thing to keep in mind with hockey is players are coming in. It's rare that you'll see players come right in as 18 year old freshmen unless you're getting somebody who is of the caliber of Gavin McKenna who came in as a 17 year old over in Penn State. You're seeing these guys play out their junior hockey careers, play up until their age 20 season and they're coming in with their freshman eligibility as a 20 year old.
That's commonly what you see in college hockey. That creates a backlog when you have your recruits that you're lining up for year after year. And a lot of these guys from some of the whispers I've been hearing, a lot of the players who entered the portal were, it was indicated that their playing time would either would be severely cut down or they themselves would be cut to make room for other incoming.
and other incoming transfers that were identified as possibilities. Because college hockey now is an even smaller pool with only 62 teams across the country with Mercyhurst dropping their Division I program at the end of this academic year. So the pool of players, there's so few spots, but there's a large pool of players to choose from when you add in the
Canadian Hockey League eligibility for juniors, as well as the already existing United States Hockey League for domestic junior hockey. It's always going to be a bit more of a call it a dog eat dog roll out there for players trying to get their foothold with a program and establish their career. You see the model that I will always point to is what David Carl does at Denver and identifies players
early on and when they set foot on the campus at Denver, it's already ⁓ heavily emphasized and almost assumed that these guys are going to play out their collegiate career for the pioneers. You don't typically see a lot of transfers in or out of the Denver program. And that's a model that I think every college hockey team should look to emulate.
and something I'd like to see Coach Powers model off of as he continues his recruiting trail.
David Howman (37:55)
what you're saying is it's not time to hit the panic button just yet.
Tom Hardon (37:58)
No, not time to the panic button just yet. Admittedly, with the last place finish, the guard is raised, but this season, St. Thomas joins the NCHC from the CCHA, bringing conference membership up to and even 10 teams. With that comes a new postseason conference tournament format. All 10 teams do make the conference tournament. Teams will be seated 1 v 10.
2v9, etc. in a best of three series. The five winners advance and the two lowest remaining seeds will play a single playing game at the site of the highest remaining seed to finish out the semifinals.
Andrew Hayslett (38:41)
I'm not a fan of that, I'm just gonna say it.
Tom Hardon (38:44)
Yeah, I am. I grew up watching ECAC hockey back in the 90s, again, dating myself here. But that was a very similar format. was all the top 10 teams would make it, 4 v 5 matchup. And you saw it with the old WCHA before, back in the 2000s, before realignment created the NCHC. The final five was always a must watch event for my dad and I in the mid to late 2000s. So I...
Andrew Hayslett (38:52)
you
Tom Hardon (39:12)
I personally like the single 4v5 playing game to round out the semi-final field.
David Howman (39:21)
Andrew, why are you not a fan?
Andrew Hayslett (39:23)
It's just too complicated. I'd like to see more.
I'd rather see top eight teams make it and each weekend is best of three I don't like they're doing best of three opening weekend and then doing one one one. I just Doesn't make sense to me. I Well, I know why they do it. It just doesn't For for three having the three at at the first round just to get rid of the upset possibility make that harder, but It just doesn't feel
smooth to me. it's just really odd and I think having smoother playoffs is better whether it all be one game series or three game series or whatever. I'm for the proponent of three game series just just to get these upsets harder to do but that's just me.
Tom Hardon (40:18)
You
know, Andrew, you're not alone there. I'm going to give a shout out to a friend of the show, Peter South. He's also in agreement with you that that one and Dons and not only in the conference tournaments, but even in the early rounds of the NCAA tournament should be expanded to best of three. If you want to keep the single elimination, keep that for the frozen four. But, you know, he would be in agreement with you. I'm still on the fence about about expanding to
best of three in the early rounds of the NCAA tournament, but it would be nice to see at least the, you know, the semi-final weekend could be a best of three for the conference tournament with a single game championship, but I don't get paid to make those decisions.
David Howman (41:06)
yet. Yeah.
Tom Hardon (41:06)
Yes.
Hint, hint, HCA. I am available for hire.
But
David Howman (41:14)
We'll work our way up there.
Tom Hardon (41:17)
there is another piece of news for Sun Devil Hockey. ⁓ A new traveling trophy has been established for the Sun Devils. This is in partnership with Colorado College. Yesterday, on ⁓ Wednesday, as we're recording this now, the announcement came with that the Ed Robeson Cup will first be contested during the 2026-27 season.
This trophy will be awarded to the winner of the regular season series between Arizona State and Colorado College. It will be determined on points gained in head-to-head matchups. So for those who are unfamiliar with conference standings points, that's three points for a regulation win, two points for a regulation or shootout win, and one point for a regulation or a shootout loss. This trophy will be initially awarded at the conclusion of the series.
here at Mold Arena between the Sun Devils and Tigers. That will be December 4th and 5th of this year.
Andrew Hayslett (42:21)
I'm a fan of this.
David Howman (42:21)
So we got one
more trophy to put in the case.
Tom Hardon (42:26)
And for those who are wondering why the trophy is named after the namesake of Colorado College's arena, Ed Robeson actually has some deep ties to the Phoenix area. He founded Robeson ⁓ companies, which designed Sun Lakes ⁓ down near Chandler among ⁓ five other communities that are part of the Robeson ⁓ company. Five in Arizona, one more in the
Dallas-Fort Worth area. And Ed's wife, Karen Taylor Robeson herself is an Arizona State alumnus and served on the Board of Regents under Governor Doug Ducey from 2017 through 2021.
Andrew Hayslett (43:11)
I like this adding ⁓ a trophy to play for. It feels like Arizona State's kind of getting another true rival in Colorado College. I feel Denver's became a rivalry, think. I don't know if Denver feels that way, but at least from an ASU perspective, I do think Denver's won the top rivals. I think Denver, they have a lot of rivalries. North Dakota, ASU, Colorado College.
helps Colorado College get another solid rival in Arizona State. I know they have obviously Denver and Air Force rivalries up in the state of Colorado as well. just, I like this. Gets more rivalries, gets something to play for a little extra for these games.
Tom Hardon (44:01)
And you know, also the, ⁓ with the addition of St. Thomas to ⁓ the conference, Arizona State is now a designated rival of Omaha. That feels a little bit forced by the conference, but it kind of makes sense when you think about it. Colorado College and Denver designated rivals, Miami and Western Michigan. Then you have St. Thomas and St. Cloud.
and Minnesota Duluth and North Dakota. All four of those pairings are in close geographic proximity to each other. Arizona State and Omaha are really the two odd ones out. it was really a rivalry of ⁓ necessity rather than geographic convenience.
David Howman (44:51)
process of elimination.
Tom Hardon (44:54)
Yeah, exactly.
Andrew Hayslett (44:57)
I'd like to see, I know there's a rink in Tucson right now being built. I'd like to see Arizona jump up 10 CAA level, join the NCHC. I know there's rumblings about UNLV possibly jumping up Oklahoma State. If you can get three or two of those three to join.
the conference I think that would be awesome just to see more teams supporting D1 sport. think growth is always good as long as you're not cutting anything. I think that would be great for college hockey and help Arizona State kind of get a true rival and same thing for ⁓ Omaha as well kind of.
geographically if you get Oklahoma State and then one of UNLV in Arizona that that would make a nice 12 team NCHC.
Tom Hardon (45:59)
Well, and also when you think about it too, if Arizona and Oklahoma State were to make the move up to Division 1, that's half the membership that would be required for the Big 12 itself to sponsor hockey as a standalone conference, much like how Big 10 started sponsoring hockey when Penn State moved up to Division 1. I'm not entirely sure how close Colorado is to being able to make that jump up. I know they have an ACHA Division 2 program.
So they would be quite a few steps away, but if UNLV were to become an affiliate member of the Big 12 for hockey when that time came, if you saw other programs, Georgia is making steps to elevate their ACHA Division I program and they're building a new arena either on campus at Georgia or close to campus for
for their home games. you know, that could be explored as a possibility for an affiliate member. You know, there's plenty of options to be able to bring the Big 12 into the hockey conversation and become another major conference that is in that hockey landscape.
David Howman (47:22)
Does Yukon have a hockey team?
Tom Hardon (47:24)
They do, they play in Hockey East alongside Boston College, Boston University, etc.
David Howman (47:30)
I know Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark has tried many times now to get UConn as a full member of the Big 12. If we extrapolate down the road and Big 12 is getting close to...
sponsoring hockey officially, maybe he tries to get Yukon over as an affiliate member and like start slowly sneaking them into the Big 12 ⁓ entirely. That could be something. And I've heard, and I'll drop this ⁓ exclusive news here first, rumblings that Oklahoma Coast is interested in a hockey team as well. So they're probably a couple years off still, ⁓ but I think it's in the works.
Tom Hardon (48:16)
on the frozen banks of the Red River,
David Howman (48:20)
Exactly. It gets cold in the winter. We got a foot of snow back in February. We can do it. We have have a, I forget what the acronym is, but a minor league hockey team in Tulsa. Yeah.
Andrew Hayslett (48:28)
I
Tom Hardon (48:38)
Total Oilers, correct?
and it's.
David Howman (48:43)
They
Andrew Hayslett (48:43)
Going back.
David Howman (48:43)
weren't very good this year, but we have one.
Andrew Hayslett (48:48)
Going back to possibly big 12 hockey. I think this is would come around 2050 at the earliest I Mean I'm maybe in the 2040s if you're if you're lucky by I don't think it's coming anytime soon you you because you got to get you only have
one school right now still and I've got to to six and We're just we're just throwing darts on the board. I'm gonna throw some more darts as possibility here I think the Utah schools either one of them would make a lot of sense to do hockey You see what the mammoth they're doing up there. I think possibly getting ⁓ another D1 team up there would make sense Iowa State you have a lot of other schools up in that area you have your Augustana's the world
in that geographical area so it would make sense for them to join. And Cincinnati, another Ohio school, there's plenty of Ohio schools there already. I think West Virginia wouldn't be too far off as a possibility.
Just geographically taught a lot of hockey schools are in the Northeast Midwest area Kind of expand down to West Virginia. I think I think that makes a lot of sense as well I'm gonna throw one more out there. It's the old Alabama Huntsville team if they could come back and field a team Big 12 members possibly I would be for it
Tom Hardon (50:19)
I you mentioned either of the Utah schools. BYU did have an ACHA Division II team up through 2022, but I believe they are making some moves to reactivate at the ACHA level and explore the possibility of moving higher up.
Andrew Hayslett (50:44)
Yeah, that would be cool. I don't know about you, Tom. I think the number to act, if this thing were to happen, I think that there'd be four actual Big 12 schools at minimum to be playing hockey for this conference to be created. If not five or six.
Tom Hardon (51:06)
The possibility is there. ⁓ Like I said, we're throwing darts, we're kind putting out a wish list. ⁓ So there's our wish list. If anybody can act on it, there's a blueprint.
David Howman (51:19)
Yeah.
Commissioner Yormark, you're listening, make it so.
Andrew Hayslett (51:23)
If
you're donor to one of those schools, donate to hockey possibility.
David Howman (51:30)
Yeah, if the
crumble guy can, if he can pony up all that cash to keep Kalani Satake, surely he can throw a little bone hockey's way.
I don't know if Crumble Guy listens and I also apologize if you're listening, apologize for calling your Crumble Guy. Love your cookies, but let's pitch in a little bit, you know? Let's make this happen.
⁓ Pivoting to one more sport to talk about on the show, ⁓ the one that's actually ongoing presently, Sun Devil baseball, ⁓ they're doing it. They're feeling hot, they're still ranked. ⁓ And last time we were on the show, it's funny because we were talking about the Utah series coming up that weekend. And at the time we were saying like,
Basically, if they don't sweep Utah with how bad Utah is, maybe we're having some issues. And then they won the series, but they lost the first one. And then they lost a midweek game to Arizona and then lost by 10 in the series opener to BYU on the road. And for a moment, it looked like...
things are not going well and there was something that came out, I forget where it was initially reported, but about, know, if ASU doesn't make the tournament, they're moving on from Willie Bloomquist. And it felt like the walls were starting to close in and then boom, they win the next two games against BYU. They just came off a sweep against Baylor. Baylor was a pretty good team and by a lot of different metrics was a better team than ASU coming in. ⁓
So it's been a good last couple of weeks for ASU baseball, at least from my perspective. Andrew, I ⁓ spot on there or are you gonna tell me that I'm wrong? Tommy's wrong.
Andrew Hayslett (53:28)
I'm a disagree
here. It feels to me that it depends how you look at it. If you're looking at it from the perspective of, this team should be hosting a regional.
David Howman (53:37)
Yeah.
Andrew Hayslett (53:44)
It's not gone the way you want if you look at this team from the perspective of this team It should be a two seed there They're treading water or if this or if you're looking at from the perspective of this team. it should they should be making the tournament They're doing good. So it all depends on the perspective you want to look at from for me I would say they're treading water because I don't think this team is Is capable of hosting a region all at this point?
I just think the pitching is too hot and cold for lack of a better word. Could have a good game, could have a game where you don't. They just lay an egg.
That's how I think this season is going to end whenever it ends. It's either because the pitching is going to carry them to ⁓ an Omaha trip where they win or somewhere along the way ⁓ the pitching is going to have a game where, like we saw in that Thursday ⁓ BYU game where they allowed 19 runs or that Saturday Utah game where they...
gave seven runs to Utah on the ninth or something like that. Sometimes disaster's gonna... ⁓
The disaster is going to strike for this pitching. Over this stretch, you've only seen the Sun Devils fail to score less than five runs three times, and they've lost two of those games. The offense is going to score, in all likelihood. More often than not, we've seen in that stretch...
four, five, five double digit games where the offense has gone crazy. So.
The offense is fine, they're going to be fine. They're obviously moving some parts around right now as expected with new contratus. Still working back from his injury in that designated hitter role. We'll see if he's able to play in the field this series at UCF, which is it's going to be key one. But overall from this team's perspective to me, they're kind of just treading water.
That's just what I have to say. don't know, but you and Tom.
Tom Hardon (56:09)
Yeah, would agree. I'll be a little bit more, a little bit kinder than just Treading Water, but this is not a team that is going to be a regional host. I hate to break it to anybody who is feeling that optimistic. Even if this team does go on a run to win the Big 12 tournament, mathematically maybe they would be selected as a regional host, but...
I don't think this team is quite there. Andrew, like you said, the pitching is very Jekyll and Hyde. On Sunday, I saw a phenomenal outing between Cole Klecker and Jaden Alba for the second time in as many Sunday games, Sunday home games at least. Those two have combined for to be the only two pitchers in a really all around dominant pitching performance. But you still get those games where...
They are where the pitching staff gets taken to school. coming down the stretch, this is something that this team saw last year as well. Really didn't have the legs to carry it through for the full regular season. We're sitting in a very similar position as they are right now entering the final weeks of the conference season and found a way to...
to lose their way out of a top four seed, got bounced in the first round of the conference tournament. So that's something that is still a very real danger for this team. think what is obviously a much different case from last year is the offense. This level of offense was not something that last year's team carried. the conversation starts and ends with Landon Harrison and just his development in his off season.
program and how it's translated to his success this season. He is the straw that serves a drink for Sunnival Baseball, but it's something that ⁓ something that coach Blomquist said in ⁓ in postgame press conference on Sunday as well is this team doesn't rely on just him and comments that were echoed by Austin Rolick. This team Austin himself said that you can slot him in.
know, seventh in the order, eighth in the order, one hole, five hole, wherever, he personally feels like he can contribute at any spot in the lineup and I think that's a sentiment that is echoed by the majority of the rest of the lineup. You know, these guys are going to put in the work and they're going to take their role wherever it comes, wherever in the order they sit and do their job.
Andrew Hayslett (59:07)
Yeah, I...
David Howman (59:07)
Yeah, I mean,
this is a funky team when you look at them, like resume-wise, because going into this last weekend against Baylor, they were ranked 25th, and then they swept Baylor, they moved up to 19. So the pollsters love them, ⁓ but then when you look at their metrics, right now they're 46th in RPI. There's five other Big 12 teams ahead of them.
Notably, there's no Big 12 teams.
that are in the top 10 in RPI. So it's not necessarily a weak year for the Big 12, but it's probably a little bit of a down year, I would say, in terms of overall competition. And then you look at the standings. Right now, they're tied with UCF, who they play this upcoming weekend for second in the Big 12, behind Kansas, who's number one in both the standings and in RPI. So there's a lot of things that you can look at that say that back up what Andrew is saying of what I think we all agree
with is they're not going to be hosting a regional, but also they're like it's all within their grasp. Like if they can, if the pitching can like get into a rhythm now and the office can continue, they can finish out strong. They can have a good showing in the big 12 tournament and it's all kind of laid out in front of them right now. They just haven't actually shown it and showed it consistently yet. But this past weekend in Baylor.
maybe suggests that they're doing it, that they're turning it around. So it's so hard to really forecast because again, like we've talked about this before this season, just because of the way that Phoenix Muni is set up too, like you're gonna have Jekyll and Hyde performances between the home and away splits too, but.
Tom again, to your point, the offense has been more consistent this year than it was at any point last year. So ⁓ I struggle to figure out what this team actually is right now. I think at this point, I'm just sitting back and enjoying the ride and getting as much land and Harris enjoyment while I can.
Andrew Hayslett (1:01:21)
Yeah, I would agree. I think, let's think optimistically here for a second. You sweep UCF this week somehow. That's great.
I think that's when you can say, this team could be in conversations to be hosting a regional again, because you knock off the next best team in the Big 12 besides Kansas, who you don't get the draw of to schedule this year. You aren't playing them, so you don't have to worry about them, which on some ways good, some ways bad. If you can win the regular season in the Big 12 and the postseason in the Big 12.
I think you have a very strong case to be hosting regional at this point, which obviously Kansas playing baseball, that's going to be out of your control. But if you can control, you can control. You've got this UCF series, then you got OK State who's in the middle of the road, and then you got at Houston to finish off the year. And Houston is not very good. So that's a team.
David Howman (1:02:25)
They're lasting the Big 12 right
now.
Andrew Hayslett (1:02:27)
That's a team if you can take optimistically, if you can take eight of these last nine games, you're in a good position because that's going to put you higher in the RPI, which we've talked about Arizona States in the 40s.
As mentioned that that's gonna boost you up I think into the 30s for sure if not the 20s. ⁓ Looking at Kansas' schedule for the Big 12 at this point, they are going...
2025 schedule. don't know why they're giving me this. but yeah.
Tom Hardon (1:03:05)
Kansas is hosting Arizona this weekend.
They're hosting Arizona this weekend.
Andrew Hayslett (1:03:13)
Hosting Arizona who's not very good then they go to then they host West Virginia again who West Virginia is ⁓ ranked like Kansas and Arizona State and then they finish at BYU who ASU just saw who's kind of in the middle of the road as well ⁓ So we'll see how this
Did they perform? Definitely I would pretty similar schedules for the two teams. I'd give the edge to ASU. But you're going to have to win seven eight.
games to win the big 12 regular season. I think that if you're thinking regionals, that's going to be huge. And you need Landon Harrison to keep continuing what he's doing, putting a golden spikes season together, which for those who don't know, is basically the MVP, the Heisman Trophy for college baseball.
David Howman (1:04:14)
And on the flip side, because that was your being optimistic, to be pessimistic, to pull an Andrew real quick, since that's been your theme for the show. ⁓ Looking at their two midweek non-conference games.
there's that's left this season there's a potential for pitfall too because they play Missouri and they play Grand Canyon and Missouri right now is 120th in RPI Grand Canyon is 217 so it just in terms of like outside perception of this program if you drop one of those or God forbid you drop both of those
you know, it's probably not that that's not kicking you out of the tournament entirely, but it's certainly going to damage your reputation, even if they can get some of those conference games. If you also stumble against those kinds of granted, it's a mid it's a midweek game, but ⁓ you know, I'm not sure that they can necessarily survive their resume can survive losing to a program like that this late in the season.
Andrew Hayslett (1:05:18)
Yeah, they've had three mid-week losses in a row and with losing to UNLV at home, losing to Arizona at home, and New Mexico State at home.
that's not very good. And coming into that, had only lost one midweek game and that was against Oklahoma. And then that was in a two game set too. So you aren't unhappy with a split at Oklahoma losing or just splitting, but you are unhappy with these.
individual games against pretty poor teams outside the top 100 in RPI that you're losing to. You're on a bad losing streak. You gotta figure out who's gonna be your starting pitcher for those because quite frankly, don't know if Austin Musso is the answer right now. I don't know what the other options will be because for me at least, you've got Friday and Sunday are locked up with the Colts.
That's a question spot. Is Taylor Penn the answer moving forward? I don't know the answer to that question because Penn has been absolutely great in the bullpen this year with round of 2 ERA. As a starter it's 7. So I'm not sure. But he did have his best outing as a starter last week against Baylor.
So I don't know if he's the answer or not. I think the alternate possibility is Colin Linder. Colin Linder's thrown the ball well as the starter this year. think he's the RA as the starter, around three. And then the bullpen is around five or six. I don't know that one for sure.
But that's, that's, that's, think the alternate answer. So if Taylor Penn is the answer on Saturdays for this team, I think you have to be throwing Colin Linder on your mid weeks because he is a pitcher who, in my opinion, could and should be starting on, on weekends. That's just me, but you, have to be throwing someone who can win you games these, these mid weeks.
I look at the staff outside of Linder and if you're going to move Penn back to the bullpen that means he's not going to be starting your midweeks. I don't know what the alternate would be the best option. So that's just my two cents on it all.
Tom Hardon (1:07:57)
Yeah, I think you hit everything right on the head there too. just piecing together your sandwich and your weekend rotation is going to be key in being able to maintain that high level of performance out of your starters across the weekend.
David Howman (1:08:24)
And I mean, on one hand, it's exhausting that we're here down the stretch of yet another year and we're still talking about like, gotta get the pitching together, same old song and dance. Again, I think this time last year, we were having the same general conversation, but it was also more in the narrative of like,
We gotta get the pitching together in order to even be able to make the tournament. And I don't think that ASU is necessarily at a point where they've locked up a tournament spot, but things would probably have to go pretty wrong to miss it outright this time around. So they are better than where they were this time last year. It's just we expected more improvement, more growth, and especially on the pitching side. it's frustrating.
But then I keep having to remind myself, I'm like, but we also have more potential answers than we did last year at this point. ⁓ So either way, there's only a few games left to the regular season. Maybe the Baylor series was the turning point for them, and maybe that's where they start figuring things out. Again, thinking optimistically, they are in a good spot, heading down the stretch. They still got to prove themselves.
Tom Hardon (1:09:42)
Well, if we want to extrapolate, if we want to project out where this team could be heading, we can look no further than Baseball America's latest projection of their field of 64, which currently has Arizona State as a two seed in the Conway, South Carolina regional, with Coastal Carolina being the host there in a field that would be completed by High Point and Indiana State.
Andrew Hayslett (1:10:12)
I think that's favorable if that would be the ⁓ four teams. But I do think going back to David's point with the pitching, I think this team is a true, if this team had a true Saturday starter from the beginning of the year, I don't think we're having these conversations about pitching. I think this team is very close to being a good.
pitching staff. I don't think I could, we were saying that last year at this time. think everything's improved. Just the utilization of throwing different guys out on Saturday and having them just.
flounder I think with inflating their ear areas. I think there's a lot of good bullpen pieces with surface level you say yeah Alex Overbake he's not that good but if you take deep dive most of his earned run average comes from his start starts this year but his bullpen work has been excellent so yeah I think this is good. I kind of trace this all back to the portal time.
For me, when I was looking at how Willie Blomkis was constructing this water, this roster, not water, ⁓ I was looking at it, I'm like, man, he's getting a lot of offensive guys. I'd like to see him get an ⁓ eye popping pitcher, which he got that eye popping hitter in Dean Toyo. He got a lot of other solid pieces. Sam Myers, PJ Moutsiritis, Austin Roelig. ⁓
Dominic Small Dino and Cohen Niklai. And there's so many offensive guys that you're seeing guys like Sam Myers, guys like Cohen Niklai, guys like ⁓ Kai McGarry, who probably should be starting in offenses and mostly conference offenses aren't getting the time that they deserve.
So you've got the surplus of offensive guys. If you sit looking at it now, you probably want one or two more freshmen in there instead of the transfers that you got in. I think you're wishing, for me at that time, I would have wanted to get more pitchers at that point because for me at a stadium like Muni, it beats pitchers up. So you're going to have to have a deep arsenal of pitchers.
And I'll the one more thing I want to talk about is why Halverson's Tommy John surgery that's sidelining him for the rest of season that that might be the piece that I you need it to to make this pitching staff good and his absence unfortunately for him and unfortunately for the team might just be the the one piece short that that at least I feel that they need so there's a lot that you can point to for me at least that you'll
want to piece together moving forward with your BloomQuest.
David Howman (1:13:19)
Yeah, I definitely agree on that point about the offseason strategy. Because again, the big thing coming into this year was the increase in scholarships and Willie Bloomquist made a big deal about the fact that ASU went up to 34 scholarships like this was going to be the thing that set them apart. And I mean, he did bring in a lot of good players. But to your point,
he mostly brought in really good offensive players. There is a very finite amount of offensive players you can play in a game. And, well, I mean, guess you could, you know, be doing pinch hitters left and right, but you're not. And whereas with pitchers, especially when you have...
You know, on the Sunday games, on the midweek games, you're going to cycle through those pitchers a lot more than you will your hitters. So to me, I thought going into the offseason, we're going to just primarily load up on pitchers. It was kind of the opposite approach. ⁓ Now, I think some of that has helped lead to the offense being a little bit more consistent is because we don't have to rely on the same guys every single night.
but maybe there was a little bit more balance they could have struck in how they divvied things up and who they brought in in the off season. And again, you know, with Wyatt Halverson, that's probably thrown a wrench in the works a little bit, but again, I think that's why you prioritize the pitching so that if somebody does get hurt, hey, we already have, you know.
15 other guys because we loaded up on pitchers in the offseason. they'll probably never come out and say like, yeah, we probably should have done a little bit better with that. But I wonder if maybe in the back of their heads, Willie and, know, Paraza and Nicardo are kind of sitting there like, yeah, maybe we could have taken a couple more pitchers in the offseason.
Tom Hardon (1:15:24)
for what it is the pitchers have done have done well you know ranking very highly in strikeouts per nine but that's also not the only metric that that teams are measured on but it's still worth mentioning 11.3 strikeouts per game leading the big 12 third nationally gotta give credit where credit is due
David Howman (1:15:45)
Yeah, and like we said, they objectively, they are better as a pitching staff and as an overall team than they were at this point last year. I just.
I don't know, maybe I had too much hopium. I thought they were gonna be even better, I don't know. But ⁓ again, season's not done. We got a few weeks left and again, we will be covering all those games. We will be watching Sun Devil Baseball as they play their way into being a host. I'm gonna manifest it starting right here. We're all gonna do it. Andrew, you're gonna have to be positive and manifest with us.
I don't care if you like it. You're gonna have to do it.
Tom Hardon (1:16:27)
One of us,
one of us.
Andrew Hayslett (1:16:36)
If If that has to happen you can't go going into the tournament the the the the NCA tournament last year they lost their final four games Can't do that simple as that final three regular season games got bounced in the first round of big 12 Can't do that It's not gonna happen if if that happens again simple as that
David Howman (1:17:06)
Well, we're gonna manifest, all three of us are gonna manifest, all of our listeners are gonna manifest.
It's not going to happen like Andrew said, but in a different sense. It's not going to happen. They're going to end the season on a high note. They're going to host. Of course, we'll be here talking about it, writing about it, all of it now at Echo from the Buttes, the Echo from the Buttes podcast, the Echo from the Buttes website, ⁓ socials, all of it, yada, yada, yada. So for Andrew Haisler, for Tom Harden, I'm David Howman here at Echo from the Buttes. As always, give them hell devils.