We've got another power-packed episode for you, Juniata Nation. Today's guest is a native of Indian Lake, PA, who came to Juniata from Shanksville-Stonycreek High School, where we discovered he was NOT the all time leading scorer. But, hey, anyone who amasses over 2,000 career points is an all-time something in our books. Juniata Basketball Class of 2010, Jeff Berkey joins Coach Curley, Biz and Tom to talk about the first Landmark Conference Championship game, an interesting collection of characters he shared the court and and how he stepped up as a leader when the team faced unexpected changes. O’ and let the debate begin now on this year’s schedule poster, which will feature our 8 seniors and the always present mantra of "the hardest working team in basketball." And guess what? Tom is going to design it himself! Trust us, you don't want to miss this one!
The Juniata Men’s Basketball Show is brought to you by Spaceman World Media in conjunction with @juniataeagles and hosted by @tomonedge, @nobodybeatsbiz and @Coach.Curley. Send in your questions for the show, please subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts, leave us a rating on apple and spread the word #JuniataNation.
We've got another power-packed episode for you, Juniata Nation. Today's guest is a native of Indian Lake, PA, who came to Juniata from Shanksville-Stonycreek High School, where we discovered he was NOT the all time leading scorer. But, hey, anyone who amasses over 2,000 career points is an all-time something in our books. Juniata Basketball Class of 2010, Jeff Berkey joins Coach Curley, Biz and Tom to talk about the first Landmark Conference Championship game, an interesting collection of characters he shared the court and and how he stepped up as a leader when the team faced unexpected changes. O’ and let the debate begin now on this year’s schedule poster, which will feature our 8 seniors and the always present mantra of "the hardest working team in basketball." And guess what? Tom is going to design it himself! Trust us, you don't want to miss this one!
The Juniata Men’s Basketball Show is brought to you by Spaceman World Media in conjunction with @juniataeagles and hosted by @tomonedge, @nobodybeatsbiz and @Coach.Curley. Send in your questions for the show, please subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts, leave us a rating on apple and spread the word #JuniataNation.
I'm Tom Frank. I'm Drew Besket. I'm the head coach, Greg Curley and this is the Juniata Men's Basketball Show. Welcome listeners. I'm Tom Frank and I'm joined each and every week Drew Besket aka Biz and your Juniata Men's Basketball coach, Greg Curley. As we talk all things Juniata men's college basketball. This episode of the Juniata Men's Basketball Show is proudly sponsored by Eat for Free, a fitness community that's about to revolutionize your relationship with running.
:But what makes this sponsorship even more special is the personal connection we have with our sponsor. Eat for Free was co-founded by none other than Marcus Lee, a former basketball player, proud alumni of our very own Junior out of college to learn more about how you can support Eat for Free and join their life-changing mission.
:Fellows, get out your phones and make sure to follow them on Instagram at eat.4.free. There you'll discover a supportive community with invaluable training resources, motivational content and exciting giveaways that will fuel your run and feed the world. First thing I want to get to today is check out this shirt.
:That's perfect.
:But there's a story about this. I figured the shirt sent in from a loyal fan with the note that reads "For Tom Frank for his interview with Frank Vogel. Good karma, fellas. Can I be Frank Tom Frank, the Frank Vogel? I?
:mean that's a great, that's a great combo right there.
:Shout out to Chad Alander. He's very excited about it.
:So you get it. Can I be Frank shirt? Yet Curly's been going to Drew University for how long and I yet to see a Drew shirt, right look how fast it happened here.
:And yeah, didn't get advice. I Want to talk about the schedule poster for a minute. Okay, what do we think it?
:What's on the schedule post?
:you're gonna be what's gonna be on, not not the schedule.
:I know we're not there yet, so we've always put on so it's gonna be challenging this year and I got to get with Nick on it, but we always put our seniors on it, so our seniors are on the schedule poster. We've done that now every year. Well, for probably going on 20 years now.
:So we need a big poster.
:Yeah, well, we're just have to work them around the edges, and I mean, I don't know me, nick and I get to work on it. We may need some expertise or help, but yeah, I know, and so, if you want to, here's my question when does this thing get produced? We usually do it now. We'll be doing it in the next couple weeks, during the next couple months.
:I mean we want to have a lot of yards, yeah, good, what are the odds of us getting like those eight guys and in a gym together? Oh, we can do it, yeah cuz we're gonna be doing.
:We'll do pictures at some point, but yeah, we can do that.
:What if we do a great photo of those eight guys? Okay, I'm thinking I'm driving up, I'm gonna take the photo if you want to do that, that's fine.
:Yeah, I mean, we generally collect action shots of them and put them in there doing action shots, but if we want to do something worse, you know what?
:if yeah, this is gonna be a special year.
:You need to get it like yeah, poster.
:Yeah, hey, man, if you're offering looking tough if you're, if you're offering to help and you, we want to put Juni Amin's basketball show, we want to put eat for free all over it. Let's do it, man. I mean cuz that that would really help us, because it's it takes them a load off and I don't. I don't see why not. I mean, we're distributed to all our little Eagles have distributed to our families.
:There's. I do this.
:I like it, push it out for such a medium.
:So yeah, do we have a slogan for the year, the season? Do you guys like do that sort of thing, like some sort of mantra we're not.
:We're not there yet, but we always put the hardest working team in basketball on it.
:We stay pretty true to who we are, so yeah we're gonna go with that headline, then we're gonna, then we're gonna get a great photo of that. Eight, eight seniors, holy crap, eight seniors, yeah, looking tough. Yep, right at mid court with the eagle in it. Okay, yeah, and then we put the schedule, the rest of the Schedule, all over it.
:So I mean.
:I have to figure out how to work that out.
:I Am volunteering to design the poster this year.
:I'm sure you find a way to slide photos of the two of you in there too, which here's the other.
:Where's Waldo? Like I, I did the photo. How many year I did the poster? How many years ago?
:The first one. You did the answer to this.
:The answer is 20 years ago. Yeah, I did the poster, so this is the 20th anniversary of what I did the post.
:I want to do it right behind me on the wall.
:That's those two want to do it again. The first two.
:Yes, brian Dietrich. Brian Dietrich is one and then down below, you did those first two.
:All right. So all I'm asking for in return is I then want a signed copy of all the seniors so that I can hang it up behind me all season long for the junior. We're gonna plan this. I'm dead serious about this because it's got to be the best poster you've ever done.
:Okay, I'm excited here. Let's hey, hey, junior at a nation get ready.
:You're the expert this stuff, man.
:If this stuff is you, this is right in your uh, I and I got a lot of ideas about this poster and what we're going to use this poster for afterwards, but I'm not going to get into that right now because we got bigger things to get into tonight. That's right. We have a good guest. We got a good guest today. We got a good one. Are you guys ready for the?
:guest. Let's go with it. Well, let's uh one quote when, uh, when do you guys start? When does class start, curls? Let's uh get a little update on that, yeah so we're.
:It's right around the corner. Um, so we are. Everybody comes in class to start on Thursday next week, what's at the 25th of August? Um, we will. Uh, because of the change in the NCAA rules and us going to Canada, we'll actually probably have our first team workout September 5th. Now we'll go like a couple days a week, uh, until until official practices start. Because we're going to Canada, we'll start official practices a little bit earlier, so we'll be in full practice as of October 2nd. Um play in Canada October 13th and 14th. So that's finalized and that's ready to go. We're in Ottawa October 13th and 14th. October 13th we play at Algonquin College and then on the 14th we play at Le Cité, which are both in Ottawa. So it's right around the corner.
:Is that French, for you're going to kick butt?
:Yeah, actually it's uh, so they, they, uh, they are a French speaking school because, uh, right across the river, uh, ottawa is Quebec and so it's kind of cool to do, uh, you know their announcements in French. Um, you know, if you go to the website and do that stuff, it's all in French, so it's pretty cool experience for the guys.
:Do you know French, biz? Do I know? But I'm going to start. I want to learn some French, just to see, uh, maybe some French, uh swear words. I want to see what these guys are saying to our boys there.
:This is where you're going with this. Yeah, that's I mean. Where else am I?
:going what's the French word for beer?
:So it's another 13th, the 13th and 14th in Canada. Yeah, all right, a first official preseason game. Do you have any? Do you have any scrimmages or games before?
:We'll have scrimmages after that. Um, we'll after. Yeah, um, we'll scrimmage, uh, dickenson and McDaniel. We're a little limited on our ability to publicize those, but they'll be um the last week in October and then that, I think, the next Wednesday.
:Now where's McDaniel going?
:to be played at. So we're home, uh, we have, uh, we host both those scrimmages.
:Oh, that'll be Curly. That'll be.
:Curly. Ooh, that's going to be exciting. There could be a good uh pregame episode.
:We're doing that uh yeah, the other problem we're doing that on Wednesday night. I think the Dickenson scrimmage is going to be a Saturday night. We have to finalize that uh times and stuff and make sure, jim available?
:Do we have the opposing coach on before this? Yes yeah, I mean uh Curly versus Curly.
:Yeah, well, I mean we're getting there, so but yes, I mean we can certainly do that or, after you know, we can have them.
:Oh, no, no, no, well, after could be interesting too.
:You guys think about that and how you want to.
:All right we need to think about that man, um yeah, well, I mean, we still have a lot of our guys to roll through.
:But yeah, it'd be good to get him on here.
:No, you got to do that. That's family, absolutely. Yeah, gotta do it. All right, when? When will we make the announcement of the official schedule? So?
:um, that that should be. We'll get it to the guys. Um, our first meeting is the Friday. When they come to campus the next Friday, we'll give them copies of the schedule, um, and then right now contracts are going out and then I'm sure we'll post it on the web as soon as possible. I haven't talked to Ben yet, but it should be a pretty sad one. Now, we can, if we want to, if we want to right, if we want to uh reveal, do a reveal. We can figure that out.
:We're doing a reveal show yes. Oh yeah, we might have to do a special episode.
:Can we yeah, we, we do a live. Can we do a live stream of this uh reveal? Can we just blow it up? Well, I can hand me to you.
:Well, first step is I can get you guys copies of schedule now so you can have a chance to look it over, and then we yeah, we'll just figure out how we want and what we want.
:Yeah, because I think when we do the reveal show, we're going to take a little further and we might have our early predictions Right, biss like well, I mean, you might have to do that.
:It's pretty, you know. You know what my predictions are usually, tom, I'm not.
:I know you'll they'll be undefeated but yeah, I'm gonna be a little bit more critical. I will be a right.
:I mean with you two knuckleheads, particularly you, tom. There's people clearing but bulletin boards all over the place in the landmark right now. So let's bring it, bring it, let's just. Let's just get in here, get the guys going.
:We'll be confident about, about the time of team we're gonna put out there, but we gotta be the hardest working team and we gotta be the most hated team in the states. Oh, let's roll in there and just tell people we're gonna kick their butt. An air of confidence.
:It's the old walk softly, carry big stick, man. Let's just let her play, do our talk and we'll be all right. Hey man, it's enough that we have the top division three podcast. What else are we gonna do? You know, that's right.
:I mean you know, speaking, speaking a bit big sticks, though we got a guy on today. Do you see how I do these transitions? You're a pro. On today's show we have a native of Indian Lake, pennsylvania. I don't know where that is either, but we'll figure it out. Somerset.
:County he came to Junietta. Is that is that? Where's that Somerset County? They kind of just Somerset County. All right, he came to Junietta from from from Shanksville Stoney Creek High School, where he was a three sport standout. He finished his high school career at Shanksville all-time leading score, amassing over 2,000 career points.
:That's a lot of points.
:That's pretty impressive. That's a lot of points. This guy must have threw the ball up a lot. This is a Tom Frank guy. I like this guy already in both football and basketball. At Junietta he was selected as an all-league performer both as junior and senior seasons. Upon his graduation he ranked third in school history for a three-pointers made in a season, fifth in career three-pointers made and third in career three-point field goal percentage. The senior year he was selected as a landmark scholar athlete the year while earning a spot on ESPN, the magazine's academic all district team. First of all, this ESPN the magazine even exists anymore. I was thinking about that today?
:I don't think so I don't think it does. I think there's still an academic all district, but it's under somebody else's umbrella now.
:Yeah, All right. He was also awarded an NCAA post graduate scholarship for success in the classroom. On on the court, he was named to the Dean's List each of his eight semesters, graduating with a degree in business management with a secondary emphasis in politics. After Juniata, he attended law school at Duquesne University, where he graduated first in his class. Man, this guy.
:He's impressive.
:He currently lives in northern Pittsburgh, so he's in your area. He is close Hampton Township. With his wife, melissa, and his and four children, casey, hayden, blaney and Sadie. He's a partner at K&L Gates, a global law firm, where he specializes in mergers and acquisitions. Welcome to the show. Junietta basketball class of 2010 Jeff Berkey. How are you, jeff?
:I'm there well, guys, hold on one second. I missed the second half of that intro, but I'm not the all-time leading scorer at Changsville, what? No, there's a guy from the 70s that put up a whole lot of points without the three point line, so you told me somebody put up what was his name.
:Somebody without the three point line put up more than 2,000 points.
:Yeah, his name's Owen Long oh that's right. He scored almost 2400 points. He was your high school teacher right. Was he? He was his brother. Oh that's what it was, all right, sorry, berkey, I might not have recruited you if I didn't know you, that's pretty big.
:You scored a whole time.
:Yeah, but.
:I mean here at Juniata. We usually only take the top scores at a school.
:Yeah, I know, I didn't get that one.
:He snuck in. How do you score 2,000 points, though, and not be the all-time leading scorer? That's impressive.
:Try it.
:How many were you short of?
:I was short by about 300. No 200.
:Oh, okay, so it wasn't close.
:It was a couple games.
:Couple games yeah. So, jeff, how are you?
:I'm good, I'm good. Thanks for accommodating the evening schedule, guys.
:No, we're good with this. This is when we get the most fired up, that's right. We get a little sarcastic at this point too. Curly gets a little edgy.
:so yeah, yeah, I like that. That's just like the old days we got.
:Berkey back in here.
:We're making him comfortable, he's right I know, you were taking this one from your office too, that looks like you're your gym office.
:You know how it is, I mean with the kids. You know it was a little easier to get out of it. It's a little easier right around bedtime to get in here.
:He's also wearing a hat, which kind of threw us off at the very beginning. Do you ever remember, coach, wearing a hat?
:ever. That's cuz I got, that's cuz I've got a workout in before Before.
:I jumped on what your hair is messed up or what's going on.
:I was sweaty man, so it's a nice hat, though I need to get one of those oh yeah is that a?
:trucker hat curls.
:Yes.
:Another thing that we don't have yeah all right, jeff, what we got to start here, why junior?
:Yeah, so I think it was Nate Hager at the time with with curly coach curly they were. They came to a ton of games, I think between my junior and senior year of high school. It was probably, you know, 10 to 12 games. So they were just, they were always there and reaching out via, you know, typical literature, and so I got to know them pretty well and then came to visit and Made a choice to come to junior. So it was, you know, it was a pretty, pretty good, you know, runway.
:So you're saying he won you over by just quantity, he just was always there.
:I mean he's got a great personality too. But but yeah, he was. No, it was, it was good, and I mean he was, he was true and genuine, and I think you know he won my family over too. So it was a. It was an easy choice.
:What? What position did you play in football I? Was a wide receiver and safety Think of going play football instead of basketball, or was it always basketball?
:It. There was a point in time where there was a chance, but I quickly decided to not play football my senior season of high school and I focused on basketball, so I cut that off. I just didn't. I didn't like the physicality, to be honest, as a slot receiver.
:They didn't have the rules to protect.
:My basketball career pretty quickly.
:Yeah that was a good, smart move on your part.
:Yeah. So what did you think a coach the first time you met him?
:Well, I'm trying to think so I mean, this was probably 15, no more than 15 years ago, so it was. I mean he was pretty intense, but he's a, a nice guy. I mean, the recruiting, the recruiting is is is all peaches and cream, right, everything's good. So you know, that was, that was the first impression, and it was a really good one.
:All right, so let's flip it. What did you think of coach currently after your first practice?
:That's a that's a little bit different. You know I came from a Different, a small school background. It didn't have a lot of exposure to some of the things that a more Developed program in tails and it was a little bit of an eye opener for me. But I had a really good group of upper-classmen when I came in and you know they showed me the ropes pretty well at the senior class that year was Nick Hager, aaron Chamberlain, jazz Yoda and that crew, and then the juniors were Brian Cannon and Kyle Opitz, ben Fargo. So you know, between all of those guys I had.
:I had a really, really good front row seat to watching what it took to be to be successful.
:That was a good group. Who who came in with you? What was your group that came in?
:My group was really small. It was me. I'm Sean McConnell. It was Tommy McConnell's younger brother. Okay and there was one other guard from Ohio named Andrew Keserich.
:I didn't realize you. Currently you had multiple McConnell's there.
:Well, that's a story right, berkey, this is. This is only, I don't know only a junior, adam, maybe Berkey or whatever, but Sean, sean and Jeff, I mean they were both Equally as talented. Sean was an exceptionally good player and the idea was they were our backcourt. Sean was point guard and probably out of high school thought he was probably a little bit better than his brother, tommy. I'm talking Tommy would say the same thing. Tommy's an all-league guy for us.
:But after his, after his freshman year, I think he would, he'd go. His dad at the time, tom McConnell, was, was coaching at Bishop Gilfoyle and ran Camp Zakias in the summers, which is a Catholic camp, and and so Sean would go all the time and obviously they're a big Catholic family, very religious. But Sean actually had a calling is the between his freshman and sophomore summer to the priesthood and oh, wow, and really very unexpected, to be honest, to guys who played with him or us, you know one moment he's working but he went at camps, guys thought he had a calling, or had a calling, and a week later Called me or actually came to my office and said coach, I'm, I'm, you know, you know, actually to go to the priesthood. You, you have to go, you have to finish college. So we were like you could stay and play and do that. But he wound up transferring Because it didn't make a lot of sense. He had to do a lot of stuff to prepare.
:Yeah you know, to go ordained and go, you know, study from priesthood so but he's actually he's. He's a priest now. I believe he was a teaching at st Francis. I'm not sure his order have occasion kept in touch with him through his family, but yeah, that's the Sean McConnell's women.
:So yeah, he was a, he played for you and then, literally just overnight, boom bag.
:I'll never forget it because While he was here, his dad left and went to the University of Colorado as an assistant for his aunt and McConnell who and they're all related to Susan.
:McConnell. Tj McConnell is their, their nephew and Tommy's cousin. So it's the big, it's a huge basketball family. But his dad called me like right after I heard from Sean and Was basically kind of laughing at his sisters in the background. Coach, I don't know what to tell you on that one. I was like you know, usually I can fight back and say like I should, but I mean you can't be God. So I.
:No, but Jeff and Sean came in. That was our first team to go to the conference finals In terms of the collection of talent, as good a team as we've ever had and as good as we played that year. But he came in and he's behind Aaron Chamberlain, he's behind Nick Hager, he's behind Kyle Opitz, he's behind all guys that are big time players, and these guys were. He and Sean were big time recruits, very, very good players, and they waited their turn. How many games did you even play as a freshman, jeff?
:do you even I just looked it up. I played 14 games and scored 13 points.
:And did you finish with a thousand or you didn't?
:finish with it. Did you finish with a thousand? No, I was. I think I was around 100, sure I?
:mean, and that's he. So what he really did was in three years, but now he's a guy that he's added to that entire time and it's a credit to Nick and the guys he played with the way that their relationship. He just he just followed Nick around and Aaron around and just went to work with him and you know they paid off the rest of his career. You know that doesn't happen too often but he went to two finals his freshman and sophomore year. His sophomore year he was a major, played a major role in that for us, but it was kind of a unique timing. Then his junior senior year we did bring in a transfer that graduated with him, ryan Jones. But he we'll get into it here. Yeah, he had an interesting, you know, entry and losing Sean, that was that. That that kind of hurt Jeff, you know, and and put a lot more on Jeff's plate than he probably expected. But that's how good a player he was. He navigated that for us.
:So, jeff, when you were coming freshman year you go to the finals. Wow, go ahead best.
:No, I was just going to say so when you were coming in. I mean knowing that those guys were all there. I mean, were you coming in with the? I'm going to you know, absorb it and learn attitude. Or were you coming into fight? Hey, you know what I'm going to? I'm going to push these guys for playing time. Like, what does that look like?
:Yeah, that was tough.
:I mean my you know my initial mentality was like, hey, I'm going to come in here and make an impact, and then you get into it and and you, you know. Frankly, I learned quickly that what I didn't know and and how you know. And there was a little bit of learning curve for me, coming from a small school and I, just, like coach said, I followed Nick and Aaron around, I learned the ropes and I was just going to try to be the best contributor I could, in whatever way that was, whether it was practice or, you know, workouts, that type of stuff and be ready when my, my number got called.
:But you know it was good, certainly a good experience to be a part of that that team. We were still in the Mac. I think that was our last year in the Mac and that, that conference championship that we hosted at Juniatta that year, where that scene for that, that buzzer beater, I mean that was just a great experience. The environment was, you know, just unmatchable, and to learn that in my first year was, you know, really just cool. It was a cool experience and sort of just go from there.
:So that was 2006,. Right, that was the 2006 season.
:It would have been a 607.
:Oh, 607. You guys played in the Mac championship. Who'd you play? Weiner, weiner. Okay, we've heard a little bit about this game. Yeah, yeah, and then and then, so your sophomore year. Then you guys make it right back. And is that still in the Mac conference, or is that that?
:was landmark.
:That was the first year of landmark, yeah.
:So you went in the landmark and went right to the championship game.
:Yeah, and Jeff was. I mean, and Jeff was a huge part of that, that team, and was that the one we played? That was the one we played at Scranton. Yeah, we lost at Scranton. Yeah, so Scranton, and again, it's kind of karma. So in one of the things that happened, there is going into the game one of the forwards who we had played throughout the year. We sort of had a match of advantage on him. He's just started point guard, started forward. For me he's an all lead guy, but for whatever reason, we had an advantage on him and he got the flu of Jeff and his backup. I think it was one of the Hawk brothers, I forget which one. Yeah, it was Luke, it was 610. And so, yeah, not a bad guy.
:He was younger and Paul whatever Bert might remember his name was a first team all lead guy. The other guy was, but Cannon had a physical advantage on him. Like Cannon could physically just dominate him and so he gets the flu doesn't start. 610 puts on Cannon and Brian's you know 6-5 and that length and size gave Brian, you know, and they just kind of walked into the matchup. That gave us some challenges.
:Now they were very, very good.
:They hosted. I think we wound up losing by six or eight. We were in the game most of the time but they were, you know, probably overall better team. That's why they hosted the game. But we thought, you know, we get that matchup. We played really well at Susquehanna to win that game. We're playing very well at that time. But it's kind of one of those behind the scenes things. You know, that kind of happens and you think, man, we walked out and then, that Lou Calk went on to be a multi-year all-league guy too.
:So just it really speaks to their depth of town and how good they were. And who knows what would have happened if they had the other guy. Full speed strength, that's what they'd say. But I mean I think Jeff remembers it kind of altered the game plan a little bit for us and created some challenges for us.
:Yeah, it did.
:I mean those were. That was a new landscape in the new conference and getting to know some of those teams we historically hadn't seen before. But it was definitely a great challenge and we were up for it and that was, I think my sophomore year, was probably my favorite year of my four, just because the makeup of the team, the success we had and just riding through the whole season together I mean the landmark at that point. We played on weekends, we didn't play during the week. So I think now I think Rick Kochi played like Wednesday, saturday or something we would play Saturday, sunday. We'd play a game Saturday afternoon evening, get on a bus, drive to the sister's school and play like two o'clock noon or two o'clock Sunday afternoon.
:So those early years you just played Saturday and Sundays. That was it throughout the week.
:I remember that.
:How many?
:years did that last. I think it lasted until after Jeff graduated. I think Alex Raymond's group kind of it got very difficult. I mean the idea was just to help academically but it actually and Jeff would say it actually probably took away from the academics because if you think about it a lot of times, the Saturday or Sunday, particularly Sunday, is a lot of big study times. You're losing a lot of time to study and then guys would be so physically worn out from playing two league games in two days that they were so tired in the Monday and Tuesday that it just really disrupted everything.
:I think it was a little easier maybe for support staff and people either had a weekend or you didn't you know, and it kind of like fit, and it was a little bit an Ivy League model. So the Ivy League plays that way, the UAA, but they play Friday, sunday, so they have a day off. And so we they adopted this model because we're an academic minded program and at that time Merchant Marine Academy was in our league, which is out of Long Island and takes forever to get there and it's a challenge to get there. So, yeah, we had to adapt and figure that out.
:To be honest, we navigated it pretty well, I think Jeff would say we probably navigated as well Anybody, but I think your sophomore you really played seven or eight guys, right, jeff? We didn't play a ton of guys.
:Yeah, we know that's right. Yeah, it was a pretty close knit group and tight and we I think it was a pretty small rotation.
:That's impressive, though, to jump into the landmark conference you're playing a lot of those teams for the first time and to go through that first year and make it to the conference championship.
:Yeah, I think it's particularly that it's Korean. Does it again, yeah.
:I know damn Scrant.
:Particularly with the guys we lost from Jeff's freshman year. I mean we lost at the hall. We lost Neil Holloway, nick Hager, aaron Chamberlain, chris Jazzio, you know, for you know mainstays. And then the guys the next year I mean Berke Garrett Bull really stepped in. That's when Justin Baker started playing more minutes. Musler was part of that. Yeah, it was a big part of that rotation.
:But the big challenge was that then the following two years Jeff you know I've talked about some bridge guys that helped like sustain the program and Jeff probably took on more as a freshman, as a junior and a senior than any guy we've had. And that's those are two years that he was all league. But so junior year we lost Sean, and you know Jeff was a scorer and a shooter but we had to move him to point guard as a junior and Jeff tell you this is a guy that his biggest transition from small school was handling the ball against guys you could really pressure. So he was. He was even challenged as a two guard. Now we made him a point guard, you know, and we had some stuff happen early on with some with our, with our senior group there.
:That kind of got off to a bad start and in terms of some injury stuff and some other stuff we had to deal with or work through. And then Jeff kind of was thrust into this almost impossible task but, like Jeff does, really kind of stabilized us and pulled us through two really challenging years and was out of position, was all week both times and the biggest thing, his senior year. Now that is when Raymond and Higgins and you know those bridge things. So you know, nick kind of mentored Jeff and I thought Jeff mentoring Alex and Nate and getting those guys on the right track really has kind of been the dominoes that have allowed us to continue to move forward and hopefully continue to build a culture where now we have more than one or two or three guys with that stuff. That was a huge part of Jeff and the run of our academic, our scholar athletes, the run of where we've been academically and how it aligns, I mean, really starts with Jeff most solidly and passes off to those other guys.
:It's gonna say, man, the recurring themes you always have, you've got those pass on guys. And I mean, yeah seems to be the backbone of what you have created there, man, which is fantastic.
:And we'll be right back Teams across the landmark conference, from your world-class athletes to your staff and most loyal fans, jostin's partners, to celebrate your championship across the organization and beyond, all centered around the coveted championship ring. Check out jostinscom today for your Jostin's championship experience. And now back to the show. So, jeff, give us some of your favorite memories from your time at Junior, out of Big Games or even non-basketball stuff. What are some of your memories from? Yeah?
:so one of my favorite basketball memories curls is, if you remember, that weekend, home weekend, and it would have been my sophomore year when we beat, maybe as underdogs, both Scranton and Moravian. Yeah, and I think I kind of came out of my shell that weekend can and had great weekend, but we played back to back and we just. It was a really good weekend, successful weekend, and that one sticks out All of the champion or the playoffs. In the first two years we had some good battles with Susquehanna. Over the years they were sort of our sister school and those were good moments. I've listened to most of these podcast episodes, particularly with all of the alumni, oh God.
:There are some colorful memories from the Canada trip. Ha ha ha. Those have already been discussed. That have length from some folks, but those were not necessarily good moments, but memorable moments, and so they're all good moments.
:Learning moments learning moments.
:And then I really enjoyed my time at Junia. It's good, good field school. We had successful sports programs. We were all pretty close in it and being able to just be a part of it and try to carry it on Coach. My senior year, too, was the year Nate was hurt. I think right that was when Higgins had that. So it was. We were and I was happy to take on that role. Those two years were definitely tough but it was good to have that group come in Alex and Nate and others and give them the chance to. They played they had to play a lot more as a freshman than I did, based on the makeup of the rosters at those times.
:It's kind of crazy to think as a coach, currently right, like so many things are out of your control, like you have a guy who goes to the priesthood, then you got another guy who gets hurt and all of a sudden your whole season is thrown completely upside down from what you expected going into that year.
:Well, it wasn't just my year too, right, coach? Because the year behind me we lost a couple guys that you had brought in that didn't really get in company to program. So we really had that two year, two year sort of, where we were trying to find people to fit the holes that were created by the priesthood.
:You just have to keep stringing recruiting classes together. And the biggest thing is, I think, like the guys we're talking about and Jeff is one of them is there's always an internal fight within a team. There's a bar, a standard of excellence, and the realities are human nature. Not everybody wants to live up to that standard all the time and sometimes, as a team starts to separate and hey, this is the way we're gonna do it, it's natural to pull guys back down. We don't wanna go there, like. We don't, like this is too much, we don't wanna go there.
:And in some ways for probably two years, jeff kinda had to carry a lot of that weight on his own. I mean, we had a lot of conversations, jeff and I. I mean literally his senior, his junior year. I think Jeff remembers me just kind of hey, man, you are right. Like I appreciate what you're doing here, you're doing it right and a little bit outnumbered at times. You know, like Jeff's approach is right, like you can't look at what he does, what he's accomplished, how he approaches stuff, and when you got guys that don't wanna get on board with that, you know. Then you say, hey, wait, we're not doing the right things here. And he had the example of Nick's group to see what it looks like. You know, he played on those really good teams and knew and understood it, and so his ability to pass that on to and like when we really needed it because those were big moments, you know and let Alex and Nate and those guys have somebody to connect to, that gives them some belief in where the program's going.
:You know, and those are the connectors, like, hey, you know, there's a method to this. It's hanging there. No, we don't. There's not another way there's. You know you gotta win on, you gotta play by the terms that the game gives you. You gotta. There's no simple way around this and we've gotta do that. And then, yeah, we take some hits. I mean that's.
:You know we could go through all the situations and a lot of guys, you know, like man, sometimes here we go again, just stuff happens, you know, at the worst times. But you gotta prepare for that and you gotta work through as much as you can. And then you just hope you get guys like this and you keep getting. If you, when you get a collection of them like his freshman and sophomore year doesn't matter what year they are then you're gonna have great results, like last year. You know, and I think you've already heard about the guys we have right now. You know there's a lot of guys that rival Jeff where he was academically, which is really unheard of. Right To do that. But, and I think that level of excellence in and out of the classroom, without questioning carries over, and that consistency are the things that allow you to be successful on and off the floor.
:I mean, it really comes down to you gotta have a certain level of skill, you gotta have the right attitude amongst the team and you gotta have a lot of luck, you know. You gotta just kinda get a little bit lucky. But, jeff, how have you seen things change from when you were there, which was you know what, 13 years ago, until where the program is today?
:Yeah, I think it's. You know there's no unknown about what the expectation is that you don't have to basketball anymore. Right, you're coming in, you're being recruited, you're signing up for what we stand for and that's it, you know. I think, as you guys have alluded to, the classes have been broader and, you know, full of people, of talented guys that are bought in and willing to do what they need to do to win. Not that that wasn't the case, you know, 15 years ago, but I think it's much more consistent now and that's our huge credit to you. Gotta show you know hats off. The program is established, it's you know there's expectation and that is what it is.
:So, jeff, did you live at the basketball house?
:What do you think of this?
:Ah, you had to ask it, I mean this is never been a topic.
:Because you're not an academic all-time. I never read there, but I was a frequent visitor. I don't think we had any academic, all-district or landmark scholars that lived at the basketball house.
:Did we have? I think we need to research that. Quite frankly, yeah, frankly get it.
:Yeah, I think we might need a whole show on the history of it. Yeah, what do you think about this coming team? And we jokingly have put a lot of expectation on them. But what's your insight from last year to this year and where do they need to improve?
:Yeah. I mean, I think they've got a great opportunity to be successful. When you have that much you know, that many guys returning and that much upperclassmen leadership with you, know, the skill set that they have, any experience that they have, you're always gonna have a chance to be successful. Of course, like I said, it's opportunity. I think the expectations are high. I came to one game early in the year last year and I always texted Coach. I'm always a proponent of more shooting. So, yeah, get some guys to let it fly.
:Light it up.
:You know, compliment Chase inside, but I agree with you. I think they can have a really good year.
:Eisenhart just wrote that down. I'll probably get a text from him as soon as this one drops. See Coach.
:See yes.
:Just keep him healthy.
:That's right.
:Keep him, jacking him up.
:Hey, he wrote me my thank you. Note, eisenhart's, my guy now. Oh yeah, yeah, you're gonna still get me on that.
:Sorry, so, Curly, wait a minute now. So the first year in the Landmark Conference is 2011. You go to the Conference Championship. How many Conference Championships?
:That would have been 2008.
:2008, 2008. How many Conference Championships have we been to? We've been to the Landmark.
:Conference.
:We've been to five. So oh and five. I didn't want to put it like that, but that's the answer. Hey man, that's what we are.
:We, you know oh and five.
:So we win the next five and we'll be 500.
:So that'll be pretty good.
:That's right. Yeah, you know what that tells me, tom, they're due what.
:They're due. They're due. You're gonna base this season on the due factor.
:Well, I mean among other, like skill and, you know, returning leadership and experience. But being due, I mean, you know.
:That does happen, we'll go with it. Yeah, it does happen. So, jeff, tell us a little bit about your post-Junior added journey. You're now a lawyer in Pittsburgh, in the Pittsburgh area.
:Yep. So I was a business political science guy at Junior Adda, went directly to law school with Ducane, started working at a firm in downtown Pittsburgh right out of law school in 2013. I was there for almost 10 years and I joined KML Gates earlier this year. So I've been living in Pittsburgh since 2010. We moved to Allison Park Hampton Township School District about 10 years ago.
:You're practically my neighbor man, what's the meetup for a beer here. One of these notes, yeah absolutely when are? You Biz, I am in Wexford, so literally yeah, we're, we're, we're town neighbors here, tom, we're close.
:Town neighbors.
:Yeah, very close.
:So you can pick them up on the way in for the big Alumni game and when we host the champion that's sure you know what we might have to run a bus? We might. There's a lot of Pittsburgh. Yeah, it's what Berkey's coming off.
:I mean, you're back in here, Are you back playing again? But he's coming off a injury from playing Adult. League with some other Juniors at a great trade, berkey.
:We want to talk about yeah, me and Brian forgo, kyle opens play together and men's league and Fox Chapel. We've been doing it for for years. We obviously sat out 2020 but, yeah, the new, the championship this year. I had a pretty bad list for an injury so I had foot surgery and, yeah, I have some hardware in there right now that they have to take out in a couple months. So I'm still on the, on the IR for the rest of the season, probably not until Next summer is when I'll be able to get back into it.
:Well, hey, jeff, you guys need a fill in I.
:Can dust off the old Baby. You only scored. You only scored like 2000 more points than he did.
:That's a question, come on.
:I took a different path.
:All right, I'm old as you throw it out there. Hey, yeah, I threw it out.
:You'll probably get me on the golf course.
:This talks a lot of smack up.
:No, just wait till I get my own head.
:It's all over.
:All right. So we got to ask you this, we get you know this is coming, it's coming. The the Mount Juniata, the Mount Rushmore of Juniata, basketball from your perspective. A 2010 grad. Who you putting on that mountain? Yeah, so I thought.
:I thought about this a couple different ways, but but I'm gonna go to go back to a little bit traditionally, I think when I was around, you know, starting my career, and not just you know, I thought I could, but Casey Craig was certainly a name that was Was there and I I mean he's he's number, he's on there, he's got clearly the, the background and the in both on and off the court and then Brian Cannon is clear to me playing with him, getting to watch you know, watch him do this thing, play with him was Incredible.
:And then, based on my career and and what I've, you know and what we've talked about today, nick haters on there for me and he really took me under his wing.
:He was probably my, my first mentor, player mentor, and then, of course, he came back and I think he was actually an assistant coach Toward the end of my career I can't remember, but I think he was before he went to Bethany and then and then post post me. I think both Marcus Lee and Brian Shawley have shown and and demonstrated that there and they earned their positions on the Mount Rushmore of Juniana basketball. So that's, I think that's fine. That would be my five.
:It's good list, All right man.
:Got. This is becoming more people are diving into this now, tom, I like it. That was good. I like it, yes.
:So I got to ask you. So you played with Cannon?
:right, yeah, I played two years with you played two years.
:Did you ever? Did you ever go see him when he played for it? He played for? He was the one to play for the Washington generals right.
:Yeah, I did not see him play for the general.
:Besides curly who went and saw him play.
:But yeah, I didn't. I didn't have a chance to do that. I was in in school time and it wasn't really. I don't think they were in Pittsburgh. They may have been, but I didn't go to. I didn't see him.
:Did you ever take a charge from cannon in practice? Because that would hurt.
:Yes, oh, he and Brian may not admit to this, but he's the headbutt me too.
:Looks a little bit of a loose cannon, if I, if I could. So you are an avid listener of the show. We appreciate that. Yeah, do you have any favorite episodes?
:Oh, Geez, you know I said the coach black ones.
:great, I Actually like listening to one with Jen from a while back We've named them Hager coach black and are the most favorite people.
:Actually I like to listen to. We'll get the guys that you know sort of touched. I like to listen to cannon. I like to listen to the Higgins and Raymond one. You know, billers last week was that was good too. I, I have been looped into the biller sort of you know net tree, whatever you want to call it. It's like the Popovich coaching tree, right, biller. I talked about this biller, biller and his, his reach. He just texted me a little last week too. So you know I, they're all really good. I like to hear from from everybody.
:It's a great collection of guys and it is the fact that you all are interconnected, which I think just says a lot about the program.
:Yes, it does. That's always good here.
:So you got to tag someone to be a to be an upcoming guest. Who would it be?
:I would tag that's the second second request in a row.
:Actually, we gotta get him on because I want to hear his rebuttal to Hager's Mount Rushmore.
:We do need to have him on here. Yes, absolutely Hope will be a.
:Hope will be a very thoughtful answer to you.
:They don't be, we ass.
:And I gotta say I now want the McConnell brothers, not just, not just. If you can track down Sean and get him on here.
:That would be.
:That would be unbelievable but both of them are hard to track down. I kind of want both of them.
:I want to hear more. That's fascinating.
:Yeah absolutely.
:The first, we have a freshman year roommates, freshman year roommates, and then he was gone.
:Well, hey, we absolutely appreciate you taking some time with us. It's good to get to know you. We hope we get to see you out there at a. Well, we got to get you back healthy and on the court, yeah, but we got to get you out for a game.
:Hopefully it's a, it's a. It's some big games coming up this season and we get all the guys out and we just got it. We got to get that gym back. This is the year, that moment. Yeah, yeah, when it's a big crowd, that's a lot of noise.
:Oh wait, that environment that picture in Hager's office of the crowd scene where everybody was wearing weight. That was that championship game, right, jeff? Was that like the crowd for that game was?
:it was standing room, only standing room only. People were in the mezzanine like leaning over the baskets.
:It was, it was really really cool.
:Berkey had a nice seat right back.
:Thanks you, berkey, you had a fun last seat.
:I had. The best seat I had that year was when Chamberlain made the game winner against Albright at the buzzer. That was right in front of our bench, so I was right there Well.
:I'm surprised you didn't. You didn't mention a manhattanville game is one of your favorite moments, berkey?
:had his share of the beaters too. Man, that was such a bad game for me. That buzzer beard, that was the only shot you made in the game right?
:Didn't you hit the three to win again?
:You know what?
:the winning shot, the shot it was a buzzer beard from like 30 feet or something, but it was and we happened. We happened to win, but man it was. It was not a good performance generally.
:He got the win. You made the big shot.
:Hey, you know that's like playing like crap and birdie in 18. I mean, you know your birdie 18. It's a winning day, it gets you coming.
:That's right. Gets you coming back for the next day, that's right. All right, folks. Follow the show on Instagram at Juniata basketball show. Subscribe to the Juniata men's basketball show on Apple Spotify. Wherever you listen to podcasts, leave us rating on Apple and spread the word junior admonition. I'm Tom Frank, I'm biz. I'm the head coach.
:Greg Curley. Thanks, man. Yeah, we're gonna keep you up too late, man, but no way man, this is I.
:We were just. We just had to cut off. My kids were getting ready for they're almost in bed at nine, so it all worked out. Everybody's doing all right. Everybody's doing well.