Juniata Men's Basketball Show
Join lifelong friends Tom Frank, Drew "Biz" Besket, and Head Juniata Basketball Coach Greg Curley as they talk all things Juniata Men's College Basketball and give unprecedented access to players, alumni, parents and every challenge that a coach with 23 years of experience and 300+ wins debates. It’s informative, inspiring and most importantly, a lot of fun!
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Juniata Men's Basketball Show
Dimitri Ross: The Rhythm of the Game
What is it like to transition from the basketball court to the recording studio? Find out as we catch up with Juniata Basketball Class of 2014, #15 Dimitri Ross, a.k.a. Rosetti, a.k.a. Sal-va-tor-e Ro-setti, a.k.a. D_Ross_The_Boss. From his early days in Petersburg, Virginia, to his introduction to Huntingdon, PA, Dimitri shares how his journey as a member of the the "Legacy of Seven," shaped his life and music career. Along the way, we highlight personal anecdotes about unforgettable teammates and the strong bonds forged on and off the court.
Get ready for a whirlwind of sports highlights, Olympic tales, and college basketball nostalgia. Coach Greg Curley recaps a busy summer, including a successful camp with Jeremy Hayes' Fadeaway Fitness. We also shine a spotlight on music collaborations, with a special appearances from recording artist and founder of Pendulumn Ink, Mickey Factz. Plus, the excitement is building as we inch closer to the start of next season and prepare to integrate eight new first-year players into the team. Don't miss out on this rich blend of sports, music, and lifelong friendships.
🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you catch your podcasts! Got a burning question for the guys? Hit us up on Instagram @JuniataBasketballShow and show some love for the show at https://juniatabasketballshow.buzzsprout.com. Let's hoop it up! 🏀✨
I'm Tom Frank, I'm Drew Beskett, 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 by Drew Beskett, aka Biz, and your Juniata head basketball coach, greg Curley. As we talk, all things Juniata Men's College basketball Fellas, we kind of took July off, but I think it was a well-deserved break. There were things.
Speaker 2:man, you had some things. There were a lot of things.
Speaker 1:We had a lot of stuff going on. We had a lot of stuff going on. Life happens you know what have you been up to Coach? What do you got?
Speaker 3:Well, I was telling Tom off air. We had a cool week, really cool week. So we had our day camp last week. We had about 50 kids but Kiera and Caden Curley. You know Kiera going in the fourth and Cade going in the second. It's prime time. So they loved it, had a great week. He won three on three and was lost at the buzzer in the one-on-one finals.
Speaker 3:He was a fourth-grade girl with some fifth-graders and so she was kind of surprised. So she had a really good week. And, uh, cade um did pretty well with the as with the first kindergarten for through second grade group, so they had a good time. And then yesterday, uh, another of the legacy of seven, jeremy Hayes, had a fadeaway fitness. Uh camp in Huntington. Wow, we missed it.
Speaker 1:We missed it. We should have known about this. So we went to camp, camp in.
Speaker 2:Huntington Wow, biz. We missed it. We missed it, we should have known about this?
Speaker 3:We should have been there. Damn, I would have went to camp. Yeah, kieran Cade went to that for about an hour and a half. Ed Mansberger was there, who we've talked about a lot.
Speaker 1:How is Ed doing?
Speaker 3:Oh, that's good to hear. Well, he's doing well, so he was able to make it there Beside himself. It was like you know, I think Ed said oh, I'm in heaven, you know, just being there watching the basketball, watching Jeremy.
Speaker 3:That's good, so it was really cool to see him out. Yeah, it was a lot of fun and the kids had a good time with it, got to meet Jeremy, had a lot of good work, and so it was a really really cool basketball week, one of those that reminds you why you do. What you do Doesn't get any better than that, and I got to admit it's probably one of my favorite weeks of the year, so it's a lot of fun having it. You know you don't get to not everybody gets to take their kids to work, you know, and when they're a big part of it and have fun with that, a lot of their friends are there, so it's pretty cool time right now. It was a really good week by all.
Speaker 3:We had eight first-year guys work in camp, so that was interesting. We didn't have any veteran guys, so that was good too, to get these guys on campus and get to know those guys a little bit. They did a good job and it's a good chance to just work with them and kind of set a tone. So, yeah, it was a good week and we're only three weeks to the start of the year Six weeks, only three weeks and kind of set a tone. So, yeah, it was a good week and we're only three weeks to the start of the year. Six weeks, only three weeks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're two months to our first practice and three months to our first game. I like it, biz. I know this offseason. I don't like the offseason, biz. I get a little bored. I need something.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we got nothing right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's one. State campaigns Usually, like I always say, the silence of the gym after camp, so it's super quiet. When you clean up and you come back in your last one, it's kind of when the juices start flowing, like now the attention starts turning to like here we go, and then you know, once August comes, it'll be the dead sprint. You know it's going to be. And that's when you kind of get in it and if it's been been good, it's been a good summer, uh, kind of rested, refreshed, ready to go. But you know, getting those eight freshmen in here last week and, uh, starting to turn the corner, start to get excited, uh, about what can't the possibilities with a new group, new team, uh, talking with tyler mason, the returners, uh, now you start to get excited and uh, uh, you know, get after it again. It, it's about time Bez.
Speaker 1:What have you been up to? You had golf today. Did we win?
Speaker 2:It was a non-event today, just you know, just out.
Speaker 1:I thought you were going to say you lost Outworking the craft man.
Speaker 2:Well, I did lose, Ended up losing 10 bucks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I lost.
Speaker 2:I just can't put 18 holes together, man.
Speaker 1:No, you can't Vince.
Speaker 2:No, you can't, I shot a 46 on the front and then shot even par on the back and I still lost $10. Yeah, but we are, larissa and I are heading down to Ocean City next week.
Speaker 1:Very nice.
Speaker 2:You and the missus should come down for a night biz I might have to think about that you should think about that I should think about that I'll, as soon as I get there, I'll go to the plim and get your room yeah, and get me a picture.
Speaker 3:You gotta take a picture every time you go, yeah yeah, so looking forward to that a little vacation you need one you need one it is because all this work you do I gotta play golf tomorrow for work, yeah, didn't you just get back from a golf trip last week?
Speaker 2:guys on vacation every other week another uh, yeah, another rough, rough time in the uh on the links, and I left my putter in new york too, so that was great well, keep grinding, biz keep grinding. I'm going to you, man, we got a big tournament coming up at the beginning of September. That's going to be my coming out.
Speaker 3:I thought at some point you have to go to work to pay for all this stuff. But I guess not Biz, you know what?
Speaker 1:Nah, Biz does his own thing. My line of work.
Speaker 2:Golf is part of the job.
Speaker 1:That's true, Biz. I feel like I a selfish, a selfish plug from my other podcast, though I hope you've been listening. It's been doing well.
Speaker 2:I've actually gone away and it's a shame that I didn't know that shooting camp was on yesterday, because I went up to State College to see the moms and I could have swung by on the way back, but I had no idea what's going on. But I did listen to the one with your cousin on it. It was very good.
Speaker 1:We had Tim on who, as people might not know, he's a. He travels with the Olympic, the Olympic basketball team he's a the communications director we had. We had the Adidas head of brand on. He was very good. We adidas head of brand on. He was very good.
Speaker 2:We had we had reagan gomez on if you got do you guys?
Speaker 1:remember the parenthood growing up. Yes, she, she was on the parenthood. She's been on the cleveland show and maybe my favorite show yet that hasn't come out that you got to listen to was the president of fat beats, who was also the former marketing director of death jam. Wow, in the heyday, very, very interesting stuff with chris atlas. So if you of Def Jam in the heyday, very, very interesting stuff with Chris Atlas. So if you need another podcast in the mix, put it on there on Glossy.
Speaker 2:It's a good one. I'll keep the trend going, man, all right.
Speaker 1:Now, before we get to our amazing guest, I did have a question. Come in. All right, this is a very good question. It's a listener question from Noah L. Noah L says guys, what sport has you most intrigued at the Olympics? And you can't say basketball. Have you been watching the Olympics at?
Speaker 2:all I've been watching the Olympics. I mean, the first sport I would say is badminton, because Badminton yeah, the coach, I was going to text you.
Speaker 3:Did you see that coach? I was going to text you. Did you see that visit? I was going to text you about it. I forgot. I had the phone, I was telling Jen Jen about it and I forgot.
Speaker 2:We uh we could have been.
Speaker 1:Hey, I did catch a badminton.
Speaker 2:We're the only two that ever beat the teachers. Let's just remember this.
Speaker 1:These guys are good. We were good, like on the Olympics.
Speaker 2:We were good, we were good, I don't know Intriguing man. I mean all of them, I don't know. I'm down with everything, man. I love the Olympics because it's all a bunch of sports that I just don't watch, except for the Olympics.
Speaker 3:Can I give you one that I saw today that if you, haven't seen this yet.
Speaker 1:You have to look it up on youtube. What do you got? Pole vaulting? Did you see what happened in pole vaulting today, where the guy came up short, where he that one, where the guy came up, yeah, the guy from france trying to jump over and and I don't know how to say this politely, oh is johnson got in the way and and knocked the thing down and he Out.
Speaker 3:How does that happen? I didn't see it. Wasn't there a guy that went up and like stopped in midair and came back down, fell the other way?
Speaker 1:I didn't see that. All I know is there's no part of me that ever wants to do pole vaulting.
Speaker 2:Why would you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I'm intrigued by it.
Speaker 2:I mean everything's cool man. You know all those sports like swimming. Katie Ledecky is just stupid.
Speaker 1:Amazing.
Speaker 3:I've been so like I watch a little three X three. That's basketball. Why are we not?
Speaker 1:any good at that they don't they stink why? They don't let pros in the three on three Okay. We gotta have Jim or freaking for debt is on the media. They don't let nba guys. Yeah, but but can't we find some better players than what we're playing right now? We got a guy who's like 50 who's playing. I might as well be playing biz.
Speaker 3:Do they not let them in? Is that true? Because aren't there w nba players on the women's team?
Speaker 2:I'd not.
Speaker 1:They may not be current ones I heard that's because they were actually talking about today on the sports station.
Speaker 2:Here they're saying why is the three on three so bad?
Speaker 1:why are we so bad?
Speaker 3:I don't understand well jimmer got hurt, so he's playing hurt.
Speaker 1:But other than that I've.
Speaker 3:You know the one. I've watched a lot of afirma. It's team handball. I like team handball, dude, that game's awesome. You just like a lot of size man, a lot of big guys, a lot of length who haven't caught any of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's cool. It's like indoor soccer with your hands and you just get to knock people over and stuff.
Speaker 1:I think this question has to be the first question we ask our guest Okay, who's patiently awaiting, and I think I'm going to introduce him now.
Speaker 2:Do it man.
Speaker 1:Fired up. So please join us and welcome the one and only Dimitri Ross Fired up. So please join us and welcome the one and only Dimitri Ross. He's a junior out of basketball class of 2014,. A four-year player, dimitri was a member of the legacy of seven, which we've talked a lot about.
Speaker 2:Another sevener, aren't we?
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's another sevener. At the time, his class graduated with the most wins in program history two ECAC championships and the first of which was the program's first post-season championship and two appearances in the landmark conference finals. We didn't win one, but we were appeared there. We're still on the hunt for that one. This guy. He shot what? 43.8% from three-point land his senior year, which culminated witha four-for-five effort from behind the line in the 2014 ECAC championship game. His finale is an eagle. Did he win the MVP Curly?
Speaker 3:Actually Shawley beat him out for the MVP.
Speaker 1:I don't like that at all.
Speaker 3:Shawley's at 24 that night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but this guy went 4-for-5.
Speaker 3:He was heating the hot end up. I wasn't part of voting.
Speaker 1:We were cutting the nets down, so he's the son of wilson and gail ross. Dimitri comes to juniata from petersburg, virginia. I got to hear about this. He currently resides in pittsburgh, so he's one of your guys and is the proud father of one daughter, four-year-old ren, who I I believe he just put to bed. So we can't be too loud now. Biz, biz, we don't want to wake her up.
Speaker 2:You don't have to worry about that for me, Tom.
Speaker 1:Here's what really intrigues me about this guy, though. Professionally, dimitri aka Let me get all these names right aka Rosetti, aka, salvatore Rosetti, aka I like that one the best. He's the current River City champion for the Southpaw Battle Coalition in Richmond Virginia I got to ask about that and he has collaborated with some very well-known artists across the hip-hop world. Let's welcome in number 15, demetri.
Speaker 4:Ross. Hey, all right, that's a lot. I think you lived up to it. I think you did. Did we do a good job, tom?
Speaker 3:you forgot the heat check connoisseur line.
Speaker 2:Oh, I skipped that last time. That's the original man.
Speaker 3:Which is the absolute truth, absolute truth he is a heat check connoisseur. That's the best phrasing.
Speaker 1:The heat check connoisseur. I like that. I did miss that. I did miss that For sure.
Speaker 4:I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:I'm definitely happy to be here. Appreciate y'all having me. So we gotta start right here.
Speaker 4:How does a kid from petersburg, virginia, end up in central pa for college. How does that happen? Um, I mean, essentially, I guess if you are, if you follow division three sports, you know like the odette conference in virginia is one of the better conferences in the country. Um, I knew some guys who went to like Wesleyan making and stuff like that, and I just kind of I told myself before I got here I wasn't going to say the names of schools, I had already messed up, but I was just kind of told how those situations went with those particular programs and some of the bigger size programs where I'm from. So I ended up kind of branching out, going to some camps, who group, who mountain, all that stuff, and I got a lot of books from some schools out.
Speaker 4:You know PA, new York, just in the, in that Northeastern kind of corner. Neil Rager was the assistant coach at the time and he was, he was reaching out pretty frequently and he actually ended up coming down. It was like a stormy day on a Wednesday, you know some random country town of Virginia and he showed up to the game and you know we we talked there and you know, from there I came up to the school and it seemed like it'd be a good fit and you know it worked out. Four years later, we were able to accomplish some things with my class and everything like that. It's one of the better decisions I made for sure.
Speaker 1:Be honest, had you ever heard of Juniata before Neil Rager showed up?
Speaker 4:No, I was calling him Juanita, just like everybody else.
Speaker 1:Juanita, yes, so I mean, what did you think of this guy? So when's the first time you met coach curly? So neil, neil came down, did curly? Did you go down and see him?
Speaker 4:I don't think, I think it was just regular yeah um, I took a visit, um, like at some point when I was in high school I don't remember when it was, but whenever I came and took that visit was my first time meeting them and everything like that. And you know, you know what I will say about about coach is that, um, it's pretty. From the time I met him until now, it's pretty much the same thing. You know, he was one of the few coaches when I got there who didn't pretty much just try to sell me whatever it was I was trying to hear. You know, the same, the same interactions and things we have now are the same interactions we had at that time.
Speaker 4:You know, in terms of basketball, you know, it's just pretty much a straight shooter. So that was one of the things that kind of led me in that direction as well, because I don't know, I just feel like a lot of people just trying to blow your head up and you can't, you don't really know what, and you know, I'd rather kind of know what it is going into the situation yeah so how?
Speaker 1:the legacy of seven? What that the interesting thing I find about this group is it's a pretty diverse group. I mean, you had guys from all over. You had you from Virginia, you had West Virginia, you had guys from all over. How quickly did you guys come together, or did it take some time?
Speaker 4:If you ask them, I didn't talk to anybody for two months. That's not true. That's not true at all. But that's the story they run with. But I mean it was pretty quick, I would say I don't think it took too much time at all. Obviously, over the span of four years it got stronger and even more so after college and everything like that. But I think that was the special thing. We never really had kind of an awkward period or anything like that. We just dove right into it and we just happened to have a lot of personalities that matched with each other and it worked out.
Speaker 1:Pretty good job of recruiting, I would say Very good job of recruiting. Now did you guys know at what point I mean you got to think about it you came into something and the amount of success you had really wasn't something that necessarily was at Juniat. At the time, like, did you guys know in the moment that what you were doing was pretty special?
Speaker 4:I don't think so. Honestly, it was just more so of a matter that we were just trying to win games. You know what I mean it was. We knew that. You know, coach was going to hold us to a certain standard. We were going to hold each other to a certain standard. We were just trying to get it right every day. Honestly, at this point I really don't know that we even look at it that way. It's just kind of something we were supposed to do. I feel like other people might have been more surprised by some of it, but you know, we always trusted in each other. And even you know the other classes Alex Nate, you know, ray, austin, dan, everybody, you know all of our upperclassmen we had. That whole group is still a unit to this day. Like I said, it was just a thing that kind of just happened to click.
Speaker 1:Yeah. What are your memorable moments there on that team?
Speaker 4:Oh man, I got to filter quick.
Speaker 1:This is an unfiltered show, right.
Speaker 2:We got it on the radio. Man, this is good.
Speaker 4:I mean a it's a few, it's a few different things. Uh, of course, winning the first ecac uh title was was a big thing.
Speaker 2:It's because nobody had ever won a post championship so did you guys go back to back on that? Yeah, we did?
Speaker 4:we did yep um and it I don't know. It was a lot of fun too because I feel like a lot of things that we have been working on throughout the year kind of came together. I know for myself individually my best games were in ECAC and in both of those seasons, so it was, it was special for me just to kind of have that culmination, be at that point you know would have liked it to happen a bit earlier, but that piece of it was special but also just kind of to see everybody coming together and all Eagles be. You know that's one of the other things with our group. I guess that we didn't really have a ton of Eagles like that. There was never any internal conflict or nothing like that. You know what I mean. So that I mean that was always special.
Speaker 4:Team camp was always not team camp, I'm sorry. Little Eagles was always fun too, you know, because that would be some. It was just a nice, a nice breakup in the middle of the season. Right, you know we would play the game the day before and you know we've been in a tough season, so it was always nice to do that, you know, two, three times a year, just to kind of reset and, you know, just realize that basketball is fun and kind of lighten it up a little bit, I guess. So I would say those are probably the things that I remember the most Bus rides just joking around and everything like that, just the locker room the camaraderie for real Was that when Coach was driving those, those were the vans.
Speaker 2:He never drove your bus, did he?
Speaker 4:No, no, I think his name was Denny. Denny drove us off the road.
Speaker 2:It's a good thing Tom wasn't behind the wheel I have volunteered numerous times to be the bus driver.
Speaker 3:one time no not going to happen.
Speaker 1:So going in Huntington, though I mean that's got to be a little bit different, right? I mean, what was your favorite places to hang out there? My favorite place.
Speaker 4:I didn't really have any places. I mean, we would kind of just make wherever we were living at, you know the place to be at for us, you know. So we would just kind of hang out at you know our own house or you know Sholly and those guys' house, whatever it was. But we weren't really all for the campus too much like that. But no, I mean, huntington is completely different from what I was accustomed to, you know. But but luckily my guys around me helped to make it a good experience and I wasn't, like I said, because we were so close-knit and so locked in on basketball and just locked in on what we were doing, even when it wasn't basketball-related. I guess the location didn't really matter at that point.
Speaker 1:Who was the craziest one of the seven?
Speaker 4:Pat, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:No doubt at all. I mean you've got to expand upon that.
Speaker 4:I'll tell you how I met Pat. I guess I met Pat it was freshman orientation, so we didn't really know anybody at the time. We were kind of trying to figure it out and this guy just stomps across the lawn, spiked hair, has an earring, a size small shirt, you know, pat just rolls up and he's like yo, what's up? You, uh, you, you, dimitri, all right. As a matter of fact, I think he called me d, which I'd never tried. You know, I never told him to call me that. He's like oh, y'all, you d. And I'm like I'm like, yeah, he's like all right, playing basketball and everything like that. So I'm like all right, he's like all right, pat, you're playing basketball and everything like that. So I'm like all right, cool.
Speaker 4:So fast forward. About three hours later, maybe, I'm out on the court talking to somebody and I look on the slipping slide and I just see Pat going down the slipping slide and I'm like all right. So this is this guy's a little different. But you know, I think that that personality trait though, you know, transferred to the court as well, you know, we could just kind of throw Pat out there at people and he would just, you know, just be frantic, just doing stuff and you know, and I mean that in the best you know, in the most basketball sense possible, you know what I mean. All those different personalities Like I said, everybody wasn't the same All those different personalities, you know, made up who we were.
Speaker 1:I mean it definitely is a cast of characters in a good way. I mean you couldn't I don't know how you did that, curly, but that class, I don't know how you ever get anything like that ever again.
Speaker 3:No, I mean that's what makes it fun. You know, I talked about the eight freshmen last week and you start to see the potential of relationships for them. I think the coolest thing that Demetri said is as close as they were in college. I mean these guys are still, I mean, exceptionally close, like it's an automatic that they're at everybody's wedding or whatever it is. Or you know, coach Sholly tells a story that you know he will get into the rap career, hip-hop stuff here in a minute, but like that, he showed up to a State College high school game to watch Sholly play and the guys on the bench are whispering to each other it's Rossetti, it's Rossetti. You know what I mean and that's kind of like that's cool, that is awesome.
Speaker 3:You know that's crazy, right, like, and that's pretty cool and all their connections, like, and that's pretty cool and all their connections. So, but yeah, I mean I'm not kidding, and you know he talked about Rager, kind of starting that off, and I think the thing he hit on there is you don't get groups like that if there's a lot of egos that get in the way. Now they had a collective ego, believe me. Yeah, they all had a lot of confidence, for sure. I mean, that was one of the things that made it work too, is all these guys had a really good had a collective confidence.
Speaker 1:yeah, and they all believed in themselves.
Speaker 3:It wasn't. You know, I think that's one of the things there wasn't. They weren't threatened by other guys being good, they just wanted to win games and they really appreciated what each guy brought. And they really all did bring like their own unique thing and it just kind of went together and, yeah, it's really cool. When he talked about, you know, ray and Higgins before him and Dan and Austin and kind of Fish and Trevor on the other side of them, I mean it was kind of cool. That was just a really cool group. Why do you keep doing this so long? I mean, that's what I'm starting to get excited about with this season again. I feel like, you know, the eight guys are just very similar to their group. They all just kind of slot in and you know, there's a million different stories and a lot of things, but the personalities just kind of slide together and fit and it's one of those things like when they're back together they may not have, you know, out of seven of them. It's not like they're all talking to either a guy.
Speaker 1:Now this day and age a little easier, but when they slide back together it's just like you know, you know it fits like a glove and they never left.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a cool thing to start and you know to think that I said that's all. It is like the opportunity to play here kind of presented that, and then they take it and run with it.
Speaker 4:But it's pretty cool to be a part of that one of the the things too with our group, not to be too long-winded on it. But I think because we had so many varying levels of careers you know what I mean, from top to bottom and stuff like that I think it speaks even more that we are all still very tight because of that. Just because we had guys who scored 1,000, know, we had guys who scored a thousand points, we had guys who might not even broken a hundred, you know what I mean Realistically. So the fact that everybody is still able to, you know it doesn't matter. You know, ultimately, at the end of the day, we all look at it as a seven, one, two championships and all the other stuff in between. That is irrelevant.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think what you guys were and still are your real team, your real teammates and like the, the. The other thing is, when you're together, heck, some of the guys are the most boisterous and say the most stuff might've been on the low end of that on that scale, you know, and Stapes wouldn't say a word. Man, you wouldn't even know, like what he did, he did or what he didn't do, and I think that's. But there was a collective ego, a lot of respect. It was all. The relationships were really built on respect from day one, and that's kind of the core. That's what, if our new group is listening to this at all, that's what it needs to be about. And then I think, the bigger commonality all you guys have just incredible families you came from and you know that that always goes with it. You know like there's a commonality in how you guys were raised, what mattered, what was reinforced at home, and, uh, certainly the same with Dimitri and everybody else in that group.
Speaker 1:So, carly, do you look at like how many recruits you have coming in this, because you lost eight last year. Yeah, how many? What's? What's your class size this year coming in?
Speaker 3:we have 13 guys coming in this class.
Speaker 1:13, yeah, so that's kind of interesting because you're you're at the beginning stage of what could be another group, the similar to this, and you're seeing the very. I mean, I guess that is what keeps you going and keeps you coaching every day.
Speaker 3:It's pretty similar to this and you're seeing the very. I mean, I guess that is what keeps you going and keeps you coaching every day. It's pretty similar to their group. I mean. They came in uh, we had had a lot of success lost some of those guys did and then they came in.
Speaker 3:It's it's a very, very similar situation if I'm not mistaken yeah, yeah, and you had guys that came in and all of you guys you know a lot of you all of you kind of played early until we figured it out, and that was what makes it a little rocky you know, because guys, when you got that many and you're young, no one's really ready, right.
Speaker 3:So you're always kind of juggling and working through that stuff, which makes it even more rare because that can get tough. But those guys always, and even early, you know, they're not always on the same page as the coach of that stuff, you know, because they don't trust it. But they all kind of the cool thing in the good teams, like Cannon's group and everything like they stay together right, like it might have been them against the coach, right, like put their together and it wouldn't, they wouldn't turn and do that and that honestly, sometimes the coach it's all you really care about as long as they're on the same page. And then when you mature and get a little older and guys start to understand and trust, that relationship changes. But that's just like anything else.
Speaker 3:It just takes time and trust and if not everybody's getting what they want, that's a hard thing to really buy in on until, until you get enough maturity or see, or you have those connections and yeah, I mean they're just special guys. I mean it's a really cool group. I'm the blessed one to have a chance to coach those guys and be around and see where they've all gone. Heck Pat's in the running for Altoona Mirror Real Estate Agent of the Year. Right, did you vote for him, or what?
Speaker 4:Of course, I had to get on with Pat. I told them they made the process about as difficult as they could, but if I didn't love them I would have quit, but I went through it.
Speaker 1:And we'll be right back. The Juniata Men's Basketball Show is produced and distributed by Merrick Creative, looking to skyrocket your business's visibility and drive growth. At Merrick Creative, we solve your brand and marketing woes With big ideas, decades of experience and innovative solutions. We'll draw in your target audience and keep them hooked. Remember, creativity is key to success. Partner with Merit Creative and unlock your brand's potential. Learn more at meritcreativecom. And now back to the show. So, speaking of post-juniata, though, you got to tell us about music, like where did the love of music come from? When did you start rapping? Was it were you doing it in college? Were you doing it before college, or was it? Tell us?
Speaker 4:about that. Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things that I've always done a little bit, you know, just throughout life and everything like that. But whenever I was, I was in college, it was like a random Wednesday I drove out to State College, just went and got some equipment and I just said I set up a little studio in my dorm and I started recording some stuff. Then, you know, it sounded awful, but that at least got the ball, got the ball rolling. You're actively trying to do it. And then, you know, I just kind of stayed with it over time. And then whenever I finished up with school and everything like that, it was just one of those things that I was always thinking about and I was still passionate about. And you know, at that point I didn't have basketball Because you know, basketball takes up a lot of time. I don't know if people realize that, but if you're playing a college sport, it's going to eat up pretty much all of your time.
Speaker 4:So whenever I had just pretty much all of this free time outside of working and stuff like that, I just continued to, you know, go at it and, you know, found a way to make it make sense, you know monetarily and all of that. And then here we are.
Speaker 1:Did you just jump right in? Then you went right from college and you just said I'm all in.
Speaker 4:So no, no, like out of college I had, you know, I had jobs and things like that and whatnot, but because I just didn't, I don't know, I just my body didn't feel right, you know, in those locations. I guess you know it was a fight to get there every day and I knew what felt natural to me. So I always just kind of worked at that in my free time and worked at that in the time, my free time, and then, you know, eventually I was able to get it to a point where I could do that, you know, full time. And right now, you know, we're, we're, we're here and I'm, you know, trying to trying to ride it out.
Speaker 2:Ride it out, keep on elevating it as much as I can Now did you did you go to Pittsburgh for the music piece or did you go to Pittsburgh for the job and then?
Speaker 4:So I went to Pittsburgh for the job. Yeah Well, I was working with the Pirates for a while. Oh cool, yes, I was up here doing that. And then, whenever I don't know, it just got to a point where it's like, all right, you know, 10 game homestand, I'm leaving here at one in the morning, I'm getting back at seven, like this has to work right now. I can't do this anymore. You know what I mean. What were you doing for the pirates man? That sounds cool. I mean, it was. It was okay for a while, you know, but again I it just wasn't the right environment for me, and you know. So, luckily, after I stopped doing that, I was able to, you know, get into some studios, start mixing, you know, mastering things like that. Um, start working with some artists.
Speaker 4:you know, as an artist for myself, and um, you know, I'm just carrying it out, honestly it's. It's one of those things where it's really no blueprint on it, when you're kind of doing it independently in that way. So I just wear hats and you know wherever, wherever it makes sense for me to be at, or whatever work it makes sense for me to be doing, that that's what I do first of all you got to tell us about.
Speaker 1:You're the river city champion for the southpaw battle coalition. What, what does that mean?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I battle rap as well and essentially what that is. It's like rapping, but acapella and I'm going against somebody, right? So you know I'll have an opponent. We'll do three rounds three minutes apiece, kind of like boxing, but rather than fighting, I'm using my words to you know, just try to show that I'm better than this person at rapping and stuff like that and, um, you know, it's fun.
Speaker 1:It's fun, honestly so so battle rapping, so like if I were to challenge you right now, you'd be, you'd be down for this I I wouldn't be down because that comes with a fee these days.
Speaker 1:Well, here's what I was gonna do. I I wasn't actually going to go against you, but I'm going to bring a guy on right now who I think might be a little bit better than me at this and I thought he might be a guy that we could go. We could maybe start something with him. So I'm going to bring somebody out right now. Let me invite him on stage. See if you know this guy. I don't know if you know him or not, all right.
Speaker 4:Putting me on the spot, Tom.
Speaker 1:I am putting you on the spot. I got to see what you're made of. I love it. We got with us the great Mickey Fax. Now you two have worked together, haven't you?
Speaker 2:We have, we have worked together.
Speaker 1:And so this is my thank you, mickey, for coming on. This is my co-host from Unglossy. We got Coach Curley. We got Biz Demetri Ross, who you might know as D-Ross. You might know him as different things, so thanks for coming on.
Speaker 5:Mickey. I think the best name here is Coach Curly.
Speaker 1:That's the best one.
Speaker 5:What a name, Coach Curly.
Speaker 3:Thanks, Mickey, I appreciate that man I appreciate that.
Speaker 5:What a name.
Speaker 3:I get called a lot of other names. Let's put it that way yeah.
Speaker 1:So, Mickey, what got me thinking here is the other day we were talking about comedies and having different shows on different shows and the crossover. We're doing it right here, Mickey.
Speaker 5:This is the.
Speaker 1:Avengers. This is the crossover right here. So now, do you remember Dimitri? Now you guys have, you guys worked together.
Speaker 4:So essentially what happened is Mickey had a show out of New York at one point and I was the opening act for that, and this was years on, years on, years ago, you know, at that point. So you know we met at that time and then I want to say I circled back maybe I don't know a couple of months later, shot him over an email with a song, you know, just seeing if he would hop on it and do it. And you know, mickey, he was gracious enough to sit to send me a verse back. I do recall whenever the song came I added some material. I added a little bit of material to my verse and you know, mickey, he called me on it. So you know we got to get a round two in at some point. You know the record turned out really good and you know that was one of my first bigger collaborations. So you know, I definitely appreciate that.
Speaker 5:Absolutely so you know. Just so. What he's saying, guys, is you know, typically in the hip hop space, when you send a song, that's how you think their verse is going to be. That's how whatever they send is what it's going to be. So then, now that I have it, I get to send back what I've done. Right, I sent it back and apparently my verse was so good All right, all right, more.
Speaker 4:Let's not do that. I sent it back and apparently my verse was so good that he decided to add more.
Speaker 5:Let's not do that To the song Right. And now we're in a situation where it just looks like I'm getting overpowered and you know that's why we are where we are, but the song is great. I think the song is good.
Speaker 4:It's a great song. I'll say this. I'll say this. I'll say this Whenever we get to the second record, whenever that is. I'm working on a project right now, actually, so I might be contacting you. You have my word that whatever you receive is going to be what it is. Whatever you receive is going to be that that sounds beautiful.
Speaker 5:I'm confident it'll be what it is. Whatever you receive is going to be that that sounds beautiful.
Speaker 4:I'm confident it'll be the same outcome. I will say that as a competitive rapper, I'm confident in that, but you got my word on it.
Speaker 5:Hey, listen man, I'm just here to enhance records. I'm not in the competition space anymore, I'm here to enhance records. I just know that this always happens to me. Right, when I did a record with royce tom, I sent the record to royce. Royce decides to double the.
Speaker 1:The rhyme count on right I never knew of any of this, this, this business side of this thing here.
Speaker 5:This is fascinating.
Speaker 1:So when I send out my bars now I'm going to be watching this a little bit deeper, because I didn't know any of this- it's not exactly the same.
Speaker 4:It's kind of like a bat flip in baseball you know what I mean when it's like there's nothing that says you can't do it, there's no rule, but you just shouldn't you? Probably shouldn't, you probably shouldn't, you probably shouldn't. I was young in the game at that point. You know what I mean. It happens it happens.
Speaker 5:It happens, you know. But you know, whatever I send, I'm confident in what I send. So that's what happened with, you know, dimitri Royce, the 5'9" Farrow Monch. You know these guys, they just decide to add more. When I'm sticking to the standard, these guys add more. It's just a testament to what I do. You know For sure, for sure. I'm excited for the next record.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. You'll be hearing from me, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 1:So D. Where are we at in our music career right now? When is the next record?
Speaker 4:coming out. So my next project I'm going to be putting out on November 1st. I decided that because I have a battle on November 3rd, so I kind of want to just put all of that stuff together, promo it all together and get all of the momentum at one time. November 1st album is going to be called yeah, I'm Good, and it's essentially just going to be about my experience, you know, throughout my 20s in Pittsburgh up to today, because a lot of my material is kind of reflective so that you know it's kind of Virginia-based a lot of the things I talk about. But I've been in Pittsburgh for about I don't know 70 years now and I've never fully just kind of given a rundown and just kind of spoken my piece on how I've been living here, just my perspective on the city and the uh, the energy as a whole here. So I'm just trying to capture all that right now. But, yeah, november 1st I'm probably about 75 done I like it.
Speaker 2:I can't wait to hear that now.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I've been kind of waiting for is a uh, is a theme song for this, for this very show. I mean, there's nobody better to do this than Demetri.
Speaker 4:I got you. I wasn't sure if that was a set in stone thing, but I can certainly.
Speaker 1:Oh, we need it done. I'm pretty sure I can do it. I mean, mickey, you're on now too, so we'll take what you got. I might embellish it a little bit, but you know.
Speaker 5:I'm fresh out of raps, uh, but you know, dimitri seems to have it all under control, so dimitri's gonna have it under control for us.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely so, mickey, what are you up to? Well, we won't. We won't keep you for too much time, but give us the latest in your world um currently, you know, preparing to release some new music.
Speaker 5:Um, as always, um just focused on that. Um just signed a uh just signed a contract to host uh black syntax in atlanta with ti should be pretty dope in sept. I'm very excited about that. I'll be speaking at Earn your Leisure, the conference in Atlanta, which is finance. I'm one of the keynote speakers there, so that should be pretty good as well. Obviously, I'm going to be with Tom and Jeff Sledge doing Unglossy, still running my hip-hop school, pendulum Inc. We're making the necessary moves to continue to push the culture forward.
Speaker 1:That's right. So, Mickey, we're going to get you with D at some point again down the road. It sounds like it's going to be before.
Speaker 5:September or before October. I'm excited about this.
Speaker 4:I'm going to hit you.
Speaker 5:I'm excited. It's round two, absolutely Round two. It's going to hit you. I'm excited.
Speaker 4:It's round two, you know Round two.
Speaker 5:Absolutely. Round two, round two. It's got to be fair this time. Now you see everybody's here. They heard the story. It's going to be fair.
Speaker 1:I had no idea of this.
Speaker 2:You know, this is plastered on the internet. Now, man, it's out.
Speaker 4:It is feed him. We'll get a fair feed.
Speaker 5:I love to hear that I'm only here to enhance the record, so I might even just throw the fight.
Speaker 4:Come on now. Come on now.
Speaker 1:There we go, folks Breaking news right here and now. Mickey, thank you.
Speaker 2:No problem, thank you for jumping on.
Speaker 4:Thanks for doing that, thanks for jumping on.
Speaker 5:Absolutely Pleasure's all mine.
Speaker 1:All right, and that was Mickey Fax, right there on this very Juniata podcast.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic.
Speaker 4:So Dimitri Wasn't expecting that.
Speaker 1:I knew a few guys, I figured I'd get them on for you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, let's tell you, thank you.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you this Big record coming out November 1st, november 3rd November 1st.
Speaker 4:November 3rd. November 1st. Battle's November 3rd. The album is November 1st.
Speaker 1:We got to get some music for this show. We're going to get it out there. We're going to promote it for you Please do. I know a few things about promoting.
Speaker 4:By all means, we'll be in touch. We'll definitely be in touch. I appreciate you guys for sure.
Speaker 1:You're going to be back for the big game, the alumni game, this year. No, you didn't play in the alumni game last year.
Speaker 4:No, I didn't play in the alumni game last year. I might shake off some of the rust a little bit. Yes, shake off some of the rust. I need help. D, I need help. Man, I need help Play it on D.
Speaker 4:I haven't played seriously organized. I'll play at the playground and stuff like that whenever my knees allow it. But my last time playing organized basketball I was in an adult league out here. You know, it was just a random crew of guys I was playing with. So I walk into the gym. I've worked all day, 730, 8 o'clock. I look on the other side of the gym it's Furco Berkey O'Fitz, that whole squad, that whole squad over there. So I'm like all right. And you know the guy, one of the guys on my team, whoever was guarding Berkley, he went under about seven screens in a row. You know how that turned out. That was it, huh yeah. And after that I'm like you know what? I can't deal with this.
Speaker 3:I can't deal with this. You're doing bigger and better, man. There's nothing wrong with that. You're putting your time and Remy in your career. Those are good things, buddy, for sure.
Speaker 1:Now Biz, is he an automatic on your team because he's Pittsburgh?
Speaker 2:I mean, I would think so yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm building a nice contingent down here man. I don't like that. I was kind of hoping I could get Demetri on my team.
Speaker 4:You win some, you lose some. Tom, me and Jeremy are a package deal. He'll give me open threes. So wherever Hayes is at, that's where I'm at.
Speaker 1:Now Hayes. I already have a lifetime on my team.
Speaker 4:There you go.
Speaker 1:Oh, I definitely do. Hayes isn't playing for anybody but me.
Speaker 2:I'll get a stop by his gym, I'll talk him into it, I'll schmooze him.
Speaker 1:I'll take them golfing. You're done, you're out. Well, dimitri, thank you. Thank you for joining us. Um man, I'll be watching. I want to see what happens next and, uh, you know, we're going to be waiting for the uh Juniata basketball show. Official theme. Theme music for sure.
Speaker 4:No, I'll definitely get that sounds good, get that done for sure. Like I said, our album is November 1st and I'll follow up, you know, a month or so in advance to try to do a little promo and stuff like that. Yeah, before before before I do go. Um, I just wanted to, you know, because because the, the guys in my class are kind of a unit, I just wanted to make a sale. You know, quick bullet point about everybody you know as a unit. You know in in my class, absolutely.
Speaker 4:I'll start with Kevin Snyder. He was my roommate all four years. Crazy amount of respect for him. Just because he, you know, wasn't getting a ton of minutes and didn't take it out on everybody, he was still, you know, kind of the air in the locker room making stuff light. You know what I mean and a lot of guys in that situation would not be that at all. So shout out to snyder for that.
Speaker 4:Uh, pat, fake 95 injuries. But love, love, love, love of it. Death pat pat. You know pat played. Uh, he played really hard, he played really really hard and, um, he's just a good guy honestly, like all for the court. Whatever you need for pat, you know pat is somebody you can just call and vent and talk to him for two hours and he's just a good guy, honestly, like all for the court. Whatever you need from Pat, you know Pat is somebody that you can just call and vent and talk to for two hours and he's not going to make you feel crazy about it. So shout out to Pat for that Want to give Luke some love.
Speaker 4:I personally feel like Luke was our most irreplaceable piece on our team. You know he may not have been our best player, but in terms of what he gave us, we didn't have anybody else who was going to give us that. So, um, I want to say luke was probably our most important guy. Um, you know, that's my, that's my brother, love him. I think stapes was uh, I don't want to say responsible. We all did what we, you know, did our part, but without stapes I don't think we we reached the heights that we reached just because whenever everything else was falling apart, we just throw the states to go get a bucket, and without that I don't think we'd get to where we get to Love Stapes for that.
Speaker 4:Shaw's is Shaw's. We don't have to say too much about him. He'll shoot the laces off the ball. We love him. Shaw's is my guy. I might talk to Shiley the most. I talk to him pretty much daily at this point.
Speaker 4:Is that everybody? I feel like I'm forgetting somebody. We got Snyder, luke, pat, charles. No, that's five, six. Who am I forgetting? Hayes, oh my God. Buffs yeah, talent-wise, skill for skill. Hayes, I think, was our best guy. In my personal opinion, he was just a hell of a player. I love what he's done. You know what I mean. Kind of in the same way where you know, going and doing these odd jobs and stuff like that didn't sit right with me so I did something about it. When it made something happen, uh, he's obviously making something happen and you know doing what he's doing with fadeaway and everything like that. Um so, and again, he was another guy that just kind of kept the locker room light whenever, you know, luke was trying to fight people and whatnot, so we needed that, so just wanted to, you know, get some love to my classmates and all of that. I appreciate y'all and the program and everything.
Speaker 2:Hey man, that was like a Mount Rushmore-ish right there.
Speaker 1:I'm going to take it as a Mount Rushmore, and you know what? We've saw it when you guys were all together at Alumni Weekend. You can see that bond is as strong today as it ever was. So that's really cool, and that's something to say about the program at Juniata.
Speaker 2:That's the recurring theme. Every time, man, it's family all the way through, which is very cool. That's why you're successful, man. It's just simple, it's simple.
Speaker 1:Dimitri, let's end with this Tell people where they can find you.
Speaker 4:Sure, you can find me on all social media platforms, drosstheboss. There's an underscore between all of that because I was 18 and stupid at the time. But the underscore Ross underscore the underscore boss. If you just Google Rosetti, our old dollar sign, dollar sign E-T-T-I, you know all my stuff will pop up there and I like that. Yeah, so I appreciate it. I appreciate y'all. Anybody watching definitely check me out. Feel free to reach out, tell me what you think, what you like, don't like, opinions, all of that. I'm open to everything For sure.
Speaker 1:I love it, man. We're going to stay in touch and there's big things to come.
Speaker 2:I can't wait for the theme song.
Speaker 4:It's coming soon. It's coming very soon. I'm going out to Allentown next month to record everything that I got to do, so you know it'll all be in advance.
Speaker 2:Sneak it on the next album, yeah, awesome.
Speaker 1:You never know. Ooh, biz, I like that, I like that a lot.
Speaker 4:It's Brandon, like you said, right, not just the hat.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 3:Hey, this guy's trying to take off. We're not trying to weigh him down here.
Speaker 1:Basil, it's true oh no, we can only help girl, we can only help I shouldn't say take off, keep flying keep flying. All right, fellas. Follow the show on instagram at juniata basketball show. Subscribe to the juniata men's basketball show on apple spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts, leave us a comment on instagram. And until next time, that is Dimitri Ross. I'm Tom Frank, I'm Biz. I'm the head coach, greg.
Speaker 3:Curley, Steve. Thanks man, that was awesome, buddy.
