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!
Got a question for the guys? Please contact us through Instagram @JuniataBasketballShow. Please subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts, leave us a rating on apple and spread the word #EaglesNation. Juniata College basketball is part of the The Landmark Conference, an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III.
The Juniata Men's Basketball Show is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios. Let your story take the mic. Learn more at https://merrick-studios.com
Juniata Men's Basketball Show
John "Power Tool" Kelly
We tip off this week's episode with Tom's brand new State College sweatshirt, cherished memories of Suzy Wong's egg rolls, and a lively look at the early days of the academic year at Juniata. Coach Curley dives into the nuts and bolts of what the team's first practice may look like, with special emphasis on the foundational defensive principles that sets his Eagles apart from the rest of the Landmark Conference.
The fellas welcome Juniata Basketball Class of 2022, John Kelly, and reflect on the fierce competition of the Philadelphia Catholic League, the excitement of playing alongside NBA talent and lifelong friendships with his college teammates. We honor the unsung heroes of Juniata basketball—our "bridge guys" like John, Jeff Berkey, Koehler, and Ogle. Discover the career journey of John, who now thrives at Stanley Black & Decker, is ready to mix it up at the next Alumni game and certainly took little time to drop his Juniata Mount Rushmore.
🎧 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 Basketball. So first I got to start with this fellas. I got a little something here. Ooh, what do you got? Check out this sweatshirt here. State College State College.
Speaker 2:Dude, that's outstanding.
Speaker 1:I know I went into a Penn State store and now it doesn't make a lot of sense because it's blue. It should be maroon, but it said State College, so I had to buy it.
Speaker 2:Oh, I need to go buy one. Where did you go Rapid?
Speaker 1:Transit. No, I got it at Dick's Sporting Goods. Really, yes, look at that State College.
Speaker 2:Wait, is that a Nike?
Speaker 1:I don't know what it is Biz, Because I didn't even look. It was nice and it could be a smooch somewhere. It's nice and soft.
Speaker 2:Ooh.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a great sweatshirt.
Speaker 2:Ooh, I need to go get a maroon one of those.
Speaker 1:No, they didn't make maroon, it was only blue. They had a blue and they had white Rapid transit.
Speaker 2:Maybe, maybe yeah.
Speaker 1:But that was exciting. That was exciting. I was dropping off my stepdaughter, who's now an official freshman at Penn State.
Speaker 2:I couldn't get her to go to Juniata. We tried, we tried. Couldn't get her to go to Virginia.
Speaker 1:Tech either. All right, that wasn't even in the equation.
Speaker 2:Nice, yeah. What's the field of study going to be?
Speaker 1:Communications.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:Communications.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic.
Speaker 1:So now they start on Monday. When does is Juniata? Did they start? Are we starting this week? What's the schedule?
Speaker 3:Our classes started Thursday, so we actually had our first team meeting on Friday and had the guys over for kind of like a picnic pool party yesterday at the house.
Speaker 1:We're off and running.
Speaker 3:We're off and running.
Speaker 2:That would have been a nice time for the podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it would have been nice to have the invite. I did get to see Coach Curley. That would have been a nice time for the podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it would have been nice to have the invite, that's all right.
Speaker 1:I did get to see, I got to see Coach Curley last week.
Speaker 2:I was jealous.
Speaker 1:Last week was a good time. We were at Champs in State College Pennsylvania.
Speaker 3:You get some wings. Yeah, when you dropped off.
Speaker 2:Chloe.
Speaker 1:You did get some wings, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Would you get the arrogant meek or mild? Would you get the arrogant meek?
Speaker 1:or mild. I don't even know what was ordered. It was ordered. We had a big table, lots of people.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I got the original. Biz, I got the original.
Speaker 1:We were talking about it, Biz.
Speaker 3:We were there. Remember when Champs used to be Suzy Wong's?
Speaker 2:Remember that, oh Suzy.
Speaker 3:Wong's Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I didn't remember that.
Speaker 1:So they had the yes, and so somebody was asking my mom what's the significance of this? The Suzy Wong egg roll All my mom could come up with was.
Speaker 2:I don't know. It's some Chinese lady who makes egg rolls Dude downtown Suzy Wong Snack Shop. I don't remember this at all.
Speaker 1:You don't remember it was right down by PNC right there on College Avenue. I do not remember anything about Suzy Wong or her egg rolls.
Speaker 2:She made killer egg rolls, kid. I do not remember anything about Suzy.
Speaker 1:Wong or her egg rolls. She made killer egg rolls, kid, apparently she did. Hey, now, before we get to our guest, I had a listener question I think this is an interesting question, curly, it's from Melanie G and she said now I don't think you, you haven't had your first official practice yet, right? No, and that doesn't come for another couple of weeks, right, right? But here's her question, which I think is a good one what's the very first thing you do in practice, one of the season? Very first thing.
Speaker 3:It may change a little bit. We'll meet first of all. We'll meet before we go into practice. So we'll meet, probably go over our defensive principles and concepts and generally we start with some kind of defensive rebounding to set the tone on.
Speaker 1:This is what you do, the very first thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Well, I mean, that's the identity. I mean we've been the top two in the league and defense pretty much every year.
Speaker 1:I thought maybe we did some kind of icebreaker or something. Do any like physical run? Yeah, like a run test.
Speaker 3:You guys got to remember like they start conditioning Monday, so we came in. Thursday was first day of classes. A lot of our freshmen came in for inbound so they were in earlier, so we had a chance to see those guys. We had a team meeting, a leadership meeting on Friday night, so we cover a lot of that stuff. And then Saturday we actually had them all over here. So we'll do that a few more times before we even get going. So here, cover a lot of that stuff. And then Saturday we actually had them all over here. So we'll do that a few more times before we even get going. So here's my suggestion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you get the biggest guy on the team that's that's a senior. Whoever that, who's your biggest team? Well, you only have two seniors. All right, maybe it's a junior. We need a big guy, a really big guy, and I think you put all the freshmen up and they have to take a charge.
Speaker 3:Full speed. John knows how that goes. We generally do something similar to that, but not the first thing. Not usually the first thing. Our first thing probably would be like I said it would be some kind of form defensive stuff or some kind of form blockout stuff.
Speaker 2:Do you do any run tests or anything?
Speaker 3:They have to do all that stuff Again. So we'll do, well, they have to do all that stuff. I mean like again, it's not this isn't?
Speaker 1:uh? This is a physical education class in ninth grade.
Speaker 3:It's not showing up. You get a text in practices tomorrow at two o'clock. You know we've, we, we. They've got to have all that stuff done. They've got to go through the physical and then we have a series of check-ins. So our guys have to stop in once a week. We'll have individual meetings and we'll have team meetings. So we'll be really prepared to practice. But we'll start somehow with things that are core to us Now. This year we'll actually start.
Speaker 3:So now the NCAA last year they changed it from weeks to the number of days within a 19-week period. It's a little bit different when John was here. So we have 114 days to practice within 19 weeks. But we also got an additional eight days of practice that we did not have. Last year was the first year. So we have eight days of practice we can use either before or after what is the official playing season. So we'll go September 17th, we'll start up and we'll go twice a week for the first four weeks. So that'll all be our building block, all our base stuff. But we're not overly complicated by eight practices in basically, who and what we are is probably in, and then it's about getting better at it and developing habits to hopefully be good enough. So we'll start with the building block stuff Somewhere in there. There probably will be a few charges.
Speaker 2:Good Sweet.
Speaker 3:But we, honestly we I mean we do something we call attack drill, but the game's changed, the rules have changed a little bit. So a lot more we do a lot of challenge drill now. So you know, with the charge arc and they changed the rule again last year in the NCAAs, if you're even into your steps to take off the floor and you're not there yet, it's a block. So we do a lot more that transition actually kind of with John's group when it really changed, where we would do a lot more to challenge and go up vertical and try to do that stuff. But yeah, I mean, it's really, really important for us in our mind and we meet with this and Coach Hager and I have met on it and we'll talk.
Speaker 3:It's funny you bring it up because that's probably the next two and a half to three weeks the sequence of what we'll do and when we'll do it and how we do it. But a lot of it is it's all thought out. You know there's not a practice we've ever ever gone into that. We just kind of show up. It builds on top of everything else and a lot of it will be build our identity. Obviously we want to practice the things that happen the most and are the most important to us. We want to make sure we're on top of that. We will have 26 practices until our first game.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of practices.
Speaker 3:Having Matt. Well, we used to be in the 30s, we used to be around 30, 31. Oh wow, so they actually moved up the time we can start our first game. So it's a little less than I would like. I was actually looking back through our old practice plans and stuff, where we are. I mean, our fewest have been in the 22 range, the 26 is okay, but again we've got half our team, our freshmen, our first year guys. So there's a lot to learn there. But you know, the big thing for us, I think, from the start, is really to develop a mindset and attitude and approach, and so we're going to be as teammates. What we value are the stuff that I'm most concerned about early in the year, and then the habit stuff, the base stuff, transition defense, rebound the ball, our base defense, and then, you know, the base of our motion offense.
Speaker 1:We need to be tough and nasty this year. Nasty Like I want to be mean, Like I want people to like. I don't like these guys. The nastiest working team. That's what I want. I want nasty Like nasty, Like an edge on us Well that's the goal, that's the goal.
Speaker 3:Listen up, nasty, nasty. We've got a guest on here tonight. That was.
Speaker 1:This is perfect segue right here. That's exactly right. Perfect segue, nasty, that's what we're going to talk about.
Speaker 3:That's the theme Lunch pail guy with an edge with a lot of energy. No mercy. Hey, you know what I was thinking about today. Like you know Purdue Boilermakers, you know like they got the Boilermaker that looks like a Purdue guy and how they play. I mean, this is our guy, like that.
Speaker 1:If there was like this is the poster guy.
Speaker 3:Amen to that man Probably is well-respected, a teammate and like the energy and the connection with guys we've ever had. You know we've had a lot of those guys, but he's right in there. He's the guy like there's a few guys, you know, like all our eras get together like alumni game and stuff, and there's guys that bridge those eras and guys like that's a guy I'd play with. This is this is one of those guys. He's. He's uh, all those guys, all the old guys like, uh, he could be sitting there with him and he's just like one of those guys.
Speaker 3:And the newer guys, uh, same all wrapped in one and those are super, super important guys for us well, let's introduce them.
Speaker 1:Please join us in welcoming john kelly, junior out of basketball class of 2022. A four-year rotational player, john appeared in 76 games as an eagle, starting 22. He helped lead the program to both the landmark conference and ecac semifinals his senior season. A native of philadelphia, john played for traditional powerhouse Roman Catholic High School. His team won the Philadelphia Catholic League and the PIAA 6A State Championship his senior year Finishing the year ranked 28th nationally. His parents, jack and Kim, were born and raised in Philadelphia. His younger brother, jason, graduated this past May from Alvernia I don't know how I feel about this where he was an all-conference performer for their baseball team. At least it was baseball.
Speaker 2:All right baseball.
Speaker 1:Yeah, his younger sister, molly, was the Philadelphia Catholic League girls volleyball most valuable player last season. She will be playing collegiately this fall for St Francis University. Oh, wow, john is currently the district sales manager for Stanley Black Decker, based out of Baltimore. Wow, so let's welcome in the one and only Mr John Kelly. That's my guy. Thank you guys. I don't know if he's your guy anymore. I appreciate the introduction. He's in Baltimore, in Philadelphia, I got this side of the state plus south.
Speaker 2:Well, that's great, because then I get Hayes, I guess.
Speaker 1:No, hayes is West Virginia no you can't take them all, man. West Virginia doesn't count.
Speaker 2:Kelly's my guy in the middle. Kelly and Husted are going to just destroy you Now wait a minute though, john.
Speaker 1:If I remember correctly and correct me if I'm wrong, though I thought, because you played for team, you were unfortunately on team gold. If you didn't cheat, we would have won. But that's okay. If I remember correctly, you and I had a conversation about maybe halfway through the second quarter. Conversation about, like maybe halfway through the second quarter and I. I feel like that conversation was something along the lines of can you just trade for me right now?
Speaker 4:no, gosh no I mean I'm not gonna get into the. Am I right in that conversation, but the gist of it is I hated being on the losing team on that day you know, he yeah, he was his teammates showed up all hungover.
Speaker 2:He tried to lead the charge man. He didn't have a lot to work with.
Speaker 1:It was my teammates and myself too, I think it was a little mixture of the whole five that was out there for us it was a tough one. It was a tough one. We'll get you on a better team next year.
Speaker 2:Don't worry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right. Hey, so you got to tell us right, we got to start, we got to go all the way back, we got to rewind.
Speaker 4:What initially drew you to Juniata College and the basketball program. Yeah, I mean, it's honestly going into my senior year of high school I had no idea I wanted to play college basketball in the way that I could. It was my high school coach, matt Griffin, who kind of pushed me to kind of pursue that dream of playing college basketball. And then it's going to these exposure camps, right. So I think Coach Sholly who recruited me, reached out after the hoop group academic showcase or something like that. So then we set up a visit in September.
Speaker 4:I mean I get up to campus probably the worst weather day you could imagine. I mean it's downpouring, no one's on campus Must've been like I don't know. I ate lunch with the guys. That was it, like no one was walking around just because the weather was so bad. And then you know we do the lunch, meet all the guys, like Nate Duck, cam, you know all those good guys that were my buddies, you know, playing while I was there.
Speaker 4:And then you know you kind of just see it all. You get to see the facilities, you get to talk to coach. You know kind of walking out of that visit, I knew I was like this is probably where you know I want to go. I just felt like you know, you just have that feeling when you go to a school like that. You feel like you have some sort of connection or it feels like home and, honestly, the big selling point was that UNIAD has never had a conference championship in its existence and I thought, coming off of a Philadelphia Catholic League championship, state championship, I was like I want to go do something special and be that first group to kind of bring a conference championship back.
Speaker 2:You're coming from some high flight, high school basketball, I mean yeah.
Speaker 3:What like how many NBA guys did you play with? How many NBA players?
Speaker 4:that I played with Only one, like I'll say that.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 4:That's one D Penn state guy.
Speaker 2:Just got one D. I love Seth Lundy.
Speaker 1:I like him too, yeah.
Speaker 4:He was one of my favorite teammates on my high school team. For sure he was a really good guy.
Speaker 2:That's one hell of a high school team.
Speaker 3:Yeah, tony Carr, and who was plays for the Cavs.
Speaker 2:Who was the other guy that would run ahead of you. So you had all those like Lamar Stevens and that. So you went to that high school. Yeah, like Shep Gardner Nas, boston.
Speaker 4:Damn. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on Shep. So wait, did you ever meet Flavor, flav, flavor, flav.
Speaker 2:No, I've never met him.
Speaker 4:What was Shep's uncle? I don't know there was oh yes yes
Speaker 3:I didn't know, that I was an uncle, yeah but, I think flavor flavor chef's uncle.
Speaker 4:He was never met the slave I know I've never met flavor slave. Yeah, that was uncle anyway, we, we digress.
Speaker 2:So that's some pretty heavy hoops that you played yeah high school. I mean that that must make for not easy, but I mean the transition to college must have been a little different for you from that high level.
Speaker 3:Wait, let me jump in here If John can correct me, if he wants, but I I actually, when I went to see John play in high school, and he may remember this, um, we were playing at drew, so the bus, so the bus went and I drove separately and, uh, they played at Newman Gretty. Um, that Friday night, and I mean NewmanGretty, that Friday night, and I mean Newman-Gretty is a historic. They won, I believe, like the 5A state championship or 4A state championship that year, and they're all in the Philly Catholic League. But on the floor, john, you can correct me again, but I think there were 10 starters and nine of them were scholarship players and John was the 10th and played college basketball.
Speaker 3:No shit it would be a level of talent. He played a. What was that kid? You played against Seven-footer. I mean he must have been seven feet 300 pounds. Wow, I mean it's like the Philadelphia Catholic League, that's a different breed man. Well, wcac, philly Catholic League, Baltimore Catholic League, those three leagues, but Philly read man well, wcac, philly catholic league, baltimore catholic league, those three leagues um, but philly catholic league with, during that stretch, I I mean, that was, it was insane. Like you, you walk in there um.
Speaker 2:I think villanova staff was like three rows over um and I mean they have an office in your building, for god's sake pretty much like penn state did, honestly, it really did it really did. Yeah, patrick, chambers like lived down there, man, yeah that's pretty cool.
Speaker 4:Wow, that is, that is pretty I remember that game too, I, because like it was I mean packed, it was a sellout like, and this gym is, you know, a shoe box. And then I were in the coaches, the coaches area. It's filled with, you know, fans and spectators and stuff. And then I see coach curly crossed waiting on the back wall right there.
Speaker 2:I had to keep my arms crossed.
Speaker 3:John will remember, like getting in that game you can't get in Like. So it is like and if you're a Philly person like this, is it right in high school basketball, other than the championship, which is always in the palestra, by the way, the palra?
Speaker 2:The championship is always in the.
Speaker 3:Palestra. But like we had to have special, like we had to let them know we were coming and I remember I almost couldn't get in. You couldn't find parking, like people were triple parked everywhere. It was crazy, I mean it's, that's awesome Downtown Philly. And like you got to sneak in a side and I remember the guy almost wasn't going to let me in and then kind of let me in that happens a lot but they had to list. But yeah, I mean it's honestly like if you're a basketball fan and John will tell you like I mean I love it, it was like the greatest.
Speaker 3:I remember calling Shalya on the way back, man, like man, that was awesome, just to you know be there for those games and they were that good, both teams were that good. I mean this was, I think, honestly, john, I think, attempted one shot in the game, one shot and literally I mean just it was like hey, man, that guy can play because of how hard he played and what he did. But it was a different level. Lundy had a good game actually that night. He was only a sophomore, I think. Right, he's younger than you. You're younger than you. He was a junior.
Speaker 1:Yeah, junior yeah, yeah, it was easy, that would have been fun, yeah. So when it came down, what other schools were you looking at? Like what, what was there any other schools that like, hey, I might go here, I might go there? And then something obviously got won over by Juniata.
Speaker 4:It was honestly. My final three were Juniata, elizabethtown and Susquehanna.
Speaker 1:Oh, you made the right choice. You absolutely made the right choice. I mean who wants to go to Susquehanna or Elizabethtown?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Elizabethtown made the decision very easily. I'll say that, yeah, yeah Was. Elizabeth town made the decision, you know, very easy. I'll say that I won't get in case of Brits listening, but yeah, but Juniata was definitely the right decision, so you're at Juniata.
Speaker 1:I mean, what are, what are the some of the memorable games and moments from, from your time here?
Speaker 4:Memorable. Probably, I would say it's two. They're both against Scranton, right? My sophomore year we went into Scranton. We weren't having a great season by any means. I mean, that was the infamous 6-19 year, right? No, that was one of our wins when we went in there, took it from them at Scranton. That was nice. That was a good win that we went in there, took it from them at Scranton.
Speaker 2:That was nice, that was a good one. That's a good silver lining win.
Speaker 1:You know if you're having a bad year, but you can still beat Scranton. That's nice. How many?
Speaker 2:Danzigs, did they have Like 13?
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably about 12 at that point.
Speaker 4:It was just Jackson at that point.
Speaker 3:But there was one. Was it Jackson or was it Ethan? Right, that was Ethan.
Speaker 1:Nah, it was Jackson.
Speaker 2:Actually funny side note. I think I work with Ethan. I think he's part of the bank I'm at. But anyway, continue, that's interesting.
Speaker 4:There's always a Danzig around. I mean, I played in a it's Ross Danzig, like I was wearing Juniata shorts or something. He's like you go to Juniata. And I'm like, yeah, he's like I played for Scranton. I'm like, oh really, what's your name? He's like Ross Danzig. I'm like, oh okay.
Speaker 1:It's unbelievable, they can all play too?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they can all play.
Speaker 1:Are they done? Or maybe it's the next generation will be coming?
Speaker 2:That's right. Like grandkids or something, grandkids are on their way. Yeah, anyway, sorry, john, continue.
Speaker 4:No, all good. I mean I would say probably that gave myself four years at Scranton or senior year against Scranton. At home we had a really big turnout. It was our alumni weekend, so like the cam Griff came back because he graduated early that year, but yeah, that was, that was a big win at home. Nice cap off a three and a week. We got screwed over by you know kind of the COVID thing, um and testing, but yeah, that was a big week for us.
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 Merit 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.
Speaker 3:Yeah, john was caught in that you know he came in right after Marcus Lee group, right after that group, and came in a freshman year with Martin Azzi and Martel and those guys we had a pretty good year. But but you know that way he was in this stretch that we're in right now where you lose a lot of guys and you got to, you know, and there's been, you know, a few different guys throughout our time here that are bridge guys that have really like, carried our program through those moments and in many ways it's the most important parts of our entire program. That's Jeff Berkey, name a few, kohler and Ogle, those guys. And John did the same thing. So like he stretched through now his junior year, he'll tell you we had a good team and that team would have had a winning record, we would have been in playoffs, we would have been in postseason had it been a normal kind of conference tournament and we had a chance to kind of gel over 12, 13, 14 games.
Speaker 3:That group had a real chance. But unfortunately covid kind of got in the way and he kind of had to work through that. But you know he to get out of those three years and get to the playoffs his senior year, get to the ecac's probably. I mean just really speaks, and I meant it Like he's a connector. He's a guy that kind of bridged that the guys now still talk about the influence John had and you guys just the alumni game, right, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Like he immediately walks in and he's a presence. Yeah, you know. So, my guy, my man, yeah, I, yeah I mean like just didn't fall right in terms of really COVID, that team was really good. And then you know, the next year we go and play probably the best Susquehanna team ever or up there in the Susquehanna team in the playoffs, on the road. You know we got hammered at home by those guys. John remembers that that was one of the darkest hours in history. Then we got hammered by Catholic when Chase got hurt and the puddle of blood, all that stuff. But fight back clinched the playoffs. That was kind of disrupted by COVID. I don't know how many games we were playing, three games a week down the stretch. And then to make the playoffs, to play Susquehanna on the road, like we did. I mean that just really set up the group that just graduated. Those guys probably more than anybody would give John the credit and Griff, john and Griff the credit for kind of where things held up, duck Cam, those guys too, but really where John was.
Speaker 2:I was going to say man, it seems like a theme with your program is the bridge guys. Like you've had some really good bridge guys to carry, carry the tradition, carry the mail from one.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, I mean, I mean they, they and there's all those you know lose those teams and that's kind of where we are right now, like I've actually talked to Mason and Tyler, um, about who they've got to be, and I think we're blessed here. I think we have that kind of leadership too, to get across who and what we're going to be. Um and it, you know, honestly, with John it was, it was pretty easy because, uh, you know you want to talk workmanlike, that's John. You want to talk about energy and toughness, that's John. Talk about being a great teammate is what we lead off with, and being a leader, that's naturally John.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I mean his influence on the success of this last group. We had probably as much, if not more, than anybody. You know Chase would mention what John did for him coming in as a freshman and Biff those guys. But really John more than anybody else. And you know John was a starter through that stretch and easily. You know I've said repeatedly he's probably the second best center in the league. You know his senior year and the guys know it. I mean it was that good. The practices were awesome with those two guys going against each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm sure I was going to say I mean he handed it to Chase plenty of times and you know and I think. But the cool thing is those guys, like the respect they had for each other because of how they did it and like the grace in which he handled that, like Dennis Fisher was another guy and Trevor Klune that stretched us through with Marcus Lee and those guys and just really blessed, those are honestly probably the more important guys to kind of stringing out any kind of continued success in a program and what we're trying to do.
Speaker 1:When you were battling against Chase back then, did you know this guy could be as good as he ended up being?
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:You did, you knew right away.
Speaker 4:It was hard not to notice something like that. I mean, he was truly back then too. Then too, I mean like he wasn't as dominant as he was his senior year. You know we had to clump it. You know, throw some elbows at him, um, but, tom, there you go. I like it, great, let's go. He could have been, you know, really good, and you know it turned out he was really good for judy adam yeah, no doubt like they like to say down here, iron sharpens, iron Exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sorry, and I'm going to apologize now for Kenny Pickett coming your way too, but hopefully he doesn't have to play. He won't.
Speaker 1:He's not playing Des, there's no chance. Keep jailing upright. Anyway, continue. So you're in that COVID year. Did you have the opportunity that you could have come back and played another year, or was it never an option? How did that work with your graduating in 2022?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I still do have my fifth year if I ever want to go back and play.
Speaker 1:Oh, do it, Do it. I think we need you this year. Never rule it out.
Speaker 4:I love it. I think we need you this year. Never rule it out. I love it. I had the job offer that I had going into senior year of college, so it didn't really make a whole lot of sense to come back when I already had a full-time job offer. I would have loved to. If I didn't have anything lined up, that would have been great, right, I would have been part of that ECAC team lined up.
Speaker 2:you know, that's that would have been great, right, I would have been part of that ecac team, so that would have been the part. He would have been part of the first, uh, first podcast here.
Speaker 1:More importantly, never mind the east. That's right. Yeah, we missed out on that. All right, did you get your job with home depot right from graduation?
Speaker 4:you've been there no, it's not with home depot. I just work inside of home depot oh, oh, I'm confused, then Explain.
Speaker 4:I work for Stanley Black Decker that's right. That's right, we sell wall power tools and basically started out as a sales coordinator. So my jobs are basically just to go in there, drive sales, leverage relationships, make stores are set to what we're supposed to have out there. We have different sales events inside of the Home Depot, so we'll set up a table. You know, try to just sell a bunch of tools that day. You know, I was in that for about 14 months and then I got promoted to, you know, be the manager of the entire team.
Speaker 2:So that's awesome.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's been so far.
Speaker 2:Hey, if you ever need product testers.
Speaker 3:So John had that internship going into his senior year and the conversation the whole time about COVID. I mean because we were certainly talking to him about COVID. I mean because we and that probably would have tipped the scales that next year. But you know it was like, hey, coach, if I get this job, you know I can't come back and it's really kind of what's happened to all our guys. It's the best thing about it because of how this works and kind of turned into his opportunity here and what he's done with that.
Speaker 2:Listen, you set everybody up for success, man. I mean they got to do it, but the program does it too. So kudos to you, coach.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we would have liked to get an extra year out of these guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we would have loved to have you.
Speaker 3:You would have been a great podcast guy too, but they're all off doing their thing and they're off starting their life. I mean, in the end, that is what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2:You know too bad. You were a year late for NIL. You could have said hey, coach, hook me up with a year's salary, I'll come back.
Speaker 1:Well, I think grad school, I think grad school this year. Grad school, yeah, can we start? How can we get him in there, curly?
Speaker 3:Well, the thing I want to talk to John about, though, like John, you got to tell him right, you get a truck right for your gig, right? Yeah, talk about driving the bright yellow Stanley, black and Decker and parking it in baltimore. How does that work out?
Speaker 4:no, so that thing and the punishment, uh, when you first start as a sales coordinator, you get a branded yellow truck. I mean you, literally it says dewalt, like flex volt, on it it's, it's big yellow, um, and you know parking in. I live in south baltimore, like I can see the stadiums from my roof, so like I like it, um, and you know it does have it, did it did get broken into, you know quite a bit, uh, thankfully only window smashed, like maybe once, um, but that's uh, right now I don't drive the yellow one anymore as a manager, you get a black one, none of that stuff. But yeah, it was awesome, I was always working driving that truck, right, like I'd go to Wawa, go get a hoagie, and then someone would be like, oh, the wall power tools stink. And I'd be like all right, dude, it's a Saturday, you got to let me go.
Speaker 2:Dude, if you had that truck in Huntington you'd be like the Pied Piper man. Oh yeah, yeah, can you work remotely? Hey Curly, how many classes does he have to take to be a student?
Speaker 3:Hey, I'm just going to say his Philly came out with him when he called it a hoagie from Wawa.
Speaker 1:I know I noticed that too You're either Sheeps or Wawa, and you can clearly tell.
Speaker 3:He should have said they broke in, they wrecked my truck, but I used my DeWalt power tools to fix it, so it didn't matter.
Speaker 1:It didn't matter. It didn't matter that could be a commercial. That could have been a commercial right there. So, when you look back at your time on Juniata, what? What are you most proud of?
Speaker 4:I found, you know, a bunch of friends for life.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:You know the guys yeah, the guys on the team, they're my brothers, you know, in addition to the one that I have, right, I look at them all the same way, you know. I know I can call 95 percent of those guys any day of the week. They pick up, we shoot the shit for at least an hour talking on the phone, right? And you know, I I really do think that most of the guys play for the love of the game and for the love of your teammates, right? So that's what I would say. I mean all the guys that I've played with. It doesn't matter if it was one game or 25 games in an entire season.
Speaker 4:I value every relationship I made at Juniata and I think that's kind of like my biggest takeaway from it.
Speaker 2:That's a common theme, man.
Speaker 1:We've heard that before which is very good. So where does a Philly guy hang out around Juniata? What were the places? We need more places because I've got to investigate more areas.
Speaker 2:You've lived in the basketball house.
Speaker 4:Was that there then or no? I was living with a bunch of athletes Griff was one of my roommates, and then the two guys that did play basketball but stopped, a couple baseball guys, a football guy. So we lived in East. We actually lived in the same room, east 303,. Shout out for three years, three years, right, three straight years. We didn't get lucky enough to get a house like the other guys did. But yeah, up there, huntington, I liked Ferguson's. It was my go-to.
Speaker 1:My parents would come up I don't think we've been to Ferguson's, have we?
Speaker 3:We'll get you to Ferguson's.
Speaker 4:Ferguson's is good, especially after a Wednesday game, because they stay open, because they know, especially my senior year at least they knew me and my mom were coming for dinner after the game.
Speaker 1:I like it.
Speaker 2:Well, tom, that's a broadcast spot, ferguson's. If you're listening Maybe.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Ferguson's All right. So what are we thinking about this year's team? I mean now you stayed pretty close with the team because you knew all these guys that just graduated. What are you thinking?
Speaker 4:I mean we lose the grade eight. Right, it's going to be, it's going to be tough to, you know, kind of come back and recreate that success. But I think you know Mason and Tyler have, you know, a lot of miles on their legs, a lot of minutes played. They do know, they've seen it, They've seen it done at a high level. So I think it honestly, just you know, stems from them Not really too familiar with, like the juniors in the class. But I think you know, as Hardy and Lapitina go, I think you know the team will go. But I think we have chances. I like our chances every year, right, Got to have faith.
Speaker 2:Hardest working team in basketball.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. What advice do you give to these guys? We got a lot of freshmen coming in.
Speaker 2:There's guys coming in and they're going to be doing defense and taking charges. Let's hear what you got for the incoming freshmen.
Speaker 4:Honestly, just buy in. If you buy in early, everything's going to be so much easier. Me and Coach had our head-to-head meetings my freshman year and sophomore year, for that matter. My Me and Coach had our head-to-head meetings my freshman year and sophomore year, for that matter. You know my sophomore year. You know I could put the ball in the basket. That was a flat-out fact. And you know, not every game that's what we needed. So you know just buying into kind of what your role needs to be on the team and what the team needs out of you, I think you know the experience will be that much better and you know it's not like Coach told me not to shoot or anything like that, but you know you've got to take it out of offense and take what you get. Buying in I think is key. It will just set you up for success in your four years there.
Speaker 3:I just want to tell Biz, this is a guy. You've got a guy on here that's got a better elbow jump shot than you, really All right. Top two Top two program history Marcus. Lee and John.
Speaker 2:Kelly John, I will give you that A little face shot from the elbow Right buddy. And then I will slide in right behind you.
Speaker 4:I mean I could bury that thing.
Speaker 2:I have four years of eligibility left. Man, I didn't use anything, let's go. Hey, john, let's go. You and me We'll come back. Awesome, we'll put them over the top.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 3:Those meetings you're talking about. I mean guys, the young guys need to hear it. I mean that's the way it goes. I mean, what made John was his confidence and belief in himself and his toughness and you know you're going to butt heads at times and so, and his toughness and and you know you're going to butt heads at times but it was always coming from a good place. He's high, high end competitor and it was one of those things that he thought he was going to be able to do it and trying to get him to understand maybe there's a better way for the group and what we're trying to do. I also think a little bit and we talked about a lot like his experience at Roman Catholic was so unique. He's playing with so many guys that a lot of like when he came out of there, there was a lot of in him. I got to prove myself.
Speaker 3:this is the level player I am, I can go get it, um and trying to get him to understand. We're not trying to honestly highlight john kelly's abilities, we're trying to win games, you know. And uh, we could do both. And uh, it took a little while found our groove. I mean definitely junior senior year and he figured all that stuff out. And, um, and it took a little while Found our groove I mean definitely junior senior year and he figured all that stuff out. I mean it was pretty honest, pretty obvious about how we played In those first couple years. You know we just didn't have enough pieces and we were trying to put it together. But I mean it's a testament to him and who he is. And you know the other thing about John I mean he's a Philly guy. He's not afraid of conflict, he's not afraid of tough conversations. I mean he probably looks for him at times, as does his coach, which honestly I think he knows that most of those guys like that that played for me. I always like those guys.
Speaker 3:I mean I got a soft spot for those guys and give me a million of those guys and we'll win a lot of games and it's not supposed to be easy every single day. I mean you want guys that have some grit, toughness, belief and the confidence to go play and believe in what they're trying to do. It's just making sure we're getting all the trains running in the same direction and we're all rowing in the same direction to go get what the common goal is and trying to convince guys to do that stuff. And one of the challenges guys coming out of the program like he did for coaches like us is we got to prove we're credible to them. I mean, he was just in his mindset.
Speaker 3:You know they're, he's playing with guys. You know on draft lists, you know, and and they're there, they got every major coach in the country walking in their gym. Literally every major coach in the country walks in their gym to see what they're doing. So it it's. You know we all learn and grow from those, those changes. But, man, I take a million of those guys again.
Speaker 2:So, john, what's the? What's the different like? Is there a major difference? I mean there the philosophy of a high school team, and then you get to college. What are the differences between a high school program versus a college program?
Speaker 4:and trying to get stuff done and not saying you know, high school there weren't any easy games, but the execution at that level doesn't need to be necessarily as high when you've got guys that can just go out there and score at will.
Speaker 4:Right, we didn't have a whole ton of those guys that could go out and get 30-40 every night at Juniata when I was there, right, we had to rely on being great teammates, you know running the offense and running it well if we wanted to score. And that's when you know a lot of our great games come Like we've put up like 80 points. I mean my freshman year we put up 90 one time against LVC, so not a whole lot different in terms of, you know, speed and size. You know because I played with a lot of pretty big guys. But just the little things matter so much more in college. You can't get away with missing a closeout on a shooter who's hit three in a row. In high school some of those guys missed that shot. You've got to be tight on the X's and O's if you want to be successful at the college level.
Speaker 2:How hard was it for you, how hard do you feel it is, to realize that as a high school kid coming in Like, like you said, man, all right, my guy Seth Lundy is going to get me 40. You know how hard is it to actually come to that realization.
Speaker 4:No, I mean it's definitely tough. Right, like you're, you played in a system for four years and you did things a certain way for four years, right. And now you got to come back into a new system and relearn it all, whereas you know 18-year-old boys, you know they're not the most reasonable people in the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, neither are 18-year-old girls, but anyway.
Speaker 4:I'm sure right Guys that say they're 100% bought in. You know, day one it's tough, right, you don't really know what you're buying into. But your freshman year it's hard not to. By the end of the year you're like okay, I'm 100% bought into what we got to do and what we need to do to be successful.
Speaker 3:Cool, that's good advice. I mean the other side of that is I mean John went through a couple of tough years. I mean it's harder to Success obviously breeds success and people see it and they buy in easier and so, um, you know it's credit to John, uh, griff, guys like that, um, when it's uh, you know, when the results aren't there, but the guys that stay with it and still buying and believe in it, I mean as a coach, I mean honestly, those are the hardest moments. Those guys you appreciate the most, um, and that's why they mean so much to what's going on with the program. But, yeah, when you have the level of success they did in high school, when you try to play a different way, and it's always going to be different, right, wherever you go is going to be different. Yeah, you know, particularly when it's like from that to to maybe a division three school. So if you're going from there to Duke, you already kind of know the product, right, you've seen it on TV, you know how it's going to do. You know there's there's just not those avenues at our level to build that kind of credibility or know, coming in, what you're getting, like those guys there that went to play for Jay Wright or Pat Chamber like they knew what they were doing. And you come in with everybody's already telling you what you're getting and our level. You just don't know until you know.
Speaker 3:And sometimes those guys think every Division III team's the same. They're not, there's no difference. And then you've got to go through that experience and it's just part of it and it's the cool part about it, honestly. You get a guy out the other side and they understand. I mean it's the part that's rewarding and that's what our young guys.
Speaker 3:Now we've got a couple guys from similar programs to John, not the same level of success, that are freshmen but close.
Speaker 3:You know a couple state champions, stuff like that, and some high-level guys they've played with and it's going to be the same thing and there's nothing you can do about it and not everybody is willing to stay in there and go through that. But I mean, in the end John's a loyal guy, man, he's a loyal dude and that's kind of the Philly neighborhood thing in him. There's no messing around. That's why all his teammates and all the guys that have been around him I mean the loyalty to John and like who he is and the connector and that's why guys like Brian Cannon and Marcus and all those guys connect with John too, because it's kind of an underlying theme. You know who fits well with us and he really got us, helped, get us, and Griff too man, I mean two peas in a pod, right. Those guys saw things the same way but meant so much to where we are now and what we've done, because it kind of like their fabric and who they are Sweet.
Speaker 1:John, you're going to be back for the. I guess we don't know the official date of the alumni game this year, yet it's coming.
Speaker 3:I will let you know. Next game I think we do. I'll talk with Coach Hager, but I think we do have it, so we can release that.
Speaker 2:Schedules they're working.
Speaker 3:They should be done now so we can talk about the schedule.
Speaker 1:We got to talk about the schedule poster. The schedule poster has got to be coming, coming up soon. Yes, that's right.
Speaker 3:That's right. Now. It is a plester year. The landmark will, as far as I know, the landmark will be back at the plester again Now. John and his dad were there last time. Wait, wait, wait. Whoa, whoa, whoa. We don't know if we're going.
Speaker 2:We don't know if Juniata Katie, you want the podcast there. Katie, Katie, Katie, it doesn't get bigger than this.
Speaker 1:If you put Juniat in there, we go from this. It's a good game. You put Juniat in there, the hype goes up tenfold guaranteed.
Speaker 3:I don't think that's how decisions are made with this, but now that we're at ten teams, they're only playing four games at a time, so I don't know how they figured out whether we move to where we play five games in a day and it's the same idea. We're there this year Half the men, half the women.
Speaker 1:We must be in this game. I'm not into discussions but. Hey, if we are at the Palestra game, though, john, you're invited to come out, hang out with us. We'll have you, because we lose Curly for that. Our third host isn't there. You're the guy. I love the palestra. That's what we're going to do with the palestra when you get us at that game.
Speaker 2:Katie. Get in there, katie. Come on, we need to get Katie on.
Speaker 1:That's right. Well, here's what I say to this John you're going to be a very high pick in this alumni game, because I kind of want to see it right. We're going to see the old rematch, John versus Chase.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to go up against them. There's no way you guys are on the same team, though I'll tell you that I'm not coming if me and Chase are on the same team. I love the guys. Oh no, that's fine.
Speaker 1:We are absolutely separating the two of you. Yeah, because we have to see the matchup.
Speaker 2:We have to see it again.
Speaker 1:I'm with you on that. Ooh bitch, Do you go with Chase or do you go with John?
Speaker 2:I mean, I already have a history with John. I think he's motivated. Look at this guy, he is motivated.
Speaker 1:He is motivated and you know I like going older guys than younger guys and John's starting to creep up there now.
Speaker 2:Chase is a young guy.
Speaker 4:He's going to get hammered with the rest of them and John's going to be like I'm Airbnb to stay at because we can't fit 12 of us in a little house.
Speaker 2:You're going to need like four houses adjoining or something.
Speaker 1:So people listening. We got a couple of big shows coming up. We're going to announce the Palestra. We're going to announce the full schedule. We got to start thinking about the schedule poster. I think we might design it on the air here. Altogether, there's a lot coming up. Mount Rushmore we didn't ask John that.
Speaker 3:Did you ask John his Mount Rushmore?
Speaker 1:Let's end right with that question who do you got for us?
Speaker 4:Juniata guys.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 4:Good question, probably Marcus Lee. All right, brandon Martinazzi. All right, brandon Martinazzi. Ooh, all right, coach Sholly and Coach Hager. You get one more Five, four presidents on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but this is like basketball starting five. You know the whole thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got to go with that.
Speaker 2:We'll go.
Speaker 4:I don't even know.
Speaker 1:Seth Brewer. That's a good one. That is a good one. I like that five and. I like pure confidence in giving it to us too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was good man, see you're one of the few that stood up and you know you had the caronones to fire it off.
Speaker 4:Basketball player says they don't, like you know, have a top four. Top five, that's the big Saturday night 2.30 in the morning conversation that we have with each other. So they're all lying. Ah see, I love it.
Speaker 2:There, you go everybody else, John Kelly and Nick Hager. They step to the plate.
Speaker 1:They do step to the plate. Well, John, I'm going to enjoy seeing you at Alumni Weekend and at the Palestra we're going to make it happen.
Speaker 4:Thank you guys for having me. It was a pleasure. Man Start working now.
Speaker 2:We've got to take this one.
Speaker 1:John. Follow the show on Instagram at Juniata Basketball. Subscribe to the Juniata Men's Basketball Show on Apple Spotify. Wherever you listen to podcasts, leave us a comment on Instagram. And until next time. That was John Kelly. I'm Tom Frank. I'm Biz. I'm the head coach, greg Curley.
