Juniata Men's Basketball Show

2024-2025 Schedule Reveal

• Thomas Frank, Drew Besket, Greg Curley, Nick Hager • Season 3 • Episode 62

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O' boy do we have an entertaining and insightful episode of the Juniata Men's Basketball show for fans of all ages. We kick things off with a lively chat about our favorite sports teams beyond the court, revealing our die-hard allegiances. From the Steelers to the Commanders, Celtics, and Auburn sports, our lineup of hosts and guest, share what makes their sports hearts beat faster.

Assistant Coach, Nick Hager joins the fun to offers a sneak peek into the meticulously crafted schedule that promises a season of competitive excitement. The crew breaks down, in great detail, the '24-'25 schedule, while Tom and Biz provide their game by game predictions and a wealth of valuable ideas for the Juniata in-game experience.

But it's not all fun and games; Nick also dives into his role as an assistant coach, tackling the significant task of guiding freshmen athletes through the rigorous transition to college academics. And we get some interesting insight into the true leader of the pack in the talented Hager family.

So join this formidable foursome as they look deep into Juniata's crystal ball.

🎧 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! 🏀

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Tom:

I'm Tom Frank, I'm Drew Baskett, I'm the head coach, greg Curley, and this is Juniata Men's Basketball Show.

Tom:

Welcome listeners. I'm Tom Frank. I'm joined each and every week by Drew Baskett, aka Biz, and your Juniata Men's Head Basketball Coach, Greg Curley. As we talk all things Juniata Men's College Basketball.

Tom:

Fellas, we are entering the greatest part of the sports calendar right now. Would you agree, Biz? Yeah, I mean football's all in, Baseball playoffs.

Biz:

Yes.

Tom:

Basketball's coming, hockey's coming. We got it all right here and now.

Biz:

This is a great time of year.

Tom:

All right, so this leads me into our listener question. See how I did that.

Biz:

Wow.

Tom:

Yeah, we're getting right into it, we're getting right in, because it's a good question, and then we have a lot to get to today.

Biz:

A lot to get to.

Tom:

So we have a question from Sarah B. When you guys are not watching Junior Out of Basketball, what team and sports gets your attention All?

Biz:

right? Well, I mean, this is probably a dead giveaway, right?

Tom:

You're wearing a Steelers on you, let's go Steelers.

Biz:

I mean Penn State. You know I'll take Penn State over anything. And of course, golf. You know, being a big golfer, I enjoy watching it and playing it.

Tom:

That's where we differ. I think watching golf is outrageously boring.

Biz:

Oh, I mean, that doesn't surprise me. You're a fiery, active guy. Golf wouldn't be your thing. I am.

Tom:

I got to watch my commanders win again today.

Biz:

You got some real deals going on there, man.

Tom:

Real deal.

Biz:

Jaden Daniels is quite the player.

Tom:

Curly, what are you watching? What are you watching when you're not watching Junior out of basketball to relax you, probably any basketball.

Coach Curley:

that's on how about anything besides basketball.

Coach Curley:

Probably hit or miss. College football would be next for me. Obviously we watch Penn State for sure would follow them. Nba would be the Celtics would be my team. I will, like I just told you like we'll watch baseball, go to games with the kids or try to do that. But after June it's like we get into recruiting. Then I'm thinking about the season, so I don't do a lot. Nfl is kind of the same through the season it's tough to really fall. But I'm like everybody else, I watch all the big events. I'm like everybody else, I watch all the big events. I'm a Yankees guy too, so I'll try to catch the Yankees.

Biz:

I hear you're a Yankees guy. I don't know if I knew that one.

Coach Curley:

Yeah, huh, that comes. I mean, I get it honest. My mom's from Nanuet, new York, and used to go every year to a couple old-time Yankees games Mickey Mandel and those guys, oh, and those guys, oh, and then also the Giants, the original Giants. We used to watch those. So she's still, her and my dad, watch almost all the Yankees games.

Tom:

Oh, do they, that's what she does, yeah.

Coach Curley:

So like Aaron Judge, she loves Judge and stuff, so if they're on I'll watch them. Just because of that stuff I can't say I watch from start to finish or I even know all the teams that are in the playoffs in baseball because it's hit or miss. But just like sports, I like watching games. But honestly, probably when I have downtime I probably get on a Netflix show or something like that and just kind of veg out. Are you a binger? I will binge.

Biz:

Yeah, a little tidbit of Coach Curley here.

Tom:

Yeah, all right, we're going to dive all in because we got it. I mean the guest.

Biz:

This is the second annual show, right? The schedule reveal yes, hey, and.

Tom:

I wore a very special shirt for you, Coach Hager, who is our guest tonight. Look at this shirt I picked up. It's a Mount Rushmore shirt.

Coach Hager:

Oh, wow Of.

Tom:

Philadelphia 76ers.

Biz:

How cool is that that's a great one. That's a pretty easy one. Man, that's an easy.

Tom:

Mount Rushmore, that's a lot easier, I think, than the Juniata one which I don't know. I think we should go back to your. Do you remember your original five?

Coach Hager:

Oh yeah.

Tom:

I'm thinking that's the shirt. That might be the shirt that gets printed up and sold at the alumni games.

Coach Curley:

Raise a little money for the podcast. I could text a couple guys quick. They would remember them sure. Oh yeah, hey, you know.

Biz:

Hager, you step to the plate, buddy. I like it for those listening.

Tom:

We have Coach Hager on the show because he is in charge of the schedule and we will be talking all things scheduled tonight. So welcome, Welcome, Coach.

Coach Hager:

Welcome Coach. Thanks, Glad to be back on. Appreciate it.

Coach Curley:

Yeah, well, what does Coach Hager watch?

Coach Hager:

What does Coach Hager watch?

Tom:

Yeah, answer the question.

Coach Hager:

I mean outside of hoops, junior out of hoops. I went to grad school at Auburn so I followed them Football, basketball, baseball, the War Eagles Tigers. But War Eagles, like their war cry yeah.

Tom:

I got a little bit of a problem with that.

Coach Hager:

Alabama has Roll Tide, penn State has. We Are that's War.

Tom:

Eagles. Okay, all right, all right, that explains it better. War Eagle.

Coach Hager:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So yeah, I mean I'll follow Probably a little better than that base A little harder War Eagle than that.

Biz:

I mean listen, I don't know how-.

Coach Curley:

The 13-year-old high pitch War Eagle Not as scary I pitched War Eagle, not as scary.

Tom:

We are not as concerning hey.

Biz:

I know the pitch on we Are baby. That's all we need.

Tom:

So were you excited about Alabama losing. As an Auburn, guy.

Coach Hager:

So yeah, for two reasons. I mean anytime you see, as an Auburn fan, see Alabama go down, especially you know, rank number one in the country, but then to be beaten by Vanderbilt is where my sister went, Hillary, so that's kind of like double like yeah, yeah, so it was. Uh, yeah, no, I was, I was shocked and yeah, yeah, Pleasantly surprised.

Biz:

Now has the war Eagle like ever gone rogue Cause you know they have an Eagle that flies in at the beginning of the game and has it ever gone rogue and like attack fans or anything to your knowledge, or just like, just like went away?

Coach Hager:

Not to my knowledge. No, they haven't. They have, I think, three, at least three, maybe four Eagles there that they train and kind of rotate, but they're I mean, they train them pretty well to kind of dart down. They have something on the field like something shiny or something, when they know that Eagle knows to go after it.

Biz:

So that's why I always Like a dead mouse, or something laying there, I don't know.

Coach Hager:

No, I don't know if it's that, but it's something like reflective, so like they see it and then, like they know, like they dart down after it. So it's pretty cool.

Tom:

So, with your vast knowledge of this, have you guys ever thought of doing this at a basketball game? I knowledge of this. Have you guys ever thought of doing this at a basketball game? We are the eagles. I mean, how great would that be to have an eagle come flying and you realize how intimidating that would be to the other team if you had a live eagle that you trained to soar right over their head and then land like right at midcourt and then one of you can pick it up and get rid of it I was just gonna ask because you know nick.

Coach Curley:

you know Nick was, I mean, his master's down there in sports administration, and so he was part of the game management crew. I didn't know if he had any War Eagle responsibilities.

Biz:

Yeah, let's keep going with this.

Coach Curley:

He also, by the way, glossed over when he said his sister, hillary, went to Vanderbilt. He failed to mention that she was a member of the women's basketball team and a four-year starter in the. Sec in the glory days.

Tom:

Wait a minute, this is your sister.

Coach Curley:

They were in the top 20.

Tom:

Oh, so now we figured out who the top hater is. I was debating between you and your brother. It's a slam dunk. Who it is now.

Coach Hager:

Yeah, I mean Hillary was pretty unbelievable. Really good student Got, I think, three degrees Graduate, master's and PhD from Vandy Good Lord. Yeah, and microbiology or something no Microbio, but it was something in the sciences yeah, it was. Yeah, she was pretty special there.

Coach Curley:

So she's got a PhD in it and Nick can't even say what it is. So that tells you the gap right there. Yeah, it was her thesis.

Coach Hager:

Yeah, it was on like a Beavis protein or something and I couldn't even tell you what to begin to explain what she was doing, so way over my head.

Coach Curley:

Natalie. So his youngest sister was a great women's player, Juniata, and she also has a PhD, yeah, so yeah, so it's wow. The debate is is is is alive and well still in the Hager household.

Tom:

Wow, nick, so you're going for number three. You're like you're vying for the third spot, if that.

Coach Hager:

Oh yeah, yeah, You're like you're vying for the third spot if that. Oh yeah, yeah, I was a youngest there for a while.

Tom:

Yeah, does your brother have a PhD?

Coach Hager:

He can't have a PhD, no, he has his master's from WDU.

Coach Curley:

Oh he, doesn't have a PhD.

Coach Hager:

Just me and him with our lowly masters in the family.

Biz:

Well, you went SEC. So I don't know, SEC masters might be better than the Big 12 masters.

Coach Hager:

In its western might be better than the big 12 masters.

Biz:

Yeah, true.

Coach Hager:

No offense.

Tom:

I might take offense to that biz.

Biz:

Might you.

Tom:

I might All right Now wait a minute. Did you listen to your brother's episode? Was there any comments, any rebuttals, any thoughts any?

Coach Hager:

critiquing, yeah, no, no, no, no critiquing. He was well prepared. He was well-prepared, he spoke pretty well, and I was very pleasantly surprised with his last comment there for the Mount Rushmore. So that was a nice listen. You guys brought him along very well, so it was good.

Biz:

Were you surprised to hear him talk about the chaining of the doors? Hager was in the practice.

Coach Hager:

I was in. I didn't know what was going on. I was in the practice you knew, like if there was a fire you weren't getting out yeah I mean no, there's some other doors if there was a fire and it was it was paper.

Coach Curley:

It was paper if it was a fire and we go uphill both ways here and there were seven inch, there were seven feet of snow. I mean my gosh, like that's, like the, the. You know what I mean. The legend is growing bigger than the reality.

Biz:

I hear there's still one of your players that's missing from that practice.

Coach Hager:

I got to remind you, guys I heard he's next to Jimmy Hoffa somewhere. Well, I was one of the two freshmen that were late to the bus.

Coach Curley:

We do remember that.

Coach Hager:

Yeah, me and my roommate we didn't play very much that scrimmage, so we were pretty fresh coming back for that post scrimmage practice, so we felt good.

Coach Curley:

They were killing three man, weave killing it killing it.

Tom:

So, beyond the schedule, which we're going to dive way into in the next 30 to 40 minutes here, what else has your focus been on on the off season? Like what? What is your focus as as the assistant coach during the off season? What are you up to?

Coach Hager:

I mean just talking with you know, talking with Greg here pretty much every day, recruiting, obviously a big one, talking about the team, like kind of which directions we're going to go, how we're going to approach things. But yeah, I'd say the big thing recruiting. And then, like we're already talking about scheduling for next year, trying to get some games lined up, because it seems like it gets pushed like earlier and earlier teams get their schedules full. So we're I mean we're going over that. And then, yeah, I mean just all things, junior high to basketball. So it's yeah, our days are full with conversation and trying to get some things sorted out.

Coach Curley:

I mean he handles all our academics too. So our academic improvement program, and with 13 new guys, that's a lot. Right now, you know, the first six weeks of your college career.

Tom:

What does that mean? What does that actually mean?

Coach Hager:

A academic improvement. So, you know, the first six weeks of your college career. What does that mean? What does that actually mean? Uh, a uh, academic improvement. So we, you know we go through. I mean there's a study hall component to it, but it's more making that jump from high school to college. Um, class schedules aren't going to be the same. You're not going from, you know, eight in the morning until three o'clock in the afternoon straight. You have, uh, you, you know, periods during the day we have like a few hours stretch. Um, so like, time management's a big one that we touch on every time, you know, every week. Um, then you know, note taking, test taking, try to take some different um approaches, talk to guys individually about what they have done in the past, what has worked, what hasn't worked, and then like, will that translate to college? Um, so really just trying to guide them, you know, to get off to the best start possible with the academic side of college.

Coach Hager:

Um, and then, well, I mean, I had my experience. I was in ai for all four years while I was a junior. So, um, I definitely know the ins and outs of ai, but uh, but no, I mean it's good, uh, just to kind of talk to them like you know. You know, not basketball, I mean everything's basketball. They wouldn't be in AI if it wasn't, you know, for basketball but to kind of get to know them a little bit and talk to them through like some other things outside of basketball. I mean relationships are built and everything. So it's, you know, it's a good touch point you know from that aspect as well.

Tom:

And that's all your freshmen, right? That's the freshmen you're talking about.

Coach Hager:

Freshmen, and then any one upperclassman that has under a 275 GPA. So yeah, we would have been very familiar with each other, Nick.

Tom:

Hey, video games are so popular there's no way to do it.

Coach Curley:

I'd say we only have one overclassman that's actually in it. And he's only really in it because he had disruptions last year because there were some family health issues and so he actually had to miss a lot of class time in the spring semester. So he's playing catch-up, but outside of that we really don't have anybody kind of close to that. And if they, you know the first semester, if they get above three, oh they get out of it. Um, but we also link with all the campus groups. So, um, nick schedules, we have somebody from academic support come in, somebody from our learning commons, which used to be what people call it, a library.

Tom:

Um, we have somebody, uh, they'll come in from.

Coach Curley:

They don't call it a library. Why can't we call it a library? Well, they so they renovated our, our library and actually took a lot of the books out and things, so now it's a state-of-the-art learning center so it's basically a hub we don't have books like what do we?

Coach Curley:

well, there's still there are still um books there, uh, but not uh nearly as many as there were. It's really more all the digital platforms. You need smart classrooms, there are seminar rooms, there are study areas where, because everything, there's so much experiential learning here and so many groups, so those are places where they can go study and it's really pretty neat. They just officially opened, I think what last semester, nick right, and so it was a big um donation and it's really kind of cutting edge stuff. Uh, obviously, now digitally, you have access to all the same kind of uh, you know, books and literature and research, um, so you don't have to have the hard copies on site, uh, but it's uh, it's been pretty cool, it's used a lot by our classes and it really fits with, kind of our model of education. I think it's more modern, obviously, and it's been really successful.

Tom:

I was going to donate all my books to the Juniata Library but I guess they're not going to accept them anymore.

Biz:

Tom, you're ancient man, I am, I know it's weird, it's weird not having just books.

Tom:

I guess that makes us old. Huh, all right, nothing wrong with old school. Let's talk a little old school. Let's dive into the schedule here. I want to start with the schedule. Poster is designed, we're designed, we're ready to go.

Biz:

It's a wonderful poster.

Tom:

It's not printed yet, biz, but let me break down the design for you, if I could, for this year. People can imagine it before they get to see it. It's very focused on our two seniors. We got Mason Hardy, tyler Leptina right there on the thing and then we have a little bit of a splash in the background, and I'm going to tell you my intent, for that is we need to have Mason and Tyler make a big splash this year, not just scoring, but they got to be leaders of this team, biz. That's the splash that they got to make on Juniata this year.

Biz:

Wow, that's very symbolic of you, man.

Tom:

And then, as always, we got to live up to the motto the hardest working team in basketball, so that's got to be prominently there. Then, of course, we have the schedule, and then what is a Juniata basketball hype piece without a mention of the best d3 podcast in in the business? Ever ever on the planet. So so so we're on there again this, so hopefully we'll get, we'll drive more people to the, to the podcast well, there's no graphics with you guys like in the background or anything.

Coach Hager:

There's no. So I remember how you guys used to put your, put yourselves in there and the old schedule posters.

Biz:

You should have watermarked this.

Coach Hager:

I see it every day on the wall.

Tom:

We thought about. We thought about putting this as guarding Mason and Tyler. That was a real thing.

Biz:

That went through our heads but we didn't want to shut them down.

Coach Curley:

We didn't want to shut them down.

Tom:

We didn't want to add any negativity to the poster. It's very about uprising, you know, so I'm very excited about that getting printed.

Coach Curley:

All right, you put Biz and Mason on it. Just too much quickness for one poster.

Tom:

It might be.

Coach Curley:

Too much quickness for one poster.

Biz:

Hey, man, don't get me on the elbow all by myself. Well, that was the problem.

Tom:

Do we put you in a defensive stance or shooting the shot?

Coach Curley:

You get Biz to a spot. It's all over you get him to a spot it's over.

Tom:

It was too hard to figure out which picture of Biz would go on there, so we kept it as the picture on the bottom with the podcast.

Coach Curley:

I think there's burn marks on the IM gym, a couple of those elbows Biz.

Biz:

Still in the IM gym. They need to replace a few floorboards.

Tom:

Carl hey side note. So my, so my, my stepdaughter is in at penn state and her dorm is literally right across the street. Not even right across the street she can almost touch the im building brought back a lot of memories that was the scene of one of the greatest pickup basketball games in the history of life.

Tom:

Well, I was trying to explain to her which she couldn't get, is that we used to bounce. We remember we would go to rec hall and if rec hall was filled, we'd go the im building. If the im building was filled, we'd go. What was that? The white building? Was that what? They were building and now can you imagine like you can't even get into those. But we couldn't get into those buildings anymore as high school kids then there was north halls.

Coach Hager:

Played north halls outdoor, outdoor, yeah that was the scene, that was that anymore I'll tell you what man.

Biz:

uh curly, you may not remember this, you may have wanted to forget it, but I sat there and watched the Curly brothers and three other good basketball players get shut out in a pickup game 15-0.

Tom:

How do you remember this stuff?

Biz:

I don't know, I don't remember. I can't even remember what I had for lunch earlier today, it wouldn't let me play so I remembered it because I was like I'll remember it.

Coach Curley:

Are you sure about that? I am definitely sure. These stories, nope, these stories.

Coach Hager:

I don't know, I can't say. It's true, that would have been a 30-0 run in real basketball.

Coach Curley:

I do remember old Rec Hall, I mean with the North and South Gym, I mean we knew every place.

Tom:

We knew every nook and cranny of that we could get into the.

Coach Curley:

That was a blast I remember the tunnels they had where all the electric stuff that went behind the locker rooms and stuff. Oh yeah, we knew that Different world when we would just be in there on a Friday night, running around Gallivanting around or Friday night football.

Biz:

Remember Friday night football.

Tom:

I tried to get into the rec hall and they just everything's locked up. You can't just walk in. Really, yeah, everything you have to have, like a swipe card as a student, to get in. That's sad. Yeah, it's sad, it's sad.

Biz:

All right, we digress.

Tom:

We digress and we'll be right back. The Junior Adam 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. All right, let's dive into the schedule. Before we dive in, game by game, coach Hager, give us anything that we're seeing on this schedule. That's going to be a little wacky. Any teams that you wanted to play that you're not playing, give us a little behind the scenes of the preparation of the schedule.

Coach Hager:

I mean, this year we're on the same schedule we had last year, Just either returning a game or they're returning a game to us.

Tom:

We do have a few new teams. We have a few new teams here in the tournament, in the tournament.

Coach Hager:

That's what I was going to say, except for the tournament I mean we have, you know, it's who shows interest first. We kind of go in order with that. So we've had teams that you know have come like multiple years in a row. I mean, gwyn and Mercy came, I think, back-to-back years, and we started home and home with them, and when we went to the you know two more teams in our conference we had to take out a tournament, you know, or tip off. So we just stuck with the Doc Green over the holidays. But yeah, I mean we have a few new teams in there. I think, coach, you mentioned New Jersey City used to come to the Dock Green or the Tip-Off tournament years ago, and then you know, immaculata, kind of the same area there, and then Hood College is a third team that's coming. So good tournament, I mean good teams, good program. So it's going to be an even better tournament. So we're going to open up on Friday. It's going to be you know even better tournament.

Tom:

So we're going to open up on Friday it's going to be a Friday night, November 8th against Alvernia, Seven o'clock, man Seven o'clock. Pack the gym. No excuses, students. We need to beat Alvernia this year. They, they, they. They beat us the first game last year.

Coach Curley:

I didn well that would be the plan we're gonna try, I mean yeah but didn't we beat them when it counted, though, didn't we? No, didn't we have. We had back-to-back in the uh.

Tom:

We beat them for the ecac championship. Yeah, tom, where you go, come on, okay, last time we played them okay, yeah, so we're gonna be. We're gonna have end the season and beginning begin the season with them two years in a row.

Coach Curley:

Yeah, it's crazy, right, is that right? It's kind of nuts.

Tom:

So four times we'll have played them in the last two years.

Coach Curley:

And bookended it in both times Bookended both seasons and so we'll start off with them. But I mean, I think we talked about it a little bit last year. You know our schedule, quite frankly, is harder, probably a little bit, than last year. I think it's very similar in structure. It's a lot of the same teams, but I think pretty much every team is probably on a slight uptick from last year. The one that probably loses the most is actually Alvernia, but we're a little unsure. A lot of those guys are looking at fifth years. When I was talking to their coaches they would take their COVID year, but from what we can kind of gather, that may or may not have happened in some spaces. So we'll just have to wait and see.

Tom:

Wait a minute. You don't know this for a fact.

Coach Curley:

Well, no, they don't have rosters up.

Tom:

When do?

Coach Curley:

rosters officially go up. Well, everybody kind of holds them back, them back. They hold back rosters until the last minute a lot of times because some places may be shaping rosters, they may cut people, they may be adding, but generally they're not out there that soon and a lot of it is probably a little bit game prep game. You know they don't want you to have time to game prep. Also, just where athletic communications offices are, where we fall they're, they're kind of focused on the fall sports and then they'll update it Once they get closer to the first practice. Just because rosters can be a little bit fluid in preseason and I don't think they want to kind of double work. So we're going to have to wait and see. But it's Alvernia who always is going to have players. There's zero question that they're going to have players. They've been fairly transfer heavy the last few years. So who they bring in, I would say they will be every bit as talented and if they get any of those guys back, I mean we think Kelly will definitely be back. But we really don't know and that's kind of the uncertainty of it, other than we know how talented they are, what kind of tradition they have. There's not many down years for those guys period. They'll compete for their league and they'll come in ready to go. So a little bit hard Early in the season it's hard because you can't see teams, you don't know people, so we'll work as hard as we can once we get an idea of who's on the team. And then Nick didn't mention it but he handles all our scouts, which is a huge job I mean enormous job and he does an outstanding job. So we'll be as prepared as we can be with the information we have. But yeah, that's a tough opener. They're always in the top half of their league regionally for many years, one of the top programs and teams. But you know, I think the thing with our non-link schedule is it's going to tell us probably the truth of where we stand. We're going to get real time information and feedback on what our weaknesses and our areas of strength are and I think that is going to be very, very important. As many unknowns as we have, as long as we can handle it, as long as we stay together.

Coach Curley:

You know, our theme will really just focus in here in the preseason and what we need to do, because we're so young and kind of our attitude and approach and our focus on the process, and it'll be two themes. We'll just talk about work and compete. We got to work and compete our way through the whole schedule'll just talk about work and compete. We've got to work and compete our way through the schedule. We have to work and compete Whether it goes well, or we have to go to work and compete if we have some challenges because of how deep the schedule is.

Coach Curley:

It'll be a tough one, but we get to open at home. We get to be a Friday night a single game, so we have prep time and then we'll have time to turn around with it. We're a single game, so we have prep time and then we'll have time to turn around with it, so we're excited about it. It kind of fits in there pretty well. I don't think we've had a Friday opener for a while, not since, man, the days we used to open with the doc green tournament on Friday and Saturday, and that's been a while because of all the schedule changes, the league changes. We used to do that for a long time and it's cool and it's cool the guys look forward to that. It's it's, you know, friday night's easier for families to get here, so it should be a lot of energy and really cool way to get going and see what this group can do.

Tom:

Now biz. Yes, that that's Friday November 8th. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Saturday November 9th is Penn state, washington, which I will be at Washington, which I will be at, will you, which I am going to be in the area I might have to make an appearance at the home opener hey man, get me a ticket to the Washington game and a place to stay, I'll join you. You always have a place to stay. Bez, you always have a place to stay.

Biz:

Oh, do I All right, yeah, I mean, yes, I'll come up and just get a ticket.

Tom:

Yeah that could be a good one to start out with, biz. What do you okay, are we predicting right here and now? The early, early, early predictions. I think so Didn't we do that last year I think we did, and I looked at. I didn't really look it up, but from memory I believe I had them at 21 and 8 was my prediction last year and they ended up 17 and 11. So not bad. You had them at 23-6.

Biz:

Yeah.

Tom:

I was bullish, you were a little bit more bullish. Now. Here's where I'm going with this Alvernia. They beat us two years ago and then we opened up with a loss. We beat them at the end of this year. Therefore, we're going to open with a win.

Biz:

Alright, hmm, you know what this is going to depend. Like you guys really don't know if they have the guys coming back or not, we kind of need to know that. I need info. Like they don't.

Coach Curley:

They're not required to give you a roster All right, we want to hold on our our picks before and do it the week before, like we'll do it the week before.

Tom:

We'll do it again, don't worry this is the season. This is the season review. We got to come up with the final record here.

Biz:

All right. So right now I'm thinking these guys are going to get on with their lives.

Tom:

You don't think there's going to be any 50-year seniors? No, no.

Biz:

Not enough. Not enough to handle the 7 o'clock Friday night. Not enough. Not enough to handle the 7 o'clock Friday night. It's going to be loud and crazy. Could be celebrity guests in the house. Yeah, mainly you and I. Yeah, yeah, I'll go with the win there. Give me the win.

Tom:

All right, we both have it as a win. All right, Then we have a couple days off and then we're on the road. First game on the road Tuesday, November 12th at PSU Altoona Rivalry game.

Coach Curley:

Yeah, they'll return everybody, so they have everybody back.

Tom:

Well, now you beat them pretty handily last year 86-65. Yes, right, same setup. It was at, it was at, it was at junior year.

Coach Curley:

It fell kind of the same date. I mean, obviously things flip this year. They have the experience back and and we're the inexperienced team, so we'll see what that matter in their home and that's their home opener. So they've picked that as their home opener and that's, you know they, that's pretty tough place to play. They've had a lot of success there and it does go in know that's a pretty tough place to play. They've had a lot of success there and it does. Going there there's a little bit different energy too, I think.

Tom:

It's rough, those streets of Altoona.

Coach Curley:

That's right.

Tom:

That's right, Biz. What are you going with?

Coach Curley:

Yeah, I mean it's going to be a challenge. They're talented. I mean they have Andrew Jones, or what is it Coach? Is it Andrew Jones? Is that his last name? Yep, you know who's a multi-time like first-team all-league guy in their league. They got some other guys.

Biz:

What is that guy? Is he like a center Guard? What are we talking?

Coach Curley:

Well, he's like a 4'5", he's a 6'7". Oh, athletic plays kind of anywhere.

Tom:

That scares me a little bit.

Biz:

Yeah, I'm going to go. I hate picking losses but I'm going to go with Penn State. I always pick against Penn State, but this time I'll pick for Penn State.

Tom:

All right, pez, I'm going to go with a loss too. All right, this is motivational players. This is motivational.

Biz:

Yes, we want you to win every game.

Tom:

Exceed your expectations.

Biz:

That's right.

Tom:

All right, then our next game. Oh, at least you. No, you didn't here I am looking at the schedule. I think you really did something different here. We basically are following the exact same schedule. We have Lebanon Valley at home. They were at Lebanon Valley last year. Lebanon Valley game was a good one. That was that 66-64 game. Ooh, all right, that was a tight one. Yeah, it was At Lebanon, tight at Lebanon.

Coach Curley:

Valley Super close. They played without their big kid who had just gotten hurt the game before ours, but they're super well-coached, tough. Brad McCowish has been there over 20, 30 years now probably 30-year coach.

Tom:

He has longer history than you.

Coach Curley:

Yeah, he came into Webb Valley after Pat Flannery, who won the national championship there with Mike Rhodes as his point guard, and then Brad came in afterwards. They've had some great teams national player of the year and JD Byer played against Coach Hager. They have a heck of a tradition and he is a heck of a coach, great guy, probably one of our favorites. You know he really knows what he's doing. So they have pretty much everybody back too. So from their team last year they have everyone back and I would assume they've added more and gotten better.

Tom:

Now we do have them at home on a Saturday, saturday game 1 o'clock, november 16th Des. What are you thinking?

Biz:

Guys, it's not near any Thanksgiving breaks, is it no Thanksgiving's later this year?

Tom:

Yeah, so you got the students will be there. The Eagle, the Screaming Eagle, should be there. This might be the first game we bring the actual Eagle in that flies over, the flies right over Lebanon Valley.

Coach Curley:

Well, we'll add that to Hager's list, the to-do list.

Tom:

If we can expedite the training hey.

Biz:

Hager, they got. You said they have like 28 extra Eagles down in Auburn. Just get one. Hey, here's the other thing.

Coach Curley:

Hey, we were in the office the other day and we were talking about like different ideas that we could do and I said, well, let me talk to the director of basketball operations. So Hager got up and sat in the other chair. He literally got and sat in the other chair. He said okay, what do we want to talk about when you're on a two-man staff? Let me throw this idea. By the way, he'll have to take that down the chain to the next guy.

Biz:

The Steelers-Cowboys game got delayed.

Coach Curley:

Oh good.

Biz:

This won't even be on until after.

Tom:

Now, if the Eagle comes flying over the Lycoming players and let's say it doesn't go smoothly, right, that is instant ESPN, right there? Oh, it is. I mean it might be worth the sacrifice of a player if we can get on ESPN Junior Out of Basketball.

Coach Curley:

What if Hager has one of those eagle things on his hand?

Tom:

It comes right to him and he just comes to him. It just comes to him, yeah.

Coach Curley:

We're allowed to have iPads on the bench now.

Coach Hager:

So what's the difference between an iPad and an Eagle? I am writing all of this down right now.

Coach Curley:

Okay, this is great, all right, biz we're just throwing ideas out.

Tom:

These are just ideas. We're not sure where it's going to stick.

Coach Curley:

This is a merit creative meeting.

Biz:

This is how the merit meeting is. Do you guys have a video board yet?

Tom:

Do you guys have a video board? Yet they have the one in the front. Don't you have the one in?

Biz:

the front of the. I'm talking that can show like an actual video, because we get a drone that flies across campus and then it gets to the door and then the real eagle comes flying into the gym Benz, I just came up with another idea.

Tom:

You know how, at the Atlanta Falcons games, they actually have a bungee cord with the Atlanta Falcon and it like comes down from the ceiling. Would you be willing to dress up as an Eagle with a bungee cord attached to you?

Biz:

That is not a far drop. Sure, why not? If it breaks, I wouldn't wouldn't really do much damage.

Tom:

It still could be an ESPN moment. All right, biz. What are you going with? Like Lebanon Valley winter loss, saturday at home with the Eagle soaring over.

Biz:

I'm going to go with an early shocker.

Tom:

The Eagles over.

Biz:

Lebanon Valley. I mean, they're no more for their Lebanon bologna than basketball at this point. So let's take the Eagles.

Tom:

I 100% agree with you.

Biz:

I'm calling the upset right now, nice.

Tom:

All right, then we do have a little bit of a change in the schedule early, early league game huh yeah, and my coach hager really working hard. He had to switch a couple things around. So now we have lycoming. That is a little early for a game. Wednesday, november 20th, seven o'clock, the first conference game on the road. On the road at lycom. You're back to back on the road. Hey, you couldn't youcom. You have back-to-back on the road, hager.

Coach Curley:

We couldn't, you couldn't get a home in a way to start yeah, we have like coming and then on saturday at scranton you have no control over the schedule no, it's, the conference office gives it to us and it's so it switched from last year. So, yeah, I mean that's uh, that's tough, that's a tough stretch and we have, uh, those three straight games we have, right, there are really tough, because then we have to go down Bridgewater the week after that. So, like I said, we're going to find out a lot. Our guys will have played in the toughest situations and toughest games five games into the year. So if we can just kind of hold the line, you know, worry about again our approach and our process and just stay at it and continue to improve real opportunities for us, anything we do, there will be big Now wait a minute.

Tom:

Let me make sure I have this right. It's at Lycoming, at Scranton and then at Gwendolyn Mercy, right.

Coach Curley:

Oh, it's Gwendolyn Mercy. Yeah, that's right Okay.

Tom:

Okay, so we got those three road games the 20th, the 23rd and the 26th. Where is Mercy at? Where is that at?

Coach Curley:

It's outside Philly, so that's actually a little longer trip. It's about three and a half. And again, you know how talented they are. That game came down the wire last year. They've played here like three straight years, so us going out there it's going to be one of our longer trips. They're going to be super talented Again. Yeah, I mean I'm not sure I like the schedule review Because we're trying to stay locked in on the day you start looking at this and get overwhelmed. You can get overwhelmed.

Tom:

You don't get overwhelmed, we'll get overwhelmed. You don't get overwhelmed, we'll get overwhelmed, we'll get overwhelmed. That's three away games. Last year you had three at home and you had all three were wins, yeah. So, biz I'm not going to ask you for specifics Out of the three away games how many wins are we getting out of those three?

Biz:

I'm thinking we're scratching one out of those three. I'm thinking we're scratching. We're scratching one out of that three.

Tom:

You're going with one win there yeah all right, I'm gonna go with two. I'm gonna be the. I'm gonna be the crowd fan all right all right, then we go, then we get into december. We got, we got two more. We got two home games elizabethtown and wilkes coming in to Juniata December 4th and December 7th. It's a Wednesday and a Saturday. How's Elizabethtown going to look this year?

Coach Curley:

They lost Dillon Rowe, their center, but they have everybody else back.

Tom:

Everybody has everybody back. How is this possible?

Coach Curley:

That's what I said. It's just how things work with the cycle sometimes and this is why this is uh, this year, next year, huge test for our program, huge tests because, uh, it's, you know, you got to look at the cycles of the league and I told you I think everybody's probably up a little bit this year an uptick, um and uh. Now, hopefully, so are we. Um, now we lost a ton and but you, you know, we've been talking to our guys that we just can't replace the experience these teams have and we're only going to get it by playing. So we have to be just kind of flawless in our execution of practice and how well we practice and how well we take care of the things that we need to be.

Coach Curley:

We're going to have to be irrationally tough in what we do. We're going to have to really stay together. So we're stressing those things Again. I mean, I'm excited from this chance that we will know quickly and our guys will have real-time learning experiences to improve. But we've got to be able to use it that way and understand and any opportunities we have to win. You know, any kind of chances of winning in these games, you know, validates what level team we are. So it's, we've got to come in with that kind of approach and attitude and go from there, and then we have to consider the guy that scheduled, that did our schedule, and we'll just have to deal with that elsewhere. I'm kidding, you know. Obviously we go through this stuff together.

Tom:

So at least we have Elizabethtown and Wilkes at home Both should be good games. Last year we lost both of those on the road. Yeah, you don't have to give me specifics, but you have two home games.

Biz:

The specifics will be that I believe in the senior leadership and I believe in the coaching leadership and I believe in the coaching staff. I think we're getting them both.

Tom:

We're getting them both. I'm going to take a split. I'm going to take a split, Then we go, which I think is now the longest road trip, right to Bridgewater. How far is?

Coach Curley:

Bridgewater Drew is the farthest but non-league Bridgewater and Gwinnett Mercy are both about three and a half hours.

Tom:

Oh okay, bridgewater's closer, almost exactly.

Coach Curley:

So Bridgewater is just straight down 81. It's north of Harrisonburg by probably 30 minutes, so it's not too bad that's a Monday. Monday game Well it's Monday before Thanksgiving break.

Tom:

Well, no, december 16th. December 16th before Christmas break, christmas break I'm sorry.

Coach Curley:

So we're at Christmas break, so there's no classes. We play early, we play at 5 o'clock, so then guys will go home from there. So I mean, it's actually a little easier that way. There's no class, there's anything like that, it's just go down and play, which again is great prep for all our road games in the league, although we'll already have I've had two of them in. So you stack this up and if we can, you know, hang together by now, we're going to know an awful lot about ourselves by December 17th let's put it that way and hopefully we can put that in play to only continue to improve and, you know, prepare us the best we can for the doctrine afterwards and then the week after that.

Tom:

Biz, what are you going with the Monday before Christmas?

Biz:

All right. So I'm going to go with the young team motif here, and there's going to be guys that are going to kind of be ready to get home for a little bit maybe.

Tom:

Looking ahead, I think I see a loss on that I have a loss too, this so before before the holiday. I have them at four and five. You're at one. Oh, you have them at five and four, all right mr positive thank you all right, then we go to the doc green tournament. We got a good one, a bunch of teams I don't know about Hood versus New Jersey City and then Immaculata, but on a Sunday, sunday December 29th- yeah, I mean it's Christmas break for us.

Coach Curley:

I mean it all blends together. So what is it Sunday Monday? It's a Sunday Monday. Yeah, it's really more about the dates. Then We'll play Immaculata first, I mean the tournament pairings are set and then new jersey city will play hood. Um, obviously coming in this year, hood uh is has been out of baltimore right yeah, they've been in the ncaa tournament.

Coach Curley:

Uh, I think the last few years have been in the mix. Uh, they're one of the better teams from out of the max. So, uh, they're going to be really good. They can usually really score, score. They play all two, three zone, really well coached. So I would think, coming in you know there's, you know they've been pretty heavy in graduate transfers too I think they are going to be very, very, very good.

Coach Curley:

New Jersey City plays in the NJAC, which is an exceptionally good league. So they'll get, they're definitely going to have guys. They're going to have probably, they'll probably have some size and some athleticism. And then Immaculata, uh, I think, has been right around 500, a little bit above 500, uh, and has been pretty competitive, um, and then done, done well in their league. So they're, they're going to be a very solid team too. So it's, uh, it's a real deal. Uh, I think last year's tournament was super competitive as well. It's just another one We've talked before. Division III has changed a lot. I mean, there's no easy games. There just aren't. The competitive balance is real, and so being young is a challenge when you're playing a lot of veteran teams. But hopefully, our talent and how we develop as a team and our approach and our toughness and attitude can carry us. The other side of that is we get through these games and we're playing well and we're pretty good.

Tom:

Then you go into league play.

Coach Curley:

Then you also project over time the potential we have. It's not a lot different than the group that graduated last year. When they came in as freshmen, that was COVID year but we had nine teams and we had to play the top three teams in the league because only five teams played and we had to play them all twice and then in playoffs. And I tell you what that really, really jump-started those guys, because they didn't know any different, like the level of play they played. I mean, they just walked into the high, probably the highest level play. And if you don't know any different, that's how you practice, it's you know. You get immediate feedback. You're not surprised.

Coach Curley:

I think this time there's a difference. There's a chance to in real time, you know, apply those lessons and get better as the year goes on. Big thing is, we just got to. We have to be able to stay together. Our basketball character will be tested, for sure, but it'll also be developed at a high level and if we can just do it right and believe in each other and stay together, um, and hopefully, um, you know, nick and I uh, help guide these guys the right way through it and we stay positive about what we're doing? Uh, we really do look at this as probably what we need to do to continue our program's advancement to trying to win championships and play in the NCAA tournament.

Tom:

So here's my question about this one game. This is going to decide whether who I pick. Is it New Jersey City or is it New Jersey City? Because that is a big difference. It's New Jersey City, so it's not in Jersey city and it's the new part of jersey city. It's actually in the state of new jersey and it's it's new jersey city I'm not sure.

Coach Curley:

Is it in jersey city? Nick, it might be. That's a great question.

Tom:

Sounded like a stupid question at first, but not so. So much Side note. I used to know the mayor of Jersey City. Yeah, he ran for governor of the state of New Jersey and I was a big part of his campaign.

Coach Curley:

We lost, oh he was the guy. Yeah, did he win.

Tom:

Brett Schoenler. He did not win. He was a great dude, though I really liked Brett Schoenler.

Coach Curley:

PR wasn't strong enough. Biz.

Tom:

We had a big controversy. I'll get into that later. I was very involved in the controversy and it was a very stressful time of my life.

Biz:

There's a shocker.

Tom:

Yeah, it was a bit of a controversy. It was all over Fox and Friends at one point I remember. It was a little nerve-wracking. Have we discovered where New Jersey City or New Jersey City is?

Coach Hager:

Official address John F Kennedy Boulevard, jersey City, new Jersey.

Tom:

So it is New Jersey City, not.

Biz:

New Jersey City, sure Good.

Tom:

Lord man.

Biz:

I changed my approach.

Tom:

Changed my approach, Biz. What are you putting them at Doc green? Do they win the doc green this year?

Biz:

I think they do win the doc green the gel.

Tom:

They gel. I think this is it. I think this is the gel moment. I'm putting them down for a, for a doc green win, all right. All right. Then we go into league play. And was this like this last year? So we go Wednesday, saturday, the rest of the year? Yep, I didn't realize that it's a Wednesday as well.

Coach Curley:

Last year it was disrupted. Yeah, because of the Palestra games.

Coach Hager:

Wait what happened there, do we know anything about that yet.

Coach Curley:

So we haven't heard that there's any disruption to our schedule. Now that may come out of some of the AD meetings. I think they're having AD meetings this week. That's when we found out last year. So there may be adjustments to the schedule. But I also think that the men's and women's teams that are playing may be the same teams, so they may only have to, and so if they were supposed to play Wednesday and then Saturday, they're in the same grouping so they can only disrupt their schedule and everybody else their schedule can stay true without any disruption. But I'm not 100% sure and honestly, nick and I can find out whatever Tuesday through text that hey, your schedule's changed and this is the days you're playing. I think last year we played Wednesday, friday, sunday or Wednesday.

Tom:

Friday, Not because you played there, but because the other teams that you had played yeah.

Coach Curley:

So they have to move it because the Plester games are on Sunday, so you can't obviously play Saturday, Sunday. But if everybody in the Plester game is playing that week between the two games, if you know what I mean, they could just disrupt them and there would be no inequity in the schedule.

Tom:

Why do we have to play on Sunday and not Saturday?

Coach Curley:

Oh, they just have access to the building to get the Plester, because you know, they still host Penn, they still host big five games. Okay, okay, uh, so to get the facility. Do we know the weekend of that it is? It is that weekend, the first weekend the january 8th weekend, whatever.

Tom:

What's our second league game? Uh?

Coach Curley:

january 11th at goucher. Yeah, I think it's. Uh, I think it's the 12th. I think it's sunday the 12th, yep very interesting biz.

Tom:

So we have. We open up with moravian at home on wednesday, january 8th, then saturday, january 11 at Goucher we're going to take them two at a time, Biz, two at a time. What are we going with? We're going.

Biz:

Moravian, a dub. And then I'm going to see if the Goucher game, if that's at the Palestra, I will go with a dub. So we will not be playing in the Palestra.

Coach Curley:

We know that. We know the pairings. Oh son of a biscuit. You're not in the cluster this year. You're definitely not wait, man they came out with those because uh, wilks and like homie, added to the league and they hadn't played in it, so they're so it it changed yeah, well oh this is all.

Tom:

This is brand. This is this is breaking news on the podcast.

Biz:

Where's Katie?

Tom:

Where is she? I thought this was going to be. I thought we were going to bring her in next week and she was going to announce that we're in.

Biz:

I was ready to get wings again, so this is a definite.

Coach Curley:

So yet another example of you don't have the influence you thought you had.

Tom:

Hey, is there anything we can do about this right now? Can we have this changed?

Coach Curley:

Well, I mean this is a Top. Division III podcast this is Tyler.

Biz:

It's his home game, like his Philly game.

Coach Curley:

Yeah, this is.

Biz:

Tyler's senior year.

Coach Curley:

Yeah, I mean you could sort of give Biz his wings chant, we could do.

Tom:

I mean a campaign something like that.

Biz:

Who knows something like that? Who knows, wow, wow, I did. Dang man we're out. This is deflating. It is you know what. I'm mad. So we're gonna beat goucher too, then I'm really mad now.

Tom:

So you're going two wins, I'm gonna go a win on the loss the misconduct tavern man.

Biz:

They might go under because we're not going to be there to enhance their revenue. I'm going with two there that sucks.

Tom:

Then we go into next week, January 15th and 18th, We've got Catholic and at your namesake at Drew, Longest road trip of the year. What's the deal with Catholic this year? What do we know about Catholic?

Coach Curley:

They lost Jesse Heathmeister and Tommy Kelly.

Biz:

Thank God, I think they lost a couple other guys.

Tom:

They were both, I think, seventh-year starters, phenomenal players.

Coach Curley:

But that would be just probably replace them and other guys. Hey guys aren't just replaceable, and they're exceptionally well-coached, so they'll be right where they were.

Biz:

So is Juniata buddy Not better, all right. Catholic and Drew, what are you going with? You don't have to tell me I'm going to go knowing that Catholic loss are starting lineup. I'm going with Juniata there and then I'll pick myself for the. January 18th game.

Tom:

You're going with a win and a loss.

Biz:

And I still want a chair.

Tom:

I'm going with a win and a loss as well. Then we go to the week of uh wait, where am I at? January 22nd, we're at Susquehanna January 25th, at home for Scranton. Ooh, susquehanna, what's what? How are they looking this year?

Coach Curley:

They have everybody back.

Tom:

All right, so we're at Susquehanna, then we're, we got Scranton at home.

Biz:

How's Scranton? Do they have any more of those heifer wigs or what the heck's those guys' name?

Coach Curley:

They have everybody.

Tom:

Danzigs, danzigs. Do they have any more? Danzigs, no, they don't have any more.

Coach Curley:

Danzigs.

Tom:

They still have a coach that's a Danzig.

Coach Curley:

So, if you guys remember, last year they had like seven guys out. They had multiple guys miss the season. Will McLaughlin, who was a preseason, would have five player in the league. He got hurt early. He's back. I think he's getting an additional year. So I think their sights are that we're back and we're better than before. So I would anticipate they're going to be very big and very talented. So, yeah, I got to honest with you guys. Like you guys start rattling off these games in order. I mean, we just got to keep our head down and keep going.

Biz:

So I mean, I guess it's not any different than last year. Hardest working team in basketball. Keep it going.

Coach Curley:

I mean we're just going to have to really be tough and play hard and play together and just play the game right.

Tom:

We're into the. This is the tough part of this season right now. It is, it might be a tough week for our Eagles season right now it is it might be a tough week for our Eagles Two losses. Yeah, I'm going to go win and a loss All right From every tough week there's a bounce back week. Yes, and our bounce back week could be the next week we have at Elizabethtown on January 29th and at Wilkes, so you've got two road games on February 1st. That's a Saturday.

Biz:

All right, I'm going to bounce back 2-0.

Tom:

I'm going to go with a win and a loss.

Biz:

Okay, debbie.

Tom:

Downer over there. Alright, then we go. We got two home games Lycoming and Drew.

Biz:

Which one's the alumni game.

Tom:

Which game's alumni have we announced that?

Coach Hager:

25th.

Tom:

You guys just passed it, scranton. Oh, you got to stop us. You got to stop us, oh hold on Alumni game. No, that's a win. 25th, I'm going one and one that week Scranton. Okay, so that's alumni week.

Biz:

Oh wow, that's a misfire on our part.

Tom:

Is this official.

Coach Hager:

Yes.

Tom:

All right, it's locked in. All right. Alumni Weekend we need to put that on the schedule right. We are going to have a massive event for that. Yeah, that's Scranton on January 25th. All right Circle that date Sweet. Okay, we're back baby.

Biz:

All right, I don't remember when are we at now. I'm lost. February 5th, lycoming, lycoming and.

Tom:

Drew, both at home. I'll go one-on-one on that one. One-on-one, I'm going one-on-one. All right, then we head into one of my favorite games of the year. I got to mark this one down Wednesday February 12th at Catholic, and then Saturday, february 15th, goucher. I like going into Catholic, although I tell you what I really don't like the fact that Catholic's visitor locker room is up on the top floor and you got to walk your way through that. You either walk through the crowd or you got to go outside the gym and then back in the gym. I don't like that at all.

Biz:

Apparently they have budgetary constraints there. I mean, can't we build another locker room?

Tom:

Where is the Catholic locker room, the home team locker room? I think it's down underneath, of course it is. Right underneath you.

Coach Curley:

Yeah, the locker room we're in is actually pretty nice, but you have to walk to the showers, which is on the other end. It's just the setup of their building they have. I think when it was originally built there weren't a lot of like small team locker rooms. It's one huge common locker room that has little sections. That's back in the building. So I mean it's kind of life at Division III. But you know it's not just Division III, there's Division I situations. If you're on the road, certain places, just the way the buildings are constructed can be challenging.

Tom:

I saw the Palestra. I saw the Palestra. I actually think there was a bit of an issue.

Biz:

Yeah but, that was history, man.

Coach Curley:

Yeah, there was a bit of an issue with the Scranton game last year with their team walking through the stands, basically. So I think there will be some. It will be a little bit different this year, I think.

Coach Curley:

I could see that why that would be a problem, because you come out and you walk straight down, yeah, yeah so I think at least you'll walk across the mezzanine and come down behind our bench, which I think we talked about last year. Nick, whether you know, we just direct our guys to do that, so we're going through our own fans, but anytime you have to walk through the bleachers it's weird, home away fans, anything like that, and that stuff is um, you know, you just got to overcome it, you can't worry about it, but we're all here, you know that it's just. You know you just feel off, it doesn't feel right and that's no that's not right.

Biz:

Could you imagine if, like north carolina, had to walk through the freaking duke student section to a game?

Tom:

come on just walk it down the stands. What if somebody trips? And kathleen do better at your engineering, but yeah, what if they put a little like your architecture program?

Biz:

must be down at the bottom of the list.

Tom:

Yeah, yeah all right, what are you taking that week biz?

Biz:

I mean, just because of that whole fact right there, I mean they're winning that game. This is where they get hot for the playoffs.

Tom:

Okay, yeah, so I'm doing two wins there two wins yep all right, I'm going with a win and a loss. We end the season wednesday, saturday, susquehanna at home at moravian, the 19th and the 22nd hmm susquehanna could be a big, big game to solidify a top four.

Biz:

Wait, you get top six now, right?

Tom:

oh, it's the top. This is the first year of that right. No, it was no. No, we had it last year.

Biz:

We had it last year this could be a big game for top four, because I think we're getting in the top four.

Tom:

Quite frankly, quite tom frankly let me ask you this question, coaches how many wins would you anticipate? You have to have to get into the top six this year?

Coach Curley:

that's a good question. I always look at that and I haven't done that yet. It's a little bit different now with six. I mean I would probably say if we're playing 18 league games, nine and nine is always the record we look at. You know, you got to be 500.

Biz:

Yeah, 500 is about you.

Tom:

Do you think 500 gets you in?

Coach Curley:

Yeah, I guess I think that's what we always kind of say If we can go 9-9, we're in. I think last year was less than that. I think Goucher was less than that last year, I don't know. Nick, do you remember they were like 8-10 or 7-11. 8-10, 7-11, 7-11. Yeah, but I think, safely, you'll want to be at 500, right, you want to split? Whatever league 500 league play and you'll be a playoff team. I don't see a scenario. You're not.

Tom:

So, Biz, what are you going with the last two games of the year?

Biz:

I'm going with a big, big W at home against Susquehanna, and then you know the classic Tomlin game. You're still a much better coach than Tomlin Curls, but Moravian loss, so you're going to win on the loss. Yeah, but they're in the playoffs, so Moravian game is kind of a get you know. Just hey, let's get ready game.

Tom:

So in your world Biz you have them at 16-9 for the year. I like that. It'd be a pretty good year. I have them at 13-12. Oh, dude. So 13-12, we're right on the cusp you like controversy. We're right on the cusp of getting in that 16 playoff. What's your league record then? I kind of lost track of that Biz, but I'm going to say it's right around 9-9. All right, good enough.

Biz:

Yeah, all right. Hey, I think this will be. Yeah, I'm already looking forward to this. Let's tip it off.

Tom:

We have any guesses on who the elite teams are. You think this is really going to be the first. Is this going to be the tightest year ever from top to bottom, or is there a standout?

Coach Curley:

I mean it. Sure as heck. When you go through it here it feels that way. I mean they're I don't I mean Moravian's going to be up. They have everybody back. Keckler's such a really good coach. You know. Ratcliffe inside is different than everybody has. Goucher ended on a high note last year. They have the freshman of the year in the league back. Lyco has their whole team back. They're pretty talented inside. Honestly, we'll see a preseason poll comes out. I think they do that now.

Tom:

This year they do a preseason poll. We'll be able to talk about that. Who does this poll?

Coach Curley:

The coaches, I believe, will have a chance to vote.

Tom:

You will all vote. Now is it just the head coaches?

Coach Curley:

I might allocate it to Nick. To be honest, I might say, Nick, you do it.

Tom:

But it's one vote per school into this preseason.

Coach Curley:

Yeah, I mean, there's been years when the SIDs do it too or the athletic communication directors do it. I'm not sure what the setup is anymore. I don't even remember if we did it last year. It seems like it's back. So I know we didn't do it for a number of years and it's back. I don't know. I mean, if you're really looking at things, and who lost what? I mean, I think we're going to have to have an underdog mentality this year. That.

Tom:

It's all right. It's all right to be an underdog. That's why this is a big step.

Coach Curley:

It's a step in the program. I mean, if you look at our cycles you know we've been to six finals, basically every class except the COVID class, and in our very first class we've been in conference finals. We've had to go through these seasons before and when we lose a lot and have to kind of bring a group in to reload or to go back at it. So we now have to see how quickly we can turn that corner and what kind of talent we have and where we go. I mean we've got six practices in so far. We've been able to go twice a week. Now We'll do that with our eight practices outside of the footprint. I think we're really happy with the basketball character our guys have shown and their competitiveness. We do have depth and options at different positions, probably more than we've had. But the separators generally are who has you have to have all-league players? If you have two or three all-league players you'll be a playoff team. If you have one, it's kind of iffy. You might get into the sixth spot and if you don't have any you won't be in the playoffs and that's really the way it's always been. So a lot of it is going to be the high-end talent and I think we definitely have guys that are that level. But you know you need a team around you to be that kind of player and then you also have to sometimes. So we'll see. And that's just the unknown, because we lost those guys. Guys, obviously we're super excited about Mason and Tyler. We think they definitely have the ability to be those kind of players, but it's really hard when you're so uncertain of what's around them, who those guys are going to be and how inexperienced they are. That can be a lot. So it won't be the quality of play, it'll just be. You know you have to have access to those opportunities when you're playing with certain guys. So there's a lot to figure out. But you just said it. I mean, I've always said the challenge and the opportunity of playing here is you know we could win every game and lose every game, and there are very, very, very few environments where it's that competitive Almost none. And you know that's not the way it is. In the Big Five they schedule whoever and get six wins. You know that's not the way it is. In the big five they schedule whoever and get six wins. You know seven wins and it's not the way it is in most high schools, if any high schools. So the standard is really hard. But it also I think it develops you quicker. I think it brings you together quicker if you have the right kind of guys. So I mean we, can you take that whole schedule? We can lose them all and win them all, and you know that.

Coach Curley:

Now again you got young guys that have never been through it. We had to work through that a little bit. They got to learn how to practice. They don't know these things. Folks around them don't know these things. You know people go off records and history and you guys have been a part of it. Like they're all coming down. I always say right, they all come down to a possession or two and they literally Most of your games last year came down to just a few possessions.

Coach Curley:

Yep, yeah, and so I would assume we'll probably be a little more volatile just because we're younger. So you'll see a little bit more kind of more swings, but again, I don't know if we're that young. You know, we got six guys back with pretty significant game experience and we really liked the talent of the guys we brought in. Like I said, they're also really highly competitive guys. They've come from very good high school programs so they've played players like they're not. There's not going to be an ounce of intimidation, they're not worried about that but they don't know the process. They don't. You know, just being young, you got to know how to do it every day and get back up and keep going. And they're still learning our stuff. And we got to keep buying and create buy-in, even though even when the bolts start flying, you know, and it could get tough. And I mean, all this tells me, like I said, we got to get to work and we got to compete. We got to work and compete. We got to work and compete our way through this whole thing. We just got to go to work and we got to compete. And if we approach every day and every practice and every game as an opportunity, we'll be all right. And again, because it goes to credit, I really like our leadership. You know, the two seniors are just off-the-charts kind of guys when it comes to this stuff. Really been very, very happy with Joe Watson too, who's a junior guard with his leadership and impact, and Nico Campbell, who's you know, obviously he was a junior college guy, so he's more of an experienced guy. He's a senior as well too. He's played, he's also got been different places and seen some more things. So there is probably as pure and as good a leadership as we've had. We're just going to need that. But as we talk to the guys about there's just so many things you know you don't know what you don't know until you do it. There's just so many things that guys don't know, including some of those guys moving into different roles or not, or not having guys next to them to play to. But sometimes that helps guys too. When things change a little bit, the rhythm of the game changes and sometimes it aligns more to help them be a little bit more productive, or they don't have to, you know. So I'm excited to see what happens.

Coach Curley:

We've got a lot to figure out. We start off. We have two scrimmages to start the year against good teams. So that'll help us, you know, figure some things out in real time. And the fact is we have a competitive gym, we have a lot of depth and we have a lot of competition for a lot of spots.

Coach Curley:

That can muddy the waters too, because it makes it. You know, when you got to have a lot of options, it can get. It's a little harder to always get that chemistry and stuff because you're just worrying. You know you're in that competitive grind all the time. It is developing them. But you got to develop a unit and a group that's connected and sometimes a certainty of knowing you're getting something in any wavelength life helps you be a little bit better. The uncertainty isn't always the best, but competition is never bad long-term long-term, but in the immediate time sometimes it's a little bit challenging.

Coach Curley:

So we have a schedule like this because it's going to prepare us If we're going to be the level of team we want to be. This is just another schedule, it's just the way it is and if we're not, we're not. But we're going to know it because we're playing the teams that we should be. There's no false sense of security. It's going to be right in front of us. This is what we need to do to improve which, being through it both Nick and I. In a lot of scenarios it's just better this way and you just we got to trust. You know the success of our program and who we are.

Coach Curley:

The realities are we're still doing the attitude, so you know we just got to make everybody beat us. We can't go out and lose games. You got to make teams beat you. You can lose games. A lack of focus, not showing up wrong kind of energy, not being together. As long as we're coming out competing and doing what we're doing, I do think we're going to be an exciting team to watch. I think you're going to see we've got enough here to be a special group at some point I've said it before maybe farther in the process, I don't think. With this group, it is a if, it's just a when, and I think this year, no matter how you look at it, it helps us and if we can get there right away, man, then we're legit, we're where we need to be.

Tom:

Well said Coach Hager.

Biz:

Drop the mic there.

Tom:

Anything to add to that?

Coach Hager:

Nope.

Tom:

That's why he's the best assistant in all of college basketball. That's exactly what I was going to say.

Biz:

You're not the best color man in the business for nothing. There you go.

Tom:

There you go. All right, that's our schedule for this year. It all starts, tips off on November. What is it? November 8th Friday?

Biz:

November 8th Friday.

Tom:

Be there Friday, november 8th, 7 o'clock. I'll learn to you. We'll have some more to say between now and then. Yes, we will Follow the show on Instagram at Junior Out of Basketball Show. Subscribe to the Junior Out of Men's Basketball Show on Apple, spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Leave us a comment on Instagram and until next time, that's the best assistant coach in the business, coach Nick Hager. I'm Tom Frank. I'm Biz.

Coach Curley:

And I'm the head coach, Greg Curry boom.

Tom:

That was way longer than I was expecting.

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