Juniata Men's Basketball Show
Join lifelong friends Tom Frank, Drew "Biz" Besket, and Head Juniata Basketball Coach Greg Curley as they talk all things Juniata Men's College Basketball and give unprecedented access to players, alumni, parents and every challenge that a coach with 23 years of experience and 300+ wins debates. It’s informative, inspiring and most importantly, a lot of fun!
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Juniata Men's Basketball Show
Ready to Shake Things Up?
We’re diving into some hot debates and cool strategies this week! Coach Greg Curley shares his take on sportsmanship—should teams always play to the buzzer, or is there a point where respect for your opponent comes first? And what about Penn State? Should their focus be on the Big Ten Championship or locking in a home game? We’ve got opinions, and we’re not holding back.
Coming off a tough loss against Mercy, it’s time for some soul-searching. The game wasn’t our best, but Sho Watson showed serious potential, and we’re looking at the lessons to be learned about preparation, mindset, and teamwork. Resilience is the name of the game, and we’re not backing down.
To shake things up, Tom throws some out-of-the-box strategies against the wall—a silent practice, a 24-hour gym session, and a unique (non-basketball!) motivator to get the team recharged and connected. As we gear up for two big home games against Elizabethtown and Wilkes, the excitement is real.
And of course, we couldn’t resist a little sports banter and bold predictions. Can the team rise to the challenge? Tune in to find out!
🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you catch your podcasts! Got a burning question for the guys? Hit us up on Instagram @JuniataBasketballShow and show some love for the show at https://juniatabasketballshow.buzzsprout.com. Let's hoop it up! 🏀
I'm Tom Frank, I'm Drew Beskett, I'm the head coach, greg Curley, and this is the Juniata Men's Basketball Show. Welcome listeners. I'm Tom Frank and I'm joined each and every week by Drew Beskett, aka Biz, and your Juniata head basketball coach, greg Curley. As we talk, all things Juniata Men's College Basketball. Happy December, fellas Happy.
Speaker 2:December.
Speaker 1:It's cold up in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2:Dude, it's cold as crap up in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was up there this past weekend. It was too cold. I came back south. It's time to move.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to go to North Carolina, I think.
Speaker 1:North Carolina. Yeah, nah, that's too far south. What do you mean too far south? I feel like there's a certain place where, if you go past Maryland's, a certain place where you, if you go past maryland- carolina man, once you go past maryland, people become really southern I like so I don't, I'm a southern soul, I don't. I like fast pace, like tell it how it is. People, I don't want any of this howdy doody crap.
Speaker 2:I want bourbon cigars and just a slow day all.
Speaker 1:All right Well.
Speaker 2:I'm like a country song.
Speaker 1:Well, the reality is, yes, all of us grew up in State College, pennsylvania. We did, so I'm going to start there. All right, before we get to Juniata. This leads into my question. I'm going somewhere with this. All right, penn State football how are you feeling?
Speaker 2:Hey, man house money. I did not see that coming.
Speaker 1:I didn't see it coming either. Let me ask you a question as a Penn State fan. Yes, would you rather be in the Big Ten Championship and win it, or lose it, so that you get a home game at Penn State, because otherwise you don't get a home game.
Speaker 2:Hey man.
Speaker 1:I say win it you don't care.
Speaker 2:I want to win it because if we win we'll be the number one seed. We get a buy and then we have the quote-unquote easiest road.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's fair.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now that we're in it, like if we didn't get in it it wouldn't upset me in the least. But now that we're in it, let's go. You want to win it Now. I want to see how we stack up. All right, and Franklin, there's no pressure on him this time, so he shouldn't turtle like he does against Ohio State, and like Ohio State does against Michigan too, by the way.
Speaker 1:That's true. Now this leads me to our listener's question. I was going somewhere with this. This question is from Mike L. Mike L says Coach, as a coach, what are your thoughts on Penn State throwing a last-second touchdown pass? Went up 30 points and then Coach Franklin's response, when asked about it, is that, hey, these kids are playing. What are you supposed to do? Not let them play.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've never. That stuff's never bothered me too much. I'm kind of of the if you didn't want it to happen, you should have stopped it and you shouldn't be in that situation. And teams are going to play. Teams do what they do. No, we just had a tough one and they're pressing the entire game because they press.
Speaker 1:So you didn't say anything to the coach when you went and shook his hand, grabbed them a little sternly and said hey, coach, you do that again. I'm going to punch you in the face.
Speaker 3:That's how they play, and their kids deserve to play that way. I always look at it. Well then, your younger guys are getting the reps that they need. Like why would Maryland not want their guys to be out there playing against live stuff? It's a chance to get better, but they still have their ones in.
Speaker 1:They still have their ones, in which that makes it different.
Speaker 3:So, hey, hey, you want to play your ones. I think that's all a lot of just egos gone awry. And you know, guys going after a little bit, I I get it, guys get hot and whatever, but I I don't see, I've never been one to be too worried about that stuff. Now would I do it? You know, maybe, maybe not, depending on where we are in the situation. But I also think there there is a truth to the way the college football playoff stuff is structured now, point differential and stuff doesn't matter. So hey, if you can get the points, get them. So I didn't have a big problem with it, no, bez.
Speaker 2:What if I mean, are we all in agreement this time? The ones are he left, the ones in, man, your ones should be able to stop our threes. Let's be honest.
Speaker 1:I have a track record in doing this. I know you were all over it, I know I won a football championship game one time 86-12, and I would have tried to score 100 because I didn't like the coach and he deserved it. He was talking a lot.
Speaker 2:You tried to score 100 on me at the alumni game. I did try to score 100 on you All. You didn't score 100 on me at the alumni game.
Speaker 1:I did try to score 100 on you, all right. So there's where we stand on that situation.
Speaker 2:Hey, no, let's see. Now here's another question. I mean there were a lot of issues at the end of games. Man, these rivalry games Curls, oh yeah, if Catholic tried to plant their flag at midcourt, man, would you?
Speaker 1:guys, what would you do?
Speaker 2:Would you take umbrage to?
Speaker 3:this. I mean all that stuff's ridiculous. I mean, what are you doing? Go celebrate your game with your team and show a little class, but what?
Speaker 1:if Catholic did do that? What if Catholic decided to plant their flag right in the middle of your court?
Speaker 2:First, of all, they'd damage the court. That'd be a little weird.
Speaker 1:It's a suction cup. Well, those cheap little flags.
Speaker 3:The guys that are trying to do it are doing it on astroturf anyway. It doesn't work like they're trying to plant stuff and it falls over. But I don't know, it's uh, I don't know. I again I, I don't know. I mean I also don't blame guys getting mad. I mean they're trying to show a little pride, hey, this is our place and don't disrespect us.
Speaker 3:Um, I think it's the a bunch of baloney. And just why are you doing it? Just act, you know, show a little class. Like you won. And that doesn't mean doesn't celebrate, that doesn't even mean in a rivalry game you're not super proud of what you accomplished, but, like, what's the point? Um, I don't know. You just did what you needed to do, let the scoreboard talk and keep moving. Would I be happy if somebody did to us no, would you use it the right way? Uh, probably. Um, it's also senseless. Somebody's gonna get hurt. It's all a bunch of stuff that's crazy and there's no place for it. If I'm Ohio State, that's the last thing I want. They're going to the college football playoff probably right, they get a guy suspended. They get somebody hurt.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I send my freshman and sophomore after him. Yeah.
Speaker 3:No, I'm not saying I mean like standing up for yourself and like you're not going to do that here. I mean you can't especially you know you can't blame guys for reacting, but that's probably why they did it right To get you to react.
Speaker 1:So it happened at multiple games, football games.
Speaker 2:Oh, it was all over the place yeah.
Speaker 1:I kind of want to see it happen in basketball.
Speaker 3:It'd be hard. We don't want to. It's not good Coach.
Speaker 2:Not good for the game. Come on, Tom yeah.
Speaker 1:I just wanted a little entertainment. I was glued to it.
Speaker 2:What if they danced on the logo? That could be the basketball thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they go out and dance on the logo.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, there's stuff that happens too. I'm sure that stuff will happen now too.
Speaker 1:I think we need to pick a guy to be the enforcer of that, not if they do that in tommen are there we're going after them, that's right yeah, and we might actually go plant the juniata flag in the catholic. Oh if, if we beat them this year.
Speaker 3:That's great. I can tell you we're not doing that. We'll be too excited in the locker room having fun.
Speaker 2:So no, tom and I you're not, you're gonna do it. Yeah, yeah, all right. Well, all right, there's your, there's your motivation, guys I'm gonna cause havoc all right, let's dive into the last week.
Speaker 1:We had a tough one, short week, short week yeah, it was a short one. Tough one last tuesday versus a very good one mercy team for 80 to 48. You guys went toe-to-toe with them in the second half, but I gotta ask what happened in the first 20 minutes that was one of the poor performances we've had.
Speaker 3:Uh and uh. We just didn't prepare well, uh, didn't play well. I didn't think we showed very much greater toughness or connectedness. Um, yeah, very disappointing. Whether that's the sum of a lot of things, right? I mean, in the end we're basically out five rotation players and you know we're playing one guy on the entire team in that game that played more than 10 minutes a game at any point in his career. So there's a lot there. But you know what? We're now six games in the season and a lot of those guys have played.
Speaker 3:I thought we had played harder and better in the previous games and you know there's no age component to how hard you play. You either play hard and compete. When things go bad, you've got one of two choices you stop and honestly take the easy road, or you fight and you decide to get better and double down and compete, and I don't think that's a strength of ours right now and we need to get that figured out and I'm honestly incredibly disappointed in that. That's on me to have guys prepared and have them fight through that stuff and be ready. I was very pleased with the response to the second half.
Speaker 3:I thought we started to share the ball, play harder together, did things, and obviously good things happen. When you do that, it's not really as complicated as we make this whole thing. If you pass the ball to open guys and if you compete and play hard and you play together on defense, you get back in transition with some desire and some force. Good things happen and, regardless of what it is, we can stack it up to a lot of things. But however you put it, it wasn't good enough and that's not what we need to be as a program or who we can be. And you know we've tried to get back to work here and get ourselves corrected but yeah, that was not our finest moment and you know you got to give them credit Very good team.
Speaker 1:Was it bad execution or was it just bad shooting? You, you took 28 shots in both the first half and the second half. First half, you only made five. Second half, you made 14. Yeah, is it? Is it execution or is it just bad shooting?
Speaker 3:well, execution leads to high percentage shooting. I mean, we went through, if you remember, last year we had some struggles and it was was like, oh, we changed, it's just nothing. Generally, bad shooting has to do with rhythm and execution and how hard you're cutting and how well you're playing together and is the ball getting places on time and the guys playing together. At this level, that's usually what it is and it's really no different. It's even like we talked about the Scranton game. Do we really shoot that percentage? No, we. It's even like we talked about the Scranton game. Do we really shoot that percentage? No, we just don't move the ball to the right places at the right time. There's no cohesion.
Speaker 3:Quite frankly, guys don't cut and play hard enough consistently through possessions, so plays that should be there or could develop aren't? We stand and watch way too much. We stand and watch a lot watch other guys make plays or do things instead of playing off them. That is something that's a real problem for us and that's just that's what I talk about. We have to play harder and you have to play hard on offense and you have to play harder on defense. I mean the beginning of that game. We also let missed shots and plays. They made impact. What we did defensively, and you can never do that. You can't do it, you have to.
Speaker 3:We have this thing right now where it seems like if we think we have a chance to win, we'll play as hard as we need to. If we don't think we have that chance, then we're not going to. It goes the other way you do the right things and then you have an opportunity to win. You don't do the right things if you think you have a chance to win. That's not what good teams do. The bottom line. That's what separates good and bad teams. We were not in the good team category on Tuesday. We need to get all of this stuff figured out quickly and decide.
Speaker 3:But hey, listen, where we are now is also just a test of commitment. You got to care an awful lot to really push through and do the things we need to. We got to correct and change things if we want different outcomes. If it doesn't mean that much, we won't. We don't have to. If it means that much, we'll keep pushing through and finding a way. That's what the season and the opportunity in the schedule is telling us. It's an opportunity for the team and the program to find out who really wants to do it, who's really committed long-term, who really is competitor and who really believes in what we're trying to do. But that wasn't reflective of who we're supposed to be or what we're trying to be as a program. We've always kind of prided ourselves in playing exceptionally hard and I'm not sure we've honestly really done that to our standard at really any point so far and we've got to improve that dramatically.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I guess if there was one glimmer of a shining hope show Watson got a decent game. 12 points.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I think, the real positives. It's like I've always told you guys, a lot of these situations there's always good things you take and things you can be proud of. I think you know show's a guy that played a lot in the past and is a talented guy and has kind of waited his turn and I thought it was really cool to him to see the leadership he provided and the spark he gave us and some consistent perimeter scoring leadership he showed. So very excited there. I thought Ben Landisman played well off the bench too, you know. So those guys showed us what playing hard looks like and you know that's an example we use for the team, you know.
Speaker 3:So, I think you know, I think, if you guys remember, last year we had a little bit of the same situation. We had some guys out we kind of fought and flickered for a couple of games and then that third game, fourth game, geneva really hammered us and flickered for a couple games and then that third game, fourth game, geneva really hammered us. And you know how much can you kind of keep kind of a you know paper house standing, you know, until the storms, and then you kind of fall back and you got to keep regrouping. But this is our group. Now I mean there's no I said there's no cavalry riding in. We need to figure this out. We need to figure it out through our preparation.
Speaker 3:We didn't have a good day of preparation Monday, and we should have. There was no reason not to pick up where we left off, but we weren't, uh, as locked in, as focused as we needed to. You know these those Tuesday night before Thanksgiving or or, people will tell you that there's a lot of stories, there's usually go one way or the other. Um, it was a longer trip for us. We can stack all that.
Speaker 1:At 0-6,. Does it ever go through your head to just radically change anything? And when I say anything like process type of things, like new food on the road trip, different route, Is there anything you want to shake up or do you stay consistent?
Speaker 3:I mean, you got to have core values and things you're about, but until you play hard, nothing you do matters. And you have to play hard. You have to start by playing hard and you have to understand what playing hard is. And you can't fool yourself into thinking you're playing hard when you're not. And we have a little bit of that, a little bit of like, well, what else am I supposed to do? I mean, here's the answer If we don't do any more, then our record isn't going to change and our outcomes aren't. So I guess we all need to chip in and figure that one out, right? So, and that's, I know, it's the realities and you know.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, listen, there's not a lot of sleep being had right now. We didn't start off as how Thanksgiving was. I mean, there's just a lot of film, a lot of discussion, a lot of decisions to be made. Um, you know, I mean we got to do a better job to get our guys, uh, in the right place. Um, I do. Hopefully we can eventually get some guys back and get some continuity with that and figure out, um, who's really ready to play, who probably really isn't. I think some of those outings and opportunities demonstrate maybe some guys aren't where they need to be. Some guys are. So we got to just pull as much out as we can and keep plugging away and keep going.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I mean, everything's on the table all the time, and so we're always considering and we're always looking at things, and it's one of those things. Is it consistency or continuity, or is it something else? When you're good, every answer works, and when you're not very good, not many of them do to the level you want, right? So it's just the reality of it. We just got to stare it down, stay true to stuff. I look at this as an opportunity to try some stuff a little bit to see what we can do and what we can get out of this, but to try some stuff a little bit too, to see what we can do and what we can get out of this.
Speaker 3:But in the end, we got to play harder. We have to play a lot harder, even within possessions. As you see, possessions go on longer. We get beat late in possessions all the time. Defensively particularly, we fall apart after. If the game goes up and down for a little bit, then we're going to have a bad offensive possession. Sometimes in these moments it just feels like it's too hard, it's just too much for everybody and it can't be. You've got to push through the other side and get out the other side, and so we've got to try to paint that picture and work through it as a group.
Speaker 1:Biz any ideas? Do you have any suggestions? Do you have any five things we can shake up?
Speaker 2:I mean obviously Curlin already talked about me coming in maybe getting a couple minutes on the elbow. But I mean, it comes down to individuals. You've got to want it, man, you've got to want it, and I guess you've got a young roster, you've got guys out. I mean there's no excuses. You know, it probably takes longer to figure it out when you don't have your full, full load of people to go at too, I would imagine. But it would help the guys that are coming in to take those minutes maybe start to figure things out faster than they would have to no, I think that's listen, we played everybody.
Speaker 3:We played everybody significant minutes now through six games. That rarely, rarely happens. We've played them in key situations. That's an invaluable experience as long as we use it. I do agree. I told you guys like it's hard enough, like you can be injured or you can be young, but you can't be young and injured, right, you can't be missing so many pieces without it being incredibly challenging, without question. I mean this is you know, you got five guys that are rotation players not playing for you know one out for the entire year, four not playing, one guy with any more than 15 minutes per game. That's not made up. I mean they were a veteran group. They had all juniors and seniors playing a fifth-year guy.
Speaker 3:I thought their pressure and kind of attacking us put us on our heels and we weren't aggressive. That's really the first time we saw a team press us the entire game. They went to a matchup zone. That one we attacked the right way, we're fine. But it rattled a couple of our guys just because and it was too easy to go away. But that's what happens in these situations, right, if you're 6-0, was too easy to go away, um, but that's what happens in these situations, right, like if you're six and oh, it's hard to go away. If you're oh and six, it's easy to go away, unless you're made of extra special stuff, and that's why this stuff can compound and uh, uh, you know, and that's why we got to point that out to guys and constantly talk about what do we want to be. You know, the next opportunity is the best one. And so we got to learn from this again and just decide like let's start here, let's not ever not play hard like that again, like getting beats one thing, and if we're not there and we saw that in Scranton game and the Lake Coe game, but the efforts couldn't fault how hard we played or how hard we competed.
Speaker 3:Our execution needed to improve. There's zero question you could fault this. I just didn't think guys handled their individual failure very well. Personal performance became more important than the team performance In some spaces. You just you can't have that stuff. We got to have guys that are taking responsibility for winning for the group. Put that stuff first, show some maturity in those spaces, and that's on us as coaches. We have to have them ready to go.
Speaker 3:I was concerned about it going in. I was worried again the preparation night before. Until you go through that enough times, sometimes it's got to hurt bad enough until you decide. But hey, listen, there's teams all over that don't decide to get off the mat. It's just easier to stay down and it's somebody else's fault. Oh well, this is what it is. I don't think that's the guys we have, but we're going to find out Wednesday.
Speaker 3:Right, we've got another opportunity in front of us and we've got to turn that corner and show progress and, first and foremost, with just how hard we play, how committed we are from beginning to end, the kind of conviction we do, we've got to make some things work and figure some stuff out. Sometimes, I mean, in the end you either get back in transition and care or you don't, and you kind of can't. You can emphasize it, talk about it, but like you said, biz, you got to make those million small decisions yourself and how you're going to do stuff. We've been really fortunate here that pretty much every team we've had, every group we've had, has consistently made the right decisions. We've had these outings and tough moments and they've used them the right way.
Speaker 3:But I've always said you can never guarantee that. You've got to keep working at it and we've got to keep working at it. We've got to hold firm and challenge them and be demanding and coach them, but at the same time there's a line there where we got to let them know it's all coming from a place that they can do it. But we've got to put practice first and our preparation first and how hard we play first and the team first. And I don't think we have selfish guys. I just think it's easy in those moments right to go into you instead of come out to other guys. Guys get embarrassed by things and got to get over that stuff. It's called competition, like part of the deal is getting embarrassed Like the good ones. Don't let it bother you, they keep going.
Speaker 1:And we'll be right back. The Juniata men's basketball show is produced and distributed by Merrick Creative. Looking to skyrocket your business's visibility and drive growth. At Merrick Creative, we solve your brand and marketing woes With big ideas, decades of experience and innovative solutions. We'll draw in your target audience and keep them hooked. Remember, creativity is key to success. Partner with Merit Creative and unlock your brand's potential. Learn more at meritcreativecom. And now back to the show Biz. I came up with three ideas to shake things up a little bit.
Speaker 2:Oh, boy, all right yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm going to share that Number one. Yes, completely silent practice, no verbal communication, whatever. Think about this. For a second, curly Makes you think on a completely different level. If no one's allowed to speak in practice and you got to run an entire practice Just throwing it out there, have you?
Speaker 2:done this? Have you done this?
Speaker 1:practice. I just thought about this Number two 24-hour practice. Complete 24 hours in the gym, no one leaves. You've got to be with each other for 24 straight hours, including sleeping in the gym. That's idea number two. I thought you were other for 24 straight hours, including sleeping in the gym. That's idea number two.
Speaker 2:I thought you were practicing for 24 hours.
Speaker 1:No, we were locked in the gym for 24 hours All right, see what happens.
Speaker 2:A lock-in I like that A lock-in.
Speaker 1:Maybe we could turn it into a charity thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a dance marathon, type of. Thing.
Speaker 1:Idea number three All right, bring in a non-basketball speaker. Could be biz, could be a professional wrestler, maybe a general. I don't know what about the general.
Speaker 2:Is he still alive? Who? Bobby Knight?
Speaker 1:He is not Bobby Knight's long dead.
Speaker 2:I don't pay attention to these things. Not long, a couple years ago.
Speaker 1:Those are my three ideas. Take them, do whatever you want with them Anything, anything.
Speaker 3:tickle your fancy there Curls, anything that silent practice, those are things that I'll just I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll file away in the memory banks and just remember how far away, and I'll just keep those in mind, I'll keep generating ideas. A lot of this right now is finding answers to get out of it. Listen, you guys know how life works. Never as complicated as you make it, you just got to roll up your sleeves and go to work. We also have to face facts. We're not a very good team right now. We're not good and we have to be better. Are we ashamed of that? We shouldn't be. We should just work to be good. Like, what are we going to do about it? What's the choice? And now, if we play like we did Tuesday, we have a lot to be embarrassed about. If we play like we did the games before and we really compete and we show our, there's a great opportunity to show our class and our character and there's a great opportunity to improve and there's a great opportunity to turn this into and a tremendous story now and in the future. But those are the choices we have to make right, and we have a lot of new and young guys. You don't know. I don't know what decisions they're going to make and I trust them and I believe in them. I mean, that's the thing. As a coach, you generally believe in guys, even when you're challenging them. The reason you challenge them is you believe they can do more and better and sometimes they see that or not. But it's just not, that's not to our standard, just in how we approached it and the shutting down and the stopping and the not getting back. I mean that that just that's not okay with me as a coach and we just can't allow that as a staff. But in the end, we can't go out and play for them anymore. They got to, you know, they got to decide to go play and they're going to have to make a choice to respond the right way. And yeah, I think everything's on the table. We probably constantly have to look at things and how can we reshuffle things?
Speaker 3:I think I keep saying, like the continuity we've lost bringing guys back. Now you're back another step to try to do it and this thing can get out. You know, like you gotta, so we gotta keep fighting and finding every opportunity. I think the good thing is we got a lot of minutes for a lot of guys. Uh, we have a lot of like real information. A lot of it is all right. Here's the reality. Here's how you have to get better. And now here's the choice you're to do it or not. And to get confronted with that early in careers is a good thing, a very, very good thing, but you got to make the choice right. Some guys they're not up for it and don't really want to do that. They're not that committed. Other guys that's all. They need to be motivated to go and take the next step, and that's what we get to find out. That's the fun part about this.
Speaker 2:Oh hey, man, you got to find it out sooner or later. Guess what? The real world, this is just a start, boys. The real world ain't going to care either. You're going to have your skill set, you're going to have your opportunity to take it or leave it. It's that simple. But I think we're going to take it because we got a guy who's been there 23 years and knows how to bring in groups of good guys. Thomas, I have no doubt I got. No doubt I got no doubt.
Speaker 1:Well, let's look ahead to next week here. But before we do that, we got the glum. Let's look ahead.
Speaker 1:we're looking ahead to some victories, some victories. Let's look at the standings between you and I on predicting games. We both went with juniata in the under, while ChatGPT took the Griffins in the under. Ai won. We didn't necessarily win, we went one and one AI is foolish. I will say this I spoke to the Glum this past week. He was not particularly happy about ChatGPT getting involved here and he did want to point out to Coach that he does not use that bogus AI to come up with his numbers.
Speaker 3:I was the one standing up for the club.
Speaker 1:I think he said that towards you, not towards me. I'm the one that said it. I think it was towards you.
Speaker 2:I think it was towards Coach Curley.
Speaker 1:But Biz now sits at 6-2. Very impressive, biz. I'm 5-3, and ChatGPT sits at 2-0. Wow Something and ChatGPT sits at 2-0. Wow Something to be said. So this week's game we got two games Wednesday night at home, 7 pm, elizabethtown.
Speaker 2:E -Town.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you a little bit about E-Town. They come in at 3-3, 1-1 in the conference, All right. They lost at home to Catholic 89-71 and beat Lycoming 103-77, also at home. They are coached by Britt Moore, who is in his eighth season. They're averaging 85 points per contest and they're led by an outstanding junior guard, Austin Finanarelli. Something like that. How do you say that, coach Gurley? Finale, finale.
Speaker 2:Wow, you were close though.
Speaker 1:I was close. He comes into the game averaging 25. A game Holy.
Speaker 3:Pretty impressive. He and Ranch Russo. They both had huge numbers. They're exceptionally talented players. They're a very, very good offensive team. Britt's a heck of an offensive coach. It's not just those guys, they've got other guys who can score. Create kind of spread you out, attack. You have different ways to attack. So, yeah, really big challenge. I mean they can put points up, that's for sure. So we're going to have to be you know, we're going to have to show we can demonstrate, we can score some points consistently to be there. But we're going to have to improve defensively as well. But that's where we are. You're going to have to play complete games to have opportunities to beat these guys. The.
Speaker 1:Blue Jays. Let's not let a blue jay beat us eagles. Kill blue jays. You would. An eagle would destroy a blue, tear it to pieces yeah, it wouldn't pieces yeah, maybe that's how we start the game. We put up a blue. Uh, you know, just throw a bird up and have an eagle come in and just destroy it right on the right on the court.
Speaker 2:Well, at least we know what kind of glove we need yes, a falconier, glove, falconier.
Speaker 1:Well done, coach curly. Thank you miss.
Speaker 2:They use those in the in the well, at least we know what kind of glove we need. Yes, a Falconeer glove, falconeer. Well done, coach Curley. Thank you, mitch, they use those in the history.
Speaker 3:You know, he's a history, major, history, major.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what they did back then. King Arthur and those guys.
Speaker 1:And then Saturday, also at home, 4 pm start. Let's get people out for this one.
Speaker 2:All right, they have four Nice.
Speaker 1:That's a nice game. The Colonials come in at 6-1 overall, 1-1 in the conference. They won at Scranton 58-48 and then lost the tight one at home, the Catholic 78-72. They'll play home versus Lycoming before the game with the Eagles. They're led by coach Izzy Mertz, who's in his 11th year. They're averaging 79 points a game and they're led by a big dude. 6'6 junior forward, lucas Lesko Drops 25 a game.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's Izzy Metz. Yeah, and Lucas Lesko.
Speaker 3:remember last year, I do remember him last year In the conference finals he's had huge games. Yeah, their point guard's exceptional too. I mean they've got pretty much that whole group back from last year. They lost their center and a couple others, but they've got seven guys back, the first five that played a lot. They're a very big, physical, exceptionally well-coached team, super tough.
Speaker 3:This is what I talked about. I do think part of our challenge is the schedule. It's no joke, there's just no breathing room I think I talked about. I do think part of our challenge is the schedule. It's no joke, there's just no breathing room. I think I talked about that before. The season was very candid. So we're going to have to play complete games and execute both ends to have opportunities to win. We're going to have to build on what we did on the road in the league and take steps and hopefully learn our lesson from last year.
Speaker 3:But yeah, we have huge challenges in front of us, really really complete, talented teams. I mean I think E-Town's probably a little more identity Offensively, he's going to score points. But really tough, physical kids you know will be aggressive, defensively, attack you and Wilks probably more like grinded out, super physical, just kind of control the game, pounding an oblivion if you're not tough enough to play them, and you remember that last year. So, yeah, I think both those teams see themselves as playoff teams and you know they can get on a road win this week before we take the break until the next cycle of the league. They're going to be coming after us, so we're going to find out a lot about ourselves again. We're going to have to play really well. We're going to have to obviously really improve from where we've been and hopefully we can take those steps. These are home games fellas.
Speaker 3:Home games.
Speaker 1:We've got to win these home games.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I'm excited to see that, I mean we've played four of the first six on the road.
Speaker 3:You know we've actually played six of eight on the road with our two scrimmages on the road. So how that impacts things, I don't know. You know, maybe we're a little worn out on Tuesday with all the travel, I don't know. I mean we could stack all that stuff up and done me to hill beans. We got to play Wednesday and Friday. This is the last week of classes for us. Finals are next week. I think sometimes younger guys getting caught in that with the academics and this. So we're going to be tested again.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean you guys know how it is. I mean, we're just going to be tested again and we will know the truth again this week and I'll tell you what we play. Well, we know right where we are right and we are fortunate enough to come away and somehow in some way with a win or a couple wins, and we know we've taken the appropriate steps to be where we are. But if we're not ready to go, we can be right back where Tuesday was real quick, if we don't figure out how to go and compete and get some cohesion and play together and take some steps. So we've got some choices here about what kind of team we want to be and the good news is they're not going to make it easy on us. We're going to have to play every.
Speaker 3:You know if you're not back in transition and you're not giving effort against Etown, they'll run you out of the gym. And if you're not mentally tough and willing to commit and run offense hard and fight against Wilkes, they'll ground you into oblivion. So as a coach, we throw the record out. Those are good things to have right. We get to find out like we get to reinforce. This is what we need to do to be good and I'm sure if we do the things we're supposed to and we're working on we'll have success, and if we don't, we won't. So let's hope we can string that together and take some steps and put ourselves in some positions to have opportunities to win.
Speaker 1:Out of curiosity if you had to turn the lever on one of these two items. What's more important? Better defense to keep the scores lower, or shots falling to make a run at some of these teams that can score a lot of points?
Speaker 3:We've got to do both.
Speaker 1:You can't have both. You can only turn one left.
Speaker 3:If we don't have both, we're not winning, so it doesn't matter. I mean, it's truthfully, I think it all comes back to how hard we play, how tough we are, our commitment to consistently do things. Listen, it's not easy for us. You know we're not going to just come out and you know it's. You don't have to really work together and find each other and then we're going to have to really fight and grind. On the other end, I mean, um, and we have to understand that and get to our standard of effort and how hard we play, to the level it needs to be, and that's.
Speaker 3:It's not just running around hard or diving here. It's a, it's a consistency of concentration on and off the ball. It's fighting for every little inch and just being in a passing lane and being in help and being alert to help and sprinting back and supporting the ball in transition and defensive balance when a shot goes up, and how hard we cut and finish our cuts, whether we think we're getting the ball or not. Do we run offense at pace to open other guys up or do we find our breaks? Because you know, it's just all this trying to win. Stuff's too hard and uh, we, we gotta, we gotta get our focus off of the things that you really can't control and onto the things that you can. And uh, that's how hard we play and how well we play together, and we haven't always played well together and we haven't always played hard.
Speaker 3:And when you don't do either, last week happens. It's not a recipe, no, it's not. And it's nothing to run from. You just got to go do that stuff. We got to control what we can. To start, and we always talk about if you play as a team, if you play with toughness, then execution falls. If you compete at the level you need to, because you're playing that hard, you're focused, you're locked in, and then you'll prove your execution. If you don't have both of those pieces, if you're not giving the great effort, the great concentration, the great edge, you're never going to improve your execution to the level you need. And these are teams you play against. You've got to be able to execute, you against. You got to be able to execute. You have to be able to execute at a higher level to beat them, and that's good. So if we have success, and when we have success which we will when we have success, we're going to know we earned it and we know, hey, that's easy, just duplicate what we just did and it'll fall against anybody we put.
Speaker 1:Sound advice. You want to hear what the glum has to say Biz.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, sorry, I just uh. I thought I was going down in fantasy.
Speaker 2:This week things are looking up for the biz all right hold on wait, I gotta say something first yeah, listen, I don't know about you guys, but you know, when we were playing and competing, dude, I always wanted to take on the best man because it raised your level like this is the time. Raise the level. What do we hear every week? Everybody's got five, six, seven guys back. Well, guess what's going to happen next year? Juniata is going to be the team, so start getting your ducks in a row. The end of the year will be good and then next year is going to be unbelievable. So let's go, let's get it All right.
Speaker 1:Words of motivation from Biz. Where's the Bizdom? Where's the Bizdom? Oh, we haven't had those in a while.
Speaker 2:I know we haven't had that in a while.
Speaker 1:All right, the Glum, he's predicting Juniata to bounce back from a lack of scoring. Elizabeth Towne minus six and a half, with an over under at 150.5.
Speaker 2:150.5. Juniata and the over.
Speaker 1:Ooh, ooh, I'm going with Juniata and the under. All right, all right. Game two Wilks. It's going to be a tough one, giving Wilks the edge. Eight and a half point favorites and the over and under at 141.5. Hmm.
Speaker 2:Eight and a half is too much on the road. I mean, after you get your first conference win, then the snowball starts to go. It's going to turn into an avalanche. So I'm going to take Juniata and I'm going to go under. I think we're going to have a defensive battle.
Speaker 1:You're going under. Yeah, I think it's going to be a defensive battle too. I'm going to take Wilks in the under. Oh, you're taking Wilks. Wow, that's what I'm going with. You want to hear what ChatGPT says?
Speaker 2:I would love to.
Speaker 1:All right, here's their Wednesday prediction Juniata versus Elizabethtown Prediction Juniata 79, elizabethtown 74. Ooh, all right. Elizabethtown has a high-scoring offense, but their defense has struggled against stronger teams. Juniata's home court advantage and balanced attack should allow them to hold Elizabethtown below their average. Expect a competitive game with Juniata pulling away due to their depth and execution. That's from ChatGPT.
Speaker 1:All right, ChatGPT Saturday's game prediction Wilks 76, juniata 68. Wilks comes in with a strong record in balance scoring. The defense has proven solid in holding Scranton to 48 points on the road. Juniato can compete hard, but Wilk's size and scoring versatility may prove too much to overcome. Expect a close game, but Wilk's ability to execute in the clutch might tilt the game in their favor. Hmm, interesting. It is very interesting. How does it know all this?
Speaker 2:I don't know man, I'm going to use chat GPT to write a book.
Speaker 1:I was starting to think about using them to bet on.
Speaker 2:Actually, that's not a bad idea. I could use it because Drew GPT really sucks at this.
Speaker 1:Apparently so. Yeah, drew, gpt ain't hitting too many. All right. Well, we need a W this week. We're getting it. I think we're going to get it this week Listen man, rock bottom.
Speaker 2:First half Gwen and Mercy, that's it, that's the low as we're going.
Speaker 1:That was rock bottom.
Speaker 2:I hope at least. I mean, look at the second half Five rotational guys out. They started to band together, man. There's guys, I believe and Coach, you know this better than we do, but I think there's guys that started to see their trajectory and figured it out.
Speaker 1:I think we go silent practice tomorrow. How about?
Speaker 2:let's go. What did they do in Hoosiers? No shots, no shots.
Speaker 3:What's that? No shot? I don't know. I don't think we've done quite that.
Speaker 2:You know what? I think you should just run the picket fence. Good, run the damn picket fence, the biz special, that's it. You know what? There we go, tom. There's the idea. I'm going to design a play.
Speaker 3:Biz. You remind me of Shooter at times, not all the time.
Speaker 2:Hey man, let's just say let's just say I had Probably had a liking to bourbon, like Shooter. Yeah, things have been messy. I'm going to do that. I'll design a play. Okay, you can keep it, just whenever man this season, and then boom.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what. If I'm watching the game and I see that play come out, I'll be excited whenever you need it.
Speaker 2:You know it's a in case of emergency. Break glass, break glass, there we go.
Speaker 1:That's all we need all right, I think you're getting the win this week yes, you got it.
Speaker 2:Hey, if anybody knows how to get his guys going, it's that guy. Wednesday I like the sweatshirt by the way, let me see that full sweatshirt.
Speaker 1:I think I need a new one oh, I have one of those I don't have one of those, that's nice.
Speaker 2:No, I don't have basketball, I have athletics, yeah we gotta take care of you guys.
Speaker 1:I really like that one a lot. This one's nice, no no, I don't like that one biz I like his all right.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know when this is from, but this is warm man. I like this all right it's getting cold 10 degrees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we need some warmth up there in central pennsylvania all right.
Speaker 2:So the eagles I'm gonna get some victory wednesday and saturday.
Speaker 1:Now let's get people out both. You know what? Else eagles kill ducks, so do nittany lions, you're gonna give a final prediction on the Penn State-Oregon game.
Speaker 2:Say 31-28 Penn State.
Speaker 1:Ooh, I like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I like it. I do think Penn State's going to win.
Speaker 2:I think Franklin doesn't have any pressure in this game. Wasn't even supposed to be there. So we watched at four Penn. State at four. I'm going to be at the Penguins game at seven, then the second half of the. I already had the tickets, man.
Speaker 1:You got to sell those tickets immediately. That's insanity.
Speaker 2:No, you know what, the last time they won the Big Ten tournament, I was at a Penguins game first and then went and watched the end of it and they won the Big Ten against Wisconsin.
Speaker 1:So this is what you've talked yourself into.
Speaker 2:I mean, it actually happened the last time. This is by accident, but I'm going with the same motto.
Speaker 1:Mojo. All right, do what you got to do, Biz All right, thanks man, All right All right, let's go. That's our show. Folks Follow the show on Instagram at JuniataBasketballShow. Subscribe to the Juniata Men's Basketball Show, apple Spotify or even listen to podcasts. Leave us a comment on Instagram and until next time, I'm Tom Frank, I'm Biz, I'm Head Coach. Greg Curley Must win this week. Let's go, let's go.
Speaker 2:Flock to the nest.
