Juniata Men's Basketball Show
Join lifelong friends Tom Frank, Drew "Biz" Besket, and Head Juniata Basketball Coach Greg Curley as they talk all things Juniata Men's College Basketball and give unprecedented access to players, alumni, parents and every challenge that a coach with 23 years of experience and 300+ wins debates. It’s informative, inspiring and most importantly, a lot of fun!
Got a question for the guys? Please contact us through Instagram @JuniataBasketballShow. Please subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts, leave us a rating on apple and spread the word #EaglesNation. Juniata College basketball is part of the The Landmark Conference, an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III.
The Juniata Men's Basketball Show is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios. Let your story take the mic. Learn more at https://merrick-studios.com
Juniata Men's Basketball Show
An Ode to the Season
As the Juniata Men's Basketball season draws to a close, it’s a time for reflection, growth, and a renewed sense of ambition. In this week's episode, we recount the highs and lows our team faced, exploring the true essence of perseverance, teamwork, and resilience. Head Coach Greg Curley shares valuable insights on leadership, showcasing how the exceptional senior trio of Mason, Tyler, and Nico exemplified the spirit that pushed the team through adversity, regardless of the scoreboard.
We delve into heartfelt moments, including a beautifully written poem by Tom that honors the journey taken this year. Coach Curley's reflections on individual commitment and collective goals resonate deeply as he underscores the importance of cultivating a motivated mindset amongst the players. With strategic discussions aimed at fostering growth and development, we highlight the potential that lies ahead, focusing on performance and emotional bonds formed throughout this challenging season. Coach Curley illustrates how they plan to harness these lessons into actionable steps for the next season.
This conversation is not just for basketball fans; it's a compelling reminder of how determination can transform challenges into opportunities. Join us on this journey of growth and insight, and don’t forget to share your thoughts! 🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you catch your podcasts! Hit us up on Instagram @JuniataBasketballShow and show some love for the show at https://juniatabasketballshow.buzzsprout.com. Let's go Eagles! 🏀
I'm Tom Frank. I'm Drew Beskett.
Speaker 2:I'm the head coach, Greg Curley.
Speaker 1: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. With your Juniata head basketball coach, greg Curley, we talk all things Juniata Men's Basketball. Well, fellas, it's over, it done. Put a fork in the season. I thought I would open up the show With a little ode To the Junior Adamat basketball season that I wrote Alright, let's go there. Will you humor me with this?
Speaker 2:Edgar Allen, frank Edgar Allen.
Speaker 1:Frank. Alright, it's a long poem, so stick with me for a little bit. This Edgar Allen Frank. Edgar Allen Frank, all right. All right, it's a long poem, so stick with me for a little bit. Now. I wrote this originally for the morning, but it's now evening, but let's pretend like it's the morning. So did it grow?
Speaker 1:as the day went on, it did. Here we go. The sun rises and with it a brand new day. We gather to honor a season marked by grit and play Through just two wins beamed from this year's record wall. Our hearts held true and we gave it all, our all.
Speaker 1:Last season we bid farewell to a wave of seniors hard acts to follow, yet coaches forged on, refusing to let our spirit grow hollow. We stumbled, we toiled, we fell and got back up again, proving that through adversity a strong team begins. A heartfelt thanks we send to Mason, tyler and Nico. So bright, their leadership shone like stars in our darkest night. Their courage and commitment lit sparks when we felt low, steering us forward. Enduring our pride would glow. Our alumni never lost faith, showing up strong through struggle and strife, reminding us that family extends beyond the court with every spark of life. We may have been short on victories, but never on soul. So raise your cups high. Raise your cups there, biz. Let our cheers ring clear, for every hard season learned in this trying year will turn every setback into fires in our veins, as our coach famously cried get us now, get us while you can. The boys will be back next season. We'll take a muddy stand.
Speaker 2:Ooh, wow. All right, that's a wrap for the show. We can't do much better than that. We can't.
Speaker 1:I think we should stop right now. What's a wrap for the show? We can't do much better than that. We can't. I think we should just stop right now. What's wrong with everybody? Yes, we'll see you next season. No, that was a lie, wow, geez. Oh, you didn't use AI on that one, did you? I started it with a little AI.
Speaker 1:I started it with a little I had to get some in there I didn't mention was us biz, but I figured you know we're always there, we're the. You're the one to tell the story anyways, that's right. That's right. I don't know what else to say. We do have a listener question. You want to start there? Let's start there, sure, all right? Willie b. Willie b writes coach. What's the first thing you wanted to do when you got off the bus back at campus following saturday's trip to Moravian?
Speaker 2:Well, honestly, the first thing we do is talk to the team again, set the tone for what we need to do to get going. Honestly, today, the next morning, even last night, nick and I sat in the office for a little bit, but my mind's already going. I just want to get better. So, really plans on how we can take what we learned from this year to get better as a staff, what we need to do for our development with our guys, how we want to structure our off-season meetings, what we want to learn and then how we want to structure our off-season development plan. So, honestly, it's kind of like just your shift, your focus, changes Obviously the challenge from game to game and stay locked in on that.
Speaker 2:Now it's a little bit different, kind of renewed enthusiasm to get going. Not that there wasn't with the games, but obviously the results at times can get challenging. I think now it's all right. We've been through it and you know that's kind of the best you got. So we've been through it. Now let's go, let's see how we get better from this and how we progress and where we go. So that's where we are already Now. Today obviously just kind of hung out with family did that, but wound up at the gym with Caden, one of his buddies, and Kiera went up there. That's kind of what we do.
Speaker 1:So you get full access to the gym at any point. So you know how, like my kids, I feel like we can never fight a gym half the time. Yeah, no, it's probably the greatest perk.
Speaker 2:It's a great perk. It's like having your own basketball and it's really been a special thing for us and our family, I mean our kids. They love it. It's one of the things they love the most. You know how blessed we were. That's kind of how we grew up, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:In our day you could just go up to Rec Hall. I mean, I think we used to have a count, I don't know 36 baskets. There was a number of 24 baskets indoor baskets in State College you could get into. You'd get in the White Building, IM Building. I remember days where my brother and my dad and I would be driving from Rec Hall to the White Building, to IM Building to find an open basket All the time we did that.
Speaker 1:I remember driving that little, that three buildings. You know you can't get into any of those buildings. Now I know that's a shame. We tried to get in to see my dad's picture.
Speaker 2:Over the summer, we basically kind of had to like sneak in aside and talk our way in to go in to see just the pictures and sit in there. That's a shame, but yeah. So, like the, you guys get it, and I know that. I know how fortunate we are yeah To be, and we try to take advantage of it every time we can. And I'm fortunate because Kiera and Cade both I've really kind of fallen in love with basketball and so, yeah, they want to go, they want to go up there a lot, and so being able to do that, you know it keeps you, gives you perspective to what you're trying to do. But you know I'm excited and it never really changes me.
Speaker 2:The and I told the guys, like you know. What can't happen, though, is that you know the coaches can't be the ones the most driven and the one to want to accomplish the most. It's got to come from the players. But I've always told the guys you match my intensity and drive, we'll be fine. And you know, a lot of times, most motivation is external, not internal, and you have to develop that as you get older.
Speaker 2:What you really want where you want to go, what you need to do. So I'm kind of excited to put a plan in action. I'm excited to use the lessons from the year for us to get better and I'm kind of you know, it's kind of bloodied and beaten, but we're still standing. We're only going to get better from this. So the idea is for me is just start kind of churning. It's kind of weird with the last group, through those four years my junior, their junior and senior year it was kind of like a kind of a kind of a stale period in terms of like creativity, because it was like this is what we are.
Speaker 2:You had a routine you knew what you were doing and that can get hard. I mean, honestly, as a coach, that got hard because it's subtle changes, not big ones. It's trusting the guys at that point and we're in a different spot. So, honestly, kind of reinvigorated as a coach in terms of like you watch these guys, and, as challenging as the year was, the development process and steps have not changed at all, literally at all. The things we are on guys about and the mistakes they make are the same ones all our young guys have always made. The things I'm on them about are the same. It's just the volume is bigger because there's more of them and again, we just had less at top. We just had less that kind of we didn't have to address. So you're addressing everybody and the failures, I think, are bigger. But I think the success and the chance for growth is exponentially bigger too because you have more guys that get a chance to do that. You have more ways and when it clicks it can click in a bigger way and guys can come through it together. So, honestly, uh gets me more excited. We've had a chance to try a million things this year. Uh, I'm excited to go back and kind of evaluate those things. Um, I'm excited to come up with our off season studies. Like, what are we going to study, what? What are we going to look at? Um, you know, I and uh I, you know I.
Speaker 2:I told Nick, get ready, because here it comes. You know, the next six months will be hardest on him because it will be non-stop meetings and calls, at whatever time, and just me throwing ideas out and uh, and then also frustration when I start watching tape and oh, my god, you know, like, how could this be? Or pulling them in, like, look at this, like we can do this, and so I don't know, I'm kind of excited for the next phase and, uh, see what these guys do. The truth is, we need to get better. We just weren't good enough to compete with the top teams as we get late, and now we get a chance to really get better. I mean, you can make big jumps and this is where jumps happen and experience comes in. So I'm probably excited to get going forward with this and take the lessons that we had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they say the biggest jump comes between year one and year two. We'll see. So let me ask you this as we reflect on the year what were some of the surprises of the year? Were there any beyond the record and beyond that, were there anything that just a positive surprise? That?
Speaker 2:you didn't anticipate yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean there are always other usually very subtle things, things and breakthroughs you see guys have or whatever, but down the stretch, when people don't know. Last week it's just the way things go. After Lycoming, we got a couple guys hurt. Right After Goucher, we probably played our best. We got hit with stomach virus and the flu. We had multiple guys out repeatedly. I actually missed Wednesday's game, which is the first game I've ever I've missed in 24 years from being ill and we had guys. We have to talk about that for a second.
Speaker 1:Yeah you guys didn't know that, but uh, I didn't know that. I thought I'd text you. But I'm kind of pissed right now about flow sports.
Speaker 2:Oh, well, that's why you couldn't yeah, flow or something. I watched the game on flow, though, so I don't know what you're.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, the Saturday's game was not on flow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know Well. So anyway, we had as many as I think through the week seven guys or eight guys that were sick. We had a couple guys that were sick that kept going. But I just thought, like what was amazing to me is kind of the resilience of those guys to want to come back and play and the guys that like push through to play and we had a couple guys with some other injuries late that probably could easily just said and they pushed through to play and that's part of what was always kind of crazy to me. It's like they're still showing up, they're here every day.
Speaker 2:You know we didn't lose anybody from the team either through the year and, given the circumstance and the challenge we had, that's a big deal and we guys deal with a lot of things and always kind of came back and I think that's a huge indicator of where we can go. That was my biggest surprise because sometimes when you're looking the way we look, practicing the way we are, you immediately go to what is going on, what's wrong and where are these things. And as a coach, you know you're trying to figure out what you can control when you go to places and, um, you know they always kind of came back and uh. So I was really encouraged and that was part of the meeting. I mean, even at halftime, saturday's game, you know, we just didn't, we, we seen pressure, I don't know how many times a year and we came out and didn't execute anything. It was like we never had seen it. And you know, at halftime that was part of the conversation Like I don't understand this guys, like we've seen it, we practiced it and it's like you've never done it. But here you are, like and I even said like what are? And universally we're all in coach, we believe it's just, and then you realize it's a cycle. But in that first half, saturday, we were getting smacked and then, like, for a five minute period we played really well and second half, a little bit the same, then we played really well and you saw those things all year.
Speaker 2:And in the end, being good at anything is consistency. You know, what separates a pro and amateur golfer is the ability to do it over and over again. Well, not great but super well, and that's we just can't. We couldn't do anything consistently, and part of that is most of it. You really take the first 15 games of the year and they don't even exist Because you really had no chance at any of that. I do think we got rhythm and did better late. I think that obviously the schedule was a challenge If you look at how the way the league broke out. Basically the last four teams in the league did not beat any of the top six teams at all, and we're right there. Scranton got in the playoffs. They beat out E-Town, but we're right in games with Scranton. Obviously we're right in games with E-Town Did.
Speaker 1:Scranton. Scranton won at the end to sneak in right yeah, so they beat Susquehanna. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Will McCullough, mclaughlin had 28, right, and Will McLaughlin is arguably one of the most talented players in the league. He's been first team all league guy and in Spatola John Spatola started playing late and when I said they're two all league guys, perennial all league guys, I I mean the Scranton team that we took to the buzzer. Four of their five starters were starters in the sweet 16, two years ago. So I mean these guys they're seasoned and I thought that separated. But when you look at that, um, we were able to the bottom half of the league second half of the year. We were right there with those teams and, um, you know, not a lot separated us and even the way kind of the scores laid out with the top teams, ours weren't too different. Um, I mean moravian beat etown 115 to 82, their place. Um, you know, drew uh won undefeated in our league, which is crazy.
Speaker 1:I'm curious to see how far drew goes in the ncaa tournament, how far catholic goes, because I I think they're, they're both really good and it and it's crazy catholic only had two losses in in in the conference and they were both to drew yeah, and then you watch wilks who just, um, you know, handled moravian, uh, the game before us.
Speaker 2:They were up 25 at halftime and you watch them and they're, they're just, they just play the game right and they're connected and they, they have every position covered and um, so I, I think it's, it's interesting. I mean, I, it's good to go back now again and watch film and you have a different perspective. You're not in it. My experience on Wednesday is the first time I've done that. I was very, very, very sick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you had to have been super sick to miss a game yeah and I probably thought the best choice part of it is because we have Nick too. I mean, Nick's a head coach. He was a head coach for six years and if I didn't have Nick I probably would have found a way to be there. But I honestly thought the best opportunity for the team was to have his kind of clarity of thought and focus there, because I'm not sure where I'd have been and I thought the energy our team needs right now to do anything, I didn't have it. I just couldn't sustain it and so, yeah, it was weird, but I was sitting by myself, Jen and the kids went to the game.
Speaker 1:So you were at home by yourself watching this game. That was wild.
Speaker 2:And watch the Flow Sports feed and you know they give you kind of close-ups that I don't get On our feed. Usually we're watching the tactical views, so it's farther away. But you know I could see like body language and how our guys handled some things and stuff and I wasn't always happy. I mean, we have to have a tougher face and we have to deal with failure way better and more consistently and understand it's just part of the game. That's probably what separates guys too, is they screw up too. Patrick Mahomes throws an interception but he goes out there and makes the next play. The guys that don't stick in the NFL, they go out and throw the next interception or they put their head down and they don't lose confidence.
Speaker 2:It was an interesting perspective and what I did see is our guys were playing, they came ready to play and they wanted to play. We're a little fragile when it goes bad. There's not a lot of recovery and part of that is again kind of role-specific. Who do we go to in those situations? They have guys to go to. We've never been able to get completely that completely defined. And guys have guys to go to. We've never been able to get that completely defined. And guys have to grab those roles.
Speaker 2:But again, a couple of those guys in our starting lineup playing that game hadn't even practiced for two days because they were very sick. And so you see that and you just admire what the guys are doing, because in this situation they didn't need to do any of that stuff and you would have thought there would be guys one foot in and one foot out and I've actually thought the depth of kind of commitment to things has actually grown through the year through the challenge. That's good to hear. So those are the real positives. Now we have to get through our exit interviews and end of year meetings and stuff and see if that's really where we are and biz and I are going to be on those with you, right.
Speaker 2:That.
Speaker 1:Nick is there. Who technically gets the loss in the record books on that? Is he the interim coach, cause you're not there, or how does that? I want to know the official record book of that. Is Nick now officially 0-1 as a head coach at Juniata?
Speaker 2:Well, I think Nick said if they won he got credit and if he lost it was online, and I said that's fine, that sounds fair I.
Speaker 2:I don't know um we gotta look into this little research, yeah I never missed the games for illness, but obviously you know the circumstance we dealt with, uh, with our family. I had to miss a couple games um, in like 2008, um, and neil rager, I think, was one and two in that stretch, um, so I'm not sure. Maybe that changes a lot of things for us where our records are.
Speaker 1:That could be like the 200th game, might not have been the 200. Yeah, I think everything's up in question now. I think.
Speaker 2:I do think you're the coach of record I I think, if you're just out for whatever reason, um, yeah it was the first. I mean jen actually like she texted me like I'm like, I I'm not she's like and her thing was just like you must actually really be sick, I'm like yeah, I'm still kind of shocked that she went to the game anyway. Well, my kids, so Cade and Kiera have just it's the gym right. Like they are in love with going to games, like we were, as kids, going to.
Speaker 2:Pets yeah, that's true the games like we were as kids going to. Like that's true. Now kade's buddy, theo's usually there and, uh, kiera, they I don't know how much the game they watch. I mean they're up in the im gym or in my office and kiera watches usually, but like they just couldn't wait to go. Kade likes to the chance to try to shoot at halftime and um, so he gets it all planned out. Now. He didn't that game, but so, yeah, it's a big event and it means a lot to our family. They know all these guys. They wanted to see the seniors the last time play. That's true, yeah.
Speaker 2:They wanted to see Mason and Tyler and Nico, and so that was really cool that they were there?
Speaker 1:Better to be sick on a home game than an away game, though If that was Saturday that could have been horrific.
Speaker 2:Yeah that could have been horrific. Yeah, listen, through 24 years there's a few stories I mean stuff you just deal with. So there was no way I could have gone to a road game because when we would have had to leave I wasn't in enough shape to do anything. But Nick couldn't kind of believe it because we through the day I was like listen, you got to take the walkthrough, and then I text him like I'm not going to come to walk through, I'm going to sit that out and wait, and then I text them like you got to take it. But most of it was that's what the team needed. Like right now, the energy and the focus and the leadership really comes heavy from the head coach. If this was last year's group, I probably would have been there because I just made a few decisions and they could kind of take care of themselves Right now. They needed a little bit more help and the other opportunity with it.
Speaker 2:There's a thing with coaching If you leave a job or whatever, you usually see what a coach did for the next one or two years probably the next two years but what they left, the foundational pieces they left, and how does a team operate when you're not there? And so I was curious to see how we would operate and I thought I saw some good things with that. I mean, again, our outlet. We're just not good. So you got to look past that and see the things that we're seeing. Again, a lot of the things we're talking and preaching are things that we have to preach for years to get guys to get, and that's never changed. It takes deep into their career for them to just be able to consistently do the things we need to do. Nick's got a theory that he thinks because we've had to play so many young guys, so many minutes against so many good teams, that he thinks it's being accelerated like the learning process, the growth process. I hope he's right and figuring that out may take me a little bit. This summer I may even go back and watch some other games and guys to kind of compare. But I think more of that is really what choices guys make with the experience they had this year. So, moving forward, it's going to be another million small choices that they make. Experience is only good if you use it and if you've applied it, and one of the things I was frustrated with Saturday is we had a lot of experience in some of the situations and we weren't leveraging anything. We, we, you know, in young guys, um, and you're both parents, you get it, um, you know there's. You know you gotta be accountable. You've learned this. You know what you need to be doing. You know, at some point we got to quit looking around like, oh, I don't know what I'm doing, yeah, you do and, uh, you know when are you going to do that? But that's probably the choice of the guys right now. When are they going to take responsibility and get things corrected or consistently do the things they know they're needed to be. That, I think a lot of the growth was that. I think late.
Speaker 2:There's usually a cycle with young guys. The first thing is they never know how hard you have to go, and that was a large portion of the first half of the year. They just had no idea how hard to practice, how hard to play. The second thing is they're not as good as they think. So once they get up to speed and how hard to play, now they're playing the hardest they've ever played. And then they go play against somebody that's already playing that hard and is better than them, and that's an earth shattering moment.
Speaker 2:Generally, right, that's a hard one. It's never usually your fault, we've all been there. And then eventually you kind of come through it and realize, all right, if I had enough chances here, we've all been there. And then eventually you kind of come through it and realize, all right, I've had enough chances here. It's probably me that's got to get better. And then the last one is probably the last phase with that is then understanding all right, you got these lessons and you've learned some things. But now it's up to you to have the discipline and focus to consistently apply things.
Speaker 2:And I think that's probably where we got late and a lot of times in that guys' confidence goes down at the end because they start trying to actually do things right. They know they're playing hard, they know they need those things, but it's probably a little late. It's a little late to be trying to do them right now. When you're playing teams that are getting ready to go in the playoffs. They're not trying to do stuff right now. They're a well-oiled machine and that's, I think, where a bunch of our guys get caught. And you could even see a couple guys saturday, a little bit of confidence hit them in what they're doing. But I think it was the confidence that, um, they knew they needed to be doing things right and they weren't, and, uh, that that's not a bad bad spot to be if we decide, uh, next year, that the pre-season and the focus and the habits need to get built where they need to get built to for us to be successful.
Speaker 1:Is there anything that you would going into next year will change about the preseason?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean everything's going to be on the table. So that that's what I'm excited about. We will, we will literally. I mean I think I talked to you about it last year like our off season approach really never changes. We basically stripped the entire car, like, if you imagine it's, we're going to take the entire car apart, every piece, rip it all down, we'll clean it, look at it, throw some things out, and then we'll put it all back together and sometimes it'll change, and drastically, sometimes it won't.
Speaker 2:You know we're in a unique spot. You know, obviously we have an approach and a process and a system and the things we believe in. And you know, from a results perspective, this year it didn't work. You know it would be easy to come in and say that, and so we really have to make some good decisions moving forward on where to go no-transcript to move within your cohort.
Speaker 2:When you're at our level, there's a big disparity in talent and experience at times. So you know, analytically you would say you have no shot to win, no matter what, right, because these guys were there. And so how does it skew what you're looking at? Percentages go up over time. The injury were so like a lot of pressures on us as coaches to make the right calls and we have to be open to reinventing ourselves. But we also have a ton of experience we gained this year.
Speaker 2:I think our guys actually have confidence in what we do and what we're doing and we as coaches know what we're looking at. And so I think it's the confidence comes from the fact that we can tell them they need to do this and come in the next day and show them, say see, we told you. And that's where I said that breeds confidence and certainty on what we need to do. So I'm sure the changes will in our world may feel big, but are probably subtle to everybody else. It know it may be more approach and process in how we approach the offseason, but we're always doing things slightly different. I mean we never.
Speaker 2:Just, you know every practice is planned. You know we cook every practice from scratch. You know like we it's all and we reorder and we every offseason plan and how we'll bring in our young guys. Until recruiting's over too, we won't really have an idea of what our entire group looks like, and so personnel is going to dictate some of those things. You know we lose key guys here too. You know that that played a lot of minutes and brought stuff and and then know what it'll be. Is there going to be melt, are guys going to come back, is this the right place? And you know we've got to work through all that stuff. That'll all factor into that, but it'll be an everyday, all the time thing. God bless, coach hager, because with yours truly it'll be just constant.
Speaker 1:I'll come in one day you'll be driving him crazy is what you're about to say get that guy a good bottle of bourbon man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you need to, you need to hey, listen, he's been there where I've had entire new offenses or a brand new defense within in this. You know, in a day now we got six months and and I'm kind of circuitous I'll go over every option and every plan and every idea, and over and over, and then make decisions. And there's different ways to approach decision making.
Speaker 1:You don't take the time, frank. Way of making just let's go, let's go quick decisions.
Speaker 2:Oh, it depends on the moment, right. But in this situation, like we're in the offseason and we're evaluating and observing a lot of it's got a lot of time you got to. You know it's not as much.
Speaker 1:Are you on the road? Are you out there recruiting right now and going to some of these, like all the major states around you are deep into their players right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean so a couple of things we did this year. I mean you guys may or may not have noticed, but well, you weren't there. But you know, coach Hager really hasn't been at practice since we went in the second second cycle of the league. He's been. Yeah, I heard you saying that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's been on the road Um basically bumped into him on gym somewhere near you. You probably run into them. I'll be out. We'll be out Monday and Tuesday Pennsylvania playoffs this week. We're off and running. Honestly, things are going pretty quick. Some of our guys are done, their seasons are over. We may even go see some spring sports. We've done that. We'll go to baseball games.
Speaker 1:You still got to get down here. I got some players down here. You got a lot of players. They're still rolling right now, but they're all juniors, right, they're all juniors. But you got to start, you got to get in. Yeah, oh man, you got to start greasing the wheel a little bit.
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 1:I can only grease so much. I got to get the star.
Speaker 2:where are we going? How are we going to structure this? Where are we going this week? Because we have to make the right calls. The biggest thing, though, is we got to get this year's class done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we and for us it's still most of if not all our top guys are making decisions after their season's over right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean like, if you've noted, I mean the sport really dictates, like in, like the soccer, volleyball, like the decision making is very early. I mean there's juniors making decisions to come to school. You know, particularly in female sports it seems even sooner, but in men's basketball, I think, because of when the season lay, you know lies over two semesters. And then, I think, access, you know scholarship money. You know division twos are fully funded. In division ones there's a lot of scholarship money and so I think there's a general sense of like let's stick this out and see what opportunities come our way.
Speaker 2:Nil has people always ask me like how has NIL changed things and stuff? It's the trickle down because you know there's just no movement with division one and two, recruiting with high school kids, and so it delays a lot of things. Everybody waits. It's a good thing for some of the fringe kids with us, because I think a lot of times we would lose guys over what we'd call cocktail scholarships. They give you 500 bucks and somebody says I'm on scholarship and you're like no, you're not. Hey, there's guys on scholarship. You got some book money and a lot of times the money they got they would get anyway. But there's ways you can do it, particularly at state schools, and it was really more about the Roman numeral and where they wanted to play, and we would kind of say, hey, man, you want to make an impact, you want to be a guy that's responsible for winning or you just want to be a part of it? Right, and, and those are big differences. Big differences, I mean, the opportunity Chase Husted had here versus somewhere else is significantly different.
Speaker 2:Um, and there's nothing wrong with either one of them. It's, it's just, um, I think sometimes people throw that around and, wow, why would you do this? Well, what do you want to be? Um, big, you know, you know somebody that you know. Do you want to run your own company? Or do you want to be just one of a cog at at g? You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So, um, those are choices, um, you've got to make, and, and so a lot of our guys are in those spaces. But so it's changed a little. I think it's given them, actually those kids, a little bit more clarity, like if they're really serious about you now, they're serious about you. If they're not, there's not going to be a lot there. And I I always encourage guys, I mean when they're on those lines, I think always taking a step down is a better place to play than being one that's trying to do X, y or Z, just because I think if you're that good, good things will happen anyway. Doors don't get closed and then the opportunity to do more I just think is rare. I mean, everybody would take that and I think it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:That's Biz. What do you think? Hey man, the question I have. And they say if ifs were fifths we'd all be hammered. Do you think, going back to that first Lycoming game, if you win that game, do you think anything's?
Speaker 2:different and overtime won.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you think the trajectory's different? Did that have any impact, do you believe, since it's such a young team?
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably. I think it helps some. It probably moves us a little forward faster, but things happen the way they're supposed to happen and we didn't win it.
Speaker 1:That's the one I regret right there, Biz.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good question. And there's all those moments in a season we just have to mature in a lot of spaces and that's the best way to say it. And you know there's a reason. You're where you are, we just weren't very good and I said, I think we don't have a good record and we didn't play great basketball at times, but I don't think we have a bad team and I think that's. I think we just have guys in a lot of different spaces and a lot of different places.
Speaker 2:I do think it's a bit different than 15, 20 years ago where some of these guys come into school and kind of their exposure to things and understanding I think that shifted a little bit. Even the way guys learn and introduced to the game is different. If you think about Tom probably even your kids but a lot of it is like individual skill development. Maybe one or two practices a week and go play six games on a weekend right, that's very true. The priorities become the game and the individual skill development. What's missed is the value of practice and what's learned in practice is decision-making. It's decision-making, it's how to play the team, it's discipline, it's focus on small things that connect teams and in the end, that's actually what wins basketball games. 100% agree with that. When you get to this level, everybody does skill work, everybody's skilled and everybody's a good player. Everybody's played a lot of games. The other thing that kind of culture does is it devalues games. It gets guys thinking I got two more today, we lost this morning, but I had 15 and played pretty well and we'll be all right later. And you forget, at this level, man, every game matters. Man, it's live or die. This is it, and the only thing that matters is if you went. And so I think kind of them learning that is different than it was in the past. Kids don't play pickup, so they're not making decisions all the time, they're not passing the people, they're not learning how to play with other kind of people.
Speaker 2:We have guys that come here that have never, ever thrown a post entry in their life. They've never thrown the ball to a post player. So if you think about coming in as a freshman and the, why is that guy in my way? Well, he's a post player, he needs to play in there. Yeah, like putting those pieces together and it's not just us, these are conversations with coaches so they don't even know how to throw it in there. They don't know when to throw it in there. They don't know there's somebody might be in there. So if I drive I can't just go where I want. Then you have. I was the best player, so I get the ball all the time. My job is to hunt shots versus. No, your job is to take shots as they come. You're a gatherer, let it come to you like you're not a hunter. And then you add to that we had no idea who was any of those things, and so that's just real.
Speaker 2:I think those circumstances make it more challenging. I think what's more ready is our guys are physically more prepared and they're bigger and stronger than what they used to come in because of strength conditioning. I think they have probably a deeper skill set. They're probably not as prepared to play as hard because they play so many games not playing hard. They practice so many times not practicing hard. That's true too. Yeah, instead of less games and more value and you only have 20 high school games period, that's all you play all year, man, it's a little bit different. And so I think there's all those curves and if you listen to any other coaches talk and a million coaches. These are the challenges everybody has. I think it's heightened when you have so many young guys. But those are all good points, very good points, right, and so, working through those things I heard. So I was listening to John Shire on the way to the game yesterday on a podcast and he mentioned Cooper Flagg right, the best freshman in the country.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he said, well, he's like, well, where can he get better? He's like, well, he's like most young guys, he doesn't understand positioning defensively. He's not really good at screening. He's not really good at getting open or being active without the ball and making a decision when the ball gets to you. That's like our entire, and I actually took my earphones off and said to Nick they just said this and we were just talking about that we're built on screening and cutting. Our guys don't understand positioning, they're not as alert and we're defensively because we're playing 8 to 10 of those guys and so this is a national freshman of the year that he's saying that just doesn't.
Speaker 2:He doesn't know how to play without the ball, and so now he has the ball most of the time, but his, his point was he's a hell of a player too, but his point was when we play, the better teams you have to be able to be, you have to know what you're doing before you get the ball. The window's closed. You can't stop the ball and make a decision. It puts more pressure on decision making and the pace that you do that. You can't be out of position and get back in the playly. You have to be in position to make the play, and if you're not in position, you're behind the play already. And so if this is him struggling with that, multiply that by 10 guys. We're playing and our windows get smaller late in the year, and those are all the things we're struggling with Now.
Speaker 2:If you have him and he's national player of the year, the talent sucks up a lot of that and you win games anyway. Right, you're just not as good as you can be, and that's where we go back to. We have a really good roster. They're all college level players, they're all landmark level players, but we have no all league guys, no elite special players right now that just out talent teams and win games, despite what our difficulties were. So we have to win games by being in position, by seeing things before, by being better as a team, by playing better, by playing harder, by playing longer, and we're just not up to that task right now, and I keep talking to guys about that. But it's going to be their choice to get there and how quickly they can get there, their focus, their belief thereby.
Speaker 2:And it's hard. It's hard getting there. Those are the hard things to do. No one ever sees and you don't get a lot of feedback on that and when everybody now is, oh, you're playing, you're doing your best, you're playing your hardest, and the coach is like, no, you're not, you can play harder, you can do better. And that doesn't mean they're not giving what they think their best is. But there's way more we need to give and they can, and that's probably experience and seeing the potential in these guys like trying to get more out of them.
Speaker 2:That's not where we are. There's a lot more that we could do because, guys, if this is all we can do and I've said that a few times, more than a few times if this is all we can do, fellas, we might as well pack it up right now, because this is ridiculous. We can do and we need to get on with doing those things and then trust the other thing. Young guys do a lot, and I think it's a little bit this day and age. They will give what they think they need to give to get there, so they're only going to. If they think they can get there, they'll give this.
Speaker 2:And that's not how winning works. You give everything you have with no expectation of getting anything out of it, and then you trust it will happen and you just put your head down and you keep doing it over and over and over again with no expectation of return, and it's really, really hard right now that the whole thing is like I'm not sure I'm willing to do that unless I know I'm getting it back and you could see it a little bit. The games we think we could win, we play a certain way. The games we would do the math, I'm not sure we can do that here. That's not how you're ever going to beat those teams, because we're never going to catch up with them. That's how it works and you can understand it, but and I do we understand it, but that doesn't make it the way to go. And so hopefully these guys have learned those lessons, hopefully they listen to the podcast here and it sinks in one more time It'd be mandatory listening for the team meeting around.
Speaker 1:I might make them recite the poem.
Speaker 2:They must have to memorize the poem and recite it back to you.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a memorizing alma mater. I think they should have to re-listen to the whole season, the whole season of the show. I think you'd learn a little something. Marathon, all right, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Let's move on to something here. We do have the landmark conference playoffs. We're not in them this year, but I do think it's going to be very interesting playoffs. We got Scranton versus Wilks, susquehanna versus Moravian. Let me just ask you this Do any of those four teams have a chance against Catholic?
Speaker 2:or Drew. Yeah, I think honestly, pretty much all of them do. I think Catholic and Drew are that good, but I think everybody else is pretty good too. It's the one night thing. I think what you're seeing is there's a lot of diversity of style play, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Like Susquehanna, moravian are like two polar opposites. I mean it's big guys and now they both shoot the ball well, which is a theme. This is why Juniata struggled, because you got to be able to shoot the ball well to be in the playoffs and you can't shoot it worse, let's put it that way. So but these guys, you know they're big. You know Susquehanna's can play a lot of zone. Try to slow the game down. Moravian going to score a ton of points. Get up and down press. That one's very interesting.
Speaker 2:I, you know Wilks Scranton I think Wilks again, scranton plays a lot of zone. Wilks all man-to-man like five, six, he'll play seven guys. Scranton usually plays a few guys, he'll play a few more. That's a heck of a game. They're kind of local close. You know McLaughlin did not play in the E-Tower game on Saturday, so I don't know what's up with that. But you know McLaughlin scored the first 12 points of the Susquehanna game. So he's got the capability of taking over a game anytime, and that's interesting because Lesko could do that too. So that's pretty compelling, yeah. So I think the first round games are going to be really, really good, and even Now, the challenge is the way the setup is. You know you have to play that Tuesday game and then you have to go on the road Thursday to play at Drew or at Catholic. That's how it should be.
Speaker 2:They earned it so that becomes a tough game. But now you have those teams at home, they have extra time off, but they have to prepare for two styles of play, and so that's kind of interesting too. You know, what do they do in those first couple of days? They probably just sure up what they're doing. But, um, yeah, I think it should be a great playoffs. If you remember last year, you know there's some upsets and you got some pretty experienced season coaches that have been through this in all scenarios. So it's uh, yeah, it should be a lot of really good basketball, some good teams.
Speaker 1:Here's my take biz tell me it's not. It's not, it's going to be chalk and it's going to be Drew versus Catholic in the championship. I'll know who. I'm going to be rooting for Me too, because I can't root for. Catholic. No, that leaves me with Drew, which is very hard for me to root for as well. Things are looking up, but if that game happens. I might have to watch that game. That's going to be a good one. Now, if they play in the title game, would they both make the tournament curls, you think?
Speaker 2:Division 3, 1, 2,. It's a completely objective approach. It's all numbers. It's all numbers-based to getting the NCAA tournament. Now, what does that mean? What do you mean by that? It's all numbers.
Speaker 1:It's all numbers-based to getting the NCAA tournament. Now what does?
Speaker 2:that mean? What do you mean by that? What numbers? It's all a formula. It's like RPI kind of stuff, it's like strength of schedule kind of stuff. It's 1,000% numbers-based. So there's really no committee making decisions or determinations anymore. So I think it's probably preset. They could probably tell you before the game if they're getting in or not, based on who wins the other games and who's left.
Speaker 1:You say it's objective, but at the end of the day, isn't some of that still subjective, in that you're judging strength of?
Speaker 2:schedule them. But whatever they decide, the metrics are, it's already predetermined how much a road win is weighted, how much a home win is weighted, how much strength of schedule is weighted, opponent strength of schedule is weighted. There's an entire formula that they went through that sounds boring.
Speaker 1:It is. I don't I like by the eye.
Speaker 2:the eye test Well and they went to this in soccer and I think hockey did it first for Division III. I think hockey did it first for Division III. I just listen. I think the NCAA Division III tournament is, in many ways, the hardest thing to get into. Obviously, 64 teams 412, not whatever 200 and some or 300 and some Division I teams and there's no, I mean.
Speaker 1:How many Division III teams are there that are buying for them? 412. So it's 412 trying to get 64 spots. Hey, 412, baby, and they only do 64, right, they don't do that weird, stupid thing.
Speaker 2:That Division I does, I think the national ratio by sport is 1 to 7. And so they keep it. You know, there's equivalence between different sports with different numbers, so you get one to seven, and so I think that's like 64 for us and they cap it.
Speaker 1:They should be one. Um. So now this yeah, I'm a traditionalist like 64 team. All right, yeah, I think um make it mean something.
Speaker 2:When you get in there, the number stuff is easy and clean and keeps it the way.
Speaker 1:It is the numbers stuff is easy and clean and keeps it the way it is. I hope they both get in it's also a misnomer.
Speaker 2:It's just not like the NCAA Division I selection committee. Yeah, it just. In a lot of ways things are predetermined. You might know going into this game it doesn't matter. We can't get in, the numbers say we can't. I think that could lose some stuff. You lose a little bit with that sometimes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you could gain it. It's win or take all baby you win you're in If you know you can't get in unless you win?
Speaker 2:Well, there's that too right. It gives you the certainty. I don't know where point differential comes into. That's the one part I kind of always hate.
Speaker 1:I don't like point differential.
Speaker 2:I think it has to be a factor when you're using only numbers and things can be so even it has to show up somewhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's going to be there. My thought would be if Catholic loses, they're out, but if Drew loses I think they're in, because they beat Catholic twice yeah that would make sense.
Speaker 2:But I wish I could say that I kind of drilled down and paid attention to that stuff, but I you were busy working on your own.
Speaker 1:That's all right. That's all right, All right. So let's get on the record If you had to put money on one of these six teams to win in the landmark conference, who do you take it? He's going to put one of the six teams to win the landmark conference.
Speaker 1:So that's what I'll put my money on. You can, but Biz has to go with Drew too. Can't not root for my namesake. Yeah, I don't like that. Both of us are betting on Drew, yeah, but I can't. I can't take Catholic. Maybe Wilkes, maybe Wilkes is the Wilkes could be the the sleeper, the sleeper, yeah. Three, the three seed, the sleeper, yeah, the sleeper. Yeah, that could be the sleeper. All right. All right, you should go to the Catholic game with the Wilkes sweatshirt on, or something. That's a bad idea. Yeah, I could make one. You could paint your head Wilkes colors. Head to the big W. Yeah, boom, yeah, I probably have a Washington. I could just go in Washington gear, I will say this is different man.
Speaker 2:This is the earliest we've been done in four years, I know.
Speaker 1:It's got to be weird. It's got to be weird, that's all right. Let it motivate you for next year. That's right. Yeah, that's right. Are you going to do anything? You got to take a little bit of an off season. Do we have any plans for the off season?
Speaker 1:Well, that, yes, sure, we got to talk to them. We got to debrief, we got to send them out. We got to have our X in interviews with them. Biz, yeah, yeah, maybe individual. Well, you got to say, maybe we have them on. I think we have them on for 15 minutes each, all right, and we'll grill them. About the other guy? You know, tell us some shit about that guy. Yeah, ooh, I like that Controversy. Imagine the senior barbecue, if that takes place. Yeah, I like it. There's going to be a pool fight. Yeah Well, fellas, we're at the end of our season here. It felt like it just started. I know, maybe not for Curly, but you know what? Let's cleanse it. Get some sage out A little holy water. We're going to wash this sucker away. Do we have the count? Do we have the day count until the first game next year?
Speaker 2:I mean we could. You haven't done that yet. I think we're going to open Friday, the 7th of November. You could probably, I think we.
Speaker 1:Friday November 7th March, 7th March, april, May, june, july.
Speaker 2:August, October, October.
Speaker 1:November, that's nine, 90, nine times three, we'll say 276. 276 days until tip-off. Unofficially, of course, unofficially.
Speaker 2:Listen, we can't scrub this year. We got to use this year and that's we can't.
Speaker 1:we don't, I mean you got to use it, but you also got to put the bleach on.
Speaker 2:Hey, listen, it's the same way, though. Listen, what your record is has nothing to do with the next game ever, and what the score says at halftime has nothing to do with it, and so, like I try to get like even late in, well enough to win the game, and if you keep playing that well, you win games, and so we need to stay focused on that, and we have to be really careful not to play the scoreboard, not to play the record, and so, even coming into the off season, it's just focusing on improvement and getting better, and that's, honestly, where we made a lot of mistakes. A lot of these guys are very result oriented. I just explained to you why I think so. It's not really about process. I think a lot of people are very result oriented, and we understand this is a results based industry, believe me.
Speaker 1:Life as a result? Yes, it is.
Speaker 2:But the key to that is control what you can and worry about your improvement and where you're going. So that's what we need to be focused in.
Speaker 1:So, as a staff, we have to make sure we're locked in on recruiting and finishing a great recruiting class and we're walking our own path, and our coach once said focus on the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean it's. Is that Franklin God?
Speaker 2:no, or as Cam Keck and those guys brought up like everything turns on a trifle, right, it's just small things. Still got to figure out what that trifle, what?
Speaker 1:an actual trifle is.
Speaker 2:Well, the Judy out of guys know what that is, I mean. All right, the rest of you, we'll figure the guy.
Speaker 1:I mastered the usage of the English language. Yeah, it was that stuff. So I'm surprised you didn't stick trefoil in your poo. Now, biz, I was amiss. We're going to be going into our senior year. Is it our senior year or junior year? No, we're finishing our junior year of podcasting. Oh, yeah, yeah, all right.
Speaker 2:Maybe we'll have to honor you guys at senior day next year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, does that mean the show's over then? No, we're going to be graduate assistants after that.
Speaker 2:Okay. You know how it is, man. Once they say, juco doesn't count against you, everybody could go to school for 27 years. Yeah, biz, all right good.
Speaker 1:This will officially be. We'll be going into our senior year. We got to be seasoned. We didn't go in with confidence. We didn't redshirt, you don't redshirt me. I'm not the type that you want to redshirt. If you got me, you play me. We get a banner. Wait, did you guys?
Speaker 2:ever do your ECAC championship banner. There's no banners in there that I've seen New ones.
Speaker 1:Why do we not have a banner?
Speaker 2:Hey, like I said, I'm process-focused. We're just trying to get better right now.
Speaker 1:Biz. We got to get a bit Albert For what we can Do. A banner. Yeah, we need a banner. That's weird when we should have. That was a missed opportunity. I think maybe over the summer yeah, I think in the president we're getting the president.
Speaker 2:They're up there.
Speaker 1:On this podcast.
Speaker 2:There are banners.
Speaker 1:yes, you have the CAC banners up there. Yeah, we missed an opportunity there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's on. If you look at the big pictures in there that have it has what postseason it's on there.
Speaker 1:No, we're doing it. Alumni game next year banner. Can you do a banner for two years? I mean?
Speaker 2:they've kind of just shown up in the past, sometimes when you're behind in that stuff. So again, we're going to get it.
Speaker 1:I don't think we're in that.
Speaker 2:Fog machines, lights an angle pulley system.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got a lot. We got a lot to work on, listen that is a good reminder.
Speaker 2:I mean, we just listen, it's really, really hard and I know people will and whatever I know people will and whatever I'm hoping, the 24 years of consistent success, like we, we don't overreact until a moment. I mean, obviously, the urgency to get it changed. I mean if you guys were around me and understand, believe me, there's no, where we are is not where we need to be. But I've told you, uh, there's many reasons, uh, and they're not excuses, um, because the product has to change, but, um, it doesn't change what you got to do. The process is the same. You just got to get better and you can't skip those steps and you don't just wish it and you don't just come back next year and it'll all work out. It's not how it goes and we got to get better. We got to work, be focused. We have to have a better plan, we have to put guys in better positions, we have to be better as coaches, they have to be better as players and I'm confident we're going to do that. I mean, you know the things that we've learned from this year. I already know now, and we've started putting some of that stuff in place late. You can see where the growth in some of these guys has come. You can see where guys can go with it and it's our job to continue to get that out of those guys. And we have to have a great spring and summer. I think we will. I know we will. We're going to make sure we do and we're going to have a great fall.
Speaker 2:And then we need the guys that come in here. They need to become ready to go and they need to be coming in ready to join us and hopefully, the lessons from this year that all these young guys learned. They can help these other guys get on board quicker and understand how it goes and where we had a shortage of experience this year, we have a ton of guys with experience coming in next year and those are all huge things. I'm excited to have off-season meetings with guys and have context and tell them exactly where they need to get better and talk to them exactly about what the role needs to be and where the roles will be.
Speaker 2:We have just not even had a luxury of those conversations until maybe the last four weeks. Those are huge, huge things and putting together a cohesive team and maximizing your group Probably the thing you can't underestimate. The most is like role certainty and knowing who's in what roles and what we can expect in those places. And although we lose three guys in some ways, with some of the injury and the setback, the only one spot that we're going to have to replace is a huge one that played consistently. It was Mason. It's a big one.
Speaker 2:It's a huge one, but that's not three guys or four guys, it's kind of one guy and how we work around that and figure that out. So those are positives. We can't underestimate what we're losing there either, but we just have to use the lessons from this year, not run from it. Take it on and not walk around with our heads down. I think this is a chance to write a hell of a story, and we will.
Speaker 1:Biz, I need you really to think about your off season. Bring it, it'll be your senior year next year. I'm ready. I have very high hopes for you. Just hope I don't pull a blue tarski 0.0. That's not going to be you. I got faith in you. I got my own motivation. There you go. You're going to show that every episode from here on in for those who can't see it, he's got his Team Gold autographed shirt. Team's right there. You added that that's nice. You've got to put it in the frame.
Speaker 2:I'm going to.
Speaker 1:I'd hate to see it get ruined somehow. I'm going to keep my eye out for you, frank. You don't know the Sending your spies out for me, that's right. Well, fellas, it's a wrap on the 24-25 season. It's an absolute pleasure to do this with you each and every week. Our junior campaign. It was a different year for us. We're going to get back now.
Speaker 2:Everybody. The listeners need to hear. Thank you, guys. Enough for all the time and effort put in. Obviously, tom, I mean for you to even write that poem. I mean thinking about what's going on and being engaged. I mean it's been great, I mean for the alumni weekend, for those guys to continue to be able to tell their story and kind of what's the impact that's had on our guys, and just the chance to even for me to talk some stuff through, and so I really appreciate the feedback we get we're like therapists A beer and a smile From our parents and from our student advocates.
Speaker 2:We have 20,000 followers right now, so it's pretty cool stuff and I really appreciate it. One last thing the day of giving for Juniata is March 6th, all right, so that's the day of giving and the day of giving challenge in men's basketball. Obviously, particularly given this year, we need everyone, everyone to step up and contribute whatever they can to make sure we continue to let everyone know where we really stand as a program, all right, and where there's a setback for a season where we're going in the support and the buy-in of the program that sustains, and then anything you donate goes right to the program and helps us continue to improve. March 6th, march 6th.
Speaker 1:We need to put a little blurb.
Speaker 2:A lot of people listening and a lot of people on here will get reminder texts and emails here coming up. So whatever help you can do, it'll be great.
Speaker 1:All right, biz. Any final words before I close it up? Hey man, the life's full up and downs, you know. It's how you handle them both that makes a difference. Don't get too high on the highs, don't get too low on the lows. Baby Words of wisdom. That's right During the season. That's right, all right. Folks, follow the show on Instagram at JuniataBasketballShow. Subscribe to the Juniata Men's Basketball Show on Apple Spotify or, if you listen to podcasts, leave us a comment on Instagram Until next time. I'm Tom Frank, I'm Biz. Team Gold Coach Greg Curley. All right, we're out.
