Bleav in the Warhawks - Tournament recap

0:00It doesn't matter what, if you were an Indian or if you were a war dog. The Ulyan mentioned is the greatest you'd hope for the best is really fun, but this is what lead you through the war hogs, Octo. With hosts, Dusty Tibidou, and Chase Region. Chase, you always have such great insight. This is going to beat it on. What are these guys always talking about? We talk a lot about food on this podcast and I'm going to continue to do so. It's really, really appreciative of the people and the community and the way that they backed us up. Nailed introduction, by the way. Awesome. We love this. Chase, we're not dancing anymore. The men are out, the women are out. It doesn't look good for any kind of post-season birth for either team, but the women's was a fun run. You got to admit that, Tibidou. It was fun. Was it fun because of the winning or fun seeing Scotty just go absolutely ballistic after

1:01the ODU win? He took off running. Just passed everybody. Yeah. Well, probably the dances behind the scenes that the Sun Belt put up, things like that. I think it was fun to beat Missy Builderback's team. Yeah. That's fun, especially in that type of setting. That's pretty big. It's definitely cool to see him. I know he may not claim this, but to see him over 500 for the year was pretty great. Yeah, that is great. It was fun. It's going to be tough though, but I mean, the day and age of college, basketball is what it is. Nine are off the team now, because they've all graduated, finally, exhausting eligibility. Got to hit the recruiting trail and start shaking the trees, trying to see if you can get some money and some players. I don't think that matters as much to him. I think that's kind of, he's got that Juco mindset, and I think that's great, and obviously, it has been proven he was the right hire. Oh, without a doubt.

2:03Without a doubt, he was the right hire. I just hope he can do it again, and I have every bit of confidence that he can, but if you look at it, everybody was kind of woe as us, woe as me when Builderback left, because he had had those two successful seasons, but if you look, year one was great. Year two, it kind of started going down a little bit. I think year one had so much momentum that we hadn't seen in women's basketball in decades tips, so I think it was just, I think it was great, and it's awesome on that same note to watch. You know, I don't think Scotty's getting the, I wasn't giving him the credit he deserved until he ran some numbers at me, and I realized he's actually done some pretty great things this year. Yeah, without a doubt. And a guy that had the front row seat that was nowhere near the front row in Pensacola in the Bay Center, the voice of the war hawks, they sent him for the men, he stayed for the women. Mike Hammett joins us, Mike, are you nice and bronze from sitting at top?

3:07The Pensacola Center, as you called the radio broadcast. You know, I should be being a, you know, the team, I think, stayed in town. I stayed on the beach because I drove myself, so I stayed out on the beach and got to experience all that again. But fun time, I mean, what a run by the women. And you're right. Hey, I always include the subtle jab in at least one broadcast from Pensacola, and I think I included it right off the top in the men's game against ODU on Tuesday of where at least we're inside the building, unlike certain other broadcast crew that a lot of other folks watch. So we're in the building at least as a radio crew. I know fans complain about that a lot, but you're in the legendary broadcaster text. Is that a big thing that is going on in that text? And maybe even the extreme side of, I know budgets are always the issue with your various media rights holder that they're saying, hey, if the league does it, you can do it too.

4:09It's never really come up as far as any of us radio doing it remote just because I don't think it's really that big of a budget savings, honestly, to have us do it from home. And plus we saw last year, I think it was last year anyway, yeah, it involved Robert Davis for ODU. So yeah, of course, it was last year that that shot clock or a game clock snafu at the end of the game against Texas state where Robert Davis heaves from mid court. Well, the ESPN plus feed is showing like four seconds on the clock. Everybody's going, what's he doing throwing it up from mid court with four seconds? Well, if you were in the building, you knew the clock actually expired when he threw it up from mid court. And so you didn't have a clue on ESPN plus what was going on. So we do kind of jab at it in our group text a little bit, kind of make fun of it a little bit. And it's also a point of frustration because there is space on the floor for a broadcast and nothing is there until Monday when it's championship Monday and the linear ESPN crew comes in and takes over and they set up down there and we are, you know, upstairs

5:13in the concourse level where it's dark and then of course they want to play with the lights and all the bells and whistles of the base center. So you're trying to read something off your sheet during a break and then they turn the lights off on you and do everything like that. And so it is a bit frustrating, but you know what, we're just glad to be in the building. I love tournament week and especially a week like this where the women made a run because I think the only two broadcasters, I did not run into this week were Barry McKnight, of Troy and Chris Virgin of Coastal Carolina and I missed Chris by like probably a matter of an hour anyway inside the base center, but I wasn't sticking around because I wanted to get home. So, you know, just an incredible week that we get to see everybody. It's a lot of fun to see everybody in one week. We, us broadcasters, we're weird, you know, we all like each other. It doesn't matter, you know, that we want our teams to beat the heck out of each other, of course, but we all like each other. We're all really good friends and just a fun week, glad to have the women make a run so that I could have a chance, selfishly, I could have a chance to see a lot of folks

6:13and hang out and have a good time in Pensacola too, in addition to doing my job. You know, Mike, I'm torn about this, you know, obviously I'm proud, I think I was grateful for Missy Builder Back's time in Monroe and how she turned that program around and it doesn't feel like animosity. So from your shoes, how do you see that relationship? Do you think that, do you have any inclinations? Scotty has a chip on his shoulder about her playing Southern Miss? I know he went, what, two and one against him this year and, you know, obviously had a convincing win on a good run. What do you think, do you think there's anything there? Do you think I'm just trying to make some stuff up as a podcaster? It's hard to tell. I think there might be though, just, they go back to the Mississippi Juco days. I mean, they've coached against each other for a long time and so, I think there probably is a little something there. I mean, I think there has to be when you have that kind of history between the two of them. But then, you know, Scotty coming in and following and trying to build off of some of the momentum she created. I mean, you know, after three seasons now, the two under Missy and this year under Scotty,

7:18I don't think people look at ULM women's basketball as the more of an program it was just a few years ago, you know, that there was not a lot of life in that program just a few years ago when who was the voice of the program? Oh, me, I was. So it was, you know, it was not a lot of fun a few years ago and now it's a fun program to cover. Look, I only got to cover them. Let's see. It was the four games in Pensacola. I did two games back in November. I covered them six games, okay? In November, you could kind of tell they were all kind of getting to know each other a little bit still that they didn't quite have the chemistry down. I mean, back then, Asia, NS was running the point most of the time for them and, you know, Nakaimae's Prince was coming off the bench and then by the time I see them again at the end of the season, after seeing them here and there in a couple of double headers throughout the year, it seemed like once Nakaimae's Prince took over that point guard role and once they started to get some of that chemistry down, it really started to roll for them and they were a lot of fun and you could tell they cared for each other by the end

8:21of this thing. That was a really fun scene to follow for four days, just seeing how they all laid it out there and especially Markevia Shavers, my goodness what a tournament she had. I mean, just in knowing that it's coming down to the end of your career too, you know, it stinks that nine of them are gone, but, you know, those nine left it all out on the floor trying to win for a program that they didn't really know or have anything to do with until this year, but I think also for a coach that endeared himself to them that either they played from a Pearl River or they quickly learned to love him, you know, this year. I mean, to see Scotty and Nakaimae's Prince and just how they kind of bonded this year, I mean, that was incredible to watch, just those two and of course, we know about Scotty and his relationship with Markevia and all that, you know, that they go way back to I think 2020 and, you know, her buying them shoes to coach in and all that, I mean, what a fun group. You know, it's, it's been a fun run that I think there's a friendly rivalry there.

9:24I don't know so much about friendly, but the technical fouls of Warhawk Pep band didn't think it's so friendly. As they're late in the game, they started a, we don't miss you chant toward, I don't know if it was directed toward Missy or some of the former players, but there's eight in total in addition to Missy that used to be at ULM that are over there now. And so, you know, I thought that's maybe one of the most cold-blooded chants I have heard from a band or a student section in a long time and I think it's good. I think it's good to have that kind of fun in a program, that kind of chippiness going on as long as, you know, the officials keep it under control as they did in the game. It didn't turn into South Alabama coastal Carolina, so it was all good. All, there's a lot of fun and I think it's something we're going to see continue to develop over the next couple of years. You mentioned fighting. I mean, the men struggled all the way down the stretch and it was a, it was a fight.

10:24Even their last game there that they played in that tournament there against ODU, lost by seven, but really able to kind of hang in there a little bit. Did you see that fight still in them or were they just kind of going through the motions and maybe ODU was as well? I think the fight was there the whole way. I don't think that team ever once quit, which is incredible considering, you know, the final records for in 28. They, they all liked each other. They were an interesting team just to see that down the stretch of the season. We had one road trip in particular that were wrapping up practice and they all start cutting up in the MJ LeBron debate and like joking with each other about it. I mean, it was just, it's incredible to see a group of guys that there wasn't in fighting going on that at least wasn't a parent to me who somebody who's as close to them as, as anybody, you know, without being part of that group necessarily. So they all cared for each other. They all wanted to win. They all wanted to win for this place and for coach and all that was there.

11:28But man, at the end of the day, I still look at it as, you know, they, I know they didn't get anybody all conference and this league, yeah, 14 teams, 15 all conference spots. You go four in 28, 117 in the league. You're not going to get anybody all conference. But Christian Lewis deserved an all conference, not, I still believe LaFell Broadnecks and MJ Russell are two of the better players in the Sunbelt Conference. Raynar Sanders is blossoming into one of the better players in the Sunbelt Conference. But beyond those four, that's where it hurt this year. That's where, you know, they, they recruited a little too young, a little too inexperienced as it turns out. They thought maybe they could hit on some things going that route. And it, it just didn't work. The injury to Brent say Noel didn't help, you know, they, I think with him, they probably have a really solid starting five, but I think depth is still an issue, ultimately, for this group. So, you know, they, they kept fighting, though, and that's credit to them because the season was over long ago. It really was, unfortunately, and, you know, ULM, the only team in the league to not win

12:30what seven games in the league this year, I think, even 13th place, one seven games in the league. We knew that ULM was playing on Tuesday at 730 in Pensacola for a long time. And that's, it's disappointing, but it also, you know, let you kind of set things up with that road trip to South Alabama and Troy and just stay out on the road. And so, you know, they had a lot of fun, I think, as a team behind the scenes, but it wasn't a lot of fun when you're not winning, but I think they did a nice job of keeping it civil and, you know, still learning to pick each other up and do those things. I think a lot of life lessons were learned, but unfortunately, sometimes that's, you know, not enough for wins and losses, anyway. Any bold predictions you think will happen? That team? Who do you think will leave? Who do you think will stay? It's hard to tell. Not a coaching question. That's a great question. Hard to tell. Hard to tell in this era. Obviously, Lavelle Broadnex is out of eligibility.

13:34That's one I still, I look at him and I look at his history and I go, I think if you had a good compliance officer, and again, if he did get another year, I don't know that he would stay just because of the year he puts together here. But I think there could be a case there because he had a Juco year and he had, he had a year he only played four games at Wagner. I think you could maybe find something there. I don't know, but that's also me not being from a compliance background. So they celebrated senior day for him. He's the only one. You know, what I'm interested to see what happens with Christian Lewis, I think even though he wasn't named all conference, I think he's going to be highly sought after. I think ULM is going to try to do whatever they can to keep him. They're going to have to find some money probably to keep him and I'm hoping there may be a bit of a hometown discount there to keep him, but you know, it's all my speculation on, on that, but I certainly think it's probably going to take a little something to keep him. MJ Russell's interesting, coming from an SEC background, didn't play a lot at Mississippi

14:39State, comes here and turns into a star at ULM does, does he stick around realizing maybe staying in the sun belt might be better for his future or staying at this level might be better for his future or does he try the SEC again or try to go back up to the power for level, you know, and then the rest of the guys, you know, you know, international players have started to move too. That wasn't a big thing at first in the transfer portal, but they've started to some, does Ray and our Saunders look somewhere, does, you know, 4 and 28s hard to look at that and say, and, you know, sometimes kids that young don't look at it and see the big picture. I think some of them do. I think it's going to be interesting to see who is back, who is invited back, who is maybe asked to enter the transfer portal because you're going to have to go add some pieces to this and you're not losing enough off of what the roster had to be able to go add the pieces you need. So I think there's going to be some guys that they say, hey, it might be in your best interest to hit the portal, just to clear some spots. But again, that's just my speculation.

15:41That's just me looking at it, no one this year didn't work for whatever reason. You got to go back and build a better roster and, you know, there's pieces there. I still think there's pieces there to build around. It's just you got to have more depth than what you had this year, bottom line. So while we're speculating, I'm going to ask you the long question there Mike. Starts at the top head coach, right? He's the one that had to build the roster. He's the one that got the job. Did he do enough to get a second year? Because my understanding is the contract is a five year agreement, but it's in one year chunks. It's kind of five one year contracts. Did he do enough to get that second year? And before you even answer, I'll give my opinion on it there to give you a break. He was thrown to the wolves, but he got that job so late. He did not really get a chance to go through a full recruiting cycle and build his team with his roster. He got some of it, I think, with Brent A. Noel, I think with Kristen Lewis kind of coming

16:47in with Zimmerman, maybe MJ as well. But that wasn't just through and through a Phil Cunningham roster. I agree. And that note. Yeah. I'd say, yeah, you give him another year and give him a full year to recruit. The other end, like you said, four in 28, I'm not signing up to go to ULM at four in 28. Because even if you sell me that I'm the next MJ, I'm the next LeBron. And I'm the next whoever, you're four in 28. If we go 10 wins, is that enough for me to make a difference? Yeah. That's a great point and you know, you're in an era now where, you know, I hate, you know, look, I love Phil and I'm not, I'm not saying I still think he needs another year. That's, I just don't think it's right, you know, one and done, but you're also in an era like you said to your point, Dusty, it feels like you got to produce in year

17:50one as a new coach, just because you can flip the roster so easily in this era with the transfer portal. And we've seen it happen at ULM between what Missy did a couple years ago on the women's side to what Scottie did this year on the women's side, you know, we're seeing it right now. Baseball has, we're going to get to this a little later on, but Baseball has the top offense in the Sunbelt as we get ready to start Sunbelt conference play. I know the pitching leaves a little to be desired right now and maybe the defense a little bit too, but Ford Pemberton has flipped that offense. The Warhawk offense has really struggled the last couple of years and that's been fun to see. You know, we've, we've seen it in different spots, you know, I mean, heck, even coach Vincent to a degree two in football to go take that thing to five years, five wins in year one. I know year two, slid back a little bit, but you injected some life. I think it's a harder sell, like you said, for coach Cunningham and recruiting, you know, for year two, just from that aspect of it, you know, do you sell a kid on, you know,

18:54we're going to find a way to get to five hundred and we're, you know, I think a five hundred record probably most years is good enough to get you, you know, a seven or eight seed in the conference tournament and give you a puncher's chance of trying to make a run in Pensacola because we've seen this year sometimes, you know, with the ULM women, Georgia Southern men, Southern Miss men, sometimes all you got to do is just win that first one in this gauntlet style bracket and then you can get on a roll and go and make a run at this thing, you know, finish middle of the pack and go from there is that, you know, something that's going to excite a kid, you know, that's, that's a tough question to see how that works, but, you know, if they can hang on to him and keep coach Zimmerman around and keep Christian around and find a way to keep MJ and, you know, Brent say no else hangs around and is healthy and now you've got to still go find, you know, probably a couple more guards, definitely a couple more forwards, you know, hang on to Ray and ours, I missed Ray and ours in there too, you know, there's pieces that I love about that team.

19:57They were fun to watch, it was 4 and 28 and 4 and 28's miserable, but they weren't bad to watch. I mean, they were entertaining with the dunks and the threes and they were in a lot of games and the style they played, they just got to be a little better defensively, they got to be able to rebound consistently, they got to have some depth, they got to be able to sit some guys, give them a little rest and and go, but, you know, you don't need a whole bunch of top line guys, you probably need one or two more top line guys and then fill in some solid depth behind them, but man, it's tough, it's tough to, you know, 4 and 28, I understand, but even in this era, I still think it's hard to go one and done. I just, I do, I think it's, you know, it was rough, like you said, to get it as late in the process as he did, to get it, you know, where you're just kind of scrambling to collect guys to play on this year's team and then to have injuries to key guys, you know, to be missing Brent A. Noel all year, which, you know, Coach Cunningham before the year was talking up Christian, talking up MJ, talking up LaVelle and talking up

21:00Brent A. Well, the other three all lived up to that hype in those expectations. So I'd have to believe I would have lived up to the hype and the expectations too, but we never, we never saw it. So I don't know, interesting decision ahead, that's why I'm the radio broadcaster and not the director of athletics. So, and in those positions, so I'm just interested to see that the bottom line is it's got to change. 4 and 28, everybody knows it. I'm not telling any secrets here. 4 and 28 is unacceptable. Everybody knows that. And so I'm interested to see what's going to happen to change that and try to take it, you know, in a better direction coming up next season. 117 in conference. Yeah. Right. And like you said, like the next three teams, 117 games, and it showed that, you know, there was very obviously one team that was just not competitive in the sun belt. Unfortunately, that's us with all that said. So if you make the decision

22:01based on that, I think people would be like, okay, but he inherits, it's not like, let's not. I love Coach Reshore. I think he's great for you, Liam. It's not like he inherited some gold mine. Okay. It's not like Phil inherited this longstanding, super winning culture with these great players or anything like that. He had what, eight, seven months or whatever he had to build the team. I mean, he got him a little late. I really, I just hate the idea of going one and done. I understand that that's probably where we're headed as for coaches in basketball, especially. But it just feels like, it just feels like we don't know what his, now he does this again next year. No, I don't think there's a question. But it's too soon, in my opinion, to really try to, if you understand his whole, if you understand all the context around his situation, I think it's too soon to be calling for a set. I think he's, you know, he's got some great experiences. And he hit on a few guys and

23:03he had to play, he even said tips on his podcast. He said he had to play way younger than what he wanted to. He was very open about that, saying I had some early injuries. I had to play way younger. They're not producing. But I didn't expect them to produce this year. I expected them to really be ready next year that you're after. And so I don't know. I just, I hate that we have to conversation because the record was so bad. Just win, just win 10 games, man. And we wouldn't have even had to have this conversation. Yeah, you're right about the young guys. I mean, they had to, you think back all the way back to the season opener, you know, in November in De Calabalanoi. They started Peshemic Hartman because they had the injuries to both Brent A. Noel and Lavelle Broadnex at that point in the season. And Hartman wasn't even in the rotation by the end of the year. The fact that they're playing Wiggy Ball, a guy who was headed to play college baseball. And I think was brought on just to kind of develop him. And, you know, they thought, I think, you know, maybe two or

24:03three years down the road, Wiggy would be a guy that could play and handle some things. And they had to throw him on the fire right away as a backup point guard. And to be fair, to be fair to Wiggy, he knew his role. He knew he wasn't a scorer. He knew he was to come in, not turn the ball over, you know, find a couple of assists here and there and defend. I thought, I thought Wiggy did okay, you know, for being thrown on the fire. But I think you need somebody a little more dynamic than that, too, to be your backup point guard as well. So it's not meant to be a shot at Wiggy. I thought he did a fantastic job for what he was to this team. You know, I thought, I think they thought they were going to get more out of Alex Mollafeeve this year. Really kind of a highly touted international guy. And he was up and down, you know, what a freshman does. And I think a little more down than up. But he had his moments where you saw why they brought him in, too. But, you know, you go through those young guys. I mean, it's, they need, they need a time to develop. And that's where you missed on the depth of, you know,

25:06you need a two or three more guys, at least ahead of them. So they didn't have to play those minutes. And you go back through the year. I mean, it wasn't pretty early. But the, the Houston Christian game back on November 13th, they were up at halftime. They ran out of gas in the second half. They were worn out in the second half and HCU blew past them. But they were, they were in position to try to win. They lost by three to more head state, you know, looking back through some other games. South Alabama, they should have closed out up 20 the first time around up 14 or two and a half minutes ago. That was a bad loss to lose them two over times. You know, the Kansas State game, the best ULM has pushed a power 14 in my time as the voice of men's basketball. I think down four at the under four time out. I mean, it was incredible. In Manhattan, on that one, but you lose by five to Texas State, six to the Cajuns, 10 to Southern Miss, three to Georgia Southern, four to Coastal Carolinas. You lose by five to ball state, one to Troy, eight to Arkansas state. I mean, and seven to O.D. you to close out the year.

26:11It's not like they were just getting blown out night after night. They were in games. They just didn't know how to win games is what it came down to. It took them playing their best game of the season to get that win at Old Dominion. And they just never were able to replicate that. And even the O.D. you win. They were moments down the stretch where they made a couple turnovers. They missed a key shot. They didn't get a stop when they needed it. But they got enough to string it together and hang on. So they never learned how to win and close out those games this year. And I think that came down to not having the depth. And the other team is a little bit fresher at the end of the game. And so, you know, it's a tough spot. It's a tough spot to be in. I'm interested to see how it unfolds, of course. And, you know, again, that's my salary and the 80s salary. Or, you know, it's way apart from each other. And there's a reason for that. So I'll just, you know, I can sit here and tell you all about this team. And, you know, my look at what I think went went what went right, what went wrong and and all that. But at the end

27:12of the day, you know, it's not my call. And so, you know, I love this coaching staff. I hope they get another chance. But for in 2018, like, I see both sides of the argument. I do. But, you know, I'm interested to see what happens here over the next, next week or two. My camera advisor to the stars and SJ two. I don't know about that. But I don't get paid enough to be an advisor. So shifting gears to baseball, you know, with, with all the Sunbelt Conference talk, you know, you talked about this upcoming weekend. We'll get it started against Texas State, a team that's been kind of hot. And you said, we've been hitting better. What if I told you the pitching statistically, statistically, yeah, has been just a little bit better than last year. Yeah. Last year, as we got ready to host James Madison to start Sunbelt Conference action,

28:15our starters were three wins, six losses, seven no decisions, throwing for just over a six ERA with four saves, meaning they were keeping the games close and had the save opportunities, 125 strikeouts, 78 based on balls. Okay. Yeah. This year, starters are seven, six and three, seven, six and three. We're getting the wins and getting the depth out of our starters. Yeah, I think what we've seen this season, you know, the offense is one thing. I'm sure we'll talk about that more. The pitching side of it, I think what you see is that the top is pretty good. I really believe, you know, Adam Broadnecks has answered the bell as the Friday night guy is a true freshman the last couple of weeks. I mean, he's been great. And then behind him, Brant Corley and JC Dermity are two tough lefties. JC was fantastic in the series finale against

29:15UTA. I think the starting rotation is really good. I think they have some really good bullpen arms behind those guys that they do have some some top end guys out of the pen. Holden Hess has kind of developed into one of those guys, which he's a guy who's been around this program forever. And it's I'm glad, you know, for a guy like that who's stuck around this, I'm so happy to see success for a guy like that. And even as I say that, he's still as an ERA North, and also has two saves. He's throwing 13 and a third innings, 15 strikeouts to five walks. Those numbers are all big improvements for him. You know, Adam Tubbs, he's had his moments where it got away from him a couple times this year, but Tubbs has become a guy that sometimes they look at for an, you know, maybe a couple of innings at a time where when he started his career at ULM, he was a lefty specialist. And so he's developed into that. I know Ken and Clayton left with an injury today against UTA, but hopefully okay. But, you know, seven strikeouts to two walks as

30:17he's coming off an injury through four and two thirds innings and hasn't allowed a run. He's been tough and Caleb Stramiske has been tough and just a handful of appearances out of the pen. Cash Dabbs is coming around as a true freshman and Tyler Rohark, you know, is still trying to figure it out a little bit, but he goes out there and he competes. And they've got dudes that'll go out there and fight. Now, sometimes they're going to get touched up. Sometimes they may walk some guys and do some things, but, you know, I think this, this group, I'm excited for the upside of the pitching as we get deeper into the season as Coach Brady Cox gets to work with them a little more. Folks got to remember. Coach Brady Cox was the pitching coach for Little Rock last year. And if you remember, Little Rock maybe should have won that Baton Rouge Regional. The, you know, the one that they've been out of. So, you know, he's done a pretty good job in his past and I'm excited to see because I think they do have a lot of upside. I don't know how much upside the offense has going into conference play just because they've been so good so far. And so

31:22you're just hoping they can maintain that as they see better pitching as we get into conference play. So, I think it's, you know, to sit where this group is considering everything that it's a restart and, you know, trying to get this thing going to sit at nine and nine right now. Hey, I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that as they get ready to go into conference play. And I know Coach Pemberton's probably not happy with nine and nine and having lost four straight before today. But, you know, I think it's a group that's figuring out how to win and figuring out who fits into what rolls. That's what was important these first 18 games is determining who's in what rolls. You got to remember they've been missing Mike Adin for a couple of weeks now with, with his concussion issue after getting hit in the helmet against a gambling, I think it was. And so they're still, they're still going to get better, I think. And so that's exciting to see. And now the big thing is this weekend coming up. You'd love to take two out of three at home. I think the biggest thing in conference play is just don't get swept. Find a way to win one every weekend. If you can,

32:28you'll win a few weekends here and there. And that's going to put you in the conversation from Montgomery, which at the end of the day, it's year one for this program. I know every coach, every baseball coach out there will and softball coach out there will talk about regional regional regional. This program just needs to get back to Montgomery first and foremost. And in this league, if you get to Montgomery and you get there with a high enough seed, that regional thing will take care of itself. It's about getting to Montgomery. And that's an accomplishment in this league. You know, when you talk about 14 teams, and I think you've got, I think you got 14 really good baseball programs in this league because some that were the bottom feeders a few years ago, you know, Arkansas state and Marshall have taken steps to become a lot better. And Georgia states in the process like what Fred Stromdahl's done with that program in Atlanta with the facility they have, which is, you know, the old bus lot out there in Atlanta, that thing for a division one facility is, you know, not great, not great at all, but they're building a new stadium. And he's been able to

33:30recruit with poor facilities and still win at a decent clip. It's a little scary to think about what Georgia state becomes when they open the new stadium and they've got good facilities. And so this league, I think baseball is the hardest sport to win it. And to be nine and nine and building confidence and doing those things, I think ULM's got a puncher's chance. You got to go in, you just got to make sure you don't get swept. You're going to win a couple series here and there. Maybe try to steal a sweep here and there too. And just get to Montgomery. Get to Montgomery and let your big dogs go to work and see what you can do and make a run. And like I say, he gets to Montgomery. I think the regional thing takes care of itself because folks got to know, if you don't, the Sunbelt is really a power conference in baseball. It really needs to be considered a power conference in baseball because it's a league that should get three, four, you know, if the chips go right, maybe five bids to a regional. And that's just how good, how deep this league is. While you were talking there, Mike, I was able to find the rest of my notes. Sorry, Chase. Like I said, last year, just over six ERA this year, just under six. So a little bit better.

34:35166 strikeouts this year, 125 last year, 89 based on balls. So there's your your struggle. We're still walking too much. But the offense is still solid. Last year hitting 257, 11 home runs this year, 326, 21 home runs. Last year, 17 errors. Sorry, we're already at 19. So we're doing better in kind of the key stats, but still shooting ourselves in the foot whenever we get the opportunity to do it. Sorry, Chase. No, it's good. You know, I don't, I don't, of course, don't have too many questions about baseball. But I've got a question that I've just, you know, it's like I'm too scared to ask and ham it. You know, I love you to death. So I'm going to ask you. What's in ERA? Everybody sit tight. Everybody sit tight. Okay. An ERA earned run average. It's per nine innings. How many runs you give up earned runs, you give up per nine innings. So if there's an error, like a defensive error behind you,

35:35that becomes an unearned run because it's not the pitcher's fault. So even if the pitcher is the one who commits the error, it's still deemed not the pitcher's fault, which, you know, that's a whole other thing. That's, but that's what it is. I'll join your podcast and ask you about dumb baseball. It's a system of questions. And this is sure. So all I've got is, is Southeastern that good? I mean, I put a little, a little slap down, didn't I? I think Southeastern is pretty good. I haven't looked at them too much to be perfectly honest with you because I knew I wasn't going to call those games because I was going to be in pen. Stern, I think push the other miss the week before and they're in their midweek. So I think I'm trying to pull them up real quick. I think they're decent. And you know, Coach Pemberton was at Southern Miss with Matt Reiser, who was the head coach there, who then got the Memphis job because they were so successful at Southeastern. They're nine and seven. They're okay. I mean, they're a good Southland program and people forget to. Southland's a good league in

36:38baseball as well. They just typically don't get the multiple bids, but that's a solid league two in baseball. So yeah, that was, that was a tough double midweek. It kind of was the reverse of the 2020 season. It was the last time ULM in Southeastern played. And Southeastern came to ULM and the Warhawks put a hurt in on them in 2020. That was the infamous 19 run bottom of the fourth back in 2020 that then for Southeastern after they went three up three down on the top of the fifth to say, Mercy, we've had enough and they only played four and a half innings that night. So that was a complete reversal of that, but that's a good team. Hey, check on that happens. What's that? Do they prerate your paycheck when that happens? Well, no, no, they don't, but I also didn't call that one either. That that one. I was with women's basketball out at Coastal Carolina when that game happened. And I can tell you, I was in my hotel room working on game notes or my prep or something for the next day. And they called

37:40me, said dinner was ready. I walked down, went to the team dinner, ate dinner, had a conversation, sat there, watching the live stats, seeing this thing go crazy. How did time, you know, took my time eating dinner, talking to folks went back to my room and the ending was still going. I mean, it was, it was a wild one, but I wish I would have been there, but I was listening to that. It was a lot of, I guess I don't wish I was there because there was a lot of bases loaded walks. There was a couple grand slams, but a lot of bases loaded walks, which are a lot of fun to call. Tells from the road, Mike, what all happened down in Pensacola? I know you were staying on the beach. Did you get the good old bungee and scare the old folks on the beach or what happened there? You know, I can get to Pensacola in a minute. I want to make sure tales from the road because I haven't been on with you since. I got to get my home alone story in from the

38:40the app, a Marshall app state swing with the ice storm back in the end of January. That was, that it may be one of my top stories I take from my time here at ULM. You know, however long it may be, whether I'm here another 30 years or whether I'm, you know, who knows what's in store for me. So, I travel with the teams, but my travel is booked separately. So I, whenever at the beginning of the season, they set the hotels, the flights, all that. I get all that information from the coaches. I go in and I book it all through Van Wagner and all that and make sure the company cards on it so I don't actually pay for it, but I try to stay on everything with them so I can ride the bus, do those things. With that ice storm, I wanted to make sure I got home because, you know, being a father of three, I didn't want to leave my wife and kids, you know, alone during the storm and have them be without power and I couldn't get home for, you know, God knows

39:42how long after that thing hit. So we start adjusting plans a little bit and so they change the game times. We play it noon Thursday against Marshall noon Friday at App State, which is not a fun turn around because it's still about a five hour bus ride between Huntington and Boone. We go play the game against Marshall. That was a terrible game. That was Marshall hitting 26 three pointers and a Sunbelt record. It wasn't fun at all. We get on the bus after the game and because I'm booked separately, I get the push notifications from Delta, from, or, you know, whatever hotels and all that and as I'm sitting there in the team is still in the locker room, changing and whatnot, I get a push notification that our flight that we had rescheduled to get on on Friday night, we're going to race down the mountain, get to Charlotte, fly home. That flight from Atlanta to Monroe got cancelled, even though weather looked like it was going to be fine to get in Friday night cancelled.

40:47So that sends everybody scrambling for a while coach and his staff, they got on the bus and I told coach and Noah Stanzberry, who is the director of operations this year, I told him, I'm like, hey, I just got a notification from Delta, our flight's cancelled tomorrow night. We're not getting home and they tried getting a hold of the travel agent. I didn't know this. They tried getting a hold of the team travel agent and they didn't answer and so they go right to work on all their prep for app and I'm sitting there looking at them. I'm like, we're not worried that our flight got cancelled, like we're not doing it. Well, I didn't know that they couldn't get a hold of the travel agent and so I started to get to work on my own because I'm like, hey, I'm booked separate. I can do my own thing. I had the brilliant idea. I'm like, you know what? I'm going to see about American Charlotte to Jackson and have my wife come pick me up in Jackson, and get me home before everything gets bad. And so that's what I do. I get booked onto that flight. I tell coach Cunningham and Noah,

41:51I'm like, hey, you might look into this. This is what I'm doing. This is a possibility. And so we play the game at app. I come down the mountain or we come down the mountain in the bus. The team is going to stay in Charlotte and just kind of hang out in Charlotte until they could get a flight out and get home. So I, when they get to the airport or to the hotel rather in Charlotte to stay the night, I get an Uber, go to the airport to go get ready for my flight. I arrive like six hours early because the flight was like a 10 o'clock flight from Charlotte into Jackson, which was fine. JT crab tree voice of the South Alabama Jaguars was there. He was flying home. So I went and hung out with him for a little bit to kill time. But everything was going great. Looking good. You know, my wife and kids are getting on the, in the car and starting to head to Jackson for, you know, a nearly midnight pickup, but the weather's looking like it's going to hold. They're going to be able to get there, pick me up. We're going to get back. It's going to be great. And I get on the flight and we take off and we go. And everything's wonderful. And we are, I think about halfway there. And I've got my headphones in,

42:54but I can hear there's a pilot announcement. And so I just, I'm like, that's a little weird for this part of the flight. So I popped the earbud out and he's telling us that one of the heaters on the pilot's windshield went out during takeoff and wasn't coming back on. And because the temperature was close to freezing in Jackson, we couldn't land in Jackson because they might get ice on the windshield and not be able to see. So we had to turn around and go back to Charlotte. But first we had to burn off fuel. And so we're just going in circles over Atlanta or coming back near Charlotte, just going in circles. We got low enough, you know, FAA didn't hear this, but we got low enough that I got enough of a cell signal because this plane is so small. There's no Wi-Fi on it. We got low enough. I got a cell signal text in my wife. I said, turn around, go home. We're not getting in. Just turn around, go home. I'll figure it out. And I said, everything's fine. We're not we're not bad, but just go home.

43:56And we finally land. They come on and tell us, well, it's an overnight delay, 630 AM takeoff. And so I start looking into, okay, that gets us into Jackson. I think there's going to be around 8 AM. And I told my wife, I'm like, hey, I'm going to stay up all night here at the airport, watching the weather. I'll let you know in the morning when we're taking off if you should come, or if I'm just going to find a hotel in Jackson and just ride it out and I get home when I get home. And so I stay up all night in the Jackson airport. I got maybe a half hour of sleep, just waiting for that overnight delay because I didn't figure it was worth going to one of the hotels they were offering to be there and sleep like two hours and come back and go through security again. I wasn't going to deal with that. So the next morning, 630 comes and they flash, flight canceled up on the board after we had sat there all night. And everybody started freaking out. And then they came on finally after they realized people were freaking out going, hold on,

44:57we're just changing the flight number. You're all okay. You're all going to get transferred. It's fine. But it was still an hour and a half after that before we finally started to board about 8 AM. So I'm wearing, I think, a ULM baseball pole over just trying to get just wearing whatever, you know, become comfortable on the plane. And there was a group of three people in front of me, a couple of spots in the line waiting to get our new boarding passes and get on the plane. They happen to turn around and see the ULM logo on my chest. And they're like, hey, are you trying to get some Monroe? I'm like, yeah, actually I am. And they're like, well, we're going no matter what. Like we've got a truck four-wheel drive in Jackson and we're going, do you want to ride with us? I don't know these people from Adam. I'm like sure. I'll just trust that, you know, nothing bad's going to happen. They looked on the up and up. So I jumped in with them when we got to Jackson. That was a dicey ride back from Jackson. You know, we probably shouldn't have tried to push it.

46:00It was fine until we got to about 12 miles east of Monroe. It was leading pretty good at that time. And we're slowing down. We're in the right lane. Well, big old 18 Wheeler comes around us in the left lane thinking that everything's just fine. And just as soon as he clears us and gets past us, he jackknifes into the median. And so we slow down. We look back. Make sure he's okay. And we continue on our way. We went like maybe 15 miles an hour. The last 10 miles or so into Monroe. Exit off. Take it slow all the way to the airport. Took me about 20, 25 minutes to scrape off my car and get it going. And took me, I think, about 45 minutes to drive from the airport to my house. But I made it all because of three strangers who all work together, who were just coming home from some conference up in Washington, DC that had made it to Charlotte. And we're waiting for that flight to Jackson. Just pure fate. You know, I was Catherine O'Hara. That was the week leading into her death, actually. And so I had all the people telling me, you know, hey, you're Catherine

47:03O'Hara. And then she passed away later that week. But man, that was, I was just glad they weren't a polka band. That's all. So, but that is, I think, one of the greatest moments I had just the fate to be in line at the right time around those people. And they took care of me and got me home. You know, otherwise I was going to sit in the hotel in Jackson until, you know, from Sunday until probably Wednesday because of how bad it was. But and then thankful to get home and then thankful that our neighborhood has buried power lines and, you know, doesn't have many tall trees. It's a newer neighborhood. And we never, we lost power for about 30 seconds, the whole storm. And thankful for that. I know that was a tough time for a lot of folks in our region. And, you know, we were willing to help, but we also couldn't get out and do anything. And we were willing to host people. But again, they couldn't get to us. So just what a what an experience. And, you know, to hear a lot of people say, that's the worst ice storm we've seen in Northeast Louisiana. I've been here

48:03eight years and I've lived through what folks have called the worst hurricane in Northeast Louisiana and Hurricane Laura. And now the worst ice storm. So that's tornadoes in there. Look, I'm from Kansas. We've dealt with I'm don't tornadoes my whole life. But we did we did have the Easter Sunday tornado in 2020 that came near our house. You know, if we would have lived where we lived now, we would have had damage from that tornado. But at the house we were in at the time, it like lifted up and went over us. So so yeah, we've had we've had it all. That's the only time I've ever been in a tornado emergency was that was that storm too. So Pensacola, though, is great. I stayed, like I said, by myself, I hang out with the broadcasters, you know, my buddy Danny Reed at Georgia Southern, you know, we went through probably half a bottle of bourbon on Monday night before the game started and just a good time talking about broadcast industry and life and, you know, him and I are pretty much the same age and and JT crab tree at South Alabama's in

49:05there with us too. And so three of us, we get along great. That's the only picture of broadcasters. I took this weekend was the three of us before those two played each other in the men's side of the tournament, but just a lot of fun. I enjoy seeing all my fellow broadcasters. It's just fun to to talk shop, talk about our teams, talk about our families. I mean, it's it's such a good group. And I'm so thankful and blessed to be a part of that. The sun belt, something special when it comes to us radio broadcasters. And so I think it's the best league out there for that. So anyway, all that being said, it's been eventful. Been a fun last couple of months. I got in, you know, from Pensacola 1130 to midnight Saturday night. Of course, losing hour of sleep had to get up and be out of the house 4am to go to my daughter's gymnastics meet in the Tyler Texas earlier today. And managed to keep my eyes open through it, not that what I love what she does and I love watching her. It's just the downtime in between each event that you're like, okay, come on, let's keep it moving. So, uh, and then managed to stay awake on the drive home and get us here and

50:12now, uh, so thankful, so thankful of Coach Pemberton is listening for some reason and has made it to this point. Coach, thank you for not scheduling a midweek this week because I need to thank you that we don't play against all Friday. So, uh, I can have a couple days to recuperate, get ready to go and get into the grind to baseball season starting Friday. You didn't hear the leap for it. You didn't hear that we penciled in, uh, grand one for a win at the grand again. Josh can call it. Josh can call it. Right. Tips, I got to tell you the best part about his travels were, uh, the play by play text that Mike McGee and I got about what's going on. And then about halfway through McGee stops responding. Right. Yeah. He lost cell service power and about a week later, he was like, not great over here. So, oh, oh, McGee, man, you guys are really worried over there, but glad you're home safe. And, you know, I would say I'm glad your travel's over with, but you got baseball season staring right in front of you.

51:13Two weeks, I'll be in mobile three weeks. I'll be in Lafayette. Uh, I'm not looking forward to being right back out on the road. But again, when I talk about broadcasters and his league, I get to go see my guy JT for a weekend in mobile in two weeks. I get to go see the legend J Walker in three weeks in Lafayette. Uh, I think this past week in Pensacola has properly prepared my liver for that trip to Lafayette as well. So I think I'm ready to go there. I hope that life does not be life. And because I have every intention, once again, of going to Lafayette for the series, just like I was supposed to go to UT Arlington this week. Me and Chase, we're going to hang out. And then he texted me, you know, it's like a 90% chance of rain. I said, yeah, that means there's a 100% chance that I will not be going to Arlington. I don't blame you, Chase. It's still that's a 30 minute drive and DFW, which could easily turn into more and not worth the rain. Now they're in the rain. Yeah. Yeah. So plus baseball, but you get it.

52:15Come to the booth sometime with me, Chase. We'll have fun. We'll have only what can I do color? I'll do it for free, but can I do color? I mean, I don't know. I'll do it for free, but can I do color? I'd have to get through a screening process first, but yeah. Awesome having you all as always there, ham. Chase, so much fun. We'll do it again here soon. See you soon.