College Baseball Postseason Projections, Spurs-T’Wolves Reactions, Stanley Cup Playoffs The Craig Way Show

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Happy Tuesday to you, as once again on a Tuesday
we bring you the program from the ballpark. We’re at
UFC dishfalk Field, and I might add this will be
the final Tuesday that we bring you the program from
UFCU dish falk Field. You see the game between Texas

(00:22):
and Texas and UTSA tonight here at UFCU dish faalk
Field will be the final non conference regular season game
for the Longhorns. They have no Tuesday game next week
during the final exam purred and also because of the
moving up of the conference schedule in the final week

(00:43):
of the regular season to a Thursday Friday Saturday slot
because the conference tournament begins the following week in Hoover, Alabama.
So with that we welcome you to the program. Glad
to have you with us here on Sports MEDIOAM thirteen
under the Zone. My name is Craig Way. Thanks so
much for winning us. We are at UFCHU dish Farfield.

(01:04):
Loghorns take on the UTSA Roadrunners tonight at six thirty.
We’ll be on the air at six fifteen with the
pregame and the first pitch at six thirty and keep
more little joining me for the call of that that
will come your way tonight on one oh three point
one FM, Austin’s eighty station, And so that comes comes

(01:28):
your way tonight, and again it’ll be on Austin’s eighty station,
one oh three point one FM. And of course you
can always listen to us on the iHeartRadio app and
on the Texas Longhorns app and online at Texaslonghorns dot com,

(01:49):
So several different ways to follow the Longhorns. By the way,
we’ll enter tonight’s game number three in the nation n RPI,
their number three in the Baseball America rankings, so number
four in all of the other pole rankings like D one,
baseball dot com, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Rankings,

(02:10):
Perfect Game, and the ESPN US Today Coaches bol so
they’re number four in all of the other rank He’s
number three by Baseball America. And speaking of Baseball America,
we will have regional projections that we will detail for
you coming up a little bit later on. Also in
the four o’clock hour, we’re gonna talk a lot of

(02:30):
college baseball, as we do every Tuesday, with our man
Ty Harrington, the man who was a coach for twenty
years at Texas State won a junior college national championship.
As they head coach at Northeast tex they just had
their thirtieth anniversary reunion. I’ll ask him about that, but
there’s other key topics to get to a tie, and

(02:51):
we’ll do that now. I’ll mention them before we even
visit with him in the four o’clock hour. But there’s
other topics as well. Texas, by the way, is taking
on a UTSA team that is thirty eighth in the RPI.
So this is a good non conference game. This isn’t
playing what is it? Vic Schaffer likes to say three
name one directional school.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Hope you miss State, Yeah, one of those.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
So it’s not that that UTSA is good. You have
only to look back a year ago to remember. For
long worn fans, it’s an unpleasant memory, but that memory
that the Longhorns had of losing in the region around
the road Runners here a year ago. UTSA then fell
to UCLA in the super region around. But it was
the deepest run that Pat Hallmark’s team had ever made.

(03:39):
And he brings a good ball club in here, the
team that is leading the American Athletic Conference standings, so
they’re thirty eighth in the RPI. They had no damage
at all. I’m playing this team tonight. It’s a really
weird deal because this is the time of year where
you start to hear about school dropping games and that’s

(04:03):
to protect their RPI. I have not heard the Texas
A and M is planning to drop its game. That
the Aggies will plan to go forward and play Prairie
View A and M the night, And it’s a weird thing.
I think it was tweeted out that if they go forward,
go through with it, they play the game and win

(04:24):
the game. Win the game in College Station, they would
drop four spots in the RPI, from number eight to
number twelve. It’s what happens when you play a team
that is that far down in the RPI. But it’s
a difficult problem on the last tie about that, as
well as some other things. The producer is Jay Herman.
He is in the studio and Jake, we’ve got a

(04:45):
lot to get to. First of all, did you reassure
your friends who are very, very dismayed that the Philadelphia
Flyers advanced in the second round of the playoffs and
the other day you said, don’t worry about it. They’re
probably not going to last more than four or five
games against Carolina, So did you reassure them again after
after the Flyers jumped to a very quick, too nothing lead,

(05:05):
only to have the Hurricanes come back and win the game,
tied up and win an overtime last night to go
up two games tonight.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
That’s so funny.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
I was on the phone with one of my friends
from He lives in New York now, but he’s he’s
a DC fan like myself, and we had missed the
beginning of the game because we were on the phone.
Turns out, in the first five minutes, Yeah, the Flyers
came ready to play. But the Hurricanes, Craig, they’re like
a Boa constrictor. They can just kind of tighten their
grip on you without you even realizing it and wear

(05:33):
you down over the course of the game. And I
think my prediction is still going to hold true.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, Okay, we’ll see how it is going forward. Well,
we’ll bring up some other things with regard to that
I did last night taking a Major League baseball game.
As folks who follow me on social media were able
to discover both whether it be Facebook or on x
you know on Twitter at Horn Voice, Lynn and I

(05:59):
went down to dyke In Park in Houston to see
the Astros play the team we root for, the Dodgers. Uh,
we were. We were pretty pumped up about going down there.
First of all, I like going to ball games at
dyke And Park. I think they do an excellent job there. Uh,
the Astros do and put in putting on games and uh.
And of course always it is climate control. Now it’s

(06:19):
even climate controlled when it doesn’t need to be climate controlled.
You know that that happens. You know, it’s it just Uh,
even even when it’s a beautiful day. They have the
roof closed almost entirely. But and it’s odd because they
had the roof open the entire time when the Long
Horns played there in the Bruce Bolt College Classic at

(06:39):
the end of February into the first couple of days
in March. But anyway, the we go down for the
game last night to see the Dodgers and the Astros.
Now a pumped up and go see the team we
root for, and the team and a lot of people
on Twitter on AX saying why do you root for them?
You root for the Dodger. You’re a Dodger, and you know,

(07:00):
going into great detail, I did say, yes, I’ve rooted
for him since I was a little kid, and so
on and so forth. And so the long and short
of it is is that when I was a little kid,
when I was eight nine years old, my dad would talk,
you know, about different sports, but he would tell us
Me and my younger brother, we shared a bedroom at

(07:20):
the time when we were little. There was five of
us kids living on a house. So me and my
younger brother shared a room and he would sit on
the edge of one of our beds and he would
talk about different things, and whenever we’d get to the
subject of talking about baseball, he would mention. And he
grew up as a Yankees fan, as a lot of

(07:41):
America did. Obviously, in the forties and then into the fifties,
they were, you know, the Yankees obviously were America’s team,
and they they won so many World Series and he
and he got to go to two World Series. While
he was in the Army in nineteen fifty two and
nineteen fifty three. He was stationed in New York City.
My dad was in during the Korean War and actually

(08:03):
tried to volunteer to get sent over to the front.
People told me it was nuts. He was declined both
times because my dad was a cartographer. He was a
map maker, and they told him they needed him in
New York making maps showing where you know, you know,
we Jambou was and Hamburger Hill and all those things.
So my dad was a map maker and he got

(08:28):
to Walibas Station in New York, go to a couple
of World Series games, one in nineteen fifty two and
won in nineteen fifty three between the Yankees and Dodgers.
In fact, he saw the game where Carl Lurskin Brooklyn
struck out fourteen Yankees, which was a world Series record
until Sandy Kofax broke it in sixty three and then
Bob Gibson broke it in sixty eight. So he got

(08:48):
to go and he could tell me these stories about
the Yankees and Dodgers, and I kind of liked the
name Dodgers as a little kid. Found out they were
my favorite color. Blue was blue and white. And then
the first package of base ball cards I ever got,
and I was nine years old, opened it up. The
first card was Bill Russell, the Dodger shortstop, or I

(09:08):
was hooked at that point, and they had these little
posters inside, and the little poster was of Willie Davis,
who became my favorite player of the center fielder for
the Dodgers. So that’s how I became a Dodger fan
as a young kid and maintained my loyalty through some
very lean times and some fun times as well. They
didn’t win a world title that I could remember, because

(09:32):
they won in sixty five. I was only five years old,
and they have no recollection of that. But the ones
that I could remember eighty one when I was in college,
and then eighty eight, the magnificent Oral Hersheiser season they won.
Then an eighty eight did not win another one until
twenty twenty, the pandemic heres did not win another one
until then. They had several friends. You know, when I

(09:54):
got all excited when they finally won in twenty twenty, goes,
I didn’t realize it had been so long. I’m like, yeah,
thirty two years. So I’ve been spoiled since they won
back to back titles. They won three and six years,
and I get all that, and I understand that, you know, folks,
they were hey a team of that. Somebody commented on Facebook.
There’s a photo of Lennon and I in wearing Dodger

(10:14):
hats and and and he said, you know, they have
an Astros team shop where they have plenty of caps there,
and I said, yep, walk right past it. So there
was some good give and take about that. But anyway,
that one of the reasons we were very, very excited
about going was to see Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitch. And as

(10:36):
I even said we’ve come, we heard that Yamamoto was
pitching or what was on the matha the night. So
Lend and I came to Houston to see the great
man pitch and he did pitch. Wasn’t at his best,
but he is in today’s terminology. Jake credited with a
quality start. He went six innings, scattered enough hits, did

(10:56):
give up three runs, was actually behind at one point,
but he really zeroed in and dialed in, you know,
down the stretch of that and he wound up getting
the win. The Dodgers ended up winning at handily eight
to three because they had their hitting shoes on last
night and they went after the Astrois in a bullpen
game for them, So it was kind of weird that

(11:16):
We went with the primary purpose of seeing Yamamoto pitch,
and it kind of wound up being on down the
line a little bit because he wasn’t at his best,
but he was good enough and he finally got run support.
That’s the other thing. They haven’t given him much run
support this year, so he finally got that to get
to win.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah, it must have been nice for Yamamoto still able
to gut through and get eight strikeouts. Reminded me a
little bit of Luke Harrison start on Sunday. You got
to get through a tough start. It takes a certain
skill set to stay locked in and get through that
order a second and third time after the first trip
is a little rough.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Well, you’re right, and to your comparison, Luke Harrison threw
forty one pitches on Sunday in the top of the
first and that five run top of the first form
Hississippi State, which of course included the Grand Slam that
the Bulldogs got that gave him the five to nothing lead,

(12:08):
the grand Slam from Bryce chance there to capt that
five run first inning with only a couple of hits.
One was an RBI sing one was a grand slam
because you had walks in that inning as well. That
helped to load them up. So he threw forty one pitches.
He settled in, wound up going five innings, threw one
hundred and two pitches, struck out nine, and he got

(12:28):
the win. Last night, Yamamotor threw twenty eight pitches in
the first inning, but he only threw I think twenty
three in the next three innings combined. I think it
was or maybe the next two. But anyway, he settled
in and wound up going six innings and he struck
all a So anyway, we had a good time. We
went down and saw and always I always like to

(12:50):
get at least one or two major league games in
a season in the state, be it in Houston and
or and Arlington. And I also like to see my
team play if I get a chance that they could
the town. So that’s why that’s why I did that.
All right, coming up, we’re going to look at NBA
playoffs because the Spurs are looking up at a deficit
right now. We’re going to get to that. We do

(13:10):
have inconceivable this hour, and we’ve got a lot more
coming up here from UFCU Dish falk Field on a
Tuesday afternoon on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone
and where you always listen to us for free on
the iHeartRadio app here on a Tuesday afternoon. It is
a Texan Tuesday here on thirteen hundred of the Zone.

(13:31):
It was begun by our then producer Cameron Parker, who’s
been kicked upstairs because he showed too much aptitude to
be able to have told him that’s a dangerous thing
to do in the radio businesses, to show out valuable
you are. He has done that. He’s still my producer
on the road, my engineered for a long orn Mets
basketball and pills and obviously on occasion for us on
the play by play side, but his spot ably taken

(13:56):
over these past what nine months, eight months by.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Jay Yeah, I got here in late August, so we’re.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
Ten months or nine months? It’s nine yeah, soun right, okay.
So Jake is the producer these days, and he picked
up right where Cameron left off with our Tuesday offerings,
which means our return cuts are inclusive of, not limited to,
but certainly inclusive of on the four o’clock hour hearing

(14:25):
from the King George Strait, which we’ll do certainly when
Ty Harrington joins us to talk college baseball in the
four o’clock hour, In the three o’clock hour, the iconic
Willie Nelson, and here in the two o’clock hour, the
immortal Stevie Rayvaughn. It sounds like you went with a
studio selection this time instead of a live edition.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
Yeah, we’ve gone for a lot of live selections lately.
But I’ve been you know, I’ve been going through combing
through the catalog of Stevie ray Vaughn ever since taken
over as the producer of the show. And this is
a guitar lick I really love. The song is called Testifying.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Okay, all right, yeah, that’ll work. You know. One thing
that think is kind of interesting is that, uh and
I don’t know how many people feel this way. And
obviously I’m I’m I’m a big rock music fan and
yacht rocker and all those kinds of things to tomorrow,
but yacht rock Wednesday on the program. For whatever reason,

(15:17):
I am not normally I use the word normally, but
I’m not always very normal, but not normally much of
a fan of live albums. I love live music, I
love going to concerts. Clearly, I mean Lendon and I
went to see Little River Band last Thursday, and we’re
gonna go see Chicago and Sticks in August. We’re going

(15:40):
to see the guess Who Up and Forward. That’s on
our calendar of bands that we’re going to see. And
so I love seeing bands live. And it goes back
to my concert vending days as well, when I was
selling merch selling T shirts and hats and all kinds
of stuff for the band. But I’m not a real
big fan of live albums normally, and and and I’ve

(16:04):
tried to figure out why, and I’ve come to a
couple of conclusions on this, Jake. One, sometimes the recording
isn’t as great as it might be, uh you know,
if you certainly if you were seeing them live, but
not as good as obviously in a studio, even though
they go to great links the bands that have done

(16:26):
live albums. But I’m usually not as big a fan
of life. The other reason is, and this is my
own weird quirk, I’m not a real big fan of
artists changing the style or lyrics in the concert that

(16:51):
we love so much listening to in the studio recording. Now,
I don’t mind them being you know, more revved up
and things like that with some stuff. But I don’t
want them shortening the song by a minute and a half. Uh,
you know that that sort of leaving out of verse,
and that happens sometimes on live albums. Some bands are

(17:11):
if you hear them live or see them live, they’re
almost identical to how they are in the studio. The
Eagles come to mind, because they kind of stand there
on stage and they play and it bothers some people
good friends of mine, and so they just stand there
and they play. It’s the same thing I could hear
on the album. Well yeah, but but you’re not listening
to the album. You’re watching them do it live the

(17:33):
way that you enjoyed it on the album. That’s kind
of how But there are some live albums that are
really good. Wings Over America comes to mind. Live Bullet
from Bob Seeger was a really good one that that
comes to mind. Uh Uh, there’s a there’s a there’s
a couple of other ones, uh that I’m sure if
I think about it closely, will come to mind. And

(17:54):
some of Stevie Rayvaughd’s live stuff is really good. So
I don’t mind that so much. On recording but buying Lawrence.
And I’m a real big fan of live recorded albums.
Uh if that makes sense, But you know that’s that’s
just me.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
I wish I’m with you and be a picky about it,
because there is If the mix is off in some way,
or if the crowd is too invasive on the recording,
then I’m then I’m I’m out. But but if they
can get the mix right and they can add things
that you don’t hear on the recording, I can, you know,
take that for what it is and run with it,
especially as a little bit of a jam band fan.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yeah, and and and let me add this, there are
certain songs that became hits that I like better having
heard the live version than the studio version. Maybe I’m
amazed as one of those by Paul McCartney he did
when he first left the Beatles. I like the live
version in on Wings over America, Peter Frampton, Uh, show

(18:51):
me the way, Okay, that song is much better on
a live album than listening to it in the studio.
It sounds kind of plot when you listen to it
in studio. It doesn’t have the same pep. It doesn’t
have the same And I’ll give you another one. What’s
the cheap Trick song? I want you to want Me?
That they did live from Buddhakan, that deal, and it’s

(19:13):
got the crowd in there going crazy and stuff. But
it’s a great mix, and I like that version of
it better than I do the studio version. There are
some that just the live album is just a better
recording or a better presentation I guess I should say
of the song than the studio. So anyway, there’s just

(19:36):
there’s just some things like that. All right, let me
jump to live action. Talk about the NBA Spurs and
Timberwolves played last night, and hey, you know, the Spurs
find themselves down because of what Anthony Edwards did in
large measure last night. He came back and was big

(19:59):
in the fourth quarter. He wasn’t really expected to play
much of anything because of that hyper extension he’d had
with the knee, uh and he’d been working with underwater
treadmill training bands and stuff like that. But he did
wind up playing a big part of the fourth quarter
there and scored eighteen points and down the stretch they

(20:24):
did what they had to do to beat the Spurs.
Although the Spurs had an opportunity Champagne with with a
clean look at a three that would have won the
ball game, but it didn’t happen, and uh, you know,
the t Wilves win it one O four, one O two.
And afterwards, Chris Finch, the head coach, was asked about

(20:44):
how his team was able to somehow grind out the win.

Speaker 4 (20:47):
It was a great game.

Speaker 5 (20:48):
I mean, defense was at all time high on both ends.

Speaker 4 (20:53):
I don’t I don’t know what the biggest lead was
in the game.

Speaker 6 (20:59):
Nine.

Speaker 5 (20:59):
Yeah, we were up nine and they were up seven,
but it felt a lot tighter than that, even, you know,
even when we were up. So really good job by
our guys just you know, figuring out a way to
you know, make enough shots and sticking with the defense,
you know.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
And so yeah, that was one way. And he was
also asked about the lift that Anthony Edwards gave the
team in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 4 (21:22):
It was huge.

Speaker 5 (21:22):
I mean, it was, you know, but by that time
I found a little bit of a rhythm.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
I thought Julius was really good.

Speaker 5 (21:28):
Just it was subtly good with with everything he was
doing off ball and and obviously when he had the
ball in his hands, but you know, Ant was awesome.
He was really good. I mean it was I forgot
how good he was actually, so.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
I mean, how can you forget how good he is? Right?
What kind of Yeah, Yeah, that’s that’s that’s a coach.
You know, you.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
Were right about Chris Finch. He does give a disgruntled
dad energy sometimes.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
I’m telling you, I’m telling you he really does. I
like him. He does. Yeah, but you’re right about that,
all right. How about Aunt Edwards himself. I don’t know
if you saw this Jake when he walked off the floor.
I guess it’s a Tea Wolves social media videographer because
all teams have the other the log worts happen that
they travel one when they do and she was asking

(22:18):
him when he was walking in the tunnel, how’d you feel?
And he said it felt great to get back on
the floor and all this other kind of stuff. In
the press conference, he was asked how he works to
take pressure off of his teammates.

Speaker 7 (22:30):
Yeah, for sure, I mean, just I know for a fact,
just me being out there, it calms everybody down. Not
saying like there’s any pressure on any of my teammates,
but it takes pressure off of everybody just knowing that
I’m out there. I’m available to play, yeah, and just
you know, doing what I do best is trying to
put the ball in the hoop.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Okay, all right. So so there was that, and then
you have it from the Spur side, Mitch Johnson talking
about that last minute. They got to steal, they got
to lay in, they got it back to within two
and then had an opportunity they did not choose to
call the time out. And I know there’s varied philosophies
on this. Coaches feel like they’ve got the other team

(23:09):
in transition, they can do it. I have always maintained,
while all of that’s true, you still have to make
the shot, so you better be sure of what you got.
But it was a good look for Champagne, it just
didn’t fall. So Mitch Johnson asked to describe that final
minute of the game.

Speaker 8 (23:26):
Yeah, he just did a good job, obviously with the
sense of urgency. We were down, excuse me, and so
we were trying to play quick because it was a
math problem at some point in terms of possessions and
time left and what.

Speaker 4 (23:37):
The score was.

Speaker 8 (23:38):
And he had some great multiple efforts there to keep
us in the game.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
We got some good looks missed him.

Speaker 8 (23:43):
And you know, offensive rebounds has been emphasis for us
all year, but especially in those situations, you gotta crash.
And then on the last play we just got a
rebound and it felt like they weren’t organized and there
was enough time for us to push the ball and
get a look, and we didn’t push it right away.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
So got to be that.

Speaker 8 (24:04):
Death knock time where you got to call a time
route or not. I thought doing did a good job
pushing the ball, kicking that Julian. Julian had a fly by,
got a three pointer in rhythm. I had no problem
with the shot. That was a great shot. I hope
you shoots it every time. Yeah, it was. It was
a good look.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
And I understand this, Like I said, I’m a little
more old school. I believe that you’ve got to set
up the shot, but it also does give the defense
time to set itself if you take the time out.
So I understand the philosophy and don’t even really disagree
with it. From what Mitch Johnsond had with the Spurs,
and you know, he knows his team and knows, like

(24:39):
he said, a fly by and it was a good
clean look. It just didn’t fall That’s why he said,
I have no problem with that. Some nights the shot falls,
some nights the shot does not. Now Victor winbin Yama
had a triple double with blocks. He had a dozen blocks,
the first time I think since twenty twelve that that

(24:59):
had happened. But he was disappointed, obviously with what he
did on the offensive end, And he was asked because
because one thing that you have to credit Minnesota with
doing is defensively. They held Wimby and the Aaron Fox
to a combined ten for thirty one from the field,

(25:19):
and those two missed all twelve of their three point attempts.
The Spurs only scored forty five points in the first half.
So one of the things that women Yama was asked
was what can he do better on offense despite having
that landmark defensive effort.

Speaker 6 (25:35):
Start by making some shots, So like, know how to
use my energy. You know, obviously used a lot of
it one other court and on the other side, I
used too much offensively. I used too much energy in
things that didn’t really help our team. So that’s on me.
But first team, I start by making some shots.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
Okay, all right, Well we’ll see how that goes for
Game two. Now to the East. Remember we said yesterday
how much we were looking forward to seeing this Knicks
Sixers series, and maybe it will still wind up being
a banger. The only real banging done last time was
about the Knicks. It beat the Sixers by thirty nine.

(26:17):
He blew them out one ninety eight. Mike Brown his
thoughts on what his team did. It’s a good game
by our guys.

Speaker 9 (26:29):
You know, we have to be better with our fouling.
We can’t expect them to shoot thirty four. I mean,
they’ve doubled us in free throw attempts. And you know,
obviously I haven’t watched the films, so I’m not sure
if all of them were fouled or not. But we
can’t expect them to go to the free throw line
thirty four times and and us to you know, get

(26:51):
a win the way we did. So we we have
to be better keeping them off the free throw line.
But I give our guys credit. You know, they try
to do the right thing. Against a guy like Maxie,
you got to keep giving multiple effort.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
He just doesn’t stop.

Speaker 9 (27:08):
Against Joel, you got to make sure that you keep
trying to show your hands and stay down on his
shot fakes because those two guys together are load, and
individually they’re a load. But you know, our guys tried
as best they can to keep giving multiple efforts McHale
and duce Firs, Maxie and you know, I got to

(27:30):
give a real up porty credit. You know, we were
in early foul trouble and Ariel came off the bench,
and you know he wasn’t expected to play obviously, and
he did a solid job. You know, you’re not going
to stop a guy like Joel or or Maxie. You
just hopefully make them work without fouling them. And and
Ariel did a pretty good job in that area. Offensively,

(27:54):
our guys were really good.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
You know, all of our guys.

Speaker 9 (27:59):
Were really efficient from the floor. You know Jalen with
the thirty five, you know o g on eight shots,
he gets eighteen points. You know, Kat gets seventeen points
on eleven shots. Michel gets seventeen points on ten shots.
So they were all really efficient with their with their

(28:24):
scoring and shooting. And you know, you like the fact
that on the fifty three buckets we had, we had
thirty four assists. We’ve talked about those guys in transition.
We know that they’re gonna come even you know, harder
in transition. Our guys did a good job trying to
get back and limit their transition break They have three

(28:45):
fast break points.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
And then you know, at the end of.

Speaker 9 (28:48):
The day, one of the signs, you know, to see
how hard we’re playing is what do we you know,
when it comes to where we when it comes to
the fifty to fifty balls, and you know, they were
sixteen of about and our guys got fourteen of them.
So great job trying to be the first on the
ground and to get after the fifty to fifty balls
throughout the course of the game.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
So one game to none, Nicks on top. We’ll see
how it goes for Game two. Well, I’m more on
the NBA coming up because of what else is happening
around the league in the East and the West with Detroit,
Cleveland and obviously the Lakers playing at Oklahoma City. We’ll
get to that coming up up next. Him conceivable on

(29:30):
a Tuesday afternoon here on sports Radio AM thirteen under
the zone of the iHeartRadio app second hour of the
program to you, coming to you from you FCU Nish
fog Field. As it says on the message boards here
right now, Sinko Tomyo, happy to sinco tomayo here. We

(29:51):
were just talking about it in our Inconceivable segment a
few moments ago. Craig Wade, joined by the producer Jay Hermans,
bring you the program up until five o’clock this afternoon.
And then Long Worn Baseball tonight, the final midweek non
conference game of the season, and it comes your way

(30:15):
this evening at six thirty against the Roadrunners of UTSA
the University of Texas at San Antonio. But everybody knows
as UTSA. It’s a six thirty first pitch, six to
fifteen pre game Star time on our sister station one
three point one f M, Austin’s eighties station. Also, you
can hear it on the iHeartRadio app. You can hear

(30:36):
it on the Texas Longhorns app. You can hear it
online at Texaslonghorns dot com. As Texas will take on
UTSA tonight, Longhorns. And if you’re saying, oh, it’s you know,
it’s a non conference game, it’s not that big a deal, whatever,
so on and so forth. Understand UTSA brings in a
good ball club. They come in with an RPI of

(30:59):
thirty eight, so they’re pretty solid in that, and of
course they won the regional here last year beat Texas.
It’ll be their first meeting between these two teams since then,
and Texas at thirty five and ten ranked number three
in the country by Baseball America. They are fourth in

(31:20):
the other polls. He won Baseball dot Com the National
Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Rankings Perfect Game in the USA
Today coaches bawl their RPI is number three, and that
was really helped certainly by taking two of three from
Mississippi State, who had been number nine in the RPI
over the weekend. So long, worn’s closing in on I
haven’t already in the minds of those who make the

(31:41):
decisions for the committee that they would be a top
eight national seat. They’re certainly closing in on that. A
good weekend this weekend in Knoxville, like say, taking two
out of three from Tennessee, I think would definitely lock
it up before they return home for the final series
of the regular season as they host Missouri on Thursday, Friday,

(32:02):
Saturday of next weekend. But tonight it’s UTSA and coming
up in the next segment, we’ll get you updated on
the latest regional projections for college baseball from Baseball America,
where the Longhorns are not just Texas, but the other
teams who have played their way into the field in

(32:23):
the opinion of those who are doing the projecting, and
those who played their way either onto the bubble or
out of the field as well. We’ll get to all
that a couple of one other item I wanted to
get to, Jake. We didn’t have time to do it, inconceivable.
But did you see the weird thing that happened on

(32:45):
Sunday when that when the United Airlines was landing at
Newark and lost a wheel and it hit a bakery
truck on the New Jersey Turnpike. Did you see this?

Speaker 2 (33:02):
Oh, my goodness, no, I didn’t see.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
This happened about one o’clock our time Sunday afternoon. It
was a flight coming in from Venice, Italy, United Flight
one sixty nine, and it was coming in for a
landing at Newark Liberty International Airport. But as it made
its final approach, it flew too close to the traffic

(33:25):
as it came in, And there’s some dash cam footage
that’s really kind of scary when you see it. So
the driver of a truck for H and S Family
of Bakeries is just cruising along the New Jersey Turnpike
and it rolls right near the airport, and the aircraft
comes in and makes impact and debris flew across the roadway.

(33:47):
The aircraft also struck a light poll when it came
in for the landing. According to the New Jersey State Police.
Here was their quote based on a preliminary investigation. While
the United Airlines aircraft was approaching the runway, a landing
tire and the underside of the plane collided with a
pole and a tractor trailer. The pole then struck a

(34:08):
jeep traveling on the turnpike. The driver of the tractor
trailer sustained non life threatening injuries and was transported to
an area hospital. An aviation expert said the aircraft was
literally inches from disasters, and clearly we saw the crew
fighting that altitude as they came in. You see it

(34:30):
on the boy on the black box stuff and all that,
and dash camp and the driver the delivery truck, a
guy by the name of Warren Bordley, was taking the
hospital treated released for minor injuries. The aircraft did land safely.
There were no injuries reported, and so United says they’re

(34:51):
going to conduct a rigorous flight safety investigation. The FAA,
the National Transportation Safety Board, they’re all doing it as well.
It struck a life poland then the wheel fell off
and hit the truck, so odd very unfortunately, nobody killed
and only minor injuries involved. So at least it, you know,

(35:11):
at least it wound up being okay in that respect.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
It sounds like it could have been a lot worse,
and maybe it’s a good thing I hadn’t seen the story.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Absolutely absolutely definitely could have been worse. Okay, let me
jump back to the NBA. Like I said, coming up
in a few minutes, I’ll give you some updated college
baseball projections. We’ll talk about the Longhorns coming up. So
we’ll do that. But I didn’t want to go back

(35:39):
to the NBA, and I want to go back to
this Spurs Timberwolves game, which Minnesota was able to steal
game one. You know, it’s interesting the people that do
a lot of the historical perspective. There was a graphic
shown that I saw that showed the three most surprising
game one win in t wolve’s history. First of all,

(36:02):
who keeps up with that, right, other than the Timberwolves,
I guess one of them. This one ranked number two.
I think there was one a win over Golden State
in the Warriors hey day with it was number one.
But anyway, and then there was one of the Lakers
as well. But they get this win one of four
one or two. Anthony Edwards had a great deal to

(36:24):
do with it, and the Timberwolves were able to survive
the Spurs having a clean look from Julian Champagne to
try to win it with a three. Chris Finch, the
head coach of the t Wolves, talked about his team
improving in the second half as well as the young
For T J.

Speaker 4 (36:45):
Shannon, I think he just found a second win.

Speaker 5 (36:48):
More than anything, I think he just you know, kind
of got downhill does what he does best. You know,
we used them at the top of the floor and
you know, they were pressuring him and he got by them,
and you know, I think, uh, you know, proud, our
guys went you know into the paint.

Speaker 4 (37:04):
All night long, and you know we uh we we
eventually were able to loosen him up a little bit
by doing so.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
The the I mentioned Anthony Edwards in the contribution that
he made in that. But Edwards is like the first
one to say, uh that a lot of credit is
going to go to Jade McDaniels. Now, McDaniels had a
pretty funny quote about this, But first let’s this. Let’s

(37:33):
hear this from Anthony Edwards, who talked about the impact
that McDaniels has had in this postseason.

Speaker 7 (37:39):
Yeah, like I said, he’s my favorite player in the NBA.
And yeah, what he does on the nightly basis for
us man is is incredible.

Speaker 4 (37:47):
I love to watch him play.

Speaker 7 (37:50):
His maturity has has grown so much over the last
year and a half. The way he see the game,
the way he reads the game, how he takes his
time to get to his spots, he knows when to
be aggressive, and just yeah, like I said, man, just
him learning more about the game, like knowing when to go,
when not to go when you got two on you
he had.

Speaker 4 (38:10):
Just Man, he’s just my favorite player.

Speaker 6 (38:13):
Man.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
I love Jada mcdanis.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Okay, there’s reason to love him with what he can do.
He did a really good job defensively in the ballgame. Now,
Victor wimbin Yama had an NBA playoff riker with twelve
blocks shots, but offensively he ended up getting limited. Darren
Fox and Wimby had only a combined ten for thirty
one shooting, and they missed all twelve or three point attempts.

(38:36):
So McDaniels had a quote when he was talking about Wemby.
I don’t know that this is physically or mentally possible,
but the quote was, you just got to act like
he’s not there. What You just got to act like
he’s not there. He’s gonna get blocks. He’s the tallest

(38:57):
person in the world. Just keep consistently attacking. Sometimes he’s
not gonna be there.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
Yeah, well, I get it. I get it though, I
mean we heard it from Chris Finch last hour. You
just have to keep on pounding away, going inside. Have
you seen, by the way, the super cut of Wimby’s
blocks that should have been called Goldtend’s last.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
Ye yeah, oh yeah, absolutely, So keep.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Going at the rim You’re gonna get rewarded, right.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
I think I think that’s just part of the men’s
latitude of the of the Tea Wolves though.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
They just don’t want to back down.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yep. I agree, and Julius Randall, he of Southolkliffe High School,
fame and of course played at Kansas. Uh it talked
about also and he made an impact, but he talked about, uh,
the impact not only what McDaniels did, but what Edwards
obviously did.

Speaker 4 (39:42):
Huge.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
Huge.

Speaker 10 (39:42):
I mean for him to go out and do what
he did and just his just ability to just bounce
back and you know, give us whatever he had out
there was huge. So he made a lot of big
shots and the super happy, super proud to have him
back because you know what he brings to a game
all right.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
Now, on the Spurs side of things, Mitch Johnson, the
head coach, was asked, you know when that number I
just cited ten for thirty one shooting combined the Aaron
Fox and Victor wimban Yama. So we’ve heard from Wimby
and we’ll hear some more. But Johnson was asked if

(40:24):
he needs more? Does he need to get more production
out of the Aaron Fox. I thought, he again, he
missed some shots.

Speaker 8 (40:31):
You know, the box score says he’s five for fourteen
to six turnovers, So I’m sure in terms of what
we’re used to from the box score, you’d want more
from him. But I have no concern over dearon Fox
or Victor wimin Yama’s box score, they’ll be better, will
be better for them. We miss some good shots tonight.
There’s some things that we can do execution wise that

(40:54):
will be a lot better. And sometimes the box score
doesn’t always show. And if we run a play and
this guy doesn’t get the catch where he poster doesn’t
set the proper screen, then that can throw off the
equilibrium or whatever you’re supposed to have on that play
in the way it’s supposed to unfold. And so then
you know, someone else may take a tough shot or
get a turnover. But there’s a lot that goes into
that no different than when Victor rowls. A lot of
times he doesn’t he’s not the recipient of the past,

(41:18):
but he opens up the whole world.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
For everybody else. So it’s the same thing on the
other end of the spectrum well, And it also brings
to mind a different sort of question that was asked
of when Mayama of about the environment and the mindset
and the emotional push that happens in the playoffs, and
so Wenby was asked, how are playoff games different and

(41:41):
what is the key to taking over late in the
ball game.

Speaker 6 (41:44):
I think it’s knowing when you know when to past
the ball went to score because it makes the job
tougher on the defense to have to take care of everything.
And the subject of the playoffs, I think obviously game
is is more games and more physical, but there’s no
back to backs and sometimes in two days in between games,

(42:05):
so it’s okay, all.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
Right, So there’s that so again right now? Uh it is,
you know, a one to nothing lead in that best
of seven h for Minnesota and the Timberwolves and the
Spurs will play tomorrow night, game two of that playoff series. Now,
the other playoff game that was played last night, if

(42:29):
you want to call it a game, wasn’t much of
a game. New York absolutely blasted Philadelphia Sixers coming off
that Mountain Top experience, from rallying back from down three
games to one of the Celtics winning three games they
won on Boston’s home floor, including Game seven, but there
were no match for the Knicks last night. And Mike

(42:51):
Brown talked about one of the keys was Macal Bridges
and what he did because Tyreee Maxey has been such
a catalyst for Philadelphia and the job that Bridges did
on Maxie, according to the Knicks head coach Mike Brown,
was certainly pretty impressive. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (43:09):
I mean he’s been our starting two right all year,
so for me, and he’s had a really good season,
So for me, it was easy, like you know, to
stick with him. I mean, you know, as a coach,
it’s up to me to think about everything, whether I
need to change this or change that. I’m always thinking
and but in terms of sticking with him, that’s it’s

(43:31):
a no brainer. But he was really good, you know. Defensively,
he didn’t you know, he he didn’t shut Maxie down.
Max he missed some shots and you know, and our
our team defense behind him was pretty good. But the
one thing that you know, I give mckille a lot
of credit for is his alertness and his ability to

(43:55):
have multiple efforts when garding Maxie because you know, Max
he is is similar to staph to you know, where
he’s constantly moving, especially when it comes to a two
man game with mb.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
You know, and so he’s a hard guard. You can’t
ever relax.

Speaker 9 (44:16):
And Michel, you know, did as good as he could
trying to stay with him when he was moving or
and or when he gave.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
Up the basketball. Okay, the Knicks, by the way, became
the first team in NBA history. I think about this
for a moment. They became the first team in NBA
history to win three straight postseason games by at least
twenty five points. They blew out Atlanta games at six
and seven, and then of course they win by thirty

(44:45):
nine last night. Now, it should be pointed out that
Nick Nurse pulled the starters midway through the third quarter
because of what the grind they had to go through
in that first round series, and he wanted to try
to get them a little bit of a breather, So
we kind of waved the white flag at that point.
And uh, you know, they their top four players, Jalen Brunson,

(45:12):
Karl Anthony Towns, Mitchell Robinson. They they all played well
in the game. And then afterwards, Towns was asked about
why the offense is executing so well for New York.

Speaker 11 (45:27):
For us to be executing at this level speaks to
the unity our team has right now, and and uh,
the sacrifice being made by all of us for the
greater good of the team. And and you see it
even in a game like.

Speaker 4 (45:43):
The certain games in Atlanta.

Speaker 11 (45:45):
It was just a total team effort, and I think
tonight as well as a total team effort. Everyone came
to execute our game plan and I thought we did
a great job of doing our best to execute.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
All right, So h New York blows them out. Nick Nurse,
the Sixers coach, pulls his starters midway through the third quarter,
so he pretty much gave it up at that point.
He was asked if fatigue, the cumulative amount of fatigue
from playing that seven game grinder of a series against
the Celtics, played a factor in this game. You know, again,
you can’t.

Speaker 12 (46:14):
You can’t make excuses, that’s for sure. We knew it
might be difficult, but you never are gonna You’re never
gonna go into the game and say this is you know,
this is this is gonna happen. You got to see
it played out, and I really thought, I really thought
it was okay there at the start, but obviously it
kind of hit us, you know, I just thought kind
of towards the end of the first you know, we

(46:35):
just weren’t getting Like I said that that sixth straight
mid pick and roles were just too easy, you know,
just all you know, just it was just it wasn’t
challenged like you know, you know, he got a challenge
one way or the other at the rim or the
or the three. Somebody’s got to be running out there
to challenge, and they just we couldn’t get around them,
back in front of them. You know, we left them

(46:57):
open for too many wide open threes. You know, we
even gave up a couple out while I think just
one one or two maybe dunks behind us those steam
We got to clean all that stuff up, you know.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
Yeah, there’s you would imagine they all need to turn
that around pretty quickly when they get to Game two
in the Garden tomorrow night. So two game twos tomorrow
Philly and New York, Minnesota, San Antonio Tonight, Game one
one in the East, one in the West. Detroit the
one seed, Cleveland the four seed playing in Detroit and

(47:31):
Oklahoma City, very rested after sweeping their first round series
against Phoenix, waiting on the Lakers, who went six and
so they played tonight at Pecom Center in Oklahoma City.
All right, up next, we talked some college baseball, updated
regional projections and things like that. Of course, we’re here
at UFCU, dis farm Field, Texas and UTSA tonight at

(47:52):
six thirty. But we’ll have another look at some college
baseball outside of just this game when we continue on
suport trading A thirteen under the zone of the iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
App coming laid down by Miss Still the early Mall line.

Speaker 4 (48:18):
All I’m taking is your time?

Speaker 1 (48:25):
Help me make it through the iconic Willie Nelson, who
turned ninety three the other day. This is a cover
of the famous song help Me Make It Through the Night.
Is this off of star Dust Helpie that?

Speaker 3 (48:40):
I’m not sure? I just know it’s. I know it’s
one of Chris Christopherson’s.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
Best Yep, yep. Several have done this, both male and female.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
Yeah, and artists past and current artists have done it.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
Yep, yep. Absolutely And you know that if it’s a
well covered tune in the country catalog, Willie Nelson would
have a lot to do with that. Here on a
Texan Tuesday on thirteen hundred the Zone College Baseball Tonight
Texas against UTSA. Now I mentioned the road Runners come
in with an RPI at thirty eight, so playing this

(49:15):
game is of absolutely no peril to Texas. Even if
they’d lose the contest, it would not take a gigantic
tumble in the RPI simply because of the respectable RPI
that UTSA has. Put it this way, if your RPI
is good enough to where you would make an NCAA

(49:38):
regional even if you don’t win your conference tournament, then
your RPI is good enough. And that’s the case for
the road Runners, who lead the American Athletic Conference and
have an RPI of thirty eight coming in. And as
we mentioned, it’s of course the team that eliminated Texas
last year here in the regional going on to the
Super Regional before being not out by UCLA. So if

(50:02):
you look at the matchup is not a problem. You know,
sure you want to win it because it does help,
but you don’t take a great deal of damage with
the loss off of that. It’s a different type of situation.
And again we’ve heard, we’ve not heard that there was
any plan for them not to play the game at
blue Belt Park tonight in College Station between Texas and

(50:27):
excuse me, Texas A and M in Prairie View A
and M. We’ve not heard that, but it had been
tweeted out. I guess Tim England had tweeted this out
that here is Texas A and M number eight in
the RPI playing Prairie View, who’s eight and thirty four

(50:48):
and six and eighteen in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The
swag playing that game would and winning the game for
Texas A and M would drop the Aggies four spots
in the RPI for winning the game. And so that’s,

(51:11):
you know, that’s the peril of playing one of those
non conference games like that in UH in May. And
that’s why you hear about other schools not wanting to
risk a big drop in RPI if they were to
lose game, or even if they were to win the game,
and and so that’s why they they think that it’s

(51:34):
a good idea to skip the game Prairie View. You
want to know what their RPI is, how about three
to two. They’re eight and thirty four out of three
hundred and eight Division one programs, they’re three hundred and second.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
But if you know, if you know this is the system, Craig,
it begs the question of why you put them on
the schedule exactly.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
And and and we’ll ask Ty Harrington about this coming
up next hour, about the wisdom to schedule a better
RPI related opponent like a UTSA or somebody like that.
Uh later said, like Texas State is they’re playing Baylor.
Uh tonight. That helps. And even though Baylor’s had some
struggles and lost to Blake and kind of falling off

(52:20):
the grid a little bit in terms of being considered
being in the terminate is still better than playing number
three oh two. It’s only six spots from the bottom.
Heard a guess who’s number three O eight out of
three O eight?

Speaker 3 (52:31):
Well, I know that UMMES in my neck of the
woods has had some lean years for their baseball program,
but I’m gonna go with Coppin State right now.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
Wow, you mentioned two teams that are in the three hundreds.
Coppin’s three oh three, um e S which is Maryland
Eastern Shore and Princess Anne Maryland’s on the del Marva Peninsula.
If you’ve never been over there, the Hawks are three
oh six. Number three oh eight is another Mid Eastern

(53:01):
Athletic Conference team, MEAC School Delaware State. They’re four and
thirty nine. But you know who’s number three oh seven.
By the way, next to last, it’s not a HBCU.
It’s not a historically black college and university. No, it’s
the Peacocks of Saint Peter’s who are five and forty

(53:23):
this year, one in twenty three in the Metro Atlantic
Athletic Conference. So yeah, they’re bottom feeding there. Now. I
bring all this up to talk about, you know, it’s
important if you can play you know, RPI based teams
that help. And the reason why I say this is
because in the latest round of projection from Baseball America,

(53:45):
there’s one school that’s really suffering right now, and that’s
going to be Oregon State. They’re having to play an
independent schedule this year because of the dissolution of the
PAC twelve. Now there will be a recreation of the
PAC twelve next year and they’ll be in at Texas State.
They’ll be in it, and it’s got a lot of
schools that used to be in the Mountain West Conference,
but they’re having to fight their way through playing non

(54:08):
conference games because they’re not in the conference late in
the year as an independent against schools who quite frankly,
probably are not going to be in a regional like
the Portland Pilots. They have to play tonight and they’re
going to play Long Beach State. Now, the Dirtbags have
had a historically really good program. You have only to

(54:29):
ask our good friend and long Orange assistant coach Troy
Tulowitzki is a big part of that. But not this year.
They’re sub five hundred and then they’re going to conclude
against air Force. They’ve got two games against Portland, They’ve
got three against Long Beach and then the three at
home against air Force to finish the regular season. On
these new projections from Baseball America, Oregon State is listed

(54:50):
as the number sixteen overall seat. They’re probably going to
fall out of the top sixteen. And if you’re not
in the top sixteen, that means you’re on the road
the first week. Now, Morgan States used to be on
the road thirty eight of their fifty six games of
road games this year thirty eight because they know they
have to play the independent schedule. But right now in

(55:11):
these projections they’re listed as the number sixteen team. Now.
When Kendall Rogers from D one Baseball joined US last week,
he said he fully expects Oregon State to fall out
of that hosting role. Baseball America still has them hosting
right now.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
But.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
That probably will fall out of the RPI, probably take
them out of that. They would match up with the
one seed overall number one. It’s been a UCLA for
some time and they still are in a regional. I
have Liberty number two, Vanderbilt in the last four d
according to Baseball America but still in the field at
number three, and or Roberts number four. The number two
overall seed would be Georgia Tech. Oklahoma State, coming off

(55:54):
a sweep of TCU last week and very important big
series for the Cowboys, listed as the two seed. They’re Tennessee,
whom the Longhorns play this weekend in Knoxville, is listed
as the three in Niagara the number four that would
match up with the regional hosted by USC, where they
would be the number fifteen overall seed, with Oklahoma, UC,
Santa Barbara, and San Diego State rounding out that regionm Then,

(56:17):
Texas is listed as the number three overall seed. Jacksonville State,
the projected winner of Conference USA. Keith Mortland’s talked about
them a lot, said, and they are the gang Cox,
the only other Gang Cox other than the University of
South Carolina Jacksonville State. By the way, it’s not in Jacksonville, Florida,
for those who don’t know, it’s in Jacksonville, Alabama. I
think it’s in south western Alabama. They would be the

(56:41):
two seed. TCU is listed as the three Tcughes in
the last four inn after getting swept last weekend by
Oklahoma State and still Water in Southeastern Louisiana, the projected
winner of the Southland Conference being the number four as
three quality teams even with TCU’s late struggles that would
come in and Austin if that were the case, and

(57:02):
Texas would match up with the winner of the fourteen
overall seed, which right now according to Baseball America would
be Florida, when Nebraska, North Carolina State, and North Florida
the other teams. There are other highlights. How about this?
If this worked out, the four seed would be Auburn
and would have UTSA as the two seed there in
that regional, Virginia Tech the three, Fairleigh Dickinson the four,

(57:26):
matching up with Alabama the thirteen seed. How about Iron
Bowl Super Regional If it worked out that way, Alabama
projected to be the number thirteen overall seed, with Cincinnati
the two, Miami the three, and Campbell. The Coastal Athletic
Association projected winner as the number four seed and that’d

(57:46):
be something if it winds up being that way. North Carolina,
the number five seed, would match up according to these projections,
with Southern miss the projected team to come out of Hattiesburg,
Mississippi Athens. Georgia would be the site where Georgia. Probably
the Bulldogs are gonna win the SEC regular season title.
They even could do it this weekend, depending on how

(58:08):
they do against LSU and how Texas and Texas A
and M performed this weekend. The Aggies are in Oxford
to play Ale miss Of course, the long Worns on
the road in Knoxville, But Georgia the sixth seed overall
with Virginia, Mercer and Saint John’s. They’re matching up with
Mississippi State the eleven projected SEA with West Virginia, East Carolina,

(58:29):
and Army. So Mississippi State, despite dropping two out of
three to Texas, still projected to be a regional host.
Now I will tell you this, they have a huge
weekend series with Auburn this weekend. Right now, Auburn and
Mississippi State are tied for fourth in the SEC standings.
The number seven overall seed, according to Baseball America would
be Kansas Kansas has never hosted a regional, let alone

(58:53):
be a top eight national seat, but they could wind
up being so. With Oregon, Kentucky and Wright State in.
There’s the other three teams matching up with a regional
in Tallahassee, with the ten see Florida State, Arkansas projected
to be the two there, Michigan and Penn would round
that one out, and then finally the number eight overall
seed Coastal Carolina according to these projections, with wake Forest

(59:16):
High Point in Bethune Cookman there matching up with college
station Texas A and M, dropping two out of three
in the Mines of Baseball America. Now this is in
D one and we’ll check the D one projections later
later this afternoon or on the game broadcast night or
tomorrow because they haven’t come out yet. But Texas A
and M would be in a regional hosted and would

(59:39):
have Arizona State, Missouri State, and Indiana State coming in,
but it would be on the road for the super
regional according to these projections. If it played out according
to seeding, last four teams in NC State, East Carolina, TCU,
and Vanderbilt in the first four out Louisiana, UAB, Pitt
and Kent State, and the next four out Western Carolina,

(01:00:00):
Arkansas State, and LSU trying to pop back into the picture.
If they were to have a big weekend at Georgia,
then they might get some serious consideration. We’ll see all
that all works out. We’ll continue here on this Tuesday
afternoon on Sports Medio AM thirteen under the zone of
the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 13 (01:00:21):
Welcome back to the Craig Way Show and the Voice
of the Longhorns.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Craig What follow Craig on social media at horn Boys.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
Little old band from Texas z Z top.

Speaker 3 (01:00:38):
You know, Craig, I had this song in my head
over the weekend, Did you really? Because I was running
my fantasy football punishment?

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Oh, you had to dress up? Was it in a
suit or a tux? Seedop?

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
It was just a suit, just a regular old suit
for a five k. It was a Sinko de Mayo
themed run down at Carbok Brewing in Houston. Oh the
weird looks.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Yeah, I imagine people looked at it and said, look
at this, Look at this dude over here in a
suit to run a five k.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
Yeah, bold choice man, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
What kind of attention. Is he trying to draw you know?
He is?

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
He one of those influencers.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
Ah, you were influenced enough to finish in last place
in your fantasy football league, right, that’s why you had
to do this.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
It’s it’s complicated.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
I was a five hundred team that just missed the playoffs.
We have this asinine consolation ladder. Don’t even get me
started on the structure. But my word is my word.
And yeah, going into year ten of my old fantasy
football league, the first time I ever lost the Consolation Bowl?

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
Wow, how’d you do running in that suit?

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
Uh?

Speaker 13 (01:01:46):
Not?

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
Well, I was a full five minutes off my pace
from the Turkey trot and uh and I was probably
five gallons richer in sweat.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
Yeah, imagine, So ruin the suit? You can never wear
the suit again? Is that to do?

Speaker 13 (01:01:58):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
No, I don’t think it’s ruined. There was no rippage.
So just just a trip.

Speaker 4 (01:02:02):
To the cleaners.

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
Just like my opponents took me to the cleaners.

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
Okay, I got to uh NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. We
mentioned at the top of the program about Carolina grabbing
the two nothing leader for Philadelphia in the East in
the Eastern bracket. Also in the East is Montreal and Buffalo,
and Montreal and Buffalo play tomorrow night. They start with

(01:02:32):
game one of their Eastern Conference semifinals series. That’s an
East in the West. Game number two of Colorado and
Minnesota is tonight in Denver. The Avalanche at one game
to nine. And then last night in Game one in
Las Vegas, the Golden Knights beat the Anaheim Ducks. Uh,
they they they won game one, but I would say

(01:02:58):
also in a three to one win, and that included
an empty net goal late in the game. It’s one
one and there’s just a little over five minutes to
go in the third period. Ivan Barbashev clearly sends the
puck into the Anaheim zone before reaching the red line. Now,
normally that’s an icing call, which would result in a

(01:03:20):
face off in the Golden Ice defensive zone. But as
Vegas center jack i Colin, Duck’s defenseman Jackson Lacombe raced
toward the puck, the Lions person Devin Mills waved off
icing and then they go on and they score, and
they go up to one. Well, Joel Quindell, who is
about as pleasant to be around as John Tortorella right
to match up. Yeah yeah, he’s another one of those curmudgeons.

(01:03:42):
He was incredibly upset about that, screaming at the on
ice officials. He said after the game. Clearly I disagree
with the call, clearly of his icing, but their guy
stopped skating, which really made me annoyed. You saw it, right,
was it icing?

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
It was icing?

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
And the fact that this isn’t reviewable yet another in
another instance of the NHL shooting its officials in the foot,
tying a hand behind their back.

Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
These guys have a hard enough job. The league needs
to help them.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Yeah, yeah, I agree, So I agree with that, all right.
So anyway, Anaheim’s or Vegas is up one game tonight.
We’ll be back to wrap up hour number two on
thirteen under the Zone, third and final hour of the program,
coming your way here from UFCU dishmalk Field, where the
Texas Long Ones have their final midweek non conference game scheduled,

(01:04:31):
and not only scheduled, we’ll play it tonight against UTSA,
a good ball club with a good RPI. That is
clearly a point of discussion because we’ve already seen some
games canceled as a byproduct of this situation. Now, having
said all that, we’re going to talk about it with

(01:04:52):
Ty Harrington, our our friend colleague, part of our broadcast team,
and we’ll visit with t to talk about that. Of course,
Tie the former long time head coach at Texas State.
We’ll get his thoughts on this, because it’s a it’s
a situation where it’s it’s difficult for some teams if

(01:05:16):
they go ahead and they play the game, and uh
and and so if you’re playing a low RPI team
like Texas A and M scheduled to play tonight, and
we’ll get into that, if you play a low RPI
rated team, chances are, even if you win, and especially

(01:05:38):
if you play that game on your home field and
not a road game, you’re probably gonna drop in the RPI.
It’s an unfortunate byproduct of of what’s happened with the
emphasis on r PI. It is the largest, I think
evaluative tool other than of course, wins and losses. You know,

(01:06:00):
that sort of thing that the the NCAA Baseball Tournament
Selection Committee says pretty much the same thing that the
basketball committee says as well, and to a lesser extent,
the college football Playoff Committee. There’s a little b different
because they’re only dealing with you know, twelve schools, and that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:20):
That is that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
It’s not necessarily based on where you finish in your conference. Now,
conference strength to strength and strength to schedule and conference
RPI that’s all important, don’t get me wrong, that’s all
very very important. However, they try to evaluate each school
independently and then if it comes down to some tie

(01:06:45):
breaking things or what you know, trained you know, what
sets it one way or the other, then then maybe
they look at it a little more closely, especially especially
if it’s a high RPI rated comp. It’s like the
SEC or the Big twelve is decent and the ACC
is good and uh, you know, and u c LA

(01:07:07):
makes the Big ten very very top heavy. So we’ll
get some thoughts from Ty Harrington about this coming up.
But before we did that, I was gonna go off
the grid just a little bit here, Jake, because I
wanted to mix in a little NFL here. So so

(01:07:29):
what what I’m doing with mixing in a little bit
of NFL is to let everybody know, you know, with
the draft having already happened, and with the off season,
the OTAs starting and all that other kind of stuff.
Then you know, you folks are wondering, you know where,

(01:07:51):
you know, how do my team come out of all
of this with the smoke having been cleared? So I’m
here to tell you there’s a lot of people more
learned than myself who study these things and who come
up with their own ratings and things like that. The
Athletic does it, Pro Football Focus does it, and ESPN

(01:08:12):
does it. Now. Looking at the NFL’s power rankings in
May and I think it’s now five twenty five will
get you a good espresso drink at Starbucks these days
if you’re lucky. Yeah, yeah, you know, when I buy
the Linda really likes to shake an espresso, and when

(01:08:34):
I get that for her, if I get the big
one for it. She doesn’t always want the big one.
She usually likes just the regular grind day. But every
now and then, if we’ve got a long day ahead
of us, like when we went down to Houston to
drive down to Houston for the Astros Dodgers game last night,
you know, before we left, I stopped off at Starbucks
and I got her the Venti, the big one. Well,

(01:08:55):
there’s even bigger than Vini you ever get the Trinda before.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
I didn’t even know that was an option. Trenta, Oh
that’s the twenty ounce.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
Oh no, it’s bigger than that. Trenta is the largest.
It’s it’s bigger than a venty. It’s a big old thing.

Speaker 2 (01:09:08):
If I got the Trenta, I might just talk the
whole last hour of the show.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
I think you could probably do that. But but she
usually doesn’t. She usually she never gets the Trenta on
the on the espresso drink. She might get a trent
To ice water if she’s in there, you know, the
big old, the big one. But but if I get
her a vente, you know that. I think that runs
pretty close to seven dollars for the for the for

(01:09:34):
the venti if you get that. So like, I’m saying that,
along with the NFL’s power rankings from ESPN, will get
you that drink. The power rankings themselves won’t get it done.
That said, will run down the list here, and I’m
gonna go in reverse order on this number thirty two.

(01:09:54):
Uh and you told me, didn’t you tell me? You
kind of considered switching your agiance to this team, the
Miami Dolphins, A number thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:10:02):
Two no, no, I just I want success for all
of the Longhorns that got drafted, except for those who
went to the division rivals. Though they can have personal success,
but their teams they can have nothing. I’m not gonna
flip my allegiances anytime soon. I’m not going to hop
off the Commander bandwagon. Then Okay, that’s my team.

Speaker 1 (01:10:19):
Okay, good good. I’m glad to hear you stick with
your loyalty on that. Jackson number thirty one, the Browns
at thirty, the Cardinals at twenty nine, the Raiders at
twenty eight, Titans twenty seven Falcons, twenty six Saints, twenty five, Vikings,
twenty four Giants, twenty three Panthers, twenty two Steelers, twenty

(01:10:40):
one Colts twenty there’s your Commanders that made the top twenty.
They’re in at number nineteen and it says most improved
position is the edge edge rusher. They said that the
Commanders knew they had to get younger and more athletic
on the edges and the off season. Their pass rush
collapsed last year once Dren’s Armstrong tore the ACL in
the first quarter of their loss to the Cowboys. Before

(01:11:02):
the injury, they had a forty five point four percent
pass rush win rate from Week seven onumus thirty one percent,
so they’re going to pair Armstrong with the free agent
sightings adofiol Way and Calevon Chason. They drafted Joshua Joseph’s
and the lifetime long horned Charles on menihew So so

(01:11:23):
that their number nineteen Tampa Bay eighteen Bengals seventeen, Cowboys
sixteen most improved position safety. They signed Jalen Thompson to
the richest free agent deal since twenty twelve, three years,
thirty three million. They also added lifetime long worn PJ
Locke in free agency, but they tripled down at safety,

(01:11:43):
trading up one spot to take Caleb Downs of Ohio State,
and a year ago, the Cowboys and Elie Hooker and
Donovan Wilson as their starting safeties. Hooker remains, but Wilson
still unsigned. The backups Marquise Bell and Jeney Thomas. Bell
is still there, his role be altered by those twenty
twenty six additions, So the Cowboys at sixteen, Jaguars at fifteen,

(01:12:06):
Chargers at fourteen, Texans at thirteen most improved position defensive tackle,
so they were able to re sign Sheldon Rankins and
in an effective free agent Logan Hall. Their big addition
was getting Ohio States Kate McDonald in the second round.
So they’re at number thirteen at twelve, the Chiefs number eleven,

(01:12:28):
the Lions into the top ten with these power rankings
from ESPN on the NFL teams Ravens at number ten,
Bears at number nine, forty nine, Ers at number eight,
Packers at number seven, Patriots at number six, Eagles at
number five, Bills at number four, Broncos at number three,
Rams at number two, and number one the defending Super

(01:12:51):
Bowl champions Seahawks, who didn’t lose anyone on their offensive line.
They were turned to all eleven players who had at
least one snap last season. So there’s your way to
early power rankings of the NFL for what there were.
Like I said, take it, seven bucks, Go get you
a big old you know, Vienti shaken ice espresso. I

(01:13:12):
think it is what she likes.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
Extra topics not included.

Speaker 1 (01:13:15):
You get the cold phone, that includes the cold phone,
You get the top for the seven bucks.

Speaker 2 (01:13:20):
That’s relief.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
Yeah yeah, that makes it worthwhile, right, Okay, all right,
we’re gonna shift back to college baseball and talks of
college baseball with Ty Harrington coming up next when we
continue here on this Tuesday afternoon from the ballpark on
sports Radio AM thirteen hundred, The Zone and where you
always listen to us for free on the iHeartRadio app.
That I could sit and listen to that song all

(01:13:41):
day long. That is my favorite George Strait song of
all time is sam Maarillo by Morning. He has had
so many number one hits and I love all of them,
but that’s my favorite Amarilla. It takes me back to
my college days. First time ever heard George Strait was
that song. Now, my college days were only slightly ahead

(01:14:02):
of the college days of our weekly guest, Ty Harrington.
Twenty years they head coach at Texas State and of
course at national championship, coach at the JUCO level at
Northeast Texas Community College, and our colleague who works with
us on Longhorn Baseball broadcast also works the telecasse. He
joins us. Now the first first thing, Like I said,

(01:14:25):
I was slightly ahead of you. Where does Amarilla by
Mourning rate for you? As much as you love George
Strait music.

Speaker 13 (01:14:32):
I’m gonna throw it at number one one, if not
number one one point five.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
Yeah, and.

Speaker 13 (01:14:38):
It is I’m like you. It takes me in a
reflective moment and sends me back in time when George
Strait was playing in San Marcus, Texas and we could
drive down and go seeing and and Ambrilla that morning.
Obviously he’s one of the biggest ones that you know,
took him, took his availability away from San Marcus, Texas

(01:14:58):
for lack of better worker. And now I think about
it and damn song and so anyway, it was, Yeah,
I’m like you. It takes me down at remember the
run leg and into the into the beginning of my
love to listen to George Strait and what is it
fifty some odd number ones whatever, that ridiculous amount of

(01:15:21):
number one records is.

Speaker 1 (01:15:22):
Yeah, it’s crazy, It’s no doubt about it. Uh, Ty
Herrington Joint. Okay, Ty, I’m going to get into things
like regional projections in Texas and Texas State and things
like that in a few minutes. But the every week,
every Tuesday when we have you on the program, there’s
always a topic or two in addition to how the

(01:15:43):
area teams are playing and whatever. You know, the projections
like I said, in the rankings and things like this,
we got a whopper of a topic yesterday that came
down and in fact, our mutual friend and our man
who’s in the front office with us, Cameron Parker, I
was at the Astros Dodgers game and he sends me

(01:16:03):
a link to a tweet from Kendall Rodgers from d
one Baseball dot com. We had Kendall on last week
and Kendall was had this story and Cameron said, I
want to do a follow up and make sure this
isn’t a fake story. It was that eye opening, and
so I did a little while I was sitting there
waiting for the game to start. I did a little

(01:16:25):
backtracking of my own and looked and then said, no,
it’s for real. And the story is that in the
Southeastern Conference Tournament, which is coming up in a couple
of weeks, they are going to and this was announced yesterday,
implement the ABS system, Automatic Balls and Strikes Challenge system
for every game of the twenty twenty six SEC tournament.

(01:16:47):
So that’s going to kind of accelerate the timeline the
conference officials had previously targeted for next year, and so
now they’re going to bring the technology into one of
the higher profile events of college baseball, of course, at
the Hoover met coming up May nineteenth through the twenty fourth.

(01:17:08):
So this move aligns with the direction of Major League Baseball,
which introduced its own ABS challenge system for regular season
games this year. I saw two challenges last night over
at dike And Park, and it also ty reflects a
shift from the SECS previously somewhat measured approach, where in
earlier reporting, a conference official outlined the plan to follow

(01:17:33):
a Major League Baseball’s lead on a delay. They cited
the complexity and the cost of implementing the system. The
official at the time said, I have been vocal in
saying that my ambition for US is to be in
close follow when Major League Baseball implements that fully. We
implemented the action clocks a year after Major League Baseball,

(01:17:53):
so I’ve kind of used that as a barometer for
us for the ABS. When Rob Manford, the MLB Commissioner,
said theyre going to seek to star, aren’t employed that
through the challenge system for them? Then that caught my attention.
So they’ve decided to accelerate the trial on list. So
let me get your thoughts on this. How are you
feeling about it? It’s going to be a good trial

(01:18:14):
under a nationally televised microscope with the SEC tournament coming.

Speaker 13 (01:18:18):
In a couple of things. I’m for it first and foremost,
and I’ll tell you why. I don’t want to ever
knock out the umpire completely from the game. It’s a
subjective process. It’s always been involved in baseball that has
an effect on the game. There’s no doubt about that.

(01:18:39):
What they’ve been able to do over the years was
clean it up some or make it more definitive with
the replay that was the beginning. And now to have
this process with ABS because as you know, there’s a
lot of stripe three and a lot of ball fours
that are controversial, and this gives the hitter and the

(01:19:02):
players only. If I’m reading the rule right, I think
it’s the players only. The batter, pitcher and the catcher
the only three that can request within a three second
period using the hawk eye technology. They’re the only ones
that can request it three times during the game. So
trying to educate your players on this right now as

(01:19:22):
to who really gets to use it in what moment,
I think it’s probably being strategized and talked about a
little bit between the coaches and the players. But I
think it’s great. I think it takes a little pressure
off the umpires too. To be honest with you, I
think in those moments, how many times have you thought about, well,
this past weekend, if you think about when the coach

(01:19:45):
from Mississippi State.

Speaker 1 (01:19:47):
Hey, you think it was a strike?

Speaker 13 (01:19:50):
Right, I didn’t think it was a strike. You probably
didn’t think it was a strike, and you know, and
it probably wasn’t. I haven’t seen the report whether it
was or it wasn’t, but it certainly didn’t look like it. Well,
the point is, Craig, is even if it was or
it wasn’t, and you could go review it, no coaches
getting disqualified from the game at that moment, right, So

(01:20:12):
it’s it’s it. So it keeps coaches in the game.
I think it creates a cohesiveness between the whole plate
umpire and the coaches and the players, and that gives
the umpires a safety valve of this is what I saw.
This is what I called. I made a mistake. Remember
they’re seeing three hundred pitches a game, So this is

(01:20:33):
what I saw. And so in a big moment. It
gives each of the team a chance to you know,
go back and say, did you get it right, you
get it wrong, let’s review it. And so I think
it’s awesome for the game. I’m proud of not that
they need my you know, insight, and I’m proud the
SEC is going to take the first step. I think

(01:20:53):
what they’re doing, indirectly or directly, that they’re using a
a product and a moment with the SEC Tournament that
a lot of people are gonna watch and attend and
be a part of, and I think they’re gonna use
that as feedback for moving forward with it. So I
think it’s the perfect timing, uh for everybody to get

(01:21:17):
involved with this and see how it goes. I’m excited
to watch it. I’ve watched it on Pro Baseball like
you do. But I think it’s a great moment for
college baseball. The SEC is always going to keep themselves
on the forefront of how things are going where they
you know, the trends and how to make the lead better,
and so I’m not surprised that they’re doing it, but
I’m also very excited.

Speaker 1 (01:21:38):
They’re doing it. Yeah, when when you mentioned went when
and to be honest, when I first saw this, the
first thing that went through my mind was the Sunday
afternoon game. Top of the sixth, bases loaded, Mississippi State’s
best overall hitter, Ace Reese at the plate. Brett Croslin
had just walked the batter on four pitches. The bases

(01:21:58):
were loaded down. He gets two quick strikes on Reese
and then comes back with that pitch, and I think
Kyle Peterson described it very well. He talked about how
Carson Tenney does such a fabulous job of framing pitches
and kind of pulling it into the zone even if
it’s out of the zone a little bit. So it
was then strike three and was rung up by the

(01:22:20):
home plate umpire, Danny Cricks. Reees turned around and looked
and set a thing or two to Cricks then started
back to the dugout. Third base coach for Mississippi State
came running in and that was justin Parker.

Speaker 13 (01:22:35):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:22:35):
Kevin McMullen came running in and he was saying some
stuff and Cricks, the home plate umpire had his arm
extended out on that’s far enough. That’s far enough, and
I’m not going to get your opinion on something else
here in a minute with regard to relationships between coaches
and umpires. But then Brian O’Connor comes out and sends
his coach back to the dugout, and then O’Connor, from
about thirty feet away is letting Danny Cricks here is

(01:22:58):
here his displeasure, and it goes on, and he goes
on and Kricks holds out his arm again to say
that’s enough, that’s enough, and then he continues to go
and then he gives him the boot, he ejects him,
and then O’Connor just comes at him at that point,
races up to him, gets in his face a whole bit,
that sort of thing. But the point is is to
your point, and what Kyle Peterson said on Sunday, KP

(01:23:19):
pointed out that that what Carson Tiny does and you’ve
seen it throughout the course of this season and in
past seasons. Ty is a catcher who can really do
an excellent job of framing that pitch to make it
look like as a strike, whether or not it was.

Speaker 13 (01:23:38):
Yes, she’s very good at it. He’s very talented, and
to be honest with you too, Craig, he doesn’t miss
very often, meaning a lot of guys like the drag
or pull back in the zone or whatever you want
to call it. There’s a lot of different ports for it.
But he doesn’t miss very often. When umpire ce catchers
miss wants a game. And whether they’re trying to do
that and hits off the end of the glove or

(01:23:59):
bounces out of the glove, those umpires won’t won’t believe
it anymore. I know that’s a technical thing, but it’s real.
Carsontini doesn’t miss very much. He has tremendous hands and
has the ability to surround a baseball with the end
of his glove. The webbing and or is underneath his
left thumb, and he has the ability to place it

(01:24:19):
under it to make it a casual drag of the
ball back into the zone to where it’s not a
forced movement. Umpires see a forced movement. Remember they’re looking
down at the at the last five feet of the
baseball too, and where it’s crossing the plate, and what
does it look like. And so when you got this
guy not making a big movement with his shoulder in
his hand and he’s able to casually, not casually, but

(01:24:41):
easily do it, it makes the umpires feel comfortable that
it is a stripe and that it is in the
strike zone. But I would also tell you in Live
with what happened that day. Going back to what KP said,
there’s a real famous hall of fame. You know a
radio announcer played by play guy that works in the
Austin area that once told me you can say what

(01:25:03):
you need to save if you just know how to
say it. And Kate did a good job was saying,
I don’t know if you know who that play by
play guy is, but he once told me. He gave
me some advice. You can say what you need to say,
you just got to frame it right and say it right.
And I think Kap did that that they don’t television
as well.

Speaker 1 (01:25:20):
I think the way that dude like to say it
was there are ways to say things. There are definitely
there are definitely definitely ways to say things, say things.
Ty Harrington with us here on thirteen hundred zern. Okay,
before we lead to that and go on to some
other teams, I do want to get your thoughts and

(01:25:40):
it’s kind of like what we were just talking about,
and this was something I asked Keith about as well,
and it, and it is the relationship. You’ve been on
both sides of all of this, so you come from
a very learned opinion on this, both as a former
longtime assistant coach and then as a longtime head coach.
There there are umpires, and this goes for college basketball

(01:26:02):
as well, because I’ve had college basketball referees tell me
this that there are some officials in college basketball, referees
and officials and and this apparently goes for umpires as
well in college baseball. That they’re there. They may be very,
very understanding and somewhat long suffering in terms of listening

(01:26:30):
to a coach who’s very unhappy with something, go ahead
and invent his spleen and and and do the things
that he is say the things he has to say.
But many of those same coaches, same umpires, will tell
you that’s fine. I’ll let them stand awful lot. What
I don’t want is I don’t want to hear it
from the assistant coach. They don’t want to. They don’t

(01:26:51):
want the third base coach running down to talk to them.
They don’t even though you’re not supposed to argue balls
and strikes. They’ll let a head coach sometimes grumble about it,
but they don’t want the pitching coach grumbling at him
about balls and strikes. I can tell you I’ve seen
it a number of times when a pitching coach was
ejected and not necessarily the head coach. I’m interested to
get your thoughts on that because and Keith and I

(01:27:13):
talked about it as well. It’s just a dynamic and
I think it’s a very individualistic thing. Isn’t it time
that some umpires will listen to anybody. But there’s some
umpires that don’t let your assistant coach come at me.
I don’t want to hear from from him. I don’t
know if he feels that the guy has qualified to
say anything to him, but they don’t want to hear
from the assistant coach. They only want to hear from
the head coach.

Speaker 13 (01:27:33):
Yeah, that’s well, it’s a rule too. So part of
that is is that your assistant coaches aren’t allowed to
quote unquote if I can do that on radio, that
you you’re not supposed to be able to argue. So
the only kind of argument of decisions or thoughts have
to come from the head coach. That’s why you’ll see
young you’ll see assistant coaches get dump really quick because

(01:27:55):
to your point what you’re saying, they don’t want to
hear about it. They don’t have to, so in their
mind they’re like they put their hand up, which is
what you saw the other day. They put their hand up,
like I ain’t playing this game. I don’t have to
deal with you. I’ll deal with your head coach, but
I’m not dealing with you as an assistant coach. And
that happens on a regular basis because the assistant coaches

(01:28:15):
get emotional about it too. You sat in the World Series, sure,
and Kevin Smaller got kicking in. So did the assistant
coach in first base. And so there are umpires, Craig,
you know this. I have made this comment multiple times.
There are umpires in multiple leagues that I could tell you.

(01:28:36):
I would have to sit down with our team for
a game and say, do not say anything to this
guy or you’re gonna get dumped, and so am I.
And so there was you had a list of those guys.
I could tell you now when I do games, and
I’ve known Danny Krik for a long time, a long time,
but I can tell you there are times when I

(01:28:56):
do games when I see the umpiring crew and I’m like, oh,
somebody’ll get somebody, And because it’s a big game, an
intense game, an emotional game, whatever that game may be
that night.

Speaker 4 (01:29:09):
And then some of those.

Speaker 13 (01:29:10):
They respond that way in their own emotions. And then
I’ve had umpires where you know, I’ll go all the
way back to the good old days, and you know,
Randy Kristol and guys like that, they didn’t they didn’t
really enjoy throwing guys out. They would if they had to,
but you had to really push it together. And there
are other guys umpires which are the best when they

(01:29:31):
walk up to you and they go coach, coach, slow down,
slow down, let’s let’s work through this. And it diffuses
your emotion. If you just allow the coaches to tell
you what’s on their mind and not say anything grumpy
back at them, more times than not they’ll they go
back to back off of it and know they realize
that they got to try us find a way to
stand the game.

Speaker 1 (01:29:50):
We’re visiting with Ty Harrington, the coach talking college baseball
will continue with the coach coming up as we continue
from UFCU just fart field back here at the Mall
Park on a Tuesday afternoon non conference finale night for
Texas against UTSA, and the coach Ty Harrington with us
as we talked college baseball. All right, Tyler, let me
jump to a couple of things. First of all, the
first of the two sets of weekly projections that we

(01:30:12):
all consult pretty closely, Baseball Americas, came out this morning.
It’ll be uh later this afternoon. I think we’ll see
D one baseballs and they still have Texas as the
number three overall seed in this you know. And in
visiting m Kendall Rodgers last week, he thought if the
long Worns won the weekend series against a Mississippi State,

(01:30:33):
it would probably lock them in as a top eight.
Whether whether it has or not, I would say they
put themselves in a good position now. They got a good
RPI game tonight against UTSA. Then they go to Knoxville
for their final road conference series of the season. They
come back to concluded it home against the last place
team in the league, Missouri. If they aren’t a top eight,
they’re pretty close right now, aren’t they.

Speaker 13 (01:30:56):
Oh? Yes, yes, very much so. And having I guess
that is the professional side of me. And then also
the personal desire for them to be as well. Right,
they can get confusing sometimes, but I think so. I mean, look,
I think if they and I think everybody agrees, the
math piece of this now becomes, you know, if they
can go to the Tennessee and come out of there

(01:31:19):
and do good and whether that’s two or one wins
or whatever that may look like. I think everybody really,
you know, feel starts to feel even better with Missouri
coming to town. But don’t ever lose sight. And you
know this, it’s the SEC and it’s like professional baseball
that every team could beat you on a given day
if you don’t play your very best, if you don’t
play good in this league every time, do you stand

(01:31:41):
a chance to get beat? If you play good, then
you give yourselves to have those types of outcomes that
we just discussed for them, you know, going into the
last two weekends. But do I think, yes, they’re top
eight seed when they undressed the whole season today to
where it is to where they are right now, yes,
they that they would be more than deserving of that

(01:32:02):
placement right now for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:32:04):
I want to ask you about another team, and it’s
a team you saw very early in the season, and
that’s Oregon State. Oregon State is having to play, as
we know, the independent schedule before the newly reconstituted PAC
twelve comes into existence next year. And Texas State will
be a part of that, and we’ll talk about the
Bobcats in a moment, But here’s Oregon State who is

(01:32:28):
having to play that independent schedule and so their RPI
has taken a hit or two down the stretch because
of just the games that they have available to them.
And then on top of that, in a move that
maybe think about what the Longhorns went through last year
and losing Jared Spencer. They lost their number one guy
DA’s Whitney. He’s done for the year. Right now, Baseball

(01:32:50):
America has the number has them in the number sixteen slot,
although Kenna Rodgers thinks that when the D one projections
come out they probably will slide out of that top sixty.
That’s a tough for Mitch Canneman for Oregon State to
be in right now, isn’t it? Yes?

Speaker 13 (01:33:04):
And I would I would. I would be inclined if
I was on the committee and or putting a placement
on it right now to move him down. I would
be Klie all right at that twenty mark, to be
honest with you, maybe a little bit more. And that’s
just a guessing and numbers a value of what they
just lost. You don’t lose one of your best guys,

(01:33:28):
Craig and then it just be okay. You know the
Texas experience that last year. We’ve all been in this industry,
if you’ve coached or been running on a daily basis
or a fan of it, even that when you lose
one of your best players, particularly your best arm, you’re
you’re not going to replace that moment for what he
represents in every game. And so I think there’s a

(01:33:51):
tough moment for them. I wouldn’t be surprised if seeing
how they do. And I don’t have their schedule in
front of me, I don’t know what it looks like
for them. I don’t know how much of RPI value
they could even scoop up at this point. Yeah, over
the next two weeks to create some more value for them.
But I know this because I know committee members. I

(01:34:14):
know some of the committee members right now and in
the past it has been discussed multiple times when you
get down to making the big decisions between whether a
team gets enter out and or as a host or
a national seed. It has to do with the health
of their team.

Speaker 1 (01:34:30):
Yeah, and just to let you know what they have
left is they’re playing Portland tonight. They’re playing a sub
five hundred long beat state team on the road this
week and weekend series. They play Portland next Tuesday, and
then they conclude with air Force and that’ll be at
home on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and so that it doesn’t

(01:34:51):
sound like that’s gonna be enough to really help them
with what they’re doing. Now. They’ll be in the tournament certainly,
but it’s looking more and more like they’re going to
have to go on the road. Now, speaking of the tournament,
there’s two, you know, two teams that really took some
damage took on water last week, Vanderbilt getting swept at

(01:35:13):
Alabama and TCU getting swept at Oklahoma State. Now they’re both,
according to these projections, still in the field. And let
me make sure about Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt is actually in the Yeah,
they’re in, and so is TCU, but they’re both listed
as last four in on that and so I would
imagine there’s some critical series coming up. Same thing with

(01:35:34):
NC State. They’re in the field, but they have TCU
list that is coming to Austin as the number three seed,
with Jacksonville State the projected Conference USA champion and Southland
Conference projected champion. Southeastern Louisiana is the four seat, which,
by the way, would not be that easy of a
regional for Texas with those three teams in there, would it.

Speaker 4 (01:35:56):
No, it would not be easy.

Speaker 13 (01:35:57):
Southeast is pretty good. I mean they thrown a handful
of they shut o you out, excuse me in a
midweek game. So if you’re shutting down of an SEC
team in a midweek that told you can throw the baseball.
But I you know, those projections of where people are
gonna land, and that would be a hard. First of all,
it’s unpredictable who’s gonna land where. But yes, if it

(01:36:20):
happened to be that and that was the reasonal, that
would be an intense reasonal that would I don’t know
that that would be rewarding a top three seed in
my opinion. With that, I mean truthfully and in gcu’s case,
kind of similar to Oregon State. For me, I don’t
either schedule them from it. I don’t know where they
do the last two weekends, but Oklahoma State has played

(01:36:41):
well the last three weeks. I saw Oklahoma State early
in the year, and I’m just gonna be brutally honest.
I think you and I made him and talked about it.
I thought they were pretty average early in the year,
and but I don’t know if they’ve gotten some guys
back that were injured early in the year that I
didn’t see. But Josh’s done a good job. But get
those guys playing well the last month, and they’ve been

(01:37:02):
hot and playing a lot better baseball than what they
were playing in February and March.

Speaker 1 (01:37:07):
Yeah, they’re They’re slugging like crazy. Colin Ritchie hit three
home runs the other night against the Frogs. Colin Brighaman
is swinging the bat. Well, they’re doing that. Okay, A
couple of things I want to ask you about. One,
it’s a tough spot obviously for Texas State, the Bobcats
trying to get they come off being swept at home
there and they’re not even listed in then you know whatever,
first four out or that kind of thing right now.

(01:37:29):
More importantly, I think, and I think you can speak
to this better, is that they went from being tied
for sixth where you could get a first day by
to being tied for tenth in the standings. Tenth place
is the bottom rong to even make the Sunbelt Tournament,
and they’re tied in a four way tie for tenth
right now. So they’re really in danger, aren’t they if

(01:37:50):
they don’t finish strong even missing the conference tournament, let
alone getting a chance to try to win to qualify
for a regional.

Speaker 13 (01:37:57):
Yeah, it’s spent a tough month and a lot of
things have transpired on the win lost part of it.
You know, they Southern Mess they went there, and you
could excuse that because they’re top you know, one of
their top six or top ten RPI team, and so
you can see that at Southern Mess. They do take
a game at Coastal on that Sunday game, and that

(01:38:18):
gave you that thought, all right, they’re gonna come back
here and get back home on that Tuesday and and
uh and play a m corpus and you know, play
good and get going again. But they on that Sunday
or Saturday game at Coastal, they lost Ethan Ferris, who
was their first baseman who’s also played center field, second base,
who they didn’t have the first month, and then when

(01:38:39):
they got him is when they really started playing at
a higher level. He went down. I don’t know how
much longer, Uh he’ll be out or if he comes back,
I don’t know any of that. So I know that
was a factor and pieces of this. But they find
themselves in a dog fight to get into that conference tournament.
And but do you watch over these next six games

(01:39:02):
in the Sun Belt, It is a checker game. You’ll
watch teams look like they’re in, then they’re out, and
they look like they’re really in, and then they’re really
out all a matter of six games. Because it does
change a lot like watching a horse race or the
Kentucky Derby, going back and forth. But it is they
put themselves and allow themselves to get into position that

(01:39:23):
they they’re an adult fight to even make postseason. Uh.
Are they good enough team?

Speaker 11 (01:39:28):
Yes?

Speaker 13 (01:39:29):
You know, can they get in there? Absolutely?

Speaker 4 (01:39:31):
They can.

Speaker 13 (01:39:32):
Uh. They needed to play good tonight against Baylor and
and and get their feet moving in the right direction
and come up with a nice, you know, big twelve
win if they can. Uh, but more importantly play good
and and play clean and uh and try to get
some confidence moving in because they go to Arkansas State
UH to play them this weekend. Mike Silva, head coach,

(01:39:53):
was one of my former assistants in Texas State, and
he’s done a really good job there, and so they
they’re an adult fight the next weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:40:00):
Well, and they do have not only Arkansas State but
Marshall in front of them, and those two teams are
a one game ahead of the Bobcats, so they do
have a fighting chance to get The last thing I
want to ask you, and this is something you’re you’re
very well acquainted with in having seen it at this point,
like whatever, the next to last Tuesday for some schools.

(01:40:21):
For Texas it’s the last Tuesday non conference game. But
games are getting canceled UH in the interest of preserving RPI.
Kansas State at Missouri State, Ball State at Purdue, NC
State hosting North Carolina A and t Arizona State at Missouri,
Southern Illinois hosting Bellerman Grand Canyon at Oregon. All those
games have been canceled. If Texas A and M and

(01:40:41):
I I’m not heard that they cancel the game. If
they if they go through and play their game with
Prairie View tonight in College Station. The Aggies here are
number eight in the RPI right now if they win.
If they win, they drop four spots to number twelve.
This is a tough problem, isn’t it when RPI is
the factor that it is. But you kind of get
punished for winning. But I guess those who do the
evaluating and put that stuff into the end of the

(01:41:04):
computer say you get punished for playing low RPI teams
that you need to schedule better. It’s a difficult problem,
isn’t it.

Speaker 13 (01:41:11):
It is? And you know, for Texas, they positioned themselves
with this game that it was going to carry some
MARPI with it tonight, right because you get ETSA for
this week. It is an issue. We’re in a discussion
with a friend of mine about, you know, how do
you preserve this for the year scheduling wise, And he
was talking about having like a fluid schedule of a

(01:41:35):
pool of teams that you could choose to play from,
or have some type of agreement going into the year
that if we’re in the top twenty to whatever, then
I’ll play this team, or if I’m in the lower
and I’m just trying to get my team ready to
go into the conference tournament. Get my pitchers more work, guys,
that haven’t thrown much or hitters that haven’t played much
at bats before going into tournament. Do you have that

(01:41:57):
team to play? And so I know it’s logistic of
a logistical nightmare to try to create, but you got
guys that are canceling. You know, you always want to
say it, kind of schedule it, play it, but you’re
also gonna look at it from the coach’s perspective or
once in a while. Your job as a coach is
to do the best for your team and your organization
as far as getting into postseason. And quite frankly, you

(01:42:19):
just mentioned if somebody wins, they could even move down
by winning, and so you always got to put that
in or take that into consideration.

Speaker 1 (01:42:27):
No doubt about it. Hey, before we go, I want
to ask you how’d your thirty year reunion go with
your national championship jee CO team from Northeast Texas.

Speaker 13 (01:42:35):
Unbelievable. It was an incredible Saturday. There’s a lot of
things that too. Some of those guys I haven’t seen
in thirty years other than social media and when they
were playing, whether it was college ball, pro ball, or
something keeping up with them, and then the looks on
their faces and how they’ve grown and their families. It
was just so incredibly special. And then they had a

(01:42:58):
double header Northeast did with the barrows, the old Skip
Johnson Ty Harrington butt heads back in the day, and
it was so awesome and uh and it was for
the conference championship and uh and so we had a
ceremony in between the games and UH and they had
unveiled the statue out there just as you walk in
the ballpark and UH, everything was done right. And then

(01:43:19):
for Northeast they ended up winning and UH won the
conference championship. So our guys got to watch a little
bit of a celebration the whole time they had on
the national championship game because it was on s uh
it was it see s c A or I can’t
remember the uh the name of the network back in
the day that was Fox ended up being Fox Southwest eventually,

(01:43:40):
I think. And yeah, and so we watched it on
the trailer, so we got to watch a live game
and then our game and relive watch those guys relive
their moments. It was just incredible. I mean, so you
could see their minds. He’s going back in time and
uh to to a really special moment in their life
and and for them to be able to have something
special like that with so many guys in the share right.

(01:44:01):
There was really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:44:03):
Was the statue unveiled was that of you?

Speaker 13 (01:44:07):
No, no, absolutely not. Nobody would want to ruin the
property that way, and so it was. It was a
statue of the team and uh and the names and
the numbers and they did they did a really really
pretty job with it and uh and it was cool.
But no, I wouldn’t I wouldn’t force that on look
on anybody’s property, you know, by diminishing your property returns

(01:44:31):
and and so. But it was a cool time in
Mount Pleasant. It’s been a long time since I’ve been back,
and it was fun.

Speaker 1 (01:44:37):
That’s great. Hey, Ty, I appreciate you doing this. We’ll
do it again next week, looking into the final week
of the regular season. I appreciate you taking the time today.

Speaker 13 (01:44:45):
Yeah, you know, I want to say this so Craig,
if we’re going into postseason now. I always appreciate and
love George Strait and you know that. But as this
thing gets starts to amp up a little bit, you
might have to drop some led Zeppelin or something like that,
because it’s fixing to get busy in college.

Speaker 1 (01:44:59):
But you know how I feel about led Zeppelins. Hide
Led is dead. But okay, we’ll try to figure out
something there. Man, I appreciate the time. Thank for joining
us today. All right, that’s Ty Harrington, the coach. Join
us there a weekly conversation about college baseball. We have
more coming up from UFCU Dish fark Field. I’m thirteen
under the zone.