It's time for Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine
day, now here's Nick Coffee. I think I've made it pretty clear over
the last few weeks and even last year following the first appearance in the tvt
for the Pill, that like, I love this stuff, man, And
I mean, there's no reason why the local schools around here, Louisville,
Kentucky, even Indiana. I mean, this should be an event that when
people think of it across the country, they always know that there's gonna be
a team from these areas and they're gonna have the opportunity to host in the
first rounds and they're gonna have a ton of fans and they're gonna be good.
So I love it. But I can't like be critical of these guys,
like, you know, they played poorly and it did damage to the
University of Louisville's basketball brand, because like that's that's not what this is.
But again, it is still former players who when you watch them play,
it comes natural for you to root for them because of their time at Louisville,
And like, I don't know, it's just the the the gray area
of like is this the u of L of team. I mean it iss
U of ele event. And the TVT does does classify each team if they
are an alumni team or not. Now clearly the alumni teams don't have to
have only players from one school. But you know, I just like if
they end up playing bad tonight and losing, I'll be disappointed because I want
them to win so bad. But like, it's not like I'm gonna be
ready to craft some really hot scolding takes about you know, can you believe
montters Harold then box out last night? That's why he's not in the NBA.
Like, I just I just that that won't be natural for me to
do. And I'm not going to do that. It would be a force
and it would be mean. It would just be something I wouldn't want to
do. So one thing I will say about them, though, is they're
older. I mean, I don't have the average age range of every roster,
but I went and looked at it here and maybe age is not even
as big of a factor. It's really just how in shape you are,
like how long has it been Like for example, last year, he actually
didn't play great. It just didn't seem to really like it never really clicked
for him. But Kyle Kuric showed up fresh off of playing some of the
highest level basketball you can play that's not in the National Basketball Association. I
mean, Kyle's been a phenomenal pro for many years, and he was in
phenomenal shape. And he's on the older side. I mean, Kyle is
old. In fact, Kyle will be the oldest guy on this team.
People forget Kyle Kuric did not play on that twenty thirteen national championship team.
His last year was in twenty twelve, so Kyle's been gone for twelve years.
So maybe age is not the best way to really look at it.
It's more so like and maybe it's not even fair to say how in shape
are they? Because I mean, if you've watched this event, I mean
I take care of myself. I run a few miles every day, but
I'm not in shape to play like they're playing, you know what I mean.
So like, maybe like insinuating they're not in shape, it still seems
unfair. But I guess, you know, professional basketball shape that's a different
I guess a different world. And I think some of these guys are but
again, they're not fresh out of college anymore. I mean Russ Smith is
thirty three years old, Peyton c was thirty three years old, Chris Jones
is thirty three years old, Montrez Harold is thirty, Shanano Wanawak who's twenty
seven, David Johnson is twenty three, and Nick Mayo is twenty six.
Those are the seven guys who played the most minutes, and the average age
of those guys is twenty nine. That's not young. I'm sorry, that's
not old, but it might be old for this event, I'm not sure.
Like they play Sideline Cancer tonight, and you know one of their guys
on this team, Jack Golkie, who just lit up Kentucky in East A
tournament for Oakland. I mean, he was an old dude in college.
But he's younger than these guys, which, by the way, what if
Jack Golkie was like Tresa's age. I mean, that's not realistic, but
like we look up his stage, I bet he's twenty three. I'm gonna
guess you have a guess that sounds on the money to me. He's twenty
four. He'll be twenty five in December, so I mean he's he's older
than David David Johnson hasn't played in college in three years. So you know,
now I'm interested to look up their roster. I'm looking at the roster
I've gotten in front of me. I'm trying to see how many of these
names I recognize. See here you mentioned Chris Coffee. They have him.
Oh yeah, you mentioned him a couple of days ago. Seneca High School
grad was a National Player of the Year at the NAI level and then has
had a great career since he's been a pro. And he's I mean,
he had a big, big, monster dunk and he may have another one
to the night because that's what he does. Man. He can run and
he can throw it down, so's I would imagine he's probably well, I'll
put it this way, he's somebody that I know has played professional like there's
no off year for him since he got done playing college basketball. He's been
in great shape playing pro ball, you know, since he left Georgetown College,
which I believe was in two thousand and twenty. So get age age
is something that you know, it matters to an extent, But I think
more than anything is if you have a bunch of dudes who like, for
example, you look at I didn't even see the stat line for for who
you know who led them in scoring. In fact, maybe we can look
that up a little bit later on. But like, they've got a guy
named Keith Braxton here it says the last team he played for was was in
Sweden. They've also got a guy by the name of Eric Thompson who played
in Japan most recently. Well he's six' eight and he's a big guy.
So you know they say last team, Well, your last team could
be four years ago, you know what I'm saying, Like your last like
Peyton Steeva hasn't played professionally in a few years, so his last team might
be a pro team. But if you know, he hasn't played and Peyton,
Peyton stays in great shape. He looks the same as he did when
he was playing here. But you know, he's got some miles on him.
I mean, that's just he's a guy that has played a lot of
basketball and it's no longer part of his everyday life. Like you know,
basketball is a part of his life. But he's coaching now and he's running
his own gym, Like he's not out there training every day because he's about
to go trout out. I mean he could if he wanted. Peyton could
still be playing professionally if he wanted to. So again, I don't want
to call these guys old, but you know, Bellerman, I give him
a lot of credit. They came out and those dudes, honestly, some
of them are young, younger, I should say. But then there's other
dudes like, you know, Jeremy Kendall, who's my age, thirty five,
thirty six, Probably Bradon Hobbs hasn't played in a long time, and
those guys were you know, they put together a phenomenal performance. I mean,
Scott Davenport should be proud of all of his former players. I know.
I think it's one of the assistants or former assistants for Bellerman was coaching
him and he seemed to do a great job. So I think what happened
in that game, because I've had a few people already on the text line,
I love this, by the way, because we've got reaction from listeners,
is if we're talking about like an actual conference game tonight where there's a
lot on the line. But I think Bellerman wisely knew, Hey, if
we're going to have a chance, we need to have this game played in
the half court setting as much as possible. We have to certainly pick and
choose when we're going to take a chance to get an easy bucket in transition,
because if it gets into where we're running the floor, even if these
guys aren't in great shape, there's a good chance Montrez Harrald could get loose
for a bunch of dunks. You know, David Johnson is still young,
he's coming off an injury, but David is somebody they probably wouldn't want to
run with. And they got to knock down threes and they did that.
I mean, they were seven of thirteen from three in the first half and
that's why they were able to go into the half with the lead. And
it took you know, Louisville really had to claw back and find a way
to win, and they did exactly that. I love the elam ending,
by the way. I know we'll never see the game utilize that way.
We'll never see that utilized in basketball that we you know, consume during the
college game and the NBA and all that. But like it's just it's entertaining,
it really is. It's usually when there's something that's so different compared to
what you're used to. Even if it is kind of interesting and cool,
people are weirded out by it. I'm not Maybe it's because this is at
the TBT and it's not something they're giving us in college basketball or in the
NBA or even high school for that matter. But I think it's a really
as far as just consuming the sport of basketball the product itself. I actually
find it to be more entertaining than when the clock's just going to strike zero.
So you know when it gets late, like you got to still make
buckets to go win. You got to hit a clutch shot to give yourself
to hit that elam ending total, and that takes some guts, It takes
some clutch ability. Now the pressure is not there's not as much pressure whenever
you're two points away from that number and your opponent's twenty points away, and
sometimes it it does break down like that. But I thought Bellerman did a
great job, and I think this Louisville team is well aware that they're going
to have to play a lot better tonight if they want to win. And
Russ was in foul trouble in the second half and he really wasn't able to.
I mean, he still played a good amount of minutes, but he
picked up his third and fourth foul with I think a lot of time in
the third quarter. So you know, this is a good text that comes
in here, and we're talking TVT of course at is Coffee and Company,
we are feel about Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. But let's go
to the text line five two six five three zero seven ninety that is the
L and N Federal Credit Union tax line. This text says Nick when it
comes to awkwardness, the only thing awkward for me is when I find myself
wanting Rees Gains to put Louisville players on the bench and play the two dudes
who did not play at Louisville because they seem to be in better shape.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know about better shape, but no doubt
about it. Nick Mayo is an asset. That guy is a weapon.
He was a he was a good addition last year and really helped. And
you know, his numbers weren't great the other night, but he's a big
physical presence and he still plays at a high level professionally. And then the
other player who as far as like who you would want to come in.
And I mean when you look at the roster, I mean I can't think
of anybody. I mean, there's obviously gay Omar Pruett, who I mean,
he only played three minutes, so I'm not sure if you know,
I don't know why that was the case. But everybody else on the Louisville
team is as far as guys who were playing a lot of minutes, it's
Louisville guys. I mean, the only two guys on this team. Actually
there's a third one but he didn't play at all. But you've got Omar
Pruett, Nick Mayo, and the third one I already forgot his name.
He's the guy who played at Nebraska most recently. But it is kind of
funny to see it play out that way because on Indiana I mentioned John mentioned
earlier Yogi Ferrell had himself a really good night when they played their first game,
But it was guys from Oklahoma, Miami and LSU last night that I
think led the way for him. Doolittle from Oklahoma had fourteen points, Julian
Gamble had a double double eleven and eleven, and then Keith hornsby former LS
shoe guard I think he had like twelve or something. So look when it
comes to this, like, I'm not worried whenever you've got guys out there
that are that are getting minutes that aren't guys who played at Louisville, I
mean, I don't care. Like Nick Mayo is an honorary member of Louisville.
Now, I mean, I don't know if he knows that, and
I'm not sure if he cares. I don't know what he can do with
that. But he helped him last year, and he certainly helped him,
helped him the other night. And even for Kentucky. I mean I don't
know how many points he ended up with, but you know, Kentucky,
I mean, Eric Bledsoe has been great, and I know he had himself
a heck of a day yesterday or maybe it was the first game they played,
but it was in his cantor's little brother who ended up having Like you
know, I think he scored like nearly thirty points the other day in the
in their TVT game. I think it was yesterday. Yeah, I mean
I do. Maybe I'm exaggerating with thirty points, but Karim Canter is his
name, and he played. I think he initially started his career somewhere.
I don't know where he started his career, but he actually finished his career
at Xavier playing for Chris Mack. But yeah, he ended up let's see
here, how many points did he end up having. Yeah, he lit
all scorers with twenty six points, ten of twelve from the floor, two
of two of from deep. So again, he's not a Kentucky player,
but hey, I get it. If you're a Kentucky fan and you're you
know you're going to give him the honorary you know he's going to be a
part of the family. He's an honorary wildcat, I suppose. All right.
So we've talked also a little bit today about the ACC media days that
are currently currently going on in Charlotte, and now that I'm reading more from
those who are there covering it and those that are kind of emphasizing and highlighting
some of the things that Jim Phillips is saying, it makes me wish that,
you know, even more so, that we did get a chance to
hear because I think he's saying some good things. Now again, it's these
are the kind of things you would expect your commissioner to have ready to discuss
because you know you're here. You're here to prop up the league, say
good things about the league, get people excited. Uh, you know,
the league's the league itself has to go out and do its part when it
comes to, you know, playing well in the non conference portion of the
schedule. But he does, and I'm sure he's got some numbers to back
this up, but he does say that the ACC's non conference schedule is the
toughest in college football. AC football has the toughest non conference schedule in the
country, twenty seven games against Power four opponents, including Notre Dame, nine
non conference games against teams ranked in the final The ACC is the conference of
quarterbacks. Thirteen enter the season with over twenty career touchdown passes and thirty five
hundred career passing yards. Eight quarterbacks are projected to start Week one in the
twenty twenty four NFL season. CC football has the nation's top returning passer and
receiver in yards per game from last year in cam Ward of Miami and Colin
Lacy Louisville, plus the second returning rusher in Omari and Hampton from North Carolina,
with Clemson and NC State representing the ACC. No conference has more than
two teams that can state that claim. So you know, I think you
have a living I don't know that's a positive. Few statements there put into
video form from the commission of the league. So I don't want to,
you know, crap on it, but I think when you mention the amount
of team. First of all, the league has never done very well in
non conference games, which is why they don't get the benefit of the doubt
when they beat up on each other because you've I mean, for example,
Pittsburgh when the year they won the ACC, remember when can you Pikett was
there, they also lost to like a mid level MAC team that year.
Like, those kind of things matter because your league does not get the benefit
of the doubt, nor does it deserve the benefit of the doubt when you
beat up on each other. But yeah, when you played other teams from
other leagues, you were lousy, and the accs had issues with that in
recent years. So it's nice to hear that they have all these challenging non
conference games, but I want to see them go out and actually, you
know, win some of them. Also, when you have a contractual obligation
or I'm sorry when Notre Dame has a contractual obligation to play a certain amount
of teams from your league every year. Can you still throw them into that
whole thing, like we play more, we play more power forward teams and
Notre Dame included than well, it's because they're kind of in your league,
you know what I mean? Like, I don't know, I trust me.
The SEC's non conference schedule, more often than not, is atrocious and
they get away with it, and sometimes they deserve the benefit of the doubt.
But as we discussed last year, the SEC's record in non conference games
against other Power five opponents was bad, and you know, I think that
stuff matters, and the Big Ten, I'm not sure. I mean last
year, Michigan right that they had the I think Michigan might have had in
the country, So you know, they don't They also shouldn't get the benefit
of the doubt when they beat up on each other a little. Michigan proved
who they were. They went on to win the national championship, but they
played non league games, So I think that that, you know, I
give them a little bit of a little bit of a break there because the
SEC, they don't schedule anybody out of conference and they only play a games.
And here's the other thing with the SEC that's always bothered me. They
have that extra non conference game, right, it's always sad in which right
at the end of their schedule, usually against an FCS opponent, that's kind
of like their break week before they really get into like the last part of
the season. It's always seemed like a blame and it's I mean, it's
also like it's like a it's like a vibe killer, it's a party foul.
Nobody wants to watch those games on TV that late in the season.
Yeah, like you're you're in the thick of things right, like you're playing
you know, you're about to gear up for your rivalry game. There could
still be some implication there in regards to who gets into the conference championship game,
Like there could be I mean again, you're especially now that you're gonna
have a twelve team playoff, so like there's a lot of spots that are
still up for grabs, probably when you get that late in the season.
And then we got Alabama play in the Citadel, like what are we doing
here? And then you know you got Auburn bringing in Butthole Tech I mean,
it'sole Tech. Somebody said buttle Tech to me at the game Saturday.
Oh did they Yeah, they asked me if butthole Tech had an alumni team,
and it took me a while to realize what they were talking about,
which I thought was a pretty good line, but it also was you know,
it kind of kind of caught me off guard. So I was like,
wait a second, butthole Tech butthole Tech, Like, I know he's
sang butthole Tech because it's not a real school, and it's something I said.
And then I remember that I was just trying to randomly think of,
you know, no name schools, and butthole Tech came up the other day.
Was it butthole Tech or butthole State? It was butthole Tech, And
we said the head coach was the guy who had shown me your butthole on
it that's right, full hole. Yeah. Yeah, probably probably said butthhole
a lot in the last couple of shows, more so than we ever have.
So you know, that just speaks to our immaturity and our childish sense
of humor. And uh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry that I've I've put
you into this mess, John, because you you know I've rubbed off on
you. I've been a bad I've been a bad influence, a big buttthole
Tech fan. Huh big, big time. Yeah, what are their what
their what's their mascot? Oh man, maybe we could we should use AI
and like try to determine what butthole Tech's mascot would be, because there's a
lot of creative AI tools out there that can you know, they can work
some magic for us. So again, real quick before we take our next
break, when it comes to just the big talking points, at least as
of right now at the ACC kickoff, it's the fact that Florida State and
Clemson have not notified the ACC and don't expect to notify the ACC in the
next month or so that they're leaving, which again I guess that's that's a
piece of news considering they're trying to leave and they're final filing a lawsuit so
they can get out of the league at least get out of the grand of
Rights. But they do not intend to do that, which they would have
to do that if they did not plan on being in the league in twenty
five and twenty six. So for the next you know, for the upcoming
season. In the following season, those two schools will still be members of
the league, And as far as what happens legally, you know, we'll
we'll see. I mean, Phillips did say that they'll fight as long as
they can in court to protect the league. So I don't think they're going
to cave, and they shouldn't and they shouldn't settle. I mean, I'm
a little surprised at this point that you have these lawsuits going on and without
somebody you know involved on the legal side for these schools, or somebody you
know that maybe maybe a school president or something, maybe even an athletic director
that like has the cooler head and says, look, we will fight like
hell to get out, but right now, like we don't really have there's
no exit strategy, Like we don't like, we're just going to go to
court and pay a ton of money and hopes that somebody says that they're not
allowed to hold us to this agreement that we clearly signed and we clearly knew
what it was, and we also I mean, this is what's crazy,
is that it props to the ACC's legal team. But whenever they countersued or
I guess. I mean, maybe it wasn't actually a counter suit. Maybe
it was just like a response to the lawsuit. I'm not sure. Although
the league issuing those two schools, but I don't know where this specific where
this specific thing happened. But when they responded, they brought up the quotes
that were really used in press releases from the athletic director of Clemson and the
athletic director at the time of Florida State, who talked about how this agreement
that you know is in place till twenty thirty six is good for the league
because it keeps everybody together and keeps everybody from being able to I'm paraphrasing.
I don't know what the exact quote was, but like that to me,
in is your case, Like you can't claim that they're like the agreement and
the terms are unfair. Whenever you knew it, when you signed it,
and you talked about how great it was, Like it's a waste of time
and it's a bad look for the league. There's no way around that.
All right, let's get to our first break here in the four o'clock I
will keep the keep the party rolling along in his game day, and I
haven't even looked at ticket availability. I don't know what kind of crowd you
expect to night on a Monday at seven o'clock, but hopefully there's a great
crowd there because they're gonna need it. Theville versus Sideline Cancer. Hopefully Jack
Goldkie is not on fire tonight from three. I'm already I'm already kind of
worried about that. All right, it's coffee and Company. We're feel about
Thorton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. It's right coffee and Company.
Fuel about Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Thanks for hanging out with
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don't know what it is anytime I get to eat these cheese its and then
I drink water, you know, to try to wash my mouth out before
I you know, I have to turn this microphone on and start yapping again.
My mouth is waters. I don't know what it is. I think
it's the saltiness probably, But so you have that personal stash in there now,
right. Yeah. So I talked about how there was no there was
no more cheese. It's in there. And they've got all the other great
chips, right, I mean, they've got Dorito's both different flavor, you
know, the cool Ranch and the notch show. They've I mean, they've
got laze barbecues. Yeah, I mean they've got it all. But the
cheese. It's that at one point were just the only thing left that nobody
seemingly wanted. I started eating them, and I realized how much I like
them, and then now they don't provide them. Well, somebody overheard me
mentioning that, and they took care of me. I'm not going to out
who it was, but you know it's appreciated. Yeah, their Christmas card
will be a little little better this year round, this time around for them
because they really looked out for me. They've got my own stash. So
there's cheese. It's there somewhere. They're hiding them from people didn't know that,
but I guess it's because they know that I'm the one that wants to
cheese its and they're not going to take any chances on anybody else getting their
hands on them. In fact, it would have been really unusual for it
to be the only thing left, right, the one thing nobody here would
actually eat in the snack area to then everybody just wanting them. And it's
it's not that wasn't the case. It was just that they you know,
they're hiding them for me, and I appreciate that, I really do.
All right, So let's go to the text on five O two six three
zero seven ninety. It's the Ellen n Federal Credit Union tax Line. Members
get more at Ellenn Federal Credit Union. You can learn more and open your
account today at LNFCU dot com. It's Texas, Nick. I know who
the first person we need to call and get into next year's TVT team with
Louisville got to be Carli Jones. Yes, I mean, I don't know
if he'll play, but man, that would be great. So how about
Carlague Jones over the weekend. My guy went out there and put up a
triple double against Team US say, something that has never been done before,
and it should have been a victory for him. I can't say that I'm
disappointed that that TEAMUS say one, because you know, I want them to
win, right, I'm an American. But the story of this South sud
ann squad and really just all that's gone into making basketball such a more accessible
thing for kids in that country that you know, want to play sports,
including basketball, like it is an awesome story. I mean when Leuel Ding
really and of course I'm sure those of you who know a little bit about
basketball are familiar with Lowell Ding. He was a great player. Duke went
on to have a great career in the NBA. Played from two thousand and
four to twenty and nineteen, so again had a heck of a run in
the NBA. He is from South Sudan and at the time that he was
apparently, you know, going to retire, and I'm sure he did a
lot of stuff for his country and you know, and children who wanted to
play basketball. I'm sure it's not something he only started doing once. He
retired, but once he really did make it a priority. Whenever that was
there were no indoor courts in that country. The only basketball you could play
with like a legitimate court was outside. I mean, that's crazy to think
about that. A group of young men from the South Sudan just took it
to Team USA and they should have won. I mean, let's be real,
they should have won. So Carl Jones. I still don't know the
specifics as to how he ended up with the team because I know car Leak.
I mean, it could just be I mean, it could just be
his, you know his, it could be he had he has family that
is originally from there. I'm not sure, but his nationality is both America
and South Sudanese. But he was born in Cincinnati, and I just wasn't
aware of his background. But uh, he's played for them now for I
think the last couple of years, and he was great in that game.
I mean again, a triple double. That's not something you see very often.
I mean, in fact, you don't ever see. It's never happened
before. So this will certainly get him some more attention when it comes to,
you know, getting on a training camp roster. But yeah, eleven
points, ten rebounds, ten assists, and just I mean, he's such
a good player. Man, He's such a good player. And when it
comes to really good players for Louisville that people just forget about. That's like
a it's like a random thing I'll throw at like people on Twitter, or
throw at listeners of the show just to kind of have a conversation. And
usually I'll do it knowing like what mine are and just to see what other
people say and to see if anybody else is throwing out there that maybe I'm
not thinking of. But car Leak's the one even I forget about because it's
such a forgettable era of Louisville basketball. And some of it's because, you
know, they weren't. I mean, that season was just weird. It
just was. I mean it's the season, you know, in between the
year where COVID ended the tournament for everybody, I mean ended college basketball that
year for everybody, and then the next year Mac left, you know,
halfway through the season, and in between there they played, I mean,
they played fewer games than just about anybody in the country because of their COVID
stoppages. They weren't really good, So trust me like, even if they
wouldn't have had a lot of stoppages and they still would have been able to
play some teams they missed out on playing, they probably would have made the
tournament. Considering it was the bid Steelers at the end that kept them out.
They still weren't a team that had a high ceiling. They just weren't
great, but they were good enough to make the tournament. And if that's
the case, you know, who knows what happens. But Carling Jones was
phenomenal. Him not being acc Player of the Year is I mean, it's
again, it's a forgotten year that people just kind of rant like don't care
about. And I get it because it was a weird year. You played
in front of no one. You never knew at any moment if games were
gonna actually happen or not because of COVID cancelations. It was just awkward.
And that's why whenever we were locked in for however long we were for the
pandemic, right, and when sports did come back, I thought that interest
you know, initially, without knowing I just thought, oh, yeah,
interest level and viewership's going to be through the roof, because what else have
we had to do. We've been starving for this, and in fact,
it wasn't like viewership was way down. You know why because outside of the
diehards, it was awkward. It was weird. There was nobody there at
games, like it just wasn't normal. So, you know, I I
get wide, it just doesn't get talked about a lot. But you I
mean, can people even remember who won ACC Player of the Year in two
thousand in one because I had to look it up. I mean I was
drawing a blank because I remember some dudes who were playing in the ACC at
that time, but I just, you know, I knew that they didn't
have great years and ended up being Moses Right from Georgia Tech, who did
have a good senior season at Georgia Tech. He ended up averaging let's see,
seventeen and eight. I mean, he was good. Let's be real.
He was a good player, but he wasn't better than Car League.
And I just wish Carl League would have won it because the a SEC Player
of the Year award would have been something that would have gotten probably a little
more tension heading into the draft. And you know, I love Carl League's
game. Man, He's undersized, compared to most. He's not super athletic,
he's not super quick. He actually has a good jump shot as far
as the percentage rate he makes it, but it's fun a from like a
clean quick release. It doesn't look like a great shot, but man,
he can just play. He's so good. So at Louisville, his numbers,
trying to see what his what his stats were, of course it's not
showing me here, but I mean, he was he was really really good,
and the fact that he's just a forgotten player is kind of unfortunate because
he was, he was good. I wish you'd have played here more than
just one year. And will he ever play for the TVT, I don't
know. I mean I would hope that would be great if he ever did
this, if he's ever like, if he's ever you know, able to
play because he's not playing for the South Sudan or maybe he's not on an
NBA roster or something like that, that would be great to get him to
come back and play. And you know, you got to wonder, you
know, how often do you think Carleage, I mean, Carleague's connections to
Louisville were what's here for one year? Everybody that was around when he was
here is not here anymore. So you know, I don't want to I
have no clue how he feels about Louisville. I have no reason to think
he has anything to get to say about his experience in the LEISL. But
he was only here for a season. You know, it wasn't it wasn't
a very good season. And you know, the coach that he is still
close to to this day is no longer here anymore either, so you know,
And but to be honest with you, I wouldn't be shocked if he's
in the NBA and is not somebody that can even play in this TVT event
for the next couple of years. And maybe I'm overreacting to one random game,
you know, basically a warm up game before the Olympics start. But
according to let's see here, according to one of the FOEBA, the FEBA
basketball reporters, those who cover basketball internationally, right after he ended up putting
up that performance, that triple double against TVSA, he received calls from Phoenix,
Chicago, Toronto, and Miami. So certainly I think he could turn
this into a a chance to get a training camp invitation. You know,
training camp try out essentially, but once you get once you get there,
it's just really tough to make the team because at that point, like if
you're somebody that the only thing in writing that that team has guaranteed you is
a chance to participate in training camp, what that usually means is they're gonna
have to cut somebody they already have signed, and certainly nearly anybody who signed
anything in the NBA that's an actual contract, not a training game invite.
There's guaranteed money tied to that, So they'd have to cut somebody eat the
costs to keep you. But maybe they do that because again, I think
car Leak could put up big numbers in the G League like he has.
I think car Leak can you know, get some minutes randomly in an NBA
game when he gets called up, which he's done. He could ball out
in the summer league. They can look at his you know, credentials,
his stats in college, but because of his frame and just you know,
it's not like he can do something physically that nobody else can do. I
think it's just easy for a team to think he's one of those DAMA does
and guys and just and realize, Hey, you know, we don't need
we don't need this. But I think when you have that in your back
pocket, what you just did against Team USA in a game where you know,
you were the point guard running the show for a team that was clearly
better than Team USA for nearly every second of that game until the one second
when it mattered. Like, that's not something they're just gonna quickly overlook.
So again, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here, but I would imagine
he'll get an opportunity and take and he'll make the most of it. Now,
one thing I do worry about when it comes to the NBA with him
is that I don't even know if he would take a two way because you
know, car League has got to be twenty four and look it up,
which he's not old, but you know he's to the point now where is
he going to keep doing the two way? Because you look, when you're
when you're on a two way, Carleigu's twenty six, by the way,
So if you're on a two way contract in the NBA, I think most
people, I think most people know what that is. But it's a contract
that stipulates that your salary is depending on upon which league you're playing in.
So if you're on a two way contract, you know, when you're in
the G League, you're making you know, G League money, but when
you're called up you are making like NBA salary money, which even if it's
league minimum, is a lot more money than you're getting in the G League.
But the contract states that when you're on that two way, you know
you're gonna be with the team at least for some of the opportunities to where
and I don't know what you can cap out in LIKEX, let me see
if I can get a quick Yeah, average salary for an NBA two A
contract, Yeah, it says salary for two way contracts increase from an initial
eighty one thousand, nine hundred and ninety five minimum to an overall salary worth
up to let's say here, let's see, I'm trying to it's from the
twenty twenty one to twenty twenty twenty twenty to twenty one season, the amount
of two way player contracts increased. So, yeah, it just ranges.
So for a good chunk of the year, you're going to be making about
eighty two thousand. But then when you're in the NBA. You could be
making up to five hundred You know that your salary at least it's pro rated
obviously, So long story short, what I'm getting at is, I don't
know if carweek Carleak would want to play on a two way contract, meaning
like that's still good money, but he could probably make triple that on a
really good contract in China or in Russia or in Turkey. Now, I
think, you know, you've got to consider the pros and the cons,
and being on a two way means that you are working with an NBA team
like that you are under contract. You are an employee of the NBA,
of an NBA franchise. But that's just not as big enough a commitment when
you're on the two way than when you're on their actual roster. And look,
that's what a lot of these guys have to do. They got to
decide, Okay, do I want to keep chasing the NBA dream and just
do whatever I got to do to be attached to a team, whether it
be in the G League on a two way or whatever it is, or
do I have the ability to just understand that the NBA was not for you
know, it wasn't wasn't something that worked out for me. Timing wasn't there,
opportunities were never there, and I never made it in the NBA.
But you know what, I'm twenty six now and I still have probably five
six years that I can play the game at a really high level and make
a lot of money. And in that window of time, my best way
to really, you know, stack up money for life after basketball is to
basically go wherever, whatever country can pay me the most. And that's what
a lot of these guys do. And I you know, that's why when
you do see somebody that does stick around long enough and they do get a
chance, it's great. But I don't blame anybody who realizes, Look,
hey I've been out of college for four years. I ain't got in the
NBA yet. I don't know if it's gonna happen. So you know,
I'll go to Turkey, I'll go to China, I'll go to Russia,
I'll go wherever. And I'm sure that that time sucks, but hey,
you're still getting paid to play the game you love. And again the money's
not so bad either, depending on where you end up. All right,
quick break will come back on the other side wrap up at four o'clock hour,
it's coffee and Company. Philbeth Thorton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Summer is usually whenever I get in a lot of streaming, meaning like
watching. I mean, it's like watching TV. It's just you know,
I call it streaming because the majority of like shows that i'll binge or documentaries
I'll get into are on one of those platforms like HBO which is now just
called Max, but also Netflix, Hulu, that kind of stuff. So
in fact, my wife and I are we're we're locked in, all in
on Presumed Innocent, which is that Jake Gillenhall show that's on Apple TV.
It's so good. I hate that they do it a week episode at a
time, but you know, it's now gotten me back into, you know,
the old days. It feels like, you know, thirty years ago,
when it really wasn't schedule time to watch you just know like, hey,
you know you gotta wait, like you know, there's no closure,
Like you can't just decide, hey, this is so good, I got
time. I'm gonna finish it. You know, we've we've now had because
we got in a little bit late. I think there were four episodes that
we could that we could binge, and I think we did that in one
one evening, which we were up way later than we usually are, but
that's how good it is. And then it got to where we're we're each
week and now we're waiting like crazy for Wednesday whenever they give us the finale.
So it's really good. And I also started a show that's been out
for a long time. In fact, it's been over for a while,
but it's called Banshee. I think it was on I think it was on
Cinemax and Cinemax of course, I don't know if it dissolved, but it's
now one of the available shows to watch on HBO Max and it's you know,
I've never even heard of it, but it's right up my alley.
And I'm always I mean, I if a documentary comes out and it's got
a lot of buzz behind it, or if it just shows is one of
like the featured things that's on my on my screen. As soon as I
open up one of those apps, I'm usually going to watch those. And
I cannot wait until August the twenty seventh, when Netflix releases Sign Stealer.
It'll be part of the Untold documentary series and it's on Connor Stallions, the
Michigan man who you know was I mean, he was a science stealer.
And I'm so curious as to what because we don't have a trailer or anything
just yet. And this could be a lot of different things because if you
remember, whenever we found out they were doing a three or four part feature
within the Untold series on the tebou era at Florida with Urban Meyer, and
you know, I mean just think about all of the stories we thought we'd
get, like the behind the scenes stuff in regards to Gronk and Aaron Hernandez
and t Bow and Pouncy. I mean like that it was. It's really
unbelievable to think about that era at Florida. I mean they were, you
know, they were great, but you know a lot of those guys had
I mean, in a random fact, it just gets kind of, you
know, left out when you discuss that era is that Cam Newton was a
freshman quarterback on that team that got in trouble for stealing a laptop and had
to go to Juco. So that I thought it was really well done on
one of the most dominant eras we'll ever see in college football. But it
didn't. I mean it barely even talked about Hernandez or anything like that.
So you know, I still enjoyed it, but I understood whether it was
a lot of criticism. I think this Connor Stallion's documentary. I think there's
some expectation that he's going to tell us all and I don't think that's what
this is going to be at all. I would be willing to bet that
he plays koy and it's more of a story about the coverage of it,
because I mean, there's no way around it. They they cheated. I
mean they did. They went through levels of cheating that you know nobody else
is doing. They conspired, they put plans in motion to get an you
know, to get a competitive advantage. And I think when you heard a
lot of coaches throughout the whole thing, you know, they didn't really want
to step in and talk about it. But others would say, yeah,
there's there's there's sun stealing. But you know they would also sometimes throw in,
but not to that level where you got somebody on payroll that's out here,
you know, using money given to him from somebody we don't know where
it's from. He's getting money from somewhere, we don't where it's from,
probably from Michigan to go and you know, buy tickets and sign steel and
it it's not I mean, I still give Michigan a lot of credit even
without that. They were a good team and they were always good under Harball.
But like you, it doesn't prove anything. But it can't be a
coincidence that around the time that they leaned on my man Connor Stallions is the
time that he got over the hump, meaning Harball, Like he started beating
Ohio State that hadn't happened before Connor Stallions. They won a national championship that
hadn't happened before Connor Stallions. Like it is a wild story, and I
don't it wouldn't be fair to say, like it didn't get coverage, but
like because just nothing was done about it, and there was never any expectation
of them like getting in trouble. I mean, I guess Harrball got what
a couple of games suspension or something. So I'm looking forward to it,
but I don't want to get my hopes up as far as expecting him to
like completely reveal all because I don't think that's gonna happen. All Right,
one more hour. I hope you guys stick with us. I hope that's
what happens. Well, finish strong here on a Monday afternoons off in company.
Phil but Thorton's on Sports Talk seven ninety