Speaker 1: Off the Bench with Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 1: Let's go from a championship backfield to your morning drive Hamsday.
Hester and Hester got it five out a far. Your
locks in to off the bench were brack to troll
for the Live from the Raisin Caine Studio. Here's Jacob
Hester and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 3: Welcome in on this Wednesday How we do win? Everybody?
Taylor Sharp here with you on Off the Bench, filling
in for Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn here in the
Raisin Caines Studio on this Wednesday Morning. Every Wednesday show
brought to you by the folks over at Hood Dental.
We got a lot to cover. We had an LSU
men's basketball game last night, we had an LSU softball
game last night. We got baseball tonight. We got a
weekend series coming up as well. I mean, there is
a ton to get to. Three guests on today's show.
Doctor Steven Etherige actually will be in studio in his
normal eight am slot. Then LHI Beach volleyball coach Russell
Brock He's gonna hop on with us at eight fifteen.
Their season officially begins on Friday and then Devin snow,
I know he's normally in our Monday spot, the craziness
of Marty Garral out there in New Orleans. Devin will
join us at nine point fifteen today again. Taylor trop
here with the at Lane Villarrial Braxton Risuto along for
the ride as well.
Speaker 4: Guys, how we.
Speaker 3: Doing this morning, Alandra? First day of lent? How we
doing with no caffee?
Speaker 5: I decided yesterday that I wasn't gonna set myself up
for failure because I knew, like, again, I'm going to
New York next week. I keep getting targeted so hard
on my algorithm for like places to check out while
I'm there, of course, and there's like all these coffee
shops that look so good. So I'm like, I'm not
gonna set myself up because I know that I'm gonna
like try until next week and then next week's gonna
come around and I'm gonna get a coffee and then
I'm gonna feel worse about myself than if I like,
you know, like, I'm gonna feel bad about myself if
I if you don't reach you caffeine and then I
drink caffeine next weekend.
Speaker 3: You've ever seen on Dodgeball Vince Vaughan and says, uh,
if you have a goal, you might not reach it,
but if you don't have one, you're never disappointed. Right
exactly exactly. That's exactly where I'm at, Braction. You're not
you're not doing later you know.
Speaker 4: Oh it's ash Wednesday is getting the Ashes.
Speaker 5: So Brittany and I usually walk across the street to
Saint ag.
Speaker 3: Oh, like right there, Yeah, it's the one. Is that
the one that's like kind of behind Sonic, Like, yeah, okay,
that's a big church.
Speaker 5: It's bigger than like because I'd never been there before.
It's not the one I usually go to. But Brittany
and I go, like because it's right across the street,
so we'll probably go after this and just go get.
Speaker 4: The real quick.
Speaker 5: But yeah, it's bigger than I thought.
Speaker 3: So that's the thing with ashes, Like it doesn't have
to be like your church. You can just kind of
go yeah whenever, Okay, it's cool.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean they do like drive through.
Speaker 4: You stick your head out the window.
Speaker 5: I don't know if they still do it, but I've
like heard about maybe it was like a COVID thing
they started doing.
Speaker 3: But I never did it that way, as drive through
ashes is is an interesting thought. Okay, so that brings
me right into this. My dad told me up in
Alexandria when he was growing up, they had a drive
through funeral home. Okay, and basically, like it's exactly how
you think. Yeah, an open casket. There was a window
you could drive up at. Like basically, if you wanted
to pay your respect, you couldn't make it to the
funeral or the wake or whatever. They had like a
drive through funeral home with a little casket viewing area
and you can just fig your head out the window
wave give them the piece rolling out. I mean, right,
but that's that's I'll have to I'll have to get
the name of it from him my alt text a
little bit later and see what the name is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he said there was a drive through funeral home.
That that's old people's stuff.
Speaker 6: Right in COVID.
Speaker 7: I know, my cousin graduated, uh in, and so since
Covid happened, they had a drive their graduation.
Speaker 4: A drive through graduation. They just in diploma through the room. Everything. Well,
I saw a picture the other day, So.
Speaker 3: So you were talking about ashes like the Catholic I
think it's the Catholic church that does the holy water
on the baby, right they to.
Speaker 4: Get baptized, right, Yeah, remember they were doing the square guns.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, they had.
Speaker 3: I saw this picture the other day. It said it said,
throwback to one of the craziest times of our life.
It's like priest has the mask on, parents have the
mask on. He literally has like a squirt gun shooting
the baby with the with the squirre gun. And that's
how they that's how they blessed them. And I'm like,
what are what are we doing?
Speaker 5: What an insane time?
Speaker 3: We're gonna tell our kids about that one day and
like they're not gonna believe this, but that didn't happen.
Speaker 4: But ye know it.
Speaker 5: I know it sounds dumb, but it did.
Speaker 3: And when you learn about it in class, they're going
to leave out all the craziest like that's that is
something that.
Speaker 4: Happen. Last night.
Speaker 3: LSU basketball, Well, they played a game if any of
you are still interested, but they were in Austin taking
on the Texas Longhorns, and Texas was on a four
game winning street coming into this game. They were turning
in the right direction and the game started out well
for year LSU Tigers. I mean, they had an eleven
to seven lead early in that ball game, and then
then it was kind of back and forth. But what
always seems to happen with this team happened once again.
This team cannot make shots down low. I mean, it's
I've never seen anything like it. They shot thirty two
of sixty two, so they were fifty two percent from
the field for the game. We'll get into the second
half a little bit later, and they were good from
the line as well, sixteen to nineteen.
Speaker 4: That's not what hurt them.
Speaker 3: Points in the paint again, thirty eight thirty six, But
a lot of that was in the second half. They
went on a drought where I mean they were missing
shots point blank at the rim, clanking them off the
back iron, clanking them off the side of the rim,
off the backboard, and you name it. They weren't making shots,
and Texas's lead extended and extended and extended. It snowballed
on them, and Texas wound up having a fifteen point
lead going into the halftime break. Well, your LSU Tigers
stormed back. They lose this game eighty eight to eighty five.
Like you know, LSU does not play good defense. You're
gonna have to outscore teams to win games. I mean,
they scored fifty two, but they outscored Texas fifty two
to forty in that second half, and they had opportunities
down the stretch to win that game. They just couldn't
do it because once again Matt McMahon squad finds a
way to dig themselves into a big, double digit first
half deficit. I don't know why. It's like this every
single game. Most of the time they just come out cold.
Wasn't the case yesterday, man I mentioned early in that game,
LSU had an eleven to seven lead, and it was
kind of a back and forth game and Texas slow down.
They were methodical, they made their shots, and LSU looked
really hurried on the offensive end. They were forcing things
that weren't there, and they were missing shots right there
at the rim. It's kind of the same old song
and dance with this team, because, like if you look
at the box score, everything else was It was not bad.
I mean, Markel Sutton finished with twenty one points, six
of ten shooting. Max McKinnon. He didn't get the start,
but I mean he came in within the first couple
of minutes. He played thirty three minutes, so that was
a de factor started for him. Twenty seven points eleven
of seventeen shooting. You tell me you get twenty seven
from Max McKinnon, twenty one from Markel Sudden. Despite the
fact that ls who's been awful this year, I would
have said, hey, they probably had a pretty decent shot
at winning that game. But again, the double digit deficit
in the first half, it's it's every game with this team.
I mean, there was, and if it's not that, it's
another Remember the Kentucky game a few weeks back.
Speaker 4: LSU was blowing out Katuki.
Speaker 3: You had a sixteen point lead in the first half,
You still had a double digit lead in the second
going into halftime, and then down the stretch.
Speaker 4: What happened.
Speaker 3: You could not make your easy open shots. Tucky comes
all the way back and wins that game. It's basically
the same thing here. Just flip it first half to
second half. Because you did such a good job in
the second half of this ball game. Look, we'll lay
it out again. You outshot Texas from the free throw line.
Now you got to do a better job of not
fouling defensively, Texas took thirty four free throw attempts and
you took nineteen. I mean they were twenty three of
thirty four, but they made more than you attempted. That's
one of the things you look at in a basketball game.
They always say, all these experts on TV always say,
make more free throws than your opponent attempts. They did that,
and they were at home. That gave him a big
advantage because they were only sixty eight percent from the line.
But didn't Matt. But of course LSU was going to
get out rebounded. I mean, this team is soft down low.
But even the rebounding advantage wasn't that much for Texas.
Thirty four rebounds for Texas, twenty seven for l shoot.
Offensive rebounds were about even seven for the Tigers, eight
for the Longhorns. And Texas turned the ball over more
than you. You've done a good job. Last Saturday against Tennessee,
LSU turned the ball over three times, turned it over
five times last night. It's only eight times in a
two game period. That's really good for a basketball team.
That's not very good. It's just you keep digging yourself
into these first half holes. I mean, your largest lead
was four. That was early in the game. Texas's largest
lead was seventeen. That was with about four minutes to
go before the first half ended. But there were some positives,
and it's hard to find positives for a team that's
two and eleven in the SEC.
Speaker 4: I get it.
Speaker 3: But Jalen Reese, who I have been a little critical
love earlier in the season, it just you seemed like
you he was hesitant to shoot the ball. He wasn't
putting up a ton of points offensively. Jalen Reese has
had back to back good games and he was four
for twelve last night.
Speaker 4: I get it.
Speaker 3: The shooting percentage wasn't great, but he was two for
four from three. He made all four of his free throws,
hit fourteen points. You combined now with his twenty point
outing on Saturday, that is thirty four points for Jalen
ree and a total of one turnover. He turned it
over one time last night, did not turn it over
at all against the Balls on Saturday. This is a
guy that has been thrust into the starting lineup due
to injuries to DJ Thomas. Even Max McKinnon's been banged up,
and as a freshman Jalen Reees, he's really answered the
belt these last couple of weeks. Now it hasn't resulted
in wins. Those are going to be really hard to
come by for this team. But Jalen Reese has actually
stepped up in a ton of really nice job. You
knew you were gonna get scoring for Max McKinnon an
out of conference. You thought Markel Sudden was going to
be that next big gut. He had a good game
last night. But Markel Sutten's been hidden this once you
got out into SEC play. But Jalen Reese is is
really impressed. And it's the minutes he's playing too. He
played all forty minutes against Tennessee. He played thirty seven
of the forty last night. They are relying on him
a lot here in SEC play due to these injuries,
and honestly, like in a season that's lost. Look, you're
fourteen and twelve, you're two and eleven in the SEC.
You're trying to find a bright spot, hold out some
sort of hope. It might be Jalen Reeves. He's playing
pretty well right now. We'll see if he can keep
that going. I LSU does take one number twenty five
Alabama in the p MAC five pm on Saturday. Again,
another really tough game for LSU. We'll see what they
can do. All right, We'll take a quick time out
when we get back. LSU versus Nickels in the box tonight.
We're breaking it down next. You're on your TV.
Speaker 1: Off the bench, all right?
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Speaker 4: Welcome back in Wednesday edition of Off the Bench.
Speaker 3: Taylor Sharp here with the Elandra Villa Riale Braxton Risuto
here as well.
Speaker 4: LSU versus Nichols today.
Speaker 3: Actually one o'clock first pitch here on a Wednesday, a
little bit of an earlier time for a midweek game.
We'll get into all that, but first let's go ahead
and get the show started.
Speaker 1: It's time to get glowing courtesy of go Flow ivy spa,
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Speaker 3: Okay, you're LSU Tigers taking on the Nickels State Colonels
today alec Box Stadium, their fifth game over a six
day period. Biggest question for everyone tonight, who's going to
get the start on the mound because again, fifth game
in six days. There's a few options out there, and
it's want to put to some guys that did not
play at all over the weekend. Reagan Ricken has a
chance to start this game. Look, he was I think
the forty sixth overall player by Perfect Game as far
as the top one hundred freshman go coming into the season,
number fourth ranks high school right handed pitcher in the
state of California, thirteenth overall in the nation. This is
a guy that had a lot of hype coming into
the season, and again we haven't seen him yet on
the weekend. Reagan Ricken certainly a possibility out there for tonight.
Another one who we didn't see over the weekend, kind
of surprising. We haven't seen him yet. Maybe it's for
this moment. Zion Theopolis, he was the number one right
handed pitcher in all of Ohio last year, came in.
He participated in fall ball and he actually threw the
ball really well. According to Hunt MOUs So, anybody that
was out there at fall Baseball scrimmage said that Zion
Theopolis actually threw the ball really really well. I mean,
you look at what he did in high school He
was a twenty three and three mark as a starter
in high school, one forty e two hundred and forty
five strikeouts at just one hundred and sixty four innings.
So this is a guy that's thrown a lot in
high school. He started a lot of games, and he
had a lot of success doing it. So that's certainly
an option to start for you here on this Wednesday.
There's also Connor Binge has not pitched yet. Now, I
don't know if Connor Bingche starts this game, but didn't
see him over the weekend, and we saw him in
a lot of different spots last year. He was a
setup guy that used him in the back of the
bullpen on a lot of midweek games. We even saw
him in some weekend Actually, he played in sixteen games
a year ago. So I don't know if Binge necessarily starts,
but I do think we see Connor Binge at some point,
and I think you have to see Connor Binge because
there's a chance that he's a pretty significant part of
your rotation going forward to here in twenty twenty six.
My preference is Cooper Williams. Now, I don't need Cooper
Williams going for five six innings in this game, because
you'll probably need him on the weekend. But I just
want him to get the feel of starting here in
twenty twenty six in case that actually has to happen
on the weekends. Look, I think Caseon Evans is going
to be able to be a Friday night guy, but
there's a chance he's not. He tried this with Zachkess
after zach Hess's good freshman year, and it didn't work
out for it. Zach Hess was a lot better as
that back Indo the bullpen guy, than he was a starter.
You ultimately made that switch and your team was better
for it. Maybe that happens to case of Evans again.
We saw him a little bit starting last year and
I thought he did a fine job. I think he'll
be good there. But look, Cooper Williams was up for
a starting rotation as well. It was the four guys.
It was Evans, Cooper, Moore, Williams, Schmida, Cooper Williams. Those
are the guys you heard. And honestly, if you want
a left handed arms starting your weekend rotation, Cooper Williams
is probably that guy.
Speaker 4: Maybe get him a start.
Speaker 3: I mean he went two and two thirds innings over
the weekend, gave up one hit, one run, five k's,
no Waltz, so he was solid his first time out.
Is that a guy you could put him there, give
him two to three innings, be fine by Saturday if
you need him. The good news is you have so
many arms still available. I mean I just rattled off
three or four of them there. But we haven't seen
Danny Lochenmeyer yet. Now locker Meyer is not going to
start this game, but look at what he did in
relief last year at North Dakota State. I mean a
two thirty seven eer do a lot of big time
innings for the boys in a year ago. Santiago Garcia
is available. Landra mentioned him the other day. Is like
a guy that we were excited to see who maybe
didn't quite live up to the hype and opening weekend,
and he's available. He didn't throw very much over the weekend,
and it'd be nice to get him a bounce back
spot against a Nickels team that will get into doesn't
hit the ball particularly well. And hell's that Cowen. That
Cowen threw in one inning over the weekend and he
wasn't good. Now, concern levels probably not there for a
guy like Zach Cowen, because well, you know what he
can do, but get him out there, put him in
there for an inning or two, get him out build
that confidence back up a little bit.
Speaker 4: Going into this weekend.
Speaker 3: You'll see a number of guys the good news is
you should have success against Nichols. I don't ever want
to short change anybody, but they struggled pretty mightily against
Tennessee over the weekend. He had won sixty four as
a team, and a lot of people are gonna push
back and say, yeah, well Tennessee has one of the
best pitching staffs in the country. Yeah, LSU probably should
as well. It's kind of the quality pitching that Nichols
is going to see today. It's pretty much what you
saw over the weekend against Tennessee. In there's three games
against Tennessee ten to nothing, five to one, twelve to two.
So was it super competitive. I mean, they put up
a total of three runs in three games. Also, it'll
be their sixth game in five days as well, and
I just don't see them having the pitching depth of
a team like LSU. I mean, again, they struggled over
the weekend with their starters. There're go many runs they
gave up, Like five to one wasn't bad on Saturday,
but you gave up a ten spot on Friday.
Speaker 4: You give up twelve over the weekend, and those.
Speaker 3: Were supposed to be your front line, top of the
rotation guys, and you got crushed by Tennessee Again. Tennessee's
a really good team, but you're at the bottom of
your bullpen. Like I think LSU is gonna have a
lot of success here, and it's a great opportunity to
get some guys in there that one haven't pitched yet
or two struggled in opening weekend to get some confidence
back Landre, I'll come to you here real quick. Like
there's a lot of options. I mean a lot of
names were just thrown out there, but I mean it
didn't have to be somebody that goes five innings. But
who do you want to see start today?
Speaker 5: So I agree that I would like to see Cooper
Williams only because I'm not convinced that William Schmidt has
the Sunday spot locked in. He might, but I don't know.
It depends, So I would like to see a little
more of Cooper Williams, and I would like to see
him not coming out of the pen and just starting.
But yeah, you mentioned lock in myyers that how you
say it, Yeah, Danny, And yeah, he was a reliever
last season, but you know Jay will move people around,
so he he's another option. He's somebody that I would
like to see just in general. He was at North
Dakota State. I know it's not the same type of competition,
but he did pretty well there. I think he was
number twenty one in the top one hundred transfers in
the transfer portal. So I would like to see him
in general. But I know he threw some this weekend,
not too much, but I would like to see Cooper
Williams get the start. I thought he would get it
maybe on Monday, even though he threw Yeah, I guess not.
But yeah, that's my opinion on that.
Speaker 3: I'm with you and like for lock and Meyer start
relief whatever, we got to see him because it's another
lefty in the bullpen right like right now, you know
you have Cooper Williams as a lefty. DJ Primo has
been on the roster for a number of years, but
he's been kind of hid and miss. Yeah, and he
brought in a few transfers, but like Danny lock and Meyer,
like look as far as the transfer pictures go, Like,
I know people love Santiago Garcia and rightfully so, but
Danny lock and Meyer had a two point three seven
ERA a year ago and threw a lot of innings
for North Dakota State.
Speaker 4: He's what six three two twenty. I mean, that's a
guy that.
Speaker 3: As a left he coming out of the pen, he
could play high leverage moments where you played high leverage
moments a year ago.
Speaker 5: So yeah, like a two point thirty seven ERA and
thirty eight innings. Like again, I know in the competition
at North Dakota State it's not the same, but that's
pretty good. Fifty six strike fifty six strikeouts in eighteen walks.
And I don't know, Like I guess I didn't hear
too much about Santiago Garcia. I just whenever he came out,
loved the name, I mean the game, and he didn't
look great. I know it was his first outing, but
he didn't look great on what was it, Saturday Sundays?
Speaker 4: No Sunday Sunday.
Speaker 5: But yeah, maybe throw him out there or see if
he can get his confidence up, you know, get some rhythm.
I know that been on the call was talking about
how sometimes it's just about getting out there and getting
reps and finding your footing.
Speaker 3: So Sidieoger see a fun fact high school teammates which sleeping.
I mean that's you know, there's familiarity there. But yeah,
I mean Garcia transferring in. But yeah, I mean a lefty,
another lefty out of the bullpen, because it's weird to say, like,
you have a lot of options as far as left
handers out of the bullpen, but almost all of them
are question marks outside of Cooper Williams. Because again DJ
Primo has been here and you've been waiting for him
to make that next step, but he hasn't done that yet.
Like he's been hitting this he said some good outings,
he's had some bad. I mean Cooper Williams is that
one guy. Like sure Lochenmeier was good last year, you
haven't seen him in an LSU uniform. Like for Santiago
Garcia last year at Oregon, I mean he was he
had three and oh mark but a four point two
zero era A. He threw thirty innings with four saves
at forty strikeouts, only nineteen walks. I mean that that's
right up there with a Danny Lockenmeyer. So another guy
that could really make an impact for this team off
the mound. I mean, there's so many options. And again
I hate to pile onto Nickels, but he won sixty
four over the weekend. Now are your pitchers tonight?
Speaker 5: You know he also run rule?
Speaker 4: Does last year they did? They don't ask for a
run today?
Speaker 5: Wait, I will Can we get a run roll from LSU?
Can LSU run roll?
Speaker 6: Nickel?
Speaker 4: There you go? Because last year you didn't specify us.
Speaker 6: Did Gavin pitch Monday?
Speaker 4: Gavin did pitch Monday?
Speaker 1: He did?
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, and so Gavin's pitch twice, so he's we're
probably not gonna see Gavin Gidry.
Speaker 4: Here's my plus. I mean, we know what he can do.
They really just wanted to see if Gavin Guidry was
fully healthy for his injury.
Speaker 5: And like knock on wood, I feel like, yeah, I
feel like Jay's just trying to see what he's got
right now. So I think we'll see the people that
we haven't seen yet. Absolutely, and then and then he
looks like he's in a rhythm.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he looks great, like he didn't miss I am.
Speaker 3: I am perfectly okay with not seeing Gavin Gidry again
until the weekend.
Speaker 4: Like that that guy keep him right was.
Speaker 5: The exact like the talking the like he's fresh, but
doesn't say like that year off did not affect him
at all. I mean, I'm sure it did, but like
you know what I mean, it doesn't look no right.
Speaker 3: And it had really been closer to eighteen months because
I mean, he didn't throw all last year, but he
missed the back half of the year before that. Like Gavin,
he almost looks better than he did before the injury.
I mean, is as wild as the things that is
to say Gavin looks really good. But yeah, I mean
guys like or See you can get back out there.
I'm okay with seeing Cowvien for an inning if you
want to build his confidence back up, like going into
the weekend. But I mean as far is like, you're
not going to see Evans Schmidt, Cooper Moore and Gavin Gidriy.
I mean, those are the guys you're not going to see.
Outside of that, it's kind of fair game for whatever
Jay Johnson wants to do. And uh again, I think
they'll have a lot of success against the Nichol's lineup
that really struggled.
Speaker 4: Over the weekend. All Right, we're going to take a
quick time out.
Speaker 3: There is something going on around college sports right now,
college basketball in general, coaches calling out their players but
catching a lot of backlash for it. Is it okay
to call out your players? We're talking about it next,
you're on off the bench.
Speaker 1: Off the bench?
Speaker 6: All right?
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Speaker 1: Off the bench presented by hood Dental.
Speaker 6: All right, so you heard Flynn the other day. I
mean he loves do sequies. You know that.
Speaker 2: We hear on the OTV team love Dose Sechies. It
is the perfect beer for any occasion. Lake beer, beach beer,
shower beer, bath beer, you name it, beer like ballpark beer.
It is the go to and we've said it, We're
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Tiger Stadium, watching the Saints on a Sunday, or just
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Speaker 6: It's not just beer.
Speaker 2: It is the beer of champions, or at least the
beer of guys who feel like champions. But you will
feel like a champion when you enjoy an ice cold
dose Sekis. So you don't have to be a champion,
because dose Sekis will make you a champion. So the
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Speaker 3: I think five champions in that uh in that Jacob
Escer Dosekis live read, I meant to count yesterday.
Speaker 4: I think I think it's fine. I think it's what
I out here.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 3: I mean he said champion five times in that live
read was not paying at a lot of college basketball
coaches right now are taking a lot of heat for
calling out their players. So on Sunday, UAB lost the
game fifty five to fifty four to two lane alec UAB.
It's a close loss, so you're're thinking, okay, one point loss,
but they made just ten of twenty two layups in
their defeat, and coach Andy Kennedy he had one, I
think is a pretty funny reaction after the game. He said, guys,
we're talking about layups. These are scholarship players that are
making more money than most people in this room. Isn't
too much to ask for you to make a layup?
He said, seriously, we're in Bozo land, man. We can't
finish at the basket and that's where we really miss
some of our injured players. And he took a lot
of pushback for this, and I struggling to figure out
why he's the I'm the only one. So Kansas State
fired their head basketball coach Jerome Tang on Sunday. They
played a game on Wednesday that they lost to Cincinnati.
It was ninety one sixty two, so a blowout loss,
and Jerome Tang went up there and said that, he said,
it's ridiculous. Uh, these dudes got to have some pride.
It means something to wear the Kansas State uniform and
went on to say that this team was embarrassing. He said,
you know, play with some pride. A lot of these
guys aren't going to be here next year. And Kansas
State fired. Now, when you go look at his record,
I've seen a lot of people come out in defense
of Kansas State and say, yeah, but you know he's
fallen behind. I mean he was seventy three and fifty
seven overall at Kansas State but first year twenty six
and ten, second year nineteen and fifteen. He was just
sixteen and seventeen last year and ten and fifteen this year.
So you you can see the decline.
Speaker 4: I get it.
Speaker 3: It's been declining for three straight years now. Made the
tournament year one, but nothing outside of that. So I've
heard a lot of people say, yeah, well, you know,
Jerome Tang, it wasn't working out anyways. So this was
just an out for Kansas State. And I was thinking, Okay,
you know, maybe it's maybe it's just a coincidence that
they fire him right after this, butte they emi will
put out well Sunday shortly or Sunday night after Jerome
Tang had been fired. The Kansas State was firing Jerome
Tang for calls.
Speaker 4: He said. The basis for the cause.
Speaker 3: Firing is language in his contract that references an activity
that brings public disrepute, embarrassment, and ridicule to Kansas State.
So they essentially fire Jerome Tang for calling out his
players in a press conference, saying well, you know, most
of them are going to be here next year anyways.
I'll figure it out. You give power to the players
in the transfer portal. That's all fine. When a coach
decides that a player's not up to snuff and he
says they're not gonna be here next year, they can
enter the transfer portal.
Speaker 4: He's ridiculed for it.
Speaker 3: I just I've kind of an issue with that because
for the longest time, everyone had argued, well, the NCAA
and the coaches have all the power, the players have
no power. Sure, that's fine, you're not gonna hear much
of an argument from me on that. But now it
just kind of seems like the players have all the
power and nobody else can really say otherwise or they
get in trouble for it.
Speaker 4: Don't you kind of have the same problem.
Speaker 3: Shouldn't there be more of a checks and balance this
system going on here in college athletics? There's not A
player can enter the portal whenever they want, and you know,
a coach can leave a school whenever they want.
Speaker 4: But when a coach gets mad about it and calls
out his team, you fire the guy for it.
Speaker 3: Now I get that Kansas State's probably looking for a
way out because they didn't like the way the program
was going. They didn't like the direction of things. I
just mentioned that they had been declining as a basketball
team for I mean three straight years. Now you went
twenty four and ten. You hadn't gotten back to twenty
wins since then.
Speaker 4: He's in year four.
Speaker 3: But I don't see why these coaches are taking so
much criticism for criticizing their players. Their jobs are on
the line too, and those coaches have families. They got
to win games. If not, they're out the door. So
as a coach, if you think you've done everything you
can to get your team prepared and your players aren't
showing up, they're not doing what they're supposed to, you
gotta let everybody know, like, hey, it's not on me.
I deserve to be here. I've done my job. I
mean my players to go out and do theirs. Also,
players are paid nowadays, guys. I mean you heard Andy
Kennedy say, you have players on this team that are
making more money than most people in this room. You
want to make money, you want to be treated like
a professional. This is what apps professional coaches call out
their players all the time. They get criticism for too,
which I think is dumb. But I just I don't
really think Andy Kennedy, Jerom Tang, whoever else gets criticized
for this. I don't really think they're off base here.
You want to be treated like an adult, like a professional.
You want to make money doing this, okay, but you're
gonna be held to a higher standard. You're going to
be called out in press conferences. Your coach is going
to criticize you even more because it's essentially your job
to do this. If you're not doing good at your job,
you're gonna get called out for it. Just like that
head coaches, if you're not performing on the court, it
all falls back on him. I don't really know why
this is a discussion. I just think it's it's a
little silly. Like when you look at this, you're like, okay,
this is where college athletes have gone. And you hear
the you know, the old head say, oh well, you
know the soft generation. I mean, when you look at
something like this, yeah, yeah, it's andsure, like what Andy
Kennedy said is is fun. And you know Andy Kennedy
as of right now is still employed. But I don't know,
I mean, unless I'm completely off pace here, and again
they go back to Jerome Tang's record twenty six and ten,
nineteen and five, sixteen, and seven, ten, and fifteen, so.
Speaker 4: They were trending in the wrong direction.
Speaker 3: Now, he had had a winning record overall, but I mean,
you get four straight years on the decline, hasn't made
the tournaments in Jyer one. I just think it kind
of sets a bad precedent to fire the guy right
after those comments. I mean it was four days after
he made the comments Wednesday night after the game. They
fired him on Sunday, So, I mean, what are we
doing here?
Speaker 4: Can no coach speak their mind anymore? I mean, can.
Speaker 3: A coach has to show up? But in all this work,
take all the blame with the loss, and he can't
call out his own players. I mean, it's not like
he was yelling at at opposing player or throwing something
on the court like it's it's not that now again,
Kansas State says anything that or Pete Pete Dmile tweeted
anything that brings public disrepute, embarrassment, and ridicule to Kansas State.
I'm sure as this story moves along, you'll hear more
and more, y'a always do. It's not just gonna be
one thing that they let your own tank for. I
get that there's gonna be more under the surface.
Speaker 1: It just.
Speaker 3: From the outside. That's what you see right now. As
the story changes, people's opinions will change. I get that,
mind will, But I just think it's even before he
was fired, Like whether he was fired for this or not,
he took a lot of flak for for calling out
of me. National ESPN was playing and I listened to
National ESPN driving in every morning. They were to talking
about your Rome Tane calling out the team again. Andy
Kennedy called out his team. That made national news. Just
I guess if you want to fire the guy, if
he did something else wrong, fine, I'm all for that,
whether it's off the court. On the court, he did
something wrong, get him out of there. But I don't
know coach is catching flak for calling out their players
who aren't performing. I just I don't really see what
the point of that is. All Right, we're going to
take a quick time out and we get back. We're
going to wrap up our number one busy hours two
and three. So in hour two straight up eight o'clock,
Doctor Stephen Etheridge will be in for his normal weekly segment.
We'll have him in the studio. I'll let you beach
volleyball coach Russell Brock will join us. Their season officially
begins on Friday. We'll get a quick preview from him.
Then in hour number three, Devin Snow, who normally joins
us on Monday, will join us Wednesday today nine point fifteen.
We'll get his breakdown. He got a lot of Marty
girl thoughts. We'll get all that from Devin, but when
we come back, we'll wrap up outward number one. Here on,
off the bench, Off the bench.
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Speaker 1: Settling down?
Speaker 4: Would you marry me?
Speaker 9: Heref I ask you twice?
Speaker 6: And making pretty.
Speaker 1: Fees off the bench presented by Hoodental.
Speaker 9: Stood says he away.
Speaker 6: He everyone is.
Speaker 9: Head and kitties please. I should have been a cowb.
Speaker 5: I should have learned.
Speaker 4: I don't want to cut this song off. What a banger.
Speaker 5: I decided to honor you instead of Jake today. Okay,
it's usually R and B Wednesday. Okay, but I'm playing
some Taylor Ass songs.
Speaker 3: This is this is a Taylor Ass song. If I've
ever heard one one hundred percent. So we had a awakening.
In the break, Alandra asked if it was a leap
year this year.
Speaker 4: We were informed that it was not. No, why do
we have leap years?
Speaker 5: I don't know, but I think your theory if we
just take one of the days off of thirty one?
Speaker 3: Well, because you got like so like, there's there's some
months that have thirty days, some months that have thirty one.
Speaker 5: That's Matt's best friend.
Speaker 4: In a normal year, February has twenty eight days.
Speaker 3: Right, you just pluck two of the thirty one months,
stick them right there in February. We got thirty months
in February. Keep it wrong.
Speaker 4: And I don't really understand that. That's stupid. I don't
like it.
Speaker 3: Oh, I do have an update on the drive through
funeral home. Yeah, by the way, my text for my
dad there was a I've through funeral home in Alexandria.
It was a converted bank so they would stand the
casket up okay, facing the drive through window and people
could go by and pay your respects without ever having
to get out of the car. So drive through funeral
home in Alexandria that I had that ride that was
an actual thing.
Speaker 5: So I that's crazy, by the way. But I'm asking
Matt's friend about the leap year, right, and I said,
why can't you just take one out of the months
that have thirty one days?
Speaker 4: You can't. They're gonna say you can't.
Speaker 5: You can't, said, honestly, we could. There's nothing about physics
or astronomy that requires February to be weird. Also, it's
just history, history locked it in. I'm not out to Caesar.
I'm not part of the Julian calendar.
Speaker 6: Oh that it is.
Speaker 4: I'm not a math whiz here.
Speaker 3: But if every four years you got an extra day
in February and that three hundred and sixty six days, Yeah,
and we have three hundred six five days a year,
you're not taking one away from another.
Speaker 5: So it's because the Earth orbit. Wait, hold on, I
can't do this in real time. But there's a reason
why it's every four years. It's because of the way
that the Earth orbits and like, we would still have yeah,
we would still have three hundred and sixty five days,
it wouldn't be three hundred and sixty six.
Speaker 3: This seems way dude, Like, who came up with this
seems dumb. Let's just have February like all the other
months and move on.
Speaker 6: It's stupid.
Speaker 4: I think, though, like this could be completely wrong.
Speaker 5: This is pretty sure talking about though. When I was
talking about Ben and Lynn and I was like, is
this some people feel listening to otbs because.
Speaker 7: We do this well?
Speaker 3: When you brought up the question here in the break,
I'm like, I don't know anything about leap years. No,
as a matter of fact, I know I know less
than nothing about leap years. But I mean you, uh, like,
if you're born on February twenty ninth on a leap year, yeah,
I'm pretty sure you're twenty four.
Speaker 4: Have a birthday? Pretty right? You're only four when you're actually.
Speaker 5: Like yeah, Like on Modern Family, Cam's birthday was on
a leap year, and so he would always like his
p one name for you is his fortieth birthday. He's like,
I'm turning ten years old. He had like this ten
year old birthday party.
Speaker 4: That's actually hilarious.
Speaker 3: I think like, if you're twenty one eighteen, that type
of thing, I think you are supposed to celebrate at
March first, Okay, I think I would do the twenty eighth.
Speaker 6: I don't think it would matter. I would have twenty
eight too, just a February.
Speaker 3: But I think I think it's if they it total
number that I think it's March first. I'm not one
hundred percent on that.
Speaker 6: But see, we.
Speaker 3: Shouldn't have to have this discussion because February should only
have I mean, February should be thirty days like like
everybody else. What is in March, March is thirty one,
July thirty one. Pull them, pull those days, slot them
into February. Boom, be done with it.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: The the drive through funeral home made me think of
some of the other stuff that we did during COVID,
because that had COVID to me written all over it.
We talked about the UH baptized and the babies with
the square guns. Do you all remember when they came
out and said, well, you can't have Thanksgiving like you
can do it, but we just want all your family
members over zoom. I can, I'll call in over zoom.
And then the dots at the grocery store I had
just looked at. I remember the dots at the grocery
store and like me, I didn't mean anything by it.
I wasn't trying to be malicious, like I had the
mask one because I had too to go into the store.
I vividly remember this. I was at Walmart, and walker
I uh stared at the checkout line. I don't even
know what I'm picking up, like a few things. I'm
just standing there, mind of my business. The older gentleman
in front of me turned around and goes, sir, sir,
I need you to back up, please, And I was
like what, and like I wasn't right up on the
guy and he goes, your dot.
Speaker 4: You have to be on your dot. You're not on
your dot. So I literally took like two steps back
and stood.
Speaker 5: On my dogs, like when we used to like go
into the restaurant with the masks on and then you
say down and take your mask, but you had to.
Speaker 4: You had to put it back on, like stand up, immediately,
put it on and leave.
Speaker 7: I got a funny one. I think it was my
cousin's birthday. His birthday is in April, and we obviously
couldn't have a birthday party, so.
Speaker 5: We sounds like when it was just happening right.
Speaker 3: It was like my sister got married March fourteenth, and
that was like one of the last weddings they had
in twenty twenty.
Speaker 7: But basically we, I guess lapped around like his house
in the neighborhood and like drove by and told him
happy birthday.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, the like when people were doing like the
drive by, the drive by happy birthdays or the drive
by graduations, like you.
Speaker 3: Were saying, anyways, thank goodness for past that. Hopefully that
doesn't happen again. Pretty fun hour one there. We uh,
we got a little semi education on a on a
leap year. I'm sure Landra like she dove into it,
but it's a I like, it's it's it's Matt Flent's buddy.
We're not sure how accurate that even is. Coming up
an hour number two, Doctor Stephen Ethridge in the studio
for his normal Wednesday spot, LSU beach volleyball coach Russell
Brock at eight fifteen. Then in the nine o'clock hour,
we'll talk to LSU football, We'll talk some Saints. Devin
snow aka hold the Mayo. He joins us for his
normal nine to fifteen slot to push you back from Monday.
He was a busy guy out there in New Orleans
with olda marti rawl going on, but a busy hour one.
I'm an hour two and three coming up. Stay tuned.
Top of hour number two. We got doctor Etherg in
studio here on off the bench, Off the bench.
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