Marcus Fuller on the future of the Gophers and college athletics

[Music] it's your Tuesday daily delivery I'm Michael Rand glad to be back for another day hope you guys are doing well out there feels good outside this morning I stepped outside for just a bit before we started recording here um let the dog outside like that the humidity seems like it's finally going away it's been hot and humid not that hot but you know sticky um sticky as we like to call it not as bad as in other parts of the country I get it we're relatively spoiled here in the summertime it's never that bad when it's that hot but it felt good out there today so I'm saying um take me with you today take me with you on a walk on a run somewhere like that um I've got one listener who does that every every uh Tuesday morning it sounds like with with royy I'll get to that here in a minute um get to another listener email as well here in a little bit Marcus Fuller from the Star Tribune joins me here in just a little while as well to talk go for men's basketball to talk a little bit more about uh athletic director Mark Coy and his uh budget proposal talking with the board of region last week Marcus was covering that and just kind of the future of gopher Athletics college sports where we're headed with that um Marcus has some NBA Summer League cam Christie thoughts and some go for football and volleyball at the end too cuz Marcus hit mediate availability for those teams last week a little update a little discussion of those squads as well first though what did I miss it's it's a slow week right um traditionally one of the slowest Sports weeks of the Year baseball allstar game tonight I used to care a lot about the All-Star Game I used to care about the Home Run Derby I just don't really anymore so there's that um maybe you do maybe it's not a slow Sports week if you're still into that but um you know the the Derby was last night game tonight I'm sure I'll I'm sure I'll flip it on I'm sure I'll watch it um kencha by the way from the Star Tri wrote a good piece about this 10 years since Target Field hosted the allstar game I I guess that feels about right sometimes you hear an anniversary and you're like man that was 10 years ago and I think back on that I'm like yeah okay that does kind of feel like it was 10 years ago it FS it feels like it was a while ago but you should go check out his kind of retrospective by the numbers on um On Target Field hosting the All-Star Game 10 years ago um but yeah just kind of thinking about this week and how there's not much going on right you got summer league um you know WNBA is still going on of course but they're going to take a break here pretty soon so it's going to get even slower you got the void of course of the NFL kind of between the last you know mini camp and training camp so no no real uh you know no real on the field news there so it's just always kind of a slow time so I was kind of poking around like what what am I interested in today and I came across this piece in ESPN James Dolan Nicks owner complaining about the uh the latest NBA media rights deal that was reported on last week good chance it gets you know voted on and approved this week it sounds like at uh they get some meetings at uh in Vegas this week coinciding with Summer League 11 years 76 billion do um going to make everybody gobs of money uh the players the owners the league everybody um maybe everybody with the TV Partners they got to be getting something out of this if they're paying $76 billion over 11 years so you're thinking like what what does an NBA owner have to complain about when you're going to sign this you know deal that's basically like $7 billion a year in media rights players have to be ecstatic sounds like the the salary cap is going to go up 10% every year that's the maximum it can go up you're going to get to a point in about 10 years where some of the best players some of the max contract players could be making a100 million a year hundred million dollar a year you could have contracts you know those extensions that are now you know just over 300 million and you're like gasping 5 years 300 million you could have contracts 400 500 million in a decade when this cap keeps going up in large part because of these media rights deals so what does an owner have to complain about well Dolan of course the Knicks are probably the biggest Market team in the entire NBA right they're in New York they're the big team in New York he's complaining about a few things but one that caught my eye was complaining about what this deal could do to low local the local Carriage of teams the regional Sports networks and so he's basically saying because there's so many more options in this in this contract to show games on different networks on streaming platforms like peacock and Amazon Prime is probably the biggest one uh because there's that opportunity the the the role of regional Sports networks is diminished so much that he has called them I think the word he used was unviable he wrote a letter to uh wrot a wrote a letter to the league outlining you know a lot of things he doesn't like about it um ESPN got a hold of it s he sent it to the Board of Governors on Monday or he or they got a hold of it on Monday um he's basically saying he said quote the NBA has made the move to an NFL model deemphasizing and depowering the local market soon your only Revenue concern will be the sale of tickets and what color next year's Jersey will be don't worry because due to revenue pool you are guaranteed to be neither a success nor a failure of course to get there the league must take down the successful franchises and redistribute to the less successful this New Media deal goes a long way to accomplishing that goal e is definitely an outspoken critic and again you're like everybody's going to get rich what's the what's the problem and he's like Well everybody's going to be the same now and I'm sure a lot of teams are saying yeah what's the problem with that we're all going to be making money hand over fist just just quiet down and take the money but you know he's he's worried about the the the effect really on the local on at the local level he said member teams depend on Revenue received from local rights fees and on increased fan engagement through highquality broadcasts that provide dedicated and tailored coverage for local audiences yet the proposal threatens to completely eliminate Regional Sports networks without a comparable replacement offered by the league and no articulated plans to address the production and distribution vacuum that the league will inevitably create in its quest to further disrupt the RSN industry he adds The increased number of exclusive and non-exclusive games means that National Partners would have the ability to air nearly half of the regular season in all postseason games this reduction in available games for rsns risks rendering the entire RSN model unviable the the inclusion of streaming Partners in the proposal for example Amazon Prime video and peacock allows fans and all NBA markets to bypass their RSN to watch certain games in their local market The Proposal offers no local protection for rsns interesting in that you know we're in the middle of course of all of these battles between rsns and cable companies carriers teams leagues Major League Baseball's kind of been at the Forefront of this going to get a here pretty soon a couple weeks a decision on the the financial viability of the RSN model going forward I think it's July 29th and 30th we're going to find out kind of if B Sports Diamond Sports the parent company can go forward with this and you know be a viable model and Dolan's basically saying hey if if we're talking about the NBA this model is going to be obsolete in a year these new TV contracts will take effect in the 2025 26 Season he's saying rsns will not be what they used to be if this goes through so something that bears watching in this whole kind of swirl of what's going on with rsns what's going on with B Sports is the impact of the NBA it's not just the NBA of course you know the twins the wild the lynx the Wolves they are all on balet Sports North so it's not just one team but if the NBA shifts to this other model and I think it's a model really that baseball wants to get to not sure what hockey will do eventually but it's a model that baseball is trying to get to as as well if they do that and sign a new contract that kind of renders the model obsolete it could go a long way to determining how we watch games in the future I'm Chris hin Timberwolves beat writer at the Star Tribune and the first five-time guest in Daily delivery history thank you for listening to this podcast this work is made possible by our Star Tribune subscribers for unlimited access to the Articles mentioned in this podcast our coverage of Minnesota sports from Pros to Preps and even all of rand's future blog posts about how the Timberwolves should trade for players they will never get go to startribune.com subscribe glad to be joined today by Marcus Fuller from the Star Tribune covers college basketball goer Sports all of the above um Marcus how is uh how is your off seon going not bad not bad at all I think uh last time we talked I was just about to head to the lake get some fishing in I did that haven't been back since so I'm a little cranky about that but I think I'll I'll probably be going there soon uh enough but yeah we uh Fuller family's been uh been been getting over a little cold here and there but other than that we've been out and about doing our thing and yeah it's been a probably busier than usual mid July um we can talk about that coming up obviously but yeah it's been interesting it has yeah kind of the first thing on that agenda you covered um Board of Regents and Mark Cole having a discussion last week kind of the know the annual budget the annual report stuff like that um you know anytime right now is you know there's so many changes in college sports that sometimes these you know kind of what seems like a routine or rubber stamp kind of meeting kind of becomes interesting what what did you what were your takeaways from what Mark Coyle said and what he got asked last week by the board of regions yeah I mean this this might make a record here first time we're talking about Board of regions stuff on on the podcast but um yeah I think you know uh as we talked about kind of off the podcast a lot of times you know these Regent meetings um aren't huge news unless you're talking about a coach's contract um obviously four years ago they they dropped a a bomb on everyone and cut Sports and um you know uh you never know sometimes with these meetings so we definitely make sure we we check all the boxes and and this time around um you know last week we were kind of alerted to Mark Coyle in his uh annual budget um report um discussing the changes that are upcoming um you know with college uh Athletics you know and and adding um you know the the nil uh uh piece of it uh with the house settlement and the NCAA 2.8 billion dollar settlement that they had um last month and that'll be added to the budget for uh 25 I'm sorry uh for yeah for 25 26 yeah um so not this this this season but the following season and also they're they're going to be shared Revenue with athletes moving forward so you know the the the sooner um you know they can alert the uh border regions and the university about these changes the better and they're they're kind of um you know bracing for it and a lot of people saw it as um kind of kicking the teeth bad news yeah that's for everyone else but like the top level football and basketball players right maybe some hockey guys that are going to get quite a bit of that chunk of shared revenue and nil from the University but um everyone else is going to have to adjust quite a bit and I think that's what Cole uh was getting into was uh were the changes that are going to be made to the experiences of athletes mainly um the non-revenue athletes um there's quite a bit is going to change there Marcus we call those Olympic sports now not non-revenue it's a much it's a much nicer way to talk about those is that the more politically correct yeah I think so we the Olympics are are upon us so I don't want to you know I throw the Olympians out of the bus all but it's not to the Olympics we call them Olympic sports now it's much more polite but um I think what my take take away from that and I wasn't there but just kind of reading what you wrote and kind of looking back at some of it my take was just kind of what you said that the the big Revenue sports are going to have to drive even more of their revenue and then because of that they're going to take a lot of the take a lot of that what Coyle said would be about $21 million a year to to you know the the money that's going to pay players and that ALS but to me for the for the sports that aren't included in that group there's going to be some it's not just going to be it's not just going to be halves and Have Nots I think there'll be some have sums also that kind of those you know programs that do well but don't drive a ton of Revenue like your volleyball or you know women's basketball men's men's women's hockey to a certain degree the men's hockey does Drive quite a bit of Revenue but sports that do generate some Revenue but then yeah there's the sports that don't get much attendance and you know basically are all about experience and a well-rounded athletic department do you I wasn't sure if he was hint at you know less travel and smaller you know smaller scholarship sizes or if he's thinking that sooner rather than later maybe very sooner that there could be more program cuts on the horizon what did he was even asked about that what was what was your kind of response or what did you think of that response and where where does that leave you as you think about that well he was pretty vague um but we we've already had a conversation the star buun and our columnist chips Scoggin had a good conversation with them and and we've had conversations with them or I have I've had you know since a lot of these things have come down yeah and know scholarship reduction um is is happening that's going to happen um you know obviously they they haven't decided because they have a little bit of time but um you know you can see some of the Olympic sports probably reducing scholarships um they have to you know try to stay in line with Title 9 so um you know you'll probably see more of the men Sports being hit than others but um you know he was asked by Regent Turner um directly about sports cuts and saying that you know we can't be blindsided by this you know yeah um we' like to know ahead of time if these things are coming because there's a big Fallout from that I mean four years ago we're still hearing from it you know we still hear from a lot of the athletes former athletes and the coaches about it um especially every Regent meeting right um but I think that you right now um his answer to that was that's not the the answer or the direction that they're going um you know I don't know how much money you save really I mean um I'll just bring up gy gymnastics um you know the last time around men's gymnastics cut was cut and um you know they could have really funded themselves um you know after the fact uh so you know it's it's more than just that I think the sports cuts the first time around were more title 9ine I think than anything and then they they obviously use that excuse to try to you know you know save some money that they could you know use for for football or what have you but I think was more Title 9 than anything this time around um you know the money is going to come from other things you know you mentioned it and and he did discuss it uh the changes in travel yeah you know they're already going to play uh a more National schedule right by adding the um Pack 12 teams but uh other than conference play you're going to probably see a lot of those other sports or maybe even you know basketball um maybe not make such huge trips for non-conference more Regional non-conference um you know I know the basketball team has a the men's basketball team has this uh tournament in Orlando Florida coming up in November um but you know they're not going to they're not going what tubby used to go to Hawaii and and uh Bahamas right and in Puerto Rico they're not doing those any more right um yeah I think well you brought it up like traveling changes reduction in scholarships um just overall experience not to say that there you know you're going to come in there and and you know feel like um it's totally different uh program than what it used to be uh they still want to treat the athletes uh like they just you know they're big 10 athletes I mean there's going to be a lot of money coming in from TV contracts and um you know NCA tournament uh you know the the college football playoff um but again those have to be allocated in C in a certain way you mentioned the 2021 million uh that they're going to have to share Revenue with athletes um but then you also have the uh colleges taking over nil now dinky Town athletes is still going to be involved you know they they really will still be involved because uh ni through dinky Town um that's vital you know I think people get confused and I get confused sometimes when the when the NCA and the settlement happened they said all of a sudden now starting in in a year from now that the universities will be able to take over nil yeah when they said that they did not mean that the collectives will vanish okay you know some of them some of the schools will say hey we'll just take over you know the collectives we don't we don't need you anymore but schools like Minnesota they need the collective because the collective what what they do is they handle contracts through the athletes directly and they're able to to set up um sort of like a agency a lot of this nil with corporations and things like that that the university um doesn't have to worry about you know um but again the University is also going to come up with their own nil you know and and and I think that that's that's a little bit different you know um that's more of the shared Revenue shared Revenue part so it should be interesting um I think that athletes understand uh their value now more than any time in in in uh in sports and so you'll see the athletes that have the most uh uh the biggest brand you know the most attention you know whether at social media or you know just straight up success on the field on the court where where where have you and those are the ones that'll be getting paid the most I mean you have you can have a gymnast that has a lot of followers or that's um you know winning championships or Olympic level or what what have you that a wrestler we've had it in the past so there's there's there's chances that that athletes have if you don't play the the most high-profile Sports to make to make a lot of money you know and then um but you know again uh I think that that people worry about how are the how is the University going to come up with this money um they're they're they haven't done the the most awesome job fundraising over the years they're still paying the university back for you know loans they had to to pay for the the the facility you know it's a great facility I it almost still looks new in a lot of ways it does but fact that they're still paying for it you know from some of the loans I mean that's just crazy because there's a lot more uh money out there that um that the university needs and you know it's kind of you're kind of scratching your head where it's going to come from I agree with that um final point on this then let's get into some basketball specific stuff maybe a couple other Sports too um I wrote about this last week like I've you know you and I have both covered the U to varying degrees for a long time you more closely obviously in you know last decade or two but you know even from afar Marcus there's never really been a time that I can remember there where there wasn't some sort of budget you know crisis question in go for athletics my question to you is does this feel different to you just because this is you know while it's still another budget question is this is this than just hey uh I don't know how we're going to pay coach X or or things like that does this feel like an all new kind of a whole new ball game at this point yeah I mean I think um you know you look at it and it just blows your mind um you know the first it was the transfer portal um you know men's basketball you know was hit more than I've ever seen it in in a in a in a month they lost almost their entire um roster you know the returning roster you mean is that when you when I mean yeah I mean just recently you know or every year since then yeah yeah but you know patino obviously that that team did lose quite a few players but you know we're talking about a couple guys maybe on that team that were really like High Caliber guys yeah but I think to to to have a team you know Tom Isa brought it up you know he thought if the Gophers brought back most of their team they could compete for a championship they might be the favorite you know and I actually agree with that I mean if they would have you know cam Christie obviously got drafted um but you know if they were return everyone else with Dawson Garcia the Le score returning in the Big 10 and then you add some recruits I would argue that they would be one of the top three teams uh in the Big 10 preseason going in and and this they just haven't had that you know in over almost 20 years that I've covered this team preseason they have not been rated that high and he had the potential for that so that's just the transfer portal so that my mind that you can have so many guys that seem to be coming back that seem to be having a good experience that actually turned the program or the season around and had a pretty good year 19 wins you know and then all of them left you know except for a couple uh that surprised me and then you add the nil into into that um was the was the primary reason you know and that's something that you know every coach across the country is going through you know it wasn't Ben Johnson's fault you know he's not an agent he's not uh the fundra the primary fundraiser for nil you know so it just I think it's frustrating for uh coaches and and you know beat riders in a lot of ways because you know you know you make relationships with these guys you think you're going to cover them from at least a couple years and they're gone um they have a whole new team you know almost a whole new team now um nine seniors um you know so this will be entirely new team next year where you know it has nothing to do with nil these guys have their eligibility gone you know what I mean so right um so I think that part of it it has been shocking you know cuz uh again like fans you know you get attached to players and you you and and last year was pretty exciting season to watch and then all of a sudden you know there there's a almost a completely different team you know the football team there's been uh some there's every year there's a handful of guys or you know dozen guys that leave uh and then obviously get drafted um so I I think both those Sports you know you got a new quarterback football and basketball you have almost entirely new roster um you know I I think both of those sports fans are going to um quickly find out quite a bit about guys once the season starts but right now you know there's there's just a lot of questions a lot of question marks cam Christie you mentioned him he is in the NBA now he's in the summer league I saw the Clippers are two and 0 he play he's been starting looks like in their summer league lineup on Sunday played 25 minutes didn't shoot it great but looks like he's at least getting some pretty good run there as you would expect from a second round pick a fresh second round pick what a have you watched any of him and what what do you think so far yeah I mean you know they got the summer league all over the place like you know a couple ESPN channels espid TV you know like you're GNA watch it at some point um and it was nice to see cam out there you know starting or not you know like he's getting some time and um you know like he's got to adjust like any other rookie uh but he's you know he's only 18 years old so um that's the shocking part is like you know he's the youngest player uh drafted and he's starting he's going in there and he's getting experience which is great for him he he signed a four-year contract two years guaranteed two years option for the team option for I think like SE seven million or plus and um that's a that's not a second round middle second round pick contract they obviously see some upside there right they they went to a team that's going to invest in him you know like they invested in Amir coffee Amir coffee did not get drafted but he ended up getting a contract kind of like a second round pick and um you know Cam's gotten a contract kind of like a late first rounder almost so yeah I'm excited for him I think you know I I watched a few of his or a couple of his games um he's doing what he does he's shooting thre he's hitting some um you know I've listen to some of the coaches talk about him and you know the Improvement he needs to make physically continue there and and defensively you know obviously what what he did at the U at the end of the year he was getting to the basket a lot so he's going to have to get used to doing that at the pro level uh to round out his game but I'm excited for him and it helps them recruit you know I mean I know I'll segue for you into one of the questions you earlier asking about umir Amari Allen was a recruit that came in on an unofficial visit 6'7 Wing uh um actually can play the one and the two as well from from Wisconsin he's from the Green Bay Area but he's playing for a a prep school in in Florida and um he's a four-star guy and they've compared his game to cam Christie a little bit maybe even a more air coffee type um saying hey you can come here as a freshman and if you have the right type of season you know you could possibly get drafted just like cam did right and that that really you know was selling him to come to the U and so he set up an official visit uh in August um he's actually going to be there for the football opener versus North Carolina okay um he's really excited to see the atmosphere of the fans you know at that game um but also just a little bit more about the about the team and um they have a a 611 center from North Dakota that actually transferred to C and durm Hall um he's going to be the number one player number one senior in Minnesota now um because he was a North Dakota Player of the Year and he's a four-star recruit Tommy aneman okay um he's is going to be visiting um on the same day with Amari Allen um in late August and both of those guys have Wisconsin offers and they're planning to visit Wisconsin so you know it's pretty critical that um you know in this day and age when yeah you're going to get most of your recruits from the transfer portal um if you can hit on a couple High School uh recruits that's huge I mean these guys are going to come in they have the talent to come in and help you right away I mean anan's like 611 245 lbs so he's already a big body and he looks the part of a of a big 10 Center uh and Amari he's got all the talent in the world um kind of like cam did on the on the perimeter to come in and and play a lot so I'm excited for uh to see what they do Ben Johnson and his staff with those two guys they they were watching him this past weekend um in the evaluation period um you know Amari played really well I've seen his name in a lot of places on on social Med media uh some of the top performers in the Adidas circuit and um Anan played pretty well too in his uh for his team he actually plays for har pulley a local team so okay yeah yeah I mean um they're not going to recruit a lot of guys you know just because the way the portal is now yeah but those are two two must two musk uh for for Ben Johnson you know mus gets you are obviously tracking how the current team looks they're in you know practic the summer practices they've been going on what you know you're not going to replace everybody they lost with you know with just one or two guys but how does you know especially in the back court how is that competition looking right now yeah I mean I'll have a story on that coming up soon um but you know I think every year since Ben Johnson's gotten here he uh he's had to replace almost the entire back court you know that's not what what uh every coach HS happen in this kind of worst case scenario sometimes right but he's done a pretty good job of finding the right guy guys I mean you know first year he brought in pton Willis back um who had transferred away and he ended up being almost all big 10 type of guard uh the following year he brought in ton Cooper um who ended up being a really really solid gtit uh actually played even better after he transferred to South Carolina and he helped him get to the Nate tournament but um you know he was one of the top guards in the portal and then last year he he really hit on Elijah Hawkins who led the Big 10 and assists and he was one of the top assist guys in the nation um and then Mike Mitchell Jr cam Christie but you know you lose the Hawkins you lose cam Christie um you know cam was kind of a thought that they were going to lose him once he's playing so well to the draft but Hawkins you know exiting the Texas Tech was a big blow I mean twice he told me after the Big 10 tournament he told the Gophers a couple weeks later that he was staying and he left yeah um but you know um the transfer portal there's always an opportunity uh to find the next guy and lukai Patterson was a local kid from Minneapolis played for Minnesota prep and uh he was a really solid player um in in the portal he averaged 14 points a game last year um at Charlotte and you know he's coming in um he's going to be a scorer for them and and and primary ball handler uh you know and and Isaac asima you know is a guy that he's a top recruit I mean he he's rated I think top 10 point guard in the country in his in the senior class so he's going to be able to learn from a lot of of seniors they have a handful of seniors from the portal that they brought in I mean I'll keep naming them you know Caleb Williams put up 40 points versus the Gophers in the exhibition game from mallister local mallister division 3 you got Brandon rby from Oregon who's a leaper 40inch vertical but he's really good defensively and um he had 19 points versus Michigan when Oregon played Michigan last season uh FEI odal is kind of the sleeper uh he's a transfer from Mexico state but he he played at Sean Hall and Pittsburgh so he's got uh two two programs of high major experience he's 66 over 200 pounds uh strong guy can play probably four positions for him um and they just added uh which is surprising but they just added a couple weeks ago another transfer uh Tyler Cochran from Toledo and he's an Illinois native and he's big guy I mean he's not tall um but he's about 230 pounds um can really defend he was his conference is uh the max quote Defensive Player of the Year okay um so there's you know there's there's a lot of guys um uh and and you know I think that Mike Mitchell Jr coming back um they needed at least one guard to come back because yeah that that that that not only he's the older player but he learned the system he played well last year especially offensively shooting the ball so you know you got all these older transfers coming in that know how to play and then you got one that knows the system you know if they can mesh um you we'll see we'll see maybe a really good start like they had a a couple years ago in Ben's first season where I think they went 10 and one the start just because these guys knew how to play I mean you know when you when you have these fifth sixth year guys you don't need to teach them much uh in order to play but once they hit the Big 10 that's going to be the biggest indicator of you know how successful this season can go and uh yeah I mean there's a lot of new faces so as soon as I get out there I'm I can't wait to get out there at some point uh again I went to practice once but to see him a little bit more you were out at football and volleyball last week too before I let you go I haven't heard much on either of those things lately just because of the kind of the pattern of guests I've had on anything from that um kind of stand out to you yeah I mean football you know as you know um anything time you can get in front of the quarterback and then the top player coming back which I would say is Darius Taylor you know on especially on offense it's it's it's awesome because you get to hear what they did in the off season and um I can't say enough about what Randy Johnson did with the Darius Taylor story great story if you haven't read it you got to read it um you know he was able to spend time with him away from uh the team and talk about his family situation which which a very tough uh toughest understatement you know with his dad in in in prison for murder U but how he's overcome a lot of the obstacles there with his family to become the player he is and um just you go on and read that and you know Darius talked about some of the expectations that he has coming off an injury last year and had a good bowl game uh he wants to be the best back in the Big 10 and lead the Big 10 rushing and then Max uh brasmer was the quarterback they got in the transfer portal and um the leadership he's had and another good story about that Randy did in the offseason with you know BR guys over to Georgia and and receivers and different guys and trying to build chemistry so it's good to catch up with those guys and there there's a bunch of others you know one once one thing I realized they're they're they have a lot of older guys you know just like the basball team uh guys with experience and Leadership um so when you have that you know a lot of times that they understand kind of what the culture is of the team and and a winning attitude that can translate you know if they get they get some momentum early on in the season um they can they could do some things so I was you know it's was good to see that in football volleyball is really uh I haven't been around the program in in a while since like H McCutchen so it's kind of nice to to see some of old faces um like McKenna wer she's a uh a player that when I I did some stories on when she was a freshman and now she's a junior she's their leading um player uh coming back as far as kills per set and outside hitter and um you know um I think Melanie shaftmaster is one that she's been around a long time fifth year senior she's a Setter she's all big 10 player you know just hearing her and the excitement she has for Keegan Cooks year number two um was kind of neat um they they don't start their season until September 1st but it's good to be around the team a little bit and see some new faces and again some ones that have been around for a little bit and uh yeah Keegan cook uh he's got a lot of talent there coming back too let Keegan cook right let's let Keegan cook get that slogan going right um awesome uh Marcus glad to catch up on all of those subjects we'll be watching all of those things closely especially just kind of the the big picture with College athletics go for athletics whatever comes of kind of how how all this impacts the department and all of the all of the programs I have over it's going to be I'm sure a process it's not all going to happen overnight but over the next you know one to three years I imagine as Mark Coyle would say uh it's going to look different yeah no I can't wait um to the nil for um media members also comes in effect too we's see I don't know if that's gonna happen Marcus we might be waiting for a while on that we'll see um but if it does happen you'll be the first to know and you'll be the first to break that story Marcus appreciate it as always good to talk over hoops and go for sports with you and we'll catch up soon all right thanks a lot great stuff for Marcus is always love catching up with him on any number of subjects and we caught up on a lot today so I hope you appreciated all of his insights let's finish with the cooler let's play it time to check my social media y see loves me onl # bless life two letters that I need to read both of them came in I think you know either in the morning or overnight um couple of couple of fun ones he says um the first one from Ken be very specific complaint says hi Michael thanks for your work making the daily delivery podcast especially the Monday ones with Patrick royy sometimes often it's a hoot to listen to him rant and your reporting on the ballet Sports Comcast situation has been invaluable for which you deserve extra thanks thank you Ken a letter from Ken says today he and you referred again I think to the soccer pitch as the biggest playing field in sports unless you were limiting it to Common Western Hemisphere Sports I think that's incorrect both an Australian Rules Football field and a cricket ground are bigger playing surfaces sorry for the nitpick from an old guy keep up the good work thank you Ken that is good we will I will bring that up to royy I don't know how that will be taken it could result in another rant um because you know royy doesn't love nitpicking sometimes but I will bring that up I'll try to remember to bring that up to royy next Monday and see what he thinks about that we can find it even maybe we can find an even bigger playing surface the last one comes from Mark kind of kind of related he says good morning I look forward to my run every Tuesday morning maybe he waits a day maybe his run is so early that the podcast isn't ready yet by the time he goes for his run look forward to my run every Tuesday morning and listen to you and Pat talk about the stories of the week but when Pat said why does everyone complain I almost lost it what would Pat be without complaining thank you for the great podcast and a great newspaper I read it every morning from Mark love it Mark you're right uh royy maybe does make a living off of complaints not all of it it's not all he does of course but yeah where would royy be without complain so royy yes saying royy royy saying what are people complaining about uh maybe there a little bit uh maybe there's a little bit got to look in the mirror sometimes and maybe he's doing a little tongue and cheek as well thanks everybody for listening today keep those letters coming love to hear from everybody until Wednesday I am Michael Rand back at it again tomorrow [Music]