RELENTLESS: Troy Trojans and Scott Cross, PROVE They BELONG in the NCAA Tournament

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Playing in the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year, what has Scott crossed

learned and how can the Troy Trojans pick up a victory or two?

It's Lockdown Sunbelt.

You are a Lockdown Sunbelt, your daily podcast on the Sunbelt Conference, part of the

Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

All right, Dave Scholz, Lockdown Sunbelt, your teams every day, bonus episode, and we

got it.

The head coach of the Troy Trojans, Scott Cross, the two-time defending Sunbelt Champion

is champions.

Is going to join us here momentarily, and we talk about it all, we talk about a lot.

How the teams started out, we talk about the slump, we talk about the injuries and making

the adjustments, we talk about his GPA, prepping for the Sunbelt Conference tournament, and

prepping for the NCAA.

Again, only going to play their third game in three weeks.

That's a lot of time off, all right?

If they play on Thursday, I think on Friday.

Thursday, I think it's 20 days, Friday, I think it's 21, all right, depending on when

they play.

He is the head coach of the Troy Trojans, two-time defending champions.

He is Scott Cross, and he is Lockdown Sunbelt.

Dave Scholz back on another edition of Lockdown Sunbelt, your teams every day, really honored

and privileged to have our next guest on.

He is the two-time champion of the Sunbelt Conference tournament.

He is Scott Cross.

We go back a long way.

He's got all the way back to UTA, we're going to, I haven't heard this, I haven't had anybody

say this, we're going to ask you about what your college GPA is because I remember your

college GPA is because that's what my college GPA was.

Let's talk about this season, congratulations again.

You guys started out really strong and clearly, like at least a half a step or a step above.

How did you approach this season?

You had a lot of guys leave and you had a handful of guys coming back.

How did you approach the season when you started out?

Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing was just to try and convince all our guys that

could return to return.

We put all our time and energy into developing those guys.

They had been around the program.

We felt like they were high character guys that were getting better and so instead of

maybe trying to throw a little bit of money to somebody in the transfer portal, we just

really bought in and invested in those guys and started with Thomas Dalg and him and Cooper

and Carrington and JB and guys like that to come back and then we added a couple of freshmen

of that group.

We did add one transfer portal guide, Corbin Green, but we wanted to make sure that we

got the right type of guys and then we felt like because those guys were around, they knew

how to win, they knew how to play defense, they knew what we were going to run offensively

and it just would make it a little bit easier.

You do have the camel brothers, but you also have kind of a point forward in Victor Valdez.

I always say it's Victor Valdez night, right?

He gets like 12 points, four rebounds and six assists.

That's a Victor Valdez night.

When do you decide how to use that matchup?

Is it a specific advantage or do you start out one way and then adjust to what other teams

do?

Well typically Victor's such a good pastor.

We call him the mehikana Luka's Monday name form, but I kind of got the Luka Donchett

body, but he can pass it like Luka too and he's able to finish close to the basket.

A lot of our set plays, Cooper will initiate the offense and our set plays, but then we

have a few things where we'll ask Victor to initiate it, but a lot of the stuff is going

to have Victor with the ball in his hands and the camel brothers in the corners with Tom

is somewhere in the mix on the perimeter and pick him roll with JD and now you got to

pick your poison.

If you want to stop Victor and you don't want to, and you want to stop the shooters and

JD is open for the lob, you decide to rotate over and stop JD then one of those shooters

is open.

And so Victor is tall, he's got unbelievable passing ability and when you can finish

pass and you got a roller like JD, it's really hard to go or it's so essentially that's

what the majority of our offense ends up evolving into.

You know, on miss shots, either Cooper or Victor can get the ball and, you know, we're

looking to pitch it up.

We did a great job of that against Georgia, in the championship game, we really advanced

the ball and played a little bit faster, which was good.

We need to do more of that and hopefully we'll be able to build on that in the NCAA tournament.

Talk to me a little bit about the camel brothers because I had one, some better announcer

go.

They look like they're straight out of Hoosiers.

Do you think they are underestimated because of the, you know, they got the American apple

pie face, right?

They may not look like the most athletic, but they can shoot the three.

Yeah, I would say probably early on, maybe San Diego State, maybe they may have underestimated

a moment a bit probably USC, I mean, Cooper acts, he absolutely kicked USC's, but I think

he had like 25 plus hit a shot to put it in over time and just was making bucket after

bucket down the stretch force, but, you know, I would say in conference, once we started

going, I would say most of the teams probably, you know, viewed us as the top team because

of the San Diego State and the USC games and felt like we did get everybody's, you know,

best punch.

There were a lot of celebrations going on if, you know, in the games that we lost, like

it was a championship game, so I don't think anybody in our league underestimated those

two guys, but I think probably early on they did a little bit.

We're talking to Scott Cross, head coach of the Troy Trojans men's basketball team, two

time defending a champion of the sun belt, heading to the NCAA tournament.

It's very odd coach and we'll get to this a little bit later on, but you guys are going

to play three games, hopefully four, maybe more, but basically three games in three weeks.

You guys are going to be the most rested team in America for this insane tournament.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's good.

I mean, I think that rest was great for us after our Louisiana Monroe game.

We gave the guys two days off.

We have been going for like 13, 14 straight days without a day off because of the way, you

know, we played Thursday, Saturday, Monday, Wednesday.

So I mean, we went from Monday all the way through to Friday and then we gave them off

Saturday and Sunday.

So I mean, it was a that was a long stretch.

So those two days were good, then we practiced Monday, Tuesday, regular.

We gave them Wednesday off and then it was Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

We played on Sunday, played again on Monday and then we gave them off yesterday and the

day before.

So yeah, their back were covered again.

We'll practice tomorrow, the next day, give them selection Sunday off and then it'll be

straight preparation for the NCAA tournament.

As the season goes on and obviously bodies break down, do you back off a practice a little

bit?

Try to get as much in as as quickly as possible and not run two and a half hour practices

that you may be running in say September and October because we can do waterproofs.

But again, we want these guys to be fresh for the games.

Yeah, that last week and this week has probably been the least off practice.

You know, we do 30 minutes of individual work at 7th party in the morning on our main practice

days, not on game days.

So we'll do that for 30 minutes, just straight skill work, ball handling, passing, form shooting,

finishing.

So I mean, that doesn't tax your body at all.

And then during conference, we were probably going two hours after like we would go watch

film for 30 minutes, they would take and then we would go practice for another two hours.

So I mean, it's a long day, but you know, in 10 minutes of that is stretching.

I mean, it's not it's not anything outrageous in my mind.

You know, earlier in the season, we did two and a half hours.

So conference, it's two hours and then last week and this week, we've just been doing

an hour and a half and it's been very, very light.

So I would definitely say, yeah, our guys are fresh within they've ever been right now.

Now as a 13th man on a 12 man JV basketball team, my coach didn't make us run the day before

the game, right?

Sprinting is always the last thing you do, all right?

And I sort of cheated because I did the suicides backwards because I was the slowest guy, but

I ended up in the middle of the pack because I finished the long part first.

Do you guys, do you guys sprint?

Do you guys do running right after, you know, the day before the game was always a big

surprise?

The first time he did it, but we just didn't, we didn't run the day before the game.

Yeah, no, I don't do a whole lot of running.

So I did do like I made him run, we call it transition.

So it's down, back, down, back, down, back and we do it in 35 seconds and like I feel like

if they can do that, three of those like on for 35, off for 35, on, off, on, off, like

they're winning.

Like I just want their lungs to be open, like I mean, there's, you, you, you, what,

you know, after that, then I think you're just wearing down your body.

So a lot of times, I mean, I'll have the clock up there, but when we're doing that,

like it's for them, for their benefit.

So I mean, if they don't make it, we'll tell them to run faster, but it's not likely

going to be a punishment or something, you know, if they, they turn the ball over,

I may have them do it down and back or something like that or push ups.

But so typically when we run, it'll be like after we've had a day off or two days

off, that's, that's when we'll run.

And typically the day before the game, we're not going to do, I'll do our running,

like we'll do a shooting drill that's full court and we'll try and get our, our

running and while we're doing that, you know, try and trick them a little bit.

So the only time we'll do the, the just running without a ball is like to just

get their lungs opened up after a day or two off.

Do you make them shoot free throws right after that?

Oh, so what we do a lot of, like it times right before we have a water break,

Coach Cordero may call a guy out.

He's got a student one in one.

They miss.

We're running.

Miss the first one.

We run a little more than if you make the first miss the second and then, you know,

other times I'll just break them up and have half on one end, half on the other.

Everybody gets one shot.

If they make it, they get to shoot a second shot and then they compete and, you know,

a lot of times they'll just be, you know, for push-ups or something like that.

Unless the team doesn't shoot it very well.

Then maybe they'll be, you know, a run or a suicide attached to it.

So we're talking about Scott Crosshead coach of the Troy Trojans men's basketball team,

two-time defending champion.

You want to remind everybody from the, I know it hadn't been brought up in the two ball games.

I watch.

What was your GPA in college?

The school that I graduated from, it was a 4.0.

4.0.

Yeah.

I was there for three years.

Three years.

I did make, I believe I made a B at Tyler Junior College and I made one my first

minute at UTSA and that was the hardest class I ever took.

It was a political science class.

And I remember, I mean, it was, I had to read like a hundred and fifty pages every night

for that political science and it was, it was brutal.

I was like, college is not very fun, but the rest of my classes weren't like that.

So I mean, it was really just those two classes were, were ass kickers and the rest were,

you know, pretty, pretty tolerable.

So I tried to keep up with my brother.

He was the, he set the bar, he went to Austin College, which is a very, you know,

high academic institution and he made a 4.0 there.

And so I always tried, you know, I had to live up to big brother.

And so, you know, what did he become?

What's, what's his profession?

He became, he, neither one of us were very smart.

We didn't use our degrees smartly.

We, he, he went, he coached college soccer and I coached college basketball.

So he, he actually, I think he, he had a, a banking job or an internship and it was, it

was going to be very, very good job and I think he did that for, I don't know whether

it was a month or how long, but he's, I don't want to do this, the rest of my life.

And then he became an assistant, I believe at UTEP and then he got the head job.

He was there.

I don't know, 17 years and now he's a club.

There's a club in Houston that he helps run and, and I mean, it's, it's, it's, I called

volleyball.

It's a big deal, especially in Houston.

So.

Well, mission accomplished, right?

You, mom and dad, we're super proud.

You got the 4.0.

Yeah.

And then you can go do what you want.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's crazy how that worked out.

He, he actually got his graduate degree from A&M and business and that, that was what

my dad, I think my dad was up said, he's like, you know, we paid all this money for

this degree and you're not, you're going to go be a soccer coach.

I think he had a 4.0 with, uh, at A&M and M2, yeah, business grad degree, a couple of

bright guys, couple of bright guys, let's take a time out, we'll come back and continue

our conversation with Troy Trojan's Scott Cross.

We talk about that mid season slump.

There are injuries to discuss, particularly one player could be coming back and what it's

like to coach, uh, his son on the team.

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the show notes. All right, Dave shows locked on sunbelt your teams every day.

All right, let's continue our conversation with Scott Cross, head coach of the Troy

Trojans two-time defending Sunbelt champions. We do discuss that mid-season slump.

There were some toughball games admittedly on the road. I did have a couple of tough games at

home where they lost and they go through some injuries. And what it's like coaching his son.

He is the head coach of the Troy Trojans. He's Scott Cross and he is locked on sunbelt.

All right, guys, we're talking to Scott Cross, head coach of the Troy Trojans on locked on sunbelt,

your team every day. All right, what happened with that mid-season slump? I know Theo saying

got hurt, but that seemed to be a later on. Was it just everyone coming and giving you their

best punch? You know, you had all kinds of issues with ULM, right? In the first game.

But you got, you went to, I think, Texas State. You lost, I think, Southern Miss.

Came into Troy, into the number on you. What was there? A sense of overconfidence?

Because again, I thought you guys were a half a step if not a whole step better than the rest of

the conference. Yeah, I would say JMU was the game. They really kind of jolted us a little bit.

We didn't, you know, I thought officiating had been great all year long, you know, for the most part,

but that was not my favorite game in terms of the whistle. It was a home game. We had it under

control. End up losing the game. And then app, you know, they came in and they may have handled us,

just being honest. And then, you know, the Texas State, I mean, Texas State was 19 and one or whatever

at home. They're unbelievable at home. You know, another game where we probably didn't get the best

whistle in the, you know, of our season, which you expect that when you go on the road, that's part

of it. And then same thing as Southern Miss, but in that game, Theo saying that's when he got

injured. So we didn't have him in the second half. And then we didn't have Kobe got injured with,

I don't know, maybe 15 minutes left. So you're down to starters to, you know, a really, really athletic

team on their home court and couldn't quite get it done. And then it was an adjustment getting

used to playing without Theo. Now JB's the starter, which, you know, he's definitely a starter in

terms of talent level on who he is, but everybody's got to get adjusted to it. And then you bring

a guy like Evan Griffin, who was a freshman and played no real meaningful minutes. And now he's

playing, you know, 10 minutes of very, very crucial important minutes. And if, you know, JP, I think,

in that first Monroe game on the road, got it two quick thousand. Now Evan's like he's in the mix

and he's having a hold down the four for, you know, 10 minutes there in the first half. And he did

a great job. Like, but he got better and better. You know, he played some good minutes for us, both in

the semifinals and the championship game. And, but I think it was more, you know, like if you watch how

we defended in those two games in the tournament and even against Monroe in that last game at home

versus how we were defended in those losses. I mean, that's the difference in it. I mean, if

we defend that way, it's going to be a close game. And, you know, when we're on the road, we're

going to have a chance to win. And then if we defend that way and we're playing good offense,

then we're probably going to beat almost everybody in the league. But when we don't defend that way,

then we're not very good. And then if we don't defend that way and we're not hitting shots,

then we're, we're very, very, very below average. Right. Just being honest. And,

you know, the guys just kind of came together. I think they, you know, at times, you know,

you're getting nice articles written about you, you're looking at the stats, you're thinking

about all conference. You know, when guys forget about, you know, we just got to do whatever it takes

to win. And once we got to the point where it was those last two games, I think everybody at that

point just say, you know what, forget everything else, we're just going to do whatever it takes to

win. And then, you know, that championship game, we had a different look in our eyes. I mean,

it was special. You could see it from the get go. Like during the game, I felt like, well,

maybe it was, you know, Georgia Southern was just worn down, which very well could be the case.

But then like going back and watching our film, I'm like, wow, like that's as good as we played

all year long. Like it looked like there were six of us on on defense. Like we were just flying

around. You know, they may shot fake us. The next guy rotates, they throw it out. And then Thomas

Dowds flying out there and Cooper's flying out there. And, you know, we were playing with speed.

You know, I mean, I couldn't even imagine playing six games in six days and they gave it a

run and they kept competing and, you know, kept the game closed. But honestly, like we played

really, really good in that game. All right. So lots to go over there. You got another guy in

that rotation. It seems to have the same last name as you do. Yeah. Yeah. He's came a long way.

So, you know, my former associate head coach, he's, he was talking to coach Gilbert,

who's on our staff. And he's like, man, that big calf in Memphis, boy, he was playing some

defense. He knew Austin, like, you know, back when Austin was in high school, Austin could really

score the ball in high school. He was five A player of the year in the state of Alabama.

But being honest, and they won two state championships with his first school and then his,

he went transferred to the public school Charles Henderson and they made it to the championship

for the first time or the second time in the history of the school. But he didn't play a whole lot

of defense just being honest. So we had him last year and he was red-certed and he got to play a

lot of defense. He had to try and guard, take him counterway. He had to try and guard.

Oh, good.

And I kept talking to him. I'm like Austin, like, you don't understand, like, you're pretty tall,

you're pretty strong. You know, you're more athletic than you think. Like, be physical,

use your hands. And like, now the light bulbs went on and he knows, like, that's kind of his

role now. It's like to play great defense and knock down an open shop. But he's definitely

getting more confidence. And like, you know, we had him on more of their late in the game.

He was the guy that was guarding him and he did a great job making it very, very difficult for him.

But yeah, he's came a long way and you know, that made it even more special, like, for him to

actually contribute. You know, it was cool last year celebrating the championship and he did help us

preparing our guys and, you know, scouts and being a practice player every day. But now, like,

he's actually, you know, playing minutes and helping us win, win basketball games. So, you know,

the father side of me, I thought that was, you know, that was pretty awesome. But he, he definitely,

you know, it's hard for him because I'm hard on him. Sure. And, you know, out all the guys, like,

I expect him to do it right every time. And if he doesn't, he definitely gets the loudest voice

by far. He hears a, with Victor probably being second in line. That's funny. We're talking to

Scott Cross, the head coach of the, the Troy Trojans are quickly, uh, Theo Sang's availability

for the tournament. Well, he did practice about half of our practice today. And I think he's going to

try and see if he can go through a full practice tomorrow. Um, and he's going to test it out and see

how it feels. He acted like to me that there wasn't pain today and he felt pretty good. Um, so,

yeah, I think there's a, uh, it's, it's trending towards him being able to play. And we'll see how

he recovers, uh, you know, by, by tomorrow, just to see. All right. All right. Let's take one more

time out. We'll come back and wrap up our conversation with the head coach of the Troy Trojans.

Scott Cross, we talk about prepping for the Sunbelt Conference tournament. They had a layoff

from Friday to Sunday. And now they have another long laugh. How does he prep for the NCAA

tournament? And how can they win a game or two? We'll talk to, we'll do that right after I tell you

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Let's wrap up our conversation with Scott Cross from the Troy Drogens. Talks about being ready

versus rested for the Sunbelt Conference tournament and how he can take that experience

into the NCAA's after being there last year. How can they knock off a team that's going to be

much higher seated than they are? He's the head coach of the Troy Drogens, the two-time defending

Sunbelt champions. He has Scott Cross and he has locked on Sunbelt. We're talking to Scott Cross,

head coach of the Troy Drogens, two-time defending champs. It was two different defenses.

Correct me if I'm wrong because I thought that's what I saw. In the semi-final game,

you guys were playing a zone and just daring them to shoot and they couldn't do it. I thought I

saw more man-to-man in the Georgia Southern game. Yeah, definitely it was more man-to-man. We

got a couple of different versions of our man-to-man, so we have straight man-to-man where we're keeping

the five on the five and we're going to try and ice the ball screens. So we did do that

zone against Georgia Southern. We did go zone. They kind of spread us out. They popped to three,

so I didn't like the way we were matching up on their zone. So late in the game we did go more

to like what is our switching man-to-man and then we actually, when we're switching man-to-man,

we're typically more in the gaps, but we did try and deny more and so we have one guy on him

who was just basically face-coordinate and then we were switching everything else and then we also

have like a, we'll show zone like a one-two-two and so it's kind of like a match-up zone, but it's,

you know, it's also like switching man-to-man. So we mixed those in and try and keep them off

rhythm and I thought our guys did a really good job communicating and the bottom line is they

had to fly around and they had to work no matter what you're in. If they work hard to fly around,

you're probably going to have a good defense if they don't, you're probably not.

So you, you're talking about the days off. So because how did you get ready for the Sunbelt

Conference serve? Because all those, all those teams that finished in a six-way tie for second,

not one of them won a game. They all lost because the team that had played before beat them.

How did you, how did you get that difference between being, someone said rested in rhythm,

but I would say rested and ready because you can only do so much, but you, I mean you

went from playing from Friday to playing the following Sunday. That's like nine days for ten days.

I think Monday of that week, we broke down our Louis-Anna Monroe games, so we did video of that

and then we practiced. I think Tuesday, we actually watched video of how

app attacked us and how they defended us. So we went over that and then in practice, we simulated

maybe some of their defense and some of their sets. We were off on Wednesday. I believe Thursday,

I did decide to do some Southern Miss just in case that they won the game and I think we went

over a little bit of Texas State maybe the next day and then at that point, you're just waiting

to find out who you play. So we kind of touched based on the three most likely teams that we could

play and then what happened. So it was Saturday night when we found out. So what we had the guys do

was we were in the hotel room and we watched the first half and then we went and halftime back

to the hotel. We fed them. We turned the game on the wall there so they could watch it and then

15 minutes after the game, Coach Kelvin came in and we showed them all their sets, their baseline

and then we walked through it. So I mean by 10 o'clock we had already, like they do everything

with Southern Miss and then we woke up. We didn't we didn't I think we did. No, I don't think we

even shot that day. We just woke up. We walked through their stuff and then we went and played and

then you know, we had the earlier game so we didn't stay at all for the half-state game. We watched

it all in the hotel room and then we did the same exact thing as soon as we found out that it was

Georgia Southern. We were already showing them their sets, their baseline out of balance. We walked

through it and then we did the same thing Monday, you know Monday morning and we hooked it up and

played. Yeah, you guys were I mean obviously the best team in the tournament and so that's why

that's why you won again. I thought it was more zone against Southern Miss. Yeah, maybe you didn't

like the matchup against Tilly Weeks, man to man. They drive it so well. Right, you know,

shooting is not their strength. Correct. So I had to get to one or two guys. I mean weeks can't

hit the 15 footer all day long and they killed us in the first game but you know, if you can make

them take 15 foot jump shots, you know, you kind of like your odds if you're able to score on

the other end and so you know that was the plan was to just try and you know eliminate as many

rim shots as we could make no make them take the 15 footers contest the three point shots and

you know, hopefully we're making some shots on the other end. All right, let's wrap it up here with

Scott Cross head coach of the Troy Trojans. We got selections Sunday. You guys are having a watch

party for that. What did you learn from being in last year's NCAA tournament to take to this

year's NCAA tournament? Yeah, it's holding the day after we watched film. I was like, look like the

way you guys played the look you had in your eyes. I didn't see not one bad bad selfish shot like

the way y'all were sharing the ball, the way y'all were flying around defensively. You had that

look in your eyes. If you can play selflessly like that and defensively like that, there's no

question we can easily win a game or two in the NCAA tournament. Last year we played tough,

we played hard. Obviously Kentucky's Kentucky, they're huge, they're athletic, they're strong,

but offensively we, you know, when things got tough, we tried to do things ourselves instead of

sharing the ball, moving the ball, trusting each other, we have to trust each other. Like we're

going to play a super talented team, but I think we pose some problems with our ability to shoot

with our ability to pass and then we have, you know, we can offensive rebound. I mean we're at

top 50 offensive rebound team in the country so we can get extra possessions. So that's what they

have to do. They just have to be focused on winning the next play. Like don't worry about the scoreboard,

don't worry about agents, transfer portal, who you're going to play next, girlfriend, mom, dad,

and just worry about making the right play on offense and then get back and worry about making

the right play on defense and do that over the course of 40 minutes and, you know, I like our

chances. I mean, we've played four, what I would consider like P4 level teams. San Diego State,

we beat USC, we had beat and, you know, ended up blowing it. We had a close group as with Mississippi

State, gave them everything they wanted and then we had an exhibition against Georgia. They beat us,

but we were very, very competitive. So I mean, and then we played Akron, that's, you know, definitely

talented enough to win a game in the NCAA tournament and we beat them. So, you know,

you're talking about five teams that are, you know, easily good enough to win a game in the NCAA

tournament and also very similar in size and athleticism of what we'll probably face.

I still can't believe you lost the USC game. I guess. I know. I know. Yeah, we, uh, there are a few

calls in there that I didn't like, but overall we got a really good whistle in there, but, yeah,

the intentional foul definitely hurt us. We had our opportunities and then, I mean, the, the

play were, you know, all of the ball of the court and it was like they stole it and the guy

immediately throws it up and like it's just, yes, you know, if I, if they did it 10 more times

with no defense, like they may make one of them. Like it's just maybe, yeah, maybe it was just one

of those deals. Like it wasn't meant to be, but our guys, you know, I thought we, you know, for

the most part, we were the better team. You know, it was hard to stop my man. I forgot his name,

the six, five kid from Auburn. You know, he was, he's a big time player and we had trouble stopping him,

but, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, they also had a tough time, you know, stopping Cooper, stopping,

Thomas Dow, stopping Victor and we were really, really moving the ball and kind of spending them

around. Really appreciate your time coach. I do, I do have to ask you one more question because

it's come up on social media. We got to shout out the guy Barry McKnight. He is the voice of the

Sunbelt. He is one of the best. Uh, does a great job. Um, doesn't scream too loud, right?

Has a really deep voice. Um, I just, I'm a big fan of Barry McKnight. Yeah, he's the voice of the

Trojans. Uh, you know, there's been times where we watch football games and we'll tune in just to

listen to him, you know, commentate the football games. Uh, you know, I watched that clip that he

posted and yeah, it got me choked up like seeing how bad he wanted us to be successful. Right.

That guy's all in. I mean, he, Jerry, Jerry is too. Jerry Miller who works side by side. I mean,

like if we're, if we're on the road at a hotel, uh, Barry's taking his suitcase as radio equipment

and he's walking up the stairs, like what guy does that? Right. You know, I know Doug Ames did that

who also was on the radio, you know, my first two years, but just to have guys like that that are

all in, like, you know, you can't put a price tag on it, but he's the best of the best that he

deserves every award. He was Alabama sportscaster or the year or Hall of Fame or one of those awards.

Yeah. He deserves everything he gets. He's, he's an absolutely amazing human being and does a great

job. Well, I appreciate your time coach. I know you're extremely busy. I'm glad we got this in

this week. Probably going to be a little bit busier next week. He is the head coach of the, the

Troj Trojans two-time defending Sunbelt champions hopping on locked on Sunbelt. Best of luck.

Sunbelt's going to be rooting for you. Even maybe some of your rivals, uh, but we look forward

to watching it and say, tournament. Congratulations and thanks so much for your time.

Thank you for having me all.

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