SportsPrep Live

Unknown Speaker 0:00
You're listening to local programming produced in KU NV studios.

Unknown Speaker 0:05
The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5. Jas and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Unknown Speaker 0:17
Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of sports prep live, prep live, where we unbox the mic and talk excellence in athletics.

Unknown Speaker 0:35
Welcome back to sports prep live. This is our final episode of season two. Very excited to be here. I'm great in Prescott, I'm here with my man K. B. We are going to do a sort of a recap of this season some of the things that we've talked about, and some of the things going on in the present in the sports world. There's a lot of big things happening right now. So we don't have a lot of time and we have a lot of things to talk about. So we should probably get right. Yes, sir to agree. Okay. We'll start with a little bit of a recap. Some of our biggest Listen, some of our most listened to episodes had to do with an Caitlin Clark was involved in a lot of these not surprising that out there. A lot of our most listened to episodes had to do with the women's NCAA tournament. We covered that tournament in three separate episodes. Right, we covered the first and second round, then we covered the sweet 16 in the elite 8 million views and viewers.

Unknown Speaker 1:34
Yeah, then we come to the final four.

Unknown Speaker 1:36
And our most listened to of course, was the final four championship game episode. But what we did not get to talk about in that episode, if I recall correctly, is the viewership record, right? We ran out of time there at the end. And there's something that Okay, so the record was set last year for most viewers of a women's college basketball game ever. And that was in the Iowa and LSU national champ championship peaked around 14 million correct. This year. That viewership record was broken not once, not twice, but three times in a row by Iowa, starting when, when they played LSU. In the Elite Eight, they broke the viewership record for a women's NCAA game overall. Then they played UConn in the Final Four broke the record again, there one week, so they broke the record that they had broken. Correct. They broke the record for a second time. Yes. And then they played South Carolina and blew the record out of the water with 18 point 7 million. I think that was 1.5 million more than they got with us UConn and they hit total viewership, their high watermark was nearly 25 25 million. That's right. That is unbelievable. I know.

Unknown Speaker 2:50
I think just looking back on the impact that Kailyn had on the women's game, she really, I mean, of course there are your basketball heads that were paying attention no matter what. But I think she really put women's college basketball on the map. Yes for good. She's got people paying attention to everybody now, not just her. She gave a platform for, you know, girls like Judy Watkins and Paige Becker's has a much larger following your angel Reese was good all go to Notre Dame. I'm not saying this to discredit. But Angel Reese was able to do what she did because of Caitlin Clark. Yes. I think a lot of people would agree with that. Yeah. So which is why she probably began to temper some of her remarks this year. She saw the direction this train was moving in. Yeah, it was an unstoppable tree. Yeah, I completely agree with that. And, you know, angels made a name for herself. She's gonna, she'll be fine in the WNBA. So I think, you know, she did what she was supposed to do. She got her name out there. She's become a celebrity. She, you know, made a lot of money in NFL. And now she's in the WNBA. And she's, you know, Jay is gonna get endorsement deals not on the level that Caitlin Clark was not. She's still gonna get her endorsement deals. So you know, you gotta be happy for Angel.

Unknown Speaker 4:13
You got girl like Juju Watkins who come in in their freshman year, you know, scoring 51 Can't wait to watch her play. She's unbelievable. And I think she's going to be the face of women's college basketball going forward going forward. Yeah, maybe not this next year because Paige Becker's might have something to say in our fifth and finally there's page there's AC Fudd. Again, hit a hit all go out of Notre Dame. Yeah, she's tough. Yes. USC is going to be tough next year. But Judy Watkins in my estimation, is in a class all by herself. Yes. Dude, you came in. She broke the freshman scoring record Caitlin's old record. Yes. She's got the program. She you know, everybody is backing her. They fully

Unknown Speaker 5:00
embrace her. So I think you know, she's going to definitely tear it up and probably threaten. This might be a bold take threatened Caitlin's scoring records because of how dynamic she is. She's a three level score. She does it from the three point line, she gets to the free throw line, she hits the mid range, she gets to the basket. She's a little bit inefficient wars in a multitude of ways. She's a little bit inefficient, but um, you know, she's still gets it done. She averaged 2728 points per game this year. In the NCAA Tournament, she averaged 28 points per game. You were critical of how she performed in the tournament. Yes. But, you know, with that being said she was still dominant for the extent of the season. She's one to watch it again. I look forward to seeing her for the upcoming season. I know she's going to work hard. This offseason. She is a talent to behold it. Luckily, you know, there are games that she has here in Las Vegas. I mean, she I think she played here two or three times this past season. So we get to see her up close and personal, it is not too far to, you know, hop on the

Unknown Speaker 6:05
hop and hop into the vehicle and shoot down to Los Angeles and go to USC to watch it. So that that doesn't take a lot of effort either. So I'm definitely going to see her in person. She is a sight to behold on a basketball court. Yes. And the Trojans next year, they are going to be a problem. Are you have you seen their recruiting class coming in this year? I have not you have. So I do understand that they are going to be tougher next year than they are this year because they've got some recruits coming through the door. I think Iowa actually has a couple Yeah, yeah, they do not transfer they do. And so I was going to look good next year as well. Um, I'm gonna make my early prediction. I got USC went on the whole thing. They've got to five stars, to four stars, and Kiki Ariffin. from Stanford, she averaged 19 transfer game. She was a freshman last year. She's going into her sophomore year, same as juniors. She was 19 points a game at Stanford. She was an All American. When they played Iowa State, she went for 40. Wow, yeah. Wow. So not an easy number to hit. No, not at all. And that's what Cameron brings on the team. Right? Right. He went for 40. So she has a problem. And she decided to transfer to USC. So they they now have another person who's going to score 20 points a game, they got to five stars and two, four stars coming in this next year. USC is my pick to win the national championship.

Unknown Speaker 7:33
That aside, more drama on the women's side of things, the Olympic team. We talked a little bit about this earlier in the year, who will be on that team we talked about, you know, Diana Taurasi? Yes, this was another story that got a lot of attention from listeners, right. A lot of engagement. Who's going to be on that team and some of the drama that maybe one or two of these picks? will invite. Yes, absolutely. Really one but I'll let you go on with what you were saying. So for a little bit of background info. For those who haven't heard Diana Taurasi, she's WNBA legend. She was voted as the greatest player of all time in the WNBA.

Unknown Speaker 8:14
A few years ago, she's a three time champion multiple time MVP, all time leading scorer, but she's 40 years old. She said on air on ESPN two that Caitlin Clark is not ready. Or has has something has a new thing coming coming into the WNBA. Right, saying she hasn't been playing against grown women and she's only played because

Unknown Speaker 8:39
right. realities coming I think is the Yeah, yes. The term she used. She got a lot of flack for that. And some support. Actually, it's Yeah. Which seems a lot more flak. Yeah. Because it really came off as hating. Yeah. Because really did I think it's because she felt like well, shoot. I did this, this and this and college orangey mentioning me with a stack team. Yeah, you sue bird. I mean, let's just let Americans let's just put this in perspective. Caitlin Clark, takes a program that had never been to a championship game never goes into the program sets every type of record that you can possibly set every last one comes out of the program with the most scored on the women's side yet points and the most scored on the men's side for NCAA, not just the team, probably a record that is going to stand. Let's see. Pete Maravich. It's record stood for 50 years. 47 years, something like that close to it. Yeah. So you got to imagine this is going to be a difficult nut to crack, you know, over the next decade, two decades. So not only is there that, but then there's this Caitlin Clark, although she goes to two national championship games, she does lose both of those games. But in her year

Unknown Speaker 10:00
Is there she beat blue chip program UConn? Yep, she beat blue chip program LSU she beat blue chip program, South Carolina. Name another one of those programs that are competing with all three of those schools who have done that. Like if she did it, no disrespect to anybody on that squad. There are some Hooper's on that squad but there's no five star athletes on the Iowa women's women's basketball team. And I'm not sure there's any Forestar although they will be getting some.

Unknown Speaker 10:33
She takes this team by herself and does this damage to UConn and does this damage to South Carolina and does does this damage to the reigning national champion LSU Tigers. Right. So for Diana Taurasi to speak

Unknown Speaker 10:51
in my estimation as derisively about Caitlin Clark if she did, I think was a bridge too far for a lot of people present company included. Yeah, she's got her supporters like I said, Stephen A Smith came to her defense, I think Shannon Sharpe came to her this tar defense, or Josie go push back on it a little bit.

Unknown Speaker 11:10
But I am here to say if she didn't mean it like it intended, and I don't think she's cleaned it up. Right. She just wanted to keep it out there and maybe have her what she would view as her Kobe moment. I don't think she's cleaned it up.

Unknown Speaker 11:23
She's got another thing coming. If she thinks that Caitlyn Clark is only able to do what she's done, because she was playing against quote unquote, falsely I might add 18 year olds, that is utterly ridiculous. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 11:38
You know, most 18 year olds in college, don't get on the floor. You have to be special to get on the floor as an 18 year old. Yeah. And you tell me, is it easier running up and down the floor against 1819 2021 22 year olds? Or is it easy doing it easier doing it against a 40 year old? I mean, from my experience, I have more trouble playing against 15 1617 year olds than I do come on to Razi 40 year olds. Where are you taking us with this? Yeah, I think she might be a little bit salty that she could see her name getting left off this Olympic roster. Because if it were up to me, and if it were up to you, I'm sure and a lot of people who watched she's had her day Yes, but she had her she had her heyday and she was glorious. She was amazing. She did her thing she you know did not get it twisted. Taurasi was a Hooper as of right now. She's the greatest WNBA player of all Absolutely. It's not really a debate. But not anymore. Your it's not your past your past. Those championships are going in another direction. Right. You push Skylar Diggins Smith away and now look what she do your nine and you went nine and 31 Last season the year before that you made it to the WNBA finals, not because you really brought that team there but because Brittney Griner had one of the best games I've ever seen, and game five against the aces.

Unknown Speaker 12:55
So they're not really a rebel are irrelevant. Yes, yes. They're not really relevant team right now. She's not really relevant. That's why she shouldn't be talking crazy, right? Because if, if you had a final roster of WNBA players, obviously Aja Wilson's got to be on that roster. Yeah, Breanna Stewart. Yeah, Sabrina UNESCO, Chelsea gray. Jackie young. You know, there's a lot of people. Absolutely. She's now one. And Caitlin Clark. If you're just thinking about the marketing aspect of this, right? You're playing international basketball. Who do you think these kids cares about the marketing aspect Caitlin's the best player. But that's the point that I'm making. Right? She's that's who's going to put butts in the seats. That's like that. That's the glider where they play. That's the equivalent of saying, from a marketing perspective, I'm going to put LeBron when he was 22 on the Olympic team.

Unknown Speaker 13:48
I get your point. Yeah. This is great. And Prescott here on Sports prep live. And we are doing a recap of some of our hottest topics this season two. So we've talked about the women's Olympic team. We've talked about the NCAA tournament on the women's side, we haven't really said much about the men's side. And there's reason to that wasn't exactly relevant this year. anti-climactic. Yes, yeah. But I will say going into next year, in the men's side, there could be a little bit more

Unknown Speaker 14:22
spice interest. Parry parody, yes, a good word for it. You and I talked earlier this season about the McDonald's all American game, who would be in that game? We found that out later in the year.

Unknown Speaker 14:38
And one of our topics of discussion was Cooper flag, and you talked about his defensive prowess in his motor.

Unknown Speaker 14:46
And we talked about you know, other players in Dillon Harper Amari Bailey,

Unknown Speaker 14:52
those guys obviously going to Ruckers Cooper flag going to Duke Duke, do you think Who do you think in the men's side is going to be

Unknown Speaker 15:00
Who do you need to keep your eye out for? Who is the most important person to watch for going into next season? That is a really good question. And I'm going to answer it two ways. Okay. In terms of immediate impact,

Unknown Speaker 15:16
you know, this one and two thing that has been going on all year, really for the last couple of years in high school basketball between Cooper flag and DJ Wagner.

Unknown Speaker 15:28
DJ, real quick DJ Wagner. He I think he's returning but he played his first year at Kentucky this year because he reclassed up. I think you're thinking about Amari Bailey. Yes. And Dylan Harper and Harper, that's it. That's who I was talking to Harper Harper, Yellin Harper,

Unknown Speaker 15:44
this one and two that's going back and forth between you know, him and Harper.

Unknown Speaker 15:49
It was a sight to behold. You know, they both were in the McDonald's all American games. They were both in the Jordan classic. Yep. There were, I think, going into that a lot of expectations for both of them.

Unknown Speaker 16:02
But it seemed like, late in the season,

Unknown Speaker 16:07
that that car or that runner that was just on your heels, and I'm saying Cooper flag was in the number one spot.

Unknown Speaker 16:16
Hold on, let me get ready for that. Yes. Cooper flag was in that eight one spot. But you could hear the footsteps. Dylan Harper. I know he could all year long. And it seemed like in the last maybe six weeks of high school basketball. There was a change. I am here to tell you, Dylan Harper is a problem. The world Dylan Dylan Harper is the truth. Shout out to Ron Harper, multi champion with the Chicago Bulls, you know, a one time nemesis of Michael Jordan before he joined him when he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers and put respect on Ron Hubbard. And he?

Unknown Speaker 16:55
Yes, he is. And he, it seems he has put everything that he knows about basketball into Dylan Harper. And it is starting to show yeah, this kid is flat out phenomenal. So to answer your question, I think the more immediate impact that is going to be had is going to be By Dylan Harper. Not to say Cooper isn't going to have his moments not to say he's not going to have a brilliant one year in college. I'd say career but it's probably going to be one and done. But listeners when I tell you look out for this kid, Dylan Harper, he's the truth. Wow.

Unknown Speaker 17:32
I was thinking you were gonna say Cooper flag if we're being Cooper flag is tough because we talked about the bandwagon for a long time. And I still like him. I know nothing but respect for the flag. But the in the past couple of months. We can just list off some of the things that Dylan Harper has done. He won state player of the year, he won the MVP of the McDonald's all American game, he won the MVP of the Jordan Brand class. He was named National Player of the Year. So he's done four things that I mean, of course, state Player of the Year, he's not in the same state as Cooper flag, so we're not gonna hold that.

Unknown Speaker 18:06
But he's done four things, and three of them involving Cooper that generally go to the best player in the country. Yes. You know, LeBron was the MVP of his McDonald's all American game. Kevin Durant was the MVP of his American game.

Unknown Speaker 18:20
And now, Dillon Harper was the MVP of the McDonald's. And it wasn't it wasn't close. It wasn't it wasn't. I saw the game. It was not close. He was clearly the best player on the floor. Every minute he was on the court. He's going to Rutgers. He's teaming up with

Unknown Speaker 18:37
Mr. Bailey.

Unknown Speaker 18:39
Yeah, Ace Bailey. Yep.

Unknown Speaker 18:41
That team is going to be tough. They're going to be electrifying. Big 10. You know, I don't know if there'll be big 10 champs immediately. But they're going to they're going to make some noise. I will say this for Cooper flag and we have to remember this Cooper flag is still a puppy. He Oh, yeah. That's Young. All my I forgot about that's why I said That's correct. That's why I said the more immediate impact. Delon Harper, Dylan Harper, but over the next two to five years, Cooper flag. Oh, my God. Yeah. Cool. It's going to be unreal to see this kid coming to his God. He really is a kid supposed to be a junior, right? Yes. A true genius. He is. I think maybe a little bit he gets his numbers skewed because he's on such a stack team. Right. But, you know, now now that I think about it, he goes into the McDonald's all American game. He's supposed to be a junior he doesn't win MVP. Same with the Jordan Brand classic. He doesn't want MVP but he's supposed to be a June right right. He's still wet behind the ears. Just imagine if you were in high school one right? I mean, my God So yeah, I will not make the mistake of not putting respect on that young man's name Cooper flag is the truth. Hooper Flagstaff is a prop

Unknown Speaker 20:00
I've seen one person this dude is unbelievable. And he's a puppy. Yep.

Unknown Speaker 20:06
Earlier went on while we were talking about what needed to be said on today's show. You had a piece of advice for current day, like right now present day. Yes, college athletes, high school athletes at a high level

Unknown Speaker 20:22
involving a tough situation, so to speak on kind of controversial, not kind of very controversial. Sure. And you had a piece of advice and and I think that a lot of people really need to hear this. Especially if you're a young athlete, trying to make a name for yourself. You had said something very interesting. So I'm gonna give you the floor here to say what you need to say. And I think we can kind of take our cues from someone who has handled the press with almost absolute perfection. And that, you know, that harkens back to Caitlin Clark. She rarely if ever, stumbles, she rarely, if ever, says the wrong thing. She is thoughtful, you can tell that she's had a ton of media training. She doesn't touch hot button issues. She understands I'm trying to be the best basketball player that I can possibly be right. And I'm not trying to be anything else. To that point. Right now in the country. We are having a huge issue on college campuses as we speak, with respect to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. And I think if we harken back to

Unknown Speaker 21:37
Kyrie Irving, or we harken back to even on the music side of things, a Kanye West, when you speak on an issue that you are not well versed on, it can end disastrous, disastrously, or it can end you disastrously right in the way that it has ended, Kanye West. So to those out there on either side of this issue, and it is an intractable issue. It is a complicated issue. If you don't know what you're talking about, and you're probably don't if you're still in college, yeah, leave that issue alone. As a young athlete, I've seen a couple of athletes on Instagram on Tik Tok begin to kind of weigh in. And my advice to you, as a guy who has been trained in media is to leave it alone, right. My second piece of advice is, and I, I'm starting to see more of this on college campuses, is that we have to recognize, even if you are for the cessation of hostilities, if you are for ending the war, you do not have to be anti Israel, you do not have to be anti Jewish in order to want the success or cessation of hostilities to come to fruition. I think far too often, people are crossing a line between wanting to criticize

Unknown Speaker 23:05
Israel's prosecution of the war, which I personally feel is justified because October 7 will live in infamy for a lot of folks in what happened to them, that terrorist event.

Unknown Speaker 23:19
But even I don't want to talk about this issue ad nauseam. What I would say to young athletes out there, this is not a tick tock moment. This is not an Instagram moment. This is this is serious business. And if you don't know anything about this issue, if you haven't learned enough about the issue, if you haven't studied upon the issue, leave it alone. But I would also say if you're out there protesting or whatever, make sure that it's respectful. Make sure that you understand what you're talking about. And you have to take into account that a lot of people in our Collegiate communities, especially on the Jewish side of things, these are our fellow students, these are sometimes our fellow athletes, we have to understand the stress that they are being put under. And students in Jewish students do not dictate Israeli policy. And so I think sometimes we're conflating these two things. We're seeing a lot of that. In Columbia right now. We're seeing it at Yale. We're seeing it I think in the news today, UNC University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, down in Texas, UCLA. Luckily, we haven't seen a lot of that here at UNLV. Because I think with UNLV there is a recent tragedy, you know, in our mind that we kind of got our perspective. So I would just say to young athletes out there, be careful this is not a moment for tick tock is not a moment to pop off. You really need to know what you're talking about. And whatever you do, please do not engage in anti semitic tropes. That's all I have to say on that issue. Thank you. You pretty much had everything on the head. I have nothing to add. You know, just make sure that

Unknown Speaker 25:00
Any any athlete out there, make sure you listen to what was just said. Because this is the most important thing that was said on this show all season. I don't care about that about the sports, you know, Caitlyn, whatever she did that is the most important message that we've had on the show all season. So if anything you take away from this show, take that away. That's the most important thing.

Unknown Speaker 25:22
Well, we're just about time to wrap up this episode. So I'm going to leave you with one final question. Yes. We're going to stay right here in Las Vegas. The aces have 16 players on there. Oh, I know where you're going with your camp roster. I know where you're going with this. They need to get it down to 12. Right. I'm going to list the players who you and I can both agree are locks. Jackie Young. There's 10 of them. Aja Wilson. Yes. Kia Stokes. Yes. Kelsey Plum. Yes. Chelsea gray. Alicia Clark. Yes. Kristen Bell. Yes. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 25:56
That for me are my locks. Now you could say Megan Gustafson? Yes. She just started a two year deal. So absolutely. Okay. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 26:07
There's 10 of them that are locks Kate Martin.

Unknown Speaker 26:10
We're outside the 10 now. Oh, so Kate is in and I am a huge fan of Kate Martin. She's doing the darn thing and the practices over there at the Henderson facility aces facility out in Henderson.

Unknown Speaker 26:23
Kate Martin is there Bria Bill who I found out was played with South Carolina in the national championship game last year. Or not. Yeah. National Championship game. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 26:35
Or no, it was Final Four game. Oh, yeah. Final Four. They lost. I lost the Iowa. So Bria bill is on that squad. Or trying to vie for spot there are I believe two spots left. And Celeste Taylor. There are six days last Taylor is on the beaver you talking about? Oh, not? Oh, no, you're correct. I'm talking about Dasha fair. And

Unknown Speaker 27:00
tomorrow, Daniel. Yes, yes, yes.

Unknown Speaker 27:04
There are about six rookies vying for what I believe are two spots. Exactly right. I am not sure where this and there's one who's not even listed right now because she's injured can't leave Elizabeth Can't she won't technically be a rookie until next year. Correct. Oh, she's almost kind of like a redshirt. Yeah, she's good. She's because she's injured. She's fine. So it's going to be tough for me, but I'm going to do it. I'm not going to shirk the question here to go out on a limb and say who is going to make this roster? Okay. One is a more of a, this is kind of a fan favorite. And I'm in that group. Okay, so I know where you're on here. Yes. Fan Favorite Kate Martin, right. I so want Kate Martin. She's a pit bull. She's tough. You know who she reminds me of? On in the women's game. In the ACES organization in the ACES organization? Who does she remind you? Yes. As a player or as a player?

Unknown Speaker 28:03
Does she remind you of a pitbull? A pit bull?

Unknown Speaker 28:08
For the like, a superstar pypl or roleplayer? You're asking me a lot of questions. I'm gonna give you the answer. She reminds me of Becky Hammon. Oh, that's who she reminds me of. So that's that that may be the sneak tip. I like that comparison. I really is tough. She's a pitbull. She's fearless. Becky Hammond was the same way. So that's my inside favorite. And then there's the young lady. I think she is from Michigan State.

Unknown Speaker 28:37
Kumari me McDaniel, who is really tough. And then there's one one of them is six, five, Andrew Jackson. Yes. Out of Jackson. Jackson State. Yep. 6565 is not something that can be taught. Nope. Not at all. So I don't know a lot about her game. But if her game is is commensurate with that size, if those things are go together, she may be one of those inside tracks. All right. For me. It's It's Kate Martin. And it may be Angel Jackson. All right. That's, that's a very good too. I think I would have to agree with that.

Unknown Speaker 29:14
Maybe I would take three and drop a player. I'm not going to say a name. Right. I know where you're going with that. Yeah, shall remain unnamed. All right. Thank you, everybody, for listening to Season Two of sports prep live. It's been absolutely fantastic. have you all here. Make sure you stay primed and ready for season three. And, as always, everyone have a great day and we will see you next time right here on Sports prep live. Yes, sir. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of sports prep live. I'm grading Prescott and don't forget to catch all of our episodes on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and be sure to follow us on Instagram or Twitter at sports rep LA. Thank you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai