Boomo Bugg Show 020226
93.9 The Score WYTK - February 2, 2026
https://www.939thescore.com/boomo-bugg-show-020226/

This transcript was generated automatically from the broadcast audio. Names and some words may be misspelt; the audio is the official record.

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Now, get ready to roll Shoals, Decatur, Athens and all of Northwest Alabama and Southern Tennessee. It's time for the Valley's Exclusive FM Sports Voice.
The Boomo Bugg Show. New Exclusive Inside Track to the Tide, Tigers, Tennessee and the rest of the SEC. Now your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
Good afternoon and welcome here to the Boomo Bugg Show. I'm Harold Bugg alongside Brett Beaird. Thank you so much for giving us a free ride around the Tennessee Valley. Brett Beaird, welcome in where Gus says it's time to park the bus. Meanwhile, a good weekend for UNA. Auburn looks to bounce back and Alabama fans saying, is it time to look in the mirror? Good afternoon. Welcome in and how are you?
Happy Monday to you and the listeners. Brian Matthews of AuburnSports.com will talk about Auburn basketball and football and losing a legend on the plains.
Andrew Bone updates us about Junior Day and another transfer portal will pick up for Alabama.
Adam is here right now to recount the SEC basketball weekend and tell us a little bit more about Buckyball that is coming to Tuscaloosa Wednesday night.
Adam's got it all covered. He's Adam Spencer. He's busy there at Saturday down south. Saturday tradition in sports betting time. Adam, welcome in. How are you?
Hey guys, I'm doing great. How are you?
Hey, we're doing all right. We alluded to the top there, Adam. Everybody thought once Bediaco gets in the saddle, this Crimson Tide team was going to live up to their name and roll.
What so far they've done is they've rolled to a 1-2 record under Bediaco since he returned.
They are basically, right now, if you go by the numbers, this is not sitting here and putting any edges to it.
If you're even Steven, you're an average team. They're 500 in league play.
Adam, your thoughts, not only getting beat, it's no shame to lose the defending champ, but when you lose the way they did,
then you basically, a lot of folks say it may be time to sit here and reshuffle some decks.
Yeah, I mean, having Florida score a historic amount of points in the paint was certainly not a good look there.
So, yeah, Bediaco, I mean, you know, he wasn't playing a ton.
You know, he was, like, I would say that the, frankly, I would say that the G League is less competitive than going to Florida and playing the defending national champions.
You know, like, I just think that the G League, I'm, like, just not as high on the G League as some people,
and I just think that there's a lot of guys in there who are there because they, you know, either couldn't land a college spot that was big enough for them
or, you know, they're just not NBA-caliber players.
And Florida has three or four NBA-caliber players that will probably go in the first round next year.
I mean, Condon and Hawk are almost certain to go in round one.
I would bet that Chinuelu can work his way into the late round one mix.
And, you know, Buki Fland is, he was projected as a lottery pick going into it last year at Arkansas.
And he still has a ton of talent.
So, it was foolish to think that Bediaco was going to come in and just make Alabama a defensive juggernaut.
But you also would have hoped to have seen better results than what they've gotten so far.
So, there's still a lot of work for Nadeau and company to do.
But, you know, he's only been there for three games.
And, you know, we'll see.
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now and say that he'll, you know, be a lot better by the time the calendar flips to March
than he is now that the calendar flipped to February.
Yeah.
Charles Bediaco was only one of five reasons Alabama lost that debacle to Florida.
Now, this Alabama team is just not built in the front line to be able to stand up to the Gators.
Got off to a five and four start, and they've been rolling ever since.
Alabama doesn't have much time to get ready.
Again, they've got Auburn on Saturday and Bucky Ball coming to Tuscaloosa Wednesday.
And you wrote a very good article about how Bucky Ball has come in and basically re-changed Texas A&M basketball.
Buzz Williams has gone off to Maryland.
They're having a terrible year.
And a lot of people thought, well, it's going to take him a year or so to get the players to buy into the system and get rolling.
And they're already rolling.
Yeah, I mean, he inherited a roster that only had one player returning, and he was one of the latest hires in the cycle.
So he was, you know, behind the eight ball a bit when it came to assembling a roster at all.
You know, so he, I think that that actually kind of worked out in his favor, though.
He got a lot of guys who were desperate to prove themselves at the SEC level.
He got a lot of guys who were unselfish and, you know, were motivated by, you know, maybe not receiving a ton of offers earlier in the portal cycle.
You know, Rashawn Aggie, who's been a leader for that team, like, he came over from USC.
I mean, you know, I saw him play when he was with USC last year, made the trip down to Illinois to watch him play the Illini.
And he was really good in that game.
He was solid from three-point land, which he's continued this year.
And, you know, was just a really good complimentary player alongside Desmond Claude, who had, like, 30 points against the Illini in that game last year.
So, you know, he's been a leader for this team.
There's some other guys that they've found that have really fit what he wants to do, what Bucky wants to do.
And that's run and gun and, you know, play a lot of, you know, full-court defense and just be constantly on the move.
And I think that you've got the right guys, and when you get the right guys for your system, you can have success at any level of basketball.
Interesting, is it not in college sports this year?
Texas A&M is the buzz, if you will, in basketball, and Indiana was the buzz in football and what have in common.
Coaches at one time would have been laughed at if you brought their names up and said they'd have this kind of success.
Adam Spencer, Saturday down south.
Adam, talk to us about Auburn.
Obviously, coaches don't look ahead.
But Auburn right now, obviously, it's no shame to go to Tennessee and lose.
Who doesn't lose there for the most part?
But your thoughts about the Auburn Tigers?
Yeah, I think that, you know, the change from Bruce to Stephen Pearl was always going to have a few growing pains.
It's different to be, you know, the number one guy.
Like you said, Tennessee is hitting its stride right now.
I mean, Nate Amant has been just incredible and is living up to the hype as a potential top-five pick here.
I mean, what's looking like an absolutely loaded NBA draft class here.
So, you know, I think that Tennessee, it says more about Tennessee that Tennessee won that game than it did about Auburn.
Like, this is still a really good team.
Pettiford is still, you know, one of the better ball handlers and playmakers in the league.
You know, Keyshawn Hall is just, you know, he's a lot of fun to watch score, which he does very, very often and very, very well.
And, you know, I think that there's still plenty of talent on this team.
You know, the coaching change and, you know, all of the key players, basically.
You know, this was a veteran Auburn team last year.
They had, you know, Pettiford was the guy that they needed to work in.
And now he's, like, pretty much the only veteran on the team because you lost Chad Baker-Mazzari.
You lost Dylan Cardwell.
And, most importantly, you lost Janai Broom.
So, you know, this is always going to be a bit of a growing year.
But they got some good guys in the portal.
And I think that this is another team where, you know, you don't want to press the panic button.
Just get to the work on, you know, locking down a potential NCAA tournament spot
and then do what you can to improve your seed and, you know, try to get to that maybe that sixth seed line
And if you can, seventh seed, eighth seed, either of those are fine.
You know, you just want to take it to the dance and go from there.
And I think that this is a tournament-quality Auburn team.
Yeah, Tennessee's got a kid by the name of Dwayne Brown.
How do we know him?
He was an All-State at Hoover.
And Alabama and Auburn, quite frankly, overlooked him.
And he signed with Tennessee.
And believe me, Nados could use him right now.
Another team that's playing better is the Kentucky Wildcats.
Got off to an 0-2 start, Adam.
And Kentucky fans were ready to run him out of Lanchington.
But after winning five in a row and I believe six out of the last seven, they beat Arkansas 85-77.
77, Oteco Owe, he's really playing well.
Malachi Marino, Denzel Aberdeen.
The kids are playing pretty well right now, Adam.
Yeah, they kind of made me look foolish, though, last week because I moved them up to number three in my SEC power rankings.
And they got the doors beaten off of them in Nashville.
And, you know, that's just this team, though.
Like, this team is a top-three talent-level team in the SEC.
But sometimes they play like they're the 14th most talented team.
You just cannot predict that.
You need to get – I mean, that's just the most important thing for Mark Pope right now is to get some more consistency from his team.
And so, I mean, I think that, you know, they've shown that they can beat anybody.
They've shown that they can go into a hostile environment like Bud Walton Arena and get some wins in tough environments.
But now they just need to do that consistently.
Like, you've just got to – it's beyond the time of the year where it's acceptable to just completely no-show at Vanderbilt.
Now, you can go into Vanderbilt and lose.
That's fine.
Vanderbilt's a really, really good team.
But you just can't not play hard and show the effort that they showed if you want to be taken seriously.
So, now that they've got another big win under their belt, I'll be interested to see how they move forward and see if they, you know, can develop a little bit more consistency.
Adam, it's interesting.
You look at this league.
I'm sitting here looking at the standings.
In Texas A&E, I'm right now.
They're the king of the hill, obviously.
Florida's right there knocking on their doors.
But you look after that, and you've got a wad of teams at 6-3.
There's three of them.
Bandy, Arkansas, Kentucky.
John Calipari, pick your poison there, huh?
Then you've got a host of 5-3 and 5-4 teams.
My point is, over half the league is basically in the middle of the pack at 6-3, 5-4.
It looks like an NFL set of standings where the NFL doesn't want anybody to run away with it.
Maybe one team so they can talk about it.
But they want everybody else to be competitive so they can hold the interest.
But the standings vary at what everybody's talking.
This league basically is a game apart.
And in one week, you can flip from the lower third of the standings to the upper third of the standings.
Yeah, I mean, I think you made a great point there with comparing it to the NFL standings
because I think that that is kind of, you know, what this NIL era, you know, where your salary caps is up.
Like, you're basically ensuring parity.
And we're seeing that, you know.
Last year was an extreme example of it because 14 teams made the NCAA tournament.
But, you know, this year, it's, yeah, anybody in that group, as long as you're not, you know,
in that 3-6 and below group, you have a chance to win the tournament.
And even a couple of those 3-6 teams still have a shot to make the NCAA tournament.
And there are teams that you're not going to want to see, you know, come SEC tournament time either.
But, yeah, this is a deep league.
It's not as – it doesn't have the level of elite talent that it had last year.
But there's still plenty of good teams.
And there's still – it wouldn't surprise me one bit if in April in Indianapolis, it's an SEC team cutting down the nets.
Adam, Arkansas lost to Kentucky.
One of the reasons they missed 10 free throws.
And they were 3 out of 14 from three points.
But Darius Acuff has had a very good year.
Arkansas 16-6, 6-3.
Calipari, Malik Thomas is playing well.
Acuff, as I mentioned, Calipari has forgotten how to coach.
No, he's got a couple of dynamic freshmen and Acuff, you know, kind of reminds – I saw a comparison to another guy that he coached, you know, Derek Rose.
I think that that's, you know, not the craziest comp out there.
I mean, Darius Acuff, you know, he's got the ball in his hands all the time.
He can score.
He can pass.
He can, you know, do whatever you need him to do.
So, I mean, I think that he's a really good player.
Malik Thomas is a nice sidekick for that.
And they've got some guys who can't contribute inside Brazil, U.N.
You know, they've got some big guys who they need some more consistency from.
I mean, yeah, you can't miss 10 free throws.
It happens sometimes, especially with Calipari teams, it seems.
But, you know, I think that come March, guards win in March.
And they've got a couple of really, really good young guards in Acuff and Thomas.
Well, Saturday Down South is really, really good with their stories.
Joe Cox on tomorrow.
Conor O'Gara on that line of other friends.
Adam, where can we get online to get yours and everybody else's stuff?
Yeah, SaturdayDownSouth.com.
I'll have my updated SEC basketball power rankings out tomorrow.
We've got one of our writers has some bracketology coming out this afternoon.
So, we've got you covered with hoops and football leading up to the Super Bowl here this weekend, too.
What?
A Super Bowl?
We're going to research that and see what that's all about, Adam.
But we'd have a little time.
Listen, man, thanks so much and have a super week, okay?
Yeah, you too, guys.
Thanks for having me.
Thank you, man.
All right.
Thank you, Adam Spencer.
Saturday Down South.
Coming up, a huge weekend for football recruiting visits.
And what about the basketball team?
Talking tight across the board with Andrew Bone on deck.
Stay with us.
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Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9, The Score.
The Score.
Welcome back, and I'm sure just another laid-back, nothing-to-do weekend for Andrew Bone,
fine columnist, recruiting editor of Bama Online, part of the Yon3.com family,
and his book is called The Road to Bama.
Andrew, welcome in.
A lot of kids on the road to Bama this weekend on the recruiting trail, right?
How are you?
Hey, guys.
Doing great.
How are we doing?
Good.
Man, we're doing all right.
Obviously, it's the Monday after.
Before we talk about some of the visitors over the weekend,
your thoughts about the makeup of this class.
They add a former Tennessee slash Appalachian State running back, Khalifa Keith.
Interesting makeup with its expanded rosters, not only for Alabama, but other teams.
You don't see a lot of guys coming down from Appalachian State
and some of these other places, but it is 2026.
Well, I think you see guys that are coming from smaller schools that put up a lot of good stats.
They might be all Americans at different places, FCS level, Division II level, stuff like that,
but it's not often that you see kind of your smaller school guys that are going to come in
that don't have a lot of stats, and they might be a little bit older,
and you start to wonder, you know, why is Alabama or another school taking, you know, a guy that doesn't have,
he's got experience as far as being on the practice field and stuff like that,
but doesn't have a lot of game experience.
You know, when I look at the running back position for Alabama and everybody, I think, automatically goes to Hollywood Smothers
and the way that situation kind of unfolded, and we told our subscribers at the beginning of the portal season,
Alabama's going to take a swing for an elite guy.
You know, one of their, one of the top, you know, two or three guys that are on their recruiting board
trying to get a guy that's got a lot of experience playing time, and obviously Hollywood Smothers
was a first team all ACC back, they felt good about him, and then it obviously, you know, unfolded the way it did,
and he flipped to Texas, but I don't think they necessarily were going after another, you know, impact guy as far as a starter.
You know, they feel really good about the guys that they have on their roster right now.
You bring in Xavier Kroll, so you got some good players that are there,
and I don't think they really looked around and saw a lot of guys who were out there
that were better than what they have on campus.
I know everybody just always wants to get, you know, a guy who can come in and be a game changer,
but you're also kind of weighing who you have on your team currently based on what you've seen
from all of these other guys, you know, maybe what they want from a, you know, financial standpoint
and all that other stuff, but I think over the last two weeks after Smothers went to Texas,
you know, Alabama probably looked at it and said, you know,
we don't have to go out and get a starter, but we want to get some depth.
We want somebody to come in and, you know, at least provide some, you know,
some veteran leadership to the backfield, and there's not a lot of guys that are out there
that are looking to come and be a, you know, a backup in the transfer board.
Especially if you're going to be a junior or senior, you know, those guys are looking to start and make an impact right away.
And I think, you know, this is a situation where Alabama has plenty of scholarships still available.
He's an in-state kid from Birmingham originally, played at Parker High School.
So you get a guy that, you know, they know a little bit about.
He's 6'1", 235 pounds, kind of a big physical back.
So you bring him in.
Is he going to be an impact player?
Probably not.
But is he going to be somebody that is going to be a good practice player?
Is he going to be able to provide some leadership in a room that's, for the most part, pretty young?
You know, you've got a couple guys that are going to be juniors this year,
but still it's a young group for the most part, and they need some depth players.
So I see him.
I'm not going to compare him to Richard Young, but, you know, kind of in the same body type.
And I think with Alabama, you know, just being able to bring in a guy like him
and potentially a couple others.
I still think that there are some other position groups that are out there
that they could still add a player or two over the course of the next week or so
because there's still a lot of players in the transfer group.
Guys that are just kind of hanging out, waiting, seeing if anybody, you know, makes a call.
And, you know, it's a little bit more so than a walk-on these days
because you are able to provide that scholarship.
But I think that what a lot of people just don't understand or think about too much
is a lot of the guys who are coming in from the transfer portal,
all those guys aren't going to be your impact guys.
They're not going to be starting.
They may not even be second-team guys, but you have to get good practice players
on your roster.
And, you know, I think this is a guy that they really like.
Andrew, it's amazing.
Wednesday is National Signing Day.
And I think there is more excitement for Groundhog Day this morning
than it is Wednesday because so many people,
so many programs signed all their players in December.
Now, reportedly, Alabama is going to officially sign two receivers,
Maurice Matthews Jr. and Aubrey Walker.
A.B., will they sign anyone else?
Again, we've talked about transfer portal,
but this used to be such an incredibly busy week, I know, for you.
Auburn and Tennessee, we've been told they're not even going to sign anyone else.
Will Alabama make it official with these two,
but will they add to what they've already got?
Probably not, unless there's just some surprise over the course of the next 48 hours.
I mean, we're not really hearing any other names at this time.
They brought in Aubrey Walker for his official visit this past weekend,
so they were happy to get him on board here recently as another receiver.
It kind of gives them a little bit more depth there heading into fall camp
because he won't be here for the spring, but Maurice Mathis,
even though he was a late addition committed this month,
he was actually able to go ahead and enroll.
So I do think they'll probably announce him as a signee on Wednesday,
but he is already enrolled on campus.
So those are probably the only two that we kind of see right now
as being announced as new signees,
but I don't necessarily see anybody else being added.
So it's kind of a slow signing day this week.
It certainly has changed a lot since I think the last time there wasn't an early signing period
was 2017, so nine years ago.
So it's crazy that, you know, I think the first couple years that we had that early signing period,
a lot of people, you know, still kind of waited.
They wanted to take those official visits still in January,
and now it's kind of happened where everybody pretty much signs during that December period,
and even the majority of them enroll early as well.
Andrew Bone, busy, busy there at Bama Online, part of the On3.com family.
You mentioned the visitors over the weekend.
Overall, how did it go?
Because they did have some five-stars sprinkled in there.
Yeah, so Alabama had its junior day.
You know, sort of, I would say, the unofficial kickoff of the next recruiting cycle.
There's obviously a lot of relationships that are built early on,
guys that have, you know, come in for spring practice a year ago
or summer camps, you know, they come in for games.
But now, you know, all the focus is on them instead of the 26th class that just signed.
So they are the priorities now for Alabama, along with, you know,
every other school in the country.
And, you know, Alabama was able to get a lot of their early top targets on campus this weekend.
You kind of look back at last year's junior day.
I think they had one commitment heading into it.
And I think they only got one over the course of the next couple weeks.
But then, overall, they had about 30 players overall that were on that junior day,
and they ended up signing seven of those guys.
So that's a big number, considering the amount of talent that was on campus.
And I think that's probably going to be similar to this year.
You know, a lot of early guys that are on their recruiting board were in town,
such as five-star quarterback Elijah Haven, five-star wide receiver Monsoon Sales from Indianapolis.
You know, the number one overall player in the country, John Meredith,
who's a five-star cornerback from Texas in Tuscaloosa, and several others.
So I think things went extremely well.
Sales is a kid that grew up an Alabama fan.
He's from Inslee originally before he moved to Indianapolis and has been very high.
So, you know, Alabama is his dream school.
He did visit Auburn on Sunday, but I don't think he's going to make a decision anytime soon.
I think he's going to wait it out, probably take some official visits.
But Alabama is in a really strong position early on with him.
John Meredith, a kid that has continued to grow his relationship with Alabama.
He has a top two of the Crimson Tide in Texas A&M.
A lot of people think he's sort of a lock to Texas A&M.
He's an in-state kid over there.
But Moe Linguist has done just a tremendous job recruiting defensive backs
through the last couple years.
I think he's signed at least one five-star the last two recruiting cycles.
And I think he's really put Alabama in a strong position with John Meredith,
especially after this weekend visit.
He's probably going to decide sometime this spring.
I'm not going to say Alabama is the favorite right now,
but I'm also not going to say they're behind the A&M.
I think it's a really tight race.
I think they've done a good job.
And there's certainly a lot of focus on Meredith.
And they had another defense back on campus that I'll mention that I think they really love
is Darius White.
I mean, it's a kid that they just recently offered a couple weeks ago.
He's 6'3", 180 pounds, kind of the same mold that they like their defensive backs these days.
As we've seen the last few recruiting cycles, you see Dijon Lee at 6'4",
Jordan Edmonds, who just came in as a freshman, 6'3".
So they really kind of target those taller, lengthier defensive backs at the cornerback position.
So I would really look for Darius White as a potential guy that we could see in this class.
But overall, I think they really liked the group they had on campus.
It was two days before the month-long dead period, so now we're in that period.
And now they kind of reconvene and look at the overall recruiting board.
Because it wasn't just junior day.
I mean, over the last few weeks, they were out on the road doing the winter contact period,
but also kind of evaluations as far as meeting a lot of these kids for the first time,
going through their academics, meeting with their families, meeting with their coaches,
getting as much feedback as they possibly can on any of these potential guys
that they're going to consider top targets or consider making a financial offer to down the road.
So I think that's what they're going to be doing over the course of between now and March
when things open back up and kids start coming back to campus for spring practice
and scheduling their official visits.
Alabama's really going to be positioning their overall recruiting board.
Who are our top five targets at running back?
Who are the top five targets at wide receiver after we've really evaluated it?
It's not really about the guys that, let's say, have been offered for over a year
because those guys may have fallen off their board by now.
They're going to go back and make sure that they've properly evaluated these guys
and make sure that they're targeting the right players that fit their program.
So that's what the next month is going to be all about.
Well, and I know you and Tim Watson, the gang, will have everything covered for National Signing Day
if there's any surprises, additional transfer portal dudes.
And I know you do a great job of going in depth as far as giving us more information
about some of these juniors who visited campus.
A.B., where can we get online to get all the great stuff?
Yeah, please come visit us at BamaOnline.com.
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Andrew, listen, man, thanks so much.
Hopefully this weather will break one of these days and we all get back and go full of strength here.
But in the meantime, thanks so much for your time, Dave, and have a great week, okay?
You guys do the same.
Appreciate you having me.
Thanks, buddy.
Andrew Ball, looking up with us, BamaOnline, part of the On3.com family.
In the book, it's called The Road to Bama.
Coming up, time to head on down the road to Auburn and talk Tigers with Brian Matthews on deck.
Stay with us.
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Progressive presents The Sports Flash on 93.9 The Score.
Smith's basketball action this weekend.
The Auburn Tigers lost at 10-to-C, 77-to-69.
Auburn is now 14-8 on the year and 5-4 in the SEC.
Yesterday, Florida pulled away from Alabama to beat the Tide 100-to-77.
Alabama with the loss drops to 14-7 on the year, 4-4 in the SEC.
Troy was blown out at home by App State, 66-44.
Trojans are 8-3 in the Sun Belt.
And South Alabama, winner over Georgia State, 69-to-67.
South Alabama now 16-6 on the year, 7-3 in the Sun Belt.
North Alabama, winner at Stetson, 68-to-66.
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The score.
Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
The score.
Welcome back in Monday after another busy weekend for Brian Matthews there at Senior Editor for AuburnSports.com.
Brian, welcome in.
Happy Monday to you.
How are you?
I am doing great.
Thank you for having me on.
You're good.
Man, you got a lot of stuff on your plate when it comes to Auburn.
But the story of the day comes from Arthur Gustavo Malzahn III.
Gus says it's time to park the bus.
Your reaction to Gus Malzahn saying, I'm hanging it up.
Or is he?
I think he is.
And just what a wonderful career he's had.
And, you know, what he was able to do to start out in high school ranks and then become a, you know, a top college head coach and coordinator.
Just an amazing career.
You know, looking back on his time at Auburn, you know, he, it was not perfect, but boy, was it exciting and had some great teams.
You know, he was the architect of that offense that won the national championship in 2010 with Cam Newton and those guys.
And then he came back in 2013 and nearly won another one, you know, and had those incredible, you know, finishes against Alabama and Georgia there at the end of that season.
And, you know, just what a great guy to cover.
What a great coach.
And then even a better person.
And, you know, when he had the players on offense, he could do some great things, you know, whether it was just running over teams or, you know, getting a dual threat guy like Cam Newton or Nick Marshall or, you know, even able to, you know, get a guy like Jared Sidham or Bo Nix and throw the ball over the place.
So, just a terrific offense of mine.
Being that, we can get into basketball in a few minutes, but wanted to note an Auburn legend's passing in the last couple of days, Phillip Marshall.
When you go back and look at his bio, I think he nearly worked for every major paper in the state of Alabama.
Of course, he already had a 17-year stand at the Huntsville Times, but the Huntsville News, Birmingham Bosch Herald, even the Tuscaloosa News, Montgomery Advertiser, Decatur Daily.
And one of the things, and I've seen a lot of articles about him, you write about him, the passing of a legend in Monday Musings, was his ability to pivot from newspaper to the Internet.
A lot of guys could not do that or they were slow in doing that.
But he had a way with words, as you all know.
I know he's been a friend of yours for decades, but Auburn lost a legend last week.
Yeah, he was incredible.
An incredible career.
It's wild to think about.
You know, he's a guy that, when he started out, he was covering guys like Bear Bryant, you know, Pat Dye back in the day.
And, of course, he ended up, you know, working, I guess, up until, you know, his final days.
So, an incredible career.
As you mentioned, an incredible storyteller.
Not just, you know, pen to paper or on the website, but, you know, if you're around him in person and got him going.
You know, he had moments and things that happened and was an incredible storyteller and had a lot of great stories about some of those old times.
Thing is, the industry's lost two legends over the past few months.
Phillip, obviously, his mentor was John Pruitt when he was with the Huntsville Times.
He's now gone, so it's definitely the passing of an era.
Switching gears a little bit and going inside.
Brian, your thoughts about this Auburn basketball team?
I mean, obviously, not the kind of results you want at Tennessee, but this is the SEC.
And when you play one of the upper echelon teams on their home courts, and you've got a guy that's probably going to go to the top five of the NBA draft, not to mention the snow outside.
Your thoughts about the weekend at Tennessee and this team overall right now?
Well, you know, a lot of teams lose at Tennessee.
I think Auburn is like 9-61 and 9-62 now, something like that.
So, that's not, you know, not too surprising.
And I thought what, you know, Stephen Cole said afterwards, how, you know, Tennessee did to Auburn, what Auburn's been doing to other teams is exactly correct.
You know, they drove the ball, they took it right at them, played really, really physical, played really good defensive ball, and just made it really tough on Auburn.
And Auburn settled for two, three-point shots, and, you know, that's not what Auburn does well.
So, but that happens.
And, you know, this is a string of nine games for Auburn, two a week, SEC play.
It's been a really physical stretch for them.
They get a week off to prepare for Alabama at home.
The second half, their schedule is five home games and four away games.
I think that's an advantage.
I think through that first half of the SEC schedule, I think Auburn knows who it is now.
It knows the recipe for success.
I think that's going to help them in the second half of the season.
You noted this in many musings also.
I thought Jovic really helped Auburn in the second half.
Quite frankly, he kept them in the game with some offensive rebounds.
Sebastian Williams-Adams certainly has been a pleasant surprise.
Everybody knows about Keyshawn Hall, how well he's played.
Murphy, since recovering from an early injury, seems to be playing much better.
But, again, I think you've got to give Steven Pearl and Steph a little bit of latitude.
But for the first year, and believe me, it's not easy.
Even if you're sitting next to your dad on the bench,
it's different when you're making the decisions every day.
But, Matt, you can see this team coming together and the individual players improving.
You really can.
I think you pointed out some of the guys, certainly.
That have improved a lot.
There's two freshmen, Jovic and Sebastian Williams-Adams.
You can see them taking steps forward.
You can see they've still got room to continue growing.
That's exciting, I think, for this team.
Keyshawn Hall said he came to Auburn to learn to play defense better.
And you can see he's doing that.
He's rebounding better.
He's being more of a physical player.
So, you can see that difference in him and, you know, some other guys, too,
are certainly stepping up Elijah Freeman, making that transition.
You can still see that he has steps he can take.
So, there's progress being made.
And, you know, you can see this team getting better.
They can certainly shoot the ball better, right?
They're one of the worst shooting teams, the three-point shooting teams in the conference right now.
And they've got guys that can shoot a lot better than they are.
So, that's an area I think they can improve on as long as they stick to their goals of being physical,
you know, getting offense out of defense, hitting the boards,
and not relying on taking too many three-pointers.
Coach Pearl's dad does not shout out his opinions,
whether it's politics or the current state of things across the state.
And this weekend's visitors from Alabama, Bruce Pearl, NCAA quote,
should consider banning Alabama from the NCAA tournament over Charles Mediaco.
That just adds some extra spice to this weekend's Iron Bowl date, does it not?
I've not seen that quote.
I wasn't aware of it.
So, yeah, I guess it does.
I just, you know, that's Alabama's issue.
People want to get mad about it.
That's fine.
But, I don't know, people probably don't want to hear me saying this,
but this is the Wild West in recruiting and college athletics.
There are no rules, and if there are rules, they can be challenged in court.
So, if you are a coach or an AD or whatever, and you want to win,
this is the time that you need to push the boundaries and do what it takes.
So, you know, maybe it is wrong that what Alabama's doing,
but to me, I want, you know, I thought I would want, if I was a, you know, a fan or whatever,
I would want to fight for us being aggressive and do what it takes.
So, yeah, I think there are many sides to this issue, so to speak.
But I'm not going to sit here and, you know, be too critical of it.
I understand why Auburn fans want to be critical of it and certainly have fun with it and stuff.
And, you know, we'll see.
I think the courts are going to rule on it again.
There's going to be some more, you know, hearings or something this week.
So, that will be interesting going into that game Saturday.
Wednesday is National Signing Day, but a lot of our listeners didn't even know that
because most of them was signed in December.
B, Matt, do you, you know, we talked to Justin Ferguson,
some of the other guys last week, and they pretty much crossed the board.
They said, unless it's a surprise, it appears right now,
Golich, I know, said, look, we're about done with the transfer portal.
Are you aware of Auburn signing anyone extra come Wednesday on National Signing Day?
I'm not.
So, if they are, it's going to be a surprise.
I never rule that out.
You've always got to be careful when it comes to recruiting or portaling or whatever
to say anything is definitive, right?
That'll put you in the behind.
So, don't know of anything, and it would be a surprise, but, you know,
you never know sometimes.
I got amused at Justin Ferguson.
He had a quip on Friday about Phillip Marshall.
He said, I was talking to him about three weeks ago, and I asked him,
well, we were talking about Alex Golich and some of the former coaching hires,
and Justin said, well, I asked Phillip, how many coaching hires have you covered
in your tenure with Auburn?
And Phillip didn't mince words and said, all of them.
Yeah, that's about right.
Daddy back to John Heisman.
Well, we would joke with him about those things all the time.
So, JVJ would give him a really hard time.
But, yeah, that's just the problem.
But, you know, we like to go back and forth with each other and have some fun, too.
So, yeah, just an incredible career by Phillip Marshall, one of the best ever,
and, you know, not just a great writer, not just a great journalist and newsbreaker,
but just had impact on a lot of people that, you know, he had relationships with, too.
Absolutely.
Where can we get online, be mad, and get, if there is a surprise Wednesday,
any additional portal, basketball, and, heaven forbid, baseball.
I heard a rumor it's going to start here pretty soon.
Where can we get online and get all of the teams' good stuff?
Baseball week from Friday, and Auburn had a big junior day Sunday.
So, I think we've got six or seven stories up from that, at least, so far.
So, you can get the news of all the highly ready kids that came to visit Auburn
and Coach Goldish and guys this weekend.
And, of course, basketball coverage and anything else that pops up,
AuburnSports.com, follow me on Twitter, slash X, at BMATAU.
Sounds great.
If you throw some baseball weather to go with that baseball, we'd appreciate that, too.
Brian, listen, man, thanks so much, and have a great week, okay?
All right, y'all take care.
Thank you, bud.
Brian Matthews, sitting here at AuburnSports.com.
Better weekend for UNA BB down in what used to be warm Florida,
but UNA bringing the heat themselves this weekend.
Beat Stetson at 68-66.
Kane and Jefferson had a very good game, 10 points, 10 assists.
Dallas Owl does his thing with 18 points.
That was a very good win for UNA to get off the snide.
In fact, they've got trips on Wednesday to Central Arkansas, still on the road this week.
Central Arkansas Wednesday, Austin Peay on Saturday.
Frequent flyer miles for this UNA basketball team.
Coming up next time, we're going to fly all the way down to College Station, Texas.
Only can they be talking Aggies.
Vince Farrar in Knoxville, if they dug out yet.
And Ben Thomas all over the state of Alabama, straight ahead of the Boom Up Buck Show.
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A new leader has been appointed within the U.S. Space Command at Redstone Arsenal.
Major General Terry Grisham is an Alabama native who will now lead the program management office.
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I'll be back with more Alabama stories after this.
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The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, along with the Mobile County Sheriff's Office, are asking for the public's help in locating two missing children.
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A smuggling operation of prison contraband was busted up in Macon County.
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The Decatur Police Department retired one of their canine officers after joining the department back in 2018.
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I'm Andrea Theis.
For more news affecting Alabamians, go to 1819news.com.
And while you're there, subscribe to the daily newsletter.
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The Seahawks are going to Super Bowl 60.
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The road back to the postseason begins at spring training.
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The biggest coverage from Florida and an epic opening day in Atlanta against the Royals on March 27th.
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93.9, The Score weather.
Today's sunny with a high around 50.
Tonight, partly cloudy with a low near 30.
Tomorrow, mostly cloudy with a 30% chance of afternoon showers and a high around 55.
Tomorrow night, cloudy with a 70% chance of showers overnight and a low near 40.
And for your Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a 30% chance of showers and a high around 45.
Your weather from 93.9, The Score.
Now, get ready to roll, Shoals, Decatur, Athens, and all of northwest Alabama and southern Tennessee.
It's time for the Valley's exclusive FM Sports Voice.
The Boomo Bugg Show.
Your exclusive inside track to the Tigers, Tennessee, and the rest of the SEC.
Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9, The Score.
Welcome back in.
I was here to the Boomo Bugg Show.
I'm Harold Bugg, alongside Brett Beaird.
Thank you so much for giving us a free ride around the Tennessee Valley.
Bibi, I heard Blair there said the temperature is going to get back into the mid-40s.
Is Ben Thomas sending us some of that mobile weather or what's up there?
You know, it's amazing.
It was colder in Gainesville, Florida yesterday afternoon than it was in North Alabama.
I don't know about the hotbed of Mobile in that area, but it was an amazing weekend for a lot of people.
Yeah, look out for that global warming, right?
Ben Thomas has got it all covered from one end of the state of Chile, Alabama to the other with AL.com.
BT, welcome in.
How are you?
I'm doing good.
I don't know, Brad, if I would describe it as an amazing weekend.
It was a cold weekend.
If I sent you any of the weather down here, I think it'd be about the same as you had up there.
But warming up a little bit down here now, so that's good.
I don't think many bathing suits on the beach this past weekend.
Ben, obviously a big powwow.
It's been an interesting time in Alabama high school sports.
Let's just jump into it.
A big powwow down in Montgomery.
This past Friday morning, AHSAA split controversy.
The private school is huddling.
Ben, how much public information can you tell us about that private school powwow?
That's a good way to phrase it, Harold.
Yeah, I was there, private, the independent schools, 58 of them that are members of the AHSAA Met on Friday at Faulkner University.
And I was up there anyway for the Alabama Football Coaches Association meeting, which was a great event there in Montgomery.
So I went over there.
I was over there for – they did not let me in.
They closed the doors.
Did you tell them you knew Brett Beaird?
No, I might try to turn that in.
I don't know why they closed it.
I might could have slid that in.
Yeah, that's right.
Of course, too many people knew me in there.
And one of them saw me at the door and said, yeah, we're going to have to ask you to stay outside.
And so that's what I did along with a couple of TV reporters and a few other media.
We waited for – man, I guess the meeting started at 11, and I think it didn't get over until 1.30.
I told my fellow media representatives, I'm like, well, look, the good news is,
I don't think they have any food in there.
So they're not going to stay.
I mean, they're going to be ready to eat lunch.
So they're going to come out eventually.
And they did.
They sent out a representative to talk to us.
Justin Costanza was his name.
He's the president of Montgomery Catholic School in Montgomery.
And really what they said is they were unified.
They want to stay in the AHSAA, which is good news, I think.
I asked him three times, Harold and Brett, to see if I could get it clearly, some aspect of, all right,
so the private schools plan on playing in the current classification as designated by the AHSAA this year.
Is that correct?
And he never did come out and say yes, but that's my understanding.
That's what my understanding of what's going to happen.
They're going to play.
I think they're going to go back.
They said they're going to go back and they've met with Mr. Harmon or at least the lieutenant governor has.
And I think they're going to go back and maybe offer some suggestions for how it might be tweaked to make a little bit better.
I know he didn't tell me this, but some of the other private school people I talked to outside of it said they would like to be a part of designating the structure of the playoffs for the private schools.
You know, that hasn't even been announced yet, how many teams will make the playoffs and what that playoff bracket would look like.
So I think the private schools want to be a part of that, contribute to how that might look.
And we'll see, there's been some talk about, you know, maybe, you know, travel is obviously one of the major concerns.
Yes.
There are some private schools over in the Phoenix City area and over in the Wiregrass that are going to have long travel several times a year.
And there's been some talk about, all right, well, maybe they could go to area play to help some of those teams.
But I'm not sure that would help.
I mean, if you go into an area, let's say if you even had a four-team area, that gives you three games.
Well, who are you going to play the other seven weeks?
Yeah.
Most of those weeks, you know, most of those weeks, the other teams are going to be playing a region game.
So I'm not sure that's going to work out.
But right now they all seem unified.
I don't think we've heard the end of it.
There's another central board meeting scheduled for this Friday.
Be interesting to see what may come out of there.
They may go ahead and do the classifications and areas for the winter and spring sports, which they could do because there's no competitive balance or multiplier anymore.
So we'll see.
But I would guess we'd have some news coming out on Friday from that board meeting.
Listen, tell us about the coaching convention.
Now, they should have been inviting Ben Thomas every year.
But they allowed you to come in this year.
And you did a lot of networking with a lot of the high school coaches that you knew previously and didn't know.
Some of the star-studied college football coaches, such as Kalen DeBoer, Golich, John Summeroff from Florida.
He felt right at home in the state of Alabama.
They spoke.
We'll talk about the coaching awards in a few minutes because two of them from North Alabama won it.
But tell us about the visit to the coaching convention.
I'm sure you enjoyed that.
I really did.
I really did.
I don't know that I – I don't think it wasn't that I wasn't invited previously.
This was the 21st one.
But it always seems to come at a time when, you know, like this week was Senior Bowl week down in here in Mobile.
I mean, there always seems to be something else going on, you know.
But this year I actually went – I promised Jack Wood, the executive director of the coaches association, that I would come this year.
I thought it was – I hope I can go back every year.
I mean, that's how impressed I was with it.
They did such a good job.
It was mostly a Thursday, Friday event, and then the bank went on Saturday.
But Thursday night, I mean, they estimated, I think, guys, that there were about 1,100, maybe a little over 1,100 high school and college coaches there.
The Embassy in Montgomery, yeah, I think it's the biggest crowd they've ever had.
So, obviously, I got to see a lot of high school coaches.
Some I see a lot.
Some I don't.
I got to meet a few, not just head coaches, but, you know, other high school staffers.
And then you mentioned those three coaches that came, Brett.
Also, most of the coaches – most of the college coaches in the state were there.
Golesh, the Auburn coach, brought the entire Auburn staff there for now.
They didn't stay the whole time, but for Thursday night when he was speaking, they were all there.
Cody Burns, D.J. Durkin, all those guys were there.
Kalen DeBoer bought Ryan Grubb, the offensive coordinator, and Kane Womack, the defensive coordinator.
So, it's important.
John Summerall came in and, obviously, being from North Alabama, having played at Grissom, coached at Troy.
He knew everybody, and he did speak – I actually sat in on his speech, which I thought was really good.
I mean, he did a lot of – like, showed a lot of, here's what we do on special team stuff,
which I didn't think I'd be particularly interested in, but it was pretty cool to hear him talk about that
and just hear how fired up he is to coach football.
And it really was – he said, look, I like just coming here to see friends.
So, it was a great event.
It went into Friday.
I missed most of Friday, unfortunately, because I was at that private school meeting, hanging out in the hallway.
But hopefully next year I won't – hopefully next year I won't miss the whole Friday.
Oh, me.
That reminded me back when there was a news reporter, not a sports reporter.
You have to go cover these court cases.
And the phrase was, while the jury was deliberating, was hurry up and wait.
And it kind of sounds like what you had to do is hurry up and wait out in that hallway.
That is frustrating.
Let me ask you about Golesh.
Obviously, he is the X Factor here.
What was your impression – he is right now, as the old saying in Alabama goes, you ain't from around here, are you, boy?
Your impression of Golesh meshing with this culture?
Well, I mean, I was pretty impressed with him.
You know, he's actually going to be down here in Daphne, I think, on the 18th, speaking to a group here.
I may be able to go to that.
But he – you know, obviously I know John Summerall pretty well.
Yeah.
I was kind of thinking, you know, as an Auburn grad, kind of hoping that he was going to get the job.
Just because, like I mentioned, all the relationships he already has with the high school coaches across the state of Alabama,
I thought would be a big benefit.
I think he'll do a good job at Florida.
But I like what I've seen so far from Golesh.
You know, obviously we'll see how it plays out on the field.
But I talked to him about a couple of the sign-e's he had.
I'm actually working on a story now about they signed Deshaun Fairland, wide receiver Deshaun Spencer, who had a great year.
And I think he was committed to Duke for a long time.
But Golesh, they had a pretty good chance to get him at South Florida.
They were always recruiting him at South Florida.
And so they came in.
And ironically, he said his first day on campus was Spencer's last day of his official visit at Auburn.
So he thought it was a good get to get him.
He's going to be a slot player.
Really, I think he had 1,700 yards receiving for Sarah Land.
And so he did good.
And like I said, I think it was a good move for them to bring all that Auburn staff.
I mean, obviously, you know, DJ Durkin and Cody Burns, some of those guys know a lot of these coaches.
But there are other coaches on that staff who don't.
So I think it was good for them to get in front of all these.
I mean, you couldn't walk around in that lobby, guys, without bumping into somebody, you know.
And a lot of it, you know, a lot of it was just glad-handing.
I interviewed a lot of people.
But, you know, some of it was just chatting and kind of hearing what's going on.
And, of course, everybody wanted to talk about a lot of the same things, which is the current situation in the HSAA.
One of the great things the convention does every year, as you well know, is they name the coaches of the year in each classification.
And two guys in North Alabama for Class 6A, Scott Baston is the coach of the year, of course, at Muscle Shoals.
18th season, they went to the Class 6A semifinals.
And Brett Mask at Lexington.
In fact, a great picture of him and his dad, Steve Mask, on AL.com.
Brett is an assistant coach at Florence, Calvert County, now at Lexington.
They had a great year.
And BT, another thing, and I'm sure they've been doing this for years, the assistant coaches of the year.
These guys work 100 hours a week during the season, and they deserve some accolades themselves.
But I know you've got the coach of the year for every class.
But that, to me, is one of the highlights of the weekend.
I thought it was cool.
So they do that on Saturday afternoon.
About 11.15 is when they started the banquet.
And so, yeah, they recognized.
And it was really good, guys.
They had a video presentation of each coach and head coach and assistant coach of the year.
And it was good to see, obviously, Brett Mask.
Yeah.
Two head coach of the year with his father, Steve Mask, was there with him in the picture and congratulating him on the award.
Scott Bazden, a well-deserved award for Muscle Shoals.
Had a great year there.
I thought it was really a high-class event.
I really do, as you guys mentioned, I really do like the assistant coaches of the year.
Yep, yes.
I think that's a great way to recognize some guys that don't get recognized a lot.
And this is different now from the Alabama Sports Friars Association.
This is the Alabama Football Coaches Association.
We had our head coaches of the year, and some of those were different than some of these.
But it was cool.
And then the other thing was they awarded three Lifetime Achievement Awards for three very well-known coaches.
Curtis Coleman was a long-time Birmingham area coach.
People probably know him as Andre Smith, head coach at Huffman when Andre was there.
And he actually was at Leeds helping out this year.
Then obviously Danny Powell, great coach down here up Highway 43 at Leroy and Jackson, offensive innovator.
And then the great Terry Curtis, eight state titles at UMS Wright, current president of the central board.
So they did really nice presentations for those guys as well.
So it was a good way to cap off the weekend.
Then Thomas, A.L. Continent Coach, for the most interesting year,
had to be, would you agree, Phillip Rivers, high school coach, NFL quarterback,
interviews for the Buffalo Bills job.
What's next for Phillip Rivers, Ben?
Well, that's a good question.
I mean, I think I've talked to Phillip one time since he got back from playing in the NFL.
You know, he did interview and then took himself out of consideration for the Bills job.
So I think, you know, if you'd asked me this in the last summer, I think my answer would have been different.
But I think eventually we see him as an NFL coach somewhere.
I would have said that.
I would not have said that in the summer.
I mean, I think he, you know, he really did want to be all along.
I think after his playing career was over, his goal was to be a high school football coach, just like his dad was.
And he's obviously done that the last five years at St. Michael, done a great job there, took him to the state semifinals the last two years,
and probably would have been state champion had they not been playing in the same classification with Jackson, you know, those two years.
But obviously his son's going to be, his oldest son, Gunnar, is going to be a senior this next year.
I think he wants to be a part of that.
But he told me when he got back from his NFL comeback that one thing he realized is that he could have an impact not just on kids high school age,
but on college players and NFL players a lot.
I think that really, I think that return really piqued his interest again in the NFL.
So I don't know when it'll be, and I don't know if he'd be interested in being a coordinator, offensive coordinator.
I have a feeling that he would just want to be a head coach.
But I think down the road, I think down the road we might see him at that level.
BT, a lot of things going on.
Basketball going down the stretch drive, got area play, and then sub-regional, regional.
Next time we turn around, you'll be in Birmingham.
The girls saw the girls' power 10 this morning.
Tim Miller leaves Hazel Green, and another Miller comes in.
They're 22-2.
They haven't missed a beat since Tim retired and went to St. John Paul.
The boys will probably be up this afternoon or tomorrow.
What else have you got on the agenda we can read about this week?
My February calendar looks like a mess, I'll just tell you guys.
Obviously, we've got all the basketball going on.
This is basketball tournament month, so they'll get a lot of attention, depending on what happens with the reclassification stuff, I guess.
And then mid-February, we start baseball, softball.
So that's coming up.
So we'll have all that stuff.
I did talk to some of those college coaches and about some recruits that I'm working on those stories this week.
So a lot of good stuff coming on AL.com, or you can follow me at BenThomasPreps on the Twitter, or the hex, whatever we call it these days.
The B and Ben stand for busy.
Stay safe out there, and thanks so much for your time, Dave Ben.
All right, thanks, guys.
Y'all have a good week.
Stay warm.
You too, Ben.
You too.
Ben Thomas.
AL.com.
It was hard to stay warm up in East Tennessee.
A lot of snow and a lot of basketball and a lot of Ben Serrara on deck.
Stay with us.
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From the University of Alabama, this is Crimson Tide Today.
It's a daily update on Bama Sports and it's brought to you by Guthrie's,
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Hello again, everybody. I'm Roger Hoover.
Here are postgame thoughts from Alabama men's basketball head coach Nate Oates
after Alabama's loss at Florida on Sunday.
I give Florida a lot of credit. They came right to play.
Great environment here. The crowd was great. Their energy was great.
Turned us over 18 times. Boogie ends up with eight steals.
You got to credit their guards. They play well.
You know, everybody's afraid of Florida's frontcourt and rightfully so.
I mean, they're tough. They're good. They're skilled.
You know, Chenilu is one of my favorite players in the league in 14-17, which is a ridiculous number.
17 rebounds. But, you know, the guards really kind of controlled this game here.
And I'm a little disappointed.
We didn't have better guard play with the amount of turnovers and they didn't turn the ball over.
I'll have more in a moment.
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The score.
Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
Welcome back in.
We got our chains on our tires.
I think it's safe for us to head on up to East Tennessee now and say hello to Vince Ferrara.
He's busy there at 99.1, the sports animal in Knoxville and on the Ball Radio Network.
Vince Ferrara, welcome in.
How did Daphne and her dad do this weekend during the blizzard?
How are you?
I'm good.
Daphne's at the vet now.
That's where I'm at.
So, we'll see afterwards.
But, no, she loves the snow.
She's constantly wanting to go outside in it a lot more than dad, who's like, it's warm in here.
I'm good.
But, no, now it's just the parking lots.
Now, you know, all the roads are clear, thankfully, for the most part.
You just got to watch your step in the parking lot.
It's a little slippery and slushy and icy.
Yeah, that may be why you wipe the bed on a Monday after staying out in the snow all weekend, so be careful there, Daphne.
You know, let's go from snowballs to basketballs.
Tennessee, it looks like they're speaking cold weather.
It looks like they're turning up the heat during this stretch of late.
Oh, what a professional segue.
Stuff about the basketball.
You're the best.
No, it was impressive, you know, for Tennessee to, you know, to get another victory at third straight.
You know, Bruce Pearl had had an awful lot of success against Rick Barnes.
You know, we had talked about how Rick Barnes had given Nate Oates a lot of trouble.
Bruce Pearl has given Rick Barnes plenty of trouble.
He was Auburn's coach, and that was not the case for Steven.
And, you know, Steven Pearl even said afterwards, he was like, they punked us.
You know, and Tennessee dominated on the boards.
And, you know, Auburn shot, I think, 7 of 31 from three.
And Tennessee did not make, this is crazy, Tennessee did not make a three-pointer.
In the final 35 minutes of the game.
Wow.
They made four of eight in the first five minutes of the game.
They only took three more three-point shots the rest of the game, went 0 for 5, and still won the game.
And that's how good their inside play was.
And that's how much improved they were at the free-throw line.
And, look, that's old-school Rick Barnes basketball.
It wasn't pretty at times.
Tennessee still had too many turnovers.
And, you know, Rick Barnes had the comment, you know, that kind of went viral Saturday that you guys might have seen.
He's like, with some of the turnovers we commit, I wonder if our guys are betting on games.
And he immediately was like, oh, sorry.
Oh, sorry.
It was a moment of honesty for him.
And he jokes with his guys like that.
But, you know, unfortunately there's been real cases of that in the sport.
So he immediately said that.
But, anyway, it is head-scratching for him to the point that he doesn't understand why they have those breakdowns.
But they were much better at the free-throw line.
They were, you know, they didn't have Felix Alparo, which is another thing that was impressive.
Dwayne Brown, Jalen Carey, those guys were better.
J.P. Estrella was in foul trouble.
And they were able to execute without their leading scorer in Jacoby Gillespie, who was in foul trouble.
Rick Barnes even practiced last week.
He held Jacoby Gillespie out of team practice sessions so they could learn to play without him.
Thank you.
And then they had to use them for extended periods, and they performed pretty well.
You bring up a good point, V-Man, because I love what you said there.
They didn't depend on the arc for survival.
And I think if you look at Alabama, when their threes rain down, they can beat the Boston Celtics.
And when they're not, they can't even beat the Boston Symphony.
Your thoughts about old-fashioned basketball, where you look at what Florida,
and you look at any team that's got size, and they just handle Alabama.
Purdue, we can go up and down the list.
Arizona, others.
Your thoughts just about going back to, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Go inside, take the two, play good defense.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Not at all.
And Rick Barnes joked to the media, the press conference, he was like,
Mike Keith said to me about the stat in the three of the last 35 minutes if I was surprised.
And he's like, you forget how old I am.
I still believe I'm a single week in football.
Thank you.
So, but he is always, for him being such a veteran and being, you know, one of the winningest coaches,
and especially active, he still can adjust to the game today.
And now his players, it took them a while for this group of players to get some toughness to be able to handle adversity within a game.
But, you know, after some hard lessons learned, I think he's gotten through to them.
But in terms of strategy, absolutely, he can always adjust to what people are throwing at him.
See, Tennessee does not beat Auburn without Jalen Carey, who came off the bench, 13 points, 8 rebounds.
Now, Estrella, I believe, has been starting as of late, but he's 4 or 5 for 8 points.
And Nate Oates and Stephen Pearl probably looking back and say, you know, we may have needed to look at Dwayne Brown a little closer when he was playing for Hoover.
Dwayne Brown at 10 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals, and a block.
In 32 minutes, those dudes coming off the bench, the man, were impressive.
Yeah, and Brown was starting for a good part of the year, but then with Aparra out with a calf strain,
don't know how long he's going to be out, but it was Brown that got the call to go back in the starting lineup in the frontcourt with Estrella.
And Dwayne Brown had kind of been on a little bit of a freshman funk for a while.
That's why Estrella kind of took his place in the starting lineup, but then with Aparra down and Jalen Carey coming back from an injury he suffered against Alabama,
it was Brown that got the opportunity, played over 30 minutes, and played his best ball in a while.
And you mentioned Jalen Carey, he didn't look healthy against Georgia, he looked much better.
And when he comes in the game, they feed him the ball.
And that's what I love, and he just lowers that shoulder and creates room.
And they're really good at ceiling on drives as big.
Tennessee does that as good as anybody.
I wish they would drive more and let their big seal for them.
And the last thing on Estrella, he actually, they were in some offensive funks a couple of times,
and it was him with a bucket inside that would kind of break them, break the ice a little bit for them.
So his contributions have been even beyond the box score in really the last three games since he started.
The V-Man, 99.1, the Esports Animal in Knoxville, going outside where it's cold of football.
Talk to us, V-Man, about one of the latest.
I like the quote from Miami quarterback transfer Richard.
He commits to the Vols, excited to play for finally an expert in Coach Knowles.
I'm hoping his old coach didn't read that.
But your thoughts about where Tennessee is at this point on the transfer portal calendar.
Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
Probably talking about a position coach, I would imagine, because they, you know,
they did get to the national championship, so they did something right.
Yeah, but look at B.
Yeah, and when you're not getting playing time, then maybe that's an issue.
Well, no, they needed another corner body in that secondary in the portal addition.
So he's the fourth corner they added in the portal, and they needed that depth.
They've added four safeties as well.
I think, I don't think he's a starter right now.
Obviously, we have to see these guys on the practice field to have a true read on what they look like.
But I think there are going to be seven starters from the transfer portal on Tennessee's defense right now.
And, you know, that can change here and there.
But I think it's going to be so much different in personnel.
And then, you know, obviously, they're going to be coached differently, too.
I think they're going to upgrade in a number of ways.
Still, though, I don't think they added enough on the defensive line.
I don't know who you can bring in at this point to change that.
But they're going to be extremely young.
Got some former five-stars in there.
So there's talent on paper.
But, man, they're going to be even younger than they were in the D-line rotation last year.
Wow.
V, two things.
One, when is the spring game for the University of Tennessee?
And, number two, I did see Daphne rollicking in the snow on Facebook.
Hopefully, that checkup will go well.
V, where can we get online and check up or check out the V-man?
You know what?
Unless something broke here today, I have not seen a date on the spring game.
If it hasn't been announced by Wednesday, we're hoping to get Danny White back on our show.
So I imagine it will be sometime in April, and, you know, those things, unfortunately, mean less and less these days.
But, yeah, and then, yeah, you can find the videos of Daphne hopping around like a bunny in the snow on my social.
It's Vince Sports, V-I-N-C Sports, on Instagram, on Facebook, and on Twitter, slash X.
She loves it.
Good luck there with the event visit.
We took hours, the wife and I, to the vet last week.
We're now going out collecting Coke bottles and paying for it in installments, so.
I hear that, for sure.
Good luck up there, V-man.
Stay warm, and thanks so much for your time today.
Always a pleasure, guys.
Appreciate it.
Have a great rest of the week.
Thank you, buddy.
You do the same.
V-man, Vince Sororan, 99.1, the eSports Animal.
Please tell us that it's warmer in the heart of Texas.
We'll take you there with the OB show.
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The Score.
Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
Welcome back in.
We ain't gonna stop until we find someplace that's warm.
What about the heart of Texas?
We'll take you next.
Olin Buchanan standing by there.
He's got the Texas A&M Aggies all covered at what better place than texags.com.
Olin Buchanan, welcome in.
How are you?
Doing well, actually.
It's warming up here.
The temperature and the basketball.
All of the folks who drive on I-65 in their neck of the woods between Decatur and Athens,
they want to know if Buc-ee's is named after Texas A&M's new basketball coach.
What a coincidence that Buc-ee's, it's a Buc-ee world in College Station these days, is it not?
Well, it is.
You know, the guy, the founder of Buc-ee's is an Aggie.
That's right.
So, yeah, it all works.
We're hoping that the basketball Buc-ee can be as successful as the gas stop Buc-ee.
He's got his work cut out for him.
He's off to a good start, but Olin, what a story.
I mean, let's go back, as they say, like anything, to the beginning of the story.
What was the initial reaction from the A&M fan base?
You guys got more money than Washington's got apples, and you got all this money to throw at a coach,
and you go bring a guy in from a small college in Alabama who came from a big high school in Alabama.
It was just a short time ago, and as I say, the rest is history, but first things first,
who had the guts or maybe some other anatomical part to pull the trigger on that hire?
That was Trev Albers, the athletic director.
You know, A&M went after Chris Beard.
He has a Texas background, and of course, he's been very successful.
And I think Chris Beard's people let A&M know that he was, at least just the way I think it worked out,
but he was interested, and what he was interested in was getting a big raise from Ole Miss.
Thank you.
So he got that, and Trev Albers, like, right away, his next target was Bucky McMillan.
And now we call him Bucky Makesby, and then he's earning them.
And so, yeah, Trev was just aware that, you know, Bucky had had a lot of success at Stanford
and, you know, dang near beat Kansas in the NCAA tournament and said, you know,
I don't mind taking a chance and brought him in.
And I think, you know, coaches always, new coaches always win the press conference.
But in Bucky's case, you know, he not only won it, man, he dominated it just because his personality is such
that he's a very welcoming, warm kind of guy that just seems like a normal person
as opposed to the previous basketball coach here who was kind of an odd guy
that once in a press conference went on and on about he doesn't go to church or go out to eat
because he doesn't want people talking to him.
That's true.
Jeez.
So now you got this guy coming in, and, I mean, he's just relatable in every way
and was talking about how much fun his style of basketball is going to be.
And what do you know?
He told the truth.
So here at College Station, we're now, you know, counting buckets and getting excited about that
instead of counting offensive rebounds because, you know, that was such a big deal on the previous day.
We're going to leave the nation offensive rebounds.
That means he must be pretty low in shots made.
Yeah, you're exactly right.
Buzz Williams.
No, I'm just going to add Buzz Williams is out to, I think, off to a sparkling 1-8 record in the Big Ten.
So for Olin, as you well know, absolutely.
He brought in, Bucky brought in 12 transfers, which, number one, tells me they're a more veteran team.
So, Ray-Sean, a G or A-G, the captain is being nine double-doubles.
Rylan Griffin, who played for Alabama, transferred to Kansas now with Texas A&M.
Ja'Core Lane, we know very well because he played basically in our backyard at North Alabama at UNA.
Marcus Neal, you got a couple of dead-eye three-point shooters, but these guys are defensive specialists.
They average 15 or more turnovers a game.
Tell us who he's got on the roster, Olin.
Yeah, he had one player left.
Because Buzz took guys, and Buzz put together a team.
He was clearly not planning on coming back.
I think he had decided that probably before the season started.
Hey, they, while Buzz was here, they retired Wade Taylor's number while Wade was still playing.
Whoever does that.
So it was obvious that he was on his way out even before the season was done.
And he left them with one player who wasn't on scholarship.
And Buzz put him on scholarship.
Hey, if you're going to hang around, then come on.
And then he went out.
And, you know, here's the deal.
By the time Bucky was hired here, a lot of the top guys on the transfer portal were already taken.
Right.
And then the best guy he got, the most high-profile guy, was McKenzie Imbago from Indiana.
And he broke his foot, and he's out for the year.
Wow.
So, you know, you think about he had one player to start with.
He got a big-name transfer, and that guy broke his foot and was out for the year.
And everything else he was doing was trying to catch up.
And none of this makes sense.
When you, you know, here's the second choice and all those things, none of it makes sense.
And yet, you know, they've just – and, you know, they got off to really a nice start.
You look, their schedule really weak against Mississippi Valley State and Manhattan and Prairie View and, you know, Texas Southern.
But he had to do that because a lot of the – there was a tournament they were supposed to be in, but that contract for that tournament in Las Vegas was with the coach.
So, they – you know, Bucky had to come up with a schedule.
My gosh.
And, you know, so – so, you know, they had a nice record, but they get into the SEC players thinking, okay, now reality is going to set in.
They beat LSU.
Well, LSU's not very good.
And then they just kept winning and kept winning.
And then I – you know, they beat Texas and dang near beat Tennessee.
You had a – should have won that game over there, lost it in double overtime, had two chances to win it.
And now, you know, you win that game at Georgia and they're just – they're just playing at a really high level.
And I don't know.
I don't necessarily know if they're going to beat Alabama.
I think they'll give them a run.
And then they got Florida after that.
I doubt if they'll beat Florida.
I mean – but, you know, they're a team that really now I'm starting to think this is going to be an NCAA tournament team.
And it makes no sense.
I heard somebody say Bucky McMillan was a coaching savant, and I'm starting to believe it.
Yeah, Bucky's more than lucky, I guarantee you.
Olin, talk to us a little bit more about the homeboy, Jakari Lane.
He was – he played basically in high school terms at the basketball factory at Lehigh over in Huntsville.
He was a 5A player of the year, and obviously a lot of people passed on him.
He goes to UNA and just does wonders.
And, again, it just shows you to me – coaches in Indiana is an example of this in football.
Don't always go by these recruiting services.
Sometimes go by your own evaluation.
I think it's safe to say he can do that in Indiana when it comes to football.
Bucky is looking for somebody to fit his system.
And if you look at UNA, your thoughts about basically this kid living a dream,
transferring from UNA to Texas A&M at the SEC level and, quite frankly, doing pretty well for himself.
Running the show at the point guard position and, you know, obviously knew the system and the style of play
and it helped guys come along and playing really well.
7.9 points, you know, from your point guard, I'll take that.
He just plays really well.
And, you know, the other night when they were playing Georgia – or the other day, it was Saturday –
and they got up 22-2.
And, of course, Georgia, one of the highest scoring teams in the country, comes back
and they cut that A&M lead with about nine minutes to go and had all the momentum.
And who comes in and nails a three?
There you go.
And it starts a 15-3 run that settled the issue.
And it all started with Ja'Kari Lane being a guy like, hey, I've got to settle this thing down.
I'm going to pick up and shoot a three.
And he nailed it.
Just to finish with the football transfer, two former Alabama players, Isaiah Horton,
is coming over to match up with Mario Craver.
I'm sure Marcel Reed's happy about that.
Alabama's will could form be a tackle.
He plays some guard, too.
And just looking over the list, I'm sure some of these are death pieces,
but they also got pretty good credit.
Olin, your thoughts on the transfer portal?
Yeah, but they addressed their needs.
They, you know, lose four starters off the offensive line.
So they brought in four guys who started on SEC teams at LSU.
You mentioned Formby.
And then one from South Carolina.
Try to mesh in with some of the holdovers they have on us, see what they can do there.
Then they had to boost the defensive line.
And the pass rush brought in Anto Seca from Northwestern.
He only had like three and a half sacks last year.
But the folks that agree with him and the scouts say that there's a lot more to him than that.
So we'll see.
Hopefully he can come in and be a nice, adequate replacement for Cassius Howell.
And, you know, they believe he's such a good cornerback.
He's done here.
And they got this kid, Ricky Gibson, from Tennessee that I'm told that he's a high-level corner that was hurt almost all last year.
So, you know, they feel good about it.
Here's the thing about Elko the last two years has given us reason to trust Elko, not necessarily to get in the guy that's the great guy, because they were interested in Cam Colbin, didn't get him.
But they got Isaiah Horton.
You know, really good about that, right?
Yeah, he's a tall drink of water.
They can use a big receiver.
Not only just to replace Casey Concepcion, but Casey's not a big guy either.
So, you know, they can use that big receiver.
So, I think Elko's really good at, look, here's the places we got to get better.
Let's address them.
And you know what?
The guy that's not necessarily the player at that position may not be the best player for us.
And that's what he's done so well.
So, you have an open mind, you know, that maybe you didn't get the top-name player.
You know, maybe they're not getting the girl to date, but they're getting the girl to marry.
That's a good way to put it.
No more than one.
If you know what I mean.
If you can, he's sitting here giving us love advice.
Hey, it's Valentine's Month.
Oh, you've been around it a while.
Talk about the SEC with all the stuff.
I mean, obviously, this day and time, people go out and basically, let's face it, they buy a team.
Lane's putting together the checkbook over in Baton Rouge.
Your friend's up the road there in Austin.
They've got a lot of money.
They're putting together an all-star cast.
It's kind of level with money.
Your thoughts about this coming season across the league?
Well, it's kind of, you know, I think A&M's still going to be pretty good.
I don't know if they'll be as good as they were last year.
Texas is going to be really good.
Texas has more billionaires than A&M, and they all want to win.
So, I don't like that, but I can respect that.
You know, I think, you know, Georgia's always going to be good.
You know, the team I wonder about, you guys can tell me more about it than I would.
I wonder about Alabama.
Because I know that Alabama.
A lot of folks are holding.
I know that Alabama wasn't pleased with, I mean, still had a good year, but I know that's not good at Alabama.
You know, when you look at the guys that have left early for the draft and some of the guys that I think completed their eligibility, who knows these days.
I mean, the next thing you know, Alabama's going to be bringing a guy in from the NFL, since they already did from the NBA.
Two of them, I think.
Two of them.
One on each end.
You never know, but you guys tell me.
I'm not saying Alabama's going to be bad by any means, but why will Alabama be better than they were this year?
Well, obviously, that's a good question, and I think only time's going to tell.
I mean, not only that, you're losing the experienced quarterback that is supposedly projected to go in the first round of the NFL draft.
You're bringing someone with almost zero experience, so I think it's a legitimate question, Olin.
And then LSU, yeah.
Look, I know they're spending a lot of money on football players because I was driving to see my son this weekend, and I know they're not spending it on their highway.
I mean, I felt like I was driving by Braille.
You've got to have your priorities.
Where's your priorities?
You've got Mardi Gras and football.
What else is important, okay?
There's really nothing.
So, I'll say that, look, I don't want it to be the case, but I think LSU can do real well with LSU.
He's just a good football coach, and I know they're going to have good players over there, but, you know, let's see how they rebuild that offensive line.
So, that was the problem there of that team last year.
Absolutely.
Olin, bringing it to the day, buddy, on various and sundry subjects, listen, I was great to catch up with you, buddy.
Glad things were warming up.
Listen, where can Aggie fans and SEC fans get online and get the absolute latest football, basketball, recruiting, you name it.
You got it.
Yeah, I guess I'm excited about Groundhog Day.
Yeah, we like to think that we are the preeminent outlet for Texas A&M Sports.
So, if you can go online and give us a look at texags.com.
That's just an abbreviated version of Texas Aggies.
It's texags.com.
It's the same place on Twitter or X or whatever you want to call it.
So, if you're inclined to give us a look, we'd appreciate it if you did.
And it's February.
It's Valentine's Month.
You're giving out that love advice.
You're giving out Godiva.
We're giving out Russell Stover and Whitman Sampers up here, okay, Olin?
So, keep up the Godiva advice, okay?
You know, we'll do the best we can.
You know, I'm not going to ride Beckett on a horse.
There you go.
I'll give out the time.
Oh, my goodness.
One and done, Olin.
One.
Stay safe down there and off the horse, all right?
Enjoy the guy.
That's hard to do in Texas, right?
That's going to take care of business for today.
On behalf of B.B., Greg, James, Larry, the entire crew here.
Harold Buck, thank you so much for your time today.
Let's do it again tomorrow at noon to two for the Boom on Buck Show.
Back here on Sports Radio, 93.9 The Score.
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