Boomo Bugg Show 022426
93.9 The Score WYTK - February 24, 2026
https://www.939thescore.com/boomo-bugg-show-022426/

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.
Your exclusive inside track to the Tigers, Tennessee and the rest of the SEC.
Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
Good afternoon and welcome in to the Boomo Bugg Show.
I'm Harold Bugg alongside Brett Beaird.
Thank you so much for giving us free ride around the Tennessee Valley.
Brett Beaird, welcome in where a busy day including the state's top gunner pulls the trigger on the recruiting trail.
Good afternoon, welcome in and how are you?
Happy Tuesday to you and the listeners.
Deshler and the Red Bay Boys win at Wallace State Monday and advance to the Final Four in Birmingham next week.
The Mars Hill boys and girls or the Lauderdale County boys and girls could join them later tonight.
Las Vegas insider Bruce Marshall will recount the U.S. winning gold in hockey and preview the top college basketball games this week.
Roger is here right now to talk about Alabama basketball and baseball traveling to Hattiesburg, Mississippi later today to face a very good Southern Miss team.
Absolutely, a ranked Southern Miss team.
Roger's always invited into the lineup.
He would also want us to share that the state's top gunner is Gunner Rivers.
No surprise.
Guess where he's going to go to college?
North Carolina State.
Why?
Because that's where Papa grew his teeth in college football before going on en route to the NFL Hall of Fame.
So, a big one off the board when it comes to the recruiting board.
Roger Hoover, as we mentioned, is always on top of it.
He's a five-star recruiter.
And when it comes to calling Alabama sports, it doesn't matter if it's baseball, basketball, you name it.
He's got it covered on the Crimson Tide Network.
Roger, welcome in.
How are you?
Boom, oh, bug.
I'm doing really well.
Excited to get down to Hattiesburg tonight.
Just hoping to see a Crimson Tide win.
It's been a long time since we won at Pete Taylor Park.
But looking forward to what should be a very busy week, but a good week for Alabama athletics.
Roger, obviously, you've got 10 pounds of sugar, as always, and a five-pound sack.
But let's talk about that.
Because baseball, in some ways, is kind of an equalizer, is it not?
Because if it's Alabama and Southern Miss football at one time, by the way,
and Coach Paul Bear Bryant, he was always a nemesis.
He called them Mississippi Southern because Southern would give them such fits.
Obviously, the gap has widened over the years.
But when it comes to baseball, those boys down in the south part of Mississippi,
they can play some ball tonight at Hattiesburg.
Yeah, they really can.
I mean, they take so much pride in their baseball program, and they have for years.
I mean, going back to the 70s and 80s, this is a long-standing tradition of having great baseball at Southern Miss.
And then you add in the fact, too, that so many of these guys, either if they're from that area of the state,
they grew up rooting for Southern Miss baseball, and that's a huge part of the identity of that part of the state.
And then the other built-in advantage they have is, you know, Mississippi's community college program is so good at baseball.
It is.
Compared to other states in the southeast, I think they're head and shoulders above everybody else
when it comes to junior college baseball.
So you get those guys, they get seasoning there, and then all of a sudden they make their way to Hattiesburg,
and they turn out to be really good players that continue to be developed at a high level now by Coach Ostrander as the head coach.
It's a special place.
You know, we're going to go there.
They're going to have the entire ballpark filled.
They're going to have some of the best smelling of barbecue grills you've ever seen in your life
with all the smoke lopping in the stadium.
So I'm ready to go.
No doubt, though, when I get home, my wife will be like,
Oh, yeah, you went to Hattiesburg, so I'm able to smell the barbecue smoke and pull up my clothes when I get back at it.
So I'm looking forward to the trip, but it should be a good time.
You smell like Hattiesburg.
Roger, before we jump in to the rest of the stuff, talk to us about this baseball team for Alabama.
We know Southern's actually ranked, so coming in, I would imagine they got the edge in this game on paper.
But talk to us about your impressions of this baseball team so far.
Yeah, two weeks in, I'd say so far so good for Rob Vaughn and the Crimson Tide.
You know, they dropped that opener against Washington State, eventually won the series.
And then, you know, it played okay in the midweek games last week.
It got the win.
That's what's important against Stanford and Alabama State.
But both were really low-scoring, tight ballgames.
The pitching has been there really each and every game.
That has been great to see for Alabama, including in the midweek game last week against Stanford.
J.T. Blackwood will get the ball tonight for Alabama.
Six scoreless innings of that game.
So you feel good about how Alabama's performing on the mound.
And then runs came by the bunches this past week against Rhode Island's team that had, honestly,
some thin pitching, even though that's a group expected to win their conference, the Atlantic 10.
But I think maybe there's a little more confidence with the guys based on how this week went.
And certainly there's confidence when old number ones in the batter's box, Justin LeBron,
already five homers on the year for a guy projected to be a top five, a draft pick coming up in the summer's MLB draft.
So good things are happening any time Justin LeBron is involved, that's for sure.
And I think the rest of the offense is starting to pick it up after a bit of a slow start to the season.
So that makes for a really fun matchup to see, okay, you scored all these runs at home in Tuscaloosa against Rhode Island.
Can you take it on the road to Hattiesburg and do it against some experienced arms that we'll see tonight from Southern Miss?
Roger, one thing we do know is Alabama basketball is hot.
They've won six consecutive games after getting beat by Florida on a cold afternoon in Gainesville.
The tide holds off LSU 90-83.
They had a double-digit lead most of the second half.
That's the 20th win of the season, four consecutive years of 21 seasons plus for Nate Oates.
And I can assure you he will add a few more to that.
Aiden Holloway played really well.
But there are two guys, Roger, I wanted to mention who really helped Alabama.
Houston Millett, who, by the way, coincidentally is a guest of yours on Crimson Drive,
does an amazing job of falling out of bounds and calling timeout at the same time.
And London Simmons is growing up.
12 points, gets key rebounds, had a huge steal at the end of the game.
Those guys are playing well for the tide.
Yeah, they really are.
It's a time where Alabama needs them to step up.
But, yeah, and what Amari Allen continues to do.
I mean, this is an impressive group that you can really build on those young guys like Jemison and Allen for the future.
And then I love seeing the veterans play well, like Houston Millett or Trel Rifle Jr.
You've got to get a little beer and file on healthy and good to go.
But these guys have all the makings of a really special team for Alabama.
And that's what I think excites everybody about what's ahead over the next few weeks,
regardless of Charles Mediacos on the team or not, to be quite honest with you.
I think this is the group that has kind of found their rhythm.
If they can just get healthy, and they're so close.
They're so close to being totally healthy and ready to go for this stretch run.
As Mediacos talks about, you always want to play your best basketball at this time of the year.
Well, it's almost here.
You're almost at a wiggle room and trying to get some of these guys healthy and ready to go.
Obviously, huge matchups this week against Mississippi State, against Tennessee.
We know we've got the Auburn game looming at the end of next week.
So, this is a really good time for this basketball team.
Roger, Uber, Crimson Tide Network.
First things first, Roger.
Obviously, if you're State, you're looking at it and says it's David and Goliath.
But, looking at it through the eyes of history, sometimes just for that reason,
when you've got two arch rivals waiting in the wings for Bama, Tennessee, and also, of course, Auburn,
State comes in, they're playing with house money,
and they're playing also with one of the best guards in the entire college football universe.
Yeah, and if Hubbard is David in this scenario, he's got one h*** of a bling shot.
He is a really good player.
And a big rock.
Yeah, ask our friends down in the state county about how good he can be.
Alabama just gave up 49 points a week ago, the last time they were in this building,
the Darius Acuff.
So, you don't want anything part of that.
I mean, we love Pete Maravich, but we want, when Alabama was at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center
on Saturday, to be the last time we mentioned him.
We don't want anybody coming close to his 69 points.
We'll see him again.
So, Auburn's a guy that's capable of that, so it's time to play defense if you're Nate Oates.
And I think it's just the perfect thing he needs to motivate his team.
It's like, we're not giving up 40-plus points again.
This is a guy that's done it against a very good defensive team at Auburn.
It's time to really play some blue-collar basketball.
I think that has to be the message, getting ready for this matchup,
because Alabama did a lot of good blue-collar things against him
and against the Bulldogs in Starkville earlier this year.
But you have got to do it on your home floor if you want to be an elite team down the stretch.
Let's talk women's basketball.
And Roger Hoover did his usual superb job of doing play-by-play.
I caught some of the clips.
Alabama went down to Gainesville, speaking Gainesville, in one.
76-71.
Jessica Timmons, a career-high Roger Hoover, 34 points.
Scott had 21.
Alabama now 21-7, 7-7 in the SEC.
And, oh, by the way, the SEC women's tournament begins next week.
Recalp the Florida game for us and tell us a little bit more about the tournament next week, my friend.
Yeah, the Florida game was a good one, considering Alabama really did everything it wanted to do in the first half.
And then Florida had a great run.
They had some good individual scorers.
They were able to recapture the lead.
They really picked the first play of the game in the third quarter, early in the fourth quarter.
Had Alabama down by six.
And after a three-game losing streak, there wasn't a lot of confidence about this Alabama team.
Would they be able to come back?
Well, sometimes you need one player to pull you out of a hole like that,
and that was Jessica Timmons, who scored 34 points.
I believe she made seven three-pointers in that ballgame.
Just remarkable, especially the way she was able to hit free throws down the stretch.
She had 14 of those 34 points in the fourth quarter.
So, played at a very high level, and that's what Alabama needed.
I think you're going to see her next week be named all SEC, either first team or second team,
with what she's done to lead this team in scoring this season.
So, great win against the Gators.
Got to keep it going against this week's opponents.
Vanderbilt coming up on Thursday night.
I was passing by you guys on Thursday, as Alabama will take on the fifth-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores,
who are playing extremely well.
Shea Ralph has that program among the nation's top programs this season.
And then fourth-ranked Texas coming up on Sunday for Senior Day at 11 a.m.
So, it's going to be a tough week ahead for Alabama.
But the win on Sunday got the Crimson side at 2-7-7.
If you could find a way to split these next two games, it would be huge.
To finish up SEC play at 8-8.
And that's with a couple of games mixed in there.
You probably should have won games that come to mind, though, like Texas A&M, Auburn,
8-7-7, where Alabama didn't score well down the stretch.
But if you can find a way to get to 8-8, that'd be huge.
And even if you drop both these games, 7-9, your tournament standing for the NCAA tournament
will not be hurt that much.
But your tournament standing for the SEC tournament may be hurt a little bit.
Now, one good thing Alabama has are some tiebreakers against teams like Kentucky and Georgia
that they can see them.
That's why they're ahead of those programs and the standings right now.
I believe number 7 or 8 as it stands right now.
But you're kind of looking anywhere that 7-10 range for Alabama to be in the SEC tournament.
And next week, it'd be huge to get at least one win to maybe still be in the conversation
for a top-8 seed, meaning you wouldn't have to start playing the tournament until Thursday.
But if you end up starting to play on Wednesday, that's okay.
We've seen some teams go on some really good runs to Saturday or even Sunday,
the SEC tournament championship game from that spot.
And this is a group that's certainly capable of it.
So we look forward to getting to Greenville, South Carolina next week.
Just hopefully we get some wins later on this week to delay our visit to the F-State
of South Carolina as much as possible.
Looking past the upstate to 20-28, the opening date now with Georgia State.
Does a team have a more interesting schedule to open up 28 than Alabama?
Georgia State, Ohio State, UT Martin, and Oklahoma State, three of the four at home,
the road trip out to Oklahoma State.
The problem, that is, you can only have three non-conference with a lead going to nine.
So, Roger, Georgia State, Ohio State, UT Martin, Oklahoma State,
who do you give the boot to there?
One of them's got to go, Roger.
I don't know.
You know, I'm sitting in the parking lot across from the athletic director's office.
Greg Byrne is in there somewhere at the Mount Moore FX building.
I'll try to transfer the call.
I'll try to jump up and down and get his attention and let you know.
Hang on.
Don't hang up on us.
Don't hang up just because it's him, okay?
Well, let's switch to a FaceTime.
No, anyway, I don't know, to be honest with you, that is a really good point
that I think the schedules are going to continue to evolve as we go along.
But Alabama's been very committed to try and playing the toughest schedule as possible.
So, I think you're going to see at least one of those power programs stay on the roster
and on the schedule for what's ahead for Alabama.
But at this point, 2028 feels like a long way away.
Oh, it does.
Absolutely.
Safe travels to Hennigsburg.
You do a great job no matter what the sport is.
Who else have you got as a guest on Crimson Drive this week?
And where can we get online, listen to all the games, baseball, basketball, et cetera,
and also get all the good Crimson Tide Sports Network stuff?
Yeah, just follow us on the Crimson Tide Sports Network social media platforms
at UA underscore TTSN for everything that's coming up with Crimson Drive today and Thursday
at 2 o'clock.
As you mentioned, Houston Millette will be on the show.
Also, LeBaron Tylon will be on the show coming up on Thursday.
So, we look forward to catching up with them, plus keeping an eye on all sports going on right
now at the University of Alabama.
And then, yeah, just turn your radio on.
We're going to be very, very busy over these next few days with all the baseball, softball,
men's, women's basketball all happening at the same time.
Look forward to a very good week coming up, and then look forward to talking with you guys again
next week as we get ready for some postseason basketball for Alabama women's basketball
in the SEC tournament.
But it's an exciting time of the year.
Roger, we're going to hold you to it.
Safe travels, and thanks so much for your time today.
You guys are the best.
Thanks for having me on.
Roll Tide.
Roger Hoover, Crimson Tide Sports Network.
Speaking of the Crimson Tide, how about that Alabama softball team?
They are ranked number four in the country.
Coming up, the legend, Coach Sonny Smith on deck.
Stay with us.
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The score.
Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9, the score.
The score.
Welcome back in.
It is an absolute pleasure for us to say hello to the legend, former head coach at Auburn and VCU.
When it comes to men's basketball, of course, the one, the only coach, Sonny Smith.
Coach, welcome in.
How are you?
Oh, I'm good.
How are you guys today?
Coach?
Kind of depressed, Coach.
We're looking at this calendar here, and we've got this weekend and then next weekend, and that's it for the SEC regular season.
Is it true, Coach, that time gets by in a hurry?
Oh, no question about it.
It's the first of the season you think it's never going to get by, and then all of a sudden it winds down to nothing.
And it is really a rollercoaster ride.
It is a rollercoaster ride.
It is.
I mean, there's always going to be that team like a jack.
They're going to sit there, and they're going to go from, like, smooth, from A to Z.
But most teams are human.
They're going to have highs and lows.
And, you know, I don't have to tell you that Auburn's had their share of them.
But, boy, I tell you what, what a win over the weekend.
Coach, your thoughts just about snapping the losing streak, but not only that, snapping it against one of the brand teams that they're called Kentucky.
Well, it's an amazing thing to me, having been in the league and out for so many years, that the name Kentucky comes up.
It's like they're thinking about basketball.
And once they start thinking about basketball, they say, well, Kentucky's right there.
And that's the way it's always been over the years.
Kentucky's right there.
Sonny, I thought it was a big win for Auburn to come back in the last seconds, basically, to get a tip in to win the game.
Auburn just kept fighting to get the rebound.
Deshaun Murphy had a big game, 25 points, 10 rebounds.
And I thought the Auburn defense played a little bit better.
Kentucky actually went a significant time and had one field goal.
Sonny, that was a big win for Auburn, and Deshaun Murphy helped them get there.
I was a little bit concerned about their defense, if it was going to be good and if it was going to be capable of leading them up to the top of the league.
And I think we can throw that worry out.
I think Auburn has got a really good defense.
And they've got a little bit of depth to go with that now, and that's going to make a big difference.
Coach, talk to us about any time you've been there as a young coach taking over.
First-year coach is always growing pains.
How do you do this?
How do you do that?
But especially in this case where you're trying to take over for your daddy.
Obviously, there's been some issues with different personalities.
Of course, you never had that back in your day with guys.
I think, what was his name?
Barkley and some of those guys.
You never had that issue.
Or if you did, if I'm wrong on that, you can talk to us about how a coach handles that.
Well, I tell you what, when you've got a person like Barkley, you've got to make a decision.
Are you going to try to straighten him out?
Are you going to try to keep him?
Or are you going to shoot him?
Yeah, that's it right there.
But you know what, Charles Barkley, if you left him alone and if you didn't let him play
and you didn't coach much, he responded to that a lot better than the other guys did.
I always thought it might have been a problem for Charles playing for me because he ran set plays.
But he eventually adjusted to that.
But he was a freelance player, offensively and defensively.
And the style of play didn't make a difference to him.
He could play up and down or he could play half court.
He could do the whole deal.
I appreciate that word, freelance.
One thing about it, Coach, kids are not free now.
How do you handle it as a coach now that they're not free?
In other words, you've got some of these players making, in some cases, more money than some of your assistant coaches.
How do you deal with a modern athlete, given the fact that you're basically, some people call them semi-pro.
I'd call them pro as far as the money goes.
Yeah, I haven't thought about an answer for this.
But I would start out by saying, just be honest with them.
Be honest with them and find out where they're coming from and where you're coming from.
And see if you can balance those things together.
Because the kids today are a little bit different than what they are a while back.
And it might be, talent might be the same and all that.
But the thinking about the game and preparing yourself to play is a little bit different than it used to be.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Let me ask you about Alabama.
They've won six consecutive games.
They held on to beat LSU 92-83 for their 20th win of the season.
In fact, that's the fourth consecutive year that Nate Oates has won 20 games for Alabama.
They had a little bit of a hangover, Sonny.
I guess when there are 232 points scored in one basketball game, the previous game, it's a little tough to get going for the next one.
That was one of the most incredible games in the history of the SEC.
Sonny, your thoughts on Alabama and Nate Oates right now?
The funny thing about them, they're a tremendous basketball team, tremendous coach, depth is good, and they go about their business in a quiet way.
You know, you don't have a lot of highlights or headlines.
They just keep getting better and roam right along there.
And pretty soon they're going to jump up and whoop somebody real bad, which they've already done.
Well, I'll tell you one thing.
That Acuff kid for Arkansas, Sonny, is pretty good.
He scored 49 points.
People forgot that John Calipari can coach.
Alabama was fortunate.
They nearly fouled out the entire team by the time they got to double overtime.
But Acuff may end up getting the MVP in the league.
But, Sonny, John Calipari can still coach a little basketball.
It doesn't matter the type of player that you give him.
He adjusted him to the way that he wants to play.
If you saw one John Calipari team, you've basically seen them all from a style.
He's going to have the John Calipari style.
And it's not overwhelming, and it's not one of those that restricts you too much.
But he's got a great style of play that's freedom and also tremendous defense.
And he's really a great coach, I think.
Coach, obviously Florida is right now the talk of the town across the league.
Your thoughts, would you agree with that, and if Florida is that and all that and a bag of chips at number one,
who is the second and or third best teams in the league?
This year has been the worst for me to even think about it because it's just the teams that you would expect them to be there and not there.
But now that it's starting to settle in, it looks to me like you've got an Alabama team that's really good.
You've got an Auburn team that's really good.
So you've got good basketball coming out of the state of Alabama right here.
But this year, in this league, you don't have a really bad team.
Everybody can whip everybody, so the records would be a little bit different.
But I'm really impressed with basketball in the conference.
Sonny, I agree with you.
And I'll tell you one thing, Rick Barnes still knows how to coach, too.
He's got that Tennessee team, and that's going to be quite a game between Alabama and Tennessee on Saturday in Knoxville.
Listen, we always enjoy the great conversation with you.
It's that time of the year, the last two weeks of the regular season and then the SEC tournament.
I know you love this time of the year.
Oh, I do.
Listen, have a great week.
Have a great week, and I hope we can do this again with you real soon.
Oh, any time with you guys, for sure.
You want to save a spot at the table, I guarantee the one, the only legend, former Auburn and VCU head coach, Sonny Smith.
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Stay with us.
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Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
The Score.
Welcome back here.
Time to open the door and say hello to Bruce Marshall.
He is the man.
The place to call Las Vegas.
Busy there is the Las Vegas Insider for BAMSports.net.
Winners and whiners.
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Also at CBS Sportsline and Vegas Insider.
Bruce Marshall, welcome in.
Did you party this weekend like it was February 1980?
How are you?
Yeah, boy.
That was pretty exciting stuff.
It was, I woke up so early, you know, by the time I felt exhausted by what, 7.30 a.m. out here.
Pacific time zone.
So I was pretty much done by the morning after watching that game.
But it was a good fun, good excitement there.
And really capped the whole tournament there was really, really, really, really exciting on the hockey side there.
I can see why Canada would be rather disappointed, though.
They were, well, they had tilted the ice the last two periods.
Really some great chances and only, you know, some star work by Connor Hellebuck in goal.
But I think the story for Canada in the end was I think they did miss Sidney Crosby a lot.
He really organizes the power play well.
And I'm not sure, you know, John Cooper seemed to keep mixing up his lines there, trying to find the right combinations.
But he never really did once Crosby went out earlier in the tournament.
Hellebuck really was something else in goal for USA.
And I think he was the real hero of that.
Now, though, it's back to reality for all these guys.
Hellebuck is not having a good year for Winnipeg there.
He's not in the Vesna conversation.
For Canada, Jordan Bennington was pretty good in goal in the tournament.
He's having a wretched season in St. Louis, which is also having a bad season.
And, oh, by the way, Mike Sullivan, the coach for the U.S. Olympians, good for him.
He's now got an Olympic gold medal along with a couple of Stanley Cups at Pittsburgh.
But he has not been able to turn the trick with the Rangers this season.
I thought he was almost lucky to be keeping his job.
And maybe the Olympics job inflated him somewhat.
But he doesn't have that to fall back on anymore.
And I know a lot of Rangers fans want their team to start playing better, and they have not.
So it's back to the real world now in hockey.
Speaking of Olympics, is it safe to say that the U.S. stole Canada's heart and soul?
I mean, they get the crown in hockey and curling, which was those two sports was to Canada what maple syrup has been over the years.
So they just stole their heart.
That's the beautiful thing about the Olympics, is it not?
Yeah, it is.
And they are really down.
They're also down with the women's team losing the U.S. too.
I mean, they are very upset up there.
But, you know, just one of these things, these things, they can happen in hockey.
And they're still, Canada would still be favored over the U.S. if they played them 10 straight times.
It would be favored every time.
So the U.S. got them in the big one, and that's what mattered.
But it was a lot of what-ifs in that tournament.
I mean, I thought Fibon might have been the best team I saw in that tournament.
That's a whole NHL lineup they had is most of the Dallas Stars on Finland's side.
So that was really sort of an NHL all-star game.
You just divided it up by the countries, put Sweden in there, too.
And, you know, Russia wasn't even participating.
If they were, there's a lot of Russians in the NHL, too.
So in 2030, we'll see if they get back in there.
But these international tournaments can be fun if they really do it right.
And we saw it at Four Nations last year in the NHL, too.
That was really good fun.
And I think they'll go back to that in place of the traditional all-star game once again next year.
We talked last week about the over for the Alabama-Arkansas game, maybe close to 200.
And I texted you about that after it was over with.
I don't think you envision 232, though.
Yeah, the way the season has gone for me sometimes, I would have been perfect if I had the under-231 and lost by a point.
I mean, that was just some sort of game there.
And, you know, what Acuff was doing.
I mean, we will see them both in the dance.
And that's what, you know, if Alabama can get all of its games like that, where it's just up and down the court,
and they can shoot all the threes.
They didn't shoot as many threes in that game as they normally do.
But, I mean, they're capable of beating anybody, even the, you know, it would be, it would take a lot of things falling correctly.
But they all have a chance.
And I think at some point, though, you know, the Oates and the analytics and things with all those three-pointers will end up biting them.
But if there's a chance, it won't.
And they could outscore.
And I think Arkansas is going to keep getting better, too.
Calipari's teams usually do that late in the season, at least they did last year at Arkansas.
So I wouldn't count the Razorbacks out of it either.
There's going to be a big SEC contingent again in the big dance.
And several of them can make noise.
In the huddle with Bruce Marshall, Vegas Insider, amongst others.
Bruce, just moments ago, the judge down in Tuscaloosa yesterday, Bediaco, basically went back to courts trying to still find an open door to get back in.
And then this morning, that same Tuscaloosa judge by the name of Bruce is not going to grant the injunction.
If you're Alabama, at what point do you just say, let's just move on because it's obvious we can win.
At what point does this become too big of a distraction given all the pressure you're already facing just trying to win ballgames?
I think, you know, Harold, it's what, February 24 today?
I think they should move on right now.
I mean, we're two weeks in front of the SEC tournament, and they're not going to get this stuff resolved.
From what I gather, the next step is going to the Alabama Supreme Court and looking for an injunction there.
If they think they can speed that up and get it within the next week, I don't know how the court process goes, you know, in Alabama and how quickly that would work, you know, in Montgomery.
But they're, you know, the other thing is, too, I mean, Bediaco played five games.
They were three and two in those five games.
So I don't know that it's that necessary in the angst that it's really worth it right now.
I am a little surprised that a more of a, you know, localized judge didn't rule in Alabama's favor just because that's the Trinidad-Chambliss theory from Mississippi.
You get a local judge, you're supposed to get a favorable ruling.
But, you know, I hate to see the NCAA win anything.
So I've been sort of cheering for Bediaco just to throw it in the NCAA's face.
And he may end up winning this thing eventually, but it's right now for this season, it's a time thing.
And I just think maybe the tide's better off moving on, but we'll see.
Let me ask you about a couple of games this week in the SEC.
Auburn and Oklahoma tonight.
Porter Moser is on the hot seat, to say the least.
They won a couple of games lately.
Auburn had a big win over Kentucky on Saturday.
Mark Pope went off after the game, and the SEC fined him $25,000 this morning.
And a big game in the SEC.
Tennessee's beaten Alabama five consecutive times.
Alabama's going to Knoxville.
They hit a mid-court shot last year at the buzzer.
That won the game.
Your thoughts tonight.
Auburn, again, needing another win against Oklahoma in a big matchup Saturday afternoon with Alabama,
number 17 at number 22, Tennessee.
I think Auburn is setting up as one of the more fascinating case studies here for the selection committee.
Because the metrics don't look all that bad for them with some of the numbers.
Although, you know, the record, you know, isn't great.
But the losses they have had have been, you know, good.
There's no such thing as really a good loss in all these calculations, although it does help the schedule strength some.
And I think in the end, that schedule strength thing may work in Auburn's favor.
Because it's a top ten, if last I checked, maybe even a top five schedule strength.
So that's one of the factors that might figure it.
Having said that, they got a win tonight, though.
I mean, I think this was a damaging loss.
And, you know, they had five in a row.
You know, it is tough for a team straddling the cut line to lose five straight in February and still get a call on selection Sunday.
And they didn't win that, pull that thing out.
And they tried to lose that game on Saturday against Kentucky, too.
It'd be tough.
But I do agree with you.
Mosher's in some, Mosher's got to be in some trouble here.
And it just hasn't worked.
They're not incapable.
They have a couple of wins that aren't bad.
But you're sitting 3-11 at this stage, 13-14.
I think Auburn should get this in a night.
But if they don't, I think they're starting to trend the wrong way.
I mean, you can't take all these SEC teams into the tournament.
I don't think they get quite as many teams as they got last year on selection Sunday.
And if that's the case, Auburn better not give the committee any reason to look unfavorably upon it.
I agree with you, Bruce.
If I lost to Florida tonight, it'd be one thing.
But you can't lose a team with that record and expect to get any love from the committee.
So, in some ways, playing a team with a bad record can also be bad for you if things go south on you.
Bruce, talk to us about it.
It's obvious that basketball, unlike football, it's a marathon.
I mean, everybody was in love with Bucky Ball at Texas A&M.
Then they were in love with Vanderbilt.
Both teams have come back to earth.
Your thoughts about where things are now, it's hard to believe.
Just three games left in the regular season.
Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, obviously they've learned a lot.
But where are things right now across the league outside of maybe the impenetrable Florida Gators?
Well, I think that's where the main storyline is right now.
And if you look at Florida's losses there, they were most all of them early.
I know there's that one shocker.
They had the Auburn one.
But they had, you know, losses earlier in the season.
And they were close.
And they were against good teams.
I guess they had that one loss in San Diego, too, that I can excuse.
But they, I guess, TCU, but they can, you know, they look like the team to me.
And I think the rest of them are going to be in the mix.
But I really think at this stage, Florida is the only SEC team to me that looks like a Final Four caliber team.
When you look at the whole country, as this season is shaken out here, I'm not sure that I see more than five or six teams actually winning this tournament.
And last year, I had to say double that, or maybe triple.
But I think you got, and Duke certainly made its statement the other night, Michigan will be there, Arizona is there, and Florida, I would say, is the other.
Right now, if you had to give me four teams to make the Final Four, there's your four.
And, you know, Houston's starting to lose some ground here.
Iowa State's lost some games.
I guess UConn could be in there.
You know, as of last week, I thought Illinois might have had a shot to be in there.
And then they lose that game, blow that big lead at UCLA.
I think it's a pretty much closed fraternity this year.
These teams, they can win it.
Florida's one of them.
But there's, I think that's the only one in the SEC that's got a real shot.
Could be wrong, but that's the way I see it right now.
Yeah, I think some of these teams have hit a wall.
Give us your thoughts, Alabama-Tennessee Saturday.
Yeah.
Tennessee's won eight of nine.
And they have really picked up the pace.
By the way, this is a crucial one tonight for Missouri, by the way.
And we'll see how they met.
Missouri's got those six, nine, six, ten guys out there on the perimeter who really caused some matchup problems.
Mitchell and Pierce, so they could be trouble.
But I've, Tennessee is better than I thought it was going to be.
And, you know, I give Coach, you know, I give Coach Barnes a lot of credit what he has done.
And Amon has come on like such gangbusters here.
And he is really, he is really going to, you know, stop, you know, he's very, very difficult to stop.
And we know what Gillespie can do.
They are just solid all run.
I'm fascinated by this game.
They went into Vanderbilt last week.
We know Vanderbilt likes to run like crazy.
And they slowed them down.
And they won that game in Nashville.
So, that impressed me very much.
They also beat, you know, A&M earlier.
Dial clash here.
They get Alabama at home.
I'm kind of thinking Tennessee there.
But once Alabama starts hitting, you know, all these threes, they've got a chance.
But Tennessee is looking to me like a team that has a chance to make a run to the second weekend for sure.
Maybe even a little further.
We'll see.
Bruce Marshall again, amongst other places, Vegas and Saturday.
Always fun to ask.
You're under the radar game for tonight and tomorrow night.
And one final question, Bruce.
LSU is at Ole Miss.
Will Lane Kiffin attend that game?
I think not, unless he comes in a disguise.
He might go fake beard and sunglasses.
Maybe he'll throw up.
Although, who knows?
LSU might have him coaching the team because I don't think Matt McMahon's going to be there much longer.
Okay, here's a couple for tonight and tomorrow.
They're actually out here in the West.
USC, UCLA tonight.
There's always interesting things there.
Hey, I'm working on a book on when Bob Boyd pulled the stall out on UCLA.
He hated me to say stall.
But back in the late 60s and beat Llewells and that.
But anyway, USC is now in a little bit of trouble.
They've lost three in a row.
Gilbert Arenas' son, he got out of school.
They activated him in January.
And he had really been coming on gangbusters.
But apparently he was playing with, like, the flu last week and had a couple of off games.
They're a seven-and-a-half point underdog at UCLA.
I know UCLA's all excited about winning that game against Illinois in the comeback and Donovan Dent with his tie.
I said he'd like drive at the end of the game.
This looks too many points to me.
When this matchup throughout the years has looked close on paper, it has looked close on the court, too.
Seven-and-a-half's too many.
I'll take USC definitely tonight.
In the late-night action in the Big Ten now out in LA.
Tomorrow night, another one out here.
Santa Clara's playing St. Mary's in Moraga.
So St. Mary's is at home.
Very, very big game as far as the cut line goes, especially Santa Clara, which is hanging right around the 11 line,
if you listen to Joe Linardi and some of those others.
Bracketologists, they are really good.
They beat St. Mary's at home earlier.
They have got so much balance and firepower.
This is Herb Sendik's best team he's had there.
I think they go into Moraga and win, and that might be enough to put them on the safe side of the cut line.
But they'll be a slight underdog tomorrow night.
Two very good games.
Late night, West Coast action.
Watch them tonight and tomorrow night.
College basketball, the NBA, hockey.
If there's a sport, Bruce Marshall covers it.
Where can we get online and steal the gold standard?
Where can we get online and get all your 47 platforms to get the absolute latest?
Thank you, Brett.
Yeah, we've got hockey's coming back tomorrow night, Thursday night.
So NHL's back, too.
NBA's back.
College hoops.
It's getting exciting.
Check out my old places, VegasInsider.com.
Also, CBS Sportsline, Sportsline.com.
Picks up there.
Also, fix it with a different twist.
Winnersandwiners.com.
Picksandparlays.com.
Bruce, it's always good to catch up with you, man.
And all we want for Christmas, according to the hockey team, is our two-front tee.
Thanks so much, and have a great week.
Okay, buddy?
Okay, boys.
Thank you.
Thank you, Billy.
Marsha, Vegas Insider, BB.
We don't have to go all the way to Italy to catch some good action coming up this afternoon.
It's high school regional action.
You're on 93.9 and score at four.
Lunderdale County, Marsha, girls, followed by, you guessed it, at 545, if you're on schedule,
the Lunderdale County and Marsha boys.
That's right here on 93.9, the score.
But you don't have to wait that long to get the latest across the SEC with Joe Cox.
Daryl Furman with a special guest spot coming up next hour, along with Andrew Hammond from AL.com.
It's all straight ahead.
Stay with us.
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A conservative Republican who has had 26 years experience in criminal law
is now running for the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 5.
Riggs Walker was raised in the town of Shorter and still lives there.
He earned his degree from Auburn back in 1991 and graduated from the Jones School of Law in 1998.
Walker clerked for a Montgomery Circuit judge and then became a Jefferson County Deputy District Attorney in 1999.
For the past six years, Walker has served as Assistant Attorney General, representing Alabama before states and federal courts.
He says the court needs experienced, principled judges who apply the law as written.
The Republican primary will be held May 19th.
The other qualified GOP candidate in this race is Beth Kellum.
I'll be back with more Alabama stories after this.
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Coffey County authorities have arrested a man for shooting his father during an argument.
32-year-old Joseph Jackson is facing murder charges for the death of 56-year-old Doyle Jackson, which occurred this past Monday morning.
Jackson was captured Monday night after going on the run.
Families of the four victims killed in the 2023 Dadeville mass shooting at a birthday party met this past Monday night at First Baptist Church,
urging prosecutors to take the case to trial instead of considering plea deals for the six defendants.
The prosecutor in this case is District Attorney Mike Segaris, who has already met with the families,
but has also said that the law does not require him to follow their wishes.
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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Join us for UNA Basketball Night from 7 to 8.30 p.m. on Monday nights from Lost Pizza Shoals.
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27 tournament trips.
Five journeys to Omaha.
72 major leaguers.
It's good to be a Bama baseball fanatic.
Swing and a fly ball lifted high in the air.
Deep left field.
A go-ahead two-run homer over the high left field wall at Auburn.
Alabama's favorite pastime plays right here on your home for Alabama baseball.
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Airtime is 5.45 with the first pitch at 6 here on 93.9 The Score.
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Tonight mostly cloudy with possible gusty winds overnight and a low near 40.
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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.
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 free ride around the Tennessee Valley.
And for Joe Cox who spins every Saturday down south.
It's because he works at Saturday down south.
Joe, welcome in.
How are you?
Good.
All right.
Everything going along pretty smoothly here.
I know getting to see a little bit of baseball gives us some hope that maybe it won't be as cold as it's been the last day or two.
Speaking of hope, let's go to the Pope.
And he is a little bit poorer today because of his trip to Auburn over the weekend.
He did not like the officiating.
He had to pay out of the teeth this week because of his opinions.
Your thoughts on the game and if you're a coach, obviously when you're perfect, you're going to say, why'd you do that?
But these coaches, it's about passion, is it not?
It is.
I felt like the hungrier team came up with the win in that game.
You know, Auburn really did a good job scrapping to make it happen there at the end.
The team that makes the last play is generally going to be the team that's in good shape in the SEC.
And, you know, they were able to do that.
You know, kind of gets them a little bit off the bubble.
But for Kentucky, you're sliding, you know, in the opposite direction.
You're going right toward it.
So these are two teams that I don't think are resting particularly easy right now.
Joe, talk to us about Kentucky.
The reason if you're brand new to the show, you live in the Bluegrass State.
You know it better than we do.
Is it sad to say that Kentucky basketball is a cousin to Alabama football?
There's only one thing that's going to make the fans happy.
And you know what that is.
It's the big C, the championship.
That you get the honeymoon, but then you've got to get down to reality.
Do you see a lot of parallels between what Pope's going through there and maybe what DeBoer's going through at Alabama?
I mean, these fans, they'll give you a little slack, but not a whole lot of slack.
Absolutely.
I think that's a very similar situation.
I actually, you know, this morning I had this very thought about the two programs and how we're in this world now with NIL money and the portal.
You know, there's going to be more parity.
There's going to be some Indiana footballs in there who pop up.
And, you know, I can't say Michigan basketball.
You know, they've had some runs here and there, but that's not usually a team that you're going, wow, they're as good as anybody.
So, you know, the upside is if you're a fan of those teams, great, good for you.
If you're an Alabama football fan, if you're a Kentucky basketball fan, parity is not really what you're in the market for.
Nope.
You want the good old always have it to have it again.
And it's going to be harder and harder to see that.
Now, how much patience is there going to be?
My guess is about as much in Lexington as in Tuscaloosa.
Yeah, your colleague Adam Spencer had his top five contenders for SEC Men's Basketball Player of the Year.
And you can't argue with a lot of these guys.
Thomas Howell from Florida.
Josh Hubbard from Mississippi State.
He went off on Auburn last week.
Tyler Tanner from Vanderbilt, who has had a very good season averaging nearly 19 points a game.
LeBaron Phylon from Alabama went off for 35 on the Hogs.
And Darius Acuff, who went off on 49 on Alabama.
Who's Joe Cotton?
We've got two, again, four games, two weeks left in the season for the tournament.
Who is your MVP of the league right now?
I think those last two are the guys who I would kind of circle.
No disrespect to Florida, but for them, I feel like it's largely been a team situation.
It's hard to pick out one guy who's the big gun, and sometimes that works really well for them because you can't just shut down one guy.
Phylon, you know, came in.
I think people said that's probably the best scorer in the league, and he's been right there.
He's pretty much lived up to that.
Acuff, you know, you see that's that John Calipari guard, the guy who can just be the alpha dog.
And, you know, you're going to have some games where it doesn't work, but you're going to have some others where he's the best guy on the floor.
So, to me, those two guys, just in terms of total body of work and where they're at right now, those are the two I kind of have mentally circled.
Joe Cox, Saturday down south.
We'll get to see a couple of those names that Brett mentioned tomorrow night on the same court.
Mr. Hubbard with State, Mr. Phylon with Alabama.
Joe, your thoughts about, obviously, I know what the paper game says in that game, but given the psychology,
Alabama's got a pretty big game on Saturday with arch-rival Tennessee and after that Auburn.
But your thoughts about Bama's next two games.
First, the date with State in Tuscaloosa and then on the road to a place that's tough even for the Boston Celtics to win in Knoxville.
Yeah, absolutely.
You can't afford to look past this first one and, you know, Josh Hubbard's exhibit A as to why that 35-point half.
And, yes, I said 35-point half against Auburn is testimony to what can happen if you let that little dude get an inch of space.
So, that's going to be agenda matter number one.
You know, Nate Oates has got to have one and probably two guys everywhere he goes, make his life difficult.
He's still going to score a lot of points, but you can make him, you know, use a lot of shots and not make it easy.
And if they do that, I think they're going to be in pretty good shape.
Tennessee, you know, boy, right now, Alabama and Tennessee, two of the teams, I think, can have about the best momentum in terms of their situation.
Alabama hit kind of a rough patch, but they've really done well and played through that, and Tennessee did too.
And they're both, you know, kind of coming around and rounding into form.
Obviously, everybody wants to be Florida.
You want to be the one who's number one in the league by a couple games.
But if you can't do that, it's not a bad thing to be where those two are.
Joe Lenardi's been saying the SEC could get nine or ten teams in.
In fact, right now, there are nine teams with an above .500 record, 8-6, Georgia 7-7.
Alabama's got them next Tuesday night, then Auburn 6-8 with the game at Oklahoma.
We'll see how this pans out.
Auburn, I think, is going to eventually be in if they win some games with their strength of schedule.
The hard one wins.
How many teams from the SEC, according to Joe Cox, would get in the tournament?
I'd say nine or ten is a reasonable thing.
I mean, you look at the league, and those bottom four, I think you can just strike them out.
They're not, you know, unless they do something insane in Nashville, they're not going anywhere.
Mississippi State's barely above them.
So that's the five.
I think you can just take them off the table.
That leaves 11.
Now, out of that 11, yeah, seven or eight are pretty well locked solid.
The battle's going to be to get that ninth spot and maybe that tenth spot.
The only thing that's going to hurt the league is not having some big superpower, Goliath, to be number one overall.
It's a quality league top to bottom, but that doesn't always resonate.
Florida's very good, but Florida's not the glamour team right now.
So that might pinch the SEC come Selection Sunday.
Joe Cox, Saturday down south.
Joe, can you make us a promise?
One of these days, we can talk about basketball on the court instead of in a courtroom.
More this morning from our neck of the woods.
Judge refuses Charles Mediaco's request to play Alabama basketball amid appeal.
We know yesterday Charles said, I'm going to appeal today.
Judge Daniel Pruitt says, not so fast, my friend, denied his injunction earlier from this month.
And basically, if we understand it right, here's what it means in a nutshell.
Won't be able to play with Alabama against state or matchups to come in the postseason as of now.
But his appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court remains active.
Joe, we asked this earlier.
At what point does Alabama say, this is becoming too big of a distraction, and it's superseding what we need to focus on, and that is a laser focus on what we can control?
Yeah, I think you're getting very near that time, just because you don't want to be fiddling with the rotation.
And again, I got him back and kind of had some trouble with that very thing.
At some point, the anticipated return is smaller than the difficulty for the guys to have.
But yeah, what a weird situation, and it feels like we're all getting more legal news than we signed up for on the sports beat these days.
But, you know, if the NCAA ever muscles up and decides to get back in the policing game, it might cut some of this down, but it also might not.
We'll find out, I guess.
We're also getting in that time of the year to where there's speculation about coaches leaving the league, whether they want to or not.
Porter Moser at Oklahoma.
McMahon at LSU, a lot of people more or less look at that as a given.
Lamont Paris at South Carolina.
Chris Beard is a good coach, but they're in a long losing streak, and this year is pretty much over with him.
Joe, how many changes would be made in the SEC at the end of the season?
You know, less than a handful would seem the likely answer, I think, between the fact that you're going to get more teams in the tournament and out.
I think that's going to, you know, obviously help on that front.
And, you know, you get a few guys who are still just kind of finding their way, and it wouldn't seem right to cut them loose.
I don't think we'll have as much turnaround as we did in football.
So, you know, three or four seems like the outside limit.
But I'm going to improvise a second here and put in a plug for a guy who I'm going to be watching for.
And I think however many openings there are, keep an eye out for Josh Schertz from St. Louis.
Just a really big believer in that guy as a coach.
He and I have, we were there at different times, but we both have passed through Lincoln Memorial as a Division II school.
And the only thing that Schertz does is win games.
He's not glamorous.
He's not going to make headlines or win press conferences.
But some school is going to grab that guy from St. Louis, and they're going to get a guy who's just going to show up and win games.
And they'll be glad they did.
Joe, whoever gets him is going to get a unique coach.
But how many coaches hire someone whose mascot is a Billiken?
So there you have it with St. Louis.
I promise you he's going to be unique if and when that happens.
But your thoughts, speaking of coaches who are finding out that the SEC basketball is a grind.
At one time, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt were the rock stars, and now they've come back to earth.
Your thoughts about just the statement that those two teams make and getting ready for the postseason.
Can they get their mojo back in the postseason, especially Bandits in their own backyard?
Yeah, I mean, they certainly can.
It's not like their success in the early part of the season was a fluke.
I do think they kind of ran into the grind of the league.
You're talking about two teams that played two of the easier pre-conference schedules.
So it's a little different when you play, you know, a tough game a month or a tough game twice a month
than when you're playing two tough games a week.
So they've kind of gotten exposed to that.
And let's remember, you know, still they're in that class of kind of still baby steps in the SEC.
I think both schools are thrilled with what they've gotten.
But at the same time, yeah, I think one or both of them are still, you know, good to right the ship
and put up a good run.
Vandy seems like the one that may be a little more suited for March, but time will tell.
Joe, great stuff.
As always, listen, good luck.
Joe Conks is going later this afternoon to a place.
Harold Bugg knows well, the dentist's office.
As you continue to increase his pension, he may be retiring at the end of the year.
Harold's dentist is probably going to retire this year.
I've got my own care.
You know, because he continues to contribute to it.
Joe, where can we get online?
I know you've got baseball rankings later this week, my friend.
Where can we get online to get all the good stuff?
Yeah, I encourage everybody, take good care of those chompers, unlike us.
Thank you.
But in the meanwhile, if you're in a waiting room, pull up Saturday down south
and read a little sports while you're there.
And maybe it'll do the teeth and the dental nerves both.
Yeah, and Joe, I think we're the only two people in there.
It's not a hockey player getting their teeth done.
So good luck, my friend.
Joe, listen, man, have a great week in spite of that dreaded trip to the dentist, okay?
All right, guys.
Take care.
Thank you, man.
Joe Cox, Saturday down south.
Was a rock star back in the day, rock group called The Letterman.
Coming up, Daryl Furman with a different letterman on deck.
Stay with us.
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From the University of Alabama, this is Crimson Tide Today.
It's Daily Update on Bama Sports and it's brought to you by Vector Security Champions Lane, the best pregame fan fest in college football.
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Hello again, everybody.
I'm Roger Hoover.
Here are postgame thoughts from Alabama women's basketball head coach Christy Curry following Alabama's dramatic win on Sunday at Florida.
Yeah, just absolutely incredibly proud.
You know, just thought our kids really embraced hard.
I think Florida is as talented.
They're really talented for McDonald's All-Americans and know their record's a little bit deceiving, but they're incredibly talented.
And to me, probably the best point guard in the league, one of the top two or three.
She's really hard to defend.
So a huge road win.
I'm just so happy for our kids, man.
They've been fighting and working and staying at it hard.
You know, it's called the SEC.
And I'm just so happy for them today to get a win.
That's just all we needed was a win.
Crimson Tide and get seven three-pointers made by Jessica Timmons.
A new career high.
34 points to Mia Scott.
21 points.
How did those players just keep you going offensively in this game?
Yeah, just I thought Jess's leadership, Carly's leadership in huddles, the positivity.
I'll have more in a moment.
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The Score.
Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
The Score.
Welcome back in my, oh my, time just by.
Just ask Daryl Furman.
It's been a while since we've been in a huddle with Daryl.
He's the founder and president of the Letterman, the USA, and One Yard at a Time Gala coming up.
Daryl, welcome in.
How are you?
Hey, guys.
Thanks for having me on this afternoon.
Hey, bud.
You're more than welcome.
The last time that Brett and I broke out our tuxes, I think we went to the inauguration of Lincoln and Grant.
But you're about to break out your tux again.
And, Jerry, it's been a while.
If you've got any tips on how to fill out those moth-eaten and the tuxes, we'll appreciate it.
But, Jerry, you're about to break out your tux again.
Talk to us about the Letterman of the USA and One Yard at a Time Gala coming up.
Well, I'll just say this to you guys.
We're a working man's gala, so we don't do tuxedos.
We do a coat, a tie, and cocktail.
There you go.
And, you know, we don't feed rubber chickens at our gala.
We have short ribs because Chris Gray, who played for the Miami Dolphins, played for Auburn University, he likes them some short ribs.
And so does a fellow you guys know by the name of Hoss Johnson.
So we don't do the rubber chickens at the Letterman of the USA.
We have a real gala with short ribs and orange rolls at the club in Birmingham, Alabama, which is on the 27th of February, and the door is open at 6 p.m. to the general public.
Talk to us about the whines of it all, Daryl.
Obviously, for the folks who are not familiar, if you're there, you know.
But talk to us about what is all involved with the Letterman of the USA.
Well, if you're not familiar with the Letterman of the USA, just let me tell you this.
We're a national 5013C nonprofit organization that is based in central Alabama and does something quite unique from our history perspective.
We were originally involved in disaster relief from the tornado of 427-11.
But over the years, we've grown into something much more resilient, and we help veterans transition from their military careers into a civilian life.
And we do that with multiple fascinating programs that hit them on every level of that transition.
We can help the homeless veteran with shelters for heroes and someday with the Heroes Village, and that's our homeless village that we'll have someday.
We can help the veteran with his utility bill or his water bill or his rent.
We can help them with food through our Foods for Heroes program.
We have a program called Turkeys for Heroes that each year provides the veteran with basically a hot turkey meal right the week before Thanksgiving.
Then, if you're a veteran, you have a child in need that needs maybe a laptop for scholastics and you can't afford it, well, we can do that, too.
We have a program called Laptops for Heroes.
Guys, we're now partnering with the Birmingham Barons.
And we give laptops to the Birmingham Barons during the innings, you know, the half to the innings or whatever during the baseball game.
We'll go out on the field and we'll give the kids a laptop because we believe at the Letterman USA that if you impact the child, you impact the future.
But we go even deeper than that.
We're now doing a program called Shelters for Heroes.
Everybody knows that the Letterman USA for years had a program called Interiors for Heroes, which we closed out on December the 24th.
And so the reason we did that is because people like Hoss and myself are in our 60s now, and it was a very intense physical program, Interiors for Heroes, because there had to be a lot of furniture lifted.
So we decided that we would close it out, and we did that with our swan song up in a place called Jonesville, Tennessee.
You might have heard of it, 22 trillion gallons of water dropped on it, and I think they said that's the equivalent of one year and seven months of water over Niagara Falls.
And we went out up there with our, I think it was 1,500 square foot of warehouse of furniture from the Mountain Brook and the Homewood and the Vestavia area,
and we helped the veterans up there to close that program out.
And then we went in partnership with the Jefferson County Commission and the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham,
and we started a program called Shelters for Heroes.
Because, you know, guys, we talked about before in the past how we had this program that helped these veterans after they got an apartment.
They would basically, wouldn't have anything but a bed once they got this apartment from the VA or Salvation Army or Priority Veterans or Volunteers of America.
So what we realized in our work with them when we decided we'd close out Interiors for Heroes,
we realized that there was a need, once they get into this program, it takes anywhere from a week to two weeks to get them off the street, okay?
And so Shelters for Heroes comes in and swoops them off the street, gets them in a hotel, a nice hot meal, and either air-conditioned or heating.
And to our astonishment, guys, this is what really took us back when we started this program late fall.
We've helped more families than we've helped individual veterans.
I'm talking veterans of either three or four families.
And one family we put up, the mom had cancer and the child had cancer.
We put them up for seven weeks.
Wow. Great story.
And then that brings us to the future, and the future is what do veterans and what do athletes have in common?
Head trauma.
Yeah.
And so it's a natural fit for us to go with Chris Nowlinsky and the Concussion and CTE Foundation in form a partnership.
And it was interesting to me, when they decided to come into Alabama, they could have done what they did with the University of Florida,
and they could have basically, they could have partnered with them like Danny Warfel like they did.
But instead, what they chose to do is come into Alabama and ask the little Thomas, the Tank Engine, known as the Letterman of the USA,
to partner with them to bring awareness to concussion and CTE, which, if you're listening to an audience, is not familiar with CTE.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy has already taken one of my teammates, Kevin Turner, and it is in the process, I believe,
and taken my senior classmate at Alabama, Kerry Goode.
And I can't remember the guy at Auburn that's a basketball player that has it, but I'm sorry because I'm getting old, guys.
I'm 63, and so I'm getting a little old.
That's all right.
You're young.
You're young.
You're young, trust me.
Darrell, let me ask you about the one yard at a time.
Gaylor, again, Friday night at the club.
Tell us how our audience can get tickets, and you're honoring your athletic honoree this year.
He is a guy by the name of Stadman Shealy, former quarterback in Alabama, and then Alan Cook is your military honoree.
Yeah, okay, so Alan is a very interesting, his most humble military honoree.
United States Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Alan Cook is probably one of the most humble Marines I've ever met.
Not only did he serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, in combat, I don't mean in real combat.
After he finished, that wasn't enough for him.
He found a guy named Sean Ryan, and he started helping him with doing embassy duty and all this stuff you hear about companies like Blackwater
and what all they do that was founded by Eric Prince.
So Alan has had a long career in service to the United States, and so he is a perfect honoree.
And I'm hoping you guys will get him on because he knows a little bit about something called CBI and head trauma, which is the other side of this equation.
So I'm hoping that you guys can get it worked out with Elaine and y'all can get him on because he is a tremendous resource for me.
In the past, he used to run an organization called Alabama Veterans before he left Alabama Veterans.
And he's just a great resource for veterans in the state.
And I've got a question to you guys.
Here's a Stubman-Sheely question that maybe your audience trivia.
Do you guys know who the last host of the Bear Bryant show was?
Let me guess.
Stubman-Sheely?
Yes, sir.
That's right.
It was Stubman-Sheely.
I got one right.
I finally got one.
If I go to Jeopardy, I'm going to remember that, Daryl.
Well, you know, I've got a couple more that blows people's minds.
But, you know, most people would never believe that the person that gave the halftime talk at the 1986 Sun Bowl was not Walter Ray Perkins.
It was somebody else.
And it is an incredible story.
And most people, most Alabama fans have no idea why Alabama came out in that second half and put a whooping,
and as Louis Cazar used to say in his books on Washington.
And it wasn't because of any of the coaches at Alabama that gave the halftime talk.
It was somebody that you would have never, ever believed that did it.
But I found out that day what a motivator that coach was, and I was stunned.
You guys who that was?
Who's that?
Don Shua.
Wow.
How about that?
He had a pretty good run at the end.
Most Alabama fans have no clue to that.
Don Shua spoke to us at halftime.
And if you go back and watch that second half, the Alabama team that came out and took on Washington, it was night and day.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think we put a whooping on them.
I think we put a whooping on them.
Yes, you did.
Daryl, I've never seen a nonprofit organization grow as much as yours has in 15 years.
But where can we get online and get more information about the organization?
L-O-T-U-S-A dot org.
And I'm going to say the reason the little Thomas the Tank Engine, the Letterman USA, grew out of a flag football game into one of Alabama's now veteran nonprofits.
Actually, when you think about the state of Alabama and its veterans, you think about the Letterman USA.
It's because God has had his hands on this organization.
I remember one night, right after the flag football game, it was the season right after that, and I was at the Ole Miss game.
And Keith Dunham was there with Tommy Ford as you came into the A-Club entrance downstairs in the stadium.
And I told Keith Dunham, and I said, you know, I didn't ask for this mantle, but he said, this mantle is on you.
And I never forget those words because I knew what he meant, and I knew what I was supposed to do at that point in time.
I was really a little, I guess I was a little, didn't understand the whole thing.
But when God puts something on your heart, guys, you go with it.
Here you go.
Don't mess with the father, I guarantee you.
Darrell, listen, man, all the best to you.
Thank you so much.
I know it's going to be another success, and let's try to do it again as soon as possible, okay?
And I hope you guys will have us back when we get ready to make the blitz with Concussion and CTE Foundation.
You know, I'd like to get those guys from Boston to get on the radio with you, too, or some kind of way that we could do that.
I think that would be great.
That's right.
We'll save my space.
They can park the car anywhere down here.
So, in the meantime, stay safe out there, Darrell, okay?
All right.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you, bud.
Darrell Furman, he is the founder and president of Letterman of the USA.
Coming up to the AL.com family, and Andrew Hammond on deck.
Stay with us.
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Progressive presents The Sports Flash on 93.9.
The Score.
In college baseball action tonight, Alabama's on the road to play at number 12.
Southern Miss, Alabama is 7-1.
Southern Miss is off to a 6-1 start to the season.
North Alabama will play at Samford.
North Alabama is 6-2 to start the year, while the Samford Bulldogs are 2-5 in conference play.
South Alabama is on the road to play at southeastern Louisiana.
The Jaguars 5-2 to start the baseball season.
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Tune in tonight for Northwest regional action, and it's the 3-8 girls and boys finals.
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The boys game at 545.
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Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
Welcome back in.
It's an absolute pleasure for us to hear someone you read just about every day there at AL.com.
Andrew Hammond.
It taught a heck of a journey to get to our neck of the woods.
It started out in Wichita, Kansas.
It goes on to the Detroit Free Press.
And now, if I'm wrong, Andrew, over the last three years, sports editor of AL.com.
Heck of a journey, Andrew, from lions and tigers and wolverines to now covering elephants and tigers in our neck of the woods.
Andrew, welcome in.
Andrew, how are you?
I'm doing well.
You forgot to skip the three-year jaunt in Washington covering Huskies, Seahawks, Sounders, and Mariners.
Not bad.
It's all good.
Look, man.
Look, as somebody who has lived this career, I'm like, let me not leave any stone unturned.
But excited to be on with you guys.
Andrew, that's what I like about it because sometimes a lot of folks in this business can be accused of waving, you know, the pom-poms as far as being what they call a homer.
But you've been out there.
You've been with pros.
You've been in college.
What's been, as far as putting us on the Super Bowl, how has it enabled you to see the passions of the Northwest?
Obviously, there in Detroit, you've got a team right down the interstate called Ann Arbor there in Michigan.
And now, Alabama and Auburn.
That has to be an interesting experience for you.
It's fascinating because, you know, I mean, college football, I think the one thing that we love about not just college football, but college sports in general, is the regionality that it offers us.
You know, like, obviously, down here in Alabama, Iron Bowl, SEC, that goes without being said.
Kind of the same thing with the Big Ten, but, you know, the Pacific Northwest being, you know, in Pac-12 country for the final days of the Pac-12.
I don't care about this new Pac-12 with, you know, all of these, you know, Mountain West schools.
No, you, no.
I love me some OG Pac-12.
So, just being there and being from Kansas, kind of getting the, I haven't been in ACC country yet, but still getting a sense of what, you know, the region look like across the country.
It's super special.
So, having an appreciation for, you know, Big 12 football or Big 12 sports, the Big Ten, Pac-12, and obviously the SEC.
So, when I see somebody kind of trash one region, I'll sit there and go, wait, hold on, hold on one second.
There's some good ball being played over there.
You might want to pay attention a little bit.
But your thoughts on this, Andrew, as far as here, let's face it, Alabama's unique because we don't have pro sports.
Our joke is it's football.
It's college football 365 days a year, unless it's a leap year.
And then to add one, you've got a good perspective.
How does the passion here on, say, in February, June, July, when it comes to college ball across the country, including there, down the road from Ann Arbor?
And I will say this is a full compliment.
It is hilarious.
So, when I first got here, I was covering a little bit of the SEC baseball tournament.
And I'm trying to find my way, trying to find, you know, where I'm supposed to be seated.
And a security guard sees my name tag, and he's like, oh, you must be new with AL.com.
And I'm like, yes, sir.
And his next question was, which side?
And I'm over here going, oh, we're doing that already?
Okay.
So, to disappoint him and everybody else, I am a die-hard Notre Dame fan since I was four years old.
So, suffering built character, kids.
You got that.
Andrew, your story, and you write many of them, about the SEC basketball power rankings, and obviously with two weeks left in the regular season before we get to Nashville, I think we're beginning to get a little bit better idea about who the top five teams are in the SEC.
And I agree with you.
Florida's number one.
They've got a two-game lead over everybody else.
But they've got Texas and Arkansas on their schedule coming up.
Alabama's won six consecutive games, but a big game with your number three team.
Tennessee, we'll see if two and three swap with your updated rankings next week.
Arkansas, certainly with Calipari in the game of maybe the century with Alabama and Arkansas and Kentucky five.
I agree with your top five.
Talk a little bit about your logic with your top five teams.
To me, it's who has been playing good ball and who I believe, if we ended the season today, how would I rank them?
It's been a lot of fun kind of charting this along and seeing the rise and the ups and downs of some of the teams in the league.
I mean, obviously, Florida stands out.
I think they're playing some really good ball.
I think their best game of the year, quite frankly, I know people may want to point at the Alabama game, but to me, their best game was going up against Kentucky a few weeks ago.
I thought that was a really, really solid game.
They've got to go to Lexington at the end of the season, which should be very interesting if things unfold.
But yeah, no, I think, you know, the top five right now, I think if we had to end the season today, that would be the top five.
But at the same time, you know, I was talking a little earlier about the story of the season, you know, Texas A&M, to me, at one point, I was like, okay, these guys might not only be fighting for an SEC championship, but if, you know, the ball bounces their way, they could be fighting for a top two seed.
And we see where they're at now, you know, sitting at number nine, and look, that's just the nature of this conference.
I mean, you know, you can sit here, and we talk about these leagues, and these, you know, I know, I think in football, it's kind of a drawback to have all these huge leagues playing each other.
But I think in basketball, it offers us a really good story, a really good case for, okay, this conference is the best conference.
This conference, you know, is better in these ways.
And so I think right now, if you had to, and I'm not saying this because, you know, I reside here, and I received my mail in the South, but I would say that the SEC is probably the best league in college basketball, top to bottom.
If you want to make a case for the Big 12, I get it.
I would listen to it.
I think the Big 12, the top half of the Big 12 is probably better, but I think overall, the SEC, look.
The Big 12 could probably put four teams in the Final Four.
The SEC, I think, could probably put three, but at the same time, there's a bulk of the SEC that I think can make a deep run in March that I don't think the middle sections of the Big 12 can do.
Andrew Hellman is a sports editor of AL.com.
Back to that subject of football.
Our friends over at CBS Sports, they put out their top ten list of coaches, I guess, is the best way to put it, with their Dockers on the hot seat.
And Mr. Board, Alabama, is ranked number eight on that list.
Do you agree with their friends at CBS Sports, Andrew?
I don't agree.
And frankly, and maybe this is because I've, you know, I might be, you know, still naive to the whole sense of Alabama, you know, struggling.
To me, I think that the fact that you're at a Tiffany brand and you have not done the thing that the guy before you did, which I think, you know, whether it be following Vince Lombardi or following Bill Jackson or following Bear Bryant, you don't want to be the guy that follows the guy.
You want to be the guy, like, three guys from there, where there's still, like, a little, you know, memory, hey, it's far enough gap.
But, no, I don't think Kalen DeBoer should be on the hot seat next year or entering this coming season.
I mean, I think given the fact that he has made the playoff with Alabama, they won a game in the playoff, they won a road game.
They are the first team to win on the road in the college football playoff.
So if there's ever, like, a trivia night or something, remember that one.
But I think that Kalen DeBoer is just fine.
I think the fact that, you know, the two of the last three games Alabama played were not great, and that's going to leave a sour taste in somebody's mouth, obviously.
But for him to be on the hot seat, I get it.
I understand the logic.
I think if you were to put him, if you had to put him on a list, he, like, that, it would have to be near the bottom.
So I, frankly, wouldn't have put him there, but I understand why.
Going into this season, you know, ask me February 24th, 2027.
If he's still on that list, we'll see.
So, which I think, if they get back to the playoff, to me, that in this age of playoff expansion and all of that, if you can get back to the playoff, that is a win.
That's a win.
So anybody listening who's upset at that, it will be okay.
Things could be worse.
You could be awkward.
Speaking of which, the honeymoon is still on down on the plains.
He can get away.
Even if he leaves the lid up, he still makes no sense down there.
So, since it's the honeymoon, your thoughts, what is a realistic expectation for the honeymoon season on the plains?
I would say bowl eligibility.
I think that bowl eligibility, because, to be completely honest, if, you know,
it's not for a couple of bounces for Auburn the last two years, they're probably playing in a bowl game.
You know, people forget that, I would say, and I know that people at Auburn hate to see work close, but, you know, you look at the Texas A&M game and the Oklahoma game,
and you're sitting there just absolutely frustrated because you know that you had those games in hand.
You had a shot to win those games.
You didn't have the horses to do it.
I mean, heck, look at the Georgia game.
Then, against Kentucky, which I might go down as the worst game in the history of Western civilization.
Sorry, I had to watch that one.
If you watched it, you just saw it.
But, no, I'm intrigued by the massive shift of players from USF going to Auburn.
I think that's going to be intriguing.
I mean, I think that, I wouldn't say that proof of concept is there, but you see a very good example at Indiana where they jettisoned a bunch of players from Signetti at James Madison,
and they had back-to-back playoff appearances, one national championship game.
So, you know, clearly it can be done, and there's success there, but I think that we're still in the stage of trying to figure out, okay, does it work for, like, what's the situation that may be presented themselves?
But I think, you know, to keep the honeymoon going, ball eligibility, and win those games that, you know, you were, quote-unquote, close in last year.
And if that means you're going to have to wreck somebody's season along the way, that's college football, baby.
Yeah, absolutely.
Andrew, we have enjoyed the conversation and delighted to introduce you to our audience.
Listen, you have got a tremendous staff that we work with very regularly.
Ben Thomas on Mondays, Thomas Ashworth, Randy Kennedy, those guys do a great job with high school football recruiting, Craig Stevenson, kind of the jack-of-all-trades, and delighted to be working with you.
Where can we get online and get your stuff and the teams?
Well, AL.com, obviously.
We're cranking out stuff every single day.
Some of the most talented people in the business really enjoy what we do with the staff, whether it be, you know, pro sports, obviously college sports, but high school sports with Final Four coming up next weekend or next week.
So, I'll be down at Legacy Arena looking forward to seeing that.
So, yeah, just AL.com.
And if you want to follow me on socials, Blue Sky, I'm AHAM on there.
So, appreciate it, guys, and look forward to doing this again soon, hopefully.
Thank you.
See you back at you, Andrew.
And if you go to Notre Dame or South Bend, wait about June.
Don't go now, okay?
Okay, that's fine.
That's fine.
Too much snow there by the lake.
Andrew Hammond, sports editor at AL.com.
BB, are you ready for some basketball here on 93.9 The Score tonight?
Yeah, we have got Mars Hill, Lauderdale County Boys and Girls Herald coming up this afternoon.
In fact, the girls, that final for the Northwest region beginning at 4 and immediately following that is going to be Mars Hill Boys and Lauderdale County at approximately 545.
And after that, are you ready for some pizza and UNA basketball here on 93.9 BB?
Always ready to listen to UNA basketball and eat pizza.
That's all straight ahead right here on 93.9 The Score.
It's going to take care of business for now.
On behalf of BB, Greg, James Blair, the entire crew here, Harold Bogg, thank you so much for your time today.
Let's do it again tomorrow, noon to two for the Bumult Bug Show back here on Sports Radio 93.9 The Score.