1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Evric Gray (Former UNLV Basketball star): May 20th, 10am

Episode Date: May 20, 2022

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It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the couple Chevrolet GMC Studios, here is your host, Derek Pearson, presented by Beatrice Bakery, on 937 The Ticket and the Ticket FM.com. Sometimes you've got to let the cult of personality play out. 402, 464-5, sorry to have, and text on a hundred-lincoln hotline. if you want to be into what we're doing, it's going to be a busy hour and lots to get to.

I want to say thank you to you folks. Congratulations for making it through the week, but I want to say thank you for hanging out with us all week and getting us through these days. It's greatly appreciated. Live video stream is up. Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and now Twitter Live is up. So you can see the video stream there as well.

Bravo, well done. Lots to talk about with the NBA and Nick Sabin and Jimbo, Fisher and sports in general. Everything is wacky. Everything is wonky. Nothing is normal, and we love it. So let's bring in our guest, hit this man's music. Rico, if you would please.

Here's a guy that gives them more depth at UNLV. Everett Gray. He brings nine points off the bench for Coach Tarkhanian. In less than 20 minutes of playing a game. Here he'll have a chance. Oh, as he goes up for the dump, Miller takes a piece of the arm. Two, two on Miller now.

Team foul number five. Here's another basketball player with a baseball background. He was a third round pick of the Astros, and 87 was Everett Gray. Let's bring in the EV, Mr. Gray. Coach, how are you doing this this morning? Thanks for doing this. I am good.

Driving to Las Vegas for a tournament, hanging out with my guys, and mostly our guys. and hopefully our guys can play well this weekend. Yeah. What kind of tournament is this? It's an AAU tournament with Las Vegas Knicks. They're an Adidas-sponsored team, and Compton Magic is in it, some really good teams.

We're going to lace them up and see what happens. Play hard and see what happens. Where is the tournament? What facilities? It's at the Tarkadian Center. Believe it or not. So we're going to play at the Tartanian Center right behind Imperial Palace. Okay.

One of the last old hotels that left in Utah, even in Las Vegas. You know them all. You know them all. You know them all. We've been talking about this whole recruiting thing with Nick Sabin and Javot Fisher. I got to ask the question, man. So how much do we not know or understand about money and recruiting in college sports? You guys don't know.

It's a lot you don't know about it. The thing is about college basketball or football or any sport, there's always people around the program. And around the program people is usually people with a lot of money. and it happens everywhere. Every school has a a guy that are alumni that graduated from there that has a lot of money

and there's a lot of them. So it's just the people around the program that you guys don't know or the average person don't know about that helps college students student athletes

get through college, let's put it that way. Is the focus in the wrong place, right? Because throughout the history of college sports, the people, those around the program people, want to do it for a couple of reasons. One, they're there to be close to the program because it helps them feed the ego, right? Their ego of being able to hang out with Tarkhanian,

be able to hang out with Larry Johnson, you know, Stacey Ogwin, to be close to the team to the national champions. That's not unique to UNLV. That's every major program in the country. Yeah, that is. I mean, you can go to any program. It's always those guys around your program. I mean, like I told you guys over the stories of over the time I've been on your show,

People want to hang out and be around you, and we're a really good college team, right, D.P? So we had celebrities, movie stars, you know, traveling with us, being on a bus with us. And it wasn't just ordinary people. It was some heavy hitters that wanted to be around our program. So, you know, the temptations for these kids, even back in the day, it's hard to say no.

Coming from the situation you come from, it's just hard to turn down something. Like, you know, when, like, that old Nick Saban, you notice he started backfettering like Dion Sanders, one Jimbo said, hey, you want me to tell you what's really going on, Alabama is getting these dudes. And you notice Nick was like, oh, hold on. He knows, but he's one of his exorcists.

And that's why he, you know, he was backsteading like Gerald Green. you know, and that's why he was a little nervous. That's why I think he came out and said something about, you know, I'm sorry, I apologize about what he said. You know, it always happened at a function like that. And D.P., you know what they do before those functions, you know. Yep. We may have some cocktails and you forget where you're at.

I've heard what happens at these things. I've never actually been to them. Allegedly. Allegedly. as far as you know. But this is the thing. So to your knowledge, is it possible for a Power 5 program

to not have paid athletes at any point? No. Right. And the thing is that before all this NIL stuff, I'm all for these kids who get paid. And people always talk about all you get to free education. I'm like, come. man, you know, like at a Nebraska football game, you know, one section at a home game

paying for the student athlete, you know, one section for one home game. Or you can just say one home game. And all the money they bring it into the school is ridiculous. And I think they shouldn't get paid. And, you know, if someone is willing to help a student athlete, I'm all for it. But now, you know, these guys, it's like the Wild West now. And so, you know, these NIL stuff, and they just, you know, I don't know if it's a million dollars behind some stuff, P, P, P, I don't know,

but I know some of these kids, I hear some of these kids are getting paid a lot of money to go play football. If football brings a lot of money in, so I'm okay for them to get paid, but they do need to put some type of rules to what a little bit. Well, Rika and I were talking, and the do. difference between football programs and those, you know, 85 players who are active each Saturday or the 150 that are in the program from behind that is much more difficult to manage and boundary than basketball. Basketball, you can turn a fair to middling program into a great program

with two or three exceptional moves, two or three exceptional players in. Is it easier in your mind to manage getting basketball players their money to come play ball for you than it is anything else. Yeah, I mean, you know, football like you said, you got 85 scholarships, scholarship and then you have about another 50, 40 walk-on situations. And just like what BYU did this year, they had a company come in and gave all. the kids in scholarship for a year, all the walk-ons. So, you know, now having walk-ons is not a bad thing for students. People that's coming out of high school, it's okay to walk on

because you might get your college, you might just get your student paid for it. Yeah. And a lot of schools are doing that. Now, basketball, it's only, what, 16, maybe 17 kids, probably 14 scholarship kids, 13, much easier to manage. And that's why the basketball portal is what it is. If you can get a kid to transfer to your school and tell him, hey, I'd give you 100 grand, and he was averaging eight points at bowel pole, yes, he's going to go play at Nebraska or whatever.

If you can promise a kid that he can get an NIL, make it six figures. But it's much easier to manage because you don't have that many numbers. Now, football, I don't know how they're going to do it, maybe a salary cap. I have no clue. I don't know if you guys talk about that DP, but maybe a salary cap. for football, but basketball is much easier to maintain it because it's only a certain amount of student athletes. Ev, we were talking about basketball specifically because it seems to me, right, for half the money that you would play to a football player, that you could, because you only need two or three guys each year to elevate your program, right?

You need a couple guys. And if it is known that Nebraska or Oklahoma or UNLV or USC or whatever has a set number for said four and five star athletes, then that would be the way, that seems to me how you catch up with Duke and Kentucky and Kansas if you want to elevate your basketball program. Yeah, I mean, like you said, if you can get three or four solid kids to come into your program along with, you know, the guys you have returning, you're going to be good. Like the problem is for these Mubla, they get the five-star kids and they're down kids. You know they're going to be one and done kids, but they're still young, but you're getting some solid five or six kids from improving programs that have been in different programs for three years. some of these kids been in there from four years that COVID year

but you know it's just having a veteran team is beating me that's why these mid-majors are making it into the final four or even going further into the sweet 16 because they can find three good kids maybe some kids that played on the same AAU team it's like the NBA they all getting together a little bit BP and let's go play here

let's go play there let's go play at Nebraska let's go play at Omaha and see if we can win Because if you look at it, if you can get, like you said, three or four solid kids with some kids coming back, you can keep your job, get a job, you can get your contract extension. And think about these coaches are not really coming in recruiting high school kids anymore. Because they're just going into the portal. And they know they can win right away. So if you're a new coach, you can win right away.

It doesn't matter where you're coaching it. It could be a low D1 or mid-man. major, you can get to the tournament, you have a shot at it. So, you know, it's just, it's very interesting, but it hurts high school kids trying to go to college because they just, college coaches are just being lazy and just recruit in the portal. So what would the numbers, let's just for the sake of this conversation, let's create, we'll call it Meatloaf State University basketball, right?

So we can put it wherever we want to put it. but you're around today's 16, 17, 18, 19, 20-year-old basketball players of note, like guys who have some talent. What number, let's say you walk into the home of a four-star basketball player and you say what number is it going to take to get you to come play ball for me? What? You got to go by the start? Yeah, what would you think?

You want to go by the star system? Well, let's say that just a guy who can play Power 5 basketball. Well, I mean, the number, you got to start with is six figures. Okay. You got to start with 100 grand. Okay. At least with anywhere from 100 to 200 with a 5. Oh, 4, you can probably be around 100.

Anything, a solid 3, you can go 50, 50 to $70,000. And I know that sounds crazy, but that's how I've got to be at a point. Five stars, it got a star. at least, I'm going to say, at least 100 to a 200. And you can add some other stuff to it. Like, I've heard something about a kid. I'm not going to say his name in school, but I was told that the kid got some money, D.P.,

and his kids can go, his kids can go to the university for free, and his grandkids. That was the offer the kid got from the school. Well, we know this happened. look, we can say it. We know that BYU has figured out a metric to this thing on how to do it because the nepotism is hot and heavy. We understand that legacies, cousins, nephews,

get preferential treatment. There are programs like that across the country. But based on what you're saying, for the program that has it together, for a million, a million five, they can build a pretty substantial roster right away. You're right. You're 100% right.

Now, you send a salary cap to each team. Yeah, a million bucks. A million or $1.25 million, it'll be a great, a great for any program if you can afford it. A lot of these schools can't afford it. It just depends on how much money you get from these boosters and whoever pitching in. Because I heard a bunch of people are pitching into a pot

and they just raise enough money for trying to get some of these big, big-time recruits to come to their school. And at that point, you've got to recruit your own, on, your own players, your own roster. But, but again, if you know that this is the deal going in, we know that Star Power moves tickets, right? It puts butts in the seat. It sells, it buys hot dogs.

it sells beer, buy Coca-Cola, that if any program spends the money to get players of note and marquee names up on the board

that more people will come and there'll be more revenue in the stadium. So it is cyclical. Why aren't people, wouldn't it just make sense to work from that? Yeah, the other thing, too,

because you know, even when you don't know a big game, you know when we, at our stadium, football, basketball, anything, we sell alcohol. And I wouldn't be surprised now some of these schools

are going to start selling alcohol on campus to raise more money for situations like what we're talking about. That's why I'm so frustrated a little bit with UNOV because we've been doing this. We should be able to be good every year considering all the resources

we have. I don't know why we can't. keep a good coach. I mean, Kevin did a okay. He did a pretty good job his first year out. We'll see what happened next year. But you can bring in revenue so many other ways and so that you can help your football team. If you're a mid-major, you want to compete against the blue blood

and raise money and so you can get these kids. And maybe you'll have a kid that want to stay home, but you're going to have to pay them, D.P., you know you're going to have to pay them. So there's a way, I mean, you can, can avoid the boosters if you can make money off these, you know, off home games. And I say, I hate to say it, but alcohol is the way to go. And, you know, if you really want to make more money and have some of these five-star

and four-star kids come to your school. It's also shoe deals. I can tell you that there are proactive folks in the country. Again, I talked to two coaches Monday. just they're thinking of using the sliding system, that the number one ranked player, and that they will set aside room for five players a year, right? And that rotate them each year.

So one in one out. So if somebody leaves, that slot becomes available, right? You fill that slot based on how much money is in that slot, right? Your top three players, you know, you put them at $100,000. The next three players, you put them at $75,000, the next three after that,

half and then you can 50,000 and then you can go through and move players that if you've got you hold 16 players on your roster four years is how you're looking at so you're going to bring in four every year and you'll just rotate I think that's close to how business is about to be done going forward yeah I don't I mean the crazy part deep you that's um that's I don't know how they're going to handle that some of these kids are going to need them accountant. You're going to be an tax person. And it's just going to be crazy.

I mean, personally, they opened up a can of worms in the IL stuff. It really did. But the NCAA did it. I think the NCAA did it because they were losing, losing some type of, losing the star power power for, especially for the basketball,

on the basketball side. You know, football players got to stay three years. But, you know, with this new deal, I think kids will stay longer if they're making a little bit of money. a little bit more money. And I think the NPA really was banking on that because that's where they make their money at.

You know, obviously having a star power of good players. And I think, me personally, I don't think the NTA wants, they want that one-and-done situation. They don't want them to eventually go to high school to the NBA because we want those kids at least to play one year in the tournament. And I really think that's,

I think the NTA behind the team is fighting that, just keep that rule. like you got to go to school for one year, even though you and I know it's a freaking joke because they only go to school for one semester. Yeah, yeah, fall semester to get qualified so you can play, and then by the time that's done. Look, look, and the next thing for me,

and again, I think the sliding is going to happen. I think it's going to happen just because it continually allows you to inject new blood into your programs, and you know the level of it. And young people will, the word, travels fast. Hey, this is what the school is offering. So you might want to consider that going in.

And then it'll help you understand where your program is compared to the, to the elite. Like you'll know right away. Oh, they're playing $100, 100 per per five star. You know. Well, you're going to need. Yeah, you're going to need. Yeah.

You're going to have to raise some money. You're going to need some. Well, but you can raise money. Well, but that's what boosters are, right? Like, we know those folks around the program that if you keep them excited about the program, about the talent coming in, and you have to give them new talent every year to be excited about. Yeah, I mean, it's me personally, like I said before, I don't know how they're going to figure this out deep to you because there's some good things to it and then there's some bad stuff to it.

and when you're involved money, D.P., you already know. People get greedy. People try to, I'm not going to say, influence the player with money. And I can see that. And, you know, what's next going to get bonuses for winning, you know, on the road and this and that. So I really think they need to sit down and figure out what they're going to do. But, Ev, hasn't that already been doing? done? Hasn't that already been done?

Yeah, it's probably been done a lot. We just don't know. I mean, I always tell people, you know, they always give me a hard time. All you can do and all this and that. I'm like, but they cheat everywhere. And I don't call it cheating. It's just these coaches making a lot of money. The school, they're making a lot of money off the kid. And if they want to give the kids the money, I'm all for them. And I don't think it's cheating. Well, we're trying to get everybody on the same.

page with proactive thinking. Proactive thinking. That'd be... I can't wait, do you. I'd like to see how they're going to do it. But once they figure out, they're going to work around that, they're going to find a loophole in that.

But that's the people. That means the process isn't the problem. It's the people. It's the people. If you put better people in place, again, we tried to figure out yesterday what coaching means, what great coaching greatness means. All of this just shows you who's who folks are.

And I think, more importantly, the fans need to know who the people are. I think that's important. Right. So we're going to find out more. Listen, man, be safe on the road. Go get some wins this weekend. I'll talk to you when your tournament's over. All right.

I'm talking to you. Appreciate you, Everett Gray. That is Everett Gray. UNLV. He's out here doing his thing. There's a lot to digest there, Rico. So we'll talk about that one and come back to one-on-one. Download our app by searching 93.7, the ticket in your app,

store. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 937 the ticket and the ticketfm.com.