1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Evric Gray (Former UNLV Runnin Rebel Basketball star): April 15th, 10am

Episode Date: April 15, 2022

Jay stays and asks Evric the important questionsEvric was a crazy athlete in high schoolHow would those UNLV teams do with NIL?Utah to Nebraska recruitingAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticket FM.com. The fastest hour in all of sports radio brought you by Allo. Again, you can go. Residential business, Allo will get you through it. high speeds, best service.

Allo. That's how fast we're going to go. This is how fast this hour is going to be. And I can tell you, 42464, 5685, Honda Lincoln Hotline, Sard of Him a Text Line on the Honda Lincoln Hotline right now. National champ, all around good dude. Let's bring him in.

Can you cue up his music, please? Here's a guy that gives them more depth at UNLV, Brick Gray brings nine points off the bench for Coach Tarkhanian in less than 20 minutes to play in 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 running rebel himself. Everett,

let you know Jay Foreman, the Husker of Hall of Famers with us. Rico is here, so we're officially having a meeting. Yeah, we're having a member HBC. Let's bring it in. I've just letting you know Jay's on fire. Eric, I got two questions, man. I've been dying to ask this. I know maybe DP is asked.

The first one, man. Did y'all take some payments to lose that game against Duke? Oh, my God. Just be honest with me, man. Look, the statute of limitations is gone. You got to tell me what's happening because not only did I lose a night of sleep, I don't think I function right for like a week or two. Right.

Yeah, you know, you're not the first one to ask that question. And, you know, a lot of people over the years and ask me questions like, hey, did you guys get paid to do that? had to break it down for him a little bit. It didn't make any sense for them to do that. Right. They were about to be millionaires anyway. Larry was the number one. Penn. Stacey won nine overall.

Played 18 years in the league. It made a show lot of money. So it didn't have anything to do with it just had a, it was just got one night. Right. We didn't play well. And Greg fouled out. That was the whole thing. The crazy part, Jay and D.P. I'm in San Diego, and I was at Matt Othick last night at his restaurant,

and we're talking about if you would have went to UNLV, because remember he decommitted from UNLV in the Arizona, would have probably won a couple more national championships. But Jay, back to your court. No, that wasn't the situation. And that never, that is just, it was two points better than us. And Anderson Hunt won't. They had Grand Hill that following year, too.

Right. My next question is, in your intro, you're a third round pick in baseball. What made you decide not to just go and play baseball? Obviously, you know, the situation and obviously the opportunity to go to UNLV was once in a lifetime. But what was your big, what was the big reason why you decided to play basketball? Jay, the thing is that I only played baseball to get out of fifth and sixth period. I mean, be honest. That's what I'm talking about.

that when I played whatever sport I played, I played extremely hard. I played all sports growing up. And my mom put me in this camp

jaded to, so I can be able to play with white kids and just keep it 100. So every day was a different sport. So it was tennis,

golf, football, basketball, baseball, swimming, and so as a young age, I excelled in all different type of sports.

But to be honest, I only played because my friends played and I ended up getting drafted. I actually actually was an all-American football.

player too. I'm the all-time leading receiver at my high school still to this day. I don't think it's ever going to be broken for, not for a while. Yeah. I'm going to have to play four years to break it, but I don't really talk about all the time. But Jay, I'm in like in high school. If you're my buddy, Jay, and I feel like I need to help you, Jay, to get to the next level, I'm just going to go play. Right. I'm going to play extremely hard. And the baseball thing, I never thought about it. I was just, I remember I got drafted on a Sunday night. I got back to school. My mom said, hey, you got a phone call from some guy named from the Houston Asteroys.

She didn't even know how to say it right. Astronauts. I think she said the astronauts. She's like, yeah, they just draft you and this is some money you might and make. What do you think? I'm like, I'm playing basketball. I don't want to play this ball. I'm done playing baseball. Just imagine for a moment, twofold. One, having Everick's

big, tall body slinging fastballs at you. And then this dude playing wide receiver? Right. Do you have any offers for football? Yeah, I had office from every Pack 12 school. Like Dave, we're talking like another Dave Winfield here. Let me give you another example. I get a phone call from Washington State, and the guy goes, hey, man, we'll love to have you here.

We're going to offer your scholarship. The quarterback's going to be Drew Bletso. I was like, who is Drew Bletso? I don't even know who Drew Bletto is. And then years later, I'm like, that's Drew Bletzo. I was supposed to be catching passage from Drew Bletso from Washington State. But, yeah, it was right. Like I said, I played football growing up, and it was fun playing football.

You know, it's a great team sport, and I love football. You was just an old regular athlete, huh? No, I wouldn't say that. Like I said, I played hard no matter what. People don't kids don't understand if you play hard to just happen to battle. And that's what I do with my coaching. I'm like, just play hard. If they're better than you, just make sure they're not tougher than you and play harder than you.

Right. It's funny too because Everick will in his humility, Everick will put things in perspective for you because there are no new spaces for Everett. Everick's been in every dark corner, every deep valley. Everick's been in it with the best athletes and the best coaches in all time. I'll ask this question, though.

do kids today work harder than you did in high school? No. Fair. And here's the crazy part. They should because they have a lot of more access than, say, myself, Jay and D.D. They have access. And the diet is even different. I didn't know anything about diet if I got to the NBA.

And these kids already know. I didn't know anything about it. We didn't have a. bird of backs. Jay, did we have a birdamack? No. That bird a magazine incredible. Right. I can touch the rim. I'll use it sometimes. I'm back touching the rim. But anyway, this access

these kids have to other different stuff that we actually didn't have, and kids don't get that part. And some kids, some parents are too involved, and that's another issue. But, and the coddling a little bit with these kids a little bit,

it's tough. But the access, my opinion, and deep feed just to access to all the different stuff they have with technology. It's huge for some of these kids. We're talking Evergrey, former UNLV running rebel national champion, NBA veteran, pro player through Europe and South America, now one of Utah's top high school basketball coaches and developers of talent with Salt Lake Rebels. We talked about, Jay and I were talking about it earlier, that some kids,

kids want to be recruited more than they love the work? Is that true? And if it is, how do you deal with it? You know, some kids just like they can get offers so they can put it on Twitter or Instagram. You know, kids, it's all social media base now. It's all about how many logs you get. And it's weird to me. I'm like, you, I'm going to give you an example, Jay.

I had a 7 foot 1 kid. I think, D.P., you know, 7.1 kid can stretch 5. actually he could stretch five jay i did say it right right stretch five and he got he got an offer last year from virginia tech and i was like do take it right then and there he's like why i'm like uh you plan against you plan against two you can't get north kielana duke north kina state it's a really good conference and that's pretty good that's a pretty good deal then turn it turn it down jay because he wanted to wait and see what other stuff he's going to get and that that offer went away along with the other offers because he had two

bad games against these really good teams. So the kids are worried about what it looks like to their other friends. It's almost like, you know, women dress for other women, right? Jay, they don't dress for you, Jay, they dress for other women. So it's just all about what it looks like to their friends

instead of making a great business decision for themselves. And, you know, it's hard playing an NBA. I'm an example of that. I was a 15 different NBA teams there. It's hard to stick. Right. So go get your degree. We'll get your degree and move on.

And if the NBA comes, it will come. The problem with kids now is all about what it looks like for other kids and social media. How hard is that as a coach to, one, deal with that, but then when you're trying to voice your opinion because of your experience, right? And you have first-hand knowledge. You're expert at basketball. How hard is that as a coach because you're getting. like you said, we didn't have access to this, right? We didn't have somebody that's been there, done it 10 times over and as an expert to say, hey, ever do this.

This is the best thing for you, both short-term, mid-term, and long-term. How hard is that? Because I know sometimes when I talk to football players, basketball players, or even parents, it's like you're talking to the wall. But I wanted your opinion. How do you feel about it? I see, Jay, you don't know me. D.P. knows me. I just give you the information.

It's up to you what you do with the information. So I usually tell them from experience, I've been around it, I have so many friends in the coaching world, and they tell me, you know, the stuff, and we're like, you know, having a beer or so. We're discussing how kids don't listen and parents don't listen. They're going to listen to their parents and never play basketball before or whatever football. Instead of listening to me, that's true. actually been through it. Right.

And it's difficult sometimes with me. I just give it information. And if you don't want to take the information, Jay, good luck. It's the common thread. We deal with it here in Lincoln where you provide information to folks and you try to share information. And then there is the narratives and all of the other stuff that happens before then. I'll ask you, as your kids bring you offers and they say, Ev,

Coach, what should I do? You work from a priority of go where you can play. How is that taken? How is that being accepted? Is that constantly more hammer to the nail to get these folks to pay attention to it? Well, what I tell the kids and the parent, I'm like, it's four or five years of your life, not your mom and your dad's life. You go somewhere where it's a good fit so you're not hopping into the portal.

I think the portal is the worst for college sports right now. And it's terrible, especially for high school kids coming out. But always tell our kids, it's your life. It's four or five years of your life. At this point, six years, but it's four or five years of your life. Not your parent or not your mom and dad. It's where you feel comfortable, where you want to go play, where you can play and stay and enjoy your high school.

College experience. I tell them all the time, always I can go back to college right now. I love college. Jay, did you like the breakfast? I thought you did. Oh, yeah, it was great. When you're winning, it's all good. School was a lot easier.

Yeah, but make sure you know that you and LV that wasn't a problem. Right. Well, you know. One day. We did have to go to class. One day, we're going to have Jay Foreman and Everick away from the microphone to really talk about what happened when. programs are great.

It's probably what didn't happen, actually, probably. Right? That's the way, what didn't happen right now. To chop it up with Jay, because, like I said, Jay, you're growing up, I had a lot of friends from an empire that went to Nebraska. Right. I was always in Nebraska.

I had some kids up that I went to high school with that ended up going to Colorado, so we still always watch those Colorado-Nabraska games. Right. We're younger, but, yeah, it was, one day we have to sit down. I can't tell you everything, Jay, unless you're going to start my car. Yeah, we're still, that's why the book hasn't been written yet,

because Eric wasn't able to start his car every morning. I hear you on that, man. Not worried about that. Yeah, we don't need any casino. You need a gig. So not worried about it. It's real, though, Jay. Oh, I know.

I can only imagine. You know, there's no one ever said anything, right, Jay? Right. And there's like two or three things that are still alive But you just as real There's you're right There are no books on UNLV at its apex The things that go on

Away from court Those books don't exist And there's a reason Um Evan let me ask you this then With NIL being the topic What would it have been like With Larry Johnson and Stacey Ogman

and Tarkhanian at UNLV. What would that have been like? We were talking about this. Me and J.R. Ryder was talking about this yesterday. I think Larry would have made a million dollars. Back then, he would have made a million dollars that year. Stacey. Anderson, J.R. would have made.

I think I would have been anywhere from 50 to 100 grand. But those guys would have made a lot of money. Because remember back then, D.P. and J. Vegas was owned by one person. It's not a corporate anymore. Like corporations own most of these hotels. So, you know, the wins or the people that own some of these hotels, the patitas, they would have been paying Larry, Stacy, and those guys

have been probably a million bucks a year. It's been a million bucks a year, easy. And then there would have been a bunch of other little side stuff that add up to about another 500,000 of small businesses and whoever else. so they would have been going to kill him with his NIL stuff. Yeah, my head's spinning now because I'm thinking of all of the casinos. He's having its own player. Yeah, y'all would have been living up in the presidential suite.

Yeah, we would have been. In the wedding crashers suite, right? Everybody would have had a house. Everybody would have, everybody had cars, Jerry back then, you know what I mean? Yeah. They would have been a little bit different housing-wise going for it. But, I mean, we're not even talking, and we're sticking with football,

basketball, but Randall Cunningham and your brother, that squad would have had some dudes, too. Yeah, I think Dickey would have made a lot of money. Randall, I think Marion would have made a lot of money. Jay, so my brother played with Marion, Shug Knight. Yeah. And they were roommates.

I don't call him Shug, I call him Marion. Right. But they were a roommate in college, and he would have probably made some money, too, along with Rando and Hickey. But, you know, it was, I wish, you know, like I said, we went back to these kids have a lot of access. And that's a problem, too, because they know they're going to make money now,

getting recruited and having, I don't know how much money they're going to make. It varies from five stars or four stars. But I think Randall would have made a lot of money, and obviously Icky and Harvey Marion would have, too. Has it reached your high school kids and your travel, you guys yet? where money and sponsorships and endorsements have it reached your guys yet? D.P., I live in Utah.

Most of my kids are based on East Draper. Oh, never mind. They go to college. Yeah, they take a pay cut going to college. Yeah. Most of my kids, most of my kids, that's the other good thing about our kids, though, is that they know their future is all set for them, but they still play hard and play the right way. I mean, I got some dudes out.

Jay, I got a couple of kids make me nervous when we travel. I got to give them aliens. I hear that. You know, for real, for real, too, for real. So some of these kids got money, and, you know, that doesn't affect them. That's why I really like our kids. They play extremely hard, knowing that their future is already set.

So to go back to a conversation we've had, then we really need to create a bridge from your Salt Lake City kids to Lincoln, Nebraska. But, you know, I've been trying to, I've been low-key on air with you telling them about the good players in the state of Utah over the last two years. It's up to them to recruit, but, you know, Coach Horber goes through the board a lot. I know he missed out on a one McDonald's kid out in the brass. I think he went somewhere. The one kid went to Brinzaga and he missed out on him too.

But I've been trying to force, not forced, but phone little and fight. football pitches to it. For some kids that's out here, that's pretty good. So much I can do. I can give you the information, remember? What's the, but what's, what's, what's the blockage? Is it just being able to, to reach them directly and get a response? And then the thing is, like, three top teams, three club teams, and the one of Utah prospects,

a lot of their kids just going to do it. A lot of them. And I don't know if they think they can't get them, and they don't. try to get him. But a lot of those kids go to to BYU. And, but there's

some other kids, like my kids. Like, they missed out on my 3-6-10 kids and the 7-foot kids. They never even recruited my three kids. So, I don't, I mean, I don't know who does the Midwest. I mean, in the West Coast, or in that Rocky Mountain region. I have no

close to recruit that area, but they miss out on some good kids. Like, we got another kid that we're at my high school, Broadies, 6-8 sophomore. He's got about 4 or 5 offers. That's the one they should offer already. But they haven't. I just do a softball right there.

Rodi Kuzlowski, Porter Canyon High School, 6-8, great pedigree. Mom played BYU, dad played football at BYU. There you go. Select stuff like that, D.P. I'm throwing curveball. I mean, not softball. It's, and because I know that you're sincere when you say it,

because I know that you'll send messages. to the program. You'll make phone calls to the office and say, hey, can you guys get back to me? How can we fix this anyway? So if it's Nebraska's, let's say we put you into the Nebraska program and then you then outreach.

What type of players around the country should they be looking for to fit into Hoyberg's system? It looks like, I mean, I saw them play a couple times. He needs them shooting, obviously. Everybody needs shooting, but I know how Fred likes to play. He likes to get up and download

but he's not control-free, but he needs to length in shooting. And there's a lot of good length in shooting in Utah. Now you've got to deal with the Mormon stuff, the mission stuff.

But a lot of my kids don't go on missions, because I've been on them like, dude, it's something outside of Utah. And a lot of, I don't mess with religion and politics,

Jay, I don't mess with it. Right. But most of my kids, most of my kids are not going on missions. And I got kids all over the country

and I got a kid in Marquette this year, Chicago, California, North Dakota, all over. And so a lot of coaches are starting to recruit my kids because they know they're going to, they'll leave the state of Utah. That's the only thing. Maybe that's what's scaring some of these coaches, especially in that area of the country.

But a lot of our kids leave the state of Utah. But you do a good job because I follow you on social media where, you know, you're traveling in some big tournaments. Yeah. So for me, just being just talking off the cuff, you know, then that, you know, the fact that you're a traveling team, then they're exposed to different things. So, and especially if they're contact or if they would be contacting you, to me, that would be just easy because if you, if you're recruiting, say, Jay Foreman and you're like, yeah, he's willing to go outside of Utah, that, you know, it seems like to me, I mean, I don't know much about recruiting basketball wise, but this would seem if I'm, I'm thinking, football-wise, it would be a lay-up, right? Right. Or close to a lay-up. Right.

But, you know, the thing is, I don't know. I mean, a lot of our kids, like, okay, Jay, the last, you said you followed me in a last year and a half. We had 7D1 kids. Right. Right. Yeah, I've seen that. Right. Seventy-one kids just in the last year and a half,

and they're all over the country. We only have one kid at fine in Utah. and I think that's great for now these coaches are starting to see a program that our kids are just not going to Utah-based schools like I'm going to have a kid that's going to commit today to Central Michigan Jay right and I love the kid and

and that's the good thing about about our kids is that I've been in their ear Jay like then get away from there, go close somewhere else and see the country, see the world without, because some of the Utah kids in DPU, you know, a lot of the Utah kids are bubble kids. We call them bubble kids.

They're just in this little bubble, and they don't leave it, and when they leave it, they freak out because their parents been in there here the whole time telling them this is the devil and this is that. You can't do this. Right. And it's sad, but, it's true.

But, you know, it's just recruiting. It's interesting in Utah because they're all, they're just so afraid to get out of this little bubble, and that's why a lot of coaches sometimes are a little nervous recruiting Utah kids. Yeah, I mean, that's weird. I mean, they're nervous recruiting them. You can recruit them and offer them. They can say yes or no, right?

I mean, that's, I mean, that wouldn't, I'm just thinking, I'm a coach and you call me up and you say, hey, I got this kid six, eight, you know, good pedigree. I'm going to still come and see him. Heck, Utah's a beautiful place too. You know what I mean? It's worth the trip just to go and just chill for a couple days.

Offer the kid whether he wants to come or not, then that's up to him. Because I look at it like this. It's a kid that would come from Utah and correct me if wrong and say he decides to go back home. It's no different than a kid coming from Florida to Nebraska. He goes home in a year and football-wise. you get what I'm saying?

Right. At the end of the day, you're not going to get told no if you don't ask. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing is that like I've been over the last year and a half too with DP, Jay, just going softball. Like, I wanted him to go after. Actually, he did go after Jackson Cullen. They actually offered Jackson after a while, but he ended up going to Michigan State. That was one. I actually try to offer my 6-7 kids, 6-8, Swiss Army night,

end up going to UVU, but they never recruited them, never called him. The only one they kind of reached out on was Jackson. Jackson Culler. He's like footwork out of this world. But the thing is, you know, anywhere where D.P. is, Jay, I try to help them. Even though we, I can't swear, we can't crap to each other. But I always try to help I try to help wherever region he'd in

no matter what. When he was in Houston, I tried to help even here. I know, I don't know Fred. I just know of him. I think I played against him. And I just, you know, and the two, I just try to help the state of Utah.

We're recruiting because there's some really good players in the state of Utah that want, they can't go to BYU all the time. So, you know, there's some good kids that can play in Power 5 schools. the state of Utah. And like you said, Utah is a beautiful, a beautiful estate. I mean, it's got to Park City.

So I got to take you to Sundaf. Got to take you to Sundaf one day. Me and D.P. I'll take you to a sunda. I've heard. D.P. You'll tell you off there. 10 years too late.

Yeah. Yeah. Before we let you go, it's so funny, I was telling Jay, as I get older, it hit me the other day that I can't, I can no longer sprint. Like, with all the metal parts and everything else, I'm like, bro, I can't even do this. I was like, man, if Everick saw me, he'd be mad at me.

Because every now and then, Everick and I would go out and try to be athletic together. And, bro, I hit the button. Right. Nothing happened, man. I hit the pedal and it just wasn't working. So we're getting old, Ev. Getting old.

Yeah. Yep. I'm right now, my son-in-law is rugby practice. It's a professionalist. I'm going to run with them when we have. Hey, man. Hug, hug, I hope Jordan.

God bless them, you and your daughters. They're doing it, except you've got to be so proud. I know I'm proud for you and for them. Job well done, kind, sir, and everything that you do. I need to send you a shirt and a hat. You're part of the team, so I need to get you yours. I appreciate that. Life's talking to you guys.

Jay, nice to meet you, man. Yeah, yeah. If you pop up in Omaha again, we've got to have a couple drinks and we've got to get dive into this UNLV, man. And, you know. We won that tournament, Jay. A couple weeks ago, we were down there. We won 4-0.

We beat some really good teams. Yeah. He's played good. Yeah, yeah, for sure. That is Everett Gray. That's why we bring him in. He's the goods. Brother, go enjoy your family time.

Appreciate you, and I'll text you later this weekend. All right. Thank you, guys. There we go, brother. Everett Gray, UNLV, running Rebels, national champion NBA, pro and a coach and a good one. And we got the answer to the million-dollar question. Got an Olympian as a daughter and got one of the best volleyball players in the world as a daughter.

This dude is. He's doing it right. He's doing well. Did we really get the answer to the question, though? Not really. That's why you know he's a pro. You know you got to get on site with him. I got to get him on side to face.

You got to get face to face. All right. More one-on-one. Jay Wormin, thank you very much. We'll be right back here on the ticket. Download our app by searching 93.7, the ticket, in your app store. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 93-7 the ticket

and the ticketfm.com.