1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Evric Gray (UNLV Basketball Alum): May 27th, 10am

Episode Date: May 27, 2022

What does Evric think of the NIL potential of the Runnin' RebelsAdvertising 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. It's Friday. Job well done. You made it. Greatly appreciate it. Buckle up for the fastest hour in radio, sponsored by Allo. Call Allo today in Lincoln for

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Greatly appreciated you folks on the video stream. Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and Twitter Live, Twitter Live. You can see what's going on and engage in this conversation. Let's get to the fastest hour on radio. Let's bring them in properly. 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 dunk, 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 him in. Everett Gray. Appreciate your brother. How are you doing this morning? I am doing well, D.P., how are you doing? Um, um, okay. This has been a recovery week for us all.

So it's been long to get through. Um, whenever I hear that Jim Nance promo, I always try to remember to ask the next question. Of course, you were a multi-sport athlete. Mm-hmm. I would imagine that Larry Johnson was a pretty good football player. No, Larry was a boxer. A boxer.

He didn't, he didn't play on football, but he was a golden, gloves champion at 14 knocking out grown men. That's why in that game, Todd Day made a business decision. Swiped at him because he realized, oh, that's Larry, and he can fight. Like, for real, for real, fight, two for real. So, yeah, he was a golden glove boxing champ as a 14-year-old. 14 years old, he could get those hands, and we're not really surprised by that, right? six, five, and what was he about

2015, 2.20 back then? No, he was about 2.30, no body fat. And the thing is that, he was a gentle giant. I actually talked to him the other day. And he's doing well, but he was

chiseled, and he had shoulders. He can fight. He did have shoulders. He really did. What's he doing now? He moved back. He was working with the Knicks for a year And he moved back to Vegas

And I think he's doing some Some stuff for UNLV And he's got some business stuff going on He's pretty much retired Living on a golf course Playing golf every day So he's doing all right I mean

He's not hurting He's fine I think his youngest kids are Just about out of high school And just doing a dad thing What about Let's go through, what about Stacey Argument? What kind of athlete was he?

Ice was a basketball player. I didn't think he played multiple sports. And, you know, Ice is, I don't know what he's going to do now, but he was assistant coach for Sacramento Kings for the last two or four years under Luke Walton. So, you know, they just got a new coach. And I'm pretty sure that Stacey has a relationship with the new. coach. I forgot his name. That's assistant

with Golden State. And so I think he's doing fine. He lives in Rancho Kukamonga, Rancho Kukkahumanka. And just still coaching. He wants to get it. He wants to be a head coach to be honest, D.P. He really

wants to be a head coach at any level. I know he tried to get a couple jobs in college. That's always fascinating mean because it happens everywhere where people start to talk about program college programs as they exist and how alumni are considered treated or involved right help help help help me put a put a

put a bow on what's happening at Nebraska by by talking about you and LV when when you have legends like Larry Johnson Stacey Ogman Greg Anthony etc that you know ever great that there would be some consideration and some value for having former players around the program. How does UNLV approach that currently? And I know that it's changed over the years. But how does it currently, what is the engagement and the connection between, especially those legendary players and the program as it stands?

Well, I mean, I was on the other show to be talking about the same topic. The UNLV team is Stacey and Larry and Rick Those guys are never coming back, ever. Why? We talk about it all. Let me get into it. So we talk about it all the time.

What really rubbed everybody the wrong way is when Stacey was an assistant coach under Dave Rice. Obviously, Dave Rice played for Coach Tark. And he, you try to keep that life. line between Tark and the current coach. So they hired Dave Rice. But he hired Stacey as an assistant. So Stacey was there, and obviously they let Dave go around January.

And a lot of people wanted Stacey to be the interim. And some of these people wanted Todd Simons to be the interim coach. So they went back and forth. They ended up hiring Todd Simons. And that's when they went left. and Stacey and I talked about it during that season because, you know, I don't know why they call me sometimes, D.P. They call me the voice of reason sometimes.

And he was like, man, why did they hire me? I'm like, well, you want the truth or you want me to lie to you? He was like, I want the truth. I said they're afraid of what you would do. If you were successful and got that team to the tournament, they would have to hire you. And they're trying to separate themselves from Jerry Tarkhanian. That's why they're not going to hire you.

That's why they didn't give you the intro. because the pressure would have been so great on that athletic director, Tina Coonser Murphy, when she was terrible to hire you. Because if you would, that team was only at the time, there were like 9 and 5, 9 and 4 DP and they fired Dave. And so I said, hey, they just can't, they can't take that chance. If you did well, got that team to the tournament, won your conference town and went to the tournament,

it would have been the city would have win nuts. And then the money people would have won nuts. There's a lot of money, but there's a lot of money in Las Vegas, right, D.P., but there's only two or three boosters that run UNLV. And those guys are billionaires. So I just told them, like, this is just the pressure for, it would have been so much pressure if you got that team to the tournament. that they would have to hire.

So that's why they didn't hire. They went with Todd signing this, so they knew Todd. If Todd won, it wouldn't be that big of a deal if they didn't hire him. But Stacey Aldman, with your number up in the Raptors, that would have been a problem. And so after that, VP, that's why a lot of these guys don't come back. They pretty much hate UNLV. And I try to talk to him, like, we're trying to get everybody back. all the people that

screwed Stacy at that time are all gone now DEP, every single one of them are gone. So slowly and surely we try to try to get us to come back and support the program. I think the last time

we supported the program was when Lon Krooger was the head coach, because Lahn always brought us back. Now can Kevin do that? Kevin Kruger? We'll see. But he did a pretty good job. last year and I got a hot take for you D.P. if you want it. Have it. Have it. The first the first time the job came up, Jason Kidd called me like, he, I want the job. I heard you the guy behind the scenes.

I'm like, I said, Jason, you really want his job. He's like, yeah, so I make the phone call. This is the first time, D.P., when they let Marvin Vinci go. The athlete director at the time, she was like, well, ever, he doesn't have a degree. I was like, you hired a baseball coach without a degree. I know the rule there. If you're working towards your degree,

you're working towards your degree, you can be the head coach at you and LV. Oh, you did your homework. I'm like, why do I need to do my homework? You knew that. But when she said that, that was one of my red flags. So Jason really wanted the book.

They went back and forth. Actually talked once on the phone. He never got an in-person interview. They end up hiring T.J. Opsenberger. Remember him? Now he's at Iowa State. So Jason went on and went with the Lakers, right?

Won a championship in the bubble. T.J. did what he did. They didn't do him so well. He takes the Iowa State job. Jason and I talked again. He wanted the job again, D.P. Jason finished his degree

in that two years because he was working already working towards his degree. Now he has his degree that is not his speech. This is what this woman said. She brought up his path.

D.P. He had an incident. Hold on DPee. He had an incident in 2001 or 2000. I'm like, yeah. Did you know that? Yeah.

I know about that. But, you know, all these other franchise hiring him, I think he's fine. He may, he had a, issue with, I can tell you what happened. He did some French rides.

It was some French rides involved. They did some French fries at each other. That's what happened. I actually told her to. He wanted the job again. He wanted the job again. So Jason and I talk. He's like, hey, I got my degree.

I'm like, I know. We're friends. You told me. So she never interviewed him. And she ended up giving a job to Kevin Kruger. And Jason went on about a month later, got the Dallas Maver's job and the rest of his entry. But D.P., he wanted the job twice. And he would have brought everybody back because everybody messed with Jay Kidd.

He would have hired Stacey. He would have made sure because he told me, he's like, I've got to bring back some of the old rebels on my staff. I'm like, that would be great. And you get support from the people from Las Vegas. I it's funny too because when you talk about you know you and LV and it's past and Nebraska goes through it all the time of the conversation as well should we focus on the past do we need to highlight the past should we move as far away from the past as humanly possible and you and LV had that thing right I mean they even had I remember from the chaos from the the hot tub photo yeah right the hot tub photo and everybody says all right you know, let's running fast away from the past is what I remember this thing being because they were like, well, why are UNLV players in a hot tub in Vegas hanging out with, you know, so-and-so?

Well, all of this, every coach who's coaching at a collegiate level has a past. Right. Each and every one. So I think you're right, that perspective that, hey, listen, if we want perfection, we're not getting it. You're not going to get it. And the UNLV, whether it's UNLV, Nebraska, Missouri, USC, business is happening. Can I ask you what NIL in your mind would be like in Los Vegas now?

Like during our era? No, like now, like right now. All right now. Yeah, I think it's, you got to Nebraska fans in D.C. you know I kind of do my homework when I go on your show. You got to realize Las Vegas is not for fame anymore, D.P. It's not one owner.

A guy can go to the owner's house, which I've done before of a hotel. They live there, right? The owners live in Las Vegas. They have fixture in a city. Now it's all corporate. Everything is corporate now. You can't get a comp dinner

unless you spend $200,000 in there. a hotel. So those days are over where you can make a phone car, you can call the owner. You can call Steve or you can call his assistant and they're like,

hey, I got some family in time can I grab something to eat. Those days over. I think with the NIL LB, you have to jump through loops to get a hotel to sponsor a kid.

Now, you can have some local businesses that's owned by local people and do it that way. But it just depends or who you bring in, D.P. If you bring in one of these ex-U-N-O-V guys, now some of these kids will get, you know,

six figures and maybe seven, you know. But I think it's just different now. Las Vegas is way different, D.P., just there last weekend. And, you know, I hate Vegas. I hate it because there's too much traffic. And too many people where it. But it's just, it's different times, D.P.,

and for Nebraska, I know you guys, want to be good in football. And the issue you guys have, you can't run the wishbone anymore. Tom Osborne, you can't, you got to adjust. You keep bringing these people back that rent that type of system. That you're going to have to find somebody that, from the mid-2000s, that's going to be your coach that is a use to that. Or go find somebody that has some ties in Nebraska that know how to run the spread

and all that stuff. And with them days running the wishbone, them days are over, or the triple one. I don't even know. Wing T. I don't know what you guys are. Nebraska. I know,

but it's just, it's hard to try to separate yourself from the past and the future. And some people want it. Some of those older boosters that Nebraska want it. All right, UNLV too. But it's just,

you got to find the right fit and the right guy to lead your, lead your school. We're talking to Evergrave, former UNLVie, running rebel, you know, played under TARC, played,

bounced all around the NBA and in Europe and now as an administrator and a coach in Salt Lake City, Utah. You're dealing with AAU folks and AAU parents, AAU kids, you're dealing with high school kids in Utah. And we were talking to Barry Thompson yesterday

and we were talking about the difference between Juko reclassification and prep school and prep school. Like they all have some value, but they all have some, some boundary, some limit. For you, how do you break down when your kids ask you the question? Hey, coach, do you think I should go, I should accept this Juko deal, I should reclassify, or I should go to prep school and get the extra year?

How do you suggest, how do you deal with when players want to find that extra year's advantage or getting and staying in the game through a lower level? So let me explain to your listeners, D.P. When guys reclass, all that is is that they were held back. They're technically in their own their right grade. Like that five-star kid that just reclass and sign with Texas step. Basically, he's just a 22. That's his real age.

So when you see a guy reclass, it's just because he's held back. That's one. The thing is that with Utah kids, the problem to D.P. It's not a problem. It's just reality at this point. High school kids get screwed over now because of the portal. College coaches are lazy.

They don't want to recruit high school kids anymore. They just recruit kids in the portal because those kids are already play a year or two, sometimes three, sometimes four of college basketball. They don't need that much grooming. So coaches are getting a little lazy, D.P. When it comes to my kids out of Utah, I usually tell them if you have a deal,

if it's a full ride, if you're a Jucco kid or are you on a bubble. Like I got a kid named Dylan Jones right now, six-seven shooter can shoot the crap out of the ball. He's thinking about reclassing and then going to a prep school, post grad. Or he has tons of Jucco offers and he has a couple D2 offers. And so with him, it doesn't matter.

I told him to take a Jucco job. I call them jobs, because their jobs at this point with the NIL. Frican job. I said take the NIL job. We take the Jucco job. Play there one more, play one year and then move on because you have a resume in college. They look at junior college better, more, bigger than high school at this point. So I was like, go to a, go to a Jucco, and that's what I tell my kids.

A lot of my kids, D.P. You know, I've had about 9D1 kids in the last year and a half. Two years. Nine. I just had one time at the University of Oakland. I think you saw that. Yep. And he just went to a jukego for a year.

He listened to me. And now he's, he had about 10, 15 offers out of the juco, out of Hill, college in Texas. And he decided to go with Oakland. So the thing is that, you know, when it comes to that, I usually tell my kids, they're especially Utah kids skeptical about the shot clock in Utah they look at how they look too DP if you know what I'm saying but it's all my kids can play

and when the room gets dark my kid's not afraid you know what I'm talking about it's just you have to you have to look at the situation that's for you and most of my kids usually listen to me and then they move on to a D1 after one year Jucco or either they signed super late like around now or beginning of July because, you know,

when you go into the portal, you're getting other people's problems sometimes, D.C. And that's an issue. You use the phrase held back, and that's something that we used to say. Oh, yeah, yeah, he's a year older, he got held back. But sometimes the reclass now is happening to give. an athletic advantage, that extra year of maturity. What say you to that? You're talking about

in high school? Yeah. Well, they do it, so you can't do it so let me tell you missed it, you can't do it after the eighth grade. You can't. You have to do it before. So now, how do you even know if your kid's going to be good? There's some good eighth graders, no-brainer eighth graders.

That's just the norm now, D.P. Everybody's being held back. The benefit of, if you have like a late, or what was it, late birthday? Late July, August. But some of these kids, yeah, if some of these kids have been held back and they graduated from high school, they're 19 years old. Like, there's a cutoff, there's a cutoff rule. And some of those kids that you see that reclass is that that's why they're like, all right,

it's time to maybe move on. It's not going to get any better. So I might as well take this deal. If your kid is, have a late birthday, I'm okay. for it. Being held back for if you're taking to be a five star or four star is ridiculous. Either you have it

or you don't is what God give you sometimes. And then some people are double holdbacks I've heard of double holdbacks. Well that's the 19 year old. Yeah, that's the 19 year old. Right, right, but

these parents are holding them back you know, in the 6th and 7th grade. This is what they do. they send them to a charter school. Yeah. And they hold them back at a charter school. And they do it that way. But some of these kids,

some of these kids, a double holdback. They're in 1920 when they graduate in my school. What is the prep school advantage? Is that more experience? Is that tape against the same level talent?

What is the prep school advantage? All the above, what you just said. But your clock doesn't start. That's all that is. is, D.P. When you go to a prep school or post grad, once you go there, you take two classes,

D-P, you take a SAT prep class and another one, I don't know, whatever you want to make up. So your clock doesn't start. That's all it is. These guys want to have four years at a four-year,

obviously. But if you go to a juco, that's one year, that's off your deal. So most of these kids and parents are figuring out, hey, I go to a prep school at Postgraph, my clock doesn't start. All I do is train, you're better, take these crappy classes. This is the SAT prep course.

And then you play basketball. You can play at the 35 games the whole year. You travel around in Frederick. And it's good competition. And, you know, it'll be college coaches there. And they go to practice. And the clock doesn't start. So basically, it's almost like a jukeau.

Yeah. Without your not losing a year. Yeah, without losing a year. All right. All right, before we let you go, bro, who do you like tonight? Miami and Boston, can Miami pull this, turn this thing around, or is this Boston on their way to Golden State? I like Boston.

I think I told you I had Boston coming out of the east a long time ago. It's just Miami is banged up, BP. They are hurting. Jimmy doesn't like making excuses, but, you know, I wouldn't be surprised that he is healthy. He might be scratched tonight. Lowry's hobbling. Polaro's hurt.

I mean, I think they're going to close it out today. It'll be close in the first quarter, but then the reality is going to set in. I think Boston is going to pull away, and then, you know, they'll get ready for the next Thursday, and it'll be a great finals. And the final is going to be tough because Steph is going to have to guard. I told you, D.P., that Luca in this series had to guard. He did not. That's a problem.

He did not. It's going to be crazy. Oh, man, have a great weekend, brother. Appreciate you. Enjoy Memorial Day and we'll talk next Friday. All right. Thank you. That's Ever Gray.

Again, you know, sometimes you need, I need to hear the logic from another space about how parents need to process. So think about how much parents have to process this stuff without the information. Without the information. And they're processing in their little small vacuum. So imagine a parent in Lincoln or a parent in Omaha who, or inexperienced, who are dealing with, with these things without having a full understanding of what's been done in the past and what's being done now, that how many parents are moving, you're moving, you're making decision in Lincoln to move your kid, not knowing that there are 500 other kids moving and making that very

same decision. You're not really changing your child's place in all of this. You're just another checker piece. But the parents need to know that. That's why we have to have these discussions. We'll go a little bit further into it when we come back. 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.