1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - One-On-One with DP: November 5th, 3pm - Evric Gray (Former UNLV Runnin' Rebel)

Episode Date: November 5, 2021

One-On-One with DP: November 5th, 3pm - Evric Gray (Former UNLV Runnin' Rebel)Advertising 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 Coppull Chevrolet GMC Studios, here is your host, Derek Pearson, presented by Beatrice Bakery, on 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticket FM.com. Here's a guy that gives them more depth at UNLV, Everett, Ebert Gray. He brings nine points off the bench for Coach Tarkanian. 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 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. Happy Friday, everybody. Good deal all around.

Let's kick this bad boy off. Let's bring in the old running rebel. Everett Gray. Ev, how you doing on a Friday, brother? I am doing great. It's Friday, D.P. I don't have a job. Let's, you know, make it happen.

I can't say what Smokey said, but all what Smokey said. All of it. It was a good week. And the cool thing, though, D.P., I get to go. I'm going to visit my daughter for 10 days in Milan, Italy. so it'll be a great great week wait a minute

so you're going to Milan didn't invite a brother what is going on you know you can always go you know I mean the Huskers have a buy week next week yeah the Huskers

have a buy week next week man what do you go on down okay I'll be there still all right all right I won't book you for next week though

okay fair fair enough fair enough I can still call you from To Italy, you know. You call it Middley. Right.

Listen, let me pay some bills. I want to thank the folks from Beatrice's Bakery for taking care of us, sponsors of this hour in the day. And we will be able to make some folks smile thanks to the folks from Beatrice Bakery. And also, you guys know how to engage. If you want, you've got questions for Everick or myself, you know, 402, 466-8-5 on the Sartar-Haman text line, text it in. get them red for you. You can call in the Honda Lincoln Hotline after. You can catch the live video stream,

Sartar Heyman, on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch. You can see what's going on. The chat rooms are open. Get your comments up as well. Kind, sir, it's a busy, busy sports weekend. And, ah, man, to spend the wheel and try to figure out where we start. There's so much stuff going on. Let's start with the suns and the craziness that's happening in Phoenix.

Right. with the ownership group. Now, this is not totally uncommon, is it, this type of management behavior when it comes to players and their ability to say what they want to say, how they want to say it, because they're writing checks? Yeah, I mean, it's unfortunate that that happened, but it doesn't matter how much money you have,

that there's interesting people everywhere and all walks of life. With Savers, allegedly, let's stick to that, D.P. Allegedly sand some stuff, but he did admit to sand the N-word a few times. He did admit it to that. So it's just, it's an unfortunate deal considering the success they had. They went to the finals, a legit finals with 82 games last year, and this is what we're talking about.

They have some really good players. And I think Monty, Coach Williams, he took, it was great. He's like, let's get together all the information and see what's going on. I just hope it ain't as bad as the Washington football team, but you already know, D.P. Even Earl Watson, I know Earl a little bit. He said he has an interest story to tell, and that's going to come out, too. So it's sad, but it is what it is. This is not, this is what, you know, it's kind of the norm nowadays with some of these billionaire owners.

And it is what it is. Will it affect me? If I was with them, I don't know, D.P. I mean, those guys are making a lot of money, but they still have a, they still want to get their point across, and they want to really know what's going on about the ownership. And will it affect free agency? With guys coming there?

Probably a little bit. They'll think about it. But when it comes down to it, money talks. Ev, when you were at UNLV, did you run into any of this type of stuff? No. I mean, I've never, I didn't see anything like that. at UNLV because, you know, we were the only show in town BP back then.

Obviously, you have hockey football. I heard baseballs coming in. They'll eventually get an NBA team. But I've never really seen that. Just like what Devin, like Booker said, he'd never really seen anything like that, but you don't know what happens behind the scenes. And, but when I was at UNLV,

I've never seen that. Do you have stupid people say stuff on the road? Absolutely. But in Las Vegas, no. Yeah, that's fair. Within that, and we're talking to every great former Nevada, Las Vegas running a rebel, former NBA guy now, athletic director and high school basketball coach. Within the conversations that we've had over the course of decades,

We've talked about defining success. Like people here will talk about the football program and say, well, we're seeing growth. For you, from a coaching standpoint, how do you define that? Is it wins? Is it success off the floor? Is it personalities? How do you define it as a coach? Me personally, as a coach, coach in AAU in high school, I like my kids to graduate.

You know, you'll get struck by lightning before you play in the NBA. So I tell those kids that all the time. Get your education first and then think about going overseas or, I mean, playing an NBA. Success for me is graduation. A kid staying out of trouble. Coaching staff stand out of trouble. Players get in their degree and moving on because, like in our program you want, To get more kids, you have to say, this is what we're doing for this kid.

We put these kids into four-year schools. Sometimes you've got to go to a JC to get to where you need to go. But success in the program for me is getting guys to graduate from college, especially kids of color. At least you have that paper, you have a fighting chance. And I tell the kids of color in that program, even though it's a lot, not a lot of color in Utah. all, but I tell them, make sure you get this paper and you have a fighting chance in this world, be a productive student, a student athlete, and a productive person in life if you have that degree. So that's what we stress a lot with our coaching staff, with Darius and Darius and Darius,

Beard and Myron Sims and Mastock, and we push that a lot, make sure you graduate. And we help our kids if they can't, if they need help, even right now, D.P., we are Our program is a little bit. We're more hands-on. We don't just shove you out the door and you're done, but we really have a close relationship with all of our players in our program. How much do you talk about winning? How, we're in the hierarchy, where in the pyramid is winning?

Winning is second to me. I always say, just play hard. Even if the team is more athletic or better than you, just play hard and get the guys respect after the game. That's what we do with our Salt Lake Rebels and our high school team. Just play hard. And all my saying is DP is like, play hard and see what happens. You just never know.

So success, you don't have to win every game. It's just hot. If your kids are playing hard and everybody can't win them, you can't win every game. But at least play hard and play the right way. respect your teammates, even if you don't like them. You know, just like them for 40 minutes or whatever minutes, 48 or 32 minutes, whatever you need to play, and then you go your step away.

So I don't believe in, you know, you have to win every game. It's great to win, D.P., but if you don't, just play hard. It's just, sometimes it doesn't work out. You played for the legend. You played for Jerry Tarkhanian. How often, even with those elite national championship teams, did you talk about winning? Tark always said, even if we're better than the other team,

he's like, you never know. We might miss all of our shots. D.P. And they might make all their shots. So we have to not take anybody for granted. So that's why we always played hard from the beginning of the game, from tip to the last whistle. I used to be that guy, especially with Larry and those guys as a young player,

they always wanted they always wanted to win by 20. Just like with your intro, at one point I was averaging like 13 points in 19 minutes. And they always said to tell me, hey, get these guys going, keep playing hard,

because we want to keep this margin of victory. Because it was a record. I think it's still a record. I'm not sure, but they used to stress that in each timeout ever. You got to carry his team. You got to keep these guys going.

So, yes, we wanted to play hard through the whistle and kill everybody. Yeah, and you did in that success. We've talked about, again, you guys were Blue Bloods, and back in that era of basketball, it's really hard to stay at that level. Nebraska on the football side is recognizing. It's, like, enjoy it while you're there, but it's not always there.

What can you possibly imagine, somebody saying back then that one day UNLV would be happy with playing 500 basketball in the season? I would never it's just like where everything like I have that happened a lot. People ask me is UNLV a blue blood? I'm like no they're not a blue blood. It was just a really good

a really good program for about 20 years when Tark was there. So it's just tough to see our team lose and people say hey but hopefully they can go 500 and a down year for us was you know 25 and four you know we maybe lost four games

but we just need to get the right person in and we're going to see if Kevin Cooger can make that happen you know and he's trying his best as a young coach trying to make it happen but it hurts that our school is not where it should be and where it used to be. And it's tough. And I move for all of our sports, D.P.

Football, even though we haven't won a game this year, I really want our football team to be good. And the thing is that, the thing is that if our football team was at least 500 DP, we might be in a pack 12. You're right. You're absolutely right. You are absolutely right. That thing would have been pulled.

long ago. We're talking to Evergrave, former NBA veteran and all around good dude. It's that time, like when you say, I imagine that you guys dealt with this on the road, where

you were going into a place where the other team hadn't had to assess, and you said, Tark said, oh, they may have an on day. They may have a good day. We may have an off day. But Ohio States coming in, they've got the nod for the college. playoffs they're in that top six

and all they have to do is finish winning that's what all they have to do is finish go 1 and 0 how do you approach that how should Nebraska approach this thing is this are they going to play freer because they've got nothing to lose are they going to play with more stress because they're worried about you know scholarships and transfer portal

and the coach being being on the hot seat who has is there any advantage for Nebraska to face an Ohio State team that's fighting for something bigger than what they are Well, the thing is that I'm pretty sure Coach Frost and his staff, they've got to win games or get to at least a bowl game. And that should be your motivation, too.

And you have a team that's coming in that's in the – I think they're in the top four, right? Top five? Top five? Top five? Top five? Top five, top six. So if you can knock off one of those teams,

it's great for your morale for your team. But you should – every game that should be important for the University of Nebraska football. They've been struggling, but they need to qualify. They need to get to six wins to get to a bowl game. So that's probably one of the motivations, motivation for the team. And obviously, if you really care about your coach, and maybe he's on the hot seat, I don't know.

I'm not connected into Nebraska football and alumni and boosters and all that, but I will go out and try my best to fight for Coach Frost to keep his job by upsetting Ohio State that has a chance to play in the college football playoffs. And you should want to beat, this is why you go to Nebraska. You get to play against these teams like this, and this is where you want to compare yourself. And you want to have great film.

If you try to go to the next level, if you play well against Ohio State, you're probably going to have some good film going to the next level. So you can be selfish that way, but everybody should play extremely hard this weekend. And there's a lot of states. I don't know where they're at bowl-wise. I believe they got four or five wins. And I text you, D.P., doing that Purdue game, you know, because all of a sudden I've watched Nebraska football

because I'm on this radio show a lot. I'm kind of a fan, and I want Scott Frost to win because I was a big fan of Frost way before, back in the day, with Frazier and all those guys. So everybody knew about Nebraska football, but this should be a stepping stone. This might get them going the rest of the season and then Charleston league they can win out.

That's the hope, right? And the folks who talked about, you know, before the season, and they did that, hey, let's finish 500, let's get a bowl game thing. And I kind of lean back. But I also, because I just thought they should shoot higher than that. I thought if they were going to land at six, they should probably shoot at eight because things happen in this day and age. For basketball, Fred Horiburg has got more talent.

And there's a huge leap from seven wins. to whatever this thing is going to be. And I'm curious, right? Because it's the same, this is the same vacuum. Progress showing progress is not the same as winning games. And they're in the Big Ten conference. And the Big Ten is the best basketball conference. It's going to be tough to do.

How does Fred turn this thing around to go from, let's say double it and then say what it would take to get to from seven wins to an NCAA tournament? Well, it looks like you did a great job in the portal. You can get really good in the portal. You know, with guys being automatically eligible, you can get really good real quick. Obviously, in that conference, it's pretty tough. I mean, you got Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin, there's some Indiana. There's just some, like, there are a couple of blue bloods in that conference.

So I take the mayor, because I always think of, I've had a couple of scouting reports, and they just called him the mayor. Anyway, that was a lot of a story. Uh-huh. The mayor, so the mayor is going to, I think he's doing a good job. I think he recruited pretty well. Me personally, I think they can get to about 20 wins. If they get to 20, they can get into the tournament,

and that would be great for the mayor and Nebraska program. So you can get really good real quick through this portal. So these guys are being automatically eligible to play. So they got some pieces. And we're going to see what happened, but everybody else got pieces too. Right, especially in the Big Ten. They've got, so Nebraska has a, they have the first five-star in history, right? The first five-star in basketball to ever come here.

And, of course, his older brother is already on the team as the starting two guard. But Bryce McGowan is going to go straight from South Carolina High School and AU to being in the Big Ten. playing the three with his high school body, right? Right. How big of a leap is that going to be for him, jumping from South Carolina elite basketball to Big Ten elite basketball? Usually freshmen and younger players, about January D.P., you figure it out. I think his high school body is probably a little bit stronger

since he's been in the program for a couple months. He's been in school for two or three months and working out. I think with freshman kids, it usually clicks in around January. Once they get used to the speed and the physicality, that's where it usually click in. Him by him having his brother here probably helps a lot too. And some of these kids are already ready to play because everybody's kind of playing the same way, D.P., stretching the floor, shooting

threes, driving kick, attacking, closeouts. Those kids want to do that now. Now they've got to get used to the physicality and his body got to get used to it. They all hit a wall. I hit a wall too, D.P. They are going to hit a wall. And it's usually after January, they figure it out. And they're not freshmen anymore after January, my opinion.

That's a good way to look at it, right? Yeah. It's always interesting, right? Once you go and you're around professional guys, whether it's minor league profession, European professionals, you start to pay attention. And Nebraska has a young man by the name of Kesey Tamanaga, six foot two from Japan,

one of their elite three-on-three players played in the three-on-three squad in the Olympics, right? Played with grown men, played with grown men over there in the Olympics and did his thing and then spent a year at Ranger Junior Juko, just getting himself acclimated. The word is that he may be as good a shooter as there is that Nebraska's ever had. Sure.

Even Prykowski? To say that, I mean, when folks will tell you, they've dubbed him the Japanese Steph Curry, that kind of range. That kind of range, right? That kind of, he's got the professors, ball handling skills, right? And he can shoot from the logo.

Okay. But he's a much better defender than, like, super high IQ. And I kept saying that he's going to be the most popular player on this team, just because, one, he's crazy to watch. But I kept saying that I didn't think Nebraska was going to be ready for the media that's going to come with him from Japan. Oh, yeah. Right?

You've been around that. You've seen what happened. when one of the players comes over. What can Nebraska fans expect from this sort of crazed fanaticism coverage of one of their players? So is he Japanese or Chinese? He's Japanese. So the thing is that obviously he's a very good player. And if the media from Japan is already over here, it's going to be very interesting for Nebraska.

And the thing that is good for Nebraska's basketball because now I don't know how the Asian community in Lincoln is, but they're going to probably come out and support that kid. You'll probably have another dynamic with that kid playing on the team. It sounds like the kid can play. I've heard of him. I haven't really seen him. I'll send you some film on him.

Yeah. Right. But it sounds like he's going to be an extra energy that Nebraska has never had with a foreign player. and that's actually good. And the thing is that with the media, I didn't care. If you had, I didn't want to talk to the media anyway.

I hated being team captain, D.C. I mean, I had to talk to the freaking, to the media. So if that Asian kid, Japanese kid, if he plays the right way, that means I can get out of the locker room much faster than I have to deal with me

and this crap. So you can handle that. Oh. I think it would be, I think it would be great for, for Nebraska. basketball and sports to have a kid like that to come over

and if he can produce on the floor it'll be extra it'll be extra more fans in the stand a little diversity in the fans and it's actually to be good for University of Nebraska Everick you're going to love this kid

you're going to absolutely like he's yeah he's you know I get my old man on the porch certain style of play thinking going on. But this kid, this kid's different. He's special. And they've got the kids you're really going to

love here transferred in from Arizona State. And he was the PAC, he was the Pac 12th, six man in the year for Arizona State. Average 14 and a half coming off the bench. And he'll run the point guard here next to the two McGowan's boys, Derek Walker and six-nine line,

man. And Colorado came in here last Sunday. with their streaks of 20 win seasons back to back to back and they got ran out the building they got ran out the building so well like I said like I said DP you can get better really quick in the portal

it sounds like somebody's been recruiting some people that a lot of people overlooked and and but like I said he can I think they're going to be pretty good I think they can get to hopefully they can get to 20 wins and get to the tournament and that'll be great for the mayor and the staff.

But I think the stuff you send because you do send me stuff on the other players that they have, they have some good pieces. If they stay healthy, there'll be a problem in the Big 12th. Yeah, I'm going to send you some. I appreciate you, brother. I'm going to send you some of these right now

because you, this dude, this isn't ever a great kind of dude. Like this is. Yeah, if you can shoot it and play the right way, yeah, you're my guy. Yeah, he's, he's an. every great kind of guy. Listen, appreciate your brother. Have a great weekend. If I don't talk to you before you head to Milan, give your daughter a hug. We will reach out to her as well.

Y'all be safe and enjoy one another. All right. Thanks, D.P. I'll talk to you guys. Evergrey. You and L.V.A. former an NBA vet, and he's a coach, and he's one of the good dudes on the planet. And I kind of like where that put me. Put me in a good spot. We'll throw it the break. We'll come back. We will talk about the thing that's going on Monday. I'm also going to give you guys an opportunity. I want to make somebody smile today. So if there's somebody that had a tough day or a tough week, reach out.

Hit me with a what's up DP and say, hey, listen, I got somebody. I'd like to do something special for. All you got to do is, you know, shoot me the text on the Sartar-Hammon text line or call in and tell the story. And I might be able to do something for them via Beatrice Bakery. That makes them smile, makes you smile, makes us all smile. 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.