← The Ryen Russillo Podcast
The Ryen Russillo Podcast
The Lack of Upsets and the State of College Hoops With P.J. Carlesimo, Plus, New Red Sox 3B Alex Bregman.
01:41:30
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- [00:00]
Ryan Russillo
Foreign.
- [00:11]
Kyle Brandt
On today's episode of the podcast, we get up close with Alex Bregman, the newest third baseman of the Boston Red Sox. What his off season was like, patience, the whole deal. We're going to talk tournament. We're gonna do some biggie story, of course, Louis Carneseco with our guy, P.J. carlissimo and life advice. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. State Farm helps you score an affordable price when you choose to bundle home and auto insurance with the personal price plan. You can choose the insurance coverage that fits your needs at a price you can afford. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can bundle and save with a personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. This episode is brought to you by the Wells Fargo Active Cash Credit Card. This is an ad for the Active Cash credit card from Wells Fargo. That's a mouthful, but that's because it packs a lot in. Earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases with it, big or small. So whether it's buying tickets to the game with your mom or grabbing a coffee with your dog, earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases made with it. Say it with me, the Active cash credit card from Wells Fargo. Learn more@wells Fargo.com ActiveCash terms apply. We're going to talk now with one of our favorite guests, a man that understands the tournament, former Seaton hall head coach, and now part of the ESPN and NCAA tournament broadcast. P.J. carlissimo. What's up, man? It's good to see you.
- [01:37]
P.J. Carlesimo
Good to be with you, brother. This is, you know, we, we both did time at espn. This is the nicest thing they do for me. They let me go for three weeks to do the, the tournament every year for Westwood One. And it gives me my college fix. I love it. I had been doing PAC 12 tournament, it seems like for six, eight, 10 years, I don't even know. But obviously this year they put me back in the Big east, which was kind of, kind of fun being back in the Garden. I hadn't been at the Big east tournament in a long time, but I lucked out. They got Seattle the first round, so it was a home game. And now we got San Francisco, the West region before San Antonio. So it's all my. There's enough places I've been fired.
- [02:20]
Kyle Brandt
So let's start with kind of just a general question here now that we're at the field of 16. Is there. Is it Duke? Is it Florida for you? Is it Houston? Do you have, like, the team that you go? You know what? I actually. I think it's them. And I don't know if much of that has changed since the start of the tournament.
- [02:41]
P.J. Carlesimo
I thought. For a lot of the year, I actually thought it was Auburn. I hadn't seen them in person, which is all, you know, Again, I don't see as many in person, and it's hard. I. It. It's different. I don't. I don't know why, but it's just different sitting there, seeing the. The quickness, seeing a team. And like, you know, I came out of the Big east tournament feeling I really knew those teams. I had watched a lot of games before going in. I thought it was Auburn early. Then they kind of slid. I haven't seen Duke much, but, like, kind of the consensus and people I talk to, most people feel it's Dukes to lose. Like, if Duke plays that. That they're. They're good enough to win the whole thing. Florida has really come on. Everybody's talking about them right now. Danny Hurley, you know, well, Buddy had them on the ropes. I actually thought UConn was going to get them. They played so well. But I'm anxious to see Todd. I've known Todd for a long time. He was at Columbia. He was assistant at usf. Todd golden and. But I'll tell you what, you know, we were with Maryland for four days here in Seattle. Maryland's very, very good. They're very solid. They play both ends of the floor. I don't know if they're underrated defensively. They're a really good defensive team. Everybody keeps saying they only have five starters. Their bench is not very good, but their five starters are damn good. I like them a lot. I just have kind of a feeling that one of the old horses is going to make some noise. Either Izzo or Kelvin Sampson. I'm just probably pulling because they're closer to me in age than anybody else, but hopefully one of those two guys, Michigan State or Houston, will do some damage.
- [04:21]
Kyle Brandt
Why is Kelvin so good? Because, I mean, here we go again. Reloaded Houston and with the health, you know, questions about it, but obviously, like, this is. This is kind of what's expected now of Houston in a way that, you know, we're not used to really going more than five programs deep in college basketball. They are expected to be here now at this point with him.
- [04:42]
P.J. Carlesimo
He's a machine. It doesn't matter now. They change conferences. Everybody go, oh, how they going to adjust to the Big 12? They've owned it since they went into the Big 12. He loses guys, it doesn't matter. He's. He's an exceptional coach. He drives his. He's got a great rapport with his players. I don't want to say they allow him, but I mean, he is tough. He's on them. If you go to their practices, their shoot arounds, there's no middle ground. Like if they don't do what he wants, he's very direct. He tells them. But they, you know, they love him too. His son is excellent, which really helps an awful lot. He's always had a good staff. He's losing Qantas this year. They defend and they rebound. St. John's was very much like them.
- [05:30]
Evan
Right.
- [05:30]
P.J. Carlesimo
I knew St. John's had a dodge a bullet somewhere. They shoot the ball so poorly and I thought if they got a bad whistle somewhere along that tight whistle. I shouldn't say a bad whistle. I thought if they got a tight whistle somewhere along the way, that was the game. They were going to have to find a way. There always seems to be one. If you're good enough to get to the Final Four, you know, and play five or six games, you got to dodge a bullet somewhere. And that was St. John's bullet against Arkansas and they couldn't do it. But they're very, very similar. They turn you over. Their best offense, his points off, turnovers and offensive rebounds. Kelvin's got an expression. He talks about six hands. You know those three guys up climbing on the glass with their. Each of them with two hands up in the air. They're not a good. They're a great rebounding team, especially offensively. So they generate points, they guard the hell out of you. He always has very, very good athleticism. Overall, he's got length, may not necessarily have seven footers, but he's got length and he's got jumping ability. And they're strong. They get after you. He, he's played small gods. That hasn't made any difference. We were in the, I think it was the South Region. I was in Dallas last year with Raph and those guys and Ryan Radke and I were there. I thought they were coming out of that and then shed got hurt and that, that kept him. I thought that kept him Last year he was their best player. Kept him from going with a Final Four. I remember him in Indianapolis. I mean, it just seems every year we have Kelvin in the round of 16 and often enough in the final four. But he's, he's an exceptional coach. I mean, you know, he's, he's very good technically, but, you know, most guys are. It's what you get your guys to do. Those guys just play for him and they play at home, they play on the road. They, they can play, you know, smart teams that slow the game down. They can play teams that go up and down quick. It doesn't seem to matter. He's really, really good at adjusting. I mean, it's almost like season starts and you put down 30 wins for Houston and they're going to be in a sweet 16. Let's see what happens after that.
- [07:43]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, whenever I watch Houston, too, I'm always like, there's so many guys that are just dogs on this team. And it's a Kelvin thing, it's a recruiting thing. It's exactly right. Philosophical thing with that program where it's like, man, like they're gonna, they scare teams and maybe they won't as we get to the higher profile thing. But I think there's like real wake up. You can see teams in the tournament where there will be this wake up call moment where the intensity is not matched, you know, whether it was, you know, some of the earlier games. You're like, how is this team already down this big already? And it's just, they weren't prepared for this. And I always feel like Houston's just ready to go at the jump. I want to talk like a bigger thing here because, you know, the SEC has all these teams that are in, and some of this, too, is just the expansion of what we're looking at here. And so towards the end, the committee's like, all right, we'll just throw another one of these teams in. And it pisses everybody off. That's not in the sec Part of the map. Wasn't outraged by it because I don't follow it close enough. And so now you have seven SEC teams in the Sweet 16. And I always loved the tournament because I felt like, much like college football, where there was a distinct style of play that was attributed each conference. I felt like it was the same thing in basketball. And of course, I don't know if there's any more part of me internally that can die, but having it be a Big Ten matchup between Oregon and Arizona, a Big Ten, Big 12 matchup, like, you had that game, like, part of me just once again was reminded. When you were back coaching at the hall, did you feel like, hey, this is our style from the Big East. We like our style in the tournament against ACC teams, Big 12, you know, like, I think there's times where I thought the Big 12 was the best conference. There were PAC 10 runs that they had a distinct style. Do you still feel like there's anything that's a distinct style to any of the conferences?
- [09:25]
P.J. Carlesimo
For sure. I'll do a disclaimer first. I know the sec, the least of all. I just see them the least of all, having been back in the Big east and watching. I'm telling you, Rye, if doing games, the few games I did this year around the country, if the referees from these other leagues refereed any of the games in the Big East Conference, they would think they're in a different planet. Guys are tackling guys. They're unfazed. They just play that way. It's so physical. The Big Ten, to a slightly lesser degree, incredibly physical. I don't think the SEC is like that. What the SEC is. They're bigger and stronger and quicker. It's not NBA, but it's like. Well, there are some matchups. You just look when the teams are on the floor, you go, these guys can't play with them. These guys have just bigger, stronger, quicker athletes. And I always thought that was kind of a trade of the sec. I always thought their teams were very athletic, but I didn't know if they were as tough. Like, we always felt we could beat him. We always felt that playing in the Big east all year and playing physically. You talked about Houston when you used to play John's teams at Georgetown, John Thompson teams at Georgetown. The absolute first thing was if you didn't lace it up and you didn't match their intensity to forget everything else, you weren't even in the game. Now once you did that, it was going to be a hell of a game, but you had to be ready to go at them. I still think that's a trait of the Big east to a lesser degree than it was Big Ten for sure. Big Ten is physical. It's a more physical brand. The SEC this year has been incredible. Everybody's telling me these teams are, are that good. They're as good as advertised. It's shocking to have 14 teams out of a 16 team league in the NCAA. But 14 out of 16 is an incredible number. But, you know, everybody's kind. They're not sleeping out of. People are talking about it now. I'm sure you and I'll get into it. There's six 16 teams, four from the Big Ten and fourth in the Big 12. So you got three conferences at 15 of the teams and you know, Duke's the only team from the acc. The Big east has nobody. And there's no, you know, Cinderella or even close to a Cinderella coming in. Colorado State was the, was the last one left that, you know, people would say is it was, was a Cinderella. I do think there's a difference from league to league. I don't know. I don't know the SEC well enough to typecast what they are right now, but one thing they are for sure is longer and more athletic than the other leagues. And it's going to be interesting to see whether that plays out now in the tournament.
- [12:03]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, I remember, you know, again I was getting caught up in conference championship week, but I watched Tennessee and Florida and then I watched Michigan's Big Ten title run and I was like, man, this kind of looks different. But then again, Michigan knocks off Texas A and M, so. Exactly. Sometimes, you know, I can be guilty of the assumption of just visually of like what I'm watching. But I wanted to ask you about the officiating thing because it was funny too. I was looking up the coaches in the early 90s voted for the Big east to have six fouls in, in conference games. And he did it for what, three years. And I remember just as a kid, I was like, this is so smart. They're going to be able to tell recruits come to the NBA league, you play here with six fouls. And then I remember people were really pissed because they were like, they're only doing this because underdogs won't be able to beat him in non conference games or something. It didn't. The whole thing was funny. And then it felt like once tournament time came around, it's like we already fouled the shit out of everybody to begin with and now all of our kids think they have an extra foul out. So was it actually you guys got rid of it pretty quickly. What were those meetings like?
- [13:01]
P.J. Carlesimo
The meetings were, were interesting. It's. There was no right answer or wrong answer. We liked it because you, you had a feeling if you were a good team, you had a feeling your guys were going to be on the floor. You know, they weren't going to get into your bench. Teams that weren't deep liked it too. The lesser teams in the league were, come on, like, why don't we just legislate that the better team wins the game before we even start? Like you're making it impossible, you're making it impossible to win. So it always comes down to. You can talk about basketball philosophy. All it really came down to what was the best thing for my team in a given year. And that's how guys would vote. The guys who were down the bottom, and there was certainly a time when we were at the bottom, we'd go, come on, we can't compete now. You're going to let Patrick Ewing and these guys stay in the game longer than they normally would. Come on, it's not fair. And the other guys were saying, come on, the people are coming. They want to see the good players. Let's keep them on the floor. Some people were concerned that it was going to. Excuse me, Hurt us when he got to the tournament. But the tournament's always about adjusting. I mean, you can just get. You can get a crew and your team better be. Again. This is going back the old days when you had a veteran team with juniors and seniors and a group that had been together, and it's seen a lot of situations, they could adjust. Like, you could get to that first time out of the second time out and go, whoa, guys, they're calling everything. We got to be careful. Like, we got to. We still got to play defense, but we have to adjust to the way this game is being called. I don't see that as much anymore because you got. You know, kids are just. They're new to college. They really are. And so many teams. I mean, it's a joke now. When I get ready to do a game, like, I have a separate column from where they were. It's at a point now where I don't even talk about what other school. I want to know where they were. But it's. The teams are as bound together as they were. The coaches got five new guys. Three of his starters are transfers. He hasn't had them. When you compare that to teams in the past where you had a lineup for three or four years, like, you know, Marquette was like that this year. I actually thought it was going to be a big factor for them, and it did not play out. But I. I think when you have a group that's been together for a while, and obviously they got to be good on top of that, they just. They handle the different situations you're going to come across in a tournament so much better.
- [15:30]
Kyle Brandt
Okay, a couple things off of that one note on officiating. As an NBA guy. When I go deep into the college stuff, and of course, when I'm prepping for the draft, too, it's just the annual reminder of as much as people want to complain about NBA officiating. College officiating is a level below it. It is. I think there are certain calls that some of the college refs just love. Like, they love that baseline charge. They love it. They don't, they don't pay attention to, like, momentum of it all. I watched the St. John's Arkansas game and by the way, like the whistle on that one, you could argue hurt the Arkansas bigs more than hurt anybody on St. John's so like, as a St. John's fan, I didn't look at that game and go, oh, they lost because the officiating. They lost because their best player can shoot for a night. But I think we were up to 40 fouls in that game combined at some point with still a few minutes to go. So there's, there's a real tough flow. I feel like almost any contact at the rim is called the rebounding fouls are incredibly frustrating. But then I was going, all right, let's be fair about this. These kids are playing single elimination basketball, okay? They are fighting their live for their lives on these rebounds. So there's actually probably fouls on every single rebound and contest. And so even though officiating should be more of an art than a science and flow and all of these things, it was, it was almost a sympathetic moment that I had for the officials. Even though I can get really frustrated with just how many games can get out of control with all of the whistles and it just, it becomes kind of a bad watch. It's just not that much fun to watch because it's being stopped all the time. The games are so intense that these college officials are in a tougher spot. Where in the NBA game 61 with another one in Toronto, you're like, okay, he's already got the rebound. I'm not going to sell out physically for this rebound in the third quarter of a game in March where the college kid has no choice but to play that way the entire time because he's going to get subbed out if he's not attacking that way every single contest.
- [17:21]
P.J. Carlesimo
Well, there's no the tournament. The NCAA tournament is very much more like the playoffs in the NBA than the regular season. The thing about the NBA that they're able to do so much better is the consistency. I don't even know the number now. I should. There's 70 or 80 tops officials in the league. It's really, really closely monitored. I mean, every call they make is screwed. Not too much, to be honest with you, but I mean, you can control it in the NBA. When you got that, that one group of officials, when Monty McCutcheon, and all the people in New York and New Jersey, they've got evaluators at every game, and they, you know, what they want is consistency. Is it perfect? No, it's. I mean, it's the hardest game in the world to. To referee basketball, especially on the NBA level. But they can do a great job controlling it. It's just so tough from conference to conference. I was with Chris Rastadter, who's the national rules guy, happened to be at the Big east tournament. He's there with John Cal. Both of them were Final Four officials, great officials. But it's like, it's so hard for them to legislate the way the NBA does. I mean, it doesn't matter if you're Zach Zarbo, if you're one of the best officials in league or if you're some new person just up from the, you know, the G League, getting 10 games this year. They get. They get graded and taught the same way. Now, again, everybody knows who the good officials are, and they're going to advance, but it's just. It's impossible. You hit on the physical. The rebounding is the. Is the biggest thing. There's no question. And I didn't see. I'm going to rewatch it before my. Our games on Thursday. I didn't see what was going on in there. St. John's on the boards is like Georgetown is, like Houston, like Georgetown used to be, like Houston is now. You could call a file every single time on the grass. Cal's guys got to be just as good. They. They got to be just as physical also. So a game like that, you just hope they let him play. I mean, invariably, you know, by the second time out, I'm saying to Ryan Radke or Kevin Coogler, whoever I'm with, they got to adjust. They being both the players got to adjust, but hopefully the officials are going to adjust to, you know, we're at the first, second time out. One team's got four files, the other team's got five. I mean, come on, we don't want to make this a free throw game. And the refs would say we got to keep it under control. That. That's. That art that I think is very, very difficult for the players to adjust and for the officials to adjust. But to me, it's gotten to the point where it's tougher for college teams to adjust now because of the. I don't know what the word is, how Changed the rosters are from year to year, how young the rosters are and, and, and they're just not wound as tight as they used to be.
- [20:13]
Kyle Brandt
Okay, let's stay on that because the roster change and we know the transfer portal, it's not new this year, but it's let's just say a change in the last five years. Right? Okay, so if you look at the Sweet 16 field, you go, okay, it's all the power conferences. What's going to happen. Now granted, you had Maryland, Colorado State, so if Queen's shot doesn't go in, then I guess you could shoot that down. But I think it's a bigger picture concern. Right, right, right. It's a bigger picture concern because I think the Cinderella's the thing they had is they had continuity. Like if you have continuity and especially too, with like the extra years, they're being like, sometimes I'll look at a guy and be like, man, I really like this dude. It's like, oh, he's 24, he's on his sixth year. So like, I hope he's good. So the transfer portal crushes some of the smaller programs. Continuity. We can get into the NIN, all that stuff. Like we have the result of 16 teams from the power schools. I'd have to see this play out multiple years to think this is the new normal.
- [21:11]
P.J. Carlesimo
People are overreacting.
- [21:12]
Kyle Brandt
Okay?
- [21:13]
P.J. Carlesimo
I think they're right. I think they're right. I think we're headed that way, unfortunately. But it wasn't like, you know, it wasn't as much like that last year, the year before. We're finally through with COVID I think, I don't think there's any more kids playing for their ninth year because of COVID and a medical hardship and God knows what other reasons. I think we're down to just most guys playing five. You still got the elite players are gone. Some of them can stay. Now it gets interesting, you know, like now it's all of a sudden, am I going to be a lottery pick or not? Because if not, I could make a couple million coming back or transferring to this other school. So it's gotten a little, a little crazy. I think I'm much more bothered by the transfer rule than I am the money. I'm not thrilled with the money. I think it's totally changed the college game. You know, we could have had it more. The problem was they voted this in without any rules, anything whatsoever. No guidelines, no nothing. And, and they're now they're trying to go backwards. And I Don't know if they're ever going to be able to get some semblance of order. But the biggest problem is being able to go and play right away. That's a joke. That's a joke. The old rule was a good rule. You want to transfer, fine. Sit out. Sit out a year. Even in conferences, I'm amazed, right? I think last we were on it, we talked about it last year. I can't tell you how many coaches have told me, you know, they shake hand. It's like a hockey line now after a game. We never did that. You know, both teams line up and everybody shakes hands after a game. They're saying, by the time the kids get to the assistant coaches at the end, the assistant coaches are going, yo, if it doesn't work out, give us a call. Like, you know, we'd love to talk to you in the line. In the line shaking hands after the game with other schools from their conference. Are you kidding me? It's a joke. I mean, that's why you had the rule. You couldn't transfer in conferences in the old days. So it's, it's insanity. You can't go somewhere and play instantly, you know, multiple times. Now, hopefully they're going to address that. The other thing, and you talked about it for a mid major, small major, whatever the hell, it doesn't matter. It can be one of the lesser schools in, in a power conference, if your guy, if you recruited a guy who's a hell of a lot better than everybody thought he was, or just one of your guys just improved him, his family, his agent, because most of them have agents now are going to say, hey, you're crazy. You can make twice as much if you go to A, B or C. And they're already talking to those other schools. So it's like unless you're at one of the best schools with the most nil money and you're really cooking like you got a chance to win a national championship or you can say to the kid, you're going to get shots, the NBA is going to love you. There's, there's no control. You can't keep a guy. The worst thing that happens is somebody blossoms because he's going out to find out what's available.
- [24:13]
Kyle Brandt
I want to ask you about your run because when you were seeing hall get to the title game against Michigan, you know, I could talk to you about it for just two hours and do, I could do a three part special on it. You know, you look through the run, you beat Indiana by 13. You beat UNLV by 23. You were actually down at the half against Duke, and you just smoked him in the second half. So I guess you could argue the Duke game was your test, and it's still, you made it the final. But, like, if I look at Florida, the benefit of being tested by UConn and maybe how that resets them coming off as everybody's kind of hottest team, as opposed to maybe Duke running through everybody, I don't know that we can look back and look at your run and say, Cause you. You had to get to overtime to even get to that spot against Michigan. So your guys were testing everything. But was there part of it you thought, man, I would have loved to have had, you know, V or Duke be tougher games. Is that something.
- [25:12]
P.J. Carlesimo
We'd been tested again. I was always pro Big East. I always felt we'd debate with good friends, like, you know, Mike was down in. Mike and V were in the acc. ACC guys would regularly. One of them would always be saying they'd get beaten the semis or the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament. They'd say, hey, it's not the worst thing. We know who we are. Gives our guys a couple days rest. I don't want to beat them up for two more games to play on Sunday and then have to go to the Tournamen. I always felt the Big east tournament was the best preparation we could possibly have for the. I thought it was like starting the NCAA a week early. I said, this is great play to play three NCAA games. You're playing in the Garden. It's on CBS in those days. I mean, it was like I said, this is ncaa. And I really felt that playing in the big arena, like the Big east, even this year, ready for this, right? There's only two Big East. There's 11 schools in the Big east now. There's only two play on campus. Butler at Hinkle Field House and Xavier at Cintas. You know, Connecticut plays some games at Gampel. Everybody else plays in NBA, NHL or municipal arenas. I really think there's a big plus to that. We got tested more by Southwest Missouri. Spoon was at Southwest Missouri. We were like, sleepwalking and almost lost that damn game at the time. I think when we beat UNLV and Indiana, it was the two worst losses for those two teams in the ncaa. They had never gotten beat like that. We were just cooking. We were down 18 to Duke in the first half and came back. Robert Brickey got hurt. It was a big factor in the game. Brickey got hurt on a baseline drive, got a charlie horse and never came back in. And that really hurt Duke. I thought we were fine. I mean, we were ready to go. I thought we had been tested. I think that game is going to help Florida immensely because it was a team not from their league. I'm sure I didn't. I haven't looked yet. I'm sure they had five games this year in the, in the SEC where they were like, you know, one possession. Games are damn close to it at the end, but they're tested. There's no question. I think that's the big advantage. The all, all 16. You say Duke to a slightly lesser extent, but that's splitting hairs. I mean, yeah, the ACC's down, but the ACC is still pretty good. You don't want to make a living playing all those guys in the ACC if you're any other conference but the top four. So these teams are all tested. But I do think somewhere in the tournament there's got to be one of those nights your best player gets in foul trouble, rolls an ankle, whatever the hell, how you just have a shooting night. St. John's has shooting nights like that all the time, but usually they could overcome it with their offensive rebounding or, or turnovers. They couldn't do that against Arkansas. I, I'm a real strong believer in that. And I do think the teams that have survived one of those really, it really helps. So I think it's a big factor for Florida. I don't think it's gonna help them against Maryland. I think, like, they better lace it up and be ready to play because Maryland's legit. And those two kids, kids Queen and juju, are unbelievable. I'm talking about juju. How about what happens to USC on the women's side? And that's one of the things that it happens more in the NBA. Some key player on a good team goes down and everybody forgets that the team that wins the whole thing in June was one of the luckiest or the luckiest team relative to injuries. USC goes for what odds on to win the whole thing. I know they're still good, but come on, their best player, one of the best players, if not the best player, is out.
- [28:55]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah. Juju Watkins, for those that don't know, as of this morning, tore ACL on that play. So she's going to be out the rest of the way for a one seed USC team. I want to end on this because you knew we wanted to reach out when St. John's legend Louis Carneseca passed at the end of last year. And knowing how close you were with him and, and what a big thing like you and I, that's how we connected. Talking about this stuff you always tell, like, some people probably listen to us. I just can't wait to get to Biggie stories all the time. But I just wanted you to kind of go anywhere you wanted on it. Just talking about Louis and maybe your favorite stories.
- [29:33]
P.J. Carlesimo
I mean, I met him when I was a young assistant in Fordham. We played him all the time. This is way before the only league in the east at that point was the Ivy League. We played them all the time. We played them when I was at Wagner until we got good. He stopped playing us. But when they were like drilling us, you know, we come to the Lap Chick tournament and we upset a really good CM Newton Alabama team in the first round of the lap chick tournament at St. John's Wacko Gary Williams is an American. If he's playing St. John's anywhere else in the world, he wins the final. Should have been American. Wagner in a Lefty tournament on TV, they would have like died. But St. John's had some homing pigeons there and they were able to get, get through. And then they beat us by like 90 in the finals. And the stuff that Louie said to officials during a game was mind boggling, you know, and you'd say something where you'd stand up and you wouldn't even just say something. And they go, that's enough. I'm going, that's enough. Do you hear what he's saying to you the whole game? And he goes, that's Louie. He's like running all over the place doing his stuff. I'll tell you two things. He had an expression, leave the chandeliers. We had a lot of young coaches in the league and, you know, we were always looking for the best ball deal and, oh, let's do this, or whatever. And Louie and Joe Mulaney were the old voices of reason. And Louis thing was always leave the chandeliers. Like, come on, you can't have everything. Like just, you know, use that expression all the time. Particularly to the young, overly aggressive coaches that were trying to grab every dollar we could. Ball deals and everything else. And Louie was, come on, just easy. But two things. We're playing them in Nassau Coliseum, Wagner, St. John's one game short of going to the NCAA v. Had just beaten Raph. How's that for a foursome? Iona had just beaten all these in the finals. It's us in St. John's we lead the whole game. And there's a tough call at the end. Reggie Carter ball fakes. The ball goes out of his hand, and he goes up and gets it. And it becomes a jump ball. And I'm. I'm yelling, you can't do that. Anyhow. The ball, our kid tap controls the tap, taps at the half court. It's a Nassau Coliseum. Ronnie Player catches it and shoots a hook shot. If it was in a college gym, it would have hit the ceiling. It was like 80ft in the air. But it's Nassau Coliseum, doesn't hit a thing right through to send the game to overtime. Louie thinks the game's over. Runs down, jumps on me like Don Nelson, Yogi Berra. I've got Louie in my arms holding him. He thinks they won. And he's like, saying, good game. That's his way to say good game. And Brian Mahoney and Ronnie Rutledge, his assistants, are grabbing him, going, louie. Coach, we got overtime. The game's not over. It was. It was unbelievable. He was absolutely the best. And the last thing, he was a good loser. We had really good guys in our league. He and John Thompson were exactly the same. When you beat him, they'd come down and shake your hand. The game was over. They'd say, we got outplayed. That was the end of. It wasn't the refs. It wasn't, you know, anything else. It was, congratulations, great job. When we were, you know, we had other guys that were great winners. And when they were good and we were terrible, they always had nice things to say. When we finally got good and won some games, that was the end of the nice things. Louie and John were the same when they won and when they lost. He was. He was the best. He made you feel good about being a basketball coach, Luke. Honest. He really did. Like I said, I'm doing what Luke Carneseca does. That. That's a good thing.
- [33:09]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, man. I mean, he was. He was the best. I got to meet him at the hall of Fame, the induction. I was doing a live show there, and they brought him over, and they were like, hey, this guy is, like, a huge St. John's fan. And he, you know, the way you would expect any of you guys, has spent a life of recruiting and relationships and building all that stuff. But, I mean, he just sat right down and he gave me, like, the full CARNESEC experience for 10 minutes. And he knew exactly, like, what I wanted. Everybody else, like, everybody else just stopped talking because it's probably the biggest smile anybody's ever seen on my face. And it was the best.
- [33:42]
P.J. Carlesimo
That's a promotion. So many of his players were there. Last thing I just thought of it was a great line. We had the weekly writers lunch at Mama Leone's in New York. Every Tuesday. All the area. So many coaches in the New York area. So it was a big press meeting with all the writers. Radio, tv, and in those days, we had newspapers. We're all there at Mama Leone's. Ralph announces his retirement October 14th. We all started practice the 15th. He knew he was going to broadcasting. Dave Gavitt, you know, said Raph, you're going to be. You're going to kill it in broadcasting. Of course, as always, Gabbit was right. But Raf waited till the 14 so his assistant, Hadi Mahan, would get the job. So Seaton hall had nothing but to do with. Adi was his top guy and deserved the job. And Raf wanted to make sure. So October 14th, he announces it. The first Mama Leone's luncheon that year. Everybody said, you know, Bill was with us for whatever, 15 years, great guy, we're going to miss him. If everybody would like, you know, want to say something about Billy, you know, would be appreciated. Louie was always either first or last. I think he was last that day. He got up, stood up, walked over and he goes raftery. Addition by subtraction and sat down. That's what he called Raph resigning and how to get in the job. He called it addition by subtraction. And he sat down. It was like phenomenal, but it was, you know, perfectly. And again, Raph laughed more than anybody else, you know, but I mean, it was just three words at three words about Raf retiring. Addition by subtraction.
- [35:16]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, that's. I can just see Raph. I could just see him right now laughing his ass off through the whole thing. Pj, thank you so much for the time. And again, you'll be on the west region calls on Westwood. So give us a sense here. What we got. Maryland, Florida is the first one, and Arkansas, Texas Tech. So people are in the car. What time can they check you out?
- [35:37]
P.J. Carlesimo
4:40, the first one. Maryland, Florida, which is going to be a bloodbath. And then probably 7:27, 30 for Texas Tech in Arkansas. The Sweet 16 is aptly named. These games are, are the, are the best games. I mean, people are. You talked about the intensity. Players are dying to get to that elite eight because then you're. You're one away from getting to San Antonio. So really looking forward, I think we've got great games all four regions.
- [36:04]
Kyle Brandt
Can't wait, man. Enjoy it. Thank you so much again for the time.
- [36:08]
P.J. Carlesimo
All right, Ry, great being with you.
- [36:12]
Kyle Brandt
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- [38:45]
Ryan Russillo
No, it's definitely different, but it's been great. Just first and foremost, when I got there, just trying to get. Get to know all the guys and get to know everybody's name and kind of get to find out a little bit about everybody and kind of what makes them go and what makes them. What makes them tick, you know, and trying to learn, learn my teammates, learn the coaches, learn the front office and kind of learn everybody in the organization. And once been fortunate enough to get to know all these guys, it's been awesome. It's been a great time. I think everybody is the right mindset, everybody's motiv, ready to compete this year. And we got one more exhibition game and then it's go time.
- [39:28]
Kyle Brandt
I love reading spring training stuff because it's like the best possible scenario of any every team. Like, you read everything and it's incredibly positive. But the stuff about your club, you know, it's been like, these guys have really connected. So I wanted to ask you kind of like about your role because your resume is great. You've been in the playoffs every year that you were in the bigs full season on, right? So eight straight years of being in the playoffs and you come in and you're like, I guess I'm kind of this vet now who's this established dude with this resume, but I'm also like the new guy. So how do you figure out, like, what's asked of you as somebody with your resume, but also realizing, like, I don't want to just come here and pretend like I'm in charge now either.
- [40:05]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, 100. I think a lot of it just goes. Goes to communication, talking with everybody and getting on the same page with everybody. And obviously, like you said, been fortunate enough to play in the playoffs for the last eight years and plan on continuing to do that this year here with. Here with Boston. And I'm super excited. I think we got a really Good ball club. And for me, I think it's just go out and do anything I can to help the team win in all aspects of the game. And, yeah, just kind of have good baseball conversations, talk to everybody and try and share experiences and share things that I feel like help make good teams win. And just being able to talk to these guys. Everybody's so motivated. Everybody's locked in. Everybody's focused on what they need to do to get better at baseball and. And make this team successful this year. So it's been. It's been really cool, really energizing. There's a lot of young guys here, but they. They got their mind in the right spot, and they're. They're focused on the right things, and this organization is in a really, really good spot. So I'm excited.
- [41:17]
Kyle Brandt
Do you remember an older player with the Astros, like, talking to you? Because there's probably part of you in the beginning, like, win a World Series your first full season, be like, all right, this is normal. Say, like, the plan, like, this is normal. But was there somebody that you remember in the way they talked to you, what they said, specifically a teammate that you kind of think about now in your role and how they handled you as a young player?
- [41:39]
Ryan Russillo
Well, I think I was super fortunate to be surrounded by some great. Some great veterans right when I got there. Brian McCann, Carlos Beltran, Josh Redick. Those guys came in and they were like, hey, don't take this for granted. The postseason is not like it's. It's very hard to get here. It's very hard to win in the postseason. And they kind of settled everybody down, and we're like, hey, just. You don't have to do anything more in the postseason. You can play your game. You can. You can take your approach, and it's still going to work. You got to know who you are and. And play your game, and don't try and do anything more than that. And they. They taught us. They taught us. They taught us how to play in the postseason, and we'll be forever thankful for them, and hopefully can. Hopefully can kind of give that same message to these guys here.
- [42:32]
Kyle Brandt
Did you have to talk, like, the reason I even say third base is because, you know, those of us that were following, it's like, okay, so Bregman, this incredible third baseman, but again, the irony being that you were a shortstop coming out. So the Astros have Correa. It's like, all right, so I'll move. And then I think a lot of people are looking at Boston, whether it Was Campbell or whether it was Devers. Like, do you have to talk to your teammates about, like, look, I know I'm coming in and maybe this changes up the expectations of the season. I know since Devers has said, like, hey, whatever the club needs, I'm good to go. But is that something you needed to do?
- [43:05]
P.J. Carlesimo
Didn't we.
- [43:06]
Ryan Russillo
Didn't we never really. We never really spoke about it. We always just talked about, like, our team and kind of the goals for the year and just kind of getting to know each other. I feel like both of us from the get go have been under the same mindset of, hey, we want to win baseball games this year. We want to do whatever it takes to win. Wherever they put us, we will play and we'll play for one another. And I think it's. It's been great. Honestly, I've admired watching him play from across the field for the last eight years. I mean, he's one of the best hitters in all baseball. Just MVP candidate every single year. So it's been. It's been awesome to be his teammate. Now, it wasn't so fun when he was hitting homers against us, but now. Now that I'm on his. Now that I'm on his team, I'm very excited.
- [44:02]
Kyle Brandt
What was the off season like for you, being a free agent? And I know having Boris as an agent also means, like, you have to understand patience, because that's the way Scott likes to play the game and it's. And it's work. But I wonder what that's like when you feel like, hey, this is a month later than everybody else has already signed. Like, I want to know where I'm playing. How did you handle balancing? Which I'm sure is like, patience and.
- [44:26]
Ryan Russillo
Impatience during that time, no doubt obviously took in. It took into February, and I was joking with everybody's like, hey, I was. I signed two days before spring training even started. So I was early, like for some of the, for some of his clients and in the past. But yeah, right, I, I handled it good. I think the biggest thing that you have to do during that time is literally just put your head down and work and just work on the game, practice the game, get in the gym, but be non human to be like, hey, where am I going? Where am I gonna go? Where am I gonna go in the back of your mind. So for. I'll say when it, when it, when it was done, it was a, it was a. It was a big sigh of relief for myself and my, my wife and, and we figured out we were, we were I think seven months pregnant at the time. So we had to, we were gonna have to get some stuff going into motion here pretty quickly. And you know, they've been awesome about getting her all set up in Boston. So it's been, it's been great.
- [45:29]
Kyle Brandt
I imagine it had to change a couple times though, right, because like, we knew there were other teams involved. We knew Houston still had a long term deal on the table based. Again, I'm just going off of what I read, so I'm sure some of this stuff is maybe off when it makes it out into the public consciousness. But I had to imagine there's a couple days where you're like, I guess I'm going here, I guess I'm going. Like, did it, it, did you have moments where you were almost like mentally committed to an option that did not happen?
- [45:54]
Ryan Russillo
Oh yeah. I feel like multiple times throughout the process that happened and we were mentally like, hey, we're going, we're going somewhere else. And it ended up not happening. And then like the last, last second Boston came in and now, I mean, I'm very happy they did. I'm super, I love it here. I'm super excited.
- [46:22]
Kyle Brandt
The structure of the contract, the, you know, look, the average annual salary based on what was, you know, out from Houston, it was longer, but it was less money. Boston steps up late and they also give you the freedom of being able to opt out after this year or next year. Does the option structure of this give you more pressure or is, is it both? Is. It's like, hey, I, I can either step up in what's a pseudo contract year, but at the same time I have the security of the multiple years at a, at a big number too.
- [46:52]
Ryan Russillo
No, I think that's the nice thing about the optionality in there. But I think honestly getting, being able to get rid of the qualifying offer was a big, was a big factor in, in all of that. I think the qualifying offer is part of the reason why a lot of these, a lot of these players are signing later and later into the free agency and we'll see what happens here coming up with the qualifying offer. But yeah, it's not, it's. The qualifying offer is not very good for players. So, so I think, I don't know, I think I'm, I'm excited with it. I'm excited with the contract, but I'm super just focused on, on winning this year. I just want to win, win baseball games and, and do do that.
- [47:43]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, look, I, I get It, I mean, it's always a little weird talking to another dude about, like, so you were offered this many millions, but then you went this way and I could just tell my answer. I also love the Boris client answer of like getting a little. The qualifying stuff in there and be like, you know, this long term. We need to look into this. So it sounds like you spent a lot of time with Scott, so that, that would make sense. All right, let's. Let's have a little bit more fun. What's it going to be like being at Fenway and not being booed?
- [48:07]
Ryan Russillo
Oh, it's gonna be. It's gonna be great, actually. I don't know if I'm playing bad, if I'm playing bad, like for home them to bring it out again so you can get me back, get me back going or something.
- [48:19]
Kyle Brandt
The Fenway numbers are nuts. I, you know, I was looking at him again this morning. I mean, I kn. I knew what kind of beating you put on that park. But there has to be your swing, you know, the, the profile of you as a hitter, like, to get to play 81 there. What is it about that park for you?
- [48:37]
P.J. Carlesimo
It's.
- [48:38]
Ryan Russillo
It's going to be nice. I feel like, I feel like the biggest difference is like left center and center field isn't. Isn't super deep. Obviously right field is pretty far, but kind of my, My bad. And batted ball profile. I don't really hit the ball in the air to right field or not when I'm feeling, not when I'm playing well. I don't when I'm, when I'm swinging a bat well, I'm hitting the ball high in the air to left field and low to low to right field. And I feel like that kind of fits that mold of, of the layout of Fenway Park. But I promise I could hit other places, too. Everybody's been telling me I can hit elsewhere, too. I promise.
- [49:21]
Kyle Brandt
No, I would say the back of the baseball card proves that. But last year is a down year for you in some respects. How much of that was the elbow?
- [49:30]
Ryan Russillo
I'm not going to make any excuses for it, but obviously it's all. It's all better now. We got it. We got it. We got it cleaned up in the off season, and it's feeling 100% for this season. But I think, yeah, I think obviously there are some things that I needed, needed to address offensively from last year. My walk rate was cut, cut in half pretty much. Contact rate went up a little bit. And so it was basically like, if I was swinging, the ball was going in play. And it's a blessing and a curse. Sometimes when you swing at good pitches, it's a blessing. When you swing at pitches around the edges of the plate, it's kind of a curse because you're putting those ones in play. And last year, I think the pitch selection could have been a lot better. And I think we've kind of addressed some of the reasons why here in camp, why my walk rate went down a little bit, and I think it's back up over the 15 mark now here in spring training early. So hopefully continue to just swing at pitches that I can drive out of the ballpark. And if they can't, I can't drive them out of the ballpark or in the gap. Don't swing.
- [50:44]
Kyle Brandt
It's a bit like a golf swing, right? Where you can watch a video and, you know, see something that you don't like. You're like, oh, my God, like, I can't believe that's what it looks like. But at the same time, like, the golf ball's not adjusting to you the way major league pitchers are adjusting to the tendencies they see with you. So. So I've always wondered, you know, how much can an NBA coach really tell a great NBA player about what he's doing right or wrong, out on the floor? Like, you can have a system, or you can say, hey, we want to do this tonight. Quarterbacks probably a little different, but what is it like for you being this good, but also having an open mind in hearing from new voices and guys on staff about, like, hey, maybe this is something you need to think about, because I imagine that's. That's. That's really tough for some players. And then some players are probably listening to too many people as they try to figure things out.
- [51:34]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah, they always say, you don't want too many cooks in the kitchen, but at the same time, I have a. I always like taking in as much information as I possibly can, and I feel like just a short time being able to work with the. The coaches in the front office here, it's been. It's been pretty awesome. They show me some. Some stuff with my swing, how it was different earlier on in my career and how. How it's. How it's changed over the course of my career, and we're gonna try and get it back to where it was before, and it's. It's. It's pretty cool. Some of the technology that they have, some, like, overlays of my body in different positions. And some different things that I'm doing mechanically that could be more beneficial if I went back to how I was, how I was swinging the bat mechanically in 2018 and 2019. Whether it's my head position or the speed of which I'm loading or where my center of mass is, there's a lot of things that we've been. How far, how far my hands are back when I'm swinging the bat as opposed to like how they used to be inside my frame. Like some that they've showed me that have been really cool and really helpful that looking forward to implementing this year.
- [53:01]
Kyle Brandt
This team, they know they've had a massive off season. It's also a team that, that fan base is not used to not being in the mix after, after like, you know, a really long run of success. Have you had any time back in Massachusetts? Have you, have you like even not.
- [53:20]
Ryan Russillo
Not yet? No, we haven't. We haven't been back there yet. We've been. We went Arizona straight to Florida. Now we're go in Mexico today. We're. We're in Mexico today and then up to Texas, Baltimore and then finally home. So I cannot wait to get up there.
- [53:38]
Kyle Brandt
Do you have any friends that have played there, you know that are there every day for multiple years that have just kind of alerted you that like what a big deal it is to be a member of this team in that city? Because I look, I, I know Houston was awesome. I know New York and la, so I'm not necessarily knocking, but I think it's so important to people in Boston that it kind of takes it to another level that isn't always for everybody.
- [54:01]
Ryan Russillo
It's really cool. I feel like I was drafted by the Red Sox out of high school initially, before I went to college and my best friends growing up. Blake Swihart was the first round pick of the Red Sox the year before me. So I got to watch. He came up through their system, top prospect, made it to the big leagues, finished in the rookie of the year voting. And I was fortunate enough to talk with him about it forever. And I mean he raved about it, he loved it. And he also told me how awesome like Red Sox baseball is big time in Boston. And he told me how a bunch of different things and stories about how intense it is there and obviously playing there in the postseason against the Red Sox in 17, 18, 21 is pretty cool. It's pretty cool.
- [55:02]
Kyle Brandt
Do you think in 18 when Joe Kelly drilled you with a hundred mile an hour fastball? Cause it was, it was a 2, 2 game. So it's the playoffs. But I always felt like Joe felt like he was like policing the game a little. So I don't know. It was a 1, 2 pitch and you seem so pissed.
- [55:18]
Ryan Russillo
But I also, I called time right before that. I called time like, and he was mid delivery and he kind of threw it up and in. And then the next pitch drilled me and I was like, oh, my gosh.
- [55:32]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, I, he's like a hero out here in la. And I, I don't know. I've always been like, you know, like, when he drilled you, I thought, why are you putting somebody on? Like it's a 2, 2 game. But then I guess the argument, go ahead.
- [55:48]
Ryan Russillo
He's nasty. He's got, he's throws a hundred. Like you said, like his, his stuff is electric. So.
- [55:55]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, I want to ask you about the Red Sox.
- [55:58]
P.J. Carlesimo
Cause.
- [55:58]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah. You were 29th round pick. Was there any chance that you were going to sign out of high school with him?
- [56:04]
Ryan Russillo
No, I wasn't. I was, I was not. I had told my college coach that, that if I was taken in the first round, I was gonna sign. But if I wasn't taken in the first round, I'll give you my word, I'm coming to school. So as soon as I didn't go in the first round, I ended up going to, going to school and had a great time at lsu.
- [56:28]
Kyle Brandt
So let's do that. As you know, I love being down in Baton Rouge for games I go every year. It's. It's one of my favorite things, just being a northeast guy and getting to experience that. Because if you don't experience it, you can't understand it. Let's go back to a high school. Alex Bregman, what's your best recruiting story? Is it at lsu? Is there something else? There's another place you thought you were going to go? Because we like to do this with all the guys that played.
- [56:54]
Ryan Russillo
Best recruiting story. I don't really, I don't know. I kind of. I was, I was a sophomore in high school when I went on my recruiting visit to, to lsu. We, we went to a football game and I actually went with my mom on the, on the visit. And there's this song that they sing in Baton Rouge when they score. Touch it down. And it's called Neck. And I don't know if you've heard of it.
- [57:31]
Kyle Brandt
Oh, yeah, yeah.
- [57:32]
Ryan Russillo
And my mom was standing right next to me, like, what are they saying? Are you kidding me? And we, we laugh about it as A family because by the by year three of me going to school there, she was singing along with it.
- [57:51]
Kyle Brandt
That'll happen. That'll happen to people that go down there. Look man, I'm pumped for you. I know it was a long off season and it's probably weird. Like have. Has it even like to not be a member of the Astros anymore? Has, has it sunk in yet or is it going to be the first time you're Fenway in that uniform?
- [58:15]
Ryan Russillo
It sunk in now. At first it was a little. It was a little weird, but now it's, now it's, it's. It's feels. It feels good to be here. Feels normal. Obviously I miss all my teammates. Playing with them for a while is awesome. I'm gonna miss playing with them and, and the coaches in the front office. It was a great organization, but I'm super thrilled to be here. Had a great time getting to know all my new teammates and coaches in front office and I've loved every second of it and I hope we can go out and get back to the postseason and, and win some games there year.
- [58:59]
Kyle Brandt
Well, I can't wait for the start of the season. It's been a fun off season and I'm happy for you man. So look forward to 25.
- [59:06]
Ryan Russillo
Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
- [59:11]
Kyle Brandt
And now it's time for today's winning bundle segment presented by State Farm. There's something to be said about a strong coach player relationship. When that bond is solid, you can see the magic unfold. Players have the confidence to take risks and show off their skills, knowing their coach is in their corner. A few standout winning bundles definitely come to mind. I know what you're saying. Are you seriously going to do Mahomes and Reed again after the Super Bowl? No, I'm not. Although I've used it before for this illuminating piece of information I'm sharing with you. How about Jared Goff and Man Campbell? Think about it. Makes sense. Jared Goff, good. Not great with la. Not great enough to be the long term guy. They move him out. They sent him to Detroit. Like how long is this going to last? Well, it's going to last a long time based on one thing and that's belief. Belief from his head coach, Dan Campbell. Dan Campbell wants a captain as a backup. That's hard to do. You don't see that a lot, but that's the kind of leadership that he inspires around him. It's a coach that treats every fourth down like a parking ticket. It when you don't have any money in your checking account. He's like, you know what? I'm not going to worry about this right now. That's the kind of belief from the top down that gets his team to play at a level that he needs them to play to to respond to. Win on Sundays and we've seen an entirely new golf. I know it was disappointing in the playoffs this year, but come on. I still feel good about Detroit and you should too. You know what else is better? Gathering bundling your home and auto insurance with a personal price plan from State Farm. The personal price plan lets you call the place so you can choose the right coverage at a price that's right for you. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can bundle and save with a personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on ratings plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. This episode is brought to you by Vuori. Vuori isn't just activewear, it's a game changer. Their stuff is next level comfortable. Like why didn't I get these sooner Comfortable? Their Sunday Performance joggers, made with four way Performance stretch fabric, are insanely soft and actually look good outside the gym too. Go to Vuori.com Ryan R Y E N to get 20% off your first purchase with Vuori and enjoy free shipping on all US orders over $75 plus free returns. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market. Everyone loves a spring picnic. Whole Foods Markets has great everyday prices on quality proteins and produce to make your gatherings more delicious. Just look for the yellow low price signs that help you save money every day without compromising the quality you expect at Whole Foods Market. Discover low priced, responsibly farmed Atlantic salmon, no antibiotics ever, ground beef and boneless skinless chicken breasts. Plus more throughout the store. Whenever you see yellow at Whole Foods Market, you know you're saving money.
- [62:13]
Ryan Russillo
You want details?
- [62:14]
Evan
Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet.
- [62:18]
Kyle Brandt
What's up?
- [62:20]
Unknown
I have a ridiculous house in the.
- [62:22]
Kyle Brandt
South Fork, I have every toy you can possibly imagine, and best of all, kids, I am liquid.
- [62:29]
Evan
So now you know what's possible.
- [62:31]
Kyle Brandt
Let me tell you what's required. Life Advice the email address lifeadvice rrmail.com before we get to helping the world, let's at least talk about our Johnny's here for a little bit. Bill allowed me the Space at the end of Sunday's pod. But we have not heard from Kyle. I did order. I couldn't find the starter jacket because I think Spike Lee bot all of them. And so I was looking for it. I am just. I've had the worst luck with these starter jackets. Like, I want this LSU offensive line one. It's like lsu, Louisiana State, Incursive. And I've seen it, and I just can't. And there was some. I think some weird Asian company that was like, yeah, we can get that to you. And I was like, I don't know about this. Again, you'd have to understand the email correspondence, so do not judge on my assumption. So then I ordered what I could for St. John's one, and I knew it was going to be cutting it close, but I figured, hey, if they get through the first weekend, I can wear the jacket. And it showed up yesterday after they've been eliminated. And I ordered an XL and it showed up as a small. So I did put it on. Sent the picture to Kyle and Serdy, who. I noticed that that's our first ever text thread. Just the three of us.
- [63:38]
Unknown
No, I noticed that, too. I think some things got messed up with your phone situation. I won't go into any further than that. But. But.
- [63:47]
Kyle Brandt
Okay. All right.
- [63:48]
Unknown
We've definitely texted before. Yeah, I was going to say three of us.
- [63:52]
Kyle Brandt
Well, I thought maybe Wargon or Allison were always on it. So then when I sent it and so I put the jacket on, I took the picture. It is too small. And we're going to return that one. But the problem was I had a. I couldn't get that thing off for 10 minutes.
- [64:05]
Evan
I figured you'd have to call a neighbor or something. Like, hey, listen, I'm Ryan, just so you know, can you please help me.
- [64:11]
Unknown
Get some scissors out? And.
- [64:14]
Kyle Brandt
You know, I won't go in the elevator because I live by myself, and so. Or I won't go in the elevator without a phone. And, you know, that'll be a weird way to go. Did almost die installing a squat rack years ago. We know that story. But I had a moment. It wasn't panic, but I remember one time I put on this wetsuit where I had to get into the top of it, and I could. I could not. I was fighting for, like a half an hour. Best cardio you can ever do. Trying to get out of a wetsuit that doesn't fit you. And I was like, what am I going to do? Like, am I going to have to go to a neighbor and be like, you're going to have to just cut this thing in the back. I don't even care if I'm wasting however much cost to the sweatsuit. Like, I can't go through life this way. And so I put on this jacket and I could not get my arms because it was restricting my arm so bad once it was on, couldn't. And I was like, am I seriously going to. Like, is this an issue? And you have that moment, actually, am.
- [65:08]
Evan
I going to choke to death by myself at a beach bar or something? Like, you know, it's like one of those things. You're like, did I just put myself in this situation?
- [65:14]
Kyle Brandt
So, finally got it off, but again, I'm taking up too much time. Kyle, how are you doing?
- [65:19]
Evan
I'm okay, actually. I'd read a bunch of stuff from Johnny's Twitter, which has really stormed into my algorithm, which is nice for X. But, yeah, it's been fun. But I hadn't heard anyone talk about it until you did. And you basically said all the nice things that I've been reading. But it was nice to hear somebody say it. And I really hadn't had a real crushing sports loss in a while since the Patriots had been kind of out of it for a while. It's just been three, four years since it. You know, it was like a. Like a. A real loss. That was like, man, that one stung. Like, I thought we had something there. So I guess it's cool to be back in the game. Just of. Of sports relevancy.
- [65:56]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, it felt good to care again.
- [65:58]
Evan
Also, RJ Lewis, you guys need to stop being mean to our guy. He deleted his Instagram. And that's because of you degenerate gamblers. I think so. Do better.
- [66:05]
Kyle Brandt
He had a bad game, you know.
- [66:07]
Evan
Yeah, 3 for 17 is nuts, but still.
- [66:09]
Ryan Russillo
So nice guy.
- [66:10]
Kyle Brandt
I do try to figure out, like, where you are on the loser spectrum. And I know guys are getting paid now in the nil, so maybe that's justified it for some people, but I still think that's like, the same person. It's the same person that would go on Facebook and get mad at a high school kid for turning down his college. As far as, like, the. The seeding of losers in society. I don't know if it's a one seed, but it's. It's a good seed.
- [66:34]
Evan
Yeah, it's up there.
- [66:35]
Kyle Brandt
The guy that's like, I'm gonna it.
- [66:37]
Evan
Mf, you're a Final Four favorite. Right? Right.
- [66:41]
Kyle Brandt
I'm. I'm going to Let Louis have a hard time here after a terrible shooting game. All right, so. All right, that's talking college hoops. We already did a lot of BJ already. Little Friday feedback people. Just the support of swearing is unbelievable.
- [66:56]
Evan
Oh, really?
- [66:57]
Ryan Russillo
Yeah.
- [66:58]
Evan
I didn't see that coming.
- [66:59]
Kyle Brandt
Nope. I'm shocked. Like, people were really upset. So. So, look, we'll probably let it fly whenever it happens, whenever it needs to happen. Okay. All right, let's get to some emails here. Brother didn't like the road. 59240. No gym stats to speak of, but I do have a membership if that counts. Counts in the checking account. I was listening to the podcast where you're talking about reading the Road and your Kurt Vonnegut phase. I do a lot of driving for work and listen to a lot of books. I just finished the Road and was the middle of Sirens of Titan, thinking that was interesting. I told my brother who had never read the Road, so I told him to check it out. It was fantastic. His response was, quote, it was okay, and he didn't care if the characters died. Long story short, should I disown him as a brother? Also wouldn't mind some more hockey talk. I do think you guys would be bummed out if I try to talk hockey more often, but I appreciate it. And we'll have Bucci back on before the playoffs. Maybe a little Ryan Whitney. Who knows? Let's see. We've never had biz on. I think we talked about. I think there were some DM correspondence about. About maybe having biz on one day. So maybe we'll try to do that this year. Yeah, I don't know. That's pretty much the all time. Anything that's dramatic, not comedy. Because comedy. Yeah, normally you wouldn't care. I mean, guess Weekend at Bernie's. I don't know if anybody was emotionally distraught that he was dead, but not caring if main characters die in a very dramatic thing or just in general. It's kind of the test that I'll give myself. Like, do I actually care about any of these characters? And I think whenever you're trying to write a TV show or a movie, you would want to be able to create characters that people cared about. Not caring about the father son dynamic in the Road is alarming.
- [68:40]
Evan
I gotta read this book. If it's gonna keep coming up, I have to read the book. I watched the movie. I feel like I got a pretty good grasp on the movie. But if it's gonna continue to come up, I think I gotta get on it.
- [68:48]
Kyle Brandt
I Honestly don't know that you can do movie book on this one. And I know everybody says like read the book.
- [68:52]
Evan
I'm just. Oh, I just. I just screwed it up.
- [68:56]
Unknown
The book is better. So aren't you going to have a better experience reading second?
- [69:00]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, but don't you think you now have the imagery from the movie as you'll read the words? So you're not creating, you know, when you're reading the book, you're creating these visuals in your head because you have nothing else to go on. And if you've watched the movie first, that's just going to replace like you're going to be reading. It is like I'll be thinking of.
- [69:17]
Evan
A different color of gray for the.
- [69:19]
Kyle Brandt
Outside thinking of veto. Well, yeah, well, true. There's a lot of gray.
- [69:24]
Evan
I read it.
- [69:25]
Kyle Brandt
Well. Well, thanks.
- [69:27]
Unknown
I read all the Lord of the Rings books after I saw the movies and I actually thought it was a. I personally, I like the experience.
- [69:34]
Evan
Here we go.
- [69:35]
Unknown
Only. Only because there was just like Tom Bombadil. Like this guy isn't even the freaking movie. And he's like this incredible character in the books. He's like this mysterious guy in the woods that they don't even talk about really. So I don't. I think it can go both ways depending on your personality.
- [69:48]
Evan
Oh, I thought you were gonna be like, I thought the movies were way better or something.
- [69:51]
Unknown
No, no, no.
- [69:52]
P.J. Carlesimo
I would.
- [69:52]
Unknown
No, I'm not.
- [69:53]
Kyle Brandt
Okay.
- [69:53]
Ryan Russillo
Okay.
- [69:53]
Unknown
There'll be no Lord the ring slinger. I also have seen the movie of the road and not read the book. So I'm in the same camp as you, Kyle.
- [70:00]
Kyle Brandt
People hated the movie. Okay? The movie did not.
- [70:03]
Evan
I thought the movie was awesome, but.
- [70:05]
Kyle Brandt
What do I know?
- [70:05]
Evan
I didn't read the book.
- [70:08]
Kyle Brandt
The kid is annoying in the movie and you want to talk about like.
- [70:11]
Unknown
Not most kids in movies kind of suck though, right? I mean, you'll see. What was it?
- [70:17]
Kyle Brandt
Home Alone.
- [70:18]
Ryan Russillo
Home Alone.
- [70:19]
Unknown
Tough one. No, what's the. What's the zombie apocalypse? Why am I blanking on it? No, the show. The Walking Dead.
- [70:29]
Kyle Brandt
Carl, Last of us.
- [70:30]
Unknown
Just terrible. Just terrible.
- [70:33]
Evan
Left of us.
- [70:38]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, I just to stay on this point because I, I can't let it go because I remember we had again, I think the one film class I took took in college. And then I remember because I was like finishing up school and the guy was like, what's next? I was like, I'll probably move out to LA or not. Took 20 years. But I, I remember him arguing in the class that you should always watch the movie first before read the book. And we were just like, what are you talking about? But I think, again, his life was, you know, whatever level of dedication it was. But, I mean, the guy was a film professor, so, you know, it kind of gets back to, like, yeah, what, like, where are your interests aligned? Like, this is your opinion. Yeah, yeah. Let me know more about, like, what you're in. It's like, of course you want this to be.
- [71:29]
Evan
They think we should get more SEC teams in. Weird.
- [71:36]
Kyle Brandt
So, yeah, I would never. I personally would never. I don't even want to watch trailers, you know, I don't want. And I don't want to know about, you know, anything as far as the story. But then I guess you could argue, well, if you don't even want to watch a trailer for a movie, why would you want to read the book ahead of time? I don't know. The book is a lot better than the movie there. So, yeah, I don't know why your. Your brother said that, but we can't help him.
- [71:57]
Unknown
It's a strike, but I wouldn't disown him.
- [72:00]
Evan
I got a little vacation coming up. I think I'm going to grab the road.
- [72:04]
Kyle Brandt
Far worse, far worse to criticize R.J. lewis.
- [72:08]
Evan
Where?
- [72:09]
Kyle Brandt
Right. Okay. All right, let's get to one. My wife lives on Reddit. Please don't use name. Okay, no problem. Man, 6 foot 1, 195 player comp. Slower, wider, less aggressive. Steve Blake. Wider than Steve Blake. Sorry in advance for the lengthy email. It's always great when everybody does that. This is like literally two sentences in a paragraph. It's been weighing on my mind for months. Would love everyone's take. My wife constantly lies on Reddit. I don't know what my wife screens. I don't know what my wife's screen time is, but she spends several hours a day on Reddit. I don't have Reddit, nor do I fully understand it, but she will send me some comments from other people on shows that we watch that are funny, et cetera. A few months ago, we were sitting next to each other and I happened to glance over at her and she was on Reddit with her username in big, bold letters at the top. Months later, she sent me something from someone with a funny username. I asked her if her username was clever. She said, no, mine is blank. She told me a different name than what it actually is. I looked up her actual username on Reddit and there are countless posts. A lot of them are her complaining about me. Which is fine. Which is fine, right? I think I read it a little bit more dramatically, but a lot of her posts and comments are on other people. People's posts are just simply not true. She's made up so many stories about the most random topics. Some are variations of the truth that are heavily exaggerated to make them more valid. Some are just straight up lies that never happened. She's not normally a political person, but she's getting in back and forth verbal fights of random people over political topics. It's a very weird side of her that I never knew existed. And someone paints her in a new strange light to me. Yeah, dude, I bet. I have three questions.
- [73:50]
Evan
One, D. Only three.
- [73:53]
Kyle Brandt
A part of me feels knowing her screen name is an invasion of her privacy. Do you think it is? 2. Do you think this is weird as I do? 3. Where do I go from here? Cheers.
- [74:07]
Unknown
All right.
- [74:07]
Kyle Brandt
It was the most online, like, of the three of us. Kyle's last.
- [74:13]
Unknown
Yeah, I don't think you're you, Ryan.
- [74:14]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, Yeah.
- [74:16]
Unknown
I enjoy Reddit.
- [74:18]
Kyle Brandt
You do?
- [74:19]
Unknown
You know, I'll peruse through there usually before I go to sleep. I mostly like, again, I like the. Explain it to me like I'm five. I feel like I'm learning something. So it's like, explain like nuclear power reactors and somebody explains it like you're five, and it's great. I like that stuff. But there are some real. There's some real weird dark shit on Reddit that. And they try to feed you stuff in the algorithm to really, it's like the for you page, but like just in your normal feed and it's like, wow, you're really just trying to mess with me right now. And occasionally I'll, you know, I'll see like the resillo or the bill one. And I'm like, man, I got to stay away from that because there's nothing good in there.
- [74:48]
Evan
Get out of there.
- [74:49]
Kyle Brandt
Run.
- [74:50]
Unknown
And, and, yeah, so I don't. This, this to me is like, this is like, what. This is the stuff that we, you know, it's like, hey, I can't believe somebody lied on the Internet. And like, this is just. This is just life in 2025. Now we're like, all this is. I never know what to believe. I'm always confused. Everyone's always mad about something that doesn't really matter, but, like, is the biggest deal in the world. So this is like, I gotta be honest with you, this is like a. This is a dark scene for your wife here. I'm, I'm kind of nervous for you and her.
- [75:18]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, it's not that she's addicted to Reddit. And by the way, I can't tell if the for you page on X is the best thing or the worst thing. It's probably the best thing for the feed as far as getting people to engage in stuff that they may not see normally.
- [75:31]
Evan
Where the hell does it come from, though?
- [75:34]
Kyle Brandt
What I always think is funny is when you see somebody complaining about the for you page being like, why is this happening? Because at some point you clicked on this thing that you hated and you wanted to see something. Because I do it, I'll be like, this is stupid. Let's see it. And then guess what happens. I have seven more versions of the thing that I don't like. And at least I think I was able to figure out why I was getting more of the thing that I didn't like. But then when people complain about it, it's like you started this, your whole thing. So when it used to just be. And you can click back and I swear to God, when you go on the following tab for it, it pushes you back to the for you like two days later.
- [76:10]
Unknown
It used to default fault for you too, which was nuts.
- [76:12]
Kyle Brandt
Right?
- [76:12]
P.J. Carlesimo
Right.
- [76:13]
Unknown
And then they were like, all right, we can't be this bad.
- [76:15]
Kyle Brandt
Okay, so back back to this email because I don't know that we're doing much justice here for our guy. I don't think it's an invasion of privacy necessarily on the user. Like, she shared it with you. It's obviously a bit of a mistake on her part. And now you know something that she has no idea that you know about. So that's going to be really tough. It sounds like you get along with your wife. You didn't mention any other things. It sounds like you have like a great disposition that you're able to see your wife complaining about you public forum again, where nobody's going to know it's your wife or going to know that it's you and you've handled it like a champ. Like, that's not even the premise or the main concern of your email here. So I, I, you know, look in a very short access to like where your head is at with this, like, I actually think you deserve a lot of credit.
- [77:00]
Unknown
Yeah, I don't think I handled that that well.
- [77:02]
Kyle Brandt
Like, I'm blown away by that part of it. So it sounds like she found a keeper and you were, you're like, yeah, I saw her complaining about me on this, this thread, but whatever that's not a big deal. So the problem is, if you were to ever confront her on this, like, it's going to send her in a spiral. Like, I don't know how long that spiral lasts, but that's going to shake.
- [77:19]
Evan
You up because imagine if the foundational bricks out. That's not. Imagine the Jenga Tower.
- [77:24]
Kyle Brandt
Even if your spouse were cool about the complaints, like our guy here, which I think this is really, really rare, the other person is now realizing, like, oh my God, my husband. My wife, wife. Like, he read, she read all of these things that I've said about him where I thought I was just kind of like venting into the abyss.
- [77:43]
Evan
Does he know about my other. Other burner? Yeah.
- [77:45]
P.J. Carlesimo
Right.
- [77:47]
Kyle Brandt
So it. I don't know that you can ever really. Like, the only way I think you can attack this because you need to get her off. Like, I set limits on it. And like, the problem is I'll go to post something, I'll check something out, and then next thing I know, I'm like, oh, I'm just kind of dicking around and it's like, I've been on my stairwell for 15 minutes. I'm like, I don't need this. Right?
- [78:08]
Unknown
You sent me something this morning that was like, yeah, is this going to make my day better or is this going to piss me off?
- [78:13]
Kyle Brandt
Like, well, no, it was just so dumb. I wasn't, I wasn't even mad.
- [78:16]
Unknown
No, I know, but it's just so.
- [78:17]
Kyle Brandt
Rudy and I enjoy kind of like.
- [78:19]
Evan
Industry mutual hate of the same thing.
- [78:22]
Kyle Brandt
It's usually always like an industry thing of like, well, that's not true. Like. Or this is this, like, I know what this person's doing here. And we just have our little chuckle and we move on about our day. So I don't think it, like, I don't think we're to the point of it. Having it derail us.
- [78:36]
Unknown
We don't have a.
- [78:36]
Kyle Brandt
But this is. Yeah, yeah, this is. Yeah, we're fine. I. I feel for the guy on this one. Because you want her off of it. You don't want. Like, it's only probably going to get worse. So I don't know if there's a way that you could delicately be like, hey, you're on that a ton. Huh? And it's not, hey, you need to. I know, I know, Kyle. You guys are the married guys here. So you know what, why don't you guys just take it? Like, how would you handle this, dude?
- [79:02]
Evan
I mean, this is one of those, like, I didn't know what you were capable of. Situations, you know what I mean? Depending on how far he went on that initial, initial scroll, and just watching the stories that had the kernel of truth spiral into something else. And you're. You're thinking every time like, what is the gain of this? And it's like one of those things like, this is insane, right? There's nothing. You can't show me the correlation to how this makes anything better for you. You. So if I was him, I might just, like, look into getting hypnotized to forget this shit. I don't. I don't know how. I don't know how you move past it, knowing what you know. It's like I had. I had my struggles with Reddit in, like, 2019, you know what I mean? And just, dudes weren't super nice. And it's just like, it's been. That's 20, 25. And it's like, you know, this is how I should kick cigarettes. It's just like, you learn to stay off it for a couple months, and that's it.
- [79:49]
Kyle Brandt
By the way, imagine when you're watching not like Kyle.
- [79:52]
Unknown
And like, I was gonna say, that's definitely rebounded.
- [79:54]
Evan
No, dude, it's. It's a. Easier skill to pick up than you think, I think, but.
- [79:58]
Kyle Brandt
I know, but of all the people that have a heart, like, I get when people don't like me. Like, I like. Yeah, all right. I don't know that I would like me if I were removed. Be like, that guy's pod, that dude. I just can't imagine just deciding to be like, hey, I'm gonna start a thread on not liking Kyle anyway. That's just an aside, but you got.
- [80:19]
Evan
The real life of that. I did. Yeah. It's been a long time, and it's been great, and I love golf, but the, like, the fact that you have a Reddit in your house is weird. And it seems like you don't care what she says about you to the world.
- [80:30]
Kyle Brandt
It's the Reddit in the room with you right now.
- [80:32]
Evan
Yeah. Yes. So I. I would try. I mean, realistically, I try to forget this, see if there's some new technology that can zap the shit out of my brain, but I don't. I don't know how to. How to confront her on this. Unless you're just gonna go sit down like balls to the wall. This is insane. I think maybe you should see a therapist. We gotta get you off the. Like, I don't know how. I don't know what the, like, the, the gentle nudge thing is for this, if, you know, it sounds like you're cool and maybe you can just forget about it. But outside of that, I don't know how to even start here.
- [81:02]
Unknown
I think you could rationalize. Even if it hurts and it would hurt me, I'm. I would not handle it as well as this guy has. About, like, your spouse kind of talk. Venting about you, I guess, is the nicest way to say it.
- [81:12]
Kyle Brandt
Right?
- [81:12]
Unknown
Because I think that's normal.
- [81:13]
Kyle Brandt
But. But he's more. He's more upset about the lies that she's.
- [81:16]
Unknown
That's what I'm saying.
- [81:17]
Kyle Brandt
Making up the.
- [81:18]
Unknown
Making shit up on random threads, like, that's like crazy person behavior.
- [81:22]
Evan
That's. You know, there's no gain there. There's nothing tangible you get from that.
- [81:26]
Unknown
That's conspiracy theories. Like, that's. You're. You're going into a weird part of the Internet that I'm. As you said, Kyle, it's like, do I even know who you are at this? I don't even know who you are anymore. What are you saying? Like, you're talking about this on this threat? Like, that would. That would bother me, I think long term more than like, the little like, oh, my husband bothers me because of this and this and that. I would, like. Can you kind of come at it from an indirect way? You say you don't have Reddit. Can you maybe get one? Not that you want to, like, get yourself into that, into that field. Be like, man, I dip my toe into the Reddit world. Like, what have you been like, that's. It's crazy in there.
- [81:58]
Kyle Brandt
What.
- [81:58]
Unknown
What things do you look at? Maybe just kind of like, put it in the back of her mind that, like, she should probably not be on there because it's insane.
- [82:03]
Evan
But she already has a fake one that she told him about.
- [82:05]
P.J. Carlesimo
Right?
- [82:06]
Evan
She told him about the Mildred that she has.
- [82:07]
Kyle Brandt
So.
- [82:08]
Unknown
But if you say, like, hey, that's. There's some weird shit on there.
- [82:11]
Evan
There.
- [82:11]
Kyle Brandt
Like, what's.
- [82:12]
Unknown
Just swore. Sorry. I felt like it was appropriate. Like, what's. What is this how it normally is? Like, what do you. What places do you go on? And then if she kind of maybe just like dawns on her a little bit that, like, hey, I shouldn't be on here as much. This is kind of a dumb thing. And he's right. Like, this is probably sending me into. I'm wasting time on things that aren't making me feel better.
- [82:30]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, I know. I mean, it sounds like sure, we could sit there and now this guy's caught up in the whole thing. But I think until she's found out.
- [82:38]
Evan
She'S not going to admit that she's got the crazy Reddit. Like I feel like she's going to use the, she's going to use the mild Reddit if, you know, until this is like explicitly put out in front of her, she's just, this is going to be my secrets forever. Until it's like on Front Street. I don't know.
- [82:54]
Kyle Brandt
Is there any way you could go on it and she knows that it's your name and then you find her anonymous one and then you do it like a black mirror disagreement with her on it. And then she gets so crazy.
- [83:07]
Evan
That might work, right?
- [83:08]
Kyle Brandt
She gets so mad at you that she's like, like I, she's like, why did you say that? And he'd be like, what are you talking about? And then she admits, she admits that it's actually her and then maybe it changes her tune because now she knows that you know her. Like you would have to create this thing where you end up on a forum where you get in an argument where she knows that it's actually you and does she admit to the whole thing? I mean, again, I was trying to side door the whole deal of is there a way to just go like, hey, you're on that a lot. Like in a funny way way. Right. Which again never works. But yeah, I don't know, there's some self awareness that keeps the anonymous thing like a secret. Like you're, you're not admitting. I don't know, man, I just, I think it's great.
- [83:48]
Evan
Like it's those like tlc, like hoarders, real problems. It's like you're not going to be able to just like passively aggressively get the lady to stop eating poop who's addicted to eating her own poop, you know, I mean like there's not, there has to be something. It's so crazy that it's not just going to be like you can't logic them out of it.
- [84:03]
Kyle Brandt
Was that an episode?
- [84:04]
Evan
I don't, I think so. There's one lady that like. Yeah, yeah, I've seen clips.
- [84:08]
Kyle Brandt
All right, that's enough.
- [84:09]
Evan
Sorry.
- [84:10]
Kyle Brandt
No, it's not your fault.
- [84:11]
Evan
Just my strange addiction episodes, you know, like just, you can't get to the bottom of it.
- [84:15]
Kyle Brandt
Just don't air that addiction logic. Don't, don't air if that's a real thing.
- [84:18]
Evan
Like although it's on TLC, man, I.
- [84:21]
Kyle Brandt
Think everyone knows but all right. Spirit Etiquette 3557165170 Bench 225 Squat NBA.
- [84:31]
Evan
Wait a second, I think I ran into this guy in van Vegas.
- [84:34]
Kyle Brandt
By the way, I met Kyle on Saturday in Las Vegas.
- [84:38]
Evan
Here we go.
- [84:40]
Kyle Brandt
Adver most certainly starting with him by simply saying Kyle when I recognize him after ordering a Starbucks we had a nice brief chat while waiting for our coffees. I found this to be a funny chance encounter because just the night before I desperately needed life advice at the Sphere and was thinking about how you guys would have handled the situation I was in, especially Rosilla because of his Sphere experience. I explained the situation a bit to Kyle but didn't do the best job that details because of the night that I'd had before this being pre coffee and I didn't want to talk his ear off that early. But anyway, here we go. Good encounter Kyle?
- [85:10]
Evan
Yeah, totally fine.
- [85:11]
Kyle Brandt
Okay. I was at Dead and Company on Friday night with friends. Amazing show. Mayer seems to have full mastery of their catalog and now visuals have gotten an upgrade and even better from last year. Seemingly the perfect night. Except we had two guys right next to us in our row that were talking non stop the entire show. Not about the show, just about anything else be it work, wives, so et cetera. Maybe a few comments about the visuals or wondering out loud when an actual song was going to be played. Again, I feel like that's not the.
- [85:37]
Unknown
Concert to do that most people take it pretty seriously.
- [85:40]
Kyle Brandt
The guys pretty standard. 30 something Bros may have been in a biz relationship considering all the new info being covered. He's got this emailer knows everything about him. Backwards hats, not leaders according to cowherd. Wearing these light fishing sweatshirts that block UV rays. Hook pfg. Definitely not Deadheads or even casual fans, which for the record it's how I would label myself. I've seen about four shows of the last few years. I feel like these guys heard good things about the Sphere. Maybe they were catching a Grateful Dead Vegas style shut up or and playing the hits or a John Mayer concert. They were definitely not prepared for extended jams or quiet moments. Now I've run into this problem with people talking too much of concerts a few times at concerts throughout the years and generally ignore it. I feel like concerts generally really are a party like environment and there's always some chatter, but I feel like everyone knows when it's too much. It just kind of mutually acknowledges it with eye rolls and head tilts in the talker's direction. But because of the high ticket prices at the sphere and heavy visual elements, I feel like we were talking about a borderline. We were talking borderline movie theater rules here. It was clearly early on and these guys are going to be an issue. My buddy gave him a look at one point in the first set. I'm not sure they registered multiple people in the rows around us. Kept looking back at them, shaking heads. These guys weren't getting it based on their appearance, what they were talking about in general vibe. I'm guessing they were from Mass or New England where I'm from. And I knew if I said the wrong thing, I. E. Hey, can you shut up? It would probably cause more problems. So when the second set started, I finally even over them and said, hey, I just want to let you guys know you were projecting really loudly. As gentle as I could. Gentle eyes close and a soft open hand in the air for effect. Wow, this guy really delivered a masterpiece. It seemed to work. The guy next to me seemingly genuinely. Thank you for letting me know. My wife tells me sometimes I talk too loud. Appreciate the note. Thank you for letting me know that. Respectfully, by the way, not from Mass. If you just solve that. Thank you so much for saying that. Yeah, I appreciate you. He introduced himself and tried to start some light conversation, but I politely let him know with body language. I wasn't really getting into it, but of course about 10 minutes later they started going in and pretty much revved back up the rest of the show. Despite auditioning some more aggressive remarks in my inner monologue. I didn't say anything else then because I didn't want to start, but they definitely put a damper on the show. I did get two big laughs out of it when a quiet part of Drums in Space. I won't explain it here for those who don't know, but spark notes. It's pretty meditative and usually has your full attention in that venue. One of the guy this is actually pretty funny that during drums he loudly proclaimed named yeah, she's kind of a pain in the ass, but at the end of the day she's good for me. In reference to his wife. Big breakthrough for him. That's actually really funny. At another point, a deadhead in front of me couldn't take it. They're talking anymore. Left to go watch from standing room, then came back later when these guys had gone to get more beers and thought they were gone and cheered toward the sky and high five me only to drop his head in sadness when they returned A few minutes later. Do you think they were just gonna leave? Well, yeah, actually, if they weren't into it talking during drums though, I can kind of understand. Understand a little bit. But what would you have done or said? On one hand, of course, these guys paid a ton of money to be at the show and be part of it is socializing. They should be able to do that to some degree. But on the other hand, they're kind of ruining the show for dozens of people around them. Yeah, that's a tough one. You know, again, like the man to man confrontation. Like no one ever starts that thing. Like somebody the other day, I was pulling into a parking lot and the guy that sat at a like, move his car up and I had traffic coming behind me. So like I couldn't just wait to turn in. I had to make the move. And I was pulling into the parking lot and a guy didn't even look. Just drove right in front of me just to move his truck from one parking spot to another parking spot. I understood why he wasn't looking, but he had to know people were turning into this parking lot, but he just didn't look. It happens to everybody. I almost smashed into him, but I also couldn't stop because I had traffic behind me. So it was like this Indiana Jones move and I honked and then he honked back at me and like waved his hands up in the air like I was the asshole. And again, what's the lesson there? It's not that. It's just that you don't like being told that you're doing something wrong. Okay. And I don't even think it's a. It's a male thing. Right. I think there's plenty of people throughout. Even when the person is wrong. Like, we all have to admit you've done something wrong. You just didn't like the message messaging.
- [90:06]
Evan
Yeah, this is always thing about stop signs when you're like, no, the guy who screws up the stop sign never was like, you know what, you're right. They just, you know, middle fingers as they go through. Like no one's ever was like, yeah, I really screwed that stop sign up. It's always everyone else is an idiot.
- [90:19]
Kyle Brandt
No, it's a lesson in humanity. When you see the stop sign thing happen is you just go, no one goes, man, wish I could have that one back.
- [90:28]
Unknown
Yeah, that's on me, boys. Like, it's like an intentional fall. You put your hand up in the air like, that's me.
- [90:35]
Kyle Brandt
I don't know. What would you have Done, Kyle.
- [90:38]
Evan
So I was thinking in this situation when he was telling me that Starbucks and early morning in Vegas, I was thinking, like, sizing these guys up. I don't know. Strength in numbers. But I was realizing I really don't have a lot of experience with concerts, and I didn't know how big of a deal talking through a concert was or wasn't.
- [90:55]
Kyle Brandt
Can you talk at an Insane Clown Posse concert? The ones you've gone to?
- [90:59]
Evan
Insane Clown Posse? Did we do this before? Why. Why is this coming up again?
- [91:03]
Kyle Brandt
You've never gone to a gathering?
- [91:05]
Evan
No.
- [91:06]
Unknown
What's their. What's their nicknames? I forget.
- [91:08]
Evan
Juggalos. Right?
- [91:09]
Unknown
Juggalos. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [91:11]
Evan
No, never. Never. And just because I know that don't. Doesn't mean anything.
- [91:15]
Kyle Brandt
I've.
- [91:16]
Evan
I've never been to that. I've been to like three concerts in my. Four concerts in my life. Two of them being John Mayer concerts. Hell yeah. Yeah, I. I just assume there's speakers everywhere. I mean, I. I just didn't. I didn't realize that people talking could get under your skin that much. But again, I've never been in the sphere and I don't think I've been to a, like, high ticket concert. So I really don't know what the deal with that. I saw ludacris at the FanDuel thing where they sent me to Puerto Rico for the fantasy world championships in like 2017, 2018. And you could be talking the whole time. I wouldn't even have noticed. So I didn't really understand how big of a deal that was. I just said in the moments, like, you know, have you, like, maybe you look around the section and sort of get like a strength of numbers sort of thing, so maybe you can convince someone else to do it and then everyone can just be like, yeah, man, this isn't how we. We do this. Because if one guy tells you you're doing something wrong, I think you're probably thinking you got a 50, 50 chance of actually being right. But I think if more people told you that, then you might be like, all right, I'm going to back down here. But again, I really don't have great concert advice.
- [92:18]
Unknown
So I'm not a Deadhead. Although. So shout out to Craig Horlbeck, who I think is like family or something, or big Grateful Dead people. Because I remember we were talking about it and he was like, you got to give him a chance. Gave me a couple songs to listen to. And I'm like, actually these guys are pretty good. Like, I'll hand it to him. And obviously I'm a John Mayer guy. Shouts out to you too, Kyle. There was a story once that I saw where this girl, 20 something like, thought she was buying tickets to a John Mayer concert. Ended up being a Grateful A. Dead and Company concert and she didn't. Yeah. Which is pretty great. But what I. So I'm not. I'm not a Deadhead. Do respect them. But what I do know about them is it's kind of like a musical.
- [92:54]
Evan
Doing the Wind Horse thing right now. Do you know?
- [92:55]
Unknown
Yeah, it's kind of like a musical experience. Right? I mean, people take their music really seriously. And there's a lot of instrumental parts. I mean, the drum thing, I don't know what it is, but I assume it's like a lead, a big thing that people look forward to.
- [93:10]
Kyle Brandt
It's when you go get beers.
- [93:12]
Unknown
Okay.
- [93:13]
Evan
Because it's 10 minutes.
- [93:14]
Unknown
Fair enough. Maybe, maybe I'm wrong. But, but, but I. It's not like a concert where I think people are like singing along a ton. So, like when it's a sing along concert, I feel like it's hard to talk to other people. You can do it, but it's going to be hard. Whereas I feel like at a. At a Dead and Company concert, you're kind of sing along in this experience with everybody else. And there's this camaraderie and again, haven't been there. But what I. What my perception of it is that this. There's this camaraderie of being at the show together and experiencing what their music is. And if somebody's throwing the vibes off, I think think that's. I think that's probably what happened here is like, everyone's like, dude, I'm sitting here trying to enjoy Althea and this guy's talking about his ex or his.
- [93:50]
Kyle Brandt
Girlfriend in front of me.
- [93:51]
Unknown
You like that? I know one song.
- [93:56]
Kyle Brandt
The Sphere thing, I think, also takes it to another level too. And shout out to our guy Brad Sands, who set up the Les Claypool deal and, you know, managed Fish for a really long time. And so he's a huge NBA guy and I was in Vegas for summer league and he's like, come to the Sphere. We're going to U2. And I remember even kind of thinking like, I don't know, man. I just don't know that I care about U2 anymore. And to go to a concert and I. Even though I like my jam bands, I have a limit. I'll go, okay. Like, when somebody's like, I Hope these guys play for four hours. I'll be like, I don't. Nope. I don't want us to be like, oh, they're gonna come back and do this. Like, I'll look at some tapes. I say tapes. Shows where I go, would I have wanted to have been at this knowing that it was like this long? And I'm not a drug guy, so, you know, I think that factors into all this a little bit too. So look, is the sphere.
- [94:49]
Evan
How much standing room is there at the Sphere? Because I just don't want. Is it more of like a theater vibe or is it like.
- [94:54]
Kyle Brandt
It's definitely more of a theater deal. I mean, down in front, like anything. It's open area. And especially for this kind of show, people just noodling out, getting their wook on. So, you know, if you're down there, nobody cares. Like, the talking part of it wouldn't. But I went to the Fish show with Brad and I went on the first night, which was just awesome to be able to go. And it's a really quiet kind of scene in between the visuals and the songs. And Fish actually played a pretty mellow set anyway for that first show. So if you were going to be talking like these guys, eventually, I think the strength in numbers thing is the move. And you can start like this guy does and be like, hey, I don't want to be a dick, but, like, this is not the kind of show you sit here and talk and maybe you say it loud enough that you have other people in your regimen that are just going to go, yeah. And now all of a sudden, it's like 10 people looking at him instead of just the one guy, you know.
- [95:48]
Evan
That should do the trick.
- [95:49]
Kyle Brandt
The concert thing is always a little delicate. I think as you get older, too, you actually. As much as we can joke about.
- [95:55]
Evan
My concert by choice sort of deal, right? How are you going to tell me?
- [95:57]
P.J. Carlesimo
Me?
- [95:58]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, as you did. Yeah, that's. That's always like the. If you get that kind of response, you know, like, I had something with a. With a neighbor like a year ago where I had never seen them, and I said, hey, just so you know, like, you realize, like, this is a thing and everybody hates it. And he starts right in on, like, he's already at 11. And wow. I went, all right, fine. You know what? Fuck it. You could probably hear it during the podcast, but there's an alarm that goes off in a house that's, like across the street. And if, you know, Postmates drops off food to somebody it goes off if an Uber comes to pick up somebody, if somebody walks by on the sidewalk. And, like, everybody's houses are just on the sidewalk. It's not like we have driveways here. You're just in it in Manhattan Beach. And so this alarm goes off all day long, multiple times a day. And I guess it's because nobody lives there, which is. I understand wanting alarm. I have all sorts of security all over my house, too. But this goes off if the wind blows. And so I had never seen him. I was like, hey, you know, I have to tape. And sometimes it shows up. And he just was like, right out, chest out, right? Like, all about it. Like, fuck me for even asking, asking. And I went, all right. I'm like, all right, man. And then he just goes, oh, you don't want to hear the rest of the story. You don't want to hear it. You don't want to know what I go, I definitely don't.
- [97:24]
Evan
No, I don't.
- [97:25]
Kyle Brandt
That's tough. We now I know where you're at. And that's like, what. What am I going to do here? What. What's going to be solved? Nothing's going to be solved. All right, so there you go. Yeah, they can strengthen numbers more move is there? But those guys didn't get it. They just don't understand. They don't think they did anything wrong. You know, sphere, great opportunity.
- [97:47]
Unknown
It is kind of like the chipotle sauce thing, though. You said, like, if one person talking at the concert, like, everyone can't just do that or else the concert's going to be a disaster. So, like, these. These guys just decided to break the rules and, you know, kind of be douches and I don't know.
- [98:03]
Kyle Brandt
Yeah, no. All right, I think we got it there. The sphere thing adds to it, though. It's not just the dead show, like, outdoor whole thing. I think the sphere thing, the theater rules do apply a little bit more. And it's not like they were just loud and, like, out of control. They're just, you know, sitting there like they're having coffee together. All right, that'll do it for the show today. Thanks to S. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Wargon. Thanks to Jonathan Fras. We are on YouTube and as you know, also the video element on all the podcast podcast on your Spotify app. So please subscribe to Ryan Receiver podcast for your Spotify must be 21 and older President select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. gambling problem. Call 1-800- GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit MD gamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelp linema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-87-7-8, Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York.