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Speaker 1: this week's edition of Tom's Talks, we hear from Villanova
Speaker 1: University men's basketball head coach Jay Wright, a Bucks County,
Speaker 1: PA native. Coachwright has led the Wildcats program since two
Speaker 1: thousand and one, and in that near twenty year run,
Speaker 1: the Wildcats have gone on to win the Big East
Speaker 1: Conference Championships six times, fourteen NCUBA Tournament appearances, three Final
Speaker 1: four trips, and of course the crowning jewel of college
Speaker 1: hoops two nc Double A titles, the twenty sixteen and
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen NCAA Championships. And through it all, all of
Speaker 1: this success, he has remained humble and gracious. Here's my
Speaker 1: conversation with Jay Right. Welcome to another edition of Tom's
Speaker 1: Talk and a great surprise, great guest here this week,
Speaker 1: Day Right, the head coach of Villanova. Coach, thank you
Speaker 1: so much. I don't know what the interview your equivalent
Speaker 1: of long time listener first time caller is, but for
Speaker 1: me this is great. I've admired you so much from afar,
Speaker 1: the way your teams play, how you handle yourself. So
Speaker 1: thank you. And what's going on during this this month
Speaker 1: about August and college basketball particularly with going over Oh
Speaker 1: thanks Tons for the nice words. And it's good to
Speaker 1: hear your voice. It seems like things are normal again
Speaker 1: when I hear your voice, that's a good thing. Things
Speaker 1: are normal in Philly. What about like college basketball, I
Speaker 1: know you've had a good recruiting year. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you get to go to AAU tournaments. I suspect
Speaker 1: not kind of a dead period for the NC double
Speaker 1: A tom it has been you know, for everybody, it's
Speaker 1: it's been just incredible, right and the same with college athletics.
Speaker 1: The thing for us is we you know, we don't
Speaker 1: have anything to complain about. You know, there's so many
Speaker 1: people that you know, by missing work are you know,
Speaker 1: families are struggling in and there's so many difficult things
Speaker 1: going on. So I don't I don't in any way
Speaker 1: want to complain about us not being able to coach
Speaker 1: our players, not being able to be with us, because
Speaker 1: there's still our guys who are still home working out.
Speaker 1: Because we just have so much respect for all the
Speaker 1: first responders, what everybody's doing in this country. The doctors
Speaker 1: and all the people that have suffered with this virus
Speaker 1: M But you know, but given that, it's been bizarre
Speaker 1: for us. We literally have not seen our players since
Speaker 1: UM in person, since March twelfth. UM. You know, we
Speaker 1: do zooms, we do face times, We were talking all
Speaker 1: the time, group, we have group chats UM. And same
Speaker 1: thing with recruiting time. We have not college coaches have
Speaker 1: not been able to go out and see any players
Speaker 1: UM in person since you know, since early March. So
Speaker 1: we've actually gotten four commitments verbal commitments from recruits that
Speaker 1: we never got on campus. Well, you get to meet
Speaker 1: with them and their families in person. We just did
Speaker 1: everything through zoom And that's just been the reality of
Speaker 1: college basketball right now. And that speaks to your reputation
Speaker 1: in which you've built in terms of the program there
Speaker 1: that they were able to make that decision without being
Speaker 1: there and feeling that vibe which is so special on
Speaker 1: your campus. Now, the players you have gotten to see,
Speaker 1: at least through television are your former players playing right
Speaker 1: now in the NBA. And I know you're proud of
Speaker 1: all your guys, but to watch you know, Dante and
Speaker 1: Mcal and Josh and of course Kyle Lowry must be
Speaker 1: really neat to watch them right now in August in
Speaker 1: the NBA season in Florida. Yeah. Man, I'm sure it's
Speaker 1: not easy for those guys being down in the bubble
Speaker 1: in Orlando. But I gotta selfishly say, um, I never
Speaker 1: get to watch regular season NBA basketball like I you know,
Speaker 1: I'm able to watch these games. Usually by the time
Speaker 1: the playoffs come, we're done, so I can really watch
Speaker 1: playoff basketball, which I love. But um, I'm loving this,
Speaker 1: you know. And I love watching our guys and be
Speaker 1: able to follow them and watch a game in the afternoon,
Speaker 1: and um, it's it's really cool. I feel bad for
Speaker 1: for Jalen. Um. You know, Jalen Brunson has his shoulder injury.
Speaker 1: He's going well with his rehab, but they decided, you know,
Speaker 1: not to risk it having him play down. I know
Speaker 1: he's he's really suffering not not being with his team. Um. Uh,
Speaker 1: he's he's he's got a spot out in Ocean City
Speaker 1: though he's doing right, but he's working out every day. Um.
Speaker 1: And and Ryan Arch same thing. You know, I know
Speaker 1: he's he's dying not not being down in Eric Paschal. Um,
Speaker 1: those guys, I feel bad for him because the beast
Speaker 1: all part of the bubble. It looks so cool man,
Speaker 1: Like you if anybody ever questioned whether these guys are
Speaker 1: playing for the love of the game or not, right
Speaker 1: it is so clear right now. The passion and the
Speaker 1: energy these guys are playing with is really impressive. And
Speaker 1: you know, I know I'm gonna sound like an old
Speaker 1: fart saying this, but there's like there's no bs with
Speaker 1: the crowd, Like these guys are just bawling and getting
Speaker 1: getting after each other and not mess around the crowd
Speaker 1: and everything. As a basketball purist, I am loving this.
Speaker 1: And kudos to the NBA and these coaches and players
Speaker 1: are pulling this offense. It's really impressive. What do you
Speaker 1: think of the Sixers? They play again here this afternoon
Speaker 1: as we speak, and beat has been dominant. What do
Speaker 1: you think of your hometown team? You know, I've said
Speaker 1: this so many times. I know I sound like a
Speaker 1: broken record, but Brett Brett Brown has dealt with so
Speaker 1: so much adversity as a coach. Things that are adversity
Speaker 1: to coaches are different than players. But when you get
Speaker 1: lineup changes and injuries and COVID nineteen and bubbles and
Speaker 1: for a coach, that stuff is really difficult, and he
Speaker 1: just and youthful players right and changing rosters. I think
Speaker 1: he's done the best job of anybody in the NBA.
Speaker 1: I felt so bad for him the night the night
Speaker 1: they played Indiana and the Sixers battle to get a
Speaker 1: chance there at the end and Ben Simmons leaves Warren
Speaker 1: at the end to give up a three to a
Speaker 1: guy that's got fifty. You know, you know as a
Speaker 1: coach you're saying, don't leave that guy. You know, just
Speaker 1: being a young, aggressive player. But in the same vein
Speaker 1: to pull off that game against San Antonio win. You know,
Speaker 1: you had the game san Antonio played great, and Shake
Speaker 1: Milton to keep his composure and and hit that shot
Speaker 1: after struggling a little bit early. Ben not having a
Speaker 1: great game but finding a way to win. I know
Speaker 1: that doesn't when you analyze teams, that doesn't look good.
Speaker 1: But as a coach, you know, if we we're gonna
Speaker 1: have nights when Ben's hot, Shake's hot, we're gonna win
Speaker 1: those games. But if we could have those nights where
Speaker 1: we struggle a little bit and find ways to win,
Speaker 1: it's a good sign for that team. Coach one of
Speaker 1: the things Coach Brown has done has built culture, and
Speaker 1: it's taken time and obviously winning, you know, is maybe
Speaker 1: the best culture. But you've taken a proud Villanova tradition
Speaker 1: and you know, Duke has the brotherhood. But with your
Speaker 1: former players, the alumni, what you've built there, that's a
Speaker 1: huge thing and you should be awful proud of that.
Speaker 1: Speak to that a little bit, well, Tom, you know
Speaker 1: you you said it. Um we we just we kind
Speaker 1: of built on what was there. You know, you can
Speaker 1: go back to the to the fifties. You know, um,
Speaker 1: George Raveling played for Villanova in the fifties, and you
Speaker 1: know Jimmy Huggard and Paul Arison and um, you know,
Speaker 1: um all Joe Ryan. You know, then you go through
Speaker 1: the sixties Wally Jones and and George Leftwich and uh
Speaker 1: Johnny Jones and Bill Melchi. Only like these guys have
Speaker 1: all these stay Villanova and kept the tradition proud and
Speaker 1: supported the guys that come after them, have given back
Speaker 1: financially to the program, have gone on, you know, to
Speaker 1: the NBA as executives and coaches, Chris Ford, you know, players,
Speaker 1: and so that was all in place when we got there,
Speaker 1: we just you know, we just kind of accentuated it
Speaker 1: and and just brought it to light to everybody and
Speaker 1: said everybody in the program in the university, like, hey,
Speaker 1: this has been going on for a long time here.
Speaker 1: This isn't normal. Like you all think this is normal.
Speaker 1: This isn't normal. This is something that we've we've really
Speaker 1: got to celebrate. And you know, personally, I feel so
Speaker 1: blessed to be a part of it, and we make
Speaker 1: sure that our players aren't feel the same way. Coach.
Speaker 1: Part of it is the Augustinian tradition. I myself went
Speaker 1: to a high school run by Benedictan monks, and same
Speaker 1: thing in college. Believe it or not played basketball a
Speaker 1: couple of years. But and you incorporate that in like
Speaker 1: with father Rob and you know, like you're dining buddy,
Speaker 1: you're coaching the summer. Greg Popovich talks about NBA players
Speaker 1: he likes guys that are over themselves. Well, your guys
Speaker 1: aren't quite over themselves. They're eighteen to twenty two years old.
Speaker 1: They're they're feeling big man on campus and understand what
Speaker 1: we saw. They're high schooled all Americans. But you, guys,
Speaker 1: you want players that sacrifice that understand what teams all about.
Speaker 1: Talk about that a little bit because that isn't that
Speaker 1: a big part of the fabric of your organization of
Speaker 1: your program. Yeah, that's a great it's a great point
Speaker 1: in time, and it really is. You know, it's kind
Speaker 1: of our secret sauce that you know, if people want
Speaker 1: to hear about it, I'll talk about it. Sometimes people
Speaker 1: don't want to hear about it. So but you know,
Speaker 1: Father Rob and the Augustinian Values are a big, big
Speaker 1: part of our program. You know. In sixteen when we
Speaker 1: won the championship, Yeah, I was urged to write a
Speaker 1: book by a number of people. I didn't want to.
Speaker 1: I wanted to. I wanted I wanted to list um.
Speaker 1: I wanted that season. I took notes on every sermon
Speaker 1: that Father Rob gave before every game because it impacted
Speaker 1: us every game. But they told me that religion doesn't sell.
Speaker 1: You can't do that. But you know, as you read
Speaker 1: the book. The books titled Attitude, which is important to us,
Speaker 1: but it's it's a lot Father Rob's big in that
Speaker 1: and it really speaks to the fact that, you know,
Speaker 1: the Augustinian values are about community and about um improving
Speaker 1: yourself as an individual through being a part of a
Speaker 1: community and and and really understanding that you become your
Speaker 1: best self individually when you actually serve others and think
Speaker 1: about others. And it's really true and it works, and um,
Speaker 1: it's it's something that's always been in place at Villanova
Speaker 1: because of the Augustinians, and you know, we just incorp
Speaker 1: it's easy. It's there every day. So when the players
Speaker 1: are with us, they're hearing about that and learning about it.
Speaker 1: And when they leave us and go on campus with
Speaker 1: the fellow students and alumni, they hear about it. So
Speaker 1: it's a big part of our our program. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's about you know, you, you become us. You know,
Speaker 1: we don't become you, and you're actually going to be
Speaker 1: your best self by being a part of this community.
Speaker 1: The thing I liked that one of the anecdotes was
Speaker 1: Holy Thursday and you guys were en route to the
Speaker 1: final four. Father Rob was doing the Washington the feet
Speaker 1: and hoops. He washed your feet first with a picture
Speaker 1: of ice tea. You know, we're all supposed to be
Speaker 1: such professionals, so good at what we do. He's one
Speaker 1: of the best preachers I've ever seen and he's always
Speaker 1: so prepared. And on that Holy Thursday before we played
Speaker 1: in the Sweet sixteen, he had that all prepared, but
Speaker 1: he didn't tell me he was going to do it.
Speaker 1: And right before he said, okay, we're gonna wash each
Speaker 1: other's feet, you know, like like Christ did with his disciples.
Speaker 1: Like WHOA, I really didn't, but I always trust him.
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, And he had a picture
Speaker 1: of water ready every day, and he just grabbed the
Speaker 1: wrong picture. He started with me and I'm looking at him,
Speaker 1: poor iced tea on my feet. We looked at each other,
Speaker 1: just laughed and switched the picture and then I took
Speaker 1: the water and washed washed arches. Speak well, you have
Speaker 1: the chapel in your virtual background. And when I first
Speaker 1: started some twenty five years ago, and I was a
Speaker 1: little phenom as a young baseball player. But by this
Speaker 1: time we're playing softball, dammy bat and ninth, I was
Speaker 1: in right field by the cemetery under a tree. But
Speaker 1: I used to go in the chapel with my baseball
Speaker 1: glob in the pew and have a little visit before
Speaker 1: I went to play summer soft all those years ago.
Speaker 1: I know that you're talking about right there. I know
Speaker 1: ye right talking about you talk about off the wall.
Speaker 1: I had to play under the tree sixteen the win
Speaker 1: over Carolina and eighteen was incredible and Dante has an
Speaker 1: awesome game, but you kind of sent you we're going
Speaker 1: to beat Michigan the way that thing was was going.
Speaker 1: But the Carolina game, I mean, I would imagine at
Speaker 1: golf outings and cherry functions and when you're out and about,
Speaker 1: people probably approach you and tell you how it went
Speaker 1: for them. I mean, our family has a story with
Speaker 1: blankets and thrown in the air. I mean, that was
Speaker 1: such a remarkable, incredible game. Talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: that and winning the championship. First, you know, for you
Speaker 1: the first time you know you're you're you're you're right
Speaker 1: on time when you're we learned this in O nine,
Speaker 1: the first time we went to the final four, and
Speaker 1: and so you're kind of thinking about it in sixteen
Speaker 1: and that when you're in that run, you're never home.
Speaker 1: You know, you you're at the sight of all these tournaments.
Speaker 1: And then you know, let's say you went on Sunday,
Speaker 1: you get back late Sunday night, you're there Monday, and
Speaker 1: then Tuesday you leave for the next sight so you
Speaker 1: hear all these stories about like what's going on back
Speaker 1: at home, but you really you don't know. And in
Speaker 1: sixteen it was so funny and just as you said,
Speaker 1: I still run into people these days that showed me.
Speaker 1: Now everybody has videos, and they showed me that look,
Speaker 1: look this is this is my family watching it. And
Speaker 1: it's funny to think, like at that time, because there
Speaker 1: was a time out with four point seven seconds, I
Speaker 1: guess everyone said, you know what, I'm all right, this
Speaker 1: is it. It's for I'm videotaping this. Because everybody's got
Speaker 1: a video of their you know, wherever they were, in
Speaker 1: a bar, their family room. It's and a lot of
Speaker 1: times it's families, you know, and you you see you
Speaker 1: see everybody families going crazy and crying and hugging, and
Speaker 1: it's it's a joy for me to relive it. It's
Speaker 1: it's emotional every time you see someone's family enjoy that.
Speaker 1: It's it's really, you know, it's it's a it's a
Speaker 1: blessing to have been a part of that. One of
Speaker 1: the things I like so much as your humility and
Speaker 1: like I said, how you've handled yourself. And after that,
Speaker 1: when your guys came back to campus, and there were
Speaker 1: so many appearances and everything, and at one point you
Speaker 1: gathered the group and you said, look, you haven't changed.
Speaker 1: People's perception of you has changed, right, exactly exactly. You know.
Speaker 1: We it's um, you know, we're we you know, we
Speaker 1: tell our guys all the time we're we're basketball players.
Speaker 1: Were just the same as everybody else. You know. We
Speaker 1: get a lot of attention, you know, and and there's
Speaker 1: a responsibility that comes with this. But we've got to
Speaker 1: remain humble for ourselves or we're you know, because this
Speaker 1: stuff is short lived, you know. And and if if
Speaker 1: you you know, you really want to keep living that out,
Speaker 1: it's it's you're not gonna have a happy life. It's
Speaker 1: really you know, what kind of husband are you, what
Speaker 1: kind of father are you? What kind of brother are you?
Speaker 1: A kind of classmate friend? It's really for your own
Speaker 1: good to stay humble and um And you know, and
Speaker 1: as you know, Tom, being in pro sports, like when
Speaker 1: you if you don't work at that and address it,
Speaker 1: it's it can be overwhelming, you know, and especially for
Speaker 1: you know, if you're eighteen, nineteen twenty and you win
Speaker 1: a national championship, imagine Chris Jenkins. I was always so
Speaker 1: proud of how he handled and still does handles that shot.
Speaker 1: You know, he's not really living off it. You know,
Speaker 1: he's trying to move on with his life. Like he'll
Speaker 1: talk about it, and you know it doesn't hide from it.
Speaker 1: But it can't define you. You know, it's just got
Speaker 1: to be something that you did that you're a part
Speaker 1: of and what kind of person you are that's and
Speaker 1: how you treat people, that's what's got to define you.
Speaker 1: We'll have more from my conversation with Jay Wright after
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Speaker 1: And now back to my conversation with Jay Wright. I
Speaker 1: want to get into one more thing about your coaching,
Speaker 1: which I could go on forever, and I'll let you
Speaker 1: get out here. I want to talk about USA basketball also.
Speaker 1: But one of your mantras to your players is next play.
Speaker 1: And that is if you make a mistake or even
Speaker 1: if you you know you're dunk it and you're all that,
Speaker 1: get back and get on to the next play. And that,
Speaker 1: like I was saying, that could carry over to in life.
Speaker 1: You know, we all make mistakes. Like the baby almost
Speaker 1: hit the table, but she didn't. She's gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: Let's go on to the next play. Talk about that
Speaker 1: and how you've instilled that in your players. Well, that's
Speaker 1: the beauty of coaching college kids, right They're still learning
Speaker 1: and so we can we can incorporate and they expect
Speaker 1: you to in their parents expect you to incorporate life
Speaker 1: lessons with basketball. So one of the most important characteristics
Speaker 1: we try to instill in them and teach them is
Speaker 1: that of having a positive attitude and that we don't
Speaker 1: have control of what happens to us in life. You
Speaker 1: can look at this pandemic right now, but we do
Speaker 1: have control of how we respond to it, and that's
Speaker 1: our attitude. Our attitude is how we respond to things
Speaker 1: that happen to us in life. And we start with
Speaker 1: bad because that's what they're thinking about when they commit him.
Speaker 1: And in practice we give we give attitude points to
Speaker 1: the opponent. If if you turn the ball over and
Speaker 1: you drop your head or don't sprint back or complain,
Speaker 1: the other team gets an attitude point. And everything we
Speaker 1: do is competitive. If if you go down and get
Speaker 1: fouled and that REP practice doesn't call it and you
Speaker 1: complain to rep, that's an attitude point for the other team.
Speaker 1: So you know, we we we try to repeat that
Speaker 1: in teaching guys that Okay, something negative just happened. You
Speaker 1: control how you respond on the next play. And so
Speaker 1: in basketball it's next play. In life, it's next day.
Speaker 1: You are all you guys are so competitive, and I,
Speaker 1: like I said, I tell high school coaches ce Yo
Speaker 1: coaches watch Villanova play defense. So and I don't know
Speaker 1: how much you want to reveal, but I know, like
Speaker 1: if Kyle Lowry he's a dog, I know how I
Speaker 1: can tell how you run your practices and you are
Speaker 1: very you have to be fiery, like dump I went
Speaker 1: to France practices. I know exactly what goes on at
Speaker 1: the David Center, and that's how you get ready for
Speaker 1: game day. Touch on that however you feel appropriate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, we we have. It's on the wall before
Speaker 1: you walk out onto the court of practice. It's something
Speaker 1: we talk about all the time that we practice to
Speaker 1: create habits, just like we talked about attitude. We practice
Speaker 1: to create habits. They're gonna make us success in the
Speaker 1: most difficult situations. So we're not practicing for you know,
Speaker 1: a game against you know, a low level Division one
Speaker 1: team at home that everything's going to work out great.
Speaker 1: We're practicing for the difficult situations at Kansas, sold out crowd,
Speaker 1: referees making bad calls, Kansas is playing great. What are
Speaker 1: the habits that we have to create every play, every
Speaker 1: day so that when we're in that situation we don't
Speaker 1: think about it. It's just ingrained in us. And that's
Speaker 1: really hard to do, and it takes discipline from the
Speaker 1: coaching staff to not miss anything and not let anything go. Don't.
Speaker 1: You don't have to yell about it or be nasty
Speaker 1: about it, but you just you have to be demanding
Speaker 1: and discipline as a coach and the coaching staff on
Speaker 1: everything you do. The way you walk on the court,
Speaker 1: the way you stretch, the way you move from one
Speaker 1: drill to another. It all matters that you're either creating
Speaker 1: good habits or bad habits. And it's something that we
Speaker 1: work hard on every day and it takes a lot
Speaker 1: of it takes a lot of energy. I'm proud of
Speaker 1: our assistants do a great job of that. You're one
Speaker 1: of the best coaches in college basketball. You've got arguably
Speaker 1: the best job in college basketball. You're at a special place.
Speaker 1: But there have been over the year's overtures. But tell
Speaker 1: the story that Jimmy Balbano, the late Jim Valvano shared
Speaker 1: with you. You spoke to Bill Raftree in an interview
Speaker 1: a few years back, and Valvano told you over at dinner,
Speaker 1: I presume that don't mess what's happened. He told you
Speaker 1: his best experience, his most happy time was at Little
Speaker 1: Iona College. And this is a former NC State NCAA champion.
Speaker 1: What did he tell you? Yeah, man, your research, Tim,
Speaker 1: that is one of my favorites. We were actually in
Speaker 1: Atlantic City, Rollie Massimino, Steve Pinone, Jimmy Valvano, myself, they
Speaker 1: had just the two of them had just on Jay
Speaker 1: Johnstone's Wacky World of Sports TV show. Was credible. It's
Speaker 1: like two in the morning. They got some some guy
Speaker 1: Hope as a Talian restaurant and we're drinking wine and
Speaker 1: Jimmy Babanda said to me, you want to be a
Speaker 1: head coach, right kid? And I said yeah. He said,
Speaker 1: let me tell you something. You're gonna get a job
Speaker 1: working for coach masks. You're gonna get a head coaching
Speaker 1: job in when you find a good one. Don't don't
Speaker 1: worry about how big time it is. You just make
Speaker 1: sure if you find a place you like, you stay there.
Speaker 1: Don't mess with happy. If you're happy in coaching, you
Speaker 1: stick there. He said. When I was at Iona, I
Speaker 1: was back home and all my friends around me, Little Iona.
Speaker 1: We were winning. I was with family friends as the
Speaker 1: happiest I ever was in life, he say. And he
Speaker 1: was the ad actually that time at NC State, because
Speaker 1: you know, I love NC State. We won a national championship.
Speaker 1: I'm a d But if I look back at my coaching,
Speaker 1: the happiest I ever was was that Iona. I shouldn't
Speaker 1: have left. So if you ever get that chance, don't
Speaker 1: mess with happy. It's a great story because pressures come
Speaker 1: to sometimes when you have a different expectations. So you've
Speaker 1: been a part of USA Basketball for years, but now
Speaker 1: you're with what they called the senior men's select team
Speaker 1: and this is our Olympic team, which you would probably
Speaker 1: be getting ready to go to China right now for
Speaker 1: the Olympics. What was that like last summer to be
Speaker 1: around those players, Coach Pop, Coach Kerr, Coach Pierce. I mean,
Speaker 1: it must have been pretty special, incredible for me for
Speaker 1: a basketball junkie from Philadelphia to be in that environment
Speaker 1: every day was a dream come true. Being it you
Speaker 1: know what coaches means with with coach Pop and Lloyd
Speaker 1: Pierce and Steve Kerr, Jeff and Gunde was with us
Speaker 1: on that staff, it was It was amazing. It was
Speaker 1: a basketball junkie's dream. All the things that you would
Speaker 1: think they would talk about do they did, because they're
Speaker 1: they're all basketball geniuses, they're all characters, they're all fun loving,
Speaker 1: humble guys. It was forty five days together in Australia
Speaker 1: and China, and you know, Pops, Dinners and and and
Speaker 1: the players we had were just incredible guys because they
Speaker 1: were all guys that came to the trials thinking initially
Speaker 1: thinking they were going to be the developmental team. That
Speaker 1: was going to practice against the Olympics, you know, the
Speaker 1: World Cup team, but all the older guys opted out
Speaker 1: for good reasons really, Um, so they all became the
Speaker 1: team and they were all so humble and hungry and coachable,
Speaker 1: and um you know, we we came in fifth, but
Speaker 1: like we were, we were we were a possession of way,
Speaker 1: you know, from from winning that thing. And Spain won
Speaker 1: it and we had we had beaten Spain in an
Speaker 1: exhibition game in a in a really good game, and
Speaker 1: we were good enough to win it. We were proud
Speaker 1: of our guys. We were really sad that we could
Speaker 1: win the goal for the US, but in a weird way,
Speaker 1: we really felt good about what our guys sacrificed and
Speaker 1: gave up for their country. And we all loved working
Speaker 1: together as a staff. Well, here's the next summer and
Speaker 1: bringing home the goal if they play the games in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, that is expected. Thanks coach, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. I so much appreciate it. I really enjoyed it,
Speaker 1: and I wish you all the best to have a
Speaker 1: great rest of the summer and hope everything turns out
Speaker 1: with your team this year. Thanks Tom, great being with
Speaker 1: your day Thanks for listening to Tom's talks with me
Speaker 1: Tom McGinnis on the seventy six Ers podcast Network check
Speaker 1: for new episodes every weekend.