Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're trying
Speaker 1: to figure out what we need to do to get
Speaker 1: into that Taylor Swift Caitlin Clark suite. You know, I
Speaker 1: make a killer hot onion dip. It's Tuesday, January twenty first,
Speaker 1: and on today's show, we'll be diving into the debut
Speaker 1: of Unrivaled, trying to figure out what the hell is
Speaker 1: going on in pro women's beabs, and celebrating a contract
Speaker 1: extension for the highest paid women's basketball coach in history.
Speaker 1: Plus underfrogs, double corks, and a big teal dinosaur. It's
Speaker 1: all coming up right after this welcome back slices. Here's
Speaker 1: what you need to know today. Unrivaled tipped off on
Speaker 1: Friday with Nafisa Collier's lunar owls defeating Branda Stewart's missed
Speaker 1: eighty four to eighty. Now, because the league uses the
Speaker 1: elam ending, every game ends with a basket, not a buzzer.
Speaker 1: The winning score is determined by adding eleven points to
Speaker 1: the leading teams score at the end of the third quarter.
Speaker 1: Whoever hits that total first wins. The mist led seven
Speaker 1: three sixty seven heading into the fourth, but the Lunar
Speaker 1: Owls pulled out a fourth quarter comeback with Skyler, Digg
Speaker 1: and Smith draining the game winning three after a big quarter,
Speaker 1: so in the Battle of Unrivaled Founders, Fee came out
Speaker 1: on top to grab the first win in Unrivaled history.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Amy Clerkson, Joey Maldonado, Kim Cook, and
Speaker 1: the rest of the slices on Team Lunar.
Speaker 2: Owls Hoo Doo, who.
Speaker 1: After the first week ind of play Alex's Lace has
Speaker 1: got the only dub of the big Citrus squads. But
Speaker 1: lots more season to go and we'll have lots more
Speaker 1: on the debut of Unrivaled later in the show.
Speaker 2: By the way, while lots of w stars are.
Speaker 1: Playing in Unrivaled and AU hoops this offseason, there are
Speaker 1: plenty playing overseas and I want to shout out the
Speaker 1: Chicago Sky for sending us updates on their players, including
Speaker 1: two that are having huge januaries. Kennedy Carter has scored
Speaker 1: at least thirty points in every game but one for
Speaker 1: her Wuhan team over the past two weeks, including back
Speaker 1: to back forty point games on January tenth and twelfth,
Speaker 1: and Kamila Cardoso scored career highs of forty points and
Speaker 1: seventeen boards to help per Shanghai team to a win
Speaker 1: on January eighteenth.
Speaker 2: Well on those players overseas as well.
Speaker 1: To college basketball, South Carolina coach Don Staley has signed
Speaker 1: a contract extension, making her the highest paid coach in
Speaker 1: women's soups either college or the WNBA. The contract, which
Speaker 1: runs through the twenty twenty nine to twenty thirty season,
Speaker 1: includes a base salary of four million dollars a year,
Speaker 1: plus other bonuses.
Speaker 2: Here's an interesting nugget.
Speaker 1: Though, if Staley were to leave South Carolina prior to
Speaker 1: the end of the contract, she would osc one hundred
Speaker 1: percent of the remaining compensation left on the deal, but
Speaker 1: not if she leaves the game Cocks to take a
Speaker 1: coaching gig in the.
Speaker 2: WNBA or the MNBA.
Speaker 1: Sticking with college hoops, Paige Becker's became the fastest Yukon
Speaker 1: Huskies women's basketball player to reach two thousand points, accomplishing
Speaker 1: the feat in one hundred and two games, passing Maya Moore,
Speaker 1: who got to two thousand and one aw eight. Becker's
Speaker 1: achieved the milestone during the Huskies ninety six thirty six
Speaker 1: blowout of Seaton Hall on Sunday, Becker shouted out everyone
Speaker 1: behind the scenes who's helped her on the journey when
Speaker 1: talking to SNY after the game.
Speaker 3: But it's been a beautiful journey, and I've seen so
Speaker 3: many people invest a lot and do a lot for me,
Speaker 3: and I just really want to their hard work, because
Speaker 3: everybody sees the two thousand points, but NOBB sees the
Speaker 3: two thousand days of hard work. So it's just a
Speaker 3: testimony to everybody who's invested in me.
Speaker 1: Couple upsets Sunday and women's college hoops to mention as
Speaker 1: fifteenth ranked Tennessee fell to unranked Vanderbilt seventy one to
Speaker 1: seventy on a last second put back from Vandy's michaelab Blake's,
Speaker 1: who led the Commodorees with twenty three points in the win. Also,
Speaker 1: number nine Ohio State fell to unranked Penn State sixty
Speaker 1: two to fifty nine. Four Lady Lyons scored in double
Speaker 1: digits to hand the Buckeyes their first.
Speaker 2: Loss of the season.
Speaker 1: Lady Lyons, Yeah, we still got to do a show
Speaker 1: on ending the whole Lady nicknames in college sports uugh
Speaker 1: to soccer. Kristin Press has agreed to a one year
Speaker 1: contract extension with Angel City FC. Press was the club's
Speaker 1: first ever signee ahead of its debut season in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, but she missed most of twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: and all of twenty twenty three after tearing your ACL.
Speaker 1: After four surgeries, she returned to the field in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four and played in nine games for the club.
Speaker 2: Some more angel City news.
Speaker 1: Former Portland Thorns and Lynn's national team coach Mark Parsons
Speaker 1: has been named Angel City's new sporting director and general manager,
Speaker 1: replacing Angela Hugley's Mangano, who mutually parted ways with ACFC
Speaker 1: in December to take a role with the Houston Dash.
Speaker 2: The first order of business for Parsons hire a new
Speaker 2: head coach.
Speaker 1: More soccer, Alyssa Nayer was named the US Soccer twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four Female Player of the Year. Now, if you
Speaker 1: haven't watched it, check out the adorable video of national
Speaker 1: team teammate and last year's Player of the Year Naomi
Speaker 1: Germa breaking the news to nayor they pranked her into
Speaker 1: thinking that she was surprising Naomi with the award.
Speaker 2: It's really cute.
Speaker 1: We'll link to it in our show notes to snowboarding
Speaker 1: competing at the locks Open in Switzerland over the weekend,
Speaker 1: Americans Chloe Kim and Matti Mastro became the first women
Speaker 1: to land a double cork ten eighty in a snowboard
Speaker 1: halfpipe competition to finish first and second on the podium, respectively.
Speaker 1: If you're wondering what exactly double cork ten eighty means,
Speaker 1: ten eighty is for the three full rotations done while
Speaker 1: in the air, cork means that one rotation is off axis,
Speaker 1: and double cork means two of their rotations are off axis.
Speaker 2: We'll link to the video.
Speaker 1: Of Chloe's winning run in the show notes so you
Speaker 1: could see it for yourself. Also in snowsports News, cross
Speaker 1: country skier and friend of the show, Jesse Diggins extended
Speaker 1: her overall World Cup lead this weekend, winning a ten
Speaker 1: k freestyle in France in what was a monumental day
Speaker 1: for US cross country skiing. While Diggins has put the
Speaker 1: US women on the map in cross country during the
Speaker 1: last decade, the US men aren't exactly well known contenders.
Speaker 1: But on the same day Diggins one Ben Ogden placed
Speaker 1: third in the men's ten k, marking the best ever
Speaker 1: day for US cross country skiing at an event not
Speaker 1: held on US soil. So shout out to the Bros
Speaker 1: for doing their part to the Professional Women's Hockey League
Speaker 1: aka the PWHL. Quebec City hosted the fourth of nine
Speaker 1: stops of the PWHL Takeover Tour on Sunday, and competing
Speaker 1: in front of a sold out crowd of eighteen two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty nine, the Montreal Victoire defeated the Ottawa
Speaker 1: Charge two to one to take sole possession of the
Speaker 1: top spot in the PWHL standings. Catherine Dubois, who's from
Speaker 1: Quebec City, opened scoring for the Victoire in front of
Speaker 1: more than one one hundred family and friends in attendance
Speaker 1: to wrestling. At last week's NCUBLEA convention, all three divisions
Speaker 1: voted to make women's wrestling the organization's ninety first championship sport.
Speaker 1: Women's wrestling was previously part of the NCAA's Emerging Sports
Speaker 1: for Women program, but it now gains official NCUBA status.
Speaker 1: The first NCAA Women's Wrestling Championship will be held in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. Women's wrestling is the sixth Emerging sport
Speaker 1: to earn NCAA championship status, joining rowing, ice hockey, water polo, bowling,
Speaker 1: and beach volleyball. Finally, we haven't forgotten about the Australian Open,
Speaker 1: but due to the time difference, it's really tough to
Speaker 1: update you on scores, so we're keeping an eye on
Speaker 1: the action and also we're sending our best wishes to
Speaker 1: Naomi Osaka who had to pull out due to injury.
Speaker 1: Want to share a quick underdog story from the TCU
Speaker 1: hoops program where.
Speaker 2: Should I say under frog story?
Speaker 1: Last year, first year had women's hoops, coach Mark Campbell
Speaker 1: had to hold open tryouts from the TCU student body
Speaker 1: after injuries and a shortage of players forced the horn
Speaker 1: Frogs basketball team to forfeit two games. Four students who
Speaker 1: became known as the Underfrogs joined the team and helped
Speaker 1: TCU finish the season. Now, one of those players, Ella Hamlin,
Speaker 1: returned to play for the team this season and got
Speaker 1: a big surprise from Coach Campbell last week.
Speaker 4: Take a listen, Ello, When there's adversity, most people run
Speaker 4: away from it. The Underfrogs diversity hit and you guys
Speaker 4: decided to step up so we could continue our season
Speaker 4: and I appreciate you, Ellah more than you know. Hey,
Speaker 4: by Ella, thank you for stepping up with the plate
Speaker 4: and coming back and being a huge part of this team.
Speaker 4: But Ella, you've earned.
Speaker 1: A full right scholarship.
Speaker 2: So cool.
Speaker 1: After getting through last year's struggles, the horn Frogs are
Speaker 1: now thriving, sitting at nineteen and one on the season
Speaker 1: and ranked ninth in the country.
Speaker 2: We're going to take a quick break when we come back.
Speaker 1: Big Citrus convenes to dig into the debut of Unrivaled,
Speaker 1: discuss a volleyball star who shares our concerns, and remind
Speaker 1: all of y'all to grab a slice stick around.
Speaker 2: Welcome back Slices.
Speaker 1: We felt like it was time for Big Citrus to
Speaker 1: convene about a couple things that we watched over the
Speaker 1: weekend and a couple of things we have some serious
Speaker 1: questions about. But let's start with the debut of Unrivaled.
Speaker 1: What did we like, What surprised us, what didn't.
Speaker 2: Go our way? Like I don't know winning a game.
Speaker 1: Let's start with what we liked, Alex, what stood out
Speaker 1: to you It was.
Speaker 5: Just so fun, Like everything about it just felt fun.
Speaker 5: The basketball was fun, the energy around it was really fun.
Speaker 5: I feel like I'm blanking because I'm such a critical
Speaker 5: person and I want to say something critical here, but
Speaker 5: I don't really have that much to say.
Speaker 2: Ah, we foiled, Alex. Don't worry.
Speaker 1: We'll give you a couple of minutes and something is
Speaker 1: certain to come to mind that you would like to
Speaker 1: fix me.
Speaker 6: What about you, oh buddy.
Speaker 7: I think that was the most fun I've had watching
Speaker 7: basketball in a very long time. I believe the homie
Speaker 7: Megan el Hall, who writes and does all the things
Speaker 7: we love you. Meghan also tweeted this and put it
Speaker 7: on Blue Sky that she was just standing in the
Speaker 7: middle of her living room the entire time and couldn't
Speaker 7: sit down. That was entire That was me, like I
Speaker 7: need blue light glasses. For how long I was standing
Speaker 7: in front of my television. My head was hurting, But
Speaker 7: it was because I couldn't turn away, not for a second.
Speaker 7: Because in a game like that, and it's something we
Speaker 7: all talked about coming into it, of course, but I
Speaker 7: think seeing that pace in practice was just different.
Speaker 6: I think I agree with Alex.
Speaker 7: On the energy tip, and I kind of feel like
Speaker 7: the reason why I love it and a lot of
Speaker 7: people loved it is because we knew we were gonna
Speaker 7: get the vibe that these players witness and practice every
Speaker 7: single day they witness in the offseason when they're training
Speaker 7: with each other or overseas if they had previously gone
Speaker 7: overseas to play for other teams.
Speaker 6: But I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 7: Because there are things that I thought happened that I
Speaker 7: don't see happen as often in my opinion on WNBA
Speaker 7: stages at WNBA games and those kind of platforms. And
Speaker 7: at risk of putting this in two simplistic terms, it
Speaker 7: felt like when I go to La Fitness to play pickup,
Speaker 7: there's no cameras out there unless somebody trying to get
Speaker 7: you on Instagram.
Speaker 6: Getting your ankles broke.
Speaker 7: But you know, when I'm at La Fitness, I might
Speaker 7: say a few things that I probably wouldn't say if
Speaker 7: you know. I was at a college basketball game on
Speaker 7: the court in front of thousands of people, and.
Speaker 6: I think we were getting more organic reactions.
Speaker 7: I think the celebration from Skylehi Digg and Smith was
Speaker 7: probably my favorite one I've seen in years.
Speaker 6: Just I thought our head was about to roll off
Speaker 6: her soldier for a second.
Speaker 7: But I'm not mad at her, because that's the kind
Speaker 7: of energy that you draw from three on three knowing
Speaker 7: that you didn't get a single second of rest that
Speaker 7: entire game unless you were literally on the bench resting.
Speaker 7: It's just such a fun brand of basketball, it really is.
Speaker 2: I completely agree. A couple things stood out to me.
Speaker 1: The intimacy, Like you talked about the way that the
Speaker 1: behind the scenes has given us a look at how
Speaker 1: these players all interact off the court, and then the
Speaker 1: way that they are establishing this new brand of whatever
Speaker 1: team it is that they just created.
Speaker 2: We're seeing them for the first time.
Speaker 1: Talk about like what do we want our fans to
Speaker 1: be called, what's our little like calling card or thing
Speaker 1: that we say if we win a game, how do
Speaker 1: we interact? And how is our team different than the
Speaker 1: other ones? Like all those fun things give us a
Speaker 1: peek inside that makes us more interested in what we're watching.
Speaker 1: And then really impressive to give us a new format
Speaker 1: and have it feel really seamless, to have the rule
Speaker 1: changes feel like they make the game a better watch.
Speaker 1: One free throw worth two points instead of sitting and
Speaker 1: watching someone watch shoot too.
Speaker 2: It keeps it moving, you know.
Speaker 1: The elam ending felt organic, It felt fun, and exciting.
Speaker 1: It felt like the thing that you're excited to see
Speaker 1: at the end of every game. It can be tough
Speaker 1: to introduce people to a new format, new court size,
Speaker 1: new rules, new expectations, and instead, Unrivaled has done such
Speaker 1: a good job along the way of teaching us and
Speaker 1: showing us how things are going to go that when
Speaker 1: it or we were ready for it, and even the
Speaker 1: things we weren't ready for or used to yet felt
Speaker 1: really thought out.
Speaker 2: It just felt really smart.
Speaker 1: And sometimes when you see new iterations of things, you're like, Oh,
Speaker 1: they're trying stuff out.
Speaker 2: It'll work itself out. We're gonna get to volleyball after this.
Speaker 1: Like the first couple Love games, I was like, these
Speaker 1: camera angles suck. I'm not enjoying this, and they have
Speaker 1: since fixed that. Unrivaled seem to have most of it down,
Speaker 1: except for maybe how long the games are, because I
Speaker 1: noticed that the time slots that they have set on
Speaker 1: television ain't working. That's not gonna have it, bro dudes,
Speaker 1: pranks and jokes is gonna get run into every single
Speaker 1: time or whatever the hell show is scheduled to run after.
Speaker 5: Except they have postgame shows I know, and pregame shows.
Speaker 2: Which is amazing. What a world.
Speaker 7: Yes, Candace in Renee on one panel, I know chef's
Speaker 7: kiss no notes.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean you give me Candace Park and Renee Montgomery.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna listen all day. But shout out to Lauren Jabarro.
Speaker 1: I was not familiar with your work, and I think
Speaker 1: she did a really nice job of setting them up
Speaker 1: and setting up the league. I think it's a really
Speaker 1: fun show. It's a really good pre and post game.
Speaker 1: And then the last thing I'll say is that I
Speaker 1: just in an interview with someone talking about the growth
Speaker 1: of women's sports, and when I was thinking very honestly
Speaker 1: about my own investment, I realized how much my excitement
Speaker 1: about Unrivaled came from my knowledge about Unrivaled because of
Speaker 1: this show, and because of the amount of work we've
Speaker 1: put in since we first heard about it, telling you
Speaker 1: about all the different steps, from the player announcements, to
Speaker 1: the teams, to the rules to everything else. That very
Speaker 1: first day when I sat down to watch it, I
Speaker 1: had so much information about the players and the teams
Speaker 1: and everything that it made me really excited. And it's
Speaker 1: such a microcosm for women's sports that if you give
Speaker 1: people the names the stakes, the players, the rules, the backstories.
Speaker 2: All those things. They're going to be fired up for it.
Speaker 1: And there's so many awesome opportunities for us to do
Speaker 1: that with these new leagues or even existing leagues, and
Speaker 1: this show is like, I just like, I'm so grateful
Speaker 1: to this show for giving me the time and making
Speaker 1: it my job to watch and care about this stuff
Speaker 1: instead of a side thing that I used to always do.
Speaker 1: Try trying to follow it along with having to cover
Speaker 1: every other men's sport that I was covering. So I
Speaker 1: just noticed immediately the first day that I was like
Speaker 1: so down for this because I knew so much about it.
Speaker 1: Me should anythink surprise you?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 7: The thing that surprised me is not the format, it's
Speaker 7: not the rules, it's.
Speaker 2: None of that.
Speaker 7: It's and I want to be extremely I want to
Speaker 7: be extremely clear here. I revere Lisa Leslie. I love
Speaker 7: Lisa Leslie. I one of the goats, but if I
Speaker 7: had to hear boom boom room one more time, I
Speaker 7: was gonna lose it.
Speaker 2: I don't think Lisa knows what that's used for.
Speaker 6: I don't think.
Speaker 7: I don't think she does, and it's not her fault.
Speaker 7: It's not her fault, but I hope somebody has told her.
Speaker 6: Lisa.
Speaker 7: People are interpreting this in a completely different way. And
Speaker 7: we did mention that Unrivaled is very gay, so okay,
Speaker 7: but also.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh no, I'm not during the game.
Speaker 1: By the way, the night two of Unrivaled, there were
Speaker 1: no boom boom rooms dropped far as I remember, so
Speaker 1: I think someone did get to Lisa and explain to her.
Speaker 7: I was just I was just surprised it lasted so long,
Speaker 7: agree because I just knew somebody was gonna one of
Speaker 7: the researchers gonna be like, hey.
Speaker 6: So we're seeing on.
Speaker 5: True story. When I was a researcher, I would google
Speaker 5: or search on Twitter for the commentator. I was working
Speaker 5: with mid broadcast to make sure that there wasn't anything
Speaker 5: that was slipping by us.
Speaker 1: That's really smart al so that like if if you
Speaker 1: don't know and they don't know, but a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of other people know, you can whisper in there and
Speaker 1: be like, oh, by the way, mentioned to everyone like
Speaker 1: I'd like to apologize for or I was unaware of,
Speaker 1: or in the future.
Speaker 2: I very smart.
Speaker 1: Everyone needs an Alex on their side to just be
Speaker 1: like double checking for all the potential errors.
Speaker 6: Thousand and then the other thing.
Speaker 7: That didn't necessarily surprise me because I knew that they
Speaker 7: both had very strong rookie years, but it surprised me
Speaker 7: the prominence in the dominance that they both displayed.
Speaker 6: Kate Martin and Rakia.
Speaker 7: Jackson people people, we knew that this was gonna be
Speaker 7: great for the young players to be competing with the
Speaker 7: elite of the elite, the best of the best on
Speaker 7: this kind of stage. But they didn't just compete, they excelled.
Speaker 7: I thought there were moments where Rakia Jackson looked like
Speaker 7: the best player on her team. I thought there were
Speaker 7: moments where Kate Martin fit in like a glove with
Speaker 7: anybody they put her on the floor with and made
Speaker 7: reads on closeouts, which for folks who don't know what
Speaker 7: closeouts are, or when you catch the ball and the
Speaker 7: defense is running out at you, what decision do you
Speaker 7: make as an offensive player. I thought her decision making
Speaker 7: was excellent on and off the ball. So not necessarily
Speaker 7: surprised by that, But I hope other people are really
Speaker 7: paying attention to what they're doing and the rest of
Speaker 7: the rookiesing young players as well.
Speaker 1: I was not surprised by Jewel Lloyd and Kalia Kopper,
Speaker 1: both of whom I was so fired up to watch
Speaker 1: in this and who came through as expected.
Speaker 2: Same with Skyler Diggens.
Speaker 1: You and I mentioned that like, it's gonna go off
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be dramatic and fun to watch when
Speaker 1: it does. I honestly was surprised that my Phantom team
Speaker 1: looks so trash.
Speaker 5: Now, I'll tell you what, but the system we used
Speaker 5: was official, Sarah.
Speaker 2: I'm not going back on it. I love my squad.
Speaker 1: I'm giving them some time to get it together. I
Speaker 1: don't think so too Sobbly it's going to be, you know,
Speaker 1: putting up eleven every game. I think she could do better.
Speaker 1: I want to see Marina Maybury out there. She did
Speaker 1: not play, and there were some concerns about both health
Speaker 1: illness and physical health like injuries heading into that game.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of jokes about the whole team
Speaker 1: eating Marina's food and getting bubble guts and her just
Speaker 1: taking out the team with whatever. That weird bow tie
Speaker 1: shrimp chicken pasta business that looked like Croston Flakes.
Speaker 6: Was the mac and cheese she may look fire. That's
Speaker 6: what I saw.
Speaker 1: Her second round looked good, and I would like to
Speaker 1: think that future efforts from Marina defeed her team will
Speaker 1: not result in them getting blown the fuck out. But
Speaker 1: that was a terrible start, and I'm enthusiastic and optimistic.
Speaker 1: My concern is mainly my concern during our draft, which
Speaker 1: was I want to see how Britain deals with that
Speaker 1: up and back and having to be mobile in a
Speaker 1: way that like, if you can use her the right
Speaker 1: way and get her dominant inside, she'll be helpful, but
Speaker 1: she also might result in a lot of mismatches and
Speaker 1: and also a lot of breakaways that she doesn't get
Speaker 1: back for. So that's my biggest concern with my phantom.
Speaker 1: I did not think that they would get absolutely dusted,
Speaker 1: and they did.
Speaker 6: The first blowout and.
Speaker 1: Get it the record books, Yeah, get it out of
Speaker 1: the way. I guess all right, Alex, have you come
Speaker 1: up with any negative feedback by this point?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it only took me eight minutes, folks. I didn't
Speaker 5: realize how small the venue Wayfair was, and I don't
Speaker 5: actually have anything necessarily against a small venue, but to me,
Speaker 5: the issue with it is that the camera angle you
Speaker 5: don't see people behind the player benches. I think maybe
Speaker 5: there's one rower too.
Speaker 1: I think there's just a couple for VIPs and then
Speaker 1: the rest of the crowd is all on the other side.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it gives vibes of like twenty twenty Wobble Season.
Speaker 5: The camera angle, it feels like half of the screen
Speaker 5: is kind of that empty chunk, and so I just
Speaker 5: felt like the visual picture was a little bit off
Speaker 5: for me. Once I started paying attention to the basketball,
Speaker 5: it went away, but I just was wondering, like, could
Speaker 5: they shift the camera angles a little bit to focus
Speaker 5: more in on the players as opposed to that empty space.
Speaker 2: Real Yeah, I get that.
Speaker 1: It didn't really bother me because I was aware and
Speaker 1: there were enough camera angles that shifted to show that
Speaker 1: there were fans behind both baskets and right on the
Speaker 1: court and behind the benches that couple rows of VIPs
Speaker 1: or whatever. I think you could tell that there were
Speaker 1: fans because the players were looking toward the other side
Speaker 1: of the court, and when the camera flips around to
Speaker 1: show highlights, you could see them. So it didn't really
Speaker 1: bother me, particularly because I think those big led screens
Speaker 1: that they had were pretty beautiful and striking and the
Speaker 1: graphics that they used and the way they like rolled
Speaker 1: it out kind of made for a cool vibe.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I could see that anything else. Any complaints
Speaker 2: me shrather than our team's not winning.
Speaker 7: Yeah, my biggest complaint, and it's a complaint that resonates
Speaker 7: at every level of basketball, so it's not new.
Speaker 6: But the officiating.
Speaker 7: Left much to be desired for me because in three
Speaker 7: on three basketball, in my.
Speaker 6: Head, you let you let the mothers play. That's how
Speaker 6: I feel about it.
Speaker 7: I feel as though this is a setting where they
Speaker 7: would probably want that to Nobody wants to get hurt,
Speaker 7: of course, but let them hoop. Let's not give them
Speaker 7: the same guardrails that I feel like the WNBA and
Speaker 7: other leagues sometimes can It's okay if things get a
Speaker 7: little chippy. It's it's sport, just okain. Safety is is
Speaker 7: first and foremost, But let them hoop and shoutouts.
Speaker 2: So you want to European European style a.
Speaker 1: Little bit closer to that coach we always hear about
Speaker 1: from the players.
Speaker 2: Is they talk about it?
Speaker 7: Yes, they talk about it because they they're capable of that.
Speaker 7: And I think the more that we show folks who
Speaker 7: are tuning in whether they be casual fans who are
Speaker 7: just getting hit to women's basketball or folks who've been
Speaker 7: around for a.
Speaker 6: While, like, we want to see that.
Speaker 7: That's just it speaks to the athletes that they are
Speaker 7: and shout out to slice Amanda Marquez who hopped on
Speaker 7: Instagram Live. I was on Instagram Live for all of
Speaker 7: five minutes that second game on Friday night, just.
Speaker 6: To see, you know, folks wanted to kick it and watch.
Speaker 7: And she mentioned the same thing that it felt like
Speaker 7: in some games at the start they were letting them hoop,
Speaker 7: and then it got we're calling tickie tag fouls. I
Speaker 7: just want to balance so that the players know what
Speaker 7: to expect, Yeah, so that the coaches know what to expect,
Speaker 7: and so that the.
Speaker 6: Viewers know what to expect.
Speaker 1: But if there's a bad call, we do get Skyler
Speaker 1: Diggens doing the bunny hop. I don't know if y'all
Speaker 1: saw that highlight, but if you didn't, go find Skyler's
Speaker 1: reaction to a call she didn't like.
Speaker 7: But the other thing we also got was long reviews,
Speaker 7: which I also hope can be nipped in the bud
Speaker 7: because again pace of play, but also pace of you know,
Speaker 7: the run of show and all those things, but all
Speaker 7: in although I still got to give unrival like a
Speaker 7: nine point nine point seventy five out of ten for
Speaker 7: your first weekend.
Speaker 1: Congrats Unrivaled on a tremendous debut weekend. And shout out
Speaker 1: to the fandom ghost gang. The Ghosties. Hang in there, y'all.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be okay. Okay, you're gonna get your shout
Speaker 1: outs when we get our first win.
Speaker 7: All right, Rose, we gone bloom too. Don't you worry
Speaker 7: about it? Oh, you worry about it.
Speaker 6: It was cute, wasn't it. Yeah, this is cute.
Speaker 2: I mean, you took two l's, but you still have
Speaker 2: time to belie. Okay, that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 6: As of the time we recorded this episode, of the
Speaker 6: time we.
Speaker 1: Recorded this episode, you've taken two el's.
Speaker 2: That's fine. Time to grow. Okay.
Speaker 1: Next topic, we mentioned last week that there is allegedly
Speaker 1: a new volleyball league joining the existing professional women's volleyball leagues,
Speaker 1: called Major League Volleyball, and our response was, Okay, like,
Speaker 1: we're usually pretty fired up about new professional women's leagues,
Speaker 1: but we're just trying to figure out where there is space,
Speaker 1: where there is coverage. Where are the journalists to tell
Speaker 1: us about and report on this league? Where's the funding,
Speaker 1: where's the investment? Where are the players? Like, are they
Speaker 1: all going to eat each other up instead of some
Speaker 1: of these folks that are passionate about this coming together
Speaker 1: and trying to create one, maybe two, preferably one really
Speaker 1: great league with all the best talent. And Haley Washington,
Speaker 1: a professional player for love volleyball, not only read our
Speaker 1: minds in terms of our concerns, but brought some serious
Speaker 1: sass in a post about the news of the new league.
Speaker 1: She wrote on Instagram, build your own pro volleyball league.
Speaker 1: This just in coming year, a brand new professional women's
Speaker 1: volleyball league, the superlative synonym for pro volleyball league with
Speaker 1: key investors like TikTok, influencer, random pop celebrity, a volleyball
Speaker 1: player important enough to make this seem legit, launching in
Speaker 1: cities like Midwest City and nickname of a city.
Speaker 2: Why support when you can compete?
Speaker 1: Another superlative coming soon sponsored by RPDWSTM rich people disenfranchising
Speaker 1: women's sports. Look out WNBA, You're next. So safe to
Speaker 1: say She's not a fan of the announcement She had
Speaker 1: a couple fun, sort of mad libs style posts where
Speaker 1: people filled in you know, these superlatives, TikTok influencers, names
Speaker 1: of cities to create their own league, and y'all, I mean,
Speaker 1: I can't blame her. I understand that if you are
Speaker 1: already money invested, plans made, you know, diving into this,
Speaker 1: it is very hard to see other people beat you
Speaker 1: to the punch and get things up and running. But
Speaker 1: when that happens, don't you have to revisit your plans
Speaker 1: and figure out if you can join. As opposed to, to
Speaker 1: her point, competing, you're not supporting women's volleyball if you're
Speaker 1: adding another competitor unless there's something we're missing, and we
Speaker 1: do not have a lot of information about this Major
Speaker 1: League Volleyball league. But unless there's something we're missing, it
Speaker 1: sure doesn't feel like it's bringing something new, different, better,
Speaker 1: and if anything, it's just going to take away attention
Speaker 1: and money from the leagues that are already trying to
Speaker 1: make it. Alex, I know you did a little bit
Speaker 1: of research on this, so tell me what you found
Speaker 1: out about Major League volleyball and also how it fits
Speaker 1: into the mix with PVF Love Au Volleyball, and I
Speaker 1: don't know are there other leagues were missing?
Speaker 5: So big picture here? What are the things to know
Speaker 5: about this new Major League Volleyball Is that the first
Speaker 5: team in it is a team that already exists in
Speaker 5: the PVF, the Omaha team. So the Omaha team would
Speaker 5: be leaving the PVF and enjoining MLV. Next thing to note,
Speaker 5: there has already been an MLV. There was a semi
Speaker 5: pro women's league that existed from nineteen eighty seven to
Speaker 5: nineteen eighty nine with the same name. This one's totally unrelated,
Speaker 5: but just reminds me of acronym soup like in women's hockey,
Speaker 5: where we are seeing the same acronyms used over and
Speaker 5: over again because there have been so many leagues and
Speaker 5: iterations that they have run out of new ideas. So
Speaker 5: we have this landscape with potentially four leagues. I don't
Speaker 5: really know what to make of it. On the one hand,
Speaker 5: I think in the last five years or so we
Speaker 5: have seen a fantastic change in the women's sports landscape,
Speaker 5: which is that investors are no longer in it for charity.
Speaker 5: They're no longer in it because they have a daughter
Speaker 5: who they want to help inspire and show her that
Speaker 5: there's a path for women to compete in the sport.
Speaker 5: We also have a landscape where investors are looking to
Speaker 5: make money.
Speaker 2: Now, I think we.
Speaker 5: All know that a lot of leagues, a lot of teams,
Speaker 5: you're not making money those first few years. You are
Speaker 5: investing with the idea of making money down the road.
Speaker 5: And so on the one hand, there is a competitive
Speaker 5: financial marketplace here, and so to say support, don't compete
Speaker 5: is to ignore that reality of like, we do want
Speaker 5: it to be a financial investment. At the same time,
Speaker 5: someone is going to emerge as the winner down the road,
Speaker 5: and so right now it feels like the stakes are
Speaker 5: rising to jockey and gain position.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like you said, there are benefits to competition.
Speaker 1: It makes salaries go up, It increases a drive toward
Speaker 1: investment and resources, and it makes it important to get
Speaker 1: the right TV deals and grab the best players and
Speaker 1: give them incentive to choose you. But it also dwindles
Speaker 1: the pool of total money that goes to the players
Speaker 1: that are the best. It bifurcates our attention and our interest.
Speaker 1: For instance, we've seen a lot of great publicity around Love.
Speaker 1: They've done a good job of telling us who they are,
Speaker 1: their build up. They also have this incredible massive youth
Speaker 1: system that's built, so it's a massive organization beyond just
Speaker 1: the pro side, and that makes it easy for us
Speaker 1: to say, oh, this looks like a thing that's putting
Speaker 1: a lot of money behind. This has great investors, can
Speaker 1: be watched on ESPN, etc. Whereas PVF I'm not quite
Speaker 1: as familiar with. They haven't done as good of a
Speaker 1: job of breaking through mainstream to get us to understand
Speaker 1: their model, their teams, et cetera. Au volleyball has existed
Speaker 1: for a couple of years, they have that different individual
Speaker 1: and team model that's part of a larger athletes unlimited
Speaker 1: organization that we're familiar with. MLV stepping into a crowded
Speaker 1: space and will have to separate itself somehow, And it
Speaker 1: just feels like to me, to your point, the competition
Speaker 1: can raise everybody's level, but some of these people have
Speaker 1: to drop off sooner rather than later so that they
Speaker 1: don't take everyone down with them.
Speaker 5: I think we've honestly already seen it with the PVF
Speaker 5: salaries in the PVF rose this year, and I would
Speaker 5: say that in some ways, they're probably artificially inflated that
Speaker 5: the players that are playing in that league. If there
Speaker 5: was only one league, those players would not be making
Speaker 5: nearly as much as they currently are. But the league
Speaker 5: raise salaries in order to try to attract more better
Speaker 5: players that are marketable, and in large part that didn't succeed.
Speaker 5: When you look at the US Olympic roster from this
Speaker 5: last summer, the team that won silver, they are either
Speaker 5: playing with love or they are overseas. And so I'm
Speaker 5: curious about why someone thinks that they might be able
Speaker 5: to win the best players in the world with this
Speaker 5: new iteration a volleyball.
Speaker 2: I mean shit, you got I mean just that.
Speaker 7: My initial thought was exactly what you open. This part
Speaker 7: of the conversation with Sarah is what is the intention?
Speaker 7: Is the intention to be able to look back and
Speaker 7: say I did this, I was the one that made
Speaker 7: the league, or we were the one who made the
Speaker 7: league and satisfy your pride and your ego, or is
Speaker 7: it the growth of the game as a whole and
Speaker 7: the viability of a professional league in the United States
Speaker 7: in the long term?
Speaker 2: Full stop?
Speaker 7: I agree that the sooner that folks start to communicate
Speaker 7: and collaborate on a single thing, the better it'll be.
Speaker 7: That's not to say there can't be something happened in
Speaker 7: one portion of the year and something else happening in another.
Speaker 6: Portion of the year.
Speaker 7: When Hayley's post pointed to the WNBA, for me, that's
Speaker 7: kind of what we're moving towards, and so I think that's,
Speaker 7: you know, a viable option in the long term. But
Speaker 7: I just don't I hope that the folks who are
Speaker 7: in the decision making positions are asking themselves that question first, like,
Speaker 7: is our intention about the game as a wh whole
Speaker 7: or is our intention about making us money over here
Speaker 7: and you know, being.
Speaker 6: Able to say that we did it.
Speaker 7: I think that's a question a lot of folks who
Speaker 7: get into the sports space need to ask themselves, especially
Speaker 7: in the women's sports space.
Speaker 2: I agree with that.
Speaker 1: I just want to point out though, that as women's
Speaker 1: sports continue to become more of an economic opportunity and
Speaker 1: not a cause or something that is about supporting and promoting,
Speaker 1: we do have to reconcile that you can both be
Speaker 1: mission focused and capital focused.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: We don't need to demand that everybody who wants to
Speaker 1: get in the women's sports space is doing it for
Speaker 1: good reasons because we don't demand that in the men's
Speaker 1: sports space.
Speaker 2: We just know that it's a place that people make money.
Speaker 7: Is that something we should change? Are we okay with
Speaker 7: that on the men's side.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's great, but in a capitalist society,
Speaker 1: and when we demand the things that we want to
Speaker 1: see in women's sports, we're demanding them in part because
Speaker 1: we understand that we operate in a capitalist society and
Speaker 1: it hasn't worked for women's sports to be a cause.
Speaker 1: It has to be about the numbers too, if we
Speaker 1: want to grow in the way that we've seen other
Speaker 1: sports grow. Now that's not to say I want people
Speaker 1: getting involved purely for the money who don't care about
Speaker 1: the end product or the players. I'm just saying that
Speaker 1: it is maybe a little pollyanna ish to expect that
Speaker 1: these folks who probably have a ton of money and
Speaker 1: time sunk in this, will just say this could be bad,
Speaker 1: let's stop. What instead should be the recognition that both
Speaker 1: it will be bad for the sport, the players and
Speaker 1: the industry, and also will not make the money because
Speaker 1: now it's way too crowded of a marketplace and they
Speaker 1: won't be able to separate themselves. I want to see
Speaker 1: people who both are doing the right thing for women's
Speaker 1: sports and supporting and promoting the players and the economy
Speaker 1: of it, and also are doing it in a way
Speaker 1: that will make the money, because that's how the league
Speaker 1: stay alive and the players continue to get to get
Speaker 1: paid to play.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, Well, if anyone knows anything.
Speaker 1: About MLV, shoot is a message, tell us what the
Speaker 1: fuck is up? Literally, if you got a good mad libs,
Speaker 1: fill out that mad lib that Haley Washington posted on
Speaker 1: her Instagram and send us your best version. By the way,
Speaker 1: Haley was just on Carrie Champions podcast on January eighteenth.
Speaker 1: Great conversation. Check it out Naked Sports with Carrie Champion.
Speaker 1: That's another show right here on the Iheartwomen's Sports Network.
Speaker 1: You can listen to Carrie's long interview with Haley. All Right,
Speaker 1: finally we got to discuss the Minnesota Aurora FC.
Speaker 2: We dropped that on y'all on Friday.
Speaker 1: Don't worry, We're gonna give you a whole bunch more
Speaker 1: information on why we're investing, why we're asking you to
Speaker 1: get involved, what to expect. We're gonna have some interviews
Speaker 1: with one of the heads over there and a former
Speaker 1: player and just give you everything you need to know
Speaker 1: as to why you'd want to get involved with the Aurora.
Speaker 1: But big ups to the slices who have already emailed
Speaker 1: us with their ownership receipts and are already on board.
Speaker 1: Andrea Megan g Aaron Michelle Megan h Matt Stacy, Hadley Collin.
Speaker 1: There's a bunch of you. We appreciate your messages, keep
Speaker 1: them come in and don't forget. Every slice who buys
Speaker 1: a Slice of the Aurora, we'll get a special hat
Speaker 1: commemorating our collab with them, and you could only get
Speaker 1: the hat if you're an owner, So send us a
Speaker 1: receipt of your ownership purchase along with your name and
Speaker 1: address and you'll be in no timeline yet on the hats.
Speaker 2: I'm working on it, but that will be come in
Speaker 2: your way.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I just wanted to talk with Big Citrus
Speaker 1: about this investment.
Speaker 2: I'm just excited about the idea of having.
Speaker 1: A little team for the show where we'll be checking
Speaker 1: in on how they're doing, finding out about some of
Speaker 1: their players and their biggest games, their mascot, y'all, their
Speaker 1: mascot is Rory the Aurora Saurus, and it is a
Speaker 1: giant teal dinosaur. And you know, I am literally obsessed
Speaker 1: already the Aurora Saurus.
Speaker 2: I couldn't be more in and.
Speaker 1: I just love the idea of checking in. Also, like,
Speaker 1: without even meaning to, we've bandwagon a winner. This team
Speaker 1: has never lost the game, like we just wanted to
Speaker 1: support them, and unlike my phantom, we got ourselves a winner.
Speaker 2: Y'all. Yeah, yeah, it's super cool.
Speaker 7: The mascot is easily the I won't say the best
Speaker 7: because Ellie exists, but you.
Speaker 2: Know, and.
Speaker 7: Benny, Okay, that's I'm gonna let you I'm not even
Speaker 7: I'm not even involved on that one, but we know
Speaker 7: Sarah loves Benny. The mascot reminds me of the dragon
Speaker 7: from dragon Tails. Yes, yes, the dragon from dragon Tails,
Speaker 7: and it warms my heart.
Speaker 6: It touches a special place in my heart.
Speaker 7: But the thing that I think is the coolest is
Speaker 7: from all the people who have emailed us telling us, oh, yeah,
Speaker 7: by the way, I already invested in these months ago,
Speaker 7: will we lay to the party?
Speaker 6: Are bad? Like theists on top of it? That was
Speaker 6: so crazy to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was really cool.
Speaker 1: We got a handful of slices that were like, hey,
Speaker 1: can we still get the hat if we already invested
Speaker 1: several months ago?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, hell, yeah, you can. That's so rad.
Speaker 1: I think I mentioned this last week, but the Northern
Speaker 1: lights have been elusive to me. There were many nights
Speaker 1: last summer where Chicago had these freak occurrences of northern
Speaker 1: lights that never happened here, and everyone that I fucking
Speaker 1: know saw them.
Speaker 2: And I drove to a.
Speaker 1: Night SkyPark that supposedly like registered as one of the
Speaker 1: darkest areas an hour away from Chicago, I drove to
Speaker 1: the I drove like all these places that I didn't
Speaker 1: freaking see them.
Speaker 2: I went to Iceland and I didn't see them. So
Speaker 2: you know what, if I got to buy my way.
Speaker 1: Into the northern lights for now until the universe and
Speaker 1: Mother Nature wants to gift me with the real thing,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 6: Uh, but if you could ghost it by a natural phenomenon.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 1: I got earthquakes when I lived in LA didn't want
Speaker 1: any of those. I'm hidden in the crawl space due
Speaker 1: to alleged tornadoes coming all the way to Chicago. No
Speaker 1: thank you, ma'am, but I can't get a freaking Northern light.
Speaker 1: No anyway, jump in, get involved. It feels so good
Speaker 1: to put your money where your mouth is when it
Speaker 1: comes to women's sports and to just you know, have
Speaker 1: a team that we're gonna follow along with and root for.
Speaker 1: I do need to tell Salmon Bay FC that I'm
Speaker 1: not cheating on you and your crest that I want
Speaker 1: to live in.
Speaker 2: You're my side piece, Salmon Bay, Okay.
Speaker 1: And if I get out there to the beautiful place
Speaker 1: of teal waters and mountains with a beautiful salmon colored
Speaker 1: sky that you have in your crest, I'm gonna make
Speaker 1: that my home too.
Speaker 2: Okay, just putting that out there. I don't want anyone
Speaker 2: to think I'm gonna be a one team kind of woman.
Speaker 2: All Right, We got to take a break.
Speaker 1: When we come back, We're maricondoing the gout A twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five.
Speaker 2: Welcome back. We love that you're.
Speaker 1: Listening, but we want you to get in the game
Speaker 1: every day too. So here's our good game play of
Speaker 1: the day. Invest in the Aurora, send us those receipts,
Speaker 1: or you could just follow them on social and get
Speaker 1: familiar with the team at mn Aurora FC on Instagram,
Speaker 1: Blue Sky and Twitter. Like we said, if you can't
Speaker 1: afford to invest right now, you could still be a
Speaker 1: part of the fun and follow along. You could still
Speaker 1: love Rory the Aurora Sourus. You could still get on
Speaker 1: board with the Northern Lights. So if you can and
Speaker 1: you have the means, invest and join us. Otherwise, just
Speaker 1: give them a follow. We always love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Hit us up on email, good game at wondermedianetwork dot com,
Speaker 1: or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two
Speaker 1: oh four fifty seventy.
Speaker 2: And don't forget to subscribe. Rate and review.
Speaker 1: It's so easy watch doing a chore or project you've
Speaker 1: been putting off. Rating five out of five Cozy Booknooks review.
Speaker 1: This is your sign right now to do that little
Speaker 1: project or cleanup you've been putting off for months, maybe
Speaker 1: even putting off for years. This past weekend, I finally
Speaker 1: organized and cleaned up the book nook in my bedroom
Speaker 1: so I can actually find books on my shelves faster,
Speaker 1: and so I can actually use the daybed to sit
Speaker 1: and read instead of using it to store boxes of
Speaker 1: crap that I've been putting off. Going through fun fact,
Speaker 1: for everyone, that box of stuff that's sitting in the corner,
Speaker 1: it's been there so long that it's basically a piece
Speaker 1: of furniture to you, it's just a box. To everyone else.
Speaker 1: You know, when they come to your house, they can
Speaker 1: see it, right, they can see the box. Go get
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Speaker 1: series or an audiobook and get in there and start cleaning.
Speaker 1: If you haven't worn stuff in years, somebody else will,
Speaker 1: so box it up, throw it in your car, give
Speaker 1: yourself a week deadline to donate it. Put a little
Speaker 1: reminder on your phone after a week that shit's got
Speaker 1: to be donated. Research has actually shown that living in
Speaker 1: a cluttered environment increases stress, and that clutter can make
Speaker 1: it difficult to focus on a particular task.
Speaker 2: We know this.
Speaker 1: Walking past like a freshly cleaned living room or a
Speaker 1: kitchen or whatever. It literally makes me feel lighter. When
Speaker 1: I walk past my booknook the last couple of days,
Speaker 1: I like literally felt joy looking at it. So get
Speaker 1: to it. Carve out a couple hours and just finally
Speaker 1: do that thing. And if the thing you're putting off
Speaker 1: actually takes just minutes, do it right now. This podcast
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Speaker 1: a nice review. Thanks for listening, See you tomorrow. Good
Speaker 1: Game Dot's daily Good Game Pagebeckers Hugh, the Koreta Scott
Speaker 1: King classic Getting Bumped by the Inauguration.
Speaker 2: Now that's dope. By the way, we use a lot of.
Speaker 1: Today, but I think you can recognize why we were
Speaker 1: recording this the night of January twentieth. Good Game with
Speaker 1: Sarah Spain is an iheartwomen's sports production in partnership with
Speaker 1: Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment.
Speaker 2: You can find us on the.
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are Alex Azzie
Speaker 1: and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz,
Speaker 1: Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rutterer,
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Speaker 1: and I'm your host Sarah Spain.