Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Whole Hog sports podcast.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: And now here's your host, Matt Jones.
[00:00:06] Speaker A: On today's show, Doug Case, the new Arkansas men's track and field coach, will join us talk about his promotion to that position. With Chris Bucknham retiring this week, we'll also have Brad Dunn in studio. He'll talk to us about his memories of Dave England who passed away this week at the age of 69. The longtime Arkansas athletic trainer, Brad will also talk with us about Razorback basketball. As Arkansas gets ready to play 22nd ranked Michigan State on Saturday night, we want to tell you about our friends at Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. They are committed, professional and versatile. If you're looking for a quality leader in northwest Arkansas or looking for skilled craftsmanship, you look no further than Bentonville Glass for all your glass market needs with the highest quality products. You can come by and see them at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at bentonvilleglass.com Doug Case, the new Razorback track coach, coming up. But first, a word from Kendall King.
[00:00:56] Speaker C: Kindle King. We're proud of over four decades of design.
We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King, Soapbox and Shopcart. Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are KendallKing. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are Design.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Think about this. Since 1978, the Arkansas Men's track and field team has only had two coaches and yesterday they hired their third. Doug Case is going to take over at the start of the indoor season in January, going to replace Chris Bucknham, who's retiring after 17 plus years here in Fayetteville. Chris obviously replaced John McDonald. Like Doug, as you step into these shoes, I mean, these are, these are big shoes you're stepping into, but it feels like the type of job that you don't shy away from. This is, this is something you feel like you're prepared for.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: I mean, I've been, I've been coaching track and field for 35 years, so I've been a head coach before. It was quite a while ago, but you know, I feel like the experience I've, I've earned here at Arkansas, really, it makes me ready to step in and do this right now. You know, I feel comfortable with it.
I feel comfortable with our program, our team, the people around us and, and everything in Arkansas. So I'm definitely ready to go.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: I want to talk to you about the vision that you have for the program, but first I want to talk to you about Chris Bucknham. You got real choked up talking about him yesterday, and you told me that he's somebody that you met when you were 18 years old. Marshalltown, Iowa, I think, is your hometown. Right. And he came to sign you to run for him at Northern Iowa when he was an assistant coach there.
That's.
Is there a bigger mentor in your life than Chris Bucknham?
[00:02:44] Speaker B: No, I mean, it's like I said, the guy. I've known the guy since I was 18 years old. And, you know, we've coached together 25 years. It's been a, it's been a great experience. And, you know, you learn, I think you learn leadership a little bit, you know, and, and through the years it's been, it's been great leadership the whole time from, from Coach Bucknham. And, you know, I think that helps me be a better coach as well. And that's, that's where we are so. Been great.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: You guys have had a lot of success here. 34 SEC championships across cross country, indoor and outdoor, two national championships, indoor.
I like to hear Chris talk about all the podium finishes because he says he'd like to, you know, throw himself off of a cliff because of all the second, third, fourth place finishes he's had.
It's. How would you describe his tenure here at Arkansas?
[00:03:36] Speaker B: Well, it's, it's been an unbelievable 17 years. And, you know, I always. We're stats guys, man. We're track guys, right? So numbers really mean something to us. And when you look at those stats and the accumulations of winning not only sec, but NCAA and the, you know, it's, it's so difficult to win that NCAA meet and things have to go exactly right for you that day. And. Which is strange about it.
And I always say every, every kid's a quarterback, you know, on the track team because you can't afford to lose one. We lost the outdoor meet by one point last year. You can't afford to lose one guy in one event. It really costs you. And so, you know, I've said for years that, that every, every student athlete that's qualified for national meet that can score a point is, is the quarterback on that team.
But, you know, going back to the stats, I mean, it's, it's been an unbelievable run.
Those, those second place finishes, man, those are hard, you know, because I can, you can go back and you can literally find 10 things that you could have changed or things could have changed for you, and it would have made a different outcome. And I'm sure that it's like that in all sport and all athletics, but, you know, we're so objective about what we do, and we know the number of points that each individual was going to score in an event. So you can, you can go back and you can relive it a thousand times, and, and that's kind of what you do when you get second. You know, you're like, man, if we'd have just had this or that.
And it really could. You know, it shapes how you think about it.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: You think about that razor thin margin. You mentioned the outdoor meet earlier this year. You lose by one point. You finished third in the, you know, in the championship meet. And it just kind of goes to show you just how.
Just, just. I mean, like I said, razor thin it is between some of these teams. You guys knew what you were stepping into here at Arkansas and what John McDonnell had done. 42 national championships, 84 conference championships.
I hear people ask the question sometimes, like, why is Arkansas not winning national championships like they used to? And, you know, what I always try to convey to them is the sport has really changed and you're right there in the middle of it, but you've got specialization now. And I'll let you kind of explain what specialization is, but just how much has this sport changed, maybe since you've been as a coach, but really, even here in the last 10 years or so, it seems like it's a lot different.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: It's, it's much different. And, you know, it's changed again here recently. And if what you're talking about specialization is, you're talking about teams who have decided to focus on one event area. For example, maybe it's, maybe it is distance running, maybe it's sprinting, whatever it may be.
And we have elected basically to have the full team concept. And if you look at our program through the years, we've had everything from jumps and distance and sprints and hurdles and pole vaulters. We've had national champs in so many different events. It's really an amazing feat. When I look at back look back and see all the event champions we've had. We had the, we had the Olympic gold medalists in the discus, you know, here.
And you just go, okay. But that's part of the allure, that's part of the draw of Arkansas. You know, if you, if you come to Arkansas, we're going to give you an opportunity to be on a national championship team and SEC championship, national championship team. And, and we've always felt that that well rounded program where you don't just emphasize on one area and if something goes wrong in that area, you know, it's done for you. So we've always tried to have a well rounded team and we've also operated under the concept that we don't separate scholarships per event and say we're going to put six scholarships in the sprints. We just don't do that. It's really about finding the best individual athlete and the best, it doesn't matter what event they're in. And we're going to recruit that person and we're going to try and build a team off of that. And really it's, it's made us well rounded the way I look at it, just because you've got a great bunch of coaches and we're all, we're all recruiting our individual areas and you know, if you're a good recruiter, you're going to get good recruits. So you know, we've, we've had a very diverse team as far as events and scoring events at the national meet and it's been a really good run.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: Well, you know, you look at some of the teams that have, have been really successful in the last 10 years in, in the sports that you coach and cross country, you got Northern Arizona and byu, we would call those distance factories. I think Florida, they're real heavy into sprints and jumps. It feels like what you're saying, Doug, is that, that Arkansas, you kind of take the, the path less traveled but still hold yourself to, you know, the same championship standards that the program's always had.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: We do. And you know, Coach Bucknham and I here came here together and we, you know, we made that determination when we got here that we're gonna, we're gonna stay by the standards. Coach McDonald started, you know, and it was, it was really about winning everything. And, and I think, I think Coach Bucknham talked about that a little bit yesterday, that maybe that was the right approach, maybe it wasn't, but that was kind of where we were, you know, when we got here. The only, the only successful thing when we got here was to win everything. And, and we were, maybe we were fools enough to think we could do it, you know, and we, and, but that's what we looked at. That's, that was our standard and, and we went at it as hard as we could and, and we gave it a good run and many times we came out on top what was yesterday like for you?
It was crazy day. You know, it was fun, but it was, it was stressful. It was, the team didn't know and, you know, 30 minutes before we went into that, that press conference, we had, we had told the team what was going on and we had cheers and fun and yelling and all that stuff. So it was a crazy day. You know, it was interesting, it was emotional and. But it was a great day. Enjoyed it.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: You know, we see this a lot of times with programs that win.
The transition from a head coach to the next head coach isn't always you go out and you hire a sitting head coach somewhere else that the transition is. You just promote within.
Why do you think that that is a.
It's proven to be successful, it feels like in a lot of places.
Why do you think that has been successful and why do you think. I'm sure that was one of your pitches to Hunter Jurecheck, that you could make that a successful transition here too.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: Well, that was his pitch to me. You know, I want this to be an easy transition. That, and that's one of the very first things he said to me. And, you know, I think a person. I've been here, like I said, this is my 18th year. I know the people, I know the situation. I know where to go, what to do, the people to contact if we need help with certain things.
You know, I know, I know the recruiting, I know all those things that have gone on here. And to me it's, you know, it's going to be pretty close to business as usual. We're going to have a little bit of different staff, but at the same token, you know, I think we've kept the nucleus here and we're going to do almost the same thing we did. We're going to try and stay right on the lines of what we were doing when Coach Bucknam was here. And I hope everything just almost stays the same, honestly.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Hunter Yuricheck at the press conference yesterday said Doug was not given the position. He earned it, gave several reasons why you earned it, Doug. And he said, and then he earned it because I made him interview for the job. He didn't take the interview for granted. He said, you came unbelievably prepared with an incredible vision for the future of the track program. What, what was the vision that you sold during the interview?
[00:11:04] Speaker B: Well, a lot of it was what I said. We're, we're not going to blow this thing up. There's no reason to. It's, it's a winning Program, it's on top where it currently stands. And I had outlined all the things we've, we've done and all the things that I see we can do. And I, I told him, I go, it's definitely not an overhaul, it's not needed. And, and we're going to, we're going to get in this thing and we're going to keep it going the way we've been going. We're going to hire good people and, and we're going to have a well rounded team and we're going to continue to win championships.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: I want to ask you, you, you told me this story yesterday. I think you're, you're fine telling it in public. The story of when Chris Bucknham came to recruit you or sign you, right?
[00:11:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. They, so back in, back in the day, you could, the coach could come to the athlete's home and they could bring the national letter of intent and they could sign them there on the spot. So they, um, you know, he, he had recruited me and I had agreed to sign.
And so on a Sunday afternoon, Coach Buck travels down to my hometown, which is an hour or so away from the university.
And I'm not there when he gets there. It's, it's about noon, I think, and my mom and dad are there and he sits in the living room with my mom and dad and I don't show up for an hour and they're talking and, and he, I don't show up for two hours.
And he said he drank about nine glasses of lemonade while he was there. So, and if you know my dad, he wouldn't say three words in four hours. So it was probably a pretty tough conversation. And my mom had said at one point, coach, if you want to leave, you know, that's fine, we can do this again. And he, he was stubborn and said, I'm not leaving until I sign this guy, you know, so he waited. About four hours later I show up and you know, I'm astonished. I'm like, oh my gosh, I totally forgot. And he said, he, he said he signed me in about three minutes and got out the door and went for home.
But it was interesting, there are no cell phones or anything so nobody could get a hold of me. And I was actually, I remember I was actually out playing basketball. I knew exactly what I was doing.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: You've been a head coach before you were at Drake in the late 90s.
What have you learned in all the years that you've been an assistant for Chris that maybe you didn't know at that time. And I wonder if you can kind of take yourself back to being in that seat all those years ago. John McDonald's got Arkansas rolling at that point in time. I mean, could you have ever dreamed that you'd be in this position you're in now?
[00:13:35] Speaker B: Never would have dreamed it. And, you know, being a. Being a track coach, you obviously knew Arkansas and you knew what was going on down here and how successful the program was. And, you know, I never would have thought I'd ended up at Arkansas. And the funny thing is, you know, I coached at Arkansas State, was my very first job ever.
Jay Flanagan hired me over there in 1989, directly out of grad school.
And, you know, I sat in the track office there with Coach Bucknham and Coach Bill Lawson, who was one of the coaches when I was there, and they're telling me, you're not going to get that job. You're fresh out of grad school and it's probably not going to happen. And I remember walking out the door and I said, I'm going to get that job. And I went down and interviewed, and Coach Flanagan gave me that job and got me started. So.
But I. And so I know a lot about Arkansas track and field. I know the history. I lived in the state during the heyday when, you know, John was really rolling and, you know, so I do know about it. And. And I think, you know, through the years when I was a head coach at Drake, I was young, I was figuring things out, dealing a lot with the Drake Relays at the time, you know, trying to be like a relays director person and a coach. And it was. It was difficult, and it honestly wasn't what I wanted to do. You know, I didn't. I didn't want to be a relays director. I wanted to be a track coach. And so when, you know, Coach Bucknham called me, I don't know what year it was, would have been 99, I guess, and asked me if I wanted to come over to Northern Iowa and coach with him. You know, it was a definite yes. And been coaching with him for 25.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Years since you got a former athlete, Jordan Anthony, who's a Bowerman finalist. For those who don't know, the Bowerman is kind of like the Heisman Trophy for track and field. The best individual track and field athlete every year. This is going to be given out down in the Dallas area next month at the coaches or the coaches convention.
What are his chances to win it, Doug? And what was it like coaching him this last year and all the success that he had.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: Well, he's obviously in my mind, in my opinion, he's, he was the best collegiate track and field athlete in the country last year. And you know, if you look through what he did starting indoors, he won the SEC 60 meter dash, he won the NCAA 60 meter dash, he won the SEC Outdoor 100 and 200. He won the NCAA 100 and was fourth in the 200 at NCAA. So he also ran the second fastest time in NCAA history in the 100 meter dash and all conditions. There was a little bit of wind date on it, but, you know, the kid went out, ran 9, 75 and 100 meters, which is just crazy, you know, So I, I don't see, I did, I didn't see another athlete last year that exceeded that. That was an incredible year, incredible season.
I look at the guy didn't even have a fall track because he came right off of football, right? And so he didn't, he didn't have any training up until December or January is when we really started things going. And you know, I honestly took it very slow with him. Just tried to get him in the right shape at the right time. And you know, he responded well and he worked hard and he was really dedicated to track and field and he had a great year. You know, it was one of the best years I've, I've ever seen. And I hope the kid, I really hope Jordan wins that award. The Bowerman would be awesome for him to win.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: Explain to people what that's like for these football players who come over and they run track because I think some people think, hey, you know, you're fast and you just show up and you run and that's how it is. But yeah, you really think about. There haven't been a whole lot of football players. I can think of Trendon Holiday at lsu, probably Devin A Chain at Texas A and M, Auburn had. Was it Schwartz a few years ago who was, you know, pretty good at both. But there just haven't been a whole lot of those. I mean, there's a real craft that has to be honed for these football players to come over and do more than just run to really excel in their events.
[00:17:36] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, it's not walk out there and you're fast. It's, it's not like that. The, the training process for us is, is months long. And that's why I said, you know, Jordan didn't have the time that we would really prefer for him to be ready to have an entire indoor and outdoor track season. And it's, it starts at such a low level. It's pretty amazing how we start them. You know, we'll. We run 30 times 100 meters at the beginning of the year, you know, and it's really slow. They're running 15, 14, 13 second hundreds, and it's very short rest, and we're just getting there. Everything's strong muscle, strong tendons, strong ligaments, strong.
And the process, as we go, it gets shorter and faster and shorter and faster until you're getting towards a peak at the end, and then, you know, you're hitting the speed stuff and maybe you're only doing two reps of something at the end of the year. So, you know, just to, to not have that total base is an incredible thing. And, and, you know, I, I give credit to Jordan for being able to fight through, you know, an indoor and outdoor season without any of that real base work. He just missed the whole thing.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: Last thing for you, Doug. You got the NCAA indoors here in Fayetteville at the end of your first season. Coming up here in about three, four months, what's it going to be like hosting indoors again? And, and you seem to think you've got a team that could really compete this year.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: You know, we've, I don't know how many times we've hosted since I've been here. It feels like six or seven times maybe we've hosted a national meet. So, you know, we do a great job of hosting meets. We host more meets in any, any school in the country, year in and year out. And, you know, we know how to do this. Our administration is great at it. Should be a great.
The meet should be run very well. Expect that to happen.
As far as our team, like I said earlier, man, we're always in it.
The fun of this sport is knowing you're in it, you know, and it gives you that extra drive if you think you got a chance. And that's what I always talked about. The beauty of Arkansas is you're going to be in it. You know, our team is going to be in that hunt, and it happens year in and year out. You don't win them all, but it's sure fun to be in the fight, you know.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: Well, Doug, good luck to you. Congratulations on getting the job and looking forward to seeing you here in a couple of months over at the track.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: Thanks, man. Much appreciated.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: I appreciate it. Doug Case, the new head coach of Arkansas men's track and field. When we come back, Brad Dunn will join me here in studio, we'll talk about Dave England's legacy at the University of Arkansas. First, a word from Kendall King.
[00:20:06] Speaker C: Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design.
We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King soapbox and shop cart.
Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are shopcart. We are design.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: It's a sad week here in Fayetteville. Dave England, who really just one of the most integral people at the University of Arkansas athletics wise in the last 40, 50 years, passed away a couple of days ago.
This is someone who he has his finger mark or his fingerprints on football, baseball at the U of A. Norm de Bruyne's great teams, Frank Broyles, Lou Holtz. But really he made his name for what he did with the Razorback basketball program. Worked for Eddie Sutton, Nolan Richardson, Stan Heath, John Pelfrey and Mike Anderson before retiring about six years ago. We got Brad Dunn here in studio now. Brad was former assistant coach at Arkansas from 1991 to 2002. We're in his national championship ring as he does every single day.
Part of that 94 team. You knew Dave as well as just about anybody professionally.
[00:21:20] Speaker D: I sure did.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: What's number one? I mean, just kind of explain to people what his presence with basketball was because it goes way beyond just being the guy that tapes up the ankles and, and make sure that you're okay.
[00:21:35] Speaker D: He was most certainly good at all the getting the guys rehabbed and doing all that. But he had a great rapport with the players and with the coaches. A lot of times in the training room, a player will let their hair down a little bit in terms of man, coach wants me to do this and he wants me to do that.
He'd get a feel for where a kid's head is. When he thought it was appropriate and it could help the kid. He would relay that onto the coaches and oh, that's a big plus. And that's a veteran trainer can. Cause that's a fine line. You don't want to violate a kid's trust by letting his hair down and talking to you. But at the same time, you want to help the kid. He was always about helping the kid.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: I was talking to Scotty Thurman yesterday and Scotty said that he also was able to maybe teach the players what maybe they didn't understand where you all were coming from as a coaching staff. And so it was a two way street there in that training room.
[00:22:33] Speaker D: Oh, very true.
Because back then you could talk to players a lot different, you could coach them a lot tougher than you can now. You know, I had all those players out to my house and they were good kids and you could be rough on them as long as they knew you cared about them. Well, I had that with Dave England. Dave England cared about the players. He legitimately did. And he was going to keep them on the court healthy and kind of do a little of the counseling thing as need be. But my gosh, what a great guy. What a tragedy.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Scotty gave me a great story yesterday. He said that whenever he was back here as an assistant coach, Delvon Johnson, big, big guy that they had on one of those teams or a couple of those teams, he had, I think he had sprained his ankle in a game and there was a quick turnaround, like maybe from a Saturday to a Tuesday. And I think there might have been some travel that was involved in there.
And Delvon was not expected to play in the second, the second half of that turnaround. And Scotty said that Dave England slept in the training room with Delvon and set an alarm for like every 45 minutes to an hour. He'd catnap, then he'd wake up, treat him, go back to sleep for another 30, 45 minutes, get up and do it again. And this continued all night. And he said, I always had a lot of respect for Dave, he said, but whenever I saw that, it just took it to another level.
[00:23:55] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, guys, for 20 minutes and then you do ice massage or you elevate for 40 minutes and do that all night long. You'll get a kid rehabbed, rehabbed a whole lot quicker. Not very many people have that commitment to their job. You weren't out going to work. You were not going to outwork Dave England.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Well, you said that if he, if he had a practice that started at 6:00', clock, he was going to be there at 4:30 in the morning.
[00:24:17] Speaker D: Yeah, he was. He opened the doors, closed the doors. He was always there. I mean, my goodness, if they'd have paid him $10 an hour, he would have died a multimillionaire.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: Just, I mean, you're, you're, you're in touch with so many of your former players. Just, you know, this is, there are those, there are those deaths that, you know, when, when an Oliver Miller dies, obviously that's going to hurt the, the, the family and that's what. That's what Nolan and Mike's teams were. I mean, you. You think about all those teams during Nolan's years, and then when Mike came back here for another close to 10 years, they all kind of consider themselves part of a family. When Rose Richardson died a year ago, that was obviously something that hurt all of those players.
This Dave England passing is one that's, I would say, just equally as impactful.
[00:25:04] Speaker D: Oh, yes. Players were close with him, and you could depend on him. David England was consistent. You know, it's just. My goodness. Angel was 69 years old. Yeah, that's way too young. Of course, I'm 66.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: You told me a story yesterday about you had a player who was kind of dogging it in practice a little bit, said he was hurt and it.
[00:25:25] Speaker D: Was a real tough practice.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: Take it from there.
[00:25:28] Speaker D: You know, we'd come back from a loss. We didn't think we should lose. No coach likes that. So we were going to bust out that practice and we were going to put it on them pretty hard.
And we had a walk on.
He can remain nameless, but he came up with a sprained ankle, David. And I was coaching the red team or the white team, whatever I was coaching. He said, that kid's limping on the wrong ankle. And that kid was on the team I was coaching. I put him back in. I said, play through it.
The lamp went away right quick, and that kid finished practice.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: You said that Dave came up with a pretty rigorous training schedule for you guys after, you know, one of the off seasons.
[00:26:07] Speaker D: Yeah, you know, we always put them through 2A days. And we got up early in the morning, we lifted, we ran, we did everything we could do to be ready for the season. And he came up with the boot camp. The boot. And we did everything from lifting to running, sprints, distance, weights.
Yeah, we got after it. And that was. That's what he called it. Diamond called it. We always called him Diamond. He had a lot of nicknames. Somebody called him Pumpkin.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: Yeah, Pumpkinhead.
[00:26:35] Speaker D: Yeah, Pumpkinhead.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: I was talking to somebody the other day whose dad was a football player here, and he said that the football players all knew him as Pumpkinhead.
[00:26:43] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: There was a video that Dave England, when he retired, the Razorback Sports Network, put together a video talking to him about his career. He said that Joe Klein always called him Blue. And he said he never could figure out why Joe Klein called him Blue until he figured out that the trainer that came before him, they called him Red. And so it was just kind of a Progression. They just decided to call him Blue. Yeah, but Diamond. Diamond, Diamond Dave. Those were the names that he was known best by.
[00:27:10] Speaker D: What did Pags call him?
[00:27:11] Speaker A: I didn't ask him that. I talked to Town. Pagnazi. Tom Pagnazi gave me a great story yesterday.
He played. So. So Dave England was a trainer for the baseball team whenever Pagnazi was here at Arkansas. And then while Pagnazi was playing, Dave left Arkansas and went to the St. Louis Cardinals to be a trainer in their minor leagues. And as a quick aside, I was talking to Norm De Bryan yesterday. He told me, he said that had Dave England not come back to Arkansas, he probably would have been promoted to be the trainer for the big league Cardinals. The man who came behind him and replaced him after he came back to Arkansas did get that, you know, eventually got that promotion up to the Cardinals big league team. But Pagnazi went into the Cardinals system. So he had known Dave England at Arkansas, went into the Cardinals system. And he said that, you know, they had that connection. They're Razorbacks, and that was a big deal to them. He said he's getting his. He's getting taped one day or he's in the training room for something. And Dave England was telling him about they had a daughter who was like eight months, nine months, maybe a year old.
[00:28:17] Speaker D: Jennifer. Yeah.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: And he said that Dave told him, I haven't been on a date with my wife since we had the baby. And Tom Pagnazi, who had just turned 21 years old, had never had any experience with a baby in his life. So I'll babysit for you. And they took him up on it and he said, that baby turned out okay.
[00:28:36] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, she surely did. Yeah. Boy, those two girls. He's got another daughter by the name of Allison.
Tough times for them, baby.
[00:28:42] Speaker A: Whoo.
[00:28:43] Speaker D: My goodness. I'm thinking about him, praying for him.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: We're told that Dave's memorial service is going to be at Bud Walton arena on Sunday, November 16 at 1pm for those who want to be there.
Wrote more about Dave England at our website. I would hope that you go there and read that story, talk to Brad for it. Talk to Scotty Thurm and Tom Pagnazi. And trust me, Brad, there were a lot of people who didn't get talked to, who they would have been more than willing to talk about Dave Engel just because of how much he meant to him.
[00:29:14] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, everybody was going like, hey, I'll talk to him. I'll talk to him.
Hey, he's just one of those guys. He was magnetic. You know, you knew what you were getting with Dave England. He wasn't all over the map. He was going to be on time, he was going to be organized. He was going to. He was going to know what time we were playing golf. He was just there on time all the time. And, you know, when you get a guy like that, it's just man. And then you lose a guy like that way too early. My goodness, that's a loss that leaves a hole in your life.
[00:29:45] Speaker A: The pretty good golfer.
[00:29:47] Speaker D: Yes, he was pretty good golfer. Probably about an 8 to 10 handicap. He loved it.
[00:29:52] Speaker A: So let's talk a little basketball here while you're in here. I know you've been over and you've seen them practice. John Caliperi, second team. Here they are. They're. They're a good team. I mean, this. There's something, Brad, you can tell in the exhibition games when a team has it or when they may have it. And what I saw when they played Cincinnati and Memphis is they have it. I mean, it looks like they have it. Now we're going to see Saturday night just where they are when they play a good Michigan State team up there in East Lansing. But this looks like a really talented team, much better than I think the team that he had last year.
[00:30:25] Speaker D: And I was talking to Bruiser and Bruiser said, hey, we are more talented this year. So they are. I went over to their practice. There's a couple of things that they've got to do, and they can do it if they adhere to team defense really hard, where we're going to stop you because there's offensive talent everywhere. They can score the basketball and Cal is going to put them in sets and situations where they get good shots, but just everything is there. They've got the lateral quickness of the team, athletically, of our national championship team, with Beck and McDaniel and those guys on the perimeter that could guard the ball.
And when you can guard the ball and you can stop penetration and still check a guy's shot, that helps a lot of things. The biggest thing it does for. It helps your offensive rebounding and it keeps guys from getting in as much foul trouble. When you can guard a person on the perimeter without. Without getting taken to the cup where somebody's got to help. So they've got that. He's got the option, showing some pressure defense, too.
[00:31:28] Speaker A: You and I were talking about Malik Thomas and I've been so impressed with what I've seen from him and Acuff, the Other freshman, he looks really good too. But Thomas, there's something about him and just the smoothness and obviously being a wing player, I told you that I wondered if there's been a freshman who's been in kind of that, you know, that role, that position, who's been here at Arkansas since Joe Johnson, who's looked like Malik Thomas and I don't know that there has been.
[00:31:52] Speaker D: I can't think of one. He's, he's beyond his years. You know, his basketball IQ is high, okay? He understands how to play, whether it's with the ball, without the ball, on defense, he gets it. I mean, that's a high.
There's a lot of people that know that can play basketball don't really understand everything that's going on. He understands what's going on and I think a lot of this team does.
I hope we've got the physical nature when we go against teams like Alabama where they've got the aircraft carrier down there to 610 and 260, you know, that we can bang with those guys because it's going to get physical because people are going to have to get physical with us because we might light that scoreboard up.
[00:32:36] Speaker A: Talk to me about what is probably going on right now just in terms of the team getting ready to take that first big road trip of the year. And not only that, but going into an arena, the Breslin center, that is so well regarded. I mean, you guys, you took teams obviously to Rupp and the sec, but you also went out to Arizona. You went to some, you know, some big time arenas like that. Like, what is the feeling in the days leading up to those type of games?
[00:32:59] Speaker D: Well, oh, the kids are excited. And the thing is, as a coach, you prepare every day the same. Whether you're playing smaller Division 1 school or whether you're playing Michigan State. You want to make your preparations. Same that way the players, when you play a team that you know you're better than and should beat by 20 or 30 points, they don't slack off because if you're not ready to play when you show up for the game, you're not going to get ready at the game. The coach has got to get them ready and practice and get their focus on what it needs to be on. So yeah, there. And this is a great test for us. This is the kind of team we should be playing. I mean, Tommy Izzo, Bill Self, Cal and I, we all broke into the business at the same time.
And Tommy Izzo's great basketball coach. He really is not better than Cal. I mean Cal's hell of a basketball coach, but yeah, I'll be glued to that. I've got a wonderful granddaughter. But I'm going to be in, I'm going to be in my man cave watching that one on TV.
[00:33:59] Speaker A: That's Saturday night at 6:00, by the way, on, on Fox. Let's end with this. These early season games when they're, you know, when they really are challenging, challenging themselves, whether it be this game they play, Louisville, Duke, Texas Tech, Houston. I mean these are some really good non conference games. They have winning games. Obviously that's the objective and you need some wins to help yourself and your resume when it comes to tournament time. Is that the end all be all though, or is there something about development and building toward the future with these type of games that is maybe equally as valuable to a coach?
[00:34:33] Speaker D: Well, when you got the name teams the kids are going to be ready to play, they, they know Louisville, Houston, they know those are really, really good teams that you're going to be playing. You know, Duke, they're going to be ready for those games.
Cal doesn't drop the ball when they play a lower division school, a lower level of a Division 1 team.
They work, I'm sure they're working on improving on this, whether it's whatever they're working on, on defense or offense.
He's looking down the road. He's not talking about that game that's seven or 10 days away. He's talking about the game that's two days away. But they're working on specific things during the game because I like the fact we got Wagner out there too.
Wagner can play and he's been around a little bit.
Be nice to see how these young kids do Michigan State, first time they.
[00:35:23] Speaker A: Go and play in front of what, 16, 15,000 people. That's always kind of a that, that's really the wild card this weekend, right?
[00:35:29] Speaker D: Yeah. And they'll be fired up up there. I think we'll do fine. Okay. Like Thomas kid, I think you'll be just fine up there. I don't think you're going to rattle him real easy. Yeah, okay. I got to pay extra. Left my phone on.
[00:35:41] Speaker A: Brad's got to take a call. Brad, we appreciate you being here.
[00:35:44] Speaker D: It's all good, man. Sorry about that, man.
[00:35:46] Speaker A: We appreciate Brad Dunn being with us. He works with us here at Hogs Illustrated. Always love having him in to talk basketball with us.
Hope we see you again on our show tomorrow or at our website wholehogsports. Com. Thanks for being with us today. Have a great day, everybody.
