Garrett Bull ('08) and Nathan Markey ('20) kick of Season Five of the show, fresh off being named PIAA 5A Coaching Staff of the Year at West York. Tom, Biz, and Coach Curley dig into two eras of Juniata basketball, an all-time starting five draft, a Brian Cannon story, and a new production partner. Two branches, one coaching tree.

Juniata Men's Basketball Show is hosted by Tom Frank, Drew "Biz" Besket and Coach Greg Curley. The Show is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios in conjunction with 16803 Media. Catch all our episodes at https://www.coachshowplaybook.com/juniata-mens-basketball-show/

This is a Merrick Studios podcast. This week on the Juniata men's basketball show. I could

change one thing about my career, it's the amount of time I spent in the gym outside of practice

hours and continuing to develop your game and continuing to do all the right things to work

on your game as an individual so that when you come into practice, you've gained extra skills

and you can be more ready to go on top of what you're already doing in practice. I'm Tom Frank.

I'm Biz. I'm head coach Greg Curley. And this is your Juniata Men's Basketball show.

Welcome listeners. am Tom Frank. joined each and every week by Drew Baskett, AKA Biz and

your Juniata head basketball coach, Greg Curley. As we talk all things, Juniata men's basketball.

All right, fellas, are officially this. I feel like this is the episode where we start. This

is the official opening of the fifth year as the Juniata men's basketball show. What do

you guys think of that? Totally, totally agree. And we should make it known for listeners that

our guy Biz is hurting a little bit today. You got to play hard, man. He's lost his voice,

but he's toughen it out because we have two stellar guests. And he said, I'm doing it no

matter what. All we hear about on this show is guys playing hurt with broken limbs and

stuff. So little voice ain't going to keep me down. You're trying to teach a lesson right

now? Is that what you're doing? That's right, perseverance. All right, I like it. I like

it. Words of wisdom. Coach, how we feeling? Three months away from first official practice,

although we get the extra days now. So it's starting to turn the corner here. And we've

got our last AAU live weekend coming up. summer recruiting is kind of winding down and starting

to see the whites of their eyes, if you know what mean. So getting excited. Let me ask you

this question. If you can generalize this, the AAU kids that you're seeing now, are they better?

worse or completely different than the guys from 10 years ago? I mean, it depends what

adventure you're at and what games you're watching. It's a little more watered down now. I mean,

there's more events. used to be probably the same number of teams, but probably concentrated

more at one or two events. know, like we were just at Summer Jam Fest at Spooky Notes. There's

two made. Hoops events going on the exact same time there's an event in Atlantic City and

you know when I started this it was Hoop group summer jam fest at University, West Virginia

University and that was kind of it for the big one in the summer so there's a lot more I think

there's more AAU teams probably too but you know there's still a lot of good players and

I don't I don't know if it's changed that much you know it's also just knowing where to look

and do those kind of things but it's exciting I mean keep watching these guys and start seeing

the possibilities and start to develop a relationship with guys and it's the thing that keeps you

going with this deal and this business is the next one, the next group, the next guys and

the possibility. So I'm excited about it. So all I heard was these guys are just all watered

down that you're looking at right now. Wow, man, don't generalize this program. Come on.

All right. I just, mean, there's, four tournaments and it's... No, I know what you're saying.

I know what you're saying. All right. I'm going to, I'm going to jump in here and play. got

a limp, but I'm in. So now how many... times do you go to these tournaments and discover

guys that weren't on your radar? Is that common or are you just going to focus? Well, it depends

what time of year it is. mean, generally spring, we try to identify guys, then we follow them

through the summer. And as we're following guys through the summer, we see some teams we haven't

seen before, or guys were out, come back and play. And so we'll add to it. So it's probably

a pretty healthy mix right now. You know, going into this last tournament, we're going back

to see some guys that we've seen before. But again, if they start, if they play a couple

of teams from areas that we think we could pull from or even maybe not, and they catch our

eye, then we'll them to the list. So it's a little bit of a mix, but we're a little later

in the process now. So hopefully you have a decent idea of who we're really targeting and

where we want to go with that. And, and so we'll really kind of zero in on that, but they're

going to play different teams and that creates other opportunities. So have you ever gotten

a kid from one of these events that you did go in there with no knowledge of and you're

like, man, this kid can play. And then all of sudden started following them throughout the

year. Yeah, it happens all the time. So I mean, the thing about recruiting is you just have

to be recruiting. You have to be out. You have to be around. You have to be talking to people.

a lot of times who we think our list is now could change a lot in the next two or three

months. But that's kind of how you work through the process. And it might lead us to somebody

else or something else. really rarely kind of holds completely from the beginning. And

you start to get, so we're not the only ones doing this now. And there's a trickle down

from the levels, you know, that scholarship schools kind of set the level on who they want,

where guys are. And then it kind of cascades down, which creates where we are now. Part

of this is hopefully we're not wasting our time identifying the wrong guys. We're getting guys

at the right academic fits, but part of it also will sit and talk to other coaches. I who are

you looking at from different levels? So we get kind of an idea of where guys sit. You

have to go to a few tournaments sometimes because you know when really really good teams play

each other it sort of dumbs down the level and you may mis-evaluate guys you may think either

not as good or better than what they what they are you need to see them play a few times at

different settings so that you actually get an accurate evaluation because if it's super

good competition And that guy may be scholarship guy and he's not aware he's out there because

they kind of negate each other or vice versa. You're at a bad tournament. The guy looks great.

You got to go see him against better guys. So seeing him in high school live periods and

in a live period, you try to see both to try to get a comparison. Likewise, like the high

school stuff, you see guys in completely different roles. Usually the main guy was a little more

cohesion. You may get a better sense of how you would use them or how they react in those

segments. And then, you know, we have, you know, we hopefully know something about most programs

or who they're being coached by and how that translates. So I mean, it's just an ongoing

process. It's part of the fun part about it and seeing where it goes. I like it. Yes, sir.

All right. We got to start the season with a question. I feel like this one was a little

bit like you guys that you guys know this guy. He sent in a question. His name's Greg. I'll

leave it at that. Greg. Boy. And he said, guys, anything up your sleeves for season five? I

can answer that. I mean, you're the executive producer, director and host of the show. Hey,

we're going to make a quick announcement here, guys. This is the first time ever said we have

a new production partner. We have a production partner. 1683 Media is in conjunction now

with Merrick Studios. There's going be a lot more to come about that, so stay tuned. Ooh,

this is big. And from what I heard, there is an educational book. on how other sports programs

might be able to do something that we've done here that could be in the works. So there's

a lot to come and a lot to happen. outstanding. And season five of the Giugnata men's basketball

show. Should have been 16-8-5-1, but we'll go with... We'll give the backstory of that

as we continue to go throughout season a very interesting backstory. We should kick it off

with the PIAA boys basketball coaching staff of the year. So I think we should kick it off.

That is what we're to kick it off. got basketball alumni in the house. We got Mr. Garrett Bull,

class of 2008, and Mr. Nathan Markey, class of 2020. Garrett currently teaches in the

Red Lion School District where he lives with his wife, Jennifer, also a 2008 Juniata graduate,

and their three children, daughter Audrey, who is seven years old, son Lawson, who is five

years old, and son Beckett, who is two years old. Nathan is an elementary school teacher

in the West York school district where he resides with his wife. Is it Mariana? I saying that

right? Marlena. Marlena. right. I want to things right. I mean, that's par for the course.

That's par for the course. So Garrett is currently the head boys varsity basketball coach at West

York High School where Nathan serves as a varsity assistant this past season. and Nathan and

the rest of their staff were named the PIAA 5A State Boys Basketball Coaching Staff of

the Year. Holy crap. That's a big deal. That's a big deal. Their team finished the season

with a 29-3 record, won the District 3 5A Championship and advanced to the Pennsylvania State Championship

game against Bonner Pendergrast. In the past five years, their program also won five straight

division titles, earning a YAIAA. What is this? YAIAA. Can we have any more initials? league

county championship and now an advance to the Pennsylvania elite eight in 24, 25 season.

Do we not have a championship yet though? A state championship. Well, we lost, we lost

the state championship game this year. All right. We're to get into that during their time at

Juniata, Garrett and Nathan helped Juniata advance to three conference finals and earn three ECAC

bids in 2007, 2008 and 2018. Let's welcome our reigning PI double A coaches of the year, Garrett

and Nathan. How you guys doing? Wow. We got royalty on this show. have royalty. Great.

Excited to be here. Good to see all you I Curly, you got some coaches in your alumni. I mean,

we've talked to a number of coaches and now we got two that might be at the top. Hey,

Curly's got a better coaching tree than Mike Tomlin does. right. However, Shawley was

the 6A PI double A. boys basketball coaching staff here also in state college a few years

ago. That's right. This is forget in Pennsylvania we have 6A. Now I have three guys that share

that title, which is really pretty cool. That is pretty remarkable. Do we have any other

A's? Can we get some other coaches? Can we get a whole tree of 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A? many?

We need a sweep. How far does it go in Pennsylvania? 6A in? 1 to 6. All right. Well, guys, congratulations.

That's a pretty amazing honor. Thank you. So guys, let's, we got to start at the beginning

here. Why in the world did either one of you come to Juniata to play for this guy? I'll

let you lead all fools. Yeah, I'm older, so I'll go first. That's a great question. My,

my journey has actually started more with football. know, coach knows this. I played football

and, they, kind of started recruiting me, but I didn't really want to play football anymore.

I just kind of used this, used the recruiting trip for football to get to meet the basketball

coach. Hmm. You do have a great last name for football. position did you play football?

That's funny too. Center and defensive tackle and then my shooting guard and basketball.

So that is an interesting combination right there. So remember when he came on his visit

with football and I was catching up with him on the mezzanine and then talking about that

he'd rather play basketball and kind of went from there. sent some film. We had a spot and

an opportunity for him and Long story short, became Brian Cannon's roommate. So that's

the history. have to name drop Cannon on this episode where we all get in trouble. And you

stayed for the whole time too. didn't drive you out. We stayed together for four years.

I got some great stories. I don't know if they're podcast appropriate or not, but. you're to

have to tell us stories. four years you had the room with that guy. Yeah. It was a good

time. He's a great dude. Ryan is a great dude. All right. You got to tell us, how did you

get the Giugiaro? Yeah. So mine's a little different. was when I was a junior in high

school playing summer AAU, I remember getting some email from Coach Hager at the time. And

before my senior year fall is when he took the job at Bethany and left. And it was when Shally

came back to be Coach Curley's assistant. for the first year he was back. And things kind

of went cold, like recruiting wise with the turnover. And I didn't really hear anything.

And then I was like, I remember hearing from Junie, I was checking out some different campuses.

So I kind of came up, reached out to coach, came up kind of on a whim, just to see what

it was like. Ended up falling in love with it, loving the team. Guys play a little pickup

with them, had a really good time and things kind of fell into place from there and ended

up coming up and stayed all four years. And it was awesome. I loved it. What schools free

both of you guys that it come down to between that you, that you had to like choose between

what and Juniata. For me, Dickinson, I was, I looked at a little bit. For football or for

basketball? Kind of both too, but I was, you know, my, I'm similar to Nate. When I got on

campus and came, I came back for an overnight visit and stayed with actually with Nick Hager

and Chris Jazz Yoda and Got to play pickup with the guys. It's just everything clicked and

felt right. And I did the same at Dickinson and it didn't feel right. So I tell my players

all the time, was like, you know, visit a couple of schools, but if you narrow it down, you

know, do an overnight, get to meet the players and then you'll, it'll, it'll click for you.

It'll feel right. now? So I guess. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. I came down to kind of Messiah

and Juniata were my two. And I remember I never did an overnight at Messiah, but I remember

going up there and playing pickup with the guys a couple of times. It was kind of the same

thing. Garrett said, like, just never really felt right. And I came up once to Juniata and

it fell into place. You guys are from two very different eras. mean, at first when Curly said

he was putting you both on, I assumed you guys were in the same era, but you have 10 years

between you guys and that. Both very good classes. Tell us a little bit, let's start with the

2007, 2008 teams. Tell me a little bit about those teams, who your teammates were, what

your records were, that kind of stuff, what success you had. Our first two years, it was

early, we were still struggling. In our junior year, we were struggling at the beginning of

the year. I guess it was probably sometime after Christmas when things started to turn around

and the team got hot. And made a run in playoffs and made the championship game. And then my

senior year, think things were kind of, we're pretty good. Most of the year long, you know,

made a run back to the conference championship game again. But like I said, Nick Hager was

a year ahead of me, Chris Jazz Yoda. But in my class would have been like Brian Cannon,

Kyle Opitz, Brent Furko. wow. And so you played for back to back conference championships.

Yeah. And then we. It was when it switched, we were in the Mac up until my senior year.

then my senior year was the first year of the landmark. Oh, wow. You were in that transition.

Okay. Yeah. Was that the last time that Juniata was in back to back conference championships?

Back 13, 14. 13 and 14. like Raymond? Yeah, Raymond. 2013 and 14. was out, Raymond and

Nate Higgins in 14. And the year before was Dan Sikolsky and Austin Higgins. seniors, the

post-games. But Bulls era could have arguably been one of the, one of the better ones of

in your history. It was, mean, Garrett was right at the beginning of this. mean, they, yeah,

just staying. I mean, the guys ahead of him, like Tom and Colin, those guys, when he came

in, I mean, that was the first winning season since 1988, 89, first back-to-back winning

seasons in over 25 years. was the first time we ever won a conference playoff game in the

history in school. Uh, we did that two years ago, first time in, in conference finals, first

guy in the post season. He was integral part of that. matter of fact, we don't go to the

second championship. Garrett had one of those nights when we played Susquehanna in the first

round of playoffs on the road. I don't know, what did you have, 22 or something like that,

Garrett? But he just came out. He was in the zone. Let's put it that way. We kept running

same action to him over and over again and kind of gave a separation our first half. allowed

us to get there back to back. he was a big part of all that with those guys. The guys you mentioned

are kind of the guys that first got us into this situation and gave us that opportunity.

And Nathan's team, he can talk to you about his group, but he was part of that 2018 team,

was the first team to be ever ever been nationally ranked, won 23 games, had the score record.

Those guys, so these guys, there's no coincidence, whatever program they touch, they're winning.

So they do well. So those guys bring it. No doubt. The groundwork was laid, man, that's

cool. So Mark, you tell us a little bit about your team. He's kind of told us a little here.

Yeah, freshman year, it was kind of fun to watch the transition a little bit. Freshman

year, the group we had, we definitely had talent, but for whatever reason, I remember we had

some games where we looked really good. And then for whatever reason, we just didn't quite

gel the way that kind of the locker room thought we should that year. And then the next season,

we just came out like a house on fire. And I remember we won, what was it, Coach 12 straight

games? the start of season, beat Randolph-Macon in our Christmas tournament, who I want to

say was ranked in like the top 15 at the time. And I just remember that season being so much

fun. Winning the first regular season title in school history, I want to say, and then

making the conference championship game, losing a heartbreaker at the end. But that season

was just such a blast. It was so much fun. And playing with guys like Seth Brewer, who I really

looked up to being a couple years behind him just for his toughness, his mentality going

into practice, going into games. Marcus Lee, who don't know, and I from time to time talk

between him and Cannon, who gives each other a run for the better player in school history.

yeah, Marcus was unreal to play with. Damon Rickens was in that class as a senior. Will

Peralta, Brandon Martinez, Paul Martello, a lot of those guys were a year or two ahead

of me. But yeah, that was a really fun group to play with. He's basically going down my

roster for the alumni game as if I didn't know if you noticed that. Yeah, I hear. Yeah. Don't

worry. I'm coming back after you. I like if Markie comes back, I automatically get him.

That's no, that's not happening. That's how it That's a different show. That's not a whole

scheduling games away from the alumni game. That's problem with coaches, right? Yeah,

you guys got to get on that. Yeah, we're never going to get these guys. That's right. We were

back. Was it Nate two or three years ago we came up because we didn't have a game with

the last two Saturdays we've had game the same day. Yeah. I think we drove up together two

or three years ago. can't remember. I worked that schedule out this year. Yeah, we're have

to work it out. We'll, we'll coordinate with you guys. All right. So you got to give us

some stories. You got to give us some good stories of your roommates, of your teammates, of this

guy as a coach. give us something good here. Bull you got, you have to have some, mean,

he's, he's dripping with stories, man. You want stories on Curly or, or I'll I'll take the

best, the best coach Curly story. Let's, let's do the best coach Curly story. There we go.

Man. And remember we're not regulated so you can say, you know, always tell Nathan he got

lucky. Curly seems to be a lot nicer than when I'm, you know, an easier on him than when I.

Um, we all know it. I just heard the nightmare story like from the guys ahead of me. When

I came in is, you know, they scrimmaged Gallaudet the year before and I guess got their, their

tails handed to them and drove home from DC, got back and went in the gym and practiced

for like three hours after the scrimmage on a Saturday night. So that's all my class ever

heard about was like, you know, no matter what's going on now, he's, he's a little bit easier

or nicer than the year before. So. I didn't experience that, but that's a vivid story in

my mind because I didn't want that to happen. Hey, scared straight. That's right. Maybe it

worked. I mean, you said you believe Canon stories out the wazoo. Yeah, we always like

to go after Canon a little bit. yeah, let's, let's, let's hear. I'll save, you know, the

non-PG ones for after the podcast, but I'll give you one as our freshman year. were, we

were sitting in our dorm and we're probably. two months into school and there was a class

that every freshman had to take. was called, I think it was called IA or AI. Like it was

like information. It's the easiest class in the world. It meets once a week and it's like

keyboarding and computer stuff, right? Everybody's got to do it. And I get up on, I don't know,

Thursday at three o'clock and start to head out the door, throw my book bag on and Cannon

turns around from playing his video game and looks at me and he's like, where the hell are

you going? And I'm going to I'm going to information access. Is that what it was called coach?

Yeah. And his face goes ghostly white because he's realized now he has forgotten to go to

this class for the last seven or eight weeks in a row. Hold on now. This was a one credit

elective. You could do a lot of the workout in the classroom. This isn't one on the radar

of the coaching staff. You just have to turn everything in. So, all right. It's supposed

to be an A minus at worst, maybe a B plus, you know, and he forgot to go for seven or eight

weeks and I think pulled off a C minus or something in the class. And like, it was supposed to

be the easiest class, know, your freshman year. I like that. That's good. Yeah. Mark you got

to some good stories about coach Curly. So I don't even know if coach knows this one.

So I'll get I'll give you guys this one. But this is a sophomore year story. We had gone

to Drew that year. They were really good. And I want to say we beat him at home later in

season. It was our trip to Drew four and a half hours or whatever. And we end up losing. I

want to say it was like a buzzer beater or something if I remember correctly. And we get back from

that game thinking like OK it's a good conference opponent, we played pretty well, lost on a

heartbreaker. And I remember guys were just, it was like the last weekend of winter break.

had the next day off. So a lot of guys were like, all right, we're just gonna go home for

the night. So a ton of us ended up going, just driving back to our family's house to stay

in the night. And the next morning, I wanna say there was like seven of us on a text from

Coach Curly. And we had gotten home probably after midnight that night. Film, 10 o'clock.

in the locker room on a Sunday morning or something like that. And all of us have driven an hour,

two hours, three hours back home. like, oh, boy, how are we going to get back to campus

to go watch film? And I remember getting back to the campus and we it was a pretty, pretty

good film session from Coach. Let's just say that. And then we ratted off a couple of wins

after that got us back to where we need to be. But that was a pretty good one. Coach, what

are we doing here? The guys have winter break. They have their last weekend. It's winter break.

So. Again, winter break, the idea is that guys are commuting going back and forth. So this

is a little different circumstance than the normal time. as I tell guys and they know

it winter break schedules change and it's up to us. We also give guys days off they don't

expect, but obviously adding if we just drove to New Jersey and guys are driving three hours

home, that doesn't actually help with rest recovery and the things you're trying to to meet. that

was that I remember losing that game. I don't remember the film session, but it's the definite

possibility. And as Mark said, it seemed to pay off. sometimes you get what you gotta do.

Now, Coach, the question is, did you know they all went home? No. Is that why you didn't I

didn't know. He didn't learn that tonight. them back to campus. It wouldn't have been something

I would have expected with that, especially when we get back so late. You just figure you

send them a text and bring them in in the morning because they all went to bed. But college

students will be college students at times. And then we'll run out of here. So that, that

stuff happens. All right. So we got to talk about your coaching here. We're to get back

to Junia in a minute, but so you guys are 10 years apart. How did you guys end up coaching

together? Like what's the, what's the, what's the, what's the coaching story there? Well,

was actually going to say earlier, I've known Nathan for a long time. So he's from York.

I'm from the York area. He used to come to a summer workout that I was part of when I was

kind of first starting to coach. So I've known, got to know him and his family. So when he

was actually. Kind of thinking about going to Juniata, I was kind of on the side going, yeah,

I think that'd be a good fit. know, that was a good fit for you. And then when he finished

coaching, he was looking for an elementary teacher job and you know, he didn't go to West York,

but West York's close to where he was from and he applied and we were actually playing pickup

one day. And I said to him, all right, if you, if you get the job, you're now my JV coach

too. Okay. And I think it was two days later, he texts me or somebody's like, I got the job.

I'm like, all right, I got a new JV coach. Cause I needed one at the time. Yeah. So we've been

together ever since and, years have you been together now? This is going on seven. I want

to say, cause I would've started in COVID year was my J the basketball with mass Psalm was

my first year coaching JV. Oh God. We had to do that a little bit. So are you still coaching

JV or you guys just. Are you both on varsity? Coach or just coaching varsity at this point?

Just varsity. I want to say, how many years do think I coached JV Bowl? Was it three years

before I made the switch to just come up with the group? three. Something like that. Even

when he coached JV, we practiced together and he's giving me all the input he thinks for

varsity anyways. Just over time, he was kind of like, I'd rather be, we had a paid varsity

open. I'd rather be just that than the JV. So, you know, it's kind of worked out that

he can devote even more time to helping with varsity. Any of your offensive defensive philosophy

come from your days at Juniata? I mean, there's definitely drills and principles and things

we will do that I remember I'm learning and even as simple as like how to set a screen

properly, you know, and sometimes I talk to my guys about, about that. I'm like, man, sound

like, I sound like Curly right now. You know, we run motion offense, you know, I know Curly's

motion has changed a little bit over time since when I was there, but there are principles

of We like to try to incorporate some backscreens and I remember setting a lot of backscreens

for coach back in the day. Certainly defensively, I think there's probably some principles.

Nate, it's probably, you know, I get mixed up sometimes in my head of what comes from my

high school playing days and what comes from my college playing days and my coach, they're

both we're running motion, all of us are playing 90 for 5 % man-to-man defense. Which I think

has been beneficial for me as a coach to develop and get better at too. So as, as coaches,

how, how much did you get to watch the last couple of years of Junia? Do you get to watch

the games quite a bit or, or how much do you get to see them? Occasionally I'll tune in.

It's harder. mean, Nathan landmarks got a paywall, think. Right, Nate? Yeah. No, yeah. We've

been over that one. Yeah. I mean, he's got three kids at home, so he's a lot busier than me.

I remember when the paywall came up. I want to say I didn't for like the first year or

two and then I couldn't stay away and I've bought it the last couple of years and my subscription

in March, pick it back up in November. I'm with you on that. That sounds familiar. You

would, you would think that maybe coach would get us all some kind of access, you know, with

his deal, his big deal with the close sports. NIL something with that. Come on. We'll work

on that. But have you guys, have you guys sent any players up to the coach for to play Juniata?

These guys were instrumental. So Mark, played at central York and so he started the lineage

and that's Evan Eisenhart, Gabe Giddinger. So they've helped us with a number of guys,

anybody from New York area, we're in pretty constant contact. So these guys have been great.

Yeah. I mean, I honestly, in 10 years at West York, I've only had up until now, to three

kids that I thought could even really play at the college competitive level, you know, to

even. And there's one or two guys where I'm like, eh, I don't think it would be a good

fit. I don't, you I'm not going to tell coach someone I don't think it'd be a good fit. Now

I have two guys now that are, that are, that are legit D three college players that I think

would be a good fit. Um, but it's tough. mean, people don't realize how good D three basketball

is at times. It's not like I have a D three guy on my team every year. You know, we're

just kind of fortunate right now. do. That's a great point. Yeah. So if you had to give

any advice to some of these guys, know, we've had a young team the last couple years. We're

starting to see some come together, some gel. What kind of advice do you give these guys

going into this season to really start bringing it together? I think we got a chance here.

I think we got a chance to make a little bit more of a run than we've had in the last couple

years. Completely agree. Markey, you want to start that one? I can leave that off, I

guess. mean, watching the team play and stuff like that. Last year and in previous years,

I know it's been such a young group last year. What did you have coach two or three juniors?

Most of your rotation was freshmen and sophomores, right? So I mean, the biggest thing I would

say from my time up there is if I could change one thing about my career, it's the amount

of time I spent in the gym outside of practice hours. and continuing to develop your game

and continuing to do all the right things to work on your game as an individual so that

when you come into practice, you've gained extra skills and you can be more ready to go on top

of what you're already doing in practice. We talk about that with our players all the time.

We work out our guys during the summer three times a week. We'll have summer league games

two, three nights a week. And we tell them constantly, like, if you're sitting around not practicing

and not getting better, somebody else is. And I think that holds true at every level of basketball.

So I think if I had to give one thing, that would probably be my one. mean, for me, I know

they're going to work hard. mean, that's just going to be a staple of coach Curly's program.

It's the guys are going to work hard in the fall and in in the season is, is, know, if,

I don't know the team as well that Nate does, and I'll check in the box scores pretty much

regularly to see how they're doing. No, but if they, if they do have a good bit of pieces

coming back, then it's, it's to me, it's confidence and belief in themselves, you know, to take

the next step is confidence in, in who they are as a group. You know, without that, it's,

you know, you're kind of limited. Good advice. Very good advice. You guys about West York

and the season they just had and how it's built the last few years. So from the next few,

what you expect coming into this year? Especially this run you went on this past season. What

do I expect for this year? Let's talk about the run this past year and how we got here

in the last couple of years and how it's developed. What do you expect next? We just had a really

cohesive group of kids. You when you talk about like. We don't get to recruit. So the pieces

don't always fit together. You know, we've had years where we had a point guard, Terry's ACL

in football and missed the whole season. now we got a guy playing point guard who's not

a point guard. You know, we're just making do this year's team. Everything fit. You had a

great point guard, great shooting guard, great wing, great foreman, great center, and two

great players off the bench that can back up what they need. So it really fit well. We

knew we had talent. You don't know how good you're going to be though. Um, the run we had,

never would have expected. I thought we could win, make a run at winning our district championship,

which is a pretty big deal. We have a big district three is huge. We, got lost a close one to

Hershey to get to the district championship the year before. And we kind of made it an

emphasis to get past them this year. Cause they're their best player was still coming back. He

was very, very good. And we ended up seeing them in the same game, the semifinal at their

place again. to try to get to the district championship. And this time we were able to beat them on

their court. was hard. mean, was sketchy at times. We were leading the whole game, but

they made a run. And then, you know, we played Milton Hershey in the district championship,

who's rivals with Hershey. And we probably played our best game all year. And we won by 25 basically,

I think it was in the end. So now you go into states and you got to kind of reset and state

playoffs. It's, you know, we just. We just played at this level where you win a district championship

by 25 and you you don't know what's going to happen after that. And the first game was shaky.

You know, we played Ringgold from Pittsburgh area. Oh yeah. They were actually, I think

up one or two at halftime on us. That was the last time we trailed the whole state playoffs.

We found a way to win that game and then kind of kept starting to play a little better as

we went. still don't think we ever played as well as we did in that district championship

state championship game. were playing Bond or Fendergrass, like you mentioned, but that,

you know, they're, they're a a private school from the Philly Catholic league. recruit guys,

you know, we were up one at halftime and then, you know, just kind of eventually, you know,

they have, they have two D one guys, know, one guy's getting, you know, starting to get some

big time D one looks that's coming back for them. And, and, eventually I think talent

war, talent won out in that game. know, you bring up an interesting point though. I just

talking to somebody about this the other day, cause I, I'm in the state of Maryland and they

keep private schools and public schools very separate. In Pennsylvania, you play them all,

right? What do you think about that? Because that's kind of interesting that they're out

there recruiting, you, as you said, can't recruit. It almost doesn't seem right. It's not quite,

you know, it's not cool. We're not complaining about it or anything. Like we thought we could

win the game or we had our guys believe we could win the game. But in the end, you know, it's

not a quite equal playing field, especially with the Philly Catholic league that's now

in our playoffs, you and you run into one of them, you know. They got guys that are going

D1. I found out this summer that the team we lost to their top seven players are all from

Delaware. They're not even from Pennsylvania. know, and it's my guys have gone to West York

their whole lives. There is a bill right now though in the state house in Pennsylvania to

separate into what they're going to call, you know, boundary and non boundary schools. it

passed the house. think it's in the PA state Senate, maybe, you know, more open to passes.

to give at least our PIAA the power to separate it. That was always the thing is the PIAA didn't

think they had the power or they would get a lawsuit if they tried to separate it. So if

there can be legislation in place to separate it, you know, maybe we'll see that down the

road, you know, but we don't run into too many in the regular season. I won't really typically

schedule playing anybody that's not a public school pretty much, but then in the States,

even in the district playoffs like Milton Hershey that we beat, that's non boundary. mean, Oh,

that's non-boundary school too. Okay. Yeah. mean, their kids come from all over the country.

It's, know, whatever. Not that they're recruiting, but that's where they come from. My thought

on this is this, if you want to pass it on to legislation, I've always thought they should

have a public and private, whatever you want to call it, non-boundary boundary, declare

a champion and then have those two champions play. Because I think that at least you get

a champion and you get to see what would really happen. I think it could do that. It'd just

be an extra week. it's, it's the state gets so big that like, you're bringing a school

from Philly and you could be bringing a school from Pittsburgh to play a game. Yeah. You know,

in Hershey, then you might have to try to do it all over again. I do think they could do

that though. And I think that'd be fun. People would like that. I think it'd be fun. Yeah.

Play all the games in the middle of the state somewhere in Harrisburg or wherever Hershey

and go from there. Yeah, totally agree. Are you in on that biz? Maybe you can get that

passed. I'm not a Pennsylvania resident. I'm in on, well we get. our football wise, our

high school here in North Allegheny, they kick butt all year and then they get run up against

St. Joseph's prep. Right. And it's the same damn thing as basketball, man. mean, they got,

you know, out of what, 22 starters, like 16 are going D1. It's like a tri-state recruiting.

It's, yeah. That's crazy. It is crazy. All right. I got to get to the question. I'm very

interested in hearing from both of you now. Two different eras. You said you already, you

already go back and forth on this. You got a name. You're starting five, your top five in

school history. Any era from your perspective. Who do we start with? We'll start with the

older guy. We got to start with bull. I got, I got to go. I got to go with my roommate first.

You know, I mean, you better put him on there. You'll hear immediately afterwards. Even though

I will rag on him at times, you know, I'll get a text or a call if I don't take him number

one. So we're going back and forth here. Do you want me to keep going? Oh, we're to go

back. We can go back and forth. All right. We could go cannon on both sides. Oh, wait. So

it's like a draft. I can't. Yeah, we're going to draft. We're changing the rules here. I

like this guy. So it's like a snake draft. Yeah. All right. So do I get two or one? You get

two. All right. All right. Yeah, I'll take, give me Seth Brewer and Marcus Lee. I played

with them for two years and they did all right. So Brewer and Lee, we Cam on this side. Oh,

you two bull. Am I allowed to take one that he took as well? It is our top five, right?

We're making the rules up as we go here. So, uh, what do you think, Benz? Oh, you're the

PI. Don't worry coach, you can do it every year. Yeah. Yes. You can take, you can take his place.

I'd probably take, I'd probably take Lee too. You know, the pair with Canon, you know, I've

let them play together. We always compare the two. Why not play them together? Why not have

a true center? man, this is, is good stuff. Cause I mean, I play with a lot of good players

and then it just watched the other guys, you know, so it gets tricky. Um, I'll go with

my point guard and I play with Kyle Opitz. I'll let him, I'll, go with Opitz at the point guard

spot. I like it back to Markie. Alright, I think I'm gonna have to take Cannon too, based on

all the stories down the years. I'll have to take him. And then I will... I'm gonna go out

on a whim here. I'm gonna go out and take a pick-up legend. I remember there was times

where he was unguardable in pick-up games. Give me Trevor Clune. How's that? Wow. He was unbelievable

in pick-up games. I Any moment. The name is not so... That is the first time we've heard

him on the, the starting five. He was a senior when I was a freshman. So he was 17. All right.

think that pick would go back to bowl to finish off his round out his five. got Canon Lee and

pick there. Just wrap this up for me though. That, that, you know, so my five will be better.

I got to go. All right. Yes. So, All right. And I'm going to go one that Nate doesn't know.

I didn't play with them, but he would come back to alumni games. You know, he was a pretty

good player. I'm going with Craig Biller. Oh yeah. Biller. Curly, what'd you coach him?

One That's a five. All right, Mark. got to end, you got to round out your five. You got Brewer,

Lee, Cannon and Gloon. Okay. Give me, uh, let me think here. You need an off guard. Why don't

you give me Damon Rickens? He can shoot it. I'll take him. Rickens. I like it. You take

yourself, Nate. Carly, who wins in a matchup I'm going get a lot of friends in this podcast

today. There's going be a lot of people that not on this list that are going to be best.

It's individual. It's all right. Ben, who you got in this matchup? I got to go with Coach

Bull on this one. you know, although if it's a pickup game, I don't know. I don't know.

like, I like Brewer and Rickens on that. Rickens on that of the team. Rickens is, yeah. Yeah.

I like it. That's two good teams. We're to end with this. If you can give one piece of advice

to coach going into what, what year are we going into currently? This is the 25th, right? 26

years at one place. If you give them any advice going into his 26th year, what are you telling

them? You know, I think if you got a A solid team coming back. You like your guys coming

back. You need to go back old school. Are we running miles still at 6 a.m.? Are we doing

hills? Do they have to get the mile on 530? And if they don't, they got to run it again

after practice once preseason starts. are we still doing all that stuff? Very happy to know

we brought it here. So, yes, right now our guys should, if they're listening to this,

we should be tracking where we are. Yeah. At some point the fall, we'll ask what you've

been doing all summer, right? So we'll see what they're going to be doing here. When

will their first, uh, recorded time run timed run occur? Uh, whenever our first day is trying

to conditioning is it's trying to be six days. Second day back is we might have to be there

with the stop stopwatches. You know, I think I still think we need to like get in on this.

What I got to a five, five minutes. no. God, no. Like we get double or half of what they're

doing. I'll take double. Well now double. time in the mile, but if they're lifting or pushups,

we have to do half of them. All right. We're college athletes. I'm 50 years old now. a

little older. Bull always made it. The point guard on his dream team had a hard time, but

Bull always made it. No, never worked with him. to do this down in the Oca Trina ever again,

but that's all right. You never made it for real? You were 5'75"? No, was close. Kyle

used to get so mad, he'd just, you know, can't, I'm never gonna make this, what the hell does

this have to do with me putting the ball in the basket? I can still do that. So what's

the penalty if you don't make What's the penalty if you didn't make it? Keep running until we

decide you're in shape? Yeah. After we've already started real practices. This is not like, you

know, you don't make it the last day of fall before real practice to start. You keep doing

it, you know, until he thinks we're in shape. So he thinks you're in shape. All right. This

is like, this is like miracle asquerade. Yeah, I kind of like it. All right, Mark, what do

you got? I would just say the biggest thing for me is just finding the enjoyment in the

daily process. I think coach does a pretty good job of that already, but that's one thing I've

found since I've started coaching that kind of keeps me going is just finding the enjoyment

and going to practice every day. And I know coach loves that already, but that's kind of

my piece. That's pretty good. Coach, you got any words for these guys? I just want to know

how proud we are of those guys. It's for everybody here that they're doing it together. That is

cool. So having that kind of success and what they mean in that community, the impact that

made there. So we're just all proud of, I don't, I think these guys, like I said, they brought

me with our program and obviously carried that forward to what they're doing. And I think

we probably provided them, but you know, for those guys touching us and being a part of

our program and then success they've had together, it's really, really cool. And we're all just

really proud of it. Thank you, coach. I love it. It's very admirable that you guys, you

guys are doing this together at a high level. We got, got to be checking in with us every,

we'll be checking in with you every once in a while. See how the season goes and see what

happens this upcoming year. One last thing I've tried, I've text Bull about this repeatedly.

We need to get Markie a raise because he's clearly, he's clearly one of the top assistants in the

state. And I'm, I'm adamant about this. I just want to put this on record. Markie, I'm in

your corner. I think we need to get you a raise. Then ask him for years, Is coach trying to

poach here? Is he trying to poach? What's going on here? Oh no, we want them there. We just

want them taken care of appropriately. Hey, which does bring a question up. you guys,

aspirationally, do you want to, and I know this is a tough question to ask because you're

happy where you are, you're doing well. Aspirationally though, do you ever want to get into a college

level or go beyond what you're doing now? It's so different. People ask me that all the time.

I think because we had success this year in high school, that, you know, colleges are calling

me or something. I'm like, that doesn't happen. They want the guys that are coming out of

college, you know, grinding, you know, whether it's to make the, you know, D3 head coach or

to be an assistant at the D1. want, there's a thousands of guys that are trying to do that,

that, you know, played D1 basketball, you know. So that leap is just not really realistic.

I don't think. And most of the places coach you would know better, they, even to be a

coach, they want you to have five years assistant coaching experience before you can even apply,

you know, a lot of places. It's just not a realistic jump, especially with a family. Yeah. I guess

you're going to have to get into that grind when you're young of that, of being an assistant

and working your way up. Yeah. That was going to be my answer. I don't think either of our

lives, our lives and our wives would like that very much. We made that jump. Yeah. All right

guys. Well, hey, thank you. Garrett and Nathan. It's been awesome. We're going to be watching

for you guys all year long. Maybe you maybe you make it back for the alumni this game this

year. We'll, we'll, we'll see what we can, we can work out. Yeah. That's all, that's all,

that's all a Hager. We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll give him some suggestions though. Tell Hager

to send it out a little earlier. I can work on it here from, I, you know, try to free up

a Saturday for us. All right. So yeah, Hager, if you're listening to this, on Hager. You

got to get this out way more in advance. What do mean if he's listening? He better be listening.

He better be listening. Yeah. All right, guys, follow the show on Instagram at the Juniata

basketball show. Subscribe to the Juniata men's basketball show on Apple, Spotify, wherever

you listen to podcasts. on YouTube now too. So you can now watch this as well as listen

to it. Leave us a rating on Apple and spread the word Juniata Nation. I'm Tom Frank. I'm Biz.

And I'm Coach Greg Curley.

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