I personally have taken an interest in is McNeice, a team that came out of out of nowhere out of western Louisiana. And they basically they walk away with their first March Madness victory ever.
After four appearances, they upset Clemson yesterday at 69 to 67. And there are so many crazy stories coming out of McNeice, you know, thinking about their head coach, Will Wade, who formerly was the head coach at LSU. Thinking about their equipment manager, Amir Khan, who is just like a global internet celebrity right now. This man has, in a crazy sense, one of the he has deals with insomnia cookies. This guy has NIL deals with speaker companies.
It tells you the power of social media when you have someone who just is a kid. He's the equipment manager, like the cheerleaders out here wearing his socks. He's prime time.
He's big time. And I know every year we have we have somebody who steps up that's outside of the game. That's outside of basketball. Come on, everybody remembers Sister Jean. Sister Jean, God bless her, is 105 years old. I mean, we've stepped into a different place.
Sister Jean Loyola is not here. We're at a completely different space right now. And we have an Amir Khan, who's a student who walks out as deals with tick pick and college basketball is nice, right? Who would have ever thought that the equipment manager would have himself a deal? And even outside of someone like Will Wade, who's coming on, he's on his way out. And he's here with us, joining us. He covers McNeese.
He's done so for the past 15 years. Is Jim Gazzolo joining us live from Rhode Island. Jim, how are you? Doing good. How are you guys doing? Good. Thank you for the time.
Really appreciate it. We were talking about this crazy story that we've all witnessed to over the past couple of weeks. But this isn't anything new to you outside of all of the success. You've covered this team a long time. This has to be the biggest moment in the program history, no? Oh, probably the biggest moment in the school's history. No question about it. No, we saw some bad basketball for 15 years. Trust me, some bad basketball.
So when you think about what's going on right now, is everybody able to just kind of soak it all in? Because we all see the rumors about Coach Will Wade, you know, potentially moving on to NC State. Is everybody kind of pushed that to the side down in Lake Charles of how they've ignored it? Well, I think they've ignored it because they realized he was just a rental anyway. But the thing is, they took him in when no one else would take him in. And he came to us after two hurricanes when no one else would come to us. So there's kind of a mutual thing of he's not going to leave us dry, we don't think.
And, you know, when he goes, he's going to go. And that's, look what he's done for us now. Jim Gazzolo joining us from the American Press covers all things McNeese, basketball. When the season started, did you think that this was a possibility for the school? Yeah, I mean, based on what I saw them build on last year, I thought it depended on the seed. They were going to win the conference, there was no question about it. They have more talent than they had last year and they got to the NCAA tournament. But you really needed the right seed because they can't compete with everybody. There's a certain team they can't compete with. And like Gonzaga last year, an experienced team, but with size, McNeese only had one player that had ever been in the NCAA tournament.
He played like five minutes for TCU. This team now, he went out and he got some kids that were playing at majors that were coming down and it was kind of, can they fit together more? There's more talent here, but are they going to be a better team?
So yeah, I thought they had a chance if they got the right draw. Well, when you talk about some of that talent that's come in, America doesn't know who these guys are. I see Breed comes in from Providence and he's dropping points all over the place. Like who are some of the talents that we need to pay attention to as they play against Purdue next? Well, I think the big thing is Brandon Murray, who he had at LSU as a freshman, is a big time player. He's played at LSU. He's played at Georgetown. He's put numbers up. Sincere Parker has put numbers up.
He scored about 16 a game last year at St. Louis, which is a nice program. But they're not household names because they weren't on winning programs, so you didn't see them a lot. But they're good players. Now, are they Purdue type players? Are they Clemson type players? No.
As individuals, no. Collectively though, they've bought into this mentality of we're kind of here on a redemption tour. Our coach is here on a redemption tour. He's going to rebuild himself and get out of here.
We're going to rehabilitate ourselves and we're going to look for the portal. So that's kind of accepted. And I think that they've all worked for that goal. Jim Gonzalez joining us from the American Press covers McNeese Cowboys basketball. When you talk about that goal or the talent that they have in, how confident are you that they're going to be able to compete with Purdue tomorrow? They're pretty long and athletic. I would say Purdue's going to be, you know, Purdue's going to be the favorite. They're going to have to do the same things they did against Clemson, which is come out and play hard right away, try to jump on them and try to hang on.
That's kind of it. They're going to have to make shots. They did not make shots the other night. Their big three shooters were one for 15 from the floor. They can't do that again. They need production from guys like DJ Richards, Joe Charles, and the player of the year, Jevon Garcia, in the league.
He only had two points. You got to get more than that from your stars. But they do have the ability to compete athletically with the backup players, kind of the bench guys that come off the bench. And it's interesting to see they'll probably play more minutes if it's a competitive athletic game. But I think they can compete whether they can win or not.
I think two in a row would be a little much to ask for. Let me ask you this, Jim. I think even maybe bigger than any of the players and certainly more social media attention than the coach is the manager, Amir Khan. They have nicknamed this guy Auro. Is he as popular of a celebrity right now in Rhode Island as anybody?
More so. He got more media attention at the practice day than anybody. He's been on NBC News tonight. He's been on Good Morning America. He's been on ESPN. He's been all over the internet. It is amazing. He's a great kid.
I do a TV show, a local TV show down there once a week on movies. And he was a guest right off the bat after a hit. I did a story on him in the paper and I was like, this is a pretty funny story.
And then you get in and meet him and talk to him. And he's really got a funny story. He's actually a living on-campus legend when it comes to intramural sports. And that's the amazing thing. And so explain, explain please. Well, he's kind of a shorter guy, but apparently talking to some of the football players that were, they would have an intramural team that they would coach, their linebacker who was an All-American told me, man, that guy, that guy, that guy dropped three touchdowns on us in a playoff game.
And then I found out that in a, and then he dropped four threes to beat us in a basketball intramural game. Oh, wow. Okay. All right. Okay.
There's a little something for you guys. The Nationals don't know yet. Yeah. When are we, so when are we going to see some of the action? They're not going to throw them out onto the court, right? I don't think so, but you know, everybody's demanding it probably.
That's amazing. And so all things considered, he is, I mean, it's one thing to be an unknown and we've heard his story now for a few weeks. It's just now taking it to another level. All things considered, he's going to be able to handle all of this. I know he has marketing deals and whatnot. He's going to be fine with this attention, right? Yeah, I think so, because it is, he's a very well-grounded kid. He's a good student. He actually wanted to be a sports journalist when I did the interview with him.
And now he says, you know, maybe the coaching thing is in it for me because we'll wait for the kind of a GA job wherever he goes next year I hear. But yeah, I think that they could handle it because they're all kind of this vagabond group of guys that have come from different places and blended together. Didn't know each, you know, half of them didn't know each other last year and they've all kind of blended together in this town that accepted them and said, yeah, come here for a year and we'll see where we go. Hey, it sounds like the modern era of college basketball. Let's just slap everybody together for one year and see what happens. Knowing the success that McNeese has had, not just last year, but this year, and even thinking about a lot of the changes that you just described that we know are inevitable. Is there even a thought to sustaining some of this success into the future or is it just like, you know what, let's just go along for the ride? Is there something to be built off of this into the future? Yeah, there is because they have because of the hurricanes and that they have nicest arena in the league. They have a very good and I think they're like fourth or fifth and mid majors in NIL deals. I know some of that is well weighed, but he has he has told me because he loves the town so much. He's told me that he will not abandon McNeese no matter what and that he will set it up with players. He will always help McNeese players and I think we're probably, if I'm not mistaken, and I don't read the feelings wrong, I think one of his better assistants at LSU is going to be the next head coach.
So I think that everything will be set up to where there is some sustainability. At what level? I don't know because you're never going to get the seven footers here, but I think there is on their level.
I think it'll be more on a south wind conference dominance level compared to the national thing, but I think they will be able to sustain something. Hey, that's always a good thing. We always get a lot of stories.
We get a lot of teams that that hit. They're here today. They're gone tomorrow.
We never see from them or hear from them again. Certainly, everybody is loving this story of the McNeese Cowboys. Hey, Jim, I appreciate the time you joining us here on the Infinity Sports Network.
Where can people follow you and all of your work? Americanpress.com and cbslakecharles.com for the TV show. Jim, enjoy the time up in Rhode Island. Have a great time. We'll be paying attention tomorrow.
It's an early one, basically a noon start 1210 McNeese in action against Purdue. Enjoy the time out there, Jim. Okay. All right.
Thank you. No doubt about it that Jim Gazzolo covers all things McNeese. He's been covering the team for the past 15 years. I mean, they have made four appearances in the NCAA tournament. Yesterday was their first victory. They were eliminated in the first round last year.
This year, we've seen that they've advanced and knocking off Clemson and they are one hell of a story. We just heard this. I mean, their manager is just, he's all over the place.
Aura walking around. He got the speaker on his neck. He got marketing deals. What equipment manager? What team manager do you know that has a marketing deal? Welcome to 2025.
The managers I used to know, they used to mop up sweat. They had no marketing deal coming with that. And we live in a, you live in a totally completely new era and there's nothing wrong with that. Let's see what McNeese does tomorrow against Purdue. I'll be rooting for them. I don't know if people's brackets, well, they already busted. So I guess it doesn't matter at this point.
