App State isn’t just a football school!

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Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Grainger. For the ones who get it done. Alright, now let's get back to talking about basketball. Dustin Kearns, the head coach at AB State.

Let me, let me read this for the masses, people. The, the Mountaineers, two more games left in the season, 14 and 2 in the league, 24 and 5 overall, with a home win over Auburn, swept second place JMU, and somehow like 30 spots behind them in the net. I don't understand the net at all. Coach, how you doing? I'm doing great. It's great to be on the fan.

And I think we've got the most wins in the state of North Carolina. You do. You do. Should we have it in time? I want to throw that in there too. No, let's throw it. Let's pile all of it in here. I am here for it. We, maybe what we should do is have an all North Carolina, like in-season Jamboree basketball tournament. Let's do it. I'm sure you'd, you'd be thrilled.

What is it? What is it like? Do you have to get permission at a football school to have a great basketball program? Well, I like to think that we're at every school, right?

You guys are great. Yeah. And I think that not only is basketball, but you know, certainly we've had other sports join the party as well.

And I think similar to what, like in Alabama is done with Oats. I think that with Rick Barnes at Tennessee, Billy Donovan, sir did in Florida, like we, I think we've certainly shown we can be good at, good at everything. And like I said, whether it's baseball, softball, women's tennis, whatever it may be, volleyball, women's basketball, like I think that we, many of us can succeed here at App State.

Dustin Kurtz is joining us here, the head basketball coach at App State. Two games left in the regular season, one win will wrap up the regular season title. Is that something of significance in the bigger leagues? It's become less so, it's more of a, I don't know, like a little bit of a feather because if you win a bigger league in the regular season, you're definitely going to go to the NCAA tournament. Obviously, it might not be the same for the Sunbelt. What are your thoughts on the regular season championship of the Sunbelt?

Well, I think it's a big deal, right? I think anytime when you go, when you're trying to achieve something that's over 18 games. Now, we need one more, I think, to be the one seed. And so the last time App State was the one seed in the Congress term was 1979. You know, the, the, the, the Socon used to be a North South, right? And App State has won the, quote, North division, but we're at a 14 team league. It's one, there is no East or West in basketball like there is in football. So achieving something like that would be a big deal, especially when it's nine road, nine home, like everybody's got to go through the gauntlet.

And that would be a big deal, I think, for our program. How is the Sunbelt? Because it's, it's no longer this quaint, the Socon was so quaint and all that. It's no longer that. You're, you're stretched out everywhere. Has the Sunbelt been a benefit to App State basketball?

Let's stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. I think so. I think the Sunbelt is, you know, as far as a brand, when you get to not only, I think the basketball continues to rise, but Sunbelt football being on national television every week. Now our basketball league, we were getting national TV games as a league. Baseball is outstanding. Volleyball I think got four at large bit. So I think as a league, and I could keep going in other sports, the, the exposure, the visibility now that we get in different States across all the way to Texas, but up to Virginia, West Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia. All of maybe, I think that the Sunbelt has been a great for, for app state. And, and, you know, as far as, you know, like I said, exposure nationally television wise in all sports, but also it's just, it's extremely competitive. And, and that's kind of at the end of the day, that's the kind of league you want to be a part of, right?

That perception wise is very competitive and got really good brands. And I think that's what the Sunpost got right now. I mean, I think if you think about what the Sunbelt has been in maybe the last 15 or so years, you've had, you've seen schools like Western Kentucky played in the Sunbelt go, go fairly far. Arkansas Little Rock was, you know, those schools have had a really good tournament runs and maybe you guys can add your name to that list of schools that get to the NCAA tournament and cause absolute heartache for, for so many programs. Yeah, we've still got some work to do as we know before that, but I do think that we've got a really good team and I think that we've been consistent, you know, you know, once again, we beat Auburn. Auburn's going to be probably a two seed in the tournament, but like we've backed that went up with other really good wins.

And so I think that we've got a really good team and we've got, you know, but our focus right now is really on Old Dominion on Wednesday and trying to finish strong in conference. Was there a court storming when you guys beat Auburn? There was.

Yeah, there was. How do we feel about it? I personally, I don't think you can ban it. I think it's actually part of what separates college basketball from the NBA. I think it's, I think it's fine. I'm not, I'm not anti-court storming. How did you guys handle it? You know, it, it, it, that's the first court storming we've had in, in, in the home center 23 years. And I don't know about the other arena, but I know there'd never been a court storming in the home center in 23 years.

It went great. Right. I think it's really unfortunate what happened, you know, this weekend with, with, with Duke, but it's, it, there's field storming and football. Like what, like there's court, like it's just, it's part of college athletics and the students, like we all want students coming to the games. We all want students to be into it.

Part of that is the experience of our students. And I think it's really unfortunate. Right.

What happened? I don't think that's the first time something like that has happened. Right.

I think I don't have the solution, right. Other than, I think that there's been positive stork cormings, court stormings across the nation. This is, this is not a isolated incident, but it's not a common one either. You know, and so I don't, it doesn't happen all the time.

But, you know, certainly it's a, it's a, it's, it's a, it's a bad deal. I just, it's kind of like shaking hands with him, the game, right? Like you could evaluate that to the handshake line, you know, do we eventually just go NBA style and wave at each other?

All right. Like we all did during COVID because there's instances in the handshake line, we could have this same conversation with when do we call in the handshakes, right? Like, because there's, there's, it's emotional, you know, and, and, and there's, I mean, that's a, but like, my point is like, there's part of college athletics, there's part of the game that you can have these conversations day in and day out, day in and day out. And I don't know if there's an absolute right or wrong solution because you want your students to quote in your players to have that experience. You don't want the opposing team to have a quote injury or a bad experience, right? Fortunately for us at Auburn, our students stormed the court. Our security, our people here did a really good job of getting Auburn off the court.

But, and so it wasn't, there was no, you know, bad experience, but like, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't know. Other than I think the. Without the ones like you who work tirelessly to keep things running, everything would suddenly stop. Hospitals, factories, schools and power plants.

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Call click Grainger dot com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. There's I don't know, you know, there's there's a lot of things can be evaluated, obviously. I mean, obviously it's it's a terrible thing that we saw and we've had the conversation about and I don't believe we should end the handshake. I think we should be able at the end of a game, no matter how contentious it's become, to be able to put that all aside and be, you know, even though we're young people, be grown ups and move on. And obviously there are times where it doesn't happen that way. And that's those are those are the outliers, not the where we just we cross and we shake hands and we move on. You know, the incidents are the outliers. It's important to note that.

And I think that with court storming as well. So let's move the big issues to the side. Let me ask you about the environment at the home center. Has anybody put up T-shirts, you know, printed T-shirts?

There's no place like homes. No, I haven't seen that shirt, but that could take it. That's a great idea. Take it free. You should take the credit for it. That's a great one. That's that's a great idea.

So what is the environment like? You know, I think we're on pace to set an attendance record if we already haven't, you know, which is great. And I think that our students in our community have really got out supported this team and which I think our team has earned. And so it's really helped us. It's helped us win a lot of games. It raises the level of our team and hurts our opponent. So, you know, I think that it's it's a big part and we keep building and building.

We've had the third and fourth most biggest crowds, I think, in in the home center history in 23 years. And I feel like that those people are there just to see App State, which is which is very important, right? Like it if we can keep developing that, hey, listen, App State's playing versus who we're playing. That's that's the biggest thing.

Dustin Kearns, head coach, App State, before we let you go, because we're, you know, two games left in the regular season. Then there's the conference tournament. And we understand how much work there is to be done. And fans can think about whatever.

And Dopes like me who talk on the radio for three hours a day. And by the way, shout to ESPN, Asheville, where you can listen to this. The you know, we we have to sit here and speculate and talk about what we think is going to happen. But the truth is, you know, and the players know, but how do you keep them focused on, man, everything we have done to this point?

Twenty nine games will only, you know, bear fruit if we stay focused on the next two, three, four, five, six. Yeah, it's it's it's easier said than done, right? Yeah, I think that that's the reality of it. But I really think that, you know, our guys know. And so it's not something that we talk about a lot.

I don't think we have to talk about it. I mean, they know they know what's going on. And so I think that the more we would talk about it with being make it a bigger deal. The other day, like I talked to our guys about like one day at a time approach process oriented.

And the hardest part about doing that is actually doing it. You know, like March Madness. It's called March Madness for a reason.

Right. It's wild. It's wacky. It's crazy. And it's fun.

That's why I loves it. But like truly just staying in the moment and taking care. Like today, it's easier said than done to go and just focus today. But like the challenge to our guys is actually doing it, you know, and and just reminding them that like, hey, like this is the most important thing. And so be different and accept that challenge to truly stay in the moment because we can say we're doing it or we can actually do it. And, you know, this this reminders about that, like, hey, like that, that's that's got to be our focus. And I think just, you know, like I said, simple reminders there. But it's it's the position you want to like, we've earned we've earned these conversations. Yeah, which is great.

That's what you want. Like you mentioned the court storm. These are like the other day court storm is a compliment to your program, because if Duke is where Duke is, so people want to storm the court when they beat Duke. But at the end of the day, that's a compliment to Duke. Sure. Right.

Now, it's unfortunate what happened. But that is a that is a they earn that. And that's a compliment. Our guys have earned these conversations, which is a compliment. But we've got to be able to handle it right.

Just just stay in the moment. And like I said, like we can either say that or we can do it. And I challenge them to actually do it. And now I don't understand as we say goodbye, I don't even know whether or not I should say I hope they storm the court after beating App State one day. But I don't want you to lose.

So I'll have to think about that for the next time we talk and I'll have a better question about that. Well, it's great to be on here and, you know, really appreciate it. It's great to be on here. And as always, go my nearest take the stairs. You're talking directly to me there, I think. Thank you very much, Coach. Good luck on on Wednesday against ODU. I love your phrase, though.

No place like Holmes. I love it. That's a T-shirt. You can have it and you can take credit for it. I promise.

We'll put Adam Gold on it. All right. Thanks, man. Thank you very much, Coach. Dustin Kearns, head coach at App State. Very cool. Granger, for the ones who get it done.