18.9

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, welcome to episode 2 of season 2 of The Staredown. I am Mallory, your host and today's episode is 18.9

[00:00:09] If you've been living under a rock then you probably have no idea why it's called 18.9

[00:00:14] But you know we're gonna talk about it. So sit back

[00:00:18] Relax grab a drink or two and listen to the staredown

[00:00:30] All some say thanks for joining me today

[00:00:35] We've got a couple of big things to talk about and then a topic that I want to introduce that I

[00:00:41] Will be honest. I didn't have enough time to dig into it and be able to do it justice

[00:00:46] So it will be a special topic coming up in the next episode, but first and foremost

[00:00:54] Shout out to the South Carolina Gamecocks

[00:00:57] those ladies went in

[00:00:59] made up for their loss last year to Iowa in the final four and

[00:01:04] Destroyed Iowa to take home the championship this year. It was such an incredible game

[00:01:10] In fact, the entire final four all weekend was just really really good

[00:01:16] I can't remember the last time I saw that many basketball games that were that high quality

[00:01:23] So much fun

[00:01:25] you

[00:01:26] You know get to see

[00:01:28] Angel and

[00:01:29] Angel reason unless you take on Iowa

[00:01:32] You get to see then like I said South Carolina get a little bit of revenge on Iowa and

[00:01:38] South Carolina finished the season 38 and oh their last loss was to Iowa like I said last year in the final four so a

[00:01:46] Lot of a lot of credit has to go to Don Staley

[00:01:50] Because she lost actually all five starters from last year and went and rebuilt the team

[00:01:55] And they just went on to win and I mean and guys it wasn't like they won

[00:02:00] I mean they dominated. I mean you don't you don't go undefeated and not dominate

[00:02:05] That's just a whole other level of

[00:02:09] Stardom of goat-ness so to speak but no, I think all the arguments about Don being the goat

[00:02:16] She's she's definitely making her way up there

[00:02:18] I think she's done an incredible job with the program

[00:02:21] Overall and I'm excited to see kind of where they continue to go because again like I said

[00:02:26] She's proven that she doesn't have to keep the same squad to show results

[00:02:29] So it's gonna be fun watching Don kind of grow that program and also helping

[00:02:34] You know to grow the game and talking about Caitlyn Clark

[00:02:37] I know there's been a lot of discussion about

[00:02:40] Everyone saying oh well

[00:02:41] She could never be considered the greatest of all time

[00:02:44] Unless she did win a championship in college and even some WNBA players were saying it Don Staley actually even said it

[00:02:51] That yes, she would need to win

[00:02:52] But I thought that Don going out and shouting her out and

[00:02:55] Making sure in her post game interview that she told her like what an impact and what an incredible job

[00:03:00] She had done helping bring even more attention to the game and helping continue to grow it

[00:03:06] I thought that was really really good

[00:03:08] You know it it just goes to show that women can be competitive

[00:03:14] But it

[00:03:16] That's all it is. It's competitive like we fix each other's crowns and even to like to South Carolina's

[00:03:24] Credit earlier in the year when Ole Miss played them Marquisha Davis fell and her wig fell off and

[00:03:32] Both teams crowded around her shielded her while she fixed her wig

[00:03:36] The ref went over and told Don what was going on and Don just was like oh, okay

[00:03:40] And nobody said anything about it

[00:03:42] And so that's kind of the whole spirit that I think you see out of all of these women and the narrative is you know

[00:03:49] Try to turn into pitting us against each other and pitting these athletes against each other

[00:03:53] And that's just not the case then I think you you did see that even like I said in the last episode with Angel and

[00:03:59] Caitlyn saying that they don't hate each other. I think that's just a really good

[00:04:03] Message to get out there is we don't

[00:04:05] We don't hate each other. We don't like each other. We don't have to be besties, but

[00:04:09] We're gonna be competitive and we all love the same sport and so I think that's just kind of the message that you see going out

[00:04:15] There and I love it. It's it's been great for the game

[00:04:18] I I'm very excited to see kind of where women's basketball continues to go

[00:04:24] I am interested to see if there is

[00:04:27] Fall off in the women's college game in terms of viewership

[00:04:32] Because there is no Caitlyn Clark next year, but I don't even if there is them fall off

[00:04:37] I don't think it's going to be that big because you do still have some up-and-comers like a juju

[00:04:43] Like a pal pal you have those girls that are still gonna be out there and they're gonna be competing and

[00:04:49] I think that they're going to continue to just show what stars they are and how brightly they burn and so I think

[00:04:57] Like I said if you do see a drop off, I don't think it's gonna be huge

[00:05:00] It's definitely not gonna be as big as the men's game drop off was and so obviously today's episode

[00:05:06] It's called 18.9 and that's because there were 18.9 million viewers for the women's game

[00:05:12] That's a lot of people that was the largest

[00:05:16] basketball game ever for ESPN

[00:05:19] ever ever and since

[00:05:21] 2019 that is the largest

[00:05:24] Like crowd I get well not crowd viewership

[00:05:27] it's the largest viewership for a sporting event outside of football and the Olympics because come on I mean you can't

[00:05:34] really compete with

[00:05:35] A worldwide event like the Olympics and even the Super Bowl

[00:05:38] I mean the Super Bowl has even become such a worldwide event now. So yeah, absolutely

[00:05:44] Incredible job one of the things that I saw on Twitter was that it's not that these women haven't always been there

[00:05:51] And it's not that the game hasn't always been this good

[00:05:53] It's that they're finally now getting the opportunity to show the world and to show

[00:05:58] people how good they really are so thank you ESPN for finally catching up and

[00:06:05] Giving them their spot. I mean they deserve it

[00:06:08] They've worked just as hard and you know like I said this this game the women's game

[00:06:13] It's so good and they are so good and I absolutely love to see it. So shout out to all of the teams

[00:06:21] That made it to the to the March Madness tournament for the women's side

[00:06:25] It was exciting probably the most I've been involved in a March Madness tournament in a very long time

[00:06:32] I meant or women's the game is just from top to bottom or were great. So hats off to all of you ladies

[00:06:38] Speaking of March Madness though, obviously Yukon repeated

[00:06:42] There's also been you know some shake up in the men's basketball world with the Calabari going to Arkansas from Kentucky

[00:06:48] But that's not the big news guys. The big news is is I won a

[00:06:55] bracket and

[00:06:56] I finished fourth

[00:06:58] At my new job in their bracket contest so whoo whoo shout out to key finders group for hosting a local for their clients

[00:07:07] So I'm excited. I did take top prize in that you're welcome as I text

[00:07:14] Blake my friend who is part of keyfinders

[00:07:19] I was like I was kind of shocked and he was like I wasn't I was like, oh, thanks Blake

[00:07:23] That makes me feel good

[00:07:24] But then it was kind of cool going into a new job and you know only being there for a couple of months

[00:07:29] And hey, did you guys know that I have a new job in case I didn't tell you enough on the last episode? Yeah

[00:07:33] I have a new job and

[00:07:35] So going into that and there were over

[00:07:38] 230 people I believe and I finished fourth so not not bad for a newbie, right?

[00:07:42] I was really excited. So that's kind of cool. I can maybe buy me some new shoes

[00:07:48] Since I've decided I'm gonna become a sneakerhead

[00:07:50] I don't know if you're still allowed to become a sneakerhead if you tell everybody you're going to be but I just did so whatever

[00:07:57] But no, it was a lot of fun doing that. I was very excited. It's always fun to win

[00:08:01] but do

[00:08:03] the stair down actually had its own

[00:08:07] women's challenge tournament or tournament challenge and we actually partnered with my book club bully book club

[00:08:14] That I'm in if you've listened to episode two you heard Jamie and I talking about my bully book club

[00:08:19] They're amazing, but

[00:08:21] They wanted to do something and they wanted to support me in the podcast

[00:08:25] Which I thought was so sweet

[00:08:26] But they also wanted to support women because our book club is I believe all women and so they joined in on the stair down

[00:08:35] Women's tournament challenge and we ended up with like 21 participants total which I thought was amazing and so

[00:08:42] The lady who ended up winning it she on Instagram will just call her coach Deb

[00:08:46] She's a former I believe softball and basketball coach and she obviously knew her stuff. So shout out to coach Deb

[00:08:53] I came in third in that I felt like that was a little odd

[00:08:57] But I am still looking for the second and fourth place

[00:09:02] Winners because since I came in third, I'm obviously not going to award a prize to myself

[00:09:06] So if you know who the second and fourth place winners are please send them our way

[00:09:12] And I'll talk about that at the end how they can reach out to us because we definitely want to get them their prizes

[00:09:17] But coach Deb has already picked out hers. She's gonna be rocking a black

[00:09:21] sweatshirt and

[00:09:23] It's gonna have a stand-on logo on it

[00:09:24] So I appreciate you that for that and congrats again coach Deb

[00:09:27] And that's all I really want to talk about with the men's. I mean it was a great game, but

[00:09:32] Yeah, I won my tournament for the men's so hooray. I

[00:09:37] Did not do well in the taken on sports tournament challenge

[00:09:39] Though don't don't go ask don't go ask them what I did because it wasn't very good. So we just we're not gonna talk about that

[00:09:47] One last topic for today and then like I said, I'm gonna introduce the topic that is going to end up having its own dedicated episode

[00:09:54] But the last topic for today is my favorite thing is coming up this summer

[00:10:00] The Olympics they're going to be held in Paris and I am so excited because we now have

[00:10:06] Olympic trials US Olympic trials are about to start happening. There have already been some that have happened

[00:10:13] I think the rowing trials just finished up

[00:10:18] the

[00:10:20] The canoe slalom and kayak cross trials those are coming up actually this weekend in Montgomery, Alabama and Oklahoma City

[00:10:30] Wow, who knew?

[00:10:32] The wrestling trials will be in state college, Pennsylvania April 19th and 20th

[00:10:38] Then you have things like the Olympic badminton qualifiers

[00:10:42] They're gonna be published via world rankings on April 30th

[00:10:45] And then on May 11th the final US Olympic triathlon selection event that's gonna be in Yokohama, Japan

[00:10:50] And I want to talk about the triathlon selection event

[00:10:55] And I'll come back to the trial schedule here in a minute

[00:10:58] But the triathlon actually could be canceled over

[00:11:04] The water quality in Paris over the river scene and I know I'm probably butchering that but there was a

[00:11:12] sewer leak last year and so the water may not be safe. So they have

[00:11:18] So many days built in that they can actually push

[00:11:22] the Olympic event off

[00:11:25] but

[00:11:27] There it could be a decision to where there is no additional

[00:11:31] Place for them to swim and so the event would have to be canceled because it is part of the rules of the International Federation

[00:11:37] So that's really sad like I would hate that if that ends up becoming like a reality of you work

[00:11:42] So hard to go to the Olympics and then just kidding

[00:11:46] You can't even do a third of your event

[00:11:48] So that's really sad

[00:11:50] But one of the things in reading about this that I did find out that I think is cool

[00:11:54] Is that the opening ceremonies is actually going to be on the river as well

[00:11:57] It's going to be the first time it hasn't been held in a stadium. So I think that's gonna be really cool

[00:12:02] But yeah, I'm I am really sad

[00:12:04] I'm I'm very very sad that there's a possibility that they're not going to

[00:12:10] So we'll keep watching that but yeah back to the trial schedule. So

[00:12:16] Then you have the Olympic and Paralympic archery trials final stages in Newbury, Florida at May 13th and 14th

[00:12:23] May 6 or May 26 through June 9th is the front-end show pen the last event of Olympic tennis qualifying

[00:12:30] Obviously, that's in Paris

[00:12:32] June 7th through 20th the final team nomination period for all US Olympic cycling disciplines

[00:12:38] Then June 9th end of Olympic Beach volleyball qualifying period June 13th through 16th

[00:12:43] The US Open the last event of men's golf qualifying. That's going to be in Pinehurst, North Carolina

[00:12:49] Then this is also a really cool thing the US Olympic swimming trials June 15th through the 23rd

[00:12:55] They're gonna be held in Indianapolis and they're actually going to be held in Lucas oil stadium

[00:13:00] So they are actually going to put a pool in the middle of an NFL stadium

[00:13:04] And let them hold their trials there and I think that is so cool because

[00:13:10] You're having you have bigger stars that are still gonna be there. I mean and let's talk about it

[00:13:14] Katie Ledecky and she's gonna be there. I'm excited and she's finally gonna get the stage that she deserves a literal Olympic

[00:13:21] Or yeah, a literal Olympic pool and an NFL stadium. I just think that's so so cool

[00:13:26] Also from there we go into June 16th through the 23rd the diving trials in Knoxville, Tennessee

[00:13:33] And I love diving. I think it's so cool

[00:13:35] Especially when there's two of them and they're synchronized. That's always so fun for me

[00:13:39] And also how do they not make a splash?

[00:13:41] That's just incredible. I don't I don't get it, but it's science right? It has to be science, but it's still really cool then

[00:13:49] June 17th the final Olympic modern

[00:13:53] Pentathlon qualifiers will be published via world rankings June 20th through 23rd the KPMG women's PGA championship that will be in

[00:14:03] Samamish, Washington again guys

[00:14:05] I'm just not good at at saying these cities and rivers names today, and I didn't do enough research my bad

[00:14:14] Also, um

[00:14:16] Olympic

[00:14:18] track and field

[00:14:19] Eugene Oregon. I can't wait that's June 21st through the 30th and

[00:14:26] You guys like I just absolutely

[00:14:30] Love running. I love track and field

[00:14:33] It is so fun like the four by one the 100 and even though I'm a distance girl

[00:14:37] Like it's not a whole lot of fun to watch people run long distances. It's amazing because they look like they're barely

[00:14:45] Trying and their legs are you know, they look like gazelles

[00:14:49] but

[00:14:50] I love the sprints and especially I like I think I fell in love with it in the 96 olympics in atlanta where you had

[00:14:58] Michael Johnson

[00:15:00] and those guys under the big lights

[00:15:03] at

[00:15:05] At what ended up being turner field in atlanta and it was just so cool to see all of that

[00:15:10] So I I can't wait for the track and field events

[00:15:14] Cody will probably be spending a lot of time on the golf course that during those days because I will be watching them

[00:15:21] Then we go through there's some more judo qualifying June 23rd

[00:15:25] The olympic skateboarding qualifiers will be published via world rankings on June 24th

[00:15:33] Then we have the us olympic gymnastics trials in minneapolis

[00:15:37] And that's June 27th through 30th and that's going to be so cool because they're actually two past olympic all-around champions

[00:15:45] And this one could actually have three that are going to be bidding to make the team

[00:15:50] And so you have sunny lee you have Simone viles and gabby douglas and I think that's so cool because

[00:15:56] Gabby obviously ran

[00:15:58] One the all-around and sunny lee won the all-around

[00:16:02] So I think that's just going to be so cool. And then you throw in Simone viles and I mean like

[00:16:07] The us is stacked the us is stacked

[00:16:11] in

[00:16:12] women's gymnastics, so that'll be a ton of fun

[00:16:16] And yeah, that basically wraps up the olympic

[00:16:21] qualifiers

[00:16:22] Or the olympic trials for the us. There have already been some already

[00:16:28] The air gun

[00:16:30] For rifle it took place in january

[00:16:32] Selling trials have taken place the marathon trials have taken place

[00:16:37] um, so

[00:16:38] Oh surfing I forgot about surfing you guys and table tennis table tennis is done

[00:16:44] I'm pumped about that

[00:16:46] so

[00:16:47] uh, because it's like

[00:16:49] Forest gump but way cooler. I think um because it's real

[00:16:53] It's not somebody acting like tom hanks acting like forest gump, but no, I I think it's really cool

[00:17:00] Like I said the olympics

[00:17:01] I love them because you do get

[00:17:03] You want to talk about seeing the humanity of sports like you have people from

[00:17:07] All over the world coming to watch these athletes compete and some of these athletes and their stories

[00:17:13] Are absolutely like heartbreaking in the struggle they go through just to get there and to so you know

[00:17:19] To represent their country and do all that so I love the olympics

[00:17:23] So we'll definitely be diving into that a little bit more

[00:17:26] As the olympics get closer and as some of these things happen also to obviously the basketball trials

[00:17:33] Women's basketball. I know that you know like katlyn clark was invited to go be a part of the camp

[00:17:38] But she couldn't because she was playing in the final four

[00:17:40] So I'm interested to see kind of what the final team makeup of the women's team looks like it'll be really good to see that

[00:17:46] I I expect us to go and dominate yet again. So

[00:17:50] Team usa all the way

[00:17:52] All right

[00:17:53] so

[00:17:54] The last thing and like I said, this is really just kind of an intro into

[00:17:58] What's going to be its own whole episode and

[00:18:01] The only reason why i'm not really diving into it more this week is because I am going to need to do a lot of

[00:18:07] Research on it. I did kind of go down a rabbit hole, but last week or two weeks ago someone did submit

[00:18:14] um an episode topic and that is women coaching and reffing

[00:18:20] in sports

[00:18:21] Not just women's sports, but men's sports

[00:18:24] And there's been a lot of controversy about it

[00:18:27] There is someone who I just will not name but he was on a netflix

[00:18:32] show called last chance you

[00:18:34] And he has his own podcast and a few weeks ago. He posted some very

[00:18:40] Not nice things about

[00:18:42] Get the women out of the weight room. They shouldn't be coaching men. They don't understand how a man's body works

[00:18:49] just all kinds of

[00:18:51] horrible vile things and it honestly it pissed me off because

[00:18:57] that's like saying well

[00:19:00] I'm a female so i'm never going to go to a male ob g y m

[00:19:04] Or men should never become ob g y ms like

[00:19:07] You know that's that's a personal preference like some people some women may prefer men some may prefer women

[00:19:15] It doesn't matter but you know, that's kind of the whole thing and so

[00:19:18] But to say that like women don't understand men's bodies like especially when you're talking weight room come on like you

[00:19:24] There's it's anatomy you can study anatomy and like I said

[00:19:27] I know this is going to be a topic that I can dig a lot into but

[00:19:31] Even when you start thinking about it, there's only five

[00:19:35] female athletic directors

[00:19:37] in power five conferences

[00:19:40] There have been women who've coached men and done very well

[00:19:44] Becky Hammond comes to mind. She's now a coach in the wmba though. Um coach. Oh old mrs. Women's

[00:19:51] Head basketball coach. She was uh the first female coach of the behemian men's national team

[00:19:58] So you are starting to see more women stuff up

[00:20:02] But I think really where I kind of started going down the rabbit hole was

[00:20:08] You know to to that other

[00:20:11] person's point of you know

[00:20:14] Women don't understand men

[00:20:17] Then the counter argument for me is

[00:20:20] The men don't understand women, right?

[00:20:23] So why are there still so many?

[00:20:28] male coaches

[00:20:29] For female sports and so that's kind of the rabbit hole that I started going down

[00:20:33] And there's actually been a lot of research done and there are a lot of great organizations out there

[00:20:38] And I just didn't have time

[00:20:40] Due to some some things that are kind of happening in life

[00:20:43] To dig into it the way I want to but i'm going to so

[00:20:46] If there are any things that you want to see any sport specifically that you want me to dive into

[00:20:51] Hit me up, but I mean I feel like I'll probably end up focusing a lot on things

[00:20:56] Track and field's going to be one because there are some female

[00:20:59] Head coaches in the ncda that are head coaches for both men and women

[00:21:03] So I think that's a really cool thing to go down in a rabbit hole to study. I think

[00:21:08] Women's basketball and men's basketball too, like I said, you know with becky hamlin

[00:21:12] So basketball is going to be one softball

[00:21:14] Is going to be huge and baseball because two years starting to see more women coaching baseball

[00:21:19] In fact, I believe the giants the san francisco giants interviewed a female for their open

[00:21:26] manager position

[00:21:27] this past off season

[00:21:30] and then of course everyone's favorite football and

[00:21:33] I'm not even just talking like football like american football

[00:21:37] I'm talking like soccer too because you know

[00:21:40] You've seen it kind of with the u.s. Women's national team and even the men's team

[00:21:44] But you know one of the articles I pulled up

[00:21:47] Was talking about how moms are coaching like their sons

[00:21:51] Like little league teams like soccer wise and you know, I thought about that

[00:21:56] Why does it why is it always dad who coaches the softball team or that kind of stuff?

[00:21:59] So definitely going to have a whole episode dedicated to women coaching in sports

[00:22:06] And it it may even evolve into more but

[00:22:09] That's coming up. Um also megan and malary

[00:22:12] They were supposed to be on this week but due to some unfortunate things we're going to reschedule them

[00:22:16] But you'll be hearing from them soon talking baseball

[00:22:19] Like I said, I do still want to get a recap on spring training from them and kind of see what they think is going to happen over this season

[00:22:26] So on that note

[00:22:29] I'm going to be done with this episode for today. I've got some things I got to take care of

[00:22:33] the rest of today

[00:22:35] And this weekend and then I'm on work travel again. So

[00:22:39] I'll have time sitting in airports. So definitely hit me up

[00:22:43] You can find me on instagram at the stare down underscore podcast

[00:22:47] You can find me on twitter at the stare down pod

[00:22:51] You can email me at the stare down pod at gmail.com and you can find us on facebook at the stare down

[00:22:59] Stare down's all one word separate obviously from the

[00:23:03] Also the alamatek you can go to our website

[00:23:07] The alamatek.com and while you're there check out our new website

[00:23:12] Blaine went in and did some cool updates to it and he's also starting a newsletter. So be sure and sign up for it

[00:23:19] I hope this episode was done up real good for all of you guys out there and gals for everybody

[00:23:25] Let's just go with that. We should have everybody enjoyed this episode

[00:23:28] um and on that note

[00:23:31] Just remember life is very short be very kind to each other. You never know what's going on in someone's life

[00:23:37] um, so just just be kind and

[00:23:40] And uh leave the world and leave the day a little bit better than you found it

[00:23:46] And also sit back

[00:23:48] relax

[00:23:49] Grab a drink or two and thank you for listening to the stare down. Have a wonderful weekend. Howdy, howdy y'all. Bye

[00:24:00] You