Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're watching the Prep Rally Podcast.
Welcome to the Prep Rally Podcast. We have a really exciting podcast for you today. I'm your host, Sydney Mulvanen, here with omg. What is your name? Oh, my goodness, I just said it a few seconds ago.
Graham. Graham Thomas of Northwest Arkansas and Leland Barclay in the River Valley. I'm so sorry, Graham.
But anyway, we have a really great show for you guys today. We're first going to start with the play or game of the week, as I should say. And for in the Northwest Arkansas, that was Springdale versus Bentonville West. Graham, how was that game? What are the key takeaways?
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Well, I'll tell you what, Sidney.
Going into this matchup last Friday at Bentonville West, I thought it would be one of those really good high school basketball games because it had all the makings for it. Springdale was coming in unbeaten in league play. Bentonville west was unbeaten in league play. Really hot. It just come off with a big win with Springdale Harbor. And I tell you what, Springdale laid it on Bentonville West. It was a close game for a little while.
At the end of the first half, Springdale hit a couple of big three pointers to. To gap out the lead a little bit and then they really just overwhelmed Bentonville west. They the second half and rolled to a win. So, you know, sometimes these games may look good on paper and don't turn out to be, but I think it's more of a testament to how good of a basketball team Springdale is. Was able to visit with Bentonville west coach Trent Lloyd last night and just ask him about that game. And he said, you know, they are just so long and athletic and, you know, it really makes it difficult to.
To guard them. And because they're also long athletic on defense, he knew they'd have a difficult time score scoring and you know, Springdale was ready to go and they just, they just laid it on Bentonville west, so. And really kind of established themselves as the front runner in this league.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: I agree. I was really impressed watching Springdale. I think they just have that aggressiveness, especially on attacking plays. I mean, they can get close in the scoring with the other team. One of the things that I just noticed during that game was, I mean, they kept Bentonville west to a point less than they did against Heritage to 26 points, which I thought was impressive. But, you know, looking at that, who is somebody on Springdale that you think makes this team special?
[00:02:39] Speaker B: Oh, gosh, we, we can have a whole list of them.
You start off with The Arkansas Razorback signee, Isaiah Seeley. And then you think about DJ Hudson, who is just a junior. He was the sophomore of the year at Fayetteville and transferred over to Springdale. You got Jackson Conley, who transferred over from Springdale harbor, who is just a really tremendous guard. He can really get going and shoot the ball.
You know, you've got Malik Sosa, you've got Cy Baits, who we. You know, Leland interrupted me the last week on that one with the name that everybody liked.
You know, they just got a lot of. A lot of pieces, a lot of weapons, all the ingredients, as Leland likes to say.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I'm. I'm curious to see how they'll play against Fayetteville. That's going to be a big matchup for this Friday. And I mean, they both played Bentonville west during this past week, Springdale on Friday, Fayetteville last night. And one of the things I noticed is, you know, they kind of play similar in many ways. I think it'll be a really good matchup to see who can kind of pull away as the top here. Fayetteville. I kind of. I kind of nicknamed them the Silent Threat because they. It takes them a while to get started. Or at the same time, you know, when they played west at. In the fourth, they tied it up at 39 and then 41 and eventually broke away to win the game. But what I noticed with them is, you know, they are that silent threat. It takes them a while to get going, but once they do, you know, they're amped up. And so same with. Same with Springdale. But I think in that matchup, it's going to depend on who can be that threat first at the beginning of the game, because I think one way to win that game is to see who's going to play better at that same kind of playing style.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, and that's going to be a heck of an atmosphere. It should be, you know, I hope so. That's the old battle of the Bulldogs used to be, before harbor existed. That was Springdale's biggest rival, Fayetteville, you know, and I just saw Fayetteville and Bentonville west last night, like you mentioned, and Fayetteville looked like they were in complete control early. And then Bentonville west roared back and took the lead in the third quarter and led into the fourth.
Fayetteville then kind of rose up in the fourth quarter and won a tough ball game. And we had some video from coach Brad Stamps and Xavier Brown kind of explaining all of that.
So the Third quarter was not y'all's best work, but y'all were able to bounce back in the fourth quarter, get it back together and get a big win tonight.
[00:05:22] Speaker C: Well, that's what we just talked about. Graham was, you know, in the time, in the, between the quarters, we really talked about we can't change anything that just took place. We can't. But what we can do is respond. This is response time. Response time requires being locked in on both ends. Response time means we're together, we look like we're together. I felt over the course of the first two and a half hours, maybe, maybe a little disconnect for whatever reason. First time we've seen that. Okay, but the mark of a championship basketball team, or I would say even a veteran team like we are, responds with adversity.
[00:05:56] Speaker D: And we did that.
[00:05:57] Speaker C: We went 19 to nine in the fourth quarter against a well coached, good basketball team. I will take nothing away from Bentonville west performance because they had a lot to do with the way we played in fourth quarter.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Y'all got some. A bunch of defensive stops in a row. They were on 41 for quite a while, y'all. Xavier got the big basket to put your head. Free throws, put it away.
[00:06:17] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. And you know, that's one thing that I felt like. I don't know what we shot in the free throw line down the stretch, but we try to get the ball in our free throw shooters hands, guys that have been there before in big moments and they responded. But I give, once again, I give Bet Bill west and Coach Lloyd a ton of credit.
You know, they knew they had to keep the, the score down and limit us, and I thought they did a really good job of that. Once again, by no stretch of the imagination are we disappointed by finding a way to win a game when we wanted our best. And so we'll take that. We'll move on to the next one.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Okay.
So, you know, it ought to be a great ball game. But one thing that really jumps out at me about that game potentially is going to be Springdale's length advantage. They're just, they're. They're very big, they're very long. Fayetteville, while they have a couple of guys who are, you know, have some length and all that, they're just, they're not as. They're not like Springdale.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: What I noticed in both of them playing Bentonville west is Springdale just has that ability to get on the foul line more than Fayetteville does. And I think that might be an Advantage against Fayetteville. But another thing that I realized watching both of these games is, like you mentioned the atmosphere. I mean, I remember when I was in high school and these atmospheres, no matter if the team was, you know, losing the entire season, every seat was packed. And now I just don't really see that unless you're looking at the student section. And so I'm hopeful that with a big of a rivalry as Springdale versus Fayetteville, that a large crowd will come to Fayetteville. I'm hopeful for that because I just feel like when you're playing those games and rivalry games up here, you know, with that lack of energy, it kind of depends on how you play. And I think for Fayetteville, that home advantage really helps them.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: Well, it should be a great environment because it's also a really big girls game. Springdale and Fayetteville girls, those are two of the top teams in the, in the girls division to start it off with. So, I mean, it has all the ingredients for a great atmosphere, great ballgame.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: I hope so. Leland, what about you in the River Valley? What ingredients is it going to take to have a good ball game up there?
[00:08:29] Speaker D: Well, you know, we had several. You know, Tuesday was. It wasn't just a rivalry night. It was the rivalry night in the River Valley. And of course, we had, you know, north side visiting south side. We had Alma visiting Van Buren. You know, we have a lot of good rivalries in the, in the River Valley. Some big games coming up on Friday night. Conference play is approaching the halfway point, you know, and I think too, one thing we'll notice when we get into the gimme five, and I'm sure Graham's top five, the seniors, the cream is really starting to rise to the top in these games as we approach, you know, really the midway point of the bigger classifications, and we're getting pretty close to district play in the smaller classifications.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: Well, you mentioned to me earlier this week that south side versus north side might be a big game.
[00:09:27] Speaker D: Well, it was a big game for the boys, especially because both teams came into that game, you know, over no wins in the conference. So it was almost an elimination type game, especially since a couple of years ago they went to the 97 split in the state's largest classification for the conferences, but still they kept just six teams going. So in the 7A Central or 6A Central, six of the seven teams go to the state tournament. In the 6A west, six of the nine teams. So now there's an extra team that's eliminated from the state tournament in the state's largest classification. So that was a huge game. And Northside really proved that they were the. The better team. You know, they scored 41 points in the first half. They forced 18 turnovers through three quarters and really just dominated that game from start to finish. And, you know, they're the ones of the two teams that really kept their hopes alive for the state tournament. And in the girls game, of course, Northside has dominated that series, especially lately.
And the Lady Bears, you know, rolled to a 60 to 21 win. They led 38 to three at the half and showed why they are really and truly one of the. The best teams in the conference and really one of the best teams in the state.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: But. All right, you guys, we're going to start a new segment on the show.
I've been talking to our producer Diana about this all week. We are starting a prep rally fantasy league.
What is with that phase? No, it'll be fun. So essentially what we're going to do is we're going to draft. We're going to get to draft players each week to our teams, and at the end of the season, we're going to see who's tallied up the most points from our league.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: All right. And we're going.
[00:11:23] Speaker D: Sounds good.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: I kind of feel like we need, you know, snacks and, you know, beverages and all that stuff to go with a kind of a fantasy draft.
[00:11:34] Speaker A: You know, we'll work on it. Maybe they'll.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Maybe on the set.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
But we're gonna have our producer Diana pick who's gonna go first in our very first prep rally draft.
The first person that gets to choose is Graham.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: Well, okay.
My first draftee is going to be Ryder Scribner of Harrison.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: You know, he's had just a tremendous start to the conference season for the Harrison Goblins. I think he had 30 points the other night and seems to be pretty consistent night after night, filling the basket up. So I'm going to go with my man Ryder.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: Okay.
Diana, who's second?
Second is you, Sydney. Yes. Yes.
Really hoping not to go last.
This is when I was trying to think of who to pick. I have two names.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: You can only pick one, though, right?
[00:12:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I know, but.
[00:12:48] Speaker B: Okay, you get to choose one next week, maybe.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: I. I know. Well, not if. Not if Leland picks this person and he's on his list. You know, I was gonna pick. I'll show you this person here, but I'll. I'll pick Isaiah Seeley.
I wanted to. I wanted to pick his Backup who I'm not gonna mention. I'm gonna have him in my cards, and you better not steal him, even though I showed him to you.
But, yeah, with my 2025 pick, I go with Isaiah Seeley just because he's accurate and he's one of those players that. I hope that he helps the Razorbacks next year. I think he'd be a good addition to that team. He's young, he's passionate about the play, and, yeah, he.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: He's very much. You know, you can make an argument he's the best player in this area.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah, I wanted.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: We're talking about fantasy points, right? So he's got to deliver, too. So if he only gets to play half the game, he. He may only end up with 12 points. You gotta think about it from a fantasy standpoint.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: Hey, don't say that. Don't say that. He's gonna play. Okay.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: Some of his big games are coming up, though. Yo, we'll have a. We'll get to see a good bit of Isaiah.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: You're killing my vibe right now.
He's gonna play, and he's gonna play great. I'm just putting that out there. You just.
You and your bad vibes stay on that side.
All right, Leland, who you got?
[00:14:20] Speaker D: Well, my first round draft pick is a senior, six foot out of Pecola, Oklahoma, Alyssa Parker. I'll take the first girl.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: And.
[00:14:30] Speaker D: And let me tell you, she's a good one. She has now scored 2,164 points in her career. She scored 22 points on Tuesday night in that Lafleur county second round game. First game for Pecola because they received a first round by. She scored 22 points in 12 minutes. She had 41 points against Hartshorn on Friday night in a battle of two unbeaten teams that were ranked number two and number three in the state.
And this week, of course, she's leading the Lady Indians into the or through the LaFleur county tournament and may see her Friday. And the Lady Indians are Saturday in the championship game.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: Well, to end our first round draft, someone over here looks a little devastated. How do you feel about Leland's pick?
[00:15:22] Speaker B: I just know he's going to one up us every time, like, no matter what we do. You could pick Michael Jordan. He would come up with a way to pick, like, someone even better than that.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Like who?
[00:15:31] Speaker B: Like Wilt Chamberlain or somebody, you know, with 100 points in a game, you know, for that kind of variety.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: A rarity.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: Leland's just, you know, is that. Is it gonna Be a random draft order every week.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Yep, every week. It's gonna be at random. That way it's fair.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: All right.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: Even though. Even though I think I should go first every time, you know, Ladies first.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: Hey.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: But. All right, on that mention, we're gonna talk about what's happening in the Northwest in River Valley. Just to give you guys some updates for right now, we have Girls Golfer of the Year, Avery Allen from Rogers, Boys Golfer of the Year Cohen Kennard from Rogers. And then we have a few upcoming games for you guys on. On Friday, January 24, Bentonville at Bentonville, West Springdale at Fayetteville, and in the River Valley, Harrison at Van Buren. Sorry, what were you going to say?
[00:16:23] Speaker B: I was going to throw in there, too. We also had our River Valley all area golfers. We had Drew Hunter of Fort Smith Southside and Mackenzie Frazier of Mountainburg. And, you know, those ran in the. In the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette this past Sunday and. And also in the River Valley Democratic Gazette on Sunday. And wrapped up our. Well, I guess you could say Leland, we officially wrapped up fall sports with all those because we've. For five or six weeks in a row now I've been honoring athletes from the fall sports. And we started off with football and moved to volleyball. We did cross country, tennis, golf. I mean, we've run the mill here. So great job by our guys up here in Northwest Arkansas and Leland and his team down there in the River Valley for getting all this together.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: And. All right, you guys, we have another segment. We have our new on the clock segment that we're going to do every week where both Graham and Leland will have less than a minute. Last week it was two minutes, but today we're doing one minute where they get to basically battle it out on whatever topic that we have today for on the clock. So, gentlemen, if you could give me a drum roll, please.
All right, you're. You're on. Yeah, keep going. Keep going. You're on the clock. Topic of this week is who's the biggest underdogs of the season so far?
So marinating that question for a second, I'm going to get my timer going and. All right, this time we're going to have Graham go first for the. On the Glock.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: All right, Graham, do you have a name in mind?
[00:18:08] Speaker B: I have a. Well, not just one name, but yes, I'm ready to go.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: Okay, you can pick. Boy or girl? All right, ready?
Pardon me, y'all. I don't know if you can hear my stomach rumbling.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: Time for lunch.
My goodness.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Might be working all hard on this script, but. All right, you ready?
[00:18:30] Speaker B: I'm ready.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: Okay, and start.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: Okay, so the biggest underdogs for me right now is a collection of girls basketball teams in the 6A West Conference. There is very much a haves and have nots of the 6A West Girls Conference. And so at the bottom of the league, we have Rogers, we have Rogers heritage, we have bentonville west, and we have Fort Smith southside.
One of those teams is going to get to go to the state tournament.
And for any one of those four teams, it would be just a huge deal to be able to get through that group of teams and figure out a way to make the state tournament. And so, as I've told you before, Sidney, like, we, you know, yeah, we like to watch the good teams, but when teams are struggling, we really root for them to come up with some big wins, too.
So one example of this was that Rodgers.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: Oh, out of time. Out of time. Okay, that was good. All right, Leland, you ready?
[00:19:43] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: Oh, he's ready. All right, you're good to go in 3, 2, 1.
[00:19:51] Speaker D: The biggest game of the week on the. In the river valley on Friday night is Subiaco academy at the Lamar warriors. The Lamar warriors are a huge Underdog in the 3A 4, which is a tremendous league this year. You've got teams returning to the conference. Slovaka, Charleston, Subiacos dropping down from Class 4A into the conference. Lamar, of course, is shifting over from a conference. So these two teams are new to the conference.
Subiaco has won 11 straight games and they're 15 and three overall. They're undefeated in the conference. Lamar is 15 and three overall with one loss in the conference. That loss was 68 to 62 to Subiaco four weeks ago. But Lamar had not had their football guys back very long.
I think they're the underdogs going into Friday night, but sometimes the underdogs win.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: Nice. With four seconds to spare.
All right, now we're gonna have our producer Diana pick our winner. Who's it gonna be, Dee, you can't wave the white flag every time. Give yourself some credit. I think.
I'm really sorry, Graham, but I have to give it to Leland.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: If he's, you know, if he's thinking that the Lamar who has a very, very good basketball team or the underdogs of the season, man, I have to take some issue with that.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: But I have an issue every time you're given that line.
[00:21:23] Speaker D: Certainly the under. They're certainly the underdogs going into Friday Night against Subiaco, dropping down from 4A and all the Jamaican, you know, transfers.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: Where's is that game at Lamar this time?
[00:21:37] Speaker D: It's at Lamar this time.
[00:21:39] Speaker B: Talk about another, you know, you just don't go to Subiaco and win on the road. So I can see why they would have lost that one because.
[00:21:46] Speaker D: Well, and it was 68, 62.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: Well, yeah, it was close game. Well, we'll see. I do think though that, you know, just in all seriousness though, that one of those teams that's. That's struggling right now in the 6A west girls is going to really crack through and make the playoffs and really end on a high note. And you know, we always feel good for whoever that team is, whether it's a. Because we don't. We don't like seeing teams struggle and those are all teams that are struggling right now. And I think Leland would agree that, you know, if one of those teams is a Bentonville west or a Southside where somehow win two or three games here, the conference to make the playoffs, that's huge for them.
[00:22:24] Speaker D: Well, and I think that's what it's going to take, a win or two in a row. And that's why when I was watching the Northside Grizzlies last night, I thought because they were playing very well last night against Southside and I thought, you know, this might be the game that kickstarts them into a nice roll.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: Yep, I agree.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: Well, speaking of which, teams are going to kick into a nice roll this weekend. We have some big matchups at the end of the week, Springdale versus Fayetteville and who's in the River Valley? Leland. Who's the big matchup of the week?
[00:22:55] Speaker D: I think probably of course, Friday, of course, the Subiaco Academy at Lamar game. That's just a monster game. And that could be the second, you know, of five times that these teams meet because they're going to meet probably in the district finals. Then they go to Elkins for that regional matchup and they could meet in the finals of that and they could meet again in the state tournament. I mean, that's how good these two are. And Graham's kind of right. It's hard to say Lamar is a underdog and they won't be very many times, but I think they are on Friday night. But they can meet five times. So that's the big game. And of course, you know, Friday to North side is at harbor, which is a huge girls game.
[00:23:38] Speaker A: Well, with that being said, it's another week of basketball and next week, we'll see who's still staying afloat and who's currently sinking to the bottom. All that next week on Prep Rally. See y'all then.
