A Hall of Fame Weekend

Neil Barrett (00:00)
Welcome, welcome, welcome to The Run Out. I am Neil Barrett. He is Brandon Hooten Brandon. Hall of Fame weekend. Throwback weekend this past weekend lots to get into but before we do how you feeling, man?

Brandon Hooten (00:18)
Excited that we actually got to watch normal lacrosse. All the teams as well is always a fun time. ⁓ Outlaws are back on top. Always good. New Jersey's released. Orange Jersey's finally. All is well.

Neil Barrett (00:24)
Yeah.

We got lots of jerseys to talk about. ⁓ When we talk about these game, we'll talk about the jerseys and what we thought of them. Because, you know, kind of like we talked about last week, seeing them on field for the first time is a little bit different than ⁓ anything else. So before we get to the games themselves, like I said, it was Hall of Fame weekend. Big, big weekend for I think most people that kind of grew up in this like kind of modern era of

professional lacrosse with Paul Rabel, Kyle Harrison, Joe Walters and Kevin Lavelle going in. ⁓ I just wanted to give a minute to say something about the Hall of Fame class. That's like I said, it's a pretty impactful one. ⁓ I was a little curious. One of the reasons why I wanted to ask, I was a little curious knowing that that you got into it a little bit late and got mostly into box first kind of where

What your thoughts on these guys? Obviously, I think you know who they are and like what they mean to the game. But like, what was your kind of, I guess, interaction with these guys when they were first kind of in this era of playing?

Brandon Hooten (01:43)
I'll be honest, I didn't see a single one of them play except for like the end of Paul Rable. ⁓ But I also knew of Paul just because he was like the poster child for lacrosse. Like even when he played in the NLL, I know it was only like a year or whatever it was, like I didn't, I knew who he was. I knew of the name Kyle Harrison, but I didn't know like who he was until I started watching field. ⁓ Same with Joe Walters and who was the fourth?

Neil Barrett (01:47)
Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Lavelle.

Brandon Hooten (02:13)
Yeah, that's a no for me as well. I'm fully behind the eight ball on that.

Neil Barrett (02:17)
Yeah.

Yeah, I feel a little bad for Kevin Lavelle because he was, he was a great, great player, but he is definitely like the lesser of these guys in terms of like name and recognition and everything. It was like, man, I almost feel bad that he had to go in with these guys, but yeah, it's funny. Someone, someone on Twitter today called me a Paul Rabil fanboy. And I was like, you have no idea how incorrect that statement is. I

Brandon Hooten (02:31)
Yeah.

Neil Barrett (02:47)
Never was a Paul Rabel fan. I Paul's become one of those guys that like I've come to respect like what he accomplished on the field and the game that he had and obviously what he's done off the field now in building the PLL and stuff. But I've never been a Paul Rabel fan. I'd never liked Hopkins, never liked him. I have had very few interactions with him and ⁓

I wouldn't say they were bad, but they weren't particularly good. ⁓ so, you know, Paul Ray was a little tough, but Joe Walters and Kyle Harrison, especially Kyle Harrison was the first guy that I watched and was like, ⁓ he sees the game the way I see the game. And if you remember, if listeners remember the interview that I had with Kyle, we talked about that, about, you know, coming from basketball and seeing the game the same way. ⁓ and

Kyle was the guy that went to Hopkins and I hated him. I didn't, I didn't hate him. I hated seeing him line up against Duke. ⁓ He crushed us. That finger wag was a nightmare of mine for a long time. ⁓ But him and Joe Walters were two guys again, horribly more, more than I dislike Hopkins. I hate Maryland, hate Maryland. Being a Duke guy, it's like ingrained in you. You hate Maryland and

both Joe and Kyle were two guys that like, I hated what they did, but I couldn't hate them. Like I loved their games. They were, they were very impactful guys for me. ⁓ And it's, I was thinking about it this weekend. There, there's something, obviously they'd been retired for three over three years now. And so obviously we knew they weren't coming back, but there was something so final about them.

making the Hall of Fame and like the idea that not just that they weren't coming back, but like that we're old enough because those two guys especially are I think just they're like a year, maybe two older than me. think Paul's actually a year younger than me. ⁓ Yeah. So there was just something about like, holy crap, I'm old enough to have been in the Hall of Fame. You know, had I been a good lacrosse player. So anyway, yeah, that was I just.

I especially was wondering kind of what your interactions with them, especially, especially maybe with Joe, you know, cause he was with the night Hawks for, for so long. Um, and I knew you came in from there, but yeah. Yeah. But yeah, but he left, he left, quit playing, uh, indoor, I think in like 2016 ish 2017 maybe. Um, which I believe is

Brandon Hooten (05:25)
guess that is right now that you say that. I think I didn't know that, but...

Neil Barrett (05:41)
Somewhere around the time or like you were really getting to I think you had been to games prior to that But that was like around the time I think from what I remember that you were kind of like really getting into it

Brandon Hooten (05:51)
in the field.

Neil Barrett (05:52)
No, in the box.

Brandon Hooten (05:54)
⁓ well, I'm trying to think because there was definitely there's two time periods. There was the first time period where I was going like every week season ticket type and then I started playing sports and then it became like I'm going to a game or two. So I was still paying attention, but not like the same. And then I picked it back up probably.

Neil Barrett (06:10)
Gotcha.

Brandon Hooten (06:17)
like heavy heavy like 2019, 2020 probably. But I was still watching like the whole time. Like I knew what was happening. just, I was living my life. So it was, was different than, you know, now.

Neil Barrett (06:21)
Yeah, so pro.

Yeah

Yeah, yeah, no, I got you. got you. Anyway, let's get on to the games this weekend. First things first, Chicago, man. What a freaking venue. What a crowd. That was great. I saw a lot of people being like, oh, see, they should have been coming to Chicago. And I disagree because Chicago in 2019 was not a great spot, but they certainly showed that they should come back.

Brandon Hooten (07:01)
Yeah, and I think the venue that they were at was...

Incredible from what I understand they also oversold the event and actually opened up extra seating To accommodate that's from that's I heard that from someone that was there. I cannot verify that obviously ⁓ But yeah, I thought it was it was the start to finish really of the weekend the way that they hyped up I mean they had the boat lacrosse they had Street lacrosse the the four games were great I think having throwback weekend there was a major hit ⁓

Neil Barrett (07:10)
Okay.

Yeah.

Brandon Hooten (07:32)
And both days from what I saw looked packed out. So I think it's a great start there.

Neil Barrett (07:34)
Yeah. They,

yeah, they reported that they had sold all of the tickets and, as you said, they, they may have had to open up more seats and sell those as well. ⁓ but yeah, kind of like we talked last week specifically about the jerseys, but I think the whole weekend kind of followed through. It was the first weekend where I felt like they had actually like appropriately done the hype for it and built towards the weekend and stuff.

It was definitely the best weekend of this season and the only, the only weekend in terms of kind of like the all encompassing, you know, crowd, how many, you know, attendance numbers crowd, how like energized and into it they were, how good you know, the event itself was the only one that I could think of that was kind of close to this was a homewood field in Baltimore the first year. That's the only one that I thought was,

really close to this. know there's been other good, I know Utah has been good. I know Denver has been really good, but those, those two also are slightly smaller venues. And of course, Utah, only, we've only had people at that one time last year. So certainly they will, I'm sure Denver will be like, really? Chicago? Like we're going to show out. But yeah, no, for first and foremost, we got to say that the Chicago weekend was so much fun.

But let's move in to the games with we will start with the first one Atlas beating the kid the Boston cannons. Wow. I can't talk already today 17 to 11 before before we get to the on-field action. I got to ask you about the the uniforms. What did you think seeing them on field?

Brandon Hooten (09:19)
liked both of them. I thought the all Navy I think was nice. ⁓ I mean the colors we knew were going to be good no matter what for kind of both of these teams. I didn't mind Boston's jerseys on field. I thought they were fine. I thought the red popped really well. ⁓ I was kind of hoping they'd go with the blue chrome helmet, but you know the gray is fine as well. ⁓

Neil Barrett (09:43)
That was the kind of throwback e miss of it was was more of gray than the comb Yeah, the the blue looked great the one thing I noticed seeing them on the field was how funky those letters were Yeah, and Brian Costa be ⁓ the whole time he's running I thought like that whole game I would see him and I thought his shirt was like Folded in a weird way before I realized that no the two was just

Brandon Hooten (09:46)
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I thought it was fine.

Yeah, it was kind of hard to read at times.

Neil Barrett (10:13)
like significantly smaller than the six. And I noticed it across several guys, especially guys that had like two something ⁓ numbers. I was like, man, this is such a weird font. So that kind of fell apart for me. The cannons was interesting. I liked them more than I thought I would, but then also didn't. The shorts did not work for me, but all ⁓ kind of across the board, I think everyone looked better on the field than I thought they would, but.

Let's move on to the actual game. Like I said, the Atlas beat the cannon 17 to 11. There were some good players all over the field. There were some not so good players all over the field. What kind of stood out to you about this game, Brandon?

Brandon Hooten (11:02)
⁓ jeff t continues his often on streak five points i'd i'd generally don't know but why that's occurring but it was fun seeing him put five points shelly was incredible shot fifty percent seven points you know

Neil Barrett (11:16)
Mm-hmm.

Brandon Hooten (11:20)
top to bottom that was good there. Really just Atlas just kind of dominated. ⁓ I didn't feel like Boston's defense was anywhere near as ferocious as they needed to be. And as we've seen them be, for a while there just felt like the Atlas were just getting literally whatever they wanted. ⁓ And by the time that Boston even scored more than them in a quarter, it was kind of too late. ⁓ So it's a little disappointing from that perspective just because I think

Neil Barrett (11:37)
Mm-hmm.

Brandon Hooten (11:49)
Boston I thought was the best team in the league or at least up there and now I'm having some questions. there just wasn't much good to pull from it unfortunately.

Neil Barrett (12:00)
Yeah, no, that was kind of, think the surprise for me is I'm like you. thought, I thought two, two weeks ago, I Boston was the best team in the league hands down. And two weeks later, it's like, man, I don't know. I don't know anything about this team. ⁓

I got nothing. don't know. I don't know who they are. I don't know what they're good at. mean, that Matt Campbell's good. That's about all I got for you. Asher Nolting is clearly good because I don't think anyone thinks he's playing well and yet he's leading the team in points and he's eighth in the league in points. So it's kind of weirdly you look at him and you're like, he's not playing very well. But then you, you're like, well, he kind of is in a weird way. he had four

four points this weekend and I don't, I'm not sure that anyone remembers a single one of them.

Brandon Hooten (12:57)
now and I mean they still put up 11 goals which is like theoretically that's solid but when you give up 17 you know it you're not gonna win very many games I mean they just they got out shot a ton

Neil Barrett (13:02)
decent. Yeah.

Brandon Hooten (13:14)
It's funny the Alas had more turnovers Which you think that kind of would help out Boston, but it didn't And I kept just I feel like watching the game. I just kept waiting for like okay Here's a run Boston's gonna go on and then it was like just getting out of the score again Okay, no, here's they get the two bomb in the third quarter. I'm like, okay Maybe they can make a push and then just kidding too straight from the atlas again And I mean come going into halftime I forget what the score was it was a 11 to 3 or something like that. It just was like

Neil Barrett (13:28)
Mm-hmm.

Brandon Hooten (13:45)
you guys know you're playing a game here, like you have to do something. And I recognize that like, you know, as a coach, you have to do the whole like, Hey, we'll follow our systems. We'll get back into it. But when you're down that much and you're smiling through an interview at halftime, I just didn't have much hope at that point because it's like your systems clearly aren't working or there's a disconnect between what you're saying, what players are doing. Something's wrong. Um, and like you said, I think two weeks ago, I think I would have felt

like this game was going differently, but credit to the Atlas, obviously, for kind of turning their season around so far, because early on, you know, they didn't look very great.

Neil Barrett (14:21)
Yeah, no, I, the, the cannons kind of feel like the archers in which like I'm looking at it I'm like, I don't understand what's going wrong because like I said, I didn't think Asher Nolting did anything. And then I look at it I'm like, well he had four points. I didn't think, I don't remember Marcus Holman having a shot. He ended up with three points. He shot 50%. And it's like, well, I don't understand what's happening other than like you said, the

the defense suddenly doesn't feel like they can stop anybody. Colin Kirst was being talked about as being one of the best goalies in the league and wasn't a good time to have that take because since in the last two, three weeks, he's been basically not great at all. So like you said, it feels a lot like, you know, you, you would be relatively happy with 11 points if you're

defense didn't give up 17. So, but again, at two weeks ago, you'd have thought the cannons were the best team in the league. think today you might think Atlas is the best team in league. There's a, there's a, they're at least in the conversation as the top of the league and Connor Schellenberger, like you said, went off. Jeff T had a good game. Xander Dixon was playing well. They, they got everybody kind of clicking again for, you know,

Brandon Hooten (15:32)
Yep.

Neil Barrett (15:50)
I don't want to say the first time in a few weeks because they won last week, but you know, certainly two weeks ago, this team was not looking like this. So interesting to see there. We'll have more on Shelly in a little bit, but let's move on to the next game, which was the water dogs beating the archers 16 to 11, sort of like the last game. What'd you think of the jerseys before we get into the game itself?

Brandon Hooten (16:15)
⁓ I liked Utah's like I thought they would. The blue worked again. ⁓ Phillies, I will give them a bone here and I'll say no pun intended of course and say ⁓ the back of the jersey looked better to me than the front. I thought the green numbers were okay. Kind of gave me like an Incredible Hulk vibe. ⁓

Neil Barrett (16:32)
Yep.

Little bit, little bit.

Brandon Hooten (16:38)
But the fr- I just- I can't get over the front. I just- I don't care what they were referencing. It's a bad look to me. I could not care any less what they were referencing, so... Not my favorite.

Neil Barrett (16:48)
You know what was funny?

I, when I was watching it on the I was like, you know, I don't actually think I hate the purple and green. What I hate is that it just doesn't make any sense. Like why is there green on this Jersey? That's what bothers me. The, like you said, the back of the Jersey did look better. The other thing that I realized watching that game was last year, the, the like shoulder that, that they had kind of came down. It was more like a, like a hockey style yoke of a Jersey was much bigger. This year it was like,

two and a half inches long like this big up on the shoulders. And I was like, looks, yeah. No, I agree. I thought last year it looked slightly better just cause it was like a more full yoke. I didn't really love it though. But yeah, this year, well, wow. And then yeah, the archers I thought looked, they were one of the better looking teams. The blue and the orange looked so great together. I really liked it.

Brandon Hooten (17:21)
Yeah. I still hate it.

Also, sandwiching

the blue, going orange, blue, orange, I'm a massive fan of. We should be doing that a lot more. That was great.

Neil Barrett (17:44)
So nice, so nice. Yeah,

yeah. So now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about the game itself. Like I said, the Water Dogs won 16 to 11. It was another just really, really frustrating game for the archers. They just cannot get anything going at all on the offensive end. They...

I say that, but they actually scored 11 goals, which is one of their higher offensive outputs on the entire season. So I say they couldn't get anything going, but they did score their high. I think it's one of their highest. I don't know if it's actually their highest. ⁓ But either way, Sam King looked incredible. Brett Dobson was at 54%, which isn't amazing, but pretty good, especially when you compare the fact that Dylan Ward was

26 % in the opposing goal. But you know, that was I don't know. Like I don't even know what to say about them. Like we all season we have been giving them the benefit of the doubt. They are the two time defending champions. At some point they're going to figure it out. And the question for this, you know, we don't even have to talk about the game. The question is, is the Archer's season

Over already?

Brandon Hooten (19:13)
I wouldn't say over for sure again six of the eight teams make the playoffs Hard to say anyone seasons over till it's actually over I'd be pressing the panic button though for sure ⁓ I was very disappointed in Jake Naso's debut like I've never been so excited to see someone play lacrosse and debut for a new league or you know style and yeah, and just be completely let down like

Neil Barrett (19:34)
especially as a face-off guy.

Brandon Hooten (19:41)
And credits Alex Stathikas, he's been on a roll this year. if we had a most improved player award, like that would almost certainly go to him. He's been incredible, but it was just one of those things that like a half time, I think it was like he was one for 15 or something like that. And I'm like, even with the wing foes that the archers have had this year, you mean to tell me you can't win a couple to yourself? Like you can't, I was seeing him not even win a clamp and I'm like.

You know, and then you do get the ball on offense finally and nothing's clicking. Like it took a rookie to take over in the, what was it, third quarter I believe it was, to even give you like somewhat of a chance. The fact that you only had to get four saves from Dillon Ward is despicable. Like 26%, he should have lost that game 10 times out of 10. And another week we're sitting here.

Neil Barrett (20:16)
The third, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Brandon Hooten (20:33)
saying well they have all the talent in the world and they're back-to-back champs like i'm kind of tired of saying the same thing every week like i picked them in this game because i felt like Tre LeClaire being back was going to be huge for them i thought jake Naso will be better than Siss has been this year and it's the same story so i don't know what's going on with them ⁓ shout out to sam king i guess for the team on his back but something's got to change because this is getting ridiculous

Neil Barrett (20:57)
Yeah, that

I, like I said, I keep expecting that they're going to figure it out. mean, they are loaded with MVP caliber players all over the field. Like not even just on the offensive end. Graham Hasek looks to be, if, if the archers were anything like what the archers have been the last few seasons, I think he would be in the MVP conversation. 100%.

when your team is this bad, it's like, you know, we had, we just have this conversation with Lyle a few years ago when, when he would just drop points constantly, but his team would lose. It's like, can he really be in the MVP conversation? And with Lyle, my argument was, yes, I don't know that I hold that same, ⁓ belief with Graham Hasek in this case, but

Again, I don't understand what the issues are, sort of like we talked about with the cannons. It doesn't make any sense. This team is more or less the same team that won back to back championships, arguably a little bit better because of guys like Sam King and ⁓ stuff stepping in. But there's just nothing there. Connor Fields has been gone this whole season. I don't think he's hardly done

anything all year. And I don't know, maybe, maybe, you know, a little bit better because, because of how attuned you are to the NLL season is, is, is this just a thing where Connor Fields has just played too much lacrosse where at such a high level, cause he was so good in the NLL season, even, even removing the MVP award. Like it wasn't like that award was handed to him. Like he

He deserved that award. ⁓ he was that good this year, ⁓ in the NLL, but is, is, is it just overuse exotic? Like does, do they just need to, you know, shut it down until play? Like I don't, I don't understand what's happening.

Brandon Hooten (23:13)
No, I question if he's healthy, honestly. I mean, Brett Dobson's on his team and he's played the same amount of lacrosse as Connor Fields. And they're all different positions a little slightly, but it's the same game. So I don't know that I'm gonna say he's playing too much lacrosse, especially when we've seen, we saw the Bandits play year round for a bunch of years, and they were fine.

Neil Barrett (23:23)
Tom Schreiber.

Brandon Hooten (23:41)
So I don't know if he's fully healthy is my biggest thing. I also just think this team has just had so many just errors that they are causing to themselves. They're incredibly sloppy at times. Tom Schreiber has been uncharacteristically sloppy several times this year. They're just like, is happening? And then you see a game like when Connor Fields played the archers a couple, or the outlaws, excuse me, a couple of weeks ago. And I believe he had four points in that game. And it's like, okay, it's fine. He can get back to this.

And then this happens again and it's like, what is, I don't fully know what's happening. It felt like maybe in this game they were trying to get Trey LeClair kind of back in tune and kind of force that maybe. And I also think Sam King playing as well as he did allowed Connor to take a step back. But like three shots from Connor Fields, I want five plus personally. Like, you I want him to kind of be the leading shooter in my mind. ⁓ So maybe he is playing too much lacrosse, but.

Your guess is about as good as mine.

Neil Barrett (24:45)
Well, and the thing that's crazy to me is one of the reasons why I think we have given them the benefit of the doubt that they're going to figure it out is because that defense is so good. The defense is so good and Brett Dobson is so good. And then they play this game and they might as well not even been out there. You know,

Brandon Hooten (25:06)
Yeah, I mean,

Brett Dobson having to save 16 shots, like, what else do you want him to do? That's my thing. It's like 53 and 54%, whatever it was, like, I'm fine with that because you had to, you were getting pelted, like four times as many saves as Dylan Ward. That's, that's inexcusable for an offense that has Fields, King, Aiment, Schreiber, LeClaire, O'Keefe. Like, especially when you were up.

Neil Barrett (25:19)
Mm-hmm.

Brandon Hooten (25:34)
not up, but I guess they're up 1-0, start the game. It's like, you know, and you scored on a crazy shovel goal from, you know, 10 yards out, whatever it was, and it's like, okay, maybe they're back. And then you fall again. And it's like, what is happening? Like, I truly, I wish I understood what they need to do, but I don't know if the season's over, but it's pretty close.

Neil Barrett (25:57)
The crazy stat here is if Dillon Ward wasn't in goal, and I'm not saying Matt DeLuca was in goal, I'm saying there was no goalie, they still would have lost the game.

He made four saves, they lost by five. So if there is no one in goal, they still lose by one.

Brandon Hooten (26:23)
That's just sad.

Neil Barrett (26:26)
That's insane.

Brandon Hooten (26:29)
Yeah.

Neil Barrett (26:32)
That's insane. I, it doesn't make any sense. I, I was talking, you know, in our group chat, we were talking with Jackson Van Flake, the, you know, I don't want to say he's the number one archers fan because I know, ⁓ JB's probably got him edged out just slightly, but, ⁓ a very large archers fan. And even he was like, I think I'm starting to panic right now. Like it's, it has just gotten to that point where

Brandon Hooten (26:32)
I don't know.

Neil Barrett (27:02)
Again, I don't know what what can fix it I don't know how long I told him at at some point Saying they're gonna figure it out become something that you're just trying to convince yourself. It's I Don't I don't know that they are going to figure this out and I don't know what they can do about it but let's I Wanted to ask you. ⁓ we'll save that for a little bit later. Never mind. Just kidding ⁓

I did want to circle back to Jake Nassau though. ⁓ I had heard and I, I was looking at NLL stats are so goofy. That page is so, I give PLL stats page some, ⁓ some grief sometimes, but their stats page is amazing compared to the NLL stats page. And I had heard, but I couldn't exactly verify it that Jake Nassau had struggled.

Brandon Hooten (27:42)
Yeah.

Neil Barrett (28:00)
with Alex Stafakis in the NLL as well. so, you know, trying to give him the benefit of the doubt that he hasn't, he hasn't played with field. Faceoffs are slightly different ⁓ in LL to field and, you know, different cadences, different kinds of goals, different ways that you kind of do it. And then, you know, hearing that it was someone that he had already had some struggles with is like, all right, I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but like you said, it was.

It was not a good display from him at all.

Brandon Hooten (28:33)
What is a struggling game? 43 % I would not argue is like an awful game. He was 6 for 28 in this game. So, like, yes, like I'm looking at this now. I'm trying to pull this up. It looks like when they played Vancouver, he was 9 for 21.

Neil Barrett (28:58)
Which is crazy for a guy who was like 61 % on the season.

Brandon Hooten (28:58)
see.

Yeah, and Staticus...

I is 12 for 21 in that game. So it wasn't like he got like outworked completely like he did in this game. So like that, argument to me is bogus. It's just, I just think he just had a really off night and I think Staticus is just playing at an exceptional level. I think having, I think him being there for an entire season and training camp has benefited him tremendously as opposed to last year coming in, you know, half of the year trying to pick up a stick for the first time. So.

Neil Barrett (29:36)
Well, and that, that I think to me is the larger point is that coming in, in the middle of the season, not having training camp, not having, know they only practice once a week, but not having those weekly practices to get used to, to cadences to, you know, just the different techniques between field and, and, ⁓ box I think is a, an issue. don't know. I think that there are people who are starting, who

Saul Jake Nassau in this game and are drawing conclusions about him that I don't think are necessarily fair. I think he's being held to a standard that's maybe unrealistic. It's kind of my point that, you know, I think we can cut him some slack here. if, I could, because to your point, I think he could be an Alex Stathicus where he comes in next season

gets a full training camp, gets more time with his team and stuff. And he could be a very different guy than what he showed today or not today this weekend.

Brandon Hooten (30:44)
And again, he's on a team with

the worst face-off wings in the league. So it doesn't help. So we'll give him that. But a face-off is still a face-off. I don't care where you're doing it. I don't care if it's in the street. You still have to do the same things. So to go 6 for 28 is ridiculous.

Neil Barrett (30:48)
Right.

Well, and like you said, Sissleberger is at least winning clamps. He's, he's popping it out and not getting any help from his wings and stuff. And Nasa wasn't even winning clamps. He was getting to be clean. Yeah. Right.

Brandon Hooten (31:08)
Yeah.

It felt like he was late, even just going at times. And

I was like, I couldn't tell if he wasn't hearing the whistle or what it was, but yeah, it was super strange. He was super slow.

Neil Barrett (31:27)
Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. We'll see definitely something to kind of keep an eye on in the future. Let's move on to Saturday's games where we first had the Carolina chaos taking on the California woods and surprising us all. I think I saw 17 % of people picked the chaos as they beat the woods 12 to 10. Again, like the first games less, less

Get the Jersey talk out of the way. What'd you think on field?

Brandon Hooten (31:58)
Fantastic. I think we rightfully predicted that Carolinas ⁓ was the best one. I personally loved it. I thought California's looked way better on field than in the picture, especially the back with the yellow numbers. I thought that was awesome. I thought some of the cleat choices from Andrew McAdory, I thought that was awesome.

Neil Barrett (32:21)
Andrew McAdory,

Brandon Hooten (32:24)
So I think as a whole uniform, I liked Californians as well. And especially in the sunlight, I thought it popped really well.

Neil Barrett (32:32)
First of all, Carolinas, I don't know if it was because I went in expecting it to be that number one. ⁓ Carolinas is the one that when I saw it on the field, I felt slightly disappointed. I don't know why. I couldn't figure out why. don't know. The only thing I can think is that I must have just had such high expectations that it would have been impossible to meet. But something about it, I was watching it and I was like,

I mean, I still like it. It's still incredible, but I don't know. I just felt disappointed. You are absolutely. And I wondered how much I wondered how much that was to that so many guys were wearing like red gear, which in my head should have worked. But for some reason, I don't know. It was like from I wanted it was like I wanted everyone in blackout. I don't know. Anyway, the woods, though, the woods is one of the reasons why I wanted to go back over some of these these uniforms, because

Brandon Hooten (33:03)
I just like the all blackout. To me.

Neil Barrett (33:27)
on field significantly better than it looked in those images. I still think the Jersey needed some tweaks. I think it could have used a little bit more green details and I still don't like the Cali and the bear, but the yellow was incredible. Those yellow shorts were amazing. They have like the perfect shade of yellow where it's like, it's not very orangey, but it's still like bright and vibrant and

I don't know, man, it popped. I really wish they had given slightly more green to that Jersey because I think it would have shot up those rankings. But let's actually get into the game now. Like I said, the chaos beat the woods 12 to 10, a bit of a comeback here. The chaos scored five in the fourth quarter to run out with a two goal victory. What in the world?

did we make of this game because it felt like one game and then all of a sudden it was not that game. And I, I don't know what conclusions to even draw from this game.

Brandon Hooten (34:37)
Well first off, the people better learn who Ross Scott is. That's a first. Because he was ballin'. I don't know what got into him. I don't know how many cups of coffee he drank, but he was buzzin'. Justin Inosio, I think, is carving out a nice little spot for himself in the league as well. The twister he had was insane. And then finally Blaise Reardon with 69.2%, 18 saves.

Neil Barrett (34:42)
Well...

Yeah, he is.

Mm-hmm.

Brandon Hooten (35:08)
I'm speechless because he's just so good. ⁓ But honestly, the main storyline for me in this one is that California fails to close out yet another game. ⁓ They get to a point where they feel good and all of a sudden, like, it's tie game again. And now they're down one, it's tied again. I don't know what's going on, but they get to that fourth quarter time and all of sudden they fall asleep. ⁓

Neil Barrett (35:16)
Yet another game. Yep.

Yeah, no,

like you said, again, I don't know how many games this is, three, four, like they just cannot close out a game to save their life. Like you said, Blaze reared in 70%, just nuts.

We've made some jokes maybe maybe more private privately. I'll take it. I'll take it. I have made some jokes that Blaze can be a little thin-skinned at times But that seems to have worked for him. It seems to be almost like this like Michael Jordan esque I have to I have to have someone that I You know, I don't know presumably you watch the last dance pretty much the whole world watch the last dance

Brandon Hooten (36:22)
several

times.

Neil Barrett (36:23)
you know, Michael Jordan was famous for inventing reasons to like be mad at someone so that he could take his game to that next level. And Blaze, since he got called every name in the book after that one game that he had that was terrible, he has been insane. And I know we still got, you know, four weeks left in the regular season, but if he keeps it up,

I think he's gonna run away with another goalie of the year.

Is that do you think that's?

Brandon Hooten (36:58)
I Runaway is pushing it a bit. ⁓ He'll be up there. ⁓

Neil Barrett (37:03)
there.

Brandon Hooten (37:05)
Yeah, he's in the conversation obviously. But I don't think you can say he's running away ⁓ with it personally.

Neil Barrett (37:16)
He has more saves, a higher save percentage.

scores against average is still pretty high after that one game, but But he's made more saves and has a higher save percentage than anybody else in the league

Brandon Hooten (37:34)
Well that's not true.

Neil Barrett (37:36)
It is true.

Brandon Hooten (37:37)
I'm looking at this right here. That is not true.

Neil Barrett (37:42)
What you looking at?

Brandon Hooten (37:43)
I'm looking at the leaderboards 2025 it says blaze reardon's at 58.9 % Logan McNaney 64.5 Austin cow 62.5 Austin counts a backup obviously but

Neil Barrett (37:45)
I'm looking at the leaderboards. 2025.

Yeah, who's higher?

Well, Austin Cal don't count.

He played like one half. You're right. Logan McNaney does have a higher save percentage. You're right. I see that now. But he's at the

Brandon Hooten (38:05)
So the only thing Blaze

has then is the total saves.

Neil Barrett (38:09)
Well, and Logan McNaney's only played four games, so...

Brandon Hooten (38:12)
less so what happens when he's leading and has eight compared to ten?

Neil Barrett (38:15)
What's gonna happen is a whole bunch of people are gonna say, it wasn't a whole season.

Brandon Hooten (38:21)
That's fine. You can say whatever you want and look I'm not I'm not discrediting blaze. Let me make this clear Since this already happened once this year on another podcast. I am NOT discrediting blaze I am NOT here for the blaze smoke. All right, I love blaze riorden in both box and field I just think saying someone's gonna run away is tough

Neil Barrett (38:29)
We don't need we don't need we don't need chaos coming after us. Nope. Nope blaze Blaise Reardon is the goalie of the year. Say it say

it. He's the goalie of the year. Say it We don't want the smoke we don't want the smoke

Brandon Hooten (38:43)
I can't do that to my boy, but No, no he I think I think in all seriousness

if it gets down to that I think blaze will win it because of Those two games just cuz I'm people will say 10 versus 8 and I'm totally fine with that ⁓ My only reasoning as well as saying I don't think he'll run away with it is because I do still have that Dobson and kind of feeling of like do they pick really pick it up at the end of the season?

I think those three, let's leave Logan out of this for a minute, like those three are pretty tight and can kind of bounce in my rankings week by week. Kind of, you know, depending on what happens. So that's my only pushback on run away, but I'd be fine with him winning it. He should realistically kind of be winning it every year. So that's fine.

Neil Barrett (39:33)
If he if he wins it this year after the way that the season the early part of the season kind of went I Might be one of his best wins ever, but we'll see there's hey, you know You know what they say a lot of lacrosse left, right? lot of lacrosse left, so ⁓ Getting back to the game though Ross Scott obviously Ross Scott things, you know was incredible ⁓

Owen Hiltz, another really, really good game from him. I've really, every, every, I believe it's, I believe it's all the way back through his Syracuse career. He has scored in every game he has played in, ⁓ just insane. then the, thing that I've really liked about this Carolina team is that I think they're one of those teams where having no

Brandon Hooten (40:05)
That dude does never not score. He scores every game he plays. It is insane.

Neil Barrett (40:29)
quote unquote stars before anyone comes at me, quote unquote, I get it. You guys got some good players. You got some ballers, but you know what, what would typically be thought of as star players, especially on that offensive end, obviously you got blaze, you got Jack Rowlett and stuff. There's some on the other end, but on that offensive end, it's, think it's kind of working to their benefit. Cause who's, who's the guy you key on? Who's the guy you, you want to stop?

Clearly Ross Scott seems to be developing into the guy that you're kind of worrying about. Hiltz is up there too, but they've proven week in and week out that, okay, you're going to stop Ross Scott this game, then, you know, ⁓ Jackson Eicher will step up. Adam Sherlin Beatty's will step up. Like guys are going to, Sergio Perkovic stepped up in a game. Like it seems to be one of those things that is working to their benefit right now.

I don't know that long-term and I'm not even talking about this year. I'm talking like literally long-term over the next three to five seasons. I don't know that that's a blueprint that works over the course of several seasons. I think they're probably going to need to bring in some big names. Unfortunately for them, they appear to be just like most teams in the state of North Carolina, just good enough to come.

consistently miss out on those like top tier ⁓ draft picks and stuff. So, you know, everyone is pretty sure Joey Spelina is coming number one. And I think, I think week one, I think we all kind of thought he's going to be playing in Carolina. And now I'm not so sure. And they could really, I think, use a guy like Joey Spelina, especially putting him back.

teaming him back up with Owen Hiltz could, could really work wonders in the same way that Grant Ament and Mack O'Keefe putting those two guys back together, kind of unlocked both of them in ways that, that hadn't been done before. So really interesting. ⁓ What, what is wrong with the Redwoods though?

Brandon Hooten (42:46)
clearly.

Neil Barrett (42:47)
Clearly.

Brandon Hooten (42:50)
I wish I had a firm answer, but I just think they're just unsettled. think after the start of the year, was kind of like all that hype was kind of there and it was like, they're to be actually really good and the rookies are stepping up and all this stuff. And then they kind of just hit like a wall of just back to reality. ⁓

This isn't going to be easy every single week. ⁓ is funny because like I thought Chase, Chase Erlen, I think has kind of been much better than I thought he'd be this year. ⁓ This is my first time seeing him play like a lot of games in a row. So I'm fairly pleased seeing what he's doing. I think TD's been fine. The rookies are still playing well. ⁓ I don't know. It's just.

Neil Barrett (43:23)
Yeah, a couple of.

Brandon Hooten (43:38)
They just kind of hit a wall like every single game and I don't think that shift in the midfield has necessarily Helped them not that it hurts either, but just I think there's questions about who should be actually playing there ⁓ Sam Handley shot selection still is kind of questionable ⁓ Along with a few other guys. I just I don't know. It's such a strange situation Like they they should have been way better than what they are right now

Neil Barrett (44:05)
Yeah. Yeah. No, I, I, I feel like I'm repeating myself, but it's another one where like, kind of can't quite figure out what's wrong with them. Although I think, I think midfield is becoming more and more of an issue for them. ⁓ which is funny to say when, Romar Dennis, you know, drops a two bomb and Andrew McAdory was everywhere. Sam English was everywhere, but they're just not consistently.

getting midfield production from the guys that they should. So.

Brandon Hooten (44:39)
They feel very similar right now to the outlaws midfield early on in the year when we were like you have to contribute something like Anything and I mean between between all their middies this game They had five points between them But it just feels like that there's got to be more like Andrew McAdory for who he was beginning of the year You got to get back to that. mean really just a couple weeks ago It's not like he's a bad player now, but you know he one point in this game I would have liked to see him be

Neil Barrett (44:44)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Brandon Hooten (45:08)
a little more impactful. But every now and then you're going to have a bad shooting game like this so you can't hold it against them. But I think it's something to monitor of just how does this midfield respond and play week over week, not just once in a while.

Neil Barrett (45:19)
Yeah.

I'm confused on why they had Andrew McAdory take him face-offs. Cool that he could do it. Sort of. He didn't win one, but you know, cool that, that like, they felt like, we can line him up. I'm trying to think of the last guy. mean, Zach Curry is the only guy that I can think of that, that really takes face-offs as a midfielder. ⁓ so like cool that he could do it, but I'm also really confused on, on why they had him do it. ⁓ I don't know if that was just cause of like,

Brandon Hooten (45:28)
Heh heh.

Neil Barrett (45:49)
You know violations. I think there's a isn't there a rule about them having I don't know if that's a PLL rule of that's just NCAA and them having to Something anyway, I just happened to notice that he took two face-offs and I was like wait what that's weird, but anyway speaking of the outlaws Midfield which you just casually brought up We're going to transition to the last game of the weekend where the outlaws beat the Whip Snakes 13 to 6

Brandon Hooten (45:55)
Yeah, if you have like a violation, you can't take the next one, I believe is the rule.

Neil Barrett (46:19)
This was hardly a game we might as well spend the whole time talking about the uniforms. So let's start there like we did. Thoughts on the uniform, seeing them on field. Did your impression of the Maryland uniform change at all?

Brandon Hooten (46:36)
No. not... Not in the slightest. In fact, I thought it was way too much red on field. It was even worse. ⁓ I would've liked to see more yellow. Yes, I'm sorry. There's nothing you could say that's gonna make me like these uniforms, unfortunately. I want to, but I just, I don't. ⁓ I'll say this. I'm wearing an indigenous Whipsnakes jersey right now, yes.

Neil Barrett (46:44)
No.

Are you wearing a Whipsnakes jersey right now?

So yes, a Whipsnakes Jersey. Okay, all right, do I wanna?

Brandon Hooten (47:05)
The-the-the-the indigenous one. Let's make that very clear. I will never own one of these throwback Whip Snakes jerseys. ⁓ I mean I'll say... ⁓ my goodness. You-you won't wear one. Don't-don't do that.

Neil Barrett (47:15)
I might buy one just to-

I won't. I won't. You're right. I won't. But I do like it.

Brandon Hooten (47:23)
No.

The red shorts, I will say, I like the red shorts. Is that, is that enough?

Neil Barrett (47:30)
That's close enough. I'll give you that.

Brandon Hooten (47:32)
Alright, alright.

Yeah, yeah. As far as the Outlaws ones, I liked them better, I think, on field. I didn't mind the striping as much, probably because we're far away versus up close. ⁓ Don't like the shorts still. I just feel like that striping is very strange. But the silver helmet, I'm glad they went with silver instead of black. I was worried they were going to do that. ⁓

So I appreciated that and I thought the orange popped well and it's good.

Neil Barrett (47:59)
I feel like...

I feel like you like read my checklist of like how I wanted to talk about these uniforms. The red shorts, incredible. I thought they looked so good. I get you didn't like them. I loved them. thought I thought that uniform looked amazing on field. It looked so good. The outlaws uniforms. I'll start. I'll start from where you ended the silver helmet. I'm so glad they were wearing the like

standard silver helmet instead of the flat gray that, that they have worn before. And the MLL version of the Denver outlaws war towards kind of the end of their run in the MLL. There was something about that, like standard gray that just felt perfect. Like that is how I think of the Denver outlaws is in that like standard silver helmet.

The shorts I'm 100 % with you. Terrible. They were terrible. I thought their shorts, I thought the Canon shorts, both of them did not translate very well at all into this like PLL cut. Again, the 2001 Canon jersey, I didn't think those shorts looked good in 2001. So they really didn't carry over. The jersey looked, I think it looked better on field. Like you said, the striping is weird.

both on both that Jersey and the cannons Jersey. I thought the shoulder striping was weird and it's one of it was my issue with the one to one thing was you had to shrink them so much to fit on that like soccer cut style PLL Jersey that it just looked so goofy. I annoyed me so much that you couldn't, you could not see the blue and the cannons Jersey from

like the cameras or from the stands or anything. didn't, it just looked like red. So anyway, that's, that's the end of Jersey talk, at least until we talk about the indigenous heritage jerseys later, but, uh, end of Jersey talk, let's talk about the game itself. Again, wasn't much of a game. 13 to six was not even representative of this game. Uh, I think what three, four of those goals, four of those goals. Nope. Just kidding.

Two of the goals came in the fourth quarter from the Whip Snakes. This was not a good game at all. At all.

Brandon Hooten (50:33)
Well, mean, for some it was a good game, ⁓ no, the first quarter I thought was actually probably the best quarter of like, for lacrosse fans, even though there was no scoring, like I thought it was just like a gritty quarter that I felt like, we might be in for a nail biter. And then it just kind of took off from there. And then the outlaws scored four goals in each quarter following that. So, ⁓ O'Neill game finally came.

Neil Barrett (50:35)
Alright, for the outlaws, that was a pretty good gig.

Nope.

Brandon Hooten (51:01)
We've been waiting on when it's gonna be his turn to kind of pop off and he did. ⁓ Pat Cav, another three goal performance, four points. That's a four-a-ton offense, as I like to say. It's working beautifully right now. The transition game was awesome. ⁓

Neil Barrett (51:18)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Brandon Hooten (51:19)
McNaney was I mean 71.4 percent 15 saves Even even Emmett Carroll 57 percent 16 saves I thought for what he was given Defensively he played pretty well ⁓ And I do I do think he probably should start the rest of the way for the whips ⁓ I think they're what two and four right now, so you don't really have much to lose ⁓ And I think getting him more reps will be good especially if he's if he's giving you 50 plus percent every week then

Neil Barrett (51:36)
Mm-hmm.

Brandon Hooten (51:49)
That's a good thing. ⁓ And then my only other note really was just that Nardella was incredible again. And I do wonder if, I like Luke Wehrman as a player, there are certain games each year that I'm like, if we just want a few more, maybe we'd be better. But also that didn't matter in this game, obviously, because the defense was so good. But yeah, those were kind of my main points.

Neil Barrett (51:55)
Really good.

Not at all. Not at all.

Another game where the team that went over 65 % at the face-off. Did not win. For everyone who thinks that face-offs have never mattered more. I keep hearing that. I'm like, what makes you think that face-offs matter when this consistently happens? I'm with you right there on Emmet Carroll. I think the last two weeks, two, did you play last week? I can't remember.

The last couple of games that he's played, I think he's proven that he should probably be the starter going 57 % in a game where, where your team only scored six goals. Like, you know, he made, he made 16 saves and let in 13 goals. Like he, was getting peppered over there. Uh, and, and quite a few of those, I don't think he could have saved if he had advanced warning on where it was going.

Brandon Hooten (52:55)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Neil Barrett (53:12)
The Brandon O'Neill rocket like no he's not saving these a lot of inside shots. No, so ⁓

Brandon Hooten (53:20)
Well, and their

defense was falling asleep at times. the pass that Brennan had onto the doorstep to Jared Bernhardt, because he fully loaded up and made it look like he was shooting. Even without that happening, it was awesome. But without that happening, I don't know what was occurring with the defender on the doorstep. Like Jared was just just waltzed in there like, here I am. You know, and so then it's like that type of stuff happens and it's like, yeah, you're going to get scored on. Cause your defense just doesn't even know that there's a guy slipping back door. Like.

Neil Barrett (53:24)
Terrible.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Sit in there waiting

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And like you said, Brennan O'Neill, like we talked about last week in the All-Star game, when he's relaxed and comfortable and just like playing with the flow of the game, he's unguardable. And. You know, we we talked about we've talked several times about how he can do those kinds of things on every single possession, and I thought it was really funny. I don't I don't know if you heard this. They talked about that. ⁓

towards the end of the game, it was a little out of hand, it was clear that the outlaws were gonna win. And they talked about the idea of like, oh, Brennan can do this on every possession. And I think it was Quint was like, I mean, not literally, like we all know he can't do it on every single possession, but he can do it consistently enough that you should be making it a point to feed him the ball. And yeah, there's just, they are rounding into

I think kind of who we thought they could be. think, ⁓ remember I had to recant my, this is the best defensive six in the league. I think, I think with the addition of Logan Mcnaney, they might be the best defensive unit in the league now there, or at least at least they're rounding into it. know Carolina is going to say that they should be in the conversation. There's a, there's a couple of teams that are going to feel like that.

Brandon Hooten (55:12)
There are a teams I think you could

really argue it pretty close.

Neil Barrett (55:16)
For sure, for sure. Atlas is another one with ⁓ Danny Logan and Liam Intamin. So there's a couple of teams, but I feel way better about my preseason prediction that I felt the need to recant in like week three. And now I feel like I can recant my recant if that is something that we do. ⁓

Brandon Hooten (55:40)
Hey, welcome aboard.

Neil Barrett (55:46)
Maybe I need to get me a Brandon O'Neill jersey. I don't know.

Brandon Hooten (55:50)
Just saying but the other thing I'll say about this game too is Pacino was lights out ⁓ JT Jowell's Harris he'll never win DPOY in my mind just because of Again, like we talked about a few weeks ago like quantifying things isn't that's not his game But he used to shut down dude, like he's been incredible all year long, especially in this game And and I don't know how to say this guy's name is it AJ pilot? Do you know?

Neil Barrett (55:56)
Mm.

Shut down.

I feel like I could have told you if you didn't say it the second that you said that while I was looking at it I was like ⁓ I'm only gonna say pilot whether it's correct or not. Let's Let's say it

Brandon Hooten (56:30)
Well, however you say his name, I

feel like the defense has just been better since he's been in the lineup and more consistent. Which obviously it helps when you got McNany, Gettys, JT and Jake all playing well. yeah, think top to bottom that defense has been much more locked in.

Neil Barrett (56:49)
Yeah. The question for you, you, you brought it up. Who would you have kind of leading the clubhouse? Cause like we talked about, you know, I think Graham Hasek is another name that has been outstanding, but like we talked about the Archer struggles are probably going to bring. I, I can't imagine he's not a defensive player of the year finalist, but in terms of like actually winning the award, there does seem

to generally speaking be some level of team success that's necessary for you to win these awards. So in that, in that situation, now I'm wondering like, okay, who's, who's left if we're, if we're saying Graham Hasak is unlikely to win it. And we think that JT Charles Harris, because his, cause statistically he doesn't put up the numbers that are often awarded this award. Who are the guys that we think could win it?

Brandon Hooten (57:49)
I still think Hosek has a chance despite team success. I think they'd have to go... They'd have to finish season like 2-8 for him to not be considered. ⁓ I do think Gavin Adler is up. Yeah, true. I think Gavin Adler is up there though. ⁓ I think JT will be a finalist. I just... I question if he'll get the votes for it is the big issue. But I think Philly has a couple guys that could probably...

Neil Barrett (57:51)
Sure.

On their way. That's fair.

Brandon Hooten (58:19)
Be up there. ⁓

Neil Barrett (58:22)
I could, I could see it. The thing I think about. Yeah, I was going to say the thing I think about Philly is that again, not that they're not deserving in terms of the way that they're playing, but again, I think there's a level of name recognition that's missing from those guys. And so the only, the only other guy that I can think of that, has the stats that at least currently the team is having some, some success. Andy has some level of, of name recognition is Jack Rowlett.

Brandon Hooten (58:24)
I think those are probably tough, but...

Yeah.

Neil Barrett (58:52)
She's the only guy I can think of. And the reason I'm asking, the reason I asked you that was because when you said that, I agree with you that JT Giles Harris probably doesn't win. But then I was thinking, I mean, if ever there was a year where he does win, this does kind of feel like it could be the one with how good Denver has been and how well he's playing. And I think we have heard this narrative now for several years that JT Giles Harris

Brandon Hooten (58:52)
Yeah.

Neil Barrett (59:20)
doesn't put up the statistical numbers to back how good he's actually playing. And it feels like anecdotally that people are actually paying attention to the way he's playing perhaps a little bit more than they have in previous years. So I think he might have a good shot, but obviously we will see.

Brandon Hooten (59:41)
But

also, if people are watching these games more because of how good they are, are they looking at a guy like Jake Pacino and taking more note of him because he has more statistical impact? Like, and I personally would have JT above Pacino currently. Like, I jokingly put a picture of Jake Pacino under a tweet from Brian this week when he was talking about DPO-wise, because I know he's a Pacino guy, and Pacino's been great. ⁓ But I have to wonder.

Neil Barrett (59:59)
Right.

He's a Pesino and JT guy.

Brandon Hooten (1:00:10)
Yeah,

so I have to wonder like, could they both get into that finalist group? Or do they argue that no, has to be one kind of per team? Again, I would have JT personally over Pacino right now, but I could see him making a run for it, especially because he's coming off of what a four cost turnover game. he's putting up five points this year as well. So he's getting it done on both ends.

Neil Barrett (1:00:36)
My question to you is, and I don't know the answer. I'm legitimately asking, can an LSM win Defensive Player of the Year because they have their own category, LSM of the Year.

Brandon Hooten (1:00:51)
Now that you say that, I think you're correct. So disregard everything I just said then. I didn't even consider that. I did not even consider that.

Neil Barrett (1:00:54)
I literally just thought of it I'm like with you. I'm

like with you. I'm like, yep. No, you're right. But you know has been great and he gets the offensive stats to I'm like right there with you and then it dawned on me I was thinking has an LSM ever won defensive player of the year and I was like, no way they haven't because they have their own war So, okay. Well, we're just gonna pretend Yep, we're gonna pretend that that didn't happen. We're gonna move right along just completely ignoring it

Brandon Hooten (1:01:16)
Well yeah, scratch that then.

Yes.

Neil Barrett (1:01:24)
My question for you is as of right now are the outlaws the title favorite?

Brandon Hooten (1:01:37)
Yeah, when we're talking about odds, it's tough because I think there's highs and lows with it that I think... Like, I'm still really high on the Atlas as well. If anything, I think they'd probably be tied for favorites. I don't want to say they're like the overwhelming favorite just because they're one game ahead in the Western Conference. ⁓ I would say that they should be leading though, if know, we're all at...

plus 400 or whatever, then we should all be, you know, maybe Atlas and Outlaws are tied. But I think they're probably moving in the right direction the most after starting 0-2 to then go 4-0. You know, my question for this team mostly now is when does that kind of first loss kick in?

because at some point, at least in my mind, no team's gonna be able to just win, win, win, win, win, win, win. There's gonna come a loss at some point, and then how do they bounce back from that? If they lose this week to Boston, how does that look the following week then? And so that's why I'm hesitant to say they're the favorite, because I'm high on New York still as well. And I still think Philly is still up there as well. They've kind of been up there all season for me, so I don't know. Yes and no to Cop Out.

Neil Barrett (1:02:55)
You just don't want to say yes about the outlaws and jinx them.

Brandon Hooten (1:03:00)
I I don't want to jinx anybody. I don't want anybody coming for us. you know, it's...

Neil Barrett (1:03:06)
Hey, say Blaze is the best goalie in the league right now. Say it.

Brandon Hooten (1:03:09)
Hahaha!

If he

wins goalie, will absolutely say that.

Neil Barrett (1:03:17)
No, I, ⁓ I have, I think I have the outlaws as the current favorite. Doesn't mean it won't change. Like you said, they lose next week against the cannons and, and it, you know, totally shoots their season in the foot. You know, that, that could absolutely happen. I can see a scenario in which that happens. I can also see they, lose that game and, it just kind of like strengthens them and they just, they just march on.

So I'm not saying that a loss next week would just like completely take them out of contention or anything, but you know, they're, are a young team that, you know, has some guys that have maybe not handled pressure as super well in the past or haven't faced it. I think you could argue the Kavanaugh, the Kavanaugh's there's only one on this team, Pat Kavanaugh may not have.

you know, technically experienced that. That's probably a little heavy handed. I'm sure he's experienced setbacks in his life. But if you think about kind of the recent history of him, you know, he ran undefeated through through the college team two years in a row and then kind of didn't really play too much dealt with a little bit of some injuries and then didn't really play too much in Boston last year. So I don't think that a lot of what Boston went through is on him. So, you know,

We'll see what happens now that it's more on his shoulders if this kind of comes to fruition. Like you said, though, New York's right there. Philly is probably still right there. I would still think the cannons are ⁓ maybe not a favorite at this point after after losing. I think it's too straight now, but ⁓ certainly a team that I'd be worried about it if they showed up on my roster or if they showed up on my schedule next week, I'd I'd certainly worry about playing them.

Brandon Hooten (1:05:06)
Yeah.

Neil Barrett (1:05:13)
So I think there's a couple of teams, but I do think they're at the top.

Brandon Hooten (1:05:13)
Yep. I will.

I will say though, kinda segueing, I do think adding Jonathan Donville does strengthen them that much more.

Neil Barrett (1:05:27)
Yeah. Where do you see him playing? I'm assuming he's running midfield, ⁓ which I think he was doing most recently anyway. ⁓ where do you see him fitting? mean, ⁓ starting six, however you line them up of Vernon O'Neill, Pat Kavanaugh, Jared Bernhardt, Logan Wiznowskis, presumably Justin Anderson and Jonathan Donville is

Brandon Hooten (1:05:38)
viewers.

Neil Barrett (1:05:57)
Insane.

Brandon Hooten (1:05:59)
Yeah, I think it'll probably be Van Overbeck that gets bumped in my mind. ⁓ think Justin Anderson has kind of started to find his rhythm. I think he scored a couple straight games. ⁓ And then, like, think Dalton Young has been really consistent. He obviously wasn't really impactful statistically in this past game, but ⁓ I think he's kind of earned his spot there.

Neil Barrett (1:06:15)
a little bit.

Brandon Hooten (1:06:29)
Graham Bundy is spotty for me. Like when he's hitting two bombs, he's, you know, it's, well, it's Graham Bundy. It's awesome. But when he's not, then it's kind of like, okay, where is his spot in the offense? And then when you get a guy like Donville, I'm admittedly much higher on Donville than I think a lot of people are. You know, do you rotate Bundy out then? Or I just, I think it's going to be one of Vannevar Bek or Bundy, unfortunately.

Neil Barrett (1:06:56)
Yeah,

it feels like Van Overbeck is the most easily replaced player. I don't know that he's shown a whole lot in Denver, contrary to what he was doing in Utah, especially in the championship series this year. So I think that that is just the rich getting richer here. And the good news is that you can.

you have some leeway to kind of move him around and he doesn't come in, I don't think he comes in and disrupts anything. He's just a guy that kind of adds to, because you're not pulling him out of any of kind of your more important positions. He's going to be your fifth or sixth guy in terms of that starting offensive ⁓ rotation. So crazy, crazy stuff. So ⁓ let's...

Let's move on a little bit and talk about a couple of players. you know, I don't want to rehash awards every single episode, but this was noticeably probably the first time all season, a down week for every rookie not named Sam King, which feels a little harsh to say, cause I know Chris Kavanaugh also had three points, but his team is bottoming out and

Again, like we talked about with several guys, it felt like a fairly quiet three points. I don't, I don't really remember it where Sam King was single-handedly keeping the archers in the game for a good portion of that second half until it just got away from them. So it is Sam King. I think for a long time, it's been three, four guys were kind of all bunched together. Do you think Sam King has now started to separate himself a bit?

Brandon Hooten (1:08:47)
No, I think they're all still bunched. ⁓ The problem is that all the guys that kind of had down weeks were also still ahead. And I don't want say comfortably, but enough far ahead that it's like even with Sam King's performance, he's kind of just catching up. ⁓ Like I told you, I do think he's making it interesting, more interesting, because you're going to have to talk about him. But ⁓

I Aiden Carroll's still been unbelievable. He leads all rookies with 18 points right now. ⁓ The two woods, mean, Kavanagh and McAdory, 17 and 16 points respectively. Does team success come into play with that? It's a rookie, it's not MVP, it's not DPOY, so maybe not. ⁓ And I think Matt Trainor's also been really good, ⁓ know, sneakily under the radar.

So I think those are probably ahead just because Sam King is, you know, tied for fourth in points among rookies. 11 turnovers, ⁓ not shooting the best out of the rookies either. ⁓ I think it's going to come into play of like...

with the roster that he has, the way that he has stepped up, is he gonna continue to step up like this in future games? Because if that's the case, then all of a sudden maybe we're overriding statistical values for you leading the team. ⁓ But to me, I still have him behind several guys. But I do think it's all close. That could change in one week, literally. ⁓

Neil Barrett (1:10:21)
Well, and that was that was kind of why I was asking because Aiden Carroll was kind of non-existent this week at all. ⁓ Chris Kavanaugh, Andrew McAdory, both kind of down weeks. Matt Trainor didn't really do much of anything of consequence. So, you know, where where exactly does Sam King, although. While you were sitting here talking, I remember Logan McNaney is also a rookie and I think.

Brandon Hooten (1:10:48)
Yep.

Neil Barrett (1:10:50)
If anyone is in the lead right now, it's probably him. ⁓

Brandon Hooten (1:10:54)
Well, and that's the thing

is like if we're gonna say Sam King is better than these other guys like to me it's like Mcnaney's over here because he's a goalie and all the attackmen slash middies are kind of over here and because because of how good Mcnaney's been and to me it's gonna come down to him versus a goal scorer and I just don't know Sam King so far is ahead of these other guys. ⁓ So, you know, I don't know.

Neil Barrett (1:11:20)
Well, and in terms of Logan Mcnaney, you have talked about it several times about how, you know, the way he's playing right now is arguably not just rookie of the year, it's MVP caliber play right now. He may not get into that conversation for lots of reasons that probably aren't related to how well he's playing, ⁓ but

Brandon Hooten (1:11:40)
No.

Neil Barrett (1:11:48)
You know, if you're playing that level of game, then, you know, rookie of the year's gotta be, I don't think there's another rookie of the year we're talking about that way. Good, good players, not that level.

Brandon Hooten (1:12:01)
No.

Yeah, well, and I mean, and you look at the other rookies we mentioned, like, they're all on losing teams. Aside from Matt Trainor. And again, this is, let me be transparent here. I'm not saying a goalie should come in and make a team a winning team. I will make the argument though that Logan McNamee came in and made the Outlaws a winning team. These, therefore I know with him in the lineup. So I also have to factor that in to be like, you turn...

Neil Barrett (1:12:26)
Mm-hmm.

Brandon Hooten (1:12:32)
Yeah, at least that face value, you turn the season around on top of having the statistics and the game film. ⁓ And to me, that kind of overrides other values. That said, I still like my boy Aiden Carroll and hope that he is at least top two when it's all said and done.

Neil Barrett (1:12:53)
Listen, my preseason guesses, not one of them are coming true. We already talked about the guy I had picked for MVP and how he ain't been present. I'm not even sure he's been on the field for a couple of these games. So what the hell do I know? Speaking of what the hell do I know? I saw an interesting tweet this week from Mr. One James Hogan. I'm not sure if this one.

Brandon Hooten (1:12:57)
Hahaha

Hahaha

Neil Barrett (1:13:21)
he wrote or chat GBT came up with but but he asked ironically enough after the Atlas game but before the outlaws game who you would build a team around if you were a GM starting today between Connor Schellenberger and Brennan O'Neill this feels a little bit of a

loaded question for us because you're an Outlaws fan and I'm a Duke fan. So I think the answer is pretty clear of who we would pick, but I just thought it was an interesting conversation as to maybe why beyond our fandoms. Because I, I'm not, I'm not naive. I'm not going to say that I have no biases, but I would like to think that I can

remove most of my bias for Duke when discussing these kinds of conversations. Obviously it's going to color some part of my thinking, but I was really interested into not just who you might pick, but why.

Brandon Hooten (1:14:39)
is such a tough question. I did not see this tweet, so I did not prepare any type of argument for either. ⁓ I mean, don't think... Firstly, I don't think you can go wrong. think, you know, either... If there was an expansion draft, hypothetically, and both these guys were available, I don't think it's like, man, I should have picked the other one. They're both ⁓ good. I lean more towards Brennan because I think you can probably move him around more and do more with him.

just with his body type. I think even right now if we needed him to run out of the box he could at a much more efficient rate than I would feel running Schellenberger out of the box. But then again, Shelley is finishing at an incredible clip right now. Shooting 46 % is pretty good.

I don't know, Eileen Brennan, but I would be interested to hear people's argument for Shelley, because I think there are probably plenty of valid ones.

Neil Barrett (1:15:49)
For sure. Like you said, I don't think there's necessarily a wrong choice. ⁓ I like you. think I would lean Brennan because of versatility and

There's things that I think Brennan, I think that pretty much everything ⁓ Shelly does Brennan can do, but there are a few things that Brennan does that I don't think Shelly can do. Doesn't mean that Shelly isn't an incredible player and won't be an incredible player for a very, very long time. I just think that there are a few things that he can't do, especially like you talked about.

He can't be whatever it is, six, five and 240 pounds. Like he just can't be that. ⁓ Another thing that really, I don't think we talk enough about when it comes to Brennan O'Neal is his quickness, not in terms of like Michael Sauer's level of like explosive quickness and like cutting and stopping, but

his acceleration out of a dodge is so good and he, he can create two, three steps so well. And I, and it's a thing I think we overlook when we talk about Brendan O'Neil because we see his size, we see his shot, we, we pay attention to those things, but there were several dodges he had. He had this weekend where

he came out of them and was two, three steps away before the defender had kind of like process what had gone on. And again, we're talking about Brennan O'Neill, who is more often than not drawing the number one defensive assignment. He's covered by the best defender on that team. Another thing that I think we don't talk enough about is matchups. And I think Shelley benefits from

Jeff teet generally being the guy that takes the number one assignment off of him. And again, that's not to say that Shelley isn't a great player. It's not to say that he couldn't beat a number one assignment. It's just to say that sometimes I think we don't talk about the fact that he is not getting the number one assignment. He, we talked about it before with, with the Kavanagh's and how much they benefit from being

slightly farther down the pecking order and drawing lesser assignments and how much freedom that gives them. And I generally think that that Shelley gets that though again, great, great play. We're talking, we're talking splitting very, very fine hairs here. Shelley is not trash. He's not, know, Brennan isn't head and shoulders above him at any thing.

Brandon Hooten (1:18:52)
Well,

he literally is, but...

Neil Barrett (1:18:55)
Okay, okay fine he's he's he towers over him physically All right, all right, all right fair enough fair enough that's a that's a good point he does and You know, honestly Shelley's what six one so it's a good couple inches, but he's you know, if I stood next to Brandon O'Neil I you know

Brandon Hooten (1:18:55)
Hahaha!

Sorry, I had to. It was there for the taking. I had to.

Neil Barrett (1:19:22)
Probably in his armpit, you know, if that I should see when in Boston, I should see if I can get a picture with Brendan O'Neill. We'll see. I'll probably be in his armpit. I'll be eye level with his nipples or something. I don't know. We'll see. ⁓ That was a weird thing. That's a weird sentence to say on a podcast. Anyway, let's move on to.

Brandon Hooten (1:19:30)
huh.

That's funny.

You

Neil Barrett (1:19:51)
Well, let's move on first to what happened a little bit earlier today with the indigenous heritage drop. One of the things that we look forward to the most, not a ton to talk about. If you saw last year's, you basically know what they look like this year. Just imagine them in the opposite color, more or less. ⁓ let's, let's say, let's just say who's your favorite and who was your least favorite this year.

Brandon Hooten (1:20:17)
my least favorite...

Man, I'm torn between a couple. The Atlas one's confusing for me because the bull on the front already has horns and then there's like more horns looking on the sides. So that for me is really frustrating. ⁓ Chaos is just very plain. It's an awesome Scorpion logo, but you know, and then the other one I'm torn with is the Boston Jersey. That's to me, that's my least favorite logo.

Neil Barrett (1:20:33)
On the sleeves.

Brandon Hooten (1:20:52)
of the bunch and then the sleeves are pretty ⁓ standard as well. I'm gonna go, think my least favorite's probably New York despite me loving their colors just because I can't unsee the double horns. I just, I can't, I don't know why. ⁓ So yeah, that's probably my least favorite. My favorite, ⁓ obviously love the orange outlaws. I've been asking for an orange jersey for...

Neil Barrett (1:21:04)
The double horn.

Brandon Hooten (1:21:17)
Two and a half years now, so I love that so for me. It's between that and funny enough the woods. I really like the brown ⁓ Just because it's different. I you know I feel like we've seen them where the whites the greens The yellow so yes, I just like seeing something different. I I think it would benefit from having a little more yellow somewhere to break up the kind of darkness of the green and brown but ⁓

Neil Barrett (1:21:33)
Yellow in the championship series. Yeah

Brandon Hooten (1:21:46)
Yeah, those. then also shout out to the Archers as well. I think that blue and orange is... I'm a Bronco fan. It's built into me. It's awesome.

Neil Barrett (1:21:56)
Yeah, first and foremost, I gotta agree with you that the brown needs more yellow. I think brown and yellow work really well together and the lack of yellow I think is hurting this jersey. I'm really glad that you said that because I've been looking at that jersey and been like, I feel like I wanna like this, but I just kinda don't like it. And I think you're right, I think it's the absence of more yellow on that jersey would have really, really made it work. ⁓ I agree with you on the Atlas.

I agree with you. For me, all of these are again, basically what they were last year. Only all of them are worse. I think, I think across the board they are worse. And I think the largest reason why I think that is because I think that these designs were designed specifically for the color Jersey that they were going to be on last year. And they didn't change that at all. They didn't change any of the colors.

All of these colors are exactly what they were last year in terms of what's on the actual logo. Just the material color has changed. The chaos went from a black jersey to a red jersey. The whips went from a red jersey to a white jersey. Everything else is the same. And I think that they suffer from that. Plus, I will also admit a bias here.

you guys had an opportunity to drop something cool and new, and you just went with the same thing from last year, which is kind of a theme that again, at some point, probably at the end of the season, when we don't have to talk about games every single week, we're going to have a larger conversation about this PLL season, but it left a little bit to be desired. The designs are great. I love that they actually hired a

I've totally blanking on what tribe he's from, but an actual native artist to design these, I just wish that they had maybe done it again. I liked the idea of like a native artist from the area where the game is being played, kind of designing something in their kind of look and feel and artwork style. That being said,

I agree with you on the archers. think it's, it is one of the better looking ones. I also, I think like the whip snakes and the water dogs as well, though we didn't mention the water dogs. think that one looks really cool. It's one of the cooler logos too. I think with the, the, the dog print, so

Brandon Hooten (1:24:34)
And again,

they're another team too that has another color now in their jersey arsenal, which is fantastic. Yeah.

Neil Barrett (1:24:40)
Yes. Yes. With the black. Yep. Yeah.

I forgot they're not wearing black to share. It's all it's all purple and white and green. Apparently that's what you know what? That's what this is missing. Some green. Just slap it on there in the middle for no reason. ⁓ Before we move on to this coming weekend's games, I just wanted to give a shout out to the t-shirts that go with this ⁓ indigenous heritage weekend. ⁓ The sweatshirts as well, but especially

Brandon Hooten (1:24:50)
Hahaha

Neil Barrett (1:25:09)
those t-shirts, did these like beige t-shirts with the logos on them with each team's indigenous heritage logo. And I love them. I think they're so cool. I I want every single one of them. I'm not going to break the bank to buy every single team's $35 Jersey, but, uh, Oh, I see also now that they have added

A PLL version. They literally just did that. They literally just did that. Well, it's funny because several of us were like, the PLL indigenous heritage logo that they apparently did this year. I don't remember them doing that last year. It looks like they created it for this year. ⁓ We were like, hey, we need some gear with that logo on it. Cause the logo is sweet.

Brandon Hooten (1:25:37)
There you go. There's your team right there.

Neil Barrett (1:26:00)
Clearly they were listening because they've added that was not I've looked three or four times throughout the day. It was not up until just now. So really cool. Definitely check those out if you are inclined. Let's move on to the actual games on the field this weekend. The first game up this weekend is the Atlas taking on the Redwoods.

Any any chance you you got the redwoods on this one?

Brandon Hooten (1:26:27)
No, I don't know. I'm bad at pick-ups. I told my family this week I'm going to use a coin flip or a magic eight ball or something of the sort because I can't pick to save my life. Logically, no, they shouldn't win this game. But because I said that and because I'm bad at it, they're going to win. but again, Atlas are just hot and the woods are not. So.

Neil Barrett (1:26:28)
No.

Yeah.

Yes, as with everything, the fact that we have picked means it's going to go exactly the opposite. But I'm right there with you. There's there's no way the Atlas should be losing this game for anything. Barring, you know, Liam Intamin gets injured in warmups and just doesn't play. There's no way they should be on this. got my tables made of wood. So there we go. Knock on wood.

Brandon Hooten (1:27:11)
Knock on wood.

There you go.

Neil Barrett (1:27:16)
⁓ Let's move on to the second game the archers playing the chaos I dare you I double dog dare you to pick against the chaos

Brandon Hooten (1:27:32)
No, thank you, dude. No, thank you. Dude, the Arcturus have broken my heart too many times this year, They're gonna have to prove it to me. I may have to pick against them the rest of the way. Just... I... I'm sorry, but... Blaze is playing at such a good level, it does not matter what Dobson does, because their offense can't put up goals. And playing against Blaze is just gonna be that much worse for them.

Neil Barrett (1:27:33)
you

Brandon Hooten (1:27:59)
So, barring another Sam King takeover, times two. And this is weird, I don't pick the Chaos. Like, I don't know if I picked them all year, maybe once. So, you know. They played the Whips? Yeah, they got killed by like 14. So yeah. So of course this is gonna be the game then that Schreiber comes out and drops like six goals.

Neil Barrett (1:28:10)
And they probably lost that game.

Yeah

Yeah, yeah, I think I think this is gonna be one of those like trap games where the Everyone's gonna be like nope. Chaos are rolling archers are flat and all of a sudden. It's gonna be a lot like that Maryland game They're just gonna blow the doors off of them ⁓ Blaze is of course the best goalie in the league. I Feel like I need to like cross myself when I say that ⁓ But but

Brandon Hooten (1:28:47)
⁓

Neil Barrett (1:28:51)
I'm gonna, part of me feels like I should do like you and say the archers are going to lose and pick against them just to see, but I'm gonna say the archers pull this one out barely, barely. I think that that defense is going to be on a little bit of a mission and we'll see, we'll see. Blaze is of course the best goalie in the league though. I just wanna say that one last time before we move on.

To the third game again, this is another this this is Connecticut weekend Indigenous heritage weekend. We are getting all eight teams. So ⁓ the next game is the cannons taking on the outlaws Who you picking because you have a history of of not picking the outlaws in order for them to win

Brandon Hooten (1:29:43)
Well, I did pick them the last, for sure last week. I don't know if I picked them the week before, but for sure last week and they won. So I think I'm breaking that curse, I think. I don't know, this one actually is really tough for me because I still think you can't overlook Boston. And if they put it together like we've seen them be able to, then this could be a tight game. I leaned towards the hot team.

Neil Barrett (1:29:54)
So the curse is broken. Okay.

Brandon Hooten (1:30:12)
with the outlaws but like I said earlier at some point I do think the streak's going to come to an end you know does it come against a team like this or does it come next week against you know a Utah team that's not as you know so ⁓ I don't know I lean Denver but I'm hesitant as of now to fully say they're gonna win yeah

Neil Barrett (1:30:19)
Mm-hmm.

One way or the other.

Yeah. I'm with you. I think I still feel like the cannons are one of the better teams in this league. And like you have said, a loss is. Is probably coming to the outlaws at some point, and you also got to feel like the cannons are going to like.

really be looking for a win this week.

I know, I still kind of feel like the outlaws though.

I don't know. I think I'm going to ride with with the outlaws knowing ⁓ full well.

Brandon Hooten (1:31:16)
and one more thing that we didn't even think about. If Jonathan Donville plays, this is a revenge game.

Neil Barrett (1:31:24)
That's a fair point. That is definitely a fair point.

Brandon Hooten (1:31:26)
I don't think he plays,

but if he does, just put that out

Neil Barrett (1:31:31)
Do you think Do you think he doesn't play this week because they're like trying, you know, they're gonna kind of work him in slowly or is this a ⁓ Will Manny who's the other one that the cannons? Jules yeah, do you think that's a will Manny Jules thing where they pick him up and then they don't really play him? No, you think you think they're gonna play they're just gonna take their time

Brandon Hooten (1:31:45)
rules.

Yeah, I think

I wouldn't be surprised if he plays this weekend. I just personally don't think he will just because I think it's going to be one of those things that's like, hey, we just brought you on. Like, let's get you to learn in the offense and whatnot. then next week, because he's a good player no matter what. ⁓ And I don't think you claim him if you don't have like a plan for him necessarily. to and this is Jules can still play. Will Manning can still play. Jonathan Donville is considerably younger.

Neil Barrett (1:32:04)
next week. Yeah.

Annie.

Brandon Hooten (1:32:22)
Like, it makes more sense in my mind that he will play the rest of the way, at least after this week.

Neil Barrett (1:32:28)
Okay. All right. Yeah. No, that's, that's fair. I

Brandon Hooten (1:32:31)
Maybe I'm completely off though. Who knows.

Neil Barrett (1:32:33)
No,

I, I think it makes sense at least. And I can't fault a argument that makes sense, whether it turns out to not be the case or whatever. can't, you know, if you've thought it through and it makes sense, it follows a logical pattern. can't really argue that. ⁓ so yeah, all that to say, I am going to run with the outlaws for this week. Let's move on to the last game of indigenous heritage weekend.

where the whip snakes will take on the water dogs. It feels like another one where it's like, do the, do the whip snakes have any shot?

Brandon Hooten (1:33:12)
The last time I said that they didn't, they beat the team by 14. So, yes. But no.

Neil Barrett (1:33:25)
One thing we did not talk about at all when talking about the WIPs game earlier was Rob Pinnell.

and they did something in this game that they hadn't done this year and that was in the second half they pulled him off of the attack and ran him out of the box some. ⁓ I don't know about you, I thought that offense looked considerably worse without him. It must be said some of that at least is probably due to

him not or them not having like practiced without him playing attack and them trying to like feel it out and with more time and experience in a system running that way, they could probably figure it out. But I thought that team looked considerably worse without him. There was one stretch in the last, I think, five Whipsnakes possessions of that game. Admittedly, again, very late in a game that they were not going to win.

but they had five possessions where he didn't even come on the field. He didn't even run out of the box. He was not on the field at all. They had three shots that sailed at least 10 feet over the top of the goal. They had ⁓ two turnovers, like just bad turnovers on simple exchanges. And then I think two shot clock violations. They looked awful as much as

People want to call him a glue factory guy and stuff and claim it. I don't, I don't think the issue is him. I'm not saying, I'm not saying he's an MVP candidate or an all star level player by any stretch of the imagination, but I, I do think that he is not the problem on that offense. And again, I'm going to pick against him and they're going to win by 14 and make me look stupid, but

I think that there are some issues on this whips team that we are not talking about and they're going to become more and more apparent over the next couple of weeks. And I think Philly's Philly should definitely win this game.

Brandon Hooten (1:35:48)
Yeah.

Neil Barrett (1:35:51)
I signed off. I agree.

Brandon Hooten (1:35:55)
Yeah, yep.

All of the above.

Neil Barrett (1:35:58)
all of the above to shake. Gotcha. All right. Well, anything else?

Brandon Hooten (1:36:08)
Nope, pretty basic week this week.

Neil Barrett (1:36:09)
Nope.

Yeah, no, it's ⁓ I feel like I ranted and just killed the mood of Of the pod. The pod?

Brandon Hooten (1:36:21)
I mean everything

you said was correct. You know, I just have nothing to add. I You know

Neil Barrett (1:36:27)
We'll give blaze a few more Hail Mary's. about that?

Brandon Hooten (1:36:29)
Hahaha

Neil Barrett (1:36:33)
We will finish this pod with a Blaze is the best goalie in the PLL of all.

Brandon Hooten (1:36:39)
I'm just...

Well, yeah, that's 100 % fair. Like, I will gladly say he's the best goalie of all time.

Neil Barrett (1:36:47)
That is actually true. That is a true statement.

Certainly in the PLL era there there might be some some Brian darty some Sal Acacia like there might be some guys way back there if you want to go back but Certainly in the era of the PLL. It's not even close blaze is the best goalie of the seven years of the PLL's existence so

Brandon Hooten (1:36:54)
100%, 100%.

Yes.

Neil Barrett (1:37:19)
blessings up to blaze and with that we will sign off for today if you enjoyed today's episode please like comment subscribe share pass it on to a friend who likes the game I once again am at Neil Barrett on Instagram and X Brandon is at hoot sports media on Instagram and X the show can be found at

run out pod on Instagram and X. hate saying X by the way. It's Twitter. We're calling it Twitter on Twitter. You can find us both on Twitter.

Brandon Hooten (1:37:53)
Yep, yep. ⁓

and before I forget, before I get out of here, shout out to Paul Rable for paying me to tweet about the MLL. I really love getting paid to tweet about a league that does not exist anymore. That is my favorite activity. Shout out to Paul Rable for also forcing me to eat beyond meat and drink Gatorade and ⁓ drink non-alcoholic beverages. I really appreciate him forcing all of that on all of us.

Neil Barrett (1:38:21)
Yeah, I was I had someone knock on my door today and demand that I take a loan from USA Bank. ⁓ Yeah. Told me I couldn't be a PLL fan. I couldn't I was not allowed to cheer for Blaze Riorden, the best goalie in the PLL. ⁓ Unless I took out a loan from US Bank. Have we beat that? Have we beat that horse? Is it dead? OK.

Brandon Hooten (1:38:26)
Yeah. Dude, it's ridiculous what they're doing out there now. So.

Yup, yup.

I'm gonna keep doing it as long as these trolls keep telling me. Cause

I haven't seen a dime, Paul. Where's my check, Paul? It better be in the mail.

Neil Barrett (1:38:53)
Listen,

we need to get out of here because if we start talking about the trolls on the Internet, this podcast will be seven or eight hours long. with that being said, we are going to get out of here. As always, we will catch you guys in the comments.

Brandon Hooten (1:39:03)
You