The Boston Cannons just cut Asher Nolting. A 4x All-Star, a 2x First Team All-Pro, a 2x AOTY finalist, and an MVP finalist, in his first 4 years in the league. One game into his season, two points, and he is gone. We get into why this feels like it has nothing to do with what is happening on the field, why it rhymes with the Connor Fields situation back in 2020.
The Whipsnakes were up 10-3 on the Atlas and lost 16-14. We try to figure out if it is the biggest collapse we have ever seen in this league, land on the Brennan O'Neill Archers game as the one that might still top it, and Neil describes taking your foot so far off the gas that it ends up in the backseat. Connor Schellenberger is starting to look like he gets it. Whether that says more about New York or about Maryland is the real question.
We also hand out the Dylan Molloy game. Seven goals to tie the single game record, back to back weeks of somebody doing it, and Brett Dobson calling him the closest thing to John Grant Jr. since John Grant Jr. We are not sure we see the comparison. We are pretty sure we see 2019 Matt Rambo instead. There is also a long, painful detour into fantasy lacrosse and the specific genius of benching every player right before he goes off.
On the WLL side, the New York Charging keep doing what their name suggests. Madison Doucette set a league record with a 63 percent night, the Charm shot 21 percent, and we are running out of ways to explain how anyone beats this team.
Plus the All-Star rosters dropped, voted by the fans, off two games, and we get into why that is a problem. Snubs, visa issues keeping rookies out, Trevor Baptiste making it as a face-off All-Star after playing two games, and the hot seat debate between Brian Holman and Chris Bates. We close on the Hall of Fame, Joe Tsai going in as the first contributor, and whether that is fair.
If you want to keep the conversation going after the episode ends, the Lax Lifers Club is where we live between shows.Join Here
Neil Barrett: Welcome, welcome, welcome to the runout. I am Neil Barrett. He is Brandon Hooton. We have so much going on after ⁓ a ⁓ week ⁓ off last I is we'll say it. ⁓ the Atlas dragged their season back from the dead on Long Island. Dylan Malloy turned in maybe the best performance of his career. ⁓ And the cannons just cut a two time all pro. But before we get into any of that, as always, Brandon, how are we doing, man?
@HootSportsMedia: Doing well, just busy. summer really picked up. Month of June I should say really picked up, so that's it's been good, but just lots of stuff literally every day that I'm not working my day job. So yeah, that's about it.
Neil Barrett: Champagne problems, I believe is what they call it.
@HootSportsMedia: I suppose.
Neil Barrett: the largest tournament in the world is on right now. Have you seen even a single second of it?
@HootSportsMedia: What what tournament is that? Is that the
Neil Barrett: I know you know what it is. I know you know.
@HootSportsMedia: Have I seen a second? Yes, I've seen a second. Maybe two.
Neil Barrett: How how many how many seconds would you say you have seen if you were just giving an estimate?
@HootSportsMedia: I don't know, I watched like the last fifteen minutes of that USA game a couple of days ago. ⁓ not the last fifteen I should say, but I watched fifteen in there, roughly. Maybe ten. Maybe five, I don't know. It was it was a few minutes though. I was counting how many people were falling down. No, it was minutes, it was minutes. ⁓ I watched some of that one.
Neil Barrett: Fifteen minutes. Okay. It was like thirty seconds. He just felt like it was fifteen minutes.
@HootSportsMedia: Actually that's it. Yeah, that's all I've I've seen, you know, a couple of the highlights and such, but I don't really I haven't tuned in. I I'm watching more of the ⁓ the content surrounding the cup as opposed to the cup itself.
Neil Barrett: There has been some great content, so I I can't can't blame you for that. ⁓ speaking of content around the cup, ⁓ since we last spoke, the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup. So, ⁓ pretty great content there. obviously I know you I know you're not really a fan, you don't really care, but I care. It was amazing. Well, that's fair. That's fair. Everyone. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, no, it was ⁓ it was good. Like I said, the only thing I I I we did talk about the last episode we did was when I said ⁓ I hope they lose one.
@HootSportsMedia: ⁓ I cared 'cause they beat Vegas. Everyone in America except for Nevada was a hurricanes fan for about a week.
Neil Barrett: So that they could win it at home. ⁓ they did not lose one, they lost two. They did not win it at home, which was kind of obnoxious. But ⁓ really annoyingly I had to I had to work on Saturday. My f my friend was trying to get me to call in sick so we could go to the we could go to the parade. And she ended up going to the parade and I I was at work. So
@HootSportsMedia: They did the prayer on a Saturday?
Neil Barrett: They did the parade was it Saturday or Sunday? They did a the parade on the weekend. For some reason I feel like it was Sunday, but it might have been Saturday. But also all of my days are blending together because I've been working for like fifteen days straight. ⁓ so I I'm I
@HootSportsMedia: We had ours on like a like a Tuesday or like a Wednesday or something. It like sorry, everyone has to take the day off to go to this parade.
Neil Barrett: Yeah, no, maybe it was Saturday, but yeah, they ⁓ it was definitely on the weekend. ⁓ but also I don't think I think they won the cup, what, Monday, Monday or Tuesday night? I I it was and then and then they were they stayed in Vegas for like a full twenty-four hours or something. They didn't even get back till like Wednesday or Thursday. So like, yeah, by the time by the time it was really ready to go, like it it was the weekend anyway. So it might have just been
@HootSportsMedia: That's nice. Yeah, something like that.
Neil Barrett: It might have just been that that was the timing. ⁓ or maybe maybe they intentionally thought about it and they they they did it. That'd be that'd be cool. I wouldn't I wouldn't complain about that, but ⁓ the US plays ⁓ back to the World Cup, sorry. ⁓ s scatter brain here. ⁓ Thursday afternoon. You gonna watch? To be fair, there's nothing to watch for in this game because we've already we've already qualified and won the group. So they'll probably rest some players.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah. See, I knew that That's not why I'm not watching, but I knew that.
Neil Barrett: That's not why I'm not watching. You didn't have to say that. It was unnecessary.
@HootSportsMedia: E everyone knows why I'm not watching. It's fine. The pe there's tons of people out there that enjoy it and that's great. I hope they're having a grand time. I still hope we win. You know it's you know, I don't want us to lose by any means, but Good for Messi. Sahi has a bunch of goals or something like that, ⁓ in the World Cup all time or something. So I know that's good, ⁓
Neil Barrett: I love when you just like try. That's my favorite part.
@HootSportsMedia: That's true, is it not? D did he not have like eighteen World Cup goals or something like that?
Neil Barrett: I don't actually know what the what the number is. I know he he set the men's record. Last I knew Marta still had the overall record. ⁓ but that may have changed. That might have been ⁓ 'cause he scored two the other day and it might have been after the first one that he set the record and then ⁓ the second one would have probably tied him with Marta or something. So I'm not sure.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, yeah, see? Yeah, 'cause he also missed a PK, I know that.
Neil Barrett: He did miss a PK. That's true. That's true.
@HootSportsMedia: First one in a while.
Neil Barrett: Yeah, well. You miss some here and there. ⁓ despite what ⁓ Jake Malisek thinks, ⁓ you do you do miss.
@HootSportsMedia: Soccer ball knowledge. What do you mean? He didn't miss at all. He didn't miss at all. I saw the video. He made all of them.
Neil Barrett: Okay. All right. On on that note, let's talk about some actual lacrosse. ⁓ the PL was in Long Island this week. ⁓ for the New York Atlas homecoming. They did go 2 0. They started with their first game, saw them beat the Boston Cannons 12 to 11. ⁓ Atlas trailed for more than 44 minutes in this game before Brian Costabill's two-pointer gave them an 11 to 10 lead with three minutes and 25 seconds left. this game was kind of stupid. I honestly watching this game for 44 minutes, all I could think was: Yep, these are the two worst teams in the league. They they both look Terrible.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, I don't have much to add. ⁓ I picked Atlas, so it was very stressful trying to you know, root for them to kinda come back there. There was definitely a point where I was just like, There's no shot 'cause I pretty much always split the vote on homecoming weekend that you're gonna win one and lose one. And almost every time that I picked the home team to win game one, lose game two, they switch and now I have two losses on the record and it looks awful. So I was just like Thank you, Brian Costabile for for coming through.
Neil Barrett: I think I picked them too. Mm-hmm.
@HootSportsMedia: but Mick Kelly, that man's been a staple on my fantasy team a couple of weeks now. He's been incredible. you know, Holman had a good game. A couple other cool performances, but ⁓ You know, it's just you gotta wonder what would happen if they had Ashra Nolting. You know
Neil Barrett: Look, I didn't I didn't say it. It was it wasn't me.
@HootSportsMedia: It's not that like anyone else is like, you know, like bad on their team, but it's just just what a bizarre situation overall. Like it and it's no again, it's no shade to Brian Kelly or ⁓ you know, anyone else that they're having play attack right now, but it's just just weird. ⁓ McMeakin was awesome at the dot. I wanted to shout him out 'cause I know it was this this is what a second game I want to say? ⁓
Neil Barrett: I think that's right, yeah.
@HootSportsMedia: I think so. There was something else. ⁓ Liam Entiman was was great too. 60%. 17 saves. So.
Neil Barrett: Yeah, yeah. Obviously, Liam Intamin was was great, but also the Cannons outshot the Atlas 52 to 27. They doubled them up on shots and lost the game. ⁓ And of course, like Liam Intamin is a decent part of that. But also a lot of it was just missing shots. He he only made 17 saves and he only scored 11 goals. So So that puts you at twenty-eight shots where either were on target. They forced a save or went in the goal out of 52.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah. I mean the Atlas turned the ball over twenty four times. That's six times a quarter.
Neil Barrett: Like Yeah, right. The Atlas looked the Atlas looked terrible in this game. And the and the Cannons couldn't beat them.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, it's it's just weird 'cause like they had better you know, more time of possession, more shots on goal, more shots overall, less turnovers by a wide margin. But they they got they gotta figure out their their assist game. Like, you have eleven goals and only three of them are assisted. And it's funny because the dude they just cut today like is an assist guy and
Neil Barrett: a wide margin. Only if only they had a player on their roster that was known for making gazists.
@HootSportsMedia: Like And the thing is I understand like people's, you know, reasoning about okay, maybe he's out of shape or whatever, but like The the part that your team's missing. He that that's literally what he does. So unless you have someone else that can come in and do that consistently, like we talked about Brian Kelly had a great debut, but then once people had tape on him, he had one point in this game. So you know, and and again that's not picking on him specifically, but it's just you have a guy who like, correct me if I'm wrong, was Asher Nolting not in MVP talks a a year ago? Or was that two years ago whenever that was? Like
Neil Barrett: Yeah, he's got one point in the last two games.
@HootSportsMedia: It just feels very strange now to watch this game and be like, Hey, they're clearly missing someone like him and then a day later they're like, Yeah, we're releasing them.
Neil Barrett: He was Yeah, in the in the last three seasons, I think he's been an MVP finalist and an attackman of the year finalist twice. Like and not for nothing, the the one game we saw him, he had two points. I get that's not an amazing stat line, but it's not like he was doing nothing, especially when you when you look at his direct replacement in the last two games, has one point. Like if if we are if we're dropping people for a two point performance, then Then Brian Kelly better be out of the league. I'm not saying he should be obviously like that's not the thing, but like right, right. It's just like I don't understand what we're doing. And so ⁓ what I what I said to you, well, in several group chats that I I know you're in, is like this feels to me like it's not based on performance. Like there's some other issue here. I don't know what it is.
@HootSportsMedia: There are a lot of guys at that rate.
Neil Barrett: But it's not based on the on-the-field performance. It reminds me a lot of that 2020 season where Connor Fields had been an MVP candidate in 2019. And in 2020, him and Andy Towers had some kind of falling out or whatever, whatever it was that went on with them. And Connor Fields sat the whole the bench, the whole bubble tournament for no reason. It had nothing to do with his play or his ability. They just Flat didn't like each other and he sat on the bench the whole season and then they traded him in the offseason and he went to Is that when he went to the Archers? I feel like there was a team in between it, but Is it just those two? Okay. I feel like there's a team in between it, but
@HootSportsMedia: I think he I think he's only he's only played for those two teams, right? I I think I if someone knows better could be wrong, but I think it is just them. But
Neil Barrett: Yeah, it I don't know who it would be if it if you if there was another team, but but yeah, it it it feels like that level of thing where where whatever the issue is, it it ain't about point production or you know, whatever. Now, similar again to that Connor Fields issue, Andy Towers all kind of simultaneously was also trying to changed the way that his team played and was adapt adapting to more of that Canadian box lacrosse style that that they got to, which is ironic to me because Connor Fields is an NLL MVP. Like who who's playing the the NL box style better than him? But but for whatever reason, they didn't think that that Connor Fields would fit into that system ⁓ as well. And so, you know, it it was it wasn't It wasn't just whatever happened between the two of them. There were other things, but the same sort of thing feels like it's happened here, where maybe Boston's trying to change a little bit of the way that they're playing at the same time that it feels like there's some other kind of issue and it's just making it easy. And then lots of people are gonna say, ⁓ well, you know, they were the report came out today that Boston had been shopping him around. They'd been trying to trade him. Nobody wanted to trade him. And then nobody wanted to pick him up off of waivers. And like I said to you in our group chat today, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have done either of those either. Why? Why would I? You're actively shopping a player. You clearly don't want him. And I don't I don't necessarily need him. Not that he isn't better than an option that I have or whatever, but I don't necessarily need him. So I don't need to trade for him. I can let you exhaust your trade options, then put him up on waivers and let him get through his waivers, and then I can just grab him for free. Now I told you guys I told you and and Michael Harrison, I think last week or the week before, I expect that he's going to not be claimed. And he's going to sit, it's going to be another three weeks probably before somebody picks him up. Before somebody, it's going to take, I think, somebody getting into a position where they're like, ⁓ crap, we need to change things. And part of what we were talking about earlier, I think will come into play about this start-stop schedule that we've been playing. And, you know, your outlaws won't have played for a month by the time they take the field this weekend. I I don't I don't think even now. A lot of teams know what they do or don't have. And so I think it's gonna take another, I think it's gonna take another two or three weeks for some teams to start feeling like they understand their team and what could what they need to do to change and and stuff. Again, coming into this weekend, did did we think Atlas looked good at all? And like we just talked about, they didn't particularly look good against Boston either, but they won the game without without Jeff T, without Trevor Baptiste, without Danny Logan. You know, they went two and ⁓ without those three guys. You know. It it finally feels like maybe Connor Schellenberger's starting to figure out what he needs to do for this team. ⁓ they are they are absolutely at their best when he is the one attacking the goal and they're starting to figure it out. So so yeah, in in another two or three weeks, maybe they'll have a a a better hold on things. I don't know.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah. Seems like too many teams right now are just unclear on their identity. Not even just who they have. It just seems like there's too many teams trying new things that I mean Boston seems to be one, Utah seems to be another. it's just one of those things and that's why I I don't I I hope we're not looking at a milkman situation where Asher's just like sitting out forever and then magically one day someone's like, ⁓ we'll give you a shot like I you know, 'cause I do think Asher has a place in the league. But It's just one of those things that I'm just like I was watching this game like seriously, like But I'm not a head coach, I'm not a jam. Like you know, and and maybe maybe this is just one of those like anomalies where it's like I'm already focusing on it and thinking about it, so I notice it. But you start thinking back and you're like, ⁓ they're how much? ⁓ they're one and four. ⁓ they're minus five score differential. So they're not scoring the ball well enough.
Neil Barrett: Yeah, this this game was clear.
@HootSportsMedia: All of a sudden you start thinking, huh, maybe you could use and then and then like I brought up in the chat, it makes you think all the way back to that trade they made when they dealt Pat Calf because well we don't have spot for Pat Calf at attack. One year that lasted until he's cut.
Neil Barrett: It's Well, yeah, I was gonna say and and like I told you, I got I got no issue with you saying, hey, this dude that's ⁓ that's an MVP candidate and an attackman of the year candidate and everything, he is going he is more entrenched than this rookie that that we watched for a year not do much of anything. I got no problem with that. But making that decision and then a year later you're cutting that that guy.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah.
Neil Barrett: While while while Pat Cav went on to have a ⁓ an MVP year, ⁓ MVP finalist year in Denver and in in the little bit of time that we have s gotten to see him this year l looks great again, like what are we doing? You like you said, you
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, it just it j it feels very much like very reaction reactionary. Like ⁓ no w well he's not playing, so we're just gonna release him. Like what what are I mean, Ty Kurtz took a year off from the PL, came back, and has been in and out of that Boston lineup and he's on the field this weekend. But Asher can't. I love Ty Kurtz. This is not a slight to Ty Kurtz. That's an MVP finalist. Like I I I can go on for days, but it's just it just is so
Neil Barrett: Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yeah.
@HootSportsMedia: strange. Like it's you know, the the stuff with like Rambo, I completely understood. This is someone who I think we all agree is at least in this stage of the stage of their careers, is a step above Rambo. So what are we doing now that's like y and again, it's not like he was a bad player last year. If if he was really bad if you if you came into camp and you said Asher, we're giving you two games, we're giving you three games, that's it. But to give him one game with two points
Neil Barrett: Yeah. Yeah. Well and
@HootSportsMedia: And then you lose to a team that's already struggling.
Neil Barrett: And la and and yes, exactly that. You you you lose to teams that are bad. You you are one and four. The the things that you have tried to implement aren't working. And yes, it's been it's been what five games for them. It's been start and stop, it's been a super choppy season. But like like you said, Ty Kurtz was in, Matt Rambo has gotten other opportunities. Milkman's back. And yet we have this dude who ⁓ again has been an MVP caliber player the last three seasons. And the and the thought is never like, ⁓ we should we should maybe see if he could help this team out. Correct me, who who did they play in in week in that game that Asher played? Do you know off the top of your head?
@HootSportsMedia: No, but we can find out.
Neil Barrett: 'Cause I I feel like I feel like it was someone that in the moment we maybe thought was not a great loss, but now maybe it it doesn't look as bad.
@HootSportsMedia: They they played they played Carolina, they lost fourteen to ten. And then they then they killed the Water Dogs nineteen to five without Asher.
Neil Barrett: Right, right, right. And then that's their
@HootSportsMedia: Cause they played week they played week two and that was their first you know yeah but and and and what's funny about that is like so Colter Mackassie had a great game that game six points but then Trainer had had three but Brian Kelly didn't play this game. ⁓ trainer had three points, but then Asher had two, and Marcus Holman had two. Then yeah, then
Neil Barrett: Right. And that's their one win this season. Yeah. Brian Kelly had a good game. ⁓ the first game. ⁓ gotcha, gotcha.
@HootSportsMedia: They say he's injured and credit to the ⁓ the guys over I think it's is it over the head ⁓ podcast or something along those lines. I think they even said, like, their next episode, that's a benching. He didn't he's like and all of us were like, No, there's no way, like it's Ash or an old thing. And now you look back and you're like Now wait a minute, it it really might might have been. ⁓ which again, like but yeah, that second game is when Brian Kelly had
Neil Barrett: Yeah, over the head, yeah.
@HootSportsMedia: Had five points, and that's when Marcus had six points. ⁓ Matt Campbell got in the mix with with four. And like and that was a game where like literally everybody contributed. But that is an anomaly that has not happened since. It didn't happen their first game. It's easy if you watch that one game to be like, well, if they don't need him, because they put up nineteen. But like that that's not happening every single week. And it's just to me, it's like back to back years of just really bad cannons lacrosse and Back to back years, I think you look at their roster and you you'd expect them to have two or three wins at this point, and they're at one.
Neil Barrett: Yeah. Yeah, they are they are worse than the sum of their parts and they're cutting MVP caliber players. Like it just doesn't make any sense.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah. But hey, maybe maybe it works out in the end. I don't know.
Neil Barrett: Well, and one thing you you said earlier about the one and four thing. And I was like, Yeah, it's it's one thing when you're the Atlas and you cut Miles Jones, even though he had five points in his first two games from the midfield, and then you then you just go on a run and you're you win everything. And it's like, well, I mean, you can't argue with the results, even though it felt a little weird to cut a guy who was performing for you, you can't argue with the results. But now you've cut it you've cut a guy who was performing for you. amongst the highest in the league and it's not working. Like you know, whatever. So
@HootSportsMedia: Yep. And you have to go play the three in one Redwoods next week.
Neil Barrett: Yeah. Speaking of the Redwoods, that's a good transition into the second game of the weekend that saw the California Redwoods beat the Utah Archers sixteen to fourteen and what will now and forever be known as the Dylan Malloy game, as he scored seven goals in this one to tie the PLL single game goal record. I believe that's back to back weeks. We saw that happen now, 'cause Mac O'Keefe was was the previous week, right? Yeah. So ⁓
@HootSportsMedia: Think s I think so. Hard to remember with the bye weeks and such, but yeah, it's I mean twice in two or three weeks.
Neil Barrett: Just I know I was like, what yeah. ⁓ so incredible. I I wanted to ask you, Brett Dobson said that Malloy is the closest thing to John Grant Jr. we've seen since John Grant Jr. retired. I it's not it's not the comparison of how great Jr. was to me. I just don't see Dylam Loy as a as a John Grant Junior esque player.
@HootSportsMedia: Honestly, I think Dauber just meant like size wise and the the locations that the shots are coming from, potentially. ⁓ and just like the the randomness to it, especially in a game like this where he had seven goals and it just felt like anything he threw on target was going in. ⁓ i again, it was probably it it was probably one of those just like overreactions of just like, dude, I couldn't do anything. That was like John Grand Jr. ⁓
Neil Barrett: Which is Dauber's job to stop.
@HootSportsMedia: And you know, again, you watch this one game, maybe it's hard to argue that, but ⁓ I did think that was funny when I saw that trivia pop up today and I was just like, He said who? Who? ⁓ okay. I mean hey, if Dobber's saying that, the best one of the best goalies in the world, ⁓ okay.
Neil Barrett: You know what's funny is I didn't actually see the quote until after I answered the trivia game. And ⁓ I read that list and I was like, I was like, okay, Dylan Malloy's big. He just put up a bunch of points, and Brett Dobson's Canadian. Which one of these answers do I think he said? And I was like, he said junior. And I and of course I was right. But that was part of the reason why I was like, I don't know. It feels it feels
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Neil Barrett: Cliche in the wrong ways. Like it, it's literally like, ⁓ he's a big dude who uses his body. And he had a game in which he basically couldn't stop scoring, at least until he hit seven. Once he hit seven, I was like, dude, hit eight. And he just he just couldn't. ⁓ but but I was like, I I just don't, I just don't see Dylan Malloy as a John Grant Jr. Now, maybe, maybe I didn't watch enough John Grant Jr. Maybe it, maybe that's on me. But I would I was watching Dylan Malloy and I was like, I don't I don't see a I don't see a junior in that junior to me always had a a level of like slickness and stick skill, whereas Dil ⁓ Dylan Malloy just feels a little bit more like dogged determination of like, you're not going to stop me. I'm going to get you know, you know what I really thought when ⁓ when I was thinking about this? I was like, you I don't I don't see junior. I see Matt Rambo. I see like 2019
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah.
Neil Barrett: Matt Rambo just like I am going to get to my spots and and you're not gonna be able to stop me. And when I get to my spots, I'm gonna hit shots. Like that that was what I see out of Dylan Malloy. So ⁓ I j I just
@HootSportsMedia: I mean there were times that that Warren Jeffrey was draped all over him and it like there was a couple of times that you saw Jeffrey look back at Daubert and I just knew they were like there's nothing we can do. Like it's I I don't I you know. ⁓ another another fatality though of ⁓ had him in my fantasy lineup and took him out. So I I it's literally horrendous. I I don't know what to do, man. And you know what what makes it worse is I had Mikey Bayman there.
Neil Barrett: Yeah, it didn't matter. Right. Like what am I what am I supposed to do? That's Dude.
@HootSportsMedia: Nice little one point performance from him. So that was awesome.
Neil Barrett: I pulled, ⁓ I got I'm gonna have to remember. I pulled I pulled two guys out. I can't remember who it was. ⁓ one was Chris Kavanaugh. I pulled Chris Kavanaugh out. ⁓ and I was like, great, fantastic. ⁓ I still ended up with I ended up with Schellenberger. ⁓ and then I think I changed my goalie. I don't know. I I had like two guys who hit like
@HootSportsMedia: Yep. Yep.
Neil Barrett: Forty five or something. And then I had four guys who had less than 10. And I was like, Are you kidding me, dude?
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah. Well this week was tough 'cause there's only the three games and so I was trying to like think about and I was looking at Dylan Malloy and I I was like, ⁓ he had thirty points last time they played Utah. And then later in the week I was like, They're probably gonna make adjustments. There's no way that happens again. Like that was literally my exact thought process. So I like, I'm taking him out. I think Mikey Bain will get more opportunities this week. Like, I feel good about it.
Neil Barrett: That's true. I put BAM in because I had the same thought.
@HootSportsMedia: At one point I like, Can I squeeze Chris Cav in the lineup but I just couldn't get the coins right and then I like, you know what, it's fine. I'm not gonna overthink this week is what I said. And then I was watching the game and I was just like ⁓ there's another one and another ⁓ and another and then I was playing someone who had Chris Kavanaugh and he hit the two pointer and was just like, This is literally horrendous, like
Neil Barrett: You know what's you what's funny? I think I did the exact same thing. I had Chris Kavanaugh in and I took him out and put Mikey Baim in because I thought BAME's gonna get some good opportunities and I needed the coins to I think it was when I I think cause I had Trevor Baptiste and so I think ⁓ when he went down with the injury, it was like, ⁓ I've gotta get someone else. And so I needed the coins to like get a another good face off guy, or s it was something like that. ⁓
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah. Yeah.
Neil Barrett: And then yeah, I do I was doing the same thing every time Chris Kavanaugh was hitting something and then he hit that two and I was like, Are you kidding me? And I think I think Mikey Bain ended up with like nine or ten or eleven. But at the time that I Chris Kavanaugh hit that two, he had negative two points. And I was like, dude, are you kidding me right now?
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah. Yeah, he f he finished with seven points because he had a turnover and he had ⁓ an assist. And I was just like, ⁓ And like I like this is how bad it was. At one point I had Jared Connors and Mikey Bain who both had negative points. And I was just like, how do I pick all the red ones that are having bad games? I don't understand. Jared Connors got back to zero, but
Neil Barrett: You know what's so funny is I I played I've played that ⁓ the the PLL fantasy, I think like the first few weeks that it existed, you know, like two years ago or whenever that was. And then I've never played it ever again. And then because of the helmet hunt, I like got I just like set it up. I I've I've been doing the AI setup, like, you know, with the just the auto generate, just because like
@HootSportsMedia: ⁓ yeah. The generated ones, yeah.
Neil Barrett: Like you, I don't like to think about it. I don't want to I'm going to second guess myself. I'm going to constantly say and then I'm going to feel like crap about it. But then this week, because I had to make a few adjustments because there were injured players, I was I overthought it and got got too cute and
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah. Yeah. It's impossible not I don't know how people do it and they're good at it. I'm so I'm fantasy football, I'm pretty decent at. Fantasy lacrosse, I am not your guy. In fact you should pick everyone I don't pick because you will beat me. That's basically what it is.
Neil Barrett: I I have a theory that fantasy fantasy sports in general operates on a bell curve where like you need to know enough to know who some of the good players are. You need to like you need to kind of absorb some things and be like, okay, I I've heard of this guy. He would be a really good guy to have on my team, but not but you start to learn too much.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah. Yeah.
Neil Barrett: And you start over guessing overthinking everything. So there's like there's like this sweet spot where you're just dumb enough to to make to not overthink things, but smart enough to like get the right players. Like it's such a such a goofy thing, but ⁓ man. So ⁓ let's move on to the third and final PLL game of the weekend that saw the Atlas come back from 6-0 down.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah. That's a great way of explaining it, it's awful.
Neil Barrett: And a 10 to 3 second quarter deficit to ⁓ was that the halftime score? Was it 10 3 at half? ⁓ 10 to 6 at okay, so just 10 to 3 at halftime. ⁓ to win 16 14 Connor.
@HootSportsMedia: ⁓ ten to six at halftime.
Neil Barrett: That's right, Connor Schellenberger, right?
@HootSportsMedia: He does play for the Atlas, yes.
Neil Barrett: No, no, I was thinking, I was like, wait, is Connor his first name? All I wrote down was Shellenberger. Normally I would write Shelley. I don't know why I wrote his full name out. ⁓ and I was like, wait, Connor doesn't sound right to me for some reason. Anyway, Shelley went three for three goals and three assists. ⁓ great game from him. Matt Rambo didn't do a whole lot but did score a goal against his former team. And
@HootSportsMedia: ⁓ yes. Two of them.
Neil Barrett: Yes, I I was gonna say, and added the gold that made it fifteen to thirteen and kind of like put it out of reach for them. ⁓ d this ⁓ well, I'll I'll ask you, which of these two teams did this game say more about to you?
@HootSportsMedia: ⁓ Probably New York. Just you know, you're down by seven and you kinda gotta dig in. I think it's sort of a trapped game for Maryland, just with the hype they've had and the in the season they've had so far. ⁓ and they did get a Superman like performance from Shelley as well. I don't know, I didn't get to watch too much of this game. I was pretty busy Saturday, so I was kinda checking in and out. So I didn't even know they were down ten three until after the game. And then I started seeing the post about it and I like, ⁓ wow, if this was actually kinda monumental. ⁓ I think it says a lot about Rob Pinnell. That he still got it, six points. Good to see. but
Neil Barrett: Listen, I've I've been saying Rob Pennell had a spot in his league. Nobody wanted to listen to me.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, but but you know, the Atlas are we're on on a short day back to back and not only do they come back all the way like that, but they put up sixteen goals. So that that's that's impressive.
Neil Barrett: Well this is this is part of why I would go the opposite direction, I think, in that you're up ten seven against a team on the second game of its back to back twenty four hours later, in a game that they they they battled like as much as that game was stinky poo poo and and sloppy and gross and like neither of those teams looked good. It was a battle. It was a it was a 11-12 game. Like it it was a battle. They had to they barely eked that out. And then you got outscored after being up 10-3, you got outscored 13 to 4 in the set in the second half plus a little bit of the second quarter. Like That in in my mind, that's a that's a complete collapse from the whip snakes. That's a that's we took our foot so far off the gas, it was in the backseat and we couldn't find the gas pedal with a map and three days of trying. Like I I don't understand how you lose that gang.
@HootSportsMedia: 'Cause the Allies still have dudes.
Neil Barrett: I mean, you're not wrong there. I I will give you that. Why why did why was Connor Schellenberger and Matt Rambo in a position to take over this game? It was ten to three.
@HootSportsMedia: Look, all I'm saying is a couple of weeks ago when you said are the is are the Whipsnakes the best team in the league, I said no for a reason.
Neil Barrett: I mean I'll agree with you. ⁓
@HootSportsMedia: And that's not hating on them. I just I think they're prone to this type of thing. Like I just not not to blow any big leads, I just mean prone to like being talked up and then all of a sudden just complete downfall. Like Petey LaSalle had two points. He was a their tie for their third leading scorer. Petey's not even supposed to playing these games. He's a backup. You know
Neil Barrett: Well Yeah. Well, and their their six-o lead, all six of those goals were transition goals. Like You know.
@HootSportsMedia: And I outs outside of of Rob, who else was really assisting like that? Joey had two? Brandau and Truitt had one each. Like it wa you know, they it wasn't like they were moving the ball exceptionally well, especially in the second half. ⁓ I mean you gave up ten goals in the second half.
Neil Barrett: Five shot clock violations in the second half.
@HootSportsMedia: I'm sorry this this is the pro game. How are you getting that many shot clock violations? You know, it's just
Neil Barrett: Yeah. Well and again, like that's where I'm like, you guys just completely collapsed. ⁓ I'm I'm I'm hesitant to to give into recency and and say that it is the biggest collapse that I've ever seen. But I'm struggling to think of a bigger collapse in this league.
@HootSportsMedia: Archers versus outlaws three years ago. Salt Late or ⁓ Charlotte.
Neil Barrett: ⁓ the Brennan O'Neill game.
@HootSportsMedia: That happened in one quarter.
Neil Barrett: Yeah, and was really one dude too, like
@HootSportsMedia: That's that's that's the only reason it's w it was one guy in one quarter. This at least had some like some sprinkle where it like, Okay, they scored again in the third week, maybe they you know, but
Neil Barrett: Like It was literally like put a stick in his chest and don't let him shoot the ball. And you just kept letting him go. Just he'll he'll miss one of these eventually. It'll be fine. It'll be fine.
@HootSportsMedia: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. But they thought they had twenty twenty six Brandon in that game and they did not. They had twenty twenty three Brandon.
Neil Barrett: That's right. That's right. ⁓ geez. That I've yeah, you're you're right. That w that one's probably bigger, but still.
@HootSportsMedia: Or four, I guess. But I mean that but this is still top five. It I mean gotta be. ⁓ I feel like there might have been another one in the last couple of years, but maybe I'm forgetting. But but either which way, you know, it's just yeah, just very, very bad. Especially like I said, back to back games for Atlas, like
Neil Barrett: Yeah, it's it's certainly still up. It all blurs together for me. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and listen, we wanna t we wanna say we wanna talk about whether or not the whip snakes are the best team in the league, quote unquote, because that's where their record had them sitting.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah.
Neil Barrett: This this weekend proved basically nothing to me about Atlas. You beat ⁓ just an absolute dumpster fire of a team, and then you beat a team who had like the worst collapse ever. That being said, like we mentioned earlier, I do think Connor Schellenberger is starting to figure out what he needs to do for this team. My worry is we gotta see how long Trevor's out. ⁓ We gotta see how long Danny Logan's out. ⁓ I from what I've heard, it doesn't sound like either of them are like super major injuries. ⁓ hopefully I would think they're off this week, if I remember correctly, and then with the all-star game the next week. So hopefully that's enough time to give them ⁓ some rest and and and they don't really miss another game. But you know, if if Shelly f is figuring out his role, ⁓ Brian Costabio has been great. ⁓ Matt Trainer can get a couple more shots and then they can get Danny Logan and Trevor Baptiste and some of these guys back healthy. Do I have them as a title favorite? No, but I, you know, they're certainly going to be middle of the pack. I I would think pretty easily. Even if this game wasn't super convincing for me, but you know. ⁓ okay. Let's move over to the WLL where the charging beat the charm. Both of these teams were undefeated and the charging won 12 to 10. New York stays perfect and continues right where they were at the end of the championship series. Madison Du Set, the those goal, those New York goalies, man. Madison Du Set made 17 saves. For a 63%. That is a new WLL record. ⁓ the charm only shot 21% in this game. ⁓ 21 of their 48 shots hit the pipe or missed the goal completely. Abby Bosco had six caused turnovers. ⁓ Ashley Humphrey had one assist in this game, and that was it. The charm went scoreless for more than 17 minutes. ⁓ Yeah, I the the New York charging are who we thought they were. ⁓ this week, I believe gotta scroll forward because I wasn't gonna talk about this yet, but I think they play the I think they play the palms. I'll find that when we when we get to it. But ⁓ Yeah. Pretty g the the charging are pretty good at lacrosse. That's that's the headline here.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, we need some team we need some team balancing here.
Neil Barrett: Ha ha ha.
@HootSportsMedia: An another game where the team that has all the best numbers loses. I'm not sure why that is the trend this week, but yeah, the charging are just the overwhelming favorite. Every single game they play. it's I know they only won by two, but it definitely just felt like outside of that first quarter you're not doing anything to stop ⁓ so I mean some s some great performances still, but it's just like there's nothing you can do.
Neil Barrett: Yeah. Well and and Yeah, well and you know, the the defense as much as we talk about Izzy Skane and Emily Harrischuk and Aaron Koigendal and and rightfully so, like the those girls are great. Madison Duset and that defense it Madison Duset reminds me of you know, like we talked about Brett Dobson in the NL all year. Like When Madison Ducet is in your goal, you're always going to be in it. Always. So I as far as I'm concerned, she's the best goalie in the world. Like I she's incredible. I I'm I'm I'm a Palms fan, ⁓ but I just don't know how how the charging are gonna lose this championship this year. But I guess that's why we play the games, isn't it? What what's the what's this?
@HootSportsMedia: I mean I guess I don't I don't see him losing, but I suppose I just Like they put up six and a quarter and that's all they needed. They literally just relaxed the rest of the game. Offensively. Like you know, they they just matched Maryland and it like, Yeah, we we're good. We got it in already, we're fine. And I mean they they controlled the face off or or what what do they call it in women's? The draw or
Neil Barrett: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The draw. Yeah. The draw.
@HootSportsMedia: So what do you call it? Like a draw circle? Or can I still call it the dot? I don't know. I'm still calling it the dot.
Neil Barrett: Yeah, it's draw circle. Yeah. No, it's literally a draw because 'cause they have to the the the two people doing the draw are inside the circle, but then everyone else has to be outside of that circle. So yeah, so it's a draw circle.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah. Well I'm probably gonna just keep calling it face off 'cause I I'm gonna just completely forget. But regardless, they dominated in that at that front. ⁓ offensively, same thing. Defensively, same thing. I mean scales having four cost turnover or three cost turnovers, excuse me. certainly helps in like half over half their defense had a cost turnover at some point. ⁓
Neil Barrett: Yeah. They're they're just so complete.
@HootSportsMedia: So and again, it wasn't like Maryland was awful, but yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's like they just they're they're you look at their team versus everyone else and they just feel like they've already been playing together for years and then you watch other teams and you're like, ⁓ you guys clearly have not had enough time together and you know, how many was this their second game or was this their third game?
Neil Barrett: I feel like this was No, it's their second, I think. I think it's their second. I think everyone right now has played two games, I think.
@HootSportsMedia: Can't click on their team to see for some reason. Did they have were they the team that had the month off?
Neil Barrett: Yes, the the charging played the week one in ⁓ Rhode Island and then yeah, yeah.
@HootSportsMedia: That's what it was. Okay. Yes. Yeah, they're two and ⁓ They're two and ⁓ So I mean you look at I mean, California and Maryland are one and one with a a one and minus one score differential respectively, and then Boston has minus seven. They lost Charlotte North. I don't see them having anywhere near as much success. Again, not that no one else can step up, but you lose your best player. You know, that's that's pretty tough. ⁓ but another good game. ⁓ But yeah, I don't know. They're just if you have any money that you can put down on charging, go do it.
Neil Barrett: Do it. Do it. I yeah. I have to imagine their our their odds weren't amazing even at the beginning of the season, but they certainly aren't great now. Like, geez. But ⁓ that is a good time, I guess, to move over to ⁓ talking about the all-star game ⁓ rosters they dropped today. ⁓ I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna
@HootSportsMedia: No.
Neil Barrett: bait you into talking about this 'cause I know you said you didn't want to, but you're gonna ⁓ Obviously, what what what is it that you wanted to say? Say what you wanted to say first, and then I'll bait you.
@HootSportsMedia: There's nothing I want to say. I I I th I said it last year. I think it's ridiculous that we vote for these things when there's like two games played.
Neil Barrett: Well there was there was something that you wanted to say. Just to just to nip it all in the bud first.
@HootSportsMedia: I have no idea what you're talking about. It's just that we shouldn't be voting for these things. There's not enough game. First off, this game should be at the end of the season. Between the end of the regular season or of of the semifinals and the championship. One. Two, we should not be voting on these things with two games played. When players haven't even played a game, some of them.
Neil Barrett: You s
@HootSportsMedia: And that's all I'll say.
Neil Barrett: What you said yeah you wanted to say was congratulations. That's what I that's all I was trying to get you to say.
@HootSportsMedia: ⁓ yeah, I mean, hey. Congrats to everyone that made it. Alright? It's better to be on the list than not on the list. But
Neil Barrett: So now that now that you've said that, what who who's missing from this from this roster?
@HootSportsMedia: Need to pull some things up for that.
Neil Barrett: I I had I had three that I thought were missing. One of one of them one of them is is insane that they're not listed.
@HootSportsMedia: Alright, go ahead, you name ⁓ and I'll and I'll tell you if I agree. All right.
Neil Barrett: Lo look at the goalies in the West. Who's missing?
@HootSportsMedia: Talking McNaney?
Neil Barrett: God know. Your boy.
@HootSportsMedia: My boy.
Neil Barrett: Yeah.
@HootSportsMedia: Who's that?
Neil Barrett: ⁓ my God. I hope I hope he hears that you don't even know who he is.
@HootSportsMedia: I mean ⁓ Dobson's there. Blaze is there. Dylan Ward? ⁓ yeah.
Neil Barrett: And who's missing? Dylan Ward. Dylan Ward. Who is tied for with Brett Dobson for the lead in save percentage of starters? Nick Washuda is at 63%, but he hasn't started a game anymore.
@HootSportsMedia: I mean Yeah. But it but that's not surprising though. That's not surprising. 'Cause it's a popularity contest. Think about it. Think about it. When this opened, Dylan played what, one game? Two games?
Neil Barrett: Well does this Okay, but w we want to get into some other players who have one game under their belt and one?
@HootSportsMedia: Like But but it's it doesn't matter, it's still a popularity thing. That's why I'm like I'm not surprised that he's not there. I'm st I'd I'm still gonna argue he should be there. ⁓ don't get don't get it twisted. But like that's that's the other part of this is like we're watching guys play one game, two games, maybe three if you vote at the last, and then all of a sudden it's like they're all stars. That doesn't make any sense at all.
Neil Barrett: Two two more that are missing. Mikey Bane I'm not even a Redwoods fan and the two and the two guys I've named are are Redwoods. And then and then number three, Mick Kelly. Whom if here's my thing about Mick Kelly: if you don't think he should have been an all-star, that's fine. But Matt Campbell is an all is an all-star, and Mick Kelly has twice as many points as Matt Campbell does in the same midfield.
@HootSportsMedia: That's a good one.
Neil Barrett: What are we what are we doing?
@HootSportsMedia: Well and I'm gonna have to do some quick searching on here. I love Jack Hanna. Everyone knows I love Jack Hannah. Why why is he there over some of these other guys? Again, this is not hate. I want to make that very clear. But You know, it pains me, but I'm looking at this list and I'm like, de I mean, Mick Kelly, Levi Anderson, who I think he did actually end up making it. Am I making that up in my head? I am making that up. He's not there. Wow. Like he's had a he's had a pretty good year. Sam King has had a pr I j you know, Brandau's had a pretty good year. Like there's a lot of guys that I'm just like that's why I'm saying I think it's more popularity than anything.
Neil Barrett: I don't have Yeah, I don't have Leback.
@HootSportsMedia: Granted, by the time the game is played, if Jack goes off and has a great game this week, then maybe we're like, Okay, it actually doesn't matter 'cause you know, he's up there. ⁓
Neil Barrett: Certainly.
@HootSportsMedia: But yeah, I don't I don't know.
Neil Barrett: Gonna come back to your to your other thing. I think there's a I think there's an even better example of what we're talking about. And it's on the WLL side. And it's Ashley Humphrey. I and I think I think there's there's two things I wanna say. First first and foremost, Ashley Humphrey before this game started was kind of an also rant. She's a she's a name be probably more so because she's Chloe's older sister. More so than what she herself did, which was great. She had a great college career, and I think, honestly, probably should have won the Tuaraton last year. She deserved it. Chloe got it because of the name recognition. Whatever. That's fine. She's a great player in her own right. I don't mean to say that she was an afterthought because she wasn't a good player. Because she is. I think we just didn't think of her because she She's just Chloe's older sister to most of the uneducated audience, which when it comes to women's lacrosse, is most of the audience, except for those that really follow it all the time. So the fact that she went from basically being in a manner of speaking, at least in terms of her own play, kind of an unknown to an all star game captain in really a a ⁓ Game maybe two, depending on if you were one of those last second voters who waited until the games were over this weekend to vote. With but I don't think they really did that. ⁓ I don't think there was that many of them. ⁓ I think she deserves huge props for that and the season that she had. However, I think it just serves to simultaneously highlight the point that you were making that we vote on this stuff. Way too early. We talk about it. The game is played entirely too early. Like you said, it should be at the end of the season. There's no way that we could vote on this already. Ashley Humphrey had nine points in one game, one point in the second game. So You know, she's she's an all-star game captain because of one game. Now, it's the WLL and I think they only play four or five games. Maybe six. Is it four? four's rough. ⁓
@HootSportsMedia: Four. That's why that's why even the all star for that is ridiculous to me. Because ha first off, half the league's making it, quite literally, 'cause there's four teams. So to fill them, you have half the league making it, and they played two games. At least with the PLO, they're by the time that game comes though they'll have been, what, five games, I think. Which is still not a great sample size, but
Neil Barrett: It well and it's not ⁓ yeah, I was gonna say it's not good enough for the for the PLL either. But it at least at least if you did it at the end of the WLL season, you'd at least have the f you know, four games. You'd you could say, hey, we saw a whole season's worth. The the season was only four games, but we can compare their four games against their four games and and list out a a a roster. You're probably right that it it's too many. It's too few teams, which means too many players make it. ⁓ it was blowing my mind reading through that list. as as good as the New York Charging are and as deserved as their all stars are. It was blowing my mind to see so many baby blue uniforms on these rosters and being like, holy crap. ⁓
@HootSportsMedia: I'm honestly kinda surprised they aren't just doing like a sixes game for them. 'Cause eighteen players per team that's thirty six players total. I mean again, this is a this is an overarching issue that I've had for even before the WL existed. That it's just so many people make it off of like you're saying one game, basically. You know, and like you have like especially like you're saying with the the casual women's fans, like you're gonna just look at the stats and be like, ⁓ she has ten points, she's second in the league or whatever it is, like fine by me. And like, yeah, she went crazy in the in the one game, but it is just kind of like
Neil Barrett: Yeah. I mean that it's it's two teams.
@HootSportsMedia: So did Brian Kelly. You know, so did whoever else. And it's like, okay, a at what point do we say, hey, the number is there, but what we're seeing on the field isn't actually there? And this isn't hating on anyone that made the All Star team, but I think all stars are kinda dumb in pretty much every sport 'cause I think it's all you know, just based on popularity. I think it's very little of it's actually based on play, unfortunately. But
Neil Barrett: Well and and I I was thinking earlier today when when the rosters dropped, the PL made it a point in every single post and every single thing about it made it a point to say voted by the fans. And all I could think was maybe it shouldn't be, or maybe it should be some combination. Like not not that a fan vote shouldn't take place, ⁓ but it it should probably be more than that because because it is such a popularity concept. Trevor Baptiste is a face-off all-star for this game. Admittedly, ⁓ he probably he may not play. I don't know when they'll make a d decision on that. Again, I don't know how bad his injury from USA camp was, but but as of right now, he is a face off specialist all-star. For two games. He hasn't even played half of his team's games, and he's an all-star. Why? You know?
@HootSportsMedia: I'm telling you, if ⁓ I I really hope the PLL listens to me on this, 'cause I've been saying it for a while, that just put at the end of the year, just like the NFL does it, where you're gonna take a bye week off anyway, from the semis to the championship, put something there so the fans are still plugged in. to the league. So that way it's not like, ⁓ we forgot about it and then we're back for the championship. Like they have something the entire time. You have a full twelve games now to evaluate and ⁓ this guy missed two games but he still put up this point amount of points it versus he missed two games out of four. That's a bigger deal right now. ⁓ you know, I d I just think that's the better way to go about it for both leagues, WLL and PL. ⁓
Neil Barrett: Right. Right. Yeah. And you know what's funny? You know what's funny about faceoff specialists? Trevor Baptiste has played two games. You know who else has played two games at the face off diet? Andrew McMeekin. Andrew McMeekin is five percent not a not a not a small amount, five percent better than Trevor Baptiste this season, both having played the same number of games. Andrew McMe Andrew McMeekin is not an all star. Trevor Baptiste is.
@HootSportsMedia: Well, and aga and again, like obviously the numbers aren't aren't everything, but he's also won three more faceoffs. He's lost two fewer face-offs. So that's where it's like w okay, we're we're voting so early that now a guy like McMeakin literally cannot make it. But now this guy that's injured, so now he's probably not gonna play to your credit. So he's gonna have to be replaced. So now even more players technically make an all-star and the problem I have with this too is like people will then use these types of accolades to argue status after their these players' careers are done. And granted those conversations are stupid. They are unfair. And that's why I kind of discredit if you're using all-stars in any sport, but like people still do it. And all of a sudden now this guy can't can't have it. Like this could imagine if if McMeekin made the all-star team, could that help him in like a rookie of the year race later on down the line that now people are looking back and being like
Neil Barrett: Yes.
@HootSportsMedia: ⁓ well but he wasn't an all star and you know what I'm saying? Like that stuff carries weight and it's just I I j again, I just I just wish they would listen to the people saying this, 'cause I'm not the only one. We've said it for multiple years now. We need more time to really evaluate who's an all star and who is the best in the league.
Neil Barrett: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and and to your point, whether whether you think it not not you, but like whether someone thinks it's stupid or not, you're right. These things get used as status and at some level of gameplay. And I don't know that lacrosse is there yet, but if you're an NBA All-Star, that's a bargaining chip in your contract. Now
@HootSportsMedia: Yep. Yep.
Neil Barrett: Again, lacrosse probably isn't at that level yet, but we all hope that it gets there at some point. So like these things aren't completely irrelevant, even if you are someone who thinks that they're stupid. We just had the Hall of Fame this weekend. How many times did we talk about so-and-so was X number All-Star?
@HootSportsMedia: Yep. Yep.
Neil Barrett: It it's it's not a nothing thing. You know, people can dismiss it if they want, but
@HootSportsMedia: And you already know there's gonna be people when it comes to Hall of Fame stuff that are just gonna say, Well, he wasn't even an all-star for however many seasons And it's like, Okay, but he he should he probably should have been And then then you get ⁓ you're just coping 'cause you want your guy it's like no they he has better numbers, he play was ava more available, whoever it was, like all these different things. But Sorry that we have a setup this way. We you literally can't and and I also think too, like we've seen this the past where rookies can't make it. Because if you have a visa issue, if you're Canadian, you're not making the all star team, pretty much. Like you're you literally can't can't even be here long enough to to be qualified for it. And then you find out like Owen Hilts is a perfect example of this, where he had such a good second half of that season when he was able to play. He should and would have been an all star.
Neil Barrett: Yep. Yep. Yeah, no one else.
@HootSportsMedia: if he didn't have the visa stuff, but because he did, he couldn't make it, and now he's gonna get knocked for that.
Neil Barrett: Yep. Yeah. No, I I think you're absolutely right. We got we got who who who's who was it? There's three guys. There's Ty English. ⁓
@HootSportsMedia: Silas Richmond and ⁓ Finn Thompson, I believe. Doesn't isn't Finn Thompson still ⁓ Matt Collison is the other one.
Neil Barrett: Silas Richmond and the dude from ⁓ Hopkins. ⁓ okay. So then there's then there's four. Matt Collison. Yeah. That's that's that's the one I was thinking of. ⁓ so yeah, I mean that's that's four dudes right there that especially especially Finn Thompson, Silas Richmond, those two dudes, well, I guess it depends on whether or not Silas Richmond can get on the field with that with that water dog's offense, but
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah.
Neil Barrett: Those are dudes who can be difference makers. They can be the Owen Hilts this year. They can get, you know, in a rhythm and and take off. And they won't they won't be all-stars. ⁓ even though their play this year would have demanded it. And if if we had been able to see their season unfold before trying to name all-stars. And because of that, I can't even fault people for it being a popularity contest. Because they haven't been able to see anyone play. Like, you know, who who's who's the faceoff guy when when voting open well, face-off's probably a bad idea ⁓ a bad comparison because Trevor Baptiste didn't start playing for a few weeks, but like, you know, ⁓ we started voting for All-Stars in ⁓ after what, week two, right? Something like that? Was it when we were doing the the helmet hunt ⁓ after week two? So like
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah. Yep. ⁓ yeah, it was Helmet Hunt, yeah.
Neil Barrett: You who could who could be evaluated after two weeks? I have I I can almost guarantee you Asher Nolting is probably an all-star this year. They they probably removed him because he's not on the team. But because of when voting opened, I I can almost guarantee you Asher Nolting was an all-star.
@HootSportsMedia: It sh I honestly it wouldn't shock me if enough people were just like, I want to see my guy be an all-star. Through him on the list.
Neil Barrett: Well then think about it. If you if think about how many people probably voted during Helmet Hunt. And so Boston has played two games. Asher played one, had two points. Coming off of the seasons that he's had, he's he's the the star on that team. He's played one game that he had two points, and a second game where we were told he was hurt. Why wouldn't you vote for him? And I don't I'm I'm sure he's probably not the only one in in that that situation. Well, maybe maybe is just because no one's getting dropped. ⁓ but he's probably the only one in that specific situation. He's probably not the only one that was voted in week two based off of their their name and the assumption that by the All-Star game they would be, you know, who they usually are.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah. I don't know.
Neil Barrett: Speaking of listing out all stars, ⁓ we've already talked about Asher Nolton. We don't need to beat that to that horse any longer, but ⁓ four time all-star, two-time first all pro in four years.
@HootSportsMedia: Not good enough, apparently.
Neil Barrett: ⁓ MVP finalist and two time attackman of the year finalist. Fine. It's fine. No big deal. But does say four-time all-star. That's pretty funny. ⁓ One one more thing before we move on from Boston. We didn't talk about it. I I wanted to say Brian Kelly seems to have kind of tapered off as people have gotten tape on him. I don't know if this will happen. We did not mention Jack Regneri, ⁓ who I thought looked great. He was like the one th thing watching that Boston team play where I was like, ⁓ okay. If he can play like this, because obviously we saw Brian Kelly. Do this at the beginning of the year ⁓ as well and has kind of tapered off. If he can continue to play like that, he's electric. His shot, his shot is so fast. He gets it, he he with like very little pullback at all, he just releases that thing and it it is on. I think I saw him hit the pipe like three times, but it was hitting the pipe. It felt like he he reared back and it was hitting the pipe already. I was like, what in the world? It was so much power. ⁓ and I've I really feel like if they can get him and ⁓ Mikey Weissar like moving at this at this and all on the same page, like they they could have something, but it's Boston, who know who knows what's going on with them this. Yeah, they're they're just throwing throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what's six. Yeah, I I I agree, but I mean at some at some point.
@HootSportsMedia: They're just trying stuff, seeing what works. To me it feels like this year there's like a few like real going for it contenders and there's just a few that are like, We're we're just gonna take the year. If it works out and we're contending awesome, if not, that's fine, and we'll just go into next year with like hopefully a clear plan. Like that's and I'm not knocking those teams for trying it, like you gotta do what you gotta do, but it is kind of funny when you're like, Okay, this team's probably a contender, that team's probably a contender. You four right here, I don't know if you're playing serious right now or if we're just like messing around.
Neil Barrett: Who are who are the teams you have as a contender right now?
@HootSportsMedia: I think it's probably California, Denver Yikes, that's tough. might just be those two right now. I think there's a c I think there's a couple that I'm willing to like to maybe take a flyer on. Like I could see Philly, but I need to see a little bit more. ⁓ you know, New York again, if they go on that run that like we were talking about earlier, like I could definitely see that, but they don't look that team right now. In and kind of the same with Carolina where I'm like there's flashes, they look dangerous. And then there's times that it's like ⁓ okay, like you couldn't get anything going, so
Neil Barrett: Yeah. No, that's fair. Yeah.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, that's that's tough. But you know
Neil Barrett: It's it's so hard to differentiate them because I agree with you. I think Denver and and California look like teams that that could win it all. Atlas doesn't, but also they their roster is just so good. Like if if it clicks at any point, like watch out. ⁓ I feel like I feel like the water dogs are probably the same in the same boat of like
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah.
Neil Barrett: They don't really look like a contender, but if they figure it out, like holy crap, that team is so loaded. ⁓ and then there's like I I'd probably put Maryland and Carolina together of like there's some there's something there, there's some flashes, but like I don't know. And then and then yeah, Utah, ⁓ Boston. Is that it who I'm missing somebody. Am I? Okay. Utah and Boston are just.
@HootSportsMedia: Mm. No, that's all of I think. Like Utah's Utah's the only team out of those two that like I could see them just like making upsets throughout the year. Like they did week one and and like that type of thing, but I still just don't see the full vision with the the roster setup the way it currently is. You know, if they make a move for an Asher or someone else, maybe that changes, but right now I just you know, and for sure though, Boston's at that bottom, unfortunately. I Yeah, they're just
Neil Barrett: So the ne the next question for you is those two teams are at the bottom. And it's a little bit of an unfair question because I don't know that the PLL really likes to fire people, generally speaking. But who's whose seat is hotter?
@HootSportsMedia: Between who?
Neil Barrett: Utah and and Boston. Yeah.
@HootSportsMedia: Holman and Bates? Holman's is way hotter. Way hotter.
Neil Barrett: Why?
@HootSportsMedia: Because it's a it's a build up of things. Bates has how many championships in the last three years?
Neil Barrett: In the last three years, one, right? Yeah, four ⁓ four, I think it's two. But hit
@HootSportsMedia: Four years, whatever it was. But they've been to D they go to two or do they go to three? They went to three, I think, 'cause they lost to Philly, did they not? Or am I making that up?
Neil Barrett: Yeah, I think I think they lost one, then one two.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah. I mean so so there he already has it in his back pocket, and I think you look at some of the things that occurred on his team, like Hausick was leaving. You can't you know, you're not gonna stop that. He's had injury problems with Schreiber, Aymant, Matt Moore. So he's he's had to reinvent his team. And we'll see if the way he's going about it works. But right now I don't think he's he's on the hot seat. Whereas Holman is like you you trade Pat Gav. You know, you you have a bad year last year, now you come back this year, you're having another bad year. You cut Asher, so the trade was basically for nothing.
Neil Barrett: Okay, hear you. Two things. Just playing devil's advocate here. Because I'm not even I'm not even saying that you're wrong, but alternate point of view. One, how long does Chris Bates get to rest on the championships he won two years ago? And I'm not saying two years is the limit of that. I'm just saying, like at some point, he's got to. Do something. Then all simultaneously, I would say that was a championship team two years ago. And now they are. In back to back seasons, the worst team in the league, or bottom two, I guess you could say. ⁓ whereas the Cannons have never been a very good team in the the entire PLO run, the Cannons have never been a very good team. Not necessarily because of the roster, but you know.
@HootSportsMedia: But they've also had very good rosters and have done nothing with it. And I think and I think too, like Bates, I get what you're saying about that, but the same time, the only thing that I think you can knock him for is like maybe he tried to do like the quote unquote rebuild a tad late. Like as his guys got up there in age and it was clear that okay, there's health concerns, even with the guys that aren't older, he probably should have tried to mix in some younger talent there just to make sure you have that safety net. So by the time you transition, it's already done.
Neil Barrett: Sure, sure. So tha that's what I'm
@HootSportsMedia: Whereas now it feels like, ⁓ shoot, Schreiber's not here, Grant's not here, Matt Moore's not here. Now we're like just scattered and we're just trying different things.
Neil Barrett: But but but Schreiber's not here. Matt Moore's hurt. Grant Eman's hurt. And we drafted Aiden McGuire with the number one overall thing.
@HootSportsMedia: B believe me, believe me, but look, that's a different conversation. Alright, we've already had a conversation. I I'm willing to see it through for Bates's purpose, but
Neil Barrett: No, no, no. I get Come on. Duke guy, Aiden Maguire guy, not a number one pick. Not a number one pick.
@HootSportsMedia: Believe me, we have already had that discussion. Look, look, I said Bolina should go one. Put that that's on the record already. So I get that. My point though being is I still think I don't I don't necessarily think PLL, like you said, wants to fire anybody and I don't think they ultimately will. If they were to though, I th I still think it's Holman.
Neil Barrett: I don't either.
@HootSportsMedia: just I feel like they've had some really good rosters that have just done absolutely nothing, you know, winning wise. And this year's another example of just nothing works.
Neil Barrett: Serious question. I I'm not even playing devil's advocate. I'm seriously asking. What's the best roster that that Brian Holman has had?
@HootSportsMedia: Is there a website I can pull ⁓ up to compare?
Neil Barrett: ⁓ I don't know.
@HootSportsMedia: It's I mean it obviously we're talking about one of the Rousters with Asher on it.
Neil Barrett: Because with who?
@HootSportsMedia: With Asher on it.
Neil Barrett: Well, yeah. 'Cause this this is why I'm asking, because when he took over that team, no goalie, no defense. Not really much of a midfield either. They basically had Asher. I think they I think they had Lyle on the books when he took over, but that was the year that he left. ⁓ so they he's never really had Lyle. So he had Asher, Marcus. I don't even know if Matt Campbell was on the roster before he got there. They probably had Jeff Trainer, maybe. No, because Trainer was with the Archers, wasn't he?
@HootSportsMedia: ⁓ I think so. I can't find like a a full list, but I'm looking at some of these names that they had.
Neil Barrett: Yeah.
@HootSportsMedia: Cause obviously they got cursed in twenty two. That's when they got Asher and Bubba Fairman. Twenty three, they got Matt Campbell. Twenty four.
Neil Barrett: Was he was he the coach in twenty two?
@HootSportsMedia: And it been twenty three? Don't quote me.
Neil Barrett: No, ⁓ may I ⁓ you know what? Is Marcus Holman on that team? On the twenty two team?
@HootSportsMedia: ⁓ this is just draft picks, so I can't even tell you that. Their Wikipedia does not have a full list, but that doesn't sound right though.
Neil Barrett: ⁓ ⁓ I think we need ⁓ I think what we need is this.
@HootSportsMedia: Let me see if I can find one. He he was hired on February sixth, twenty twenty three. So twenty three was the first so so he would have drafted Matt Campbell.
Neil Barrett: The stupid PLO stats page.
@HootSportsMedia: At least according to that.
Neil Barrett: It doesn't update when you go to different seasons. It doesn't update the players on the Their their stats page is a mess. So okay, so so twenty so twenty three would have been his first season.
@HootSportsMedia: I mean what's what's the Yeah, and then Marcus joined the Cannons in twenty three. So this is his fourth season as a Canon. So yeah, so he drafted Matt Campbell. So at this point on the roster, he has Asher, Marcus, Campbell, Colin Kirst, ⁓ Jack Kealty, I think was still healthy. Bubba Fairman, I don't fully remember. He then drafts Pat Kavanaugh in twenty four.
Neil Barrett: Yeah. Yeah. He Yeah. Yeah.
@HootSportsMedia: Last year he had Macasi to that mix as well, minus Pat Kavanaugh. But he also had Mick Kelly, he had Ben Ramsey. So I I would probably lean twenty four, even if you have to run Pet Cav out of the box, but
Neil Barrett: Right. But I'm saying that's that's the best team he had and that's that's the year they were ⁓ one second. They were like second in the league, weren't they?
@HootSportsMedia: I think so, yeah.
Neil Barrett: Yeah, they were second in the league that year. Which is why I'm saying, like, the the one time that he's arguably had like his best roster, they were they were the second best team in the league.
@HootSportsMedia: Sure, but there wasn't much change.
Neil Barrett: So like
@HootSportsMedia: after that. That like it shouldn't have dropped off that bad is more my point. Like and again it's not it's not even just the the winning and losing. It's you literally said we're gonna trade this this guy who we just watched have a stellar college career because we need to keep this guy and then you don't even give him he had he has an ⁓ V P year and you cut him the next one one game into the next season.
Neil Barrett: Wow. Yeah, which we've talked about w was was dumb.
@HootSportsMedia: So at that point it's like y i if we're if we're comparing hot seats, it's like you know, at least Bates is just getting killed because his team's just injured.
Neil Barrett: But listen, I can g Well, I don't think that it is just that his team i is injured, like
@HootSportsMedia: Okay, that's hey. You you go off on that one. I I I really think if he had his team healthy, th the archers would be much better than they are.
Neil Barrett: Dude, there is a reason why we say baits gone baits. There's a reason. Admittedly, admittedly, he had that run where he didn't bait much things.
@HootSportsMedia: Look, look. If if he had Schreiber, if he had Grant, if he had Trey Leclerc outside of you know ⁓ when he was at the NL and he had him the first couple of weeks, I guarantee you they're a better team than what it looks like right now, as opposed to the Boston Cannons.
Neil Barrett: I'm I'm sorry, but didn't they have those players last year?
@HootSportsMedia: ⁓ I don't remember when all of them got hurt, so no.
Neil Barrett: I thought Tom got hurt in in Utah, like towards the end of the season.
@HootSportsMedia: He did, that was week nine. I do remember that actually.
Neil Barrett: Yeah. Yeah, so They had
@HootSportsMedia: Okay, there there's one. You can make me look up Matt Moore's been out for a million games at this point.
Neil Barrett: Matt Moore wa I think was But I think he played ⁓ he played four he played four games last year.
@HootSportsMedia: Checking Grant Aymant right now.
Neil Barrett: Aymant played last year.
@HootSportsMedia: He played he played eight games last year out of ten.
Neil Barrett: Yeah, so I mean he he had those he had those guys last year and they weren't very good.
@HootSportsMedia: Let's see. Trey Trey Leclerc, only five games last year.
Neil Barrett: This is a this is a totally random side note. How many how many has he played this year?
@HootSportsMedia: Three. Cause he missed I think he missed the first two with N L L playoffs. ⁓ Ambler played nine. Who else would be on that team last year? And this is just offense too. It's not it's even Sam King, I guess.
Neil Barrett: Yeah, well. Yeah, I mean if you think about it, they had they had they had Hosik last year, they had you know
@HootSportsMedia: Sam King played ten games last year? Holy cow. ⁓ e either w either which way, I'll chalk that up to it was a down year. I still think you give him those dudes this year and they're better. Than Boston is.
Neil Barrett: Yeah, he played he played in every game last year. Well I would I would freaking hope so. If you if if if you get Grant Ament, Tom Shriver, if you get all of these all prospects and you're not better, we have a real problem.
@HootSportsMedia: They're two and three this year right now. But that's that's what I'm saying. That's why his seat's not hot, is because he those dudes are literally injured. They're not available.
Neil Barrett: Which is why I said last year he had those guys and they weren't better. They were the worst team in the league last year.
@HootSportsMedia: But that's one time. That's one time though. He came off back to back championship wins with those guys. So you can't use one down here to say, ⁓ well look, he's on the hot seat.
Neil Barrett: No, that's not what I say. What I'm saying is you can't just say that it was only this year and it's only 'cause those dudes are missing because he had he had those dudes last year and they weren't good.
@HootSportsMedia: Sure, but they've had how much time off now to get healthy? To where they're gonna be better to closer to hundred percent. If you have those guys, the Aiden Maguire pick is way better. But because you don't have those guys, it's even worse.
Neil Barrett: We're getting we're getting You know what? We also forgot Bill Tierney in this. It is not way better. Not way better. It is not way better. No. No. Which is not way better. That's what I'm saying.
@HootSportsMedia: It's way better. It's not good, but it's way better. It's way better. It goes from here to here. That's way better. That's way better right there. Now you see this? Spilina. But you know, right here. That's I'm just saying, if we're picking out of the two, Brian Holman's seat is way hotter than Bates. By a countryman.
Neil Barrett: I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm not saying you're right either.
@HootSportsMedia: I mean, we watched them blow, what was it, an eight goal lead at halftime last year? Or something like that as well. What do they finish the season as? Look, the player's gotta put the ball in the back of the net, but the coach has to has to, you know, do some things.
Neil Barrett: ⁓ they were They were tied last year, weren't they? F I think they were both four and something.
@HootSportsMedia: They were four and six last year, minus eleven score differential.
Neil Barrett: But they both were. They both were four and six. The archers were minus thirteen.
@HootSportsMedia: ⁓ Philly was tied. And then yes.
Neil Barrett: ⁓ my God, Philly and Maryland were tied, yeah.
@HootSportsMedia: Also, this is just helping my Brad Dobson ⁓ V P case, by the way. But ⁓ I'm just saying, there's there's nothing you can say to me that's gonna put Bates hotter than than Holman right now. It could change. It could change. But
Neil Barrett: Like I said, the the reason I even asked the question is because I think I think neither seat is hot and both seats are hot. Like
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, also don't ever bring up tyranny in these conversations, alright? He's off limits. His seat's never hot. Unless he wants it to be. That's a seven time national champion right there, right?
Neil Barrett: I mean, you wanna talk about a dude that's not doing much with a whole lot. And how how much are those NCAA championships helping him out right now?
@HootSportsMedia: Great. His his hands are probably heavy, all the rings, but you know.
Neil Barrett: Also, I'm glad that we're talking about coaches because one thing I forgot to mention when talking about the All-Star Games, the West, no, the East head coach is Mike Pressler. Again, go back to when most of these people voted before this weekend. Why why is Mike Pressler the head coach? He he may he may end up having a fantastic season. The Atlas win it again and he he will have deserved to have been the head coach this year. But they were what one in they were what one in two prior to this weekend? Is that is that right?
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah.
Neil Barrett: And even this weekend, I don't think they looked great. They won both games, but like they didn't look great doing it. I don't know.
@HootSportsMedia: Honestly, it should have been Staggs and probably Anthony Kelly. Or even even Steven Brooks, I'd be fine with that. No no shot at Sudan. I I mean I I think s I think I just think the Outlaws have underperformed due to their standards, you know, through four games. I know they've dealt with a couple of injuries when but like to me I'm look I'm looking at the Redwoods like okay, they started out with no Chris Cav, no Ryder, you know, their defense has had some injuries here and there. A Dylan Ward who hasn't played field.
Neil Barrett: I'd be fine with that. Yeah. Yeah, I'd be fine. I'd be fine with any of those three. Yeah. Yeah.
@HootSportsMedia: Consistently in a couple of seasons basically, and he's playing well, so I'm kinda surprised that Kelly didn't get the nod either, but
Neil Barrett: Yeah, it it should have been it should have been stags and and ⁓ I think stags and kelly, if you want to throw Brooks in there, I'm okay with that. But but I'd say stags and Kelly for sure. I don't I don't know how I don't know how we got to Mike Bressler. That that one that one threw me for a loop. But let's let's move on to this coming weekend and the games in San Diego. We have the Maryland Whip snakes taking on the Denver Outlaws.
@HootSportsMedia: Who knows?
Neil Barrett: Boston Cannons playing the California Redwoods, the Water Dogs taking on the Archers and the Chaos rounding out the PL weekend against the Redwoods. Any any of these games popping out at you?
@HootSportsMedia: ⁓ yeah. Yeah, ⁓ that first one. That's at noon our time. That's gonna suck. I'm literally busy during that time, actually, now that I think about it. That sucks. Okay. ⁓ anyway. It's not possible. Sorry. ⁓ other than that. Charging are gonna win, doesn't matter. Woods Chaos could be fun.
Neil Barrett: Stop being busy on the weekends. I I those are the two games I have. Whips outlaws
@HootSportsMedia: That's pretty much it. ⁓ did we didn't talk about Zed Williams retiring, did we from the PL?
Neil Barrett: ⁓ no, no, you're right. We did not.
@HootSportsMedia: So, ⁓ just a quick nod to that, that sucks to hear, but you know, hope he's having fun up north, I guess. And it's not MSL for those people that are gonna like, I hate summer box, it's not MSL. Apparently he just was reserved about running out of the box with the injury, and then he was on a team that literally was not really offensive friendly to his game, and so he was like, Well but yeah.
Neil Barrett: Playing box.
@HootSportsMedia: Just congrats to him on that. He could have gone to Utah. I I've been trying to say, man, get him to Utah. I'm so mad that never happened too because I remember when he got traded to Philly and I was like, ⁓ I was I was right about a trade, just the wrong team. ⁓ but yeah, those are the two games I'm looking at.
Neil Barrett: Could've could have gone to Carolina. Kirgana Utah. Kirgana Utah
@HootSportsMedia: We'll see if California can go two and no. I think chaos might get the best from that second game, but we'll see.
Neil Barrett: Well. You know what's you know what's gonna happen? We spent all week we spent all this episode talking about the Boston Cannons and how bad they suck and they're gonna blow out the redwoods. ⁓ it's just gonna it's just gonna happen that way. But but yeah it
@HootSportsMedia: Yep. Yeah. That's fine. Pro prove us wrong. That's fine.
Neil Barrett: That's fair. I'm I'm fine if you wanna you wanna prove us wrong. Listen, I hope I hope Brian hurt Holman heard all that shit you were talking.
@HootSportsMedia: You have a Hall of Famer on that team, on that offense. You should be doing better. He he would probably agree with me. He'd probably be like, you know what, you were that's fair. And then he'd start and then he'd he'd start scoring a bunch of goals and start cussing on the sidelines all of a sudden and then he'd come back and be polite again and be like Shake my hand and then you know?
Neil Barrett: Yeah. Well and then and then the Chaos Redwoods is going to be a big game for the for the Western Conference in in turn terms of who makes it ⁓ from that side. So I I mean I I wanna see the Water Dogs, I wanna see how they do, but beating the Archers means nothing. ⁓ the Archers beating them doesn't mean a whole lot to me either. I feel like the water dogs are a a a mess of a team anyway. Like, you know. They got so many they got so many good players that I it it doesn't make sense how they're not any better than they are. ⁓ and then you kind of mentioned it briefly, the WLL game sees of the New York charging taking on the California Palms. you you said the charging were gonna win. I'm gonna take the palms.
@HootSportsMedia: Bias at all, huh?
Neil Barrett: No, not bias at all. There's no bias there. That's that's just pure analytics.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, yeah, no, that's fine. I don't know what type of skewed analytics you got, but the ones I have.
Neil Barrett: You know what analytics I have? Ali master wane. It's all I need.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, the ones I have say one and one.
Neil Barrett: Yeah. And the one the one game
@HootSportsMedia: Also, th this is gonna be the Charging's third game all before All Star Break.
Neil Barrett: Yeah. They're not gonna play for another month. Yeah, they're not gonna play for another month. It's great. I love this schedule. It's so fun. ⁓ do we wanna do we wanna talk about the No, we probably don't. We probably don't. No, we decided we don't. We'll hold it. We'll hold it for later. We'll talk about it later. ⁓
@HootSportsMedia: Seventy five percent of their season's done after this week. I guess ⁓ it's
Neil Barrett: Did the am I wrong or did these two teams play before? The charging in the palms.
@HootSportsMedia: Need look this up, huh?
Neil Barrett: kind felt like it was I'm pull I'm pulling it up. I I wasn't prepared to ask this question and now
@HootSportsMedia: No, the Palms played Boston and Maryland, so no.
Neil Barrett: Maryland. Okay. Okay. So they lost to Maryland and then they beat well. They they beat Boston in the game that Charlotte North went down in. And so it's kinda like you know. Whatever, palms. Take in the palms. I don't care. I don't care what you say. ⁓
@HootSportsMedia: Okay.
Neil Barrett: Why? Why why are you hating?
@HootSportsMedia: I look, I'll be shocked. I'm not gonna be mad, but I'll be shocked.
Neil Barrett: Awesome.
@HootSportsMedia: The charging are doing what their name suggests. That's all I'm saying.
Neil Barrett: They are charging.
@HootSportsMedia: They are charging.
Neil Barrett: I'm not sure if that if that's a battery reference or like a run it a bull running reference.
@HootSportsMedia: I don't know. I I can't believe they're not like the charge. Why are they the charging? I don't
Neil Barrett: I I I got no idea on that one. No idea. It doesn't make sense, but whatever. ⁓ last last little thing, the PLL Hall of Fame was this weekend. ⁓ had a had a class of Greg Grenlion, who I have interviewed on this podcast, Drew Adams, Brody Merrill, your boy, Brody Merrill, and ⁓ Joe Cy.
@HootSportsMedia: They're doing it.
Neil Barrett: ⁓ I was wondering because we we never really talked about it. I was wondering what you thought about the whole like contributor element of the Hall of Fame.
@HootSportsMedia: You mean like with ⁓ Josai?
Neil Barrett: Yeah. Yeah. They like created the the class contributor and he's the he's the first.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, I I don't I'm fine with it. I think you have to be careful with like what you know, how far you're going, but like people were mad because ⁓ you're congratulating congratulating a rich guy for just giving you money and it's like but it's not like he's just blank writing a check and just being like, ⁓ la la la, it's an investment. Like Joe Sai's like involved with the PLL. He's involved with the N L L multiple teams. Like it's not like he's just, you know, ⁓ I'm just doing this as an investment. I'm sure he does use it as an investment. But
Neil Barrett: Right. Yeah. He's involved he's involved with N C double A too.
@HootSportsMedia: And C double I mean he built the whole thing at Yale, if I'm not mistaken. Like so when people are trying to like, You're just congratulating a rich guy, I'm like I I mean, I guess, but not that's not like the entire story. You're you're kind of ignoring a lot of the nuance of that, but ⁓ Yeah, I I'm fine with it.
Neil Barrett: Yeah. Yeah. Also, also not for nothing. It takes rich guys. Like let's be real. It takes a rich guy willing to open his checkbook.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, ev everyone loves to talk about how player salaries are going up, but they don't actually want to talk about how that's happening. You know, and and the thing is, if if it was truly them saying, Hey, we're gonna honor this random person that just wrote a check and we've never seen ⁓ again, that's when I'd be like, Okay. Yes, they contributed, but like there's a ton of investors, like let's not go down that route. But when there's someone who's like actually trying to grow the game and make it more accessible and all these different things and get it seen on T V and
Neil Barrett: Like it
@HootSportsMedia: I mean the dude funded a third N L L franchise this year just to make sure that everything was going smoothly. He doesn't have to do that. He could've just been like, No. But and I recognize this is a separate thing, but
Neil Barrett: And And and yeah. And as part of his Hall of Fame in induction, they specifically talked about his work with the seals and the desert dogs. And so like it wasn't just, ⁓ he's given the PLL some money. It's like, no, he is he's a big re reason why there is professional lacrosse, period. Doesn't matter what version you play in, what level you're playing, like he is a reason that. that lacrosse is what it is in this country at all. So yeah. I I'm with you. I I thought it was a little silly that the the the like pushback that people were were trying to give them for for putting him in. and it's a
@HootSportsMedia: It's also just f it's also just funny 'cause like when else like when would you even do that? Like he's not someone that can just like retire like a player can. So like what's who cares? It's not like he got the gold jacket and now he's just gonna be like, peace out. I got what I I'm here for. Like what you know what I'm saying? Like we might as well give the man his flowers while he's here. And y
Neil Barrett: Right. Well, it's not like the FIFA Peace Prize either, like this thing that they invented solely to pat him on the back. Like no, like this is a thing that exists. And pretty much every other Hall of Fame inputs people that aren't it's not solely players, you know, owners and coaches and all kinds of people get put in there. So like yeah, it's fine. ⁓
@HootSportsMedia: Right. Yeah, it again it only it only gets bad if it's you know, gets off the rails where it's like we're just putting anybody in just because but that I don't think it's going to happen. It hasn't happened yet. Like again, people just complain they complain.
Neil Barrett: Again, especially for a guy that If Logan Paul gets put in the Hall of Fame, we can we can complain about it. But
@HootSportsMedia: So you know, you don't think he should be in the WWE Hall of Fame?
Neil Barrett: No. He is pretty he is a he He's he is a shockingly good wrestler. Yeah, way better than he has any business being, but not a Hall of Famer,
@HootSportsMedia: Why? He's like the top he's he's a top tier WWE wrestler right here. We'll we'll mark him down as a contributor for now.
Neil Barrett: All right, that is going to do it for this week's episode. ⁓ Brandon, before we get out of here, man, what you got going on this week?
@HootSportsMedia: Got a a a card show Saturday. Just just a short. I'm only going for a couple hours. Got some family in town, so we're gonna go to that. But then I have a a wedding well, you know, usually I go for like the whole day, but I don't have time. I got a wedding reception ⁓ thing to go to Saturday, so that's gonna cut that short. But and then ⁓ I I'm out next week, ⁓ because I'm doing a a a three day softball part of it's a tournament, but it's i it's a softball event, we'll call it. Just a bunch of different
Neil Barrett: Short couple hours.
@HootSportsMedia: different stuff, teams getting new gear and and showing it off and stuff like that. So ⁓ that's gonna take up a good amount of my time. ⁓ you know, Saturday through Tuesday, including there's one day that I believe is gonna be like a twelve hour day, all said and done. So not looking forward to that, but that's a lie. I am looking forward to it. But I'm not looking forward to the twelve hours. So we'll see. I'm I'm hoping I can still watch these games.
Neil Barrett: Yeah. I just I just I just want to applaud you for actually remembering to for to like announce something before it happened. Like we didn't like when we took last week off, we we didn't do it until after we recorded this show. And we were like, ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah, there's no games, there's nothing for us to talk about. We probably shouldn't do an episode. I feel like
@HootSportsMedia: ⁓ yeah, yeah. Well, ⁓ you know. Might as well tell the people. They should they should just know if there's no games or probably not.
Neil Barrett: I just feel like it's it's a roll of dice. Like the the fans listen on on Wednesday and and it's just a roll of dice of whether there's an episode that drops or not.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, but now they know. I will not be here next week. I'm hoping to still be able to watch I'll at least have the game on my phone at the card show. ⁓ to kind of monitor and s and stuff like that. But these shows only come once every, you know, a couple of months, so I gotta get it in when I can. ⁓ hope I'm hoping I'm hoping there's some PL stuff there. There was a kid last time that had he brought his whole binder. He had a Jake Pisino jersey on. It was pretty sweet. I actually I talked to him 'cause he was trying to sell some stuff and I was like, yo, I need to see I need to see your binder. Open that thing up. It was awesome.
Neil Barrett: I need to see what you got.
@HootSportsMedia: Yeah, it was cool.
Neil Barrett: one last little shopkeeping note. I'm gonna try to have somebody on the show. I was gonna reach out today ⁓ to some people and I just haven't had a chance yet. So I'm gonna try to have someone on. So there should hopefully still be an episode next week. It just won't have Brandon on it. Who knows? Maybe it'll just be me rambling into a microphone again, like the good old days, I guess. But ⁓ with All of that being said, that is going to do it for us this week. If you enjoyed this episode, the Lax Lifers Club is where our community lives between episodes. It's a Discord for the fans watching lacrosse year around, not just during the all-star game. aka a lifer. The link to join us is in the description. Across social media, you can find me at I am Neil Barrett and Brandon at Hootsports Media. If you haven't yet, rate and review the show on whatever platform you are listening on. It takes about thirty seconds and it genuinely helps people find us. We will be back until next Why can't I even read these things? I'm literally reading it and I can't do it. We'll be back next week. So until then, as always, we'll catch you guys in the comments.