Chase Budinger

Not curling.

What's in the Summer Olympics? Beach volleyball? Chase Budinger's there.

I'm watching Chase Budinger.

It's just the national pride thing takes over, so then I'm watching it.

Jude mentions FIBA's moving to after the WNBA.

Uh, so you can go ahead and get your popcorn ready.

Uh, just to give you a little teaser, it is about the Norceca Championship Qualifier that happened in Manhattan Beach the other day, where Taylor Crabb and Andy Benesh, they make the finals up against the number one seed, Chase Budinger and Trevor Crabb, and it came back-- came down to a big [microphone thuds] rock, paper, scissors battle.

Uh, and we're gonna chat about why they did a rock, paper, scissors, um, and, uh, and what's going on there.

So, uh, pop your popcorn and get ready for that one.

I think we all are excited because we're fans.

I would watch Chase Budinger and Luke Ridenour and Nikola Pekovic play 38 minutes a game if I had to.

I love this team.

But I think the fact that there's a hierarchy there's a buy-in there is a synergy that seems to be developing into this organization i think the fact you have all this freaking talent that should be able to blend well because These are young athletes who have all sorts of talent.

You know what's f- and when Kevin O'Neill took over at the U of A, I'll never forget this, he was asked, I think it was Bruce, um, that asked him this, and he said, "You know, uh, Coach, you're, uh, you're- You know, the scores are a lot, uh, lower now than they've been the previous years.

[laughs] And he says, "That's because we e- emphasize defense." [laughs] And then I remember thinking to myself, "And so you don't wanna score then, though, is this also what you are telling us?" KO has- KO's, KO's got a line-up of Nick Wise at his peak, Jarrid Bayless, Chase Budinger, and Jordan Hill, and somehow they go 19 and 15.

[laughs] That's awesome.

Yes.

Now, uh, let's see here.

Who's the bigger bust in Arizona, Marcus Williams or Budinger? Oh, Marcus Williams by a mile.

Budinger was good, he just wasn't what people thought he was gonna be, that's all.

Okay.

Here's...

I'll get in trouble here.

This guy's a moron.

I got into ar- so many arguments with this guy because, dude, he didn't have Chase Budinger doing normal workouts.

And especially because the American men who have been collecting medals at a decently high clip this season, especially with the way Taylor Crabb and Andy Benesh are playing, they're still looking for their first gold.

Almost got one in Stad with Trevor Crabb and Chase Budinger, who came out of the qualifier to make the finals.

Didn't.

But Taylor and Andy, their 1-0 had a good comeback win earlier today against Marisa Pristales and Philip Waller.

They're off to a 1-0 start.

Chase Budinger, Trevor Crabb, they took a sweep win over Miles Evans and James Shaw in what's kind of a partnership tester for them.

And so the U.S. men intrigued.

Intrigued as always to follow.

Uh, when I record these, uh, especially with the, like the Road to Paris, you know, I, I started wearing shirts that I thought were fitting of the, uh, the episode, and obviously I got my, my TKN shirt on here.

As the, the weekend for TKN, uh, and Taylor Crabb and Andy Benesh, it just, it was inevitable, where you have two teams who-- Uh, and this is one of the wildest Manhattans I've seen in terms of just absolute anarchy going on, and that starts with almost the first match of the tournament for the men's side, where you get the 32, Rick Cervantes and Jonah Seif, beating the one, Trevor Crabb and Chase Budinger.

On the women's side, it's just bonkers, where you actually have, by seed total, the second highest semifinal ever, which i- and what that means basically is that i- it's the, the second most upsets to make their way to the semifinal ever.

So you have the, the 12 seed in Abby Van Winkle, Tori Van Windan, and the 14, or maybe I flipped those, in Maddie Anderson and Alaina Chacon, and the one and the two.