High Point Panthers men's basketball

I'm looking forward to Alan Huss.

I thought he did a hell of a job at High Point.

We've had him on our show.

I think that was as seamless a fit and should be an easy transition from McDermott over to Huss.

I mean, he was with McDermott for all those years.

We saw him go be a dominant coach in the Big South for the two years.

I mean, hell, he was like – 60 and 10 in his two years there at high point.

Now he comes back.

And now out of that.

After being Sherlock Holmes, after doing some digging, after trying to figure out who were the two coaches that made a selection for Presbyterian to be the number one team in the Big South, which I appreciate, I respect Quentin Farrell, but at the same time, I do not think based off of all things purely talent, which is all that you really have to go off of in a preseason ranking, I don't think they're better than High Point.

But anyways, now we have Big South VoteGate, and that's upcoming here this hour.

I'll explain more upcoming.

We've got something next segment that I've been teasing all morning long, and that is this vote gate that came out of the Big South Conference.

Well, in part.

High points thrown right into the mix of that conversation.

And the Panthers are looking to three-peat in the Big South Conference this year, get back to the NCAA tournament.

I think there's interesting storylines around, uh, every direction that you turn.

I'll mention upcoming here, uh, in just a matter of minutes now, we're gonna have Head Coach of the Panthers, Flynn Clayman, joining us alongside of Braden Hassan and Cam Fletcher, both returners from last year's team looking to be big leaders on, uh, this year's, uh, team as well as, as High Point looks to, to threepeat at this point.

And, um, I think one of those interesting storylines, one of the biggest questions I, I think I probably even have for Coach Claman this morning is could you potentially be your own worst enemy? And what I mean by that is what you've just accomplished in your first season as a head coach, uh, your first season, you know, moving over a seat and leading this program, you win a Big South, you go on a, a remarkable run in the NCAA tournament, and now you, uh, flip the calendar over, you got, uh, 11 guys that you've lost off of last year's roster.

You gotta replace those pieces.

Um, you've got a even tougher schedule when it comes to the non-conference that you've put together and, and actually athletic director Dan Houser told me that this is the most difficult schedule that, uh, that he's had during his entire tenure at High Point.

Uh, so just a, a number of things set up for, um ...

I- it sets up where it's not as easy just to say, "Okay, we walk in, we tip the ball up, you know, we win games, and, and we end up being champions." Um, some of the other, uh, interesting storylines around this, this league as a whole is that High Point has just rushed onto the scene and dominated it in a number of different ways.

Not necessarily that, you know, Winthrop hasn't put up a, a very good fight.

We need to find out who the guys are you can trust offensively because there's a lot of, as you mentioned, a lot of hopes, a lot of wishes, a lot of maybe this guy steps up, maybe he shows he can be a little bit more efficient.

When you start seeing some of those ideas turn into actuality and if you can't do it against Pitt, it's going to be a question for a lot longer than if you show something this game certainly the other game really really really fun mid-major matchup unc wilmington and high point in state battle there both of them are the favorites in their conferences obviously high point big south uncw caa two ncaa tournament teams potentially in this game what are you hoping to see

I would say these are two overwhelming favorites in their league.

I mean, if you look at the betting sites, high point is projected.

They're over under conference win total is 15 and a half.

They play 16 conference games.

They are loaded this year.

This team, I mean, this is just going to be, I don't think this is streamable, unfortunately, and I'm upset this is not a real game, but both of these teams should be in the field in March because they should.

But I will, I will say this, this is, the reason why I believe this is a couple of reasons, right? You know, I, I, if you knew this or you didn't know this, when I was first breaking into the basketball content creation, I was at, I was at a, covering a much smaller conference than the SOCon, and really kind of got into that mid-major market.

You're telling me that you hand over the reins of a Creighton team from Coach Mac to a guy like Alan Huss, who built High Point to what people know High Point is today.

Uh, that, that, that's phenomenal.

So if he's on the low end of the totem pole 'cause he hasn't proven himself-

Uh, but this is a tough job, I think, for, for Huss to really replace.

He's, he does have the pedigree.

High point, like you had alluded to, is what they are because of Allen Huss, and we'll see what Creighton does.

Providence, though, I am fired up about this hire.

A lot of people got a lot wrong back in October when we check in at the end of February.

Uh, just as one theoretical, like Huss was awesome his first two years at High Point.

He matched everyone except, I think I said this on the show to him actually, uh, Brad Underwood, Brad Stevens, and Tommy Lloyd are the only coaches I think that won more games their first two years as a head coach than Alan Huss.

And, and let's be clear, doing that at High Point, very different than doing that at, you know, some of these other places where you could just get-

No question.

Although-

Although-

Although Huss' situation at High Point was more advantageous than Underwood's at Stevens and Boston.

We'll see." And in my mind's, my heart's mind, I said, "Nope, this is gonna be it." It's a pleasure to have you here.

You took this job after running, you know, one of the better mid-majors in the country at High Point, and now you get your opportunity here at Creighton.

Um, how has it been and, and what's the state of the Jays a month out from the start of the season, Alan?

It's been, um, a bit of a whirlwind.