Figuring Out Your Time & Margin with Gabe Bock

Welcome to the Athletics of Business, a podcast about how the traits and behaviors of elite athletes and remarkable business leaders frequently intersect. The real stories and hard lessons to help you level up your leadership and performance. Now your host, Ed Molitor.

Welcome back to another episode of the Athletics of Business podcast. I am your host and CEO of the Molitor Group, Ed Malatt, Molitor. And today we are welcoming one of my all time favorites from College Station, Texas, Gabe Bach. Now, if you've listened to Texags radio, if you've lived in College Station, if you're an Aggie, if you're an A and M fan, if you follow A and M football, basketball, baseball, track, cross country, soccer, anything, you know, gay. Bach, right? He is synonymous with Texas A and M athletics for all the work that he has done over the years at Texas AGS Radio. And recently he announced that he was stepping down and did in fact step down to pursue a career joining the Megan Bach team. And that is his amazing wife as a licensed realtor and director of operations and marketing.

But what's really cool is Gabe will be staying on at Texags in a role in a capacity where he can create some content and still fulfill what it was he was looking for. And that was time and margin. And we talk a lot about that. He's so committed to his family, wanting to spend time with him, do things. You know, this is a big part of his children's life and he doesn't want to wake up one day and he's an empty nester and all of a sudden that's gone. We talk about all that. We tell some great A and M stories. And one of the amazing things that Gabe just did, he had the Castlegate community basketball court named after Alex Caruso.

And I surprised Gabe on this episode with Alex's father, Mike Caruso, who is a friend of mine that I've known for years. He also has done some amazing work inside of the athletic department at Texas A and M. So just a really fun conversation, a cool conversation and so many takeaways for folks right now who are sitting there thinking, you know, I'm very successful, things are going well, but something's missing or there's an other passion I'd like to pursue and I'm a little bit afraid to get outside my comfort zone. And Gabe gets really open with us and he shares how this came about and what triggered this and how he and his wife handled the conversations and how he and the great Billy Lucci handled the conversation.

When Gabe told him, listen this is what I'm thinking about doing and this is why I want to do it. And how can we make this work for everyone? So without further ado, enjoy this conversation with Gabe Bach. Gabe, thank you so much for joining us today on the Athletics of Business podcast. It's awesome to be sitting here looking at you, but it's a little awkward being in different seats. Right. Usually you're the one leading the show because I'm going to do my best to honor you and what an amazing job you've done in your career.

Eddie Molitor, man, kindred spirits. You used to spend some time up down this way in College Station with Tony Barone and Porter Moser and trying to get that Aggie basketball team rolling. Which you guys did for a little while.

For a minute.

Yeah, for a minute. And we've had some great dinners and we had some great on air opportunities. But it's a thrill and an honor to be following the likes of Hunter Goodwin and Mark French and some of the incredible Aggies that you've had on. And I love that. I do a podcast on the business of college sports and you do a podcast on the college. The sports of business.

That's right.

A flip flop there. We didn't mean to infringe on your trademark, but that's okay.

I'll ride your guys coattails any day of the week. You know that, right? I might not be as smart as I look, but I mean, come on.

Yeah, no, it's a lot of fun and I'm thrilled to be on it. It's going to be an awesome opportunity to chat with you.

Yeah, I appreciate it. And you know, and congratulations to you in the introduction I prefaced, obviously the amazing journey that you're on, that you've been on. I appreciate you and all you've done because you've been able to somehow find the balance in all your years, your 10 years at Texags and before that, just being such a vital member of the a community to balance objectiveness with passion. Right. And that's not easy to do. And what you've done, which what Billy and the crew have done at Tex Ags and where it's at today versus where you guys started. Can you take our listener on that journey? Because I. By no stretch of your imagination did I try to even entertain the idea that I could properly articulate the amazing things that you've done.

But Ed, you knew Billy in 1998 whenever.

96, actually.

96, okay. Before he got in media and in 98 he gets in media and RC Slocum, it tries to run him off a practice saying this. Who is Billy Lucci? Who's this Italian guy? He's like a runner for an agent. Like RC didn't trust him and now they're great friends, right? You know how Billy is. Yeah, I mean I jump on in. 08, ten years later, when Hunter and Bill joined forces with Texing, they had the Maroon and White report, which was a written newsletter.

But it was awesome.

It was awesome. Billy was typing this newsletter up at the foot of his bed with Seth McKinney sleeping in the bed next to him as roommate. Tell him to shut up. But he's like, hey, I got a deadline. And Butch is up in the middle of the night just chiming away at this. You know how he is. He can't see. He's like. He's been blind. He's been blind for 25 years, ever since you met him. But can you imagine like Billy Lucci and look where he is, this business mogul.

Amazing. Yeah, I know, but not a shock. Not a shock.

Getting to know smart he is and.

Getting to know Billy, like I didn't. Having a few conversations with him at the tap, you knew he was bound for greatness, right? I mean honestly, he just. And he talk about passion. I mean he loved it. Just embraced it.

Not. It was a heck of a run. I was with them for 13 years, 2008. And the cool thing is I'm. I'm still consulting. I'm on contract. I've got five or six pieces of content I'm going to produce every week. This football season has been amazing. But in 2008 I jump on board from full time radio and we were scared we weren't going to get credentials. Like that's 1008. So 13 years ago we're like, hey, get about us. We need one seat in the press box. One seat in the press box. And now probably got, I don't know, six. But just the way it's grown and you know, starting the radio show in 2011, doing that for 10 years. We're making movies now, which is a huge part of our whole deal.

We are making websites that look like Texas, but there are different colors for different markets. And then partnered with people in those markets who are experts. We've got a Georgia side, we've got a USC side, a cow, Nebraska, Notre Dame, you know, Irish Sports Daily is our site. We built it. So it's amazing. It's been really fun. Like, you know, this You've taught. How many Fortune 500 CEOs have you had on this podcast or at least talking, you know, a lot of these guys, and they'll tell you the. The original Fortune 500 companies that only had one stream of revenue, they're not around anymore. How many of those are still in existence unless they mold and develop? That's what you have to do. So Texags was all about getting the Aggie to pay about $10 a month to get premium content.

That was the revenue stream.

Right.

When I jumped on board, Texag's advertising sales, 14,000 for the year. Well, now it might be a million, you know, so you. You got to do advertising. You got to do. You got to be everything in today's media, and you got to be able to mold development. And they've done it. It's incredible leadership group, you know, all the characters. And I just, I'm thrilled that while I have gotten out full time, Texas is allowing me to stay on board in some capacity and try to add value to it, because it's an absolute passion.

It's in there. Better for doing that, obviously. Right. And I saw. I saw Billy's statements, his comment, your conversation with him after you announced back on May 3rd that you're taking a step away or that you're stepping down from the show. And he made a great point. It was very straightforward. I hate to see you go, but you're not really going. As a matter of fact, you're here in a capacity that serves you better in your life, Gabe, and serves your family better and also serves Texas. Now we're bringing another 10 on. Right. And by the way, I would argue. I would argue with Billy that you're a 10. Plus, you're not a 10. Okay.

But you're bringing up a great point right there, because he's got a little Chicago, got a little phone. Right. I mean, Luch. And I think he's big into. That's a. That's compliment. He's big into growing the entourage. Right. Growing the team. So if he's Ross Bjork or Jimbo, he might think of this as like a recruiter. Well, I don't want to lose Gabe and then add David Nuno, and that's losing a guy and adding a really good guy. But in Billy's mind, it's like, if we figure out how to not lose Gab, keep him, and we still have all them, and we have Logan and Bronnie, so on and so forth, the crew that has established itself in our community of Aggies and throughout the sec. And then you go add Nuno for the fourth biggest city in the country.

Abc, the sucker had Bob Allen's old job. I mean, a legendary old Houston broadcast. Now Nuno's in that chair. So if I can go pull Nuno for the fourth biggest city in the country, have him host the show and take on our sort of reporting initiatives moving forward and be our voice and then keep Gabe on, we grow the entourage. And I got to tell you, man, I mean, Billy's got a Persona as like big brother with me. And it's just the way it's always been. So it's been very natural. That's not shtick. And I've kind of been the Casey Affleck and good bull hunting in the backseat and eat your double burger and shut the hell up. And he's been the guy in the front driving or the other side. I can't drive for crap.

So he's been a guy on the other side, Matt Damon. But the point being is like, we get that and I play that role and he plays that role and we love each other. But on January 18, I had a secret. And I had something that needed to be told. And that something that needed to be told was, After 13 years, I gotta pull back because it's broken right now. The schedule's broken. The math equation in our home is messed up. And I got to figure out how to get this thing right moving forward or regret's going to creep in a big way. Because these kids are only getting older, they're only getting busier. My wife's only getting more and more successful in real estate, yet Texags is dominating, like our whole schedule.

But Texags isn't the most important thing in my house by any stretch. As much as I love it, and neither are the Aggies, as much as I love them. And so I needed to figure out. And to Billy's credit, this was Billy's finest hour. A in a three hour conversation. Socially distance, of course. He is the world's biggest Aggie germaphobe. He had the door open into his house, but I had to be in the garage. And he was. He was in his kitchen.

Were there pictures of that on social media?

You needed. Couldn't do that. That was a clandestine meeting at that time. And I cried a lot, man, because I was holding it in, right? So I cried a lot. And then he realized my plight. And I still had a contract. I still had two and a half years left of my contract. They yeah, they could have handled this a lot differently, Ed. In a business, how many people talk to would have handled a lot differently because his contracts, a contract business is business. No hard feelings. You got to put that aside. But they didn't. They understood it. They understood my situation and said, look, we still want you. Is there a couple things you could do for us?

And I told him point blank, like, I don't want to just cold turkey go from Texas and then fade into Bolivia, as Mike Tyson would say. Right. I don't want to just fade away and then all of a sudden, like five years from now. And in real estate, you got to keep top of mind awareness. So I don't want to just in five years, everybody in the community is like, remember that Gabe Bach? I mean, who is he? Right? So you got to keep doing stuff in real estate. And it's my passion.

Right.

So to their credit, we had multiple meetings, Brandon Jones involved to our president, and Brandon finally said, look, you know, more what you really offer tech sags and have 13 years even than I do. Why don't you come back to us with a new job description and why don't you put a value on that job description? And I was able to spend two weeks and really craft and do my own job description. How many people do that?

Right?

And they. And then we met for 20, 30 minutes and we had a new role moving forward as a consultant, as a content creator for Texags, but working not 70 hours a week, but working 10 to 15 during football season, less during basketball and baseball, and even less during the summer and. But still being involved. Scratch that, Aggie Sports Edge. But it now moving forward, it's just fun. Like, this is just a hobby that I would probably be messing around with anyway. So I'm still able to be involved with tech sags and still able to work with my wife and still able to be home and play golf like crazy and coach baseball and volleyball and everything else so. Well, I'm living a good. I'm living a good life, man. I mean, I got to tell you,

I'm very well deserved, too. Yeah. And well deserved.

Thankful.

Yeah.

And I'll tell you said something. When I listened to your announcement on May 3, and it stuck with me then because we had just connected and you kind of noted that something was coming up, but we had just connected or reconnected. We just talked. And when I listened to it, you said something. The decision came down to time and margin. I absolutely love that. Right. Because I think that's something that so many people are dealing with right now, with everything that we have gone through, grown through. And you said that. But you also said something that absolutely shocked me, that you and your wife have only been to one and a half games together at Kyle Field.

We've only been to one and a half games together in our marriage period.

And now you're going on a road game together to one of my favorite places. Yeah. That's awesome.

Next week we're going to Denver for the A and M Colorado game. But we got season tickets.

Will that be hard for you? Not being running around like a chicken with your head cut off and having the field pass and even though obviously you still have one, but sitting there with the season tickets and will that be a little bit different feeling?

I think the hardest part of all of it is going to be figuring out how to cheer again. Because in the press box it's a sterile environment. So you're subdued in a lot of ways. You, you might celebrate, but it's just above the neck and it's in silence. It may be with a well timed tweet is how you celebrate or things like that. It's totally different world. And I firmly. I don't know, I haven't saw them often. Is it son or sod? I haven't sawn them often. Forever with an N, I think.

Yeah. Okay. Hey, I'm from Chicago, so you're asking the wrong cat here. Right?

In years, really. So, I mean, maybe I like a baseball game with the kids, but I mean, I can't remember clapping at a sporting event. I go to a Rangers game and I stand up and I just, I think that's going to be the biggest challenge. But I'm glad you mentioned the margin thing. This is a book I've been reading all year. My good friend Will Reed brought it to my attention when I met with him about. I do. I was looking for a bookmark. Look, we've gone with the three of spades today as my bookmark. I don't know why. I just found something real quick to find my place here. But this is Richard Swenson. He's a doctor, He's a medical doctor and he's been on a quest for margin his entire life. And he wrote this great.

This is like a daily version. He's got a much thicker book. But hey, what's the issue of writing this massive book on margin? Anybody that needs it, they don't have the margin to read it. He realized that and he said, look, I need to do it daily. And it's called a minute of margin.

Okay.

Because I can do that. Yeah.

We can do a minute a day. Yeah.

Now I may skip four days because I don't have time, but I can do a minute, you know, so they're this big. That's it. And it gives you his little RX at the end. Right. So it's all good.

I love that.

I'm glad you mentioned this margin. That's kind of been my word for the year. And I read one about three days ago on the benefit of a good transmission. A great car. You have a great car, but you better have a transmission in that sucker. And what he talks about is the healthiest lifestyle comes equipped with four gears. You need four gears. And I'm a three on the enneagram. I don't know if you've studied that. And I'm a doer and a pleaser and a people pleaser. And I want to go above and beyond what's requested so that I don't know, maybe I like encourage. I don't know. I like doing well for people. I don't like when I do them wrong. And. And so I go probably a little bit too much transitioning the overdrive gear. Gear for right. Hammer that sucker.

And speed on the freeway. In my life, I'm very comfortable in overdrive. But the pro. What I'm learning now is these other gears. And I'll just read it quick. I'm not going to read the whole minute. But the first is park for the contemplative times. This gear is used for rest and renewal. It's our battery charging gear. And he continues on that. The second gear is low. Low gear is for relationships, family and friends. Like how many of us grinders just don't have time to sit for an entire hour and have a cup of coffee with somebody new because we got to go get going. Time is money. An hour is. Sometimes you feel. It feels wasted. But I've learned a lot this year. God's taught me a lot about just the importance of that low gear and growing your relationships.

Because we're not meant to do this alone. We're meant to be around people. We're meant to grow and be in unity and be in community. And that's where we are most. Our most healthiest self on this earth. Right. So park and low and then drive like that's the usual gear for work. Much of our play, like this gear uses lots of energy, faster speed when it's productive. But then that fourth gear is overdrive. Overdrive is like you're going to go to the gym Ed and you're going to play basketball and not golf that day. Like you're going to gear up your energy and get into overdrive. Or you got a bunch of deadlines coming up and I might have to pull almost an all nighter to make it work and that's okay.

But the key of this margin thing is that can't be a lifestyle like overdrive can't be every day. You're not going to be healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, behaviorally. Like it's going to affect all of it if you're spending your life in overdrive. And I think way too often I spent my life. It's like a great car. If you just drop that sucker in and start hammering from the stop sign consistently, the car is going to croak. Eventually it's not going to be very good because you're going to wear out your engine. And that's the same with our bodies, that's the same with our brains. So you need health, emotional health, mental, spiritual, all that. And so to get into those four gears is significant, man. It's significant.

Margin is the word that really sort of led me to the finish line and making this decision where I was still trying to battle it as the calendar turned to 2021. Well, maybe I just do the show. But then, you know, it's like, well, hey, that still puts you busy in the morning and still put your wife busy in the evening and you're still bringing home your most exhausted self day after day. And that perpetuates a tainted relationship over time or a strained relationship. So with your kids and with your spouse, your most important ministry, your most important relationships. So it's so important, your home is the most important thing. It's got to stay healthy. You're not going to be a great businessman. A lot of times if your home's messed up, you'll be distracted and you won't be your best at your best.

So just learning a lot. I still don't know anything, but I a lot this year through this decision, man. No doubt about it.

Well, and the thing is, if you are there, you really don't have access to your best self because you're so worn out. Because you're spending so much time and.

Driving, for sure it's impossible.

And that's the big trick because you think you're doing okay. You know, it seems like all the plates are spinning, like all the balls are staying in the air and you Think you're doing okay. So again, I say kudos to you. You know, I mean, it's just pretty amazing because it's not, you know, you don't have an ego, which is always amazed me about you with all your success. But for some it'll be very hard because a lot of folks in that industry, my industry, the coaching industry, people in general identify who they are with what they do. And you and I, we identify who we are with our family. Right. And what's most important. So to you? I just think that's absolutely amazing.

Now, was it odd for the family to have so much access to you throughout the day at first, like, dad,

I don't know if this is so.

This is cool, but man, I think.

It's still pretty odd. Like, I burned some cook. My daughter did a presentation today at school. It's actually going on right now.

Okay.

On. On Norway. And my wife has some Norwegian in her. Norway, Sweden, German. And so Ella picked Norway. She wanted to learn a little more about Norway. And when you do the presentation, you get to make some food from whatever country you choose and you have to present and then everybody gets to eat. She made these like lemon sugar cookies. And all I had to do today was stick them in the oven and not burn them.

Right.

Well, I burned the suckers. Right? I mean, come on. All I had to do, stick them in there and not burn them and I burned them.

Like when you say burnt like a little bit crispy or were they just. Were they gone Edible?

I say they're edible. Yeah, we're just fine. But you know how it is when you're a kid. Hey, look, I messed it up. I'm still learning a lot. I mean, we got a puppy. We still trying to house train him. I had no idea. My wife used to bring all three kids to school every single day. I had no idea how hard that was.

Right.

I'm now driving them to school. Yeah, I mean, just trying to get them to school on time is a chore. So I am learning a lot, man. But we have. I've counted hundreds of hours.

Okay.

Especially like when you think about a road trip. I mean, you're gone for 72 hours or longer. And when you're there at home in the summer, where you last year would have been. Well, not last year because the COVID part, but in a normal world would have been gone for three days or four or five. I mean, and then every morning being able to spend some time getting them ready. I mean, it is just an incredible joy. Over time, you start thinking like, all right, I don't regret. This is an incredible run. I'm so thankful for Texas at this stage. My kid, my daughter Ella's 12. My son Easton will be nine in October. My other daughter Everly will be six in October. And they're kind of at that stage now where it's been great, but they're getting ready.

Ella's going to be seventh grade sports coming up next year. I mean, it's about to get crazy. Multiple pickups at school, multiple drop offs at school. My wife's career is blowing up, so she needed to insert some systems and make hires. And I've just been a part of that. And so it's like, sooner or later, regret's going to set in. Can I do this for 10 more years? And then I look up and Everly is out of high school and now we're empty nesters. And I missed a lot.

Yes.

And I just don't want to. I talked to so many people like you and other business people. You and I are very kindred spirits in a lot of ways because we found our passion and we got to work in the thing that we most enjoyed. Your dad was a coach. You knew you were going to be a coach. You wanted to coach. And guess what? You got to coach at a very high level. And here you are sitting there coaching and your dreams change. There's something that happens. You wake up one day and you have new dreams. I wanted to be the play by play voice of the Texas Rangers. Right. Forever. We listen to Mark Holtz and Eric Nadal. Nadal still doing the plays.

Yeah.

It's incredible. Or my parents really wanted me to take whatever road I need to take to get to Bristol, Connecticut. Right. I mean, get on sport. They don't know crap. It's like.

But because Bristol's such a hot spot, too.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So. But then you get married. Okay. That changes some things. Do I want to live calling single A in Clinton, Iowa, left and right or not? Probably not. Does my wife have a job there? Probably not. Because there's 716 people in that town. So it's like, all right. And then you have kids and your dreams just shift and mold and change. And you start asking yourself, and I know you did. You had to come to that realization. And I did, too. Just recently. Is, what is the finish line? Is it five years? Maybe it is. You'll be praying a lot about it. You're talking about what's the finish line and come to find out. And I think I really started. We prayed about this thing for 13 months before I told Billy.

It was an 18 month process to the finish line on January 11th of this year. But it's like, you know, maybe it's now. And when you do a three hour talk show in a five month complete sports shutdown where you're just doing Mount Rushmore's every day, like that kind of wears on you and it really makes you. And that like you said earlier, a lot of people are in this boat right now of thinking like, what is, what's the next 20 years really supposed to look like? Is it still this? And just asking that question, I just kind of plowing through it and just assuming it's the right thing for you moving forward, but really asking the question and sifting out and searching for the answer to what the future really looks like for you. And so that's where we came to this point.

Right. And what were those conversations like with Megan when you first started going down that road and having those. And was it you that said, hey Megan, this night can I talk to you? Or was it her? Or was it a mutual thing? I mean, what was that like?

You should pull up a tweet that Megan put out like a month ago, I think when I passed the real estate exam and hung my license with her. Their brokerage there, Walsh and Mangan, Premier real estate in town, she's got the Team Megan box team within that brokerage. But she put out an interesting tweet or Instagram post. It's like, have you ever been presented with an opportunity and your answer was hell no. And then lo and behold, as time passes, it's like, definitely the right decision. And that's kind of where she was. We were driving. It was. We were going back home to Denison, an hour north of Dallas, bordertown with Oklahoma. And I looked out at her. While I was looking out, I was driving home and I was pretty exhausted after the 2019 fall.

And I looked out and I saw a billboard for Champions School of Real Estate. I didn't end up using Champions, but that's where Megan went. And I just looked over and I pointed to that sign and I said, what if I did that? And my idea was, you know, I really don't like her opening a door in the middle of the country for just some single guy.

Sure.

But I legally can't do that without a license. So my original impetus was just, I'll just be able to kind of help her out when she's in an awkward situation or she's just exhausted and I'll just be able to open doors and get a real estate license. But I started thinking more and more, and that's when it started, of just what if you. You're growing like crazy. And in the COVID world, she just blew up. So it was situation where it became a legitimate option.

And a lot of people might get a situation where even if they feel like maybe their time in a certain spot, as great as it might be, like my full time experience with Texas was that the time might be coming to an end, but they don't have an option because maybe they're the only breadwinner or there's just so much nervousness about just up and quitting and then figuring out what's next. But Megan, thank God with her success, gave me an option to look around at the opera and explore the opportunity of joining forces with her. And so her original answer was, hell no. It was because mostly she didn't know a gay Bach without Aggie sports. And she knows how much. How passionate I am about it.

Right.

And how much joy I get from doing the show. And she didn't want to be a cause or a root cause of pulling me away from that. And then all of a sudden, you know, guilt sets in and I feel like I made the wrong decision. And she certainly didn't want me to throw her under the bus or anything like that. So we needed to really, like, sift this out. And it took a long time. And I drove that bus. She did not drive that bus. I drove it. Of I really do believe this could be a great opportunity for us. And so far it's been great. Now I'm learning a lot, like, how do you communicate where, you know, where your bread's buttered and you work for her? Right? Like, we don't even.

We're not going to have our two faces on a billboard together holding kittens. We're not going to have double signs.

Well, you better not be holding kittens. I mean, right?

Like, my role is really operations, figuring out, okay, we need to hire a young whippersnapper that can give us their nights and weekends and we'll give them leads and we'll give them training. And for a year maybe when they're ready, they go out on their own. But now they need to be on our team because they need to learn the business, but we need their time and their energy and their effort. So I'm in operations and social media and then helping Buyers like, we gotta make sure every time we go to the golf course with Easton, he wants to start on the putting green and he wants to end on the putting green. And I think he's got a built innate understanding or he's learned it from somebody that's where the money is, right? The money's on the green.

You got to be good around the green and you got to be good on the green. As long as you might be off the tee, you got to be good there because that's where the cash is.

Right.

As operations person, I got to think Megan's got to be focused on the green. She's got to be focused around the green and figuring out where she puts her time because you only have so much of it. So she's got to be focused on doing meetings and writing contracts. And then I've got to now, in my role, say, look, what do we need to do to get this, that, and this off her plate? I'll take some of it. We'll hire two people to take other parts of it.

Right.

So that she can then be focused on the primary parts of the. Of the company. You've had to do that. You've had to put in systems. You've talked to hundreds of people that have had to put in systems as they continue to grow, or you're going to wear yourself out. You're going to be in overdrive too much. So that's my role now, is to find her a way to be in park low drive and overdrive when needed.

And how much fun will that be to do together? And I'll tell you what, I would want to be on your guys team. I mean, going back to what you said, like, she wasn't the one who drove the idea. Like you drove that bus. And. And the reason she didn't drive it really was because her love and respect for you. Right. I mean, it speaks volumes to your relationship and she knows how much A and M athletics means to you. Now, with that being said, I have someone joining the podcast here that I'm not telling you about because you have done something absolutely amazing for someone in College Station. Okay, so without further ado, I'm going to have Mike Caruso jump on here.

Yes.

I want to.

I want to talk about your incredible.

Work with getting Alex Caruso court named, you know, in College Station at Castlegate Community. Mike, Coach Caruso, welcome. How are we doing, my friend?

I'm doing great. Except for my eyes.

Yeah, yeah. Gabe had no idea you're coming on Nor does he. Nor does he know that you're at the eye doctor and your eyes are completely dilated. So, Gabe, I thought it'd be great to have Mike on and talk about the work you did for Alex Crusoe. Corey. And I'm gonna get out of your two guys way. I want you all to talk about it. I'm just gonna see a little Texas came out me there. I said y'.

All.

How about that?

Yeah, it's a great word. Almost as good as all y'. All.

Yeah, better.

And now you're asking a lot from the Chicago guy.

Do they say y' all in Omaha, Mike?

Not a lot, no.

No, certainly not in Oakland. I guarantee you that.

No, not much on the west coast either. They can really tell where you're from when you throw that at him. You know, Gabe, before we get too deep into it, I just want to thank you and Colin and John Thornton, Debbie Schaefer, all the parks department people for, you know, for that recognition. I mean, it's obviously I'm a little prejudiced. I think it was well deserved, but you know, it's, it's also. I think it's a great tribute for what Alex has earned and great recognition for him.

Man, Mike, it's good to hear you. And I tell you what, I don't feel like I deserve a lot of recognition here, but Alex definitely does. And it's just kind of a no brainer is. And the root of this was Alex, great guy. We've known him forever, back to his high school days, back to his ball boy days. So when we asked him to come on, busy as he is, he'll do it. We don't and we try to respect that, but he'll come on the show. And he did an off season. I believe it was prior to signing the two way deal or maybe right after he did with the Lakers, I think. I think, yeah, he made some waves there with OKC in the G League. And then was he had just signed the two way contract with the Lakers.

So he wasn't Alex Crusoe on a mural, the toast of La La Land at that time, but he was the toast of Aggieland. Right. And, and so when we met, I just, we kind of got into the genesis a little bit and I just brought a comment. Is he. And he talked about Caruso or he talked about the Castlegate Court and it's how far away from your house, Mike? Three or four houses.

Yeah, were three houses from the corner.

Three houses from the corner, Ed. And so, of course, a basketball junkie he is. He wants to mold his game. And there was all these adults out there playing ball. Mike could tell you more. And I was talked about that I didn't know who any of them were. Come to find out, one of them is a good buddy of mine, Jason Bullard. Pitched at A and M around 90 and good bass, great, really good athlete. And Alex was just kind of dribble on the side. And finally they invited him to play and they saw him get better and better. Really. He honed his skills at Castlegate Court. And you know how it is when you're kind of free flowing like we are right now. You might say some crazy stuff.

And I just said, look, I don't know anybody in the city, but they ought to name that core after you. And that kind of spawned something in my head, like, hey, why don't we try to get this done? And I thought it'd be like a couple phone calls, Mike. Honestly, I didn't think it'd be two and a half years.

Yeah, yeah.

We still hadn't celebrated the sucker. I mean, we can't get to the celebration.

Yeah, but I mean, he was this skinny little mop headed, you know, high school boy and even younger. And I mean, if you've ever been on that outdoor courts where they have those double wire rims, it's like if you can make a shot out there, you can make it anywhere. But yeah. Jason Bullock takes credit for the reason Alex is signing NBA contracts. It's like he taught him everything Alex knows.

Yeah, yeah. He needs 10% of that 37 million and he's in Ed's hometown.

I love it. We gotta, you know, he plays like Chicago guy. He carries himself like a Chicago guy. We're excited.

He looks like he could have graduated from Palatine.

Yeah, yeah, he does. He does. He could. He. He could have played for the old coach of Palatine too. He would have to welcome him with anyone.

Anyone. I love to have had somebody like Alex playing for him.

Absolutely. He would have fit right in. Yeah.

Yeah. Mike, when Alex was growing up, in what ways did you feel like his game resembled yours? And in what ways was it very different?

You know, it's really kind of strange. It's, you know, we'd be out playing in the driveway, you know, and he was like 6, 7 years old. I can't remember how young, but you know, A little family time out in the driveway. And I'm like, whoa, how do you know how to do that? You know, he really. I mean, I really. I think there's something to that. The instincts and he. He just picked up a number of nuances. It's hard to teach somebody like that. You just. They just learned it. But, I mean, he did it at a really early age. He really understood the game and, you know, his competitive nature and his competitive drive. I mean, you know, back then, 5 11, dude could play point guard probably not much anymore. Very few and far between.

But, I mean, you know, I was pretty competitive, too, and I think I was a lot like him from the standpoint of pretty California casual off the court. But then when, you know, when the ball went up in the air, it was like, okay, what do you got? Here's what I'm going to do, and, you know, show me what you got. And he's always had that kind of approach. He's always looking to play at the next level, take a challenge on and. And has been really successful whenever he's done it. So it's great to see. And in every level, you know, it's happened.

It's just his growth from junior high and then through high school, you know, when he started and when he finished the same thing at A and M when he started, when he finished, you know, high school, 31 wins, district champs and college, you know, SEC champ, sweet 16. So the good part about pro basketball is you don't graduate. I'm looking for that growth, the growth to continue into Windy City there, Ed.

Well, you know, it will. And what he did in LA was absolutely amazing. And I was going to get back to, like, when he was at A and M. I think people for a while, they're like, how much more can Alex do? How much harder can he play? How many more rebounds can you actually get? Offense, rebounds. I mean, how many more assists can he throw? It was. He just kept getting better and better. It was almost like there was no ceiling. And just when you thought there was a ceiling, he pushed it a little bit even higher. And you saw that with the Lakers. Now, I'm curious about this, Mike, and I'm not. I mean, by nature, I'm not a fan of the way LeBron James plays, okay? I love what he does off the court in the community. I think it's amazing.

I do. But. And it's not easy being LeBron James, teammates, teammate of LeBron James. But LeBron absolutely loves Alex, love playing with him as A matter of fact, he said he's his favorite teammate he's ever had. Was that just Alex being Alex? I mean, I think that was one of the coolest lessons. It didn't seem to me like Alex ever got out of himself. He just kept being him and doing him. And that's what LeBron loved about him.

And they played off of each other so well. I mean, and I. And I think they both have, again, that instinct or that knack. And what I kind of related to for Alex is, like, he's about two seconds ahead of everybody else on the court. He knows that, okay, LeBron's running next to this guy. I'm going to go away, and LeBron's going to be open, and I'm getting ball. And LeBron's the same kind of player from that standpoint. I think they both have great instincts from the standpoint of, you knowledge of how people should play and how besides, you know, NBA so much one one, it's. I don't want to say boring at times, but it's, you know, it's difficult sometimes, but there's.

But there's an awful lot to that anticipation, making the right cut, making the right screen roll and, you know, finding people that are open, knowing that they're going to be open. And I think LeBron and Alex played very similarly in that regard and compliment each other tremendously. I mean, they were. They're 1, 2. You know, there's so many analytics that are in the professional sports, basketball included. And, you know, the numbers that Alex and LeBron had when they were both on the. On the court were just like, crazy good.

Yeah.

And Michael, back this up, I think, is Billy brought in the right people that really had it above the neck on that championship team. And Admon Gilder had it early as a freshman, and Tyler Davis had it early as a freshman, and Jalen Jones, you know, House and Jones, and we. How many balls we see just bounce off people's chest or head or hands because they didn't know Alex could do that, or they didn't expect it to come. And it was technically a turnover on Alex, but it was a guy making an incredible play. But then when Billy did, BK Kennedy brought in the right pieces around Alex, and that was something special there in 2016.

Yeah, that was a great team. A great mix of people with a lot of experience and knowledge, and then a great mix of some young bucks that were really physically talented. And I think that they grew. The young guys grew as a group and were Better contributors at the end of the year. And I think a lot of that's because of the senior leadership that was there.

Mike, one of the questions I want to ask you, because I've been wondering this ever since I was watching the finals in the bubble as a dad. You know, Gabe and I were just talking about how much we embrace being a parent and what an honor it is and how awesome it is. What was going through your mind as a father, you know, growing up a coach's son? There's something special about that bond around the game, right? Growing up in the gyms and on the playgrounds and just the conversations in the cars. What was. I mean, I feel myself getting goosebumps right now. What was going through your mind when all of that was taking place in the finals?

So Jackie and I were there for seven weeks in the bubble. So, I mean, we lived with the teams. We all were in the same perimeter. We'd pass players and coaches and go eat. There's only three places you could eat if you wasn't in your room. And so we'd go see, guys, we're right there. But we saw every single game. And that was an absolute treat for me, you know, as a parent, but then also as a. As an ex coach. And, you know, to be honest with you, I kind of stayed in. In character. I watched the game and I realized it was a championship game. And Alex started, you know, and I was thinking, well, that's pretty cool. Let's see how this works out. And then, you know, we're up like 16 or 18.

But I've learned after watching many NBA games, 20 point lead that made anything, you know, stick around the last five minutes. And then, you know, we kept it and increased it, you know, And I said to Jackie, I said, we're going to win. There's no question we're going to win this. Because, you know, it was. It was a long grind. It was a hard grind, but we had more in the tank than Miami did, you know, at that point. And I felt really confident. And then. And then, you know, the joy part took over. And then the last couple of minutes, were just like jumping up and down in the stands hugging each other. They are. They're already handing out, you know, championship T shirts and hats. And I was like, come on, guys, maybe we should just wait a little bit.

I'm like, nah, give it to us. We're going to do it. And then. And then to be able to get on the court and celebrate with the Team with Alex was just like, so cool. Really cool.

And I've got it. And I've got it. You know, we talk about being proud. As a father, I have to shift gears because I want this to be a conversation with Gabe about what that court means to you, Mike. And to be able to drive by it, to be able to see it, knowing that it's gonna be named Alex Crusoe Court. And how cool is that? Because you know, what that court meant to your son, to your family, but also to the community.

I mean, again, and like we said earlier, it's like you see him put in the work, you see him dedicated to the game and it just has a passion for it. I mean, just he loves the game and loves to compete. And so for something like this that, you know it's gonna be there forever. I mean, it isn't. It isn't like, okay, you want a banner and you know, or a trophy and it's going to go on a shelf somewhere. It's like this is going to be there and they're going to have a recognition dedication, like a little plaque thing. Right, Gabe, that's, you know, you can kind of get the whole story about who's this Alex Crusoe guy, because, you know, some people won't know they're down there playing. And you know, hopefully it's going to inspire somebody.

Hey, this guy could do it right here in this neighborhood. Maybe I can.

Absolutely. You know, when I coach baseball, we play on the same field that Asa Lacy grew up pitching on. He was the number four pick in the draft. He signed a six million dollar contract, the highest drafted Aggie ever. And I tell boys like you can be Asa. Asa came from the same field. He pitched in this on this exact mouth. Same for those kids that are out there playing on now. They're not going to be double rimmed anymore. We're upgrade.

Yeah, I kind of drove by Gabe this little while.

I mean, good now.

So I saw the resurface, I saw the new backboards and is very smart and by them when they resurfaced it, they didn't put any rims on yet. I haven't been there. I went on a golfing trip actually with Alex last week. So haven't been there in some way.

Yeah. So 79 at Pebble Beach. Yeah, he.

And that was with the double bogey on 17. He was playing, he played great. But oh, what a great experience. Great. Again, more memories that you just, you can't get enough of them.

But that's going to be fun. And, you know, it's been two years in the making, Ed, because a. You had to pass muster because, you know, College Station doesn't like to name things. I'm not. I'm not disparaging them, but a lot of towns don't like to name something after you until you passed. Right. But the point for us was this is a living icon in College Station. This town has never produced a major sport champion in a team sport. An Aggie has not played in an NBA Finals game since 1958. Walter, Buddy Davis. This guy's unbelievable. Like, he's a College Station kid through and through. Born, raised. This guy's an Aggie. Great. So it's not like college kid that went away, did something else great, but he can't.

He stayed here and did something great, and now he continues to build it on this incredible legacy that, like, to Mike's point, these kids are going to be out there playing and they're going to feel like, if Alex can do it, shoot, maybe I should dream bigger than I currently am, because maybe I could, too. So it's an inspiration. But the COVID thing, put it on pot. We pitched it in February 20, mid February of 20, and then, oh, I'm telling you, like a month. And then it shut everything down. There was no talks at all. And then we kind of just kept it going, try to keep that momentum going. And when you mentioned Jay Sokol as well, Mike, because he was a big part of it, too. Mitch, Colin, Dr. John Thornton was huge.

And, you know, all the people with the Parks department, so many of them over there, that had something to do with it a lot. But. And then, you know, so he's a Bull now. And so to bring it to now, we had it set up for this coming Saturday, but the Bulls are calling all their new players to their roster in a couple weeks early. So, Mike, we'll figure it out and hopefully we'll do it in conjunction with one of Caruso's camps because he continues to give back and do these youth camps.

Yep. And he's. He's dedicated to do that. And next year won't be free agency, because that was the other thing that happened, you know, was it correspondent with free agency. And he wanted to try and do the camp, but just no way to do that. That timing. Bad timing.

Well, let's get him a second championship with the Bulls.

Like it.

Let's go.

If he can do that.

Whoever thunk that. Yeah, well, yeah.

Who's going to be much better this year.

I'm excited. They've got a chance of being pretty. Pretty decent. They really do. They've got some pieces there. And. And honestly. And I say this, and Mike, I'd say to see if you were not. I love Alex's game and he's. What he's a huge piece that Chicago's been missing. The way he plays, the way he carries himself. There's no BS about him. There's no. He doesn't need all the glory. Just go out and do it. And at some point, guys have to follow that lead. Right. They have to follow.

He's all about winning and what do I have to do to contribute to get a win.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's. That's awesome. And Mike, stay with us here because we got it. We got a few minutes left here and I'm going to. I want to wrap up because, you know, Gabe, just wrap up with. Where folks can find out more about Megan, about, you know, her team, about what you folks are doing in College Station and what all your social media handles are where people can follow you.

Yeah. So it's Megan's name and Meganbach.com is her website. And we get the Megan Bach team here under the Walsh and Megan Premier real estate brokerage in College Station. And it's an incredible family. We're growing like crazy. We're adding agents, we're adding transaction people, we're adding client care people, social media. So it's a heck of a time to be working with your wife. And that's a little bit of a risk, too. Will we do this well together? Because we never done it before. So we jumped right in here together and it's been a challenge. It's been a learning process. We're a couple months in. We're really enjoying it. So gay. At Gabe Bach on all social media. For me, at Megan Bach, it's M E G A N B O C K. All social media for her. And, man, we're just loving it.

But to wrap it up, it would be a lot harder if it was either or if Texas said, look, if you're going to do this, go do it. We give you our blessing, we'll get you out of the contract and we wish you the best of luck. But they didn't do that. They still saw value in keeping me on and they allowed me to go pitch to them a consultant kind of role. 1099, I'm on contract and I'm still able to produce content, which is awesome. That's A passion. A huge passion. So it's cool. It's the best of both worlds. But spending countless more hours home with the family too.

And you know, Gabe, forgive me. And Mike, I'm glad I asked you to stay on because there is one more thing in terms of wrapping it up. You have an incredible podcast on right now. Can you talk about that a little bit? Follow the Money about what the whole, you know, who your partners are and that your co host. It's such a significant and pivotal time in college athletics right now.

Oh yeah.

I think what you folks are doing is amazing. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Oh, absolutely. Want to invite everybody to go to all podcast platforms however you like to listen to podcasts and search for college sports. Follow the Money we came up with Follow the Money at a breakfast with Dr. R. Bowen Lofton. And Bowen Lofton was A and M's president. Mike worked under him when Mike was in the athletic department at A and M president. And Lofton spearheaded the move, the 100 year decision of A&M moving to the SEC. And it happened really initial talks in 20, well probably prior to, but came to full fruition surface in 2010 and then in 2011 they made the move just about 10 years ago. And then in 2012, July 1, 2012 became official members and Johnny happened so on. And so it's just been incredible.

There have been some ups and downs on the playing field, been incredibly successful off of it. And it's not a 10 year decision, it's 100 year decision. And that's like an investment. So when you invest in people you invest in and businesses, so on and so forth, you're doing that long term. We're really seeing the fruits of that. And Dr. Lofton was a and M president. He was the chancellor at Missouri after that and now he's retired back in College Station and he put this whole thing together he wanted to do and there's in the marketplace there really isn't a lot out there on the business side of college athletics. There's a lot of debate in the third tight end going on who's going to be quarterback here there. And a lot of gambling. I mean gambling is just crazy, right?

But there's not on like what does all this nil stuff look like? What does future conference realignment people will do stories on that or maybe episodes on it. But our whole show we'll bring a quarterback on and not talk to him at all about out routes or whatever. I mean we're talking comebacks Deep flies. Like we're talking about. Just perspective on the ever changing environment of college athletics. It's just been really fun. John Hickey is also a host on that. John was a vice president with Fox Sports. He ran the Southwest product up there in Dallas, the DFW area, for a long time. He had been with ESPN prior to that. Incredible mind for just. Television's impact on all that we're seeing is huge.

Television drives the train.

Drives the train. You know why? You follow the money.

That's right.

And it was John that came up with that name during a meeting. It's just. He just. It just hit him, Follow the money.

That's awesome.

It's been fun to be a part of. I hope everybody checks it out.

Absolutely. Mike, I know you got to jump off. Thanks so much for joining us, Mike. I'll let you and Gabe say goodbye.

Oh, thank you. And Gabe, as I said before, you know, thanks. Thanks to everybody that had a part in Alex Crusoe Court. It's really going to be something very special for our family.

I'll never forget watching Alex play. He's a great kid. He's a great young man. He's a friend. And it's been an incredible labor of love. Can't wait for it to finally come to full fruition next off season. I've got my MC notes all ready to go. We can do this thing this afternoon.

I'm ready.

We can do it whenever you're ready. It was done.

Yeah.

So I'm just going to hold on to those. We got them saved in Google Drive or whatever.

All right, man.

You tell me when I can dust them off and we'll celebrate.

Alex, we'll work on that. Okay, thanks, Ed.

Thanks, Mike. Great talking to you. All right, Gabe, that was awesome. I was. I was fired up.

I was.

I was excited to have him on. And I appreciate you. And we're going to have. For the listeners, we're going to have everything. We'll have themeganbachteam.com we'll have all those links. We'll have everything in the show notes. Okay. We'll put it out there on social media, everything we talked about. We'll have the podcast on the show Notes. I really appreciate you taking the time. I appreciate you sharing as much as you did and really giving us a peek behind the curtain of what you've done and what you continue to do. And I wish you all the best because it's pretty cool. I mean, it's a pretty cool part of your journey. And I Didn't mention it when Mike was on. But that's what's really awesome about having the court named after Alex now.

Because it's while things are still happening in his career and kids can connect with him. Right?

Yeah. It's not absolutely.

It's not someone 50 years after the fact of him being a player. It's like blah, blah, like it's real now. Now they can root for him right now they can connect with him when he comes back. So I think it is so awesome what you've done.

It was a no brainer for most people and I think it got voted almost unanimously. But that was the issue in the crux of our argument to the people who did not want to do this is I'm sure the library is named after a guy. I've never met him. I'm sure he's a great guy. A lot of people we go to park and it's named after some guy I've never met because he was long past before I even moved to College Station. I'm sure he's a great guy, but people know Alec and you want to be able to have a living, lasting impact and legacy on people. That's our kind of big goal here. Right. And Alex is going to have an opportunity to do that in Aggieland with or without this court. I just think it was a no brainer.

They realized it was a no brainer. We got the mayoral and city council stamp of approval. It is Caruso Court. Now we're just waiting to honor him for the right time. But the Castlegate Court is now, by all intents and purposes, Alex Caruso court. And I'm really excited about that. But thank you for the opportunity to talk with Mike. That was a total surprise. I had no idea that was coming and just the opportunity to do this, you know, because we almost did it right after I left Texas, but at that time things were just spinning so much my head still. It was. I'm glad were able to do it like this because my communication on air was all happening in real time, like announcing I was going to leave and then leaving. That was very emotional. Right.

So to be able to then pull back a little bit of where we are now and really this is my first opportunity to truly unpack this thing. Unscripted, just unpack it. And I hope our listeners enjoy it. I'm humbled.

I'm humbled that you chose us to do that with because it was really cool, you know? You know, I think the world. Now we. We have to get you in town for a Chicago game. That's what we need to do. Go see Alex play.

Well, we need to do that. You know, my Uncle Mike lives right in downtown Chicago, so we need to get him on the podcast. He's a great athlete.

Let's do that. Let's do that. And I appreciate all the folks at Texas. I say hello. Give Luch my best. All right? And Logan. And let's start here soon.

Right here.

There we go. Right.

Here's the ring.

Giggle.

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