Dan Dickau previews the 2023 Kraziness in the Kennel event
Former Gonzaga All-American Dan Dickau gives fans an inside scoop on what they can expect from the Gonzaga men's basketball team at the annual Kraziness in the Kennel event.
Transcript
00:00 Hey everybody, we welcome you back to another episode of the Gonzaga Nation podcast.
00:04 Christian Pedersen joined by Dan Dickow.
00:06 And Dan, a couple episodes ago we talked about the weather was starting to change.
00:10 Well, we can officially say it is October.
00:13 The craziness in the kennel is here.
00:16 Basketball season is upon us.
00:18 So we can like every other episode we've been like, we're sort of at the season, at basketball.
00:25 Happy basketball season, everybody.
00:26 Happy basketball season.
00:27 Are you ready for craziness in the kennel?
00:30 Yeah, I mean, here's the thing you touched on it.
00:32 I mean, it's October and now it's as we sit here recording October 2nd, you know, the
00:40 calendar is flipped.
00:42 NBA training camps are upon us.
00:45 We are in the midst of the week of craziness in the kennel, which to be honest, a lot of
00:50 Gonzaga basketball fans don't pay a ton of attention.
00:54 We at the diehards that watch every episode and we thank you guys very much for that.
00:58 But now we're starting to get into the fans that, you know, are your college football
01:04 fans, are your NFL fans, and they just, they're huge Gonzaga fans, but they don't flip the
01:10 switch until they know there is a actual event on the books that week.
01:15 Well, guess what?
01:17 This is that week.
01:19 Craziness in the kennel, although it's not a game, provides a ton of excitement.
01:23 Gets a chance for the fans to get a first look at the players, the newcomers like June
01:30 Siouk as well as Dusty Stromer.
01:34 Gets a chance to see the growth maybe of guys like Nolan Hickman, Ben Gregg, the return
01:42 of Anton Watson, obviously.
01:43 And then, you know, their first chance to really see the newcomers, Grammy, E.K., Steel
01:47 Venters and most notably probably for a lot of people would be Ryan Nembhardt, younger
01:52 brother of former Zag Andrew Nembhardt.
01:54 But you know, it's a fun event in regards that it's like that first event on the calendar
02:01 that lets you know college basketball is here.
02:05 You know, for the players, they get to get out in front of 5,000, 6,000 fans because
02:09 typically it's almost at near capacity, which we all know McCarthy seats 6,000.
02:15 So it's at near capacity most times.
02:17 You get in front of the fans for the first time when it's a non-game setting, get a lot
02:21 of those jitters out, especially for the newcomers.
02:23 For the fans, like I said, you get to see those players for the first time or for the
02:29 first time in six months or so.
02:32 But it's a fun event because, you know, they do a lot of different things.
02:37 They make it fun.
02:38 They do play enough where coaches can get some film to break some things down.
02:43 They do play enough where maybe guys can get out of their comfort zone a little bit.
02:48 And maybe they play enough where, you know, some fans can get some ideas one way or the
02:55 other about some players.
02:57 Well, and it's not just basketball, though, because it's pomp and circumstance.
03:03 It's almost a welcome back for the student section, for the faculty.
03:10 It kind of feels like the Gonzaga version of the homecoming game.
03:16 Yeah, you could say that in a way, especially because there's no football, right?
03:20 I know that there will be a basketball homecoming, but the fall, you mentioned college football,
03:24 it just kind of feels like it lines up that this is sort of Gonzaga's fall homecoming.
03:29 Yeah, because a lot of college football programs, you know, are able to generate even more interest
03:37 from people outside of just their students.
03:41 And what I mean by that is like this for Gonzaga Falls on fall family weekend, you know, there's
03:47 other universities call it by different names.
03:49 But this is a chance where, you know, a lot of times the parents of Gonzaga students come
03:56 up and visit Spokane for the first time.
03:59 And this is a chance for, you know, those parents to see the Gonzaga basketball team,
04:05 which I'm sure they've heard plenty about over the years, to see them in action.
04:10 Because, you know, if they just come up on a random weekend to visit their kid at school,
04:15 you're probably not getting tickets.
04:17 Sorry, folks.
04:18 Sorry, parents.
04:19 You got to have an in most times to get tickets.
04:22 So this is a chance for them to kind of see the atmosphere of what the McCarthy is like.
04:27 They get to see the kennel in action.
04:29 Who knows, maybe there's a random parent or two that even gets excited and sneaks into
04:33 the kennel.
04:34 I'm sure that's happened before.
04:35 But lots of fun stuff goes on.
04:37 You know, typically they'll have like a skills challenge like you'll see on NBA All-Star
04:42 weekend.
04:43 In years past, they've had a three-point shootout.
04:46 Sometimes they've brought in former players into shooting against the current players.
04:51 Sometimes depending on roster makeup, they'll have a dunk contest if they've got a couple
04:55 high flyers.
04:56 I don't know if they'll do that this year.
04:58 And I don't mean that by any negative stretch.
05:02 But in years past, you know, Hunter Salas was a high flyer.
05:05 Yeah, Julian Strother who could get up a little bit.
05:08 When you look at this year's roster, I don't know who's your high flyer.
05:12 You got to look dunking alone is something that my kind, my brethren under six feet are
05:16 not allowed to really experience ever except for the rare one of us.
05:20 So to us, it's all majesty.
05:22 But yeah, I get it.
05:23 You got to be a certain kind of someone to really put on a show style dunk.
05:26 I laugh a little bit at two things.
05:28 When you say parent age people sneaking back into the kennel, guaranteed.
05:33 I have never been to one of these events, but I guarantee you there are four more kennel
05:37 members that sneak back in to get in there.
05:40 Second one is I laugh.
05:41 Well, hey, I'll interrupt you real quick on that.
05:44 The main boss, the head guy of SP Live Sports, which is the parent company of us with Gonzaga
05:54 Nation.
05:55 He was one of the founding members of the kennel.
05:58 I don't know if you know that, Christian, but Dan Beach, CEO of SP Live Sports.
06:02 Every time you say his name, you got to say fearlessly.
06:05 He was one of the founding members back in the early mid 80s of the kennel club.
06:11 You know, about a year and a half ago, I had to sit down with about five or six of the
06:17 earliest members of that founding group.
06:21 And maybe we need to re dig that up in the archives as we get closer to the season.
06:27 We're playing for clicks.
06:28 Dan, you're doing better at it.
06:29 Yes, absolutely.
06:30 That was an amazing interview that I was going to bring up because I was going to kind of
06:33 dovetail it in with.
06:34 I've seen the adult passion.
06:36 I know what the 80s and 90s members of this still head to toe gear organized as heck passionate
06:44 as heck.
06:45 I also kind of laugh though, because you said to some of the, you said some of the parents
06:49 that might be their kids have gone to Gonzaga.
06:51 They don't go to Gonzaga.
06:52 They've always heard about the basketball program.
06:54 And you said, ha ha, good luck getting a ticket.
06:57 I just laughed because for $48,470 a year, plus other expenses, tough luck.
07:05 So what you're saying here, we don't feel bad for you.
07:09 I mean, like this is something that if people can get into the building, get into the building,
07:15 right?
07:16 Yeah.
07:17 I mean, it's the kind of craziness.
07:19 The nice thing about it is it's a free event.
07:20 So you know, I apologize.
07:23 I don't know the details on how to reserve a quote ticket or if it's first come first
07:29 serve, which I believe it is, but I'm not sure.
07:32 So please don't hold me accountable for that.
07:35 I'll be there in a broadcasting capacity for KHQ and SWX covering the event.
07:41 So I don't know all the details of getting in, but I'm sure you could either go to go
07:46 zags.com or actually we will have our journalist Cole Forsman put up a post on exactly how
07:53 to get into craziness in the kennel.
07:56 If that's if that's something you're going to try to do this upcoming weekend.
07:59 Has craziness evolved over the years?
08:01 Was this something that happened when you were a player and is kind of the same all
08:05 years just newer or has it gotten bigger over the last decade?
08:10 You know, it's changed over the years.
08:13 You know, I remember when I was in high school being recruited by a number of schools, a
08:17 lot of schools would have what they call a midnight madness event, and it would be October
08:22 15th at midnight wherever you fell in regards to the time zones.
08:30 That's when you could start practice.
08:31 So many schools would start practice at midnight, 1201, and then they would have another practice
08:37 later that day because most a lot of schools would do two practices a day for the first
08:42 four or five, six days of practice of eligible time on the calendar.
08:47 That's kind of gone away in maybe the last 10, 15 years because the NCA has changed their
08:51 calendar as far as, hey, we got to maximize it.
08:54 We're going to ride at 12 o'clock.
08:55 Guys are going to be excited to go or we're just going to go now.
08:58 You know, what has happened is because there are more practices and individual workouts
09:07 in the summer, early fall, it's not as pressing to get going with those practices maybe for
09:16 programs as years in the past.
09:18 What some schools will still do though is what Gonzaga is doing, a scrimmage where fans
09:24 can come in, but it's not necessarily on the first day of practice anymore where it generates
09:30 a huge buzz and a huge excitement.
09:31 I mean, 15 or 25 years ago, they even had Midnight Madness on ESPN live at Kentucky,
09:39 at Kansas, at Duke, at some of these high profile places.
09:45 When I was at Gonzaga, I want to say two of my three years, my retro year and then junior
09:51 year, we did have a, it was called a Midnight Madness type event at that time where I don't
09:58 think it was the first day of practice, but it was around that time where we did have
10:03 a late night open scrimmage and a dunk contest and an introduction of the team.
10:10 But you know, we were a popular team at that point, but we weren't what Gonzaga basketball
10:15 is now in regards to moving the needle with the interest throughout the calendar for people
10:21 in Spokane.
10:22 Dan, we talk a lot about your expertise on this show and I want your expertise here,
10:27 but I want you to take a second and drain out all of the rationality in your expertise.
10:34 Get rid of all the numbers, get rid of all the everything.
10:37 And I just want you to give the people your gut.
10:40 I'm motioning to my gut.
10:41 It's below the camera line.
10:42 I'm awful at this job.
10:43 I'm motioning to my gut here.
10:45 I want you to just give the people with the craziness happening right now with the season
10:51 back, how are you feeling right here in your heart, in your gut about this Gonzaga team
10:55 this year?
10:56 You know, I'm excited.
10:59 I know it doesn't sound it, you know, because I have you do this early a.m.
11:05 Well, I try to always temper my expectations and my my thoughts of what a team can be and
11:12 will be.
11:13 You know, I will be getting to practice at some point this week, leading up into being
11:19 a part of the broadcast team for the craziness.
11:22 But I know the parts of this team are really good.
11:24 I know the pieces.
11:26 But it with so many newcomers, and this is the case throughout all college basketball,
11:31 many teams are going to be a work in progress.
11:32 And I think Gonzaga falls into that category.
11:35 If you look at last year's team, you knew the parts were great, but you didn't necessarily
11:39 know how some of them were going to fit together, especially after after having lost Andrew
11:44 Nembhard and Chet Chet Holmgren.
11:47 So I think there's a reason to be very excited and very optimistic about this year's team.
11:56 I like excitement.
11:57 I like optimism.
11:58 And I hope you guys to like it, too.
12:01 Dan mentioned Cole Forsman is going to be at the craziness doing journalism, all sorts
12:06 of great coverage.
12:07 Dan himself will be there as well.
12:09 And we'll be with you guys the entirety of this Gonzaga basketball season.
12:12 So make sure you follow along at Fan Nation Zags on all of the socials or search and subscribe
12:16 to the Gonzaga Nation podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
12:20 Dan, thank you very much.
12:21 We'll check in with you guys next time.