Speaker 1: 0:13

hey guys, the John McNamara host in Vegas. We're talking local sports, business, real estate. If you guys like what you see today, please subscribe, follow us. I'm running Vegas podcast. All right, today I got a exciting show. It's all sports. We're talking.

Speaker 1: 0:33

Unlv Pastner had over the last month. He did a great job with recruiting. We've had a lot of additions to the transfer portal. We had a pod about a month ago talking about the departures that left UNLV. So today we're going to dive into who's coming in, a little deep dive in that. And then we're going to be talking Las Vegas Raiders. They just had their rookie draft. I'm going to go over those rookies, my thoughts on the draft. And then UNLV football had their spring practice, for the last month, had their spring game, which was really just kind of like a practice, and we had some folks, some players, leave. He had some additions that came in. So we're going to talk about also their recruiting class for 2026. So a lot of information to go over today.

Speaker 1: 1:32

The big thing, though, in the last month, though, is UNLV basketball. How is Passner going to respond with the departures? A new coach, he's working on NIL, and did they improve the roster? Because we talked about, you know about a month ago. Deion Thomas leaving some other players leaving How's this going to look right? And Pastner's mindset and his coaching philosophy is defense and getting more athletic players. So we're going to do a deep dive of each player that came in.

Speaker 1: 2:12

So, starting off, emmanuel Stevens, four-star from Arizona, seven-foot center, 230 pounds, was a former top 100 recruit, was the first get for Pastner, so off to a hot start with that. And then added Drogibs Lahorn, another former four-star top 150 player from Illinois. He's a combo guard. He's very athletic, so another good add. Then added Al Green, a 6'3 shooting guard. He's from Louisiana Tech. He shoots 42% from outside. The other addition was Laji Dembele Jr. He's a 6'8", 255-pound power forward from Iowa who also he shot actually 38% from outside. So just kind of to dive into, just the beginning of this is he's getting shooters shooting outside and some athletic guys. The other the big.

Speaker 1: 3:24

Then there was another wave of ads that were made. Naz cunningham he, uh, is a former four-star as well. He was actually ranked as the number one recruit at one time a couple years back from alabama six, seven, I think. He's only about 100, 175 pounds. He's a great shooter, super athletic, was a really big get for Pastner, probably in terms of young talent, was the biggest recruit added. He jumps out of the gym. He reminds me a lot of Derrick Jones with a shot, at least in college. Derrick Jones is a great NBA player now. So another big get. And then probably you're going to be hearing this name a lot this year A big ad from High Point, former four-star from Mississippi State.

Speaker 1: 4:17

The last two years he played at High Point and High Point went to the tourney. It's Kamani Hamilton. He's a 6'7", 215-pound wing. He averaged 13 points a game. He was a big part of their offense and defense at High Point, a leader for that team and most likely he's probably going to be our leading scorer next year. He was a big ad, uh, for passner and honestly, after the this, the first and second wave of signings, I thought man, this is our team, it looks good. I like what passner's doing solid offseason. I. I give him a thumbs up.

Speaker 1: 5:03

And then a third wave came in where they added miles che, a 6-3 point guard from Irvine. I believe he had. He was. He had 12 points a game. He shot 42% from outside. Irvine was really good. You see, san Diego and Irvine were really good this year. Irvine, I believe, won the regular season and then lost in the championship game against UC San Diego. That went to the tournament. So he led the Irvine team and now he is most likely going to be the starting point guard for UNLV next year. We'll see Him and Drew Gibbs will be competing for that role. I say Chase probably has the competing for that role. I say Chase probably has the. Because of experience and being able to shoot from outside, I would imagine he is most likely going to be the starter.

Speaker 1: 5:53

And then, oh, also they added Howling Long, a 6'5 shooting guard from Rio Grande Valley, texas school, big shooting guard. 6' Valley, texas school, big shooting guard. Six feet, six foot five, 250 pounds, shot 42% from outside. So it really was interesting because Pastner in the past has he's all about defense. He's never really been big about outside shooting and I was curious because he's been out of coaching for, you know, two or three years now. He said he's learned a lot from the game and the two biggest things is he definitely added a more athletic team with more to help his what he wants in defense. But he got four players that can shoot from outside, get over 40% and then one over 37%, so the team is shaping up pretty well.

Speaker 1: 6:50

I'm excited about it. It looks like we're going to be nine players deep this year. We'll see. This is on paper Usually, if you can get 78 really good players, but I will say this did the roster improve? Absolutely. I've been watching Rebels basketball for 17 years, and this is the most exciting offseason I can remember since the Dave Rice era. So the difference, though, is Dave brought in a lot of freshmen and not a ton of transfers, where I think Pastner has done a really good job of bringing in both. On top of that, he was able to flip Isaac Williamson, a six-foot point guard from New Mexico. He's going to be a freshman. I'm not sure how much playing time he's going to have this year, but it was a good flip for us. And, on top of that, tyron Jones is 6'8" top 100 player. He originally committed to UNLV Rebels in the fall. He has decided to stay, so I believe he's going to be one of those nine in the rotation. So I'm excited for UNLV basketball. We've got a lot to look forward to, and we're going to be talking more about the roster and the team going this year. I'm excited to talk more about it. As the season we get closer to the season, we'll have some guests on here and talk some UNLV basketball. If you're out there and you like UNLV basketball and you want to talk on the pod, unilv, uh, direct message me, hit me up on youtube, we'll get you scheduled and, uh, we'll be talking that more as uh here in the future. So let's dive into some las vegas raiders.

Speaker 1: 8:40

So how'd the draft go? I liked it. I. I talked about the raiders about a month ago. I liked it. I talked about the Raiders about a month ago. For their first pick they had the 106, meaning for their first round pick at the sixth spot. They ended up going Ashton Gentry, which we've talked a lot on this pod. It was a pretty obvious pick. It's not a surprise, so I didn't make some crazy prediction. That occurred. It's kind of unusual to see a running back go that early. But you know, with Pete Carroll coming in this off season, he likes to run the ball, play great defense and Ashton Gentry really fit that mold. We've talked about Ashton Gentry a lot because he ran all over UNLV, so we've been seeing him for the last years playing Las Vegas, so now. It's great that he is going to be a Raider. He's, I believe, 5'9", 211 pounds. He's a great running back. He's a perfect fit for the Raiders. We have a bell cow right off the bat.

Speaker 1: 9:45

The second pick in the second round, the 26th pick, was Jack Betch from TCU. He's 6'1", 214 pounds. He's a big power slot receiver. I like this pick as well Big Jack Betch fan. He looks really good at the Senior Bowl. He basically catches everything. He doesn't run a good vertical route but he can basically do everything else. He has great hands. He's great off of the press and I thought it was a perfect fit because Chip Kelly typically likes to have a power slot wide receiver and this guy slots into that role, probably day one. There's a lot of talk of maybe Bowers, the tight end is going to do that, but after the Betch selection I do believe he's going to be playing that role and with Mayer the other wide receiver, he's only got one year left on his contract so they really need to fill that need.

Speaker 1: 10:47

Then they went defense a cornerback with a third pick. Excuse me, third round fourth pick it's a Darien Porter. He's six, three, 195 pound corner. Um, he runs in the four threes. So this really solidified, uh, the Raiders secondary. We talked about the Raiders offseason about a month ago and they brought in some really big safeties 6'3", 6'4". They also brought another cornerback, that's about six foot. Very Pete Carroll he likes big, fast defensive backs, so he shored up the running and passing game and then also his defensive backfield. So I love this. And then Spitek is the general manager of the Raiders now. He loves offensive linemen and they actually went back-to-back offensive linemen with the third round 34th pick and the third round 35th pick Caleb Rogers 6'5, 312 pounds from Texas Tech and then Charles Grant 6, 5 311 pounds from William and Mary.

Speaker 1: 11:52

So I thought this was really good move. Because Colton Miller, I believe I think he only has one more year left on his contract or they are working through contract situation right now, so it gives them insurance if there's any holdout. Also, they can play for the future. I'm assuming these tackles are too probably versatile. The interior line looks really healthy right now, but I love that he brought in some more depth at the position. I don't believe Spytek was a huge fan of our current right tackle, so one of these guys probably has an opportunity to start as a rookie. We'll see, but it's always good to bring an O-line in, especially if the Raiders want to run on a high level. They PG NoSmith that extension protect him.

Speaker 1: 12:40

So I really like these picks as well. And then I'm not going to dive deep into the other picks. Um, but they did add and this was the pick I probably was not a huge fan of and it just felt like such a Raiders pick. Um, I don't think it was a bad pick, I just thought there was better players learning for it, especially at the wide receiver.

Speaker 1: 12:58

One thing I've talked about on this pod before is they really needed a guy to stretch the field, run the nine route, to open up the offense, especially if you're going to be running the ball a lot. So they did add a receiver. So I'm glad that they did address that need. But he's more of a project. It's Dante Thornton Jr. 6'5", 200 pounds, tennessee. He runs in the four threes. Crazy athlete, Not a great football player, at least right now. So hopefully they can develop him, get him on the field, help open up the offense. That should really help. And yeah, so overall I give the Raiders a good grade for the rookie draft. They really addressed the running game, solidified the defensive backfield, brought in some depth to the offense, got a vertical threat. So it was a good day for the Raiders and their schedule just got released as well. So we'll dive into that in another pod. All right, number next. All right, we're talking UNLV football.

Speaker 1: 14:17

So recently we had spring practice in the spring game, which is more like a practice. They didn't have like a traditional spring game to go to this year. I didn't intend it this year, but there was a big departure that occurred. There was multiple players that left and I'm not going to go into detail on those. But the big one that actually that left was Charles Carrera. He's a linebacker. He actually played at Gorman. He actually left for Purdue, where Barry Odom is. So he was projected. He played as a true freshman. He looked really good last year. I was excited about him. He was projected to be in our starting lineup. He did leave.

Speaker 1: 14:56

That was really the only big departure from the spring, which is very typical departure from the spring, which is very typical. Guys come in, they're practicing with each other all the time. They're seeing if they can get playing time or not. So most times I don't really mind when departures leave. To be completely honest with you, I know the Inuvia community always freaks out in basketball when people leave, but a lot of times people leave because they're not going to play or they don't see a lot of opportunity. That's what happens 80 90 percent of time. Carrero is probably one of those guys that would have had a ton of playing time.

Speaker 1: 15:32

Uh and I will say this though, like at Unilever football, linebacking crew is deep, so it was one of those positions. I'm like, if we're gonna lose a guy there, that's where it's at. And when we talked about in the pod about a month ago, my biggest concern, I think they and I'm not going to dive in If you guys want to see those additions. I'm not going to dive into all those players again, but my biggest concern was the defensive line. They really kind of looked thin to me and I think they did a solid job and they actually added a bunch of additions to the line and the edge after spring. They clearly after spring, realized it was not a position of strength for them, so we'll dive into those.

Speaker 1: 16:26

They added former four-star to Mrs Adele. He is a defensive tackle. He's from Texas State. He's 6'4", 295 pounds, so another defensive tackle, which is good. And they also added two linebackers to help with Carrera leaving. It was a three-star.

Speaker 1: 16:47

Isaiah Patterson is a freshman linebacker, high three-star kid. He's coming from UCLA. He's a big linebacker, 6'4", 235 pounds. He didn't really play there last year that much but he's a really good young addition to the linebacker core. And then a guy that made a lot of waves and we'll see he hasn't had a lot of success in college football is Justin Flo. He's a former five-star recruit from Oregon. He went to Arizona. He played a little bit at Arizona the last two years. I think he had like 80 tackles the last two years but he was originally the number one linebacker recruit. He's a senior so he has the potential to step in this year and maybe fill that void for Carrera or add depth.

Speaker 1: 17:34

So they did a great job of adding linebackers, which is good. And then some. Really I'm really excited about the edge players they had, because edge, I think, is huge. You want to have four, five, maybe six edge players that can come in because you get tired out there. You don't want to have your edge players out there 100% of the time. You want those guys on rotation and defensive tackle so they're fresh and they can push the pile. So they added Donovan Spellman. He's an edge rusher, 6'4", 230 pounds, from Charlotte. And then the big one, another big, he's a four-star Elias Rudolph edge, 6'5", 210 pounds, from Miami and Florida, and that is a really big young recruit. So they added some really young talent and then guys that can step in now and a big win for the off season for univ football. They really it feels like they really solidified, uh, that line which seems like maybe they're going to be their their weakest point, and still maybe. But lead they. But at least they added some players and some depth there to help with rotation. So super happy to see that.

Speaker 1: 18:47

On top of that, the recruiting class for 2026. Right now UNLV is ranked 53 by 247 sports and they've added I'm not going to go through all the recruits, but they had a big flip quarterback derrick garcia is 6 390 pounds. He was originally committed to san diego state, so, uh, another big um, uh commit for you know, v I'll say this I believe they're bringing in 16 new guys this offseason, so two-thirds of this roster is going to look different. Um, I renewed my univ football tickets. This, on paper, looks like the best univ football roster I've ever seen on paper. Now we have to see how mullen can translate that. He's been out of coaching for a couple years. I think he's a great coach but there might be a little time to adjust to that. Does that take a week? Does that take a year? Does that take a couple months? We don't know. But going into the season, very exciting. It's going to be a good UNLV football season. So those are the updates for local sports. Also, if you guys know me, I'm a big whole foods guy, so, heads up, whole foods has left on.

Speaker 1: 20:14

Charleston is now, uh, right next to it's in downtown summerlin. I got to check it out today. Um, looks pretty cool. It's bigger, more light, definitely improved their facilities, got some outdoor seating, which is really nice. So go check that out. That actually just happened today, which is a Thursday. They opened up and there was a ton of people there and I actually posted on my Instagram. I did a little art myself and my team, george. We did a reel. So you guys kind of get an inside. Look at it. If you don't have time to make it down there and you want to avoid the chaos, maybe this weekend, but I would definitely check out Whole Foods. We're excited for that opening up. And that's it, guys. You guys have a great day. It's John McNamara in Rona Vegas. Take care of yourselves.