Mikayla Blakes, Chris Carrawell, Ann Meyers Drysdale, and LaPhonso Ellis ahead of the USBWA College Basketball Awards

USBWA Freshman of the Year Mikayla Blakes from Vanderbilt, Duke Associate Head Coach Chris Carrawell, legendary UCLA guard Ann Meyers Drysdale, and broadcaster LaPhonso Ellis join the Missouri Athletic Club Connections Podcast ahead of the USBWA College Basketball Awards on Thursday, April 17. 

Missouri Athletic Club Connections highlights the foremost private club in St. Louis known for attracting exceptional people and enriching lives for generations.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:31 Mikayla Blakes
• 3:26 Chris Carrawell
• 10:47 Ann Meyers Drysdale
• 17:59 LaPhonso Ellis
• 23:26 Outro

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to Missouri Athletic Club Connections, a podcast highlighting the foremost private club in St. Louis. Known for attracting exceptional people and enriching lives for generations. I'm Monica Ryan, MAC communications strategist. And today is Thursday, April 17th. There's lots of excitement here at the MAC for the USBWA. College Basketball Awards. Right now we're on the basketball court on the fifth floor where we're going to get some one on ones with the players and coaches celebrating the 2024-25 season. Mikayla Blake's the winner of the Tamika Catchings, Women's Freshman of the Year award from Vanderbilt. She joins me now. Welcome, Mikayla. Thanks for chatting with me. Thank you. I appreciate you for having me. Of course. So you were fifth in scoring in the SEC and eighth in the NCAA. Did you have high expectations for yourself going into your first collegiate season? I think this season I wouldn't have expected anything for like this. I'm sorry. I think this season I wouldn't have expected anything like this to happen. But I'm just happy it did and just continue to have confidence in myself, because without the confidence, I wouldn't have been able to do it. That's awesome. So we all know you had so many collegiate offers. Obviously, it's been a great choice to choose Vanderbilt, But why Vanderbilt? I mean, why not? It has everything. The best facility in the country, the best coaches in the country, the best teammates in the country, the best academics in the country. And I wanted to do something uncommon. Instead of going to a Power five school, I wanted to make make a name for myself and my school as well and bring it back to where it was before. So what kind of day were you having when you had 53 points against Florida? Like, did you wake up different? Like, did you eat something different? Like, what did you do? I couldn't tell you what I did, to be honest. I think just going into that game and knowing it was crunch time, I had to be able to pull out a couple of buckets that we needed and I needed 53 of them. So I mean, that's what I did. And then you did it again not too long after that with 55 points against Auburn. Did you do? Was it a similar story? Well, one story is my roommate for both of those games and for only the away trips of those two games was Juice. So I think maybe she was my good luck charm in those games. But besides that, I woke up normal and did everything normal. Thanks, Juice. What’s Juice’s real name? Her name is Jane Nwaba. Okay. But also Juice. Got it. Love that. So, what are you looking forward to next season? I mean, just to be able to come out there and play with my teammates again and to prove to a lot of people who we are and we deserve to be a top 25 team next season and continue to go further in the SEC tournament and the NCAA tournament. Well, we love some quick hitter questions at the MAC. We're looking for one word answers to these. Are you ready? Okay. All right. Favorite teammate? That's hard, Madison Greene. Okay. Not Juice. All right. Favorite venue to play in? Probably Memorial. Yeah. Offense or defense? Offense. Favorite sport other than basketball? Volleyball. Favorite social media platform? Instagram. Favorite pump up song? Freestyle by Lil Baby. Favorite post-win meal? Wings. Nice. Thoughts on Steak ‘n Shake? Amazing. Best thing ever. All right. Well, enjoy the night. Mikayla. Congratulations. Thank you. Duke's Associate Head Coach and St. Louis native out of Cardinal Ritter. Chris Carrawell joins me now. Thank you so much for making the trip. Thanks for having me. Good to be back. So Duke freshman phenom Cooper Flagg earned both USBWA men's awards - freshman of the year and national player. What was it like to witness him this year? Cooper is an amazing player, amazing talent. You know, when he arrived on campus, he was 17 years old. And so you couldn't believe that a 17 year old kid was doing this against really good college players. Then he turned 18, and then it seemed like he went out of the world, out of this world. And so it was he was he's a special kid, more than a talent on the court that speaks for itself. He's a he's a connector. So his his personality was really infectious with this team. He was a great teammate, easy to coach. So he has all the intangibles and that's what makes him special. Nice. So tell us a little bit about what recruiting Cooper was like. It was a lot of pressure. He was the one guy in that class and that kind of like, you got to get him. Yeah. Yeah. Every day. You know, you know, when somebody’s a big time player or a big time athlete. Big time. What is it an entertainer or whatever when the non-fan. Right. So the non-basketball fan would ask about that Cooper flag kid. They always, so wherever I go they knew he was attending Duke and they would always ask and talk about him. And so he was a must get and in Jon Scheyer, Coach Scheyer’s early career. It was a lot of pressure on him but we had that he was already a Duke fan. Yeah, that didn't hurt. And his favorite player growing up was Christian Laettner. And so his mom wore 32 because of that. And so we had a but we had to finish the deal and we did. Awesome. Awesome. So how quickly did you know what kind of a massive impact he would have on the team once he got to campus? You knew right away. You knew right away he was a you get these freshmen and so they good early on. Right? He was good early on. But it's just against your guys. So you're like, okay, he's good. Let's see what happens when we have to play Kentucky, his third collegiate game. Right. Let's see the older guys, they're going to be physical. They're going to beat him up a little bit. 26 points, 12 rebounds. Right. Still, 17. The players we were playing against 22, 23 years of age. So you think, you know he's going to have a drop off? He never had a drop off. Now he had some games where he didn't play as well, but that was usually against a weaker competition, which was odd. Yeah. But every big game, he was amazing. And he met the moment. Met the moment? He crushed the moment. He crushed the moment every time. But I go back to he gave everybody his motor and his personality lifted everybody. It wasn't just about him. He was so unselfish. He upped everybody else’s level. And that's why he's Player of the Year. The numbers speak for themself. But the reason why we had a great year is because of him, because the type of player, teammate he was awesome so great addition to the locker room as well. Incredible incredible. You know, this group was an amazing group to coach. Like, every year is different in college basketball now. Yeah, there's a lot going on. Yeah. Transfer portal, NIL, a lot going on. This was like old school college, you know, I graduated in 2000, a long time ago. Players don't stay three or four years anymore. This was a three or four year team where everybody they joked on one another, joked with each other, always laughing, having fun. It was just a special year. It was, when we lost to Houston in the Final Four. You know, I've lost in the national championship game. This was the toughest loss I've had in my career because of, because of the guys. Yeah, you don't want it to end and you hope every season ends with the emotion of it. This year it was. You played at Duke, like you said, for Coach K and you've been at Duke for a lot of your career following your time playing professionally. So why Duke? Why Duke for you? That's a good question. That's a good question. I think for me at the time, you know what? I didn't grow up a Duke fan. I grew up, it was the Fab Five and it was the UNLV with Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony and those guys and Tarkanian and then Fab Five, of course. But you know, I was like, it’s Duke. Right. Opportunity for a kid from inner city St. Louis to go play for Coach K in such a prestigious university, that's a once in a lifetime decision. I didn't want to. But the main reason, to get back to your question, is I didn't want to live with any regrets of not going to Duke, man if I don't go to Duke, would I look back on it and regret it and I didn't want to live with the regret. And so I was like, look, I'm going to go. It's going to be tough. See what happens and it ended up working out. It sure did. It worked out. So obviously, we're excited to listen to your Q&A tonight with Tom Ackerman from KMOX. But what are you looking forward to tonight? Well, the fact that Dickie V, Dickie V called your name. Growing up watching him, he said your name, you made it. And then LaPhonso Ellis, I mean, He's incredible. His high school career, college career, NBA career. But the man that he is and we've become good friends. You know, you look up to him and so to see him and Ann Meyers Drysdale. I mean, she was Caitlin Clark before Caitlin Clark. Right. She was incredible. So I'm I love the history of the game. I’m a historian of the game. And so you see her and it's my first time meeting Ann earlier today. Like, Are you kidding me? Yeah. So, I mean, she's incredible. So I'm just happy to be here. Happy to be back in St. Louis. I don't get home often, but to be home and to be a part of this, is incredible. Awesome. So at the MAC, we love a little bit of speed round questions. Are you up for it? Let's do it. All right. Greatest player of all time? Jordan. Favorite pro team? Lakers. Favorite venue to play in? Cameron Indoor Stadium. Favorite Coach K quote? He has so many of them. I won't say a quote. I'll just say he used the word, at that time I didn't know it was a word, and it was we were playing so bad. He called it. He called us deplorable. So deplorable was added to the vocabulary because I didn't know if he made it up. But it is a word. Yes. But at that time I’m like he made it up. He made that up. It actually ended up being a word. Toasted ravioli or gooey butter? Gooey butter. All right. Yeah. Gooey butter. Well, that's where we'll leave it. Maybe you'll get some gooey butter tonight. Who knows? All right. Thanks so much, Coach. Have a good evening. Ann Meyers Drysdale, legendary UCLA guard. She was the first to receive the USBWA Player of the Year award in 1988 for the 87-88 season. The award was then named for her in the 2011-12 season. She's a Naismith Hall of Famer. Her accolades, accolades go on and on. Thank you so much for coming to the Missouri Athletic Club. Thanks, Monica. It's always great to be back here, of course. How did it feel when the USBWA named their National Player of the Year award for you? Goodness, I was taken aback. I was totally humbled and honored and I still am. It was a time where a lot of awards were not named, especially on the women's side and now we have so many different All-Americans and different Player of the Year awards and so forth. So this one really means a lot to me. You played at UCLA from 74 to 78 and then were drafted to the Women's Professional Basketball League. How has women's basketball changed since that time to now? Well, actually, I was a freshman in 1975. Okay. Don't believe everything you read. Okay. And but I was a senior in 1974 and played on the USA Women's basketball team. And in 1976 would be the first year we had women's basketball in the Olympics. And I was a starter on that team. But in 75, my brother David, who was at UCLA playing for coach John Wooden, his roommate was Kenny Washington, who had been on Coach Wooden's first championship teams and they were roommates and they came home one weekend and basically said, How would you like to come to UCLA and play basketball on a scholarship? And I said, Okay. Kenny was the women's basketball coach that year. David was a senior and it would be the last year for Coach Wooden, and they won the national title. And so my brother was a two time NCAA champion with UCLA and I would go on in 1978 would be my senior year, and we won the national title then, and it was under Billy Moore, who would be my coach and had been my Olympic coach. great, great. So from from then, what was it like to get drafted? Well, I was drafted in the WBL, the Women's Professional Basketball League. But in those days you had to be amateur for the Olympics. And so I wanted to go to the 1980 Olympics. And so I stayed amateur, even though I was the number one draft pick in the new professional women's league. And but then I went and was playing USA basketball had come back from Russia. My brother David was in the NBA and he was playing with the Milwaukee Bucks. And I got a call from Sam Nassi, who was the new owner of the Indiana Pacers, and said, How would you like to try out in the NBA? And I said, Are you sure? So I looked at it as an opportunity of a lifetime. I would have to give up my amateur status and which I did. And I had the tryout. I did not make the team, but it opened up the doors for broadcasting, but it also opened up the doors to go back into the WBL and play in the second year of the league and was MVP along with Molly Bolin. But you know, being drafted again with the first league, not the WNBA, right. I'm so proud of the league today, but just being a part of that history has been very special. Awesome. What do you think the future of women's basketball looks like? Well, it keeps getting better and better. The fact that we have a CBA and players are talking about striking and so welcome to the real world. The fact that we're going into our 29th season with the WNBA is a big plus. Not just with the WNBA, though, too. Monica, we talk about hockey, we talk about volleyball, we talk about softball and so many of the other sports that women now have the opportunity to make a living doing what they love to do. Yeah, And I think that that's the big plus. So, you know, the NBA really didn't start getting any exposure until 30 years in when Magic and Bird came in. But even then, the finals were taped, delayed. It was the best out of five and games were on once a week. But that all changed. And so we're not even 30 years in. We're way ahead of the NBA from where they were 30 years in. So you're seeing the WNBA continuing to grow more teams. You're looking at G leagues, you look at the Unrivaled, you look at Athletes Unlimited. So again, more opportunities for women to continue to do something that they love. Yeah, I love that. I love that. And you're also a broadcaster. Do you have a favorite moment from that part of your life? There are so many. I've been very, very fortunate and blessed to be in this business 45 years now and I've called championship games in the WNBA for NBC and for ESPN Women's College Finals and Men's College Finals. I've worked for CBS on the men's tournament. I've called the Olympics Six Olympics, and I just been so fortunate enough to be in this business that it's something I never thought that I would get to. And actually, it was probably when I was in school, it was not a career that was really open to women and really open to sports that much. There were only three channels at the time, and when I had my tryout with the Pacers, it was the beginning of ESPN, which a lot of people don't even think that ESPN didn't exist at a time. So very fortunate to work with the people that I've worked with in front of the camera and behind the camera. That's awesome. So a lot of memorable moments. Incredible times. Absolutely. If you hadn't turned pro and then turned to broadcasting, what would you be doing if I hadn't turned pro? Again? It just the timing on everything. Because of the tryout with the Pacers, I was offered to compete in something called the Women's Superstars and I would meet my future husband, Don Drysdale, who was a Hall of Fame pitcher for the Dodgers. And we had three children, you know, would I be a teacher? Would I be a coach? I don't know. But I sure like doing what I'm doing. Great. Well, keep on doing it. Thank you, Monica. So finally, we like to do some speed questions here. Are you up for it? Sure. Okay. Your favorite pro team? Green Bay Packers. Favorite venue to play at? goodness. Pauley Pavilion. Favorite venue to broadcast at? right now. I would say PHX Arena. Favorite coach? Too many. Too many. I did not play for Coach John Wooden. My brother did, but I felt that I was coached by him. But Billy Moore, Sue Gunter, Kenny Washington, I'm just you know, you go back to the high school days, it just there's so many people that touched my life and and made such an impact. Favorite teammate? Juliene Simpson. Favorite meal? She was my Olympic teammate and the captain of our Olympic team. And your favorite meal. My favorite meal. Hot dogs and French fries. I love that ballpark food. Right. All right. Thanks so much. Lovely to meet you. Ann Meyers Drysdale. Have an excellent evening and happy Easter to you. And Monica, you do a great job. thank you so much. With me now is St. Louis area native LaPhonso Ellis. He's one of the best Lincoln High Tigers. His jersey’s retired at Notre Dame and he had an 11 year career in the NBA. LaPhonso, thanks so much for hopping on the pod. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Awesome. You're here tonight to help us celebrate college basketball. What's one of your favorite memories from your time at Notre Dame? Wow. I was just talking to Coach Dick Vitale about that this morning. It has to be when... Let's see. That would have been 1989. We played Syracuse, which was a top ten team at the Carrier Dome. And Nip and Tuck game the entire game. And with about 30 seconds left, Syracuse scored to go up one and we ended up only having about 3 seconds on the clock. And Coach Phelps, Digger Phelps, who was my coach at the time, I remember being so calm and made our little huddle so serene as he drew up the play and I was involved in it. I set a little back screen for my point guard. The ball was inbounded, thrown to me over half court. I made a little hook pass to him. He knocks down the three and we beat a top ten team, Syracuse on their home floor in the Carrier Dome. One of the greatest memories I have from college. Did you get booed? They were at home. Actually, they didn’t boo. I think the audience was just stunned. Yeah. They weren't used to losing on their home floor. They couldn't believe it. and some of the people that I've worked with in the past, one particularly is like a brother to me, Rich Hollenberg, who's a talented, talented play by play for ESPN, who covers primarily the Big 12. He was at Syracuse and we’re the same grade, so he teases me about it incessantly. Well, that's awesome. Well, you have the one up on him. Yeah. So how has college basketball changed since your time in South Bend? Yeah, there's certainly a lot more three point shooting, obviously, with the influence of the NBA, not as much inside outside play. So that's been the most significant change. And obviously we’re in this new era of NIL, and unlimited transfers. And so that's created an interesting dynamic in our sport that I'm a little concerned about in that I thought one of the things that really allows fans to connect with our sport is you have a talented freshman that comes in. They anticipate that that talented freshman is going to be there at least for three years. But now with that talented player able to transfer after the first year, I'm just interested to see the impact that that's going to have on our sport moving forward. Yeah, it hasn't been that long. We haven't fully seen what what it's going to look like yet. Yes. Yeah, of course we're excited for you to get up on stage and do a Q&A with Tom Ackerman and put you to sleep. No. With my answers. But what are you looking forward to tonight? Just getting up because many of the patrons who participated today at lunch are here tonight. So it’ll be fun reengaging with them to hear some of the great stories that Coach Vitale tells and Ann does a tremendous job. And Chris Carrawell, of course, is here in place of Cooper Flagg and just all the great stories and the insights that they have and just looking forward to taking that in again Awesome. Well finally we like to do some speed questions around here. Are you up for it? I'm up for the challenge. I'll get a - Caitlin, I need some help. All right. Favorite pro team? Denver Nuggets. Favorite venue as a broadcaster? My favorite venue as a broadcaster has to be Allen Fieldhouse. Best player of all time? College or Pro? Pro. Michael Jordan. Best college player of all time? Christian Laettner. Favorite Coach? College or Pro? your coach. Favorite of my coaches? Yes. Yes. Because that'll get me in trouble. All right. All right. Favorite pump up song? say again? Pump up song. That's a tough one for me because I'm. You're not getting pumped up right now? No, but I don’t need music to get pumped up. I’m a self starter. I'm self caffeinated. Okay. Party in the USA. I like it! A little old school Miley. Favorite meal? Barbecue. Awesome. Well, hopefully you can get some barbecue while you're in town. I just had some. I had Pappy’s this afternoon. There we go. Pappy’s right by SLU? Indeed. Awesome. I went to SLU. Did you really? I was at Pappy's often. Oh nice. Question for you. Yes. There's a place that's like, three blocks from here, I think. Is it sugar, sweet? Sugarfire. If you had Pappy’s or what did you call it, Sugarfire? If you had the two sitting here, which one would you prefer? Pappy’s every time. Why? I just think it’s better. Okay. I grew up on it more. Come talk, come talk! I can't hear you. Get on the mic. Yeah, I had Pappy’s growing up way more often, so I prefer it. So is it a quality thing or is it a food taste thing that you prefer? I think it's the taste, but also the atmosphere of like being at Pappy's. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. The thing I love about it is they have their own parking area. So you're not looking to park on the street. Exactly. Yeah. No, I'm with you. I love Pappy’s too. Well, we'll have to get some Pappy's tomorrow to celebrate the end of this event. All right. Have a great evening. My pleasure Thanks for having me. Great to meet you. Sorry for taking over your podcast. I loved it. I loved it so much. Extraordinary experiences are always happening at the Missouri Athletic Club. That is for sure. Thanks for tuning in to another amazing episode of Missouri Athletic Club Connections. Stay connected with us through the events calendar, MAC website and social media, as well as our MAC app. And we'll see you soon.