This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Okay, Darren, it is time we have to do a season recap here in the Southern Conference and we're also close getting ready for the final four. So we know it's an opportunity to put a bow on the season, so to speak here in the Southern Conference and it's been a blast doing SoCon fast break the entire season and really analyzing everything going on in the conference. And we had some crazy storylines. We had a six seed win the SoCon tournament title again in Asheville back to back years with Wofford last year as a six seed, Furman this year as a six seed. So there's all types of storylines. But I'm going to start with where the conference overall was viewed from a national perspective. And I think this is one of the disappointing things and not to say we're starting with a negative, but we're just going to get it out of the way, so to speak, is that this is the lowest Ken Palm ranking for the conference in its totality since 2015. And that's just one of those challenging things for the Southern Conference. When you're trying to look at are there opportunities where you can, you know, climb that echelon into the higher tier and maybe one day be a two bit league. Yeah, you know, I mean, we saw it, you know, Furman certainly better than a 15 seed. But because of where the conference ended up ranking this year, you know, they end up with a 15 seed in as we talked about, put up an incredible game against you con and gave themselves a chance to win that game. But, you know, we've talked about it before. You put yourself in a really tough spot as a conference. If your if your team coming out of that is going to be a 15, probably even a 14, like I kind of look at that 13 seed is kind of the cutoff of, hey, look, we can go win a game in this tournament with the right matchup. And obviously our look our 22 23 team at Furman proved that when we knocked off Virginia. But you know, you start getting into that 15 seed, but even even the 14 seeds, you know, you're playing a team and again, not that a four seed can look, there's been plenty of four seasons of one national championships have gone to final fours. But you start getting that 15 seed line, and you're playing a team that legitimately going into the tournament probably has a chance at a minimum to make a final four run. And if that just makes it that much more difficult to go win a game in the tournament. And there's been a lot of talk about, Hey, you know, the mid major Cinderella upset is dead. And I don't fully buy into that. But I think I think the deep run part of that, I think I I'm buying into that portion of it. But to go out and win a game, I still think you can get some really good mid majors that can go in games. But you put yourself in a much better position to do that. If you can get yourself on that 12 line or that 13 line, I mean, heck, even the 14 line, but really, probably that 12 13 line, put yourself in a really good spot. If you've got a good roster to be able to really go out and compete. And at least for sure, we have a chance to win a game. But if if the Southern Conference is going to be trending towards that 15 seed line moving forward, man, it's gonna be difficult. Yeah, it's gonna be really difficult to win a game. Yeah, to your point, I mean, we know you're playing a two seed and as a two seed, those teams are going to be more than likely in the top 25 and top 40 of defense and offensive adjusted efficiency. And those are powerhouse type of programs. And those are the type of teams that have an opportunity to win a national championship. So you have to be able to get outside of that seeding and try to break into that 13 and 14. The difficult side of it though, is that again, it's you can't climb some of these metrics during the non-conference part of the season, because you're not having too many opportunities of playing somebody that you can move up the metrics. And we know once you get to conference play, you don't move. You know, there's no opportunity to climb. And then there's almost a situation where you almost a drop based on, you know, your conference slate of games. And that's the difficult part right now for the Southern Conference. But I think Furman showed that a given an opportunity, even against a two seed Yukon. And now we know they're in the final four and talking about improbable shot for Yukon reminded me of that Furman game. There were Gary Heen gets the steal and pass ahead to JP Pagese. So there's so many similarities to that game. But the point was that Furman, they didn't go away. We've already talked about it. But I mean, you can see with the right situation. And again, it comes down to matchups. We know that there's no doubt. And Furman, as we've talked about, just had no answer for Teres Reed, Jr. there down low. But the point is, is that, you know, it was difficult for the Southern Conference this year, based on where they were landing in a lot of the advanced metrics. And that's just disappointing thing, you know, for the teams in the Southern Conference, because I don't feel that was a true reflection of how good some of these teams were. No, certainly not. I mean, I think I look at I was just looking at Ken Palm, I think ETSU was not was was the the conference's top ranked Ken Palm team. And they were 164. I mean, I can't hold a gun to my head on it. But I think the last handful of years, generally speaking, you had probably two, maybe three teams in that top 160. Now it was going to be hard to get too much above 100 or below 100. I know I know Furman's done it a couple times. But you know, you start talking mid to lower half of the of the hundreds there, it's going to be tough to get a higher seed in the NCAA tournament. So hopefully, you know, hopefully, we can figure out a way here as a conference to be able to get some teams with some opportunities to raise that number up, you know, and see what we can't do to try to put our best foot forward with from a seeding perspective, you know, but as you mentioned, look, there was some good basketball being played down the stretch, you know, I think some teams struggled a little bit early on that figured out, figured themselves out late. And to your point, it was not a reflection of the league so much if you're just looking at Ken Palm or some of these advanced metrics, these teams, there were a handful of teams that were playing really good down the stretch that I think could have could have given, you know, with the right match up a team of runs. The right match up. Yeah, there's no doubt. All right, so let's do a little bit of rewind though, just in terms of some of the storylines also that affected the season and how some of these teams played out, especially the lost season. And I'm talking about in Lexington, my goodness. Wow. It's still, I think the number one story in the Southern Conference is that Ricky Bradley, Jr. didn't play. And this was the preseason player of the year there in the conference. And I know you can look at it from a perspective. At that point, it is difficult for these coaches to identify who is going to be the preseason player of the year because there's so many new faces. And so there's no doubt that Ricky Bradley, Jr. was one of those guys, he's a familiar face. He came on in the tournament to extremely strong last season. So maybe by default, it's easy to look at, okay, this is a guy based on, you know, the body of work that we know. Now, you can look at film at some of these other guys, but I think there's definitely part of that factored into his being named the player of the year at the preseason rankings. But there's also just the story itself that then he doesn't play the entire season. And that was a major factor for Andrew Wilson and the key dates there as they finished the season on a 17 game losing streak. I mean, that is just a tough hill to swallow for the key debts there. And that's a struggle. I mean, there's no doubt that the team just somewhat fell apart. Now, they were competitive even in the non-conference and they get the big win against Chattanooga there at the beginning of the conference slate. But then after that, it just, the wheels came off. Now, they'd be competitive for, you know, a half or, you know, a half of a half, you know, from that side of things. But I just still, not only it'd be different, I should say, Darren, if we knew what the issue was and that it was communicated and we still don't 100% know because it was so ambiguous. It was so great area type of scenario. Oh, it's a, it's a medical issue. It's a hip. He hasn't been cleared to play. He might have been cleared to practice. But, you know, all of these factors went into just the unknown. And I think that's what added to the intrigue as far as why I still feel this is the big storyline of the season. Yeah. You know, look, there were real expectations in Lexington this year. Yes. It was just, I feel, I feel for that staff. I feel for that program. This was a real momentum opportunity, I think, for them. And to have Ricky Bradley Jr. go down for the entire year was just, I don't want to be dramatic and say demoralizing, but man, I mean, what a, what a setback, you know, for a program that was really feeling like they had some momentum. And I completely agree with you that I think not to take anything away from them because look, go, go, go Google them and look at his stats. Like he was warranted to be in the play of the year, preseason play of your conversation. But I do think I agree with you. I think some of it had to do with there. There were a lot of guys that weren't back. But I say all that to say, I mean, that had a major impact on the league too, because you look at, we talked about it at nauseam down the stretch. I mean, two through seven was separated by like two games. What happens if you've got a healthy Ricky Bradley for the entire year? Now, I'm not saying they got in the league, but I'm saying that that team is certainly significantly more competitive. And now you've got another team in the mix of, you know, look, does ETSU win the league? Does, does Furman win the league? Does Woffrey, who potentially has a couple more wins and who has potentially has a couple more losses? They're completely changed dynamic of how things finished up. And frankly, probably how things play out in Asheville. Again, not saying they win it, not saying that we need to rock the boat, but it certainly had a massive impact on how everything played out this year because in a minimum, if he doesn't win player of the year, bar in a disaster, he's a first team all league caliber. Yeah. And they win, they win more than one game in the conference. Absolutely. I think they probably, they're probably right around 500, you know, and, and, and it conservatively, like if everybody stays healthy, I don't see why they couldn't have finished, you know, 10 and eight. Again, pure speculation. Who knows. But to your point, they won a lot more than one game. They definitely, yes, they would have. And that's what I think is disappointing is that we want to see these guys out there at their full potential, you know, the teams, the players, all of that. So that, that was definitely disappointing from that side of things. All right. A positive where we thought there was going to be some chaos. And I know coach Kevin Giltner didn't think it was chaotic necessarily, but my goodness again, just what he was able to do there at Woffrey taking over programs six weeks before practice was essentially starting and being able to keep that core group of players there. I thought it was tremendous. And even to the point where Wofford finishes second in the league there, had an opportunity, could they win a regular season title, but, you know, falter down the stretch, so to speak, and ETSU had just built up so much momentum there, they weren't able to, to catch up from that side of things. And then of course, disappointing into the season for Wofford as not only did they lose there right before the tournament to Furman, their rival, but then also, they're in the tournament at losing to the seven seed UNCG, Justin Neely and the boys get it done there for the Spartans. But you've got to look at the totality of the season. And I don't think anybody would have expected that we were going to say Wofford would finish second in the league. We sure didn't think so based on we did our floor and ceiling. I can promise you that. And again, that one was a whoopsies. Yeah, this was a team that was what picked to finish eighth and ninth there in the conference because again, the unknowns, but they had a talented roster. They did. I loved their backcourt. That's not to take away from anything else on their roster, but I really, I really liked their backcourt when they were healthy. That was, that was certainly one of the best backcourts in the league. And you need to have some front court help. But at the end of the day, I think, you know, backcourts kind of ultimately dictate who wins in the end. And they certainly had a great backcourt. I think kind of running on your theme, I mean, major flowers to Coach Gildner did an incredible job walking into really difficult circumstances. But building on that theme overall, I think the coaching jobs that were done in this league this year were spectacular. I mean, you know, Coach, Coach Ritter did a great job here. Fantastic. It just building that roster. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. You know, Coach Conroy, look, they don't win a conference game all year, and they were very competitive. And I'll say this, one way I measure a team is, is, is how do they progress throughout the year? And I thought Coach Conroy and that staff is the year went on, that team consistently played better. And it did. And better. You know, look, Coach Aikuff, right, they were a little bit up and down early, and then they were the hottest team in the league. Yes. Heading, heading into the conference tournament. You know, Coach, Coach Kraft, again, really up and down, but they really got it going. And we talked about it all year. I loved that team from an offensive perspective when they could get it going. And when they got it going, they showed what they were capable of. And look, I think, I think this is arguably one of the best jobs Coach Richie's done. Oh, no doubt. They dealt with a ton of injuries, right? Like you cannot look at this Furman team and look at their, their, their record and say, Oh, well, well, they must have just gotten hot or got lucky at the end of the year. Oh, they got lucky in the tournament. Yeah. No. They, they had a multitude of injuries at one point in the year, they weren't able to play five on five in practice. In like mid January, right? So an incredible job by him. And that team obviously much, much better than, than what the record ended up indicating. I mean, we could go on and on. Like the coaching in this league is just, is just excellent. And I think there were some very, very good coaching jobs done this year. Oh yeah. And it's really exciting for the league because the talent's going to leave. And you ultimately, you know, I talk about it, you got to have dudes. You do. But coaching matters, right? It does. And if you can continue to get some dudes, even though, even though you may, even though you may have to rebuild almost every year, you're going to, you're going to put competitive rosters out there that can go compete outside of the league, which is one of the things we talked about earlier today is like, you want to try to go win some games outside of the league. And you know what a name I certainly, I don't want to forget, coach Savage, coach, one coach of the year. Oh yeah. Great job. He's got to say the same thing. Yes. And no problem with him getting coach of the year. No problem. No, they want, they won the league. That team was very consistent throughout the entire year. You know, for the most part, like they, they took care of home. They won some big games. They had some big comebacks. No, look, kudos to them in that program. I mean, they were, they, that team gelled like you could tell that team really, they played for 100. They did. And so the, as I say, you know, I have no problem with Brooke Savage being a coach of the year in the Southern Conference and I don't. The surprise thing to me though is that we're sitting here nine seasons into the Southern Conference for Bob Richie and he has not been named coach of the year in the Southern Conference. So that is surprising from that standpoint because I do think there's some sustained excellence that we're seeing there in Timon's arena with Bob Richie. Now we're splitting hairs because, so you talked about it. I mean, there's a lot of good coaches in this league, but that is still definitely a stat, if you want to call it a stat that does surprise me at times. That's insane. I mean, again, we've, and we have talked about it at Nazium. Great under, I shouldn't even say underrated. It's a, it's a league that's had fantastic coaches for a long, long time and the track record speaks for itself for how many guys have moved on and moved up. But holy cow, for coach Richie not to have a, a coach of the year award. And I know, look, he doesn't, he doesn't garner his success or his, you know, his bean on winning awards like that. But, but holy cow, you'd like to see him rewarded for what he's built there in Greenville. I mean, that's, that's crazy with, with his, his conference record and what he's done that there's not a coach of the year award there. And again, it's, it's gone to deserving recipients. I imagine. It definitely has. But yes, that's crazy. Yeah, that's a, that's a nerd alert stat right there. Yes, we like nerd alert. We love that. Yeah. If you want to call that a stat, speaking of stats though, I don't have all of the stats in front of me, but I don't even care because I don't need the stats to support this. And we saw it play out, out on the court. And as you know, we've, we've coached, we've evaluated, we've been on the recruiting trail. Sometimes you just see players and you're like, all right, that dude, he's got it. Okay. That can be a difference maker. And I felt this freshman class as much as we want to talk about the transfer portal guys that have come in and no doubt, I mean, these coaches did a phenomenal job finding the talent to bring in, even if it was for a year, I don't care. But this freshman class, I mean, my goodness, you can go down team by team and you can pick out a stellar player just about every team. And I just love that you had some of that. Now it's hard to keep them. I get that and we'll have a completely different episode about the transfer portal as it's getting ready to open next Tuesday on April 7th. But I mean, of course the headliner will be Alex Wilkins. I get that. But you go down the list. I mean, this freshman class was loaded here in the Southern Conference. Look, I haven't had a chance to go back and look, but give me this freshman class to any freshman class in a long time in the Southern Conference. This was a very, very good freshman class. And it's a shame that the majority of these guys will probably not be back in the league, unfortunately, because I really think that you can build something from this freshman class. Guys that could have a major, major impact on the programs that they played for. But this is the unfortunate nature of the new era that we live in. And I think it's going to be something that, whether we like it or not, we're going to just have to get used to it. And we have to just take a step back and appreciate what we see when we see it that year. But yeah, this was an incredible freshman class, obviously highlighted by Alex Wilkins. But as you mentioned, I mean, there were, we could go down the list. KJ Younger at UNCG. I mean, I even thought Noah Nardard there at UNCG also. William Marville at UNCG. Yes. I mean, you've got Sumter at Wofford, even Chase Wotley at Wofford. I mean, you can even look at Furman also with Boba Franklin. I mean, you had some guys that, again, very skilled type of players, Tate Darner at Chattanooga. Yeah, he's coming back. That's a guy that's coming back. So that's a good news. Again, I do think the league, if you could, it showcases that you can bring talent to this league, even from the high school perspective. So I do love that. All right. So I will kind of go a little bit nerdy on some of the stats and not so much regurgitating any stats. But another thing that I don't think people talked about it enough, just in terms of when you're looking at player statistics and national rankings. And Jaden Booth led the nation in three-point field goals made total and also three-point field goals made per game. So he held two number one national rankings of all of college basketball. Then you had Baraka Kojai there at Mercer, who had the most free throw attempts and most free throws made in all of college basketball, number one nationally. Then you had Justin Neely, the number one rebounder in the nation per game and defensive rebounds per game. So again, looking at these guys and even you could throw in TJ Johnson, who led the nation in three-point attempts. And it showcases, there's talent in the Southern Conference. And I don't know if I've ever seen a stat from a mid-major program where you had three guys and even four that at least held one national ranking of all of college basketball and three of those guys held two of them. I mean, it's insane. No, it really was. And it just, it speaks again to the league and the level of talent that you can get in this conference. And it's one of the reasons I think we love it. And it's one of the reasons that I think we both really hope that we can find a way for the league to be able to stay consistently higher ranked from an analytics perspective. So that there's more opportunities for these guys to showcase their talents on the national stage. And again, obviously that just ultimately helps the league. Yeah. Well, and then we also have to look at Ferman's run there in the tournament in Asheville. And especially when you look at it, and we talked about it, there's no doubt. Ferman's roster was loaded with the front court that they had, then you add Alex Wilkins. You've got Asa Thomas, Tom House being able to be the snipers there for Ferman. Now they didn't shoot it as well as I think a lot of people thought. And unfortunately, Charles Johnston didn't have a great shooting a season from the three point perspective for himself. But Ferman also, you talked about the injuries and heading into the tournament, there were some question marks with Ferman. They had lost five out of their last eight heading into Asheville and including a 19 point loss there on the road against Western Carolina. And you don't see Bob Richie's teams lose like that, especially in conference. You don't even see him really lose that way to high major programs. So it did have you thinking, okay, is Ferman going to be able to turn it on? And they did. And you know, finish 10 and eight in the conference. Yes, they turned it on as the six seed. And it seemed to be that culmination, so to speak. Okay, they got everything pulled together right when they needed to. And you can say magical run, whatever. I don't think it was a magical run because as I said, they were not a six seed going into the championship or the tournament there in Asheville. And even Danny Hurley even said, hey, this Ferman team, they are not a 15 seed team. They are much better than that. And I think they prove that there in Asheville. I think the week off really helped them regroup because they had to reset. They had seemed like that that loss was like, okay, let's reboot, let's unplug, let's wait 30 seconds, wait a week, and then you'll plug it back in. And that helped them tremendously. I think there was a sense, you know, because you and I know that the program pretty well. And we know the job that Coach Richie and that staff do and the level of maturity and the caliber of young men that are within that program. So I think there was maybe this thought of like, okay, well, they finally got healthy going into February for the most part, or maybe first or second week of February. The point is, is that they got healthy with a handful of games left in the regular season. And I think there was a tendency maybe to think, well, you know what, like they're finally back healthy. Like they're the deepest team in the league. They're going to be able to put it together now. But it's just, look, we both played like we both coached like, I think maybe we take for granted. We do. Let's take a step back. Like, it's not as easy, even though you get guys healthy and give them like a week or two. Like you were just still so much in a rhythm of you play Wednesday, Saturday, or, you know, Thursday, Sunday, whatever it might be. You don't have that time to just kind of take a deep breath, kind of get back into a rhythm. And so I think I really think that week between Western and going into Asheville, I think really allowed not only the staff, but the guys on that roster to just kind of hit the reset button, take a deep breath, maybe not hit the reset button, but just regroup. And figure out, hey, we know what we're capable of here. Let's pause. We've got a full week to prep. We know what we're capable of. Let's lock in and go. And I know they did that. They did. But I think that week, I think that week was a really big deal. I think we thought that they could figure out it. They could figure it out on the run, getting healthy in February. But that's just, it's just hard to do. That's very, very difficult. And they made that run, winning three straight there in Asheville. And I think their toughest game was against Sanford there in the opening round for them as, you know, they win 88-81 or 86-81. And so that was a game where Jayden Booth was going off. I mean, he was on fire, maybe, you know, down the stretch, he'd lost some of his legs to a certain degree. But then UNCG, Alex Wilkins turns it on there in the second half. And then against East Tennessee State, my goodness. I mean, that was just pure domination. Yeah. They didn't seem to be missing a beat whatsoever from that standpoint. So again, congratulations to the Furman Paladins. And then showcased it there on the national stage against Yukon. That was a great showing there coming up, obviously short, but they definitely competed there. So we talked about UNCG. So the big news also was that Mike Jones' contract was not renewed. I was surprised. I was too. I mean, this guy has not lost, has not had a losing season in the Southern Conference. That was nine and nine this past year. I get it. It's 500, but it's not a losing season. And I just think that, again, this day and age, though, I mean, my goodness, if you're not in step in sync with your athletic administration and athletic director, I think it's just going to be a challenge because these guys are willing to pull triggers. Again, now hiring Jared Hass, I think that is a really good hire from my perspective. But I was surprised that Mike Jones was, his contract wasn't renewed. I was, I'll say it, I was shocked to be honest with you when you were the one that broke the news to me when it happened. And I remember we were there in Ashfond. I was shocked because, I mean, he'd won, he was coming off three straight 20 plus win seasons. Obviously, this year did not go as planned. But they do make that run in Ashville. They did. At the end of the day, we can say how we want about the stats. Like the dude can coach. I don't think it's like, if you're watching him objectively, you can say, this guy can coach, right? Like I love his demeanor on the sidelines. He's never too high, never too low. His teams, his teams will not back down from you. Like they will, they will come at you, you know, defensively. And, you know, look, he won a lot of games there was like 30 games over 500, almost 20 plus games over 500 in the league in his tenure there. So certainly unfortunate, you know, you never want to see that happen. And but, but I think like he's going to get another job. There's no doubt. He wants to keep coaching. Yeah, I've heard that he's actually in conversations with Georgia State. So we, we don't know all the the inside stuff, right? Like you said, no one's in the city waiting to do anything here. But like maybe they weren't on the same page. And maybe that was maybe that was more the reason, right? And so, you know, who knows? But what I do know is he had really good success there. He's a really good basketball coach. And he's going to find another opportunity to sit in that head seat again. No, yeah, no question. And regardless of what school you're with, what program, what institution, you better have the athletic administration supporting you and investing in NIL roster. You have to have that. Yes. You just have these coaches now. It's one thing to talk about the salary. I think it's more important. The biggest metric that they're looking at is roster management dollars. That's what they want to know. How much are you going to invest? Look, it's easy to say when you're not the guy that's potentially just going to be handed a million plus dollars. But I feel like if I were in a position to be getting a head coaching job, particularly at the high major level, look, the salary is going to be good just about anywhere you are at that level, right? You're going to get life changing money, right? But if you're going to give me, call it 10 million over four years, but I'm going to have bottom third NIL money. So to your point, the NIL piece is huge. And look what's happened over the last two years. I mean, three or four guys turned down Kentucky, right? I know there's more that's going into it right now, but UNC has been open for like 10 days, right? Like coaches are adamant that the NIL situation be right, or you just are setting yourself up for failure, no matter how much money you're going to make as a coach. Because look, I mean, I think everybody doing this knows in the back of their mind that at some point, if they reach the pinnacle, they're probably getting hired to get fired at some point. But gosh darn it, I want a chance to be able to go compete at the highest level. So to me, yeah, I need my NIL budget. Yeah, well, and also, I mean, you don't have the ability to try to build up that war chest, so to speak, or five year period. You might be walking in and yes, and being able to put together a roster pretty quickly. So it's going to be very interesting how things are going to be playing out right now. And we do have a new member that's going to be joining July 1st, that is Tennessee Tech. And yes, Tobin Anderson going to be the head coach, former Fairleigh Dickinson head coach, and obviously the giant killer as DU takes down Purdue a few years ago in that same season, that Furman upset Virginia there. And I'm excited for the opportunity of Tennessee Tech coming in and getting an opportunity to talk with Coach Anderson, who you know, extremely well. Yeah, so I played for Coach Anderson. So that's that that's seeing that and hearing about that. Yeah, Coach Anderson has a very special spot in mind my family's heart. He was, you know, like a father figure to me when I played for him. And I know my parents entrusted him in, you know, inherently great guy, great family, great basketball coach. He's going to do a great job up there at Tennessee Tech. And I'm excited to have him be a part of this league and excited to, you know, to have a conversation with them and oh yeah, for some for some fun, for some fun stories. Oh yeah, we got to hear some stories. My dumb, my dumb 18, 19 year old self doing you know, but no, he's phenomenal. And I'm so excited that he's going to be a part of this league now. And yeah, you know, he'll do he'll do great there. I think so too. I can't wait to take a road trip up there to see Coach Anderson. And we do have a lot of big plans for the off season with SoCon fast break. Yes, we will be doing a transfer portal episode and updating that as we're going through that whole craziness that chaos. But also, we're going to continue our legend edition, our legend series, talking with former legends of the SoCon and also getting ready for the off season during the summer. We're going to be doing our coaches edition where yes, we will be sitting down with all of the coaches here in the Southern Conference and then get ready for the fall with our team brief use and then back at it. Once again, each week as the 2026, 27 season, it'll be here before you know it. I promise you, it'll be going extremely fast. So we're excited. All you have to do just hit that subscriber follow button wherever you get your podcast. So make sure you do that. And especially on YouTube, hit that subscribe button. We're trying to get those subscribers up. So make sure you do that because we're going to have a lot more content coming out this summer. So get ready. Here we come. SoCon fast break is not slowing down. All right. Until next time, may all your jumpers hit nothing but the bottom of the net.
