On this week’s Flames Central Podcast powered by Alcova Mortgage, former MBB player Scottie James joins the show to update us on his pro basketball career, his family experiences overseas, and much more. Plus, Emily and Matt share the latest around Flames athletics!
hey there and welcome inside the flame Central Podcast powered by it’s not powered this it’s powered by alova mortgage just not Joe Yak just not Joe Yak powered by alova mortgage thanks so much for joining us as you know Matt Emily we have a lot to kind of update you on today and then a great conversation with Scotty James in beautiful Puerto Rico one thing I know is he is doing just he’s doing just fine just fine when you see the setting oh my gosh you’re you’re you’re going to be jealous of what Scotty’s doing right now he’s living the life not fair but we are having some very warm beautiful weather here in Lynchburg if you like uh feeling like walking into the mailbox and like you are in a full-blown sweat but first things first Olympic trials uh Matt’s wife like really loves the Olympic trials tell us the story when Zan was on her convention so so she just happened to be in Indianapolis this past week which happens to be where the swim trials are happening and huge huge Olympic fan our whole family love the Olympics so she was someplace with her friends and was like I recognize those people sitting over there and they were trying to take like a selfie or something she walks over like I’ll take the picture for you it’s Katie lei’s parents and her old family so she got chatting with them and all that to say uh we’re going with the Lis to Paris in a couple of weeks so I hope you can hold it down here uh but we’re going to the Olympics with the Lis and it’s going to be great so oh my gosh so you know we did the rat’s rules uh show like on flame Central that was a couple years ago we haven’t done that in so long but we saw we saw Katie do like the swim however far with the chocolate milk we should try to reenact that we should do a flame Central Podcast Summer Olympics powered by alova mortgage I don’t know why I always have these great ideas when Joe is not here but Joe can run the mile we’ll finally get that done and it’ll be like an Olympics oh my God this is a great are you going to swim with the milk on your head well here’s what we need to find out is like what the folks at an auditorium feel about all this milkk dumping into their pool like it’s going to be like cloudy you’re not going to be able to see the bottom they may not they may not enjoy but this I’m on to something I need to think of like what are some other Summer Olympics uh I just know of track and swim arery Javelin uh no but not okay we’ve hit track though you could P Vault no I am not P vault the most Terri love to see you try no other than track and swimming what’s another big Olympic sport uh oh the rowing what do they do in um yeah is that what it’s called in Parent Trap you know in like the two twins is that bad are you talking bad Mitten fcing fencing okay fencing I mean basketball is one send in your thoughts of like what we should oh basketball yeah that’s a pretty easy one which takes us to some updates with basketball so um we got Scotty James that we’ll talk to in just a moment but uh yeah some moving and shaking going on uh Caleb homesley who’s had quite the professional career uh was in Turkey this past year was in Russia before that he just signed on with Gran Canaria uh in Spain so he’s going be I don’t don’t see you’re getting now I’m just fortunate I could figure out it was in Spain you’re doing all like every tweet you’re like where’s that translate button that’ll help me figure it out uh but yeah so he’s going to be playing in Spain next year so a nice move for him he’s continued to have a great pro career so he’ll be there and also we actually mentioned at the end of the Scotty interview you’ll hear in a second he mentioned level Cavell and we were trying to recall where he was last he actually played in Poland this year so he was playing over there he’s had a nice little pro career himself so uh a couple of guys that that are doing well overseas awesome well we will get to some of those Olympic trial updates in just a moment but first we’re going to shift gears to this conversation we had with Scotty Jam all right this week on the flame Central Podcast powered by alova mortgage we’re continuing with this summer series it’s a summer series the summer series with um alumni former flame men’s basketball player Scotty James I mean you never know where this guy is like one day in China it’s only right that he’s on for the summer series considering can you show the people what’s behind you Scotty is that is as summer as it get Puerto Rico Carolina is where Scotty is at right now Scotty I think one of the most exciting um things that I saw on social media in the past like six months was when it’s like Scotty James 56 points 12 rebounds 12 for 16 three from three-point range like tell me about that game that was when you’re were in h tangent with the pioneers what was that like game like and and putting up such insane stats yeah it was uh it was definitely one of the um one of the the top two crazy games that I had had last year um but just kind of just being getting in position and uh um people finding me at the three-point line um and obviously I was knocking them down um it was it was kind of like unconscious type feeling where just kind of just like shooting it and just going in and just keep all right well I’ll just try it again and just kept going all right so you play in the in China and you’ve had a lot of success there and now you’re playing you basically go straight from there now to Puerto Rico and you’re playing there give me like for people that I’ll be honest haven’t watched a lot of the Chinese Basketball Association for people that don’t know like the level of play like what do those two leagues compare to how do they even compare to each other uh yeah i’ say um so in China uh last year you play with One Import um for the whole game and then over here in Puerto Rico you can play with two okay um however uh since in Puerto Rico there’s like a lot of American Puerto Ricans I guess um so I’d say from that they get uh the the talent is a little bit higher just because um of the like American type population too um and then just in general I’d say uh they’re both they’re both super competitive the Imports and everything are are in both leagues are super super good um a lot of similar players that I played this year um in Puerto Rico came from China um and stuff like that so it’s uh it’s definitely fun and um uh a good competition for sure well hey Scot to play a play a little bit off within that with off of Matt’s question that is when you go from a college game here in America and then you’re over in China playing that style and now you Puerto r that you have all these different aspects what what is the international game like compared to the American game and what are the what are the differences in the in the style of play yeah I’d say from college for sure speed um it’s a lot a lot more uptempo obviously you got older guys so it’s a lot more physical um and then uh in China we actually play uh 48 minutes so it’s a little bit longer of a game too over there um but but yeah it’s just uh especially coming in being an import and stuff it’s it’s a little bit different than um also a little bit different than just being um a college athlete because everybody’s on the same kind of uh like scholarship and stuff so it’s it’s a little bit different um knowing that uh they’re signing you outside of the from outside and stuff so you have a little bit different roles and everything like that I know it’s cool to get this experience and and play in different countries and all that the game of basketball but there’s also another aspect that you have to look at here you’re bringing your family along what’s it like having to you know experience these different cultures and countries with your girls yeah it’s uh it’s definitely it’s definitely a crazy fun experience um sometimes obviously it’s it’s more difficult than others just because being away from family and stuff like that but um just having having them here and stuff for me um and just being together and stuff has been super uh such a blessing um for for my wife to be able to come out and help out with the kids obviously and everything like that and uh yeah it’s just been it’s just been a blessing and summary what what’s one of the coolest EXP experiences that you’ve shared with them on the road here um so something that well I’ll say a couple um one from when we were in Israel um I think I think like our top uh kind of like I guess destination experience um that was uh when we went to um the tomb um and we we did that over Easter and stuff so that was like uh that was like a really cool experience just to kind of see okay this is where um Jesus was was buried and obviously um rose again and stuff so that that to me was like super uh um just impactful just being able to see it because obviously you can read about it and hear about it and even maybe see pictures of like a tomb or stuff but just actually seeing like okay this is like what the setup actually looks like and this is all that stuff um was definitely super impactful for us um and then also I guess just in Israel just to piggy back off of that we went to uh a few places where it was like known that Jesus had been and stuff um and just like walking on um the same ground I guess uh that that he that he had walked on and everything uh was was also pretty pretty special over there and then in uh in China um and we went to the Great Wall uh like my my daughter had just was just born she was like a month old um my wife was a month postpartum climbing uh all the stairs and everything crazy but it was not probably her first choice yeah but it was uh it was it was actually like really cool I’m super glad we were able to do it we were pretty certain we were going to come back to China um this coming year but we weren’t for sure so we’re like well we have some time let’s go ahead and try to make it happen while while we can and stuff and we we had gone with my family and stuff so that was that was uh that was fun all right so take me into this obviously you’ve done a lot and played really well in China you’re just walking around around the city like do people are people like are you a big deal Scotty they’re they’re in that City like are you obviously I would think you would stand out a little bit Yeah I so I definitely stand out uh I would say I would say especially early on my daughters maybe were more famous not because they knew who they were but just because they’re uh I guess just like pretty and stuff um so everybody would always try to um take pictures of them and stuff which was always an uh interesting cultural little weird yeah so like we were no actually this is funny I’ll uh we were at the Great Wall of China and there’s people taking picture like trying to take pictures of my kids at the Great Wall of China which is kind of speaks for kind of how some of that experience was um so that’s kind of funny um but in in in my city um obviously like you said I’m pretty recognizable um and uh there ever since like a few of the a few the games that I had last season kind of I guess put me on some sort of map I guess with uh other other cities and stuff when we go out there and stuff I’ll get recognized in the malls or whatever on occasion um which is kind of interesting but so so and you got to ask the same question in Puerto Rico because you know got Georgie beo Ortiz like are you like taking a step above him now like you are known more than I don’t want Georgie to get all upset now but if you’re playing the Way You Are so so Georgie is actually it’s interesting because I didn’t I didn’t really know this while I was coming over here but he’s he’s like on the other side of the island so he’s like two and a half hours so um I’d say like in in kolina um and around this area and stuff like I’m I’m pretty Rec pretty recognized in the stores and stuff but um I don’t know how much if I went up to mayz which where he’s at actually we we actually this is funny we we played Georgie tonight um but we actually played him four nights ago but the power went out in like half of the half of Puerto Rico at half time so we so we actually played the second half against him tonight so that’s that’ll be uh we’re we’re up 44 to 40 so let’s go close it out uh what’s the next step um of where you want to improve in your game and really just what’s the next step that you want to do in terms of your basketball career uh I mean I think for myself like I can see a lot of um a lot more of my I guess flaws so there’s like a lot of things that I’m like okay like I want to try to get better at this and this and that um but I’d say like just overall just kind of just uh just like keep keep continuing to uh improve my three-point shot um something I’ve been working on a lot uh recently um the last couple years um that’s something that just right off the like that’s something that I want to keep keep keep improving on and obviously like like I said like I have a lot of areas in which I know that I I want to keep keep improving and obviously working on those but um we’ll just give you that one for now um but and then with basketball like I’m heading back to uh the same team so my goal this year is to we we just missed the playoffs last year um so my goal is to kind of try to help help lead our team to uh to get to the get to the playoffs um uh this year and then try to try to um play well in the playoffs and see what happens kind of thing awesome hey Scott I will say this you know before you get knocking down all those three pointers you’re getting ready to knock down I did see your fishing charter boat come behind you on your over your left shoulder there yeah they just P they just pulled in so go get out there and catch the big one hop on board and go catch the big one all right I got you awesome Scotty well best of luck we’ll continue to follow you know maybe we’ll get CL Central out to China we want to do like an international rather go where he is going there I want to be on oh my gosh you know we got what uh Georgian Greece we got um let’s do this uh Caleb homesley was in Turkey think we could do an international series do you keep up with those guys like all the other guys that are playing professionally yeah yeah for sure I um obviously Georgia I talked to a good amount being over here in Puerto Rico and stuff um um and then I just talked to Caleb uh I think yesterday the day before just kind of seeing what he’s thinking for next year and obviously I reach out to uh Darius and oh yeah he’s going to Germany how close was that where you were actually um it’s it’s it’s pretty it’s pretty close um we obviously we played against um played against them and stuff um so that’ be fun I’m excited to to watch watch some of those games over there and and see him Excel uh Excel overseas and everything awesome well thank you so much again for your time I’m sorry that we took too much of it go enjoy the sun I don’t want also LEL sorry been my back where’s he um he was uh he had just moved to um uh I know he was in Georgia and then he went [Music] to um man I forget I forget which what we’ll have to call him up we’ll have him on the summer you know where’s there’s plenty of weeks to fill the summer series well it looks like a beautiful day there go enjoy it thank you so much it was great catching up with you and we’ll continue to follow your success Scotty thanks all right I appreciate it you guys have a good one I appreciate your time I love catching up with these guys because you’re just we’re we’re we’re starting to build a list people of like where our flame Central tour is going to have we’re going overseas we’re going to Puerto Rico um no but what a cool experience I’m not going to say I’m jealous yeah you look at that be je you I mean you like see all of these places that these former players with their wives and their kids are going to like experience and everything and all the different cultures and food and all of that just and then obviously play their sport yeah there’s that too uh it’s just really neat it is cool because it feels number one you start to feel old when you see like these guys that were you covering as a college athlete what seems like not long ago now with children and wives and and careers and like they’re like adults you know the legit adults and and it is fun to watch whether it’s Scotty or we mentioned Caleb homesley he and his wife and kid are the same thing you see pictures of them and turkey or whever they’re playing and so yeah it’s been cool to watch them and Scotty I mean think about this you play a whole season in China where he just dominated how great is it to be like well I don’t have to just sit around and wait till next year to play in China again now I’ll go play in this pro league in Puerto Rico and I get to basically instead of just working out at home I get to do this in a really cool environment and cool place stay sharp so that and get paid and then go right back into my China season he said there’s a potential of just you know weeks in between the end of Puerto Rico and the start of China and he’s right back into it again and how how cool is it that he can go and play in these different countries and leagues and like the style of play can’t be the same right keep’s saying so so what you can do for your game in terms of conditioning or or like work on your game in different areas and then bring it back to China and then you have a guy like Caleb holmsley like we mentioned that is going to Spain be interested to catch up with him and and we need to get him on our little summer series going here and see you know let him move to Spain get the family all settled but um really cool stuff we will switch gears back to the Olympic trials so um Sam chalanga and the Paul Walter yes um he Carson um just competed it was a end of last week I believe I think it was a couple days ago but uh finished 11th in the full Vault y uh which I think what he did in the previous Olympic trials as well and then Sam Chang get 10th so neither of them making the Olympics obviously but good showing for both of them and then tonight Calli Don runs of friend of the show very very good friend of the show we think we’re friends with her yeah right it’s kind of a oneid Rel those relationships that leave you unre like did they read my text and not get back to me uh she’s competing tonight uh it says D is the first of two Heats set for 859 Eastern you can watch it on NBC apparently so may check that out Matt’s going to have the the four screens you know St Cup finals C steeple chase uh Baseball Championship tonight right right with A&M and and Tennessee so that’s going but good luck to her I mean she’s spent a lot of time in Eugene here lately hopefully that that helps her she’s like this is like my my home track you’d love to just see her make the the final heat that would be I think just such a huge thing for her she’s been working so hard so um all right so then we have some golf updates here and Vincent with John ROM’s team in the live tour they won again so um I don’t know if you saw his uh it was just like a chip just off the green and I mean he’s he is like facing complete opposite like it was like almost like a 90° angle of where he chipped it and then it just rolls perfectly oh my gosh I’m like see me I’m like oh okay the holes over here I don’t like I’m not reading breaks I’m not getting on the ground to stay on the green somewhere just get me to a I’m really bummed we didn’t get to golf and in the flame Central Athletics I don’t know who won this year because we weren’t there well yeah I think Jeff Alder always wins but there’s some questions about yeah funny how that happens there there’s some people that are a little suspect of that yeah anyway but um shifting away from us in our golf game congratulations to Kiran um you know just really cool to see his success he is going to be close by uh competing at Green Brier August 16th through 18th so we’re going to see if we can go and catch up with him a little bit get your Liberty gear on go out there like it how cool would it be if he had just a following around the course Li talk to Sparky go out there and follow him on the LI maybe they’ll just if they just loan me the suit I’ll wear it myself Joe it’s not a suit Matt it’s a real there’s kids that listen to us Ru ruined Christmas but uh again congrats to Kieran looking forward to seeing how we can continue to um find success here on the live tour but we have some updates for here at Liberty the new um the new course that they have going this looks unbelievable the new golf facility that it’s the facilities they’re continuing to add on in to the course adding all these different greens it’s basically going to be where you can play 18 holes kind of utilizing these greens in different directions and different whole placement it looks unbelievable and uh you know they say it’s going to be one of the best golf facilities Collegiate facilities in the nation when they’re done with it we’ve seen what that program has done over the years in general anyway it’s been a contender you know they go to the NCAA Regional year in year out and so uh they were like a sleeper team this year we were not expecting them to come away walk away they had to win the conference tournament to get and they they like came up clutch well a little drama involved but they made it happen it was really really cool so this program going to the next level keep in mind they host an NCAA Regional here in the area next year as well so a lot going on for them but uh I know I know it’s said that the the new course and everything is exclusively for the team do you think sure we got it I mean do you think we could hey we’re out here doing a feature right I just happened to bring my clubs it’s for b-roll purpose there’s getting some shots of me getting some shots uh but it looks incredible it’s going to be awesome but I do know um following um Porter on Con Porter on on Instagram they were out and and gab McKay were out um hitting some balls the other day well so I do see another feature of you know some we did that uh with Malik Willis a few years ago we hit the the course so maybe so uh one guy that’s hitting the course and has earned his PGA Tour America’s uh member status John Yan John Yan uh former Flames golfer so congrats to him the P we had to do a little digging I just want you to know we are not die hard golf guys and girls uh PJ tour America uh it has replaced apparently the PGA tour Canada and PGA Tour Latino America and so it replaces those so basically they’ll do like a Latin America swing and cold weather season they’ll go up North during warm weather season but uh congrats to JN yaan uh huge for him and another guy who’s uh continuing a pro career after Liberty yeah get on the Google machine and and search John Yan he is looking for um sponsors to help with expenses on the tour America so help him out former flame that we love to um you know see have or see find success in different areas in their pro career so really cool stuff quick quick uh plug for the TV show this week flame Central TV show you can watch it on YouTube you can watch Liberty flame central.com literally never get this website down it’s kind of like the AL just learned the website’s name uh but this week speaking of former Flames that are uh you know playing Pros right now Dylan former Flames pitcher now pitching for da Richmond in the San Francisco Giants organization wait you may know him he was the the Seline Dion lead with the the baby blue he is a very interesting guy to say the least and it’s had a very interesting path like like we don’t get into it in the piece itself but for people that remember he came to Liberty after his college shut down baseball I think it was Chicago state is where he was I didn’t realize that and they just canceled the program and so he’s like ah and so he ended up at Liberty and really his career you know went to the next level and uh ended up being undrafted but has turned it into a pro career and and continues to move up and continues to pitch well so just down the street here in richond get out Richmond Flying Squirrels support supporty uh so a cool story on him uh also again this theme of athletes that are playing professionally we catch up with Bridget rstat former Liberty women’s basketball player who’s playing in Australia now so we’ll catch up with her as well so a couple of cool pieces with former flames and what they’re up to these days yeah if there’s anybody else that you want um us to catch up with you can email us uh what’s that one I can’t flame Central liberty.edu we want suggestions maybe former athletes you want to hear from what they’re up to now uh for our summer series which summer is going it’s going quick wait or just general questions about Liberty Athletics as well when is the NBA draft it’s coming up here is it this week it’s this week yes we’re getting a nod from this week this week um so if you missed our conversation with Kyle Road last week you can catch up with um him which I meant to mention this when we were talking about like all the guys playing overseas If he if June 26 it’s Wednesday is the first round and I think the second round is the 27 split it okay gotcha so and then Kyle we’ll see if he is getting into summer league if not or if he is even uh going to play overseas in Germany he would be in the same league playing against Darius so that’s just like that’s a coolest part to me that you’re like overseas you’re playing with these guys in college and then now you’re just like this whole different experience playing some at church yesterday they’re like can you watch those games somewhere so we need to figure out stream those someplace because who wouldn’t want to watch those two guys play against each other one other shout just in terms of of the draft you talk about just looking ahead a little bit Major League Baseball draft July 14th through 16th so keep that in mind too some Flames that could be drafted a Cole herzler for example probably so just keep that in mind too coming up here in a couple of weeks as some other Flames looking to turn pro so cool all right well we are just about out of time thanks so much for tuning in the flame Central Podcast powered by alova special guest next week as well we can’t give away too much special guest maybe someone new to the mountain that’s all we’ll say so and then maybe Joe will come back we’re going to see how these ratings um another congratulations because each and every week our audio sounds so amazing Al can I do this part I want to say I want to say because uh Saturday night the imy awards took place and we had a number of people nominated I think 13 nominations we ended up winning four Awards so Alex short yep our audio Guru if you’re listening to this right now it’s because Alex did his thing I get the same message every week can you guys please stop screaming and talking over each other but nope we’re going to challenge you we do an interview and it’s just loud in the background Alex can take care of oh I’m sorry I thought you’d won Emy Awards I thought you were really good at this uh so congrats to Alex who won for uh his his sound design uh also John Pratt one of our flame censor producers won in the religion category for a story he did on former uh women’s soccer goalie Tory CER who had a awful car wreck and had to battle back from that while she was here and now she’s here coaching with women’s soccer when we did the story she was at a different University High Point I think right and now I’m keep checking with our guy Donald he’s giving me a thumbs up now she’s here on campus but he won an Amy for that also David Hurley from the Liberty creative team he won for his Ode to the hunt that game trailer with the Duck Dynasty guy leading into the Fiesta Bowl so that one and last but certainly not least our own Emily Austin won an Emmy Award for the story she did on baseball player Andrew Jenner who was uh was in that school school shooting in Florida when he was in high school and so she won she won on Emy as well so congrats to you congrats to all those folks uh who who took home amies it’s a shout out to not only our crew that we have like such a talented crew that like makes all of that happen but also our listeners and viewers like letting us know about these stories so again if you know about any um stories that you want us to do on former Liberty athletes or or coaches or current ones and listen let me just say this not to not to talk us up too much cuz you probably don’t care but we like here we’re we’re booking flights here this week we’re going to Florida in August catching up with some Liberty alumni that are down there doing incredible things former athletes here that are doing some incredible stuff so when she says if you have stories that you know about we’ll go anywhere the further the better if it’s if it has a beach that’s usually more Emily’s kind of she usually takes those um but if you have if you have something you’re like oh this would be a great story you should definitely do it again Flame centr liberty.edu we’d love to hear about it and we’ll just come and we’ll just come and knock it out a a good story in the making on Demario Douglas We are continuing to piecing that together so can’t wait to get that out which did you see Brody brm got married this week and AGG Demario Douglas like I guess my invitation still in the mail in the mail I thought we were bro all right whatever oh my gosh all right well hope we’ll see if Joe’s going to come back for next week but thanks so much for listening for Matt I’m Emily we’ll see you see you next time
