Happy Hour with John Gaskins

He had a jump shot out of a cannon that sparked the University of South Dakota's best two years in Division I hoops (2016-18), then Texas Tech's historic run into overtime of the national championship game (2019). Matt Mooney was a cold-blooded sharpshooting machine in those three years, and he is just as to-the-point and entertaining when he tells stories about them.
In a one-hour sit down with Happy Hour host John Gaskins from his home in Puerto Rico — the latest stop in a six-year pro career that took him all over the continents of Europe and Australia — Mooney reminisces on high times like a couple wins over Mike Daum's South Dakota State and beating Tom Izzo's Michigan State in the Final Four.
The Chicagoland native also extracts the pain he felt in the low moments, like the Coyotes' heartbreaking losses to SDSU and the Red Raiders' oh-so-close overtime thriller against Virginia for all the March Madness marbles in Minneapolis in his final collegiate game.
Along the way, Mooney weaves in colorful stories about Daum and SDSU's buzzer-beating Coyote killer Michael Orris, plus the rock star existence Mooney and his teammates experienced in Lubbock — a fan wanting to buy him a beer made how much from betting on Tech? — and his journeyman career as a pro from the NBA G-League, to NBA call-ups, to Spain and Turkey and Germany and Australia and New Zealand and Puerto Rico, oh my.
Prolific and electric? Yes. Glamorous? Sometimes, but not as much as you'd think. But it has certainly been a journey worth telling, and Mooney tells it well.

Good News: The Summit League Tournament — which found its footing once it moved to Sioux Falls in 2009 — undeniably provides one of the best and most "big-time" mid-major student-athlete and fan experiences in the nation, according to those who have experienced others.
 
Bad News: There are signs pointing to future unrest in the conference, with Denver leaving the league (for the West Coast Conference) after the school year — leaving the league with just eight schools for basketball membership — plus some reported disenchantment from Non-Dakotas schools' leadership.
 
That is according to Gary Sharp, the 13-year voice of the Omaha men's basketball team, who has traveled the league and used his sourcing abilities to confidently report there may be others after Denver looking to leave.
 
Particularly, Omaha, which put forth an unsuccessful push to Missouri Valley Conference invitation that never came seven years ago and according to Sharp is in far better position to make that move in the near future.
 
Then, there's St. Thomas, which in seven years has gone from a non-scholarship Div. III athletic program to a strongly-funded Div. I machine that is playing in a sparkling new arena and thriving in both men's basketball and hockey. Is it a matter of time before an affluent private school in a Top 20 market searches beyond the Summit? 
 
Oral Roberts and Kansas City both left for other leagues and came back to the Summit. 
 
The league office and the SLT — the premier money-making event for the conference — all reside in Sioux Falls. Not every school is gung-ho about that, Sharp said.
 
Plus, the announcement of an eight-team nonconference men's event involving the four Dakotas schools and four schools in the Big Sky Conference (Montana, Montana State, Idaha, Idaho State) did not sit well with the other four Summit schools (Omaha, KC, ORU, Denver), who all already had two extra nonconference games to schedule with Denver out of the picture.
 
Sharp says schools like Tarleton State (Texas), Texas-Arlington, Lindenwood (St. Louis), and Western Illinois (former member) have been approached about Summit League membership. All, Sharp says, said "no."
 
So, yeah, while a first-class, well-oiled mid-major event roars on, there's the same uncertainty about the future of the conference.
 
Then, there's the TV deal with Midco Sports and CBS Sports Network that runs out this summer. Would it be in the Summit League's best interests to go back under the ESPN umbrella?
 
Fenton is aware of all of these concerns and addressed them one-on-one with Sioux Falls Live editor Patrick Lalley on Wednesday.

Good News: The Summit League Tournament — which found its footing once it moved to Sioux Falls in 2009 — undeniably provides one of the best and most "big-time" mid-major student-athlete and fan experiences in the nation, according to those who have experienced others.
 
Bad News: There are signs pointing to future unrest in the conference, with Denver leaving the league (for the West Coast Conference) after the school year — leaving the league with just eight schools for basketball membership — plus some reported disenchantment from Non-Dakotas schools' leadership.
 
That is according to Gary Sharp, the 13-year voice of the Omaha men's basketball team, who has traveled the league and used his sourcing abilities to confidently report there may be others after Denver looking to leave.
 
Particularly, Omaha, which put forth an unsuccessful push to Missouri Valley Conference invitation that never came seven years ago and according to Sharp is in far better position to make that move in the near future.
 
Then, there's St. Thomas, which in seven years has gone from a non-scholarship Div. III athletic program to a strongly-funded Div. I machine that is playing in a sparkling new arena and thriving in both men's basketball and hockey. Is it a matter of time before an affluent private school in a Top 20 market searches beyond the Summit? 
 
Oral Roberts and Kansas City both left for other leagues and came back to the Summit. 
 
The league office and the SLT — the premier money-making event for the conference — all reside in Sioux Falls. Not every school is gung-ho about that, Sharp said.
 
Plus, the announcement of an eight-team nonconference men's event involving the four Dakotas schools and four schools in the Big Sky Conference (Montana, Montana State, Idaha, Idaho State) did not sit well with the other four Summit schools (Omaha, KC, ORU, Denver), who all already had two extra nonconference games to schedule with Denver out of the picture.
 
Sharp says schools like Tarleton State (Texas), Texas-Arlington, Lindenwood (St. Louis), and Western Illinois (former member) have been approached about Summit League membership. All, Sharp says, said "no."
 
So, yeah, while a first-class, well-oiled mid-major event roars on, there's the same uncertainty about the future of the conference.
 
Then, there's the TV deal with Midco Sports and CBS Sports Network that runs out this summer. Would it be in the Summit League's best interests to go back under the ESPN umbrella?

The 13-year voice of the Omaha Mavericks men's basketball team says there are valid concerns about the membership in the league and some potential efforts from multiple teams to leave in the coming few years.

Are we there yet?
 
Summit League Tournament enthusiasts have the same eager restlessness of little kids on long road trips.
 
Just hours before the first SLT games tipped off — those 8 vs. 9 "first round games — Happy Hour did a special edition of "Thirsty Thursday" from just off the floor in the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center on Wednesday afternoon.
 
We'll call it "Pre-SLT last call!"
 
Who beyond NDSU is best equipped to win the men's event? Who are the best and most fun players to watch? What must the USD women do to pull off a semifinal win over SDSU? 
 
Will the lights be too bright for the NDSU women? Could the feel-good USD men's story end on Friday night vs. Denver?
 
Few humans are better equipped to provide a last-second cram session than Brad Newitt, who will be working his 14th SLT for Midco Sports. The former University of Sioux Falls assistant coach breaks down the best players and all the intriguing matchups for both the men's and women's side.
 
Newitt also weighs in on who he voted for Player of the Year and Coach of the Year on both sides, plus his predictions on how everything will shake out.
 
USD guard Angie Robles
All the Coyote women did this season was double Carrie Eighmey's first-year win total from 11 to 22 and give USD a shot at a No. 2 seed in the regular season finale.
 
Not bad for an almost entirely new roster. Eighmey brought in transfers from all over the country, including four seniors who had one last stop and one last chance at glory in their college careers.
 
That chance is in front of them in Sioux Falls. Robles is at the forefront of the transfer crew. The point guard is the Yotes' second-leading scorer at 10 points per game and leads the team in assists and swagger. 
 
A San Diego native who spent her first four seasons at Summit League opponent Denver, Robles walks through a basketball life that started as the offspring of a professional hooper from the Philippines. She explains how her collegiate plane landed in Vermillion, a far cry in so many ways from Southern California and Colorado, but a place she appreciates.
 
She offers reflection on the late January win over South Dakota State — the program's most relevant since Dawn Plitzuweit's crew beat SDSU for a third consecutive SLT title, then reeled off two NCAA Tournament wins in 2022 — and explanation of the 82-49 loss to the Jacks on Saturday. How does she see the Yotes stemming that tide in a likely Round 3 in Sioux Falls, a potential Saturday semifinal?

Former SDSU coach T.J. Otzelberger
In a re-release of a conversation from a Happy Hour last summer, the current Iowa State head coach looks back on his three-year tenure in Brookings that started rocky — a 1-6 record and a seat in the basement of the Summit League in his first season — and finished with two SLT championships and two regular season titles before he fled for the desert and UNLV, then to Iowa State, where he has piloted the Cyclones to four NCAA berths and two trips to the the Sweet 16. 
 
Get ready for some Mike Daum and Michael Orris stories!