Introducing the Wild West Hoops Podcast, co-hosted by Bright Side staffer Damon Allred

Hello all! Little shameless plug for you all today, introducing my new podcast to you, the Wild West Hoops Podcast. Follow us on Spotify here.

Along with Bryce Hendricks, who covers the NBA Draft with his Upside Swings podcast and also Washington State basketball at our sister site, Coug Center, we’ll work to bring you coverage for high school and college (as well as some NBA) basketball, focusing along the west coast.

The idea started as a Pac-12 podcast over a year ago; recent events have obviously made that idea useless with all the conference realignment stuff which will leave the Pac with just four teams. We covered realignment on the debut episode, where I also posed the Devin Booker v. Paul George question to end the pod as that beef was going on last week.

On the second episode, which came out on the 17th, we covered news and notes from around the basketball landscape, including Cooper Flagg’s reclassification to 2024 and Flory Bidunga’s commitment to Kansas. We also took turns drafting the best players in high school basketball, including this article’s cover athlete, Koa Peat, a five-star junior who hails from Perry High in Gilbert.

I also shouted out Deandre Ayton’s FIBA play in the newest episode, but since it was recorded between the two games, I only talked about the Cuba game and referred to the Argentina game as a more real test. Bright Side readers know Ayton passed that test with flying colors.

We’re only available on Spotify for now, but we’ll add Apple Podcasts very soon as well. I’d really appreciate an awesome Bright Side backing, especially as we move into the high school and college seasons, where we’ll get into the nitty gritty on local subjects.

Perry is one school that’s already gotten some love, and I’m sure my alma mater, Mountain View Mesa, will get lots of coverage among plenty others as well. Hoping I can get out to some ASU and U of A games (and others) as media, so lots for Bright Siders to be interested in listening to!