Big 12 pulled same playbook on UConn Huskies they used last year on Gonzaga Bulldogs, so now what?

Yukon and the Big 12 paused their conversations about joining together and folks it felt like I was watching a movie that I'd already seen [Music] before you are locked on zags your daily podcast on the Gonzaga Bulldogs part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day what is going on y'all happy Friday and welcome into the locked on zags podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day I am your host and longtime gona podcaster Andy Patton here to bring you news and updates on all things zag Athletics today's episode of Locked on zags is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on College and you'll get $20 off your first purchase terms do apply all right folks non-conference schedules revealed for a pair of WCC teams and it highlights a big frustration that I have about non-conference schedule so we're going to talk about that to close out the show we also got updated recruiting rankings for 2025 and 2026 from ESPN so we're gonna talk about where the zags uh the zags targets and committed zag in this case Davis Fogle where they are ranked for ESPN and we're gonna open the show talking about the Yukon to the Big 12 latest updates on that regard for those of you on YouTube yes rocking a number five Gonzaga basketball jersey this is in honor of Gary Bell who about an hour before I hit the the record button it was revealed that he has been promoted to associate head coach at Northern Arizona friend of the program friend of your host and very excited for him to get that opportunity so thought it was a good chance to toss on the Jersey to give him a little love for that we're going to start the show with the big Story coming out of the college basketball space on Thursday talks between Yukon and the Big 12 have been put on pause and the main thing that I took out of these two separate statements indicating this is that the statement from Brett yormark which I'll read it here indicates it says a jointly decided to pause our conversations at this time meanwhile a conversation from Yukon athletic director David Gilbert indicated that it's not exactly Mutual let me read the statement from Brett ymark first he said statement excuse me he says as commissioner it is my responsibility to explore a variety of value creating opportunities on behalf of the Big 12 following detailed discussions with my conference colleagues alongside Yukon leadership we have jointly decided to pause our conversations at this time we will instead focus our attention and resources to ushering in this new era of College athletics meanwhile yukon's athletic director there here is part of his statement to the Yukon fan base undoubtedly many of you have followed recent media reports about the big 12's renewed interest in Yukon as a conference member it is always our objective to put Yukon in the very best position for future success so we did engage Eng in exploratory dialogue with the big 12 ultimately the Big 12 determined that it will pause on conversations about membership expansion as I'm recording this right now I've seen and consumed a lot of Articles a lot of social media posts a lot of conversation and discourse surrounding Yukon and the Big 12 pausing their conversation and I haven't seen a lot about the fact that those two statements are in direct opposition of each other Brett yormark said jointly decided to pause our conversations meanwhile yukon's athletic director said the Big 12 determined it will pause those are not the same thing it is pretty clear that the Big 12 has backed off continuing to pursue Yukon at the current moment as a potential expansion member in the Big 12 Conference and folks if you're a longtime listener to the podcast and you were listening around this time last year or even if you weren't listening at this time but you were just following Gonzaga basketball following the school the university this story these last few weeks between Yukon and the Big 12 should seem extremely familiar because it played out almost exactly the same way that it did with Gonzaga and if you were listening to this podcast I told you when this first happened when the Yukon Big 12 rumors first happened we talked about what it might mean for Gonzaga if it happens we talked about whether Gonzaga would also join them in the Big 12 whether the Big East might come after Gonzaga all these things but one of the main takeaways from that was they're not any further along than Gonzaga was and it things suddenly stopped with Gonzaga and that's exactly what is happening here with Yukon it's the I mean the the here step by step it's exactly the same step one reports the two sides are talking emerge commissioner ymark is excited about the opportunity to add a basketball school to the conference that was step one in both both events last year this year Gonzaga Yukon step two more reports the sides are remaining engaged there's discussion on the timeline there's discussion on finances for Gonzaga a lot of that was how they not as financially problematic for the Big 12 because they don't have football their TV power numbers started getting thrown out there they're one of the most prolific uh basketball programs in the country in terms of watchability on TV for Yukon the conversation was about how the football team's not going to be added till 2031 and how that's alleviates the pressure on the other Big 12 schools in terms of costing them money uh from the media rights deal uh and all of those conversations started happening step three it's leaked that some schools are opposed while some schools are in favor again this happened exactly around the same time for Gonzaga last year and for Yukon this year the reports were that oh they're getting some yes votes and Gonzaga got some yes votes too there were programs that were genuinely like yep hop on board we're ready let's bring the zags into the Big 12 same with Yukon a lot of programs said yep we're good we don't have to pay for football for five years they get an opportunity to get their program kind of more in line we're ready we're good let's go but there were Des centers there were Des centers for the for Gonzaga there were Des centers for Yukon and then you get to step four which is the indication that many of the presidents and the athletic directors those are who vote on conference realignment want to focus on the recent newcomers rather than continuing to expand this was the sentiment last year which at the time of course the uh Big 12 had already added four schools in Central Florida Cincinnati BYU and Houston and was about to add or had just kind like officially had just added Colorado Arizona Arizona State and Utah now of course A year later all eight of those programs have been added to the Big 12 while Texas and Oklahoma have officially been removed from the Big 12 but the sentiment from the athletic directors from the presidents was exactly the same let's focus on what we have we've added eight Brands to our conference in less than two years that is a lot there's a lot of change a lot of new mouths to feed a lot of new travel to do a lot of new just programs to include and incorporate and have to figure out from a financial perspective from a marketing perspective from every possible perspective that you would have to kind of be able to to work with a new entity in your conference they got eight of them and so the the sentiment that hey we would rather focus on the new teams and kind of let the dust settle it didn't seem like that would be over in a year and that was the sentiment we heard last year when Gonzaga eventually got abruptly kind of shut out of continued conversations with the big 12 and so when this kind of reared its head again and there was yeah yukon's a more desirable addition for the Big 12 Daga I want to be clear if you're a Yukon listener uh who who found the show and you think that I'm comparing the two as equal they're they're not they're not I I I can concede that I think most Gonzaga fans can concede that for the simple fact that Yukon while it is not a good football program they have one they have a football program that's a huge difference from a men's basketball perspective Yukon is better they've won back-to-back national championships they've beat Gonzaga three straight times in the last two years there's no debate in that conversation either there are very few teams in all of college basketball that are definitively unquestionably ahead of Gonzaga yukon's pretty clearly one of them and then women's basketball unfortunately doesn't matter as much from a financial perspective as football or men's basketball but Yukon checks that box too again coach Lisa forier Gonzaga phenomenal program with where they're at yukon's the cream of the crop so there's there's no debate here that ym Mark wanting Yukon and and trying again you know taking another crack at it because it didn't work with gona makes sense because he thought Yukon was a bigger value add to the Big 12 than Gonzaga and I think he's right in assuming that but the reasoning that was given by the Big 12 presidents and ads who shot down Gonzaga wasn't fixed by adding Yukon like the reasoning that people gave for Gonzaga wasn't well they don't have a football program I'm sure that was part of it but it was it wasn't oh they don't have a football program uh or oh they they're basketball teams not quite good enough like those weren't the reasons that were given the reasons where we'd rather focus on who we have now 9 10 11 months later they try the same thing and they get the same response shouldn't be a shock shouldn't be a shock this played out exactly how I thought it was going to play out because it's how it played out last time and what does it mean going forward well it means the Big 12 is the presidents in the ads are continuing to send the message to Brett ymark and to the rest of the college uh Sports space we're good for right now I think there is another element of this and perhaps we can get into it for a longer conversation again soon here later this month but I think a lot of what's happening in call in the conference reignment space right now is everybody trying to figure out what the heck's going on with the ACC everybody everybody is waiting on the ACC there's an element of of waiting on on what's going to happen with the Pack 2 and the Mountain West but even that is still goes back to the ACC if the ACC crumbles like fullon falls apart goes the way of the Pack 12 which I want to say seems unlikely at this point I think the odds of that happening in the next calendar year are incredibly slim but as long as there's still a possibility of that happening a lot of these confer are just going to wait because if the Big 12 think there's even a chance they'll get Florida State Clemson Miami somebody like that two three of those programs Duke North Carolina something like that why wouldn't you wait and see if you can you can snap them up the Big East is GNA wait because yeah they might lose Yukon but if they don't lose Yukon and the ACC falls apart can they get Syracuse back can they get Louisville back can they get Boston College back there's a football element of those conversations that I think is a lot trickier for the Big East but it's some something that they're going to at least wait and see and if you're the pack two and you're waiting to figure out should we do this merger this reverse merger with the Mountain West what does that look like you're waiting to see if Stanford and Cal are gonna come crawling back maybe they'll bring SMU with them maybe that gives you an opportunity to snap up Memphis who's soon to be without coach Penny Hardaway based on the latest reports going on down over there in Tennessee uh maybe you can get to Lane to come over maybe you then start a bigger conference with the Mountain West with your four schools from the Pack 12 with somebody like SMU maybe gona gets involved there a lot of conference realignment conversations right now are going to be kind of put on pause until some kind of resolution happens with the ACC if it's Clemson and Florida State bouncing and the rest of the ACC sticks together and they can try to pull somewhere from from somebody else maybe they go after Yukon and try to bring him from the Big East to the ACC Yukon probably doesn't jump on that but maybe they give it a shot uh who knows what what exactly happens out of that but if the ACC can hold steady then conference realignment kind of picks back up in a different space uh but right now these teams have to wait and see what's going to happen there we're going to have more conference reignment talk trust me folks it is not done it is not an over conversation at this point but I couldn't help but notice the extreme similarities between how things went last year at the end of the summer with Gonzaga and how they just played out between the Big 12 and Yukon F we're gonna move on though we're gonna talk recruiting here ESPN has updated their rankings for the 2025 and 2026 class we got a new ranking for Davis fog goal the commit in 2025 we got new rankings for targets Nick CIA and Kingston Flemings in that 2025 class as well as 2026 Target Sam funches we're gonna talk about all of that in just a second but first folks let's talk about LinkedIn jobs because when you're hiring for your small business you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role and that's why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs which has the tools to help find the right people for your team faster and they do it for free and Linkedin is not just another generic job board they help you hire professionals that you cannot find anywhere else even those that are not actively searching for a new job but might be open to the perfect role and in a given month over 70% of LinkedIn users do not visit other leading job sites so if you're not looking on LinkedIn folks 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we did a re a refresh of these rankings about a month or so ago I think they do that every single month so some of these guys moved up quite a bit some of these guys stayed around where they were but it's a good opportunity to kind of Refresh on the the prospects that Gaga is still pursuing in 2025 a few that maybe they're not pursuing as much anymore and of course the 2026 Target in funes we'll start with 2025 though we'll start with the player ranked the highest that is and remains Isaiah Harwell the 6 foot6 Guard from Pocatello Idaho who has been on gonzaga's radar for a very long time came on an official visit last February was originally going to come for the St Mary's game suffered an injury and had surgery and ended up coming a couple weeks later for the Santa Clara game in Spokane he is 14th in ESPN's latest rankings so not much of a change for him uh he's a guy who at this point however the biggest update the biggest change for Isaiah Harwell we talked about it quite a bit last week he is now a strong lean to go to Houston to play for Kelvin Samson and the cougs uh he is committing on September 12th that has been a date set for a long time when back when he was considered a favorite to go to Gonzaga he has visited Cal he's visited Houston I think he took an official visit to Texas as well uh Gonzaga was kind of the favorite for a long time there's some indication that maybe the zags were kind of running out of patience of like hey you know what else can we do here we've brought you to campus we've continued to pursue you through your injury like you know I don't think the zags are out I don't think the zags said hey we're no longer you know your offer has been rescinded like I'm not reporting that I I doubt that's very much the case but I think they were like okay this we've done all that we can do if you're not interested in coming to our program anymore we're going to start looking in other directions uh and I think that that is what led to gonzaga's pursuit of the next player on this list and that's Kingston Flemings Kingston Flemings 6 foot one point guard from San Antonio uh he is officially locked in at a visit to Gonzaga for craziness in the kennel on October 5th that will be an official visit for him uh he has a top four of Gonzaga Texas Houston and Texas Tech and I do think that the Isaiah Harwell and Kingston Flemings the the uh Pursuits of these two players the recruiting kind of paths they they've pretty clearly overlapped at this point Harwell is being pursued by Houston Texas and Gonzaga Flemings is being pursued by Houston Texas and Gonzaga the rest of their lists are slightly different but those three are considered the favorites for Harwell and the favorites for Kingston Fleming so it's hard to not have these be connected and I think looking at Flemings just stylistically watching tape uh reading about him the scouting reports it's pretty easy to see why Gonzaga is very interested in Kingston Flemings he's a facilitator he's a lead guard who loves to get out in transition great at throw away throw ahead passes uh reads the floor extremely well uh gets to the rim is a great in the pick and role working on his outside shot again I said this on the show and I'll say it again if it sounds like I'm reading a scouting report of Andrew or Ryan neart that's because they's got a lot of similarities to those two guys it's worked out real well for those two players in Spokan so can totally see why mark said okay if harwell's kind of wishy-washy on what he's going to do here let's go after Kingston Flemings and to be clear I want to on Harwell quickly I'm not saying he's out at gona I don't know I know that he's a heavy lean to Houston at this point that is what has been reported that is what is being indicated doesn't mean gonzaga's out fully it likely means that Gonzaga is keeping their options open because they are not as confident about Harwell coming to campus I think that's a fairly easy thing to kind of read the tea leaves on but it doesn't mean that they're out on him or that he is out on them but gona's pursuit of Kingston Flemings makes a lot of sense when you look at his style of play when you look at the fact that they are maybe not going to land the guard they were hoping to land in the 2025 class uh so I think there's a lot of appeal there and I think the other part of this is that Kingston Flemings just wrapped up representing the United States in the FBA 3on Three Tournament where one of his teammates was fellow 2025 Prospect and Gonzaga Target Nick cinia Flemings came in at 21st in the class ranking I'm not even sure if I said that I apologize if I missed it uh so Harwell is at 14 Fleming's at 21 in ESPN's updated rankings CIA comes in at 35 and you've heard cia's name for multiple years at this point 6 fo8 forward from Harvard Westlake High School been on gonzaga's radar for multiple years did an unofficial visit for craziness two years ago an official visit for craziness last year on three is actually favoring him away from Gonzaga they have UCLA and Arizona as the favorites but all of the schools are very close Bunch together I think the fact that Comedia and Flemings played together is a good sign it's a good sign the only school that overlaps in cia's list and excuse me and Kingston Fleming's list is Gonzaga if those two guys loved playing together and they did really well things went really well for them if they loved playing together they think well we could do that at our next stop they're they're going to find out that they got one connection there that that makes it happen so uh definitely something to keep an eye on CIA would be a really great fit for Gonzaga as a a bigger Wing like a three four hybrid kind of that the Corey kisper Julian stth or IL he's a little bit different player than those guys but kind of think positionally that I think is the role that he would fill so certainly a player to keep an eye on and if Chia and Flemings loved playing together they could be joined in the 2025 class by Davis Fogle again the only known commit for Gonzaga and the 20125 recruiting class at this point he is 43rd in ESPN's updated ranking uh that is the second highest among the four major recruiting Services 247 Sports has fogal all the way up at 33 while both Rivals and on three have him outside of their top 60 he's been a polarizing Prospect some places have had him a lot higher a lot lower I think some of it is just updating their rankings some places are a little slower to do updates and that's why he's a little lower on those lists because every time anybody any major Outlet updates the rankings he is climbing higher and higher and higher he's been doing phenomenal work this summer I just posted right before hitting the record button on my Instagram account locked on zags we're on Instagram by the way I don't advertise that much but go give us a follow if you don't yet I like to post six seven eight times a day on there so definitely check it out if you haven't yet and I posted a link to a video clip of Davis Fogle just throwing down absolute hammers all over everybody it's a phenomenal clip definitely worth checking out he's been really good he's looked really good he looks like another great find for Mark F and the staff on the recruiting Trail last player in 2025 to talk about is eposa oogo he is a forward who's playing in Atlanta right now he's of Canadian descent and ESPN did not rank him in their top 100 most services do 150 some even do 250 247 I think has uh 250 recruits that they uh have ranked uh ESP only has 100 and they do not have him in their top 100 which is the only one of the three recruiting services that do not Rivals actually has him up at 43 while on three has him at 68 and 247 Sports has him at 8 seven highlevel athlete watch clips of him he's always Duncan he's he's a a big three kind of a two3 hybrid probably would play three in gonzaga's offense uh the zags are in his top seven but are not seen as the likeliest landing spot uh the only one of his top seven schools that he's visited is Maryland most people think that's where he's going to end up is at Maryland Maryland Gonzaga as well as Bama Arizona State Memphis Oklahoma State and TCU round out the top seven there and then lastly Sam funes 2026 Prospect the only known Target for Gonzaga in the 2026 class at this point I say known because it doesn't mean that they're not talking to more players making soft scholarship offers or even potentially making hard scholarship offers that we just haven't heard about yet uh regardless funes came in at 43 on the 2026 recruiting top 100 for ESPN uh pretty similar to where he is elsewhere Rivals actually has him 25th 247 has him 35th on three has him 44 big man from Mississippi 6'1 rim protector got some outside shooting ability uh Old Miss is considered the front runner which makes sense he's a HomeTown kid Chris beard is a great recruiter but Gonzaga has been in on funes for a long time so absolutely a name worth keeping an eye on well we're GNA close out the show talking about a pair of WCC teams who released their non-conference schedules this week and it highlights one of my biggest complaints and issues about non-confidence scheduling and I'm not blaming either of these teams I'm blaming power five schools we're going to talk about that to close out the show right after I tell you about today's sponsored game time folks it's college football season it's finally here and as somebody who lives close to multiple local venues I love that I can make a last minute decision to head out to a stadium and that's why I use game time because prices on the game time app they actually go down the closer it gets to kickoff so with killer last minute deals all in prices views from your seat and their lowest price guarantee game time takes the guesswork out of buying tickets and if you're somebody who's planning to go to that battle in Seattle in at 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played for those of you who listened last week we reported that there is a indication that this game is going to take place in Mexico City on November 6th against the bayor Bears it has not been confirmed yet but it was reported on the show by Roco Miller regardless I want to focus on two other WCC teams and take a look at their just reported full non-conference schedules we'll start with San Francisco the dawn this year are playing at home calp Boise State Long Beach State Chicago State Mercy Hurst St Louis Stannis State and Montana on neutral floors they are playing Memphis and that's at the chase Center so it is a neutral but it is pretty clearly a basically home game for the Don and they're playing Lo lyola Chicago in Milwaukee which is obviously the opposite that's basically a road game for the Don and then in terms of an actual Road game they're going on the road to take on Bradley they're also playing in the sunshine slam Mt and Daytona Beach they will open against Clemson and then they will play either Penn State or forom depending of course on whether they beat Clemson and who wins between Penn State and forom power five teams do not want to play teams like San Francisco last year the dawns were lucky to get a couple power five teams on the schedule but it was depal who was the second worst Power five team in college actually I think they were the worst I think they were worse in lville it was Vanderbilt who was the worst sec team and it was Minnesota who I don't think was the worst Big 10 team but they weren't particularly good so if you cannot get power five teams to play you do what San Francisco did go play the best dang mid- major teams that you can and you think about the best mid- major college basketball conferences outside of the WCC which of course would not be a non-conference game for the dawns the best basketball conferences that are not power four M Mountain West American Athletic Conference A10 and Missouri Valley Conference pretty clearly it is those four and the WCC are kind of in a class of their own outside of the power four San Francisco got all covered St Louis and lyola Chicago are both in the A10 they're playing lyola in a pseudo Road game they're playing St Louis at home Memphis is their game at the Chas Center they're in the American Athletic Conference they're going on the road to take on Bradley who might win the Missouri Valley Conference this year and of course they're playing Boise State at home out of the Mountain West we'll talk a bit more about their schedule but I also want to tell you Pacific schedule and I want to highlight this here's who Pacific is playing at home Jessup Northern Arizona Shout Out Gary Bell once again Ark Pine Bluff Fullerton Portland State and Idaho not a lot of fun not a lot of competition in that home schedule for Pacific here's who they are playing on the road Arkansas Missouri Colorado Illinois State UNLV and then they have a mte in Hawaii to open up the season the rainbow classic they're playing San Jose State life Pacific and then Hawaii which technically is going to count as an actual Road game uh even though it is part of an mte so here's the simple thing the simple issue here I you pretty much everybody who watches college basketball who's aware of the WCC would rather see San Francisco play Arkansas or Colorado or Missouri or even UNLV but instead we get pacific and I'm not trying to bag on the new coaching staff at Pacific I think Dave Smart's going to do some good things I think this team has some exciting Talent on the team they get Elijah fiser good transfer Lamar Washington from Texas Tech but Pacific finished 3 I think it was 51st 359th maybe in the Ken palom rankings last year Pacific was one of the worst teams in college basketball last year that is why they're going on the road to play Arkansas that is why they're going on the road to play Colorado and Missouri and because San Francisco was good and has been good and beat a power fight team last year and is good enough to win the majority of games that they play like they're not going to beat Yukon more than once out of 10 times but Pacific's zero for 10 San Francisco's maybe once and those teams aren't willing to risk that so even though everybody would rather see San Francisco take on Arkansas I would love that game I don't think the Dons would win but again they have a better chance than Pacific and I'm picking on John cipar he actually does a pretty good job of being willing to play multiple teams there's a lot of things you can complain about with Cal but he's he's he's not one of the coaches that that tends to fall into this trap too much but ultimately when I looked at San Francisco's non-conference schedule I thought this is great but this is they're limited they're hamstrung because if they could play UCLA and USC and you know Oregon or you know even if they didn't want to be on the west coast if they wanted to go play teams in the SEC or wanted to go play teams in the Big 10 um they're not getting those opportunities nobody's gonna schedule a home in home where they're will they're going to come to San Francisco so they they do have the advantage of having the chase Center and I think that helps them get games like Minnesota who they played there last year H and then beat and then now look they don't get a power team there they get Memphis and whereas Pacific like you know maybe they'll maybe things will get better for him this year but like they're getting they're getting opportunities to play better teams and and games that I think Chris gon and the Don would love and I I say them same with Santa Clara same with na wazu who's in this conference certainly same with St Mary's uh they're getting those opportunities because of how bad they were that feels backwards and I again I I'm not going to go through the whole explanation but I get it if you're sitting there trying to explain to me why I get it I understand why I understand how the net rankings work I understand that teams get rewarded for pounding the doors off of bad teams I understand that when you're trying to fill out your schedule you just got to pay a team you know a couple hundred thousand dollars to fly out to your Arena and lose like I get it that's how college basketball has pretty much always worked it's similar to how football Works in a lot of ways too it's not new or unique to the sport but when you look at a team like the Dons or Santa Clara or even if you go outside of this conference you look at teams like Nevada and UNLV in the Mountain West or you look at Dayton St Louis you know whatever Oral Roberts in the summit League like good mid- major teams who cannot get anybody good to play them and then you can't put together a resume capable of getting you an at llarge bid in the NCAA tournament and since you're not making the NCAA tournament you're not getting recognition therefore you're not getting a bump in recruiting therefore you're staying at the same level therefore those team aren't going to play you and the cycle continues and continues and continues and continues and if you're Gonzaga you break out of it after I don't know 13 years 15 years something like that I was a senior in 2013 and they at that point still really struggled with non-conference games they got Illinois in the house my senior year that was huge that was a huge deal they got virgin West Virginia in the house I think my junior year that was a big deal but prior to that they played Michigan State okay I remember Draymond Green going nuclear against the zag so they got a few a few good games prior to 2013 but it took a decade and it's not happening at these other schools as fast as it took St Mary's I mean it's still not really happening for for St Mary's they're trying it's not happening and it's a frustrating reality of the sport I don't know the solution I wish I did a return to RPI rewards teams more for going on the road so perhaps you'd see more uh Power teams be willing to play Road games but I still don't think they would be playing teams like the dawn they'd be playing other power teams in true Road environments so there's still fixes that need to be done I don't know the solution I just know that good mid- major teams are getting punished while bad mid- major teams are getting rewarded with opportunities to play better teams and I don't think that that is how it should continue to operate for the enjoyment of watching college basketball it's gonna wrap it up for me today and for this week here on lockon zags folks have a fantastic weekend we will be back next week continuing all these conversations we'll got mailbag for you next week we got some bold predictions coming your way we'll keep you up to date on recruiting we'll have an update on Isaiah Harwell next week we know that for sure so keep your eyes peeled for that recruiting bold predictions all sorts of fun stuff we're going to start our player preview series at the end of the month as well thanks again for listening folks have a fantastic weekend and until next time as always go a