Florida stars KN’isha Godfrey and Me’Arah O’Neal are continuing to bring fans closer to the reality of college basketball with “Free Game”, a podcast powered by EssentiallySports. After an insightful first episode where the duo spoke about legacy pressure, mental health, and the challenges of being college athletes, the Florida teammates returned with another candid conversation in episode 2.

This time, the duo opened up about the hidden side of college hoops, their experience under Coach Kelly, and the reality of NIL in today’s college basketball landscape.

With humor and a few relatable stories, our favorite duo once again gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at life inside a major college basketball program. So don’t miss the latest episode.

SEGMENT 1: HOW’S LIFE?

Me’arah O’Neal: We’re back. So, how’s life? How’s mom? Let’s start.

KN’isha Godfrey: Let’s start casual. How’s life?

Me’arah O’Neal: Life is worth living. Life is worth living. Is that Justin Bieber?

KN’isha Godfrey: Or you just made that up.

Me’arah O’Neal: No. Is that a Justin Bieber song? I think that’s a Justin Bieber song.

KN’isha Godfrey: It is Justin Bieber.

Me’arah O’Neal: It is Justin Bieber. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nah, for real though. Life is—it’s great. Life is great. Every day is a blessing. Look, we’re moving forward every day. And yeah, how’s that for you?

KN’isha Godfrey: Hey, I just need to put this out there. I’m dropping a collection, my clothing brand, uh, March 3rd, actually. So, I’ve been doing that and life’s been good. It’s been good.

Me’arah O’Neal: Okay. Okay. We ping. We ping. The book, KG Balance Blueprint—oh, yeah. It’s coming out too. Y’all tune in with us. It’s going to be good.

SEGMENT 2: THE SEASON

Me’arah O’Neal: You know, we started the season. How you feeling about that?

KN’isha Godfrey: Um, we started the season. I feel like we’ve had a lot of ups, we’ve had a lot of downs, but we about to bounce back. And that’s how I feel about it. Well, we already bounced back. We had a game against Missouri that we won. And we’re having a good time.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah. I feel like we are continuing to get better every day. Um, like you said, a lot of ups and downs. I mean, we face a lot of adversity, but we get through it in the end. So I think all that is good. That’s what we do. It’s a standard. That’s what we do. We’ve got LSU coming up. I’m excited for that one.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yes, we do have a game coming up against LSU. Y’all tune in. Got support.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah.

KN’isha Godfrey: That’s a—that’s a familiar—oh, yeah. It’s a little familiar place for me.

Me’arah O’Neal: How are you feeling?

KN’isha Godfrey: I’mma keep it a buck. I’m excited, but at the same time, it’s the what-ifs, you know? Like, what if this happened? What if that happened? But no, no, no, no. I don’t know.

Me’arah O’Neal: We got to get that out of the head. But we have a lot of time. So, I’m excited. I’m ready.

KN’isha Godfrey: Put the work in. We prepare, right?

Me’arah O’Neal: Go out.

KN’isha Godfrey: Trust the training. Trust the process. It’s going to be good.

Me’arah O’Neal: Do what we got to do.

KN’isha Godfrey: Just do what we got to do.

SEGMENT 3: OFF THE COURT & THE SCHEDULE

Me’arah O’Neal: Other than basketball, how have you been off the court?

KN’isha Godfrey: Off the court, I’ve been chilling. I really am holed up like—like our schedule is crazy. Like, we have practice, and we don’t get done till what?

Me’arah O’Neal: Oh my god. Yes. We got practice at like 1:00. Don’t get done today.

KN’isha Godfrey: 1:30.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah.

KN’isha Godfrey: And if we have lift, we really ain’t out till 6:00. But—

Me’arah O’Neal: I know. And then you got treatment. So you really ain’t out yet.

KN’isha Godfrey: God, they got treatment. Yeah. So I’ll be tired. I’ll be going home. Bus plug.

Me’arah O’Neal: It’s like something else every single day. We’re just talking about how our off days don’t feel like off days at all. Like, always something.
KN’isha Godfrey: Literally, today, I was running around so much. I’m like, “Bro, ain’t no way. There’s no way.”

KN’isha Godfrey: I’m going to give y’all some free game right here. If you are going to be a student-athlete in college, your schedule is the most important thing. You got to make sure that you are writing stuff down, crossing it off. You know what times, what appointments that you have, all of it.

Me’arah O’Neal: You know why? That’s why I love TeamWorks. Like—

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah.

Me’arah O’Neal: It’s so easy and they could just put it in for you. All you got to do is look at it like—

KN’isha Godfrey: Right. Right. Set your alarms.

Me’arah O’Neal: Because the worst thing is when you miss an alarm.

SEGMENT 4: LATE TO PRACTICE STORIES

KN’isha Godfrey: I actually have a story about this. It was actually my freshman year summer. We had a lift, and we had to be up at—like, we had to be there at 6:00 a.m. And if you know me, I cannot wake up early to save my life.

Me’arah O’Neal: Hates waking up.

KN’isha Godfrey: Oh my god.

Me’arah O’Neal: I call her like, “You up? You up, bro?”

KN’isha Godfrey: If it’s anything between—like, 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.—I’ve gotten better, but like, everybody got to be checking in on me. Like, “Yo, you up?” Coach CA be calling me all the time.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah. Sometimes she’ll call me and be like, “Hey, you called your girl? We miss you.” Like, “Yeah, I did. She’s good. I didn’t know that.”

KN’isha Godfrey: But yeah. Okay. So, freshman year, summer, we had lift. We had to be at the football stadium at 6:00 or something like that. And I think I had woken up at like 5-something. And I was like, “Oh my god, I’m about to be late. What am I going to do, bro?”

Me’arah O’Neal: You get that feeling in your chest. It’s just like—feeling in your stomach, your stomach drops. Like you instantly wake up when you realize you’re about to be late.

KN’isha Godfrey: So I’m like, “Oh man.”

Me’arah O’Neal: I got there at like 6:01. I remember it was one time I was late for practice, like my freshman year. Girl, I hopped out that bed so fast, had my bonnet on, everything. I was like, “I must get there.” I never changed my clothes so fast, bro. Oh my god. I was running through the gym with my partner. I was like, “What do I do?”

KN’isha Godfrey: Running to the gym in your bonnet. I’m crying. That was funny.

Me’arah O’Neal: That was funny.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah. I can’t believe that.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah. I learned my lesson with that.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah. All you got to do is—I mean, all you can do is just look back and laugh. Me’arah O’Neal: Yep. That was me. Nah, I be setting like five alarms now.

KN’isha Godfrey: Six. Got to do it. ’Cause if you don’t—I don’t trust myself to wake up at the same time every day.

Me’arah O’Neal: What is it? Is it just like you love to sleep or—

KN’isha Godfrey: I feel like it just depends on what I do the day before. Like, what time I—

Me’arah O’Neal: So, what are you doing the day before?

KN’isha Godfrey: I told you my schedule is busy. Like, if I’m—you going to make me start trolling on here? I don’t have—

Me’arah O’Neal: No, no, we keep it a buck though. I’m holed up. I’m on Fortnite all night sometimes. Watching YouTube all night. When Stranger Things was out, I was watching Stranger Things. I’d be up till 3:00 a.m. watching Stranger Things, right? Like, it’s a lot of things to do in the house.

KN’isha Godfrey: That’s true. There are a lot of things to do in the house. Exactly.

SEGMENT 5: TEAMMATE VIBES & PERSONALITIES

Me’arah O’Neal: That’s hilarious. Yo, I don’t know why—yo, I don’t know why you—Jade, bro. When we had that—I don’t even know when we had it. We had something. It was like we were wearing fancy clothes around. We had something. Everybody was telling me like, “Yo, you’re not real. Like, I cannot take you serious.” I’m like, “I’m being dead serious with y’all. Y’all be laughing.”

KN’isha Godfrey: Because Mezy is one of those people who—I can’t even say like you be straight-faced when you’re saying something that’s funny because you still are bubbly though.

Me’arah O’Neal: I don’t know. I mean, I be trying to troll. I be trying to be dead serious. I can’t do it.

KN’isha Godfrey: She’s like—everybody like, “Bro, you’re not real. You’re a little kid.”

Me’arah O’Neal: What? What am I doing?

KN’isha Godfrey: That ain’t no sense.

Me’arah O’Neal: You are something else. And then going to break out a dance here and there like—“What? Where did she even come from?” Like, “Girl, like what? What are you doing, dog?” Like, we had practice. All of a sudden, you see her do some—like, do this dance or something. You like—shoot—like, “What are you doing?” Like, “Lock in. Lock in.” Like, I can’t even look over there right now.

KN’isha Godfrey: No way, bro. You know JT be playing the bangers. Like, sometimes you got to bust a move.

Me’arah O’Neal: He do. He do. He do. He gets us started for practice in the right way.

SEGMENT 6: COMPARING PRACTICES

Me’arah O’Neal: Oh yeah. Are your practices from like TCU and Florida—like, different?

KN’isha Godfrey: Completely different. I mean, I feel like—like you said, the beginning of our practice, I feel like they were like way more energetic, loose, and fun.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah.

KN’isha Godfrey: I feel like TCU was a little bit more serious in the beginning while warming up and stuff like that. So, I kind of appreciate that.

Me’arah O’Neal: I know. I like how he makes it fun though. Like, it’s always good to have fun.

KN’isha Godfrey: And you don’t want to be in no serious practice. Bad—like, it’s not fun.

Me’arah O’Neal: That’s draining. So yeah. And I feel like the people around you make your experience. Like, I had really nice teammates there, too. But, you know—sweet.

SEGMENT 7: TEAMMATES & TEAM CHEMISTRY

KN’isha Godfrey: Speaking of teammates—what’s the difference between—no shade to your old teammates. No shade. Don’t see.

Me’arah O’Neal: No shade today.

KN’isha Godfrey: But like, how you feeling? How’s the first year with your teammates here?

Me’arah O’Neal: I absolutely love y’all. I told you that from the moment—oh my god. I told you that from the moment—even when I met you. Like, when I first came in, I was like, I don’t know how I’m going to mesh, you know, with everyone. But man, the way that I have—yeah.

KN’isha Godfrey: It’s been amazing. You’ve been so warm. Don’t make me get all gushy gushy.

Me’arah O’Neal: Gushy gushy. But you are just so caring, so loving, so welcoming. I mean, everybody—you guys are like my sisters. So—

KN’isha Godfrey: Make me cry.

Me’arah O’Neal: Annoying. Annoying. But I feel like we can all count on each other at any time. And you know, there’s a lot of different personalities. From quiet to—

KN’isha Godfrey: Mhm.

Me’arah O’Neal: From quiet to extremely loud.

KN’isha Godfrey: That’s literally the best way to put it.

Me’arah O’Neal: I love Ollie.

KN’isha Godfrey: No, literally. I feel like—

Me’arah O’Neal: How do you feel?

KN’isha Godfrey: I feel like it’s totally different from my last year. I just feel like everyone’s so genuine and everyone just is freely themselves. And I think I like that so much. And like you said, so many different personalities and different backgrounds, but we all get along so well. And it’s like—I know. Yeah. I love y’all. I love being around y’all.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah. I feel like that’s the best part of basketball. Like, the people that you meet during the experience—and it makes it so like—oh my gosh, I love being here. I love coming—

KN’isha Godfrey: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Me’arah O’Neal: Nah, it’s a good team. We’re good. We’re really good. So—

KN’isha Godfrey: We are. I feel like we going to be locked in. Like, after—

Me’arah O’Neal: Oh yeah. Yeah, boy.

KN’isha Godfrey: Overly, overly, overly.

Me’arah O’Neal: For sure. I definitely feel like, like I said, the people make your experiences and help. Like, life after basketball—you know you have people that you can count on.

KN’isha Godfrey: How’s the team chemistry, man? How do you think we all mesh together?

Me’arah O’Neal: I think we mesh together really well. I feel like we each have like different relationships with each other that are really good. And I also think our team chemistry is really good because of the way that we invest in each other. When I say invest in each other, I mean like, we make plans. Like, okay, let’s hang out, let’s do this, let’s do that. And you know, that helps on the court.

Me’arah O’Neal: What about you?

KN’isha Godfrey: I’d say the same. I think everybody on the team is very genuine. Like, we all can do whatever together. It doesn’t matter. And I think everybody on the team has a good heart. So if you have good-hearted people around you, like, anything’s bound to happen. And I think we have a really good, talented team and we all enjoy being around each other. So that’s the good part about it.

Me’arah O’Neal: I think another thing that’s pretty special is just like—we took that time to know each other’s stories.

KN’isha Godfrey: And so stuff like that matters.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah. And knowing each other’s background and where each other comes from.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah.

Me’arah O’Neal: Like, it builds that chemistry. It makes it a lot stronger.

KN’isha Godfrey: And we’re all learning off each other, too. Like, so many different backgrounds. Like, we got Nigeria. Like, bro, Gift. Oh my god.

Me’arah O’Neal: We got Nigeria.

KN’isha Godfrey: But like, Gift—like, her name is Gift. She from Nigeria, but like, she’s—

Me’arah O’Neal: Bro, her energy, literally. Yeah. Like, a gift from Nigeria. That’s crazy.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah. Hearing her story and learning what she’s about and who she is as a person, it’s just like—

Me’arah O’Neal: And she’s so like—she’s a huge spirit. She crazy. She is crazy.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah.

Me’arah O’Neal: That girl. Who else do we have? We got Italy. Cat from Italy.

KN’isha Godfrey: We’re missing—we have people from different backgrounds that bring—

Me’arah O’Neal: Where is Gabby from? Spain.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Me’arah O’Neal: Who else? Who else? Sarah. Lex.

KN’isha Godfrey: We have—

Me’arah O’Neal: But nah, everybody from different backgrounds, but everyone—they got their own spirit. It’s so cool. It’s so cool to be around.

KN’isha Godfrey: I know. And that helps you learn a lot more just about people and their backgrounds. Like, I remember in the training room, and they were telling us about like wars and stuff that were going on. Like, what? Like, we didn’t think about this.

Me’arah O’Neal: What?

KN’isha Godfrey: But pretty interesting. I think it was Lex teaching me something about that. Lex.

Me’arah O’Neal: Oh my gosh. Story about Lex. It’s not really a story. It’s like a—I don’t know. But Lex stay just saying stuff. Like, you never know what’s going to come out of Lex’s mouth. It could either be something smart or so, like, opposite.

KN’isha Godfrey: Oh, she’s funny though. That girl.

Me’arah O’Neal: Jade’s a character. Oh lord. Light skin. Like, talking to her every day is like—

KN’isha Godfrey: That’s my twin though, man. She’s such a light.

Me’arah O’Neal: Was she—TikTok baby? She put me on TikTok.

KN’isha Godfrey: That’s my dog though.

Me’arah O’Neal: And my dog.

KN’isha Godfrey: No, she’s a character. She’s a character. That’s funny.

Me’arah O’Neal: I love our teammates. Yes, they make everything so—literally. Freshy. Mills. Oh my god, Mitti. You’re such a—B. I love y’all, man. I can talk all day about my teammates.

KN’isha Godfrey: I feel like a person on the team who is really quiet but like extremely funny—

Me’arah O’Neal: You—literally. She doesn’t say much. Quick—like, yo, she reminds me of myself, literally.

KN’isha Godfrey: We’re like—BB. That’s why I’m like—

Me’arah O’Neal: What up, you mean? My girl. That’s all right. Oh my god. My sister. My sister.

KN’isha Godfrey: Did she tell you we had a play date?

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah. First of all, no. I’m not even going to say that on here because that’s not the world’s business.

KN’isha Godfrey: You know what? Okay.

Me’arah O’Neal: And I don’t want people in the comments calling me whatever they want to call me ’cause I don’t have time for it.

KN’isha Godfrey: We won’t talk about it.

Me’arah O’Neal: Well, I got it. I got it. He taken care of. All the guys—at least. Clock it. I just didn’t tell you we had a play date. That’s all.

KN’isha Godfrey: I know. She said she’s talking about she seen y’all on the ring camera or something.

Me’arah O’Neal: Oh yeah. Another story. Another day.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah.

Me’arah O’Neal: But you got it—another story, another day. We’ll talk to y’all about that later.

SEGMENT 8: ROAD TRIPS & BONDING

KN’isha Godfrey: Oh my god. A random thought, but like, I feel like when we go on the road, every time we go on the road, we get closer somehow.

Me’arah O’Neal: Oh, us?

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah.

Me’arah O’Neal: Like me and you?

KN’isha Godfrey: Just the team. Like, everybody. ’Cause we all do—we doing everything together.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yes.

KN’isha Godfrey: Like, we going to dinner—like—

Me’arah O’Neal: You know what my favorite thing is that we do before games? Rapping and rhyming together.

KN’isha Godfrey: I feel like—and just making beats. Yeah.

Me’arah O’Neal: I feel like that’s one of the things—

KN’isha Godfrey: And it just be happening. Like, it’s just natural.

Me’arah O’Neal: So, yeah. It’s almost like before almost every game, we just start rapping and making beats together.

KN’isha Godfrey: “Dreams and Nightmares.”

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah. Like, where does this come from? We don’t know. We just live screaming.

KN’isha Godfrey: I know.

Me’arah O’Neal: Everybody. And then everybody plays a part too. So—

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah, it’s so much fun.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah. And if you don’t have rhythm or you can’t catch it, it’s okay.

KN’isha Godfrey: We taught Cat how to sing “Dreams and Nightmares.”

Me’arah O’Neal: Yo, were you there when we taught Dobby how to do the jerk?

KN’isha Godfrey: No.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yes, you were.

KN’isha Godfrey: We taught her the D shuffle, too.

Me’arah O’Neal: We were in the weight room. You made the video. You set the camera up. KN’isha Godfrey: Oh, that was that day.

Me’arah O’Neal: Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Oh my gosh. I do remember that. Good times.

SEGMENT 9: FOOD TALK

KN’isha Godfrey: Yo, why am I thinking—like, when we went on the road, we had some nasty food?

Me’arah O’Neal: I don’t remember where it was. I just randomly thought of that though when we was talking about on the road.

KN’isha Godfrey: I would ask you your go-to, but I already know your go-to is Chick-fil-A.

Me’arah O’Neal: So again, I don’t even know how many times I have to say this, but I’mma keep saying it until I don’t have to. Chick-fil-A—please. I need a deal.

KN’isha Godfrey: Please. P-U-H-L-E-A-S-E. All caps, exclamation point.

Me’arah O’Neal: Y’all heard the girl.

KN’isha Godfrey: Chick-fil-A, right here. I need that recorded so I could post it on my main page, please.

Me’arah O’Neal: But you heard—Chick-fil-A, I love you with all my heart. I need a deal. And DoorDash, too. So, we could do that. We could do like a two-for-one.

KN’isha Godfrey: I don’t know. That would do. That would do. Just that eight count. [20:24]

Me’arah O’Neal: But other than Chick-fil-A—which—you know, this is random, but you know Longhorn Steakhouse?

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah. This might be crazy, but I just recently got on that—maybe like two or three months ago.

Me’arah O’Neal: But it’s so good. Like, I eat it almost every day.

KN’isha Godfrey: Not every day.

Me’arah O’Neal: I just tried Tella yesterday, and people are like, “Oh my gosh, you need to try Tella. You need to try Tella.” And I’m like, “Okay.” So, I went there yesterday with two of my friends and it was in fact good. Bussin’.

KN’isha Godfrey: So Tella—what is it like? What type of food is it?

Me’arah O’Neal: It’s almost like Chipotle, but—I don’t want to sit here and say it’s better because, Chipotle, we love you too. But when I tell you, y’all need to try that. Y’all need to try that.

KN’isha Godfrey: What’d you get?

Me’arah O’Neal: I got chicken. I got the same thing that I normally get—my Chipotle bowl. So, chicken, uh, brown rice—want to be healthy. And then I got cheese, um, pico. What else did I get? Corn, lettuce, and then they have different sauces that you could—

KN’isha Godfrey: Okay. Okay. Okay. I ain’t never had that.

Me’arah O’Neal: Better try that. It’s on campus.

KN’isha Godfrey: Oh, really?

Me’arah O’Neal: It’s across the street from Kes.

KN’isha Godfrey: Really? Is it new?

Me’arah O’Neal: I don’t know if it’s new, but yeah.

KN’isha Godfrey: I got to try that.

Me’arah O’Neal: Okay. What else? Longhorn—I have been eating that pretty much almost every day, but that’s not—I mean, I guess you could call it my go-to.

SEGMENT 10: THIS OR THAT

KN’isha Godfrey: Let’s do a this-or-that.

Me’arah O’Neal: Okay. Hot or cold?

KN’isha Godfrey: Weather or food?

Me’arah O’Neal: Weather.

KN’isha Godfrey: Hot.

Me’arah O’Neal: I guess I could have been more specific there. Weather terms. Hot or cold?

KN’isha Godfrey: Hot.

Me’arah O’Neal: Hot. Okay. Why hot?

KN’isha Godfrey: ’Cause I can’t do cold. Like, I will start crashing out in the cold. Like, once I step in cold, I instantly start shaking. But—

Me’arah O’Neal: I feel that too. I feel like hot too. But for me, because I like dressing for the hot weather, not—

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah, that too. That too. But actually, I take that back because I like wearing hoodies and sweats. Like, I stay in hoodies.

Me’arah O’Neal: So you sure you’re not going to crash out?

KN’isha Godfrey: I still be cold in hoodies and sweats though in the cold. But like, I could wear hoodies and sweats in the hot.

Me’arah O’Neal: Okay.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah.

Me’arah O’Neal: Okay.

KN’isha Godfrey: Which people find interesting? But I don’t know. I just—I guess.

Me’arah O’Neal: And I see you’re wearing jewelry. So, silver or gold? Or—

KN’isha Godfrey: Silver.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah. I’ve always been a silver. Really? I love silver jewelry.

KN’isha Godfrey: I try to do the gold. Sometimes. But I really—

Me’arah O’Neal: And I like diamonds. I don’t think gold—I don’t really like gold diamonds like that.

KN’isha Godfrey: I guess. No, I’m there with you actually. I don’t really wear gold that much.

Me’arah O’Neal: Okay, I got one.

KN’isha Godfrey: Mhm.

Me’arah O’Neal: Flip-flops or slides?

KN’isha Godfrey: I’m going to go with slides because I feel like they’re more convenient to slip on.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah, I feel like they’re more convenient to like, you know—I feel like we do too much. We put our shoes on. You just put your slides on. Or if I’m going to a cold tub, I use my slides. I don’t have my flip—like, you know what I’m saying? Like, it’s just more convenient for what we do.

KN’isha Godfrey: Okay, I’m going back to food.

Me’arah O’Neal: Okay.

KN’isha Godfrey: We got McDonald’s French fries.

Me’arah O’Neal: Okay.

KN’isha Godfrey: Or Chick-fil-A French fries. This is hard for me too. Not being biased.

Me’arah O’Neal: Okay. Fresh McDonald’s fries.

KN’isha Godfrey: Fresh. And perfect amount of salt. Like, the perfect McDonald’s fries. Those and perfect Chick-fil-A fries.

Me’arah O’Neal: That’s actually a doozy. That’s so hard. I think—ah, I don’t know.

KN’isha Godfrey: I’mma have to go Chick-fil-A. Perfect Chick-fil-A fries.

Me’arah O’Neal: I’m thinking about the meal. Like—

KN’isha Godfrey: The meal.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yes. Together. Now imagine perfect McDonald’s chicken nuggets.

KN’isha Godfrey: No. No. No.

Me’arah O’Neal: Oh, you don’t like the chicken nuggets?

KN’isha Godfrey: Okay. Imagine a chicken nugget, perfect crisp, and when you bite it, it—mixed up.

Me’arah O’Neal: No, no, I’ve been—just stick with Chick-fil-A.

KN’isha Godfrey: But I do think that was a hard one because McDonald’s fries made correctly—best—I think—

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah, I think I’m going to go Chick-fil-A too. I ain’t going to lie.

KN’isha Godfrey: Okay, let’s go.

SEGMENT 11: MUSIC

Me’arah O’Neal: Music. Hip-hop or R&B?

KN’isha Godfrey: See, I listen to all genres basically.

Me’arah O’Neal: Me too. I think—I don’t know. I would have to say it depends on the day. Like, ’cause sometimes I’ll be feeling like—why—I be wanting to crash out, or—

KN’isha Godfrey: Y’all—or what’s up with you? Or want to crash out?

Me’arah O’Neal: I don’t know. I just think I—I guess I just have high emotions and I don’t really care about hiding them.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah.

Me’arah O’Neal: ’Cause, why? For sure.

KN’isha Godfrey: I feel that. I have high emotions too.

Me’arah O’Neal: I have high emotions too. But yeah.

KN’isha Godfrey: But okay.

Me’arah O’Neal: And I also—like, I love YB, actually. So, and he makes pretty aggressive music sometimes. So—

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah, but I’ll go with you on it. Depends on the day for sure.

Me’arah O’Neal: Okay. Top five artists. Go.

KN’isha Godfrey: Dang. Okay, let me think. Well, you said go, so you must know your top five.

Me’arah O’Neal: No, not really.

KN’isha Godfrey: Okay, hold on. Let’s take a second.

Me’arah O’Neal: Swank—my top five artists. If you have more than five that you want to name, you can. We can go top 10 too.

KN’isha Godfrey: Okay. Can I look?

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah. You know how you can go on like Apple Music and look at the list?

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah, but I still listen to a variety. So—okay. YB is on my list for sure. Let’s see what else I’m listening to though.

Me’arah O’Neal: This is such a good question. I have a lot of YB on here too though, but I don’t know if I’ll put him in my top five. Why? Even though he can do some interesting things, sometimes he is in fact goated.

KN’isha Godfrey: I feel like I have a mix of everything. I really don’t have a top five. Can we just do like who we’ve been listening to lately?

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah.

KN’isha Godfrey: Okay. So, I’ve been listening to Fridayy lately.

Me’arah O’Neal: Okay, that’s good.

KN’isha Godfrey: I’ve been listening to Rod lately. I’ve been listening to—lately. I’ve been listening to—forgive me if I mispronounce his name—Don Toliver.

Me’arah O’Neal: Baby be on him heavy too. Don Toliver. You real. We be listening to that every day in practice.

KN’isha Godfrey: What?

Me’arah O’Neal: Lil Baby’s new album.

KN’isha Godfrey: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. I like it.

Me’arah O’Neal: Don Toliver, Swanging—you know something?

KN’isha Godfrey: That one.

Me’arah O’Neal: I kind of been all over.

KN’isha Godfrey: Okay. I’ve definitely been on Rod heavy. YB heavy. And—Drake. Always.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah.

KN’isha Godfrey: Who else? PartyNextDoor. Uh—

KN’isha Godfrey: I kind of been going old school too. What old school song have I been listening to? I was just listening to “Million” by Tank.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah.

KN’isha Godfrey: Don’t get me started. I feel like she—it’s like a throwback for all the girlies back when we were here.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah. Yeah.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah. I really been on Rod, though. “I Ran” is like been on repeat. It’s been on repeat.

Me’arah O’Neal: “Backlit” by him.

KN’isha Godfrey: “Freestyle Stand.”

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah.

KN’isha Godfrey: “Fall Fast in Love.” That’s the one. That’s the one. This is an old one—y’all might not know about it. “Changing on Me.”

Me’arah O’Neal: I know about it.

KN’isha Godfrey: Okay.

Me’arah O’Neal: What else? “Angel.” She wasn’t even—

KN’isha Godfrey: Oh my god.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah.

KN’isha Godfrey: You need a—

Me’arah O’Neal: No. No. I can sing on the low. Real ones know.

SEGMENT 12: FREE GAME — STUDENT-ATHLETE MISCONCEPTIONS

Me’arah O’Neal: Okay. So, part of Free Game is—we like to bring to light certain situations or misconceptions that, you know, come about. And one that I came across is that student-athletes, or athletes in general, don’t want to connect with students outside of sports.

Me’arah O’Neal: Like, for instance, I was hanging out with a couple of friends that are non-athletes, and they were like, “Oh, we think that you guys—like, we annoy you guys, or like, y’all don’t want to hang out with us and stuff like that.” And I’m just like—that’s not true. Like—

KN’isha Godfrey: I feel like majority of the time it’s just that we’re in a bubble. Like, we work out—

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah.

KN’isha Godfrey: At a certain facility. We work at a certain facility, and then we eat at a certain facility. And that is our constant cycle.

Me’arah O’Neal: Literally.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah. How do you—? And I feel like we’re a little in a spotlight a little bit. Like—they see us under bright lights and playing, and like, they can’t even necessarily reach us after the game either unless they go in the little area. So—

Me’arah O’Neal: And honestly, like you said, we got different facilities. I feel like our schedules are totally different.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah. But that doesn’t mean that we’re not approachable or we don’t want to talk to people who don’t play sports. Because we would love that.

Me’arah O’Neal: And I feel like it’s recommended for us to get friends outside of our sport too.

KN’isha Godfrey: And it is. So, I mean, that is a Free Game tip there. It’s just like—if you are an athlete, you know, try to get outside of your bubble and meet those people who don’t play sports and stuff like that, because—

Me’arah O’Neal: You might even learn something from them.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah. And it just takes you away from it all, when that’s pretty much basically almost your whole life.

Me’arah O’Neal: Yeah. Your everyday routine. I feel like I’ve gotten that too before. Like, “Dang, I don’t even see you guys.” There was some student—I was going to class actually. She was following behind me and she was like, “Congrats on you guys’ win.” She was like, “I’m a regular student. I just feel like I had to tell you guys that.” Blah, blah. I’m like, “Oh, okay.” She was like scared to come up. I’m like, “Dang, it’s not even like that.” I was just in slides, sweatpants. I had my fur hoodie on. I look like a regular person, but she was a little nervous.

Me’arah O’Neal: That is—that’s a good misconception, though. It’s not a misconception, but it’s not true. Good observation. ’Cause I would have never thought of that, but it’s definitely true.

KN’isha Godfrey: So, if you see us, say what’s up. We all people. We love people.

Me’arah O’Neal: We do. We love people. We’re getting new walks of life and all that good stuff.

KN’isha Godfrey: Yeah.