Kam Jones and Stevie Mitchell are Marquette teammates, friends and now co-hosts of ‘The K1 and Stewie Show’ podcast

Kam Jones and Stevie Mitchell are sitting around with three of their freshman teammates from the Marquette men's basketball team, and they are taking turns doing spot-on impersonations of head coach Shaka Smart.

Those interactions are usually confined to the locker room after practice at the Al McGuire Center. But on this Tuesday night, the five players are talking into microphones on the second floor of MU's Johnston Hall, and their friendly banter will be put out for public consumption.

Jones and Mitchell have a natural chemistry. That is evident on the basketball court for the seventh-ranked Golden Eagles (17-5, 8-3 Big East), who will look for their seventh straight victory when they face St. John's (14-9, 6-6) at 5 p.m. Saturday at Fiserv Forum.

They have such an easy repartee that the duo decided to put out a podcast – "The K1 and Stewie Show" – produced with student journalists from the Marquette Wire.

"The main thing that I wanted to do it for is just doing it with Kam," Mitchell said. "Every second we spend together is a good time. It just seemed like something we could have fun with, and learn about some people."

They've done three episodes since late November. It's hard to find time during a busy hoops season – there was also the school's holiday break – but the podcast has become a labor of love and should settle into a more regular schedule.

"It’s kind of fun," Jones said. "Having this experience and letting the fans connect with you. Or feel a connection with you on a personal level."

Podcast is a good branding opportunity

Jones threw the idea out for "The K1 and Stewie Show" in a social media post in July.

"We think that’s a pretty good idea," Jones said. "So we tried to talk to some people that we needed to talk to. We was able to make it happen. Took a lot of work, but it’s definitely a blessing and a great experience."

The show's title is derived from their nicknames. Jones' comes from his No. 1 jersey, while Mitchell's was bestowed upon him by former teammates Justin Lewis and Greg Elliott.

“Justin said something about (the TV show) ‘Family Guy’ and he thought the character was named Stevie," Mitchell said. "And then Greg was, like, ‘Nah, it’s Stewie.’ So they just started calling me Stewie. It was a simple interaction in the lunchroom."

Jones and Mitchell took the idea to Madison Dunker, a former MU women's soccer player who is the school's general manager for name, image and likeness opportunities. In this new era of college sports, having a public presence can lead to business deals.

“We were talking a lot about brand building and what does that look like from an educational perspective," Dunker said. "And so one day there was a tweet that Kam put out, that was like, oh, one day you’re going to see us on 'The K1 and Stewie Show.'

"At that point, it was just conversations, and I think I followed up with them, we were working on some other things completely separate, and I said ‘Are you serious? Do you want to do something like this? Let’s get you connected.’“

They met with Chuck Swoboda, a business adviser and author who is the school's innovator-in-residence. Swoboda once hosted his own podcast, "Innovators on Tap."

“Really leaning on that Marquette community for the guidance," Dunker said. "Saying, like, share your knowledge with us.”

The podcast is not a NIL revenue venture, according to Dunker.

"This is purely they are doing it for fun, enjoyment, branding," she said.

It was a natural progression to work with the MU student journalists to put together the podcast in the Marquette Wire's recording studio at Johnston Hall.

‘Energy-generating questions’

The recording of the podcast goes pretty smoothly, considering that it has the potential to get unwieldy with three guests, freshmen Tre Norman, Zaide Lowery and Al Amadou.

Dunker is there for all the podcasts, but her only instructions to the freshmen are to avoiding slipping in profanities. Hope Moses, the executive director of the Marquette Wire, is the third co-host and deftly asks questions to keep the conversation moving. Producer Trevor Hilson slips Amadou a written message to fix an audio issue. Jack Albright, the executive sports editor of the Wire, keeps a running stopwatch and makes hand motions to move on when a topic gets bogged down. Grace Cady snaps photos for social media.

"We work with our team, obviously," Mitchell said. "We could not do it without them at all. They help us a lot.

"We get an outline, basically, so we can stay on track. Know that we can get to everything we want to get to, but then we just kind of let our personalities flow through the outline. Touch on stuff that we have here. If it feels right or it doesn’t. Like we skipped a few things on the outline today, just because we might have covered it a little in a different question or it didn’t feel right at the time. That’s the biggest thing, following the outline but letting K1 and Stewie be K1 and Stewie."

The best part of the podcast is listening to the interplay among teammates, which often gives insights into the players' personalities. Jones mentions he was scared of the dark as a kid, and now he always sleeps with the TV on and Norman doesn't hesitate to mention that he was scared of the dark as well. The three freshmen are really paying attention as Jones and Mitchell talk about their own travails in their first season.

"Like we say, we cherish those relationships," Jones said. "We show that we really have those relationships with each other."

Their on-air personalities as co-hosts kind of mimic their on-court games. Jones, the super-confident bucket-getter, isn't afraid to pull up with a joke or to drop in a story from out of the blue. Mitchell, the quintessential basketball glue guy, cues up questions and compliments to the freshmen. They open with a segment called "EGQs" or "energy-generating questions," a play on Smart's much-valued "energy-generating behaviors" in basketball.

"I think Stevie has a way about him, to really connect and command the presence of the room," Dunker said. "We have very thoughtful questions and they make these connections. The skills are there.

"And I think Kam has such a fun presence. He works this great personality. So we joke that sometimes we never know which way it’s going to go.”

There are a few missteps, and the team is still working on its transitions from topic to topic. But it's only the third show. It's still entertaining for MU fans hungry to learn more about one of the top teams in the nation.

"Just our personalities and the type of people we are," Jones said. "That’s what it is. I think we got pretty good personalities. Marquette, we got a pretty good fan base. That’s a lot of fun."

Smart is scheduled to be a guest in the coming weeks. The plan is to keep getting better as podcast hosts, the same attitude they take in basketball.

"We’re in Milwaukee around a lot of people," Mitchell said. "Like the Bucks. We have some alumni that are well-known.

"The more we just get structured with it and in the flow with it, the timing and scheduling and planning will work itself out to get those people on."