Speaker 1: Hey, welcome in. This is Doug Gottlieb and welcome to Paul.
Speaker 1: Paul Baby, a great part of the Herd podcast network.
Speaker 1: As we did last week in our first installation of
Speaker 1: All Ball, we started by talking about the NBA and
Speaker 1: then UM found our way into college hoop, which is
Speaker 1: what we're going to do today. Um. Obviously, Lebron James's coach,
Speaker 1: Tyron Lou, has taken a leave of absence, having been
Speaker 1: a contemporary of Tyron Lou about the same age he
Speaker 1: did cross me up in college one time when Nebraska
Speaker 1: came into our place and beat us just a devastating losses.
Speaker 1: Nebraska is sucked on the road anyway. First, a quick
Speaker 1: get well to Tylu and look, this is what I
Speaker 1: said at my radio show, and I kind of mean it.
Speaker 1: I don't blame Lebron James for Tyron Lou getting sick,
Speaker 1: but whatever has happened to his health has been mm
Speaker 1: hmm exacerbated. What a great word. Exacerbated is has been
Speaker 1: exacerbated by the stress that he has been under, not
Speaker 1: just coaching the NBA but coaching Lebron James and what
Speaker 1: could very well be his last season in Cleveland. So
Speaker 1: doesn't it stand to reason that had Lebron, you know,
Speaker 1: not allowed Kyrie Irving to voice his desire to trade publicly,
Speaker 1: to be traded publicly, and he like, look, we could say,
Speaker 1: well I was done once it came out that he
Speaker 1: wanted to be trade Like, No, that's not necessarily. There
Speaker 1: are women that want to divorce and the dude comes
Speaker 1: back flowers in hands on bended knee. I'll go to
Speaker 1: therapy whatever you need, babe, and you find a way
Speaker 1: to work it out, and maybe you don't stay together
Speaker 1: for life, but you stay together and try and work
Speaker 1: it out for a year or two, which is all
Speaker 1: really you needed in Cleveland. Hey, let's just try and
Speaker 1: figure this out for a year and then you can
Speaker 1: go your way. I can go my way, and the
Speaker 1: Calves can be the better off because of a trade
Speaker 1: where they get rid of both of us. Right. Um,
Speaker 1: this this also could have the health problems could have
Speaker 1: not been exacerbated. Had Lebron James that started the year
Speaker 1: said Hey, I'm staying in Cleveland, don't worry about it,
Speaker 1: and nothing else you here matters. This is my home.
Speaker 1: This will always be my home. He didn't. He didn't
Speaker 1: stop David Griffin from being fired, and you can say
Speaker 1: to yourself, well, what could Lebron really do you mean
Speaker 1: to tell me that? Lebron James goes into Dan Gilbert
Speaker 1: and says, whatever you do, don't fire David Griffin, don't
Speaker 1: fire a Griff, or else I won't play for you ever. Again,
Speaker 1: that might be a bluff, but it's a strong bluff.
Speaker 1: So the point is that you can't help when Tyron
Speaker 1: lou gets sick or Tyron lose not sleeping and Tyron
Speaker 1: lose having health issues. But you could help those stress
Speaker 1: kind of buttons from not being pressed had he not
Speaker 1: been so passive or even passive aggressive instead been the
Speaker 1: leader that he purports himself to be. All that said,
Speaker 1: it's going to be absolutely fascinating this year to see
Speaker 1: what happens with the Calves in the NBA playoffs. Now
Speaker 1: we have Trey Young who's declared for the NBA Draft,
Speaker 1: DeAndre Ayton's going to the NBA draft, Michael Porter Jr.
Speaker 1: Only Played essentially two games, He's going to the NBA Draft,
Speaker 1: and Marvin Bagley is kind of the only big time
Speaker 1: one and done non Kentucky player. More Bomba likely going
Speaker 1: to the draft. Colin Sexton. Of course, he said he
Speaker 1: wants to get a four point out, but expectations are
Speaker 1: heat go to the draft. The most interesting one, I think,
Speaker 1: without any question is Trey Young. And normally, normally the
Speaker 1: cases with freshman they don't shoot well, but you look
Speaker 1: at their stats and they get progressively better. That's I mean,
Speaker 1: we've seen the Kentucky guys. Not not that the Kentucky
Speaker 1: guys shot well in the first game of the n
Speaker 1: c A tournament, but generally freshman don't shoot well. They
Speaker 1: have to learn the speed of the game, everybody's speed
Speaker 1: of the game. It's more the percentage of percentage of
Speaker 1: possessions in which they play at their peak level in
Speaker 1: terms of intensity. The thing about Trey Young is his
Speaker 1: his shooting performances obviously got worse, and the numbers since
Speaker 1: let's just take since February are atrocious, and so he's
Speaker 1: getting ready for the NBA Draft. Of course, a lot
Speaker 1: of you like to troll me the way that SportsCenter
Speaker 1: once trold me that was fun that I was not
Speaker 1: an employee for ESPN for like two years and somebody
Speaker 1: somebody in sports that is working their Twitter handle put
Speaker 1: out kind of a hybridized version of what I said
Speaker 1: on when the day he declared. Here's the tweet that
Speaker 1: Sports Center sent out. This was awesome, right, this is
Speaker 1: April two nine, Steph Curry declared for the NBA draft.
Speaker 1: Doug Gottlieb says he doesn't have the upside of Rubio, Jennings, Flynn,
Speaker 1: Patty Mills, Jeff Tigue allmore athletic, and in all honesty,
Speaker 1: it was that was accurate. I thought Ricky Rubio could
Speaker 1: develop more as a shooter. Now has he been hurt
Speaker 1: by the knee injury. Yeah, But the big thing was
Speaker 1: Ricky Rubio, for the life couldn't shoot the basketball and
Speaker 1: Steph Curry could. That will open up the court for
Speaker 1: Steph Curry's game. Brandon Jennings, I thought he was more
Speaker 1: athletic than I. Don't think that's an art that's arguable.
Speaker 1: Johnny Flynn, the Johnny Flynn thing is interesting because obviously
Speaker 1: he went before Steph Curry. The flaw on the Johnny
Speaker 1: Flynn thing is when we look back and say, well,
Speaker 1: Johnny Flynn sucked. I actually think I thought Johnny Flynn
Speaker 1: could have been the next Kevin Johnson, but he was
Speaker 1: drafted by the Timberwolves and put it into the triangle,
Speaker 1: and if you're a ball screen point guard, the triangle
Speaker 1: is not for you. Additionally, he had a devastating I
Speaker 1: think hip injury to which his career was shortened. Patty
Speaker 1: Mills would be the one guy that I probably overrated
Speaker 1: coming out, and he's been a really good pro, but
Speaker 1: I I thought he would be a little bit better.
Speaker 1: Initially took him a while and he figured it out
Speaker 1: and become kind of a life versus for But I
Speaker 1: would have thought. I thought Patty Mills was going to
Speaker 1: be a Jamal Crawford type, you know. I thought he
Speaker 1: would be a high double digit score off the bench
Speaker 1: um and Jeff t I think has had a really
Speaker 1: good career. He just hasn't been Steph Curry, so look
Speaker 1: ill knowingly admittedly a guy who I likened. I thought
Speaker 1: Steph Curry would have a Jeff hornessec like career. That's
Speaker 1: what I thought. I could play some point so very
Speaker 1: good too, very good shooter. I didn't think he was
Speaker 1: athletic enough to get into a defense, and I thought
Speaker 1: they had struggled to hide him defensively. And Horn was
Speaker 1: actually a pretty good defender back in the day, but
Speaker 1: it was it was different because you could grab guys,
Speaker 1: you could hand check them, you could hide things a
Speaker 1: little bit more, whereas nowadays he gets so spread out
Speaker 1: and you can't hand check, and everybody switches every screen.
Speaker 1: It's really hard to hide a guy. Um point being that,
Speaker 1: when I talk about Trey Young and I likened him
Speaker 1: to Steph Curry coming out, or how everybody wants to
Speaker 1: liken him to Steph Curry, there are some that'll be like, yo,
Speaker 1: you don't know who you talk about. You missed on
Speaker 1: Stephan Curry. And that's fair. It's fair. I didn't think
Speaker 1: he would be a two time m v P. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure anybody actually thought he would be a two
Speaker 1: time MVP, let alone a perennial All Star. But that's okay.
Speaker 1: I'll own that one as long as I'm allowed to
Speaker 1: own the fact that I didn't think Derrick Williams was
Speaker 1: a top ten, top fifteen pick when he came out
Speaker 1: of Arizona. You know, you go back and the hits
Speaker 1: are greater than the misses. So look, I've said I
Speaker 1: think Bagley should go one over eighton and I understand
Speaker 1: that you need big guys now, especially ones that can
Speaker 1: stay out in the floor in versatile lineups, one because
Speaker 1: he can shoot, and two because he can move his
Speaker 1: feet and defend. But I think Bagley is just a
Speaker 1: more versatile player offensively. And uh, he's a little bit younger.
Speaker 1: And no, he doesn't have the body right now of Eton,
Speaker 1: may never have the body of Aden, but there's still
Speaker 1: a little bit more physical development to take place. I'll
Speaker 1: put out a draft board as soon as the season
Speaker 1: is done, and I think it's interesting. But the thing
Speaker 1: about Trey is because his game is styled after Steph
Speaker 1: that when I tell you somebody's going to get fired
Speaker 1: drafting Trey Young, there will be a percentage of people
Speaker 1: who read the headline from this podcast and think, well,
Speaker 1: what does Gottlieb know he missed on Trey Young? Luck?
Speaker 1: All right, you go back to the draft, which had
Speaker 1: Chris Paul and Darren Williams, and I thought at the
Speaker 1: time the league was changing, evolving, and I thought that
Speaker 1: the draft should have the Atlanta Hawks for the Milwaukee
Speaker 1: Bucks should have taken Chris Paul Darry Williams one and two.
Speaker 1: So um, look again, I've I've missed on picks, missed
Speaker 1: on guys. The weird part about the Steph Curry one
Speaker 1: is remembers like, wow, you had them ready below Johnny
Speaker 1: Flynn and Ricky Rubio. Yes, so the Timberwolves obviously they
Speaker 1: missed um, but I didn't have Hashima beat going number
Speaker 1: two overall, and he becomes the biggest bust of that draft.
Speaker 1: Brandon Jennings went a couple of picks behind him, and
Speaker 1: Jennings I don't think ever developed into that player. I
Speaker 1: had drew Holiday higher than others. And what's become a
Speaker 1: guard dominant league. You sit there and you want to
Speaker 1: You watch Trey Young and you you want Trey Young
Speaker 1: to be Steph Curry, but he's not. He's not. Now
Speaker 1: this is really hard because Trey is only a freshman.
Speaker 1: Steph played three years before coming out and obviously had
Speaker 1: more refinement in his game. Remember Steph played the first
Speaker 1: two years off the basketball for the most part with
Speaker 1: Davidson and played the point guard his junior year, and
Speaker 1: that's when he blew up and had had the type
Speaker 1: of season we saw Trey half right, and he had
Speaker 1: you and four point seven rebounds and two point eight
Speaker 1: assists during his sophomore year. During his junior year, that's
Speaker 1: when he explode. That's when he had, you know, forty
Speaker 1: four in a loss to Oklahoma. That's when he had
Speaker 1: scored at least twenty five points in seven in straight games.
Speaker 1: You know, he averaged shot thirty eight percent from three
Speaker 1: percentages actually went down his junior year. So there's a
Speaker 1: couple of different layers to the Trey Young conversation. I
Speaker 1: think it's a mistake for him to come out. I
Speaker 1: think that he could develop. He could average as many
Speaker 1: or more points or fewer points, shoot a lower percentage overall,
Speaker 1: and still be as well or or better regarded. The
Speaker 1: first thing is defensively. Remember Trey Young is smaller than
Speaker 1: Steph Curry. He's smaller than Steph Curry. Step is a
Speaker 1: legit six three ish and he obviously had to add
Speaker 1: a ton of strength. And step is still a guy
Speaker 1: that they hied defensively. Now they hied him defensively because
Speaker 1: he's a better athlete than Trey. Trey could improve his athleticism.
Speaker 1: He's a little bit bigger than Trey. I don't think
Speaker 1: Trey is gonna grow anymore. But I wouldn't put it
Speaker 1: past anybody to squeeze out another half inch or an
Speaker 1: inch at this stage in his development, and he's a
Speaker 1: better finisher, although not the greatest finisher, but he's an
Speaker 1: incredible finisher at the rim for a guy his size
Speaker 1: and considering he's not a go in and dunk on
Speaker 1: you with two hands sort of guys. So there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of different layers to it. But Trade doesn't play
Speaker 1: any defense on the basketball. He's not really an active
Speaker 1: defender off the basketball, and the numbers in the second
Speaker 1: half of the season are really really bad when teams
Speaker 1: locked in on him and he is he's not a
Speaker 1: product necessarily as much of the system as much as
Speaker 1: he's a product of just dominating the basketball tray. Young
Speaker 1: for the year shot from three, that's not great, that's
Speaker 1: not great. But when you go and look at the
Speaker 1: player splits and you say, all right, in February he
Speaker 1: shot thirty six percent from three. Yikes. In March for
Speaker 1: three yikes. Look, once you get to February on and
Speaker 1: you're shooting mid twenties from three, when defenders are locking
Speaker 1: in on you and your averages plummet from thirty a
Speaker 1: game to game in the last two months of the season.
Speaker 1: That's not the kind of progression. And so I understand
Speaker 1: why Ray Young, his dad is having him go from
Speaker 1: being a collegiate player just one season go pro. You
Speaker 1: know your name is hot now, But I don't think
Speaker 1: his name would cool off. I really don't, especially if
Speaker 1: he refines his all around game in order for Tray
Speaker 1: to be Tray. He's not a blended guy. He's not
Speaker 1: a guy you can just say, Hey, you know, I
Speaker 1: want you to blend in. I want you to play
Speaker 1: against better competition for a shorter period of time and
Speaker 1: be more efficient to come off the bench. If you're
Speaker 1: gonna drave him in a lottery, you're gonna want to
Speaker 1: start him at some point. And I just think this
Speaker 1: is going to be bad. I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: more gimmer to him then there is step to him.
Speaker 1: He's not the athlete stuff is. He's not, at least
Speaker 1: at this point, the shooter that stuff is. He's a
Speaker 1: he's a good passer. He might be as natural a
Speaker 1: pastor as Steff is. He's a lot more he's he's
Speaker 1: very right hand dominant. Of course, a lot of that
Speaker 1: can be worked out, and he can be made to
Speaker 1: be a better athlete, although I'm not sure Love be
Speaker 1: a great athlete. So I think because of expectations, the
Speaker 1: attention that will be paid to him, the amount of
Speaker 1: time he has to have the basketball in his hands
Speaker 1: in order to be effective, I think it's more probable
Speaker 1: than not that there's some early struggles in his career
Speaker 1: and that will cause whoever drafts him, they'll draft him
Speaker 1: higher than he should be drafted because of his name. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe he goes to a place like Orlando and we
Speaker 1: don't pay attention to him for his first couple of
Speaker 1: years and he develops into a good pro. But I
Speaker 1: can think of a ten to twelve guys to which
Speaker 1: I'm absolutely positively sure will be pros and be six
Speaker 1: men two starters in this league that I would take
Speaker 1: ahead of him, and then I have a group of
Speaker 1: ten or twelve others that I think fit in better
Speaker 1: as role players. So, uh, look, I've never been a
Speaker 1: huge Michael Porter guy, but I think he'll go somewhere
Speaker 1: six through ten. Mo Bamba. I don't think there's any
Speaker 1: way in which you pass on Mobamba because of the
Speaker 1: upside with the length and the way basketball is being played.
Speaker 1: It's a little surprising to me that he didn't have
Speaker 1: a better year that Texas hasn't been a little bit
Speaker 1: better since since Shaka took over. Although one of the
Speaker 1: big issues with Shaka is, you know, he's always played
Speaker 1: with undersized guys, with guys that were lightly recruited, guys
Speaker 1: that were tougher than a two dollar steak. You get
Speaker 1: to Texas and they get these regal big guys. Well,
Speaker 1: it's you can't play havoc when you have, you know,
Speaker 1: a six ft nine Dylanosikowski and a seven ft Mo Bamba,
Speaker 1: like that's really hard to pick up and play. And
Speaker 1: he has to had depth of ards, but he just
Speaker 1: doesn't have the junkyard dogs he had previously. And it's
Speaker 1: gonna be fascinating to see how Texas does he kind
Speaker 1: of refocus his recruiting instead of going after top fifty,
Speaker 1: top twenty five guys. Does he just go and get
Speaker 1: the best athletes in the state of Texas and gets
Speaker 1: after it and and plays havoc or does he try
Speaker 1: and refine his style which is what he's he's seemingly
Speaker 1: done and coaching away in which he hasn't coached since
Speaker 1: becoming a head coach. But I think obviously bomba eighton
Speaker 1: Luka done and then my personal favorite, Marvin Bagley. Those
Speaker 1: are the guys that are going to fill out the
Speaker 1: top five, along with Colin Sexton, who undoubtedly to me
Speaker 1: is the first point guard off the board. He's he
Speaker 1: can play both ends defensively, offensively. He's not the pastor
Speaker 1: of Steph Curry. He's not the pastor Trey Young. You're
Speaker 1: not the shooter shotmaker of Trey. But even though so,
Speaker 1: shooting is held in incredibly high regard at the NBA level,
Speaker 1: you also have to be able to get off your shot.
Speaker 1: You have to be able to guard your position, you
Speaker 1: have to be able to switch on to bigger players.
Speaker 1: With that in mind, let's get to some of our
Speaker 1: special guests who join us now on All Ball. Let's
Speaker 1: welcome in CBS Sports College Basketball's and former head coach
Speaker 1: of Villanova Manhattan U mask Uh Steve Lappas joins us
Speaker 1: here on All Ball, the Doug Gottlieb Podcast, Just Talking
Speaker 1: Basketball Lap. You were in Nashville, incredible site, unbelievable games,
Speaker 1: and on Sunday you had two I don't know if
Speaker 1: you call them comebacks or choke jobs. I guess depends
Speaker 1: on what side. Uh. Let's let's start with Cincinnati um,
Speaker 1: Cincinnati a twenty two point lead. That's a choke job
Speaker 1: more than a comeback. I guess you were there. It's
Speaker 1: so much different when you're there. What happened? You know what?
Speaker 1: It's one of those games, I'm telling you. With eleven
Speaker 1: minutes to go, we were on a TV break and
Speaker 1: I told Caline, so this thing is so over. I
Speaker 1: can't tell you. The body language of the VATA was bad.
Speaker 1: They just picked up technical files. They were a complete mess.
Speaker 1: They only had five guys. Uh. Caleb Martin's ankle was
Speaker 1: sorry at his sneak. I'm like, this thing is over,
Speaker 1: and I gotta tell you, I have no idea. You
Speaker 1: know a lot of a lot of types of the
Speaker 1: points of one thing in a game. I couldn't point
Speaker 1: to one thing to say how this thing started. But
Speaker 1: I will say this, with five minutes to go in
Speaker 1: the game, when Jared Cumberland picked up his fourth and
Speaker 1: Mick Cronan kept him in the game and he found
Speaker 1: out like thirty seconds later, that's when they were ubated.
Speaker 1: At that point, so it had started to turn on
Speaker 1: no questions, but that's when it really turned. And you
Speaker 1: know the stuff, You've seen it many times when the
Speaker 1: team is especially how the higher seeded team starts to
Speaker 1: go south and an NTA tournament game, it's hard to stop.
Speaker 1: And they definitely panicked at the end, no doubt. No,
Speaker 1: the Cumberland fouled out. And and here's what I pointed
Speaker 1: out watching the a C Championship game in person. I
Speaker 1: was calling the radio and I said, like, they really
Speaker 1: only have four guys, you know, they try and hide
Speaker 1: the fact that don't really have a point guard, that
Speaker 1: Justin Jennifer can't score, and Kane Broom's really kind of
Speaker 1: more of a mid major low major kid, you know.
Speaker 1: And and so they're they're top four guys are really good,
Speaker 1: and then they hide the fact that I'm a point guard.
Speaker 1: They have no backup. Biggs. You had an experience like
Speaker 1: this one, didn't you in the n c A tournament. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but not not. We never had a leg like this.
Speaker 1: In other words, we were you know, we we had
Speaker 1: a couple of games in the n c A tournament,
Speaker 1: like with Old Dominion in particularly, we were up five
Speaker 1: six the whole game and at the end point ended
Speaker 1: up losing the game. So we but we I felt
Speaker 1: the pressure, There's no question you feel the pressure if
Speaker 1: you're if you're a two seed and you're playing with
Speaker 1: team that's an eight, nine ten eleven Sea and you're
Speaker 1: five per four minutes ago, you feel the pressure. And
Speaker 1: uh so we never had a big league like that,
Speaker 1: but you definitely know that there's Keith, no question. All right,
Speaker 1: let's go to Xavier. Xavier wasn't up twenty two. They
Speaker 1: were up twelve um in the second part of the
Speaker 1: second half. What went so wrong for x You of them,
Speaker 1: I felt different about it. I felt like they were
Speaker 1: in control, but I didn't think like that it was
Speaker 1: over and I think we we're What what went wrong
Speaker 1: for them is they can and I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've had a chance to see Foreign State live, see
Speaker 1: them live, Like you say, look at these guys. I
Speaker 1: mean athletic, big, strong guys that can make plays, guys
Speaker 1: that can get into you defensively for But the problem
Speaker 1: for them is they didn't do it for a long
Speaker 1: period of time, but they certainly could do it for
Speaker 1: five minutes. And that's what they did in that game.
Speaker 1: They got into Xavier for five minutes was what happened
Speaker 1: to be the last five minutes of the game, and
Speaker 1: they were with near shot, and that was the thing
Speaker 1: about them. You know, they were close enough where if
Speaker 1: they could put on one of their great spurts that
Speaker 1: they're capable of, that they could win the game. And
Speaker 1: that's what they did the last five minutes of the game,
Speaker 1: six minutes. Xavier, who was one of the best offensive
Speaker 1: teams all a year, was awful. And I think Trade
Speaker 1: barn Blewett is a good player. I think he got
Speaker 1: exposed a little bit. And I don't think if everydy
Speaker 1: talked about guaranteed NBA guy whatever, he couldn't. He can't
Speaker 1: create his own shot. He's not a great athlete, and
Speaker 1: I think that Florida's State really exposed that a little bit.
Speaker 1: And then you know, mature, filled out and mature regally.
Speaker 1: He's their best player in terms of being able to
Speaker 1: do something on his own, especially in transition. So I
Speaker 1: think that you know, again the floodgates open, but that
Speaker 1: Florida State team they can play defense when they want
Speaker 1: to know, no question, they're they're one of the great
Speaker 1: airport teams. You see in the airport, You're like, man,
Speaker 1: who are those beautiful who are those guys? A couple
Speaker 1: a couple of quick ones, um as I know you're
Speaker 1: going to getting ready to call the Division two National Championship.
Speaker 1: You saw Texas in person, what's your impression of Mo Bamba? Ah,
Speaker 1: he's very raw offensively, he's very weak. Uh So he's
Speaker 1: got a lot of work to do on his body.
Speaker 1: He's got a work, a lot of work to do
Speaker 1: on his offensive game. And you know, like I used
Speaker 1: to tell my big guys, you can't if you want to.
Speaker 1: If you want to get eight ten shots in the game,
Speaker 1: he's gotta post up forty times, which means you almost
Speaker 1: have to try to get the bad every possession in
Speaker 1: a game if you want to get yourself sixteen points.
Speaker 1: So if there's a play where the balls on this
Speaker 1: side of the floor and you decided to stand on
Speaker 1: the other side of the floor and not work hard
Speaker 1: and duck in and post, guess what, you're not gonna
Speaker 1: get what you want. And that's what I saw bomb By.
Speaker 1: I called it out of times in the game that
Speaker 1: there were many many times in the game where he
Speaker 1: didn't even try to pos stuff. So he's kind of
Speaker 1: a lot of work to do in terms of playing
Speaker 1: harder in my opinion, And he's got a lot of
Speaker 1: work to go on his body physically because he's weak
Speaker 1: right now. He's got Is he talented, yes? Is this
Speaker 1: guy potentially can he be a really good player at
Speaker 1: the next level, Yes, but he's not there right now.
Speaker 1: He will get man handed the next year. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: why hasn't it hit yet for uh? For that coaching staff, well,
Speaker 1: I think they had a little harder luck this year
Speaker 1: when you think about well, the hard luck was more
Speaker 1: what happens to for Andrew Jones before the kids got leukemia.
Speaker 1: So you hate to say because you're you're more concerned
Speaker 1: about him and his sickness that you are about the team.
Speaker 1: But if you're gonna look at that part, not having
Speaker 1: Andrew Jones really hurt with their second leading scorer all year. Uh,
Speaker 1: and then the what happened at the end of the
Speaker 1: year with the kid Eric Davis not being eligible because
Speaker 1: of all the stuff that came out about potential agents
Speaker 1: and stuff. So and I and I also think Shaka
Speaker 1: made his bones playing that style, and I guess he
Speaker 1: has found that he can't play that style at this level.
Speaker 1: So I think there's an adjustment their style wise. But
Speaker 1: I also think he had some tough luck this year.
Speaker 1: But more I'm more concerned about Andrew Jones's health than
Speaker 1: about what it did to the Shaka's team. But if
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about it, it definitely hurt the team,
Speaker 1: no question. You have a suspension of one of your
Speaker 1: one of your wing players, and then you lose another
Speaker 1: one to to leukemia. That's that's that's totally fair. Um,
Speaker 1: you and I have both said, man, Villanova shoots too
Speaker 1: many threes, and yet gosh, they made a bunch of
Speaker 1: threes in their second in their second round win. We
Speaker 1: look at how the tournament is kind of sha changing
Speaker 1: and evolving in the brackets are opening up. Has this
Speaker 1: become their tournament to win? I don't think there's any question.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you they're gonna have a tough time this week.
Speaker 1: But but you know, Bob Hogan's I think he's gonna
Speaker 1: have to make an adjustice. He's gonna come out and
Speaker 1: press these guys big broke and uh and and not
Speaker 1: because of Jalen Bronx. Yeah. The thing that beats pressure,
Speaker 1: as you know, is having guys to throw the ball
Speaker 1: up the court too. When you get doubled in the
Speaker 1: back court. That's the thing that hurts pressure and Villanova
Speaker 1: has too many playmakers up there. But getting back to
Speaker 1: what he says, absolutely the way they're playing right now,
Speaker 1: and you know what, let's say this, Yes they made up.
Speaker 1: They made a ton of three has been against Alabama.
Speaker 1: You know what I was most impressed with. But I
Speaker 1: thought their hair court defense was tremendous in that game.
Speaker 1: I think they're getting better defense foot lap. Great stuff.
Speaker 1: As always, get on your plane and thanks much for
Speaker 1: jus on all. Chris Beer joins us on the Doug
Speaker 1: Gottli Show. Christ how are you doing good? Dog? Good?
Speaker 1: Hear your voice man like likewise, Um, what's this been
Speaker 1: like this year as opposed to the Arkansas? A little
Speaker 1: good question. Um, you know, every journey is different, every
Speaker 1: team is different. Uh. The common thing is just so
Speaker 1: like happy just to be still hooping. You know that
Speaker 1: sixteen teams left and we get to practice today. We
Speaker 1: get to be around our guys like at the core
Speaker 1: of it, you know, like that that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1: And I know it's such a big deal, but the
Speaker 1: bottom lineage you get to play again, you get to
Speaker 1: practice again, you get to you know, get on your
Speaker 1: guys one more time. It's fun to play in Dallas
Speaker 1: in front of so many alums, but to play such
Speaker 1: a hard fought game in round one. What what was
Speaker 1: it like to come out and play Florida in the
Speaker 1: second round. He know, it's a lot, a lot, a
Speaker 1: lot like back to backs in the Big Twelve. Um,
Speaker 1: we thought Stephen f Austin was a like like a
Speaker 1: Big twelve team. I would agree with you. Uh, they're
Speaker 1: really good. And it's not just about this team, it's
Speaker 1: about the tradition. And you know, there was guys on
Speaker 1: the court there that had won in SA tournament games.
Speaker 1: We don't have anybody on our team that it one
Speaker 1: an into a tournament game. So um, I thought that
Speaker 1: game actually helped us bet Florida. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: know if we win the second game if we don't
Speaker 1: have a really tough game in the first one. And
Speaker 1: basically the Stephen Foston game, I would agree that it
Speaker 1: was like a one possession game. So it was Perdue's waiting.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure the last team Perdue ever wants to
Speaker 1: see is when you coach, because that was when you
Speaker 1: were in Arkansas, Little Rock, that was the team that
Speaker 1: you took down. I know there you know there's a
Speaker 1: lot of similar pieces, right that the seniors were all
Speaker 1: on that team. How much of what you want to
Speaker 1: do is in any way similar to what you want
Speaker 1: to do last time he took one. Uh yeah, definitely
Speaker 1: similarities to me, because produce is gonna be, you know,
Speaker 1: a team that has great size and great bigs and
Speaker 1: whether Hose plays or not, which I think you will,
Speaker 1: you know we're gonna have to figure out a way
Speaker 1: to contend with that, both on offense and defense. I
Speaker 1: think to two different games. Though. I don't think anybody
Speaker 1: Indiana scared of me, but you know, I'm glad. I
Speaker 1: think they're glad that Josh Hagen's Roger Woods aren't gonna
Speaker 1: be playing plus Um, but you know I won't score
Speaker 1: basket Friday night, but um, you know our players have
Speaker 1: to do that. But I think, you know, all these
Speaker 1: games in the tournament or all have little subplots and
Speaker 1: cool things and stuff, and I think this is just
Speaker 1: another example. But we've had so much respect for Matt Painter.
Speaker 1: I mean, I tell people that's all the time. It's
Speaker 1: very easy for me to describe Matt like he's the
Speaker 1: exact same guy today. To me, that he was when
Speaker 1: he was an assistant in southern Illinois. You know, like
Speaker 1: we were drinking draft beer in the back of some
Speaker 1: bar now, you know, I mean, I guess it's Heineken
Speaker 1: now and in the front bar. But he's still the
Speaker 1: same guy. And he's been unbelievable to me. And then
Speaker 1: I tell guys to like, you know, your true character
Speaker 1: comes out in adversity and all that that's true. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's such an accurate statement. And when we were fortunate
Speaker 1: enough at Little Rock to win that game, I mean,
Speaker 1: let's be honest, we got lucky down the stretch. We
Speaker 1: were really fortunate that thing had to go exactly the
Speaker 1: way it did for us to win. He talked about
Speaker 1: a great this guy. I mean, like I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1: Like when you go to the press conference after the game,
Speaker 1: the tournament is a holding area, and so we got
Speaker 1: we literally crossed again, and Matt's like the same and
Speaker 1: he's just like the same guy that congratulated me, took
Speaker 1: time out to talk to our guys, Hagan's and Roger.
Speaker 1: I've had so much respect for him on the basketball
Speaker 1: side and also as a person. You know, there's I
Speaker 1: think there's complicting narratives, Chris. I think there's a narrative
Speaker 1: from people in my business that cover the sport and fans,
Speaker 1: and there's a narrative kind of inside the sports. There's
Speaker 1: all this talk about about guys that do it the
Speaker 1: wrong way, and for whatever reason, there's not enough I
Speaker 1: don't know, affirmation of the success for guys that do
Speaker 1: it the right way. You know, Like, look when you
Speaker 1: it's almost like the it's like professional lawyer, Like there's
Speaker 1: there's millions of really good lawyers out there. But when
Speaker 1: you say like you're a lawyer, like, uh, you just
Speaker 1: say you're a basketball coach. Al right, Like because of
Speaker 1: because of the scandal that has kind of put a
Speaker 1: cloud over the sport, it feels like suddenly that becomes
Speaker 1: a bad word. But I look at your growth as
Speaker 1: a professional from Incarnent Word to Abilene Christian to North
Speaker 1: Texas to Fort Scott to Seminal State to McMurray to
Speaker 1: Angelo State, two Little Rock Uh to Tech, and I'm like, look,
Speaker 1: this is what the sport is about. Do it the
Speaker 1: right way. Coach ball, get guys to play hard, win
Speaker 1: games and have a cold beer afterwards and tell stories
Speaker 1: about it, Right, like what what's your sense of the
Speaker 1: conflicting narratives in how the sport is viewed and how
Speaker 1: the sport is actually practiced. Yeah, well stated verbalize that perfect.
Speaker 1: I think you know what they it comes to minds.
Speaker 1: I think, like you know, its controversy and like spicy
Speaker 1: stuff is what sells and not the good articles. But
Speaker 1: it's also just like a pureness to like, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of the good parts of our game. And
Speaker 1: like my girlfriend Randy, she watches a lot of these
Speaker 1: like uh reality shows, and like i'd be lying to
Speaker 1: you if I didn't tell you. Sometimes I'll sit down
Speaker 1: and kind of it engaged room, like the housewives and stuff.
Speaker 1: And if you look on there, I mean every one
Speaker 1: of those uh women have something going on. I mean
Speaker 1: none of them are just like happily married. Everything's rocking around.
Speaker 1: I mean it's like, you know, it's like just like
Speaker 1: the spicy stuff sells, you know, the stuff is kind
Speaker 1: of on the dark side. That's what people kind of
Speaker 1: it's what entertains people. But I would agree with you
Speaker 1: to me, like I'd like to watch the reality show
Speaker 1: of like a couple of people that are married and
Speaker 1: doing it the right way and you know, because I
Speaker 1: think there's beauty and that too. I mean, like for me,
Speaker 1: that's where real happiness comes from. And I would tell
Speaker 1: you that in basketball too. I mean to me, I've
Speaker 1: been on all sides of it, you know, like I've
Speaker 1: been like a junior college coach. I saw everybody coming
Speaker 1: and recruit our players. Now I've competed at all these
Speaker 1: different levels, and I'm telling you that most guys are
Speaker 1: doing it right. I mean, most of us are out
Speaker 1: there trying to, you know, get it done. I mean,
Speaker 1: um and and I put produced program right there, like
Speaker 1: Matt Painter recruited our players and we've recruited against him.
Speaker 1: Um and so I would tell you that he's one
Speaker 1: of the best coaches in our game, that that just
Speaker 1: does everything everything right. Keen Evans is an absolute star.
Speaker 1: He's had an incredible season. Obviously, you inherited him from
Speaker 1: from Tubby staff. Uh what about him from a guy
Speaker 1: who watches him every day, watches every tape, coaches every game.
Speaker 1: What about Keen Evans impresses even you? Probably the consistency, um.
Speaker 1: You know, he's always been a talented guy, um, but
Speaker 1: certainly last year to get himself in the category as
Speaker 1: a junior, where's an All Big twelve player? To me,
Speaker 1: that equals consistency. Like just the other day when I
Speaker 1: had the ballots in front of me and you're trying
Speaker 1: to pick the players, every one of them is a
Speaker 1: all conference talent. So what I do is I blot
Speaker 1: the stat sheets and I start really thinking about it,
Speaker 1: and I just look at consistency um. You know, Like
Speaker 1: to me, way to Kansas State was an All conference
Speaker 1: player in our league because how consistent he is. There's
Speaker 1: other guys as talent his way, but Way, to me,
Speaker 1: he's a first team All Conference guy because as it is,
Speaker 1: consistency um. And I would say the same thing with Keenan,
Speaker 1: Like what he's been able to do now this year.
Speaker 1: He's getting the best team's defender, he's getting game plans,
Speaker 1: but he's still you know, he's able to make plays
Speaker 1: on both ends the floor. And and to me, ultimately,
Speaker 1: you know, I've never been in the NBA, and I
Speaker 1: hope bill, but I would I would assume the consistency
Speaker 1: is a big, big part of it too, with an
Speaker 1: eighty something game season, And to me, that's why I
Speaker 1: think Keenan Evans is an NBA player you know that
Speaker 1: there's your story. At some point, your storyould be a
Speaker 1: great like thirty for thirty right because you were going
Speaker 1: to be the coach at UNLV. Then the Texas Tech
Speaker 1: thing came open. And for people who don't know, you know,
Speaker 1: you're divorced out of three girls and they live now
Speaker 1: driving distance away from Texas Tech. It just kind of
Speaker 1: this is this is like one for you for now.
Speaker 1: Texas Tech isn't a destination job for a lot of
Speaker 1: people on Earth, but for you, it absolutely is. It
Speaker 1: makes it different to to achieve success and maybe sustainable
Speaker 1: success at tech for you? Is that that that fair? Yeah? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: I think, uh, you know, like there's different programs and
Speaker 1: players and coaches having success right now, and I think
Speaker 1: that success will lead places in different directions and human
Speaker 1: beings in different directions. For us, we just want this
Speaker 1: to set success to continue to lead us to that
Speaker 1: last Monday night and certainly this year that would be
Speaker 1: awesome and everything has to go right for something like
Speaker 1: that to happen. But hey, you know, we got a chance.
Speaker 1: We're want of sixteen teams left. We'll take our odds,
Speaker 1: but ultimately want the success that we have this year
Speaker 1: to kind of spring borders to the next year in
Speaker 1: the year after, and you know, it's about recruiting. At
Speaker 1: this level, it's about players, and then ultimately it's just
Speaker 1: about you. I think it's about tradition to it's like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we just want to be one of those
Speaker 1: teams it's not known for the Sweet sixteen several years ago.
Speaker 1: We want to be a team that you know, gets
Speaker 1: to this point. Like I told the guys this morning,
Speaker 1: like you know, they're not having a party right now
Speaker 1: in Lawrence, Kansas, or in Durham, North Carolina, or in Lexington, Kentucky,
Speaker 1: because they're in the Sweet sixteen. You know, they're getting
Speaker 1: prepared for the next game. Their parties happened at the
Speaker 1: Final four. So you know, as much as we all
Speaker 1: kind of want to have a little moment right now,
Speaker 1: I mean, let's let's keep this thing rolling and then
Speaker 1: we'll see if we can't, you know, get ourselves in
Speaker 1: the class of those kinds of schools. That's what we
Speaker 1: want to do. We want to be just like Keenan
Speaker 1: Evans has become consistent. We want to be consistent with
Speaker 1: our program. But how do you do that. I talked
Speaker 1: with Matt Painter about this, and I actually talked with
Speaker 1: Jay right both on this show about it and that
Speaker 1: j when he went to the Final four the first time,
Speaker 1: he said, look what we got into homes we couldn't
Speaker 1: get into We had the top recruiting class in the country,
Speaker 1: but all of a sudden, we weren't getting our type
Speaker 1: of guys. Matt Painter said the same thing. You go
Speaker 1: back a couple of years ago when they struggled, they
Speaker 1: you know, they had to get their type of guys,
Speaker 1: and they've refocused and that's how they've they've gotten so good.
Speaker 1: How do you balance the fact that because now Texas
Speaker 1: Tech is back on the national map and you know,
Speaker 1: you look, you got two stud freshmen, But how do
Speaker 1: you continue to get your type of guys even if
Speaker 1: you can get maybe higher, higher rated recruits. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think to yourself, and we'll always be that here and
Speaker 1: getting guys you know, the love basketball. I want to be.
Speaker 1: Oh don't want to play team basketball, but certainly to
Speaker 1: get in that next, you know kind of category of
Speaker 1: players like we like we did with Zaire and Jared Cooler. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not I'm not complaining about that. We
Speaker 1: want to coach the best players, but we always want
Speaker 1: to get guys that fit our culture too, And I
Speaker 1: think that exists because I, you know, again kind of
Speaker 1: what we're talking about earlier with the you know, the
Speaker 1: kind of the controversy seals um. You know, obviously, I
Speaker 1: think in the top Hunter top deal, you're gonna get
Speaker 1: your guys that are kind of looking for more of
Speaker 1: a me situation. And maybe I'm naive, like maybe I
Speaker 1: don't know, but I still think the majority of guys
Speaker 1: want to be coached. The majority guys want to be
Speaker 1: on good teams. The majority guys want to play unselfish basketball.
Speaker 1: And I really believe that, and I think it the
Speaker 1: best players that I've coached. You know, andre Emmett was
Speaker 1: an NBA players other him is one of the best
Speaker 1: team players I've ever been around. Great teammate. We had
Speaker 1: Marshall Henderson here in Texas Tech. I recruited him and
Speaker 1: he was sitting out here and then when we got fired,
Speaker 1: he transferred. But you know, with everything with Marshall Henderson,
Speaker 1: I promise you this, he was a great team He
Speaker 1: wanted to be coached, and I'm sure Annie Kennedy would
Speaker 1: tell you the same thing. So we're looking forward and
Speaker 1: we're enjoying recruiting success right now because of our team success.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, we'll always be
Speaker 1: who we are and get guys that fit all right.
Speaker 1: Last thing, if you have that Final four party, okay,
Speaker 1: that means you get to the Final four. Now we
Speaker 1: can have a celebration. What what what local establishment in
Speaker 1: Lubbock would you call the watering hole of choice of
Speaker 1: Chris Pierre. Well, first we got to hang out in
Speaker 1: San Antonio on the way home for that. When we're
Speaker 1: gonna go to the Minger Hotel, the Minger Bar in Hotel.
Speaker 1: Gary P. Nunn has got a song about it tradition.
Speaker 1: It's it's a big time google that one entertain you. Uh.
Speaker 1: Then when we get back to Lubbock, you know, again,
Speaker 1: although we'll probably be getting invites from all the people,
Speaker 1: we gotta stay true to ourselves. Um, we gotta go
Speaker 1: over to four where we've been doing some postgame Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, situations with our team this year, and the
Speaker 1: guys over the Lantern have been great to me. It's
Speaker 1: where I eat late at night. Um. And then there
Speaker 1: might be another one or two, but just kind of
Speaker 1: hesitates starting to mention and you know then you pist.
Speaker 1: Somebody go yeah, I understand, and and are you Heineken?
Speaker 1: Now like really did you go? Do you go Heineken
Speaker 1: on me? I would say a painter might be not me?
Speaker 1: Not me? You are what well? I mean above BA Like,
Speaker 1: if I have a choice between a draft beer and
Speaker 1: a bottle, I'm going to draft. It's just me Chris
Speaker 1: Pier draft beer at four Love of Texas Minger Hotel
Speaker 1: in San in San Antonio. Hopefully we'll we'll have that
Speaker 1: beer in San Antonio with you guys playing there. Uh.
Speaker 1: Safe travels to um to Boston. I know, I know
Speaker 1: Boston not necessarily normally your cup of tea. But good
Speaker 1: people up there up above the Mason Dixon. We'll talk
Speaker 1: to it. Okay, Welcome to my brother Greg. Greg Gottlieb
Speaker 1: is an assistant head coach assistant. Greg gotliber is an
Speaker 1: assistant coach at Oregon State. He's previously been at cal
Speaker 1: Berkeley for six years. Was at Sandy State for eight years?
Speaker 1: Was that sack State for two years? Was it cow
Speaker 1: Poli saying it's subissful? For two years? I can't hold
Speaker 1: on to a job at this damn problem anyway, he
Speaker 1: joins us, What up, dude? How goes it? It goes? Well?
Speaker 1: All right, here's what I want in terms of your insight.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to defend the honor of the Pack twelve. Uh,
Speaker 1: You're going to have to give me your honest assessment
Speaker 1: of the little things that you've seen in the n
Speaker 1: c A tournament from a completely inside the actual sport
Speaker 1: perspective that the rest of us that just cover the
Speaker 1: sport or fans think they know about the sport. And
Speaker 1: then I want to talk about how recruiting actually works.
Speaker 1: All right, So that's kind of the premise of of
Speaker 1: you entering joining us here on all ball. Let's start
Speaker 1: with the Pack twelve. What went so wrong for the
Speaker 1: for the league? Well, um, good question. You know, I
Speaker 1: think you know that I've been in the league now
Speaker 1: for eleven years. I've seen I've seen it at its
Speaker 1: at best and you know at what it's quote unquote
Speaker 1: or so, what I can tell you is, really the
Speaker 1: games are hard to win, no matter how good the
Speaker 1: perception is of the league. Um, last year the league
Speaker 1: was considered really good, but really there was four teams
Speaker 1: at the bottom that really struggled and everybody at the
Speaker 1: top was they were able to beat him some now
Speaker 1: side you get separation. That's what you really need in
Speaker 1: the league as you need separation. Um. I also think
Speaker 1: in our league, if you look historically speaking, we have
Speaker 1: we have more teams and how guys move on to
Speaker 1: the NBA than any other league in the country. So
Speaker 1: now you're you're talking about a lot of young teams
Speaker 1: early on in preseason only that's when you seem to
Speaker 1: get judged the most. You can't really do a whole
Speaker 1: lot of tang hole file in the league. It's kind
Speaker 1: of already set. Yeah, And part of it is I
Speaker 1: think there's a success assumption that only the top teams
Speaker 1: deal with guys thinking about moving on. But the truth
Speaker 1: is that like, look, you guys, you should have been
Speaker 1: better than five when you were sixteen and sixteen. Is
Speaker 1: that your final record? I think yeah. And you guys
Speaker 1: lead I think all but one game in the second half.
Speaker 1: You lead all but one game in the Pact twelve
Speaker 1: of and even the one the ones once you lost.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're I think you're better than your record.
Speaker 1: Just struggle to close games. But even with your team,
Speaker 1: there's the there are guys that are thinking about, you know,
Speaker 1: can I get to the NBA Draft? Whereas I think
Speaker 1: the perception is you only deal with that in Kentucky
Speaker 1: or Caroline or Duke or Arizona, et cetera, as opposed
Speaker 1: to in fact is every team is actually dealing with
Speaker 1: it to a certain extent. Fair, no question, There's no
Speaker 1: question about that. There's you know, kids forget that there's
Speaker 1: only sixty draft spots and they're going to take something
Speaker 1: from overseas. And when you mentioned you know of a
Speaker 1: kid who you know is a really good player doesn't
Speaker 1: make it, they always think they're going to be the exception,
Speaker 1: not the rule. My brother Greg, Greg got Lee from
Speaker 1: Oregon State joining us here on the All Ball Podcast. Um,
Speaker 1: how surprised were you to see Arizona go down? Maybe
Speaker 1: not just lose, but the way in which they lost. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously I was surprised. I would have picked
Speaker 1: Arizona to win. I think they got a heck of
Speaker 1: a team. Um, you know we lost to him, uh
Speaker 1: twice this year at their place. I think we were
Speaker 1: up five was five minutes ago and lost and then
Speaker 1: we lost it over time at home. You know, as
Speaker 1: has proven They're not the only team that you know,
Speaker 1: we got to one seeds that are out right. You
Speaker 1: know it can happen the Syracuse film. You've seen it
Speaker 1: regular season. I remember you guys, Um, you were down
Speaker 1: a guy, but you got stopped pretty good in New
Speaker 1: York City. Uh, a couple years later you played there.
Speaker 1: When you're a cow. What's the right way to beat it? Well,
Speaker 1: I think the first thing is, Um, you know, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to make some adjustments because when you you're
Speaker 1: gonna put together a game plan for what you want
Speaker 1: to do. But you can't duplicate the fact that they
Speaker 1: have so much length and athleticism. And I think you've
Speaker 1: talked about that before. You know, are recruiting to have
Speaker 1: those kind of guys, especially on the back line there,
Speaker 1: and but I just did anyone talks about playing through
Speaker 1: the high post, uh, where we usually had success. When
Speaker 1: you're playing through the high post, is uh put a
Speaker 1: guy in there who not only can shoot the ball there,
Speaker 1: but he's gotta be able to attack and finish at
Speaker 1: the rim. And when you start doing that, they'll collapse
Speaker 1: the other front court players and then you gotta you
Speaker 1: gotta relocate your shooters so into the corners and then
Speaker 1: really get the defense stretched out. The other thing people
Speaker 1: have done a lot of is running a little more
Speaker 1: of a two guard front. Traditionally, the traditional school of
Speaker 1: thought as if people defensively they go with the two
Speaker 1: guard front, you go with on one man front and
Speaker 1: vice versa. But in this scenario, I think it kind
Speaker 1: of sometimes UM gets them playing almost in a matched
Speaker 1: up man then. So those are some things we've done
Speaker 1: in the past, but we never beat Syracuse. Uh. We
Speaker 1: had a lot. We had some competitive games, but we
Speaker 1: never could beat them. And we had some really good
Speaker 1: games with Washington. We were two and one against Washington,
Speaker 1: but they were all barn Burners. The two games we won,
Speaker 1: we're in both in overtime and then we go on
Speaker 1: to fight two at their place. So a lot of
Speaker 1: respect for them, and I think it's a great uh
Speaker 1: because it forces a lot of teams. So you've got
Speaker 1: to come up with something that you don't normally do offensively.
Speaker 1: You can't can't do what you've been doing for thirty games. UM.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about Tony Bennett. Um like
Speaker 1: a coach to coach. You watch what he's done at
Speaker 1: Virginia you know what he did at Wazoo. You know
Speaker 1: that style so well? Uh? Is that pace of play?
Speaker 1: Is the way in which Virginia plays is that ultimately
Speaker 1: flawed and will keep them from winning it all? You know,
Speaker 1: it's funny. Uh. First thing I would say is the
Speaker 1: coke analogy. You know. I mean, if you're Tony Bennett,
Speaker 1: you know poke, you know why why do you need
Speaker 1: to do coke working? You know? I mean I think
Speaker 1: you're looking at the teams that you're talking about that
Speaker 1: you gotta be they're beating in league play, and those
Speaker 1: game to me harder to win then conference tournament games generally.
Speaker 1: I mean, then nt A tournament games just because they
Speaker 1: know you're their personnel so well, they know each other
Speaker 1: so well, those are hard games to win. Um, And
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty effective. I would I would say,
Speaker 1: you know, U M b uh, you see played phenomenal.
Speaker 1: They got a little bit of a lightning in a
Speaker 1: bottle as well. You know, I just think they kind
Speaker 1: of broke the game open by hitting a bunch of threes. Uh,
Speaker 1: and that really changed the game. Okay, I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you about about recruiting. This also is probably just
Speaker 1: one other thing Yeah, it's also possible that maybe the
Speaker 1: reason that they're a sixteen seed be to one was
Speaker 1: because maybe they weren't a sixteen seed. Is that possible.
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe they were worthy of a thirteen or
Speaker 1: fourteen or even a fifteen, but maybe they weren't really
Speaker 1: a sixteen and and that might be the one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why the first time I went off to
Speaker 1: the sixteen. You know, but Ford Atlantic, Afflorida National flori
Speaker 1: Atlantic beat us in our place. We had an that's
Speaker 1: a much bigger upset, by the way than here. Only
Speaker 1: only give people for people don't know we had We
Speaker 1: won eighty one consecutive nonconference home games these are guarantee games,
Speaker 1: and played Florid Atlantic. They won five or six games.
Speaker 1: There's actually it's actually I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 1: They won five or six games that year. This is
Speaker 1: in nineteen. I think they won five or six games.
Speaker 1: One of them was at our place in the GALLAGHERI Arena,
Speaker 1: sold out. We had just we we went to Hawaii.
Speaker 1: We beat Marquette in Hawaii back to back nights, won
Speaker 1: that tournament, came back home, played TCU, who's ranked top
Speaker 1: twenty in the country, beat them at our place and
Speaker 1: we're going out to play u C l A on
Speaker 1: the weekend, and we played Florida Atlantic in a bye game,
Speaker 1: and we only had four eligible guards on the roster,
Speaker 1: and Glenn and Alexander's McDonald's all American at all time.
Speaker 1: Lane Scordon State of Texas was eligible at semester like
Speaker 1: three games later he was gonna be eligible. So we
Speaker 1: only exchange had four guard guards on the roster. And
Speaker 1: they came into our place and they ran a little
Speaker 1: flex and then at the end of the shot clock
Speaker 1: they give it to whoever our center was guarding and
Speaker 1: go one four flat, you know, or the wey go
Speaker 1: high ball screen and then they throw it back to
Speaker 1: the center. And their center was, you know, a wing,
Speaker 1: you know, six ft four, six ft five, And we
Speaker 1: were up a couple of points at the half, and
Speaker 1: then you know, I gotta I gotta technical foul after
Speaker 1: turn over the bucket. We got down seven, fought all
Speaker 1: the fought all the way back to like tying the game,
Speaker 1: and we we gotta stop first, we gotta stop. And
Speaker 1: they threw in the post and Alex Webber kicked the ball.
Speaker 1: It reset it all the way back to thirty five,
Speaker 1: we get another stop, we get a rebound. Joe Atkins
Speaker 1: are to guard, rebounds the basketball. I'm standing at the
Speaker 1: hash mark for an outlet pass, and he instead of
Speaker 1: just passing it, he dribbles the ball twice and one
Speaker 1: of their players falls down trying to run back on defense.
Speaker 1: It hits off his foot, rolls underneath their basket, and
Speaker 1: one of the big guys that wasn't back on defense
Speaker 1: picks it up and lays it in and they beat
Speaker 1: us by two points. Like that, to me was a
Speaker 1: way bigger up considering Virginia. And here's the similarity. They
Speaker 1: didn't have DeAndre Hunter, who's their most versatile kind of
Speaker 1: three four hybrid player, and you know U NBC is
Speaker 1: playing small ball, spreads them out, finds the mismatches a
Speaker 1: taxas mismatches, shoots twelve of twenty four as you point out,
Speaker 1: from three point range, catches a heater, and ends up
Speaker 1: pulling what's what's deemed to be the greatest upset in
Speaker 1: n c A tournament history. Now Virginia without DeAndre Hunter,
Speaker 1: and remember they didn't play a true double round robin
Speaker 1: schedule in the A c C. I don't know if
Speaker 1: they would have been a one seed, but they weren't
Speaker 1: a one seed as they were comprised that day. UNBC
Speaker 1: had lost early in the year to Albany by forty. Um, so,
Speaker 1: I I guess there is sixteen, but maybe closer to
Speaker 1: a fifteen if you actually look at their personnel or
Speaker 1: a fourteen, And yeah, it's a little bit closer. But
Speaker 1: sixteen beating a one is still something we hadn't seen before,
Speaker 1: no question. But you know, again, this is a I
Speaker 1: guess that's the beauty of the NK Tournament. But um,
Speaker 1: you know, even going back to Arizona, I mean Arizona Buffalo,
Speaker 1: those fifteen for thirty from three, I mean, I uh,
Speaker 1: if you look up this year, I don't know how
Speaker 1: many teams hit fifteen threes in a game, especially fift
Speaker 1: team for thirty from three and lost. You know. And
Speaker 1: so sometimes, like I said, a team gets lightning in
Speaker 1: a bottle and they make shots that they don't uh
Speaker 1: normally make. But that's what makes the tournament so great,
Speaker 1: you know. They the committee has changed their criteria year
Speaker 1: to year, They've changed a lot of other things. To you,
Speaker 1: it definitely makes it hard for coaches if you're trying
Speaker 1: to plan an event, I guess and say, hey, we're
Speaker 1: scheduling based on these kinds of things. Um. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, I know the committee is trying their best. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's not. It's not the same people every time and then,
Speaker 1: and I know they're trying to evolve as well to
Speaker 1: make it a great Tournament's still lack of a tournament.
Speaker 1: But but both those teams, Arizona Virginia, they'll be back.
Speaker 1: They're just they just will. So his history tells us
Speaker 1: as much. Okay, I want to ask you about recruiting.
Speaker 1: You've been in this thing for twenty years. What's it
Speaker 1: really like? Let's here's here's one Alan krap Okay, he's
Speaker 1: an NBA player. He's from Los Angeles. First time you
Speaker 1: saw Alan krabbin the gym was ware. It was at
Speaker 1: a tournament when he was just finishing his sophomore year
Speaker 1: of high school. Okay, So how does it work? You
Speaker 1: see him play and you write down notes and think,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna send this kid a letter. Do you go
Speaker 1: see his a U coach, his high school coach? What what? What?
Speaker 1: What do you what do you do next? Well? I
Speaker 1: didn't see him first, you know, I think sometimes that happened.
Speaker 1: You get every kid is different. In this scenario, I
Speaker 1: had heard about him and one of some other kids
Speaker 1: that were young prospects, and we knew we were going
Speaker 1: to have five h kids in that class. We had five, UM,
Speaker 1: I guess that we had five sophomores that would just
Speaker 1: finish up their sophomore year. UM, when Mike Montgomery first
Speaker 1: got the job in the spring, and so I knew
Speaker 1: two years down the line we got we got a
Speaker 1: big class to field. So I started recruit you know,
Speaker 1: looking at UH. We'll get lists and different recruiting services
Speaker 1: and things like that and calling different people. And Allen
Speaker 1: played for UH, Mike Lynch at Price High School, and UM,
Speaker 1: he had a previous kid that we had recruited, but
Speaker 1: we didn't. We didn't do it nonetheless. And UH, but
Speaker 1: I built a relationship with his coach and UH and
Speaker 1: and sometimes some of it is evaluation, some some of it.
Speaker 1: You know, you have a what I call an army
Speaker 1: of people that you trust that you build up relationships with.
Speaker 1: And this at Price High School. UM, he's outlets out
Speaker 1: high school, but he was incredible at UM forecasting the
Speaker 1: potential of some of his kids. You know, he ended
Speaker 1: up having three or four other really good UM college
Speaker 1: players after Allen as well, and he was just spot
Speaker 1: on in terms of projecting where they would be. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Allan was six two or six three at
Speaker 1: the time, but his dad played a couple of nine
Speaker 1: and he knew his mom as well, and he had
Speaker 1: a chance to grow. He could really shoot. We had
Speaker 1: a junior day, junior day with his mom and uh,
Speaker 1: and then we saw him play a couple of times
Speaker 1: in the fall, and then he committed Christmas Day of
Speaker 1: his junior year. UM so and the rest of the history. Okay,
Speaker 1: so so then so the question becomes like, what has
Speaker 1: what's the percentage of times in which somebody has that
Speaker 1: asked and somebody asked to be taken care of financially? Hey,
Speaker 1: can what do we get when we get to when
Speaker 1: we get to campus at core Vallis, Ord Santego State
Speaker 1: or at cal How often have you been proposed proposition
Speaker 1: for money? Um, I don't think it happens as much
Speaker 1: as people think. I think, Uh, you can kind of
Speaker 1: set the tone with how you present yourself from the
Speaker 1: start and think for us, that's how we've approached everything
Speaker 1: is we talk about character and how important it is
Speaker 1: and recruiting the right kids and uh, but it'll happen
Speaker 1: from time to time. But you know, I think the
Speaker 1: thing you have to do, Um, you know, if you're
Speaker 1: a coach and you're put in that situation, you've gotta
Speaker 1: be willing to walk away from a kid like that,
Speaker 1: you know, and um, because those are as bad news
Speaker 1: necessarily for me at least, I've just never subscribe to it.
Speaker 1: And uh so you know, I think sometimes you get
Speaker 1: some people that fish for that with their hands, but
Speaker 1: I mean people or appreciate it, people that are genuinely
Speaker 1: honest and sin. That's just kind of the kids that
Speaker 1: we try and recruit. Think as you get older too
Speaker 1: and coaching, you realize character is such a huge part
Speaker 1: of the kids you're recruiting, and so I think, you know,
Speaker 1: some of that speaks to their character as well. So okay,
Speaker 1: give me a give me a is it? Can you
Speaker 1: count on two hands? Is it a like? And and
Speaker 1: I mean have you known this twenty plus year? So
Speaker 1: I'd say it's probably been more than two hands. But
Speaker 1: you know, the kids that you kind of at least
Speaker 1: the rumors are that maybe that that they're looking for
Speaker 1: something you just kind of don't even put yourself in
Speaker 1: that position. You know, you don't recruit everybody. You know,
Speaker 1: your kids that you know you can get regardless of situation.
Speaker 1: So if you feel like, for one reason or other
Speaker 1: you can't get them, you gotta move on. When you've
Speaker 1: been proposition, how they ask um, you know it would
Speaker 1: be it's start with something small, like if kids coming
Speaker 1: up for an unofficial visits, they'd say, hey, you know coaching,
Speaker 1: you know, will you take care of us we get
Speaker 1: up there? You know, can you help us get up there?
Speaker 1: That kind of thing. That would be something They're always
Speaker 1: gonna start with something small. They're never gonna start off
Speaker 1: with hey, I need in an envelope, but it will
Speaker 1: be something small like that, and you just shut it
Speaker 1: down right away, and and then and then you find
Speaker 1: out if that's what or or does that cause you
Speaker 1: to want to shut down right away? Like I don't
Speaker 1: know how other people do their their business, but you don't.
Speaker 1: We don't have there's no funny business in our program.
Speaker 1: So you know, we gotta we do things the right way.
Speaker 1: And you know, so sometimes people just look to see
Speaker 1: if what they can Yet you know that's just happens.
Speaker 1: I think it happens in any profession, in any I
Speaker 1: don't think it's just basketball, but that's kinds of things happened. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, man, Well listen, I appreciate you giving us
Speaker 1: this insight. It's great, so awesome. And I know you're
Speaker 1: on your way to go and seeing a couple of
Speaker 1: high school kids and offering them hundreds of thousands of kidding,
Speaker 1: totally kidding. All right, So that's all ball. The Doug
Speaker 1: Gottlieb Show Basketball Only Podcast Continua download it, continua listen.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed it. Let me quickly give you
Speaker 1: my picks for the Sweet sixteen and we'll see what
Speaker 1: happens with the Elite eight. Kansas State has taken on Kentucky.
Speaker 1: I think if Dean Wade plays this, Kansas a Kansas
Speaker 1: State team that I think will win the game. Um,
Speaker 1: they have very good guard play. Barry Brown is a
Speaker 1: lights out shooter. Again, this is if Dean Wade places
Speaker 1: and he said it was chance he plays. Wade is
Speaker 1: a stretch for it. They just have more skill than Kentucky.
Speaker 1: And yes, Bruce Weber has been maligned as a coach
Speaker 1: it's a very good basketball coach. He's evolved his style.
Speaker 1: It's not necessarily shot of Kentucky. I like this Kentucky
Speaker 1: team and what Calipari has done. I just don't think
Speaker 1: they have enough offense to beat Case State. Louis Chicago
Speaker 1: taken on Nevada, but Porter Moser has done an amazing job.
Speaker 1: But they were dead to rights beaten uh By Tennessee
Speaker 1: Tennessee more more athletic. This is a Nevada team that
Speaker 1: doesn't have a bunch of depth. I don't think the
Speaker 1: depth affects them. I think Nevada wins that game and
Speaker 1: one game depth doesn't really affect unless you get into
Speaker 1: foul trouble. On the other hand, Nevada was down twenty
Speaker 1: two for a reason, but a completely different level of athlete,
Speaker 1: style of athlete. You've got the small ball of lot
Speaker 1: of Chicago and frankly Nevada playing without a point guard. Um,
Speaker 1: but I like Nevada to win that game. Florida State
Speaker 1: taking on good Zaga. I respect this Florida State team.
Speaker 1: They've been all over the map though in terms of
Speaker 1: their performances, and I think good Zaga a little bit
Speaker 1: too much skill, a little bit more refined. Michigan TEXTA,
Speaker 1: A and M is fascinating because Michigan plays small and
Speaker 1: A and M plays big, And I've learned that small
Speaker 1: usually beats big. But I also think that sometimes better
Speaker 1: players win the game. Ah, this is a hard one.
Speaker 1: I'll go with A and M to win. To win.
Speaker 1: Billy Kennedy kind of underrated coach. Not that John Beelin
Speaker 1: is not as good as anybody who's ever done it.
Speaker 1: Nova taken on West Virginia. West Virginias should scare Villanova
Speaker 1: on the boards. But outside of that, Villanova because NAT
Speaker 1: can't standerneath the basket and block shots. They invert their offense.
Speaker 1: Big playing outside, Jalen Brunson playing inside. I really like
Speaker 1: this matchup for Villanova, just too much offense. Texas Tech Perdue.
Speaker 1: I think the athleticism of Texas Tech matches up very
Speaker 1: well with Purdue produced struggles to make jump shots against
Speaker 1: athletic teams that can switch their screens. I take Texas
Speaker 1: Tech to take on Villanova in the Elite Eight. Kansas
Speaker 1: taken on Clemson. I have learned you don't doubt, you
Speaker 1: don't doubt. Kansas comeson was really impressive against Auburn, but
Speaker 1: Auburn essentially with without three starters from the start of
Speaker 1: the season. That's the Kansas team that seems to be
Speaker 1: getting better and better and more and more confident. Playing
Speaker 1: in a home away from home in Omaha, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take Ku. Syracuse taken on Duke. We've seen this game
Speaker 1: in the year. I do think that Duke has too much.
Speaker 1: It's the it's the it's the matchups that win this thing.
Speaker 1: And Duke shoots the ball so well from three from
Speaker 1: so many different positions. I don't think that. And look,
Speaker 1: this is a Duke team that's not perfect. They're not
Speaker 1: great defensively, but team that and and percentage wise, they're
Speaker 1: not great from three. Outside of Gary Trent. I know
Speaker 1: Wendell Carter shoots a good percentage, but he's not a
Speaker 1: high volume three point shooter, but they can hit you
Speaker 1: from three. Guys and Trayvon Duval even though he can't,
Speaker 1: he he's a sound enough ball Hammler. The big issue
Speaker 1: with this Duke team has been their defense. Right, It's
Speaker 1: been basketball, but against Syracuse, you don't have to be
Speaker 1: great defensively because Syracuse struggles to score case in point.
Speaker 1: They only scored forty four last time they played due
Speaker 1: so I think it's a bad matchup for for for Syracuse.
Speaker 1: I like Duke to win. So there's my Uh, those
Speaker 1: are all my picks, right, Yeah? So Duke, Kansas Tech, Nova,
Speaker 1: k State, Nevada, Gonzaga, and I'm gonna go with A
Speaker 1: and M, which what I would deem an upset. I
Speaker 1: haven't seen their numbers in Vegas. Thanks for downloading the
Speaker 1: All Ball podcast, a great part of the Herd podcast network.
Speaker 1: I'm Doug gotwo