Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris Johnson. And Chris is
Speaker 1: having conversations with influencers in the sports world and entertainment
Speaker 1: in a strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You're now tuned
Speaker 1: into kJ Live. Today's guests to the show is a
Speaker 1: March Madness legend. Start at the University of Rhode Island
Speaker 1: in the backcourt with Patino Mobil, considered one of the
Speaker 1: best backcourts in the history of college basketball. Later went
Speaker 1: on to play in the NBA and overseas Italy and
Speaker 1: other countries. Let's welcome Tyson Wheeler to the show. What's up, Tyson?
Speaker 1: What's upkay Jee? I appreciate you having me on. I'm excited.
Speaker 1: I know you got all the U best guests on here,
Speaker 1: so I'm excited to be on here and very humble. Well,
Speaker 1: I thank you. I don't know if I have the
Speaker 1: best guests, but I have the most people I think
Speaker 1: are the best, and so I think that most important
Speaker 1: and you fall into that category. My man. Congratulations on
Speaker 1: your tenure at the U mass uh coaching right now,
Speaker 1: you're a free agent. Uh, let's talk about the process
Speaker 1: for you. Kind of the day, day to day grind
Speaker 1: of of a college coach. Having coach finished the season
Speaker 1: now has to look for another situation. Talk about what
Speaker 1: that looks like. Well, I think, Um, you know, obviously
Speaker 1: it's gonna this is my thirteenth season coaching, so, UM,
Speaker 1: I've been in for a while, going by pretty fast.
Speaker 1: So you know, I remember playing for ten years professionally
Speaker 1: and I thought that was a long time. And I'm
Speaker 1: already passed that as a coach. Um. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a process. You know, it happens in the business. You
Speaker 1: don't win enough, they let you go. So you know,
Speaker 1: for me, you know, I have to try to find
Speaker 1: a new job anywhere in the country. You know, I've
Speaker 1: been coaching now for thirteen years, like I said before,
Speaker 1: and I basically always been on the East Coast. Now
Speaker 1: you know, I'm looking to, you know, make a move.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't mind staying on the East Coast
Speaker 1: close home. I'm from Connecticut. Um, there's some openings in
Speaker 1: New England that I would love to work for. UM,
Speaker 1: but you know, I have to keep my options over
Speaker 1: yeah you do. UM, talk a little bit about just
Speaker 1: how maybe the coaching game has changed from when you
Speaker 1: were a player being recruited by attend of schools to
Speaker 1: now being on the other side doing the recruiting recruiting players.
Speaker 1: How much has the game changed in that twenty five years, Spanners,
Speaker 1: So it's changed tremendously. Um. You know, back when we
Speaker 1: were getting recruited, it seemed like coaches were everywhere at
Speaker 1: the park, at the Y M c A, at high
Speaker 1: school practices, at games. You know, you pull up and
Speaker 1: the coach will be there, And I think that was
Speaker 1: very beneficial for us in our evaluation of our talent
Speaker 1: and where we should be playing. UM. I think nowadays,
Speaker 1: as as a college coach, we don't get as much
Speaker 1: time to really evaluate the kids. Uh, we may see
Speaker 1: him two or three times because we're flying all over
Speaker 1: the place because we have a shorter period to evaluate them.
Speaker 1: So then we rely on scouting services UM and not
Speaker 1: our own eye. So it could be kind of messy
Speaker 1: when you you see a kid played great one weekend,
Speaker 1: and then you might see him play three weeks later
Speaker 1: and he just plays okay, So you're not very sure
Speaker 1: if he's at that level. But then the dynamic comes
Speaker 1: where if you're at you Mass, you get a Miami
Speaker 1: that offers him in the A C. C. So now
Speaker 1: you're like, Wow, I'm never gonna get this kid. But
Speaker 1: I think he's at the Atlantic ten level. And before
Speaker 1: I was coaching at Fairfield University in Connecticut in the
Speaker 1: mac um so it was a dynamic where I thought
Speaker 1: the kid was a MAC level kid and he would
Speaker 1: get offered by a big East school. So it's been
Speaker 1: it's changed a lot, and I think back when we
Speaker 1: played it was a little bit easier to evaluate us.
Speaker 1: Is that because the there was more flexibility with like
Speaker 1: budget or is that because the n t a A
Speaker 1: wasn't so strict in terms of the viewing period and
Speaker 1: things like that, or is it a combination both, Like
Speaker 1: why why are coaches nowadays not allowed to see players
Speaker 1: as much as they were in the past. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're restrictions on the n c A. They allow you
Speaker 1: a certain amount of live periods we can go out
Speaker 1: to watch and evaluate talent um. There's tournaments all over
Speaker 1: the country. There's so many AAU programs. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: sure back when you were playing, you played on one
Speaker 1: team and basically all your boys from up and down
Speaker 1: California on one team. You know, in New York you
Speaker 1: had all the best players on two teams at Gauchos
Speaker 1: the Riverside. So you know, now it's a very watered down.
Speaker 1: Parents are making teams just so their child can play. Um,
Speaker 1: there's about ten teams just in one city of a
Speaker 1: lot of talent. Now, now, is daddy ball so bad?
Speaker 1: I always ask this question, is I want to hear
Speaker 1: from the hooper? Why why is daddy ball so bad?
Speaker 1: At your eyes, I don't think it's bad at all.
Speaker 1: I think you're trying to do the best thing for
Speaker 1: your child exactly, and they don't get the opportunity to
Speaker 1: be seen. And you want your child to get a
Speaker 1: scholarship and get that opportunity because like I said before,
Speaker 1: there's not enough tournaments or enough time for college coach
Speaker 1: to evaluate those kids. So if your parents can get
Speaker 1: you on the team with some other guys that can
Speaker 1: play and get you on the scene to be seen,
Speaker 1: that that's there, that's good for them. So I'm not
Speaker 1: mad at them at all. No, me, neither me neither.
Speaker 1: And the game was so different as far as the
Speaker 1: AU there's there was just so much more emphasis on
Speaker 1: AU and things like that. As a recruiter, and this
Speaker 1: would be kind of my last one talking about that.
Speaker 1: How much do you know back in the day got
Speaker 1: the AU affiliation wasn't necessary for a guy's coach to
Speaker 1: get players. It seems like nowadays, you know, it's one
Speaker 1: of the prerequisites sometimes you're getting the gig. How how
Speaker 1: much how important is that or is that overblown and
Speaker 1: overstated the streets and you know media or whatever your
Speaker 1: you mean, like, um, the the like an assistant coach
Speaker 1: having like a good relationship with the AU director or
Speaker 1: maybe an affiliation may have coached for them in the past, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Is that is that really is? Does that really give
Speaker 1: you a leg up in today in the landscape of
Speaker 1: today's college coaching game, It absolutely does. I think, um,
Speaker 1: you know, you are so prominent now and all the
Speaker 1: kids are there. And again, a lot of high school
Speaker 1: I mean sorry, a lot of college coaches don't go
Speaker 1: to high school games as much. They concentrate on AU
Speaker 1: and then end on the directors and and the coaches
Speaker 1: in the AU circle, um to get kids, you know,
Speaker 1: because whatever level you're at, you're gonna recruit to the
Speaker 1: AU programs in your area and across the country. So
Speaker 1: you know, it does a beneficial for coaches to know
Speaker 1: a lot of AU programs. One thing I would say
Speaker 1: about me that I have an advantage because I played
Speaker 1: basketball and I could recruit all over the country. It
Speaker 1: makes us because people may know my name and that
Speaker 1: just may start the conversation. And I can say I'm
Speaker 1: at Atlantic ten school and somebody in California might not
Speaker 1: want to go to school in California, so that might
Speaker 1: give me a lego. Absolutely, that's good, man. You gotta
Speaker 1: use everything you've got. It is a competitive world. Use
Speaker 1: players out there, and now there is And speaking of
Speaker 1: good players, man, I want to I want to flip
Speaker 1: the script to the transfer portal because you know there's
Speaker 1: a thousand, you know, players in that thing, and you
Speaker 1: know you're getting guys are getting good quick. But by
Speaker 1: snatching guys out the transfer portal now with the emphasis
Speaker 1: on getting older and experienced college basketball players for college programs,
Speaker 1: does this make the three to four star high school
Speaker 1: player less relevant than he has been in the past.
Speaker 1: Kind Of like that guy that tweeter you feel like
Speaker 1: you can develop. He may give him a shot as
Speaker 1: a coach because you think he can be something out
Speaker 1: of development, but you don't anymore because you gotta I
Speaker 1: did average two of the game, and you know a
Speaker 1: D two you got you know, you got to cook. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's a it's tough. It's tough. You can
Speaker 1: go both ways with its positive and negative. UM. And
Speaker 1: it also depends on what level you're at. You know,
Speaker 1: you you would love to get a kid at a
Speaker 1: lower level that's a three or four star because you
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to do that before. UM. And then
Speaker 1: you can get transfers that were playing in the Big
Speaker 1: Ten that average three or five points, but you can
Speaker 1: see that they're pretty good. They come to the Atlantic
Speaker 1: Tent and the average ten to twelve points, but they
Speaker 1: couldn't do that at the Big Tent level. So you're
Speaker 1: more apt to try to take a kid that played
Speaker 1: in a bigger level come down, and then a kid
Speaker 1: that's at a lower level that's always had aspirations to
Speaker 1: play up like myself. I did work as a freshman
Speaker 1: sophomore at to say a St. Peter's, well you St.
Speaker 1: Peters for example. Now those kids are gonna be looking
Speaker 1: at like they could play in the Big East at
Speaker 1: a stick home. So that it's it's it's all over
Speaker 1: the place, and it's good and bad with it So
Speaker 1: do you think it's good for the game? I mean,
Speaker 1: do you think this is something that you could say
Speaker 1: this is good for for the balance of competition and
Speaker 1: college basketball? A lot of teams got good quick. They're
Speaker 1: able to make, you know, deep runs. You see some
Speaker 1: teams out there with these kind of guys that are
Speaker 1: making runs and and that are good when you don't expect.
Speaker 1: Is this good for the game? Um? I think it's
Speaker 1: good for the game because college coaches don't get a
Speaker 1: uh a long period of time to become great. You know,
Speaker 1: when we were coming up again, uh you know, we
Speaker 1: had coaches that coach for ten or twelve years and
Speaker 1: may Haetta had three or four losing seasons. Now, if
Speaker 1: you're not winning after three years, you're on the hot seat.
Speaker 1: So you have to you have to win right away
Speaker 1: in order to keep your job, which is unfortunate because
Speaker 1: now you're not being you're not able to develop the
Speaker 1: younger kids. So now you're probably not gonna want to
Speaker 1: get a young kid because you only have two or
Speaker 1: three years to be good. Yeah. No, that makes total sense.
Speaker 1: And this is something I think that started has been
Speaker 1: happening for a little bit now. Probably I'd say around. Well.
Speaker 1: I felt it in two thousand fourteen fifteen when my
Speaker 1: son Will was just difficult to get him a look
Speaker 1: and I couldn't understand why. But then as I started
Speaker 1: to look at the makeup of rosters around the country
Speaker 1: and start to understand the different themes associated with what
Speaker 1: coaches were doing, it kind of made sense that because
Speaker 1: I was thinking of it like our time, like why
Speaker 1: can't you get like now you better believe it, my boy?
Speaker 1: You know the type of thing. But it's like, like
Speaker 1: you just said, hey, man, I gotta win now. I
Speaker 1: don't have no time for one roster spot to being
Speaker 1: to being unknown. I need a prom commodity. I'll take
Speaker 1: a guy that played in the MEAK or you know,
Speaker 1: the Horizon League that I a thousand points score. They
Speaker 1: don't miss the king of this he was doing it.
Speaker 1: I was like, dang, he bringing all these thousand points
Speaker 1: score and I'm like, oh, there we go. All right.
Speaker 1: But but all that to be said, that's the game.
Speaker 1: Competition is still competition, but you gotta you gotta adjust
Speaker 1: and adapt. Um. The final thing on the college thing, man, uh,
Speaker 1: the current college climate, the n I l you know,
Speaker 1: when it first came out you know, I was really
Speaker 1: interested to see how this would affect the players, the
Speaker 1: athletes mindset. You know what would this motivate people? With this?
Speaker 1: Get guys and girls you know, in the gym, on
Speaker 1: the track, working hard and the way, Hey, I want
Speaker 1: to be the most market I want to be the best.
Speaker 1: I want to look good or or did it or
Speaker 1: is it something that hey, I'm you know, are these
Speaker 1: kids responding to it with complacency? I want to know
Speaker 1: from a college coach, I don't know if your guys
Speaker 1: had any and if they did, you know, what is
Speaker 1: your sense of how they responded to it? I would
Speaker 1: say overall general, overall, um, the synopsis of it is
Speaker 1: there's good and bad in it. You know, you have
Speaker 1: some players that are really good, uh, that can that
Speaker 1: are marketable and they'll get the those type of deals
Speaker 1: where they can make some money or some clothing deals.
Speaker 1: And then you have some players that are getting it
Speaker 1: because they're on a team, but they don't play a lot,
Speaker 1: but they'll film themselves uh more marketable and they're just
Speaker 1: working out just because of the n I L deals
Speaker 1: or to get likes and so you know, it's a
Speaker 1: it's a gift and a curse. I guess you can say,
Speaker 1: you know, there's some really good players that are making
Speaker 1: really good money as they should and they're helping uh
Speaker 1: you know, um establishment make money and that putting some
Speaker 1: money in their pockets. So but then there's some players
Speaker 1: that shouldn't have en n I l deals what they do. Um,
Speaker 1: but it's coolos to the kids. I mean, if they
Speaker 1: can get it, they should get it, you know. I
Speaker 1: think I think really it's all about, you know, the
Speaker 1: lens in which we view it. Now, if we view
Speaker 1: it through our lens, we might say something like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, kids are getting it when maybe they shouldn't.
Speaker 1: But we have to realize that the game is totally changed.
Speaker 1: So so who gets it and who deserves it? That's
Speaker 1: just it's up to social media, it's up to your following,
Speaker 1: it's up to your soul. So so you might have
Speaker 1: the most game, you might average twenty game, but you're
Speaker 1: not the best on social media. And that is and
Speaker 1: I see this with U. C. L A, where you
Speaker 1: got a guy like Hamie ha Kennis, who's who's really
Speaker 1: good on social media, But there's these other guys that
Speaker 1: are you know, a little bit better and they're getting
Speaker 1: a little bit more notoriety. Um um that this Uh,
Speaker 1: I forgot what it is. But they gave like this
Speaker 1: all the bench guys left in the tournament. They gave
Speaker 1: him a whole uh N I L deal. So every
Speaker 1: guy that was like a walk on or that rode
Speaker 1: the bench. Yeah, so this is now becoming. They're becoming
Speaker 1: stars their performance on the bench. They're cheer leading their
Speaker 1: school spirit. Like I'm telling you, Dog, I would kind
Speaker 1: of like I was my freshman year wearing all the
Speaker 1: town like I wouldn't Hey, I would have got an
Speaker 1: N I L deal. Bro would have been like on
Speaker 1: Fatburger or something. Man, hey man, Christine to get the
Speaker 1: starting local man too big starting local back and dog
Speaker 1: but free on me. Hey but I want to be
Speaker 1: cracking man. But so but I like that part. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be interesting to see just how big this stuff gets.
Speaker 1: You know, you see the high level at least the
Speaker 1: elite guys getting you know, Mercedes Bins and Beats by
Speaker 1: Dre and you know these high level brands, and so
Speaker 1: that's interesting, but it still needs to be sorted out,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So Fox Sports Radio has
Speaker 1: the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
Speaker 1: of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and
Speaker 1: within the I Heart Radio app search f s R
Speaker 1: to listen live. Yeah, but looking back two days of
Speaker 1: old man, when we were young bucks dude and we
Speaker 1: could run around real fast and you know, go through
Speaker 1: our legs behind the back. I crossed you over a
Speaker 1: lot back in the day. But looking back on that
Speaker 1: area at it out of the dog, I wanted to
Speaker 1: revisit You're run through the march madness, the whole tournament
Speaker 1: because I always found found it interesting that you played
Speaker 1: for coach Herrick who recruited me, who I played for,
Speaker 1: what a national championship? He was fired the year before,
Speaker 1: and now the very next year he's taking you guys
Speaker 1: on your own magical run. Can you just talk about
Speaker 1: and that was in its first year. Can you just
Speaker 1: talk about that? You know, coach Herrick as getting coach
Speaker 1: Eric as a coach with everything you heard about and
Speaker 1: knowing his pedigree with U C l A and ultimately
Speaker 1: going on that run. But guys like Catino Mobile and Lamorrow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so Lamar wasn't with us at that point, but at
Speaker 1: the school. Yeah, yeah, that counts. That counts and having
Speaker 1: a good time. But uh no, it was a great
Speaker 1: to get coach here. Um, myself and Antony Reynolds Dean
Speaker 1: were on the search committee. You know, we were uh
Speaker 1: what they call it now player the player now the
Speaker 1: search firms. We were the search firm. So Antonio and
Speaker 1: I and some of the you know, the A D
Speaker 1: We had a list of coaches and his name came
Speaker 1: up and I was like, that's the coach I want.
Speaker 1: You know, he coached tyas Edne. I was a small guard.
Speaker 1: They were up and down. I love the U c
Speaker 1: l A offense. You know, we played the flex offense
Speaker 1: with Al Skinner and I love that as well. But
Speaker 1: Contino didn't love it, you know, because he didn't get
Speaker 1: to handle the ball. So when when coach Hare came
Speaker 1: and he put the U c l A offense and
Speaker 1: he let Cotino handle the ball, and that really roses Stock.
Speaker 1: So I know Contino loves coach Hair because of that.
Speaker 1: He got to handle the ball. And so you know,
Speaker 1: we had a veteran team. Uh, we knew we could
Speaker 1: be really good. Coach Hare came in and I thought
Speaker 1: Ty said and he was great because he was a
Speaker 1: small guard. They won a national championship, like you were
Speaker 1: talking about you guys want a national championship and he
Speaker 1: was a little guard. So I was like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is gonna fit in perfect with the way I played.
Speaker 1: And when coach Hare got there's like, Tyson, you need
Speaker 1: to pass more. You're you're you're shooting too much. You
Speaker 1: need to understand the game. Or I was like what
Speaker 1: now what the year before? What? What? What did you
Speaker 1: do the year before? Like what kind of what were
Speaker 1: you coming into it? The confidence level off of what
Speaker 1: type of performance? Well, we we lost, for dude, we
Speaker 1: were up against for Due in the tournament first round, uh,
Speaker 1: and we gave up the lead and lost. I was
Speaker 1: averaging about fifteen points a game. I was a career
Speaker 1: average about fifteen points a game and six assists. So
Speaker 1: you know, I never wanted to score more than fifteen points.
Speaker 1: I definitely tried to, but I never got over fifteen.
Speaker 1: But I well, the most important for me is to
Speaker 1: get assist, lead the league, and try to win. So
Speaker 1: you know, I came in with some bravado that you know,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be our team. My team, me and Contino.
Speaker 1: Coach Harris gonna come in. He's gonna coach us up.
Speaker 1: And then he was like, yo, Tyson, you need to
Speaker 1: stop shooting so much. I was like, oh, man, come on, coach,
Speaker 1: That's what I do. But it helped me out tremendously.
Speaker 1: You know, I had learned to be a better point guard. UM,
Speaker 1: we want a lot more. We got to lead eight.
Speaker 1: At what point did you during the season did you
Speaker 1: know that you guys could do something special? Like was
Speaker 1: there a turning point? Was there a game, was there
Speaker 1: a performance that you guys had you might have beat
Speaker 1: somebody going on the road or I don't know, was
Speaker 1: there a moment or did you guys kind of have
Speaker 1: a steady flow during the year. Um, we started off
Speaker 1: really hot and then we you know, we I think
Speaker 1: we won our first like three or four games. We
Speaker 1: got it to the top twenty five for the first time.
Speaker 1: And then we went to play yukon Umlilo Me and
Speaker 1: Kevin Freeman, Richard Hamilton's UM. So we knew and it
Speaker 1: was a close game. We're up and down, we were up, UM,
Speaker 1: but that at that point we knew that we were
Speaker 1: really good. We went to Cincinnati on Super Bowl Sunday
Speaker 1: and played them. I had the flu and we were
Speaker 1: right there with Kenyan Martin the helicopter. They had a
Speaker 1: dynamic team, let all the Yeah, so we we played
Speaker 1: really well. We lost, but the games we were in
Speaker 1: we felt we were one of the best teams in
Speaker 1: the country. So we had that mindset. Uh, we were
Speaker 1: older group, so we had to play that way. But
Speaker 1: we we had a tough schedule. We went out to Stanford,
Speaker 1: play Stanford in a Cable Car Classic and we're up
Speaker 1: again and we lost the same exact way we did
Speaker 1: it in the lead eight against him. Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: a tough loss. Man. I thought you guys had the magic.
Speaker 1: I thought you guys had it going, especially after what
Speaker 1: you beat Kansas in the round before or the round
Speaker 1: of thirty two or yeah, that was the second second round,
Speaker 1: second round. Every state year old coach God favorites the
Speaker 1: head coach. So was Marcus Brown on that team? No,
Speaker 1: he wasn't. Okay, thank god, thank god he's on there.
Speaker 1: He's on their staff. Now, okay, okay, okay, So whendn't
Speaker 1: you get into the later rounds of the tournaments sixteen
Speaker 1: elead eight time and which we're looking at now out
Speaker 1: you know, we're watching teams like you know St. Peter's
Speaker 1: or underdogs, right when when you get to those rounds,
Speaker 1: what do you think it takes to continue to advance
Speaker 1: in the world, Because I would consider you guys an
Speaker 1: underdog that year. Although you may not consider yourself a underdog,
Speaker 1: I know I feel like you guys were underdogs. What
Speaker 1: does it take to keep advancing? Um? I think just
Speaker 1: making sure that you guys are playing as a team.
Speaker 1: That's the most important thing. Um, Sharing the ball, being
Speaker 1: locked in defensively, being locked in on the scout that
Speaker 1: was really big for us. You know, every team we
Speaker 1: played in that tournament, we scouted to a team and
Speaker 1: guys all were locked in. Um. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: taking care of the balls, chief rebounding is very key,
Speaker 1: and then you know being able to score. You have
Speaker 1: to be able to score. And I think, as you
Speaker 1: see in the tournament, guard plays to me the most important.
Speaker 1: You know, if you have some elite guards, they're gonna
Speaker 1: get you over the hump, and you got some elite rebounders,
Speaker 1: they're gonna help you win games. Yeah, you see that
Speaker 1: with St. Peter's Miami, they have really exciting guards and
Speaker 1: I like the duo down with Miami as far as
Speaker 1: Wong and more. They're pretty, they're pretty exciting getting in
Speaker 1: the open floor D. I always thought when Coach Herrick
Speaker 1: and I played for for two tournaments one we one
Speaker 1: we went all the way when we lost in the
Speaker 1: first round. But I always thought that his coaching, uh,
Speaker 1: as we got closer to the tournament time, he started
Speaker 1: to treat us more like pros. It was less it
Speaker 1: was less about uh, you know all this other stuff,
Speaker 1: and more about our rest, caring about us, and it
Speaker 1: was about player empowerment. It was about making us believe
Speaker 1: in our game, making us believe that the six, seven, eight,
Speaker 1: nine months before all the work now is when it
Speaker 1: really mattered. And this is why you did it. I
Speaker 1: always I wondered, is that something that you felt as well? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean that that's powerful that you say that, because
Speaker 1: I'll say in the Kansas game, you know we're going
Speaker 1: back and forth. Then we started, the Tide started two
Speaker 1: shifts and coach coach Harro could see it and what
Speaker 1: he did was kJ What he did was Tyson's your turn.
Speaker 1: I want everybody to clear out. You're taking this guy,
Speaker 1: Preston Murphy. It's your turn. They can't guard you. Patino
Speaker 1: he can't guard. We we forgot about the offense and
Speaker 1: it turned into a one on one game and he
Speaker 1: saw that, and our confidence was so high, and our
Speaker 1: guys that came out the bitch like Preston Murphy. He
Speaker 1: was getting busy and he's like, I'll just give me
Speaker 1: a ball back. Give me the ball back. I got him.
Speaker 1: I was like, go to work. But that's a great
Speaker 1: point you just made because that's exactly how it happened
Speaker 1: for us. Now. I think that's one of his best
Speaker 1: qualities as a coach man is where he understands that
Speaker 1: he knows how to lock that he knows how to
Speaker 1: lock in with you when you're locked in, like he
Speaker 1: gets there with you and it's like okay, right, because
Speaker 1: he's done that with me. Man. I dropped. I dropped
Speaker 1: thirty six on How, thirty on Washington, you know, cal
Speaker 1: twenty five and a half. And when I when I
Speaker 1: got rolland I'm talking about he's calling it, I forgot
Speaker 1: what play it was. It was something off I won
Speaker 1: four off the pipe. I would I would either enter
Speaker 1: it and then cut off that thing and get to
Speaker 1: the block, but he just kept getting me down there.
Speaker 1: So now, whatever it was you know we're doing handdogs.
Speaker 1: I would be the inner guys. I run the guy
Speaker 1: like ten straight times. He's just kept calling the dogs
Speaker 1: and I just kept hitting and but but that was
Speaker 1: I felt like, you know, I always like would ride
Speaker 1: or died from coach Herrick because he would he would
Speaker 1: have that at confidence like in you. You know, it's
Speaker 1: at absolutely and that's what that's why we went so far.
Speaker 1: If you look back at our statistics in those games,
Speaker 1: we had different guys leading and scoring, and we have
Speaker 1: multiple guys and double figures, and he's just in different games.
Speaker 1: So you know, one game it would be Antonio will
Speaker 1: have like fifteen and tenant then Luther Clay, who was
Speaker 1: a top five player coming to high school, uh would
Speaker 1: have ten, and that I would have penty to the
Speaker 1: Presson would have sixteen, Josh King would have So we
Speaker 1: were rolling and we thought we should we could have
Speaker 1: went to the final four. No man, and you guys
Speaker 1: were right there. You go down in history. Is one
Speaker 1: of those type of you know, best of teams that
Speaker 1: didn't make it. One of the toughest backcourts that we've
Speaker 1: ever seen on the college level. You and coatino um
Speaker 1: I appreciate that here, No, I let it talk to
Speaker 1: cat man. But but on the rim man, you guys man,
Speaker 1: looking back on just you know, having seen a bunch
Speaker 1: of backcourts, dog, and having seen a bunch of ball players,
Speaker 1: really good guys in the backcourt together, like y'all, there's
Speaker 1: more than just be two really good guards, one good
Speaker 1: shooting guard, one guy. It's a style, it's a rhythm,
Speaker 1: it's a flare. It's a sweetness associated with the way
Speaker 1: y'all got y'all buckets. Okay, so I'm telling you nobody
Speaker 1: did it sweeter than y'all too got lefties, are you kiddy? Dog?
Speaker 1: I'm a fan fact. There is still a fair now,
Speaker 1: my man. Uh. Of all the teams that are left
Speaker 1: as far as are underdogs that are in the sweet six, team,
Speaker 1: what team, if you have one, do you think is
Speaker 1: most capable, most built, most ready to make that run
Speaker 1: to the championship game, not just the final four, but
Speaker 1: to get all the way. I mean, because you remember,
Speaker 1: like teams like Indiana with Mike Davis and Butler, these
Speaker 1: teams that made it all the way to the championship game,
Speaker 1: they were like, damn, they almost did it. Is the
Speaker 1: A team is there a team like that that's remaining
Speaker 1: in the Sweet six, team that you think get all
Speaker 1: the way to the to the title game. Well, I
Speaker 1: would say, yes, there is. I mean, I love UM Arizona, Okay,
Speaker 1: I love Houston. They play each other. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: Houston is tough. I'm a very big Purdue fan because
Speaker 1: he runs some great things. UM Providence. I gotta go
Speaker 1: with my boy cool. I think they can get to
Speaker 1: Elite eight. Okay, okay, But you know who also is
Speaker 1: playing really well? Your squad U c l A. You know,
Speaker 1: Nick does a great job of getting those guys to
Speaker 1: play hard. They have a point guard that gets guys shots,
Speaker 1: but he's also scoring a lot more than year. You know,
Speaker 1: in the tournament, you need a little guarden to get
Speaker 1: buckets for you. Absolutely U. So, I mean there's there's
Speaker 1: so many good teams in this Texas Tech is playing
Speaker 1: really well. Villanova looks good. I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's tough to decide, but there are a
Speaker 1: lot of good teams that can go all the way.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna come down to Arizona and contag
Speaker 1: And I think because they have the most depth as
Speaker 1: far as size guards, and like x active type dudes
Speaker 1: that can come in and make a play on the
Speaker 1: college level when you have this plethora of dudes, like
Speaker 1: when you watch Arizona plate man, like the way they
Speaker 1: play the game, their transition game, how quickly they get
Speaker 1: it out, how intent they are on high low, that focus,
Speaker 1: and then it automatically gonna open stuff up like it's
Speaker 1: gonna wear on you a lot of Look, they got it.
Speaker 1: They got off easy against TCU. The stuff at the
Speaker 1: end of that game, that was why. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you saw that, man, boy, Oh hey, Arizona fans
Speaker 1: is out here, try to defend it. I'm like, look, man, y'all, fella,
Speaker 1: y'all fellas just went too far. That's it. Just leave
Speaker 1: it at that, bro, There's no nothing but all that
Speaker 1: to be said. If day Lind Terry and that dog
Speaker 1: on co Loco, that seven foot, if they keep on
Speaker 1: doing what they do, it's gonna be tough. But man,
Speaker 1: my bruins, man, we gotta see what's up behind me.
Speaker 1: His ankle um mix still is not I don't feel
Speaker 1: like he's comfortable with certain rotations and the way eyes
Speaker 1: are playing with certain guys, so he's he's you know,
Speaker 1: in and out and a lot of guys right now
Speaker 1: still at this stage. Yeah, you gotta figure that out.
Speaker 1: But I gotta respect him because I gotta trust him
Speaker 1: because he's my coach and he got us here. So yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: sir man. But man, dude, I appreciate your time tonight. Man.
Speaker 1: I know you can do this all night. Man. I
Speaker 1: got nothing going all brother, Man, I I appreciate you
Speaker 1: getting with me, bro um. This is it's an interesting
Speaker 1: time for you. Man. I wanted to talk about I
Speaker 1: want to just hear about like your actual process of
Speaker 1: of of the coaching search. But you know, I know
Speaker 1: that's probably something that you know, just kind of I
Speaker 1: gotta keep that. But maybe maybe maybe one day you
Speaker 1: you'll write a book, uh, and I can help you
Speaker 1: out and I'll find out there. Oh I got play
Speaker 1: of information for him book. Hold on a bit. Hold
Speaker 1: over that, man. We gotta get you higher. So we're
Speaker 1: hopefully somewhere on the West coast. Man, come out to
Speaker 1: l A getting the good sun out there. Baby. Hey
Speaker 1: all day, man, But I appreciate you for coming on. Bro.
Speaker 1: It's always a pleasure. Yeah, I appreciate you. Man. Next,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get on Baron David's show, so I can
Speaker 1: talk about the point guards. He got all the great
Speaker 1: point guards. I know I'm not the best, but come on, man,
Speaker 1: you need how that bed man. You see what he's
Speaker 1: on he got, he's got a good show. He's got
Speaker 1: some solid dudes and there. You need to be on there.
Speaker 1: I can't be got that level. Baby, you'd be good man. Brother,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. Thanks all right, brother,