Speaker 1: This is k J Live with Chris john Silis and
Speaker 1: Chris is having conversations with influencers in the sports world
Speaker 1: and entertainment industry. Now here's Chris Johnson. What's happening? You're
Speaker 1: now tuned in the k J Live. Today's guests on
Speaker 1: they shows is my man ESPN college basketball analyst Shawn
Speaker 1: for him, my former teammate, a good friend of mine, Sean,
Speaker 1: What is happening my man? Not much, man, Congratulations first
Speaker 1: and foremost to all the success that you're having. UH.
Speaker 1: Just so proud of you, Uh, you know, taking ownership
Speaker 1: and content. I know it's a big thing for your family. Uh,
Speaker 1: to see Josiah doing his thing on t NT. Uh,
Speaker 1: to seeing your dad continue to rule the NBA the
Speaker 1: way that he has for so many years, get that
Speaker 1: ring with the Bucks. Love all of it. But you know,
Speaker 1: as as you've always blazed, Chris, your own trail, and
Speaker 1: I know we're probably talking about your trail at some
Speaker 1: point down during this conversation, but absolutely you always blazed
Speaker 1: your own trail, and now you're taking ownership in your content. Uh,
Speaker 1: and you're becoming a great content creator and giving a
Speaker 1: great platform for people, uh to intersect not just with basketball,
Speaker 1: but with the culture around the game of basketball and
Speaker 1: the entertainment aspect of it. I mean, it's just so
Speaker 1: in your fact. It's just your fast line, man, and
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of you and what what you're building here. Man. Man,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Man. Look watching guys like you during
Speaker 1: the college basketball season all for the last twenty years, Sean,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just been inspiration. I've been knocking at
Speaker 1: the door. I've been knocking at the door. I've been
Speaker 1: knocking at the door. I've been knocking at the door.
Speaker 1: I finally got a little break. I'm very blessed and
Speaker 1: proud to be here. But man, this is about you.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about you, Sean. Yeah, I'm mentioning
Speaker 1: a twenty year career. I've always wanted to kind of
Speaker 1: find out the story, the background of how you got
Speaker 1: involved in broadcasting, because I thought you were gonna go
Speaker 1: down the coaching route or thee or even trying to
Speaker 1: a pro. I thought that, you know, honestly, I thought
Speaker 1: that you might have had an opportunity to play overseas.
Speaker 1: Talk about what made you get into the broadcasting game.
Speaker 1: UM as a as a youngster. So I mean I
Speaker 1: think too. To go back to your point, like, I
Speaker 1: had one contract offer overseas, it was in Budapest, Hungary, um,
Speaker 1: and I had that opportunity to go over there. I
Speaker 1: looked at it, um And then at the same time, though,
Speaker 1: I got offered an assistant coaching job at Peppernine, like
Speaker 1: right away. So you're like Budapest, Malibu, Budapest, Malibu, Boom
Speaker 1: or Budapest. I chose the boot over Budapest. Uh So yeah,
Speaker 1: look it was that was an easy decision. But to
Speaker 1: go back to your port about broadcasting, UM, you know,
Speaker 1: look it it kind of started, uh in there's in
Speaker 1: the strangers of ways and you know this, like it
Speaker 1: just sometimes things doors open up, you don't you don't
Speaker 1: even expect to open up. But I remember, uh, and
Speaker 1: you can attest to this. I was goofy. I've always
Speaker 1: been a little goofy. When I was playing at U
Speaker 1: c l A. I was a guy that, you know,
Speaker 1: after after pregame food, like I just go down and
Speaker 1: I just started like throwing up shots in the gym.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's be honest, I wasn't gonna get a
Speaker 1: lot of shots during the games. So I was gonna
Speaker 1: get my shots up when there was nobody else in
Speaker 1: Polly Pavilion. And one time Bill McDonald was there and
Speaker 1: Billy Mack was sitting there and I was like, yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: you've got the easiest job in the world. And he goes, well,
Speaker 1: why would you say that? He said, how how would
Speaker 1: you do? The night's open and we're playing Arizona State
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, I do this. I said, oh,
Speaker 1: I grabbed the microphone and I was like, hey, DUTs
Speaker 1: tonight and Polly Pavilion, it's Arizona State. Sound Devil's taken
Speaker 1: on u C l A. And while the focus could
Speaker 1: be on Veal Laser or Batiste, the youngster out of
Speaker 1: Northern California, Eddie House could cause a lot of problems
Speaker 1: for the Bruins today. And I didn't know, but the
Speaker 1: microphone was open to the truck, and in the truck
Speaker 1: was the coordinating producer at the time of Fox Sports West.
Speaker 1: So he comes down, he's like, who was that? And
Speaker 1: I'm sure I was like, you know, doing hook shots
Speaker 1: from half quarter or something, try to drop kick it
Speaker 1: in from the stands or something. And he's like, he's
Speaker 1: that guy. So he calls me over and goes, hey,
Speaker 1: do you want to do some TV stuff? And so
Speaker 1: my final two years and this was after you graduated,
Speaker 1: but my final two years at u c l A.
Speaker 1: I did the Farming Files on the U c l
Speaker 1: A Sports magazine show. And it was a weekly program
Speaker 1: back in the day with Fox Sports West. And what
Speaker 1: it did was it got me really comfortable with the camera.
Speaker 1: Like I never looked at the camera as something like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, there could be a million people on
Speaker 1: the other side of this thing. I looked at it
Speaker 1: as if you and I are having a conversation right now.
Speaker 1: And and a lot of that was the people that
Speaker 1: I worked with. Billy mack Is is the ultimate mentor
Speaker 1: of just enjoying uh and having fun and embracing the
Speaker 1: opportunity to call sports yeah and uh. Because of that relationship,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean some of the things that it was,
Speaker 1: like where do we hang out on Bruin Walk and
Speaker 1: you know the wall that we used to sit on
Speaker 1: outside the Bruin Walking with the taco bell over to
Speaker 1: the to the right hand side of it. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we did things like that. I interviewed laugh and was like,
Speaker 1: how come I don't play a little bit more like
Speaker 1: I mean, let's be honest. I know I'm not great,
Speaker 1: but I could I could get a little bit more burned.
Speaker 1: But you didn't ask Lab that, did you ask Lab?
Speaker 1: I did, Yeah I did, But what do you say?
Speaker 1: He said? Come on, we got seven pros on my team.
Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah, this good point. Um highs
Speaker 1: and lows, EPs and flows is how it goes. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, one of the things that that I
Speaker 1: learned though, was that you can be yourself. You can
Speaker 1: be authentic. You don't have to be you know, stiff, rigid,
Speaker 1: like Hi everybody, I'm Tom Brokaw. You know, like you
Speaker 1: could actually be, you know, just just yourself. And especially
Speaker 1: in the in the the sports medium, you can really
Speaker 1: allow your personality to come through and connect with people
Speaker 1: on the other side. And so that kind of was
Speaker 1: what drew me to it. And then you know, through
Speaker 1: my coaching stuff, like I really did, like to your point,
Speaker 1: I thought I was gonna be a college coach. I
Speaker 1: really did, uh And I was lucky to be on
Speaker 1: a staff that was really really good at at Pepper nine.
Speaker 1: But unfortunately after my first season, uh St bon venture
Speaker 1: opened up really really late. So it was after the
Speaker 1: final four and the coaching carousel had already kind of
Speaker 1: slowed down, and Jan van Bredakoff made the decision UH
Speaker 1: to go to Saint Bonaventure, and he to me if
Speaker 1: I wanted to go with him. But I had just
Speaker 1: gotten engaged and my wife, my fiance, had two years
Speaker 1: left at U c l A as a part of
Speaker 1: the soccer program. And this is before face time, and
Speaker 1: this is before all the ways you could connect now,
Speaker 1: like then you had no way of connecting outside of
Speaker 1: your phone emails, as you know, Like we were just
Speaker 1: we didn't even know what emails were, Like we're like sure, okay,
Speaker 1: like at U c l A. Dott E du good,
Speaker 1: this is my email? Never checking it? Yeah, never checking it.
Speaker 1: Never never supposed it was awesome. It was good days.
Speaker 1: But I made the decision at that point in time
Speaker 1: that I knew that if I left, there's no way
Speaker 1: that relationship would ever last. And so I called up
Speaker 1: the same people that I was doing the work for
Speaker 1: for free when I was at U c l A.
Speaker 1: And I said, hey, listen, not for two years I
Speaker 1: was part of this show. Any chance you give me
Speaker 1: an opportunity to get paid and they did, and uh
Speaker 1: that that's kind of how it started. It started with
Speaker 1: high school sports. It started making two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: dollars an appearance. I wasn't making a lot of my
Speaker 1: me I had to get a full time job outside
Speaker 1: of it. But it was all part of the process.
Speaker 1: Uh that has led me now to the last twelve
Speaker 1: years being at ESPN and and enjoying every step of
Speaker 1: that journey along the way. Yeah, I will say that
Speaker 1: even early on man back at U c l A,
Speaker 1: I could tell that you were destined to do this,
Speaker 1: like whether it was on the team bus, whether it
Speaker 1: was in the locker room, whether it's in the dorms
Speaker 1: where but no, you would you would break into your mode.
Speaker 1: You would break into your mode where you have an
Speaker 1: imaginary microphone and you'd like started interviewing me, or you'd
Speaker 1: be doing some stuff. Well, Chris, stop talk about you know,
Speaker 1: I'd like Sean shuts, you know, like far Hough, like dude,
Speaker 1: chill out. Because we weren't in the mood for it.
Speaker 1: But you and I said to me when I was
Speaker 1: at but I'll tell you what. But I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what You and Tony Lufman Tony Lufman, who has worked
Speaker 1: you know, has a major media presence. You guys are
Speaker 1: to me with the two most natural television people I
Speaker 1: had seen in my era that I've been around. I
Speaker 1: was just like, you know, just in general, so that
Speaker 1: just I saw it back. But you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: amazing that that you gave up coaching for love. That
Speaker 1: was that's a that's a major move. So she was
Speaker 1: to I don't want to get too personal, but it
Speaker 1: was good, but it was it was that So it
Speaker 1: was she was that important to you at that like
Speaker 1: look and the crazy part about it is, you know,
Speaker 1: like I was really really young. I mean I got engaged,
Speaker 1: um at twenty two. We got married when I was
Speaker 1: twenty four, and uh, you know, like you didn't. I
Speaker 1: always always joke I said, listen, if if you know
Speaker 1: you've got a lottery pick, you don't sign them to
Speaker 1: a ten day, you know you're gonna try to You're
Speaker 1: gonna try to sign them to a long term contract.
Speaker 1: And um, you know, super Max, there's there's highs and
Speaker 1: lows in any relationship. Um, anybody that's been married, anybody
Speaker 1: has been in a serious relationship that you guys, everybody
Speaker 1: knows that. But we're closing in on twenty years of
Speaker 1: marriage and it's it's you know, got three amazing kids,
Speaker 1: and they're not a day that I go by that
Speaker 1: I'm not like, you know what, like I should have
Speaker 1: gone and stuck into coaching. I should have continued down
Speaker 1: that path. Now, there's no doubt in my mind that
Speaker 1: had I stayed on that path, um that I that
Speaker 1: I would have probably been a head coach already probably somewhere.
Speaker 1: I love the game. I love coaching the game. I
Speaker 1: love studying the game. I think that's what helped me
Speaker 1: in the broadcasting world is that I look at as
Speaker 1: if I'm still coaching. I make scouting reports for every
Speaker 1: single team that I cover. Um, I watch film to
Speaker 1: a point where my wife's like, can you please get
Speaker 1: off a Synergy, which is a great website that has
Speaker 1: all of the games from all over the world. I've
Speaker 1: I've gotten during COVID. I got really into watching European
Speaker 1: basketball uh C s A k C C s k
Speaker 1: A over in Moscow as well. I think if they're
Speaker 1: innovative as far as what they're doing on their offense,
Speaker 1: I steal a lot of that stuff for the coaching stuff.
Speaker 1: I still do, but I've never looked back on it
Speaker 1: because she has been my biggest supporter, she has been
Speaker 1: my biggest challenger. She has been a person I have
Speaker 1: fought with more than anyone in the world. And and
Speaker 1: people hear that and they go like that's a negative,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, no, it's the best part of our relationship.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're both insanely competitive, um, but that that
Speaker 1: fight is what keeps our lives fresh and allows us
Speaker 1: to keep moving forward and be the parents that we
Speaker 1: are to our kids and and hopefully watch our kids
Speaker 1: on their journey find their own paths to success. And
Speaker 1: I know you know that as well being a father,
Speaker 1: uh that you know a lot of times you have
Speaker 1: a vision when you have a kid, what what their
Speaker 1: path is going to be? UM. But the reality is it,
Speaker 1: it's their story, it's their journey, UM. And whatever I
Speaker 1: can do to kind of foster that and help that, uh,
Speaker 1: that that's what I'm gonna do. And that's what we
Speaker 1: have connected as a couple. Extremely well. Wow, man, I
Speaker 1: think it sounds like you guys did it the right way.
Speaker 1: I think as far as you know, fatherhood and pushing
Speaker 1: your kids towards their passion, you know, from my son,
Speaker 1: I let him kind of just pick basketball. You know,
Speaker 1: I didn't really force feed it. I didn't force feed
Speaker 1: it to him. You know, he was he was a
Speaker 1: base ball guy first and then kind of was not
Speaker 1: really basketball, but then started to pick it up and
Speaker 1: started to love it and got the bug and then
Speaker 1: got knee deep in it. But I told him he's
Speaker 1: in the crypto all type of stuff. Whatever he does.
Speaker 1: I told him, whatever he does, if he decided to
Speaker 1: quit and play basket and not play another uh quarter
Speaker 1: of basketball, another minute of basketball, I still support whatever
Speaker 1: he was, you know, with the same page. You've got
Speaker 1: a cent right, Like I mean, there's no there's no
Speaker 1: half hard. So whatever your passion is, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of things. And I see a
Speaker 1: lot of other kids now obviously because I've got young kids,
Speaker 1: and it's funny to me that they kind of just
Speaker 1: go through the motions. A lot of young kids go
Speaker 1: through the motions and things, and like I tell my son,
Speaker 1: like so like basketball for my son, my oldest son,
Speaker 1: he he likes it, he plays it, but he doesn't
Speaker 1: love it. Now, if you go to his YouTube channel
Speaker 1: and check out his video game stuff that he doesn't
Speaker 1: call of duty. He's absolutely insane and he loves and
Speaker 1: he's becoming a content creator and that for him and
Speaker 1: and and I see the way that his his eyes
Speaker 1: light up, and I see that passion and the editing
Speaker 1: and the sound and listen to musical no no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: Dad that I can't put that song here because this
Speaker 1: song needs to go here because the beat hits this.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, these are traits that are going to
Speaker 1: bode well for him in the future, because he wants
Speaker 1: to get into film and television and be a producer
Speaker 1: and director. And I'm like, you know what, Like, if
Speaker 1: that's your passion, like, yeah, invest more of your time
Speaker 1: in that than basketball. And sometimes people look at me
Speaker 1: and they're like, how are you not pushing your kid
Speaker 1: to play basketball? And I'm like, because I've played the game,
Speaker 1: I understand what it takes. First of all, to play
Speaker 1: at the level in which we did, you have to
Speaker 1: be really, really really good to be a guy like
Speaker 1: you who was an outstanding score even at the college level.
Speaker 1: You know, to be a guy like Baron or Matt
Speaker 1: or Earl or Jason or Dan or Jerome, like people
Speaker 1: have no idea and then to go to that next
Speaker 1: level and be those other guys at the Janice Is
Speaker 1: and the Luca Dot like, like you're talking about so
Speaker 1: exceptional to get to that level that if you invest
Speaker 1: time in it and you lose the opportunities that might
Speaker 1: open up, or your passion or what your true passions
Speaker 1: are because you're chasing a dream that you think others
Speaker 1: expect you to do, then you lose the essence of
Speaker 1: what is life. And if coming out of COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: in particular, and I've had this conversation with all three
Speaker 1: of my kids, if coming out of COVID nineteen, you're
Speaker 1: not focused on your passion, like I'm really concerned about you.
Speaker 1: If you think you have to be somebody that you're
Speaker 1: not out of COVID nineteen after being locked in, not
Speaker 1: going to school, not having friends, not having social life,
Speaker 1: missing homecomings, homecoming dances, proms, all those things, none of
Speaker 1: that matters. Just be happy with you the first answer
Speaker 1: to the secret of life. And Chris, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: a real positive, trying to be motivational guy a lot,
Speaker 1: but the thing that I've learned in my life is
Speaker 1: for ultimate happiness, you have to be able to answer
Speaker 1: one question, who am I? Who am I? If you
Speaker 1: know who you are, like everything else falls into place.
Speaker 1: But if you wrong to be somebody else because you
Speaker 1: think society wants you to be. And I think I
Speaker 1: struggled with this that you see your life. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: struggled with this big time as a freshman, as a sophomore,
Speaker 1: coming to the that locker room with those guys. I fail. Man. Alright, Sean,
Speaker 1: let me touch on that. It's it's I think that's
Speaker 1: one of the most difficult things for for us, especially
Speaker 1: just an understanding of self and and grasping who you
Speaker 1: are and who you can project to be. I was
Speaker 1: confused a lot growing up, just because you know my
Speaker 1: upbringing and you know, living split. My parents were divorced,
Speaker 1: so I'm living my dad and bell Air and I'm
Speaker 1: living with my mom in South Central and so you know,
Speaker 1: I have to act a certain way over here and
Speaker 1: have to act a certain way over there. And so
Speaker 1: by the time I got to U c l A,
Speaker 1: I kind of you know, you know, you're you're on
Speaker 1: the basketball team, and you know everybody's looking at you.
Speaker 1: Everybody wants to be a part of you, so you
Speaker 1: don't know how to really I personally, I didn't know
Speaker 1: how to act, so it was always kind of backfired.
Speaker 1: I'd start just being Stanny local or some crazy variation
Speaker 1: of really who Chris really was? Like Sean, you see
Speaker 1: you know that your two sides. Did you know there
Speaker 1: was like there was Chris when making you're making me
Speaker 1: something like that. But no. But so what I'm saying
Speaker 1: is what I'm saying, is it took me. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: about to be whatever, I'm about to be old next
Speaker 1: month my birthday, but it took me thirty thirty five
Speaker 1: years and I'm and I haven't mastered it to grasp
Speaker 1: what you're talking about, of understanding who I am and
Speaker 1: really being comfortable with projecting that out here. And it's
Speaker 1: even comfortable in your own skin. It comes through and
Speaker 1: television whatever we're doing, especially media stuff, It's like the
Speaker 1: best people are the ones that are themselves and aren't
Speaker 1: trying to be some version of a TV guy, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And so, and for me personally,
Speaker 1: that's been the struggle. How did you reach achieved that
Speaker 1: level of comfort, especially in front of the camera. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know you have the experience, But what do you
Speaker 1: is there something like Chris like honestly, like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I tried so hard, uh to fit in, too hard
Speaker 1: to fit in. I was a try hard Like I
Speaker 1: think that's what the kids, the young kids would say.
Speaker 1: I was a try hard. I tried so hard to
Speaker 1: fit in. Um to the dynamics of our team, right.
Speaker 1: And you know I was raised differently, like I mean,
Speaker 1: like we're all raised differently. We all have different journeys,
Speaker 1: in different paths right to get there. Um. But I
Speaker 1: really was like, Okay, So I didn't listen to a
Speaker 1: lot of rap music before I came to U C
Speaker 1: l A. I. I didn't know who d MX was
Speaker 1: until I sat in the locker room for the first
Speaker 1: time and I was like WHOA, Like this is uh
Speaker 1: you know there there was there was. I was a
Speaker 1: country music guy and I was from a really small
Speaker 1: town in the East Bay, and and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: now I'm in this locker room with national champions like yourself,
Speaker 1: like Toby, like JR. Henderson, uh, Cam Bob Chuck like
Speaker 1: I mean that was that was an incredible group in
Speaker 1: ninety seven of guys that had rings. And then you
Speaker 1: add in the mix Gilani McCoy, Brandon Lloyd, Oklahoma UM
Speaker 1: and I was the only freshman, so I didn't have
Speaker 1: really anybody that I could look to to kind of
Speaker 1: balance out, like how do I assimilate into this group?
Speaker 1: And I was lost, and I started doing things that
Speaker 1: I've never done before. Like I didn't drink in high school.
Speaker 1: I started drinking a lot when I was feel like,
Speaker 1: you didn't drink around me. The first the first time
Speaker 1: I went out, it was the that Sunday before school started,
Speaker 1: and y'all took us out and and I went sideways,
Speaker 1: and then I was like, well, this is fun. And
Speaker 1: then I realized also the power of I played basketball
Speaker 1: at U c l A. I'm part of this fraternity,
Speaker 1: Like I didn't have to go through an initiation, because
Speaker 1: the initiation was being a member of that team, and
Speaker 1: the status in which you guys all had on that
Speaker 1: campus was unique. And so I started deviating from from
Speaker 1: things that were innately me. And it wasn't until probably
Speaker 1: my junior year, and and then a couple that with
Speaker 1: the time that my entire life, I played every minute
Speaker 1: of every basketball game that I ever wanted to play,
Speaker 1: and I end up playing nine games in thirty minutes
Speaker 1: as a freshman, and and then that dropped to nine
Speaker 1: games in eighteen minutes as a softmore, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I mean I was lost. I mean I was lost.
Speaker 1: I I did not know how, um to change my
Speaker 1: place on the team. I did not know how to positively.
Speaker 1: I felt like I had no positive impact whatsoever and
Speaker 1: the success that we had as a group, um, and
Speaker 1: I felt that I was losing my identity because for
Speaker 1: so long in life, when you're an athlete, and Chris
Speaker 1: you know this, that you identify with your sport, like
Speaker 1: your sport becomes who you are when you get to
Speaker 1: that level. And for me, I was like, Basketball's my sport,
Speaker 1: but I'm not even playing, Like how can that be
Speaker 1: my sport? How can that be my identity? And there
Speaker 1: there was a time in particular where I hit rock bottom.
Speaker 1: And I have no problem telling you telling this story
Speaker 1: because I think it's important that people understand. We went
Speaker 1: down to Madison's after a game, UH and I ended
Speaker 1: up taking a lot of shots, probably about thirteen, and
Speaker 1: I went back to my my room, UH and I
Speaker 1: threw up all night long and probably had alcohol poisoning
Speaker 1: UH and was emotionally distraught. My girlfriend came over at
Speaker 1: the time and she was like, what is wrong with you?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I'm a disappointment to my parents, I'm
Speaker 1: a disappointment to my teammates. Uh, you know, I'm a joke.
Speaker 1: And That's how I felt. And it was kind of
Speaker 1: that was the rock bottom moment where I had to
Speaker 1: pull myself back up out of that, because there's two
Speaker 1: ways I could have gone there. I could have spiraled
Speaker 1: out of control and just continue down that that that
Speaker 1: path um or I could kind of stand up amount
Speaker 1: two feet and start to identify maybe something that I
Speaker 1: could do to help the team. Uh. And more importantly,
Speaker 1: that my value in life had nothing to do with basketball,
Speaker 1: and my value of what I could bring to the
Speaker 1: table was a lot larger, uh than U c l
Speaker 1: A Basketball. Although U c l A Basketball clearly has
Speaker 1: opened up so many doors of opportunity for me. I
Speaker 1: don't want to diminish that, but my life was bigger
Speaker 1: than that. And Sean, that's a very mature or perspective
Speaker 1: to have at that time in your life. It sounds like,
Speaker 1: you know, like a It's an occurring theme and a
Speaker 1: lot of my interviews I asked people about mental health
Speaker 1: challenges and what happens when they're at their lowest point
Speaker 1: as an athlete. How do they pull themselves up? I
Speaker 1: asked you this question. Was there someone that helped that
Speaker 1: helped you get out of that funk, someone that helped
Speaker 1: you gave you some tools on how to cope and
Speaker 1: gave you this information, or did you do some soul
Speaker 1: searching and kind of figured this thing out on your own.
Speaker 1: I would say it was my wife, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: she we were dating at the time, and and she
Speaker 1: she stood up. I would say it was my dad.
Speaker 1: My dad was incredibly hard on me as a child.
Speaker 1: Um you know, I you know, would score thirty six
Speaker 1: points in high school game of Dallas aub but I
Speaker 1: missed too many free throws and have to come home
Speaker 1: and make two under three throws before I could go
Speaker 1: to bed. I couldn't go out with the guys and
Speaker 1: and party or go to the movies or whatever. And
Speaker 1: that was just h That was my upbring. But my dad.
Speaker 1: I remember one time, I you know, I actually walked
Speaker 1: into office after my sophomore year and I told laugh
Speaker 1: I was transferring and that I was gonna leave, and
Speaker 1: we walked up to UH. I walked out of there.
Speaker 1: I walked up to the administration building. I grabbed my
Speaker 1: transcripts so I could have that. Lab said he would
Speaker 1: grant my waiver. UH. As we walked back towards the
Speaker 1: dorms where I was staying for a c session of
Speaker 1: summer school, my dad turned around and goes, let me
Speaker 1: ask you this, take basketball out of the equation. You
Speaker 1: want to leave this. And I was looking back over
Speaker 1: U c l AS campus right there between the Tennis
Speaker 1: Center and Drake Stadium, and you know exactly where I'm
Speaker 1: looking at, and I'm like, no, i don't want to
Speaker 1: leave this. We I'm gonna go Colorado State, like I mean,
Speaker 1: it was good. I was probably gonna transfer like Colorado State.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I'm gonna leave U c l A
Speaker 1: for Colorado State, like no offense to Colorado State. But
Speaker 1: it is not U c l A. So we walked
Speaker 1: back down the hill right away, and I walked into
Speaker 1: LABS office and I said, listen, I said, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm not transferring. I can't do that. I'm not a
Speaker 1: I'm not a quitter. I'm not gonna walk away. I'm
Speaker 1: a fighter. Uh, and I'm gonna figure something out. And
Speaker 1: and inevitably I did. I changed every aspect of how
Speaker 1: I played UM and I tried to find a role
Speaker 1: that nobody else really wanted to do on the team.
Speaker 1: And that's how I ended up getting my my mean,
Speaker 1: my my small role on the team. And and and
Speaker 1: it's so funny because you know this, Chris, like people
Speaker 1: are farmm starting that's a joke. I'll be the first
Speaker 1: one to tell you it was. No, I'll be Chris.
Speaker 1: I'm honest. We're a note. How many games in a
Speaker 1: row did we win with you starting? We never lost
Speaker 1: three the season game that I started. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: We're underfading. We start find him as the starter. Bro,
Speaker 1: give me a brea. But but but the reality of
Speaker 1: it is is when you have Jerome movies, so Daniel
Speaker 1: Zerk Matt Bonds on the team, there's no way Sean
Speaker 1: Farm should be starting. So I understand why people on
Speaker 1: the outside would look at that. Now from my perspective,
Speaker 1: and I got this great conversation, like Earl came over
Speaker 1: one time to my my duplex when I first got married,
Speaker 1: and he has he goes, do you have the Maryland
Speaker 1: game that we played in the n C Double A
Speaker 1: Tournament when we absolutely blitzed Maryland, and so we put
Speaker 1: it in Earl's got sixteen and says zero turn over,
Speaker 1: seventeen points and throwing lobs from like three quarters court.
Speaker 1: Geron's catchy first slapping the backboard, I mean, straight off
Speaker 1: of like a four month suspension. I mean it was.
Speaker 1: It was just silly. And I said to Earl's we're
Speaker 1: watching again, I'm like, you never ran the offense where
Speaker 1: I could get a shot, and he goes, that's because
Speaker 1: I knew that you would ball reversal without even looking
Speaker 1: for your shot. You would set the best back screen
Speaker 1: that gave me the best opportunity to get the lab
Speaker 1: but also kept the timing right so that when you
Speaker 1: ball reversal to me, I could hit Dan Jerome or
Speaker 1: Matt on the block and let them go to work.
Speaker 1: And we were good. And I kind of thought about that,
Speaker 1: and I was like, well, then every change I made
Speaker 1: in my game was worth it, because that's what I
Speaker 1: was really trying to do. Because when you have a
Speaker 1: team that has Campono and Matt and and Earl and
Speaker 1: all those guys, Billy Knight, uh you didn't need Sean
Speaker 1: farn Ray young. You didn't need Sean Varna to shoot
Speaker 1: the ball. In fact, it was a detriment and probably
Speaker 1: a bad shot if I shot it. And so what
Speaker 1: I needed to do was try to play defense, try
Speaker 1: to rebound, try to add some toughness. Uh and said
Speaker 1: good spines, and and I found that. But I had
Speaker 1: to change my body because when I came in to
Speaker 1: u c l A, you know, I was six six.
Speaker 1: I went seriously, and then by the time I was done,
Speaker 1: I was six six tot when I left U c L.
Speaker 1: When my senior year, I was too forty five. But
Speaker 1: I spent I lifted every day. I lifted. On game day,
Speaker 1: I would go to the Wooden Center. I was eating
Speaker 1: as much as I possibly could. When we went to
Speaker 1: training table, I grabbed like four or five chicken breasts
Speaker 1: and just start eating like as much as I could,
Speaker 1: because I knew the only way I could contribute is
Speaker 1: if I got stronger. And that's that was what I did.
Speaker 1: And so my shot went to hell. Um. I couldn't
Speaker 1: shoot it hardly at all because I was too strong,
Speaker 1: like my neck and everything was too tight. Um. But
Speaker 1: it was it was what allowed me to get out
Speaker 1: there and they have the opportunity to play and and
Speaker 1: really enjoy my final two seasons at u c L.
Speaker 1: A Yeah, I mean it was a great time and
Speaker 1: you you did as proud bro. The undefeated during the
Speaker 1: regular season is something that it resonates to me this day. UM.
Speaker 1: I guess moving forward to to u c L. A
Speaker 1: present day, let's touch on some stuff going on in
Speaker 1: college basketball and what we're doing right now. Let's staying
Speaker 1: in Westwood preseason number one or number two, depending on
Speaker 1: which Paul kim Palm has the number seven. Do you
Speaker 1: think that do you think that the Bruins can win
Speaker 1: the national championship this year? I do? I do, um,
Speaker 1: And I actually was just at practice the other day.
Speaker 1: I really like this team. Um. I think that There's
Speaker 1: a couple of things that stood out to me, and
Speaker 1: it was the practice I was at was kind of
Speaker 1: a lighter practice because they've gone hard the day before,
Speaker 1: so you didn't get to even see a lot of
Speaker 1: what I anticipate. But I would say that let's start
Speaker 1: with just Miles Johnson, Like a lot of people would go, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's start with Johnny Gusse. I'm gonna start with Miles Johnson.
Speaker 1: Here's what I'm gonna start with Miles Johnson. He is
Speaker 1: an elite level defensive big elites in the game. Obviously
Speaker 1: it's blocked shots in the Big Ten, he was All
Speaker 1: defensive player pick. But when you have you see I
Speaker 1: didn't have a rim protector, and when you have a
Speaker 1: rim protector, you also have a rim alterer. Right, So, like,
Speaker 1: it's not just the block shots, it's how many shots
Speaker 1: is he able to alter? And then what does that
Speaker 1: allow you to do innately out on the perimeter. Well,
Speaker 1: it allows you to pressure and extend out a little
Speaker 1: bit more because now you have protection behind you. Um.
Speaker 1: And so guys like Tiger Campbell that at times can
Speaker 1: struggle a little bit with his on ball defense, I
Speaker 1: think he's gonna be able to extend out a little bit.
Speaker 1: And when I equate it to this, like, no matter
Speaker 1: how good you are as a team, and U c.
Speaker 1: L A Was really really good last year and I
Speaker 1: was lucky enough to be at that game against Gonzaga,
Speaker 1: uh covering it for espn UM. But if you allow
Speaker 1: the quarterback to have time in the pocket, right, and
Speaker 1: you're not pressuring the ball because you don't have necessarily
Speaker 1: the back line support. The quarterback is gonna eventually find
Speaker 1: somebody open. They're eventually gonna start to find their rhythm.
Speaker 1: At the offensive end, if you have a rim protector
Speaker 1: and you know what, you're protected from the backside, and
Speaker 1: you pressure the ball and you don't allow the person
Speaker 1: with the ball to be comfortable, you start to become
Speaker 1: disruptive just with that very small change and shift. And
Speaker 1: so I think defensively for u c l A, they're
Speaker 1: going to be able to press more. And I think
Speaker 1: part of the reason you can presh the more is
Speaker 1: also Peyton Watson. He is an athlete that U c
Speaker 1: l A did not have on their roster a year ago.
Speaker 1: They didn't have an athlete of his caliber. And even
Speaker 1: watching how smooth he glides out on the floor, I mean, look,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be a top ten pick in the NBA Draft.
Speaker 1: Probably he's gonna be in Westwood for a very short
Speaker 1: period of time. But when you couple that with the
Speaker 1: return of Johnny Jusang and Heinie Hawkes and Cody Riley,
Speaker 1: uh and that Jalen Clark, who has gotten a lot
Speaker 1: lot better from where he was a season ago. I
Speaker 1: think that this team is all the bit of number
Speaker 1: two in the country, easily could be number one in
Speaker 1: the country. Um, it's it's the highest. You know, we
Speaker 1: have been number one in the country U c l
Speaker 1: A since the seventies, which is kind of remarkable to
Speaker 1: think of preseason number one U c l A had
Speaker 1: not and season number one seven we were nine were
Speaker 1: preseason number one? Right? No? Not according to that life Department.
Speaker 1: I asked that question two days ago. I guess Sports
Speaker 1: Illustrating might have had so then it might have been
Speaker 1: had number one, But no, but that a p or
Speaker 1: U s A to Day or the coaches post. So
Speaker 1: I I, okay, I'll take that. I'll take that. I'll
Speaker 1: test it. Okay, But as you know, it's not where
Speaker 1: you start, it is where you finish. And you want
Speaker 1: to play in that last game. I mean, look like
Speaker 1: I was talking to Josh Passner the other day for
Speaker 1: a thing for cancer, uh and Josh and I were
Speaker 1: doing a zoom and he talked about ninety seven. I
Speaker 1: was like, well, who beat your butts twice that year?
Speaker 1: We did, but guess what he played in the last
Speaker 1: game of the year and we did not? Right, Um,
Speaker 1: and so they get the Natty and they get the ring.
Speaker 1: Uh So I think for U. C. L A, Yes,
Speaker 1: they have all the pieces there that will allow them
Speaker 1: to get there. I think the big thing for me
Speaker 1: is is the hunger still there. Are they satisfied with
Speaker 1: the run last year? Are they believing in the hype
Speaker 1: of what they were able to accomplish or do they
Speaker 1: understand that there are still more for them to accomplish
Speaker 1: and that they can accompt push it because the pieces
Speaker 1: are there for mccronin and and for all the naysayers
Speaker 1: of Mick and I understand that when he came from Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: the doubters and everything like that. When when you watch
Speaker 1: the way that offense executed in the n C Double
Speaker 1: A Tournament run, that was high level offense, that was unselfish,
Speaker 1: great basketball mixed in with a defensive presence, and I
Speaker 1: think that it's voting really well for him now. But
Speaker 1: also moving forward, when you look at the quality of
Speaker 1: recruits that he and his staff has been able to
Speaker 1: continue to go out in the level of athleticism upticking
Speaker 1: every single year in Westwood means that this program is
Speaker 1: back and I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon
Speaker 1: do you think staying with you? Do you think the
Speaker 1: new Jordan brand deal will have anything to do And Sean,
Speaker 1: I asked you this because you remember when we were
Speaker 1: schools players and how we felt about shoes and what
Speaker 1: was on our feet. But do you think the George
Speaker 1: Bread deal. These guys are in Nikes now, do you
Speaker 1: think this will change anything as far as their motivation
Speaker 1: to play compete? Because here's my thing about you. Like
Speaker 1: playing Devil's Advocate. Some say they got lucky last year.
Speaker 1: Some say they went they got hot at the right time.
Speaker 1: They had lost three straight going into the tournament, lost
Speaker 1: to Oregon State in the Pac ten twelve tournament. Got lucky,
Speaker 1: They said they got lucky against Michigan Alabama. I mean
Speaker 1: all the type of all type of games. So playing
Speaker 1: Devil's Advocate, So do you think this year, okay, this
Speaker 1: team with that experience, they're gonna build off of that.
Speaker 1: They got the new Jordan Brand deal. There feeling good
Speaker 1: about themselves, They're looking good. You think you think that
Speaker 1: I have something to do with it? Seane, I hope
Speaker 1: that's not a stupid question. No, no, no, I mean, look,
Speaker 1: we cared about shoes like half the time we got
Speaker 1: the Reeboks are fresh my freshman year, we were throwing
Speaker 1: them back at the Reebok rep going like this is crap. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know. Then we finally got Ai to give us
Speaker 1: issues and those those were unbelief I think I still have.
Speaker 1: Those were the only cool ones. Those were the only
Speaker 1: comfortable rebox I've ever warned to be. He was unbelievable. Um.
Speaker 1: And then we switched to Adidas UM and the use
Speaker 1: was okay, Like they were okay, but they weren't who
Speaker 1: they are now. They're better now than they were when
Speaker 1: we when we were rocking them in the basketball world.
Speaker 1: But we always wanted to be Nike. We I mean
Speaker 1: Barren at one point in time, I think he wore
Speaker 1: Nikes and then just covered it up with tape. He
Speaker 1: covered the Sqush camera Dollar to the I don't think
Speaker 1: you were there. That was the year before Dollar was
Speaker 1: doing that all year. Yeah, So I mean, you know, like, yes,
Speaker 1: it matters. And I think also more importantly, when you
Speaker 1: look at the recruiting circuits, where are the recruiting circuits
Speaker 1: And we can kind of try to minimize minimize the
Speaker 1: recruiting aspect of the college game, but under Armer really
Speaker 1: wasn't bringing a lot of high level recruits to Westwood.
Speaker 1: Is There's some, but not a lot. Uh. The E
Speaker 1: Y B L is the best circuit on the club scene.
Speaker 1: It is, it has been, and it will continue to be. UM.
Speaker 1: And there is a a stage now with the with
Speaker 1: the Jordan brand and the number of few schools across
Speaker 1: the country that actually have the Jordan brand UM that
Speaker 1: it allows the name of U c l A associated
Speaker 1: with the name of Michael Jordan's UM to just be
Speaker 1: a perfect marriage for basketball in particular. And I think
Speaker 1: they've done a really good job of trying to capitalize
Speaker 1: on that already. I think they will continue to do
Speaker 1: a good job capitalizing on it, uh and recruiting at
Speaker 1: a really really high level. It's kind of cool, right
Speaker 1: like some of the some of today's youngsters, they want
Speaker 1: to feel what's what's the what's the trend? What is cool? Right?
Speaker 1: Like they go on Twitter, they see what's trending? You know,
Speaker 1: you go to Instagram and you you flip over to
Speaker 1: like the little spyglass thing and what do you see?
Speaker 1: What's trending? What's new? UM and the Jordan brand with
Speaker 1: U c l A is new. I think our athletic director,
Speaker 1: Martin Jarmond has been absolutely phenomenal. Even in a global pandemic,
Speaker 1: he was able to create a buzz and an energy
Speaker 1: that we haven't seen out of the athletic department in
Speaker 1: a long long time. Uh. And I think that that
Speaker 1: will pay dividends not just for men's basketball, but for
Speaker 1: the athletic athletic department overall. Staying in the Pack twelve,
Speaker 1: I want to just get your take on the top
Speaker 1: three teams that you think are going to be, uh,
Speaker 1: basically the three highest seeds come tournament time that are
Speaker 1: coming out of the pack twelve. Well, I think the
Speaker 1: organized I don't think there's an doubt of that. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know Dana Altman as well as I do. H
Speaker 1: Dana Altman. He just sits there every preseason media pool.
Speaker 1: He has like his bucket, like his little his little bowl,
Speaker 1: and he's got his like wooden spoon, and he's just
Speaker 1: like really really only got two first place folks. Keep key,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna keep stirring, keep stirring. And then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, January middle of January hits and we're like,
Speaker 1: man Oregan is really really good. You know, it's like,
Speaker 1: no kidding, they're really really good. I think Gary Air
Speaker 1: the transfer from Syracuse, harm In the transfer from Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: These guys can really score. Uh. And I know obviously
Speaker 1: we saw Chris Duarte in the NBA his his debut,
Speaker 1: he had over twenty uh in his debut. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's he's a beast. Uh And they will miss him,
Speaker 1: but they they got will Rich. Will Rich, my kids,
Speaker 1: Lefty and I spent I spend time with him up there.
Speaker 1: I think it's a deep team. I think this is
Speaker 1: a team that's certainly gonna be preseason like you know,
Speaker 1: like in my rankings preseason, they're right outside the top ten,
Speaker 1: but I could easily see them getting into the top
Speaker 1: ten by the end of the season, just because I
Speaker 1: think Dana Altman is that elite of a coach too,
Speaker 1: like and I think a lot of his his philosophy
Speaker 1: of of roster turnover. And we talked about this every
Speaker 1: year with Oregon. We're like, oh my gosh, so much
Speaker 1: roster turnover. He was a junior college coach all you know,
Speaker 1: how to turnover at the Jukes. How he's mastered that
Speaker 1: art man of mession guys year in year out. I
Speaker 1: witnessed it. As you know, my son was a walk
Speaker 1: on for four years. Up there want three pack twelve
Speaker 1: championships or something like, they got three rings. I don't
Speaker 1: know if he says he got more than me, but
Speaker 1: I don't know. Have to look at which pack twelver
Speaker 1: he won. But anyway, dude, it would shock me. Every
Speaker 1: single year. I'd be like, Oh, no way, he's gonna
Speaker 1: make this work. You know, no way he's making these
Speaker 1: guys work. And then come last five games in the season, man,
Speaker 1: and dude start bawling out. So who do you think though,
Speaker 1: So for that next kind of tier he got, we got?
Speaker 1: You said, obviously it smashed it smashed up my. I
Speaker 1: think this vote's wealth of the conference that we start
Speaker 1: a year with maybe six or seven teams that I
Speaker 1: think can make the n C Double A tournament. Uh,
Speaker 1: As you know, Chris, it hasn't been that way for
Speaker 1: a long part. But I think a lot of the
Speaker 1: expectation comes off of what was a great n C
Speaker 1: Double A tournament for so many teams. But to your
Speaker 1: point on u c l A, u c l A
Speaker 1: got hot at the right time, Oregon State wouldn't even
Speaker 1: made the tournament and they got all the way to
Speaker 1: the Elite eight. So I think that that's great, But
Speaker 1: now you've got to follow it up with a good
Speaker 1: November and a good December to kind of set the
Speaker 1: tone going into conference play again this year. I think
Speaker 1: it's three teams that that are gonna be in the
Speaker 1: next group. One is Tommy Lloyd in Arizona. I think
Speaker 1: that that's a group that a lot of people want
Speaker 1: to dismiss right away because he's a new coach. He's
Speaker 1: an assistant coach that's taking over as a head coach. Uh,
Speaker 1: They've done a good job getting some grad transfers in
Speaker 1: the guys that they have back pretty good. Uh. Matherin
Speaker 1: Is is awesome. I love his Bellis to Beyllis is
Speaker 1: great as well. So you have have two guys that
Speaker 1: are double digit scores coming back, that have experience and
Speaker 1: are going to be better than they were a year ago.
Speaker 1: And I had a coach tell me that Tommy Lloyd
Speaker 1: has the best resume of an assistant coach to take
Speaker 1: over a Power five conference job since Roy Williams. You
Speaker 1: think about Roy Williams and Carolina, he had everything. I mean,
Speaker 1: he had the National Championship and everything. Tommy only blacks
Speaker 1: the National Championship. Everything that he did again, Zaga was
Speaker 1: elite and at a very very high level. He's a
Speaker 1: great recruiter. He's all about relationships, I think, and he's
Speaker 1: a he's a detail oriented coach. He's gonna let offensively,
Speaker 1: They're gonna play very free and flowing a very European
Speaker 1: field to the offense. I think that's gonna that's gonna
Speaker 1: appease the fan base in Tucson. But I don't think
Speaker 1: the Wildcats are going anywhere. I mean, I think they're
Speaker 1: in that mix of three, four and five. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, any NFL doesn't get the respect that I
Speaker 1: think he desperately deserves. Um. And here's why I say that,
Speaker 1: because you know as well as anybody. I mean, we
Speaker 1: we face some really good sc teams. When Grandville Blue
Speaker 1: and Ultra Pon you claim at see Calabrini, I mean,
Speaker 1: those are those were squads. But there's been a long
Speaker 1: stretch of USC basketball where they've really kind of been
Speaker 1: in and out of even being relevant. And now they
Speaker 1: have no well, by the way, almost no home environment
Speaker 1: whatsoever except for like one or two games per year.
Speaker 1: Which is a shame because the fans should come out
Speaker 1: and support Andy and what they have been able to
Speaker 1: build there. But they've recruited at a really, really high level.
Speaker 1: I think Isaiah Mobile coming back obviously it's huge. I
Speaker 1: would anticipate that he is a little bit more assertive,
Speaker 1: uh than he has been in the past. You've got
Speaker 1: four four others top five guys back, you get a
Speaker 1: transfer in Boogie Ellis from Memphis. I think USC is
Speaker 1: gonna be right there. Again, they're gonna be a different team.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're gonna be as focused on the
Speaker 1: interior obviously with Evan Mobile, who had a great debut
Speaker 1: as well in the NBA. UM, But I do think
Speaker 1: s He's gonna be right there. And then I think
Speaker 1: the one team that is Matt overly being disrespected right
Speaker 1: now is the place where you stole the ball from
Speaker 1: Baron Davis and hit the game when he shot. That's
Speaker 1: why to Washington State. Yeah, I think I think Kyle
Speaker 1: Smith is Smith Baby. He is. He is really good
Speaker 1: as a coach. He plays clear strengths, He lets his
Speaker 1: guards have just amazing amount of freedom. Um. And I
Speaker 1: think you look at like noelh williams. Uh. You look
Speaker 1: at Tyrell Roberts, the transfer from u C. S d Uh,
Speaker 1: and then you you have f A albo Ghidi, who
Speaker 1: I think is gonna have another tremendous year. I think
Speaker 1: Washington State could be the best defensive team in the
Speaker 1: Pac twelve this year, and if the best defensive team,
Speaker 1: they make the n C Double A tournament for the
Speaker 1: first time since two thousand and eight. Sean back when
Speaker 1: we played Washington State wasn't necessarily the toughest place in
Speaker 1: the world to play. Now given this wasn't the same
Speaker 1: time at the same time because it is Pullman, But
Speaker 1: given this season, with the return of fans and the
Speaker 1: return of these sort of you know, home court advantage
Speaker 1: environments that you're gonna have, do you think you know
Speaker 1: a Washington State could create that type of atmosphere because
Speaker 1: I think that's the one thing that's just lacking for
Speaker 1: Kyle Smith up there, is that sphere to get it. Really,
Speaker 1: given what's going on in their football program right now
Speaker 1: with Rolovich, their coach being fired, and all of that
Speaker 1: situation the up evil there, I think that the sports
Speaker 1: fans in that general vicinity will be looking uh to
Speaker 1: support Washington State, So I think that you will have
Speaker 1: good environments, in particular on those Saturday games. I do
Speaker 1: worry about those Tuesday night games because a lot of
Speaker 1: their fans aren't necessarily there. They drive in from Spokane,
Speaker 1: they drive in from court A Lane. Uh, they drive
Speaker 1: out from outside of Pullman to get there. So some
Speaker 1: of those Thursday night games may not have that great feel.
Speaker 1: But I would anticipate that their Saturday games should be
Speaker 1: should be really good, especially since the conference is really good.
Speaker 1: Because you know, I mentioned those five, but we don't
Speaker 1: even mentioned Bobby Hurley at Arizona State, who I think
Speaker 1: is gonna have much more of the team kind of
Speaker 1: that that works for him. Uh. This year, I think
Speaker 1: Mary and Jackson that transfer from Toledo is gonna be
Speaker 1: really important for them. An average about eighteen points per
Speaker 1: game for them a year ago. Uh, you got Luther
Speaker 1: Mohammed to transfer from Ohio State. He's now eligible to play,
Speaker 1: So I think you're gonna have some experienced guys. Uh.
Speaker 1: They're gonna work well with Bagley, who who returned to
Speaker 1: campus after testing the draft waters. I think Tad will
Speaker 1: best recruiting class in the pack Swell this year. I
Speaker 1: went to Colorado, so I think that's he's He's done
Speaker 1: a tremendous job coaching there as well. Uh, and they
Speaker 1: got Evan Baddy back. But I do think that they
Speaker 1: miss McKinley right too much. And that's why I don't
Speaker 1: have Colorado and that upper upper tier of the conference,
Speaker 1: just because I thought McKinley right was so valuable for
Speaker 1: what they wanted to do and find the success that
Speaker 1: they had. He was huge. Do you think Bagley has
Speaker 1: the highest NBA ceiling in the Pac twelve? And if
Speaker 1: you do, if you don't, what player do you think?
Speaker 1: Does I think it's Peyton Watson? I mean I think
Speaker 1: I think Peton Watson has that upside. I think he
Speaker 1: needs to gain strength obviously, like he's he's very wiry. Um.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that did you what did you see
Speaker 1: your practice? What did you say your practice far up?
Speaker 1: Because that's a that's a that's a big time statement.
Speaker 1: But what did you see in practice that made you
Speaker 1: feel satility? I saw more versatility than I expected. I
Speaker 1: would not be surprised that if he's at the point
Speaker 1: guard position at times this year for U C l Ah,
Speaker 1: that's how that's how smooth he is with the ball
Speaker 1: in his hands. I think he's really good. And on
Speaker 1: ball screen situations, Uh, he shot it better than I anticipated. Um.
Speaker 1: And then around the room the rim, I mean he's
Speaker 1: he's he can elevate, finish. I mean, I think you know.
Speaker 1: Now the question for me is Canny can he defend
Speaker 1: his position? Again, I was at a practice where there
Speaker 1: wasn't a lot of defense. Everything was offensive minded at
Speaker 1: the practice. Um, but can he defend his position at
Speaker 1: a high level? If he can, then I think he
Speaker 1: becomes that guy. Bagley's interesting to me. I think, Look,
Speaker 1: last year's team was so disjointed down there last year
Speaker 1: with with Josh Christopher, Remmy Martin, Alonso Verge. All of
Speaker 1: them are gone. You know, Christopher goes to the league,
Speaker 1: the other two transfer out, Remy Martin ends up going
Speaker 1: to Kansas, Alonso Verge I believe is that Nebraska if
Speaker 1: I'm if I remember correctly, Um, but the ball would
Speaker 1: stick in those guys hands. And Bagley, you know, who's
Speaker 1: very limited in the number of games in which he played.
Speaker 1: We don't really know what it's gonna be like with
Speaker 1: him maybe becoming the focal point of the offense. Like
Speaker 1: now even he's number one. And you know this, Chris,
Speaker 1: like you go back to your years. You know your
Speaker 1: early years at U c l A. You are on
Speaker 1: the scouting report, there's no doubt about it. But then
Speaker 1: when you look at your senior year, then you were
Speaker 1: defended way differently because you're gonna drop twenty on their
Speaker 1: heads if they didn't defend you the right way, right. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we've been bolos. But like you know, you you
Speaker 1: you look at Bagley and now you're the guy that
Speaker 1: they're not worried about necessarily the quality of guards that
Speaker 1: they had a year ago because on paper those three
Speaker 1: guards were really really good. Now they're looking at you,
Speaker 1: so how do you score? Um? With that becoming the
Speaker 1: focal point? Are you able to score? Uh? And what
Speaker 1: is your efficiency? Right now? He can shoot the ball
Speaker 1: really well from the outside, so I think he's gonna
Speaker 1: be able to stretch the floor a little bit. But
Speaker 1: I do want to see what he can do with
Speaker 1: his back to the basket. Can he be a physical presence?
Speaker 1: Can he be like an Evan Mobley type player that
Speaker 1: has incredible feel that when they do double team him
Speaker 1: that he's able to pass the ball out of that
Speaker 1: double team and be willing to sack her by shots
Speaker 1: for the betterment of the team. And I think that
Speaker 1: would help elevate his stock at that next level, because
Speaker 1: when you're talking about a Marcus Bagley in the NBA
Speaker 1: and Chris you know this, he's a role player. He's
Speaker 1: not a star. He's a role player. And that's not
Speaker 1: a negative. And people take that as a negative all
Speaker 1: the time when I say that, But the league is
Speaker 1: full of role players. The league is not full of stars.
Speaker 1: Stars are few and far between at the next level. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: what do you think is the last question in the
Speaker 1: pack twelve? Where's the toughest place to get a win?
Speaker 1: In the pack twelve? This this Arizona. Arizona still still
Speaker 1: just because the fans, I mean McHale Center is rocking
Speaker 1: at all times. My hopes would be that u c
Speaker 1: l A, coming off their final four would get back
Speaker 1: to what it was when you and I were playing.
Speaker 1: I mean you and I, like I tell people this
Speaker 1: all the time. We were fortunate. It didn't matter really
Speaker 1: who we're playing with the exception and maybe like one
Speaker 1: or two of those December right before Christmas games out, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was sold out. Like every game in our conference
Speaker 1: was sold out. We had John Wooden behind our bench,
Speaker 1: and everything was rocking every single time. Uh, and it
Speaker 1: didn't matter who you played. And I hope for u
Speaker 1: c l A, coming off of what was such a
Speaker 1: successful season that that's the type of atmosphere that they have.
Speaker 1: I hope for across the conference that in college basketball
Speaker 1: and in general. And I saw this last week. I
Speaker 1: went to Kentucky for Big Blue Madness and twenty people
Speaker 1: came for the practice for their Midnight Manners and Chris,
Speaker 1: it felt so good to be there because for a
Speaker 1: year this was this was my backdrop for for calling
Speaker 1: games and and working in studio is out of my
Speaker 1: son's bedroom. Um. And to be back in front of
Speaker 1: twenty thousand and feel that energy was great. And I
Speaker 1: hope the college basketball fans, like we've seen in football, uh,
Speaker 1: come back out and support these kids, these young men
Speaker 1: and women. The women's game is in incredible shape as well, UM,
Speaker 1: that that they really support and and buy back into
Speaker 1: this the school's spirit. Because when the school spirit there,
Speaker 1: everything starts to become better around campus, Like your academics
Speaker 1: pick up, you know, people walking around campus, they got
Speaker 1: a smile on their face. Uh. And and coming out
Speaker 1: of the zombie year of disconnect, I hope we re
Speaker 1: engage and people start connecting again. Yeah. It's very important, man,
Speaker 1: And especially in college sports, the fan experience, the presence
Speaker 1: of fans, the you know, their energy is something that
Speaker 1: that you really do feed off of, and it creates
Speaker 1: a tough to win environment. I'll never forget the first
Speaker 1: time played at Old Matt Court up in Oregon and
Speaker 1: we go up there, We go up there and think
Speaker 1: we're gonna get a win. Man. I go in there
Speaker 1: is the loudest place I had ever been in my life. Dude,
Speaker 1: they made it so difficult. I would love to see that,
Speaker 1: you know, old school college basketball environment return UM this year.
Speaker 1: But staying in the SEC, you mentioned Kentucky UM Alabama
Speaker 1: is a team Nadoates has done a great job down there.
Speaker 1: Uh got Jaden Shackle for a kid I coached. Uh
Speaker 1: in a you he's coming back to that team. Talk
Speaker 1: about the Crimson Tide and the SEC. Who do you
Speaker 1: have as you're kind of that first tier, top three
Speaker 1: sort of teams coming out at that conference. I think
Speaker 1: it's really interesting because I think when you look, we
Speaker 1: always want to start. Let's start with Kentucky, right, because
Speaker 1: you talk about the SEC starts with Kentucky, right. I
Speaker 1: mean that's talking about u c l A. You talked
Speaker 1: about you know, Pat well, have you talked about u
Speaker 1: c l A. Regardless of whether the Ruins are good? Um,
Speaker 1: I think Kentucky is gonna be really really good this year. Uh.
Speaker 1: And the reason why? And look I just saw them
Speaker 1: in person. Um. And so again, sometimes you get a
Speaker 1: snapshot of something, but you get a two thousand points scorer,
Speaker 1: and Kellen Grady from Davidson right, a very good shooter
Speaker 1: thirty eight percent from beyond the arc. C. J. Frederick
Speaker 1: from Iowa shot forty seven percent, forty eight percent last
Speaker 1: year for the Hawkeyes. He's he's now part of that.
Speaker 1: So they're gonna be able to stretch the floor. And
Speaker 1: then you bring in a guard like Tay Tay Washington, who,
Speaker 1: by the way, just got to deal with Porsche. So
Speaker 1: good for you. And I read that. I read that today.
Speaker 1: I just read that. Man, I wish we had and
Speaker 1: I l when we were in college. Oh my good.
Speaker 1: It's but then you've got Oscar Shebway as well. I mean,
Speaker 1: so you have a good mixture of freshman, but you
Speaker 1: also have some older players. And I think the Calipari
Speaker 1: teams that have more often have not had success are
Speaker 1: those guys that have the older teams. Right. That's it's
Speaker 1: not just the young kids, it's the guys that have
Speaker 1: that experience. And I think that this group is hungry,
Speaker 1: and I felt there's a connectivity, and Chris, you know this.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it doesn't take long. You could walk into a
Speaker 1: practice right now, Chris, because you're playing background in your
Speaker 1: coaching background, and you can sit down and look at
Speaker 1: a team and go I'm not going write down anything.
Speaker 1: I just want to see how they interact for like
Speaker 1: five and ten minutes. And if five ten minutes, you
Speaker 1: can go, okay, this has a chance to be good.
Speaker 1: Just based on that, like the are they connected? Do
Speaker 1: they do they genuinely like being around each other when
Speaker 1: they're out on the floor. Doesn't again, you know this
Speaker 1: as much as I do. Off the floor, you don't
Speaker 1: have to like your teammates. You could just you could
Speaker 1: really dislike a lot of your teammates. But when you
Speaker 1: go between those lines, all of that stuff goes away,
Speaker 1: and how do you connect while you're there? And I
Speaker 1: saw that with Kentucky when I was there, and I
Speaker 1: was really impressed with coach cal and his staff and
Speaker 1: what they've been able to do. So I like Kentucky.
Speaker 1: They would be the clubhouse leaders for me. I think
Speaker 1: a team that that maybe we're not talking enough about.
Speaker 1: His Tennessee in the SEC. I think Rick Barnes first
Speaker 1: and foremost all he does go to the n c
Speaker 1: l A tournament. I mean he changed the voles program
Speaker 1: and the expectation level. John Folkelston folkus in his back, Uh,
Speaker 1: Josiah Jordan James's back, Victor Bailey is back. Uh, Santiago
Speaker 1: vasco Via is back. And oh, by the way, then
Speaker 1: you add in four top one recruits. So very similar
Speaker 1: to what I was just talking about with Kentucky. Now
Speaker 1: you you got, you got like Kennedy Chandler. Uh. I
Speaker 1: think that is one of the top point guards in
Speaker 1: the country. He's good, he's good. Now you open up
Speaker 1: your offense a little bit, and I think that defensively,
Speaker 1: I don't worry about Tennessee. But offensively, there were so
Speaker 1: many inconsistencies last year, and I think a lot of
Speaker 1: that was with like Keian Johnson and James Springer they
Speaker 1: didn't have that summer. The same thing with Kentucky, the
Speaker 1: same thing with Duke. When you don't have that summer
Speaker 1: to learn what the expectation, what that bar is, and
Speaker 1: what you need to meet on a daily basis to
Speaker 1: be a competitor at the SEC packed well any level
Speaker 1: in the major Division one level, and you lose that.
Speaker 1: Now all of a sudden, you're you're you're kind of
Speaker 1: trying to play catch up the entire year. And that's
Speaker 1: why I think a lot of the freshman didn't show
Speaker 1: out last year. It wasn't because they weren't immensely talented,
Speaker 1: if they didn't have the same kind of time that
Speaker 1: everybody else had. I think if Jalen Johnson from Duke
Speaker 1: would have had the entire summer with Kay, he wouldn't
Speaker 1: have had the issues that he had early. And I
Speaker 1: think it would have benefited Duke all year long. UM,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't the case. So I think Tennessee is
Speaker 1: gonna benefit from that. Uh. And then I think you
Speaker 1: get to the Alabama, Auburn, Arkansas, the A's triple A,
Speaker 1: triple A rated SEC this year, Eric, you're putting you
Speaker 1: They're all in the top twenty for me. By the way,
Speaker 1: in my preseason poll that I did, I put all
Speaker 1: three of those teams in the top twenty for me.
Speaker 1: Uh And the reason why I did that is that,
Speaker 1: first of all, Eric Musselman, I will believe in until like,
Speaker 1: until he proves me wrong. Right like he he goes
Speaker 1: out and he gets transfers every year and get Chris
Speaker 1: likes from Miami this year, right average, almost sixteen points
Speaker 1: a game for the U. Now, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: he's coming in and the Muss bus seems like it's
Speaker 1: loaded back up again with a couple of transfers with
Speaker 1: South Dakota, Little Rock. And these are the type of
Speaker 1: guys that have a little bit of a chip on
Speaker 1: their shoulder, a little bit of like that nobody, nobody
Speaker 1: gave me the respect I deserve, and must is kind
Speaker 1: of that that coach. He's like, you know, nobody gives
Speaker 1: me the respect I deserve. And so I expect Arkansas
Speaker 1: to play free. I expect them to play fast. They
Speaker 1: will miss Moses Moody in particular early, but I do
Speaker 1: think that they can overcome that late. I think when
Speaker 1: you look at Alabama, it is about their guards. It's
Speaker 1: about Javien Quiverly. It's about Shackleford, like you mentioned, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, they they've got guys that can flat out
Speaker 1: go at the guard position, and that NATO's plays this
Speaker 1: unique style as you know Chris, where he gives ultimate
Speaker 1: freedom to the offense, and sometimes people see that as
Speaker 1: if he doesn't care about the defensive end. My concern
Speaker 1: with Alabama's an out their guards, it's their interior. Uh.
Speaker 1: I think they're they're going to miss Herb Jones as
Speaker 1: much as many any maybe any player has missed in
Speaker 1: the country. The guy was in the defensive Player and
Speaker 1: Offense and n m v P last year in the SEC.
Speaker 1: Only two other players have ever done that, Tyler Ulis
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis, and both were tremendous college basketball players.
Speaker 1: And so when you lose the guy that's willing to
Speaker 1: take charges, you lose the guy that can be your
Speaker 1: point forward. Uh, you lose the guy that that is,
Speaker 1: you know, the heart and soul in the heartbeat of
Speaker 1: your defense. That's a huge hole that you've got to fix.
Speaker 1: And then Jordan Brunners gone, Alex Rees has gone. So
Speaker 1: you now the guys even beside him and behind him
Speaker 1: are gone. You need to stack back up with your interior.
Speaker 1: And don't forget Josh Primo is gone to oh yeah,
Speaker 1: and John Petty and Petty. He was a lottery pick.
Speaker 1: Is funny man. Herb Jones. At first, I had been
Speaker 1: howling Coach town was on my show. So he had
Speaker 1: him doing a breakdown in u c l A, Alabama
Speaker 1: because they had played him a few times. So he's in,
Speaker 1: he's he's in in a van headed to n I
Speaker 1: T practice. He's going live with me, but he's just
Speaker 1: talking about Herb Jones. Chris. You just gotta see like
Speaker 1: he was raving about Herb Jones and it turned out,
Speaker 1: you know, Herb Jones a big time player. But I
Speaker 1: need to know about Auburn Mack every year. You know,
Speaker 1: I see coach. I see Bruce Parl with his shirt off,
Speaker 1: Bruce Pearl doing his thing out there. I love him
Speaker 1: as a coach of character and and typically he knows
Speaker 1: how to get him some really good guards. What about
Speaker 1: this iteration of the Arburn Tigers this season, Well, I
Speaker 1: think Jabari Smith is an All SEC first team caliber player.
Speaker 1: You're talking about a number five recruit and Paul being
Speaker 1: Carter's ESPN one hundred. I think he brings that freshman
Speaker 1: power in and then I think you look at, Okay,
Speaker 1: who else did they get. Well, they got Katie Johnson
Speaker 1: that average fourteen points a game at Georgia. They got
Speaker 1: Walker Kessler, who I think his numbers don't indicate what
Speaker 1: his value is and what it will be for Auburn
Speaker 1: this year, the big man from North Carolina just because
Speaker 1: they were splitting so much time there. Uh, you got
Speaker 1: Jasper the transfer from Charleston an average sixteen points. They
Speaker 1: got scores to go with Jabari Smith. And there's one
Speaker 1: thing about Bruce Pearl like you can't keep Auburn down,
Speaker 1: like and that team for the struggles. And if you
Speaker 1: look at the record of thirteen and fourteen last year, right,
Speaker 1: like how much of that was without Shariff Cooper almost
Speaker 1: all of it. Had Shariff Cooper been given his eligibility
Speaker 1: like he should have before the start of the season,
Speaker 1: that's whole season would have been different for Bruce Pearl.
Speaker 1: The whole year would have been different. Uh. And let's
Speaker 1: not forget about Flannagan being back, Williams being back, Cambridge
Speaker 1: being back. You've got experience, You've got guys that can
Speaker 1: that can score. I think Bruce Pearl's team is a
Speaker 1: top again Top twenty team. I think there are a
Speaker 1: fringe Sweet sixteen caliber team. All of it will depend, Chris,
Speaker 1: on the chemistry of this group, how quickly they can
Speaker 1: come together. And that's usually where Bruce Pearl thrives. So
Speaker 1: if that's where he thrives, then we go, Okay, they're
Speaker 1: gonna be pretty darn good again. And I think that's
Speaker 1: probably what we're gonna see. Mississippi State has as uh
Speaker 1: iverson Mullin are coming back, and they picked up a
Speaker 1: really good transfer. Uh. What do you think about North
Speaker 1: Carolina on that door, Chris, let me tell you. I
Speaker 1: think this team is gonna be really good. Um. I
Speaker 1: love this. This is Ben Hallet's type of team. They're
Speaker 1: gonna be in the tournament. Um. And I think I
Speaker 1: have them just outside my top twenty five at the
Speaker 1: start of the season, but again, wouldn't surprise me if
Speaker 1: they play their way up there, because this is a
Speaker 1: Ben Hellen team that has toughness experience, in particular at
Speaker 1: the guard position. Um, they have depth. Um, and this
Speaker 1: is like Ben is at his best. Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: you go back to some of those u c l
Speaker 1: A teams. And it's easy to fall in love with
Speaker 1: the Westbrook Love teams, right, but the farmer A Follow teams,
Speaker 1: those were grinders of teams. Man. They was like going
Speaker 1: to the office every single game and Ben, as u
Speaker 1: c l A fans, we'd lose our mind because they
Speaker 1: go on like a twelve oh run and he would
Speaker 1: call time out and I'm like, why are we stopping
Speaker 1: our own run? But for him, it was about setting
Speaker 1: up his defense and making sure that they tightened those
Speaker 1: bolts and that there wasn't even in their success, they
Speaker 1: weren't feeling too comfortable or too confident, right that they
Speaker 1: got away or deviated from the system. And I think
Speaker 1: that this is a team for Ben Holland that has
Speaker 1: that same kind of makeup. Uh so and and and
Speaker 1: as you look at the trajectory of Ben's programs overall,
Speaker 1: you know, I think and everywhere he's coached in year three,
Speaker 1: whether it was Northern Arizona, whether it was Pitt, whether
Speaker 1: it was u c l A, everything got better, right,
Speaker 1: They won the conference championship. The SEC has been a
Speaker 1: little bit of a different like travel for him, and
Speaker 1: a little bit of a different journey. It hasn't come
Speaker 1: as quick um. I think it could come this year.
Speaker 1: I don't think that necessarily they win the SEC, but
Speaker 1: I think being relevant on the scene, being able to
Speaker 1: then go out and recruit at a higher level and
Speaker 1: continue to get the kind of players that worked for
Speaker 1: Ben I think is there in front of them. There's
Speaker 1: certainly a tournament team. I think they're a team that
Speaker 1: can advance in the tournament. UM and getting a fringe
Speaker 1: top twenty five caliber team. For me, you don't forget
Speaker 1: about Rocket Watts as well. He's you know, he's dynamic,
Speaker 1: dynamics core um. Conference realignment, Like, I want to talk
Speaker 1: about the Big twelve as a conference, but I also
Speaker 1: want to talk about, since we're in the middle of
Speaker 1: talking about the SEC, the fact that Texas in Oklahoma
Speaker 1: are headed to the SEC. What what are your thoughts
Speaker 1: about how the conference conference realignment has effected is going
Speaker 1: to affect college basketball And do you think it's a
Speaker 1: good idea? And is this the end of traditional geographical
Speaker 1: like big time rivalries as we know that that end
Speaker 1: happened a long time ago. Chris h. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is just this is the necessary uh
Speaker 1: consequences of the failure to keep the Big East intact.
Speaker 1: I mean even on the West coast. You know it.
Speaker 1: I know it, man, you can't Syracuse. We were watching
Speaker 1: on Big Monday, you know, all day Big Monday, Super Tuesday,
Speaker 1: Georgetown versus Villanova. We were like, cannot wait to see this,
Speaker 1: you know. And and then Realignment came and it destroyed it.
Speaker 1: It destroyed it. And the thing that makes me happy,
Speaker 1: happier amongst everything else that's happened the last couple years,
Speaker 1: is that Realignment also came to refixing, and Yukon and
Speaker 1: and Danny Hurley are in the Big East once again.
Speaker 1: That's their rightful home. You know, it's tough to sell
Speaker 1: people in stores Connecticut, like, oh, we got to Lane
Speaker 1: and Tulsa coming in this week and they're like huh,
Speaker 1: like you know, and then and then when you're trying
Speaker 1: to recruit, which Yukon has always done really well, that
Speaker 1: geographical footprint all the way down to Philly, Like, you
Speaker 1: can't really recruit that footprint because you're never playing those teams.
Speaker 1: You're not playing in that footprint at all. And that's
Speaker 1: that's kind of fixed it, right, Like that the Yukon
Speaker 1: going back fixes it. But all of these moves that
Speaker 1: have been made in realignment has been to the detriment
Speaker 1: of college basketball has been made for money. It has
Speaker 1: been made for callge football. Period. That's it. Otherwise a
Speaker 1: lot of these realignments they wouldn't have happened. West Virginia
Speaker 1: now playing in the conference that they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: you know, play b y U. Like, that's a that's
Speaker 1: a pretty big landscape that we're looking at for for
Speaker 1: a totality of a conference. Um, and that's the future
Speaker 1: of the Big Twelve. Now. I think the Big Twelve
Speaker 1: is in good position. I think that the teams that
Speaker 1: they brought in helped them not only in football but
Speaker 1: also in basketball. I think in particular, you look at
Speaker 1: like Cincinnati b y U is really good with Mark
Speaker 1: Cope year in a year out. I think obviously Houston
Speaker 1: coming off their Final four run, this is this is
Speaker 1: going to help them build momentum and be able to recruit.
Speaker 1: But I think losing your brands of Oklahoma and Texas,
Speaker 1: you know, it just means more has been the same
Speaker 1: for the SEC. It just means more money for the
Speaker 1: SEC too. I mean they are already cashing checks for
Speaker 1: like upwards of almost fifty million dollars a year because
Speaker 1: their television rights, the SEC network and the success that
Speaker 1: that has had, which I think has shown out in
Speaker 1: the increased level of successes across their athletic departments. It's
Speaker 1: not just obviously in football we focus a lot on that,
Speaker 1: but basketball in recent years has gone from a a
Speaker 1: you know three team at max into the n C
Speaker 1: doub A Tournament. And now the expetation is six seven
Speaker 1: could be the very best conference in college at basketball
Speaker 1: this upcoming season. And then on the women's side there
Speaker 1: as dominant as they've ever been. And you see the
Speaker 1: contract that don Stanley just got seven seven years. I
Speaker 1: think two point four was the contract. Deservedly so did
Speaker 1: she get that contract. But that's a contract we have
Speaker 1: not seen in women's sports, and so I think it
Speaker 1: elevates the conference even more from that perspective, and they
Speaker 1: can do that based on the money and the revenue
Speaker 1: that they're bringing in Texas and Oklahoma will allow that
Speaker 1: to even increase that much more. Yeah, that's but just
Speaker 1: to not have that old school rivalry no more in
Speaker 1: a Big twelve, that's a good part That's the one
Speaker 1: good part about this one is we still have the
Speaker 1: Red River Shootout game for football, Like we'll still see
Speaker 1: Oklahoma versus Texas at the Continent SEC, but it's in
Speaker 1: the SEC landscape versus big twelve plus school guy. Look,
Speaker 1: but the way that it was, I wish the n
Speaker 1: C Double A tournament used to do, which used to
Speaker 1: have regions West, Region, you know, Midwest, South, you know whatever.
Speaker 1: I actually like that even though nine we got screwed
Speaker 1: and sent to the Midwest region when we won the
Speaker 1: PAC twelfth Conference about like four games, um, and then
Speaker 1: won fourteen straight games, we should have at least been
Speaker 1: the two in the West region. We weren't, uh, and
Speaker 1: we went to the Midwest. But nevertheless, like I love
Speaker 1: the old format too, So I'm a traditionalist as well.
Speaker 1: I think times continue to change in college athletics, UM.
Speaker 1: And I think that when you look at n I
Speaker 1: L and the transfer portal and all of those things, Chris,
Speaker 1: so much of this is changing and evolving, uh and there,
Speaker 1: and while we are losing things, we are also gaining things.
Speaker 1: We're gaining voices, we're gaining empowerment amongst the athletes. Things
Speaker 1: that you know, quietly we discussed twenty thirty years ago. However,
Speaker 1: many years ago it was now that we were playing
Speaker 1: at U c l A. Um. You know, Gosh, I
Speaker 1: wish I could do this. Sorry, I wish I could
Speaker 1: get that car. I wish I could. You know. Now,
Speaker 1: these are things that are actually tangible and real, uh,
Speaker 1: for these these student athletes. And I think it's a
Speaker 1: good thing. And I don't think it's hurting the athletic departments.
Speaker 1: Anybody who thought that this was like a doomsday scenario
Speaker 1: and N I L it's not. The kids are fine,
Speaker 1: the programs are fine. Let's keep going. So there has
Speaker 1: been some positives in these change there are some negatives
Speaker 1: there as well, though, I like as far as the
Speaker 1: n ILS concerned, I like what U c l A
Speaker 1: came out and did. And I guess Jermond enlisted their
Speaker 1: marketing and branding department to work directly with the athletes,
Speaker 1: so they're gonna be allowing the use of logos and
Speaker 1: U c l A letterhead and stuff. I think that's such.
Speaker 1: That's one of the biggest developments that I've heard in
Speaker 1: the inn, in the whole N I L game. But
Speaker 1: staying on the N I L Um, we look when
Speaker 1: you look at the situation that happened when in Oklahoma
Speaker 1: where in college football, where Spencer Rattler, he has the
Speaker 1: big deals this and that doesn't play well. They're throwing
Speaker 1: Caleb Johnson and then Caleb doesn't even get the time,
Speaker 1: Caleb Williams, it doesn't even get the interview after in
Speaker 1: the game. What's What's I mean? Is this a case
Speaker 1: of you know, the coaches still kind of having this
Speaker 1: anequated way not coming up to speed, or is just
Speaker 1: just some BS going on in University of Oklahoma. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's either one, Chris, I think it is
Speaker 1: a byproduct. Would be careful what you wish for. I
Speaker 1: said this with Derrick King, a quarterback to Miami. Now
Speaker 1: he's unfortunately injured and out for the rest of the year. Um,
Speaker 1: but you know, struggled in game one against Alabama. You
Speaker 1: get a pass there because why Alabama, right button? Game
Speaker 1: two against app State, he didn't throw a touchdown. He
Speaker 1: threw for eight yards against app State and they had
Speaker 1: to win on the last second field goal and won
Speaker 1: by two against Appay. And you're you're Miami and you're
Speaker 1: Derrek King and you're making eight hundred thousand dollars in
Speaker 1: n I l s that have already been announced. You're
Speaker 1: almost a million dollar man. Well guess what if you
Speaker 1: want that money, then when I'm covering college sports this year,
Speaker 1: I'm going to cover you as if I was covering
Speaker 1: the NBA. You're making you're pros. So now you open
Speaker 1: yourself up to more criticism. And I think when you
Speaker 1: look at he's got his his gear, his swag, he's
Speaker 1: making a million dollars, and everybody's like, this is our dude,
Speaker 1: Highsman trophy candidate. He's the man, And all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you slip up the fans. And this is I
Speaker 1: think what happened in Oklahoma. The fans are less inclined
Speaker 1: to give you that student athlete pass. Working their jobs,
Speaker 1: they're not making a million dollars there. You know, the
Speaker 1: other students in the students section, they're not making a
Speaker 1: million dollars. You are. And when you get that kind
Speaker 1: of money and you get you want this, the expectations
Speaker 1: then naturally increase. So if you fail to meet what
Speaker 1: the expectations are, and all of a sudden, you're Texas
Speaker 1: and you're getting the doors blown off and they put
Speaker 1: in Caleb Williams, and he goes in and wins the game. Now,
Speaker 1: now we start going, okay, wait, hold on, how much
Speaker 1: money is this kid making on name image and likeness?
Speaker 1: And then the businesses and the corporations that have invested
Speaker 1: money into you start going did we put a performance
Speaker 1: clause in this? And a lot of them didn't. That
Speaker 1: will probably change moving forward. But this is this is
Speaker 1: a byproduct of name, image and likeness. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of positives to name image and like this, and I
Speaker 1: favor I'm in favor of all of it. But when
Speaker 1: you start announcing how much money you're making in your
Speaker 1: own brand of clothes and all this other stuff, Chris,
Speaker 1: it changes the landscape. It changes how people view you
Speaker 1: on the outside. And us as broadcasters, I think, have
Speaker 1: to be cognitive and aware of how that has evolved
Speaker 1: and changed from even a year ago to twenty years
Speaker 1: ago when we were there, Like if if you struggle
Speaker 1: for three games, no one was really I mean, they
Speaker 1: might be like, oh, Chris needs to step up, but
Speaker 1: they weren't like badgering you, you know what I'm saying. Like,
Speaker 1: but if you were making a million dollars at U
Speaker 1: C L a and you started struggling, you'd start hearing
Speaker 1: a lot more chatter, especially in an age now that
Speaker 1: has social media and Instagram. Will Everything that these athletes
Speaker 1: are doing is brand recognition, brand value. Be careful of
Speaker 1: what your brand is because if your brand gets too
Speaker 1: large in a lot of these cases and I think
Speaker 1: we're having, we're gonna have an accordion effect here. Name
Speaker 1: engine like this comes in, people want to get on board.
Speaker 1: The brands are expanding too quick, meaning that you've gotta
Speaker 1: you've gotta realize kind of what your limitations are and
Speaker 1: how far you want this thing to really go while
Speaker 1: keeping your focus on what you're doing on the field
Speaker 1: or on the court. And I think that this a
Speaker 1: lot of what we're seeing right now is is a
Speaker 1: little bit of a backlash to the name image. And
Speaker 1: like this aspect great point about how college athletes that
Speaker 1: will be getting paid will be getting covered by the media.
Speaker 1: I think that's a tremendous point. And I'll be interested
Speaker 1: to see if like these local papers, the local you
Speaker 1: know College Norman, Oklahoma, the Norman, Oklahoma, you know, the
Speaker 1: Press Telegram. I wonder if there's gonna be some articles
Speaker 1: written with more of a direct sort of slant against
Speaker 1: you know they do pros because that's always been the thing. Hey,
Speaker 1: these kids are college will take it easy on them,
Speaker 1: and you know they're just college kids. But now it's like, wait,
Speaker 1: I mean, these guys are getting paid. So I think
Speaker 1: the sympathy aspect and the empathy of like, oh he's
Speaker 1: a college kid, that's gonna go out the window. This
Speaker 1: guy's a pro nowadays. It's a great point about that.
Speaker 1: But but we're in the Big twelve and I want
Speaker 1: to know just you're I got you on my show.
Speaker 1: I want to know who is going to win the conference.
Speaker 1: You got have Texas, I have Texas, Kansas and Baylor.
Speaker 1: Who wins the conference? Texas Texas conference members through defendant champion?
Speaker 1: Kansas got Remy Martin. How okay, how Baylor lost everybody?
Speaker 1: Their card played like they lost Mitchell t Butler. They're
Speaker 1: all gone, all right, So I you you lose all
Speaker 1: three of those guys. That's like Toldy Bailey, Chris Johnson
Speaker 1: and jar those guys are colde. Those guys were code man,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. Then you put in Vital as well,
Speaker 1: Mark Vital who was really there blue guy, and they
Speaker 1: the Swiss Army knife of what they did, I think
Speaker 1: Texas is gonna win it. And while they lost a
Speaker 1: ton as well, Matt Coleman, Jericho Sam's, Kai Jones, Greg Brown,
Speaker 1: the transfer portal, nobody benefited more than Chris Beard. So
Speaker 1: you go in the off season and and you know,
Speaker 1: no offense, the shock is smart, but Chris Beard is
Speaker 1: ridiculously high level coach, he really is. And you bring
Speaker 1: him into Texas. He's now back home where he wants
Speaker 1: to be. You throw in a Christian Bishop from Creighton.
Speaker 1: You throw in a dev and ask you for Kentucky.
Speaker 1: You're throwing a train Mitchell from you Mask, You're throwing
Speaker 1: a Timmy Allen from Utah. And then you go out
Speaker 1: and you get Marcus Carr from Minnesota, whose average twenty
Speaker 1: three points a game in the Big Tent. If Chris
Speaker 1: Beard can get them to compete the way he wants
Speaker 1: at the defensive end of the floor, and by the way,
Speaker 1: you still have Andrew Jones, you still have Courtney Rahem
Speaker 1: and you get that defense to work. Fine. You don't
Speaker 1: have to worry about offense. Because all of those guys
Speaker 1: I just told to about all average like between twelve
Speaker 1: and twenty three points a game last year. So offense
Speaker 1: isn't gonna be the issue. It's can they defend? Can
Speaker 1: they bring that? Chris me your toughness. I haven't seen
Speaker 1: a team yet at Texas Tech that didn't eventually get there,
Speaker 1: even if they started off a little slow. And I
Speaker 1: think Texas could take some losses early because maybe they
Speaker 1: don't have that toughness right away. But Chris, I believe
Speaker 1: that over the course of the season they're going to
Speaker 1: get there. I think Texas is final four good. Um,
Speaker 1: I think Kansas is close to being final for good.
Speaker 1: And again you saw an uptick in recruiting again for
Speaker 1: for Bill self, where you know, in the last couple
Speaker 1: of years, because of the allegations that were surrounding that program,
Speaker 1: they weren't getting those top one hundred kids. They got
Speaker 1: one this year. Uh. And I think you add that
Speaker 1: to the mix of of getting a guy that's has
Speaker 1: experienced as Remy Martin. You get David McCormick back, your
Speaker 1: big man, you got Jalen Wilson back, you got uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you got Christian Brown Brown back, You've got
Speaker 1: You've got multiple guys back that can really we fill
Speaker 1: out that roster for Bill self, and at twenty one
Speaker 1: and nine a year ago, I don't see any reason
Speaker 1: why they're not gonna be right back in the mix
Speaker 1: inside the Big twelve. I think Baylor is going to
Speaker 1: be good. They've got their best recruiting class they've ever
Speaker 1: had um, but I think they just lost so much
Speaker 1: from a year ago. And I do believe that there's
Speaker 1: always a championship hangover. I mean, you know it better
Speaker 1: than I know it, but there is a championship hangover.
Speaker 1: And when you have climbed that mountaintop. And and I
Speaker 1: get this discussion with my ten year old, you know,
Speaker 1: if you think the Bucks are gonna win the NBA
Speaker 1: title again? And I said, no, I don't. And I said,
Speaker 1: and the reason why I don't think the Bucks will
Speaker 1: win the championship is not because they're not good enough
Speaker 1: to win the championship. Chris, you know they are. But
Speaker 1: it is just really really hard to do it in
Speaker 1: consecutive seasons, is not. It's not even you can't even
Speaker 1: say it's not easy. I mean it's not even like common.
Speaker 1: It's not a commonplace to see that happen. And so
Speaker 1: for Baylor, I do think they take a little bit
Speaker 1: of a step back in conference play this year. But
Speaker 1: I think this is a conference of change right now
Speaker 1: because of Oklahoma and Texas leaving, because of what they
Speaker 1: have coming in. I'm you know, big Twelt media. They
Speaker 1: just took place yesterday. Uh And Scott Drew said, listen,
Speaker 1: even with Oklahoma and Texas, if we just added in
Speaker 1: the teams that we had from last year, we still
Speaker 1: would have been the number number one ranked conference in
Speaker 1: college basketball according to Ken Pop. And that's true, but
Speaker 1: that's also based on a Houston team that went all
Speaker 1: the way to the Final four, you know, And and
Speaker 1: I don't know if Calvin Sampson's teams are always going
Speaker 1: to get there. So as this conference changes, as Texas
Speaker 1: and Oklahoma leave, and Porter Moser obviously now with Oklahoma
Speaker 1: got a ton of transfers in there, I think it's
Speaker 1: gonna be interesting to see how that molds throughout the
Speaker 1: course of the year. Um. I think it's going to
Speaker 1: be interesting as those two teams exit, how this conference
Speaker 1: tries to pivot without completely ignoring Texas and Oklahoma until
Speaker 1: they're actually in the SEC to that of also welcoming
Speaker 1: in and highlighting and trying to lift up those teams
Speaker 1: that are coming from the American UCF Cincinnati, Houston, UH,
Speaker 1: and then b YU. How they're trying to lift those
Speaker 1: programs up so that on day one when they come in,
Speaker 1: they're already at a high level. I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be very interesting how the Conference office handles that and
Speaker 1: handles the promotion of these teams as the season goes along.
Speaker 1: I don't think we're given Remy Martin enough credit. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I'm not just saying that because I'm biased and
Speaker 1: I've watched him since he was seventh eighth grade. I
Speaker 1: just really what I saw out of him in Arizona State.
Speaker 1: He's a big time gamer type player. I think he
Speaker 1: goes to the Big Twelve, put him and surround him
Speaker 1: with them guys that they got to Kansas, and I
Speaker 1: think Kansas comes out of the Big Twelve is champions.
Speaker 1: I'm but bait into your point. Certainly him only concerned
Speaker 1: the Remy as his turnovers, Chris, and that's always been
Speaker 1: That's always been his thing, true. And it's not even
Speaker 1: just the turnovers. It's like the timeliness of some of
Speaker 1: those turnovers. Like I was doing the game in Shanghai,
Speaker 1: China when they played Colorado in twenty nine and they
Speaker 1: had stormed back and they looked like they were about
Speaker 1: to win the game. And they're driving down the floor.
Speaker 1: I think they had of one point lead, and Remy
Speaker 1: drives down the middle of the paint and decides to
Speaker 1: throw behind the back pass to a guy cutting on
Speaker 1: the right hand side, and he gets picked off, goes
Speaker 1: down the other end three pointer, get a stop on
Speaker 1: the next possession, go back down another three pointer, and
Speaker 1: the game was over and Colorado got out of there
Speaker 1: with a win. And it's like, you don't want to say, hey,
Speaker 1: there's there's only one play that costs the game, because
Speaker 1: he's you and I both know that's never the case. Um,
Speaker 1: But there's certainly there are momentum backbreaking plays, uh and
Speaker 1: their self inflicted wounds and so far, I think for Remy,
Speaker 1: the biggest key for me this upcoming season is the
Speaker 1: talent level in which he will have around him at
Speaker 1: Kansas is exceeds the talent level that he had around
Speaker 1: him at Arizona State. Is he capable and willing to
Speaker 1: defer under control? I know he's willing to defer, but
Speaker 1: he is he willing to defer under control and composure.
Speaker 1: That's necessary of a player that has the experience that
Speaker 1: he has, the skill set that he has uh in
Speaker 1: the environment that he's now going to be playing in,
Speaker 1: because as you know, Alan field House is one of
Speaker 1: the most spectacular venues, if not the most spectacular venue
Speaker 1: in all of college basketball, that now becomes his home court.
Speaker 1: Handling that, handling it under the microscope with the expectations,
Speaker 1: and again, I think Kansas is Final four good. I
Speaker 1: think there's two teams in the Big twelve that can
Speaker 1: make it make a run for a national championship this year.
Speaker 1: It's Texas and it's Kansas. I agree, And I mean
Speaker 1: I won't count Baylor out to your point about the
Speaker 1: national championship hangover, Absolutely it does exist. But I think
Speaker 1: when you look at a team that's down there in Waco,
Speaker 1: concerning this iteration of that team in that program, and
Speaker 1: how Scott Drew has his guys locked in in that
Speaker 1: culture down there, I wouldn't be surprised to see them
Speaker 1: guys with Ken Joe and Meyer and all that make
Speaker 1: it back to the Final four. I'm just saying I
Speaker 1: was so thoroughly blown away impressed by Baylor last year.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I've ever seen dudes out there
Speaker 1: that were not only garden but just helping and recovering slides,
Speaker 1: the defensive ridiculousness in their athleticism, and then just they're
Speaker 1: just gangster. They were just so gangster on the boards
Speaker 1: on the because you're like this and you know this
Speaker 1: watching your dad broadcast. Marcus a legend in so many
Speaker 1: different ways. But his broadcast with with the Bucks, what
Speaker 1: Scott drew And this is the best thing I can
Speaker 1: say is they're running NBA rotations on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor with the college enthusiasm and a football
Speaker 1: level of toughness. That's what Baylor was at the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor last year, and that is such
Speaker 1: a rare, rare thing to find. If they can, if
Speaker 1: they can stir that pot and bring it back this year,
Speaker 1: then yeah, they can get there. But I until I
Speaker 1: see it, Chris, I'm I'm gonna be I'm gonna wait
Speaker 1: and see how they look. But last year's team was
Speaker 1: NBA rotations with a college enthusiasm and a football toughness,
Speaker 1: and absolutely that was unbelievable. I wanted to get your
Speaker 1: thoughts on a couple more conferences the Big Ten in
Speaker 1: the A c C and there's just a couple more teams.
Speaker 1: UH Big is looking good this year. Pretty a decently
Speaker 1: deep conference, Michigan, Purdue, Illinois, Indiana. Of those you know
Speaker 1: four or five teams, who do you think is the
Speaker 1: Big Ten champion that comes up to perdue produce the
Speaker 1: best team in the conference, because because they got everybody back,
Speaker 1: they got everybody back. Um, and I think Zach Eady
Speaker 1: is going to have a tremendous year. I think UH
Speaker 1: coach Payter might even go to that double big line
Speaker 1: up with him and Trevin Williams uh and you go
Speaker 1: to double big. But Zach Ety, for those of you
Speaker 1: don't know, seven foot four. Last year he got fouls
Speaker 1: just by posting up because guys ran into his elbow
Speaker 1: and they're like, no, it's contact of the head, that's
Speaker 1: a foul, and he's like, so they have to teach
Speaker 1: him how to post up. He had a literally post
Speaker 1: up like this and theis tucked yes, and I'm like
Speaker 1: what that's doing? You know? And internationally he got great
Speaker 1: experience this year. In the FIBA nineteen over Latvia, he
Speaker 1: averaged about sixteen points in fifteen rebounds per game. I
Speaker 1: think that confidence in being a go to guy for
Speaker 1: in that uh with Lavia, I think is gonna bode
Speaker 1: well for him and expanding out his game this year.
Speaker 1: And I think Matt Painter has just consistently been that
Speaker 1: coach inside the big tent that every year we don't
Speaker 1: talk about him and then we look and they're like, wait,
Speaker 1: the thirteen and six like they were thirteen and six
Speaker 1: last year in the Big Ten, that had almost every
Speaker 1: team ranked at least at one point in time during
Speaker 1: the course of the season, and for a majority of
Speaker 1: the year, they had so many teams in the poll.
Speaker 1: It's all we were talking about in ESPN. We never
Speaker 1: talked about Perdue and they had a better record than
Speaker 1: half the teams that we were talking about inside conference play,
Speaker 1: and they were beating him UM, and so I think
Speaker 1: that I think they're right there. I think what Jowan
Speaker 1: Howard is doing at Michigan UM is just amazing and
Speaker 1: the fact that people continually come back and want him
Speaker 1: to coach at the next level and he continues to
Speaker 1: just turn away those offers because he's happy with where
Speaker 1: he's at a Michigan I think boats really, really well
Speaker 1: for them. Caleb Houston is going to be absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 1: He's a top five pick. I think next year's NBA draft.
Speaker 1: He's a freshman. You put him with Hunter Dickinson, who's
Speaker 1: back Eli Brooks. Yes, you have to worry about replacing,
Speaker 1: whether it's Mike Smith and just the steady hand that
Speaker 1: he had, or Franz Wagner uh and the versatility that
Speaker 1: he showed in the athleticism that he played with, or
Speaker 1: even Isaiah Livers. I mean, those are those are guys
Speaker 1: now that that are not easily replaceable. But I think
Speaker 1: with the recruiting that he has done at Michigan, the
Speaker 1: culture that he has built up at Michigan, UH, I
Speaker 1: really truly believe that the Wolverines are gonna be right there.
Speaker 1: I think perduing in Michigan are the two top teams
Speaker 1: in that conference. And I think Indiana under coach Woodson
Speaker 1: again another another alum coming home to his program um
Speaker 1: and I think, following in the same likeness of what
Speaker 1: we've seen from Juwan Howard being an NBA guy, I
Speaker 1: think it's really gonna help Trace Jackson Davis, who I
Speaker 1: think is one of the best players in college basketball
Speaker 1: and I think the one thing I've I've been concerned
Speaker 1: about the times with Trace has been his inability to
Speaker 1: have his motor running at all times, Like he kind
Speaker 1: of picks and chooses his spots a certain game where
Speaker 1: you're like, oh my gosh, this guy's an All American,
Speaker 1: And then there's other games you're watching me like did
Speaker 1: did he get out of bed today? I think, what
Speaker 1: do you get that out of him? I think, what
Speaker 1: do you get at what he's done? A great He's
Speaker 1: done a great job too. I think he signed a
Speaker 1: couple of guys added to that to what's going on
Speaker 1: over there? Um, what about Illinois with with Coburn and
Speaker 1: Carbello and Brad Underwood back, do you think they have
Speaker 1: a shotter? They do because Coburn is gonna be the
Speaker 1: best big man in the country. I mean, at least
Speaker 1: the most physically dominating presence in college basketball. He may
Speaker 1: not end up being the best big man in the country,
Speaker 1: but he has the most physically dominating big in the country. Uh.
Speaker 1: Kabello has got to get a little bit smoother with
Speaker 1: the basketball, and he's gotta be able to shoot the ball.
Speaker 1: He really struggled from beyond the arc last year. Um,
Speaker 1: I think Adam Miller leaving and transferring out hurts them
Speaker 1: a little bit because I think his his role would
Speaker 1: have improved this year. But Brad Underwood is one of
Speaker 1: those coaches that's really firing. And sometimes we we missed
Speaker 1: con Screw like a are head coach and go oh
Speaker 1: like he's mean, Like oh, he's he's tough on his guys,
Speaker 1: Like it's not really overly tough on his guys. Um,
Speaker 1: I think he he just demands and I think accountability
Speaker 1: is one thing that you cannot lack. Like I have
Speaker 1: Illinois on my preseason poll at number sixteen in the country.
Speaker 1: So they lose Adam Miller, that goes to l s U.
Speaker 1: So I mean Adam Miller is going through a complete
Speaker 1: culture change of like defending and toughness in Illinois to
Speaker 1: will wait just like shoot it up, my man, shoot
Speaker 1: it up. Um. But Io is gonna be a huge loss.
Speaker 1: Io made so many great plays. So how do you
Speaker 1: make up for the loss of Iota assuming well, when
Speaker 1: you get a transfer like Alfonso Plumber from Utah. Um
Speaker 1: a streaky shooter as we've seen, but a guy that
Speaker 1: when he came into Polly Pavilion in the first five
Speaker 1: minutes of that game last year, he thought he was
Speaker 1: gonna go for a hundred because he just knocked down everything.
Speaker 1: You've got a couple of top one recruits, uh in
Speaker 1: the Lendez and Goodie uh, And so I think that
Speaker 1: there's there's pieces of fund him. But for me, it's
Speaker 1: starting from the inside out kofe. Cockburn and the level
Speaker 1: of frustration I think we saw in the n Double Tournament,
Speaker 1: in particular, when he didn't get the ball in a
Speaker 1: couple of possessions in their loss. He was so mad
Speaker 1: that there's two things that need to happen. One is
Speaker 1: Illinois does have to play inside out. They need to
Speaker 1: feed him as often as they can to keep him
Speaker 1: engaged in the game. Two is he has to better
Speaker 1: control his emotions and find ways to manufacture points at times.
Speaker 1: So if they're not getting you the ball, instead of
Speaker 1: standing up and being frustrated and just going to the
Speaker 1: other end, go grabbing offense, amount of dunking on someone's
Speaker 1: head and then turn around at the teammates and be
Speaker 1: like feed me, you know, uh, find a more positive
Speaker 1: way of doing that. And I think that that's part
Speaker 1: of the maturation process for him, and I think that
Speaker 1: he will get there and he will do it. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I think the X factor on this team is
Speaker 1: Trent Frasier. I think Trent Fraser is a guy that
Speaker 1: we don't talk a lot about, but when he plays well,
Speaker 1: Illinois finds success. And he's been through the ringer now
Speaker 1: a couple of times. He knows what the expectation level us.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna be really, really good. And I
Speaker 1: tell you another team inside the Big Ten to think about,
Speaker 1: Chris is Maryland. I think turge has got a really
Speaker 1: good team. Uh. Alla's back. Uh, Scott is back. They
Speaker 1: got six transfers, including Fats Russell that came in from
Speaker 1: Rhode Island. We know he can score the ball. Uh.
Speaker 1: They got the other big from Georgetown that just came
Speaker 1: in that played for Patrick Ewing. I think that this
Speaker 1: is a team in Maryland that could be a top
Speaker 1: four finisher inside the Big Ten this year. And they
Speaker 1: add Danny by the way, they also add Danny Manning
Speaker 1: to the assistant coach and staff. Uh formerly the head
Speaker 1: coach of Wake Forest was my colleague last year at ESPN.
Speaker 1: But he does great work with bigs and and I
Speaker 1: think that's really gonna help out the Maryland Terrapints this year.
Speaker 1: A quick aside about college coaches coming and going with
Speaker 1: the NBA experience. We saw two coaches leave. Jason Hart
Speaker 1: from USC, Kenny Payne left Kentucky over a year ago.
Speaker 1: Do you think those type of losses, and you speak
Speaker 1: to Danny Manning's edition, you think those losses affect the
Speaker 1: program as much as an addition could affect the program.
Speaker 1: For sure. I think Jay Hart, you know him as
Speaker 1: well as as anybody, Chris. I mean we've we've known
Speaker 1: Jason for over twenty years now. Just a tremendous recruiter.
Speaker 1: I mean, really a tremendous recruiter. But besides that, he's
Speaker 1: a tremendous coach. Um. And I think this is a
Speaker 1: problem in our game. I'm gonna take this to a
Speaker 1: different different levels if you're okay with it. Of course,
Speaker 1: I'm tired of black assistant coaches being named great recruiters.
Speaker 1: I'm tired of it. I see it, Well, he's a recruiter,
Speaker 1: he's a recruiter. He's a recruiter. Let me ask you this,
Speaker 1: media members or fan bases that labeled people recruiters, how
Speaker 1: many practices do you go to? How many practices do
Speaker 1: you go to? Have you ever sat down and talk
Speaker 1: to xs and os with any of them or do
Speaker 1: you just look at them like, Oh, they're just recruiters.
Speaker 1: They're just recruiters because we like to put people in boxes. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: that's what our society has done. Correct And Jason Hart
Speaker 1: should have been a head coach of the Division one
Speaker 1: level five years ago. In my opinion, five years ago,
Speaker 1: should have been a head coach in Division one. He
Speaker 1: thought he was ready five years ago. There's multiple Chris,
Speaker 1: There's been multiple jobs in the West Coast Conference that
Speaker 1: have come available, and Jason Hart is here in l
Speaker 1: A with great recruiting ties to everybody just because you
Speaker 1: have a great recruiting cause. But what what does it
Speaker 1: take to be a great recruiter? You know people you
Speaker 1: say Laugh was a great recruiter, Lab was a great recruiter.
Speaker 1: What made Laugh a great recruiter is the same thing
Speaker 1: that makes Jason Hard a great recruiter, which is the
Speaker 1: same thing makes a lot of great recruiters great recruiters.
Speaker 1: They know how to communicate, they build relationships, they earned
Speaker 1: the players trust. What makes a great head coach Chris,
Speaker 1: somebody that you can trust, somebody that you believe in.
Speaker 1: You know, Um, when I look at it and I
Speaker 1: say this all the time, like add this quote, we
Speaker 1: can have I can have the best offense in the
Speaker 1: world on paper, but if my players don't believe in me,
Speaker 1: and they don't trust me, and they don't go out
Speaker 1: and execute it the way that I needed to be executed,
Speaker 1: we will never be successful. I can have the simplest
Speaker 1: offense on paper, that's like the most basic, like sixth
Speaker 1: grade quality offense, but they believe the trust me and
Speaker 1: they run it like every single time to perfection with
Speaker 1: all effort. We're gonna find way more shots and we
Speaker 1: are that are gonna be good shots, and we are
Speaker 1: gonna win more games than we're going to win if
Speaker 1: I changed it up and they didn't have any trust
Speaker 1: or any belief in me. Everything in life is about relationships.
Speaker 1: Everything in life is about trust. You and I have
Speaker 1: a relationship, and while we don't see each other often, Chris,
Speaker 1: you know as much as anybody that if you needed something,
Speaker 1: I'm a phone call away and I'm there. If Matt
Speaker 1: Barnes needs me for anything, I'm there. When we had
Speaker 1: the the Amad Aubrey run. How many of our teammates
Speaker 1: showed up and partook in that event to support Matt
Speaker 1: for an unbelievably great cause, right, one that we needed
Speaker 1: to draw more attention to. There was. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: there are guys that even play with us that were
Speaker 1: showing up. You know, Gilanni my son's making videos for
Speaker 1: Gilanni because he's looking back at old footage laughing at
Speaker 1: some of the media questions that they had, and and
Speaker 1: Lannie's is dunking on people. You know, your enthusiasm thing
Speaker 1: over the top of it. The relationship we have, right
Speaker 1: that's that's the relationship that we have, and relationships is
Speaker 1: the quintessential aspect of society and our community. And when
Speaker 1: we have a failure in community, and this goes beyond sports,
Speaker 1: when we have a failure in community, it's because we
Speaker 1: are no longer either willing to have genuine conversation, authentic conversation,
Speaker 1: or we're unwilling to listen. And the disconnect happens from
Speaker 1: our leaders, from ourselves, from our social activists, from our teachers,
Speaker 1: from our coaches, it doesn't from the police, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It can go on all aspects. When communication, and the
Speaker 1: relationship is broken down, you cannot find success. And to
Speaker 1: bring it full circle back to Jason Hart, my belief
Speaker 1: fervently in Jason Hart is I think he's gonna do
Speaker 1: a great job in the league. I don't think we'rever
Speaker 1: gonna see him in college basketball again. I think eventually
Speaker 1: he's gonna be on someone else's staff at the at
Speaker 1: the next level, and then eventually become a head coach,
Speaker 1: maybe in the NBA. I think Miles sign And is
Speaker 1: another guy that I thought, for the last couple of
Speaker 1: years should have been more in line to get a
Speaker 1: college job. I think our guy, Earl Watson clearly could
Speaker 1: be an excellent college basketball coach. And I know obviously
Speaker 1: U C l A was in the picture for him
Speaker 1: for a while and all of us that were former
Speaker 1: alumni would have loved to see him have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to take that job. But there have certainly been other
Speaker 1: jobs that have opened up in the college landscape. Well,
Speaker 1: Earl would have gone in and crushed it. Um And
Speaker 1: I think that we need to continue to evolve in
Speaker 1: the conversation and in the dialogue of why do we
Speaker 1: put boxes on people? Why do we why do we
Speaker 1: limit what people can do because they're really good at
Speaker 1: one aspect. Because you're really good at one aspect of
Speaker 1: your job doesn't mean you can't do another aspect of
Speaker 1: your job. Um, and I see that too frequently happen
Speaker 1: happening across the college landscape. I'm really happy for a
Speaker 1: guy like Stan Johnson to get the job at l
Speaker 1: m U. I think he's doing great things with that program.
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna be a lot better in the
Speaker 1: w c C this year. But he's a guy that
Speaker 1: was an assistant coach that was seen as a recruiter
Speaker 1: for a long period of time that now you're seeing
Speaker 1: him in the head coaching role and he's thriving in
Speaker 1: the relationship and the building and the changing of a
Speaker 1: culture of a program that really has been non existence
Speaker 1: since the passing of Hank Gathers. Now he's done an
Speaker 1: amazing job, and I think a lot of it, Sean
Speaker 1: is uh, just old ways of doing things. So putting
Speaker 1: people in boxes are based in stereotypes, and so now
Speaker 1: the stereotype of maybe a black assistant coaches. You know,
Speaker 1: he's not necessarily the sharpest guy with X and os,
Speaker 1: but he can go into the Homes, talk to the
Speaker 1: black mom, the black father built that relationship, make it
Speaker 1: easy and cool for the white head coach to come in, etcetera.
Speaker 1: And so a lot, a lot of it. I won't
Speaker 1: say true, but that role had to be played for
Speaker 1: a long time by a lot of coaches back in
Speaker 1: the seven Black Coaches in the seventies and eighties, where
Speaker 1: you couldn't necessarily get the respect as a X and
Speaker 1: OS guy, so you had they had to create that
Speaker 1: niche of being a recruiter, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And so it's and we are breaking out it. We
Speaker 1: are breaking out of it, Chris. It's not like we're
Speaker 1: still stuck in the seventies. And look, I equined it
Speaker 1: to the similar thing being a black quarterback, right, I
Speaker 1: mean there we was like the Doug Williams of the world,
Speaker 1: the Randall Cunningham's, the Warren Moons of the world. It happened.
Speaker 1: But look at the NFL now, Look at Levard Jackson,
Speaker 1: look at Patrick Mahomes, look across the landscape and say
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray and how he's turned you know, everything up
Speaker 1: on its end. And I think Trey Lance is gonna
Speaker 1: be great for our Niners. Too, um, you know, so,
Speaker 1: I mean, I I Russell Wilson obviously has been unbelievably great.
Speaker 1: So the list goes on and on. But now it's
Speaker 1: that that has been that ceiling has been broken, and
Speaker 1: people now understand that those old way of thinking we've
Speaker 1: we've got to evolve and we've got to change. And
Speaker 1: I think we're getting there in college basketball. I think
Speaker 1: we still need to do more in that regard. And
Speaker 1: I think Jason, to me is just one of those guys,
Speaker 1: as is a Miles Simon, who I think would have
Speaker 1: loved to come back to the college game. I thought
Speaker 1: that they were no brainer highers the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: Uh And, and for whatever reason, one reason or another,
Speaker 1: they weren't given that opportunity. And I think that the
Speaker 1: NBA will benefit from it and the college game will
Speaker 1: hurt from it. But I do think that the Juwan
Speaker 1: Howards of the world and the Mike Woodson's of the
Speaker 1: world that are coming into the game helped the college
Speaker 1: game as well. Uh And I think the college game
Speaker 1: needs to become more forward thinking. You know, it's not
Speaker 1: okay one four high or flex offense or just basic motion.
Speaker 1: Like I will tell you I spent most of COVID
Speaker 1: sitting in a hotel room in Bristol, Connecticut when I
Speaker 1: was able to travel, and I would jump on and
Speaker 1: I've watched, as I mentioned earlier, the European basketball and
Speaker 1: their offense and the way they run in the space scene,
Speaker 1: and the innovation that I see in the European game
Speaker 1: and even even in the Russian professional leagues far out
Speaker 1: exceeds what we see even in the NBA level here.
Speaker 1: I think the NBA is getting closer and closer to
Speaker 1: it because they need to and they have the talent
Speaker 1: that can do it. But I think what made Gonzaga
Speaker 1: so elite last year was that they didn't run an
Speaker 1: offense us that we see. They they ran an offense
Speaker 1: off of read, making read and reacting to what the
Speaker 1: defense was giving and making cuts that were not scripted.
Speaker 1: You know, and and I and I equated too, like
Speaker 1: you know the other night Cole Beasley from the Bills
Speaker 1: and the Monday night game against the Titans. It was
Speaker 1: a big play and the Titans went to his own coverage,
Speaker 1: and had Cole Beasley ran his entire route, he would
Speaker 1: have ran into the next defensive player and it would
Speaker 1: have been a problem for Josh Allen. Instead, he sat
Speaker 1: in the gap because there was a hole and he
Speaker 1: knew as he trusted his quarterback would find him. And
Speaker 1: I think a lot of times in college basketball, we
Speaker 1: run from point A to point B because that's what
Speaker 1: the offense tells us to do. Meanwhile, there's a gap,
Speaker 1: and if you settle in that gap just for a second,
Speaker 1: you might have a dunk and it might be the
Speaker 1: best play, the best shot you're gonna find in that
Speaker 1: entire possession. I think the European basketball leagues do that
Speaker 1: better than US um and it's more free flowing and
Speaker 1: to steal Steve Lavin line, it's like a ballet fred Astaire,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, nimble on their toes just reading cross
Speaker 1: being from me, No, it is the the European I've
Speaker 1: always I was always fascinated when I when I played overseas,
Speaker 1: I played in the Russian League, and how many points
Speaker 1: they'd score, But how much movement was involved, how much
Speaker 1: misdirection was involved, how much double actions. You know, there's
Speaker 1: all this action going on, like we run, we run,
Speaker 1: there'll be strong side pickpick and roll, and then weak
Speaker 1: side action going on simultaneously, where we had to worry
Speaker 1: about garden, so nobody could just stay in help and
Speaker 1: you got movement, movement, cut spain, action, all types of
Speaker 1: stuff that's like it's it's almost like mind boggling. But
Speaker 1: when you sit down and you watch it, you're like, why, yeah,
Speaker 1: let me break out of my traditional ways of thinking
Speaker 1: and drawing up plays and actually have some ingenuity here
Speaker 1: and some creativity and do some different type things. And
Speaker 1: I think we see a lot of that going on
Speaker 1: on the European game. Hopefully that gets more into American
Speaker 1: offenses because I think it's first frinkling and the good
Speaker 1: guys adding little touches of it. Um. Coach K one
Speaker 1: of the you know, arguably the greatest, one of the
Speaker 1: greatest college basketball coaches of all time. It's this last season,
Speaker 1: although we're not supposed to call it his last season.
Speaker 1: According to Coach K, he said, don't use the L
Speaker 1: word in describing this year. John shi are taking over.
Speaker 1: He's got some big time recruits, got a solid team.
Speaker 1: Talk about what you envisioned Duke looking like in in
Speaker 1: this Coach K swan song in the A C. C.
Speaker 1: Let me just tell I mean, look, Chris, you and
Speaker 1: I were both there. I believe it was Coach Wooden's
Speaker 1: final coaches clinic and it was Jim Herrick's final season
Speaker 1: at U c l A. There was November of nine.
Speaker 1: I believe it's the final coaching clinic that that John
Speaker 1: Wooden did at U c l A. And I still
Speaker 1: look back on that and goes he we we participated
Speaker 1: as a team. Right, there's all the coaches and we
Speaker 1: participated the team and Coach Wooden ran us through basically
Speaker 1: essentially what a practice was, um, you know, and it
Speaker 1: was an amazing experience to to have coach talk basketball
Speaker 1: to us, teach us the game. In all my years
Speaker 1: of broadcasting, I would say that Coach k is the
Speaker 1: closest thing I've seen to John Wooden in that regard.
Speaker 1: Just an excellent coach and teacher of it. And to me,
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna mean so much to the game
Speaker 1: of college basketball to have him continue to be there.
Speaker 1: This year, we can celebrate him, We can celebrate all
Speaker 1: that he has brought to the game, the number of
Speaker 1: players and lives that he has touched, But most importantly
Speaker 1: for the college basketball game, I I hope that Duke
Speaker 1: has the type of season that is worthy of being
Speaker 1: a final season four coach K. I think last year
Speaker 1: really wore on a lot of coaches. As I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: I had a ton of coaches tell me that, Hey,
Speaker 1: it is tough to go through that process that they
Speaker 1: went through last year. But I believe that this Duke
Speaker 1: team is gonna be really strong. I think when you
Speaker 1: look going forward for the Duke program, I think John
Speaker 1: Shire has a very difficult task ahead of him. Recruiting
Speaker 1: initially will be high because it's Duke, but then it's
Speaker 1: going to become not Coach Ka's program anymore. It's going
Speaker 1: to be his program, and his level of successful determine
Speaker 1: whether or not they can continue to recruit at the
Speaker 1: level in which we've seen Duke do. Here's my question. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I've heard that. I've heard that whole thing about
Speaker 1: the transition between Shire and coach K and it made
Speaker 1: me think about when John Wooden won ten and twelve years,
Speaker 1: then retires in seventy, and then Jane Bartow takes over.
Speaker 1: He goes like fifty and eight, gets fired, and then
Speaker 1: Larry Farmer comes in, and then Larry Brown comes in,
Speaker 1: and then we go through this whole thing of coaching turnarounds.
Speaker 1: Nothing is ever good enough. Even we win in national championship,
Speaker 1: get back to the mountaintop coach here, it gets fired
Speaker 1: two years later or the year after. You know, we
Speaker 1: we got rid of a national challenge when he coach
Speaker 1: literally sent it backs literally the next year. Okay, I
Speaker 1: I'm not sold on the fact that Duke's gonna struggle.
Speaker 1: There had to be some hangover. There'll be hangover. The
Speaker 1: brand is too big nowadays, the brand is too big.
Speaker 1: But John John will have to come in and have
Speaker 1: some success. He doesn't need to be at a national
Speaker 1: championship level of success right away. But is the program
Speaker 1: going to be stabilized and continue to have success? Are
Speaker 1: they gonna be in the hunt in the a c C.
Speaker 1: You know, Tony Bennett uh and Leonard Hamilton's have changed
Speaker 1: the landscape of the a c C. They have They
Speaker 1: win every year. We start off and go, Hiy Duke
Speaker 1: North Carolina, Hubert Davis, all right, he's taking over for
Speaker 1: Roy Williams. How's that gonna go? You know? And we're like,
Speaker 1: all right now John Shire is gonna take over for Dukes.
Speaker 1: So it's a it's a big change with two traditional
Speaker 1: powers that are not just traditional powers in the SEC,
Speaker 1: but traditional powers in college basketball. And then couple that
Speaker 1: with the fact that realistically Virginia and Florida State have
Speaker 1: won more conference championships than either one of those two
Speaker 1: schools in recent years. Um I I think, to me,
Speaker 1: that's what That's what I would be concerned about long term.
Speaker 1: Does it open up the door of opportunities, especially for
Speaker 1: a coach like Leonard Hamilton's by the way, who Devin Vassell,
Speaker 1: uh Patrick Williams, Scottie Barnes. I mean, year in a
Speaker 1: year out, he's getting top five people, um to to
Speaker 1: play and have the success that they're had not even starting.
Speaker 1: They're not even starting either, and they're fine with it.
Speaker 1: But that's the connectivity. Leonard Hamilton's one of the great
Speaker 1: teachers that we have in the game. He's one of
Speaker 1: the great teachers that we have in the game. And
Speaker 1: he is maybe the most disrespected head coach in the country.
Speaker 1: Nobody ever talks about him as being one of the
Speaker 1: best coaches in college basketball. He is one of the
Speaker 1: best coaches in college basketball period. Look at the resume, folks,
Speaker 1: read the resume. Look at what he's accomplished. He's amazing
Speaker 1: part him. I played him as a senior he was
Speaker 1: coaching at the University of Miami and the tournament. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you remember that, but we we beat him,
Speaker 1: but I played my worst game. And then my dad
Speaker 1: told me he used to be at Kentucky back in
Speaker 1: the day with Joe B. Hall. I don't know if
Speaker 1: Peter was that either, But Leonard Hamilton's got his starting
Speaker 1: University of Kentucky, so he's got the pedigree. It's crazy
Speaker 1: how disrespected he is. But the team in the a
Speaker 1: CEC that I want to see, I think he's gonna
Speaker 1: Buddy Beeheim and the Orange Man. I'm curious to see
Speaker 1: how they performed this season. I love Buddy, I love
Speaker 1: what he's able to bring to that team. UM. North
Speaker 1: Carolina Hubert Davis is gonna be really interesting as far
Speaker 1: as how that's gonna look. He's come out and said
Speaker 1: a few things and so I don't know about and
Speaker 1: then you have the uncertainty of really what's going on
Speaker 1: with Chris mac and the whole Dino Gaudio situation. That's rough.
Speaker 1: That's a situation out there, not a great situation. UM,
Speaker 1: just to have distractions and we know distractions, Chris like,
Speaker 1: distractions are never good for a program. They're never good,
Speaker 1: And yeah, it is. It's really hard. Um. I think
Speaker 1: when you look at the a CEC this year, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, we're we're at a tipping point really in
Speaker 1: that conference with k stepping you know, stepping Awa after
Speaker 1: the end of this year, and Roy Williams just stepping
Speaker 1: down in the spring of last year. Um. And then
Speaker 1: the fact that the question does have to be asked,
Speaker 1: how many more seasons will Jim behind go? Yeah. I
Speaker 1: don't think that coach Beheim will be the guy that
Speaker 1: announces before the year starts that he's leaving. I think
Speaker 1: he'll be one of those guys the season ends and
Speaker 1: he'll hold a press conference and be like, hey, you
Speaker 1: know what, this has been a great run. I'm out. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm out, and you will never see me again. Um.
Speaker 1: And I think that that could be what he ends
Speaker 1: up doing eventually. But it means that the a c
Speaker 1: C has a lot of turnover in legendary coaches, iconic coaches,
Speaker 1: coaches that have meant so much to the game for
Speaker 1: such a long period of time. I think syracusan n
Speaker 1: C Double A Tournament team. I think they're a round
Speaker 1: of thirty two potentially, you know, depend upon matchups. Obviously
Speaker 1: after that you could maybe make a Sweet sixteen, but
Speaker 1: certainly a round of thirty two tab team. This year,
Speaker 1: I think that Florida State again will we will not
Speaker 1: talk about them in the nonconference, we will not talk
Speaker 1: about them in the preseason poll, and then at the
Speaker 1: end of the season we'll be like, Wow, Florida State
Speaker 1: is up by a half a game going into the
Speaker 1: final weekend of a c C play um And I
Speaker 1: think that's just the way it's going to be. I
Speaker 1: think Virginia is gonna be better this year. I think
Speaker 1: Kia Clark, another kid from southern California that's had a
Speaker 1: tremendous career at Virginia. He like it's it's funny because
Speaker 1: you look at Virginia's program, it's been built on Southern
Speaker 1: California guards. Uh. Kia Clark obviously the latest, but really
Speaker 1: Virginia got bounced in their step and going with London
Speaker 1: Parentice and London parents, a kid that played at Crespy
Speaker 1: High School in southern California. I coached on the club
Speaker 1: circuit for the pump and run teams back in the day. Um,
Speaker 1: but he he went out there, and I think that
Speaker 1: he you know, he really changed the kind of like
Speaker 1: the idea of Virginia became cool. And Tony Bennett's kind
Speaker 1: of a cool coach, even though he runs this weird
Speaker 1: system that really limits the number of shots, and you know,
Speaker 1: they really control the offense and they slow it down,
Speaker 1: and they ask you to pay pack line defense and
Speaker 1: people don't even know what pack line defense is, but
Speaker 1: they're scared of it anyways. Uh and and but yet
Speaker 1: they're still cool and they're getting top one recruits, and
Speaker 1: I think he's going to So I think as we
Speaker 1: evolve here and we see them moving on of some
Speaker 1: of the legendary coaches that have have ruled the college
Speaker 1: basketball landscape for the better part of thirty and forty years,
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna start looking at who are the
Speaker 1: next coaches that are going to become the iconic faces,
Speaker 1: you know, even a guy like Izzo who's been around
Speaker 1: the game as long as he has. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that he's gonna retire anytime soon, but you know,
Speaker 1: we need young coaches to start coming in and being
Speaker 1: those guys. And I think guys like Mark Few, even
Speaker 1: though he's been around for twenty years, he's in that
Speaker 1: He's in that likeness. Um. I think that you look
Speaker 1: at a guy like Tony Bennett, I think Tony Bennett
Speaker 1: is gonna be one of those coaches that is coming
Speaker 1: in that likeness. I think if we can keep the
Speaker 1: NBA away from Jowan Howard, Jowan Howard easily becomes part
Speaker 1: of that that new kind of coach that we're looking
Speaker 1: at and going like, hey, wait, hold on, Chris Beard.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned earlier, I think he deserves to be
Speaker 1: in that conversation right now as becoming the Scott Drew Well,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of coaches. We as a television entity,
Speaker 1: we as ESPN, we as Fox Sports, we as CBS Sports,
Speaker 1: we as you know, whatever stadium, whatever you're calling your
Speaker 1: games on, wherever you watch your college sports. We need
Speaker 1: to start shifting our focus away. And this is not
Speaker 1: in a disrespectful manner, but we need to start elevating
Speaker 1: up some of the younger coaches as much as we
Speaker 1: do uh the iconic coaches, because we cannot lose those
Speaker 1: iconic coaches and all of a sudden lose our identity
Speaker 1: as a sport. No, and we're getting to that page,
Speaker 1: right another one of those young guys who I mean
Speaker 1: like the younger coaches, but he is. He's clearly a
Speaker 1: face of our sport and will continue to be a
Speaker 1: face of our sport just because it looks like Jos
Speaker 1: Clooney and great inn as suit a basketball Hall of
Speaker 1: Famer j Right, get it, don't get it, don't get
Speaker 1: it twisted? Okay, amazing, but but no, but you're right on.
Speaker 1: We are at that point in life where you know
Speaker 1: we're ushering in. We see it every in all facets
Speaker 1: of American life and generations where the oh, out with
Speaker 1: the old, in with the new. And so now you
Speaker 1: have a lot of young coaches that are set up
Speaker 1: right now to sort of assent to that throne that
Speaker 1: is being vacated by the Bay Hives, by Roy Williams,
Speaker 1: by coach k Those are some pretty big titans Kentucky
Speaker 1: as well. And it's just crazy. It's crazy to think
Speaker 1: that we're gonna get to that point. But who do
Speaker 1: you so? And and staying on coaches because I wanted
Speaker 1: to get your take, and then I have one more
Speaker 1: question for you after that. There's been a lot of
Speaker 1: coaching turnover five over fifty new hires this year. What
Speaker 1: do you think is the most impactful coaching higher maybe
Speaker 1: one or two if you have a couple, uh, in
Speaker 1: the in college basketball, I would say Chris Bearded Texas
Speaker 1: is the most impactful. Uh. He's gonna do for Texas
Speaker 1: basketball what everybody hopes Steve Sarkasian can do for their
Speaker 1: football program. Uh. And the reason why I say that
Speaker 1: because you've got a brand new facility coming online, that
Speaker 1: that Shaka had done a tremendous job fundraising and and
Speaker 1: creating the buzz enough and basketball that they actually cared
Speaker 1: about basketball Texas. But I think that Chris Beard is
Speaker 1: by far set up to have a run that is
Speaker 1: bill self like inside the big twelve. I think he
Speaker 1: gave be that dominant and that good um, and I
Speaker 1: think he's going to make it cool to be a
Speaker 1: Texas Longhorn basketball player. I think he's gonna put guys
Speaker 1: in the league as he already has. When he was
Speaker 1: at Texas Tech, I mean he went to lubb It,
Speaker 1: love it, Chris. I don't know if you've ever been
Speaker 1: to lubb It. I have, I have, But he took
Speaker 1: Texas Tech basketball and took them to a final four.
Speaker 1: Like that is final game, right, They were in the
Speaker 1: final game, right, It's incredible. So to me, I look
Speaker 1: at that and I go, yeah, he's he's the guy.
Speaker 1: Like I think he's the guy. I think he's the
Speaker 1: guy's gonna be able to get done. I think the
Speaker 1: other one that's gonna surprise people we talked about is
Speaker 1: Tommy Lloyd. I think Tommy Lloyd is going to be outstanding.
Speaker 1: I think Arizona is going It may not happen right away,
Speaker 1: meaning this year, but look, within forty eight hours of
Speaker 1: him taking the job, he got the best big man
Speaker 1: in all of the state of Arizona to commit in
Speaker 1: forty eight hours of taking the job. He will be fine.
Speaker 1: He will continue, he will recruit at a high level.
Speaker 1: He will use the transfer market as they did. By
Speaker 1: the way, I think he was a very He was
Speaker 1: a very big part of the transfer portal. Before the
Speaker 1: transfportal was the transfer portal at Gonzaga. And you look
Speaker 1: at the guys that transferred into Gonzaga, whether it was
Speaker 1: a Nigel Williams Goss, whether it was a Jonathan Williams,
Speaker 1: you know, the third from Missouri, UH Bank tenually got
Speaker 1: guys that not only came in and played, but that
Speaker 1: fit their sister Andrew Nemhard from Florida, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: how important was his role down the stretch last year UM,
Speaker 1: and even that gameing against West Virginia when Jalen Suggs
Speaker 1: went out with an injury. UM. And then he's also
Speaker 1: a great international recruiter. He's a great domestic recruiter. He's
Speaker 1: he's and I think he's gonna play a very friendly
Speaker 1: offensive style. And I think when to me, to have
Speaker 1: a great coaching higher, it needs to be a perfect marriage, Chris.
Speaker 1: It needs to have the facilities, the fans support the conference,
Speaker 1: and then you need to be the right person for
Speaker 1: that job. And Tommy Lloyd is the right person in Arizona.
Speaker 1: I think when you look at the tradition of that program,
Speaker 1: it is it is always the PAC twelve is always
Speaker 1: at its best when Arizona and u c l A
Speaker 1: are at its best. And that's no disrespect to Oregon.
Speaker 1: Organ has entered the fray because Dana Altman is that
Speaker 1: good of a coach, But historically speaking, when Arizona is
Speaker 1: great and U c l A is great, everybody else
Speaker 1: gets lifted up in the conference, and I think Arizona
Speaker 1: will be back there within three years. Yeah. For me,
Speaker 1: I'll be interested to see how Kevin Krueger does out
Speaker 1: at U n l v UM. He got his dad,
Speaker 1: He brought his dad on staff. You know, Bryce Hamilton's
Speaker 1: coming back. He's been a part of that. You know,
Speaker 1: talk to me, Sean, talk to his dad. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we will be around the Athletic Department of Ton. But
Speaker 1: he he his dad made sure that he had the
Speaker 1: right assistance around him to support him in his early stages,
Speaker 1: his infancy of being a head coach. And I think
Speaker 1: that the big thing for a younger head coach is
Speaker 1: to know your deficiencies. Like sometimes you're so insecure because
Speaker 1: you don't want your deficiencies to be discovered, that you
Speaker 1: hire people that that basically allow those deficiencies to continue,
Speaker 1: and then that that permeates through the program and it
Speaker 1: becomes a problem. With success. You need to have people
Speaker 1: that are not yes men, that are willing to stand
Speaker 1: up and say in meetings, not maybe in front of
Speaker 1: the team, but in meetings no, no, no, Kevin, you
Speaker 1: don't know. No, that's not how this is. Let me
Speaker 1: tell you how trust me, this is how it's not.
Speaker 1: Let me show you and then actually show like flotage
Speaker 1: your tangible effort, things from the past that show how
Speaker 1: it works, and then okay, yeah, cool, now I can
Speaker 1: go do this. I think Kevin's gonna be great. I
Speaker 1: think when you look at you and l V, the
Speaker 1: goal for you and l V is to catch San
Speaker 1: Diego State because Brian Dutcher's been unbelievable. I wout at
Speaker 1: fifty three and seven in the last two seasons. Um,
Speaker 1: So I think for U and LV, it's it's always been.
Speaker 1: They've always had talent. They've always had They've had one
Speaker 1: and done guys. In recent years under Dave Rice, they
Speaker 1: they got Steven Zimerman who was a one and done guy.
Speaker 1: Maybe shouldn't have been, but he was. Um, you can
Speaker 1: go get talent to want to play at the Thomas
Speaker 1: and Mac. You can get talent, especially in I L.
Speaker 1: Now all those kids got Finley toyotas. That's a new
Speaker 1: deal that they got to Every player on the team
Speaker 1: got Finley yoted. Good for them. Go see my guy Ed,
Speaker 1: He'll take care of you. Um, you know I think that, Uh,
Speaker 1: I think when you think about you and LV the
Speaker 1: upside is there and Kevin will be interesting there. I
Speaker 1: think Porter Moser is also a very interesting higher at Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: You're talking about a guy Um and I I talked
Speaker 1: to to Porter at the Coaches Versus Cancer event I
Speaker 1: do in Vegas for Lon Krueger and when I when
Speaker 1: I had my conversation with him and said, hey, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, why did you make the move? And he goes.
Speaker 1: I think it's so hard to be Gonzaga today. Like
Speaker 1: if Mark Few was just starting out, I don't think
Speaker 1: Mark Few could be Gonzaga what Gonzaga is now starting
Speaker 1: Gonzaga in this climate that we live in college basketball,
Speaker 1: it would be too difficult to do. But because he
Speaker 1: had a twenty year head start on all these dramatic
Speaker 1: changes that we're seeing, they're basically the Duke of the
Speaker 1: West Coast right now. They're a small school, they're in
Speaker 1: a little obviously, they're in a small conference, not the
Speaker 1: A c C. But the brand has become so big
Speaker 1: that they can recruit the number one overall prospect in
Speaker 1: the country chat Home Grom to go there versus having
Speaker 1: him go to a Kansas, Kentucky, a Duke Carolina because
Speaker 1: it's an established brand. I think for Loyal in Chicago,
Speaker 1: it was gonna be really hard for Porter to sustain
Speaker 1: that with conference affiliation, um with the landscape changing the
Speaker 1: way that it was. Now he goes to Oklahoma. Can
Speaker 1: he get Oklahoma to a Final four? So now you
Speaker 1: have this change from Lon Krueger, who is a Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame coach, unbelievable winner everywhere. He's gone to Porter Moser,
Speaker 1: who's who's already established himself as one of the better
Speaker 1: young coaches in the country at the head coaching level.
Speaker 1: And now you're taking over on co Homer program. But
Speaker 1: by the way, is also gonna be leading the Big
Speaker 1: Twelve joining the SEC. So now you're recruiting landscape in
Speaker 1: the geographical footprint that you can go recruit after has
Speaker 1: also changed in a very short period of time, a
Speaker 1: lot of changing parts. Can he weather that storm of
Speaker 1: the changing parts and established who he is with his
Speaker 1: identity that he had at Loyal in Chicago with better players,
Speaker 1: Because if he can, I mean it is, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be really really good for him as well those games.
Speaker 1: Think about what we're talking about here too, So now
Speaker 1: we're talking about an SEC that would have Chris Beard,
Speaker 1: Porter Moser, John Calipari, Bruce Pearl, Ben Holland, Eric Musselman,
Speaker 1: Frank Martin. By the way, that also took South Carolina
Speaker 1: to a Final four. I mean that conference, Mike White,
Speaker 1: that conference is stacked, Kermit Davis. I mean it is
Speaker 1: stacked with eyes that can just flat out coach. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's gonna be incredible when it
Speaker 1: all comes together for what that basketball league is gonna
Speaker 1: look like. Absolutely, you talked about, uh, your coaches first Cancer,
Speaker 1: your involvement with coaches first Cancer. I'd like to hear
Speaker 1: about why that's such an important thing for you and
Speaker 1: just talk about your involvement with that organization. So Chris,
Speaker 1: my father in law passed away in twenty eighteen of cancer. Uh.
Speaker 1: And he had fought for fourteen years and he was
Speaker 1: given six years to live when he when he found
Speaker 1: out that he had cancer. And instead of just waving
Speaker 1: the white flag and saying, hey, you know what, six years, okay, fine, whatever,
Speaker 1: he fought every day for his grandchildren. He just wanted
Speaker 1: to see more spend more time with his grandchildren. So
Speaker 1: he signed up for every single trial that was out there.
Speaker 1: He ended up going through seven different trials of medical advancement,
Speaker 1: and he helped fill out notebooks worth of like Okay,
Speaker 1: this work, this didn't work, this work, this didn't work,
Speaker 1: And there are some things that were really well and
Speaker 1: they gave him great quality a life for a year,
Speaker 1: a year and a half, and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden the cancer would come back and we'd have to
Speaker 1: Joe go to another trial or whatever it was UM
Speaker 1: until he passed away November eighteen. And as I was
Speaker 1: going through this process, I met Lon Krueger in Las
Speaker 1: Vegas at at an event that his his team was
Speaker 1: playing in at at the MGM Grand and met this
Speaker 1: guy by the name of d J. Allen, who runs
Speaker 1: Lon Krueger's event in Las Vegas for Coaches Versus Cancer. Goes, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'd love to have you become part of this thing,
Speaker 1: and I've been now part of it for seven years.
Speaker 1: I host the event with j. T. The Brick, who
Speaker 1: does a great job on Mad Dog Sports Radio UM
Speaker 1: and he and I have hosted the event for seven years.
Speaker 1: It raises over a million dollars a year every single year.
Speaker 1: I think this year we did one point five even
Speaker 1: in coming out of the pandemic, which was incredible. UM.
Speaker 1: And it's it's golf, and it's a lot of coaches,
Speaker 1: and it's it's fighting cancer and the reason why. And
Speaker 1: I did the Tennessee One this year to which our
Speaker 1: goal was FO sixty five thousand, and we raised five
Speaker 1: dred thousand. And I I did panel yesterday with the
Speaker 1: aspens UH Society UH talking about health and why it's
Speaker 1: important and how disproportionately it affects. Cancer affects different parts
Speaker 1: of society and some of the things that systemically we
Speaker 1: have done in our in our cities that actually promote
Speaker 1: cancer to happen adversely in more a lower, lower income areas,
Speaker 1: minority areas, Chris UH at a much higher rate than
Speaker 1: what we see in other areas. But it affects all
Speaker 1: of us. It's not this isn't a race issue. It's
Speaker 1: it's a it's a humanity issue. UM. And I don't
Speaker 1: know anybody that hasn't had anybody that's been affected by cancer,
Speaker 1: anybody that hasn't lost a friend, a loved one, to
Speaker 1: colleague at work. Uh. You know. And and during COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: part of one of the things that maybe upset me
Speaker 1: the most. And I get COVID is real. I'm baxed, like,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying COVID's not real. But what didn't happen
Speaker 1: last year was the talking that one point nine million
Speaker 1: people in America was gonna be told that they had
Speaker 1: cancer for the very first time. One point nine million,
Speaker 1: you have cancer, and you're hearing that for the first time.
Speaker 1: What we are not talking about is because we shut
Speaker 1: down early some of the hospitals and some of the
Speaker 1: procedures that could go on that early detection. Chris is
Speaker 1: gone in a lot of areas, and so people missed appointments,
Speaker 1: they missed the opportunity to going and get their scans.
Speaker 1: So now all of a sudden, the cancer that would
Speaker 1: have been very treatable now they're picking up and they're
Speaker 1: gonna be in you know, stage four, stage three, and
Speaker 1: the fight is gonna be that much harder. There's an
Speaker 1: estimated seven hundred thousand Americans that will die this year
Speaker 1: to cancer, seven hundred thousand, and that number is likely
Speaker 1: to increase over the next two years to upwards of
Speaker 1: almost a million if we don't get back to this
Speaker 1: early detection and getting the word out there that hospitals
Speaker 1: because some people are scared to go to hospitals now
Speaker 1: because of COVID, right, so you have to get pre screened,
Speaker 1: you have to get early detection. Look at the icon
Speaker 1: that is Dick Vital. You know, Dicky v has spent
Speaker 1: a majority of his life fighting with the V Foundation.
Speaker 1: And I'm part of the the Foundation as well, Coaches
Speaker 1: Versus Cancer. I'm I'm on the national Council, so I'm
Speaker 1: more involved over there. But he has fought his entire
Speaker 1: life with Coaches Versus with the V Foundation and spreading
Speaker 1: Jimmy V's message. And here's Dick Vital now starting chemotherapy
Speaker 1: for the next six months. And here's the guy that's
Speaker 1: meant as much to the game of college basketball as
Speaker 1: any coach or any player. He has promoted the game
Speaker 1: of basketball better than anyone else, and he's been an
Speaker 1: advocate for it. And now it's affecting him, and it's
Speaker 1: affecting all of us. And we need to be aware,
Speaker 1: and we need to have genuine discussions about health, diet, exercise,
Speaker 1: and things we can do that can prevent some cancers
Speaker 1: from happening. We're not going to prevent all of it,
Speaker 1: but we can prevent some of it. And then we
Speaker 1: need to continue to look at these trial meds and
Speaker 1: seeing that how much advancements actually have been made. The
Speaker 1: most precious thing we have in life, Chris, is time.
Speaker 1: What we do with our time matters, and for me, uh,
Speaker 1: there's nothing more than I do outside of being a father.
Speaker 1: Then give my time to the fight against cancer. That
Speaker 1: means more to me. And when I have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to speak on it, I speak on it. When I
Speaker 1: have the opportunity helps someone fundraise for it, I will
Speaker 1: fundraise until I can't do it. I am not afraid
Speaker 1: to cry in front of public about the loss of
Speaker 1: my father in law. I'm not afraid to cry when
Speaker 1: I hear someone share their story about cancer because I
Speaker 1: know very well that it very easily can be me.
Speaker 1: Could be my wife, could be my kids, could be
Speaker 1: my father, could be, my mom, my sister, my niece. Um,
Speaker 1: it could be you, and I'd be devastated. I'd be devastated.
Speaker 1: So I get emotional about it because the time we
Speaker 1: have together, Chris, that's the best thing in life. And
Speaker 1: I'm not willing to stop finding and sacrificing my time.
Speaker 1: If I can take my time to help create more
Speaker 1: time for a family member or to get us closer
Speaker 1: uh to to a cure for some of these things.
Speaker 1: Then I will roll up my sleeves and I will
Speaker 1: do all that I can uh to make sure that
Speaker 1: I'm doing my part. And I'm grateful for the people
Speaker 1: in the support base I have around me, the doors
Speaker 1: Natalie Morrison at the American Cancer Society UH and coaches
Speaker 1: versus cancer Lon Krueger in particular, who has brought me
Speaker 1: on to be an advocate and a voice. And I
Speaker 1: plan on the platform I have is good. Like look,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not Dick Vitale, I'm not j billis uh,
Speaker 1: you know, but I have a good platform. And if
Speaker 1: I can use my platform and whatever stature I have
Speaker 1: that I've gained in twenty years of broadcasting in this business,
Speaker 1: UH to to help the fight against cancer and be
Speaker 1: there for people that are in the fight against cancer
Speaker 1: and know that they're not alone and know that they've
Speaker 1: got an army of people praying for them uh and
Speaker 1: supporting them, then, by God, that's what I'm willing to do.
Speaker 1: And again, outside of being a parent, that's all that
Speaker 1: matters to me. Man. We're definitely sending our prayers or
Speaker 1: Dickey v Um. Well, you definitely empathize with everyone out
Speaker 1: there that has suffered or law people to cancer. I
Speaker 1: know I have. You have lots of very close people
Speaker 1: and we and that's the one thing about the American experiences,
Speaker 1: and it seems like everybody I know, we've all have
Speaker 1: dealt with cancer or something and we gotta come together
Speaker 1: on a Chris, We've gotta come together. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: a real conversations. And what is our website? You have
Speaker 1: a website, you have a place where people can go
Speaker 1: and donat or well, I think obviously American Cancer Society
Speaker 1: is is a global entity that is involved in so
Speaker 1: much Coaches Versus Cancer. You can just go to typing
Speaker 1: Coaches Versus Cancer and Google and find out that the
Speaker 1: events and if you want to partake in some of
Speaker 1: the events that we have. We have fundraisers that are
Speaker 1: really expensive for big corporations mainly, and then we have
Speaker 1: some other other ones where we can do fund grassroots
Speaker 1: fundraising efforts. I've done high school basketball tournaments where in
Speaker 1: one weekend we've raised thirteen thousand to twenty three thousand
Speaker 1: dollars UH and given all of that to Coaches Versus
Speaker 1: cancer UM, and I think what I left with those experiences,
Speaker 1: and I ran a couple of them UM with my
Speaker 1: club team that I was coaching before I joined b
Speaker 1: T I had. I had a spinoff team from West
Speaker 1: Coast Lead, and I started these tournaments and I called
Speaker 1: Brian Silver's like, hey, Ryan, I need some teams. He
Speaker 1: brought all of his teams. I brought b T I.
Speaker 1: I had competent magic. We're all there. Like all these guys,
Speaker 1: they want to do good and the players. What I
Speaker 1: did was I mandated that when they were done with
Speaker 1: the tournament that they had to hear about cancer and
Speaker 1: how it's affecting people. And every tournament bracket was named
Speaker 1: after someone who is actually still fighting cancer or had
Speaker 1: been passed away of cancer, that was tied to someone
Speaker 1: directly to the event, And so when you looked at
Speaker 1: your bracket, you had a picture of somebody and their
Speaker 1: bio of their fight against cancer. And so it humanized
Speaker 1: this thing, and these kids started to realize that this
Speaker 1: was not the normal tournament. They weren't down at that
Speaker 1: with O G. P uh. You know, they weren't playing
Speaker 1: at the map, they weren't just you know, just playing
Speaker 1: in a normal tournament. They were playing in something that
Speaker 1: actually didn't matter more, and we made announcements, we had fundraisers,
Speaker 1: we had things that we were giving away, and it
Speaker 1: was a remarkable thing to be part of for a
Speaker 1: couple of years and COVID kind of shut it down.
Speaker 1: We're gonna try to bring it back this upcoming summer
Speaker 1: as like an end of summer, and I want to
Speaker 1: kind of do it as like an l A championship
Speaker 1: for the club circuit and see if I can get
Speaker 1: television involved in it. I want to get why not.
Speaker 1: I want to get Ryan Silver's team. I want to
Speaker 1: get the Compton Magic, and I want the top tier
Speaker 1: bt I team at all three age groups to go
Speaker 1: against each other and be like, who's the biggest and
Speaker 1: the baddest in Southern California because all those programs have
Speaker 1: great teams. And if we can do something like that
Speaker 1: and raise money to fight cancer, uh and get exposure,
Speaker 1: whether it's on Valley's Sports in Los Angeles, whether it's
Speaker 1: on stadium, whether it's on something like that, that's what
Speaker 1: my that's my focus for this upcoming years to try
Speaker 1: to develop something like that. After the July period is done,
Speaker 1: after the live period is done, is bring those teams
Speaker 1: together and then eventually what I want to do is
Speaker 1: expand it to the entire state of California and get
Speaker 1: the Oakland Soldiers involved in and have you know I
Speaker 1: played for the Soldiers growing up. I love to have
Speaker 1: the soldiers come down, uh and be part of it
Speaker 1: as well, and have like a California Club Championship post
Speaker 1: the live period and get it on television. I think
Speaker 1: people would watch it first and foremost. But I know
Speaker 1: we'd raised a lot of really good money as well
Speaker 1: in the fight against cancer. Man, let me let me
Speaker 1: know what if you need anything from me or how
Speaker 1: I can help you, always man, make that happen, because
Speaker 1: you know that that sounds like amazing cause and I
Speaker 1: want to I want to definitely raise the awareness, dude,
Speaker 1: and actually make a difference in someone's life. Sean Farnum,
Speaker 1: It's been two hours that we have been sitting on
Speaker 1: this Dog All podcast and were probably gonna go for
Speaker 1: another two hours. Bro. We didn't even get into any
Speaker 1: of the great stories that but that'll be talk. Yeah
Speaker 1: maybe that's Chris also is like, what's that We're out
Speaker 1: of time? We're out of time I'm sorry. We're gonna
Speaker 1: go okay, guys, thank you for joining the show today.
Speaker 1: No man, we'll save that part two. Man. Uh hey man.
Speaker 1: Today it's been amazing. Thank you for your wealth of
Speaker 1: information and knowledge and your candidate, the way you talk
Speaker 1: about things, your passion, your intensity, bro, it's it's definitely inspirational.
Speaker 1: Sean and uh man, I appreciate you coming on kJ Live.
Speaker 1: No problem, Chris. Anytime you need me ruined for life,
Speaker 1: teammate for life, friend for live, family for life, um,
Speaker 1: and any time I can help you out you let
Speaker 1: me know. So proud of you, so proud of your family, um,
Speaker 1: and so proud of what you're what you're doing, Man,
Speaker 1: keep plazing your own trail, plays your own path and
Speaker 1: and and know who you are and believe and trust
Speaker 1: in who you are as a person, Chris, because you're
Speaker 1: a good person. Thank you, my man.