1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Doc Rivers the Mike McCarthy of NBA?: April 8th, 2026, 12:45pm

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

Doc Rivers compare to a long-time NFL Coach?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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We're back here on one-on-one. I'm Jake Bockman. He is Austin, Orban, D.P. out for the week. And we will look forward to his return. I did want to ask, because we've got a few more minutes, some questions that I had, Austin. I've been asking a few different people around the station. I want to get your thoughts on it. After Michigan, of course, brings home the national title for the Big Ten, beating Yukon, 69 to 63 there on Monday night. The biggest question that I've had that I think makes you think, of course, is that Dussie Mae and Fred Hoyberg split the Big Ten coach of the year this year. Now that we've seen Dusty May go through

it and win the national title, the first one for the Big Ten since the year 2000. And that is quite a long time ago. Mateo Cleaves, Tom Isso. Yeah, yeah. Back in that day. What year two, I think? Wasn't that early for

Issa? Am I? Thanks? Let me look this up before I say something that is not correct. It was within the first five years, certainly. Yeah. One, two, three.

Okay, it was year five. So not quite that. Yeah, but either way, you know, and man, it's always funny because you talk about teams that are guys that live off legacies from one championship. I see that out there for my 08 Celtics all the time. It's certainly, yes. Doc Rivers. Doc Rivers for sure.

Oh, my gosh. Did you hear that? Did you read that story yesterday? Uh-uh. Okay. I need to pull this up because the quotes, I think it was from ESPN, we're absolutely wild. Ask your question why I look this up and we'll get back. Okay, okay. So the question I was leading to is, since they split the regular season award media and coaches, now that you've seen the totality of it, who would you, you're the swing vote.

It's just one award. Who would you give the award to, Fred Hoyberg or Dusty May? Well, regular season award. Okay. So I think that makes it a little bit closer because now Michigan has as many national championships as its history as Nebraska's NCAA tournament wins in its history. two to two. Michigan was still one of the more dominant teams in the regular season. I know they dropped a couple down the line. Let me take out the regular season award part because I wanted to include the national championship. BetMGM is an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League and has everything

for the action on the ice. Hockey fans in Canada can place live bets, create same game parlayes, take player props on their favorite skaters, and bet on the 2026 Stanley Cup champion, including if that team will be from Canada or the USA. BetMGM also has original bets, which are hockey markets you can't find anywhere else. And it's not just about what you can do on game day. The betmgm app has improved its lineup this season to include instant withdrawals, data insights, and a brand new rewards hub.

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I still probably go with Fred Hoyberg. I just think, I mean, you pick 14th to finish second. Yeah. And some of that's an indictment on people looking in from the outside, not knowing what they're seeing, being skeptical of what they're seeing. And that makes sense. It absolutely makes sense. But maybe we should be, you know, reserving some of those backpats and saving them for later for, you know,

given to Fred Hoyberg for saying, oh, you're smarter than us. Well, duh, he's Fred Hoyberg. I've made an impassioned plea on this radio station to not just give it to the coach that did more with less like it's traditionally turned into. I do think that there was a lot of work that went into tying Michigan together. I had my own doubts about how that front court would work together and I was really impressed with what Dusty May was able to do.

I wasn't overall impressed with Michigan's back court necessarily going into the year and Dusty May got the most out of it. So I think I would have leaned Fred Hoyberg just because of the start that Nebraska got off to because they ended up making so much school history. Because Michigan was always going to be good. We just didn't know how good. So I'd say Fred Hoyberg, probably like 52-48,

if you might, my guess. Yeah, yeah, it's an interesting question because I think it is, you know, now that we see the both seasons in totality, obviously historic things done on both sides. But I agree with you too is that, you know, Michigan did have top, you know, I'm not going into that, you know, more with less thing,

but they did have top 10 expectations. I think that that does factor in. It doesn't have to be the whole thing. But, you know, and so there is, there's a lot there, there, especially in your second season. And I think people forget, you know, I mean, I don't know why, but I think just maybe because of the early success of the John Howard tenure there, that it's maybe remembered a little bit better than it was.

By the time they left, they were 8 and 24. Well, that's the team that Nebraska beat in the Chrysler Center for its only win. in that building to this point, late in the year. Okay, yeah, I think that's right. Yeah. Yeah, so it is interesting. And in a course, it's, it's, you know, then you have the whole argument against Michigan this year, which is they just, you know, it's all hired guys from different, but that's basketball these days. And certainly in a second year, anywhere, where you're trying to turn it around, that would make a lot of sense.

But, you know, I, I can't wait to see. And when you brought up ISO, you know, Dustin May has got a long, long road ahead of him. I wonder, you know, if he can ever kind of kind of, kind of. get into those conversations, you know, off to a good start. Well, Jay and I were having this discussion yesterday.

Who's the best Michigan men's basketball coach of all time? If you're putting together the all-time Michigan team, it's Steve Fisher or John B-line for now. What does Dusty May have to do to get into that conversation? Obviously, stick around, not go anywhere else. But Dusty May makes two more final fours. Dusty May wins another championship in 10 years,

call it, it might be him already, which is kind of crazy for everything that Steve Fisher did, taking over as the interim, right at the end of that season to win that first title, connecting and collaborating with the Fab Five, then in that era and having some really good success till the end, and John Beeline took Michigan to a pair of national championship appearances

and did some really great developmental work and, you know, kind of brought that Michigan basketball brand back in a lot of ways. Yeah, I always wonder, it is a good question. I always wonder if John Beeline didn't, didn't go try that Detroit job, you know, which... Cleveland. Was it Clayland? Yeah, didn't work out.

And didn't work out in like a quarter of a season. Right. They decided on that pretty quickly. So can I tell you the Doc Rivers thing? Yeah, yeah. Tell me the Doc River. Okay. This is from Yahoo Sports. On March 2nd, during a back-to-back matchup against the Boston Celtics, Doc Rivers called for a team meeting on the day of that game. In that meeting, Doc Rivers implored his team,

according to six people in that room, first James Sharanya. Look at my resume and quote, Google me. I took teams to the playoffs and championship that weren't supposed to be there. I thought this was one of them. End quote. According to one of these six team sources, his reaction was not well received internally,

and that was just another example of the disconnect between players and coach. Yeah, that's definitely something. He pulled the Cignetti. Yeah, I'm just not at the right time in his career. Man. Yeah, that's definitely. an interesting take. Is Doc Rivers the Mike McCarthy of the NBA?

I think that's probably pretty fair. I know Doc played and McCarthy didn't have the NFL playing career that the Doc Rivers had in the NBA. But in terms of how we talk about them, their results, never horrible, never bad, maybe slightly overmalined, but maybe not as good as they want to believe they are either in some ways. Not an inspiring hire if you, I say hire those guys or end up with those guys probably more accurately. Yeah, I mean, again, it's always going to be so crazy to see, you know, after they moved on from Budenholzer and ended up with Doc Rivers. Now, I think Adrian Griffin was there in between, but it is just like, man, and Boodenholz was just one of the best coaches in the NBA. And to land on, like, Rivers of all people is going to be the guy that push the right buttons to make, you know, this thing work with Janus and the rest of the, in less of a group surrounding him. But no, I think that's a pretty good comparison.

I'll always support Doc Rivers because he did win that title in Boston. But, I mean, clearly, I mean, between the 3-1 blow leads in the playoffs and this is not a, you guys wonder, this Buck's job can't last a whole lot longer. And then what's the next for him? Is somebody still going to reach out to Doc Rivers at some point to just try to steer their team in the right direction?

You can do worse. You can do better. both those things can be true. All right, then we're having up for one-on-one today. Bocking the black shirt coming up next. Thanks to Austin for jumping in with me on one-on-one. Plenty of the black shirt coming up next year, 93-7 the ticket.