Andy & Ari On3 - Brent Venables will get you PUMPED for Oklahoma in the SEC | Can Larry Nerd make the NCAA tourney?

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

Thank you to Gametime for sponsoring today's episode! The NCAA Tournament starts next week, and Gametime is the perfect place to pick up tickets when you learn where your team is going. Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed.(0:00-1:41) Intro(1:42-7:36) Brawl in SEC Championship: LSU vs South Carolina(7:37-11:46) Utah State Head Coach Announces her own firing(11:47-42:55) Brent Venables Joins(42:56-47:10) Jordan Logo on Football Jerseys?(47:11-1:01:12) James Fletcher III Joins to Analyze March Madness, Bubble Watch(1:01:13-1:03:06) Conclusion - Marcus Freeman tomorrow!Oklahoma coach Brent Venables joins to discuss getting ready for the SEC and building on a 10-win season. Venables has revamped the roster since arriving before the 2022 season, but he’s managed to keep the core of his defense intact. Meanwhile, the Sooners must break in an almost completely new offensive line as former five-star recruit Jackson Arnold takes the reins at quarterback. It’s a year of transformation in Norman, and how is Venables handling the process?Next, On3’s resident bracketologist James Fletcher III stops by to talk about some of the filled NCAA Tournament bracket spots and all the ones remaining. Stetson (Atlantic Sun), Longwood (Big South), Drake (Missouri Valley) and Morehead State (Ohio Valley) have punched their tickets. Drake’s win against Indiana State means Robbie Avila — AKA Larry Nerd AKA Cream Abdul-Jabbar — is at the mercy of the selection committee. Can the Sycamores get an at-large? Meanwhile, power conference tournaments begin this week. Who can get a bid with a deep run, and who needs to win the whole thing?

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Monday. Happy spring break, everybody. I realize I look like I'm in front of a green screen. I said, put an image of paradise behind Andy. It's not a green screen. It's spring break, everybody. We'll spring break for the kids, not spring break for us

because college football, college basketball, they never stop. We don't take days off. Besides, we got conference tournaments. We got brawls in women's conference tournament finals. We got Brent Venables, the head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners, joining us today. Come on. Who's got it better than us? Oh, wait.

Can we say that anymore? Jim Harbaugh's not in college football, but we have a absolutely fun week ahead. We got a fun show today. Brent Venables will get you pumped up to see the Oklahoma Sooners in the SEC. It's a very interesting situation they're in, you know, and you've heard me a million times talking about their win total going, what are we talking about? Seven and a half. What are we talking about? Now, obviously we don't go over win totals with Brent Venables. That would be a little, probably beyond the pale there, but we do talk to him about breaking in Jackson Arnold. We got them going to the SEC. We got him

dealing with NIL, with the transfer portal, which is really interesting when you consider where he came from, because he was at Clemson for so long with Dabo Sweeney. And Dabo Sweeney has obviously taken a very different tack than Brent Venables has as a head coach in this era. So we'll talk to Brent Venables about that. But first we got to talk about a brawl at the end of the SEC tournament final in the women's game. Now, this is a huge matchup. This is LSU, the defending national champs against South Carolina, the undefeated number one team in the country. Now, remember, these teams played last year.

South Carolina won in Columbia, but they did not play in the NCAA tournament because South Carolina lost to Iowa and then LSU beat Iowa for the national title. So this very well could be the national championship game. And I think the South Carolina players really wanted to show against LSU, hey, we are still the best team. We were the best team last year. This was a styles make fights thing that got them beat against Iowa. And South Carolina and LSU went at it again. And late in the game, you had an incident where Malaysia Fulwiley from South Carolina

steals the ball from Flojay Johnson. Flojay Johnson grabs her, commits the foul out of frustration, stopped the break. And then stuff starts happening. And so Camila Cardoza, the 6'7 center for South Carolina, comes flying in, decks Flojey Johnson, and then it's on. You see Flojey Johnson's brother come over onto the court. He got escorted out. I think it was said he was arrested, and then it was clarified later he was not arrested, but he was ejected from the arena.

It was a crazy scene crazy scene and you've got Don Staley probably the most accomplished coach in women's basketball right now you've got Kim Mulkey very accomplished as well multiple national titles and quite a flair and man this this one had it all here's Kim Mulkey talking about the fight afterward in the way that only Kim Mulkey can. No one wants to be a part of that. No one wants to see that ugliness. But I can tell you this. I wish she would have pushed Angel Reese.

Don't push a kid. You 6'8", don't push somebody that little. That was uncalled for, in my opinion. Let those two girls that were jawing, let them go at it. This is a very football coach way to respond to this, by the way. Hit Mulkey sounding more like a football coach, being like, well, we'll let him go head up. We'll settle our differences that

way. Who needs technical fouls? Dawn Staley took a little bit different tack. But I'm going to say this. Flau'jae came to me after the game, right after the game, and she just apologized and said she's not that type of player. And I really appreciate that. That's something that somebody won't ever hear if I didn't say anything. And she's not. She's a really good person. Things just got escalated. I'll take responsibility for what happened from our side of it, which is we don't, you know, we talk about these things as a, you know, as a, as a team. And we, we try to as much as possible express to them how not to react in those types of situations. But real time is real time.

And I know that, you know, anybody, Camilla, as well as the other four or five players that were ejected, I know if they had a chance to do it all over again, they would do it differently. But now we have that. I just don't want the people who are tuning in to women's basketball, see that and think, you know, that is our game because it is. Our game is a really beautiful thing. And to be quite honest, this is, this is a part of it now. So we have to fix it and we have to move on so i don't think she has to apologize to fans of women's basketball and say this is not part of

the game it is it's part of basketball people get heated it's okay listen this makes more people want to watch the ncaa tournament because i want to see these two teams play again i want to see these two teams play again for the national title. We thought that's the matchup we're going to get last season. And Caitlin Clark bombed threes all over South Carolina. And we got a different matchup, which was also awesome. But think about this. Is there a matchup in the men's tournament that you are as excited about

as either LSU South Carolina or a South Carolina- Iowa, or an LSU, Iowa rematch. This is good for the game. Say what you will look fighting happens in sports. It's just part of the game. And so we'll see what happens. Six players got ejected and ESPN initially said that everybody who left the bench was going to be ineligible for the first game of the NCAA tournament and then clarified that later. Let's wait and see what we hear from the SEC, from the various folks involved to find out who's going to be suspended for this thing. Camila Cardozo probably almost certainly going to be suspended for the first game of the NCAA tournament. Now you say, OK, that's bad. That's the NCAA tournament, but it's a one versus a 16.

And I know we had, you know, in the men's side, Purdue Fairleigh Dickinson last year would be like, Zach Eadie not playing for Purdue in that game. But 16 has not beaten a one in the women's tournament yet, and I'm not sure this is going to be the first year, even if Camila Cardozo can't play for the Gamecocks. So that was a crazy, crazy ending. And just get ready for that. This is conference tournament heaven right now because the mid-major

tournaments in the men's side just starting to wrap up. The high major tournaments getting started this week. There are NCAA tournament bids to be locked down. There are four teams already in the men's side that have locked down their bids. And so we are going to talk to James Fletcher III about that later in the show. We're going to talk to Brent Venables very soon. But before that, a reminder also from the women's basketball game about how cutthroat coaching in college is, whether it's football, basketball, lacrosse, it doesn't matter. You don't win, you are out. And sometimes it comes at the worst possible time. This is a question addressed to Kayla Ard at the Mountain West Women's Basketball Tournament. So she's the Utah State coach.

The Aggies had just lost. She gets a question about rebuilding for next year. Listen to her answer. And how do you plan to rebuild for next season? I'm not going to be rebuilding. I just coached my last game at Utah State. I spoke with Diana, and they're going in a different direction, and I respect her decision, and I hope they get a really good coach in.

I'm assuming that's going to be the last question. All right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, coach. I'm not going to rebuild because I just got fired, and then, oh, by the way, I think that was my last question. Like, how?

That is how cutthroat that business is. So she walks off the court, you're fired, goes into the press conference. Nobody knows that she's fired yet. Gets asked about rebuilding. Oh, by the way, I am fired. I do appreciate Kayla. First of all, way more patience class than I would have had in that situation because I'd have just torched every bridge. I'd have just torched every bridge. I'd have killed my buyout. They wouldn't have paid me my buyout after what I would have said five seconds after getting fired. And then also, I do love just turning to the monitor and being like, I think that was my last question. I'm not answering any more questions. I don't even

work here anymore. I'm not even supposed to be here today. Unbelievable. Cutthroat business. A cutthroat business, this college sports. And you wonder why we think these coaches are so crazy, but that's what can happen. You can just walk off the court. You're done. Oh, by the way, go answer some questions about that. It's going to be a wild week, an absolute wild week. And that's why even in paradise, we don't stop. Before we get to Brent Venables, we got to talk about game time. Download that game time app. Use the code staples.

20 bucks off your first purchase. There is no better time than right now to be using game time. So you want to follow your team in the NCAA basketball tournament, men's or women's. Well, you probably, if you're a one, let's say you're a South Carolina fan on the women's side, you know where your team's going. If you're an Arizona fan, you probably know where your team's going. Well, maybe not for the second weekend yet, but what if you're a six seed, $7, Florida, they just lost to Vanderbilt, probably knocked them down one entire sea line. You have no idea if you're a Florida fan where they're going to get sent for the NCAA tournament. It could be Omaha. It could be Pittsburgh. It could be Charlotte. We'll use game time. And when the bracket comes out, you pop on the app, you grab the best price ticket you can find. You can look exactly at where

your seat's going to be. You can see what the view will be like in the arena. If you're going to Pittsburgh, by the way, they use the penguins photos. So you'll see a hockey arena, but just imagine a basketball court there. It's a tremendously easy thing. And this is the perfect time to use game time. So download that app, use the code staples first purchase 20 bucks off, no better way to get last minute tickets. And there's no better situation for game time. So selection Sunday, hold your game time app. As soon as you see where your team's going, go follow them. All right. Speaking of following your team, Oklahoma fans have some new places to go. As their team enters a new conference, they're going to Auburn this year. They're going to LSU this year.

You get your game time apps out for that one too. And you're going to be especially pumped. So you may want to go get tickets to every game after you hear this. Brent Venables joins us, talking Sooners. We are joined by Oklahoma coach Brent Venables in front of the drip wall in his, maybe the nicest head coach's office in America. I've been in there, Brent, a few years ago there's a fireplace there's like three different separate meeting area and you've got every Air Jordan known to man I mean it it's when the recruits walk in they got to be blown away right yeah this is this is it's pretty nice spot and no doubt about it

um I'll spend much time in here unless the recruits are here but I know it is it's nice Carol Carol Stoops did a wonderful job. That's right. And then Bob retired right after it got finished. Yeah, he didn't have any time to unpack his boxes, actually. Well, he had time, but he knew he was going to do it, and so he had the boxes. He didn't unpack them.

Well, I imagine you are feeling quite at home going into year three at OU. And I think it's interesting because you took this job knowing that the SEC move was coming and you were always getting questions about it, but you had games you had to worry about in the Big 12. How much more can you think about that actively? Are you prepping for playing the teams of the SEC now? Yeah, I mean, again, we've been transitioning for a couple of years in just a lot of our programmatic things, staffing, some of our structures. Certainly we're trying to build a roster that can compete in the SEC.

And the SEC, I think everybody knows, it goes without saying, is a very deep conference with both excellent rosters and really good coaches and fan bases that take a backseat to nobody. Incredibly passionate, and the commitment to football and really all sports is you know it's really incredible and can compete with anybody in the country and better than most that way so you know there's you know we knew this this opportunity was was coming down the uh you know down the road and certainly uh we, it goes without saying how this all happened, but we're going a year early, and it's an exciting time.

And there'll be a transition just in regards to learning the conference. We're trying to bridge that gap as quickly and expeditiously as we can when it comes to figuring out who the teams are, what their DNA is on all three phases, what their rosters look like. And we have that going on, but we spend the most time on focusing on us, our development, our improvement, just trying to get better one day at a time. And recruiting to a profile that whether we were going to the SEC or within Big 12 or in any other conference that meets the standards of what we're looking for to be a championship program. And so now that we're going to the SEC, we don't change necessarily what we're

looking for. I think over the course of time that we will have an opportunity to maybe get into a few more places geographically from a footprint standpoint. But Oklahoma, you know, we've we've signed guys 15 plus states, you know, in three straight classes, you know, across the country. And Oklahoma does have a brand that can get into, you know, any doorway, high school or home across the country. Oklahoma does have a brand that can get into any doorway, high school or home across the country. I think it's decade after decade of excellence and success has led to that respect that the Oklahoma brand has from coast to coast. I heard you get asked about, you know, the roster construction for the SEC.

And you said, hey, you know, we're not really trying to make a different roster for the SEC. My assumption was that you got in there and we're trying to build a roster that can win a national championship, which that's what you guys did at Clemson. You had to build rosters that could compete with whoever the best team in the SEC or the big 12 or the big 10 was that you would wind up playing in the playoff how far along are you on you know from that respect in terms of the body types you want uh the depth you want well i mean i love our guys and it ain't ever good enough so So, you know, you always want more. That's just how coaches are. And I think if, you know, as you chase winning and chase success, you know, I think that is a mindset.

But, you know, you always want more bigger, longer guys. You want more depth. That's just the way it is. You know, I don't know if we can ever satisfy ourselves, but no doubt about it, we can compete at a really, really high level. And we're working hard to just daily improvement to get better so that we can compete with the competitive depth at that conference, week in and week out.

I think that'll be the biggest test of the program and where we're at is, is playing, you know, Texas type teams. Every year we were used to Texas or, and again, there's a lot of very successful programs right here in this conference as well. You look at two former big 12 teams and, you know, Missouri and certainly Texas A&M. But that's probably what you understand being in the footprint in Clemson, in that part of the country, knowing we played SEC teams every single year.

And certainly we didn't play them every week, though. And I get that. That's a very real thing, too. But the competitive depth of the conference, top to bottom, play him every week though and uh and i get that that's that's a very real thing too uh but the competitive depth of the conference top to bottom in the environments that you're going to play in uh every single week you know the oklahoma fans aren't going to be uh they're not going to out number you know the home team like it you know some places in the big 12 uh and by any stretch but uh but that's exciting that challenge is is uh some of the alert and some of the the draw of going you know to to that conference too so you are very old

on defense this year you get billy stutzman back or danny stutzman back you get billy bowman back uh how important is that that these guys have been there, and now you've got a new coordinator on defense, but also it's also your defense. How important is that that they know what you want, what needs to be done? And, I mean, you may not even have to tell them. They can just tell the young guys.

Yeah, I think it's important, you know, as you're trying to build a stable program that has, you know, continuity and stability. Those are, you know, those are things to me that have been a part of championship locker rooms that, you know, through at three different places at Kansas State, at Oklahoma, and then at Clemson. And what we're trying to build here in a very unstable time in college football where rosters are can be very fluid. Having guys several players that this is gonna be the third year in our system is, it's great, obviously it goes without saying that,

you can be more player driven player led in so many ways. Third year, fourth year players are gonna play in a confident, more of a precise, confident, aggressive, physical way. And more consistent at the end of the day. And if you're a great player, you're a great unit, you're a great team, consistency is a word that people are going to use to describe you. And I tell the coaches that, and you're looking at recruits, and I think that's an important piece.

Who are the guys that are going to play at a really high – they're going to be here every single day. They may not ever get here, but they're not going to be down here. Guys that play in an uneven way or they compete or they show up every single day they may not ever get here but they're not going to be down here and guys that play uh in an uneven way or they compete or they show up in an uneven way you're gonna you have uneven results and so that's what we all want and having a lot of experience back should give you lynn's credibility to to believe that you're going to have that well that's what you know i look at your defenses at your last stop and it seemed like there was a just a great handing down of here's how you work here's how we play from the older

players to the younger players and does it feel like that's what's happening now no doubt yeah there's where we're at uh in January February going into March now, compared to just a year ago or even two years ago, which seems in dog years a decade ago. We've made a tremendous amount of improvement in every way. So whether that's the physical things, your strength, your speed, your depth, having more able guys that can play at a winning level, to the sureness, the consistency, the leadership, all those things. Incrementally, we've gotten better in all those areas.

And so that makes it a lot of fun. Where, again, the players are going to beat you to correct guys, or again, they're going to set the tempo, you know, for the day, the thermostat, you know, they're going to move that, that, that needle where it needs to be every day. So Jackson Arnold taking over, we got to see him start in the Alamo bowl. And it was one of those things where you see the flashes, but then you also see some, some true freshmen making freshmen making his first start kind of moments. But how valuable was that experience for him going into this offseason? Well, you know, starting the game and, you know, having some success in the game and certainly some adversity in the game is going to no doubt going to pay off for him.

And the number one reason why is Jackson has got all the right stuff. How to handle adversity, how to handle success, what the process looks like and staying focused on the things that he can control. He's got great self awareness. He's got great toughness. He's an incredible competitor. No matter what happens, Jackson's got a unique quality where he just doesn't flinch. But he takes great ownership.

He's very accountable to himself and his play. But he's hard on himself and demanding of himself, but he's not going to crush, you know, his own spirit. So I feel great about where he's not going to crush his own spirit. So I feel great about where he's at. And again, being able to learn from Dylan last year, he'll be the first one to say how invaluable that was for his freshman year. Again, Dylan being one of the most successful collegiate quarterbacks in the history of college football, not just, you know,

last season. And Dylan was a great leader and did a great job pouring into Jackson. And then it was well received by Jackson. So it's all going to matter, you know, going into this season. And you feel great about that. You have three or four, however you look at it, of returning starters is it. But he does have, you know, with the portal and several guys that played, maybe didn't start but played, he has a great group around him coming back

that can help him be successful. And that's going to be, if he's going to be successful, it's going to be because of everybody around him. So I noticed on Wednesday you had all of your freshmen and newcomers. They met with your local media, had a kind of a media day for, for pre-spring practice. It was like David Stone, who's a big time defensive tackle recruit that you guys signed. He's doing interviews. Most coaches don't let those freshmen talk. Don't let them, and they kind of hide them away from the world until, until they played in a game or maybe even until they're sophomores.

What was it that went into putting these guys out there and letting them kind of have their say? Yeah, I feel really good about the coaches. We're recruiting to a certain model, a certain type of young guy that can handle that moment. I'm not afraid of what he may or may not say. We're like everybody. We do media training for all of our guys and try to get them in a comfortable space, using their platform the right way, promoting things, the right types of things. I want our fans to know these players. I want our fans to feel connected to them.

And this is a time of the year where I don't think that it's not a time where there's going to be a lot of distractions. And so I think it's an appropriate time. I want our players to understand the standards and the platform that they're on when it's at the University of Oklahoma. There's a long line of media, a huge following, a passionate fan base. I want to feed our media with great content. I know they'll utilize it the right way. I think there's a marketing aspect of all of it that I'm not naive to, that I think can be a really positive thing for Oklahoma. And I'm trying to get these players attached to the brand and the opportunity and

the standards that Oklahoma represents as well and and again if they're if they're who we think they are and when we recruit them I think this is an opportunity to help them mature and grow in all the right ways sooner rather than later and we're expecting to get on that field and play and compete in a mature level uh this pales in comparison you know to me to what that uh platform is well Stone's mad at us because we had him number 29 in the whole country and that's lower than anybody else so I like the fire though I like I like that he's mad I think that's that's probably a good sign for you that he's coming in ready to play. But you guys have so much experience to kind of help those guys out. It seems like that seems hard to do now in this era of college football

to have older players plus some depth that you feel comfortable with. How do you develop a culture where you can keep those guys? Yeah, I think it's, you know, I think you've got to come from a place that where you're genuine, uh, try to be authentic, real relationships is what it, uh, it's all about, uh, to me. And, you know, when there's, if you're looking for real commitment from guys and all the things that commitment, you know,, the leadership, the buy in, the servant mindset of the older guys to the younger guys where they're just keepers of the jersey, if you will, that there's a name on the front of their jersey that represents excellence that they hopefully they're attracted to.

And it's something that they, again, feel a responsibility that they've got to live up to the standards of those expectations as the next wave of leaders or the next wave of the players. That's a responsibility when you come to a place like Oklahoma. And so you're trying to constantly nurture that buy-in of what that means. Everything matters. And the older guys or guys that have been here have an investment. So they should care about the guys. And my promise is that the players that are in that locker room, I'm going to recruit young men that value the things that you value and that align with our values and standards as a program. And if they're not about that, then I'm not going to recruit them.

And so our players immediately, they understand if we're going to have real commitment from whether it's them or our new players, that there's got to be connection. And so we work hard at trying to nurture those relationships. But it starts from the top. All of us as coaches having, again, strong relationships in the recruiting process. And then that doesn't start when there's not like some kind of change up when they get here. It's with the same guy and tough, demanding, relentless, passionate, focused on winning, competing at the highest level, all those things. And we want to bring in young men that align with that.

Well, and having teammates that are about the same things. I was thinking about this because I heard you, you did an interview with Bob Stoops a few months ago, and he was talking to you about the group of linebackers that you played with at Kansas State. And I had forgotten just how accomplished this group wound up being. So it's you, Mike Eckler,

who's the special teams coordinator at Tennessee, Kirby Hokut, who's the athletic director at Texas Tech, and Laird Veach, who's the athletic director at Memphis. Did you realize when you're playing with these dudes that they are destined for great things? Or was it a case of we're all kind of alike here. We all have the right work ethic here. Yeah, I thought we're all a bunch of misfits and underdogs. But foundationally, there was like a belief. There's a belief system. Bill Schneider's in the Hall of Fame for a reason, and he's a developer of men.

And I think that's the greatest calling of coaching is the development of people. And we were bought in, we were all in before it became a popular slogan. And I say that with all due respect, committed guys that believed in big team, little me, what sacrifice, what work ethic, outworking people, out hustling people, out thinking people, creating value for yourself, you know, loving one another, doing it through relationships, being passionate and loving what you are doing. And I've always believed this. You'll never be great at anything if you don't love all of it. And so we were baptized, if you will, in the Bill Schneider and Bob Stoops. As some people know, some people don't know, he was the –

And Jim Leavitt, too. And co-defense coordinator along with Coach Leavitt, who was the linebacker's coach. And I think one of their many qualities, all three of those men that we just mentioned, Coach Schneider and Coach Stoops and Coach Leavitt, I think that they all had this unique ability to get more out of less. And they were a believer in vision, and they did an amazing job of creating vision constantly

and pushing guys past their limits without breaking our spirits. And so that's a unique ability, but they had this mindset that was relentless about becoming the best and being committed to your best so that you could become the best one day. And as 1998, as many people know, we were the number one team in college football for most of the year. And then we lost a heartbreaker in overtime in our championship game. And then Bob Stoops gets hired at Oklahoma.

And then we all, several of us, go to Oklahoma. But Bill Snyder and those coaches would tell you they would give credit to Coach Snyder and the Hayden Fry Tree and whatnot. But Bill Schneider, what he was able to do there at Kansas State and the people and the success stories, it's not just us, it's many, many more, much better stories than all of us misfits. But it's pretty cool. We are in the same meeting room. We're still all good friends and life gets busy and things like that. But we all inherited a skill set that leads to success no matter what you do.

Just we were able to put it in our backpacks or our back pocket and bring it into the environments that we were in. And so very, very thankful and appreciative of how we how we grew up in this profession in the locker room. And at the end of the day, we all got these amazing transferable skills from the locker room. And that's one of the things that – Does it transfer? Because you coach a different brand of athlete than Brent Venables right now. But can you coach the same way?

Absolutely. I wouldn't know any other way. And again, you just come from a place, when you love it, people know. They're like, okay, all right, it's a real one, all right? Not trying to trick anybody. Part of being a great leader is inspiring and challenging and motivating, pushing the right buttons, buttons but man being a doer and not just a talker and and that's what i'm always looking for i look for the same qualities uh in much better talent but same qualities in people um guys that believe in again a blue collar mindset and they understand that you're going to get what you earn and that you know sometimes success doesn't happen right away that's okay you kind of got to go through it if're going to get what you earn and that, you know, sometimes success doesn't happen right away.

That's okay. You kind of got to go through it if you want to get to it, you know, and it does resonate. And especially when you're going to be right standing in the A gap with them. And I've always prided myself in, you know, not the opposite, because the players are going to – Is that why Jimmy Greenbeams goes and runs the scout team sometimes as a QB? Don't do what I say, do what I do.

The thing is, because that's what young people, they're not going to necessarily do what you say, they're going to do what you do and try to emulate that. And I've always believed if we don't they won't as as a staff and so uh standing right next to them i think is what it's all about um and then that's also like you know we all love to compete i believe we're all as human beings we're all called to compete and and not only that but do it with everything we got, whatever we got, whatever opportunity we have, whatever skill set we have and do it with everything you got. I believe in living life that way. And when you do that, you can lay your head down at night with no regrets, no regrets.

I get everything I got in today, in this moment, in this locker room, into these players. That's what that's what the players deserve. And again, I'm looking for guys that align with that. And if they're not, that's okay. It's just, we're not gonna do a locker room together. I'm pumped now, I did get Jerry Schmidt to draw me up a workout. I've done a few of his before in a previous life. So it's fine. But no, I, this is, I, I understand why you guys are looking for what you're looking for.

And it's, it's going to be fun to watch. It's, it's, it's having this, you know, it's camaraderie. It's going through stuff together. It's, it's not what you become. It's always about what you overcome. And and and that's a blast. And maximizing the small windows in life, small moments in life, whether it's a year, it's three years. It's today. And everybody again, man, everybody aligned that, you know, you're locked together, you know, locked in arms. And you're going through life.

You're on the journey together. It's what it's about. And I'll be very honest. When a young man chooses to come to Oklahoma, you know, I've always believed this is a lifelong decision. You know, it's a forever decision. And so this is just the beginning. And the locker room is important this experience while you're in college i believe it's the most transform transformative time of of the life

of these young people and man i want them to squeeze all the juice that they can out of it out of it and i want to give every um ounce of the opportunity the window the time that they have in college and because you don't get to go do it twice, you get one shot at it. And so I want them to have no regrets. That's a personal responsibility that I have. I don't want them to have any regret. Doesn't mean I make it, it's easy in any way, shape or form. I'm not compromising the things that I know are what are going to help young men be successful, not only for today, but for the rest of their lives. And so not compromising in any way, shape or form. And so in this moment, that's kind of crazy. You know, me and many others like me, we're not going to flinch. You know, we're going to embrace it.

You always adapt and evolve. Nothing stays the same ever. Never has, never will. You have to have a willingness, not compromise your values, your belief system, but you do have to conform and evolve. I believe in that. And but I don't think you have to coach me different in any way. I don't, you know, I just don't. Well, and it's great to hear that because you hear some people say, well, I can't work with these kids. I've always thought there have always been people in every generation that wanted to work hard. There are always been people who didn't. And you just got to find the ones that do, right? Yeah.

And listen, I love guys that love it too, okay? Those are your favorite players, the ones that you got to beat them over the head with a bat to get them out of the facility, and they can't get enough. Not everybody is the exact same, though, and that's okay, too. But as a coach, you just want guys that have – their motives are pure, and that doesn't mean that they can't be concerned with finances or playing time. You know, those are things you try to appeal to their voice of reason through all of it.

But if that's their only motives, it's about, you know, making as much money as they can. You know, for most coaches that are in it for the long haul, that's not why you got into coaching. You know, that's not the reason I went into a locker room and tried to stay like hell to stay into a locker room and tried to stay like hell to stay in a locker room is because the locker room changed my life. It wasn't money that changed my life. It was a locker room. It was people. It was belief. It was learning how to

challenge myself as a man. It was getting the most out of myself. It was relationships. You know, and I, for me, I feel like I maximize that window. I created value. I created opportunity. I was, you know, it was an interview for three or four years for me and the people in that locker room that were in leadership positions, they chose to hire me because of my body of work, because of my strain, because of my ability to overcome, because of my persistence and my commitment and my passion and my work ethic and my detail. That's why I've created value in my career. And so whether it's in a locker room or it's in a boardroom or it's in the NFL or it's on Wall Street, whatever it is,

your success and your longevity and sustainability in those different environments are going to be because of those things. The harder you work, the luckier you get. And so I do think that people can lose their ways, and this is the crazy time. I think we'd all be liars if we didn't say it's, it's, there's a lot of chaos. You know, there needs to be some constraints, some that, so that everybody's playing with the same set of rules, if you will. And where people don't lose their senses and don't lose it. Like

you're still dealing with 17, 18 year olds. And we all know that when we were all 17 or 18 years old, we thought a lot of in many ways we think different. We compete different. We're just at a different maturity level. And, you know, when we were 30, we see things a little different than we did when we were 17 or 18. Just like when we were 14, you know, we were different. We were freshmen in high school than we were when we were senior in high school. Everything's different. You know, I wasn't driving, I wasn't shaving. I was afraid of girls. And, but when you're a senior, maybe you're in a different spot. When you go to college, there's this another, you know, transformation that takes place. You know, you're going to be a lot different, how you think, how you work,

how you act, how you respond, how you compete when you're a senior or junior than you are as a freshman. And these are not NFL players right now, they're babies. And so I think that, and listen, they're grown men too. And but we gotta meet them where they're at and take them where they can't take themselves. We've got to help them to be good stewards of this space that's new. And so we've set up our program in a way where I'm just one man.

I'm a coach, but I'm also a dad. And I'm also trying to look, trying to be my taillights to be the headlights for the players. And try to think for them, again, 10, 15, 20 years down the road as well. That's a responsibility that we have. We all do, the village that we've created, we all have that responsibility here. And to help them manage this time in their life, don't let them lose their way in the middle of the chaos. And so education, manhood, the maturation process,

being good stewards of their platform, their brand. Certainly, there's a financial piece to it, but help them to maximize and be prepared when that day comes. They can't play college football anymore, or they can't play the game anymore, man, they are ready to go dominate for the rest of their life. They've discovered all their passions beyond the game of football because you can't play the game forever. What do I want to be? What do I want to stand for? What kind of a dad? What kind of a husband? What kind of a father? What kind of a leader? What kind of an agent of change in my community do I want to be? What do I want to be known for? What do I want my legacy to be? You know, and I think

those things are important because there's going to be a day when you meet your maker where it all matters. Every single, you know, a lot of those decisions are going to matter on that day. And it's not going to be about my stars or my rankings or you know what my bank account looks like none of that stuff's gonna matter and so I want I want to make sure that we keep everything in its place um that we're good stewards of all of it and keep the main thing you know the main thing you know along the way well good luck sounds like you're ready to hit the practice field right now yeah enjoy spring practice i appreciate it thank you so much yeah thanks for having me on appreciate you and what you do that's brent venables and really interesting what he keeps saying about

teaching the guys to be stewards of all this new stuff, the NIL and all that. It's a different tact than I've heard from any other coach. And I know there's some coaches that are out there trying to do this too, but it's the first time I've heard it expressed that way. And I think it's interesting because we're coming off last week where you heard Nick Saban in that story with Chris Lowe at ESPN talking about how he was kind of fed up because players're coming off last week where you heard Nick Saban in that story with Chris Lowe at ESPN talking about how he was kind of fed up because players were coming in asking how much they'd make, asking, am I going to be guaranteed to have playing time? And what Brent Venables is saying is we got to make sure we recruit guys who aren't going to ask that.

And there's no guarantee that you're going to get a whole team full of guys that that's not what's the first thing on their mind, whether that's the playing time or the money. But you can kind of weed that out in the recruiting process. And it's the old, you recruit your own problem situation. Now, in defense of Nick Saban, most of the guys that were on the roster that are leaving the roster now were being recruited before this stuff even started. But with Venables, it's interesting that he talks about teaching them to be good stewards of it because this group of players is the first group of players that's going to have this level of financial freedom and this level of leverage. And they're the ones that are going to pass down to the younger players, like how you use that. How do you utilize that? And it's something that

can be utilized for good, or it's something that can be a problem for the team or for the individual player. Like if you're an individual player, who's only concerned about money or who says playing time is the most important thing for me. And I'm not going to be too concerned about money or who says playing time is the most important thing for me and I'm not going to be too concerned about development potentially for the NFL or just into being a better player, it's going to cause you a problem down the road too. Listen, I don't envy any of these coaches having to deal with it. I don't envy any of these parents having to deal with it. I remember what I was like at 18 years old. I was not fun to deal with. I knew everything. You couldn't tell me anything. Now imagine I've just had all these football coaches kissing my butt and telling me I'm the

best, best player ever. It sounds like Venables and company trying to do less of the butt kissing on the recruiting in which you kind of have to do, because one of the good things that, that Alabama always did that Nick Saban always did is he didn't kiss a lot of butts on the recruiting trail. He said, we will give you an opportunity, but he didn't say you're going to play. He didn't say you're going to get this, you're going to get that. And so I think it's going to be interesting to see how this works, which coaches figure out how to thrive in this new environment. And Venable sounds like he's got a good plan. We need to see if it works. I would argue that his rival over in

Austin, Steve Sarkeesian, seems to have a pretty good plan for this, seems to understand how this works pretty well, and seems to be able to add to the roster through the transfer portal, but also develop the players they have on the roster. Texas does not seem to be losing really good players to other teams. They seem to be able to keep the ones they want to keep. So all of this is going to be fascinating going forward. Really interesting question from Zach in the chat while we were talking to Brent Venables. Do Oklahoma fans like the Jordan symbol? Feels weird having a basketball player symbol on a football uniform. This takes me back to something I've said. Now, not for North Carolina, because obviously North Carolina is Michael Jordan's alma mater and it needs to be unblemished for them, but for Oklahoma, Michigan,

Florida, UCLA, I think that's all of them. I might be missing one, the other Jordan schools. I feel like the Jordan logo should have a football in his hand when it's on the football uniform, like for their basketball teams. Yes, by all means, keep the basketball in his hand when it's on the football uniform. Like for their basketball teams, yes, by all means, keep the basketball in his hands. But when it's the Oklahoma football uniform and the Michigan football uniform, put a football in the man's hand. I think Mike would be okay with that.

Maybe. Just don't put a baseball bat in his hands. I think there's still a little PTSD from the minor league experience there. So yeah, just put a football in the man's hand. But we got to talk basketball. We're going to put the basketball back in Michael Jordan's hand and bring in our own MJ, James Fletcher III, joins us.

All right, James, before we get into who is going to the NCAA tournament, we already got four teams that have punched their tickets. Congratulations to Longwood, Drake, Moorhead State, and Stetson. Stetson, the Hatters, big party in DeLand, Florida. They're in the NCAA tournament. Let's talk about the teams at the top, though, because you had opportunities for movement.

Tennessee loses to Kentucky, the final game of the regular season. But, oh, Arizona loses to Brownian Company. Yeah, it was a struggle there late night. We actually talked about it, I think, last time I was on. The struggle of one of these late-night games is going to go sideways. And we just knew it was going to happen. And it was going to make us rethink everything when it came to bracketology.

Because before that Arizona game went the wrong direction, I think we were looking at Arizona returning to the one line, having Tennessee fall back onto that second tier, right along with North Carolina, who had just knocked off Duke earlier in the day. Instead, Arizona takes a bad loss, a loss to a quad two opponent, but an opponent who is below 500 in conference. They're just not very good right now. So they now fall below even North Carolina. So now it's Tennessee in that last one seed spot. North Carolina moves up to the top team on the two line. And then Arizona, they kind of fumbled away their opportunity to get back in control and hopefully i mean for them it would have been the formula was

went out in that pac-12 tournament and then you probably have a one seed now that's that's pretty much gone they're gonna be a two seed i think on selection sunday right because the usc loss is a lot worse than say uh tennessee's loss to k's loss to Kentucky because Kentucky's a very good team. Yeah, Kentucky, first of all, is surging. They're moving up on the seed lines here. I think they're a three seed now as we talk today. They're also a quad one opponent. And so the way that everything shifts out for Tennessee,

another loss gets added to the quad one side. And you kind of look at it and you say, okay, we can live with that. The quad two one, though, for Arizona, it's on the lower end of the quad two, and that's not taken into account when you just look at the pure numbers, but that's something that will reflect in their computer numbers as those take a little bit of a dip. So Kentucky, by the way, James, I'm curious. It feels like when they are hitting on all cylinders, they can beat any, like I would not be that shocked if Kentucky were to

play say UConn in the NCAA tournament and beat them because it feels like, like when Reed Shepard and Rob Dillingham are on, like they are really tough to deal with. Yeah. Kentucky is going to be the most interesting team in the NCAA tournament. I don't think there's going to be any question about it. They're going to face somebody early on in the tournament where we're going to have questions. We're going to talk about some mid-major team that's got the players, that's got the coach. And some people are going to pick them to knock off Kentucky. They're going to say this team is too young.

They're going to say they've struggled too much on the defensive end. They're going to question that big man rotation and maybe they will be right. But also if Kentucky can survive that, I think there's also a large group of people who are going to then pick them to go to the final four because they've got all the talent they need. They've got Reed Shepard who has just continued to improve. He looks better and better every time you watch him. He looks to really be the leader on the floor of this team, even as a freshman. The way that he's able to control things on both ends of the floor, he has really picked up their defense with his intensity,

with his just pressure that he provides on the perimeter. And then a Rob Dillingham, we've talked at length about him, what he provides you on offense. I think that getting Ugo Onyinsu to take kind of a step forward from a rim protection standpoint, he has looked a lot better playing defense for the Wildcats in recent weeks. Justin Edwards has been, I think, maybe the biggest change for them. He's a five-star guy.

You had to put him on the floor. And he provides them that no one else on this roster provides from a length and athleticism and just a skill on the wing standpoint, him rounding into form and looking like the five star that he was billed as has been the biggest difference maker. I think from when they were struggling a few weeks ago to now looking like one of the best teams in the country. Now, for those who are just kind of checking in on college basketball and getting ready for the tournament, the Reed Shepard thing, they did not see this in recruiting. So he's Jeff Shepard's son.

Jeff Shepard, one of the unforgettable, one of the guys who helped bring Kentucky basketball back from probation in the early 90s. This family is Kentucky basketball back from probation in the early nineties. Like he, this family is, is Kentucky basketball royalty, but did they see, I mean, this is a, this is a lottery pick. Yeah. I think that there's a few things with Reed Shepard that kind of get lost in the shuffle. Nobody questioned that he was a really good basketball player. A lot of people question, would he be able to do it this quickly? Because very few are able to do it this quickly. Now,

if you want to have the discussion of him as a four-star recruit, somebody who came in, there were other people ahead of him. I mean, he still comes off the bench in a majority of their games this season. So for Reed Shepard to have this kind of emergence, it brings up questions that we find every single year about the kids who aren't necessarily at the prep school. You know, Reed Shepard, a local Kentucky kid, he dominated in the high school ranks. He was one of the best players in the country in high school. However, when you don't maybe put up some of the performances at the big AAU events,

when you don't play for a Montverde, an IMG, one of those big time prep programs that's on national TV that you're seeing day in and day out, hearing everything about playing with the best players in the country. Sometimes you don't hear as much about them as the five-star kind of guy. So was it that, or maybe is he just learning and fitting in? And is he somebody who is willing to take on a role? And then because of that, he gets more added to his plate and more added to his plate across time as he continues to show what he can do. And so now we got to ask the

uncomfortable question because we spent all of Friday talking about Robbie Avila, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Nerd, and they lost. Indiana State lost in the Arch Madness final. So the Missouri Valley Conference tournament, it was Drake and them. Now, Drake is a very good team too. The question is now,

is the Missouri Valley Conference a two-bid league? I remember back when Porter Moser, who's the Oklahoma coach now, he was the Loyola Chicago coach. He would complain about this all the time, felt like it was too good of a league. I think, James, before all this massive realignment, if you go back to the old Missouri Valley, it was a two-bid league a lot of years. Sometimes it felt like a three-bid league a lot of years. Sometimes it felt like a three-bid league. But because teams sort of move, quote-unquote, up in league to the A-10 or to the – I'm trying to think. I think there's some in the American now too and in the Big East. Is it harder to be a two-bid league,

or do you think the net ranking numbers will just make it okay for them? I think that it is difficult to be a multi-bid league when you're one of these big major conferences, especially when you see the Loyola Chicago's leave for the A-10. You've had other teams throughout the history of this conference who have kind of left for bigger and better things. But this year feels different. Indiana State kind of had this moniker all season of what they were, and they proved it in the computer numbers. They are top 30 still, even after the loss, in the net rankings. And that's going to be huge for them because no team in the history of the net rankings has ever been left out of the NCAA tournament as a top 30 team. So really

important to note that. They've also got something that Drake didn't have when we talked about the bubble conversation. Drake suffered two quad three losses throughout the year. And while they had a great overall record, while they had some of the top end wins, they did not have that clean slate at the bottom that the committee is looking for. Indiana State has that. They have not lost a game to a quad three, quad four opponent. And so things a lot easier for the Sycamores to make their case when they're looking at that resume they see at the top.

Okay, maybe they didn't play, you know, 10, 11 quad one games throughout the season, but they took care of business when they were supposed to take care of business. And the computers say that they did so just how they would be expected to. So I like their chances. I think right now they're in that last four in, I think that Drake probably also as things stand, obviously we're going to have things shift where the bubble lands is dependent on a couple more conference championships that we're going to see over the next few days. But right now, I've got them both as an 11 seed. Indiana State having to go through the play-in in Dayton to secure their official spot. But for Drake, that automatic bid should come out as one of the best among the mid-majors.

I feel like this is going to help the ratings of the first four. I mean, we've got stories coming out now about what Indiana State's doing NIL-wise to keep Robbie Avila. They're also trying to pony up a lot of dough to keep their coach. That may not be possible at this point. It looks like Scherz may be the hottest candidate in the country. So I'm curious, though, about some other parts, you know, deeper into the bracket. We're talking about teams that we thought were locks for the tournament, but then moving within the seed lines. That Florida-Vanderbilt loss, or Florida losing at Vanderbilt, for example, like that is just a horrific way to lose a game.

Florida just melted down, down the stretch. Did that cost them like a whole seed line or two losing that game? It likely did. I had Florida as one of the best candidates to move up a seed line from six to five earlier in that day. You know, you look at what they've done. They beat Alabama over the past week. We talked about them before as one of the teams that was unblemished outside of quad one just a few weeks ago, right there among all the best teams in the country. Well, Vanderbilt is not one of the best teams in the country. So that is now off of their resume. They did take a

hit in some of the computer numbers as well. And I think it really did drop them from a team who potentially was going to move up from six to five. Now, a team that's probably closer to that seven seed line and going to have to do a little bit of work in the SEC tournament to get that position back as a six seed. Now, let's talk about the ones that are that are squarely on the bubble in the high majors. Who needs a deep run in their conference tournament to make sure they get in? I think I look at a trio of teams in the ACC that really need to show something and not just show something, but separate from the other teams. You've got Virginia, Wake Forest, and Pitt. All of those right now are in my first four out because of that Indiana state loss.

It shifted Virginia down from that last team in the field to now they've got to get something done. So those three teams, it's going to be really important for one of them to maybe depending on how the bracket lays out, how the different results go. But if you could beat one of those other teams head to head, I think that might go just as far as being able to claim a quad two or quad one when added to your resume, when we get down to it. But yeah, those three teams are going to have to make some kind of run in the ACC tournament if they want to be in the field on selection Sunday.

ACC tournament should be fun. And by the way, I was thinking about this, James, five years ago, five years ago, they're having baby races, like babies crawling on the floor at the ACC tournament. Oh, no, it was four years ago. Sorry, I'm bad. This is a bad at math show. Four years ago, the next day, the whole world shuts down. I don't blame the baby races. I still blame Rudy Gobert, but it is amazing how, like, think about that.

Like, there was no NCAA tournament four years ago. What a blessing this is that it's back. It is. It's crazy to think about. And one of the teams that, just to touch on quickly, that I think is getting almost a second chance. We've seen all, I'm sure everyone has seen all over social media, that this is repeated from 2020. This is the same as it was.

You know, you see those all the time comparing 2024 to 2020. Well, how about the Dayton Flyers having maybe the best team in the country in 2020 and now having a top 25 team under Anthony Grant, maybe it may be a chance to make a deep NCAA tournament run and avenge that team that was so good, but didn't get a chance to compete for a national title. Poor Obi Toppin. Poor Obi Toppin. This is true. Now, unfortunately, Florida State can't do the same thing. I think they were the best team in the ACC that year, but yeah, wow. So it could be a big weekend for Dayton because you're right.

Dayton could be a very good seed in the NCAA tournament. And then Robbie Avila might be coming to Dayton because they might have played their way into the first four by losing that conference tournament final. All right. We had a one seed lose to a 10 seed out in the big sky last night. It could get wild here, James. Cannot wait for the rest of the week. Thank you so much. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me. James Fletcher III, our resident bracketologist here at On3, and this is going to be a very, very interesting week. As he mentioned, the ACC tournament seems to be the place where you want to pay the most attention. What is Virginia doing? What is Wake Forest doing?

How are those teams progressing through the bracket? Do they get upset? Because I think some of those go deep. They got a good chance of making the field. And then a week from now, we'll know the field. We're going to bring James on on Friday, and we're going to get everybody ready because I realize a lot of you guys, you come here for football, but you are going to be invested in the NCAA basketball tournament because we all are,

we all get invested in it. And we want to make sure that you have a chance in your pool against Steve from accounting and, you know, against the lady in the other department who always just Christmas trees or bracket and wins like you need a chance. And so James is going to come on Friday and get you completely ready for the NCAA tournament, completely ready to get the bracket released on Sunday. We'll talk about all the storylines from the season, all the key players who have emerged. You know. There's some familiar faces that if you tuned into the tournament last year and have not watched any basketball since then,

you're going to be like, where did that guy come from? Wait, wasn't he on this team? Trust me, it's going to be fun. And we've got a lot of football coming up. Tomorrow on the show, scheduled to have Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman later in the week,

Ole Miss defensive end Jared Ivy, who is awesome. Just awesome to talk to. You're going to love him too. Guys, it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm here in paradise, but you know, real paradise. Let's talk in college football with you. We'll talk to you again tomorrow.