Andy & Ari On3 - John Calipari GONE to Arkansas? | South Carolina women's basketball finishes PERFECTLY

Episode Date: April 8, 2024

Want to watch the national title game without cable? Prime Video has you covered. Watch every game live, on your phone, on your laptop, or relax and watch at home on Prime Video, with a subscription. Prime Video gives you choices to add on channels like Paramount Plus and Max, both featuring March Madness tournament games, all in one place. It’s March, it’s Madness, stream it all on Prime Video.Learn more now…https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/storefront/ref=atv_hm_spo_c_rEmqNT_6_2?contentType=tournament&contentId=amzn1.dv.icid.64a44c0e-3ac7-4b14-ad4d-c2a438001f2c&jic=8%7CEgNhbGw%3D(0:00-7:30) Intro - John Calipari to Arkansas(7:31-32:39) Instant Reaction of Calipari to Arkansas(32:40-58:17) Dawn Staley, South Carolina win the National Championship, Mike Uva joins(58:18-1:09:45) National Title Game Preview with James Fletcher III(1:09:46-1:10:45) Conclusion: Tennessee hires Kim Caldwell as next women's basketball coachESPN and multiple Arkansas media outlets are reporting that Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari is in talks to take the same job at Arkansas. Calipari, who has been under fire at Kentucky for early NCAA Tournament exits, would reset his clock. Arkansas would get the splash hire it desires after losing Eric Musselman to USC. Kentucky, meanwhile, gets to hire a new coach without paying Calipari a penny. Andy and On3's James Fletcher III discuss what it all means.On Sunday, South Carolina avenged its last loss and capped a perfect season with an 87-75 win against Iowa in Sunday’s national title game. Mike Uva of On3’s Gamecock Central joins to discuss how coach Dawn Staley’s team maintained its dominance all season. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark finished her college career with a 30-point game, but it wasn’t enough to slow the Gamecocks.Mike also fills us in on South Carolina’s spring football practice. The Gamecocks are coming off a 5-7 season and face a rough schedule that includes games against LSU, Alabama, Ole Miss and Oklahoma.James returns to preview Monday’s men’s national title game. We’re getting the best big man matchup in years in 7-foot-4 Purdue center Zach Edey versus 7-2 UConn center Donovan Clingan. The Huskies have mauled every team in their path the past two NCAA tournaments. Can the Boilermakers keep them from repeating?Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube now and join us from 8-9 am et! https://youtube.com/live/VvrqzWCD2QU

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Monday morning. If you slept quite a bit last night, if you went to bed early, especially if you live on the East Coast, you missed a lot. You missed huge basketball news. John Calipari, according to multiple reports, is heading to Arkansas to be the Hogs' next coach. Tyson Chicken Money locked in to be an NIL budget.

It's going to be something. It's going to be something. And it is amazing to watch the dynamics of this. Because you've got Kentucky fans who two weeks ago were ready to run John Calipari out of town on a rail and pay $33 million for it. We're like, this is awful. What do we do now? No, you're fine.

You're fine. Because now you got rid of him for free. Meanwhile, Arkansas fans are like, we got Cal. And obviously after they lost Eric Musselman to USC, which arguably is a step down in terms of basketball prestige, and then didn't get Chris Beard, didn't get Jerome Tang to get John Calipari,

they are super excited. So just a wild chain of events. And then you get Matt Norlander's report, Matt Norlander from CBS, that Calipari even kicked around the idea of going after the Ohio State job when that one opened, when Chris Holtman got fired before they elevated Jake Diebler, the interim, to the job. So he was on his way out. And that's the interesting thing about this. You had all that back and forth. Would Cal Perry show up on his radio show? What would happen when he met with Mitch Barnhart, the Kentucky AD? And Mitch Barnhart puts out the tweet saying that Cal's staying at Kentucky. He was looking for the exit. We've

seen this before at Kentucky. Tubby Smith did the same thing. He went to Minnesota kind of ahead of what seemed inevitable. So Cal Perry, who has not advanced to the second week of the NCAA tournament since 2019, despite having a lot of talent on the roster. He moves to Arkansas where he will continue to compile elite talent on the roster. And the question will be, does he keep winning with, does he start going deep in the tournament again? Because Arkansas is not a place where you are going to just be able to be a famous coach

and that's enough. You got to win there. Eric Musselman made two elite eights there. This is not a place where their expectations are low. It is a place where they love basketball and the expectations are very high. Are they as high as Kentucky? No, they are not. Meanwhile, the guy who must be enjoying this the most is Mark Stoops, who tried to leave Kentucky in November, was going to go to Texas A&M and then the Texas A&M Board of Regents revolts. That wound up with Mark Stoops making even more money at Kentucky. He's even more secure. He still doesn't really have to ever compete for championships there.

Best job in America. Meanwhile, Kentucky goes and has a unlimited bank role, essentially, because you're not paying that buyout for Cal. They can hire pretty much whoever they want. Now, is everybody going to be willing to take the job? No. I don't think Dan Hurley is going to take the job, but I think a lot of people are going to listen. A lot of people are going to listen. So we'll talk about that today. James Fletcher III will join us. He's on three's resident bracketologist, college basketball expert. We'll talk about that.

We'll also talk about the South Carolina women completing a perfect season. Dawn Staley leading the team to a national title, beating Kaitlyn Clark in Iowa. That was a tremendous game. South Carolina, the best team all season, avenges its last loss, which was to the Hawkeyes in last year's NCAA tournament. We're going to talk to Mike Yuva of Gamecock Central about South Carolina's run and what this tournament has done for the sport. Because South Carolina is a place where they very much appreciate women's basketball. It's kind of the leading edge. Tennessee, UConn, obviously, were there before. But South Carolina is a place where they sell out the arena for every game.

It's a place where that's what other schools want the sport to look like at their school. We'll talk to Mike about how that happened and how they keep just replenishing and continuing to dominate. Also talked a little bit about spring football with Mike. Once again, an Ole Miss player has fired a stray at his old school, a transfer. In this case, it was Juice Wells who just left South Carolina. So we'll ask Mike about that too.

And then we'll also talk about the men's national title game. James Fletcher will be back to talk about Purdue and UConn, which is a very exciting matchup, overshadowed by all this caldron. But that's going to be a lot of fun and if you want to watch that game and you don't have cable that's okay because prime video has you covered watch every game of the tournament there's only one left live on your phone on your laptop or at home with prime video you add on a subscription to max and that gives you tbs

which gives you the national championship game and so much more now what is great about this because we always complain about so many apps I gotta change this app to this app I gotta I gotta remember my password I gotta use the QR code on the TV and log in well once you're logged into Prime when you've added these subscriptions through Prime, you're in. One password, that's it. Plus you get all that Prime has to offer, including Ricky Siddiqui, which I watched over the weekend. I'm telling you, they don't give Oscars for comedies.

They don't do it. John Cena is brilliant in Ricky Siddiqui. Brilliant. Just watch it. I defy you to disagree with me. But before that, watch the national championship game. Subscribe to Prime using the link in the show description here. If you're watching on YouTube, just click it.

If you are listening on your favorite podcast platform, that link is also in your show description. You click it, it'll get you all set up. favorite podcast platform, that link is also in your show description. You click it. It'll get you all set up. You add on, Max. You're good to go for the national title game for Zach Eadie versus Donovan Kling in 7-4 versus 7-2. It's going to be epic, epic matchup for the national title tonight. All right.

Let us talk about the news of the day, though. We had an emergency show. I guess it started on Sunday night and ended on Monday morning, but we had an emergency show. James Fletcher III joined because John Calipari, leaving Arkansas, excuse me, leaving Kentucky, headed for Arkansas, and there was only one comparison that I could make. Here's the show. You hear the sirens, you know what it means. Emergency show. I did not expect to be sitting here right now at this late hour, but this is not the first time this has happened with a big name coach and the University of Arkansas.

Now, unfortunately, it does not seem like if John Calipari takes the Arkansas job that he's going to end up calling the hogs at midnight like Bobby Petrino did in 2007. That would have been truly funny. But it does seem like we are going to get John Calipari calling the hogs at some point in the next few days. Pete Dammel from ESPN has reported that Calipari is finalizing a five-year deal with Arkansas, that the deal could be done within the next 24 hours. Multiple Arkansas media outlets are reporting that Calipari is the target of Arkansas' search, which wild twists and turns on that. Remember, Eric Musselman left for USC last week. The first name you heard was Chris Beard at Ole Miss.

The second name you heard was Jerome Tang at Kansas State. And then it just started bubbling up Sunday night. That John Calipari might leave Kentucky, might reset his clock, might pull a Tubby Smith going to Minnesota. It's all the same. Remember, we're two weeks removed from talking about whether Kentucky should commit $33 million to firing John Calipari. Now he leaves for $0. Arkansas, which when properly motivated, has a lot of money. Whether it's Tyson Chicken, J.B. Hunt Trucking, Walmart, Jerry Jones,

lots of money in Northwest Arkansas. The donors have to be properly motivated. This is the sort of thing that can properly motivate them. Let's bring on James Fletcher III, On3's resident bracketologist, college basketball expert. James, how shocked were you when you started hearing about this? I was pretty shocked because this Arkansas coaching search seemed to be one that was something that people were laughing at, not having this kind of, oh, wow, this is going to alter college basketball type of situation.

So whatever it was, those early days of the coaching search, they will be forgotten very quickly. And now that we get reports that John Calipari is going to be on the move within the SEC and have to go back to Rupp Arena and play against Kentucky. This is just a new era of college basketball to flip from one school to the other.

It is wild. I listened to the Twitter spaces that Matt Jones from Kentucky Sports Radio did earlier on Sunday night. And it was interesting hearing some Kentucky fans talk about it because they sounded somewhat angry at Calipari for leaving. I got the sense two weeks ago, they wanted him to leave. Like, shouldn't they be thanking him for saving them $33 million and allowing them to go find another coach? Because it seemed like Cal's welcome had worn thin there.

It is embarrassing though. You don't want to be the that that's told you didn't fire me I left and they wanted the firing they wanted to be able to victory lap around and say look you did not live up to expectations at Kentucky instead John Calipari can go to Arkansas and say look I left Kentucky for this opportunity for all of the great things that are here and if you're a Kentucky fan that's going to hurt every time that he says it. And you know, he's going to say it because you're going to be looking at it saying, hold up now, you didn't live up to our expectations. And now you can go pitch to these recruits at Arkansas, to the donors at Arkansas, to the fans at Arkansas, that you left that this situation in order to be in that situation. It's's it's just got a sting to be left like that

even if they wanted him to leave under different circumstances see I don't I I just feel like you don't let that sting because this has happened to Kentucky before they wanted to get rid of Tubby Smith and he takes the Minnesota job like I was actually talking to a neighbor of mine yesterday who grew up near Lexington and he was talking about his mother-in-law happened to be on the plane when Tubby Smith got on to leave Lexington. And he was, everybody was saying, thank you, coach. Thank you for doing this. You know, thank you for everything you've done. And she's like, should I know who you are? And he was probably like, oh, thank God. Nobody, you don't know me. I can go to Minnesota in peace now.

That's what this is. To put it in football terms, this is Jimbo Fisher to Texas A&M from Florida State, where the Florida State fans were actually pretty mad at him. Not for leaving, but pretty mad at him for the way things were going. And he's going to a place where the money is great. The resources are there. The expectations are high. Now, I will say the one difference between the A&M thing and, you know,

Fisher going to A&M in football and Calipari going to Arkansas basketball. Arkansas basketball has gotten it done before. Like, this is not a pipe dream. We've seen it happen before. Yeah, that's the big difference between both of those, especially the Tubby Smith one that you mentioned there is that when Tubby Smith leaves from Minnesota, there's this kind of thought that, yeah,

thank you for getting out of the way so that we can hire the next guy and become what we believe we should be. With John Calipipari this is not minnesota with all due respect to that program they've had some success throughout their history arkansas is a pretty storied and historic program a program that's so big that at the start of this coaching search the names that were floated out there were some of the top coaches in the profession and such a big school that they're

in the mix for a coach like John Calipari. So this, this Arkansas job is not as much of a downward move as some fans would want it to be if they're going to let Calipari off the hook for making that move. And I think the other thing is that he's got to come back. You've got to see, yes, he's got to go. It was out of sight, out of mind. You aren't the chances that you play Minnesota as Kentucky are maybe in a second round NCAA tournament matchup. If he has success with, with John Calipari going to Arkansas, they are going to see each other two, three, four times a year. And it is going to be incredible. So yeah, a little more like Nick Saban having to go back to LSU, that sort of thing. The other thing to think about, remember Calipari had not made the second week in the NCAA tournament at Kentucky since 2019. Arkansas made the elite eight in 2021 and 2022 under Musselman. So this is a different situation. I had an Arkansas

fan arguing with me on Twitter saying, because I said, well, they're going to give him a little grace period. They won't expect national championships right away. They will eventually though. And he said, no, we'll expect them right away. I don't think they will. I think you get like a year or two. And the thing about it with Calipari, what won't change is he's gonna get elite talent. He's always got an elite talent. He will always get elite talent. I am sure part of the deal that he is talking to them about as he negotiates this deal is whatever the system is, whether

it's NIL, whether it's whatever happens next in terms of player compensation, that Arkansas will be at the top of the food chain as far as that goes. And I know that's a source of frustration for Arkansas fans who believe that, well, why don't we do that in football? Why don't we have that already? Well, maybe these guys, these donors need to be motivated properly, and a splash like this is what motivates them. Yeah. There's two major factors that play into John Calipari and being

able to kickstart his success and the transition that Kentucky fans wanted to see as he arrives at Arkansas. Number one is that he's going to start from scratch on this roster. He is not going to have pretty much anyone. I think they have one player who is currently on the roster and that's a guy who might enter the NBA draft. So we he will be building a roster from scratch without having a full recruiting cycle to bring in freshmen. So what's he going to have to do? He's going to have to hit the transfer portal and that's exactly what Kentucky fans

wanted him to do. Now, if he's able to do that and has success in year one, then why wouldn't he go back to it? Why wouldn't he continue to build that way, knowing that he was able to get it done, getting experience in building it that way. So for Calipari, I think this is a big opportunity for him to as crazy as it sounds as a hall of fame level coach to grow in this new era and do the things that he needs to do second that's going to help him in a big way is that i assume while mussulman will take some people from arkansas uh calipari will have the opportunity to keep on some people

especially behind the scenes within that program who were doing a lot of that leg work when we see every single recruit who enters the transfer portal, that little note that pops up, whether it's from Joe Tipton or anyone else saying that Arkansas has contacted this player, a lot of those people are still in the building. And so if Calipari can retain some of them, learn some of how they're using the transfer portal, I think that this can be a huge success for him in learning how to do that with the elite programs. I think that's the big question. What I think happens here, though, is this gives Calipari an excuse to not change a thing, to do exactly what he's been doing. Because you stay at Kentucky, it's kind of under the condition that, hey, you got to do some things a little bit differently because you can't keep getting the same result. If you go to Arkansas, you're

going to be celebrated. When he shows up and they call the hogs together, whoo, pig. Yep. He will be the toast of Northwest Arkansas. He will be the cats me out. Everybody will be the cat's meow everybody will be bowing down to him that is not a recipe for change or growth or anything else that is everyone loves me i'm awesome i'm going to keep doing exactly what i've been doing that i think and that's why i keep making the jimbo fisher comparison we were making the jimbo fisher comparison when Calipari was at Kentucky. So that's why I keep making that. If he's smart, he will do what you said. He will use this as an opportunity to change the way he built his roster to make it fit in this era of college basketball, where you've got to be older and you've got to have experienced guys who can blend in with young talent. I mean, we're about to watch UConn play for a national title.

And it's a prime example of old and young guys that you were like, Donovan Klingin is a young guy. They recruited who is coming into his own as a sophomore but without the older guys around him it's not they're not there they're not playing for a national title right and that's exactly uh true about calipari and what he's going to have to prove in arkansas because he does have something to prove here to not just arkansas because like you said they're going to love him no matter what for at least a couple of years but to college basketball is he still at the top of the sport if he can do it with arkansas i think he just cements his place in that conversation of the greatest coaches of all time not that he's not in that conversation but to do it at another program

and do it in a different way which he's going to have to do would take him into a whole other stratosphere so i do think we're going to find out when he gets to Arkansas, did he learn the lesson? Or was he being forced to start learning from the lesson? If he learned the lesson, then he will come to Arkansas and he will use because we know Kentucky had been reaching out to prospects in the transfer portal. We have that evidence so far. So if that was through him realizing how he wanted to build his roster moving forward, then I think it can be a great opportunity. If it was an understanding that he had to do that in order to keep the fans happy. And now he can go back to what he wants to do. I agree with you. It could, it could be a recipe for, for, for more of the same issues. Well, and he has a class signed at Kentucky as well,

again, of elite recruits. I would assume at least a few probably want to get out of their letter of intent, maybe follow him to Arkansas if that's what happens. But we don't know. I mean, if their recruitment's opened back up, they also may want to wait and see who Kentucky hires. Let's talk about that that because when we were talking about whether Kentucky would would choose to fire Calipari

or not, we were talking about that buyout being somewhat prohibitive in not necessarily they couldn't afford it. We we explain exactly why they could afford it if they wanted to do it, but say if you wanted to go after a NATO and I realized NATO says he wants to stay at Alabama. That's the reason he did his contract the way that that's why it's got a $12 million buyout. But guess what? Guess what you can suddenly afford if you don't have to pay $33 million to get

rid of John Calipari. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see. Uh they're going to go big game hunting for sure how much uh how extensive that list is because you don't want what we were seeing early in the Arkansas search where fans start to get frustrated when one or two names doesn't end up hitting that they hear right out of the gate. So how extensive they make this list will be interesting, but oats will certainly be on all the short lists ahead of the search. Because they have that

money to spend, you know that this is going to be a motivated fan base to rally together and find the next guy to move this program forward and Nados has shown all the signs that he can be that that guy. He's done it in the conference. He's done it in the way that they want to see the roster built and so he is pretty much the perfect fit on paper. Now, comes down to, does he really want to leave Alabama? He does seem very comfortable there. And then can they make the logistics work to make it worth his while?

Those things are to be determined. And like I said, there's no guarantee that they end up going after him once they do their homework on those couple of base level things. Well, and I would imagine that the first two names you heard in the Arkansas search would be names you hear in the Kentucky search, Chris Beard and Jerome Tang. Yeah, that'll be interesting. Uh, I know that there there's, there's been some talk about that Chris Beard extension at Ole Miss.

It seems like they've, they've added to that potentially to keep him at Ole Miss. So what does that do to keep him at Ole Miss. So what does that- It keeps going up. The price keeps going up. What does that do to Kentucky's ability to get in there with him? That is something that will be to be determined. I think that early on, the one name that we're gonna see over and over is Scott Drew. There's been connections in the past between him and Kentucky, the respect that he has for the program, the respect that program has for him. I think that that's a name that just really stands out as the perfect kind of fit.

What he's been able to do, recruiting five stars and balancing that with veteran players at Baylor. You bring that to Kentucky, take it to another level of talent on both of those fronts and what he could accomplish. I think that's one that really fits in there. And then the fun names that we've brought up in the, in the past, when we were talking about potentially firing him, Billy Donovan. I mean, this is the Kentucky job. If things with the bulls, aren't looking up, what does he, what does he do? If you give him a phone call and Hey, it was, it was internet legend, Trey Donovan that initially broke the whole Calipari to Arkansas thing. It was Trilley Donovan that clued the rest of us in that this is even happening. No relation to Billy Donovan, by the way.

But yes, that would be a fun one. I still think, though I don't know that he'd'd leave I think he's pretty happy where he is if we're talking about just personality and fit the perfect coach for Kentucky is Bruce Pearl Bruce Pearl was born to be the basketball coach at Kentucky that said I think he's very happy at Auburn I don't know that he would leave I agree with you there he is very proud of what he's built at Auburn, the community that he has built around Auburn basketball. So that one would be a really tough sell. I'm not saying it's impossible

because again, it's the Kentucky job. We're not going to rule any of these candidates out. You can throw out any name and I'd have to consider it as long as they have the pedigree to earn a job like that. And that's why I think that Dan Hurley, I'll throw out another name that has the personality as the- Oh no, can you even imagine he wins the second consecutive national title? You can't do that. You just can't do that.

You can't on paper, but again, this is college basketball. You also can't jump from Kentucky to Arkansas. You can't do a lot of things that we've seen happen over the past couple months in coaching searches across all sports. So I'm not going to rule anything out. You look at a roster that's going to lose a lot of its talent. I have no doubt that Dan Hurley would be able to restock that, but would he want to restock it at Kentucky? Who knows? Who knows what's going to happen in this coaching search as the names continue to flow in. I see some folks in the chat talking about Greg McDermott at Creighton and like red state says, Creighton coach just signed an extension. It doesn't matter because they just

saved $33 million over the next six years by not firing Calipari. He did them the biggest favor, James, the biggest favor. And they're probably going to get potentially, it depends on who they get and what the terms are, but you could potentially be paying your coach less than what they were paying John Calipari. Yeah. So you add up these numbers and you know, 12 million, 10 million, whatever the buyout that you have to pay is the boosters are going to be willing to pay whatever they have to

pay to get any of these coaches, all of these contracts you're able to get out of them if somebody's willing to pay up. So nobody who just signed an extension is out of the running, but it does make it a more fun storyline when you see them avoid a coaching search and get an extension, get some more money. And now they're back in another one who gets a second extension i i bet this happens i'd be willing to bet this happens i was thinking about jerome tang just got one at kansas state because of arkansas what if what if nate oaks just gets another just another pay raise oh yeah greg bernard alabama's like look i'm not losing you to kentucky here's more money you can sell it as he reached the final four.

We want to reward him too. So you don't even, you didn't have to go down the Kentucky path. You can ignore that. Everyone knows that's why you did it, but you could, you could tell the whole world, Hey, he made the final four first time in program history. Of course, we're going to give him more money and try to keep him away. Try to build that. Who knows?

I bet you somebody, we start thinking about whether they're going to get a second contract extension in a couple of months here. All right, James, this is the craziest part. This is the part I can't stop thinking about tonight. Do you know why this ultimately happened? Do you know what the inciting event for this was? The the real inciting event was the Pac twelve blowing up. The Pac twelve dissolving. So George Glyavkov not being able to get a TV deal for the Pac twelve done cause this and I will tell you why. Yup. Here we go. Alright, let me crack my knuckles here. This is this is

gonna take a minute. So the Pac-12 doesn't get a TV deal done. Oregon and Washington go to the Big Ten. USC and UCLA were already headed there. Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado heading to the Big 12. That leaves Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, Washington State adrift. Cal and Stanford, well, they are very, very good academic institutions that other academic institutions would like to be involved with, would like to be in league with. And so there happens to be another conference that needs to have extra members in case some of the members that are suing them happen to leave. And so the ACC takes Cal and Stanford, but they didn't just take Cal and Stanford. They took another school that said, you know what? We are so sure we belong in the big club that we will take no money from you, ACC. Just let us come. Our donors are filthy rich. We're going to be fine. You don't

need to give us any money. Just let us in. And so the ACC said, SMU, come on down. And so SMU officials, as they consider how they're going to enter the ACC, look at the basketball program and they say, you know what? Rob Lanier's just not getting it done. They fire Rob Lanier. And they go try to find a name. And who do they find? Andy Enfield. USC coach, great free throw shooter.

Wife's a former model. Used to coach Dunk City. He's coming there. That opens the USC job. Who wants the USC job? The must bus. Eric Musselman wants the USC job. So he's going to go there. He'll become the next USC

coach to rip his shirt off after USC interim football coach Ed Orgeron did. And that opens the Arkansas job. And here we sit. So George Glyavkov is the reason that John Calipari is going to Arkansas. If that doesn't explain how weird college sports is, I don't know what does. Yeah. How many how many branches could we go off on that that that that tangent if we wanted to to spend more time on it too. It's crazy. I mean, it's it's it's insane how much we have seen college sports as a whole transition over the last couple of years. And it's all come to a head with the coaching carousel of 2024 and the end of 2023.

Because who would have thought if I had told you just six months ago, maybe 10 months ago, that Alabama football, Michigan football, Kentucky basketball, Kentucky. Sorry, Tennessee women's basketball, Texas A&M football. Yeah, Tennessee women's basketball, Arkansas basketball. All of these jobs are going to be not only open, but then filled with names that then lead to other big time jobs being open. Then we fill with other big time names and we just go in. It has never been more true that we are on the coaching carousel. These names, they're spinning and spinning and spinning, and we are not done yet. It could just be so easy, Kentucky. Rick Patino is right there for you.

Bring it full circle, baby. Let's go. No, I don't think they're going to do that, but I'm fascinated to see what they do. James, thank you so much. No problem. All right. So that is what is going on with John Calipari at the moment. That is what we know. That's where we're at. We will have more on that as the days go by, because we think we're going to get official word on Monday that Cal's going to Arkansas.

At some point, probably Monday or Tuesday, we're going to get video of Cal calling the Hogs. And who can forget Bobby Petrino calling the Hogs? That's the question. Will this be more or less awkward than Bobby Petrino calling the Hogs for the first time? I say we place bets. I say we ask FanDuel to put some odds up on that. I realize it's a subjective thing, but I think we'll probably know. We'll be able to put those videos side by side. We're going to see that. But right now we got to talk about

national championships. There's one tonight, Purdue and UConn for the men. There was one on Sunday, South Carolina beats Iowa for the women's national title to Gamecocks undefeated a dominant dominant performance Dawn Staley perhaps her best coaching job which is saying something because she has been a spectacular coach pretty much her entire career joined now by Mike Yuva of Gamecocks Central that's on three South Carolina site he's the only man I know who's got a menu item at Bojangles named for him. That makes him a very exceptional South Carolinian. How are we doing, Mike? I'm doing well.

I think a lot of South Carolinians are upset when they find out that I'm actually from Boston and I'm living out a Southern dream, but I let them know it's my Al Bundy moment and it's all downhill from here. So that's where I peaked, the Bojangles biscuit. Listen, there is no problem with someone coming in and adopting. You're not a carpetbagger. You came in, you adopted, you embraced. You put things in the Bo Berry biscuit that no one expected you to put in there.

I feel like you've earned it. I bought a new place not too long ago, not to give it away, but I mean, I live literally right next to a Bojangles. So the girlfriend's happy because if she wants some food, it makes it seem like I'm putting in a lot of effort and I'm really just driving down the street, getting a boberry biscuit in the morning. So I'm trying. And you can actually go in and say, I need the UVA and they'll know what you're doing. They'll know what you're doing. They'll know what you're asking for. For a little period of time. Now they probably have new employees.

Like, who the heck is this guy? But, you know, it makes me feel like I'm special when I walk in there. But that's certainly not the case. I'll tell myself that. Well, I guarantee Dawn Staley does not have to pay for her Bowberry Biscuits at any South Carolina Bojangles location. If she wants a meat and three at Lizard's Thicket, it's on the house. This is an incredible run. And I realized that the story most of the season was Caitlin Clark was, is Iowa going to have the rematch with LSU? And that all happened.

But over here is South Carolina, just quietly dominating everyone, waiting for that chance to avenge that loss to Iowa. And on Sunday, they get it. Andy, I think the way you just said is perfect, is that for a lot of teams that would have been in the situation that South Carolina was in, you're heading into a national championship, you're undefeated. I mean, shoot, even heading into the final four it felt like the conversation for the majority of the tournament was on other teams whether it be on Iowa because of Caitlin Clark whether it be on LSU because of Angel Reese certainly with UConn they're going to always bring attention Paige Beckers is a heck of a player but it just felt like maybe because from a national standpoint unless you've been paying attention to South

Carolina they don't have really that true star player. Cardoso is a frigging stud. But the point being is, and like we saw yesterday, this team has been really good all season because they play as a team. It's not just one person. Their bench is extremely deep. And certainly yesterday, when you see what they did against Iowa, once they got into the third quarter, midway through, I felt like that was the difference. Iowa only played with seven players. South Carolina's bench took over at that point and just their depth and fresh legs really made the difference in the game. Well, and I go back to last year where basically Lisa Bluter figured out South Carolina can't shoot from the outside to win. So they just packed the lane and said, you guys go ahead and shoot.

We'll give you the deep shots, and we'll get the rebounds, and we're going to win this game. Don Staley clearly adjusted the roster, adjusted the rotation, figured things out so that if they got in that situation, and Kaitlin Clark came out on fire. They were playing similar to the Iowa LSU game where the pace in the first quarter was blistering.

It looked like it might be that way again, but then South Carolina settles and just rolls. Just like any great coach, you make adjustments and you see the difference from last year playing them and certainly they got into foul trouble. It felt like South Carolina was getting into foul trouble early yesterday, but they were able to make adjustments. You saw some matchups with some forwards, some pretty lengthy players covering Clark, who typically wouldn't be out past the perimeter. And, you know, they continued just to make adjustments throughout the game. So, look, Kaitlyn Clark, she's always going to get hers. But to hold her to just 12 points after that first quarter where she went off for 18 points, it speaks to those adjustments.

And certainly Dawn Staley, give her all the credit in the world and her coaching staff for making those adjustments. But Dawn will be the first to tell you. It comes down to players being able to execute. And the players were able to do that, starting with Raven Johnson. She sacrificed being able to execute. And the players were able to do that, starting with Raven Johnson. She sacrificed being able to score some points, maybe more than, you know, she would have liked to have some more points

in the national championship game. But if you go back to a couple of years ago, Bree Beal did the same thing in the 2022 national championship game. She sacrificed her offensive touches to make an impact defensively. And what they did, like I said, from those three quarters on,

second quarters, third quarter, and fourth, that was the difference in being able to slow down Clark because look, she's a phenomenal score. She's obviously one of the best pastors too. I mean, she's averaging, I think that gets overlooked. She was averaging just shy of 10 assists a game this season. But at the end of the day, if Clark's not getting her points the way that we know her to do, you know, it's going to put Iowa in a tough spot because that's not what they're accustomed to doing. Well, let's talk about this program where it's at, because since the tournament was canceled for COVID, which by the way, South Carolina was going to be probably the number one overall seed in that tournament. It may have wound up being the

Gamecocks against Sabrina and SQ and Oregon. We know we'll never know. But since then, four tournaments have happened. They've made the Final Four every time. They've won two national titles. There's now three national titles at South Carolina for Dawn Staley. And she entered the Gina Auriemma-Pat Summitt pantheon. I feel like she's next on that list of iconic Mount Rushmore-type coaches in the sport. Yeah, and it's a different era too.

And I don't want to be a person that just says, okay, we're in the moment. We're just going to automatically say that Dawn's the best. Certainly she is working her way up. And that's no disrespect, because I don't want to disrespect the late Pat Summit. I don't want to disrespect Gina Warium and some of the other coaches out there that have done a phenomenal job. But you mentioned just the success that they've been able to have over the last couple of years. And we're in this new era. You have the transfer portal, you have NIL. It's easy for players to

say, okay, you know what? I'm out of here. You know, I don't get it my way. I want to leave. And that happened, that happened a couple of years ago after that 2022 season, there was a player or two that decided to go elsewhere. It's part of it. Well, that also created some opportunities to be able to use scholarships on other players. And you mentioned just what they've been able to do over the last couple of years. They're 135 and eight in the last four seasons. Put that into perspective to put that into perspective. No other team in the country has more than 122 wins. And then they're averaging in that span. They're winning by games by 24 points. I mean, it's just absolutely insane what they've been able to do over the last couple of years.

Yeah. And that's the thing. You mentioned the era. And I think for Pat Summitt, for Gino Auriemma, both of them were in an era where there were maybe two or three good programs in the country at a given moment. It was Tennessee and Uennessee and yukon and then stanford might be good or notre dame might be good but it wasn't as competitive as it is now because nil and the transfer portal do it like we've talked about this in football we've talked about this on the men's side like it makes roster building more efficient like you find you go find what you need like lsu won the national title last year with some transfers and it's it's harder to do what they're doing now and that's what makes this so amazing i i do have

one more amazing stat for you that that goes to the opponent that south carolina vanquished yesterday uh my producer river has the tweet uh tim reynolds from the associated press comes up with this uh c Clark had 1,234 points this season. Iowa football has scored 1,028 points since Caitlin Clark entered college. Football team just catching strays out here. You had to. You had to. I mean, she's a machine. You watch that beautiful offense in that sport, and then you watch the ugliness in the other sport. But we saw the Caitlin Clark effect at Iowa where she's been selling out the arena for a while,

and then everywhere she went sold out the arena. South Carolina has been doing that for a long time too. And I'm curious, when did you notice that the fan base at South Carolina was all in on women's hoops when they when did they really start just packing the place so my first season was Dawn's first championship year the 2016-17 season it was a heck of a time to come down because both the men and women's team both went to the final four and of course like I said Dawn won that championship that first um in 2016-17 season I felt like after that, things started to slowly pick up because you had Asia Wilson decide to stay home.

And at the time, I'm coming here, I'm hearing so much about Asia, but the big thing about Asia was she was a local kid. She stayed home, and it really changed just the way that South Carolina basketball, in terms of star talent, being able to stay home. I mean, when I got here, I heard so much about how talented the state is in terms of producing football talent. I mean, you think of some of the great players, whether it be from the college standpoint,

whether it be on the pro standpoint, there's so many talented players that come from this state from a football standpoint. But I think what gets overlooked a lot is just the talent that comes from South Carolina from a basketball standpoint. Yeah, Zion, John Morant, DJ Burns. And then we can keep going back. We can go back to the Kevin Garnett days, Ray Allen, Jermaine O'Neal,

JoJo English. I mean, shoot, we can go Alex English. He played at South Carolina. And then you think from the women's side too. I mean, you talk about, you know, talking about Asia. So when you look at the makeup of this team and the talent that South Carolina has starting to look ahead to next year, a lot of it is our players that are from South Carolina. So I bring that up because I think what happened

was after that Asia Wilson year, I think a lot of local stars looked at, okay, what's going on. But I also think too, on top of that, being able to see the success that Asia has had, not just from a basketball standpoint, being able to win back-to-back titles with the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA, but what's happening now from a marketing standpoint and how things are really starting to pick up for her. I mean, shoot, she was on Good Morning America a couple weeks ago promoting the book. So the reason I bring all that up is there's been a lot of attention on South Carolina athletes, whether it's current, whether it's former,

and Dawn Staley obviously having the resume that she has, I think a lot of players are looking at that. And obviously when you win games, guess what? People are going to start to come out. And this stadium at CLA, the number of fans, I mean, even when men's basketball, they had a great season this year, but the last couple of years, I mean, shoot, they were selling. I mean, in comparison, it was nearly double the attendance.

And I'm not just saying that. I mean, we're talking about averaging over 10, they were selling. I mean, in comparison, it was nearly double the attendance. And I'm not just saying that. We're talking about averaging over 10,000 a game. There was multiple games, I think three or four this year, where they sold out. And that's an NBA-sized arena. They built it over a decade ago because they wanted to be able to hold concerts there. I mean, it holds 18,000, that stadium, multiple times this season.

That's not just, okay, oh, yeah, he's just saying that. No, I'm telling you. I mean, it was one of those things. when I first got down here, I'm like, there's no way they're going to fill this thing out. And they did multiple times and they've done it a lot since that 2017 year. Yeah, it is a, it's a good time in Columbia for hoops because the men's team has gotten significantly better, but now, I mean, they are, they're the place to be in women's basketball and you know, so Camille Cardozo is headed to the WNBA, but what's this roster going to look like next year? How does, how does Don Staley keep the, keep it going?

Well, I think after posting it on the message boards and on threes for Gamecock Central yesterday for hot three, naturally the first response are, well, you got to deal with the transfer portal. Yeah, that's true. However, in knock on wood, cause I don't want Gamecock fans getting all pissed off at me. I don't expect anything to change. I don't think as far as players leaving. But what I will say is when you look at the makeup of the roster,

a lot of them have experience because they just play such a deep bench. And as I mentioned, there's multiple players on this team that are coming back because I mean, shoot, they're from this area. They're excited. They're not going to leave. So, I mean, it starts with obviously what we saw with, you know, you look at the Raven John, you look at the talent they have at the guard position. They have so much talent at guard.

And then I think the big thing is if they want to add a piece or two, I think the big thing that they'll be going after is trying to bring in a veteran center to replace Cardoso I think that's the big thing but they have a lot of talent and I think the scary thing is when you start to look ahead to next season if they are able to keep this team intact they should be even better next year now I'm not saying that they'll go undefeated I mean that's just I mean being able to do that even though they, it feels like they make it look easy. They may look very easy here. You go back last year. I mean, they were so close to going undefeated last season. And then we're talking about potentially putting them right up there with some of the Yukon teams, as far as

longest win streaks. I mean, that's how close they are to being able to do that. So this is a team that certainly should be good next year. But I think the big thing is you look at the fan base, you look at how much the university invests into women's basketball here, and you look at the fact that you have an opportunity to play for one of the best, and not just from a coaching standpoint, but someone that played the sport and was really good at what she did at the highest level. I think that's an easy selling point for a lot of these college players coming out, for a lot of these high school players coming up by college. Yeah. I mean, Don Staley is,

is in every living room she wants to be in with the gold medal, with the national titles. I mean, you name it, she's already done it. So, uh, it is pretty amazing. I, I'm curious to see if she can keep this rolling because it's, it, and we're seeing Dan Hurley do something similar on the men's side where they make it look so easy. I don't know if it could be that way forever, but it seems like they figured out the formula for this era of college basketball. Well, Andy, you brought it up towards the beginning.

We started doing this interview is the sport itself is getting better and that's not to take anything away from Gino or Pat, Kim Mulkey during her Baylor days. The fact is women's basketball from a talent standpoint, it's getting better. And it feels like it's not just one or two teams anymore. It's starting to really spread out. Now, is it as deep as men's basketball? I wouldn't say it's as deep.

What I mean by that is it's not as spread out. It feels like with men's basketball, certainly UConn, obviously, and this year felt like it was more chalk once we got to the Sweet 16 this year. But the point being is with women's basketball, you can see the talent start to shift. It's not just, okay, UConn's there every year. Certainly South Carolina feels like they've took that torch, but there's a lot of good teams right now in college basketball. There's a lot of great storylines.

There was a lot of great athletes. And I feel like with the WNBA in particular, I feel like we're going to see numbers improve from a rating standpoint. I think there's going to be more stars in that league. Not that there weren't stars before, but stars that people are more accustomed to for people that maybe haven't followed women's basketball the last couple of years. So I think it's continuing to get better.

And I think it just makes it that much more challenging. Add in the fact too, that we were talking about trying to make sure players don't leave because there's players on this team that come off the bench. They would be starters from day one if they went somewhere else. And it's not true apples to apples, but what it reminds me of a lot is what Nick Saban had to deal with. You know,

a lot of those players, the majority of the players, they wouldn't be playing until their redshirt sophomore year. That year three, obviously there's outliers. There'll be some players that see the field a little bit sooner than that. But you have to make sure that you don't lose those players. And if you do, the message Don has had to these players is, hey, you want to leave, that's fine.

We'll find someone that can replace you. And that's what South Carolina did with some of the players that left after that 2022 national championship year. Yeah, it is going to be incredible. And I kind of want to switch gears a little bit because we've not gotten to talk much about the Gamecocks spring football practice. This is a program that the last few years they've seen some of their better players poached out of the transfer portal. It did not seem like this year was like that. It felt like they kind of retained the younger, know good players they wanted to retain but now obviously

they're replacing uh spencer rattler uh juice wells is gone i'll i'll get to that in a second but where is this program right now coming off five and seven and headed into a very different looking sec with a very different looking SEC with a very different looking schedule. Just like any team, especially this time of the year, there's going to be some unknowns. It starts with quarterback. Even if Lenore Sellers is the guy to go from a veteran player like Spencer Rattler to going to a guy that's going to be a redshirt freshman who appeared in just four games last year on limited time, there's going to be growing pains. So I say that you have a wide receiver room that is trying to figure out who's going to be the guy.

They have three players that have come in through the transfer portal, so they're trying to figure out, okay, we lost a lot of production in that wide receiver room last year, whether it be from Xavier Leguette or whether it be even from Juice Wells, who didn't really play at all last season, but produced certainly the year prior. So those two positions in particular are the ones that stand out to me. I think what really stands out in terms of positives, though, Andy, this team from an experience standpoint, they took advantage from the portal, like you alluded to,

defensively, defensive tackle, edge, linebacker. They're so much deeper and there's so much more experience. Offensive line line same deal i mean that was a position that certainly they had their their blemishes last year but a lot of that had to do with injuries and because of that at the time all right you're looking at the glass half empty at the moment but now fast forward to the spring you're looking at it as half full and a lot of the a lot of those players that were forced to throw i mean there was two true freshmen that had a star in the offensive line in the sec. I mean, that's not ideal. However, you get through the season. Now you're like, well, you know what? Those guys have experience now. So when you're talking about

having a young quarterback back there, when you talk about having a wide receiver room where you're trying to find someone that can emerge, I don't care who the heck's that quarterback. If guys can't create separation at wide receiver, it doesn't matter. What should help them, even though they've been banged up this spring, is that they have a very talented running back room. They added three players from the transfer portal. Certainly it starts with Rocket Sanders. What will Rocket look like coming back from his surgery that he had in the offseason at Arkansas from that labrum injury? You have Oscar Attaway III coming in from North Texas, a very talented back, and Dron Howell coming in from SC State, who had a phenomenal freshman season.

On top of some talented guys, South Carolina has already had DJ Braswell, who was a four-star back from last year's recruiting class, and then Matthew Fuller, who's a four-star, who played for Connor Shaw's brother in Georgia last year. There you go. J-Bo. J-Bo. So I guess it was probably another catch in a stray situation here, but we've seen this with guys who transferred to Ole Miss. We saw it with Prince William M.E. Allen talking about Florida a couple of weeks ago, but Juice Wells was on the Locked On Ole Miss podcast. He got asked about why he transferred to Ole Miss and he goes, I wanted to play with a quarterback who's been in the SEC, referring to Jackson Dart, who is a two-year returning starter versus Lenora

Sellers, the presumed starter at South Carolina, who's taking over for Spencer Rattler. But he also said, and I just want to win. And I'm sure people at South Carolina did not enjoy that from a guy who missed all of last season, essentially with an injury. It's funny that you bring that up. So just over the weekend, I hosted Shane Beamer's Ladies Day event. And I was doing the Q&A with the current players. And we had some time to kill. So I'm like, does anyone in the crowd have a question? And the first lady that takes the mic, it was more of a statement.

And she basically asked Lenores his thoughts on that. And I give Lenores a lot of credit because Lenores could have, especially being a guy that should only be a freshman still. I mean, he's a sophomore right now in the classroom because he enrolled early last year. But he could have easily grabbed the mic, said something, get the crowd going, and you don't know if some person's filming it and now it becomes a big thing. And now Shane Beamer's scratching his head saying oh geez what do you do that wasn't the

case though he grabbed the microphone he kind of just smiled looked down shook his head and just put the microphone down it didn't say anything so i think it's one of those things that not just lenore's it's more so from talking to people around the program. I think people have his back. Now, it's one of those things. If you really take a step back, Gamecock fans, take the Gamecock specs off and just put them down for a second. When Juice says, I want to play for a veteran quarterback, it's like, all right, I can understand that. But it's one of those things. It's like, why are you publicly saying that?

You know how it's going to come across. There's other things, too, that, I mean, Juice, I like you, buddy. You were very good over here when you were over here. Nice guy. But, I mean, come on. There were other factors that went into it. And you know it. We all know it.

So things that happen behind the scenes that are much deeper. So I bring that up because it's just like when you bring that up, you know you're playing this team, your former team, later on this season. How do you think they're going to perceive it? And then you go out and you put a tweet out later and you're like, well, the Norris knows that he's my guy. I can tell you right now from talking to those people in that building, it was not received that way. It was not received that way and it will certainly be one of those things that USC will remember. But obviously that game's not until middle of the year. Yeah, and speaking of that schedule, there ain't no SEC East anymore.

Perhaps most dramatically with South Carolina. You look at that schedule. So they get Ole Miss, Texas A&M at home. They get LSU at home. They go to Alabama. They go to Oklahoma. It is a new world. Yeah, we've always talked about how it's a gauntlet. And I love you, George. George Rogers, the Heisman Trophy winner, 1980 for the Gamecocks. He always says when people gripe about the SEC schedule, it's like, well, that's why you signed up to play in the SEC. I hear you, George, but boy, this is a gauntlet. And I think just being able to get through the SEC is winning the championship of its own for crying out loud these days. So

certainly for USC, when you look at that schedule, I mean, we can play the game like, all right, well, they don't have to play Georgia. They don't have to play this team. They don't have to do that. But I mean, shoot, they have to play Georgia. They don't have to play this team. They don't have to do that. But, I mean, shoot, they have to play Alabama. They have to go to Oklahoma. They have to play LSU. There's going to be some tough matchups. I think the other thing, too, Andy, and I know the people that are so hardcore SEC, they have a tough time of actually being able to take a step back

and being able to say, yeah, okay, Old Dominion, I wouldn't even – that's a tough game to start the year just because yeah old dominion be able to come out and play games pretty good right from the start so the fact that that's week one and you're going to be going to most likely lenore sellers as your week one starter a guy that doesn't have any starting experience you have a lot of question marks in that wide receiver room what does that look like i do think that the defense will be able to help USC out early in the year. As I mentioned before, I feel like especially on those first two levels, they really have a lot of depth.

They really have a lot of experience, whether it be playing at USC, whether it be playing at other Power 5 schools. I think they're going to be able to help them out, but at the end of the day, you have to go out there and find a way to get the offense going. And it's going to be interesting to see what Dow Loggins can cook up I mean he did some good things last year that I think was not appreciated as much and even from the Gamecock fan base because of a lot of the issues they had on the offensive line because

of injuries even though you had Spencer Rattler back there who made things happen I mean if you don't have Rattler back there last year, I mean, you probably have three wins for crying out loud with just some of the things that happened offensively. But Dow Loggins was really able to get creative and took advantage of their speed. I mean, you look at their roster from wide receiver standpoint. Yeah, you have Nick Harbor, but outside of that, the majority of wide receivers, I'm not saying, you know, they're a bunch of munchkins like me, but they're not the tallest group. So they're going to be using their speed more than anything. So I would expect this team to take advantage of running the football because they got a talented backfield. And I would believe that this team will be a team

that will try to take advantage of their speed going from sideline to sideline. So very interested to see what Dow Loggins can cook up. I can't wait. Every time I see these schedules, it just reminds me everything's going to change this year. And the South Carolina schedule is just bizarre. You have the at Kentucky, which is like the fool's gold. They're like, oh, it's just a normal South Carolina season. They're playing Kentucky like they always do. No, no, no.

Then comes LSU and Ole Miss and Alabama. So it is going to be so much fun. Mike, we will have you back to talk more Gamecocks very soon. Thank you so much. Appreciate it, Andy. That is the great Mike Yuva. He is the digital director at Gamecocks Central. That is on three South Carolina site. Now, we have talked a lot of college basketball.

We've not got a chance to talk about the men's national championship game, which is tonight. Let's fix that now because this is an incredible matchup between Yukon and Purdue. Bring James Fletcher III back to talk national title game. Welcome back, James Fletcher III. We're not done with you yet. We gotta talk national title game. The Cal News is overwhelming everything, but we've got, I think this is the big man matchup for the ages. When is the last time we had this level of big man matchup in a national title game at the college level and we've seen them in in the NBA but I I just I'm struggling to think back to when when it was this good yeah we can draw plenty of parallels uh to this matchup but how about uh joe keem noah and Al Horford against Greg Oden that that that's

probably it yeah my mind as yeah dominant big men uh who are going head to head here so uh the the other parallel of course being yukon going for a back-to-back national title the first since that florida team to do it so yeah there's there's a lot of story lines and plenty of them will connect back to that team that florida had uh over a decade now uh before yeah and you know i covered that team as a beat writer and it was it was kind of the same thing in the ncaa tournament they had one close game in in two ncaa tournaments and it was the the georgetown game in the in the sweet 16 in uh in in the first year connecticut hasn't had a close game yet they have covered every single spread i I regret a lot. The pick I made on Friday uh because I picked Alabama to cover and lose and they did not

cover but it and and you can just it you can feel it every time when UConn does that. Like in in Alabama hung around for a while. But when UConn just decides to turn it on, there's it feels like there's nothing anybody can do. Yeah, they've got another gear that no other team in America has. They're able to hit that on switch in the second half. And that's not to say sometimes you talk about a team that's flipping the on switch in the second half and you think that makes them vulnerable because if they get

down in the first half, then they're in trouble. This Yukon team doesn't get down in the first half then they're in trouble this yukon team doesn't get down in the first half though they're they're below uh on switch flip level is still right there with the best teams in the country they're still tied or even ahead of the alabamas the san diego states those teams that they've gone through illinois you know tied with those teams or slightly ahead. And then they hit this mode that no one else can hit where they're clicking on offense and on defense on the perimeter and the interior on both ends of the floor. And they just become unstoppable for a five, 10 minute stretch. And then the game's over. There's just nothing you can do

once that tsunami hits from from both ends of the floor that they get on so we're going to talk Donovan Klingon and and Zach 80 and that that's going to be the featured matchup but before we get to that in the backcourt who's the most important player for Yukon we I we I we can say Braden Smith for Purdue for sure. But who do you think needs to have their best game for UConn? For UConn, I think it comes down to Tristan Newton. He has been the guy who has stepped up when they have hit this extra level that they have. You look back at last year's UConn team and Tristan Newton was a guy who he played a role

through most of the year. He was a good, solid guy that they could count on. But once they got to the NCAA tournament, he was the one who hit that next step in his evolution as a player and really elevated them above all the other teams that they were facing when they went on that dominant run and took the national title game in a blowout fashion. He comes back this year. He's been consistently that player from start to finish. So if he can be that guy that they've gotten and gotten consistently, I think this UConn team definitely has the upper hand because the combination

of him and then clinging down low and what they have on the wings to compliment it. It's, it's so dangerous. We've talked about it all season now. Yeah. Spencer and castle. I mean, it's a, it's a dangerous group that they have there on the outside, but let's go inside. Let's go inside. Is Donovan clinging the one person who can play Zach Eady straight up or is that going to foul him out? No, he can play him. Foul trouble will be a storyline.

Can Zach Eady bait those fouls that he's been able to get a lot of people into and how much can Klingin stay on the floor? Those will be the two things to watch because Klingin, he doesn't play huge minutes generally throughout the course of the season. He's between 20 to 30 minutes in most of their games. He's going to have to play, I think, 30 or above to really stick with Edie and be able to shut him down throughout the course of the game and maybe shut down a strong term. If he gets to 20 points, that's fine. But if he does it on 50% from the floor, that's a win for UConn because that means that Klingin is impacting his

ability to just get those easy lay-ins his ability to to just shoot those those automatic little hook shots from inside the lane and making an impact on defense so for UConn yeah it's going to come down to making Edie inefficient it reminds me in a lot of ways of how I used to watch NBA teams try to guard Kevin Durant in his prime. It was never about keeping Kevin Durant from scoring 30 points. It was about making him score in inefficient ways. If he was shooting mid-range fadeaway jumpers and he had to take two or three of them to get one to go down, that meant that you were in that game and you had a chance to beat that team. That's what it's going to take. Obviously a completely different play style, but make him less efficient than he wants to be. And then you give yourself the best opportunity to beat him.

And that's what's so interesting about this is 87 for the Klingon seven, two and Klingon is the more athletic guy. Like Edie can't just shoot over Klingin. Klingin can probably block his shot. Oh, he's blocked just about everybody's shot so far in this NCAA tournament. Just look at his range and what he's able to do. And one of the things that I think that UConn will definitely take a look at is how Ben Middlebrooks was able to use his length to get his hands low on Zach Edie. Anytime he brings that ball down, it looked vulnerable against NC State. So he's going to have to focus on keeping the ball high, not dropping it down there where Klingin, who has the, he has the wingspan and he's got the defensive awareness to create steals in addition to blocks. That's going to be something else to

watch there in the lane between those two as they go at it. So let's talk the coaching matchup. You got Matt Painter and Dan Hurley. Hurley's been here before he's done this. This is the first time for Matt Painter in this situation. Obviously it was the first time for Matt Painter in the final four as well. And he did fine there, but do you think Hurley having the experience edge helps him or is it just because he probably has the better roster? Yeah, I don't know that there's an identifiable coaching advantage in this one. Obviously, both of these coaches are among the best in college basketball, and they prove that not by their performance in one game or over the course of one season, but with their collective bodies of work.

You look at what Purdue has done in the regular season, in past Big Ten tournaments, and on their way to this point in this season. And you can't take anything away from Matt Painter and what he's been able to do. I don't think that you can point to any point in this season and point the finger at Matt Painter and wonder what he could have done better there. Same with Hurley over the last few years, of course. So I don't see one side just completely outclassing the other from a coaching standpoint.

I think we're going to get what we always want in sports, which is the guys on the court deciding the game with how they're able to perform on that given night. I heard Dan Hurley last week talking about that Billy Donovan was one of the first people he reached out to donovan was the guy who coached the the florida team that went back to back that was the last back-to-back national title team and that was really interesting because i i have actually for my old job and for several projects talked to billy donovan at length about how he handled that second national championship season because he felt like he didn't handle it as well as he could have at first and kind of midstream changed his tack to let his players have a little more fun to try to you know get the weight of expectations off them and you could tell

when it happened during that season and Hurley i think has never fallen to that trap i think he did the research well enough to understand how to handle this like i it feels like and i realize he's always been kind of a sarcastic jokey guy in interviews but i feel like he's been even more fun for lack of a better term this season than he was last season, almost intentionally to keep the pressure off. Yeah, I do. I do see a lot of that that you're talking about with that fun aspect. I think part of that is who he is. He will have some fun as fiery as he can get on the sideline or in the interview.

He has some fun with his players, especially throughout the course of the season. And you catch that glimpse when you when you look at this team i think that the other thing that has probably helped him is that florida team that you talked about the weight of expectation coming in and and knowing where you had been and that everyone expects you to do it again when it's all the same guys you start to get this uh this go-to-work mentality we're, we're here on business, we're not here to have fun in it. When it's business, you risk kind of that burnout of just we're coming in every day. And it feels like we're working real

hard. And the payoff is never going to be enough because the second we slip up, people are going to question us. Versus UConn, who has three of their top six scores from last season being replaced. And sure, they've got the experience there. They've got the guys. But there's enough new faces, enough of a new chemistry with this team that they understand that that team is not this team. And that they've got to create their own history and be their own team from a personality standpoint. And so Hurley then has, has molded that in the right way and been able to guide these guys towards the mentality that they need to have

to make another national title run. So we'll find out what happens. Either it's going to be the first repeat national champion since 2007 or a program that's been really, really good finally breaking through. So either way, very exciting result. And I just can't wait to see those two big guys play. James, thank you so much. We will talk to you on Tuesday morning after a national champ has been ground. Can't wait. That's right. Big show tomorrow. We recap the national championship game. We figure out what the hell's going on with Cal and Arkansas and what Kentucky's going to do now. We talk a little more football.

There is so much going on and so much that a major blue chip program hired a coach and it barely made a blip because so much was going on but Tennessee women's basketball has hired a coach Kim Caldwell from Marshall which I thought was very interesting because the last time an SEC basketball program hired a young, successful coach from Marshall, it was Billy Donovan going to Florida in 1996. So if Kim Caldwell can do that, now Kim Caldwell be a fun time in Knoxville as the lady balls try to get back to where they're used to being. But I thought that was very interesting.

A little different trajectory. Billy Donovan had worked for, for Rick Patino at Kentucky as an assistant, then became the head coach at Marshall, Kim Caldwell, Glenville state head coach. So taking the Rich Rod path to the highest ranks of college coaching. Good luck to Kim Caldwell at Tennessee.

Good luck to Purdue and Connecticut in the national title game tonight. It's going to be a lot of fun. Good luck to Mitch Barnhart. Flushed with cash and looking for a coach. We'll talk about it all tomorrow.