Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jules - Mick Cronin On UCLA Basketball And Their Iconic Comeback Over Illinois

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

Mick Cronin is in studio! The UCLA Men's Basketball Coach came through and chopped it up about ball, his journey in college hoops, and a whole lot more. We're going deep on an instant classic: Illinois vs. UCLA from the 2026 regular season.  (00:00) We kick things off. (02:53) Coach Cronin joins us on the couch. (56:00) We go back to February 2026. (1:16:07) We dive into these rosters. (1:23:26) We get into the game. (2:01:23) We score it. Support the show: https://hoo.be/dudesondudesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Down one with 4.9 seconds left. The UCLA Bruins need a bucket. Donovan Dent goes coast to coast. This is Illinois versus UCLA. Welcome to games with names. I'm Julian. He's Jack, and we're on the search for the greatest game of all time in the history of mankind. We've got a great episode coming out today with UCLA's men's basketball coach, Mick Cronin. And if you haven't already, drop a like and to subscribe to Games with Names. Let's go. Let's go.

Games with Names is a production of I-Heart Radio. Welcome to Games with Names. Today we are looking at the Illinois versus UCLA game of last year, 2026 regular season with coach Mick Cronin from the UCLA men's basketball team coach. In one sentence, why did you pick this game? We won. We won. That's right.

If I would have been a fan last year watching our team, That would have been the best game of the year. Because we were down 25 or something. Early. Early. We were way down. Yeah. And it was a high scoring game.

So, like, even though in those games, I realized on my way home, like, I wish I could have been just like a fan. Yeah. You know, because I'm not enjoying the, you know, I'm working. Yeah. You know. But what a game for a fan to be at. Now, is this the greatest game of all time? No.

No. What is? Good question. there'll be a lot in college basketball would be a lot of debate about that probably um you have to would you probably have to go to championship games

you know instead of regular season game like a lot of people are going to throw at you if you ask that Duke Kentucky uh in the in what was is the great venue the Pallester in Philadelphia

which um was Christian Leitner. The throw. Grand Hill to pass, Christian Leitner the shot. But that wasn't the best game ever. There's millions. And that's what this show is.

Everyone comes on the show to say what they think or what could be the best game ever. And then we score and we go into it. Oh, okay. That's what it is? So, Coach, what's life looking like these days? We're in the off season. We're getting the team ready. We got the new recruits. We got the

team jelling. When is training camp? What is it day like for you right now? I love the football guys, training camp. You say training camp to a basketball player, you'll never sign a recruit. I ain't going to training camp. Yeah, bad. So, you know, summer you get eight weeks to operate, okay? They give you eight hours, eight weeks of when you're in summer school, and you get eight hours a week. That eight hours is any time you do. do anything as a team. So if you're workouts, film, team meetings, strength and conditioning,

all of that, eight hours. To me, that's enough. Some people probably obliterate that rule, as you know, in the NFL's. A lot of stuff happens. I play, what are you talking about? I know. We used to, we used to go by the rule book, coach. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, in football, it's different because your strength and conditioning coach, he does everything in the offseason because they're not allowed the coaches aren't allowed to touch you yeah like you know so they're out there

doing you know you're running routes being conditioned by the strength and conditioning coach in basketball we don't do that you know so you're because you need you need coaches on the court now they play basketball on their own

but it's it's a wild phenomenon I'm George you know we're in an era and I want your opinion you know, and the injuries. You know, people are looking out of it. You know, I got a huge scar down my leg. I played too much basketball growing up. So I was ahead of my time with playing year-round.

My dad was a coach. I lived in the gym. That's all I did non-st-st-I. I played other sports, but I'd leave football practice and go in the backyard and get beat by my older brother in one-on-one. Yeah. Like, it was non-stop for me. So I'm concerned about, like, in the summer,

if you say, what's your goal? nobody gets hurt. That's number one. Yeah. I mean, so I just, there's the specialization in sports, you see all these basketball guys going down with different injuries. It started with Durant to Clay Thompson, Jason Tatum, Achilles, Tyrese Halliburton in the finals.

You're talking about in their 30s. Yeah. That are going down in their prime of injuries. I had a guy, John Clark, in 23s in NBA now, but he tore his Achilles. So you just worry about overuse because you're doing the same run and jump over. Basketball is a run and jump sport. Yeah. And cutting.

On hard surface. Yes. On hard surface. And, you know, I think it's a double-edged sword with where sports have evolved in the specialization of sports. It's a double-edged sword because... Now there's so much information that guys can sit there and they can train. Yeah.

And, you know, back in Wilt's Day and back in the olden days, these guys had jobs. They were playing a lot of basketball, but it was different. They were shooting stuff. Now every kid knows every single workout to maximize his body, his leg. Even if you look at the basketball guys, they're like string, like long guys, but they're still doing the physical therapy or they're still doing the weight, weight room stuff. They're still working functionally.

They're trying to get as much as they can out of their body. And then, you know, guys are naturally getting bigger, naturally stronger, and the energy's got to go somewhere. And it's almost like the analogy of putting a, it's like when you put a big block on a small block frame. Good point. You know, you? Yeah, no, there's some kind of you get overdeveloped.

You get overdeveloped. And every time, like you said, you're doing that one jump. that one thing, that one thing. Over and over. On a hard surface. And then you're going into the weight room. Even if basketball guys aren't weight room guys like football guys, they're still, it's still probably increased 100 and 150% from what it was back in the day. Yeah.

So, you know, guys are so much informed on nutrition, this, that. They're pumping out so much out of their body that the body's like, we can't do this. You reach a point of overuse wearing terror. Yeah. And then I agree with you. Some guys, their body can only fire at a certain speed, for a lack of a way, better to describe it. And they've built it up to where it's going to fire at a speed that maybe their structure can't hold.

So, you know, so for me, you know, we get back, you know, we brought it up because the eight weeks in the summer. It's get to know your team because we have all, we're in the transfer portal area. Yeah. We get so many guys. Free agencies, though. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy.

So you got to get to know them. You got to gel. Figure how are we going to win games? I'm trying to learn. Like, I'm watching just trying to learn some of my new guys, not just how to coach them, but what they're good at and what they're deficient in. So that's a, it's a learning process. But we're not out there killing each other because it's a long year.

I mean, they've moved, they added a game this year in college basketball and we moved the season up. to November 1st. Yeah. For years, you know, when you were at Kent State, March Madness, right? And Midnight Madness was October 15th. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

Now we start practice in September. The first game's November 1st. So it's just everything is so much more. Narly. Yeah. You know, so you can't wear them out. No. And plus, it gets sick of you.

Hell, I get sick of me. I get to be serious. I don't want to hear my, I go home. I don't want to hear my voice. Like, I, you know, because you're teaching coach and teaching coach. You know how it is. You still hear Bill Belichick's voice probably some days in your head. Yeah.

Still. Yeah. No, it is. And, you know, that's got to, it's a lot. Coaches have, they're never really off, even when they're at home. That's, that's why I never got into coaching because, you know, it's just you guys are, you guys you guys are the starting point for everything.

So you guys understand that. And so your energy has to be devoted to the team. Regardless, even if you're at home with your family, there's no way you're sitting there saying your mind's not on your team. Especially if you have like a three day break, the team didn't go off with the great practice at the end of the break or we didn't have a good game. Like then you're sitting and you're thinking about that all the time.

So it takes a lot. Oh, yeah. That's a definite, you know, into, look, no, we all make a lot of money. There was a time you feel back. Like, what the hell is a guy doing? My dad, many, many of these guys coach in high school. Wasn't your dad a scout too, baseball scout? Yeah.

But the basketball coach. My dad was with the Braves 30 plus years. So with the basketball coach, you make no money. Yeah. is the high school coach. Now, it's changed a little bit, but, you know, 95% of them guys, they're not making any money. They're teaching.

But they're still, they want to win just as much as we do. Yeah. And it's like, you know, that's why I grew up seeing that. I said, I'm never, I'm going to start in high school to get to college. Because there's no way I'm going to, like, you know, B is engrossed in it as he was. And B's competitive. and not get paid. I mean, it's crazy.

Like, what are you doing? I don't want to teach, plus I don't want to teach some of my buddies I went to high school with. I couldn't imagine teaching these guys. I mean, you kidding me? Yes. You know. No, it's a lot.

So what do you do for your off time, like right now? How do you recharge your batteries? I mean, you grew up in Cincinnati. Yep. You're an Ohio boy. You did a lot of the Midwest, Louisville. you were over there and now you're here in Los Angeles. For reason.

For reason. And not going back. Not going back. But how is it living in L.A.? It's the best. Your professional life. You're coaching at UCLA. Oh, it's awesome.

They got the freaking yellow sea because they got a hundred championships. Blue blood, baby. You know, I had to hear that from my goddamn roommate all the time. Matthew Slater. So if we leave here, as you know, to get to UCLA, you turn left on sunset. I know. That's the name of my book, baby. If I ever write a book, Left on Sunset.

That's fire. I mean, how many people turn left on Sunset Boulevard to go to work? Yeah. You know, I mean, it's a people from around the country, you know, that I'm sure you get this. You know, what's it like living there? You know, like it's World War III or something. Oh, yeah, taxes. First of all, my dad taught me this a long time ago.

if you pay a lot of taxes doing something right. Yeah, doing something right. Be thankful. Now, you can sit around with our friend Tommy and argue about where the money's going or tax money's going. I'm not bothering. My life's too short to worry about that. You know, they can have politics. Trying to get our five to fucking slide his feet.

That's it. I'm trying to get rid of it. Are we going to rebound the ball this year? That's my concern. Can we sit a little lower in our stance? Come on. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, life here, there's a reason it's so expensive. Yeah. Yeah. Because people want to live here.

It's the best place to live. You know, well, it's cheaper in Florida. There's a reason. A humidity. There's a reason. A humidity. It's dry here. It's dry heat here.

It's beautiful. Bugs. There ain't no bugs. There's a reason. You know, so. Great Mexican food. Amen. The best.

Yeah. You know, you think there's some of, there's no state tax in certain states. I've ever be careful. They're going to hate me. So it's just like, yeah, you need to entice people to move there. Like here, I mean, look, we can get in the car. Like you say, you know, I like to go down to Delmar, you know. San Diego is for the listener.

North County, San Diego. Or we can get in the car. We can go up to Santa Barbara. We really want to drive. We can take the coastal drive all the way through San Luis Obispo up to Pebble. I mean, you know, life here. Coach, you go east, two hours, three hours. You go to the snow.

Yeah, you want to go snow. And I'm not doing that. I grew up in that. I know. But it's a different snow. You can get to where you can snow, what do they call? My kid, the tubing. Yeah.

I mean, you get that in about an hour, hour and a half. Yeah, San Bernardino, I think. San Bernardino. It's different living in the snow and visiting the snow. Oh, yeah. You turn around, be at the beach in an hour and a half. Exactly. Exactly.

I couldn't turn around fast enough. Hey, man, that's hard stuff. No. These guys, you know, when you got to get that scraper out. No, man, I don't know. Those days are over. I lived in Ohio. I lived in Ohio.

The snow belt. Holy, baby. Holy, that was a crazy, crazy time. You played with all my Coleraine guys. A lot of Coleraine boys. I lived with the Coleraine guys. Yeah. I'm from Colerang.

Yeah. No, you know, I went to LaSalle High School, so I went to the private side. Cincinnati has some basketball, but it's a huge football area. How did you be getting, how'd you get into basketball so much? Yeah, my dad was in basketball coach forever. He's in like three or four Hall of Fame back there as a high school coach. Amazing. Yeah.

While being the Bravesbtsball Scout with the Atlanta Braves. Suffice to say I was going to work in sports. I guess. You know, I didn't really know, you know. So you come from an early, if you wanted to hang out with your dad, you had to go to work with him. Yeah. You know, because he was either going to run his summer camps at the high school

for basketball or he was going to we were getting in the car to drive the we'd just get in the car and drive four hours to watch some guy play and drive right back baseball. Yeah. And we got to go watch this pitcher in Knoxville. Okay. I mean you know bang bang down back. See but that

See it's in his blood going and watching a guy Yeah and evaluating. The evaluation process and just the grind of sport like for a lot of coaches that you guys got you gotta love this shit like yeah yeah you know bellichick he had to watch film with his dad when he was you know 13 years old when he's in

annapolis you're going on road trips with your dad to to go check out a pitcher 15 hours away and then have a chili dog and come back and go to school the next day like skyliner gold star by the way i was a gold star guy same yeah but but you know you get a certain age you can't eat any of it anymore, man. No, no. You know, that was, you get past 30, and I don't think you, you know, foo. What's your chili dog out here? Montgomery and Ribs.

We got a great, we got a great chili dog scene out here in Los Angeles. Really? Yeah. Like, I had so many of them growing up. Yeah. You know, sushi guy now. Sushi guy. I mean, all my guys back to Cincinnati.

The Cincinnati is watching this. Like, no, he's not a sushi. I'm like from the common, the west side of L.A. is the common side. or west side of Cincinnati's the common side. Here are the west sides, the rich side. No. Oh, yeah, no, man, no. The west side, Brentwood, Belair, Westwood, Santa Monica.

It's technically not on the west side. It's the west side of the 405. It's on the other side of the 405. Yeah. I'm going to send you a little west side map somebody. I mean, he probably knows that you got to have the recruits. Yeah, yeah. What's considered West Della.

We got to get you down to Carnies, coach. Get you a chili dog. that. I got to try one. It's the little train over on sunset, spectacular chili dog, different kind of chili. You got pinks over there on, what is that, Vine Street, or is a Librea Melrose? Do they come with the, does it come with antacids or? No, but there is, there's, which you can go to the CVS and have some of those unlocked at the, no, I'm just.

Yeah, everything, bro, doves up, everything. Do you get a battery. Can I get a battery? ridiculous. You got to push the little button. Have the guy come over. It's gnarly. Now, coach, how much are you golfing right now? So golf season for me is when the portal's about finished.

Yeah. You know, so it depends when the portal, get the portal done until September. Who are you golfing with? Weekends. Weekends. Are you golfing with other coaches? Absolutely not. We're too, yeah.

I don't want to talk about basketball. Yeah. Yeah. This is your getaway. This is your escape. Yeah, my friend's a truck. I have a friend sold a trucking company for $100 million. He tells me he's unemployed.

My friend Dave. He's unemployed. He put unemployed on his golf balls. He's retired, but he put unemployed. I like it. You know. So then, you know, my friend, Paul Reddum, he won two Kentucky Derbys. You know, he's a USC guy.

So, but you know what these guys do for entertainment? We're on a golf trip. Okay, we're up with my buddy Eric Johnson and Denver playing Castle Pines. They're watching. I'm sitting out on the deck having a cigar. You know, beautiful place, Castle Pines is, you got to go. I got to check it out. It's unreal.

Your guys, all the Peyton Manning, John Elway. I've met them all there. Well, Peyton Manning beat us in the FC championship. I know. I know. But you're old, you know who's my guys. You're the older version of you, Stokely. Stokely.

Love. Some Brandon Stokely. He's the best, man. So anyway, I'm sitting out on the deck by myself. And I look in and these guys are laughing. I mean, these guys are laughing their ass off. I look up on the big screen and there I am. So I opened a big door.

I said, what the hell are you guys doing? They're watching my press conferences for fun. Where I'm all upset. You know, he lost the game. I mean, it's like I'm in a therapy obsession of misery. You know, this is what these guys do to me. This is when 65-year-old men do millennial and Gen Z activities. Let's go find a clip of YouTube piss-offs of coach.

And let's put it out there. The ball busting never ends, man. Ball busting never ends. It's just evolving. Just straight by it. So they watched one, but then the problem was the next one would come up. Oh, yeah. The algorithm keeps serving it, maybe.

So then I see my friend at the races at Delamor. And he introduced me to his wife and daughter. I say go over his sweet to say, and they say, oh, he's been making us watch your press comments. I'm like, dude, like, you got to start watching Netflix. Like, this is getting a little out of control. Like, I'm not, like, he's, but because he goes, oh, I love watching your pain.

He's like, he just see the pain. I mean, this is what guys do to each other. We'll be right back after this quick break. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Hello. My gosh. Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish.

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or wherever you get your podcasts. That's the ultimate language of love for a man in the man group. It is. How much pain can we inflict on our friend and watch him get embarrassed? Yes. And that's the amount of love you're showing them. is when you're doing those acts. Yeah, so we've been, you know, we've been,

I've been playing a little, little golf and doing the hammer game this summer. Yeah. Yeah, you ever played it? I'm not, we'll play it. We're at this, you know, we're members at the same. I know. I said this weekend.

You know, Jack, what were you? I think you were one, coach, are you Irish? Yeah. Mick, you know what I mean? As a fellow Irishman, McCarthy over here, I was in the locker room, I won't say where, but going up and down the aisles,

looking for another Irishman in there, took me about seven or eight aisles. out of my locker. I did. I found Coach Crohn's Locker. We're home, but we're there. There's two of us. There was two of them. There was an O'Connell. There was an O'Connell and Coach's locker. And I was like, all right, we're good, we're good. I'd represent. I represent. I was going up

and down the aisles of the locker room, baby. It's a great club. Oh, it's awesome. I love it. It's great course. Yeah, okay. It's great. We have a great course. Just a little hot, you know, next six weeks. It'll get hot. You got to look for those ice cold towels out there. We played on Sunday or Saturday, and it was probably 102. It was a little 1230.

12 third teetan. So when you play at 8 a.m. in Del Mar, it's 70. It's chilly. You got a little ocean breeze. You start with a pool over on. See,

coach? You're up here in the valley, man. You're toasting. Yeah, it's toasty oasty. You got to drive south for the weekends, bro.

Yeah. Now, you also, let's go over some of the stops you went through in your coaching career. About some hot places. Hot places. Murray, Kentucky in the summer.

Let's do a little word association. I'll say the stop. and you give us a short snippet on the stop, all right? Cincinnati. Home. Love that. Gold Star guy, too. Louisville.

Kentucky Derby and the Cardinals. Is that where your love of the horses came from? No, my dad was fourth job. As he grew up, he worked at the racetrack. Back in the day, the horses were huge. There was no, there were no casinos other than Vegas. So he worked there. Everybody, you know, packed.

So my only job I've ever had outside of coaching basketball was the parking lot at the racetrack in Cincinnati. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And people, that was like one of the craziest things for me when I went to Ohio out of California in high school. Ohio was very different. Oh, yeah. I was in Northeast Ohio. Yeah, where he went to school.

It's not Cincinnati. No. Night and day. It's like, you know, Ohio. the Akrins and this, that. Then you jump down over to the southern Ohio, and you forget that you're right next to Kentucky. Indiana.

Indiana. And it's got, there's a little country twang to the Ohio accent. I can hear it in your voice. And there's a huge love for horses in Cincinnati because you're toting that line. And it's also college basketball. If you just, you know,

you take the old pro tractor. around Cincinnati, you're two hours from Indiana, Louisville. Indiana's two, Louisville's two, Lexington's one. You get Xavier, Cincinnati, Ohio State's an hour and 40 minutes. So it's definitely college basketball is everything. I didn't mention it like, so there's all those programs are closer and they're historical. Historic. Yeah.

So people say, oh, you like to, you from Ohio? like the cabs, like, I don't even know who they are. You know, people, like some kid in Cincinnati's not rooting for the Cleveland Cavaliers. No. He, like, if you go, here's one for you from California. You go to Cincinnati or you go to the Midwest and you ask somebody what their favorite team is. They're immediately giving you a college team. Oh, 1,000 percent.

And you're in L.A. or you're in anywhere in California. And you, you ask somebody, what's your favorite team? 99% are giving you a pro answer. Same with New England as well. Yeah. So when you, yeah, that. Celtics. Well, you go to New England, you don't really have big college programs.

Yeah. You know, in Ohio. Yeah. I was so stunned with how they loved Ohio State everywhere. North, North Ohio, Northern Ohio, that part. Even in South Ohio. Oh, no. The football.

Yeah, football. Football. They didn't know they have a basketball. No, no, they didn't know that. Until Oden got there. I was in Kent when Oden. Oh, yeah. With Greg Oden and Mike Conley, Jr.

Yeah. You would have never guessed Mike Connolly Jr. Turn out to be the better pro. No. Still playing. Micro fracture surgery. Yeah. It's tough.

And I still don't know what the hell that is. It's when I know. I think some of these guys invent stuff. It's just, but it's so hard to, you got to think about it. There's probably like three Greg Oden's in the entire world. world and they probably had like three examples of how to do something to a large human being. That's true.

You know what I mean? Like how are you going to fix this guy? Sometimes I avoid, avoid surgery on your knee at all costs. And that's not a micronin. I'm no doctor. That's coming from doctors. Yeah. So when you have my job, you spend your life getting into orthopedics.

Oh, yeah. You know, your team doctors like you did. You meet with them every day. So, yeah. That's, avoid surgery on your knee unless you have to have it. Unless you have to. Once it starts on your meniscus especially, you know. Definitely.

But yeah, no, you get in Ohio, man. That's a, you're, but even anywhere in the Midwest, you're getting a college answer. Always. You know, if you're in Indiana, you're getting, you're getting Indiana probably, what's your favorite team? Maybe a Purdue, you know, maybe a Notre Dame. You're getting a Notre Dame. Yeah. You know, in Cincinnati you can get Notre Dame's, but Catholic City.

Yeah. Get a lot of Notre Dame's. Yeah. So it says it's very different. What about Murray State? Great friends. That would be my aunts like friends. I still have people from Murray, Kentucky,

and I stay in touch with some guys I love. There's great guys, man. It was a very small town. But two and a half hours from anything, Nashville, Memphis. So Murray's State, it was great recruiting there. So you call. I call you up. We're talking.

At some point, you got to ask. you were going to say, coach, where's Murray State at? Well, we're in Murray, Kentucky. Well, we're in Murray, Kentucky. Then I hit him with, we're about 45 minutes south of Paducah. Where's that, coach? You know, like they literally, you know, because it's not like, you know, the name of a town that they know.

Yeah. You know, so you've got to explain to them where you're at. Then they hit you. Murray State has been ready more NCAA tournaments than Auburn. Yeah. How about that? I didn't know that. And you hit him with,

you're hitting them with your recruiting spilling. A kid interruption, coach, are you division one? That really happened. Like in my, you know, I was there three years. Like it was, no matter how much success you have, like a kid, he don't know Murray State. Now, John Morant really helped Murray State's visibility on the, you know, in the social media world.

But I was there 030405. So it was great time, no man. Great, great time in my life. What about Cincinnati? Yeah, that's home. I mean, you know, the bear cats. You know, a lot of people say, are you Bengals from now? Bearcats.

You know, bear cats. I mean, you guys have got, so there's been a lot of, you got the Kelsey boys coming out of there. Since that he got some guys. Yeah. You know, Trave? I know, Jason. I know Jason. You want my, you want a Trav story?

Let's hear it. Oh, everybody, because of his wife. everybody now knows Trav So Trav's high school His motherfucker is a good ass player too He's gonna go down the best tight ends ever Of all time But you know like

Yeah yeah I know Somebody told me one time Like 12% of people follow sports Yeah country So mainstream now knows who Travis is It's incredible I mean I don't have to say his damn last name

But I knew him He's at my camp At Cincinnati Okay It's high school coach Barry Egan's my buddy He's at Cleveland Heights Jason, I think, was a freshman already on the football team from Coach Dan Tonys.

So Trav could play basketball now. He runs routes like he can. Yeah. Yeah. So now he tries to blame people. And then he's out here. He's at Lakeside Country Club. And he's trying to blame people.

And he's in an argument, I think, in the back, Blake Griffin, you know, about that I wouldn't let him play. So they FaceTime me. Now, I understand Travis, I don't see. I don't need to seem. I love him. He's that kind of, you know, he's a lovable dude. So he could play now.

Akron, Kent State. That was his level. Because he's a power forward at 6'5. You know, when I was at Ken State, three years before. Was Gates there? We went to the elite eight, man. I don't, I mean, is he, is he elite eight good coach?

He was undersized, like, he was like, he was like good. He was an undersized power forward. He could don't. I mean, you got to remember he's thinner at the time. Yeah. So he comes to Cincinnati. He's on his visit. So he tells Brian Kelly, I know Coach Crona.

I want to go see Coach Crona. So here they come. Like, what the hell is all this commotion? Here come to Kelsey. Travis coming back. Now, Brian Kelly is very business-like. Now, I have a great relationship. But BK's not like a, let's go hang and put, you know,

like we're doing. Like he, he's like, he's standing there, but he didn't know I knew him. So we're all eggs. Like, you, I'm going to play basketball coach. I'm going to say. Now, I knew him, though, because his high school coach and I are like this. I'm like, dude, you're going to have to get grades or he's not going to let you play both.

And you can maybe help us off the bench. We'll see. You know, I'm playing. I'm playing. I'm playing. I'm playing. I said, well, we'll see how your grades are. You know, because, like, you know, they're not going to let you play all winter if you had a bad semester.

So we go. So Travis, he walks out. I said, I grabbed Coach Kelly. I said, BK. You know, he's quarterback. I said, how good. I said, he's a big time quarterback. I know him as a basketball player.

He goes, oh, no, I'm moving his ass to left tackle. I swear he did. Hey, that's a fact, bro. I'll never forget that. And I was like, oh, you know, because Jason was a center. Yeah. He's like, I'm moving his ass. And BK was all about small and fast.

Well, I tell you right now, I mean, Travis is 6'5. No, he's a big dude. He's a big man. But I don't think he would have signed if he had told him. No. He'd been playing left tackle. He said, look, he's, I'm moving his ass and left tackle.

So now he comes back. He's ineligible. Does you know this? I didn't know this. Yeah, Trav's going to kill me. He didn't play a lot until his senior year. A little academic issues. So he's blaming.

I think he talked about that, though, publicly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Jason helped me get there. He had, I said. So now Butch Jones is the coach. Oh, Butch. And I'm like, Butch, how's Trab, you know, How's he doing? How's he a good guy?

Because now Jason's coming back. He's tight with my strength coach, Dave Andrews, and he's training with the basketball with my team in the summer. So I know these guys. Jason's training with the basketball guys? Yeah, because he was tight with our strength coach. Because I pulled him from football. Okay.

And he's the best. And I moved him. He's here with me, UCLA. So I got him back with where, you know, you don't have a million people. Yeah. You know, so anyway, Trav walks in one day, bro. He's got more chains on and earrings on. I was like, what do you, Flavor Flav?

And he's just standing there and here comes Butch Jones, the coach. And he goes, can we talk to you? And, you know, football's different. Like, we really know our players because we only got 12 guys like, you know. It's, I don't, yeah, those guys had 120, 120, 125. There's backup kickers. There's backup to backup kickers. Right.

Like, it's a different, so they don't know them like we do. So we had a, we had a heart to heart, Coach Jones and I. He's like, can you talk to this guy? I'm like, I'm not talking to you with all that stuff. What the hell are you wearing? Like, what are you doing? So, you know, but the football coaches are all like stoic. They're like Senator Tuberville.

Like, you know, we're not like that. Basketball, it's different. Like we talk, you know, it's like, dude, what the, what are you doing? Look at you, Rock. You're ineligible. You know, like, what are you doing just trying to be not Jason? Like, you got to grow up. Like, I'm giving him.

And then my trainer, he was football and basketball, Bob Manjene, him and track. You know, it's like, straighten Travis out and give Bob a lot of credit. And Travis would give Bob credit. So there was a lot of people, you know, Travis, Trevor had to find himself, right? Yeah. But anyway, he's FaceTiming me now with all these guys. Last time I talked to him. And it was like blaming me.

that I didn't let him play. Dude, you were ineligible. Come on. And he talked about it. And that makes the story of Trave even larger than life. He's the nicest guy. He took time.

Some people take time to find themselves. But look at like, look at for the young athlete. You know, he had a lot of stuff he had to go through as a younger football player, as a young man. He goes through it.

And you're talking to a head coach of a basketball team is like this guy is a knucklehead. This guy now is like one of the greatest tight ends of all time. So that's a story and a teaching lesson in its own right there of being able to swallow your pride, understand, you know, I got to get better at something, finding a peer, finding a coach, finding someone to get you, you know, really tighten up and like, I got to get out of this. And he did it.

And now he's fucking prince. The man. He's a prince of America. You know, he, he's a prince of America. America. I coached two all pros. Well, Trav never even got on the court because of grades. Yeah. But Connor Barlin played for him. Well, that's right. So when I got to Cincinnati job, he goes, coach, I'm going to help you out. We had no players. There's no portal. He was, I'm going to help you out. But you do, he goes,

you got to do a good job. You know, then I'm out, you know, so he played one year. And then the next year, he switched from tight end of defense, as you know, was Big East defensive player to years. He's a great guy. He works for the Eagles now. Yeah, yeah. I mean, great guy. I mean, two all pros, huh?

Yeah. Travis never got on the court, though, man. But it wasn't my fault. Quit blaming me, man. Coach, would he have made the team, though, if he had great. Oh, he'd have been good enough. I mean, he wouldn't have played. Right.

He'd have been. Scout team. He could have helped us for sure. He could have came off the bench. He'd be down there battling Yancey Gates. He was so athletic. Like, I'm not a football guy. I played when I was young.

He's big, too, and strong. Like, Connor Barwin, what we would call. side slide blitz of pick and roll. He blitzed a pick and roll about, you know, whatever Connor is, 6-3-2-40. His like lateral movement was like, I had never seen anybody move like that. And I was like, dude,

I don't know what position you play, but you got to be able to make it. Like there's no many humans that big. And Travis, when you saw him play high school football was like that. Yeah. Like, you know, how many guys, but you,

there's so many guys that, if they put, no, you got to be tough enough to put the helmet on. Yeah. But there's so many basketball guys. 1,000% that if they played football, they would. I agree with that. But, you know, everyone's got a plan until you get punched in the face. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, everyone's athletic until you get hit. Hey, man, I know what I mean? And that's the ultimate differentiation. That's like the ultimate equalizer. I mean, you got a plan until you get, my buddy's trying to do it, that is the only thing. That's the equalizer in football. You got to get hit, man.

Is that like, you. You're going to get hit and you could be as athletic as you want. You could be as fast as you want, but everyone gets caught at least once. And you've got to be able to get back up. Six five, six five guys at Cincinnati, you're going to do it. Okay, years ago, he's going to do it. Basketball, they recruit him to go out tight end or wide receiver or whatever. Second day of practice, cross the middle, boom.

He never played. He disappeared. There's my boy. So what happened. He goes, I'm, I'm never going. back. Yeah. Somebody jacked him up. He couldn't breathe for like 20 minutes. That was the

retirement. It's just it's a different because basketball's physical as hell too. It's just a different physical. You're in a phone boot together. Conditioning in basketball is huge. Oh yeah. Because you know we're not breaking and going back to the huddle. Yeah. You know it's in mental

toughness in basketball is a different mental toughness because you can't let yourself get fatigued. Like if you said to me, like, I work for Rick Petino. He would tell you, obviously one of the best ever, he would tell you the conditioning is a secret weapon that people don't talk about. One thousand percent. Because our game never stops. And it's physical. You're leaning, you're grabbing. And got certain guys just where it does mirror football a little bit is they don't allow themselves to get tired.

It's not just, well, you know, you're in this much condition as soon as you reach it, you're done. Certain guys, they can go past it. You know what I'm saying. 1,000%. And whenever I was playing my best, I was always the best conditioned. There you go.

And for the athlete, coaches can harp that. But when you're in actual great condition, you have the ability to think when you're tired. And that's what it is. can you think when you're tired? 100%. Totally agree. And everything, that's like,

that's what I preach to my little girl, like all the time, you know, I run her ass because everyone could do the rep when you're... They say I'm tough. He's running his daughter. She's nine. We got to get it right.

How many down the basketballs was it the other day? I just bought the fast pass to Disney for my daughter and her friend, so I'm softer than you, man. Nah, she has everything of that too, but she's going to have to run a little bit, We got soccer coming up. But it's, it's, you know, going back to the point of everyone can do it when you're full charged.

Oh, yeah. The great ones don't ever. Can you reach for something else? We'll be right back after this quick break. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Hello. My gosh.

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And you know, in football, you know, you stop and start a lot, but there's games where on offense you could have, you know, in a Super Bowl, we played 106 plays. It's a lot. That's a lot of plays. It's a lot of times. It's still a mountain of plays played. But it's also, when you're on that play, it's seven seconds.

and it's full go the whole time. Yeah. So then you have 40 seconds to recover because it's 35 seconds to the next play. And that's usually going. Then you have a TV timeout, which is three minutes. But we conditioned for that. But you would be amazed to see guys in the second half, fourth quarter, how much easier it is.

And if you're in better shape than that other guy. For you to beat them and get open. Yes. You could just see. The conditioning, that's what I always tell a young football player, be able to run all day. There you go. Be able to run all day because there's going to be a time

where a veteran may get a blow or two or it could be late in practice. You're going to have one opportunity. If you can run and make it look good right there, you get that one opportunity. You're going to get two opportunities after that, maybe. And Bill, it's the summer of the World Cup. Watching any of that.

These guys, all of it. It's about being in shape now. Oh, my goodness. I mean, they got to run because we do all the analytics. Anybody track them? Yeah, they got to run. I think it's like 12 miles in a game. And it's cool to see the strategy.

You know, this was our first time really getting to see. But, you know, the strategy of when they're tired, the subs and how they play their team, they bring more guys in the back end. You know, it's a, that's the strategy of their game too, is the condition. Where are you down until you break, you know? But that's really like basketball, it's the same thing.

It really is. You know, you just, like, you make it so hard on a team. You never, like in our sport, if you don't, if you're never easily scored upon, so the team has to expend so much energy to just take care of the ball

and to get a basket, they can't play the whole game like. Eventually, they're just, you know, the dam's going to break. They're going to shoot early bad shots. They're going to turn the ball over. So, you know, philosophies, it's interesting, you know,

in basketball philosophies, because people are going to tell you, Like, they think analytic, people talk about analytics because they think it makes them look smart. What they don't realize is like I started, like Bob Huggins, my first year, we were doing that. We just didn't talk about it. I mean, we were doing all that stuff. And so which means that was 96. They were doing that before I got there.

Yeah. So, you know, we just didn't talk about analytics to brag. Like you didn't. So when you were charting. whether, you know, what your teams did per possession, points per possession is a big thing, offense, defense, or just scouting,

guys going left versus right, shots taking this. You didn't talk about it because you didn't want anybody else to know what the hell you were doing. Exactly. Now it's so much self-promotion of, look what we do. So I'll give you one. So you're in the media now. Okay.

It's true, though, because, like, Even when you say this, for me... You guys did it? We were all about analytics. Way back. And you look at 2009 against Indianapolis. It was fourth and two. We had a four-point lead.

We tried to go for it and we didn't get it. And everyone's like, why did you do it? And we were in, like, I think our... We were in plus 50 territory or negative. I remember this. Remember that? Kevin Falk. And it was because they scored like three times right before. We weren't going to be able to stop.

them. So Bill's like, we're going to stop and win the game with this play or we're probably going to lose. And we ended up losing the game regardless because, you know, if we would have punted it, we couldn't have stopped them. Everybody at home saying, thinking, but that was like, and that was like one of those. And then people were like, what the fuck was you going for? But like, to your point, now it's publicized. And now we, we understand. Now people can, oh, just blame it on something when it used to. Yeah, it was different. All right. Now, now, Now, okay, guy, this is where I tell, would you do this in the football world? So in basketball, coaches love to talk too much.

Okay, so we're getting ready to play your game of the game of the game, right? Illinois. So the announcers love to come. Now football, you got all week. So they get to meet with each coordinator. They pick a few players. There's rules, right? But they're not coming to your practice.

Right? They come on Friday practice. They come for one practice and it's usually like the... They get a segment. No, they can come all Friday. Okay. What do they get to see? They can see, well, Friday is usually like your fast Friday.

It's not a padded practice day. So it's kind of like you actually walk through your whole game plan. All right. It's not like a fast tempo. Yeah. I got it. It's like a glorified walk. It's kind of like a glorified walkthrough.

So basketball, they want to come to practice. Then they want to come to the shoot around. but in basketball, they'll go on the air talking about what you did in practice. Yeah. Where in football, it's like, they know. They know they're not allowed to talk. They can say, oh, I talked, like, because I went to this.

What was in the meeting and what they shared in the meeting, right? That's what you can talk about. There's, there is a, there is a, a, a code. Yes. That you, eh, you can't be telling that they fucking threw in a statue of liberty fucking throw down trick play. You can't say that on air. But if the play is

used, then you can say, oh, I saw I'm working on it. That's different. Yeah. So I don't want like all my thoughts that I'm sharing with my team about our beliefs shared

on the air. Yeah. And here's why. My opponents are watching the film. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, so like, you know, Like, that's, like, dude, like, I've had to tell some guys and they're looking at me like, I'm nuts because so many coaches, they want to talk over and over to the media. So that was, that was what like our staff and our organization when we handled the media. Yeah.

That was, we handled the media because of what you're talking about. I know. I've studied you guys. You know, like, I've already been diving in. Strategy matters. I've been diving into training camps just to watch what teams are doing. And I'm watching some of these teams. And they're talking about exactly what they're going to work on and try to do.

Yes. We need to do this. We need to do that. We need to do that. And we're going to do this. And we're going to emphasize this. So if you're playing them in week two, why wouldn't you go fucking emphasize that in the game plan? You know, I understand, coach.

I mean, it's just, I don't know if it's guys want the announcers to like them and talk good about them. So they just tell them whatever they want. There's a lot of that too, though, now. I noticed once I got this mic, a lot of motherfuckers trying to come talk to me. Right. It's crazy. I'm like, what the? I never got a text from this guy.

What's up? It's truth. I mean, that's just the way it is. We're in a promotes yourself branding world, not just for athletes, coaches, but I look at it and it's like people say, oh, he's a dick. Well, I just want to win. Like, I don't know. I don't need you talking about everything we say in this practice.

If it's a privilege that I let you in here, okay, I don't want you to talk about what everything I, you know, like our philosophy on how we're going to stop our opponent or our thoughts on whatever. And, you know, like, that's for us. Yeah. Like if I let you in here, like, you know, okay, you get a, you want to get a feel for our team. But whatever I share with you and.

in the media, that's what you can talk about. Because that's what I'm okay with. The rest of it, like, dude, that's, that. But you know what they're going to say, because I'm using that. But you know what they're going to say to you, coach. Because I, you know, I'm all sides of this now. Now they're going to say, well, who do you think pays your contract?

Yeah, I don't care. It's these fans. We got to give them in-type, we have an in-depth look. No win, no contract. That's all I look at. And we say, those are going to win. That's what they're going to say. No, no contract.

Amen. No, win. No, you think Greg Popovich is sharing that stuff? Like, your guy. Times are changed. Your guy's not changed. They're not around no more. Your guy wouldn't share that stuff.

They ain't in the league no more. Brable's probably tight with stuff. He is, but, you know, it's a different, you know how it goes? It's a different time. No, I just, it was just funny. It's a funny, you know, everybody's different with it. But, like, you can pick things up. Like, my staff watches the other guys' press conference to see if they can pick

something up. Yes. You know. We had Ernie in here saying the same thing. Ernie Adams, the godfather of the Patriots, quote, analytics before analytics.

He'll watch the broadcast. That's what his job was. Ernie Adams was the human analytic. But again, Ernie's not a guy that uses that word even. No. But he's like everything he does is quote, yeah,

and we all did that. I mean, you know, but now it's, now it's just a hot term. But like Ernie was saying, he'd watch the broadcast footage of games to get the announcers saying that same stuff

that people leaked to him, not just that all 22. And everybody's doing that. Yeah. So I know they're watching. So I'm trying to, to say something, you know, totally irrelevant. I'm not trying, or I'm trying to throw him a curb ball.

Yeah. How did you pick some of this stuff up through your times coaching under Huggins? Coach Patino was, yeah, Coach Patino was a master with that type of stuff. What is the thing you took from both those coaches that you use? That is the number one question. I'm old now and I've been, this would be my 24th year as a head coach. Let's go, coach. But early on, I always got that.

What was it like working the difference between Bob Huggins and Nipatina? But now that you had some time to actually think about it and over the years, what have you seen that you've used the most? They didn't accept losing. That's the similarity. Non-negotiating. Yeah, like, if you, you can never easily, it can never just, it can't be okay to lose. You know, like, hey, we'll get them next time.

You know, like it can't, because then you let it see. in your building that it's okay to lose. It can't, for both of those guys, and they held themselves accountable. And look, you can't, they weren't domesticated. Like, at their peaks, you can't be domesticated. Like, you've got to be ate up.

Can't be balanced. Yeah, that's, I used to, movies for me. Rocky and Rocky 3, Mick said. Meaning he can't have a, you can't have a family. You can't, it's all about about. basketball. So it would be Rocky 3. Have you guys seen this?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Mr. T. When Mickey says, you know, you got domesticated. The worst thing that can happen to a fighter. Make your legs weak there. You got to, yeah, you got domesticated. So those guys were locked in, man.

Now, they did it different. It's hard when you felt them silk sheets, coach. It's hard. Domesticated. You know, but for some of us, I mean, you know, obviously you live a different life. You've had success. You saved money. But for me, I always,

said this. This was my line that coaches have stolen. They like it. In coaching, you're either getting extended or extinguished. There is no middle ground. You're doing well, they extend you. You're getting extinguished.

You're getting the Ziggy. So, you know, it's almost, I tell people I look at it like you, they tie you to the railroad tracks when the season starts, and you got five months to get off or the train's coming. You know, like in our sport, you got to make the playoffs.

Yeah, like you've got to make the playoffs. If you get off, if you make the playoffs or, you know, you do well in the NCAA tournament, you got off the tracks. Yeah. Next season, they're going to tie your back down again. That's how it goes. And that's how intense the mind, if you don't have that, if it's just, oh, well, you know, somebody asks me, as you go out to eat after a game, I said, if we win, they said, what if you lose?

I'm like, we lose. I'm the most miserable person that's ever lived. BB&J in a film. Yeah. Like, I want to play against the guy that's going out to eat after his team loses. No, I understand the NBA, it's different. Yeah.

They play 82. So it's totally different. It's different. College, every game matters so much because your tournament resume is so impacted by every game. And sometimes now in the analytics world, the score of the game.

I was just going to say, And how you've got a win margin. Yeah, and it's metrics. Yeah, win margin and the metrics in your rankings, whether it's the Ken Palm or the Bartovic or. It's a whole lot, coach. Yeah. Which sucks because, you know, you're sitting there and it's like,

you want to, you know, you're up a certain, say you're up 15 and you want to get, you know, I want to get, you know, the football guy's walking on. I want to get him in the game. And it's like, well, if I can push this to 20, you know, but what jerk? wants to win, you're up 15, you're trying to win by 20 with a minute left. Like, it shouldn't have, it shouldn't be that way now. It's ridiculous. It's,

but it's that way now. Oh, it is. And it'll, it'll, it'll sort itself out like it always, you know, we always hit these pendulums and all facets of life. And right now it's the wall, wall, wall, west with NIL, with the NC2A, with all of this, you know, we, we don't really have any parameters of like what's the rule set, what is this? And I think that'll all change here in the next few years, but you better hold on. Yeah. You better hold on and find some Houdini type shit to get that rope off the damn. You got to get up.

The track, we got to get Houdini every year. It's real simple. Raise money to buy players. There is, maybe. Name of the game. It's real simple. I mean, it's just, you know, the Dodgers do it every year. It's a great form.

And Dave Roberts is the best guy. nicest guy in L.A. is UCLA brewing. Legend. But he will tell you, like, you know. Now, it's not, still hard. You guys still got to win. Yeah. You know, but it helps.

John Wooden in all his books, all his books, said the same simple line rates, I ask him about basketball. The guy with the best players usually wins. You know, so that's how you get off the tracks. But yeah, the NIL, the portal world, you got the government fight. I mean, it's now reached levels of federal guns.

government. You know, our president knows about it. I mean, we got bigger problems in the world, you know, trying to avoid World War III in the Middle East. And we're thinking that the president and the Congress should be worried about college sports. Like, I mean, I don't think it's eye on their list. Yeah. So, like, people banking on that, I'm like, do you guys ever watch the news?

I don't, I don't really think they're worried too much about, you know, NIL. If you think about it, though, if we want to get it. spin. Uh-oh. This is big business. NCAA is big business. There's hundreds of thousands, if not millions of jobs being created because of college sport.

So the shit needs to get regulated because it affects a lot. It affects community. It affects city. It affects state. It affects federal because this shit is so big. And people love it so much. So they need to get it regulated. Two things.

One, it does affect the country. Everything. In a way that we do not have an Olympic training ground. Our Olympic training ground for Olympic sports is our scholastic system. So like in Russia, if you want to train an Olympian in track, well, here they go to UCLA. You know, Jackie Joyner, Cursey and Flojo went to UCLA. That's where they trained.

Yeah. You know, our, and they went to their high school and then they went to college. So our Olympic sports and our dominance of Olympic sports and the summer games has been fed by the college system. Well, if we don't give the school some assistance and get it cleaned up, guess what sports are going to get cut, Olympic sports? Because they're non-revenue sports. Oh, yeah.

They have the same, we say Olympic sports, but the business office, basketball and football. The business office knows them as non-revenue sports. And that's sad. We don't need that. That is tragic. Kids in our country need to be playing sports,

dreams of getting scholarships and any Olympic sports. So we got to fix it. There's one simple way. Make them employees. But everybody's dead set against it. Well, they got to unionize. Make them employees.

Let them collective bargain. Make the revenue, revenue sports, let them be employees. You're telling me they're not employees? I mean, you got payrolls in basketball, 15 million and up. You got payrolls in football, 40 million and up. How are they not employees?

Everything's in the middle right now. It's all. Like, why are we, why, I know, like the NCAA is hanging on. We keep hanging on to the past of the student athlete. And they're not, they're, they're employees. They're, no, they're licensed. That's what they are.

They're licensed athletes to a professional entity. Right. Like, that's what we got to look at them. Well, you can't regulate that, though. Now they can't. They got to find a way. Because that's essentially what I think. Make them employees.

I mean, there you go. There's got to be something. You know. I don't know how to stop. I don't know even know where to start. Yeah. I mean, I think everything else is a stop gap. Yeah.

solution that eventually will lose, you'll be right back in court and you're going to lose again. 1,000 percent. And it's, that's my, you know. Well, let's, let's move on, Coach. Let's go back into time. This game took place this February, so we're not going that far back into time, February 21st, 2026. And this is some of the things that we're going on outside of the sport world. Goat was number one movie.

That was Steph Curry's animated adventure. Yeah, but what do we Hmm Well, we don't make real movies anymore This is true One battle after another is a best recent movie All time, coach Huge

So what's your, so you're one battle after another? Well, I mean, if you're a recent, you got to get. Watch the Odyssey? I have not yet. I got a, my daughter went the other night with a friend

I got booted. I didn't get it. I paid for it. Yeah. So. Got to go. I recommend it, coach. Odyssey was awesome.

I'm on it. Matt Damon's big. He's the man. One battle was tight. He's Boston guy. He's actually a good guy, and he played Sonny Vicaro in Air, who's my guy. Yeah. So I was there, red carpet, the whole thing.

Amazing. How was he, why was he your guy? Sonny Vicaro, do you know? Yeah, well, he's the guy behind the whole Air thing. Yeah. He was the scout that got Jordan, right? Yeah. I was fortunate to meet Sonny as a young coach, and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him.

Explain. He helped a lot of young coaches. You know, back then he had the ABCD All-American. camp. And if you knew him and you knew people, then you were somebody in summer basketball, which allowed Bob Huggins to think that I knew a lot of people and I could recruit for him. Yeah. So that's this fast synopsis of it. Wow. But anyway, so Sonny and I, at the, I got to meet Matt Damon at the air thing because I was with Sonny. He was in Westwood, the premiere. Yeah.

Nicest guy ever. So I got to see Odyssey. That's so cool. I love that story. Yeah. Number one movie, Goat. I didn't know what the hell it was. Well, that was Steph Curry's little animated. Animated movies. It's amazing. You're reading about how much money, though. You should do some voiceover stuff. I don't, you know, I do have a...

You got a good voice. It's like, these famous people are doing the voices, but they're making, like, crazy money. I know. I know. We try and get up in there. Get a little franchise action. Get me in on that. We got to get, you got a good voice, too. Me and you, we get, let's do an animated day of movie.

We'll make 20 million. I like this. your animation. I'll do anything. I read this article. These guys are making 10, 20 million doing voiceover. Show up in your pajamas. Just roll out their mic.

It's unbelievable. Yeah. Steve Correll's made more money. I saw way more money. They can read very well to those guys. Brew. We'll be right back after this quick break. You've heard the chaos.

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You make a pick in your fantasy draft in the entire room groans because they wanted that player. Or you grab a small school rookie off waivers and you start him right before he goes off in primetime. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zacharyason, host of the late round fantasy football podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. We've got data-driven analysis, historical trends, and the strategies that separate winners from the rest. And your dominance doesn't stop with the draft. All season long, we have our 15 transactions, 10 trends, sleepers, and the mailback,

data-driven, quick-hitting episodes to help bring home that league trophy. Listen to the late-round fantasy football podcast on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now, like crazy. Is this your escape, is watching movies? I'm a big movie guy. Chrissy, you know, my significant other, we've been together forever. She hates the fact that I rewatch the same movie.

movies. Oh. Yeah, you get that same problem. I'm the same thing. Like, I don't want to watch Survivor or The Bachelorette. I mean, I'm just, I'm going to just watch Casino again. Yeah. Yeah, baby. What about some of the old age are we in the TV show guy? Do you like any of the Yellowstones or those? I'm not, you know, I didn't grow up. A lot of commitment. Yeah, that's too much, you know, entourage. Yeah. I lived, you know, I lived for anterage. That was our time. We were younger. Yeah. You're still younger. But entourage, um, um, uh, Billions. Yeah.

Ray Donovan was, I'm an Irish guy, so Ray Donovan was great. I think our guy Tommy might have been Ray Donovan. He'll fix their action. He's definitely in Goodfellas. He wants to be in Goodfellas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He wants to be a good fellas. Ray, and then right now we have friends and neighbors, John Hamm.

Then you got to wait where everybody's waiting on Landman, the next Landman. Got to get back to Landman. I've been getting into those, what are they? Tulsa Kings. No, the Chris Pratt Prime TV show. What is it? Is it good? It's like a Navy SEAL one.

Oh, yeah? It's Navy SEAL stuff. And then there's like the spin-off. I like some of those Navy SEAL ones. What is it? Those guys are badass. They're the baddest guys ever. The Terminal list is that one?

Yeah. Terminalist. I'm on it. And there's another terminal list where it's like some CIA shit. and just the grind. I think I was Terminless was a while ago. Yeah, that was probably two, three years ago. I watched that.

Yeah, it's good. Have you to the end yet? Yeah. Okay. Oh, but there's a new one. There's a second season. Now I got to see. Of one of the characters.

And it's pretty good. The ending on that was. It's crazy. So now I got to go to the new one. The new one, yeah. It's awesome. It's like the same kind of shit. I like that little.

I like that in the phone. I have to, you get put, when you're the head coach, you get hit, you get donors, players, your staff, you got to put things in your phone. Oh, 1,000%? You got to write it down. Got to.

I'd lose that. So you got to. Yeah. Let's jump into the game, Jack. Should we get in these teams real quick here? We're talking Big Ten here. This is Illinois. It's still crazy to hear Big Ten for UCLA.

It's crazy. You know, it's funny. This game, go ahead. I don't want to run. No, no, you go ahead, coach. This game, after the game, I knew, like, we had, it was, it was like a tough

we won but they were better than us and I told Coach Underwood you guys are going to final four after the game he looked at me and I said I've been there I'm old now like you got enough offense

and size and he got and he had a top 10 guy top 10 draft pick at the point five so you know Keaton Bogler went five in the draft to the clippers and the rest of these guys are

You got high level college players, and he had a bench. Yeah. So, like, to get to the final four, bench is important. You got to have depth. Yeah, there's going to be a game where you need, like, some guy that have that one game, your sixth, seventh man, it gets like 15 points, something like, you know, bangs in a bunch of threes, whatever the case may be, because your best player is going to have an off night. Yeah.

You know, so, it's, the NBA is so different. You know, our tournaments like your tournament, won it out. One and out. One out, baby. You know, so they were loaded, man. Loaded. They were loaded. Great offensive team, great rebounding team, uptempo, one of the highest scoring teams in the nation.

Best offensive rebounding team in the country. Incredible. They do a rare thing. They send everybody to the glass, even their point guard. Is that that's rare? Very rare. Usually, you've played hoops in years. But you know where the top.

of the key is. Yeah. So if you shoot it from the top of the key. Someone's got to stay there. And you're the big guy. That's the guy back. You could be the big guy. You're back.

Everybody else is crashing. So usually most people to point guards back or some people to point one and two men are back when the shots take. Just for the fast break. Illinois, whoever shoots the ball if it's shot from the top of the key, you know, from above the foul line.

That guy's back. Everybody else crashes. So there's times where their point guards crashing. that's very rare. But they have to have players that can get back and athletic awesome players that could play. They get so many rebounds, it's hard to run. If you can get to rebound, you can run on.

Yeah. But it's a big if, if you can get the damn rebound. That's a huge if. They create a lot of mismatches underneath with those switches and big guys. You got to switch a lot because they shoot the ball so well. You got a lot of spot up guys around the wings, Stryakovich. They had seven footers could shoot threes. It's crazy.

I mean, I was watching this game and like half the team is from all these euros. You're crazy. A lot of Baltic guys. A lot of, you know, it's Serbia, Croatia. But you guys got a Baltic guy this year coming in. We have three. We have ones from Slovenia, two, from Serbia. So, and one from Latvia, which is not.

You get them a little chabape? I don't know what the hell that is. It's like they're, it's like there are form. Is that a Serbian food? It's like, it's a Baltic in Serbia, Croatia, Croatia. I'm going to. It's like a pita filled with like lamb or ground beef. So it's kind of like a, it's kind of a, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a,

It's kind of like their burger. Like the Greek era. Kind of shit. Something like that, but they call it Chababe. I went out to Croatia and like all my Serbian friends always talk about it. I have to try that. You got to find one when you recruit these guys. They're here.

Oh, there's a lot of them. But we got to find the spot in Westwood. Same about L.A. man. You get anything. Anything. Any ethnic food. Coach, so this big 10. Oh, my God.

It's hard to say I'm in the big 10. It's starting to get more comfortable. How? That is, you guys are basically pro basketball. Again, make them employees because we are pro basketball. Going. Yeah, class on Thursday. You got to go to fucking.

Exactly. Illinois on Wednesday. How about Penn State and Rutgers in Maryland? Jeez, Louise. We're in the same league. Now, it's absurd. Coach, let's do a little word. I got a fun game that I thought about.

A little, you're a big cigar guy. Yes. Huge cigar guy. He's played golf in the C, C, C, you know. His big cigar guy. Coach, let's do a little. I'm not a good drink. I'm the one Irishman that's a bad.

drinker, like at my stomach. So that's how I started. Yeah, so a lot of cigars. You know all the different types of cigars. Can't get a DUI and you don't get hung over. No, but you can get a bad cough. Yeah, yeah, they get medicine. Yeah, yeah. So let's do a little word

association of what type of cigar the team I'm going to say is from the Big Ten. Oh, okay. I like this. All right. So what, in the cigar world, what would a Michigan Wolverine be? No, you remember I'm from Ohio. So, you know, you never liked the, on the Ohio State.

I'm on the Ohio State side of that rivalry. Yeah. Yeah. See, I still think as much as they won the title last year, I think football. Yeah. Like, I would go, you know, go with like a, well, you want a brand or a type of sort. Type, whatever. They're a Maduro.

They're a Maduro. Yeah, they're a Maduro. It's a tougher smoke. It's a heavier. you know, fuller, you know, smoke. What about them, what about Ruckers? What kind of cigar smoke? You're going to get me in trouble now.

I got to play these teams. What do you talk? What kind of cigar are they? They've struggled. Romeo and Julietta. Yeah, they've struggled. So all their coaches, a great guy. They need help in, you know, the NIL space.

Honduras type cigar? Yeah. Well, I would just go with a more economical. cigar because they need money. Yeah. They don't have a lot of money, which affects winning. Yeah. So, what's a cheaper cigar? Yeah, I wouldn't take them all the way.

I would give them like a macanudo. A macanudo. I like that. I was going to go backwards, but we're not going that little. Yeah, we're not going. I was going to swisher sweet. No, no, they're not a swisher. I thought you're going on Garsiavegger. Maybe Peach Optible. What about USC, coach, rival, the rival. What are they? I don't, you know, because I had musclemen in this building a few weeks ago.

Good guy. He's wild. They, they, uh, I don't hate USC like the UCLA people. I just view them as a game I need to win. So, because I just didn't grow up, you know, like, you know, I grew up in the Xavier Cincinnati world. So. But what cigars, USC then? It would be like a Drew Estates because they're private school. Private school.

So you got to go, you got to go small boutique. 90,000. I like that. There's $100 grand a year there. Yeah, yeah. My daughter goes to American, so I know all about this. You know, coach knows private school. That's right.

Terms. Right until you get to high school, bro. I don't know. High school here is like college and other places. I don't want to even, we'll talk about that off camera. Yeah, yeah. We'll talk about that off camera. Plus you got to get in high schools here.

Yeah, please. Oh, yeah. It's great. It's the whole deal. So there are Drew Estates, USA. Yeah, I'd be like a Drew Estates, you know, like the, you know, maybe a leagia, provada or something like that. You know, nice.

I mean, very nice. Very nice. What's Northwestern? I mean, you know, good. Yeah, you got to go. You know, it's an academic school. My sister's alma mater. Great coach, Chris Collins.

But, you know, Northwestern is more like, you know, again, private school. Good broadcast school, right? Mm-hmm. Big-time broadcast school. But I would take them more in, you know, maybe like an Oliva, you know, in middle of the road. Yeah. I like that. I like that on Liva. Good stick.

Yeah. Last one, UCLA. What kind of cigar is UCLA? Cohiba. Yeah, baby. Yeah. You know, one everybody knows. So the brand is known worldwide for the athletics as well as UCLA Medical.

You say medical is a monster. Yeah. I mean. It's number two to Mass General, but it's good. Really? Mass General is best. You know our head. They call the UCLA of the East Coast.

this place called Harvard. All those doctors go to Mass General, you know, did all my knees, feet and stuff. How many surgeries have you had? Like 13. Wow. I've just busted balls, Coach. You got me.

I was saying I'm only at three years. No, but with the Mass General, I don't want to. No, no, I would say the head of cardiology for years. I don't know if he's retired. The guy named Dr. Richard Shimon, Sheiman. He's a great guy. Yeah. Great guy.

And just so, you know, I met him in a cigar lounge. So it's okay to have a song. It's okay. And anyway, he was on the Today Show one time. He looked for delivering a baby in an elevator. Something crazy. Something like really crazy. But anyway, he left Harvard to come here.

Again, you know, I think probably got sick of being cold. It's hard out there. I don't know, you know. Hyde. We probably paid him more. There's a lot of money here. The guy was like the number one heart guy in the world at some point. You know, after Super Bowls and, you know, national championships,

you'll see, coach, you know, the roster changes. The roster changes. This is what happens. And free agency, people overpay for, you know, to get those winning people. Yeah, yeah. To their organization. So, you know, you get that Harvard guy from Mass General, the cardiologist. You know, you can only go 10 years, best, best hospital in America or the world.

It's hard to do. So at UCLA, they got to pay to get those guys over there to get that winning organization. We've been on a role, though. So I would, I know you're. people, and it's like the money of this stuff. So quarterbacks in our world, in the money of spending big guys, because there's so few and they can play. Like, there's some big guys making over a million dollars. They can't play. Yeah. Just because of size. Yeah. Because you, like, in basketball, if you get run over, like, you could, because of rebounding. It's like, you can stop

them, your strategy can be excellent. They just grab it and lay it in. Yeah. You know, and you're going to foul out trying to block them out. It's free points. So you have to be big enough. You know, so they're the ones getting overpaid the most. Where there's some better

players that are smaller, but there's more of them. So the quarterback is the big guy? The highest paid guys are point guards and big guys, but there's less big guys. But those are the, if you were like, who are getting the, that's who's getting the money the most.

The point guards and the big guys. So the forwards are like the linemen? Just a lot of them, you know. A good power forward, not the big guy, but. Yeah. There's just, you know, because you can put, they're all wings now. There's no more power forward. So two, three, four is kind of all the same.

You know, you can be interchangeable, but you've got to be able to rebound or you're just going to get run over. Like, it just doesn't matter, like especially in the big ten. Yeah. So on your roster in this game, Jackie. Let's go to UCLA real quick. Here we go. Who's our quarterbacks?

Donovan Dent and Trent Perry, I had two. Donovan Dent had, he made the lay up to win it. I saw that. He bawled. And Clark did too. Yeah, Sky's a shooter. Those are my two guys that graduated. So it's a wild game.

But the guy that turned this game around, if you're watching, we're down 25. and I'm looking... Early. Like, yeah, it's at that point, it's very, like, I'm not used to that. It's at that point, I'm wondering, like, there's a way I can crawl under a floorboard and hide.

Yeah. Like, I mean, I'm, like, we lost, like, two games at home in two years. You know, like, my teams don't lose at home, and we're getting beat down. Yeah. They would not miss a shot. We cannot make a shot.

But we, they rattled us, and we did not follow our game plan. early. And I made some changes. And it was basically, we're going to do what we practiced here. Okay. Or I'm throwing the rest of the game, putting the walk-ons in. Like, you know, so we finally did it. And Xavier Booker started making every shot. And you need that guy. That's him down there boxing out in the middle. Jackie, give us the game lead up and get us in the game. I think the lead up at this game. We got to get into it, unfortunately, coach. Bring it. The lead up came off that road trip to Michigan. Yeah. Yeah. It was tough. How did you guys bounce?

back from that. What was the message after that? What was the week of practice like coming into this one? Yeah, I, you know, I messed with the media a little bit because we were so bad. I worry about our players taking too much heat on social. Now that, you know, plus people bet, you know, so they different. It's ridiculous. Yeah. It's a whole world that they got about.

I'm okay. The heat don't bother me. Like, I don't give it. I could care less. So sometimes it's a purposeful say something to get everybody on me to forget about. how bad we're playing. Yeah. So we kind of pulled that.

That was an all-timer. I love that one. Yeah, it was a little bit of on purpose. But nobody wanted Michigan and Michigan State. No. You know, you got a sweet 16 team and Michigan might have had the most talented team in the last 10 years.

Yeah. Seriously. Yeah, I mean, ridiculous. A lot of quarterbacks on that team. Yeah, some big time, dude. So, and old guys, like, they had guys come off the bench that started at Ohio State. It's crazy. They were loaded. But it was, you know, I think

when you're a veteran coach, you don't, well, people, fans are panicking, but you're not at all. Right. If you're playing in the Big Ten, it's like playing pro basketball. Like, you got to just keep trying to win two out of three. You're not winning 10 in a row. You know, it's like, it's just, I know that that happened once in the NFL, but it's just not really realistic. The NBA, I mean, you know, it just doesn't happen. Right.

You know, if you went, it's a great year you win 60. You lost 23. Yeah. So in this big 10, like, you just can't panic. No. Just keep trying to get better, make adjustments. On to Cincinnati. On to Cincinnati.

There it is. You were waiting to say. I was waiting to drop. I love that. On the Illinois, baby. You have to. Yeah, we were on Illinois. You know, other people worried about.

But you have to have a sense of urgency. But that's the coach's job. You have to like turn the page. You have to. The coach has got to be the igniter. To like not like, like you said at the beginning of this interview, both of the coaches you coached under Huggins and Patino never accepted losing. No.

So you can't accept the loss, but you have to try to show this young athlete like, all right, we have another fucking game. That sucked. But we have to have urgency going into this game and learn all the shit that we lost. And we didn't do well in this game. and do all the things that we did well in that game, and we got to bring it forward and try to improve each week to get our team in the best situation to go do damage in the fucking tournament.

And confidence gets shaken, especially the younger, the athlete. And that's the hardest, that's the biggest hurdle for any athlete is the confidence. And we came out in this game, immediately got down 25 because of the previous, like their confidence was shaken. So as a coach, there's times where you're, you know,

I'm trying to take the pressure off them, trying to get their confidence back. That's why Xavier Booker started banging in threes, and everybody's body language changed. You know, so in basketball, it's a funny thing. If one guy starts making shots, other guys start making shots. Contagious. But it goes both ways with that. It's like a sneeze. A bucket's coming flurries, baby.

Yeah. Why did I, or no, it's a yawn. There's no scientific reasoning why it's coming. contagious, but there you go. It's true. Made shots and conversely, missed shots. Sometimes the lid, because, you know, somebody got to step up and make one, get the lid off the basket. It is very, very contagious, cyclical. So he started making shots, the whole game changed.

And, Jules, it's like I said, after you three putt it on 16 the other next play mentality. Got to have that next play mentality, man. You played golf long enough, man. You're going to three putt. It's the worst feeling in the world. I think I three putted five. you and me both brother you and me both you three putted five greens

I three putted five birdie looks oh my god that was that where the hell was that at El Cab but they were the greens were that fast huh no I'm just that bad no they were fast bro

I'm gonna say they were bad you haven't been playing bro I need some time I haven't played I haven't played you ever hear lag putting I mean take the car you know you ever hear a lag putting

I mean you know man some of them were like these you know how are the two tiered systems sometimes you it's tough I'm not good with those teams years either. Yeah, the greens are That's where you get. That's what makes O'Cab tough.

For you get got. You got to learn how to get the pace down hill. Exactly. Do you waterboard your putter when you got home? No, no. It's not the putter. Some kind of cruel and unusual punishment, bro. It's the putter. Yeah, yeah. It was me. It's usually. That's what, yeah. I got to blame something. I got to blame something. Come on man. You've played with my stepson. He's like a plus three. Yeah, he's a stick. You know, and I try, he always wants to buy new stuff. And it's like, probably, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's not the arrow.

Gadget guy, gadget guy. He just got to go shoot it. Yeah. It's not the air. We'll be right back after this quick break. The hard rock bet casino app is here, Ontario. It's safe, secure, and crystal clear with fast payouts and 24-7 local support. You can play over 3,000 games right here, including hard rock bet casino exclusives.

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because they wanted that player. Or you grab a small school rookie off waivers and you start him right before he goes off in primetime. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm J.J. Zacharyason, host of the late round fantasy football podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. We've got data-driven analysis, historical trends,

and the strategies that separate winners from the rest. And your dominance doesn't stop with the draft. All season long, we have our 15 transactions, 10 trends, sleepers, and the mailback, data-driven, quick-hitting episodes to help bring home that league trophy. Listen to the late-round fantasy football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. We'll get you some new ones. Jackie, get in the game.

Let's talk about this game. We mentioned some of it earlier. Starts out not the way we wanted to for the Bruins. Illinois gets on that 20 to 3 run. Gets up to 33 to 10. UCLA weathered a long scoring drought. But like we said earlier, get some buckets from the Sky Clarks.

So there were a little defense leading to offense from Donovan Dent big steel there. Cut it little by little. I feel that the dent steel layup was the turning point of the first half. Was it? Could have been. I still say Xavier Booker start banging in some threes.

You know. Little by little. Still layups are huge in a big 10 game. I think it's just a momentum killer. Yeah, it's a momentum swing. Like even the three is two. Oh, yeah. But when you get a, you still have's huge, man.

Yeah. It's the classic cliche. No live ball turnovers. Yeah, I'm going to tell you why. It pisses the coach off. and can send him, like, you know, to a dark place. I'm speaking as the coach. So when you do it, then you know the, like,

if you can get a couple steel layups, you know, and you're playing against, a coach, it's just that, you know, he's losing his mind, like literally losing his mind. Like, you want to make a guy call timeout, steel layup, two, steel layups. The guy can't call timeout fast enough. He's like out on half court in the refs face. Yeah.

So you're right. I mean, it's like a pick six. It is like a pick six. Honestly, coach, we had John Gruden in here not that long ago, and we asked him about bad football. What to you,

like things that just drive him nuts. Turn over. What to you is bad basketball? Turn over. They just drive you, like, make you want to like pull your hair out kind of vibes. You got to have,

you know, the hardest thing the coach about basketball is, imagine if everybody got to handle the football. That's a problem. So that's a big problem. So we have to teach. everybody how to hand and when I say handles, I don't mean dribble.

I mean, to handle the ball. Possess. First of all, you got to catch it with two hands. You'd be shocked at how many guys try to catch it with one. You know, John Wooden, the fundamentals, how to tie your shoes. We really, we practice with two hands, pass with two hands.

Ball security. Very, if you came to my practice, you'd be, you'd say, you'd be shocked how much I sound like him with that. Yeah. You know, and, you know, I don't give your Tom Brady, you fumble to snap, run a lap. Like, you turn it over in our practice. You immediately do five push-ups.

You don't need to just do them. Bang, as quick as you can do them. If you got some roll with your shoulder, you do five sit-ups. Like, ball security. His job security. Is it? I mean, you cannot, and if you don't take care of the ball on the road, you're getting blown out.

Like, you're getting blown out. Like, really bad. Like, really bad. So turnover is bad basketball. Coach Mick. Yes. And let me tell you what, there's two types of turnovers.

Add this. There's Stan Van Gundy, Jeff Van Gundy, shooting turnover. Oh. Shitty shot? There you go. There it is.

Shitty shot is a turnover. And it's an unexpected shot. That's like going for it on a fourth down and not getting it. It doesn't turn. It's not a turnover in the books, but the coaches always call it a turnover. Yeah. Turnover on downs.

Yeah. Shooting turner. I like that. I like that. And Gondy's shooting turnover. That's probably been ruined because of Steph Curry. Yeah, but he doesn't, like, there's only... No, but, like, everyone thinks they could do a Steph Curry shot.

That's a fucking shooting turnover. He's not... You're not him, bro. I mean, I see that. One hand shot. It's amazing how many kids try to take one hand shots. So I'll say to him, I'll say, well, let me... Like, hey, you can shoot whatever shot you want if you make a hot...

You make it all the time. Like, you know, part of coaching is knowing what your guys can make, but they never make them. Their trainer works on them, but they don't make them. And I say to them, if I was to give you a million dollars if you make that shot, that's how you shoot it. How would you shoot it? Oh, I'd shoot it with two hands. Then shoot it with two hands. Then shoot it with two hands. Because you're trying to, first of all, I'm paying you a million dollars nowadays. It still feels it's a college coach. If you paid a guy 10,000, you got fired 10 years ago. Now, you know, but you're trying to be a, like, what are you doing? Yeah. Like, who told you to do

that. It goes back to where we're at now. Everyone trying to catch one-handed snags. Even in football. I agree. Because they want the play to go hype on social, man. Yeah, got to get the likes up. Ball security. That's why we don't just talk about

turnovers. Ball security is all part of it, but you're shooting turnovers. I gave you, that's a nugget right there. I like that nugget. We've got to put that nugget of wisdom in our pocket. Not forget that. Coach. So a half time. Yes. What's our score?

Cut it to $7.50 to $43. It's like a win because I thought it was long over. Major cut. My thing was, look, we felt we could score on them because they're big guys. They play what's called drop coverage. And our big guys could shoot. So we had two big guys, Xavier Booker and Tyler Bilito, who got drafted.

Xavier Booker shot 43% from 3. Tyler Billito shot 46. And then Eric Daley, who's like our, when we play small, would be the next guy. He shoots threes. So we thought we could get quality of open shots.

But we can't give up 50 in the second half and win guys. No. But I was still, because of the, you mentioned the previous games, trying to inject that we're going to win this game. Because we got beat bad at two previous games, but everybody did if you played Michigan,

Michigan State on the road. in a row. So I was trying to like, we're going to win, but we can't give, we can't give up a hundred. We're going to win if we give up a hundred. Yeah.

But they also, like, they're going to start, like they made everything to start the game, Jules. Yeah. I was watching.

The law of averages, like, they're going to start, but we just got to start making the right guys shoot. We were, like, you can't,

for them, you couldn't let their wings shoot, you know, Hummer Cowus, Davis, like they don't miss. These guys don't miss. We got to start making their big center shoot.

we got to start making some other guys shoot the damn ball. Them other guys ain't missing. So that was really the message. But still trying to get our guys to believe they could win. And we saw that in a big way in the second half. Come on, 29% shooting in the second half? Yeah, they shot 30. They scored 36.

And then 22% in OT. I mean, that was locking down, man. And we still had to lay it in it to buzzer to win. That tells you how good they were. Oh, yeah. I mean, they were the real deal. I thought they would get to the finals. I didn't think they'd beat Michigan,

but I did think that they would get to the finals. Yukon beat them. Back team. Back team. Yukon just outuffed them. Yukon, they... In that game, they knocked us out. Now, we didn't have our best players.

Yeah. Because he had hurt his knee in the Big Ten tournament. But Yukon just, their defense in the tournament, carried them all the way to the finals. And they held Michigan is 69. That was insane. That was incredible. And Michigan was averaging 99 going into the game.

Yeah. in the tournament. You gotta be tough. You can't. They've had a sneaky, unbelievable, like 20 years. Oh, yeah. Oh.

I know. I'm just saying a national outsider looking into the sport. I mean, they've always been good. I was in New England for a long time, and they were always fucking, they were always good.

And they still, they still haven't like really. You were there, Coach Calhoun. Yeah. Legend. Legend. Coach Cal, Jim Calhoun. To me, if you look,

you know, if people talk about a great coach, coaches are the last 30 years. They're going to give you Rick Petino, Mike Shoshchevsky. And I think that you got to put Jim Calhoun right there. I mean, if you look at what he did, it's just unbelievable. Yeah.

Yeah. To me, he's the most underrated elite coach. You know, obviously you go Coach Wooden and Coach Knight. Coach Wooden, 60s, coach night, 80s. And then becomes the coach Patino. coach Shashefsky time. Yeah. But Jim Calhoun gets overlooked, man.

There's always those guys. Three natties? I mean, come on. Like, you understand that Yukon didn't even, like, they had like intermaral basketball. You see, it's not like some powerhouse blue blood that he came into. He made it a blue blood, though. Blue blood? They were a no blood.

No, but he, they didn't even have life pumping into their veins. They are a blue blood now, damn near for the last 20 years. Well, is, yeah, would you call them? I guess, I would say they were a throw in when they created the Big East Conference guys, it was all Catholic schools. Yeah.

All Catholic schools. They were throw in. Dave Gavitt threw Yukon in there with Providence, Seaton Hall, St. John's, you know, Georgetown. They threw them in. Yeah. They were throw in now.

Yukon was a throw in. Like they were terrible, man. Terror, terrible. And he would not only, look what he's done. I mean, none of what happens, obviously Danny's been on a great run, but none of that happens if it's. It's not for Jim Calvin.

And he had great pros. Just, I mean, just unbelievable run. Legend. One of his, he lost one that, you know, I think that he probably want to have back that I think of. But he beat the best Duke team maybe that Cheshvsky had, the Coach K had. Jeez. I don't want to say 99. Let me see.

Yeah, they beat. I remember the Georgia Tech one. Then 99 was, yeah, that was 99 to beat Coach K 77, 74. That was Duke with Elton Brand. Oh, that's right. Chris Burgess, William Avery, Chris Carrowell, Badyer, Braidier, Praging Langdon. Cory Muggetty? Wow.

Cory Mugetti came off the bench. Like they had Donned, Cincinnati, we beat him early in the season in Alaska. Then they won't end up in November, and then they never lost until the finals. Coach Calhoun got him. Rip Hamilton. Rip, wow, that's right. Holy smokes. Hey, love Rip.

Me and Rip. German Oaks, baby. Yeah, but he... I know, Rip lives here. Does Rip live here? Yeah, he moved. I just saw him, actually. I saw him at a concert recently.

No, Rip moved. His kids, yeah, Rip's a good guy. He's a great dude. He was a big Pat's guy, too, because that's when they were killing it. Yeah, Rip moved. His wife's from here. Yeah.

Yeah. That's amazing. Shit. I saw him walking around Westwood, like, five years ago. What are you doing? He's like, I'm moving. I'm coming to me and my, I think the wife wanted to... Let's go back.

Let's go. She won't. She definitely won that one. But it's the right move. You're going to love it. Yeah. I mean, the mask. You remember you used to hit the broken cheap phone? He used to wear the mask. And he kept it. He kept it. It was his thing.

Calling card, man. Rips a man. Yeah, he kept it. Let's put a bow on this game, Jack. We got to talk about that awesome. Last buzzer, beater from Donovan Dent, coast to coast, shades of the old Mountain West. What he used to do back there for Coach Patino, New Mexico? Yeah, I swear. I'm my man, Richard.

Can you take it through that last play, coach? Sorry. Two plays. First of all, we couldn't get to rebound again. They're hard to stop. And they went up back up on. We stopped them. We couldn't get to rebound.

You know, it's funny with these plays. Like, when it works, it's a great play. You know, it's just every how, you know, what a shot. Everybody's happy. If it doesn't go in, then they talk about the strategy of the setup of the play. What was it? He should have been here. He should have been here. He should, you know, but it's funny. You like, when it, like, nobody's saying, well, what was the strategy? Yeah. You know, like, yeah, we just said, go out and throw it to him and go lay it in. Like, if you watch the play, there's a

strategy to the play. Not that it was rocket science, but we, I actually made a change with Tyler setting a back screen. Once we went on the court, I gave him a sign. Tyler Billow came up and set a back screen. You know, obviously, you're just trying to get your fastest guy at the rim with the ball. And you've got to remind them how much that you get one dribble per second. So, like, I made sure I explained to him, you can get a layup. Because that's, how many dribbles was it probably? 4.9 seconds on the clock.

That's probably three dribbles? Four. You got a dribble per second. Because they get, you don't want to. Can I pan? And he shoots a half-court shot. Yeah. So you want to try to get, you don't want a good reminder.

Yep. You don't want the guy to catch the ball coming back towards the ball. Because then he's got, so you got to try to, you got to try to zoom cut him. I don't, you know, what you would call. Hit him on the run. The run of post. You know, get him at the, you know, on a slant. You want to get him on a slam.

You want to hit him on the run in stride. So, exactly. Because if you stop him, that's time. There you go. So you hit him in stride. You got to hit him in stride. So you got to start him in the, if you notice, I start him in the corner so he can get some run up at the ball and get, you know. Eat some of the distance.

Yeah. It's almost like I put him on a slant pattern, hit him on a run. But a big part of that is like you got as a coach because a kid, a kid don't know how many dribbles he's got. I mean, he's got defenders. So he's not like he's watching the clock. So I tell him put it in his head. Four dribbles. You got a dribble per second.

So when I saw 4.9, I said, you got four dribbles. I think he only took three. I think so, too. See, but that goes into, that's not analytics. That's coaching. That right there, the firm reminder before the play that wins the game. Those little things are what a coach's job is. and that's what good coaching looks like.

You know what a lot of people try to do in those scenarios with a little less time? What? Because the dribbles take too much time. The clock doesn't start until you catch it. The football version of the hook and ladder. Boom, boom, yeah. I've seen that.

Well, that was Christian or late in her one was almost like that. Yeah, you throw it ahead, catch it. Hook and ladder. I'll give you guys. Like a home run type. Like a home run type. So Coach Huggins drew it up, and he threw it long. Kenny Martin caught it.

Pitch it to Melvin Levitt, dunked it, we wanted to buzzer. That's amazing. Yep. Of a play drawn up in a huddle to win a big game, that's the best I've ever seen. I was in the huddle for that one. What shot out hugs? 1999, Natty versus. 99 Cincinnati Duke.

The final is a great Alaskan shootout. We got to look at them. That was the old days, buddy, the great. Great Alaskan shoot. RIP, that doesn't even mean is this thing one, is it? Alaskins shit. Yeah, it's all, you know, times have changed. I mean, back then it was...

That was like the premier tournament. It's boring, but there was only certain tournaments that had these exemptions. So everybody fought to get in them. Right, Maui, that. It was, yeah, and back then it was Maui in the Great Alaska. It was, you know, now you don't even need exemptions. Yeah.

It's just, get them out there. You got every, all sorts of free season tournaments. Storming the court or not storming the court? They stormed after this one. Yeah, I mean. Got a storm, right? It's a big game. Look.

I think, we got to keep our players healthy. Got to be safe. Gotta be safe. You know, safety's a concern for sure, you know. Rolling up on a seven-footer's ankle. Yeah. A little. And football.

You know what I worry about football is like the kid, there's so many on a football storming, field storming. Yeah. In a college football, they break down the bear. I mean, kids are getting trampled. trampled. I'm from Cincinnati. It's like the Who concert.

Looked out, you know. I mean, people died. I mean, it was a stampede trying to get into the Who, the group like in late 70s. Yeah. Bad deal, man. So in football, there's so many. It's like, whoa, whoa, some kids are getting trampled. And not forget the athletes at that point.

No. Kids are getting tramped. I don't know. So we can't win on that one, man. So I'm staying away from that. Can't do whatever the hell you want. That's my answer. Amen.

The Bruins win this thing. 95, 94. This is the spark. This one got I'm going. This was the spark going into the tourney. That's right. Turned it up after this. Yeah, well, you beat a team makes the final four.

Pretty sweet. You know, the toughest piece for us was, you know, playing the NCAA tournament without your best player. You know, for me, I've been to a lot of them, a lot of them. So I don't, it's no big, like, for me, there's always the next year. But for Tyler, Bill, oh, man, you know, like you're a senior, you're the best player on a UCLA Bruins and you hurt your knee in the conference tournament.

It just sucks for him and his teammates. You know, at that time, you're just trying to be comforting. You know, that like, it's like trying to, they don't want to hear it though, bro. Like, you're an athlete. Like, I'm doing it. I'm like, they don't want to hear it. Just shut up. Like, you know, you're trying to be comforting, but I'm looking at them.

And they're like, they're just like, no, we don't. don't want to feel better. They don't want my speech that this is, there's going to be tougher things in life. Yeah. Because at that moment, they just, they want to be pissed off that he's hurt.

They want to be miserable. You know, it's not fair. And just let them be. Just, you know, just let, let them be.

I think, I try to think like my players. Like, like right now, they don't want to hear my zen BS. You know, like, either did Tyler.

Like, he's crying. We lose the Yukon. he can't play in his last college game. I mean, it just sucks. Yeah. Like, it's not the time to try to talk to him. Just let him be miserable and then talk later.

Sometimes the silence is the learning. Yeah. You know, because when you're... You've lost some games. I mean, you don't lose a lot of games, and I've been... You play with the Patriots, I mean, you didn't lose much. We lost. You know, you...

What's your toughest loss with them? Or Kent State was one or... I would say probably one, either the AFC championship in 13 or 15, those were tough losses because, you know, you overcome so much during the year and you get to the game right before the Super Bowl and you get knocked out. Those were tough. But like what you were talking about with your player,

the injury battle is always tough. I've been carted off with an ACL in a preseason game, knowing, you know, like. Preseason. You're sitting there and you're doing the math. You got, there's just a long, and I understood what I had to go through because I've been through it. But it's tough for a young person that may have gone through his first big injury or injury. Those first, like, hours after are just, you have so many emotions coming up.

The worst things you can possibly think about. Oh, yeah. You know, am I done? Am I done for not playing the sport anymore? or, you know, do I have family members relying on me? Do I have this? That's all going through. It's all going through.

And just like you said sometimes that silence or do you need anything to talk about, let me know, goes further because at that time, you don't want to hear anything. No, your head's already racing. It's already racing. You can't hear them. But there's going to be a time. There's going to be a time within a week. Then it's time.

That's going to be a time. where the coach, the PT, the doctor, where the kid is trying to accept the learning process. Yeah, because now he's thought it all out. He's thought it all out. So now he's going to let him think it all out. Yeah. Now he's ready to listen.

Regardless, if you say, don't think of the, he already thought about the worst. He's already thinking about that. He's got to go through those demons himself. We'll be right back after this quick break. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Hello.

Oh my gosh. Watch all your favorite. podcast from start to finish, right inside the free IHare Radio app. Gets the blood going up. Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like the Tom Green Farmcast and park the bus. Now with full video. We're building a ramp for Tony Hawk. It's the same hosts and the same chemistry with all the hilarious moments you've been missing.

Right on your screen. Cheers. Open the free IHR radio app. Search video podcasts and tap watch. You know the feeling. You make a pick in your fantasy draft in the entire room groans. because they wanted that player. Or you grab a small school rookie off waivers and you start him right before he goes off in primetime.

There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zacharyason, host of the Late Round Fantasy Football Podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. We've got data-driven analysis, historical trends, and the strategies that separate winners from the rest. And your dominance doesn't stop with the draft. All season long, we have our 15 transactions, 10 trends, sleepers, and the mailback,

data-driven, quick-hitting episodes to help bring home that league trophy. Listen to the late-round fantasy football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'll give you a coaching nugget. Some young people, and this is when they come to college especially, or high school, and then it happened it could happen multiple times. The same guy,

what he learned. It's really hard to coach people that aren't ready to listen. Some, we're kidding around about Travis, Kelsey earlier. He's the best. He wasn't ready to listen

for whatever reason, his maturity stage, whatever it was. When he, once he got there, then it was a matter of, because he was always a bright guy and a great guy,

but his talent, that's what you said, why does a guy, how does a guy not play for three years at Cincinnati in football? Not Ohio State. Back then, Cincinnati was, you know, they're okay. And, you're going to, I didn't say that. And then all of a sudden he's a great tight end. The guy didn't play for three years. You know, he wasn't ready to learn.

He wasn't ready to listen. A lot of people were giving it. And it's, you just hope that it's not too late when you do learn or want to learn. Or that people have stopped telling you. Or people have stopped telling you. They always say, you know, hey, be worried when your coach stops talking to you. That's, when you're green, you grow, when you're ripe your rot, when you think you know all the information, what do they do with that tomato?

They cut that thing off and it's not getting any bigger. And then what is it after that? You're going to eat that goddamn tomato. And it's going to be shit. Yeah. With young people, like, there's different, they're not, they don't know they need. And we were all young and didn't listen. But it's just, exactly.

There's something that turned it where I thank God, all right, I listened at that point of my life because a lot of people won't. And they're going to lose that opportunity. So it's the quick, it's the guys, because all the greatests at anything, they're learning all day long. They're smart enough to learn. Now that sounds like, what do you mean? Well, you look at like.

smart enough to listen to learn. Hey, somebody had to tell you, you were smart enough to not say, I'm not, no, I want to play quarterback. If I don't make it playing quarterback, I'm not playing. You're obviously smart enough than when somebody said, you're not going to make it playing quarterback. Without a doubt. And I still, I loved the game of football.

I knew, I swallowed my pride and knew I probably wasn't, I mean, I walk into the OTAs and I see Tom bang a fucking 35 yard out. I'm like, I can't do that. I'm good. But you know what I mean? But it's different. You know, that's what you really hope for. You had to have a little arm.

I can sling it. I can sling it, but just not. Those guys, I mean, it's like anything. You see the best at the best. They don't miss. Routes on air is 1,000 for 1,000. If you're 89% on routes on air, you can't be a pro quarterback.

Wow. You see, you just dropped. I didn't know that. They just dropped something on me there. You know what I mean? It just. That makes sense. When you start adding variables, that's when they go to 70%.

The variable being a fucking six foot six dude trying to take your head off line coverage, a blitz. So if you can't do it on routes on air, you can't do it. All right. My theory is the same with hoops. Some guys can, they can. I'm talking about quarterback, though. Yeah. Some guys can routes on air, there are 99, 100%.

And then the game starts. Well, then those are variables. I'm saying those guys that do it 100%. They get the chances. They have the chance. Yeah, yeah. But then there's certain guys when the game starts. They turn it on.

Exactly. And then some guys, they look great in the game starts. See, that's, but that can happen in basketball. It's true. It's different in football, I think, a little. But there's some, why does some quarterbacks? How many, there's more bust than make it. Yeah.

So they got the routes on air and all that. stuff. No, yeah. Then the game starts. And, you know, with Lawrence Taylor rushing your ass, all the sudden, you can't. I'm the process it all at the line. See how old I am? I said Lawrence Taylor. No, but legend. We talk about L.T.L. L.L. Lewis. I love Ray Lewis. I mean,

I mean, you know, anybody can throw all them routes on air without. But not everyone could. I'm telling you. No, I know. I know what you're saying. Those in the league small group. Yes. But then you find out who can play when they turn the lights on. When they turn the lights on. That's what I was getting at. Like in both sports, there's guys that we

call them, you know, summer ballers. That's what we call them in basketball. Summer ballers. Oh, yeah, you look good in the individuals. Or they just, they look good in pickup. And pick up. And pick up too, yeah. Makes every shot in pickup. And then, you know, the game starts, you know. That's like in OTAs when you don't have pads. Same thing.

There's always, there's always five, six guys that stand out in spring camps. There. And then sometimes only one of those guys transforms that into when there's pads or sometimes none of them do. Yeah. See, that's when people have. You get basketball guys in here. How's your team looking?

Man, it's summer. There's nobody in the stands. Coaches, those not standing on the other end with his scouting report. Like, I don't care how the guy looks in the summer. We'll find out when the real running starts. You know, my version of when we put pads on,

you know, not that we would, but I'd like to, but that'd be fun. And then work on rebound. But, you know, when you put the pads on, okay, and there's real defense and referees, then you find out. I think right now, like what we use... It's like OTAs. Summer basketball is like OTAs.

1,000 percent, which what OTAs for us was, was an installation and learning of the scheme and what the organization is trying to harp, okay? We're not competing yet. Everyone is learning right now. Because there's going to be a time when you throw those fucking pads on that you're going to compete, but we're not there yet.

once we all learn where to go, what a coverage is, the language we have to speak, and we all do that, that's when we go compete, and that's when the pads are thrown on. So you know, it's just,

it's all the same. But some guys look good in that stuff. Some guys look great in that stuff. And then you throw the pads on and, no, other guys don't look stand out. I've coached a lot of guys. A lot of that too. They don't stand out in an individual workout at all.

But then you throw them in the team? Then you put the pads on. and he's the best player. Yep. There's that too. I'm Haykaz. Who's, you know, our best player for me since I've been at UCLA.

He's now with the Milwaukee Bucks. He's been with the Miami Heat for three years. Just a warrior. Yeah. Just a war. I mean, just a warrior. Got to have that dog. So fun to watch on those teams, man.

We've got to grade this game. Man, we're taking too much of coach. All good. What are we got here? Let's name the game. We got names that we came up with. or if there's a specific name that you remember it as, we can go with that. We got the comeback game.

We got the Donovan Dent game. We got the OT thriller or any game that you have. I like the comeback game. I like that. A comeback game. I mean, I'm not used to being down 23. No. And if you are, you don't ever come back.

No. Not in, geez. Score the game. Is this the greatest game of all time? Let's score it. We encourage deathless. When you say all time? Of all time.

UCLA. Anything. Of any sport. But we're going to see. We'll determine that after we go through the scoring process list. I see we got a technical process. Yes. Back to analytics.

Back to analytics, coach. Stakes in this regular season game. Hi. Zero to 10. Decimals encouraged. Take for the resume. But like you got to, coach, you got to think about this though. We've had, you know, the immaculate reception.

We've had basketball championships, world championships, world championships, World Cup's on this. you know, finals, but regular season stakes of this game for you, 0 to 10. Regular season 8. I like that. Because this is also a conference game against a, you know, division upon. I don't know how that works in college. And where we were at that time in the season, we needed it bad.

I'm going to go with 7.8. Oh, I didn't know we were going detailed like that. Oh, I decimals encouraged. Said it four times, coach. With an 8.2, we're in the same ballpark here, guys. It's right on the board. You know, it's all right. Star power of this game, 0 to 10.

Decimals encouraged? A lot of stars? Future library back in there. I mean, but we're comparing them to NBA. It's tough. I mean, that's the toughness of doing a very early, like, the game was only last year. You know, but... 3.2.

3.2. But in five years, there could be fucking 30 stars on this in this game. I'm going to go with the 5.8. I want with the 6.0. We're all in the same ballpark here. The gameplay of this game. Is your quality?

Quality. Oh, yeah. 86. 86. I like that score. This is an enjoyable watch. I mean, after the game,

coach, this is a great college basketball game. I'm going to go with the 8.8. I like that. Shut out my own. The hell of the game, yeah. Shout out.

That is 7.9. A little low for me, but all right, we'll keep it. The name of the game, the comeback game. Jota 10, we got to grade the name, coach.

Yeah, I mean, it's not very original. So, you know, eight. I like it. I like it. I'm going to go with the flat eight,

too. I'm going to match coach. Where's the pizza since we're doing this? I mean, you know. The what? We're going to do pizza reviews. We're going decimals. There's no pizza.

This is the game review, coach. It's the game review. I love it. I want you to have some pie when we're doing it, maybe. Next time we'll bring in. All right. We'll bring in. We have a sponsorship coming and maybe.

Yeah. We get it. You're close to. You're close to flour pizza. Flower Cafe. Oh, so good. Very delicious. Very delicious.

A hell of a pie. My daughter and I, do this. I like that. What is this on the list right here? 7.11. That is a good score. That puts us at our new. Let me go here. That puts us at our new tied 408th game with the 2006 NFC wildcard Dallas versus Seattle. Was that the game? Who did that with the, we did that with Bennett, Marty B, I believe. Was it Marty or was it Michael? No, let me look. 2006.

Was that the game that they threw five interceptions? Oh, my goodness. And they still won. Was it his, that game? Hold on. Let me double show you. That never happened. No.

Same quarterback, the whole five? I think it was. He didn't get yoked. Oh, that was with Colin Cowher. Oh, that was the one where Romo fumbled snap game. Sorry, sorry. The Romo fumbled snap game. But the Michael Bennett game was the five-pick game, yes.

And it was right below the letter. Jacket game. So when we played for like five years. The Letterman Jacket game. For five years in a row, we would play the Texans in the divisional round every year. They'd have to go win a wildcard game. And you beat them

every year. Every year. One year they came up rolling up in some Letterman jackets. We sent their ass home on that bus with the letterman jackets. Brow. Got out of here with that Letterman jackets. It's pro football. Say this is a pros man. Who's wearing a Letterman jacket and the pros?

JJ Watt over here thinking he's cool. That was all time. It was cute. It was cute. You got to do that kind of shit to get your team going sometimes. I'm not big on what I call the corny stuff. That rara. Well, you played for Coach Belichick.

There they are. They came up in there. What do we do? Look how yo J.J. Watt is. Big dude. He's neck. Look at that was young, fear. I mean, we had to send the whole.

There's Connor. Oh. That's my boy. Conner Barwin. Full circle moment. That's Connor Barwin. That's the strength coach. No,

Connor played football at Cincinnati, but he played basketball for me. He's with the Eagles now. What the fuck? Wild, look at this. Wild. Full circle.

Connor. We just so happened to throw this up and coached. One of these fucking guys. See, Connor Barre, he works for the Eagles now. Tremendous guy. He's a big ass mother.

I remember him too. Dude, imagine that guy like trapping you in the press in the basketball game. Oh, my God. You know what I'm saying? Like, he had unreal quick defeat for a guy that size. Oh, yeah.

I was like, dude, are you really good in football? You know, he played tight end at Cincinnati. Yeah. They flipped him to defensive. Oh, yeah. It's usually the mid-major schools, they do that. Oh, man. All, hey, email, Jules.

That was, the Sintzzi fans are coming for us, maybe. All Bearcat fans. I'm talking football. Dude, they played for it. That was. Maybe. That was like. Brian Kelly went undefeated. Then he took the Notre Dame job.

That was 13, 14. That was 20 years ago, coach. No. Hell, I was there. When was it? But anyway, I mean, 2,000. Luke fickle made the playoff.

Lost Alabama. That's right. That was what? 12 years ago? No, I was like 5%. That's kind of like when. Mid-major football. It is because.

Kent State. Kent State. 1,000. We're in there. We're low major football. Cicson is in the big 20. But since, come on, man, coach. I love you, bro.

That's big, I got to fight for my, my, that's my alma mater, man. They're not mid-major. Oh, man. Not in basketball. No. But in football. Oh, boy. Email Julian Edelman.

Coach, you miss anything about this game. No, remember, I told Brad Underwood after the game, you're going to the final four. That's a fact. We're going to have to get them on. Called it. Called your shot. I just could sit, man, they just had so many weapons. You know, and you coach so many games.

I don't remember. I don't remember anything else. I just remember down 23, looking, thinking, where do I? How do I get under the floorboards and escape? Like, this is bad. But coach, you didn't. And what did you do? You nod, you scratched.

You clawed your way out of the fucking darkness. And you went out and had a huge. huge game and sparked your team. That was huge. The buzzer, baby. This was the, this was the igniter of the last year's team to go on to the tournament. And that's going to be a foundational game for this year. For this year's team. This is going to be a foundational game for this year's team because we went in and we beat

the shit out of Illinois. We go do our tournament. Our best player doesn't play in the tournament. We restock. We use all the shit we learned last year and all from the losses. and we're going to bring UCLA to the final four this year. It is important to get those guys, like our five guys who played a lot that are back. They got into some big games.

They get them into some big games. Got to feel it. Great reps. So, you know, Tyler got hurt. We played. Battle test. We beat Michigan State Big Ten tournament. And then the next day, you know, they got to play in the semis against Purdue.

And a lot of the young guys played more than they would have if Tyler would have been there. And it came down to the wire. and then, you know, we gave Yukon a hell of a game. So those guys got experience from it. So, yeah, it was, but all I think about is, you know, we were rolling what happens if he doesn't get hurt. We get all that's how to coach, you know, you get, but you got to try to let it go.

Like what was, you know. It's the worst. Like, you're thinking if you wouldn't have three putted five times. I could have hit, I could have broke 80. There you go. Of course record. You know how many times I say the same damn thing? But that's the worst thing about sports.

Like you think about your, I think about some of the losses more and I think about the times we want. Welcome to coach. Because now as a coach, just so you know, let's say we go 32 and 6 this year. You know, I'm going to go 0 and 6 and the players are going to go 32 and 0. Because that's just the reality.

Like, you know, you should have, because people are going to go back. well, the coach should have done this, this, this, this, you know. They don't look at it like, someone I watch is like, no, no, no, no. Like, they're like, you know, if they didn't have great coaching, they wouldn't have been in that game. Wow. But it's just, well, if we'd have done this one more thing differently, we'd have won.

That's just how fans think. It's not a knock on. I mean, it's just, that's the, you have to accept that as a coach. Oh, yeah. I mean, you got to, you got to, you must accept it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't even care because I'm too busy.

I do it to myself. too. So I'm too busy trying to deal with the reality of the my cleanup and wrap up is what did we do as a staff? Well, what can we do better going forward? And what do you learn from it? That's really

all that matters in anything. Because if you're not getting better, you're getting worse. You tend to learn more when you lose. I think the really good coaches, I read this on your guy, Coach Belichick, that every year he tried to self-evaluate. Oh, yeah.

you know, was real big into self-evaluating. And, you know, last year, you could have won a Super Bowl, which he obviously won many, and still self-evaluating on what you should have improved, what you need to improve on. Well, I could bring that to another level. We used to self-evaluate quarterly.

Oh, yeah. Weekly, daily. I mean, that's, if you're trying to improve, at anything, you're not going to improve by highlighting the things you've done well. No. You're going to improve by trying to get the things you haven't done well and try to get those to the things that you do well while not losing the things that you do well.

So you're always, like we would, I mean, we, we fucking filmed stretching. That's some coach wooden stuff. That really is. Like, I'm sitting here with filming our fucking, the coaching staff would watch the whole practice as a coaching staff together before they would break it down. Like at night. They'd watch this fucking stretch to go through our indie drills, go to our seven on sevens, go to our blitz pickup, go to our team, go into our in between periods of what our quarter. They would watch it all as a team, as a coaching staff together. So like they're evaluating everything.

It's crazy. Yeah. We'll be right back after this quick. Break. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Hello. My gosh.

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I'm JJ Zacharyason, host of the late round fantasy football podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. We've got data-driven analysis, historical trends, and the strategies that separate winners from the rest. And your dominance doesn't stop with the draft. All season long, we have our 15 transactions, 10 trends, sleepers, and the mailback, data-driven, quick-hitting episodes to help bring home that league trophy.

Listen to the late-round fantasy football podcast on the I-heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hoops are a little difference. We play so many more games. But college hoop, you, you, You guys are in that same world where everything matters. So all those games are crazy. Yeah, you got, you have very little, you know, especially you playing tournaments.

You have, you like, you have no prep time. Yeah, no. You know, whether it's like we play, we're in a tournament down in San Diego with St. Mary's, Texas, and Georgetown. So you're going to play Thursday Friday. Like your prep time while your kids are resting and eating, you're watching film. But it's the same amount of prep time. they get. Yeah. So whoever is most efficient and most effective with their prep time gives their

team the best chance to win. Yes. It's just condensed. And that's what I'm talking about. They they would go and evaluate how we were prepping so hardcore to try to, because they, they thought whoever preps the best through the week wins the game. So how do we make our prep flawless? And like that's, that's the crazy shit. Yeah, and there's a, it's just very little sleep. No. And like, you saw what, that's why you didn't want to coach. That's why I don't want to coach.

The very little sleep. I remember coach iso being on the phone with him and like we made the final four. And I was asking for his advice on something. And he's like, you know, he goes, you know this is what you've worked your whole life for. Now you're not going to sleep the next four days, right? Like, and I was like, I didn't think I could if I wanted to coach. Like, you know, I don't drink. energy drinks, but if I was, you know, I don't even know, like, you take a nap is what you do.

I mean, you basically take a nap. I mean, you're like, you know, your adrenaline rush is just at a level that's hard to describe as a coach. The hardest thing to do is sleep. When you know you actually, like, you have to get some sleep. You have to. And I'm not being on medicine and stuff like that. So I don't, I get concerned. I don't like, I mean, I take medicine, but like, taking sleeping pills and stuff. I don't do it. Like, but. But, I don't do it. Like, but. But, a lot of coaches do. Oh, yeah. I mean, you got to reboot the brain.

Well, I just think, you know, like a scotch and a cohebel get the job done. Hey, we all got our own ways. That's my kind of medicine. I'm so, man. Coach, I'm so excited that you came into the nut house. Everyone go check out UCLA men's basketball this year. Now, we getting some court side seats.

You come on. Just make sure. We can be bought. We can be bought because muscle men came in here talking a loud game. And I was like, yo, I'm pretty. cool with Coach Mick. So, you know what I'm like? He tried to buy us, man. He said court side whenever we want and open invite to any practice.

That was his package. He's not coming to. I know this guy's not coming to. Hey, I'll be there. He's got a daughter. He plays golf. He's not coming to watch practice. Hey, look at he's a coach. He's a player's coach. He knows. I noticed, dude. He ain't coming to watch practice. Oh, coach. I'd be there, baby. You bring you whenever you want.

Heck yeah. Whenever you want. If you need to run the clock, I got you. courtsides at Pauley Pavilion, but I'll take care of you. All right. Baby. We'll get there. We'll get there. Coach, thanks so much for coming on. Great to be here. Thanks, coach.

You guys having me. That was awesome. Man, what a game. Coach Cronin, the man. Mick. The man. I'd run through a brick wall for him. You know?

Defensive slides. I'll do whatever it takes me. Of course you would, Jack. Irish guy. We got to stick together out here. You all stick together. Just a couple of Irish gym rats, baby. Just a couple guys.

He's over here building skyscrapers in New York. We do, baby. Okay. What we do, baby. Backbone. Backbone. That's been fun. That was fun.

Coach, come back anytime, man. Anytime. We're still on the debate. UCLA, USC, Nut House here in Los Angeles. What direction are we going? Contact our NIL agent or broker. You know what? It's going to be up to the Nut House comment section.

This is true. That's where we'll find out who we're going to be supporting, who our alliance will go. it's whoever or how do I say that Jack I'm not a highest bitter we are for sale whoever leaves the fattest duffel bag of cash on the front steps to the nut house

a little note inside we're there I was talking about comment section but yeah I'm talking about making brands we'll do that too we'll do that too but yeah comment section give us a yeah give us a USC or UCLA in the comments and we'll tally a Trojan bite on or

go Bruins What are they? I don't. I don't know. UCLA, we need a hand signal. All I know is Matthew Slater. That's right. Bill Walt and Matthew Slater.

Shout out. Shout out. Oh, we do got BD. BD. Scow. We like both. We like guys. I mean,

we got some UCLA alum roots. We do. We also got, you know, he also got a little bit of that. Trojee. Hey, baby. Fart on. Reggie Bush, Matt Leonard, all the guys. Oh, my God.

Lord, have mercy. O. J. Mayo. shout out. That was awesome. Love. coach. I love coach. We've got to get them on again one of these times. We got to play golf with them too. Oh, I have. Give me in that foursome, baby. Yeah, we'll get Jackie in the for some. We'll get Jackie in

the for some. Me and Coach Cronin, ride in a cart, smoking a cigar. Just two Irish guys on a Jewish club. Isn't that the best? That's America for you. That's America right there. Oh, man, love it. Well, that's been another episode of games with names. Subscribe on Apple, podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast, comment a game you want us to do. And remember, rate and review. Leave us a five-star review on Spotify while you're there. And remember to follow games with names on all the Instagram or all the socials.

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And remember the old hotline [phone]. Got to hit that. And we'll see you guys next week. Games with Names of Names of Production of I-HeartRadio. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I-HartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, where you get your podcasts. I'm talking to a felon right now with face tattoos, and I cannot decide if I like him or not. That was a caller from my podcast, Therapy Gecko, where I'm talking to. I speak with anonymous callers about their problems, relationships, and anything else in the depths of their mind.

It all happens on my show, Therapy Gecko. So if you're trying to get out of your own head and into someone else's, this is the podcast for you. Listen to Therapy Gecko on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The entire draft room groans because you just took the guy they wanted. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zachary Eisen, host of the award-winning late-round podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. Listen to the late-round fantasy football podcast on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

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