Games with Names - “2001 NCAA National Championship” with Shane Battier and Gilbert Arenas | Duke vs. Arizona

Episode Date: December 20, 2022

On today’s episode, we’re going back to an incredible era in college basketball. We’re talking Duke vs. Arizona for the 2001 NCAA National Championship with Duke legend Shane Battier and we might just get a special appearance from Arizona Wildcat great Gilbert Arenas. We go back to the world of pop culture in April of 2001(8:09). We look back at this season in college basketball and revisit these squads packed with future NBA stars (27:18). Shane joins the show to take us inside the game and look back at the year he pretty much owned college basketball (33:38). Jules & Sam break down the legacy and give this one a score (1:21:29).Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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is brought to you by Winbet. It's my favorite app, and it could be yours. Go download it now. April 2nd, 2001. Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Minneapolis, Minnesota. A blue blood of the West. A blue blood of the East.

Hall of Fame coach versus Hall of Fame coach. And a national title on the line. This is the 2001 NC2A National Championship Duke versus Arizona. Hello, welcome to Games with Names presented by Winbet. I'm Sam Morrell. And I'm Julian Edelman. And we are on the search to find the greatest game of all time. And on today's episode, we have the nc2a championship duke versus arizona with

shane battier big episode and maybe maybe maybe we'll hear a little from gilbert arenas too we don't know yet but that would be that would be agent zero agent zero agent zero but first we'll head back to the world of pop culture in 2001. That'll be fun. Then we'll take a look at these squads. And finally, we'll talk legacy of this game and score it. And make sure to check out Games With Names on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, at Games With Names.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen. And make sure to rate and review us. And comment on a game you want to see us. We want to hear from you. We want to hear from you. Why are we doing this game? I mean, this is iconic, man. It doesn't get bigger than this. Lute Olsen versus

Coach K. Lute, famously the father of Mary-Kate and Ashley. Is it? No, no, it's not. I was about to say, that's really good. That's tight. But he was in charge of a sick team here. Both these teams were loaded with NBA talent.

Loaded. And the crazy thing is, they didn't like, they weren't crazy pros. Richard Jefferson. He had a great few years with this. Nats, NBA champ with the Cavs. RJ and Arenas probably the best career.

Arenas. Arenas. And I guess Boozer, he was a superstar. But Battier, like he was just, like he was, I remember him being like the all-star of this. Yeah. This whole thing. He was like Mr. Duke, best player in college.

Senior. Like how often are guys playing until they're seniors now? No one. Yeah. You can't. Yeah. I want to make that money, that guap, that gouda, that cheddar, that guacamole.

But this. A hell of money. This was the championship that ushered in the new era of Duke basketball. You're right. I mean, this wasn't like a Kyrie Irving on Duke. It wasn't like a swaggy guy. They even mentioned in the game, they're like, this isn't the most talented group, but they all were. And I'm like, dude, it's Chris Duhon, who was an NBA player. It's Mike Dunleavy, who was an NBA player. Boozer, Battier. Who am I missing here?

Jay Will. Jay Williams, who, you know. Shout out. I met him a couple weeks ago. Yeah, was he cool? Really cool. Yeah. And he's great on ESPN. He's great.

He really got done dirty by the motorcycle accident. Hard to say he got done dirty. He was driving. But he got stuck. I remember that. When was that? His rookie year, I think, right? Because he was like that's why he was rookie year i think right because he was like 10 and 5 as a rookie which is like for a point guard pretty good i remember

being like this dude is gonna figure it out in the pros yeah i remember him he had a lot of hype coming out and then that motorcycle thing happened and he just wasn't wasn't the same but take a fucking uber i guess her cab back then i mean mean, hire a driver. I don't know. Who else has gotten Bumgarner? Motorcycle accident? Didn't Big Ben get on one? Big Ben? Yeah. Motorcycle?

Maybe athletes shouldn't ride motorcycles if you're making a lot of money. Terrible idea. Well, you never would have done something like that. No, my dad never let me, like, get a motorcycle. He was pretty smart about it. He's like, yeah, he's crazy, shouldn't drive a motorcycle, probably will die. It's a fucking horrible idea. I can't ride a bicycle well.

So I see dudes on, I tried to ride a bicycle on the West Side Highway, and dudes are just weaving. I'm like, I'm going to, I wipe out. Yeah, I like it. Do you? I ride the bike around the city here in New York, and I'm going in between traffic and shit. It's definitely very thrilling.

Yeah. You have slightly better lateral balance than i do got it you got it got it i mean nfl player catch oh that hit this all right gotcha you didn't get me fuck that's two oh for two fuck i'm gonna just start doing that i'm just start throwing things at you we're gonna see how it'll be the catch count. We need to get a, a win bet prop count on how many times he'll catch out of 10. Who dropped? Almost. Who dropped the ball more times,

me or my biological father? Am I right? All right. Well, the fact that I don't know anything about him, probably him. First thoughts, gut reactions. reactions i mean for me it was just this was like you don't see games like this anymore no this is this is classic like pre one and done

yeah ncaa basketball this is when guys played all four years. You know, you got the ACC and the Pac-10, which those were the two conferences back in this time. Yeah. That you always watch. You always heard of Arizona. You know, Arizona, UCLA, and then on the ACC, Duke, North Carolina. And you got a little bit of both of them. Coach K, Lute. North Carolina and and you got a little bit of both of them coach K loot you know this is this

is this is fun to go down memory lane because I'm not gonna lie I didn't I didn't quite remember when we we booked this I was like all right yeah it's Duke it's Batty A but then you watch the game like oh okay it brought me back I was like these these were ncaa basketball teams they were iconic man i mean it really you think of those duke teams before this even like like christian latner grant hill there's so many iconic a lot of players you know and then coach k yeah i couldn't like coach k cracks me up yeah he just he's one of those like he's's, you watch him and you think like, all right, he's a good guy. He's a good guy, but he's over, he's almost extra with his like,

his mentorship. Like immediately after the game, he goes and shakes every kid's hand on the other team and like lets them know, hey, good job guys. You guys are outstanding young men like that kind of stuff i mean get out of my face we just fucking lost to you go home coach k it's too it's too much it's too much but but he's a legend i mean he's a legend he is the best college basketball coach ever right i mean i'm more of a bobby knight kind of guy i want to throw a fucking chair and slap a kid bobby you know what i don't like is the like you know why he you know why he's saying horrible shit to you because he cares how about you just care by being nice

there's other ways to care yeah it's that abusive shit he really cares he broke his son's arm that's how much he cares yeah yeah i think chris think Chris Brown used the same excuse. I care. All right, well, be nice. How about that? And Coach K, I was just joking. If you want to come on Games of Names, we'd love to have you. He'd be a great guest. He would.

He would mentor us the whole time. Tell us how outstanding we are as young men. And our upbringings were probably huge parts of our life. And everything happens for a reason. Thanks, Coach K. If we get him on, let's get black-haired dye jobs, both of us. Got to. Yeah, let's do it.

Got to. Dude, he's like, things like the hair. I don't know. The hair is perfect. The hair. Let's go back to April 2, 2001, number one movie spy kids never saw it never saw it i remember it was you were telling us before jack it's robert rodriguez yeah sneaky robert rodriguez it's also part of the machete universe machete is like they're the uncle in this movie

is he yeah danny trejo's in this um is it violent i mean cheechan treo's in it yeah treo's got some taco stands out in la i saw a bunch of them i tried them they're they're all right yeah they don't look amazing i mean they're too commercial i need i need like i need to see a cockroach going by the the taco truck for me to know that it's real mexican good mexican food that sounds horrible it's it's amazing a cockroach all right guys fail your uh fail your inspection and julian will eat at your place only mexican food though yeah only mexican if you have a vermin in your store you can land vermin legend yeah i don't know rodents rats is that what that is isn't it roaches too are vermin aren't they no let me uh check on that damn we're using the

research this early i'm really fucking phoning this one in i'd never even heard of vermin so that's pretty cool you learn something new every day new yorker you better know that word you have to i mean there's a lot of things running around on these streets yeah because you hear a realtor sneak that one in any vermin no vermin there's vermin vermin edwards examples include but not limited to mice rats and cockroaches what's up i need to i need to get my worker i need to get that up uh sports the except oh no we didn't know number one song was ashanti that was a classic foolish you remember that of course classic ashanti didn't work now it's alia i was singing alia now she died yeah i was sad i used to love her that was mad sad she was great she was in a movie wasn't she alia she was almost dying jet lee i love being the same age exactly

as you yeah we watch the exact same shit yeah that that was a i think i think jet lee he didn't have he had way more meat on his bone he was awesome he was awesome but he didn't have like he wasn't jackie chan well jackie chan was funny funny takes it to a next level funny's money funny's money funny is money that's the one thing i i've learned over my time you don't want to be cool you want to be funny you're both dude no you got to be funny you're both you're funny you're money dude you're you're honey you're hot you're whoop dude i remember you don't remember at aaliyah and i you might have to fact check this too but i don't know if it was like the video movie awards the video music awards and mtv lebron was a rookie and he was presenting with uh alia

or not alia fucking ashanti lebron's presenting with ashanti and he goes you know it'd be really cool if you kissed me right now and and she wouldn't do it and i remember but i remember lebron i was like i gandalf i knew he'd be great in that moment shooter the fact that he went for the kiss on tv and got denied and wasn't rattled i was like that's a fucking future legend dude as wayne gretzky used to say you miss all the shots you don't take or something like that i i thought it was i said that on a panel literally yesterday i was like oh michael jordan used to say that and she some lady goes, you know, that was Wayne Gretzky. I'm like, hey, this is my fucking panel, all right?

This is my panel. You be quiet. Michael Scott also said it. That's true. And Michael Scott. Damn, his research game is on point today. Jack's. He didn't even have to look that up.

Jack Attack. Jack Attack. All right. I'm ready to go. XFL had its first and only season. Loved the XFL. Let's wrestle to see who gets the ball. It was just bad football.

Yeah, but it was awesome. He Hate Me. He Hate Me? Remember He Hate Me? That was on his back. You could put anything on the back of your name, on your jersey. Rod Smart. Yeah, Rod Smart.

He Hate Me? Usually whencmahon blows money like that it's a disgruntled female employee all right uh no that was uh i remember my friend's dad was all in on the xfl so he was like he was like we're going it's gonna be amazing so my friend's dad took us and i was like this is pretty bad it was it was really bad it's just you can't all these like new like startup leagues for football it just doesn't work because you don't realize what goes into it it's so much yeah and the liability like it's insane you know you know how they decided if who got the ball how they would just throw the ball in the middle of the field and you have two guys that had to chase and whoever got the ball that's how you got the ball that's actually kind of wasn't it

something like that i kind of like that yeah and then what was something crazy about the punts there was no fair catch yeah no no you could just hit the guy you could fucking murder the guy that's hilarious like it it's every see that's actually the only stuff I like about it, the bringing the, like, the violence. Although, that's the problem is, you know, make it more WWF, more WWE. Like, bring a fucking, bring weapons in there. That's a game I would watch. If you could, like, tackle a dude with a steel chair.

Or, like, a nunchuck. A nunchuck. A nunchuck. Yeah, you just have a middle linebacker who's just fucking Bruce Lee and that shit. That would be... They had a couple of cool innovations that held over, though,

which were Steadicam guy, like, on the field. Yeah. Like, you see me in there before they score a touchdown. The Skycam. Skycam was huge. Yeah, the NFL did poach some stuff from it. And micing players up.

Micing players. No, we mic'd up. No? Yeah, but this was 01. They didn't mic up before this? I don't think at the level the XFL had we mic'd up no this is yeah this was a one they didn't mic up before this i don't think at the level the xfl had a micing up micing up is is big it's it's huge yeah it's it gives it brings the fan inside the game so much yeah like just even hearing like the contact like you know like those things it's uh i think that's just you're in the hits you're like holy shit or just guys talking i can't believe you got hit like that yeah it was it was fun

do you ever actually miss it yeah the body craves contact yeah you know you get used to it that's what always uh knocked off the old uh the nervous the nervous flies you know you get hit once all right we're ready to then you're ready to go ready to go that makes sense yeah um roger clemens became the al all-time strikeout leader hmm the rocket man the rocket i i uh one time i went to red sox game he was supposed to be in the box that i was sitting in never showed up i was sitting there waiting i wanted to see the rocket just like the end of his yankees career he never showed up never showed he did though didn't he very end they had that remember when he came back as the hired assassin mid-season and he was like 42 and i was like this

ain't working no no he was obviously had a couple great years with the yankees but i couldn't i had issues with clemens man that i was a yankees fan but the way he headhunted piazza that was fucking lame he that was lame no i don't think he was a nice guy no definitely not he he won he was out for blood but he was boys with andy pettit and that kind of endeared me to him a little because i we loved andy pettit i loved him here andy pettit was awesome that was a great great pitcher andy pettit but yeah no i mean they were like boys but i i don't know tiger won the second masters here i that dude i love tiger i love i love tiger yeah he's a man at this time well as a golfer as are you a good golfer no i'm terrible but like my one of my favorite things to watch as in this time of our life was the masters because

of tiger like it seemed like he was just always in it he was unreal it it was like clockwork i remember talking with my like football coach in college anytime it'd be on like because we'd be in for spring break or spring training and stuff we'd all be in the locker room watching it i mean he was just it was unreal his dominance and he honestly grew the sport bigger than anyone because that's why that's why it's so competitive because every little kid wanted to be be tiger woods it was gnarly yeah you want to be him until you see his childhood in that doc that looked rough terrible i mean look the dad knew what he was doing into making a superman but i mean that looked two years old golfing no life i mean that's why he was fucking like crazy

i mean a lot of builds up a lot of tension of course you never fuck your whole life i mean he's basically an amish guy with talent they fuck i don't know why i said amish they have a lot of kids don't they yeah i think they do i i really blew that they don't use condoms either that's true because i don't think it's it's in the religion that doc the tiger doc on hbo is great i only watched the first one oh man it was it was crazy yeah it brought back you know my dad was pretty tough too like that was he like not that tough really i mean you were a great player dude for a reason yeah i had no choice or i wouldn't have dinner that night was your dad really like that

holy shit i thought we got a crazy soundbite. No. This is the year Mike Vick was drafted number one. We already had him on here. Games with names. He was great. Unbelievable. I mean, just the icon. Miracle in Morgantown, tune in, out now. Yeah, Miracle in Morgantown coming out soon.

It's already out. We already dropped that bad boy. We dropped it like it was hot. Bobby Bonilla, day tradition was born bonilla receives close to 1.2 million from the mets once a year until 2035 he hasn't played in the majors since 2001 so this was 35 years of a million point two a year that's insane smart you hey, a lot of guys don't know how to handle all the money at once. Yeah. But if you slowly get it, then you can't lose it.

That should have sold Mets, though. Sold Mets. Sold Mets. Brutal. But hey, the Mets are at least fun again. 2000, 2001, in college basketball, the preseason rankings. Number one, Arizona. Number two, Duke.ke yeah and they played

they were the squads so we had this the first team is uh baddie a williams casey jacobson from stanford i remember him he was a shooter uh white guy with the frosted tips right he could stroke it yeah joseph forte unc he was fun to watch troy murphy notre dame 611 lefty he could he could shoot it too look at you you know you you know your basketball i love that you love basketball you got your little knicks warm-up on right now i gotta get the good vibes going jalen brunson's here in new york i gotta fucking represent man we finally got a point guard do you oh dude you you had a point guard until he plays for the knicks and then it's just like you like playing for the cleveland browns you dare it's like playing for

the browns it's a career killer no it ain't dude i hope not it'd be great to come here and see that it's a career i don't know city with a good basketball team i mean that's what we're missing here no they're gonna get back on the map this is a year that we're competitive and king julius is back and i hope this uh what i'm saying ages well here and uh no the knicks are looking good until they play the celtics dude browns knicks that's baker's mayfield sucks in carolina what are you talking it's not well because he played for the cleveland brown. No. The Knicks, they're going to make a comeback, dude. I hope. They got a squad.

It's on RJ. He's got to deliver. He'll get it. He'll get it. Oh, dude, second team this year, Jason Richardson, Michigan State. Jay Rich? Jamal Tinsley, Iowa State. There was some good ones.

Damn, these are a lot of good players. Prince? Tayshaun Prince from Kentucky. I used to love him. He was just skin and bones, dude. Yeah. He was on the Detroit team. This is another team, but.

Yeah. Shout out. That was a sick team, though. Tayshaun Prince. Yeah. I still remember. The Wallaces, both the Wallaces. I loved Rasheed Wallace.

That was one of my favorite. He was just a guy you didn't want to fuck with. And he was a skill guy. Yeah. Rarely are skill guys tough guys, but he could shoot the the three he would be great in today's nba unbelievable he was a great player that was a great team they and they got that ship too oh my god all that yeah billups was clutch rip hamilton did not stop running that was a sick sick team and they drafted Darko second that year instead of Dwayne Wade, Mello, Bosh, and they still won the fucking ring.

That's how good that foundation was. Yikes. What if Dwayne Wade played for Detroit? That's what I mean. He probably would have been the sixth man that year. They probably would have got two. Oh, at least. If they had Wade.

You just never know how it affects the nucleus, though. That's true. You never know. But Wade was good enough. It didn't matter. Yeah. Player of the year this year, Shane Battier. We'll be hearing from here.

I'm pumped, dude. He was just Mr. Duke. And he won defensive player of the year for the third time. I bet you Coach K just loved Battier. He's definitely a coach's player. Loved him. Because he doesn't say much. He probably does everything he's told.

First guy in, last one out. Plays defense. Right up Coach K's alley. Yeah, absolutely. Tournament number one seeds, Duke, Illinois, Michigan State, and Stanford. Yeah. Where was Arizona? Were the Collins brothers on these Stanford teams?

Who are we looking at? Let me look real quick. All right. The Collins brothers. Remember Jason and Jaron? Mm-hmm. Seems like Stanford always has a pair of brothers. Yeah, what is that?

Didn't they have the Lopez brothers? Lopez. Yeah. They got brothers. Love lopez brothers dude where did that where did the did the morris brothers play on the same college team yeah they were in kansas that's right they were fucking fun man love marcus morris gave us a great half a season for the knicks this was the collins brothers season you're right, Sam. Look at that. I'm remembering, dude.

This was the season Bobby Knight returned to college basketball, but with Tech, Texas Tech. I remember that. Yeah. I don't know. I kind of liked Bobby Knight. I know he's got a bad rap.

He does. People don't like him. People hate him. Yeah. Is he canceled? I think he's canceled. Yeah, but he's just People don't like him. People hate him. Yeah. Is he canceled? I think he's canceled. Yeah, but he's just canceled for being a dick. He didn't do anything bad other than just treat people like shit.

Well, we don't cancel on this podcast. We don't, but we can't bring him back. What did he do? I think he did some weird stuff recently on like a speaking engagement at the State Department. Yeah. What was that, though do you i'm curious i think we pull it up we're like i think he's real i think he's like real conservative right oh really like far right damn i mean indiana yeah that's true. It's pretty, uh... You know, you know... Yeah, we'll keep that there. Indiana.

Enough said. Suck it, Indiana. I've been there. It's a rough... It's not a good state. If we're talking, like, actual state rankings in the country, it's bottom 10 without question. Indiana?

I don't like Indiana. It's fucking... I might... I've had some bad we lost the Super Bowl in Indianapolis when we played in Indianapolis a Super Bowl in a cold weather City which was terrible and then in 2006 at Kent State we were going to ball state muncie indiana and we had to beat them to win the mac or go to a bowl game and we were like favored and fucking nate davis and the fucking ball state whatever cardinals beat our ass a long bus ride home it's i don't like indianapolis i you know i remember i

did a a new year's gig there at a comedy club called Crackers. I shit you not, that's the name. It's called Crackers. And I'm the headliner. It's New Year's. My opening act freaking buried me. He was a fucking Midwest guy. He would do kind of bad for his whole set, but his closer was unfollowable. He killed so hard.

The closer was just this. He would go, I went to a Backstreet Boys concert recently and they serenaded a woman on stage. So I thought it'd be pretty funny if I did it to a man. So he'd just bring a guy on stage and basically play a Backstreet Boys song, hump him, put a rose in his mouth. The joke was like, how funny is gay? That was the joke.

And in Indianapolis, that shit killed. I had to follow that. And I bombed every night. The first night I was like, ha ha ha, that was something. By night five, I was like, that shit killed. I had to follow that, and I bombed every night. The first night, I was like, ha, ha, ha, that was something. By night five, I was like, fuck that guy. It's like my opener, fuck him. And it got weird in the green room. But that's an Indian.

Look, I've played there many times since, but that one always stuck with me. Yeah. Old Indy. That's on the shit list of... I like Indy. I don't like Indy. You don't like it? We't like it we just trash it for like five minutes yeah i can't save it at this point i mean what's done is done payton was there

for a long time i don't know no no look they got that i'm an eli guy i'm an eli guy too elmo st elmo's steakhouse is that the one yeah that place is fucking awesome in indie is it all right let's just put horseradish in our fucking thing and make everyone go, oh, I can't beat this. It's good. It's all right. And it's a good vibe. You can't knock the vibe. I thought it was overrated.

Wow, okay. I mean, I was trying to find something redeeming about this city, but I guess there's nothing. Because we went to St. Elmo's. Actually, we went to St. Elmo's for the Super Bowl. It was like a bunch of the players. And I was like a second-year player. And we did credit card roulette.

And it was like a fucking $8,000 bill. And I won. I was sitting there. You lost. I lost. Yeah. I'm sitting there like, oh, man, this is crazy. How did you play roulette?

Well, they just spun it around. Yeah, they just pick it they pick it out of the hat they pick a credit card out of the hat picked mine and fucking thank god well tell me you weren't welker paid welker paid for it why because he felt bad he's making nine and a half million dollars i don't yeah i think he felt bad that's one nice thing he did to me damn one nice thing thanks welk appreciate you well. One nice thing. Thanks, Welk. Appreciate you. Well, you didn't pay. I don't know why this is a good story.

It is, but I was terrified. I had anxiety for like- Eight grand is a lot. Especially, I was making like 200 grand. Was Brady out with you guys? No, it was like receivers. Oh, okay. Receivers and skills.

I don't think Brady was there. No, he wasn't. Shout out Wes welker for that shout out welk shout out welk we love wake welk let's uh let's get into the teams duke preseason number two behind arizona coached by coach k led by first team all-american duo shane battier and Jay Williams. Battier had 19.9 points per game, seven rebounds, one block, two steals. That's what he averaged. Won the Wooden Naismith AP Player of the Year Award,

the USBWA Player of the Year, the NABC Defensive Player of the Year. This guy's got more awards than I can even. Yeah, he's got a lot of awards. DPOY, HPV. No, I'm making the last one up. No, six future NBA players. We touched on it, but the one I forgot here is Dante Jones.

Red shirt that season, but they had Duhan, Boozer, Dunlevy, Jay Williams, and Battier. Finished 36-4, second-ranked offense. I mean, yeah, high-powered team for sure. Road to the championship game. What's up with their defense? It was 149th ranked? Yeah, that's weird.

They have all these great defensive players. Were they just playing good teams or what the hell? Let me look into that. Okay. They won the ACC, and the road to the championship game was Mammoth, Missouri, UCLA, USC, and Maryland. All right, let's go to Arizona. Preseason number one, as we said, Luke Olsen, four NBA future players, Gilbert Arenas, Richard Jefferson, Lauren Woods, who was a killer on this team.

And we didn't even mention Luke Walton. Head coach, Luke Walton. Yeah, assistant with the Warriors and then the Sac Kings, played for the LA Lakers. He was a head coach for the Lakers too for like a half a season, right? That's right, he was, right? Oh, shit. You're in and out if you're a Lakers coach so often.

Even if you win a championship, no respect. Frank Vogel, bye-bye. I'm sorry you had one bad year when he had no fucking roster around him. That guy's a good coach. Yeah. L.A. L.A. They don't appreciate.

No, they just probably wanted to move on. They finished 28-8, including the NCAA tournament. Road to the championship game was Eastern Illinois. Butler, Ole Miss, Illinois, Michigan State, which had a good team this year. Michigan State always has a pretty good team. They really do. They're a good basketball school.

Wasn't Magic Johnson Michigan State? Yeah, yeah. Draymond Green? Yeah. I mean, they've had some ballers. Yeah. The rivalry. Series dates back to 1961.

They've met nine times. Arizona has the series lead at five and four. Haven't played since 2013. Arizona beat Duke in the Sweet 16 in 2013. Yeah. Oh, wow. Things we remember. Mike Dunleavy, three three-pointers in 48 seconds.

That's what I didn't get. I didn't, like, so at the end of the game, there was like 30 seconds, and they just kind of let it wind down in Arizona. Yeah. Why wouldn't we play some? They were up a decent amount, right? I think it was 10 points.

Yeah. They just quit? They quit. They quit? Yeah. Come on, Zona. Battier hit a couple clutch shots, and I mean, the putback dunk, the putback tip.

Battier was, he took over. he took over when it mattered most and uh things we might have forgotten arenas played with an injury suffered in the previous game could it have been a different story if he was 100 i mean awesome agent zero was a fucking phenomenal killer i loved watching him killer controversial calls no call against baddie and williams on gardner which would have been his third with nine minutes in the first half no call let the boys play lauren woods bailed out in the loss uh or balled out rather 22 points 11 rebounds four four blocks. I mean, he was a really tough assignment because I think Battier was on him a lot of the games, and he was just much longer than Battier.

He was. And Duke, they dominated this tournament. They won every game by double digits. I mean, they were 2001 Team of the Year by far, unless Gilbert Arenas may have played. Maybe. No. Maybe. Got hurt. team of the year by far unless gilbert arenas may have played maybe no maybe got hurt final score duke 82 arizona 72 duke wins its third national championship and coach k congratulates the men outstanding young men of arizona after the. I'm thinking for the prop bet, this is the Gaming Corner presented by WinBet here.

I'm thinking for the prop bet, how many times can we get Shane Battier to compliment Arizona? A player in Arizona, can you think we can get like three? Because he's a classy guy. I could see him giving into this. How do you make him compliment him? Just say, man, how good was Gilbert Arenas?

And he'll be like, oh man. If we can keep getting him play along be like dude and how about i mean luke luke walton it's pretty crazy he became like a head coach that hasn't really done anything with it exactly yeah and lute olsen i mean that's the type of guy you want to spoon you if you're a player right we just keep going big spoon or little spoon i mean doesn't matter as long as he's a spoon in there yeah loot so we just get him to play along i think we could hit easily three five and we could hit four or easy i mean we can go four or five is that he's a classy he's a classy individual he'll he's in he's in let's do it let's do it all right we're gonna four or five four four or five is high but i think we could do it all right let's get four or five, four or five is high, but I think we could do it. All right. Let's get four or five, five. And by the way, if he compliments without us prodding him, that still counts. All right. Good. Uh, all right. We're going to be, uh, back with Shane

Battier right after this, but before we do that, let's take a quick break. Let's take a break. Welcome Mr. Handsome, Shane Battier. How you doing? I'm just living the dream, man. I appreciate that. I don't get that too often anymore, man. Thank you. What do you mean too often? You probably hear it all day. You got a smile of a million dollars.

I have one question, though. Do you have a full head of hair and you bick it? Because it looks like you have a full head of hair. That means you're even more handsome if you just b pick it because it looks like you have a full head of hair and you like that. That means you're even more handsome if you just pick it for fun. You know, it's funny, you know, I got crushed in college because I had a super low hairline. And so like, you know, it was before Instagram and all that stuff. And so I would have been a meme of like super, super low forehead. So at this point now it's receding, you know, it's running away away from my eyebrows and so it's actually normal now at age 44 wow but yeah man man well

that's so manly though that your hairline was too low fuck the haters dude that's awesome yeah who has a too low hairline you do but i think it's cool man it's like it's like your defense your hair's all over the body too man i love it man it's perfect oh man well you know like look i started cutting my own hair in seventh grade because i was tired of of waiting in line at the barber shop so i'm a man who's about efficiency and it was easier for me just cut it in the mirror i love it and you could tell by the way he played but before we start we got to run through some of these accolades. His numbers hanging in the rafters in North Carolina at Duke. McDonald's All-American, Mr. Basketball in the state of Michigan, an All-American elite defender. We already named off in the pre-tape all your awards. I can't even, I mean, there's so many awards that we can't get through two-time nba champion a blue devil great and of course a 2001 national champion that's the game we're talking about here today uh take us back to the year 2000 you're in durham north carolina

what was what was young shane badier like uh i was very serious, very, very serious. I was always very, very disciplined. And I had one goal. I was going to make the NBA. I burned the ships. I was making the NBA come hell or high water. And my freshman year at Duke, I roomed with Elton Brand, first pick of the draft, Liam Avery, played a few years in the NBA. And I'll never forget going

into Coach K's office about three weeks into school. And I said, Coach, I can't live with these guys. You know, I need my sleep. You know, I'm getting my schoolwork done. You know, I was a bit of a square. And so Coach K said, you know, just relax and have fun. And so, you know, luckily I had a great time with Elton and Will the rest of the freshman year, I loosened up and learned to live a little bit. I was very serious, very driven. I was there to make the NBA. I didn't care about any other details.

Did they try to get you to party? Yes. I had fun. For me, I was having fun. Again, it was a mission. It was a mission trip for me. It wasn't a party time. How do they ease in a Shane Battier into drinking?

Is it like beer pong? Because you're like, well, at least it's competitive. What's the move? You know what? I didn't drink until my senior year in college. Wow. I was psycho. I was super, super psycho.

And my wife of 20 years now uh we dated in high school she actually dumped me uh for the quarterback because he was fun and he would want to go and go to parties and i was i need my rest i need to go to the gym so uh you know like she came back around they all come back around and i loosened up and now now i'm the life of the party glue Glue guy. Straight glue guy. That's the competitor in him. He was like, I'm down for the count, but I'll get her.

I'll get her back. I'll get her back, dude. They all come back. You know, sometimes you got to let them, you got to let a bird fly. You got to let a bird fly. And then when they come back, you know, you know. Yep. They know. They know.

So take us back to the preseason. You guys are ranked two overall, or your preseason AP two ranking. Like, did you guys have this feeling in your guys' locker room that we have a shot here? Like, if we do things right, we take in the coaching, we stay disciplined, we take care of the little things, we're going to have a run. Did you have those thoughts going in and and how did it go man if if you didn't have those thoughts when you signed up for duke you're in the wrong especially this time yeah that was

the expectation you know we stopped by campus yeah we're winning the championship this year and so we have to go back to 2000 okay Okay, so this was a little different time at Duke. We had just lost the national championship to the University of Connecticut. You know, Rick Hamilton, Khalid El-Amin got upset in the finals. Really got a 10-point favorite, lost that game. Really good UConn team. Well, that summer, that was the first time that Duke ever lost players to the draft. Okay, so Elton Brand, sophomore, number one pick.

Corey Maggette, freshman, 13th pick. Will Avery, sophomore, number one pick. Corey Maggette, freshman, 13th pick. Will Avery, sophomore, 14th pick. Trajan Langdon. And so everyone said, like, Duke's dead. They're dead.

Because they'd never seen people leave Duke early, right? And so all that was left were a bunch of freshmen who were coming in. Mike Dunleavy, Jason Williams, Carlos Boozer. You know, ah, those guys are young, they're freshmen.

And then three holdovers, Chris Carrawell, Nate James, and Battier baddie you know and all the ducators were like baddie that baddie is going to replace elton brand like no we're not freaking away no way and so um we had a very young team in 2000 and a great story that you know that sort of sums up my relationship with coach k that year i was interning in in Chicago at a public relations firm. Coach K calls me out of the blue. So I think he sensed that I had some apprehension about being the guy for Duke. And he said, you know, hey, Shane, how's work going? Going great.

I have a question for you. Would you wake up thinking about being the ACC player of the year, winning the ACC title, leading the SP back, number one seed next year. I sort of laugh and coach, click. Dude hangs up on me, just hangs up on me. So he calls back the next day and says, you know, sorry about that, Shane. But I was a very serious question. Did you go to work today thinking you were the national player of the year? You're going to lead us back to the Final Four. I sort of laugh. Coach, click, hangs up on me.

Third day, calls back and says, hey, Shane, I'm sorry about that, but I have a serious question. Are you ready to be the national player of the year, national defensive player of the year, lead us back to the Final Four, finish the job and win the national championship? I go, coach, absolutely, yes, I'm your guy. You can count on me. And he said, look, look, we can't be that team unless you are that guy for us.

And you can't be that guy until you believe you're that guy. And I never had anyone talk to me like that ever. But it speaks to Coach K's leadership and his belief in his players. And he really believed that I had to believe that I was that guy. And from that moment, he flipped a switch and said, I got to think like that. And so that 2001, sorry, that 2000 year was a great year. No one expected much of us. We won the ACC, finished number one in the country, lost to Florida in the tournament that year. That lost eventually to the champions, Michigan State, in the finals in T and Cleves.

But we said, oh, yeah, next year, it's our year. And so we came back in 2001. You're older, you're better, you're stronger. We said, yeah, this is our time. Wow. So Coach K, ultimate motivator. I mean, you expect that. What other tactics did he use throughout your career that you remember?

You know, Coach K, I tell people, people always say, what makes Coach K so great? He obsesses about his people. You know, Jules maybe, you know, Belichick is like this, where all he thinks about is his team. He doesn't have any hobbies. He's not distracted. All he thinks about is what do I need for my team?

What do my guys need to be their best? And so, like, to a point now, like, even when he was coaching, we never called him during the season because he was so focused on his team. Like, he never saw me play one NBA game because he was so focused on his team. And with that, he just knew what each guy needed. And so when he recruited me in high school, I could have gone anywhere I wanted to. I had coaches promise me playing time, minutes, shots, all that stuff. Coach K comes in my living room and says, look, Shane, I'm not going to promise you shots, minutes, playing time. I'll promise you one thing, the opportunity to earn playing time every single day. And if you're good enough,

you'll, you'll learn it. You know, I'm looking around like you're talking to me. I don't know about, you know, bring it to Elton Brand or Sean McLeod, Frazier Langdon, but when the dust settles, I'm going to be there. And Coach K knew like my button was like was ultimate competition. That's all I cared about. Improving myself against everybody else. And, you know, for teammates, other teammates, they need to kick in the ass every single day. They got to kick in the ass every every single day. I'm not going to name names. You know, other guys needed more hugs and they got hugs but coach k just was a master motivator because he he knew his players his teams better uh than any other coach in america it's i

love the idea of him just pissing you off and you you looking in the mirror like the nero and taxi driver like he's talking to me you're talking to me shame baddie you know what was weird to what we re-watched this game and it was weird to see you're duke but it's like you're talking about people kind of sleeping on duke all of a sudden i mean they're saying this isn't the most talented team and i'm like there's like five nba players on this team did you did you feel that disrespect no we had a squad you know we had a. We knew it. We knew we had pros. Look, when you have a team that's at that level and your goal is to go to the mountaintop, you just think differently about who you are. And it wasn't like we were arrogant.

We had a cockiness about ourselves that, yeah, we are one of the best. We think we are the best. And every time we walked into an arena, we know there were 20,000 people that hated us. And there was nothing better, nothing, nothing better than walking into Coalfield House or the Dean Dome and seeing everybody leave about seven minutes left. That was our goal. Let's get these guys out of the gym. Let's make them beat traffic. And, you know, four years, we were 133 and 15, which was a record when I graduated. And so we won a lot of games by a lot of points. And so I don't think we ever slept on. We knew that every time the schedule came out, teams would go, when do we play Duke? That was always the biggest game of the year.

And so whether we're playing North Carolina A&T or High Point or Carolina, they're going through the schedule, circling that game in red marker because that was the game of the year. And so, Julian, as a Super Bowl champion, you're getting everybody's best shot every single night. They call that a measuring stick team. You're the measuring stick team. Everyone circles you. You're the target.

You're America's most wanted. And every week, it's everyone's Super Bowl or everyone's national championship. So it's hard when you're the target. And you guys have been the target for all. You were target your whole career there. I mean, they're still targets you know that duke just that tradition of what it is you know and and with you you like you i heard somewhere that you loved grant hill and he was a huge reason you you you committed to duke is that true and why why did you love why did you love grant hill which i used to love grant oh dude

grant was 90s basket i still think of that pippin crossover remember that i mean the dunk on pippin i mean he was he had it all i thought you know you know the funny thing about you know i grew up in michigan you know huge uh university of mich fan. I love the Fab Five, love the Pistons. I hated Duke. True story. Hated Duke. You know, I was cheering for UNLV when they were playing them in 1991, you know, 92. And I'm just like, oh, Duke.

Leighton Erickson's stand-up and Hurley. But I like Grant Hill. Grant Hill was different. And when he led Duke to the national championship in 94, he was my favorite player. And I said, I want to be that guy. And luckily, he got drafted by Detroit Pistons. And I used to be actually a ball boy for the Detroit Pistons and used to, you know, wipe up the sweat and make them powerade shakes and, you know, full towels and get to watch Grant Hill practice every single day.

And for me, he was my hero. He was like a superhero. And I saw you could win, you could be classy, you could be tough. And so he's always been my role model. So I still think it's cool that I have his phone number on my phone. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, that's pretty damn cool that you were a ball boy, and now I'm sure you've told him that story you know yeah right i got to live my dream

crazy so arizona this team is stacked i mean this is another team i mean like agent zero is on this team richard jefferson i mean how good were you intimidated by how good this team was ever were you ever like that's it i mean nobody read this I can already tell in his eyes he's not a team. But you can answer the question. No, look, they had pros too. You always respect team with pros, right? And we knew they were really, really good. And, you know, obviously a Hall of Fame coach and Lute Olsen.

But, look, that Final Four was crazy because you have to talk about the Maryland game before. So we played the University of Maryland. It was our fourth time playing in that year. You don't play teams four times, much less national contending teams like Maryland. We played them four times. The first time was the Miracle Minute.

Down 10 points, 55 seconds left in Cole Fieldhouse. Come back, miraculous finish. We beat them in overtime, right? Season finale in Cameron, my senior night. We lose. They come in and beat us. We lose our center, Carlos Boozer, you know, to a broken foot. We think we might be done.

We see them in Atlanta in the ACC championship game. And it was a Nate James senior captain tipping at the buzzer that won it. And so we had like three epic knockdown drag out brawls with arguably a top three or four team in the country. And then we play them in the final four. And we're down 22 points in the first half to them. I mean, they're kicking our ass. Kicking our ass on national TV. We're embarrassed.

We're like, oh, my gosh. We're laying the biggest egg. And Coach K, you know, called Tom and I and said, guys, we can't play any worse. So, whether we lose by 50 or lose by two, it doesn't matter. We're in the Final Four. Just go out and let it fly. Have fun. So, we come back, win that game by double digits.

Crazy. So, after that game, we're like, we're Team Destiny team destiny you know so i don't care who we're playing we could have played you know jordan bowles and said we are a team of destiny uh this is this is our time but we had we had to make it happen jeez i got a quick off topic do you have you ever seen coach kade dye his hair did you or you ever find his his black dye did he yeah no everyone thinks that and it's it's natural man he's got those nice jeans man that's just i don't know how to explain it great hair amazing jesus it's amazing let's start let's get into the game so arizona starts hot six of eight in the first or six of eight in the first five minutes you guys getting a little foul

trouble what's the mindset going in with some of this adverse situation early on in the game yeah yeah i think one of the one of the hallmarks of our teams was we never really panicked uh we had so much talent and we knew we deserved to be there and And so we were not hitting shots early. It's hard to shoot in a dome. We're in the Metrodome of Minneapolis. Depth perception? The depth? Yeah, it's just weird.

You just feel like you're in this huge space. And the rim seems just like it's floating out there. And so the depth perception is a little strange in a dome like that. You never practice it. Arizona was really good. And so we just knew like once we settled down, we'll get back in the game. Jay Will, you know, who was the best guard in the country that year, wasn't even close. You know, got into foul trouble.

He was struggling, but we stayed in it. We didn't panic. And we just knew like, okay, we've got the halftime. We're not playing our best ball. our best ball is ahead of us still yeah and i mean you had the tough task here of guarding lauren woods who's such a long player i mean you're an elite defender but this guy is putting up numbers on you is there any point where you're like fuck this guy what do i do with this guy there's seven one you know i'm six eight two fifteen uh so in college it's a little bit different you really can't get physical in the nba you can use forms and wrists and all that uh you get to play defense like this and so like i really couldn't do anything else i was

shocked that they didn't try to attack me more in the post uh because then you had to carry so much of the offensive load and try to try to wear me down um but they sort of went away from him just kind of weird look at richard jefferson and gilbert arenas and michael wright and uh jason gardner's they had really good teams but uh you know he was a he was a handful and so i was a great defender i was national defensive player of the year but uh you know it's tough guarding someone who's seven one i can only can only imagine. It's like five inches. It's like six inches. Yeah, it's crazy. You know, Coach K is infamous for working the refs.

You know, Coach K, he's talking to the refs. What's he saying to them? I have no clue. What's he do? What's his tactic? I think does he just like, does he try to mentor them? Like, you guys are great young men oh no no no no no no if you if you were courtside to hear coach k talk to reps you you

would blush oh any any quotes you remember well enough you know you know he would never degrade referees but you know he would definitely call them motherfuckers. Motherfucker was like saying he or she. He just always cussed. He was on them from the jump. I think after a while, refs just were like, yeah, I don't want to deal with Coach K anymore,

so I'm not going to call these crap fouls Duke anymore. The funny thing about playing at Duke, he's like, look, referees, they always award the more aggressive team. And if that's just your style of play, after a while, they're just going to be socialized to let aggressive teams sort of get the benefit of the doubt.

Now, if you're passive and you're begging for calls all the time, the rest of them, you know, they're human. They're not going to reward you. So our mindset was always just be the aggressor, keep the pressure on the team, and, you know, make them make plays and make the refs make calls. And it was a really good formula for us. So, you know, you go into halftime.

It's 35-33. Anything that Coach K said in the locker room to get you hyped? Was there nothing that really needed to be said? What kind of guy was he? Was he like a tack? Like, was he? Because Belichick, he was more of, he never rah-rah'd you. He was more of like, we're going to give you information

on what we're doing right, what we're doing wrong, and then you guys go use that information. It was more like business. It was, what was coach k's way of of handling the guys in the locker room was he a guy that got rah-rah or did you did he have like a player that was the rah-rah guy and he would use like good cop back like what was it yeah it varied yeah like he knew the situation and there are some games where you know we're up five we should be up 12 at the half and

he comes in and just rips us a new one and it's just you know spitting and cursing and throwing chairs and we go out and you know by 20 and there are other games where you come in very calm and say look just you know we're missing shots we're turning the ball over like let's let's let's just play our game and so um that game 2001 um he was pretty calm, actually. He was like, look, we have not played our best game. You know, this is a very good team. Respect them. But, you know, we don't have to do anything different than what Duke does.

But we have to be the best version of ourselves for 20 minutes. And so, like, he had a way of just giving us confidence. And the way he talked to us, we never had to do something outside of what we did the entire year or who we were as a team. It was a really, really interesting, unique skill in that respect. It's crazy how great leaders are. When you guys were flying high, he'd cut you down.

When you guys were down low, he would fuel you guys were flying high he'd cut you down when you guys were down low he would he would you know fuel you guys and i always remembered that with belichick the same way like we went out and blew out the tennessee titans by 35 in a snowstorm one time and we get into the team meeting on on monday and he throws on these low lights and he goes you mean like we miss a fucking wide route or something like an easy routine play we just blew this team out by 35 points and he's motherfucking me and brady for not connecting on a garbage time fucking play like because we were flying high we were feeling it you know what i mean then there's another time where we lose a game and we just didn't have a good week and he would come in and he knew where our spirits were that's the that's

how you know there's a good leader they know where the spirits are and he you know we're all expecting like oh he's gonna fucking murder us for this and he didn't you know he handled it differently because we needed that love we needed that you know we needed that confidence we were not we weren't confident at the time so that's that's awesome to hear you know that's yeah and that's what coach k sounds like he is man he's that's leadership leader of men you know and he is yes we never thought we could fail ever you know and so i don't know if that's like military mindset or whatever but we always felt we did our job. It didn't matter who we played. We had a great shot at winning.

So you come out of the locker room at halftime. Mike Dunleavy starts just becoming a flamethrower. Just three straight threes in a row. You know, you guys get hot. I've heard Richard Jefferson is blamed by Gilbertbert arenas what do you make of this does this what do you make of arenas blaming rj for this arizona loss would you have won regardless if rj got hot i i think it's hilarious i love it i love it i love hearing those guys bicker you know look mike d got hot and mike d was Mike D was my best friend in the entire world.

It's still to this day. And so he was so bad, like during that run, he couldn't, he couldn't do shit. And, but like, we never lost faith in him. I mean, he was our guy and it was just one of those things. He hit one and then you could see just, you know, him jonesing for the, for the ball. And, you know, we, we found him two more times and that was the game

that was the game you know and you just you know those those single plays that happened in the game that the turn the tide and that was the play for us but like look it wasn't richard jefferson's fault you know i i don't think that was his fault uh you know i think we had something to do with it too well you had those clutch you had to put back dunk you had to put back tip i mean you kind of just closed that thing out that must have felt pretty crazy right yeah it was crazy like i you know obviously i'm not super athletic and um those plays at the end of the game like i didn't shoot the ball while that game at all and so i try to come out in the second half and try to make something happen because Cause I wasn't going to go out, you know, scoring 10 points and not just doing everything I could. And so, um,

yeah, it was crazy. Well, I watched that game. I don't know how I got the tip in. I tipped the name of the back of my hand down the stretch. And, um, it was funny like that, that dunk I had, um, I could have stepped back for the three and I was feeling the three, but like, I'll just never forget that feeling. I'm like, I'm like, fuck it. Like I got dunked this and like, I wasn't a big dunker, but like, I was so tired. Uh, it was, it was like the last minute of the last game. I'm like, I got,

I got to fucking punch this. And so I'm like, I'm going for it. And I got the ball, took one dribble and punched it. And, uh, I was exhausted. I don't know how it went in. I'm glad I didn't get stuck there, but we were so close. We were so close. Again, I would have died on the floor to win that game. Wow. Is that when you knew it was over? After that dunk, you're like, we got this. I'm going back. We're going back.

We got it. When did you feel? I'll never forget that feel. When did you feel forget that feel when did you feel you guys had it because you guys beat him by 10 there was a point where you yeah it was over it wasn't until i look over and ludolson goes like this and it was like you know 30 30 seconds i saw that why didn't they there were you guys they were only down 10 points i don't understand that like why why Why did they quit? Without timeouts and stuff, it's hard to make a comeback.

I get it. But I was still on row 10 and I'm sitting there still spitting fire and cursing. And then finally Luke goes like this with 30 seconds left. And I said to myself, oh shit, we did it. We did it.

Julia, I don't know about you but like you never won a championship like at that level like you actually don't know what it takes to win right you think you have an idea you talk to people but like the work you put in you actually don't know until clock hits zero and you're holding that trophy and you're like oh shit like that was the hardest thing i ever had to do in the sport right and then you it becomes like totally understandable and you understand like why you did all that but it's only crystal clear at that precise moment and that's what i remember um in that last 30 seconds like oh shit we did it and that was so hard especially i mean in championship games for us i don't know how it is for basketball i can only imagine because you guys are playing so many games so back to back

you're exhausted because of the emotions the mental fatigue that you have for the focus that you put in the actual physical fatigue that you have. Like I was always the most tired after games. And like you said, you didn't really know until you saw the hand wave by loot. Like I remember after the, the, what was it?

16, the Atlanta Falcon Superbowl where we were were we won the game and i didn't know if we won i was still in competition mode because i thought they had to review it and they're like i go up to belichick we're hugging i'm like did they review the fucking play or we don't did we get it are we in he's like yeah we won i'm like all right i was yelling at everyone get the fuck off the field it's not over because you know you you're in that competitive mindset where like you're on a mission yeah you know yeah i love that i totally i totally get it i totally get it and you don't want it you don't you don't want to you know the second you celebrate and let up a second you know and give the other

teams the other team one chance you could lose it and that's like the worst nightmare of any athlete any competitor shane who's your all-time starting five at duke five guys um you know i get asked a lot so i'm gonna go latener i'm gonna go hill i'm gonna go uh jj reddick jason williams and johnny dawkins J.J. Redick, Jason Williams, and Johnny Dawkins. I'm not putting myself in. Wow. That's a classy man. I expect nothing less. Doesn't even put himself in. He puts everyone else in.

Everything's the best for the team. I got to ask you, too, because you had such a cool NBA career. You were on some of my favorite teams to watch. I mean, that Rockets team with, you know, Rafer Alston, T-Mac, Yao, Scola. That was a cool, that must have been a fun team to be on.

Oh, it's a great team. It's a great team. You know, we had a chance to win championships those years. We were never healthy. You know,

T-Mac and Yao, two of the great players of that generation, just never, never able to stay healthy we had some squads though it's a fun team it's interesting i feel like you're one of the guys that changed from one period of the nba to the next where now you're the type of guy that teams really seek out and i think that really began in miami when they saw what you brought to the table as a 3 and d

guy now there's like you're almost the prototype. They're like, we need a Shane Battier type. You look at guys like Mikael Bridges or guys who play really good D and can hit that open shot. Do you feel almost responsible for that in some way? I don't know if responsible. It was born out of just need. Everyone says Golden State invented small ball. know, Golden State invented small ball.

No, Miami Heat invented small ball. I know because I was the small forward who became a power forward and got the hell beat out of me by, you know, guys 50, 60 pounds heavier than me. And it was in 2012, Chris Bosh, our starting power forward, gets hurt. He goes down. We have no one to back him up so Spoh comes to me and says hey Shane

we're thinking about starting you at power forward I'm like yeah let's go I'm like I don't care I just want to play not a lot of guys would do that though

you know look we're in the playoffs we're going for a championship so it's all hands on deck so yeah whatever you need and so for an NBA champion

we probably started the worst front court in the history of the NBA the next game It's all hands on deck. So yeah, whatever you need. And so for an NBA champion, we probably started the worst front court in the history of the NBA the next game. It was me, a power forward, and Dexter Pittman, who I love, barbecue pit at center. And Indiana beat us by 20. All right. We go down 2-1 in the Eastern Conference.

Were you guarding David West? Yeah. That's insane. And I'm getting switched off from Roy Hibbert, you know, as I'm just sitting there trying to fight. And, you know, no one remembers that because we won the championship that year, but we were down 2-1 to Indiana in the second round. And, you know, we made some adjustments, but, like, we went on a run,

and I just was the small ball four. And so there was, like, two threes, keep spacing, and bang with these guys as much as you can. And it paid off. And when Chris Bosh came back, he was the center. I was the power forward. And that, you know, obviously we had LeBron who was the ultimate skeleton key.

But that was the dawn of small ball and at a super high level. And so I am proud of that fact that they selected me a power forward and not only did we not survive, we won a couple championships. How do you win a national championship and then have to

go to class? It wasn't very fun. Did you go? We partied. I took a couple days off. A couple days off. It very fun. Did you go? We partied. I took a couple days off. A couple days off. It was fun. It was a big party.

And, yeah, just, whew, whew. It was a rough week the next week. So, you know, I was a religion major. I wanted to finish strong. I didn't want to screw up my GPA. So I took a few days off after getting back from Minneapolis. We had a very good time.

You're such a well-rounded human. I've never heard an NBA player be like, I've got to graduate with honors. I worked hard for like three and a half years. I wasn't going to screw it up at the very end. Not irrespective, man. Those teachers weren't going to give you no bad grades get out of here well well you know don't give them a reason to right you were you guarded

so many great players you played in such a tough era uh who was the toughest i mean i remember you having a lockdown prime kobe having a face up i remember your hand right in the eye on all those replays like who was the toughest cover that you ever had? It was Kobe. Yeah. Kobe. Kobe was, was a,

a month older than me. You know, I mean, may he rest in peace. The greatest competitor I ever played against. He and I had this like weird cat and mouse thing going every time we play. Like he would come up to me and be buddy, buddy one day,

and we'd be talkative. Next day he'd be ice cold. Wouldn't even look at me. And he played this passive aggressive game with me that it was just one mind game after another. And I gave him nothing. I was like a stone. And so I didn't react to him. I didn't, I didn't look at him. I didn't try to talk to him. I tried to just be like Eeyore. You know, after every game, you know, he missed a few shots. And I would say, oh, man, I can't guard Kobe. Like, you know, look, it's Kobe Bryant. I'm just this schluck.

You know, I got lucky he missed some shots. No, in full well, like I had a good game plan against him. You know? And he had big games against me. And he had games where I thought I got the best of them. But for my money, it was it was competition at its highest level. And that is what I miss. And that's what I miss. I'll never have a chance to have this conversation with him to talk about the games within the game.

Within the game, we play with each other at the at the ultimate highest level of competition in the sport that we both love. Yeah. Did we miss anything over this 2001 season? Yeah. I mean, I think just when you look back at a championship run, you just never know how close that line is. And that's the story. And you look back at the team now and you say, yeah, of course,

Jason Williams, Carlos Boozer, Mike Dunleavy, Battier, Chris Duhon, pros, of course they were going to win. You know, we won every game by 20 points. You know, after Carlos gets hurt, you know, the next game we go out to North Carolina, we start, you know, Casey Sanders and Reggie Love. Reggie Love was a football player who was more known to be Obama, President Obama's body man.

And they got to guard Brendan Haywood, who was an all-ACC, all-American player. We didn't know if we were going to beat them. Actually beat them by 10 at Carolina. We go to the ACC tournament. We didn't know if we were going to win one game. Ended up winning the tournament. And then in the NCAA tournament, we knew we were small. We were quick.

But without Carlos, we didn't know our chances and ended up winning the title. And so in every great championship, what makes championships so great is there's a point in every journey where you just don't know. You might not make it. And you push through. And when you finally do, you're like, man, that was close that was close and like no one knows no one knows but like the guys in the locker room and so like that's that's that's what's special to me about championships you know the rings and parades and the parties and you know all that's great but uh it's it's it's testing yourself to the fullest

limits and coming out on the other end yeah Yeah. Everything has to, people don't realize a lot of things got to go your way with, to, to win the ship. Cause some of the best teams I played on, we didn't win. You know, we didn't get, we weren't healthy. We weren't playing right. Something happened here. Crazy call. Like there's so many little things that have to happen in your favor to win. It's not just that easy. You got to go do it what's what's what's the look of duke university without coach k what do we what should we expect is it going to go to we can turn into or are we good no hey look we're in great hands with uh with john shire uh john is he's he's smart and he's tough and he's a killer out there.

You know, you see by his recruiting class, he's got the top recruiting class this year and next year and working on it three years from now. And, look, you play for Coach K, play for the best. Yeah. So he understands, you know, how to lead at the highest level. And, you know, we're excited. All the former players are supporting him

and obviously want him to crush it and do well and he is he is we believe in him so i think we'll be all right who's gonna who's gonna go over and congratulate the losing team for their efforts now um after games like and mentor them who's gonna do that is is he is he on that same level these are are outstunt? The Coach K chest pat. I'm going to miss that. After a win, you always shake their hand and give them a pat on the chest. I know they had to piss off other coaches. It was great.

As players, we always laugh about that. I'm sure Shire will have his own thing. Did you ever see Coach K go into another locker room to give his kudos to a team for beating you guys? Actually, yeah. I have. Yeah, it sounds about right. I love Coach K.

Yeah. Like there are a couple times. I mean, look, we lost 15 times in four years. And a couple times, you know, every time we lost, basically teams, you know, fans rushed the floor. Yeah. They beat us right so there's not really time to uh shake hands and do all that stuff we're trying to get out of there

and save our hide so you know there are a couple times when coach k will go over and just you know say hey guys you guys played a great game you know enjoy it you guys you guys earned it yep he did do that you ever think about you know you're a michigan guy ever think about, you know, you're a Michigan guy, you ever think about like, what if I stayed home, played for Michigan State, and I teamed up with Z-Bo and Jay Rich? Funny story about that. So, you know, I graduated high school in 97, and Tom Izzo just got in the job. I love Coach Izzo. I love him.

I love him. So he was fresh. He was green, literally. And he made the carnal mistake, man. And I tell him this to this day he came into my living room on my visit and said look we got the best weight staff in the big tent you know we're gonna put 40 pounds of muscle on you and you're gonna be the baddest motherfucker baddest power forward in the big tent and i have dean smith and coach k saying no man like

you're a small forward man you gotta You've got to shoot threes. And I'm like, I'm with those guys. So I thought, man, you messed up. You said you're going to shoot threes. You might have had me. But no, it's a great program, and I loved Iz. I just didn't want to be a 260-pound power forward. So there it is.

Tom Izzo, he fucked it up. Players don't want to be a 260 pound power forward so yep there it is tom iso he fucked it up you don't want players don't want to bang i mean it's like even ad on the lakers and he doesn't want to play the five he wants to chill and shoot threes right it's it's shortened i mean that's why i retired two years of playing power forward at 215 pounds by the end of it i'm like i can't i'm done i'm too old i can't i can't do this anymore. So yeah, I get it. Yeah. I mean, you were banging with Tim Duncan in the, in the final. That's not fun. No large guys.

You gotta do what you gotta do. So, but you got hot in those finals. I mean, that is that some of the best, that's gotta be your best memory in the pro is just not missing a three in that finals run. Well, look, you know you know again we talk about how thin the line is um you know i was a small ball power forward the entire year you know getting the the heck beaten out of me every single night but i shot a career best like 43 percent from the three all right so that's my equalizer so those big guys wouldn't come guard me you know i bang them

in the eye with a lot of three pointers um gets. Gets to the playoffs, and I'm exhausted. I'm so beat up. I'm banging the entire year. I'm playing every single night and taking the load off the ground on these guys. But I can't make a shot. So I have my worst shooting slump of all time of any level. And at one point, I'm like 4 for 30 from 3. I can't make a shot.

And so I see my playing time dwindle, dwindle, dwindle, dwindle to the point before game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals. I go to Spoh before the game and say, look, I know I've been terrible. I know. But I'm built for game seven. I'm built. This is why you brought me here. I don't know what I'm going to do.

You put me in that game. I'm going to help us win, and I'm going to do what I do. And so the game starts. I don't play in the first quarter. I don't play by halftime. Third quarter, I don't get in. Fourth quarter, I never took my warm-ups off. So it was the only time in my entire career I had the words DMPCD next to my name.

Did not play. Coach's decision. Right? And so, like, I'm crushed. I'm like, is this it? Am I over the hill? Am I washed? Like, is this how it i am i over the hill am i am i washed like this is how it ends um and i was like depressed so like you know drank a lot of beer that night

sang karaoke my wife got over it and i said look if i get my chance i'm gonna do what i've built my entire career on so i don't really play the first couple games of the series against the Spurs in the finals. Game four, I get in. Game five, I bank a three in. I'm like,

it's a sign. It's a sign. Game six, I get in the game, make three threes. Game seven, I don't need to make a speech, but I get in the game.

You know, first five times, I touch the rock. Start five for five and the game six for eight and three, score 18 points, win the championship.

And... In game seven. No one. Game seven game seven game seven the nba finals go 68 six for eight and three 18 points and in the performance no one saw coming you know much less me um and so it's rare in anything you have like the lowest point of your career or your life and whatever you're trying to do and the highest point of your career or your life in whatever you're trying to do and the highest point of your career within two week period and so i i experienced that and uh so i'm very proud of that run and sort of staying the course and being ready with my number one skull real quick i have heard you're a big karaoke guy what's your go-to song i always close it down with oasis don't look back in anger oh great tune great album song great everybody knows it everybody knows damn that's a that's a ballsy one too cheese yeah that's a great tune yeah i love karaoke too

it's fun It's fun. It's fun to get hammered and sing into a mic. It is. Did you not? I heard you didn't go out and party after game seven though. That was like, I don't know where that came from. Like, you know, I think D waited on Jimmy Kimmel and he showed that picture of me at Denny's. Like, they didn't show the time stamp.

It was like 8.30 in the morning. So, yes, I went out. Everyone's like, oh, Battier. He's so square that he went from winning the championship, scoring 18 points, hitting 6-3, straight to Denny's to celebrate. No, no. Denny's was part of that long, long evening. But no, trust me, I did celebrate that night.

I'm not that much of a square. I'm very serious. I'm disciplined. But that is the public perception that is a little misconstrued. Denny's, yes, but much, much later in the morning. We

actually might give Gilbert Arenas on here to talk about this game. You got any questions we should ask him you got any inside jokes or you got something you're curious about no we you know we we got gill on a tough one uh and so he was a hell of a player we were really concerned about him and he you know he he was not the gilbert that we that we studied studied Thoman up to that point. And so, which I'm

thankful for. I'm okay winning when guys have off games. I'm okay. I'm not that guy who says, I want the best shot. I want to be able to, you know. We'll tell Gilbert not to look back in anger. Very good. Very good.

Well, Shane, thank you so much for joining us man is there anything we missed here um no 2001 it's a great team man great team it was fun to watch this because we you know we're both 36 that was a huge part you know of our lives i was going into freshman year high school watching these these guys play man appreciate you coming on all right thanks y'all appreciate you thanks you need anything let us know man he was great man yeah he's exactly how i expected him to be we got a few f-bombs out of him got him got him but he he's just a you could tell that's a good, he's a glue guy. Good glue guy. Great leader.

Pure winner. Pure. Does it the right way. He's got that, he's got like Matthew Slater vibes. Where he didn't drink, because Matthew Slater's never drinking. You know, like these guys that are very routine oriented. They're very respectful, like classy men that like he, that's just,

that's what he is, man. He's the dude in the movie though. Like if it's the Duke sports movie, he's the dude that they're like, dude, just get fucked up with us one night. And then like late in the movie,

he gets ripped and they're like, yes. And then he gets too drunk. Yeah. And he's, and he's like, you know, like just, they lose them or something.

We can't find Batier for the big game. He was great, though. I mean, you forget how cool a game that is. Yeah. It took me back, for sure. Especially with all the names. We talked about it with him. There's a bunch of pros in that game.

And that's when Duke was really the Duke, not the one and done duke yeah they were the even the even the team that we remember most recently with the the big names that you know didn't win it but you know zion rj camera that's not duke that's not they're all one and done that's one and done i mean baddie was a senior here this is the duke yeah those are that's duke yeah the new duke is duke this was the duke yeah like the like the football no i think he's right the football is called the duke yeah not just duke you know what i think of is midnight run mardukas remember that movie charles groden no oh it's fucking classic i gotta get a movie list from you i'm gonna give you a fucking oh i'm gonna give me some movies i'm gonna set you up nice dude fuck i'm gonna set you up it

used to be it used to be like mixtapes back in the day but now it's like you show someone you care with just like movie selections yeah remember giving someone a mixtape all the time yeah you got it don't look back in anger baby this one's one's for you. You got to. Yeah. I mean, you still share music. That's a huge part. You share music, but it's rare. I guess you do a playlist now. Yeah, you do playlists. You still do it.

It's just different form. That's true. It's just not as cool as when you were burning discs, CDs. You took more care back in the day. Mom, do we got any more blank CDs? No. Try to make a playlist for my girl. That was Will Ferrell meatloaf vibes, man.

Wedding Crashers. The fucking meatloaf. I never know what she's doing up there. Still a classic. I just watched it. Me too. It's on Netflix. Two nights ago.

It's on Netflix right now. Yeah, it's on Netflix. I have to give it a watch. Even though I'm a Param. Me too. It's on Netflix. Two nights ago. It's on Netflix right now. Yeah, it's on Netflix. I have to give it a watch. Even though I'm a Paramount Plus person. Let's settle the prop bet. How do we do? How many compliments did we get out of Shane Battier on Arizona? I only got three.

He said they got a lot of pros. It's just kind of a fact. Pro is a fact. It's not a compliment. He complimented Lute Olsen. Legend. He said they were really, really good he complimented gill at the end that's true i'm putting us at three so we we didn't hit the four and a half sorry guys it's tough to get that out of a competitor yeah but he's so classy i i forgot about the bet i was so infatuated with him having such a low hairline that he bicks his head.

That's insane. I've never heard of a low hairline. It's crazy. He's not even bald and he bicks his head. Yeah. But it looks good. He's got like a shiny head. Great shape.

Yeah. Handsome. Good smile. That's actually a form of defense. I didn't even think about the shiny head. Kobe's like, he's just looking at himself like, stop, you know, you can't do anything. You're just catching the reflection. Or you just, yeah, you hit him with the, like the thing when you hit your watch or something,

the light, you blind him, blind him on the free throw line. Let's jump really quickly to an Arizona Wildcat. Great. An NBA killer. Agent Zero, Gilbert Arenas. Agent Zero, Gilbert Arenas. Agent Zero. We got to ask you, because we had Shane Badier on this podcast, actually, and we talked about the Duke-Arizona game.

Straight trash. Straight trash, bro. Yeah, what's your relation like with Shane? You were hurt, though, that game, right? You were hurt though that game, right? You were hurt. I was hurt. I just hate all Duke players. It's just one of those things that you just –

if they came from Duke, you just naturally just hate them. And he was on a team that defeated us. He was a great leader. He willed that team with his leadership. That and the refs helped. But he was a great leader for that Duke team. Did Coach K come try to mentor you guys after you guys lost to them? No.

He was known to go into losing teams' locker room and say, hey, guys, I just want to say you guys had a great game, great game plan versus us, and you all are extraordinary young men. No, I don't think he was coming into the Luke Walton, I mean the Luke Olsen locker room, making that type of speech. And we're back. It was a great, great convo with Agent Zero. Love Gilbert. The legacy of this game what's the legacy this was this was like the how many how many national championships

does duke have five so they have five they won two after this who uh they won in 2010 and 2015 who what were those teams they haven't won since then right um 20 2010 was let me see who was on that team that was john shire kyle singler that was the one they beat butler remember gordon hayward at the buzzer word sure and then gordon hayward thinks he could beat me at ping pong because so i i went and trained at the facility at celtics and they got a ping pong table and old gordon hayward he you know he he's the champ on there i'm over here cleaning house he brings in custom paddle i'm using like standard paddle you can't bring custom paddle you you can't you can't have custom paddle

against standard paddle it's like a different game he's bill murray and kingpin with a special ball special ball and so like every time like we cross paths now he's always like trying to bring up ping pong shit i'm like dude why don't you let me use your paddle let me use your paddle to see how good you are yeah dude fuck that guy dude no he's going no i don't mess with gordon hayward dude he's got my back he's a good player 2015 was when duke beat um the frank kaminsky wisconsin badgers who was on that quinn cook tyus jones justice winslow jaleel okafor and the real heads will remember big cat was crushed that game former guest big cat he said if we have him back on he wants to talk about that game wow i mean that

was uh tyus jones they played who wisconsin yeah they played wisconsin that year tyus jones did a big three on the knicks last night it really pissed me off i didn't i was jones i wasn't watching uh the whole mix yeah so what's the lasting image from this game for me i think one of them is definitely dunleavy getting hot baddie with the putback dunk we'll give it to it's the putback dunk let's give it to shane got it what do you think it is i know the giving up at the end giving up no time out all right no timeouts we just reggie miller hit three threes in like 10 don't fucking let's not i mean don't bring it up why not because that fucking game pissed me off why because he fouled greg anthony that's why i'm but i'm just saying they

didn't call foul he pushed greg anthony to the floor he hits look he hit he hit big shots oh i hated reggie miller do you know what i my lasting image of this of this interview is when he he did the shooting he did a shooting movement i was like man he's got good wrist you could just tell he's like a good wrist yeah i wonder if those i wanted to ask him but we got out of it i was like can you just like make any like when you throw your shirt in the hamper it's always in you never miss when you throw fucking something in the trash beer pong he's killing it i wonder what those guys and their their wrist dexterity that they just can shoot everything. That's just, you know?

Yeah. How cool would that be if you could shoot everything and just make it? I think he had a nice jumper. I mean, 43% from three from a defensive player is absurd. Yeah. You think even he says, Kobe, when he shoots it? Like even like into the trash can? That's crazy. You guard kobe but you

still he's that iconic you can tell he was that was that was heavy yeah that was a little heavy he you know i mean it's tough kobe is such an icon if i'm just on like the instagram explore page and they're showing his package and the the fadeaways and the dunks i mean it's like i get lost in a kobe rabbit hole i can't i can't resist it was just he was such a beautiful player that's what's on your popular page that yeah very different from mine you're just butts no mine's like uh food i got a lot of food on there too and the lasting image just slicing burgers and and g-strings that's all no i you know i'm a fashion i like fashion

um let's name this game we we should we gotta start asking them more yeah about the the the dumper with the pence that's a good one that was a good one we need to start asking the people the names that are in the game i'm calling this the year of the baddie because that's how you really remember the game you can't just call it like the year of the duke this is baddie senior year he's he's kind of the leader and by the way it's pretty cool that he and don levy are best friends still i didn't know no the way, it's pretty cool that he and Don LeVee are best friends still. I didn't know that. No. That's pretty nice. That's college. College, man.

College. You're always boys with the college kids. They literally retired his jersey on senior night. That's true. We didn't even bring that up. So he was a legend before he left. How do you go to class after? How do you go to class if you look up at-

You want to keep that gpa up clearly i've never heard i've never heard you hear barkley like loudly be like i didn't go to class and then we get shane badia who's like yeah i wanted to be a star in the classroom as well you know three days four days is gonna mess up the gpa he's like yeah you know i was i missed two days if i would have done more i would have got the gpa look no dude i went like three weeks without going to class in fact my gpa well you think of athletes cheating off the smart kids but i feel like the smart kids were cheating off baddie a 100 i feel like he was good everywhere every he he's he's a leader of men

leader what do you got jack over? I see you giggling. Do we need a GPA check around the hook? I want to know, because I remember certain athletes. I remember Emeka Okafor had like a 3.5, and he got denied from Stanford. But he went to UConn, but I'm like, you're the best big man in the country, and you have a 3.5? Well, we didn't know his SAT score. That might have been.5? We didn't know his SAT score.

That might have been holding back. We didn't know his SAT score. And Stanford being an elite school in an elite area, we don't just let anyone in there. Damn. We, I don't know why I'm saying we. I just live by it. I didn't think you'd be on Team Stanford for this one, dude.

I love Stanford. Yeah, it's a cool. Have you been to Stanford? My sister went there yeah yeah how that how crazy is that that campus it was the drunkest the first time i got drunk was at like a graduation party for my sister i remember we did a wine drinking contest me and all the young kids i was like seventh grade so stanford we did a wine well there was beer and wine and we started with beer and then we're like we'd start pounding wine and i remember not knowing i was drunk because i was in seventh grade until i stood up and i started walking and i fell flat on my

face and my dad witnessed the whole thing and he had to run across a room and like carry me out wine will always sneak up on you even now wine is a silly drunk that's why i love wine dude i went to that what is it that french lingerie or french laundry over in fucking napa with my with a soft you know a soft and his wife his wife was pregnant at the time and you go to this place and like they don't ask you like like how they they don't ask you what wine you want they say how much do you want to spend so first off i'm sitting there and i have like a little crowd around i'm like uh i don't know like a thousand bucks you know just i didn't want to i didn't want to say like a hundred you got to bring wes welker with you man i know so they go and they bring in this

the wine and she's pregnant. He barely drinks. So I ended up drinking like two bottles of wine. I couldn't leave. I couldn't get up because these, you know, it's like a 13 course meal at this fucking place and you get these little bites and I get up and literally almost fall over. So I apologize to everyone at French Laundry. Unbelievable service, but i could barely get out

of that place i was like fucking falling over other fucking litter tables like almost knocked the table over i love that all because of that sneaky wine drunk it's so sneaky all right jack did we forget anything by the way he did just say he drank two bottles. That's not sneaky. That's on you. It was. She was pregnant. She was pregnant. And he doesn't drink. What did we forget? Sneaky.

A lot of GPA talk this episode. We got a text here into the Games with Names hotline from Angie, Jules' mom. What? Jules' Kent State GPA 2.35 we're getting. Was it? Yeah, Angie remembers, I guess. He was a quarterback. No way.

I was higher than 2.34. That's wrong. That's false. That's fake. Fake news. That's fake. I had a 3.0 for a sec. Respectful.

For a sec. Like my, nah. We also got a little tip into the hotline that Battier graduated from Detroit Country Day with a 3.96. Named the school's most outstanding student his senior year. What a guy. And then speaking of Kent State, we can't forget in this tournament, Kent State, a 13 seed upset Indiana. Let's go.

A four seed. Yeah, this is, they went to the lead eight this year i think this is with with when they had uh antonio gates no that was probably like 90 dude we have we have low key uh we're a basketball school at kent we would always antonio gates could hoop right he didn't play football he played basketball he led him to the lead eight what an athlete that guy is stud we always had really good he's where do you rank him tight ends ever i mean he's probably top five he's gotta be eight he's gotta be top five it was route running ability he was unreal great for a long time that offense offense was on an LT and Gates?

Gates, Rivers. But the Chargers are the same Chargers. I mean, all right. It's the same. It feels like the same team of those years right now. They got a lot of stars. Yeah, you're right. He's a great QB though.

Who? Herbert. Very good. He's very good. But what are we doing, Staley? Why do we have to go for it on fourth down all the time? It's making me want to pull my goddamn hair out every time I see these people go for fourth down on your own 35. Dude, you just paid JC Jackson a boatload of money.

You got a Bosa. You got Derwin James. Like, why are we going? going all right we trust our deep no just get points not only that but what are they doing in la what san diego is a great city let them have a fucking team i know they got the padres that's it and who knows so they fucking leave to la too i give them a stadium they got to get a stadium they should have got him a stadium san diego deserves a team i think the la clippers should be the san diego clippers give them their own identity i mean that would be kind of tight that would be tight also kawaii's from san diego make it happen he'll show up on time to practice bill walton san diego my guy you got you love bill walton dude i almost asked, did you see the Olsen twins? I was going to

recycle your joke. Bring it back, dude. I recycle. Let's score the game. What do you think? Oh. Oh, more corrections? Go ahead. This was also the first time the tournament featured 65 teams.

Northwestern State beat Wichita. What it used to be? Play-in game. 62, I believe. Or the 64 64 sorry duh so they had the what they call the opening round game yeah it's like baseball doing that whole thing yeah weird um we also got um what else we got um bobby knight talk a lot of bobby knight talk early haven't really seen bobby since 2017 when he was being investigated by the fbi and the u.s army for uh groping four women oh they worked at the national geospatial intelligence agency yeah tough love yikes yes i haven't seen old bobby knight or that sweater since old robert robert knight something you see a guy with a flashy sweater

they're going to be investigated for sex crimes yes that's a cosby joke it's a little above me sometimes your jokes are too smart i've not been accused of that often how do we score this game uh stakes gotta go high it's it's the championship game i addy it's natty it's a nine nine two what do you think i'll go nine all right i'll go nine star definitely because star power is huge too huge i mean it's not i mean we can't go too high because we've done super bowls here we've done you know yeah we can't go too high because yes there's a lot of pros but are there a lot of hall of fame pros none i don't think so so what are we going at

seven eight i'll go seven eight i agree is that respect i don't want to disrespect because there are for college you have to put it in the scope of a college game right coach k loot olsen oh coach k over the arena let's go eight one eight one that's a eight one gameplay it's a good game until the end i'd say so you gotta you gotta give it respect i go eight one again maybe yeah definitely closer than a 10 point game the actual game yeah exactly i mean it's that's I mean. The score doesn't tell the story here. Let's go 8-1. The name, I mean, we got to go like five here, maybe four. Lower?

Four? Three. Four. Three-five. The year of Battier. We love you. We love you, Shane, but it's just, you know. It's just not, it doesn't, yeah, it doesn't.

You know what, let's give four. Four. Three-five is disrespectful. He was what, let's give four. Four. Three-five is disrespectful. He was a great guest. Great guest. Outstanding gentleman. Leader of men.

Seven-three is, I mean, I think that's fair. It is. You know, it was a good game. I enjoyed it. It brought me back memory, memory lane. We never talked about what we were doing in 2001 we fucked that up in the pregame huh yeah it's all right i love it was it wasn't that it wasn't that interesting for me at 15 probably 2001 yeah no well follow games with names on youtube instagram twitter and tiktok GamesWithNames on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. At GamesWithNames is the handle.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Anything you listen to, we are on. Rate and review. Leave a comment because we're looking for. I'm looking for. I see all those comments in there. What was that one comment about it was rigged the Super Bowl 28-3 was rigged

and you could see it all over me and Danny's face sorry about that sorry about writing that one dude that is a great comment the game is rigged 28-3 truthers out there what the hell I get it.

It's hard to be a Falcons fan, but... It is. I mean, that's like football QAnon right there. That's brutal. Damn. People can't handle the pressure. You sure as fuck could, dude. It either busts pipes or it makes a diamond.

That's what pressure does. My dad told me once, he goes, you know what, son? Pressure, you know what it does? You either burst your damn pipe or it makes a diamond. Like, do we have burst pipes or something? On that note, that's all for this episode of Games with Names, presented by Winbet.

Thanks so much for listening, and thanks to our sponsors, and of course, the great Shane Battier, and Gilbert Arenas. Agent Zero. Thanks for dropping in, man. I'm Sam Morrell. And I'm Sam Morrell. No, I'm Julian Edelman.

And we'll see you next time. Hey, I'm Gianna Pardenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Teheripour.

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I'm Carrie Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the Making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect