Games with Names - Mick Cronin On UCLA Basketball And Their Iconic Comeback Over Illinois

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

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

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Down one with 4.9 seconds left. The UCLA Bruins need a bucket. Donovan Dent goes coast to coast. This is Illinois versus UCLA. Welcome to Games with Names. Julian, he's Jack, and we're on the search for the greatest game of all time in the history of mankind. We've got a great episode coming out today with UCLA's men's basketball coach, Mick Cronin.

And if you haven't already, drop a like and subscribe to Games with Names. Let's go. Let's go. Games with Names is a production of I-Heart Radio. Welcome to Games with Names. Today we are looking at the Illinois versus UCLA game of last year, 2026 regular season with coach Mick Cronin from the UCLA men's basketball team coach. In one sentence, why did you pick this game?

We won. We won. That's right. We won. If I would have been a fan last year watching our team, that would have been the best game of the year because we were down 25 or something. Early.

Yeah. Early. We were way down. Yeah. And it was a high scoring game. So like even though in those games, I realized on my way home, like, I wish I could have been just like a fan. Yeah.

You know, because I'm not enjoying the, you know, I'm working. Yeah. You know, but what a game for a fan to be at. Now, is this the greatest game of all time? No. No. What is? Good question.

there'll be a lot in college basketball would be a lot of debate about that probably um you have to i would you probably have to go to championship games you know instead of regular season game like a lot of people are going to throw at you if you ask that do kentucky uh in the in what was is the great venue the palestrian philadelphia which um was Christian Leitner. The throw. Grand Hill to pass, Christian Leitner the shot.

But that wasn't the best game ever. No. There's millions. And that's what this show is. Everyone comes on the show to say what they think or what could be the best game ever. And then we score and we go into it.

Oh, okay. That's what it is? So, Coach, what's life looking like these days? We're in the off season. We're getting the team ready. We got the new recruits. We got the team jelling. when is training camp?

What is it day like for you right now? I love the football guys, training camp. You say training camp to a basketball player, you'll never sign a recruit. I ain't going to training camp. Yeah, bad. So, you know, summer you get eight weeks to operate, okay? They give you eight weeks when you're in summer school

and you get eight hours a week. That eight hours is any time you do anything is a time. you do anything as a team. So if your workouts, film, team meetings, strength and conditioning, all of that, eight hours. To me, that's enough. Some people probably obliterate that rule, as you know, in the NFL's. A lot of stuff happens. What are you talking about?

I know. We used to go by the rule book, coach. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, in football, it's different because your strength and conditioning coach, he does everything in the offseason because they're not allowed the coaches aren't allowed to touch you yeah like you know so they're out there

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

but it's it's a wild phenomenon I'm George you know we're in an era and I want your opinion you know, and the injuries, you know, people are looking out of it. You know, I got a huge scar down my leg. I played too much basketball. Yeah. Growing up.

So I was ahead of my time with playing year-round. My dad was a coach. I lived in the gym. That's all I did non-st-stit. I played other sports, but I'd just, I'd leave football practice and go in the backyard and get beat by my older brother than one-on-one. Yeah. Like, it was non-stop for me.

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

You're talking about guys not in their 30s. Yeah. That are going down in their prime of injuries. I had a guy, Jim and Clark in 23s in NBA now, but he tore his Achilles. So you just worry about overuse because you're doing the same run and jump over.

Basketball is a run and jump sport. Yeah. And cutting. On hard surface. Yes. On hard surface. And, you know, I think it's a double-edged sword with where sports have evolved

in the specialization of sports. It's a double-edged sword because... Now there's so much information that guys can sit there and they can train. Yeah. And, you know, back in Wilts Day and back in the olden days, these guys had jobs. They were playing a lot of basketball, but it was different. They were shooting stuff. Now every kid knows every single workout to maximize his body, his leg.

Even if you look at the basketball guys, they're like string, like long guys. But they're still doing the physical therapy or they're still doing the weight. weight room stuff. They're still working functionally. They're trying to get as much as they can out of their body. And then, you know, guys are naturally getting bigger, naturally stronger. And the energy's got to go somewhere. And it's almost like the analogy of putting a,

it's like when you put a big block on a small block frame. Good point. You know, you know, you. Yeah, no, there's some kind of you get overdeveloped. You get overdeveloped. And every time, like you said, you're doing that one jump or that one thing. Now one thing. Over and over. On a hard surface. And then you're going into the weight room.

Even if basketball guys aren't weight room guys like football guys, it's still probably increased 100 and 150% from what it was back in the day. Yeah. So, you know, guys are so much informed on nutrition, this, that. They're pumping out so much out of their body that the body's like, we can't do this. You reach a point of overuse wearing tear. Yeah.

And then I agree with you. guys, their body can only fire at a certain speed, for a lack of a way, better to describe it. And they've built it up to where it's going to fire at a speed that maybe their structure can't hold. So, you know, so for me, you know, we get back, you know, we brought it up because the eight weeks in the summer, it's get to know your team because we have all, we're in the transfer portal area. Yeah. We get so many guys.

Free agencies, though. Yeah. Twice a year. Yeah, it's crazy. you got to get to know them. You got to gel. Figure how are we going to win games. I'm trying to learn.

Like, I'm watching just trying to learn some of my new guys, not just how to coach them, but what they're good at and what they're deficient in. So that's a, it's a learning process. But we're not out there killing each other because it's a long year. I mean,

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

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

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

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

So they, you guys understand that. And so your energy has to be devoted to the team. Regardless, even if you're at home with your family, there's no way you're sitting there saying your mind's not on your team. Especially if you have like a three day break, the team didn't go off with the great practice at the end of the break or we didn't have a good game. Like then you're sitting, you're thinking about that all the time. So it takes, takes a lot. Oh yeah. That's, that's a definitely. You know, into, look, no, we all make a lot of money. There was a time you feel bad, like, what the hell is a guy doing? My dad, many, many of these guys coach in high school. Wasn't your dad a scout, too, baseball scout? Yeah. But the basketball coach, my dad was with the Braves 30 plus years. So, but the basketball coach, you make no money.

Yeah. It's the high school coach. Now, it's changed a little bit. But, you know, 95% of them guys are not making any money. They're teaching. But they're still, they want to win just as much as we do. Yeah. And it's like, you know, that's why I grew up seeing that.

I said, I'm never, I'm going to start in high school to get to college. Because there's no way I'm going to, like, you know, B is engrossed in it as he was. And B's competitive and not get paid. I mean, it's crazy. Like, what are you doing? I don't want to teach. Plus, I don't want to teach some of my buddies I went to high school with. I couldn't imagine teaching these guys.

I mean, you kidding me? Yes. You know. No, it's a lot. So what do you do for your off time, like right now? How do you recharge your batteries? I mean, you grew up in Cincinnati. Yep.

You're an Ohio boy. You did a lot of the Midwest, Louisville. You were over there. Now you're here in Los Angeles. For reason. For brief. for a reason. And not going back.

Not going back. But how is it living in L.A.? It's the best. Your professional life. You're coaching at UCLA. Oh, it's awesome. This is, they got the freaking yellow sea

because they got a hundred championships. Blue blood, baby. You know, I had to hear that from my goddamn roommate all the time. Matthew Slater. So if we leave here, as you know, to get to UCLA,

you turn left on sunset. Oh, I know. That's the name of my book, baby. If I ever write a book, Left on Sunset. That's fire. I mean, how many people turn left on Sunset Boulevard

to go to work? Yeah. You know, I mean, it's, a, that people from around the country, you know, that I'm sure you get this. You know,

what's it like living there? You know, like it's World War III or something. Oh, yeah, taxes. First of all, my dad taught me this a long time ago. If you pay a lot of taxes, doing something right.

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

That's it. I'm trying to get riddle. Are we going to rebound the ball this year? That's my concern. Can we sit a little lower in our stance? Come on. Yeah. Yeah.

But, you know, life here, there's a reason it's so expensive. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. People, because people want to live here. it's the best place to live. You know, well, it's cheaper in Florida. There's a reason.

A humidity. There's a reason. It's dry here. It's dry heat here. It's beautiful. Bugs. There ain't no bugs. There's a reason.

You know, so. Great Mexican food. Amen. The best. Yeah. You know, you think there's some, but there's no state tax in certain states. I've ever be careful.

They're going to hate me in those. So it's just like, yeah. Yeah, you need to entice people to move there. Like here, I mean, look, we can get in the car. Like you said, you know, I like to go down to Del Mar, San Diego, is for the listener. North County, San Diego.

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

And I'm not doing that. I grew up in that. I know, but it's a different snow. You can get to where you can snow, what do they call it, the tubing. Yeah. I mean, you get that in about an hour, hour and a half. Yeah, San Bernardino, I think. San Bernardino.

It's different living in the snow and visiting the snow. Oh, yeah, you turn around, be at the beach in an hour and a half. Exactly. Exactly. I couldn't turn around fast enough. Hey, man, that's hard stuff. No. Each guys, you know, when you got to get that scraper out.

No, man, I don't know. Those days are over. I lived in Ohio. I lived in Ohio, the snowboat. Maybe. Holy Smoli. That was a crazy, crazy time. You play with all my Coleraine guys. A lot of Colerain boys. Yeah. I lived with the Colerang guys. I'm from Colerang. Yeah. No, you know, I went to LaSalle High School, so I went to the private side. Cincinnati has some basketball, but it's a huge football area. How did you be getting, how'd you get into basketball so much? Yeah, my dad was in basketball coach forever. He's in like three or four Hall of Fame's back there as a high school coach.

Amazing. Yeah. While being the baseball scout with the Atlanta Braves. Suffice to say I was going to work in sports. I guess. You know, I didn't really know, you know. So you come from an early, if you wanted to hang out with your dad, you had to go to work with him. Yeah.

You know, because he was either going to run a summer camp at the high school for basketball, or he was going to, we were getting in the car to drive the, we'd just get in the car and drive four hours to watch some guy play and drive right back. Baseball. Yeah. And we got to go watch this picture in Knoxville. Okay. I mean, you know, bang, bang, down back. See, but that, see, it's in his blood going and watching a guy.

Yeah. And evaluating. The evaluation process and just the grind of sport, like for a lot of coaches that you guys got, you got to love this shit. Like, you know, Belichick, he had to watch film with his dad when he was, you know, 13 years old when he's in a lot. Annanapolis. You're going on road trips with your dad to go check out a pitcher 15 hours away and then have a chili dog and come back and go to school the next day. Like Skyliner,

Gold Star, by the way. I was a gold star guy. Yeah. But, you know, you get a certain age. You can't eat any of it anymore. You know, that was, you get past 30 and I don't think, you, you know, what's your chili dog out here? Montgomery and Ribs. We got a, we got a great, we got a great, Chili Dog scene out here in Los Angeles. Really? Yeah. Like I had so many of them growing up. Yeah.

You know, sushi guy now. Sushi guy. I mean, all my guys back to Cincinnati. Guy's watching this. Like, no, he's not a sushi. I'm like from the common, the west side of L.A. is the common side. Or west side of Cincinnati is the common side. Here are the west sides.

The, the, the, uh, the rich side. No. Oh, yeah. No, man. No. The west side. Brentwood, Belair. Westwood.

Santa Monica. It's technically not on the west side. It's the west side of the 405. It's on the other side of the 405. Yeah. I'm going to send you a little west side map so many. I mean, he probably knows that you got to have the recruits. Yeah, yeah.

What's considered Westella. We got to get you down to Cardney's, coach. Get you a chili dog. I've heard of that. I got to try one. It's the little train over on sunset. Spectacular chili dog. Different kind of chili.

You got pinks over there on, what is that, Vine Street or is a Libreia Melrose? They come with the, Does it come with antacids? No. No, but there is, there's, which you can go to the CVS and have some of those unlocked at the, no, I'm just. Yeah, everything is locked.

Everything, bro. Dobs up, everything. They can get a battery? Can I get a battery? Ridiculous. Got to push the little button. Have the guy come over. It's gnarly.

Now, coach, how much are you golfing right now? So golf season for me is, uh, when, the portal's about finished. Yeah. You know, so it depends when the portal, get the portal done until September. Who are you golfing with? Weekends. Weekends.

Are you golfing with other coaches? Absolutely not. We're too, yeah. I don't want to talk about basketball. Yeah. Yeah. This is your getaway. This is your escape.

Yeah. My friend's the, that one's a truck. I have a friend sold a trucking company for $100 million. He tells me he's unemployed. My friend Dave. he's unemployed. He put unemployed on his golf balls. He's retired, but he put unemployed.

I like it. You know. So then, you know, my friend, Paul Reddham, he won two Kentucky derbies. You know, he's a USC guy. But you know what these guys do for entertainment? We're on a golf trip. Okay, we're up with my buddy Eric Johnson

and Denver playing Castle Pines. They're watching. I'm sitting out on the deck having a cigar. You know, beautiful place, Castle Pines is, you got to go. I got to check it out. It's unreal. Your guys, all the Peyton Manning, John Elway, I've met them all there. Well, Peyton Manning beat us in the championship.

I know. But you're old, you know who's my guys, the older version of you, Stokely. Stokely. Stokely. He's the best, man. So anyway, I'm sitting out on the deck by myself. And I look in and these guys are laughing. I mean, these guys are laughing their ass off.

I look up on the big screen and there I am. So I opened a big door. I said, what the hell are you guys doing? They're watching my press conferences for fun. Where I'm all upset. You know, he lost the game. I mean, it's like I'm in a therapy obsession of misery. You know, this is what these guys do to me.

This is when 65-year-old men do millennial and Gen Z activities. Let's go find a clip of YouTube piss-offs of coach and let's put it out there. Ball busting never ends, man. Ball busting never ends. It's just evolving. Just straight by, and so they watched one, but then the problem was the next one would come up. Oh, yeah. The algorithm keeps serving it, maybe.

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

I mean, this is what guys do to each other. We'll be right back after this quick break. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Hello. My gosh. Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish right inside the free IHare radio app. Gets the blood going up.

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That's the ultimate language of love for a man in the man group. It is. How much pain can we inflict on our friend and watch him get embarrassed? Yes. And that's the amount of love you're showing them is when you're doing those acts. Yeah, so we've been, you know, I've been playing a little golf and doing the hammer game this summer. Yeah. Yeah, you ever play hammer?

I've never played it. I'm not, we'll play it. We're at this, you know, we're members at the same. I know. I said this weekend. You know, Jack, what were you? I think you were one, coach, are you Irish? Yeah.

Mick, you know what I mean? Jazz, as a fellow Irishman, a McCarthy over here, I was in the locker room. I can, I won't say where, but going up and down the aisles. Looking for another Irishman in there took me about seven or eight aisles. You found my locker. I did. I found Coach, Coach, Coach, I did. Coach Cronin's Locker said, we're home, baby, we're there.

There's two of us. There was an O'Connell. There was an O'Connell and Coach's locker. And I was like, all right, we're good, we good. I'd represent. I was going up and down the aisles of the locker room, baby. It's a great club. Oh, it's awesome. I love it. It's great course. Yeah, OK, it's great. We have a great course. Just a little hot, you know, next six weeks or a little hot.

It'll get hot. You got to look for those ice cold towels out there. We played on Sunday or Saturday, and it was probably 102. It was hot one. 1230. 1230. play at 8 a.m. in Del Mar, it's 70. It's chilly. You got a little ocean breeze.

You start with a pull over on. See, Coach, you're up here in the valley, man. You're toasting. Yeah, no. It's Toasty-Oasty. You got to drive south for the weekends, bro. Yeah. Now, you also, let's go over some of the stops you went through in your coaching career.

About some hot places. Hot places. Murray, Kentucky in the summer. Let's do a little word association. I'll say the stop, and you give us a short. short snippet on the stop. All right. Cincinnati.

Home. Love that. Gold Star guy, too. Louisville. Kentucky Derby and the Cardinals. Is that where your love of the horses came from? No, my dad was fourth job. As he grew up,

he worked at the racetrack. Back in the day, the horses were huge. There were no casinos other than Vegas. So he worked there. Everybody, you know, packed. So my only job I've ever had outside of coaching basketball was the parking lot at the racetrack in Cincinnati.

Oh, yeah. And people, that was like one of the craziest things for me when I went to Ohio out of California in high school. Ohio was very different. I was in Northeast Ohio since. Where he went to school, it's not Cincinnati. No. Night and day.

It's like, you know, Ohio, the Akron's and this, that. Then you jump down over to the Southern Ohio, and you forget to, you forget that you're right next to Kentucky. Indiana. Indiana. And it's got,

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

you know, you take the old pro, tractor around Cincinnati. You're two hours from Indiana, Louisville. Indiana's two, Louisville's two. Lexington's one. You get Xavier, Cincinnati. Ohio State's an hour and 40 minutes.

So it's definitely college basketball is everything. I didn't mention it. So there's all those programs are closer and they're historical. Historic. Yeah. So people say, oh, you like to, you from Ohio, you like the cabs, like, I don't even know who they are. You know, people, like some kid in Cincinnati's not rooting for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

No. He, like, if you go, here's one for you from California. You go to Cincinnati or you go to the Midwest and you ask somebody what their favorite team is. They're immediately giving you a college team. Oh, 1,000 percent. And you're in L.A. or you're in anywhere in California. And you, you ask somebody, what's your favorite team? 99% are giving you a pro answer.

Same with like New England as well. Yeah. So when you, yeah, that. Celtics. Well, you go to New England, you don't really have Patriot's Celtics. Yeah. You know, in Ohio.

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

They didn't know they have a basketball. No, no. They didn't know that. No, Ohio State. I was in, I was, I was, I was in Kent when Odin. Oh, yeah. With Greg Oden and Mike Conley, Jr. Yeah.

You would have never guessed Mike Connolly Jr. turned out to be the better pro. No. Still playing. Micro fracture surgery. Yeah. It's tough. And I still don't know what the hell that is. It's when, I know.

I think some of these guys invent stuff. You know, it's just, but though, it's so hard to, you got to think about it. There's probably like three Greg Odins in the entire world. and they probably had like three examples of how to do something to a large human being. That's true. You know what I mean? Like how are we going to fix this guy? Sometimes I avoid, avoid surgery on your knee at all costs.

And that's not a mic cronan. I'm no doctor. That's coming from doctors. Yeah. So when you have my job, you spend your life getting into orthopedics. Oh, yeah. You know, your team doctors. You meet with them every day.

So, yeah. Avoid surgery on your knee unless you have to have. Unless you have to. Just once it starts on your meniscus especially. Definitely. But yeah, no, you get in Ohio, man. I said, you're, but even anywhere in the Midwest, you're getting a college answer.

Always. You know, if you're in Indiana, you're getting, you're getting Indiana probably, what's your favorite team? Maybe a Purdue, you know, maybe a Notre Dame. You're getting a Notre Dame. Yeah. In Cincinnati, you can get Notre Dame's, big Catholic City. Yeah.

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

There's great guys, man. It was a very small town. But two and a half hours from anything, Nashville, Memphis. So Murray's State, it was great recruiting there. So you call. I call you up. We're talking. At some point, you got to ask.

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

Then they hit you. Murray State has been ready more NCAA tournaments than Auburn. How about that? Yeah, I didn't know that. And you hit him with, you're hitting them with your recruiting spilling. A kid interrupts your coach, are you Division I? That really happened. Like in my, you know, I was there three years.

Like it was, no matter how much success you have, like a kid, he don't know Murray State. Now, John Morant really helped Murray State's visibility on the, you know, in the social media world. But I was there 030405. So it was great time, no man. Great, great time in my life. What about Cincinnati? Yeah, that's home. I mean, you know, the bear cats.

You know, a lot of people say, are you Bengals from now? Bearcats. You know, bear cats. I mean, you guys got so there's been a lot of, you got the Kelsey boys coming out of there. Cincinnati got some guys. Yeah. You know, Trave? I know, Jason.

I know Jason. You want my, you want a Trave story? Let's hear it. Everybody, because of his wife. everybody now knows Trav So Trav's high school His motherfucker's a good ass player He's gonna go down

The best tight ends ever Of all time But you know like Yeah Yeah I know Somebody told me one time Like 12% of people Follow sports

In our country So mainstream now knows who Travis is It's incredible I mean I don't have to say his damn last name But I knew him He's at my camp At Cincinnati

Okay It's high school coach Barry Egan's my buddy He's at Cleveland Heights Jason, I think, was a freshman already on the football team from Coach Dantone. So Trav could play basketball now. He runs routes like he can. Yeah.

Yeah. So now he tries to blame people. And then he's out here. He's at Lakeside Country Club. And he's trying to blame people. And he's in an argument, I think, in the back, Blake Griffin, you know, about that I, I wouldn't let him play. So they FaceTime me.

Now, I understand Travis, I don't see, I don't need to seem, I love him. He's that kind of, you know, he's a lovable dude. So he could play now.

Akron, Kent State, that was his level. Because he's a power forward at 6'5. You know, when I was at Ken State, three years before. Was Gates there?

We went to the elite eight, man. I don't, I mean, is he, is he elite eight good coach? He was undersized, like,

he was like, he was like, he was like, he was a undersized power forward. He could don't. I mean, you got to remember he's thinner at the time. Yeah. So he comes to Cincinnati.

He's on his visit. So he tells Brian Kelly, I know Coach Krona. I want to go see Coach Krona. So here they come. Like, what the hell is all this commotion? Here come to Kelsey. Trav's coming back. Now, Brian Kelly is very businesslike.

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

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

So Travis, he walks out. I said, I grabbed Coach Kelly. I said, BK. You know, he's a quarterback. I said, how good. I said, he's a big time quarterback. I know him as a basketball player. He goes, oh, no, I'm moving his ass to left tackle.

I swear he did. Hey, that's a fact, bro. I'll never forget that. And I was like, oh, you know, because Jason was a center. Yeah. He's like, I'm moving his ass. And BK was all about small and fast. Well, I tell you right now, I mean,

Travis is 6'5. No, he's a big dude. He's a big man. But I don't think he would have signed if he'd have told him. No. He'd be playing left tackle. He said, look, he's, I'm moving his ass and left tackle. So now he comes back.

He's ineligible. Does you know this? I didn't know this. Yeah, Trav's going to kill me. He didn't play a lot until a senior year. A little academic issues. So he's blaming. I think he's talked about that, though, publicly.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Jason helped me get there. He had, I said. So now Butch Jones is the coach. Oh, Butch. And I'm like, bitch, how's Trab, you know, How's he doing? How's he a good guy? Because now Jason's coming back.

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

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

And he goes, can we talk to you? And, you know, football's different. Like, we really know our players because we only got 12 guys like, you know. It's, I don't, yeah, those guys had 120, 120, 125. There's backup kickers. There's backup to backup. up kickers. Right.

Like, it's a different, so they don't know them like we do. So we had a, we had a heart to heart, Coach Jones and I. He's like, can you talk to this guy? I'm like,

I'm not talking to you with all that stuff. What the hell are you wearing? Like, what are you doing? So, you know, but the football coaches are all like stoic. They're like Senator Tuberville. Like, you know,

we're not like that. That's different. Like we talk, you know, it's like, dude, what the, you doing? Look at you,

like, you're ineligible. You know, like what are you doing just trying to be not jason like you got to grow up like i'm giving him and then my trainer uh he was football and basketball bob man jean him and tratt you know it's like straightened Travis out and give bob a lot of credit and Travis would give bob credit so there was a lot of people you know Travis Travis had to find himself right yeah but anyway he's facetiming me now with all these guys last time i talked to him and it was like blaming me that i didn't

letting play. Dude, you were ineligible. Come on. And he talked about it. And that makes the story of Trave even larger than life. He's the nicest guy. He took time. We all say some people take time to find themselves. But look at like, look at for the young athlete, you know, he had a lot of stuff he had to go through as a younger football player, as a young man. He goes through it. And you're talking to a head coach of a basketball team

was like, this guy's a knucklehead. This guy now is like one of the greatest tight ends of all the time. So that's a story and a teaching lesson in its own right there of being able to swallow your pride, understand, you know, I got to get better at something, finding

a peer, finding a coach, finding someone to get you, you know, really tighten up and like, I got to get out of this. And he did it. And now he's fucking prince. The prince of America. He's a prince of America. I coached two all pros.

Well, Trav never even got on the court because of grades. Yeah. But Connor Barlin played for him. Well, that's right. So when I got to Cincinnati job, he goes, coach, I'm going to help you out. We had no players. There was no portal. He goes, I'm going to help you out, but you go, he goes, you got to do a good job.

You know, then I'm out, you know. So he played one year. And then the next year, he switched from tight end of defense, as you know. It was Big East defensive player of years. Connor's a great guy. for the Eagles now. Yeah. I mean, great guy.

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

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

I played when I was young. He's big, too, and strong. Like, Connor Barwin, what we would call side slide. blitz of pick and roll. He blitzed a pick and roll about, you know, whatever Connor is, 6-3, 240. His, like,

lateral movement was, like, I had never seen anybody move like that. And I was like, dude, I don't know what position you play, but you've got to be able to make it. Like, there's no many humans that big. And Travis, when you saw him play high school football was like that. Yeah. Like, you know, how many

guys, but you, there's so many guys that, if they put, you know, you got to be tough to put the helmet on. Yeah. But there's so many basketball guys. 1,000% that if they played football, I agree with that.

But, you know, everyone's got a plan until you get punched in the face. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone's athletic until you get hit. Hey, man, I know what I mean? That's the ultimate differentiation. That's like the ultimate equalizer. I mean, you got a plan until you get it. My buddy's trying to do a choice.

That is the only thing. That's the equalizer in football. You got to get hit, man. Is that like you're going to get hit. and you could be as athletic as you want. You could be as fast as you want, but everyone gets caught at least once, and you've got to be able to get back up.

Six five guy at Cincinnati, you're going to do it. Okay, years ago, he's going to do it. Basketball, they recruit him to go out tight end or wide receiver, whatever. Second day of practice, cross the middle, boom. He never played. He disappeared. There's my boy. So what happened.

He goes, I'm never going back. Yeah. Somebody jacked him up. He couldn't breathe for like 20 minutes. That was retirement. It's a different, because basketball is physical as hell too. It's just a different physical. You're in a phone booth together.

Conditioning in basketball is huge. Oh, yeah. Because, you know, we're not breaking and going back to the huddle. Yeah. You know, it's mental toughness in basketball is a different mental toughness because you can't let yourself get fatigued. If you said to me, like, I work for Rick Petino. He would tell you, obviously one of the best ever,

he would tell you the conditioning is a secret weapon that people don't talk about. 1,000%? Because our game never stops. And it's physical. You're leaning, you're grabbing. And got certain guys just, where it does mirror football a little bit is they don't allow themselves.

to get tired. It's not just, well, you know, you're in this much condition as soon as you reach it, you're done. Certain guys, they can go past it. You know what I'm saying. 1,000 percent. And whenever I was playing my best, I was always the best conditioned. There you go. And for the athlete, coaches can harp that. But when you're in actual great condition, you have the ability to think when you're tired. And that's what it is. Can you think when you're tired. 100% totally agree. And everything, that's like,

that's what I preach to my little girl, like, all the time. You know, I run her ass because everyone could do the rep when you're... They say I'm tough. He's running his daughter. She's nine. We got to get it right. How many down the Batch was it the other day? I just bought the fast pass to Disney for my daughter and her friend, so...

I'm softer than you, man. Nah, well, she has everything of that, too, but she can have to run a little bit. We got soccer coming up. But it's, you know, going back to the point of everyone can do it when you're full charged. Oh, yeah. The great ones don't ever. Can you reach for something else?

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Grab the free app. I heart radio. Everywhere you go. Always free. Download the free IHard radio app today. On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B.

I'm Julie Pinheiro, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people, and they were like, you smiled at us. Not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran

or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And you know, in football, you know, you stop and start a lot, but there's games where on offense you could have, you know, in a Super Bowl, we played 106 plays. It's a lot. That's a lot of plays.

It's 100. People say, well, the timeouts are. It's still a mountain of plays played. But it's also, when you're on that play, it's seven seconds and it's full go the whole time. Yeah. So then you have 40 seconds to recover because it's 35 seconds to the next play. And that's usually going. Then you have a TV timeout, which is three minutes.

But we conditioned for that. But you would be amazed to see guys in the second half, fourth quarter, how much easier it is. And if you're in better shape than that other guy. For you to beat them and get open. Yes. You could just see the conditioning. That's what I always tell a young football player, be able to run all day. There you go.

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

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

You know, this was our first time really getting to see, but, you know, the strategy of when they're tired, the subs and how they play their team, they bring more guys to the back end. You know, it's a, that's the strategy of their game, too, is the condition. Where are you down to you? break, you know, but that's really like basketball, it's the same thing. It really is. You know, you just, like, you make it so hard on a team. You never, like in our sport, if you don't, if you're never easily scored upon, so the team has to expend so much energy to just take care of the

ball and to get a basket, they can't play the whole game like. Eventually, they're just, you know, the dam's going to break. They're going to shoot early bad shots. They're going to turn the ball over. So, you know, philosophies, it's interesting, you know, in basketball philosophies, because people are going to tell you, like, they think analytic, people talking about analytics because they think it makes them look smart. What they don't realize is like, I started, like, Bob Huggins, my first year, we were doing that. We just didn't talk about it. I mean, we were doing all that stuff. And so, which means that was 96, they were doing that before where I got there.

Yeah. So, you know, we just didn't talk about analytics to brag. Like, you didn't, so when you were charting whether, you know, what your teams did per possession, points per possession is a big thing, offense, defense, or just scouting, guys going left versus right, shots taking this, that. You didn't talk about it because you didn't want anybody else to know what the hell you were doing. Exactly. Now it's so much self-promotion.

of look what we do. So I'll give you one. So you're in the media now. Okay. It's true though because like even when you say this for me. You guys did it? We were all about analytics. Way back.

And you look at 2009 against Indianapolis. It was fourth and two. We had a four point lead. We tried to go for it and we didn't get it. And everyone's like, why'd you do it? And we were in like I think our, we were negative. We were in plus 15. territory or negative. I remember this. Remember that? Kevin Falk. And it was because they scored like

three times right before. We weren't going to be able to stop them. So Bill's like, we're going to stop and win the game with this player or we're probably going to lose. And we ended up losing the game regardless because, you know, if we would have punted it, we couldn't have stopped them. Everybody at home saying, thinking, but that was like, and that was like one of those. And then people were like, what the fuck was you going for? But like, to your point, now it's, It's publicized and now we understand. Now people can, oh, just blame it on something when it used to. It was different.

All right. Now, okay, guy, this is where I said, would you do this in the football world? So in basketball, coaches love to talk too much. Okay, so we're getting ready to play your game of the game of the game, right, Illinois. So the announcers love to come. Now, football, you got all week. So they get to meet with these coordinator. They pick a few players.

There's rules, right? Mm-hmm. But on, but they're not coming to your practice, right? Right. They come on Friday practice. They come for one practice, and it's usually like the- They get a segment. They get, no, they can come all Friday. Okay.

What do they get to see? They can see, well, Friday is usually like your fast Friday. It's not a padded practice day. So it's kind of like you actually walk through your whole game plan. All right. It's not like a fast tempo. Yeah. I got it.

It's like a glorified walk. It's kind of like a glorified walkthrough. So basketball, they want to come to practice, then they want to come to the shoot around. But in basketball, they'll go on the air, talking about what you did in practice. Yeah.

Where in football, it's like, they know. They know they're not allowed to talk. They can say, oh, I talked, like, because I went to this. What was in the meeting and what they shared in the meeting, right? That's what you can talk about. There's, there is a, there is a

a code yes that you hey you can't be telling that they fucking threw it a statue of liberty fucking throw down trick play you can't say that on air but if the play is

used then you can say I saw I'm working on it that's different yeah so I don't want like all my thoughts that I'm sharing with my team about our beliefs shared on the air. Yeah.

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

the media. Yeah. That was, we handled the media because of what you're talking about. I know. I've studied you guys. You know, like, I've, I've already been diving in. Strategy matters. I've been diving into training camps just to watch what teams are doing. And I'm watching some of these teams and they're talking about exactly what they're going to work on and try to do. Yes. We need to do this. We need to do that. We need to do that. We, and we're going to emphasize this. So if you're playing them in week two, why wouldn't you go fucking emphasize that in the game plan? You know, I understand, coach.

I mean, it's just I don't know if it's guys want the announcers to like them and talk good about them, so they just tell them whatever they want. There's a lot of that too, though, now. I've noticed once I got this mic, a lot of motherfuckers try to talk to me. Right. Buddy, buddy. It's crazy.

I'm like, what the? I never got a text from this guy. What's up? It's truth? I mean, that's just the way it is. We're in a promote yourself branding world, not just for athletes, coaches, but I look at it and it's like people say, oh, he's a dick. Well, I just want to win. Like, I don't know, I don't need you talking about everything we say in this practice.

If it's a privilege that I let you in here, okay, I don't want you to talk about what everything I, you know, like our philosophy on how we're going to stop our opponent or our thoughts on, whatever. And, you know, like, that's for us. Yeah. Like, if I let you in here, like, you know, okay, you get a, you want to get a feel for our team. But whatever I share with you in the media, that's what you can talk about. Yeah. Because that's what I'm okay with. The rest of it, like, dude, that's at that. But you know what they're going to say. Because I'm using that. But you know what they're going to say to you coach. Because I, you know, I'm all sides of this now. Now they're going to say, well, who do you think pays your contract?

I don't care. It's these fans. We got to give them in-tight. We got to give them an in-depth look. No win, no contract. That's the audience. They want us to win. That's what they're going to say.

That's true. No-win, no contract. No win, no-con. You think Greg Popovich is sharing that stuff. Like, your guy. Times are changed. Your guy's not sharing. They're not around no more.

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

Yes. You know. We had Ernie in here saying the same thing. Ernie Adams, the godfather of the Patriots, quote, analytics before analytics. He'll watch the broadcast. That's what his job was. Ernie Adams was the human analytic. But again, Ernie's not a guy that uses that word even. No. But he's like everything he does is, quote, you know, we all did that. I mean, you know, but now it's, you know, but now it's. now it's just a it's a hot term. But like I already was saying, he'd watch the broadcast footage of games to get the announcers saying that same stuff that people leak to them, not just that all-22. And everybody's doing that.

So I know they're watching. So I'm trying to say something, you know, totally irrelevant. I'm not trying, or I'm trying to throw him a curb ball. Yeah. How did you pick some of this stuff up through your times coaching under Huggins? Coach Patino was, yeah, Coach Petino was a master with, that type of stuff. What is the thing you took from both those coaches that you use? That is the number one question. I'm old now and I've been,

this will be my 24th year as a head coach. Let's go, coach. But early on, I always got that. What was it like working the difference between Bob Huggins and But now that you had some time to actually think about it and over the years, what have you seen that you've used the most? They didn't accept losing. that's the similarity. Non-negotiable. Yeah, like, if you, you can never easily,

it can never just, it can't be okay to lose. You know, like, hey, we'll get them next time. You know, like, it can't, because then you let it seep in your building that it's okay to lose. It can't, for both of those guys, and they held themselves accountable. And look, you can't,

they weren't domesticated. Like, at their peaks, you can't be domesticated. Like, you got to be ate up. Can't be balanced. Yeah. That's it. I used to see movies for me. Rocky and Rocky 3, Mick said.

Meaning he can't have a, you can't have a family. You can't. It's all about basketball. So, Rocky 3. Have you guys seen this? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Mr. T.

When Mickey says, you know, you got domesticated. The worst thing that can happen to a fighter. Make your legs weak there. You got to, yeah, you got domesticated. So those guys were locked in, man. It's hard. it different. It's hard when you felt them silk sheets, coach.

It's hard. You know, but for some of us, I mean, you know, obviously you live a different life. You've had success. You've saved money. But for me, I always said this. This was my line that coaches have stolen. They like it. In coaching, you're either getting extended or extinguished.

There is no middle ground. You're doing well. They extend you. If you're, you know, you're saying you're getting extinguished. you're getting the Ziggy. So, you know, it's almost, I tell people I look at it like you, they tie you to the railroad tracks when the season starts, and you got five months to get off because or the train's coming.

You know, like in our sport, you got to make the playoffs. Yeah, like you've got to make the playoffs. If you get off, if you make the playoffs or, you know, you do well in the NCAA tournament, you got off the tracks. Yeah. Next season, they're going to tie your back down again. That's how it goes. And that's how intense the mind.

If you don't have that, if it's just, oh, well, you know, somebody asks me, you go out to eat after a game. I said, if we win, they said, what if you lose? I'm the most miserable person that's ever lived. B&J in a film. Yeah, like go out. I want to play against the guy that's going out to eat after his team loses. Now, I understand the NBA, it's different.

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

the score of the game. I was just going to say, now you've got a win margin. Yeah, and it's metrics. Yeah, win margin and the metrics in your rankings, whether it's the Ken Palm or the Bartovic or... It's a whole lot, coach. Yeah.

Which sucks because, you know, you're sitting there, and it's like, you want to, you know, you're up a certain, say you're up 15 and you want to get, you know, I want to get, you know, the football guy's walking on. I want to get him in the game. And it's like, well, if I can push this to 20, you know, but what jerk wants to win? You're up 15, you're trying to win by 20 with a minute left.

Like, it shouldn't be that way now. It's ridiculous. It's. But it's that way now. Oh, it is. And it'll sort itself out like it always, you know, we always hit these pendulums and, all facets of life. And right now it's the Wall Wall West with

NIL, with the NC2A, with all of this. You know, we don't really have any parameters of like, what's the rule set? What is this? And I think that'll all change here in the next few years, but you better hold on. Yeah. You better hold on and find some Houdini type shit

to get that rope off the damn. You got to get up. The track, we got to get Houdini'd every year. real simple. Raise money to buy players. There is, maybe. Name of the game. It's real simple. I mean, it's just, you know, the Dodgers do it every year. It's a great, it's a great former. And Dave Roberts

is the best guy, nicest guy in L.A. is a UCLA brewing. But he will tell you, like, you know, now it's not, it's still hard, you guys still got to win. Yeah. You know, but it helps. John Wooden in all his books, all his books, said the same simple line rates, I asked him

about basketball. The guy with the best players usually wins. you know, so that's how you get off the tracks. But yeah, the NIL, the portal world, you got the government fight. I mean, it's now reached levels of federal government. You know, our president knows about it. I mean, we got bigger problems in the world, you know, trying to avoid World War III in the Middle East.

And we're thinking that the president and the Congress should be worried about college sports. Like, I mean, I don't think it's eye on their list. Yeah. So, like, people banking on that, I'm like, do you guys ever watch the news? Like, I don't, I don't really think they're worried too much about, you know, NIL. If you think about it, though, if we want to get into it. Uh-oh. Look.

Oh, this is big business. Oh, yeah, that's true. NCAA is big business. There's hundreds of thousands, if not millions of jobs being created because of college sport. So the shit needs to get regulated because it. It affects a lot. It affects community. It affects city.

It affects state. It affects federal because this shit is so big. And people love it so much. So they need to get it regulated. Two things. One, it does affect the country. Everything. In a way that we do not have an Olympic training ground.

Our Olympic training ground for Olympic sports is our scholastic system. So like in Russia, you want to train an Olympian, you know, in track. Well, here they go to UCLA, you know, Jackie Joyner, Cursey and Flojo went to UCLA. That's where they trained. Yeah. You know, our, and they went to their high school and then they went to college.

So our Olympic sports and our dominance of Olympic sports and the summer games has been fed by the college system. Well, if we don't give the school some assistance and get it cleaned up, Guess what sports are going to get cut? Olympic sports. The Olympics is they're non-revenue sports. Oh, yeah. They have the same, we say Olympic sports,

but the business office. Basketball football. The business office knows them as non-revenue sports. And that's sad. We don't need that. That is tragic. Kids in our country need to be playing sports, dreams of getting scholarships and any Olympic sports.

So we got to fix it. And there's one simple way. Make them employees. but everybody's dead set against it. Well, they got to unionize. Make them employees. Let them collective bargain. Make the revenue sports.

Let them be employees. You're telling me they're not employees? I mean, you got payrolls in basketball, $15 million and up. You got payrolls in football, $40 million and up. How are they not employees? Everything's in the middle right now. It's all. Like, why are we, why, no, like the NCAA is hanged.

on, we keep hanging on to the past of the student athlete, and they're not, they're, they're, employees. They're, no, they're, they're licensed. That's what they are. They're licensed athletes to a professional entity. Right. Like, that's what we got to look at them. Well, you can't regulate that, though.

Now they can't. They got to find a way because that's essentially what I think. Make them employees. I mean, there you go. You got, there's got to be something. You know. I don't know how to stop. I don't know even know where to start.

Yeah. I mean, I think everything else is a stopgap solution that eventually will lose. You'll be right back in court and you're going to lose again. 1,000 percent. And it's that's my, you know. Well, let's move on, coach. Let's go back into time. This game took place this February.

So we're not going that far back into time, February 21st, 2026. And this is some of the things that we're going on out. side of the sport world. Goat was number one movie. That was Steph Curry's animated adventure. Yeah, but what do we Hmm.

Well, they don't make real movies anymore. This is true. One battle after another is the best recent movie. Oh, time. A movie guy coach. All time, coach. So what's your, so you're one battle after another? Well, I mean, if you're a recent,

you got to get. Watched Odyssey? I have not yet. I got a, my daughter went the other night with a friend. I got booted. I didn't get it. I paid for. it.

Yeah. So. Got to go. I recommend it, Coach. Honestly, he was awesome. I'm on it. Matt Damon's big guy. He's the man.

One battle was tight. He's born. I mean, he's Boston guy. He's actually a good guy, and he played Sonny Vicaro in Air, who's my guy. Yeah. So I was there,

red carpet, the whole thing. Amazing. How was he, why was he your guy? Sonny Vacarro, do you know? Yeah, well, he's the guy behind the whole air thing. Yeah.

He was the scout that got Jordan, right? Yeah. I was fortunate to meet Sunny as a young coach, and I wouldn't be. here if it wasn't for him. He helped a lot of young coaches. You know, back then he had the, he had the ABC All-American camp. And if you knew him and you knew people, then you were somebody in summer basketball,

which allowed Bob Huggins to think that I knew a lot of people and I could recruit for him. Yeah. So that's this fast synopsis of it. Wow. But anyway, so Sonny and I, I got to meet Matt Damon at the air thing because I was with Sonny was in Westwood, the premiere. Yeah. Nicest guy ever.

So I got to see Odyssey. That's so cool. I love that story. Yeah, number one movie, Goat. I didn't know what the hell it was. Well, that was Steph Curry's little animated. Animated movie. It's amazing.

You're reading about how much money, though. You should do some voiceover stuff. I don't know. I do have a face of a Asian on that. You got a good voice. It's like, these famous people are doing the voices, but they're making like crazy money. I know. I know.

We try and get up in there. Get a little franchise action. on that. You got a good voice, too. Me and you, we get, let's, let's do an animated day of movie. We'll make 20 million. I'll do anything. I mean, these guys, I read this article.

These guys are making 10, 20 million doing voiceover. Show up in your pajamas. Just roll out their mic. It's unbelievable. Yeah. Steve Correll's made more money. I saw. Way more money.

They can read very well too. Who is he? Who is he? Brew. Brew. We'll be right back after this quick break. The music you love. I heart radio.

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See you between the pages. Doing that crazy. Is this your escape, is watching movies? I'm a big movie guy. Chrissy, you know, my significant other, we've been together forever. She hates the fact that I rewatch the same movies. Oh. Yeah, you get that same problem.

I'm the same thing. Like, I don't want to watch Survivor or The Bachelorette. I mean, I'm just, I'm going to just watch Casino again. Yeah. Yeah, baby. What about, some of the old age of a TV show guy? Do you like any of the Yellow Stones? Are those?

I'm not, you know, I didn't grow up. A lot of commitment. Yeah, that's too much, you know, entourage. Yeah. I lived, you know, I lived for an entourage. That was our time. We were younger. Yeah.

You're still younger. But entourage, um, billions. Yeah. Ray Donovan was, I'm a, you know, Irish guy. So Ray Donovan was great. And, um, I think our guy, Tommy might have been Ray Donovan. Tom. He'll fix her action.

He's definitely in good fellas. He wants to be in good fellas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He wants to be a good thought. He wants to. And then right now we have friends and neighbors, John Hamm. Then you got a wait where everybody's waiting on Landman, the next Landman. Got to get back to.

Oh, I love Landman. I've been getting into those. What are they? Tulsa Kings. No, the Chris Pratt Prime TV show. What is it? Is it good? It's like a Navy SEAL one.

Oh, yeah? It's Navy. seal stuff and then there's like a spin-off. I like some of those Navy Seal ones. What's it, what is it? Those guys are bad ass. The baddest guys ever. The terminal list is the terminal list. Yeah. Terminalist. And there's another terminal list where it's like some CIA shit

and just the I watched one. I think I was terminalist was a while ago. Yeah, that was probably two years ago. I watched that. Yeah. It's good. Have you bet you to the end yet? Yeah. Okay. Oh, but there's a new one. There's a second season of one of the other characters, of one of the characters,

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

I have to put that. When you're the head coach, you get hit, you get donors, players, your staff. You got to put things in your phone. Oh, 1,000 percent. You got to write it down. Got to. I'd lose that. So you got to.

Yeah. Let's jump into the game, Jack. Should we get in these teams real quick? quick here. We're talking big 10 here. This is... It's still crazy to hear Big 10 for UCLA. It's crazy.

You know, it's funny. This game, go ahead. I don't want to... No, no. You go ahead, Coach. This game, after the game, I knew, like, we had... It was, like,

the tough... We won, but they were better than us. And I told Coach Underwood, you guys are going to Final Four. After the game. He looked at me, and I said, I've been there. I, you know, I'm old now.

Like, you got a nice. enough offense and size. And he got, and he had a top 10 guy, top 10 draft pick at the point. So, you know, Keaton Bogler went five in the draft to the Clippers. And the rest of these guys are, got high level college players. And he had a bench. Yeah. So like they were, to get to the final four bench is important.

You got to have depth. Yeah, there's going to be a game where you need like some guy that had that one game, your sixth, seventh man, it gets like 15 points. Something like, you know, bangs in a bunch of threes, whatever the case may be, because your best player is going to have an off night. Yeah. You know, so, it's, the NBA is so different. You know, our tournaments like your tournament, won and out.

One and out. One out, baby. I mean, you know, so they were loaded, man. Loaded. They were loaded. Great offensive team, great rebounding team, uptempo, one of the highest scoring teams in the nation. Best offensive rebounding team. the country. Incredible. They do a rare thing. They send everybody to the glass, even their point

guard. Is that that's rare? Very rare. Usually, you've played hoops in years. But you know where the top of the key is. So if you shoot it from the top of the key, someone's got to stay there. And you're the big guy. That's the guy back. You could be the big guy. You're back. Everybody, everybody else is crashing. So usually most people, the point guard's back. or some people who point one and two men are back when the shots take. Just for the fast break. Illinois, whoever shoots the ball if it's shot from the top of the key, you know, from above the foul line,

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

That's a huge if. They create a lot of mismatches underneath with those swings. and big guys like it's you got to switch a lot because they shoot the ball so well you got a lot of spot up guys around the wings straikovitch they had seven footers could shoot threes it's crazy i mean i was watching this game and like half the team is from yeah yeah yeah another coach yeah crazy a lot of baltic guys you know it's serbia but you guys got a baltic guy this year coming in we have uh three we have ones from slovenia two from uh Serbia so and one from latvia which is not it's you get them a little chabape

I don't know what the hell that is. It's like their form. Is that a Serbian food? It's like, it's a Baltic in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia. It's like a, it's like a pita filled with like lamb or ground beef. So it's kind of like a, it's kind of like their burger. Like the Greek era. Kind of shit.

Something like that, but they call it Chabape. I went out to Croatia and like all my Serbian friends always talk about it. I have to try that. You got to find one when you recruit these guys. They're here. Oh, there's a lot of them. But we got to find the spot in Westwood. You get anything.

Anything. Any ethnic food. Coach, so this big 10. Oh, my God. It's hard to say I'm in the big 10. It's starting to get more comfortable. How that is, you guys are basically pro basketball. Again, make them employees because we are pro basketball.

Going. Yeah, class on Thursday. You got to go to fucking. Exactly. Illinois on Wednesday. How about Penn State and Rutgers in Maryland? Jeez, Louise. We're in the same league.

Now, it's absurd. Coach, let's do a little word. I got a fun game that I thought about. You're a big cigar guy. Yes. Huge cigar guy. He's played golf in the C, C, C, Cigar. His big cigar guy.

Coach, let's do a little. I'm not a good drink. I'm the one Irishman that's a bad drinker. Like, at my stomach. So that's how I started. Yeah, so a lot of cigars. You know all the different types of cigars. Can't get a DUI and you don't get hung over.

No, but you can get a bad cough. Yeah, yeah. They get medicine for you. Yeah, yeah. So let's do a little word association of what type of cigar the team I'm going to say is from the Big Ten. Oh, okay. I like this. All right.

So in the cigar world, what would a Michigan Wolverine be? No, you remember I'm from Ohio. So, you know, you never like the, on the Ohio State. I'm on the Ohio State side of that rivalry. Yeah. Yeah. See, I still think as much as they won the title last try. I think football.

Yeah. Like I would go, you know, go with like a, well, you want a brand or a type of cigar. Whatever. They're a Maduro. They're a Maduro. Yeah, they're a Maduro. They're, it's a tougher smoke. It's a heavier, you know, fuller, you know, smoke.

What about them? What about Rutgers? What kind of cigar smoke? You're going to get me in trouble now. I got to play these teams. What do you talk? What kind of cigar are they? What is a struggle?

Romeo and Julietta? They've struggled. So all their coach is a great guy. They need help in the, you know, the NIL space. Honduras type cigar? Yeah. Well, I would just go with a more economical cigar because they need money. Yeah.

They don't have a lot of money, which affects winning. Yeah. What's a cheaper cigar? Yeah. I wouldn't take them all the way. I would give them like a maconudo. A maconudo. I like that.

I was going to go backwards, but we're not going that little. We're not going. I was going to go Swisher Sweet. No, no. They're not a Swisher. I thought you're going on Garsherveger. Maybe Peach Optible. What about USC coach?

Rival. The rival. What are they? I don't hate, you know, because I had muscle men in this building a few weeks ago. Good guy. He's wild. They, they, uh, I don't hate USC like the UCLA people. I just view them as a game I need to win.

So because I just didn't grow up, you know, like, you know, like, you know, I, grew up in the Xavier Cincinnati world. So. But what cigars? USC then? It would be like a Drew Estates because they're private school. Private school. So you got to go small boutique.

90,000. I like that. It's 100 grand a year there. Yeah, yeah. My daughter goes to American, so I know all about this. You see, you know, coach knows private school. That's right. Terms.

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

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

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

Great coach, Chris Collins. But, you know, Northwestern is more like, you know, Again, private school. Good broadcast school, right? Big-time broadcast school. But I would take them more in, you know, maybe like an Oliva, you know, in middle of the road. Yeah. I like that.

I like that on Aliva. All right. Good stick. Yeah. Last one, UCLA. What kind of cigar is UCLA? Cohiba. Yeah, baby.

Yeah. You know, one everybody knows. So the brand is known worldwide. Yeah. For the athletics as well as UCLA Medical. You say medical is a monster. Yeah, I mean. Number two to Mass General, but it's good.

Really? Mass General is best. You know, our... They call the UCLA of the East Coast, this place called Harvard. Yeah, yeah. All those doctors go to Mass General, you know, did all my knees, feet and stuff. How many surgeries have you had? Like 13.

Wow. I've just busted balls, coach. I was saying I'm only at three years. No, but with the Bass General, I don't want to. No, no, I would say the head of cardiology for years. I don't know if he's retired. He's a guy named Dr. Richard Schumann, Sheiman. Great guy.

Yeah. Great guy. And just so, you know, I met him in a cigar lounge, so it's okay to have a show. It's okay. We're good. And anyway, he was on the Today Show one time. He looked for delivering a baby in an elevator. Something crazy.

Something like really crazy. But anyway, he left Harvard to come here. Again, you know, I think probably got sick of, being cold. It's hard out there. I don't know, you know. Hot. We probably pay him more.

There's a lot of money here. The guy was like the number one hard guy in the world at some point. You know, after Super Bowls and, you know, national championships, you'll see, coach, you know, the roster changes. The roster changes.

This is what happens. And free agency, people overpay for, you know, to get those winning people. Yeah, yeah. To their organization. So, you know, you get that Harvard guy from Mass General, the cardiologist.

You know, you can only go 10 years, best hospital in America or the world. It's hard to do. So at UCLA, they got to pay to get those guys over there to get that winning organization. We've been on a role, though. So I would, I know your people, it's like the money of this stuff.

So quarterbacks in our world, in the money of spending big guys. And because there's so few and they can play. Like there are some big guys making over a million dollars, they can't play. Yeah, just because of size. Yeah. Because in basketball, if you get run over,

you could, because of rebounding. It's like you can stop them. Your strategy can be excellent. But they just grab it and lay it in. Yeah. You know, and you're going to foul out trying to block them out. It's free points. So you have to be big enough.

You know, so they're the ones getting overpaid the most. where there's some better players that are smaller, but there's more of them. So the quarterback is the big guy? The highest paid guys are point guards and big guys, but there's less big guys. But those are the, if you were like, that's who's getting the money the most,

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

So two, three, four is kind of all the same. You know, you can be interchangeable, but you've got to be able to rebound or you're just going to get run over. Like it just doesn't matter, like especially in the big ten. Yeah. So on this, on your roster in this game. Yeah. Jackie.

Let's go to UCLA real quick. Here we go. Who's our quarterbacks? Donovan Dent and Trent Perry had two. Donovan Dent had, he made the lay up to win it. I saw that. He bawled. And Clark did too.

Yeah, Skies the shooter. Those are my two guys that graduated. So it's a wild game. But the guy that turned this game around, if you're watching, we're down 25 and I'm looking. Early. Yeah, it's at that point, it's very, like, I'm not used to that. It's at that point I'm wondering, like, there's a way I can crawl under a floorboard and hide.

Yeah. Like, I mean, I'm, like, we lost like two games at home. in two years. You know, like my teams don't lose at home. And we're getting beat down. Yeah.

They would not miss a shot. We cannot make a shot. But we, they rattled us and we did not follow our game plan early. And I made some changes. And it was basically, we're going to do what we practiced here. Okay.

Or I'm throwing the rest of the game, putting the walk-ons in. Like, you know, so we finally did it. And Xavier Booker started making every shot. And you need that. Got him down there boxing out in the middle. Jackie, give us the game lead up and get us in the lead up of this game.

We've got to get into it, unfortunately, coach. Bring it. The lead up came off that road trip to Michigan, which is tough. How did you guys bounce back from that? What was the message after that? What was the week of practice like coming into this one? Yeah, I, you know, I messed with the media a little bit because we were so bad. I worry about our players taking too much heat on social.

Now that, you know, plus people bet, you know, so they get different. It's ridiculous. It's a whole world. I'm okay. The heat don't bother me. Like, I don't give it. I could care less. So sometimes it's a purposeful say something to get everybody on me to forget about how bad we're playing.

Yeah. So we kind of pulled that. That was an all-timer. I love that one. Yeah, it was a little bit of on purpose. But nobody wanted Michigan and Michigan State. No. you know, you got a sweet 16 team,

and Michigan might have had the most talented team in the last 10 years. Yeah. Seriously. Yeah, I mean, ridiculous. A lot of quarterbacks on that team. Yeah, some big time, dudes. So, and old guys, like, they had guys coming off the bench that started at Ohio State. It's crazy.

They were loaded. But, you know, I think when you're a veteran coach, you don't, what people, fans are panicking, but you're not at all. Right. If you're playing in the Big Ten, it's like playing pro basketball. Like, you got to just keep trying to win two out of three. You're not winning 10 in a row. You know, it's like, it's just, I know that that happened once in the NFL,

but it's just not really realistic. The NBA, I mean, you know, it just doesn't happen. Right. You know, if you win, it's a great year you win 60. You lost 23. Yeah. So in this Big Ten, like, you just can't panic. No.

Just keep trying to get better, make adjustments. on to Cincinnati. On to Cincinnati. There it is. You were waiting to say. I was waiting to drop there. I love that. On the Illinois, baby.

You have to. Yeah, we were on Illinois. You know, other people worried about. But you have to have a sense of urgency. But that's the coach's job. You have to like turn the page. You have to. The coach has got to be the igniter to like,

not like, like you said at the beginning of this interview. Both of the coaches you coached under Huggins and Patino never accepted losing. No. So you can't accept the loss, but you have to try to show this young athlete like, all right, we have another fucking game. That sucked, but we have to have urgency going into this game and learn all the shit that we lost and we didn't do well in this game and do all the things that we did well in that game.

And we got to bring it forward and try to improve each week to get our team in the best situation to go do damage in the fucking tournament. And confidence gets shaken, especially the younger the athlete. And that's the hardest, that's the, that's the biggest hurdle for any athlete is the confidence. And we came out in this game and immediately got down 25 because of the previous, like, their confidence was shaken. So as a coach, there's times where you're, you know, I'm trying to take the pressure off them, trying to get their confidence back.

That's why Xavier Booker started banging in threes. And everybody's body language changed. You know, so in basketball, it's a funny thing. If one guy starts making shots, other guys start making shots. Contagious. But it goes both ways with that. It's like a sneeze. A bucket's coming flurries, baby.

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

he started making shots the whole game changed. I mean, Jules, it's like I said he after you three putt it on 16 the other next play mentality. Got to have that next play mentality, man. You played golf long enough, man. You're going to three putt. It's the worst feeling in the world. I think I three putted five.

You and me both, brother. Five green. You and me both. You three putted five birdie looks. Oh my God. That was true. Where the hell was that at? El Cab.

Well, the greens were that fast, huh? No, I was just that bad. No, they were fast, bro. I'm going to say they were. I haven't been playing, bro. I need some time of experience. I haven't played. You ever hear a lag putt in?

I mean, take the far. You know? You ever hear a lag putting? I mean, you know. Man, some of them are like these, you know how are the two tiered systems there? Sometimes it's tough. I'm not good with those tiers either.

Yeah, the greens are. That's where you get. That's what makes O'Cab tough. For you get got. You got to learn how to get the pace down hill. Exactly. Do you waterboard your putter when you got home? No.

No. It's not the putter. Some kind of cruel and unusual punishment, bro. butter. Yeah, yeah. It was me. It's usually. That's what, yeah. I got to blame something. I got to blame something. Come on, man. You've played with my stepson. He's like a plus three. Yeah, he's a stick. You know, and I try, he always wants to buy new stuff. And it's like, brother, you know, it's, it's not the arrow. Gadget guy, gadget guy. He just got to go shoot it. Yeah. Go shoot it a lot. We'll be right back after this quick break.

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On the new podcast Solita We should share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people, and they were like, you smiled at us,

a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll get you some new ones. Jackie, get in the game. Let's talk about this game. we mentioned some of it earlier. Starts out not the way we wanted to for the Bruins. Illinois gets on that 20 to 3 run.

Gets up to 33 to 10. UCLA weathered a long scoring drought. But like we said earlier, get some buckets from the Sky Clarks. There were a little defense leading to offense from Donovan Dent, big steel there. Cut it little by little. That was, I feel that the dent steel

layup was the turning point of the first half. Was it? Could have been. I still say Xavier Booker. start banging in some threes. Yeah. That's man. You know. Little by little.

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

Yeah. It's the classic cliche. No live ball turnovers. Yeah, I'm going to tell you why. It pisses the coach off. And it can send him like, you know,

to a dark place. I'm speaking as the coach. Yeah. So when you do it, then you know the, like, if you can get a couple steel layups, you know, and you're playing against, a coach, it's just that, you know, he's losing his mind, like literally losing his mind. Like, you want to make a guy call timeout steel layup, two, steel layups. The guy can't call time out fast enough.

He's like out on half court in the rough face. So you're right. I mean, it's a, it's like a pick six. Pick six. It is like a pick six. Honestly, coach, we had John Gruden in here not that long ago. and we asked him about bad football, what to you,

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

imagine if everybody got to handle the football. That's a problem. So that's a big problem. So we have to teach everybody how to hand, and when I say handles, I don't mean dribble. I mean, to handle the ball,

You got to catch it with two hands. You'd be shocked at how many guys trying to catch it with one. You know, John Wooden, the fundamentals, how to tie your shoes. We really, we practice with two hands,

pass with two hands. Ball security. Very, if you came to my practice, you'd be, you'd say, you'd be shocked how much I sound like him with that. Yeah. You know, and, you know,

how do you give your Tom Brady, you fumble to snap, run a lap. Like, when you turn it over in our practice, you immediately, just do five pushups. You don't need to just do them. Bang, as quick as you can do them.

If you got some roll with your shoulder, you do five sit-ups. Like ball security. His job security. It is, I mean, you cannot, and if you don't take care of the ball on the road, you're getting blown out. Like, you're getting blown out. Like, really bad. Like, really bad.

So turnovers is bad basketball, Coach Mick. Yes, and let me tell you what, there's two types of turnovers. Add this. There's a, like, Stan Van Gundy, Jeff Van Gundy shooting turnover. Oh, shitty shot? There you go. There it is.

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

Shooting turner. I like that. I like the shooting turnover. That's probably been ruined because of Steph Curry. Yeah, but he doesn't, like, there's only, But, like, everyone thinks they could do a Steph Curry shot. That's a fucking shoot-in turn over. He's not.

You're not him, bro. I mean, I see that. One-hand shot. It's amazing how many kids try to take one-hand shots. So I'll say to him, I'll say, well, let me, like, hey, you can shoot whatever shot you want if you make a hot, you make it all the time. Like, you know, part of coaching is knowing what your guys can make. But they never make them. Their trainer works on them, but they don't make them.

And I say to them, all right, if I was to give you a million dollars, if you, you know, you make that shot, that's how you shoot it. How would you shoot it? Oh, I'd shoot it with two hands. Then shoot it with two hands. Then shoot it with two hands. Because you're trying to, first of all, I'm paying you a million dollars nowadays. It still feels like, it's a college coach.

You know, if you paid a guy 10,000, you got fired 10 years ago. You know, but you're trying to be a, like, what are you doing? Yeah. Like, who told you to do that? It goes back to the, where we're at now. Everyone's trying to catch one-handed snags. even in football. I agree.

Because they want the, they want the play to go hype on social, man. Yeah, got to get the likes up. Ball security. That's why we don't just talk about turnovers. Ball security is all part of it, but you're just shooting turnovers. I gave you, that's a nugget right there.

I like that nugget. We got to put that nugget of wisdom in our pocket, not forget that. Coach, so a half time. Yes. What's our score? We're cut it to seven. You cut it to 73.

It's like a win. Because I thought it was long. long over. Major cut. My thing was, look, we felt we could score on them because their big guys didn't come.

They play what's called drop coverage. And our big guys could shoot. So we had two big guys, Xavier Booker and Tyler Billito, who got drafted. Xavier Booker shot 43% from three. Jeez. Tyler Billito shot 46.

And then Eric Daley, who's like our, when we play small would be the next guy, he shoots threes. So we thought we could get quality open shots. But we can't give up 50 in the second half and win guys. No. But I was still, because of the, you mentioned the previous games trying to inject that we're going to win this game

because we got beat bad to two previous games, but everybody did if you played Michigan, Michigan State on a row in a row. So I was trying to like, we're going to win, but we can't give, we can't give up 100. We're going to win if we give up 100. Yeah. But they also, like, they're going to start, like,

they made everything to start the game, Jules. Yeah. I was watching. You know, the law of averages, like, they're going to start, but we just got to start making the right guys shoot. We were, like, you can't, for them, you couldn't let their wings shoot, you know, Hummer Cows, Davis, like, they don't miss.

These guys don't miss. We got to start making their big center shoot. We got to start making some other guys shoot the tail ball. them other guys ain't missing. So that was really the message. But still trying to get our guys to believe they could win. And we saw that in a big way in the second half. Come on, 29% shooting in the second half?

Yeah, they shot 30. They scored 36. And then 22% in OT. I mean, that was locking down, man. And we still had to lay it in it to buzzer to win. That tells you how good they were. Oh, yeah. I mean, they were the real deal.

I thought they would get to the finals. I didn't think they'd beat Michigan. but I did think that they would get to the finals. Yukon beat them. Back team. Back team. Yukon just out-tuffed them. Yukon, they...

In that game, they knocked us out. Now, we didn't have our best players. Yeah. Because he had hurt his knee in the Big Ten tournament. But Yukon just, their defense in the tournament carried them all the way to the finals. And they held Michigan in 69. That was insane. That was incredible.

And Michigan was averaging 99 going into the game. Yeah. In the tournament. You got to be tough. You can't. They've had a sneaky, unbelievable, like 20 years. Oh, yeah. Oh.

I know. I'm just saying a national outsider looking into the sport. I mean, they were, they've always been good. I was in New England for a long time and they were always fucking, they were always good. And they still haven't like really. You were there coach Calhoun. Yeah. Legend.

Legend. Coach Cal, Jim Calhoun. To me, if you look, you know, if people talk about great coaches of the last 30 years. they're going to give you Rick Petino, Mike Shoshchevsky. And I think that you've got to put Jim Calhoun right there. I mean, if you look at what he did, it's just unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah.

To me, he's the most underrated elite coach. You know, obviously you go Coach Wooden and Coach Knight. Coach Wooden, 60s, 70s, coach Knight 80s. And then becomes the coach Petino, Coach Shoshvsky time. Yeah. But Jim Calhoun gets overlooked, man. There's always those guys. Three natties? I mean, come on. Like, you understand that Yukon didn't even, like, they had like intermaral basketball.

What you see? It's not like some powerhouse blue blood that he came into. He made it. Blue blood, though. Blue blood. They were a no blood. No, but he, he made it. They didn't even have life pumping into their veins. They are a blue blood now, damn near for the last 20 years. Well, is. Yeah, would you call them? I guess I would say they were a throw in.

When they created a baby. East Conference guy. It was all Catholic schools. Yeah. All Catholic schools. They were throwing. Dave Gavitt threw Yukon in there with Providence, Seaton Hall, St. John's, you know,

Georgetown. You know, they threw them in. Yeah. They were throw in now. Yukon was a throw in. Like they were terrible, man. Terrible. And he would not only,

look what he's done. I mean, none of what happens, obviously Danny's been on a great run, but none of that happens if it's not for Jim Calvin. And he had great pros. I mean, just unbelievable run. Legend. One of his, he lost one that, you know, I think that he probably want to have back that I think of.

But he beat the best Duke team maybe that Cheshvsky had, the Coach K had. Jeez. I don't want to say 99. Let me see. Yeah, they beat. I remember the Georgia Tech one. Then 99 was, yeah, that was 99 to beat Coach K 77, 74. That was Duke with Elton Brand.

Oh, that's right. Chris Burgess, William Avery, Chris Carrowell. Badier. Trajan Langdon. Cory McGettie? Wow. Cory McGettie came off the bench. Like they had Don't.

Cincinnati, we beat them early in the season in Alaska. They won't end up in November. And then they never lost until the finals. Coach Calhoun got him. Rip Hamilton. Rip. Wow. That's right.

Holy smokes. Hey, love Rip. Me and Rip. German Oaks, baby. Yeah, but he... I know, Rip lives here. Does Rip live here? Yeah, he moved.

I just saw him, actually. I saw him at a concert recently. No, Rip moved. His kids, yeah, Rip's a good guy. He's a great dude. He was a big Pat's guy too, because that's when they were killing it. Yeah, Rip moved.

His wife's from here. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. Shit. I saw him walking around Westwood, like, five years ago. What are you doing? He's like, I'm moving.

I'm coming to me and my, I think the wife wanted to... Let's go back. Let's go with shit. She definitely won that one. But it's the right move. You're going to love it. Yeah, I mean, the mask.

You remember he used to have the broken cheap bone. He used to wear the mask. And he kept it. He kept it. It was his thing. Calling card, man. Rips a man. Yeah, he kept it.

Let's put a bow on this game, Jack. We got to talk about that awesome. Last buzzer, beater from Donovan Dent, coast to coast, shades of the old Mountain West. What he used to do back there for Coach Petino, New Mexico? Yeah, I swear. And Richard. Can you take it through that last play, coach?

sorry. Two plays. First of all, we couldn't get to rebound again. They're hard to stop. And they went up back up on. They were large.

We couldn't get to rebound. You know, it's funny with these plays. Like, when it works, it's a great play. You know, it's just, how, what a shot,

everybody's happy. If it doesn't go in, then they talk about the strategy of the setup of the play. What was it? He should have been here. He should have been here. you know, but it's funny, like, when it, like, nobody's saying, well, what was the strategy?

Yeah. You know, like, yeah, we just said, go out and throw it to him and go lay it in. Like, if you watch the play, there's a strategy to the play. Not that it was rocket science, but we, I actually made a change with Tyler setting a backscreen. Once we went on the court, I gave him a sign. Tyler Bidlito came up and set a back screen. You know, obviously, you're just trying to get your fastest guy at the rim, with the ball.

And you've got to remind them how much that you get one dribble per second. So like I made sure I explained to him you can get a layup. How many dribbles was it?

4.9 seconds on the clock. That's probably three dribbles. Four. You got a dribble per second. Because they get, you don't want to panic and thinking and he shoots a half-quart shot. Yeah.

So you want to try to get, you don't want to. A reminder. Yep. You don't want the guy to catch the ball coming back towards the ball. So you got to try to, you got to try to zoom cut him, you know, what you would call. Hit him on the run. The run.

The run, the post, you know, get him at the, you know, on a slant. You want to get him on a slam. You want to hit him on the run. On the ride. So if you stop him, that's time. There you go. So you hit him in stride. You got to hit him in stride.

So you got to start him in the, if you notice, I start him. If you notice, I start him in the corner so he can get some run up at the ball and get, you know. Eat some of the distance. Yeah. It's almost like I put him on a slam pattern, hit him on a run. But a big part of that is like you got as a coach because a kid, a kid don't know how many dribbles he's got. I mean, he's got a defender. So he's not like he's watching the clock.

So I have to put it in his head. Four dribbles. You got a dribble per second. So when I saw four nine, I said, you got four. four dribbles. I think he only took three. I think so, too. See, but that goes into, that's not analytics, that's coaching.

That right there, the firm reminder before the play that wins the game. Those little things are what a coach's job is. And that's what good coaching looks like. You know what a lot of people try to do in those scenarios with a little less time? What?

Because the dribbles take too much time. The clock doesn't start until you catch it. The football version of the hook and ladder. Boom, boom, yeah. I've seen that. Well, that was Christian or the Leitner one was almost like that. No, no. Yeah, you throw it ahead, catch it.

Hook and ladder. I'll give you guys. Watch a home run type. Like a home run type. So Coach Huggins drew it up and he threw it long. Kenny Martin caught it. pitch it to Melvin Leavitt, dunked it, we wanted to buzzer.

That's amazing, yep. Of a play drawn up in a huddle to win a big game, that's the best I've ever seen. I was in the huddle for that one. What shot out hugs? 1999, Nattie versus...

99 Cincinnati Duke. That was the Great Alaskan shootout. We got to look at... That was the old days, buddy, the Great Alaskan shoot out. RIP, that didn't even exist anymore, is it? Alaskin' shit. Yeah, it's all, you know, times have changed.

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

You got every, all sorts of, we are a fan of storming the court or not storming the court. They stormed after this one. Yeah, I mean. Got a storm, right? It was a big game. Look. I, I think it's a fun. But we got to keep our players healthy.

Gotta be safe. Gotta be safe. You know, safety's a concern for sure, you know. Rolling up on a seven-footer's ankle. Yeah. A little. And football. You know what I worry about football is like the kid,

there's so many on a football storming, field storming. In a college football, they break down the bear. I mean, kids are getting trampled. Trampled. I'm from Cincinnati. It's like the Who concert. Looked out, you know. I mean, people died.

I mean, there was a stampede. try to get into the who the group like in late 70s. Yeah. Bad deal, man. So in football, there's so many. It's like, whoa, whoa, some kids are getting trampled. And not forget the athletes at that point. No.

Kids are getting tramp. I don't know. So we can't win on that one, man. So I'm staying away from that. Can't do whatever the hell you want. That's my answer. Amen. The Bruins win this thing, 95, 94.

This is the spark. This one got him going. This was the spark going into the. The tourney. That's right. Turned it up after this. Yeah, we beat a team makes the final four. Pretty sweet.

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

You know, at that time, you're just trying to be comforting. You know, that, like, I, that's like trying to, they don't want to hear it, though, bro. Like, you're an athlete. Like, I'm doing it. I'm like, they don't want to hear it. It's just shut up. Like, you know, you're trying to be comforting, but I'm looking at them, and they're like, they're just like, no, we don't want to feel better.

They don't want my speech that this is, there's going to be tougher things in life. Yeah. Because at that moment, they just, they want to be pissed off that he's hurt. They want to be miserable. You know, it's not fair. And just let them be. Just, you know, just let them be. I think, I try to think like my players.

Like, like right now, they don't want to hear my Zen BS. You know, like, either did Tyler. Like, he's crying. We lose the Yukon. He can't play in his last college game. I mean, it just sucks. Yeah. Like, it's not the time to.

try to talk to him. Just let him be miserable and then talk later. Sometimes the silence is the learning. Yeah. You know, because when you're... You've lost some games. I've lost a lot of games and I've been... You play with the Patriots, I mean, you didn't lose much.

We lost. You know, you... What's your toughest loss with them? Or Kent State was one or... No, I would say probably one, either the AFC championship in 13 or 15, And those were tough losses because, you know, you overcome so much during the year

and you get to the game right before the Super Bowl and you get knocked out. Those were tough. But like what you were talking about with your player, the injury battle is always tough. I've been carted off with an ACL in a preseason game, knowing, you know, like... Preseason, too.

You're sitting there and you're doing the math. You got... There's just a long... And I understood what I had. to go through because I've been through it, but it's, it's tough for a young person that may, may have gone through his first big injury or injury. Those first, like, hours after are just, you have so many emotions coming up, the worst things you can possibly think about. Oh, yeah. You know, am I done? And am I done for not playing the sport anymore? You know,

do I have family members relying on me? Do I have this? That's all going through. It's all. It's all going through. And just like you said, sometimes that silence or do you need anything to talk about, let me know, goes further because at that time, you don't want to hear anything. Your head's already racing. It's already racing. You can't hear them. But there's going to be a time. There's going to be a time within a week. Then it's time. That's going to be a time where the coach, the PT, the doctor, where the kid is trying to be. to accept the learning process. Yeah, because now he's thought it all out.

He's thought it all out. You got to let him think it all out. Yeah. Now he's ready to listen. Regardless, if you say, don't think of the, he already thought about the worst. He's already thinking about that. He's got to go through those demons himself.

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See you between the pages. I'll give you a coaching nugget. Some young people, and this is when they come to college, especially, or high school. And then it happened. It could happen multiple times. The same guy, what he learned.

It's really hard to coach people that aren't ready to listen. Some, we kidding around about Travis Kelsey earlier. He's the best. He wasn't ready to listen for whatever reason, his maturity stage, whatever it was. Once he got there, then it was a matter of, because he was always a bright guy and a great guy. but his talent.

That's what you said, why does a guy, how does a guy not play for three years at Cincinnati in football? Not Ohio State. Back then, Cincinnati was,

you know, they're okay, but. And, oh, you're gonna, I didn't say that. And then all of a sudden,

he's a, like, great tight end. The guy didn't play for three years. You know, he wasn't ready. To learn.

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

They cut that thing off and it's not getting any bigger. And then what is it after that? You're going to eat that goddamn tomato and it's going to be shit. Yeah, with young people, it's like there's different, they're not, they don't know they need. And we were all young and didn't listen. But it's just, exactly. There's something that turned it where I thank God, all right, I listened at that point of my life. Because a lot of people won't.

And they're going to, they're going to lose that opportunity. So it's the quick, it's the guys, because all the greatest at anything, they're learning all day long. They're smart enough to learn. Now that sounds like, what do you mean? You're smart enough to listen to learn. Hey, somebody had to tell you, you were smart enough to not say, I'm not, no, I want to play quarterback. If I don't make it playing quarterback, I'm not playing.

You're obviously smart enough than when somebody said, you're not going to make it playing quarterback. Without a doubt. And I still, I loved the game of football. I knew, I swallowed my pride and knew I probably wasn't. I mean, I walk into the OTAs and I see Tom bang a fucking 35 yard out. I'm like, I can't do that. I'm good.

But you know what I mean? So, but it's different. You know, that's what you really hope for. You had to have a little arm. I can sling it. I can sling it,

but just not those guys, I mean, it's like anything. You see the best at the best. They don't miss. Routes on air, it's a thousand for a thousand. If you're 89% on routes on air,

you can't be a pro quarterback. Wow. You see, you just dropped, I didn't know that. They just dropped something. on me there. You know what I mean?

That makes sense. When you start adding variables, that's when they go to 70%. The variable being a fucking six foot six dude trying to take your head off line coverage of blitz. So if you can't do it on routes on air, you can't do it. All right. My theory is the same with hoops. Some guys can, they can.

I'm talking about quarterback, though. Yeah. Some guys can routes on air. There are 99, 100%. and then the game starts. Well, then those are variables. I'm saying those guys that do it 100%. They get the chances.

They have the chance. Yeah, yeah. But then there's certain guys when the game starts. They turn it on. Exactly. And then some guys, they look great in the game starts. See, that's, but that can happen in basketball. It's true.

It's different in football, I think, a little. But there's some quarterbacks. How many, there's more bust than make it. Yeah. So they got the routes on air and all that stuff. No, yeah. Then the game starts. And, you know, with Lawrence Taylor rushing your ass, all of a sudden, you can't.

I have the process it all at the line. See how old I am? I said Lawrence Taylor. No. Legend, we talk about L.T. L.L.L. Ray Lewis. Love Ray Lewis.

I mean, you know, anybody can throw all them routes on air without. But not everyone could. I'm telling you. No, I know. I know what you're saying. No, it's in a small group. Yes. But then you find out who can play when they turn the lights on.

When they turn the lights on. That's what I was getting at. Like in both sports, there's guys that we call them, you know, summer ballers. That's what we call them in basketball. Summer ballers. Oh, yeah, you look good in the individuals. Or they just, they look good in the pickup. And pick up to, yeah.

Makes every shot in pickup. And then, you know, the game starts, you know. That's like in OTAs when you don't have pads. Same time. There's always, there's always five, six guys that stand out in spring camps. There. And then sometimes only one of those guys transforms that into when there's pads or sometimes none of them do.

Yeah. See, that's when people ask them, you get basketball guys in here. How's your team looking? Man, it's summer. There's nobody in the stands. Coaches, those not standing on the other end with his scouting report.

Like, I don't care how the guy looks in the summer. We'll find out when the real running starts. You know, my version of when we put pads on, you know, not that we would, but I'd like to, but that'd be fun. then work on rebound. But, you know, when you put the pads on, okay, and there's real defense and referees, then you find out.

I think right now, like what we use. It's like OTAs. Summer basketball is like OTAs. 1,000 percent, which what OTAs for us was, was an installation and learning of the scheme and what the organization is trying to harp. Okay? We're not competing yet.

Everyone is learning right now. That's it. Because there's going to be a time when you throw those fucking pads on that you're going to compete, but we're not there yet. Once we all learn where to go, what a coverage is, the language we have to speak,

and we all do that, that's when we go compete, and that's when the pads are thrown on. So you know, it's just, it's all the same. But some guys look good in that stuff. Some guys look great in that stuff.

And then you throw the pads on and, no. Other guys don't look stand out. I've coached a lot of guys. A lot of that, too. They don't stand out in an individual workout at all. But then you throw them in the team? Then you put the pads on and he's the best player. Yep.

There's that too. I made hockey as. You know, our best player for me since I've been at UCLA. He's now with the Milwaukee Bucks. He's been with the Miami Heat for three years. Just a warrior. Yeah. Just a war.

I mean, just the warrior. Got to have that dog. So fun to watch on those teams, man. We've got to grade this game. Man, we're taking too much a coach. All good. What are we got here? Let's name the game.

We got names that we came up with or if there's a specific name that you remember it as, we can go with that. We got the comeback game. We got the Donovan Dendent game. We got the OT thriller or any game that you have. I like the comeback game. I like that.

Come back game. I mean, I'm not used to being down 23. No. And if you are, you don't ever come back. No. Not in, geez. Score the game. Is this the greatest game of all time?

Let's score it. We encourage deathless. When you say all time? Of all time. UCLA. Anything. Of any sport. But we're going to see.

We'll determine that after we go through the scoring process. I see. We got a technical process. Yes. Back to analytics. Back to analytics, coach. Statement to this regular season game. Hi.

Zero to 10. Decimals encouraged. Take for the resume. But like you got to, coach, you got to think about this, though. Yeah. had, you know, the immaculate reception, we've had basketball championships, world champions, world championships, world cups on this, you know, finals, but regular season stakes this game for you, 0-10.

Regular season 8. I like that. Because this is also a conference game against a, you know, division upon, I don't know how that works in college. And where we were at that time in the season, we needed it bad. I'm going to go with 7.8. Oh, I didn't know we were going detailed like that. I, decimals encouraged.

Said it four times, coach. With an 8.2. We're in the same ballpark here, guys. It's right on the board. You know, it's all right. Star power of this game, 0 to 10 decimals encouraged. A lot of stars.

Future library back in there. I mean, but we're comparing them to NBA. It's tough. I mean, that's the toughness of doing a very early, like the game was only last year. You know, but 3.2. 3.2. But in five years, there could be fucking 30 stars on this game.

No, it won't be. I'm going to go at the 5.8. I want with the 6.0. we're all in the same ballpark care. The gameplay of this game. Your quality? Oh, yeah. 86.

86. I like that score. This is an enjoyable watch. I mean, after the game, coach, that this is a great college basketball game. I'm going to go at the 8.8. I like that.

Shut out my blurb. Shout out. That is 7.9. A little low for me, but all right, we'll keep it. The name of the game, the comeback game. J-O-10. We got to grade the name, coach. Yeah, I mean, it's not very original.

So, you know, eight. I like it. I like it. I'm going to go with the flat eight too. I'm going to match coach. Where's the pizza since we're doing this? I mean, you know. The what?

We're going to do pizza reviews. We're going decimals. There's no peace. This is the game review, coach. It's the game review. No, I love it. I want you to have some pie when we're doing it, maybe. Next time we'll bring in.

All right. We'll bring in. We have a sponsorship coming and maybe. Yeah. We get it. You're close to. You're close to flower. pizza.

Flower Cafe very good. Very delicious. Very delicious. Very delicious. A hell of a pie. My daughter and I do this. I like that. What is this on the list right here?

7.11. That is a good score. That puts us at our new. Let me go here. That puts us at our new tied 408th game with the 2006 NFC wildcard Dallas versus Seattle.

Was that the game? Who did that with the... We did that with... Bennett. Marty B, I believe. Was it Marty or was it Michael? No, let me look. 2006. Was that the game that they threw five interceptions?

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

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

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

We sent their ass home on that bus with the Lutterman Jackets. Brow. Got out of here with that Litterman Jackets. It's pro football. This is a pros, man. Who's wearing a Letterman jacket and the pros? JJ Watt over here thinking he's cool. That was all time.

It was cute. It was cute. It was cute. You got to do that kind of shit to get your team going sometimes. I'm not big on what I call the corny stuff. That rara. Well, you played for Coach Belichick. There they are.

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

Oh, that's my boy. That's his circle. Full circle moment. That's Connor Barwin. That's the strength coach. No, Connor played football at Cincinnati, but he played basketball for me. He's with the Eagles now. What the fuck? Wild, look at this. Wild. Full circle. That's a guy. Connor.

We just so happened to throw this up and coached one of these fucking guys. See, Connor Barre, he works for the Eagles now. Tremendous guy. He's a big ass mother. I remember him too. Dude, imagine that guy like trapping you in the press in the basketball game. Oh, my God.

You know what I'm saying? Like, he had unreal quick defeat for a guy that size. Oh, yeah. I was like, dude, are you really good in football? You know, he played tight end at Cincinnati. Yeah. They flipped him to defensive. Oh, yeah.

It's usually the mid-major schools. They do that. Oh, man. All, hey, email, Jules. That was. The Sintz fans are coming for us, maybe. All Bearcat fans. talking football.

Dude, they played for... That was... Big East, baby. That was like... Brian Kelly went undefeated, and then he took the Notre Dame job. That was 13, 14. That was 20 years ago, coach.

No. Hell, I was there. When was it? But anyway... I mean, 2000... Luke Fickle made the playoff. Lost Alabama. That's right.

That was what? 12 years ago? No, I was like... But that's... That's kind of like when... Mid-major footballs... It is because... Kent State.

Kent State. 1,000% we're in there. We're low major football. We're still in the Big 12. But since, come on, man, coach.

I love you, bro. That's big. I got to fight for my, that's my alma mater. Man, they're not mid-major. Oh,

man. Not in basketball. No. But in football. Oh, boy. Email Julian Edelman. Coach, you missed anything about this game.

No, remember I told Brad Underwood after the game, you're going to the final four. He'll, that's a fact. We're going to have to get them on. Called it. Called your shot.

I, I, I just could sit, man. They just have so many weapons. You know, and, um, you coached so many games. That's, I don't, I don't remember. I don't remember anything else. I just remember down 23 looking, thinking, where do I? How do I get under the floor boards and escape? Like, this is bad.

But coach, you didn't. And what'd you do? You nod. You scratched. Claude your way out of the fucking darkness. And you went out and had a huge game and sparked your team. That was huge. The buzzer, baby.

This was the, this was the igniter of the last year's team to go on to the tournament. And that's going to be a foundational game for this year. For this year's team. This is going to be a foundational game for this year's team because we went in and we beat the shit out of Illinois. We go do our tournament. Our best player doesn't play in the tournament. we restock, we use all the shit we learned last year and all from the losses,

and we're going to bring UCLA to the final four this year. It is important to get those guys, like our five guys have played a lot that are back. They got into some big games. They get them into some big games. You got to feel it. Great reps. So, you know, Tyler got hurt. We played.

Battle test. We beat Michigan State Big Ten tournament. And then the next day, you know, they got to play in the semis against Purdue. and a lot of the young guys played more than they would have if Tyler would have been there. And it came down to the wire. And then, you know, we gave Yukon a hell of a game. So those guys got experience from it. So, yeah, it was.

But all I think about is, you know, we were rolling what happens if he doesn't get hurt. We get all that's how to coach. You know, you get, but you got to let you got to try to let it go. Like what was, you know. It's the worst. Like you're thinking if you wouldn't have three putted five times. I could have hit, I could have broke 80. There you go.

How many times I say the same damn thing? But that's the worst thing about sports. Like you think about your, I think about some of the losses more than I think about the times we want. Welcome to coach. Because now as a coach, just so you know, let's say we go 32 and 6 this year. You know, I'm going to go 0 and 6 and the players are going to go 32 and 0. because that's just the reality. Like, you know, you should have,

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

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

So I'm too busy trying to deal with the reality of the, you know, my cleanup and wrap up is what did we do as a staff? Well, what can we do better going forward? And what do you learn from it? That's really all that matters in anything. Because if you're not getting better, you're getting worse. You tend to learn more when you lose. I think the really good coaches, I read this on your guy,

Coach Belichick, that every year he tried to self-evaluate. Oh, yeah. You know, it was real big into self-evaluating. And last year, you could have won a Super Bowl, which he obviously won many,

and still self-evaluating on what you should have improved, what you need to improve on. Well, I could bring that to another level. we used to self-evaluate quarterly. Oh, yeah. Weekly, daily.

I mean, that's, if you're trying to improve at anything, you're not going to improve by highlighting the things you've done well. No. You're going to improve by trying to get the things you haven't done well and try to get those to the things that you do well while not losing the things that you do well. So you're always, like we would, I mean, we, we fucking filmed stretching.

That's some coach wooden stuff. That really is. Like, I'm sitting here. That's John Wooden stuff. And the coaching staff would watch the whole practice as a coaching staff together before they would break it down. Like at night. They'd watch this fucking stretch to go through our indie drills, go to our seven on sevens, go to our blitz pickup, go to our team, go into our in between periods of what our quarter. They would watch it all as a team as a coaching staff together.

So, like, they're evaluating everything. It's crazy. Yeah. We'll be right back after this quick break. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Hello. My gosh.

Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish, right inside the free IHard Radio app. Gets the blood going up. Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like the Tom Green Farmcast and park the bus. Now with full video. We're building a ramp for Tony Hawk. It's the same hosts and the same chemistry with all the hello.

hilarious moments you've been missing right on your screen. Cheers. Open the free IHR Radio app. Search video podcasts and tap watch. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook on the Big Money Players Network. Our show is extremely accessible to first time listeners.

Each week, we talk to someone in show business, aka the biz, and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicists for letting them do our show. We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, not that great. Actually, can you help me shape this? How about we flip it on his head, right? How about we flip the script? What if the surprise woman,

who actually you think is the straight man is actually the one who's acting weird? Adam Scott. This entire time, you've been expecting Adam Sandler to come to visit the show. I would never expect. Let go of that. I have, I would never set expectations for something like that to happen. If the universe allows for something like that to happen, I'm open to it. I'm always going to accept.

You know, Danny McBride, fine. Yeah, it's all this fragile masculinity exuding. I could smell it walking down the hallway, to be honest with you. I was like, I was like, is that weed? Nope, it's fragile masculinity. Ben Stiller, no. Because a lot of times out of context, people don't get it or even know what a circle is. is. You know what I mean?

They're like, oh, it's so stupid. Everyone's so dumb except for you. And fake. Right. Fake and also not interested or just like, oh, I've got my life. I don't care about your life. And a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Oh, and by the way, Will Ferrell told us personally he loves the show and he wants to be a guest on every episode, but he's just so busy.

Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hoops are little different. We play so many more games. But college hoop, you guys are in that same world where everything matters. So all those games are crazy. Yeah, you have very little, you know, especially you're playing tournaments. You have, like, you have no prep time. Yeah, no.

You know, whether it's like we play, we're in a tournament down in San Diego with St. Mary's, Texas, and Georgetown. So you're going to play Thursday, Friday. Like your prep time while your kids are, resting and eating, you're watching film. But it's the same amount of prep time that they get. So whoever is most efficient and most effective with their prep time gives their team the best chance to win.

Yes. It's just condensed. And that's what I'm talking about. They would go and evaluate how we were prepping so hardcore to try to, because they thought whoever preps the best through the week wins the game. So how do we make our prep flawless? And like that's, that's the crazy shit. Yeah, and there's a, it's just very little sleep.

No. And like, you saw what, that's why you didn't want to coach. That's why I don't want to coach. The very, very little sleep. I remember coach iso, being on the phone with him and like, we made the final four. And I was asking for his advice on something. And he's like, you know, he goes, you know this is what you've worked your whole life for. Now you're not going to sleep the next four days.

right. And I was like, I didn't think I could if I wanted to coach. Like, you know, I don't drink energy drinks, but if I was, you know, I don't even know, like, you take a nap is what you do. I mean, you basically take a nap. I mean, you're like, you know, your adrenaline rush is just at a level that's hard to describe as a coach. The hardest thing to do is sleep. When you know you actually, like you have to get some sleep. You have to. And I'm not big on medicine and stuff like that. So I don't, I get concerned. I mean, I take medicine, but like taking sleeping pills and stuff. I don't do it.

But a lot of coaches do. Oh, yeah. I mean, you got to reboot the brain. Well, I just think, you know, like a scotch and a cohebeble get the job done. Hey, we all got our own ways. That's my kind of medicine. I'm so, man. Coach, I'm so excited that you came into the nut house.

Everyone go check out UCLA men's basketball this year. now we get in some court side seats to you come on we just make it sure we can be bought we can be bought because muscle men came in here talking a loud game and I was like yo I'm I'm pretty cool with coach Mick so yeah yeah you know what I

tried to buy us man he tried to buy us he said court side whenever we want and open invite to any practice that was his package he's not coming to I know this guy's not coming up I know this guy's not coming to watch practice hey look at he's a coach he's a player's coach he knows

I noticed, dude, he ain't coming to watch practice. Coach, I'd be there, baby. You bring you whenever you want. Heck yeah. Whenever you want. It's tough for to get courtsides at Pauley Pavilion, but I'll take care of you. All right, baby. We'll get there.

We'll get there. Coach, thanks so much for coming on. Great to be here. Thanks, coach. You guys having me. That was awesome. Man, what a game. Coach Cronin, the man.

Mick. The man. I'd run through a brick wall for him. You know, defensive slides. I'll do whatever it takes, man. Of course you would, Jack. Irish guy, Irish guy. We got to stick together out here.

You all stick together. Irish gym rats, baby. Just a couple guys over here building skyscrapers in New York. Do we do, baby. Okay. What we do, baby. Backbone. Backbone.

That's been fun. That was fun. Coach, come back anytime, man. Anytime. We're still on the debate. UCLA, USC, Nut House here in Los Angeles. What direction we're going? Contact our NIL agent or broker.

You know what? It's going to be up to. the the Nut House comment section. This is true. That's where we'll find out who we're going to be supporting, who our alliance will go. It's whoever, or how do I say that, Jack?

I'm not a word. High is bitter. We are for sale. Whoever leaves the fattest duffel bag of cash on the front steps to the Nutt House. A little note inside. I was talking about comment section, but yeah. Oh, yeah, I'm talking about making, we'll do that too. We'll do that too. But yeah, comment section, give us a yeah, give us a USC or UCLA in the comments. Yeah, Trojan. Fight on or go Bruins?

What are they? I don't. I don't know. UCLA, we need a hand signal. All I know is Matthew Slater. That's right. Bill Walton, Matthew Slater. Shout out.

Sharon Davis. Shut out. Oh, we do got BD. BD. Scow. We like both. We like guys. I mean, we got some UCLA alum roots.

We do. We also got, you know, he also got a little bit of that. Trojan. Hey, baby, fart on. Reggie Bush, Matt Leonard, all the guys. Oh, my God. Lord, have mercy. O. J. Mayo, shout out.

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

We'll get Jackie in the for some. Me and Coach Cronin, ride in a cart, smoking a cigar. Just two Irish guys on a Jewish club. Isn't that the best? That's America for you. That's America right there. Oh, man. Love it.

Well, that's been another episode of Games with Names. Subscribe on Apple, podcast, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcast, comment on a game you want us to do. And remember, rate and review. Leave us a five-star review on Spotify while you're there. And remember to follow Games with Names on all the Instagram or all the socials. All the Instagram.

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Got to hit that. And we'll see you guys next week. Games with names of production of I-HeartRadio. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, where you get your podcasts. I'm talking to a felon right now with face tattoos, and I cannot decide if I like him or not.

That was a caller from my podcast, Therapy Gecko, where I speak with anonymous callers about their problems, relationships, and anything else in the depths of their mind. It all happens on my show, Therapy Gecko. So if you're trying to get out of your own head and into someone else's, this is the podcast for you. Listen to Therapy Gecko on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The entire draft room groans because you just took the guy they wanted. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zachary Eisen, host of the award-winning late-round podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. Listen to the late-round fantasy football podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. College football will hijack your weekend, ruin your sleep, and break your heart. And that's why we make the Solid Verbal College Football Show. I'm Ty Hildenbrand.

He's Dan Rubinstein. Every week we preview the games that matter and the storylines that are going to ignite your group chat. And you can join us in the aftermath as we react to what happened, why it matters, and how the sport went completely bonkers yet again. Listen to the Solid Verbal College Football Show on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Big Lives, we take a single cultural icon. People like Jane Fonda, George Michael, Little Richard.

And we pull apart the story behind the image. Discovering forgotten interviews that changed exactly how we see these giants of our culture. We're here for the messy, the brilliant, the human version of our heroes. I'm Emmanuel Jochi. I'm Kai Right. And this is Big Lives. Listen to Big Lives on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In February of 2024, celebrated illustrator and children's book author, Patra Mathers and her husband Michael, mailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know they had died by suicide. Dear honies, this is goodbye. By the time you get this letter, both Petra and I will be dead. Next stop, Wonderland. Why did they do it? And what did it do to the people they left behind?

Listen to Death of an Artist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.