The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Good Follow - Dearica Hamby joins the Show, Rose BC Wins Unrivaled + A Bracket Breakdown w/ The Underdogs & More

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

This week on Good Follow: Ros & Logan discuss the March Madness 1 seed controversy, Unrivaled semi-final upsets, and Rose BC winning the Unrvialed Championship. Then Peter Keating & Jordan Brenner from Underdogs join the show to break down the women’s March Madness bracket - predicting upsets, cinderellas, and more. Later, Ros sits down with WNBA & Unrivaled forward Dearica Hamby to discuss her winning bucket to upset the Owls, being a mom in the league, and her friendship with Kelsey Plum.  Finally, Ros shares her March Madness pick of the week presented by DraftKings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everyone? Welcome to Good Follow presented by DraftKings. I'm Roz Gordon-Wadde. She is Logan Hackett. And we are so excited today because we were reunited in person in Miami actually we're in Miami because we went to the unrivaled playoffs and championship we brought this from the ground the streamers from the championship game of unrivaled and we went together we did shooting contest, photo shoots. Like what did you think Logan, coming out here? Amazing. I absolutely loved it.

The whole fan fest was so much fun. I showed them how I played basketball. Yeah, I mean. Which I can't. Made it in. I did after a few 10, 20 tries. All she had to do was bend her knees folks, but you made it in, so did Team Rose. they won the championship, but it was so cool.

I know that was your first time at Unrivaled. And it was really cool to do the Playoffs and Championship together. We'll always have these streamers, girl. I love when we're in person. I love that. Logan and Roz do Miami. But you know what, guys, we've got an awesome show for you today. Today's show, we have

D'Erica Hamby joining the show. She's a wonderful guest. She has her daughter, Amaya with us and she's gonna represent team vinyl and the LA Sparks. Her vinyl fell short in the championship game but guess what? We also have an exclusive interview with Azarae Stevens. Make sure you go find that.

We dropped that exclusively for you to watch. And she talks about the championship journey for Team Rose at Unrivaled. And guys, guess what? The NCAA bracket is set for the tournament for March Madness. So we've got an analytical breakdown. We brought in the underdogs who are going to break down upsets and Cinderella's and like really take a deep dive at thinking about what this bracket could look like and who's gonna bust it.

Oh, Natasha Cloud joins the Liberty. It's getting cloudy. It's getting cloudy in New York. And Issa Rae and Asia Wilson. Now that is the power link up that we love to see. Love it. Love to see. And as always y'all, we love you so much. We appreciate y'all so much

and make sure to like, comment and subscribe. I feel like one of those youtubers saying that subscribe click the bell click the button like notify But seriously, please yes, please All your friends about is go to work and just ramp, please But we drop every single Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern time and we'll be waiting for you. So please come and watch us at 7 p.m. Eastern Time and we'll be waiting for you. So please come and watch us. The bell is here. Logan is here in person. We've got pom poms. We've got confetti.

We've got we're ready to go. We are absolutely ready and I'm ready for March Madness. Literally cannot wait. It is one of the most exciting times of the year, other than Christmas for some people. But the bracket was set and there was some controversy. I feel these days we can't do much without having some controversy. UCLA, Texas, USC, and South Carolina were named as number one seeds and UCLA is getting this for the first time. Great accomplishment for them. Yeah. Though some coaches had some things to say. Let's take a look. I'm a little bit of surprised because we manufacture our schedule, put ourselves in a position to be the number one overall seed.

And I do think if you do, you know, the blind test and you put our resume against any other team in the field, I think you'll pick us. I never thought I'd be one seed and feel disrespected, but I thought the committee, I think. I think you'll pick us. I never thought I'd be a one seed and feel disrespected, but I thought the committee, I just, I thought there would be very little chance we would be the number four overall and number one. Sometimes I don't understand people who make decisions in women's basketball and why they do what they do.

And certainly with this committee, I would love to ask some questions. You know what? That's crazy. You know, and I feel both coaches coaches and especially for Coach Gottlieb, like I at least understand why she doesn't love her number one seed because in her bracket, you know, that's so hard. They got the number two seed at UConn. Yeah.

Right. And you know, this is a UConn team that is healthy, that is in rhythm, that has 110 straight. And yeah, like USC beat UConn earlier in the season, but this UConn team looks completely different. Actually that loss may end up being something that they can hold on to to motivate them. If everything works out where the both of those teams don't get upset, if they end up meeting in the Elite 8, and don't forget there's the added motivation and urgency, this is

a UConn team that loves each other, and they want to do this for their upperclassmen. They want to send them out with the championship. It's been elusive for this group of UConn upperclassmen. So I think, you know, that's tough for USC, but also for fans. Yeah, right. Because what's definitely coming out of this bracket is that the Final Four will definitely either not have Juju Watkins or it may not have Paige Becker's who are two of the best players in the country and it's possible they could both get upset

It could be possible that we have none of them neither in in in the final four. So You know, this is this is part of it. Yeah, I was when I saw Dawn's dailies comments I immediately went to do my little notes, or not even notes, but like analytics on all the schedules. And I actually have some interesting takeaways that I think validates what she was saying. South Carolina played 15 ranked games. Two of them came in the conference tournament.

Their losses were to UConn Texas and UCLA. The lowest ranked team they played was Tennessee at 18, but the average ranking of the ranked teams was 9.1. Whereas you look at USC, the average ranking of their 11 ranked games was 11.2. Texas 9.9, which hot take, I don't think Texas should get a number one seed. Wow, yeah.

I mean, but that was the argument being made by Coach Daly is that she said, well, the next year we won't schedule that way. Yeah. You know, cause she thought she should have been rewarded for that scheduling. Yeah, and honestly cuz that she thought she should have been rewarded for that scheduling Yeah, and honestly, I agree with her. Yeah, we do have to move on to unraveled which yesterday We had such a fun night attending and we saw the Rose lift the trophy

Congratulations team Rose It was interesting though because if you don't know Unraveled, the fourth quarter is determined by a winning score. And this winning score was reached with a free throw. Yeah, it was almost ironic because I feel like everybody's complained all season that games shouldn't end with a free throw. And then the little championship game

ends with a free throw with Team Rose. But they're the historic first ever champions And you know for all their talk that you know certain media pundits and lists pick them to be last Do you know who picked them to be first and win the chip? Girl yes, it was me On this show our first preseason show before unrivaled started, for the rose to win it. Look at you. Look at me. It's like you're pro or something. You know what? I'm not so much of a genius. It's really just that Chelsea Grey and her team are such badasses.

You know what? At one point she got hot. She was shooting from three and I was like, no way, this is going to be insane. The winning score is going to be met with a Chelsea Grey from three and I was like, no way. This is going to be insane. The winning score is gonna be met with a Chelsea Grey three. 62 was the number. I was so excited for it and it didn't happen. But go on about Chelsea Grey. You know what I'm saying though, she absolutely though, when it comes to winning time, whether it was the championship game or the semi-final,

it was Chelsea Grey bucket after bucket or assist. I mean, the semi-final game where she dropped 39 was insane. And after that game, her jersey, I believe her jersey is the only one that sold out at unrivaled. Like it just, after the semi-final game, it was gone. And so, I mean, it's between her ability to step back, to be clutch, to come at you in a flurry,

to make her teammates better. Some of those dimes, those passes she's throwing are works of art. And ultimately what it tells tells me Chelsea's healthy. She's rejuvenated. She's playing with joy. She's talking her mess. And actually, I'm like, yo, aces, baby, they aces are back, baby. As long as they stay healthy.

The new look aces because Chelsea's doing her thing. Dang. I also want to shout out one more player, Azarae Stevens. Azarae was incredible in a championship game. Her 19 points and 18 rebounds were huge, especially with Angel Reese out. Shout out Defensive Player of the Year for Unrivaled. But with her out, everything that Azaray Stevens gave that team was so needed.

And I think they shaved her on a couple of blocks that she had. I think they didn't give her her full credit, but she was just the force. So shout out to Azrae Stevens, who also did her thing in the one-on-one tournament. So she had a really great Unrivaled. And I want to backtrack just a tiny bit quickly,

cause you were at the semifinals and the whole year it was Lunar Owls, and then what do you do? Everything and they got upset. What was that like? You know, first shout out to the lunar owl. Yeah. Like they set the standard for the entire season for unrivaled so much so that when they were in a situation in a one and done situation in the semi-final game

and team vinyl, the fourth seed, you know, that it, it was such a big deal that they got upset that there was so much raw emotion on the court. One team vinyl beat the Lunar Owls because the Owls were that great. So it made the defeat that much more. It was pandemonium. That semi final night of those two games were the most lit was the most lit night of unrivaled play between the celebrities on the floor, between Chelsea, Grave going for 39 and one

game in the next game. You know, the Owls getting knocked down down goes the Owls. I want to shout out a couple of people. Teresa Weatherspoon, Coach Spoon. This is the type of thing that happens when Spoon is your coach and her players after the game, multiple said it was Spoon who was telling us, stay with it. Keep believing. Y'all got this because they were down 10 heading into the fourth.

Yeah. Shout out to Erica Hamby with a tough game winning bucket going through the chest and the bump of the reigning defensive player heading into the fourth. Yeah. Shout out to Erica Hamby with a tough game winning bucket going through the chest and the bump of the reigning defensive player of the year and the unrivaled MVP, great job, in Nafisa Collier. That was a tough bucket where she had to change directions, take the contact, and step through and finish with all the pressure in the world.

She did that. Want to shout out our girl, Jordan Canada. She came on the show. 10 of her 21 points were in the fourth quarter. Jordan was so clutch and Ryan Howard, who we know to be a bucket. Guess what? In the in the playoffs, she was great defensively. Blocking so many shots locked in. Ryan, take that. Take that with you to Atlanta because you are just as good defensively as you are offensively. So both sides of the court. Real quick, if you had to use one word to describe

the first season of Unrivaled and everything is done for women's basketball. Oh, gosh, this might be really hard. I don't think it was that whole sentence. What would it be? Success. Yeah. Unrivaled was a success. I feel on so many levels like it showcased that an investment in women's sports and women's basketball from salaries to facilities to making the players partners via equity that that would work. It showcased that storylines, rivalries, trash talk like it's good for the game, you know, and and the one on one tournament was a hit. It was a rating splash for the league, and it ended up being talked about

through the men's All-Star weekend and beyond social media content. I think Unrivaled always knew that part of their job this season was to storytell. And that's not always the way leagues think. And like, here's the way we they really focused on giving us the players. And we just wanted more. We just wanted to consume more and then meaningful brand partnerships like what they did with the Sephora like walk-in tunnel the the level of fits that we got and the moment it became so more than just taking a brand's money or saying oh you do the NBA can you also do the W no

be having like really intentional partnerships where you can bring out the best in each other. I thought the broadcast coverage was great. I mean, you were great. Thank you. I'm not even talking about your flowers. They had like Lisa Leslie, Candace Parker, Renee Montgomery from the studio to the game broadcast. It was really well covered. And ultimately, I had to make a list for this.

But ultimately, this was about the players. This was about the product, the games. It was awesome. And the big takeaway was Unrivaled, I'll give you another word, was fun. It was so fun. Eight weeks and it was fun. So you know what?

Great job, Unrivaled. Well, y'all coming up, we're looking at the March at the March Madness bracket from a bit of a different lens. We have Peter Keating and Jordan Brenner, the host of The Underdog Show, coming on, and I'm very excited to see what they have to say. So we'll be right back. Welcome back to Good Follow. March Madness is here and today we are joined by two experts in brackets and upsets and Cinderella's. Oh my, we have the host of the underdogs here, Peter Keating, and Jordan Brenner. What's up, guys? Thank you so much for joining the

show. How's it going? Thanks for having us. Yeah, we're psyched to be here. All right. For those who may not know who you are and what you do, can you just kind of give a rundown? Sure. Peter and I like long walks on the beach, cocktails, but no. Peter and I have been working together somehow since our days at ESPN. I'm not sure how long, how he's put up with me for 20 years, but it's going on. So we, we pioneered.

Yeah. We pioneered something called giant killers at ESPN, which looks for upsets in the NCAA tournament. We did it on the men's side for years and years. Now we're hosting the underdogs podcast. We write for the athletic, it's called bracket breakers. And we've expanded our analytics based look at upsets in the tournament to the women's side.

We love that. That's a very like, that's a way to look at upsets in the tournament to the women's side. We love that. That's a very, like, that's a way to look at the game and the women's game that we would love to hear more from. You know, there's breaking down what's happening on the court. There's the storylines, there's getting to know personalities. But I think women's basketball could always use

even more nitty gritty and like analytics ways to look at the game, guys.. Yeah because what you're left with when you don't have good data is a lot of hot takes and personality based coverage and it's great to get to know the athletes and the coaches as people it's important but it's also very easy when you don't have any numbers or any analytics or any evidence for what you're saying basically to just offer up a bunch of opinions, which might be true or might not be true. Like every time around this year, around this time every year,

we hear simultaneously from people who say, wow, this team is so young and brash and inexperienced, they don't know enough to be afraid. And then at the same time, people on the same TV set are saying, wow, this team has senior leadership. It's so important to have experience. And you're like, well, which one is true? And how do we know?

And there's a million things like that. And there's no good excuse anymore, given the audience, given the interest, given the talent that's flowing into the game to have women's sports analytics lagging as far as they currently do behind their male counterparts. Right. Yeah, and you're just providing more tools for fandom, you know,

different ways to see and explain the game. And then you mix it all together because I don't think there's just hot takes. And I think numbers can't just stand alone either. I think it all comes together in a pot. So, Logan, let's get into this tournament bracket. Yeah, I cannot wait to hear y'all's takes, but I want to start with the Spokane one region. You have UCLA as the number one top seed. It was their first time getting that

overall number one. And they're actually going for their first ever Final Four appearance, which I don't know why. I thought that they've been in the Final Four before. But just on paper, their side or their region does look quite easy. If there were to be a challenge, where do you think that would happen? Well, I'll tell you one team that's sort of off the radar and could lose in the first round, but like our model likes them a lot better than their seed. So if you're looking for a deep, deep sleeper in that region, try Michigan State. Okay. We actually have them as a better overall team than NC State, the two seed. And if that's not enough, they force turnovers on a quarter of opponents' possessions

that's really, really, really high. And one thing we've learned over the years is that anything teams underdogs do to force extra possessions really, really helps them. Because think about it. Everyone, unless you're just crazy good and lucky, everyone's gonna have a cold shooting night at some point, right? And in a seven-game series in the NBA, okay, you move on to the

next game. In the NCAA tournament, you're done. So you need something to protect you against cold shooting. The two biggest things typically, offensive rebounding, because if you're gonna miss a lot of shots, go get the ball back, and forcing turnovers, limiting the other team's possession, giving yourself extra ones. So Michigan State would be a deep sleeper, but Peter, who else coming out of the region do you like? Well, I just want to say the great thing about that, about getting extra possessions, is there's a lot of work involved. And you can rebuild a team or build a team up, make it

better really quickly by focusing on players who are relentless at crashing the boards and working to get turnovers. So you see a lot of what we call giant killers emerge by focusing on these effort-based tactics that really help you build that extra possessions and survive not being as good a shooting team as your opponent. I just want to say I you know everybody has their complaints about who should have gotten number ones and who should have been seated higher. Nobody remembers that if you're going to see somebody higher you kind of need to see somebody lower or say somebody that should have been seated lower. Well, here you go. I love North Carolina State story from last season, but there's no way they should be a two seed.

You can name a half a dozen teams up the top of your head probably that are better, including the number three seed here, LSU, who I think has, you know, I mean, there's nobody tougher and they got a great, you know, maybe the great best three player combination in the country. They're obviously going to be a real threat to UCLA. It pains me to say Michigan State like Jordan did because, you know, in the first round, they face Harvard and Harmony Turner is one of my favorite players in the whole

country. And they were a lot of fun to watch. And they finally, after narrow losses, narrow misses in the IVs the last couple of years, finally made the tournament. But so I was all set to go somewhere and pronounce that Harvard was gonna be a great giant killer, but they're gonna run into Michigan State and I like that pick a lot. He's being modest by the way, that's his alma mater.

Oh, wait, which one? Harvard or Michigan? Harvard. Harvard. You know, my alma mater, Stanford, missed the tournament for the first time in like 36 37 years So I'm wait. Wait. Are you saying that to give us the chance to bring up the greatest giant killing story of all time of all history? Number one to lose game back in the

Number one Stanford lost in the women's tournament to number 16 Harvard for 16 win ever in a 64. You really know we know also, but respect and shout out to Alison Feaster, who was on that team and made that happen. And perhaps Harmony Turner on this year's Harvard team can be a special player to lead them into that upset over Michigan State. And it could be revenge of the nerds season all over. We need the nerds to make some moves.

But guys, let's move to the Birmingham to region. The Gamecocks, they're trying to run it back to back for the chip. There are some key contenders in this region, including the two seed Duke, the three seed North Carolina. What do teams have to do to try and stop South Carolina? Who by the way, was one of the teams that was not happy with their one seed. It was like the only person who was happy

with their seeding was Corey Close with the number one overall seed for UCLA. Before we get to the upsets, I just want to point out when South Carolina absolutely got smoked by UConn in February, and I saw that game and I was like it was the first time I ever saw a Don Caeli team look a step slow or out of it and it was kind of alarming and I was like it's either gonna go one of two

ways right either either they are a step slow and it's just not their year or I feel sorry for who they're gonna play next okay since since then they beat Arkansas they crushed Vanderb, one of my personal favorite giant killing possibilities, twice. They torched Ole Miss, and then they beat number 15 Kentucky by 14 points, number 10 Oklahoma by 23 points, and then Texas by 22. So they're a truck rolling downhill.

And so we can pick some upset possibilities, but they've moved very close, if not at the top of our leaderboard in our spreadsheets. And they're going to be extremely tough out. They're more than 13 points per 100 possessions better than anyone else in their region. It's just crazy. Wow. If you're looking for an upset though, Peter, what do you think? West Virginia over Carolina in the second round? There's a great second round. Yeah, great second round possibility. I want to throw out one crazy first round thing though. Every now and then we see a kind of a single player

have a big impact. So there's a player named Diamond Johnson, who's one of the very top players in steals in the whole country. And by herself, basically, she's elevated their ballhawking and their thievery. They just seize all these possessions from their opponents. They're a crazy pick, but if you watch them, you'll watch them irritate the heck out of the better team and um...

they're an off-the-wall pic but basically because of her their turnover rate is very high and i'll just add that i know probably i'll move on to another region real quick remember we said about michigan state nancy state it's even more pronounced with west virginia and carolina west virginia again higher rating in our system and they lead the country in forcing turnover so it's like a if you if you like that theory for the two seven game in the other region you got to love it for the six three in this region 30 seconds or less

what is the system you keep referring to like what model are you putting all this through Peter you want to do this 25 seconds we take every team's results and we adjust them by the strength of their opponents and their margins of victory we create a power ratings and then we adjust them by the strength of their opponents and their margins of victory. We create a power ratings and then we adjust that by the characteristics that help teams pull upsets in past tournaments. And I'd love to know how to do this myself, but we've got a team of Furman math professors

behind the data. Oh wow, okay, this is legit. Well, I'm not an expert, but just looking at this bracket, I feel like the most chaos and or potential upsets could come from the Birmingham three region. In the number one spot you have Texas and then TCU on an incredible run with experienced players is in is in part in number two. And then you have Notre Dame in that three spot with their trio of guards, but they haven't really been doing great lately. So if there were to be a Cinderella story, do you think it would come from this region?

Well, I mentioned Norfolk State with their one player driving an incredible turnover rate. This is another off the wall deep dog, but out in Montana, at Montana State, there's a freshman point guard named Taylee Cherrick who is, I think, if she's not leading the country in steel percentage, it's only because she hasn't been playing enough minutes because she had to grow into the role of, because she's a freshman. That's a really interesting, crazy, the analytics love Montana State. I don't know if that's a famous enough team to pick, but that's kind of a cool off the wall pick in this region.

Sure, and I think you're right, if you're gonna have a region where it's not a one or a two seed, this is your region. So, I mean, I don't know that we can really consider Notre Dame or Cinderella, but they certainly, first of all, we all know they have the upside to battle with anyone if they get it going. They had a slow finish to the season.

So they've got, they're in a one and done situation, so they've got to turn it around fast. Guys, we've got one more region to the season. So they've got to, they're in a one and done situation. So they've got to turn it around fast. Guys, we've got one more region to look at. I'm going to take you to the Spokane four region. USC earned a number one seed there. Guess what? Coach Gottlieb did not like her number one seed. Why?

Because in that bracket at a two seed is Yukon. And yeah, right. Right. And, and you know, if they don't get upset, they can be in the Elite Eight. And it could be a matchup between Juju Watkins and her squad and Pagebeckers and her squad, if that ends up holding true without an upset. Like, who has the edge here? I mean, our our model thinks UConn is is significantly better than USC.

I think I think Peter and I both would take UConn to win the national championship at this point. Peter, you agree? Yeah, look, last year, what were the criticisms of UConn? They were injured and they didn't have their best lineup on the court all the time. And what was their strength of schedule? This year, you can't hold either one

of those things against them. They finally have backers and put on the court at the same time. And by some measures, Sarah Strong has been the most efficient player in the entire country and they've played a tougher schedule. They're right up there in our spreadsheets with South Carolina.

And I think Kansas State, if they get by Kentucky, assuming both advance out of the first round, I think Kansas State can give USC some problems in the Sweet 16. If finally they're supposed to finally get Aoka Lee back for the tournament, right? I mean, she was the inside presence to their fantastic fleet of guards that surrounded her.

And they were a top 10 team until she got hurt. And I think they, you know, they did not end the year looking good, but when they have everybody playing, they're really, they're really good. And I need to hear everyone stop complaining about, especially if you got a one seed. If you're a one seed, be happy.

And by the way, USC, you're the weakest of the four one seeds. You should get the best two seed. So I love Lindsay Gottlieb, shout out. She's from Westchester, New York, but like Lindsay, come on. Hey guys, just to bring this all full circle, you pointed out how nice of a player Sarah Strong is. in case you didn't know, because earlier we talked about Harvard taking down a one seed in the women's tournament.

I forget what year that was back in the day. Allison Feaster led that team. Sarah's Allison Feaster's daughter. So come on. Wait, how did we go this far? I actually did not know that. That's fantastic. Yes, that was quite a tournament history.

Our conversation just came like just had a full arc. The full circle. I mean, well, now I'm a Sarah Strong fan, too. So now we're going to be even harder and go go harder on you. Oh, that's right. Because of the Harvard Ties alumni. OK, we need to put you on the spot and we just need some names. Who do you got one in this whole thing? Yukon. It's their time.

And the analytics support that choice, guys? The analytics, at least our power ratings have them in South Carolina as like 1A and 1B. And then there's a little drop off. So let's, it's close enough. And I just, the eye test and everything else works. All right, we'll come back and find you if you're right. Or if not. And you know what, you cons going into the tournament on a 10 game winning streak, right? Yeah. So I mean, that that's not analytics. What are the what's a hot take on that? They're hot,

hot, hot. They got momentum. They're heading is the most basic stat of all. So it kind of we're gonna claim wins. Yeah. Well, y'all, Jordan and Peter, thank you so much for joining us today. We have Yukon locked in. Apparently, I'm about to take everything you just said back to my brackets. But y'all, make sure to watch your show, Underdogs, on YouTube or wherever else you hear your

podcasts. And coming up, we have a very special exclusive interview with the one and only Dierika Hamby. We'll be right back. Hey, what's up, good follow? This is Roz Golden-Wooday, and I am here with one of the top players of the WNBA, a WNBA champion, a two-time Six Women of the Year, a three-time All-Star. She is of the LA Sparks, and here at Unrivaled, she is with Team Vinyl.

My girl, D'Erica Hanvey. Hey, D'Erica, what's going on, girl? Nothing, thanks for having me. I'm so happy to just chill with you. I know. And catch up. We get it a couple times a year. Yeah, yeah, we get our little moments.

I'm a little kiki. Can you believe that this Unrivaled season is over? Yes. I can't, it's fast. Um, it happened fast kind of similar to the style of play. So every the turnover is like very fast. It's interesting. There's like an analogy to the way the game is and to the way this season is.

Actually, with it being so fast, it makes me think about these one of the signature moments of this entire season was in the semi-final. Your team vinyl upset the heavy favorite in the Lunar Owls. And it's a signature moment because like, I mean, they only lost once. They've been dominant all season.

It was a kind of big, it was heard all over in the women's basketball world. And what I saw from you at the end of that game was so much fire and passion. So first of all, like what was it that your team held onto throughout the game and certainly in the fourth quarter when you guys were down 10? I think just staying consistent. I talked a little bit about it after the game and during the game, halfftime spoon is kind of the anchor of all this, you know, she's so positive. And there wasn't a second like

during that game, or even really the season that she's doubted us or had a down conversation or like, talked about us having to like play from behind. It's always been like, we got this, we're going to get this. And so I felt like we kind of held on to that in the fourth quarter, we didn't hang our heads a bit and that started with her. What was she saying? Like what was it that you held on to in that fourth quarter? And what were you saying? It's about us.

It's about us. We get schematic wise, we just stay consistent with what we were doing. And obviously they were hitting tough shots, but at the end, they like balanced out and we came out with a win. But motivationally, she's just so positive and like even the way she speaks is just so passionate and she really just pours into us. Yeah, everyone I speak to on Team Vinyl

has talked about how Spoon has like elevated them this season. But you also gotta do it yourself and you were on the court having a heavyweight battle with your piece of collier. Like at one point, at the end of the game, she's going at you, she's scoring, you gotta recover, and then it comes down to you with a game-winning bucket, and your game-winning bucket was a tough bucket.

Yeah. How tough was that bucket? I feel like for me throughout the game I was a little bit frustrated. I don't know if it showed, probably not, but, cause I had such a successful game against them a few weeks ago and they changed their scheme. They were relying heavy on stopping me. So obviously Jordan stepped up this game for us, which was really big and obviously Ry does.

And I just kind of just like try to stay level. I try not to get too upset with myself. And then, yeah, I felt like I wasn't super aggressive the entire game and in that possession I knew that they were going to guard Ryhevy and obviously they were going to stay glued to Jaycee because she was shooting the ball well from the three. And I actually thought she was going to jump more and I was going to have just a clear right hand layup. But I went to go right and she cut it off. Everybody tries to cut off my right hand and I cross left and I just kind of like everything like went like they like kind of stopped and I think that's why even my steps were so slow. Like it was literally was just like super

slow. But I knew once I broke the play that I was gonna have to go and score it. So wow yeah yeah because first of all you going up against a defensive player here, right? Yeah. And she was locking up for a second there, but then you crossed her. Yeah. And she bumped you too. You had to take the contact. Yeah.

And if they would have called the foul, who knows, it might have turned out a little differently, but they didn't give me the foul. So. Right. They got the bucket. It was a tough, because you had to go through the contact. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, did it almost stop you, or did you say, I got to get to the contact?

I think that was like the extra, like, it was just like a slow step for me. And normally I'm very, like, I use my quickness to score, and I think she might have thought I was just gonna, I usually do this, like, just scoop, like, really fast. And I think that's why she jumped, the way she did, because I think she thought I was gonna scoop it. But you had counters for your counters. Yeah, I had counters for my counters. And I used my left hand.

I mean it's it's honestly an iconic you know layup and bucket of this tournament. Um but what I want to point to that stood out to me every like the fire. Yeah. As we said at the beginning of this season was short it was eight weeks. Yeah. Like for y'all to feel that much competitiveness. Yeah. Like could you describe what you were going through, you and your teammates, what you were feeling in that moment? I think we were a little bit nervous. Like I said, Spoon kept us grounded, but I think it's funny

because every team kind of has an identity and obviously they still pick players and put them where they went, but we kind of have underdog players and very quiet players, like the confident and very quiet players, like, but confident and fiery passion players when, like, they're ready.

So I think it's kind of interesting to see that kind of play out throughout each team throughout this season. Another highlight of the unrivaled season, overall for just the league, was the one-on-one tournament, okay? So you go up first matchup with Skyler Diggins-Smith. Yeah. And it actually was so funny for the fans

because Sky clearly had a strategy. She wanted to take away your size by being all up in you. Were you surprised by her intensity? Yeah, I think twofold. I think I was a little bit surprised because I was just like, oh, like, I'm not going to lie the day before, we were at the beach or something.

I was with my kids. And it's not that I wasn't going to take it to tournament series, but it was kind of like a mental break in a sense because that was our off time. So I was a little bit goofy. And she took advantage of that. And the other fold of that was kind of the rules the strategy behind it that I wasn't Really aware of either that you could foul On the floor and it doesn't the possession doesn't count and if you do that twice you get a point

So instead of me having two and ones back-to-back and that's six points. You're looking at only get two points now, so I'm out who knows maybe they'll change the rules a little bit to where it can kind of go one-on-one But obviously she played great. Yeah So, I mean, who knows? Maybe they'll change the rules a little bit to where it can kind of go one-on-one, but obviously she played great. Yeah. After the game, there were some things you were like, I would have done that differently now that I know it. I think once I realized that it wasn't just like basketball,

I checked out, I was like, all right, I'm gonna give back the biggest. Right. As a, well, I was working it, so I wasn't a fan, but as somebody watching it, you know, we're just like, guys. Yeah, she's so, I mean, she's super intense and one of the few moms here. Yeah. So we've gotten to know each other a little bit better this season and, you know, she's,

that's who she is through and throughout. Not only are you guys mothers in this league, you're one of the few that have two children. Yeah. How have you guys like connected? Like what are the things you found like, okay that's We've had like conversations about like our births and stuff and obviously just compliment like complimenting each other about you know she's said a few times like me coming back like just how like incredible it was and you know I try to like downplay it a little bit like uh but um and then we got to spend some time at Disney. Our kids get to spend time together in the kids' room, which is always cool.

So we've had a few moments. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. Actually, you joked with me once. You said, I get better after each baby. Yeah. You were serious a little bit, too. I actually went and just made sure to check on that.

I was keeping believing you. No, no, no. I said to you, I was like, yo, the moms of Unraveled are crushing it. Because Sky been bowling out, you've been bowling out, Fee's been bowling out. I mean, just you could go. The list goes on.

But after Amaya, you came back to be sixth player of the year twice and a WNBA champion. After Legend, you were an All-star again and an Olympian. So what is it that helps you come back stronger and more dominant after the baby? I think just the resilience and the like I don't know I just get mentally stronger you know I gave two births natural and they both were hard like easy but hard you know and so I think it's just a mentality. You can do that.

I can kind of do anything. And then I think just my purpose just kind of keeps evolving in my why. And so I feel like I just get a bit more motivated. What's the hardest sacrifice you've had to make for your children? Yeah, Amaya wants to answer. Oh, Amaya wants to answer.

Come over here. You have to speak into your mom's mic. Oh, god. I just, I never knew what she was going to say. Amaya's here. Welcome to the show, Amaya wants to answer. Come over here. You have to speak into your mom's mic. Oh, god. I just, I never knew what she was going to say. Amaya is here. Welcome to the show, Amaya. I would say just the moments where, you know, she doesn't get to sleep in a bed with me.

Like, in this case, she was here. She's been here for most of the time. But she had to go back to school for a few weeks. So I think it gets harder for her as she gets older to, like, leave me. Yeah. And she tells me. so then I'm like, ugh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I get a little bit emotional,

and I'm like, when she starts crying, I'm like, stop, you're gonna make me cry. But you know what, I feel like, you know, you do your best as you can, and mom has certainly tried to make sure, mom has certainly tried to make sure that things are special for you. So I heard it was your birthday during Unrivaled.

You were in Miami in February for your birthday, your eighth birthday. Is that how old you turned? And mom set the bar for birthdays. I heard you got to meet Coco Golf and play tennis with her for your birthday present. How much did that mean to you, Amaya? And to you, D'Erica, like how did that come about? What did it mean to you, Amaya? And to you, D'Erica, like how did that come about? What did it mean to y'all? Well, actually before I met her, my mom met her way before me, which I'm mad about. Yeah, at the Olympics. Why? Because you

had to come a little late. Speak. Yeah, I met, get your finger in the voice. I met Coco at the Olympics and I told her, I was like, my daughter loves you, can I take a picture with you and send it to her? And so yeah, Maya hadn't quite gotten to the Olympics yet because just the timing of it, we were waiting to get a little closer until we started playing. And so we thought we were going to get to go see her play at the Olympics,

but it just didn't work out with the scheduling so it kind of held on to that you know she teased me about it for a little bit and then when I found out that she was going to be an investor for Unrivaled I just thought it was like the perfect opportunity and I just knew it was going to happen. And what's the moment you'll remember from seeing those two together? those two together? I would say, which part? I would say the initial, you know, she's a, Mai is a very confident kid and she doesn't, she gets shy like occasionally, but she was like starstruck with her and also like Sabrina. So, you know, she kind of like blacked out for a little bit and so that was like, it wasn't cool to witness witness But to kind of see her like be so bashful. Okay, so looking to the WNBA season with the LA Sparks Next season you're going to get to play with Kelsey Plum who I know you have a friendship with

Can you describe the friendship you two have? Yeah, even after you left the Aces? Yeah Oh, I would just say solid, you know, we kind of had a moment where it was just lost for a second, physically, but never like in our hearts. And it's a full circle moment for us. Why? Twofold, obviously, my experience in Vegas and for her to want to come to LA, it was very validating for me. And I think just a testament to our bond.

Did you guys keep up even when you were not on the team? No, in the beginning and then real life kind of happens. But like I said, it's just a testament to our friendship and where we are now, I think we kind of had to go through that. I think we're both grateful for the processes that we had. I'm excited for it to be like that. Have you guys had a chance to have a heart-to-heart? Oh my God, we've had, we've basically been in therapy.

No, we've been spending a lot of time together prior to the trade. Just like re-kindling but just fine tuning some things. Yeah, here we are. Yeah. We talk every like couple days now so. In a way her coming to LA you feel like was a leap of faith on you? Yeah, both ways. I think both of them. You both have had some hurt. Do you think that that's something that you can lean on each other for or have? I think in the moment it was hard because I think we both wanted to be there for each other but just where we were in our lives, like we couldn't. And so, you know, where she's at now and where'm where I'm at now, and like the time we have it, it just couldn't have been more like coincidental,

so to say. I'm just really happy for her. Yeah, I'm happy for both of you. Unlike most people's pain, her, these are separate situations, but hers was very public. Yours is very public. And so I'm glad that,

you know, I don't even know everything that's going on, but I'm glad you guys, you know, can have each other and also have have decided we're going to do this together. Yeah, blood, sweat and tears on the same team. You know, I get you out on this on a light note. I'll get you out on a light note. So the pregame walk-in and tunnel for the LA Sparks is about to be so crazy because literally it's you,

it's Kelsey Plum, it's Cameron Brink, it's Rekia Jackson, it's Rae Burrell. I'm just naming a few. You guys are all fabulous and fierce. Like how much juice are the sparks about to have next season? Like you guys crush the fashion. Yeah, I think it's gonna be fun. You know, obviously basketball is gonna be the focus for sure but just nowadays like you have an opportunity to elevate your brand a little bit. Show your showcase yourself and your style and your personality through the tunnel and so yeah it's gonna it's gonna be fun.

Most fashionable team in the league, possibly? For sure, for sure. It's gonna be a catwalk, a runway. It is, it is. They're making me step my game up a little bit. I've just been chilling, and I was like, no, I gotta step it up. What will the LA Sparks pregame tunnel walk in? What will it be giving?

What will it be giving? Uh... Mmm... I mean, I feel like the obvious answer is baddies, but I gotta think about that one. I gotta come up with something more, like, clever. The baddies are in L.A. Period.

Thank you so much. It's always good to chat with you. Yeah. You love. Welcome back to Good Follow. Huge thank you to D'Erica Hamby for joining the show for that just awesome interview and for just sharing so much on her heart. And of course, sharing a mile with us. Oh, she's so cute. So we really appreciate that interview. And now we move along.

I've got a segment for you. It's presented by DraftKings. The woman's NCAA tournament is here. The brackets are set and there's potential for madness in the first round. Matchup between number seven seed Michigan State and the 10 seed Harvard. So Harvard is led by Harmony Turner. She's averaging a whopping 22 points per game. This is a player that does a lot of everything for the Crimson. She's leading the team in points, rebounds, assists, steals and minutes. Big time usage player.

This team is hot on a four game win streak. And they're back in the tournament for the first time in 18 years. Now on the other side, Michigan State, they've got leadership from a core group of veteran players, and that is always a big deal in the tournament. And it starts with Grace Van Sleutten. Michigan State lost three of their last five games but that's a little misleading. Those losses were against high level talent in USC, UCLA and Ohio State so it actually in some ways may have prepared them more for the tournament. So what

I'm looking for is a Cinderella and maybe some revenge of the nerds and I've got Harvard pulling off an upset and advancing to the second round. So, Logan, I mean, you don't want to miss your chance to get in on the March Madness. We love an upset. We love a Cinderella. Love an upset. That's I live for March because of the upsets. I mean, I feel like that's mostly every. Yeah. You know, shout out to the gamecocks, you know, go one seats. But boy, do we love some chaos. Absolutely. And that's why we got to get to the brackets.

Draft Kings is offering a free to enter March Madness Women's Tournament bracket this year. So join the bracket at draft kings dot com slash women's bracket for a shot to win a share of fifty thousand dollars. And remember, it's free to play, free to enter. Go get on in there. We'll be getting in there, right? Absolutely. I saw the fifty thousand dollars had to look up the screen and make sure that said $50,000

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it's just fun to do it with your friends and be really social about it Yeah So anyway, we want to shout out DraftKings for making that possible within the woman's tournament DraftKings. The crown is yours Love it Logan we're running out of time here. Can we get to top news, hits, stories, headlines that you got for us? Yes, you're actually there for one of the biggest news stories. It got cloudy in New York. And we're not talking

about the weather. We're talking about Natasha cloud. She signed with New York Liberty in kind of like a sneak trade, like never really expected it to happen. And the sun traded her for the first round picks in 2025 and 2026. The group chat blew up when this happened. You broke the news to me. So I wanna show the video that you sent

cause it's iconic. Breaking news. New York, New York. Are you coming? I'm gonna send my sister. Are you coming? New York, New York. We like this, sis. I'm coming. We got another dog, okay?

We got another dog, okay? I love it. I love how happy she, I love how happy you are for her. I think everyone was very perplexed a little bit, but also very happy with this move because Tosh, she just belongs in New York. She screams New York to me. It was so much going on that day too because it's the unrivaled semi-finals. It's selection Sunday they're dropping the tournament brackets and then we find out Cloud is going to New York and New York could really use her toughness like she said a dog a backup or or alongside PG or you know a tangent guard alongside Sabrina Yonescu especially with Slute out and leaving the team. And we don't know what's up with Benajelani Hamilton. Don't forget, Cloud, really, she defends.

So Tosh, we are so excited to have you in New York. I ran to her, like the news broke and I was like, because she was right there, I was like, Tosh, what, you ain't telling me, I just seen you. But I wanna keep it in New York, actually. There was, I'm not too happy about this. I don't think a lot of people are. But there was a 14 year old who made history by becoming the youngest player

to play in the end of yourself. Her name is McKenna Whitcomb. Wow. And kind of shocking to think that there's some players who are like in their late 30s or even people who she'd look up to growing up. And she's just coming into the league. Yeah. There's a lot of discourse on it. Yeah. But moving on, Issa Rae is rocking the A1. Oh, we love that. That is the power link up two of the top females of their industries,

top black females and Issa, you know, like rocking the shoes, doing a little dance in them. Asia's entire line is so thoughtful. I love this link up. Like we love to see it. Yeah, two icons. And actually speaking of two icons, the last quick hit we have is my Super Bowl, my Travis and Taylor, my Tom and Zendaya, Ben Shelton and Trinity Rodman hard launch. Oh, broke the Internet or at least broke my Internet. I was crashing out a little bit over it, but also like absolutely in love with this couple. It makes so much sense to me.

And I hope that they last forever and have athletic babies. Yes, but we ship them. We are good luck to them and love is in the air. It must mean spring is here. Or. Coughing season. Actually that's kind of like in the fall, but not for them. Well, we want to thank everyone for watching with us,

for watching the show, for hanging. A big thank you to D'Erica Hamby for joining the show. Make sure you also tune in for our exclusive interview with Azrae Stevens. Joining the show, we heard from both teams, players from both teams in the Unrivaled Championship. Shout out to the underdogs coming through. Shout out to the underdogs.

Coming through, breaking down the Women's March Madness Tournament and brackets for us. We love y'all. Please continue to subscribe, spread word, follow our socials, comment, like all the things. I'm Roz Golden-Buré. I'm Logan Hackett. This is Good Follow. We'll be back every Wednesday 7 p.m. Eastern and we'll see you next week. Bye guys!