The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 04/01/2021 - HOUR 3 - Mets, Shaka

Episode Date: April 1, 2021

Mets SS Francisco Lindor's big pay dayWhy Shaka Smart went to Marquette Guests: Nick Swisher, Shaka Smart Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Find your local station for The Heard at Fox SportsRadio.com or stream us live every day on the IHeart Radio app by searching Herd. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. What up? Welcome in. This is the herd, wherever you may be in. However you may be making this part of your day, thanks so much.

I'm Doug Gottlieb. In for Colin Cowherd. Nick Swisher is going to join us in a moment. I always say this Swisher makes coffee nervous. Ask him about Francisco Lindor who signed for a paltry $341 million.

Got to tuck some doyers, some Padres, some Yankees, and angels, right? Why not? What the hell? Got a good manager? You got Mike Trout? Maybe? I don't know. Maybe?

All right. Nick Swisher in a moment. Big news in college athletics. Roy Williams announces his retirement. Roy Williams, 903 wins, three national titles. Guy won 80% of his games at Kansas. you're the 180% of his, probably if he would have quit a couple years ago, would have won 80% of his games in North Carolina.

Crazy. His success is remarkable. You know, what's fascinating is, I'll get people who will troll me today. Like, oh, Gottlieb, you missed it by like 10 years. Actually, it was four years ago. I was sitting on the set at CBS. And Roy Williams had had a spot with vertigo,

spout with vertigo, which he has, comes and goes. He needed, I don't remember his knee or hip replacement or both. I think it was dual knee replacement surgery. One of his closest friends had passed away. And he was very kind of open and emotional about it. And if you've ever been around Roy Williams in the summer, you know that like he rolls up in Vegas and he rolls deep.

Like he brings a couple of his buddies with him. And they go and they watch ball games and they recruit the best kids and they go play golf. And then they come back at night and watch the best kids. the next day they go play golf. And then they hop in the Gulf stream and they go to another spot and they go do it again. Like that's how. And when you lose one of your friends that you travel with and you, you know, and at some point you just like how much of this can I do?

So I was on the set and I said to Seth Davis say, listen, there's a lot of rumors in college basketball that if they win the national championship, it could be a year where Roy Williams walks away. That was the year, by the way, that the year, by the way, that the year, they lost to Villanova on a last second shot, would have won a national championship. But I said, like, look, they get the Final Four, they win a national championship.

Do you just walk away? By the way, since that moment, they've never really been the same. Because the NCAA stuff does wear you down. And the way in which recruiting has changed does wear you down. You know, he had Cole Anthony last year, and Cole's a very talented player, but not one that's super easy to play with.

And they took some grad transfers as well. well, right? Like, Dad didn't really work. Like, they were just not good the last couple years. But they had good young players. They've started to kind of rebuild it and they look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel. But this is not me saying I was right then. It's me saying I wasn't that crazy wrong then. That everybody sees their time and just decides like, do you want to do this forever? Or do I want to go play golf and be wherever I want to be and not have to do conference calls or

Zoom meetings or, you know, he's got more money in championships than anybody ever thought possible. He's already in the Hall of Fame, both of them. Like, what more do you actually need? You know? And the thing about college basketball, and there's been people, well, why won't Brad Stevens? Why don't you take the Indiana job? Would Brad Stevens take the North Carolina job? You know what the answer is?

No, hell no. Like, in the NBA, it is more of a grind. in terms of travel. Now we have to at least balance that out with they stay in the absolute nicest hotels in the world. Like in the world. I have a friend in the NBA who's like,

I was like, what's the travel like? And he was like, have you ever stayed the Peninsula Hotel in Chicago? I was like, no. He's like, I did and I never wanted to leave. It was the greatest thing I've ever. It was amazing. And then when they get time off,

they get time off. Like when they shut it down for the summer, like they shut it down. With basketball, this stuff never ends. Think about this right now if you have a basketball program. Roy Williams. Okay. So had he decided to return for another year, first you got to re-recruit the players you already have.

What? Yes. You got to recruit the guys you already have and beg them the ones you want to stay. And there's ones you want to go. You've got to find a way to delicately go like, you know, look, we'd love to have you, but there's a place you can go and find more minutes maybe, then the zero minutes you would get here. That's right. That's how you have to. Then you got to manage, okay, now I got high school recruits, but many of them didn't

have a full high school season. What does that look like? Then you got the transfer portal. So now you've got to recruit guys that you've never seen worked out anything before. You just saw them on tape, talked to their high school coach, talked to their AU guy. And the whole thing is, or you got what, like, you got a pension, you got millions in the bank, your head coach emeritus, you always have an office in North Carolina. The only thing surprising is he did it now, which allows them to have a national search,

as opposed to how Dean Smith did it, which was right before the season here, make sure Bill Guthridge gets the job. And it worked to two final fours, but it didn't work and keep people happy. Oh, that and Chris Beards, the head coach had Texas. now, which makes total sense. Texas guy came from Texas Tech. He's a marvelous head coach. That is an incredible hire.

Chris Del Conte is just like, all right, we'll wait until April 1st, and the buyout goes down. All right, here's all the money. Now give him my coach. That's the kind of money that Nick Swisher demands if you want him to coach or manage your baseball team. He joins us fresh off of an hour of yoga, an hour of tennis, and I believe an hour of Pilates.

Swish, how are you? Oh, DG. What's up, brother? How you doing, baby? you were born too soon and at the wrong position. You should have been Francisco Lindor. We all should have been Francisco Lindor. Oh, man.

I mean, if we were all so lucky. Okay, so, I mean, I feel like people are going to say, well, this is a deal. It's not $400 million. Ten years, 341, does that look like too much money for you? Oh, man, that sounds good to me, bro. I'll take that. I'll take that in a heartbeat. But, you know, here's the deal, man.

Anytime these monster contracts come up, it's hard for people. people to fathom that sort of money. So they're always going to say they're not worth it. At the end of the day, listen, this is the market that we're in right now. This is the money that these guys are getting paid. And at the end of the day, listen, the collective bargaining agreement is up after the end of this season. So I can guarantee you come 2022, you're going to see players either not playing or you're going to be seeing them make more money because the owners haven't given them enough. So I think for myself, listen, man, Steve Cohen has done a tremendous job over there with the

Mets, man. Listen, all the guys who he's brought over, he signs Francisco Lindor to a 10-year contract. Listen, that's a type of guy that can transform your organization. I saw him as a young kid with the Cleveland Indians, and I knew he was going to be a superstar. To see him do what he's doing right now, I could not be more proud of him. I know he is extremely happy in New York. And if I'm a New York Mets fan, I'm thinking to myself, wow, man, like Steve Cohen, he ain't messing around. There's a World Series championship, or at least a definite potential World Series championship coming up here real soon. How good are they? They're pretty good, bro.

They're pretty good. I mean, at the end of the day, man, if you look at that lineup up and down, you're seeing young studs all over the place, all over the place. I mean, you heard what Pete Alonzo said. He said, give Francisco Indoor 400 million, right? I mean, the guy's totally worth that. Look at what he's done already in spring training for that. He has changed the culture.

He is changing the mentality of how people view the Mets. And when you have a raining Cy Young Award winner like Jacob de Gras for how many years in a row, I mean, this guy right here on top of everybody else they have, this could be one of those years with the New York Mets make a run. Nick Swisher joining us here in the herd Doug Gottlieb filling in for Colin. I think my only question with the Dodgers, they've clearly upgraded the rotation getting Trevor Bauer. If you were in charge, what would you do as far as closer?

And I mean, at this moment right now, maybe, I mean, you know, I think Jansen's my guy to start off the season, 100%. And then if anything falters, I'm going to go, you know, day by day at that point. But definitely, he's my guy. But why? Why? What has he done in the postseason? And again, he's a year older as well. What has he done to make you go like, okay, in October, Kenley's going to be, why would you invest this time?

to Kenley knowing Kenley's not going to be the guy in October. You've got to get to get to get to win enough games to get you to in the postseason anyway. Yeah, he may not be the postseason pitcher that you want, but you're going to need guys to step up in those roles in the regular season. So at least give him first crack at it. And then if it doesn't work out, I've got 161 games to find my new closer. But I think at the end of the day, you're also rocking with the overall way the locker room works. You don't need to be doing that at this moment in time. You don't need to cross that bridge until you come to it.

You cross that bridge. If he struggles, then you start to figure out who your next closure is. But out of the gates, at least for myself, my opinion, he's my closer. That's the guy I'm going into with to start the season. Until he proves me differently, that's going to be my guy. How difficult do you think it will be for them to have the energy to go out and win 100 more games, right? They've won the division. It seems like a billion years in row.

They finally won the World Series. where do you get the energy to compete day in, day out when they've already done it? And there's more playoff spots now, too, so they can get in anyway. Yeah, well, I appreciate the extra playoff spots. I love that, especially as a fan, being able to see some of our, you know, some of our better players get a chance to crack into that postseason situation. I love that. But I think right now with, you know, with where the Dodgers are, I don't necessarily think it's enough energy. I just think, look at the guys that they lost, right?

Jack Peterson, K.K. Hernandez, locker room guys, glue guys. You know, maybe not the most talented guys, but guys that have been part of that organization and have a role. You know, when you talk about putting together a championship caliber roster, it's not all about talent. It's about the overall community that you have inside that locker room, as well as going out there and having the potential and the talent to win. So I think for me, I think a big hurdle for the Los Angeles Dodgers this year is not talent because they have that all over. the place. It's being able to find who their new glue guys are in that locker room to help get them through

the dog days of, you know, August, September, when things are kind of getting a little flow because the guy like K.K. Hernandez, man, he seems like in a locker room. He'd be one of the better teammates to be around. Jack Peterson, same thing. So I think when you lose those glue guys that have been part of your

organization for so long, you're going to need guys to step up in those roles. So I think for myself, those are the question marks that I have for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Do I think right now on paper they're the clear-cut favorite to win the National League? Yes, I do. But I still think they have some hurdles to get over to accomplish that feat. Nick Swisher, MLB on Fox, Major League Baseball Analyst Corps stud player in his own right.

Are the Yankees that team in the American League? Yeah, Yankees are pretty good, bro. They're pretty good. You know, and I feel like you hear a lot about the starting pitching for the New York Yankees and how it hasn't quite been there over the last couple years. That's where the question mark lies with the Yankees. offensively, one through nine. I think if you could come up with a better term than

Murderers Row, I think the Yankees have that this year. I mean, you got Clint Fraser, one of the stud young players in the league, hit ninth today. So if you look at that roster, I think offensively those guys are great. Health is obviously key. If you can keep guys like, you know, Jean-Carlo, Stanton, as well as Aaron Judge, on the field for 130 to 150 games, they're going to find themselves atop the American League East.

The other question mark lies within two pitchers in my mind. Corey Klobber, who's coming off of, you know, a little injury last year, as well as James and Tile. Same thing. And, I mean, what a great story, right? Overcomes cancer. Overcomes Tommy John. He's pitching for the pinstrives. I mean, what a story in itself.

And I think Corey Klober, his mentality fits great in that New York Yankee locker room. I also think Youngstead Jordan Montgomery is going to learn a lot from those guys that they brought over. also having Garrett Cole as your ace doesn't hurt anything. But I think if the question marks lie within the Yankees, it's the same thing every year. How good is the starting pitching going to be and how healthy can they stay? He's Nick Swisher. It's the first day of Major League Baseball, right?

It should be a national holiday. It's just a holiday to have you on. Swish, great stuff, dude. Thanks for joining us. Oh, man, DG. I miss you, bro. I hope you're doing absolutely awesome, brother. All things are good. Thanks so much.

Coming up. Coming up. Shaka Smart's going to tell us why he left Texas for Marquette. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. What's up, everyone? It's me, three-time NFL all-pro Sean Mariner. And I have a new sports podcast called The Lights Out Podcast with Sean Mariner. This podcast is special to me as I get a chance to talk to some of the best we've ever done it on the field or the track. So whether it's talking to a Super Bowl champion or a NASCAR, Cup Series champion. The Lights Out podcast will bring it to you the only way I know how to. I'm giving you the best insight from the best who's ever done it.

Listen to Lights Out with Sean Merriman on the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds.

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment.

And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream,

this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people.

I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill,

waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes.

I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when

we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intention. bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keer Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the hard way and listen now.

Check out the How We Reach coaching tool. It's a free app. You can download at reach.gov. You'll find steps everyone can take to prevent suicide. Reach for support, Reach for those who need help. Download the How We Reach app at reach.gov today. It is a prove it year for the New York Giants. Prove it. Show it to me. Right. Everybody in the Giants is on notice. How do you know that? I mean, you got Daniel Jones who can't stop turn the damn ball over, right? You got Sequin Barclays coming off an injury. You know, he wants a new deal, I'm sure. And you got Dave Gettleman who, you know, he hired those computer people to do to computer stuff and to do computer things, whatever.

Here's John Marrow, the owner of the Giants on the state of his team. It's been a very difficult four or five year period for us. And, you know, I'm tired of the losing and of having the postseason press conference trying to explain what went wrong and why I think we're making progress. It's time for us to start winning some more. And that's one of the reasons we spent the money that we did. If we want to win and we want to win now. Everybody's on notice.

You know? Yeah, you got a new judge. Judge is the coach, right? Like, oh, he's better than we thought. Fine. Show me, win. John Mara's had it. He's like, look, I've had it.

And I'll tell you what makes it worse. It's not just that they've been bad. It's not like they're in division where everybody's been good. Eagles have been an abject disaster over the past. two years. Two years ago they made the playoffs, despite the fact that Carson Winston-Winz was bad and they were all banged up and hurt this year. They went through a couple different quarterbacks and still could have made the playoffs. The Washington

football team, they had one quarterback whose leg nearly had to be amputated, and then Colt McCoy got hurt, and then they get to the playoffs this year with Taylor Heineke at quarterback. The Cowboys have spent all kinds of money to no success over the past two years. And the Giants are sitting there going like, all right, like, everybody says they want a gut job and start over and rebuild until you actually experience what that losing is like. And then at some point, the fans and the owners have had enough. We have reached that point with the New York Giants. You know, they asked them about a Saquan extension. He's like, we're not worried about that right now.

Plus, why would they? They don't know what they want to spend. You know, the guy, he's not healthy. They don't know if, like, do you want to lock into a long-term deal with Sequin Barclay? No. I'm not sure you want to, I didn't want to draft him that highest spot regardless. He's a talented player, but show me the incremental improvement of the team that aligns with his success. It's not there.

You know? Do they want to sign him to, do they want to sign him to an extension like Aaron Jones? Jones, maybe, but we can handle that. Remember, Aaron Jones is coming off his best year as a pro and still didn't get $10 million a year. Sequin Barclay's coming off a year where he was injured.

What are you going to pay him? I don't know. We're not worried about it. We need to start winning football games. That's fair. Let's get to Ryan Music with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the Heard Line News. Ooh, Doug.

Who, Ryan? Rough times. rough times indeed for those New York giants. But we will stick in the NFC East for right now and move to another team that's at least seen some success. Not really. They were below 500. They just happened to make the playoffs because somebody had to win the NFC East.

So the Washington football team, Doug, people were a little surprised. I know Colin Cowherd certainly was when they decided that their big off-season move was going to be Ryan Fitzpatts. That's right. They signed Ryan Fitzpatrick to be their quarterback. Head coach Ron Rivera talked about it to the Washington Post. He said Fitzpatrick, he's going to come in as the number one, but there will be a competition at quarterback.

So you signed Ryan Fitzpatrick to maybe be your starter, I guess? Everybody says there'll be competition in their quarterback. But when one guy makes... Not everyone actually does say that. When, yeah, when one guy makes 10 million and another guy makes like less than a million, one guy's been a starter in this league for like six different teams, and the other guy has started for one team. Or two, I guess.

He started for Carolina for a couple of games. He's never really been. Yeah, and I'm sure there's part of you that goes like, well, what would it actually be like if he was an actual start? Like, he'd have a low ceiling. He'd be fine. you know, he'd be fine. I thought what was telling was, you know, they lost to the Buccaneers in the playoffs.

And, you know, look, the Bucks got the benefit of the last four games they figured out, they played bad teams. Then they played a bad team in the playoffs in the Washington football team. But I don't know if you remember this. Brady goes over to shake Heineke's hand, and Heineke's, like, a foot smaller than him. And you can't tell as much, like, during a game.

They're like, oh, well, that's why he's a guy trying to fight his way in the league. I get it. Did you expect them to try and do a bigger move in this off season as opposed to essentially settling on someone like a Ryan Fitzpatrick, given that they have so much young talent on that defense and, you know, they were able to get some other offensive? I don't think it's crazy to think they'll draft a quarterback. Just their defensive line is good enough where they feel like they can win and win now. And, you know, Fitz is a Band-Aid for now.

And then they can figure out the long-term solution in the end. Yeah, I think the issue is a lot of times what people don't understand. Alex Smith was a great story. Alex Smith was a bad quarterback. Well, I think the thing that people don't remember about Alex Smith is that Alex Smith was really, really, really, really athletic. He was. He could really move. But you have however many umpteen surgeries on that knee and you can't move anymore.

Now, he's never had a great arm, nor is he. wanted to throw the ball down field and you cut away his movement. Yeah, there's just limitations there. Well, Doug, we'll turn from the Washington football team to the New England Patriots who are continuing to try and find themselves in a world post Tom Brady. And last year, that gave us the Cam Newton experience. There were some highs. Some people thought that they had played well at the beginning of the year. Despite low passing numbers, he had a lot of rushing touchdowns. They won a few games. Then Cam got COVID. Everything kind of fell apart. But he showed some improvement towards the end of the season. Well, Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, was talking about Cam Newton's

campaign last season, and this is how he summarized it. In fairness to Cam, I'm not sure he had the proper weapons around him last year, and then he got COVID, and there were a lot of things that happened. And I don't know that Jared has ever really gotten a fair shot. So we have to wait and see what happens. So you talk about Jared. Sit him there at the end. But at the beginning, you heard him talk about how maybe Cam Newton didn't get the fairest shot in terms of what he had around him and getting COVID. This is me.

I believe that the Patriots aren't done at quarterback. But what they're trying to do is build the rest of their roster without spending a ton at quarterback. How would that look with Garoppolo? I don't know because he does make in the 20s in terms of a million dollars, right? But I think they'd like to build a roster, rebuild their roster with money and then if they get a quarterback,

especially like next year, not this year, next year, on a rookie deal, now you're laughing. Laughing, especially if it's a non-first-round guy or a late first-round guy. It's not a ton of money. But that appears to be the plan. I just, I can't see a way in which Cam is the solution

for an entire season. He just could not throw a football. And COVID doesn't affect your shoulder. That was a problem before he got COVID. Yeah, I mean, I think that's sort of the Patriots were so bad in terms of skill position. And they had so much cap space this offseason. It was clear that they were out there ready to make some type of moves. And I'm sure they weren't looking at this like, well, we need to add all these offensive weapons because we really need to help cam out.

like, no, our offensive personnel sucks. We just need to upgrade regardless of if it's going to be Cam Newton or Jimmy Garofalo or whoever's playing quarterback. We can't have an aging starting to break down Julian Edelman as our star wide receiver. That's not going to cut it for whoever's playing quarterback. So would they like to get someone better than Cam Newton? Sure, but I also think they look at it and they go, look, we were seven and nine. Cam Newton was bad. He got COVID. We had to play without and our offensive skill position players suck. If we can just upgrade slightly, there's no reason we can't be in the playoffs. Right, exactly.

Yeah, but it's the idea that Cam Newton gets better and I think it's going to get. By the way, Julianneemann just tweeted out, it's a pirate's life for me, Savvy, with a little Pirates of the Caribbean GIF, if you will. It is the first of April. I'm guessing that's exactly what it is. Tom Brady also put out something on social media about bringing back the Montreal Expo. and he was going to be the first owner, player, manager. I'm with you.

I'm not a huge fan of April Fool's. I do think sometimes if you're like, I think it was, remember Anthony Davis tried to do that whole, like, hey, I'm shaving my unibrow, like, three or four years ago, but it ended up being, like, I think, a sponsored fit for some company. If you're doing, like, a sponsorship thing, like, all right, I get it, I guess. But just in general, like, little April Fool. jokes.

And finally, Doug, we'll wrap it up with this, as we've mentioned throughout the day. It's big news of the day. North Carolina head coach, Roy Williams, retiring, calling it a career. As you had previously said, not that surprising. Some people may or may not have sort of seen this coming. For me, sort of the question out there right now would be, I think everyone's sort of wondering that the next sort of peers in that area would be a Jim Beheim. to coach K and how much longer we think they'll continue to coach?

Well, I think Jim, I think Jim Beaheim's going to coach as long as he has his son there. One son has already announced his tent, not transfer potentially into there. My guess is Beheim goes out with whenever he's done coaching Beheims at Syracuse. Coach K, I don't know. I don't think he wants to go out the way this year ended. But I don't know if there's a quick fix to get them back to the top. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting what you've talked about. how much the sort of landscape and the day-to-day management of being a top college basketball coach has been like.

I mean, Coach K went through this over the past three, four years where, you know, Duke somewhat sort of, maybe a little bit longer than three or four years. They sort of prided themselves off. We don't really do one and done. And then, like, he had to start embracing like, oh, I need to compete with Coach Caliperi and go after these top-tier talents. Otherwise, I mean, how do we expect to win games if we have less players than everyone else? And now it's not just that, but it's with the transfer portal and all of these different things. I can understand why these coaches are going, man, this is not even remotely close to the career I thought I was going to have when I started two, three decades.

It's really hard to build a culture when you don't know what your roster is going to look like. You know, and your roster looks completely different on September 1 and then it did on April 1. It's just, it's hard. Or even UCLA went through this, they were supposed to have one of those top players. Dachian Nix. Yeah, and the G League just came in and said, what would you like a couple of that $100,000? Well, he had turned down the G League previously for like $100,000. And then late in the spring, when everything was shut down, they offered him like three or four.

And he's like, I can't turn this down. But it's a mess. And, you know, I understand that we're in this player empowerment era where, you know, yesterday was supposedly a bad day. for the NCAA. Just telling you, just because things change don't always mean they change for the better.

Just remember, things just because they change don't mean they change for the better. That's rhyme music with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. All right, coming up next,

Shaka Smart is going to join us. You remember Shaka was kind of the boy wonder head coach that took VCU from first four to Final Four, something that UCLA, by the way, is going to do this Saturday in Indianapolis.

Then he left for the University of Texas and he had success. Even this year they won the Big 12 tournament championship. But we didn't win NCAA tournament game during his time there despite winning all those games in the NCAA tournament at VCU. He left on his own volition to take the Marquette job.

Why? I'll ask him. He goes his next in the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IHeart Radio app. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying.

Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment,

and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast.

Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at It podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English.

Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack, so I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence.

I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Keer Games.

And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough

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And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast. Learn the hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app.

Search Learn the hard way and listen now. What's up, everyone? It's me, three-time NFL All-Pro Sean Mariner. And I have a new sports podcast called The Lights Out Podcast with Sean Mariam. This podcast is special to me as I get a chance to talk to some of the best who've ever done it on the field or the track. So whether it's talking to a Super Bowl champion or a NASCAR Cup Series champion, the Lights Out podcast will bring it to you the only way I know how to. I'm giving you the best insight from the best who's ever done it.

Listen to Lights Out with Sean Merriman on the IHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast. Doug Gottlieb in for Colin. This is The Herd. He just got himself a new job. He's in a new city. He's back in the Midwest. He actually grew up in the state, which he now calls home. He's Shaka Smart.

Marquette head basketball coach joining us in the herd. Shaka, how are you? I'm great. How are you, Doug? Great to talk to you. Likewise. All right. First and most important thing, okay? You kind of shocked the world with growing out your hair this year. I have not seen you in a couple of days. What is the current status of your hair?

Current status is I saw a barber for the first time and I don't know, probably 20-some years the other day. But he just gave me a little trim, so I still have most of my hair. Yeah, so you're keeping it, right? I think you keep it. You look, I mean, it's, if I had hair like that, I would never, I would never cut my hair. Definitely never shave it off. I don't shave my hair up now because I don't think it'll grow back. Yeah, it's kind of day to day.

My wife and daughter love to just continually make fun of me. So I don't think they'll let me cut it right now, but I'm certainly more comfortable just cutting it all off. Okay, so how would you, if somebody to say, hey, Shaka, what was your experience like at Texas. What would your answer be? Terrific people and, you know, it's obviously an unbelievable place. Really enjoyed, you know, the guys that we had on the court. It was, there's lots of twists and turns. We had some really terrific moments and big, big wins.

And then we had some heartbreakers, you know, probably the most extreme thing we went through was Andrew Jones, you know, getting leukemia and then recovering from leukemia, is just incredible. But it was, I learned so much, and, you know, we're able to form some, some terrific relationships. And hopefully that all makes me a better coach.

Yeah, you mentioned that. Like, it's always the cruelness of this tournament, right? Like, you won the Big 12 tournament championship, then you lose to Abilene Christian. So all anybody remembers is the Abilene Christian. They don't remember, like, hey, just a week ago, we were Big Ten tournament champions. How do you process that?

That's tough. I mean, it's really a roller coaster. And I think this year, even more so because of COVID, you know, looking back on it, I wish I would have known a little bit more about kind of what we were getting ourselves into with the bubble in Indianapolis. You know, we knew to some extent, but it was an interesting thing. And I also think, Doug, I don't know how you feel about this. When you win your conference tournament, there's certainly some good momentum that you're feeling. But sometimes I can work against you a little bit in the NCAA tournament. I've seen that work both ways.

So, yeah, it was tough and, you know, certainly a disappointing way to end. Okay. Why leave and take the Marquette job? Everybody wants to ask the same question. I'll ask you. Well, there's certain things here that. for me are a better fit. You know, I never want to go into disparage in any other place or anything like that, but I think just for me

personally, you know, just made all this sense in the world and for my family. One, it's, this is, you know, a basketball crazy place, as you know, the history here, the program, this is the school in a lot of ways, you know, basketball is a big part of what makes it go. Number two, it's smaller. It's not, you know, as just a gigantic state university. And again, I think because of that size, you're able to specialize a little bit more on exactly what you need to do to support your guys. And then number three, you know, I got a sense right away that, you know, this is, there was great alignment here from the president on down in terms of what it what it takes to be a high-level

basketball program. Yeah, I mean, the story going around college basketball is like top, top five, top three maybe even in basketball budget? Is that accurate? Well, I don't know what everyone else has, but all I can tell you is my experience here in being here for less than a week is that, you know, the support is incredible, and it's, you know, the default answer is, well, let's find a way, you know, to make that happen. So, you know, you really appreciate that. But more than, even more than the financial part is just the approach that, hey, let's get this done. Let's work together on it and how can I help?

Shaka Smart, new head coach in Marquette, joining us. Doug Gottliebin for Collin is the Hurt on Foxport Trader, the I Heart Radio app. Why didn't it work in the NCAA tournament when it works so well at VCU? Same reason as anyone else. I think sometimes there's good fortune

and sometimes there's plays that don't go your way. The games that we lost, let's see, like look, if you just take the Abilene Christian, you guys block a shot if you secure the rebound or don't

foul, you win the game. You'll like you win the game. There's a bunch of things that go, and if you win that game, we've seen it with UCLA, right? You win the first game. Now a sudden, like your kids relax, you start to play. Absolutely. And we've had Doug, and again, I'm not complaining because we were really fortunate, although we won most of those games by a pretty good margin when we went to the Final Four, but, you know, it takes good fortune to get to the Final Four. And then sometimes it doesn't work out your way. We literally, you know, the game before that,

same situation we're up to down the stretch against Nevada. I thought I got called on Mo. The game before that, Northern Iowa made a 50-foot shot to beat us in overtime. So it happens. And, you know, I think the lesson is for your team. And we always, my little brother wrote a poem about this when we were kids. It just, it pays to win by 11 because that kind of stuff, doesn't, you know, those plays, you know, you can't really point to them if it's an 11 point win.

I like that. It pays to win by 11. Pays to win by 11. Was there, when you took the job, was there any, I need to sleep on this? Like, you're at Texas. You know, you're a year away from a new arena. They weren't firing you, right? So what was, did, how hard was it to ultimately walk in and tell Chris Delcante, I'm going to take this job. It really wasn't hard to make the decision to take the job for the reasons I mentioned. It also, as you know, I mean, there's other family or situational factors that either make it time or not time.

And in this case, you know, a lot of those factors just kind of lined up for it to be time. You know, Matt Coleman was a senior point guard for us at Texas. You know, in a lot of ways, a lot like a son or a younger brother. Had he been a junior or underclassman? You know, there's certain special players like that that, you know, you feel certainly aligned with or connected with. But, yeah, it really at the end of the day was a slam-dunk decision for my family and I. What is it like to do what UCLA's doing?

doing, which only you guys had done before. Go from the first four to the final four. Well, you know, it's interesting because I watched their first four game very closely, not that I was looking past our first round game, but if we were able to win the first round game, you know, we could potentially play one of those teams. And by that point, if you remember, by that point in a week, everyone was so starved for basketball because selection show was on a Sunday, and that game was on a Thursday. And those of us that were in the bubble were literally stuck in a hotel 24 hours a day. So just for that game to come on TV, it was like, you know, awesome.

So, you know, they did a phenomenal job just kind of weathering the storms of that Michigan State game and hanging in there. And, you know, they flat out won the game because they were the more connected team. You know, they kind of stayed connected. And then they had two players that really played with incredible confidence and, you know, had career-type games in that game. And obviously, it played well since. So once you get rolling, you know, you get that first one under your belt.

And then next one's a pretty good match-up and you get that one. It's similar to what happened with us. And it's exciting for those guys. Last thing. Are you bringing back the havoc? I think that, number one, the game's changed to some extent. Unfortunately, the adjustments in officiating, I think, have hurt pressing to some extent. I think if you talk to Bob Luggins or other coaches that have pressed in the past,

they would tell you the same thing. The cylinder rule is a nemesis of any type of trap, especially out on the floor, because the refs love to call that. It's kind of a little bit of an out for them. So I don't know that 40 minutes of pressing makes sense, particularly in a top-five league where the guards are on most nights going to be really, really good. But to be honest with you, havoc for us at VCU, it was so much more about our mentality and the approach we took than necessarily what exact, you know, defense we were in.

We did press on pretty much every possession, so that was a big part of it. But I think we turned teams over more in the half court than we did in the full court. But defensively, the goal is to stop the other team, not necessarily to turn them over. And so actually, some of our teams at Texas were better on defense than some of the VCU teams. Well, listen, I thought there were plenty of foul in that the ACU game. We could talk about probably off air. you'd like to vet in regards to officiating. But we vote havoc and we vote for the hair.

At least we get one or two. Shaka, thanks so much for joining us. Hey, thank you, man. I got a ton of respect for what you do and appreciate the way that you uplift the sport. Thanks, that's Shaka Smart. I'm Doug Gottlieb. This is the hurt. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy,

not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast, Superhuman, documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardweight with your favorite therapist and host, Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations, that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional

who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit are armored. It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen to learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. On the Look Back at it podcast.

From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84's big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. It was a wild year.

It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.