The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD - Hour 2 - Illinois head coach Brad Underwood stops by The Herd

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

Illinois head coach Brad Underwood joins the show to talk about his team’s Final Four run and why college basketball is as good as it has ever been Colin doubles down on defending UConn head coach Dan HurleySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in noon to 3 Eastern, 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox SportsRadio.com or stream us. live every day on the Iheart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Welcome in. Here we go, Howard II. All fired up for Brad Underwood, the Illinois head coach. Their team is fascinated.

They found a freshman guard. He's like SGA, 6-6-Wirey, totally unrecruited. Walked on campus and you're like, we got ourselves a lottery pet. They went all, spent their money. They got twins from Croatia, Pesha Stoyakovich's kid. Fascinating team. So I, you know, I've been on this a little bit, but I just want to stamp what I truly believe.

This was my prediction. And yes, I like to be right. When I'm wrong, I admit it. But I kept saying about NIL, you can buy a lot of things in life. You can't buy happiness and you can't buy championships. The New York Mets are a great example. They got Steve Cohen. They are rolling out the money.

And last year they finished four games over 500 and missed the playoffs. So the most, the five most expensive rosters in college basketball, Kentucky, BYU, Duke, Arkansas, and Louisville, none made the final four. One made the elite eight. And I've said this. The NIL money is jet fuel if you got a great head coach in an excellent culture. If you don't, all it does is raise expectations and get coaches fired. Texas football, number one NIL last year. Couldn't make a 12-team playoff.

Phoenix Suns last year, 10 games under 500. One of the most expensive rosters in league history. It's like Hollywood. You know, my daughter used to live in, they call it WeHo, West Hollywood. 10,000 beautiful men and women that are perpetually unemployed. You'll see them at Equinox and Trader Joe's every day in Hollywood. Do they have the work ethic? Do they have the commitment?

They're beautiful. They should be on the big screen and they can't get work. There's so many things that matter. Here's the truth. Fans don't like the NIL because people don't like when other people separate from them. The example I would use, Oprah Winfrey got less popular when she was. she went on a diet and lost 40 pounds. True story, I used to work at NBC.

The literally, her likability rating shrank as she lost weight because the feeling was, oh, now she's rich and she's thin and she. We don't like people separating from us. And, you know, Kentucky, by the way, is a rich basketball

program. They're in their longest elite eight drought in team history. So I'm not saying that you can't, you know, Mick Cronin and I talk about it. I'm not saying you can't get a better roster, but what if they don't fit? What if you can't coach? What if your culture stinks? All these teams left. Yukon, Illinois, they're all like Michigan, Dusty May, great culture. Arizona. Tommy Lloyd was up at Gonzaga

for 20 years. He saw it a great culture. It's hard to get players to Spokane. Well, not anymore because they have a great system and a great coach and a great culture. And with that, Brad Underwood, is joining us live fascinating team. Anyway, I'm on one of my rants, Brad, about all this NIL stuff. I love it. I love it. I was taking it all in.

So your team is probably the most fascinating. You go get a player, Keaton Wogler. He's unrecruited. And I watch him playing, I'm like, 6-6 guards in college basketball are hard to match up with. So when he came,

from Kansas. I read a story this weekend. You see him finally on campus. How many practices or times in the gym did it take to watch him and go, we may have just stolen the best high school recruit that nobody knew of in the country? How long did it take you to spot it? You know, you go through it in the summer and Keaton got the ultimate compliment from Kyle and Boswell. You know, players are going to go at each other. You know, the new guys coming in, the vets are going to challenge them. They're going to say, okay, who is this guy? Blah, blah, blah.

And Kylo M Boswell walked in, I'm going to say sometime right around the 4th of July. And he's like, coach, this one's got it. He said this one's got it. And he said he's tough. And, you know, we had two one and done's last year. And he goes, this one's different. He said, this one's got it. And, you know, as a coach,

you respect a veteran, but you also haven't put them through the fire. You haven't coached them every day in practice, and they haven't gone through adversity, and they haven't played in front of, you know, fans on the road, and 16,000. You never know how they're going to react. So this one became, we had a scrimmage with Florida in a little small gym in Orlando, and it was a bloodbath. I mean, it was two teams just, just competing, going at it. And for a stretch of time there, he was the best player on the court.

Wow. Wow. And I said, okay, he's really tough. And he's got a great demeanor. And I knew right then that he was going to have a really good year. Then it took us a little bit, just to figure. out how to utilize him in the right way. Yeah. And we grew in that area with him.

Well, it's really, here's where it's fascinating, what you've done. So I think it's easier to recruit domestically because you know the good AAU programs, you've been coaching in the States. When you go over to Europe, I mean, I'm going with my son to Europe this summer. I'm a visitor. I've been there a few times. I am a visitor. You got twins from Croatia.

You got Pages Sun. You've got guys from all over Europe. Coach, maybe you go to Europe five times a year that I don't know about, but how do you know who's good? I mean, obviously there's a bunch of agents trying to sell you there, kids. How did you know, is it just film? I feel like recruiting Europe could be really full of potholes and landmines if you didn't have, like, great connections over there. Is it hard? Yes.

And I give my staff all the credit. Jeff Alexander, Orlando, Antigua. we've been nurturing relationships over there for years. And now we go over every month to six weeks. One of them is over there. And we developed relationships with the agents, with the coaches. I did a clinic in Belgrade this summer that was as good a basketball clinic as I've ever been a part of. But they fit us.

And we had some connections. And again, we got Thomas Lov of V.C. first. And then to be honest, it was, it was, it was, it was leaning on him to find out about the character, to find out about the, who they are as a person. Do they fit in our locker room? Sure. And I'm a really big character guy. I want character, not characters. Yeah. And, and, um, we leaned on him. And, you know, obviously one of those guys is his twin brother. And then, you know, David Murcovic was a teammate. And, and, and, and it just, it just grew. And And Andrei Stoyakovich was in the portal, and he's a guy that fit a hole that we had.

And, you know, it just so happened as his dad was Pagia, and he was, you know, he's from over there. But it just has worked great for us. So Brad Underwood coach of the Fighting Line, Illinois, which I was down watching a football game and looking at your basketball facility this year earlier. And one of the things I like about your program is not a lot of. of disruptions, not a ton to do. You're into your sports and your academics. I look at your game against Yukon. You guys have been an unbelievable second half team this year. And I mean in the tournament and Yukon is, and this is just, my take on Yukon is they wear you down and it fatigue sets in. And if you're a young team like Duke, it can unravel fast because they got depth and

power. Why have you been, I mean, when you think of Yukon and you've watched the film already, What jumps off the film of Yukon immediately? Well, it's very easy to do. To me, it just jumps out and smacks you, and that's their culture. It's winning. There's no hiccup in anything they do. They can have a drought. They can play great.

They maintain a composure that is maybe unrivaled. They don't ever get too high. They don't ever get too low. you know they've got caravan is one of the best players in the country that no one ever talks about he's the ultimate winner and and you know they can hurt you in a lot of ways

I think that we're a completely different team than when we played them on Black Friday in November yeah and I think we have eight starters I think that's helped us you talk about our second halves I think that's helped us.

And, you know, we've found a rhythm. And we've been into just nasty street fights with Houston and Iowa. And they were physical and hard-nosed. And then we finally found a little footing offensively. And we're able to pull away. But, yeah, I expect that same type of game with Yukon. They just don't go away and they're relentless. And I like to think that, you know, we're better prepared now than we

were in November. So I know you've already, I watched the Michigan game. That was at home. Michigan is as, I said this the other day, I went to the United Center. I wanted to watch them live. I thought Michigan's ball movement looked like an NBA team. I think their passing is, I can't even believe it in the half court set. It's really, for college basketball, it's extraordinary.

Mara, who was always a good defensive player. Now he's become a good offensive hub and passing. Do you look at this Final Four as kind of Michigan up here and three other excellent teams? Or do you think these teams are all, it's anybody's Final Four? I think it's four teams that any of them can win it. And if you don't play well, you'll lose. You'll lose. You know, I think that you've seen Purdue beat Michigan in the Big Ten tournament.

you've seen, you know, Arizona's, you know, had moments this year where they've gotten beat. You know, and I think it's all about who's playing well. Yeah, I think, you know what? I think all four teams are playing really well. And it's a matter of, you know, Michigan has been maybe the best player in the tournament in Yaxel. Yeah. And I think that they have something. that maybe the rest of us don't in Mara, who's just an absolute defensive monster at the

rim. But if you don't play well, they can lose. And you know, you got to make shots. You got to, you know, I think they're the final fours, you know, kind of a tough guy's game, and you've got to be physical and rebound and do all the things to win it. And if you do those things, you've got a chance. So you've reached the elite eight minimum, two of the last three seasons. You got it rolling. You got the recruiting going. You got the Europe thing going. A final question is this. Listen, I like the NIL because my take is it's college football. A good team can get really good adding two or three play. There was always something in college basketball or football is you used to go to the junior college level or you'd have a hole

and you couldn't quite solve it. Well, now you can solve it. You can go find a point guard. You can go find a three and D guy. But that means. Brad Underwood has to get on the phone with agents, which doesn't even sound like fun. Is there part of you, if I said, Brad, okay, you weren't going to be as good eight years ago, but you didn't deal with agents or the new version, which is, hell, you can just go buy something if you can't find it. Well, you tell me as a coach, how do you land with NIL? Yeah, so I'm a big fan of NIL.

I think the game of basketball has never been better. I mean, Yaxel wouldn't be in college. That's right. If it wasn't for NIL. Right. You can go on down the list. And college basketball itself, the talent is just unreal. The players are so good.

And that's helped that. And I'm for that. I think the key is building your roster. I think it's all about role players. I think it's very much like an NBA. where you're going to have a couple of guys who probably make a little more than the others. But you've got to have role players. You've got to have guys that, you know, for us, I think that's why we've excelled Jake Davis

and Ben Humorikows, Thomas Lava Vsage, you know, we're bringing Andre Stoyakovich now, who's all region off the bench. He was a starter early, had an injury. Everybody's got to want to play for the name on the front of the jersey. and not the name on the back. And you've got to find those guys, no matter how much money you spend, you can spend oodles and gobs of money,

but you could just be giving it away to the long people. That's right. And to me, it's about finding the right role players. And we'll all find the talented guys. But role players that will fit in and be a great, great teammates and joy for their success of others

is something that's really important to us. Brad Underwood, coach of Illinois, remarkable team. I have not watched this much college basketball in a long time. The quality of the game is just astounding. And coach, I appreciate you giving us 10 minutes today. Thanks, Colin. I appreciate you having me. You bet. They're really good.

Number one in the country, and a lot of it is efficiency with them, is they are very intentional. They can slow it down. I just find European, you know, I asked him, like, how do you do the European recruiting? You could get, it feels like you could get, you know, really manipulated or taken because you don't know. But what did he say? We just send people over there.

We do, you know, we do camps over there. But the other thing he said, and this is indisputable, and I noticed it three years when Yukon won the national championship. The quality of play. I'm watching Michigan at the United Center. The passing looked like an NBA team. The three-point shooting. It looked like an NBA team. I mean, it's always been, we talked about this yesterday, you go back to the Duke Butler when Butler was good.

They're doing it with defense and toughness. You're getting, you're getting national championship games, team shooting 32%. That's awful. Everybody says they love defense. No, you love your team's defense. Nobody likes watching defense unless it's their team's defense. If I said, you, Super Bowl is six to three. You'd only like it if you were the team that ended up with six.

Right? Nobody else in the league wants to watch that. the offensive efficiency, shot making, attacking, and finishing at the rim is so high at college basketball. I don't know if I said this yesterday. It felt like for about a 15-year stretch, college basketball was just AAU basketball with jet fuel. Now it feels like it's just the NBA missing one great player a roster. Like if you put one more player in Michigan, like, like, a really high-end guy.

You'd be like, they're like four NBA dudes here. Like, it is really good. All right, Jay, Mac. We're making things happen today. That ABS system in baseball is just, it is, it is remarkable.

The unintended benefit of it, it has become the game show reveal and it's fantastic. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd, weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the I-Hard radio app. Hey, it's me, Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast inside the Parker for 22 minutes of pipe and hot baseball talk featuring the biggest names and newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe in analytics or the I-Test, we've got all the bases covered. New episodes drop

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Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember I think it was on a call about what we should call it

And we were thinking I'm originally calling it One of the early names of our band Before Jonas Brothers This is how you guys remember it going down Yes I have a very different memory of this We were talking about a thing A bit for the podcast

People could call in and say hey Jonas And then I wrote down on my little notepad Hey Jonas and offered it up as a potential title For the podcast But thanks for remembering that guys listen to hey jonas on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast just listen we don't care where you hear it another podcast from some s nl late night comedy guy not quite unhumored me with robert smigel and friends me and hilarious guests from bob odenkirk to david

letterman help make you funnier this week my guess s n l's mikey day and head writer streeter sidel help an acapella 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 Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete

themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 and the tick TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect.

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Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. So last night, you can baseball season starting, I was telling you, I was watching the Cubs game Sunday. And so I got home last night. And Anne says, I want a hot dog. And in Chicago, hot dogs are like an art form. You got to put tomatoes on them. You got to have the right Kaiser roll. You got to have the right rolls.

Last night, we grilled vegetables and hot dogs. J. Mack, in 72 degree nighttime weather, knocked down a couple, maybe a red stripe. Nobody lived bigger than me last night. Are we getting sponsored by Red Stripe? Can they send me a case? By the way, tomatoes on hot dogs? Is that a real thing? Oh.

And they were gloriously red. I mean, just juicy tomatoes and relish and onions. I haven't had hot dogs for dinner. I don't think it says that I was eight. And Ann's like, no, no, no, no. We're going to grill vegetables. We're going to make this. You think ballpark.

I love having hot dogs at ballpark. She goes, it was unbelievable how good they were. Yeah. Isn't it like if you eat a hot dog, you lose like 18 seconds off your life or something? They're so processed, something like that. Perhaps. But I gained a decade last night. That's how good these things were.

J-MAC with the news. Turn on the news. This is the Heard Line News. All right, let's start with Victor Wenbinoa, the most dominant player in the NBA this season. Dropped 41 and 16 last night. He had the third fastest double-double in the play-by-play era. I mean, that's just ridiculous.

He had 10 and 10 through eight minutes in the first quarter last night, Colin. That's ridiculous. us. When he's hitting his three-point shot, it's game over. No, I mean, it's not only game over, it's unbeatable. If he hits his threes, nobody's beating the spurs. You just, I mean, literally, they are so good defensively, well-coached, and when he's hitting threes, that is a, that's like, remember when Yokic and Denver won the title, you and I were both like, it was going to be a dynasty, but they lost a bunch of ancillary parts, and Yokch wasn't a good defender. And Jamal Murray, it's not a good defense.

Wemby is, I don't think he'll ever quite be Yokic offensively, maybe not that kind of shooter. Oh, I don't know. But defensively, he's already the best defensive player by a stretch in the league. I mean, in the modern era, we could say that. Just a quick note. What a time to be alive, right? There's a unicorn in baseball, Shohayotani, pitching and hitting, and a true unicorn in Wemben, Yama and the NBA. We're never going to see two players like this again.

Like, it is pretty incredible. By the way, since February 1st, the Spurs are 25 and 1 with Wembeiyama. 25 and 1. Look at these numbers, Colin. Ridiculous. Wemba's putting up extraordinary numbers. It's annoying that the media, the ink-stain wretches are going to give the MVP to SGA, the pre-throw merchant. But, you know, so be it.

This is the MVP. It should be. Yes, this is the MVP. Here's the thing. How many players ever could you say that? about. I mean, this is how Good Wemby is. Almost everything Jordan could do, LeBron could do. Now, maybe not as well, but he could do it. There are things Wembe does that Michael and LeBron, Magic, can't do. Shack could not do this stuff. No. No, I mean, he is defensively,

LeBron was, Michael was a great defender. He didn't alter game plans. I mean, literally, this is how good Wemby is. Take the best players in league history. I mean, Bill Russell back in the 60s. Oh, come on. He was 16. Well, that's right, but the players were smaller. The game wasn't as athletic. But I'm saying Wemby does stuff

that Steph, LeBron, Magic, Bird, Michael Duncan can't do. That is when you get into discussion of, well, that's the greatest basketball phenom of all time. So when the playoffs are coming up,

You know the Knicks and Lakers are going to get the prime time spots, probably the Celtics. I'm just telling you the Spurs are probably going to be getting the premium games ahead of the Thunder, ahead of some of the other good teams, Anthony Edwards, Yokic. I know people are going to be upset. I want to watch Wembe. I want to turn on my TV and see that guy cook every single night. All right, let's go to the next story. This is interesting stuff from Tracy McGrady.

One of my favorite players in the early 2000s. I love T-Mack. But he has a take right now that the older generation of NBA players, They don't want me to name names, but you know who I'm talking about. He's been, they have been very critical of the current era, and T-Mack says it all comes down to money. And if you look at how Kevin Garnett was the highest-paid player in 2001, Colin, he was making $19 million a year. 19-mill. There's now like 50 guys making more than KG-B, maybe more.

And T-Mack thinks the reason all these guys are ornering on TV and podcasts ranting about the current era, is because of the money. Jalen Brown's making extraordinary money. All these guys are... Look at this salary. I don't see why they're hating, but go ahead. No, I think money's a big part of it. Money is something.

For men, it's just a thing. Career ascension, money is a big deal. But it's like 20 years ago, Colin? 25 years ago. You were played in the league. I'm sorry you weren't born later, bro. Well, LeBron, who's a billionaire and Michael Jordan, who still makes hundreds of millions a year on shoes, they're not bitter.

But you can hear some of the commentators. One of the things about the NBA, I do think it's funny to tell old NBA stories because it was just so lively in the 70s and 80s. But it's like, one of the things that I don't love is this constant need to look in the rear view mirror for basketball. Like there's, like, again, baseball lore in history is such a huge component to baseball.

Right? But what makes baseball great now is you can go on the air like you and I do and talk about the current players, not Mickey Mantle. And that's, that to me is one of the healthiest parts of baseball is I got Bryce Harper, I got Otani, I got the Dodgers, I got the Yankees. The players

are unbelievable. In the NBA, so many of the old guys, all they want to talk about is the old basketball and four guys on the court couldn't shoot a three. The players now are so much more skilled. The ball handling and shooting today,

go back to the Knicks' pace series, take out Reggie Miller. Was there one more pure shooter in the entire remaining nine stars? Detlof Shremp, obviously. No, I'm kidding. But that's a great point because baseball, oh, who are the best nine of all time? Make your team and it's like

Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrie and I'm like, what? Modern players are amazing. What are we doing? I don't understand that with baseball. You go to basketball and the old, I mean, a lot of people, I don't even put Bill Russell in like my top ten. He won a lot. He was great in his era. I mean, I don't know what he's doing now.

What's Bill Russell in the NBA now? Like, not knocking his game. At the time, I mean, he was amazing. He made the San Francisco Donns, a college basketball dynasty. I mean, he was for his time. That's why I don't think you can compare eras. But I will say right now, I think the 30 for 30s on Spike Lee and Reggie Miller, I watched that series.

It was a free throw shooting contest. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was 73, 68. Yuck. College basketball scores more than that now. And by the way, Cooper Flag is about as big as Bill Russell was. Cooper Flagg. It was like a point guard now. It does everything. Anyways, let's finally, let's wrap things up, Colin with the NFL.

Interesting little story here in that Sean Manian is, he's, Eagles hired Sean Manning, the former Packers offensive assistant as their OC, and he's never called place, okay? However, Matt LaFleur knows Mannion well and believes he will. crush it in Philly because of his work ethic, adding his only concern will be dealing with the media circus in the city of Brotherly Love. Now, I know you're a big WIP listener, and they are panicking about Mannion never calling plays, dealing with A.J. Brown, maybe broken J. Jalen Hurts. Just because somebody's never done something, I mean, Sean McVeigh had never been a head

coach. That doesn't mean you can't do it. So I don't. I mean, it's interesting because the Eagles are a contender. they have a first-time play caller. The Broncos are a contender. They have a first-time play caller. Young guys, Sean Manny and Davis-Web. Seahawks have a new offensive coordinator. A lot of newness among the top teams.

The Rams, of course, are retaining the Great Mid-Bet. Yeah, I think, listen, the Eagles are very offensive coordinator-dependent. That's not what the Chiefs and the Rams and the Niners are. So, like, you'd think, oh, you guys. are talking about coordinators. The Eagles are coordinator dependent. Shane Steichen, fantastic.

You know, Kellynne Moore, really good. Because the head coach and the quarterback are not, to me, not elite enough to just carry a C plus coordinator. Jay Mack with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The Hurdline News. No, I was thinking this last night about you start looking right now at basketball between college and the pro. You know, one of the great things that's happened to baseball is the international stars are just, I mean, they're remarkable playing. I mean, the Dodgers solved their bullpen. They're starting pitching.

I mean, Otani wasn't hitting against the Phillies and you have these international players. It's crazy. You watch Illinois play. Sports now, like soccer was always, international soccer was over, always global. And then basketball, you'd have guys from overseas, but you'd get maybe two guys in the league overseas that were really respected. You look at college basketball now. I read a story a year ago. They were thinking about shutting down a Spanish league.

I don't know if that's true. But that America and colleges were just raiding, rating like Spain for the top players. Well, they're all over here now. The other thing I think that is true is that the American. public, it could be restaurants or it can be sports. People know quality. And in the last two years, now you could say, well, they've changed the television rating system, but the ratings haven't gone up slightly.

And the ratings aren't going up massively for everything. Is that for years and years, I used to say college basketball is tough to watch. Well, I mean, the NBA guys don't play any defense. The reason college basketball teams could full court press you is because only two guys could handle the ball. You know, I'm watching Michigan. They got three or four guys, including Mara the center, who are elite passers. You didn't have that 10 years ago. You may have one great passer, one great ball handler, just the reality of these international players that come in for Illinois.

These college teams now, NBA teams have five guys that can handle the ball, at least four on the floor. You can't have two non-scores, non-shooters in the NBA. You'll get exposed. You can maybe have one if he's a great defender like Draymond Green. College basketball, about 10 years ago, it felt like every team had one guy who could really shoot. I'm watching Michigan and Illinois and some of these college, Arizona. Arizona's got seven guys who can handle the ball like pros and five guys that can shoot like pros. So the American public is part of the rating surge is the quality is much better.

It doesn't take people very long to figure out, you know, you'll see these restaurant groups in Chicago. There's two or three major restaurant groups, and they've got 15 restaurants, and all of them crush. Why? Because those restaurant groups know what the hell they're doing. They're well-funded. They hire the best people, and they retain them. People aren't loyal to restaurant groups necessarily. They're loyal to good food. And if you make the best hot dog in Chicago, the best steak, or the best lasagna, it's going to work. And if you don't, you're out of business. So I think a lot of the surge in college basketball ratings is just people are smart.

People know when quality is awful. Go back in YouTube the Duke and Yukon Butler Finals. It is Clank City. It is masonry. Just bricks for two and a half hours. In Chicago, it's the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what?

We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a... We're the first people to do podcasts.

Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And, well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer 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-heartedly. radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what

happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs,

the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back.

Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me?

Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. and I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris, every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay.

Jenchian went. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lerabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface, Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open.

Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Saturday night is baseball night on Fox. This week we got Pete Crow Armstrong and the Cubs versus Jose Ramirez and the Guardians, or Ronald Acuna Jr. And the Braves against the Diamondbacks. baseball night in America Saturday at 70s turn only on Fox. So I defended Dan

Hurley last hour the Yukon coach who is intense and combustible and you know he barks not at his players but at refs so there was a moment at the end of the Duke game when he

and official Roger Ayers just moved by each other and his coat is disheveled and you know he's and it is It looks like they butt heads and Duke fans were like, ah, that is outrageous. And I'm like, yeah, they just won the game. I don't think he's in a bad mood.

He is intense. He gets it in your face. And you know, you just see it briefly. And you're like, wait, what? Here's Dan Hurley on what happened with he and the ref. He's such an easy guy to work with during the game that I thought he was coming over to chest bump me to celebrate the shot. My experience with him has been, you know, we haven't won every game.

I haven't agreed on every fall. But his, like, so that was in no way was that like me and a ref that I had been at there for out the whole game. That was more like the emotion of the shot. And this is a cool-ass ref, guy. He was just coming up to tell me that was point three. Oh. I think there's going to be point three or point four on the clock is what he's saying to me.

And I was still so hyped from the shot going in that I was like, you know, like anyone to walk up on me right there yeah i mean i i i'm going to say i i agree with what he's saying and when you watch his jacket off to the side of hurley he's kind of strutting he's like you know it's that it's that it's that vince mcmand look when he's walking in hurley's kind of strutton like little peacocking and then the ref comes over and just says hey point three left and then that's what hurley said and so i i you know dan's intense don't you guys have intense friends? Am I the only one?

Sometimes, you know, Anne wants to make a point. She gets right in the kitchen. She gets right in my face. And that, you know, maybe I'm just used to it. But Hurley's an intense guy. So there's, I mean, Mike Shoshchevsky, Mike Shishvsky was, I mean, all over officials for 30 years. And I'm sure a lot of it wasn't pleasant. And it's sort of like when you're Hurley or Coach K or Tom Izzo, you have had these officials for 15 years.

You have like relationships with the officials. Like they know you, you know them. You know, they're impartial, but you know, you joke around. How's the fam? So it's like major league baseball umpires. You don't think Clayton Kershaw, but Clayton Kershaw looked at the home plateed umpire. I guarantee you Clayton Kershaw was like, he is. not giving me stuff on the hands.

Like he wants you to work quickly. He gets frustrated. He's got a state dinner reservation at 10 at the palm. He's going to give me a big strike zone. I mean, I remember talking to Kurt Schilling once. He goes, I think it was John Hirschbeck. Some guys, they like, they want baseball to be fast. They're going to give you a wide.

Now, you can't do it with the ABS system. But there were umpires that were like, you knew you got a certain strike zone. And there are NFL officials that give you cornerbacks a lot of physicality and you can grab. It's the same in college basketball. What you're trying to do if you're Hurley is over then Mike Shoshchevsky is your preaching defense. When I think Mike Shishovsky, I don't think of brilliant offense. I think of defense. When I think of Dan Hurley, I think of defense.

So what Shoshowski and Dan Hurley, and I don't hear a Mike, but I would imagine a lot of what they're complaining about is, is, hey, man, let us be physical. This is our style. You're intruding in our style. You're letting them be physical. You won't. What you're trying to do is grow, get a little growth in the physicality allowed over the course of a game.

You, you, I mean, I never thought Coach Kay's offense, it didn't blow me away. But I always thought the culture, in-game coaching, recruiting, physicality. I mean, they played hard. Duke plays hard. I covered Jerry Tarkhanian for years, and they had this assistant Tim Gergeridge. Everybody always talked about the running rebels. If you really faced Jerry Tarkanian's rebels, what you realize is how damn hard they played on defense. And they didn't always have, I mean, sometimes, I mean, if you didn't play defense or at least try, it was hard to get on the floor with Tark.

And so the refs that bark are just trying to, hey, you're, you're killing us. You're not letting us play real defense here. and so, you know, it's all part of the, you know, Bobby Knight just complain about everything. That was the difference. I will say this. The quality, Brad Underwood coach of Illinois was on our show 25, 30 minutes ago, the NIL between stealing players from Europe, stealing, taking players from Europe, recruiting players from Europe, and keeping guys in college one more year, the quality right now is remarkable. So I'm a big fan of NIL.

I think the game of basketball has never been better. I mean, Yaxil wouldn't be in college if it wasn't for NIL. You can go on down the list. And college basketball itself, the talent is just unreal. The players are so good. And that's helped that. And I'm for that. I think the key is building your roster.

I think it's all about role players. So this is really interesting. This is a discussion I have had with different coaches about this. Obviously, if you're Oregon and you can get Dante Moore or a great left tackle, you know, nobody's disputing that. But what you're finding with NIL in college football, I mean, obviously you get Caleb Downs and you're from Alabama and your Ohio State, you just go get Caleb Downs. Like he solves all your back-end issues.

and everybody needs a good quarterback. But what you're finding is, with a really smart college basketball and football programs, is a lot of the NIL stuff is to just make sure that you're not awful anywhere. It's not necessary. I mean, Kentucky can go pay for stars. What you have to figure out is, I mean, go look at Michigan. Now, Yaxel Lindenberg's obviously very, very good player. But Mara was a five-point-a-game guy at UCLA.

They didn't go buy a big offensive guy. What they bought is Dusty May told me this off air yesterday. He was like, listen, he was a good passer at UCLA. We thought he could be a hub offensively play in and out, inside out basketball. But we knew he would stabilize any of our defensive liabilities. And so they just went and bought a rim protector who could also pass. They didn't bring him in for scoring. So I think the programs that get in trouble with an IL,

you're just trying to buy points. And that's not what it is. What you're trying to buy is leadership, culture, and a specific skill. Plug a hole. And I think the programs that get that, like I said before, the five top spenders in college basketball NIL, none made the final four. One Duke made the elite eight. That's it. And last year, Texas number one NIL spending could not make a 12-team playoff.

Phoenix Suns, one of the biggest payrolls in NBA. history. Ten games under 500. Didn't have the chemistry. So it's I think it's an all-time great final four matchup. Can four teams win it? Brad Underwood

says yes, all four can win it. All four teams are playing really well. And it's a matter of, you know, Michigan has been maybe the best player in the tournament in Yaxel. and I think that they have something that maybe the rest of us don't and Mara,

who's just an absolute defensive monster at the rim. But if you don't play well, they can lose. I think earlier this season, Gonzaga is a really good program. And Gonzaga has been a, they are a giant now. They were a giant slayer for Mark Few's first decade. Gonzaga doesn't get blown out much. Michigan blew their doors off. And it was a game in, and Michigan's not always a great shooting team,

and it was one of those games early in the season where Michigan was just hitting jumpers, and Gonzaga is a really good program, and they just tore them apart. And it's like, wow, wow. So I'm going to take Michigan to win it. I think they'll beat Arizona close. I think the Illini are a tough They've just got a lot of ways to score And I don't think Yukon does

So I'm going to take Illinois by about four I'm going to take same Michigan three or four And we're going to have an all big 10 final And I would have to take I would have to take Michigan Yeah so you go with the favorites throughout That's smart. It's been a favorite tournament Chalky which normally stinks But the games have been so thrilling

So who do you give a better chance to pull the upset, UCon or Arizona. I think that would reason. I think, I don't even, I don't think Arizona's an underdog. I think Michigan. You think Yukon's good? They don't have a second

dependable score. But they're so great in terms of toughness, size, coaching. Coaching, I think, is one big thing. And I think Michigan, Arizona,

there is no underdog. I think those are the two most talented. I don't feel like there's, I mean, that's a coin flip game. I just think, I think the defensive presence of Mara is just hard, like Brad said, just hard to overcome. Nobody else has that. Yeah.

Hour three. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We get to ask other people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an

a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement home. 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. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless.

And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no-nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. She's an outsider to win the French fame. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lerner Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now

and I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcasts on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind,

and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source the athletes themselves.

Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlic on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed human.