The Josh Innes Show - Womens Tourney Better Than Mens?

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

Jilly was telling me about some story that said the women's basketball tournament is more interesting than the mens...is it? Men's college basketball is a snooze and most people can't name a handful of players. The WVU mens basketball coach left for Indiana and he's catching some hell from WVU fans...I feel like I can sort of relate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I was watching a little bit of the first four. I mean a little bit because I thought about taking North Carolina to beat the shit out of San Diego State, and they did because it just made sense. It's North Carolina Blue Blood Program. Couldn't name one guy that plays for them, but it's a Blue Blood Program, and people are shitting on them saying they shouldn't have been in the tournament. Then they get into the play-in in Dayton, and then they just beat the ever-living shit out of San Diego State.

I thought about taking that, but I didn't yesterday, so shame on me. But we talked a little bit about the tournament yesterday and and I go back to this point like Jilly was telling me that uh there was some story about how the women's tournament is more interesting and might end up with better ratings than the men's tournament and maybe so maybe it will maybe it won't I don't know but something the women's tournament had that the men's tournament hasn't had in forever is good guys, bad guys, villains, and storylines. The reason why the NCAA women's tournament was interesting last year is because you got the final Kaitlyn Clark v. Angel Reese matchup, and you got the race war between the people rooting for Angel and the people rooting for Caitlin Clark. That's reality. Agree with it, disagree with it. There are certain things that

are just fact and are just reality. The reality is the only reason Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark were anything in terms of being a story is because race was a huge part of it. Race is a huge part of everything in this country because we're fucking imbeciles. Now, with that said, I'm on ESPN.com right now, and there's a headline, front page, picture of a guy that plays for the Florida Gators, right? Coaches predict the men's NCAA tournament champion upsets prospects whose stocks could rise. There's a picture of a guy from Florida. Looks like he might be doing the gator chomp. I don't know. You could give me 1 million guesses, and if I could get it in those million guesses, you'd give me $10 million. I could not tell you this gentleman's first name, last name, what number he wears. I know nothing

about this guy. And that guy is currently on the front page of ESPN.com playing for Florida, who is one of the best teams in all of college basketball. And I, a guy who spent 20 years of my life doing sports radio, could not tell you who the fuck this guy is. And that's the problem college basketball has. No one knows who these dudes are. Now, of course, there are people in certain towns that are into college basketball. Like I'm sure there are some people in Houston that are into the Houston Cougars and can name every team, every player on every team they played because they're into that team. You go to Lawrence, Kansas, everybody in Lawrence, Kansas knows the name of every player from the Jayhawks and every player from every team in the big 12, because it's a, it's, it matters there.

It is important there. People give a shit about that there. So it makes sense. I'm a guy sitting here in St. Louis, Missouri. I know, actually, I know the dude, the Robbie dude who plays for St. Louis University. Why do I know who that guy is? Because he was the big sexy story out of Indiana State last year, right? Oh, the guy with the goggles, right? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, right? That was the dude.

I knew him because he was a storyline. He and his coach come to St. Louis and they get their asses kicked in the NIT last night. So that storyline's a dud, right? But I know who that guy is. There's a story there. There is no story. I don't know who these people are. They're not interesting to me. Now, stories can come about throughout the year. Like, I had no idea who Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was last year until the tournament, and they won some games. So, of course, storylines always come out of the tournament, and there are going to be guys you've never heard of that are going to become first-round top five picks in the NCAA tournament. One of the greatest examples of that ever was a gentleman by the name of Tyrus Thomas, who played at Louisiana State University from McKinley High School. That was during the 2006 LSU season in which that team went to the Final Four. I talked about it a little bit yesterday.

That team had three future NBA players, one of whom still plays. So you had Big Baby, you had Tyrus you had, um, Garrett Temple. Those were the three guys you had on that team that went to the final four at LSU. And some sec people knew that Tyrus Thomas could jump out of the gym. Dude was catching alley-oops. He caught an alley-oop once the ball was higher than the box on the backboard and he caught it and threw it down. Dude was a freakish athlete, but he also kind of had, I don't know if it was grade problems or whatever it was, but he was kind of out of sight, out of mind, and you didn't really hear a lot about him

unless you were watching LSU games, right? He could block shots. He could catch alley-oops. He was a fucking monster. And the NCAA tournament happens, and he does, I mean, he had a killer game. I think his big game was against Texas. I know Duke, I mean, he had a killer game. I think his big game was against Texas. No, Duke. I mean, they shut.

And actually, you know who else made himself some money that day and made a name for himself was Garrett Temple. So Garrett Temple shut down J.J. Redick in the Sweet 16, just locked him up. Redick sucked in that game. And you had Tyrus Thomas making plays against Duke in Texas, and that's where Tyrus Thomas became a top three draft pick in the NBA and really went on to do Dick, right?

But he made a name for himself. And you'll see storylines like that. The problem you run into with NCAA now with the tournament is none of us really care who most of these guys are. And we pay no attention during the regular season. Like back in my day, you knew if J.J. Red like, you knew, like, if J.J. Redick, like, when there were matchups with J.J. Redick and Adam Morrison, right, from Gonzaga, that was a big deal, and it kind of mattered,

and you wanted to see what happened in those games. That was 20 years ago. You don't get that anymore. That doesn't happen anymore. People aren't as interested in that kind of shit anymore because college basketball is not that interesting to people. So what you end up with is you just kind of go into this blind lane. You pick teams because you enjoy it, but there's no real knowledge other than looking at point spreads on these guys.

And so when you read stories and the stories are like, well, women's basketball, the tournament is more popular than the men's. Oh, last year, I can guarantee it was because you had a fucking race war. You had Caitlin Clark versus, you You had Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese. Or this year, they'll say, well, the star power in the women's game is more impressive than the men's. It is. I can actually name a woman's basketball player.

Juju, the girl with the little bun at USC. I know who she is. I know who the cute white girl is from TCU that used to play at LSU, who was a great player, came to LSU oh what the fuck Haley Van Lith that's a banging the dude from the uh Magic so like Haley Van Lith I knew Haley Van Lith because she went from uh wherever the fuck she was playing before she went

to LSU uh Louisville then she goes to LSU they misuse her and she does nothing important because they're focused on fucking Angel Reese bricking a bunch of layups and getting rebounds and double doubles now she goes to TCU takes them to the fucking tournament and she's like a candidate for player of the year and she's balling like of course there is bigger star power in women's basketball than there is in men's basketball as it relates to the college game there's no doubt about that but uh anyway let's play a couple commercials and we'll continue all right if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you've got to check out Pick 6 from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts, DraftKings Pick 6 posterizes the competition,

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who does a lot of college basketball stuff. He was talking about how the coach from West Virginia, Darian DeVries, is now leaving to go coach the Indiana Hoosiers, and people are shitting on him for leaving Indiana. Now, I know nothing about what's going on with West Virginia basketball or Indiana basketball because truly I just don't give a shit. But the story is kind of interesting because this guy spent one year as the coach of West Virginia, went 19-13. They were 10-10 in the Big 12, and they didn't end up getting into the tournament.

They got left out of the field, right? So he was available to go coach somewhere else. Illinois, or sorry, Indiana probably got turned down by a bunch of people that didn't end up wanting the job. So this guy ends up taking the job at Indiana. So he, you know, whatever. I mean, the guy was a mid-major coach, takes the job at West Virginia, leaves after one year. It's a story we've heard a billion times where a guy leaves school that he's at for a year because he goes to a better job. And I found the story interesting only because of the way Gary Parish was breaking

it down, which was essentially people at West Virginia are pissed that the coach left. And you get that, right? But when you take that job, you don't know that that's not the job you're going to stay at forever. Like if you're a coach at like St. Louis University or at Southwest Missouri State University, you know that that's probably not going to be the place you're going to stay forever if you have high hopes or big ambitions or grand plans of being a successful coach and like climbing the ranks, right? You want to get to a Big 12 school, an ACC school, an SEC school. Like that's the dream. Whether it's basketball, football, college baseball, doesn't matter. You know that there are bigger jobs. Indiana is one of those bigger jobs.

But people are pissed off that the guy left and they kind of compared it to Lane Kiffin. Well, again, if you're Lane Kiffin and you are at Tennessee and you have a chance to go coach at USC, that's a pretty sweet gig and you took it. It happened. It just so happened you sucked the one year at Tennessee, so it made it look like you were running your ass out of Tennessee to go over to USC. In this case, West Virginia, which is a fine job and a job that you can be successful at, but it's not Indiana.

Indiana is one of the five biggest gigs you're gonna find in all of college basketball, right? It's a blue blood type of thing and it's a job that if it's open, and the way it was put was very well put, like you have no fucking clue that this job's gonna be open when you take the West Virginia job.

A thousand things have to fall into place for that job to be open and for them to be interested in you. So you didn't know that when you took that job. So many guys, you get up at the podium when you accept a job and you say, this is where I want to be. This is the job I want, especially if it's at a major school. There's a guy named Will Wade who got whacked at LSU because of a scandal and now he's coaching at McNeese. They're in the NCAA tournament. He's going to end up coaching at a power school here next year, probably. You know when Will Wade takes the job at McNeese. You know that it's the only place giving him the offer. You know that he's damaged goods. So you know that when he takes that job, more than likely

he's looking for another job that's bigger than that. And I think they know that when he takes that job. There's no way you could look at that and go oh I believe that that guy is going to stay at McNeese in Lake Charles Louisiana for the rest of his life they know he wants to move back up and prove a bunch of people wrong you take a job at West Virginia that's the kind of job in theory you could stay at for a long time unless there's an Indiana that calls and that's kind of what happened in my life like this guy's getting dumped on by a lot of people for taking that gig and you know, West Virginia fans who are pissed off and I get it. But like when I took the Casey job, there are people that I don't know will ever forgive me for doing that. Many have, but like I tried to explain the situation to them

that in theory, it was a dream job that Casey in the rock universe, at least in my mind, was like one of those Indiana type jobs. That's why I did it. You know, the opportunity was there. I wasn't necessarily looking for another job. I was curious about what was out there because in my mind at that time, I was still a sports radio guy and I wanted to talk more and shit like that, but I wasn't like pounding on doors trying to find other jobs. I was just, you know, just nosing around when this job fell into my lap, which is kind of similar to what happened with this guy at West Virginia. Like you don't even know that job's going to be open until it's open. And then you don't even know because it's not public.

And then boom, they come to you and they're like, Hey, would you be interested in this job? And you're like, well, fuck yeah. And that's a blue blood job that's like taking Duke basketball Indiana in theory once I got there I realized it wasn't like that but in name in brand working at KC 95 in St. Louis was like going to Duke or going to coach you know LSU football Alabama football Michigan football It's like one of those big jobs where it's like, holy shit. And everybody I talked to every human, even people that worked at I heart when I was there were like, I don't blame you. Some were pissed and some maybe haven't forgiven me for it because of the way it went down. And I get it. But like when I got the job in Nashville, my intention was to be in Nashville. My intention was to sign another contract in Nashville, right? I did not know that, you know, two years into being in Nashville, there'd be a call from what was one

of these quote unquote blue blood type situations. I would have had no idea, right? I would have had no fucking clue. But then it happened and you took it. And everybody I talked to, there wasn't a person other than my dad who said, don't take the job, just stay where you are because that's my dad's mindset. But like nobody else in the world was like terrible decision. Almost everyone was like, holy shit. That's a big gig. That's KC 95. People were calling my wife. Radio people were like, wait, did Josh get a job at KC 95? Holy shit. That's huge. Like you had to take it. There was no turning it down. Right. You had to. And like, that's kind of, I think what happens to some of these college coaches is they take good jobs. Like Nashville's a very good job. I wish I still had that job

because it was looking back. It was a great job and I was going to be making base in the six figures there and it was going to be fine. It was a good gig. It's Tennessee, which is a great state. There's no state income tax. There were a bunch of aspects of it that were remarkable and great. So, you know, I wish I still had that job. It was a great job and I shouldn't have left for this one. With the benefit of hindsight, I made a dumb decision. So, you know, it is what it is. You make dumb decisions, you live with them. But at the time, everybody I talked to, radio people, everyone, they're like, why wouldn't wouldn't you you know you're leaving that and it happens to college coaches all the time you know like if you like there aren't a ton of

giant jobs right like like whoever coaches U of H football like whether it be Tom Herman or go down the list of guys that have been the coach at U of H football over the last, you know, 15 years. What's his name? They ended up going to A&M. All those guys. You look at those dudes and you go, all right, you're at U of H. U of H is a good gig. Back then they weren't in the Big 12, but they're in the Big 12 now. So you're in the Big 12. You're in a power conference. You're in a great city. It's NIL era era so you can spend money and get dudes to play it's great but if like texas or a&m calls you and there's 80 000 people in the stadium or kyle field you know 100 000 people at the stadium and you got boosters that have unlimited resources and it's the sec it's the biggest thing u of h could do whatever the fuck u of h wants to do it ain't a&M it ain't Texas right

like that's kind of what you're dealing with in that so all that to say this I kind of get it like I know I'm relating this to myself in kind of a weird way and it may be a story that a lot of people don't know or care about but it is interesting it's interesting that like guy leaves a job after one year and in my case I left two, but you leave a job and it's for a blue blood situation. And you think it's going to be fucking gigantic. And then, you know, you, you leave because of the big name and who knows how it's going to work out, but you're not going to stay at West Virginia and pass up Indiana. Now there's more pressure that comes in Indiana and there's more likelihood you get whacked

at Indiana if things don't go well, but what are you going to do? All right. More to come.