The Kevin Sheehan Show - Brissett Is "Hilarious"

Episode Date: March 17, 2023

Kevin opened with thoughts on Maryland's NCAA Tournament first-round win over West Virginia. He had Chris Knoche on from Birmingham to recap the big win and preview tomorrow's 2nd-round matchup against the #1-seed in the tournament, Alabama. Kevin had Zac Jackson who covers the Cleveland Browns for The Athletic on the show to talk about Jacoby Brissett. Zac has really good information including describing Brissett as "hilarious". Taylor Heinicke spoke in Atlanta and Kevin has five more NCAA "Smell Test" picks to finish up.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. It's going to be a wild dash here. And now have a second. Here it goes.

A chance. March in his two. Hedry and Johnson for the victory. Oh, wow. The angle look good from here. But Maryland survives. The Terrapins take it. 67, 65.

I thought it was going in, and I bet a lot of you who root for Maryland, thought it was going in as well. But it didn't, and the Terps beat West Virginia, 67-65, and they advanced to the second round. They'll face Alabama in Birmingham tomorrow night. It's a 940 tip. So they go from being the first game in the first round yesterday to being the last game on the first day of the second round.

know that anybody has more time in between the end of their first round game and the start of their second round game. They'll need it to recover because yesterday against West Virginia, that was exhausting. I'm going to get to that game here in a moment. First of all, the show today is presented by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.ag. Use my promo code Kevin D.C. All you have to do is wager your deposit amount one time and you're eligible to cash out right away. Most books Don't let you do that. My Booky is, and it's perfect for the tournament. If you just want to bet the tournament, bet the tournament and then cash out when you're done.

If you're up, you know, not everybody's up when you finish. I certainly wasn't after yesterday. I have another smell test at the end of the show, but you probably don't want it after I went two and four yesterday. No, we got a good bounceback day coming. Five picks at the end of the show. MyBooky.ag use my promo code, Kevin D.C. I'll get to my Maryland recap here in a moment. But on the show today, Chris Nakke will join me in the next segment.

But at the end of this first segment, you're going to hear from Zach Jackson. Zach covers the Browns for the athletic. And I'm having Zach on the show to talk about Jacoby Brissette. And I've already recorded the interviews, so you'll hear Zach talk about Jacoby Brissette. and describe him as hilarious. Why is he hilarious? Well, stay tuned. Zach Jackson from The Athletic coming up in a few moments.

By the way, a couple of quick football notes before I get to a recap of the Maryland game from yesterday and talk a little bit more about the tournament. First of all, there is news from pro football talk overnight. News that the Snyders have exited the building in terms of moving out of. the building in Ashburn. That happened, according to reports, back in December. But they also described the word coming out of the building as the sale being imminent. I do think that we are getting closer to the end of this thing. And there will be quite a discussion about the past and about the future when it happens. I do think it's going to happen. I do think Josh Harris, and now

the Josh Harris-Harris-Mitchell Bid will end up being the bid that wins. That's my guess. And I do think that it'll happen sooner rather than later. I think that's been my take for a while now. So we shall see. By the way, Tommy tweeted

out, if you miss this, Michael Jordan is in talks to sell his equity stake in the Charlotte Hornets, which he's owned for quite some time. Tommy tweeted out this morning, for what In November, I, as in Tommy, was told by someone who claimed inside knowledge that a New York

investment firm was interested in commanders and Michael Jordan would be a part of the bid. I was never able to confirm it, but their information included Jordan's selling steak in the Charlotte Hornets. I mean, Tommy has great sources. I know this was not a report by Tommy. It's a for what it's worth. But it would be interesting, wouldn't it, if Michael Jordan once again held an equity stake in a DC sports franchise. Didn't go so well the first time 22 years ago or whatever that was now.

Speaking of Tommy, Tommy's been hell-bent, right, on this notion that Taylor Heineke wasn't going to play here because the relationship, he felt betrayed, or that was Tommy's feeling. and he felt like that that was kind of confirmed by Taylor Heineke's college coach who went on Galdi's podcast recently. Well, this was Taylor Heineke yesterday in his introductory press conference talking about Washington and how the deal with Atlanta went down. That was very tough. You know, that's, I feel like that's a home for me. You know, I've built a lot of great relationships there. There's a lot of great memories there. You know, they gave me my second chance at football.

And there's a lot of special people up there. But, you know, I'm going from one home to another. So it's a pretty easy process. But I'll be lying to you not to say I was, you know, a little heartbroken to leave those people up there. Atlanta said they were from the beginning. I didn't know how much, how interested they were. But there was some interest there. And honestly, I was about to sign back with Washington about two or three days ago.

And Atlanta comes in with a better off. offer and I sat back and thought about it and you know my family's from around here I'm from around here um you know my little nephew's going to be able to come see me at training camp and and go to the game so you know that was a big part of it and I'm just happy to be home and and and uh you know do that for my family didn't exactly sound to me like a guy that felt so betrayed and had such a rift with the head coach that playing in Washington wasn't going to be an option for him sounds like it was pretty close. But, you know, I will certainly allow for the possibility that Taylor Heineke was taking

the high road. He certainly seems like a high road person to me and that there was nothing to gain by throwing Ron Rivera under the bus publicly. But we will certainly talk about Taylor Heineke's introductory press conference in Atlanta on Tuesday show and get Tommy's reaction to it. A couple of other quick. NFL notes, just Washington kind of related. West Schweitzer signed with the Jets.

That's number one. Number two, a couple of the other quarterbacks that we were thinking about. Marcus Marriota got a one-year $5 million deal in Philly because Gardner Minshu is in Indianapolis at like three and a half million. He didn't get that much. Bottom line is Jacoby Brissette ended up getting probably, I think, at this point, the best deal for a perceived backup. maybe part-time starter at $8 million guaranteed for one year. I think that's the best deal that any of the quarterbacks that we were talking about, you know, the Andy Dalton's, Jacoby Brissette's, etc.

I think Brissette got the best deal. Not unusual for Washington to pay top of the market, and sometimes that's what they have to do to get somebody here. Also, I read yesterday that Jacoby Brissette, represented himself. He does not have an agent. He's got advisors, but he represented himself. Nothing new on Aaron Rogers as of the recording of this podcast. More on Jacoby Brissette coming up in just a few minutes. But I want to spend just a few minutes recapping Maryland's win over West Virginia yesterday in the first round of the tournament. I thought that that game was an edge of your seat start to finish thriller.

I know it's not for everybody. I know if you like pretty and you like smooth and you like dainty, this one wasn't for you, but you should have expected with a Bob Huggins coach team that this was going to be a fist fight from the jump. And it was. It was expected, but I got to be honest with you, it was more than even I thought it would be. Both teams back and forth. Haymaker after haymaker. This was pure contact sport yesterday.

This wasn't boxing. This was a brawl. The screens were violent. One of them by Juju Smith knocked out the kid on the other team, Matthews. The boxing out was overly physical. Defense is trying to totally disrupt offenses, and it didn't matter how they did it even if they fouled. The fouling in the game, prolific.

43 fouls called in the game. It could have easily been twice that. But if they were to whistle everything in that game, the game would have lasted four hours. It lasted two and a half hours as it was. I loved it. I just love these kinds of competitive, you know, sort of blood feuds. And I know that it's not really a rivalry,

but there's something there between West Virginia, and Maryland people, you know, more so probably in football, but Maryland had, you know, been bullied out of the tournament with mellow Trimble eight years ago. And to get back at West Virginia and to send them home was lovely. I would have been crushed had they lost that game, but I think I would have been able to sit back and acknowledge that this game was damn good. Again, not aesthetically pleasing for those.

that want the game played smoothly and without a lot of physicality. But this game was great from that standpoint. So a couple of things about the game that I liked. First of all, just the back and forth nature. I mean, you know, West Virginia came out. They bullied Maryland for the first 10 minutes of the game. They took a 13-point lead, 19 to 6. The Terps had four points at the 10-minute mark.

They had turned it over six times. West Virginia was jumping every ball. screen. They were doubling down. They had quick hands. And Maryland just wasn't ready for this all out assault by West Virginia at the beginning. But West Virginia, you know, Maryland's come back from some big deficits this year. I got to be honest with you. In the moment, I thought they were in trouble because it's one thing not to shoot it well and to get behind. It's the, it's another thing to really be, you know, beat up physically. And they were. They were. They were. were not ready for West Virginia. I mean, this was all over them. It was white on rice defensively.

I mean, you couldn't budge if you were Jemir Young early. Any kind of traffic, they stripped it, any kind of ball screen, they doubled it hard and aggressively. Every post up was doubled down with quick hands. Every passing lane was jumped into, and they had a 13-point lead. Maryland couldn't score. It was their defense, which it's been all year long, that kept them alive and well. You know, there was a time out there with Kevin Willard, and Kevin was on the radio show this morning, so you can listen to that on the Team 980.com with me. But there was a point in which, I think it was the second TV timeout. Tracy Wilson interviewed Willard, and he said, look, we've had these starts before, we've come back before. And he goes, to be honest with you, considering how

poorly we've played to be only down nine because it was 13 to 4 at that point. We feel pretty good about it. The back and forth nature of the game, though, Maryland's down 13 early. Then the Terps come back on a 32 to 12 run to take a two-point halftime lead. Then the Terps go up seven to start the second half. Then West Virginia scores 16 unanswered to take the lead by Then Maryland comes back and takes a five-point lead. Then West Virginia cuts into that, and they've got a three-point attempt on the run, on the move at the buzzer to win it. And it was just barely off, and Maryland won a game in which both teams at the end looked spent. 67-65.

The game lasted two and a half hours. There were 43 fouls, 38 free throw attempts, free throw attempts, he said. 13 total steals, seven block shots. I loved it. I love the fact that they won more than anything else. Juju Reese, what a game he had. He put his stamp on this game over the final seven, eight minutes when the big guy bell fouled out. What a game, probably his most important game to finish the way he did. After he got beat up a little bit early in that game, finished with.

17 and 9, three block shots, and Maryland got out rebounded in this game, but at the end, it was Reese grabbing a lot of the big rebounds along with Dante Scott, but a terrific game from Julian Reese. I thought Dante Scott was huge in the first half. He seemed to settle them down, had a couple of big buckets. He played outstanding defense, and I thought Hakeem Hart was great in the game too. I'd also mention that Ian Martinez, before he got in foul trouble, was doing a great job along with Scott, and really it was a team effort to shut down Eric Stevenson, their big-time score who went four of 17 and ended up with nine points and was harassed from the jump and actually didn't even play to start the second half. Huggins was so disgusted with him.

It was a great basketball game. Maryland got jumped early. They responded. Rebounding was a problem for them. Their defense, as it's really been what's. carried them, especially away from home, was so good in the first half. Not so good during a 16-0 run in the second half, in which, by the way, Kedrian Johnson ended up with 13 of the 16 points during that stretch. But I just, I loved the basketball game. I loved both teams and their fight

and their resilience when they would get down. One thing in particular really pissed me off. There was a Replay review with Maryland seemingly having all the momentum at the beginning of the second half. They were up 3831. They had taken a seven-point lead, so they basically, you know, turn the tables by 20 points, down 13, up seven. And there were only about 18 minutes. It was only about two minutes into the second half, 18 minutes left in the game. And the refs went to the review, to review what looked like a slip screen by Dante Scott, which was a ridiculous review.

These two teams had been brawling in the first half, throwing each other around, and they took five minutes on this to look at it. And I think it really sapped a lot of the momentum. Kevin Willard on with me this morning agreed with it. But phenomenal game, great offensive rebound by Dante Scott at the end. The free throw shooting wasn't great. They missed four out of their last seven, which is why West Virginia had a chance there at the end. Jamir Young, look, he's had some rough games recently. They have really gotten physical with him, teams have. They've kind of forced them away from getting to his left hand. They were jumping every ball screen. And it was a rough day. But the fact that they came through with it with him having only one made field goal on the day. Ended up with 10 points on the day. But one made field goal, six turnovers, and they still survived was huge. That was a big win.

The Terps have had, you know, a lot of success in the first round of tournaments. I think they've only been eliminated three times in school history in the first round. They advanced that second round a lot, and they did with the last guy, Mark, as well. But this was a big win. And I thought Kevin Willard did a great job. You know, he's done a really good job with this team. The development of Reese has been really amazing because Reese now, you could debate is the best and most impactful player on the team.

But he did a great job of not getting rattled. And I think he's got a veteran team, which really, really helps him. And he's got some really higher IQ players. I thought this was a really smart game for Dante Scott. Patrick Amelion's always super smart as a player. And I'll tell you what, Reese really has a good feel for the game. It's Alabama next. Seven and a half point dogs right now.

I see it at eight in a few spots. My bookies got it at seven and a half right now. The real issue is Brandon Miller in his health. Brandon Miller is one of the two or three best players in the country. He'll be a very top three to five pick. This was the Brandon Miller involved in the homicide down in Tuscaloosa. He was on the periphery of that. But Brandon Miller has kind of a.

an aggravated hamstring, and he didn't score in Bama's win over Texas A&M Corpus Christi yesterday. They got to play them in Birmingham late at night. Won't be easy. My gut, though, is that this Bama team is more beatable, even as a one seed, than the team they faced two years ago as a two seed. I thought that team actually had more talent. We'll ask Snaki about that coming up. But before we get to that, I want to talk with.

Zach Jackson about Jacobi Berset. So let's bring Zach on to the show. Jumping on with us right now is Zach Jackson. Zach covers the Browns for the athletic. I'm pretty sure we've had Zach on before, probably before the Brownskins game at the end of the year. You can follow Zach on Twitter at Akron Jackson. And the reason for calling you this time, Zach, is Jacoby Brissette. And I'll just start with what is Washington getting in Jacoby Brissette? Someone who's hilarious, someone who's seen a lot in this league, someone who played better last year than anybody outside his own circle and his own building,

thought he could in some really weird circumstances. You know, I don't know that he was as good as some of his numbers, and I don't know that he will reach his goal of being a starting quarterback for the long term, but he's a sharp dude. He's an experienced dude. You know, the offense was not the problem last year in the Brown's 11 games or in general. And I would just tell you, you know, the team I cover is an absolute train wreck. The team you cover is an absolute train wreck. Like, he's seen a lot. He's been on different teams. He's been on different circumstances. He's been asked to play on no notice. He's been asked to come in and, you know, hold the ship down. And, like,

I was looking other places, but I think it makes sense. And I like the signing by the commanders. I think he would be good enough to keep them in the playoff race. So do you think, because I had Mary Kay Cabot on my radio show yesterday, she actually just her default was, well, they signed Jacoby Brissette to be the starter. When, in fact, they've got Sam Howe on the roster, and there's been a lot of discussion. Actually, they've labeled him as QB1 going into the off-season. What do you think? Did you think when he signed in Washington that he was being signed to be the starter?

Yeah, you know, I'm aware that they labeled Sam Howell QB1 without knowing a ton about Sam Howe and only have seen the commanders in Week 17 last year when most people were just there to boo Carson Wentz, right? I would say that if Sam Howe beats out Jacoby Verset and is better than Jacoby Verset, then that's good for the commanders. because I would assume that Jacoby Brissette would be the best man for that job. That's totally outside looking in. But just having watched Jacobi and knowing Jacobi's experience level versus where Sam is and where the commanders want to be and need to be, right? I would assume that Brissette would win the job.

You said he's hilarious. That's the second or third time I've heard that he's got a very quick sense of humor. But just you describe why you said he's hilarious. Yeah, I think he's very dry. I think he's very aware of his surroundings. He was kind of keeping receipts on all the doubters, which guys are within their rights to do. And like I said, he's not a superhero, and he was not awesome. He had two really awful games, in fact.

But when you both great on the curve of the brown circumstances in the Brown history, and you look at how he moved the ball, you know, how he just never got himself into all of the mess and all of the drama that was going around. And, you know, the number of times he put the Browns in position to win against a couple of really good teams, games that could have gone either way and probably should have gone another way. I think he's, you know, I just, everybody in that organization is rooting for him,

and that says a lot, you know. And I think when you look at the whole track record of New England drafts him to be a three-year-down-the-road development guy, and in week three, they have to play him on a short week. They trade him the next year to the Colts on awful circumstances. He plays awful, but he steadies himself. He wins the job the next year. He gets a contract. You know, all the Watts and stuff flying around, playing on short notice the year before in Miami.

Like, this guy is, no one will say anything other than he's a good person. He's a smart person. he's a good player. And, you know, I think the commanders are better for having him in the room. And we'll just see how it shakes out the next six months. So why isn't he back? Is it just a matter of Watson's contract? You've got to get the cheapest possible backup? That's the largest reason. Yeah. I mean, he wants to play, too. You know, he wants to play, and obviously the Browns are all in on Watson. So they would have wanted him back. I know that.

But they knew money-wise they weren't getting there. And they, like I said, they weren't just resigned to the fact that he was going to go get that opportunity, people there wanted him to go get that opportunity. So everyone did the link to Arizona, where the Brown's former quarterback's coach is the new coordinator, and obviously Kyler's not going to be ready for week one over there. You know, the bucks chose Baker Mayfield. So, you know, I think it's a good fit.

And, you know, the fact that it happened three days into free agency tells me they prioritized that they did their homework, and we'll see what happened. Really good information, Zach. really do appreciate it. I do want to ask you just real quickly because the Cleveland game here, as it's been dubbed, which was the game in which they decided to go back to Wence and they needed to win the game to potentially lock down a playoff berth. They would have been the seven seed with a win over Cleveland and then a subsequent win the following week over the Cowboys, which they got

anyway. It's weird because Wence was rattled. He didn't play well. It was a bad decision, clearly. But I'm curious as to, from your standpoint, what you guys thought of Deshawn Watson that day. I thought it was probably the only time in watching him from afar that there was a stretch of the game where he looked like Deshawn Watson. What did you guys think of Watson's game in Washington? That's right. That's the only good half he played in six games. He was terrible. So we know he had the track record of being better. We know he's talented and we did see a couple of other glimpses. of it, right? But there's not

one metric that says he was good. There's not one person who watched and says he was good. And so the Browns just have to bank on the circumstances being what, and they signed up for all this, right? It was exactly a year ago today that they did the trade. And, you know, they see he's

27. He's led the league in passing. He obviously can create from outside of the pocket, which he did that day in Washington. And they made their big bet. So, you know, they're just a bad organization and have been for a long time. Top-down trade rack.

Tounston changed. And they probably had no business taking this on, right? Because in doing so, they were saying the rest of their roster is good enough and that they were strong enough organizationally to take it on. But when you look around the AFC and you see Mahomes and you see Joe Burrow, I probably would have made a desperation trade too. So I'm certainly not ruling Deshaun Watson out, but your assessment of that being the only good stretch is absolutely the only assessment

that anybody could make at this point. Zach Jackson, he writes for the athletic. You should subscribe to the athletic. He is the Ben Standing equivalent covering the Browns in Cleveland. Really good information on Jacoby Brissette. Really appreciate it, Zach. Thanks. Really helpful. Nocky next right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

Nicholas, the senior, with two seconds. Here it goes for the race. That was 20 years ago. Nashville, Tennessee, first round of the NCAA tournament. The Terps were the defending national champions, and Drew Nut Nicholas hit the walk-off three, dagger to beat UNC Wilmington, 7573. That was the Jim Nance call with Billy Packer. Naki's jumping on with us right now. I looked for the radio call. I could not find it. I know I've heard the Johnny call with you, you know, kind of

yelling in the background, and I've heard your description of it, and we'll hear it again, but for whatever reason I could not find the radio call. I would have come in with the radio call instead. But that's one of the all-time, you know, March Madness, buzzer beaters. What do you remember about it? Well, I mean, I remember it like it was yesterday, and it was a good game, Terps for, it played a Wilmington, a UNC Wilmington team that was just incredibly well-prepared, Brad Bout Brownell, who is still in Clemson, you know, was the coach. and she did a good job. It was just a big-time guy making a big-time shot.

I've always thought, and I've talked to Gary about this, I've always thought the senior season that Drew Nicholas put together that year was one of the more underrated Maryland basketball seasons that we've ever seen. He averaged 18 points a game, made every big shot that year, including a similar kind of walk-off three at MC State. Yeah, I mean, it was just so good. but I remember one of the reasons why I remember Kevin is because Nashville was such a great host to the sub-regional they could play it there every year and folks would be happy.

It was so much fun. And then to win a game like that late in the night was just added to the party. It was spectacular. Nicholas, so I remember you telling me in the past, and I had Gary on the radio show, and Gary said his vantage point when Nicholas let the show. go was it was going in. He knew it was online. You've, I think your description of it was the same.

Exactly. I mean, and he shot it confidently. He got a clean look. It was kind of a runner, for sure. But from where I was, I mean, I just felt like it was true the minute it left his hands. And, you know, also by that time, as I said, you'd gotten used to Drew doing Drew things that gear, you know, and it didn't surprise me at all that he would be a guy to make that shot. Yeah, they went on to beat Xavier in the second round. Actually, thumped Xavier, who was the

higher-seated team. I think they were. Yeah, they sure were, and they had a guy, David Webb. David West. And it was one of those things, too. I remember, because I was just talking to Gary about this just a couple of days ago, I was talking about the Drew shot, and I I remember walking in to the open practices on the day in between the games, watching Xavier work out. And I'm thinking, man, the turps are going to come in here like they were shot out of a rocket after the way they won against Wilmington. And they handled Xavier really easily in that second game. Yeah, won that game easily. And then the crushing loss to Michigan State, which there have been a couple of them in the tournament.

They rallied, I think, from 16 or 17 back. had a chance and Blake had an open look from, you know, a distance from behind the arc, but, you know, probably a 26, 27 footer to win it. And that was his last shot in the last game of his decorated career. I think it was Texas who we would have played had we won that game in the elite eight. That's exactly right. Yeah, we were in San Antonio. And with that comeback, you know, all the stars were in line.

and Blake himself over four years it made big shot after big shot. I think that Gary would have taken that shot nine times out of ten, you know, Blake with a chance to win the game. It was open from just beyond the top of the key, but it just didn't happen. All right, let's talk about yesterday

and then we'll talk about tomorrow night. I've already, you know, given my quick kind of recap of the game. I'll just ask you, just tell me what you thought of that game that you witnessed courtside yesterday, Maryland 67, West Virginia, 65. Yeah, I think Willard was spot on afterwards when he said it felt like a boxing match.

You know, punch, counter punch. I thought that there were a lot of kind of interesting storylines. You know, Maryland's best player all year long has been Jamir Young, and yet he really struggled in the game. It looked to me like early on, it was a little bit of nerves, a little bit of not being able to deal with such an early wake-up call and game yesterday, but a lot of West Virginia defense.

They doubled the high screen, really made it hard for Jemir coming off the screen. They did exactly what UCLA had done there back in December. And so he struggled, and as a result, the Terps struggled out of the gate, you know, down 196. But one of the things that Terps have done is they fought

back all you long, to their credit. He got to the free throw line, they started to make a couple of shots, and then they started to kind of find a rhythm. their best player, Johnson, the point guard, went out with his second foul. They brought in a kid who we'd seen for years at Iowa. And he hit a couple of three-pointers, but he didn't run much offense.

And during that stretch, the terms were able to whittle away. And once you get back in a game like that, you just feel like it's going to come down to last possession or two. And, you know, things went Maryland's way. They made just enough plays. They stayed out of foul trouble. And they made just enough free throws. as well. Yeah, I mean, that was my description of it, too. It was just one haymaker after another.

This wasn't the sweet science of boxing. This was big haymaker looking for knockouts, you know, by each team. And the beginning of that game, look, we've seen this team get behind and fight back. You know, Michigan State, Purdue, you know, and early in the season, not so much, but they've really become a team whose defense allows them to kind of hang in there until they can figure it out offensively. But I'll tell you what, those punches that West Virginia threw in the first 10 minutes, you know, you mentioned the doubling of the ball screen. I mean, they were getting in the middle of the dribble handoff.

I mean, it was bully ball the way you would expect a Huggins team to play without the pressing. And I, you know, I was legitimately concerned. You know, I thought back to UCLA, you know, Michigan on the road, and I was like, where is it going to come from? And I thought in many ways it came from Dante Scott settling him down offensively. What did you think? Yeah. Yeah, so, you know, I thought there were a couple of things that happened.

You know, so Jemir goes to the bench with, I don't know, like 12 minutes to play with fourth out, right? Yeah, the second half. They're down, right. And so they're down and you're wondering, right, where are the points going to come from? How are the terms going to respond offensively? Because as you said, the defensive had kept them in the conversation in this game. So two things happened. Dante really settled himself down. I thought he played a cerebral a game, as we've seen. He never really got outside his comfort zone or tried stuff that he couldn't do.

He did a lot of subtle things. The rebound, the offensive rebound, he grabbed inside. the last minute of play, allowed for an extra 20 seconds of possession. That was just monstrous. And on the statute, it just shows up as one rebound. But the other thing that happened, not just was Dante, but Julian Reese just became a different guy at that stretch. And part of it was because West Virginia's own big bell had fouled out.

So now there's not nearly as much resistance around the basket. I thought Julia was so far more. aggressive and assertive than a lot of times we see him. He seemed to really take it on himself. The game also got a little chippy during that stretch, and that Julian seems to thrive in that situation seems to really enjoy that. So those two guys really carried the water for the turps I thought down the stretch of the game. Yeah, I mean, I was in talking about Dante, I just thought in the first half when they were in trouble, he kind of settled him down. But Reese put his stamp on the final, you know, seven, eight minutes of that game like no other game this year.

And we've talked a lot about him. I mean, this, the development, the growth of him as a player, the production, the way it's increased, the way he's been essentially become a double double, you know, given against teams that are physical and big and in our league and yesterday. And yes, Bell going out was probably, and by the way, Dante drew Bell's fifth foul by taking it right at him. And that was such a smart play. I mean, you said it.

I mean, he had a very high IQ game. But if I told you in November, even December, that Julian Reese is going to be perhaps the most valuable player on the team if Jamir Young isn't. And by the way, we're going to get to the tournament. And he's essentially going to dominate the final eight minutes of a tournament game to get him to the second round. You would have told me I was nuts. Yeah, yeah, I mean, but you can't, there are two parts of that, too. You know, he had a lost year last year. In retrospect, I feel terrible for what he had to endure.

He was, you know, there was a coaching change in the middle of the year. He's playing behind a guy who probably didn't deserve to play behind, you know, because Julian choked flashes last year. His growth was completely stymied by the circumstances of last year. So now he's getting all this playing time, and he's just starting to figure out how good he can be. And it's almost like we're all watching the light go on above his head. And, wow, I can do this. I can. Now, if he just iron out some of the free throw issues that he's got, you know,

now you're talking about a guy with a complete package. But he has been absolutely enormous. And since, like, the middle of January or late January, he has been as good at players they've had consistently on this team. You know, we've talked about the shooting and when they were really struggling to shoot. And I remember, I think we both kind of discussed the fact that, you know, some of these guys actually can stroke it. Like, Dante Scott's got a good stroke. I mean, Hart, even though it's awkward, has a good stroke.

Don Kerry can really shoot it. Martinez actually has a really good stroke. And they've had some, in recent games, some really good shooting performances. Julian Reese, I forget if we've talked about this or not. Last year, he had a much better shooting stroke with more arc, with more backward rotation, and this year it's become totally flat. Is that my imagination or not? It's almost like there's some games slippage that goes on.

This kid lives at the free throw line in practice. I've seen him shoot hundreds and hundreds of practice free throws. and I think that sometimes he gets to the game. He reverts, and the shot doesn't have enough arc, doesn't have enough. So to me, it's a, without getting too nerdy, it's the release. You know, if he's, generally speaking, if you miss the shot right or left, you're offhanded on the ball too much. Okay?

That's usually the case with him. That right hand for him is on the ball way too long. It's a one-handed release. And yet even with that, even when he's straight on, there's no arc on the shot whatsoever, and there's low margin for error as a result of that. So these are fixable things, I think. You know, you're not going to, hard to address him right now, you know, in March. But hopefully he gets a chance he shot 10 free throws, I think, at West Virginia.

Hopefully he gets another 10 against Alabama. That would be a good thing for this team. It also means he's kept himself on the floor long enough to get 10 free dress. You know, I don't think I had looked this up until right now. He was an 80% free throw shooter last year. Now, he didn't get to the free throw line as much. But the stroke was different last year. It was a much better stroke.

In fact, I think a couple of times last year, he launched a couple of threes that didn't look terrible. Took the words right out of my mouth. Yeah, he took the words right. Yeah, he shot three and made three. I know. last year. And now it's almost, you can't imagine him stepping up on the three-point line right now, but that's one of those things that'll keep him in school. So I'm all for it. Yeah, because if he all the sudden, on top of the fact of being six, nine, but long,

and, you know, a rebounder, he's got a, he's got really good basketball IQ. He's got a couple of good moves, the jump hook. You know, he rebounds. He's competitive. If he started knocking down three stretching the floor, we'd be watching his final game tomorrow night, maybe. So that's a good thing. All right. The stretch of the game that really pissed me off was 3831, beginning of the second half, and a game in which people were literally throwing other players through glass windows in the first half, they decided they were going to take five minutes to review a slip screen by Dante Scott, which actually

there was very little, if any, contact and nothing got called. And I asked Willard about that this morning because Kevin was on the radio show with me this morning, and he said it took a lot of steam out of them. You were there. Did you feel that momentum lost in that moment? Absolutely. And this is something I rail about. I'm all for replay. I'm all for it. And, but... I'm just trying to make Zabe happy. You're just trying to make Zabe happy. There has to be a cap on the amount of time you can...

Please. You can look at something. And whether, I don't know what that number is, 20 or 30 seconds. Now, when I bring this up with officials, their comment to me, and it's funny to give and take here, Kevin. So they'll say to me, well, a lot of times we go over there, we can't get the look that we need on the replay. So it takes time for that to set up. which is kind of laughable to me because these guys go over there and they control the replay process. They've got the little mouse pad thing that they dial up and slow down the, you know, the action and stuff.

And so I, it to me, you put 30 seconds on the clock. Use the shot clock. 30 seconds. You don't see anything on there that we play on. Play on. And it's a killer. And especially killer, I get it in the last two minutes. possessions are paramount and stuff like that.

But in that situation, that time of the game, it just completely crushed the Terps. And then the West Virginia point guard, Johnson goes on like a 10-0 run immediately after that or 12-0 run. He scored 10 straight and 13 of their next 16 on a 16-0 run that went from 38-31 Terps to 47-38 West Virginia. By the way, part of the beauty in hindsight. of the game is just the back and forth and the runs that were amazing in the game

that you didn't think the other team would recover from once it happened, but they did. I thought the church might run away and hide up 3831. Yeah. They were playing great when that happened, and then the air went out of the balloon. You're right. Yeah. You talked about Jamir Young, and I'm curious as to what you're seeing. In recent games, it looks like.

teams are, you know, definitely doubling off the ball screen, especially if it's a good defender off the ball screen. You know, they probably have to figure out how to get the worst defender into the ball screen on the other team. You know, that's what you always try to do if they're really good at playing the ball screen. But they also are disrupting the dribble handoffs and pushing out on those, especially with Julian. And they're really, I've noticed more in the Big Ten than necessarily yesterday, but they're really saying, you're going to have to beat us going to your right. And he's, you know, he's a good player and he's explosive, but he's explosive most of the time going left. What are you seeing in terms of his recent struggles in the way he's being

defended? Yeah, I mean, I think that more often than not, they're also putting bigger guards on him. Now, West Virginia's got a bunch of six, three, six, four guys that are big guys. I thought he really struggled, for instance, with the big body of Hood Chafino from Indiana. Even Minnesota in the game before that put a, you know, a 6-7 kid on him. And it made it a little problematic for Jemir. And this is one of those things where he's going to have to adjust. This is, I'm not telling Kevin Willard how to run a program or anything like that, but this is where film study becomes absolutely essential.

He needs to look at himself what they're doing, what teams are doing to him. And, you know, you develop counters. You talk about counters for how to deal with that. But he got caught a couple of times getting clamped on that high screen, and he just didn't respond well to it. And it took him a while to find the rhythm of that West Virginia defense. And you're right. He is predominantly left-hand.

It doesn't go to his right nearly enough. He did get there a few times yesterday with a favorable matchup. But, you know, he's got – he's had – a remarkable year, and yet there's a lot of things he can do better for his team. And I think he knows that. I talked with Jamir for a while before the game, excuse me, the day before the game. And he was really disappointed with how he played in Chicago, and he was just looking forward to moving on and playing more basketball. I know we're going to focus on what's next here in a moment. But next year, do you have any sense of who's coming back? I mean, Hakeem,

Jamir, Dante can all come back, right, for a fifth COVID year? Correct. Correct. I think you have to sort of, you know, I'm pretty positive about it, because I think you weigh it against the alternative. And I know in talking to NBA guys, there's no real, you know, all the NBA guys know who these guys are, I know who a game and Dante and Jamir are, but there's no real market for them. I mean, they, I suppose, any of them or all of them can go to the combine and see how they grade out and test. But we've all seen a pretty good sample size. You think, like, I feel for Jimera, think about this.

As good as he's been, 16 points per game, Kevin. You know, you look at the position of point guard and professional basketball. If he's better than any of the 32, or excuse me, probably 64 point guards in the world, which basically, you know, the best 64 point guards, play in the NPA probably. Is he better than those guys? Probably certainly not better than the top 32. And so, you know,

these guys, I think they'll be back. And with NIL, you can pay him. I think that they've, if they know that if they come back, you might be looking at a team with the right

additions. You know, it's a top five, top 10 team. That's one in the next season. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think, actually,

I think all three of them would have a, chance to get paid playing professionally. In some ways, I think Hakeem actually has a chance to really play because he's so unique and he's so long and he can do so many things. And Dante can shoot it, you know, I mean, he really has a good stroke. I don't know if it'll ever become consistent, but they could all potentially earn money playing abroad. But yeah, no, I'm with you. They're not NBA players. All right. And by the way, Maryland will be, if I haven't mentioned this already, people, they will be active in the portal themselves.

There could be some very exciting, you know, ads from the portal when we get to the end of this season. All right, so tomorrow night, did you stick around and watch Bama? I did, I did, yeah, and I've seen, of course, they've been American team this year. I've seen on TV at their times. Yeah, they're formidable.

And even without their best player yesterday for the majority of that game. You know, they're just long and athletic. They've got all sorts of guys off. You know, they play guys off the bench. I think one of the guys who doesn't get enough credit is their point guard, quitterly. And I just think they're really good.

I mean, there's not a whole, there are a whole lot of holes to what they do. Are they better than the team we got run out of the building by two years ago or worse? I don't think they have all the. weapons that they had that game. I agree. Yeah, I mean, that team was, when they got it going against the Terps in that game, it was over early. It just felt like we never really

had a chance in that game, which is disappointing because, you know, they had such a great win against Yukon prior. So, yeah, I was disappointing. I think the Terps, I'm not going to say they match up well with them, I think the Terps could do some things, you know, i.e. change defenses, you know, pressure a little bit just to slow the game down.

You don't want this game to get out of control pace-wise. I know some of the terms like love to run and get up and down the court. I think you have to be judicious about that. You know what's so funny. I think I mentioned this with Tommy yesterday or maybe earlier in the week. Do you know where Maryland is in pace of play possessions per game nationally? Do you know where they're ranked? No.

No, no, no. 323rd out of 368 teams. And I think what's interesting about that is that early in the season, you know, the Miami game, the St. Louis game. And, you know, everybody's like, this is the way we want to play stylistically. And this is what we're going to do. We're going to press. We're going to run. We're going to be a team in transition.

And look, they do try to play in transition more. But I think it just speaks to my answer is it's the league they play in. These teams and these coaches just don't let you run. it's also and I you beat me to the punch on that Kevin it's the level of preparation when you're seeing these teams you know two three times with really good basketball coaches you know you like you call out a play and the defense runs to your spots you know it's hard particularly you know I think we're thinking about when we've got to the big 10 tournament and you know in some cases teams are playing each other for the third time it by almost by this.

very nature is going to be a low-scoring game, simply because you're just, you're used to all the action, you know, used to all the tendencies and things like that. So that's a big part of the, you know, that pace number, I'm sure. Yeah, I just pulled up the updated numbers. Merrill's 340th in pace of play, possessions per game, out of 363 schools. But, you know, to emphasize the point, Wisconsin's 341, Purdue's 342, Penn State's 332, you know, all. all the teams in the league are right there. They're going to play a team tomorrow night that is third in the country in possessions per games. But the –

Two or one and two? Yeah, Tulane and Pepperdine are one and two. You know what? You see a lot of these mid-major league teams in this and a lot of – way up on the list because I think you just have a difference in scouting and maybe even coaching to a certain degree. I don't know. But the thing about it is that I actually think, unlike, Mark didn't necessarily really want to run. He was really about being efficient offensively.

And I think Kevin is to a certain degree, too. But I think he'd like to run. And maybe getting out of the league and playing Alabama tomorrow night, maybe that's not the team you want to run with. But maybe for Jemir, to your earlier point, it'll be an opportunity for him tomorrow night. Yeah. I thought yesterday was played with a pretty good pace. I mean, 67, 65 really doesn't indicate to me.

You know, I thought the game got up and down a little bit yesterday. Now, it's going to be a lot different tomorrow night. But sometimes the quality of play does not allow you to, you know, I mean, if guys aren't making shots, then those numbers get further skewed. It doesn't mean they're not getting up and down the court. It just means they're not making shots, right? Yeah, I mean, and Maryland was 55% in the first half, but they had eight turnovers. So that's eight more shot attempts you didn't get. And yesterday's game was typical, you know, West Virginia in Huggins. They mucked it up. I mean, you had 43 fouls.

And I said earlier, that's a game that lasted two and a half hours. But if they had called everything, by the way, including travels and carries and everything else, that game would have lasted three and a half hours. because you couldn't call everything in that game. By the way, I love games like yesterday. I don't love the smooth, non-contact, you know, beautiful. To me, yesterday was pretty to watch. I mean, that was a competitive blood fest, start to finish. And I think that if those two teams played each other ten times, I think Maryland might win six.

it's probably more likely to just five and five. I think it just trait blows. Depends on where you're playing the game, I suppose. All right. Last one. Shifting to a different team. I don't know if you've read any of the criticism of Tony Bennett off of the loss yesterday to Furman. Virginia goes down on a bad play by Kihei Clark.

He's been a phenomenal player for that program, obviously, in a national championship player as well. And Pat 40, who's been a long time, you know, college basketball, college sports writer, essentially wrote a column saying, you know, now it's official. The 2019 Virginia Championship was a total fluke. This guy has won as much as anybody in the sport over the last 10, 11 years. But stylistically, we understand that, you know, you're vulnerable sometimes in a one and done. do you think criticizing Tony Bennett because he's been ousted three out of the last four tournaments in the first round by a much lesser opponent is justified or not?

Well, I mean, the style of play that they play allows other teams to stick around, right? They're not blowing anybody out. And then in a situation like yesterday, things happen. You know, lightning strikes a little bit, and that was just an almost inconceivable play. play by Kihei Clark who's played thousands of minutes in the uniform and played, you know,

99% of them pretty well. A stunning loss. I will tell you that one of the things I would really take exception to and all that is the concept that any national championship is a fluke. Because every game that you play

is, it's a one and done, it's sudden death. If you don't win it, you're going home. and for a team to make a run like they did and win all those games, particularly the games in the Final Four, the words dramatic as could be. You know, and the Texas Tech game was unbelievable, and they scored points in that game.

I don't think you can ever call a national championship a fluke, and that's kind of an insult to the process itself. As for the style and losing three of the first four, you know, Gary Williams will always tell you you got to score. You know, it's not six, it's not four out of seven, it's not three out of five. A team

just has to win one game against you, and the fact of the matter is that, you know, there are good teams and good players everywhere. So that sort of thing is going to happen. I'm a huge Bennett fan. I'm not telling you that I love the style

necessarily at all, but I think he's a great coach. I think he's a great Exx isn't an O guy. He teaches what he teaches. And beyond that, he's like one of the best guys on the planet, you know? So it's hard to take, it's hard for me to take issue with Ben and UVA at this point. National Championship, Elite 8, multiple sweet 16s. He's won six ACC regular season titles. He's won 70% of his ACC games. Like, if anybody at UVA actually thinks they should be looking elsewhere, you should be drug tested. Because UVA forever was kind of lost in the ACC wilderness.

You know, really, you had Holland and Jeff Jones. Jeff Jones won pretty big there. And then after that, it was, you know, you're talking about probably, what, 15 years of desert. And this guy's won more than anybody in the history of the school and finally got him their national championship. because I always felt in the ACC that Virginia was an underachiever, that there was a much bigger upside for them. You know, when you go back to the 80s, 70s, and 80s, and Ralph, and then even some of the Jeff Jones teams.

You know, yeah, I totally agree with you. And it's amazing what he's done. And the other thing is, I think that you want to take assessment of them, the numbers are staggering. look at what he did against Kay and Roy before they left. Right. He owned those guys. He absolutely owned those guys.

Yeah. And that is absolutely undeniable that he did. The tournament is just a different animal, man. That's why it's so great. It's just one game. And if you don't get it done, and the other team sticks around, like Furman made some plays down the stretch.

I don't know. Did you see the last few minutes in there in talking? You know, our game had just ended, and once the, you know, I went back and listened to a little bit of the studio, I flipped it just as K.A. Clark was throwing the ball away. Look at, go, it's on YouTube. I watched it this morning, the last, like, three minutes of the game. And it's amazing what Furman was able to do to stick themselves, they keep themselves in the game. Because I thought, I thought with 90 seconds to play, the Virginia had the game in half. They missed some free throws. Clark missed a free throw. He missed a big free throw. He made one and missed one, and that was a big part of their problems yesterday, too.

You leave that door ajar, and somebody's going to barge in. And Ferman, God bless them. They did it. Yeah, amazing. All right, thanks for doing this. Enjoy tomorrow night. Hopefully Brandon Miller isn't healthy. Didn't play a lot yesterday.

I mean, that's really, to me, that's the key to the game. I mean, if he's not 100 percent, that would be big. Thanks. Talk to you this weekend. All right. Bye. All right. Well, finish up the show with a quick smell test, five picks for today's first round, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Kevin looks where the John Q public is putting their cash and does the opposite. It's time for the smell test.

Two and four yesterday, not so good, had Maryland and San Diego State as winners. UVA, Illinois, Iowa, and Tennessee were the losers. Tennessee went off at minus 12. I gave it out on the show at minus 10 and a half. They had an 18-point lead, one by three. By the way, tomorrow, I'll tweet out some smell test picks before the second round gets underway at Kevin Sheen, D.C. on Twitter.

I can tell you right now, good chance I'm going to have Maryland against Alabama and Tennessee against Duke. That number is super short. Today's games. USC is the first game of the day. They're catching two against Michigan State. That's short. The public's on Michigan State. I'll take USC and Andy Enfield's team getting the two. St. Mary's is laying four and a half against VCU. Virginia Commonwealth is one of those 12-5 popular picks, upset picks. I'll take St. Mary's and lay the four and a half. Baylor today, first of all, I like Baylor in this tournament. I also liked Iowa in the tournament, and they are out. I like Baylor in this tournament. They're laying 10 and a half. Actually, it's 10 against UC Santa Barbara. A lot of UC Santa Barbara people out there for some reason. I'll take Baylor and lay the 10. Nobody thinks Purdue's going to win this tournament. I don't either. But a lot of people like Fairly Dickinson after their fairly strong performance in the 16-

versus 16 game the other night. Purdue's laying 22. I'll take the boilers and lay to 22. And then Florida Atlantic's playing Memphis. Memphis just beat Houston in their conference championship game. Florida Atlantic's actually been a ranked team for much of the year. They finished 31 and 3. They're getting a point and a half is the nine seed. Publix on Memphis, I'll take Florida Atlantic. So USC plus two, St. Mary's minus four and a half, Baylor minus 10, Purdue minus 22, and Florida Atlantic plus one and a half. Wager carefully. That was brought to you by, of course, our good friends at MyBooky.

Go to mybooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. All right, I am done for the day. Enjoy St. Patrick's Day. Those of you who celebrate, I will be doing so and enjoy the basketball weekend. I'll be back on Monday. and late at 10. Nobody thinks producing.