The Kevin Sheehan Show - Buckle Up!

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

Kevin started the show discussing the flury of weekend news surrounding the sale of the Washington Commanders. Gary Williams was a guest on the show to talk Maryland's big win yesterday over Northwestern. Kevin also discussed his first chance to see top Terps' recruit Deshawn Harris-Smith play last night for Paul VI in the WCAC semis.  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 Chean Show. Here's Kevin. Buckle up, everybody. It's about to get all stupid up in here. As Michael Scott once said,

when the pizza delivery kid wouldn't give him his discount. Yo, you don't even know what stupid is. It's about to get all stupid up in it. Good day, everybody. Uh, yeah. What a weekend of news related to the, the sale of the team that plays professional football team here in Washington, also known as the commanders.

Lots of news to go through from the weekend and some news today. I'm going to cut to the chase right now, though. I still think he's selling the team. I do. I know a lot of you are worried about a lot of the news that's been out there. I think he is selling the team, and I'll tell you why. And it's not that much different from my previous answers, but I've got one addition to that.

coming up here in a couple of minutes. One guest on this show today, Gary Williams, one of my favorite people. Hall of Fame coach, Gary Williams will be on the show. We'll talk some Terps Hoops with Gary. Maryland beat Northwestern yesterday in their final home game of the season, 75 to 59, lights out defense in the second half. Combined with lights out shooting, they were 14 of 22 from behind the arc, 63.6% for a team that has really struggled at times shooting the three.

haven't in their last two games. Maryland now, an absolute lock for the tournament. There's no should be in or bubble. They're a lock. They could lose their final two regular season games by 30 points each at Ohio State and at Penn State on Wednesday night and on Sunday afternoon. And they'd still be in. Right now, the only thing at stake is seating. You know, right now I would guess that there's somewhere between a four. Yeah, a four. They're ranked 21st in the poll that just came out. And maybe a seven. I can't see them falling to an eight, to be honest with at this point. I guess an eight's, you know, a long shot possibility, and maybe a four is a long shot possibility. Five, six or seven seems the likely spot for Maryland when, you know, the brackets are

unveiled two weeks from Sunday, right? It would be two weeks from this coming Sunday because this weekend upcoming is the final regular season week. Then we've got the conference tournament weekend. And then we'll have, no, I'm sorry, one week from this Sunday. Yeah, the brackets cut in, Selection shows Sunday is a week from Sunday because that's at the end of conference tournament weekend. So we're not that far off. Five, six or seven seed is my guess for the Terps. They are an excellent defensive team. They are a versatile offensive team.

Kevin Willard's doing an incredible job in his first season. The one thing that'll ding them a little bit on the seating is road wins. They've only got one true road win at Minnesota, but they could rectify that. this week at Ohio State. Now, Penn State, not going to be easy, but it's going to be fun to watch them here over the next few weeks. They've got a chance, I think, with the right matchup and the right seating, to, you know, be a second weekend tournament team.

I really do think that. They're an older team. We've talked about that during the course of the year. They're versatile. They really defend. It's going to be fun to watch them here. So Gary Williams will jump on with us in the next segment and talk some Terps Hoops in more detail.

Before I get to the sale of the team news and even some news from today, I do want to say thank you to all of you. Many of you probably saw what I tweeted out. If you didn't, follow me at Kevin Sheen, D.C. on Twitter. Those that help sell the ads on the podcast suggested that I tweet a snapshot of the Apple podcast charts where we were ranked number 10 in the football category. We've been ranked in the top 10 before, actually several times. But last week we were back in the top 10. And it's a way for us, obviously, to thank you and tell you how much we appreciate your listening and your support. It's been great.

It's been four and a half years of this podcast. Tommy, thanks you. Cooley, thanks you. So, yeah, it's important for us from a business. standpoint to continue to grow, but we have a really strong base of listeners. We are in a very unique position as a podcast that is mostly kind of locally driven in content. We are one of the top two or three in the country in the sports category for that category of kind of local content. You know, we're a DC sports podcast, the number of average downloads that we have, you know,

are comparable with most of the national shows. And you'll see, you know, some of the national shows are beyond, you know, well beyond what any of us can do locally. A lot of the barstool shows, some of the ESPN shows. But for us in the category of locally driven content, there are maybe one or two podcasts out there that kind of match where we are in terms of the number of listeners. And so that's awesome. I mean, we beat a lot of the national shows, too.

But it's been so much fun. We're so thrilled with the results. We want to keep growing. We want to keep growing revenue. And for that to happen, just keep listening. And tell others about it. And rate us and review us on Apple, Spotify, and wherever else you can do that. Those ratings and reviews are indications of loyalty, which advertisers love to see.

And, you know, it helps when, you know, I get a text from somebody who sells our podcast to say, hey, you're number 10 on the Apple charts. You should tweet this out. It would be a big help for us as your sellers to be able to highlight the fact that you've not only tweeted it out, but people have responded to that. And many of you did. By the way, some of you responded that the snapshot that I took of the Apple podcast charts also included a shot of my phone which was at 7% on the battery level. I never let it get to

that level. I don't know how it got to that level on Saturday. I think I didn't juice my phone on Friday night. I always juice my phones on nights that I have to get up to go to work. It sits right next to me. It's always juicing all night long, so it's 100% when I start the day. And I don't think I juiced it on Friday night. Yeah. So anyway, thank you again. So let's get to the news of the day and from over the weekend. If we take ourselves through it chronologically, and there's been so much out there, so I'm

probably going to miss identify in some cases who broke which story. I know that the Post late last week had the story that we talked about that Bezos had retained Allen and company to help them potentially formulate a bid for the commanders. And then on Saturday morning, we had Josh Cosman, who I had on the podcast a few weeks ago from the New York Post, put out a story that Jeff Bezos has been prevented by Dan Snyder from making a bid on the team. I had Josh on the radio show this morning. You can listen to that at the team 980.com. And then the athletic on Saturday came out with a similar story. our good friend Ben Standig and his colleague Daniel Kaplan reported the same thing that the New York

Post had reported and that is that Jeff Bezos had been excluded from the process of bidding on the team by Dan Snyder, something we've contemplated in the past. By the way, somebody tweeted to me that J.P. Finley had reported this three weeks ago. I didn't know that. But if J.P. was the first to report that, let's give him credit, that Jeff Beesonle. was not being allowed to bid on the team by Snyder, that Snyder was not going to sell the team to Jeff Bezos. I mean, talk about petty. And, yeah, so then today, A.J. Perez from front office sports

basically said that Jeff Bezos remains in the running for the Washington commanders. and that NFL owners, he writes, have grown increasingly concerned over the pace of the commander's sale, fueled by reports that owner Dan Snyder won't sell to Jeff Bezos. Bezos, however, according to front office sports, remains in the mix. Two sources with knowledge of this situation tells A.J. Perez from front office sports. One of those sources said the news that Snyder wouldn't sell to Bezos amounts to a ploy to get a high bid. out of the Amazon founder. Look, I want to mention this because it's something that Tommy and I talked about the other day. A lot of this reporting is on a very fluid situation and in the moment can be accurate,

even if it's proven wrong, down the road. I mean, we've now had, if you count the Athletic, the New York Post, and apparently J.P. Finley, three different, you know, people report that Snyder won't sell the team to Jeff Bezos. I would guess that the reporting in that moment was accurate, that that is what they were getting from their sources. And perhaps it was, as front office sports reports, an amount to, you know, a ploy to get a higher bid out of Bezos. We've always, you know, considered the possibility that Dan is small and as petty as he is,

you know, wouldn't trade Kirk Cousins to the Shanahan's for the number two overall pick. Jay Gruden said it was worth more. he said they were going to get two first round picks for cousins that particular year. But they didn't want to trade cousins to Kyle. But anyway, a lot of this reporting in the moment can be true. And we've certainly considered the possibility that Dan holds the post accountable for the predicament that he's in. Because as we've talked about many times, it's never about what they've done. It's always about what somebody's done to them.

You know, we've heard them. We've heard Tanya play the victim. roll. Remember that in the podcast that she did with Adam Schaefter? By the way, there was one other report. I'm forgetting the other report from over the weekend that came from Nikki Javala and Mark Maskey of the Washington Post. And that

is that Tillman Fertita, the owner of the Houston Rockets, is that mystery bitter that Cosman from the New York Post had mentioned to us a few weeks ago. Now, I'm not going to take credit for this at all. But I did suggest multiple times

on this podcast that I believe the mystery bidder to be a sports owner from a different league. I thought that there was a chance that it was Tillman Fertita, who has owned the Rockets since 2017. I just wasn't able to confirm it, even though I had multiple people tell me that that was their hunch, that that's who it was. So there was an inkling that it was Tillman Fertita.

The Post reported it on Saturday. They reported that the offer was for $5.5 billion. and that essentially he ain't going any higher than that. Dan went six, he's at $5.5.5 billion. I asked Josh Cosman from the New York Post. I asked him whether or not there's a possibility that Dan could go to the league and ask for the loan that he used to buy out the minority shareholders

to be forgiven as a way to get to the number that he wants to get to. And Cosman thought that that was in play. Thought that that was a possibility. I think there are a lot of things going on right now. I think number one is this. There are rather restrictive rules related to the purchase of an NFL team. Included in that is a 30% equity stake, a 30% cash down on the sale price,

a $1.1 billion max on debt on the team. No private equity firms allowed to participate in the buying of an NFL team, even though, by the way, private equity firms have interests and ownership in other sports teams and other leagues. They're not allowed to take money from public corporations or sovereign wealth funds, no money from other funds from, say, oil-rich companies. So that's been a bit restrictive and I think the sale price that Dan's wanted has also kind of eliminated a lot of people. I think the bottom line right now is there's not a whole lot of demand for this team. There is demand and perhaps enough demand to reach a conclusion with the conclusion being

the biggest sale of a North American franchise of all time in terms of sales price because it's going to be north of $5 billion. dollars. But it's not like, you know, the front office sports initially reported that there were six bidders, remember, for December 23rd. That's not the case, according to most of the reporting now. You know, we know of Josh Harris and his bid, which I confirmed this morning, he has bid on the team. Josh Cosman from the New York Post suggested that he was still gathering his bid together with co-investors. I was told by multiple sources that Josh Harris has bid on the team, somewhere in the neighborhood of maybe a little bit more than Tillman-Fertita, you know, north of $5.5 billion,

maybe close to $5.7 billion. But, you know, as I've mentioned all along, the prospectus did not paint a pretty picture of what the team looks like. They've lost 25 to 26% of profits over the last declining in profits over the last three years. That stems from, you know, decreased corporate sponsorship, decreased ticket sales, decreased everything, except for their

one 30-second cut in media revenue. But I think right now a couple of things. I think number one, we're in that phase where I think a lot of the news, at least the news anyway, whether it, because it's all the sudden

started to come from everywhere, where it was very buttoned up before. So there are some games being played with some of the news that's being disseminated. I think as far as the team's concerned, I think there may be actually, you know, multiple groups of where the information's coming from. I think the family office,

if you want to refer to it as the family office, those that are most responsible in handling kind of the Snyders versus the team. I think probably some information's coming from them with respect to maybe no Bezos or maybe not selling the, team, whereas maybe the team itself feels like they are moving forward with the sale. We saw Jason Wright kind of suggests that last week after the Airbnb Press conference.

So I think there's a lot of different places that are starting to leak out some information regarding this, where it was a little bit more buttoned up for a while. And some of it's conflicting information. It's hard to really determine what's what. but here's my conclusion is this. It's not changed. He's selling the team.

He's selling the team for the reasons I've said before. Number one, it's financially very difficult for him to keep the team and build a new stadium. He's not going to get any help. He has debt, the debt that was created through the buyout of his minority shareholders from before, Sharra Rothman and Fred Smith. And then on top of that, he's got to pay that back. And then he's going to have to spend billions on a new stadium, even if he builds it in Landover on the land that he owns.

And I just don't know that it's financially doable for him. He could always keep the team and play at FedEx Field and make some repairs to FedEx and play there for the next many years. But that really ruins a big revenue opportunity with a new stadium, which by the way might include getting a Super Bowl at some point. So I think financially it's difficult. Number two, as I've mentioned before, I think the family wants this. I don't think that they are having any fun.

I think it hasn't been fun for the family for years. I think that day against the Packers when Tanya was booed was a very significant day in their decision to finally perhaps convince Dan that they don't want to be a part of this anymore. Look, we've talked about it. How much fun could they have owning this team? How much fun could they have knowing that their father and their husband is among the most despised people in the history of this city? It can't be fun. It can't be. But the last reason that I am still absolutely convinced despite all of what's going on, you know, many people believe that Snyder put a number out there that could not be achieved by anybody other than Bezos and he's not going to sell the team to

But here's the bottom line on all of this. Can you imagine him coming back and saying, I tried to sell the team, but I couldn't. So I'm going to continue to own the team. And I've taken on, you know, a 40% minority investor to help pay off the debt and help fund the new stadium. I mean, if the business isn't viable with a minute, you know, before the suggestion of selling the team, imagine what the viability would be if he pulled a loose. Charlie Brown number and pulled the ball away and said, no, I'm going to still own the team. Like, there are some of you, and not a lot of you that listen to this show, but there are some fans out there that are always going to be duped into, you know, buying season tickets

and buying merchandise and telling everybody that isn't, they're not a real fan, you know. Like, it's the get on board or get out crowd. I mean, they're a very loud, but very small. minority of what used to be this fan base. They'll keep showing up for games. We're talking about the 5 to 10,000 out there, but they'll lose some of the other 10 to 15,000 that were showing up, and they're never getting back those people that have gone. It's not viable with them here, and that's what everybody understands. It's not a viable business with him owning the team. And it's even more so now because we've gone through months of speculation and of expectation that he's going to sell the team. He's going to sell this team, people. I think he's going to

sell the team to Josh Harris. That's my guess. I think that Josh Harris ends up buying this team for somewhere between $5.5 and $6 billion. There may be some ways to get Snyder to a number that he's more comfortable with. There may be a lot going on here. There may be ways that the sale is presented in a way that it looks like it's a lot more than it actually is because it includes investment immediately into the new stadium, etc. or commitments for that. But the bottom line is, I still think, and I think it's a slam dunk, he is selling the team. I think it's going to be Josh Harris. I would not, I would not exclude Jeff Bezos, but I think that Snyder is going to sell to Harris, and I think the league, even though they'd love Bezos to own this team, he'll end up

probably buying the Seahawks, and they just want Dan out more than anything else. So we'll see. I could be dead wrong, and I may be back here in, you know, a month or two saying, I was wrong. The only way he could hold onto the team is with a major minority, 40% plus investor, at a very high valuation too. You know, he's not going to get a $6 billion valuation on a non-controlling, you know, sale. But if he got a $4 billion valuation on a non-controlling part of the organization, equity stake, you know, call it 40% at $4 billion, $1.6 billion. he's able to take in, well, that pays off the debt, and that is the beginning of the money for a new stadium.

So we'll see. The league doesn't want that. I still don't believe he'll ever be voted out. I still don't believe that. By the time you listen to this, there may be more new news. I don't know. This is going to, I think, really ramp up here over the next week, two weeks, and certainly between now and the end of March. let's hope that it ends up in a sale. By the way, I don't care who he sells it to. I don't care.

I understand Bezos could build the stadium without any help in D.C., and that would be great, and I would love that. But really, the only thing that matters to me is that he sells, and I think he will. And Josh Harris, by the way, is also, you know, a sports owner. He owns the Devils. He owns the Sixers. he was a big bidder on the Denver Broncos, and he was close to getting that team. The league's familiar with him. By the way, they're familiar with him because he's a minority shareholder in the Pittsburgh Steelers.

So I think it's going to be Harris. Diana Rusini was on with me Friday. She thought it was going to be Josh Harris as well. I think it's going to be Harris, and he may have been able to get more money out of Bezos, but that's not what he's in it. And I don't think he's necessarily sticking it to us on the way out by taking perhaps less money for an owner that can't do as much as Bezos. I just don't think he wants to sell it to Bezos.

That's it for the opening segment. Gary Williams next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right. Jumping on with me right now is a Hall of Fame basketball coach. Gary Williams. Gary has been, I think, at almost every big game here recently in College Park. I mean, I've seen you, at a couple of them. You were there yesterday for the Northwestern game. Maryland is 20 and 9. They're in second place in the Big 10. They were picked to finish 10th in the Big 10. They're Ken Palm numbers up to 17. Their net ranking numbers up to 21. They've got two.

two regular season games left, and then it's the Big Ten tournament, and then it's the NCAA tournament. And I'll just start off by asking you, you know, how good do you think this team is? You've been watching every game, and they have really played well as of late. How good are they? Well, I've been watching Maryland, but I've also been watching other college teams play. It's an unusual year in that the teams that we all thought were going to be really good and consistent all year really haven't been as good. consistent as, you know, they were supposed to be, you know, a team like Kansas

loses three in a row during the year. It just doesn't make any sense. And so when Maryland's playing well and making their outside shots like they did yesterday made the threes, they can play with anybody. And I think Maryland's not the only team, obviously. There's probably 20 teams that can do that this year. And it's very unusual that you have that many teams that are capable on a one-game situation to win that game.

Is there anybody that you think is a cut above the rest of the field? I mean, do you feel, you know, Houston or, you know, Bama if they've got their whole team together? You know, UCLA. Is there anybody out there that you think really has, like, a much better team than that list of 20 that maybe you have in your head? Not much better, but I think both Houston and UCLA bring the same thing. it's really hard to score against those guys. And I think when you get into tournament play, your team has to score.

People, I think, don't understand that completely that very important that you're good offensively during the NCAA tournament. But at the same time, you have to be able to stop people. I think UCLA and Houston have been the two most consistent defensive teams in college basketball this year. Yeah, I mean, you've always told me over the years. you know, to win six games, you've got to be able to score. Like, you can be a really good defensive team, but if you're not able to score, then you're not winning, you know,

you're not going to win four in a row to get to the final four, let alone six in a row. Yeah, and the thing you just mentioned, UCLA and Houston have both, you know, really struggled scoring in some games this year. Right. So there you go. You know, I mean, that's their weakness, you know.

And it seems like everybody has that one thing that, you know, they keep them from being great over the course of the season this year. Do you feel that way about Tennessee? Just curious, same thing? They can't score. Yeah. They really struggle scoring. They play great defense.

But, you know, and a lot of it is in the NCAA tournament, you might get three referees that didn't work in the Southeastern Conference, say. And so now the physical play that Tennessee puts out there every night, which I think is really a good way to play defense, might not go over big in the NCAA tournament. So let's talk more about Maryland. Overall, what kind of job do you think Kevin Willard's done in his first year? Well, I think he's just done a great job in a lot of areas. Number one, he brought the former players back into the mix in the program. He's done some really good things.

You know, I talk to the guys that played for me like Ravis Fasquez, you know, you know, just Johnny Rhodes, Lonnie Baxter, people like that. You just really appreciate the fact that they feel important when they walk into the gym again. And I think that's a big thing for Maryland basketball because in this area, you better be unified as a program. And I think we are right now. I think that's the best thing that Kevin's done in a short period. period of time is whether it's left these guys, my guys, whoever, you know, they feel welcome,

you know, in the, in Xfinity. And, you know, we, we, you know, I think people sometimes don't understand the fact that we, as a group, whether you played here, you coast here, whatever, Maryland, we want to win another national championship. You know, that's our goal. I mean, I went to school there. I got to play basketball there. they've meant the university's meant so much to me in my life and you know people think that uh you know well you you know it's coach willard now and all that but no i'm i'm all the biggest supporters as anybody you know concerning the success of the basketball team and what he's done is he's created a way to play uh that they that nobody plays harder than maryland for 40 minutes he's using

pressure defense to run time off the shot clock so that the other team only has maybe 18 seconds to 15 seconds to really run their offense. And he's given his players confidence, which is really an important part of coaching. And all those things have nothing to do with what plays you run or whether you play man, whether you play zone. But it's just his overall attitude that's gotten into the program that makes everybody aggressive and makes the fans feel good. You know, as a fan, when you see your team working really hard, you know,

win or lose, when you see them working really hard, you appreciate that. And that's what you want. That's the first thing you want, I think, as a college basketball fan. Let's talk about a couple of the players. How impressed have you been with Juju Reese's development? I think he's really gotten more confident as the year goes on. He loves, you know, turn it on that right shoulder like a lot of left-handed players do. he's as good as anybody with that move. I mean, it's basically unstoppable. I think his development will continue to be

when he catches the ball at the foul line. Can he turn, face, and shoot, things like that. But the kid knows how to get open, you know, and, you know, when Young or someone like that penetrates, if his man goes to help, he knows how to create the passing lane so Young can get him the ball. And I think that's a big development in his game also. And, you know, I just, I think he's,

He's got really a high feeling that he can get to. And, you know, he's been a very important part of the team, obviously. Yeah, I mean, it's been amazing because I know we've talked at various points during the season, and it just seems like confidence as much as anything here over the last month and a half. I think it was personally the game he had against Purdue on the road. He played very well in that game. He had had a, you know, a lot of up and down games leading into that, had been a, foul trouble a ton.

He still will occasionally get into foul trouble. But I thought that game, the road game against Eadie, where, you know, I think he went for, you know, 19 or 20 points on a real high shooting level night, just seemed to just completely change his overall view and confidence level. Yeah, I think you need a game like that. I think, you know, people can say, well, he's really getting better. he's really doing it, but, you know, a player knows. Once you do that against an established player, maybe the player in the year, this year, in 80, then, you know, you walk onto the court,

you know, after that, knowing that you've done that. Nobody's telling you how good you are or anything you know inside that you've done that. And that's a big deal for a player, and I think that's really, you know, gotten him to the level that he's at now. And you can just see him on the court that he has that confidence level that, you know, when he's on his game, he's as good as anybody playing inside right now. I think that's a great feeling for a player. I know you like everything that's going on with the team right now, but who's your guy? Who's the guy that when you're watching them every night, you're like, wow, he's my kind of guy and he is the catalyst for this team. Is it young?

Yeah, I'm very biased toward point guards, I admit it. But at the same time, he's played as well as any point guard, the Big Ten. You know, you hear about, I don't think he gets the attention he deserves. And I don't know why. You know, you just watch all the shows and whatever. But Young is going against everybody. And, you know, nobody's really shut him down. any length of time. Plus, he knows

where the ball should go. I mean, if Juju doesn't get the ball for a couple minutes, all of a sudden the ball's in his hands the next time down, and his penetration and his ability to throw a 20, 25-foot pass as the defense sags across the defense, which

would, for a lot of players, would be considered a shaky pass because it's a cross-court pass, but, you know, he has that ability to find open people, and you know, he's the threat. Like, like yesterday, he goes, Northwestern's playing really well in the first half, and he gets 16 points because that's what we needed. And a good point guard knows what the team needs, knows where the ball should go. That's, that's why, you know, all the great point guards that have played in Maryland

have that ability, you know, to really find people when they're open, but yet at the same time have the ability to take over a game for a couple minutes if there needs some scoring from the point guard position or whatever. And I think Young has that, and he's done. an incredible job of, you know, coming in and being that leader, which is hard to do when you just show up at a place and all of a sudden the veteran players have to look at you as a leader of all. He's done a great job with that. You know, Gary, I think he's got a chance to be a first team all Big Ten selection. I mean, you know it's going to be Eighty. You know it's going to be Jackson Davis from Indiana.

The kid Murray from Iowa and probably the kid from Penn State who's been scoring, you know, in bunches. And then, you know, I think it comes down to young or the guy that he faced yesterday, Bowie from Northwestern for the fifth player. I think he's got a chance to make a first team, be a first team all Big Ten selection. I don't think there's any way he's not on at least the second team. Yeah, I always wonder, you know, the voting can be traditional in the Big Ten. Let's put it that way.

you know, Marilyn Bunkers, new guys on the block, you know, that type of thing. But he's earned it. I mean, Maryland is tied for second. I think they would be the number one of the second place teams right now. They would be. And they should get credit for that. See, what really hurt Maryland in terms of national rankings or what people think about players, the two losses at Michigan and UCLA were both national television.

games. They were horrible games, no doubt about it, but that was a long time ago. You know, what they've done with the team since then, and Kevin Willard should get a lot of credit for that because they could have quit. I mean, that could have been the end of the season after those two games, and they've come back, and, you know, I noticed one thing after those two games, Kevin Willard took responsibility for those two games, and that's hard to do as a coach because you're mad at the players, you know, they didn't play well.

They didn't run the offense, didn't play any defense, you know, that type of thing. And yet he after to get both games, he said, hey, this is my responsibility. That's me to get this team ready to play. And I think the players really appreciated that. Yeah, the UCLA loss, I remember him saying, look, this is on me for the scheduling. Because remember, they had played Illinois, Wisconsin, and Tennessee, literally almost in a week. And then they had a week and a half and had UCLA up next. And they just, I remember that night, they looked exhausted.

The Michigan game was just, you know, a horrible start to the game. and, you know, but yeah, no, you're right. He took it on himself for both of those. And really, that's a long time ago now. They've won, you know, whatever it is, it's something like, you know, eight out of the last 10 and both of the losses at Nebraska and overtime and at Michigan State were easily winnable games.

By the way, in talking about Jemir Young, you know, I think there was this feeling at least a week ago that Chris Collins was going to be the Big Ten coach of the year. well, in their only meeting, Maryland, you know, annihilated Northwestern yesterday in the second half. I think Willard's got a really good chance to be the coach of the year in the league. Do you? Yeah, and I think I'm being objective with it because you look around and, you know, you see teams, you know, they play well for a week or whatever like we talked about and all of a sudden there,

but Maryland's been as consistent in the last month, say, as any team in a Big Ten. And part of being, you know, when you coach a team, I always took pride if my team got better toward the end of the year. They always did. This thing with all these metrics they have now for teams, they say, oh, well, games in November should count as much as games in February. That's not true. I think it's completely wrong the way they do that, because if you are better in February, you should get credit. for that. And a team that lost in games, say Maryland, losing to UCLA and Michigan, just for example, that should not, you know, determine how people feel about them now, because now nobody wants to play

Maryland. Nobody wants to play Maryland nationally. Nobody would want to play Maryland. And to me, that's the indicator of how good a job you've done as a coach in getting your team to that position. I always think about your 2004 team, you know, the team that won the ACC tournament against Duke and you won those three games against Wake and then came back from that big deficit to beat NC State. It seems like to me, and you may have an example, but it seems to me, the one team where you played the ACC tournament at Capital One at Verizon Center, that team wasn't playing well at the end of the year. But I think almost every one of your teams always got better. as the season went along. That 2004 team, you guys surged late in the season. And you were on the ropes of not making the tournament.

Oh, yeah, Billy Packer, the late Billy Packer. That's all he talked about was Merrill wasn't going to make the tournament because we had, you know, we had 2001 and 2002, and then in 2003, we lost in a situation where we were still, a really good team. We missed a jump shot from the top of circle. Steve Blake. The elite team. Yeah.

Yeah. And, you know, a shot he makes all the time, but it just didn't go in. One of those things. But, you know, now here comes 2004, and all of a sudden we have a different team. You know, Tosh Holden, Ryan Randall, Drew Nichols, all those guys were gone. And so

now it took us a while to get going, but when we did, we were pretty good. Yeah. I mean, that game against Duke was wild because there was so many lead changes and swings in that game. It was really interesting. And Mike Grinon shut down JJ Redick.

And made every free throw. That's the way Mike talks. But yeah, there's a kid that I don't know how many free throws he took in his career before he made the two biggest free throws of the ACC tournament that year. Well, I think the answer was none until that game.

I know. I know. And like, it was just incredible to see. He had to go. when we had guys out, you know, and I said, Mike, I always told you you had to be ready, and he said, I'm ready, you know. There he goes, you know, and he was great. Well, I mean, the ACC tournament run, I think once you got to the finals you were in, you know, in the NCAA tournament, whether you beat Duke or not, and that was the famous Gilchrist,

you know, run through the ACC tournament. But, Gary, you were so close. That Syracuse game, I mean, you guys had that thing and had it tied up. Who was the big long-arm kid for Syracuse that blocked every shot? I'm forgetting his name. Yeah, I forget, too, but he was good. We missed a four-footer. Four-footer. Yeah, it was DJ Strawberry.

Strawberry was right there, yeah, to put it in. And the thing about that. Hakeem Warwick. Hakeem Warwick. Yeah, Kee-M-Wrook. Yeah. That was good pull. I didn't remember that.

But so we play, you know, late Sunday afternoon. We beat Duke after, you know, we had to beat the number one, number two, and number three seats to win that thing that year. We have to go to Denver, I think. Kansas City or Denver. I think it was Denver. Yeah. And we had to play Thursday.

And see, the NCAA in their wisdom, they can't figure that out, that maybe they should let us play on Friday. And not at altitude. Yeah, I mean, everything was like, you know, but at a time you get home, you know, all of a sudden it's Monday, you've got to leave, you know, Tuesday night, because you've got to be there the day before the tournament for the media stuff. You know, it just, you think that would be taken into consideration, but I guess not. That was, I'll never forget that Syracuse game, because you guys beat,

I think it was U-TEP in the first round. I think that was U-TEP that year. It was Texas, I think. It was tender. No, Texas was the year that you had Texas in Gonzag. Yeah, I know, it was sick. Yeah. Yeah.

That was, yeah, but I, well, whatever. Whatever. Whatever. It's not a big deal. But I just remember that Syracuse game in thinking, oh, my God, this team without any of the final four players is going back to the Sweet 16. And it almost did. All right.

Back to this team this year. year. So, you know, they end with Ohio State and Penn State. I think both of these games are going to be difficult. Ohio State beat Illinois. And they haven't played well on the road. And I shouldn't say they haven't played well because I think they've had great effort and played defense well. They haven't shot the ball well on the road. They're not going to have to shoot the ball well on the road in the tournament. They won't have road games. They'll have neutral court games, which will be a good thing. And they played well on a neutral court early. earlier in the season against St. Louis and Miami.

But what do you make of just the road woes that they've had offensively? Well, I think it'll be interested in how they play in these two games, obviously, because you can't say that they're completely healed from the problems they've had on the road. The second half against Purdue was as good as anybody could play a second half at Purdue this year with Purdue's teams. So there are signs that they can get it. done. If I'm looking at it just objectively, I would say that when Maryland starts a game by penetrating early and the only threes they take are basically kick out threes because of the

help situation the other team does to try to keep younger, whoever out of the pain, then they're more successful. When they come out starting to shoot threes early on the road, I think that is not a good way for Maryland to start because I don't think we're a great shooting team until we get into the, like yesterday, we got into the flow of the game and all of a sudden those threes are there and we made them and we have to be able to do the same thing on the road

because our defense is consistent. I think our defense is good enough to win on the road, which you better be able to play defense on the road if you expect to win against good teams. Holding teams, I think we've held teams is 62 points a game this year overall. So if we can do that and then just have our offense be there for us, I think we can win on the road.

But we have to show it. We have to do it. Are you surprised, let me just say, I am surprised that they have been such a poor three-point shooting team season long. I mean, they were 320-something in the country and three-point shooting percentage. yesterday, obviously they lit it up 14 of 22 from behind the arc. But I've been surprised all year, and I've had arguments with various people. I'm like, there isn't a guy on the team, really.

You know, Scott, Young, Hart, even, you know, Carrie, when they're, when their feet are set and they've got an open three, I think all of the strokes. I mean, Hakeem's got obviously an awkward stroke, but it still gets arc. It's got backspin, even though it's more of a set shot. I just think they look like they should be a better and more. consistent shooting team. Do you agree or disagree? I disagree. The easiest threes are off the catch, not off the dribble or coming down and, you know, if you, what you said, if you have your feet set and you're ready to go on the catch and the ball's delivered into the shooting pocket where you don't have to bring

the ball back up to where you want to shoot it from, then we can shoot threes. We're not that grade of a shooting team that we can take an off balance three or a guy's got a hand right in my face or I have to adjust to the pass. We shouldn't shoot those threes because we're not that good a shooters. But like you said, all those guys can shoot the ball if they have an open look. And people, what Maryland has done this year has been a great job of their offense in getting open looks. And so a player has to prepare on the catch, just like the pass coming in, they have to be ready

to let it go and catch it. when we do, like yesterday, we can shoot threes. But you can't get away from how we're good at that. By, you know, by this time of the year, all the players should know what it takes to be successful from the three-point line. And that means passing up one that's kind of shaky. You know, the defense is there. We're not really open.

Then you have to pass that up. You know, you have to wait for the next time. And I think we're gradually getting to that point where we have more patience from the three-point line. Do you think Willard defensively switches defenses as much as anybody you've watched, not just possession by possession, but actually within a possession? Like I've watched some games where it looks like he's in a zone or matchup zone, and then all of a sudden, as the shot clock winds down, it's like they switch to man to man. I'm not even sure if that's what's happened.

That's what it looks like to me. What is it to you? You're the coach. Yeah, no, I agree. It's confusing, and if it confuses us, it confuses the other team. And I think when you couple that with the pressure defense, Kevin used at least what I've seen, he's, you know, you always want to steal the ball in pressure defense. But what he's trying to do mainly is to make them use eight seconds coming over half court.

And maybe a little trap around half court, whatever. But now, okay, so now you get it back to your point guard. Now you reset. that all of a sudden you're down to like 16 seconds to run your half-court offense. And the way most teams operate, say, Northwestern, there's a couple dribble handoffs before they really get into their stuff. They run dribble handoffs to space the court, as they say. And so now, you know, they've just eliminated a lot of the things,

if the first or second thing doesn't work for the team, then all of a sudden they're going to be against the shot clock, and most college teams aren't comfortable with the shot clock. and that's what Maryland is able to do with a lot of teams they play against. And so I agree with his defense. I, you know, definitely there's a matchup there. Definitely there's man to man. And I think they might just, you know, once they get matched up as the shock clock gets down,

they don't, you know, they don't worry about getting back to the original matchup defense. They just stay with who they have in the matchup and play it down as the shot clock goes down. Yeah. And they all can guard. I mean, like, I don't know if they have. Maybe you think they have. I don't think they have a weak defender that another team can really target. Do you?

No, I think that's the pride thing that Kevin has put into the team. You know, the defensive end always shows your pride that you have in the team because I don't think there's many guys that would rather play defense than offense. You know, you always want the ball. You always want to shoot. You know, I mean, that's just playing basketball. And these guys seem to take it personally to play good defense. And the thing, the only thing you see once in a while is Juju uses his hands a little bit and gets, you know, one or two fouls. Sure.

They're just from, you know, just pushing a guy. You know, don't even have to do that. It has not do with position or anything like that. But he's learning, you know, and he's learning. But things like that aren't from a lack of effort. They're just, you know, that's a habit from high school. That's what that is. And, you know, they'll outgrow that as time goes by.

But in terms of the effort, you know, you see a lot of teams. I see a lot of teams. They're really talented. Man, they can't get it up for 40 minutes on the defensive end of the court. Merrill and Ken. Offensively, when they're not in transition, which we've seen a lot more of out of this team than we have, out of a Maryland team in a while in terms of pace.

How would you describe sort of the offense they play? And I'm just talking about against most man-to-man teams. It doesn't look like there's a lot of, you know, micromanaging play by play call. It looks like it's more just conceptual. How would you describe it? Yeah, I think that's true. I think they can get an isolation like they like to go with shot on that,

you know, the wing. More hard. Yeah. You know, and hard. I've noticed that even with Young, the point card position, you know, he's pretty strong. He's deceiving, and if they get a little point guard there, like the kid from Nebraska, they did it again, the coach's son.

Yeah. From Nebraska, they'll isolate his side. But basically, it's, you know, get the movement going. And the great thing Maryland has, they're not afraid to throw it to anybody. All five guys can step out and catch pass. You know, they're not afraid to do that. And then, you know, they're trying to get mismatches where the dribble penetration can take place. I think dribble penetration is such a big part of Maryland's offense.

And, you know, it's great to see because that's where the good threes come from. And that's where offensive rebounds come from because you have to help, say, on Young. And then his man, whoever was helped off of, can go to the rim of Young businesses. So it's a pretty good combination. And when they're flowing in the offense, given their transition, like you, said, and then their half-court offense, there's a lot of movement there. There's no standing around. I don't like a lot of these teams now that run a high ball screen all the time, and three guys stand on the three-point line waiting to launch one in case they get the ball kicked to

them. I think five-man motion is a great way to play, and I think we do a pretty good job of that. Yeah, and when they do do the isolation stuff with, you know, Scott or Hart on the posters, you mentioned the young matchup that he had in the Nebraska game. and they draw double teams. They get a lot of good stuff, too, because I think all those guys can pass. Yeah, and that's what you want. You know, you don't want any stiffs out there the way the game's played nowadays, and it's really important.

And, you know, I just look at the way they catch pass and do things like that. That means they look for each other, too. In other words, they're not afraid to give up the ball to somebody else that they have. a better shot. And I think that's the key to any offense. You can't be selfish to a point. If I have one guy that's really a lot better than everybody else in terms of shooting or passing, then I want that guy to be selfish. But a team like Maryland, they can afford not to be selfish. That's so hard to cover. I think there's four guys averaging 11 points or more per game. And you don't see that that much in college basketball anymore.

No, you don't. All right. couple more. Last one on this team. I don't know how much you're paying attention to it, you know, where they're being bracketed right now. Maryland's in people. I mean, they could lose out and they're going to be in the NCAA tournament. They're a lock at this point. I think the lack of road wins may impact their seating a little bit when all is said and done, but they still, to me, have a chance to make some progress here at the end of the season and maybe in the Big Ten tournament. Who knows? But what do you use? think their high-end seed is? What's the best they can do?

I think it's a five. I really think they can get to the five line. You know, I look at some of those teams they talk about, and like we said, you know, who's playing better right now? Well, you know, not many if better than Maryland. So I think a five seat is reasonable. I think their road record will hurt them a little bit. In other I think sometimes the committee looks for things to hurt you rather than look at your positives all the way through. And so, yeah, that's something you can talk about, but they could take care of a lot of that this week, you know, at Ohio State and at Penn State because they're two tough games. I mean, you know, nobody goes into those places and just dominates those games.

And so, you know, with Ohio State winning, you know, I'm sure they feel a lot better about themselves today than they did before the game. So here we go. You know, we've got to play. Have you looked at any of the first round sites? Greensboro is one of them. I think we'd get a massive crowd down there. Columbus, you probably would love to see him in Columbus. And actually, you know, I'm wondering, like actually, as I said that,

maybe a Big Ten arena might be helpful, especially if there are other Big Ten teams there. I think it would be great. You know, as a coach who went to, it seemed like California every year we made the NCAA tournament. Somewhere far. I would love Greensboro or Columbus. You know, that'd be great. I hated that last trip to Sacramento, that's for sure.

That was not fun. Yeah, that wasn't good. No. That's your worst loss ever in terms of painful. I'm not talking about point differential. What game was that? The Michigan State game. The Corollution?

No, that was Spokane. I know, that's what I was Spokane. My fault. Spokane. Yeah. Spokane was not. Yeah. Spokane was the site of the Cori Lucius shot. All right.

Yeah, that was, people should always look at that game for Gravis Fes because that's how great of a player he was in that game going against a very good defensive team. He was incredible. He was incredible. He was incredible. He scored 14 out of your last 16 or something like that. All right. Terry Holland passed away. Terry Holland was the longtime coach at Virginia,

took Virginia to a final four with Ralph Samson in 1981. They actually lost to North Carolina in the semifinals. Then took them back the year after Samson graduated in 84 to a final four. He was lefty's assistant at Davidson before he went to UVA. You, you know, you coached against him. You came to Maryland. It was the tail end of Terry Holland and the beginning of Jeff Jones at UVA. He, boy, he passed away at too young of an age, 80 years old.

I know he had been battling with Alzheimer's for the last couple of years. What are your memories of Terry Holland? Well, he was a true gentleman. Terry was one of those guys that had the ability to just sit on the bench and do a great job coaching his team without. jumping around or anything like that or showing visible signs of being upset. And that didn't mean he wasn't a competitor. He was a great competitor.

In fact, Terry had a couple stomach operations, you know, because he did keep everything inside during his coaching career. We played them in Utah in 1983 when I was coaching of Boston College. They had Ralph Sampson. And we had a leader at halftime. and the game came down the end, and we lost 95-92 to Samson's team. That's the team that played the next game against NC State when Velvano won it all in 83. They beat Virginia. Virginia missed the last second shot to go to another Final Four in that game.

And, you know, it was, you don't realize it at the time, but Terry was one of the people that really got the ACC, you know, up to the level that, you know, people looked at it as, you know, the great basketball conference and everything because, you know, you had Dean Smith, you had lefty, you had those guys, but at the same time,

Virginia was right there with any of those teams for a long period of time, the Terry coach. And, you know, he did it the right way. You know, he didn't cheat. He did a great job with his program. And I think the University of Virginia was very fortunate to have Terry as their coach. your game against Virginia in 1983 was a sweet 16 game 9592 as you mentioned was the final score of the game

and that was you know that was the final shot for Ralph to win a national championship he had only been to one final four and that was his you know that was 1981 his sophomore season um you guys it was that a michael adams team that you had it had to be right? Yes, it was. It was my first year at BC. I'd followed Tom Davis, and we really had a good team. Jay Murphy was a great shooter at 610 on that team. Michael Adams said we had Dominic Presley.

Oh, yeah. In high school, in fact, the score was 94-92, and the late Dominic Presley drove baseline and laid it in, scored. So, tie game, right? the referees pointing to the baseline. And Dominic did. I looked at the tape afterwards.

He did step on the baseline going in for the layup with about three seconds left in the game. But it was a great game. And, you know, Ralph Samson was, if he was playing today, he'd be unbelievable because he's got the agility of people like 6-8, 6-9. He could shoot. I guarantee you today he'd be a three-point threat. You know, setting a high ball screen, he could step away on the screen and make that three. Right. And you think about a guy as tall as 80 for Purdue that had all the skills of, say, Juju Reese.

Right. And that's what he was. And he was incredible. You know, I don't think I've ever asked you this. Who, what's the best college basketball player you ever coached against? You know, I almost hate to say this. But it was Christian Lader. Yeah.

He was incredible. I mean, if you look at the top, say, 10 NCAA tournament performers, he's got to be in the top 10. He made big shot, not just the one against Kentucky, but he made big shot after big shot for Duke. They went to four final fours when he played at Duke. And just incredible. And, you know, I walked into him and Grant Hill and those guys, Bobby Hurley. when I took the job in 89, that's never going through their runs.

You know, he was just, see, he was 6-9, 6-10, and he had all the skills on the perimeter back then. And, of course, Cheshiref, he was smart enough to let him use those skills. And he was just really hard to defend, because if you did double team him, he'd find somebody that was open,

and obviously if you have Grand Hill and later on your team, you're pretty damn good. You know, you're pretty good. Yeah, I mean, I think he's one of the greatest that I've ever watched in your description of him. He's one of the all-time great clutch performers in NCAA tournament history. The shot against Kentucky also beat Yukon in an elite eight game with a buzzer-beater in a tournament. I think that was the year they lost a UNLV. Yeah, I mean, just an all-time great.

And, you know, one of the things, one of the regrets, I'm not saying it's a regret of yours, but as a fan, the great Duke teams of Leitner, Hurley, and Hill were during the probation years at Maryland. So the rivalry wasn't, they didn't have, from Duke's side, a chance to play your best teams, obviously. It was the, you know, the Batier and the Boozer and the Jason Williams teams that, you know, had that experience. So when Duke, you know, was making their run, which is the great. greatest run of the Shoshchevsky era with Leitner Hurley Hill, Thomas Hill, et cetera. Marilyn was down. And, you know, you guys won some games. I remember the game you had on probation at Cameron Indoor. It was like a double overtime loss, and Kevin McClinton had a

phenomenal game. I just remember he was incredible in that game. Yeah, that's a game Walt Williams broke a bone in his leg. And so Kevin had to take over the point guard position, playing against that team, that Duke team. It was incredible. And he just almost won the game for us. I know. I was out of doubt. Yeah.

All right. Thanks for doing this, as always. I will be talking to you soon, and maybe we can do this before the tournament starts, because Maryland's going to be somewhere between a five. I agree with you. I think five is definitely doable. I can't imagine that they're going to be worse than a seven

unless they go out with three straight losses. I think if we win one game this week on the road, and win a tournament game, we should be a five-seat. But, you know, I'm biased. I know that. But I'm tired of hearing about all these other teams, and then you see them stumble, you know, and you wonder why.

It's almost like we got more blamed this year when we played a poor game than some of the other teams did. Well, I mean, they've got Indiana as, you know, climbing up to, you know, four and five territory. And we beat them. We beat them. And it wasn't that long ago. Yeah, doesn't that mean anything,

the head-to-head? You know, whatever happens to, hey, all the analytics, how about head-to-head when you play somebody? Isn't that important? Oh, by the way, that kid for them, Hood, Schaffino, their freshman. Did you watch the Purdue game Saturday night? Oh, yeah.

He was unbelievable. He was incredible. I mean, he did not have a good shooting game at Maryland. I've watched him a bunch. I know, but that was his game. game at Mackey, he went for 35 and was just unstoppable. Yeah, that's a big game out there, too, bigger than, you know, just a Big Ten game with two of the front runners in the Big Ten. They hate each other. So it's good.

Yeah. All right. I will talk to you. Thanks for doing this. All right, Kevin. Thanks. I mentioned earlier in the show how much I appreciate all of you for listening and rating and reviewing whenever you have a chance. I also want to express appreciation for all of our advertisers, including MyBooky, who has been a loyal sponsor of this podcast, for a few years now.

And MyBooky's offering my listeners a chance to deposit and cash out quickly. Most books don't allow you to do what MyBooky's offering right now at MyBooky.ag using my promo code, Kevin D.C. Deposit whatever you want. Wager that deposit amount one time. You don't have to wager that deposit amount.

two times or three times or four times, just once around, and you're eligible to cash out immediately. It's perfect for events like March Madness or the conference tournaments, which start later on in the week and head into this weekend with the smaller leagues. But go to my bookie.orgie.org, use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., and you can deposit and exit quickly with MyBooky, if you'd like. All right, a couple of things real quickly. Number one, Adam Schepter's reporting that the bears are quote, leaning towards trading the number one overall pick. We'll see. I mean, they haven't worked out Stroud or young.

They haven't been, you know, at a pro day or an Indy Combine, which is this week. We'll see. But that means that they are content with Justin Fields. Could be for leverage purposes in a trade of Justin Fields. I don't know. But then again, it wouldn't help them on their leverage with respect to trading the pick. But there's a lot of interest in that pick. And it sounds like that, you know, at least from Schefter, as of now, their intent on trading that pick.

By the way, there was some incredible basketball from over the weekend. I know we talked about Maryland. On Friday night, Sacramento beat the Clippers 176 to 175 in double overtime in the second highest scoring NBA game in history in the regular season. Also, there were just so many comebacks. The Lakers came back from 25 down to beat the Mavericks yesterday. College comebacks included on Saturday, Iowa coming from 10 down in the last 40 seconds of the game to force overtime and then beat Michigan State. Florida State was 25 down in the second half against Miami came back in one on a buzzer beater. Arizona State threw in a 60-footer to beat Arizona on the road.

The hoops were amazing all weekend long. Damian Lillard had 71 points last night. But I'm going to finish up, however, with high school basketball here on the podcast. Yeah, high school basketball, because that's what I took in yesterday after the Maryland Northwestern game. Let me first start off by saying congratulations to the Georgetown Visitation Girls. They upset Sidwell friends in the ISL. That's the Independent School League championship game, 60 to 57. Georgetown visitations coached by Mike McCarthy.

Mike's a friend of mine. I've known Mike for many years. Mike has led that program for two plus decades to prominence in this town. They have been one of the real juggernaut programs, girls basketball-wise, in town during Mike's tenure. He and his staff have done a phenomenal job. Sidwell was ranked number two in the country. They were ranked number one last year.

They've become the dominant team in the area. They were 27-point favorites yesterday in the game. No, I'm kidding. I have no idea what they would have been favored by if there had been a line. It wouldn't have been that much because Visitation lost earlier in the year by three in overtime to Sidwell. They did lose another game by 17, but apparently that game was a little bit closer than the final score indicated. But congrats to Georgetown Visitation, they pulled off a massive upset beating Sidwell yesterday at Holton Arms and Bethes. to 60 to 57 to capture the ISL championship.

Well coached always are the Georgetown Visitation Girls. And by the way, congratulations, congrats to Sidwell on a phenomenal season as well. There's still more basketball to go with the D.C. playoffs, but that's the big deal. Their conference championship won by the Georgetown Visitation Girls. Now, I went last night to American University's Bender Arena to see the Catholic League semifinals. PVI against DeMath in the first game, St. John's and Gonzaga in the second game, my God, were these games outstanding? Unbelievable hoops. The Paul the 6th, the Dematha game, PVIs ranked third in the country, okay?

Third in the country. DeMatha has not had one of their better Demethe years. Demetha lost to PVI last week by 40. They lost by two, 72 to 70 yesterday. The athleticism, the quickness, the speed, the intensity that game was phenomenal. Thank you, Joe Rada, by the way. He knows what I'm thanking him for. The athletic director at Gonzaga.

Man, these two games were incredible. I've mentioned many times. The WCAC is the best high school basketball league in the country. We have the best high school basketball, the best youth basketball in the country here in DMV. And to see these two semifinal games were amazing. In the first game, look, I wanted to see this game as much as I wanted to see the second game, but probably the first game a little bit more, because I wanted to see Deshaun Harris-Smith, Maryland's number one recruit for next year, a four-star player, a high four-star player. He is everything that he's been billed to be. I've seen him a lot of

highlights, not live. Six-five, a man amongst boys, 27 and 12. in the game. He missed a bunch of free throws. I don't know how many he missed, but he missed a bunch of free throws. He should have had well over 30. But he is, I don't know how he kept getting to his left over and over again. But the DeMathas staff did a great job to hang in there. By the way, the DeMathist staff with the other Mike Jones, who is there now, after replacing the former Mike Jones with Pete Strickland, our friend in between. Herb Cruzins on that staff. Herb is just a great and was a phenomenal coach at Georgetown Prep for many years. It was great to see him back as an assistant and out there as well for Demath.

A great game, and Harris Smith is the real deal. And the kid that's going to Duke, Harris, Darren Harris, really impressive as well. There were so many players on the floor that were impressive. The nightcap was a win by St. John's 54-53 over Gonzaga. Gonzaga had a chance with 1.6 seconds left to get it done, but they were not able to get a shot off in time. That was another great basketball game. St. Johns is ranked 11th in the country. So the final tonight involves the number three team in the number 11 team nationally per max preps rankings in the WCA final. 8 o'clock that will follow the girls final, which is also PVI against St. Johns.

and the girls final at six. But St. Johns was super impressive. Their point guard that's going to Harvard, I was blown away with how good and how quick he is. And Gonzag has got a couple of really good players as well. Hell of a basketball game. Great day of hoops for me, starting with College Park and then ending up at AU's Bender Arena.

I may be there tonight for the final. I'm not sure yet. But congrats to, again, Georgetown Visitation Girls. and it should be a hell of a final tonight between Paul the 6th and St. John's. All right, that's it for the show today. I'll be back tomorrow with Tommy.