The Kevin Sheehan Show - Commanders, Terps and Madness

Episode Date: March 17, 2022

Tim is joined by Ben Standig to talk about Carson Wentz, JD McKissic and everything else around the Commanders. He then discusses the Terps coaching search and Friday's March Madness games. 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 Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Day two for Tim Murray sitting in for Sheehan as he continues his vacay out west. A lot of tweets. I know there wasn't commander discussion.

So who better to bring on than our good friend. And friend of this show, I know, and a friend of mine, Ben Standig. You all know him. You love him from his work. over at the athletic. I am told, Ben, that I need to let people know what Kevin always does. Subscribe, rate and review. It doesn't cost you a thing.

Really helps us out. So I didn't do that yesterday. So I felt like I was letting the people down. So I'm letting everyone know what I need to do. Ben, how busy of these couple days been? I thought we were just, I was like, all right, I'm filling in for Sheehan. You know, we've got March Madness going on. I'm just going to talk hoops every day.

and then Bada bing, Bada boom, there's tons of commander news. So I had to get you on. The people needed to know the latest. I mean, I wouldn't have a clue. If you mentioned March Madness, I have no idea. Did anything happen?

You could have told me a 16 seed one. I have zero idea. Maybe a 16th seat has one. This is a podcast. We don't know. All we know, all I could tell you for sure is that Notre Dame won in double overtime on Wednesday night.

And Mike Bray wanted to drink Irish whiskey. Other than that, we're pretty... As a UMBC guy, I only care if the 16th seeds win. I just don't want that to happen. We want that to ourselves. Either way, we're the first one. But yeah, everybody else stay away. That's been done.

Then you can go and have fun at the rest of your tournament. Well, as of recording, it looks like Norfolk State won't get it done. So you should be good there. I can't speak to the others that are going on. But I know you're a busy man. We'll talk some college hoop a little bit later on in this podcast. Also, I'm recording this on Zoom. So it's going to be a 40 minute max podcast and Ben's not staying off 40 minutes because he would kill me if I made him stay off 40 minutes or he'd just leave.

All right. So Carson Wentz introduced today, man, some nice threads. Can I, I just have a public service announcement as a DC native. The take command thing, can that go away? Let's not have that happen. I'm not necessarily a hashtag guy anyway, but like I, you know, look, I mean, I think the commander's name, we don't want to need to open that, but the whole thing is fraught. So I don't know what you do at that point. If that's your name, I don't know. I guess take command seems reasonable, but sure, I mean, all the hashtags, no matter what they are to me or, you know, kind of whatever. I agree. All right. But the takeaways

from Carson Wentz's introductory press conference wearing number 11, so going back to his number that he wore in college and in Philadelphia, I should say. So no more number two. That is his days in Indianapolis are gone in the past. He's going back to his number 11. But biggest takeaway for you from Carson Wentz's intro presser. Well, look, you know, obviously they're all going to say the best things. And everybody's going to, you know, they say it's like the spring training of press conferences.

Everything is sunny and bright and optimistic. And there's nothing, you know, everybody believes it's going to all work out. You know, I think it's easy and probably right to have some fair amount of skepticism with Carson Wentz, considering what's gone on in the last two spots. It's not just that he was traded twice. Philly took the biggest cap hit in the history of the league to move on. And the Colts, one year after giving up a first round pick, they did get some things back from Washington, but they moved on pretty quickly. So there's reason to be to wonder, like, what's anybody going to get? But that said, I thought, you know, Carson Wentz, you know, don't know him.

He could have come in here and been defensive when asked questions about what went wrong in Indy or where he's come up short. And he didn't. He largely owned it. He said he stunk at the end of the year. He did. He said that, you know, there are things that have gone on. He made a joke that when somebody asked about at the combine that Colts' GM, Chris Ballard, said that some of the criticisms were fair and went said, which ones? In a few.

And, you know, I thought he handled it all pretty well. Now, whether this is show or this is the real guy. I mean, that's to be determined as we're around him more. And obviously the play on the field will tell us a lot. But I think for what he needed to do today, the purpose of this conversation, start a new chapter in Washington. I thought he did a fairly good job at that. Yeah. And from your reporting, and I apologize to the listeners, if this has been already hashed out.

So we, you know, the official, you know, trade that we all knew, right, the swap of the second round picks, you know, the, you know, Washington it moves from down from 42 to 47. Colts go up from 47 and 42. The third rounder, 73rd overall. Washington does get 240 overall from the Colts this year and then the conditional next year. From everything you've gathered, was there, were there other suitors? Because, you know, I think I heard Kevin talking about it, which is, okay, if he gets released, then he could go anywhere, obviously. So this was Washington's opportunity. to grab them and get the guy that, you know, maybe they wanted or whatever. But, you know, ultimately, now that we know officially what the price is and what those numbers are,

you know, what do you make of the compensation and were they bidding against themselves here? Yeah, it's an interesting question. So at the time that the deal was done, what I reported was they wanted to avoid a bidding war. Right. Okay. Now, they made a trade. So we're like, well, well, you're avoiding a bidding war? for a trade or something else.

But I think my thought was, and I think Ron Rivera kind of said this as much today. I got to go back and see exactly what he said. But that basically they were afraid if they didn't make a trade that they would find themselves in a bidding war in the open market, which is reasonable, right? I mean, in the sense that other teams still need quarterbacks. And for all the drama with, you know, the memes and everything else about Carson Went, he is a talented quarterback. And there's a lot of teams that don't have one or any, you know, viable quarterback.

So it could get that one. But my thing is I don't necessarily know. I have not heard at least of another team that specifically mentioned being involved in the trade. But my wonder is, did they get a sense that if he hit the open market, he would not come here? I would imagine he may not want to be back in the NFC East, right? I mean, why deal with some of those past memories?

Maybe from a geography standpoint, he'd rather go live out back in the Dakota area. I know there's not a team there. But somewhere over on that side of the planet versus, is here. Whatever the variable may be, it could just be, this is not, you know, this place doesn't have the greatest reputation these days. Now, I may be reading that wrong, but between the fact that Tribisky went to Pittsburgh with a contract that didn't blow anybody away, and I would imagine Washington might have to overpay of that to get him to come here and the went, I kind of have a feeling whether another team was trying to trade for him or not, that they decided to just

cut to the chase, get the guy rather than worrying about a bidding war in which. they may not be the favorite. Ben, I know he had some thoughts and you guys asked him about, you know, working with Terry McLoran, the guy who hosts this podcast on a regular basis and is the namesake of this podcast, I think tweeted out a office gif the other day, which I didn't know Kevin was capable of tweeting out gifts, but there he was. But it was after Christian Kirk got his monster deal where he's overpaid to go. to Jacksonville.

You know, where are we right now with the McLaren situation, the extension, obviously entering the final year of his deal, just feels like that market continues to go up and up when you're looking at a guy that, I mean, if you asked anyone around the league, who would you rather have Christian Kirk or Terry McLaren? I think it would be pretty unanimous that you want, you know, Terry McLaren to a long-term deal. So where do we stand on that? Anything new?

And, yeah, I mean, where are we right now with the McLaren situation? Yeah, so I think we're not necessarily anywhere, which isn't to say that the sides aren't discussing. It's just to say that nobody is telling us too much. I think to that end, you look at the Landon Collins decision where they made him opposed June 1st cap cut. And why delay the money for what for agency starting now? You are getting almost double what he would have, what you would have generated if you make the move now, but you're waiting. So why wait? I think between the Terry McClellan extension and the Duran Payne extension,

they're just sort of giving themselves the space that when the time comes for either or both of those to occur, that they are ready for that. They don't actually have to do anything with Terry McLaurin today. You know, he's under contract for another year. So unless somebody over in his world says, you know, right now or whatever, you know, which I don't think is happening at all, then there's not a rush as long as you hope the two sides have had conversations. my understanding they've had conversations. I don't know exactly the depth,

but I think that's kind of where we're at. It's a holding pattern, but I don't mean that to alarm anybody. I just mean it it's a course of business. And the fact that the Landon Collins thing happened suggests to me that they're prepared or preparing themselves at least to have that money ready for when needed. All right.

A couple other bits and pieces going on. And I'm sure more to come as Ben is keeping his ears. to the ground on this stuff. Let's start with the Matt Ionitis situation. So he gets released yesterday on Tuesday. And then I think it was you wrote a story about it, but the Associated Press got the quotes from his agent. And I don't know if you have them handy, but essentially to paraphrase, they were kind of blindsided and upset. You know, they were told by the organization that, hey, we're all good. Don't worry about it. You're, we're good to go. And then, you know, after the tampering period is over, Washington, you know, decides to move on from

Matt Ionitis. So the quotes from the agent clearly aren't great for the organization, for Washington. You know, what is the, what is, you know, the down low on this ionitis situation? Were you surprised by it? And ultimately, is this a bad look for Washington as an organization, how they handle this? or is this more of an agent, you know, just being frustrated that, you know, he wasn't able to basically ask around during the tampering period? Yeah, I mean, look, we're all predisposed to think anything that anybody says about this place must be true. It's been, you know, right? I mean, it's been pretty much. Right.

So no matter who it is, whatever the situation is, we're just sort of want to believe that or not want to, but sure, why not? We've heard we've heard crazier things that have happened than an agent being pissed off that he doesn't know that his client is going to be released until the last second or what have you. And I spoke to Alan Herman as well. And by the time I spoke to him, he was a little calmer down, but he still said he was pretty peeved at the situation and didn't know. Look, whatever miscommunication apparently went on between both sides is not ideal. It doesn't look great for Washington to have an agent. kind of come out and blast you like that. This is on top of, you know, the J.D. McKissick side, you know, the, the, the, the, the two sides disagreeing on how that went down. And I had reported

that McKissick, that Washington felt that McKissick would, they, they were not given a chance to make McKissick an offer. And his McKissick side doesn't necessarily see it that way. So to have two agents, agent situations like this in a day, doesn't look great. All that said, to quote Godfather, too, this is the business they've chosen. I mean, it would, it works the other way, too, where an agent agrees to a deal. And then, oh, we're backing out. In fact, just right there today, I think I saw that, uh, is it Zadarius Smith. Yeah. Was agreeing to go back to the raven or to sign with the Ravens, but now he's back out. I don't have any idea why. I'm just saying things do happen. And at the end of the day, if you're Washington, Matt Ionitis was like, if you decided you had to create cap space beyond getting on from Landon Collins, Matt Ionitis was a. a clear option. He and Eric Flowers both were. Again, maybe they could have communicated that better with their agents, but at the same point, that's where they're, what they did is,

is a reasonable choice given the fact that they just had Carson Wentz's deal chew up most of their cap space. They need to get more. Matt I noticed is a good player, but he was an expensive reserve. And if you're going to keep John Allen and D. John Payne, he remains a reserve. So the J.D. McKissick situation, we haven't talked about this on this podcast since Kevin was off. And, you know, focused on hoops yesterday. So McKissick, we get, you know, the reports, okay, he's going to Buffalo, and now he is, he is not, he is going to stay in Washington. So you kind of alluded to it a little bit. I know you wrote about it in the athletic as well, but, you know, how did that situation all unfold and ultimately what was the determining factor for him to stay in Washington as opposed to go to

Buffalo. Yeah, I mean, I, I guess ultimately, he just didn't want to leave, right? I mean, he basically took, as far as I can tell you, the same thing, right? Yeah, it took the same offer. So, you know, the way it was being presented was Washington had not made an offer. So I guess his, his representatives were talking to the bills, bills made the offer. Hey, JD, we haven't heard from Washington. The team that might win the Super Bowl this year is interested in you. Here's what they're offering. Would you like to play for them? He said yes. And that was there. Then when Washington got wind of this, I guess, things changed. And again, it's hard to know what the truth is about what the, what was it, what expectations were from a

negotiation standpoint. But I think ultimately just JD just decided he wanted to stay. I had a quote from him in my story yesterday through his agent and basically he just said, hey, look, Buffalo is a great place, but we have unfinished business here in Washington. And I don't, I don't want to leave. He's a, on top of the player, he's a very popular guy in the locker room. and I had a sense that like that would have been a pretty unpopular move if they had let him go. Not, not just because he's a good pass catcher, but like the guy, like that he's somebody that he's sort of the, he's the guy like the defenders are always saying, dude, that guy does not stop talking out there. But it's said with a brotherly kind of way. So I think people, I think the players are pretty happy that J.D. McKissick is back.

All right. A couple more bits and pieces before we let you run. You mentioned Eric Flowers gone and they, Washington went out and got. Andrew Norwell to come in and he is, you know, had the best of his career under Ron Rivera. He's 30. He comes in. I think PFF had him, you know, as one of the top guards in the free agent market. So, you know, he's essentially filling the hole for Eric Flowers. He's, you know, going to be on the left side there. So is this is this just a simple swap? What is the makeup of the line now?

Obviously, Sheriff gone to. What is what is the makeup of the line looking like now that Norwell is a part of it? And I'm sure Ron Rivera hoping that he can get back to, you know, his peak when he was in Carolina with Rivera, right? He was all pro down in, down in Carolina about four or five years ago. Well, Tim, you know, we believe in transparency here. and I will be honest. I've been busy, have not gotten to break down the end of the world. I haven't broken down the tape yet.

I haven't broken down the tape with the jacks. Come on, man. So I don't exactly know how he performed last year or how he fits into the John Matzko offensive line or any of those things. And I don't mean this to be in a completely, you know, disrespectful way. But, you know, guards are a little bit disposable. And obviously some are better than others, i.e. Brandon Sheriff and Eric Flowers was pretty good for them last year.

But at the same point, it is like the one position it feels like on offense where you can kind of like all right you can kind of plug and play and move guys around so if they believe we'll see have to see what the cost is i imagine it's going to be less per year than the 10 million that eric flowers was on the books for i had some sense that eric flowers aside may have been looking for a raise if washington was looking to lower that cap and that maybe they didn't choose that ironically flowers and norwell are both wrapped by drew rosenhouse so uh you know however however those things go clearly they didn't piss anybody off enough to say no.

On the assumption, he's a reasonable guard and will work fine next to Charles Leno. Sure. I mean, the cap hit probably goes down. They bring on a guy who Rivera is familiar with. I can't get too worked up over this one way or the other. I would imagine West Schweitzer is the other guard. And I should necessarily automatically assume Norwell is the left guard. I'm just saying whatever.

Whichever way that breaks out, you know, if Schweitzer is the other guard, then they have two guards. okay. I mean, there, there, there you go. Well, I'm just trying to, you know, appease the people. Let them know, get them, get them the most take command news that we can get here. So, no, I mean, look, it's the fact that the first outside free agent they get is a, you know, guard, as Jay Gruden would say. I mean, you know, it's hard to get overly enthused about it. Get the juice going.

But, you know, look, it's a necessary piece. You got to start five guys in the line. So they got, they got a guy. Seems like he's a pretty good player. assuming that the money comes in at a decent number, then good for them. All right, Ben, before we let you run, one final thought. Who knows by the time people listen, he might already have a location. I saw that, who was it?

Kyle Pitts tweeted out, you know, things are about to get serious down here in Atlanta, essentially meaning that Deshawn Watson is going to Atlanta. I believe you tweeted out earlier today. You had been hearing it's down to Atlanta and New Orleans. Cleveland is officially out, per the reports. So where do you think Watson ultimately lands? It's tricky because none of the final four teams has been discussed. Are that enticing?

I mean, they each have sort of their own flaws. Atlanta's in particular is like they're just not that close to contending. And, you know, I don't even know the math on what happens if they do get Watson and have to unload Matt Ryan. And he's got some crazy cap number and what that would mean and all that kind of stuff. But what I do know is that Georgia is home for Deshawn Watson, that after the year he's had, and I'm not getting into whatever we make of those happening, just for him personally, going home would seem kind of appealing, even if the Falcons need a minute to turn things around. Plus, you have an offensive mind to head coach and Arthur Smith, whereas with the New Orleans Saints,

it's not Sean Payton. It's the defensive coordinator is now the head coach in Dennis Allen. The Saints are more ready to win now. than the Falcons are. But at the same point, it's not home and it's a defensive, I mean, they have an offensive coordinator, but you know what I mean?

It's a different vibe, it feels like, for these quarterbacks when the head coach is on your side of the ball. So to me, Atlanta makes the most sense. It's been kind of where I've been leaning for a bit, but what I was told, or, you know, Atlanta and the Saints,

trust me, if you're on Twitter, everybody who's got an NFL reporter tag is trying to weigh in somehow. But, you know, I don't always chime in. felt I had a pretty good read on this from from a couple people. So that's my sense.

If I had lean, I'd lean Atlanta. But like I said, the saints are the better team today. It's just going to be what is it. And what's the prioritized. All right. He has Ben Standing. You know, I'm at Ben Standing on Twitter. Read all his work over at the athletic.

Ben, you're a busy man. I appreciate you cutting in some time and educating a former Washingtonian on the latest happenings of the commanders. Hashtag take command, Ben. Take command. Look, I, I bother you all the. time about, hey, I'm looking at some game on TV. What are you thinking about this thing? So happy to help. All right, man. There he is Ben Standing. Let's take a quick break here.

More to come on the Sheehan podcast. All right. Thanks again to Ben Standing. And thanks to all the people on Twitter. I do appreciate the comments. And I know yesterday, once again, a very heavy college hoop focused podcast. And hopefully some of you all enjoyed that as we got ready for the NCAA tournament. Not going to do a ton today on college hoops. I'll do a little here, just because it might be a little outdated. When are you listening to this? Games are underway. We do have some finals from earlier in the day when upon recording here. So we'll get into that. I'll give you a couple of thoughts about tomorrow's games as well to wrap things up. but a rather quicker podcast today as we sit in for Sheehan and hopefully he's enjoying himself

out west. All right. I just want to get to last night, Wednesday night, Notre Dame Rutgers. What a game. And, you know, full disclosure, as I think a good chunk of you know, who know me, I am a Notre Dame fan, not a huge Notre Dame hoops fan, more of the football variety, but certainly cheer for the Irish. Had the Irish last night.

No sweat whatsoever. as they won 89 to 87 in double overtime. It's, I'm very curious, and I know Kevin's talked about this, and he had Jeff Herman on, I think earlier this week, and Jeff has done a phenomenal job, obviously keeping people updated on who Maryland will go after with this coaching search. And, you know, here we are.

A handful of other jobs have opened up. Nothing as big as Maryland or Louisville that is sitting there. Really interesting one, by the way, opening at Dayton, or excuse me, at Xavier. Two former Xavier coaches are available. You've got Chris Mack and you've got Sean Miller. There was a report yesterday that Archie Miller might be headed to Rhode Island, which I guess that would make some sense. Obviously, Archie Miller had a ton of success in the Atlantic 10.

They're at Dayton, and Rhode Island is I consider it a pretty good job. You know, George Washington very surprisingly came open. I'm, you know, friendly. I wouldn't say we're friends, but over the years have gotten to know Jamie and Christian. So I thought he would be successful there. And certainly since Mike Lonergan's departure, it's been a rather challenging job. So not really sure how that all unfolded. You know, one name for GW. And I feel like even with Maryland, not as the headman, but I think at GW, I wonder if Mike Jones, the Dematha coach will get a lot of run. And if GW will go after him, right? I mean, who better than a guy that had immense success at Dematha, one of the most prestigious basketball programs, basketball brands in high school basketball probably is the most prestigious

because of Morgan Wooten, but he replaced the legend and succeeded with flying colors and brought in incredible talent. one at a remarkable level. And now he's at Virginia Tech on Mike Young's staff. They're in the NCAA tournament. They played Texas. And I think if George Washington went that route, that would make a lot of sense. I'm not reporting that.

I just think that would make a lot of sense. But I think most of you listening are curious about the Maryland job. And that's where I get back to Notre Dame in Rutgers last night. You know, Mike Bray, Demath, a guy, went to GW, graduated from GW. And, you know, has always been fond of this area. You know, John Rossstein even last night joked about Mike Bray, you know, going to Delaware for the beach. He said, you're always used to going to Delaware for the beach. Now you're going to San Diego.

You know, I have no read on it. I know a lot of Maryland fans are not happy about it if it were to ultimately be Mike Bray. To me, it would make sense in one regard because he's from here, Scott Ties, you know, could he bring someone like Mike Jones from Virginia Tech to be as associate head coach. I know there's rumors about other pieces there, but at 63 years old, is he the guy that you want? Now, I know Rick Petino, and I was all on board with Kevin and everyone. I mean, Rick Patino is different. Rick Petino is won national championships at two different locations. Mike Bray has not. You know, I remember talking to Sheehan back, you know, 10, 11 years ago

when they ultimately hired Turgeon. And it was reported, and I think, uh, Sheena said so that Bray had interest or wanted the job, whatever it was. And at that time, Bray had not made a run past the Sweet 16 and he had only gone to the suite 16 once. He has had since two runs to the Elite 8. And he does, he's, in my mind, he's a really good offensive coach. Watch the sets that they ran last night to get, you know, shots. And he's just never been a big time recruiter.

Now, is that because of where he's coaching at? Notre Dame, or is that because he's just not a good recruiter? I think it's more the former. And if he had come to Maryland, I think he would have had success. Turgeon certainly had his success. But I think he gets the most out of your players, very offensive-minded. And, you know, think back to the 2015 Notre Dame team. The best player on that team was a D'Mathicant and Jerry and Grant. Now, they had other guys, you know, Demetrius Jackson was from South Bend. Pat Connettin was from, you know, Massachusetts. But I think if you brought him here, he would have a lot of ties to the area and would be able to keep a lot of the homegrown talent, you know, within the market.

But at 63, does he want to leave Notre Dame after two decades plus and having one of his best recruiting classes ever already signed? He's got a McDonald's All-American coming in for the first time. think like a decade. So I know there's, you know, the reporting is that he's interested. He would get the opportunity to come home and maybe you get a chance to, you know, win a national title, which you're not going to do at Notre Dame. I think the best team he ever had, had a chance to, you know, I guess they did ultimately beat the national champion in 2015 and Duke in the ACC tournament. But I don't, I don't think he can ever win a championship at Notre Dame. But at 63, I think it's twofold. And I think there is going to be backlash.

from the fan base, but ultimately, who would satisfy the fan base? That's what I don't know. And I'm not a Maryland alum like Sheehan or many of the listeners here. So I don't know. My producer and the producer of this podcast, Aaron Oster produces not only this podcast for Sheehan, but he also produces my show at Vison. I know he doesn't want Mike Bray, but he was kind of warming up last night as we're watching. He's like, I don't know, maybe because what are the other options, right?

Ed Cooley, by the way, trendy dog in South Dakota State. They did not get it done. Shout out to Providence, but also, wouldn't you know it? They get a very fortunate call on a three-point shot when they were up three to get all three free throws and they hit all that. But they win again. So Providence moving on. Ed Cooley, in my opinion, he's got a great situation. I don't think he's going anywhere.

I think tomorrow is very fascinating. Friday for a lot of Maryland fans. who are going to be given their armchair quarterback analysis. You've got Andy Enfield, USC taking on, you know, Miami. I think Miami wins that game. I am not a USC believer, as I stated yesterday on the podcast. You've got, you know, Notre Dame again, if you want to watch Mike Bray again, see if you're convinced.

They play Alabama, whose peaks are elite. They've beaten Gonzaga. They've beaten the best of the best. they've also had some bad losses. They lost to Rick Petino and Iona. They lost to Georgia this year. So we'll see what the Irish do. And maybe the future Maryland coach does in Mike Bray.

Then Seton Hall, Kevin Willard. This is a guy that I told Aaron all along. You know, this would make a ton of sense to go after someone like Kevin Willard. Kevin Willard, I think he's a really, really good coach. He's in his mid-40s. You know, he's from, you know, from New York. he's had plenty of success there at Seton Hall. I know Maryland fans won an Iona coach.

He was at Iona. And look at what he's done. He's gone to the NCAA tournament at Seton Hall. Now, four out of the last or five out of last seven years would have went in the COVID year as well. And I think he's a quality coach. We'll know the area. Can recruit New York. I think that to me, especially if they go out, they beat TCU, which by the way,

that game is just going to be a mother. I mean, those two teams going against each other is going to be something else. So, you know, we'll see what happens. As a Notre Dame fan, I'd be bummed. I love Mike Bray. I think he's a great coach. Honestly, I want to see Mike Bray finish his career in like a year or two and go into the media. I think Mike Bray, did you watch his, you know, post game comments?

I remember a couple of years ago it was the BB&T classic, Terrell Stogland, or Stoglin went nuts. And Bray comes in post-game. I think that was year one or two of Turgeon. And he's like, man, Stoglin. He was like, world be free out there. I mean, Mike Bray would be an absolute treat for us to watch and break down games. I like Seth Greenberg a lot.

But give me Mike Bray, you know, do two more years at Notre Dame, retire at 64, 65. You're the all-time winningest coach at Notre Dame. you know, have one or two more decent NCAA tournament runs with a good recruiting class coming in and, and go on the set. Let's see Bray on this set. But, you know, for my money, with no dog in a fight, I think, obviously you shoot for the moon. I love Ed Cooley. I think he's phenomenal. I don't think he's coming. I heard Jimmy, you know, breaking it down on this podcast, you know, with their, you know, situation up there in Providence, with all the facilities, with all the backing, with all the fans,

you know, why would he leave that situation? He's home. Money talks, obviously. But I think Andy Edfield, obviously would be, you know, would make sense here too. But to me, I think Kevin Willard, I think the style that Seton Hall plays with would work in the Big Ten. And I think he would be a very quality hiring, maybe not the sexiest, maybe doesn't win the press conference. But look, you know, Seton Hall is in, you know, northern. New Jersey right there. It's anyone's ever been to, you know, Orange, New Jersey, no offense to anyone

from that area. Not the prettiest. I did, you know, I did a recruiting basketball camp back in the day at Seton Hall. It is, yeah, it's not a elite place to to go. And I think, you know, Xfinity Center and all

of that would be enticing. So to me, Willard, the sustained success that he's had at Seaton Hall, I think he's a really good coach and I think he would be a quality higher if that's the way Maryland went. I know the buzz for break continues and maybe he wants to come back home and that's where he wants to finish up his career. To me, if it's not Rick Patino at his age, I, you know, Rick Patino is different. He's a two-time national champ. The Louisville National Championship, even though the banner doesn't hang,

it happens. They won a national championship. He is an elite coach. Clearly he's not coming as as it has been pointed out. And, yeah, look, I think Mike Bray would be successful, but for how long? I mean, Mike Bray, to me, doesn't seem like the guy who wants to coach into his 70s. But you never know. I mean, if he's pushing hard for this job and they beat Alabama, it's a lot easier of a sell to bring Mike Bray home, talk about the Elite 8 runs, and how much he was able to squeeze out of the Irish.

I think I saw the NABC just named him their coach of the year. So he is well respected, well liked from the D.C. area has recruited the D.C. area a lot. And, you know, who knows? I know he was going really hard after Hunter Dickinson, who by the way, was just an absolute mismatch for Colorado State, 21, 6, and four rebounds as an 11 seat, who was a favorite, by the way, I just wish DeVante Jones wasn't out. I was all over Michigan on Selection Sunday. Then Devante Jones, their point guard. was ruled out due to a concussion. And I backed off.

I actually ended up taking Colorado State in a, in a, you know, last man standing pool plus the two and a half. So they melted down in the second half, but Hunter Dickinson, you know, Mike Bray was going hard after him. And ultimately he goes to Michigan. If Bray's the head coach in the Maryland, does he keep him? I don't know.

I don't know the answer to that. I know Dickinson has obviously been a sore subject for Terp fans as he's kind of gone out of his way to blast Maryland. even though he certainly was recruited by the Terps. My pick would be Willard, you know, the logical one, the one that makes sense that I think ultimately, you know, in my opinion, he would be the betting favorite. But it seems like there's a lot of momentum towards Mike Bray and maybe he wants to come back and, you know, ride off into the sunset, so to speak at Notre Dame getting his first NCAA

tournament win since 2017. All right. Notre Dame plays tomorrow, a handful of other games on Friday as well. we'll break things down real quickly after these messages. All right, closing up the podcast. Once again, Tim Murray in for Sheehan. I was told on Twitter to remind you, subscribe, leave a review. It really helps. It doesn't take any time.

It's completely free. I think that's the Sheean spiel. So I've done it twice now. All right, let's get to a couple games tomorrow. I know we broke down a lot of them on Wednesday, but sometimes opinions change. And I'll just do a quick overview of some games. games that are jumping out at me when it comes to when it comes to the tournament over the next

couple of days. So, you know, the bracket continues on Friday. We'll have 16 more games across. And, you know, it's funny, as of time of recording and who the hell knows what happens here, but a lot of chalk, a lot of favorites have covered, but I don't know if that'll be, you know, sustainable as the days go on. And then looking at Friday's slate, I do like a lot of dogs. I do. And we talked about it a bit yesterday with Jim,

Jim Root from the three-man weave. And maybe it's going to be coming too trendy. I don't know. But I like Colgate a lot. I think that's the typical, that's the type of matchup that they would potentially have success in. Last year, Colgate, you know, played against Arkansas. They ran out of steam.

And I think when you have a team with NCAA tournament experience, which they have, and elite shooting, which they have, however, once again, you may have elite shooting, and then you have an off night. Look at South Dakota State on Thursday, right? They lose the Providence. Then they made a little run at the ends, a very questionable call on a three-pointer that maybe South Dakota State goes down. ties that game up. We'll never know. Providence gets the win. So, uh, congratulations to Ed

Cooley's squad. But we look at, um, I just look at this Colgate team and I wrote it up, you know, we do writeups on on vson.com. I took the eight with them. And, uh, I think there's a potential for, for them to, to, to win outright. If they're shooting well, you know, top, you know, number two, three point shooting team in the country. You know, they've got guys in this team who played in not one but two NCAA tournaments. You know, Matt Langel's a good coach. Maybe he'd be a guy GW would look at. I don't know.

I think he was a temple assistant. So you could do a lot worse. I mean, he's been thriving up there in Hamilton, New York. So, you know, maybe that's someone to keep on the radar for that GW job that is open right now in D.C. So I do like Colgate. That's late night on Friday. You know, once again, the fact that it is in Wisconsin that late. I think Purdue absolutely manhandles Yale.

I think Yale got overseeded. The selection committee tends to do things like this where you're playing your championship on Sunday. Princeton would have been a formidable foe as a 14. They lost a VCU, by the way, in the NIT. So a good win for my guy, Mike Rhodes and his squad there. But I think the size that Purdue has is just to cause fits. Eadie and Williams down low. You got to lay a lot of points. So I get it.

If you don't want to, you know, be throwing down point spreads of 16. So I do think Yale is in a world of pain come tomorrow. I'm, you know, one of the late night games. By the way, the late night slate on Friday is absolutely spectacular. You've got Colgate, Wisconsin, you've got Davidson, Michigan State. You have UAB Houston and TCU Seton Hall. So I know all the Maryland fans are going to be keyed in and locked in on watching Kevin Willard and breaking down his every move there. But that late night slate, if you're a night owl, oh, my God. I mean, it can't get much better than that. I do like Loyola. You know, Loyola is a team that made a run to the Sweet 16 last year. Obviously, their coach, Porter Mosier, he is gone. You know,

their best player last year, Cameron Cruttwig, he is gone. But they got dudes. I mean, Lucas Williamson is his elite defender, two-time defensive player of the year in the Missouri Valley. And Ohio State's got injury concerns. And that's something. I mean, I know E.J. Liddell could be some serious issues down low. But you look at, you know, where they sit right now with some injuries that are mounting up. I think there's some questions there about this Ohio State team.

So it's Zed Kee and Kyle Young. They were not taking part in practice on Thursday. They're banged up. So an unhealthy Ohio State team that struggled down the stretch, lost to Maryland, lost to, I think three teams out of the field of 68 down the stretch. And Loyola, I thought, you know, they lost their regular season finale to Northern Iowa. But that tournament, they really ratcheted up. I think they won every game by double figures.

maybe they didn't win the championship by double figures, but, you know, they got their revenge in the semifinals against Northern Iowa, bulldoze them, and then they beat Drake in the championship. So I like Loyola. That's at a pick. So I'll roll with the with the Ramblers there. I talked a little bit about yesterday, you know, backing guys that you just might know the name, like a UAB and Jelly Walker. I could very well be proven wrong here. Kelvin Sampson is a terrific coach, but you look at no Marcus Sasser, no Tremont Mark. You've got a guy in Jelly Walker who's, you know, 115 threes this year,

shooting over 40% from three. Those are the types of guys that can have these types of moments that we're talking about on Saturday morning or you're out at a bar on Friday night, you know, with these games on. And that's who we're talking about just getting in a heat check mode. So, yeah, games I like tomorrow on Friday night. We'll be back tomorrow with more thoughts on the games on Thursday and then, you know, kind of get the weekend ready to go too. but I like Colgate as a dog plus the seven and a half.

I do like UAB plus the eight and a half. I like Loyola as a pickam over Ohio State. You know, a 10 that is a pickam against the seven is kind of head scratching, right? Remember, it's the bookmakers, they don't care about your seating. Just look at Michigan and Colorado State. Michigan was the 11 seed and was without their starting. point guard and was still a one and a half point favorite and they were able to pulverize Colorado State in that second half of the game. So those are some thoughts on Friday. Should be a really

great slate. I just can't wait for the evening slate there on Friday. I think the way that the schedule sets up, it is going to be a hell of an evening. Also, if you want to watch Andy Enfield, that game is in the middle of the afternoon. Lean towards Miami. not an official play, not a bet that I've made. And also Mike Young in Virginia Tech, do they keep it rolling? I love their offensive execution. You know, you look at Notre Dame in the way they executed down the stretch. I think, you know, I think that Mike Bray is a very, very bright and great offensive mind. I think Mike Young, who was at Wofford, is tremendous. And they've had success in the tournament. They did at Wofford. Chris Beard squad, I think, you know,

was a bit overrated this year, still getting at a six. They've got talent. They got more talent than Virginia Tech. But that game, you know, the line, once again, kind of telling you something there sitting at one. No play for me would lean towards the Hokies, getting it done there. But it almost feels like maybe that's a trendy play

because what do we see last from Virginia Tech winning four and four? Texas bowed out to TCU blew a 18 point lead at halftime and lost. So I'm going to stay away from that one. We'll see how big of a dope I am come next week. But I'll roll on Friday if you want to roll with me or fade me. That's cool. Colgate plus seven and a half, UAB plus eight and a half. And I'll ride with the sister jeans, Loyola.

They will take down Ohio State who enters limping both on the floor, winning and losing wise and just with their players. All right. That's going to do it. I said it'll be a brief podcast. Hopefully we fulfilled some of the commanders. need and thank you to Ben Standing once again. I am Tim Murray sitting in for Kevin Sheehan. Remember, as Sheehan would always tell you, please review, rate. It really helps the podcast out.

We'll be back on Friday with more. Thank you and we'll talk to you soon.