The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley to DC!

Episode Date: March 20, 2023

Kevin opened the show with today's breaking news that Ed Cooley will become the new Georgetown Head Basketball Coach replacing Patrick Ewing. Kevin talked Commanders' sale news and the Terps' loss to Alabama in the open as well. Then it was ESPN's Stanford Steve Coughlin jumping on to talk NCAA Tournament, the NFL Draft, and Sam Howell. 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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Hi his win. Highs win. Hise win.

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Our post-game show is next. This is Georgetown basketball on ESPN 980. That the legendary voice, the legendary call of a rich Schwatkin, the only radio play-by-play voice Georgetown has ever had. He's been doing the games for 48 years. And unfortunately, in the last few years, he hasn't had many of his signature, Hoyas win, Hoyas win, Hoyas win calls. By the way, Rich is not only a legend in this town, he is one hell

of a nice guy as well. But Georgetown is the lead on the show today because they have hired Ed Cooley to be their next head basketball coach. That is the breaking news of the day locally and in the sport of college basketball. Ed Cooley at Providence the last 12 years, his hometown of Providence. Seven NCAA tournament trips in 12 years at Providence with just one Sweet 16 that came last year when Providence made it to the Sweet 16. By the way, with a point guard that I'm very familiar with, one Jared Bynum, who played at Georgetown Prep and was a first team all met. They lost to Kansas last year in the Sweet 16. But Ed Cooley is a really good basketball coach. Georgetown got themselves as good a coach, as big of a name coach, as I think they could have hoped for.

I don't want to diminish Georgetown's stature to the point where it sounds like I'm being way too, you know, Maryland guy, which I am. I'm not a Georgetown guy, even though I love the Thompson's. And, you know, as I've said many times, had a chance to work at the radio station with Coach Thompson. and by the way, that ESPN 980 at the end of Rich Rodkins call, that was obviously a call from like 10 years ago because the station hasn't been ESPN 980 in about 10 years, roughly. But, you know, Georgetown has fallen on tough times, and it is a resurrection of the program situation.

You know, Ed Cooley, according to many people in the know, was close with Coach Thompson. And Coach Thompson loved Ed Cooley. as a coach. And, you know, I'm not sure how many others out there with Ed Cooley's stature would have been interested in the Georgetown job. If Ed Cooley had declined to take the Georgetown job, I'm not sure where they would have gone. Look, it's a great opportunity, just like any job at a big conference school in this market. And we're talking about Maryland and Georgetown. They're the two behemoths. They have been the two behemoths in the market.

And all due respect to GW and AU and Mason and everybody else, Maryland and Georgetown, and their presence in the DMV have dwarfed the other programs for a long period of time. And obviously have had the most success, both programs being national championship programs. National champion programs, Georgetown in 1984 with Coach Thompson when they beat Houston in the Seattle Kingdom. for the one title that they had. Of course, that one with Patrick. They were in two other championship games in 82 against Carolina and lost. Of course, the famous Fred Brown to James Worthy pass.

And then, of course, the iconic images of Fred Brown and John Thompson hugging at the end of the Houston final two years later. And then as a potential repeat champion losing to Villanova and one of the great upsets in Lexington the following year in 85. but Georgetown is a program with unbelievable tradition, unbelievable brand name awareness. But it's a program that's been dead for a few years now. I mean, you've got to go back to JT3, who did a hell of a job there.

He took that team to a final four. Remember beating Carolina in the Elite 8 before losing to Ohio State in the final four. But that Carolina game in East Rutherford in 2007, excuse me, when they beat Carolina to go to the final four. It has been slim pickings since. A lot of, you know, during those JT3 latter years, a lot of early round exits as a higher-seeded team. And then, you know, they went in a very weird kind of situation

to Patrick after firing JT3. JT3 was, I think, one hell of a coach. I think Ed Cooley's one hell of a coach. And as a Maryland guy, let me just say, I don't think it's great for Maryland that Ed Cooley's in town. But what I am hoping is that because he and Kevin Willard are friends that maybe Georgetown and Maryland can start to play each other on an annual basis. We shall see, but it's a great hire by Georgetown. And he's got work to do, but he's coming into a situation where it's a fertile recruiting ground, as we know.

he's got to get people interested because unlike Maryland, Georgetown doesn't have that built-in massive fan base. You know, in many ways you can make the case that Georgetown always was more of a national program than it was a local program. Maryland's got the much bigger alum base in town, much bigger student body, much bigger alum base that stays here. While Georgetown typically has a lot of people from outside the city, they'd go and live in New York and Boston and L.A. and San Francisco and Chicago after they graduate from Georgetown.

But Ed Cooley has a chance to get people excited. When Georgetown's good, they can fill up Capital One when they're really good. And my guess is, is he will turn them using the portal, the transfer portal, into a much better team right away and into a team that contends for an at-large bid in the Big East year and year out. They have not had an at large bid at Georgetown. They won the Big East tournament, remember, that got Patrick the extension in 21, but they have not had an at-large bid since JT-3's last tournament appearance. So it's been a while since Georgetown's been relevant in college basketball, and they went outside the family for the hire. Now, you He's close with the family, was close with Coach Thompson. But interesting, look, I'm surprised, not surprised based on recent discussion,

recent rumors over the last couple of weeks that Ed Cooley was a target for Georgetown and that he was actually interested. But I'm surprised because last year when Maryland went after Ed Cooley, or at least inquired about Ed Cooley, he, wanted to stay at Providence. He and his wife are both from there. He's got a phenomenal practice facility. He's got an 11,000 plus seat arena, the Duncan Donuts Center in Providence. He's the only show in town. They fill that thing up regularly. He had a really good gig, you know, a gig that he probably could have stayed in for the rest of time. But here's the big difference between Maryland last year

and Georgetown this year. There are reports out there that maybe the relationship he has with his AD isn't as great as it used to be. But Georgetown, and I've not yet as this news is breaking today, seen what the money will be. But I've been told that this is going to be a deal worth $5 million or more a year. We'll see. I mean, I may stand to be corrected here. but Georgetown with their powerful alum base ready to pay big money to Ed Cooley and he will come down here and have a different kind of challenge than he had at Providence.

I think, you know, you could make the case Georgetown's a better job than Providence with a bigger upside. But really, you're in the Big East now. By the way, the Big East doing very well, obviously, in this year's tournament. and it's a great basketball league. Providence, a different recruiting area, even though Ed Cooley's recruited down here before. But Georgetown has kind of a long-standing brand that Providence has never had.

And so we'll see. It's a good hire for Georgetown, for sure. And I would expect Georgetown to be a competitive team almost immediately with what you're able to do with NIL and the transatl and the transfer portal right away. For Maryland, it means a big-time competitor in the market is back for Kevin Willard. But again, as I mentioned, it would be nice to see the two programs come together and figure out something that I think and have said many times for many years would be a top five sporting calendar date in this town.

And that is Maryland versus Georgetown every year. You know, you play that game on the Saturday in December when the Army Navy game is being played and there's no other college football being played. And you can't play it on Sunday with professional football that will always trump, you know, everything else that's going on. But if you take that second Saturday in December, you know, when Army and Navy play and it's the only game, it's the week after the championship games, and it's the night of the Heisman trophy presentation. All right, and maybe what, you know, I'm not thinking ahead here, actually, as I'm saying this, that may be the first weekend of the new expanded college football playoff format. So if that's the case, then you may have to back it up a week. But play it in a spot where you don't have a lot of competition with football in particular.

You get a TV deal every year and have it nationally televised on ESPN or Fox Sportsnet or whatever. And you play that game, you know, one year, Capital One and one year at Xfinity. I've said before, I personally wouldn't have a problem if they played it at Capital One each year and just split the tickets, $10,000, $10,000. I still think you'll end up more times than not with more Maryland fans in there than Georgetown fans. But it would create kind of a scene down in Chinatown that could become an annual event. But my preference would be Xfinity one year, capital one the next. Let's do this thing eventually. And maybe these two coaches will put it together. But that is your story in town breaking news-wise. Because as of the recording of this podcast, there is no new news

on the ownership situation. With the exception of a story that Ben Standing, wrote, which I will get to here shortly. But the show today, presented by MyBooky, go to mybooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. All you have to do is wager your deposit amount one time and you're eligible for a quick cash out. It's perfect for the tournament. I've been giving out smell test picks. They are 12 and 8 through the first two rounds.

I had a massive 5-0 Saturday, 2-2 yesterday, 7-2 over the weekend. Saturday was one of the best days wagering I've had in some time because I had more than just the five games I gave out. And I heard from various people offshore, let's just say, who said to me that Saturday was one of the best tournament days the bookmakers have ever had. It was a major anti-public contrarian day, especially with teams like Kansas and Duke, not only not covering, but losing outright. God, I love Tennessee on Saturday. I had, let's just say, enough on the Valls on Saturday, both money line and plus the number.

But go to my bookie.orgie.org, use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., and they will take good care of you. One guest on the show, a good one, Stanford Steve from Scott Van Pelt's Sports Center, We'll join us, and we will talk tournament and we will talk some football as well. And you'll want to stay tuned because I've already recorded the interview with Steve until the very end when he weighs in on Sam Howl. Steve was friends with Phil Longo, the offensive coordinator at North Carolina, with Mack Brown during the Sam Hal years.

And he has a strong opinion about Sam Hal and Sam Hal's future in Washington. We talked some football in the last segment of the show, so make sure you listen to that, those of you that are more interested in that than the college basketball discussion, which will come up in the next segment. But Stanford, Steve, will be on the show. So Saturday was a strange day in that, man,

there were a lot of rumors flying around about the sale is going down. There were various reports that the sale had happened. and it was going to be sold to Josh Harris. Harris is part of the Harris Mitchell Rails bid, we believe. But yeah, there was a lot of internet rumors going on that the sale was imminent or about to be completed, if not already completed. None of those, you know, none of those social media sourced stories. and I looked at all of them and I was getting texted all of these. Look, Saturday for me was a basketball day.

Now, when this team actually does get sold and it's announced officially or reported officially from somebody that we've heard of, it will cease to become any day other than a day of celebration. But none of the people that were reporting this stuff, and I don't want to impugn any of these people, but I didn't recognize any of the sources as creditors. maybe some of them were. But it just didn't seem to me that it was actually going down or had gone down.

I reached out to multiple people that I've been talking to, a couple of them on the periphery of people in the know, and one in particular that is close to one of the potential owners of the team. And he said, all is quiet. Everybody came back and said, all is very quiet, in fact, and nothing is imminent at all. as in, you know, it had happened or was about to happen Saturday night or yesterday. My favorite on the social media front, though, by far and away, was this tweet from a dude named Josh Taylor at Josh Taylor FB. He tweeted out at 9.04 p.m. Saturday night.

Can confirm Jeff Bezos was at Dulles International Airport this afternoon. Sources say he met with Dan Snyder and company at least. Litos in College Park. That was funny. That was a good one. Can you imagine Bezos, Snyder, and Company at the Litos in College Park finalizing the deal on the sale of the team to Jeff Bezos? Look, here's my position. It's been my position for a month plus.

I believe this sale is moving forward. I think it's going to happen sooner rather than later. Look, every time I say sooner rather than later, at some point it's going to become the later. But when I say that, I mean somewhere on and about the end of March, early April time frame when the owners get together. And I believe Josh Harris is going to be the winning bidder of the team. And it'll sell somewhere between $5.6 to $6 billion. I've been with that projected or predicted conclusion for about a month plus. I'm still on that. That's what I think will happen. I have no idea if I will be right or not.

But I do know that Saturday night the team was not sold. Sunday the team was not sold despite all of the activity on Twitter. But the fact that it's all quiet everywhere and everybody's buttoned up, I think could be a sign, although they're all under strict confidentialities anyway. But I do think we do think we, are probably nearing something here in the next, you know, days or certainly the next weeks as we approach, you know, within a week of the owners meetings in Scottsdale, Arizona. And it will be an exciting time when it happens. Remember this also, that the announcement that the team will be sold is an announcement of the team being sold. The finalization of a deal may take a month or two months.

The announcement, Ben Standig told me this morning on radio of the Walton family, the Penners, I believe, that they were the winning bidders of the Broncos. It was two months after that that the actual deal was finalized. And what will be set is some sort of final closing date for the deal where the final docs are signed and the money is wired into Snifax. account because they still have to go through the approval process of getting three quarters of the owners to vote on it and approve of the ownership group. Now, the good news on that is Josh

Harris has been vetted. He was a bidder on the Broncos. He's already a very small stakeholder in the Pittsburgh Steelers. But the whole group has to be vetted and then voted on. But I do feel good about it. And I think, you know, of course, there's part of me that it worries about the impulsivity and the unpredictability of Dan Snyder and what could happen potentially between now and the day that it is scheduled to close and the funds are transferred. Now, what Ben Standing had in the athletic was a story that he broke on Saturday night that Washington with their new player contracts, you know, think the Duran Payne player contract, any of the other free agent players that they've signed, that the contract is now, the contracts for those players,

excuse me, is for the players to be paid, their signing, bonus money later than what is typical for an NFL player signing a contract. So the payout date typically on the signing bonus money, the money due upon signing is typically due 15 to 30 days after the contract is executed. So as an example, the Duran Payne deal was done a week ago. Typically, the signing bonus money, for him it's $28 million, is, you know, paid at least the first tranche of that payment is paid within 15 to 30 days. Ben reported that the commanders have extended the payout date by two months. So he said essentially using the Duran Payne contract as an example, that May 12, 2023 is the date in which the first amendment.

amount of what they owe him per the contract for the signing bonus money is due. And sources told him that this could be an indication that the Snyders were pushing back the payment dates so that the new owner would have that responsibility after they purchased the team. Makes sense. Washington historically has paid, Ben wrote, typical of what the rest of the league does, which is 15 to 30 days, but they're looking at 60 days now before the first payment on the signing bonus money is due. So that was the news from over the weekend. And interesting news because it's

another indication if you believe that it's tied to the Snyders don't want to pay out any money until the team is sold and they want to put that on the new owner. That makes sense. Other than that, the other stuff, I can't tell you if any of it's credible or not. It certainly wasn't coming from the Washington Post. It certainly wasn't coming from the Athletic. It certainly wasn't coming from Rappaport or Schefter or, you know, Josh Cosman from the New York Post or from any major outlet. And my guess is when it happens, it will come from one of those entities.

My guess right now is it'll be one of those NFL rights. reporters that will actually have the news before anybody else, a Schaefter or a Rappaport. That's my guess. I have no idea. I just want it to happen. I wanted to, before we get to Stanford, Steve, read this real quickly. Kevin, appreciate your work and love how much thought you put in to things. Well, thank you, Dan.

I appreciate that. You can tweet me, by the way, at Kevin Sheen, D.C. But there's always a but after a compliment. I think you're missing an important part of Sam Howell's draft result. It was the COVID draft. The number of players eligible for the 2022 draft was much higher than normal. In a normal draft, he would have been at least a fourth round pick. Wasn't Kurt Cousins drafted in the fourth round?

Russell Wilson, Dak Prescott? Question mark, question mark. Dan, excellent tweet. I appreciate that. And I know why Dan tweeted this to me. It's because of what we've talked about here in recent weeks, and that is, you know, Sam Howell's fifth round status for me means that they're not going to invest in inordinate amount of time, you know, allowing him to, you know, either make it or not make it as the starting quarterback.

A fifth rounder doesn't get the same leash. or the same amount of time that a first round quarterback gets. It just doesn't happen. And I had read the tweet from the guy Gary last week. I remember his name because he called 2023. This has to be the season of Sam, as in we've got to give him 17 games. And I said, you know, we discussed this with Tommy on the show last week. That's naive.

Teams don't give fifth rounders, you know, a season. They just don't. They give first rounders a season. They don't give fifth rounders a season. I hope Sam Howell's the answer. And by the way, his draft status of being a fifth rounder if he can play doesn't matter at all. I understand that part of it. My point has all along been that one out of the last 129 fifth rounders or beyond has made it.

And that's Tom Brady. The other 128 have not. They've not become great quarterbacks. So that's why teams aren't giving years to a fifth round investment. It's not a big enough investment to allow for that much time. So I don't want to give Sam Hal a year if they realize he can't do it. Like if you realize that a first rounder is not what you thought he was when you drafted him, you're still going to give it time

because you're going to feel like, well, we saw something in them to draft them in the first round. We're going to give them time. You don't do that with fifth rounders. So that was why Dan, you know, sent me this tweet. I'm sure of it. And Dan, it's a phenomenal point. The COVID draft last year had a lot more ineligible players for the draft.

By the way, this year's draft will be, because essentially when COVID happened, anybody that was a freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, or redshirt senior, had the opportunity for an extra COVID year. So depending on when they took that extra year and what year they were, these drafts are going to have more players in them. So yeah, in a normal situation, you're right. He probably would have been a fourth round pick. He was the first pick in the fifth round. So yes, Kirk Cousins,

Dak Prescott, by the way, Russell Wilson was a third round pick, not a fourth round pick. But to your point, I guess, to your point, you're right, he would have been a fourth rounder in a normal draft. You still, by the way, with a fourth round pick, are not going to allow for an entire season

to figure out whether or not the guy can do it if you don't think he can. Or if you're skeptical as to what, whether or not he can. To me, Sam Hal has to show in this offseason and in training camp. And if they give him the early part of the season, the very early part of the season, he's got to show something that says, wow, this guy has a chance. And then we can talk about making 2023 the season of Sam. Other than that, no. I hope it happens. I hope he shows enough promise, but if he doesn't, and Eric B. Enemy in particular, says, yeah, he's not what I

thought he was. Well, they're not going to feel pressure to give them a lot more time. If their gut is, he's not going to make it. And that's where the draft status comes in. That's been my point all along. You invest more time in things in which you've invested a lot into. Washington did not invest a lot into Sam Howell. Doesn't mean he's not going to make it. But the odds certainly would say based on fifth round and later that the odds are pretty long that he will. And fourth round and later, the odds are still pretty long, but they're better. But they're better. Because we just named Kirk Cousins and Dak Prescott, who obviously have become top half of the league's starting quarterbacks for a period of time.

But that was a good tweet, Dan, and I appreciate that. I do. One last thing before we get to Stanford, Steve, and that is, because we're going to talk a lot of tournament with Steve before we get to football, but real quickly, on Maryland exiting against Alabama. I thought that the Terps were overmatched athletically, and I think they've got to get more athletic. Alabama is what we want to become, you know, in terms of that level of.

of athleticism, the number of pro prospects having an elite pro prospect on the team like they have in Brandon Miller. And while I was very upset that Julian Reese was whistled for some fouls in the first half, the second one was ridiculous. It was a terrible, terrible call. Even Gene Stereator jumped on and said it was a terrible call. They held with it, and I think it completely changed what Maryland wanted to do and the game plan. And by the way, the way they started, they got off to a nine to two start against Bama. And I think it impacted Maryland's ability to be more competitive in the game, but I don't think they would have beaten Alabama. I thought they were excellent defensively, and that was what held up and was pretty consistent all year long. They were an excellent defensive team. But I think that

Alabama had too much and that Maryland wasn't going to win that game, even if Julian Reese had played 35 minutes instead of 20 minutes. But so my big takeaway from Maryland's loss, which was an expected loss, they were an eight-point underdog, is you just have to get more athletic. You've got to get pros on your team because, you know, being a two-seat, being a one-seed or being a two-seat as Bama was a few years ago when they beat Maryland by 19. in the tournament in 21. That's where Maryland should be.

That's the neighborhood that we all want Maryland to be playing in. And I think Kevin Willard has them headed in that direction. It's got a top, you know, 10 to 12 recruiting class coming in. I think Maryland will be very active in the transfer portal. And then I also think, you know, there's a chance between Jemir Young and Hakeem Hart and maybe Dante Scott that one or maybe two of those guys will come back for a COVID year. Maryland should come back as a ranked team next year, especially with that recruiting class coming in, led by Deshawn Harris-Smith, and I think they'll have a really good chance to be a pre-season ranked team.

But being pre-season ranked, they've been pre-season ranked a lot over the last decade, over the last many years. But being in that level of competing for one-and-two seeds, you know, there haven't been enough of those years. I mean, look, they were four seeds and three seeds and five seeds, you know, going to the tournament. And certainly in 2020, they were on the verge of being a two or a three seed. And that was really the team that had pros on it and had a legit chance. But look, Kevin Willard has to have time to get his guys into the program.

He's going to do that. But the last thing I'll say is, I think he did an unbelievable job this year. I think when you come in in late March and you've got to use the portal and you've got to add players and you've got to try to keep some of your players and you've got to decide whether a kutis Wahab is worth keeping or letting go to Georgetown and, you know, convincing the players that are here to stay here. He had recruited Dante Scott, you know, when he was at Seton Hall and he knew some of these players. He obviously needed to keep Reese and I think he understood that. and getting the point guard and Jemir Young was absolute paramount. I don't even think though Kevin Willard knew that Jemir Young would turn out to be the player that he was.

Jemir struggled, I understand, last couple of games of the season. But a phenomenal first year. The expectations were low. They were picked 10th, even though there were people out there that were picking Maryland to be kind of the sleeper because they were an older team. There were several of those, you know, Big 10 writers that said, look out. Maryland's better than what the media picked them to be, which was 10th before the season started. But still, I had no expectations that they would win 22 games.

Vi for the second spot in the Big Ten. They ended up seventh, I understand, in terms of the seating, tied for third or whatever, with the 11 and 9 record in the league. But they had a chance had they held on against Penn State to have been the two-seed behind Purdue in the Big Ten. I did not have those kinds of expectations. I did not think that in his first year they would be a tournament team. And after they got blown out a couple of times early by UCLA, by Michigan, I mean, they lost to Michigan by 35.

They were down by 40 plus to UCLA. You know, I was concerned. But he did one hell of a job. This team was good on defense all year long. And look, they were great at home on offense and defense. and they won a game and a memorable game against West Virginia in the tournament. But for those of you that have reached out and said,

no different than Turgeon, out in the first weekend, give me a break. Okay, just like I said, give me a break on Turgeon, who I know is a good coach. And I've always said he's a good coach. And Marilyn was getting to the tournament every year, pretty much. But they weren't getting to the next weekend. This is Kevin Willard's first year. He's got to have a chance to get his guys in.

and we'll see how he does on the recruiting front, you know, not just in one year, but over the course of time. They got to get more athletic. They got to get bigger, longer, and more athletic. And when they do, look out. But I enjoyed the journey of this season, even though it ended against Alabama. The one thought, the other thought, because I've had more than one,

the last thought on this is it's really a shame they lost to Penn State in that final game of the season. It was crucial. Why? Because it cost them a seed line at the very least. It cost them an opportunity to end up with a better draw in the Big Ten tournament, which could have really enhanced their seeding. And being an eight seed meant that they not only got a number one one seed, but they got the number one number one seed in Bama. I'm not saying they could have beaten Houston. They would have not been matched up against Purdue in a one-eight second round. game. But that Penn State loss in Happy Valley at the end of the season cost them the opportunity to be a seven seed, cost them the two seed in the Big Ten tournament, which could have led to

another win, maybe a semi-final trip, at least in the Big Ten tournament. And who knows, they could have been on the six line facing an 11 and then a three. You know, and instead of playing Bama, you know, they could have ended up with, you know, a team like Baylor who Creighton beat, although I think that would have been a rough matchup, a team like Xavier, you know, potentially. If they had been on the two-line, hell, they could have ended up with Princeton, who upset Arizona. They could have ended up with Marquette, who Michigan State beat, who I think would have been a tough matchup for the Terps as well. But the point being that Penn State game was costly.

had a 16 point lead in the first half, 15 point lead in the second half, lost at the buzzer on a crazy kind of a bounce. And if it won that game, they would not have been an eight-seed. They would have been a six or seven. And who knows, they might still be playing because matchups are everything. And the seating in the NCAA tournament obviously hurt them with who they had to play in the second round. Bama, by the way, wow, what a defensive. team. I knew they were good defensively. I didn't know they were that good defensively. All right. Up next, Stanford, Steve. We'll do more tournament and we'll talk football with Steve next right

after these words from a few of our sponsors. You got to say Gonzaga, the bulldogs are well-oriented machine. Gonzaga, three-s succeeds. Why did I come in with a meaningless buzzer beating shot as it relates to who won the game? and who didn't? That was TCU at the buzzer last night. Seven-tenths of a second. Inbounding the ball down six.

Guy just picks it up and chucks it in from 30 feet. Well, that ended up being the final game of what was a monstrous weekend for yours truly. I have no idea how my next guest did, but I did see him tweet out an absolute all-timer. Yeah, TCU was getting four and a half four, depending on where you got it. They're down six. and they roll it up the court and he drains a 35-footer, 30-footer for the cover 84-81 final. And I was on TCU. Were you on TCU?

Stanford's team, by the way, joining us right now from, of course, the Scott Van Pelt show. You were on TCU? Sure was. Yeah, I think you just had to be. I mean, you know, you know what you do. You know the smell test. If you were, you know, if you bought in, there was a couple things, you know, that were fishy, you know, to start Saturday. I wasn't a believer in Duke.

I thought the ACC was just brutal this year. I give them credit for winning the conference tournament, but all that steam they caught, after the first win against Orel, I thought they were going to lose Oro Roberts, and Oro just, they couldn't beat anybody that day. And Duke made shots, and I just didn't think they had the wherewithal

to make a run. I still think they're freshmen. They've improved a ton, but I think, you know, winning that ACC, tournament was more about who they played than them. And then you just go back to, you know, Kansas. I thought Arkansas was as dangerous as there was on that eight, nine line, knowing the capability have, knowing how good musselman is,

and micromanaging a game and getting this team ready. And the other thing, they have two lottery picks that didn't play together a lot this year. And now you saw that team gel at the right time. So going back to this, especially. Saturday and Sunday, Kevin, because Scott and I talked on his pod before the tournament. I just kept looking at the line, like when you filled out

a bracket to get to that round of 32, those were sweet 16 games. You know, the intensity level and the capability of the teams because of so much parity. And I just kept looking at the slate. I'm like, I can't give any points in these

games. So, you know, a couple of those favorites, I got a lot, you know, I just went muddy line. Yukon was a big one. I just thought they were better at every facet than St. Mary's. Oh, you played Yukon just on the money line? I did. I did. I didn't want anything to do with giving points because I knew St. Mary's would dictate tempo. I just didn't, you know, so I knew it was going to be a lower scoring game and that game staying under for the last two and a half minutes, I think. You might see

on bad beats. It was 128 total, I believe, and it ended at 125 and no scoring or two points, I think, in the last two minutes. But it just, it goes, like I said, these, this 32, I thought was so much fun because of the matchups. And now you look at the Sweet 16, I think it's 11 conferences are represented. Amazing.

Amazing. That just shows you the capability of the teams and the difference in them all. So that's why it's so fun. And last night, yes, I said, I said the tweet out, but the reaction just, shows you. Like, I don't know anything else. God bless if there was an NFL

signing or something, I have no idea what happened outside the sports world because I was locked in on the tournament every second of the day. Of course, that is the voice of Stanford Steve from Scott SportsCenter from the Daily Wager. You can follow him on Twitter at Stanford Steve 82. Noel writes via the Apple podcast reviews. And you can follow us on Apple. You can follow us on Spotify. That's by the way, just as important as rating and reviewing us is hitting that follow button, which is in the upper right-hand corner on Apple and in the middle left-hand portion of the Spotify podcast screen.

But Noel writes, I love when Stanford Steve is on the show. I save this for you. I love when Stanford Steve is on the show. The conversation is great, but I have to say he is a terrific Ed McMahon to jump. Carson on the Van Pelt Sports Center. Yes, he is. That kind of dates Noel a little bit, but that's okay. We take anybody of any age, but you get a lot of good reviews when you come on with me. You're used to it, of course, but enough of that. I do want to actually talk a little bit of NFL with you before we finish up, but let's start with, you know, Purdue losing to Fairley Dickinson. What is your take

on how that happened, A, and then B, one Big Ten team into the Sweet 16, and it's Izzo. It's almost like it doesn't even count because that's an expectation. But the Big Ten once again flopping in the tournament. Yeah, I'm trying to rack my brain. I was trying to get our research department on some things because I want to talk about with Scott and his podcast. I mean, you guys are embedded in it now. And I just, I think about all these teams that make the tournament every year and the lack of success that has been. And I thought the FDU head coach said it all right there.

You know, he, I don't think he was out of his mind. Like, he saw the matchup. And when until you're embedded in a team, like when you know your team, you know, and you know the other team, you know how you have to attack. And I just thought it was really telling. about how Coach Anderson just said, we liked our matchup. Who were they going to put Eadion? Because that's what we were going to do.

We were going to pull him out. And you saw them just attack and keep attacking Purdue. And in the Big Ten, I just think, you know, everybody gets set in their way, and everybody's accustomed to knowing, you know, you're familiar with your Big Ten teams, and you know what you have to do to beat them. And then everybody brings their own strength to the table.

And that's why I thought Maryland had a successful season this year. because they were different. People didn't really know what they were with the jumbled roster of guys not being on a team and Jemir coming in and being a dynamic. You know, I called them the biggest difference maker in college basketball this year because I couldn't imagine Maryland this year without him on the floor

how much he did in taking care of the ball, scoring big baskets, you know, making threes, going to the hoop, getting other guys involved. So, you know, Maryland I thought was, you know, about the matchup, I thought they had a chance to make it to a second weekend. But when you look at Purdue, you know what they are. It's Eighty.

You know, you saw them come. That was the 29 to 2 run, right? Maryland had it at Dallas Park in Purdue. And it was because of the matchup, man. They kept attacking. They kept pulling people out and going by people, drive, kick out threes. That's what this game is now. And I give fairly dixon all the credit because, you know, you think of a team from the NEC,

and you're like, all right, they're not, I mean, they had elite quickness. They had multiple guys that could handle the ball, and they didn't turn it over. And what they did, that was unbelievable, they did it again last night against FAU, how they rebound with no size. And to me, that's just effort, man. It really just comes down to effort. I thought you saw it with Miami against Indiana. Indiana came out like they were playing a scrimmage in the first, you know,

five, six minutes of that game. Jackson Davis wasn't into it in Miami. I can give Laroniaga a ton of. credit, you look at him, you're like, who's this old guy? And then his kids come out and play with a wherewithal that's just so awesome to watch. So I looked, you know, a lot of the, I looked at the bracket before I was like, how many teams are going to do this? I had FAU beaten Memphis. I had FAU beat Purdue. They didn't even get a chance to go there. I did have, I have Michigan State go on the final four. I just, when I see a bracket, Kevin, I went up to the Big East tournament

two weeks ago and I saw you know these narratives that get created are so funny to me because I look at Marquette and obviously great story what Shaka did not going in the portal this year

and just saying hey we're going to do it with the guys we have awesome job but I'm at the garden at noon on Thursday St. John's has the ball in the air twice to win the game if that ball goes in Marquette's a I don't know

if they're a two-seed right you know so I try and get ahead of the bracket. And I don't feel great about it all the time, but I have no problem picking against teams who sort of become these better than they are teams because people just saw them win a conference tournament, and you don't factor in what that took out of them.

So a team like Marquette and a team like Duke, I was totally against coming in this weekend. By the way, Scott told me that that was your first time to the Big East tournament in the Garden? No. No, I was like my 20th time. Oh, well, why do you? I grew up. He told me that you said there's nothing that you go to in that sport that's better than the Big East tournament at the Garden.

Yep. That's a fact. Okay. So maybe I jump to the conclusion that you hadn't been before. Because I would have wondered why, as a Connecticut guy and a guy that grew up in that area that you hadn't been. Okay. But you love, that's, I've never been to the Big East tournament. All those years, I either went to the ACC tournament

or I certainly wasn't going to be in the garden while the ACC tournament was going on. No, it's just, it's the Mecca, it's the garden. You have everybody in it. You know, the fan base is what was amazing to me. And this is, I mean, you talk about showing your age. We're sitting there on Press Row for that Marquette St. John's game. St. John hasn't played in the semifinals,

which means they haven't gotten the Friday night at the Big East tournament since 2000. That is their building. And for 23 years, they haven't gotten to Friday night. It's just incredible. I know they've struggled a ton since 2000, but still, to get a Friday night game, that blew my mind away. And it's actually been pretty cool because Creighton's a school that travels like crazy, they showed up, Xavier. I didn't know what they were going to be.

They showed up, but it's a Yukon building now. Nova had their struggles. But it's crazy to see the matchups because you have the older teams. And I go back to when Syracuse and Georgetown were going, like, nothing was better than that. If you got a, you know, a Yukon Syracuse game, that was pure hatred. But now with the new guys in it and them showing up and being top seed, the dynamic of it is incredible. And the remake of the garden, how they did all that over again, it just accentuates. everything. And you heard Jay Wright talk about last night.

Him and his staff argue year after year, what was bigger? Going to the Sweet 16 or winning a Big East tournament, and he sided with the Big East tournament a lot of the times, he said. Look, I'm not going to tell this story if you've heard it, because many of my listeners have heard it. But have I ever told you the Jim Calhoun 2011 Big East Tournament story or not, being in New York? I don't think so.

So I'm up in New York that weekend. This was the Kemble Walker run through the Big East tournament. And it's Saturday morning and my buddy and I, we were up there with wives and, you know, we just were hanging out in New York with them for the weekend. And we were staying at the New York Athletic Club. And so Jimmy and I, my buddy Jimmy and I got up on Saturday morning. And we went down and we were playing hoops in the gym, pickup game, et cetera. And we're involved in a close game in Yukon, the Yukon team.

comes in because that's where they're practicing for the Big East tournament. They walk in and the PR guy or some guy from the team walks out into the court and tries to stop the game that we're involved in. And he says, you guys got to get the hell out. We've got practice time. It was the day, by the way, of the Big East final. They were playing Louisville. Yeah.

They were playing Saturday night. And so I said, because I've got a big mouth, they said, dude, just let us finish. It's like we've got two more buckets until the game is. over. He's like, no, go. And Calhoun heard me say that to the dude who was standing there. And Calhoun walks out and he says, what's the score? And I told him, he said, just finish. It's fine. We'll wait. And so we finished. And then as I'm walking off with my buddy Jimmy and a couple, he just said, hey, fellas, if anybody wants to hang out and watch us practice, you're more than welcome. And so nobody was, I was interested. Maybe I forget who else hung out. But we sat there and

watched him practice. It was not a practice. It was a walkthrough because if my memory serves me correctly and you may remember this, it was like a four or a five game run to the final. They had to win that tournament to get in the NCAA tournament. I'm convinced they had to do that. And all they did for the hour, and it was an hour or 45 minutes and it was over because they had been playing several games in a row. All they did was walk through their press break. they just all he worked on was his press break for 45 minutes because they were playing Louisville and patino and they were going to press the shit out of them and they ended up winning that game so that's my Calhoun story for those that have heard it many times before sorry

because Steve hadn't heard it all right back to Purdue for a moment yeah so I've been a huge Matt Painter fan for a long time I have to and I've said many times on this show, I think he's a great coach. And one of these days, I really have rooted for him to get over the hump. Really have wanted for him to get over the hump. But the bottom line is, you know, we know what the results are for Matt Painter in the tournament now. Fifteen appearances. He's been a top four seed eight times. And he made the elite eight where Carson Edwards went for 42, but they lost a game that they could have won to Virginia in overtime. And, And Virginia went on to win the national championship.

Interesting, by the way, Tony Bennett, Matt Painter. Bennett's being crucified for three first round losses in his last four appearances, but he got the national championship. And Painter was within a whisker of getting to the final four where they may have won it that year. But he was knocked out. And he's lost now to a 16, 15, 13, 12, and an 11 in the tournament as a much higher-seated team. Where do you come down on Matt Painter? Isn't it much harder to make the case after losing to a 16 seed that he's a great coach?

Yeah, here's what I say is I was thinking about this as it happened, and I'm watching Edie go off the floor, obviously stunned. And the year he had and what they were, and it was because of him. And I looked at how much better he got himself. You know, he was, you talk about a fish out of water, you know, last year, you know, and then they go to Sweet 16 and they get upset, you know, to the 15, they brought him out. And then I just, here's the deal. I think you're not, I don't think you're not firing the guy.

You know, there's no, you still want a Big Ten title doing what they did. And I think the best thing is the timing of this now for Matt Painter. He's a smart guy. He knows, I mean, talk to anybody that coaches against him. They think the world of what he does. Now he has a chance to reassess things because his best player is gone. And yes, he was a 7-4 player that doesn't come a long time, and they built around him the last two years.

Now you get a fresh start to reassess your roster. You have freshman guards that played way over their head for the majority of the season. And that's what it comes down to me, Kevin, is when you look at these bigs, what do the guys do around them? You know, Edie's going to get his. a lot of times. And other teams are going to game playing to frustrate him. And what are they going to do?

They're going to say, he's not going to beat us. We're going to let those other guys shoot. And what happens when these upsets happen? The role players don't make shot. And it just gets intensified so much because then it turns into a road game. You know, it's an FAU, Memphis game, you know, after Purdue and FDU. So what's happened? Everybody, if you're Memphis or FAU, you don't want to play Purdue.

You want to play the 16th. seat. So you could just see the tense feelings in those Purdue guys. They're shooting open look after open look after open look and they couldn't knock them down. So to me it comes down to what the guys do around your star

player when you have a guy like that. And now moving forward, I think it's a perfect scenario for Matt to reassess things, change the roster, and go with a different brand of all because he's smart enough to know how to play different brands of basketball. I just, you know, he catered to a guy that he

had and no one else had. And they were going to ride him into the ground. And unfortunately, it burned down in historic fashion. So I think it's all warranted. I mean, it's on the table. You know, you look at what he did after the game and, you know, sitting there sitting there, he took every single punch in the press. Great point. Everyone. Everyone. He took up there. And he, they tried getting them out of there. The, the guy running the press coverage that last question and not said, no, I'll stay here, I'll answer it. I want to make sure everything has what they have. And to me, that's as stand up as you could be. And Tony Bennett did the same exact thing when they lost the UMBC. The same exact thing. He took, he sat up there and took

punch after punch. So I get it's hard, but there's still so much good in there. And that, you know, I was texting with Scott last night. The, the idea of every, I mean, I'm sure we'll get to the other Blue Bloods because there's none left now in the tournament. But, you know, I'm If everything is accentuated on what you do in the NCAA tournament, and that is a tough, tough way to go about living. When you are getting, you know, all you're getting graded on is a one-and-done scenario. And, you know, I look at Calgary with the freshman. Matt's done it a different way.

And his guys have had that tournament experience. We're in a building last year in Philly where the whole arena was rooting for the other team. So that's where I just don't feel. And then, you know, you get the freshman guards involved this year. And like I said, I thought they were the most overachieving group of guys that, you know, a point third that nobody wanted, but turns out to be, you know, I think he was second team all conference. But going back to Painter, I think it's a perfect time with Edie going to reassess things. And, you know, the problem is there's only one way to get the stale taste out of your mouth.

And that's to win games in the tournament. And it's a long road back. But I still would have confidence in Matt Painter knowing what he's done. Yeah, I mean, Bennett won the national championship the next year. But, you know, so I think it's really, really difficult, and I think it's actually unfair to judge a coach solely on what he does in March. With that said, Matt Painter's history now of losing to all of these double-digit seeds as a much higher seed is no longer like an aberration. Look, K loss to Mercer, VCU, and Lehigh in the first round. but he also has five national championships.

And Painter doesn't have any real March success. Now he's won four or five Big Ten regular season titles. He's won the Big Ten tournament a couple of times. The other night, as much as I've been a big Matt Painter supporter, and I've talked about him for years about how I just love, you know, as a basketball coach, what he runs, and the way he handles things, and they're always well-pourner. prepared and they scout well everything. But I actually thought Friday night, I sat there and I did not want that to happen. You know, usually you're rooting for the 16, but I was rooting for him

and I was also, I also knew it would be a blow to the big 10, big blow to the big 10 with them losing. But I thought specific to Friday night, I thought, you know, and this is something you see on Twitter all the time, he's outcoached. He got completely outcoached. And then you're like, well, how? And nobody will explain. I'm going to explain. Number one, when you, and you mentioned their quickness, Fairley Dickinson's quickness. They could not keep the ball in front of them. So, yeah, you could make the case, well, we've got a rim protector. That's fine. But the penetration was collapsing the defense and just totally making it easier for their wing players on kickouts. And so they knocked down threes or they were able to, you know, hard fake, you know,

dribble inside and all of a sudden they got an easy shot. You got it. You have to play some zone. when you can't stop the ball in front of you, and you are getting absolutely, I mean, eviscerated on your front line defense with your guards not being able to stay in front of the basketball, you've got to try some zoning never did. Number two was the pressure was bothering them.

I'm not talking about the game pressure. I'll get to that. That's my last point. The actual pressure, both backcourt and even when they picked it up right around half court, he never used Edie. When you are struggling

against pressure and you've got a 7 foot 4 guy. You've got to use him against the pressure. Edie's down there waiting for the double and the triple and the quadruple teams to come instead of being used in the middle of the floor as an outlet to turn fire in your 2-on-1

and they should have turned that pressure with Edie into a layup and into a dunk, you know, a line and drill. and he never did. I thought that was a mistake. And then thirdly, and I don't know how you avoid this, but like you said, 16, all of a sudden it's a road game. Then you factor in the past of losing to St. Peters in North Texas and all of these teams that they've lost to.

And you could see them puckered up, you could see them gagging on the court. Gillis, who was a really good three-point shooter, air balled a shot with, I don't know, roughly five, six minutes to go. and then the ball for him became a hot potato. He was frightened. He couldn't get rid of the ball fast enough. And they were begging him to shoot, and he wouldn't.

And so the team completely choked up, and some of that is on the coach. And some of that is on what develops when a number one seed is in trouble. But, man, the pressure on that team, the game pressure down the stretch, they completely crumbled. crumbled. And I'll go back just to say on Painter. I'll go back to the Big Ten title game. You watch Penn State, they're down 13. I know, they made a run.

And what do they do? And why? I think Matt Painter started out smart himself. He kept taking Eady out for offense defense. I know. He should have used him against the pressure. And then he couldn't get him back in the game. And when you're up by that many, to your point, you have the rim protector.

Those teams are just going to get the quick two. you've got to leave him in the game because he's going to alter that. He's going to alter that and leave your guys out on the perimeter and let him just guard the rim if they come in a layup because they're going to kick it out. They're not going to try and take layups over him. And I just thought going back to that game, I thought he outsmarted himself a little too much because he got caught with Edy, not on the court. And then to your point, watch Creighton last night.

When things got heated up, McDermott was phenomenal in the press breaker. And what did he do? He brought Caulk Brenner all right at half. court. Biggest guy on the court, and they just threw the ball to him. He facilitated, and they hit two. I mean, you talk about, you know, going for it. Two transition threes with double-digit lead with four minutes to go on the game, and that gets the lead, I think, from 12 to 18 in the blink of an eye, and that game's over. Xavier did the same thing. I mean, when you see, when you see Purdue, when you play pressure teams like that, and you have somebody that you can throw the ball to in the

middle of the floor and turn and make one pass, you should be aggressive in trying to turn that into quick offense, and Purdue wasn't. But anyway, the Big Ten overall, this is the last comment on the Big Ten, and then I want to talk about a couple of other teams. I know that this stems in part because of the Maryland-Bama game, in which Maryland was up against a much more athletic team. And I know, you know, Jaden Ivy, there have been a lot of really good athletes in the Big Ten. I'm not suggesting that the Big Ten's void of long and athletic. But they're not as long

and athletic as the SEC is. The SEC has become the league and I want you to explain why if it has to do with football programs and NIL money, which is fairly new anyway, or in the past, was it

academic requirements, whatever it was. But my God, the athleticism in that league is better, than it is in the Big Ten, and the Big Ten better get more athletic, in my opinion, longer and more athletic if they want to be, if they want to generate better results this time of year, what do you think? I totally agree. I believe the SEC going into this college basketball season had the most five-star recruits in a conference. Now, they have a ton of teams, so you're going to have more

than the Pac-12 or whatever, stuff like that, just based on numbers. But what I think you've seen and CalPerry did it was, you know, you're, you know, Kentucky's a one-off because it's the basketball school in the conference, right? But you look at what Bruce Pearl's done with that, you know, the money and the NIL and look what Oates has done

Alabama. Rick Barnes, I feel like, has done a good job, even though Tennessee's always seem to recruit pretty well in hoops. But I just look at who you're recruiting and what you're trying to do. And I think they maximize their facilities because of they got

so much money now in that conference and they're printing money and it's no excuse to the Big Ten. Big Ten's making as much money as anybody off their Big Ten network deal. So I think like I just keep coming back to reassess things and look at what the teams that are having success are doing.

What are they doing? They got more athletes. They're abusing the three point line. You know, can we do that? How do we go about doing that? And when you let me get in a one and done scenario like we're in I mean, look, that pace of Kansas, Arkansas Saturday was incredible.

Same with K-State Kentucky yesterday, yeah. And what did it come down to? It comes down to guys that are able to create their own shot and who have great athleticism on the other end because there's so many times that there's bad shots taken because of the athleticism on defense, and then the rebound, you have no idea where it's going because it's just a terrible shot because it's at the end of a shot clock,

and it's just a scrap to get the ball. Who comes down with that? The better athletes that are going to be quicker, have better hands that have longer arms. So I look at it as a feeling of Ohio State and football when they got destroyed in those two national title games, and what did they do? I mean, I don't think they have a receiver from the north

since Ryan Day came along, or urban mileage, for that matter. But what do they do? They went and got speed. And now look at how much Ohio State, you know, looks different than any other. big 10 teams. Now, every team can't do it, but your top team should, you know, have versatility because of the numbers you have and all the intricacies you have in the top program, produce the top program in that conference, and you just feel like there would be more balanced.

That's the way I would look at, you know, going for reassessing things and making your roster more versatile. I think that that's, I think you nailed it and you added, so much more specifics to it. I think also the league stylistically, and I don't know how you get this to change. Like I mentioned last week, and I think this surprised a lot of Maryland fans who always had a problem, me included, one of the criticisms I had of Mark was that we played too slow, that our pace of play was too slow, and many times that was when we had more talent. I didn't like that. I wanted more possessions. and then, you know, Kevin Willard comes in, and, you know, all the Maryland fans are like, finally, we're pressing, we're running, we're going to be a fast break team.

And we blew out Miami and blew out St. Louis on neutral floors early. Maryland, after the West Virginia game, was 340th out of 368 Division 1 schools in pace of play. In possessions per game, 340th out of 368. So, you know, the reality is that they were a. grind-it-out team playing fewer possessions per game. But to me, it was a result of the opponents in their league, because as you look at possessions per game, that stat, there are a lot of big 10 teams well below like the 200 mark. And it's the style of the league and the style of play. I know Izzo will take it out of the bucket and he'll push it at you and Iowa will run a little bit. And by the way,

Hoyberg likes to run a little bit with Nebraska. But the bottom line is, is once you get into this League and Turgeon told me this, and Willards mentioned the same thing. Man, it is hard to get out in transition. You're well scouted. Teams get back. They're well-coached. And it turns into a grinded-out league. I mean, that doesn't play well in one and duns trying to win six straight games.

No. It's the worst possible thing to have, you know, because you got a Howard Underdogs going to do it. They got to speed it up to get more possessions because they can't hang with you in a minimal possession game. So I'm totally in agreement there. You mentioned Michigan State, though. Look at, and look at like Tennessee, the way those guys are built, man. And I, and I, has not been afraid to say like, hey, we're not, we're not this leeway program. You know, we're not going to give the benefit it out to the players. I thought the sideline reporter at his game, I think it was Erdahl. Yeah, Jamie Erdall. Like, when they would, when they go back to

her, she's like, man, Tom Isso was in his guy's faces. And that's the way he's done it. But you mentioned the quick, they nailed that. Even going back to the USC game, they caught them sleeping off and makes and doing that transition thing a couple of times. And they got

Marquette twice on it yesterday in a huge spot. It's just, it was just awesome to see and know that Isso still has his tricks up its sleeve. And that's a dangerous team, man, because they are not afraid of defense. I will give them that much credit. Over the weekend, give me

your one or two most impressive teams and performances. Oh, I give Princeton I was blown away. I watched, you know, I grew up two seconds from Yale's campus, so I always follow Yale hoops, and they had a

great season. I thought they were the best team. They actually have their best players in Benga Kid who went to good counsel here, and Yale played like crap in the Ivy Championship. Now, It was that 14 tournament. It was at Princeton.

But Princeton took that opportunity and ran with it. What they did, I thought was, I mean, you talk about a team that was flawed. Arizona has two seven footers. What did Princeton do? Minimal possessions, your twos are not going to beat R3s. And again, an undersized team that out-rebounded them. I think they have 40 offensive rebounds in two games. Wow.

I love the match up against Missouri because they play Helter-Skelter. And I just, Princeton was a, was a no-brainer for me against Missouri. I actually think they got a really good chance against Creighton, because Creighton wants to go up tempo,

and Princeton has that style where they're going to slow you down. And why is it effective? Because they're going to make threes. That, I mean, when you break this whole thing down, and you go just to touch on pretty one more time, the threes versus the twos, man.

It adds up when you talk about minimal possessions. That's what happens. But I thought Kansas State, being the first time with that group, first time head coach. Now, I know he has a ton of experience from Scott Drew. Two teams that come to mind right there

are Princeton and Kansas State because I had no idea. And I think Kansas State is my favorite story. They got two kids from Harlem that are going back to New York City to play in Madison Square Garden and with a chance to go to the final four. That was really, really cool stuff.

They were the outlier for me in the Big 12. That's the best conference, no doubt. But I thought them in TCU, they kind of sputtered TCU and injuries and some player, you know, problems that more a player ended up leaving. I thought that freed them up. They just couldn't, they just couldn't score with Gonzaga last night. Gonzaga, you talk about speeding the team up, but they were tremendous and just nonstop scoring the ball. So Kansas State overcoming what that was because Kentucky is a different, you know, a different animal with she way in there Kentucky I think Reeves

didn't make a three but that was Kansas State because that's they're down and that they make three threes I think it was down two to up seven or up six in the blink in the blink of a night I think it was right after the under four time out

so those are two teams I was really really impressed with because I didn't on I didn't know what they were and I actually say I didn't I didn't I didn't feel good about where they were in a bracket and for them to come out, the only way was to play well in those kind of circumstances

and those two teams did. Those are good ones. I'm with you on K-State. I did not realize and I, in watching that game yesterday I actually thought to myself they could actually win this whole thing. They're that good and you know, I thought Noel's performance actually was

the best performance, individual performance of the weekend which I was going to ask you about here in a moment. I didn't really see enough of the Princeton, Missouri game. I thought yesterday in particular, Michigan State obviously really impressive down the stretch, but I thought, you know, kind of that first game of the day, I was really impressed with Xavier. They had 22 assists on 30 made field goals. 22 of them were assisted. And you talk about, look, Sean Miller, even though, you know, there's another guy, right? Arizona multiple elite

he's never coached a team to a final four. Personally, I don't even know how he's still coaching after what he was caught on a wiretap saying, but he can coach. And that team can really spread the floor, can really shoot it. And they were so impressive with their ball movement and their spacing. I thought they were really impressive yesterday.

And then, I mean, I had St. Mary's. I thought that line looked way too short. And by the way, I thought St. Mary's actually accounted themselves. Like, you wouldn't think it, but St. Mary's is pretty athletic. They've got some quickness and athleticism on that team. They could not make a shot. I mean, they had a lot of open shots that they just couldn't knock down that I think may have made it a more competitive game in the second half. But, man, I'm not the biggest Danny Hurley fan, but they're loaded.

And, I mean, Hawkins, especially during that stretch, in the second half. They were really impressive to me. But let's move on. I want to talk some football with you. We'll do that with Stanford, Steve, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Last topic for you, and then I'll let you run.

You're always generous. I have one question for you, too, on the way on. Okay. On the quarterback front, we've talked a lot about quarterbacks on this podcast. off of it. And I know, you know, you were the first one to tell me and tell everybody listening, those of you that remember, my God, I was standing on the sideline, Bryce Young is tiny. I remember you said that two years ago in their semi-final game, and you're like, he's not even 5'10. You know, whatever he measured out, but you still like Young and you like Stroud.

And you think, you know, do you think they'll go in that order and do you think they should go in that order. I'm not sure what order they're going to go in. I knew that Scott and I talked about this all going up to the combine. I said, listen, and this is what frustrates me about NFL fans, because when you ask college football fans, here's my thing, college football fans watch more NFL than NFL fans watch college.

Right, true. 100%. So this Combine thing, like I knew Richardson was going to go, and once I saw Bryce was going to do anything, I knew Richardson was going to go crazy at this thing. He's probably the best athlete in the draft. And then I knew Stroud was going to throw the ball and everybody was going to talk about it, actually, because when you watch him, he could throw the football.

And boy, did he put on a show in that Peach Bowl. I do think staff could talk themselves into Stroud over Young. I'm just, I'm not there. I just think Young brings more intricacies to it. it. I think he has more intangibles. And the size thing, obviously, yes, it's a factor. Would I trade up to number one to take one of these two guys? No, I wouldn't. But I do, I'm starting to feel like Stroud might go ahead of Young. That's the sense I guess. So you think Stroud goes to Frank Reich and the Panthers? Unless, yeah, unless. What, you think they're going to take, do you think they're, that you don't think

they're thinking about Richardson. Do you? No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you can't be. I just wonder, the one thing I have the back of my mind is Ursa saying the guy at Alabama doesn't look bad and him doing that on purpose knowing that they want Stroud if they could finagle themselves to get up there. But I don't think that's going to have. I just thought that was an Ursa just, whoa, look at me. So who would you take? I would take Bryce Young. Me too. Where do you have Richardson? A head of Will Levin. Yeah.

I'll tell you that. I don't want anything to do with Will Levin. And my favorite guy is probably Jay Caner in Fresno. He's not a star, but I'm fascinated to see where that cake to go because he's not as athletic as Sam Howell, but he's a better thrower. And I think there's, I mean, as a backup and a guy that's going to compete every day for a job, I just want to see him where he ends up. I will say this. I'm sure you've talked about it. Next year is the year for quarterback.

You're going to have your pick. Yeah, I mean, you're going to be compared to this year because you have NFL size at the quarterback position. To me, Kevin, that's what I'm looking at more and more nowadays. This is a big boy league. And when you look at it, the guy, they just don't survive. The little Knicks that you get in college, those turn into multiple

weak injuries in the NFL because of the size of the guys So why do you love Bryce Young so much? I don't love him I wouldn't take it one I was just going off the court there's no doubt in my mind Will Anderson's the best player in this draft

he should go one that's the way I look at this draft he is the best football player in this draft and I just he will help your team in the NFL and I think they're getting too cute

trying to talk to himself and the quarterbacks. And I wouldn't take these guys once. I wouldn't do it. Do you think D.T.R., do you think Dorian Thompson's worth, you know, a day two pick? No. If you're Washington, you don't.

So you don't like him as a prospect, period? I don't. I think he's had multiple chances to show improvement. He was better. But when you go back and look at some of the big game decision-making deals, I go back to that SC game this year and then even in the poll game. It was not the proper. He totally, totally messed up in a big situation in a play that should not have been messed up.

And trustworthy in the NFL, I don't agree with it. I love his playmaking ability. And I think he is worth definitely a look. I love Hayner too, by the way. Love him. Last one. So, you know, you know, Mac Brown and his offensive coordinator at Carolina, who's now at Wisconsin with Luke Fickle, Phil Longo,

the guys that coached Sam Howell. So what do you think? I know we've probably talked about this previously, but it's much more important now to talk about Sam Hal because Ron Rivera has slapped the QB1 label offseason label on him. What do you think they, you've talked to a lot of people about Sam Hal, probably even Scott Turner, you know, at various times about Sam Hal. So what do you think, based on all your conversations and your own personal opinion about Sam Howe's prospects for becoming an NFL starting quarterback legitimately? I love that he set the majority of the year. I know, you know, you want to go to the playoffs and, you know, the quarterback thing, for him to be able to sit there for a whole year and assess

things I think is really huge because not only is to help, you know, him, you know, see the game. I think he learned a lot about himself and watching, you know, the team struggle at that position and no one throws maybe that you've made in college that you can't make and watch it on tape and being in those film sessions to hear the quarterback explain why they did it. And then to him have, you know, him calculate that in his mind. I think that's the stuff that's huge. And I get it. Time is brutal in the NFL. There's not a lot of it. So I love the idea that he sat for a year and was able to see multiple guys go through it.

And he still has the head coach there. I think that's huge. And you know, you got, he went out and got to be enemy for this reason to help this guy as your quarterback. So I feel great about the opportunity that Sam has. And like I said, I don't think you're going to get that, you know, gambler. of a thrower that he wasn't college. Now, we've talked about this in college. He had to take chances because he had no defense. You know, this is a totally reverse thing.

You know, you throw the ball away on third down, and you play field position with your defense in the NFL, especially with this commander's team. So I love the idea of it. I love what he brings to the table. He never got credit for how good of an athlete is, and he is that good of an athlete. And I'm hoping for the best one.

them because I really, really like you. All right. You've said you're hoping for the best of him. You love that he was able to sit back the entire year. But what do you think? Do you think that he is a potential future, you know, franchise kind of quarterback or at least like a top half of the league kind of a guy? Do you think he'll develop into that or not?

I don't know if he's going to be a top end of the league guy, but I think he's smart enough, Kevin, to realize the situation he is in, okay? and what he has to do to play winning football with this team, knowing that the strike through your team is the defense. I think he's smart enough to realize that. I think he's right on the cut. He'll end up being right on the cusp of the franchise quarterback, but they are going to be a successful team,

maybe not because of him, but he is going to get them in the right direction because he knows how to play the angles of what this team is. They have weapons to use. He knows that. I think he's smart enough to know on third down. He could use his legs. to get first down.

So I think he's going to be on that cuspboard. When that contract is there, I think it's like a Daniel Jones scenario. That's what I think. I think it's going to be a tough decision and what is he done for you in these two years. That's what it's going to come to. I think it's going to be good enough where you're going to want to keep him. Thank you for doing this as always. Stanford, Steve, Boys and Girls at Stanford, Steve 82.

Listen to his podcast with Scott, watch them on the Daily. Wager, watch him on Scott's Sports Center every single night. Thanks, you're the best. Appreciate it. Where's Carson Wentz going? Oh, that was your one question. Does he end up getting a deal with anybody? Does anybody give him a shot on a roster as a backup? I don't know. I don't see how. I don't see how you want anything to do with them. Yeah, I mean, look, you know, there isn't anybody in that building that will tell you, okay, on or off the record, that he was like a major distraction. Now, I also believe that it would be hard for people off the record

to tell you that they were in love with him, all right? So I think it's kind of somewhere in between. It's not the Philly situation. It's not the indie situation, but it's not like all of a sudden he became the easiest in the world. But I think he handled himself in a more mature way as an older person here than maybe he did in Philly or in Indianapolis. But yeah, I think that, look, before this deal happened last year, there were red flags all over him. This organization not only chose to ignore those red flags, they overpaid for him as well.

They were completely fleeced in the deal with the Colts, which is typical of this organization going back. for a long time. People stand in line to do deals with Washington. And I don't think anybody's going to fall for it this year. I think that there's a chance his career's over. Although you'll probably get somebody that'll say, we need a veteran quarterback just on the roster. But that veteran quarterback has to be a guy willing to mentor and to be something to the younger quarterback in the building.

and I don't know if that's Wentz. Yeah, I think it's, I think it gets to call the first injury in a camp. That's where I think's going to happen. Yeah, that makes sense. All right, thanks. All right, have a goal. All right, that's it for the day back tomorrow with Tommy.